(Madelyn"s POV)I had woken up early in the morning. As usual, Lilith was in the same bed as me. It was a compromise to keep costs down. Currently, there"s only 3 beds and 5 of us. Young Mi has the one bed all to herself, in her very own bedroom. It"s also been really quiet without Steven, but we"ve been moving things along well. Young Mi found a plot of land that was for sale and believes it"s perfect. I"ve seen it, it"s only half a mile south of the town near the river.
I get up, get dressed, and go out to the front of the inn. Young Mi was already up and speaking to the innkeeper. For someone that lived in isolation for so long, she sure loves to talk.
Madelyn: "Good morning."
Young Mi: "Good morning, Madelyn."
There has to be more I could do today. I"ve been lounging around and haven"t done anything myself. I walk myself over to the job board and try to look for something I could do.
Young Mi: "Do you see anything interesting?"
She walked to my side.
Madelyn: "There"s a delivery request, and I want to earn my own money."
The sound of new shoes has been on my mind. The soles of mine are worn and beginning to become uncomfortable. The job pays well; up to 2,000 Yingbi depending on the type of goods. It"s the same one I"ve seen the other day and definitely a quest chain that"s calling out to me.
Madelyn: "Young Mi, would you help me with this? I"ll split the money."
Young Mi: "Sure, I"d like to buy myself something. It"s been too long since I"ve been to a store."
She"s probably really doing it to keep an eye on me. She"s such a mom! Then again, it"s for the best that I bring someone along because I don"t have a map if I happen to get myself lost.
The poster asked to pick up goods from the general store and that"s where we began. The person in charge gave us both a backpack, or a knapsack, and told us to keep north and we"ll easily see an outpost.
I walked side by side with Young Mi on the dirt road. We didn"t speak much at first and I was rather tempted to do so. She usually has something interesting to say or a good story to tell.
Madelyn: "Young Mi, what was it like when you were younger?"
Young Mi: "Younger… before I became a Wight? It… was dark. People did what they had to do just to make it. I never held a lot of people too close after what happened."
Madelyn: "You kept Dai-tai and Niroja around."
Young Mi: "I suppose it was my maternal instincts. I don"t regret it either. We learned a great deal from each other."
She smiled.
Coming from a Wight, she probably learned how to be a person again.
Possibly…
I can"t imagine what a Wight feels or thinks.
Young Mi: "What about you, Madelyn?"
Madelyn: "Me?"
Young Mi: "What were your friends like? Or your family."
Madelyn: "Ciara… I guess. She was my first true friend in high school. A lot happened and I failed as a friend. I never kept anyone else as close as she was. Everyone else took it personally that I was unhappy and I end up having to make them feel better."
It all changed when I came here.
Young Mi: "You have me and the others. Well, while Dai-tai and Niroja can be naive, they did grow up to be caring people. I can"t speak for Lilith, you know her better than I do. And while some of Steven"s actions may lack proper judgment, he"s a good person."
Madelyn: "Thank you, Young Mi."
I just want to stop talking about it.
We finally had arrived at the outpost. It was a big camp on both sides of the dirt road. It seemed pretty elaborate for a town, but I suppose it comes with the person in charge being a veteran. We walked around aimlessly, looking for the person we were supposed to deliver to when we came across one of the guards shouting at some adventurer.
Adventurer: "Me, a bandit? I"m nothing of the sorts! I said I found their camp with rumored gold."
Guard: "We can"t spare anyone to go treasure hunting. Now get lost!"
This is what I had in mind by a quest chain! It was subtle too. We set our bags near a tent and I walk up to the Adventurer with Young Mi behind me. This is the moment I"ve been waiting for.
Madelyn: "Gold?"
Adventurer: "Yes, gold. Bandit camp gold. n.o.body will ask questions kind of gold. There"s only 9 at the camp and from what I scouted, they"re the ones troubling the town. There could be at least millions of Yingbi there and these idiots won"t listen."
Young Mi: "I love the idea of earning money, but I avoid unnecessary violence."
Madelyn: "Young Mi, we could use the money."
Young Mi: "What we have isn"t enough? Fine, just this once."
Adventurer: "Alright, but can you 2 fight? I know you"re women and—"
Young Mi: "Mage."
Madelyn: "Archer."
He paused only momentarily.
Adventurer: "Alright. Yeah, maybe I could work with that. We should get moving right now."
We worked from a delivery to a fetch quest! Young Mi pulls me to the side. I don"t doubt that she"s worried, nor do I mind, but I"m starting to realize that she might get in the way.
Young Mi: "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Madelyn: "Yes, I"m sure. I know I"ll be safe if I have you watching my back!"
Young Mi: "Alright, I"m simply asking."
The Adventurer takes us further away from town to the bandit camp. About halfway up we started to sneak through the trees and make ourselves less noticeable. We moved fluidly and arrived at the camp, hiding behind a fallen log. It was a shack with tents all around outside, and as the Adventurer said, we only see 9 bandits drinking their worries away at the campfire.
Adventurer: "I say we should stay hidden in the trees and pick them off."
Young Mi: "Or we can just subdue them? I am a mage."
Adventurer: "You? All 9 of them? Aren"t you exaggerating yourself there?"
Young Mi: "I could use a Wind spell."
She stands and raises her arms up to her shoulders. It looked like nothing was happening until a heavy wind blows in and one by one, the bandits fall to the floor unconscious. I looked in awe as Young Mi had just used a single spell to incapacitate 9 individual bandits!
Adventurer: "What… the f.u.c.k was that!?"
Young Mi: "Wind magic, Crying Winds, they"ll be out for a few hours."
