Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Must Maintain a Good Relationship with Shihanbu-nim
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"Ugh! I'm beat today too."
Adventurer's Guild, second-floor tavern.
The adventurers who'd been clearing dungeons all day were tilting back their beer mugs, washing away the day's fatigue.
"That bastard Shihanbu! How dare he feed our goddess something like that, meow?!"
A dwarf wielding an axe let out a shriek.
His outburst had the other adventurers shrugging their shoulders.
"Here he goes again."
"I heard he even custom-ordered a Ruby doll not long ago."
"Ugh. But this is too much. How does he force that creepy thing down her... Huh?"
The mage who'd been speaking trailed off.
On the screen, Ruby was resisting, refusing to eat.
Then her eyes suddenly went wide.
[Huff!] She was flexing her tiny bicep, no bigger than a pea.
Then she tilted her head and said,
[I feel power surging through me, meow!] Just as the adventurers were puzzled by her words,
[Meow meow meow meow meow!] Ruby suddenly started vacuuming up the crabs like a storm.
The disgusted look on her face from moments ago was completely gone.
Crack, crunch—
The cheerful sound of shells breaking echoed out.
Ruby's tiny hands deftly snapped off a leg,
extracted the white meat, and popped it into her mouth, chewing away.
[Meow! This is seriously delicious, meow!] Ruby's eyes curved like crescent moons.
She stuffed her cheeks full of crab meat until they bulged, chewing with a blissful expression.
Nom nom— nom nom—
The sound oddly stimulated their appetites.
Ruby sucking on crab legs.
Prying open the back shell and digging into the flesh—it all looked like she was savoring the most delicious food in the world.
[Ah, this flavor! This is the flavor, meow!] Exclaiming nonstop, Ruby reached for the next flower crab.
Her tail wagged, expressing her joy.
The adventurers in the tavern were utterly entranced.
They gulped, sucked into Ruby's eating show.
"What the..."
"How... gulp... delicious can it be..."
Disgust had long vanished from their minds.
After watching Ruby eat for a while and swallowing hard, the dwarf shouted,
"Hey, barkeep! Gimme a pot over here!"
His companions asked with sparkling eyes,
"You gonna buy some?"
"Of course! How can I hold back after that?!"
The shouting dwarf rushed into the auction house.
Then he let out a gasp.
"No way, one crab for 1,200 points?!"
"They're on the Abandoned Continent."
"Still! 1,200 points is my ten days' earnings!"
Grumbling, but he still bought one.
"Hey! Pot and magic tool here!"
"Whoa! Thanks, man!"
With thanks,
he tossed the crab into the pot and activated the magic tool.
Suddenly, every eye in the tavern locked onto him.
Basking in the attention, the dwarf marveled,
"Hasn't it been less than a month since he started streaming?"
In that short time, Shihanbu's name was exploding across the world.
As they marveled at that fact,
the gray crab finally turned red.
Perfectly cooked.
"Hey, dwarf! Eat it quick!"
"Hurry and tell us how it tastes!"
Urged on by the tavern adventurers,
the dwarf couldn't resist and snapped off a leg.
Just like Ruby had on stream, he peeled off the shell.
Revealing thick, plump meat.
Gulp—
Hearing the crowd swallow,
"Munch— munch—"
the dwarf popped it in and chewed.
"H-How is it?!"
"Dammit! Spill it already!"
To their prodding, the dwarf replied,
"D-Delicious. But..."
He ate another leg.
One more.
Finally, even the back shell.
That was the moment.
Whoosh—
The dwarf gripped his axe.
Blue aura flickered along the blade.
His companions jumped.
"What?! Your aura's denser than usual?"
"No kidding? Did you have some martial arts epiphany?"
To their questions, the dwarf said, flustered,
"M-My... aura... it's grown."
"What?!"
"How... Don't tell me the flower crab?!"
That instant,
Every finger in the tavern flew into action.
They frantically clicked the auction house.
And soon,
"B-Bought it!"
"Argh! Already sold out?!"
"Hey, barkeep! Pot here too!"
"Beer as well!"
Joy and despair crossed the tavern.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The Caldreich Empire, the largest in territory and influence among the western nations.
In the outlying Aldrich Barony,
shouts were flying right now.
"Lady Raihi! You mustn't run like that!"
Lady Raihi.
She'd forgotten all etiquette, sprinting down the hall.
Her destination: the meeting room.
Where her father, her brother in heir training,
and the house's key retainers were gathered.
