Hone To Issho No Isekai Seikatsu Chapter 22

~ Adventurer's life Day 22 (Mon) Noon ~ Comnes Town – West – Gravel Field

Noticing it to be noon, we ended our hunt here and start making some preparations in heading back.

We made a count on the carca.s.ses we're bringing over. Pebbeled Spider, 9 bodies. Great King Yamori, 5 bodies. And then there's Tag Dog, 8 bodies.

Tag Dogs are like the devolved version of Forest Wolves. It's smaller, have a much thinner body, and is usually found in pairs of two.
Even more so, it doesn't have nearly as much agility as it's counterpart. The skeletons have no trouble in dealing with them.

"… I know it's not right for me to be the one to say this, but this is going a lot more easier than I imagined…"
"… Yeah…"

Having things done this easily made me forget this is the west side… Rather, what was even the point of me postponing in coming here until now?

With a bit of trial and error, I had the skeletons split off into two teams. Skeletons A, D, E in one team while skeletons B, C, F in the other. I'll have the Golem sent out only when necessary.
Before we knew it, there weren't much monsters around to hunt anymore.

When an enemy comes, I send out one of the teams to keep it occupied while the Golem comes in to hold it down.
… After that, I just simply land the finis.h.i.+ng blow then start dismantling it.

While that happens, a different team of skeletons would be about looking for another monster to lure in…

~ Adventurer's life Day 22 (Mon) Noon ~ Comnes Town – Western Gate

We could see the west gate by now…
Skeletons D, E, F don't have a bag to use and aren't really carrying anything so I had them brought back into the coins.

The Golem is also a little too conspicuous to have around, so I tried to call it back, and like with the skeletons, turned back into it's coin…

With that, there's about 9 of us left now, I wonder if I could bring it any lower?

"Ba Barbarian tribe!?"
"No, sorry. I'm an adventurer."
"…… Sorry, that's right. We've been informed about those summons of yours…"

They had their weapons ready, just like what happened at the north gate, until I had them confirm my adventurer card.

After pa.s.sing through the gate, Benedetta went ahead to the guild first as our group is a little too conspicuous. I'm also thinking it'll be a lot easier if she were to set things up at the guild ahead.

Walking along with my skeletons through the main road, there were a number of people surprised seeing us, but none doesn't seem to mind it too much and went back to doing their business.
Like usual…

~ Adventurer's life Day 22 (Mon) Afternoon ~ Comnes Town – Adventurers Guild – Exchange Centre

By the counter was that man with the brown 7:3 hairstyle.
There doesn't seem to be any other adventurers in here either…

Even Benedetta, who was supposed to be here before me, doesn't seem to be around.

"Ah, Nemo is it? Please leave your items that you would like to exchange over there please."

Like instructed, I had the skeletons and myself take out our items and lined them up on the side.
Once all is done, I casually had the skeletons return back to their coin one after another.

"… Even when seeing it, I still find it difficult to believe…"

The guild staff member gave an astonished look while mumbling that, to which he then proceeds to check the items lined up.

He didn't really say anything else, so I was going to just walk around the lobby while waiting like usual until,

"Sir, please wait for a moment. The guild would like to have a chat with you. If you could please come to the back room for a moment?"

The same staff member called out to me like he just remembered something then directed me to the designated room.

The one waiting for me in the room was a man in his senior years. I remember meeting at that time when I had to take that emergency request from Ruben.
Most likely, I'm guessing he would be one of the guild's higher ups.

"Hey. My name's Ohmas. Is it fine if I were to ask you something? This is Nemo right?"
"Yes, that's right."

I thought this before as well, but he really does look like someone retired from being an adventurer.
It's not like he's particularly tall or anything, but the way he exudes himself reminds me like that of the Golem.

"This may be a little sudden, but you wouldn't be the person who sent over that vividly green health potion yesterday now were you?"
"That's right… but what about it… ?"

I'm not quite following this…

"I know it's not our business, but could you tell me how you managed to acquire such a potion like this?"
"…."

I'm not sure what the guild wants here, but he's probably wanting to confirm if my divine protection had something to do with it.
Honestly, I kinda prefer it this way.

"… This is something I made."
"I thought as much! What, it's not like this is something bad for you. You see…"

Listening onto Ohmas' explanation, it seems like the guild wishes to make an unwritten contract with me where I would periodically sell my potions to them.
In exchange, the guild would give me a bonus… Is what I've been told anyways…

(Using up a lot of my mana like that is a little bad for me, not to mention collecting herbs is also a real pain…)

From today's hunt alone, I had to keep my skeletons and Golem summoned for several hours.
That Golem in particular takes a significant amount from me.
I haven't summoned it from the beginning so I'm not sure, but if I were to have all summons out at once, I'd probably only be able to keep at it for 5 hours.

