Chapter 10: Last minute shopping
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There were several weapon stores near the Adventurer's guild, so I eventually picked one and headed in. When I asked the owner for a sword easy enough for a beginner to use, he gave me a short sword for 8 silver.
'Okay then, let's go pick some herbs.'
The request I had taken required me to leave the town, so I showed my Adventurer's guild card at the east gate and was let outside. Leaving the east gate and walking steadily with Hati, we reached an incredibly spacious grassy plain in about 20 minutes. This was probably where the herbs grew.
"Now then, I'll be picking herbs here, so you go hunt some meat, Hati."
"Understood. I will be troubled if something happens to you, so I will take the liberty of putting up a barrier." 'Ohh, that's right, Hati could use Barrier magic.'
"Right, it is finished. With this barrier you shall be fine even if you see a monster, as long as it is below a certain level." 'I thank thee, I thank thee (clap clap).'
"Now then, I shall take my leave. Make sure you prepare lunch." Having said that, Hati gallantly dashed off into the forest.
'I was starting to respect him a little, but I see his gluttony is still in full effect.
Okay then, I guess I'll start looking for the herbs, I thought to myself. Although all I really do is just appraise everything I see.'
Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...
...It was all weeds.
Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...
Cure grass.
Ah, there it is. This cure grass looks a bit like thistle, doesn't it? I used a knife to cut off the cure grass from its roots. The knife that I had bought a while back finally saw some use.
I started again: Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...
Yeah, it really is all weeds, I thought.
Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...
Cure grass.
Whoop, found another one. Now I just need another three, and the request should be over, I thought happily. 'Right then, let's keep going.'
Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal, Appraisal...
'Merge grass. Ah, this is for that other request.'
Looking at merge grass reminded me of poverty. 'It looks like, what was it called...ummm... Oh that's right, the common fleabane. Let's take this too, just in case.'
After that, I continued to use Appraisal, and ended up with eighteen cure grass and seven merge grass. 'Okay, it's about time for Hati to come back, too,' I thought as I decided to stop for the moment.
I started preparing Hati's meal. That being said, we currently did not have any meat, and if I tried to use my skill to buy meat, I would have no idea how much that would cost, so for now I was just making something cheap. Thus, I'd decided on that for lunch.
First, I needed to buy more ingredients from the Online Supermarket. I already had onions and bouillon cubes from before, so I got 1 kilo of mixed ground beef and pork, five bags of pasta at 700 grams each, and ten cans of meat sauce.
All of it cost 4 silver and 5 copper, but I had all that money from selling that salt and pepper to the Merchant's guild, so it was fine for now.
'I bought the kind of pasta that cooks in 5 minutes,' I thought, 'but it's Hati we're talking about here; he'll still probably be pressing me to hurry up.' Taking that into consideration, I started boiling the water already so that I could start cooking at any time.
In the meantime, the meat sauce.
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First, finely mince onions and cook them in a pan until they're transparent, then throw in the ground meat. After giving the meat some time for the heat to pass through it, pour in lots of the canned meat sauce. Like that, there won't be enough moisture, so pour in hot water that you've dissolved a bouillon cube into as necessary while you simmer the mixture. Finally, adjust the taste to preference with salt and pepper, and the meat sauce with extra meat is finished.
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Hati returned just as I finished with the meat sauce. He dropped his prey right in front of me with a thud.
"What a good smell."
"This is...a rockbird?"
"The thing you called teriyaki that you made before was good, so I got another. I hunted more, but I cannot bring them back all at once, so I have put up a barrier near the edge of the forest and left them there." 'Yeah, one is probably the limit if you have to carry it in your mouth.'
"If that's the case, it'll only take one trip if I come with you and put it all in my Item Box. Wait a bit." I put away the pot with the boiling water, the frying pan with the meat sauce on it, the portable stove, and everything else I had out into my Item Box. I put the rockbird in there, too. "Right, let's go."
"It will take too long if you walk. Get on my back." 'Alright then, I won't hold back. 'I did as Hati said and got on his back.
