Chapter 154

Chapter 154 — A Much Put-upon Deputy Guild Master

After breakfast Dora-chan announced he wanted to eat pudding . "Yeah, yesterday's wobbly stuff . I want to eat it again . " Dora-chan really liked pudding, it seemed .

"Sui also wants to eat cake-" Sui-chan added, pyonging around hopefully . They both liked sweet things . Well, it would be easy enough for me to indulge them but they'd just want more and more unless I laid down some rules . Eating too many sweets would be bad for their health, after all .

"Hmm, I will do it this time, but sweet things like pudding and cake are two per day, no more . " I glanced around at Fer who was pretending not to listen but the drool around his jaws showed he was paying close attention . "This will apply to all three of you guys, Fer, Dora-chan and Sui-chan, OK?"

"Eh, just two-? Gimme a little more will ya?" Dora-chan pushed .

"Only two-?" Sui-chan asked plaintively . Both Dora-chan and Sui seem a little dissatisfied with the limit I was setting but I had to harden my heart .

"Two pieces a day is fine but no more . " I insisted .

"All right, two pieces are fine . " Dora-chan said after a second or two, giving in at least for the time being . I suspected this would be a battle I'd have fight again in the future but for the moment the victory was mine .

"Sui is good with two-" Sui-chan agreed, following Dora-chan's lead .

"I want to eat a wobbly thing right away . " Dora-chan insisted .

"What does Sui want-?" Sui-chan paused, obviously thinking seriously about this important question . "Hmmm, Sui will have one as well, a cake but something different from yesterday's cake-" .

"Give me that white one with the red fruits on top again . " Fer added quickly, all pretence of disinterest gone in an instant . So all of them wanted a sweet after breakfast? That was fine, now that I had set the rules . I bought a custard pudding and strawberry shortcake at the Net Super's Sanke tenant shop and then after thinking a bit I got Sui-chan a a strawberry mousse cake .

"Here they are . " I said after dishing them out .

"Ooooh, the wobbly stuff again, great!" Dora-chan's muzzle was caked with his long-awaited pudding as he messily gobbled it up .

"Umu . " Fer ate his shortcake in a single bite, not bothering to savour its taste .

"Wow, this is something I've never eaten before . Oh, this is sweet and sour and delicious-!" The strawberry mousse cake seemed to be to Sui-chan's taste too .

Well, now that had everyone finished eating their after-breakfast dessert, how about we go to the Adventurers Guild?

* * * * *

When we arrived at the Adventurers Guild the staff hurried off to fetch Elland-san who arrived promptly to greet us before he led us up to his private Guild Master's office .

"So, can we buy your dungeon drop products now?" he asked, getting right down to business .

"Yes . But I should warn you there is a lot more than I thought . . . " I said .

"Oh really? First, tell me what sort of things you have to sell and I'll be able to determine what the Guild will be willing to buy from you . " Elland-san had said earlier that the Guild wanted to buy all the skins that made up most of the drops we had collected but thinking about it the high-value drops like gems and magic items would be less likely to sell, at least straight away . I fumbled for the list I had made the day before and finally found it before reading it out aloud .

"Weeeell, let's see, there's Venom Tarantula poison sac x 3, Orc meat x 56, Orc testicle x 31, Orc skin x 125, Lizardman skin x 63, Ogre skin x 102, Ogre magic stone (small) × 21, Troll skin × 113 pieces . . . . . . ( . . . omitted) . . . . . . and finally a magic detoxification necklace × 1"

I didn't include the ring of magic recovery in the list because I was already wearing it and not planning to sell it . There was also the little matter of the cursed sword Caladbolg . I wanted to think about that a bit more and maybe discuss it with Elland-san after the other drops had been dealt with . It was the sort of show-stopper that would derail our negotiations for selling the simpler items first . Even so, after I had finished reading out the very long list of drop items I had for sale Elland-san's mouth was hanging open . The combination of Elvish good looks and stunned expression on his face almost made me laugh out loud but I schooled myself .

After a few seconds he shook himself a little and his confident Guild Master face re-appeared . "Well, that's a tremendous amount, isn't it . . . " he muttered, deep in thought . Well, thinking back on what happened in the dungeon my three contracted monsters are strong and they gleefully slaughtered every monster they encountered so it's not surprising there were a lot of drops .

