*Chapter 120 - Bargains

Chapter 120 - Bargains

The stares and whispers didn’t stop the entire trek though the city, but very early into the trek they stopped at the butcher’s place the officer had noted.  Trey was thankful for the tip and pulled out a medium sized chest from his shadowform holding some of their money and jewels.

“Alright dudes, pick out what you want for the day and let’s get going.  I’ll be buying for.” Trey said as he motioned towards the shop.  The butcher had his back turned and was nearly startled to death upon seeing Ezdeath picking out huge cuts of meat to lay on the butcher’s table while talking amongst themselves.

“How much for all of this?” asked the stunningly beautiful Ezdeath with a sweet smile.  She glanced Trey’s way with a grin.  “For the others… so they won’t be so mad about not being able to come.”

The butcher seemed to immediately recover from his stunned amazement at the beautiful woman and his gaze was fixated on her breasts as he spoke.  “Uh… all of it?”

Trey slapped another smaller piece of meat on the pile irritatedly as he glared at the butcher for staring down his minion.  “This too.”

Ezdeath gave Trey a sideways glance and reached over to kiss him again, obviously still giddy from earlier.  It took awhile but the butcher, a younger man, snapped out of it and counted up the total cost.

“Can’t say I’ve ever had customers like you all before… the cost is going to be 23 gold and 6 silver for the lot of it.  Pretty expensive haul.”  The butcher’s eyes widened at the large sum of money from within the chest that Trey had opened.  Trey quickly counted out the money, handing it to Ezdeath before returning the chest to shadowform.

Ezdeath smirked and handed the money to the man across the counter.  “Here you are!  Thank you!”

Again the man was mesmerized by Ezdeath’s beauty… oddly enough, Ezdeath seemed to be enjoying the attention too - given the giggle and smile she portrayed.  Trey’s jealousy couldn’t help but rise.

“Do you know any clothing vendors around here?” asked Trey irritatedly.  The butcher backed away with the sudden aggressive movement forward and quickly pointed down the street.

Trey briskly nodded, then packaged the cuts with leaves supplied by the shop and put all the meat within his shadow form to - getting a strange look from people watching nearby as the meat just vanished into blask wisps.  “Thanks.”

Ezdeath had only taken a few smaller cuts of meat for herself, similar to the one Trey’d gotten for Napoleon.  Ezdeath had stated earlier upon the ship that she wanted to try some of the other human foods instead, and on top of that  - she liked smoking her meats too.  So she didn’t start immediately eating like she’d been so quick to do in the past.

“Do you mind if we stop by the clothing vendor for Ezdeath before going to your home?” Trey asked Kurt the fisherman politely.

“Of course!” replied Kurt happily, his scrawny tanned legs kicking out at a faster pace as he kept up with his acquaintance Taen.  “I can see why you’d want to stop there!”

“Trey has no sense of style Ezdeath, let us pick it out for you,” noted Ashe as Izumi giggled next to her.

Ezdeath surprised everyone by smiling back at them and stating: “If it’s ok, I’d like Trey to pick this one out for me.  We can go shopping just the three of us later, but…”

Ezdeath’s voice trailed off and she looked to the ground.  Ashe and Izumi got the hint and exchanged glances.

“I’d love to pick it out for you, as it was MY idea in the first place!” Trey flipped the two Earthborn women off causing Taen and Bann to laugh.  Ezdeath giggled and reached out for Trey’s hand, which he took immediately to wrap his fingers around hers.

“Yo Trey, look!” exclaimed Jason from the side as he pointed to another shop immediately next to the clothes maker.  “Potions and herbalism!  Fuck yeah!”

It took him a second to see what Jason was looking at, with all the people getting in the way through the bustling streets, but Jason’d been correct.  Indeed it was a potions shop, located in a small squarish building made of wood and thin walls.

After arriving at the entrance of the clothes maker - which was a slightly larger wooden building with a flat tin roof and various textiles laid out on shelves - Trey briefly stuck his head inside the adjacent building to see a plethora of herbs, plants, vials, mortars and pestles, books and already pre-made potions.

