Chapter 558: Chapter 551: I’m a business man, with a business plan

Crowie actually led Bookie to the paladins first, because they were closer.

The paladins came with a report of three skeletons wearing potentially valuable things.

First was a large and tall skeleton wearing fancy red clothes, there were multiple rings on his fingers and several large necklaces hanging over his ribcage. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Bookie observed the big skeleton carefully as he walked through the market, other skeletons would greet him as he toured the place, calling him governor.

All his things together are certainly worth more! But it’s not one item… The ring still wins. Who is the next one?

The paladins then brought bookie to a relatively busy stall, where a decrepit-looking skeleton with graying and cracked bones was selling random junk and trinkets. The interesting part was the skeleton himself, who had a large gemstone inserted in his left eye socket like a fake eye.

Bookie excitedly walked up to the stall.

“Sir, Sir! What’s that in your eye?!” he asked.

“Ohoh, curious ‘bout old lenny’s lamp, are ya, kid?” the skeleton answered, tapping the crystal in his eye socket with a fingertip while he was still busy counting the coins of one of his clients with his other hand. “Here’s your change ma’am, come again.”

“A lamp?!”

“Dat’s right, tis a very clean and pure lightstone. My vision ain’t what it used to be, and don’t repeat it, kid, but this ol’ Lenny’s a bit scared of the dark,” the skeleton confessed in a whisper, “but this thang makes enough light to illuminate me entire’s house at once! No darkness no more!”

“Woah! Do you think it’s worth more than my mithril ring?” Bookie asked, holding up the small green ring.

The skeleton squatted down to be level with Bookie’s ‘eyes’, and he observed the ring without touching it. “You’re quite wealthy, kid, I mean your clothes show that but you shud be careful, some people ain’t too honest ‘round here sometimes. Anyway, pure lightstones like these are quite rare, but mithril is mithril. If I didn’t need me eye I’d probably agree to a trade, cuz mithril’s certainly easier to sell than a big lightstone. But all things considered, they probably be worth about the same?”

“Oh… Do you think anyone else in this market has something more valuable than my ring?”

The old skeleton stood back up and scratched his lower jaw, “Maybe the Governor? He’s a big guy in red, you can’t miss him.”

“Alright, thank you Sir Lenny!”

“Hava nice day kid.”

Bookie ran back to the paladins waiting for him a bit further, shaking his skull as he arrived before them. The paladins then led him to their third find, a skeleton using a staff for a leg. It was quite the ornate weapon, if a bit on the short side for a staff, decorated with runes and even topped with a shiny red catalyst that currently acted as the skeleton’s hip joint.

Good weapons are expensive! Bookie instantly decided when he saw the staff. It was hard to guess what the staff’s exact perks could be, but it certainly looked valuable, and the skeleton lady using it as her left leg also looked quite well-off, from what she was wearing.

I think it’s worth more than the ring. But I can’t take someone’s leg…

Paladin 3! Keep an eye on her, I’m going to check on Engineer’s findings!

For some reason, the Engineer skeleton was standing in the center of the busy marketplace, right next to the pedestal.

Bookie stared at the Engineer, a bit lost for words. Engineer was without a doubt his smartest skeleton, but he was a bit strange sometimes.

“You’re telling me the most valuable thing in the market is the pedestal itself?”

The engineer nodded confidently, quite certain about his decision.

“I can’t put the pedestal on the pedestal…”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

To this, the Engineer shrugged.

“I’ll think about it…” Bookie answered dejectedly, before walking away to find the High Priest skeleton.

On the way to the priest skeleton, Bookie stopped, having a sudden realization, his hands searched under his clothes, and he grabbed something, a sheathed weapon. I’m an idiot.

Bookie had the Mithril dagger he got from Sofia, there was no way his small tiny ring was worth more. Weapons are expensive…

With a sigh, Bookie walked to the High priest skeleton; still, he felt that if himself did not work as the trial’s answer, then perhaps the solution was a predetermined object within the market, so the dagger was probably not it.

