12 Price of Service

Leo watched from the sidelines as Black Howler and Masamune discussed how to properly make use of the player's spoils.

"Sturdy, this pelt is… Tough armor I can make if paired with the right metal," Masamune noted while his fingers brushed over the Chimaera's lion pelt. "Preference you have, for armor type?"

Black Howler spent a few seconds thinking about it, but he eventually answered with, "I'm not really a leather kind of guy… I prefer the touch of cool metal on my skin."

Masamune nodded excitedly. "Yes, yes… See it, I can."

The vampyre raised his hand and brushed Black Howler's throat with long, pale fingers. To his credit, Black Howler didn't shy away from the touch Leo knew was deathly cold.

Masamune pulled his hand away quickly — his eyes momentarily showing a dangerous glint — as if keeping his fingers on Black Howler's neck had tempted him in some way.

"Soul stones, you have to trade?" Masamune asked in a controlled voice that told Leo he had contained his urges. "Much, this piece will cost…"

"I've got some stones to trade." Black Howler patted his shoulder bag. "How much do you want?"

Masamune walked over to the table at the far right of the room. It was right beside the wall Maestro was leaning against.

Their eyes met briefly, and Masamune who knew who Maestro really was, nodded in deference toward the Game Master.

Maestro returned the nod, and in a voice only Masamune could hear, said, "Mind giving him a discount? I'll make it worth your while…"

A smile appeared on the vampyre's face as he picked up the abacus on the table. "Mind, I do not… a favor from the Game Master, I welcome greatly."

Masamune called Black Howler over and told him the price for his armor would cost the player five high-grade soul stones.

"How much is that in low-grade soul stones?" Black Howler asked.

"Allow me, Masamune," Maestro called as he pushed off the wall and stepped closer to the player and NPC. He then raised five fingers. "Ten low-grade soul stones is equivalent to one mid-grade soul stone and ten mid-grade soul stones is equivalent to one high-grade soul stone which means—"

"—Five high-grade stones is equivalent to five-hundred low-grade ones," Black Howler calculated.

That was such steep pricing that Leo could visibly see Black Howler struggle not to look alarmed. The man must have really wanted to play it cool, although the sweat that just dripped down the side of his brow sort of gave him away. After all, he had only just seen one mid-grade soul stone since he began playing and Leo doubted that he could even imagine what kind of powerful shadow beast could drop a high-grade soul stone.

Even Leo thought the price was high despite also knowing Masamune must have already factored in the discount Leo had asked him for. Without the discount, Masamune could go as high as ten to twenty high-grade soul stones for this job. That was his value as a smith.

"I want a breakdown for your pricing," Black Howler pressed.

Masamune dipped his head toward his customer and supplied him with a short list of what he'd asked for.

"Crafting materials," Black Howler read from the scroll in his hand. "Two fel iron ingots for two high-grade soul stones each, two good quality shadow beast leathers for four mid-grade soul stones, five leather strips for five low-grade soul stones…"

Black Howler looked up from his scroll momentarily to gaze back at the smith who only returned his own growing frown with a fang-toothed smile.

"labor costs, work bench and tools usage, and crafting reagents," Black Howler's eyes grew wide, his voice rising an octave toward the end of his reading, "cost of two high-grade soul stones and four mid-grade soul stones… In total… five high-grade soul stones for the contract."

Black Howler waved the scroll forward.

"Hey, isn't your labor cost a little too high?" Black Howler complained.

"Not really," Maestro answered for Masamune. "He is the vampyre smith of legend, after all... and the only one in town who can make excellent use of your materials."

Masamune chuckled softly at Maestro's praise.

"Expensive, I am," Masamune nodded. "But great quality products, I do provide."

"Sure… but," Black Howler looked unsure. He seemed to be weighing his options. "Do we need all these materials? This fel iron ingot seems expensive…"

"For a chimaera's pelt, nothing less will do," Masamune answered, looking almost affronted at the suggestion of changing the metal. "Abyssal steel, far more expensive… and corrupted bronze or tainted corundum, not nearly malleable enough…"

With a final scratch of his head, Black Howler asked, "Then, any way you can give me a discount?"

