Chapter 70: The Town of Tanza
At the Dismantling Area, I lined up 2 Horn Boars, 5 Flame Dogs, and 7 Howl Dogs, and an appraisal sheet was immediately filled out and handed to me.
Horn Boar, 120,000 Dahla and 150,000 Dahla.
Flame Dog, 19,000 Dahla x 5 = 95,000 Dahla
Horndog, 22,000 Dahla x 7 = 154,000 Dahla
The total is 519,000 Dahla.
I said my thanks, received the appraisal sheet, handed it over at the payment counter to get the money, and then headed to the dining hall.
The Guild building itself was like this, but the Dismantling Area and the dining hall were also larger than in the Royal Capital, and there were more Adventurers.
And unlike the Guild in the Royal Capital, there were many guys with sharp gazes, casually sizing up those who came to the dining hall.
Younger people and those who seemed to be low-ranked were eating and drinking quietly in a corner of the dining hall, but about half of those eating and drinking right in the middle seemed to be Beastmen.
This place felt like the area Tina had mentioned, where Beasts had increased too much.
If that’s the case, it’s not surprising that there are guys as gutsy as Zalm.
In the evening, Adventurers started returning one after another, and the dining hall began to get crowded, so I stopped waiting for Zalm and went outside.
A Black Wolf was sitting next to Hoo-chan and the others, and next to it was a Carrion.
Since each of them was relaxing as if unconcerned, it seemed that Tamed Beasts didn’t act hostile towards each other.
I went to the Guild in the mornings and evenings for about three days waiting for Zalm, but I couldn’t meet him. When I asked about Zalm at the reception, the response was curt, saying they didn’t know him.
He did say it had been seven years since he was made to serve the Earl’s family, so it’s probably understandable that the reception didn’t know him.
I had brought Hoo-chan and the others as a sort of landmark. As I was thinking this while petting Hoo-chan, someone called out to me.
“Hey, we met at the Earl-sama’s place, didn’t we?”
“You’re the one who was brought by Studd, the Butler, that time, right?”
“That’s right, I heard from Zalm. Thanks to you, I no longer have to serve that shitty bastard, and I was able to return to being a carefree Adventurer. What are you doing in a place like this?”
“I came to meet that Zalm, but I didn’t expect there to be so many people. Do you know where Zalm’s house is?”
“Ah, north of the Royal Capital has a lot of prey, so Adventurers gather here. I’ll guide you to his house. Still, I heard you had Forest Wolves with you, and it’s true, huh?”
“That’s a great help. I vaguely heard the location of his house back then, but a lot happened, and I forgot. I thought I could just wait at the Guild, but when I asked at the reception, they said they didn’t know.”
“Well, he hadn’t been an Adventurer for years, so it can’t be helped. Thanks to you, I got some money too, so now I’m getting my body used to it again and slowly regaining my instincts.”
Guided by the man who introduced himself as Kilza, I visited Zalm’s house. He lived with his family, including his parents, on the second floor of a three-story building that faced another similar building.
“I’ve been waiting for you. I’m glad you came.”
“They haven’t said anything since then?”
“Yeah, the knights gave me a load of sarcastic remarks, but they shut up when I hit them with my killing intent. I was forced to serve them reluctantly, and they made a fool of me, calling me a weak former Adventurer. My only regret is that I couldn’t pay them back for that.”
“Then that’s a relief. Still, this is a nice house.”
“I bought it with my previous savings and the severance pay from the Earl-sama. So, you didn’t just come to Tanza for that, did you?”
“Didn’t I ask you to guide me through the forest? I came because I thought it was about time to gather mushrooms.”
“Mushrooms… huh?”
“That’s right. Delicious mushrooms can make good money.”
His family, who had welcomed me, also seemed a bit deflated when they heard I came to gather mushrooms.
Kilza, who was listening to our conversation, was shaking his head with an indescribable expression.
I sprinkled some of my treasured Gold Mash powder onto the dinner they served and mixed it lightly.
Since I offered him the container with a grin, Zalm, though suspicious, imitated me, sprinkled it on his food, mixed it, took a bite, and was astonished.
“Hey! What… is this?”
It’s enough to make you feel weak, eh~.
Kilza also imitated, sprinkled Gold Mash on his food, ate it, and his eyes widened in astonishment.
“What is this?! It’s become incredibly delicious! You ladies should try sprinkling it too, the taste gets outstandingly better!”
When I told them that this was the dried version of the mushroom I wanted, they were astonished all over again.
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The next day, the three of us went to the Adventurers Guild, and Zalm asked an acquaintance of his, who specialized in Medicinal Herb gathering, where mushrooms could be found.
Both Zalm and Kilza specialized in Beast subjugation and had no idea where things like nuts or mushrooms could be found.
The man Zalm asked was reluctant to speak, fearing his earnings would be snatched away.
I showed him my basket, promised not to take more than that, and slipped him about five silver coins to get him to tell us the location.
Of course, the baskets I showed him were two with openings of about 60cm and depths of about 80cm. He probably thought that even if I collected a miscellaneous assortment of mushrooms, it would be nowhere near the value of five silver coins, so he told me.
