CH 68

“Is this your first time in an adventurer guild, Sora?”

“I’ve visited adventurer guilds a few times to check out what kind of quests they had, how to put up a quest myself, and that sort of thing.”

Of course, the truth is that I was an adventurer, although I mostly just did picking quests.

People’s eyes are on us as we enter the guild, because they’re not used to seeing us.

Locke goes up to a receptionist and takes care of the formalities for all of us, before Locke, his party, and Leila go up to the second floor, and everyone else is taken to the storeroom where they take apart monsters.

“You hunted orcs?”

Asks the guild employee who takes monsters apart. I think he’s asking because there hasn’t been a quest in the guild to hunt orcs in a while.

“Where should I put them?”

“In that open space over there.”

I feel like this person sounds puzzled because I’m completely empty-handed.

But I start dumping out the orcs anyway, and after bringing out thirty of them, there’s no more room.

“Hey hey. There’s still more?”

We ate a few of them, but counting the orclord and the general, there are fifteen left. After I say this, I’m taken to a storeroom even further back.

“Put the other ones here.”

The employee gets flustered when I take out the orclord and the general.

“Hey hey. Where did you hunt this?”

I can hear the employee’s voice shaking. Other guild employees that came to see what the fuss is about also look surprised to see two superior species.

As they look at the burned orclord, some are shocked to see it, and some are disappointed that the value of its materials isn’t as good as it could be.

“Hey, someone call the guild master.”

A loud, excited voice echoes through the storeroom, and employees start running around.

After a while, the guild master arrives, and he explains the situation to the employees. He already heard everything from Leila and the others, who are standing behind him.

Locke and the others look surprised too, probably because it’s their first time actually seeing all the orcs.

When we’re asked what we want to keep, I say I want a few magic stones, and meat from orcs, the general, and the orclord. Hikari nods with a satisfied expression.

Locke and his party refrain from asking for anything at first, because they say they didn’t actually hunt them, so I ask for orc general and orclord meat, to be cooked in the inn where we’re all staying tonight.

“But this is all very surprising. This is storage magic, isn’t it?”

Asks the old guild master as he looks at the number of orcs and their condition.

“Kind of.”

“And they’re all in such good condition. Storage magic shouldn’t stop deterioration, so how did you do it?”

“I preserve them as best I can with water magic. It’s a trick I use to freeze the meat and preserve its quality.”

It took a lot of effort to learn how to do this. I worked hard mostly to meet Hikari’s expectations.

“I would most certainly like to hear about it.”

“It’s my bread and butter, so I’m sorry, but I can’t do it.”

I wouldn’t need to do this if I maxed out my Spatial Magic skill, but I think that’s still going to take a while.

“But still, you are strong enough to defeat an orclord. You should definitely register here, in the adventurer guild.”

“Ah… I don’t think I can do something like that again. I damaged a magic item in that battle that was a family heirloom. None of the weapon shops I’ve visited sell it, so I don’t think I can have it repaired.”

At the very least, I’ve never seen one in any weapon shop I’ve visited.

Also, when it breaks, it decomposes back into its constituent parts like metal. I’ll have to remake it later as a fifth generation.

But I don’t want them to expect anything from me, so I have to be firm and say no. I don’t want any weird rumors about me to start going around either.

He asks to see the magic item, but I politely decline. He then starts stubbornly insisting, but Hikari gets mad. Of course, I pat her on the head.

As for how much we get for the orcs… It’s quite a bit.

Locke and his party decline the portion from the orcs we defeated in the cave, but we share it equally. We managed to take the orcs down because they handled the defense of the village.

The orc general and the orclord are bought at a high price, although the orclords value decreased a little because it’s burned. Everyone receives twenty gold coins for them, and I get two orcs worth of free meat as a transportation fee. Apparently we would have gotten even more if the orclord was in good condition, but we had to take it down in any way we could and couldn’t afford to care about that.

After our business in the adventurer guild is done, we are taken to the inn provided for us. There’s still some time until our next meal, so I decide to go out shopping.

As I leave my room with Hikari, we bump into Leila, and for some reason she’s now coming along. And it’s not just her either, it’s her whole party.

First, we go get food, which is the main reason why I decided to go out in the first place.

There are a lot of seasonings I’ve never seen before, but Yor knows about them, so it helps to have her with us. I find beans that look like soybeans, and I buy a lot. People think that’s strange, but oh well. I need this to experiment and see if I can make soy sauce and miso with magic or alchemy.

Once I’m done with that, it’s time to restock on everything we need to travel, and stop by a weapons and equipment store. The holy city has a better selection of items, so right now we really are just stocking up on what we’ll need on the way there.

I tell everyone I can make potions if I have medicinal herbs, so they’ll rely on me for that.

They are about to buy ones that are poor quality, so I stop them and give them a roundabout excuse.

We’re done shopping, so we return to the inn, and join Locke and the others when it’s time to eat.

Locke and his party drink alcohol like it’s really tasty, so I have a hard time stopping Hikari when she sees that and starts saying she wants some too. Orc general and orclord’s meat is softer compared to regular orcs’, and have a distinctive flavor.

It’s to the point where I fear that I won’t be able to go back to regular meat if I get used to this. Of course, that depends on the skill of the cook too. Then again, a simple steak with just salt and pepper is really good too, so I guess the quality of the meat really makes a big difference.

We have a lot of fun, and we’re able to relax for the first time in a while.

By the way, Yor’s pendant is decorated with her family crest, proving her identity, so that’s how the officer of veracity was able to confirm who she is.