“Go get em tiger,” stated Trey as he whacked Jason on the back encouragingly.  Like a little child in a candy shop Jason ran inside with a sack of coin and started rummaging through the wares.

As Trey took Ezdeath by the hand to enter the clothing store, the rest of his party waited outside as Taen and Kurt discussed life and how Horkque still hadn’t found a wife - much to Kurt’s son’s dismay.

Back inside the clothing store were textiles of dull and earthy colors, clearly it was one of the lower end outlets for commoners.  Ezdeath didn’t seem to care at all though and just stared up at Trey as he looked around, seemingly more interested in his facial features than the real reason for coming into the shop in the first place.

“...May I help you?” asked a very hesitant clerk - an elderly woman in a plain brown dress-skirt wearing sandals.  Her eyes were drawn to the stunning features Ezdeath had, the brilliant white hair, and abnormal golden eyes.

“Hi!” replied Trey enthusiastically with a large smile.  “We’ve had a rough couple weeks and I was wanting to buy my…” he looked down to Ezdeath who continued to stare at him.  “...friend… a couple outfits for an upcoming date we’re going on.”

At the word ‘friend Ezdeath’s features had fallen, but immediately after she had brightened up at the sound of ‘date.’

“REALLY!?” she exclaimed excitedly as her slender figure pushed up against Trey’s chest.

Rivia and Ezdeath had long talked about going on official dates with Trey, but none of Trey’s harem had yet achieved such a feat.  To do so before Rivia… gave Ezdeath pause to let out a soft but maniacal chuckle under her breath.  She didn’t know why Trey was taking such a sudden change in his attitude towards her, but she looked like the butterflies were coming on strong.

The older woman’s features softened and she smiled before motioning them to follow her.  “I remember what it was like to have youth.  You two remind me of myself when I met my husband many years ago.  Now all he does is sleep the day away, that lazy oaf!”

“REALLY!?!!?!?” Repeated Ezdeath again, ignoring the human woman and staring into Trey’s eyes.  “You’ll take me on a date!?”

Trey laughed at the comment from the clerk and then looked down to Ezdeath, squeezing her hand.  “Yeah!  Well, I mean… I was kind of hoping that we could try it out… only if you want to though!  Is… that ok?”

Ezdeath went from having a look of extreme happiness to one of being sly.  “...Does this mean we’re a couple now?”

“...Like boyfriend girlfriend?”

Ezdeath rolled her eyes and whispered into his ear so the clerk couldn’t hear.  “Is that what humans do?  I’d rather just claim you as my mate now.  You’ve already been with the others.”

He laughed, ruffled up her hair, kissing her again as she pulled herself towards him, and turned back to the clerk who had come to present three different colors of textiles.  One was sky blue, one was a dull pink, and the other a dull green.  “Let’s just stick to dating each other for now, ok?  We can talk about that when we get to know each other better...”

Ezdeath frowned.

“None of these even come close to doing you justice darling, but they’re the best I have.” stated the clerk.  She shuffled over to a cabinet and pulled out a measuring tape to bring over and examined the seemingly younger woman.  “Where are you from, darling?  A foreigner for sure, your features are absolutely stunning!”

Ezdeath glanced sideways at Trey in a confused manner before she nodded gleefully and stood so that the woman may get her measurements.  “Yes, though I’d rather not talk about my past if that’s alright.”

“Hmmm.  Really?  I’ve never met anyone with features like yours before.  What are you doing here on Nagochus?”

Ezdeath took a while to respond as she mulled over her thoughts, irritated that the woman had completely disregarded her request - but too happy about the upcoming date to get angry.  “I’d rather not talk about it.”

The elderly woman sighed and shrugged with acceptance, sagging her shoulders with disappointment.  “Very well.  Not meaning to be nosy, just curious.”

“It’s fine!” replied Ezdeath enthusiastically as the woman finished up her measurements and put away the measuring tape.  “It’s just… I’ve had some bad experiences that I don’t like bringing up.”

