CH 28

I’m on my way back after being out for a few days with Hipopo.

Kalin gave me the budget to solve the water storage problem, just like she said she would. If we have big water jugs, adding a purification function to it shouldn’t be a problem.

Roa and Ahri went to the royal capital to spend most of the budget on new water jugs. There’s only so much we can do in a remote region.

In the meantime, we went out to get materials from a monster, and I’m really glad it went without a hitch. Kalin told me about the monsters that live nearby, and I had an idea of what I wanted, but we’re still talking about living beings, so there was a good chance that I wouldn’t find it.

In a sense, I was actually pretty lucky, and I even hunted other monsters on the way. I’m really excited because I got all sorts of transmutation materials.

I was right to prepare scrolls to hunt different types of monsters. Using a scroll that’s not appropriate for the monster I’m hunting could end up damaging the materials I’m trying to get in the first place.

“Bumoh.”

Warns Hipopo while I’m lost in thought. We’re near enough to Kalin’s camp to see it.

I ride Hipopo all the way to the camp, and the people I pass welcome me back. Many even ask me how the hunt went. I can feel everyone is excited about the possibility of our water rations increasing.

I pass by the food storehouse and see the man responsible for it. Ahri told me his name after we met.

“Ah, Master Rust! Welcome back!”

“Thank you Litna. I actually wanted to talk to you. I hunted monsters on the way, but I thought there might be edible parts, so I separated the materials I can use for transmutations and brought the rest too.”

“Really!? Thank you, I’ll buy them! So where’s that meat!?”

“In this backpack. Its capacity was expanded a little with alchemy.”

I say while pointing to my backpack.

It’s at this point that I notice people from the camp gathering around us. They all look strong and muscular, and are probably curious to see what I’ve hunted.

“Ah, I just removed the materials I needed, I didn’t do any other preparations. Where should I put them?”

“Ou, we have a place to take that stuff apart over there! We can check it there, but what did you hunt?”

Litna takes me to a nearby tent.

I put my backpack down and activate a scroll. The people that followed us look on with curious expressions.

“Well then, I’ll start taking them out.”

I say while taking the monster corpses out of my backpack one after the other.

First it’s a bull type monster with two lines of horns that go from the head all the way to the back. I took out their horns and multiple stomachs to use as materials. There are four of them, so the place is already feeling kind of cramped.

“W-what!? Four male twin linehorns?”

“You hunted them alone!? That’s dangerous, they move in groups!”

“Lovely! Is this yakiniku?”

Several voices echo around me.

“And they’re in pristine condition! Marvelous, hey you! Come here and help.”

Litna calls his subordinates working inside the tent.

“There’s still more…”

“What!?”

“I’ll just continue taking them out.”

I continue taking the dead monsters out of my backpack.

These ones are mouse type monsters of various sizes, three-headed horse type monsters, and bear type monsters that look like moles at first glance. And to top it off, dozens of fish type monsters that grew legs to walk on the ground.

I put them all in a pile.

“Hey hey hey, this isn’t a little.”

Mumbled Litna.

The people that were making so much noise around us are now completely silent, except for one person.

“Thousand rat, hellhorse, land dragon bear… And I’ve never seen that one. But at the very least, you defeated several land dragon bears and hellhorses, monsters recognized as being especially dangerous. I definitely want to fight you some time.”

Says a bald man that stands out as being particularly muscular even among this crowd.

I can feel his intense stare.

“…I’ll leave the rest to you. Please tell me when you finish assessing them.”

I say before quickly leaving.