[ 4 ] Red Sandworm Hunting Festival
Translator : Blackhole32 | Editor : whosays25 | Proofreader : Elhessan
“Fifty coins. I can pay you this much, I don’t care if you are satisfied or not.” The old man’s harsh revelation of the reward didn’t make the young girl show the reaction he expected, which was not strange as the young girl didn’t even know how high the value of fifty coins was.
Just a moment ago, Gewalin was walking along the road when she found a little house on the sideroad. Beside that house was an acre of cabbage field, surrounded by rough wooden fences. At the front, there was a wooden sign notifying people of the owner’s ongoing recruitment of someone to gather the vegetables which drew in Gewalin’s attention, making her stop by and ask for details of the job.
“Fifty coins for the whole field’s vegetable harvesting?” Gewalin asked once again.
“Fifty coins.”
“I accept. Grandpa, I only have to gather everything to the cart outside, right?”
The old man nodded in astonishment since he had never thought there would be anyone willing to do this unfavorable job. However, Gewalin really hurriedly went outside and dragged the cart through the fences and hastily headed to the field. Actually, she only wants to practice using her mechanical gauntlet. To her, the payment was just a secondary matter.
She left the axe she’s carrying along at the fences and began digging a whole cabbage out using her mechanical arm to shovel the root and pull it out. She feels that she couldn’t exert much energy at first but as time passes, immediate result was occurring. Her heavy arm is still heavy but she can control it easier now. The flexibility of her fingers and joints was clearly increased. Within an hour, when she finished gathering all the cabbages in the field, she no longer felt much burden on her hand, very unlike when she have just got it.
Actually, this was supposed to be impossible for a beginner with no level like her, but her high stamina recovery rate allowed her to work non-stop with no rest. If she had examined her own stats, she would find that in every digging she did using her right arm, her stamina would almost be emptied and then quickly recovered in no time.
This doesn’t mean she could now excellently use her mechanical arm. She only became better at it, probably by a few notches. However, her body strength was increased by a significant amount.
The cabbage field’s owner had lost his words when he looked at the small mountain of cabbages beside his house. It’s true he could only pay the young girl fifty coins. He had not actually wanted to profit into it. He only wanted to agitate some people for fun. However, he never thought there’d be someone too dense to do this job for a very meager payment.
Gewalin lifted the axe up and down using her arm as a little workout while she was checking the coin on her left hand. The old man gave her a shiny metal coin. In one side of the coin, a dragon expanding its wings was there. The other side was morphed into a big 50.
Gewalin then understood that the coins the old man was talking about was a currency, not the coin she had thought. Maybe, there’s a paper bill for one hundred coins and five hundred coins too.
Gewalin followed the path to the top of a little mound and saw the city not far away. She then decided to run instead of walking leisurely like she did before. She passed by a soldier wearing an intimidating metal armor along her way. The soldier looked at her for a moment, then reined his horse to slowly move forward, showing lack of interest towards the young girl.
Gewalin ran to the outer town area, quickly looking around after crossing the western gate in one go. Most of the common buildings were used for lodging than for running businesses, but she didn’t expect that other than the convenient stores for adventurers commonly seen in RPG games, there would also be many stores she had never seen in those games. There are even shops for laundry, home magic tool repairing service, vehicle garage and many more.
When she saw the prices of the goods in a store she had casually checked out, she finally realized that the old man had been very stingy. Her fifty coins can actually only afford a small health potion. Gewalin laughed at her own innocence, shaking her head, she thought of this as a price for a lesson.
While looking around, she saw a lot of people. Most of them are wearing medieval-themed clothes, but there are also weird folks wearing Xianxia attires, making her wonder if those guys are AI or real people.
For a long while she satisfied her curiosity through sightseeing until she arrived at a tavern. In front of the tavern a carriage has been parked. Loitering around the place were people wearing different styles of clothing, some were talking while the others were checking their equipment.
After asking a few of them, she learned that they are the passengers who will ride this carriage to reach Foon Daeng Town [Red Dust Town] and participate to the annual Red Sandworm Hunting Festival event. Gewalin asked for some additional details and got more information about it. Foon Daeng Town is a town next to the desert resided by a famous native monster, the Red Sandworm. It is about thirty kilometers away to the east. (TL: Mueang Foon Daeng means Red dust town. Mueang means town, Nakhon is also a type of Mueang but more influential and developed)
Gewalin thanked them and walked inside the tavern while wearing a surprise expression about the information she had learned. She never expected the verdant forest she lived at to be not far away from a desert. When she opened the door, many eyes started examining her, but when they realized she was just a beginner wearing a basic leather armor, they no longer paid her any attention. Some people might have surprised by her mechanical arm but they were just thinking that her gauntlet was weird and all.
Gewalin looked around and found what she’s looking for. A notice board was placed at the edge of the wall. On the board, there were many quest notices, mostly consisting of easy jobs like exterminating rats in the kitchen, destroying the wall for the room’s reconstruction or discarding an old unused wooden cabinet, and etc., Every quest vividly noted that there’s no level requirement to do the job, except for one which requires a fighter with level higher than thirty to protect the mine workers from monsters during their work hours.
Gewalin examined all the miscellaneous quests and immediately headed for the described quest locations as depicted on the notice, of course with the exception for that work which requires level 30.
Maybe because this city is for beginners, quests needing high requirements were not many. Even then, the rats extermination quest she had accepted was beyond her expectation. A big rat the size of a big cat came out to fight her till the kitchen wares were messed up. Although she used her axe to chopped the rat to death, the quest giver halved her payment as compensation for the wares she had broken.
She quickly and tirelessly finished all the quests she had accepted, thanks to her stamina. However, despite the number of quest she had taken, this kind of quest doesn’t give off high reward as it doesn’t require much ability to do it. Even then, she still spent all day to finish all of them.
Gewalin ran back home with full speed because she didn’t have any lamp with her. If she didn’t hurry, then it will be very dark and she will not see anything. Along the way, she was determined that next time she will bring the lamp with her so she won’t have to hurry like this.
Even if it was somehow difficult, she managed to get home. She ate the leftover fish curry from the morning and lied down, going to sleep. Before drifting to dreamland, she remembered that she forgot to buy some seasonings from the town. Looks like she has to eat the same manu once more when tomorrow comes.
After doing tons of miscellaneous jobs for about a week, Gewalin now have routine works from the townspeople who grew to like her infinite diligence when doing jobs. She always receive many information when spending her time with the people here. One important thing she learned is that everyone in this town were real people, no one was controlled by computer, everybody voluntarily chose to live in this world. They work for living and find happiness on it. Some were musicians. The others opened up restaurants. Several people chose to be tailors. Some has even forgotten that they still have another body in the other world.
