Gerald slightly squinted his eyes when the man was carried past him.
"Is that a leg? A Minecrawler's leg?" He clearly saw flesh inside that hard piece that stuck out.
"It seems that there were many casualties already," he said, looking at the full beds in the tent. It was clear that the task wasn't that easy and the rewards were probably so high just to attract cannon fodder more than anything.
The weak and overconfident would go in first and take the brunt of the attack. Their sacrifice would then allow the strong and prudent to slowly take over the exhausted Minecrawler forces.
"Potions! Get your potions here! Healing Potions, just thirty silver! Health Potions for a measly price of a single gold coin! Scent-Removing Powder! Get yours here…" a loud merchant advertised his wares.
"What?! Yesterday it was twenty-seven silver for a Healing Potion! How can you jack up the price so much when people desperately need medicine?!" A passerby, clearly a young warrior, was outraged when he heard the price. And he was not alone.
Many people grumbled in displeasure but refrained from drawing too much attention to themselves.
"Eh? If you are too poor to buy my stuff just go away! Why make a fool out of yourself?" the merchant quickly countered with an annoyed face. He was already used to dealing with loud and rude customers.
"Poor?" The young man was almost spitting flames, "You are robbing people in broad daylight and you have the gall to call me poor? Jacking up the price like that, how can you sleep at night?"
The merchant, uninterested in a fight simply waved his hand, "If you aren't here to buy, just go! Shoo! I have other customers to attend to."
"You-!" Just as the guy tried to speak, a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.
"Out of the way, kid!"
Turning around the young man saw a person that towered over him, clad in dark steel armor with a spiked kite shield in his left hand. The eyes under the helmet were dark and gave out an aura of authority.
The young man gulped and subconsciously took a step back to move out of the way.
"Twenty Healing Potions and five Health Potions!" The steel-clad man spoke with a deep voice and threw a money pouch on the counter.
"Right away, sir!" The merchant quickly brought a box of vials and pushed them towards the man with a smile. He didn't check the money amount and neither did the man count the vials.
They simply exchanged the goods and stored the stuff away.
As for the reason that was so…
"Wow, even the Dark Knight is here! I can't believe I came so close to him!" a person spoke with excitement among the crowd.
Another one added, "Do you think the entire band of Dark Lions is also here or is it just him?"
Among the warriors, an experienced old fox chuckled roughly, "Hehe, the Dark Knight is known for his strength, but he is also extremely careful. He probably came here to scout out the situation and the rest will probably join him in a few days!"
Gerald listened to the crowd discussing the Dark Knight and quickly understood the situation.
The merchant checking the amount of money would be rude considering the reputation of his customer as if saying that a figure like that would try to steal from him.
At the same time, Dark Knight counting the vials would make him look like an untrusting penny pincher.
This was a simple transaction, built upon the reputation of both parties, which made it that more secure.
"Honor, integrity, and trust, huh?" Gerald made a slight smile, "You didn't see that often in my old world..."
But here it was the most important trait of a merchant. Not to mention that people often preferred to deal with problems in a physical way, and gaining a bad reputation was sometimes even worse than death.
You would be ostracized everywhere you went and people would avoid associating with you, much less trade.
Looking around the place, Gerald couldn't find the young man anywhere. He probably left after getting spooked by the Dark Knight.
Looking around the crude, quickly set-up market, Gerald noticed that most stuff was severely overpriced. Potions, weapons, bandages, alcohol, and clothes were up to double the price. The warriors came here to make a fortune, but it seemed like the merchants would be the ones to get the most out of it in the end.
There was plenty of food to eat, as Minecrawler's body parts were getting carried out from the underground every day, but eating the same thing all the time was not for most people.
That's why there was also a small restaurant, crudely built out of fresh wood.
A smell of roasted meat and spices lingered around the place, and many people gathered around. Although the beer and meat were significantly more expensive, many were willing to pay for good food and comfort.
Overall, the ground was muddy and slippery, with many latrines that stank like death. Gerald did his best to avoid them and continued through the camp.
Each person that wanted to venture underground had to register at the Fort, and that's also where you would get the payment after a successful hunt.
The line for registration was long, but the speed was fast. It was soon his turn.
As you would expect, the receptionist asked for his information, including physical strength. After hearing that Gerald was only at Iron-1 rank, the man spoke with a raised brow, "Are you sure you want this? Most Minecrawlers can tear through metal armor as if it were paper. If you are not strong enough to handle them, you should reconsider."
Gerald gave a simple answer, "I'll be fine."
The receptionist shrugged his shoulders, "That's your decision. Don't regret it later!" He handed Gerald a token and a scroll.
"Wear this token as it represents that you work for us now. As for the paper, if you manage to kill a Minecrawler, bring its head to the back of the Fort and you will get a mark on that document. Each mark represents a beast slain so don't lose it! At the end of the week, there will be a reward distribution event so you can cash in the document there."
Gerald nodded to indicate he understood the rules and left the room.
The rules were quite clever actually. If they would distribute gold only once a week, some people would possibly lose their life in the meantime, so the amount of gold they would have to give out would be less than the number of Minecrawlers killed.
It would also give people more incentive to hunt since they would have no money and a lot of free time on their hands.
Although people knew that, they still did it anyway.
"Cruel, but brilliant!" Gerald formed a slight smirk as he left the Fort. Now he just had to find a place for the night and he would go to work the following morning.
"Gerald? Is that you?"
"Hmm?" Gerald turned around after hearing someone call his name.
Surprisingly, he saw many familiar faces. The entire Iron Hawk gang was there, as well as the Silver Phantom group. There were also some other people, and although familiar, Gerald didn't know their names.
The one that spoke was Kerius, the leader of the Iron Hawks and also the man who traded him the Unmoving Boulder spellbook.
"Gerald! I never expected to meet you here!" Derrick, the leader of Silver Phantom came forward and lightly punched his shoulder in a friendly manner. "I thought you quit after the incident!"
"Well… I did sort of quit. I decided to turn my focus towards alchemy for now," Gerald replied.
Kerius then also came close and asked, "Then how come you are here?"
"Oh, you know…" Gerald casually waved his hand, "I heard about interesting things happening here and I wanted to see what all the excitement was about."
Then there, of course, came a question of him entering the underground, for which Gerald gave a vague answer, not confirming or denying it.