Billion Dollar Adventurer with Mr Jho Low
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Desolate Mage: A Legend Reborn!
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[22 Oct; noon]
"Jho Low explains Lyon, the strength of the world and the population of adventurers in the city!"
"We welcome Mr Jho Low~!"
"Thank you, thank you Mr. Y. I'm very honoured to be on your talk show today. And, please, call me Jho."
"No no no, the pleasure is mine! So, Mr Jho, today you'll be sharing to us about how the city of Lyon works? As a long-time resident and active member of the (thieving) community, I'm sure you'll be more than capable of shedding some light on the workings of the city; and also the world~!"
"Ahem, yes, yes. In this world; it is very rare to encounter freaks and monsters above level 20. These are not the norm among the world - less than 1% of the world is above level 10; less than 0.01% above level 15 and so on... So out of the population of Lyon of 800,000 people, you'd have about 8,000 above level 10; with the remainder being majorly normal people at levels 1 or 2."
"That's very interesting~! Please, carry on!"
"Now, again for the city of Lyon, out of 800,000 people, there are ~20,000 registered adventurers - about 5% of the population. It may seem high; but bear in mind we are a city which draws many people from the surrounding country-side headed here for work. As such, the proportion of adventurers is also high - as not everyone will have the skills, opportunity or desire to work a job in labour, craft, farming, agriculture... You get the picture."
"Yes, yes; I myself am from the far off eastern lands. I came here because of the great opportunity and the growth of the entertainment industry in Gallia! But it was too competitive in Paris; so... Well, here I am! Oh, please do continue!"
"Gehehe, you gotta stop interrupting me! Now, where was I...? Oh, yes. However, among the 20,000 adventurers, not all are active; probably less than half are actually active. Of the half (10,000) again, less than 15-20% are actually present. The majority of them are out doing jobs; and may be registered here but serving duty elsewhere!"
"About the jobs of an adventurer, what kinds of things would an adventurer expect to be doing daily...?"
"Well..." He lifted up and unfurled the 5 fingers on his hand.
"First off, the one most well-known is guard or escort duty. These can be split to 3 categories - one is for a fixed period of time. Say, for example, to guard a well-known missy of a rich family from her abusive ex-boyfriend. These tend to pay quite poorly in terms of hourly rate; but are preferred by the older adventurers as they get to stay in our home base.
Not letting the host interrupt him this time, he continued; hoping to finish off the talk before the evening appointment with the others.
"The other types of guard or escort duty are based on a fixed destination; say, from Pari to here. These pay well but are dangerous, as the very reason they hire us is to ward off danger or to guide them on an unfamiliar path. The last is a combination of time and destination; these tend to be more complicated and open only to higher leveled adventurers; such as "Bring XXX Priest to YYY Temple and cleanse it; then guard and escort XXX Priest back to the city once the ritual is completed.""
The now-retired Dark King Y gestured with his hands for the chubby man to continue; the latter quickly glanced at a clock on the wall and decided to speed up his talk.
"So, the rest of the 5 categories of tasks are Gathering, Hunting, Retrieval or, my favorite, Targets."
"Targets...?" He raised his eyebrows as he gave the leading question - the host, being a veteran of the adventuring world, obviously knew the answer.
"Ahem, yes... Assassination. As a proud member of the thieves' and assassins' guild, I can guarantee you that our success rate is above 90%; and it depends on the contract taker, but we usually only take on approved cases by the local government - that is, criminals or contract breakers..."
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[Inter-Euro Express (IEE)]
[LYON - TURIN ONE WAY]
[Departure: 22 Aug 1802 11:00 AM]
[Arrival: 22 Aug 1802 2:12 PM]
[SAM SAM - Adult]
[UGN* Registration Number: 17920622-0072-5794]
[0000 PLATINUM 30 GOLD 00 SILVER 00 BRONZE]
(30 gold...) Sam lowered the ticket from her eye-level. 30 gold was enough to eat for... A long time.
And eat well...
"Albert. Food." She pointed at the male and female train attendants walking down the aisle, manning a food cart. The selection was mostly dried foods and pastries along with some poor wines and juices - but with no other choices, business was brisk - even at the exorbitant prices.
