episode_0075

“No, already… … ?”

I couldn’t hide my surprise at the sight of the mercenary who seemed to have already captured a monster, no matter how long ago I had requested it. No, I didn’t understand how on earth they were able to catch him so quickly.

“Haha, I was lucky.”

Even though he barely caught the goblin, the mercenary started talking as if he was telling a sagas. I didn’t know where to go to find the monster, so I just kept going forward, but I ended up encountering a goblin that had come out looking for food just as spring had arrived. And the saga began with a battle and ended with the story of slaying the goblin after a hard fight.

If you just listen to what they say, they swing the sword this way and that way… … . They talked as if they had just met a group of trolls, but in reality they turned out to be goblins.

He nodded roughly at the sight of bragging, which seemed to be an essential virtue for mercenaries, and led them to the blacksmith shop. To be exact, it is a workshop in a blacksmith shop.

“Okay, let’s check the status first. As I clearly stated when requesting it, I will not purchase it if the bone is damaged.”

“Oh, you can speak freely. There is no need for you, a nobleman, to speak highly of a mercenary brat, right?”

As soon as he saw the state of his prey, the mercenary immediately took a low stance. He was rubbing his palms together as if to get rid of some minor blemishes, and I couldn’t help but laugh at that sight.

“Okay, let’s take a look.”

A bundle was placed on a large workbench in the workroom, and a goblin corpse came out from inside.

The body was full of all kinds of knife marks, but thankfully there were no major injuries. The main cause of death seemed to be bleeding from a minor wound and a rather deep wound into the abdomen. Even though I roughly checked while moving the black magic around, I couldn’t feel any black magic leaking anywhere.

“This is good. See you next time too.”

And, I checked each and every goblin brought by the mercenaries. Because the condition of the first thing I saw was good, I couldn’t think that the other things would be just as good.

However, there were no corpses that were particularly problematic. One bone had some scratches, but these were repairable during the skeleton making process.

“Okay, I’ll buy them all. I’ll give you the money right away, so just wait a moment.”

After confirming that there were no problems making the skeleton, I immediately took out the money and paid it to the mercenaries. The mercenaries who received the slightly heavy bags containing the coins bowed their heads to me with happy smiles and left the studio.

And, as they were leaving, mercenaries carrying bundles like them began to come one by one, as if to inform them that they could go here.

“Hmm, not bad.”

“Didn’t I make it clear? There should be no damage to the bones. Don’t buy the one with the head cut off. Goblin corpses have no value in making Dullahan.”

“The bone is clearly visible here, and there is a rather large scratch. It’s quite troublesome to restore and use this… … . If you sell it for half the price, I’ll buy it.”

“Oh… … . How did you catch this? There really aren’t any wounds. what? They lured him into a trap and drowned him? For some reason, my stomach looked big… … .”

The mercenaries each brought a bag containing the corpse of a monster, had it inspected by me for quality, and then took the money. Of course, there were often those who did not meet the conditions and did not receive the money, but they were a very small minority.

Anyway, thanks to the mercenaries catching and bringing back quite a lot of monsters, the corpses of monsters began to pile up in the corner of the studio. It was obvious that if the corruption continued like this, a very difficult situation would arise, so I immediately used black magic to cast a petrification curse. If you make it like a hard stone, it won’t rot, so all you have to do is break the curse and use it later when you make it into a skeleton.

However, unlike the corner of my studio where corpses piled up, my wallet became increasingly thin. The amount ordered by the royalists alone was over 11 million meds, but as the mercenaries captured a considerable number of monsters, that money was rapidly decreasing.

After a few days, about a third of the funds I had received from the Loyalists had been reduced. Although some of the money was used to purchase land or construction materials, a significant amount of money was still spent on purchasing monster corpses. But it wasn’t anything to worry about. On the contrary to my wallet being thin, the store’s money box was on the verge of bursting.

“Hey, I guess I made some money today. Why don’t you drink and binge until your nose is crooked?”

“What do you know? Of course you should drink it! Let’s go!”

“I’m sorry, but I have something to buy, so I’ll be back in a bit. You guys go first.”

“What are you going to buy? Is there something to live for other than drinking?”

“This time I realized for sure that the weapon I am currently using does not suit me well. The arming sword sold at the blacksmith shop here is really good for my hands, so I’m going to buy some and use it.”

Some of the mercenaries who sold me the monster corpses used the money again at the store, so the store’s money tank was bound to burst.

“Really? Well, your use of weapons is a bit sloppy. Well, then, I guess I should buy a chest case too… … . My heart is still throbbing from being hit by the trap the goblin made earlier. If I had a chest case, it wouldn’t hurt like this.”

Some people simply purchased weapons, while others purchased armor such as armor that they normally would not purchase because they considered it to be a burden. Since they were mercenaries in a dangerous occupation, many people became interested in weapons to protect themselves once they had money.

Perhaps that’s why there were quite a few mercenaries who spent the money they received from me as a commission fee on buying things at the store. More than half of the mercenaries who sold monster corpses spent money on buying items at the store, and about 40% of the money I paid was filled into the store’s money box.

It feels like I’m putting the money in my pocket into the store’s money box… … . No, it felt like the money that had gone out was walking into the store and diving into the money box.

“… … It feels like hiring mercenaries is really cheap, right?”

Thanks to this, I felt that hiring mercenaries was very cheap. I think it was because the profits from the items I made were higher than I expected. Except for some of the raw materials, including the cost of auxiliary materials such as fuel, coal, and charcoal consumed during the steelmaking process, everything was thanks to the skeleton that cost no money.

It was like the money that went out for the request fee was coming back in, except for a small portion, so I couldn’t help but feel like it was cheap.

“I guess I can buy a little more monsters because I can harden them with the petrification curse, right?”

As a result, I even wondered if it would be okay to purchase more monster corpses, which I had initially only planned to purchase, about 300. The limit of 300 was a number that took into account the dark magic power to be increased by obtaining blood, but also took into account the cost consumed in the process. It was thought that if the money was going to be recovered like this, there would be no problem in purchasing more.

“Client! Are you there!”

And at the same time that it was decided that it would be okay to purchase more monsters, a group of people entered the studio. Like the mercenaries who had visited this place so far, they were all carrying bundles, but there was a slight difference. The design of the hoods on their heads was unified.

“Hello, client! We are a mercenary group called the Hood Mercenaries. I fulfilled the request after seeing the request on the bulletin board of the mercenary hall.”

“Hooded mercenaries? This is my first time hearing it.”

“Haha, it hasn’t been that long since we actually created a mercenary group. Moreover, they are not active in this area, but I happened to stop by while moving to another place. I carried out the request because I thought it would be a good opportunity to unite ourselves and promote our skills.”

They called themselves the Hood Mercenaries, and in fact they were just a group of mercenaries. It seemed like he had a hood wrapped around his head to give him an external feature that could distinguish him from others.

But whether it was a mercenary group or a mercenary group, it wasn’t something I really cared about. Therefore, they decided to immediately check the corpse of the monster they brought.

“Uh… … !”

And, I couldn’t help but be surprised when I checked the corpse of the monster they had caught. It was because two special individuals were seen among the ordinary goblins.

“Goblin Shaman and Goblin Warrior. We were able to catch all of the people who were forming the village.”

Pointing to a shaman wearing various crude accessories on his body and a warrior with a stature that looked about half the size of an ordinary goblin, the person who appeared to be the leader of the hooded mercenaries spread his chest triumphantly.

“No, how did you find it? Were there any shaman-loving warriors around the village? … ?”

“I did go a bit far away. The radius in which we can all travel and operate on horseback is quite wide.”

As I was nodding my head when told that I had traveled a long way on horseback to catch it, I started bragging about how I caught it. However, it may have been because they had captured a shaman and a warrior, but it seemed a bit different from the braggadocio the other mercenaries were talking about.

“Goblins hunkered down during the winter and begin to expand their power in the spring. In the process, the first thing to do is to find food, and the individuals procuring food are lured in with bait. But catching the goblin that came to take the bait is something only the minions would do. Goblins will return to the village, and if you follow the goblins returning to the village very carefully, you can catch more goblins at once.”

I couldn’t help but nod my head at the sight of the mercenary leader saying, “I chased them all the way to the village and captured them.” It was a story worth listening to rather than talking about how he fought against ordinary goblins.

“Hood mercenaries… … . You seem to have quite a bit of skill. Overall condition is good. Okay, I’ll pay the request fee right away.”

I checked the condition of the corpses while briefly listening to the mercenary leader explain how they captured the goblins, and I purchased the corpses of seven regular goblins in addition to two special ones.

Since it was decided to give special entities at least five times more than regular entities, a lump sum of money was taken away at once, but it was not a waste at all. This is because the mercenaries of the Hooded Mercenaries, like others, seemed to be attracted by our store’s low prices and excellent quality and purchased items in large quantities.

Moreover, considering what the shaman and warrior individuals would do in the future by becoming skeletons, it would not have been a waste even if they had not purchased the items.

Therefore, I immediately created the Shaman entity as a Skeleton Mage first. Since I had made a lot of skeletal horses out of horse carcasses obtained from the battle over Viscount Deputy’s territory, I planned to start by using them to transport them.

Of course, that didn’t stop him from turning the warrior into a skeleton knight. It was a skeleton knight that was more useful than a regular skeleton, so once it was made, it could be used for any purpose.

As Count Carbon had advised, it could be used as an entity to protect me.