Chapter 41: Money-Making and Treasure Hunting
“What happened!? …What in the world is this!?”
A group of adventurers gathered in the lounge area turned to a staff member who had let out a scream.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
From behind the guild counter, a male staff member peeked out. However, the moment he laid eyes on the creature, he fell silent and froze in place.
“…It seems like things have gotten more serious than I thought,” Rio murmured, her voice echoing softly in the now hushed guild.
“This is… a Murder Raptor, isn’t it?” The man who had emerged from behind the counter muttered, his voice thick with apprehension, as if he could be heard swallowing hard.
“Ah, yes. I was hoping to sell this,” I replied, finally able to speak to someone who seemed capable of handling the situation. The woman who had screamed appeared to be too shaken to stand, so I had to take the lead.
“What did you say? …Did you guys actually hunt this?” The man asked, skepticism lacing his tone as he looked us over.
I nodded slowly in response. “Yes, that’s correct.”
“Hmm… I’m Bildine, the Submaster of this guild. I can buy it, but given its size, the appraisal might take a bit of time.”
So, they take their time with appraisals, huh? When I sold to Zain’s merchant, they just touched the prey to confirm its quality. I wondered how thorough their assessment would be.
“How long will it take? If possible, I’d like to receive the payment today,” I inquired.
“If it’s today, that’s no problem. By the way, do you have any specific parts you want to keep?” he asked.
Wow, they’re even accommodating specific requests.
“No, I’ll sell everything,” I replied. Right now, money was my priority. I wanted to gather anything useful before heading to the castle.
“Understood. Come back around noon. …Hey, Yuriel, get up already,” Bildine called, pulling the still-shaken woman to her feet. Apparently, her name was Yuriel. He then added, “Make sure to give him the Trade Token,” before retreating back behind the counter.
“I-I’m sorry…” Yuriel stammered, struggling to compose herself and forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace.
She retrieved two wooden tokens from the counter, affixing one to the prey and handing the other to me. “This is your Trade Token. Please be careful not to lose it, as it could prevent you from receiving your payment.”
“Ah, thank you. I’ll bring this back around noon,” I said, tucking the Trade Token into my bag before slinging it over my shoulder and leaving the now-quiet guild behind.
“Looks like we never found out the rank of the Murder Raptor,” I remarked.
“Now that you mention it, we didn’t. I think it’s fairly strong, but since the bear with ‘Murder’ in its name is C Rank, this one might be too,” Rio speculated.
“Could be,” I agreed.
As we strolled around, engaging in light conversation, I decided to search for anything useful, even though we hadn’t received our earnings yet. My main goal was to check out the Magic Tool shop, but I was also hoping to stumble upon some hidden treasures.
Eventually, we entered a shop with a sign displaying a Magic Circle.
“Welcome!” A grandfatherly figure with half-closed eyes greeted us, looking as if he could be either awake or asleep.
“Are you looking for something?” he asked.
“…Do you have any interesting Magic Tools?” I inquired, not having a specific item in mind.
“Interesting Magic Tools, you say?” The old man began rummaging through his wares with his eyes still barely open.
“How about this?” He pulled out a stick about 15 centimeters long and 1 centimeter in diameter.
“What’s this?” I asked, intrigued.
“It lights up!” he exclaimed.
It seemed there was a switch on the handle, and when pressed, the tip of the stick illuminated. It looked like a laser pointer.
“Oh,” I said, considering that it could be useful if it could focus light, perhaps even allowing for some magical applications.
The old man continued to dig through his items. “Next, how about this?”
He presented a variety of Magic Tools, including a fan that automatically fanned you, a ball that rolled in the direction you pushed it as long as it had Magic Power, and a spinning top that kept rotating endlessly. However, no matter how trivial, each item had a minimum price of 100,000 Fron, which was quite steep. Such was the nature of Magic Tools, I suppose.
Among the items, one caught my attention: the Mirror of Truth. It reminded me of the legendary mirror of Ra, but its effects were unclear.
“What does the true form even mean?” the old man pondered aloud.
I had no idea. If there were shape-shifting monsters, perhaps it could reveal their true identities.
…Wait a minute, isn’t it common in fantasy for monsters to be able to transform into humans? Surely there are some in this world as well!
Even the shield made from the Ancient Red Dragon Scale that my master gifted me must have come from a dragon that transformed into a human, perhaps as a friendly gesture. My master seemed like the type who could easily defeat a dragon, but it was also possible they were acquaintances.
“…What’s wrong, Shuu?” Rio asked, giving me a strange look as I nodded to myself.
“Oh, I was just thinking that my master might know a dragon,” I replied.
“Really?” she asked, clearly not following my train of thought. I realized I had skipped over some details in our conversation. In the end, I found the Mirror of Truth intriguing enough to spend almost all my savings—1.5 million Fron—to purchase it.