The clerk nodded, examining the old brown dress Ezdeath wore with mild amounts of disgust.  “This old rag is far beneath what someone of your caliber should be wearing, I’m glad you came to get a new one.  Which one of these colors would you like?  We have premade dresses in the back that will probably fit based on these measurements, but only in pink and brown, we don’t have the blue or green in your measurements and you’d have to wait to get those colors made for you if those are the ones you want.  The grey would be the same and would have to be made for you.”

Ezdeath looked to Trey, then cocked her head and bowed slightly to emphasize her breasts.  “You pick!”

Trey smiled and sighed, folding his arms and glancing around the room at the various textiles on display.  “I would have thought the sky blue would go perfectly, and I know you don’t like pink, so let’s get you two of the pink dresses for now and we can get you some more clothes along the way.  We don’t have time to wait for them to make you custom ones if we want to reach Mobobe on time.  Sound good?”

Ezdeath just used it as another excuse to enthusiastically kiss him and then nodded excitedly.  “Two brown dresses please!  I’ll have my boyfriend give you an extra tip on the way out if yo umake it fast…”

Trey raised his eyebrows at the word ‘boyfriend,’ but didn’t say anything to dispute it.  A fact Ezdeath immediately clung to as she beamed with a happiness he’d never seen in her before.

“Alright then!  Young lady,” the clerk gave a wink in Ezdeath’s direction, “Please come with me to the back and we’ll get you fitted in one right now!  We’ll get you out of that filthy apron in no time.!”

Ezdeath finally let go of her boyfriend and excitedly skipped to follow the other woman to the back where the door was shut.  Trey watched her go and felt his heart thumping hard against his chest.  He was incredibly happy and found himself smiling so hard that his cheeks were beginning to hurt.

Why was he so taken with this girl?  He hadn’t even had sex with her yet, and he was absolutely infatuated.

Not only was Ezdeath an absolute beauty, but she was smart, strong, independent and was even funny sometimes.  She was even a good teacher and had been teaching him lots of things in terms of swordplay and combat styles - though probably less often than it should have been, given he’d been caught up with everything else going on.  Thinking back to the time he had nearly forced her out of the group made him want to vomit at his own stupidity, but he quickly suppressed those feelings and got his head back in the game.

He had been stupid.  It seemed as if only moments had passed before the door in the back of the shop unlatched and his ‘girlfriend’ appeared wearing a sky blue dress that emphasized her athletic figure and all its curvature.  It had frills at the sleeves and a skirt down to just above her knees, with her toned calf muscles on full display.

“You look... absolutely stunning, Ezdeath.”  Trey said it slowly, and he meant every single word he had said.  The seriousness of his tone took Ezdeath aback but she merely giggled and skipped forward to throw her arms about his neck.

“She had a blue one!” exclaimed Ezdeath excitedly as she gave him a hard squeeze for a hug and turned about for him to look at the dress.  “She gave me these sandals too as part of the package!”

“Well we can’t have you walking around barefoot everywhere!  You’ll get blisters!” insisted the clerk woman with a chuckle.  “The blue one I had missed so lucky for you I found it just now.  This bag has a brown one with the same dimensions.  The cost will be fourteen gold pieces, or the equivalent in silver.”

It hadn’t even been a day since they’d started their new lives outside of the Lawless Lands, and Trey was already loving how carefree he was feeling.

***

“Welcome to my humble home!” said Kurt enthusiastically as he knocked on the front door of his square sandstone house that overlooked much of the city from atop a small hill.  “Shelline!!!! I know you’re in there!  Open up!”

There was a loud crash followed by cursing, and Trey briefly shielded his eyes from the beating sun overhead to get a better look at the city of Dioko - along with the shimmering harbor in the distance.

“I thought you and Horkque went fishing?” called a feminine voice from the other side.  A few seconds later and the door was thrown open by Kurt’s wife who had apparently just been knitting - as she held a ball of yarn in her hand along with two needles.  She was a portly woman, though her facial features were still very symmetrical and she had long brown hair that came to the shoulderblades along her back.  Whatever it was she had knocked over was nowhere to be seen.

She was about to chide her husband for surprising her - when she abruptly stopped, dropped the ball of thread upon seeing Taen and rushed over to give him a hug.  “MY BOY!  HOW ARE YOU!?  BACK SO SOON TOO!”

