Chapter 147 - Wild Speaker

"What is a copper coin even worth?" Vinny asked.

We were on the road again and his cart jostled along next to mine as we walked. The cart rumbling behind him had significant changes made to it during our stop and it grew even larger than the one I pulled.

He made the whole thing fold out into a temporary forge so he could have a better workspace than what he was dealing with. Making it a forge on wheels almost.

It still wasn't enough to handle the Spirit Fire he had purchased but it was way better than the makeshift workspace from before.

Without anything else to do during our travel, we mostly talked about random things or just watched nature go by. Ever since we earned our first coin of the new currency, that was the talk of most of the caravan.

We knew it was money, but not what it was worth.

"I have no idea. I assume it's like a penny or something since it's the lowest denomination." I responded.

"But think about what you did to earn that. You went and fought deadly monsters inside of a dungeon and were rewarded only a few coins? Imagine if you weren't higher level than the monsters and had to fight them at level?" Vinny pondered, "Plus, how many total did you get from the entire dungeon?"

He brought up good points and it made me think about it deeper, "Austin and I walked out with 44 total, but if we were a party, we would split that so... 22 each for the whole thing." I counted out.

"Yeah, but a party would have more people, so split it 5 ways instead of 2 and each person would make under 10 coins." Vinny pointed out.

"It was more than that though, we came out with other loot than only coins. The materials are worth something as well," I added.

"True, but there are other expenses as well. I had to re-sharpen swords, bend shields back into place, service armor and gear. That would usually carry a cost along with it. Plus, you took some of what they made as well." He said.

"Hey, don't make me sound like the bad guy. Taxes are a part of life." I defended.

"That wasn't my point. It's just that they went and risked life and limb and only came out with a few coins so they have to be worth something more than pennies." Vinny said.

The cart ambled on behind me as I thought about what he said as we transitioned back to silence. There was a nuance there that didn't appear the first time I had thought about it.

I had been distracted by the new experience of a dungeon and earning loot like a video game and never delved into the nitty gritty of how that was going to work in the long term.

Assuming people had to make a living delving into them, then what they pulled out of the dungeon had to be a livable wage. So if they made around 10 coins a day then that had to be enough to survive on.

In reality, it was less than that a day. Weapons and armor would cost money, as well as repairs and upgrades. Potions for healing or curing diseases. Paying for an actual Healer when potions weren't enough.

That wasn't even mentioning buying skills or getting your gear enchanted. Those were all expenses on top of what it cost to live. Food and shelter being the main two.

It all hinted at a larger nuanced economy but that quickly blew up in proportion. Trying to extrapolate what someone earned from a dungeon into guessing how much things would cost was an exercise in futility.

I didn't have the knowledge or expertise in order to do so. Maybe some economist might be able to do so but that wasn't me. All it gave me was another headache.

Now I wasn't sure if our 500-coin treasury was good or not after thinking like that.

"Why are you even thinking about this? We won't even know their worth until we find our first pylon anyway and that won't happen for a while yet." I asked curiously.

While looking over the map and the path we were on, we tried to predict where we would find pockets of civilization. Other than the two guilds duking it out back home, we had yet to find any large groups of people or camps.

We found groups of one or two occasionally but most of the ruined towns we passed were empty. There was the occasional larger group but that hadn't happened for a while.

It had been almost a month since our return and most had moved on and found other places to stay quickly. Any who lived on the outskirts of cities were the first to leave and find safer places to stay and those were the areas we traveled through.

It was hard to remember that not everyone couldn't wade through the forest like we could. There was a sprinkling of E-ranked beasts we found and that would be more than most could handle.

There were definitely some who could do what we were doing, or a large enough group of people, but I put that in the vast minority of those who returned. Just looking over the people who joined our caravan the average level was in the low 30s.

People that level would see the wilderness as a death sentence and would want to leave as quickly as possible before they ran across an animal they couldn't handle. Especially the areas we were traveling through.

That was the reason we predicted our first run-in with 'civilization' was going to be the bigger cities. If we kept our current path, we would eventually run into where Indianapolis once stood and the chances of a pylon being planted there were high.

"Nothing else to do really, plus it helps me plan what I will charge for my services. If I know an adventurer only earns a few coins a day, I can't very well charge thousands for a basic sword I make." Vinny's words pulled me out of my train of thought and brought me back to the question I had asked.

"Huh, you're already thinking that far ahead? Wait a minute, when did we start calling them adventurers?" I questioned.

Vinny had a sheepish look on his face at my inquiry, "I mean... what else do you want to call people who delve dungeons for a living."

"Haha," Vinny and I had a good laugh about that. Real-life adventurers, who would have thought?

My laughter died off as something came to mind again and I turned to Vinny with a serious face, "Why the hell am I the one hauling your heavy ass anvil?"

Vinny's laugh choked off before looking around with his eyes, "I have no idea what you're talking about. Ah, would you look at that, Luc needs me somewhere other than here."

I watched as Vinny accelerated off with his cart bouncing behind him and I couldn't help but shake my head and sigh.

