Chapter 56 – Streetside Connoisseur

"Young master! have you still not woken up?!" Luna's soft voice blossomed in Adams' ears. Coercing his eyes to open slowly.

"You are back already?" He said still half asleep.

"We left two hours ago." Elaine gave a smirk on the side. The two girls were standing at the foot of the bed.

"5 more minutes." Adam pulled the blanket up and curled himself tightly in its warm embrace. He had no sense of time in his current state.

"What do we do with him…" Luna shrugged and shook her head at a loss of what to do.

"Let me just jump on him!" Eline began taking off her boots in preparation.

Luna grew frantic at the sight and got in front of her sister to speak while waving her arms. "You can't do that Elaine. You already promised him you wouldn't. Remember how angry he was at you the last time?"

"I was just kidding. He won't get up anytime soon anyway sooo…." With a roll and a plop, Elaine landed on her usual spot of the bed and dug herself into the tightly bound blanket.

A light grunt came from Adam at his displeasure of losing a bit of the warmth of the blanket, when she pulled it up to enter.

Two hands gently tugged one of his hands to free it from his prone position and embraced it. Elaine sunk her face into his shoulder and closed her eyes.

"You too…" Luna felt a headache coming. "Why am I always the one who has to worry! I'm going back to sleep too."

Using her heels, she kicked off her sandals and with her hands, she propped her knees onto the bed and then quickly crawled up to Adam's other side.

With the blanket being pulled up a second time, Adam involuntarily raised his hand to grab it back. With his movement, Luna who had already pulled herself into the blanket felt an arm pull her down. She fell on her side and Adam's hand wrapped around her back.

Her silky and straight hair fell on Adam's face that was facing her. making his nose itch a bit. Luna blushed at the sudden change. When she saw Adam's face twitching because of her hair, she shook her head to pull her hair back.

She then put her forehead to his and closed her eyes.

The girls didn't fall asleep and began chatting with each other in whispers.

The reason why the girls had been dressed and awake two hours before Adam, was because they had decided to do so the night before, after returning from the Bullpen Mountain Range.

Adam had been tirelessly going into the dungeon for the past few days when the girls were taking on their little decorating project.

To make up for their absence, the girls had volunteered very firmly to perform a few of the morning tasks to allow him to sleep in for once as compensation.

The tasks involved a trip to the armoury store and the guild. The armoury store had sent a messenger the night before to inform them of the completion of Elaine's armour repair.

After the armoury store was a quick trip to the guild to pick up Adam's new dagger set and to check if the guild had any more information than the public did about the Bullpen Mountain Range.

...

The sun turned bright yellow from its hazy orange, signifying the start of a new day. Birds chirped in the finely maintained backyard of the Lodge. The flopping of fish being fed echoed from the ponds and the occasional snipping of grass shears could be heard.

A very harmonious atmosphere with the light mist of dawn dissipating enveloped the lodge.

Adam had already woken up from his half-asleep state from the movements and light chatter of the two girls around him.

He was sitting on the bed with his legs folded. The two girls were also in the same position in front of him and were merrily giving him a rundown of their morning.

Other than the new set of daggers and the renewed armour, the girls had brought back a bit of information.

A small hand-drawn map copy was handed to him. The miners before had charted down a detailed map of the mountain range and the guild had the original. The girls were able to bring back a copy.

While Adam studied the map, the twins told him about the story of the mountain range. Apparently, the mountain range was populated and dominated by Thunder-Bulls in the past.

These bulls received their name due to the loud clapping sound of their feet trampling the ground that imitated the clapping of thunder in the skies. These bulls were highly aggressive monsters that would attack anyone who stepped into their territory.

They always travelled in a herd of over a hundred bulls and this made them that much more dangerous. One of these bulls at level 8 could trample an ordinary level 10 adventurer to meat paste, a hundred of these monsters who were at an average of level 10 had a destructive might that could put any of the three major countries armies to the test.

As a result, the domestication of these monsters was a top priority if they were ever discovered. This was exactly the fate that had befallen these bulls in this mountain range. Over time the herd was thinned out and finally, none were left in the mountain range. Leaving it a barren wasteland with only its name to testify that a herd of monstrous monsters once occupied its lands.

After the monsters left the scene of this mountain range, merchants and miners scoured the place and anything that was valuable was already taken. Without the manure from monsters and because of the constant heat of the water present underground, no plant life other than the most resilient of moss survived. Leaving the mountain range in the state that it was currently in.

When the girls were done with their story, Adam had also completed his survey of the map.

"These two trenches. The miners have dug up this rectangular and circular depression." Adam first pointed at a spot in between the first two miniature mountains where a rectangular depression was sketched and then pointed at the spot between the two miniature mountains at the furthest back which had a circular depression that was many times larger than the rectangular trench.

