Once everything was settled, the two left the village.
Just as the man had said, there were several prominent hills to the west of the village. It was easy to spot the so-called second-highest one at a glance.
From a distance, the hills only had a few scattered trees. Most of the land was covered in shrubs and weeds, making the hills look barren.
Once they had their bearings, they followed the path toward their destination.
With his experience in wilderness survival, Kase led the way, and Colin followed closely behind.
"You're saying this thing is worth ten Gold Coins?" Kase asked in disbelief, staring at the glass vial in his hand.
"Of course."
Colin said as he struggled to keep up, "It's a universal antidote that works on all poisons. I wouldn't be surprised if it sold for even more."
"Then why don't we go sell it?"
"About that…" Colin said. "We'd better not sell it yet. At the very least, we can drink it to prevent being poisoned if we run into goblins."
"You can fight off the poison from those little critters on your own. It's not necessary."
"All the more reason not to gamble with our lives, Kase," Colin said. "Besides, we'd have to go back to sell the Potion anyway. And when we do, they'll definitely haggle the price down. We'd be lucky to get two Gold Coins for it. You want to turn back now for that?"
"Of course we still need to get the herbs. We've come all this way," Kase mumbled thoughtfully. "A ten-Gold-Coin Potion only sells for that little back in town?"
"You're just some poor guy holding a Potion. Who knows if it's been diluted or if you've added something to it? It's not like they can taste-test it. Even if you sell it to an expert Herbalist, he won't offer a high price. He'll just tell you to find another buyer if you're not happy with his offer."
"You humans are so full of crap."
"Welcome to the real world, Half-Orc," Colin said. "You should spend more time in the secondhand markets. Otherwise, you won't even realize it when you're getting ripped off."
"Rather than learning all this incomprehensible crap, it's easier just to have you around," Kase said.
"That'll cost you, then."
"Screw you."
The two continued their trek through the treacherous hills. The ground was covered with uneven rocks, making the journey strenuous. Fortunately, the breeze blowing in from the sea wasn't scorching, so the heat wasn't too unbearable.
As time went on, the refugees and Shepherds they had occasionally seen searching for herbs were no longer anywhere in sight.
This was a good thing, in a way. Although people gave them a wide berth after seeing Kase, Colin had been worried someone might come looking for trouble.
"Stop."
"What is it?" Colin, who had been focused on the path ahead, jumped at Kase's sharp command and instinctively reached for the hilt of his sword.
Kase looked down at the ground ahead. "Something's off here."
Colin also looked down.
They were standing on a rocky outcrop. At its edge, a relatively smooth path led down below.
They followed it down and found a small cave hidden beneath the rock.
The cave was incredibly well-hidden; you couldn't see it at all from a distance. Then again, it was hard to spot anything tucked away in the crevices of these hills.
When they went inside, they found clear signs of a fire pit. In a corner were some oddly-shaped rocks and bone fragments, along with a few foul-smelling Beast Hides spread on the ground.
"No doubt about it. This is a goblin outpost." Kase crouched and picked up a bone fragment. "Winter's almost here, so these little guys should have returned to their lairs."
"That's good news," Colin nodded.
"Besides their main lairs, goblins set up small outposts like this to gather resources. Every so often, the goblins from the outposts return to the main lair to deliver what they've collected, leaving these field posts empty."
Kase continued, "We do not want to run into those little things. They're a real pain, and the larger Goblin Tribes raise Wargs. If you run into them, it's almost impossible to escape."
"Then isn't it dangerous for us to be in here? The Wargs will pick up our scent."
"You're pretty smart, for a human."
Kase glanced around. "But there's no room to keep Wargs in this outpost, and I don't see any Warg shit. So we shouldn't run into that kind of trouble around here. Still, we have to be careful, of course."
With that, the two left the cave and continued on their way.
After walking for another half an hour or so, Colin suddenly spotted a strange plant in a rock crevice.
The plant looked like a tumbleweed. Its pale yellow stems and leaves were densely interwoven, and he could faintly make out small thorns on it, similar to a rose's. Despite the blowing sea breeze, the small plant remained perfectly still.
"Wait," Colin called out to Kase.
'There's no mistake. This is Golden Thistle Grass.'
He had burned the illustrations from the herb shop into his memory. The plant in front of him was a perfect match for the drawing.
"Isn't this just thorn grass? The elders in our tribe use it to treat wounds," Kase said in surprise.
'So you didn't look at anything at all when we were at the herb shop, did you?'
While silently mocking him, Colin felt incredibly grateful that he hadn't trusted the Half-Orc's judgment that day.
After confirming it was the right plant, he wrapped his hand in a strip of cloth torn from his pant leg.
Just as he was about to reach out and grab the herb, the motionless Golden Thistle Grass suddenly gave a violent twitch.
Colin barely had time to register a brown shadow lunging at him.
Then, a powerful force slammed into his shoulder, shoving him aside and allowing him to narrowly dodge the lunging shadow.
He looked back.
Kase, who had shoved him aside, had the snake's head in a firm grip.
The little snake coiled its tail tightly around the Half-Orc's arm, trying to overpower its foe, but against such a massive size difference, its resistance was futile.
With a crunch, Kase bit off the snake's head and stuffed its body into his pocket.
"A nice little bonus," the Half-Orc said with a grin.
"This kind of snake doesn't seem to be worth much money."
"Who said anything about selling it? At least we'll have something hot to eat tonight." Kase gave his companion a strange look. "It's always money, money, money with you. I'm starting to think there's something wrong with your head."
Colin breathed a sigh of relief and quickly turned to cut the herb.
"So this is the stuff?" Kase came over, eyeing it for a moment.
"Basically," Colin said, shaking the dirt from the herb. "How much do you think is here?"
"Definitely not a pound."
They stuffed the snake and the herb into their burlap sack and continued on.
After finding that first stalk of Golden Thistle Grass, they started seeing more of it along the path. They didn't find any other kinds of herbs, though they couldn't be sure if that was simply because they had failed to spot them.
While gathering the herbs, they also picked some berries.
「As evening approached.」
They found a small cave among the countless rock crevices to make camp for the night.
They hadn't seen any large wild beasts along the way, so this place should be relatively safe.
Kase gathered some shrubs and other kindling from nearby, while Colin used a [Flaming Arrow] to light the campfire.
Once the fire was going, he laid out the day's haul on the ground, adding the bread and sausage they had brought.
Kase skillfully dressed the snake. After skinning it and removing the innards, he wrapped the meat around a branch and propped it over the campfire. He stuffed the snake's organs into the small leather pouch he'd brought with him.
To the sound of the crackling campfire, they mashed the berries into a jam to spread on their bread, eating it along with the hot snake meat and sausage.
Although it wasn't very tasty, it was better than gnawing on dry bread.
After eating, Colin used the sack as a pillow and curled up in a corner, intending to sleep.
Lying on the sand and gravel was miserable. Staying in one position for too long made his bones ache. It was then that Colin started to miss his straw bed back home, strange smell and all.
He looked at Kase, who was keeping watch, and said, "After we make some money, let's go buy two sleeping bags."
"Frail human. I don't need something like that." Kase patted his own shoulder in disdain. "That'll just keep your skin from getting tough. You'll end up a weakling. In my tribe…"
Colin yawned, in no mood to listen to the Half-Orc's lecture.
He rolled over and soon fell into a deep sleep.