Death March — Fixed

“Then, thank you, everyone from Felspar, for your rescue! For our safe return, let’s drink the night away!”

 

The feast begins with the leader’s greetings. His name is Koshin, and he seems to be the leader of a veteran Adventurer party called White Horse Mane. This wasn’t their first time combining multiple parties and going deep into the Labyrinth.

 

We are located on the square, which is usually covered in stalls, around 300 meters to the east of the West Gate. There are around 30 food stalls and 10 drink stalls lined up, out of the way.

 

Besides us, there are also other Adventurers and people who seem to be day labourers enjoying the food and liquor from the stalls. Among them, there are people who are obviously prostitutes--they are wearing the very revealing clothing that prostitutes wear, and they have a stall, with a sign.

 

There are no chairs and tables, it seems that we’re going to eat and drink while sitting in a circle on the ground. Of course, we placed a sheet on the ground first, and I used Disinfect and Clean, among other Life Magic Spells.

 

“Mage, thank you for the clothes back then…” Gena says, as the two women from Beautiful Wings approach us. They are carrying the clothing, which is folded and seems to have been cleaned.

 

“Mwu?” Mia looks slightly troubled, her eyes meet mine, looking for assistance.

 

“Please have those clothes.”

 

The two have scavenged their remaining clothing, wrapping it around their bodies in such a way that the most important places are covered. Everything other than their chest wrap and make-shift skirts, their bodies are revealed.

 

I don’t mind the way they are dressing, but the way their cheeks are slightly pink and they seem to be trying to avoid others’ glances, I think it would be better if they keep the clothing.

 

“Thank you very much, Chevalier.” Iruna says in a tone which seems to have relief mixed in, and they quickly put on the shirts and pants--we all ignore the overly exaggerated groans of disappointment from the surrounding men.

 

***

Pochi seems to be struggling with overly tough meat, gnawing on it with a slight frown, meat juices are dripping down her chin and slim neck. The owner of the stall is watching in astonishment, pausing for a second before talking, “You are supposed to slice it into thin slices with a knife before eating it.”

 

“I will not lose to this very tough meat!” Pochi muttered.

 

I could see determination in her eyes.

 

Tama nodded enthusiastically, before joining the battle with her own piece of meat, and Liza nodded sagely--but she began to thin the meat. Liza seems to have been learning from Lulu, and eats with more manners recently.

 

Lulu looks like she wants to scold Tama and Pochi, but when she glances at me, I shake my head. It would be better to let them have their fun, and we weren’t around nobles, so there was no need to act all overly-polite.

 

She looks away from the Beastkin and cuts some of the meat into thin slices, after putting it on a plate, she passes it to me. While it has a fairly strange smell, it actually tastes really good--it reminds me of Goat, and Kangaroo meat actually.

 

“I’m surprised that noble is willing to eat this meat,” The owner of the stall looks impressed, “It’s Monster meat, Insect meat to be precise.”

 

“It’s alright, I only became a noble recently, and Monster meat has been the most common meat I have eaten.” I grin at him--fighting back the instinctive feeling of nausea when I find out it comes from Insect Monsters…Monster meat may taste good, but it’s best not to imagine where it comes from…

 

It seems that there are Adventurers who aren’t very good at fighting, but specialize in collecting meat from the corpses of Monsters. Most Adventurer parties usually only take the Magic Cores and shells, unless the Monster is listed on the board at the entrance.s

 

They are called Corpse Retrievers, and are seen as the lowest. But it is a way for new Adventurers, or semi-crippled Adventurers, to make a living if they cannot fight.

 

There are some Adventurers swinging their swords, in what seem to be sword-dances, since they wouldn’t work in real combat, in the center of the circle.

 

When that was over, Pochi and Tama entered the space.

 

I wonder if someone incited them, because they demonstrated the jump they used to land on the back of the Hunter Mantis. Cheers rise when Tama is flung over 10m into the air, it seems that Pochi forgot about her increase in Strength.

 

Nana used Physical Reinforcement, and darted forwards, catching Tama before she could hit the ground.

 

***

Lulu mentioned some of the beans and potatoes which were the part of her’s, mine, and Mia’s meal. We were informed that they also came from Monsters, ones called Walking Beans and Hopping Potatoes. It seems that the Labyrinth isn’t only a mine, but also a ranch and farm.

