Chapter 59: I Can’t Do It Alone

After buying a few Rank 1–10 magic pouches and five of the largest herb bags at the adventurer’s shop, I headed to the guild.

When I mentioned “Chief Holtz” to the purchasing clerk, he immediately waved me through. Maybe the word about my previous responsibility carried some weight.

There was a decent line this time as well, but when I asked the dismantler where Chief Holtz was, he just silently pointed me in the right direction. This time I was able to reach the chief quickly without complaints from the line.

“Hey, did you catch them?”

“Yes, but this time I also have 30 birds for the Grandis Trading Company, so please take care of them.”

“Huh, were these a commissioned request?”

“Yes, I was asked by Jaeger from Fang. I’ll be hunting around the capital for a while, so I’ll bring them every four or five days.”

“If it’s a commissioned request, there’d be a commission fee. Why didn’t you take it?”

“I’m a Rank 2 Bronze. Accepting a commissioned request would be troublesome, so I declined. Since Jaeger and the others are connected to the Grandis Trading Company, they asked me, and I accepted it as a favor.”

“Even at your age, it’s strange to have connections with Jaeger and the others, and yet you do this as a favor?”

On the usual workbench, I placed only the Chikki chikki Birds and Runner Birds, leaving the rest under the table.

• Chikki chikki Bird: 31
• Runner Bird: 24
• Green Bird: 31
• Red Chicken: 23

“Huh, that’s all?”

“Yes. Hunting beasts reduces the number of birds available.”

“By the way, I heard you caused quite a stir in Duke Kreis’s territory.”

“Why do you know that?”

“You’re famous under the name ‘Gentle Breeze.’ It’s impressive to have a title at such a young age, though maybe a cooler name would’ve been better.”

The ridiculous and foolish fire mage gave me that name. If I meet him again, I’ll send him to the afterlife. I let out a wry smile and kept quiet.

Meanwhile, Holtz quickly wrote up the appraisal sheet and handed it over.

• Chikki chikki Bird: 31 × 77,000 = 2,387,000 Dara
• Runner Bird: 24 × 42,000 = 1,008,000 Dara
• Green Bird: 31 × 33,000 = 1,023,000 Dara
• Red Chicken: 23 × 27,000 = 621,000 Dara

Total: 5,039,000 Dara

It’s an impressive sum, but with enough to make two city outfits, it disappears quickly. Whether this is a lot or a little is hard to judge.

After depositing everything at the guild, I went to the market, bought three days’ worth of food (54 meals) for them, loaded it into the magic pouches, and headed to the usual Martins Hotel.

When we exited the adventurer-only passage at the North Gate, a group holding wooden tubs was in the corner, being laughed at.

Seeing my face, Nanga and the six others relaxed and ran over.

“Good morning. I’ll take the tubs.”

I took the tubs from them, threw them into a Rank 1 magic pouch, and set off.

Guided by Nanga, we headed toward a place with abundant leaves and foliage. They seemed unusually excited, so I asked why—they thanked me, saying they had a great meal yesterday because they got 15 goblin magic stones.

While walking, I handed the magic pouch to Nanga, explaining it contained three days’ worth of food for six people, along with short bows and arrows. I also pulled out two short spears from my pouch and handed them over.

“Is it okay for us to keep these?”

“Yes. There’s no registration restriction, so you can all register. The short spears and bows are from gifts and purchases at the adventurer’s shop. I don’t need them anymore, so take them.”

Nanga and the others were surprised and stopped, so I said, “I don’t want to bother with your luggage, so I’ll give you the whole pouch,” which flustered them.

Since they were helping me for a few days, I told them they had to handle their own matters and explained how to register the pouch. I also told them to collect deadwood for firewood over the next few days of camping.

We packed the wooden tubs with thick leaves and crushed them with a pestle made from suitable deadwood. When it was reduced to about a third, we spread herb bags into an empty tub and poured the pulp in.

Once two tubs were filled, we twisted the herb bags to extract the juice, storing the liquid.

After discarding the remaining pulp, we added more leaves and grasses to crush.

I stayed alert, watching over their safety. Even just observing looked exhausting, and I was grateful I didn’t have to do it myself.

Half a day in, only about a fifth of the juice was extracted—a miscalculation, but I couldn’t stop because it was necessary for camouflaging the wooden box.

Before dusk, I went a little deeper into the forest and used magic to clean the Nanga group, who were stained blue-black with sap.

After creating a dome for them and a large dome for myself to rest, I started applying the collected juice to the hut.

Using the herb bags with the crushed leaves, the murky green soaked into the boards nicely, but with less than half a tub of juice, there wasn’t much to coat.

