Ewan waited at one of the tables in the bounty station's canteen, with a bubble of space around him. From the glances at him as Dryth walked up to his teacher, Ewan had either driven everyone off with his eccentricity while waiting for Dryth and Sindri to finish their first bounty or was doing something to keep people away. Knowing Ewan, it could be either one.

  "Ah!" Ewan leapt to his feet and spread his arms wide. "Fantastic to see you back! And not a scratch on either of you, excellent."

  Dryth hesitated a step away from the chair opposite Ewan. He'd been about to start sitting when Ewan got to his feet. "Um... Are you trying to give me a hug?"

  "Only if you're comfortable with it."

  After a second Dryth stepped forward and gave him a quick hug, with the necessary manly back pats as accompaniment. Sindri rose up and gently tapped his head against Ewan's while Dryth stepped back.

  "We're back! And we did a great job!"

  Ewan dropped back into his chair. "I'm sure you did! Tell me all about it."

  "We went to a warehouse to hunt gremlins! They're not that strong, which I guess is why they let us come, but there were more of them than there were of us! But that's why we had chaperons and they probably could have done the whole thing without us. But we walked to the warehouse and there was this guy that was a chaperon that wanted to impress Dryth but he started saying things Dryth already knew and it was weird. Then we got to the warehouse with the gremlins and I told Dryth we should try and team up with everybody to make sure we did a good job and Dryth thought that was a good idea and tried to say it, but everybody else ran off! So me and Dryth went hunting on our own with just one of the chaperons following us, and we found four of them that were spying on us! So I went and snuck around them while Dryth distracted them and then I popped up behind them and bit one! The rest of them tried to jump across the shelves but Dryth shot a Sparkle Bolt and blinded them and two of them fell onto the ground! But Dryth wasn't trying to blind them, he actually missed, and blinded himself twice, so while he was staggering around I went after the one that got away! I chased it into a corner and I bit that one too! And while I was doing that Dryth was getting his vision back and he shot one of the gremlins with a Sparkle Bolt and the other one charged him so he kicked it into a shelf! Then when we were going to go look for more gremlins the chaperon lady stomped on one of the one's Dryth got's head! Cause it was just unconscious and it needed to be dead. Then it dropped a card and the lady gave it to us! But neither of us can use it so we were talking about whether we should sell it or break it into shards. Then we got back to looking for more gremlins, and we found one more that was running away and I got to bite three gremlins today! And there were only a total of eleven gremlins in the whole building and me and Dryth got five of them, and there were six of us there! Not counting the chaperons. And then we came back here and we got paid the most out of anybody!"

  Dryth felt his eyes glazing over as Sindri recounted the entire story without stopping. He didn't even need to pause for a breath because he wasn't talking out loud.

  "Well, it sounds like you've done a fantastic job! Getting more kills than anyone else on your first job is a very nice little achievement and a good omen for your future work. Assuming you wish to continue, that is." He gave Dryth an open look that very clearly said he wasn't going to push.

  Dryth shrugged. "There's no way I'm getting out of it. Not only would it make Sindri sad, and he's one of the two votes on whether we keep going, but all the arguments on why it's the only real option are still there. Plus," Dryth reached into his pocket and set a handful of coins down. "They paid us a halfsie a gremlin. That's not a ton of coin and it comes with danger attached, and I know that more coin equals more danger in this business and it's only been a day, but that's halfway to a quarter-gild in like an hour of not too terrible danger."

  "Wait, how do these add up to a quarter-gild?" Sindri bumped one of the coins with his nose. "I thought those were the smallest gold ones."

  "Oh, right. Okay, Ewan taught us about why currency has value, right?"

  "Because if enough people agree to something that doesn't matter its true to those people, and coins are easier to carry than the stuff people would actually trade for things, plus by having currency governments can tax people easier."

  "Right, but we're focusing on the first part. Coins have value because we agree that they do. So eight jingles make a halfsie, two halfsies make a less, four lesses make a quarter-gild, two quarter-gilds make a half-gild, and two half-gilds make a full-gild. So with five halfsies we have the same amount of value as two lesses and a halfsie, which is just a little more than halfway to a quarter-gild."

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "Why are the numbers all weird?" Sindri demanded after a moment where he sent pure confusion down the bond to Dryth. "Why not make them more uniform? It'd be easier to remember, and the math wouldn't be so weird!"

