Jacob looked away from the fountain and down into the water,there, his reflection lay, white skin and black hair with matching eyes. Tall, too. He probably looked weird to everyone, with them being in possession of brown hair and have the average height of victorian humans. Jacob stared, for a while, and considered on what he wanted to do next- and to do that, he mentally checked all the things going for him thus far: His house is gonna get repaired in the next week or two, he has money, and finally, he's gotten to know a few people in this new world.

It wasn't bad, all things considered and his situation could be worse.

Standing up, Jacob nodded to the violin playing bard as she passed her and walked ahead to the mayor's building, he was greeted by Froan who quickly led him to the office post haste, she didn't even bother to ask him if they wanted to do a tour around the place this time around- a thought that made Jacob chuckle, which made Froan look back to him in concern, "Is something wrong, sir?"

He shook his head, "Nothing."

Froan opened the door for him then they reached the office and Jacob didn't complain this time, he just let things play out and entered once it was fully open. He nodded to the mayor just as a soft thud resounded behind him, indicating that the door is now closed.

"Jacob," The mayor said, pushing a tray full of cups. The atmosphere compared to last time was much calmer, showing that the mayor had actually prepared for his arrival this time around. The maids were gone but the butler stayed, Jacob eyed him for a brief second, he was sweating in the forehead and his hands looked clammy.

Then his eyes got pried away when the mayor pulled on his collar and breathed. It was brief, but Jacob saw a red neck underneath. That... made him slightly hesitate to take a seat but only slightly- he still took a seat out of politeness and did his best to smile at the mayor who, in turn, gave him a brittle grin, "So, I heard that you've-" The mayor gulped and his hand went up to pull on his collar again but he quickly put it down, the mayor started to stammer, "-you've- that-"

Jacob held back a grimace as the butler leaned in to the mayor's ear and whispered something, "Uh- Yes!" The mayor's eyes lit up and he became energetic, opposite of him, Jacob's smile threatened to start shaking, "I heard that you- you-" Jacob only stared as he started stammering, whatever "reward" the butler promised him later was clearly not enough for the man to get over his fear of confronting him about...

... well Jacob assumes it has something to do with the Dungeon and since the mayor is scared- then it must be about him fighting the boss crab on his own. That, or the part where he apparently managed to hurt the anemone, something that the knight pointed out is rather hard to do. With him not really knowing which is which, Jacob opted to stay silent.

A little while later, the mayor managed to find his bearings, "You- I heard that you fought the boss on your own." Yeas said, "Good job on that." He complimented.

So it was him soloing the boss, then. "Is that why I'm here for?" Jacob asked.

The mayor shook his head, "You- I am here- to call you- you came because you found the crack. How to crack the Dungeon, that is."

Was he flirting with him? Jacob decided to ignore the obvious innuendos being thrown his way and nodded, "I guess so," He forced his smile to keep going, "How much am I getting paid for?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Wait, let me check-" The mayor leaned in to the side, opened a drawer, and then took out a piece of paper that... he did not present to Jacob because it suddenly "slipped out" of his hand and flew down to the floor, the mayor stared at it with wide eyes as it flew, he exhaled when it stopped and somehow, the air that went out of his lungs was strong enough to push the paper away far enough that it stopped to Jacob's right.

"Wait, let me get that-"

Jacob can only nod and stare in horror as the mayor went up from his seat and pick up the piece of paper. Again, Jacob ignored the sign the mayor was throwing him by bending down directly in front of him, 'just a bit more- just a bit more- just a bit more-' he repeated over and over again while avoiding the intense stare of the butler by glaring at the window in front of him.

"Ah, there we go." The mayor says as he went back to his seat, "Oh- and I guess I forgot to introduce myself to you huh?" He gave Jacob a smile full of flat teeth and then raised his hand, "I'm Heas Yarya."

Jacob forced himself to take it, "Jacob."

That got the mayor to raise his eyebrow, "Just Jacob?"

He nodded, "Yes. My last name isn't that important. Not anymore."

"I... see, then let's talk about your payment-" And so they did, and despite his hate for it, negotiating the rewards for Jacob's find as well as the "tax" that Heas is gonna get from it had made Jacob felt comfortable enough that he started ignoring the fact that Heas might've just finished banging his butler half an hour (this is an estimate,) before Jacob arrived to his office.

Negotiating had been pretty important too, because apparently, the reward for finding a way to crack the Dungeon is 50 gold coins or 25 thousand silver. It was pretty big- which is to say, sum - and when you add the fact that the Dungeon is in this village, that means that Heas gets to have his own share of the money too.

"Sir, please take note that taxes are fairly important for the village and I'm already being generous in only taking 10% of the money," Heas said with a disarming smile- which sadly didn't effect Jacob in the slightest.

"10%? That's way too much?" He replied, "You can't expect me to believe that and then just... hand over-" Jacob's eyes widened slightly when he finished the mental math for the cut, "2500 silver."

"Well- sir if you put it that way," The butler decided to interject, he ignored the glare Jacob threw his way and continued, "then it sounds like a lot-" 'And it isn't?!' - oblivious to Jacob's thoughts, the butler went on, "-but it is only 5 gold no?"

"5 Gold." Jacob retorted aggressively, "If you put it that way, then it sounds like its not much." He turned to Heas Yarya, "let me ask you, is 5 gold not a lot?"

The man pulled on his collar, "Well-"

Jacob decided to speak once he saw the butler open his mouth, "And don't even say that its the price of my house-" And isn't that a good argument? He's practically handing them and entire house! But that isn't why he called that out because- come to think of it, he'd completely forgotten that they threw him under the bus by selling him a haunted farm, didn't they? "-Because you sold me a farm with a ghost-"

The mayor paled, "Sir we did not-" He tried to explain but Jacob pushed on.

"That I had to kill myself!" He finished violently.

"You killed the ghost?" Heas said and Jacob nodded.

"No shit? Why would I ask the merchant's guild to repair my house if I didn't?" He crossed his arms, "So, are we gonna start talking about you sending me to my death or are you gonna accept 5 percent?"

"We- we'll take it." The mayor gulped.

"Good." Jacob nodded and stood up.

- That was basically how the negotiation went, with Jacob not at all backing down and the mayor getting pushed back because he had extra information against the man. And with that, the amount the mayor is gonna get from the reward got reduced down to a mere 1250 silver, literally half of what he wanted.

In the end, Jacob was handed a check that he can claim to the bank- knowing that those exists in this world too is no longer a surprise to him, really. - so check in hand, Jacob left the office feeling satisfied and with a piece of paper that held 23,750 silver or just about 47 gold and 250 silver.