They were seated in the cheapest cars of the 20-carriage long train - there were 5 cars for those paying a fare of 30 gold, each able to seat about 60-70 passengers. Another 8 cars were for goods and luggage; while 3 cars were for the conductors and attendants to prepare; one at the front serving royal-class passengers; one at the front of the economy-class seating and one serving both the business-class and premium-class cars. The front carriage was meant for the mages to channel mana and propel the train at high speeds.
Based on the passenger capacity and fares in economy-class, they could not even cover the cost of running - the services rendered to economy class passengers were purely under the joint subsidy of Gaben Steam and the governments of Catalunia, Britannia, Gallia, Rome and Uro.
The running costs were barely covered by business-class and premium-class tickets; while the royal-class carriage was fully reserved and only provided free-of-charge to members of the ruling class on request.
After covering their costs, the profits of the steam train came solely from sales of extras such as food and drinks, sold to hungry passengers such as Sam.
The attendant handed Sam a banana, a disposable glass flask of juice, an apple and a lunch box of Coq au Vin - a dish of chicken braised with wine, lardons, mushrooms, and garlic. In the culture of the region, consumption of wine in food was not an issue for minors.
Albert was cursing as he paid 27 gold coins and 45 silvers for the meal; getting only a bottle of water and a bun for himself. The simple meal cost almost as much as a ticket!
He scrounged through his purse, digging up what remaining coins he had... 3 platinum, 80 gold and some odd silver and bronze coin. At a cost of 1 platinum per person for the train to Rome and 40-60 gold for board, lodging and food for the next few days; that left him with... Paltry silvers and bronze?!?
(This girl... I pity her future boyfriend or husband! She'll eat him out of house and home!)
They were seated in a row of 4 seats, split in half by an aisle for people to walk; 30+ rows on either side. Albert settled down and calmed himself; squirreling away the coins he needed to set aside in case Sam shook him for money again. Satisfied that his money was safe; he thought about the remaining plans ahead of the Demon Subjugation Summit on 31 August.
With his team assumed missing and wiped out, he would have to make some of his own preparations and scouting. Without knowing how tight the defences were; he'd have to call on some old acquaintances and favours to get into the palace...
(...?)
She'd finished her food already and darted off to walk around the carriages!
(Oh well... I pity whoever she causes trouble for next...)
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Sam wandered from the last train to the front; sniffing repeatedly.
As she sniffed, she peered nosily at the people seated or moving around.
She made her way forward from the 2nd last car to the front; until she was stopped and asked for a ticket at the separating attendants' carriage between economy-class and business-class.
"Huh? Ticket...?" Sam gave the responsible worker a blank, innocent look; then sniffed again.
(What's that tasty smell... Maybe from in front...?) Then while the attendant was distracted by her colleague calling out to her; she turned into a blur and slipped past the level 1 and 2 workers.
Most of the high-leveled guards and soldiers were concentrated on the front 7 cars; while the workers and attendants spread out were all common citizens. The trains own team of protectors occupied the first carriage; protecting the group of mages. For other carriages, the protectors depended entirely on the arrangements made by each passenger i.e. how many guards they paid to bring.
And so, our little girl slipped past the attendants' carriage separating economy from business-class and continued her sojourn forward; stepping foot into the business-class carriage.
Until she was stopped again.
"Yesss, little girl...? You're not one of the workers, are you...?" The carriage was empty except for a little girl, silver-haired and dressed completely in black lace from head to toe; her hair tied with a black lace bow - facing forward, away from her
And the other, a deathly pale woman; bewitchingly beautiful yet also eerily still, seeming not to even breath. Presumably it would be the little girl's maid.
She was holding her long and glistening red fingernails to Sam's throat, ready to slit it at the young girl's slightest flinch.
"Xera~~..." A languid voice was matched by the lax movements of the voice's owner. She stretched out a hand and continued; "Don't be rude to our... Guest..."
She turned around, stunning Sam with her gorgeous hair, angular V shaped face and entrancing eyes.
Blood red pupils effused with purple luminescence.
The devilishly beautiful and fair girl smiled and then abruptly stiffened, eyes widening in shock.
*Sniff sniff*
*Sniff sniff*
"You... Smell good..."
The two teenage girls spoke simultaneously... And licked their lips, unaware of their own instinctive reactions.
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[Author's Notes - not enough space in the Author's Note Section T_T]
Experimenting with different titles - please bear with me!
50 chapter milestone! Top 6 voters by chapter 50 will get to work with me on 6 adventurer characters to be Sam's party members! Priority of design will be given to higher ranked voter!