Swan Song Tavern

After half a day of hard work, Alex and his party had returned to the airport, which had become the largest survivor camp in the ruins of Las Vegas. It took significant effort over the last few weeks to clear the airport of monsters. The various groups who came together to achieve it exhausted countless resources to fortify the complex into the bastion it had become today.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of survivors, gathered in the airport for various reasons; among them, refuge and trade seemed to be the most prominent. Any gains from slaying could be exchanged somewhere within the airport for a variety of goods and services.

Currently, the only form of trade was a primitive bartering system; there was a dire need for a stable form of currency. However, it was difficult to find such a thing in this barren wasteland; everything's value was relative hence the bartering system.

After drifting through the masses who had gathered in the Airport, Alex and his party finally arrived at the C-Gate; this is the area where they resided; it was also the place where Emily had set up her stall. Emily had gained some notoriety as being one of the pioneers of creating equipment from the remains of Monsters and Beasts.

In fact, the iron-silk rope wraps which Alex equipped were designed by Emily. They had proven to be extremely efficient weapons in the fight against monsters. Not only did the elasticity of the silk provide excellent stability for his wrists and bones, but they had the effect of amplifying his punches as if he were hitting someone with iron gauntlets.

Alex dropped by Emily's stall and dropped a pile of items onto the counter; some of them were gleaming with lustrous light, while others were battle-worn and appeared to be junk at first glance. A smile spread across Emily's pretty face as she witnessed Alex's return.

"You get anything good today?"

Alex smirked, a smug smile spreading across his face; aside from the loot from the hobgoblins and a few beast pelts, he had gotten the greatest gift of all today.

"I'll let you know over dinner; when does your shift end?"

Emily pouted at his reply; for some reason, Alex always did this, enticed her with the details of his work in exchange for accompanying him to dinner. Of course, they were seldom alone; with how crowded the C-Gate was, there were rarely any empty tables. Usually, they would have to share dining space with strangers.

After pouting momentarily, Emily spoke in a coy manner

"In half an hour."

Alex smiled and petted her head.

"Well, in the meantime, how about you appraise this for me and see if they're worth anything?"

Being a trader allowed different skills than the combat-focused survivors, one of these skills was the ability to appraise items and get a good estimate of their worth. It was a useful skill considering item worth was difficult to determine by appearance alone; even the system was of little help aside from using special skills. For example, sometimes seemingly shabby items would be made of high-quality materials and thus would be worth more than their appearance suggested.

This was not one of those times; after inspecting the items for some time, Emily revealed that his luck had not been great today; aside from the beast pelts, which could be traded for most common goods, the rest of the items he had scavenged were practically junk. Especially the weapons, only low-level slayers, would be interested in such a thing, and they were generally inferior.

Still, with Emily's level 8, and specialization in crafting, she could recycle the materials of these weapons and make something decent out of them. This was one of the reasons why her stall was so well sought after. Most merchants traded scavenged items, whether from the old world or new. Emily was one of the few traders who could make her own equipment, and they were relatively high quality.

Especially the items she could make out of iron-silk. They were highly sought after by all slayers within the airport. However, due to limited supplies, she could not make many of them; considering they were custom-made and took a lot of effort, they fetched a premium. If only there had been some currency implemented, she would have made a fortune by now.

Emily frowned at the quality of items and sighed deeply before handing them back to Alex.

"They're mostly junk items, I can salvage them, and you can use the materials to trade for some booze, but that's about it."

Alex gave the girl a hug and a kiss on the cheek, with made her blush profusely.

"That's good enough for me!"

He said triumphantly as if he had just struck gold. Even though their relationship was ambiguous at best, Alex always acted so shamelessly around her. Much to the ire of many of those who took refuge in C-Gate. To the men who dwelled within these walls, Emily had become an angel. With her good looks and shy attitude and her business in selling equipment that can save lives, she was the dream of many.

On the other hand, Alex openly flirted with her and "harassed" her constantly; because of this, many of the survivors in C-Gate held a grudge against him. As if he was some demon tainting their holy maiden with his constant presence. Still, Emily never seemed to mind Alex's behavior, and as such, people left them be.