Trey pooched his lips and Ashe nudged Aiko with a chuckle.  It was obvious that their necromancer friend Taen knew these people rather well.

Taen looked flustered at the act, but brought his hands up hugged her back before letting go and brushing a hand through his chestnut hair.  “Nice to see you again.”

“Well don’t just stand there!  Come in!” suddenly she noticed the other party members, as if they had been invisible beforehand.  “Oh.  Oh my.  Who are these… people?”

“Guildmates of mine,” replied Taen.  “I realize we all won’t fit, but I wanted to come say hello because we were passing through.”

There was the comment about the ‘guild’ thing again.

“Nonsense!” said Shelline loudly as she went inside to clear up space.  “You can ALL come in!  Give me a little bit of time and I’ll have food prepared for everyone!  I had just bought a week’s worth, so I have more than enough!”

So that was that.  One by one: Taen, Kurt, Horkque, Trey, Ashe, Izumi, Bann, Jason, and Ezdeath followed her inside.  Two water pitchers hung overhead and matted pads around a lowered table were at the center of the main room.  The kitchen had a pantry where they stored food and a firepit right outside a window with an overhang and a small set of stairs led up to the roof with a wooden latch.  The bedrooms had their doors shut currently, so Taen couldn’t tell if Lenith and her sister Hakaza were here or not.

“Are Lenith and Hakaza here?” Taen asked curiously, getting a brief but loud laugh from Kurt.

Shelline, Kurt’s wife, smirked back at him as she scrounged for food.  “Not yet!  They went out with some friends, but they’ll be back by nightfall!  Will you be staying the night here?  I’m sure Lenith would want to see you before you go again.”

Taen blushed and continued to converse with the woman as Kurt and Horkque were speaking with some of the others.  Trey couldn’t help but notice that although the woman had said there was a week’s supply of food, there was actually very little.  The family seemed very nice, but was certainly poor despite their good intentions.

Trey cleared his throat and took a moment to step outside, motioning for Ezdeath, Ashe and Izumi to follow.

Shutting the door behind him he looked to the three women who stared at him curiously, not sure why he’d motioned for them to follow.  “Do you three wana come with me to the market for food?  It’s obvious they don’t have much and I don’t want to strain their wallets if they’re poor.”

Ashe made a sort of chortling sound and stretched, as did Izumi.  “You’re quite kind for one named as the next heir to the void Trey.”

“Ya know, Ezdeath keeps telling me that too.  I don’t think I’m a saint or anything though so those other heirs must have been real assholes.”  Trey took a moment to open the door and let Jason know where they were going in a whisper before heading out.  Turning around, he noticed Ezdeath was already excitedly discussing in depth with the other women - Ashe and Izumi - how she and Trey were an item now.

It made him chuckle - especially with Ashe giving frequent eye rolls his way, given the rest of the harem he had.  She was likely thinking ‘how can Ezdeath and Trey be an item with the setup he has now?  But he kept smiling anyways while heading out.  Turning back to the road - Trey and the others made their way through the streets and ignored the stares at Ezdeath as they went.

***

“33 silver?  For these?  Sounds like a bit much to me,” retorted Trey with arms crossed.  The assassin suit had been molded to cover his waist down in the heat and the wind felt good against his skin while sweat glistened to trickle down his body.  “I bet if I go over to the next stall they’ll sell me their fruit for half the price.”

The mousey man in front of Trey was quite the haggler and had obviously done his fair share of trading over the course of his life.  He had seen the large box of money Trey carried around and was not in the least intimidated by the three scouling women on Trey’s left.  “I highly doubt that young man!  You want to know why?”

“Why?” Trey said with an amused expression.

“Because I just bought out all this fruit from all the other vendors!  I have a monopoly on it for the next three days at least and I can price it HOWEVER I want until then!!!”  The small mousey man gave a gleeful cackle and raised his fist triumphantly and Trey couldn’t help but laugh.

“I believe I like this man.”  Ezdeath said with a grin.

