I felt my body freezing in place as the large women stood up and started approaching me with a large grin on her face. She looked like a delinquent there is no other way of putting it, her muscles were like those of a world record holder for weight lift. There were also very prominent scars here and there adorning her massive frame, she was tanned I guess from working on the sun on a daily basis. Her attire was the complete contrary of formal as she only had a tank top covering her upper body and a pair of loose sweatpants. Her hands were covered with a thick pair of fingerless gloves, and massive boots were the origin of the heavy footstep sound as she walked.
I unconsciously took a step back while swallowing some saliva. Where had I gone wrong, I had just hunted those pests as I was told, could it be that that special guy should not be hunted? well, it's not my fault, you should have told me. As she approached she began inspecting me, her gaze was sharp as a knife, I guess this is how a small animal feels when being hunted. Prey and predator, that was how this situation felt, and it was more than obvious who was who, and for those of you who don't realize it, of course, I am the prey.
"Oi, why so stiff? you aren't thinking about something rude are ya?"
her voice was strong and would easily instil fear if she desired to. It wasn't feminine but one could tell it was indeed a woman's voice, and as those words finally reached me, I realized that even now I was indeed thinking about rude things. I quickly shook my head and hands trying with all my might to hide the fact that I was. The next thing took me by surprise, the manly woman got smacked on the head by her assistant, as she began scolding her. It seems this was a rather common occurrence since the assistant began apologising in her stead, and began explaining how this guild master was somewhat of a muscle brain and a prankster. I was finally able to relax as I sat on a sofa that was in the middle of the room, and the conversation started.
It didn't take too long to fix my misunderstanding, it seems that the horn I got is quite valuable, and they asked me where I had gotten it. I told them my little brawl with the pests, and while trying to make it sound as if it was in self-defence. It was okay, I didn't go in I murderous rampage, I totally didn't. As I kept explaining Dianna, the large scary woman, who had introduced herself earlier began laughing, as she began praising me. It seems that hunting horned rabbits is easy, but jewel rabbits are a completely different story, by the way, that's how the one with the jewel-like horn is called, great naming sense is great. Either way, jewel rabbits tend to be ten times faster and extremely cowardly not to mention their senses are far better than the normal horned rabbits. The fact that I managed to take one by surprise could be considered an achievement on its own, but I did not only took it by surprise I managed to kill it.
After a while of talking, Dianna finally decided to get in business, for what I understood previously, the monetary system of this world is rather simple. Ten copper coins can get you a cheap meal, a hundred of those make a silver coin. A silver one can get you a night at a rather good inn and a hundred of them makes a gold coin. Gold coins aren't used in normal day to day life expenditures but good equipment is normally sold at around one to five of them. Next would be platinum coins at ten gold coins, only nobles and really high ranking adventurer poses these guys, with one you can buy a cheap house. Finally Star coins, at the value of ten platinum coins, a single one can get you a mansion and with around twenty a small castle is in reach. Only kings possess this one, as they are normally used in exchanges between kingdoms.
Going back on topic, the jewel rabbit's horn is worth a gold coin at the lowest and five at the highest. I couldn't help but open my eyes wide, after all the pouch that Gaia had left with money for me only had ten silver coins. That pest was worth at least ten times what Gaia had left for me. I am sure that if this was some kind of anime or something my pupils would change into dollar signs. I controlled myself to the best of my abilities and asked how much would they be willing to give me. From the looks of it, Dianna is a good-hearted person, if she was greedy she would have offered the lowest value possible of one gold coin or even lower. Instead, she told me about its value and offered two gold coins and without any hesitation I accepted. Two gold coins, that was an absurd amount of money, at least in my mind it was, with that much I could spend a whole month lazing around without worries and have some left.
After I received my reward for the quest and the horn I began wondering what to do now, Dianna looked excited to have acquired the horn. From what she told me it was a rare ingredient for potions or magical items, I guess I hit the jackpot with that one. Either way as of now I need to find a place to rest, it's getting dark and I am hella tired, not to mention the dried blood that felt super uncomfortable on my skin. As I thought about it a scary thought entered my head, are there no proper baths in this world? I mean its a world of swords and magic, the technology is rather lacking meaning the possibility of a nice shower or bath is rather low. No, I need to keep my hopes up, I might get lucky again.
There is nothing worse than having your hopes and dreams crushed. I went around the town, asking each and every inn I found if they had a bath or shower system. They looked at me with eyes of confusion, such complex luxuries do not exist for commoners, I feel like crying. A large sigh escaped me as I finally decided to stay in one of the inns as the sun began to hide in the horizon. I had to wipe the blood off of me with a wet towel and a bucket of water, I already miss my comfy modern life. After I finished I realized my clothes are just as dirty as I was, but they are the only ones I have. Sleeping with them on won't do, I need to wash them but sleeping with wet clothes is just as bad. I steeled my resolve and decided to sleep naked, this was the first time and to tell the truth I felt terribly vulnerable. There is no use complaining the faster I fall asleep the better, and with that my first day in this weird world came to an end.
I had a dream, people were calling my name with tear-stained faces they looked sad, I wonder why. It didn't matter how much I tried to make them smile it was as if they couldn't hear me. No matter what I tried it was as if they could not see me. At some point, I simply gave up, and they did too, words of appreciation I could not understand, and Finally their backs. They walked away leaving me behind, I tried to follow but it didn't matter what I tried, the space separating use was like a growing ocean with no end in sight. I was alone now, with no one at my side, I began to cry but I didn't know why. It was painful to no end as if my soul was being torn apart but in the end, it didn't matter I was left behind.
I woke up in a pool of sweat, I couldn't recall what I had dreamed but for sure it wasn't nice as I could feel tears in my face, I wiped them while standing up. An embarrassing realization came to me as I felt my face turning red as I had forgotten I was completely naked. With swift movements I dressed up, my clothes were still a bit moist but nothing I could do about it. As I calmed down I looked out the window, it was early, too early, for me to wake up this early is a bad omen, is the world going to end today? leaving jokes aside the view was breathtaking, the town was being illuminated by the sun that had just gone over the horizon. I stood there for a while enjoying the view and the cool breeze that came from time to time.
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