CH.8 Introductions
“Hi I’m Brian.”
“Okay, so Brian. My name is Zayaan, but please call me Zay. The swordsman is Alex. Rico is our archer and Lucia is our witch.” Zayaan introduced his team to me.
So the mage is a female and a witch in particular. Wonder what the difference between a witch and a normal mage is?
“Are you going to introduce your summons to us or not?” (Zay)
“I mean it’s not like they have names or something, but sure. This little guy is spear cretin and that is frenzied panda.” (Brian)
“So you don’t name your summons?” (Zay)
“Do summoners usually name them?” (Brian)
“I actually don’t know. You are the first summoner I have really met. Monster tamers do name their beasts so I thought summoners would as well” (Zay)
Yeah I guess that makes sense. I mean you are not going to call your pet dog or animal, right? Unless you are really forgetful and I mean forgetful to the point of naming your friend, Friend. I mean, who would ever do that. I actually might, calling Frenzied Panda a panda afterall. But come on, he is only going to be with me for two hours.
“Hey Zay, I think this thing is what we came to hunt.” Rico came up to us after inspecting the bison carcass. Did I steal their prey?
“Did I steal your prey? I’m sorry.” I didn’t know their situation yet and I want to be in good spirits with them. They are the first humans I met in this world. I don’t want to burn bridges immediately.
“I think you might have, but it’s not a big problem. We were tasked with tracking this thing down and killing it, after a merchant spotted it. It’s strong enough to cause problems for a caravan after all. Don’t want to have a beast like that too close to town. As long as you come with us to report, our job will be complete no problem. I guess we won’t get the money for selling that thing though.” Zay gave me a good answer.
At least I didn’t cause them to fail the quest or something. Or did he say it’s a job. How does this world's adventurers work? He did introduce them as an adventuring party. With a super funny name.
“Mha.” I let out a small laugh and of course all of them catch it.
“What’s funny?” Rico immediately asked me, seemingly knowing my answer already.
“I just thought back about your party name. It’s kinda amazing…ly funny.” I answer and laugh a little more. I really can’t help it. ‘Prime Rib’. Who comes up with that kinda name?
“I’m gonna” As Rico steps forward to punch? me, Zay grabs him from behind and prevents him with a “No you won't.”
While still holding Rico, Zay explains to me. “Our party gets a lot of funny looks and laughs for its name, but it's not like we chose the name. It was kinda thrust onto us by our town. Then it just stuck. Rico still doesn’t like when people laugh at it.”
“That’s understandable. I wouldn’t want people to laugh at a name I didn’t choose. Or even at a name I did choose. I’m sure you are a great party to have a name given to you by your town.” I try to smooth talk myself out of my selfmade hole. I really don’t want to get punched.
“So you said that I should come with you to report about the bison, right? I’m fine with that, but what about its carcass?” I asked Zay
“We should bring it with us, of course. You can deal with it yourself or pay us a little and we will help.” Zay responds with an offer.
“Yeah, help would be nice. Can we take it to town in that state or do we have to process it down more? I don’t know if I have the skills to do anything to a bison. I have only ever butcher a deer. And a few chickens.”
“Deer? Where are you from?” Zay became suspicious of me after I told him about my hunting history.
“Not here.” I give a vague answer.
“Your clothing gave that part away already.” (Zay)
My clothes. Yeah, I guess I’m wearing a hoodie and jeans. Not really your normal adventuring gear. It's actually weird that my hoodie looks pristine, even after making my way through both the dungeon and the forest. There isn’t even any blood on my shoes. How is that possible? I walked through a sea of corpses in the dungeon.
“I guess it is kinda unique. So how much do you want for the help with the bison and directions to the town. Will half of the bison's sale price be enough?” I asked Zay.
I gave him what I think will be a high offer as a butter up bonus for laughing at their party. I also don’t think that Frenzied Panda is going to have enough time to make it to town so paying a little extra to have help moving it should be worth it.
“That’s fine. It’s more than I would have asked for, I mean you have a big beast that could carry it all the way to town.” (Zay)
“It’s actually for a few reasons. One, I don’t think Frenzied panda is going to make it all the way to town. Two, it’s kinda an apology for laughing at your party name. And three, with a name like ‘Prime Rib’, I’m sure your party is great at processing meat. You don’t get a name like that from nothing.” I have to hold back my laugh from coming out after saying that party name again.
“Well you are right about that. Let’s get things done. I want to be home by dinner.” Zay finally let go of Rico, who had calmed down and began issuing orders to his team. “Lua, drain its blood.”
As the witch Lucia, or Lua as Zay called her, approached the bison carcass, she took out a small metal flask. Wonder what that is for? She took a quick look at the bison's back where cretin's spear was still stuck and said.
“Zay, bad place. Need a better cut.” (Lucia)
“Sure. Rico do it.” (Zay)
“Fine.” Rico grumbled. I guess he is still mad at me. I really hoped he would stop after he heard the offer I gave them.
Rico walked up to the carcass and pulled out a large knife. It might even be better to call it a short sword. With it he sliced the neck of the bison open and blood gushed out.
Reacting to the blood, Lua quickly muttered something I guess would be a spell chant before saying in a firm voice.
“Blood control.”
The blood coming from the bison's neck slithered in the air like a snake and entered Lua’s metal flask. How can a small flask hold so much blood? It has to be some kind of magic flask. What do they even need the blood for anyway to have a high class magic item like that for blood. Or maybe storage items like that are common? I mean they came here to hunt a bison and didn’t bring a carriage or a cart with them. They might just have a magic bag.
As I take another look at their party, the only ones carrying a bag are the knight Alex and archer Rico. Alex has a medium sized backpack and Rico has a small one. I guess you can’t have one too large if you also have a quiver on your back.
“Done.” With a one word answer, Lucia informed us that the blood draining was complete.
“Good, Alex, take it into your bag. It should fit right.” Zay is once again on top of things with his orders. I guess it really is a magic bag.
“Yeah it will fit. It's a bit larger than expected but I made room before we left town.” (Alex)
As Alex walked up to the corpse, I remembered that Spear cretin’s spear was still stuck to the back of the bison.
“Hey, can you remove the spear from its back first. This little guy wants it back.” I interrupt Alex before he can put the bison away.
“Sure.” He answers while going around the bison. With one hand he pulls the spear out of the bison. It does have reverse spikes on it to make it rip on the way out, but he makes pulling it out look easy.
“Here you go little guy.” (Alex)
He hands the spear back to my cretin and my little cretin is happy to have its weapon back. I guess he really didn’t feel well without it.
Alex goes back to the bison's corpse and takes his backpack. With a small light the bison’s corpse enters the bag. It kinda looks like when a pokeball catches a pokemon. Magic bags work in mysterious ways.
“Okay team. Mission complete. Let’s return to town.” Zay gave the move out order to his team.
I hop on the back of Frenzied Panda and ride on him. He had recovered his bamboo stick and returned it to the card while the blood draining was happening. I think it was good that Lua didn’t notice it happening, being focused on the blood draining. I don’t think I would be able to give good answers to her on how these cards work. I mean, I want to know as well. I’m not the expert you ask this stuff from.