A bad trade won’t ruin you but the desperate action that you take afterward that will.

Herbert Meadows - Father

Kelly seemed calmer when I returned from fighting the monsters. She had removed the oversized robe and was wearing a light dress. Looking over the dress and seeing the sweat stains, I realized she was likely wearing this under the robe the whole time.

“Ready to talk?”

“What makes you think I am smuggling anything?” she asked.

“I might not look like it now, but my father is a merchant.”

“You’re right. I don’t believe you.”

She looked me over from head to toe. I guess she was right. What merchant’s son would choose a dangerous life on the road as a mercenary. And truth be told my father nearly spit blood when I told him I was going to climb the tower.

“Regardless, there is no reason you are taking this trip for 50 silver.”

“Obviously, I am hiding the good stuff where you can’t see,” she replied with a smile.

“And you have to hide your own identity as well? No, you are smuggling something, and to be honest you are really bad at this. That tells me that it is your first time.”

She looked dejected at my words.

“Fine, I am smuggling something. And why would I want to be good at smuggling? I just want to get this over with and go home.”

“Okay, so why don’t you start at the beginning?” I asked. “What are you smuggling?”

“I don’t know.” She looked at me and could probably see a dubious look on my face. “No really, I have no idea what is in the package.”

What kind of trader didn't know what she was transporting? I looked at her skeptically and tried not to sigh audibly.

“Okay, then tell me why you are smuggling.”

“I don't want to be smuggling, but I didn't really have a choice. It's all Anderson's fault.”

“And who is Anderson?”

“Anderson is the black market leader. My dad runs a small trading company and we lost one of his shipments, his legal shipments. Well he wasn't happy with us and demanded that either I get married off or we transport some of his goods to Tinder City.”

“I'm guessing you didn't want to marry him?”

“Ewe, he's like 90 years old. He wanted to marry one of his sons. My dad wasn't really happy about the options.”

“I can imagine. Why is your dad not doing the trip instead of you?”

“He doesn't know. He was trying to get money together. Anderson did give us a third option which was to pay off the amount of the shipment which was 15 gold. I don't know about you but we don't exactly have gold laying around.”

I did have 15 gold. Had I known that paying off this Anderson guy would have been an option, I could have saved myself the hassle of transporting Kelly across the wilderness. But that didn't seem to be the goal of the floor.

“So you met with Anderson without telling your father and agreed to smuggle something across the wilderness and into Tinder City. Now, I want to know how exactly you plan to get the goods inside the town?”

She looked at me confused. How dumb could she be?

“I was just planning on walking through the entrance. I've never been stopped by city guards.”

“Routine traders are never stopped by the city guards. But I'm guessing you're not well known in this city we're going to. And you're showing up with an armed guard and a wagon that only has a handful of goods. And to cap it all off, we have traveled through the Wilds to get to the city.”

Kelly looked off into the distance and her eyes closed over for a minute as she went deep in thought.

“We're going to get searched aren't we? The guards will be suspicious of us. Then they will hold us while they tear apart the wagon.”

“Yep. If that's what we do, they will definitely search us.”

“What do you mean if that's what we do?”

“I mean if we waltz in there as a young female merchant with an armed guard we will get stopped and questioned. Then your wagon will be torn apart and whatever contraband will be found. However if we appear to be a young couple going to the city for a new start we will only be questioned for a little bit then allowed into the city.”

She narrowed her eyes at me and thought over my proposal.

“Won’t the guards be suspicious of us coming from this direction?”

“We won't come from this direction. We'll take a little bit more time and circle around the city. Then we will go through a more routinely used entrance. I will be a young adventurer who has grown tired of the adventuring lifestyle and decided to marry the cute farmer's daughter that I met on my travels.”

“I hope I don't look like a farmer's daughter.”

“No, you look like a smuggler. I don't care if you look like a merchant's daughter or a farmer's daughter as long as they don't think you're a smuggler.”

“Do you think they'll buy that story?”

“Of course they'll buy that story. There's always someone coming to the city, hoping to start a new life. I would guess probably half of them leave within the month realizing the city isn't where they wanted to live with the smell of shit in the sewers and dirty people everywhere.”

“Tinder City has plumbing. There shouldn't be any shit anywhere.”

I nodded my head in acknowledgement. I continued to survey the area, looking out for the next monster wave. Sure enough a group of five rushed towards us and I quickly killed them.

“You know everyone says how scary the Wilds are, but you are handling these monsters without any difficulty. Clearly it's over exaggerated.”

I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and say she was naive, but everything she said was quickly convincing me that she was a complete idiot.

“What level do you think these monsters are?”

“Judging by how big they are and how quickly you're handling them I would guess maybe level eight or nine,” she said confidently.

