“This is disgusting! Why am I the one, who has to do this?!?” Prof complained


    “You have the highest relevant Skill for it," Bianca answered


    “Your Skill isn’t that far behind! I could do Sharpclaw’s job for example.”


    “No, she is simply better with knives. Much, much better with knives. And she has claws.”


    “Her [Knives] are only 14% better! What about your job?”


    “Ah, you want to stand in front, parry, and block, while delivering the stuff? It''s hard work. I have Tireless and you don’t.”


    “Fine. Shouldn’t Mini at least help us out?”


    “You know very well, that Miss Minerva is a master adventurer, and this an apprentice task. She isn''t allowed to help out."


    “Missssussss no bother with thissss tassssk.”


    “Yes, that too. Could you imagine Miss Minerva doing this?”


    “Well… Not exactly. But…”


    “You could take over Sleepy''s job if you want."


    “No way! That’s even more disgusting! I won’t munch on those remains!”


    “See? You do the job, you are most qualified to do. Stop complaining and wash the dishes!”


    It was cruel. In his previous life, he managed not to relocate to Germany to wash dishes for thirty-five years, here, it took only a few months to travel West and do just that. Of course, he should have read the details of the task before he accepted, but everyone knew, what “Help out in the tavern” meant. They had a rat or spider problem in the basement, and the owner needed someone to make it disappear. Easy money for an easy job.


    Unfortunately, the tavern''s problem weren''t rats, but an illness, that knocked out most of the staff. The tavern indeed needed help: a waitress, someone, who was good with a knife to slice and dice meat and vegetables, someone, who would wash dishes, and someone to take care of the garbage. Why the quest was posted in the Adventurer''s Guild and not in some kind of temp agency, Prof couldn''t fathom. Washing dishes was probably an adventure for someone, but standing around in a kitchen all day, bowed over a sink, and scrubbing half-eaten food from plates wasn''t something, Prof would have called exciting.


    Unfortunately, they still needed money. Although they were allowed to squat in the Guild – it had some free rooms for itinerant adventurers – sooner or later they had to cough up the rent. His preliminary investigations revealed nearly a hundred jewellers in the city but was told, only two or three would be able to afford to buy some of the gems. If he was lucky.


    That had to wait, however, since the high-priority quest came up, and Prof was occupied with the awesome adventure of getting plates clean. Bianca was actually right, he had the highest [Housekeeping] in the whole party, and obviously keeping a house also included his current job. Not, that his Skill was awesomely high – only 47% - or that much higher, than Bianca''s or Sharpclaw''s – 34% and 37% respectively. Prof doubted, one needed to be a grandmaster to do any of their tasks… He needed to read the fine print the next time he accepted a job offer.


    The next day, the tavern owner did not need their services. It may or may not had something to do with Bianca knocking a patron with grabby hands unconscious, Prof dropping a few plates, Sharpclaw accidentally assassinating the cutting board – it was prone, and one of the cuts was done in surprise and out of stealth – or Sleepy eating a few Gremlins that were kept as ready food. It was ultimately agreed, that the owner didn’t charge them for damages but wouldn’t pay them either. Un-excellent prick. Hiring professional monster exterminators for household chores, and being surprised by the result!


    Being currently between jobs gave Prof time to visit the jewelers he hoped to sell some of the gems to. Surprisingly, he was able to sell a few ambers and garnets for a total of three marks, but got a tip, that a local magic user would maybe interested in one of the magical pieces he got. Tracking down the buyer and getting an appointment with him took most of the morning, but in the end, he was sitting across a Goblin, clad in rich clothes. Of course, the Goblin brought four bodyguards with him too – doing high-value transactions with an unknown foreigner without muscle to back up the haggling was probably not a good idea. This was why Prof mobilized the reserves too, including Mythrillhead – and parked them outside.


    If Prof didn’t know, what they were about, he probably wouldn’t have agreed to a meeting in the Thieves not-Guild, but having convenient lawyers to push in the way of incoming blades was better than to look out for innocents. The third person at the table in the discreet room was the jeweler, who gave Prof the tip – he was mostly there for his professional opinion on the offered goods.


    Prof spread out his collection on the table. There was everything from diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds down to quartz, and chalcedony, for a total of multiple dozen stones. Even counting only the magical pieces, it came up to more, than a dozen. Prof was aware, of what attributes the stones had – the appraiser in Castle Seeblickstein was thorough – but none of them was useful for him, the party, or even the band. Either they needed Mana to invoke the effect, or, for the passive effects, they were simply useless for them. Knowing the exact time – down to below seconds – for example, was surely nice, but not an immediate (or long-term) priority. Or being able to detect magical spells: only the band had Mana to begin with, and even their Skills in anything but music and sound were low.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    This was an interesting little tidbit Prof learned. Although one could detect a spell with the help of the gem, one needed the Skill in the respective field to know, what the spell did. Sure, you could guess, what a fireball, for example, did, but detecting incoming fire didn’t exactly need the gem’s power.


    The other thing was, that no one was exactly comfortable with walking around, twinkling.


