Taichi retraced his steps back to the main thoroughfare to the Adventurers’ Guild, which was closest to the city’s southern gate. The guild had quite the number of registered adventurers, which meant their facility was substantially larger than the one that housed the Tamers’ Guild.
When Taichi entered with Luke at his heel, clamor filled his ears. There were multiple counters here with lines of people waiting. He’d have to wait a while to get anything done.
“What a crowd,” muttered Luke.
“I guess we’ll just have to line up and wait our turn.”
It was a twenty-minute wait at the sale counter, but at long last, Taichi’s turn came.
“Good afternoon,” greeted the receptionist. “I’ll need to assess your materials, so please set them out here on the counter.” She pointed for emphasis.
The counter was too small to dump a whole monster on, but perhaps that was only natural. The guild bought materials, not carcasses. Still, Taichi wasn’t so sure this was large enough to accommodate everything he and Luke had gathered.
“Um, the materials I have are rather large, and I have a lot of them. They won’t fit on here. What should I do?”
The receptionist blinked at him, puzzled. “You have that much? But you aren’t carrying any luggage.”
He smiled thinly and pointed to the bag on his waist. “This is a Bottomless Bag.”
“Oh, wow. That’s an exceedingly rare item...” The receptionist’s voice trailed off for a moment. “Come, I’ll lead you inside.”
Huh, so this bag is rare too. Taichi’s lips pulled into a thin line. He had no idea what was rare or what was normal here in this world.
The receptionist showed Taichi into a room where people were dissecting and dismembering monsters for materials. The room was as large as twenty tatami mats in size, making it quite spacious. There were rat-type and wolf-type creatures on the chopping block. There should be no problem dumping out the many creature carcasses they had collected on their way to the city.
Taichi was, however, feeling a little anxious after his conversation with Chartelle. Would it be safe to whip out dragon materials here? He’d already learned that Fenrir were monsters of legend, and that his Bottomless Bag was an extremely rare item. Taichi had thought of this world in terms of a video game fantasy, but he was beginning to realize how ignorant he really was, since everything he possessed was rare.
Time is frozen inside the Bottomless Bag’s dimension. I can save the dragon materials for another time.
“All right, then please process these,” said Taichi, dumping a number of monster carcasses from his bag.
The receptionist as well as the rest of the personnel in the room stopped dead, gaping at him.
“What a mountain of high-ranking monsters!” they all cried in unison.
“You’ve got Red Wolves, a Wild Raptor...and a Platinum Golem?! Holy crap, all of these are extremely high-ranked monsters!”
Oops! I didn’t expect these to attract attention too! Luke had killed each one in a single swipe, which was why Taichi hadn’t thought anything of them, but based on everyone’s reactions, they were actually strong in their own right. Maybe I should just be glad I didn’t pull everything out.
“These carcasses are relatively banged up, but it looks like you downed most of them in a single hit... Incredible doesn’t even begin to describe what this is. Hey, sir, are you the one who killed all these things?”
“Oh, um, no. My tamed monster did,” said Taichi. He jerked his thumb in Luke’s direction.
“So you’re a high-rank Tamer!”
Nope. I’m F-Rank, apparently.
“What kinda monster is he?” one of the personnel asked, nodding toward Luke.
“He’s a Wolfking.”
“Oh! The king of the wolf-type monsters, eh?”
“I told you before, don’t lump me in with those pups!” Luke howled in protest, despite how much the people were fussing over him. Sadly for him, no one here but Taichi possessed the skill to communicate with monsters. He sounded like a yipping wolf to them.
Out of the corner of his mouth, Taichi murmured, “We need them to buy these from us, so just put up with it for a little longer.” He reached out and ruffled Luke’s neck fur.
The wolf’s eyes grew hooded as he leaned into Taichi’s hand. “I suppose, if I must!”
One of the personnel let out a dramatic sigh of envy. “Man, it’s so cool that you can command a Wolfking. Anyway, we’ll get these assessed for you in a jiffy.”
“Thank you.”
The staff worked together to examine the materials and note them down on a document, which they passed over to the female receptionist once they were finished.
“He’s brought us some good materials. Buy ’em all up,” advised the man.
“Very well,” she said.
“Okay, boys! It’s time for some exciting dissection!”
“Woohoo!”
Taichi had stood there anxiously wondering what he would do if there were any further issues, but much to his relief, everything went smoothly. He was relieved it was over.