S6, Making Money

“So, what do you think?” Terence asked.

“Let’s do it!”

“Count me in.”

“I guess we are prepared.”

It had been a few days after our first dungeon exploration and after a few more guided travels we had gotten permission to enter it on our own.

“Then we should think about what valuables we can find close to the entrance.”

Terence had proposed to go inside the dungeon and make some money. Instructor Remme had told us to stay close to the area we had explored until now, so there were wondering what was the best way to make a profit.

“The rats! I bet we can open a stall to sell their meat, as long as we don’t tell anyone they won’t know what they are, and if someone asks we can say it’s hare meat.”

“I will pretend I didn’t hear that.” Terence flatly dismissed Falnid’s idea.

“One day I will make you try it.”

“I can only think about the lizards, their hides and meat can be sold to the guild and I can skin them for a bit of extra money.” I felt a bit rusty after not using my dismantling skills for some time, it would be great if I could skin a few monsters.

“That will work, anything else that can give us some coins?”

“Hmm, nothing else that I know about.” Sadly the corridors didn’t have a great variety of things, other than the dungeon lizards I could only think of rats, bugs, and moss.

“Falnid? Bolton?”

“I have only seen the rats.”

“Um, I don’t remember other things that may be valuable.”

“Then we should ask the instructor, he may have some good advice.”

Terence guided us to a part of the training grounds where Instructor Remme was scolding another group of trainees.

“I have told you a hundred times! Hold your shields at the front while fighting! That way you won’t have an accident like yesterday’s.”

One of the trainees being reprimanded had a bandage covering his neck and the lower part of his face. I guessed he had been caught unguarded while fighting o group of rats, I had also been almost bitten the first time we had encountered feral ones.

“Now keep practicing, if I see you lower your shields you will be training from morning to night all week.”

After a bit, Remme finished scolding the boys and focused his attention on us. “Do you need something? I still have to instruct a few groups, there are some with really lacking skills.”

“Good morning, Instructor Remme, we were planning to enter the dungeon, but we don’t know what we should do to get some money,” Terence asked the instructor with a polite smile.

“Dungeon lizards.”

“Is there nothing else?” Terence’s voice had a tinge of disappointment.

“Not for greenhorns like you, lizards are your best prey, and make sure not to go near the areas with dungeon dogs, you aren’t ready to handle them.”

“Is there nothing else other than monsters? I know there are other valuables in the dungeon.”

“Nothing you can pick near the entrance, if you are very lucky you may find palemoss, it’s a white moss that occasionally grows in the walls, but there should be none in the shallow parts… Don’t get so upset, you can make some coins from the lizards and once you can go deeper you will have plenty of options to make good money.”

“What else can we find there?” I interjected full of curiosity.

“In the deeper parts? There is plenty of prey, you can sell pelts, hides, claws, fangs, and meat from most monsters. There are as well some rarer ones that can be sold for their fat. Those are normally used to make candles, soap, and oil. Also, you may discover an uncommon monster with mana organs, I heard a group found a fire lizard not long ago, although you normally need to journey north for a few days to find them.”

Uncommon monsters were those who had special organs that used mana, like the fire lizard I had seen in the alchemist’s house. These were special traits unique to the monsters in the dungeon.

“I see, there are a lot of opportunities.”

“Yes, if you have exceptional luck you may even chance upon an irregular monster, those are extremely valuable.”

“Irregular monster?” I had heard the term before, but I wasn’t sure what was considered irregular.

“Individuals that are different from the norm. They may have a different color or use special magic, mages pay a lot for them. They are especially interested in their souls, so they will reward you handsomely if you can bring them back alive.”

It was a vague explanation. In the mountains, it wasn’t so rare to find beasts that stood out from their peers, either in size or coloration. “Oh, that sounds really interesting…”

“Anyway, apart from monsters there are plants and critters that are valuable, but you don’t need to know about them yet,” Instructor Remme cut me off and began walking towards another group of trainees.

“Thank you, Instructor Remme.” I had a lot more questions after Instructor Remme’s explanations, but right now I wouldn’t get any answers from the busy instructor.

“Now that I remember, you are a hunter, aren’t you?” Instructor Remme stopped. “Don’t skin your catches inside the corridors, not even if you spread monster repellent, you will attract hordes of rats. Bleed your prey fast then bring them to one of the big rooms close to the entrance to finish the job.”

"Well, I think we should get ready if we want to start before noon," Terence rushed us.

…

“I told you, we should have gone right after that last bifurcation!”

We were lost again and Falnid and Terence were arguing whose fault it was. Even with the help of the chalk marks we sometimes ended up going in circles or would reach a fork in the path that only led to a dead end or a dangerous zone with dungeon dogs.

