Thanks to my wide range of experience in my old life, I managed to come up with a brilliant solution. Really, I must be the smartest person in this god forsaken world. Well, this was actually the least forsaken by the gods world I’d lived in so far, but whatever.

My brilliant idea was to treat the bees like crustaceans. Pretending like they were a lobster or crab, I worked to crack the shells, peel them off, and get to the good stuff inside. It obviously was a lot harder than that, but I had time to kill until my health recovered anyways.

The first subject was torn clean in half. Managing my strength to shear the carapace without ripping the corpse entirely was incredibly challenging. It was like trying to tear a cardboard box in a straight line. I kept putting in not enough effort to do anything or way too much with no in between.

Annoyed with the body, I tried my hand at the wings and legs. Being a bug, it had plenty of both. Those proved to be a lot easier and served as practice for later, but aside from that it felt like a waste.

What, if any of this, was even valuable in the first place? I was willing to bet on the stingers and carapace being worth something judging by how strong they were, but the rest was a total guess. Tearing my way into the torso and carving my way through, I found all kinds of innards of mysterious worth. I also numbly realized how unpleasant of an experience this would be if I still had to eat. Fortunately, there was no food for me to throw up since I didn’t—

I heaved to the side after I accidentally punctured a sack of some sort, releasing a particularly pungent liquid to spill everywhere. Right, I did eat the other day. Well, let that be a lesson then. No more food for the foreseeable future.

With my stomach cleared once more, I got back to carving through the monster. Ultimately, I just didn’t know what to look for, making it all a pretty big waste of time. I did succeed in clearing the gunk away from the carapace, hopefully making it worth more with the innards removed. Not that it was anything even approximating clean, but I worked with what I had, which wasn’t much. Some of the chitinous material was too damaged by my disassembly process or caved in from a jab to be useful, but I still somehow managed a good pile of intact pieces. That combined with the stinger would hopefully be worth something. That at least had been pretty easy to rip off with enough applied force.

With the first one out of the way, I got to work on the next one, making much better time. Part of it was due to my prodigious learning speed I’m sure, but most of it was simply because I just tore through the innards. The downside of that was more disgusting liquids and dry heaving, but it was a small price to pay for time.

I buried the small pile of useful chitin and stingers for later along with my knife, content to let nature’s trash cans clean up the rest. These weren’t the first corpses I’d left out here and I’d never had to look at them for long, so something would eat it. Maybe it would be that creepy bear thing.

I shuddered before checking my health, content to get a little more grinding in for the day. With over half my health left, it would be pretty safe to get back at it so long as I didn’t try to retrieve any of the corpses. Content with that plan, I got back to work.

----------------------------------------

The guards almost looked relieved to see me run up with a bundle of loot. Maybe they had been worried about me after all. Or maybe they were just excited that I had my pants on this time. I did forget to put them on shockingly often, but it seemed smart to clothe myself before jogging over with my loot. As slow as it was comparatively, it was still better than accidentally stabbing myself with one of the sharp objects. I got enough of that at night already.

Smiling as I went, I bid these good men hello and made my way to the market. I had some selling to do. Figuring that I had my pick of the litter considering how early and empty it was, I just walked near the center of the small wooden stalls and shouted.

“I’ve got carapace and stingers from DL3 monsters! Who’s buying?!”

The salespeople already here were still setting up for the day and half the stalls were empty. Still, I saw a couple hands go up pretty fast and made my way to the nearest one. The woman was practically shouting as I approached, comically saying “Pick me!” over and over again. Given the near militaristic array of goods on display, I figured she’d be motivated to make this purchase.

“Morning. I killed some strange flying insects and carved out their carapace and stingers. Figured I’d ask what they’re worth and whether I should have grabbed anything else. I do plan on killing and selling a lot more.”

Having said my piece, I laid my spoils onto an empty table for her to inspect as I did the same with her wares. The woman was obviously a craftsman of incredible skill, but no metal was on display. It seemed that she specialized in making combat equipment out of monster parts if the armor and weapons were any indication. In fact, the head of one spear in particular looked suspiciously familiar. So somebody had looted my leftovers after all.

“The stingers were separated cleanly enough to be useful, but the chitin is close to worthless. I appreciate you cleaning it as you did, but it’s too torn to make a solid piece now. See this here?”

She gestured to one of the segments, pointing out where I’d done one of my better rips.

“It’s too jagged. If I try to make armor out of this, it’ll displace the impacts all wrong and just fracture. If it ain’t straight, it ain’t worth much.”

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Well that was annoying. How the hell was I supposed to make that work? It seemed like my frustration was obvious enough to warrant some follow up on her part.

“This other one is slightly better, but they all have the same problem more or less. So long as you brute force it, you won’t get anything valuable aside from these stingers. Tell you what, if you bring an intact corpse to my shop after hours then I’ll show you how to do it properly. In return, you bring your pieces to me from now on.”

That was definitely surprising. The first thing I’d heard about carving was how valuable and necessary of a skill it was. Without it, no group would ever make decent money in this business. I’d know, I was nearly broke because I couldn’t do it well, as this craftswoman was so kind to point out. Why she’d teach me for something as flimsy as a promise was confusing at best and concerning at worst.

