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Ep. 373 Captain's Test Part 27

Twenty griffins is far more than I expected to attract with one simple roar. As they fly towards me I quickly look around to memorize the terrain I will be fighting on. During the fight I will have to be careful not to step off the edge and go falling down the mountain.

Luckily there isn't enough room for all twenty to attack me at once, even if they land. At most only five will be able to attack me at once, but I want to make sure none of them fly away. So, as I am dodging the attacks of the first one to reach me I hold off on killing it.

As soon as all of them are close enough I use Lion's Rage again to taunt all of them. Once I do they all go berserk and try to attack me no matter what. Thanks to that they all get in each other's way which makes it a lot easier for me to fight against so many.

I start using the gaps that are created when two interfere with each other to start cutting them down. As I kill some of them it makes it easier for the others to get to me to attack me. Because of that I end up dodging more than attacking, but I still manage to kill another occasionally.

After about a half hour there are only twelve griffins left, but because of all the dodging I am fairly tired. Every couple of minutes I use Lion's Rage again, to make sure they stay taunted and don't try to run away. The little bit of damage that Lion's Rage does has no real effect on the griffins, but it does add up slowly.

The real problem starts when there are only five left and they no longer get in each others way. At that point I realize I can't possibly dodge all of the attacks coming from the five of them. So, instead of trying I stop dodging all together and switch to going fully offensive.

This allows me to kill them fairly quickly, but I learn a surprising thing as they are hitting me. Unless they do a decent amount of damage, their attacks don't affect me at all. I quickly realize this must be due to the new stat I got from the demon.

A weak hit, no matter the weight behind it, doesn't cause me to stumble or move at all. This is why all my attacks against the demon didn't affect him at all, such a cheat ability. Now I can't wait to see how it will work once the stat goes up some more.

After the last griffin dies I sit down to rest and catch my breath for a few minutes. Then I get to work on the fifteen corpses that didn't fall off the mountain. The other five I will get on my way down the mountain, it takes me two hours to deal with all the corpses.

Since the sun is going down by the time I am done I decide to head back to town and turn in the quest. After all, Raindrop only asked for the feathers from three griffins, not twenty-one. I will still give her all the feathers, she can surely find a use for the leftovers.

However, when I reach town my first stop is not the adventurer's guild, it is a quality meat store. There I end up paying twenty gold to get all of the griffin meat turned into jerky. Before I forget, I make my next stop at a general goods store to buy basic cooking supplies.

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Only after that do I finally go into the adventurer's guild and head for the quest hall. As usual all the adventurers stop whatever they are doing to watch me pass. When I walk up to the redemption counter and hand the crystal to Mapleleaf she looks a little nervous as she checks the crystal.

Mapleleaf says "Twenty-one griffins! How? You only accepted the quest earlier today?!"

"I am a grade A adventurer for a reason."

Mapleleaf says "Ah, right! Let me get you your reward!"

"Thank you."

Maple leaf says "Here you go, including the bonus for the extra griffins, the total is 271 gold."

"Thank you."

Mapleleaf says "Oh, also, the guild is willing to purchase any materials you don't need from the griffins."

"Oh, I already have a use for the feathers and the meat."

Mapleleaf says "The guild will purchase the beaks, talons, eyes, tendons, and other organs."

"Okay, I have no use for any of that. Do I give them to you?"

Mapleleaf says "Ew! Please, no!"

"Ha ha, okay, where should I take it then?"

Following Mapleleaf's directions takes me to an area of the guild I never knew existed. The room I enter is full of weapons and equipment for sale, all made from various beasts. The counter at the end of the room is manned by an older human male, he is heavily scarred and gruff looking.

"Hello. Mapleleaf sent me over here to sell some griffin parts."

Gul says "Aye, we buy monster parts."

"Excellent."

So I walk over to the counter and start pulling things out of my backpack and placing them on the counter. As the pile just keeps growing the old man's eyes just keep getting wider and wider. It is only then that he actually pays attention to me and notices my grade A adventurer badge.

Gul says "Ah, you are the one who killed the demon!"

"Yes, that's me."

Gul says "Wait here! The master wishes to speak with you!"

Before I can respond the old man runs through a door behind the counter. While I have no idea who his master is, since he hasn't paid for the griffin parts yet I have no choice but to wait. I would probably have waited anyway since I am curious about who this master is.

I get my answer a few minutes later when Gul returns followed by a dwarf. I have already met an elf so meeting a dwarf isn't that much of a surprise. However, I am curious as to why a dwarf wants to meet me.

Gul says "This is the master of the beast shop, Rockskull."

"Pleased to meet you, Rockskull. What can I do for you?"

Rockskull says "Zimmy said that you kept the horns from the demon. I am interested in working with them."

"Ah, yeah, I have them here."

Pulling out the two demon horns I hand them to the dwarf and let him examine them. I kept them because I thought I might find a use for them, but so far I haven't thought of anything. Besides, I don't really have much free time for crafting and I can't take them out of the test with me.

Rockskull says "Amazing! These really are the best materials I have ever seen! What do you plan to do with them?"

"I had thought about carving them into short swords, but they are a little too narrow for that."

Rockskull says "Oh, you practice scrimshaw?"

"Yeah, a little. I am by no means a master or anything."

Rockskull says "That's obvious. Anyone with a high skill would realize the best use for these horns would be as the arms of a crossbow."

"Huh, a crossbow. I never thought of that. Then again I don't normally use a bow so that's no surprise."

Rockskull says "Either let me craft a crossbow for you or sell me the horns."

"Sure, I can think of a few times a crossbow would have been useful."