“As you SHOULD!” responded the man promptly pointing a finger up at the girl.  “So how about it!?  The national bank’s exchange rate on gold to silver just changed back to 1 gold for every 3 silver - but I hear the market is going to shift again soon.  So I’ll cut you a deal.  If you don’t want to give me the 33 silver, I’ll let you take it all for 9 gold instead.”

Trey raised an eyebrow and glanced at his three friends before shaking his head.  “You’re a bastard.  Fine, I’ll give you 9 gold.  Choke on it.”

The man cackled triumphantly once more as he handed over the basket of unique fruit Trey had never seen before.  Hopefully it tasted good, but it definitely smelled great.  They were apparently called ‘negi’ fruit, and were like large bright orange pears.  Handing him the 9 pieces of gold and adding the fruit basket to their haul, Trey continued down the market line as he inspected the wares of nearby vendors.  People were generally fast to get out of their way as they went but Trey nearly tripped on a small child who ran out in front of him.

“I’m so sorry!” said the mother of the little boy who giggled obliviously as he evaded his parents.

“No worries,” replied Trey with a smile, feeling more normal than he had in years.  Was this what life was like for most people?  “Kids will be kids.”

Further down, past an arguing group of merchants that pointed fingers and guffawed at one another over various trade deals, Trey saw a stall run by a young teenage boy.  He seemed very upset and didn’t have much to sell, displaying various odds and ends - and was haggling with another older man who appeared to be a mage.  As Trey approached with his three friends in tow, he noticed the item over debate was a spell scroll.

“You can’t even read the language so how would you know whether or not it’s worth that much?” sneered the older bearded man in contempt.  “I’ll give you at most 10 silver for it.  It’s nothing but a low level scroll anyways.”

“But my pa had always told me not to sell it at all, he said it was important,” responded the lanky blonde teenager.  “I’m only selling it now because I need the money for my sister.  I’m not going to let you have it for that much!”

“Have you had any other buyers for it?” sneered the mage, pocketing his clenched fists into his robe.

The boy shook his head.

“As I thought.  There isn’t anyone in this entire city offering aside from me, and I’m telling you it’s garbage.  Take the 10 silver, I’m doing this out of mercy.”

Truth be told, what caused Trey to stop was the domineering attitude the mage was taking on.  If anything, he looked like he was seriously pressuring the kid into a quick deal - and was giving over-his-shoulder glances in a very obvious display of nervousness.

And beyond that… when Trey got a better look at the scroll… it was written in the language of ancient demon.

That was weird.

“Mind if I take a look at the scroll?” Trey butted in curiously, stepping around the aggressive mage who was leaning over the public stall - glaring at the kid with venom in his eyes.

The mage turned with a sneer, but Trey extended his hand out towards the teenager expectantly - utterly unimpressed with the other spellcaster.  “I’d like to see the scroll.  Is that ok with you, boy?”

The blonde, lanky teenager eyed him, his three female companions, and then his eyes fell to the huge sword along Trey’s back that clung to it without any straps.  “Sure… that’s a cool sword you have.  How much did it cost you?”

Trey chuckled as Talsh’Noc’Un hissed loudly, startling both the mage and the boy.  “I didn’t buy it.  Talsh’Noc’Un bound itself to me.”

Upon hearing the name of the sword, the mage’s eyes widened even further.

Trey’d already had numerous discussions with the others about taking Talsh’Noc’Un about town prior to coming.  Apparently, the weapon’s details weren’t public information - so knowing that having it bound as a minion being a prerequisite to using it was very unlikely.  Therefore people wouldn’t necessarily be able to pin Trey down as a summoner just because he had it.  That, and it was highly unlikely anyone from the eastern continent would be coming this far west in search of the bounty.  Brae had assured him that such a thing was highly unlikely.

And if anyone did try anything… Ezdeath - arguably his most dangerous minion - was right at his side.

The boy’s eyebrows furrowed.  “Isn’t that the name of the sword of ruin?  I heard stories of it growing up.”

“It is.” replied Trey pleasantly.  “Want to see it for yourself?”

