Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Ch. 18 .｡.:✧ Chapter 18 ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“This is…”
“Nine orcs. If you give me more time, I can capture more.”
Looking at the orcs I had brought, Kuman couldn’t close his gaping mouth.
“How on earth did you…”
“Kayla turned out to be very capable.”
“You’re no ordinary hunter.”
Since I had perfectly erased the traces of black magic, he naturally wasn’t astonished by that aspect.
“Although Kayla is capable, that alone can’t explain it.”
“We were a bit lucky. We found a weakened tribe. If you need more, I can bring them. However, you’ll have to give me more time.”
I added that most of them would be female and young orcs.
“The amount of a small-scale tribe…”
Kuman’s eyes lit up.
The Magic Tower probably didn’t expect much from Kuman’s group.
But if they showed their capabilities here…
“Good. Capture as many as you can. I’ll purchase them as they come. As for the price… I’m sorry, but I can’t offer the same price as now. I can’t predict how many the Magic Tower will buy. And I’m sorry to say this, but my financial capacity also has its limits.”
I had expected that.
Even Kuman wouldn’t have tens or hundreds of gold stacked up.
“I’ll settle this payment accurately, but for the ones you bring later, it will take some time.”
Depending on the Magic Tower’s demand, Kuman said he would purchase adult orcs for 1 gold and 50 silver, and young ones for 1 gold.
Even at this level, it was a good deal. He didn’t care about their condition and even offered 1 gold for the young ones. It was still above the average price.
“The delayed settlement is a bit concerning.”
“I’m sorry about that. But I didn’t expect you to say you could capture dozens more.”
The more dangerous the job, the more punctual the payment should be. It’s especially true for mercenary work or capture missions like this.
You brought the goods, but they don’t pay? It’s tantamount to a declaration of war.
Therefore, Kuman approached me with a slightly more humble attitude than before.
“I’ll settle the payment all at once as soon as I receive the money from the Magic Tower.”
“Still, the delay is a bit troubling. Hmm… How about this? Instead of cash, we trade with goods.”
“Is there something you need?”
Kuman asked with a slightly brighter face.
“I’d like to have a piece of land and a house inside the castle.”
“…Land and a building?”
Kuman’s expression turned a bit serious.
Although I said land and a house, the actual owner of the land was the lord. Therefore, it could be considered as the right to use the land and the building.
“Yes. To do that, I’ll also need an identity, but…”
“That’s not difficult. Hmm… Land and a building…”
Tap, tap.
After thinking for a moment while tapping his leg, Kuman finally spoke.
“Alright. I’ll transfer one of my possessions to you. Including the identity, the price will be 20 gold.”
It could be considered quite expensive for a building in a frontier territory, but it was surprisingly cheap.
Although it was a developing territory, it was still a building inside the castle where the lord resided. Even if it was shabby now, as the territory developed, the price would increase exponentially.
Moreover, there were developed villages and villages under development, so on the surface, it appeared to be a territory with long-term growth potential.
I was even receiving citizenship, so it could be considered cheap.
‘In the first place, most of the buildings inside the castle are owned by the lord.’
It’s almost like paying the lord to rent, not purchasing like me.
It wasn’t something one could easily buy just because they wanted to.
‘Instead, I’ll have to pay taxes…’
At most, it would be a year. That much was fine.
Since I had just settled, I could receive exemptions for a while.
“I’ll take the payment from the orcs you bring later.”
“Let’s do that.”
The 18 gold payment for the 9 orcs this time was settled immediately, and the rest became the price of the land that I would pay in installments.
We agreed that I would receive the insufficient payment after he visited the Magic Tower.
From Kuman’s perspective, he had properly seized a great opportunity, and from my perspective, I had acquired a building inside the castle faster than expected, so it could be said that both of us benefited.
‘I didn’t expect to get it so soon.’
According to the original plan, I was supposed to rent a mere warehouse, not even my own property. And that was supposed to be possible only after a few months…
‘I was lucky.’
The building I would acquire this time was intended to serve as the foundation for turning the collapsed territory into my dungeon in the future.
“How did it go?”
“The deal went well. We just need to hand over the orcs to Kuman as we catch them. The price has dropped, but we’ve also gained more than that.”
I revealed the fact that I would have a building inside the castle and that I would soon have citizenship.
“Ugh… I really want to go inside. Thea would be safer there too.”
“It can’t be helped for now.”
“I know, but…”
If Kuman found out that Thea had been freed from slavery and regained her health, things would get troublesome.
An illness that even high-ranking priests could barely identify suddenly got cured?
‘People will definitely get involved.’
I couldn’t do such a thing when I couldn’t even reveal my identity.
I also wanted to hide Athena as much as possible.
Therefore, even if I had my own house inside, only Kayla and I would come and go.
‘I need to dig a basement too…’
Achieving 2nd Class was urgent.
“I spent some of the payment on equipment reinforcement. I’ve placed a separate order with Kuman, so you can pick it up later.”
I purchased Athena’s equipment as well, under the pretext of spares.
Although Athena had a smaller physique than Kayla, it wasn’t to the extent that adjustments couldn’t be made.
Moreover, I was able to purchase a large quantity of reagents I needed.
