BXBX NOVEL Chapter 8 - Risk & Reward
Inside the inn, Lisa was still watching Del. Del figured that Lisa was still suspicious of Del. He couldn\'t tell Lisa that he just shot something called a gun. Lisa\'s mouth could leak to someone who wanted to steal the gun from Del. It would be bad news if Del got an assassin coming after him just because of a single gun.
"Lisa, why are you watching me?" Del asked.
"I feel something suspicious coming from you, I should tell my mother," Lisa said.
"What are you going to tell your mother? I don\'t have anything suspicious," Del said.
"How about the metal tool on your hip?" Lisa pointed at his gun.
Del immediately went into denial, "This? I always carry this, don\'t you think?"
Lisa refused to believe that, "No, you never carry anything like that on your thigh before. I should tell mom that you start doing a suspicious activity."
Del stared at her, "Listen here you little brat, you better not tell your mom anything. Understand?"
Lisa feared Del and she just nodded and went back to the receptionist\'s desk. Del\'s tall stature always came into advantage at that kind of situation that required him to scare Lisa into submission. However, he must make sure that Lisa didn\'t cry or otherwise, her mother would interrogate him.
Del had been interrogated by her mother before and he absolutely didn\'t want it to happen again. The last time Del did that, her mother kicked him out for a day and he must sleep outside. He was allowed to return when he begged for forgiveness from Lisa.
It was humiliating, but what was dignity if he couldn\'t even find a proper place to sleep but the streets. It was better to let Lisa did whatever she wanted to do than being kicked out of the inn just because Lisa was crying. It was truly mother instinct at its finest.
The sky had turned orange outside. Most of the adventurers had gone back to the inn for dinner. Del wasn\'t hungry though. He didn\'t want to pay sixty copper coins just for the dinner when he had an abundant amount of crackers inside of his room.
When he counted the number of crackers inside of the room, he found out that the crackers were enough to feed him for four days straight. One medium package of crackers contained more than enough to feed him for two days.
He went inside his room again and locked the door. He sat down on the bed and called Pidma.
"Hey, Pidma, are you there?" Del asked.
[What can I do for you?]
"Can you show me any available rifle for me?" Del asked.
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[Showing Available Bolt-Action Rifle]
[Mosin Nagant] [100$]
[Carcano Rifle] [195$]
[M1917 Enfield] [250$]
[Kar98] [200$]
[Showing Available Battle Rifle]
[M1 Garand] [400$]
[Gewehr 43] [500$]
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"Damn, all of these things are expensive as hell. There\'s no way I can get this amount of money just by breaking my backs and doing odd jobs," Del commented.
[To make money, you need to spend money. You need to take a more dangerous quest so you can upgrade your arsenal, Del. After that, you can spend your money on a rifle, or maybe SMG. With the new weapon, you can take a much more dangerous quest and gains some funds]
"I see. What\'s the cheapest food that you have in the inventory?" Del asked.
▬▬▬
[Showing Low Tier Food]
[Large Package of Crackers] [4$]
[Medium Package of Crackers] [2$]
[Small Package of Crackers] [1$]
[Tiny Package of Crackers] [0.50$]
▬▬▬
"It\'s good to know when the emergency food supply is available for me, hahaha," Del laughed.
[Good to hear that. Anyway, you better get some sleep.]
"I see. Well, I\'m stuffed from the lunch anyway. Pidma, good night," Del said.
***
The next morning, Del came to the guild office to try something different. This time, he wouldn\'t do any delivery or gathering job. He would take a much more dangerous job so he could get enough money to live a better life. He was confident that the pistol could take down any low-level monster with ease.
"Del, what can I do for you today?" The guild receptionist asked.
"Do you have any quest that will give me around fifty silver coins?" Del asked.
The guild receptionist looked at him in doubt at first, then he said, "Well, Del, I think you need to consider that a quest with a reward greater than ten silver coins usually fell in the E-rank or higher quest difficulty. Now, 50 silver coins are on the border between an E-rank quest and a D-rank quest. Are you sure you want to take a quest like that? You can die," the guild receptionist said.
"I think I am more than well-aware of the risk of earning that many coins. However, I am also in dire need of money so I have to make a compromise," Del said.
"Very well then, I have two kinds of quests for you. Both are equally dangerous, do you have the bravery to take it?" The guild receptionist asked.
"What are those two quests?" Del asked.
"One is an order of assassination, the other is an order of subjugation," the guild receptionist said.
"What do I need to subjugate?" Del asked.
"Alright, the first one is an order to subjugate a group of six goblins. They might be less dangerous than two bandits, but they are dangerous. The other one is an order to assassinate a bandit. His name is Alberto, he lived in a shack next to Begard," the receptionist said.
"I\'ll take the assassination request then. It should only be one person, after all, less of a hassle than six goblins," Del said.
"You sound like underestimating the person. Del, you might make a compromise to earn more, but please, value your life more," the receptionist said.
"Heck no, if I said I needed money, I really need money," Del said.
"Fine, here\'s the quest description. Read it very carefully, you might find a weakness of the enemy inside of that description. Many young adventurers die because they don\'t even bother to read the quest description," the receptionist said.
"Fine… just give me the quest," Del said.
"Here you go," the receptionist gave Del a piece of paper.
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[Hunt for Alberto Derrand] [Difficulty: High-End E]
Alberto Derrand is a solo bandit that operates between Midham and Begard. The person will always target a solo adventurer that is unaware of his existence. Alberto has the ability to smell a weak adventurer to rob from a mile away so it\'s better not to scare him.
He always stays in the shack in the grassland north of the dangerous forest, south of the road between Midham and Begard. The shack is known to be guarded by dogs. There\'s a high chance that you will catch him unguarded if you ambush it at his own home. Beware of the dogs!
Appearance: Tall stature. An earring on the left ear. A scar on his forehead.
Threat Details: Probably armed with a very heavy sword capable of piercing low-end leather armor. Target is armored with leather armor. Target\'s level is known to be 10. From the previous encounter, the target dislikes loud sounds from thunder.
Reward: 60 Silver Coins, 200 Copper Coins
▬▬▬
"Have you read it very carefully?" The receptionist asked while watching Del. He really glared at him. The look in his eyes clearly told that Del shouldn\'t take that quest.
"Calm down, don\'t look at me like that," Del said.
"I\'m worried about you, Del. You shouldn\'t take the quest," the receptionist said.
"Relax, I\'m not that incapable," Del said.
The receptionist finally gave up and sighed, "Fine, wait a minute, I have something for you."
The receptionist headed for the back room. He walked in and walked out with a small bottle that might fit perfectly inside of Del\'s pocket. A black liquid filled the bottle to the top. Del wondered what kind of thing it was.
"Wow, what is that? Is that a healing potion?" Del asked.
"Healing potion? You must be nuts. That kind of thing costs a lot of money. It\'s much more convenient to use a healing spell anyway. This is a painkiller. If you die, you\'d be better off dying without any pain," the receptionist said.
"Wait, you want to kill me with this potion?" Del reacted.
He never looked at a black solution like that. However, even a basic person knows that black water meant poison.
"Kill you? Hell no, that would be a heavy crime. This potion will ease the pain that you have, but that doesn\'t mean that your wound will be healed. Even if you drink it now, it should be fine, but don\'t blame me if the potion wears off when you fight Alberto," the receptionist said.
"Alright, alright, I get it. Thanks for the potion anyway," Del said as he grabbed the potion and the quest paper from the table.
As Del walked closer to the door, the guild receptionist shouted, "Do you want a closed casket funeral or an open casket one?"
Del just laughed it off.. He headed back to the inn for the preparation.