The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 5 - Chapter 232

Chapter 232:

Treasure Hunt

We were in a shop just after the second right turn off a side road from Main Street. It was a magic item shop that one of the watchmen on patrol had recommended to us.

“This is the place.”

“It sure is big. I can’t wait to see what’s in there!”

“Seems like you’re more excited about this than the clothing shop.”

“I am!”

“Hmm…I wonder why that is?”

I ignored the frustration in Druid’s voice and skipped into the shop. At first, I thought it would mostly sell tents, but they really did sell all sorts of things. Everything was jumbled together, too, so I felt like I was on a treasure hunt.

I peered deeper into the store and spotted an oddity: a woman. She looked my way, so I gave her a nod.

“Hello, ma’am. Is it all right if we have a look around?”

“Oh, sure. Let me know if you see anything you like.”

“We will, thank you!”

Oh, good. I was a little scared at first because she looked so stern, but she seems normal.

“Ivy?”

“The shopkeeper said we could look around, so let’s hunt for treasure!”

Druid laughed at my excited attitude. “A treasure hunt, eh? Yeah, it does feel like one.”

There were magic items packed onto the shelves of the store. There were also piles of items in the aisles between the shelves, leaving the question of what exactly the store had in stock an utter mystery. We had to find the things we needed in these piles, but that was actually kind of fun. We could even find items we’d never seen before along the way, so it truly was a joy.

“Okay, so we’re looking for an item box and a magic bag with extra features.”

“Yup! I’ll do my best to find them.”

We split up to search for the items.

“Magic boxes are box-shaped, right? Should I just look for any old box, then?” I pulled each box off its shelf and looked them over one by one. Shops like this had magic items on the shelves that showed the functions of the other magic items. This shop had one of those devices, so I was using it to see what the items could do.

“I’m not finding anything.” The item in my hand read “Trash box. Odor-free.” I guess if you put trash in there, it won’t stink? I don’t get it. And I can’t find what I’m looking for, either…

“Well, I’m stuck.”

“Ivy, did you find anything?”

“No. What about you?”

“I found two things.”

He showed me a box three centimeters wide and another one that was bigger. I used the magic item to read their functions. The tiny box said “Magic box: 30 liters. Time-freezing. Lock equipped. Registered: 2.” The bigger box said “Magic box: 30 liters. Lock equipped. Registered: 3.”

“What does the ‘registered’ part mean?”

“It means you can make the box remember which people are allowed to open it.”

Wow! I didn’t know items like that even existed. “So which is the key?”

“This type of box uses the palms of those registered as the key. That way, you don’t have to worry about losing your key and going through that nightmare…” Druid’s eyes grew distant.

“Did that ever happen to you?”

“My mentor lost his key once. That really was a nightmare.”

That sounds like his mentor. He’s really done a lot of stuff. But that made me think of another question.

“What happens to magic boxes if you lose their keys?”

“You just have to give up.”

“Wow, that’s really sad.”

“Yeah, it is. I’m thinking of adding the guild as one of the registered openers, just in case.”

“Just in case?”

“Hardly anybody bothers stealing boxes that open by palm print, seeing as they can’t open them. But there are some fools out there who are up for a challenge. They always fail and wind up throwing away the boxes, though. So if your box becomes ownerless like that, it’ll wind up back at the guild.”

Now I see. Yes, it does seem like registering the box with the guild would be a good idea, just in case.

“So, which one do you think is better?” Druid asked me.

“Well, I’m not sure. What do you think?”

The boxes were different sizes, but they both had the same capacity: thirty liters. The only differences were the number of registered people and the time-freezing feature. If we wanted to put our potions in there, the ability to freeze time would probably be important.

“Maybe the smaller one?”

“Yeah, since they both hold the same volume, the smaller one probably is better.”

“And the bigger box doesn’t have the time-freezing function.”

“Hm? Oh, right. We do need to be able to freeze time.”

