012 – Special Reward #2
“Alright, gather round, everyone. Time to settle the accounts.”
I piled the Ether in one place.
That stack of coins was quite heavy, and it was truly a sight to behold.
*Clink.*
*Clink.*
Mr. Hammer counted the large bundle of money.
“The amount earned from catching Octopus and those pseudo-cultist bastards from the church is… two million and two hundred seventy thousand. 2.27 million Ether! Hermit, how much if we split this four ways?”
“Roughly around 560,000.”
“We hunted nothing but small fry and earned 560,000 Ether per person? And this wasn’t even the Great Plains swarming with monsters—it was Mechanic University!”
Mr. Hammer trembled.
Since he was wearing armor, it wasn’t easy to read his expression.
“I feel amazing! Yor! You’re a real good-luck charm!”
Mr. Hammer reached toward me, so I swiftly dodged. I’d finally washed up, and I didn’t want to get dirty again from the tentacle fluids stuck to his body!
“You little squirrel bastard! Get over here! Should I give you a kiss?”
“No! Mr. Hammer, you smell!”
“Oh, you brat? You smelled worse than this when you first got here!”
“That was then, this is now.”
“Got you, you rascal!”
In the end, I got caught and hugged by Mr. Hammer.
*Squelch squelch.*
Damn it, I’ll have to shower again!
“If we pay half in taxes, it’s about 280,000 Ether per person.”
*Crackle crackle.*
Felix calmly finished calculating while staring at the blazing bonfire.
“Mr. Hammer, from now on, rather than aiming for treasure chests, couldn’t we just increase our sortie frequency and catch only small-fry demonic beasts?”
“Yeah, if Ether drops every time we kill small fry next time too, that strategy is worth considering. At any rate, we’ve got more cards we can play.”
“I’ll register the skill book at the auction house.”
*Fwoosh.*
Hermit thrust the red skill book he’d pulled from his conical hat into the bonfire.
The book instantly burst into flames.
In that instant, my hair stood on end.
“Hey! Why are you burning it! I went through hell to bring that here!”
“Do I look like an idiot? Burn a precious skill book? I’ve registered it at the auction house. This is what priestesses usually do, but we don’t have one, so I did it instead.”
Amazing.
Is that bonfire omnipotent or something?
“Bidding started at 10 million Ether. The price will probably settle into a rough range after about half a day.”
Felix asked.
“Mr. Hammer, is it true that when the auction house payment comes in, you’ll give Yor your share?”
“That’s right. We ran into another party and made it back alive this time, but there’s no guarantee next time.”
Mr. Hammer explained why I needed to pull my own weight.
Felix and Hermit both seemed convinced in their own ways and held their tongues.
“It’s out—the payment. 12 million Ether.”
*Whoosh.*
Ether coins spewed from the bonfire.
At that dazzling golden spectacle, I felt the urge to strip naked and dive right into those gold coins.
# # #
「Will you raise your level?」
「4 → 5」
「Ether Consumed – 80,000」
「Will you raise your level?」
「5 → 6」
「Ether Consumed – 160,000」
「Will you raise your level?」
「6 → 7」
「Ether Consumed – 320,000」
「Will you raise your level?」
「7 → 8」
「Ether Consumed – 640,000」
From the book sold at the auction house, we split 2.4 million Ether each.
Of that, Mr. Hammer gave me all 1.2 million Ether, excluding taxes.
With that, I raised my level and hit exactly level 8.
Getting from 8 to 9 takes 1.28 million Ether.
I was seriously debating whether to raise it with my own money when Mr. Hammer shook his head.
“Let’s stop leveling up for now. At this point, it’s more efficient to get new equipment than to raise levels. Still, level 8 isn’t bad.”
He’d said the average level of veteran Blesseds was around 13.
In this world where the Ether required to level up doubles every time, if you calculate it—
“Does it take 40 million Ether per person to reach level 13?”
Wow, that’s like the price of a car.
In the game *Knight Diver*, investing that much would put you in the upper ranks, but here it’s only average.
I suddenly wondered how much Ether Felix, who was level 15, had invested.
While I was counting like that, Felix spoke up first.
“It’s 160 million. The Ether I consumed to reach level 15. I bet you were calculating that? Thieves think alike.”
160 million, damn it!
Isn’t that practically the price of a decent house?
Felix was a walking house deed!
Suddenly he looked so appetizing.
Anyway, I felt good about leveling up.
My body felt a bit lighter too.
“Then let’s all go wash up!”
At Mr. Hammer’s words, everyone scattered in a rush.
I threw my entire share of the Ether coin bundle into the bonfire.
It seemed doing this let you store Ether like depositing money in a bank account.
「Yor: 2,379,320 Ether」
This actually works!
Simple and convenient.
It brought back memories of when I used to sell game money and fatten up my bank account balance.
The difference is, it’s not a game character but me who has to run around personally.
My level 8.
Just in case, I went to the training grounds.
And I lightly ran a few laps—
“My body is really light! I’m not even out of breath!”
I felt very strange.
To think there was a world like this.
“Graaagh!”
But the barbell I confidently reached for didn’t budge.
It seemed strength didn’t increase just from leveling up.
“In the game too, luck and agility were more important than strength for thieves.”
It was slightly disappointing, but aptitudes vary from person to person, so I could accept it.
After sweating like that, I entered the bathhouse to find Felix washing up first.
