Chapter 90: Fourth Step to Riches
We went to the shrine again the next day. Owen said he was going to take a little break, so we rode in the carriage alone.
I took a look at the yam mission once we got there. It was not on the C+ board anymore. It skipped across B and landed right in the middle of the A board. Its reward was 35 gold coins, which I gathered is a stupid amount of money. The average reward of the other missions on that board was around a couple of gold coins, and this one merely asking for a few pounds of yams exceeds those by multiple times.
This mission was all the people were talking about at the shrine. They called it the "Impossible Yams Mission". Clearly, many people have tried it but failed, which was probably what drove the reward to such a high level.
Apparently, the rank A crusaders didn't really bother with this prank-like mission, which was why its placement on the boards has stagnated a little. Even though, that didn't stop people from A- to take a stab at it, since a crusader can take missions up to one difficulty rank above theirs. It wouldn't drive the mission rank up if they fail, but the reward would still keep increasing.
As I thought, there would be no way for me to turn in this mission without raising any suspicion, but I don't really care. No one is going to believe that I plucked every single yam in the surrounding miles just to host a game of lottery.
Right now, Astra and I split up from Faye and Lohikaarmi outside of the city walls to search for yams again.
Faye was a little skeptical since not even rank A- crusaders can accomplish this, but I told her I have special gadgets back from Earth that can help me look, which wasn't entirely a lie.
"So what?" Astra asks as we walk through the open plains, "you are going to lead us to your hidden stash now?"
I still can't believe this girl saw through everything.
"I could be," I say.
"How did you even manage to get to every yam? There must be hundreds."
"Six hundred and eighty-three, to be exact."
Astra sighs. "When did you accomplish this incredible feat?"
"Two nights ago." As I say that, we reach the hill I buried the yams under. "And it looks like we are here."
"Right here?"
"Yeah."
I raise my hand.
O, sweet Goddess, grant me the power to split this earth.
The light of prayer illuminates as a rumble births from the ground beneath. The small protrusion of soil in front of us begins to deform, and dirt falls through a crack that's increasing in size.
Once the ground has stopped moving and a hole opens up, Astra peeks over the edge to get a look down the pit.
"My Holiness that's a lot of yams," she says.
"Yep."
I pray again to bring a few pounds of them up to the surface.
"You know that you won't be able to do this for much longer, right? The crusaders will figure out that something is up with these missions, and eventually, no one will waste their money and time on them anymore," Astra says.
"Yeah, I know." I grab the yams from the air. "I am only doing this to rank up. Once I reach a point where I can do missions from deep in the Pitted Woods, I will just ask Lohikaarmi to order her dragons to do the missions for me."
"You just won't do anything yourself, huh?"
"Why would I when I can make others do it for me?" I say as close the pit back up.
"What a virtuous apostle you are."
"Money is a virtue too, my sweet Goddess."
"Deciding what's a virtue is literally a part of my job."
"Then it's a mishap on your part for not making money one of them."
"You should marry that Pecunia girl already."
On our way back toward the city walls, I see two familiar figures walking along the horizon in the distance.
Faye is going to be so thrilled when I show the yams to her.
It's not like I care. I don't know why I thought that.
"Hey! Over here!" I call out, waving my arm over my head.
Faye waves her hand back at me and starts jogging our way.
"What are you going to tell Faye?" Astra asks.
"Tell her what?"
"Where you found those yams."
"The truth."
"Sure you are."
When she gets close enough, Faye sees the yams in my hands.
"A-Are those…" Faye stops dead in her tracks and points at me with a wide-opened mouth.
"Yep. I found them," I say.
"No way! Where?"
"Somewhere… deep? It turns out all we had to do was to dig a little further."
"But don't they have leaves above ground?" Faye asks.
"I guess the shallow ones already got picked."
"Huh. Well, it doesn't matter, Kris, you are amazing! Not even the A- crusaders could find them."
"Of course. Those guys can't compare to me."
"You are really something." I hear Astra's voice speak in my head, and she doesn't have the congratulatory enthusiasm that Faye has.
Faye walks up to me and takes a yam off of my hands. She holds it close to her face.
"So this is what everyone has been looking for," she says.
"Yep."
"How much was the reward again?"
"Last time I checked, thirty-five gold coins."
"Sweet Goddess. Just two days ago we were making a few coppers. How much is a house in the Holy Capital?"
That's a good question, one that I should have probably looked into before I started my way to wealth.
"Astra, do you know?" I ask.
"Well, it obviously depends on where in the city you want to buy a property," she says, sounding like a real ten-year-old.
"What about around where the convent is?" Faye asks.
"A couple of gold coins, maybe."
"So we can already afford a house?"
Faye puts down the yam and looks at us with a bright smile.
"Seems like it," Astra says.
"But we can do much better than that," I say, "How much is a house in the next ring?"
"The fourth ring, huh?" Astra rests her chin on her fist. "Around a few gold slabs to a bit over a platinum coin."
Oh wow, I knew that the platinum slab that the financier was keeping was valuable, but I didn't know it was that valuable, enough to purchase multiple houses with it alone.
"What about the third ring?" I ask again.
"The third ring and beyond is pretty exclusive. There are essentially only manors there. You are looking at a couple of platinum coins, at least. A good one might cost you a few slabs"
"And the second?"
"You can't buy a property in the second ring. They are awarded with positions or achievements. The people who live there are saints, trusted workers of the cardinals like the financier we met back in Cimavetta, some archbishops of the Cathedral, and a few members of the high court."
"I see."
"So what's our plan?" Faye asks.
"Let's stay in the convent for now," I say, "Gaining a high status in the Holy Capital is pretty important, and I think it will be much easier if we live within the high circles."
"Okay," Faye says.
"Shall we head back? We have a few dozen gold coins waiting for us."
"Sure."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone