Maron eyes abruptly shot open for no reason, his body quickly sat straight, remembering he needed to do, still drowsy and wiping his eye dirt, he got up and went to the bathroom to wash his face. Afterwards he changed to a new pair of clothes and slowly trudged outside to ’Potion Chicken’.
Maron walked on the street of Cilon empire, the location of ‘Potion Chicken’ is an area that Maron rarely visits, actually most of the ‘Cilon Empire’ he has never really been to, he has only been back and forth to Lowlaws and the inn, so instead of going directly to ‘Potion Chicken’, Maron decided to take a detour and look at the neighborhood.
He arrived at a street full of people on robes, the robes were of different colors but all had the same logo, a picture of an open book at the left chest, Maron pondered for a while and realized that it was probably the uniform of the academy, so these people here must be their students, the school must be near here.
Maron found a big structure that the students would flock to, he decided to take a look inside, the moment he stepped inside everyone started eying him, however he didn’t care about the stares and instead started to look around the shop. This place was a Magic Shop, there are staffs hanged on the wall, and wands on display, a worker explaining to a student the wand he was holding, when suddenly a guy talked to him.
“Can I help you?” The guy rudely asked. He was dressed like the guy that was explaining something to the other student, so Maron deduced that he was a worker here.
“Yeah, what kind of things do you sell here?” Maron asked.
The worker observed him from head to toe, before saying “A lot”
“Wow, that’s really helpful” Maron said and quickly grabbed his pouch and jingled it in front of the worker. Afterwards the expression of the worker slowly changed to a polite one. “What were you selling here?” Maron asked again.
“Magic stuff sir, we have wands, staff, potions, magic books, anything that’s related to magic we have it here sir” the worker said.
“Do you have a Magic pouch?” Maron asked. “How much is it?”
“We do have it sir, a 10-kilogram capacity would be 10 gold coins, a 20-kilogram would be 30 gold coins, and a 30-kilogram would be 50 gold coins.” The worker explained.
Maron pondered for a moment grabbed some coins in the pouch and thrown the pouch to him, the content of that pouch was now 50 gold coins, the payment he got from delivering Julius the troll’s ears. Afterwards the worker quickly ran to get some Magic pouch and then gave it to Maron, he quickly left right after without saying anything.
Maron continued his sightseeing and arrived at a plaza, the place was bustling with different people, guys just lying around on the grass, a family having a picnic, a couple kissing each other. Maron found a stand that sells different kinds of bread, he grabbed some coins out of his pockets and ordered some bread. After an hour passed, Maron now has reached the ‘Potion Chicken’ with a bag of snack in tow. He knocked on the door while chewing on a hotdog.
“Hey Julius, it’s me” Maron shouted. After a while Julius opened the door with his white coat full of stains, it seemed like he had just been doing something.
“You’re here” Julius said. “I thought you were going to decline and not meet me ever again”
“What?” Maron was baffled. “I’m not that kind of guy, besides were friends now aren’t we”
“Yeah” Julius said. “Come inside”
Maron went inside, the interior looked normal, there are shelves with different kinds of potion on it, if it weren’t for the outside looking like an abandoned house. Maron took his time observing the room, he raised a blue bottle and shook it, which Julius reproached him from doing again, he added that the bottles should not be opened because the potency of it would decrease. On a different section of the room there are exotic things on the shelves, there are eyeballs on a jar.
“What are these” Maron asked as he raised a jar.
“That’s a concoction of different acids, it can dissolve rocks in a matter of seconds” Julius said. “I need you to be cautious with that”
Maron immediately put it back, and wiped his hands on his shirt, it was a good thing that he didn’t try to play with it. Maron circled the whole shop before Julius called him out to another room, after entering the new room, Maron couldn’t help but be amazed, because there was large pot in the middle being boiled by firewood, that is the biggest pot Maron has ever seen, it looks like the thing that witches use, there are flasks of different kinds on a long table at the side of the room, this room is where he creates the potion that’s exhibited earlier.
“What are you doing?” Maron asked after seeing the boiling pot.
“I’m concocting a healing potion” Julius answered. “It can recover your vitality up to 50 percent, makes you able to fight longer and makes you regain your stamina”
“Wow, that’s amazing what’s it made of?” Maron pondered. “I might buy some of it for future use you know”
“Yeah, it’s made out of troll’s blood” Julius said. “A group of adventurers yesterday found a dead troll outside yesterday. The adventurers even said that it was punctured with holes, and they could only collect a small bottle of its blood, also the only thing missing was their ear, the adventurer who killed it must’ve had a specific purpose for its ears, he didn’t even touch anything on the troll”
“What about you how much have you sold for the troll’s blood you gathered” Julius curiously asked. He didn’t know that Maron was the guy that left the troll.
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Maron felt speechless, how couldn’t he have known that a troll’s blood was valuable, he felt dumber when he remembered that he killed eight trolls. He almost fell on his knees thinking of how much he could’ve earned if he wasn’t so fucking dumb.
“You know, enough to buy me a gold armor” Maron lied and quickly changed the subject. “Let’s talk about that eagle, where do I go to find it?”
“Are you saying you’re going to hunt it?” Julius said gleefully. “I thought you were here to reject my favor”
“I’m here to accept it” Maron said. “However, I have a condition. I want some of this thing you're concocting.”
“Sure” Julius willingly agreed. “That is not a problem, I could even give you some potions outside if you want”
“Sure” Maron quickly said. “There’s no reason to reject free potions.”
Afterwards Julius explained to Maron the strength of the ‘Kingbird’ and started drawing a map for him. He warned Maron to always be careful, because the moment a kingbird grabs you, you are dead. He also explained the skills of it, its wings can create a wind attack that can carry you of the ground.