I added a little water to dilute some juice, producing a moss-green layer that looked good.

I decided to coat the whole hut with the diluted juice first, then use the concentrated juice to create a spotted pattern.

I taught Nanga and the others to use gathered dead grass as bedding and keep the fire going to stay warm, then took a nap inside the hut myself.

“Whether it’s scouting or sensing, that was amazing.”

“Yeah, we gathered as told, but actually having a prairie dog group appear… incredible.”

“I was shocked that the spinning ones were called whirlwinds.”

“I heard wind magic was useless, but this is strong.”

“He even said the prairie dogs we subdue would be ours, but is that true?”

“I think so.”

“Why?”

“The magic pouch I got was registered only by us, and even a Rank 1 pouch is worth two gold coins. You saw us sometimes hunting while collecting leaves. That bird should be worth at least 20,000 Dala. The expensive ones go for 70,000–80,000 Dara.”

“Whoa, three birds can buy a magic pouch?”

“Now I get why he’s so generous.”

“And according to Leon, even without being granted scouting or perception skills, with enough practice you can develop skills. Even if they don’t become formal skills, you can still use them to some extent.”

“So if we practice, we could use them too?”

“However, it’s not guaranteed, and he said you’d have to practice for a long time.”

“I’ll give it a try.”

“Yeah, I want to escape this poor group, so I’ll practice with the short spears and bows too.”

“By the way, those short spears—they’re made of magic steel.”

“When I saw them taken out of the magic pouch, the black gleaming spears gave me chills.”

“The spear tips alone are like 50–60 cm long.”

“They’re longer and cooler than my sword.”

“Seeing them reminded me—the wind mage that drifted over here is apparently very skilled. Rumor says he can take down big monsters in one or two strikes.”

“Anyway, it’s great to get paid without worrying about food or beasts.”

The next morning, after seeing where Nanga and the others had camped, I had them collect charcoal, then rubbed it onto the hut walls and spread it with a brush made of bundled weeds.

I’d read something about charred wood for exterior walls and fences, for waterproofing and fireproofing… maybe that was useful too.

It also gave a nice weathered look, so after finishing the sap coating, I decided to dirty the walls with charcoal as well.

I made Nanga and the others eat a full breakfast, since they’d need energy to work hard all day.

What was supposed to take three days stretched into the early afternoon of the fourth day, but the hut was successfully camouflaged and now relatively inconspicuous, suitable even for placing in the grasslands.

I’d thrown the wild beasts that attacked along the way into the magic bag, so I decided to return to the capital once to hand them over to Nanga and the others.

Holding Nanga’s guild card, the purchasing clerk waved me through immediately when he saw me, so I told Nanga and the others to wait in the dining hall and entered the dismantling area.

“Pass by face recognition! Amazing.”

“At that age, using wind magic… he’s not supposed to be that strong.”

“There’s no way we could compete, even standing on our heads.”

“Ah, so you guys are with him?”

“We were just helping a bit, collecting herbs.”

“Figured. He apparently has connections with the top people in the capital, and there’s a huge skill gap with you guys.”

Hearing the herb purchasing clerk’s comment, Nanga and the others felt deflated, but seeing the young Leon protecting all six of them, they didn’t even have the energy to protest and just went to the dining hall with wry smiles.

As usual, I was about to say “Chief Holtz” when a loud voice called, “Leon, over here!”

Calling out so loudly again… I really don’t like standing out, but adventurers and guild staff sure are rough around the edges.

When I piled the animals on the workbench, he commented, “What, that’s fewer than last time.”

“I was hunting on the side for other matters. From tomorrow, I’ll focus seriously on the birds.”

“Other matters?”

“Some items I’m holding separately—please appraise the Prairie Dogs and Killer Dogs along with Horn Boars.”

I lined up eleven Prairie Dogs, eight Killer Dogs, two medium Horn Boars, and five Carrions at the designated spot.

• Prairie Dog: 11 × 19,000 = 209,000 Dara
• Killer Dog: 8 × 20,000 = 160,000 Dara
• Carrion: 5 × 22,000 = 110,000 Dara
• Medium Horn Boar: 1 × 56,000 = 56,000 Dara
• Small Horn Boar: 1 × 33,000 = 33,000 Dara

Total: 568,000 Dara

On my end, the total was about 2,170,000 Dara. I thanked him and received two appraisal sheets.

I went to Nanga and the others, who were quietly sipping ale in a corner of the dining hall, and handed them the appraisal sheets and guild cards, being careful not to raise my voice.

“This much…?”

“The prey you hunted over the four days is yours, as promised. There may be another request later, so please take care of it then too.”