Chapter 53- Early Morning Catch

'I'll hopefully level up again on my last dungeon run'

Abel was currently making his way back to the city. He had fully cleared out the dungeon and skinned all the monsters but he was still 27% short of a level up.

'I should also send those girls and that Oscar guy a message, they might be interested in the dungeon.'

The sun was starting to rise in Veridia, he could have finished a little earlier but baiting out and killing those thugs took up quite some time. While he made quick work of Slick Mick and Grimfist, circling around the forest and shooting at Arrowstream took a lot of time. His battle with Swordboss also took a few minutes but in the end, he came out on top and even got a bunch of equipment out of it.

'I wonder how pissed they are… I should also keep an eye out for the next few days after they log back on. I shouldn't get careless when I have more than a gold coin on me. Even if I just lose 10% of my wealth that's still 46- no 47 coalition credits… not to mention my equipment.'

He reached Velskyn and sent a whisper to Coinweaver to meet up at the old shop when he came online and then made his way to Universal Bazaar. He quickly sold off all the monster parts except for a few Rat Teeth for a nice sum of 19 silver and 50 copper coins.

When he arrived at the old shop, he found the young merchant already there waiting for him.

"Good morning"

"Morning… Sorry if I was late. I didn't think you'd be online right now."

"It's fine, you weren't late. I was at the house when I got your whisper so I got here pretty quickly."

"I don't mean to pry but… don't you ever log off?"

Abel couldn't help but ask as the young man didn't seem to go offline. He didn't know what he did in reality but he should at least log out to eat and sleep, it didn't make sense.

"Of course I do. I just log out at a different time than you, from around 10 am to 3 pm in Veridia's time zone. I also log out throughout the day but I don't stay offline for long."

*Ding*

Coinweaver would like to send you 1 gold 5 silver and 90 copper coins, Accept?

Yes/No

'Yes'

"I deducted 2 silvers because of the stuff I bought for you yesterday."

Abel nodded in reply, he was feeling more comfortable around the young merchant, especially after seeing how the latter handled the situation with that group of thugs. After hearing what Coinweaver just said, he mentioned his encounter while he was removing the loot from his bag.

"By the way, I ran into those guys outside the city last night. They figured out who I am…"

"How's that possible? You were completely covered in that cloak… I didn't tell interact with them or say anything when they followed me yesterday and I'm sure Chronelix has no dealings with them."

The young man quickly explained himself, afraid of ruining his partnership with Red Sky but the latter promptly explained the situation.

"I didn't say you guys sold me out… they saw me exit from the other side of the building and tracked me down through my sword."

Coinweaver's eyes widened in surprised when he understood the gist of it but then looked at Abel, wondering what happened afterwards.

"So, did you lose the tail or did they follow you to the dungeon?"

"Neither. I killed them all."

His nonchalant response frightened the young merchant and Abel seemed to pick up on it so he explained himself further.

"They were all tainted players, from what I can guess… they seem to do this for a living, picking on solo players to rob and kill."

"What are we going to do…"

Abel's strength inwardly shocked the young merchant. The way Abel spoke about the encounter made it seem like he took them down 4 on 1. He purposefully kept things vague but regardless, Coinweaver was very impressed.

"They won't be online for another 20 hours or so and they lost a level as well as their equipment. I'm not too worried. Besides, I have 1 more dungeon run to make… after that, you can sell off the information to the players in the city. They won't be able to do anything about it when every player below level 10 is clamoring to enter this dungeon."

Coinweaver's eyes lit up after hearing Abel had some spare equipment on him so he eagerly asked,

"Do you plan on selling the loot you got from them?"

Abel thought for a moment, recalling the daggers and armors he had in his bag as well as his Rustic Sword.

"Not everything, but I do have a few things I don't mind selling. Offer me a fair price."

He took out 5 Rat-tooth Dagger's- 4 of which he'd forged, the 4 armors form the thugs, his old arm bracer, his old sword and his old longbow.

He had tested out the short bow on the Rat Lords on the third floor and gotten the hang of using it so he figured he'd sell off his longbow too. The short bow had better stats and a much greater range. It was just like instructor Cedric had said, after getting accustomed to the different draw length and releasing technique, he was able to use it skillfully. 

"I can take everything off your hands for 23 silver coins…"

Coinweaver explained further after seeing Abel's reluctance, the latter figured he'd get a bit more for this stuff.

"Although armor is generally more expensive, these level 5 armors are average at best and so is the sword. The armor brace would be hard to sell while the daggers are a little better but they vary in attack and durability. As for the longbow… it's a starter weapon. At most, I'll make a couple of silver coins from selling these things, I'm actually going through the trouble just to build up more contacts with the newer players."

Abel eventually nodded. He really didn't have the time to waste going around trying to get the best deal possible for this loot. He could make much better use of his time just by reading old man Rye's old books. He would be better off selling everything to Coinweaver.

After receiving the amount, Abel happily looked at his wealth that reached 2 gold and 41 silver coins. He decided to exchange 2 gold coins for coalition credits. His recent encounter with those thugs horrified him of losing his in-game money.

He still had this exchange pending as well as another transaction the following day so he could make back the coins. He wanted to ensure a healthy amount of credits in his account in case of any mishaps.

