Secret Agent Chapter 075 - Stacy's Favorite Taipan (Patreon)

The newly acquired [Harvest] skill immediately started helping. The advice Kathy had given Zack Adder the other day settled in like a habit, and on the next cluster of Belladonna primitiva, some dozen yards away, his hands moved more quickly.

In what felt like hardly any time at all, his backpack was full of the rose-like stalks.

Lang commented while scanning the forest.

“You’re done already? I bet you could fit a few more in the bag.”

“Yeah, I’m done. This should be plenty.”

He already had some three dozen; any more would squish them and damage the quality. Besides which…

He had a lot of thurgenrat tails to collect, himself.

Even with the other four rookie adventurers helping, Sienna had outdone herself. It seemed that she alone had slain more thurgenrats in the last two hours than they both had on the night of the emergency.

His thoughts about her venom capacity must have reached her through their bond, as she responded to his concerns.

One bite, one kill. Tiny squirts only.

The way back felt faster, but it was just past noon when they got back near the gate they had started at. Zack had spotted several game trails leading deeper into the forest, and his arms and back were starting to get sore from cutting tails and tossing the carcasses into the dirt.

Lang had explained that late afternoon adventurers would gather them up and burn the carcasses later. There were no valuable parts to a thurgenrat, other than the tail, which was itself a reagent used in Bloodrot tonics. The rest of a thurgenrat was just a vector for disease, foul and disgusting, their only real merit the ease with which they burned.

“Alright, you lot sort out your tails before we go back in.”

The area in front of the gate was busier now. There were at least two other parties like their own that Zack could see, picking their way along the forest and slaying any thurgenrats that approached. There had to be hundreds of thurgenrat carcasses lying in the sun by this point, and still they emerged steadily from the forest.

“Here.” Vera was first, thrusting a tangle of tails towards Zack, cupped in her hands. “I picked up eighteen.”

After a bit of inventory management resulting in five river stones being left on the ground, and his sling wrapped around his upper arm, Zack stuffed the tails into his bag.

“I got thirteen, Jack,” Ewan offered his own handful.

“Ten,” Jerry said laconically.

“I picked up thirty!” Nate announced happily. “We’re going straight to the Guildhall, right?”

Lang was squinting down along the wall at the other parties. After a brief pause, he nodded.

“Yeah, I’m taking another group out soon. Let’s go.”

They turned to the gate. In total, they had recovered seventy-one tails from Sienna’s kills, and with Zack’s own twelve, that made eighty-three. Of course, he owed his comrades seventy-one lindra when they returned, but it was a very nice haul for a morning’s work.

Once he had all his tails, Zack bent down and let Sienna take her rightful place on his shoulders.

“Adventurer Lang returning!” Lang shouted at the closed gate.

“Adventurer Nate returning!”

“Adventurer Jerry returning!”

“Adventurer Vera returning! ...C’mon, Ewan, Jack, you too.”

“Ad-adventurer Ewan, returning!”

“Adventurer Jack, returning!”

There was silence for a beat, then—

“Six adventurers returning!” a guard they couldn’t see shouted, and the gates opened. Though there were no living monsters nearby, they still scurried through quickly, and the door shut as soon as Lang followed the rookies inside.

“How’re the numbers, Lang? They dipping at all yet?” a guard asked, hopeful. The guards now were different. There must have been a shift change.

Lang shook his head.

“No, they’re holding steady. But—”

He was cut off by an unobservant guard finally realizing Sienna was there.

“Oh—” he swore and nearly fell over as he jerked back. Zack noticed that Ewan, and even Vera, blushed a little at the language he used. “Goddess above, it’s a—”

“Calm down, Mim, they turned this over to us. Don’t tell me you forgot.” His partner smacked him, and then turned to Zack and Sienna. “Apologies, Adventurer Jack. That’s your [Familiar], right?”

Zack nodded. “Yes, this is Sienna.”

Noisy men. Sienna was annoyed, and she gripped his shoulders a little tighter.

