0p0 #179 - I don't like money, I have no interest in money
#179 - I don't like money, I have no interest in money
In the end.
Zun Zun still didn't exchange the Dullahan for money.
Compared to 400 million Eris, the Dullahan, who clearly possessed the strength of a Demon King Army executive, was more important. Moreover, Zun Zun couldn't bring himself to do something as scummy, fiendish, and without principle as exchanging his subordinates for money.
On the other hand, Satou Kazuma kept muttering in his ear, hoping to exchange it for money and live a simple, unadorned, and boring NEET life.
What a joke.
How could he possibly let him succeed?
With money, everyone became somewhat lazy. Plus, it was still winter, making it impossible to do quests. They could only kill time in the guild.
“…Hey, Zun Zun.”
“What is it?”
“Why do you look so calm? You clearly have so much money, and hidden sources of income.”
Satou Kazuma was a little curious.
Normally, if someone had that much money, they would be so excited they'd forget themselves, thinking about not working and lazing around at home every day, or going on a retaliatory spending spree.
In fact, that's exactly what he was doing.
It would be fine if Megumin and Yunyun didn't care either, they could chalk it up to the Red Demon clan's personality. But when the two of them learned that the party had tens of millions in savings, they were clearly very happy. Megumin was even too excited to speak.
He thought they were pretending to be calm, but he didn't expect…
“I don't like money. I'm not interested in money.”
“Hey, you…”
Satou Kazuma really wanted to curse and ask Zun Zun what he was showing off.
But when he thought about how a single bottle of skill point potion made by the other party cost 20 million Eris, he had nothing to say. At the same time, he made up his mind that he would be able to say such pretentious words like the other party in the future.
Zun Zun was also curious as to why he suddenly became so dejected, but he was completely drawn to Aqua's performance.
“Look! Come on, flip over! Then roll over, and then… a back handspring to a 180-degree straight front somersault to a 900-degree rotation!”
“Oh, oh, oh…!”
Others also exclaimed and clapped their hands.
Of course, this difficult gymnastics move wasn't done by Aqua, but by the Salamander they had captured.
I don't know how this idiot goddess managed to do it, but she got along well with the Salamander in just half a day, could make it obey in a day, and could even make it do unreasonable gymnastics moves after a week.
Seriously.
Her abilities in other areas besides her main job, especially in banquet talent shows, are undeniably goddess-level.
Satou Kazuma said, “Hey, Aqua, you should hand it over to Zun Zun.”
“Eh, why?”
“What are you being silly about? Letting Zun Zun turn this Salamander into a high-level magic tool can sell for 1 million Eris! So, the friendly relationship between master and servant ends here. Quickly turn it into money!”
His eyes were filled with money-grubbing colors.
“Kazuma, you really are…”
“Trash.”
“Scum.”
“Hopeless.”
“I, I also think so…”
The entire party was condemning him, making Satou Kazuma stomp his feet in anger. Could it be that these guys were also like Zun Zun, disliking money and not interested in it?
“Chirp…”
At this time, the Salamander chirped softly. It looked at Satou Kazuma in a cute manner, its eyes filled with timidity and tenderness.
What's going on…
Suddenly, he felt it was quite cute.
Seeing the Salamander acting cute, Satou Kazuma couldn't help but reach out his hand, wanting to stroke its head, and then—
“So hot, so hot, so hot!”
As soon as he touched it, his hand was burned fiercely, turning red. The Salamander seemed to be mocking him as it kept spinning around while making light chirping sounds.
“You bastard…!”
Satou Kazuma, who didn't expect to be defeated, became angry out of humiliation and took out a small knife, pretending to kill it, but Aqua blocked him.
“Kazuma, what are you doing!”
“Of course, I'm going to kill it!”
“There's no way I'll let you do that!”
The two began a Salamander battle, and during this time, the Salamander also took the opportunity to bite Satou Kazuma several times, making him furious.
While Zun Zun and the others were watching the show.
“Zun Zun, something bad happened! Zun Zun!”
“…Big Sister?”
The big sister at the guild counter ran over in a hurry, her face filled with panic and anxiety, as if something big had happened.
“What's wrong, Big Sister?”
“Yes, yes! Actually, the guild wants to entrust you with a quest! This is a very serious situation, that's right, it has reached the point of threatening the safety of the town! Mr. Mitsurugi and other high-level adventurers are not currently in town, so we can only rely on you, Zun Zun.”
Hearing her say this, Satou Kazuma and Aqua also stopped fighting at the same time.
Yunyun asked curiously, “Big Sister, what happened?”
“Actually, an adventurer claimed to have seen the Snow Sprite King's traces near the foothills plains!”
Hiss…
Hearing this, everyone gasped, their faces filled with heavy expressions.
Satou Kazuma was confused.
“Hey! What's wrong with the Snow Sprite King? Why are you guys making such expressions? Someone explain it to me!”
“Oh, that's right, Kazuma, you don't know.”
