Chapter 144: The Bear Tries to Get the Black Tiger Harvested

Chapter 144:
The Bear Tries to Get the Black Tiger Harvested

 

ANZ’S SHOP was getting good foot traffic. It wasn’t as hectic as the first day, though. Rice and fish had started selling in a bunch of places, and other Mileelans like Anz had come to open their own shops in Crimonia. Inevitable, I guess.

I was happy for seafood to spread throughout Crimonia. As long as Anz worked hard to keep the shop from flopping, things would be all right—and no way would she lose out to those upstarts. Not Anz, the great successor to Deigha.

Sure, something could come up, but—nah, Anz wasn’t the type to get conceited and get lazy. Even if not being arrogant enough threatened her, Seno and the others would back her up. If push came to shove, we could rely on all my secret hot tips from my home world—umm, ideally. Even if it was mostly surface-level knowledge…

Why hadn’t I studied cooking back home?!

 

The shop had also settled down, so I was hoping to finally get that dead black tiger (remember him?) harvested. I had been so busy after my guarding mission—with Anz coming to Crimonia and the shop prep—that I hadn’t had time to dress the black tiger and get its pelt.

Fina was coming to my bear house in order to take care of it today. It was always a little weird to me, asking a ten-year-old girl to harvest monsters, but she’d done it hundreds of times, so it was too late to worry too much about that.

Plus, it wasn’t like Fina had to take the work these days. Tiermina was healthy, working, and had remarried, so Fina had her new dad, Gentz. Fina didn’t need to work, but she didn’t turn me down and I couldn’t quite get myself to give up her skills. So…as long as Fina didn’t say anything or seem like she didn’t want to do it, I wasn’t going to revoke our agreement.

Soon enough, Fina showed up. “Yuna, good morning!”

She always had so much energy. Made me smile. “Mornin’, Fina.”

“So, what did you need me to do?”

When I’d first asked Fina to do the harvesting for me, there had been people around, so I hadn’t been able to tell her it was a black tiger. All I’d said was that I needed something from her and that she should come by the bear house.

“There’s a monster I want you to harvest.”

“Is it a wolf harvest?”

“Close, I guess?” Black tigers were more similar to wolves than you’d think, though their size and color were a little different.

Uh. In my opinion, anyway.

I took Fina over to the bear-shaped storehouse next to my bear-shaped house. There, I pulled the black tiger out of my bear storage. It made a sort of hefty thunking sound when I set it on the table. Its weight distribution was definitely different than a wolf’s, in any case.

“Y-Yuna?!” Fina yelped.

Well, of course she’d be surprised. She looked at the black tiger, then at me.

I shrugged. “I killed a black tiger. Think you could harvest it? I’ll pay you, obviously, soooooo…”

Fina stared at the black tiger.

“What’s up, Fina? You can do it, right?”

“Um. Dad said that wolves, tigerwolves, and black tigers are closely related monsters, so you harvest them the same way. I think that I know how to harvest it. But there might be another reason why it’s out of my league.” Fina touched the black tiger.

Since tigerwolves were supposed to be greater monsters, I’d thought she’d be able to take care of this one. I guess I’d need to take it to the adventurers’ guild then.

Fina took her hands off the body. “Can I take a stab at it?”

“Go for it.”

Fina pulled out her harvesting knife from her item bag and took a literal stab at the black tiger’s stomach. But when she tried to move her knife, it wouldn’t budge.

“Ughhh,” Fina groaned. No matter how firmly she attempted to cut, the knife wouldn’t move at all. Fina gave up and let go. “Yuna, I think I really can’t do it.”

“Is it too tough to harvest?” Actually yeah, when we’d fought, its skin had been pretty tough…

“Yeah, my knife isn’t strong enough to actually do any cutting…”

So the issue wasn’t Fina’s harvesting skills and stuff—it was that she needed a better tool. “What if you had a sharper knife?”

“Oh, um, I could probably do it the same as the tigerwolves, then.”

Simple enough, then: If it was the knife that couldn’t do its part, then I just needed to prep her a knife that could. “In that case, how about we go buy a knife that can harvest a black tiger?”

“Yuna, that kind of knife is super expensive. You can’t buy one.” Fina cocked her head to the side and tried to appeal to me, but it was no use.

“Don’t worry about it. It’ll be thanks for doing all that harvesting for me. C’mon, let’s go.”

