Chapter 37 And That's Safe,,
The Thargtusk was eerily calm; it wasn't able to process the situation thoroughly. The corpse of its partner is in front of its eye, and the killer is also lying in front of it.
Sigh,
"A lot happened in this life; maybe not, but anyway, this life was good." My only regret is that it ends here.Bye bye, my friend parasite." I bid my farewell. There is no other way to escape. I am depleted of all mana reserves; my back is fractured, and there is an angry mana beast that is going to kill me as revenge for killing its mate.
'Hey!! Stop! Why are you thinking about such stuff, and even in your last words, you're calling me a parasite?' Blaze asked, all of those words caked in as a surprise for him. Who's going to tell him that I am now done? This is the end?
Roar!!
The Thargtusk Roared and charged at me with tremendous speed; its tusk pointed to me, reinforced with mana, and backed me with its body weight.
I just waited for it to hit me, and then? I die,
Sigh
The journey seemed to take a lifetime, and I had this fantasy of a choir of kids waving me towards what I imagined would be heaven while humming an angelic hymn.
Thud
but soon followed the sound of something falling heavily.
Silence
"Huh?" never delivered the finishing blow I was waiting for. I looked up and saw the corpse of the Thargtusk, eyes wide open. There was a big hole in his stomach. The thick, dark-red blood spread on the ground.
"Phew, that was close, huh?"Are you alright?" A feminine voice came from my right side. I am in the middle of my saviour and the corpse of Thargtusk, and I turned my face to see who it was.
A young woman, likely in the middle of her twenties, held her hand in front. She was huffing, sweat beads trickling down her forehead. She must've used a lot of mana in that one attack. She had launched an air blade spell.
"I asked you something; you are fine, right?" The young woman repeated herself and made me come out of my stupor.
"Yeah, I am fine," I replied as I tried to get up with my remaining strength. My voice is breaking because of tiredness.
"Ouch!" But to my bad luck, God wants to show my embarrassment in front of the women that I met just a moment ago, and I can't get up because of back pain.
"No worries, I'll help you." Saying this, the woman walked towards me. I couldn't say "no" because I am in dire need of help.
She came up to the place where I was lying, bending a little. She slowly wrapped her arms around my back and behind my knees, then lifted me up from the ground.
'Isn't this what they call a bridal carry?' I was embarrassed even beyond the point; maybe death would be better than this.
'That's why I call you a princess, hehehe.' Blaze chimed inside my mind, "Well, beggars can't be choosers."
I looked up to take a glance at her face, and I'd have to concede she's a beauty after taking many more seconds to gaze at her, but my half-cloudy eyes could have had something to do with that.
Instead of calling her a glamorous beauty, I would describe her as truly kind and gentle, with distinctive green hair and eloquent eyes. Her big eyelashes and sparkly nose caught my attention.
"Ren!!!" This time another voice came from behind; it's a familiar voice.
Marylin arrived at the crime scene; she immediately ran towards me and, "Can you put him down real quick?" Marylin said to the unknown woman who came to my rescue,
"Y-yeah," The young woman was baffled by the sudden appearance of Marylin. She quickly but carefully placed me under a tree with my back resting on it.
"Drink this; it's a healing potion." Marylin placed a vial on my mouth and made me drink the glowing lime-coloured liquid in it. Unlike Mana's potion, the healing potion made me feel a bit of warmth in my body.
I could feel the sensation spreading all over my body, and just like that, all the tiredness and pain went away.
My mana was still depleted, but my body returned to normal.
I felt refreshed. I stood up and brushed off my clothes, turning to my life saver and saying,
"Thank you for your help there; I would've died if not for you." I bowed deeply to convey my feelings.
"Ah! Don't be; I was just passing from here and saw you lying there; nothing much," the young woman said.
"May I ask your name?" I asked; I wanted to repay her somehow.
"It's Anabelle; just Ana is also fine; what's your name?" Ana introduced herself.
"I am Ren, Miss Ana, and I'd like to repay you for your kindness." I said, as I offered a hand and she shook it,
"You don't have to ar-" she stopped for a split second and then clutched my palm a little like she remembered something and said, "Well, if you say that, then why don't you give me that corpse of the Thargtusk that you killed? I am running low on finances, and I'd be a great help if you could do that." At first, Ana tried to brush aside my offer but changed her mind halfway through.
"Why not? It's all yours." I was truly happy that she at least demanded something. The tusks and other body parts of mana beasts can be sold at adventurer guilds at market prices, and since Thargtusk is not easily found, it'll easily fetch some silver coins for her.
"I can place the corpse in my ring since it'll be Hassel to drag it back to the town, right?" Marylin said both corpses are close to half a thousand pounds in weight.
"Ooo, you have a fancy spatial ring there; that would be very helpful." Ana appreciated Marylin's help.
After that, four of us walked out of the forest.
In the mean time, Ana told me about herself, things like how she is not from this town but is a wandering mercenary; her group is staying in Sephra for a few days; she thought it'd be a good idea to hunt some mana beasts as a side income until they are here; and she came to Balcker Forest, but then she somehow found me, and all the after story is already known to us.
"There it is! I'll go and get the transactions done." Saying this, Ana ran into the Demacia guild while pulling Marylin along with her, and I am going to wait outside until they come out.
"Anabelle is pretty energetic." I muttered,
'Or is just too desperate to get the money—who knows?'Blaze responded,
A few minutes later, Marylin came out of the Adventurers Guild alone; Anabelle was not with her. Walking towards me, she said, "Her group members were there; they made her stay there; she told me to thank you for Thargtusk."
"Well, that is also fine. How much did she get for the corpse?" I asked, of course, and I am eager to know the price of my first hunt.
"They paid her like one gold coin and five silver coins, after including the mana crystals." Marylin told me, and that's a good sum for a C-rank beast.
1 Royal Platinum Coin = 100 Gold Coins
1 gold coin equals 100 silver coins.
1 silver coin = 10 copper coins.
If you ask me, then I'd say that one gold coin would suffice for an ordinary family of four to live a decent life for over a month or more, and platinum is far from something that commoners or normal adventurers can acquire.
"Ruu," Marylin looked at her in the eyes and called my name.
"Hmm What!?" I asked,
"You passed, congratulations!" Marylin congratulated me, and then it clicked that the quest was now done; I just forgot it due to all the other stuff, like nearly dying and all.
"Yep, I did, and now what's next?" I was impatient; only ten days are left until month's end, along with my training with Marylin.
"Nothing; you passed." Marylin said with a half smile on her face, She's kidding, right?
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[A/N: huh? Nothing!? What do you mean by nothing? I AM HERE FOR MORE ACTION AND YOU ARE SAYING THAT THIS IS THE END.]