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After reporting to the guild, I was finally able to go on my original quest.
I was a little concerned about the words “evidence” and “witness” in the report.
To take it a step further, if there is more than one person working on the case, it increases credibility in these situations.
Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone, but I’ll keep having a party in the back of my mind.
As I walked with this in mind, I arrived at the east gate of the town, presented my guild card while greeting the guards, and walked out.
The guard said, “Be careful.” I smiled and said, “I’ll be careful,” and headed for the harvesting site.
The harvesting site was in the forest about two hours’ walk away.
Before entering the forest, I had a portable lunch of hardtack bread and dried meat, but it was not tasty as usual.
Well, my stomach was full, however, my jaw was tired… I was smiling and wondered if there was something I could do to make it better.
After lunch, we enter the forest and immediately perform an exploration spell on the Hirupo grass.
Since the requested number of 5 bundles was immediately completed, I continued to collect more and put those in the Magic Bag one by one.
I think there were more of them than when I collected them in Vista Village.
As Pete had taught me, I was very careful when I collected, and I left a little bit of the grass instead of collecting all of it.
Could there be a cluster of them? I thought so and expanded the range of my [Exploration], but the result was the same: a little dense growth, but far from a cluster.
After a break, I also collected Ampo grass.
However, the Ampo grass was not detected by [Exploration].
To be precise, they were detected, but there was quite a distance between every bundle.
It seems that it will not be easy to collect Ampo grass.
When I activated [Exploration] again, I also used together Material Search, but there was no hit from monsters, so it is quite comfortable to collect Ampo grass.
When I proceeded to the depths of the forest and activated [Exploration], the presence of a monster and Ampo grass showed up.
The distance is about a kilometer away.
When I proceeded carefully towards the presence, taking care not to step on a dead branch and make a sound, I could now see the monster.
Is that a frog?
It was obviously a frog, but it was huge and its color was peculiar.
It had a camouflage-like pattern, with purple and red scattered throughout.
It’s maybe a head or two taller than me. At close range, it would obviously be tall enough for me to look up at.
I observed it for a moment from a distance and it didn’t move.
Don’t frogs hop and move around to hunt? As I was thinking, a purple tongue swooped out, caught the weasel-like animal, and instantly brought it to its mouth.
I was stunned to see its mouth munching and wondered if this is how frogs act. I shifted my gaze toward the back of the frog and clearly saw Ampo grass growing behind the frog.
I performed the Material Search Magic again and found that the monster was a large frog and there was a large amount of Ampo grass.
Since the frog had not yet caught me, I decided to kill it quickly and get lots of Ampo grass.
In such a case, it is good to have magic that can be performed silently and without chanting.
I took a rock about the same size as the frog out of storage and moved it behind the frog, and just as I moved it to attack, the frog jumped toward me.
I panicked and sent instructions to Huey.
“Huey, send mucus in his path!” (Louis)
Huey spat out mucus at the landing site of the frog.
When the frog landed, it was stuck in the mucus, but it opened its mouth and spit a green liquid at me.
I was far enough away from the frog that I was able to take a few steps back and duck just as it spit out the liquid.
I telekinetically hit the frog with the rock I had just sent it flying.
The frog seemed to die when I hit it on the head, but its body was twitching and twitching.
I watched it until it stopped moving completely, and soon after, it stopped moving.
After calming down, I looked at the spot where the green liquid that the frog had spit out had adhered to the rock and found that it had dissolved into a sludge.
Was it acid? I approached and appraised it and found it to be a mixture of acid and poison, so I used [Life Magic] to produce water and rinse the area around it.
After washing the rocks and storing everything away, I examined the dead frog and found that the monster was called Poison Toad and that it vomited acid and poison liquid, neither edible nor useable as a material.
I was blinded by the Ampo and fought desperately, but I am glad I was able to defeat it.
I was also reminded that I needed to have the courage to retreat when dealing with a dangerous opponent.
When I told Huey that I was going to let him ingest it, he talked to me.
(Can I have a magic stone too?) (Huey)
“What is a magic stone?” (Louis)
(A strong monster has a magic stone in its body, and if I eat it, I will become stronger. But I asked because it seems that sometimes humans are killing monsters because they want the magic stones) (Huey)
“Is that so? If it makes Huey stronger, you can take it in. Does Huey have a magic stone?” (Louis)
(We have a core but no magic stone.) (Huey)
Is there a difference between a core and a magic stone? I don’t understand. So I instructed Huey to take it in again.
Huey’s ingestion was instantaneous.
When I appraised him to see if he had become stronger, I found that he could only use acid solution, but he was now able to produce acid liquid, alkaline liquid, and poison liquid.