After waiting around and chatting with Emily for half an hour between her sales, she finally closed up shop. Due to the steel shutters surrounding the shops, there was little worry about people stealing her items. With her reputation, if anyone were so bold, they'd quickly find themselves the mortal enemy of all men within C-Gate.

Besides that, the gang that ran C-Gate was very protective of the local merchants. They collected tribute from the merchants in exchange for security; as such, even without the steel shutters sealing off the store, anyone who dared to think about stealing would lose a hand at best.

After closing up the store, Emily and Alex walked towards the Swan Song Tavern; it was filled with customers as usual. The tavern didn't just sell booze but also served food—a combination of scavenged goods and breast meat. Because beasts evolved from the land animals, their meat was largely edible, though most kinds were tough to eat and had a gross flavor. Some had become local delicacies.

Though electricity no longer existed, there were still ways to cook food, some primitive, some not so much. For example, the Swan Song Tavern used charcoal grills to cook the food they served, and it was quite tasty.

Alex and Emily sat at a table with a few random slayers who began to tell the tales of their daily hunts. They were mostly men trying to win Emily's favor, though she showed little interest. She was entirely accustomed to men constantly showing off and exaggerating their prowess in front of her. The only person she truly admired was Alex, and that was because of their history.

After the man finished his tale, Alex took a sip from a beer. Luckily for him, a few slayers managed to scavenge some imported beer from Germany before the fracture; as such, Alex drank a nice hearty double bock as he began to spin the tale of how he leveled up and gained a class.

At first, his tale did not draw interest from the others; there were many stories about level ups these days. However, when he mentioned the class selection and the strength he gained from it, practically the entire tavern began listening to his tale with wanderlust. Though incredulous, if what Alex claimed was true, this opened up a new world of possibilities to slayers everywhere.

Alex was soon overwhelmed with questions as he ordered another beer and began answering them one at a time. By the time he was done telling his story, most of the other slayers had a look of reverence in their eyes.

Though one person was doubting the entire story and walked up to Alex menacingly as he slammed his hand down upon the table that Alex sat behind.

"Bullshit! There's no way your story is true."

The man had an arrogant expression on his face; he wore a cowboy hat and boots, with a flannel shirt and jeans. Around these parts, he was known as Rustler. He was one of the publically highest-ranked slayers and had accomplished quite a bit during his time here. Of course, he did not look fondly upon Alex.

Alex had a bit of a reputation himself; trade caravans had started to become a thing about a week ago. They had taken up the dangers of traversing through the city ruins between the various human survivor camps. It just so happens that Captain Hunter wanted Alex and Cassie, Derek, and Brandon for a high price.

The former police captain, now turned tyrant, had made some ridiculous claims about the party and their alleged "crimes." The charges included but were not limited to theft, murder, rape, and kidnapping. Captain Hunter had spared no expense in his quest for vengeance. Unfortunately for him, Alex and his party were protected by the gang in C-Gate due to their connections to Emily. As such, nobody made a move on them within the territory of the Airport.

Because of the bounty on his head, rumors began to spread about Alex within the Airport, and though Emily has stated the charges are false and tried to explain the situation. Many of her suitors chose to believe the rumors simply because they were envious of Alex's relationship with Emily.

Rustler was one of those suitors, and he never tired of making trouble for Alex. As such, when Alex claimed to have beaten him in a race to level 10 and was able to choose a class, gaining a significant boost to his base power, he couldn't help himself from clashing with the boisterous youth.

Though war of words was all either of them was willing to engage in. Neither of the two slayers was willing to invoke the ire of the C-Gate Gang. As such, Alex calmly sipped from his beer and wrapped his arm around Emily in an attempt to enrage Rustler.

"You can choose not to believe me, but you will know the truth when you finally catch up to me."

Rustler's pupils had practically turned red; Alex's words and actions had thoroughly inflamed his passion. If they weren't in C-Gate right now, he wouldn't mind giving Alex a taste of his bow. However, one of his men grabbed him on the shoulder and whispered something into his ear that only he could hear.

Releasing his fists, Rustler glared murderously at Alex before walking away

"We'll see about that"

With that said, he and his gang left, allowing Alex and Emily to enjoy their meal.