Free Web NovelChapter 25: Spoils of War
By the time they’d finished gathering the items scattered around the goblin camp, Arthur and John stood over two bulging piles of loot. They’d faced this same ’problem’ yesterday, but right now it was worse. Much worse.
After wiping out the entire camp, they’d gathered up so many items they could hardly move without dropping some of them.
"Damn it! What is this? Aren’t games supposed to have an inventory system or something? Why the hell do we have to carry everything ourselves?" John muttered under his breath as he and Arthur stuffed everything into two pieces of ’Threadbare Jerkins’ that acted as makeshift bundles.
At this point, they both knew they had no hope of making it to the mountain range beyond the forest while carrying so much stuff, so they had to make a quick pit stop by the city first.
As for dropping some of the ’less useful’ items to save time... well, fat chance of that.
...
They walked through the forest, pulverizing any unsuspecting goblins that were unlucky enough to spot them, and a little over half an hour later, the city’s massive walls came into view again.
As they walked, Arthur found himself wondering how much they were going to make off this haul.
It was easily the most items they’d ever obtained from a single hunt. For a moment, he even wondered how much he could get if he sold the skillbook, but he quickly dismissed that thought as soon as it formed. It was just curiosity.
If this was the only way for a Mage to get access to skills, Arthur couldn’t possibly sell this, even if the price was a couple thousand elemental stones. It would be foolish.
After all, this was the only way he had to make use of his Intelligence and Wisdom stats that had been climbing nonstop this whole time.
"Right! I leveled up!" The realization came suddenly as Arthur remembered he’d gotten the system notification after John killed the second level 5 Spear-Guard.
He was about to summon his status window when John’s voice cut in from behind him, interrupting his train of thought.
"Hey, brother, I’ve been meaning to tell you. There’s this blacksmith I’ve been talking to. The guy knows his stuff and doesn’t waste time lowballing when you go sell your items to him. I double-checked everything yesterday, so if you’re fine with it, we can just dump everything to him. It should save us some time."
Arthur looked at John in surprise.
Truth be told, he doubted the insectoid shopkeeper would try to scam him, since it was easy enough to check an item’s price against another vendor. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to double-check and try his luck with another vendor either.
He mulled it over for a bit before he turned to John and nodded.
"Alright, let’s try your guy."
...
The smithy John was talking about was on the other side of the plaza, quite the distance from the merchant quarter Arthur usually visited.
The sharp ring of steel on steel could be heard before Arthur and John even reached the eye-catching shop at the end of the road, that had an anvil painted across its signboard.
The moment they stepped through the door, a wave of heat assaulted Arthur’s face, while John winced beside him.
Surprisingly, though... Arthur didn’t find it uncomfortable. Just a bit warmer than he expected.
Behind the counter, a short, stocky figure stood over an anvil, hammering the edge of a glowing blade with steady, practiced blows.
The dwarf looked up as the two humans approached him.
"Hey, kid. Back already?" the dwarf called over as his hammer sounded again through the empty smithy.
"Yeah. And this time I brought company, old man." John said.
The dwarf’s eyes moved from John to Arthur, as if sizing him up. They lingered on the fang protruding from his pocket, before moving to the awkward piles of loot the two of them were carrying in their arms like a pile of babies
"It looks like you’ve been busy, huh?" the smith said.
Arthur nodded. "We’ve got some items to sell, if you’re buying."
"Mm." The dwarf’s brows drew together in what might have been approval, or maybe just a force of habit, as he placed his hammer down beside the anvil and reached for a rag to wipe his hands.
...
The smithy itself was smaller than Arthur expected. The walls were crowded with weapon racks, each holding rows of spears, axes, and blades that were all freshly polished. A faint haze of smoke and heat shimmered near the rafters, and the air carried a mix of oiled leather and hot iron that somehow felt both familiar and unfamiliar.
John placed his bundle onto the nearest worktable with a heavy whump, and Arthur soon followed suit, setting his down a bit more carefully before opening it up.
The dwarf didn’t waste time.
He picked up each piece and turned it over with the look of someone who’d been appraising this stuff for decades. His fingers traced the seams, tested the balance, and he even tapped a nail against the edge of a fang, similarly to how the insectoid shopkeeper had done.
"Five [Goblin’s Fangs], seven [Threadbare Jerkins], three [Scrap-Leather Chestpieces], and one [Fang-tipped Spearhead]." the dwarf’s raspy voice echoed through the smithy as he stacked the items neatly to the side of the table.
Then, he looked up, meeting Arthur’s eyes and then John’s. "I’ll give you three hundred and ten base stones for everything."
