Chapter 5
Barbarian Quest
Chapter 5 – My Name is Urich (2)
A meal at an inn costed roughly 5,000 cil. Cil was the Empire’s currency and could even be considered the common currency as it worked anywhere on the continent. That was how unshakeable and strong the Empire’s power was.
“Come one, come all! If you win an arm wrestling match against this foreigner here, you can win 10,000 cil! And it only costs 2,000 cil to enter! A prime opportunity to increase your money fivefold!”
Donau was gathering people to the side of the square, and Urich was sitting down next to him.
Tap, tap.
Urich yawned while tapping on the simple table with his fingers.
‘Arm wrestling on the streets…’
After thinking all night long, this was the method that the two came up with. Specifically, it took half a day just to communicate with each other. Since the two of them couldn’t communicate properly, they had to exchange their opinions through drawings.
“Isn’t that Donau the swindler?”
“He didn’t die from what happened last time?”
A few people in the crowd recognized him.
‘Damn it, I was supposed to be out of here.’
Donau was a swindler that moved from city to city. If it weren’t for Urich, he would have already left for a different city.
“Even if he is a swindler, how’s he going to cheat in arm wrestling? I’ll pay for the drinks today!”
One of the miners stepped forward. He laughed in a grand manner while rolling up his sleeves.
Since Ankara’s specialty product was copper ores, the city was filled with miners who were confident in their strength.
“Finally, the first customer.”
Urich bared his teeth.
“Alright, we have received your participation fee.”
“If you run away after taking that, I’ll kill you.”
The miner glared while warning him. Donau just smiled while counting the coins.
‘That man’s grip and arm strength aren’t normal.’
Donau counted down from three as the referee.
“Three, two, one! Start!”
The moment ‘start’ left Donau’s lips, the miner’s face quickly started to get red. He was trying to move his arm with all the strength he had in his body.
‘Wh-What is this?’
The miner looked at Urich who only had an expressionless face. Urich’s arm didn’t budge at all. To the miner, it felt like he was pushing an immovable rock.
“Since I’ve waited this long, I can slowly win now, right?”
Urich talked to himself. There wasn’t anyone who could understand him anyways.
The plan was simple. Urich had to slowly win the match to entice more contestants. He had to act like he was losing at times but always turn it around for a victory. He also had to make sure he looked tired.
SLAM.
The back of the miner’s hand touched the table.
“Ahem.”
The miner lowered his head in shame and coughed.
“Alright! Alright! Next person! Is there no one here confident in their strength? I thought this was Ankara! The city of miners! Did all of those brave miners go and die in a ditch somewhere?”
Donau was riding the flow. All of the miners were agitated by those words.
“It’s not my fault if I break your arm, foreigner.”
The new miner that stepped forward warned Urich. He was someone famous for his strength, even compared to the other miners.
“Stop forcing your voice deeper to say bullshit like that.”
Urich retorted while grabbing hands. Because he said it with a smiling face, no one knew that it was an insult.
SMASH.
Urich slammed the miner’s hand onto the table in one fell swoop. The miner looked at Urich, dumbfounded.
“What are you looking at? Fuck off.”
If someone interpreted Urich’s words, a fight would have already broken out.
People who were confident in their strength, including other miners, gathered around the table. Urich had matches with ten men then rested for a bit.
“W-We won everything! We already made 20,000 cil! We made so much!”
Donau looked at the stacked pile of coins. It was a pile mixed with 100 cil and 1,000 cil coins.
“It’s easy to earn money!”
Urich laughed and giggled as he cooled his sweltering arms. There were already a lot of onlookers around him.
‘I should pretend like I’m tired now.’
Urich kept grabbing and massaging his arms. He moved it up and down to pretend like he was out of strength.
“I think that guy’s tired now.”
“It’s natural for him to be out of strength.”
“It’s my turn next.”
The miners who were watching slowly stepped forward.
“You can reserve a match in advance! You can pay the participation fee in advance over here!”
Donau read the mood and quickly yelled that.
“Since we’re paying in advance, you guys aren’t going to take a break in the middle or anything sly like that, right?”
“Of course! From this point on, we’ll keep going without resting! I guarantee it!”
The men heard those words, looked around at each other, and immediately started throwing participation fees at Donau. They stood in a long line.
“These sly bastards.”
Urich laughed to himself while looking at the men standing in a line.
“Hey, foreigner guy! Thanks to you, I’ll be able to bring home chicken for dinner! Agh!”
SLAM!
The back of the hand touched the table at a terrifying speed.
“I’ll show you the strength of someone who’s been a miner for ten—Urgh!”
SLAM!
The back of that miner’s hand turned red from hitting the table.
“Please be a bit gentle, mister—Keok!”
SLAM!
“Isn’t it time for you to get tired now? Kueok!”
SLAM!
SLAM!
SLAM!
One after another, men were rolling on the floor, grabbing the back of their hands.
‘Ahh, I forgot to hold back.’
Urich got too excited and put in more strength than necessary.
It was a bit off from the original plan. He was supposed to pretend like he was losing at times to bring in more people.
“That looks fun! Let me try as well!”
However, challengers were now approaching Urich with a different intent. People were trying to beat the undefeated Urich.
“Urich the Undefeated! Arm Wrestling King Urich! We’ll welcome our next opponents!” shouted Donau after quickly reading the mood again. There’s a reason why he’s a swindler.
Men gathered around. However, Donau read the mood once more and put it to a stop.
“We’re stopping here for today! See you again tomorrow!”
Urich and Donau went into an alleyway. The swindler looked at his coin purse clanging with coins and screamed.
“That’s insane! We can actually make money doing this! Urich, my man! You’re the best! The absolute best!”
