Nora slowly traced the flower line drawings through the piece of golden pine with her carving knife, paying attention to both depth and texture. She was being so careful that she even forgot to breathe. It was a rare chance to work on such fine wood, one that she only met a couple of times throughout her life. When the mayor’s wife had come with the request, she agreed before even deciding on a price. If needed, she would even do it at the materials cost. Fortunately, the elegant elf wasn’t stingy with her orders.
The masterful knife continued to dance through the essence wood until the carver’s work was rudely interrupted by a door-smashing closing sound from upstairs. Nora was furious if whoever had almost destroyed her masterpiece, was probably her son. She put down the working tools and marched upstairs looking for the culprit.
“Rick, you dare to go smashing my doors? You know better than causing a ruckus at home. Don’t you know how meticulous my work is? Come out and let me teach you some manners…” Nora shouted outside of the boy’s room.
The reply came quickly but the door remained closed. He knew better than to face his angered mother directly.
“Mom, sorry! I just…” He said while trying to calm himself down. After taking a deep breath, he continued:
“I'm truly sorry, mom. Did I ruin your work? I’ll come down to clean it up and I’ll compensate the money for the materials.” Rick humbly admitted his mistake.
“No, it’s fine son. What happened to get you angry? It’s not like you to smash things…” Nora’s voice softened. She couldn’t stay mad with him if he was into some kind of problem.
The hunter breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that his mother had calmed down. So, he open the door and explained.
“It’s that crazy mayor, mom. This morning I went to the market to order some equipment from outside the town, but he prohibited the merchants from ordering it from Riverend. He’ll only allow them to go to the capital, or else he’ll confiscate their permits. How is this fair?” The boy complained.
“Son, you know better than to call the mayor ‘that’… What’s the problem with getting it from the capital, it’s a couple of extra coins. It’s not worthy of fighting with the mayor…” Nora said as if she was explaining things to a child.
“Silver, mom. It’s silver coins that should stay in my pocket and not be wasted because of his rivalry with a wealthier town… Also, the price for essence metal work from the capital is more expensive than Riverend.” He said angrily. Only he knew how difficult earning the money had been, so he wasn’t happy about just giving it away for free.
The recent experience with the wild boar taught Rick the importance of having better weapons and equipment. His town-made spear had looked like a bad joke against the creature, if wasn’t for the ‘poison’ that he used with it, he might not even be here. And now, he finally had enough money to invest in his job.
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Unfortunately, the town only had a blacksmith and not a metalmancer. So, he had to look for equipment outside, and Riverend was the best option. Strangely, the expensive town would only charge higher for consumables. Everything that required crafting or services was facing devaluation.
Rick didn’t understand business, but a merchant friend explained that this was a result of the high number of crafting and adventuring personnel who were joining the small town. With an increase in options and offers the cost would quickly fall. According to his friend, he could save up to ten silver if he chose to buy everything in the neighborly town.
He couldn’t understand why the mayor wasn’t trying to increase their exchanges with Riverend. They could be taking advantage of the situation to improve the town. Sadly, he wouldn’t dare to go by himself; otherwise, he would be buying equipment now instead of complaining to his mother.
At this time of intense migration to the borderlands, crime on the roads had increased exponentially. That’s the reason why most would hire mercenaries as escorts. Even a small town like Mountainend had a small mercenary company that would escort their merchants to the capital and close towns. Actually, the company wasn’t very useful in combat but the regular criminals would refrain from attacking to avoid the local’s ire.
Suddenly, a knock on the front door interrupted the son and mother pair conversation. Nora quickly adjusted her dress and hair before going to check on the door. Surprisingly, it was the town asset manager who had dropped by with a message for Rick. The recently famous bookstore owner was inviting the hunter over for a business opportunity.
***
“Hi, I’m Rick.” The hunter introduced himself.
“I’m Iris. Nice to meet you.” She replied formally.
“Hi, I’m Cyrus. I’m a warrior. I heard that you…” Cyrus spoke excitedly.
“Hakon.” The foxkin said plainly.
The difference in attitude overwhelmed Rick, who was only trying to be polite and get their names. It was his first time talking to a party on friendly terms. If it had happened a month ago, he would be fanning over them; but after he experienced his own growth, both in skill and confidence, he felt he could meet them on equal terms.
The trio, on the other hand, didn’t know how to face the hunter. They knew about the occupation but never worked or negotiated with one. They should be lone wolves, right?
Hakon, as usual, had decided to take a step back and observe while his partners negotiated. While Cyrus wanted nothing but to discuss the man’s skills and how he caught a bronze-tier beast.
Grading the magic beasts in tiers wasn’t as helpful as grading people. After all, their danger level couldn’t be accurately classified. Still, the tier was useful to rate the loot left by the beast. This wasn’t an official rule, but one could expect 0-20 silver from a copper beast, 20-200 silver from a bronze one, 2-10 gold from a silver beast, 10-100 gold from a gold-tiered, and more than 100 gold for a diamond tier beast.
“Why don’t you sit and drink some tea while you chat?” Anne barged in to break the awkwardness.
The customers agreed and sat together to discuss cooperation.
First, they said to Rick what they heard and asked him to explain. The hunter was a little embarrassed but tried to say a few words about his recent adventure in the forest. However, he didn’t mention the mapping book; he only said that he was confident in moving within a certain area of the forest and that he knew most beasts that roamed there.
Then, the trio explained that they would like to do an expedition here too, and asked Rick about it. They feared he would prefer to keep his knowledge a secret and hunt solo in the nearby area. However, they couldn’t imagine that the copper tier hunter actually had bigger ambitions. The mapped area was just the beginning, he had already set his sight on the world on the other side of the mountain. And now, a group that could help him clear the way had appeared.