Beastforged Bond

“You killed a Prouncer? Alone?”

There was a hint of disbelief in his voice. I smiled back at the merchant and nodded, trying to hide the excitement bubbling in my chest.

“Good job.” The merchant regarded me for a moment and grimaced. “Though looking at those bandages, I don’t know if I should be praising you.”

A faint sigh resounded, and he mumbled something I didn’t quite catch. His eyes darted back to the corpse bag, which was suddenly surrounded by glimmering particles. They appeared out of nowhere and coated the corpse bag as it began to move.

One moment, the corpse bag was on the counter, and in the next it levitated before my eyes, scaring the living shit out of me. I gasped and pulled back, only to catch the merchant grinning at me.

“Follow me.” He waved at me, his sly grin etched into my mind.

What a jerk. He’s playing with me!

That being said, I followed the merchant and the levitating corpse bag into a small room in the back of the shop. The room didn’t appear special at first glance, but the low temperature caught me by surprise. Most winters were already relatively cold, but this room was even colder. I shuddered and had to refrain from complaining out loud as the merchant approached a large table placed in the middle of the room, looking unbothered by the bone-deep cold.

The merchant retrieved the Prouncer from the corpse bag and placed it on the table as if he were lifting a feather. It was vastly different from the effort it took me to lift and carry the Prouncer until I finally reached the merchant’s shop. However, I was not given any time for self-pity as a small, blue-skinned humanoid materialized beside the merchant.

The humanoid had elongated arms covered in small, overlapping scales. It was smaller than me but much bulkier, with short ears and a hairless, massive head that fit oddly well with the humanoid’s singular, gargantuan eyeball.

Is that a beast? A… Soulkin? I nearly blurted aloud, my words swallowed as I watched the humanoid put on a monocle etched with intricate, golden lines.

“The Prouncer was killed with a piercing wound to its throat.” The merchant looked at me, yet his eyes were blank as he added more information, all while the humanoid beast bent over to study the carcass.

More words reached my ears, but I barely registered them as I stared at the Soulkin. I had no idea what kind of beast it was, but it was humanoid, and that was more than enough to pull my attention. Humanoid beasts were relatively rare, and it was even rarer to find humanoid Soulkins. In fact, this was the first I’d seen. Maybe it was nothing special for others, but seeing the intelligence in its massive eyeball was enticing.

“First time seeing a humanoid Soulkin? Don’t worry, your reaction is rather normal. Everyone reacts similar,” the merchant said loud enough for me to hear, his voice laced with joy. “He is my pride and the best friend I could have hoped for.”

I turned back to the merchant and grinned at the vibrant smile lingering on his lips. The merchant genuinely meant what he said.

He shook his head after a moment and cleared his throat.

“But let’s get back to business. That is what you are here for, right?” A light laugh escaped his lips, and he pointed back to the beast carcass.

“This is the corpse of a recently matured 4-Star Wild. Recently because it only barely reached the threshold of a 4-Star, whereas the racial limit of a Prouncer is at the higher ends of the fourth Star. It is also a little skinny, though that hardly affects the beast’s valuables.”

The merchant didn’t go into detail after that, and it wasn’t like I wanted to know which body parts were valuable. It did not really matter.

“I can offer you 780 Credits for the carcass. That is above the market rate considering the corpse will have to be dissected and—”

“I agree.” I accepted without hesitation. There was no need to listen any further.

The merchant scoffed and muttered something about ‘rookies’ again, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“780 Credits it is.” He nodded and regarded me for a second. “You should consider purchasing a storage unit. You can also rent one. They’re more affordable and preserve infused herbs and beast carcasses for extended periods. Depending on the storage type and other factors, of course.”

Was that the merchant’s spiel? A scheme to ensure I’d lose the Credits even before they hit my bank account?

Unfortunately, as obvious as the spiel was, the merchant’s words caught my attention as a holographic screen—a catalogue of rentable storage units—materialized before me.

“What in the Rulers…” I sealed my lips, but my body language had to be speaking volumes.

“Do you think they’re expensive?”

Was that even a question? Even the cheapest storage unit to rent was priced at 1,000 Credits per day. The day’s haul would have barely been enough to cover the cost of a single day.

