This uncle Namba spent a few minutes consoling little Rikurn after he was told the story of what happened. He turned to me and finally sized me up which I returned the favor to as I clearly knew that this conversation one way or another would lead to the inevitable. The bastard will start haggling with me over prices.

“So it is you sir world caster that saved Rikurn, aye, it’s unfortunate as to what happened to Bor but you did do a great service saving such a young ones life. Consider it my respect to you as everything will be 10% off in the store today.” He smiled as he said those words.

“Thank you sir Namba, I will definitely take advantage of such a great deal.” I managed to eke out the proper words without sounding too foreign as passing through the crowded streets helped Phoenix learn the language a bit better and I got some last minute knowledge imparting done. I still, however, noticed the clear words indicated by this old goat. 10% off probably amounts to nothing as the prices aren’t even written on the damn items so for all I know, I’m paying double the standard and worst was he said today meaning it ends today. Bastard was scamming me with nothing but flowery words and smile, goddamn merchants are all the same.

I have had a few situations escalating with these greedy bastards back on Earth when it came to my “salvaged antiques” they’re as fucking bad as those museum bastards getting money from god knows where to spend on MY items just to fucking never do anything with it ever again. HOARDING bastards.

‘Deeep, breaths Jupiter, Deeeeeep breaths. Sigh.” I really need to control my temper when it comes to those museums, they really know how to tick me off.

I ignored the anger that almost took over and smiled back at the old goat before broaching the matter of the horns I wanted to sell.

“Oh, Nai Horns? Definitely do need a few extra those for the alchemy ingrediants I’ve been tasked with. How many you have there?” Namba asked with a smile that was more sinister than sincere.

“Depends on how many you need and for how much.” I hit back with my counter. I know you greedy fools, I belong in your god damn pit of festering greed as well after all. Online merchants were still merchants at the end of the day and I wasn’t a bad one either. Who else besides me could buy a god slime for 200$? No one that’s who.

“Oho, it seems I have quite the customer today.” Namba smiled again and I had to commend the guy for keeping his professionalism in check as most low class shops the owners or managers usually lost the smile when the arrogant customer bites back. “I need quite a few so I’ll take as much as you can give and in return I’ll buy them each for 4 earth shards each, how does it?”

I realized that I had gotten ready to haggle with the merchants in this world a little too soon. I have no fucking clue what the hell an earth shard is worth nor what the hell it is. A little bomb went off in my head as I lost the war before the battle even begun.

“Sigh… deal, I got 7 nai horns I’m willing to sell.” I take out the 7 horns and hand them over to the old goat.

“Wonderful!” Namba smiled very satisfied and I knew I got screwed when I saw that smile. My damn skin probably gave it away that I didn’t know jackshit about this place. ‘ARRGHHHHHH’

*One mental breakdown later*

Namba hands over a small leather pouch and I curiously inspect these so called earth shards and notice that there are about 28 little earthen yellow crystals stuck onto small square shaped wooden plaques. I didn’t really know what I was expecting but I guess this counts as much as currency as printed papers.

I didn’t want to stay in the shop even though I was curious about the stuff here because I knew that I would probably go broke before I even got a meal if I stayed near these insufferable merchants. I hate my own kind, so what, sue me.

Walking back along the main streets, I tucked away the satchel of coins…money. “Rikurn, what are these earth shards? And did Namba screw me over on the horn deal?” I asked right away as I needed to know especially that second part.

Rikurn not at all surprised that I don’t know anything started slowly explaining the currency system as far as he knew. Phoenix was also intently listening as I could tell it wanted this money just as much as me so that we could go splurge on some self-improvement goodies.

Earth shards are basically the equivalent of a penny or bronze coins to make it easier. 100 Earth shards gives you 1 sky shard. 100 sky shards give you what they call a crystal shard and apparently if you gather 1000 crystal shards you can get 1 mystic crystal. I didn’t really understand why they use these shards but it turns out that mystic crystals and crystal shards can be used as sources for powering certain items or structures and are incredible useful and it so happened that world casters and rune casters also have many uses for these shards and especially the ever so expensive mystic crystal which made it so that people started gathering these and using it as a form of currency, it eventually spread and most of the continent uses it as currency.

