35 You need Gold

Hades opened his eyes the next morning, the moment his breath hastened he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He sat up coughing, and with each one he felt as if getting stabbed again and again. "Here, try to not caught, hold it in just for a bit." Gabriella handed him a goblet of water.

Hades stared at the clay goblet, the water in it glittered under the faint threads of light passing into the tent.

It wasn't that hard for him to hold the cough, he down the cub in one go. "Now breathe slowly from your stomach." For a moment it was clear to him what she mean, but seeing her tab on his stomach he understood what she meant. He needs to extend his stomach instead of his chest.

He starts slowly breathing, and the pain slowly reduced. "You got stabbed in the chest but I healed the wound. Magical healing isn't natural, so after the procedure, some patients say the pain didn't stop." Gabriella explained.

"Doesn't that mean you didn't do it hard enough?" Hades growled clenching his shoulder and feeling the pain in his back.

"Your mind still hasn't come to realize that the wound is gone, you need to take it slowly for a few minutes so your mind can adjust," Gabriella explained as she handed Hades a towel and some water to wash his face.

Hades looked down, those aren't the clothes he was wearing before…

"I changed your clothes, they were soaked with dirt and blood." She sighed pointing at the pile of blood-soaked rages, "I don't know what to say." She puffed her cheeks, "You will be a hassle to care for."

"I got stronger and became a step further into retrieving my cat. As long as I keep getting favor it's all worth it." Hades said looking at the tent wall.

Gabriella took a moment to think about what he said. She closed her eyes, "What a grand goal, but you need to make sure to reach it." She didn't understand what he meant but it was mostly symbolism. To her, that was all she needed to hear.

She smiled, 'A cat…what could that mean…catholic act thesis? Something else…whatever he was protecting it isn't something simple, and he now need to heal and regain his power, slowly but surely rise back up.'

She opened a bag and handed him a slice of bread and some dried meat. "Eat, will head back after you're done."

"No, we stay to hunt more," Hades argued.

Gabriella smiled, opening her bag and taking out a gold coin, a silver coin, and a copper coin. Valkyries are warriors whose only concern is to achieve their goals, they rarely worried about costs or requirements as the church should fund them. But now that he was alone, he need to start learning how to fund himself.

'I could ask the church to fund him again…but he didn't seem to display intention of returning yet…and who am I to miss the chance of serving under a Valkyrie?' She smiled, 'I will make him the first self-sufficient Valkyrie, with my help of course.' She thought.

"To heal your wounds, you need a lot of those." She showed him the gold coin. "A hundred of those equal one of this." She showed him a silver coin. "And the same for those." And they slowed him a copper coin.

100 silver= 1 gold

100 copper= 1 silver

"So If I gathered those…I can get those to heal?" Hades pointed at the silver and copper coins and then at the gold ones.

"Exactly, bring me those, and I can heal you." She made sure he got a good look at the gold coin.

"How do I get them then? You healed me so you have them, right?" Hades stared at her.

She sighed, 'Yes I'm rich but I don't have a bottomless pocket.' She thought.

"When you kill monsters, you can take the bodies back to the city, or even just small parts, and exchange them for those." She pointed at the coins.

"It's perfect then, I kill monsters and heal with what I got." Hades smiled.

"It isn't that simple, you need to make sure the monsters you kill are worth more coins than what is needed to heal you, or at least equal." She smiled staring into Hades's eyes, "Last night with the dryad most likely won't give enough coins to heal the wounds you sustained in that battle."

Hades stopped to think about it, he can't only worry about Favor, he now needs to worry about how many coins the monsters give.

"How should I know how many coins a monster will give? How do I know how much I need to heal when I haven't been wounded yet?" Hades asked.

"Simple, don't get injured, dodge any attack you can dodge. Fight smart as you're lacking your previous durability and brute force." She said with a smile. Hades didn't understand what she meant by previous but she is smart, she is the only one who needs to understand.

"So I need to kill monsters without getting injured much, this will allow me to fight over and over?" He asked.

"Yes, as long as you gain more gold than what is needed to heal you, fighting over and over is possible." She smiled, discounting the financial need for food and mental exhaustion. Hades clearly felt pain, but he didn't react to it as most people did. Instead of curling back and crying, he screamed charging forward like a monster.

'The more he got hurt, the angrier he got. If he fought a strong monster, they would be the ones getting afraid of him.' She smiled, 'Those are Valkyries. You can't fight the unholy monster with nice words and sermons, you fight them with blood and steel.'

"Let's gather our things and head back, we need to get the coins as we need them to heal you." Gabriella stood with a smile, Hades followed her as they worked.

…

Back at the mansion, Eva stood beside Cael and her father as they watched the envoy leave with a sore face. "Do you think he will return?" She asked looking at her father.

"No, the church wants to reduce the number of refugees by giving them a job in the clergy. Hades already got a job as the high priest Gabriella's personal guard so they can't call him in." William said standing tall as she glared at the envoy group leave.

"You were working him as a gate guard for two weeks…" Cael said while glaring at William with a disappointed face.

"I don't know what Gabriella is seeing in him, but to me, he seemed more of a feral monster than a human. No sane person will glare at the maids as if they were a danger, he was always alert." William explained scratching his chin.

"He needed to learn restraint, to at least stop and listen to people." Alen walked from behind and put his helmet on, "I will be in the west encampments, send me a letter if anything happened."

"You're going this soon?" Eva stared at him with a sad face, he never stayed home for long.

Alen laughed, "You have Cael…don't worry about me… Ouch!" she started throwing stones at him with an angry face.

Cael caught her hand and looked at Alen, "Can you stop teasing her like this?"

Alen took his helmet off and smiled, "Aren't you the one who called me here to give advice about…" Before he could finish, Cael pulled his sword and rushed at him.

"You served your purpose, die!"