Chereads / Journey of the Moonlight Swordsman / Chapter 50 - The slums

Chapter 50 - The slums

Creating a guild wasn't that hard. One just needed to buy a building of any size and tell the system that they wanted to create a guild, and that building would become their guild headquarters.

The hard part was buying a building, because it didn't matter how much money one had. If a person didn't have a good reputation, he wouldn't be able to buy or even rent a building.

Reputation was something that was very hard to increase, and one would have to work himself to the bone to raise his reputation even in starting villages, god forbid the big cities.

So, all the guilds that were currently established had their headquarters in the starting villages.

Because they didn't have a good reputation in a city, they could only buy a wooden hut and make it their guild headquarters.

If a person found a better building, he could then move the headquarters there. Of course, if this new building was bigger, he would have better facilities.

The wooden hut would have no facilities, but if one were to buy a building in the city, it could come with an already-built workshop for alchemy or smithing.

If one wished for it and had the necessary funds, he could pay to upgrade his building and make the facilities better or build new ones.

But every building had its upgrade limit, meaning that even if one had a million gold coins, he wouldn't be able to upgrade the wooden hut because the level 1 that it came with was its limit.

Finn already knew all of this, and he didn't plan on buying a wooden hut like everybody else. He wanted a building in Iliados.

Now, wanting something is one thing. The other guild masters also wanted such a building, but the difference between them and Finn was that he knew how to buy it.

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Finn and Sophie first left the bar and visited a clothing store, where Finn bought a mask.

He picked a mask that looked like a black skull made out of thin and light metal and wore it to hide his identity.

Finn also bought black gloves that enabled him to grip his weapons more easily and not let go of them while he was fighting.

"So, where are we going now?"

Sophie asked because they were currently riding a public carriage towards the slums, and she was starting to think that Finn might want to enter them.

"The slums."

And she was right.

"I know about a person who can help us buy a building in Iliados."

"Really?"

Sophie didn't show it, but she was slightly surprised because she knew how even her rich and powerful father had struggled to buy a better building than the wooden hut, to no avail.

"Yeah, so just follow me and trust me."

"Mmm"

She nodded, and they soon entered the slums.

They were the only people with clean clothes there, so they attracted a lot of attention.

Some people even wanted to rob them, but when they saw Finn's sword and Sophie's spear, they decided against it.

Walking along the dirty road that was stained with blood and feces, Finn finally saw what he was looking for.

Among the destroyed wooden houses that barely had a roof to hide the tenants from rain was a slightly more repaired building.

It had drunkards around it, and Finn could hear laughter from inside the building. On top of the building was a broken sign that read "Bro-en --ide".

"Here we are! Broken Pride! How nostalgic..."

"Nostalgic? You have been here before?"

Sophie looked at Finn in intrigue because she didn't know that he had time to visit the slums when he was attending the tournament.

"Uhh… No, but it looks nostalgic! Hahaha!"

"…"

Finn forgot that Sophie was standing next to him, and he said something that pointed out the fact that he had memories of his previous life, but she just shook her head, thinking it was another one of her boyfriend's dumb jokes.

"Anyway, let's go."

He marched inside, and as soon as they both entered, everyone turned towards them.

Almost all the people there were middle-aged men with tattos and piercings all over their bodies.

Most had weapons either attached to their belts or on the table to show that they weren't scared to fight.

But the reality was that this bar was a gathering place for criminals, and the people there only fought people weaker than them.

Some of the drunkards there even had bounties on their heads because they stole from rich noblemen, so they needed a weapon to protect themselves.

As soon as the people in the bar saw Sophie, they started whistling and cheering.

She didn't really care, but Finn forgot about what would happen if they entered together and immediately got pissed off at everyone for catcalling his girlfriend.

"Shut the fuck up, you dirty scumbags! If I hear you do that one more time, I will cut your fucking heads off!"

The slums worked on the basis that as long as you are strong, you can do and say whatever you want.

But the people in the tavern weren't players, and they didn't know about his victory in the tournament, so they just laughed at Finn, thinking he was some loser who was trying to look strong in front of his girl.

One of the people in the tavern got up and walked towards Finn.

He was at least two meters tall and had a large body filled with muscles.

"Ohhh! Big Mike!"

"Show him what's up!"

"Snap his neck!"

The others cheered, but Finn was thankful to Big Mike for stepping up to die. This way Finn could show the others he wasn't to be messed with.

"Yo! Little rat! If you give me your girl I might allow you to watch and learn from a pro-"

Thud

Before he could finish talking, Big Mike's head fell to the floor, and his now empty neck sprouted blood like a fountain.

It looked like his body hadn't realized that it had died because it remained standing for ten more seconds before falling to its knees and then to the side.

Finn had used his Moon arc ability to send an arc that slashed Big Mike's head cleanly off.

Big Mike wasn't by any means weak, but there were a lot of things that he had done wrong. Being drunk, underestimating his opponent, having his hands in his pockets, and the list went on.

"Anyone else?"

Finn's calm voice filled the tavern.

"…"

"…"

"…"

The others instantly shut their mouths.

Big Mike was pretty strong even in the slums, and if someone could kill him with a single strike in the blink of an eye, then that person wasn't one to be messed with.

"No? Finally, some peace."

Finn shook off the blood from his sword and sheathed it again.

He then walked to the bar, with Sophie following him.

