SMASH or PASS

I’ve returned to Brannock.

First, there’s one thing to do.

Check the numbers.

Current fund: 3.58 gold (8 silver plus 1.5 gold from the catkin contract plus 2 gold from the farm).

Required amount: 23 gold coins (15 for the academy entrance fee, 8 for equipment, assuming I’ll compromise with used textbooks).

Shortfall: 19.42 gold coins.

Deadline: next week.

"..."

It’s impossible.

Even if I complete all the guild’s bronze-rank quests this week, I’ll only earn a few dozen silver coins. Not even enough for one gold coin. Even with one more breeding contract, I’ll only get about 2 gold coins at most.

That’s a total of 5.58 coins. 18 coins short of 23.

Quest income won’t be enough, even if I fucked every beastkin.

Next. SP.

[Current SP: 138]

Three days of farm grinding, stacked up. I haven’t used it. Rose is the only one in my inventory; I passed on everything else.

138 SP, enough to buy over ten Commons or four or five Uncommons.

I might be broke as shit. But I have plenty of points.

I got around 78 SP from the farm alone after all. No wonder it was so high.

Only if gold was closer to that...

The balance between these two currencies is off.

◇◇◇

I went to check the guild’s quest board again.

Combat, escort, delivery, breeding.

For all of them, the rewards for bronze tier quests paid pennies. There’s no way to earn 19 gold coins by the academy’s deadline anywhere on this quest board—

...No. Wait.

There was.

At the edge of the quest board, below the hunting quests, there was a permanent quest. The corners were yellowed. It looked like it had been posted for a long time.

[Standing Commission: Exposure of the Soot Claw Gang]

[Disrupt the activities of a catkin criminal organization operating in the Patchwork District]

[Reward: 5 silver coins per confirmed arrest]

[Bonus for capturing high-ranking members]

[Danger Level: Medium (Multiple people recommended)]

5 silver coins!? Per head!?

Patchwork District, catkin, criminal organization.

Meaning every single member is female.

Three numbers rang inside my skull at the same time.

One. The guild’s bounty. 5 silver coins per captured person. A bonus for executives. That’s the money.

Two: combat SP. Fighting catkin criminals generates SP per individual engagement. That’s points.

Three: SMASH targets. All female. Acquire in the chaos, and inventory grows. That’s stats.

Gold and SP and inventory, all from one job.

Triple income.

...Yeah. This is the one.

◇◇◇

I got home and ate first. I gave Fenra two loaves of bread (interest for my absence during the trip).

Then I asked Pixia.

"Hey, Pixia. Can you do reconnaissance?"

"Reconnaissance?"

She turned towards me from the window. She’d been a little down since the farm, but the word "reconnaissance" made her ears twitch.

"I’m a fairy. I’m small, I glow, and nobody takes fairies seriously. I could land on someone’s head and they’d assume I was a firefly."

She smiled. "Also, if I wanted to I could go invisible."

"You can turn invisible?"

"For about thirty minutes."

That’s news to me.

"Why didn’t you mention that before?"

"You didn’t ask."

...Isn’t this fairy being a little too stingy with information?

She stretched her wings. "Where am I going?"

"There’s a Catkin gang called the Soot Claw Gang in the Patchwork District. I need you to find their hideout."

"Gang busting?" Pixia’s light finally started returning to its usual brightness. "Sounds fun. I’m in."

"Don’t take on a job just because it’s interesting."

"It’s better than being bored. The farm was dark."

She said that and flew out the window.

Particles of light vanish into the twilight sky.

So fast.

◇◇◇

Two hours later.

Pixia came back with her light at full power and her eyes sparkling. She’d clearly had a good time.

"I found it! It’s in the basement of a pawn shop."

"Details."

"It’s in the southern part of the Patchwork district. It’s a pawn shop with a sign that says ’The Golden Whisker.’ The front is open for business, but there’s a large room in the basement. There are two entrances: the front door of the pawn shop and a lattice gate in the back alley."

"How many people are there?"

"Fifteen to twenty. All catkin, all women. They deal in stolen goods, collect protection money, and running an unlicensed breeding service on the side."

Unlicensed breeding services. A black market operation without going through the guild, huh? I figured there must be some insane demand, considering the three-month waiting Luna and the Patchwork apartment complex had to go through.

"Anything else you noticed?"

"Yeah. In the back, there were two who looked like twins."

"Twins?"

"Identical-face catkin. They were sitting on top of a pile of stolen goods, and one of them kept smacking the other’s butt for no reason."

...Twin Catkins huh?

