Chapter 248:
How to Survive a Cold Winter
When we entered the dining hall, we found that most of the guests had already finished their dinners. As they talked and made merry, we sat in our usual seats and Druid brought us some tea.
“Thank you very much.” I slowly sipped my hot tea. The tea at this inn was a bit sweeter than the kind I usually brewed. I would have to ask Salifa what kind she used.
The corner of my eye caught something fluttering in the corner of the room. I looked closer and saw that it was Guttie, the boy we had just met, waving at us. When I waved back, a gigantic smile bloomed onto his face and he waved harder. I had assumed he was my age, but maybe he was a few years younger. After a few minutes, Salifa entered the dining hall.
“Thank you all for coming here this evening.” She looked around the room and took a little breath in and out. Then she said, “We received a winter weather advisory from the guild today. I’m sure you’ve all noticed, but this year’s winter is abnormally cold. The guild has also received quite a few reports of snow blooms from adventurers.”
As soon as she said the words snow blooms, a hushed murmur fell over the crowd.
“Snow blooms only appear in years when the winter is going to be particularly harsh, so we’ve consulted our village history to make whatever preparations for the winter that we can. However, we don’t know just how effective these preparations will be.”
The dining hall fell silent.
“The heating items we use at the inn today are more powerful than the ones people used in the past, but there’s no guarantee that they will be powerful enough to protect us from this winter. According to the village records, in years with cold winters, people sometimes froze to death even in buildings with heating devices.”
People froze to death inside? Does that mean the heaters weren’t strong enough to protect them from the cold? Just how cold could that possibly be? It kind of scares me…
“So I’m going to need everyone’s cooperation to make sure we all survive the winter. Earlier this evening, I left heating devices in front of all your rooms. They’re powered by red magic stones. If you don’t know how to operate yours, I will walk you through it personally in your room. I want you all to use your own heaters in your rooms to help keep this entire inn warm.”
She needs our help to warm the entire inn?
“I’m terribly sorry to have to say this, but we don’t have enough red magic stones to operate all of the heating devices right now.”
This bombshell caused quite a stir among the guests.
“The caves where we usually find our magic stones have collapsed, so we’ve been unable to get any more of them. I’m so sorry.”
Come to think of it, I’d heard something about that when we first came to this inn. The caves where adventurers used to find magic stones had collapsed and that was why their prices had gone way up.
“Excuse me, but just how many magic stones do each of us need?” a man asked with a raised hand.
“At least five if they’re Level 6. It really depends on how cold the weather gets, but if we break our record for the lowest temperature, you might need as many as twenty.”
All the adventurers present gasped at the number. Then they began to gossip in hushed whispers. Salifa sighed quietly, looking utterly helpless.
“Twenty red magic stones at Level 6…”
I didn’t think we had any Level 6 magic stones. That was because we’d sold all the magic stones below Level 5 that Druid had in his house. And we didn’t know what level Flame’s magic stones were, but their transparent color meant they had to be at least Level 5. Druid had guessed that most of them were probably Level 4 or Level 5.
“Would magic stones higher than Level 5 be a problem?”
“No, higher-level stones would work, and you wouldn’t need as many as twenty in that case.”
As long as they could be used, I guessed they wouldn’t be a problem. We could sell the rest of our magic stones to the inn. We would have to talk about that after we got back to our room.
“If anyone has any questions, I’ll take them now.”
“What are you supposed to do if you don’t have enough magic stones?”
“Well…I would ask you to buy more, but they’ve gone way up in price even before the shortage, so I don’t feel comfortable asking that of people…” Salifa fell silent.
“I see. Well, I’ll try to see if there’s a way we can buy them cheaply.”
“Thank you so much.”
People asked more questions for a while, but it quickly became clear that none of the adventurers had twenty magic stones. That shortage seemed to be the biggest problem here.
“Let’s go back to our room.”
“Okay.”
We got up from our seats and were about to leave the dining hall when Dola stopped us. “Do you know how to use the heating item?”
“Yes, I’ve used one before, so there should be no problem.”
“I see. Well, we apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation.” Dola bowed deeply. He seemed just as helpless as Salifa, and his eyes were strained with concern.
“Don’t worry about us. We have plenty of magic stones,” Druid said.
“Oh, do you?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good to know. Well, have a good night.” Dola did look truly relieved to hear about our stones.
We went back to our room to count our magic stones. We got the magic bag containing several smaller bags of stones and took them out.
“Here’s the bag with the stones we know are Level 5.” Druid opened the bag, emptied it out onto our table, and counted eighteen in total. “This should be plenty for us.”
“Um, if there’s enough for us, shouldn’t we sell the extra ones to the inn?”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
What a relief.
“But let’s not sell the very high-level stones.”
I assumed he was talking about the ones in the magic box. He was right—those would make us stand out far too much.
“So, this is the magic stone that Flame created, but we don’t know what level it is.”
He held up the magic stone Flame had produced at the dump. Nobody could appraise it, so its level was a mystery. But it did look more transparent than the Level 5 magic stones we had found in Druid’s house.
“Let’s sell the stones that we know the levels of to the inn, and we’ll use the other ones ourselves.”
“How many do we have?”
“Let’s see…thirty-three in total.”
We could clearly tell the mysterious magic stones were higher than Level 5 because of their transparency. We surely wouldn’t need as many of them since they were more powerful.
“Why don’t we sell these stones, too?”
“Because their levels are unknown.”
Was there something wrong with selling stones of unknown levels?
“People would be suspicious of us if they found out we had magic stones whose levels couldn’t be appraised. For one thing, we’re going to stand out way too much as it is with thirty-three magic stones this powerful. But I would feel bad not sharing what we have when so many people are in need right now.”
Druid scratched his head. He did have a point: There was no such thing as an adventurer who didn’t have their valuable magic stones appraised. I held one of the magic stones up to the light. It was a little cloudy, but it was very transparent. Carrying even one of these in public would draw a lot of attention.
“Do you think we should take someone into our confidence?”
Er, is it just me…or did Druid just make a terrifying suggestion?
“Mr. Druid?”
“It’s a nice thought, but we don’t have any friends in this village. It can’t be just anybody, you know.”
Oh dear…Druid has a serious look in his eyes. But he’s right. We would need someone on our side to help us here in Hatow. Maybe then we could get Flame to produce more magic stones for everybody.
“Teryuuu.”
Flame’s quiet chirping snapped me out of my thought spiral. I looked over to see a very unusual sight: Flame was awake, and the other two creatures were asleep.
“Flame, if I asked you to make more magic stones, could you do it?”
Flame jiggled happily. That must mean it wants to help. Gee, everyone in my family is just so nice. It makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
After thinking for a minute, Druid made another terrifying suggestion. “Okay, let’s make it the captain!”
“Um…Mr. Druid?”
“Hm?”
“Well, um…oh, wait! Let’s go to Rose’s shop and see if she has an item that can appraise magic stone levels for us.” Yeah, there might be something like that.
“Sure, we could try that.”
Oh, good. Looks like I managed to nip that dangerous plan in the bud. Now, what should I do if Rose’s place doesn’t have that kind of item?
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