Chapter 357: First Monster Beast Core. |
A small cloud of dust shot into the air as the guards slid across the floor and hit the wall of Tam's store before dropping down onto his stomach. A few moments went by as the other guards looked on in shock to see that their colleague was no longer moving.
They then looked back up at Haru who was waiting for them to attack, but instead, they put away their weapons and attended to their fallen friend. Haru sighed in frustration and turned around without saying another word.
"Now my mood is completely ruined," Haru complained to himself as he walked down the street back towards the inn in his new robe. A few heads turned as Haru strolled past them as the material caught the eyes of everyone who saw it.
'And this is just great isn't it? I wanted something that would make me stand out less but this has done the complete opposite.' Haru thought as he reached the door to the inn and entered to see that it was starting to fill with customers now that they had officially opened for the day.
The woman behind the counter smiled as she saw Haru enter again after less than an hour of being gone.
"I take it that they were harder to catch than you initially thought, weren't they? We see a lot of people try to catch them since their meat is delicious but only a very small amount of people have the skills required to catch them." The woman said as she doubted Haru's skill once again.
"I caught a couple of them actually. You were right about them being quick though." Haru smiled back as the woman looked doubtful but took his word.
"You did? That's surprising. You don't look like the type of person who is capable of matching their speed." She said in reply to the arrogant tone in Haru's voice as she thought he was being hostile.
"Well, where should I put them? They're in my storage ring." Haru said as he assumed that storage rings were normal in this world since he had seen people use them before in his short time on the planet. But the woman looked a little shocked to learn that he had a storage ring.
Suddenly the bodied puled up to the point where Haru and the bartender could no longer see each other from the height of the pile getting so large that it was taller than the woman on the other side.
Haru looked at the pile for a moment before getting the idea that he had probably hunted too many of them as there were a few scuffles behind him as chairs clashed together when the customers stood up in shock after seeing so many feathered rabbits on the counter.
Although blood soon began to pour down to the floor as Haru had placed them in his storage ring while time was heavily slowed down so along with blood pouring down from the counter, all of their heads dropped from the bodies and rolled onto the floor, creating a large mess below the counter.
Haru hesitated for a moment as he didn't mean to cause such a mess as a lot of the customers began to gasp before a table of drunk men began to cheer.
"Looks like we're having a feast tonight!" One of the men shouted as Haru turned and realised that everyone was staring with amazement and not a single one of them were disgusted by the mess that was caused. They had never seen such a large amount of feathered rabbits before and neither had the people working in the inn as they all stopped what they were doing to take a look.
"H-How did you!? You were only gone for an hour at most? You would have to been killing them back to back to collect this many." The woman stated as she moved out of the way so that she could see Haru once again as she was in shock at what she was seeing.
There wasn't a hunter in the whole region that was known for killing so many feathered rabbits in a single day, let alone an hour. Haru had seemingly done the impossible and wasn't something that anyone had expected from him since he was unknown to everyone in the town.
"Wait, I don't think we have enough money to even pay for this amount. But if you go down to the market I bet you would be able to get a lot more for all these." The woman said as she knew that their small it didn't have the resources to afford so many of the rabbits but Haru shook his head.
"It's fine. Just give me the cores after you butcher them and cook mine and my friend's meals for free. That's more than enough compensation for me.
Oh and also would you mind cooking one of them right now? I promised my friend some breakfast." Haru stated as he asked them to get started on preparing the meal Hong Xia had ordered an hour ago.
"You would really do something like that for us!? This will draw way more customers than we are used to. We might have to put up some seats outside once everyone finds out how many feathered rabbits we have. Thank you so much! I don't know what to say. I'm sorry for judging you before. You just look so young and the way you were speaking made me think that you were just some spoilt brat.
I didn't mean to cause any offence. And if I did then I beg for your forgiveness." The woman exclaimed as she felt bad about doubting Haru's ability after seeing just how amazing they actually were as one of the other people behind the counter took one of the rabbits and immediately began to process it in order to make some breakfast for Hong Xia like Haru had asked of them.
"It's fine don't worry about it… Wait a minute. You said there is something wrong with the way I speak? What is it? I didn't think there was anything wrong with it." Haru asked as he didn't have a clue what she was talking about but she felt a little bit uncomfortable answering.
"W-well, you see… It's just the way your tone is. When you ask questions it sounds more like a demand. And when you state something it sounds like you are being prideful and bragging about your achievements. Did you really not know that you were doing that?" The woman stuttered as she thought that it was intentional the whole time.
But the look of embarrassment on Haru's face said more than she needed to hear. It was quite obvious that he didn't know how his words were coming out and he was regretting the fact that he had already spoken to so many people already.
'Did everyone I have spoken to see me like this? I found it a little bit strange how those men ran away from me in the forest without me even threatening to do something. But I guess they must have got the idea that I was going to attack them if they continued what they were doing.
I wonder how they would have reacted if they knew that I was planning to retreat at the first sign of trouble? I still don't know the true strength of the people in this world but when I hit that guard just a few minutes ago it felt like I hit a bag of feathers. There was no resistance at all.' Haru thought as there was a clang on the counter in front of him as the rabbit had already been prepared for him.
"You're breakfast is ready." One of the other people working in the inn said as they pointed to two plates on the counter that consisted of the Rabbit he had just hunted alongside some cooked mushrooms.
"Thank you," Haru said as the man nodded his head and then continued with his duties as he began to process more of the meat. But as Haru looked down at the two plates he saw a small yellow crystal beside them and knew at first glance that it was a monster beast core. He then looked up to see that the woman was still awaiting a response from him.
"I see. Well, thank you for letting me know. I never would have found out if it wasn't for you. I will try to work on it. And thank you for the meal, but I should probably get going now. I have kept her waiting for too long already." Haru explained as he took the plates in his hands and placed the monster beast core into his storage ring before heading back up to his room.
As he opened the door he was surprised that Hong Xia already had a new change of clothes and was dressed appropriately for the year that this world was in and was sitting on the edge of the bed.
As soon as Haru entered the room she opened her eyes and looked up at him with a smile on her face as greeted him by standing up and bowing her head.
"Thank you for the technique. I can move again!" Hong Xia shouted out as Haru extended his hand with the plate of food.
"Eat first, we'll talk later," Haru said bluntly before she took the food and he sat down at a table on the opposite side of the room and began to eat.