It kind of reminds me of a water purifier that can produce acidic and alkaline water.
If he becomes stronger and more capable, I will continue to let him take in magic stones in the future.
It would be good because it would make things easier for me.
The rest of the time, I concentrated on collecting the antitoxin grass.
After a few hours, I was able to collect a large amount, so I decided to go back home in high spirits.
I left before the town gate and the guild was crowded and reported to the counter.
This time, I was not met by Sophia, but by Mia, the cute woman about 20 years of age with short chestnut-colored hair.
“I have collected medicinal herbs and antitoxin herbs for the permanent quest, and I would like to have them purchased.” (Louis)
Seeing that I have nothing in my hand, she responds with a slightly confused expression.
“Excuse me? You are new, right? How many do you have? The purchase will be for five bundles of them.” (Mia)
“Oh, I’m wondering if it’s okay to take it out here because they are in my Magic Bag and it’s a lot, I stopped counting at 100, but there are more.” (Louis)
“What? You came at this hour, and you alone already have more than a hundred bundles?” (Mia)
“Yes. I have some more of that antitoxin weed, but shall I bring it out here?” (Louis)
“Oh, I see. Well, could you please go around to the back?” (Mia)
I was led to a wide counter.
When I asked what would happen if I were to sell a large monster, I was told to go further in and that the next room was a dismantling area for large monsters.
At the wide counter, I took out 200 Hirupo grass and 400 Ampo grass from my Magic Bag.
I have 200 Hirupo grass and 200 Ampo grass each left in the infinite storage, which I need so that I can use them in my alchemy practice.
The numbers are counted and sorted by themselves when I put them in the infinite storage or the Magic Bag, so there is no way to make a mistake in the number. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether the number will be deducted on the grounds of careless collection methods.
I decided to leave it to the guild’s judgment.
During the time before the purchase, I asked Mia about three things.
The first is a recommended inn, the second is whether there is an alchemist who can teach me alchemy, and the third is where books on magic are sold.
First, I was told she knew of an inn for adventurers of B rank or higher and one for adventurers of C rank or lower.
The first inn is for adventurers of B rank and above, who have more money to spend, and therefore have better rooms and meals, and the second inn is a reasonably priced inn where poor adventurers of C rank and below can stay, but still have good meals and facilities.
I decided to stay at the one below C-rank.
The second is that there are no alchemists who can teach me magic, although she can introduce me to stores that sell potions and the like. She said there might be some of them in the Royal Capital.
Simply put, magic is a person’s weapon and is generally kept secret, especially if he/she is a production professional.
Third, there are two ways to obtain and browse books.
One is the bookstore in town, but she said it is expensive because the books are valuable.
The other is the guild’s library, where you can browse the books in stock if you submit a request.
Do they loan out the books? When I asked about it, I was told that it was impossible because books are still valuable and expensive, and if they are not returned, the guild will put out a warrant on them, and they will become criminals.
I thought to myself, “Yes, I will stay at the guild and browse the books after the purchase is complete.”
While I was pondering this, I was called to the counter to tell them that my purchase evaluation was completed.
The person in the back of the room did the evaluation of the purchase and told me the value of the book with a little excitement as well as a thank-you.
“Thank you very much. I’ll add a little more to your reward since they are all fresh and without any damage. Please let me buy the Hirupo grass for four gold coins and ten silver coins, and the Ampo grass for ten gold coins.” (Appraiser)
Huh? Five Hirupo grass is one silver coin, and so is the Ampo grass, right? 10 silver coins are 1 gold coin, so Hirupo grass is 40 silver coins plus 10 additional silver coins, and Ampo grass is 80, and they added 20 more silver coins?
As I was pondering, the appraiser said.
“Actually, there’s a shortage of Ampo grass right now. Several Poison Toads have been spotted deep in the forest where we can collect it, making it difficult to gather.” (Appraiser)
“I’ve already killed one poison toad. This time, I used it as food for Huey, so I don’t have any parts left to use as proof of subjugation, but it was growing in clusters near the Poison Toad, so I was able to collect a large number of antitoxin herbs.” (Louis)
“I see, so that’s the reason why it was so large.” (Appraiser)
Mia, who was listening beside me, leaned forward and asked.
“The Poison Toad is a C-class monster, the kind of monster that you would have to form a party to defeat. Are you hurt or anything?” (Mia)
“I’m a tamer. I fight with Huey, so it’s like having a party.” (Louis)
“I see. That’s amazing.” (Mia)
I felt embarrassed by the admiring glances I received even though I hadn’t even given any subjugation proof, so I accepted the amount offered and tried to end the situation quickly.
At any rate, I can say that my first quest was a great success.
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