BXBX NOVEL Chapter 337
Chapter 337
「Ahhh……mmm, fuaaaah.」
Rei, who was sleeping in his bed, woke up with a big stretch.
Waking up and looking around, he was back in his small, 3 tatami sized room. Most of the room was taken up by the bed with barely enough space for one person.
In fact, a man nearly 2m in height and his female party member had visited a while ago. But, Rei remembered how suffocating it had felt at the lack of space as he looked out the window.
The sky outside the window was much darker and filled with rain clouds compared to the time they had fought the Lemrace the day before.
「……It’s a good thing we were able to fight the Lemrace yesterday.」
Wearing his Dragon Robe and Shoes of Sleipnir, Rei spoke to himself as he took the Dagger of Flowing Water out from the Misty Ring.
For clear reasons, Rei, who was good at fire magic, wouldn’t have the greatest time fighting in the rain. Similarly, he wouldn’t have wanted to fight a huge monster like the Lemrace in the rain.
「That said, we really did party too hard last night. It looks like it’s almost noon already.」
Hearing the noise from outside his room, he could roughly guess the time.
He had stayed up late drinking and singing at the guild bar and it was past midnight by the time he got back to the inn.
That said, Rei had already left early, there had still been many adventurers in the guild’s bar. Given that everyone was still fighting over the dishes cooked with the Lemrace meat that Rei had taken out from the Misty Ring, it was still noisy when Rei had left the bar.
「The guild……I guess I don’t really need to go there.」
Even if he went to the guild now, the only people there would be the ones still dead drunk. Thinking of that, Rei considered how he was going to spend the next 10 days of his agreement with Roseus.
Since his goal was to make sure the Lemrace was really gone, he couldn’t go that far from Emoshion and could only kill time around the city……
「I guess I can collect the magic stones of monsters that live around here, so that’s not too bad? I’ll get ready for that first then.」
He had killed several sea monsters up until now, but their bodies would always sink back down into the sea. Normally, corpses would have floated to the surface in the sea……
「In that case, I’ll need to be able to pull up the bodies of the monsters I’ve killed……a harpoon? It’s a port city, so I think I could get one made up if I went to a blacksmith.」
Muttering to himself, Rei left his room and went to the dining area on the first floor.
There were a good number of people eating lunch and there was a bright atmosphere.
「Ah, Rei-san. Good morning……no, I can’t really say that. It’s a bit late, but……what can I do for you? Would you like some food? Because you dealt with the Lemrace, you don’t need to pay for today.」
Rei gave a nod towards the innkeeper’s daughter, who had called out after seeing him come down the stairs and head towards the dining area.
(As expected of a port city. It seems news about the Lemrace has already spread.)
As Rei waited for his meal, he listened in the voices of the adventurers and sailors around him. Eventually, a seasoned and grilled fish sandwich, a seafood soup and a glass of cold water was placed at his table. In addition, maybe guessing Rei’s tastes from his previous meals, there was also a gratin like dish where a big shrimp was cut in half length-wise and baked with cheese and bread crumbs.
「That’s quite luxurious.」
「Yes. It’s thanks for killing the Lemrace. There were quite a few adventurers because of the bounty, but they were all just trouble because they couldn’t leave the port. As a resident of this city, Rei-san, thank you for removing the problem.」
Hearing what the innkeeper’s daughter was saying as she laughed lightly, he first reached out to the shrimp. Stabbing some of the meat with a fork, he brought it to his mouth along with the cheese. THe chewy texture of the shrimp and the rich taste of the cheese merged together into an enjoyable flavour in Rei’s mouth.
「……It’s delicious.」
「Yes. Isn’t that right? It’s a bit expensive because we used half a big shrimp, but it’s a speciality of this restaurant.」
「This taste definitely can be a speciality dish. ……Do you know what’s going on in the port?」
「Ah, yes. The first ship left the port early this morning. At first, the other ships just watched on, but after seeing it pass the area of the sea where the Lemrace usually appeared, they all left at the same time. I don’t think there’s many ships left at the port anymore? Even if there are any left, they’re mostly fishing boats.」
「……Heh.」
Rei responded as he smiled in admiration.
The inn keeper’s daughter was dazed for a moment, but immediately got back to work after coming back to reality.
Seeing her leave, Rei thought to himself as he drank a bowl of shellfish soup.
(The captain or owner of the first ship to leave the port either had a lot of guts or was in danger of not being able to to pay the port fees. ……Well, that’s none of my business.
Eating and enjoying a meal that was too extravagant to call a lunch, he first went to the stables to get Set before taking a look around the city.
「As expected, it’s definitely more lively than yesterday, though the number of adventurers has reduced significantly.」
「Gurururu~」
Rei muttered as he walked through the city with Set. In his hands was a large amount of grilled fish skewers, overnight dried squid, sandwiches and tropical fruits. Set gave a cry as he threw red and blue spotted fruits into his beak.
Rei hadn’t even needed to pay a single copper coin for all that food. All of it had been given to him for free, courtesy of the various stall owners.
Rumors that the Lemrace had been killed had travelled through the city overnight and it seemed that there had been celebrations with drinking and singing at every bar in the city. At the same time, as Rei had expected, news of who had killed the Lemrace had spread through the adventurers, resulting in a massive amount of food he wasn’t able to carry.
Originally, when Rei had first come to Emoshion, he had bought a lot of seafood as ingredients for cooking. Because of that, like in Gilm, he was considered to be a good customer by all the food shops in the city and he had become quite well known.
Food and ingredients he couldn’t carry had already been stored into the Misty Ring and everything he was holding was only a portion of what he had been given.
「Oh, it’s here.」
In the midst of all this, Rei arrived at store which he had heard had a good blacksmith.
