How to use a Bag of Coins

…

Processing combat information.

…

Analyzing

…

Results:

Strength: Lacking

Endurance: Lacking

Speed: Enhanced

Intelligence: Adequate

Magic Power: Lacking

Physical Power: Lacking

Faction Power: Maximized

…

Checking Changes

…

Requirements achieved.

Initializing changes to: 

Magical Power

Endurance

Speed

…

Changes complete.

Physical Power upgraded from F1 to F2

Magic Power upgraded from F0 to F1

Speed upgraded from F3 to F4

Alex contemplated the improvements while they left the dungeon. He said his name in a lower tone to see the new status:

Hostname: Alex Smith

Divine Endowment: The Devil's Hand.

Class: Absorber, Melee.

Faction: Elazael's Army.

Rank: F3

…

Host attributes:

-Strength: F1

-Endurance: F2

-Speed: F4

-Intelligence: F3

…

Endowment Attributes:

-Physical Power: F2

-Magical Power: F1

-Faction Power: SSS

He had no idea if his improvement had been good for two hours in the new world, but he suspected it was good enough. They started trailing their way, Tina in the front.

Alex didn't think the streets could have less movement than before, but now it had. No lights, no people walking, nothing. Just him and Tina trailing the strange streets between the huge apartment blocks.

"That was amazing," she said, full of awe in her voice. "oh, Valther! I never thought I could fight monsters… I was so afraid, but now I can see it's somewhat… possible." she said and stopped, "At least when I'm fighting alongside you, I guess. Who would say? Valther Trollhead, the lazy one, the coward…"

"Hey, hey!" Alex intervened, smiling. It looked like the previous owner of his body wasn't a real fighter, but he seemed to be a somewhat decent guy since two out of three people he knew so far liked him. The third tried to kill him, yes… but still, two out of three was good.

"I'm just joking, Trollhead! I always knew you were secretly brave. You just needed the right opportunity to show it. And you showed." She turned her back and faked a movement as if she was holding an invisible bat. "Bang! The hobgoblin gets hit on the ribs. Bang! A punch to the face? Wow!" She laughed out loud while turning to walk normally once again.

Alex felt good seeing her happy and alive. He suspected that even though he did not have the memories of Valther, some parts of him remained with Alex, and he could feel the dead man had strong feelings towards Tina. 

"And we have the coin now," Alex said, moving the bag up and down on his hand. It was heavy and clanging, even without shaking the purse, Alex could hear them touching one another inside the leather bag. "Three hundred coins, I think we'll be able to buy a lot of food. I'm starving."

"Me too," she said with happiness in her tone, "but probably only tomorrow… there's nothing open now, and it's better if we don't show our money around at this time of the day or any time of the day in the capital if you know what I mean. Like in the other day…"

"Yeah," he replied, but could only assume. If people killed others in alleys at the side of homes and stores, what else would they do? Alex kept walking, one step behind Tina. Her joy impeded her to notice that he wanted her to lead the way.

They kept walking for about ten minutes, passing by several apartment blocks, until Tina halted, unlocked one wooden door and went through it. Alex looked up and searched for anything that differentiated this building from the other ones, but nothing caught his eye.

He entered the building and was faced by a corridor that extended to his front and the sides. The place had candles on the cobble walls, and that was basically all. No furniture, no paintings. It was a functional building and nothing else. In a corner, a big stair extended itself to higher floors. The apartments had wooden doors with locks, some with padlocks on the outside, signalling that people were working outside and scared of someone stealing their belongings.

That gave a good insight to Alex of what to expect when he entered his own apartment. He followed Tina up the stairs and started thinking about what he would do if she lived in a different place from him. How would he discover which one of the rooms was his? He caught no sight of administration staff in the initial pavement. Deciding to deal with the problem after being sure that this would actually be one, he followed Tina upstairs.

They climbed three floors before Tina turned to the side corridor. She gave only two steps and got back, putting her back to the wall as if she had just seen Death itself. Her face became even more pale.

