What 50 coppers gets you…

  While pondering her next move, Nox wandered the streets of Munt with 50 coppers inside her jerkin. Sure, she could’ve spent the time waiting until Marcus and Janet were ready to try the dungeon again by hunting in the sewers, but at most she would make 4 to 5 coppers a day, while she had close to 380,000 coppers stashed at the guild. Nor would it change the situation in regards to that dungeon.

  She passed a stall offering sweetmeats for 20 coppers, but whatever sweetmeats were, the young woman decided not to waste any of her 50 coppers on them. Nor on the hot fruit that looked so tasty. Then again, she only knew the names of the fruit thanks to her being given the nguage when she’d fallen into this world. How they tasted wasn’t something she actually knew, and if by hot they meant spicy, she figured she’d best stay away from them. Especially given her years on a diet of very bnd rat bread.

  Pausing, she came to a stop to stare at a game common in both her old world and this one. It was a betting game where one risked money while a hustler pced a ball under one of three cups and moved those cups around. If you could follow where the ball went or could guess it, you got double your money. From the speed the hustler snapped those cups back and forth, Nox knew she would never be able to follow the ball—even assuming the man wasn’t just swiping the ball. As she continued to watch, she decided no one could move that fast, that he must be using some sort of haste spell.

  Idly, Nox did the math. Without her worldly skill, she would have a 33-percent chance of guessing right. With the 24-percent bonus the worldly skill granted her, it would be a 41-percent chance of guessing right. Again, assuming the man wasn’t just swiping the ball. Regardless, pying would only lose her money, so she walked past the stall.

  At a storefront she paused to study the sign that advertised elixirs to restore mana and stamina. In this world, as with her old one, the rich had advantages. Here one of those advantages was that they could buy expensive elixirs to speed up the leveling of their Blessing. Of course that only went so far. Using too many of any sort of elixir could lead to mana poisoning. She’d seen such stores before, and by her estimates the elixirs usually averaged 50 silvers for a vial that would restore either 100 mana or 100 stamina. Nox gulped and shuddered a little. That was enough for 2500 pieces of rat bread—enough to keep her fed for 833 days.

  “Get lost,” a finely dressed woman yelled at Nox from the shop’s doorway.

  Moving on, Nox continued to study the stores. One offered weapons, and she was sorely tempted to go inside, but, somehow, she managed to restrain herself. It would be agony to look at the weapons she so craved, but which she didn’t dare waste her minor fortune on.

  Frig, I might as well have spent my time hunting rats, Nox mused. I would’ve made 3 to 5 coppers, and I wouldn’t be subjecting myself to all this temptation. A rich person trying to dungeon delve could hire several high-level guards they could equip with steel weapons and armor. Plus they could use elixirs to speed things along. Nor would they need to worry about things like dungeon entrance fees. Boy oh boy, am I so envious right now. Imagine trying the Dungeon of Mockery with five level 25 soldiers, all equipped in steel armor and armed with steel weapons, and who are backed up with five level 25 mages.

  Nox shook her head to clear it of both the imagery and the envy.

  Next on the street she came to a store that offered clothing that were made of things aside from leather. Again, she recalled her past. Sure, she’d only been fourteen when she’d somehow isekaied herself, nor had she ever been interested in boys, but she’d still liked to dress at least a little bit nice. Clean shirts and jeans with no holes in them, and that sort of stuff. Nice clothes were now a thing of the past, and the drooling young woman viciously crushed the urge to, just this once, buy something nice. Not that she had any reason to aside from vanity and envy, but the craving was strong within her. Nor would clothes like that st long, and the young woman shuddered thinking of the cleaning fees.

  Another store offered jewelery, and upon seeing the prices, Nox fervently wished she’d been wearing some when she’d been isekaied. Maybe then she could’ve tried selling that instead of herself, and she would’ve ended up with a trade Blessing, not a prostitute Blessing. Sure, she would’ve still preferred a mage Blessing, but between a trade and a prostitute Blessing, trade won hands down.

  Nox sighed and again shook her head, trying to clear it of the ‘what ifs’ that pgued her mind. The one that truly haunted her was that if this had never happened, and if she was back on Earth, she would now be preparing for college. Well, that was assuming she could’ve afforded the expense. In math and science she’d excelled, but… well, she’d gotten 42 percent on Mrs Albright’s st nguage exam. A schorship would’ve been out for her.