Today is the day she decided to receive a level appraisal from this city’s Nine-Dimensions guild branch since she’s been aiming for it for a long while. A thousand coins as cost is fair, but it was limited to only a basic appraisal. If she wants to have a detailed appraisal, she has to go to Yearb Fah Town’s HQ, situated more than hundreds of kilometers away to the east, even further than Foon Daeng town. (TL: Mueang Yearb Fah = Stomp upon the sky town : The town that reached the sky)
The appraising procedure is not very complicated. She just has to enter an empty room and then the staffs will begin to bring their equipment there. Started with a strange shaped crystal that changes colors, many types of monsters and people in many different outfits. After all the procedures succeeded, she received a shiny metal plate the size of a national ID card with its reflection looking strange. The plate’s front clearly showed her basic level appraisal of level 27. At the back, there is a symbol of stacked nine cubes, indicating that the Nine-Dimensions guild has approved the card’s owner.
When she opened the information window of the card, there was an option button to sync the card into the character. Gewalin casually pressed the ‘accept’ button. Suddenly, the card disappeared and her character information window showed up instead.
On the information window, a “Show level info” button was added. When she pressed that button, the metal plate stating her level showed up in midair for the holder and others to see. The card floated for a while before disappearing.
After she finished her level appraisal, Gewalin tried to think of the reason why there’s such a system in this game. The game itself clearly showed that people’s abilities can’t be measured in numbers. When the organizations and guilds were gathering players with abilities and equipments to appraise characters and indicate abilities in numbers, it helps people who want to hire someone who has more information to consider. Other than that, having their level appraised will only let players competing each other.
Up to this day, Gewalin was able to use her mechanical arm like a part of her body without any hiccups. Those different type of works she’s doing nowadays has helped her practice excellently. The increased in her physical strength made her ten-kilograms-mechanical-arm not a burden anymore, but she still wonders what merit can be brought by something which causes more burdens than benefits.
The money left in her after paying for the appraisal was used to buy new clothes. She was a bit embarrassed to enter a lingerie shop ‘though. She used to be a man. Having the need to buy something like this made her feel somewhat strange, awkward and nervous. When she was to choose one, she never expected she would spend so much time and thought. It’s unexpected that there were so many underwears available for adventurers who focus on durability and comfortability. Those undies were even as expansive as good armors. It seems businesses involving women like this one were really thriving.
Next on her list were clothes that were not very expansive as she had paid for her underwears in quite a price. The outer armor was still the leather armor she received from King since she doesn’t have enough money to buy any new piece. The armor focused on protecting only her vital points which made Moonwitch said it was pathetic, costing only about two thousand coin. She worked for an entire week and still didn’t even earn half of its cost.
Every morning of the past week, she caught many fishes and dried them with salt. Today, she has a total of fifty dried fishes in her inventory and when she finished preparing, she began executing her plan.
It was to run to Foon Daeng Town and participate to the Red Sandworm Hunting Festival. She had learned that the entrails and skin of the Red Sandworm can be sold in a very good price. She’s only thinking of getting a decent amount of money to use as kickstarter in improving her abilities later.
The axe she used for a long time was latched at her waist belt. After that, she ran. One of the thing she can do when she has super high stamina recovery rate is run for thirty kilometers without any rest.
The roads, at first, were made out of smooth and polished stone, but then changed to rough rocks embed to the ground after some distance. It has been frequently used by people for a long time, long enough to made its rough texture turns smooth. The scenery around her quickly has changed from open forest to grasslands. Aside from some big rocks scattered around, each tree was distanced from each other for more than a hundred meters, making the scenery odd. The plain’s wide open space made her want to run far, far away until the end of the world. She then increased her speed even more.
During her time in Nakhon Gawglai, she always run from corner to corner everyday until walking makes her feel uncomfortable.
After running for a while, she caught up with a carriage that has just set off from the city. The passengers on the carriage were looking at her with strange expressions, some laughing in their mind, thinking she will eventually tired off and stop running, some were taking pleasure in others suffering and letting out low giggles. (TL : oh sadists you) (ED: She’s being seen as masochist since the first chapter though, and aye, people have hidden sadism, laughing and taking pleasure in others’ misfortunes)
An hour passed by. One girl and one carriage has maintained a fixed distance as if there was a rope binding her to the carriage, making people began changing their attitudes toward Gewalin. They see her as an ordinary low level player who could be seen anywhere, but a low level player who could run for an hour nonstop has never been heard before.
“Did anyone saw her use stamina potion?” said one of the passengers.
No reply was thrown back aside from the shaking of head of two or three passengers watching her. A potion, even if it’s health potion, mana potion, qi potion or stamina potion, shows distinct reaction when consumed. The user will always glow with the specific light according to the type of potion. When there’s no light, it means this girl was not just an ordinary player like how everyone had assumed. They’re even more dumbfounded when the girl increases her speed, running parallel to the carriage, then passing it further and farther.
With the road being not very smooth, the carriage couldn’t run in full speed as the cart will bounce and the passengers wouldn’t be able to sit well. Even then, to see someone who has followed the carriage this far, even increasing speed and passing it was not a daily occurrence for sure.
The coachman looked at the girl with a hint of surprise. She reminded him of his old days when he saw something similar to this. A young man in an entire dark blue attire who called himself “Blue lightning” used to ran pass the carriage too like how Gewalin had done this day.
Thinking about that, he softly laughed to himself. A weird guy racing against everything to prove himself as the fastest man in the world made that era a very colorful age. That man can run away from a Brown Plain’s tiger titled as the game’s fastest monster. He even messed up the siege battle for many times by running pass the cavalries that were about to crash to each other, making all of them thrown into disarray, losing formations and even disabling them. Compared to the girl, that Blue Lightning was faster. The coachman thought that another interesting person has appeared. Something exciting were bound to occur in this game soon. *
This was the first time Gewalin has used all her might in running, excluding when she had ran for her life a week ago. She now clearly had analyzed that practicing in every profession and aspect really makes perfect. She ran by keeping the ratio between the stamina usage and stamina recovery balanced. Her speed increased from her daily training but accompanying the increase in speed, the stamina usage was also upped. It means, if she develop her running ability until the usage rate has more recovery rate in ratio, she will be able to use all her stamina and begin to seriously engage in fatigue training like when she was training alongside the river.
She ran nonstop for three hours sharp, the scenery changes from grassland into dried land and the soil part was getting thinner and smaller until it completely changes to sandy ground. The sand dunes around her look the same to each other. If not for the stone paved road, she might have been lost and dried to death here.
