Initially, Alex wanted to harvest the dead bear too because its pelt can be sold and its meat can be eaten. But now he can't do that because he has decided to raise the dead bear's cub. So Alex just buries the dead bear.
"I guess you'll live with me from now on, little guy. Don't cry for too long. Your mom died protecting you, so be proud of her. I'll be back there if you need me, if you understand what I say."
Alex leaves the sad little bear that sits sadly beside its mother's grave. Alex wants to dismantle the giant black serpent, but he realizes that it's too big and he doesn't bring the necessary equipment.
"Hmm, I'll just drag it as it is and leave the processing to professionals."
He plans to just sell the serpent whole to a Craft Guild in the previous town he visited. Craft Guild is a type of Guilds, just like Magic Guild. But instead of Mages who take jobs, Craft Guilds are filled with craftsmen who can be Mages or non-Mages.
There are some types of Guilds all over Ishgar, not just Magic Guilds. Layla and Jude were from a Merchant Guild called "Love and Lucky". So not every Guild is a Magic Guild, but all types of Guilds can be legal or illegal depending on their permit.
The Craft Guild in the previous town would love to get such a high quality snake skin and its bones are also high quality materials. They might not need the meat though, but well, this particular serpent's meat is poisonous, so it's alright because the skin itself is expensive.
The little bear is still sitting beside its mother's grave after a while and Alex is getting hungry. So he sighs and gets out of the cave. Surprisingly, the little bear suddenly runs to follow him while crying sadly, as if worried that he will leave it there.
"Oh, so you know that I was waiting for you and now you're scared I'm going to leave you. Well, don't worry, I'm just going to find something to eat. That damn snake destroyed my dinner, so I haven't eaten anything for hours. You must be hungry too, but it seems you are still too young to eat anything other than milk, so we'll go to the town as quickly as we can."
Alex tells the little bear to wait, but it keeps following him. So he sighs and carries it with him so he can move quickly. Hunting animals will be difficult with the little guy there, so he only looks for some fruits.
Luckily, there are quite a lot of edible fruits nearby that he can take. So he eats some and packs some. Then he takes the dead giant black serpent to the previous town.
He only uses partial transformation to form Shukaku's tail that he elongates to wrap the Serpent's head and pulls it, so the sand tail acts like a big rope now.
The bear cub can walk alongside Alex at first, but it gets tired rather quickly. So Alex puts it on his head to reach the town faster because he knows this little guy is hungry, so it needs milk.
They reach the town in 2 hours, but they can't enter it because of the Giant Black Serpent's carcass. Luckily, it attracts people's attention including the Craft Guild members.
When they come, Alex quickly asks if they want to buy this serpent and they quickly nod before telling him to wait for them to call their Master. They soon return with their Master who seems very excited when seeing the serpent's shiny black skin.
"H-hmm, this, I can buy it for 100 thousand Jewel." The Master smirks while his members giggle behind him.
Alex knows they try to rip him off because the real price for a Giant Black Serpent of this size is at least 350 thousand Jewel and could be 400 thousand Jewel with such a perfect condition without any damage on the skin as Alex killed it by suffocating it to death.
"100 thousand? I see, good to know."
Without even asking them to raise the price, Alex covers the whole carcass with sand that he forms into a pyramid after transforming his left hand into Shukaku's hand. Then he puts seals on the sand pyramid, so it won't break.
After doing that, Alex turns back to normal and walks into the town under the stunned gaze of the Craft Guild members. Even the Guards and other people are confused by what has just happened.
"W-WAIT! WHY ARE YOU LEAVING?" The Craft Guild master shouts in a hurry.
"Oh, it's nothing. I just can't sell it at that price and I know even if I ask for more, you'll only raise it a bit. So I think I'll just sell it to another place for maybe 350 thousand or even 400 thousand considering it's in near perfect condition." Alex smirks while looking back at this town's Craft Guild Master.
"Y-you know?"
"Do you think I won't know? You might think it would be easy to get more profit from me after seeing how young I am, but I know the market price for this thing, so I won't waste my time on a useless negotiation with you."
Alex has learned a lot during his stay in the Heartfilia Konzern. Well, more like Matatabi learned a lot of things for him who can't study that well. Her memory is really great and she can remember almost everything Layla taught them.
So it's Matatabi who told Alex the market price for the Giant Black Serpent. They have learned the price for many Magical Creatures, normal animals, and other valuable items that are wanted by the market during their stay in the Heartfilia Konzern.
As a Merchant Family, they obviously have information about valuable items from living or non-living things and their prices. Layla taught Alex the prices of many Magical Creatures' valuable parts because he likes to hunt.
Though if it was just Alex, then he wouldn't remember anything. Luckily, Matatabi has a very great memory. It's so great that she can even remember every word in every page of the books they've read.
"W-WAIT! A-Alright, I'll give you 350." The Craft Guild Master now knows he can't scam Alex, so he tries to buy it at a normal price.
"Basic price after trying to rip me off? 400, or no deal." Alex doesn't want the basic price after they try to rip him off.
"..... F-fine, 400 thousand." While gritting his teeth, the Craft Guild Master finally agrees with that price.
Alex grins and tells them to get the cash now because he'll only hand over the carcass after they pay. So they quickly go to take the money while their Guild Master is crying after being defeated by a kid.
In the end, Alex gets quite a lot of money to spend. So he quickly goes to buy milk for the little bear. The little bear cub drinks the milk very quickly as soon as they find a store that sells milk.
Alex buys some packs of powdered milk for their supply before going to buy some food for himself. He also goes to the veterinarian to check the little bear's health and luckily it's healthy. Though the vet is shocked to have a bear cub as her patient today.
Because he has the bear cub now, Alex doesn't continue his hunt. He just goes to Magnolia directly, still by foot, but just doesn't explore the wild as usual. He actually just walks on the road with the little bear that sometimes gets carried on Alex's head when it's too tired to walk.
Then 2 days after finding the bear cub, Alex and the bear finally arrive in Magnolia. This town doesn't seem to have changed since he left. Well, it has just been a year, so the changes won't be that significant.
At least that's what is seen on the surface because Alex knows that Magnolia has gone through a massive reconstruction. Last year, they built the famous town shifting mechanism, The Gildarts Shift.
Fairy Tail couldn't afford to pay for the damage that Gildarts caused anymore. So they built that mechanism to move the buildings from the town gate to the Guild building to make a path for Gildarts so that he won't break anything.
The construction was fast because they used a lot of magic like Earth Magic to move the buildings to instal the machines and this project actually has been planned for a few years already, and most of the mechanisms have been prepared beforehand.
So the construction was just more like installing the parts that have been made already. Besides, they didn't reconstruct the whole town, just the parts from the Gate to the Guild.
Alex looks at the Guild building that still doesn't change while grinning. "Been so long, Fairy Tail."
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Ch. 101: The Great Decay