DAY 19 MORNING- OMUI GUILD

NO ONE TRIED to pick a fight with me or even dared look me in the

eye this time. The crowd parted to let me through. Sure, it was convenient,

but…were they scared? I walked up to the trade-in counter.

"We must offer our apologies," the receptionist said. "Please accept

all the money that we have. This is all we can give you right now. We

promise to pay the rest soon!"

"Our deepest apologies," chimed in the other staff.

Uh…I didn't commit a robbery, did I? I'm not a thief! I'm not even an

adventurer, I'm pretty much a hobo! I don't even have a legal address! I can

say I live in a cave, but that sounds so sketchy!

The guild master appeared besides me and slapped my shoulder.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said. "Your spellstones were worth so much that it

depleted all of our reserves. I hope you don't mind if we pay you in

installments."

"Please!" chimed in the staff.

I still feel like I'm robbing them, I thought. They should be so

suspicious of me! I would be!

"Normally we turn away spellstones we can't buy," the guild master

explained. "But because you're not an adventurer, we technically shouldn't

buy them from you in the first place. And it would be such a pity if you

ended up trading in this massive volume of spellstones anywhere else."

He explained that the guild charged a ten percent fee for every

spellstone trade. This was a guild-wide policy, so headquarters got a cut on

top of that, too.

Since the income was used to help the guild and its adventurers,

members were forbidden from selling spellstones to other merchants. If

they did, the guild expelled them. Since I wasn't an adventurer, they

couldn't use the threat of expulsion.

He felt guilty about taking ten percent of the trade from someone who

couldn't enjoy guild benefits, so he offered his apologies.

I wouldn't have gotten in trouble if I tried selling them elsewhere.

The guild was willing to pay a fair price for the spellstones, but I turned in

so many that they didn't have enough cash on hand. If I sold all my

spellstones elsewhere, it would have thrown off the economy, hurting guild

operations.

"Of course, I can't force you, and it's not my place to ask you for a

favor. Please accept my apologies."

I appreciated the concern, but I didn't mind. He rattled off so many

issues that I couldn't get a word in edgewise.

At last, the receptionist, who looked like she might have lost a few

sheep herself, resolved the matter in a quiet, shy voice.

"If you sell those stones to us, we'll buy you a new set of clothes."

"It's okay. Sorry for making you stay up so late counting." I turned to

address the guild master. "Maybe you should give her and her staff a

bonus?"

I really didn't care about the money. In a world without bookstores,

no amount of money could buy books.

"Even if I can't become an adventurer, Class Rep and the others

registered, and the four nerds must have registered as well. I really don't

mind. Just look after all twenty-four of those people. That helps me, too."

The guild staff breathed out and relaxed. The receptionist literally

jumped for joy. The guild master, eyebrow twitching, lectured her about

professionalism in the workplace. You have my sympathies—I get scolded

for no reason, too.

For the time being, they gave me 8 million ele. Are you…serious? No

wonder they were going bankrupt! They could've bargained the price down

a little!

"Well, that must be payment for almost everything, right?" I asked.

"Aren't F-class spellstones the least valuable?"

The scolded receptionist came around the counter to explain. She was

probably trying to escape another lecture.

"Allow me to explain. S-class stones come from legendary monsters,

A-class stones from unstoppable monsters. Defeating a monster with a Bclass spellstone would require all the combined might and resources of an

entire nation to even have a chance. If the guild mustered all of its

resources, it might be able to take on a monster with a C-class stone. A

party of first-rate adventurers might be able to get their hands on one Dclass stone, or one of those adventurers alone could probably get an E-class

stone.

Everything else is F-class. Almost all of our dealings are in F-class

spellstones. D-class spellstones are rare enough to impress a king."

That ranking system was totally useless! What's the point of all those

rankings if anything above an F-class stone was unimaginably rare and

hard to get?

"From there we divide the F-class spellstones into subclasses F1 to

F10, with plus and minus grades in each subclass. Altogether, that makes

for over thirty types of F-class stones."

"But why stop at F?!" I exclaimed. "Why not just keep going until

you hit Z? This system makes no sense!"