Finally, she had arrived at her destination- Foon Daeng Town. It’s not a big town and was built over an oasis in the middle of the desert. Buildings in this town were shaped into squares made by stacking stones and covering by dirts. Similar to villages in the middle-east. Maybe, it was because they’re on similar environments, their architecture were also alike.
What was special about Foon Daeng Town was the fact it was built over two meters thick solid stone floor. It’s because they have to protect themselves from the attack of the Red Sandworm, the local and tyrannical monster of this area.
Gewalin wasn’t sure whether the desert town would normally have this much people. Laid by her eyes were more than hundreds of people walking around. If this was a only a part of the total, there could be more than a thousand participants in this Red Sandworm hunting festival.
Initially, she thought before the town would be swarmed by people, she would be able to find a place where she can stay the night with. But after seeing the current number of people, her hope faded away and she had to resign to her fate. It was clear that there will be no available resting place left for her. Other than that, she also forgot the hotels and taverns would be more expensive in festival season like this. Realizing these, she now understood why those group in front of the tavern travelled here seven days ago. It seems like she has to buy a thick blanket and sleep around the wall corner somewhere.
The stall merchants loudly advertised onto their customers, making the atmosphere so vividly. Gewalin looked around and found many strange merchandises that she had never seen at Nakhon Gawglai before. Actually, most of the merchandises here are can also be found at Nakhon Gawglai, too. The route between the two towns was not far. Transporting between them could be done easily.
Gewalin became very interested in a sand mask being sold on one of the stalls but when she saw the price, she retreated back as its price was way too high. It seems there’s nothing cheap enough for her here. Later on, an idea came to her. She should have a look at the notice board. In a festival like this, there might be someone needing extra help.
Just when she was approaching the board in a tavern while not reading any of the details, a staff of the tavern suddenly asked her if she’s currently looking for a work or not. If not, the tavern can offer her a room to stay in exchange for temporarily working as chef assistant. When she heard it, she quickly accepted the offer.
Tonight’s works were quite heavy. She had chop kilograms worth of vegetables in bulk. If not for the fact that she had practiced using her mechanical arm and had become proficient on it, she’d would not have a room this night for sure. After the vegetables were the meat which she had to skin, split, slice or chop according to what the chef wanted. Good thing that she had a part-time job similar to this before and she didn’t had much hiccups. At least, she understood what type of ingredient she had to prepare when the chef commanded her and without bothering him by asking so much.
“Excellent work. The ingredients for today’s cooking were enough. You can have your dinner and rest now. Your room is at the back.” The chef praised Gewalin.
Gewalin scooped some herbal beef stew and poured it in her bowl. She then went to her room and ate hungrily. In the three worlds, the meal eaten when starving had always been the best. When she finished eating her food, seeing that it’s not yet dark, she decided to kill time by strolling outside. (TL: Three worlds is an idiom originally from Buddhism to expressing something is at the peak eg. The most richest in three worlds, the most delicious in three world. It’s almost the same meaning as “- in the world”)
The night before the festival in Foon Daeng Town was exceptionally vivid. Every building has oiled lamps lighted brightly in every corner which were dying everything in soft orange light. The mixing of music, leisure talking and laughing could make even a moody guy joyful.
Gewalin, who mingled with some people watching with amazement a performer in glittering clothes who was throwing fireballs in the air, was slightly startled by a hand that grabbed her shoulder.
“Gewalin.”
Gewalin turned her head and found the owner of the voice. It was a young girl near her age. Her hair appeared dark brown and was short in cut. Gewalin wasn’t sure if it was her real hair color or not as the surrounding light was dying things and altering their original color. Her clothing was different from Gewalin’s because she’s wearing full armor that almost covered her entire body. Maybe her head was usually protected by a helmet when she’s fighting too and she just removed it to show her face.
Compared to Gewalin, the girl in front of her has thicker eyebrows, larger mouth and jaw that is slightly rough which makes her lookedharsh but open to people. Overall, she seemed like a candid girl.
“My name is Janeyuu, nice to meet you.”
Gewalin, although confused, reached out and shook hands with the girl.“Nice to meet you… but how did you know my name?”
Janeyuu laughed loudly “It’d be strange if I didn’t know! You’re the one who got all those small quests at Nakhon Gawglai by yourself. I’ve no choice but to accept the fighting quests and so I had no time to rest at all or else, I’d starve to death because I don’t have enough money!”
Gewalin had just realized that she just monopolized others’ jobs to herself.
“Ehh… I’m sorry, I didn’t know I snatched your quests…”
“Hey, I don’t mind! It’s good to share the burden, right? I normally do fighting quests, but sometimes I want to rest and do easy jobs. When I asked to the tavern, I just found that a newbie had already done every single one of it. When I asked for the details, I learned that your name is Gewalin. By the way, are you going to participate in tomorrow’s Red Sandworm hunt?” Janeyuu ended her explanation with a question.
Gewalin was relieved that the girl didn’t get offended by what she had done. “I was actually thinking about that too, but I don’t know what has to be done.”
“Eh? You don’t know? I thought you came all the way here because you knew. Whoever wanted to participate will have to register before joining. Have you registered yourself?”
Gewalin shook her head as the answer.
“Then you should join my party since I think it’s too late to register now” Janeyuu offered.
“Are you sure? I’m just a level 27 newbie.”
“There’s no problem about that. I’m also just at level 32. I’m not that different from you. You can just think this as something we’re doing for fun.”
“I accept then. Where are you staying?” Gewalin asked.
“It’s quite unfortunate. The number of people this year was unusually high. Although I’ve arrived here yesterday, everywhere was already fully booked. I may have to sleep leaning on the city wall for two days! Though nights here are really cold…” Janeyuu hugged herself, pretending to shiver.
Gewalin had her humor mixed with pity when she heard that. If she didn’t get that work in the tavern, she may have to sleep next to the wall too.
“I’ve got a room in the tavern by chance. I asked them for a work and got a small staff room in exchange. You can come with me, I’ll ask the chef whether I could bring a friend to sleep in the room too.”
“Really? It’s great! Let’s go!”
It went smoother than she thought. The chef observed that Gewalin was working good so he allowed Janeyuu to rest with her. It’s just that the small room only has one bed, they would have to sleep together.
Janeyuu removed her heavy armor and climbed to the bed to delve into the same blanket that Gewalin was using. This was the first night that Gewalin didn’t put her leather armor on and also the first time in her life that she has to sleep with another girl. Moreover, the sleeping girl was hugging her tightly, making her unable to drift her consciousness off for half a night until she has finally calmed down and slept.
