Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 387 - 13 Investigation of the Undead Disturbance_1

Chapter 387: Chapter 13 Investigation of the Undead Disturbance_1

"Undead again?" Catherine’s face changed, and she sat up straighter, staring seriously at the several Beastmen. "It seems that the Undead activities have become rather frequent recently, encountered three times in the past few months. You’d better explain the situation in detail. We are quite interested in checking it out."

"He, he will tell it." The leader of the Beastmen nudged a burly man beside him. "He is from our local Adventurer’s Guild Branch, specifically came along to explain the situation."

"Humans?" Catherine blinked, then remembered that over the last few hundred years, quite a few humans had also lived on the Beastmen Prairie and gradually assimilated with the Beastmen. Though intermarriage could not produce offspring, long-term cohabitation had made habits and personalities align, so aside from their appearance, these humans differed little from the Beastmen. Catherine smiled apologetically at him, asking, "Are you from the Adventurer’s Guild?"

"Yes, I’m a local staff hired by the Guild in the Prairie, Cerasis." The burly man had a body full of muscles, but his strength was only at Bronze Rank. So, he held a deep respect for Catherine, who was a Gold Rank powerhouse, and humbly replied, "At first, the nearby tribes each sent people in, but no one came out alive. Then they had no choice but to seek help from the guild. We actually issued three missions for it. The first time, it was a ten-man Iron Rank adventure team. They were all annihilated, no survivors. Consequently, we raised mission requirements. The second time, it was a Bronze Rank adventure team led by a Silver Rank team leader, but only one scout came back. He was so traumatized that no information could be extracted from him. We were prepared to call for backup from headquarters, but just less than a month ago, a lone Gold Rank powerhouse happened to pass by. Upon hearing about this matter, she voluntarily took up the mission. Although she was not an adventurer, considering her Gold Rank ability, we agreed to the request and let her explore on her own. In the end, this powerhouse did come out, but was heavily injured. She mentioned that the power level of the Undead inside wasn’t too high, and she could handle it, but there were too many of them. It would be impossible for her alone to conduct a deep investigation. Her words strengthened our determination to call for reinforcements from headquarters. Therefore, we hurried over for a month to find that the Adventurer’s Guild was on vacation."

"The Early Spring Festival is a significant holiday." Catherine replied: "However..."

"Wait." Pannis suddenly interrupted Catherine’s questions, "Did you just say ’she’?"

"Hey." Catherine glared at Pannis, "We’re handling official matters here."

"Um, alright, my mistake." Pannis quickly surrendered, "Please continue."

"Yes, it’s her." Cerasis, the Guild’s staff, quickly answered Pannis’s question, apparently understanding his query: "She is a rather young woman, but ugly. We didn’t like her."

"Men, always like this." Lina raised an eyebrow and said in an uncharacteristically contemplative tone. "I’ve seen through you guys long ago. Physically bulky, simple-minded, single-track thinking, easily aggressive and combative, turning into beasts when controlled by instincts. Only the most ignorant women and women ruled by impulses would find such foolish and lowly creatures attractive."

All the men present - including Pannis and the senior staff of the Adventurer’s Guild, Newman - looked at the contemptuous Lina with a horror-stricken gaze. Pannis swallowed a gulp of saliva, tentatively asking, "Is this... from that book you bought recently?"

"Stop fooling around, we’re discussing serious stuff here." Catherine coughed, interrupting Lina’s monologue, and continued asking, "Didn’t you try to hire mercenaries before asking for help? If a large team of mercenaries were mobilized, clearing that place should be pretty easy."

"They’ve tried, but they can’t afford to hire a vast mercenary force. To mobilize a group of mercenaries exceeding a thousand requires a reward of at least a hundred thousand gold coins. With supplies and living resources, a single hiring would probably cost over a hundred and fifty thousand gold coins. The few tribes combined can’t afford this price." Cerasis, the Guild’s staff, said bitterly, "They could hire small groups of two or three hundred mercenaries, but those small mercenary bands are far less powerful, their targets are too large, and not suitable for dealing with relentless Undead. So, the Mercenary Guild still suggests they hire smaller, elite adventurer teams to take on the task because the mission doesn’t aim to exterminate the Undead, nor is it possible for complete extermination. The main objective is to investigate why the Undead are suddenly active, and if possible, resolve the cause."

"I see, I understand the basic situation now." Catherine thoughtfully nodded, "Next is the most critical question. How much is the mission’s reward? Let me clarify that missions undertaken by Silver Rank or higher adventure teams are costly. Especially for such long-lasting, long-distance missions, even the costs expended on the journey must be counted. Considering all aspects, it should be at least tens of thousands of golden coins."

"We understand that, but the tribes really don’t have that much money." The tiger-striped face of the leading Beastman creased, "Can we substitute it with something else?"

