Has my perception of money been skewed so much as soon as I gained some? I expected Free Chains to ask for more than one hundred million credits. It's a little under half the credits I have left, and I bled for most of them, but my point still stands. I guess it's because he has a hard-to-get class, and he's a pretty high level compared to me.

"How long would it take for you to make that much money?"

"...to be honest, Ellis, longer than it should. I have one of the best classes for a lawyer, but those rich or famous enough to want to use services at this level already have their own guys. Plus, I'm not human. The number of people who trust me consistently to be their lawyer or do their paperwork can be counted on one paw."

"Don't call it that. You have humanoid hands with fingers."

"Yes. But my hands are hairy, they have pads, and I have claws. As I was saying, most up there human clans or 'families' are brutally racist, and most individual rankers don't respect my intelligence and try to trap me in shitty deals and long-term contracts. Don't let me talk about guilds... They hate working with 'freelancers,' but they know the value of [Lawspeaker]s. You haven't seen 'predatory business practices' if you haven't been scouted by a guild. The smaller and medium size ones are worse because at least the big ones have golden cages instead of silver and copper."

"Is the racism that bad?"

"How many nonhumans have you met in the Prime Territories? Including me. Sometimes I can't even get a good cup of coffee. You can't even be a 'ranker' if you aren't considered at least half human."

I don't know if that magic auction house counts as being "in the Free Territories," so excluding that, there are only four people. Free Chains, Wurm, I guess that vampire fucker counts, and Arlug, because why not. I'm not counting tamed beasts, even though It's a technicality.

"Yeah, I see that now. But your first point might not be accurate. I don't like meeting new people in the first place. Almost everybody I know was because they wanted to know me, or I had to talk to them, like a school instructor or a lawyer."

"Even your friends?"

"My first one only approached me to sell bubblegum, and the second one is just a friendly guy."

"Just two? Damn, kid, we need to get you a girlfriend."

"I'm too busy. Also, that bastard vampire I had to fix up a contract with scammed me into an engagement or something. I think. I don't think that was magically binding, but he punked me with some wordplay and took something of mine as a 'bridewealth.' I wanted to bring that up with you. Is there anything we can do? Is it binding?"

"..."

"...so?"

"That was a lot at once. I can do something to check, but it will take a while, and honestly, either way, it seems like you might have a problem on your hands."

Thinking of that vampire makes me feel mad and vulnerable.

"So what are you going to use the money for."

"Thanks for changing the subject. I'll buy my independence from the Felidae tribes, separating myself from my homeland in all but appearance. Enforcers from my country will drag me back and imprison me if I don't act quickly. If that happens, I will never see the sun again. Or my wife."

"How is your wife, and why would they do that?"

"My wife went into her next 'phase' in her series of lives and dropped off the face of the planet except for the letters she sends me. I think she's trying to learn magic or something. A little late, yes, but I support her endeavors. And for your other question, I'm a draft dodger. They figured they didn't need my skills as a lawyer and wanted me to be a part of a pointless battle for dominance. I left a long time ago, but a friend of mine warned me that the tribes now have permission from the Prime Territories to march right on in and take any 'criminal' of theirs back."

"I'll give you the money, but not as a 'loan.' Work for me as my personal lawyer."

"I just told you about the predators I have to deal with. I'm not going to sell myself into indentured servitude. It would defeat the purpose anyways."

I pause for a moment before making a decisive strike.

"No interest."

~

We worked out the kinks in the car ride to the auction house and signed a contract before I left the car. I'd fork over 10m more on top of the 100m to keep his living expenses up since he wouldn't be able to make much money during this time, and he'd work for me until he made up 100m credits worth of work. He claims that it shouldn't be too difficult for him, but since I might not need a lawyer all the time, the contract would end in ten years regardless. It's like I'm paying someone's salary in advance. 10 million credits a year salary.

He drops me off and says he has to go to the capital building, do some paperwork, and talk to some envoys. I asked how he would send the credits over since it would be awkward for him to waltz back home and give the money personally or trust someone with all that cash to be a courier, even with magic contracts.

"With big enough transactions with important enough people, the goddess Mertia will have one of her 'angels' handle the transaction for us. This is basically a transaction against a country. I need to go through the proper channels first, can't pray away bureaucracy."

I say goodbye and stroll inside the number one place rankers sell their things. Even companies use the auction houses' service since it has a good reputation, privacy, and security. 70% of the time, the auction house buys something they deem valuable and sell it themselves, making them less of an auction house and more of a reseller. The other 30% is when the seller decided to not sell outright and let the free market do its thing.

I found a bulk amount of "purified" ore, meaning that most of the unusable metal was removed through magical means leaving only the purest ore. I want the unsuitable metal. I'm not smithing but feeding my child.

Someone is selling an almost illegal amount of scrap metal. Since this is a bulk purchase, there is only a voucher. But this one also contained a picture. It's a pile of copper wiring, pipes, sheet metal, car parts, and other miscellaneous metal. Copper, iron, steel, aluminum, etc. Almost all nonmagical metals are available in this pile in one way or another. I bought fifty tons of metal for a bit over 200,000 credits. They have a free delivery service, and I have them deliver it to master Wang's estate. I hitch a ride and shove all the metal into my manor grounds storehouse with the help of my beasts before master Wang comes out to beat me for littering or something. This should keep Prometheus happy for a while.

