Boots with the furs

Staring at Regis, Sun had only a few words to say.

"You know what they say? You should always shop around for the best deals! Right? I'll call you if I change my mind!" With that said and before Regis could fully react. Sun walked away in a hurry, luckily the door wasn't too far away.

The moment he walked past the arched gateway, he shot into a sprint.

"Hell no!" 3 years to pay back a 3rd tier training at 33%?" Sun cursed as he sprinted away.

When he saw the terms, he wasn't completely turned off, but he remembered a conversation he heard a while back amongst a few more influential citizens he had happened to pass by.

3rd tier training was like a legitimate apprenticeship, the costs were ridiculously high considering its 3rd tier is in this prosperous area of the universe! 100k starting funds was nice but a debt of over a million at 33% sure as hell was not.

He could gather that they wanted him trained and then forced into slavery for 6 years while abusing his skills and newfound knowledge. Sure the work might not be so bad compared to labor work, but slaving away a reincarnated life?

"No thank you and piss off to an early grave you black-hearted sharks!"

So Sun did the best he could and started shopping around. He knew he wasn't informed enough to make a decision like servitude deals, but a reincarnated man can only shoot his shot with what he got.

The hunt for a means to an end continued.

He even visited some of the merchant unions in the area to see if they had any programs for him but without qualifications and no money to his name, he wasn't the most welcome in those places. Looking like discarded trash also did not help.

The day was coming to an end and Sun found himself close to depression with how absurdly hard it was to get some assistance in this city. All the loans were clearly not in his favour which he knew would happen but they ranged from total rip off's like Regis had offered to sell your soul to the loan agency for eternity. Which in contrast was similar to jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

"Tsk. Can't a bright young lad get some work around here?" Sun cursed as he wandered the streets toward his final location.

Although he was rejected from getting any direct help from most places, he did meet a young lady at one of the 4th-tier merchant unions who pointed him towards a shop that would maybe hire him. Sweet soul she was.

As he made his way, he noticed he was getting closer to his actual residence which said a lot about this shop. Then again, he didn't pay rent and no one even knew his place existed for now.

Finding the shop finally, Sun took stock of the place. Relatively clean, normal unenchanted stones, a cat parked on top of an odd statue of some sort of bull, and finally a neon sign titled " Boots with Furs"

"Sigh. Well, can't be all that bad." Sun gave up on having any hope and waltzed in.

"Ding-Ding" A bell at the entrance rang as he pushed open the doors. It gave him an odd sense of familiarity seeing such an old-school way of alerting a shop of customers. Looking around, he saw exactly what he thought he would. Counters with boots that had furs on them, in them, and woven onto them.

'Ah, I think the name really does this place justice.' Sun thought as he walked towards the front desk.

Seeing nobody around he leaned over the desk before a cat jumped onto the counter. The exact same cat he saw parked on that bull outside.

"Woah. Surprised me there. Well hello there." Sun was briefly shocked before momentarily regaining his bearing as he wasn't allergic to cats and always loved seeing a fluff ball from time to time.

"What you want?" The cat spoke though it sounded like an odd meowl the words were understandable.

"..." Sun was silent at the question while his brain started processing.

'Reincarnated into some higher energy world with a variety of races mingling, yeah, totally saw that coming.' Sun rationalized and calmed himself as best as he could.

"Meow?" The cat meowed for real this time as no words were translated as far as he could tell.

"Sorry there, cough, first time talking to uhm... your kind?" Sun totally thought that sounded racist for some reason but maybe the woke warriors of Earth had just impacted his senses too much before he offed himself with his little brother.

The cat didn't seem to care in the slightest.

"What you want?" It meowled the same words again.

"Ahem, yes, what I want. I need a loan or, ehm, maybe a job?" He wasn't sure of what he was to expect.

"No boots with furs?" The cat questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, no," Sun answered.

"Tsk. Another stray." The cat visibly narrowed its eyes and spat to the side which earned more cuteness points than the feeling of being disrespected from Sun. It was a cute fluffy cat looking down on him, how was that not cute? Though he shook it out of him since he wasn't really there to be stepped...pawed on?

"What can you do?"

'Ah, my time to shine!' He thought.

Sun started his spiel that he had been perfecting over the course of the day. Mentioning his skills and talents, all the way to his hardy body and ability to learn quickly.

The cat just stared at him once he was done while Sun himself started getting nervous as this was the moment when he would know if he had any chance at anything here.

The silence was palpable and the tension seemed to rise in the air as the cat just stared and the look was so dead-faced, he thought the cat was a statue. Looking at the cat, it was a fluff ball of orange hair with a white collar of fur around its neck. Piercing green eyes and whiskers that seemed a foot long on each side.

"Come back tomorrow morning, now get out," The cat said as it jumped away.

Taking a moment to understand, he replied "I will" with a smile.

Leaving the store, Sun couldn't help but feel excited at being given a chance. He had wanted to get some money and training with a bit of leisure time but clearly, that didn't really work out. Still, he was extremely grateful that he managed to land some sort of opportunity after running around all day. He couldn't help but send a silent thank you to the girl who pointed him here.

'I'll have to send her a thank-you gift if I ever get some money!' Sun told himself as he made his way home.