272 One mans work (1/2)
That afternoon, Remian earned 30 Black-grade spirit crystals by selling two frozen fish to the Paramount Chalice Restaurant.
”This… doesn't seem like much.” Remian knew that the fisherman before him received three times more for twice as much fish (counting by weight).
”Ah, but we already have ample supplies for today.” The staff at the kitchen said.
”Can't you give me as much as the last guy?” Remian asked.
The staff's face fell, but grudgingly, he raised the offer to 40 Black spirit crystals.
That still wasn't very much, but at least it was better. Remian sighed, and decided that fishing was never going to supply him enough money to pay for a Jade Vitality Pill.
One of those pills would cost hundreds of Earth-grade spirit crystals! One Earth-grade crystal was worth a thousand Black-grade crystals! In short, if he tried buying that pill with Black-grade spirit crystals, he'd have to save up millions!
With a sigh, Remian looked to his other ambition. ”How much is the steamed fish dish that Little Li likes so much?”
”Forty-nine, fifty.” The staff answered immediately. ”In Black.”
Remian gaped. ”49.50 Black?! In other words, 49 Black-grade and 50 Yellow-grade spirit crystals?”
”Yep.”
”But you only paid me 40 for two of those fishes!”
”Yep.”
”That's daylight robbery!”
”That's business. If you don't like it, go steam your own fish.”
Remian grimaced. He'd already tried that, and it had not tasted anywhere near the same. He should know; he had Little Li's beloved memories to compare with.
”Hey, if you're done here, can you move out of the way?” A hunter in leathers came up with a cart bearing a four-tusked boar carcass. He turned to the kitchen staff. ”How much for this one?”
The kitchen staff eyed it. ”Two hundred Black.”
”What?!” Remian spluttered. ”That's it! I'm done fishing! I'm going to hunt me a boar…”
He had a pretty good idea where. The hunter's thoughts had three different good locations where these four-tusked boars were commonly found. As to how to hunt them…
Pit-traps, net traps, weighed spears, bait… the hunter's plans and methods were laid out like a book for Remian to read. Remian sorted them out, compared them with the Gale Slash… and decided on a bait and netting combination. Gale Slash or a good spear could do the rest.
But first, he should check in and collect his share of the earnings from Big Li before they declared him dead and split his share among themselves.
***
An hour later, he gave up all thoughts of hunting boars.
”Five hundred Black!” Remian gaped at the notes in his hand.
It was a stack of bank notes from the Soaring Empire Bank. These were exchangeable with the actual crystals at any branch all across the transcontinental Soaring Empire, of which Soaring Crane Country (and thus, Scorched Earth City) was a part of. Each bank note was sewn with crystalline threads containing wisps of high level Qi from specific bank managers. There was something special about that Qi, Remian gathered, that made it practically impossible to counterfeit unless you knew the exact techniques, which were a top secret of the bank.
Each of these three notes were for 100 Black-grade spirit crystals. Compared to this, his earnings from fishing were only 40 Black.
”This is my share from the trapvines?” Remian stared. ”After dividing everything between over a dozen people?”
”It is a tenth of the Xue Clan's share, which is one third of the reward.” Big Li clarified.
So that was how they divided the proceeds; divided three ways between the Xue Clan, the Mu Clan and the Zhao Clan. From there, the Xue Clans share were divided between himself (10%), Little Li (10%), Big Li and Wushuang, with half of it going to Big Li.
In other words, the venture actually earned 15,000 Black. After all that effort and working as their lookout post, receiving roughly around 3% of the total somehow felt like he'd been cheated.
”Hey, at least it's better than what the guards got.” Little Li consoled him.
”What did they get?”
”One of them got killed. The other got wounded. That's it.”