Chapter 127 (1/2)
Volume 2
Chapter 128
Ch 128 — Truly Deplorable Elland-san
So the next morning I was busy cooking again, preparing food before we entered the dungeon the following day . I was working hard to make as much food as possible since I was on a deadline, especially since I intended to go to the Adventurers Guild in the afternoon . Before I went to bed last night I minced a lot of meat to make hamburger and cabbage rolls . They’re good food to have on hand to make other dishes with . I went to the Net Super and bought yet another half-size stockpot and a large can of chopped tomatoes along with instant soup powder and cheese too .
After forming some of the the ground meat into patties with my fingers I took half of them and separated them to make Cheese IN hamburgers while the rest were left as regular hamburgers . The rest of the minced meat was for cabbage rolls . I peeled off the outer leaves of the remaining cabbages I had bought in the shops in Doran to expose the tender inside leaves which I then boiled for a short time before wrapping them around a handful of ground meat and securing them in place with a toothpick . As an experiment I made some of them with Cheese IN as well .
I put the cabbage rolls side by side in the bottom of the new stockpot and added water and cans of chopped tomato until they were covered . I broke up the instant soup powder and sprinkled it on top and then added some ketchup to sweeten the sauce a little . I brought the mixture to a boil then turned the heat down and covered the top with aluminium foil, letting it simmer and bubble for thirty minutes or so . I cooked the hamburgers I had made while this went on, alternating the cooking process until noon and putting everything away in my Item Box . After I finished cleaning up we had lunch consisting of the rest of the ground meat with bean sprouts and sweet bell peppers in a spicy Chinese miso sauce before we all headed off to the Adventurers Guild .
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We were directed straight to the warehouse by the receptionist at the Adventurers Guild, as apparently Elland-san was waiting there for us . Well, not “waiting”, I presumed it was more like he had never actually left the warehouse in the past three days . When we entered the warehouse Elland-san was standing over in the area he had reserved for the dismantling of the Earth Dragon’s body . Lined up on the workbench, was that all the Dragon materials?
“Ummm, Elland-san?” I said hesitantly but he didn’t respond as he stared fixedly at a glass bottle containing a red liquid in his hand . I tried speaking louder .
“Ahem, Elland-san . . . . . . ” Nope, no response . He was in a world of his own .
“Ahhh, this is truly the blood of a Dragon . This crimson colour is wonderful . I could stare into your depths forever . . . ” Elland-san muttered as he held the bottle to his cheek, rubbing it against his ecstatic face . I worried that he might drop it the way he was trembling . Use both hands to hold it please, Elland-san, I thought to myself .
I waited a few more seconds, hoping Elland-san would come to his senses and notice we were here but he continued to ignore us, muttering under his breath to the bottle in his hand . He’s the Guild Master of an important city’s Adventurers Guild, he’s the man, well the Elf I entrusted the Earth Dragon to for disassembly, had that really been a good idea after all? I finally gave up and spoke out loudly .
“Elland-san!”
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“Oh, it’s Mukouda-san, isn’t it?” Elland-san finally noticed my existence . Yes, it is Mukouda-san, I thought to myself exasperatedly .
“Yes, I’m here about the Earth Dragon . . . ”
“Yes yes yes, I started dismantling it without delay, as soon as you left in fact and it’s all gone perfectly . ” His expression changed . “This has been the most wonderful experience of this Elf’s long life . ” he sang . “I can’t think of a better time . . . ” he sighed . Really, Elland-san, disassembling an Earth Dragon is the number one experience of your hundreds of years of life? I decided it was best not to dwell on what he was saying too much and pressed on with business .
“Anyway, you were talking earlier about buying some of the Dragon materials?” I enquired . Elland-san’s expression changed again, back to what I was starting to think of as his business-like “Guild Master” face, an expression I was really thankful to see .
“Well, this has given me the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my long Elf’s life . ” Yes, I know Elves have long lives, you don’t have to keep mentioning it . “But, after wrestling with the problem for three days I finally came to a decision!” Elland-san said firmly, shaking his fist (not the one holding the bottle, I should add) .
