Chapter 18: Gaining Recognition (II)

As the orders placed by the butler at various shops began to arrive, more and more materials piled up inside and outside the courtyard. The thousands of gold sols at Kord’s disposal had already been spent quite a bit.

Although Donald was now wealthy and had made a huge profit from gambling with Sodo and the others, after setting aside the magic beast cores and elemental crystals that couldn’t be sold as reserves, he still had less than five thousand gold sols left. The expenses for purchasing the manor and other things earlier had already exceeded two thousand gold sols. Now, just the materials needed to build a small manor would likely cost at least a thousand or so, not to mention a large manor that awaited his development.

“No matter how much money I have, it’s never enough!”

So Donald decided to go back to the Green Cloak Forest to hunt magic beasts for cores. This time, he planned to go alone. With thousands of gold coins’ worth of magic beast cores and hundreds of elemental crystals in hand, plus his greatly enhanced confidence after dueling the Snow Mage, his strength was a hundred times greater than when he first entered the forest hunting with only low-grade cores.

As for Clinton and the other two, they were assigned to Kord to lead them. It wasn’t safe to go out on missions without a few subordinates.

Donald originally intended to head to the even more dangerous Uzumyama region to hunt for high-quality magic beast cores. First, to acquire higher-grade cores as reserves, and second, the corpses of magic beasts above level three could fetch extremely high prices in the market—often dozens of gold sols each. Accumulating twenty or thirty of them could yield nearly a thousand gold sols in income!

If he could get several level four and level five cores, Donald wouldn’t have to worry about those with ulterior motives. After all, most of the enemies of the Merlin family from back then still existed, led by the greatest lord of North County—the governor and viscount.

With such enemies around, even if he couldn’t act directly, someone might still try to sabotage him from behind.

Although level three summoned creatures were powerful enough to deal with less intelligent magic beasts, they were no match for more advanced human opponents. But level five cores were completely different—they could summon not only powerful troops but also heroes and rare wild units.

Though not at their full strength, these heroes and powerful creatures could still perform far beyond that of ordinary bronze-class professionals, plus they possessed various magical skills from the game.

In the North County, bronze-level professionals were already among the best. As for silver-level experts, aside from his teacher and the white-robed archbishop in the outskirts of Giant Stone City, they were extremely rare. Perhaps there were hidden experts elsewhere, but their number was likely still limited.

High-level professionals in the Celt Kingdom were already scarce compared to the central and southern parts of the continent, and in the remote North County of this kingdom, the situation was even worse.

For this hunting expedition, Donald planned to target level 4 and 5 magical beasts as his main goals. Level 1 and 2 crystal cores could be purchased in large quantities as long as one was willing to spend Gold Solars, so it wasn’t worth his effort given his current wealth.

However, Donald wasn’t very familiar with the interior of the Green Cloak Forest. He had only operated in its outskirts before. Although he was confident about his safety, considering the efficiency of his objectives, he still wanted to make careful preparations, which led him to the only tavern in Red Maple Town.

The Forest Tavern was a gathering place for adventurers in Red Maple Town, where one could obtain the most comprehensive information.

He remembered that a few years ago, like the ordinary children in the town, he had longed for an adventurer’s life and secretly eavesdropped behind the tavern’s wall, learning quite a bit about adventurers in this world.

This was his first time stepping into a tavern like this, so Donald felt a bit excited.

Dressed in ordinary adventurer’s clothes bought by Kord, Donald entered the tavern like a drop of water falling into a pond, causing no ripples at all. These so-called adventurer’s clothes were just a simple linen shirt, along with half-plate armor on the shoulders and chest and a pair of leather bracers. The only notable item was the wooden elven longbow he carried on his back. Though plain-looking, the wooden bows made by the night elves were almost as good as the iron-arm bows used by human armies.

With such attire and his age, it was easy for the adventurers to think of him as a novice hunter.

Ignoring the teasing of a few singers trying to attract business in the tavern, Donald went to a table in the corner, ordered twice as much of the cheapest barley beer, and absorbed the chaotic yet lively atmosphere of the tavern while picking up information from the loud conversations of the adventurers.

After a short while, the waiter brought over the barley beer. Donald took a sip—it was similar to the beer from his past life, with a bit of foam and lower purity. Yet it had a sweet taste mixed with a hint of bitterness, which wasn’t entirely unpleasant. Looking up and seeing that the waiter hadn’t left yet, Donald figured out what was going on. He took out a silver moon from his pocket and, under the waiter’s flattering smile, put it back in his hand. “Find me someone who knows the Green Cloak Forest best. This kid is yours!” A cup of barley beer cost only three copper coins, while a silver moon was equivalent to most of the waiter’s monthly salary. Driven by the power of money, the waiter soon brought over a burly man who was a head taller than Donald and had short black beard. “This is the strongest hunter in Red Maple Town, as well as the most experienced adventurer!” Donald tossed a silver moon to send off the beaming waiter and then stared intently at this so-called strongest hunter. The man was dressed in neat leather gear, without any unnecessary clutter. Since it was summer, aside from essential protective gear, he was only wearing linen shorts, revealing his muscular frame that could make street girls blush. Feeling uncomfortable under the young man’s gaze, the burly man sat down across from Donald with a grumble, “Kid, are you the one looking for Old Ed?” Donald took a sip of the barley beer and gently set down his cup. “I’m looking for someone who knows the Green Cloak Forest best!” “What, kid, you don’t trust Old Ed? Everyone here knows my skills. I once captured a level-five magical beast, the Shadow Leopard, all by myself deep in the Green Cloak Forest! If you want to learn about the dangers of the forest, I can tell you my own adventure stories. But if you want to enter the forest, with your small frame, you’d better hunt ordinary beasts outside! Otherwise, you might lose your life to magical beasts!” Hearing what this rough man, Ed, said, Donald wasn’t angry. Instead, he took out another gold sol from his pocket before quickly putting it away. Seeing Hunter Ed’s eyes widen at the shiny gold sol, Donald kept him in suspense before saying, “This isn’t the place to talk. If you’re interested, follow me!” Then Donald got up and left the tavern, and Hunter Ed stayed in the tavern for a moment before rushing after him.