My conscience pricked a little, but since the mushrooms I’m after are different from the ones he gathers, I’ll let myself gather them without worry.
Since we were told the location, the three of us left town as we were and headed to our destination.
I had felt this during my journey here as well, but the closer we got to Tanza, the closer the forest was to the highway, and the number of Beasts increased.
Well, even saying the forest is close, it’s a 3 or 4-hour walk from the highway, across the Grassland, to the forest. Around Zandra, it takes more than a day to enter a proper forest.
What they called a forest around Zandra would be treated as a grove with just a few trees around here.
In that respect, north of the Royal Capital, the forest feels close to the city, and I guess the number of Beasts is also high.
If there are many Beasts, then there will be many dangerous ones too, which means the Adventurers who gather here are also skilled, huh.
We set up a Camping Barrier by the forest and the three of us camped, but since I had plenty of food preserved, I provided it.
We enjoyed conversation over an after-meal drink with our Gold Mash-sprinkled food.
“This is an Adventurer life I don’t know.”
“If we keep eating food this good, we won’t be able to stand being Adventurers anymore.”
“I’d never even heard of Gold Mash before.”
“The guy who told us this location probably doesn’t know about it either.”
“Shinya, you knew about it well.”
“Someone I used to work with before told me about it. It’s expensive, but you can get a number of silver coins equal to its weight in grams when completely dried.”
“The same number of grams as the dried mushroom’s weight, huh… That means even if you dry one or two, it’ll only amount to a few silver coins, right?”
“You understand well. They probably wouldn’t be able to gather even ten, and considering the effort to dry them, I don’t think they’d bother looking.”
“Is it okay to tell us?”
“No problem. I think you could find a few if you search. Even I would probably only find a few if Mii-chan and Hoo-chan weren’t here.”
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《Mii-chan, do you remember this scent?》
《Yes, Master. It’s the one that grows on trees. I remember the tree’s scent too.》
《Alright then, let me know when you find the tree.》
For Hoo-chan and the others, I took out preserved tree leaves from my Magic Pouch, let them sniff the scent, and had them search for the same smell.
I thought it might be impossible with just leaves, but I was about to be shown the difference in their sense of smell.
Hoo-chan, being higher off the ground than Mii-chan, found the tree faster and told me.
I looked up at the tree trunks searching for mushrooms, but places not visible from below were Mii-chan’s job.
The first tree was a miss. I found them growing on the fifth tree, but out of six mushrooms, I could only collect two.
I decided to collect the ones that were too small and still growing on another day.
For about two days, one Gold Mash was growing on every 4 or 5 trees, but on the third day, it seemed we hit a jackpot area, as one out of every two trees had many mushrooms growing on it.
The two of them, who were following me and keeping watch on our surroundings, were dumbfounded by my method of gathering mushrooms using Mii-chan and Hoo-chan.
According to them, Mii-chan aside, using two Hoo-chans to gather mushrooms was too inefficient.
They seemed frustrated, saying that with two Forest Wolves, they could hunt small Beasts to their heart’s content and earn Gold Coins every day.
Well, differences in values can’t be helped; delicious meals are better than Gold Coins.
Besides, I have enough money even without earning more. I received 4,800,000 Dahla just for the Honey I gave before the Flower Nectar offering.
That was 4,800,000 Dahla for two Medium Bottles, but before the Flower Nectar offering, I gave them ten times that amount.
If I give ten Medium Bottles of Honey and one 8L container each year, I can live in comfort. And three bottles of Flower Nectar are worth 300 Gold Coins.
Rather than silly money calculations, I was busy tying up the collected mushrooms with string and hanging them in a well-ventilated place to dry.
When Beasts occasionally approached, Hoo-chan and Mii-chan would find them first and let me know, so I would tell Zalm and the others the direction.
For groups of High Orcs or tiger-type monsters that seemed a bit troublesome, I also helped with the subjugation.
I was surprised by the skillfulness of Hoo-chan’s and Mii-chan’s support, and it made me curious about how ordinary Tamers fight.
The way Glacial Shield fights using Fanna-san isn’t a good reference, since I was the one who taught them.
“However, Shinya, I knew you were considerably skilled, but to charge a Black Bear head-on like that?”
“How can you swing that Demon Steel Short Spear around so easily? Do you have Dragonkin blood in you or something?”
Dragonkin again, huh? They seem to be a considerably strong race.
“I’d only ever subjugated up to an Orc King, but ever since I joined a friend to subjugate a Brown Bear, I thought they were slower than Orc Kings.”
“Indeed, humanoid Beasts are tough to fight. In that respect, quadrupeds have more restricted movements.”
“Yeah, especially when they stand up on their hind legs.”
“Even so, I’d rather not jump in head-on.”
“Is that why your Short Spear has such a long head?”
“That’s right. My friend is an Earth Magic User, and they defeated it by firing several Stone Lances. At that time, I figured that unless it was a heavy and long weapon, it wouldn’t reach the heart, so I had this made. This was my first time using it, though.”
“Yeah, it was a splendid strike.”
“Pierced so deeply in the chest, even that Black Bear couldn’t counterattack.”