Beastforged Bond Chapter 16b

“You killed a Prouncer? Alone?”

There was a hint of disbelief in his voice. I smiled back at the rchant and nodded, trying to hide the excitent bubbling in my chest.

“Good job.” The rchant regarded for a mont and grimaced. “Though looking at those bandages, I don’t know if I should be praising you.”

A faint sigh resounded, and he mumbled sothing I didn’t quite catch. His eyes darted back to the corpse bag, which was suddenly surrounded by glimring particles. They appeared out of nowhere and coated the corpse bag as it began to move.

One mont, the corpse bag was on the counter, and in the next it levitated before my eyes, scaring the living shit out of . I gasped and pulled back, only to catch the rchant grinning at .

“Follow .” He waved at , his sly grin etched into my mind.

What a jerk. He’s playing with !

That being said, I followed the rchant and the levitating corpse bag into a small room in the back of the shop. The room didn’t appear special at first glance, but the low temperature caught by surprise. Most winters were already relatively cold, but this room was even colder. I shuddered and had to refrain from complaining out loud as the rchant approached a large table placed in the middle of the room, looking unbothered by the bone-deep cold.

The rchant retrieved the Prouncer from the corpse bag and placed it on the table as if he were lifting a feather. It was vastly different from the effort it took to lift and carry the Prouncer until I finally reached the rchant’s shop. However, I was not given any ti for self-pity as a small, blue-skinned humanoid materialized beside the rchant.

The humanoid had elongated arms covered in small, overlapping scales. It was smaller than but much bulkier, with short ears and a hairless, massive head that fit oddly well with the humanoid’s singular, gargantuan eyeball.

Is that a beast? A… Soulkin? I nearly blurted aloud, my words swallowed as I watched the humanoid put on a monocle etched with intricate, golden lines.

“The Prouncer was killed with a piercing wound to its throat.” The rchant looked at , yet his eyes were blank as he added more information, all while the humanoid beast bent over to study the carcass.

More words reached my ears, but I barely registered them as I stared at the Soulkin. I had no idea what kind of beast it was, but it was humanoid, and that was more than enough to pull my attention. Humanoid beasts were relatively rare, and it was even rarer to find humanoid Soulkins. In fact, this was the first I’d seen. Maybe it was nothing special for others, but seeing the intelligence in its massive eyeball was enticing.

“First ti seeing a humanoid Soulkin? Don’t worry, your reaction is rather normal. Everyone reacts similar,” the rchant said loud enough for to hear, his voice laced with joy. “He is my pride and the best friend I could have hoped for.”

I turned back to the rchant and grinned at the vibrant smile lingering on his lips. The rchant genuinely ant what he said.

He shook his head after a mont and cleared his throat.

“But let’s get back to business. That is what you are here for, right?” A light laugh escaped his lips, and he pointed back to the beast carcass.

“This is the corpse of a recently matured 4-Star Wild. Recently because it only barely reached the threshold of a 4-Star, whereas the racial limit of a Prouncer is at the higher ends of the fourth Star. It is also a little skinny, though that hardly affects the beast’s valuables.”

The rchant didn’t go into detail after that, and it wasn’t like I wanted to know which body parts were valuable. It did not really matter.

“I can offer you 780 Credits for the carcass. That is above the market rate considering the corpse will have to be dissected and—”

“I agree.” I accepted without hesitation. There was no need to listen any further.

The rchant scoffed and muttered sothing about ‘rookies’ again, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not ant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“780 Credits it is.” He nodded and regarded for a second. “You should consider purchasing a storage unit. You can also rent one. They’re more affordable and preserve infused herbs and beast carcasses for extended periods. Depending on the storage type and other factors, of course.”

Was that the rchant’s spiel? A sche to ensure I’d lose the Credits even before they hit my bank account?

Unfortunately, as obvious as the spiel was, the rchant’s words caught my attention as a holographic screen—a catalogue of rentable storage units—materialized before .

“What in the Rulers…” I sealed my lips, but my body language had to be speaking volus.

“Do you think they’re expensive?”

Was that even a question? Even the cheapest storage unit to rent was priced at 1,000 Credits per day. The day’s haul would have barely been enough to cover the cost of a single day.

