Chapter 1: Losing Money

A hundred kilometers to the southeast of Greenstone Mountain, there was a small coastal city called Opal. Although the actual land area of the city was quite impressive, there weren’t many skyscrapers or highrises. It was mostly just townhouses, mansions, factories and of course, plenty of wharfs and a particularly large pier that reached out a couple hundred meters into the ocean. The end of the pier was a recreational fishing spot. The part of the pier that was still technically over the beach area was much wider and had lots of fancy carnival rides, like roller coasters, ferris wheels, even shooting galleries with crossbows, bb guns and regular bows.

There was a large boardwalk that stretched for several kilometers up the coast, separating the orange sandy beach from the actual city. There was also a bay in the south where most of the marinas and private waterfront properties were located. Although there were also some beach houses, those were mostly in the north, where the boardwalk ends and it becomes much more rural very quickly.

On the boardwalk, a few blocks north of the big pier was a large storefront with a glowing green sign above it: ‘Vernakres’. There were dozens of cute sculptures of puppies, kittens, even potatoes, made out of various precious stones like green jadeite, rose quartz, lapis lazuli and turquoise. There were also larger statues and sculptures made out of various types of marble. Including several life-sized or even gigantic sculptures of the owner of Vernakres herself, Verna the Merchant.

The store also sold clothing, sunglasses, flip-flops, a hodgepodge of random things people might want or need. Most of the stores sold similar items though, so only those sculptures actually stood out. It was also possible to buy gold nuggets and jewelry.

Although there’s always a risk of thievery, the people manning the shop weren’t pushovers. There was a Rank 4 Bodyguard standing near the door, dressed in a loose green-white Hawaiian shirt, a black bathing suit bottom and flip-flops. The tall and muscular tan-skinned man didn’t have any weapons on his body under normal circumstances, but the word ‘Bodyguard IV’ was clearly tattooed onto his right foot.

It’s not that nobody has tattoos though. Some people even put fake Word tattoos on their bodies to intimidate people. It’s fine if they’re only Rank 1, but it’s pretty easy to reveal the truth once a Rank 2 or higher struggles to lift or move something heavy. Also, it’s illegal to tattoo words of any kind, but it’s only a fine at most. It rarely gets enforced either way.

There was a cute little girl sitting on the ground in the corner, playing with a tiny green-shelled hermit crab in a small plastic cage… Rather than playing, she was simply whispering and talking with the critter, watching it eat some pieces of banana.

Over by the glass display counter, a beautiful woman was sipping a strawberry slushie with a small fan blowing directly on her sweaty face. Myrtle’s mother was still relatively young, she was only in her 20’s after all. With brown hair, blue eyes and light-brown skin. She wore a very revealing blue bikini that showed off her voluptuous figure.

Upstairs on the second and third floors were apartments. Myrtle’s mother lived on the second floor while Irving, Myrtle and their daughter lived on the third. Forest and some other employees lived in a separate apartment building across the street, which was much larger and relatively cheaper since it wasn’t right on the boardwalk.

However, the penthouse was actually high enough to easily see over the Vernakres shop and have a nice view of the ocean. Obviously the penthouse was the landlord’s own home. The beautiful brown-skinned woman was sipping some expensive red fruit juice from a wine glass when she furrowed her thin brows and frowned, “Damn it…”

She scratched her long curly red hair with her left hand and muttered, “What the hell?”

There was a conspicuous golden coin resting on her sternum, revealed by her low-cut blue dress. She put down the wine glass on a table and quickly walked through the large kitchen, into the similarly luxurious bedroom. After closing the curtains, she took off the coin amulet and let it float weightlessly near the foot of her giant bed.

The golden surface of the coin melted off and revealed the pure white material underneath. The liquid gold swirled around in the air, then reattached to the face of the coin, forming a triquetra symbol. The white and gold coin suddenly melted into bloody red liquid this time, swirling around and forming a huge, circular screen that touched the ceiling and floor.

“What’s wrong, Verna?” A deep and masculine voice came from the vibrating film.

“It feels like…” She pursed her golden lips and grumbled, “I just lost a lot of money.”

There was a deep sigh. Then a huge golden hand emerged from the rippling blood. Followed by another. Then a beautiful feminine face, with long and straight black hair, attached to a tall, muscular masculine but hairless body. On the giant man’s chest was a long string of Words that rapidly formed: ‘Angelic Fairy Ogre Succubus Asura VII’.

He opened his big silver eyes and glared at the ‘tiny’ woman who was admiring his gorgeous golden body in a daze.

“I swear to God, if you summoned me to hunt down another hot sauce packet ‘thief’ from your shitty restaurant, I’m gonna freaking-ugh… Ew, I freaking hate this cringy world! Even freak is censored?! What kinda PG-13 asshole came up with that shit?!”

The giant gagged a few times and asked, “How long are you gonna stare at me? At least give me some freaking clothes!”

“It’s nice to see you again too, Xenos.” Verna pouted and quickly conjured up some black swimming trunks, along with a simple white v-neck t-shirt. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and surprisingly didn’t destroy it with his weight. There was no blanket on the bed, only a thin red sheet.

“Why’s it so dark in here?” Xenos reached out, opening the curtains telekinetically and smiling when he felt the warm sunshine on his shiny golden skin, “Okay, so what the hell do you want this time, Verna?”

“I told you. It feels like I’m losing money… A lot of money!” She grimaced, holding her hand over her large left breast, “It’s like someone’s carving out my heart! I want you to find out who’s hurting me and kill them!”

“Can you be… Even a tiny bit more specific?!”

“Just check Verde and Kale Town! No, it’s probably Verde! Maybe they’re being attacked by Bandits! Or those Greenstone bastards are getting revenge!”

“Verde Village… Umm, that’s the place next to the big sinkhole, right?” Xenos rubbed his smooth chin and smiled wryly, “Uh… I see it. Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“What’s wrong?! What happened to Verde?!” Verna reached out and grabbed his shirt, shaking his huge body around easily.

“Stop~! Stop it~!” The giant goldie pushed her away and explained, “The town-er, well, the small village is on fire. At least the fire hasn’t spread to the forest though, which means that an ecological disaster probably won’t happen-”

“Who gives a shit about the forest?! What about my shops! What about my merchandise?! What about my source of income?!”

“I don’t know. Probably freaked? Freaked! Freaking freaked! This is some bullshit! How is it okay that you can have little kids getting raped and murdered in this world, but you can’t even curse properly?!”

“Xenos! Shut up!” Verna paced around the room and finally asked, “What about Klein? What the hell is he doing?!”

“Klein is the Necromancer dude?”

“Necromancer? What are you talking about? Klein is a Plague Doctor! But he’s at least Rank 6 now, almost Rank 7. He should be able to deal with any Bandits that might show up!”

“I don’t know. I just see a Necromancer and a bunch of zombies leaving the burning village… Looks like they’re heading towards the west.”