The drive with carriage felt for me like bull riding. I was more time in the air than on my seat. I clung at the edge of the window, but it hardly helped me.

Fortunately, the roof of the carriage was soft, so I didn't get a bump on the head, each time I hit the roof. 

I would be safer in a monster truck than here...

I didn't want to come across like a pussy, so I left it to go. It was a little dark inside. Only the moonshine shimmered through the window, so no one saw it. And as long as I didn't smooch the ground, everything should be fine.

I was really impressed as I saw that this heavy carriage was pulled by two birds, which looked like two steroid pumped ostrich or chicken. But I was surprised how quickly there were.

The driver was a middle age man, without his two rabbit ears and his squinted eyes, I had never guessed he belonged to the rabbit race. During the fight, he was hiding under the carriage all the time. 

I hit my head against the roof again, this time a little harder, my whole world was spinning.

Why is this street so crappy?

I didn't have sick motion, but from the whole rumpling made me sick. I tried to shift my mind towards something else. I needed to distract my mind. 

I flinched towards the merchant, who was sitting across from me on the left side. His eye was focused on the left forest side. We had decided to watch each of the forest sides, I right and he the left side. 

The carriage was really broad; it had a space for six people, like me. But only four people by the size of the merchant. 

He wore a really luxurious brownish cloth, which was embroidered with gold. His glamorous belt bound his potbelly together. 

On the heart position of his browning coat was a remarkable, unique emblem. A shield, divided into three parts, Y-form, the top was a coin, bottom left was a hammer, bottom right was a book. I already saw the same emblem on the backside of the carriage. 

He had the face of a pig, especially his nose, look the same. But I had to give him a compliment to his well defined black immaculate moustache. I had encountered many guys with a moustache in my life, but I never saw one whose moustache had already reached that perfection stage, really polished, no hair stand alone. Stiff and military. I was sure he had taken a lot of time to maintain.

Well, I had admitted there was a guy, a general in French Foreign Legion, where I had served. He was obsessed with his moustache, but even his moustache was far away from perfection. 

I shouldn't think much about it and find a strategy to survive this bull riding. 

When I reached the peak to jump out of the carriage, the road became smoother and smoother. The carriage was more driven than hopped or flying. 

Well finally

After the nightmare, I was able to sit relaxed. Now I could see through the scratched window, where the bear-like monster left his signature.

The forest became less dense, but darker. The moon ascended on the other side while left mysterious darkness behind. 

Sitting, I examined my black sword.

Hey, can you hear me? Don't change your appearance, you hear me?

I honestly didn't know how to speak with that weapon. I didn't get any response., but I hoped he or it understood what I mean.

I gave a look to the stats, it was still unchanged, with lot unknown. 

The tense merchant, who was the whole time fixing his own eyes on the left side, let a big deep sigh. It seemed we had got the rough piece behind us. 

He started to bubble. "I really thought that was it, oh... I travel this road for more than ten years, such thing... never happened..oh..geez." He still seemed under shock. 

"A level three soul monster, a level three soul monster" he repeated.

He looked at me. I could see how life came back in his eyes. "Thanks again, thanks," he said, his voice didn't hear like whining like before when he had begged. 

"You seems quite strong. I admit, I only saw the last blow, but I really thought my life came to an end".

Bigfoot? Is that the name of the bear monster?

I gave him a fake smile. 

"Now we are away from the dangerous area, so my name Brent, I am a merchant. I was in Beast Groove...."

Beast Groove? Isn't that the big foggy forest in the east, where different type demi-human are living. If I remember Paolo want to go there...

He talked, he was talking. He had hired three low level adventures to guard him; he had a business to attend in the Big Groove. Normally this area was saved, only soul monster at level one like goblin was most here. A monster at level three wouldn't come that far; they stay mostly in the dungeon. He said something unusual had happened, to drive a level three out of his dungeon. Two Bigfoots attacked them, surprise attack. The three was able to kill the first, but the second survived. 

He was a talkative man, I couldn't tell it was part of his personality, or he did because of he still under the shock.

After he told his story, he took another deep breath and looked at me expectantly. 

Now it comes, not it comes.....

"You said you aren't an adventure, and you didn't seem like you come from the north... Where are you from?" 

Stolen story; please report.

Since I was in the carriage, I had expected a question like this. I prepared or decided to act as I belong to this world. 

"Well, I came faraway from here.", I gave him a vogue answer. 

"Faraway,... so from the south-east? From the snake island group?" he asked again. 

I nodded, I honestly didn't have any clue, how the world was, or anything position. I decided to go with the flow. 

I hoped he would calm, but it was contrary, he showed more interested.

While he came with the next question, he took a big cigar from a metal box and put on his mouth.

"Oh, I knew there few, the folks are famous for their strength. Make sense, the soul weapon of the folk are also a sword, are you from the island Zunk or Zank?"

Well, the thing became more complicated. I decided to give vague info again.

"Well, not exactly from there, little faraway, more south". I didn't have any glue what I was saying. 

He dropped his big cigar. "South? wait...you...you..came from THAT..island? From THAT island?" he was face was white as a sheet. He was lost of the word.

Sorry, wait, what?

Now I got more confused. From his facial expression, I could tell, something was wrong. I had also lost the thread. I pulled myself together again.

"No no, not I am not from THAT island, it..eehmm.. east not south, I mean east from Zunk." I shook my head like I knew what the hell he was speaking. 

He calmed down. "I was really worried, but you aren't from there?" He looked at me suspiciously.

Not good, not good. Something off 

"No, no, not from the south, east from Zunk, a small island," I said convincing, shaking my head again as if it were total nonsense.