After moving all the metal into the storehouse, I checked out the plot of land I gave Dylan to turn into a graveyard, and it turned out pretty great. Brick walls and iron barbs will keep the undead miasma from spreading with the help of some minor warding, and grave dirt has been expertly blended with the ground. The bodies I provided have been buried with the proper rites to bring them back to life after stewing in their coffins. Dylan is standing next to an iron gate with skull embellishments. He has a shovel made of bone, most likely from Rob, and not much else.

Rob is sitting on a bone throne that looks more like a bone lawn chair at the back of the graveyard. I gave Dylan and Rob roughly the size of a football field to work with. I would give them more, but there is only so much land in this fracture of mine, and I have no idea if I can make it any bigger. There are still buildings I can't access and locked rooms in my manor, but I'm hoping it will all be available to me soon. I ignore Dylan's salutations as I head back into my mansion to grab something.

I return and stand in the middle of the plot with Rob and the [Burial Bell]. This thing makes all undead in a radius rush over to me like I'm ringing a dinner bell, so I wondered if this would help. The item also states, 'This bell is loud enough the awaken the dead.' It's all in place for the undead to rise, so maybe they need a little motivation.

*Dingalingling*

Rod doesn't like it and gives the [Burial Bell] a dirty look. I assume. He isn't the best at facial expressions. Nothing happens for the first few seconds, but dirt starts to stir. Moans fill the air as half-rotten corpses, skeletal creatures, and ghostly apparations rip themselves out of the ground.

Rob immediately starts playing whack a mole with the undead, hitting them until they stop moving. I wondered how Rob would handle the ghosts since they are immune to most attacks, but his newest body part has that covered. His new lion tail has a blue flame that Rob used to coat his shovel. It really fucks up the ghosts. Rob seems to know what to do as he bullies the low-level undead into submission.

I noticed Dylan sneaking up on me. He's hunched over, almost like he's crawling on all fours. His eyes are glued to the bell resting in my hand. He tries to reach for it but stumbles when I move it away.

"Can I touch it?"

"The answer to that question, no matter the subject matter, will be 'no.'"

"Please, please, please? That beautiful ringing, the luxurious shine, the way it makes me tingle, it's a beauty. It feels homely and makes me cold inside. The good kind of cold, the one that makes me cringe."

He grabs my leg, so I kick him away. He doesn't resist and tumbles to the ground. He sits up and stares at me like a needy dog, his eyes still heterochromatic in the worst way. That familiar feeling I felt the first time I laid my hands on this bell after gaining my newest stat, if not fainter after using the bell. I decided to increase my attunement.

[Attunement: 2 > 50]

I do it incrementally, one at a time, to feel the changes it brings. The world seems brighter. Everything has a new color, but it isn't a visual change. It's like a new wire connected in my brain, and the things around me give off new feelings—Synesthesia but with a new sense. A minute bead inside me matches the same feeling this bell gives off. When I focus on it, I feel a wave of nausea. Weirdly, I can see the feeling growing on me. Dylan, the graveyard, and some of the undead have this energy around them.

Dylan and the graveyard have similar energy. The ground is permeated with this energy, and so is Dylan. I can't tell where it comes from, but that may be an issue with the stat not being high enough. The energy surrounding the undead is being tainted by something, but I don't know what. Rob doesn't have this energy about him at all. Curious. I can guess what this energy is, and I'm not sure if I should be concerned that a nugget of death is sitting in my soul.

"If the undead here isn't completely destroyed, they'll reanimate after a while. It takes longer the stronger they are, which I don't think will be an issue. Can I touch the bell now?"

"If you tell me about it. Not the obvious."

"It sounds muffled."

"Not to me."

"I mean, it can probably be upgraded, maybe. It feels held back. It reminds me of a bell back at the cult base, but prettier, albeit muffled. It was rung right before group prayers and sacrificial rituals. Usually, both happened at the same time, but I digress."

I toss him the bell before initializing an order. "Don't break it or anything else with it. Don't ring it unless you have my permission. I'll be back for it."

His fucked up eyes shine as his smile grows. He stares down at the bell before looking up at me, his smile unchanging.

"I'm so happy I can kiss you!"

"No."

Rob wipes the imaginary sweat off his boney brow and gives me a thumbs-up while leaning on his shovel. Another zombie tries to get up but gets stomped down. Bones crunch, and flesh squirms under Rob's heel. He walks to his lawn chair throne. He kicks the head of a disembodied skeleton on the way. He sits, stabbing his shovel into the ground next to him.

The fire on his tail is extinguished, and the energy in him goes dead. His shadowy cloak turns into a liquid and slides off his body in a congealed mess. I keep my heart from dropping since this is likely his evolution and not a suicide attempt.

*Crack*

A hairline fracture appears on Rob's skull.

*Crack Crack Crack*

Lines appear everywhere. Every bone on his body looks like broken glass held together by tension.

*Creak*

His bones creak and shift before, all at once, his body grows. One of his arms shoots out longer and thicker than the other arm, and his jaw grows heavier as his lower half turns more bestial. His tail lengthens, and his fingers sharpen. Every aspect of his body he switched out gets hit first. The land pulsed with energy before settling down. The rest of his body shifts and turns as Rob has a growth spurt, reaching eight feet in height. A new cloak, still made of shadow, drapes over Rob's body. His flame gets reignited as Rob stirs from his inactivity. An unlit lantern made of the same material as his cloak forms in Rob's hand.

[Evolution Complete!]