“Really? You’d trust me to keep to my word?”

She laughed lightly at that, giving me an opportunity to watch her for the first time. Well dressed in nice clothes despite her profession, slightly perfumed, and with a face and voice that made it clear she was expecting to get her way, this woman had more in common with my extortionist than I’d like. At least it made my decision easier, but I wanted to get some more information first.

“Indeed, I’d trust you to keep your word. What do you say?”

She finally responded to my question and I caught a twinkle in her eye. Something about her easy confidence in this situation gave me the impression that this woman had some ability from a class or profession that would enforce a verbal contract. Moving forward, I’d need to be incredibly careful about what I agreed to with people.

“I’d like to talk about the prices first. I’ll be killing and carving lots of things and don’t mind giving you a good deal for the help and convenience. That being said, I’d like to hear more before agreeing to any contracts.”

A flicker of emotion went across her face, and I recognized it for what it was. She hadn’t expected me to push back on her initial offer. Clearly, the scam artists of this world had grown complacent with their schemes. Just another group to add to my shit list, no big deal.

“Oh?” She looked me up and down with more intensity than before as my instincts betrayed me. Years of solitude did things to a man, and I suspected that she was trying for exactly that reaction. A classic method of manipulation that cemented her spot on the list right below the lady at the alliance building. Maybe I should learn their names so I don’t forget.

“Very well. A full carapace like this would be worth a silver to me if properly carved. This stinger as is would be worth the same. If you manage to include the attached sac next time, I’d double that price.”

She seemed to think these were fair, but I knew better. I had seen adventurers get that much from weaker monsters last night. Having finally gotten what I needed from her, I scooped up the monster bits in my arms, said goodbye, and visited one of her neighbors. The man had been one of the few who’d shown immediate interest in what I was selling before, and obviously knew how to make use of these items.

He was short, barely breaking four feet even with the considerable gear he had on. The man was incredibly stoic, simply standing there and staring as I walked up. His stall was similarly spartan, with a few weapons and pieces of armor on display of every type I could conceive of. Steel swords laid next to carapace plate as if it was normal, and I was willing to bet we had a similar no nonsense policy.

“You heard her, I’m sure. I know a DL2 carapace that’s properly carved is worth two silvers. The stingers, I’m sure, would follow the same convention. I’ve developed a distaste for getting robbed since coming here, especially with how often it’s happened. The first person to give me an honest, fair offer will have my business for life.”

Having said my piece, I watched the man gesture towards another table in the back of his stand. I had to duck to make my way through, unsurprising given his stature. As I placed my bundle down for his inspection, I gave his goods the same treatment. I had no idea what a good sword or any weapon looked like, and the armor wasn’t any different. Giving up immediately, I shifted my attention back to the craftsman.

There wasn’t a speck of hair on the man dressed fully in some carapace plate armor. It was impressive work, probably, but the man was somehow more impassive than his equipment. How that was possible was beyond me, but I’d have a better shot at getting his boots to laugh than at getting him rolling.

“You tore it off, ye?”

His voice surprised me, shockingly high pitched for how stout the man was. I nodded along though, excited to hear the hopefully honest opinion of a professional.

“She right, mostly worthless as is. Done right, six silver for the full piece. Buy the stingers for half that, each. Stingers also poorly removed.”

I’d finally found someone trustworthy, and all it took were some rather extreme negotiation tactics. I needed to be a hardass more often!

“Use the coin to buy a cleaver. It pays for itself.”

He talked so curtly that it was almost hard to follow along, but I couldn’t hide my excitement. I finally found someone who wouldn’t just screw me over as soon as I talked to them, and I even had a path forward to making money!

“You’ve seen the carapace. What cleaver do you recommend?”

The man cupped his chin as he looked around, grabbing one from a row of shorter blades and holding it up for inspection. Walking back to the table, he held the carapace in one hand and slammed the cleaver down with the other. A loud thunking noise filled the stall, like chopping vegetables but dialed up to a hundred. When he withdrew his weapon, the carapace had been chopped into, cleanly and with precision.

“Cleaver worth ten silver. Give for six if bring more,” the short man spoke slowly, gesturing towards the bits of monster on the table. I nodded along emphatically, more than happy to get better carving equipment even if it was on layaway.

“I’ll pay you back the other four when I make it. Do morning drop offs work for you?”

He nodded, and I belatedly realized how rude I’d become since arriving in this world. Maybe it was only fair given how I’d mostly been treated, but this was a good guy. I should at least try to be polite.

“Pleasure doing business with you, sir. My name’s Law, by the way.”

“Reichken.”

I wasn’t sure if that was a name or he was just clearing his throat, but I went along with it.

“See you in the morning then, Reichken.”

With my loot unloaded and another tool for my belt, I took a step away before realizing something. Would it be a waste of money? Maybe, but I’d been longing for this moment for days now.

“You wouldn’t happen to make durable shorts, would you?”