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[Day 96]

Today we decided to speak with the hunters that were caught in detail now that they woke up early, they were very grateful to us after all the wall of explanations we had to give them… And of course, we took away their collars. I ate one but got nothing, and saved the rest for someday, whenever we need to slave someone that deserves it.

Anyways, they were surprised about a talking ice dragon, a talking and flying fortress the size of a castle (if not bigger), and the strange beast girl Yuki.

There were five women and three men, all of the ice giants.

It resulted that they were just a big family of hunters and explorers that came out of the village a few kilometers from here, which is big enough to even have a sect that supports it, named Ice Moon Sect. They are not sect members but mere hunters who usually go out to hunt monsters and gather resources to sell for currency.

The currency of the town seems to be… Eh? Mana Cores? It is…

So the currency of this world is just mana cores from monsters… I guess they keep the mana cores they extracted and sell the rest of the body and the materials for more.

It seems that people use them as currency because they are the most valuable resource for cultivation. This also gives meaning to hunting monsters aside from food, as it means that you literally can get money by killing them by extracting the mana core inside of them.

But wouldn't this flood the market with mana cores if there are too many monsters being hunted? I guess so… In that case, things just get more expensive I would guess.

Anyways, mana cores were implemented as a currency mostly by sects, it seems, as they use them as a currency to exchange materials inside their residences, alongside grimoires and other useful things for cultivation. After that, the people around them adapted to it and began to sell their own stuff for the same currency.

Oh, wait, no. Mana Cores are used, yes, but the "coin" equivalent is… Mana Stones. These are little versions of mana cores that come out of special refinement formations. It seems that the sect controls the source of mana stones across the village, by pilling up mana cores into the formation, mana stones are created, which are the size of pebbles. They can also be used for cultivation, and are just as good, if not better than mana cores, as they come refined from all the impurities from mana cores.

Anyways, the family is varied but they are mostly hunters, although some of the girls are adept at cooking, so we got some more help at attending the kids now.

They seemed grateful but they didn't seem inclined to stay with us, so for now they'll stay with us and repay us with their help in anything we need until we can get them back to the village.

Though… it would be dangerous to leave these people to go after everything they saw from me.

Wouldn't it be better to keep them with us?

I will convince them I guess, with delicious food, easy ways to cultivate, and warm beds! I bet anything they could ever want is here anyway.

Anyway…

The mother of the family is named Dregeann, she is a motherly and gentle woman, with a beautiful figure despite her age of around 87 (remember that ice giants live up to 300 years).

The father of the family is a bearded and burly old man named Gaston, Benladann said that he reminded her of her father a bit. He was a reliable guy with a passion for hunting.

The other four daughters are Annalise, the little one, Samann, the other little one, Gera, the middle one, and Sethis, the eldest. They are all proficient at using bows and hunting all sorts of stuff, and also good at cooking.

Lastly, the two sons are older than Sethis and are twins, named Gedo and Gado, pretty simple names… the two are as burly as their father (maybe a bit less) and are good at swinging an Axe.

All of them are Rank 1 Initial Stage though, the lowest of the low, but they have a lot of proficiency in hunting anyways, and by using just the natural strength of the ice giants, they can easily get by through such a profession.

The father boasted that they had even hunted a Middle Stage Wolf once… So yeah, they are indeed pretty good at their job, they were captured by the bandits while camping in the night, so they were caught off guard and before they could fight back, the collars were put into their necks…

"I am really thankful for what you've done, Lord Drake!" said Gaston.

"L-Lord? Well, it's nothing, we mostly wanted to kill bandits," I said.

"Still, Lord Drake, thank you!" said Dregeann.

"Well thank everyone then, everyone helped with a little bit," I said.

"Oh! Yes, of course!"

After a lot of giving thanks to us, the family settled down and helped us cook and more.

The day went flying by as we did our daily activities, and we assessed our gains. There were a lot of weapons, some mana stones, and clothes… nothing too interesting, aside from…

This.

A large blade was covered in blue jewels.

Was this a treasure? Why were they not using it?

I checked it with the system, and it seemed to be pretty okay as a weapon, but nothing too crazy. My weapons are definitely better!

Anyways, I decided to eat the large weapon to see if something shows up-

Ding!

<You learned the following Skills>

[Improved Slashing Power: Level 1]

[Improved Piercing Power: Level 1]

[Silver Blade of Slicing Water: Level 1]

…

I got three skills out of it?!

I have tried eating weapons I make before, anything… but I never get skills out of it.

However, this… I guess this worked…? It was a magical weapon it seems.

But how was it made? It didn't look like it was man-made.

"Oh… the weapon you just ate came from a dungeon, Lord Drake!"

"A Dungeon?"

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