Ball of Nothing

While Zero borrowed Brutus' kitchen to brew the antidote, Brutus prepared water for the bath that Dwayne wanted and passed his boss the set of clothes Zero wanted him to buy for the slave. While Zero worked on the antidote, Brutus was given a new task to help Zero extract the venom and dismantle the killer bee corpses.

"All of these?" the ex-mercenary couldn't help but be stunned at the corpses that Zero kept pulling out from his spatial bag. The sling bag from Enma didn't look too impressive but it must be a very high-tiered magic item if it could store more than four hundred bees, including the ones that Brutus sold.

"Not yet," Zero admitted. "I have about three hundred more in the inventory. I guess there were more bees than we thought there were. Truen didn't exactly count how many arrows he fired but he fired a few volleys. Oh, we have some special bees too so I'll take care of them later. We got some scouts and commanders in the mix so if you see those, please leave them aside for me. I'm going to check on the medicine now."

Jaw falling open, Brutus watched as Zero went back to his kitchen to busy himself away. He didn't know how these bees were also antidote ingredients but Dwayne gave him a look from upstairs that made Brutus obey instructions. The ex-mercenary knew that he wasn't very smart so there were many things he didn't understand. If Dwayne said to do as Zero wanted then Brutus wouldn't question anything.

Inside the kitchen, Zero checked the firewood. It was hot in Deadman Town so he doubted he needed to burn too much wood for the fire like he normally did back at his shifu's hut. Knowing that the mole girl might be hungry after waking up. Healing took a lot of energy after all for both the healer and the patient.

While Zero busied away, he received a message using the party call function. Bob has finally finished his task and Zero raised a brow at the weird knick-knacks in his inventory.

"Bob?" he asked while fanning the fire. "What are these? I thought you were only collecting bees? Why do we also have water canteens, dried fruits and potions?"

The dragon who was making his way back frowned. "Master, you don't like it? I thought it would be a waste to just leave their things behind so I packed them all. I only packed what was undamaged."

Then, Bob realised his mistake. Truen didn't want to let Zero know that he killed the adventurers and Bob's actions were too suspicious. Why would they leave their goods behind if they just left? Now Bob felt stupid for salvaging the dead adventurers' items.

Zero didn't understand why Bob suddenly went silent but he still looked through the inventor list. Some of the things were what they might have to buy from the marketplace but seeing as Bob salvaged them, it wasn't necessary.

"I see. Thanks, Bob. I think we can tell Truen when he comes back from his match that we can skip the shopping trip. Once he is done with what he needs to do at Deadman Town we can go. So far nobody has any information about the gnomes or the desert poppy. People have said that there are towns in the desert so I will be asking for more information tomorrow. I'm making the girl's antidote now, do you think the merchants here will be interested in buying medicine from me?"

The dragon heaved a sigh of relief when Zero didn't question him about why he was salvaging the adventurers' supplies along with the bees. Now that the subject was changed, Bob filled Zero in on what sort of medicine was high in demand for a place like Deadman Town.

Zero nodded and looked at his ingredient list. He had most of the herbs needed for common medicine. He could spare some to make a salve for sunburn as well. Disinfecting medicine was rather high on the list and Zero suspected that it might be ordered by the regular fighters in the Dirt Ring. Medicine for a hangover was more popular than medicine for colds and Zero wondered why people wanted to buy both poisons and poison antidotes. As a doctor, Zero decided that he would only sell the poison antidotes and not the poison even though he was capable of synthesizing them.

"Got it. Brutus is already working on dismantling the bees so when you get back, let them know that you're help sent by Truen. I think we have too many bees and not all of them can be dismantled by today with just Brutus working on them alone. Dwyane is helping me take care of the mole girl while I prepare the antidote and medicine."

"Roger that!" Bob replied and ended their communication. He could see the town in the distance and it wouldn't be long before he arrived.

Zero checked the medicine and nodded. With everyone occupied, Zero decided to get a Parallel Mind out to oversee the brewing while he entered the mindscape to work in his mindscape pharmacy. There was money to be made in Deadman Town and Zero needed money in order to loosen the lips of some interesting people out of Dwayne's territory. He wanted to know more about the slave traders even if Truen didn't want him interfering with it.

Truen might get his source of information from the Dirt Ring and shadier dealings but Zero was not a stranger to this sort of operation either. Mammon and Coux were right. Slave traders won't ever stop doing what they did but if Zero introduced Slave Rights and struck a deal to work with the traders, he might be able to improve lives.

According to Brutus, Green Hawk was a merchant group and possibly the one who is the middleman dealing with many of Deadman Town's resources including slaves. Zero wanted to meet them. With his medicine and medical skills that Dwayne could vouch for, he was confident that they wouldn't turn him down so quickly.