CHAPTER 23: I’M ALL EARS

Both Robert and Ethan froze for a brief second when they heard the little man’s disrespectful words, the former apologizing with an embarrassed face.

"I’m sorry, that’s Durgan, he’s a bit temperamental and hates people looking at him, but I promise he’s a good person."

"The only good person in this room is my axe, and he doesn’t like humans! Least of all one with such energy-"

Durgan continued to shout, but before he could finish his sentence, the black-haired woman moved in and put him to sleep with a single blow to the back of the head.

After making sure that the little man wouldn’t wake up to disturb them, she smiled at Ethan with a subtle but burning gaze, watching Ethan from head to toe.

She approached and extended her hand to him: "I’m Eve, the two idiots here are Clark and Jhon, it’s nice to meet you, handsome."

"Idiot is your-..." One of the idiots stood up against the woman, but shut up when she looked back and sent him a murderous glare.

"I’m Ethan, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Eve." Ethan smiled politely and shook the woman’s soft, delicate hands.

Carefully making sure no one noticed him, he cast a cautious glance towards the unconscious dwarf, remembering an old book he had read in his childhood.

The book said that dwarves were extremely sensitive to certain types of energies, and could easily distinguish good people from bad ones by this alone.

At first, this wouldn’t have been a problem for Ethan since it was just an old legend and the dwarves who lived on the eternal islands were so few that they barely numbered in the hundreds.

But now it was different, Ethan had clearly heard Durgan mention some kind of energy coming from him and from the tone of the little man’s speech, he was sure it wasn’t a good thing.

"Why don’t you sit down for a while Ethan? I’ll take Durgan to his room, Eve will explain why I called you here."

Robert nodded to Ethan before taking Durgan in his arms and heading up to the second floor of the tavern.

"So, Mr. Ethan... Don’t you want to tell me a bit more about yourself first?"

Eve smiled and propped her head on her left hand, her voice fluctuating between the coldness of a cruel businesswoman and the seductive attempts of a succubus.

"I’m just a traveler from the South, Miss Eve, a man with little time for men like Robert and Durgan, but I can reserve some for you if you wish."

Ethan was in a hurry and still worried about what Durgan might know about him, but he also wasn’t the kind of person who would run away from a beautiful woman with pending desires.

"Fufufu~" Eve laughed as she picked up the bottle of beer on the table and poured two full glasses.

"Maybe we can think of something after we’ve talked about our important matters."

Without much thought, Ethan picked up his glass and drank.

The taste was as expected from a cheap, low-quality beer from an isolated tavern: a deep, intense bitterness camouflaged by an alcohol content capable of making any unawakened person drunk on a single bottle.

Little better than urine.

"I’m all ears," Ethan said after placing the empty glass on the table.

"Well, we have a mission with an extremely wealthy contractor, a mission that requires 6 awakened. I can’t give you too many details about it since you haven’t agreed to take part in it yet, but know that it pays well, despite having Gobini as one of those involved. If you’re not afraid to mess with him, you’re welcome to work with us."

"Hm..." Ethan exhaled, his eyes shining when he heard that the man was somehow involved, but still, there was something suspicious about the whole thing.

"I understand that you need someone else, but I don’t understand why that sixth person would be me, don’t you know of any trustworthy warriors under the mantle of your contractor who could fill that?"

"Yes, we know many famous warriors who could help us in this city, and that’s the problem.

We need someone who is unknown, someone who can’t be easily identified and who can easily run away if something goes wrong," Eve replied, but Ethan remained unconvinced and continued to ponder for long seconds.

"What do you think if I give you an initial payment?" Sensing Ethan’s suspicion, Eve spoke up and pulled out a small, tinkling purse before placing it under the table.

"Gold? If that’s it, I’m afraid I’ll have to deny your offer." Ethan questioned before opening the pouch, his eyes widening with surprise as he realized the contents: low-quality beast cores, more than three of them.

Maybe if it was just gold, even in the hundreds, Ethan still wouldn’t think twice before denying it, but beast cores were different.

They were the main fuel for improving an awakened person’s power and even though they were of low quality, they were still beyond what could be acquired with money alone and only nobles could legally trade them.

With that in mind, Ethan thought and thought before finally extending his hands to the woman.

Her willingness to pay such an expensive price just for Ethan to take part in the mission made it clear to him that this would be more than just a service for a random rich nobleman, but it also raised his greed even higher.

"It will be a pleasure to work with you, Miss Eve," Ethan smiled and put away the crossbow cores.

"My pleasure, Mr. Ethan." Eve responded to Ethan’s smile before looking towards the door. "Our contractor should be here in a few minutes, he’ll give you all the details of the mission."

[The mission: "The kindness of a stranger" has been completed

You have received 100 points from the corruption store].