71 Episode 70 Development and Expansion

I'm back. Brocken was done by the time I got here.

I was told to call the guild, so I called them, but they were done? I'm sorry.

No, I don't think Mercia has anything to apologize for.

It was about two hours after we arrived in Brokens.

It wasn't even evening yet, and I had heard what I thought was the cause of the call, and the party was over, so I had returned to the merchant's office to report it.

The feast was not a long one, and it was not entirely for entertainment.

When there is a large group of adventurers, it is better to have a party like this than to have a formal meeting.

Information is exchanged, and since it is a frontline city, no one drinks to the point of collapse.

The main topics of discussion today were the changing appearance patterns of Brokens, and the distribution of today's rewards.

Of course, it wasn't all serious talk, there was also laughter at wizards who mismanaged their magic, and talk about what they would buy with their rewards.

It's not a laughing matter, but for adventurers who have become accustomed to super-healing potions, anything other than instant death is considered an injury.

We talked like that, and then broke up when the food was gone.

If this were a safe city, there would be a drinking contest, and if not, the day would go on, but in a front-line city, a banquet is just that.

I'm on vacation, and I'm sorry I called you here for nothing. ......

I'm just finishing up some things over there, no problem. I just finished what I had to do over there, so it's not a problem. You seemed to have enough time this time, but that's not always the case. Is everything alright at the Chamber of Commerce?

It's a little late to be transporting zunana grass by boat, and the recent commotion has put our inventory in jeopardy, but that's about it, although the apothecary guild is still insisting that we bring in plenty. How about we build a facility on that island over there and bring it to you in liquid form, then I'm sure that ship will be able to transport it.

That's what we should do. I'm sure you'll be able to find something that will work for you.

Reba ...... defeated the Sublime Dragon again?

Yeah. I was fishing and it got caught in the net. It's long, so I thought I'd cut it into appropriate lengths and turn it into dragon bones.

I'm sure you'll be happy to know that I'm not the only one who's done this. And you don't need a lot of ships.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

I'm sure you've heard of it, but I'm not sure if you've seen it.

...... Oops, saying this makes a big boss appear.

I don't want a dragon or something to come out.

"Don't you need a ship? Not enough pace?

Building a distillation facility over there isn't too bad in terms of cost, so I was thinking of doing it anyway. I was thinking of doing it anyway.

Well, then we don't need it.

We'll have a whole lot of material left over. We'll just have to make a battleship.

No, I can't...

No, thank you. And the distillation plant?

Can we just take the one we have and move it over there?

That's fine. We'll be able to buy highly concentrated decibatore from the liquor stores. I'd also like to add some employees.

Are you sure you can handle such a large scale?

We are rather short. We've raised the prices, and we don't have a shortage in this town, but considering the amount of medicine consumed in other towns, we'll only be able to do so much once it becomes available.

"Then no problem, let's increase the amount of medicine so that we don't have a surplus. Do you want to explore other islands?

We don't need it right now because we can't keep up with the harvest, but we'll need it eventually.

I'll do it in my spare time.

After destroying all the trees with magic, the Zunana grass underneath them will grow the next day, so it won't be a problem until we have the employees ready, but it won't hurt to make a harvesting area.

Also, I caught a lot of fish over there.　It's not like meat here, you can eat it as it is.

"We don't have any fish here, even though we're near the sea, so I think we'll sell well. What kind of fish?

Like this one or this one: ......

You take a fish out of the item box.

One fish per species, as a sample.

"Wait a minute, you can't eat that.

Mercia stopped me when I had taken out about five fish.

I hadn't noticed it because I hadn't looked at the type of fish, but the appearance of the fish was a bit peculiar.

It was swollen with air and had small fins and tiny spines on its belly.

It's a blowfish, to put it bluntly.

It's called a puffer fish.

It's said to be poisonous, but can't it be eaten depending on how it's handled?　You can detoxify it with magic.

What are you going to do with it?

Blowfish is good, though. ......

It seems that people in this world are not as picky as the Japanese.

I've heard that even foreigners are turned off when they see Japanese people eating puffer fish. ......

I'll have a look at it later.

Well, I'll think about the puffer fish later. Everything else looks good, right?

