Making a deal

"They seriously wounded one of their master's guards trying to escape. The man in question didn't die, because otherwise the three of them would end up on the second floor at least for a few weeks before being allowed to settle here."

The guard added as if thinking that the detail about the seriously wounded man was the thing that bothered the young man so much.

"Screw that guy! Did you seriously just say master? So what, those children were slaves or something?! They are like what, eleven? Twelve at most! I know that you can become a slave for not paying off debts and a few other rare occasions, but I am certain that the minimum age for getting sentenced to that punishment is sixteen, you know, adulthood!"

Even with all the knowledge of his current life, Viria could let that one slide and growled through his teeth, getting to Bossac and grabbing the front of his clothes with both of his bloodied hands.

"Calm down, boy. The law works differently if two debt slaves have children..."

"I'm thirteen!"

The guard sighed and grabbed the young man's wrists, making him let go of his clothes, meanwhile the resolute girl straightened her back and pointed out.

"As long as you are a minor, your exact age isn't really a point in this matter! Use your damn head!"

"...ugh...!"

Viria scoffed and snapped at the girl who bit her lip and took a step back.

"I told you to calm down. Boy, there's nothing you can do, you all are convicted prisoners now. Case closed. Try to live your best life. Same to you kids. Until you are an adult, all of your necessities will be provided to you by the guards from your block. There is no need for you to earn anything until that point, but you can get experience in the field so you could start earning immediately upon getting old enough."

Bossac breathed out and said to Viria, making eye contact with him and only letting go of his wrists once he was sure that the young man calmed down, before turning to the three children and giving them a stern talk.

"But what about things that we want that aren't considered a necessity? I want to get stronger! We all want that! Laor and Tir want to cultivate! They both have low grade soul artifacts so there's no reason for them to hold back! But neither herbs nor monster cores needed for cultivation are given out like that!"

The resolute girl stomped her foot and Viria began recognizing that motion as her go-to movement and pointed at the shy boy with a long fringe covering his eyes...

"..."

...who blushed and backed off a bit once the attention focused on him...

"Speaking of monster cores. Did you manage to find any?"

"...?"

Bossac sighed and didn't answer the little girl, turning away from her and casually asking the young man, making him twitch in surprise.

"No. Not really... it is really weird, I definitely read that one out of ten mole-rabbits should spawn a monster core... Although, if my luck was actually good, I wouldn't end up in this place in the first place, right?"

Still, Viria pulled himself together fast enough not to be too suspicious and shook his head, smirking and mocking himself, hoping that the helpful guard would believe the lie...

...no matter how audacious it was considering the number of monster corpses within their sight...

"Pffft! Yeah, no. Do not get discouraged. This dungeon is completely different from every other one, all of the first-floor monsters, even the ones spawning deeper in, have a one-in-a-hundred chance of a monster core crystalizing in them. Not to mention that I know about cases of both prisoners and guards hunting them beasts for a week straight and never seeing a single core for all their trouble. But at least they make for a tasty meal."

"...wha...?"

And yet to Viria's great surprise, not only Bossac completely believed him, he even provided an explanation that shed a completely different light on the young man obtaining three monster cores during a single night of hunting...

Wasn't he actually... incredibly lucky...?

"Stop! Ignoring! Me!"

The resolute girl got red in the face and started fuming, stomping her foot after each word.

"I am not ignoring you. This conversation is simply over. Get back to your block or look around for the place to help out to gain that experience I was talking about."

Bossac rolled his eyes and shooed the little girl away.

"Actually, if they want to earn some money on their own, I can pay them for helping me to transport all of that stuff to whatever is the spot where you can sell it."

Viria stepped in between the guard and the young prisoner and announced, making all of the involved parties shocked.

"Wait... you do...?!"

"Are you sure about that, boy?"

The resolute girl gasped and the helpful man breathed out heavily.

"Yeah, sure. You were supposed to show me around to find that workplace anyway and I can't really be at two places at the same time. I would also like to wash up and maybe get another set of clothing if possible while I'll try to clean those off. You know... killing two birds with one stone and so on..."

Viria nodded his head and shrugged his shoulders making an awkward expression and waving his hands around, showcasing the massive amount of blood that was halfway through coagulating on the fabric.

"...fine... it will keep those three away from trouble... While you will be taking a bath I will notify other guards that the kids are responsible for moving those materials so no one would get any funny ideas..."

Bossac stared at Viria for a few seconds as if waiting for the young man to change his mind, but in the end, nothing like that happened so he took a deep breath and waved his hand in annoyance while turning around and nodding.

"R-really?! Mister, are you serious?! You will pay us for carrying it all to the monster trade point and selling it for you?!"

The resolute girl's eyes widened and she stuttered, confirming Viria's words in shock.