"Now then, let us go."
"W-Wait a second—" I clung desperately onto Hati's back as he kept raising his speed. "I SAID WAAAIIIIIIT————!"
"Hey. We have arrived."
"Hahhh, haahhh... I thought I was gonna die."
"Hmph, you are a coward to raise a fuss over just that much speed." 'That much,' he says; I swear, anyone would be scared if they were going that fast!'
"Don't you dare go that fast if I'm riding you again! What if I fall off?!"
"I do not care. It would probably be your fault." 'This bastard...'
"Ah I see, that's your response. I guess you don't need food, then. If something happens to me you won't ever get to eat cooking from another world again, after all."
"Grnmmnn..." he growled, mulling it over.
"Let's hurry up and put away these monsters and then go back."
The monsters that Hati hunted were piled up at the edge of the forest like a mountain. When I appraised them, there were five orcs, a red boar, a giant dodo, and a black serpent. 'They say that snake tastes like chicken, so I get that, but are orcs edible?' I asked Hati; it seemed that they were edible. Apparently, it was pretty normal for people to eat orcs back in town.
'I-Is that so? So they eat bipedal pigs.'
I had the Online Supermarket so I could cook for myself basically all the time, but that turned out to be the right decision. 'This otherworld cuisine is scary!'
Putting the monsters that Hati hunted away in my Item Box, I rode on Hati's back again back to that grassy plain.
This time Hati, seemed to have been a little considerate of me, so the ride ended up being fine, somehow.
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"Now then, let's have lunch."
"My stomach is empty. Hurry up."
"Wait a little, I have to cook the pasta." And the pasta would take five minutes to cook. 'It was a good decision to boil the water early.'
Finally — put the pasta on a plate and pile it high with meat sauce with extra meat, and lunch is served. I made sure to mix it extra well for Hati.
"Hati, it's done."
"Mn? What's this?"
"It's a dish from my world called spaghetti with meat sauce. It's good." When I said that, Hati started chowing down.
"Yes, there is not a lot of meat, but it is still pretty good." From his response, he probably intended to eat more. I started to cook the next batch of pasta, while eating my own portion.
In the end, I had to make four batches for Hati. I also ate my own portion, so 700 grams x4 makes for 2.8 kilos of pasta.
Even so, Hati still said, "This is a good amount for a light lunch." 'He really does eat too much', I couldn't help but think.
After he finished, his mouth was sticky with the meat sauce, so I got a good laugh out of it. He hastily washed his face in water he conjured up, though.
After lunch, Hati went back to hunting, and I continued to look for herbs.
By the end of the day, I had picked up 40 cure grass and 20 merge grass. Five of one of them makes a set for a request, so I harvested them with that in mind.
Appraisal really was useful. I not only started recognizing what cure and merge grass looked like, but also got used to appraising things, so I ended up making more progress after lunch than before.
Hati also ended up catching a lot of prey. He caught a second red boar, three cockatrices, a giant deer, and a murder grizzly.
'Just from the name, a murder grizzly sounds really dangerous though...' I pretended I didn't see it and put it into my Item Box.
I returned to town on Hati's back. I got stared at by the gate guards because I was riding on him, but they didn't say anything, so I just kept on riding him through the gates.
'Now then, let's head over to the Adventurer's guild, I guess.'
"Hati, head over to the Adventurer's guild, please."
"Understood."
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When we entered the Adventurer's guild, I noticed that there weren't many people inside. 'Maybe because it's too early?' I thought, 'It'll probably still be a little bit before adventurers return with their finished quests. Let's turn in my quest and turn Hati's prey into money before that happens.' Because I picked up some merge grass along the way, I took the corresponding request paper off of the board as well.
I lined up at the least-busy counter space. There were only two people in front of me, so my turn came pretty quickly. I gave my guild card to the receptionist and when she said,
"Cure grass collection, is it?" I nodded and handed over the cure grass I picked.
"Eh? You just took the quest this morning and you've already got this much?" She was a little surprised at the 40 cure grass I handed over.