The High priest skeleton was standing in front of a stall selling books, there were piles and piles of old dusty books all around the crowded stall, with a couple of old skeletons overseeing the thing. Bookie’s skeleton pointed out one book in particular.

Bookie grabbed the book, it was a thick old grimoire with a fancy red leather cover and yellowed pages covered in handwritten glyphs.

“W- What language is that?” Bookie asked the High priest, and it was one of the skeletons managing the stall who answered, “That’s Vampriric script, the language Vampires use!”

But all the Vampires I know speak the common language?

“What is this book about?” Bookie asked the shopkeeper.

“No idea, but we found that in one of the old wizard towers over in the west, so it’s got to be some good stuff! We ain’t sellin it for cheap, heck, it might be the most expensive book we have. If you don’t have the money, keep your hands off it, alright?”

“H- How expensive are we talking about?”

“Hmm…” The skeleton observed Bookie before turning to his business partner, communicating with hand signs that Bookie didn’t understand. “I’ll trade for that ring you’re wearing.”

“So expensive?!” Bookie asked, half wondering if he was not getting scammed.

“Books like these in such good condition are hard to find, yeah? There are magic circles in there and all. Honest to Death the book’s probably worth more than your ring, but we been struggling to find a buyer and we could use the extra money fast, so…”

Bookie turned to the High Priest to get his opinion, and he was nodding exceedingly fast, insistently looking at Bookie.

“Alright, let’s trade…” Bookie accepted, handing the ring to the skeleton merchant, who grabbed it and put it in his jaws, biting into it and shattering two of his teeth in the process.

“Real stuff! Book’s yours, handle it with care. Here you can have a free bookmark with it, my daughter knits them by hand!” the skeleton said as he handed Bookie a cute knitted ribbon with a skull-design on it.

Bookie’s thinking process in accepting the book was that he believed the mithril ring was not the most expensive thing in the market anyway, as the staff had to be worth more than it, so trading it away was not a big loss. And if the book ended up not actually being worth a lot, at least it would be a fine present for Sofia.

Happy about his purchase, Bookie ran back to the pedestal, and placed the book on the pedestal.

The entire arena shone red for the second time.

“Mean pedestal!” Bookie complained, thinking that this thing must have some kind of inordinate distaste for books.

“What do I do now… I only have one try left… Do I go steal some person’s leg? Or break the pedestal to put it on itself?! What do you think, Crowie?” Bookie asked, turning his head, but the small crow was not where it usually was on his shoulder. “Crowie? When did he leave?”

Bookie confusedly looked around, not seeing Crowie anywhere, so he used his skelesenses to find him, which led him to a stall where a funky-looking skeleton with a fur wig was selling rocks, some as big as twice the size of Bookie’s skull. They weren’t even nice-looking rocks, not polished or anything, just plain old rocks.

Crowie flew down to perch on Bookie’s shoulder where he belonged, pointing at the rocks with his beak.

Are the rocks special?

This was perhaps the most busy stall of the market, so it was hard for Bookie to really get a good look, but by listening to the discussions and to the merchant with the wig, he understood what was going on, all the rocks for sale were ‘geodes’ that had the potential to have rare materials like gold or mithril inside. The smaller rocks went for relatively cheap, and the big ones were quite expensive.

Crowie seemed to think that perhaps the most valuable thing was one of those rocks, so Bookie stood around for a bit, watching some of the skeletons buy and break open rocks.

Out of five rocks getting opened, four in a row were empty, and the last one contained some nice purple gems, but from the expression of the skeleton who had opened it, the gems weren’t worth much.

Even if one of the rocks is super expensive, there’s at least a hundred! There’s no way I could find it!

And I don’t have any money… I don’t want to sell the book…

But I trust Crowie!

Bookie left to the empty corners of the arena, did some summoning and unsummoning of his skeletons, and returned to the rock gambling stall accompanied by a weird skeleton that stood out like a sore thumb in the crowd.

People made way for the strange skeleton.

The merchant took one look at the skeleton, then at Bookie’s fancy clothes, “That your bodyguard, young sir?” he asked Bookie, pointing at the Kidjikkik skeleton.