"Then… how many of these will you be able to make?"
"The most I can promise to make reliably would be about 5."
"Hm… 5 huh. Is that really the only amount you can make?"
"Making potions takes up a lot of my mana. It's a little difficult for me to make any more since I also need it for hunting."

That really is all to it… but there're other problems too.

"Another this is that for each potion, I would require a Toorinagusa and Yacchoutai. Not to mention they would all have to be fresh. I got the 5 from the request I gave, but if possible I don't really want to keep relying on this."
"I don't think, that's really such a huge problem. We can prepare them… see, the truth is…"

… From then, he revealed something I never would've expected.

"All the guild potions… They were all made by you?"
"It's not really easy preparing the two herbs. You'll first need to have one dried under the sun while the other would be soaked in a medical solution beforehand. The materials were all handled by the guild so I've been having a deficit from this."

What a thing!
Behind the guilds store window where many potions all line up, all of them were made from this macho man!

Moreover, provided from the guild… hm?

"Eh? Couldn't you just sell your medical plants and buy the potions from the pharmacists in town?"
"Nowadays, pharmacists don't really make potions to sell. They mainly focus on using the herbs for actual medical care."
"Aah… is that so…"

So really, they can only have business with the aristocrats, merchants or anyone else rich enough to buy these potions.

"… Well, let's talk about something else… how much was those potions worth anyways?"
"… About this much."

(420 goldas each!? That's quite a lot, are potions really that valuable here?)

Seeing the price on the paper, I asked for more details with sparkling interest…

~ Adventurer's life Day 22 (Mon) Noon ~ Comnes Town – Adventurers Guild – Lobby

"Sorry, I got caught up with something."

Seems like I had kept Benedetta waiting for me.
I had treated the both of us a drink after that.
Right now, I feel super generous with my money… though it's not like I've been paid yet…

"What did you want to talk about?"
"Ah, that's right…"

I hold a principle to myself not to hide much information from my party members… well, not that it matters too much here. I don't really think talking about it would be to dangerous.

In summary, I mentioned how I can make some pretty high level health potions using the Alchemist divine protection, and that I've made a deal with the guild in selling it to them periodically.

"Hmm… I know it's not my place to say it, but it's not like you have to do this… Especially since you want to continue hunting."
"But I don't really have much of a decent wage yet, so I'm gonna have to."
"It's for the equipment of those skeletons of yours is it…"

Seems like Benedetta already knew about my financial situation…

"So you've been focusing on providing your skeletons their equipment, so now you're lacking money yourself… ?"
"Yeah, that's the case…"
"I can understand that you've managed to get this far in 3 weeks by doing that, but it seems rather pointless if you're still going to lose your money in the end."
"Yes."

It's just like she said…

After this, I went to Adonnis' shop to repay the money I owed him. I was going to buy things just until I have no more left, but I'm really going to have to put it off for now…

But then, I won't be able to get the materials for that ‘Plating' skill… that's a real shame…

~ Adventurer's life Day 22 (Mon) Afternoon ~ Comnes Town – Weapons Shop – Adonnis' Blade

After we got the payment from hunting by the guild, me and Benedetta went our separate ways.

Back on the topic regarding the contract I've made with Ohmas with the health potions, I still had some mana left over, so I used the remaining to create another 5 potions, and received 1500 goldas right there.
Including with the potions from before, that's over 2800 goldas for today.
This is about the same amount as that forest wolf I hunted back then… Thinking that, really puts things into a different perspective.

With all that, I now have over 3800 goldas in total.

Entering Adonnis' shop, I was greeted with his usual smile when he noticed me.

"Ooh, you look quite energetic today!"
"h.e.l.lo! I'm here to return the debt!"
"Already huh!"

First things first, I handed over the 210 goldas to Adonnis for the sculpting knife he gave me.

"However, didn't you just come here straight after hunting? A little too quick isn't it?"
"Yeah, before noon we had no way of carrying any more, so we just gave up and came back with what we had… you know anything to help that?"
"If carrier bags aren't enough then… well, what about a cart? But then again, those things are a little too expensive."
"… I guess."

I say that, but a cart is actually a pretty good idea. If I have the money, I could even buy a wagon, though that's just me getting ahead of myself.

"By the way, you probably already guessed it, but I'm also here to buy some new weapons."
"Again huh. Come this way."