He exchanged 2 gold for 940 credits, at 1 silver to 4.7 coalition credits.

'The exchange rate isn't increasing as swiftly as before. It'll definitely pick up when more people start playing though.'

The exchange rate was strictly monitored by the developers in conjunction with the government. The more people that wished to exchange, the higher the rate. It would see a spike whenever there was a new batch of people joining Realm Quest but otherwise, it would stay stable and marginally increase depending on the daily transactions.

Even if there came a day when people stopped joining Realm Quest and everyone was at a much higher level, the developers stated that the minimum exchange would slowly go down to 1 silver to 1 coalition credit. It would never go below that, regardless of how little people tried to exchange in a day.

Coinweaver left the old shop after packing up the goods, heading back to his own house while Abel brought up his panel and sent a couple of whispers, one to Sophia and the other to Oscar.

He mentioned he had information about a dungeon that he was willing to share for a price. He also informed them that there was a merchant interested in it, he gave them directions to the old shop and told them to come here tomorrow morning if they wished to know more.

After he was done, he was reminded of Samuel's visit tonight and decided to log off. He needed to take out a boar leg and defrost it, then wake Frankie up to go fishing.

Frankie and Melissa already told him they'd take care of the cooking so he could take a nap after preparing the boar leg and then log in for a few hours before dinner.

Once he got out of the pod, he got one of the largest legs out of the freezer and placed it in a large leak-proof plastic bag. He had gotten a box of these bags a while back to defrost frozen meat safely.

Thawing any meat always had to be done carefully to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria, especially when it comes to boars and pigs. There were several methods to do so but for now, he opted to place it in the fridge.

When he came back, he planned to thaw it quicker through cold water but the water would have to be changed every 20 to 30 minutes. After a couple hours, the boar leg should be ready for seasoning and he can place it in the fridge for Frankie to roast whenever he was ready.

He made his way to the main house after taking care of the boar meat for the time being and he saw Frankie groggily making a pot of coffee.

"Good morning, I'm surprised you're already up."

"Morning Abe, coffee?"

"Sure, I'll have to prep the meat after we get back so I should get some caffeine into my system."

"I checked the freezer last night, we're out of squid."

"I just checked it too while I was prepping the meat. It's fine, we can catch some worms but I didn't see the rods though."

 "I got them out last night and set up the weights. They're next to the door with the bucket, all locked and loaded, just missing some bait."

Frankie filled up 2 vacuum flasks with hot coffee and handed one to Abel.

They picked up the rods and bucket from the front door and started their walk down to the fishing wharf. It was around a 30-minute walk as their little town wasn't too far off from the coast line. Frankie and Abel would only take a taxi back if their haul was too much to carry.

Epicurean World Market was situated in the downtown area on the opposite end of Luminara so the couple would usually take a 40-minute bus ride to get to work.

They stopped by a local park and stuck a wooden stick at an angle and started knocking it to create some vibrations. This was a really old technique they picked up from the local fisherman, it was known as worm charming and would simulate the sound of burrowing predators, prompting the worms to come to the surface. It wasn't log before a dozen worms came wiggling out of the ground.

"So, how's the quest going bro?"

"Nothing much, waiting on the old man to bring me into the castle."

"What have you been doing in the meantime? You're online for so long every day, you can't be doing nothing."

"I read books in the study, try forging a few weapons and then go clear the dungeon. Well, there was a little excitement last night…"

Abel went on to describe his encounter with the thugs and how he killed them all.

Frankie asked about it further so Abel explained the backstory, how they followed Coinweaver to get to him, how he lost them through the old shop and finally, how they tracked him down again due to his little oversight.

By the time he described it all, they had reached the wharf and started setting up their rods.

"So… how did it feel to kill someone? I mean, I know they're still alive but that immersion…"

Frankie curiously asked as he cast his line into the water.

Abel paused momentarily, but after casting his own line he truthfully told his brother his feelings.

"Honestly, at first I felt quite bad about it. I mean, like you said the immersion's so real… I told myself they deserved it because it was obvious they were filled with bad intentions. When I saw the notification of their status, that little bit of regret, sympathy or whatever it was I felt… it completely disappeared."

Abel thought back to that moment and carried on with his explanation,

"I actually felt happy after I got all that loot. It's kind of scary when I think about it, is that why that war happened thousands of years ago? The strong preyed on the weak with absolute disregard to laws, ethics or morality…"

His voice trailed off into a whisper towards the end, lost in thought about the circumstances that caused that cataclysmic war.

"No need to think so much about it. The fact that you felt bad and had a humane response is proof you wouldn't do such a thing unprovoked. As for that war? It was a different time, a different world…"

"Yeah I guess you're ri-"

Suddenly, Abel's line turned taut, it was obvious something got hooked to it. He started reeling in his line bit by bit, tiring out his adversary on the other end.

Eventually, he fished out his catch from the water. It was a summer flounder fish, also known as a fluke. He removed it off his hook and threw into the bucket.

"It seems to be more than a kilogram, not too bad for a start."

"Yeah, good catch. It looks like he'll have a big haul today if we started off so lucky."

Frankie smiled as he looked forward to having some fried fish for dinner, it had been a while since they had some seafood.