“Out of those past five monsters the lowest level was 23 and the highest was level 28.”

Her jaw literally dropped and she stared at me, open-mouthed for a minute before asking, “What level are you?”

“I'm over level 30.”

She stared at me for a minute and slowly her shock expression turned into a mischievous grin.

“You don't need to try to impress me just cuz you think I'm pretty,” she said mischievously. “The king's guards are the only ones I know of over level 30.”

I walked over to the wagon and lifted the back with one arm. As I lifted it higher the wood started to groan and I set it down, concerned it would break. Judging by its size, the wagon had to weigh about 1500 lb.

“Like I said, I'm over level 30.”

“Fine, you're over level 30. But if you're fighting monsters over level 25 why aren't you collecting their mana gems?”

“What's a mana gem?” I asked. I had never heard the term before and it didn't appear in any of the magic knowledge the wizard gifted me.

“You're the son of a merchant and you've never heard of mana gem.” Once more she started grinning at me.

“Are you going to tell me or are you going to just keep grinning at me?”

“A mana gem is a gem made of mana that appears in every monster over the level of 25. Any trader knows that even a low quality mana gem is worth a gold piece. It’s the only reason most adventures and merchanries agree to come out to the Wilds.”

“You're saying that all these monsters I've been fighting, that are over level 25 have been carrying a mana crystal?”

“Mana gem,” she corrected.

“Fine, they all have a mana gem?”

“Every monster level 25 and over has a mana gem located right next to their heart. It looks like a small marble, usually blue in color.”

I walked over to one of the monsters that was over level 25. Cutting it open, I searched for the heart and sure enough next to the heart was a small blue crystal about the size of the nail on my pinky.

Item: Mana Gem- Poor Quality.

A gem made of mana. You can try eating. It won’t do anything if you eat it but you can still try. Might be useful to a crafter. Higher quality mana gems can be used as a cultivation aid or to strengthen elemental affinity, but this one is a piece of crap. Can be stored in a coin purse.

Well I felt like an idiot. If I had known about these I would have had a couple dozen from our trip through the Wilds to this point. I decided to show her what I found.

“Holy shit, that's a mana gem!”

“I told you I've been fighting monsters over level 25. You should have believed me.”

“So you're telling me you're actually over level 30? And this entire time you've been with me? Why the hell did you agree to come with me so cheaply?”

“Better question, why were you only looking to pay a single mercenary to come with you through the Wilds?”

“Oh, well I had a theory that maybe the Wilds weren't as dangerous as the mercenaries and adventurers made it out to be. I thought they were using it as an excuse to get overpaid work.”

She really was an idiot.

“I hate to ask this, but what was your plan if the Wilds were actually dangerous?”

“I figured any mercenary who came with me would know the truth. As such they would not take the job if they were not able to handle the monsters alone.”

She wasn't wrong. I had figured out how dangerous the Wilds were and I was able to handle all the monsters by myself.

“Okay, one last question before we move on. I assume you have a contact in Tinder City.”

“Of course I have a contact there.”

“So after you turn in the item to Anderson’s contact, how were you planning on getting back?”

“Obviously, I'm going to have you take me back,” she said, full of confidence.

“You hired me for a one-way trip. What makes you think that I would go back with you?”

“I figured you'd probably be heading back to Windgate City. I was hoping I could convince you to just let me tag along for free.”

“How often do you give away goods for free?”

“What?”

“As a merchant do you give away your merchandise for free when you could make a profit on it?

“You really aren’t a merchant’s son. No merchant worth their salt would ever give away anything for free.”

“And what mercenary would give away work for free that he could earn coin doing? Better yet, assume I didn't have to go back to your city, what then? Are you really telling me that your whole plan is predicated on the generosity of a mercenary that you were worried was going to rape you a short while ago?”

“Well, I mean no,” she said, not convincing me.

“Very well, let's try this a different way. Do you have a way to contact your father or Anderson to let him know that you delivered the item?”

“You really think I have a communication crystal? Those cost hundreds of gold each. If my father had something that valuable, he would have just sold it instead of worrying about marrying me off.”

“I see. What deadline do you have to contact Anderson?”

“Without any delays the trip should take about a week each way, so he gave me three weeks to return and prove I had handed off the item.”

This girl definitely was both naive and an idiot. She may be cute but my generosity was only going to go so far. I firmly believe that after I helped her turn in the contraband the floor would be complete and a portal would open to the next flood. If this world was real she was going to be screwed in about five days.

At the pace I was going now we should reach Tinder City in the next couple days. There was no harm in entertaining the girl right now. I figured I might as well just continue on as if her idiotic plan wasn't to get herself killed.