Following him to the back room, I summoned out the 4 new skeletons.
Adonnis gave a surprised expression.

"… What's this… ? Are you trying to build an army? This was more than last time. How many do you have now?"
"I have 10 right now in total. It's not really possible for these ones to fight though…"

For a moment, I've thought about the equipment for the Golem, but I don't think there's any need for it.

"So, what would you like?"
"A club for the 4 of them please."

… I asked for the same club just as before with the other skeletons.
It's just that these guys don't have a s.h.i.+eld to use.

"… Let me get it ready, so just wait for a bit…"

A while later, skeletons G, H, I, J are now at the very least equipped.

"Even with just a simple club, these guys look as imposing as always…"
"Next is this guy."

I took a round s.h.i.+eld from my bag and had skeleton J equip it.

"… What are you planning to do?"
"Aah, it's something from my divine protection. I got a new s.h.i.+eld prepared so watch this…"

I start to bring up the main reason why I came here to begin with.

"Is this fine?"
"I think that's probably enough."

Adonnis brought over some sc.r.a.p iron to me.
Of course, he could've recycled these but then that takes time.
… Placing my hand into the pile of sc.r.a.ps while other is by skeleton G's club.

"Oooh!?"

Adonnis raised his voice from the surprise after watching the wooden club slowly encased itself into an iron color.

… It's just like how the ‘Plating' skill was before, the club received the plating attribute.

"That's quite unbelievable…"

Adonnis gave a wry smile at my side, but I was focusing more on the amount of mana this skill used up.

(So only a bit of the sc.r.a.p iron had been used. So ‘Plating' really does only applies a coating, so the amount of materials required isn't that much… It doesn't seem to take up too much mana either.)

I continued this on for the other 3 skeletons, and after that I called out the remaining skeletons to apply the ‘Plating' skill onto their weapons.
Still seeing his confused expression in his face, I gave him a brief explanation on that skill.

(… Let's deal with the armor for another time.)

Of course, there's also the problem with my budget.

"Wait, hold on for a second. What's those patterns on the hatchet?"
"Aah, that…"

I omitted mentioning about my ‘Engravement' skill, and just gave a rough overview about it's effects.

"Alright, help me out with something… If you do, I'll these iron sc.r.a.ps will be free of charge."
"Eh, is that really alright!"

Adonnis then came back with an average looking sword about half a minute later, then I proceeded to carve out a dragon looking design to it.
I can feel my mana pa.s.sing through, so there's no doubt that the skill is activating here.

TL: Internal sobbing noises…

"Woah! Did you always have this sort sort artistry? Hey, why don't you with being an adventurer and just work with me!"
"There's no way."

Not paying my response any heed, Adonnis left through the back door.
… And then immediately returned.
Seems like he wanted me to test out something.

"This normal sword already became just as strong as the best sword I made in this shop. Seriously, just work for me!"
"No, like I said…"

… After that, I applied ‘Plating' onto the sword. He got noisy again when we noticed that the quality of the sword increased even further.
I managed to experiment the ‘Plating' skill quite well… though then again, I can't really test out their endurance, frequency of maintenance or even it's acid resistance right now.

… In the end, I was able to apply it to all of my skeletons equipment. In exchange, Adonnis had me apply ‘Engrave' and ‘Plate' again to a plate armor for him. As expected, all this had my mana run dry…

I still had quite a bit of money on me, since I didn't really buy anything new here… Even including the lodging, I still have about 2500 goldas on me.

—- Divine Protection and Skills —-
Necromancer level 4: Undead Servant 10 Summons; Bone creation; Bonuses < bone="" weapon;="" bone="" armor;="" gathering;="" night="" vision="">
Alchemist level 3: Health potion create; Extraction;Plating; Poison potion create; Bonuses < throw;="" gathering="">
Sculptor level 4: Engrave; Golem (Wood/Earth); Bonuses < dagger;="" hammer;="" sculpting;="" gathering;="" mining="">

—- Summon Equipment —-
A: Hatchet + 3/3, Kite s.h.i.+eld (metal) + 0/3, Blood stained leather armor + 0/3.
B, C: Mace + 3/3, Shabby round s.h.i.+eld (wood) + 3/3
D, E, F: Club + 3/3, Shabby round s.h.i.+eld (wood) + 3/3
G, H, I: Club + 0/3
J: Club + 0/3, Round s.h.i.+eld(wood/metal) + 0/3

—- Equipment —-
Pig femur Bone dagger – 2 sets + 0/3
Barbarian robe + 0/3

※: + X/Y Arbitrary level of engraving and plating respectively.