Split

The group of seven departed from the cobweb forest as soon as Loma was done with butchering the corpse of the elite bear.

Danny helped Jax walk, while the other warrior carried his portion of the loot. Normally, they would have fought for another hour or so before they left, but having found the elite bear, they weren't losing much in leaving now.

Thankfully, they encountered no other monsters when returning.

The sun was lower on the horizon when they finally made it back to the city. They had maybe two more hours of sunlight, so they quickly got things done.

They arrived at a large shop that sold an assortment of goods from dead monsters, where a bald man took them to the back and had them bring out everything.

Jax emptied his Inventory of all the butchered materials as well, piling them onto an open surface.

The bald man quickly began counting everything and noting it all down. He counted the bear eyes, the spider's venom sack, the silkworm's silk pouch, the wolf's heart, etc.

After counting it all together, he gave them a number.

"52 stones. That should be acceptable, right?" the man asked.

The sorceress frowned a little. "Can't you make it 55? Look, this hide belongs to the elite bear. How often do you come by this?"

The man looked at the hide again and shook his head. "I did consider it. That is why it's 52 stones. If not, I would have only given you 50, and even that would've been quite high."

The others said nothing, letting the sorceress do the bargaining. She seemed troubled by the amount.

Jax wondered if they were being ripped off. Was this the only shop out there? Surely there were others that accepted such materials.

"Can you make it 53? Add just one more stone," the sorceress said.

The man thought for a long time and nodded. "Fine, 53. Is that enough?" he asked.

"That should be enough," the sorceress said, still not happy that she was only getting 53.

The man brought out the 53 white opal stones and gave them to the sorceress. The sorceress gave a simple thank you and walked away.

Jax followed them outside with Danny's help. "Couldn't we have gone to another place?" he asked. "We could have gotten a better deal."

Danny turned to him and had a hidden smile. "A better deal? We just got a damn good deal right here. We were expecting no more than 45 stones for all of this, and we somehow managed to get 53."

Jax felt the change in atmosphere instantly. "It was all an act?"

He couldn't believe it. He had been so easily duped. 'Maybe it is a good thing to hide stuff from the others. It helps us in the end.'

After leaving far enough from the store, they stood next to a crossroad where they began piling up their loot. Adding to the 53 stones they got from the shop, they now had a total of 145 stones.

"Not a perfect split as we hoped," the archer said. "How do we split the remainder? Based on who did the most?"

"That would be the best, but I want to give the remaining to our porters. They were attacked and held off the beasts while we fought. He is wounded as well, so he will need the extra money. Anyone disagree?"

Danny shook his head, and so did the sorcerer. The archer shrugged, and while the other warrior might have thought it wasn't a good plan, he didn't say anything.

"That settles it then. Two extra stones to Loma, and three to Jax," the sorceress said.

Loma seemed genuinely happy to get the two extra stones. Jax placed the three stones into his Inventory, totaling eight now.

"Let's split the remaining as previously discussed," she said and started handing around the stones.

Jax and Loma each received seven, which was their 5%. The remaining 130 was equally split into 26 for each of the remaining five.

Jax was stunned to see them earn so many at once. Not counting the extra he received or the one he got from killing the beasts, he only had seven. The fighters had gotten nearly four times the amount.

Seeing that, Jax wanted to be a fighter himself too.

"See you guys next week," the sorceress said and walked away.

The others said their goodbyes and left as well. Danny and Jax left to go back to the training center as well.

"Is there a potion shop somewhere along the way?" Jax asked. "I'm afraid I might need to buy one of those healing potions. Are they expensive per chance?"

"The one you were fed costs about three Navi stones. The one that can fully heal you costs about ten," Danny said.

"So expensive!"

"It really is. Those damn potion masters earn an exorbitant amount of money for doing some simple procedures while we barely earn anything risking our lives in the forest. It's unfair," Danny complained.

"Is there some sort of requirement to becoming one?" Jax asked.

"Money," Danny said. "You need to be rich to be able to buy many resources and waste them subsequently while trying to get good at making potions. The potion training schools ask a lot in admission too."

Jax nodded slowly. Maybe he should become one too.

After all, how much of a fighter could he become with a single spell?

'I need money first, though,' Jax thought. 'A lot of it at that, apparently.'

"Shena healed you enough, right?" Danny asked. "You can let the nurses in the training center heal the rest for you. You're paying them for that anyway."

Jax remembered. "Right… I have to pay Julian too," he said. He had nearly forgotten that was why he had come here trying to earn money in the first place.

The training center was a short distance away from where they split, so the two of them arrived before it was dark.

Jax headed over to the treatment facility in the training center where he was nursed and given medicine. After that was dinner and after dinner, there wasn't much left for him to do.

Tired after a long day's work, he immediately fell asleep after reaching his room.