They earned roughly over 40,000 cil. It wasn’t a lot of money, but they planned to increase the participation fee the next day. Even if they raised it to just 5,000 cil, a lot of money could be made.
Clang, clang, clang.
Urich grabbed a handful of the coins. At best, it was around 10,000 cil.
“This is my share.”
Everything else was for Donau. Urich left him in charge of looking for a place to sleep. Since he wasn’t used to the life there, he needed Donau’s help.
‘Huhu, you’re my lucky charm.’
Donau understood quite a bit about Urich now.
‘He’s a strong traveler who doesn’t know much about the world. He’s probably a criminal who was chased out of his home.’
Urich didn’t know anything about the world. Donau paid attention to that.
‘If I’m smart about this, I can take advantage of him.’
He actively helped Urich. He even worked hard in communicating with him even though he originally thought it was a pain. He drew detailed drawings to explain what they were going to do in the future. If Urich didn’t understand it, he kept repeating it until he did.
“Can I embrace a girl with this money?”
Urich spoke while drawing a person with boobs.
“Of course, Urich.”
Donau continuously nodded…
And took Urich to a brothel.
* * *
* * *
Urich, aged sixteen. Nobody would have ever guessed he was still in his teens. He looked as if he were at least in his twenties. There were no wrinkles on his face, but there were small scars all over it, and his fists were strong and hard.
“Guh-uhhh. I-I’m going to die.”
Screams could be heard.
Women who worked at the brothel would heartlessly say things to boost the excitement of men.
Things like, ‘I’m going to die’, ‘It’s too big’, ‘Please’, ‘No’, ‘I’m going to cum’. They would receive tips and pointers from their madams.
“Ugh, gguaah. Ahh!”
An honest scream escaped the girl’s lips. It was undeniably a real scream, not one that was fabricated to make the man feel better.
“Good job, lady. Haha.”
Urich spoke after finishing the deed. He tapped the prostitute’s butt as she tottered away.
“You fucking animal!”
The prostitute swore at him while grabbing more of the money. Urich let her take as much as she wanted.
He threw away over 10,000 cil for a momentary pleasure. Ankara was a rather good city for a prostitute to operate in as there were many miners. In poorer cities, people would have to sell their bodies even for a piece of bread.
“I used all my money, Donau.”
Urich walked out of the room while dusting his hands. Donau must have also just finished because he was putting on his pants.
“That sound was crazy. I thought you would’ve had to pay more. I bet she’s done for the day after that. Shall we go to a better place, my man?”
Donau had a perverted look on his face.
There was only about 20,000 cil left. It was hard to play all night with only that much.
‘But if I think about the money I’ll make tomorrow…’
Donau pulled out a gold coin from his pocket. It was a coin worth 100,000 cil.
Urich and Donau went to a brothel with high-class escorts who knew how to dance and sing. They ate as much as they pleased, drank until they were drunk, and felt as much as they wanted.
Urich got excited from being surrounded by all of the women. It was a different celebration than he was used to at the tribe. The women wearing colorful clothing were beautiful, and their skin was unbelievably soft. They even smelled sweet. In fact, they even washed his body in a warm bath.
The women that danced and sang to the music looked like goddesses to him.
“Tell all of those dirt-smelling bitches to fuck off!” Urich screamed. The dirty women of his tribe disappeared from his mind in an instant.
“Kyaaa! Fuck off!”
The women copied what Urich said without knowing its meaning. The drunk Donau and Urich drank alcohol like it was water, and after that… They had no memory of what happened.
The sun rose with the two of them waking up in between the sticky, alcohol-covered tables.
“Ughhh.”
Donau groaned while grabbing his head. It hurt like crazy.
Urich woke up from that sound and slowly opened his eyes.
“That was amazing. Ha… haha. It was worth coming over the mountain range just for this!”
Urich spoke while stretching his muscular body. The women around him were lying down naked.
‘I have to bring my brothers here next time.’
Urich thought to himself while looking at the women.
‘I can’t be the only one to enjoy this heaven-like place. If there was paradise like this beyond the mountain range, there are countless idiots that would risk their lives to come here.’
“My head hurts so much. I’m going to die, man. Uweeck!”
Donau ran to a corner to throw up.
“Now, let’s go earn that cil thing again. Cil is really amazing,” said Urich.
Donau’s eyes opened wide when he heard ‘cil’.
“Haah, fuck.”
Donau tried to remember what happened last night.
“One million… cil.”
Donau let out a sigh. The women slowly started to wake up and kissed Urich and Donau on the cheeks on their way out.
“Thanks, sweetie.”
“You’re a real big spender.”
“You’re awesome!”
“Come again, darling foreigner!”
The women loosely put on clothes as they left. Urich had a perverted look on his face as he watched them from behind.
Donau was the only one trembling.
Trembling with rage.
“We spent one million cil in just one night!”
He got caught up in the moment and spent it without thinking. He paid 50,000 cil for wine diluted with water and even put coins between his legs to make the women grab it with their mouths.
“I’m so dumb. I’m so fucking dumb. Fuck. I can’t believe I spent one million cil at a brothel for just one night.”
Donau couldn’t beat his sense of shame and started hopping around in anger.
‘If it’s like this, I’ll have to use that guy as much as I can. Damn it.’
Donau’s eyes became fierce.
Urich absentmindedly stood up, naked, and tried to drink the leftover wine.
It was obvious that he was a warrior. Tattoo-like scars were all over his body with unhealed wounds still on his back. Donau surmised that Urich was a warrior of immense skill.
“Urich, my man,” Donau called. Urich turned his head to him.
“Why are you calling me?”
They didn’t understand each other’s words, but they often spoke to each other as if they could.
“Don’t you want to make more money?”
Money was good. But having more money was even better.
Urich realized that simple truth.
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