"Ehh, ah, yeah, I just happened to find them..." 'Guh, was 40 too much? This was all thanks to Appraisal, so let's be careful not to attract unwanted attention...'
"So you found a whole group of them. I guess you were just lucky." Saying that, the receptionist reached an understanding on her own. 'Well, let's leave it at that', I decided.
"Then I will organize the cure grass into bundles of five. There are eight bundles, so that will be 8 silver. Please confirm the amount."
Pocketing the 8 silver, I said, "Also, please process this," and handed over the merge grass request form. After she finished processing the form, I told her; "I also have some merge grass, so..." and handed over five of them.
She seemed like she'd say something if I handed over all of the merge grass again. 'I'll leave the leftover merge grass in my Item Box and use it when I pick up a request in the next town, I guess.'
"So you also have merge grass. This is one bundle of five merge grass. 1 bundle comes to 1 silver and 3 copper. Please confirm the amount."
'I'm relieved; so, stuff like this is fine too', I thought. I was worried that there would be problems with accepting a request and fulfilling it immediately, but it seemed to be fine. Appraisal worked its magic here so I made more profit than I thought I would.
'Right, next is Hati's prey'. "I also have a red boar, can I sell it here?"
"Eh? A red boar? But, you should still be a G-rank..." Apparently a red boar wasn't something a G-rank could usually hunt. Well, it is a giant boar, after all. It would definitely be impossible for me to hunt one on my own.
"No no, not me. My familiar killed it."
The receptionist looked at Hati and immmediately said, "Ahh, I see. In the case of large monsters such as a red boar, please use the sales counter next to me."
'Got it~ Yeah, this receptionist was pretty okay. I guess here it just depends on which receptionist you get', I thought to myself. I continued pondering as I moved. 'Well I've already completed a request, so I plan on hurrying up to the next town. I guess I won't be coming back here. Now then I guess I'll head over to the next counter and turn Hati's prey into money. Of course, I'll be keeping all the meat.'
"Excuse me, I'd like to sell something."
"Sure, then put it right here." I was received by a grim-faced old man that looked like he might be a retired adventurer.
"Ummmm, there's quite a lot, is it okay to bring them all out here?"
"A lot? Do you have an Item Box?"
"Yeah, kind of. Okay then, I'll take them out." I started with the five orcs, and then the two red boars.
"W-Waaiiiit just a bit. Is there still more?" 'Eh? Yeah there is.'
When I nodded, the old man replied, "There's not enough room here. Come with me."
"Ah, wait a second. I have a familiar, is it okay if he comes too?" I called Hati over after I got the old man's permission.
Hati and I trailed after the old man to a warehouse behind the sales counter.
"I see, so you're that guy from the rumors." 'Huh? What rumors?' I thought as the old man continued, "The fact that some guy came in with a Fenrir has been the talk of the town." 'Guh, is it really?' Well, I did think I would stand out because Hati was around.
"So this was hunted by your familiar too?"
"Well, yeah. Then, I'll take out the rest here." I brought out the rest of the monsters.
A rockbird, giant dodo, black serpent, three cockatrices, giant deer, and a murder grizzly.
"This is all of it." The guy stared open-mouthed at the pile, dumbfounded.
'Hey, is this old man alright?' He wasn't moving at all, so I called out to him: "You ok?" He finally came back to his senses with a jolt.
"Th-This is...wow. Not only the numbers, but even the monsters themselves are amazing. A rockbird and giant dodo, a giant deer is B-rank too, and the black serpent and murder grizzly are both proper A-rank monsters, you know."
'Huh? Are they really that powerful?' I did think that they were awfully large, at least comparatively. 'Ah', I thought as I realized I did also think that there were some really dangerous sounding names, so they must have had the rank to match. Either way, Hati did all the work, so I had no idea about how powerful they were.
Before that there was something I wanted to know desperately. "Uh, ummm, those monsters, are they all edible?" That's right, their meat. To me, securing meat for Hati's meals came first.