They can’t be— I mean it wasn’t impossible but still—

I guess I won’t be able to tell until I meet them. If it was really them it would be... an awkward reunion.

Pixia kicked her legs. "Also, the gang’s leader is a woman named Scratch. Orange ears, missing half her left ear. She sits in a chair near the entrance and everyone brings her money. She counts it very slowly."

"What about the protection racket? How does it work?"

"Standard shakedown. Scratch sends two girls to each business every Monday. They collect 5 silver per business. Eight businesses means 40 silver a week for the gang. Any business that doesn’t pay gets a window broken. Any business that still doesn’t pay gets something worse." She paused. "The Patchwork residents hate them but nobody files a guild report because the Soot Claws know where everyone lives. The Patchwork is small. You can’t hide in a neighborhood where everyone has cat ears and can track you by smell."

"And the guild hasn’t done anything?"

"The guild posted the bounty. Nobody’s taken it. Copper-rank adventurers don’t want to fight catkin in their own territory at night, and Silver-rank adventurers don’t care about a 5-silver-per-head bounty when they can make more money killing monsters." She shrugged, which was a very small motion on a very small fairy. "The Patchwork is a low-priority district for the City Council. Monster girl neighborhoods policing themselves is considered a feature, not a bug."

"Until someone actually takes the bounty."

"Until someone with a Second Rank wolfkin and a magical collection system decides the economics work in his favor." She grinned. "Which is where we are."

I couldn’t help but to slightly grin too. "...Is that all?" I asked.

"That’s it. Oh, also the pawn shop owner isn’t involved. They just use the basement after closing. The old woman knows but looks the other way."

"Good. Thank you."

"You’re welcome. This is fun. Much better than watching Thornguard patrols from a tree." She settled on the windowsill. "What’s the plan?"

Plenty to work with.

Let’s organize the informations.

Underground hideout, two entry points, fifteen to twenty members, all catkin.

The guild’s bounty is 5 silver coins per person. If we can capture all twenty, that’s 100 silver coins, or 1 gold coin. Including the leadership bonus, it’ll be a bit more.

It’s a drop in the ocean for the academy’s funds, but considering SP and inventory, that changes things.

Combat SP at one to two per opponent. Twenty targets means 20 to 40.

And Common-tier catkin run 5 to 10 SP for acquisition. SMASH a few in the chaos and inventory jumps in one night.

Gold and SP and inventory, all at once.

The problem is my fighting power.

Me against twenty catkin alone is suicide. With a club and my lowest level of magic, three is my limit.

But.

I have a wolfkin who can slice down twenty Catkin with ease.

◇◇◇

I explained the plan to Fenra.

"There’s a gang of cat beastmen in Patchwork. Fifteen to twenty of them in their underground hideout. We’ll take them out."

Fenra looked at me. "...How will that exactly work?"

"Woah! that Wolfkin actully had a tongue!?" Pixia said in shock.

"Hush. Stupid bug." Fenra gave Pixia a cold look.

"I’m not a bug!"

Fenra never spoke in the presence of other people, the fact that she spoke here despite Pixia being in the room might mean she was slowly getting used to her.

"We’ll enter through the underground grate. You go down first and stand there, like with the rats. You slice them, and I’ll take care of the rest."

Her ears slowly turned forward.

Her tail stopped.

This wasn’t the same Fenra at home. Not the spoiled wolfgirl from the morning.

This was an apex predator that smelled possible prey.

Her claws extended one centimeter.

Then they retracted.

She nodded once.

"Thanks."

Pixia raised her hand from the window.

"This is absolutely going to be fun. Can I watch?"

"If you don’t get in the way."

"I won’t. Probably."

The "probably" is unsettling, but oh well.

"I’ll bring snacks." She dimmed her glow. "When are we moving?"

"Tonight."

◇◇◇

Night.

Fenra and I were standing in a back alley of the Patchwork District.

The sky was dark. Only one streetlamp lit up the entrance to the alley. The depths were shrouded in darkness.

The underground grate was at the end of the alley, just as Pixia had reported. An iron grate cover. It was rusty, and it looked like it would creak if you lifted it.

Voices were leaking from below. Laughter, shouting, the sound of metal scraping. They’re open for business.

I gripped my club tighter. An item used for killing rats.

Those Catkins will see the true horror of Fenra... and me.

Well, I was doubtful about the past one but anyways—

I looked at Fenra.

She was looking down at the bars. Her fur was slightly puffed up. Her eyes were a golden amber, faintly glowing in the darkness.

She’s in work mode.

"Let’s go."

I lifted the grate.

As expected, it creaked.

Fenra got down first.

Without a sound.