The four bottles of Medicinal Tincture were like honey to everyone in this room. Even Hespar was not excluded because he only had the opportunity to use the tincture twice as a gift on his birthday.
If they purchase a bottle of this from the store, it would surely cost them one to two months of salary.
"Had you used up all the goblin hearts?" Hespar asked again, seemingly trying to clarify some question he had.
"Yes. Out of the eight tries, I've succeeded six times. As for the two other bottles, I had them handed over to complete the task I'm on." Agnes answered. She thoroughly justifies why she's here with four bottles, nothing more, nothing less.
"If we provide you with more ingredients, would you be able to make more of them?" Hespar flicked his fingers after finishing the sentence. His action had the boys search around the luggage for something.
A container was quickly placed on the table to hold some raw materials inside a waterproof sack. Then, a large amount of goblin hearts was poured into the box as Agnes counted how many there were.
It came up to fifty-five smaller hearts and three slightly bigger and more muscular hearts.
"Gosh! Did you guys encounter a goblin pack? This amount here is more than enough to produce the tinctures for the whole squad." Agnes claimed. The fifty-five hearts here is equivalent to eleven tries. Added with the three belonging to the evolved goblins, there are fourteen attempts.
The ingredients here would be enough for Agnes to produce up to seven bottles of the Medicinal Tinctures, assuming that her success rate is around 50%.
"Well... We got into a tight situation but managed to fight our way to victory. Would it be too much for a person's work? If the workload here was too much on you, we could consider selling them to the Processing Division instead." Hespar said. He was worried that he was asking too much from her.
"Are you kidding! Of course not!" Agnes quickly interrupted Hespar before he could continue. This was likely the first time she felt belittled.
"I can finish them even if you give me twice the amount," Agnes added, pushing her chest up confidently. If she was a tad bustier than now, the button of her uniform would be likely unable to keep her covered.
"In that case... We'll be relying on you to process these resources. Of course, you'll be given some extra in exchange for the effort."
"Let us begin calculating our gain for today. We should be a-thirds away from completing this Mountain Lizard assignment," Hespar said after he was done with Agnes' matters.
Sack after sack was opened to reveal the contents. These goods were categorized properly before being stored in separate containers, from medicinal herbs to certain hard-to-get commodities.
The process stopped midway when Hespar consulted his team regarding the Serenity Ice Flower. After mentioning the guard's interest in obtaining the item, everyone agreed to exchange it as long the price was right.
After processing all the random materials they brought home, it was the Mountain Lizard's turn. Today was a productive day for the team as they returned with twelve whole corpses.
These corpses were processed similarly to yesterday, with the guts at one side and the blood in their respective liquid containers. But a lovely voice came in as they were about to arrange the carcasses along the tent's wall.
"Wow, you guys are early today! Did I interrupt anything?" Catalina's voice brought some cheerfulness into the room after they were done counting the Mountain Lizards. As to Catalina, her arrival was just on time to take some of them away.
"It's you again..." Agnes sighed when Catalina made her way inside the room. Judging from her reaction, they had a noticeable and complicated history. But Catalina doesn't seem to be bothered by her attitude.
"Oho, look at the four Medicinal Tinctures. Were these the extras after completing the assignment? I suppose you'll have more time from now on?" Catalina said to Agnes. There's a hint of mockery in her words, and it doesn't seem she's trying to hide it.
"Well, no thanks to you." Agnes pouted in her reply. The more she replies to Catalina, the worse her attitude is. It seems that the misunderstanding between them was not shallow.
(I wonder how Agnes would think if she knew Catalina was the one who told me to keep the hearts for her...)
Hespar was in the middle of thinking about what Catalina told him in his office yesterday. But before he gave that thought further, Catalina gave him a wink and gently shook her head.
Obviously, she's trying to hide the fact she tried to help.
Feeling it won't be good to get involved in the girl's misunderstanding, Hespar decided to change the topic.
