Chapter 63: Cleaning up the Battlefield

Chapter 63: Chapter 63: Cleaning up the Battlefield

Hulk had Fast-legged Tom find a sturdy wooden trailer from the village and hitched it to the Land Bird.

The group worked together to load their most valuable spoils from the trip—the boars’ Thick Hides, tusks, hearts, and other materials—onto the trailer.

The remaining meat, however, was a problem. Although the meat from the few smaller wild boars could fetch a decent price, it was clear they couldn’t transport it all back with just the Land Bird.

Furthermore, the adult boars’ meat was too tough to sell for any real price.

As Hulk was wondering what to do, Fast-legged Tom sidled up to him.

"Great Adventurers, since you can’t take all this meat with you, how about... you sell it to me?"

Hulk looked at him, then glanced at the expectant villagers who had been helping. He made a decision.

"The smaller ones, 20 Silver Scales each. As for the big ones, the meat’s too tough. We don’t want it. Whoever wants to deal with them can take them and split the meat. Consider it a gift to the village from us."

As soon as he said this, the villagers erupted in an uproar!

A small wild boar for 20 Silver Scales was a fair price; a few families could pool their money to buy one.

More importantly, the adult boars, each as big as a small hill, were being given away for free!

Even though the meat from these boars didn’t taste great, the villagers weren’t about to complain, especially since these were the very beasts that had been ruining their crops.

"I’ll take one of the small ones!"

"We’ll handle the meat from the big ones!"

Fast-legged Tom was overjoyed at the sight and immediately started organizing them at the top of his lungs, "Don’t rush, don’t rush! The families who want to buy a small boar, come over here and pool your money! Everyone else, lend a hand and divide up the meat the Adventurers have given us! Priority goes to the families who suffered the most losses!"

Over here, the carcasses of the Thorny Wild Boars that Hesia had dealt with initially had not yet been processed.

However, as the crowd drew closer, they were captivated by a strange sight.

It wasn’t just that the boar leader’s body was far larger than the other boars.

More importantly, a fist-sized, dark red stone was quietly floating in the air above the boar leader’s corpse.

"This is..." A rare look of surprise appeared on Hulk’s face. "A Crystal Core?"

"A Crystal Core?!" Belte also leaned in. "So this is a Crystal Core? It’s my first time seeing one in person. I’ve only ever heard people bragging about them in taverns."

Hesia was still half-ignorant about much of the common knowledge of this world and asked curiously, "Captain, what’s a Crystal Core?"

Hulk explained, "You can think of it as the condensed essence of a Demon."

"After a Demon dies, there’s an extremely low chance that its most powerful trait will condense and crystallize, forming a Crystal Core."

"They are usually used for the Enchantment of weapons or equipment, allowing the user to gain a certain trait or even a skill from that Demon."

"Because of this, every Crystal Core is extremely expensive."

"Hmph, you sure are one lucky guy." Laila crossed her arms, her tone laced with a hint of jealousy, but there was no greed in her eyes. "This is the first time I’ve encountered one of these, too."

She then turned to Hulk and said decisively, "Captain, we didn’t participate in this fight at all. Galen took care of these boars all by himself. There’s no dispute over who this belongs to. All the profits go to him."

Hulk nodded and said in a deep voice, "That goes without saying. The spoils from over here, including this Crystal Core, all belong to Galen."

When Belte heard this, he immediately clapped Hesia on the shoulder. "Goes without saying! Congrats, Brother Galen! You’ve struck it rich! Don’t worry, I’ll help you get all the valuable materials off these things, save you the trouble of..."

He was about to tease him again about his previous dissection attempt.

"What are you still blabbering on about!" Laila, who was a short distance away, interrupted him impatiently. "If you had time to dally, you could’ve been done by now!"

While Belte was talking nonsense, she and Zoya had already, with a tacit understanding, started processing the carcasses of the smaller wild boars nearby.

Before long, the spoils from this side were also collected and neatly placed on the trailer.

The group took a short rest, waiting for the last few villagers to arrive and buy the remaining two small wild boars.

Twenty Silver Scales wasn’t a huge sum for Adventurers like them, but it wasn’t an amount they could just ignore either.

After all, no one would complain about having too much money.

Taking advantage of the break, Belte nudged Laila, who was wiping her skinning knife, with his elbow and said in a low voice, "Hey, how come you’re being so generous this time? Weren’t you just muttering about saving up for that new longbow?"

"Why are you so full of crap today! I want money, but I’m not so greedy I’d take just any money! Besides, isn’t it all because you’re a broke Warrior! Back in the day, the line of guys who liked me stretched from this town all the way to Fernandez..."

Hesia paid no attention to their squabbling. He reached out and grasped the floating Crystal Core.

It was warm to the touch, and he could even feel a fierce and violent aura emanating from the stone.

’Based on the captain’s description, this thing’s value is probably far beyond what I imagined...’ he thought. ’I really ran into a great group of teammates this time.’

He had originally assumed the world of Adventurers was mostly full of deceit and bickering, where fighting tooth and nail over profits was the norm.

He never expected the members of the Dragon Fang team to be so magnanimous and loyal.

’Of course, I can’t let my guard down because of this. Not all Adventurers can be like them.’

’Still, even though I’m short on cash right now—I need to buy gear, rent a place, improve my strength... I can’t be too greedy.’

Thinking of this, he looked up at Hulk and said, "Captain, let’s split the materials from these boars, and the loot from before, according to the usual rules—an even split for everyone. I’m already getting a huge advantage by taking this Crystal Core."

Hulk seemed to want to insist on the team’s principles. "Galen, you earned this. We..."

Hesia cut him off. "Captain, that’s settled."

"Thinking back on the battle, if Belte and the others hadn’t desperately held back the other boars, and if you hadn’t rushed over with your Shield to block that Thorn Burst for me, I’d probably be lying on the ground right now. How would I have had the chance to get this Crystal Core?"

He smiled and continued, "If I took all the rewards for myself, I’d probably be too embarrassed to take on any more quests with you guys in the future."

Seeing his firm attitude and sound reasoning, Hulk no longer insisted. "Alright! Since you put it that way, we’ll stick to the rules. All spoils, including the money from the boar meat, will be split evenly among everyone!"

"Haha! Brother Galen, you’re a real one!" Belte exclaimed happily upon hearing this.

Laila also glanced at Hesia. Although she didn’t say anything, her expression seemed to have softened considerably.

Hesia carefully put the Crystal Core away, his mind already racing ahead.

’I’ll need to find a reliable place to get this Crystal Core appraised later. If its value turns out to be ridiculously high, I’ll find another way to compensate them.’

The reason was simple.

For him, adventuring with a group of trustworthy companions brought him far more peace of mind than hogging a windfall all to himself.