Chapter 7: If You Call Yourself a Merchant, You Should at Least Be Able to Pick Mushrooms, Right?

“We haven’t introduced ourselves yet. My name is Neon. I’m a rookie merchant! I’ve only ever worked in sales, so I’m not very good at judging merchandise. But I make up for it by selling a ton!”

Neon proudly thrust out her nonexistent chest. She looked completely like a child. Come to think of it, how old was she?

“I’m Sibyl. Right now, I’m… What am I, exactly? Something resembling an adventurer?”

Even I didn’t understand what I was saying. Now that I had lost my title as a noble, what was I?

“An adventurer? Can you fight, Sibyl?”

She looked at me suspiciously. It was a fair question.

“Not really. Goblins are about my limit.”

“…You should give up adventuring, unless you want to die young.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Forming a partnership was all well and good, but how exactly were we going to make money? I assumed I would use my eye to gather merchandise and then open a stall. Since Neon called herself a merchant, she surely had enough connections to arrange one.

“How are we going to make money? Open a stall?”

I asked her directly.

“Heh heh heh. I’m glad you asked! There’s a way to make money that takes advantage of your skill!”

“Ooh.”

Could Neon actually be highly competent? I still couldn’t shake the image of the scatterbrained girl who had almost bought a fake at a stall, but perhaps I needed to reconsider.

“We’re going to gather white opal mushrooms!”

Neon proclaimed it proudly, but I had no idea what she was talking about. Well, I understood the words, at least.

“What are those?”

“They’re worth a staggering 500,000 G each!”

Wh—SERIOUSLY?! Mushrooms were incredible!

“You’re kidding! Why hasn’t anyone picked them already? Are they somewhere people can’t easily reach?”

“That’s one reason. They grow near the nest of gang pteranodons, which are C-rank monsters. And white opal mushrooms only grow among ordinary white mushrooms. They look completely identical.”

So we would have to find the genuine article among a huge number of fakes. And a C-rank monster…? Hadn’t the guild said the strongest party in this town was only C rank? If we encountered one, it would be the end.

Apparently, gang pteranodons were like small, flying wyverns. They were carnivorous and could kill an orc with a single blow. Hmm. I really didn’t want to meet one.

“And the chance of any one mushroom being genuine is one in ten thousand!”

That was absurdly low. Searching for a one-in-ten-thousand mushroom inside a monster’s territory was not something any normal person would do. Only a complete fool would try it. No wonder they were so expensive.

“But with your skill, you can find a genuine one, can’t you? From what you’ve told me, you should also be able to determine whether any gang pteranodons are nearby.”

She was right. With my skill, there were any number of ways to search. I might be unable to defeat the monsters, but I could ask Lady Metis whether one was nearby or moving away.

It could work. With my skill, we might actually harvest white opal mushrooms.

“Yes. Divine Answer makes it possible.”

“Then it’s settled!”

It seemed our first job as merchants would be gathering mushrooms.

“Is that really a merchant’s job?”

The question slipped from my mouth. Neon’s shapely eyebrows shot upward.

“Business requires a large amount of starting capital! Where exactly do you think that money is? All we have is your money and my 50,000 G. If we try to trade with that little, we’ll never accomplish anything!”

“You have that little?”

It was impressive she even called herself a merchant. That wouldn’t cover a month’s living expenses.

“First, we’ll strike it rich with mushrooms. Then we’ll carve open our path to becoming great merchants! Once our trading company grows enormous, people will tell this story as our very first adventure.”

Neon made her declaration with complete confidence. Anyone capable of fantasizing that far ahead had to have the makings of someone extraordinary.

Unlike ordinary white mushrooms, white opal mushrooms apparently contained a special ingredient used by mages. Demand was extremely high, but all attempts to cultivate only white opal mushrooms had failed. If they were that rare and sought after, their price made sense.

According to Neon, a gang-pteranodon nest lay on nearby Mount Semen. We bought tools for gathering mushrooms and decided to go the following day.

“Sibyl, are you sleeping at that inn? That place is infamous for conditions so terrible they’re practically fit for slaves!”

When I told her where I was staying, she was shocked. Apparently, the place was notorious for being cheap and dreadful. In the end, Neon introduced me to the inn where she was staying, and I rented a room there. It cost 5,000 G—more than the last place—but shabby as it was, having an actual bed nearly moved me to tears.