Auna arrived back home with another bore. It was her third one this week. She had thought it strange they were taking down so many.
“Auna, you need to stop doing such dangerous things.” Ciela was standing there with a book in one hand and the other on her hip. She looked cute.
“What do you mean?” Auna asked setting the bore down.
“What do you mean, what do I mean!” Ciela opened the book to a page about bores.
“I still don’t understand it’s just a pig, also is that one of the books Edward gave us?” Auna asked.
“It said in this book that bores are a low rank monster born out of boars. It said it charges at prey using sleep magic. It is very hard to kill unless you have a skill that nullifies the effect.” Ciela handed the book over.
“Wait. There are actual Boars that aren’t Bores?” Auna asked then realised how silly she sounded.
“Did none of them use sleep magic on you?” Ciela asked.
“No?” Auna said, distantly remembering how Ayda and Theodore would stay out of the path of all the bore.
Auna thought reaching out to the voice inside her head. What is going on? Mr. Voice simply answered. Have you not checked your job characteristics?
“What are job characteristics?” Auna thought aloud.
“There is actually a book that talks about it, let me grab it.” Ciela went back into the house. Moments later she came back flipping to a page. Ciela had spent the past couple months reading a few different books while Auna was reading other ones. They were rotating them between each other as to not hinder each other’s process.
The girls looked at the book. It explained that each job would come with randomized characteristics which could be positive or negative. Some jobs would come with ones like ‘very appealing appearance’, ‘perfect pitch’, ‘cannot lie’, ‘very ugly’ which were fairly common.
Once a job was learnt the characteristics would be final. People often tried to do things that would get them the ones they wanted. This did not always get what they wanted, for instance the Gods would often give liars a can not lie characteristic. Jobs had certain pools of characteristics; a farmer would not get a characteristic of ‘kills plants with a touch’.
It was thought that the Gods would hand select the characteristics for each individual when they were born, and only if they got a job fitting it would it be realized. These could be things that the Gods thought would help the person, control them, or even expectations.
Auna thought the gods most likely did not hand pick these, maybe they had unlocked conditions or were random to a degree.
“So, why does Mr. Voice want me to know this? And who would name a bore the same as a boar?” Auna was frustrated.
“Maybe the person thought it was funny?” Ciela shrugged.
“How is that funny?” Auna rolled her eyes.
“Wow this is such a bore I am falling asleep.” Ciela said putting her hands out in a ta-da sign.
“Really? What a twisted way to name things if that is true.” Auna pulled up her status screen, Ciela following her lead pulling hers up as well.
Both girls looked at their job list thinking about the characteristics. Soon Auna saw more under noble she had quick-learner, and air of authority. Moon slave had graceful, immune to mind alterations, and mesmerizing. Finally, she had observant under sage survivalist.
Looking over to Ciela she could see the girl had touch of nature and strong body under her farmer job. Her survivalist job had strong will and observant. Auna sat for a moment before speaking.
“How am I graceful? I fell into Jeffs arms just a few months ago.” Auna sighed.
“You have to get over that, besides now we know why you can hunt bore so well.” Ciela shrugged. “It said in the book that the tusks that are bright red can be sold at decent prices, which is anywhere from one silver to two gold. Depending on if they are broken or not.”
“We have twenty of them, all in perfect condition.” Auna said. She went to go grab a book she had been reading.
“This book has a handy chart for money value as a math lesson.” Auna said placing the book down. The book had said one copper could buy a non-alcoholic drink. Auna then compared one copper being roughly one dollar of her old-world currency.
Stone Coin
Lowest Value
Copper Coin
X 2 Stone
Bronze Coin
X 10 Copper
Silver Coin
X 10 Bronze
Gold Coin
X 10 Silver
Platinum
X 10 Gold
Palladium
X 10 Platinum
Mithril
X 10 Palladium (Highest value)
If the other book said the tusks could be worth one silver to two gold would mean the value was between 100, to 2000 of her old currency. If money was similar here that would be more than a decent amount.
“Want to go to town tomorrow after I give you your birthday present?” Auna asked.
“We haven’t been to town at all though. You stayed here after you came back. Why now?” Ciela tilted her head.
“Well, we should get some practice selling and buying. We could use some money for school as well.” Auna smiled going to collect all the tusks that the wolves had not wanted to chew on. She now knew why they would leave them alone deciding to chew on just the bones. There was most likely still magic in them.
“Isn’t Edward and Marybeth paying?” Ciela asked following Auna into the storage room.
“Yes, but having some pocket money won’t be too bad right?” Auna was smiling.
