Chapter 44: Looking Impossible

None of it was useless, of course, and they were clearly stronger than Frost, but he had expected a little more. Compared to Syrn, there was simply nothing impressive about them.

The creature tore one leg free of the water and tried to shove past the bear-like man, but Erzaci moved into its path and jabbed at its face, forcing it to turn again.

Krazz used the opening to drive his still-burning sword deeper into its wounded shoulder, while another trigram flashed before the woman’s bow as she released a second wind-wrapped arrow, striking near the first.

At the rear, the man raised his hand again, a fresh trigram shimmering before his palm as another stream of water caught the creature’s legs. This time, when he pulled, it lost its balance and collapsed onto its side.

The others finished it before it could get back up, then stepped away from the body as its movements gradually stopped.

Frost remained behind the tree for a moment, looking at the creature before glancing at the five of them. It had been a decent fight, he supposed, and everyone had done their part, but that was about all he could say for it.

Well, perhaps it was unfair to compare them to Syrn. However, after spending weeks desperately trying to find a way to use runes himself, he had imagined watching them in battle would leave him a little more excited.

"Come here, kid," the man who had hired him called, crouching beside the carcass. "We need to get this sorted before we move on."

Frost stepped out from behind the tree, looking from the creature to the pack lying nearby. A rather unpleasant thought entered his mind as he realised that they hadn’t put anything in it yet.

"Am I carrying that too?" he asked, pointing at the body.

The bear-like man followed his gaze towards the pack before bursting into laughter. "Not all of it," he said, which would have been reassuring if Frost hadn’t noticed the words he had chosen.

Not all of it meant some of it, and some of it meant the pack was going to get heavier. Frost stared at the dead creature for another moment, feeling whatever relief he had gained from putting the pack down slowly disappear.

The man beside the carcass pulled out a knife and held it towards him. "Here. I’ll show you what to do."

Frost took it carefully before crouching beside him, trying to find somewhere to put his knees that wasn’t already covered in blood.

Apparently, his own role in this well-balanced group was to carry everything, cut up whatever they killed, and try very hard not to die in the process.

...

"Ahhh... Fuck! My body hurts all over!" Frost plopped down on his rock-hard bed, feeling like his back was one wrong move away from breaking in half.

He lay face up with his right arm draped over his eyes, spending quite a bit of time wallowing in his misery before finally lowering it and opening his fist.

A single dark metallic coin rested in his palm, and he picked it up between his thumb and index finger, rubbing its surface.

One tab... That was all he had left.

Krazz and his party had paid him two tabs, but he had already spent one on a meal and a change of clothes.

The food had been nothing fancy, of course, and the clothes were just a simple shirt and a pair of pants, closer to rags than anything else.

But they were better than what he had been wearing.

His Earth clothes had seen six weeks of use without being washed, and they were little more than rags at that point! Buying something else to wear had been a necessary expense, even if it had cost him a good portion of his earnings.

Besides, he hadn’t been too worried about spending the tab because Krazz’s party had said they had no problem taking him along again tomorrow.

So long as they managed another good harvest, he would earn more, though the thought of carrying that damned pack again made his back hurt even worse.

After selling all the materials they had harvested today, the group had ended up with thirty-five tabs, which wasn’t bad.

They had given Frost two for his services and split the rest between themselves, leaving each of them with at least six tabs, even though Krazz had ended up blowing his top because two tabs were too much for a measly porter who didn’t do any evolver work.

The others had been kind enough to hold him back. In the end, Frost had learned that one tab was normal pay for a porter for each job they took, so the cohort had done him a great service.

Being pitied wasn’t something to take pride in, but Frost was not going to get picky, lest he get himself killed because of needless pride.

Today had given him a better understanding of life as a low-ranking evolver, and frankly, things weren’t looking good.

As it turned out, housing in the slums wasn’t free either! Yeah, he had to pay five tabs a month to live in this shitty place, and his first payment was due in two weeks.

Before he could even think about saving for anything else, he had to make sure he could keep a roof over his head and put something in his stomach.

How was he supposed to save thousands of tabs, millions even, if a hunt like today’s only earned those people about six each?

And he hadn’t even earned that much; he had received two tabs for nearly breaking his back! His goal of buying a rune tome one day was looking more and more impossible.

Such was life as an adult in Linden.

In a way, at least, it seemed Samuel had made arrangements with Earth’s delegates in the city to cover the living expenses of underage children, making sure they had decent housing and food, though they still lived in the slums, of course.

Frost and his six buddies who had yet to get into the evolver business, however, had to find ways to support themselves.

Frost had actually spent some time speaking to one of them, a guy named Reggie, one of the two people who had a two-star talent, and he seemed to be managing better than Frost, at least.

He wasn’t nearly as fixated on becoming an evolver, since he already knew he didn’t have much of a chance, so he had found work as a helper at a little weapons shop near the middle of the slums.

They ate together sometimes, and Reggie would often complain about being overworked.