The signalling drums had awoken Gewalin from her dream. Janeyuu, who’s wriggling last night and fell to the floor, was still sleeping soundly. Gewalin looked at the girl she had just met with strange feeling. She didn’t understand herself why she got so acquainted with the girl like shehas known her for a long time. With her personality of not being too close with people, letting someone slept on the same bed with her was strange even for her.
But when she didn’t feel any uneasiness, Gewalin stopped her wondering thoughts and equipped her armor. While she’s putting it on to herself, she also used her foot to poke at her roommate, but the girl’s lethargy was strong. It’s very impressive because no matter what Gewalin has done- calling the girl’s name, violently shaking her or even using all her strength to kick her, Janeyuu still didn’t show any sign that she will wake up. Looks like Gewalin has to use her ultimate technique.
A water bottle was brought out from the inventory window. Gewalin poured tiny amount of water on her hand and let it continuously flowed through her fingers to the nostril of the sleepy girl. Only three drops of water was needed, Janeyuu was brutally woken up, choking with watery eyes. After letting the water out of her nose, she silently and angrily stared at Gewalin.
“Did anyone tell you how hard to wake you up? Please get dressed, the festival is beginning.” Gewalin spoke while handing the metal armor fetched from a corner of the room to its owner.
Janeyuu received the armor with slightly crumpled face, she knows herself well that she’s a very heavy sleeper so she doesn’t retort. When she finished dressing, the two walked out and went to the plaza in the middle of the town.
The plaza was now filled with thousands of people who were talking about today’s event. At the center of the plaza, there’s a stage made from stacking stones aligned like a pyramid, except that the summit that should be pointed was removed and was turned into enough space for dozens of people to stand on.
A middle age man with thick curly beard but seemed also tendered with care, wearing an outfit signifying a person with high status from the middle east, was prominently and loudly speaking on the stage.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Foon Daeng Town’s annual major event, the Red Sandworm hunting festival!”
Loud cheers from the crowd echoed throughout the plaza.
“This is the fourth time we have held this festival and there are more people each time, especially this year. We have almost double the number of participants from last year.”
That man picked a fruit that resembled an apple with shiny golden peel from above his head, the morning light that was being reflected on the fruit shone on the entire plaza with golden light.
“For players who has experience in hunting the Red Sandworms, you probably already know well that they are living in the deep part of this desert and only this golden apple can lure them out from the depth of this desert. This fruit’s sweet smell can make them hunt you down to the end of the world!”
Three pretty girls in revealing clothes but has see-through thin charmeuse cover carried a big metal tray up to the stage. The man wearing nobility clothing threw the golden apple to the air and drew his crescent moon curved sword.
While the apple is still in mid air, it spun and reflected the sunlight then shone above the crowd and was followed by the reflection light of the crescent moon curved sword. The shining sword’s light cut the big golden light into small shiny pieces which fell into the metal tray below. The crowd was distracted by the brilliant light and didn’t notice when the sword was sheathed.
“All thirty registered participants will receive a piece of this golden apple for hunting the Red Sandworm. This competition is not limiting the number of players who can join in the hunt but only the registered participants will be able to claim the reward, you can’t let the others claim that. Whoever can hunt the most number Red Sandworms will be rewarded ten million coins! And we will buy every Red Sandworm you hunted for one million coins each!”
The people became noisy as the reward was doubled when compared to last year’s.
“The time limit in this competition is three days and we will announce the result of the competition after that. All registered participants, please show yourself on the stage and get your apple.”
“I’ll be back.” Janeyuu patted Gewalin’s shoulder and squeezed through the crowd onto the stage.
When every registered participants had gotten their portion, the competition started together with the announcement “The Red Sandworm hunting festival has begun!” With a sound from a giant gong, the crowd cheered as if deafening the town.
When the man in his nobility attire descended the stage, a young man in merchant clothing came up in his place and announced.
“I’m selling this piece of golden apple for eight hundred thousand coins!”
He said while holding his apple high. He is one of the registered participants. The crowd quickly made a bargain with him.
“Eight hundred thousand?” Gewalin asked Janeyuu.
“If we sell this apple portion, we will instantly get eight hundred thousand coins.” Janeyuu smiled.
Seeing Gewalin frowned in confusion, Janeyuu explained to her, “This competition didn’t limit the participant, anyone can join. But when they registered, there will be random participants who will get the golden apple as a support item for hunting. Whoever has the apple will gain more advantages than the others so there are also players who find profits by recruiting people to participate just only to get the apple. When they get it, they will sell it right away.”
“Eh? Wouldn’t it be bad for those did not get any apple?”
“Even if they did not have any apple, there are still some items that are able to lure the worms out, though not as effective as the golden apple.” answered by Janeyuu.
Gewalin thought but doubted, “If that’s true then isn’t this festival unnecessary? Because anyone can hunt these worms without the golden apple.”
“The problem is the buyer. Everyone knows that the Red Sandworm’s skin is used to make fire resistant light armor, but only Foon Daeng’s Governor’s personal craftsman knows how to make it. The governor then announced that he will only buy the skin in this festival and will absolutely won’t buy outside the festival period.”
When she heard that, she understood immediately. Hosting a festival like this brings many benefits. First, attracting people to the town. Second, he easily found skilled players to hunt for ingredients. Also, limiting the time raised the price of the item too. But, everything depends on the secret of the recipe. If this secret was revealed, everything will be for naught.
Gewalin looked into Janeyuu’s eyes and asked “So, what will you do? Will you sell it or will you use it for hunting?”
Janeyuu brought out the apple and used her knife to split it in half then she handed one to Gewalin.
“I’ll eat it.” When she said that, she threw the other half of the apple in her mouth and quickly chew on it.
With great disbelief, Gewalin looked at the girl who was eating an item valued for four hundred thousand coins, then she put her portion in her mouth and chew it too. It tasted like mango more than apple. The only difference was, it’s a million times sourer.
Gewalin’s face warped, tears flowed out. She looked at Janeyuu who wa spitting the apple out of her mouth. She didn’t really eat it, she just pretended to do it to trick Gewalin.
“Hahahaha! It’s my revenge for this morning! This apple is too sour to the extent where its sourness will make your tongue unable to taste for dozens of days! Even slightly grazing it with your tongue is enough to make it numb, I can’t even imagine how eating and swallowing it like you did feels like!” Janeyuu said and hugged her shoulder while they were walking together out of the town.
“I won’t sell this apple. How is easy money worth anything? Having a chance to get the apple is just a coincidence. Let’s make a plan on what we will do next, shall we?”