“Okay, are you going to tell them we decided to go to school?” Ciela said having agreed to going to the town.
“Not yet, we should study first. If when the deadline is reached, we feel we can pass the tests we will tell them yes.” Auna did not want to agree before she felt she could pass the test. They both had missed out on their early year education compared to other nobles.
“That is a good idea. There is a lot to study, books on math, science, art, geography, music, politics, monsters, magic and even a book on history.” Ciela groaned.
“We don’t have too much else to sell. We need the furs, meat, and food.” Auna sighed looking at their laying birds. They produced about 10 eggs a week. It was enough to help the girls get more precious vitamins. The new crops had been planted in small quantities switching out some of the old ones. They were not harvestable yet. Still, they would need to eat the food themselves.
“We could sell the magic and mana stones you have found. They are pretty yeah; we don’t need them though. We even have extra glow stones.” Ciela spoke as she started heading to her fields. She really had a short attention span when it wasn’t about farming.
“Okay, I’ll see what we can sell. Oh, maybe we can pick up more cook ware.” Auna busied herself with butchering her bore. She wondered what else she had miss understood. She thought about the blue apples Ciela was growing. It was something that was normal here as well she thought, are they also weird?
Why would they be? Mr. Voice asked, it was rare for the voice to want a conversation. Well, why are they not red? Auna questioned. Only man-eating trees produce red fruit, it is red due to the blood soaked up by the trees prey. Auna sighed aloud. In her old-world apples had been red normally without people dying to the tree. Really that is odd Mr Voice commented. I will try to point out things more clearly from now on Mr. voice said then went quiet again.
Auna and Ciela spent more time on the chores in the crater. They wanted to spend most of the day in the town. They would be bringing their wolves with them, who had learnt a new skill from Ayda. A few days ago, Ayda had eaten another slime and gained the skill resize. It allowed the slime to become any size it wanted.
The wolves had watched the slime for a while eventually they learned the skill as well. It had been a surprise for the girls. Though the wolves could only go between their current proper size, to their old puppy size. This would allow the girls to take them almost anywhere without issues. The girls could carry them in both arms in their puppy forms. Small enough to travel indoors with them, big enough to still be a threat.
The morning was misty. Summer would be over soon, and pada would start. It was now also Cielas’ birthday, Sunen 20th. Auna crept into the smaller girls’ room, as much as one could when having to use earth magic to make a door.
“Good morning big sis.” Ciela smiled as the not so quiet Auna stepped through the door she made.
“Happy birthday!” Auna came over with something wrapped in a blanket. “Open it.”
Ciela opened the blanket wrapped gift, it was a hand made bunny. It was soft with blue fur, stuffed with cotton. It was about one foot tall, and half the width. The eyes were mana crystals full of Cielas’ mana. Auna had asked for empty ones from Edward that could absorb any mana. They were fairly common at this size, as they could be created by people. It was different from the one around Aunas’ neck.
“It is beautiful.” Ciela hugged the toy very tightly. She would not let go of it for the rest of the morning. Soon they were preparing to leave.
“Why are we making Theo carry the things we want to sell?” Ciela asked as Auna put a hand made saddle pack on the wolf. It was made with leather and two sacks.
“I want as little people to know about our skills as possible.” Auna said walking towards the orchard.
“The book said there is a skill called conceal. That anyone can learn. It allows the person to hide any line of their status screen when showing it. Only magic items above the persons job skill will cancel it out. Apparently to learn it you need someone to teach you though, or a special magic item.” Ciela explained as they walked.
“We should see about learning it, did the book say anything about appraisals to people?” Auna had not been able to use her appraisal skill on people but that didn’t mean other people could not.
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“Apparently the Gods don’t allow it. People can appraise monsters, animals, but not anyone considered people. Apparently though at one point beast kin and other species not human could be appraised. Once all of the kingdoms passed laws to make them equal appraisal stopped working.” Ciela recited the information she had learnt in the books.
“You are studying well.” Auna smiled. She like the fact the Gods would implement such a system.
Soon the girls were in a closet. Willow was in Cielas’ arms, Ayda was on Theodores’ head. The girls had waited until the sun was fully in the sky, they did not want to disturb the mayor or his family.
“Let’s go.” Auna smiled grabbing Cielas’ hand. Together they walked out of the closet. Right into a maid woman who gave a bit of a shriek. Which brought the mayor running upstairs. So much for not disturbing anyone.
“Hello Mr. Mayor, sorry there was no way to announce our presence in advance.” Auna smiled sheepishly. It was not like they could phone ahead; phones were not in this world. They could not send a letter either, being so far into the Great Monster Forest.
