The Merchant God

Chapter 17: Beast Tide?!

While Alexander us venturing through the cave, the situation in the hidden forest village has come on it’s boiling point. “Reporting to the young lady, we have place some beast repellant at the entrance of the eastern forest and if needed, it could buy us a few hours.” Reported by the scout. “thank you for your hard work. Please keep me updated.” The scout nodded and take his leave. Sophie takes a deep breath as the feeling of tiredness comes up. “take a rest My goddaughter, grampa Grease will take it from here.” “thanks grampa Grease!” Sophie smiles and leaves to rest on her room.

Grease sighed. “come out old geezer. I know you’re there.” A cold snort was heard. “sharp as ever. My shadows are in standby so rest assured that they will provide assistance if needed. What about you narcissist old man?” said by the man in shadows. “hmhp! Look at you two old bags, unlike me I retain my youth! I am also at standby, my apprentices already prepared the healing agents needed.” Grease nodded. “thanks guys, if fate would present it, I will pay this debt in due time.” As he said this, the two man in the shadows disappear.

Meanwhile, as Alexander entered the cave, deep within it is a small lake. He observe and his energy to the lake and felt that it’s just a normal lake. “system can you appraise this lake?” “initializing appraise skill… detected a rare material. Appraise will take 2 hours.” Alexander nodded and wait for it. While waiting he also eat some rations as his supper. “ding! Appraisal complete! ‘Cold Spring Lake’- a lake filled with cold spring water that is very good for wild beast. The lake will never run dry as it is being refilled by the water energy around it.” After reading the description, “system, store the lake in the Secret land.” Said by Alexander “extraction of the lake will take an hour. Please wait.” then suddenly a white light is slowly covering the whole lake.

In the Paule family household main hall, there was a fat man currently bowing in front of a middle aged man. If Alexander is here, he would immediately recognized the fatty. “you have done well for the past few years managing the pill pavilion. For that, we will grant you the position of an elder of the Paule family and we will have you manage the pill pavilion at the Golden Valley Kingdom and you will prepare to leave next month.” The middle aged man said. “Thank you very much Patriarch, I, Kim Yun, will not let you down.” The middle aged man nodded and gesture him to take his leave. “are you sure about that promotion father?” asked by Alphonse, the middle aged man said nothing and just look at his son. Alphonse sighed, bow and took his leave. As the man looking at his son departing back, he shook his head and kept his stern look.

“ding! Extraction complete! The Cold Spring lake has been placed in the secret land.” “Ding! Secret achievement unlock! Rewarding a new title please check your panel.” Alexander was startled by the notification and immediately open his status panel.

[Status]             [Mission Board]

Name: Alexander F*cking Mcdowell

Age: 16

Occupation: Merchant(Apprentice)

Money: 113 Gold (30 days before deduction)

Power Level: 1690(Blue Ranker 1)

Strength: 295                       Intelligence: 175

Charisma: 180                     Wisdom: 183

Endurance: 314                    Luck: 225

Agility: 318

Skills:

Hide(Mastery)                Tracking(Mastery)

Appraise(Mastery)         Apothecary (Intermediate)

Smithing(Beginner)       Haggle(Beginner)

Secret Land(Beginner)

Titles:

‘The one reincarnated for the 100th time’

‘Chosen of the Elements’

‘Beast Farmer’

‘Sole Survivor’

As he checks his status panel, “beast farmer?” he hover his finger to the new title “Beast Farmer – as the host herd more than 100 gourmet beast and provided the best living condition to these beasts, they will now provide you a higher quality of produce.” Upon reading the title usage, Alexander smiles “I smell… money!” he laughs and turn to exit the cave.

After exiting the cave, he notice that its already deep in the night hence he decided to go back now in sleeping forest so that he can arrive by morning and take his rest. “how are those two kids doing right now.” He can’t help but to think. “Haste!” a red glow suddenly cover his body and he took off.

In the main hall of the treasure pavilion, all of the rankers available in the village gathered. There are only more than 200 rankers and most of them are only yellow rankers, some of them are mortal hunters while there are only a handful of blue rankers. At the stage, an old man and a girl is currently standing. As the old man walk forward. “Everyone! Thank you very much for gathering here today. The reason why we are here is to protect the village. Today, some of us may die and some us may be crippled however, if you have families here in the village, you can rest assured that the treasure pavilion will provide them support in case of your untimely death. After this meeting, you will head here at the stage to sign in with your name.” after the old man’s speech the rankers cheers “thank you elder!” “that is why we pursue being a ranker! To fight the beasts!” “haha! I’ll be bathing in beasts blood tonight!” different cheers was heard in the hall. As this cheers were still ongoing, the old man and the girl can’t helped but be moved by these rankers.

The old man suddenly said “everyone! No, tonight we are brothers and sisters!” he raise a wine gourd and said “please let me gave all of you a toast!” he gulped on the gourd. “brothers and sisters I hope we can see each others again after we averted this calamity!!” he took another gulped on the gourd and the rankers in the main hall wad moved by this gesture of the old man hence, they also bring out their own wine and toast with the old man “For the safety of this village!” “for the safety of our future generations!” “to the future…” before the other ranker finish his piece, a scout suddenly came in running in the hall. “Reporting to the young lady!” the girl beside the old man walks forward and nodded. “th-the be-beasts…” as the young lady heard the first few words her face suddenly turned serious. “th-the be-beasts… the-they’re all gone!” when the young lady heard it she immediately jump down from the stage and walks toward the scout. “a-are you 100% sure that the beasts are gone?!!!!” the young lady was so happy when she heard it that she was scared that it was only a false report hence she came closer to the scout. “ye-yes young lady! We are 100% sure! Although we are not sure what happen, its like all of the beast in the eastern forest disappear like they never existed in the first place. There was no beasts corpse or beast blood. They just disappear into thin air.” Said by the scout. “also, one of our scout found a corpse of a ranker near the beast gathering and also we detected some beast powder hence we can conclude that this is a man made beast tide.” Reported by the scout.

As happiness cropped up in the young lady heart, tears come down and the old man suddenly approach her to support her. When the rankers also heard the report, they can’t help but to sighed in relief while others cheers for joy and thank the gods. “Everyone! I know that we are all tired due in preparing to defend our land hence the treasure pavilion will open a banquet for all of you!” As the old man say it, he instructed all of the man power they have to prepare a banquet to celebrate.

In the pill pavilion, manager Kim is just tidying up his office when a knock sounded at his door. “Ma-manager, I have something to report.” “come in” the receptionist came in and bows “reporting to the manager, it appears that all of the beast that our agent gathered has disappear also, our agent has been killed.” After reporting, the receptionist was ready for the manager’s anger however “do we know what happen? Are the beast were killed?” calmly asked by manager Kim “n-no manager, we are still currently investigating what happen. There were no beast was killed either. It’s like they disappear into thin air.” Said by the receptionist. Manager Kim nodded “okay you can go.” The receptionist was confused as to why manager Kim was so calmed hence he bows and took his leave. After leaving, the desk in front of manager Kim suddenly broke into pieces “hmph! Once I found out who ruined my plan, I will tear you into pieces!!” An intense killing intent can be seen in his eyes.