kscans

Chapter 120 - A Test Cut and Technology

In the morning, I awoke in bed and looked at Tina sleeping beside me. After our fun last night, she had fallen asleep without even taking off her armor. She stirred as she sensed I was awake. We had a simple breakfast of bread and soup, then prepared our equipment.

I had my new Hihi'irokane sword and modified Japanese sword, along with my Adamantite and Weightless Stone Japanese armor. Tina had two longswords on her left and right hip, a dagger at the small of her back, and her armor made of Weightless Stone, Orichalcum, and Adamantite. We loaded the rest of our luggage onto the iron cart and transferred to the Empire.

Upon arrival, we headed for the Guild in the capital. As a hunter, I would hunt monsters without a quest, but I needed to gather information first. The only way I could enter the Empire the first time was by taking on a quest.

We arrived in front of the Guild. Its size and spaciousness were not much different from the Guild in the Kingdom. The buildings in the Republic and the Church were similar as well. I asked if the Guilds were standardized.

"The Guild operates independently from the nations, in a sense," Tina explained. "They try to avoid disparities between the various countries by keeping the size of the capital branches consistent."

Disparities, huh? On Earth, even within the same company, there are disparities between departments, leading to superiors looking down on those in other departments, and colleagues doing the same. I had seen far too much of that foolishness. They were supposed to be comrades working in the same place, yet they looked down on each other, made sarcastic remarks, and gave orders even when they weren't direct superiors. It was the pathetic state of humans who had been immersed in a peaceful world for too long. However, I had no intention of condoning war. The lesson from that company was that it's important to take a step back in all things.

Alright, enough with the unpleasant memories. Time for a fresh start and some information gathering.

Inside the Guild, the interior was also quite similar. Tina and I went to look at the request board. Various quests were posted: escorts, cargo transport, and subjugations. I had no intention of taking a quest this time, so I only looked at the monster information. Among all the notices, one monster caught my eye: a Flame Alligator.

From the name, it was probably a fire-breathing crocodile, but was there a lake or similar body of water around here?

I asked Tina. "I believe I’ve heard that Flame Alligators are monsters that live in the rocky mountains. They don’t exist in the Kingdom, but information is often shared between the Guilds. I must have heard about them then," she said.

Information sharing was a blessing. Without any prior information, I wouldn't even know where to find them, let alone defeat them. There were a few rocky mountains in the area, but we weren't in a hurry, so I told Tina we would take our time searching, and she agreed.

As we were leaving the Guild, we passed a trio of adventurers.

Outside the capital, we began our search, pulling the iron cart. We started with a nearby rocky mountain, about two hundred meters away. The result was nothing. Things never go smoothly, no matter where you are. We searched four rocky mountains and found them in the fifth.

There were three crocodiles with bright red scales. You would never see a crocodile like this on Earth. They occasionally breathed fire from their mouths. So, they were indeed Flame Alligators.

I drew my sword. "This is the perfect opponent to test this blade on. Are you in, Tina?"

Tina, her hand on her sword, replied, "What kind of question is that?" She drew her Hihi'irokane sword.

So we were of the same mind. We readied our swords and charged. The Flame Alligators noticed us and breathed fire. It was like a flamethrower. Naturally, I had no intention of taking that head-on. We split to the left and right to evade. I channeled my magic into my sword. It turned red and grew slightly warm. I had never felt such a clear flow of magic with Adamantite.

I approached a Flame Alligator with an overhand stance. It noticed me and breathed fire. The flame came in a straight line, easy to dodge. In the past, just the sight of fire would have scared me, but after countless battles, fire was just a hot attack to me. It didn’t faze me anymore. I slipped to its left flank and brought my sword down with all my might. The torso was cleanly sliced in two. It was dead.

Meanwhile, Tina, after splitting from me, had activated her water magic to counter the fire-breathing Flame Alligator's attack. Of course, she had channeled magic into her sword at the time.

"Heavy Water Cannon!"

She had planned to counter the flames with her water attack and then strike in the opening. However, the quality and volume of the water released were three times more powerful than usual. It didn't just counter the flames; it pushed them back. The Flame Alligator was sent flying by the force of the water and slammed into a wall, knocked unconscious. Tina approached and thrust her sword into it, finishing it off.

With two down, we took care of the last one with a simultaneous attack from both sides. Afterward, I looked at my Hihi'irokane sword again. Its cutting power was almost too good. It was frightening.

As for Tina, she was in awe. "Does this sword have the effect of amplifying magic? The power was far beyond what’s normal."

