Chương 53: Chapter Fifty-Three: Clean Up

FIFTY-THREE Roan trudged back through the gates, gasping as his shoulders ached and burned from the weight of the dead lion. The mob guardians hardly looked at him as he staggered toward the bounty board. He let the lion slide from his shoulder to thump to the ground. A knee buckled and the unexpected shift in weight sent the other knee out as he slammed to the ground, leaning against the post of the bounty board.

"Do you have bounties to turn in?" the tricorn wearing mob asked. Roan looked up at it and nodded, panting as he pulled the bloody backpack off and set it in front of him.

"Yeah." Roan gasped out as he opened the pack and started pulling out the rumpled bounties and started matching them with flowers and rocks he'd found around the area. Roan was drenched in sweat, blood, and dirt as he built out a pile of bounties. It was at that moment that everyone started to pile through the gates. Darren led the way with Taoya right behind him, a wounded man slung over the man's shoulder like he was a bag of flour.

"I leave you alone for an hour or two and you look like this?" Taoya said, shaking his head slowly as. Roan flipped him the bird and continued to lay out his bounties, uncaring of the eyes on him. Darren quickly read over the board, a frown starting to cover his face.

"See you got a headstart," Darren said finally as Roan laid out the last of the bounties. It was about an hour and a half worth of work, not counting lugging the giant cat with him, and he was doing the math as fast as he could. The mob was faster though.

"Bounties accepted!" It clapped once and a stream of mobs appeared coming from the sides. They bent down to pick up the remnants of his hunt and bundled them up, disappearing into the heart of the village.

"With the injection of fresh supplies, our artisans will now be able to create more wares and offer discounts. The more materials brought in, the more our artisans will be able to make," the bounty rewarding mob said.

"Multiple specimens were of poor quality and lowered your maximum amount possible. Rewards generating now," the mob said. Roan frowned as he thought of the partially crushed flowers and poorly harvested bark and mushrooms he'd found. The entire forest was practically boiling with life, if one only knew what to look for.

"Enough gawking, let's get these people to bed," Moira snapped from somewhere in the press of bodies and that was enough to get people moving. Darren eyed him warily as he walked away, but in moments Roan was left alone with the glowing results of his fast bounty hunt. BOUNTIES TURNED IN: 11 FUNDS TRANSFERED: 7, 700 CREDITS CURRENT BALANCE: 36, 016 CREDITS Each bounty had a max score of one-thousand credits. His poor harvesting ability had cost him thirty-three hundred credits.

It was irritating, but at the moment Roan had too many other things he needed to do or buy. He got up and searched the board, noticing that the bounties he'd claimed had already reappeared, and tried to find something to earn him points for the cub. There was a bounty, but it was just for monster extermination and only had a two-hundred credit reward. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Are all goblinoids considered monsters?" Roan asked the mob.

"No. Though there is an extermination bounty on all goblinoids. Return a pair of ears for a single bounty of fifty credits."

"Is there anyone who would use the animal? Could they pay for it directly?" Roan asked. Only two-hundred credits for the grass lion seemed too low.

"Yes. The butcher will pay you for the meat and will disassemble the monster for a fee. They will also sell the parts that are valuable to other artisans for another fee," the mob said.

"How much is the fee?"

"Ten percent," the mob said.

"And how much will he pay me?"

"I do not know. The carcass must be graded," the mob said. Roan sighed and looked back at the limp corpse and pushed upward on his trembling legs as he threw its paws over his shoulder and started to rise again. Roan left the area and headed toward the artisan rows, trying to remember if he'd seen a butcher shop.

"Why is this thing so much heavier now," Roan grumbled as he wandered down the streets. There were enough climbers now that he drew more than one interested look, but he ignored them as he continued to walk around until he found the butcher's shop and staggered in. Another mob stood behind a perfectly clean butcher's block. Its eyes turned to track Roan as he threw the dead lion cub onto the counter and sagged in relief.

"Would you like to sell me this monster?" the mob asked.

"Yeah. How much?" Roan asked. The butcher stared at the corpse for a long minute and looked up.

"With wounds to the hide, destruction of key area, this is a poor-grade corpse. I will award you seven hundred and fifty credits for it."" Lot better than two hundred." Roan just nodded and got the alert that he'd received another deposit of six hundred and seventy-five credits. He had forgotten about the ten percent fee the mob would take.

"Meals will soon become available at local restaurants. Enjoy," the mob said in the same mechanical tones they all had. Roan waved its attention away and walked out of the butcher's shop and started looking for the temporal chambers." If the prices are right, they're expensive, but I only have five days on the floor before we're scheduled to walk down them. We all need to be strong enough to somehow kill that dragon to escape.

Or at least lure it out of the cave so others can evacuate," Roan thought to himself as he found the temporal chambers. Like the rest of the village, the buildings were small, cute, clean, and had fresh flowers in planter boxes underneath their window seals. Unlike the rest of the houses there were guards in front of the doors, armed with nasty looking crossbows with short swords on their belts.

"Can I go in?" Roan asked, looking over the guards.

"Yes. We shall protect you from being bothered." The mob spoke in short clipped tones.

"How many chambers are there?"

"Eight." Roan cursed as he looked at the small row of buildings. Only eight people at a time could use them. Or possibly eight parties at a time. Roan felt the pressure mount about wanting to go in and start training immediately, but he thought of the body tempering manual and the ingredients he needed. The more he could do at one time the better the money was spent.

"Can I reserve one?"

"No."

"Shit. Alright, got to be quick," Roan said as he hunted down the body tempering manual and started looking at the first set of body cleansing ingredients he needed. Most everything could be found here he thought, he just had to find the right stores and he'd be set. Aside from skill shaping, Roan was positive he could work on all of the other skills at the same time. Roan started jogging as he looked for the alchemist shop.