"Is he really dead?" Johhny asked as he peeked from his hiding spot behind Gregory.
"I doubt it, he's still twitching. Just in case I'll check his condition."
As Gregory got closer, he saw a large red lump forming on Chronos's forehead where the femur bone had struck him. Extending his short sword in its scabbard he...
Poke, poke.
poked Chronos.
No reaction.
His chest was still rising and falling so he should still be alive but staying unconscious like this couldn't be good. Stepping closer he proceeded with the next test.
Kick!
"Ugh."
Kicking him in the ribs he finally got a reaction out of him.
"He's still alive just dazed from taking a bone to the head."
"Oh good, I didn't want to clean up a body today."
Chronos stuck his arm into the air.
"Thatsh nosh neshashary."
He had been hit so hard he was slurring his words and confused about the situation, but he was coming around now.
Kneeling down Gregory said, "You knew it was going to explode so why did you do something so stupid as standing right next to the pit?"
"I've never sheen a body explode before sho I couldn't help myshelf." he responded while struggling to sit up.
Gregory sighed at his foolishness.
He was an incredible fighter and somewhat skilled in other areas but that puppy-like curiosity that sometimes showed up would get him killed one day.
"Lie down. I've already called for Lyla to examine you. I'll clean up everything else for now." Gregory said as he pushed him back onto the ground.
Walking into the pit he found multiple large bones embedded inside the walls. But most of the bones were shattered from the force of the explosion, the sturdier bones had retained their shape though.
Taking them out he sorted them on the side of the pit from largest to smallest so that they could be shaped into proper tools and equipment later on.
Lyla came running over after Gregory's message and carefully began examining Chronos.
"What happened?"
"He stood on the edge of the pit when a corpse exploded and took a femur to the head. He's been slurring his words, and I don't think he's fully aware of what's going on around him." Gregory reported.
"Of course, I know what's going on, an angel came to heal me." Chronos said with a silly smile.
Lyla gave him a gentle smile that didn't reach her eyes causing a shiver Chronos didn't understand to run down his spine. Then she promptly pressed her thumb into the bruise on his forehead causing him to yelp in pain.
"While I might be an angel, I'm not going to heal you, just help you come back to your senses. Your body is healing fine on its own. Still, it's the first time I've seen you this injured, your frontal bone and glabella are broken. Luckily there aren't any shards in your brain, just a serious fracture rising up your frontal bone."
A moment later Chronos groaned as he sat up.
"You didn't have to press that hard." he groaned as he gently touched his forehead.
"It's your punishment for doing something so stupid." She glared at him, placing her hands on her hips.
Her actions vaguely reminded Chronos of the glare his mother gave him as a kid when he did something wrong.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "How's it going Gregory? Anything left we could use?"
"Only larger bones, the muscles were completely shredded under their own power along with most of the weaker bones and organs."
"Hm, Johhny what's the going price for what we've gathered already?" Chronos asked as he slowly came back to himself.
"The stone stomach, thermal spleen, and ore liver can each be sold for 50 gild per rank making them 150 gild each, but the ash bladder is a bit different.
A low rank ash bladder can be used to make military grade explosives so this third rank one is very valuable. I'm guessing that it would be worth close to 400 gild on its own, the downside is that not many people have the authority to buy it. I suggest you talk to Magar about taking it off your hands, I can purchase everything but the ash bladder from you."
"Sounds good, do you need time to gather 450 gild or can you pay immediately?"
"I need to get the money from my tent, follow me."
Carrying the organs and bones they went to Johhny's tent. When they got close to it a scent like that of garbage and spoiled milk combined stopped Chronos in his tracks. It was so foul that he couldn't get closer than five meters.
"Gah! What did you do in there? Whatever it was, I won't be getting any closer, you'll need to bring the money out to me."
"Oh, right I was in the middle of an experiment when I got word of the third rank burrow drake corpse and rushed off. Wait here, I'll bring you your gild."
After he entered the tent there were several banging sounds followed by a fwoosh of flame from fire magic then a gentle breeze came out of the tent slowly blowing away the foul scent. Coming to the tent flap Johhny tossed a bag of coins to Chronos.
"That's 450 gild, now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish cleaning up here."
"Thanks." Chronos happily waved as Johhny went back inside.
They searched for Magar for a while but unfortunately, he was so busy that they weren't able to catch up with him, so instead they went to Jeromy. The royal eagle was sitting with him being filled in on the changes happening in the barony so he could report back to the royal family.
"Hey Jeromy. We have an ash bladder from a third rank burrow drake; how much can we sell it for around here?"
Jeromy raised an eyebrow at him, "Here, I'll give you a better price than normal as a bonus for all your help."
He passed over a bag of coins, looking inside Chronos saw five small gild bars and 50 coins, each gild bar was worth 100 gild. The nobility and major merchants would use gild bars for large exchanges of money, but you could only exchange them for coins at a bank or money lender.
"Thanks, this will help us out." Chronos said planning on using it to buy a good suit for his visit to the earl.
"Not at all, honestly I wish I could give you more for getting rid of that fat fool, but we're limited on funds right now."
"Don't worry about it. All that I did was send a message to a friend."
Chronos and Jeromy smiled at each other. When they were going to continue, they were interrupted by a harsh screech.
"Screech! What about your promise? You only collected one beast core." The royal eagle glared at him waiting for a response.