The Paladin in the Abyss

Chapter 54 The First Order

Sonam's expression was a bit awkward as she stared at her wound, which was covered with a thin layer of frost that inhibited the Demons' inherent self-healing ability.

A gleam flashed in her eyes, and some kind of energy within her body focused on the wound. The flesh squirmed slowly and took about thirty seconds to finally restore her severed finger to its original state.

"A treasured sword like this only costs 3,000 Gold Coins," Bruto regained his ability to speak.

Sonam threw Frostslash back to Lancelot and turned to stare at the Dwarf.

"Uh, if you really want it..." Cold sweat streamed down the Dwarf's forehead, "Order six at a time, and you can get one free with five purchased."

"Sure, I'll take six of these," the six-armed Serpent Demon suddenly laughed, showing off her sharp, venomous fangs, "but I don't have any gold to pay you. How about we offset it with your monthly Head Tax?"

"Alright, consider it an installment plan," Bruto said happily, "before it is delivered to you, it will first be shown to Tijana as a sample, about a month from now."

"Deal."

Kalalin and Lancelot watched dumbfounded as Bruto completed the first order.

It wasn't until they reached the service area that Lancelot patted the Dwarf on the shoulder and joked:

"You really have a knack for this, selling things to demons must be quite rare, right?"

"If you have something Demons are interested in, they usually just come to steal it directly, and casually kill you in the process," Kalalin said with interest, "Twin Bridges Town really is a magical place, all thanks to the great Lady Tijana."

"What can I do, 3,000 is already the cost price," Bruto was a bit gloomy, "and she kept staring at me, I just couldn't help but give her a discount."

"I felt like I was about to suffocate, and you, who were directly stared at, only gave an eighty percent discount, truly a typical Dwarf," Kalalin joked too, "but from Sonam's perspective, she made a big profit from this deal."

"How so?"

"The Head Tax for us three a month amounts to only 900 Gold Coins, it would take more than a year to offset it all. If something happens to us during that period, there would be no one left to claim the money," Kalalin explained with a shrug, "and according to her, one-third of the mercenaries who go on missions don't return. She probably didn't expect us to last that long."

"Ha! Then she's in for a disappointment!" Bruto slapped the hammer on his waist, "I'm not going to provoke an enemy this hammer can't kill!"

"No one has ever said anything wiser to me," Kalalin agreed and nodded, "but what if the enemy that this hammer can't handle comes to bother you?"

"Isn't there still Lancelot?" the Dwarf said confidently.

Laughter erupted among the three friends. The Abyss was indeed a terrifying place, but with the companionship of friends, everything didn't seem so bad.

The group once again approached Devilspawn Catez's stall. Lancelot tried to persuade Kalalin to sell his portion of the coldwater crystal to him at a price estimated by Bruto. Kalalin agreed without hesitation; it was of no use to him, and he had to spend a lot of gold, especially in this highly inflationary place, on buying spells, books, and scroll materials.

After deducting the Head Tax that Bruto and Lancelot had previously paid for him, Lancelot now owed Kalalin 1,200 Gold Coins, so he planned to sell some more gemstones to the Devilspawn jeweler.

Catez looked at Lancelot, appearing again before him with surprise. Today, the Red Dragon, Krivtar, was indeed absent, but he was surprised that this group had harvested so quickly again.

"3,500 Gold Coins," he said, assessing the value quickly as Lancelot placed a colorful gemstone on the table. "Where on earth do you get all these good items from? I wouldn't want these gemstones to cause any trouble."

"A mud creature," Bruto replied succinctly.

"You seem to be particularly lucky," Catez eyed the Dwarf with suspicion, but wisely did not further challenge the truth of his words, "I really wish I could come across such a mud creature myself."

"Er, could you give me an appraisal of this gemstone?" Suddenly, Bruto took out a ruby from his chest, the one he had picked from the loot after they killed the sandworm lord.

"This is..."

Catez, looking at the fist-sized, deep red yet very translucent gemstone, was too shocked to speak.

Lancelot was speechless at Bruto's casual act, noticing several pairs of eyes turned towards them as soon as Bruto took out the gemstone. His instincts told him that Bruto had already gotten into big trouble.

Catez quickly recovered, his wings suddenly unfolded forward, blocking the view from all around.

"What are you doing?" Bruto quickly stuffed the gemstone back into his chest, "I just asked you for an appraisal, don't overthink it."

"You give it to me, I don't want it," Catez replied with a cold laugh, sitting back down, "My advice is, the next time the Red Dragon comes around, give this gemstone to it and accept the lizard's first offer. Before that, make sure nobody takes this gemstone from your corpse."

"Don't worry about it!" Realizing his own reckless actions, Bruto glanced around and said loudly, "My elder brother is Lord Tijana's paramour, I'd like to see who dares..."

With a loud bang, Lancelot punched the Dwarf on the forehead with True Qi.

"Ouch, that hurts..." Bruto, with a look of aggrievement on his face, was pulled away by Kalalin.

...

The trio then passed through the door on the right-hand side of the Six-Armed Serpent Demon's front desk and entered the mission area to see what kinds of common Black Iron missions were available.

Inside, there were four halls, each bearing emblems made of Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. They took out their Black Iron rings proving their identities and were allowed into one of the halls.

At the front of the hall was a large board covered in Bounty Orders, arranged according to reward. Most Black Iron level tasks offered rewards under 1,000 Gold Coins, some even offering magic items as payment.

They briefly reviewed the tasks, most of which involved clearing monsters from a mine, escorting trade caravans to nearby Neutral Towns, or gathering somewhat rare magical materials. If one ignored the characteristic that the locations were in the Abyss, it wasn't much different from a typical Mercenary Guild.

Lancelot pondered that those mine-clearing missions might be quite suitable for them as they already had experience delving deep into mines, and it would also be an opportunity to gather some mountain crystals or cold water crystals as substitutes for Upper Grade Spirit Stones to prepare for their Foundation Establishment.

However, they didn't need to take on any mission for the moment as they weren't under any immediate pressure to pay the Head Tax (if they could produce six Longswords that satisfied Sonam within a month), but they did need to quickly convert their recent adventuring resources and experience into enhanced strength.

Moreover, there was a piece of tender and juicy shark lizard loin in the Dimensional Bag, and it would spoil if not eaten soon.