Chapter 26

I walked slowly over to the dragon carcass, blood was still pouring out from his open wounds, steaming as it breach the open air. 

Huh, I didn't know that their blood was also that hot.

I guess Red Dragon really did embody the fire that they breathed, but now he was dead we'll have to dissect his corpse, to collect all the materials it left behind. Dragon scales were a valuable component in the construction of various armors, as well as different furniture for the extraordinarily wealthy, made into a sort of draconic leather.

Their blood was extremely useful in high level potions, though I don't exactly know the specifics of the brewing methods, I heard that many like to ferment it as well, to make into a type of exotic liquor. Once more for those rich enough to splurge on on this strange luxurious interest.

Dragon meat was also an ingredient that could be prepared for all kinds of culinary dishes, though I've never tasted it, I've heard that they have an exceedingly exceptional deep flavor.

Lastly, their fangs, bones and claws were fashioned into various weapons and ornaments, due to most dragons being high level creatures, their body could house powerful and remarkable enchantments really effectively.

And now it is our job to harvest all of this. Usually, adventurers hired specialists to separate and collect all of the wanted body parts, however for us we typically never did this, there are a few main reason we did this.

First of all, they took a percentage of the profit gained from the monsters they dissected, add to that the fact that the Adventurer's Guild took a portion of the pie as well, and that makes it so that our margin of profit is significantly reduced.

And sadly for those who would happily do the job for the right price, we happen to really like money.

The guild takes a percentage because it is the hub for all of the quest and requests that are sent in, it is due to the collective reputation that we adventurers are trusted at all, and it gives us great prestige amongst a certain crowd.

If we weren't part of the guild, we would either be workers or mercenaries, that take on more unsavory jobs, that couldn't be done in the light.

Secondly, it would be difficult for anyone to take this monster apart, since we are by far the strongest humans in this region of the kingdom, any creature we kill will have incredibly tough skin and flesh. Though it might soften after death, it was still more than most could handle, which would lead us to hiring the best, which would be even more expensive. Leading back to the first point.

Lastly, we were simply more efficient, wasting way less matter than those without someone like Verica.

So we went to work, barely having the time to rest, since we wanted to get this over with, and return to our city by dusk.

We started by skinning him, peeling off all of his scales and storing them within my Bag of Holding, it being where we store all of the loot we recuperate from our adventures nowadays.

Then, we cut him open, removed all of the flesh that was on his bones, and tore out all of the organs that were once inside him.

While Wrai, Bastien and me did the dirty work, Verica was off using her magic to purify all of the things we sent her way, to get rid of any impurities we might have gotten on them while doing our work.

She also used a spell she had especially crafted for this purpose to suck up all of the blood in the area, making it after noticing how much we waste each time we kill something by cutting it up. She was inspired by the vampire we had once slain, by how she could manipulate the blood, even after it had left her body.

After that, we sectioned off all of his bones, being careful not to damage the individual bone, and removed all of his teeth and claws. Tearing them straight off where they were connected.

Since dragons were most likely the most valuable creatures in the world, pound for pound, every single part of his body was likely to be sold to the highest bidder. 

By the time we finished with the recuperation of all of the body parts that could be sold, it was already nightfall.

"Damn, that was a lot more work than I thought it would be. I wanted to sleep in a bed tonight!

We should've just asked some monster butcher to take care of this, it's not like we need the money." Complained Wrai, always being one to speak his mind, as our wizard helped with cleaning ourselves up, with her various spells, never shying away from using her magic for menial tasks.

Unlike the cardinals, which from what I could remember, liked to do certain tasks by hand, even though they could accomplish the same thing in a fraction of the time by employing the arcane arts.

"Dumbass, it's always a better idea to save ourselves some funds, if we could do the job ourselves, without spending that much time in the end.

And, what if some treasure shows up in an auction and we don't have the money, it would be a travesty, wouldn't it!

I suppose that that magic item we had our eye on, just wasn't bought from right under our noses! If we had been more frugal, or more proactive, we could have easily acquired it!" Shouted our resident runaway noble, evidently still traumatized from the fact that a rival Adamantite team buying the artifact we wanted.

To add salt to the wound, the leader of that party absolutely hates us for some reason beyond my knowledge. That resentment being especially pronounced for Verica and I.

"Come on! You're still going on about that! I already told you, we can try to negotiate and buy it from them. But you just refuse to even entertain the thought. You still have that grudge against Sila." Our leader ever so graciously explained, note the sarcasm.

"Are you joking!? She hates us! If she found out that we wanted that item, she would do everything in her power to make sure we don't get it! That is if she hadn't already found out, and did that to spite us specifically."

"Wait -

She hates us?"