The usual opening line, he was very unhappy, but he couldn't find a reason to refute, after all, he really didn't know.
Darkness explained to him.
“The Snow Sprite King is formed by the gathering of Snow Sprites. It is said that it appears only once every few decades. Although it is formed by Snow Sprites, which are harmless beings, the Snow Sprite King, which is formed by a large gathering, is completely different. It is quite troublesome…”
It's almost the same as a Slime.
If it hasn't devoured too many things, a Slime is not worth mentioning, but once it grows up, even high-level adventurers can't do anything about it.
“Snow Sprite, huh…”
Satou Kazuma had a very resistant expression.
He had previously attracted General Winter by subjugating a large number of Snow Sprites, and even died once because of it. Now he was a little afraid of hearing about Snow Sprites.
“Sorry, we also don't have…”
“Okay, I accept.”
“Hey!”
Zun Zun agreed without hesitation, making Satou Kazuma extremely nervous.
“I know you're in a hurry, but don't be anxious. Kazuma, you don't know, a super rare material called the 'Eternal Crystal' will condense inside the Snow Sprite King, which is formed by a large number of Snow Sprites. Its value is 100 million Eris.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let's set off quickly!”
Satou Kazuma was touched by Zun Zun's 'sincerity'.
According to the guild's Big Sister, only a few Snow Sprites are harmless, but if a large number of them gather somewhere, the temperature will drop sharply. The current snowfield seems to have become an extremely cold place where you will freeze as soon as you step in.
They didn't really care about it at first.
But—
The few people who came to the plains were blown by the icy cold wind, and their bodies couldn't help but shiver.
“I, I say everyone, are we really going to continue forward? We'll freeze if we go any further.”
“I didn't expect… it to be so cold even before we reached the snowfield!”
“I remember when we came last time, this area shouldn't have been so cold, right? If this was done by the Snow Sprites, can we really continue forward?”
The few people were shivering from the cold.
They were wearing very thick warm clothes, but the temperature here was still unnaturally low, and their body temperature was dropping very quickly.
Satou Kazuma was very unwilling.
“We, we, we've already come here, how can we turn back? Even if we have to crawl, we have to crawl to the snowfield…!”
His nose was running and his face was frozen blue, but he was still stubbornly unwilling to turn back.
The person with the weakest constitution has said so, so what can they do but obey him?
So, they continued to go deeper and came to the snowfield.
The cold wind was as sharp as a knife, and the winter plains were covered with a layer of frost, a vast expanse of white. The earth slept in a deathly silence, and even the cries of animals were swallowed by the biting cold. The figures of the few people seemed particularly isolated and helpless in the vast world, as if they were the only ones in this world.
This time, not only Satou Kazuma, but even Zun Zun and Aqua felt uncomfortable.
“What is this…”
“This, this, this is bad, this…”
“Too, too cold, I can't stop shivering…”
“I, I didn't expect it to be this cold.”
The few people were completely slurring their words.
Was all of this done by the Snow Sprites? It's just like the rumors, the snowfield swept by the cold wind was difficult to even walk on.
And at this time, on the snowfield, there were countless Snow Sprites wandering here, the distance between them was very close, there were almost a dozen every half meter.
“Ah, wait. My eyelashes are frozen stiff. I say, Zun, Zun Zun…! Quickly think of a way!”
“There's no way. Here, take this.”
Zun Zun took out a few rings from his arms.
“This, this is…?”
“Heat Ring.”
“Is that the high-level magic tool that costs 1 million Eris each that you mentioned before?”
“Oh, oh, oh…!”
“It's working, it's working! As expected of a high-level magic tool, the effect is really too strong.”
After everyone put them on, they felt their bodies were covered by a layer of film, and all the low temperatures were isolated outside, and a warm feeling spread throughout their bodies.
“But… these guys, there are really too many of them! No matter where we go, there are Snow Sprites, how many are there in total?”
“It's still like this after walking for a while, the entire snowfield should be like this, right.”
Zun Zun frowned slightly.
At this time, Megumin suddenly exclaimed.
“Wahhhhhh!”
“Wha, what's wrong, Megumin!?”
“Well, the Snow Sprite that flew in entered Megumin's neck.”
“Don't explain it so calmly! Zun Zun, hurry up and help me take it out!”
Zun Zun reached into Megumin's clothes and took out the naughty Snow Sprite from her back, making the little loli feel both ashamed and annoyed. She wanted to kill the Snow Sprite, but Zun Zun stopped her.
Destroying too many Snow Sprites will attract General Winter, and they must avoid that from happening. They can't beat that Super S-class existence right now.
“I say you guys, quickly look over there!”
“What is it again, Aqua!”
“It's not that!”
Following the direction she pointed, everyone couldn't help but twitch the corners of their mouths.
That was a wall formed by a large group of Snow Sprites, so soft that even Satou Kazuma could easily break through, but none of them dared to do so.
“…There's no way, let's take a detour.”
“Yeah.”
Zun Zun's proposal was unanimously approved.