[ 4 ] Red Sandworm Hunting Festival
Translator : Blackhole32 | Editor : whosays25 | Proofreader : Elhessan
“Fifty coins. I can pay you this much, I don’t care if you are satisfied or not.” The old man’s harsh revelation of the reward didn’t make the young girl show the reaction he expected, which was not strange as the young girl didn’t even know how high the value of fifty coins was.
Just a moment ago, Gewalin was walking along the road when she found a little house on the sideroad. Beside that house was an acre of cabbage field, surrounded by rough wooden fences. At the front, there was a wooden sign notifying people of the owner’s ongoing recruitment of someone to gather the vegetables which drew in Gewalin’s attention, making her stop by and ask for details of the job.
“Fifty coins for the whole field’s vegetable harvesting?” Gewalin asked once again.
“Fifty coins.”
“I accept. Grandpa, I only have to gather everything to the cart outside, right?”
The old man nodded in astonishment since he had never thought there would be anyone willing to do this unfavorable job. However, Gewalin really hurriedly went outside and dragged the cart through the fences and hastily headed to the field. Actually, she only wants to practice using her mechanical gauntlet. To her, the payment was just a secondary matter.
She left the axe she’s carrying along at the fences and began digging a whole cabbage out using her mechanical arm to shovel the root and pull it out. She feels that she couldn’t exert much energy at first but as time passes, immediate result was occurring. Her heavy arm is still heavy but she can control it easier now. The flexibility of her fingers and joints was clearly increased. Within an hour, when she finished gathering all the cabbages in the field, she no longer felt much burden on her hand, very unlike when she have just got it.
Actually, this was supposed to be impossible for a beginner with no level like her, but her high stamina recovery rate allowed her to work non-stop with no rest. If she had examined her own stats, she would find that in every digging she did using her right arm, her stamina would almost be emptied and then quickly recovered in no time.
This doesn’t mean she could now excellently use her mechanical arm. She only became better at it, probably by a few notches. However, her body strength was increased by a significant amount.
The cabbage field’s owner had lost his words when he looked at the small mountain of cabbages beside his house. It’s true he could only pay the young girl fifty coins. He had not actually wanted to profit into it. He only wanted to agitate some people for fun. However, he never thought there’d be someone too dense to do this job for a very meager payment.
Gewalin lifted the axe up and down using her arm as a little workout while she was checking the coin on her left hand. The old man gave her a shiny metal coin. In one side of the coin, a dragon expanding its wings was there. The other side was morphed into a big 50.
Gewalin then understood that the coins the old man was talking about was a currency, not the coin she had thought. Maybe, there’s a paper bill for one hundred coins and five hundred coins too.
Gewalin followed the path to the top of a little mound and saw the city not far away. She then decided to run instead of walking leisurely like she did before. She passed by a soldier wearing an intimidating metal armor along her way. The soldier looked at her for a moment, then reined his horse to slowly move forward, showing lack of interest towards the young girl.
Gewalin ran to the outer town area, quickly looking around after crossing the western gate in one go. Most of the common buildings were used for lodging than for running businesses, but she didn’t expect that other than the convenient stores for adventurers commonly seen in RPG games, there would also be many stores she had never seen in those games. There are even shops for laundry, home magic tool repairing service, vehicle garage and many more.
When she saw the prices of the goods in a store she had casually checked out, she finally realized that the old man had been very stingy. Her fifty coins can actually only afford a small health potion. Gewalin laughed at her own innocence, shaking her head, she thought of this as a price for a lesson.
While looking around, she saw a lot of people. Most of them are wearing medieval-themed clothes, but there are also weird folks wearing Xianxia attires, making her wonder if those guys are AI or real people.
For a long while she satisfied her curiosity through sightseeing until she arrived at a tavern. In front of the tavern a carriage has been parked. Loitering around the place were people wearing different styles of clothing, some were talking while the others were checking their equipment.
After asking a few of them, she learned that they are the passengers who will ride this carriage to reach Foon Daeng Town [Red Dust Town] and participate to the annual Red Sandworm Hunting Festival event. Gewalin asked for some additional details and got more information about it. Foon Daeng Town is a town next to the desert resided by a famous native monster, the Red Sandworm. It is about thirty kilometers away to the east. (TL: Mueang Foon Daeng means Red dust town. Mueang means town, Nakhon is also a type of Mueang but more influential and developed)
Gewalin thanked them and walked inside the tavern while wearing a surprise expression about the information she had learned. She never expected the verdant forest she lived at to be not far away from a desert. When she opened the door, many eyes started examining her, but when they realized she was just a beginner wearing a basic leather armor, they no longer paid her any attention. Some people might have surprised by her mechanical arm but they were just thinking that her gauntlet was weird and all.
Gewalin looked around and found what she’s looking for. A notice board was placed at the edge of the wall. On the board, there were many quest notices, mostly consisting of easy jobs like exterminating rats in the kitchen, destroying the wall for the room’s reconstruction or discarding an old unused wooden cabinet, and etc., Every quest vividly noted that there’s no level requirement to do the job, except for one which requires a fighter with level higher than thirty to protect the mine workers from monsters during their work hours.
Gewalin examined all the miscellaneous quests and immediately headed for the described quest locations as depicted on the notice, of course with the exception for that work which requires level 30.
Maybe because this city is for beginners, quests needing high requirements were not many. Even then, the rats extermination quest she had accepted was beyond her expectation. A big rat the size of a big cat came out to fight her till the kitchen wares were messed up. Although she used her axe to chopped the rat to death, the quest giver halved her payment as compensation for the wares she had broken.
She quickly and tirelessly finished all the quests she had accepted, thanks to her stamina. However, despite the number of quest she had taken, this kind of quest doesn’t give off high reward as it doesn’t require much ability to do it. Even then, she still spent all day to finish all of them.
Gewalin ran back home with full speed because she didn’t have any lamp with her. If she didn’t hurry, then it will be very dark and she will not see anything. Along the way, she was determined that next time she will bring the lamp with her so she won’t have to hurry like this.
Even if it was somehow difficult, she managed to get home. She ate the leftover fish curry from the morning and lied down, going to sleep. Before drifting to dreamland, she remembered that she forgot to buy some seasonings from the town. Looks like she has to eat the same manu once more when tomorrow comes.
After doing tons of miscellaneous jobs for about a week, Gewalin now have routine works from the townspeople who grew to like her infinite diligence when doing jobs. She always receive many information when spending her time with the people here. One important thing she learned is that everyone in this town were real people, no one was controlled by computer, everybody voluntarily chose to live in this world. They work for living and find happiness on it. Some were musicians. The others opened up restaurants. Several people chose to be tailors. Some has even forgotten that they still have another body in the other world.