“Naw, Carl, that’s a taip’n! You don’t know how dangerous them snakes are! My uncle, a few years back…”

The guard, Mim, was clearly winding up into a rant, and the more reasonable guard motioned for them to continue on their way. “Go ahead, Adventurers. I’ll straighten him out.”

Lang nodded. “Thanks. Everyone, move out.”

“Yes, [Leader],” everyone responded, though Sienna turned her head to keep the other guard in her sights.

“Good job keeping cool, Sienna,” Zack muttered as they walked.

She didn’t respond with words, only a sense of caution… and a little bit of anxiety. But the anxiety faded the farther they got from the gate.

Though there were more people on the roads at this time of day, they were much less concerned about Sienna, even when they noticed her. Zack supposed that seeing her on a random person’s shoulders was alarming, but nestled in an obvious party of adventurers? Normalcy bias kicked in, and nobody freaked out or even seemed to bother giving them a wider berth than normal.

The walk back to the Guildhall passed without incident.

Once there, though, there was one final chore before Lang disbanded their temporary party. Around the side of the Guildhall there was an open shed with a workbench long enough for several men to work side by side and various tools for basic weapon maintenance. Nate, Jerry, and Vera approached the bench confidently and wiped down their spears and pulled out whetstones to resharpen their speartips.

“Jack, Ewan, you borrowed your spears, too, right? Maintaining your weapons is crucial to success as an adventurer. I need to go get my next party, but don’t let me hear that either of you returned Guild equipment in less than excellent condition.”

With a final sharp look, Lang turned and left, cape billowing behind him as he went with big main character energy.

Zack and Ewan shared a look.

“Do you know how to maintain a spear?” Ewan asked.

Zack shrugged. “Let’s just do what they’re doing.”

Vera overheard them.

“Get over here, you two!” She said, a little bossily. “I’ll show you.” She had already finished with her own spear and leaned it up against the side of the Guildhall.

Wiping down the blade and the haft and a little sharpening on the edges was all it took. It was a little different, sharpening the tip of a spear, but Zack quickly got the hang of it.

Ewan was not so fortunate, and Vera spent a few extra minutes bossing him around. In the meantime, Zack also gave his dagger a good cleaning and sharpening. Sienna watched with interest.

Rasp, rasp, rasp…

“There, was that so hard?” Vera chided Ewan.

“No…” he said, sounding a little down.

“Vera, he’s still only unranked. Take it easy,” Zack chided her back.

Nate interrupted them all. “C’mon, let’s turn in the tails already! Jack, you owe me thirty lindra, don’t forget!”

Sienna turned and eyed him, tongue flickering, but Nate didn’t back down an inch. Jerry simply waited patiently and silently, and when they were all ready, he led the way inside.

The dining area was a little busy, but there was no line for the receptionist windows, and three were open. Jerry took one, and Vera, perhaps feeling a little bad about her earlier behavior, insisted Ewan go first and got in line behind him. Nate followed Zack closely.

“C’mon, turn in the tails!”

“You in a hurry?” Zack asked as he made his way to the window womaned, as it often was, by Stacy.

This brought Nate up short, and he clamped his mouth shut. “I just need the money, okay?”

“Hey, it’s alright. I get it. Money’s important.” Zack tried to get Nate to relax but the young man simply narrowed his eyes.

“Welcome back, brave Adventurer… Jack.” Stacy’s smile faltered for only a second when she saw who it was, and who was perched on his shoulders.

“Stacy,” Zack greeted her, and then smiled. “I have good news, actually.”

“Yes?” she looked at him with veiled suspicion.

Her expression quickly shifted to glee when Zack scooped out dozens of thurgenrat tails from the bag on his hip.

“You slew all these thurgenrats?!” she cried, eyes sparkling.

“Sienna and I,” Zack corrected.

“That’s incredible! See, I knew you had it in ya, Jack! And you, too, Sienna!”

Sienna jerked her head back at the explosion of noise and enthusiasm.

Noisy woman.