Trey took the gigantic weapon from his back and held it out with one hand.  He let his hand drop and the godsword floated in the air above the boy’s stand for him to view.  The deep crimson rune glowed brighter as the boy’s hand went out to touch it, so the boy hesitated before being encouraged again by Trey.  “He won’t hurt you.  I promise.”

The boy finally gained enough courage to finally touch the blade with his fingers and chaos magic gently enveloped his hand before he pulled it away with an amazed expression.  “Wow!  Is it really Talsh’Noc’Un?”

“Yup!  Pretty cool huh?”  Trey put his hands on his hips and nodded towards the weapon.  “I can guarantee you that you’ll never find a better weapon than this baby.  He’s my homeboy too, can even speak.  Right Talshy?”

The greatsword righted itself in the air with the blade pointed down and its hiss turned into a ghostly voice:  “What is a home… boy… master…?”

The action startled quite a number of nearby people who stepped back as the living sword erected itself.

Trey chuckled and replied before putting the sword across his back once more.  “It means we’re friends.  So how about it kid?  Mind if I take a look at the scroll?  I’ll read it out loud for you so that you’ll know what it does exactly.  That language on the scroll is Ancient Demon, I can read and speak it fluently.”

The mage to Trey’s right took up a defensive stance as if he was going to flee with the scroll, but thought better of it once Talsh’Noc’Un noticed this and flared to life in challenge with swaths of black and crimson flame - startling the mage and many of the surrounding crowd with a wingspan that dwarfed the much smaller adult man.

“Do it… puny human…” muttered the sword menacingly.

The mage quivered slightly as he felt the sword’s intent direct directly at him, while slowly putting the scroll down and backing away to watch from a safe distance.

“Yes please!” replied the teenager with a curious glance at the weapon again.  “This is supposed to be my most valuable possession, or at least that’s what my pa told me before he died.  I have to sell it now to take care of my sister… so if you’d let me know how much it’s really worth I’d like that.  I don’t know what he’d be doing with a scroll in Ancient Demon though.  He wouldn’t ever tell me where he got it.”

Trey frowned.  “I’m sorry to hear about your father.  Life can be unfair, but yeah I’ll help you out for sure.”  Trey reached for the scroll and unrolled the parchment to look at the runic markings.  Soon he was reading aloud for the boy, mage, and a couple curious passersby to hear.

Spell Scroll: Void Rift

Item Tier: (12) Mythic

Requirements: 730 Intelligence, Dark Attribute

Durability: 7/10

Special: Learn Spell - Travel between worlds with a conjured dimensional rift.  Extremely high cooldown and mana costs.

After reading it out loud he read it to himself one more time.  He then inspected the scroll to make sure the magic was legitimate before handing it to Ashe.  “Is this thing real?  You’ve been studying the ancient demon text with Napoleon, right?  What do you think?”

The girl took the scroll carefully and identified it himself while reading off the text in Ancient Demon for a second opinion.  “The runes are definitely real, and one of the two magic origins that it’s giving off I’m not familiar with.  It would be safe to assume this is real, but your guess is as good as mine.”

Ashe handed the scroll back to Trey who then reread it a third time.

“Kid I hope you realize this thing is worth - I don’t know.  Fuck.  I have no idea how much it’s worth.  But that mage was definitely trying to rip you off.  If I had to guess it’s worth at least a few thousand gold, probably even tens of thousands.”  Trey handed the scroll back to the teenager who just stared at it as he processed what this meant.  “You’d better be careful carrying that thing around.  I’m willing to bet people will try to kill you for it if they find out what it is.  If this mage here actually does read Ancient Demon, then he knew he’d make a killing off it by selling it to someone else… based on his level I doubt he’d be able to use it himself.  Shit, I can’t use it either.”

“It is likely that Xil was using this spell when he took us to and from Oblivion,” commented Ezdeath thoughtfully.

Trey nodded while rubbing his chin deep in thought.

The boy whitened and looked up to Trey, and then to the mage, and then back again to Trey.  “W-what-what do I do?”