  Sighing heavily, the girl looked around and her eyes focused on a shop selling paper and writing supplies. She made a beeline for the pce. After all, when they encountered the more difficult ‘riddles’ inside the dungeon, she would need some way to write to work through the problem. She stepped inside and started to look around. A shock ran through her, and Nox knew she’d just turned white. Everything was priced in silver. Lots and lots of silver.

  One stack of paper she saw cost 1 silver per 5 sheets, while another stack was listed as being 5 silvers per 1 sheet. And the cheapest ink was 10 silvers for a very small container. Sticks of charcoal were cheaper at 2 per silver, while sticks of chalk were listed as being worth a silver each.

  Nox gulped.

  “Are you sure you should be in here,” a voice asked, not quite snickering.

  “Clearly I shouldn’t be,” Nox admitted and fled the store. That she would need something to write with was obvious, and she would eventually have to buy something, but perhaps the absurd prices were because she’d nded in a shop that sold only luxury goods to rich people… and there were cheaper writing supplies to be gotten elsewhere. Certainly small charcoal pencils should not be 2 for 1 silver.

  I could go to another dungeon, the woman mused as she continued to wander the streets. There were dungeons that were more dungeon-like, where you entered them and progressed through their challenges to the very end. But no one would take a prostitute along on those—except to alleviate stress among the other dungeon delvers. Plus they were pces where safe rooms were far apart and danger lurked around every corner. Nox knew she wasn’t equipped to handle that sort of dungeon, as opposed to one where the monsters were all conveniently located in one room with a safe room just steps away.

  Coming to a stop, Nox looked around and sighed. Slowly she turned and started to trudge towards the adventuring guild where she stepped inside and waited for a counter to become free.

  “Yes,” the man behind the counter asked.

  “What’s the cheapest pce in this city to buy charcoal pencils and paper,” she asked.

  The man stared.

  Nox waited.

  The man continued to stare.

  Nox continued to wait.

  “You came here to ask that,” the man finally asked.

  “Yes,” Nox replied.

  “Get lost,” the man fumed. “We’re busy enough as it is without idiots who can’t find a store selling writing supplies coming in to badger us. Not that someone like you could ever afford those stores.”

  Nox blinked. It seemed the trope in anime and isekai shows of adventuring guilds being friendly pces where you could ask any question was entirely wrong. At least when it came to this city.

  Turning aside, she started to trudge away, only to have to jump to one side as an extravagantly dressed young man hurled himself at the counter. “What’s the cheapest pce in this city to buy paper and ink,” he snapped at the guild worker.

  “That would be Mrs Ink’s ink and paper store, sir,” the guild worker replied in a very friendly, professional tone. “It’s on 8D Street, not far from here.”

  Nox sighed. She was then spun around as the man rushed past her.

  “Hey, you, get out of the bloody way,” the guild worker snapped at her. “You’re hindering people.”

  Lips pursed, Nox hurried from the guild. While people liked to name things, and while each street in the city had a proper name, having a more sensible means of designating locations made it easier for people to navigate. In this world, locally anyway, streets going one way were named after a number, while streets running perpendicur to them were named after a letter. The 8D location the guild worker had mentioned was the shop she’d just come from.

  Aimlessly she wandered until a nice, alluring scent drew her attention. Soon she was beside a store that sold perfume and other cosmetics. Idly she wondered if cosmetics here were heavily based on lead with all its toxicity, as they’d been centuries ago back on Earth. Either way, the perfume called to her, and it was with a heavy step that the young woman turned away from yet another store.

  When a drop of rain plunked down on her bald head, Nox quickly raised the hood to her jerkin. Then there came a downpour and the woman turned to make her way back to the alley. Her current predicament showed just how lucky she’d been to have had Ginger there waiting when she’d arrived in the city of Lunk to help her with the Dungeon of the Cyclops. Certainly if Marcus and Janet were to try fighting 5 cyclops, they would immediately get creamed. Not because they were that bad, but because Ginger was just that good with her beastkin speed and strength and that backstab of hers.

  At the alley she paused upon seeing Mi and the beastkin woman she’d just been thinking about staring furiously at each other.

  “This thing said she knows you,” Mi fumed to Nox, but with her enraged eyes still on the beastkin.

  “She does,” Nox replied, acutely aware of how much some people hated beastkin. She figured the myths of how in the ancient past humans had sughtered tribes of beastkin to take their nd, and who had been sughtered in return, weren’t just true—but was a story that’d happen time and time again until it’d become lodged in the collective memory of the people of this world.

