Chapter 19: Greed is Good
My room wasn’t bad, for an inn in a town stuck in the middle of nowhere. All of the electrical appliances of modern times were missing, and there wasn’t a single hint of magic to fill in the gap, but the bed was well kept, the desk neat and tidy, and the en-suite bathroom even featured indoor plumbing, which hadn’t come about until the 1800s back in England. It was a big step up from my room in the orphanage, as well as several budget hotels I’d had the misfortune of staying in over the years. That said, I didn't quite feel like it was worth nine gilt, so I went back downstairs for a 'tour of the inn', and as I passed the innkeeper's desk, I recalled my coin to the inventory.
[9 Gilt stored.]
A useful trick, one that wouldn't work in every situation, but would come in very handy when my hard-earned coin was simply shoved into a desk or cash register, without any more eyes on it. Feeling quite pleased with myself, I headed back up to my room for a spot of indulgence. You see, there was one perk that had long since been phased out in my past life: an ashtray, a matchbox and a packet of tobacco, all of it legal to be smoked indoors.
It had been a long time since I last smoked: the general trend towards healthy living in the early twenty-first century saw to that, but I’d indulged plenty in my younger years, so I didn’t hesitate to scoop up a big heaping of tobacco, fill up the provided pipe with it, and give it a good light with the complimentary matchstick, before placing the pipe against my lips and taking a long, slow drag. I didn’t gag or retch, so it was already going far better than my first taste of a cigarette, many decades ago. Admittedly, traditional tobacco was far weaker than a Marlboro, but this body wasn’t used to the taste either, so that was probably for the best.
Pumpkin mewed leaning her head over to examine the curious, burning object, but I turned my head away before distracting him with more petting. I wasn’t going to give my cat tobacco: there was only one way such a fiasco would end, with vomit all over my nice, expensive room. Shaking my head, I parked myself down at the writing desk, taking even, methodical drags from my pipe, all this while I pondered the living enigma curled around my neck.
There were classes that benefited from the presence of animals in various ways. Farmers, mainly, but also Scouts, Hunters and Beastmasters, all of whom required plenty of nearby fauna for the sake of their advancement. Even Merchants could benefit indirectly, through the sale of live specimens or animal products, but somehow, I doubted this was what the System had in mind for me. I’d initially thought it was taking possession of Pumpkin which granted me XP either, but that couldn’t be it either, because it didn’t trigger when I first got him; I only received a notification after the encounter with the mother and daughter pair, only then did I get anything to show for it, besides a cat, that is, so what was I missing?
It’s hard, trying to force a revelation out of thin air. Often, the sheer effort involved only increases stress levels, causing the brain to short out and enter the dread blank space that was the bane of many students during exam season. I knew this, so I didn’t try; I leaned back, enjoyed my tobacco and my company, and merely hoped that in doing so, I would stumbled upon some fresh insight. Was it logical? Not really, but life wasn’t logical, and many great discoveries had likewise been the result of a single moment of inspiration.
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Manipulation.
To this day, I can’t say for sure how I arrived at that one-word answer. Perhaps it was as I rolled my pipe, the deft movements of my fingers dictating angle and velocity? Or was it the purring I’d managed to coax from Pumpkin, now loafing lazily against the small of my back as I rubbed at his belly? Or maybe, even the flashback to the little girl, how Pumpkin’s mere presence had her ready to baulk at the commands of her gene-sire? I slapped myself at that last thought: a nicotine rush had a way of making the mind wander, sometimes a little too much, and I sincerely doubted that the God-Emperor of Mankind had anything to do with my current situation. Nonetheless, that was how I found my answer.
Pumpkin was only half of the puzzle, in that she was counted as my possession. It was only when I leveraged her to impose a design upon the world, that I was rewarded for the fact. Possession and manipulation, the twin facets that defined my Class? Could it really be so simple?
[Congratulations.]
Yes. Yes, it could.
I was smiling ear to ear by now, my pipe snuffed out against the rim of the table, my hand moving mechanically, barely enough to placate Pumpkin and keep him still. Pulling up my status page for the umpteenth time that day, I finally saw the last piece of the jigsaw that I needed to determine my next course of action.
[Will Swindell
Class (True): Level 1 Soldier of Fortune
Class (Public): Level 1 Soldier
Experience: 10/100
Traits
* Money is Power: All attributes scale with accumulated wealth.
* Money in the Pocket: A private storage space for your personal belongings.
* Masquerade: Your Class is invisible, and you appear Classless by default. Alternatively, you may choose to display a false identity. Available identities: Soldier, Merchant.
Covenants
* Self-Made Man: Class will be lost if you ever resort to taking a loan.
* Thief in Law: Class will be lost if you ever accept legitimate employment.
Contacts
* Amelia Dawn - Level 3 Healer
Inventory
* 4.5” Knife (Smooth/Serrated)
* 9 Gilt (Frontier)
* Pumpkin the Cat
Advancement
* Gain property
* Gain subordinates
* Gain influence
* More. Always more!]
“Greed, then. The answer is sheer, unbridled greed. I can do that. Greed is good, after all. Greed is good.”
I didn’t quite laugh maniacally as I collapsed into my bed, after that; my voice was far too deep for such delusions, and I was most definitely not a tenor. Also, such a laugh would likely have led to an intervention from the Innkeeper, or any other guests that happened to overhear it, and I really didn’t need the attention of law enforcement so early into my new career. I didn’t even have an alibi yet.