Chapter 10: Making Deals

Chapter 10: Making Deals

“Clean,” I announced. “Thank you.”

“Not that,” Miss Spencer replied. “I mean, how do you feel in those clothes? This is your first time wearing magic thread, right?”

“Oh,” I replied, looking down at the outfit. “I was meaning to ask, why is this called a disguise?”

Miss Spencer frowned. “Who told you that?”

“Uh,” I stammered, realizing I’d just given away my skill. “I have the ability to Analyze things, and this outfit is called a Custom Disguise.”

“Marvelous,” Miss Spencer said, rubbing her hands together in a way that made me think she was coming up with a devious plan. “Can you tell me anything else about it?”

“Not really,” I mumbled, trying not to give away too much.

“That’s too bad,” she sighed. “It sounded like a good skill. Anyhow, let’s talk about your clothes. What would you like me to do with them?”

“They probably can’t be saved, can they?” I asked, wondering what I was going to tell Miss Havasu, especially about the shoes.

“Oh, that crud will wash out,” Miss Spencer said, waving me off. “What I meant was, what kind of upgrades would you like?”

“Upgrades?” I asked, giving her a blank stare.

She smiled. “You know, like Leslie’s armor. You noticed it didn’t get dirty even in the sewer, right? That’s an upgrade. I can also make the fabric resistant to holes and tearing, make it keep you warm or cool based on your preference, and make it resistant to magic. I will require certain materials for the fancy stuff, but I think I can make you something that you will be very pleased with under a silver.

“But I don’t…” I began before she cut me off with a raised finger.

“About that. How do you feel about doing some work here to earn it? Leslie told me about your Craftsman class and I’m curious to see what you can do.”

“How long will that take?” I asked suspiciously.

She smiled. “I’ll make you a deal. Drop by for a few hours a day for a week and I’ll call it even.”

Was that a good deal? I tried to do the math in my head. “Um, how many coppers are in a silver?”

Miss Spencer smiled. She knew she had me. “There are one hundred copper in a silver. For the record, there are one hundred silver in a gold and one hundred gold in a platinum.”

That meant that doing a five copper delivery quest every single day would take me three weeks to pay off a silver. Yet in front of me was a woman offering me the same pay for roughly one-third of the work.

“I’ll take that deal!” I announced.

Leslie giggled. “I thought you’d like it. Miss Spencer really is the best, isn’t she?”

Mary Lou Spencer

Class: Tailor

Level: 57

Age: 39

Weight: 137 Lbs

Height 5’3

I nodded at the unasked Analysis. Of course, it was probably a good thing for the words to tell me who the people I met were. I had no clue why it felt like I needed to know their age and weight though.

“You look younger than thirty-nine,” I remarked offhandedly.

“How did you know…” she trailed off. “Wait, your skill told you that, didn’t it?”

Leslie looked back and forth between us. “What did his skill do? Wait, are you really thirty-nine?”

Miss Spencer nodded, rubbing her chin while looking at me like I was a piece of meat. “Indeed I am. The question is, how did Oliver know? I think we’re going to have a lot of fun this coming week.”

“I can’t wait,” I said with nowhere near as much enthusiasm as she had. “For now though, I need to get home. I’m probably in trouble as it is.”

“He lives at the orphanage,” Leslie announced before clamping her hand over her mouth when she saw the look on my face.

“I see,” Miss Spencer replied. “Well, feel free to drop by after you finish your questing. Five days a week should do. Rest is important. Remember that.”

“I will,” I said, feeling like more of a student than a worker. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Goodbye, Miss Spencer,” Leslie chirped as she followed me out the door.

I started toward the orphanage when she stopped me. “Wait, we have to go back to the guild.”

“Can you turn in the rat’s tails without me?” I asked. “I’m already super late.”

She shook her head. “Not that, Silly. You have to go back to get the Monster Vision buff removed. That one will stay on indefinitely if you don’t get it removed.”

“Actually, there’s something I want to try with that buff,” I replied. “Is it okay if I leave it on for a few days?”

Leslie bit her lip nervously. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. There are monsters in your closet.”

“I’m counting on it,” I said, sticking my tongue out for good measure before walking away.

Before I could go home, I had a parcel to deliver. Fortunately, it was on the way. I triple-checked the address as I wove between pedestrians on the still-busy city streets.

Yuan Noodle House

53 Bayard Street

Normally I tried to steer clear of Chinatown on the way home. The business owners always gave me strange looks whenever I passed through on account of the fact that I was an orphan. I don’t know how they knew but they always did.

I did my best to walk normally, trying not to draw any attention to myself. Perhaps my disguise helped me avoid detection. It seemed to work. Nobody paid me any attention.

“Do you have money?” An elderly Asian woman asked when I entered the shop. It had those same bells I heard in Miss Spencer’s shop. Perhaps they were magic bells.

