8 Chapter 8 - A Deal
Chapter 8 – A Deal
The battle with the yellow butterfly ended ten minutes later. After the mistake made by the butterfly with the white powder, it was more conscious of its surroundings.
Be that as it may, due to that, it was unable to use its skill anymore due to the windy day. Without the white powder, the yellow butterfly was a weak beast. Bubbly gained an upper hand immediately and managed to finish it off after a while.
The yellow butterfly dropped a yellow butterfly wing which Glen had no idea what it could be used for. Still, he looked at it properly to record whatever data he could get from his eyesight.
Glen also sniffed on it and wanted to lick it but he stopped. Sniffing the wing made his nose itchy and he was not that brave to lick something that can cause his nose like that. Since it was raw material, he could sell it for money.
After that, Glen and Bubbly continued searching for another prey which was another yellow butterfly. He chose the butterfly because he was not confident fighting other beasts. Even the butterfly alone took Bubbly almost half an hour to defeat.
So, fighting other beasts might be harder. Glen had found a few things Bubbly could improve and he needed to train Bubbly on that part. As such, the fight against the butterfly continued until late evening.
Since Glen did not hunt far from the village, it only took him a few minutes to get back to the village. Glen walked with his back hunched and looked extremely tired.
'I know I never exercise but do the game need to do this too? Do I need to exercise every day to do better in the game?' Glen thought. He could not even mumble a word because he was too tired.
The game scanned the player's physique and portrayed it in the game and thus, those with lower stamina would not be able to fight for long in the game. Those that exercise a lot or practice martial arts would fare better in this type of game.
For someone like Glen who usually sat in front of his desk studying, he would do badly in the game. He did not even fight but walked here and there, ran here and there was too much for him to do for a whole day (in the game).
'I really need to start exercising… or I cannot play this game well,' Glen thought as he saw a few other players that got back from the wild too. Some of them looked tired but not as much as him while some looked fine.
Those that looked really fine all had a good body. They were not overly muscular but Glen could see they did have some muscle. Those that were not as tired as him do have better body proportion than him too.
'Yeah, I need to start exercising…' Glen noted in his mind to wake up early today and went for a morning jog. Once Glen got inside, he went to a rundown material shop and sold his loot. All of them were butterfly wings of different colors.
Glen and Bubbly defeated ten different colored butterflies. They had different colored wings but from his observation, they were the same.
The Holand Material Shop.
"Ten Colored Butterfly wings, one is 5G, so all of them will be 50G," Uncle Holand, the owner of the material shop, said.
"…" Glen was silent. He never thought they would be that cheap.
Uncle Holand looked at Glen and smiled, "Young man, this is fine. You are a newbie tamer and what you get now is good for a beginner. I also commend you for choosing a weak beast like the Colored Butterfly for your starter."
"… Still, this is not enough to pay back my debt," Glen suddenly felt extremely tired.
"Debt?" Holand raised his eyebrow and spoke, "Are you the one who wants to become the Upgrade Specialist? Ah~ that is why your Bubble beast looks different!"
Glen looked at Holand and asked, "How do you know that?"
"Hahaha, news travels fast in this small village. All of us old-timer are close to each other. If we want to protect this weak village, we need to work together. So, everyone has a good relationship with each other," Holand laughed.
"Bertha told everyone in this village about you and how you succeed in upgrading your Bubble Beast. She also boasts about how you have a debt to pay back to her. That old woman loves her money the most," Holand added.
"…" Glen was speechless and embarrassed too. Since Bertha told everyone in the village, that meant him leaving and entering a girl's room must be part of the story too.
"No need to worry about anything, young man. We, the villagers will support you the most out of everyone that agreed to help this village. You are the one with the hardest profession in this world!" Holand tried to encourage Glen as he saw him looking tired and dejected.
"Sigh~" Glen sighed and he decided to ask. "Uncle Holand, do you know how much the Appraisal Skill crystal is sold in this village?" Glen needed the appraisal skill the most because it was the most useful skill for an Upgrade Specialist.
Without the Appraisal skill too, he was like a blind man walking in the wild. After hunting ten Colored Butterfly beasts, he finally knew they were called the Colored Butterfly.
"You don't have an appraisal skill?" Holand asked because an Upgrade Specialist's most important skill was appraisal and not only that but it needed to be the best of the best appraisal skill. Only those experienced Upgrade Specialist would be able to appraise the beast without the skill but a beginner like Glen needed the skill.
Be that as it may, what the Upgrade Specialist could see from the appraisal skill was limited. The upgrade method was something they researched and no appraisal skill could see that.
"I don't. I am a total beginner as an Upgrade Specialist and because I want to become one, I test my research on my pet beast," Glen spoke while looking at Bubbly who was curious at everything in the shop.
"And succeed. So, I want to become an Upgrade Specialist," Glen spoke. He made up some part of the story as he did not want to expose his special skill.
"Well… the Entrance Appraisal Skill which is the lowest of the lowest appraisal skill is 1000G but considering your condition at the moment, you will need a month or two before you can buy it unless you try to hunt a more powerful beast," Holand spoke.
"What can the Entrance Appraisal skill do?" Glen asked.
"Appraise the species of the beast," Holand replied.
"And?" Glen asked.
"That's it. It is an entrance skill, after all, so all it can do is appraise the species of the beast. As for the tier, rank, and stage, you will need Beginner Appraisal for species and rank, Amateur Appraisal for species, rank, and stage, and Junior Appraisal for species, tier, stage, and rank. The price for them increase a few folds for each tier," Holand spoke.
"…" Glen was speechless. Why did the game developer do this?
Holand glanced at Glen and he knew that the young man was having a problem with this and an idea came to mind.
"Glen, how about we make a deal?" Holand spoke.
"??? Deal?" Glen asked back.
"I will sponsor you an Appraisal skill but you will help me upgrade my beast for free," Holand spoke.
Glen's eyes lit up but then he felt that everything was happening too fast and unnatural. "Why are you offering me this? Also, what if I am unable to help you upgrade your beast? I don't have any reputation or many successful past cases that warrant you to help me."
Holand smiled and he spoke, "In this village, I am known as the man who can see talent. Hohoho, I have a feeling that you are talented and will do well with this profession, so, I make this offer."
"…" Glen did not believe it.
"If you don't want it, I will not force you," Holand raised his shoulder. "I have a spare Beginner Appraisal skill crystal with me and I thought I can help you for a free consultation later. That's it."
"Hmm…" Glen thought for a bit. The uncle in front of him did not look like a bad guy. He looked sincere and his smile was not fake. 'I don't have any money with me and if I want to get more data, it is better if I have an appraisal skill…' Glen thought.
"Let me think about it first," Glen spoke. He did not want to make a rash decision. He was playing a game and perhaps, what was happening at the moment was a hidden story or plot or something similar. He needed to assess the situation first before jumping in.
Glen and Bubbly left the material shop and went back to the inn. After that, Glen asked Bertha about Holand and all he heard from her was a good thing. 'Holand is nice', 'Holand is generous', and more good stuff about that uncle.
The next morning, Glen went around the village and asked about Holand and after a few hours of asking around, all of them were positive about Holand other than one old man that said the guy was too good that he suffered a lot of loss in the past.
After gathering every information he could get, Glen decided to trust Holand. Perhaps after he got to know the story that Holand's daughter lost her life last season, his heart softened. The middle-aged man probably wanted to become stronger to avenge his dead daughter.
Glen decided to accept the deal.
