adventurers in the sewers

"Brother, why are you back so early today?"

The little guy was surprised to see Louis return carrying a food box.

Louis smiled and said:

"I met a very generous customer today and received a tip that was more than a week's salary. The manager saw that I had performed well and gave me half a day off, so I came back."

As he spoke, Louis handed a silver coin to Méli.

"I will continue to work with that client, and I will be able to earn a lot of tips every day. It won't be long before we can move."

Merry quickly stuffed the silver coin into her inner pocket and said admiringly:

"Brother, you're amazing! You've only been working for a short time and you've already earned so much money."

But then, the little guy said worriedly:

"But brother, don't overwork yourself. You can never earn enough money. Just make enough to live on. Your health is the most important thing."

Louis smiled and nodded, then ruffled Merry's soft, silver hair.

He placed the food box on the table and called out:

"I bought some food from outside. Melly and Dana, come and eat, otherwise it won't taste good when it gets cold."

Dai Na nodded to Louis, propped herself up from the bed, and slowly moved to the dining table.

"Brother, we can cook for ourselves. Buying food from outside is too expensive."

Merry muttered something under her breath, but still obediently opened the food box and took out the food.

Louis placed the empty food box under the table.

He had borrowed the food box and the utensils inside from Liv, and he had to return them tomorrow. Fortunately, there was no Adventurers' Guild logo on it, so he wasn't worried about being recognized by Merry.

However, it was obvious to Dina, who had been an adventurer, that this was the guild's barbecue set meal.

But she didn't say anything, she just obediently ate the meat.

"Brother, aren't you going to eat?"

Merry was really craving meat, but seeing Louis just staring at it, she pursed her lips tightly and said with a pained expression.

"I've already eaten, I'm not hungry, you guys can eat."

Louis said very sincerely.

But Merry simply didn't believe it.

Although he was young, he had seen this kind of trick many times: adults would pretend to have eaten the food in order to give it to the children.

He felt that his brother was definitely giving in to him.

However, Merry was very sensible and did not expose her brother's lie. Instead, she secretly made up her mind that when she grew up, she would work hard to earn money so that her brother could live a comfortable life.

After the meal, Melli insisted on washing the dishes and went off to do her work.

Only Louis and Dina remained at the table.

The girl looked at Louis, saw that he looked very relaxed, and smiled as she asked:

"Did you get that opportunity?"

Louis smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I've gained a lot, which will be very helpful for my future development, and I don't need to worry about financial problems in the short term."

After thinking for a moment, Dina reminded her:

"Even if you have money, you can't spend it recklessly. After all, whether it's the class-specific manuals needed for job advancement or the weapons and equipment used to protect and strengthen yourself, they're not cheap."

Louis thought about it and agreed. Although his physical strength was not weak, good armor and handy equipment were still essential.

The better the equipment, the greater the chance of survival in a crisis.

As for the cost of purchasing the equipment...

It can only be said that his current assets of 1 gold, 21 silver and 76 copper are completely insufficient.

"You should save money, but you also have to spend money when necessary."

Louis replied.

He then followed up with an invitation.

"Daina, after you recover from your injury, would you be willing to be my teammate?"

"My career goal is to become a shieldbearer, you are the future magic swordsman, and I also know a trustworthy teammate, a powerful necromancer apprentice."

"Although our three-person team is a bit rudimentary, as long as we coordinate well, we should be no less capable than those five- or six-person adventurer teams."

Upon hearing this, Dai Na's eyes lit up, and she nodded without hesitation.

"I do."

Despite being betrayed, Dina's goal never changed.

She needs to earn money by taking on commissions to pay off all the debts owed by her father, Chairman Hughes. To achieve this goal, she needs to find a few more trustworthy teammates.

She had long felt that Louis was someone she could entrust her life to and wanted to invite him to be her partner, but she was always worried about being rejected.

Now that the other party has brought this up on their own initiative, it can be considered a two-way street.

I wonder how Louis's other teammate is doing.

Necromancer?

I heard they're a bunch of difficult guys. Although they don't have the arrogance of orthodox mages, their personalities are mostly eccentric or withdrawn.

A good person's friend may not be a good person; I'll have to be more careful in the future when it comes to Louis.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a month has passed.

The rainy season was drawing to a close, and Louis had enjoyed a fairly peaceful period.

For the past twenty days, he has continued to "work" in the sewers every day.

I barely picked up any attribute points, but my proficiency in various life professions and the skill "Sewer Creatures" has improved.

Clearly, with increased strength, looting corpses in the sewers is no longer cost-effective.

Louis didn't give up the job partly to maintain his public image and prevent others from noticing anything unusual.

On the other hand, the sewers are a great training ground.

As long as he finds a clean, open space, he can practice his skills all day long, mastering what he learned from looting corpses.

During this time, Louis discovered that even without looting corpses, skill proficiency would slowly increase as long as he diligently used and practiced his skills.

He has already mastered "Physical Enhancement" to the proficient level, and his other skills have also improved to some extent.

Of course, passive skills are an exception; he still doesn't know how to practice those skills.

Besides his work, his life has also undergone significant changes.

Just five days ago, he told Melly that he had saved up the money for rent and took Melly and Dinah to their new home.

Although it's called a new home, it's actually a rented old house, but both the location and the quality of the housing have been greatly improved.

The new house is fully furnished, has two bedrooms, a separate kitchen and bathroom, and is about 60 square meters.

It wasn't great, but it was definitely not bad for an average family in Blackrock City.

However, the rent for the new house was also very expensive, costing 1.5 silver a month. Louis paid four months' rent in one go, which was six silver.

After deducting rent and various living costs, even if Louis had been making money all along, his current assets would only amount to 1 gold, 18 silver, and 15 bronze.

This money will be used to upgrade Louis and Dana's equipment.

At the entrance of the budget equipment store, Daina, whose injuries had completely healed, looked somewhat embarrassed and said apologetically:

"Louis, I don't have any money on me right now. Not only am I staying at your house, but I'm also asking you to spend money to buy me equipment."

"Once I make money from this commission, I will definitely pay you back with interest."

Louis smiled and said:

"It's okay, everyone has difficult times. Just spend the money. I trust your character."

The blue-haired girl pursed her lips, nodded slightly, and walked into the equipment shop with Louis.