~~

Our line of carts weaved this way the that across the land as we traveled Northwest. Our trip was rather mundane compared to what some parts of the rest of the world were experiencing no doubt.

It was hard to look at the map we had and see the illuminating deep blue in some areas without knowing the challenge that came with it.

The blue of mana density so high that even I would have trouble with the things who lived there. Some would make it, like we had, but others wouldn't. It was different to know that feeling and what those people were going through.

We could do nothing about it though. The only thing we could do was note it down and continue on our day. Continue through the paces knowing that there were places in the world where people were dying.

It was an odd thing to internalize.

To work through and set it aside in your head. I blamed the old news for making that process easier. Without it, knowing would have been harder without the experience of dismissing it from your mind.

Still, our trip had its challenges. We went through our first rough patch not long after we left the dungeon. People must have forgotten the consequences of what would happen.

Our first thieves popped up and everyone found out firsthand that I was a man of my word. They must have seen the new goods floating around from the dungeon and gotten too full of themselves.

Whether it was greed or envy, it mattered little to me. The Law was broken and I had my part to play out, no matter how barbaric people may think of it.

Evidence was presented against them, witnesses were questioned, and they were found guilty.

Finding the stolen goods in their possession made the process smoother but I made everyone go through the entire process. If nothing else but to practice for when it happened again.

There was little doubt that it would happen again.

There wasn't a need to do it publicly but neither did I try to hide it. If people wanted to see then they were welcome to, but I also wasn't going to turn it into a spectacle.

My Ice took a few more hands that day.

Some, thinking that I wasn't serious about the punishments, didn't take it well and left.

It wasn't the first time that people had done so but it was the first in such a public manner. People had slinked off in the night before due to second thoughts or a change of mind.

I didn't pay those people any mind. I wasn't forcing anyone to stay and I bid them farewell. I assumed some would also remain behind after we found a stable city, unwilling to travel through the wilderness alone.

While I let the healers close the wound, I barred them from regrowing the limb. I knew Gabriel's legs were in the process of being regrown and I didn't want that to happen just yet.

It would defeat the purpose of the punishment.

I wouldn't bar them from doing so forever, just for a while so they could realize the weight of their actions. If they regrew the hand in a day or two, it would be easy to forget and do it again.

The morale of the caravan fell after that. The high of leveling and receiving loot from the dungeon was thoroughly wiped out but there was nothing I could do about that.

Actions had consequences and I wasn't going to run a Lawless city.

It took a few days for the cheeriness to work its way back into our group but it eventually did. Laughs came back along with jokes. The people involved didn't partake but others did.

It was almost a relief when the monotony of our travels came back rather than the uncomfortable atmosphere it had been.

One high note came a few days later when Sarah continued to gain experience with [Sooth] and I felt that she was ready to take the next step. She vibrated in excitement when I finally gave her the go-ahead to evolve out of her Ranger class.

Her evolution revealed a few things and I couldn't have been happier about them. After hearing Sarah relay her options I was almost vibrating more than she was.

Her troubles and fight for survival were enough for her to be offered Uncommon Class along with revealing her affinity, which was Nature.

Hearing of her Nature affinity made me picture Christian but I quickly pushed those feelings down and I focused on the Classes she was offered.

One of the options sounded perfect for what we were going for and was the one she ended up choosing.

Wild Speaker strengthened her connection with the Wilderness and wild animals and was the perfect Path for what I needed her to turn into and she liked the Class as well.

I was unsure if it would evolve into Beastmaster specifically but it sounded like it would fulfill the same purpose either way. As long as she continued down this path, we would maybe have something better than a Beastmaster.

After her evolution I had her take a more active role in fighting the beasts we came across. She traveled with Jonathan out on training trips away from the caravan and her level steadily rose.

It would be a while before she reached F-rank but she was well on her way.

Other than Sarah, there wasn't much for me to do.

None of the monsters around were high enough level to fight and that only left sparring and training. Austin and I had sparred so many times we were able to predict what we were going to do by now.

It became less of a fight and more of just going through the motions.

My training with Gabriel was my most anticipated time of the day. It was always fun to heighten my control over my element. It helped that it was the only thing that felt like I was progressing.

My levels weren't going up and neither were my stats, but I was getting better at controlling my Ice and using it in different ways.

Speaking of Gabriel, the regrowing process took a huge leap after our long stop at the dungeon. Both of us worked together to enchant a Formation to aid the process.

It focused the healing more and accelerated the process along faster than it was going before but it wasn't anything special.

We still weren't sure how long it would take but estimates but them fully regrown in another month or two.

It was upsetting that I couldn't create anything more but I did the best I could with what I had available. The books I bought from the store about Formations came along with some basic Runes that I was able to use and that was it.

I didn't have a large repository of Runes to pull from which made what I could make limited.

It was lucky that one of them was a basic Healing Rune. Even if it wasn't the best, it was better than nothing.

After Sarah and the update with my brother, it felt like everything was coming up heads for us. Even if there was a small bump in the road before.