Chapter 85 - 83: Let’s Have a Fair Hero Duel

Chapter 85: Chapter 83: Let’s Have a Fair Hero Duel

Now that Lu Wei was back, Furen and Bai Ya had no time to worry about Anna’s "views on integrity." They immediately followed Zovir and ran into the woods.

There, they saw Lu Wei and Mirana, their backpacks bulging.

Judging from his clothes and expression, Lu Wei was perfectly fine; one could even describe him as being full of life.

Mirana, however, wasn’t in such good shape. Not only were her clothes torn and stained with dried blood, but her complexion was also rather pale.

Bai Ya’s heart ached a little at this sight.

Of course, if someone *had* to get hurt, she would’ve preferred it to be Mirana.

Still, her kind nature made her wish they were both unharmed... even if she already saw the other woman as a love rival.

As for Furen...

’So jealous! You can tell they just had a good, satisfying fight!’

’I want to fight too!!’

Clearly, the two of them had completely different priorities at that moment.

So, even though they both rushed over to Lu Wei and Mirana, the first words out of their mouths were rather contradictory.

Bai Ya: "How could you get hurt!"

Furen: "This is awesome!"

"..."

Lu Wei and Mirana stopped in their tracks, their expressions freezing on their faces.

The happy atmosphere instantly turned awkward.

’To cause this much of a stir with a single sentence... That’s Furen for you.’

"It’s nothing, don’t worry."

Shooting Furen a sideways glance, Lu Wei shook his head at Bai Ya. "It was a little unexpected, but thankfully, it was a close call and nothing more."

"Oh, oh, that’s good."

Bai Ya sighed in relief, hurried forward to take his backpack, and tossed it into Furen’s arms.

"So, the mission was a success?"

"Yep."

"Is Sister Mirana’s injury serious? Does it need more attention?"

"...Hey, she’s asking you."

Lu Wei turned to look at Mirana, who was standing there like an outsider. "Do your wounds need more treatment?"

"Ah... No, it’s fine."

Mirana snapped out of it, glanced at Bai Ya, then quickly looked away, seeming to have a guilty conscience.

"I drank a Healing Potion, so it’s basically fine now."

"Huh? You had to drink a Healing Potion? That means you were seriously hurt!"

Bai Ya’s eyes widened in surprise. "How did that happen? Didn’t you say there was no problem?"

"Well..."

Mirana didn’t want to expose Lu Wei’s secret, so she deliberately trailed off.

Lu Wei, understanding the cue, immediately jumped in.

"Ahem, the intel for the Goblin Nest extermination mission was wrong. There were actually two Leader Level Goblins."

"What?! Two of them?!"

"Yeah, but they had just fought each other over a female goblin, so they were both weakened."

Lu Wei said casually, making it up as he went. "We were just lucky. Otherwise, we definitely wouldn’t have been able to complete the mission."

"Huh? That kind of thing can happen?"

Bai Ya and Furen’s mouths fell open. "That’s way too lucky..."

"Tell me about it."

Lu Wei nodded, lowered his voice to build suspense, and began to "describe" the scene with great enthusiasm.

"But even then, it was still incredibly dangerous."

"They were two Leader Level Monsters, after all. Even injured, they were still extremely powerful."

"Add to that over twenty Ordinary goblins, and calling it a brutal battle would be an understatement."

"It was an earth-shattering, bloody battle. Mirana’s sword blade was blunted, yet she couldn’t even scratch those two Leader Level Goblins. Instead, a single punch sent her flying several meters."

"And just as her head was about to be smashed flat by a Wolf-toothed Stick, I finally carved a path through the bloody chaos..."

As if he had just returned from a Chaotic Scene, Lu Wei’s voice was at times passionate and at others urgent. Paired with his solemn expression, you couldn’t tell he was making any of it up.

But despite his masterful storytelling, his audience wasn’t very obliging. Only Furen was listening with rapt attention.

Mirana and Bai Ya, on the other hand, were just staring at him blankly, their attention completely elsewhere.

’Nonsense! I clearly chopped off one leader’s arm and the other’s hand!’

’How could he say I couldn’t even scratch the goblins!’

’That’s complete slander!’

Mirana’s mouth hung open in astonishment. She never imagined Lu Wei could fabricate such a detailed "battle sequence" in such a short amount of time.

And...

’What kind of moves are "Dredging the Moon from the Sea" and "The Old Man Pushes the Cart"?’

’Why didn’t I see any of that?’

’He’s such a braggart...’

’I get that he’s trying to hide his trump cards, but this is too much...’

Looking at Lu Wei’s side profile, Mirana grumbled to herself, starting to have some slight doubts about his "moral character."

Bai Ya’s focus, however, was even stranger.

She hadn’t heard a single word about the battle. Her mind was completely occupied by the first thing Lu Wei had said—

"They had just fought each other over a female goblin."

"..."

’So monsters fight over mates, too?’

’But they’re Leader Level Monsters, shouldn’t they already have lots of mates? Why would they still come to blows?’

’Was that female goblin especially attractive?’