“So, what parts of the Dragon are you wanting then?” Keep him engaged on business or he’ll start singing, or worse, dancing, I thought to myself despairingly . Focus, man- uh, Elf, focus .
“I gave great consideration to what you said but I was really really conflicted . ” He gestured at the workbench . “Everything here is something I desperately wanted to keep, but . . . well, to start with I chose this, the Earth Dragon’s blood . ” Elland-san picked up another of the bottles containing red liquid lined up on the workbench .
“See, Dragon’s blood, look, look!” He held out both bottles to me, his eyes gleaming . “It is a panacea of sorts because it is one of the ingredients for Elixir . If mixed with other medicines it will magnify their effectiveness immeasurably . Moreover a medicine made from Dragon’s blood excels in its power as a preventative tonic . Indeed it is said that drinking one drop prevents any sort of illness for an entire year!”
Heeee~, that was amazing, but please calm down Elland-san .
“These are two bottles of Dragon’s blood . ” He looked down at the bottles in his hands, thankfully quieting down again . “I would like to purchase them, 150 gold coins per bottle . ”
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…………What? 1 bottle, 150 gold coins? Wait a moment . Looking at the bottle, it resembled a sake bottle with a cork in the top, maybe about a litre or so? I transferred my gaze to the workbench where the rest of the bottles were lined up . . . there had to be over a hundred bottles there-
“Incidentally, I got 160 bottles of Dragon’s blood from the disassembly . ” Elland-san said with a smile of satisfaction on his face .
Hu- A hundred and sixty bottles . . . Lessee, a bottle is 150 gold coins, there are 160 bottles, ummm, that’s how much in total? I couldn’t think, I started to count on my fingers and forced myself to stop . I felt faint . Elland-san continued, oblivious to my dazed expression .
“Next I would like to buy the Dragon’s liver . This is a panacea like the blood but, it is said, several times more effective so it’s something I wanted to possess at all costs . ” Elland-san’s face fell . “Sadly it’s too expensive and we can’t afford all of it . We’ll buy half of the liver and pay you 1500 gold coins for that portion if you agree . ”
Half of the Dragon’s liver, they’ll pay 1500 gold coins . . . Now my stomach was starting to ache . Help me, help me . . .
“Really, this Dragon was a splendid specimen, fully grown and unbelievably healthy . The liver is beautiful, large and with a nice colour . ” Elland-san’s voice was getting more and more enthusiastic as he discussed the creature’s innards in glowing detail . “Realistically speaking Mukouda-san, this Dragon’s liver was actually worth more than 3000 gold coins, being such a good specimen but if I bought all of it even at that price I’d not be able to afford anything else from the disassembly . ”
3000 gold coins, 3000 gold coins, 3000 gold coins for one liver . . . I clamped down on my sudden desire to open up the Net Super and see what a beef liver would cost in my world . A single gold coin would buy ten prime beef livers, twenty, fifty . . . and, I reminded myself, that was a single organ . Johan-san, the Guild’s disassembler back in Carerina had told me there was nothing that wasn’t valuable in the disassembly of a Dragon, there must be other organs as well? How much was the whole thing worth? My stomach twinged again . I had thought the Dragon was like the other monsters I had brought in for disassembly and sale, I had underestimated just how valuable it was .
“The last item I’ve decided to purchase is a single fang . I’ll pay 2000 gold coins for it . ” Elland-san’s gaze swept the workshop table covered with Dragon parts . “To tell the truth I was in two minds whether to buy the eyeballs or a fang but in the end I chose the fang . ”
A- A single fang, two thousand gold coins . . . Ha~, I could only sigh now, my mind had gone blank . Numbers that big didn’t mean anything to me any more .
“You see, there’s a renowned blacksmith who works in this city and I’ve spoken to him about a sword I’m thinking of having him make for me which would incorporate the fang . It would be the sharpest sword ever, a sword any true swordsman would wish to wield just once before they die . A Dragon sword, the sword of my dreams muahahaha!” There was that Dragon word again . . .