“you can’t be serious! that’s too much!”

Yup, I think I can see a vain about to pop in his forehead. For starters, this guild master isn’t that old but it looks like he might have a heart attack from anger at any moment now. Not that I care about his health tho.

“Well, that is how much I want, not to mention you aren’t in a good position to negotiate but I am a good person so I will give you a better offer so how about eleven instead”

“You rose the price! let me tell you girly you are playing a dangerous game here and-”

“You know now that I think about properly I understand I was making an unreasonable demand. Sorry about that, so how about we leave it at twelve instead”

A loud sound resounded through the room as he slammed his fist on the table. This is the best, messing with such a person is so fun! I bet he wants to punch me right now, come on try it deep shit, let’s see how that plays out for you.

“You think this is a game! The lives of people are at stake here!”

“I know, and that’s why I am putting such a price, or what? are lives that cheap to you? If we are talking about lives here then you should pay me thirteen coins”

“There is no way I will be paying you that much! you are an unscrupulous person and-”

Blah blah blah. what use is being honest, what use is being chivalrous, those kind of people are the ones that get used by others. Thank you but I don’t feel like being one of those people so cry all you want. I don’t know why I am still wasting my time with this guy, oh right, its because watching him lose his calm is too fun.

“Listen, time is money and you are wasting my time if you think I am unscrupulous so be it but I am not lowering my price. As a matter of fact, let’s raise it up to fourteen what do you say?

“You! I have never met anyone more dishonest and-”

“Fifteen”

He stayed silent for a few seconds with a pained and bitter expression. It looked like I had shoved a hundred biter bugs down his throat and then punched his gut for good measure. I am enjoying this far more than I should, but what can I do about it, this guy made me angry, he is getting what he deserves.

“F-fifteen gold coins. Just get it done”

“Don’t forget the rank increase to C”

I gave him a little wink after which I swear I heard a popping sound. His face contorted into an expression of absolute disgust to which I replied with a sweet smile. It took him a few seconds to regain his breath and in the end, he accepted. Looks like things were quite bad, I should have asked for more. Is it too shameless to do so now? Yea, it’s not worth it, also I don’t think this guy would be able to take it.

“F-fifteen gold coins and rank increase to C. It was a pleasure making business with you miss Amelia”

“I have the same feelings guild master”

He said my name as if spitting it out, however, I said his title with a seductive voice. Yea I won’t be surprised if at some point in the future he sends assassins after me. Well, that would be in the far off future so I don’t care right now. Good luck future Amelia.

With this amount of money, I will be able to live a comfy life for a while. Now the reason as to why things went this way is simple, to begin with, this request is directly made by both the guild and de governor of this town. Thanks to this, it’s from their pockets that the resources used as payment come and so the guild had been placed in a tough spot. The money the governor had provided had already been used to pay Isa’s group, not to mention that it wasn’t that much, only ten gold coins or two coins per person for that group.

Now let’s look at the deal the guild master did with me, shall we? For starters, I am getting paid one point five times Isa’s party’s payment, second, I get a rank boost to boot! And let’s not forget this money comes from the guild earnings directly, or to be more precise from this guild master’s pockets! To tell the truth, if he hadn’t been such an ass back then I would have settled for two gold coins too. You reap what you sow, what? Karma is going to come to bite me in the ass? I will think about it when it happens.

With a grin that went from ear to ear, I walked downstairs were Isa’s group was already waiting for me. It looks like this guild master was so sure that I would agree that he had them wait for me today. Well, it doesn’t matter now, it makes things easier for me this way.

“Sup, Isa. I heard from the guild master that you guys needed help with a little something and after a bit of convincing I decided to help”

My smiling face was hard to hide since this deal was quite a good one, for me at least. Isa and the others had an odd expression on their faces as if asking me what I had done. Come on, I didn’t do anything, really, I didn’t. At most I just played the guilt card for the guild master since he had tried to use the same card against me, nothing more, nothing less.

“Ah, yes. The guild master told us yesterday that he would convince you to help. As of now, we have a few clues of what is going on, so let’s talk about what we have gathered while going towards the tundra once again”

So there was something in the tundra or at the very least they think there might be something there. Interesting, if that is the case whoever is behind this is either strong enough to fight the monsters from the tundra with ease or an efficient method to avoid them. Either one of those, or it’s a false clue to drive off any pursuers. To tell the truth, I am more inclined to believe its a false clue. If they could fight the monsters from the plains then why hide? with that level of strength dealing with whatever they want would be easy. Well, there is also the chance they have some skill or artefact that aids them in avoiding combat with the monsters but whatever.

“So it’s like this. For the last month, there have been multiple reports of people going missing. We have looked at the list of missing people and we couldn’t find any relation between the disappeared people. At most, we can guess they have a preference for young females since that is a description that fits with a good portion of the disappeared people”

As we walked Isa began explaining what they had found until now. They have taken their time to look at pretty much everything, from the path that these people would usually take to their preferences in food but couldn’t find anything. However, four days ago they had managed to find someone that had attempted kidnapping and followed them until they reached the tundra. Unfortunately, they lost the person in the tundra.

Thinking about it I doubt searching the tundra will lead to anything. These disappearances occur with no witnesses and suddenly one happens to occur in front of the people that are investigating? It is too much of a coincidence. As we kept walking they continued giving me details of their investigation and their theories since maybe I could provide them with a fresh look at things. However, in an instant, something took my attention.

Something in an alleyway we were walking buy sent my senses into a frenzy and I couldn’t tell what it was. How to describe this sensation? it was like smelling something you are extremely familiar with but the sent is almost gone. Like only getting to lick an empty plate that once had your favourite food. It was because of this feeling that I abruptly stopped walking while looking at the alley.

“There is something there”

That was all I said as I pointed towards the alley before walking towards it. As I approached the sensation grew in strength. All my senses were telling me that something too familiar was there but at the same time I felt that alienated from it. It was as if my body knew all too well what whatever was in there was but I didn’t. However, as I reached the spot that gave me this sensation I understood what it was. Miasma, a small invisible, intangible blob of it was lying silently there. It seems my body has grown too sensible to miasma after what happened in the dungeon.

I couldn’t see the blob nor smell it and much less touch it but almost as if I had a sixth sense I knew it was there, I know how big it was and to some extent how dense. Don’t get me wrong, its miasma, it has no mass but I can tell how much of it is concentrated in that single spot. This is not a normal occurrence, normally miasma would disperse and then concentrated somewhere far away from humans or any other sapient species for that matter. But it is here, the only thing that I can think might be the cause for it is intervention from someone, however, how they did it I don’t know.

Getting out of my little analytical trance I looked at Isa’s group. They had wary expressions towards me since I was looking with burning intensity at a place where, in their eyes there, was nothing. I can’t blame them, if I were in their shoes chances are I would have the same expression. Well, if I am lucky there is someone in said group that might be able to see what I am perceiving with enough effort.

“Elf erm, Isacc right? concentrate those eyes of yours in this point there is something here”

Isacc looked at me then at my finger that pointed at the place I had been looking at. He seemed a bit reluctant to comply but after a slight nod from Isa he decided to go with it.

“I don’t see anyth-. Wait! there is something there, I can barely see it”

He squinted his eyes for e second before they shot open to the point I thought they might come out of their sockets. His face went a bit pale for a second before turning around towards the rest of his party.

“I-I think it might be miasma”