She didn't react in any way when she saw Finn killing someone, because that would take time and strength.

Struggling to show emotions to those she loved was already hard enough. She couldn't be bothered to show them to some drunkards in a rundown tavern.

"Hello sir."

The barman had a calm and collected smile, as if a person hadn't just died in his tavern.

With a wave of his hand, two men stood up and carried Big Mike's body and head outside, where they threw them in a ditch.

"Hey, I would like to talk to Blue Whale. Is she here?"

Not bothered by the silent atmosphere he had created, Finn asked the barman with a cheerful voice.

The barman who was wiping a mug suddenly stopped and looked at Finn with narrowed eyes.

"And why do you want to meet her?"

"I want to sell her fresh eggs."

Finn calmly responded.

"At this time of the year?"

"Summer is always hot, and eggs are plentiful."

"…"

The barman nodded and turned around.

Sophie, who was watching from the side, was confused by the weird conversation between Finn and the barman, but she didn't speak up because she trusted that Finn knew what he was doing.

The barman left the bar and entered a room behind it.

After a few minutes, he returned and looked at Finn again.

"You can go meet her, sir."

"Thank you."

Finn nodded and walked around the bar towards the backdoor, with Sophie following closely behind him.

The secret code that Finn had just used could normally be acquired by doing a long and boring quest line, but since he remembered it from his previous life, he could just say it without moving a finger.

Upon entering the backroom of the tavern, they saw a wooden table with four wooden chairs.

One of them already had a person sitting there.

She wore a black dress and had a black cloth covering her face. The only thing that was visible was her blue hair.

The woman gestured to Finn and Sophie to sit down, and they did just that.

"Can I ask how you found out about my secret code?"

Curious, the woman, who was probably Blue Whale, turned to look at Finn.

"That's a secret."

"I see… Well, I will have to change it. I don't want people that aren't affiliated with me entering."

Blue Whale looked at Finn and Sophie, but she didn't recognize them at all.

"Please don't. I won't share it, and I would like to develop our relationship."

Finn smiled because he knew that Blue Whale had a lot of connections, and if one knew how to meet her, he could ask for a lot of things but mainly information, which was extremely valuable.

Sophie didn't know why, but she got a little angry when Finn said that he wanted to develop his relationship with the woman in front of her, so she kicked him under the table.

"Ow! What is it, Sophie?"

He leaned over to her and whispered.

"Nothing. I just felt like kicking you. Please continue."

She crossed her arms and gestured with her head for Finn to continue speaking.

"You sure you aren't jealou- OW!"

Finn smirked, but he got kicked again, and it was a lot stronger this time.

"I said continue."

Hearing his mocking voice, Sophie glared at him with narrowed eyes and whispered in a voice that was filled with bloodlust.

"Yes ma'am!"

Knowing when to stop pushing because there was a fine line between teasing and being an asshole, Finn nodded and turned to look at Blue Whale again.

His business smile then returned to his face, and he quickly corrected himself.

"I want to develop a professional relationship to make more deals with you in the future."

Blue Whale just looked at the two people in front of her with her eyebrows raised.

She was a difficult person to meet, and even the nobles would do anything to schedule a meeting with her, but there was a person who was openly flirting with his companion in front of her.

"I will think about it... What do you want to buy?"

"A building."

Immediately answering, Finn was in a good mood because he was looking forward to owning a building faster than everyone else.

"I assume you are aware that if you buy it through me, it will be more expensive than normally, right?"

"Yes."

He nodded his head.

"Okay, tell me your budget."

"Five hundred gold coins."

Finn said with a small flinch because he thought he could hear his wallet crying when he was preparing to spend half of the winnings he had made in the tournament while betting.

"So much?"

"So little?"

Sophie and Blue Whale were both surprised, but for different reasons.

For Sophie, it was a lot of money, but for Blue Whale, who had been in this business for a long time, it was a small sum.

Finn just nodded, and Blue Whale started thinking about what building she could sell him. Sophie tugged at Finn's shirt, and he leaned to the side so he could hear her whisper.

"Where did you get this much money? Even father, who is trying to trade with real-life money, finds it hard to amass such a huge sum."

"I just got lucky when I was betting in the tournament."

Sophie had no other choice but to accept that her new boyfriend was richer than her father, in the game, that is.

After some time, Blue Whale finally opened her mouth.

"There are two buildings that come to mind. One is a smaller house next to the gambling district, and the other is an abandoned mansion on the edge of the Noble District and the Middle District."

"Then that is an easy pick!"

Blue Whale introduced the two buildings that Finn could afford with his measly 500 coins, and he rejoiced that he was able to buy a mansion.

"I knew you were going to pick the mansion but let me warn you. The mansion belonged to a noble who went crazy and ate his entire family while they were still alive. He even had a ten-year-old son that he didn't spare."

She looked Finn dead in the eyes.

"And whoever bought the mansion after that incident would hear his family's pleas for help during the night. The mansion had been investigated multiple times, but nothing was found, so it is believed to be haunted by ghosts."

Finn knew that ghosts existed in this game, and normally they weren't easy to deal with, but because he had information about them, he was confident that he could exorcise them.

Sophie wanted to tell Finn to buy the small building because the ghosts were probably high-level monsters, but before she could tug on his shirt again, he had already decided.

"I will take the mansion!"