Bam—
She flung open the door without knocking.
The baron her father, her brother the heir designate,
and the knight captain and other vassals—all eyes turned to her.
Raihi met each gaze squarely,
then slammed the table.
"You all saw it, right?!"
Her words left the room silent as graves.
They'd heard the intel too.
Shihanbu had released tens of thousands of flower crabs.
All of them mana-infused creatures.
"See? That's why I said we need to keep good relations with Shihanbu-nim!"
Raihi had insisted on investing funds to stay on good terms with Shihanbu.
But.
"Ahem. They're not spirit beasts anyway."
"And who knows when he'll croak."
"The mandrake's worth checking out, but... maybe approach that beastkin Ruby instea— Oh."
Her brother cut off, going silent.
He'd realized mid-sentence.
Beastkin couldn't access the gallery.
The reason was simple.
They'd been blocked.
The ancestors, unwilling to face guilt over abandoning them on the Abandoned Continent,
had cut them off a century ago.
"Argh!"
Still not grasping the situation,
Raihi, fed up with them, flushed red and stormed out.
"Ugh! Old fogeys! Braindead old fogeys!"
Back in her room, cursing,
thump— thump—
she started punching her pillow.
After venting her stress like that for a while, she turned Shihanbu's stream back on.
[Shihanbu, please. Just sell a bit more. Yeah?] [Please, just one bite. One bite, please!] [There's still tons left! Sell some, pleeease!] Viewers were begging for more crabs.
But Shihanbu shook his head while feeding Ruby and eating crabs himself.
[No way, I sold them for 1,200 and barely made 100 points. Why would I sell more?] "Not even 100 points left?!"
Perplexed at first, Raihi soon understood.
Auction fees plus Abandoned Continent shipping costs.
It added up.
[And the leftovers go to everyone who's helped me so far.] He'd distribute the remaining thousands as thanks.
Raihi, at those words...
"Eeek!"
gnawed her handkerchief.
Hundreds per regular supporter at least.
"If those had gone to our house..."
Talented crab-hunters would flock to the house's knight order.
The boosted knights would secure the territory from monsters.
And that security would lead to growth.
Mana was precious and hard to build for both mages and knights.
"He'll definitely give to the Heavenly Demon and Snow Girl high-nicks."
Tomorrow, applicants to join under them would pour in.
No, even sooner.
[Is the Heavenly Demon really the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult leader? Do we get crabs if we join?] [Snow Girl's rumored to be Ice Palace Lord...] People seeking them were already popping up in chat.
"Argh! That could've been our house! No, there's still chances."
Her eyes fell on the book beside her.
Dinosaur Changes.
It detailed shifts after dinosaurs vanished a century ago.
The conclusion:
After dinosaurs disappeared, many rare spirit herbs like Phoenix Flower and mandrake vanished.
Creature mana vanished too.
This must be due to the dinosaurs' extinction.
In short, the Abandoned Continent held all that was lost.
"Plenty of chances left."
Gritting her teeth, Raihi typed shakily into chat.
Yasking) Shihanbu-nim, need anything? That moment.
"Kyaaah!"
Raihi screamed and buried her head in the blankets.
Inner damage from the nickname her brother gave her as a kid.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Abandoned Continent, rock lake.
"Poke poke—"
I was poking Ruby's belly, bloated like Mount Namsan, with my finger.
"D-Don't do that, meow!"
She wriggled in protest.
But with her mountain-sized gut, she couldn't move properly.
I poked her belly again...
"Yow!"
And got bit.
"Try it one more time, meow! I'll chomp you to bits, meow!"
Ruby gnashed her teeth in warning.
I pulled back my finger.
Tch, felt so good too.
"Fine. I won't."
Saying that, I looked away.
Toward the rock lake.
The water that'd been at ankle-depth now reached mid-calf.
Effect of selling over half the crabs.
"Don't sell 'em all."
Might wanna eat more later.
Leave about half.
Decision made,
I started walking.
Splash—
And dove into the lake.
Swimming where the crabs had clustered for a while.
Something caught my eye.
A green-glowing fish heart pulsing with strong energy.
The crabs must've been drawn here by it.
"..."
I reached for the heart silently.
That instant.
Twitch—
The World Tree in my dantian writhed.
Purifying the poison in the heart.
Simple implication.
Someone had tried to poison this lake.
"..."
Confirming that, I turned silently.
The forest, now night.
Far off in the darkness, a pair of cat-like glowing eyes stared this way.