"Don't think about it. The other fish are fine. They have not been processed, but they will not deteriorate in the item box. You can also boil or bake it before selling it.

"Do you heat these too?

He points to a tuna-like fish, which is not a boat killer.

It can be grilled, but tuna should be eaten raw.

You don't eat fish raw, do you?

"Is that what ...... is for?

It's true that we don't see sashimi very often here.

I feel the difference in food culture.

Let's leave it at that. Well, just leave it in the store like that. I'm going to carry the distillation equipment and zunana grass and cultivate a new zunana grass field.

"All right. Please do.

Well, let's finish the job quickly.

For now, I'll throw the distillation equipment into the item box, along with all the related equipment (mainly magic rocks that act like fuel).

I'll take this with me.

"Okay. The people at the apothecary were getting annoying, so honestly, it's a big help.

"This too?

How much do the Apothecary's Guild want concentrated liquid?

Even though we have enough here, there are plenty of other cities, so I understand that they want it, but I wish they would think about our situation a little bit.

We don't know the size of the market, and we don't know how much we should produce yet.

We took off from the warehouse and headed for the island of Zunana grass (the first Zunana island, I believe).

After a short flight, Zunana Island came into view.

Along with it, you see other islands of reasonable size.

I've got my bombing spell ready, and I'm going to secure some farmland while I'm at it.

I'll talk to them when I give them the equipment so that they won't be surprised.

So, I went to the office buildings on the island (there were three more, including a small one with a chimney, besides the one I had set up. The number of employees gathering medicinal herbs has also increased, and Zunana Island seems to be growing steadily.

"Yes. I've brought the distillation equipment, where do you want me to put it?

"What, owner? Where did it come from and when?

I just came from the sky. You got room?

Yeah, yeah. I've already got a cabin for that. This way.

We were led to the smallest of the additional buildings.

Is this why only one of them had what looked like a chimney?

I placed the distillation equipment I had brought with me in the position I was told, and although there were a few gaps, it fit well.

It's pretty good work.

It looks like they called in a carpenter, because they're making a lot of money. They said it was selling like hotcakes, so they raised the price several dozen times, but the sales didn't drop.

I heard they raised the price, but I didn't know they did that.

The price is so high that if they had expanded their production steadily, they might have found themselves in a conglomerate or something.

If we don't, supply and demand won't match up, we might as well ask Mercia and increase the number of employees at once.

How many more people do you think you can put on this island if you use it to its full potential?

There are 8 people on the island now, but I'd like to double that to 16, not including the distillers. If we had 24 harvesters in total, we could probably run the island at full capacity.

"That's about right.

The production pace would probably triple.

From what I've heard, it seems that tripling the production rate won't be enough.

Okay, I'm going to explore the other islands and go home. I'm going to explore the other islands and distill the Zunana plant stock.

We're in, aren't we?

No. Just tell them there's gonna be a loud noise.

I don't get spooked by noises. I'm fine.

It's pretty loud.

I'm sure it'll be fine.

I'll be back.

We climbed up into the sky and spotted a couple of neighboring islands.

The first is the one on your right.

When I invoke my usual blasting magic and warding, the trees and bumps on the top are blown away at once with a sound of explosion.

All that remains is a burnt field of potential farmland.

This, too, is doomed to be overrun by zunana grass tomorrow.

After the other island was blown away in a similar fashion, we looked at the first zunana plant and saw that it was also causing a commotion.

The employees who were harvesting the zunana grass were pointing at us and talking about something.

I'm not going back to the island because it's too much trouble.

Good luck with your explanation, bearded employee whose name I don't know.

It was still early evening when I came back to Photoren.

I had done all the work I needed to do, and I was bored.

Since I have no time anyway, and since I have a nice tuna and a sharp knife (also known as a magic sword), let's try to spread the Japanese food culture.

To eat sashimi, you want soy sauce, but the best seasoning is salt, which brings out the flavor of the ingredients.

From what I've eaten in the past, the fish here seems to be quite tasty, and that should be enough.

Let's show them the power of Japanese food, which is popular even in foreign countries.

By the way, we also have Leviathan in stock, but it seems to be too hard for ordinary people, so I'll put it on hold.