<h4>Chapter 20: Spend Money To Make Money</h4>


    Lake used his burst skill, and was to where Kyle and Mary were in no time. Stopping next to Kyle Lake could tell Kyle was surprised to see him again so soon. "Hey Kyle I killed a Bear, how am I supposed to get it out of the forest?"


    Lake could see the surprise turn into astonishment, as he said " Wow, a bear all by yourself you must be a lot stronger than we thought you were." Lake waved his hand and said, " No no, I was just Lucky it wasn''t paying attention because it was eating. I got it in the neck and let it bleed out."


    Kyle seemed to ept this exnation, " That''s a big monster it''s not going to be easy to get it out of the forest in one piece. So your best bet might be to just take out the core and leave the rest. Bear meat is not very good anyway."


    This sounded good to Lake. He didn''t want to deal with all that to just eat gross food, but getting the core out sounded like a hassle to, " How much is the core worth?" Lake saw Kyle do some mental math and say. "Even the worst bear cores go for 30 gold."


    Hearing this, Lake wasn''t willing to just leave it so he said, "If you show me how to get it out I''ll give you half." Lake had seen the bear; there was no way its core would only be worth 30, if that was as low as it could go.


    Lake saw Kyle look back at Mary and Lake knew he was worried about leaving her alone so Lake said, "She cane to, it''s not that far and we can do it after you two are done here. I''m gonna go and watch it so no one takes it I''ll be backter."


    Lake Left to go hunt in the area around the bear, but he felt with this kill his day hunting was pretty much done. He doubted he would see anything worth as much Exp as the bear today.


    A few hours had passed and Lake had been right, other than a few small monsters like goblins the only thing worth mentioning was Lake was starting to think his spear wasn''t strong enough. Every time he used his full strength he felt like his spear was about to snap.


    He needed to ask Kyle where to get an actual weapon, and maybe some armor. He was still in the clothes Wace had given him and he felt they weren''t up to the task. His pants had already ripped in a few ces.


    Thinking it was about time to go and see if Kyle and Mary were done. Activating his skill burst, Lake rushed towards the couple. When Lake saw them he could tell they were done. Stopping next to Mary. Lake asked " Would you like me to hold those for you?"


    She was holding what looked to be 20 pounds of bags, and while she looked fine he bet this would make Kyle like him more. Kyle would think he was trying to help his sick wife. Lake could see the affection multipliers going off in his head. Soon these two would start to see him as a grandson.


    "No, I''m fine. It''s good to get some exercise." This sounded exactly like something his grandma would have said if he had offered to help her. So Lake shrugged and said, " Ok Lets go. It''ll probably take 30 or so minutes to get there."


    Since they had a bit of a walk, Lake saw this as an opportunity to ask about weapons and armor. "Hey Kyle, where would I get a better weapon and some armor around here?" This was a question Kyle knew right away, " The best stuff around here is made at the cksmith guild a few towns over, but Feldon has both an armor and weapon shop, but it''s not as good as the stuff you can get at the guild."


    Lake guessed the town this forest was next to was Feldon. "Are we going into town after hunting today?" Kyle shook his head no, " We only go to town every five days to sell monster cores. It saves a lot of time and monster cores aren''t very big so it''s not a hassle to carry them for a few days. The next time we go into town will be in two days." Lake wasn''t ready to go to town anyway so he was fine with waiting.


    Arriving at the Bear Lake saw Kyle and Mary look at him. Maybe this bear was impressive; he had no idea it was the only one he had ever seen. Walking over to the wound on its neck, Lake said, " Look at this, I must have hit something important because it gave up as soon as I stabbed into it."


    Looking at the wound Kyle said " You severed its windpipe at the least; I bet it couldn''t breathe anymore. Alright, help me move it to get better ess to its chest." Lake and Kyle moved it further onto its side.


    "Alright, watch this. It works on most monsters." Lake watched as Kyle stabbed into its chest. Lake could tell he went between the ribs because the knife went almost all the way inside. Than Kyle used his knife like a lever and popped out a gem looking thing.


    Kyle picked it up and looked at it for a few seconds. " It''ll probably be like 70 or so gold. I''m not an appraiser so that''s just a guess." Kyle handed the gem to Lake. Lake put it in his satchel then pointed at the goblin and said, "Will that work on a goblin."


    Kyle handed him the knife and said, "Yeah give it a try." Lake walked over to the goblin And touched its ribs. " It''ll be easier if you roll it on its side, you''re also less likely to get squirted with blood if you hit the heart on ident."


    Doing what Kyle said Lake went back to feeling its ribs. "That''s about right." Hearing Kyle Lake stabbed into the goblins chest Lake felt as the Knife hit something hard and maneuvered the knife to pry it out.


    Seeing a small gem fall out, Lake grabbed it. "Alright, try to feel what the core does." After a few seconds of feeling it Lake said " I don''t know it feels so weak." Lake could barely feel anything from this core. " That means it''s the lowest rank, it''ll be worth 1 or 2 gold."


    Lake stood up and said, " I''ll walk you guys back to the edge of the forest then I''lle back for the rest." Kyle started tough and said " You''re really going toe all the way back out here for a couple of gold, also you don''t have a knife. You''d be better off moving on with us, it''s almost time to head back to the cart anyway."


    Lake knew he was right, also he should have grabbed a knife; there had been some in the shed. "Ok let''s go, I''m done here." Lake was satisfied with today. The only thing he didn''t like was Intangible Loot only went off once the whole day. He hoped somewhere he was banking up fortune points or good karma; maybe it would all add up into one good reward.