Chapter 51: FastTrack

The man was older, perhaps in his thirties, and had spent most of the meeting quietly listening.

His name was Marcus Von. He wasn’t particularly strong either, but that wasn’t why Keane had chosen him.

From what he understood, Marcus had connections. Merchants, caravan leaders, guild contacts, independent adventurers, dated news from far and wide... He knew what was happening outside Valewind, and more importantly, he knew who to ask when something important was needed.

Keane had originally considered expanding his operations outside the city, though after thinking about it, he realized there was little reason to rush, especially with the new knowledge he learned the previous day.

In terms of adventuring, Valewind already had enough gates to keep him occupied, which was also why it was such a hub.

For now, though, if an opportunity appeared somewhere else, he would at least be able to hear about it before everyone else did.

He was quite satisfied with things as they were, especially with what Daniel was bringing.

He had already discovered that managing contracts, collecting rewards, buying supplies, and keeping track of everything in a nondigital world was more work than anyone would expect. For a man who had a lot of his tasks automated to save time, transitioning from that was a big pain.

"Fine." He said, bringing a smile to Daniel’s face.

Marcus nodded as well.

Keane looked at the other three people. "I don’t need anything else."

None of them seemed offended, they understood the arrangement.

Once they left, Daniel closed the door.

"There is one more thing." He said.

"What?" Keane raised an eyebrow.

"If we’re doing this properly, I think we should include a binding vow."

"A vow?" Keane’s expression changed slightly, he had never heard of it, but from the name alone, he could guess what it was.

"Yes, between the three of us." Daniel said as he sat back down. "That alone will reduce worry of trust and competence to a degree. No betrayal, no selling information about each other, no deliberately sabotaging contracts, no taking advantage of information gained through the partnership... you know?"

Marcus nodded. "I agree."

Keane studied them both for a while genuinely impressed. "How long does this vow last exactly?"

"One year." Daniel answered immediately. "After that, we either renew it or walk away."

Keane thought about it briefly before agreeing, he also liked the idea. Daniel had gone on to explain a bit more, and he understood that a binding vow was serious. Depending on the magic involved, breaking one could have consequences ranging from physical pain to the destruction of the soul itself.

The good part was that the exact rules could be written into the contract, if not, it would have been quite interesting.

A Guild-approved magic practitioner was brought in to witness the agreement.

The key terms were simple. For one year, the three of them would cooperate in good faith. Neither Daniel nor Marcus could deliberately betray Keane or sell information concerning his activities. Keane could not deliberately abandon payment owed to them or use the partnership to harm them. They would each be free to leave when the year ended... and apart from more nuanced terms, that was it.

...

The next two weeks went by quite fast for Keane, and with Daniel handling most of the administrative things, his daily routine had become much simpler than before.

Daniel would find a gate, take the contract, then Keane would enter, kill whatever was inside, collect the rewards and then return, only to repeat the same thing again not too long after.

It was simple, but it worked very well.

Daniel handled the contracts before Keane even needed to ask most of the time. He filtered out the ones that weren’t worth taking, prioritised gates with good rewards, kept track of the prices of different materials and even arranged transportation whenever it was needed. Even collecting Keane’s rewards was something he handled, saving Keane from having to stand around in the Guild while someone counted monster parts or confirmed whatever he brought back.

Keane hadn’t even been properly informed that monster parts sold for decent price, until Daniel took charge and arranged a few people to follow Keane and do the collecting.

Marcus on the other hand focused more on information, and every few days, he would bring something that might be useful.

Sometimes it was about a gate that had appeared close to a village, or some magical material suddenly increasing in price. There were also failed gate expeditions, merchants looking to buy certain monster parts and plenty of other things Keane didn’t particularly care about.

He didn’t need all the information Marcus brought him anyway, only the useful parts, and that was enough. The guy seemed to be working way harder than he was supposed to.

In some way, his world had become smaller while also becoming larger.

Keane limited most of what he was doing to Valewind and the areas around it, since there was really no reason to start travelling halfway across the kingdom when there were still plenty of gates nearby. If anything, staying close allowed him to clear more gates within a shorter amount of time, and that naturally meant he was also earning more.

The money started piling up rather quickly also.

At first, Keane had only been paying attention to how much each individual contract paid, but by the time Daniel eventually showed him the total amount he had accumulated, he couldn’t believe it. He knew the money would be a lot, but not that much. Apparently, he hadn’t been factoring every other thing like monster parts, and such.

"That’s all mine?" He asked, genuinely surprised, and quite impressed Daniel hadn’t tried to embezzle any.

"After expenses." Daniel clarified.

’That’s... actually a lot.’ He thought to himself.

With his wealth surpassing hundreds of Gold coins, he definitely wasn’t rich when compared to powerful nobles or some of the people he had heard about in Valewind, but considering he had arrived in this world with practically nothing, the difference was already massive.

For one, he no longer needed to think about basic expenses. Better equipment, food, supplies or information weren’t really things he had to worry about anymore, and if he wanted, he could even hire people to do certain things for him, and for that last part, it had started becoming quite important.

In terms of his own comfort, the place he had been staying before no longer made much sense considering how much money he now had, so Keane eventually decided to buy a proper house.

It wasn’t anything close to a mansion, but it had a sizable yard, and enough rooms for staff, storage, visitors and even a private workspace he could use when needed. The seller had also offered to arrange people that could help maintain the place, but Keane refused almost immediately.

"I can handle it myself." He had said at the time, feeling like hiring someone just to clean up after him was a bit unnecessary.

About two weeks later, Keane stood in the middle of the house while staring at the layer of dust sitting on one of the tables and other furniture.

’Maybe not.’

He spent most of his time outside anyway, and whenever he wasn’t clearing gates, he was either sleeping or doing something else that was more important than cleaning a house.

There was really no reason for him to waste time cleaning, cooking, maintaining the yard or waiting around for deliveries when he could simply pay someone else to do it.

He had the money now too. He could finally understand why the rich needed workers around their house. He used to tie it closely to modern day slavery when he felt like nitpicking on the rich, but it made perfect sense now.

As for the money, that was another thing Keane was slowly getting used to. Having enough money completely changed how valuable certain things became, especially time, and Keane valued his time quite highly.

His strength was also still progressing during those two weeks.

The levels came quickly enough, perhaps seeing as he was still within the lower brackets, though Keane didn’t really care about them all that much for now, at least not until he reached level twenty.

The monsters themselves had become even more less interesting.

Ordinary monsters had stopped being a challenge almost completely, and even some of the stronger ones usually died before Keane could properly test anything against them. It had been fun at first, especially when he still wasn’t completely sure how strong he had become after reaching 199 in every stat, but after a while, it stopped mattering as much.

If the monsters were weaker, then the gates were easier to clear.

If the gates were easier to clear, he could finish more contracts, and naturally, more contracts meant more money.

’I’m not going to complain about getting paid for easy work.’

If he wanted to actually test himself, then he would just have to find higher ranked gates later. There was nothing wrong with being efficient until then.

The Guild however had started running into a different kind of problem because of him.