Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1) Arthur Stone (hardest books to read .txt) 📖

They carry valuable caviar inside—perhaps there’s some trick to cleaning them so as not to ruin it. We’re willing to do it, but we need somebody to show us how. Who knows how?”

“Them?” asked Jadiro.

“What?”

“You said you ‘didn’t clean them.’ That means you have more than one,” the innkeeper explained calmly and patiently.

“Right. We caught three. Should I get the other two? Beko’s got them, out on the porch.”

Jadiro turned and barked, “Tarko! The boys have brought us some fish, out on the porch. Help bring them in, quick! And you—” he turned to me—”you wait here. I’ll take care of this, and you can watch.”

Jadiro cut and cleaned the fish right in the main dining hall, as several lovers of beer who were somehow already back from the mine watched with interest. I didn’t see anything too complicated about the process. As long as you held the knife by the blade, firmly and close to its tip. The fish’s belly was malleable, and positioning your fingers allowed you to cut to an exact depth. Its dissected flesh split apart and revealed its insides, undamaged by the cut. Then, its large gallbladder and two sacs of caviar were easy to separate out. Both were valuable, but the innkeeper’s treatment of them showed that, yes, the caviar was much more so. He seized them greedily, yet cautiously. After depositing the goods into bowls, he asked, “Can I have the fish carcasses?”

“Are they valuable?”

“They’re just regular fish, but they are tastier than kote. Almost like beef, but without the fat.”

“Okay, take them. But give us a solid portion of the fish to try for dinner tonight.”

“I’ll do that. We need to wait to deal with the caviar. I’m sending Tarko to get the treasurer—I don’t handle this sort of thing on my own.”

That was the moment when I realized that we had something genuinely special. No matter how many kotes we dragged in, there was no such fuss made about them.

I had only seen the treasurer, never spoken to him. He had no reason to speak to an urchin like me—well, not until that day. In five minutes, Mr. Kucho arrived at the inn, and full of interest. He had even brought his very own scale, with which to weigh the goods.

Ignoring the gallbladders, he weighed the caviar sacs one at a time, weighed them together, and then declared, “Five guild pounds, six ounces, and eight grams. A total of two thousand, one hundred, and eighty-eight grams. Intact sacs, and so valued at full price. That is, one Blackriver treasury instrument per five grams. In total, 437 instruments.” Kucho turned to the innkeeper. “Salt the sacs in rags—you know the procedure. And you—” he turned to me. “You may collect the treasury instruments from me for the caviar. Everything else, you may collect from Jadiro.”

As I watched the treasurer, I ran calculations in my head. Sadly the going price was less than one square per caviar egg, but it was still a good sum. Nearly 450 squares from these three fish. Plus the carcasses and the gallbladder would fetch something. A small portion of this payday would repay my debts. The rest would not only afford Beko and me some clothes, but much more besides.

We could move to a new standard of living, above our current place in a dusty basement. I saw the miners’ eyes bulging. We had just earned more than they could on a hard day. Hell, we had earned more than they could dream of on a hard day. They were the local elites. For hours, miners disappeared into the darkness to mine ore, risking cave-ins and encounters with monsters who were unable to digest ore, but very able to digest miners. Others roamed the forests, placing traps throughout in order to catch beasts filled with spices. Being outdoors was better than being underground, all else being equal—but this was the Wild Wood. All else was not equal. It was rare to see any of these workers die a natural death.

Thanks to the rod and the lure, I had it made. Perhaps, within three years, I could build up a decent fortune here. If nothing stood in my way.

Including, in particular, the strangling grasp of these miners. The gaze of one burned into me, as though smoke was about to pour out of his ears. When a universally despised ghoul and a juvenile pipsqueak of imperial origin were the ones who surpassed you...

I was hesitant to keep any caviar eggs. But if they were worth so much, I wanted to try one.

However, not a single square had come my way yet. Hopefully the treasurer would still be around to sort it out after I had eaten dinner. Otherwise, I would catch him in the morning.

* * *

I found the man in his office after the meal. However, instead of paying us right away, he barked a warning at Beko. “Out of here, you filthy ghoul!

And you, follow me,” he said as he directed a twisted finger my way.

Kucho led me to the back door of his office, which brought us to a narrow maze of passages running through the lower level of the trading post’s main administrative building. Here there were storerooms holding valuable items, besides the offices for the treasurer and other officials. The big cheese himself lived up on the top floor.

That was where Kucho dragged me. It was a large room, illuminated by a single oil lamp hanging from a massive ceiling beam. The floor was covered with the skins of different animals, carefully placed so as to mimic a single, unbroken carpet. I saw animal fur resembling that of a bear, a wolf, and a giant cat—and one pelt that looked like nothing I had ever seen before. Not that I was any master trapper. It might have been some