I Have a Task Log

"Of course, we’ll offer a fair price."

Colin could clearly see Lirel sigh in relief as he answered. ’He probably wanted to bring this up for a while,’ Colin thought, ’but held back out of courtesy.’

It was the same way back at the Delicious Maggot. The Drow Boss had been far more polite than a normal Five-Stringed.

’It’s probably because of their race,’ Colin mused.

’As an evil race, they have to be extremely careful about their words and actions, to the point of overcompensating a little.’

While thinking this, Colin bent down and pulled open the collar of the Drow Warrior.

A pouch with a soft tube was strapped beneath his Chest Armor. The tube was secured by the studs on the Studded Leather Armor and ran up to his collar.

’So this is the pouch the Drow Warrior used to drink potions,’ Colin thought. ’It’s actually pretty useful. I should take one later to show Langgrin and the others.’

Afterward, with help from Lirel and his people, the group stripped all the equipment from the Drow and laid the spoils out on the ground.

In total, the Ordinary items were two sets of Studded Leather Armor, four Scimitars, three Daggers, and three Potion pouches. The Magic Items were one suit of Enchanted Studded Leather Armor and two Enchanted Scimitars.

Then there was the Drow Priest’s Scale Armor, her Three-headed Snake Whip, and her Dagger.

Finally, there were some miscellaneous odds and ends, such as rations, parchment, and a coin purse with some Gold Coins inside.

"About this gear... Orelia?"

"Hm?" The Tiefling looked at Colin, who had called her name. Her small hands were bandaged up tightly, and you could faintly see blood seeping through.

"You should be able to wear this Scale Armor, right? After all that training."

Orelia nodded vigorously. "I think so, Colin."

Colin nodded, picked up the Scale Armor and a Potion pouch from the ground, then after a moment’s thought, grabbed a Dagger as well. He turned back and asked, "Can I take one as a souvenir? To commemorate my first fight with the Drow down here, or something."

The Dagger had a peculiar design. The hilt was shaped like a spider, and the blade was very slender. It felt strange to say, but it had a very "fantastical" feel to it.

"Go ahead and take it. It’s just a trinket worth a few Gold Coins," Kase snorted.

"I want one too," Ale said, stepping forward to take the Drow Priest’s Dagger. She cradled it carefully in her arms.

The others found the Half-Elf’s behavior a little strange.

After all, if they hadn’t won this fight, that Dagger might have been used by the Drow Priest to sacrifice Ale...

Colin pushed the thought from his mind and looked at Lirel. "How many Gold Coins for the rest?"

"For these..." Lirel tentatively held up his hand, making a sign for "eight."

’Eight hundred Gold Coins? That’s too little.’

’There are five of us in the party, so that’s only one hundred and sixty Gold Coins each. It’s a huge sum, sure, but this fight was also incredibly risky...’

Colin frowned. "Can you go a little higher?"

"This is the highest price we can offer."

Colin glanced at the Drow’s troubled expression and mentally calculated whether it was worth taking the gear to the grand market. If someone liked the Drow style, he might even get a higher price.

Just as Colin was thinking this, Lirel asked, "Are eight gold bars really not enough?"

’How much are eight standard gold bars worth in total? Hmm... how many Gold Coins is one gold bar again?’

After doing the math in his head, Colin froze for a second. ’Two thousand Gold Coins?!’

"Um, could I borrow some ink?" Lirel asked Ale. "You must be a Caster, correct?"

"I can give you some."

Without waiting, the still-injured Colin hurried over to his pack, took out an inkwell, and handed it to the Drow.

He swallowed, watching impassively as the Drow tore off a strip of bandage and wrote something on it in an unreadable script—Underground Elf Language. Then, Lirel handed the strip of bandage to him. Colin took it and clenched it in his fist.

Just like that, they had two thousand Gold Coins, which came out to four hundred per person.

And that didn’t even include the lump of Gold they’d twisted off earlier or the Hobgoblin’s equipment.

’The Undercity is really profitable,’ Colin marveled internally. ’No wonder so many Adventurers are willing to risk their lives to delve into it.’

In peaceful times, making two or three successful trips into the lower levels and coming back alive would probably be enough to buy a house in Thousand Masts City and retire.

Of course, you were more likely to die down here. After all, the survival rate for even the first level was only about eighty percent. And that was because most of the so-called newcomers who entered the Undercity were already experienced Adventurers. Otherwise, the rate would probably be even lower.

"What do you all plan to do now? Rest here for a bit?"

Lirel’s voice reached his ears. Colin replied, "We at least need to recover some stamina. I’d rather not run into any more trouble on the way back to the Surface."

"We will escort you to the vicinity of the Gate of the Undercity, so you don’t need to worry about that," Lirel said with a smile. "Since you need to rest for a while, may we join you?"

"Fine," Colin nodded.

"Well, now one Elf has turned into a whole group of Elves." Dorn’s white beard twitched, suggesting he was moving his lips underneath.

Kase, standing nearby, also seemed displeased.

Although he didn’t show it outwardly, Colin could tell he wasn’t happy. There probably wasn’t a single traditionalist Orc in the world who would be happy to hang around a bunch of Elves, even if they didn’t worship an Evil Deity like Gush.

The injured members of the party didn’t try to act tough.

They dragged their sleeping bags and packs to the middle of the hall and sat down, watching as the group of Drow built a campfire with fungal chunks that looked a lot like wood.

Colin had to admit, the Drow still had some things in common with their surface cousins.

At least, as the Drow started the fire, he felt their movements had an inexplicable nimbleness, like watching Ale eat. Even though they were just Ordinary movements, their Speed was just a bit faster than a normal person’s.

"Right, there’s still some stuff to collect," Dorn grumbled as he walked toward the giant spider carcasses.

Hearing the Dwarf, Kase also grunted a couple of times and got up to retrieve the bear traps he had set earlier, which hadn’t been needed.

Colin turned to look at Dorn.

The Dwarf was cutting open the abdomens of the giant spiders and removing their silk glands, each the size of a human head.

Next, he went to work on the spiders’ heads, prying out their fangs.

The creatures’ fangs were terrifyingly large. Each was about forty centimeters long and looked like a sharp Short Sword.

After gathering those parts, the Dwarf started processing the giant spiders’ legs. He then carried the legs over and unceremoniously threw them all on the ground, where they landed with a series of sharp CRACKS.