HC:Pacifist | Ch. 133 - Bucky

Roth pulled the Broker’s Ledger from his bag and handed it to Bucky. He opened the book and skimmed through it. His eyes widened more than once, and his tail sometimes paused before accelerating again.

“You’re doing well for yourself, human. Ratans, foxes, badgers, crows, boars, alligators, snakes, and Soros… for the old man to trust you so much, it’s impressive.” Did he know Soros? No wonder. Golden Mountain Inc. was one of the biggest association buildings he’d seen.

“Can you run these routes for me while I’m gone?”

Bucky shut the ledger dramatically. “You seem to be qualified enough to hire our services. Yes.” The dog’s tail stopped moving. Roth cracked his knuckles. He could feel that talk of money was around the corner.

“Let’s talk about our fees. We take a percentage of the profit and offer several packages. The basic package goes for 30% of your profit.”

“What’s included in it?”

“Just the transport and nothing else.”

“Who does the runs?”

“One of our porters. Most of them are horses. There are some camels and oxen, too.”

“Tell me more about your other options.”

“We have our deluxe package, which includes insurance. You won’t have to worry about an income loss if anything goes wrong with the run. We charge 50% of your profit rate.”

50% sounded like a lot of money. It was half of his hard-earned profit! “What could go wrong?” asked Roth apprehensively.

“Well, as you can imagine, bandits are everywhere. It’s not uncommon for them to intercept our porters and rob the merchandise.”

“Right.” The idea of [Power Truffles] being stolen and him having to pay Prince Piglet 17k gold for each of them as restitution caused bile to come to his mouth. “Can people see your porters going back and forth? What if there’s a hidden chamber, for example?”

“Although our porters try to be discreet, others will still be able to see them.”

Mario’s Lab, Solomon’s Gardens, or the Palatial Clearing becoming common knowledge had to be avoided at all costs. “Is there anything more discreet?”

“Aaah. Our premium package. It’s by far the most costly. We take 90% of your profit, but you won’t have to worry about anyone spotting the guild.”

“How come?”

“I myself will take your merchandise.” The dog stared at him with his blue eyes.

“And no one would see you?” Roth looked doubtfully at Bucky. In between blinks, the dog’s figure disappeared. Roth rubbed his eyes, looked around, and found no vestige of Bucky’s presence. Then, just as suddenly as he had disappeared, he appeared again.

“Snakes aren’t the only ones who know how to be sneaky, human.” He winked at him.

“You’ve got me convinced. What is the most popular package?”

“Most customers lean toward the deluxe package and hire a few guards to protect the caravan. Since you’re a novice, we can grant you, at most, four level 30 guards for the cost of 5% of the trade run each.” After giving Bucky 50% of the profit for this package and giving him an extra 20% to hire guards, he would have to pay 70% of the profit! That was a huge chunk of his income!

Roth looked at his inventory. On the one hand, most of his wealth came from his broker profession. On the other hand, the time he had to waste respecting deadlines and moving back and forth was a hassle. If he could subcontract that to the Transport Guild, even if a chunk of the money went to them, it would still be worth it. He was so nervous that he started biting his fingernails. What package should he go for?

“Tell you what. I want the premium package for three months. But you only get 80% of the profit instead of 90%. Deal?”

“80%? Do you know what an honor it is to have one of us, famed huskies, mythical porters of the tundra, deliver your knick-knacks?! How dare you sully the honor of the transport guild?”

“Do you think I’m just a little pup? Come on. Cut me a break! You people have taught me to haggle. Remember? I know you can do better than 90%.”

“88%! And that is because you are a friend of dogs.”

“Is that how you treat your friends? Just 2%? Oscar would be disappointed if he was here. After all, I did for him. I even helped him fend off a cat who had stolen from his customers?”

The husky paused. “A cat?”

“Yes.”

“Which one?”

“Oli.”

“Wow. Tell you what, I’ve had a few encounters with Oli, and I can appreciate what you did. I’ll do 85%. That’s as far as I go! Not one penny less.”

“Deal!”

New Quest:

Transport the Goods (Uncommon)

The young broker Pax has come to the guild looking for reliable help moving his goods around. After meeting Bucky, the husky ninja, you trust him with the deliveries.

Quest objectives:

Take care of the trade runs between Golden Mountain Inc, King Ratatouille, Fox Baroness, the Badger Council, Count Crow, Prince Piglet, Red, Greenleaf Inc, Solomon, and Mario for three months. Do so invisibly.

Rewards:

Pax will reward Bucky with 85% of the profit.

Would you like to hire Bucky and issue this quest? [Y/N]

Roth smiled. His first quest had been a delivery quest that wasn’t too different from this one. How ironic that he was now hiring someone else to do it.

“Thank you, Bucky! I’m counting on you.”

“Leave it to me, friend.”

As Bucky disappeared through what Roth now knew was a dog door behind him, Roth waited by the door and leaned his hand on the knob. He reviewed his escape plan. There were three ways out of the city. The teleportation gate, the underground river, and the city gates.

The downsides of the teleportation gate were the hefty price he’d have to pay. From what he’d checked on the forums, the teleportation fee between cities of the same region was 5k gold. And if he were to transport to a city from another region, such as Saphira Citadel, it would be 10k gold. H had been doing quite well with the guide sales and already transferred him the amount needed for teleportation if he decided to escape this way.

