I Have a Task Log

"The air here is far worse than in Silver Star Court," Colin said, taking a deep breath. "Alright, let’s go find Donkexes and the others first."

"Hmph. We used to joke that we’d never be able to bring back any Dragon Scales, but this time our little brother Colin actually went and killed a dragon," Kase said with a laugh.

Colin said, "I couldn’t have done it without your help. Cut the crap, Kase."

The group then made their way to a sewer entrance outside Thousand Masts City and entered the dwarves’ domain.

Donkexes was in his herb shop taking inventory of his herbs, with Langgrin standing beside him.

In front of the herb shop’s counter stood several dwarves wearing Studded Leather Armor. The herbs had likely been brought by them.

"Dain, Barn, good morning," Dorn greeted them warmly as he stepped forward.

"Dorn? Hmm, feels like I haven’t seen you in a long time." The dwarf called Dain turned and replied, his tone somewhat cold.

One of the two dwarves had a fluffy, reddish-brown beard, while the other had a wheat-colored one braided into two thick plaits on either side of his face.

Colin remembered seeing those two beards when he was drinking with the dwarves before. They had to be from the Shadow Anvil Clan as well.

"Speaking of which, I think you mentioned last time that you were heading to the Elves’ territory for a mission. Any decent loot?" Donkexes leaned on the counter with one hand and adjusted his monocle with the other.

Hearing this, Colin knew the news hadn’t reached Thousand Masts City yet.

He smiled, took the Grell materials he had collected from his bag, and placed them on the table.

"Grells? Is that it? I recall there being plenty of monsters in the Supreme Forest." Langgrin, who was standing nearby, wrinkled his nose. "You didn’t get your hands on anything more interesting?"

"A dragon. Our little brother Colin killed a White Dragon."

"That’s no fun, Dorn," Colin said, glancing at the bald man beside him. "I was planning to wait a bit before taking the stuff out."

As the two spoke, the surrounding dwarves all froze, as if they’d been suddenly petrified by Magic.

Just then, Donkexes gave a slight smile.

He propped his elbows on the desktop and said, "Is that so? Did you happen to run into any naga or Snake-men on your trip? Their materials are pretty good, too."

Hearing this, the other dwarves also started laughing, treating the whole thing as a joke.

"We didn’t run into any of those, no." Colin opened a handkerchief and pulled a handful of white scales from his [Dimensional Hole].

Donkexes chuckled and glanced at Colin’s expression with a look of mutual understanding, likely assuming Colin was pulling out some kind of prop for the gag.

He looked down at the scales on the table, and then he froze.

The smiles on the faces of the nearby dwarves instantly stiffened.

"Scales from a young White Dragon..." Donkexes glanced at Kase and the others standing beside him. "If you got lucky and ran into one with an injured wing, I suppose you could have handled it."

"This was our little brother Colin’s kill, and his alone," Kase said, patting Colin’s shoulder. "He, single-handedly, killed a real, honest-to-goodness dragon, completely intact."

"Bullshit," Donkexes retorted instinctively.

"Over a thousand villagers in Lhoslin saw it, and we even held a sacrificial ceremony for it in Silver Star Court," Kase said earnestly.

The two dwarves studied the expressions of the group.

Donkexes’s salt-and-pepper beard trembled. He muttered, "Bullshit. A human who’s been fighting for less than a year starts Dragon Slaying? That’s bullshit!"

"Let’s cut the crap. The Dragon Scales from this dragon are for modifying Orelia’s Scale Armor. The hide is for upgrading Dorn’s Leather Armor. The wing membrane is to make a Cloak for Kase. The blood can be made into Potions, and the fangs, claws, and horns can be used to reinforce our weapons. The main artery can be used to create that thing called ’Dragon’s Wrath’."

Colin blurted out all his ideas at once. He’d gone over them a hundred times in his head, and he’d been itching to say it all.

"Wait a minute..."

Colin then pulled the Dragonbone Longsword from his [Dimension Bag] and asked, "Can this sword be salvaged, you think?"

"You killed an ancient Green Dragon, too?" Donkexes rubbed his eyes. "Moradin’s beard! What damned fool ruined this bone like this? It’s like feeding craft beer to rats!"

Colin turned to look at his companions. "Is everyone okay with this arrangement?"

"Hmm... are you sure I get a share too?" Dorn asked, pointing at his own face. But with his beard covering most of it, Colin couldn’t make out his expression.

"This is your glory, my boy," Kase said. "Everything should be done as you see fit."

"Alright, then that’s settled," Colin said, turning to Donkexes. "So, how much is this going to cost?"

Donkexes cleared his throat twice and said, "Do you remember what I told you before you left?"

"Uh... was it about you wanting to hire us to go to the Undercity with you?" Colin asked.

"Yes," Donkexes said. "There actually aren’t that many materials from this young dragon. It wouldn’t be fair for us to take a cut of them, so I was thinking, how about we let the reward for that job cover the crafting fees this time?"

"What about the loot from the Dungeon run?" Colin asked.

"Whoever gets it, keeps it. If we get something together, we can negotiate then," Donkexes added. "Of course, you’ll still have to cover the cost of any extra materials. The materials needed for modifications can get a bit expensive."

Colin mentally calculated the money he had on hand.

With the dragon meat yet to be sold, he currently had six hundred and forty Gold Coins plus some spare change. It wasn’t a huge amount, but it certainly wasn’t a small one either.

Colin asked tentatively, "If I gave you a generous budget, how would you handle these materials?"

"Take this sword, for example. We could add the dragon fangs and claws to make a new blade, use Refined Gold..."

Before Langgrin could finish, Donkexes interrupted, "No, Refined Gold is too heavy. Plating it would have a similar effect anyway. It would be better to use orichalcum or platinum underneath; that would increase the Enchantment’s strength."

"I don’t have time to argue with you right now, Old Guy." After snapping at him, Langgrin continued counting on his fingers. "For the hilt, we’d need some dragon hide and Black Wood, then inject Mithril into the hollow of the bone... a conservative estimate would probably be several thousand Gold Coins."

Hearing this, Colin suddenly felt as if he had been transported back to his days living in the slums.

He said quietly, "I’m going to go sell some materials first. I’ll come back later and tell you what the budget is..."

"No need to rush. These materials will take some time to process anyway," Donkexes said. "So let’s postpone the Undercity escort mission for a few weeks."

"That works. We’ll talk later," Colin said hurriedly.