“Falnid, let me focus, this place is a labyrinth.”

“It isn’t so complicated, you are the one who can’t find the way.”

Honestly, I also thought Terence might be a bit… directionally challenged. “Perhaps I can help find the way, this isn’t like the mountains, but I’m quite used to moving in unfamiliar places.”

“No, just let me think a bit more, maybe if we go back and take that lateral corridor…”

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“Um… Terence, I think you should let Simon try it,” Bolton chimed in.

Terence scratched his head while looking at the marks on the wall one more time. “… Fine, you can lead the way, Simon.” He finally gave up, obviously frustrated.

“Then I think we should take the central path here.”

We had been here a few times and I could more or less ascertain the way, as we descended the structure of the corridors changed slightly, and there were a few locations that were very recognizable. If I added the chalk marks on top of it I was quite confident I wouldn’t end up lost.

Advancing through the dark corridors the number of monsters gradually increased. At some point, we began seeing feral rats rushing to hide from the light of our lanterns. Sometimes one of them stayed put for a bit as if challenging us.

This part of the dungeon was quite monotonous. There were different kinds of corridors, stairs, and slopes that sometimes went straight and other times curved like a mountain trail. There were also a few larger rooms where many different paths intersected.

What made this place boring was the lack of variety. All one could find here were the same mossy stone walls, the rats, and the small bugs crunching under our feet. If this place wasn’t dangerous my mind would end up wandering after a while.

At last, we reached a chalk sign that told us dungeon lizards could be found right ahead.

“Ugh, finally! That took ages, I bet it’s already past noon,” exclaimed Falnid stretching his body.

“Now we should prepare. Lizards normally hunt alone, so we shouldn’t have many problems handling them. We will do the usual. Bolton will take the lead and focus on defending, while you two stay at his sides and kill the monster, and I will watch our back.”

Terence gave us orders. We had caught a couple of dungeon lizards under Instructor Remme’s watch and the creatures weren’t very difficult to fight. They were bigger and more resistant than feral rats, but they couldn’t jump very high and most times roamed the corridors alone. The most worrisome part was that their bites could pierce our boots and leather armor, so we needed to keep them at bay. Bolton was wearing a pair of metal protectors over his leather pants, a piece of armor lent by the guild, but they only covered the front part of his shins.

Soon after we advanced cautiously in formation, looking for our prey, Terence had our backs and carried the main lantern.

“Do you think we will find a fire lizard?” Falnid wondered.

“I doubt it, Instructor Remme said they normally live quite far from here, we are more likely to find a promoted lizard or something.”

“Uh, if we find some strange monster we should retreat.”

Falnid, Terence, and Bolton began chatting, maybe to lower the tension. I was personally more worried about how we should carry the creature after hunting it.

It didn’t take long before we encountered a lizard, according to Instructor Remme they were quite common deeper in the dungeon. The yellowish-green reptile was about seven feet long, but its body stayed close to the ground so the creature wasn’t much higher than a rat. It had scales on the upper part of its tail, back, and head that seemed quite rough and resistant. The most dangerous parts of the monster were the thick tail, the sharp claws at the end of its small legs, and especially, the mouth on its big and long head. That one was full of small and sharp teeth that could shred our boots in no time.

“Everyone ready, don’t let it run away, go!”

Once we ascertained there were no other dangers nearby we rushed to hunt the monster. After seeing or sudden moves the creature realized it was in danger and tried to run but it wasn’t fast enough. Bolton closed on it and was the first one to sink his spear into the monster’s back.

The lizard stopped running and confronted us, menacingly snapping its jaws. Bolton was forced to step back to avoid its maw while Falnid and I pierced it from the sides. The lizard hadn’t much time to do anything else. I had hunted lots of similar ones in the mountains and I knew I had hit its heart.

Some other times I would have let the group fight it longer, but doing that would ruin the corpse, lowering its value.

“That was really easy. I don’t know why we aren’t allowed to kill other monsters. I bet those dogs are nothing to us!”

“For now let’s tie it up, did you bring the rope?”

“Um, it’s here,” Bolton took out a rope from his sack.

“Simon, I hope you know what’s the best way to do this.” Terence assigned me the task of transporting the lizard.

"Yes, I’ll tie it up so that two people can carry it, that way we won’t get tired easily. Once we catch more I will think how we should carry them."

“Good, after you are done we should go somewhere safer and have lunch.”

…

We ended up catching four lizards. Bolton was carrying three on his back while Falnid and Terence moved the last one. I led the way and chased away the rats coveting our prey. Thankfully we didn’t find any big packs, but we had to stop several times to shoo the vermin and make sure not many of them would gather.