‘The pretext was manufacturing antidotes for monster hunting.’
In reality, I cunningly mixed them among the items commonly purchased by other monster hunters, so they wouldn’t be linked to black magic.
By the way, I handled the money management.
We moved as a team anyway, Kayla was my slave, and Athena was bound to me by Thea and the oath.
No one objected to me managing it.
In the first place, there was no need to spend money in this area.
I was taking care of all their necessities.
Therefore, there was no hindrance in spending money.
“We’ll be busy for a while.”
“But once this job is done, we’ll have a long break.”
“It won’t be a break, but training, right?”
“Training… I’m looking forward to it.”
“Ugh… Teacher, you seem a bit scary.”
However, Athena’s eyes were shining even more than Kayla’s, contrary to her words.
For her, it could be considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
We had received a large number of capture cages that we lacked.
Moreover, we had borrowed several pack animals along with a commercial wagon, so the preparations were adequate.
We also replenished the lacking items in large quantities.
Thea was disappointed when we told her we would be busy for a while, but she wasn’t a child and didn’t say much.
Receiving Thea’s send-off, we restarted the orc capture.
The atmosphere in the orc village was quite poor.
Well, since a quarter of the adult male orcs had been lost, the atmosphere couldn’t be good.
‘Five? Six?’
That seemed to be the remaining number.
The exact number of females and young ones was unknown.
“It seems the situation is worse than expected. Females have gone out to hunt.”
I silently nodded at Athena’s words.
“If their situation is bad, it’s a welcome development for us.”
Perhaps due to the wyvern (perfume), the hunting route had changed from before, and the number of orcs moving together had increased, but as Athena and Kayla became more accustomed to it, the capture continued without difficulty.
After two days, the village reacted.
“It seems they’re trying to leave?”
“We can’t let them do that.”
In two days, we had captured over ten orcs. They seemed to acknowledge that this entire area had become the wyvern’s territory and were planning to move the territory itself.
Naturally, we had no intention of allowing it.
I immediately returned home and took out all the traps from Nenson’s house.
‘There’s an orc tribe here, and there’s a giant ent habitat here, so they’ll naturally avoid it, and here…’
It was obvious where the orc tribe would go.
Therefore, we occupied the expected chokepoints and covered them with traps.
As a result, our stockpile of traps was depleted, but that didn’t matter.
That wasn’t the end of it.
“…Wow, Inha, you’re really ruthless.”
“Of course I have to be ruthless when lives are at stake.”
I released poison into the upstream of the river where the orcs sourced their water.
Naturally, the poison had a limit in quantity, so I timed the release of the poison to match when the orcs came to fetch water.
It was possible because we had Athena, who could confirm the orcs’ movements for us.
‘To move the village, water and food are essential.’
As a result…
“…They abandoned the young ones?”
It wasn’t a deadly poison.
Such poison would inevitably be detected.
The orcs were sturdy, so I used a rather strong poison, but…
‘It should only cause stomachache or a slight fever…’
It might have had a stronger effect on the young ones, but it shouldn’t have been to the extent of abandoning them…
“It seems they view the situation more seriously than we thought.”
Athena slightly frowned, seemingly displeased with the orcs’ behavior.
About a dozen young ones were abandoned like that.
Leaving the departed orcs alone, we first collected all the young ones.
“With this, it’s almost thirty? It seems there are more that we captured than those who left?”
In fact, the number of orcs trying to leave the territory alive was only two adult males, seventeen females, and a mere three young ones.
“We have to capture as many as we can.”
Capturing all of them would be impossible, but I had no intention of letting them go. I planned to kill the ones that seemed difficult to catch.
“This time, Kayla won’t be acting alone. I’ll provide primary support with magic, and then I’ll join in as well.”
“What about me?”
“You’ll shoot a crossbow from the trees.”
Athena’s skills were still lacking to fight head-on.
Even though she could use mana, her body was still in the making, and her experience fighting orcs was limited, so it was a natural choice.
“This time, we’ll focus on killing as many as possible, not capturing.”
“We’ll only collect the survivors.”
After confining the young orcs at the base camp, we immediately tracked the ones who had moved.
The orcs hadn’t gone far.
Some of them were dead, caught in traps, probably because they were wary of the traps and hadn’t been able to travel far yet.
‘Excluding the young ones, about fifteen adults remain?’
Normally, it would have been dangerous for the three of us to directly confront fifteen adult orcs.
However, the situation was much more advantageous for us.
‘Their physical condition must be poor too…’
They were mentally exhausted as well.
In the end, even if they were numerous, they were the prey, and we were the hunters.
They couldn’t move quickly because they were wary of the traps.
Thanks to that, we could sufficiently catch up even with Kayla’s slow movement.
“A little further ahead, there are spike traps. As soon as they get caught, we attack. Kayla.”
“Yes, Master.”
“We’ll attack first and lure them, so you wait behind the area full of caltrops. We’ll lure them in that direction.”
This suited Kayla better, given her lack of mobility.
Caltrops, commonly known as iron thorns, are defensive weapons made of iron that, when stepped on, cause deep wounds to the soles of the feet.
Their purpose is similar to mines.
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