21 Stay

"Congratulations! All of you have finished the mission."

Wilbur Whatley is coming from the portal where we come from, and coming with him are three people. Among them is Yuni. I guess they are the handlers of both Darnell and Varun.

"Sadly, I failed to bring all of my charges back safely, sir."

Wilbur looks at me and laughs.

"Hahahahaha. Don't worry about him. We already know what he did, and he has already been punished for it. So you will still get your reward fully."

"I see."

"Now, if there is nothing else, please follow your handlers."

"Ah, sir. Can I ask you something?"

"Of course!"

"Can my companion and I stay here for a few months?"

I want to use the time stop to increase our power here. So if I can do that, I can use this place as some sort of time chamber.

"Heh. Yes, as long as you stay here, the company will stop your world time. However, you need to pay to stay in this dimension. Two thousand per month."

"Can I use my reward point?"

"Of course."

"Then please my reward points. I want to stay for two months."

Wilbur nods his head and looks at Yuni, who walks toward me and says.

"Your points have been deducted. Two thousand points have been added to your account."

"Thank you."

"It is just a business. You can go back home earlier if you want to, but the company will not return your point. Place this on this altar to open up the portal if you want to get home earlier. You will automatically teleport home when your time runs out."

"Understood"

"Then enjoy your stay here."

I nod my head and see my former party member nod at me before they get teleported away. The same with Yuni and Wilbur leaving only Hermione and I standing in the village center. I look at the village chief and say.

"Village chief, can we stay here for the time being?"

"Of course, my lord! You are always welcomed here!"

"Thank you, chief. I will be in your care from now on."

~Sometimes later~

Right now, Hermione and I are sitting next to the fireplace inside the village chief's house. Silia-Tu and his family have a few empty rooms we can use.

Speaking of him, Silia-Tu is around eleven thousand years old even though his face looks like someone around fifty. The only family member he has is one daughter and three grandchildren. He lost most of his family to the humans that keep hunting all exotic races and make them their slaves.

"And right now, the only race that can fight toe to toe against the human is the Beastfolk. The elves stay in the northern continent, where there is nothing but snow. The merfolk decided to isolate themselves inside the depth of the ocean. The devil stays in the southernmost southern continent where there is nothing but sand in there. Lastly, the dwarves decide to stay inside their mountain home. The reason why most races cannot fight against humans is that our pregnancy rate is too low. Humans can keep sending their army every year because they have the biggest population, and they have many people they can sacrifice."

"I see. That is why you decide to contact the company."

"Yes. The company is willing to give our people protection in exchange. We are willing to give our people to the agents that want us."

"You know that also means you sell you, people, to slavery, right?"

"I guess you can see it like that, but the company is willing to promise that they will send my people a rather kind master."

"And you trust them? By the end of the day, they are a merchant and a merchant willing to bend their word to get the most profitable trade."

"Yes, you are right, but every elf that is being taken from here usually comes back every ten years, and from what they tell us, they have a great life. They grow in strength and even have a family of their own. Yes, they are still slaves because that is how the contract works, but they live like free people. Sometimes they come here to put their children here for safety because they need to go to war in the other universe."

"I see"

I guess I can see why they are still willing to sell their people to the company's agent and how they put their trust in the company. The company fulfills their promise by sending their agent to this village for protection and only selling their people to a rather kind agent.

"Anyway, do you know the place where Hermione and I can train?"

"Hmmm, then you should go to the dungeon. While the dungeon is dangerous, it was a perfect place to hone your battle experience. Not only that but there is also a loot you can take if you reach a certain part of the dungeon."

"I see, then the place where all those monsters are coming from is the dungeon?"

"That is right. You can visit that dungeon if you want to, but I suggest exploring the low-level dungeon first. There is a low-level dungeon near the human city to the west. You can go there if you want."

"Hmmm. Do you think they will know that we are the devil?"

"No. You are different from the devil in this world. You can blend it around the human settlement. It was also not a big city and did not have a barrier around it's only walls and magical turret. So as long as you have identification, you are good."

I nod my head and take out my ID from the pocket. Silia-Tu nods his head and says.

"Then you are good. You can earn some money by selling the monster part."

"Speaking of the monster part? Where is it? Each monster we killed they are just… gone. I thought it was a normal thing happening to all those monsters."

"No. The company takes them. We get fifty percent of the item harvested. Mostly meat and the monster skin."

"Ahhh. Is that in the contract as well?"

"Yes. We share fifty percent of the loot from the monster or the humans that are attacking us.."

"I see. How much do you think we will get from killing the monster?"

"That depends. You can get ten bronze coins from one goblin. The warg, the wolf-like creature the goblin ride, is worth fifty silver coins. The orc is worth one gold coin, the same with the Ogre and the Cyclops."

"I see. Speaking of money, can you tell me the currency of this world?"

"Of course. There are four kinds of coins in this world. Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. One platinum worth one hundred gold coins. One gold worth one hundred silver coins and so on. Ten Bronze is worth two loaves of bread."

"I see."

If I can kill those big monsters, I can get a considerable amount of money.

"I guess we can do that. How far is this city?"

"It takes three days to the west if you go with a carriage. It takes more than a week if you decide to go on foot."

I nod my head. I think Hermione and I can reach that city in a day if we are flying there. So it looks like we have our first destination and plan for the rest of our stay in this world.