Today is the day she decided to receive a level appraisal from this city’s Nine-Dimensions guild branch since she’s been aiming for it for a long while. A thousand coins as cost is fair, but it was limited to only a basic appraisal. If she wants to have a detailed appraisal, she has to go to Yearb Fah Town’s HQ, situated more than hundreds of kilometers away to the east, even further than Foon Daeng town. (TL: Mueang Yearb Fah = Stomp upon the sky town : The town that reached the sky)
The appraising procedure is not very complicated. She just has to enter an empty room and then the staffs will begin to bring their equipment there. Started with a strange shaped crystal that changes colors, many types of monsters and people in many different outfits. After all the procedures succeeded, she received a shiny metal plate the size of a national ID card with its reflection looking strange. The plate’s front clearly showed her basic level appraisal of level 27. At the back, there is a symbol of stacked nine cubes, indicating that the Nine-Dimensions guild has approved the card’s owner.
When she opened the information window of the card, there was an option button to sync the card into the character. Gewalin casually pressed the ‘accept’ button. Suddenly, the card disappeared and her character information window showed up instead.
On the information window, a “Show level info” button was added. When she pressed that button, the metal plate stating her level showed up in midair for the holder and others to see. The card floated for a while before disappearing.
After she finished her level appraisal, Gewalin tried to think of the reason why there’s such a system in this game. The game itself clearly showed that people’s abilities can’t be measured in numbers. When the organizations and guilds were gathering players with abilities and equipments to appraise characters and indicate abilities in numbers, it helps people who want to hire someone who has more information to consider. Other than that, having their level appraised will only let players competing each other.
Up to this day, Gewalin was able to use her mechanical arm like a part of her body without any hiccups. Those different type of works she’s doing nowadays has helped her practice excellently. The increased in her physical strength made her ten-kilograms-mechanical-arm not a burden anymore, but she still wonders what merit can be brought by something which causes more burdens than benefits.
The money left in her after paying for the appraisal was used to buy new clothes. She was a bit embarrassed to enter a lingerie shop ‘though. She used to be a man. Having the need to buy something like this made her feel somewhat strange, awkward and nervous. When she was to choose one, she never expected she would spend so much time and thought. It’s unexpected that there were so many underwears available for adventurers who focus on durability and comfortability. Those undies were even as expansive as good armors. It seems businesses involving women like this one were really thriving.
Next on her list were clothes that were not very expansive as she had paid for her underwears in quite a price. The outer armor was still the leather armor she received from King since she doesn’t have enough money to buy any new piece. The armor focused on protecting only her vital points which made Moonwitch said it was pathetic, costing only about two thousand coin. She worked for an entire week and still didn’t even earn half of its cost.
Every morning of the past week, she caught many fishes and dried them with salt. Today, she has a total of fifty dried fishes in her inventory and when she finished preparing, she began executing her plan.
It was to run to Foon Daeng Town and participate to the Red Sandworm Hunting Festival. She had learned that the entrails and skin of the Red Sandworm can be sold in a very good price. She’s only thinking of getting a decent amount of money to use as kickstarter in improving her abilities later.
The axe she used for a long time was latched at her waist belt. After that, she ran. One of the thing she can do when she has super high stamina recovery rate is run for thirty kilometers without any rest.
The roads, at first, were made out of smooth and polished stone, but then changed to rough rocks embed to the ground after some distance. It has been frequently used by people for a long time, long enough to made its rough texture turns smooth. The scenery around her quickly has changed from open forest to grasslands. Aside from some big rocks scattered around, each tree was distanced from each other for more than a hundred meters, making the scenery odd. The plain’s wide open space made her want to run far, far away until the end of the world. She then increased her speed even more.
During her time in Nakhon Gawglai, she always run from corner to corner everyday until walking makes her feel uncomfortable.
After running for a while, she caught up with a carriage that has just set off from the city. The passengers on the carriage were looking at her with strange expressions, some laughing in their mind, thinking she will eventually tired off and stop running, some were taking pleasure in others suffering and letting out low giggles. (TL : oh sadists you) (ED: She’s being seen as masochist since the first chapter though, and aye, people have hidden sadism, laughing and taking pleasure in others’ misfortunes)
An hour passed by. One girl and one carriage has maintained a fixed distance as if there was a rope binding her to the carriage, making people began changing their attitudes toward Gewalin. They see her as an ordinary low level player who could be seen anywhere, but a low level player who could run for an hour nonstop has never been heard before.
“Did anyone saw her use stamina potion?” said one of the passengers.
No reply was thrown back aside from the shaking of head of two or three passengers watching her. A potion, even if it’s health potion, mana potion, qi potion or stamina potion, shows distinct reaction when consumed. The user will always glow with the specific light according to the type of potion. When there’s no light, it means this girl was not just an ordinary player like how everyone had assumed. They’re even more dumbfounded when the girl increases her speed, running parallel to the carriage, then passing it further and farther.
With the road being not very smooth, the carriage couldn’t run in full speed as the cart will bounce and the passengers wouldn’t be able to sit well. Even then, to see someone who has followed the carriage this far, even increasing speed and passing it was not a daily occurrence for sure.
The coachman looked at the girl with a hint of surprise. She reminded him of his old days when he saw something similar to this. A young man in an entire dark blue attire who called himself “Blue lightning” used to ran pass the carriage too like how Gewalin had done this day.
Thinking about that, he softly laughed to himself. A weird guy racing against everything to prove himself as the fastest man in the world made that era a very colorful age. That man can run away from a Brown Plain’s tiger titled as the game’s fastest monster. He even messed up the siege battle for many times by running pass the cavalries that were about to crash to each other, making all of them thrown into disarray, losing formations and even disabling them. Compared to the girl, that Blue Lightning was faster. The coachman thought that another interesting person has appeared. Something exciting were bound to occur in this game soon. *
This was the first time Gewalin has used all her might in running, excluding when she had ran for her life a week ago. She now clearly had analyzed that practicing in every profession and aspect really makes perfect. She ran by keeping the ratio between the stamina usage and stamina recovery balanced. Her speed increased from her daily training but accompanying the increase in speed, the stamina usage was also upped. It means, if she develop her running ability until the usage rate has more recovery rate in ratio, she will be able to use all her stamina and begin to seriously engage in fatigue training like when she was training alongside the river.
She ran nonstop for three hours sharp, the scenery changes from grassland into dried land and the soil part was getting thinner and smaller until it completely changes to sandy ground. The sand dunes around her look the same to each other. If not for the stone paved road, she might have been lost and dried to death here.