The other disadvantage was that he could only teleport to cities he had been to before. The teleportation from the villages to the mid-grade cities was a one-time exception. For all other traveling, one had to make it to the city first, and only then did it appear in the list of places he could teleport to.

His second option was the gates. There was always a lot of traffic, and perhaps he could blend into the crowd and go by unnoticed. He doubted it would be so simple, though. Pegasus had stepped up their game, and he wasn’t dealing with only three pursuers anymore. There were thousands of them now. Chances were that among them, some had the skills required to see through his mask and camouflage. Additionally, he was in the open field once he was out through the city gates. If someone spotted him at the gates, he would still have to lose them, and he was only level 20. Even in ratan form, he couldn’t outrun players with mounts.

Finally, there was the river. In theory, it was the most discreet exit route, but since he’d seen his squad roaming the sewers, he was reluctant to go back down there. There were too many choke points down there, and the possibility of running into an ambush scared him. After going through the pros and cons of each exit for the 100th time, he decided. He would use the teleportation gate.

Now that he’d left his business in Bucky’s capable hands, or paws, better said, it was time to make a run for it. He turned on his snake-enhanced camouflage and left through the door. He had no more unfinished business in Hilsford. It was time to get out of town.

The reason why Roth decided to use the teleportation gate was because there were some definite advantages to it. As long as he got close enough to it, he could instantly leave the city.  As far as his pursuers were concerned, he could be anywhere. There were ten mid-grade cities per region and seven regions discovered so far. There were also hundreds of small villages and other teleportation gates scattered everywhere. They had no idea of knowing which one he would use. As soon as he teleported, he became a needle in a haystack.

Under the guise of darkness and his snake-enhanced camouflage, Roth walked from shadow to shadow toward the city center and its teleportation gate. In the few hours he'd been spent camouflaged in the city, he had gained 3 points on his subterfuge. Every person in the street was a potential enemy, and the pressure was crushing Roth. All he wanted to do was to run at full speed toward the gate.

Many of the city’s streets and avenues led here, like arteries converging into a heart. The teleportation gate was a massive metal platform big enough to accommodate hundreds of players at a time. Even from this distance, Roth could see beams of light materializing into players as they arrived at Hilsford. Many disappeared as they stepped onto the platform and were instantly whisked away to another part of AstroTerra.

Making it to a teleportation platform was going to be the hardest part. Pegasus was very likely patrolling this area, and they had to have a way to circumvent the garrison in case the soldiers tried to come to his rescue. Roth looked at his skill set and made his move.

Miniaturize!

30 Steps!

He took off at full speed toward the platform, praying that no one would see or detect him approaching. From the street he’d emerged to the platform was roughly 100 meters. He would only need 10 seconds to make it. They felt like hours, but he kept his eyes on his goal. After what had felt like hours to Roth, he reached the platform, selected one beginner village at random, and activated the teleportation.

Are you sure you want to travel to Traverse Town for 5,000 gold?

[Y/N]

Roth instantly emerged in one of the many peaceful villages around the Green Woods. He wiped the sweat off his brow and took a moment to regain his bearings. He hadn’t expected that it would go so well. Nothing terrible had happened to him. It seemed that 300 subterfuge and his snake form was a combination that was so powerful that not even Pegasus had been able to see through his camouflage. Now that he was away from Hilsford, he was safe. He grabbed all the items he’d brought and went on a last trade run to his friends.

*

After all the stress he’d been under, doing a trade run was surprisingly relaxing. He now had a little more gold that he could use to start anew in Saphira. Additionally, he had finally reached level 12 in the broker profession! He hadn’t gained any skills with it, but it felt nice to see his character progress.

He had visited the corvids and the foxes and had just finished trading in the True Throne Room. As he stepped out of the tunnel, the Mouse King called out to him.

“Excuse me, Mr. Martyr.”

The mouse king sounded surprisingly gentle even though he was so big. “Oh, hey there! How have you been?”

“I’ve been meaning to give this to you. Just to thank you for all you do for us.”

Roth’s eyes widened. He had received spontaneous gifts from elites before, but this would be the first time a boss did the same!

You’ve been traded a [Miniaturizing Potion].

Roth felt like dancing. [Miniaturizing Potions] sold like hotcakes year-round and were sold out as soon as they were put up for sale in the auction house. After the incident in Greensburg, the price for the potions had remained high. To be given hundreds of gold for free like this only helped soothe the stress he’d been under.

“Thank you! I’ll treasure it.”

On his way out, he was given a couple of mushrooms as a gift by common rats and even a helmet by an elite. After being showered with gifts and gold, he finally came out into the light. It was time to visit the boars. The badgers could only be visited at midnight, and Roth had arrived in the woods after the council had started. He would probably get going toward Rock Canyon and leave them to Bucky. He had a long road ahead of him and didn’t feel like waiting almost a whole day to get to the black and white poets.

He was going to miss this place. The green landscape of the Green Country soothed him. He didn’t know what to expect from Rock Canyon. He hoped that it was just as beautiful as it was here. He was picturing a desert landscape with rocks and more rocks, but he tried to stay positive. He was sure he’d like it.

As Roth reached the palatial clearing, his stomach twisted, and his blood grew cold. Standing in the clearing was one lone player who regarded him squarely. As Roth appeared, the player smiled.

“Hello, Pax.”

Ch. 132 - We Mediate

INDEX

Ch. 134 - Nice Mask