 

The Walking Bean is a 30cm tall pod with arms and legs, with 2 - 3 beans inside, which can be removed after you kill it. Since it’s around 4x as big as normal broad beans, it seems that they sell fairly well--5 copper for one of the seeds, and 10 Copper for both. 20 Copper for the entire Monster, since the outer shell is also edible.

 

The Hopping Potato is a strange potato-type Monster that jumps around using a cellulite-based spiral that grows from its base and functions like a spring.

 

You can get almost 2 - 3 Kilograms of Potato from a single Monster. Since one kilo sells for 5 Copper, you can make a fair amount of money.

 

An Adventurer who uses a spear told me that the Hopping Potatoes can be very easily defeated if you ready a spear or javelin, since they use a ramming attack. This man has been talking passionately to Liza about spears since a while ago, and he seems to know his business.

 

Both of them are Area -14 Monsters.

 

Strangely, neither of these Monsters give Experience, or very little Experience--since some people have hunted them for years without leveling up. Therefore, Adventurers who urgently need gear, or money, hunt them until they can move to another area.

 

Iruna from Beautiful Wings hands me a cup, without a word, and I take it. When I taste the contents, it seems to be alcohol. However, this alcohol tastes bad, like they have mixed beer with vinegar--but the percentage feels high, higher than 40%…

 

The girls decided not to drink this time, though they had me promise to drink with them another time. Other than Arisa, and Liza, they seem nervous drinking around so many rough Adventurers like this.

 

So, I gave them some fruit juice, which has experimental carbonation. They aren’t poisonous, and they taste good, but for some reason--using a spell to carbonate liquid, makes the bubbles pop with more force than soft drinks on Earth. I was very surprised the first time I tried it, and had a coughing fit, but the girls loved it.

 

Around 3 - 4 hours after sunset soldiers in red leather came by. They ordered us to break the party up, since there is a restriction when it comes to doing business this late at night.

 

Since I can’t leave the completely wasted girls from Beautiful Wings, and I don’t know where they usually stay, I decide to take them to the mansion. I carry Gena, and Liza carries Iruna. The guestroom is vacant, so they can sleep there.

 

Some of the Adventurers looked at us strangely when we walked off with the girls, but they will realize that it wasn’t a kidnapping when the girls wake up and go back to the Adventurer’s Guild tomorrow.

 

***

“Sorry for troubling you last night.”

“We’re very sorry.”

 

The girls of Beautiful Wing apologized for last night. They were enduring hangovers, and when I offered them a Potion to cure them--they both embraced me with a laugh, while saying I was their saviour.

 

They said that usually they don’t go that overboard when at a tavern, but since Koshin was treating, they decided to go all out. To show them that their apology is accepted, I invite them to breakfast.

 

They seemed to love the breakfast that Lulu cooked, and they praised her many times, causing her to look both proud and bashful. She was very cute like that--and she blushed an even deeper crimson when I told my thought.

 

Last night, I heard that they had been fined 2 gold coins each for the Ant train, and they were loaned money to repay it. However, the debt increases by 30% every 10 days, and if they can’t pay the monthly interest rate, they will be sold as slaves.

 

I offered to pay their debts for them.

 

This wasn’t entirely out of sympathy, it was also part of a plan of mine to help Labyrinth City with all its orphans. Arisa and I had wracked our brains about this problem, and we decided that the quickest way would be to train the baggage carrier children to become Adventurers, and once they reach adequate levels they should be able to sustain themselves.

 

I would then refer some of them to be soldiers for Baron Muno. The others could train following generations of children, and theoretically it could become a nice loop.

 

The problem is, if they follow the training regime that I designed for the girls, they will level up without getting the minimum knowledge on anything other than how to kill Monsters. They could make good soldiers if they are okay with killing Humans and Demi-Humans, but they would easily be scammed out in the real world.

 

When the girls from Beautiful Wings mentioned their debts, I decided that I would scout them as the first teachers. There would be others, but it would be for the best if the ones I hired first were people I knew.

 

These girls should be qualified, with all they seem to have gone through. Since I can’t go with Nana into the Labyrinth for the next two days, I ask Arisa and the others to train the two.