Finally, she had arrived at her destination- Foon Daeng Town. It’s not a big town and was built over an oasis in the middle of the desert. Buildings in this town were shaped into squares made by stacking stones and covering by dirts. Similar to villages in the middle-east. Maybe, it was because they’re on similar environments, their architecture were also alike.
What was special about Foon Daeng Town was the fact it was built over two meters thick solid stone floor. It’s because they have to protect themselves from the attack of the Red Sandworm, the local and tyrannical monster of this area.
Gewalin wasn’t sure whether the desert town would normally have this much people. Laid by her eyes were more than hundreds of people walking around. If this was a only a part of the total, there could be more than a thousand participants in this Red Sandworm hunting festival.
Initially, she thought before the town would be swarmed by people, she would be able to find a place where she can stay the night with. But after seeing the current number of people, her hope faded away and she had to resign to her fate. It was clear that there will be no available resting place left for her. Other than that, she also forgot the hotels and taverns would be more expensive in festival season like this. Realizing these, she now understood why those group in front of the tavern travelled here seven days ago. It seems like she has to buy a thick blanket and sleep around the wall corner somewhere.
The stall merchants loudly advertised onto their customers, making the atmosphere so vividly. Gewalin looked around and found many strange merchandises that she had never seen at Nakhon Gawglai before. Actually, most of the merchandises here are can also be found at Nakhon Gawglai, too. The route between the two towns was not far. Transporting between them could be done easily.
Gewalin became very interested in a sand mask being sold on one of the stalls but when she saw the price, she retreated back as its price was way too high. It seems there’s nothing cheap enough for her here. Later on, an idea came to her. She should have a look at the notice board. In a festival like this, there might be someone needing extra help.
Just when she was approaching the board in a tavern while not reading any of the details, a staff of the tavern suddenly asked her if she’s currently looking for a work or not. If not, the tavern can offer her a room to stay in exchange for temporarily working as chef assistant. When she heard it, she quickly accepted the offer.
Tonight’s works were quite heavy. She had chop kilograms worth of vegetables in bulk. If not for the fact that she had practiced using her mechanical arm and had become proficient on it, she’d would not have a room this night for sure. After the vegetables were the meat which she had to skin, split, slice or chop according to what the chef wanted. Good thing that she had a part-time job similar to this before and she didn’t had much hiccups. At least, she understood what type of ingredient she had to prepare when the chef commanded her and without bothering him by asking so much.
“Excellent work. The ingredients for today’s cooking were enough. You can have your dinner and rest now. Your room is at the back.” The chef praised Gewalin.
Gewalin scooped some herbal beef stew and poured it in her bowl. She then went to her room and ate hungrily. In the three worlds, the meal eaten when starving had always been the best. When she finished eating her food, seeing that it’s not yet dark, she decided to kill time by strolling outside. (TL: Three worlds is an idiom originally from Buddhism to expressing something is at the peak eg. The most richest in three worlds, the most delicious in three world. It’s almost the same meaning as “- in the world”)
The night before the festival in Foon Daeng Town was exceptionally vivid. Every building has oiled lamps lighted brightly in every corner which were dying everything in soft orange light. The mixing of music, leisure talking and laughing could make even a moody guy joyful.
Gewalin, who mingled with some people watching with amazement a performer in glittering clothes who was throwing fireballs in the air, was slightly startled by a hand that grabbed her shoulder.
“Gewalin.”
Gewalin turned her head and found the owner of the voice. It was a young girl near her age. Her hair appeared dark brown and was short in cut. Gewalin wasn’t sure if it was her real hair color or not as the surrounding light was dying things and altering their original color. Her clothing was different from Gewalin’s because she’s wearing full armor that almost covered her entire body. Maybe her head was usually protected by a helmet when she’s fighting too and she just removed it to show her face.
Compared to Gewalin, the girl in front of her has thicker eyebrows, larger mouth and jaw that is slightly rough which makes her lookedharsh but open to people. Overall, she seemed like a candid girl.
“My name is Janeyuu, nice to meet you.”
Gewalin, although confused, reached out and shook hands with the girl.“Nice to meet you… but how did you know my name?”
Janeyuu laughed loudly “It’d be strange if I didn’t know! You’re the one who got all those small quests at Nakhon Gawglai by yourself. I’ve no choice but to accept the fighting quests and so I had no time to rest at all or else, I’d starve to death because I don’t have enough money!”
Gewalin had just realized that she just monopolized others’ jobs to herself.
“Ehh… I’m sorry, I didn’t know I snatched your quests…”
“Hey, I don’t mind! It’s good to share the burden, right? I normally do fighting quests, but sometimes I want to rest and do easy jobs. When I asked to the tavern, I just found that a newbie had already done every single one of it. When I asked for the details, I learned that your name is Gewalin. By the way, are you going to participate in tomorrow’s Red Sandworm hunt?” Janeyuu ended her explanation with a question.
Gewalin was relieved that the girl didn’t get offended by what she had done. “I was actually thinking about that too, but I don’t know what has to be done.”
“Eh? You don’t know? I thought you came all the way here because you knew. Whoever wanted to participate will have to register before joining. Have you registered yourself?”
Gewalin shook her head as the answer.
“Then you should join my party since I think it’s too late to register now” Janeyuu offered.
“Are you sure? I’m just a level 27 newbie.”
“There’s no problem about that. I’m also just at level 32. I’m not that different from you. You can just think this as something we’re doing for fun.”
“I accept then. Where are you staying?” Gewalin asked.
“It’s quite unfortunate. The number of people this year was unusually high. Although I’ve arrived here yesterday, everywhere was already fully booked. I may have to sleep leaning on the city wall for two days! Though nights here are really cold…” Janeyuu hugged herself, pretending to shiver.
Gewalin had her humor mixed with pity when she heard that. If she didn’t get that work in the tavern, she may have to sleep next to the wall too.
“I’ve got a room in the tavern by chance. I asked them for a work and got a small staff room in exchange. You can come with me, I’ll ask the chef whether I could bring a friend to sleep in the room too.”
“Really? It’s great! Let’s go!”
It went smoother than she thought. The chef observed that Gewalin was working good so he allowed Janeyuu to rest with her. It’s just that the small room only has one bed, they would have to sleep together.
Janeyuu removed her heavy armor and climbed to the bed to delve into the same blanket that Gewalin was using. This was the first night that Gewalin didn’t put her leather armor on and also the first time in her life that she has to sleep with another girl. Moreover, the sleeping girl was hugging her tightly, making her unable to drift her consciousness off for half a night until she has finally calmed down and slept.
