"Hey Rohan, why are you suddenly calling me for?" The one who answered on the phone was Matt, who was clearly suprised.
"Sorry to call you suddenly, but a quick change of plans has happened and I want you to postpone the mission for now and get ready to hunt." Rohan said seriously.
"Look, I don't know what kind of change could cause me to put a temporary stop on my mission, so you better have a good excuse at least, otherwise-"
"That crab has appeared." Rohan interupted Matt from his quick monologue.
"... Are you serious?" Matt asked in disbelief.
"The 150 gold coin crab." Rohan said again seriously.
"Holy crap. I can't believe it. And where is that damned shellfish? If it's far from here, then don't-"
"It's in the coral forest, east of Crystalia City."
"Just west... of here?" Matt asked nervously.
"Yup." Rohan answered seriously.
Suddenly, rumbling noises could be heard from Matt's side and Rohan asked with a worried expession:
"Matt, are you okay? What was that noise?"
"That was the sound of a man, hungry for some good moola." Matt said confidently.
"Honeslty Matt, whenever money is involed, you are the first to appear." Rohan said while holding his head.
...
While the brothers were having their little conversation, the leviathan duo, Soren and Lavenza left the woman in blue after one crazy encounter with her and made their way towards the little food stall, "The Hungry Clam". The moment the duo made it there, they saw the stall was a bit emptier that usual than yesterday when he came with Rohan and Soren decided to ask:
" Hey Mr.Chef, how come today there aren't as many people as yesterday?"
The moment Shaun heard the young man's voice, he saw it was Soren and Lavenza sitting on one of the chairs and answered:
"Hey to you kid, as well. Today's not a great day for business, that's for sure. And as for the "Mr.Chef" name, don't call me that, it makes me look like a man with no life in him."
"Then what should I call you sir?" Soren asked curiously.
"Just Shaun will do kid." Shaun answered happily.
"So, what will it be kid?"
"Hmmm... we'll have a small bowl of clam ramen and a meduim bowl of that as well." Soren answered back.
"Coming right up kid."
"The name's Soren, Mr.Shaun." Soren said while feeling a bit annoyed.
"Yeah, Soren, whatever you say kid." Shaun said without paid attention to him and started making the food.
As Soren and Lavenza were waiting for the food, Soren did decided to check for the saving that Rohan gave him, since he did see that he had a small bag with coins. Inside the coin bag, there was also a small note that said:
"Basics of coin currency:
1 Copper Coin = 100 Kus
1 Big Copper Coin = 10 Copper Coins
1 Iron Coin = 10 Big Copper Coins
Copper < Iron < Silver < Gold < Platinum/Whitegold
P.S: Thought you might need this in case you still don't know basic arithmetic. Rohan.
P.P.S: This will not count towards your final assessment. Just use it for food or whatever you want, don't spend it all in one go though."
Seeing this, Soren gave a slight sigh of relief since he didn't much about the currency of the world. Although he had some cash that was given from Rohan, he didn't fully know the prices, but did know that a medium bowl was around 5 copper coins or 500 kus, since he had seen Rohan pay for that. While Soren was thinking about the currency, there was a loud thud in front of him, which suprised him and saw a small bowl and a slightly bigger bowl of clam ramen, similar to Rohan's, in front of them.
"Eat up kid. 1 Small and 1 medium classic clam ramen. That will be 800 kus in total."
Then Soren took out a big copper coin and gave it to Shaun, and then he got back 2 copeer coins. After taking care of that little transaction, the duo started eating their bowls with Soren, the medium bowl and Lavenza, the small bowl.
As duo was eating happily their dinner, a woman in blue was watching them from afar from a nearby corner. That woman in blue was also their stalker from before who didn't admit stalking them and put that elaborate show.
Whule Soren was eating, he felt like there was a weird sensation on his shoulder, but he didn't see anything on it to cause it, so he thought to look around if it was sometlelse that just passed by and he saw again that woman in blue.