Trey laughed, shrugged, and folded his arms.  “No idea kid.  But again, I’d be extremely careful with it.  Find someone honest at one of the banks or guilds in the area.  Someone may buy it from you.  Do they have banks here?  Maybe you can deposit it at one of the banks.”

The couple of people who had been listening in were growing green with envy as they eyed the scroll and the teenage boy from around where Trey stood - realizing how much of an absolutely life changing fortune it was worth if Trey’s words were true.  The mage was fuming at the allegations against him, but didn’t deny it even once as he stood in silence nearby.

“Maybe you could even sell it to that mage who tried to swindle you just now, but if it was me - I wouldn’t sell it for less than 8000 gold pieces.  Bare minimum, as it’s probably worth much more than that.  Dark magic isn’t hard to come by, but you’d be dealing with some shady people.”  Trey whacked the kid on the back with another laugh.  “Don’t look so glum!  You just hit the jackpot!”

“Aren’t you part of that new guild that showed up at the docks this morning?” a man from behind cut in.

Trey turned to eye the elderly, hunched over man - probably a baker by the looks of his outfit.

“Yes I am.  I’m the guild leader for Invictus.” replied Trey.  “Why?”

“Guilds usually have a lot of money, why don’t you buy it from him?  It’d be a lot safer.  There’s a bank down the road you could take him to do the exchange at and you could make sure he deposits the money there.  Looking at all these money-grubbers eyeing him now, I’m not sure letting him walk away with that scroll today would be an option.”  The old baker scratched his head as others turned to glare at him.  “He’d probably be robbed if not killed.  Tens of thousands of gold is enough to make yourself rich beyond belief.  You seem pretty honest yourself or you wouldn’t have told him, so it’s just a thought that crossed my mind.  Looking at you I doubt you’d have a worry in the world after buying it.”

Trey gave the man a half smile.  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.  But I don’t have the money.  At least… I don’t think so.”

He eyed the chest, seriously curious about how much he really had after all.  “Hey Ashe, we sold that white-knight armor set… right?”

Ashe nodded when Izumi abruptly cut in.  “Yes!  On the way to Kurt’s house.  Sold a lot of the other stuff at general vendors too while you were in the clothes shop getting Ezdeaeth fitted… So we have a lot more now.  I think last count we handed you should add up to be about 13,000 gold, 12,000 silver, and good amount of jewels - but not enough to give him a fair price without taking a big hit.  That, and you don’t have the stats to use that scroll yet either. 700 intelligence is no joke.”

A woman nearby whistled once he mentioned how much they had in their coffers, but otherwise no one commented.

The baker chuckled.  “Sounds like you still have a downright fortune.  What do you say boy?”

Ashe butt in with a grip around Trey’s wrist.  “Trey, we do have items of high value that we could exchange with him as well.  Some of the items we took from the Lawless Lands we were unable to sell - because we ran the general goods vendors out of all their money with what we did part with.  The scroll would come in handy later…”

The boy was still like a deer in the headlights and stood staring at the parchment worth more than he’d otherwise make in his entire life.

Trey grimaced and folded his arms, not liking the idea of paying full price for what this thing was actually worth.  But Ashe was right… come time and experience, that scroll would be hella-good to have for learning from.  Even if it wasn’t him, but another guildmate instead.

Damn.  There he was thinking of their group as a guild.  The others were really rubbing off on him.  “Well I guess we could trade some items along with money… What do you think, kid?  Want to go to the bank and do an exchange there?  I’ll try to give you a good deal, but I probably won’t be able to pay you what it’s worth.  That, or I could escort you to the bank and let you take things from there.  Your choice, I won’t force you to do anything that you don’t want to do.”

The baker, mage, and numerous other individuals that had gathered stood patiently waiting for what the boy decided to do.  A crowd had gathered again that day to see what the commotion was about as well.  A couple people were even taking bets one what the lanky, poorly dressed teenager would decide on, and coins were being exchanged as he thought.

Another glance at the livid mage and then to a shady muscular man to his left caused the teenager to quickly make up his mind.  “I’ll sell it to you.  Let’s go to the bank and do the exchange there.”

Trey briskly nodded.  “Alrighty then.  Lead the way.”