Chapter 494

Chapter 494: Money Matters

"Greed?"

Jesse knocked on the door a couple of times, waited at the doorway, then knocked again.

"Wanting more?"

Are you not back yet?

He was getting ready to go downstairs to check out the Pig and Whistle Tavern, when the door at the corner beneath the staircase suddenly swung open with a bang.

"Hey, you got the wrong door, Jesse," Greed said leaning against the doorframe.

Jesse looked at the dwarf whose hair and beard were stuck together from not being washed for a long time, and said, "You’re back."

"Of course I’m back," Greed said. "I guess Nethergarde couldn’t afford gryphons anymore, or even us Gryphon Riders. The cleanup near the Dark Portal… it’s almost done, so I came back."

"When did you come back?" Jesse asked.

"Aren’t you happy that I survived an attack from a bunch of demons and made it back safely to normal civilized society?!" Greed asked.

"Isn’t that normal for you?" Jesse sat on the staircase and said.

"Well, indeed, Jesse Seso finally recognizes my strength." Greed ruffled his thick curly hair and said, "Do you want to go for a drink?"

"Let’s go."

The two of them strolled across the canal and arrived at the Pig and Whistle Tavern in Old Town as the evening approached.

The inn was packed with people. On this winter evening, everyone wore coats and heavy cloaks. The hall was filled with the smell of firewood, alcohol, smoke, and fog.

Jesse coughed twice from the smoke, touched his cold and stiff cheeks, found a seat, and sat down. Greed sat across from him, shaking his face and licking his lips.

Leaning against the wall, he said, "After returning from Nethergarde, I slept for several days in a row. Finally, I had a good rest."

"Did you get any rewards?" Jesse asked eagerly as the sommelier approached.

"What rewards?" the dwarf asked.

"For killing so many demons," Jesse said.

"What’s the reward for this?" Greed chuckled, lowered his head for a moment and said, "Ah, now that I think about it, there should indeed be some reward. After all, I’ve been injured a few times… But who else stopped the Pit Lord Azgath? Who else defended the walls of Nethergarde as the ‘Mountain King’? If I don’t show off a bit more, they might think my hero title isn’t valuable enough."

Jesse couldn’t help but smile and said, "You’re truly greedy, Greed."

Greed leaned forward and touched Jesse’s face, saying, "Don’t be modest here, young man. Everyone knows who killed that monster."

"What would you handsome young lads like?" a young female sommelier who had never seen them before approached and asked.

Greed said, "I’ll have a glass of the Northshire specialty red wine, miss."

Jesse raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked, "What’s going on?"

"I’ve had too much of the messy drinks in Nethergarde, I need to feel the vibe of Stormwind," the dwarf tapped the table with his fingers and asked, "How about you?"

"Same here," Jesse said. "Also, I would like a pumpkin pie."

"Bring a plate of roasted boar meat," Greed added.

"So that’s it then," said Jesse.

The sommelier nodded and left. Greed glanced at the girl’s backside and said, "Speaking of pumpkins, did you return to Lordaeron, Jesse?"

"I did," Jesse replied. "But the Kirin Tor clearly didn’t want me in the royal city."

"They didn’t want you to survive," Greed turned back to stare into Jesse’s eyes. "It’s quite normal, Jesse. I don’t like to bring this up because I’m afraid it might upset you, but I think it’s better for you to know. The soldiers from Nethergarde who were involved in that battle… to be more precise, the ones who witnessed you kill that Pit Lord. They appreciate your efforts, but they are truly concerned about your dark powers."

"That’s also why the mages ruling Nethergarde let you leave early. Too many people in Nethergarde knew you, wandering there every day. It made them uneasy. Trust me, during the time you were unconscious, there were probably quite a few people silently hoping you would die."

Greed took the wooden cup filled with deep purple liquid from the sommelier and raised it up, saying, "Let’s have a drink, little Jesse!"

Jesse nodded, clinked glasses with Greed, and took a sip of the bittersweet liquid saying, "I know."

"How are your parents?" Greed asked.

"They’re both doing well," Jesse nodded and replied.

Greed said, "That’s fine, just meeting is enough. I thought you would have been stopped by those people in purple robes on the way. At least it shows those guys still have some humanity."

Seeing Jesse staying silent for a long time, he glanced at the pumpkin pie placed in front of him by the sommelier and asked, "Did you run into a troublesome job that you couldn’t handle yourself, so you came to find me?"

"To be precise…" Jesse said, "It’s two jobs."

Greed coughed twice and said, "Ah, can’t we just find our good brothers to have a drink without complications?"

Jesse held up five fingers and said, "One job to collect Essence of Undeath materials, Greed. Listen, gathering a bottle costs five gold coins, as long as we find a few ghosts… it’ll be done. The goblins in Booty Bay have provided me with the equipment to collect such materials."

Listening to Jesse finish speaking, Greed gulped down the wine in his mouth and asked, "So much money?"

Jesse said, "Accompany me to Deadwind Pass once, I’ll leave some Essence of Undeath for you… you take the lion’s share, just like last time when we went to find Grave Moss."

"Sounds good." Greed chuckled twice, then his face turned cold as he asked, "You mean Deadwind Pass?!"

"Otherwise, would it be worth so much money?" Jesse asked, "If we were to go to Raven Hill, a haunted place, to deal with a few ghosts, would anyone pay us this much to hire us?"

"That sounds about right," Greed said as he scooped a spoonful of pumpkin pie into his mouth. "When I was patrolling on a gryphon, flying over the outskirts of that valley, it didn’t seem like a normal place at all, Jesse. Do you have any preparations?"

"I’m not prepared at the moment," Jesse said. "But not many people know about that place. I plan to first find the map of The Tower of Karazhan before it had issues, to see where the settlements are… Also, if we need to deal with ghosts, we’ll need to get some holy water from the Cathedral of Light. There are too many people who know me in there, so you’ll have to handle that."

"No problem," Greed said. "Also, that device you mentioned from the goblin, is it used to extract the Essence of Undeath, right? Are you sure it will work? Goblin inventions…"

"That’s why we need the holy water," Jesse said.

"Alright, alright," the dwarf nodded. Seeing the dwarf agree, Jesse took another sip of wine, swishing it around in his mouth, and said, "There is another matter, Greed."