"Yeah. All these guys are edible. Not to mention they all make for high quality meat."
Whoo, perfect, I thought. Hati went and hunted them so I figured they should be edible, at least, but it was better for my heart to ask a pro, just in case.
"If that's the case, can I take all the meat? I'll sell everything else, though, please."
"Hm? The meat will fetch a pretty good price, are you sure you don't want to sell that too?"
"Yes. We have a huge eater here, you see." I glanced at Hati as I said that; the old man went, "Ah," in understanding.
"With this much to butcher I won't be done right away. I'll hurry as much as I can, so come back tomorrow. Ah, right right, I'll deduct the cost of butchering these from your profits, just so you know."
'Right right. Oh, wait, tomorrow will be a problem. For now, I'll need to have him butcher at least one of them.' "Um, excuse me, but could you finish just one of them right now, please?"
"Hahh? Oh, for that familiar's meal, huh? Okay then, wait a bit." Having said that, the old man went and butchered one of the red boars. The old man's butchering skills were brilliant, and it didn't take long for him to have the hide, meat, and innards neatly separated. I decided to sell the hide and scrap the innards, while I took the meat.
"Then, here it is."
The meat for the single red boar that the old man handed over to me weighed about 200 kilos. With this I'd be able to feed Hati for a while. I put away the red boar meat in the Item Box and left the warehouse after I said goodbye to the old man.
When I passed in front of the receptionist's desk, I was stared at by the adventurers there. 'I guess it really is too much to take out all those monsters there in front of everyone', I noted. But I had Hati to worry about, so I still wanted to secure as much meat as I could.
'I won't be staying long in this town anyway, so I'll just endure it'. I slipped through the stares of the adventurers and hurried out of the guild hall with Hati.
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When we returned to the inn, Hati told me, "Mine stomach is empty."
Well, it was about time, since the sun was beginning to set. 'But Hati always eats a lot so it's hard on me to make all of it...' I thought, 'there's no other choice, let's start cooking. What should I do for today?'
'It's been all meat recently, so I should put in some vegetables too...' When one mentions vegetables and meat and easy to cook, they'd be referring to a vegetable stir fry. With extra meat for Hati of course.
It's Hati, so I could see him poo-pooing the dish if it didn't have much meat in it.
'Uhmmm, for vegetables I should have the cabbage, onions, carrots, and bell peppers I bought before.' I'd have liked to put in bean sprouts and some sort of mushroom, but I didn't have any on hand, so for today this was enough.
I have that for seasoning, so it should be fine.
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Now then, first cut the red boar meat into appropriately-sized chunks. They'll be a bit bigger to fit Hati's standards, though.
The vegetables don't have to be that finely chopped, just cut them into appropriately sized chunks.
The red boar meat is already seasoned with salt and pepper ahead of time, so I simply sear them lightly on the frying pan. Once they're cooked through to a certain degree, I take them off the heat and let them rest.
'If only I had some sesame oil here, I'd be able to cook the meat with some of it and bring out even more flavor...' I didn't have any on me this time though, so I used salad oil instead.
From there, I added the carrots, onions, bell peppers, and cabbage in turn to the frying pan, and cooked them through. I prefered my bell peppers and cabbage with a bit of crunch to them, so I made sure not to cook them too thoroughly.
Once the vegetables were cooked to a certain point, I added the red boar meat back in and lightly simmered the whole thing some more. Now, it's time for that, which I'd been recently hooked on.
Sweet and salty Chinese miso (in a tube).
This is really tasty too, and recently I'd been using it every time I'd made vegetable stir fry. Food companies nowadays really know their stuff—. Even without creating your own mix of seasonings, just using this would allow a person to enjoy their own sweet and salty Chinese miso-style stir fried vegetables.
That being said, I added the explosively delicious sweet and salty Chinese miso to the vegetables and red boar cooking in the pan.
Sear it lightly and let the flavors meld together, and there, it's done.
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"Hati, it's done."
"Nnn, I would prefer just meat, though."