This piece of information would have been great to hear had it come from Rikurn but knowing the useless kid, his knowledge ended at you getting 1 sky shard for 100 earth shards which pissed me off so I got him to bring me back to the general store where we requested a small book about the currency and some important information about the continent which cost me 4 earth shards. Phoenix played a crucial role in getting the whole thing sorted out while Rikurn was upset that I got mad at him so he told me the truth about Namba who he was protecting earlier. Namba screwed me. Those horns could easily sell for 5 earth shards a piece, the bastard.

I had enough of walking around and just wanted to get some rest as Phoenix was badgering me in my head to let it read the book we got.

Avoiding the slime voice in your head is a lot harder than you can imagine so I was forced to relent and get Rikurn to bring us back to my new so called “home”. Following along the bratty kid I kept admiring the beautiful village for what it was and the nice multi colored women that I happened to pass by, I was even admired back by a few of them though I felt it was probably due to my skin color being different but I took them with grace and gave a winks back. I might be anti-social but the allure of the opposite gender is something no man could deny even if they swung the other way.

Rikurn started taking me further south in the city and we had been walking for close to 30 minutes at this point and I was starting to get worried.

“Hey Rikurn, you sure this is the right way?”

“Yes, Jewputer. It isn’t too far from here now.” He answered with an odd tone. I was really starting to get the creeps at this point because the buildings started looking worse and worse as we kept going along and I saw a lot more back alleys present than the beautiful village plaza had which made me a little alert.

‘Is the kid trying to get me mugged in these streets? Is this revenge for forcing him to teach me how to talk? Shitty kid, I said I’d even pay him for the lodging.’ My thoughts spun to a distracted rhythm before I suddenly heard him calling to me telling me we arrived. Not what I was expecting in the least, the house if it can even be called that looked like some sort of land bunker that recently went through a goddamn war. It was literally in the shape of a half cylinder with the roofing made of some sort of metal looking tiles with rust and grime just covering the whole thing. The door looked secure at least as it was a big stone door but if I were to really describe this place it was the equivalent of an extremely sturdy shack. I was starting to doubt the decrepit cabin looking better between the two.

“Here’s the place, it has two rooms and a kitchen with a small shared space. I’ll go clean out the stuff in your section and you can get comfortable for the time being.” Rikurn gestured at the cushioned wooden couch? It was a wooden bench with a board for your back and some sort of thick rags on it for sitting.

I looked around the room and realized how poorly this kids been living. It made me feel like I just met a refugee from Earth and though I didn’t like the kid too much for being an idiot, I felt a little sad that this was how he grew up. The place was at least somewhat clean aside from the accumulated dust and some odd smells, probably due to his week long absence.

“Rikurn, how long have you lived here?” I asked while trying to remain as indifferent as possible as I didn’t want to offend the poor kid.

“Probably the last 5 years? Me and Bor moved in together after we left the shared housing all the kids grew up in when we were 14.” He replied while carrying over what looked like little trinkets and things from I’m guessing the late Bor’s room to his room.

“Ah,” I don’t know why but at that moment, even though I never usually involved myself in these matters, I felt like helping the kid out a little. He’s 19 and weak as crap and obviously I cheated with Phoenix present but I still felt like maybe me helping him out would be good. I won’t be staying here that long anyways and seeing how poor his living conditions are maybe him coming out to hunt with me may get him some extra “shards” to get him off his feet.

‘Sigh, when did I suddenly become some sort of charity?’ I smiled awkwardly at the thought of “Jupiter’s charity case”.

Walking into the room, I saw a small bed big enough for one and a small desk with some sort of lamp with a crystal on it and a vent looking thing letting me see outside. I was feeling kind of cramped and claustrophobic in the room but overall it was something I could work with. I think.