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Chapter 117

“Th-this…”

As soon as I returned to Stormberg, my first location was the request board. Of course, I had completed the mission and wanted to earn some of those kilojoules. I had already wasted a week and pretty much had nothing to show for it, so I was eager to make a bit of progress on that debt.

No, I didn’t kill the wolf king or his underlings. We had a sort of agreement worked out between us. He would watch over the egg, and I would leave him and his colony alone. However, there had been countless infernal wolves that Shui’s group had killed as well as some wolves that had died from other reasons. The wolf king was smart enough to understand that these hides had value and offered them to me before I left as a farewell present.

I had feared that they would stink, but it turned out that whatever differentiated a sagebeast from a normal wild animal also slowed their decay significantly. After a week, most of the bodies showed little signs of degradation. I was able to remove the skin from the meat nearly perfectly. This wasn’t because I was a skilled bladesmen. Rather, I used some of my cells to break down the fibrous tissue and release the skin with ease.

I decided not to take the other parts of the wolf. I wasn’t sure if the meat was good, and I felt like it might be a bit macabre to dismantle the bones and carry them around. Instead, I took the bodies outside and burned them in a fire. The wolves seemed to appreciate this, all lining up in a circle around the fire. They even howled in harmony like it was some kind of wolf funeral. As the bodies burned, I felt a tingling in my skin, and I realized that the mana the wolves contained was being released in the flames. These wolves were essentially absorbing the mana of their brethren. So, mana could be passed on in this way too?

Either way, I dropped twelve pelts on the table of the receptionist. It was someone different from the original woman I met, but that didn’t matter to me. They acted extremely shocked though.

“S-sir.. You’re supposed to use the token and put it directly in your requester’s lockbox.” The guy informed me.

“I would have…” I coughed. “However, the request appears to be missing?”

The man blinked, and then after taking another look at the infernal wolves, he gasped. “These are infernal wolves!”

“Yeah? Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Um… sir, the quest was recently reevaluated.” The man looked a bit uncertain. “The presence of a wolf king was confirmed, although it was marked not an immediate threat. Either way, the difficulty of the request was increased.”

“I don’t mind if I’m not paid extra…”

“That’s not the point.” He made a face. “New funds have not been allocated to the request upon reassessment. In other words, there is no current quest involving the infernal wolves.”

“You’re saying that I can’t complete the quest?” I frowned.

“I’m sorry sir, but requests have always been based on a first come, first serve manner.

“That’s why you do standing quests!”

“I’m sorry, sir… perhaps you’d like to try another request?” The man acted polite, but I could see just a hint of smug superiority in his eyes.

His words seem to imply that I was just a mortal so it wasn’t like I could do anything about it anyway. Although I felt annoyed, I still picked up the pelts and left the request board. I had raised my voice and was starting to attract attention. Although I wasn’t exactly hiding my identity, I was likely considered dead by anyone in the city. That said, my apparent death happened the same day I arrived in Stormberg, so there were very few who’d be able to recognize me anyway. That said, it might be better if I was ignored or forgotten.

I still had one more place where I felt I had a chance at making money. I headed down the main street. It was the middle of the day, so none of the unsavory types were eyeing me, and anyone else of importance ignored me as a mere mortal, just as I wanted it. There were various merchant shops that I had scouted out the first day I was in the city, and one of them quickly caught my interest. My Translation told me the name written on the sign was ‘Capala Family Alchemy’.

I immediately thought of the family housing Mara. If this was their store, then I was probably helping by giving them service.

I had acquired quite a few plants from the hidden storage room. Although I knew very little about alchemy, I could understand the extent to which they went to protect those plants. They wouldn’t be in some hidden treasury if they had no value. I imagined that they were worth quite a bit, and it was possible that I could even pay off my debt in one go with them.

I carefully took a few out placed them in a bag, and then walked into the shop. There was a pungent scent of various herbs, not all of them pleasant to the nose. Yet, despite all the smells, there was very little on the actual display. There were some plants in various baskets, but more baskets were empty than full. Behind the counter, there was a bored-looking youngster with his eyes closed and his head resting on his fist.

“Hello, I was wondering if you bought herbs?” I asked, slamming the counter to make a bit of noise.

His fist slid to the side and he fell off his arm, quickly waking up. “Huh? Oh, yeah… buy, sell, what are you looking for?”

“I want to see how much you’ll buy these for,” I told him, opening the bag and pulling out two of the herbs.

They were both desiccated, and I had to handle them very carefully to keep them from breaking apart. I had picked these particular herbs because they were the most together. Many of the others would break into pieces if I tried to place them in a bag.

“Hmm?” He picked up one of the pieces, not being very careful to the point that a dried-up leaf broke off. “What is this?”

“Is it not your job to know?” I asked, feeling somewhat impatient.

His expression soured, but then he glanced at my bag and sighed. “I’ll have to go get my Master. I’ll be back in a second.”

He got off his chair and walked into a back room. I heard some noises that sounded like bickering.

A few moments later, an old man with a beard arrived at the front. “This had better be worth my time.”

“It should be,” I reassured him.

As I spoke, the door opened, causing the bell to ring as another man stepped into the room. The old man glanced his way, and then immediately made a face. The other man had a beard as well, although he looked a bit younger than the old man. He still had an age to him, and he gave off a medical scent different but not necessarily weaker than the store itself.

“Not you again!” The old man cursed. “Grandmaster Bai, please spare me.”

“Have you still not gotten anything? Does the Capala family even grow herbs anymore?” The other man demanded angrily.

“It’s no secret that our yields were poor this year.”

“Poor? You might as well not even be producing ingredients. Everything you get comes from the request board.  How am I supposed to make a profit if I have to import all of my ingredients from other cities? If this keeps up much longer, I might just move. I’ve even had to take up students just to cover my expenses!”

The old man let out a sigh as if he was used to hearing about this. “We’re currently working on it.”

“Working on it… things weren’t like this until that young Lady Abigail came out here to manage the fields. Why did the main family of Capala send someone so incompetent? The old man never had these issues.”

“He’s retired!” The old man glared. “Our young lady has had to face a lot of pressure since she’s come here.”

“Hmph, you mean receiving marriage requests? I didn’t know being handed gifts was so problematic.” He came up to the front. “Hmm? What is this?”

He immediately sniffed a few times, looking down at the bag where I was still waiting.

“This gentleman was looking to sell herbs. I was just about to send him on his way.”

“Send him on his way? Aren’t you desperate for supplies? No wonder you’re struggling so much…” He picked out one of the herbs, his expression freezing.

“Hmph, why not put your foot in your mouth? These herbs are past expiration. Even dried herbs stored properly can only keep their efficacy for so long. These things left in some burlap bag, they’ve long lost any medicinal properties.”

“Th-this…. Where did you find this?” The one named Grandmaster Bai immediately asked.

“Um… I found it… in my attic… in a chest?” I made up a possible story, although I was feeling a bit more excited by his expression.

“See? Improperly stored herbs long past expiration…” The storeowner nodded.

“You fool! Did you even look to see what these herbs were?” The Grandmaster’s expression turned somewhat feverish, “This is Rosalind’s Ginseng! And this… it’s thousand-thunder bamboo! The Ginseng is extinct, and the thousand-thunder bamboo is impossibly rare! This bag is full of incredibly rare ingredients!”