"We caught twelve lizards today. Are you thinking of taking some of them like yesterday?" Hespar asked. He had a feeling that Catalina's arrival here was for a reason.
"Bingo! You got that correctly. I am thinking of taking ten carcasses today because the canteen's menu requires Mountain Lizard's meat." Catalina gives Hespar two thumbs up for guessing correctly.
"Do you need some help? One of us can give you a hand if you need it." Hespar continued.
"Oww... Please don't treat me like a little princess. But you're being very sweet. I can manage ten carcasses. They don't weigh too much." Catalina went ahead and bundled the carcasses together before giving them a yank.
As the reason for her visit was accomplished, Catalina left the office after waving her hand at Hespar. The 300 pounds weight doesn't seem challenging for her.
The room was once again returned to its silence after she left.
"How did you get acquainted with that golden bitch?" Agnes asked Hespar a minute after Catalina was gone.
(Hmm... That doesn't sound nice to someone helping you secretly, Agnes...)
Hespar thought after hearing how Agnes addressed Catalina. But since Catalina doesn't seem to mind it, he shall keep himself quiet for now.
"Anyway, I was supposed to discuss this with everyone here. Recently, I've taken an assignment to refine the blood plasma from Mountain Lizard's Blood. Seeing that our squad had some in our inventory, I am wondering if anyone here has a problem if I used them?" After making sure that the inventory counting process was done, Agnes decided to ask.
This was her main reason for being here. Although the blood can also be bought from the Processing Division if needed, that would greatly reduce her total profit from completing the assignment.
After all, the blood available for purchase was sold in bottles.
It was estimated that she had to pay roughly between forty to seventy copper coin pieces to have enough blood for refinement into a vial of blood plasma. And in exchange for the price of a silver coin piece for every vial she refined, her profit was merely thirty to sixty copper coin pieces.
Furthermore, this figure was based on a successful attempt. In case of any failure, the cost would easily triple. While it was considered an easy task, some people would still make a loss due to underestimating this assignment.
But it would be different if Agnes was allowed to use the resources in her squad's inventory. Since the ingredients were to be either sold or processed anyway, all she needed to do was contributes part of her earnings back in exchange.
Agnes would still benefit from this, even if she surrendered half of her earnings back to the squad after using the available ingredients in the inventory.
This part can be considered a benefit of being in a squad. Of course, the result may vary depending on everyone's individual assignment. Because everyone in the team had a certain need over something, only the leader had the right to decide which path they were going.
Most of the time, only two-thirds of the squad member would be benefitted from the choice, and the remaining one-third had to wait for their chances. Suppose they somehow got assigned to an inexperienced leader or a self-conceited one. In that case, the benefit might be worst than working alone.
In Agnes' case, she can be said to be lucky, as Hespar seems like a considerate leader.
"Of course. You may use the resources as you see fit, but for every three-part of resources you took, one portion of the product must be deposited back. This is my only requirement for anyone using the squad's inventory to accomplish your personal assignment."
"Additionally, I will have no comment over the resources you use, as long it was obtained under two circumstances. First, you joined the squad and hunted the resources with everyone's help. This will give you a bigger claim over the items you need."
"And secondly, if the resources were given on my approval, such as the matter related to goblin hearts," Hespar said. Since a rule must be set anyway, he might as well do it right now.
In any case, the exchange rate suggested by Hespar is considered kind to many people, given the risk and danger they face while heading into the wilderness to collect these resources.
"I agree." Agnes nodded.
"I have no objection." Stolas raised his hand and agreed.
"Me too."
"Same here."
The others collectively agreed on the condition set by Hespar. With this, a basic rule on how the squad operates is now set and ready to go.
"In that case, go ahead and take them. Ashen, if you're free later on, give Agnes a hand and help her bring those resources back to her place.
"No problem, Boss!" Ashen beat his chest once and immediately agreed to help.