## Chapter 54 – The Black Magician’s Request
Kyaaaaah!!!
Since it was a surprise attack, I decided to keep my battle cry internal. I charged at the Scale Wolf, who was mindlessly tearing into the gnoll’s corpse, with my sword pointed forward.
ㅡKrrk?
But its wild instincts were faster.
As soon as it saw me, it dropped the gnoll’s corpse and ran in the opposite direction.
“Gibson!”
“Yes!”
However, Gibson was already waiting on the other side.
This is the beauty of party hunting. The Scale Wolf, surprised by Gibson’s sudden appearance, braked like a startled cat and swerved to the side again.
But by that point, I had already caught up to the Scale Wolf. I swung my bastard sword down at its back as it ran. The strike, with the full weight of my upper and lower body behind it, was meant to cleave it in two.
ㅡThwack!
“Damn it!”
A curse burst from my lips.
The blade only dug halfway into its spine. It wasn’t a clean cut. Damn it. I was definitely aiming to split it in two with one blow, but it was a bit shallow. It seems the scales’ defense was the reason.
ㅡKweeeeeeeck!!
Even if it was shallow, a critical hit was a critical hit. It rolled on the ground, screaming. It looked really damn painful. If someone came and axed my spine, I would shyly twist my body and scream too.
ㅡKireeeeeet!!!
It continued to spew out pain, rubbing its body on the ground and flipping over to expose its belly. It seemed the blade had hit a nerve.
Its belly was unscaled, leaving its vitals completely exposed. I was about to stab it there to ease its pain.
“Get out of the way!”
“Huh?”
Then Maurice appeared, raising his axe.
ㅡClang!
He shoved me aside with a rough shoulder check, then brought the axe down, separating the Scale Wolf’s head from its body. It was an admirable axe swing. It was a clean, professional lumberjack-like motion, and I was impressed.
Mainly by the part where I got shoulder-checked. I’m so impressed. Why is this bastard doing this to me?
“Hah! I took one down!”
Maurice said, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his forearm. Damn, he looks so refreshed, this old man, seriously.
“Hey, old man. Why are you suddenly shoving people? Huh? I almost fell.”
“Hmm? Ah, sorry. It was unavoidable to kill the monster.”
This guy has been kind of annoying since earlier. In my experience, these kinds of guys always cause trouble in the end. To prevent that, I decided to call him out in advance.
“Couldn’t you have just let me kill it? I was perfectly capable of doing so.”
“Calm down. Isn’t it enough that I killed it? You might not have been able to kill it.”
“What do you mean I might not have been able to kill it? It was already on its back, writhing in pain after getting stabbed!”
“…”
“I’ll let the commanding tone slide, but if you keep acting so rude, I’m going to have a problem.”
“…Fine.”
Maurice turned away.
Born in a Confucian country, I basically intend to treat elders with respect, but that doesn’t mean I’ll put up with bullshit. Respect for elders has to be earned.
I’ve suffered a lot because of party members until now, so now that I have some power, I should speak my mind a little more.
“How simple.”
Gibson approached and said.
“Then let’s skin it. The value of a Scale Wolf comes from its scaled hide.”
I took out my knife to skin it. The one I extorted from the thug last time. I didn’t sell it and kept it in my pouch.
“Hmm, how do I skin this thing?”
I cut open the Scale Wolf’s belly. I don’t have professional skinning knowledge, but I have a rough level of knowledge that I’ve picked up from watching other adventurers while making a living.
Carefully expose the flesh, cut the tissue, and peel off the skin… It’s harder than I thought. It’s not going very well. To begin with, it’s about the size of a large Korean dog, so just skinning all of this will take forever.
“That’s not how you do it. Give it to me.”
Claudia, who had been watching me, took my knife and said. I figured she’d be better at it than me, so I stepped aside.
“I’ll show you.”
Claudia didn’t hesitate to stick the knife between the flesh.
ㅡSwish.
ㅡShhh.
ㅡTear.
“Ooh.”
I exclaimed.
She skinned the Scale Wolf very skillfully. Her movements were as unhesitating as those of a professional, top-notch butcher. She quickly skinned the Scale Wolf whole and handed me back the blood-soaked knife.
“The blade is dull. You should sharpen it.”
“Wow, that’s perfect. There’s no need to look any further, we can get a good price for this, right?”
“Except for the wound on the back.”
“Ah, right. That’s true. Damn it.”
The value of a monster’s hide increases the more flawless and well-skinned it is. Still, I only cut the protruding part of the spine, so it shouldn’t be a big loss.
“Where did you learn skinning? Your movements are extraordinary.”
“It’s basic in my hometown. But shouldn’t you be good at it too? I thought the Mirkesha were nomads.”
I’m actually not a nomadic barbarian, but a modern Korean, so I don’t know how to skin things.
“I guess… I left my hometown after being scolded for being useless…”
I pretended to be depressed. No one knows the details of the nomads’ way of life, so I can make up my past as I see fit.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I touch a sore spot?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
She gave me a look of pity, but it doesn’t matter since it’s all a lie.