“You’re my favorite taipan, you know that?” Stacy continued, until the sound of a throat clearing reached her from the neighboring desk. Zack saw Belinda giving Stacy a look, before she noticed his gaze and turned and winked at him with a smirk.

“I mean, ahem, congratulations on a successful hunt, dear Adventurers…” Stacy got back on script, and quickly ensured that Zack and Sienna were healthy and unharmed and didn’t need anything urgent.

Zack returned the borrowed spear, and Stacy counted out the tails. Nate bounced on the balls of his feet behind Zack as he waited with ill-disguised impatience.

“So you collected eighty-three thurgenrat tails. That will be eighty-three contribution points. You now have seventy-five contribution points out of one hundred and forty, and you’ve been promoted to E rank. Your next promotion…”

“Ahem,” Nate cleared his throat.

“Stacy, hang on, can we talk about that later?” Zack asked.

Stacy’s eyes flicked back and forth between Zack and Nate, and then she sighed.

“Well, the short version is you need to take an exam before your next promotion, to D rank. I can tell you the rest later, but don’t forget that you asked not to discuss it now.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Zack agreed, and then to make doubly sure Stacy made a note in his paperwork about all that.

Rosa had truly put the fear of the Goddess into Stacy. Zack [Stifled] a grin.

“So, the money?” Stacy asked.

“The money,” Zack confirmed.

“Thurgenrat tails are still rewarded at three lindra per tail, so your total today comes out to two fortin and forty-nine lindra.” She pulled out two fortin coins and started to count out forty-nine lindra, hands moving with precision and speed that indicated [Skill] support, but Zack interrupted.

“Actually, can I get all that in lindra? I need to make some payments.”

“Ahem, of course, brave adventurer…” Stacy’s hands moved even faster, and in under a minute she had the total amount neatly arranged on the desk. Zack took thirty of the stacked coins and handed them to Nate. “There you go, Nate. Thanks for the help.”

“Hey, you’re not buying tails from other adventurers, are you?” Stacy loudly exclaimed.

“No, he’s not,” Nate replied.

“I got some help collecting the tails while doing a gathering request,” Zack added, finally shrugging off the backpack and passing it through the window to Stacy. “Belladonna primitiva.”

“Hmmm…” Stacy glared at Zack suspiciously, but when she opened the bag she was surprised. “Oh, these are in good condition. Hang on while I weigh these.”

Nate peered over Zack’s shoulder. “The Guild buys flowers?” he asked.

“These ones, anyway,” Zack answered. “The request is up on the board.”

Nate frowned, but once again clamped his mouth shut. Meanwhile, Stacy carefully pulled the stalks out of the backpack and placed them on a large scale, with a little needle on a dial indicating the weight.

“You’ve got six pounds and fourteen ounces, here, but I’ll round you up to seven pounds even. The apothecaries will be happy to get this much.” Zack blinked. Stacy’s mood and level of professionalism were rather volatile.

She continued. “Seven pounds of belladonnas is another twenty-one contribution points, and one fortin and forty lindra.” She gave him a look. “Do you need it all in lindra, still?”

“No, I can take a fortin,” Zack felt a little bad about before, but Nate’s jaw dropped.

“That much money just for some flowers?!”

“Not just some flowers,” Stacy chided. “These are in nearly perfect condition. Damaged herbs are worth a lot less.”

Nate bit his lip, frustration evident as he glared at the herbs on the scale.

“Anyway, Jack, that puts you at ninety-six contribution points out of one hundred and forty.”

“Thanks, Stacy. That was all I need.”

“Farewell, brave adventurer…” Stacy said loudly, pitching her voice so it could be heard from the back. “Ahem, next! Welcome, back, brave adventurer…”

Nate stepped forward, but nodded to Zack. “I’ll see you around, Jack.”

“Yeah, see ya.”

Jerry, Vera, and Ewan were all waiting. He paid them and congratulated Ewan on his promotion to G rank. Then, he collected the clearsteel case and set out for St. Bella’s orphanage with over four fortin in his pockets, to meet up with Roxy and see if his idea would work.

He had a feeling it would.