The signalling drums had awoken Gewalin from her dream. Janeyuu, who’s wriggling last night and fell to the floor, was still sleeping soundly. Gewalin looked at the girl she had just met with strange feeling. She didn’t understand herself why she got so acquainted with the girl like shehas known her for a long time. With her personality of not being too close with people, letting someone slept on the same bed with her was strange even for her.
But when she didn’t feel any uneasiness, Gewalin stopped her wondering thoughts and equipped her armor. While she’s putting it on to herself, she also used her foot to poke at her roommate, but the girl’s lethargy was strong. It’s very impressive because no matter what Gewalin has done- calling the girl’s name, violently shaking her or even using all her strength to kick her, Janeyuu still didn’t show any sign that she will wake up. Looks like Gewalin has to use her ultimate technique.
A water bottle was brought out from the inventory window. Gewalin poured tiny amount of water on her hand and let it continuously flowed through her fingers to the nostril of the sleepy girl. Only three drops of water was needed, Janeyuu was brutally woken up, choking with watery eyes. After letting the water out of her nose, she silently and angrily stared at Gewalin.
“Did anyone tell you how hard to wake you up? Please get dressed, the festival is beginning.” Gewalin spoke while handing the metal armor fetched from a corner of the room to its owner.
Janeyuu received the armor with slightly crumpled face, she knows herself well that she’s a very heavy sleeper so she doesn’t retort. When she finished dressing, the two walked out and went to the plaza in the middle of the town.
The plaza was now filled with thousands of people who were talking about today’s event. At the center of the plaza, there’s a stage made from stacking stones aligned like a pyramid, except that the summit that should be pointed was removed and was turned into enough space for dozens of people to stand on.
A middle age man with thick curly beard but seemed also tendered with care, wearing an outfit signifying a person with high status from the middle east, was prominently and loudly speaking on the stage.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Foon Daeng Town’s annual major event, the Red Sandworm hunting festival!”
Loud cheers from the crowd echoed throughout the plaza.
“This is the fourth time we have held this festival and there are more people each time, especially this year. We have almost double the number of participants from last year.”
That man picked a fruit that resembled an apple with shiny golden peel from above his head, the morning light that was being reflected on the fruit shone on the entire plaza with golden light.
“For players who has experience in hunting the Red Sandworms, you probably already know well that they are living in the deep part of this desert and only this golden apple can lure them out from the depth of this desert. This fruit’s sweet smell can make them hunt you down to the end of the world!”
Three pretty girls in revealing clothes but has see-through thin charmeuse cover carried a big metal tray up to the stage. The man wearing nobility clothing threw the golden apple to the air and drew his crescent moon curved sword.
While the apple is still in mid air, it spun and reflected the sunlight then shone above the crowd and was followed by the reflection light of the crescent moon curved sword. The shining sword’s light cut the big golden light into small shiny pieces which fell into the metal tray below. The crowd was distracted by the brilliant light and didn’t notice when the sword was sheathed.
“All thirty registered participants will receive a piece of this golden apple for hunting the Red Sandworm. This competition is not limiting the number of players who can join in the hunt but only the registered participants will be able to claim the reward, you can’t let the others claim that. Whoever can hunt the most number Red Sandworms will be rewarded ten million coins! And we will buy every Red Sandworm you hunted for one million coins each!”
The people became noisy as the reward was doubled when compared to last year’s.
“The time limit in this competition is three days and we will announce the result of the competition after that. All registered participants, please show yourself on the stage and get your apple.”
“I’ll be back.” Janeyuu patted Gewalin’s shoulder and squeezed through the crowd onto the stage.
When every registered participants had gotten their portion, the competition started together with the announcement “The Red Sandworm hunting festival has begun!” With a sound from a giant gong, the crowd cheered as if deafening the town.
When the man in his nobility attire descended the stage, a young man in merchant clothing came up in his place and announced.
“I’m selling this piece of golden apple for eight hundred thousand coins!”
He said while holding his apple high. He is one of the registered participants. The crowd quickly made a bargain with him.
“Eight hundred thousand?” Gewalin asked Janeyuu.
“If we sell this apple portion, we will instantly get eight hundred thousand coins.” Janeyuu smiled.
Seeing Gewalin frowned in confusion, Janeyuu explained to her, “This competition didn’t limit the participant, anyone can join. But when they registered, there will be random participants who will get the golden apple as a support item for hunting. Whoever has the apple will gain more advantages than the others so there are also players who find profits by recruiting people to participate just only to get the apple. When they get it, they will sell it right away.”
“Eh? Wouldn’t it be bad for those did not get any apple?”
“Even if they did not have any apple, there are still some items that are able to lure the worms out, though not as effective as the golden apple.” answered by Janeyuu.
Gewalin thought but doubted, “If that’s true then isn’t this festival unnecessary? Because anyone can hunt these worms without the golden apple.”
“The problem is the buyer. Everyone knows that the Red Sandworm’s skin is used to make fire resistant light armor, but only Foon Daeng’s Governor’s personal craftsman knows how to make it. The governor then announced that he will only buy the skin in this festival and will absolutely won’t buy outside the festival period.”
When she heard that, she understood immediately. Hosting a festival like this brings many benefits. First, attracting people to the town. Second, he easily found skilled players to hunt for ingredients. Also, limiting the time raised the price of the item too. But, everything depends on the secret of the recipe. If this secret was revealed, everything will be for naught.
Gewalin looked into Janeyuu’s eyes and asked “So, what will you do? Will you sell it or will you use it for hunting?”
Janeyuu brought out the apple and used her knife to split it in half then she handed one to Gewalin.
“I’ll eat it.” When she said that, she threw the other half of the apple in her mouth and quickly chew on it.
With great disbelief, Gewalin looked at the girl who was eating an item valued for four hundred thousand coins, then she put her portion in her mouth and chew it too. It tasted like mango more than apple. The only difference was, it’s a million times sourer.
Gewalin’s face warped, tears flowed out. She looked at Janeyuu who wa spitting the apple out of her mouth. She didn’t really eat it, she just pretended to do it to trick Gewalin.
“Hahahaha! It’s my revenge for this morning! This apple is too sour to the extent where its sourness will make your tongue unable to taste for dozens of days! Even slightly grazing it with your tongue is enough to make it numb, I can’t even imagine how eating and swallowing it like you did feels like!” Janeyuu said and hugged her shoulder while they were walking together out of the town.
“I won’t sell this apple. How is easy money worth anything? Having a chance to get the apple is just a coincidence. Let’s make a plan on what we will do next, shall we?”
