Volume 2 - CH 12.2

Chapter 2-12 : Ice Fang Bats IV (part 2)

「Alright, let’s collect the fangs here. We don’t need their corpses anyway.」(Sarasa)

「We just have to push the fangs until they break, right?」(Iris)

「Yes, but please be careful not to touch the tips of the fangs if you don’t want to lose your fingers.」(Sarasa)

「O, Okay. I’ll be really careful so that my debt won’t increase.」(Iris)

「Good. Growing fingers is not as expensive as sticking a severed arm, but it’s definitely not cheap since the potion for growing lost body parts is very expensive.」(Sarasa)

「U, Uhh… Kate, do we have thicker gloves?」(Iris)

「Umm… Ah, we can use the ones to collect dangerous materials.」(Kate)

Perhaps, Iris-san was worried that the gloves she was wearing right now couldn’t protect her from the tip of the fangs. She asked Kate-san for the thicker ones.

As Collectors whose job is collecting materials, they always wear gloves, but they usually use the ones that are flexible and easy to use to hold weapons and tools.

After Kate-san took out two pairs of thick gloves from her luggage, Iris-san and Kate-san changed their gloves.

Andre-san and his party members also did the same thing.

Hm? How about me, you ask?

Well, I’m now also wearing gloves. Although they are thin, these gloves are more than enough to protect me from the pointy fangs.

How come, you ask? Of course it’s because they are artifacts!

They are listed in volume 3 of the Encyclopedia of Alchemy, and they are not that expensive, only 3,200 reas.

In order to read the 4th volume of the Encyclopedia of Alchemy, I need to make all the things that are listed in volume 3, so actually I have had these gloves for a long time.

「Hm? Sarasa-chan, I don’t think your thin gloves are enough to protect your hands from the fangs.」(Andre)

「Don’t worry, these are artifacts called “Flexible Gloves”. As the name suggests, they are flexible and very comfortable to use, but not only that, they are also strong enough to protect my hands even from a very sharp blade.」(Sarasa)

「Hooー I see.」(Andre)

「That’s awesome! Mind if I borrow them for a second?」(Gray)

Gray-san looked very interested in these gloves.

「I don’t mind. Here. Try to put them on your hands.」(Sarasa)

I took off the gloves and handed them to Gray-san.

They looked small after I took them off.

Gray-san stared at them, perhaps he was thinking that there was no way those small gloves would fit on his hands, but after he tried to put them on, he was surprised.

「Whoa…! I can wear them without any problems! They are small but they fit perfectly on my hands! They are also very comfortable to wear! They don’t hinder my finger movements at all!」(Gray)

「The flexibility and the durability are these gloves’ selling points after all. I usually use them when I process slightly dangerous materials with alchemy.」(Sarasa)

Actually, there was a similar artifact in volume 4. It’s called, “Extremely Thin Flexible Glove”.

As you can tell from the name, it’s the same glove but it’s even thinner than these ones.

「These gloves are convenient but there’s a downside. Because they are artifacts, they consume your magical power. It’s not much, though.」(Sarasa)

「Really? But I don’t feel anything.」(Gray)

Gray-san moved his fingers as he said that.

「Gray, let me try them too!」(Gil)

Gil-san looked a little interested in the gloves too.

「Hooー I see… By the way, how much are these?」(Gil)

「About three thousand and twoー eight hundred reas.」(Sarasa)

3,200 reas is the standard price in the royal capital, but in the countryside like this, I guess it will be around 3,800 reas thinking that the materials are easier to obtain in the royal capital.

Well, I can just ask Master to send me the materials needed with the transfer device, but since I used my magical power to operate the device, I should consider it as the shipping cost.

I don’t think 600 reas is too much as the service fee.

「3,800 reas, huh? Well, it’s not too expensive for a pair of gloves that are way stronger and more comfortable than ordinary gloves. Hmm…」(Gil)

「You can order them from me anytime. I can give you a discount if you order more than a pair.」(Sarasa)

「Hmm, now that a lot of Collectors have extra money from the battle against the bears, I think I can tell some of them to buy these gloves too…」(Gray)

Gray-san started thinking. Perhaps he was counting the number of the people he knew who were likely to buy these gloves.

In the meantime, I asked Gil-san to hand me back my gloves and continued collecting the fangs.

＊＊＊

About an hour later, we finally finished collecting all the fangs.

Our bags are empty now because we threw all the bats’ corpses into the forest.

Now there’s a small pile of blue fangs in our midst.

There were unexpectedly many old Ice Fang Bats, so most of the fangs were deep blue.

Their deep blue color made them look like jewels. They looked beautiful.

Because the price of the deep blue fangs is quite high, I’m sure Gray-san and the others will have enough money to buy Flexible Gloves after they sell the fangs.

「Alright, let’s share them evenly.」(Sarasa)

When I said that, the other members looked at each other with confused faces.

「Sarasa-chan, what a minute. Are you sure about that? It’s great for us, but you’re the one who contributed the most, so I think you should be the one who has the most fangs.」(Andre)

「Umm… Well, you can consider it as a bonus for guiding me here.」(Sarasa)

「Really? Thank you, Sarasa-chan, but we will sell these fangs to you later anyways, so I don’t think we have to share them here. You can pay us at your store later.」(Andre)

「Oh, you’re right. Alright then. Iris-san, Kate-san, how about you?」(Sarasa)

「I’ll use all the money I get from this to pay my deー」(Iris)

Iris-san stopped talking after Kate-san poked her shoulder.

「ーNo, actually, can we talk about this later?」(Iris)

「We’re sorry, Store Owner-san… We need some money for other things…」(Kate)

「Okay, I understand, but please don’t worry about your debt too much and use your money as you please. If you use all your money to pay your debt, you won’t be able to work, right?」(Sarasa)

Lately, Iris-san and Kate-san always spent most of their money to pay their debt, so I know that they don’t have much money now.

Even though I made their rent and meal cost extremely cheap, they still have to buy supplies to work in the forest.

「Un, thank you, Store Owner-dono.」(Iris)

「You’re welcome. If you two die during work, I won’t be able to get my money back, so please use your money wisely and don’t die.」(Sarasa)

「A, Ahaha… Understood.」(Iris)

I was joking about getting my money back. The truth is, I was just worried about them.