Chapter 29

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Chapter 029: Herbalist or Bounty Hunter?

Jesse and Greed walked into the Alchemy Room, carrying herb pouches. When the boss Ruth Lumere saw Jesse, her eyes immediately lit up.

"You didn’t find any Grave Moss, did you, Mr. Seso… I hope I got your name right?"

"You got it right, ma’am," Jesse said. "Unfortunately, I didn’t find any Grave Moss, just some Silverleaf and a few other herbs. Would you like to weigh them? We’re selling everything in the bag."

"Please help me move to this side of the counter, handsome dwarf sir," Lumere said with a smile. Greed immediately looked up and gleefully snatched the bag, moving it over there.

"But…" Lumere turned to Jesse and said, "I smell a not-so-nice scent on you. You must have visited many graveyards, right? It’s a shame you didn’t find any. It’s been a long time since we had supplies. I’m thinking of raising the prices. Of course, the buying price will also go up. If you have any good news, be sure to tell me first. Grave Moss is an important ingredient for making medicine against Black Magic. You know there are many Orc Warlocks scattered in the forest and mountains. Some soldiers are getting injured when they encounter them, and they rely on Grave Moss for treatment."

"I heard some trolls ‘plant’ Grave Moss," Lumere whispered, looking at the dwarf and said, "Using animal corpses to grow it is very difficult, and trolls won’t use their own kind. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I understand completely," the dwarf nodded. "I come from Hinterlands."

"A warrior from the Wildhammer tribe," Ruth Lumere said. "You must have a strong feeling about this. Maybe in the future, we might have to resort to this method as well. Actually, if there are politicians or nobles willing to suggest to the king to make this decision, I would feel relieved. This shows at least everyone still has common sense. The dignity of the dead is just as important as the lives of the living."

"You’re absolutely right," Greed agreed. "If all the living people are gone, who will respect the dead?"

The middle-aged female boss and Greed seemed to hit it off, but Jesse wasn’t in the mood to join their chatting. He secretly sniffed himself and couldn’t smell anything. Why did the boss and Ruth say he smelled like a dead person?

And why didn’t Greed have that scent?

Greed handed the herb that looked like Earthroot to the female boss, who examined it and asked, "Where did you pick this? This is Liferoot."

"What is Liferoot?" asked Greed.

"It’s a very rare medicinal herb, hard to find in these lands," Lumere explained. "It’s used to make powerful antidotes and in high demand. Strangely, goblins in Booty Bay always buy it, raising the prices. This one looks good, I’m willing to buy it for 20 silver, what do you say?"

"20 silver coins?" Greed’s exclamation startled Jesse, who was still lost in thought.

Jesse stared at the plant and asked, "Is Liferoot really that expensive? Where can we find more?"

Lumere replied, "In the north, from Alterac Mountains to Arathor, and also in Khaz Modan."

"That’s really far," Jesse said helplessly.

Lumere immediately asked, "Where did you get this from then?"

Of course, they couldn’t say they stole it from a fairy.

"A Herbalist’s secret," Jesse said mysteriously.

Lumere smiled and asked, "Are you saying someone stood guard by precious herbs for days, then knocked out an innocent Herbalist who came to pick herbs and stole their belongings?"

The person collecting herbs seemed knowledgeable indeed, but Jesse quickly said, "Do I look like someone who would do such a thing? I have always been a victim!"

Lumere pointed at the dwarf and said, "You don’t seem like the one, he does."

The dwarf bellowed, "What does it have to do with me?! Just now, wasn’t I a brave Wildhammer warrior?"

Hearing that Lumere had noticed something fishy about the source of their herbs, Jesse held the remaining potion bottles stolen from the elves and didn’t dare ask what they were.

He simply placed the bottles on the counter and said, "We have 3 bottles of potions left that we don’t need. We were planning to sell them."

"We usually don’t accept finished potions here, Mr. Seso."

Despite Lumere’s words, she still picked up the three bottles one by one, uncorked them, sniffed, and said, "Agility potion, Frost affinity potion, by all that is holy, you also have a Detect Lesser Invisibility potion. Are you Herbalists or bounty hunters?"

Greed and Jesse glanced at each other, and Greed quickly said, "It’s none of your business, madam. If you want them, name your price."

"Maria, Maria!" Lumere called out to the back of the house. "Is your Uncle Kadil still collecting herbs?"

"Yes, Mom, he was asking me just the day before yesterday."

"Got it!"

Lumere nodded and shook the bottles of medicine. "The quality of these is really high, very pure. Plus, these three bottles look quite nice. I’ll sell them to you for 14 silver coins for all three."

"Take them, we don’t need them anyway," Jesse said.

The group discussed the distribution and prices of herbs. Lumere arranged for two apprentice herbalists from the Alchemy Room to help sort through the bags of herbs, separating the weeds from the true herbs. After adding Liferoot and the three bottles of medicine, he gave them a price of 62 silver coins, which was way more than they had expected.

The two people left the Alchemy Room, trying to contain their excitement, and quickly opened their money bag outside.

"It’s a bag full of silver coins!" Greed exclaimed. "We really should thank that elf, without him, this bag would have been half empty."

"You’re right, without meeting him, this journey would have felt like a loss," Jesse agreed.

Greed said, "Don’t forget your Grave Moss, Kingsblood, Wicked Claw, we all have them, which together adds up to about ten to twenty silver coins. What do you want to do with them?"

"It’s a secret for now," Jesse said. "I’m not sure if it will work, if it fails, it will be a big loss."

"It’s like you care so much," Greed said. "Let’s count the money then."

Jesse counted 44 silver coins and said, "Here’s yours."

"You didn’t count properly, did you just give it to me?" Greed said. "I don’t think it’s as much as seventy percent, take it out and count it for me."

Jesse said, "I even gave you an extra half a silver coin, you’re suspicious even when you’re benefiting from it?"

Greed frowned, "What?!"

"Look," Jesse said. "62 silver coins, isn’t it 10 times 6.2 silver coins, then six times seven is forty-two, two times seven is fourteen, all together is thirty-four…"

Greed interrupted him, "Wait… what is all this, I need to write it down to understand."

Jesse handed the wallet to him directly and kept 18 silver coins for himself, saying, "You can count it yourself when you have time, I can’t run away anyway. If you think I’ve counted wrong, come find me at the Mage Quarter!"