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Chapter 16: Customer Service

“Uh, I just heard that you had Spell Crystals here.”

“Ah, you travel to Alfo Arcian’s Alchemy Acquisitionary in search of Spell Crystals?”

“...Yeah. Do you have them?” He spoke strangely, but as long as he had what I needed, it didn’t matter.

“Indubitably.” He walked over to a door that led to a back room, and stepped through. After a minute, he came out with a paper that seemed to list all of the different types of Spell Crystals he had in stock, as well as the prices he charged for each.

If I wanted to get Noxious Grasp to Rank 10, I’d need a Poison Spell Crystal, and if I wanted to get Crippling Chill to Rank 10, I’d need either a Cold Spell Crystal or a Curse Spell Crystal. Looking at the prices, the cheaper of the two prices for Crippling Chill was Curse. However, the cheapest of all three was Poison, for Noxious Grasp. For that one, specifically, it looked like it’d be 3 silver and 97 copper – which was equivalent to almost 400 copper. I only had around 20 copper to my name, and I was about to spend most of it on necessities, so it would probably take some effort to get one.

Still, I did want to try and get that Spell Crystal before I left this place to go to Carth with Erani. I didn’t know what the future would entail, so I wanted to ensure I could get this while I could. If I went without one for too long, it would be a huge roadblock for my power.

For then, though, while I considered my options, I went down to a nearby inn and got a proper meal. Part of me wanted to splurge and get a nice, three-course feast to celebrate my rejoining of society, but considering my money troubles, I just couldn’t justify that.

In the end, I just got a beef soup. It certainly wasn’t the most

economic option, but I did want to offer myself a little celebration, at least.

After eating so much raw meat and blood, having a nice cooked soup with actual plants in it felt immaculate. The bread roll that came with it was also a very nice change of pace. I finished my food quickly, feeling full for the first time in a while, and got a room that I could stay in.

After all of the expenses, I only had 3 copper left. And I still needed to get some actual clothes; people were giving me some very strange looks and I had a feeling I would be mistaken for a criminal or beggar and start getting kicked out of places if this went on for too long.

So, with immediate necessities taken care of, I went back to the job board, now able to take requests that took a bit more time. I still didn’t want anything too dangerous, though; I still didn’t have Time Loop, having spent it in the Banestinger attack that occurred early in the morning.

Eventually, I felt like I found something that could work. Some shop’s basement was infested with Trimps – little rat-like creatures that were quick and nimble and incredibly pesky for store owners to deal with – and they needed them taken care of. The pay was good, too, at one whole silver coin.

Trimps weren’t dangerous, just extremely annoying to kill. They were faster than most people, could scurry into small places, and had good senses for detecting danger. Because of that, while exterminating them wouldn’t be deadly for just about anyone, some random Unclassed person with a knife still wouldn’t have the ability to clear an infestation. Hopefully I would.

The pests themselves were very specific in their appetites – what they ate was what made them so irritating for a specific set of shop-owners. They ate the Enchantments off of items. Any mundane object they’d leave alone, but Trimps had a taste for treats, and for them, those treats were magically-infused swords, armor, and even household objects, like self-cleaning brooms.

They’d go up to whatever they thought was tasty – Rings of Strength, Swords of Nimbleness, that sort of thing – and use their special Mana-consuming abilities to lick the effects right off, leaving the object as mundane as it had been before it was ever been touched by an Enchanter. Needless to say, an infestation of these could leave gear shops copperless, turning a masterpiece of a blade worth fifteen gold pieces into a trainee’s poker, barely worth half a silver.

Considering the cost of leaving an infestation unchecked, the pay of a single silver was pretty low, but I was desperate. So, I took the poster and followed the directions to the job.

The place was a good fifteen-minute walk away. And in the mid-year’s heat, it wasn’t exactly comfortable. But after all the walking and sweating I was used to, it really didn’t feel bad at all. The extra Endurance probably helped a bit, too.

The sun was just beginning to rise, and I could begin to see people walking out into the streets and going about their business. I didn’t have to worry about crowds, though, since most of the people parted around me, apparently disgusted by my appearance. Or maybe they thought I’d pickpocket them. Who knows.

When I got to the place, I saw a slightly run-down wooden shop labeled Zue’s Brand-New

. It had a little hand-carved sign with a picture of a set of sparks on it hanging about the door.

The moment I walked in – door creaking at the hinges – I heard an old woman squawk at me.

“Hey now, I don’t want any ruffians like you stinkin’ up the place! You’ll scare off the good-payin’ customers!”

Only after she spoke did I see the woman standing behind a counter against a wall, her brown clothes and tan skin blending in with the dark wood paneling covering the wall behind her. “Uh, ma’am, I’m here for the extermination job. For the Trimps.”