A jumble of thoughts flashed through her mind. Gradually, in Bai Ya’s eyes, Lu Wei seemed to transform into the image of a seductive, enchanting female goblin.

One that you couldn’t help but want to possess.

But another competitor was also watching hungrily...

’Damn it...’

Her gaze shifted to Mirana, who was staring dazedly at Lu Wei. Bai Ya suddenly bit her lip and, in her heart, declared war:

’Come on! For the right to be his mate!’

’Face me in a fair duel of Heroes!!’

...

...

"They’re so big, and they look disgusting..."

"And so sticky..."

Ten minutes later, under the grocery store’s sign, Furen and Bai Ya both wrinkled their noses in disgust as Lu Wei pulled the two Leader Level Goblin heads out of his bag.

After all, they did look even more hideous than the heads of Ordinary goblins.

Filthy, dark green skin was covered in crisscrossing scars and fleshy growths, with jagged yellow tusks and a pair of cloudy eyes that had faded from red to gray...

"How can a monster be so ugly."

Kicking one of the heads with her foot, Bai Ya suggested, "You should hang them a bit higher, or the customers will lose their appetites when they see them."

"Good point."

Lu Wei agreed, first cutting off the right ear from each head, then telling Furen to hang them above the string of Kobold heads.

The shape of a goblin’s ear is so unique, with no substitute apart from an Elf’s ear, that even for a Leader Level Goblin, only the right ear is needed to claim the bounty.

This was unlike bear goblins, which required the whole head since their ears looked too much like a normal bear’s.

Thus, the only reason Lu Wei had painstakingly carried these two heads all the way back was to add another magnificent highlight to his "display rack."

"Not bad. Very imposing."

Watching the two heads—enough to intimidate 95% of all Adventurers—get hung up, Lu Wei nodded in satisfaction. He then shifted his gaze to the framework of the shop next to them and gave a slight nod, full of a leader’s pride.

"Mm, the construction progress is good, too."

"Of course it is!"

Furen puffed out his chest proudly. "I’ve been working on it for two whole days! Without any rest!"

"You’ve worked hard. I knew I was right to entrust such an important task to you!"

Never pay for what you can get with praise. Lu Wei first laid the compliments on Furen thick, then turned to Bai Ya.

"How has business been the last two days?"

"Much better than I expected! We’ve already sold almost half of the new stock!"

Bai Ya reported excitedly, "We’ve earned 1 gold and 2 silver in total! After costs, our profit is a full 1 Gold Coin!"

"Excellent!"

Although he was already well aware of the sales figures from his mission log, Lu Wei still put on a surprised expression and declared with a grand flourish:

"This proves our shop is highly trusted by our customers. It looks like it’s time to expand."

"Uh-huh... So, how are we going to expand?"

"By offering more diverse and extensive services, of course. To be honest, I plan to turn this place into a comprehensive commercial complex that integrates shopping, dining, leisure, and entertainment."

"Oh, oh... What’s a commercial complex?"

"You can think of it as a small marketplace. For example, right here, we could build a food court..."

Pointing to the empty space east of the Dome Pillar, Lu Wei spoke with unstoppable enthusiasm. Furen and Bai Ya grew excited as they listened, nodding along constantly.

Mirana, however, had no interest in this and went off to the side to rest by herself.

For one, she wasn’t a shareholder in the Golden Sword Hu Grocery Store, so strictly speaking, none of this had anything to do with her.

For another, she felt that Lu Wei opening a shop in the middle of a forest was a "waste of energy" with little real purpose.

Earning 1 Gold Coin in two days sounded like a lot, but if you factored in the costs of labor and time, it wasn’t really all that much.

And that wasn’t even considering the huge risks involved.

Compared to this, it’d be better to just take on a few more missions.

Take this last mission, for example. The loot alone was worth around 12 gold coins plus a Skill Book. Add in the mission reward, and the total would be at least 20 gold coins.

That’s equal to two full months of profit for the grocery store.

So why work so hard to run a shop?

’I don’t get it...’

Looking at Lu Wei gesturing animatedly in the distance, Mirana recalled that she had expressed her confusion to him before.

Lu Wei’s answer had been—

"Short hair, short-sighted. Work for someone else your whole life and you’ll never get ahead."

Mirana didn’t quite understand what he meant by that.

And the proverb "short hair, short-sighted" always struck her as a bit odd.

But regardless, as his "adventure partner," she had no right to interfere with his activities outside of their adventures.

So, she could only sit and rest by herself, silently calculating how many points she would get from this venture and how long it would take to upgrade to a Silver Badge.

’The tree spirit extermination mission is worth 50 bonus points, and the goblin mission is worth 100 bonus points.’

’Add to that the bounty points for 4 tree spirits, 22 Ordinary goblins, and two Leader Level Goblins... that’s a total of 68 bounty points.’

’That comes out to 218 points in total.’

’I’m still about 600 points away from upgrading, which is about five or six Middle Level missions.’

’Factoring in rest and preparation time, it’ll take at least a month to finish.’

’That still seems a bit too slow...’