Instead of going to the city dump which was past the Red Light District we went back home as I was a little worried the compressed pet carrier may get fucked up if we allowed the Infant Dragon do its thing within it for long.
So first I went to Hephaestus and got my Falna updated quickly and seeing my stats in the A/B range I didn't go for the level up even if I was technically ready for it. Due to the high quality Excellia, I got from fighting the Infant Dragon and beating it unconscious.
I still wanted my stats maxed out in the S range before I would rank up. This wasn't the future days of Orario where people would get like a C-B in their Falna stats and then level up as soon as they could. Everyone in Orario knew the strongest adventures had high letter rankings which indicated the proportional rewards their body would receive in the baptism during their level up.
So with my own stats, along with Tina's being increased with the update. Beating the Infant Dragon silly while Tsubaki watched went well. With the half Amazonian giving us wonderful advice like. "Poke it in the eye! Kick it in the back of the knee!"
With my Kanabo, like before I went about beating the Infant Dragon like it was a pinata that owed me money. I knocked out a couple of teeth, and probably broke more than a dozen bones with the spiked club before the infant dragon just curled up into a ball to defend itself from my blows and I knew that it was 'submitting'
From there I pushed its head into the ground and as our eyes made contact, its glowing red eyes dulled until it turned an icy blue which was the universal sign of a tamed monster.
"Do you plan on taking the taming Development Ability?" Tsubaki asked curiously and I paused at the thought.
I didn't really need construction development abilities for when I leveled up. Only combat development abilities or other passive ones could help me out. Like the Luck, Mage, or Spirit Healing, Development abilities would be highly useful.
Taming could also be useful as it would make my tamed monsters stronger and more loyal as well... Though I wasn't sure how that would affect the tamed beast section of my fusion cheat.
"I don't know... I need to consider it honestly." I said with a shrug and then I started feeding the now tamed Infant Dragon some healing potions to get it healing its wounds that I inflicted. "But thank you for being the safety net Tsubaki," I said nodding in her direction as I threw the Infant Dragon into the tamed beast section of my Fusion Space where the tamed Jake Bird was resting after her earlier egg laying.
Tsubaki lazily waved my thanks away as she chuckled and sat up from her sitting position. "Alrighty then, I am heading back to work on a commission I got. You kids stay out of trouble Haha." She said with some teasing which made me snort as I was well aware of Hephaestus giving Tsubaki shit for going deep into the dungeon to test the weapons she made alone.
I looked back at Tina and she nodded with an exasperated smile. "You still wanna go to the dump?" I nodded and she visibly shuddered and said with annoyance. "Fine lets go... But when you get shanked by a shit-covered glass shank that shatters inside your neck... I get to tell, I told you so." She said making my eye twitch at the utter surety in which she said that.
-
With a short stack riding on my shoulder I walked into Orario's dump and... It was horrible. "Why did they build the dump into a marshland?" I demanded with a frown as I realized that as we came out of the South side of Orario's walls the ground had become utterly slop with thick mud clinging to our feet and my feet sinking into the deep mud that came up to my shins.
Hence why Tina was on my shoulders because the mud would come up past her damned knees.
"Orario itself is on a plain you know... But with so many rivers crossing through Orario, inside and out of the Dungeon. All the excess water has to come up somewhere right? Hence this marshland with its waters slowly flowing down towards the Lake of Melen with the river following the dungeon tunnel leading to the great lake." She explained and I realized how with this was way before canon, they hadn't killed let alone used the corpse of the Leviathan to plug up the dungeon's exit in the Water City floors which had a tunnel leading out to the Lake of Melen.
"Anyway the trash is just down that way Jake. The city typically uses tamed Silverbacks and Minotaurs to pull sleds filled with trash to the central dump so just follow the mud path." She said flatly and the mud path was just as she said. A smooth sloppy overly used path filled with marshy water that was made smooth by the large sleds that the tamed monsters pulled behind them.
After a good five-minute walk. I could smell the dump before anything else. Before I heard the huffing of the large Silver Back's trudging through the mud and pulling truck-bed-sized sleds. I smelled the decay, and before I could lay eyes on the minotaurs working under the direction of their tamers to keep stuff organized. I could smell discarded remains of Orario's population of twenty million souls.
"Still not as bad as Chicago on a bad day," I muttered to myself as I took out some handkerchiefs I fused some soap into, so Tina and I could tie them around the lower parts of our faces.
Both to obscure our identities if we did anything note-worthy, and of course fusing the soap into the clothes had given it anti-bacterial properties which would help with the smell and diseases obviously laying in wait.
"Where is the furniture piles is the question?" I asked more to myself as we entered the dump while staying out of the way of the workers adding to the massive dump that was actually seemingly a never-ending island of garbage that would eventually float downwards with the marshes tides.
I was here for materials and rather than hoping to pick up trashed weapons and such. I was just going straight for piles of materials.
But with no answer on where the more valuable trash was. Tina and I headed to the one notable part of the dump. The dead Monster Stone pile.
Monster stones were used as replacements for electricity in Orario. And in the city, there was little difference so long as you lived in a middle-class household compared to a modern household. They had powered stoves, heated water, air conditioning, and everything else you could want. But all that stuff relied on monster stones which people had to buy and replace like batteries to use those magi-tech devices.
And there was no way to refuel a monster stone at all... So they just tossed them out like empty batteries to be endlessly replaced as there was no recycling them.