Drip-Fed – A Rivalry 13 – Payment is Due (Patreon)

“It ain’t normal,” Alabasta said.

“Certainly not.” Atlas was gently spreading oil over the length of his blade. The fluid sparkled in the early sunlight. Tiny bits of alchemically loosened true silver particles within the liquid were attracted to the gaps in the enchanted item’s physical shape. Every magical item had a soul, of sorts, and that soul allowed for the intended shape to be reclaimed or retained via procedures like this.

Any tiny scratches or chinks in the weapon were gradually filled up, until only oil was left behind. Tarnishing was not a problem when a weapon was made from true silver and enchanted gold, but magical oils had other benefits. This specific oil could be ignited in a pinch. The alchemical compounds would burn for a while.

Atlas turned the blade around and continued with the other side. Next to him, Rahesia was enacting a similar procedure for the shield. She had always been more talented when it came to maintenance, therefore the more heavily damaged armament was under her care. Her helping him in this preceded their romantic entanglement. Back then it had been before the shield was the barrier between their enemies and her. Now it was the barrier between enemies and the two of them.

She was very careful to do it right.

“Do you bring it up to complain or because you want us to do something?” Atlas asked, glancing at the high elf Ranger.

For her part, the white-haired woman was staring at where the corpse had been last night. Morbid curiosity had driven them to each spy out of their tents as soon as the rising sun had given them enough visibility. They had caught the tail-end of the bones dissolving. The Monk that they had interacted with had been a human torso attached to a massive blob of blue acid.

It was an inhuman sight.

That acknowledged, Atlas did not think the man himself was inhuman - quite the contrary. “He told us about what he was,” the party leader stated.

“Yeah… I honestly don’t know why I brought it up,” Alabasta scratched the back of her head. “The Omniverse sure is big, huh?”

“Aye,” Kumlin agreed.

“I, uhm, wonder if we should have told him to keep the bones intact?” Flora asked.

“Little late for that now,” Atlas laughed. “But yeah, actually, Gargant bones would sell for a pretty penny… totally slipped my mind last night.”

“We are going to make a nice profit from this mission regardless.” Rahesia tilted the shield so the light reflected off its gleaming surface. A creepy cackle rose from her throat. “A fresh shipment of Darktide Ink is well within my grasp!”

“Careful, guys, the Witch wants to write more curses,” Atlas joked. “Hide your blood.”

“I only needed it that one time!”

They laughed together and continued through their morning routine. Not long after that, the previously invisible frame of the Mobile Estate opened up. The door parted and out jumped the redhead of the Inevitable party. “Change Mansion!”

Atlas had to keep himself from ogling. Progenitor knew that he was a faithful man, but when an athletic redhead in leather armour appeared, any man would have had trouble keeping their eyes on her face. Especially since that leather armour was damaged in various places, adding to that rugged sexiness. The Snakeskin top was fraying at the seams. The tight, stretchy pants had various gaps, out of which brown flesh softly spilled.

He did manage to keep his eyes on her face though. Rahesia raised her voice in the meantime. “Any reason you shout that?” she wanted to know.

“I keep saying it’s not cool enough, agree?”

Kumlin stroked his freshly combed beard. He was still in the process of weaving the pearls back into it. “I can see that it may require some additional… how do they say… razzle-dazzle?”

Snorting, Atlas put his sword into its sheath. “Call it the Apex Den.”

“That’s… not terrible actually.”

Rahesia reached up and scratched the back of her man’s head. “Contrary to our party name, he is not actually bad at naming things.”

“Ya hear that, bubble butt?” Reysha asked and turned to the open door. “Apex Den it is!”

“Your opinion is noted, but not taken as the last word on the matter,” the Priest said, emerging from the Mobile Estate a moment later. “I would prefer it to have some names that do not make it appear as if we advertise a sense of grandeur.”

“Don’t ya know that the two things that sell are sex and sticky names?” Reysha asked.

Atlas followed the back and forth of the Priest and the Rogue with the usual amusement. Those two Classes had a tendency not to get along, for obvious reasons. Polar opposite moral types were attracted to the differing power sets. ‘That in mind, those two are getting along really well… especially considering what their party is,’ Atlas thought.

A mild flash of envy accompanied it when the leader of the Inevitable party stepped out, shortstack in arm. A man with three women could certainly be envied for the benefits of such an arrangement. Atlas knew better than to want that life for himself though. His experience with the fairer sex was chaotic and he was happy to have the one he had in his life. Alabasta and Flora were just friends and he wanted to keep it that way.

“Do you have the heads?” Atlas asked.

Apexus patted the bag on his hips. It had been a pain to cram them past the opening, but he had managed. “Could they not be faked?” he wondered. He had a tendency to ask questions out of the blue.