"They are perfect to drop in the highest level monsters and force them to fight. We should set up a proper water source in these trenches where the water can cool off and become drinkable. We can continue to populate the outer mountains with the rabbits and goblins since they are easy to catch in higher quantities. When they overpopulate the outer regions of the mountains, they will be forced to enter the trenches to seek a water source and food. We will give them numbers to alleviate their disadvantage. They can become pack hunters to fight against the stronger Purple Copper Armadillos and the Black Magma Gecko's." Adam spoke out his thoughts without stopping.

While Adam was seriously pondering their future actions the girls had a sly smirk on their faces and said in unison: "Young master… When we were out in the market we heard a few things about you."

Adam was startled out of his serious mood and took in an audible gulp.

Whenever a girl said these words to a boy they were close to it never bode well. Even the inexperienced Adam knew this much. His mind raced at everything that he had done the past few days that might have struck up rumours but could not come up with anything.

He was an honest citizen that followed the rules. He pensively asked the girls: "Wh..What did you guys hear?" His voice cracking from nervousness towards the end.

The girls took in an obvious sense of delight from being able to rattle him so much.

"Oh? You don't know?" Luna said ambiguously. She intentionally stretched her 'oh'.

"look at him, Luna! He obviously looks guilty." Elaine put on a stern exterior as she said with her arms folded on her chest.

"I swear I am innocent! No matter what you heard it is not true." Adam was genuine to the heart, an innocent lad. He had never been in a situation like this before, where his moral actions came into question. He was completely void of having committed any act that was even considered bad in the past few days but due to the connotation in the girl's voice, he began doubting himself and this led him to sweat buckets.

He looked like an obvious criminal at this time despite his innocence.

The girls continued to look at him with a smirk, awaiting a confession.

Unfortunately for him, he could not recollect anything worth confessing over and he bore the added pressure of these piercing gazes.

When the girls saw Adam at a loss for words, Elaine hinted "It's something you have wasted a ton of money on."

Adams mind blanked and then restored itself. It continued to do this till something clicked.

"Is this just about my recent trips to the food stalls?!" His heart had almost stopped beating when he came to this conclusion.

"Just? Young master exactly how much have you spent in the three days that we weren't by your side?" Luna questioned. A scolding look on her face that said that any lies would not go unpunished.

"Umm…" He grew extremely awkward at this point. "Around 2 gold. But it was a necessary expense! I promise." He put his hand to his heart.

"1 plate of any dish in the street side stalls, does not cost over 10 copper. How did you eat so much in just three days?! How do you not get fat, moreover where did you fit all that food?!" Elaine almost lost her reason when she heard of his expenditure.

"You spent 2 gold on food… Yet you also took a loan from Mrs Bren…" Luna's gaze was piercing like a light shining through a dark alleyway. She was the auditor who had caught a shady businessman.

"I…It was a necessary expense." His strong front began crumbling as cold sweat dotted his forehead once again. His voice had been lowered to an almost inaudible level.

The girls continued to barrage him with questions.

Adam had gone on an eating spree when he first visited a stall for a quick snack. His snacks were no small amount, to begin with, but he would usually control himself to five plates. On this particular visit, he had realized that his gluttony skill even worked on cooked meat!

Things were never the same after that…

He had received a legitimate reason to consume the delicacies of this world with no more restrictions to the spacial limits of his stomach and he boldly took hold of the opportunity.

Most of the energy would be taken in by the black ball in his abdomen while only the amount he needed to sustain himself and grow his body would undergo the normal process of digestion.

Of course, the skills from these low-level monsters were nothing great and all the energy went into the tiny black ball in his abdomen.

He realized the gains weren't completely in sync with the costs after the repeated scoldings from the girls and could only awkwardly scratch his head. He already knew this fact but the food of this world was just that tempting and without the girls around him to hold him back, this was a one-off thing that he indulged in.

Promising the girls that he would never repeat his deeds ever again, he finally got off the hook after a straight 30-minute lecture.

"Okay, It's enough Elaine. He seems to have learnt his lesson. We should get going now. We have already wasted enough time. Young master you should really learn to spend your money more wisely." Luna gave one last jab at the already deflated Adam.

"Come on, get up young master." The two girls pulled the sulking Adam up and sent him to freshen up.

Soon they were out of the lodge and were walking through the city. Adam was back to his usual spirited mood and was fervently explaining his crazy plan to the two girls who were listening to him excitedly.

They stopped at a few local stores on their way through the town and purchased a few digging tools and some resilient weeds and their seeds. It was a cheap purchase that had not exceeded 10 silver.

With the tools stored in their respective storage rings, the three headed off toward the mountain range.