Meryda and her friends, together with the smiling Fae, entered the City of Amberstar after a quick stop at her farm to leave there the Bone Boars, the two Gigantic Spiders, and the Emptiness.
After a quick explanation from Meryda, the Bone Boars quickly made a pit around the farm with water from the canal for the Emptiness to live and travel while guarding the premises.
Since it was already dinnertime, Meryda and the Fae went to the Guild with the mushrooms they picked and five Grolagians, while the others went home after making plans to meet the following day to get their share of the money from the Quests and try another.
With a bag of balls of web over her left shoulder and another bag on her right with the mushrooms, Meryda opened the door for the smiling Fae, who was carrying the bag with the Grolagians.
They walked along the straight aisle between the tables and stopped in front of the counter where the Demi-Cat receptionist was filling jars with beer, and after a glance at the newcomers, she spoke while filling another jar, “You are late. What were you up to the entire afternoon?”
With a big smile, Meryda put her bags over the counter, and after the Fae put her bag, she explained, “We want you or the Guild Master to stamp the Quests we finished. Here are the products; now pay up!”
The woman almost dropped the jar she was filling when she saw the contents of the bags, and while Meryda was still smiling, she asked, “How in the world did you guys get all this in such a short amount of time? Wait a minute, you didn’t apply to collect balls of web, did you? Because that is a dangerous Quest!”
“No, we didn’t; we only applied to easy Quests, but we kind of accidentally found a bunch of webs ready to be picked when we were hunting for Beekers and Grolagians. We went to a forest nearby in search of these mushrooms, but we were also hunting there.”
“Darn, there are a lot of experienced Adventurers who won’t like that a bunch of youngsters found so many balls of web!”
With an awkward smile, Meryda asked, “So… it won’t be a good idea to bring more? Because if we manage to find more webs without a Gigantic Spider nearby, we could grab a bunch.”
“The Adventurers that usually go after webs won’t like it, and neither will your father. Did you already tell him that you and your friends found all this? Because I bet he won’t be happy!”
“I just arrived; I haven’t talked to my father yet. So, if we find more webs, is it better to sell them in the market to an outside merchant?”
“That would work better in the long run, yes. But why are you insisting on this? Are you perhaps thinking about going back to that forest to get more web? Because today you got lucky, but next time you might face a Gigantic Spider, and those buggers are extremely dangerous! There are a few Adventurers that have already died because they were not smart enough and tried to fight one of those Spiders instead of running away.”
The Guild Master was at a table, and he heard the talk. When he approached the counter, he asked in a low tone, “Meryda, by any chance... you know…”
“I… kind of did it… We also found an Emptiness when the spiders were helping us hunt Grolagians. Actually, they were the ones to kill the Grolagians we have here.”
“What the… What did you do to those Monsters? You left them in that forest?”
After looking around, Meryda answered in a low voice, “No, I took them to my farm. The spiders chose two big trees to live in, and the Emptiness now has a water canal that goes all around my farm, and we left him there, patrolling. My Bone Boars helped me make that canal, and I think he liked his new home. I suppose that with so many Monsters guarding my farm, I don’t need to worry about attacks from other Monsters, wild animals, or criminals. And I also found a new way of earning money. I just have to sell the web in the market or to a merchant.”
Dralro Jic, the strong Guild Master, rubbed his chin, and after a few seconds, he said, “It would probably be better if you let the Guild handle the sales of web. We can’t risk a merchant finding out that a group of kids collected a bunch of webs from one of the most dangerous Monsters out there. It is already weird enough that you suddenly have a big herd of Fur Cows!”
Meryda nodded, and she then remembered something. “I probably need the Guild’s help to sell the harvest of all the things that are now growing on my farm. When we went there to put the spiders and the Emptiness, I noticed that what this morning were small plants are now a lot bigger, and some things are almost ready to harvest. I saw a bunch of pumpkins, corn, wheat, lettuce, and tomatoes.”
“Really? Well, I suppose the Guild can also take care of that, but if you have so many things, we really need to search for an outside merchant, because if we sell all that in the market, we are going to ruin a bunch of farmers!”
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“I will let you take care of that then, as long as I get all the profit because I have to split the money among my friends, considering they all helped me. Well, not the products from my farm, because those were me, my father, and my boars, but we must split equally the money from all this. Is my father in the kitchen? I need to tell him that I have a few new Monsters or next time he has a day off, he will get scared when we arrive at our farm!”
With a smile, the Guild Master pointed to the kitchen while looking at the bags’ contents that were over the counter and said, “He is in there, probably eating. I went with him to make a new weapon that he wanted. Go see him, and he will explain.”
Meryda and the green-smiling Fae ran to the kitchen with the Salamander right behind them, and the Demi-Cat woman grabbed the bags and asked in a low voice, “How the heck did she manage to tame so many Monsters? Two Gigantic Spiders and an Emptiness? What’s next? A Drake?”