  "I genuinely have no idea." Dryth held out both hands and shook his head. "It was like that before I was born and no one I knew knew the answer either."

  "It boils down to some very boring history and the actions of foolish people." Ewan told them.

  They both turned to look at him expectantly.

  "It'd take several hours to explain the whole thing, so let's table it. If you're really interested in knowing then I'll tell you later."

  "Okay! So is five halfsies a lot of money?"

  "It's not a huge amount, but it's a decent sum. I think your average worker makes about a halfsie a day?" Dryth glanced at Ewan for confirmation.

  "Thereabouts," Ewan replied with a small shrug.

  "So we got five days of work worth of money in like an hour just by killing some weak monsters? Why doesn't everybody do this?"

  "Because it's dangerous," Ewan told him, "And because not everyones good at such things, but mostly the danger. If you make a mistake or chance just doesn't roll your way, even something as weak as a gremlin can kill a normal person and gremlins aren't the only thing you'd be called to fight. Even if you don't die, getting permanently injured is a pressure most would worry about and even injuries that will heal will still put you out of work for a while, which means you'd have to rely on savings. Then there's the cost of gear and supplies you'd need. Not only all of that, but the capital is a bit of a played out area when it comes to bounties. Most of the low-level jobs are heavily competed for by young people who are doing it on the side to make some savings or newly started adventurers that have to fight with all the casuals to work their way up to better bounties. Oh, sorry, newly started bounty hunters. And all of the better paying work is generally sewn up by veterans who have connections with the people who do post bounties." He made a "that's life" gesture with one hand as he sat back in his chair. "Add all those together and many people don't want to take on a notoriously unstable profession that no one can guarantee you'll be able to make enough money in."

  "...Why are we going to do it then?"

  "For a combination of the two main reasons that most end up doing it! In your case Sindri, it's the call of adventure!" Ewan waved a utensil he'd pulled from somewhere around like a sword. "The desire to see new things, to have grand experiences, and to fight dangerous foes! This kingdom is generally a staid place, so you have to hunt excitement if you want more than your every day suspense. And on Dryth's part, limited choices. Doing bounties for the Bounty Agency had little requirements other than following the rules and not being an absolute moron, so next to anyone can try. It gives people in dire straights, or just annoying circumstances," He pointed at Dryth with the utensil, "A chance at the bare minimum. Thankfully for you two you don't lack a support structure like some poor people do when they start taking bounties, which means there's a lot less pressure on you."

  Sindri slowly turned to look at Dryth. "Do you really not want to do this?"

  "I... I don't think that's the right question." He replied after a moment. "I'm not absolutely against this like I would be turning into a bandit or something, I'm just... I'm not excited about this and if circumstances were different I'd probably make a different choice. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have into that warehouse today."

  "So you are just doing it for me. I appreciate that but I don't want to force you-"

  "Woah, woah!" Dryth hurriedly cut his partner off. "I didn't mean it like that, I meant that if I didn't have you with me I'd have waited a long time before trying any trial bounties, even if I was in the same spot with licensing. I'm not a fighter. Or, well, I'm not someone who enjoys fighting. I can do it, but its not my calling, like it seems to be yours. Without you I wouldn't feel anywhere near ready enough even to do 'babies first bounty' like we did today. I could do it because we were together as a team." He felt like he was rambling, so he stopped and tried to summarize. "Basically, I'm saying that I'm not jumping for joy to do this, but I'm not going to complain or sabotage anything either, you get it?"

  "So... I just have to show you how fun going on adventures is! Right?"

  "Sure, that could happen."

  "And it will be my job to teach the two of you everything I can to make sure that you're ready for anything that gets thrown at you!" Ewan leapt to his feet dramatically and did a pose. After a second of Dryth and Sindri just staring at him he let it drop. "Let's get out of here. It's going to be more of a pin getting into the walls than it was getting out even with my special person card and I'd rather be at home as soon as we can."

  "Why're you in a rush?"

  "There are people here who want to..." He shuddered dramatically, "Ask me to do things! But I also can't teach you that well in a random bounty station and that prize I heard Sindri mention means we can finally do a lesson I'm sure you've been looking forward to!"

  "What lesson is that?"

  "Well, if my intuition is correct, the card you two picked up is one neither of you can use and since there apparently wasn't much of a fuss about you two taking it it probably isn't worth too much. Which means its a great specimen to break down and turn into shards!"