“You should wash your hands, though.”
“Huh?”
As a thank you for skinning it, I opened the lid of my canteen. Her hands were already covered in blood from skinning the hide. In situations where a battle might occur, it’s good to remove any foreign substances from your hands whenever you have the chance.
“Here, give me your hand.”
When I held out the canteen, she looked at my face with a strange expression and quietly held out her hand. I tilted the canteen and poured water over her hand, washing it.
“…Thank you for that.”
“Skinning the hide was more helpful.”
After that, I rummaged through the gnoll’s corpse to check its penis, but it was already so messed up in so many ways that it seemed impossible to cut the gnoll’s penis out of its corpse. Since the Scale Wolf was eating it anyway, let’s just practice corpse etiquette this time.
“Seeing how easily we hunted the Scale Wolf, it seems like things will go smoothly. Let’s look for the next one.”
“Hmm… I suppose so. Are there any places nearby where they might be?”
“We’ll have to look from now on.”
Gibson and Maurice said. We immediately moved on. They probably have their own territories, so they won’t be right nearby.
We just ignored the skinned Scale Wolf. If we leave it like that, it might attract other monsters.
As we walked along the land, we found a mossy area with a fishy smell. Swampy areas are so humid that they are sometimes covered in this kind of moss.
It was a kind of luck.
Mana herbs grow in places like this.
“Oh, wait, stop.”
I stopped the group.
“These kinds of places are bound to have valuable roots growing. Let’s take a quick look around.”
“We came to hunt Scale Wolves, not to dig up roots, didn’t we? It seems like a waste of time.”
Maurice’s opinion was valid. But I have a separate request. I need to somehow persuade the group to dig up the mana herbs now.
“Really? Then, old man, take a look at that for a second.”
I pointed to a blue herb growing under a rock. I was lucky. I easily found a mana herb. It really stood out. The blue color stood out in the moss, which was all green.
“That’s worth 1 copper per root. It’s perfect as a side income, right? And it’s not just one root growing there, there are a lot growing around it. Picking up money you dropped is not a waste of time at all.”
I said, looking around at the group, and they seemed to agree. Maurice was also convinced when he heard the sound of money.
“Mana herbs, that brings back old memories. I haven’t really thought about them lately, but if there are so many growing, it might be worth taking a look around.”
“Hee, that weed is worth money? I’m learning something good.”
We immediately reached out with greedy hands towards them. About ten mana herbs were growing along the line under the rock. I needed five for the request, so I just needed to find a few more.
Now that I’m out in the distant forest, there are indeed a lot of these materials growing. When I was a newbie, I could only dig near the city, so my income wasn’t very good.
The roots of the mana herb, which looked like weeds, were as thick as small deodeok roots. I carefully dug them up and collected them. After investing about thirty minutes, we each acquired more than five mana herbs.
“What’s this?”
And there was also a bizarre mushroom that looked like a goblin’s club, so I secretly took it. What is this? I’ll ask Risha about it later.
“This is enough for a side income. Katt. Where can I sell these?”
“You can take them to the city’s alchemist guild.”
“I’ll have to pick them up whenever I see them from now on.”
Claudia didn’t seem to know about mana herbs because she wasn’t from this area.
ㅡKyu-sat.
ㅡKyu-sat, kyu-sat.
As we were about to leave the mossy area, we saw kobolds in front of us. They were startled when they sensed our presence and ran away. If there are kobolds, there are bound to be predators that eat kobolds nearby.
Kobolds rarely come out of their caves unless they really have to. They sometimes release workers to collect food when they run out of it. If that’s the case, the Scale Wolves are likely to be having a field day in the nearby restaurant. Since they have vision close to that of a blind person, they can easily catch and eat them.
“Seeing them, there’s probably one around here too.”
“Should we follow them?”
“Ah, that would be good. Let’s go. Mr. Gibson.”
We followed the kobolds. There are gnolls and kobolds nearby, so the ecosystem seems to be in good condition, probably because it’s a swampy area. But unfortunately, I needed to take out a kobold’s brain. It’s a really sad thing…
Anyway, I’ve collected all the mana herbs, so if I just collect the hide, penis, and head, I’ll be about 40% done with the quest.
The footprints of the guys who just ran away were imprinted on the ground, so tracking them was very easy. We followed the footprints and crossed a hill, and there was a small cave in front of us.
“It seems that’s the cave where the kobolds from earlier live.”
Maurice said.
“Then there’s a high probability that there’s a Scale Wolf near here. Let’s wait for a while.”
As Gibson said, we took a break and sat down in the bushes on top of the hill where we could hide. If we wait here and a Scale Wolf appears, we can move then.
“Ugh… It’s hard to walk for so long.”
Ah, damn it. My knees are already hurting.
Logically, the Scale Wolf must know where the kobolds live, so if we wait a little longer, a hungry one will come looking for us.