  “I didn’t want to come,” Ginger sullenly insisted, arms crossed as she switched her focus to Nox. “Verdant insisted on it for some stupid reason. But it seems you already got a team put together, so I’ll be off.”

  “Ginger, I need you,” Nox sobbed, pcing as much emphasis on the word ‘need’ as she could. “There’s no way I can get through this dungeon without you. Well, assuming I can get through it at all. I’ve only seen three of those so-called riddles so far.”

  Both Mi and Ginger stared at Nox who was on her knees, hands csped as if in prayer, while staring beseechingly up at the shocked beastkin woman.

  “We can’t work with a beastkin,” Janet said, coming up beside them. “It would taint future employment. You should be careful too if you ever hope to work at a decent brothel.”

  Nox shrugged. Personally, from the brief time she’d spent with them, she’d found herself liking both Janet and Marcus, but that was that, and this was something else entirely. Nor, aside from being dungeon-delving partners, was she entirely sure of her retionship with Ginger. For more than a thousand days they’d met outside the Dungeon of the Cyclops, killed the monsters inside a single room, and then parted ways. But she knew that as dungeon-delving partners went, the beastkin woman was top-notch reliable and immensely skilled.

  Ginger blinked, and with Janet’s ultimatum given, she waited for Nox to quickly retract her words. Instead the woman, who she’d long since come to understand was utterly and totally insane, remained kneeling before her with a beseeching expression writ across her face and desperate hope lighting her unusual dark eyes.

  The beastkin woman scratched her head.

  “You’re not one of those weird humans who has a beastkin fetish, are you,” Ginger demanded.

  Nox blinked, and now Ginger was the one who felt utterly and totally insane. As far as she knew, in the nearly four seasons she’d known her, the crazy woman still kneeling before her had never had a sexual thought in her head, period! And if there had been, then Ginger knew she would’ve known it. Humans loved to talk—by the great creator did they love to talk—and half their talk was about sex. There would’ve been suggestively sweet words and stolen gnces, of which, with the kneeling woman, there’d never been a sign. Plus humans stank when they were lusting, and of the woman before her there’d never been once such a stench.

  “Clearly not,” Ginger said, blushing. “Sorry.”

  “I only came to this city on a rk because it was close to the city of Lunk city and the dungeon monsters were supposed to be easy,” Nox informed the embarrassed woman. “But the monsters are tougher than expected, and some can fly.”

  “I won’t be much good against something that can fly,” Ginger pointed out.

  Nox nodded. “I know. But for those on the ground you’re superb. I’ll need someone else for the monsters that can fly.”

  “I’ll stick with the group if you’ll allow it,” Marcus stated. “Though against that bee my spells didn’t prove all that effective.”

  Aware of the scowl on Ginger’s face, Nox nodded. Given the hatred between the species, it wasn’t too unlikely that the man was sticking with the group so he could sabotage it ter. But her instincts told her otherwise. He was interested in the dungeon, and was willing to risk pying around in there with a beastkin despite the way it would tarnish his reputation. He was also quite knowledgeable in that he knew what pi was, and what Euler’s Number was.

  “Humph,” Ginger retorted, arms still crossed.

  “Anyone else willing to work with a cranky beastkin,” Nox asked Mi.

  “No,” the woman said, after giving it what appeared to be some honest thought. “Nor would I recommend it for Marcus, but he knows the risks.”

  Nox nodded. It was what she’d expected, but Ginger and Marcus were still less firepower than she’d hoped for.

  “The whole problem with the Dungeon of the Cyclops, and the Dungeon of Mockery,” Ginger fumed, “is that you need to complete it with the same party as you started with. Miss one member, or add one member to the party, and you get set back to the start. It’s absurd.”

  “Yeah,” Nox fumed. Of course she could see why it’d been set up like that—else you could have one group clear the dungeon, and another person step in for the st room to cim the loot at the end. But it was as annoying as heck. And on top of that, it was a long-term commitment.

  Ginger paced around for a few seconds, then sighed. “If you don’t mind more beastkin, I can get two,” she stated. “Both hunters. Sure, they’ll hate your guts, but they’ll also help clear out any monsters.”

  Nox shrugged. “Sure. I don’t mind. I mean, I tolerated you for this long.”

  “Harrumph." Scowling ferociously, Ginger gred at Nox.