Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

"Payout nicely it did," Makary agreed with just a short few words and a nod of his head.

Yet, quite noticeably, he didn't do anything to keep the topic going, clearly expecting to hear something else.

This is exactly why I crossed my arms on my chest and simply looked back at him with a leisurely smile.

Because of how great it would be to gain access to the top-tier military technology of the modern world… For all intents and purposes, wielding them would be nothing short of an overkill.

m|vl|e|mp|y|r article

'If two shots from a handgun are enough to kill people at seven points average in their attributes, two shots from a high-powered rifle should do the job if I ever came to deal with people even stronger than those invaders.'

I wanted those weapons. There was no hint of doubt in my heart about it. But no matter how much I spun the situation, this desire of mine was merely an interest in weaponry that hardly had any literature to read about. An interest that a kid would exhibit when spotting a toy it fancied, not a dire strategical need that I had to do everything to obtain.

And for this very reason, I could stand down and smile, waiting for Makary to make the move. For the moment he implied the prize for those guns, I would gain the advantage in our deal.

"Each of those guns is equal in worth to the ownership of that penthouse I'm renting for you," Makary pointed out, playing one of the few cards he had in this game of exchanging worth.

One card less for him to play once either of us would actually name our prizes.

"I was under the impression that house was pretty much mine to do whatever I wanted to do with it," I countered.

After all, neither of us ever specified whether that penthouse and lack of limits on my spending card within reason… were something I'd received permanently or only for the duration of our cooperation.

Normally, Makary would have a pretty easy time arguing his way out of this deal, claiming he never stated the penthouse was strictly mine… But doing so right now would be proof of bad faith. By simply relenting on that point, I would gain leverage in our new deal which already had its bar set far, far higher.

"Fifty kilos within a month," the man finally relented, naming his price. "And that's for one gun. The basic kit goes for ten kilos each."

The corner of my mouth trembled a little.

'So, the real price is about a hundred kilos per gun, huh?'

Even if I only had rough numbers and guesses to work with… It wasn't hard at all to calculate the monetary worth of what Makary proposed.

A hundred kilos for a gun with a set of maintenance kits, replacement parts, and ammunition that wouldn't run dry after a single skirmish. And with how a single tea took about three grams worth of fresh leaves of the herb…

'Thirty-three thousand, three-hundred doses, roughly,' I quickly did the math. 'Assuming two hundred bucks per tea…'

I shook my head.

The numbers that I came up with, while extremely conservative, were already mind-boggling, nearing seven million bucks.

Which equaled roughly twice what I expected my penthouse to be worth in cash. And that was for a single gun with all the additional stuff necessary to make proper use of it. And tripling that for three guns, maybe quadrupling if I wanted to get one for Fay too…

I shook my head, taking a moment to internalize the magnitude of the money that was on the table.

And with that perspective in mind, the allure of those toys suddenly turned strangely bleak.

"Do you think I'm bad with numbers or something?" I asked, unwilling to let Makary take such a massive advantage of me. Because as easy as it sounded to go and gather a few hundred kilos worth of a worthless herb that grew in every corner of the celestial forest…

If I actually tried to do so, I was bound to attract the attention of other celestial and divine protectors! There was simply no way I could gather that much of this simple weed from the areas that Madam and Leinei controlled. And if I dared to venture further into the forest in search of this weed, then regardless of how worthless it would be to the divine and celestial protectors of the forest…

Well, I would be bound to attract their attention. And after what I've learned about Fay's lineage, this didn't strike me as the best of ideas.

"A hundred kilos of that herb for each of those guns with five kits of maintenance and ammunition," Makary repeated his offer from just before. "Or, I can exchange ten kilos for a living sample of that herb," he then added after taking a short pause, finally revealing what he really wanted.

'That would be far easier. Bringing over thirty living samples of the herb was manageable… but as easy as it would be, it also meant putting a definitive end to any kind of business done through that herb. Maybe in just a week, maybe as far into the future as a year or five…

But with living samples, Makary was bound to either figure out what made this herb so special, how to replicate it, or at the very least, how to grow the small samples into bushes. And once any of those things would happen, his need for my help would instantly disappear…

"That's a lot more reasonable offer," I finally spoke out, finally ready to bring down the wrath of my own cards that I meticulously kept close to my chest all this time.

"Three hundred kilos total, with each living sample of the herb exchangeable for fifteen kilos," I cut my sentence in its very middle. My eyes moved up, drilling deep into Makary's skull as if I wanted to lobotomize him with my glare.

"And fifty kilos of that herb's worth for one kilo of one that's actually a herb rather than a weed growing out in the extreme, but still wilderness."