*glug* *glug* *glug* "Haa... Maybelle is thankful to both Manny and Soren." Maybelle stated gratefully, as she finished chugging down the antitoxin, as she heard a brief explanation about what happened during the alcohol-induced nap, before asking Soren with a more solemn expression. "Umm... You didn't hear May-May say anything weird, did you?"

  "N-Nothing of the sort. Mostly some incoherent moans and noises." Soren stated awkwardly, as he kept Manny's advice in mind. He didn't know the history behind Maybelle and that Vaan fellow and he had no intention of prying any further about it, as he didn't want to sour his relationship with his only blacksmith, so instead, chose to divert the topic towards something else. "So, how did you end up creating clones of yourself?"

  "Clones...? What are clones? Could you please explain it to Maybelle?" Maybelle inquired, this was the first time she's ever heard such a term. Heating this, Soren gave a quick explanation about them and when he finished, Maybelle understood what he was speaking about. "Ah... That's just a phenomenon that occasionally whenever Maybelle's magic is unstable. Sometimes my body turns into a ball of light and at other times, it turns into sparkly dust. But aside from that, it's not harmful to May-May."

  "I... See..." Soren awkwardly stated, as he didn't even know how process this information and instead, decided to move the conversation towards a more important topic, as he took out his iron sword. "Anyways, is it possible to upgrade my sword?"

  "Hmm... It depends... What does Soren want to upgrade?"

  "Its damage or penetration, I guess?"

  "Then you'll need to bring Maybelle some monster materials. Preferably claws, fangs or anything that's used offensively, although better materials provide better upgrades." Maybelle explained, as she examined the iron sword Soren was using.

  "Will these do then?" Soren, as he pulled a couple of Rabid Hog pins from his inventory.

  "These are compatible, but Maybelle will need a few dozens, at least. Maybe over a hundred." Hearing that, Soren decided to check out how many of those pins he had in his inventory, but aside from the two he pulled, he only had around ten more, as well as fourteen Rabid Hog carcasses, which should provide him with more than enough pins.

  "I see. I'll be back later with the pins later."

  "Maybelle will be waiting then." Once he put his sword away in his inventory, Soren made his way towards the Hunter's Guild and after getting permission from Stephen to make use of the butchering room, he pulled out a Rabid Hog carcass from his inventory and decided to get to work. Although it was his first time dissecting a carcass all by himself, he didn't care much about doing his job perfectly, as he only wanted the pins and the rest of the materials the hogs could provide, were useless to him. After around thirty minutes, he managed to extract all 23 pins from his first hog, but the amount of time he needed for a single corpse was far from ideal.

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  Thankfully for him, with the experience from the first carcass, the extraction process went far faster and smoother, as with the help of the butchery proficiency, he'd be able to find pins that were easier to extract and once he figured out that he could twist the skin around the pins, he'd be able to loosen pins enough, where a single soft pull was enough to pull it out of its skin. As Soren finished pulling the last pin out of his third hog carcass, a sudden noise suddenly grabbed his attention and upon turning his attention towards the origin of the noise, he noticed Stephen taking a seat on the other side of the table, holding a pair of tongs and beckoning him.

  "Do you need anything Stephen?" Soren asked curiously, as he wondered about his intentions.

  "Pass me a hog Soren as well. Two pairs of hands are better than one after all." Stephen ordered, as Soren obliged and brought out a couple of hog carcasses. While the two of them were pulling out the pins one by one, Soren couldn't help but ask. "So, what's with the help all of a sudden? Just so you know, these are not for the quest."

  "I know that much. Besides, can't someone help someone without any reason?" Stephen retorted, as Soren remained unconvinced from his answer, prompting him to sigh and speak in a more relaxed manner. "I got a message from the other hunters. They are on their way towards the settlement as we speak."

  "That's cool. So what's the problem?" Soren asked curiously, as he could tell from Stephen's tone that something was bothering him.

  *sigh* "It's less of a problem and more of a worry..." Stephen stated dejectedly, as he added. "The problem is the lack of news from the hunters. Usually, they'd send more news about their mission, such as their progress or any of their casualties, but in my experience, the lack of information is never a good sign."

  "Maybe there wasn't much to report in the first place?" Soren suggested casually, but seeing Stephen's unconvinced expression, he could tell his suggestion was wrong. "Then maybe there was something that couldn't be written down?"

  "Haaa... I can only hope so..." Stephen sighed worriedly, as he finished pulling all the pins from his own hog and gestured Soren to pass him another one. After doing so, Soren decided to change the topic, as the atmosphere was slowly turning gloomier by the second. "So, could you tell me a bit more about the hunters? What kind of group are they?"

  "The hunter group is technically a few different hunter parties. The group consists of three parties of five, a party of four and a duo. The parties of five are the Gallant Wings, Twin Arrowfall and Reaving Raptors. Their leaders are Blue Rank Hunters, while the rest of their members are a mix of Blue, Purple and Black Rank members. The party of four, as well as the leading party of this group, are known as the Eridanus Assembly, with their leader being the only Green Rank Hunter and the rest of their members being Rank Blue. As for the duo, they aren't a party per se, so they don't have a party name, but both of them are Blue Rank Hunters, so don't underestimate them." Stephen explained, as he was done with another hog and requested another one.

  "That's a fairly stacked group." Soren commented casually, as he passed him another hog and pulled a hog for himself as well.

  "Maybe, but that doesn't mean shit if everyone gets wiped at the end of the day."

  "Don't be so pessimistic about it. If they brought any bad news in the first place, you'd be the first to know, so don't worry too much about it. Have some faith in them." Soren consoled, as he patted him on the shoulder.

  "Alright, alright... I'll have some faith in them. Speaking of which, what will you use these pins for?" Stephen asked, as he looked at the pile of extracted pins and the discarded pile of Rabid Hog carcasses on the side.

  "I'll use these to upgrade my sword. It will certainly help me again enemies with higher defenses." Soren stated casually, as finished pulling the last pin out of his hog and saw a purple panel appear in front of him.