“It is okay, we did warn everyone beforehand she should not have been so rude.” The mayor eyed the women.
“No, she wasn’t rude I would have yelled as well. This is our first time coming after all.” Auna smiled softly at the women “We are sorry to have startled you, is there a better way to enter for next time?”
“Oh no, please continue as you were. We will adjust.” She bowed and left.
“So, what brings you girls here?” The mayor was warmly gesturing to the downstairs.
“We want to sell some sleeping magic tusks from a few bores. We have some crystals as well.”
“Mana or magic?” The mayor asked opening the reception room for them. Auna and Ciela sat on the floor after taking the saddle bag off Theo who resized to a pup.
“I’m not entirely sure of the difference we use the terms to mean the same thing.” Auna said taking a glass of juice from a butler.
“Oh, I suppose that is understandable you both are very young. A mana crystal is a rock that can absorb mana directly, from people, animals, or monsters. When it does it can act like a reservoir for mana, like your necklace there.” The mayor pointed to Aunas’ neck.
“Some mana crystals are naturally formed, usually they are usable by anyone. Rarely a mana crystal is formed naturally and is only usable by certain people. When this happens, the crystal is said to have been placed by the Gods for the person. These crystals are usually very powerful, some even having hidden attributes.” The mayor took a sip of tea.
“The more common mana crystals are made by people. Usually for mana manipulation practice or as pretty gifts. I see you have a few for your bunnys’ eyes.” The mayor smiled softly. His wife was sitting quietly with a warm smile. His son had been staring the whole time. His explanation meant somehow Auna found a natural mana crystal that would only hold her magic. Apparently, her earlier thinking was wrong, after Cielas’ crystal eyes were empty they would easily take Aunas’ mana.
“Now magic crystals are stones that have gathered mana of a certain attribute. When a person puts their mana in the crystal it will release that attribute. Anyone can use them. Like the glow stones or fire stones we use for everyday life.” The mayor seemed to be done with his lecture.
“I see we have a few natural mana crystals but mostly magic ones then.” Auna said nodding.
“Well, I could buy everything from you now if you want? I could give you a fair price.” The mayor said.
“No thank you, we want to learn how to sell and buy things properly. We have never handled trade, or money.” Auna got up setting her drink on the table and putting her sunglasses on.
“Is there a market here?” Ciela asked.
“Not really we are a small town after all. If you want to sell you could sell to the adventurers or market guild. Some stores will buy as well though we don’t have many here.” The mayor looked to his son “Why don’t you guide these two to the guild house? Girls the guild house holds both the merchants and adventurers’ guild.” With that he smiled and left with his wife.
“My name is Burt.” The boy got up and led the way.
After Auna resaddled Theodore they followed Burt out of the house. They were being led closer to the edge of the town. A huge double building stood in front of them. Two four story buildings were connected by a small one-story building in the middle.
“Wow.” Auna said, Ciela holding onto her leg with one arm. This left her new bunny and pup sized Willow squished in one arm.
“Come inside, they are very nice people.” Burt said walking in.
Auna and Ciela walked up to a counter behind Burt. There was a small man looking through paperwork. There was a lobby to both sides of them as well. One was for the merchants guid and the other for the adventurers’ guild.
“How may I help you children?” The man asked noticing them.
“We would like to sell some monster parts.” Auna said pushing to stand beside Burt.
“Well, we can by them directly there will be a tax. If you want, you can join one or both of the guilds. If you get a card you will have to meet requirements for keeping active, once you reach 16. Before 16 just buying the membership is enough.” The man said.
“Why would we want to be a part of the guilds?” Auna asked.
“If you are a part of the merchant guild you can sell to them at current market price, without a handling tax. If you are a part of the adventures’ guild you can do quests for rewards of different kinds. Monster parts as proof of slaying can be shown for a reward. Usually you can keep the parts.” The man explained.
“How much to join for two people?” Auna asked.
“Two silvers per person for both guilds, so four in total.” The man said, making Burt give her a side eye.
“I could ask dad to give you the money.” Burt said.
“Can I sell one of these please?” Auna asked putting down one perfectly intact bore tusk. It was a very deep red.
“Certainly, there will be a handling tax though. It will be one gold coin, we will take one sliver and give you nine silvers back.” The man wrote a receipt, handing it to Auna to sign. Once she did, she got nine silver coins.
“Thank you, do we register at the guilds counters?” Auna asked.
“Yes child.” The man said going back to his papers.