“They’ll check the circumference of the skulls. Gargants have bigger heads, it’s in the name,” Atlas said, jokingly. “Now, this is the part where we attack you and take all the money for ourselves!”

Aclysia glared at him from the corner of her eyes and the Warrior had the decency to awkwardly clear his throat. At least Reysha giggled. Korith gave it an uncertain smirk. Apexus’ face was an unmoving mask.

All of them were in poor equipment.  Nothing Apexus wore, besides the bag and the key, was even magical. The grey robe and baggy pants were both stained with months worth of mud and other dirt. Aclysia’s robe was silk and she kept it decently clean, but even she could not do anything against the places where the occasional monster attack had torn into the blessed garment. Korith got away the best, but Atlas knew when an armour was kept together by shoestring and desperation.

‘Tough crowd,’ he thought. “Alright, if we have everything then… I guess we might as well go?”

__________________________________________________________________________

The journey back was eventless. They made it back into Drowse territory in their adventuring gear, then changed to more casual travelling clothes when the landscape went from ‘untamed’ to ‘occasionally dangerous’. Once they reached the source of the river, they did as the Quest giver had suggested and boarded a ship. They did not need it to get home, but it was still faster.

“You should take the lead,” Atlas suggested, once they were by the Adventurer’s Guild.

It was noon. Contradictory to most expectations, that was the least busy hour of the day for the building. Adventurers typically ate hearty breakfasts and dinners. Every hour in-between was usually filled with snacks. A habit picked up from the constant marching those in the trade did.

“Why?” Apexus wanted to know.

“Build yourself a reputation. You haven’t been properly registered on this Leaf yet, right?” Atlas asked with a grin. “You’ll need the iron if you want to buy the good stuff.”

Apexus could only nod to that logic. It felt somewhat wrong to be the one to step forwards when it was Atlas that had suggested the alliance, but, for the sake of the party, the humanoid chimera had to accept that. He, Atlas, and Aclysia went inside.

Remembering something, Atlas quickly grabbed Apexus by the sleeve and had him bow down to hear his whisper. “She’ll be asking if the guild can buy the heads afterwards,” he told the Monk. “Usually you should say no, I know a guy that pays more for the bones, but to get some good credit, say yes.”

Apexus nodded again, then they actually went for the desk. “I wish to collect the bounty for the Chimera Gargant,” he told the receptionist.

“The one in the border zone?” she asked for clarification and was pleasantly surprised by his nod. “That one has been trouble. One moment…” she flipped through a stack of cards until she found the correct one. “Come with me for the verification process please.”

The three of them followed the woman to a backroom. It was scarce when it came to decorations and every surface had deliberately been covered in the kind of alchemical lacquer that could withstand heavy scrubbing. The door closed perfectly, to assure no maggot was capable of crawling out. Showing proof was often unhygienic business.

“If you would please present the heads,” the receptionist requested and gestured at a nearby table. There were four of them, all of them currently empty. During busier hours, more than one verification may have been ongoing.

Apexus pulled the heads from his adventurer’s bag one after another. He placed them down and the receptionist grabbed a few ropes that hung from the wall. Each of them was marked for the average chimera head’s circumference. She whistled when the rope barely managed to do a loop. “It was a really big one,” Atlas chimed in.

“I can see that,” the receptionist said, held the rope by the overlap point, and then carried it over to a ruler for proper measuring. She entered the numbers into a table for research. The Adventurer’s Guild got its legitimacy from helping the brave survive their foolishness. Any blackboard could have served to let Quest givers meet with those fulfilling them. Analysis and the creation of guides was the most important task of the guild. “Would you like the Guild to take care of these for you? We will pay you, of course.”

“Yes,” Apexus answered.

“Alright, then given the weight that should be an extra… 25 gold.” She said.

Atlas bit the inside of his tongue. To the right bidder, skulls like this (especially the teeth) were worth up to thrice as much. For all the good the Guild did, they were still quite greedy.

Apexus and Aclysia, on the other hand, were elated. An additional 25 gold sounded like a lot to them, even after it had been parted between the parties.

“I have good-ish news for you as well,”  the receptionist said. “Two days ago we got confirmation that the Gargant had killed another adventurer and the bounty was raised because of that.” She gestured for them to follow her back to the receptionist desk. Once there, the trio waited in front of the desk while she scanned over the card that she had pulled out initially. Her mouth moved while she mentally added up the various numbers on it, each an increase of the bounty as time and urgency rose.

Bounties were not entirely a Guild thing. Any monster could have a bounty on it and any members of the community could add to the bounty pool. Such money was collected upfront and added to the Guild coffers. The Guild made a profit from that particular endeavour whenever someone had failed to provide proof of their kill or plainly did not know they had slain a monster with a bounty on it. Neither case was frequent, but the profit margin was so immense that it did not matter. The Guild had to do literally nothing but keep up the bounty ledger.

“That will be 500 gold coins.”