Maron received the paper and told Julius to not be worried, he had already planned a strategy earlier this morning for the ‘Kingbird’, he was confident that he could take it down, with the help of his Gatling gun, Maron doesn’t think that ‘Kingbird’ would be able to handle it.
Maron did not directly go to hunt the ‘Kingbird’, He first stopped at the inn to get his armor first. He was ultra-careful about this hunt, because this is the strongest monster he would encounter so far. After getting his golden armor, he studied the map and went on his way.
On the road to the jungle all the people he passed by would stare at him for a couple of seconds before minding their business, it was because of his shiny golden armor, it was a good thing that he had his visor down, this way no one would be able to recognize him.
After an hour Maron scanned the map and realized that he had reached the place indicated in it, the place was wide, open land. Maron realized why it would frequent here, this place was the best hunting grounds for it, no trees to block its vision just open vast land, the eagle would be able to swoop down on anything that runs on this place.
Maron pumped himself up and repeated that he could do it a couple of times before quickly walking to the middle of the field, with what he’s wearing there was no way that a ‘Kingbird’ wouldn’t be able to see him. After a few minutes a bird could be seen flying at the sky circling all over him, Maron believed that it was the ‘Kingbird’, when suddenly it was getting bigger and bigger, thankfully Maron quickly realized that it was swooping down on him fast, but before it could get too close Maron had already summoned a big Gatling gun out of nowhere.
The Kingbird’s pupil dilated with the sudden appearance of a mysterious object however it didn’t have any intention of stopping its dive, instead it squealed and tucked in its wings for faster diving speed. The distance of the two was quickly decreased, however Maron’s Gatling gun had already been aimed to it, when it came into range, he immediately pulled the trigger hard and bombarded it with a combination of his spell ‘Exploding bullet’ and ‘Poison shot’.
“Oh shit!” Maron shouted as he jumped to the side. The kingbird crashed straight unto where he was before, its crash unto the ground created a cloud of sand, Maron quickly unsummoned his Gatling gun, and changed it with his M4A1. He aimed the gun to the direction of the dust cloud, and slowly walked to it, after the dust settled a big bird displayed itself in front of Maron.
The bird was still alive but it didn’t have the strength to move itself anymore, it was just laid there with its eyes still half open. The Kingbird’s features could be seen clearly by Maron, it was huge almost thrice his size, its beak was beautifully curved at the end, its claws are as sharp as a knife, its feather was just the right balance of brown and white. Maron was awed at its majestic appearance, even though this thing planned to kill him earlier, after a bit of pondering he slowly aimed his M4A1 at its head and pulled the trigger, that made the Kingbird’s body convulse.
‘Ding’ Level up.
‘Ding’ Level up.
‘Ding’ Level up.
‘Ding’ Level up.
‘Ding’ Level up.
Maron heard announcements in his head, it provided proof that the Kingbird was dead, he crouched beside its head to grab its eyeball, however he remembered the troll’s that he killed and decided to carry the whole thing back to the Kingdom. He grabbed the bird by the feet and slowly dragged it back to the kingdom, he would encounter some monsters here and there however he quickly killed it with his M4A1, after a couple of hours Maron finally reached the gate.
The guards on duty that time was surprised by him, but they couldn’t distinguish who he was because his visor was down, he slowly walked to the ‘Potion Chicken’ with the ‘Kingbird’ in tow, he was groaning at every time he took a step, the bird was really heavy thankfully he was able to drag it at least. Every bystander he passes by would stare at him only this time they didn’t quickly go mind their business after, instead they stopped what they were doing and tried to discern who he was.
If this bird didn’t have any use aside from its eyeballs, Maron swore to kill himself. After the laborious task he finally reached the Potion Chicken, he heaved a euphoric sigh of relief after reaching the front door. He knocked on the door with a closed sign attached to it and waited for a little while before Julius opened it. Julius’ appearance clearly showed that he just took a nap, his hair was a mess, and he was wiping his eyes.
“What do you want?” Julius asked irritatingly. “Can’t you read the sign? I'm closed for the day”
Maron was flabbergasted. He raised his right arm and wanted to punch Julius at his face, but he stopped himself and said “It’s me, dipshit!”
“Maron?” Julius said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you with your visor down” he felt horrible and apologized a couple more times
“I see that you were so worried about me” Maron mocked. “Maybe my first impression of you was right”. Maron isn’t going to forget about this for a little while.
Maron quickly dragged the Kingbird in front of the house, whereupon Julius was only able to see now, Maron said firmly “Here’s your Kingbird. Deliver the potion to the inn when you’re finished.” and quickly left right after, not caring about his reaction or how he was going to get it inside his shop.
When Maron got cak to the inn it was already night, he was greeted by Sakura who was waiting on a table, afterwards she suddenly pounced on him and hugged him tight.
"Where have you been?" Sakura asked worriedly. "You shoud've took me with you, if you were going to hunt that 'Kingbird'."
"Wha-" Maron couldn't respond. Instead, he just hugged her back. "I'm sorry" was the only thing he could say afterwards.
"Have you eaten?" Sakura asked while still hugging him.
"No, not yet" Maron answered.
"Let's eat then." Sakura said and stepped out from the hug. "Grab a seat, I'll ask Aunt Snak to make something for us"
Maron quickly grabbed a seat, and waited for his dinner happily, his irritation from earlier has vanished completely, it was replaced with happiness and delight. Afterwards the two slowly enjoyed their meal and Maron told her about what he did earlier and she told Maron how her day went.
"