“No, Ma’am,” I replied. “But I do have a package for you.”

She eyed me suspiciously as I held out a tiny parcel to her. “You don’t look like you’re from the guild.”

“I know,” I replied, looking down at the shoddy-looking clothes. “It’s my first day.”

“Very well, take this and go,” she replied, dropping five small copper coins in my hand.

From there, I ran the rest of the way back to the orphanage. Dinner was mostly over by the time I got back but there was still some food left. I was just about to make a plate when Miss Havasu found me.

“Oliver Evans,” she said in a voice that told me I was in trouble. “A word if you please.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I replied, giving the food a mournful look before turning to follow the Directress.

She closed the door once I was in her study and didn’t bother to wait for me to sit down. “You let a lot of people down today, Oliver. We had to send Tiny Tim in your place to the newspaper this morning and you’ll be lucky if Mr. Branch wants to work with you again after you ditched him this afternoon. That’s not even taking into consideration how worried I was when you didn’t turn up after lunch. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I’m sorry,” I replied. “I think I found a new job. One that might pay a lot better than anything Mr. Branch can teach me.”

“Doing what?” She asked, sounding eerily calm.

“Delivery que…” I cut myself off, remembering normal people didn’t go on quests. “Delivering parcels, I mean. For the, um, post office.”

Mr. Havasu’s eyebrows rose so high on her forehead that I worried they were going to disappear into her hairline. “Is that so? And how did you get this job?”

“I, uh, I found it,” I stammered, struggling to come up with a good lie. “I met this girl who told me about a job where I can earn good money. You have to let me do it. I can make enough money so everyone here can eat. I swear.”

That part was true. My first goal was to make sure nobody went to bed hungry. I just needed to make enough money to make it happen. I needed time.

Miss Havasu let out a long sigh. “Look, Oliver, I know you think I’m just making you work to be cruel, but that’s not it at all. I’m trying to prepare you for life once you become an adult. Having a skill will put you ahead of the game. How long do you think this delivery job will last you?”

“It’s a good job, Ma’am, you have to believe me.”

Miss Havasu seemed to age right there in front of me as she slumped into her chair. “You’ve been a good kid since you got here. Let’s say I believe you. How much do you plan to earn from this job? What can you bring home?”

There it was. Every kid was responsible to bring home part of their earnings to help support the family. I just needed to figure out how to do it with standard currency.

“I don’t know exactly,” I began. “However, I’m sure it will be a lot more than I bring home now.”

Even if I couldn’t get money, I could at least bring home some delicious food. A stack of those five copper po’boys would be a good start. I’d have to run deliveries all day to make it happen though.

“One week,” she began, scribbling something on a notepad in front of her. “I’ll give you one week to prove what you’re saying. If you don’t, you will work for Mr. Branch and that’s that.”

“Deal!” I said, realizing it was the best I was going to get.

“Let’s make it official,” she replied, sliding the slip of paper across the desk to me. “Sign this agreement.”

I signed the document, realizing I was going to have to live up to my end of it.

I raced around that night doing my bedtime routine. There was a little food left over, so I managed to get something in my stomach. I also spilled some sauce on my borrowed shirt. That’s how I found out about the cleaning magic. The sauce dripped right down my shirt to the floor, leaving no trace that it was ever there. While I still had to clean the floor, my clothes were spotless.

After reading bedtime stories and explaining to Sam and Beth why I’d disappeared all day, I pulled my vanishing act again and made my way to the roof. It was there for the first time that I was finally able to examine my earnings for the day.

The five copper coins were about the size of a silver dollar with strange symbols along the edges and the image of a strange man I’d never seen before. The only real question I had left was what could I buy with them. That was going to have to wait for another day.

The next thing I wanted to examine was my shadow. It winked at me again when I looked down at it.

“Um, hello, Shadow,” I tried. “Can you talk to me?”

It shook its head. Or was it my head? No, my head wasn’t shaking. The shadow was completely autonomous of me.

“Can you spare a few locks of your hair so I can make a magic bag?” I asked, hoping it understood me.

The shadow held up a finger and started miming something. At first, I couldn’t tell what it wanted but it quickly spelled it out for me. Literally. The shadow drew a single word in the dust on the rooftop.

“Coin.”

I blinked at it. Did Shadow Monsters use money? Well, if it did, it was a steal. I took one of the copper coins and placed it on my shadow. It sat there for a second before sinking into the darkness. A moment later the Shadow theatrically yanked a clump of hair out of its head. Right when it did, my head hurt in the same spot. Maybe we were connected.

The hairs it gave me were quite peculiar. They were pitch black and made of an almost liquid silky substance. I worried that if I put them down they would melt back into the shadow. Wishing that I already had a bag to store them in, I took off one of my socks and stashed it in there. It would have to do.