As soon as I had finally separated from the others— I started asking the locals for directions and headed straight toward the local branch of the Adventurer’s Guild.
I immediately walked up to the reception area and showed the staff the official plaque that Joseph had given to me back when I was still in the City of Nash. The receptionist behind the desk quickly recognized the authority it carried and started assisting me with much more attention than before.
I really didn’t want to waste any more of my limited time, so without any further ado— THUD!
I placed a heavy leather pouch that was stuffed full of [Black Scales] directly onto the wooden counter.
The receptionist’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight, and they quickly called for a professional appraiser to come over. I felt a lot of curious eyes from the other people in the room drilling into my back again, just like that first time when I sold a pouch of [Black Scales] elsewhere.
Maybe it was because of the plaque I had shown them earlier, but no one asked me any suspicious questions regarding where I had actually gotten the scales.
The appraiser arrived not long after the call, and he quickly took a professional look at the quality of the scales; after doing that and whispering a bit to the receptionist— they offered me a total of twenty gold coins for the whole lot.
’It is actually two gold coins more than the amount I got for the last batch.’
I guess having that plaque really is more useful than I initially thought it would be. I didn’t even try to negotiate with them to increase the price further, since I know I can just always get and sell more [Black Scales] whenever I need to.
I accepted their offer on the spot, and after a firm handshake with the receptionist to seal the deal— I finally had a good amount of money to spend on whatever I needed.
*****
I stepped out of the adventurer’s guild building and took a breath of fresh air.
-Arf! Arf! Arf!
Onyx greeted me immediately with an energetic bark; I had left him outside the building to wait with Bong while I handled my business. His greeting was another reminder of why I was in such a hurry to finish the deal inside so I could get back to them.
"Come on, let’s go and find ourselves a decent place where we can stay for a while."
I told the two of them, lifting Onyx up to carry him on my arm while grabbing Bong’s leash with my other hand. I was just about to start walking away from the guild when— SWOOSH!
A heavy fist came hurling through the air from behind my back, aimed directly at the temple of my head!
If it wasn’t for the fact that [Danger Sense] had warned me a split second before the impact, I definitely would’ve been hit square in the head.
With a deep frown forming on my face, I turned around to see who would dare attack me, and right there— I saw three bald dudes with various scars across their faces; they were all heavily buffed and looked exactly like a group of common bandits, to be honest.
"Huh? How on Arcanis did you manage to dodge that so easily?"
The man who had tried to ambush me asked with a look of genuine confusion. I didn’t bother giving him a real answer, instead—
"What exactly was that supposed to be for?"
I asked that while glaring intensely at the three of them. They just looked at me for a moment and then started laughing together like they were sharing a private joke.
"Oh, come on now, it was just meant to be a light greeting between men, a little joke...!"
The man standing in the middle said; it looked like he was the leader of the group, and he was definitely the one who had just tried to strike me.
My frown only deepened at his words, and I was just about to open my mouth to say something back to him—
"We saw you inside the guild and noticed that you got quite a large amount of gold coins from selling those scales of a [Dark Serpent]— while those monsters aren’t actually that strong, finding them is incredibly difficult and harvesting their scales is even harder, which explains their high price."
But the leader of the three bald idiots spoke up first, stating that clearly to let me know they had been watching me.
After hearing his explanation, I immediately realized the real reason why they had decided to attack me the moment I stepped outside.
"Hah! So you guys were actually planning to mug me in broad daylight?"
I exclaimed, finding the sheer audacity of the whole thing to be completely absurd.
"Mug you? No, not at all! Mugging people is a very bad thing to do."
The leader said with a mock offended tone.
"We were really just giving you a light greeting, and it would be a total accident if you happened to pass out from it and some random person were to rob you while you were lying there unconscious."
Then he added that while smiling at me in a very sly and threatening way.
"..."
I didn’t say anything at first, feeling Onyx growling at them from where he sat on my arm. I looked at the three of them for a moment... before finally opening my mouth—
"I can only assume you guys are out here robbing people just so you can finally afford a cure for your unfortunate bald heads, huh... the wind is starting to get pretty cold out here— it must be absolutely freezing for you hairless fucks."
I threw that direct insult at them without hesitation. Their loud laughing stopped instantly, and the smug smiles on their faces froze in place.
The three of them turned their full attention back to me, and now they had incredibly angry looks on their faces.
"What did you just call us?"
The leader asked that in a low, dangerous voice.
"I called you a bunch of hairless fucks that probably stick close together so you can hold each other’s dicks to stay warm since you don’t have any hair to protect you from the cold."
And I immediately answered him in a single breath, not missing a single beat.