It was a bit oof the main street and wasn’t easy to find if you tried looking for it normally. The owner was also a Dwarf, who was stubborn and didn’t get along with people that well. However, Rei had been told by a stall owner that the blacksmith still had work in Emoshion because his skill was just that good.
As Rei went to enter the smithy of the stubborn Dwarf……he stepped aside on reflex to avoid something that came flying out.
「UAHHHHHHH-!」
Something screaming flew past the space Rei had been before stepping to the side before crashing into the wall of the store opposite and tumbling to the ground.
「……What?」
A familiar face entered Rei’s eyes at the unexpected turn of events as he turned to look at who it was. It was man, nearly 2m tall, who had helped Rei fight the Lemrace.
「Gurururu~?」
Set approached Egret, who was lying on the ground and use his forefoot to shake Egret’s huge body, who was small in comparison to Set, as he gave a cry.
Are you okay? Set seemed to ask. Egret, seeing that Set was worried about him, got up and stroked his head.
「S-Sorry Set……huh? Wait, Set? What are you doing here Set? Rei as well……」
Egret seemed to have finally realised. He looked puzzled as he asked Rei.
「I heard that there was a good blacksmith here. ……Why are you here? What happened to Miroir, your external brain?」
「No, I do work with Miroir, but that doesn’t mean she’s always with me right? She’s doing something else today.」
Even though he had been thrown out, Egret didn’t seem to have any particular injuries, whether it was due to his armour or his tough body.
(There’s a 90% chance that it was just Egret’s tough body.)
Thinking about that as he gave a quick glance towards Egret, Rei made Set wait outside before entering the smithy. But at that moment……
「Oi, get out of here! I’ll never forge a weapon for people who know nothing like you!」
From the back of the smithy, a forging hammer flew out alongside an angry voice.
「Um, I’m sorry, but I’m not Egret.」
Rei caught the shaft of the spinning hammer, stopping it.
A Dwarf appeared from the back of the smithy, wondering why he hadn’t heard the hammer hit the ground.
Although he was only 130cm in height, his muscles were well trained and he was probably close to Egret purely in terms of weight. He might even be heavier than Egret. Typical of a Dwarf, he had strong face and a beard that reached his chest.
「Hah? What, you’re not that guy from earlier? ……I’m sorry, but I’m not in a good mood right now. So, what do you want?」
The Dwarf glared at Egret, who was peeking out from the smithy’s entrance, with a big scowl on his face before Rei started to speak.
「I want something to deal with monsters sinking into the sea after I kill them. Some sort of harpoon? Aside from that, if you have any barrels of scrap such as iron fragments, scrap ore or weapon fragments that you don’t need anymore, could you give them to me?」
「……Harpoon aside, what use do you have for such garbage?」
「It’s for one of my trump cards. It’s a very powerful weapon when I fight against large monsters like the Lemrace.」
Lemrace. Hearing that word, the Dwarf’s eyebrows twitched.
「The Lemrace? Hey, you’re kidding me, the adventurer that was rumoured to have killed the Lemrace yesterday……」
「Ah. That would be me. Also, Egret, who was thrown out earlier was one of the people who helped kill it.」
「What-!?」
Egret gave a wry smile from the entrance to the smithy as the Dwarf looked at him with wide eyes.
「Even if you say I helped to kill it, most of the achievement belongs to Rei. It was Rei who prepared the magic item to move it and it was also Rei who killed the Lemrace after we were hardly able to hurt it.」
「……It was because of your attack with that spear that the Lemrace lost one of its eyes.」
Hearing that, the Dwarf gave a small nod as he called out to Egret, who was still looking in from the outside.
「Tch, well, if you say that you were the ones who killed the Lemrace, I can’t kick you out. Enter.」
Clicking his tongue, the Dwarf invited Egret into the smithy and directed with his eyes to sit on a chair.
Both Rei and Egret sat on a chair facing the Dwarf, who was the first to speak.
「You’re stupid, but since you killed the Lemrace, I’ll put up with it and hear you out. What kind of weapon do you want to make with that material.」
「A poleaxe. I want to make a poleaxe with the Lemrace’s fang.」
「……I told you this earlier. That fang isn’t a good fit for a poleaxe. It’s such a long fang. It would be more effective to make a spear or halberd out of it. You could use the tip of the fang as the spear tip on a halberd, but for a poleaxe, I can only crush the fang and mixing it into the blade when I forge it. In terms of pure strength, it will only be 60% as good as a halberd……even if I try my hardest, it won’t be more than 70%. Are you sure you still want to make a poleaxe with it?」
「Yes, of course.」
Egret nodded without a moments hesitation. The Dwarf stared at Egret before giving a deep sigh and nodding while scratching his head.
「Not much I can say. It’s hard to say no to a guy who helped to kill the Lemrace. I understand. But since I’m making it, I won’t settle for something half-baked.」
「Alright! Since I brought this much material, it would be a bother if I couldn’t get what I wanted.」
「Ah, of course. Well, that’s enough of him. So, Rei, did you say? You wanted a harpoon?」
Rei nodded at the Dwarf’s words, who seemed to start talking with him to change his mood.
「Yes. To be exact, it would be better if the edge of the blade had barbs to stop it from getting pulled out after piercing into a monster. Also, since I plan to use it as a throwing weapon, I would like the shaft of the harpoon to be attached to a rope or something so I can pull it back. You don’t have to worry about weight, so please just make it as sturdy as possible.」
「……Is that okay with your physique?」
「Yes. Even if I look like this, I’ve done a lot of training. Also, if you have any Flame Crystal ore scraps, please put them into the barrels as well. The explosive power from that would make a difference.」
The Dwarf nodded at Rei’s words, letting out a similar sigh to when he had heard Egret’s request.