CHAPTER 6
The old man
Henry saw his body in the mirror, and he was not the same as this morning. He took off his shirt, his body had become fit all of a sudden. Just this morning he was a skinny kid, though his body could not be compared to someone who had taking years to train their bodies, but he was no longer scrawny, infact he was quite fit right now.
"Is the effect of the stat points I added"
Henry had a large grin on his face as he kept observing his body.
***
The next day Henry got dressed and headed down early, he had a lot to do today, starting with finding a way to sell all the metal parts of the scarlaxes on him.
When he came down, he saw Lily coming towards the stairs with a tray of food.
"Good morning, I was coming to give you your breakfast" Lily stated as soon as she saw Henry.
"Thanks, but I will eat down here" Henry was not going to put aside eating, even if he had important things to do.
"Ok, let me put this down for you" She quickly went to set a table for Henry, there were no customers in the small part that was used as a restaurant.
Henry walked to the man that had given him his room, he assumed that he was her father. He was behind his counter using a rag to dust the counter.
"Is she always like this" Henry asked the man, he leaned his back on the counter as he looked at Lily preparing his table.
"Well she is a happy girl, but she seems to be more unstable since you came, I think she saw you from the kitchen the other day.' The man spoke as he kept cleaning.
"Is this something that happens regularly?"
"Nope, though she is happy, she is quite harsh to most men."
"So, I'm lucky then"
"Yeah, but don't think of playing with her feelings" The man released an oppressing aura that stunned Henry, but henry tried to keep his cool and not show fear.
"Well am not sure I'm going to accept her feelings, so no need to worry" Henry said with a smile, but his heart was pounding from the pressure he felt.
Henry decided to change the topic fast.
"Do you know where I can sell scarlax parts?" Henry asked, by now the pressure had receded.
"Well there is one of my friends who lives at north side of the town" The man took out a piece of paper and a pen, he wrote down the address and gave it to Henry.
"Meet him, if you tell him you are from me, he will trade with you at the real price, if not you will get ripped off. Lily is done with your table, go eat."
"Thanks" Henry took the paper, then walked to his table and sat to it.
The man looked at Henry and smiled, he seemed to have thought of something.
Lily left the table and went to where her dad was.
"Could you not make it so obvious"
"What do you mean dad?" Lily was genuinely confused.
"You only met him yesterday, I get that you like him but don't let it be so obvious"
"What do you --, wait I didn't say I --, I just " Lily stammered through different sentences, trying to explain.
"You gave him dinner on the house, and his breakfast was the first you thought of out of all the other guest, I don't think that kid is dense, so he would have picked up on what you are trying to do"
A worker in the inn who was passing by decided to chip in.
"Your dad is right, you have been off since that kid came in."
"Mind your business Marcos" Lily said with a glare.
"Sigh, what I am saying is that don't get off as desperate, you don't even know him yet. You have a month to get to know him so take it easy."
"Yes dad"
Henry who was oblivious of the discussion that was happening about him had just finished his breakfast. He got up and walked to the door, then turn to the man.
"Well I'll be on my way now, Mr.---"
"Louis, call me Louis, the man said with a smile.
"Ok then, Mr. Louis, I'll be living for now. Please tell Lily that her cooking is really good, I enjoyed the food."
"Will do"
Lily who was in the kitchen was very happy when she heard Henry's last statement.
***
Henry headed towards the place that was in the address, he boarded a public bus. After about ten minutes, he got to his stop. It was some kind of market, there were weapons, armors made of flexible metals, gadgets and other types of merchandise.
He went in and began looking for the shop, there were a lot of people in the market, and at every turn there was a security officer as well cctv cameras.
As he got closer to his destination, he thought of something quite crucial.
'What would he say if a kid showed up with so many scarlaxes, I can't tell him that they were all killed by the guns untop of the town wall, because I'm not sure a kid without background could get a storage device. I'm sure that nobody looked for me at the wall because they had better things to do than to question a kid about rank one scarlaxes, but this is a one on one confrontation, so I have to be careful."
Henry changed direction and went into a metal mask shop.
"Welcome, please take a look around to see what you like" A young man welcomed Henry as soon as he came in.
There were shelves all through the entire shop holding different type of masks. Henry walked and looked at the masks on the shelves.
"It seems like lot of people in this town like to hide their identity"
Henry looked at the amount of people in the shop. Soon he came to a black mask with red eyes, he took it and went to the counter.
"How much?"
"That cost 3 credits"
When Henry left the shop, he walked into a dark place, then put on the mask and wore his hood, He activated Living death, and turned undead.
He left the dark place and went to the addressed place.
***
KNOCK KNOCK
An old man sat down on a rocking chair with a cigar in his mouth, he watched the door as knocking sounds came from outside.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"Who's there" The old man answered with a deep voice
"I was directed here by Mr. Louis from the Phantom inn"
"Come in"
Henry opened the door and walked into the shop.
"What do you want" The man asked in an impatient tone
Henry wondered why this man had a shop but kept it locked, how was he supposed to get any customers?
"What do you want" The old man's voice snapped henry out his thoughts.
"I want to sell to you Metal parts of some rank one scarlaxes"
"Take off your disguise first"
"I am sorry I can't take of the mask" Henry responded.
"I was not talking of the mask, that's not your real skin, maybe an ability, take it off or I won't trade with you"
Henry was shocked that the man somehow detected his skill, but he decided to keep the act.
"I don't under—"
'Don't lie to me' the man cut him short. " if you lie, you will be throwing away you chance of trading kid"
Henry knew he could not keep the act up, he had altered his voice so that he would sound mature, yet this old man saw through him.
Henry deactivated Living death, and pulled of his mask.
"How did you know?"
"That's none of your business kid, I've got my secrets and so do you. What do you want to sell?"
Henry was unsure whether he should bring out all the scarlax corpses, but in the end he decided to do it. He poured out all the scarlax corpses.
"Hmm, you have some hidden storage device, no it's something different. This are weak rank ones, yet to have so many, I see you are quite capable kid. I will buy each one at the market value, but you will have to do something for me, I'll do sure to pay you for your service as well."
Henry went into thought, after a few seconds he agreed.
"Ok"
"good, now each one goes at a price of 20 credits, they are low ranks and there is too much of them in circulation. Do you still want to sell?"
"Yeah" Henry had no use for them anyway, so he sold it.
The old man went into an inner room and came out with a wad of cash. He threw it next to Henry.
"That's one thousand credits, take the rest as your part pay for the job you're going to do for me"
Henry picked up the cash, then asked.
"So, what is the job?"
"Two mid rank one scarlax and one high rank scarlax, by the end of the week. Complete this and I give you two thousand credits more, all I need are the metal parts, you can keep the core and do whatever with the fleshy parts."