I stowed the black tiger back in my bear storage, grabbed Fina’s hand with my bear puppet’s mouth, and the two of us headed to the blacksmith where I’d first bought my knives and sword months ago. When we got inside, a somewhat short woman welcomed us—Nelt was her name. The smithy was run by a dwarf couple.

“Welcome. Oh, goodness—if it isn’t Fina and the bear lass. What brings you here today?”

“We came here to buy a new harvesting knife for Fina.”

“For Fina? I thought that we sharpened Fina’s knife just the other day. Did it break?” Nelt asked.

“No, um, it didn’t break.”

“Then why would Fina need a new harvesting knife?”

“We had a monster that an iron knife can’t handle, so we want something sharper than iron.”

“Gracious, what in the world are you trying to harvest? A dragon?”

Was it okay to tell her? She wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it, was she?

“I won’t know until you tell me,” she added. “You defeated a black viper. It’s too late to hold back now.”

“Just please keep it a secret.” She agreed, and I explained about the black tiger.

She chuckled. “There you go, fighting ridiculous monsters again. But a black tiger, you say? An iron knife really wouldn’t work for that. You either need one made of steel or mithril.”

Oooh, mithril! Now that’s what I call fantasy stuff. The game had had all kinds of mithril gear. Ahh, how nostalgic. Still, I’d had no idea that mithril existed here too.

Yep, I had to go with… “I’ll take one mithril knife, please.” And maybe a sword, if they had one. Even if it was a little pricey, it was a mithril sword. I mean, come on.

Fina grabbed my arm and shook me. “Yuna, mithril knives are expensive. Way more than steel, and steel’s super expensive too!”

“Nope, I’m going with mithril,” I said firmly. “We’ll probably need it sooner or later.”

Fina’s jaw dropped. “What in the world are you planning to have me harvest…?”

Nelt had mentioned dragons earlier, right? That’d be cool. Or maybe some big monster with a shell? Who could say?

“Sorry,” said Nelt. “I wish I could sell you one, but alas. We’re currently out of our mithril supply.”

“You don’t have any?”

Seemed it really was rare. I still wanted it, expensive or not…

“A steel knife would be able to cut through the monster though.”

“No, I’d like a mithril knife,” I said plainly.

“Yes, dear, but I think it will be difficult for you to get one in this town.”

“It will?”

“Mithril’s a rare ore, and we currently have a shortage of all our ores. That’s why we’re not sure when we’ll get mithril.”

“So it’s not just mithril, then?”

“We have some other ores stockpiled for now, so it hasn’t started much of a commotion yet. We’re running low or out of all the scarcer varieties, though.”

Come to think of it, I remembered that when we’d tried to buy more kitchen utensils for Anz’s shop, Tiermina had said the price had gone up. I’d just ignored it at the time, but was this the reason it had been more expensive? “But why is there a shortage?”

I’d heard that places would gather all their iron in case of war, but this country didn’t have any wars going on, right?

“It seems that there was an issue at the mines, and they can’t excavate more.”

“What’s the issue?”

“I didn’t hear that part. I think the trade guild would know more details.”

Hm. It wasn’t like I’d get a mithril knife just by figuring out the reason behind the shortage. Maybe a capital blacksmith would have them? I had the bear transport gate, so maybe I’d pop by. “Thanks. I’ll pop over to the capital then.”

“All the way to the capital?! Oh, I suppose you have those bear summons. In that case, please give me a moment.”

Nelt was taken aback for a sec, but she was close enough in the end. I couldn’t tell her about the transport gate, so I just nodded. She headed into a back room, and there was a noise like she was giving Gold a light thump to wake him up.

A short commotion, some brief quiet, and right when I was wondering if something was up, Nelt came back like nothing was the matter. “Thank you for your patience. Take this with you.” She handed me a letter.

“And this is?”

“If you’re headed to the capital, there’s a smithy managed by a man named Ghazal. Try heading there, though I think he’ll be more accommodating if you give this to him.”

“Ghazal, you say?”

“He’s from the same area as me.” A dwarf, then, right? “But they may be running low on ore, too, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“That’s fine—thank you so much.” After expressing my gratitude, I took the letter and the two of us left the store. I put my hand on Fina’s head. “Wanna head to the capital?”

“Right now?!”

“I have the bear transport gate. Why not?”

“I guess you’re right…”

“Is there an issue or something?”

“Nah. Just that normally people can’t go to the capital whenever they want.”

“Then what’s the problem? We could even tour the capital again if you want.” I grabbed Fina’s hand and headed back to the bear house, and from there we made straight for the transport gate.