John turned to Arthur, as if wanting to hear his opinion, and Arthur mentally calculated everything in his mind for a moment.
Five [Goblin’s Fangs] should sell for 50 elemental stones. The [Threadbare Jerkins] the insectoid shopkeeper usually bought for 16 stones each, but both times he’d mentioned their condition was just passable. Still, their total should be another 112 elemental stones, at least. The [Scrap-Leather Chestpieces] sold for 30 elemental stones each, and another 35 stones for the [Fang-tipped Spearhead].
Finally, Arthur’s pupils dilated a bit.
The difference wasn’t that dramatic, but it was still there. The insectoid shopkeeper would pay him 287 stones for this kind of loot, but the dwarf offered them 310?
Arthur didn’t have to think twice.
He nodded, and the smith grunted in satisfaction before reaching under the counter for a small leather pouch. He opened it, and the familiar clink of stone against stone filled the smithy as he counted out their payment.
The elemental stones gleamed faintly as he stacked them into two neat piles.
Arthur took the first pile, slipping it into the pouch he’d gotten from the insectoid shopkeeper. By the time he filled it up, the leather was stretched to its limit, and the seams looked like they were about to burst.
John’s pouch didn’t look much different, either.
The dwarf caught the sight at once, and his mouth curved into a knowing smile.
"Ah... the two of you look like you could use a storage bag, don’t you think?"
Arthur blinked in confusion. Next to him, John turned his head, both of them now looking at the blacksmith. The dwarf’s grin only widened.
"Obviously, you can’t keep your elemental stones in normal pouches, right? You can fit a couple hundred of them, but then what? Are you going to use a second pouch and then a third? And how are you going to carry your loot every time you find something? Are you going to keep hauling everything in your arms like this?" The dwarf gestured at the heap of loot they’d just dumped on his counter.
Arthur and John nodded matter-of-factly.
That was exactly what they’d been planning to do.
Well, it wasn’t like they had a choice, really. But it was the dwarf’s next words that made them pause.
The bearded smith leaned in, lowering his voice to the kind of tone Arthur had only ever heard from sketchy salesmen and continued,
"That won’t do. That’s not efficient at all. Think about it. Besides, storage bags are extremely important, you know. They’re soulbound, so even when you die, you still get to keep whatever’s inside when you come back. It’s very hard for someone to rob you when you have your own bag. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but, well, it’s much harder compared to... that."
He then pointed at the pouches Arthur and John had tied to their waists.
Arthur could feel the hook sink in before the dwarf even finished his pitch.
"And as it just so happens," the man continued, reaching under the counter, "I do happen to have a few storage bags in stock. The interior is small, but it should be more than enough for you now. It’s only a thousand base stones, too! What do you think?"
"One thousand stones??" John’s eyes bulged.
There was no need to even ask. He knew that even if he and Arthur pooled together all the elemental stones they had, their number would probably be just above the five hundred mark. There’s no way they had even close to that.
The dwarf nodded, clearly unfazed.
"Ah, I understand. Of course, you don’t have to buy this right away. I know you must be short on funds since you’re still newbies. I just felt like I should let you know."
Arthur didn’t miss the glint in the smith’s eyes.
It was the kind of look every merchant wore when they knew they’d already secured their next customers. And Arthur knew he wasn’t wrong.
He stared at the bag in the dwarf’s hands with a serious look. One thousand elemental stones... that wasn’t a small amount.
Hell, right now he was still struggling to meet the quota of 200 stones per day he needed for himself and his grandfather.
But just like the skillbook he had hidden under his chestpiece, this storage bag was something he and John clearly needed.
He knew John was probably thinking the same thing.
In the end, they both shook their heads, thanked the dwarf, and stepped back out into the cooler plaza air.
Arthur lifted his pouch and mentally weighed it. A hundred and fifty-five elemental stones. Added to the 85 he already had, it brought his total to 240. Not bad.
And the dwarf’s price wasn’t far off the insectoid shopkeeper’s, either.
Arthur had figured the insect would have offered him around 287 stones, but this difference could still be explained by the quality of items he and John had brought back this time. At the very least, Arthur was confident he wasn’t being scammed off a handful of stones.
He and John walked back through the streets, moving toward the city gates almost on instinct.
They still had to explore that mountain range beyond the forest now, didn’t they?
When they were only a few meters from the gates, however, Arthur’s footsteps came to a halt. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
No, there were still two things he had to deal with before they left the city.
So in a low voice, he murmured,
"Status window."
