blueteamnovel Chapter 31 In Faerûn, Beset by Poverty
Chapter 31 In Faerûn, Beset by Poverty
When guests arrived at the house, Thea's father, who had been nearly unconscious, slowly woke up and greeted Ronan and the others.
Thea invited everyone to sit down and drink a cup of sweetened black tea. Ronan and his group, along with Zane, then bid farewell to Old Kohler and Thea.
Old Kohler and Thea were extremely hospitable, escorting Ronan and his party to the edge of town.
Zane and Ronan's group walked for a while, returning to the outskirts of the Cloak Forest. They summoned an eagle, stuffed the written note into a small wooden tube, tied it to the eagle's leg, and sent the eagle back to the druid camp before heading towards Baldur's Gate.
Ronan and the others returned to the Friendly Arm Hotel to rest.
For the next month, Ronan and his party wandered through the Cloak Forest.
Earlier, to express his gratitude, old Kohler had drawn another map of the Cloak Forest and gifted it to them.
As a druid who has lived in the Cloak Forest for many years and is well-versed in plant knowledge, Zane knows precisely when and where mature Silverleaf Thistles will appear.
On the way back, he marked the spots on the map for Ronan and the others, and noted the growth time.
At the same time, information on monster colonies was added to the map.
For the past month, Ronan and his group have been able to successfully harvest Silver Leaf Thistles by simply following the time indicated on the map, entering the forest, and avoiding the monster hordes.
Cuthbert was grinning from ear to ear.
The silver thistles he harvested in a month were not only enough to complete his mission, but there were also plenty left over that he could sell to other alchemists.
While Ronan and his companions were harvesting silver thistles, they stumbled upon druids at a druid camp.
The druids invited Ronan and the others to a gathering at the druid camp.
Ronan and his companions readily accepted the invitation and met Elder Reynolds, Kieran, Zane, and others again at the camp.
During their conversation, they learned that Zane had successfully found Ethan and had made contact with Jahira.
At the same time, Elder Reynolds also gave Ronan and the others a task—
Because the location of the druid camp has been discovered by the Baal Order, Elder Reynolds is moving the camp to another location in the Cloakwood Forest.
Elder Reynolds wanted their help to inform his druid companions at Baldur's Gate about the camp relocation.
The companion was a female tiefling named "Kayla Connolly," who sold items at a witchcraft general store.
Luo Nanfang then learned that the girl from the witchcraft general store was actually a companion of this group of druids.
He wondered if this Tiflin girl would be willing to give him a discount in the future, given his relationship with the druid camp.
As for the reward for the commission, Elder Reynolds gave Ronan a note, saying that if he gave it to Kayla, Kayla would give them 300 gold coins.
……
The next day, Ronan and his group returned to Baldur's Gate.
Cuthbert said he would handle the silver thistle and then receive the money, which would be deposited into everyone's account at the clearing house. Once the money arrived, he would go to everyone's residence to notify them.
Three days later, Ronan was practicing at home when he suddenly heard a knock on the door.
He swept his gaze across the man with a divine light and immediately recognized him as Cuthbert.
Once the door was opened, Cuthbert said that all the Silverleaf Thistles would be disposed of, and each person would receive 1500 gold coins. He then gave Ronan a copy of the transfer receipt from the clearing house.
After seeing Cuthbert off, Ronan began planning how to use the money.
I definitely need to buy the dimensional bag.
Because when he goes on adventures, he needs to carry weapons and weapon maintenance products, and he also needs to collect items while adventuring. If he carries all of these things in a bundle, it will be very cumbersome.
Moreover, there is a saying in the past: "Don't flaunt your wealth." Putting the spoils of your adventures in your dimensional bag will avoid a lot of unnecessary trouble.
Furthermore, with the dimensional bag, he can simply cover his face and pretend to be an ordinary person, thereby lowering the guard of others.
At the Wizardry General Store, even the smallest dimensional bag costs 1200 gold coins.
However, if he buys it from Kayla, the girl from Tifflin, he might be able to get a discount.
Upon returning to Baldur's Gate, he went to the sorcery general store as Elder Reynolds had instructed, delivered the message to Keira, the girl from Tifflin, and received payment from her.
At the same time, he asked Tifflin if she could get a discount in the future, in consideration of Elder Reynolds.
The girl, Tiflin, neither agreed nor refused. He felt there was a chance, so he planned to try to persuade her more when he went shopping in the future, hoping to get a discount.
But no matter what, even if there's a discount, it won't be much. After buying the Dimensional Bag, I'll probably only have a few hundred gold coins left.
After buying two or three sections of the creeping monster's root, the several hundred gold coins were used up.
As a result, the creation of the alchemy furnace still seems a long way off.
Originally, he intended to use high-grade metals such as mithril and refined gold to forge the alchemy furnace.
Later, he learned that mithril and adamantite were very expensive, and he visited the sorcery general store and the blacksmith's shop in town, only to find that neither of these two metals were sold at all.
While chatting with others at the Elf Song Tavern, I learned that to buy these two high-grade metals, one either had to find an elite professional or establish a relationship with a guild or a powerful figure in the upper city.
So Ronan changed his mind.
He planned to first use high-quality steel to build a furnace for refining elixirs.
Because the improvement in cultivation efficiency brought about by elixirs is incomparable to simply eating medicinal plants.
Once you've improved your strength, take on more challenging missions and earn more money. Then, use that money to buy mithril and refined gold to upgrade your alchemy furnace.
However, even if the alchemy furnace were made of high-quality steel, based on the description of the furnace's shape in the "Heavenly Book," he consulted the dwarves at the blacksmith's shop and roughly estimated that it would cost at least tens of thousands of gold coins to forge this furnace.
Moreover, once you have a furnace, you need a place to refine pills.
His small house was cramped and poorly ventilated, making it completely unsuitable for alchemy.
Baldur's Gate, as a trading hub and an open city, attracts merchants and adventurers, driving up housing prices. With his current financial resources, he still cannot afford a house in the lower city.
Of course, housing prices are much cheaper in the outer city of Baldur's Gate and the surrounding towns and villages.
However, he often had to go to places like Flower Ridge Park and Elf Song Tavern to get mission information, and living too far away was very inconvenient.
This means he would have to rent a house with a basement in the downtown area, and the basement would also need to have good ventilation.
He also looked at several apartments through a real estate agent these days.
According to the real estate agent, the owners of these properties are all alchemists.
Therefore, the ventilation conditions in the basement have been tested and there is no need to worry.
These alchemists were going to live in Waterdeep or El Toril, so they planned to sell the houses here.
Coincidentally, these alchemists were not in a hurry to use the money; they simply listed the houses and would sell them when a suitable buyer came along. It was impossible for them to lower the price.
If you rent it out, it won't be cheap each month.