"Substitute?" Catherine asked back, "For example?"

"For example, we have many passionate and beautiful Beastmen girls in our area..."

"Hey, what are you thinking?" Catherine glared furiously at the tiger tribe’s leader, "Are you even considering selling your own tribespeople? Are you really Beastmen?"

"No, no, not selling." The tiger tribe’s leader explained hastily, "Whoever resolves this crisis will be seen as a hero in our tribes, and receive the adoration of all the beautiful girls. Anytime they come to our tribes, they can enjoy the hospitality of heroes, and many beautiful, unmarried beastwoman will be willing to share their lovely nights."

"Enough with your rubbish!" Catherine yelled back, "And besides, most of us are female, alright?"

"Well, the strong man also..."

"Are you trying to provoke me?" Catherine’s hand had already reached for the hilt of her sword, her face expressionless as she asked, "Should I interpret this as an insult to our adventure team? Or was it a personal affront to me?"

"Shut up, you are in human society now, not on the prairie, you idiot." An old fox clansman who couldn’t bear to watch any longer covered his face in agony and cursed, apologizing to Catherine. "I’m really sorry, they didn’t mean to insult you. They’ve just come from remote places and have no understanding of human society’s rules and taboos. They didn’t do this on purpose, I hope you can forgive them."

Catherine’s face softened a bit, though anger laced her voice, "We accept material goods in place of gold coins, but they must be of equal value. Tell us what you plan to give."

"We..." The Tiger Clan leader was quite wronged by Catherine’s anger, but didn’t dare to argue any further, "I also don’t know what valuable things our tribe has. Everyone just barter, and there are few visitors. I really don’t know how to determine the value of our goods."

"First, tell us, to resolve this issue, is there anything your tribe wouldn’t give up?" Newman asked, "You wouldn’t know what is valuable, but I do."

"Right, we are willing to give up anything." The Tiger Clan leader said affirmatively, "Elder, you help us decide, you will definitely not harm us."

"Nice talk." Pannis sneered from the side, "You make it sound like we’re definitely going to hurt you."

"Enough of that." Catherine’s anger had mostly dissipated, and she shot a glare at Pannis.

"Since that’s the case, then let’s exchange it for the Night Bear skin." Newman said, "I guess both of you won’t have any objections."

The Night Bear is a rare breed of prairie bear, only appearing at night, with exceptional strength. Its fur is extremely breathable and has astonishing defensive properties. As the liner for scale or chainmail armor, it can increase the overall defense by one or two ranks. Thus, armor made from Night Bear skin can often be sold for an astonishing price, the secret being the origin of the skin. But it’s very rare for the Night Bear skin to be sold separately since, apart from a very few masters, other people can’t process the Night Bear skin properly. So, for unprocessed Night Bear skin, its market positioning is very awkward.

"Night Bear skin?" Catherine’s face turned serious, "The price is indeed very nice, but if we take an unprocessed Night Bear skin, it might take a long time to sell it, there’s even a possibility we might not sell it at all. If that happens, we could suffer a significant loss."

"I can take the responsibility to find a master tanner to process it." Newman thought for a while and added, "This way you won’t have to risk not being able to sell it."

"That sounds good." Catherine was very satisfied with the deal. Actually, she was already quite pleased with just a piece of Night Bear skin as, at a bare minimum, such a skin could be auctioned for at least thirty to forty thousand gold coins. Her hesitation was merely a customary haggling tactic. However, Newman’s words pleased her even more. A well-processed Night Bear skin could sell for over eighty thousand if they were lucky. "Then..."

"No, we want the unprocessed Night Bear skin." Pannis suddenly interrupted, "Are you sure it’s a complete adult Night Bear’s fur?"

"Absolutely sure," the Tiger Clan member affirmed, "It’s definitely an adult Night Bear’s full skin. We saw the skinning process with our own eyes ten years ago."

"Tsk, Tsk, you guys haven’t sold it in ten years." Pannis teased, then continued to address Newman, "We will choose the unprocessed Night Bear skin. We don’t need you to get someone to process it. But in return for our loss, we would need the horn of a single-horned Hawk Eagle – remember, the single-horned one, not the double-horned Hawk Eagle, we need five, and sixty teeth from a Mist Fox."

"These items..." Newman did the math in his head. The items Pannis wanted altogether would be worth a little more than ten thousand gold coins, and they were all special products of the prairie, cheaper to collect there, and less expensive than commissioning someone to process the Night Bear skin. Having done the math to his satisfaction, Newman nodded, "I have no objections to this, but I don’t know if your opinion represents..."

"No problem." Catherine, although uncertain about Pannis’s motivations, unconditionally supported him as long as his requests didn’t violate their principles, "His opinion is my opinion."

"Then, it’s a deal." (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote for it on Qidian.com. Your support is our greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)