Chapter 617: Setting Off Before News Spreads

Feeling like crying but finding no tears, Verdell found himself just silently gazing down at the information for a good few seconds before slowly letting out a sigh. Pulling his adventurer card back. Allowing the information that had just been displayed to fade away like it had never existed in the first place.

The illusion of his debt vanishing before his eyes serving as a great motivator, as his gaze travelled towards Valerie currently standing beside him using another similar artifact to inspect her own balance with a look of hard to conceal happiness on her face that almost looked like glee in his eyes as his gaze inevitably ended up following hers.

Landing firmly on the assets currently held within her adventurer card…

[Assets]

[All assets are counted in gold coin.]

[Balance: 72.408]

[Wandering Warrior Welfare Fund: 4700]

Not only did Valerie have a downright absurd amount of gold to her name, but she even had an additional collum below her original balance that he didn’t have- and it wasn’t some kind of unpaid debt.

On the contrary, it was a welfare fund that Verdell himself knew about, as it had been specifically created by the tribe Valerie belonged to and essentially paid 100 gold a month to promising warriors of the tribe out wandering the world. Ensuring they would always have their basic needs met.

The fund- or rather the WWWF, was paid through taxes levied on the people that remained behind in the tribe or powerful seniors who had long since succeeded and made a name for themselves.

In fact, this unique fund was one of the main reasons why the members from Valerie’s tribe ended up becoming well known across the world for their combat abilities and grew to the point where they could even create a specialized fund through the Adventurers Guild, showcasing just how vast their influence was.

Sure, other similar funds existed within the guild’s system, some even belonging to the dwarves, but… The wandering warrior welfare fund remained unique throughout the guild in the way that it helped all members of the tribe that decided to set off and try to make a name for themselves as adventurers…

Shaking his head to banish the meaningless train of thought that had begun following his eyes catching a glimpse of the rich balance of his friend, Verdell once again sighed to himself as he could only brace himself for the next few weeks of hard work- if not months, before he could pay off this entire debt successfully.

The only way to wipe it out over the next few days would be if the two of them got lucky enough to encounter another similarly rare monster like the crystal bunny that was both of a high rank and sold for a lot at the same time.

Unfortunately, though he silently wished to encounter such a scenario, he understood just how unlikely it would be for them to run into another such situation after just having taken down the crystal bunny.

Even more so because the northern frontier wasn’t known to have any unique monsters that were both of high rank and had low strength, outside of the crystal bunny.

Sure, the region might still be unexplored, but most of the monsters that appeared within the areas he and Valerie intended to operate while working on completing the more tedious parts of Valerie’s class advancement quest that remained, had already been documented.

“Verdell?” And seeing the somewhat spaced-out Verdell after she retrieved her own card from the magical artifact; Valerie slightly tilted her head as she poked the silent dwarf seemingly staring off into space.

“Ah!?” Jumping in surprise before realizing what had happened, Verdell felt his cheeks growing a bit warmer out of embarrassment. “It’s nothing, I was just spacing out for a bit. How about we get going before news of the crystal bunny being sold spreads?” Trying his best to brush it aside as he instead shifted her attention towards their next plan of action.

“Indeed, we need to get out of here or we might end up having to face those adventurers coming back emptyhanded.” Oblivious to what was happening, Valerie seriously nodded her head in response. Agreeing that they indeed couldn’t stay inside the city for too long. Aware that the entire city would soon enough be swarming with angry adventurers looking for blood.

And so, with little hesitation, the group of two rushed to the shopping district before buying a large enough quantity of supplies to remain outside the city for months without having to return. Fully intent on staying away from the city until the situation regarding the crystal bunny calmed down and was forgotten.

The only problem the two of them encountered was the simple fact that the two of them had no way of carrying that many supplies around on their own. Even relying on the limited spatial artifacts on Verdell didn’t allow them to fit more than one fourth of the supplies on them.

Because of this, as time was running out, they decided to buy a large sled to drag along with them as they made their way across the snow covered northern frontier, a decision many other adventurers intending to explore far beyond the boundaries of the cities already established by the guild took when they needed to carry a large quantity of supplies along with them.

Of course, given how Verdell was a mage and wasn’t the strongest of the two, the one who ended up dragging the sled across the snow was none other than the strong Valerie, who easily dragged the large sled behind her after securing it with a rope around her waist.

In fact, Valerie was strong to the point that she didn’t even notice the extra weight being added. Allowing Verdell to climb atop the small mountain of supplies stacked on top the sled. Using it as a small lookout tower to keep an eye out for any approaching monsters trying to sneak up on them.