Felix’s body was covered in tattoos, and full of scars too—he looked completely fierce.
Like a yakuza’s irezumi.
“Felix, what did you do to your body? What kind of pictures did you draw all over it?”
“At my level, the expected value of power gained from leveling up is lower than the expected value of blessings gained from finding new gods.”
Aha, like the key tattoo on the back of my left hand.
Felix and I washed up silently without further conversation and returned to the bonfire room.
Mr. Hammer, who had finished cleaning his armor in the meantime, welcomed me.
“You’re back, Yor! Today is a festival! Thanks to you bringing back Hermit’s hat, we’ve filled our quota, so starting with tomorrow’s sortie we don’t even need to pay taxes!”
Wat? So they don’t take taxes every time?
My mood greatly improved at the news that we didn’t have to pay taxes if we filled the quota.
*Clink.*
So with the beer and meat Mr. Hammer bought, we partied all night long.
As the alcohol was flowing, Mr. Hammer asked me.
“Since you’re one of the family now, let’s talk frankly. How did you end up with fourteen convictions at twenty years old?”
“Ah, that. Most of them were unjust red lines. Originally, it would’ve been about three convictions.”
“What, are you saying you were falsely accused…!?”
Mr. Hammer’s loud voice.
Soon Hermit and Felix, who had been resting near the bonfire, raised their heads.
It was embarrassing to talk in front of people.
I grew up in an orphanage.
I briefly explained the story from escaping there to becoming a fourteen-conviction criminal.
The story I put the most effort into explaining was the ‘jewel theft’ when I was seventeen.
Because this was the most unjust story.
“If I’d just put the stolen jewels in my bag and run away properly, it would’ve been fine. But I was hungry and out of strength, so I got caught by the guards. About ten of those red lines were from getting unjustly caught like that.”
If my legs had been a little faster, it would’ve been three convictions.
About eleven times were mostly because I was slow, or too hungry to muster the strength to run away.
It was truly unjust and regrettable.
To my heart-wrenching story, Mr. Hammer offered comfort.
“…Yor, your concept of ‘unjust’ is quite different from ours.”
Then Felix asked calmly and quietly.
“You said you were caught by knights while planning to kidnap a noble lady. Was there trash among your crew back then who had bells on their ankles?”
“Bells?”
Why would back-alley thugs put bells on their ankles?
Something like that would only make noise.
When I looked puzzled, Mr. Hammer tapped my side.
“Felix has his own deep history.”
With that, the party atmosphere fizzled out.
I’d drunk a lot of beer and needed to pee.
Hermit followed closely behind me as I headed to the bathroom.
“What?”
“For bringing back my hat. Thank you.”
“Ah, that. I almost died.”
I hadn’t really done it for Hermit.
Our money was stuffed inside that hat.
“The god. You made another deal, right?”
Hermit’s voice was a bit gentler than when we first met.
“I couldn’t tell you before. It’s not good to recklessly increase the number of gods you deal with. They don’t harbor only goodwill toward humans.”
“Really?”
I suddenly thought of Felix.
“Felix’s body was covered in tattoos.”
“Right. For him, that’s more efficient than raising levels with Ether now. But it’s still foolish. If you can’t handle transactions with gods, the end doesn’t stop at mere misery.”
Hermit disparaged Felix.
Was he sulking because he got slapped when he lost his hat?
“So, rookie—which god did you deal with this time?”
“Sabranik.”
“First time hearing that name.”
“Actually, the name was incredibly long.”
I explained the circumstances.
Then Hermit couldn’t hide his excitement beneath his conical hat.
“Could it be the ‘Wyrm That Devours Skeletons’? That’s not a god you can easily encounter! If it’s real, this is an incredible big shot! As far as I know, it was the god that Narakje dealt with?”
“Narakje, that smelly bug?”
“…That’s a stink bug. Narakje is one of the False Emperors ruling the Land of Night. As the founder of the Thieves’ Guild, he should be more famous among thieves, shouldn’t he? He was a level 20 thief himself.”
Don’t know him, first time hearing it.
More importantly, level 20…!?
Just how much does that cost?
While I was struggling with the number game, Hermit briefly wrapped things up.
“The point is, if you maintain a long-term transaction with Sabranik, even a common thief has a high probability of receiving blessings great enough to claim imperial authority. It’s not a god that appears to just anyone!”
“Oooh!”
“From now on, can you tell me what it demands as payment, what the Wyrm’s preferences are? It’s not easy to encounter a big-shot god.”
Hermit seemed to like gods.
Was he a god otaku?
“More importantly, Hermit, I think I’m about to piss my pants—can we talk later?”
“Y-yeah!”
Whew, it’s urgent.
I ran to the bathroom and opened the door.
*Click click.*
“What, is someone in there?”
—…….
“I’m really in a hurry? Can you open the door?”
Then an unidentified voice spoke.
—You’re Yor, the rookie thief who recently joined Hammer’s party?
“Yes?”
—We’re the Thieves’ Guild. We’ve come to recommend you join. It’s nothing bad, so won’t you hear us out?
“…Shit, what the hell is this now! Open the door! I said I’m really in a hurry!”
In the end, I had to take a long detour and use a different bathroom.
Once my body was comfortable, extreme rage flooded in.
Those Thieves’ Guild bastards who tried to trample my dignity.
I cannot live under the same sky as those guys.
I swear!
On my honor!