403 Zero the Explorer (1/2)
When Zero was told that he could go out to explore and hunt for monsters to sell to the merchant guild, he was overjoyed. Brutus looked slightly worried when he heard it.
”You're going hunting? Are you going to the desert? It's dangerous.”
Zero flashed the stablehand a reassuring grin. ”We'll be fine. Truen is strong and I don't think a few monsters will be difficult at all. But what are we going to hunt?” he directed that question to the archer.
Truen mounted his sand walker and Zero got onto Grigoria quickly. Brutus helped them saddle up and gave them some advice about where to hunt.
”There is an area near Endow hill that has less aggressive monsters. Most of them are carnivorous plants or giant insects that can be taken care off easily with ranged attacks. Their monster cores sell for good money at the auction house. The other side would be too close to the desert. I wouldn't recommend going there. Not too far from here is another lawless region but it is an area not as civil as Deadman Town. They sell humans there and raise beasts. That area is known to be home to some nasty tarantula monsters. A shaman controls the area and nobody unwelcomed made it out alive.”
Truen thanked Brutus for the warning and decided that they would take the path back to the foot of Endow Hill to hunt. Zero was excited and promised to find some good ingredients for Brutus as a souvenir that they could cook for dinner. Drinking cactus soup had left a very bad impression and as a doctor, he couldn't condone drinking poisonous soup even though eating grilled lizards neutralised the poison. Bob, who was almost forgotten, sneakily jumped from the roof and into the back of Zero's shirt, snuggling against his owner and made Zero squirm in surprise at the cold scaly body.
With a loud giddyup, the duo set off to hunt for monster cores. Truen took note of the time and informed Zero that he was going to participate in the Dirt Ring that afternoon so they only had about three hours to hunt and get back.
”It's a good thing the hunting ground isn't too far from the town,” Zero grinned. ”How many should we hunt?”
Truen hummed. ”How many do you want to hunt? I don't think there will be enough for everyone else if you take them all down. We need to be considerate too.”
Zero agreed. It wasn't fair if they stole other people's kills while they were there. Besides, if Truen was going to the ring for a fight, that means they didn't need to do this for money.
”I think we can just take some time to kill a few of those monsters if they have good ingredients for potions and medicine. Else we'll leave them there for everyone else. It would also be fun to explore a little. The climate here is really different so the monsters must be unique as well,” Zero reasoned.
By the time they arrived, the giant ants were fighting it out with the carnivorous vines. Zero appraised them and decided that the ants weren't any good for ingredients. The vines, on the other hand, had good properties in their slime that could be used in a skin cream.