The next two days continue uneventfully until the hunters reach the western edge of the wyvern nesting grounds. Rather than joining everyone in the drinking tent on the last night I choose to spend time to debrief in the main guild tent. At this time the queue is short and I should be able to set off home early in the morning rather than spend the day waiting for the debrief. Truth is I miss my wives. Spending the night with camp prostitutes to relieve my pent up lust feels hollow. Without an emotional connection it just seems meaningless even if it is strictly necessary to stop me from jumping the first woman I see.
With my continuous leveling up, I can't expect even Kira to come along with me on more dangerous missions. It would just be too dangerous. The culling mission showed how easy hunters can die. Several hunters lost their lives to adult wyverns. Two not far from me. The participation pay for the cull reflects the danger involved.
I step up to the counter and state my name. "Rank and level?" Not sure why they want to know, but I guess these details are not readily available away from my home branch. Could easily be verified, so no one would lie. "I should be about level 19 now. Last recorded level was 16. I am a C rank hunter from Lago." The receptionist seems pleased that I threw in the home branch as well despite her forgetting to ask.
The receptionist counts out the participation silver. 5 large silver coins, equivalent of 50 small silver coins. Decent for participation, but I expect most hope for a good bonus. "Killed 3 adult wyvern alone, and assisted taking down 3 more. Add that to the record number of little wings you killed, we are looking at a very large bonus. Have you handed in all the bodies?" Little wings seems to be a southern slang for baby wyverns. I confirm that I have handed over all the grown up wyverns and baby wyverns and the girl starts counting out the coins for my bonus.
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Looks like I am getting the standard prize for the body of an adult wyvern, 1 gold coin each. The number of baby wyverns killed seems to have been too large for the money to be paid in only silver. 3 more gold coins and 20 small silvers coins are added to my pile. Finally there is bonus for assisting in suppressing the adult wyverns and the share in the bodies of the 3 I only helped to take down. Another 8 large silvers are added to the pile. In total I have earned 6 small gold coins and the equivalent of 150 small silver coins.
"I can trade you 10 large silver coins for 1 small gold coin if you like?" The offer from the receptionist seems to be the standard exchange offered by the guild, but from what I am aware of the exchange rate between the two precious metals is not as clear cut as that. If I really wanted to trade up to more valuable currency, I would shop around silver smiths to see if any would offer better terms. There seems to be no laws against melting down coins to sell their metal value. My analyze skill tells me that the silver content in my guild issued coins is excellent. The guild only trade in the kingdom standard. At least in this kingdom. Not sure what is used by the guild in other kingdoms.
After turning down the offer I head to my sleeping quarters via the red light district of the camp. Not really a district as such, and there are certainly no red lights. Just a bunch of tents near the area set aside for the hunter sleeping tents. Everything but the alcohol and the prostitutes are provided for by the guild in this mission. There are four hunters to each tent, so I had to get used to the lack of privacy, but no one seems to be bothered in this world. I always brought the prostitutes back to the tent. Paying the full nights fees seems fair enough since they are usually too worn out to go back to work thanks to my lust skill.
Early the next morning I wake up the same time as the girl laying next to me. All the other guys are snoring loudly. I escort the girl back to her tent and set off north. The next few days is likely to be a repeat of the trip down. Hopefully without any more killing. I really miss the girls.