NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14.2
14.2. Gemstone Adventurers
After the battle, Nord and the others moved through the rocky mountains again, starting to skin the bodies of the Rockwolves that remained here and there.
To prevent the skinned bodies from rotting, they buried them together, erasing all traces of the Rockwolves from the rocky mountains.
The pack of Rockwolves had been exterminated, leaving only Nord and Elsa on the battlefield.
When they counted before burying, the total number of Rockwolves had reached eighty-two, combined with those they had defeated up to today.
“I can’t believe there were so many.”
That was Elsa’s remark.
Nord agreed. How many did the request form say? They should definitely ask the guild staff when they returned. Additional rewards were to be expected.
They had a little over a day to wait until the carriage from the Adventurer’s Guild, which they had requested in advance, arrived.
They had already gathered the parts to prove the extermination and the materials they could skin.
With the free time, Nord decided to collect resources to offset at least some of the losses—
the alchemical oil they used had cost a significant amount.
Since they were in mountainous terrain, they couldn’t gather herbs, but instead, they managed to collect several minerals.
While the quantity wasn’t much, it should yield some money.
With that in mind, Nord set off on the return journey to the royal capital with Elsa.
Along the way, Nord busied himself trying to earn a bit of money.
He searched for anything of monetary value, not wanting to miss even a single copper coin, looking for herbs and other valuable items.
On the outbound trip, the carriage was cramped with barrels of alchemical oil, but on the return trip, they felt cramped again with Nord’s collected items and the fur of the Rockwolves.
Despite the carriage being even more cramped than the outbound journey, neither Nord nor Elsa felt uncomfortable.
Then, like the outbound journey, they returned to the royal capital after a total of five days.
§
At the Adventurer’s Guild, they completed their report of the quest’s achievement.
During that time, Elsa was evidently quite angry at the staff for having to fight far more Rockwolves than they had been informed about, especially the Armored Wolves.
She vented her frustration like her fiery red hair, complaining vehemently.
The intensity of her anger rivaled the flames that had burned the Armored Wolves, leaving Nord with no opportunity to interject.
“Ha ha! We did it!”
With the rewards stated in the request and the additional rewards from the Adventurer’s Guild, Elsa had a beaming smile.
Moreover, when combined with the fur of the skinned Rockwolves, the rewards this time amounted to a significant sum.
Even after subtracting the amount used for traps, they still had quite a bit of profit.
And then…
New guild cards peeked out from around Nord and Elsa’s necks.
They were guild cards for Gemstone Adventurers.
Unlike the slightly rough texture of the stone carved from the Slate Adventurers’ plate,
the surface of the beautifully polished milky-white stone reflected the sunlight, shining smoothly.
Aside from the texture, nothing had changed from before, but Nord had once again risen in rank as an adventurer.
He savored the feeling of that achievement.
“Hey, Nord, I have a suggestion…”
Under her red hair, Elsa, with the milky-white guild card hanging at her chest, asked.
“What is it?”
Nord prompted her to continue.
“It’s about the material from the Armorwolf; do you want to sell it to me?”
Even though the Armorwolf had been burned by Nord and Elsa’s fire scheme, it still left behind a part of its armor as fur.
However, the Armorwolf was quite large.
Even a portion of its armor provided enough material to be used for crafting armor.
For this party with Elsa, they had previously agreed to split everything 50:50.
In reality, they had already divided the quest rewards and the materials from the Rockwolves.
The only thing left was the material from the Armorwolf.
The material from the Armorwolf boasted far superior defensive capabilities compared to the hardened leather armor that Nord and Elsa were currently wearing, aside from its resistance to flames.
If they could craft that equipment, it would make fulfilling Gemstone Adventurer requests much easier.
However, unfortunately, because they had used fire traps, a significant portion of the Armorwolf’s armor had burned away.
Only enough remained to potentially craft one person’s armor.
If they split it between the two of them, they would only be able to equip a portion of their gear,
but if one of them monopolized it, they could fully equip themselves with top-tier gear.
At this moment, Nord needed money more than equipment.
Elsa wanted to prioritize her gear, while Nord wanted to secure funds.
Their desires were different.
Nord gladly accepted Elsa’s proposal.
§
“Alex.”
After leaving the Adventurer’s Guild, Nord hurried home.
The Ferris residence welcomed him back after about two weeks with its usual appearance.
After removing his armor, Nord headed to find Alex, the steward, after asking a maid about his whereabouts.
“Oh, welcome back, Nord-sama.”
Alex greeted him respectfully, and Nord presented him with a leather pouch.
That heavy pouch contained silver coins.
“It should have the amount I mentioned, but just to be sure, check it.”
“I’m tired, so I’ll rest a bit,” he said, quickly leaving Alex’s room.
Alex, cradling the leather pouch he received with both hands, deeply bowed his head.
His head remained down for a while even after Nord left the room.
In Alex’s eyes, the sight of the bandages peeking out from under Nord’s right arm sleeve was firmly etched in his memory.