Apparently, Druid had forgotten we had rare potions to keep. They wouldn’t deteriorate as quickly as lesser potions, but even genuine potions would weaken over time. That’s why people often put potions into magic bags with time-freezing functions, which stop the genuine ones from deteriorating. Lesser potions, on the other hand, would still get weaker in these types of magic bags, albeit more slowly.

“Then I guess we’ll go with the smaller box. Thirty liters is enough room for all the essentials, right?”

“I think that’ll be enough.”

All we had in our magic bag at the moment was Sora’s ­potions and Flame’s magic stones…and also the twelve round black gemstones.

“Now we just need a magic bag with extra features.”

I remembered some magic bags piled on the shelves I’d been looking at earlier. “Mr. Druid, there’s some crammed into those shelves over there.”

“Okay, let’s look through them one by one.”

“Okay.”

“Whatcha looking for?”

As we approached the shelves, we heard a voice behind us. We spun around in surprise, as it sounded quite close. We saw a woman standing motionless near us.

“We’re looking for magic bags. We were hoping to find something with some extra features.” There was an edge in Druid’s voice. Apparently, the woman had startled him, too.

“A magic bag with extra features?”

“Yes. Do you carry them?”

“Yeah, we’ve got some basic ones where you’re standing.”

Basic ones?

“What kinda functions d’ya want?”

“Well, do you have any bags with a camouflage feature?”

Camouflage?

“I think we do. What d’ya want it for?”

“We want to keep some valuables at the inn where we’re staying. The staff there are very nice people, but we have the other guests to worry about.”

“Ah, I gotcha. Sit tight.” And with that, the lady disappeared into the back of the shop.

“You mean we’re not going to carry it around with us?” I asked Druid.

“Crime tends to surge in the wintertime, so I figured it would be dangerous to keep it on us.”

I’d heard that some people resorted to crime to make it through the winter. I wondered whether that was going to happen in Hatow.

“Still, the idea of leaving a bag filled with valuables in our room scares me, too.”

Yeah. It’s terrifying.

“So I was thinking of locking the items in a magic box that only specific people can open, then putting that box into a magic bag that only specific people can see.”

“I’m surprised to hear about these camouflage magic bags.”

“You didn’t know they existed?”

“No, sir.”

“Huh. Well, magic bags have all kinds of interesting features. I don’t even know how to use some of them.”

What kind of feature could that be?

“Found some. One of ’em even has an alarm function. Whaddaya think?”

“An alarm function?”

“Yeah, an alarm goes off if somebody tries to use the bag without turnin’ the magic function off. I thought an alarm might be just what you’re lookin’ for.”

Hm? Wait, you can turn a magic bag’s features on and off? I’ll need to have Druid explain more about this to me later.

“And this one has a poisoned needle instead of an alarm.”

A poisoned needle? I’m not sure about that… I don’t want to come into my room to find a dead body on the ground.

“We don’t need the poisoned needle, but the alarm would be nice.”

“Here’s another one.” The lady held up a wooden box. It was beautiful, with some very ornate carvings. “Same size and features as the other box, but this one’s got a tracin’ function.”

A tracing function?

“What’s a tracing function?”

I guess Druid doesn’t know, either.

“If your box ever gets stolen…well, look.” The lady pulled a transparent plate out of the box. She said the word “trace,” and the plate lit up.

“This light shows where the box is. If the plate is farther away from the box, it’ll light up with an arrow. Follow the arrow and it’ll take ya right to the box.”

The lady walked away from the box, and the plate really did light up with an arrow showing which direction the box was in.

“I see. It’s an anti-theft feature.”

“Yeah. Whaddaya think?”

“How much does it cost? It sounds expensive.”

The lady smiled and gave a proud nod. “The magic bag and the magic box are one radal all together.”

“What? Wow, that’s a great deal.”

I tilted my head. Was it really a good deal? One radal sounded pretty expensive to me.

“Well, I had this thing hidden in the back, so ya can have it for cheap.”