Disciple of Immortal

Act 2: Chapter 34: 《Jade Dragon's Eye》

We followed Gannet to 《Mithril’s Cane》 and were in the middle of searching for the substitute ingredients for 《Ether》.

The important ingredients needed to manufacture 《Ether》 were 《Brain of a High-Rank Devil》, 《Adamant Ore》, and 《Spirit Tree’s Droplet》.

The 《Brain of a High-Rank Devil》 could be harvested as much as I wanted from the cursed mirror.

This was in fact, the easiest ingredient to procure.

I mean, I could harvest it anytime I wanted.

《Spirit Tree’s Droplet》 might be a little bit difficult since I might have to create it by using alchemy. But, I think I could get this one pretty easily too.

I mean, I just need to have a contract with a high-ranking spirit and they would bring the droplet for me.

I mean, it was only an A-rank item after all.

That’s why high-rank spirits shouldn’t have any problem getting some of it.

The hardest ingredient to acquaire in this situation was 《Adamant Ore》.

It was a rare, S-rank ore, finding it wouldn’t be a simple matter.

I mean, we visited the entire city and still failed to find it.

Thus, I was planning to create a substitute for this 《Adamant Ore》 with Alchemy.

Since 《Mithril’s Cane》 seems to be quite confident with their ore collection, I should at least take a look at their collection first.

Thus, I asked Gannet about the ore they kept while slipping in my main concern amongst those questions, while looking for a substitute at the same time.

Their collections were the gathering of several intermediate alchemy materials such as monster’s feather, metal that ranged from B-rank to C-rank.

Anyhow, I might find a right substitute amongst the items in this place.

「Thank you very much, Gannet-san. With this, we might be able to manage something.」

「… Even the alchemists in our research facility rarely make use of substitutes but… it makes me wonder just what in the world are you guys trying to create? From Kanata-dono’s remark, I assume that you already know what you’re going to make, just missing the ingredient. If it’s okay with you, can you tell me about it? I swear that I won’t disclose it to anyone else.」

「N-No, that’s… we’re not making such an important thing… uhm…」

Pomera stuttered as she replied to Gannet, glancing repeatedly at me.

Gannet followed Pomera’s line of sight and arrived at me.

I turned my face away from them.

Gannet was looking at me with a curious look on his face.

Y-Yeah, this person was really scary after all.

「Uhm, we-we’re going to make sweets for Philia!」

Philia spoke happily.

… Come to think of it, Philia did say that she wanted to try the 《Ether》 once it was complete too.

Gannet stooped over with a smile on his face as he brought his face to the same height as Philia.

「Ooh, I see. That’s wonderful.」

「Yeah! Philia is really looking forward to it!」

T-Thank god.

We somehow managed to get away from a sticky situation thanks to Philia’s timely intervention.

When I heaved a sigh of relief, Pomera poked my shoulder with her fingers.

「Kanata-san… do we have enough money for this?」

「We have three million gold thanks to those ragno’s subjugation. Though we might have barely made enough… we should be able to buy the substitute ingredient.」

From my experience so far, you could say that one gold was equivalent to one yen.

That was a simple and easy to understand system.

With three million, we had enough to buy the intestine, feather of a monster, and some ores.

In this world, high valued materials were equal to strength.

But well, all of them were still around two million gold.

Even if it is somehow over budget, we could exclude one or two things.

A man was rushing at us while I was pondering about that.

The man stopped in front of Gannet and tried to readjust his breath for a while.

「G-Gannet-sama!」

「 Is something the matter? I’m really busy right now. Wait until next time.」

Gannet replied with a displeased look on his face.

「It’s about the 《Jade Dragon’s Eye》! That’s supposed to be an extremely important research material that you got for our research after you negotiated with an A-rank adventurer from another city right! Why did you take it so easily!」

I felt that my expression was crooked a bit upon hearing that man’s words.

《Jade Dragon’s Eye》 was a crystal that let out emerald light. It was a rare, B-rank item in the possession of 《Mithril’s Cane》.

I thought that it might be useful for creating 《Adamant Ore》 with alchemy, so I included them in our purchase list.

But according to the staff that just came, it was apparently an important item for 《Mitril’s Cane》.

… Will our three million gold really be enough to buy this?

Even I couldn’t help but feel anxious about this matter.

「U-Uhm, Gannet-san, maybe we should put back 《Jade Dragon’s Eye》…」

「You step back! In the first place, we got this thanks to me! How to use it properly might change according to me, you’ve no right to complain! Now is the time to make the full use of it!」

Gannet was shouting at the man.

「U-Uhm, Gannet-san, it’s okay, you don’t actually need to go that far…」

I tried to restrain Gannet but he kept shouting at the poor man.

「WE’RE IN HURRY RIGHT NOW! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU THAT. ARE YOUR EARS JUST DECORATION? NOW SCRAM AND DON’T YOU DARE TO DISTURB ME AGAIN!」

「U-Ugh… M-My apologies.」

Though the poor man didn’t seem to understand the situation, he had no choice but to pull back under Gannet’s threat.

W-What should I do now, maybe I should apologize.

I mean, I don’t even know whether our money was enough to buy all the items in our list.

「Uhm, Gannet-san. This… how much we must pay for all of these?」

When I asked so, Gannet placed his hand on his chin as he pondered for a while.

「Oh right. I can make it cheap as a sign of friendship between me and Pomera and co. 《Jade Dragon’s Eye》 price is five million gold, after…」

… Overpriced right from the very beginning.

Pomera who stood beside me covered her face with her hands.

Gannet calculated the overall price while grinning upon seeing our reaction.

「The price for all of that is 11.8 million gold… no, since I give you discount, let’s make it ten million gold!」

I felt dizzy upon hearing the overall price.

The overall price was far higher than my initial expectation.

We had to hunt 400 ragno to get that much money.

Maybe I should’ve confirmed the price first.

Maybe I should just look for the necessary ingredients.

Yeah, let’s put back things that we didn’t need and only choose the one that we need the most.

「… S-Sorry, Gannet-san.」

When I tried apologizing to Gannet, the latter brought his face closer to mine.

「… As long as you hear my request, I’ll throw in those items as rewards for you, what do you think?」

「Re… quest?」

Gannet nodded upon hearing my question.

「The truth is, we’re about to hold a countermeasure meeting for this ragno plague in the adventurer guild. Basically, we’re going to call the A-rank adventurers who made this city as their base to participate. The participation is optional, but… Pomera-dono, Kanata-dono, I want you to at least participate. You’re free to choose whether to participate or not after you hear the situation from the meeting.」

… Participate in the meeting, is that all?

I mean, that’s all we had to do for 10 millions gold.

「We’re really grateful with your offer but… are you sure that’s all you want to ask from us?」

「Yeah!! That’s the reason why I called out to you. The details and date of the meeting has yet to be decided, but… the earliest is around tomorrow morning. We pushed forward the meeting schedule due to the sudden appearance of jumbo ragno after all.」

I nodded to Gannet after signalling to Pomera with my eyes.

「… Understood. Since that’s the case, we’ll take this offer.」

Gannet accepted my handshake with a smile on his face.

「OOh! Thank you very much Kanata-dono, Pomera-dono! I look forward to your appearance during the meeting!」

… I-Is this person serious about giving such a huge discount to us?

I mean, we were raking in a profit without any disadvantage at all. I felt a bit scared since he somehow managed to lead us by the nose.