The Stonehearted Knight

"As all of you know, in another week most paths leading into the town will have opened."

"Around that time, the caravans of merchants and adventurers will arrive. In fact, some smaller groups are already in town."

"The merchants are not an issue. But the adventurers will try to hunt the recently awakened demonic beasts."

"Our mission is to join other native teams and clear the periphery of the mountains. That way we will get the easy kills and the adventurers can help clear out the areas deeper into the mountains."

"This way the town can increase the price of the items, the paths into the mountains will be cleared, and the gatherers and hunters of the slums can explore more crevices."

Hex listened as Hestia explained the mission to them. After completing her challenge, he was invited to her temporary team.

Greg and Vin were also part of the team, as were two others.

The first was a middle aged man with sandy hair and a square face. He wore thick fur trousers and a sleeveless leather shirt. Hex was impressed by his bulging arms muscles.

The other was a young woman. Her light brown hair and eyes seemed to lighten her lightly tanned face. She wore leather trousers and body hugging shirts.

All four males couldn't help but turn their gaze when she stretched or moved her tall and lean curvy body before them.

Bam.

Hex and the others jumped up when Hestia slammed her hand on the table.

"You guys can ogle Alice later," she admonished them, causing the boys to chuckle awkwardly. "For now, we need to prepare. Am I clear?"

"What kind of preparation do I need to make?" Hex inquired.

By the looks of it, everyone else knew what they had to do. Hex, however, had no idea.

Everyone knew it was Hex's first mission. Hex noticed their eagerness to pitch in.

"Leather armor. Low grade is okay, but I advise you to go for mid grade," Greg shouted.

"You already have a sword, but have a spare. Once we are in the mountains, we won't be able to replace our gear."

This time Duter, the middle aged guy, advised in a friendly tone. Hex couldn't gouge his level, but Hestia had appointed him as the second in command.

'He is either a Knight too or has plenty of experience. He seems strong as fuck so, he should have been on plenty of missions.'

"Potions. You will need them, believe me." Alice smiled at him, gazing straight into his eyes. It caused Hex to feel a little strange.

"And a mount," Hestia added. She didn't say that only to Hex, but looked at all of them. "Everyone needs to rent a mountain goat from Wallen. It will make the trip easier."

Hex listened attentively to all the advice called out. But the more he heard, the more his heart sank. There was one major obstacle he faced.

"Ahm, everyone?" He scraped his throat, "I agree with everything but I lack…coins."

Hex saw the expression of the team change. Some looked stunned, some amused.

For a while no one said anything. Hex felt awkward the way everyone kept looking at him.

"Bahahaha."

Greg was the first to break into laughter. His boisterous laugh made everyone else laugh. Even the always composed Vin had a wide grin.

'Why are they laughing? It doesn't seem like they are making fun of me.' Hex looked at them, hoping someone would explain.

Luckily, Alice noticed his bewilderment.

"Don't mind us. We just find it funny you are stressed about that. Look at us. To all of us. No one here has enough coins."

"Huh?" Hex was so stumped by the statement, his mouth fell open. He found it hard to believe her.

"Hex," Hestia called, having contained her laughter by now. "Although missions are profitable, everything we need is quite costly. Gears, potions, mounts can easily tally up to a few thousands of coins."

"And because Knights are the main force, they get the biggest share," Vin helped add. "Squires get a few hundreds if things go well."

"So, what most Squires do, we take a loan. All the Squires are in debt here. We try to pay by working and doing missions. Just pray you don't break or lose any equipment."

"But I already have a debt of two thousand coins," Hex cried out. He ended up using 4 vials to train.

He hadn't known that being a Blessed was such a money sink.

'I thought I would earn coins as breathing air. This is more like breathing water.'

"It's two thousand AND eight hundred coins," suddenly a stiff voice said from behind.

"Wallen," Hestia shouted at the puppet-like butler. "Thanks for coming. I invited him to discuss the loan and repayment for you guys."

"What do you mean by that?" Hex interrupted. "Where did the other eight hundred come from?"

"It's the price for the broken swords in the training room and this one," Wallen replied calmly and pointed at the sword beside Hex.

'I thought I was free to use them,' Hex cried silently. But then he remembered his old sword.

"Where is the sword I had with me? Shouldn't you deduct the worth of it from my debt?"

"Sorry, I indeed should deduct that. You owe the castle two thousand and seven hundred ninety coins."

Hex wanted to punch Wallen so bad, but he had to hold back. 'A servant takes after his master after all.'

Hestia shook her head and looked at Wallen. "How much can he still owe?"

"Usually we allow a maximum loan of five thousand, but he can owe as much as he wants. He is after all part of the castle now."

"Wow."

The team exclaimed in shock. Even Hex was stunned by Wallen, but realized quickly that the more he took, the longer he would be bound to the baron. And he didn't want that.

He listened in silence as Hestia discussed the terms with Wallen.

They would take equipment, gear, potions and mounts worth eight thousand coins. Most of them had gear and weapons, so the amount was not too high.

"How much does the mission pay?" He asked Hestia. It would be strange to take a mission with a low return.

"Regardless of our performance the town pays each team a thousand coins. But the true money makers are the stuff we harvest. In fact, I believe we shouldn't limit ourselves to demonic beasts only, but search for a fiend too."

"Fiend?" Hex never that term before. He of course was more than familiar with demonic beasts.

"Similar to humans, beasts also have higher stages. Fiend is the stage above Demonic and is a match for Knights. The core of such a beast alone would easily sell for five thousand coins. Sadly, they are rare in the outer perimeter."

'Luckily, they are rare,' Hex thought with a worried look. If the bear he encountered had been a fiend, he would have died a certain death.

The team discussed a few more things and went to bed. They would leave early the next day.

…

Early next morning Hex wore his new gear and went to the corals. His leather armor fit nicely. He wore a fur jacket over it.

The new gear made him finally look like a Squire. He had been wandering around in his tattered clothes so far.

Everyone was already ready and at the corals.

"These are ours," Hestia called them over. The servants had already readied the goats.

'They are majestic,' Hex thought in awe. These goats were big like horses and very lean. Their long straight horns looked like swords.

"Saddle up," Hestia commanded. "We leave at once."

Hex took the reins over from the servant and climbed his mount. He had not much experience with riding, but Hestia said he would learn it quickly.

Hex watched how the others pulled the reins and copied it. The goat bleated and started to walk along the others.

The path they were on would lead into the mountains. Hex glanced at the unending rows of sky piercing landscape in front of him.

'Last time I avoided predators and still nearly died. This time, I will be the predator.'