Chapter 10: The Gold Contract and the Rival Scholar
The Adventurer's Guild Hall was still a swirling chaos of noise and boasts, but to Mark's newly refined senses, the hubbub sounded less like background noise and more like market data. His Master Broker class had done more than just shuffle his stats; it had granted him a detached clarity, allowing him to perceive social and transactional dynamics with unnerving precision.
He walked past the Bronze and Silver boards, heading directly to the corner where the high-tier Gold Contracts were posted. The muscular Guild Clerk, the same woman Mark had dealt with before, looked up with an expression of mild annoyance.
"Back so soon, Courier?" she asked, resting her chin on her hand. "I heard the Water Ministry was quite pleased. The new contract boards are on the far wall."
"I'm not here for a Silver Contract, Miss," Mark replied, resting his hands on the counter. His Charisma of 15 and Basic Negotiation (Lvl 2) subtly shifted the power balance. He looked less like a tired courier and more like a confident professional. "I'm here for the Translation of the Cryptic Stone Tablet, Gold Contract 12-B."
The clerk frowned, genuinely surprised this time. "That contract? Mark, that tablet has been sitting in our vault for six months. It's Dwarven Runic, heavily corrupted by time, and requires a certified Level 18 Scholar or a dedicated Artifact Analyst. You're a Level 5 Master Broker. You specialize in logistics."
"I specialize in providing solutions where others only see problems," Mark countered smoothly. "The reward is 150 Silver Shillings. The time limit is two weeks. I guarantee a complete, verified translation within the deadline, or I take no fee."
His confidence was absolute, fueled by Jarvis's silent preparation. The clerk hesitated. Gold contracts rarely moved, and a guaranteed translation, even by an apparent novice, was better than nothing.
"Very well. Your track record speaks for the quality of your analysis, if nothing else. But know this: the tablet is kept under heavy magical warding in the secure vault. You may only view it within the Guild's supervised library, and you may not remove it or take imprints. You must translate by hand, and you may not use any external arcane scanning equipment."
"Agreed. I require access immediately." Mark signed the contract.
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[New Quest Accepted]
Quest: Translation of the Cryptic Stone Tablet
Client: The Adventurer's Guild (via the Central Library Archive)
Location: Guild Vault Library
Reward: 150 Silver Shillings
Primary Skill Required: Runic Linguistics (Level 18 Equivalent)
Time Constraint: 14 days
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Mark was led down a wide, stone staircase into the lower levels of the Guild Hall. The air grew cold, smelling of ozone and ancient rock. They passed through a massive, steel-reinforced door secured by three independent magic locks, emerging into a small, well-lit library room adjacent to the main vault.
The tablet sat on a reinforced wooden pedestal in the center of the room. It wasn't a scroll or a page; it was a rough-hewn slab of dark gray stone, perhaps three feet tall and two feet wide, covered in dense, interlocking runes that glowed with a faint, internal blue light. The air around it felt thick and heavy.
Mark approached the tablet, his mind immediately overwhelmed by the complexity of the script. It wasn't just Dwarven; it was an archaic dialect twisted by magical distortion.
"Host, the Runic script is 4,000-year-old Deep Tongue—a dialect that predates modern Linguistics. Assessment: The problem is not one of translation, but of decryption based on contextual inference. The Level 18 requirement is accurate," Jarvis reported grimly.
"My Intelligence is 18 now, Jarvis. Why is our success rate still low?"
"Your base Intelligence is 18. However, the required knowledge (Runic and Historical Context) is zero. You are attempting to run a Level 18 program on a pristine Level 1 hard drive. The processing speed is high, but the database is empty. We must populate the database."
"So, we need a library."
"Affirmative. But first, input the raw data."
Mark pulled out a fresh, unmarked scroll and a piece of charcoal. For the next hour, he meticulously copied every visible rune, his enhanced focus allowing him to render them with impossible precision.
It was during this tedious process that the vault door opened again.
A tall, impeccably dressed man stepped into the room. He wore robes of rich blue velvet trimmed with gold braid, signifying his status as a high-level academic or mage. He carried a heavy satchel and an air of intellectual superiority that managed to make the entire room seem less important.
This was Alistair Veridian, a well-known linguistic scholar from the Royal Academy.
Alistair looked from the Stone Tablet to Mark—the young man in a simple green tunic, sweating over a charcoal rubbing—and his lip curled into a sneer.
"A courier is taking a Gold Contract now? The Guild truly is desperate," Alistair scoffed, walking past Mark as if he were furniture.
Mark didn't stop tracing the runes, but Jarvis instantly provided Alistair's profile:
Rival Analyst. Charisma 16. Intelligence 17. Specialization: Ancient Languages. Motivation: Academic Prestige and the 150 SS fee. Status: Direct Threat to Contract Completion.
"Master Alistair Veridian," Mark said, without looking up. "You must be here for the same folly. You believe your Level 17 Intelligence is high enough to bypass the need for actual, specialized knowledge."
Alistair froze, startled by the precise use of his metrics and the direct hit to his ego. He turned around slowly.
"How do you know my level, peasant? And how dare you assume my methods?"
Mark finally looked up, meeting Alistair's gaze with his own cold, analytical focus.
"Because if you had the required Runic Linguistics skill, this tablet would have been translated six months ago. You are trying to brute-force a solution using arrogance, which is exactly why the Guild still pays an adventurer to solve the problem, rather than relying on the Academy's pride."
Mark stood up, letting his new Master Broker presence—calm, intelligent, and unyielding—fill the space.
Alistair's face flushed with anger. "You have no right! I am the preeminent expert on Dwarven scripts in the capital. You, a glorified messenger, stand no chance."
"Perhaps," Mark conceded, giving a neutral, professional nod. "But I have the contract, and you do not. I suggest you move on to a Bronze Contract, or perhaps wait outside the library until I am finished. I don't appreciate the distraction."
Alistair seethed, but Mark's confident possession of the contract was the unassailable truth. With a frustrated huff, he turned and stormed out of the vault library.
Mark picked up his scroll of rubbings.
"Jarvis. Phase One Complete: Raw Data Input. Phase Two: The Library. We need historical context, and we need it fast. Alistair will try to intercept us at the Central Library."
"Affirmative. However, a frontal assault on the Royal Academy Library will fail. Strategy: We will utilize a low-priority resource: the Black Market Scroll Traders in the Shady Quarter. They possess highly specific, often illicit, historical documentation, frequently overlooked by the Academy due to moral and legal objections."
Mark smiled, tucking the scroll securely into his cloak. He was a Master Broker now. He didn't fight fair; he fought smart. He was going to use his 110 Silver Shillings to buy the historical knowledge Alistair had spent a lifetime studying.
"The Shady Quarter it is, Jarvis. Let's go buy an education."
AUTHOR NOTE :
[I'm Authors kun, I'm sorry for not updating on time everyday, I was Hospitalised, sorry everyone. I'll upload everyday from now on,
And I'll cover all the chapter I missed till date,
From Chapter 9 - Chapter 13
I'll update today
And from Chapter 13 - Chapter 18 Tomorrow, I'm pinky promise you
SAME RULE, 5 POWER STONE = 3 NEW CHAPTER
AND
5 HONEST REVIEW = 3 NEW CHAPTER
**** everyday 8:30 pm 'evening' new chapter ****]