Aug wiped the sweat from his brow. He had now used his one and only trump card, the flare gun. Unfortunately, he now had nothing to save him in a pinch, and one kill was better than being dead or injured; maybe he should go back.
He took the few steel coins from the loot box at the spider's feet. Finally, he scanned the dead spider and got the report.
[Corpse scan complete]
[Giant forest spider - N5F]
[4 normal items, and 1 uncommon item obtainable from processing. Would you like to proceed?]
Aug accepted, and five items appeared before him. Since the normal items were two mana, the uncommon items must be four, as he had only three mana left. The combined killing and processing of the corpse gained him thirty percent experience. He was now three-quarters of the way to levelling up.
He looked at the items; the normal items were:
[Giant forest spider eyes - Consumable (+1 PER | 5 mins) - like caviar but with 100% more eyes.]
[Giant forest spider leg bunch - Weapon - an uncontrollable, unpredictable bunch of pointy sticks.]
[Giant forest spider silk (Tier 1) - Reagent - Sticky, but not in a good way.]
[Giant forest spider fangs (Tier 1) - Reagent - Hairy and scary]
Aug then smiled at the uncommon item. It was of U5F quality. The uncommon item tag showed its superior quality through a noticeable improvement in the item's versatility and strength.
[Vial of giant forest spider venom (Tier 1) - Reagent / Projectile - Necrotic, but nothing to do with necromancy.]
"How did you do that?" asked a female voice from behind him.
Aug panicked and turned around. It was the woman from before; she had seen him use [Corpse Processing].
"Uh, it's my class. I can turn corpses into items," he admitted, trying to make it sound as normal as possible. There was no point in lying when she had directly seen it in action.
"Amazing!" said the woman with immense enthusiasm in her voice. Her excitement and positivity shocked Aug, and he didn't know what to say.
"Sorry. Let me introduce myself. My name is Vera Summer."
"Augustus," he replied, omitting his surname, uncertain if her interest was sincere or if she was mocking him.
"Augustus, do you have a dungeon group?" asked Vera.
"Not currently. Why?"
"Well, my family is forcing me to become an adventurer, and have put together a party. The problem is that we don't have a support class. Would you like to join?"
Aug had heard of the Summer family. They were quite influential around these parts in almost any industry you could think of. But he wasn't aware that they had a daughter this young.
"A support should be easy to find. So, why me?" asked Aug, genuinely concerned she was pulling a long con.
"Because your ability is an amazing money-maker," she replied enthusiastically, her face lighting up.
"No. Sorry, I'm not interested," replied Aug, who didn't aspire to be exploited.
"Oh," she replied, unsure what to say. It was obvious she had not accounted for the fact that he might say no.
"Have a nice day," said Aug, before picking up his items and turning back towards his car. He didn't want to take any risks by fighting anymore monsters without his trump card.
The woman just stood still, frozen in place from shock. Had she never been told no before?
He kept walking, glancing back now and then, but the woman remained in the same spot. As he got further away, the forest eventually obstructed his sightline, leading Aug to shrug.
Aug headed straight for his car, which took him significant time to reach, and just as he was getting in, Vera caught up. Her clothes were ripped, and she was gasping for air, as if she had been running. Aug assumed she had been running from a monster, but when she called his name, he realised she had been trying to catch him.
"Augustus," she puffed, holding up her hand as if to say, wait.
Aug thought about ignoring her, but decided he had no reason to be rude.
So, he waited patiently for her to catch her breath. Realistically, he had nothing else to do that day. Taking some time for her to either dig the hole deeper or redeem herself was worth maybe getting a job.
"Augustus, I would like to apologise. I'm sorry for seeing you as a money-making opportunity. My family has very strict guidelines for its members. If you're not making money, you're useless to them, and eventually, they will ostracise you. This is my last chance, and if I don't turn a profit, I'll be disowned," said Vera, a plea from her heart.
"How old are you, Vera?" asked Aug.
Vera's face changed to a look of confusion before she replied. "Nineteen. Why?"
"Do you like how your family treats you? Like you are only there to make them money?"
"Uh." She thought for a moment. "No, I guess not."
"Then don't worry about them and do your own thing. If they ostracise you, then so be it. Sounds like you'll be happier without them. Good luck."
Vera stood there, frozen in thought once more. Augustus shrugged and got into his car. After he had turned it on, as he was about to leave, Vera jumped into the passenger seat.
"What are you doing?" asked Aug, confused by her actions.
"I don't know, but if I do follow your advice, I have nowhere to go and no one to go to," said Vera, a sad look on her face.
Aug sighed loudly and looked at her for a moment with a pained face.
"Also, I need a lift back to town. I can't go back and fight in torn clothing," she said, smiling at him. "Please?"
He didn't feel like arguing, so Aug agreed to drop her off in town, but was hesitant to offer her any more help than that.
Their ride back was not as quiet as Aug had hoped. Vera was a serial talker, and did not enjoy the same silence Aug did.
She kept asking him probing questions about his class, to which Aug mostly ignored. When he wouldn't discuss himself, she spoke about her own abilities. She possessed a magic class, [Explosive Touch], granting her explosive magic upon touch and immunity to her own spells. She was only level eight, which was much lower than Aug had expected for someone who had awakened over a year ago.
But as she kept talking, she answered all the questions he had without him asking. Apparently, she had been trying traditional methods of making money until now and didn't have time for levelling up. But since she was not good at, in her words, business stuff, her family forced her into adventuring.
As Aug got home, he parked out the front of his apartment and got out. He felt exhausted from the drive.
"Where are we?" asked Vera, looking around confused.
"My apartment," replied Aug, getting out his keys, ready to open the door.
There was at least another twenty minutes of driving before you got to the centre of town and where all the rich mansions were.
"Oh," she said, probably figuring he would drop her home.