“The storage units I rent out are rather large and have been upgraded with perfect preservation. So, even if you focus on hunting 1-Star Wilds, you’d make profit as long as–...” The rchant looked at and noticed the deadly glare. He stopped, let out an awkward laugh, and waved his hand dismissively. “Forget what I said. Just keep in mind that you could potentially rent a storage unit. As long as you don’t break or lose it, you can easily make so good money with maximum comfort.”

I could only force a smile and wait until I received a bank transfer notification on my phone. Once the Credits had been added to my bank account, I left the shop in a hurry, my eyes lingering on my ID and the Credits showing four lovely digits.

Finances: 1044 Credits

It was a lot more money than I dread of owning before my father returned with Aureus’ egg. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last much longer. My clothes were torn, and I needed a new set to wear—hiding the deep claw marks from my parents—and Aureus would be hungry once he’d wake up.

Thus, I ordered another kilogram of Gaia’s kibble and several kilograms of Wagur at to be delivered ho. I found a cheap set of clothes that looked sowhat similar to my old, torn clothes, and purchased the whole set for six Credits. My heart tightened with every purchase, but I continued, and logged into the website where all of our monthly bills and loans were listed.

Searching through the catalogue of bills that should have been paid several months ago, I felt even worse, and by the ti I returned to the Ninth Sector, I had fully paid one of the smaller loans set at 539 Credits.

It didn’t leave with many Credits to spare—too few to repay another loan, yet too much to leave as is—but I didn’t spend them yet. I had the ans to earn a lot more Credits in the next few weeks, and I’d be a fool not to use them.

As my feet dragged through my ho sector, I toyed with the idea of going out to hunt again. Worse still, I reconsidered renting a storage unit. Maybe I could negotiate a deal with the rchant and rent it for cheap if I sell everything I collect from outside to him. Exclusivity warranted a better deal, just like renting a storage unit for a week or a month would.

But it was not like I wanted to fight beasts like the Prouncer every day. I’d focus on 1-Star Wilds—2-Star if they attacked in small groups of two, three at most. That’d make earning several hundred Credits to pay for the storage unit a struggle and a push toward bankruptcy if anything went wrong.

Back in the house, I found my parents with a drone carrying packages. They accepted the packages—probably the at and kibble I’d purchased less than an hour ago—and greeted with curious looks. Did they notice my new clothes, or did they see any bandages?

My heart skipped a beat, but nobody ntioned anything. I safely maneuvered through their questions and returned to my room, my eyes lingering on a new notification—a ssage from Daniel.

[Chatterbox D: Dude! I didn’t see your ssage until just now! Teach has been terrorizing for the last few days. He had brew a bunch of evolution serums, and took away my access to ethernet. I couldn’t do anything about it, dude! Teach is demon. He really is! Can you imagine…]

I skipped through the rest of his ssage until I landed on the last few sentences.

[I am rambling too much, aren’t I? Whatever, do you want to go for a hunt now? We haven’t been out for a while now and there’s still one or two hours of sunlight left. Or we can go tomorrow at dawn. I will have to talk to Teach and reschedule a few things but I can make it!]

The threat of the 4-Star Wild was still hanging in the air, leeching on my confidence, but my mind cleared up as I typed a response.

[It’s fine. You’re already busy as is. Don’t stress yourself with my problems. I’ll just train a little bit more.]

As long as I paid enough attention to my surroundings, I shouldn’t have any problems finding weaker beasts. Avoiding the strongest Wilds should be no problem either. The 4-Star Prouncer was an exception, as 4-Star and 5-Star Wilds rarely left the forest’s center.

I… didn’t need Daniel to earn money. No, that wasn’t entirely true. I was unwilling to bother Daniel more than I already did. There was no need to bore him to death with my problems. Daniel had already helped a lot more than I deserved. Asking him for even more when he was busy and covered in heaps of work was not okay.

Daniel didn’t respond right away. It took him much longer than usual to type a ssage, and it was also a lot shorter than expected when it finally popped up on my screen.

[Chatterbox D: If you say so…]

I raised an eyebrow at the phone, only to narrow them as a second ssage popped up.

[Chatterbox D: Do you have ti on the 15th? Even if you don’t, change your schedule and keep the 15th open. Co to the estate – it’s important.]

What was that?

That was a weird ssage, even for Daniel.