“How much?!” Aclysia wheezed.

The receptionist chuckled, it had been a while since she heard that level of bafflement from a new adventurer. “The Gargant bothered a few influential people in the area, so you struck platin,” she said. “Speaking of, would you like it to be paid out as such?”

Apexus and Aclysia were baffled for too long to answer. “Give us the 500 in platin and the 25 in gold, please,” Atlas weighed in. “We have to calculate the split and all of that.”

“Of course… oh, and before I forget, to what party can I credit the kill?”

Apexus found his voice again, “Inevitable and Atlas.”

“Inevitable… you are new?” Another nod. “Quite the first accomplishment… you aren’t unduly promoting them, are you, Atlas?” The question was entirely jovial. Atlas waved off. The receptionist chuckled and wrote down the accomplishment. “Also says here that you are on a Quest to find a shipwreck?”

“We have completed it but have elected to come here first,” Aclysia explained the situation. “We wish to split the reward for the kill with the Atlas party before we collect on our own Quest.”

“I see, I see… all coppers, mhm?” The receptionist scratched the side of her head.  “I guess you want the iron as fast as possible to actually use that money… Oh, I see your last levels now… You attended the Teacher’s Isle on Tacuitos?” That was her best guess on how someone of their strength without a long register of accomplishments could appear on this Leaf.

She was technically correct, so Apexus and Aclysia nodded in unison.

“Alright… well, I can’t give you the iron outright, there’s procedures for that, but I can arrange the next best thing.” She scribbled a note down on a paper and left it somewhere the next person on shift could see it. “Come back after you got confirmation for the Quest, please. You’ll be given bronze cards and a writ that tells the guards at the upper market that you are exempt.” She made a casual gesture. “This sort of thing happens frequently enough.”

“Deeply appreciated,” Apexus said.

The receptionist handed out the money, then went back to the register to also update the page of the Atlas party. She had to write on the back of their third page to find room for the newest accomplishment.

“You any good at counting?” Atlas asked.

“No. Aclysia is.”

“At equal shares each member of our parties will receive a cut of 58 gold, 33 silver and 33 copper. Split by party, this combines to 233 gold, 33 silver, and 33 copper to us and 291 gold, 66 silver, and 67 copper to you,” Aclysia rattled out the math before they had even sat down.

“…Okay, wow, did not expect that.”

“She’s an analytic genius,” Apexus boasted, feeling second-hand pride at the accomplishments of his beloved. Aclysia blushed slightly, then sat down in her darling’s lap.

Coins were poured down on the table. It was that sound that had Korith break waiting outside and zoom into the tavern. The kobold zapped over to the table, holding onto the edge of it as she watched the pile of silvery-white coins get sorted into stacks of five. “How much money is that?!” she squeaked. “We are rich!”

Atlas chuckled. “You get one good haul and you think you’re rich, that’s adorable,” he teased.

“Yo, what the fuck?” Reysha had followed Korith and now realized that she was looking at platin coins, not regular silver. “I haven’t seen that much money since my father agreed to… you know what, never mind, I was told to never talk about it.” She would tell the party in private another time.

“Alright, I think that’s the split?” Atlas asked, once the platin and gold had been parted into two piles. One had 22 platin coins and 14 gold coins, the other 28 platin coins and 11 gold coins. Because they had neither copper nor silver, an exact split was impossible. Would have been, if they hadn’t had other money in their pockets.

“If we are rounding, then we are one gold coin,” Aclysia pointed out.

“Yes, ya socially inept angel,” Reysha weighed in. “That’s the point.”

“I- Oh,” Aclysia realized and bowed her head. “Your graciousness is appreciated.”

“My repayment for the bad jokes,” Atlas said and scooped his share of the money into his purse. It was heavy before and would have doubtlessly torn had the coins been any heavier. “There’s a bank – Wow there!” The Warrior raised his hands in surprise at the sudden and aggressive, almost cat-like hiss of the blonde kobold. “Your money would be safer there, is all I am saying.”

“Banks are evil, all money should go to Hoard,” Korith declared.

“…Well, you can settle that amongst yourselves,” Atlas decided and got up with a laugh. “Pleasure working with you. If you want to have a victory toast tonight, you’ll find us here.”

Apexus was still looking at the money. “We will consider. Thank you for the guidance.”

Atlas walked away with a casual wave.

Reysha began to giggle. “Holy shit, we actually have money?!”

“…there is no such thing as blessed excrement…” Aclysia mumbled, her protest weakened by being similarly stupefied.

Apexus gave Korith’s creeping wrist a reprimanding smack. “You promiiiiiiised,” the kobold whined. “Just 80% of it? For Hoard?”

“First, we need to cover our needs. If we have excess, that can go to Hoard,” the humanoid chimera said. Aclysia gathered up the money, then they set out.

There was still more money to come their way, somehow.