"ok. THAT island is only an imagination, right?" he asked me unsure. 

"You mean THAT, THAT island? From south of Zunk?" I tried to get more info. 

"Yes, I mean exactly THAT island?" he looked with hopeful.

"oh, yeah, only imagination," I said with a horrible smile. 

I had no idea what he was talking about.

"he-he-he, of course, he-he, such thing not exists, he-he, same with the flying head and the underworld virgin, only fools believe, isn't it. Sorry, today happened too much." He tried to act cool, but it came forced. 

He picked up his cigar from the ground, the same time his pig face, filled white colour.

I nodded. 

What the hell is he talking?

After a little pause, he continued.

"So, um, you are exploring the world, I guess? I assume you are one journey?". He put the cigar in his mouth and puffed. 

"well kind of, discover the world, make money" I gave my honest opinions. It seemed common in this world. 

"If you want to make much money. I suggest you join the Magnone guild, and they are searching right now capable of adventure. Also, they pay very well, depends on the quest."

He puffed like a professional. Also, the smell of the cigar wasn't distracting; it was sweeter, more like cinnamon. 

He voice become seriously. "But if you want to join a heroes party, I wouldn't recommend it. Most adventurers try to get the hand of them or at least partying with them. You will only get disadvantages, also you wouldn't enter several country or city, because they are banned. Magnone is a hero-free city. Heroes aren't allowed there. By the way, do you heard about the heroes?" he asked me. 

"Well, kind of," I said, I got more impression he was a talkative man.

"We are really in debt to the heroes that time, as they fight against the Dark Lord and his minions, but the current heroes, , who wandering over the world, are making to much ruckus. Also, there is like the 13th hero, who is a good person..."

The number 13th I heard several times in a row, Jinwoo described him as a charismatic & smart guy, who gained trust from several other heroes, even from a woman from amazon. He was in the fraction to return home 

From his long talk, I was able to take that he and fellow species were more annoyed about the heroes then pleased that they were here. 

"I give you a piece of advice if you see the 24th hero. Runaway. He is a mass murderer, and he had killed several villages, even the heroes are searching for him."

"thank, I will take your advice to heart" I replied, he seemed a really good guy, without an ulterior motive. 

I decided to change the topic of money. I took the elf's staff from the bag. 

"Do you know how much I can sell it for?". 

He took a glance.

"oh the elf staff, hmm, the elf staff are really rare.."

I liked the word "rare", it must be really expensive. 

"..at least one million Lux".

10, 100, one million lux, came down, Vin came down

"wh...where can I sell it?" I asked with suppressed excitement. 

Happiness smiles at you, Vin, you finally deserve your luck.

"hmm, our next intermediate stop is the Hells Canyon, a small dwarf village... you can sell there, or you can sell it in Magnone." 

I can't wait until then. I am going to sell the next stop, one million lux, one million lux...

I didn't know how much it looked like, I never had much money, or even earned in my whole life. But I was sure it was a lot of money. 

But this wasn't the end, and I took the next thing from the bag, football-size crystal. "What about this? Can I sell it also for a good price?" I asked him.

"oh, isn't it from the Bigfoot?" he took a closer look again, "Ehm, it isn't really pure, I would suggest 6k?"

6k, what he mean with pure?

"What do you mean about pure?" 

"I mean the purity of the soul crystal. Higher the purity is, more it value. ", he pointed on several spots on the crystal.

When I looked closer, I discovered several black spots like a crack.

He continued "The crystal is melted, and the purity is obtained as a liquid. That is the energy for everything, like heating, pouring water".

So like electricity or petroleum. 

"How much would I get if this had a 100% purity?" I asked curiously

"If this a 100% purity crystal, I would suggest at least 100k, or even more. But it is impossible. The soul monster which spawned from dungeon had maximal 40 or 50% purity. But if you can obtain a dungeon core, you can sell it three or ten times more. Depends on the size."

If I remember Jinwoo said something about it. Animals are living beings here. Soul monster spawns from different dungeon over the world. 

"How much dungeon are there out?"

He looked at me before he said "There are quite a lot, if you destroy one, there will come two. It is an endless loop. It is not easy to obtain, you know. Low level soul monster was spread outside, but strong soul monster like the Bigfoot or soul monster with more than level three guard the dungeon core in the dungeon. You have to kill them first. Also, you have to locate the dungeon core."

"Most adventurers die during the searching process, because they let the guard down, while new monster spawn. Even you take the dungeon core, and you have to kill the remaining soul monster. But if you are able to obtain the core you can become really rich" he said with a smile. 

"I think you have the capability, if you party with other skilled adventures, you should able take down several dungeons," he said with confidence. 

When it comes to money, there is nothing I can't achieve.

"Oh before I forget, here the promised half - 125k" and he gave me a bag of coins. 

It didn't feel really so much. There were more silver coins, then gold coins. 

Is that really 125k?

"Don't say you don't know the currency?" he saw through me while he gave me a lesson the currency. It seemed he had stamped me as a country bumpkin. That was fine for me.

What a charade

A gold coin had a worthy of 10k lux, while one silver coins were equal to 100 lux. The third coin was bronze. One bronze was exactly one lux. 

There were 12 gold coins and 50 silver coins. 

"The common coins are the silver and the bronze coins. Usually, the gold coins used for payment for expensive gear other expensive utilities. if you want to pay food or something, you should exchange it in silver" he gave me advice. 

I examined the coins, and all three had the same shape. It looked like one Euro coin, but it also had a lot of prongs like a cog. 

I hope this will lead to a little good life.

With a smile, I looked ahead.