“If we hear a Drake is flying around, we have to tell her to see if she can tame it. Considering that she tamed two spiders that are intelligent enough, a mere Drake won’t pose a problem to our little Monster Tamer.” said the Guild Master in a whisper and with a big smile on his lips.
While he went with the receptionist to put Meryda’s bags in the storage, she was looking at the two Sub-Demons, who were seated in a corner of the kitchen, sharpening a wooden dart with a pile ready next to them. She pointed at the pile and asked, “Are they getting ready to kill you, father?”
“No, I asked them to sharpen those for me. I am making a bunch of wooden darts for my new crossbow. Well, I don’t have one yet, but I will probably have one by tomorrow or the day after. It depends on how good that blacksmith and that carpenter are. Bring that pretty Slime over here; I want to try something.”
Meryda put the Slime over the table and sat on the empty chair next to the two kitchen helpers, Vasir Rez and Emid Basson, who were cutting thin pieces of wood with the same length to then give to the two Sub-Demons, and she watched while her father grabbed a tiny bit of the Slime and gently pulled it to make a round marble with his fingers. He then went to the stove and put the gelatinous marble near the fire inside the stove for a few seconds, grabbing it with a pair of tweezers to take it out.
He then put the hard ball over the table to cool it off, and Meryda looked at it, puzzled, as he explained, “And now I have a hard marble to use on my crossbow. I might need to make a mould to make ten or more of these marbles of the same size. Do you think your Slime won’t mind if I take some pieces of him? He has gotten bigger since you found him, and I think he grows as he eats stuff. Or, in his case, absorbs stuff.”
“I have no idea if you take pieces from him, hurt him, or tickle him. He doesn’t seem to mind. I have one thing here that you might find useful to put on the tip of those crossbow darts,” said Meryda as she took a small flask from a pocket and handed it over to her father, who stared at it puzzled.
“I asked one of my spiders to fill this. It is a powerful poison. Pof Grinun told me that just half this amount could kill everyone in this City.”
Craydon took the flask and stared at the liquid inside, while his kitchen helpers were also looking at it, wondering what that was and where Meryda found it. With a slight smile, he said, “I suppose this could be useful. Maybe I can mix a few drops with a piece of your Slime and make a poisoned marble. Or just put this on the tips of the crossbow darts. But what spider are you talking about? You found poisonous spiders?”
“I sure did! And a very weird dark fog that corrodes organic material to be used as manure. I took that fog and the spiders to our farm, and they seemed to like it there. Tomorrow morning, I am going there with my friends because I have the feeling we will have some things ready to harvest. When I went there, the small sprouts were already big plants.”
“Things grow so fast around here?”
“No, the siblings told me it was not normal. Maybe it was because the boars were the ones to plant the seeds, and they spat water over the fields after burying the seeds?”
While still looking at the liquid inside the flask, Craydon said, “If the things those boars plant grow so fast, we may have found a nice way to earn money, but the Guild Master told me that in a few days, a caravan will arrive to collect supplies to be sent to the front lines of the Ooman’s Alliance. It seems this year the harvest from the farms around this City was not good because there was not enough rain and not many farms have rivers near them like we do. We may need to store some vegetables and fruits and deliver them to that caravan to cover for the other farms.”
“For free? Because we could get a tonne of money if we sold all that stuff to outside merchants!”
“It seems it is part of the agreement between the Ooman Alliance and the Demis countries. We give them supplies, and in return, they fight the Demons to prevent them from invading the Demis’ countries and killing everyone. I know it is a strange agreement, but it has existed for a bunch of years.”
Meryda kept frowning, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t like to give away all my boars’ hard work,” she said while leaning back in her chair.
The green Fae was near the two Sub-Demons and said while grabbing a sharp dart that one of the Sub-Demons gave her, “It is more like a demand than an agreement. In an agreement, both parties would gain something, but in this case, only the Ooman Alliance gets stuff, while the Demis only get a slight hope that the Oomans will stop the Demons. In fact, no one is sure if the Demons will ever want to invade other countries and kill anyone. For millennia, the Demons have been living in their country, and they never came out of there to other countries.”
Hearing that, Craydon asked, “So, in your opinion, this agreement is unnecessary, and it is just an excuse for the Oomans to get supplies for free? Because that would be extortion.”
“Fae don’t have an opinion. We just watch, ask questions, and sometimes make other people think. What would be better is for Meryda to be as far away as possible from this City when the Ooman caravan arrives. And warn all the Adventurers, Explorers, and her friends to never mention anything about her Monsters, or they will get curious and insist on meeting her. That will end with her being drafted into the Alliance.”
“We already know that. That is why Meryda is supposed not to attract too much attention to herself and keep a low profile.”
The smiling Fae went to the table where Craydon and the others were and, while putting the sharp dart over it, said, “That is probably already too late, considering our Party returned with so many things from three Quests. One of them was a very dangerous Quest that we accidentally completed.”