[NR] But First, Gather Some Trade Goods - Chapter 618 (Patreon)

Jason had one more task before heading back to the town. While he did have the gold to purchase what supplies he needed, sometimes gold isn’t enough. For a settlement on the edge of a wild area, trade goods of immediate use are always welcome. After all, while in theory gold can buy just about anything they need, it takes time for that thing to be brought to them from elsewhere.

So for the first time, Jason takes a turn exploring the Deep Wilds, leaving Courtney and Rosha to hold down the fort. Which reminded him that maybe in the near future, he should actually make a fort, but that could certainly wait. For now, he was going to search for about the only thing of worth he can extract. The various parts of monsters.

While maybe you manage to find a miracle herb or a vein of some sort of magical metal. What’s the point? That herb might as well be unique as once you leave that area, it might never be seen by someone from NeoRealm ever again. While the ore might be useful if you have more people, but with one person? You’d be limited to what you can haul back and then it would also be gone for good.

However, the uniqueness doesn’t take away from the value of animal products. A hide is a hide and even if strange, that just means you need a skilled person to process it. Though even that difficulty will have a worth of its own. After all, for those with higher rank skills, working with something strange is a good way to level said skills.

So Jason ventured deeper into the wilds. Through the compressed bands formed by the claiming and out into the normal Deep Wilds. Most of that journey involved him avoiding any conflicts. After all, while random, stranger things can exist the deeper you went.

On this trip, it seemed the Deep Wilds wanted to show Jason variety through colors. Each major biome on his way had been a different color. A pink sand desert where great trees anchored the dunes. A plethora of blue fields of grass, between hedges of trees. An orange deciduous forest.

Jason was actually a bit annoyed by this. While it would make some interesting paintings, when everything is the same color, it makes it hard to watch out for danger. Thankfully, once deep enough, he came across a more normal seeming area.

Sure, the ground cover was a much more vibrant shade of green than you would normally see, but the trees had brown bark. Along with the occasional cluster of flowers, the forest Jason was now in felt almost normal. It wasn’t in subtly jarring ways, but that’s what you sign up for when exploring the Deep Wilds.

Though being of a more normal color palette wasn’t, why Jason began his hunt in this area. No, rather it was a strange phenomenon. All around there were dirt mounds, like lines on the ground. There was clearly something quite large tunneling right below the surface.

Now, the parts of just about any creature will be worth more than enough. It is simply that earth attuned bones, claws, and teeth are highly sought after in border settlements. The parts being as sturdy as iron or even steel, yet more resistant to magic. Perfect for reinforcing walls and gates if used correctly. While marrow melding them was much harder, it simply meant that a monster would suffer the same difficulties.

Not that a burrowing creature was one hundred percent going to be earth attuned. However, chances are something like a giant mole is going to be at least earth adjacent. Besides, while a little hard for some things, the hills definitely didn’t show signs of a fire attuned beast. The grass on top would have been at best dead, their roots burned, or at worst completely reduced to ash from the heat of the beast moving below. That still left so much more, but either way, Jason figured whatever the monster was, it would provide excellent materials.

So he followed the hills, looking for a way in. Not that he planned to actually enter, but he needed some place to start. This didn’t take long to find and from there, he jumped up into a tree to wait as being on the ground was just advertising his location.

Jason kept a vigilant eye as an hour, then two passed. Thrice, something passed through the tunnel connected to the entrance. While whatever was in there couldn’t cause the ground to shake in their passing, they certainly rumbled the grass in passing.

Then the moment arrived. Something came from the right and paused at the intersection, before heading towards the way out. The mole, for that is what it appeared to be, first stuck its snoot out to sniff around for any potential enemies. A flaw in Jason’s plan as he hadn’t done anything to hide his scent.

Except, the giant mole didn’t seem to smell his presence or at the very least, didn’t twig into the fact that he represented a threat. So it crawled out of the hole revealing it to be about as large as Jason, except quite a bit plumper around the middle. It seemed there was more than enough food in this area, likely in the form of equally giant worms and grubs.

Though those thoughts only flutter across Jason’s mind for a second before everything locks down to being in the moment. His original plan of a messier, if easier, fight went out the window. The meat would be near worthless, but that pelt!

So, instead of dropping with a dagger to apply a bleeding wound in an attempt to keep the creature out of the tunnels, Jason soundlessly allows himself to drop out of the tree and lands on top of the giant mole. His arms weave underneath the beast and applies a chokehold. Now, Jason doesn’t know much about a mole’s anatomy, so has no clue if there are readily blocked veins to put the beast down quickly, but breathes air and so putting a stop to that would work in the end.