My Specialty Is—Spending Money

Hades smacked his lips; the salty taste left his throat parched. The four Hanzo he had sent to scout the village had all returned, lurking within his shadow.

According to the Hanzo's reports, there had been nothing suspicious until daybreak. This reinforced Hades's suspicion that Momonga was the only member of Ainz Ooal Gown to have arrived.

But a guess remained just a guess. For now, he could not gather any further intelligence. Fortunately, he knew the location of Nazarick, and once he was fully prepared, he decided he would go to probe them again.

As for preparation, that naturally meant exploring this world. Judging by the Slane Theocracy soldiers from yesterday, this world possessed Tier Magic just like YGGDRASIL—it was practically identical.

Though he did not know why such a coincidence existed, dwelling on it served no purpose for now. In YGGDRASIL, even if a guild was conquered, the ownership of the items within did not change; guild-shared supplies in the warehouse would have a portion of items drop randomly, while the rest were held in custody by the system.

Before a guild war began, the shared guild warehouse would be locked and inaccessible until the war ended. Many inactive guilds were caught off guard by this mechanic and suffered heavy losses.

Afterward, one could rebuild the guild to retrieve the items held by the system. Ainz Ooal Gown had once exploited this feature, attacking inactive guilds that lacked the time to relocate their supplies to acquire immense wealth.

Hades thought of the three NPCs from Ainz Ooal Gown he had seen yesterday. He guessed that after arriving in reality, the guild likely no longer had any restrictions. If he could take down Ainz Ooal Gown, it would mean unimaginable wealth.

Therefore, he could use these riches as bait to recruit manpower to conquer Nazarick. Of course, the members of Nazarick would likely realize this as well, so to ensure they did not relocate their supplies in advance, it was best to act discreetly.

On the other hand, to ensure he would not be backstabbed by those who gained Nazarick's wealth after he conquered it, he needed to possess enough power and prestige to make them fear taking any rash actions.

Just thinking about it made Hades's head ache. Moreover, although he had seen the caliber of those soldiers yesterday, he still did not know where he stood in this world.

If his strength was merely average in this world, he did not know if he could continue to level up and grow stronger; he had to at least ensure he maintained some advantage.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. What he needed to do now was earn money. Once he had enough gold coins, Hades wanted to test if the gold coins of this world could replace YGGDRASIL's currency for summoning mercenaries or casting spells.

Finding a job was also an opportunity to understand this world, as well as a way to quickly blend in with the locals and hide his identity.

Although he did not know what kind of work could earn money here, Hades's strength was that he was not ashamed to ask questions. He found the waiter who had served him when he checked into the inn last night to inquire; after all, he knew nothing about this world and needed to ask someone to get the lay of the land.

Perhaps because the waiter wanted to exchange that gold coin, he was quite enthusiastic. After listing several jobs, Hades found that there wasn't a single one he was capable of doing; in fact, he didn't even know what some of them entailed.

Finally, the waiter rolled his eyes at him and asked, "Then tell me, what are your specialties?"

"Specialties?" Hades was stunned. As someone who belonged to the wealthy class in his original world, he didn't know what kind of specialty he could have. If spending money counted as a specialty, he could crush everyone else.

In a dying game, he had been a massive "whale." Hades had done exactly that; even when he was practically retired from the game, whenever there was a content update, he would spend a fortune to upgrade his gear to the latest version before returning to his inactive state.

"Does spending money count?"

Hades said it on a whim. However, seeing the waiter roll his eyes, he was just about to change his tune and say he was joking when, to his surprise, the waiter nodded.

"It counts. Why wouldn't it?" the waiter said.

"Uh..." Hades hadn't expected there to actually be a job for spending money. He asked curiously, "Then where can I find this job?"

"Simple, go to the Royal Capital," the waiter said. "Just wander around the Royal Castle in the capital. If you see the Golden Princess and win her favor, as long as you marry her, your job will be to spend money."

"..."

Hades hadn't expected this waiter to be so humorous.

"Look, I was just joking," Hades said awkwardly. The waiter's question had made him unconsciously reflect on his usual extravagant lifestyle, and his "specialty" was so irrelevant that he had been momentarily distracted.

"I wasn't joking with you. The Golden Princess of Re-Estize is sixteen this year. She has a kind and benevolent personality and has proposed many policies for the King to govern the country. I'm sure someone of your stature could easily win her over. As long as you marry the princess, your specialty of spending money will surely be put to great use," the waiter mocked.

"Forget it, I'll ask someone else." Hades shook his head and prepared to leave.

"Wait, come back." The waiter hurriedly called out to Hades. He was genuinely annoyed by this man; although he really wanted that finely crafted gold coin and was willing to buy it, it didn't matter if the other party wouldn't sell. Regardless, he was still a customer staying at their establishment.

So, faced with Hades's inquiry, he racked his brains to scour for any job available in E-Rantel.

But who would have thought this man would say his specialty was spending money? Who didn't know how to spend money? I know how to spend money better than you do. If it weren't for the fact that Hades didn't seem to be mocking him, he would have stopped paying attention long ago.

Seeing that the other party seemed a bit angry, the waiter immediately set aside his personal feelings; after all, he couldn't afford to offend a customer.

"I'm back," Hades said, turning to face the waiter. "I really want to find a job; I wasn't teasing you."

"But you're making it very difficult for me. E-Rantel is at the intersection of three kingdoms, so there are more opportunities here than in other cities, but you don't know how to do anything. How am I supposed to recommend anything to you?" the waiter said with a troubled expression.

"If fighting counts as a specialty, I feel like I might be okay at that," Hades said, spreading his hands.

"Fighting?" The waiter's eyes lit up, but then he sized up Hades's not-so-sturdy frame and said, "There is a job related to fighting, but it's quite dangerous."

"What kind of job? It wouldn't be a gladiator, would it?" Hades said. In his understanding, a medieval social environment like this would have arenas for the entertainment of the rich.

That wasn't entirely out of the question; it would be a good way to gauge his own strength in this world, and perhaps he could even scout for people who could help him conquer Nazarick.

"Gladiator? You mean an arena? It's not that kind of job; the Re-Estize Kingdom doesn't have an arena." The waiter waved his hand and continued, "It's an adventurer. If you're confident in your strength, you can become an adventurer. As long as you become an Adamantite-ranked adventurer, you can stay at the best inn in E-Rantel, the Golden Radiance Pavilion."

The waiter looked at Hades with a sneer, clearly still feeling resentful about his earlier claim that his specialty was spending money. Was it really that easy to become an Adamantite-ranked adventurer? With a scrawny frame like his?

At most, he'd be a Copper-ranked adventurer, or if he was lucky, maybe Iron.