Chapter 369:
The Survey Team
I HAD A GOOD STRETCH and yawn after we left the merchant guild. We had sold goods at many merchant guilds by now, but I still got nervous every time. Would I ever get used to it?
“Tired?”
“Yeah, a little. You were right, Dad, the abbles were expensive.”
“They sure were. But they did say they were a bit cheaper than they used to be.”
The abbles had fetched a high price, just like my father had said. But the crop was much bigger this year than the last, so they were sold more cheaply than before.
“Even if they cost less, they still seemed plenty expensive to me,” I said.
“Well, that checks out. You only find them a long way into the forest.”
There were many powerful monsters deep in the forest, which made foraged goods from that area more valuable. So all fruits that were foraged from deep in the forest were expensive, regardless of how delicious they were.
We headed for the village gate, eyeing the shops on Main Street as we went.
“Want to buy lunch before we head out?”
“Sure. Sounds good.”
“We’ve got plenty of room in our budget for it.”
Though we’d imagined we would get a high price for our abbles, one of our items sold for even more money than we’d anticipated: the tree nuts we had foraged deep in Hatahi’s forest. My father and I both thought they were typical tree nuts when we picked them, but it turned out that we’d foraged rare medicinal nuts that only looked similar to the normal ones, so we sold them at twenty times our expected price. What’s more, we had brought quite the stash to sell since we’d assumed they were just normal nuts.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Bread. It’s been ages since I had white bread.”
“Ha ha! Yeah. Let’s find something to go with it, too.”
We eyed the food stalls as we headed for the gate. Along the way, my dad found the skewered meat he had been looking for, and I found what I had been looking for: sand-thingies. It was a pleasant surprise to see that the sandwich-like “sand-thingies” with white bread had made it all the way to this village.
“Hm? That looks like…” My dad stopped in his tracks and stared at the gate. I followed his gaze to see about a dozen adventurers gathered there.
“What’s going on?”
“Probably the survey team.”
Yeah, the gatekeeper mentioned yesterday that a survey team would be formed today. I gave the adventurers a quick look. They all seemed to be about my father’s age; none of them were young. There weren’t many of them, either. Since they’re just a survey team, maybe it’s okay to only have a few people? I dunno, they’re investigating something unusual. I feel like it’s dangerous to go in such a small group.
“Isn’t that survey team a bit small?” I asked.
“Yeah, too small. And they all look like elite adventurers.”
Wow, he can really tell just by looking at them. “How do you know?”
“Well…by their weapons and their build. Also, the general atmosphere. I guess it’s a big picture thing. Sorry, it’s hard to explain.”
I guess they have the atmosphere of years of experience? Maybe that’s it. “I hope they find out what’s going on.”
“Me, too.”
We watched the adventurers walk out of the gate, hoping the survey would end uneventfully and provide some answers.
“Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
We greeted the gatekeeper as we walked out. It was a different person than the one who had welcomed us the day before. He was a surly man, the complete opposite of the calm, cheerful gatekeeper from earlier.
“Okay, which way’s the dump?” My dad took a look at the ground just outside the gate. Since most people used a cart when they went to the dump, all you had to do was look for grooves in the dirt from the cart wheels to find your way. Sometimes grass and fallen leaves covered the tracks, but the dirt around Hataka was all sandy, so we knew we should be able to see the tracks easily.
“Found it. It’s that way.”
We took off in the direction my father was pointing. “Do you sense anything?” I asked him as he gazed out into the forest.
He looked back at me and shook his head. “No, not a thing. It was just too creepy for it to be my imagination.”
“I highly doubt you imagined it. The veteran adventurers here sensed it, too.”
My dad rested a hand on my head. “Quite right. But I kind of wish it was just my imagination.”
He has a point there. Wait a minute…
“Agh!”
“Yikes, this doesn’t look good.”
After following the cart tracks for a while, we had arrived at the dump, but the sight we saw made us recoil a little. All village dumps were taken care of to some degree so that tamers could do their jobs more easily, but the dump before us showed no signs of human maintenance. It was a horrible mess.
Most dangerous of all were the magic items and swords. Magic items still had a little magic energy left in them even after they were used up, so you had to be careful when disposing of them. But in this village, they’d been roughly tossed around the dump. What’s more, they were piled up so carelessly that they had developed peaks that could avalanche at any minute.
“Yeah, this is dangerous.”
I nodded in agreement. This was a bit of a problem. The trash piles might collapse while my slimes were trying to eat.
“What should we do?”
“We can pick up Sora’s and Flame’s potions ourselves, but I’m not sure about Sol,” my dad answered. “We could try gathering the magic items and take them outside the dump, but I don’t think Sol could get its fill that way.”
“Yeah, I was hoping to let it eat as much as it wanted.”
Clank, clank, clank, clank.
I looked to the top of the mountain of garbage and saw a tiny piece of trash rolling around with each gust of wind. It was just too dangerous.
“Should we ask the slimes?” my dad suggested.
“Good idea. Sit tight.”
I opened the lid of their bag. They immediately jumped out and bounced merrily around my feet.
“Sora, Flame, Sol, we’re in the dump now, but it might turn into an avalanche at any minute. Want to go in and have lunch?”
The trio stared hard at the dump. Uh-oh, is it such a sight that they’ve frozen in shock?
“If it looks too dangerous, Dad and I can always go grab some trash for you.”
“Yeah, don’t worry, we can pick up lots of it.”
When they heard this, the three slimes bounded off toward the trash. Assuming that meant they would fend for themselves, I gave the three a curious look.
“Pu! Pu, puuu,” Sora sang. Flame and Sol followed, bouncing off into the dump.
“Think they’ll be okay?” I asked.
“Well…let’s just keep an eye on them.”
I nodded and approached the dump. I was going to make sure I was close enough to step in at a moment’s notice if something happened.
“Since there aren’t any illegal dumps in the forest around here, I assumed this dump would be well maintained…but it definitely doesn’t look that way.”
“Yeah. Do you think any tamers in Hataka come here for work?”
“They’re supposed to,” my father frowned. I felt a little upset by the whole thing, too. I was appalled that tamers would bring their precious companions to work in such a dangerous place.
“It’s awful. All they need to do is give it some basic maintenance.”
Maybe the tamers in Hataka didn’t care about their monsters? Back in Hatahi Village, I’d learned that not many tamers cared for their monsters like family, which made me feel very sad.
“I wish everyone would hurry up and learn that their way of thinking is wrong.”
I looked at my slimes. To be honest, I was terrified to see them wiggling on top of the piles of trash, but the sight of them enjoying themselves lifted my spirits a little.
“Is it just me, or are the three of them having a blast here?”
I gave the trio a scrutinizing stare. They did seem to be going out of their way to jiggle unusually hard on the precarious piles of trash.
“I wish they realize I’m worried sick.”
“Well, they are special, you know.”
His words were oddly convincing, and I felt bad for letting things slide so easily.
“Be careful, you guys! It’s dangerous out there.”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”
“Pefu! Pefu!”
“Please! Stop jumping around!”
“Ha ha ha ha!” My dad burst out laughing over my nervous scream.
The three slimes dodged the falling piles of trash as they merrily enjoyed their meal.
Oh…I guess there was no reason for me to worry after all.
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