“How long will it take you to skin and butcher them?” Terence inquired.

“About half an hour each, skinning them is the most burdensome part.”

“It’s gonna take two hours? Can’t we sell them like that?”

“If we sell them as is they will pay us a lot less,” Terence told Falnid.

“Ugh, fine, I guess we can rest here in the meantime.”

“Then I will begin processing them.”

We had carried the lizards to the lamp’s room close to the entrance. There were a few more like this one and all of them were used to chop monsters. Instructor Remme had told us this was their main purpose other than scaring newbie trainees. Apparently, the bugs in the dungeon would take care of all the waste soon after we left leaving them clean for the next group of adventurers which made them very convenient for this kind of job.

“Today was tiring, I hope they pay us quite a bit for these.” Falnid was laying on the ground with his hands under his head.

“Don’t get your hopes up, dungeon lizards are quite cheap. You saw how the hare skewers were sold at triple the price yesterday, didn't you?.” Terence was resting against the wall, he had turned off his own lamp to save oil.

“Then wouldn’t it be better to go catch wild hares?”

“Lizards have more meat and useful parts, also, you need to be quite lucky if you want to catch four hares in one day.”

“That makes some sense, so how much do you think we will get?”

“I’m not sure, more than a tiny silver, but probably less than two.”

“So little?”

“Well, we are wood plate adventurers, it’s hard to make a living at our level, that’s the reason we came here, to gather experience and gain iron plates.”

That was actually the trainees’ goal for joining the Calpavaros’ Bears guild, to prove their worth and receive an iron plate. Every spring a new batch of trainees would join the guild and by the end of summer they would leave it with an iron plate and the basic skill to make a living as an adventurer.

In fact, although trainees were supposed to earn our iron plates they were pretty much guaranteed. Our families had already paid for it alongside the tuition fees. Only those who messed up very badly wouldn’t get theirs, or so Uncle Ather said.

“Hmm, I don’t really know how that works, in Vesturkal the council of elders are the ones who hand out plates. I know there are different ones though and some last more than others.”

“Yes, as long as I know plates are the same everywhere. The magicians in the southern islands make them, there are wood, iron, copper, silver, and gold plates.” Terence kept chatting with Falnid.

“Oh, I see. Then how much do they last? I remember ours last only six months, don’t they?”

“Let me think… Wood plates for trainees last six months, iron plates for beginners last a year, copper plates for experienced adventurers stay valid for two years… silver ones for skilled veterans last four years… and gold plates for truly skilled and outstanding adventurers have a validity of six years.”

“Oh, then I want a gold plate, that way I won’t have to worry about it for a long time.”

“Ha ha, you will need some impressive skills and lots of contributions to the guild to get one. Also if you want a plate that lasts a long time there are special ones that last even longer, but you need to be a powerful noble or a very skilled knight of a powerful order to get one of them. Probably only a handful of adventurers in the biggest guilds of Suidberg have them. I heard The Wyrmslayer is also known as Niall the Crystal Plate, so I guess he has a special one.”

“The Wyrmslayer? Never heard of him.”

“You don’t know The Wyrmslayer? He is the most famous adventurer of Suidberg! He killed a Wyrm by himself after the magic beast threw him inside an underground lake,” Bolton interjected with an unusual vehement tone.

I hadn’t heard of that adventurer either, but they didn't need to know, I was occupied skinning the lizards.

“Oh, I have never seen you talk with so much passion, that guy must be amazing.”

“Uh… No… It’s just… I like tales about adventurers, that’s all.”

“I see, you have to tell me more about that guy, like, why does he have a crystal plate? Won't it shatter easily? Even if he is strong his plate will break with a small blow."

“No, it’s probably a plate made of crystal silver, that’s the strongest metal in the world,” Terence explained.

“Ah, I know that! We have a dagger made of that in our clan. I saw it once, it looks like it’s made from a silver gem or gray ice. It’s a little strange, it really looks like it will shatter after a hit.”

My father had told me about crystal silver. He had said the sharpest weapons in the world were made out of it. He had also laughed a lot when I told him I wanted a hunting knife made of it. Apparently, it was incredibly expensive. The crystal silver coins that cost twenty golds each only had a small piece of the precious metal in them. I didn’t want to imagine how much that dagger cost.

“Simon? Did you end already?” Falnid pulled me out of my thoughts.

“I’m barely beginning with the first one.”

“I hope they sell for more than Terence said.”

I focused on the dungeon lizards. I wanted to deliver them to the guild before they closed for the night. I should have enough time. They weren’t difficult to skin, it was almost the same as working with the wild ones in the mountains.