Chapter 11: Beast Hunter Guild

Shiba was surprised by how big the town was.

He had only seen the pseudo town made by houses of his previous owners that, despite being a huge family, weren't so numerous, and the town where he had lived the previous days, which was far smaller.

Thus, that was also the first time he had seen merchants in the streets. In the pseudo town of his previous owners, the slaves just gave the owners anything they wished because everything there belonged to the owners, so it was just a matter of picking the things.

As for the previous town, they weren't prosperous enough to have merchants.

Shiba walked while carrying the bird beast. He wanted to sell it, but he didn't have any idea about how to do it.

He had heard how the money in the area worked before leaving the town. There were bronze coins, silver coins, and gold coins. A silver coin was equivalent to a thousand bronze coins and a gold coin equivalent to a thousand silver coins.

That was basic knowledge to not be cheated, but he didn't have a single coin and didn't have the slightest knowledge of how much a beast corpse could be sold for.

The man in his twenties had given Shiba some basic knowledge, but it wasn't that he knew too much either. Anyway, it had been a long time since he had been outside the town, and the prices would change through time, so it wouldn't have been precise enough.

He knew that he needed money, so he was hoping to obtain some from that deceased beast. The wooden sword was already at its limits, it wouldn't be a problem using it to train, but it would break after a single attack in a real battle. Thus, Shiba wanted to buy a real sword.

A wooden sword wasn't strong enough, and Shiba knew that even with Wind Blade, it would break just too quickly to be useful in the long term.

"Lad, it seems that this is your first time here."

An old man spoke to Shiba, who was still walking through the streets.

"Yes."

Shiba stopped a replied. He didn't feel that the old man was a bad person, but that was because Shiba was too naive. In his mind, the bad people like his previous owners were easy to identify, and the same with the good people like his master and those in the town he lived.

Thus, he quickly trusted anyone who looked like a good person, but he was unaware that some bad people could look as if they were good on the surface.

"I thought so. You walked past the Beast Hunter Guild while carrying a beast corpse, so you look like a newbie here. Beast corpses can only be sold there."

The man really didn't have bad intentions, but he wasn't helping Shiba out of goodwill. He was paid by the Beast Hunter Association to guide newbies there. There was no way he would help someone without obtaining some benefits. However, it was true that the town only allowed beast corpses to be sold there. Although that man had been in some shady business in the past that made him be far from being a good person, he didn't have the guts to defy the Beast Hunter Guild. The influence of the Beast Hunter Guild on the town was just too big. Enraging them was akin to a death sentence for those living in the town.

"Thank you very much."

Shiba bowed a bit and then went to the place the old man signaled.

It wasn't difficult to know where the Beast Hunter Guild was due to the huge letter announcing it.

"Welcome. Are you new? Come here."

By the face Shiba had once he crossed the door, everyone there noticed that it was his first time there, but he was carrying a beast corpse, so no one was planning to mock him for his lack of knowledge. The Lord of the town was also the guild master of the Beast Hunter guild, and he valued a lot those who killed beasts, so it was an unspoken rule to avoid making things difficult for that kind of person.

A lot of people on the Beast Hunter Guild were also there to buy not to sell. Although Beast Hunters won quite a bit of money given the importance the Lord of the town gave to them, it was a dangerous job.

"I want to sell this beast's corpse."

Since he had been told that the Beast Hunter Guild was the place to sell the beast's corpse, he stated his intention directly.

"I can guess this much, but first, you need to register as a Beast Hunter."

The woman was kind when speaking. She could guess that Shiba was a country boy without any knowledge of how things worked in that town. However, since the town wanted more Beast Hunters, it didn't matter what Shiba's origins were.

"Register? How?"

Shiba feared that he would need money to register because he didn't have any.

He could sell some of his remaining food or clothes, but he wasn't sure if that would be enough.

"Just fill this paper with your name, age, and level. Don't worry, this is free."

The town wanted beast hunters, so there was no way they would make them pay to join, or they wouldn't join. Most beast hunters started as people without resources, so in most cases, forcing them to pay would just make them stop trying.

"Free? Then, I will fill it right now."

Shiba sighed in relief. Although he believed that he could recover the money by selling the beast later, he didn't want to sell the few things he owned just to pay a registration fee.

Shiba had never written before despite knowing the letter, so his calligraphy was quite bad, but at least it was understandable given Shiba's knowledge. The teaching of the Legacy System was far better than those the people of the area could get, so for others, knowing to read wasn't enough for them to write.

The Beast Hunter Guild was used to have people that didn't know how to write joining them, so just having bad calligraphy wasn't a big deal. If Shiba asked for it, the woman who gave him the paper would have filled it following Shiba's words.

In fact, she was surprised that Shiba managed to write it by himself. She was expecting that he would say that he couldn't write at all.

"Perfect. From now on, you can be considered a beast hunter of our guild. Give me the beast corpse. I will appraise it."

Shiba gave the beast corpse without hesitation. He was tired of carrying it all the way, and a lot of people stared at him for that reason.

However, that was also the reason no one tried to stop him. If it hadn't been for the beast, given his clear lack of understanding about the word, he would have been targeted by a lot of people.

"More than 24 hours since it died, but still less than 48. For a beast of this level, the time is alright. The only wound is on the neck, probably the cause of death. I didn't expect a newbie to give me something of this quality. You have talent."

The woman was really surprised. When it had been too long since the corpse's death without using special methods, the price of the deceased beast would drop a lot. The same applied when the beast had been too damaged.

For the ideals of the Beast Hunter Guild, killing a beast with one hit and returning quickly to sell it was the best.

Of course, Shiba didn't kill it with one hit, but his previous hits were unable to harm the beast at all, so it looked as if he had killed it without too much difficulty.

Shiba's clothes had some cuts all over them, but Shiba wasn't injured at all since he already recovered, so it seemed that he was just using some old clothes.

"I can give you six hundred bronze coins for this one. This is the limit I am allowed to pay for a beast of this level."

Although she had the authority to decide the prices based on her appraisal, she had an upper limit. Deciding to give that limit was that she considers that the job had been done perfectly, so the beast hunter deserved it.

"So much money?"

Shiba couldn't avoid his surprise. Although he almost died in that battle, he didn't expect that he could win six hundred bronze coins in one go.

Of course, Shiba considered it a lot, but it wasn't that much for most people. It was a proper price for having killed a beast of that level, but no one would turn rich from just one beast.

"This isn't that much. If you want to register as a citizen, the fee is already three hundred bronze coins. Since you are a young beast hunter who had already delivered one beast, you can apply for the discount, but it is still two hundred fifty bronze coins. Equipment and food also require money, so it won't last that long."

The woman felt that without proper advice, Shiba would lose all the money in less than a day. Six hundred seemed a lot by the number, but that was still less than one silver.

Looking at that wooden sword on Shiba's waist, it was obvious that he lacked proper equipment for hunting beasts. She believed that Shiba just had a powerful skill that happened to be effective to defeat that beast, but the clothes he was wearing didn't add anything to his defense.

"Register as a citizen? What does that mean?"