I wasn’t sure why she was worried about me ‘stinking up the place’ – it wasn’t like the building smelled all that good, anyway. With the rotting floorboards exuding a moldy stench, it didn’t exactly seem high-class. That said, when I looked at the wares sold, they immediately caught my eye.

A Sword of +6 Strength, boosting the Stat for as long as it was wielded. A Bow of Doubleshot, launching an ephemeral copy of any arrows shot from its drawstring. A Helm of Night-Vision. A fucking Ring of Invisibility! The wares sold were high-quality, especially for a place as run-down as this. Most people from my village had never even touched a bucket Enchanted with Lightweight, much less wielded a sword that added an entire Level’s worth of Stats to their swings.

The woman squinted, her already-wrinkled face scrunching up even more. “Ah, an adventurer-sort, are ya? You look a bit poor for that.” There was a pause where the woman obviously wanted me to explain the sorry state of my clothes, but I didn’t feel like her comment deserved to be dignified with a response. Eventually, she just shook her head and spoke again. “Follow me, boy. If you\'re here to do work, ya better do it.”

She waddled out from behind the counter and led me through a door and down some stairs into a basement. The rickety steps creaked under our weight as she walked me down, candle in hand to give us light.

“My name’s Arlan, by the way.” I said to her as we descended.

“Hmph. Ain’t gonna remember that, so there’s no point in tellin’ me. My name’s Zue Akinsoft.”

“Alright, nice to meet you, Zue–”

“Miss Akinsoft,” she corrected. “Have some respect, boy.”

I suppressed a sigh. I needed to be polite if I didn’t want to get kicked out and have to find a different job, so I simply responded, “Nice to meet you, Miss Akinsoft.”

She just nodded.

The stone cellar was surprisingly big, the cool room storing barrel upon barrel of miscellaneous objects that the woman obviously couldn’t fit in her shop. Where was she getting all this stuff? With the money she used to buy it, she could have easily gotten a shop five times as large, plus an entire staff to help her run it. In the cellar, I could also see the telltale signs of Trimp infestation. There were holes dug into the walls that most likely led to their little underground lairs, objects that had been stripped of their Enchantments littering the ground, and splinters of wood where they’d broken into the barrels and crates that stored the items.

“Alright, there ya go. Kill the damn things and let me know when it’s done. And I’ll be checkin’ to make sure you actually got ‘em all. If there’s even one left, you ain’t gettin’ yer silver.”

A distant creak and slam rang from upstairs, and someone called out, “Hello?”

“Tch, customer.” The woman – Miss Akinsoft – glared at me. “Keep quiet while you’re workin’. I don’t want you scarin’ anyone away.”

“Uh, one second before you leave,” I said. “Do you know how they got in here in the first place? Trimps normally only get into aboveground areas like sheds or houses, not sealed underground cellars.”

“None of your business, boy,” she spat as she turned to climb the stairs. “Just do what I’m payin’ you for.”

I suppressed a sigh. “Ma’am, it is my business. If you want me to exterminate all the Trimps that live here, knowing how they’re getting in will help me know how they might be able to get out and escape before I can kill them, only to come back later and cause more trouble for you.”

“If yer halfway decent at yer job, it shouldn’t be a problem,” she scowled. “A bit of experience actually figuring somethin’ out for a change might help you in life.”

This time I actually did sigh. I couldn’t wait to get to a Level where I could just go out and kill dangerous monsters instead of dealing with people like this for a living. “Okay, fine. Just don’t get upset if they come back after a month or two.”

“Hello? Anyone here?” The voice called out a second time.

“Yes, I’ll be there in just a second!” She called up in a much sweeter tone than she’d ever used with me. Then she turned back to me and hissed, “Fine, whatever. Just don’t make any noise. If you scare off any customers, it’s comin’ out of your pay.”

I scowled and held up the paper from the job board. “That wasn’t on the request.”

“Well, it also wasn’t on the request that I wanted some delinquent doin’ it, either!” Then she turned and stomped up the stairs before I could respond.

Once she was gone, I turned around, rubbing my eyes and considering just walking out and refusing. But, unfortunately, I needed the money. Part of me wanted to ask her if I could keep the Trimp corpses when I was done; parts of their bodies were alchemical ingredients, and, while they probably wouldn’t go for much, I could sell them to Alfo Arcian for a bit of extra money. But she seemed pissed enough that I didn’t want to push it any more.

Fortunately, my Spells didn’t make much noise, so I didn’t have to worry about getting my pay docked for that. At least, I wouldn’t have to worry as long as she was honest… which I doubted she would be. Whatever. I’d just get it done and figure that out later.

She was acting weird, but I needed the money. Hopefully whatever was up with her wasn’t a big deal.