"Urghhh..." Soren's mood soured by remembering that mess from before. He learned the hard way that asking directly for the reason wouldn't lead to nothing else, except a massive headache. So he thought to change the way to approach her by trying a friendlier manner, instead of getting into the thick of it.
When Soren came up with a plan to get the some info out of the woman, that wasn't litteral horsecrap, he said to Lavenza:
"Lavenza, wait here for a bit and don't move from your seat. I'll be right back."
"Kyuu- *slurp*" Lavenza nodded, while eating her bowl of ramen.
"Hey Mr.Shaun, can you keep an eye on Lavenza for a bit? I need to take care of something quickly." Soren asked.
"Alright Soren, just don't take long, I have more orders to take care of."
"Thank you." After Soren said that, he left towards one of the streets that was near the stalker and decided to try and catch her off-guard.
The woman did notice that Soren left and decided to be a bit on guard, but she still kept looking at the stall. In reality, she seemed more focused on Lavenza rather than anything else on the stall. Of course, she did make sure to stay vigilant so that Soren wouldn't try to catch her off-guard.
Soren himself, on the other hand though, was swimming a few feet higher than her and it seemed like she hadn't noticed him. At that moment, Soren decided to swim as quietly was possible and was standing a couple of feet behind her. The woman wasn't aware of the fact that Soren was behind her and in that moment, Soren then cleaned his throat with a noise that startled the woman and said:
*ahem* "Lucky coincidence, isn't it miss?"
The woman wondered how she was caught off-guard again after making sure to stay vigilant yet, the same exact situation happened. At least she knew she could handle whatever accusations Soren would try to throw at her, but his next words left her with her mouth open.
"Look, if you want to look to for your friend, you could at least ask for help, or if you feel like you aren't making progress, it's better to take a quick break to clean your head for a bit."
"It's alright. I don't feel tired at all." The woman tried send away Soren and quickly, but her paln failed this time.
"Tired or not, there is a difference between having a clean mind and a mudlled mind, so it's important that if you ever feel like you are in a jam, you cam always sit and retrace your steps again from the begining." Soren saw through her plan and made sure to have her agree to take a rest, lest he wanted another stalking session.
"Fine... Fine... I'll take a break for now." The woman reluctantly agreed.
"Alright, then follow me since I know a good place to rest." Soren said with a happy expression on his face, since he got the stalker to join him and maybe getting something out of her.
The duo, of course, went to the stall where Lavenza was waiting alone.
"Hey Lavenza, sorry if I was away for a while, it took a bit longer than I thought. I also brought an acquaintanct of mine."
When Lavenza saw the woman, she felt like time had stopped for her for that instant. In the next one, the two of them sat down and Soren said:
"So what would you like to order?"
The woman was slightly confused by the entire situation, but she decided to go along with it, since this gave her the perfect opportunity to interact with the one who she's been stalking the entire day. So she said:
"I'll have a medium bowl, make it extra spicy." The woman said confidently.
"Woooo, a new challenger approching tonight. I'll give one that makes you say 'Ooh-La-La I'm on fire!'." Shaun said excitedly.
After a bit of time, a bowl of clam ramen that had a slightly more red color than the othee bowls he had seen, came in front of the woman.
"So you like your ramen spicy?" Soren asked curiously.
"Huh?!" The woman was suprised since she was waiting for the meal and wasn't paying much attention. Then Soren said:
"Don't tell me you don't know how to start a conversation? It's as simple as picking up a thing from the ground. Just pick a topic and in this case, a bowl of ramen is perfect for breaking the ice with."
"I know how to start a conversation." The woman said indifferently before she took a bit of her spicy ramen. At that moment, the spices started to burn violently in her mouth and she felt like she wanted to spit it out since she didn't expect it to be this spicy and started coughing a bit as well.
*cough* "Holy- That was hotter-" *cough* "Than usual-" *cough* "Oh go-" *cough*
At that moment, Soren was barely holding his laughter and Lavenza just started rolling and laughing uncontrolably.