Before I headed to the inn to get some rest I needed money, so my first stop was the beekeeper posted in the encampment to watch over things. ‘I hope the new guy isn’t as pushy as the last one…’
I paused for a moment, a bit nervous. The beekeepers rotated out every three months or so, their job wasn’t so much an actual job as much as it was a civic duty they were given by the government. It was complicated, but the only thing that mattered to me was that it meant meeting someone new every three months, which was… Fine… But. Well, let's put it this way.
I would have rather kept dealing with the muscle head that told me to quit being an adventurer because girls couldn’t cut it. I mean, at least he was nice to look at. I’m sure he was trying to look out for me in his own way too, as abrasive as he was. Most importantly though, he took the job seriously, and did everything he could to make sure I had all the information I needed… Rather than letting me take a quest knowing there was an infestation and somehow forgetting to tell me…
I let out a deep sigh standing in front of the castle gate that led directly to the beekeeper's office. ‘It doesn’t help that this place looks like a dungeon…’ Mossy vines grew around the thick cobblestone that made up a massive fortress designed to fall back to in case the camp somehow got overrun. ‘It can’t be that bad right?’
I expected my heart to beat faster, or my chest to tighten at least a little, but the venom in my veins kept me completely relaxed. ‘I’ll just make it quick.’
“Done already?” He asked as I presented the quest notices along with the herbs I picked up. “I’m surprised you didn't run into any trouble. These flowers have been hard to gather because they're in spider territory, that's why there's a quest for them in the first palace.
I rolled my eyes. ‘Talkative… And not very sharp…’ I lifted my injured arm onto the table with a plop. “I ran into plenty of trouble, I just took care of it. There's a bonus reward for any spiders I kill right?”
He squinted and grimaced. “Yeah, I take it you had to fight off a couple then?”
“I pulled the materials from my pack. Here's proof of kill. 7 spiders, 6 Wargs. The quest said I could keep the materials, but I don't have the expensive equipment to work with monster hides so I'd like to sell those to the Beehive as well. Same with the spider webbing and claws, oh, and the fangs too I guess. One of the wargs was an alpha but the hide is in bad condition. Actually, I’ll keep one of the alpha’s fangs.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
He had a dumbfounded expression on his face for a moment but it slowly getting out a tally sheet. “Ok just give me a second here, how much of each material do you have?”
I quickly began unloading all the materials. “6 Pelts, 7 acid glans, we can weigh the webbing, and as for the fangs 23.”
After quickly marking up the tally he totalled out the price. “I see. That's quite the haul…” He picked up the damaged hide and closely inspected it. “Something like this isn’t even worth half value.”
“Yeah I expected as much, but I have about half a hide there, so it should still be worth something.”
‘He’s using Identification magic? So he’s going to price it for me right here then?’ Out of curiosity, I scanned the materials myself. Everything came back as quality good, except for the alpha hide, which was poor, and one of the acid glands which was also poor due to the wargs gnawing on it a bit.
‘That’s not bad. With the threat level increase in the area, all materials should increase in value by 25% due to regulations. So that means this should come out to a total of upwards 3k talons, counting the quest rewards. Or I guess 3 small silvers so that's… 3k?’
I had to double-check my math before I felt myself suddenly become giddy. I couldn’t remember a single time I had ever had that much coin on me at once.
“OK, let's see here. So that’s 600 for the two quests, and 700 for proof of kill for each spider.”
‘Yes, yes I know. Those prices are posted, so that calculation is easy, but the materials cost changes with the market. Tell me what you're giving me already.’
“Claws, fangs, mandibles, acid glans, stinger, pelts, and about 75 tallons for this volume of webbing Together that's going to get you about 700. So if you sell all this plus the quest that will amount to about 2089 talons. How would you like your currency?”
I paused for a moment, unsure if I heard him right, triple-checking my math. Even if the market crashed, it was impossible for it to crash that hard… “Wait, so that’s 2089 for the materials right?”
He nodded. “For the materials and the quest reward, plus the bonus from the proof of kill for the spiders.”
‘No way… But that's… more than a 40% drop in value in a single month… The value should be increased with higher demand sense materials have a lower supply during the winter, not to mention harder to get now that the threat level increased…’ I paused for a moment. I hadn’t checked the market value before heading out, but it couldn’t have changed that much.
I took a closer look at the man in front of me. Any anxiousness I was feeling was gone, replaced with my brain lighting up as if I were in a fight. ‘So… That’s how it is then. I heard about this. He gives people a little less than what he is supposed to and pockets the rest, the amount is so small it’s unnoticeable. He probably only takes off maybe a couple of percent off each item individually… But I brought in so much low-level material that a couple coins off each became obvious… Interesting…’
My head started to pound. ‘That… Is what’s happening right? I better be careful just in case.’