Masamune sighed. Then he shook his head. "Good rates, I have already given. Go any lower, I cannot—"

The vampyre's eyes grew wide at the sight of the hand that held the scroll. His tongue involuntarily darted out of his mouth and smacked at his lips. His nostrils flared. Then, like a blur, Masamune darted forward and grabbed Black Howler's arm with his right hand.

"An arrangement, perhaps we can agree on," Masamune smiled as his face drew close to Black Howler's arm.

Masamune raised Black Howler's hand to his face, and to everyone's astonishment, he licked the dried blood off Black Howler's forefinger.

Black Howler's face was a mixture of shock and discomfort. Emotions that were a perfect reflection for Maestro's own face.

"What the hell are you doing, Masamune?" Maestro asked in a disgusted tone.

"The quality of blood, I taste," Masamune answered as he licked the player's hand a second time. "Strong, this one's blood is…"

"Um, I don't really roll that way," Black Howler said in a voice dripping with embarrassment.

Masamune let go of his hand and then dabbed at his lips with a handkerchief he'd procured from his trouser's pocket.

"A counter-proposal, I have," he said right before raising one of his pale fingers up. "Remove one high-grade soul stone from the price I shall, if Black Howler is willing to give a pint of blood to me."

Both Maestro and Black Howler were visibly shocked by this proposal.

"You want his…" Maestro began.

"My… blood?" Black Howler finished.

Masamune nodded to the pair of them. "Indeed… In need of a strong warrior's blood, I am."

There was a moment of awkward silence that Black Howler ended himself by asking the obvious question. "What'll you use my blood for?"

"Vampyre, I am," Masamune chuckled. "Connoisseur of blood, I call myself. And only the best kinds, shall I consume."

Black Howler's brow furrowed, but it quickly gave way to a smile.

"Sounds like a compliment," Black Howler chuckled. Then he raised his bloodied hand toward Masamune's face. "Alright, vampyre… you get my blood for one less high-grade soul stone on the armor's price."

"A bargain, I believe we've struck," Masamune responded as he took Black Howler's hand and shook it.

"Alright, now what about my weapon?" Black Howler asked.

Another round of haggling for Black Howler's weapon ensued which ended with Masamune agreeing to forge a new claymore from the chimaera's goat horns for the same price as the armor. However, this arrangement required Black Howler to donate a total of three pints of blood, the first of which he would provide before the work would start along with a down-payment of soul stones.

Black Howler reached into his bag of holding and pulled out the four lesser soul stones he'd stashed in there along with the chimaera's mid-grade soul stone. But, before he could drop this last stone into Masamune's waiting palm, Maestro stepped in and stayed his hand.

"This may be just a mid-grade soul stone but it's definitely a rare one… Trust me, you don't want to just give it away," Maestro warned.

This moment reminded Leo of a lecture Morgana had once given on soul stones.

"Soul stone grades are important, sure, but their types play an equally significant role in the process of evolution," Morgana explained.

She went on to enumerate the five known grades of soul stones from low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, excellent-grade, and finally, bountiful-grade. It was the grade she labeled the ten-foot outcropping of crystallized rock whose soul energy she'd used to build Adventour. Her precious hearthstone, she'd called it.

"Then there are the types… common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, and celestial," Morgana explained. "Remember Leo, anything from rare and above should be considered a must for consumption."

Recalling her advice now, Maestro explained to Black Howler that it would be better for him to consume the chimaera's rare-type soul stone. He also added that collecting eight-hundred lesser soul stones was manageable if he began farming for them from today onward.

"You can farm them from shadow beasts on the Abyssal Plains or the Dark Forest or by the banks of the River Styx," Maestro expounded. "Or you can accept quests from other denizens of Adventour."

At the mentioning of quests, Black Howler offered Maestro his hand palm-facing upward.

Taken aback, Maestro glanced down at the hand, and then at Black Howler, and then back down to the hand, before finally settling on Black Howler's smug look. "You want something?"

"I want another challenging quest, one that'll earn me as many soul stones as quickly as possible," Black Howler demanded.

Finally understanding, Maestro chuckled softly. "Aren't you a cheeky bastard."