Auna walked over to the adventurers’ guild.
“Hello, we would like to register please.” She said to a woman behind the counter.
“Do you have the silver per person?” The woman asked.
“Yes ma’am.” Auna put down two silvers and pointed to Ciela.
“Alright will you both come with me then? Also bring any monsters that are yours alone.” The woman guided them to a back room.
She gave both the girls a paper. It wanted them to fill out their name, what role they would have, and basic profile information. After a few questions they learnt that their jobs did not have to be what role they would have. For instance, they could put down tank or tamer without having the job. Of course, it was recommended to put down a role in which you had the same job. Auna put down Sage survivalist, while Ciela put farmer.
“Now a farmer might not be asked to join many parties and may have some difficulties climbing the ranks.” The woman said looking at them.
“No worries big sis and I always are together so it will be fine.” Ciela smiled.
“Yes, she can put down farmer, she is my little farmer after all.” Auna smiled as well.
“Alright then, also you really shouldn’t put sage down it is one of the roles that are sought after. If someone sees this, and you don’t have the job to back it up you could be targeted.” The woman put her hand on her hip.
Auna simply pulled up her status screen pointing the job section.
“Well, I’ll be! You really are a sage. Wait here.” The woman ran out in a hurry, coming back in with two tall old men.
“We are the guild masters of this branch. We are both named Gary.” One of the men put out his hand.
“What am I supposed to do with your hand?” Auna asked, making Ciela giggle as she took it and shook it. A memory from her previous world or life?
“Is it a greeting?” Auna whispered to Ciela.
“It is yes, you must be very sheltered to not know little miss sage.” The second Gary spoke.
“I live in the Great Monster Forest so yeah sheltered.” Auna said a little offended. It was not her fault she was sheltered.
“I see you must be the children the Bloodwave family spoke of.” the first Gary said.
“What do we call you, because Gary and Gary is just as silly as bore and boar.” Auna groaned out while nodding.
“I don’t know what you are referring to. However, people call me Adventurer Gary and him sleezy Gary.” Adventurer Gary laughed as the other Gary elbowed him.
“They call me Merchant Gary.” He said eyeing Adventurer Gary.
“So, we can get your paperwork done, it is not often a sage so young signs up though. Usually such a role is from a role change later on in life.” Adventurer Gary said.
“I hear you also want to be in the merchant guild.” Merchant Gary said.
“Yes please.” Auna placed two more silvers on the table.
“Sure, we can use the same forms to register you for the merchant guild as well.” He smiled taking the silvers.
“So, we also came in to give you both this.” Adventurer Gary set down two sticks.
“What are these?” Auna asked picking one up and handing the other to Ciela.
“They are skill sticks; these ones have concealed. The receptionist said you showed her your whole status screen, and most people with a job like yours will hide it.” Adventurer Gary said.
Auna and Ciela both broke the sticks; they each got the skill. Auna got hers under Nobility, while Ciela had hers under farmer. Every job could get this skill apparently, so when learned it when to the highest-level job.
After that they were made to drip blood on to two separate metal plates. These plates were both iron. After their blood was spilt on them their names appeared with a rank on each. Both guilds had the same ranks. Lowest was G highest was SSS. The ranks SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D, E, F, G had their own perks, and requirements. Once someone was S or above, they no longer needed to pay a fee, for either guild. They still had to maintain activity though. Most times when a membership was lost a person would have to start two levels lower than their previous rank. With S and above this was not the case.
There were not many A rank and above adventurers as the job was very dangerous. The merchants could achieve rank A usually once they began trading to other kingdoms. It was a minimum though as some merchants achieved A before that. The merchants only had a handful of members at rank S and above.
The Guild master said they could bring in monster parts as proof of being slayed. However, they would have to bring back undesirable parts, freshly. This was to cut down on fraud. Also, guilds could use certain skills to detect lies when every they wanted.
“Don’t lose the plates, and make sure to work on your new skill a lot.” Adventure Gary said.
“Can we sell some items here before we go?” Auna asked as they all got up.
“Of course, follow me.” Merchant Gary said.
“Our tamed monsters are listed on the back of the plate?” Ciela said.
“Yes, they do that. It’s a tradition to give the plates to the tamed monster should the master die and the monster survive.” Merchant Gary smiled. Burt managed to re-join them on the way to the selling counter.
“You guys were gone for like an hour what happened?” Burt asked.
“We signed up for both guilds.” Auna said.
Reaching the sale counter a smaller elf woman was smiling. “Hi Guild master!”