"Shit…" She hissed.

"What?" Alex asked, and she lowered both hands repeatedly in the air, pointing to the ground. Asking him to make silence. "What?" he pressed, now in a hushed tone.

"They are here…" she said, and Alex peeked around the corner, not wanting to admit he had no idea what she was talking about. In front of one of the apartments, he spotted two white elves. They were knocking on one of the doors, not just knocking… slamming it with the palm of their hands.

One of them was slim and thin, and the other bigger and bulkier. Both used black pants, beautiful shiny black shoes and white shirts with sleeves to the elbow. Alex observed their clothes and then looked at his tattered pants, battered sandals and shirt with just one sleeve and sighed. 'Tomorrow I'll buy a good outfit'.

Annoyance wasn't enough to describe the expression of the two men. It was obvious to Alex that this was either Tina's apartment or his. He got back to the girl. Her anxiety had just increased.

"What's the plan?" He asked her, and she took a deep breath, calming her nerves.

"We can just leave and wait until they get out. Or we can pay them. We have the coin now."

'Okay, it's a debt. Easier to resolve.' He thought, looking to Tina, who slowly calmed herself. She peeked over the corner once again and got back fast. "Shit… Shit… Shit! They spotted me," She hissed, banging her leg against the floor.

"Okay, I'll handle this," Alex said, gently shoving her to the side and moving towards the thugs.

As soon as he spotted Alex, the slim one removed a beautiful dark dagger from his belt, and started to walk swiftly towards the pair.

"You two motherless bastards," Alex thought that the statement made zero sense, but the elf continued, "I've been here for one hour slamming your damn door," he said, patting a watch on his right arm with the point of the dagger while still walking. The watch was completely black with golden details. It was beautiful.

"And?" Alex asked. For the briefest second, the elf approaching him halted as if shocked by a response coming from Alex's mouth.

"And I'm here to say that the boss won't wait for the payment. We've come to collect the blood price," the elf said with a smirk. As soon as the words left his mouth, a blue screen appeared in front of Alex.

Quest: [Fight and draw blood!]

Reward: ???

Punishment if not concluded: Extreme Exhaustion.

"Not that I needed the incentive," he muttered out loud, and the elf in front of him lifted his brows and asked,

"What?" In a surprised tone, the one people show when someone says something surprisingly stupid.

Alex didn't wait for the lean elf to strike him, he lifted his sack full of coins and smashed it against the elf's head. The thug wasn't expecting the movement. Everyone seemed to look down at Valther, and Alex would take advantage of it every time.

The elf collided with a side wall, trying to balance himself, but the hit had been too strong and unexpected. His hands faltered in the place as he tried to hit Alex, but the young man struck again. The bag of coins connected with the elf's brows, leaving a deep cut. The elf attempted to keep up but slowly fell to the ground.

The bigger elf was already running towards Alex with fury in his eyes. He had no weapons in hand, but his fists could very well be considered guns back on Earth. The elf was huge, as big as the hobgoblin Alex had fought before.

The young man snatched the dagger from the elf, moaning in pain on the ground. As soon as he picked up the knife, the other elf struck him. Alex flew, and as he looked over his hand, he saw the bag of coins had been snatched by the wounded elf. 

Alex crashed against Tina at the end of the corridor. the girl fell to the ground with a thump, cushioning Alex's fall.

"Are you okay?" he asked, getting up and helping her.

"You can say so," she replied but changed her expression to fear, glancing at the other end of the corridor.

There was the larger elf holding the bag in his hand and smirking.

"Look at this. Now we have two reasons to collect the blood price. If we kill both of them, the boss will never know these two pieces of troll crap had enough coin to pay the monthly bill," he said, helping the lean one to get up, smiling. "You'll be able to visit your ugly sister in the country."

"Don't talk shit about my sister, you idiot." The lean elf said, cleaning the blood from his eyebrow. Alex could see the terror in Tina's eyes, but if anything, Alex was more excited now.