Ch 104 -- Setting Off.

The next morning we went to the Adventurers Guild and, as had become commonplace, as soon as I appeared a staff member went off to call the Guild Master. After greeting him we went down to the familiar warehouse to meet with Johan-ojisan.

"I"m all done, sonny." He waved a hand at the pile of materials nearby. "There"s the meat from six Wyverns, the six mana stones and six skins for ya." I put the meat, mana stones and skins away in my Item Box as the Guild Master started to explain the details of my payment, reading from a sheet of paper.

"The breakdown is like this," he said, "The first part is the subjugation request payment. It was an urgent request so it"s a premium payment, 840 gold coins. Now buying in the materials, there"s 13 sets of fangs making 169 gold coins, 13 poison sacs making 143 gold coins, 13 poison stings are 169 gold coins as well, that"s from all the monsters." He traced a line on the paper with his finger. "You"re selling us the skins and mana stones from 5 Wyverns, that"s 1000 gold coins for the skins and 1650 gold coins for the mana stones. That comes to a grand total of," he paused dramatically, checking the paper again, "3971 gold coins." He folded the paper with some satisfaction. "As before we"ll pay you with 397 large gold coins and a single gold coin if that"s all right with you?"

That"s a lot of money. Having that much money was a bit troubling but it wasn"t as bad as having too little, I supposed. We were going on a long trip so I"d get a chance to spend some of it on the way. Something worried at me, what the Guild Master had said previously... ummm, think, think, oh yes...

"Wait, didn"t you tell me the payment was going to be more than 2,500 gold coins? What you"re paying me is a lot more than that, surely?" I wondered if he had made a mistake somewhere.

"Oh, my estimate earlier?" The Guild Master nodded. "That was based on the regular purchase prices for Wyvern materials but the skins were in better than usual condition hence the higher price we"re paying for them. There"s also the urgency of the subjugation request." Oh, I see. "Having you and your contracted beasts staying here when the Wyverns arrived was a lifesaver. I could have conscripted all the Adventurers over C rank and with the aid of the Knight"s Order we would have fought the Wyverns but we would have suffered many casualties trying to defeat them. I"ve increased the amount we"re paying you for the subjugation for that reason."

So that"s why the payment is so high? I"m sorry. Fer and Sui were knocking those Wyverns out of the sky and slicing their heads off, chop chop chop, they weren"t even able to fight back ha ha ha. I"m glad you didn"t see Fer and Sui enjoying themselves like that when you were back here in the Adventurers Guild worrying about us. I"d have to buy something for Fer and Sui as a reward, I decided. It would have to be food related, knowing those two gluttons.

Fer and Sui are too strong, really. Sui especially has evolved and is still getting stronger. Would she evolve some more? I couldn"t guess but it was likely. It was almost scary how powerful she had become already. She"s still cute though so I shouldn"t worry.

A staff member appeared carrying a large and very heavy-looking hemp bag. "Well then, here"s 397 large gold coins and 1 gold coin." The Guild Master said, handing the bag of coins off to me. I didn"t bother counting it in front of him, I didn"t want to appear greedy and the Adventurers Guild had always been properly correct in their dealings with me before so I just put the bag into my Item Box.

"Are you leaving Carerina immediately then?" The Guild Master enquired.

"Yes." I confirmed. We had everything we wanted here and Fer was eager to eat seafood. I wanted to see more of this world too.

"Claire, Doran, Neihof, we have already sent messages to the Guild Masters of the Adventurers Guild in each city on your route to Berleean on the coast. Please don"t forget." The Guild Master reminded me.

"Yes, I understand. We"ll listen to requests while we"re visiting each city, don"t worry. I plan to do a lot of sight-seeing."

"I"m indebted to you." The Guild Master said formally. "The Guild Masters of each city are eagerly waiting your arrival." Well, what they"re waiting for is for us to turn up and deal with outstanding high-ranking subjugation requests but it was the same thing, sort of, they"d still be pleased to see us.

"Fer, Sui and I are alll indebted to you and the Adventurers Guild here in Carerina for many things." I replied equally formally. "Remember that we"ll be back in about half a year"s time to collect the items I"ve ordered from Lambert-san so I"ll be able to meet with you again."

"Of course of course, I"ll be waiting." The Guild Master smiled, shaking my hand. "Please come back safely."

"Yep sonny, sooner you get back here the sooner I can get to work and make more money." Johan-ojisan grinned as he pumped my hand. I finished saying my farewells to the Guild Master and Johan-ojisan and left the Adventurers Guild.

"Well then, shall we go?" I said to Fer.

"Umu. The sooner we"re done at Claire the better. Get on." Fer was eager to get moving. Yeah yeah, I guess you just want to get to Doran, the Dungeon City as soon as possible. Tough, I"m planning to stay in Claire for a few days, I thought to myself as I climbed on Fer"s back and we headed off, leaving Carerina behind.