“These girls are new members and would like to sell some items. The Bloodwave family have vouched for them.” Merchant Gary smiled “I’m just here to watch that they are learning how to do this properly.”
“Alright then, please place the items you want to sell on the counter.” The women smiled professionally as the girls placed nineteen deep red bore tusks on the counter. They also placed two small mana crystals on the counter. Finally, they placed four light crystals, five fire crystals and three earth crystals. The light crystals were still glowing slightly.
“I see this is a bit abnormal for most young children you know?” The elf woman smiled looking at Gary.
“We live in the Great Monster Forest.” Auna said while the elf womans’ smile fell.
“It is true, these two live in the forest.” Edward smiled as he walked up behind the girls.
“Yes, my lord.” The elf woman bowed down then started inspecting the items on the counter.
“Hello girls.” Edward smiled; he had his wife with him.
“Why are you here? We were trying to get some real experience Edward.” Auna sighed. Today was not going as she planned. All she wanted was to be a little normal.
“Yeah, I heard from the mayor, still thought you might need some help.” Edward smiled, and Marybeth shook her head.
“Edward, I told you doing this would turn out this way.” Marybeth scolded.
“Come on girls we were on our way back to our estate and were so happy to hear you were here. We were going to visit you though Marybeth here thought you would not appreciate it.” Edward bent down patting Willow and Theodore on the head.
“I guess it’s okay, we are pretty new to this anyway.” Auna sighed “Also you are welcome to visit anytime.”
“Girls?” The elf woman continued once all eyes were on her “The tusks here are little old, we prefer to get them right away, one was fresh enough. The other items are high quality though they are small. For everything we can give you fifteen gold, thirty bronze, and seven copper.”
Auna thought for a moment, that would equal about fifteen thousand of her old currency. “Is that good?” she sighed looking back at the Bloodwaves.
“A family of four can live off about four gold coins a month. So, fifteen is about three months’ worth of living expenses, for a commoner family. It seems like a lot; however, these tusks are very hard to get usually. A team of five C rank adventurers usually take days to take one bore down. Also, these bore only appear in heavily infested areas with high-ranking monsters. The price is high due to the risk.” Edward smiled and gave a thumbs up “Good job girls!”
Auna completed the sale, splitting the profits on paper with Ciela. It all went into Theodores’s saddle pack.
The Bloodwaves dismissed Burt and instead walked the girls back to the mayors’ house. It was already nearing lunch time.
“So have you girls given any thought to the school thing?” Edward asked.
“We want to go, though we don’t want to say yes until we are closer. We want to make sure we can past the test.” Auna said. “How much does it cost?”
“Well boarding school runs from the middle of the 1st month of the year to the end of the 5th month. Takes a break month 6, 7, and 8. Picks back up for the 9th month to the end of the 13th month. Then the 14th month to the middle of the 1st is another break. So, each semester is about 5 months. For the entire school year about six platinum is needed.” Edward smiled.
Auna thought about this it meant for each girl it would cost 60,000 per year. Over the span of the entire school career for Auna would cost 600,000. For Ciela it would cost 720,000 due to the extra years. She would still have to graduate at 18 years old. Unless they managed to skip grades, it would cost around 1,320,000 in her old currency. One mithril, three palladium, and two platinum coins. That on top of the cost of his own child.
“Are you really able to spend over a mithril coin to send us to school for our entire education?” Auna had done the calculations in her head in less than a minute.
“Did you really calculate it that fast?” Edward smiled. “This is why it is worth it. You both are showing such promise at such an early age too!”
“Dear don’t pressure them.” Marybeth smiled “Don’t worry we are making sure to come back in Hollen to get your answer. We do want you both to come though.”
Auna nodded.
Soon they reached the mayors’ home. Burt was outside waiting, watching Auna as she came up. She kept close to Edward as they walked in.
They all ate lunch together quietly, soon the Bloodwaves saw them off.
Over the next two months the girls studied very hard. They read and reread all the books given to them. They couldn’t leave the crater because of the pada season, which gave them a lot of time inside to read. They tested themselves a lot as well.
They made sure to exercise and fight mock battles in the rain to better train. They were not worried about their magic abilities, they still trained it though. They did train their conceal skills as much as they could though.
Soon they began packing up their home. Leaving nothing out to rot. The bird feed would stay out as they would come back to care for the birds. They were confident the Moon door would work. They had made sure the field was empty before the rain started. The mushrooms, berries, and trees would be tended still. Ciela was planning to farm at the school instead of in their field. They would come back to live full-time only on long breaks.
Soon the girls were standing by the orchard door on the 1st of Hollen.