“The storage units I rent out are rather large and have been upgraded with perfect preservation. So, even if you focus on hunting 1-Star Wilds, you’d make profit as long as–...” The merchant looked at me and noticed the deadly glare. He stopped, let out an awkward laugh, and waved his hand dismissively. “Forget what I said. Just keep in mind that you could potentially rent a storage unit. As long as you don’t break or lose it, you can easily make some good money with maximum comfort.”

I could only force a smile and wait until I received a bank transfer notification on my phone. Once the Credits had been added to my bank account, I left the shop in a hurry, my eyes lingering on my ID and the Credits showing four lovely digits.

Finances: 1044 Credits

It was a lot more money than I dreamed of owning before my father returned with Aureus’ egg. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last much longer. My clothes were torn, and I needed a new set to wear—hiding the deep claw marks from my parents—and Aureus would be hungry once he’d wake up.

Thus, I ordered another kilogram of Gaia’s kibble and several kilograms of Wagur meat to be delivered home. I found a cheap set of clothes that looked somewhat similar to my old, torn clothes, and purchased the whole set for six Credits. My heart tightened with every purchase, but I continued, and logged into the website where all of our monthly bills and loans were listed.

Searching through the catalogue of bills that should have been paid several months ago, I felt even worse, and by the time I returned to the Ninth Sector, I had fully paid one of the smaller loans set at 539 Credits.

It didn’t leave me with many Credits to spare—too few to repay another loan, yet too much to leave as is—but I didn’t spend them yet. I had the means to earn a lot more Credits in the next few weeks, and I’d be a fool not to use them.

As my feet dragged me through my home sector, I toyed with the idea of going out to hunt again. Worse still, I reconsidered renting a storage unit. Maybe I could negotiate a deal with the merchant and rent it for cheap if I sell everything I collect from outside to him. Exclusivity warranted a better deal, just like renting a storage unit for a week or a month would.

But it was not like I wanted to fight beasts like the Prouncer every day. I’d focus on 1-Star Wilds—2-Star if they attacked in small groups of two, three at most. That’d make earning several hundred Credits to pay for the storage unit a struggle and a push toward bankruptcy if anything went wrong.

Back in the house, I found my parents with a drone carrying packages. They accepted the packages—probably the meat and kibble I’d purchased less than an hour ago—and greeted me with curious looks. Did they notice my new clothes, or did they see any bandages?

My heart skipped a beat, but nobody mentioned anything. I safely maneuvered through their questions and returned to my room, my eyes lingering on a new notification—a message from Daniel.

[Chatterbox D: Dude! I didn’t see your message until just now! Teach has been terrorizing me for the last few days. He had me brew a bunch of evolution serums, and took away my access to ethernet. I couldn’t do anything about it, dude! Teach is demon. He really is! Can you imagine…]

I skipped through the rest of his message until I landed on the last few sentences.

[I am rambling too much, aren’t I? Whatever, do you want to go for a hunt now? We haven’t been out for a while now and there’s still one or two hours of sunlight left. Or we can go tomorrow at dawn. I will have to talk to Teach and reschedule a few things but I can make it!]

The threat of the 4-Star Wild was still hanging in the air, leeching on my confidence, but my mind cleared up as I typed a response.

[It’s fine. You’re already busy as is. Don’t stress yourself with my problems. I’ll just train a little bit more.]

As long as I paid enough attention to my surroundings, I shouldn’t have any problems finding weaker beasts. Avoiding the strongest Wilds should be no problem either. The 4-Star Prouncer was an exception, as 4-Star and 5-Star Wilds rarely left the forest’s center.

I… didn’t need Daniel to earn money. No, that wasn’t entirely true. I was unwilling to bother Daniel more than I already did. There was no need to bore him to death with my problems. Daniel had already helped me a lot more than I deserved. Asking him for even more when he was busy and covered in heaps of work was not okay.

Daniel didn’t respond right away. It took him much longer than usual to type a message, and it was also a lot shorter than expected when it finally popped up on my screen.

[Chatterbox D: If you say so…]

I raised an eyebrow at the phone, only to narrow them as a second message popped up.

[Chatterbox D: Do you have time on the 15th? Even if you don’t, change your schedule and keep the 15th open. Come to the estate – it’s important.]

What was that?

That was a weird message, even for Daniel.