Unwanted Undead Adventurer - Episode 41

It’s a good thing that I was able to defeat the Orc, but this isn’t the end of my work. If all I wanted to do was collect the magic stone, I could have just sliced it open and pulled it out of its chest, but the request I received was to deliver the Orc. To be more precise, it was not a request for the delivery of the magic stone of the Orc, but a request for the delivery of its meat. Of course, its purpose is to be used as meat.

Pigs, cows, and chickens are typical examples of creatures that are suitable for use as meat. They are relatively inexpensive because they are produced as livestock. They also taste good in their own way, and if you take the time and effort to raise them, they can be extremely tasty. However, the meat of the Orc is considered to be more expensive than such meat. There are many reasons for this, but the simplest and most obvious reason is that it’s simply delicious.

Orcs are muscular monsters and are often mistakenly thought to have sinewy meat, but this is not the case. Since the Orc’s muscles are maintained by magic power, as it loses its life and its magic power fades away, its meat regains its original softness. The taste of the meat is so sweet and delicious that it far surpasses that of the finest pork, and it is said that once you’ve tasted it, you’ll never want to eat any other kind of meat.

The reason why the meat of the Orc, which has such a great taste, is not so common in the city is because there are few adventurers who can hunt them. At least, not enough to regularly hunt enough Orc meat to feed an entire city. At best, the meat would end up on the tables of the wealthy and noble families. Because of this, it’s rare and expensive. In other words, it’s a very profitable monster, and if you can defeat it, it’ll be worth a decent amount of money.

I approach the fallen Orc, which is one of these money trees. First, I slit its throat, and blood gushes out. This, along with the blood coming out of its chest, will allow me to finish draining its blood relatively quickly. In the meantime, I’m keeping an eye on my surroundings. It’ll be a problem if another monster appears and attacks me. Fortunately, no monsters appear, and the blood is completely drained.

Then, after identifying the necessary parts, I cut them up and wrap each part in a large leaf. These leaves are from a plant called Malt Hawthorn, which grows in the forests around the city of Malt, and are very useful for wrapping food. I carry these with me at all times. There are several containers that are a necessity for adventurers, such as jars for collecting the Slime’s bodily fluids, and this is one of them.

The main cuts are the loin, fillet, ribs, and thighs. If I could, I’d like to bring it all back in one piece, but my bag capacity is too small to do that. The most I can take are the commonly used cuts and the cuts that I want to eat – the heart, the liver, and the pig’s trotters. I can make a lot of money doing this, and if I carve the meat well from the start, I can sell it directly to butchers, so even if I hunt more than the requested amount, I can still make money. The request didn’t specify cuts, but stated that the quantity should be about three Orcs’ worth. Even if I take more than that, it won’t go to waste this way, so in that sense, there are advantages to doing this instead of just taking it as is. The Adventurer’s Guild can butcher them for you or rent you a room for butchering, so it’s better to bring them back whole, but what can’t be done can’t be done.

After I finish carving the meat, I chop up the rest of the Orc and scatter it around. The labyrinth is a strange place, so even if I do this, it’ll be gone before I know it. Sometimes it becomes food for other monsters living in the labyrinth, and sometimes the labyrinth itself absorbs it. I don’t know which will be the case for this Orc, but I’m sure it won’t be a nuisance to other adventurers if I leave it like this, and it’ll be put to good use as a resource.

“Now then, let’s move on,” I think as I start walking. The request was not for one Orc, but three. If I don’t kill two more of them, I won’t be able to complete the request. It’ll be quite difficult to fight that battle two more times, but I feel like I’ve absorbed more power than usual from the previous battle. The next fight will be much easier.

I wander the labyrinth in search of an Orc…

◇◆◇◆◇

I finish collecting the three Orcs’ worth of meat as requested, so I head back towards the stairs. Some monsters attack me on the way back, but I didn’t go too deep into the level where Orcs appear, since I only fought near the stairs and returned as soon as I finished my quota, so there are only Slimes and Goblins and I’m able to proceed relatively easily.

I even have time to open the Map of Acacia that I got from that strange woman. As you can imagine, I still don’t have the courage to sit and stare at a map by myself on a level where Orcs could show up at any moment. It would be a different story if I had a companion who could keep watch, but I don’t have one. I only open the map when it’s safe to do so, or when I can’t find my way.

I open the map, and when I pass my magic power through it, it clearly shows the route I took.

On the way back, I take a different path and try to fill in as many blanks on the map as I can, but the Labyrinth of the New Moon is so vast that it’s not going to be easy to fill in everything. If I don’t fill in all the blanks, I won’t be able to use the function to find out who’s where, which might be tough in a large labyrinth. Well, it’s not a problem if I don’t know where people are. Normally. When it becomes a problem, people would definitely talk about it, so it’s a good idea to think about what to do when that happens.

As I walk through the labyrinth, I suddenly hear the sound of fighting. What’s the right thing to do in a situation like this is up to the individual. Some say it’s good manners to casually avoid them, while others say it’s right to keep an eye on them and offer help if the situation looks grave. This is a matter of taste and ethics, so there’s no definite right answer. As for me, as you can tell from the incident with Rina, I’m in the camp of going to see what’s going on. Therefore, I decide to quietly sneak over to where the fight is.

There, I find two adventurers, fighting a Goblin and a Slime with all their might. Judging by the way they’re fighting, I’d say they’re either iron class or on the lower end of copper class. They’re probably fifteen or sixteen years old. One is a boy swordsman, and the other is a girl who’s probably a healer. I can see the boy fighting in front and the girl casting support magic from behind. From where I stand now, I can see that his fighting style is quite dangerous, but even so, he seems to be capable of handling Goblins with no problem.

The problem is the Slime…

As I’m thinking this, the girl launches a fireball at the Slime. This is one of the lower level attack spells, which is said to be easy to learn if you have the talent to become a magician. Unfortunately, since I’m not familiar with this kind of magic, I can only rely on my strength by using physical enchantments and shield magic. Slimes are vulnerable to non-physical attacks such as magic, and even with that level of magic, it can be defeated with a single blow. In fact, as soon as the girl’s magic strikes, the Slime is burned to the ground and disappears, leaving only the magic stone behind. The boy also defeats the goblin at almost the same time.

It looks like there’s no problem.

After confirming this, I turn around and head down the path to the entrance.

“…Oops, excuse me.”

On the way, I run into other adventurers, but they don’t make any particular mention of my appearance, so I leave the labyrinth, happy that I was able to pass by them without any problems, and finish my labyrinth exploration for the day.