"Wait! No! You can't do that! We had a deal!"

The skinny appraiser stepped forward and stood in front of the wagon with valuables, protecting it with his own body from the hands of the guards.

"Citizen, step back! This is a guards business already!"

But he was pushed back effortlessly.

"Haa... aren't you forgetting about someone?"

But then the red-haired girl, who up until then was busy stopping the Dandelions from voicing their complaints, casually walked between the armed guards and the wagons and beckoned her blue undead to join her.

"Prisoner, if I was in your place, I would stay put and shut up."

The guards' captain frowned and scoffed at her.

"Oh, my! How scared I am! Woe is me!"

Cranberry sighed and touched her forehead and swooned theatrically into Zombie's arms.

"A couple of little soldiers-wanna-be's will try to stop the adventurers who hunted down a low-level Draconid? Really?"

She smirked, tapping the bat on her shoulder.

"I've told you to watch your mouth, little girl. Most of us are seasoned ex-adventurers. Taking down one measly lizard is nothing worth bragging about."

The guard's captain responded in a cold voice.

Zombie was staring questioningly at his master.

It was unusual to see her just taking the insults in such a composed manner.

Normally she would already paint the surrounding buildings with the gray matter of the rude guard's captain.

But since she didn't attack and simply talked, Zombie followed up on her act and stayed put.

"Little girl, you seem to also be overlooking that this city has more guards than what we have here..."

The armored man made a triumphant smile.

"And you seem to be overlooking that we have a full team of adventurers and a corpse puppet that can spit venom. Does every single one of your men have the poison resistance?"

Cranberry responded with a light shrug.

*clank*

Zombie opened and closed his jaws, making a threatening sound.

"...you seem to forget that this is the territory of the Envy family. Do you really want to stir up trouble here?"

The guard's captain tensed up and growled in a low voice.

"Ha...!"

Cranberry snorted triumphantly.

Once the man backed off and had to rely on the higher authority, she knew that she almost had him where she wanted.

"How about this? Instead of just throwing threats at each other, let's make a bet."

She proposed in a friendly manner.

"Why would I agree to some...?"

"Just a simple non-combat test, we have an appraiser right here after all..."

The man was going to refuse, but Cranberry started explaining her idea as if she hadn't realized that he was saying something.

"Let's make him be the judge. We select one person from each side to be apprised. Whoever has the highest ATK wins."

"..."

The guard's captain raised his brow and squinted his eyes.

His silence was the best proof that he got hooked.

"If our side wins, you leave us alone and we'll just sell that stuff to the nice person this guy will recommend and even those nice adventurers will apologize to the victim. If you win, then forget about confiscating our loot. We will officially gift it to your squad, as an apology for causing trouble."

Cranberry spread her arms and her smile widened.

"Or we can just start fighting and my Zombie will poison everyone present. And let's just say that his venom is... even more, threatening than his kicks."

She added and her smile turned into a wolf-like grin as she glanced at the man with bloody pants.

"Y-you can't be serious...! Look at what that thing did to me! I demand compe...!"

"Take him away."

"Wha...?! N-no!"

The 'victim' tried to get back the attention but once the guards smelled the profit, he was no longer necessary for them and was escorted somewhere else.

"..."

The guards' captain glanced at the blue undead standing calmly by his master's side.

"The contestants will be able to use skills. The corpse puppet can't compete."

He said in a serious voice.

It was a wise decision, usually, the undead monsters had a much higher skill level cap on the strength-enhancing skills than players.

Or rather, it would be a wise decision, if their opponent was literally anyone else other than the red-haired girl.

"Of course. Then? We have a deal?"

Cranberry agreed without any hesitation.

"Deal."

The guard's captain nodded and stepped forward.

"I'm going to represent my side."

He declared.

"Ha! Then I will be your opponent."

Cranberry laughed and shrugged her shoulders indifferently.

"You, civilian. Appraise us."

Two guards brought back the appraiser that they pushed away a moment ago and put him in front of their commander.

The skinny man bit his lips and frowned.

No matter what, he had to say that the girl is stronger.

There was too much money on the line.

The overconfident girl seemed like she still believed that the loot they've brought is mostly worthless, but in truth, she was in possession of a small fortune, with extremely expensive, highly detailed jewelry which was loaded with many enchantments.

The price that they will fetch will be extraordinary.

And the deal that the appraiser had with the merchant was really sweet...

Worth even risking his life for it.

Without further ado, the skinny man activated the appraisal skill and looked at the guard' captain.

To make his plan work and be convincing, he had to know what the girl was going against.

"Without activated skills, 725 STR!"

The appraiser called.

The guards' captain nodded, satisfied with the correct number.

He activated his skills and stepped forward nodded at the appraiser to use his skill again.

"With skill...!!! Oh...!"

He gasped, but quickly shook his head.

The vision of him retiring and living in luxury was getting blurrier and blurrier.

"1953 STR points...!"

The appraise declared with a bitter expression.

The bragging about many ex-adventurers joining the guards wasn't just intended to scare the girl.

The guard's captain himself had to be one before, and an early high-level one too!

"Ha? Seriously...?"

Cranberry couldn't believe her ears and gasped loudly.

"What's this? Getting cold feet?"

"The audience is bothering me..."

Funnily enough, her line was misinterpreted as a sign of faltering because both the guards and the spectators laughed lightheartedly.

And then the appraiser used his skill on her...

And as it was already a common occurrence for the appraisers using their skill on Cranberry...

*crash!*

"What the hell is this?!"

The appraise took a step back, tripped, fell on his butt, and cursed loudly.