Of course she was surprised; no one would have thought it would turn out to be such an exceptional item. Well, no use overthinking it. I just had to chalk it up to being in another world.

Well then, we decided to take the Flame Alligator carcasses back to the capital. When we explained the situation to the gatekeeper, he said, "If you need them disassembled, there’s a place with a sign near the armory. Do it there. And whatever you do, don’t take them to the industrial district. That place is only for large and valuable materials."

So the industrial district wasn't a place you could just waltz into. We walked for a while and found the armory. We looked around nearby but couldn't find the place. Was it further away? I was about to move on when Tina pointed across from the armory.

"Isn’t that it?"

It looked like a warehouse with no sign. No, wait, there was one. A nameplate, five centimeters tall and twenty-four centimeters wide, next to the door read ‘Disassembly Shop.’ Did they even want business? I knocked.

The door opened, and a man in his thirties with glasses, messy hair, a scruffy beard, and a slight paunch appeared.

"Welcome. Disassembly?" he asked in a listless voice.

"I’d like to request the disassembly of these Flame Alligators," I said, showing him the three carcasses.

The man stared at the crocodiles, and his sleepy eyes widened.

"Hmm. Well now. I’ll take the job for three gold coins. It’ll take an hour." He had suddenly switched into work mode.

I nodded and paid the fee. The man skillfully carried the crocodiles into his shop and closed the door. A clear sign not to enter.

Since we had time to kill, we decided to check out the nearby armory. Inside, there were swords, spears, axes, great hammers, and bows, each with different shapes and in considerable numbers.

As we looked around, I muttered, "That disassembly guy, though… does he even want to do business? With a sign like that, a first-timer would never find it."

Tina replied, "Some craftsmen can be difficult. His eyes changed when he saw the Flame Alligators. We just have to accept that’s the kind of person he is."

It was a sound argument. Just then, the fat, bald old man behind the counter spoke up.

"What? You guys hired that disassembly bastard across the street?"

"Yes, we did. Do you know him?" I asked.

"Heh. More like a bad friend than an acquaintance. That guy hates crowds and being bothered by a lot of people, so he made his sign small on purpose. But how did you know about him? There are plenty of other disassembly shops."

At his question, we looked at each other. "The gatekeeper told us about it," we answered, a little confused.

The old man sighed. "That kid, huh? He was always worried about whether he was getting enough business. Well, I guess it’s a good thing. That bastard won’t work unless he’s in the mood. Flame Alligators, huh? Good on you for bringing them to him. There are quite a few shops that would want to disassemble those. The fire magic stones from alligators fetch a high price, you see."

So, there were shops that wanted a cut of the profits when the magic stones were extracted. This might be a good shop after all.

Then, I remembered something. "Come to think of it, he said he could disassemble three of them in an hour. Isn’t that pretty fast?"

Tina pondered this. "That is fast. Perhaps the Empire has some technology that allows for quicker disassembly?"

As we were thinking, the old man said, "They do. Machines and tools that can finish disassembly three times faster than normal have been distributed to every shop. Not just disassembly shops, but other stores have adapted machines and tools as well. The nobles figured that it's faster to popularize it in shops to show off the Empire's greatness to other countries. A bunch of show-offs." He grumbled.

I see. The best way to advertise the country's splendor and technological prowess is to let merchants and adventurers know. Because they are the ones who travel outside the capital the most. If they spread rumors outside, there’s no better advertising. In fact, the reason Tina, who had never been here before, knew about the Empire was because she had heard rumors.

An hour passed. We went back to the disassembly shop, and there was a box outside. Inside were the Flame Alligator hides, meat, and magic stones. I wanted to thank him, but I felt it would be a bother. The sloppy way the box was left there seemed to be a hint to take it and leave.

We bowed in front of the shop and loaded the box onto our cart. Our next destination was the base we had bought in the capital. We had found a real estate agent yesterday after leaving the inn and bought a moderately sized house. For a long-term stay, a house is better than an inn. The taxes were already paid. The shopkeeper said that paying once a year was enough. It had cost three small gold coins.

The house was a one-story, two-bedroom home with a kitchen, storage room, toilet, and a sauna instead of a bath. The concept of a bath probably didn't exist here, so it couldn't be helped.

I put the materials in the storage room. I thought about relaxing at home, but I decided to go back to the Guild to gather a little more information.

We arrived at the Guild. It was moderately crowded inside. It looked like people were finishing up their work for the day. We were heading for the request board when a man, who looked like the leader of a trio of adventurers, called out to us.

"Excuse me, beautiful lady. Could we have a word?"