I took the the task info paper from the task board & after asking some locals, I found out the direction towards the task initiator's place.
It was a grand residence, the guy here traded in exotic animal skins, selling stuffed animals as home decors for the affluent class.
The man was a total businessman. He was not even bothered with pleasantries or even exchanging names.
I liked it... The more discreet it is; more better for me.
"I have completed the task of killing the saltwater crocodiles & have came here to collect the reward."
The man was in his early 40's. A chubby figure, with exquisite attire & jewels adorning him; the statement of wealth and power.
A lot of guards were in the room. The man was smart enough to know his value of life.
"Really? Then, show me the products."
"Ok."
I took out two croc's from my game storage. Again that "O" was made by plenty of faces that were in the room including the trader.
And before they could say anything, I told them about storing magic, kind of like a spatial storage.
They had to believe me as there was no other logical reason for this.
"Wow. it's beyond perfect. Not a single scratch. Almost life like!"
"One thing, I haven't mentioned is that these animal flesh are poisonous if consumed by living beings. As, my poison has taken their lives."
The man stared at my face with marvel. Then he continued,
"No problem. The only thing that matters is their skin. I'll pay you 5000 gold coins more above what is to paid, for your perfection!"
With a glimmer of satisfaction in his face, the trader declared.
He is going to make a ton more profit from these stuffs; than what he was paying me. I could stay happy with what I was getting, it more than superior grade pay in comparison to most of the men here in this kingdom.
"So many gold coins going to be troublesome to carry. Instead of that, can pay me in amethyst coins equivalent to those gold coins?"
He rubbed his chin and thought for a while, then with a sly grin on his face he replied...
"Smart, very smart indeed! I get it... Ok, I'll pay you in amethyst coins."
He was going to order one of his officials to bring the coins. But, before he could do that. I interrupted him by saying...
"I have more animals with me. If you give me good price, I can sell them to you."
He looked at me, like any man who would look at a beauty who's ready to spread her legs for him.
"Ok. Show me what you got."
He rubbed his hands with excitement.
Within a minute or less I dropped animal carcasses, one after another in an orderly format.
One word came out of that traders mouth,
"Bravo!"
I was paid in full!
100 gold coins per wild dog, 250 for hyenas, 325 per wolves, 455 for the dire wolves, 775 per wild bears & a 5000 gold coin for the leapord.
The leapord was more costly I guess, due to it's signature style.
It was 15405 gold coins in total. If I auctioned them, I could have earned more. But, it would take a longer time. Everything has it's pros & cons.
A total of 50 amethyst coins were earned. I was freakin richie rich at that moment.
***
Next day; had a meeting with the new amethyst dealer of the area. As I had asked Rehmat to inform the amethyst dealer about the meeting; he did what he was asked to.
Same price as before 1200 gold coins per amethyst coins.
Almost 61k gold coins were in my pouch.
I asked Rehmat about local landlords net worth.
He was again flabbergasted to my question, he replied in an unsure tone.
"It's basically not possible to know someone's exact net worth, like a landlord I would say."
"But, it can be assumed according to sources of informations & rummor if not completely wrong, our lordships net worth including his properties; in gold coins it would be around 750k."
"Net value is around 750k gold coins! Wow..."
Rehmat chuckled at my day dreams.
If I tried hard enough, I can overcome that target too.
I had tasted a bit of fortune; next was fame.
***
It was sunny day; early in the morning I stood infront of the battle arena gates.
The battle arena was divided in three sections from t1- t3. The structures were like mini cricket stadiums. An oval shaped ground, with sand & earth as base. Two doors on both ends from where the warriors would enter to face their opponents.
The gallery rose in an ascent upwards where the audience would sit, cheer, devour tasty snacks, curse the losing party for losing their bet & so on was the ambience of the place.
And a diase too, for the announcements & commentaries to keep the show lively.
Divisions of the arena were economical in nature too. T1 was for the low wage earners. The seond tier was for the middle class. And the next tier was for upper classes of the city.
Basically the higher you go, the grade & number of warriors increase. The accommodation for the audience is also far better.
Before entering the arena, I wen't inside the official betting room.
The legal one's with genuine transactions were facilitated here. But, this place too have some rules & regulations; which I came to learn that day.
The bookie was the owner of this whole arena. He was all in all, an old man with wrinkled skins puffing tobacco from hookah.
His attire was traditional, with several rings studded with precious jewels. Two men were sitting in another table, a few steps from him. They were doing all the paper works.
"I wan't to bet on a fighter."
The man looked at me and he asked me to sit.
I sat infront of him & then the discussion began. As, I was new here so I knew nothing about betting. In my previous world also, I had no experience in it.
I asked him a lot of questions & the man answered gently with a smile on his face. I thought he would get agitated to so many of my questions; though they were basic in nature.
Some informations that I gathered about the arena & it were :-
1) Soldiers in the field used from t1 - t4 armour, weapons. Some even came unarmed, unshielded to bash their opponents with their massive might.
2) From long range muskets, to close quarter daggers; all kind of weapons are accepted & used.
3) The t1 arena had 10 rounds of fighting. The one who survives at round ten would go forward to t2's battleground.
3) All the warriors has to deposit gold coins, t1 would have to deposit 100 gold coins for round one, 200 for round two, 300 for round three & so on.
4) The one who wins will get the defeated parties deposited gold coins.
5) There was no restriction on self betting as a warrior of the arena.
6) Before the fight, the warriors have to sign a contract of death. So that in future no one from that warriors side would come and create problem for the batlle arena enterprise.
"What is the betting ratio?"
"1:10."
The owner showed me the names, info's of the fighter's who are participating.
"I have a deal for you."
The man was now eager enough, concentrated his vision on me totally. By the look of it, he was all ears.
"You say the win & loss ratio is 1:10. If they win they get 10x of what they had betted on & all of loses if their candidate loses. Today, all of their candidates will lose, you can keep all the money & have to pay none of them back."
The owner scoffed and said,
"Don't kid with me kid! If you have no money, then stop wasting my time & leave..."
"You think I'm joking. I can make that possible."
The conviction in my voice made him somehow serious...
"Okey, continue."
"To do that you have to do two things."
"Make the public bet on all the candidates of the matches in one time. In t1 arena they will bet on all the candidates for ten rounds of fight in one time."
"No changing of bets after that."
"Still some of them will bet on losers & some will bet on winners even if they bet on all the candidates for ten rounds in one swoop."
"How is that profitable for me?"
"As I have no record here as a fighter the public will not bet on someone unknown. They'll bet against me; obviously."
"But, the winning candidate will be me. I'll kill them all, you'll get all of that profit. And in return you will give me 40% of that winning share."
After hearing my proposition the owner laughed, the guards laughed & even the officials inside the room laughed to their hearts content.
"You... hahaha.. You'll kill all the contestants and even win."
With a farm voice I said, "Yes."
After some time, they understood that I was damn serious.
"But, why should I trust you. If you die then what?"
"If I win you get what I had promised. If I die you change the rules from second match by simply saying sorry by making an excuse and justifying it with some lie and continue on with new bets cancelling the old ones; it's a win-win for you. You don't even have to lose a single coin out of this deal."
"You're a businessman, you have tricked them worse before. This will be nothing new."
"The worst that can happen is I'll die in the field today."
The man strolled a bit, puffed some more tobacco from his hookah & then said,
"Kid are you sure about this?"
"Do I look unsure to you... Huh?"
It didn't took any more persuasions, he was ready for the deal.
I signed a contract about these to make it more legit. So, no-one can back out on their word.
After the new announcement, the betting amount rose to 10 lakh (1 million) gold coins.
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