Three days later, I had harvested practically the entire clearing of the flowers of thorns, and only a small patch was left.

Looking at it, I gazed at the hand shovel in my hands before I put it away.

Deciding to leave a bit of the flowers of thorns behind for the clearing to slowly recover over time, I broke out the last of my supplies, and chewing peacefully; I looked at the now empty clearing.

Patting my finite ring, I believed that I had harvested enough flowers for the next year at the minimum.

Also, I wasn’t sure if the flowers of thorns would still be effective, considering that I was an iron rank now.

But, gazing down at my chest; I felt they would definitely still be needed as I ruefully thought of the hole in my chest that was still filled in with warforce.

Getting up and stretching, I whooped as loudly as I could before I inhaled a deep breath, and then almost choking; I hastily coughed out.

The stench rising from me of dried blood, gore, and earth was definitely not a heady fragrance, resembling more of a toxic poison instead.

Resolving to jump into the first stream that I found, I began my journey back at a slow pace as I instinctively conserved warforce.

Halfway out of the forest, I threw caution to the winds, and whooping; I channeled warforce to my legs and rocketed through the forest.

As monsters roared in indignation as I passed through; I grinned wider as I increased my speed even further.

Jumping, I burst out of the forest in a shower of leaves, and stood; panting as I sucked in deep-ish shallow breaths - trying to do the best not to inhale the particular brand of fragrance that was emanating from me.

A few minutes later, I was scrubbing myself vigorously in a stream as all the filth was washed away, turning the waters dark before the current swept it away as fresh water replaced the dirty water.

A few hours later, a clean me was standing cockily outside Norton’s shop.

Walking in, I greeted the man, who looked at me with his eyebrows raised.

Summoning out a spider corpse, I placed it on the ground and Norton whistled as he spoke, “I didn’t expect you to be that fast, boy!”

Grinning mysteriously at him, I waited as he stroked his chin with his remaining arm before he said, “3 gold for the corpse.”

Thinking, I nodded, as he was giving me quite a good price. So, I summoned the rest of the 20 something corpses and the entire yard was filled with dead spiders.

Jumping in shock, Norton let loose a slew of profanities before he stared at me wide eyed. “Did you go and uproot their entire tribe or something?”

Chuckling, I kept silent, and Norton’s mouth worked furiously before he said, “80 gold for the lot.”

“Deal!” I said, as I stuck out my hand.

As Norton swept the spider corpses into his own finite ring… I looked at him smugly.

Catching my expression, Norton’s eyebrows raised again, and he asked with a quivering voice, “You don’t have more… Do you?”

Summoning out all the ant corpses, I stood there as Norton’s jaw hit the ground.

“Red snapper ants,” he exclaimed!

Scratching my head, I realized that’s the name of the baling ants. Resolving to really get a good bestiarium tome, I waited as Norton raised 5 fingers.

“50 gold for the lot of them.”

“60,” I haggled.

“55, and I’ll throw in some supplies.”

“Deal!” I stuck out my hand, which Norton shook.

Then I summoned a few more monster corpses that I had killed as I wandered through the forest and got 27 gold for the lot.

Smirking at Norton who looked at me warily, I paused for dramatic effect, and then with a flourish; I summoned the direwolf corpse out.

This time, Norton just remained silent before he rubbed his eyes with his remaining arm.

Then, he scrutinized me closely, and said, “Baling shite, boy. Are you trying to bankrupt me?”

Seeing me nod earnestly at him, he swore and chuckled before he said, “150 gold.”

I gasped.

Mistaking my gasp for denial, Norton scrunched his eyes together and, gritting his teeth, spoke, “160.”

I gasped again.

“170!” Norton said with finality.

“Deal!” I said hastily, as I shook his hand.

Richer by 332 gold, a veritable fortune for me… I walked to the adjacent adventurer’s guild, and handed in the remaining contracts that I had taken; netting me an additional 25 gold.

Feeling like a rich man, I swaggered my way to the hospital, where I was relieved to see that Duncan, Cathy, and Dunkirk were still there.

Scratching my head at the appropriateness of my relief at seeing them still hospitalized, I greeted them..

This time, Dunkirk was also conscious, and he looked at me with a smile as I inquired after his condition.

Turned out, a few broken bones, and a nasty concussion were the only things keeping Dunkirk in the hospital.

Duncan was a bit more complicated, as his wounds were more severe.

Taking out three pouches, I handed one to each of the three.

Curious, they looked at me before they opened the pouch and gasped as they saw the gleaming Protons inside.

Smiling, I said in response to their stares, “I went to the forest of death and collected all those spider corpses from the ambush. I sold them off for 80 gold, and that’s your share. One part per person.” the last part said in a rushed manner as they opened their mouths to refuse.

Falling silent, they looked at me before Cathy gleefully spoke. “We’ll be able to get a potion that gets you up and running soon, Duncan!”

Clearing his throat, Duncan looked at me, and fell silent again.

Then he held out his arm, which I clasped, and we exchanged nods before I left the hospital with a spry step.

Looking at the sun, I debated whether to head to the Hoard or to finish the last bit of preparation that I had to do.

Deciding on the preparations, I headed off to my next destination.

The forge.