    As it transpired, the Goblin was loaded and was willing to spend his wealth. From a few cues, Prof suspected, he was going on an expedition somewhere and needed firepower at his fingertips more, than currency in a bank.


    After the initial perusing, the Goblin – named Leopold something-or-other – pushed around half the magical gems back to Prof.


    “Those I’m not interested in at all. From the non-magical stones, you could put away everything, that isn’t an emerald, sapphire, or aquamarine too. Let’s discuss the price for the rest.”


    Prof first stored everything else and then looked at the pieces, the Goblin was interested in. There were only one emerald and a few sapphires and aquamarines left, for a total estimated price of a bit above eighty gold marks. Or in Earth currency, eight hundred thousand EUR or USD. If he could sell only those, the party would be set for the time! The six magical gems, still on the table, had a total value of about ten times that – even if the Goblin was loaded, Prof doubted, he was able to just fork over a small fortune. Ehmm… quite a large fortune.


    “So, are we in agreement, that everything on the table has a value of eight hundred ninety marks?"


    Prof nodded, he calculated about the same amount.


    “Eight hundred ninety-one marks, fifteen schillinge, thirty…"


    “Yeah, we don''t need to know the exact amount, down to the last heller." interrupted Leopold. "I''m really interested in all of those, but can pay you only… twenty marks in cash."


    Prof started to sweep the gems into his bag – willing to pay almost nothing and having four "secretaries" as a backup could only be called robbery. If Prof had to tactically reposition himself, he wanted the gems securely in his bags.


    “Wait! I can pay you only twenty marks in cash, but I can pay another twenty in goods!” That sounded much better, but still wasn’t even close to the market value.


    “Such as?”


    “I have a house in the city, including part of the furniture, it is worth fifteen marks. I''m also the owner of part of a tailor''s shop and have quite a selection of raw textiles. Together with some other wares, that would make up another five marks."


    “Even if I was willing to accept the goods as payment, that would be only forty marks instead of nine hundred. What about the rest?”


    “Well, those are a bit more tricky. I could issue some bonds for the expedition, and could offer you some collateral for the total of, say, a hundred marks."


    Receiving bonds for some dangerous expedition, with a payout sometimes between "in a long time" and "never" was extremely interesting for Prof. Not.


    “Let’s calculate with the forty marks for now. Of course, I have to coordinate with my associates about accepting goods instead of money, but we will have to decline the bonds and collateral.”


    The buyer was visibly disappointed. What did he expect? Some dumb foreigner, who would part with his valuables for shiny baubles and colorful ribbons? Bad luck, Prof had high Intelligence, and passable [Commerce]. Certainly, there were folks with low Skill, who got swindled out of their hard work for loot. Prof wasn''t one of those. He even had a lawyer on standby!


    Retiring to another secure room, Prof explained the situation to the party and the band. They agreed not to accept the bonds, and take a look at the offered house and wares. If Prof had known, how hard is to sell the larger stones, he would have shoveled the smaller splinters into his bags instead. Or simply gold coins. What good were the large stones – especially the magical ones – if he couldn''t sell them? Who would have thought, that medieval societies don''t have much free money floating around?


    Leopold was willing to guide them to the house and the tailor’s shop immediately, while Wilhelm and another lawyer started discussing terms. How much easier it would be to exchange ownership with just a handshake – of course, that would be a sure way to be swindled. Well, even if there was an official-looking paper trail, they were still dealing with lawyers, who were part of the Thieves’ not-Guild.


    The house, they were offered looked for Prof like all the other Greenskin-built monstrosities, but Wolfgang told him, it was indeed a picturesque and cozy one. Prof didn''t see the difference. He didn''t exactly want to be a home-owner in Greenskin territory – mostly because of the horrendous architecture – but with the house at least they could have paid Wolfgang off. Indeed, it was the local Greenskins, who were engaged in the deal, neither Mini, Bianca nor Sharpclaw was really interested, and were just there for the ride.


    The tailor''s shop and attached warehouse were a bit more interesting for Prof. The warehouse itself didn''t belong to Leopold, only part of the stored stuff – food, drinks, assorted gear, and tools. According to the return his [Valuation] gave, the Goblin even undersold the value a bit.


    They soon shook on the deal and filled out the necessary documents, prepared by Wilhelm and Leopold''s lawyer. Prof made absolutely sure, there was no fine print, and everything was neat and tidy – it wouldn''t be excellent to lose the stuff because of some technicality. Like the real owner knocking on the door. Prof, for some strange reason, thought that getting filthy rich – as in having a lot of hard currency on hand, not wares and houses – was much easier. Or should be. Kill living stuff, salvage un-living stuff, get paid or exchange the salvage for money – was that so hard? So far, he was just killing living stuff for free, and no one was willing to hand over a fortune or two for shiny rocks!


    Depositing his shiny rocks somewhere safe was next on the agenda. Their latest buyer expressed his willingness for a lot of sparkling stuff to be in his possession. Everyone knew, what the fact entailed, that he was unable to do so: thieves, thugs, and other low-lives starting a new negotiation for said goods. Preferably, without paying anything in exchange. If their boss was going to be away for a long time for an expedition, it raised even more flags!