"A great observation! That's a mystery for the ages. Scholars and

philosophers have asked that very question throughout history," she said.

"Moving on, you brought one F10+ stone, which is the most valuable. Most

of the spellstones we get are between F5 and F8. The F10+ alone is worth

more than 10 million ele. You've bankrupted us with just one stone!"

As she grew more flustered, I realized that this receptionist was the

same person who cried and glared at me from behind the trade-in counter

yesterday. Did she also appraise the stones? She seemed like an expert.

Apparently, there'd been a spellstone shortage going on, so I had

raked in an absurd profit. I had more money than in my wildest dreams.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" the guild master asked. "From a

completely selfish perspective, there's really no benefit for you. It's not

something we would expect anyone to agree to…"

"It's fine. If you didn't accept, I would've just had the Class Rep and

the others sell them on my behalf. I plan to learn all kinds of guild secrets

and lore from them, anyway."

"Don't just casually say things like that in front of all the guild staff,

not to mention me!" the guild master said. "We haven't discussed anything

that's supposed to be a secret, anyway. I was hoping you'd want to learn

from the guild, so I'll just pretend I didn't hear that."

Eventually we settled on a long-term payment plan. Until the

accounts were settled, the guild would help finance anything the girls or I

needed. It was good to have the guild on our side. Still, it felt like they were

only helping us under duress.

"Seems like a good time to go shopping, then. Is there anywhere you

recommend?"

After the guild staff directed me to various local merchants, I headed

toward the front door. The Class Rep called over to me before I left.

"Wait up, Haruka-kun. Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Wasn't it convenient that the Class Rep wanted to chat as soon as I

struck it rich? Her uncanny timing is terrifying!

"What do you want? Mugging? Blackmail? Extortion? Sheep?"

She didn't seem to know what to do about the sudden windfall. Just

like a worried mother. I knew what she wanted to talk about when she

started nervously picking at the drawstring of the bag full of spellstones I

gave her for safekeeping.

"Oh, those?" I said, gesturing to the bag. "Nah, just keep it. What if

something happened?"

"But it's worth so much money! I kind of feel nervous carrying this

around with me," she said. "Besides, I don't have much more room in my

own bag."

I gave her the bag as a sort of rainy-day fund in case her weapon

broke or someone got hurt. Was she concerned because the emergency fund

ended up being much more money than expected?

"If you don't end up using all of it, just give me whatever's left over

later, I guess?"

"You'll just say you don't care and tell me to keep the change!

Money is important, you know?"

I lived rent-free in a cave, got all my groceries for free by picking

mushrooms, and wore indestructible clothes. Money was a foreign concept

in my lifestyle. What's money? Does it taste good?

Besides, as a loner, I never had and never would spend money on

socializing! Let's not think about that!

"Keep it," I said. "This is just in case something happens. And if

nothing happens, that's even better, right?"

"You're right, thanks," the Class Rep said. "I'll spend it wisely."

Now that I'd finally persuaded Class Rep, was I allowed to go

shopping?

Out on the street, the old dude with a spear waved at me.

He said, "Hey, kiddo! I told you I needed to thank you proper-like.

I've got to show you something real nice! Let me take ya there!"

Oh? He's going to show me something "real nice?" Was he going to

bring me to a place filled with cute, giggling girls? Would it be named

something like the Puff-Puff Parlor? That would make up for the weeks of

seeing nothing but ugly, grunting goblins in the woods.

"Er, isn't that more of an evening activity?"

Almost as soon as I said that, Enemy Tracking pinged twenty foes

nearby. How do they know what I'm thinking?

"You crack me up, kiddo," the spearman said. "I'm not taking you to

that kind of place. We're going to an armory! It might have a weird vibe,

but it's a great hole-in-the-wall joint."

I've had enough of this geezer! Should I give him back to the

Greenwolves?

I couldn't use most items at level 9, but this money wasn't going to

spend itself. Besides, if they sold anything useful in there, I could tell the

Class Rep about it later. In any case, this was his way of thanking me. He

made this armory sound like something unique, too. I had no reason not to

check it out.

Nonetheless, as a teenager, I would've rather gone to the paradise of

cute, giggling girls.