"I was in a party that cleared the first 29 levels of Doran's dungeon and we collected a considerable number of drops and magic items but, well . . . " Elland-san spread his hands . "What we brought back doesn't begin to approach your achievements, Mukouda-san . "

"No no," I said, "Fer, Dora-chan and Sui did all the hard work . I just worked at collecting all the drops from the monsters they defeated . " Okay, I fought a bit, well a little bit but it was all up to them, really .

"The majestic figure of Dora-chan . . . " That regrettably familiar expression came across Elland-san's face . "I truly wanted to see him fight monsters in the dungeon . Alas, I was prevented from following you by the Guild's Deputy Master . . . " Tut tut, Elland-san . You would just have been in the way if you had followed us, never mind the extra work you would have imposed on Doran's Deputy Guild Master .

"Oh, that aside," Elland-san shook himself, returning to the business at hand . "About the purchases, I'm sorry but we can't buy everything, I hope you understand . " Well the amount of items we were offering for sale was rather excessive, that was true . "But skin drops from the dungeon are always in high demand and we can buy most if not all of them . The Orc skins and Lizardman skins for sure and I would like to buy all of the Ogre skins too . I also want the Troll skins but . . . hmmm, I think I'll have to consult with the Deputy Guild Master to see if we can purchase them too . " Ellan-san's face fell again . "The Deputy Guild Master was rather angry about me spending so much of the Guild's funds earlier . "

Oh, was he really angry with you, Elland-san? Okay, I had received the money in question but it seemed it was because of Ellan-san's own desires in regard to the Earth Dragon's disassembly rather than a hard-headed business transaction .

"That's not a problem . " I reassured the dismayed Guild Master . "Ah, I should add that we'll be keeping any of the meat that was on the list for our own consumption so you should disregard it for purchase, please . " I had a sudden thought . "Ah, and another thing . "

I pulled the small and middle-sized magic bags out of my Item Box .

"Hey, Fer . " I held out the bags for him to examine . "Can your Appraisal skill tell if time passes inside these bags?" I had been wondering if time stopped inside these bags like it did in my Item Box . That time freeze feature was useful for all sorts of things like keeping cooked food hot and fresh but sometimes I wanted things to happen normally . Marinating ingredients like kaarage or other pickled foods, they took time to make properly, letting the meat steep in broth and sauce for hours . I could hurry things up by poking the meat with a fork before massaging it in sauce in a plastic bag but it was easier and better to make it and leave it to soak overnight, on the desk in my room at an inn when I slept for example .

I was hoping that if I made, say, pickled meat in miso and put it in the bag for storage then when I took it out later it would be the same as having it sit in a pot overnight . I could then transfer it to my Item Box, ready to use for cooking when I needed it even if I was travelling with Fer and company . Would Fer be able to judge that effect with his superior Appraisal skill?

"Well, let's see . " Fer studied the bags for a moment . "Hummmm, it looks like time passes as usual for anything in these bags here from what I can tell . "

So for both bags time passed inside them as usual? I'd keep the middle-sized magic bag and offer the smaller one for sale then . As I put them away in my Item Box once again I noticed Elland-san was staring wide-eyed at Fer .

"What's wrong Elland-san?" I asked .

"Ah- Ah you see . . . that Fenrir, c- can it really use the Appraisal skill?" he stuttered .

Oh, so that was it . The Appraisal skill was a rare gift, usually only available to Heroes summoned from the other world like in the stories . I had got it myself by accident, sort of . Fer, on the other hand was no Hero (hah!) and hadn't been summoned like me .

"Ah, remember Fer's sort of a legendary monster . " I explained .

"Sort of?" Fer grumbled telepathically . "What do you mean by 'sort of'?"

Would a true legendary monster agree to a life-long submission contract to someone like me just because he's a glutton? I thought very privately to myself .

"Oh, yes, that's true . " Elland-san said finally . "A legendary monster like a Fenrir doesn't appear often so finding out he has the Appraisal skill was just a bit of a surprise to me, that's all . "

Yeah, I had just about forgotten myself just how unusual my companions were, a Fenrir, a Pixie Dragon and a special Slime . To others they were powerful and dangerous monsters, to me they were bottomless appetites demanding to be fed immense quantities of delicious food three times a day (and snacks too now, I remembered) . I pressed on with the business at hand though .

"In that case can you remove the middle-sized magic bag from the list of items for sale?" I asked .

Elland-san nodded . "The meat and the middle-sized magic bag . Are you sure you want to sell everything other than those items?"

"Yes, that's correct . " I agreed . Now the purchases were out of the way it might now be time to discuss 'that' .