"Well, haven't I only been giving you meat up until now? Having some vegetables sometimes is good for you."
"Certainly, it is said eating leaves every once in a while is good... However, there is no problem if I do not eat any. As of right now, I have not eaten any leaves for several decades. After all, no matter what leaf it is, what is bad is bad."
'That's nothing to be so proud of.' By eating leaves, did he mean something like how cats eat grass sometimes? Well, for now it didn't seem like eating vegetables was bad for him, so it'd be better to eat some.
When I placed a large portion of the sweet and salty Chinese miso vegetable and meat stir fry (extra meat) in front of Hati, he only took a small bite at first. After that he started to chomp it down as voraciously as usual.
'Yes, yes, that's right. This sweet and salty Chinese miso is delicious. Now then, I should eat too.'
'Yes yes, this is great... Ah, there's no rice. I should have made some rice———! Crap, I completely forgot. This is exactly the kind of flavor that goes well with rice... Awww man...'
There was nothing to be done about it; I wiped up the sauce with some white bread and ate that. But really, for this flavor it should have been rice. I keenly Hatit regret for the fact that I should have stocked up on rice.
It seemed that Hati approved of the sweet and salty Chinese miso as well, as he ate three helpings before he was satisfied. 'Yeah, Hati really does eat a lot.'
'I really want to look forward to how much meat we'll be getting tomorrow', I thought, hoping for the best.
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The next morning, I visited the Adventurer's guild together with Hati.
The grim-looking old man from yesterday was there when we headed straight for the sales counter.
"Good morning."
"Hey, I've got it all ready. There's a lot of meat so I've left it in the storehouse. Come with me." Hati and I followed after the old man. The meat was piled up like a mountain in the storehouse.
"This is all the meat you asked for."
'Wow, with this much meat, I'll be able to feed Hati for a while, no matter how much of a big eater he is', I thought appreciatively. I quickly put all the meat into my Item Box.
"I thought so yesterday too, but your Item Box is pretty big, isn't it?"
When the old man said that, I could only answer with a halfhearted, "Haahh." 'The meat is more important, so I'll let it go for today. Plus, this old man already saw it yesterday anyway. I probably won't come back to this Adventurer's guild branch anyway, so I won't be seeing him again, either.'
I planned to leave this town either today or tomorrow, after all. Staying in one place for too long would be a big no-no.
"Now then, next is what you get for selling the rest of it." When all the meat was safely in my Item Box, the old man brought out a somewhat-heavy looking jute bag and placed it in front of me.
"Uhmmm, as for the breakdown, first are the orcs. For orcs, other than the meat the only other useable part are their testes, so five pairs comes out to 2 gold and 5 silver. Next are the red boars. The materials are two hides and four tusks, and that makes 2 gold and 4 silver. Next, the cockatrices. The meat is the most valuable part of these, but other than that there's just their feathers. The feathers were a little damaged too, so the feathers from three cockatrices comes out to 5 silver." Apparently, orc testes were used as ingredients in a type of sexual vitality drug, and in order to make one dose you needed the pair. 'No matter how much vitality you say that will give me, I'd pass, personally'. But still, it seemed that the finished product was pretty reliable and was therefore fairly popular. The red boar's hide could be used for shoes or leather bags or belts, and their tusks were used in handicrafts and art. And cockatrice feathers were used as pillow stuffing.
"Next is the rockbird. Its beak and feathers come out to 7 gold. Next, the giant dodo also has a useable beak and feathers, but that one also had a small magic stone, so adding that in, the total comes to 22 gold. And then there's the giant deer. The materials are its horns and hide. This one also had a magic stone, so adding that in, the price is 28 gold. These are both B-rank monsters, but having magic stones in both of them is pretty lucky."
Apparently the rockbird's beak and feathers went into making arrows. Arrows made from these not only had high penetration ability but were also easier to enchant with Wind magic, so it seemed that archers would covet these arrows.
