My Guardian System: The Trader

Hope and the others repeatedly said their gratitude to him. He just nodded at it to put a stop to the topic. Honestly, he was also one of those people's targets, so he decided to take care of them.

Also, he needed these people's help. That's why he acted sooner before they suffered. It is also a good idea to plant more debts into these people.

In this case, if by chance in the future he needed their help, they couldn't say no without giving consideration to him. Jem believed that debt is a powerful trump card. Well, it also depends on the people.

Regardless, it wasn't a bad idea.

When they arrived at the town, Hope went along with Jem to the shop. She would also sell their haul from the Gobs they killed.

They went inside a shop with the name Tom's Trading Shop. It was located in an enclosed area, after passing a corner. Jem wondered if what kind of shop hid their shop in a secluded place. This seemed shady to be honest.

"Uncle Tom, good day!" Hope greeted the chubby man, who was at the counter.

Contrary to Jem's expectation, the person at the counter greeted them with amiable smile. "Little Hope? How are you?"

It seemed like the girl with him quite familiar with the person in the counter. He's probably the owner of this shop as Hope was calling him Tom and it was also the exact name of the shop that he saw outside.

"I'm fine, Uncle Tom! We came here today to trade."

"Oh, I see. By the way, who is this fellow with you? Is he your boyfriend?" He whispered the second question with a little teasing tone.

Hope became red in an instant!

"W-w-what a-are you talking, Uncle Tom?" She stuttered. "We just met today. He was looking for a shop where he could trade his materials from monster drops, so I offered my help and brought him here, you see," she explained in a blushing face.

"Ah, I see. Sorry for jumping to conclusions. Fufu."

"Geez!"

Hope peeked on Jem's face. She couldn't find any changes. 'Good grief,' she thought.

Although Jem heard what the merchant asked to Hope, he acted as though he didn't hear it.

"Okay, let me check your materials, then."

Hope placed a small sack on the glass surface of the counter.

When Tom unwrapped the sack, he saw familiar objects inside it.

"Hm, accessories and monster cores, huh. Did you go hunting mutated animals in the town outskirts?"

"No, Uncle Tom. We just happened to come across a newly appeared dungeon."

"Eh? Isn't it dangerous?"

"It is. Really. We almost got ourselves killed."

Hope sighed.

"Little girl, be careful next time."

"Please, Uncle Tom, stop calling me little!"

Tom noticed her eyes swimming towards the boy beside her as she said it.

"Fufu. Right, right."

He adjusted his spectacles then started checking the content of the sack one by one.

"Five low-quality accessories and fourteen low-grade monster cores," said Tom after counting all the materials in Hope's sack.

The trader told him that beast cores were also called monster cores, so Jem wasn't surprised when he heard them calling them monster cores.

Hope and Jem were waiting while Tom began counting the cash.

"10 red coins each for the low-quality accessories. And then, 20 red coins each for low-grade monster cores."

"Here. Good job, for the hard work." Tom handed three silver coins and thirty red coins to Hope.

One hundred red coins are equivalent to 1 silver coin. Whereas, 100 silver coins are equivalent to 1 black federation money and 1000 black federation money is equivalent to 1 gold federation money.

Deep inside, Jem was a little surprised. He did not expect that it would cost that much.

When he was in the Ex Soul Academy, a meal of rice and egg already cost him 20 red coins. His allowance for a month was only 600 red coins, which is equivalent to 6 silver coins. It was supposedly 12 silver coins, but because of his case of breaching the law of sh*t, it was deduced to 6 silver coins.

Hope received the money with bright eyes.

"Thank you very much, Uncle Tom. By the way, my acquaintance here also wants to trade his materials."

Tom shifted his gaze to Jem. "Ohh! Is that so?" He asked him.

"Yeah," Jem nodded.

"Fufu. I'm always open for business for dedicated customers, you know. Now then, shall we start checking?" He asked.

Jem stared at him for a second before placing the knapsack on the glass surface of the counter without saying anything.

He was skeptical, but Jem knew he needed to gamble. He had no idea about the real price of monster cores or the accessories in federation money, but the most important thing for him at this moment was to gain cash.

Tom slightly frowned. He's wondering what's inside the knapsack. It was about to explode for how he saw it, seemingly full.

Though, he guessed that it was full of less valuable materials such as broken weapons or armors.

Although they were less valuable, they would still be a good material to earn money. If one is lucky, they might find a good quality one. These kinds of materials were also collectable in a dungeon. There are random things inside it that one could trade-off.

Some herbs and stones could only be found in a dungeon. Although dangerous, the dungeon was a good source of income.

After opening the knapsack, Tom's eyes widened in disbelief, as though they were going to pop out of his eye sockets.

'M-monster cores?!' He exclaimed in mind when all that his eyes could see were monster cores.

Trying to hide his surprise, he cleared his throat. *Erm!* Then, he checked the content one by one.

There are truly monster cores and accessories only! Tom exclaimed inwardly. The last monster core he took out from the knapsack even stammered him.

"Hh-high-grade monster core?!" He finally failed to hide his surprise.

The high-grade monster core had a unique glint on it. So, he was certain that the object in his hand was a high-grade one.

Jem and Hope even noticed Tom's fingers and lips trembled slightly.

Tom's only doubt was how this kid was able to collect so many of them along with a high-grade one. Just looking at the number of monster cores and accessories in front of him, he could tell that the number could represent a low-grade dungeon, but. As a professional buyer, who ran his business for a decade now, Tom remained silent.

There were many types of sellers, but most of them rather hid their identity.

Jem was surprised when Tom didn't even question him. After counting all the materials, Tom paid him.

He got 5 silver coins and 30 red coins from 53 low-quality accessories, and 9 silver coins from 45 low-grade monster cores.

Whereas he got 1 silver coin and 50 red coins from 3 high-quality accessories, and 1 silver coin from a high-grade monster core.

So, in total, he got 16 silver coins and 83 red coins.

There was a different kind of feeling when Jem took the cash. It was the first time that he earned money on his own.

On the farm, he had no use for money. He just needed to hunt in the wilds for animals and plant rice or wheat for their daily supply. His grandfather took the rest of the job.

When he arrived in the city, he realized many things. One of them was that he needed money to survive in this kind of society.

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