Adventurer: "Let"s tear this place down and find the gold!"
Young My and I both went to the shack and looked everywhere. Only to quickly find myself distracted when I started fiddling with a bow that was on a table. It was just a simple recurve bow with a leather handle but it looked really nice. Very simple, like it"s made to do just the job and not brag about it.
Young Mi: "A bow, Madelyn? It looks nice, you should keep it."
Madelyn: "I think I will."
I"ve only used a bow for hunting, but this might be useful for self-defense.
There was no arrows or quivers, so I wrapped it around me and continued searching. We were about ready to stop when my foot goes through the floorboard. Young Mi immediately comes to my aid and helps pull me out. Looking back down the hole, I see something shiny and it wasn"t until we removed the floorboards that beneath it was gold.
Lots of it…
Madelyn: "Holy f.u.c.k…"
Young Mi: "Oh my, that is a lot of gold."
There had to be at least 20 really heavy gold bars. Not more than 30 pounds each. The Adventurer comes in soon after to check up on us and sees the gold. He stood in silence by the amount alone!
Adventurer: "That"s… amazing! There"s so much and we can"t carry all this!"
Young Mi: "We should take what we can carry. We"ll take a bag from outside and take 5. It should be all we need."
Madelyn: "They"re very heavy!"
Young Mi: "We can switch between on the way back."
Adventurer: "Are you sure? This is way more than I expected!"
Young Mi: "We are sure. Just don"t stick around too long."
Young Mi grabs a couple of bags and places 3 in hers and 2 in mine. Despite having almost 60 pounds on my back, it"s pretty comfortable as you could get carrying this much weight.
Madelyn: "I think I can manage, can you?"
Young Mi: "I don"t mind the extra burden. It"ll be quite a walk back though."
The Adventurer stayed behind and we made our way back to town. We figured that the Adventurer would tell the guards at the outpost about the camp but Young Mi still went ahead and informed them.
And like the Adventurer, she was ignored!
She brushes it off and keeps walking. We could get some kind of reward, along with the gold, for clearing the bandits and she"s walking away like it isn"t too big of a deal!
Madelyn: "They"ll be wasting time if we don"t convince them. And we can even take credit for clearing the camp, Young Mi!"
Young Mi: "I don"t want to be recognized for anything. Did you forget what happened to Steven? Besides, that Adventurer is going to be very rich by tomorrow. And for the gold, a Tailor should have what we need to tell if this is real, Madelyn."
Madelyn: "It"s weight isn"t enough? It"s not like we"re lugging around lead."
Wait…
I sure hope I didn"t jinx it just now…
We keep pace into town and eventually find a tailor near the inn, just down the street. The store had mannequins draped in a wide variety of clothes from casual clothes for the upcoming winter and more formal qipaos. I know where I"m shopping now!
A cheery Goblin pops through a screen and welcomes us.
Tailor: "Welcome, welcome! Have you been here before? You"re wearing my coats, and my cloak, but I don"t remember seeing either of you before."
Young Mi: "A friend bought our coats."
Tailor: "That"s great! What can I help you with today? Do you need a blouse, shirt, skirt, vest, or maybe some moccasins from Ostroven?"
Madelyn: "I actually wanted to test if we have real gold or not."
Tailor: "Gold? A lot of people come in here thinking they have gold, but it usually isn"t. You won"t be wasting my time, will you?"
Madelyn: "I a.s.sure you that this won"t be a waste of time."
We place the bags on the counter and show the Tailor 5 different gold bars. I didn"t pay too much attention but now I see that the bars aren"t stamped. It would"ve been nice to see "24K" stamped somewhere.
Tailor: "Interesting."
He started experimenting with one of the bars. He dumped it in a bucket of water and watched it sink straight to the floor. Then he dries it off and places a towel under it, touching it with a magnet that also does nothing. He finishes it with a final test by scratching it with a file near the corner and pouring an acid that didn"t react at all. He does the same for all the bars and it ended the same.
Tailor: "This… is real gold. I"ve done everything."
Madelyn: "It is real! I knew it!"
Young Mi: "And how much would they sell for?"
Tailor: "5 bars, eh, I would… buy off you for… hmm, a million Yingbi? I could buy 3 off you now, it"s all I can afford right now and the rest of the gold I can buy as soon as tomorrow."
Madelyn: "It"s 3 gold bars I don"t have to carry."
They really killed my shoulders!
Tailor: "A drink at the inn will make you feel better."
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I"ve earned my rest…
We stood in silence as the Tailor disappeared behind the screen. Only to return just as quickly with a small lockbox filled with money in it.
Tailor: "This here"s 600,000 Yingbi. It"s payment for 3 of the gold bars. You can go ahead and count it."
Young Mi goes through each bill rather quickly. After everything was accounted for, we returned to the inn. The others were lounging around, enjoying sweets. I couldn"t help but walk in conceited and with a huge grin.
Dai-tai: "Well, aren"t you a ray of sunshine! Where"d you go, mama?"
Young Mi: "I helped Madelyn with a quest. I mean a job. I apologize, Madelyn seems to be influencing me."
She proceeds to tell them everything that had happened. Everyone looked at us in disbelief until Young Mi shows them the gold we had left and the lockbox just to be extra.
Dai-tai: "No way…"
Niroja: "Does that mean you"re rich?"
Lilith: "That"s interesting. It would be more in the middle cla.s.s, Niroja."
Madelyn: "Well, I"m not rich anyway. I promised to give half to Young Mi."
I"ll still have more money than Steven.
I wonder what I could buy with 300,000 Yingbi…