As for the giant dodo, a large bird with degenerated wings so it couldn't fly, the beak was a material for magic items (you can put various effects on it and then shape it into a pendant or bracelet, or even a ring), and the feathers were used in high-end down beds.
And it seemed that the giant deer's horns were popular as materials for magic staves, while the hide served as materials for leather armor for mid-rank adventurers, or materials for other high-end leather goods.
As for the magic stones found in the giant dodo and giant deer, they're stones filled with magic power, and have various uses depending on the elemental affinity of the magic inside. Magic stones could only be found in monsters ranked B or above, so they were often sold or traded at high prices.
Also, not all B-rank monsters have magic stones. It's said that they're only found in around 30% of B-rank monsters, and it's only at A-rank that you're guaranteed to find a magic stone, although there are size differences.
"And lastly are the two A-ranks. It's been a while since I've last seen one. For the black serpent, we can use its venom sac, innards, fangs, eyes, and hide. There was also a pretty decent magic stone inside, so with that added in, the total is 64 gold. Next, the murder grizzly's materials are its innards, claws, and fur. And this one had a larger magic stone, so the total is 78 gold. As expected of A-rank monsters."
For the black serpent, which is large and ebony-colored, its venom sac seemed to have many uses (I was too scared to ask), and its innards were used to make nourishment pills. After that, its fangs were used in magic tools, the eyes in magic staves, and the hide was materials for leather armor used by high-ranking adventurers. Its magic stone was apparently fairly large and aligned with water.
The large, gray murder grizzly's innards were also used for medicine, its claws for magic tools, and its fur made for carpets that were popular among nobles. As for its magic stone, it was pretty big, and was worth the most out of all the magic stones in the lot.
"The final amount comes to 204 gold and 4 silver. From that is the butchering fee. This time you gave me a lot of high rank monsters, so with a small discount I'll be fine with 2 gold and 4 silver. Taking that away you're left with an even 202 gold. Most people prefer gold coins even if the amount is large so I went ahead and gave you that, but if you prefer platinum or large gold coins I can prepare that instead if you wait a while."
"N-No thanks. Gold coins are fine." From looking around and shopping at various places, I'd found out that in town nobody used large gold or platinum coins. Even if the count was at or above 10 gold coins, they never asked or gave any of those denominations. I think it most likely that while large gold and platinum coins exist as currency, there weren't many of them circulating around.
'At any rate, to exceed 200 gold coins...'
'I didn't even do anything. For now, I'll take what I can get, though. I guess I'll let Hati eat some otherworld meat later.'
"Oh, also, I was told to ask you this by an acquaintance, but your familiar is a Fenrir, right?" The old man asked me while looking at Fenrir, who was yawning unconcernedly behind me.
'He is, what of it?'
"If you didn't know, there are people who are saying it's a great wolf instead."
Apparently, since the rumor of, "A guy with a Fenrir as a familiar came to town" was currently circulating around, there were also people saying that there was no way a legendary magic beast like a Fenrir would obey a human. So people have been split half and half between saying it's a Fenrir and it's a great wolf. The great wolf is an A-rank monster, and apparently, it's a wolf with gray fur just around Hati's size.
"I mean, there's nobody around who's even seen a Fenrir in the first place, you know? But even I was a pretty good adventurer before I took up this job. From where I'm standing, though, looking at its bearing, there's no way I can think it's anything but a Fenrir."
Up until now I was thinking that since Hati was around I shouldn't enter the larger towns, but in the case where I needed to enter one no matter what I might be able to just tell people that he was a great wolf.
They would probably be surprised anyway because a great wolf was still an A-rank monster, but it should still be better than a Fenrir. The old man seemed like he already understood, so I ended up taking the money and leaving the storeroom without answering his question.
And just like yesterday, I slipped past the stares of the adventurers and quickly exited the Adventurer's guild with Hati.
"Hati, I've done everything I wanted to do in this town, so I'm thinking of leaving. What do you think?"
"I am okay either way. As long as you feed me delicious meals."
'Ahh, izzat so? Well then, let's go.'
With that, Hati and I left the town of Falliéres.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone