The village looked like a battlefield. Monsters were sprawled everywhere—some bandaged, some limping, and others just lounging like they'd just come back from vacation instead of a fight.
I envy these guys change of mood sometimes...
Grumpy was arguing with Tink over some missing supplies, Scarface looked ready to bash heads together, and Boulder? Boulder was chewing on a chunk of wood like his life depended on it.
I rubbed my temples. "Alright, is anyone going to tell me what happened?"
"Boss?!" Gorn's voice rang out, cracking like a teenager's. He stared at me like I'd grown a second head.
"Yes, it's me," I said, exasperated.
"How'd you change your body like that?!" Grumpy blurted out, pointing dramatically at Titan, who stood beside me like the living wall he was.
"What?" I blinked, confused.
"You turned into armor! That's so cool, but also kinda creepy!"
"Oh, for—" I jabbed a finger at Titan. "That's not me! This is Titan, my companion. How do you not know this by now?!"
Grumpy squinted at me. "So… you didn't turn into armor?"
I threw my hands up. "No! I'm standing right here, flesh and blood!"
Scarface, who had been silent until now, smacked Grumpy on the back of the head. "Stop embarrassing us."
"Thank you," I said, nodding at Scarface. "At least someone here has a brain."
---
After much grumbling and a lot of explaining, I finally got the story out of them. Apparently, the eastern forest monsters had launched a surprise attack, and while the village managed to fend them off, they'd suffered heavy damage.
"You've got weapons, defenses, numbers," I said, crossing my arms. "Why are you still struggling?"
"The eastern monsters are evolving faster than us," Scarface admitted. "They're stronger."
"And you're just going to let them outpace you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Scarface shook his head. "No, Boss. But evolving isn't easy. It takes more than just training."
How do they evolve though?
"How do you guys evolve anyway?" I asked.
"Unlike your stupidly fast growth boss, we evolve by eating the flesh of rare monsters or fight stronger monsters than us. For example, the ogres need to defeat a monster stronger than them by 5 times and eating their flesh. But even then the success to evolving is very low, and the process is very painful." Grumpy chimed in. This guy knows more than he let's on, huh?
I sighed. "Still not an excuse, though. If you're serious on that change you were talking about since forever. Now's the time to prove you meant it."
Grumpy looked away, muttering something about "tough love," but Scarface straightened up, determination flickering in his eyes. "We'll do it, Boss. We'll push ourselves harder."
"Good," I said. "Because I'm not leaving until you do."
Grumpy groaned. "But Boss, evolving hurts!"
"And so does getting beaten up by stronger monsters," I shot back. "Which one do you prefer?"
That shut him up.
---
So with that said, we'll need to do some hunting later.
For now, I deal with the merchant first!
As I walked forward, the adventurers around the merchant took stance. I guess worried
"Hold your weapons down." The merchant lady said.
"But, Mi-" The leader, or what I assume is the leader of the party was cut off mid words.
"Stand down, Len" The merchant added as she glared at the other woman.
"Now, ready to talk business, I assume?" Turning back to me, the merchant said.
I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, now what do you have in offer?"
"Oh, lot's of things. Materials, Food, Potions, Magic books, Skill totems? Oick your choice" She said with a grin, seriously not another shrewd businessman. I already dealt with those too much back in my world.
'So lemme show this one what a real businessman should be like' I thought while grinning.
Which prompted the adventurer around the merchant to hold their weapons again.
Trust Issues.
So after haggling with the female merchant, we successfully got 8 sacks of food, 2 dozen of potions, 4 magic books, and 3 skill totems for a price of 15 gold coins as well as a book about the economy of this world or atleast the money thing.
1 sack of food = 5 silver coin
1 potion = 12 silver coin
1 magic book = 1 gold coin
1 skill totem = 2 gold coins
1 History book = 172 silver coins
Where did we get the money? Of course from the pouch that Scarface and the others got from their first trade with this merchant, which I now knew, they were scammed.
One of our glowshroom was equivalent to atleast 5 gold because by eating it, slowly but surely your mana increases permanently.
And Scarface and the others sold off atleast 30 of such mushroom and only got 80 gold coins which, of course is lesser than the real debit which would have been 150 gold coins.
See the difference?
It's like this see:
1 platinum medal = 1000 gold coin
1 gold coin = 100 silver coins
1 silver coins = 100 bronze coin
1 bronze coin = 1000 cents
Which means Scarface and the others got ripped off!
I glared at the merchant who looked at me with that annoying grin.
"Y-You tricked us!" Gorn said with a look that screamed 'How dare you!'.
I looked towards Scar, and he looked like he just got punched in the gut by a dragon, I guess he was shocked.
"Hey, all's fair in love and business!" She said, she's lucky I wasn't there cuz if I was, I'd have made her run out. Wait, who said I can't right now? Muehehehehe~
As if noticing my sinister plan, the merchant hurriedly ran away and bid farewell, promising to come back by the end of each month.
Tsk, maybe next time.
For now, we hunt, we get stronger, and I'll evolve the others! And then I leave, Yay!