Chapter 44: Making a Fortune from Scavenging

They had been exploited by this fellow for over a year, and several of his clansmen had been eaten by him. To say they held no resentment toward him would be impossible.

Especially Gorse; every time he dealt with him, he was trembling with fear, terrified that the ogre would treat him like the previous leader of Black Well—biting his head off like a crunchy snack.

Now that the tables had turned and the power was in his hands, it was only natural to recoup some costs. Scrub him, scrub him, scrub him to death!

The kobolds previously singled out by Gorse, seeing that he was unharmed, immediately sprang into action. They proactively ran over, grabbed some horse brushes, and joined the great scrubbing endeavor.

Whether goblins or kobolds, most of these small humanoid races spent most of their time being oppressed by larger creatures. They had accumulated massive amounts of resentment, and once given the chance, they loved nothing more than bullying large creatures to release the years of hatred and malice they had stored up.

Even though ogres are naturally thick-skinned, the sensation of a horse brush made of stiff bristles scrubbing against their flesh was definitely not pleasant.

Under normal circumstances, the ogre would have flown into a rage long ago and crushed these three little creatures, who were jumping around like tiny fleas, between his fingers.

But now, the ogre could only plunge his head into the cold river water to clear his mind and prevent himself from doing anything stupid.

He never wanted to experience that feeling of being unable to live and unable to die ever again.

The side effect of Anna's previous healing spell—the removal of hair—had made this bathing task much easier.

Even so, they scrubbed for more than half a day. By the time the ogre emerged, his skin was rubbed bright red, and the smell clinging to him had noticeably lessened.

The odor on his body hadn't formed in a single day, so it naturally couldn't be removed in one either. While it was still impossible to see various parasites crawling in and out of his tattered hide clothing, things were already looking much better.

The large hemp sack the ogre had carried earlier was also dragged over by other kobolds and presented to Gavin.

As soon as it was opened, the stench nearly knocked Gavin off his feet.

It was essentially a giant trash bag; the ogre had stuffed just about everything into it.

Half a deer, a dozen battered goblin daggers, several chunks of low-quality cast iron, and a few glittering crystals.

The most valuable item should have been a fist-sized piece of raw gold ore.

Gavin barely spared a glance for these items, including the gold ore. What truly caught his attention were those few crystals.

Gavin beckoned to the ogre, who immediately trotted over and crouched down to look at him—not out of politeness, but out of a subconscious need to protect his heels.

Gavin flashed the cleaned crystals at him and asked, "Where did these come from?"

The ogre scratched his bald head, trying hard to remember, and said uncertainly, "Should be... from those goblin tribes ahead. I can't remember which ones specifically. Anyway, anyway, when I left, it wasn't full."

"What about your home? Do you have more?" Gavin knew that pressing further was futile; the fellow before him looked like he wasn't particularly bright.

Ogres were already famous for being dim-witted, but this fellow was likely considered relatively intelligent among ogres. An average ogre wouldn't have thought of the tactic of exploiting other intelligent beings; this was likely related to his mixed heritage.

From the first glance, Gavin knew this fellow's bloodline was impure, likely mixed with orc or goblin blood.

The slightly greenish tint to his skin was secondary; the main thing was that his build was shorter and his waist thinner than a purebred ogre.

A purebred ogre usually stands nearly three meters tall, whereas this fellow was only about two and a half meters. However, among kobolds who average about one meter in height, he was a super giant.

"Home?" The concept clearly didn't exist in Hou's mind.

"The cave. The place where you live, where you keep your things."

"Don't remember." The half-ogre scratched his bald head again. It felt strange; he wasn't quite used to being hairless and felt a bit of a chill.

"Lead us there." Gavin hadn't originally been very interested in the half-ogre's pile of junk and had planned to let Gorse take a few kobolds to clean it up when they found the chance.

What good could a bandit who extorted things from kobolds and goblins possibly have?

But those few crystals changed his mind. He decided to make the trip himself—one might actually find treasure in a pile of junk.

These crystals were called Spirit Crystals.

In the hands of ordinary people, they weren't worth much; they were just pretty stones, at most used for jewelry, and even then, their value wasn't exorbitant.

But in the hands of a psychic practitioner, their value was immense.

Their affinity for spirituality allowed them to contain psychic energy. If infused with psychic energy, they became Spirit Vessels; if infused with psychic skills, they became Psionic Stones.

The former could replenish the psychic energy of a Psion like Gavin, while the latter could release the psychic abilities within them without consumption, much like a magic scroll.

Another use for them was to create Spirit Crystal Servants, which functioned exactly like a wizard's familiar. Gavin's Psion feat was "Affinity with Spirit Crystals," allowing him to create Spirit Crystal Servants, but he had never managed to obtain a sufficient quantity of crystals, so the ability had remained dormant.

Now that he saw an opportunity to acquire a large amount of Spirit Crystals, how could Gavin let it pass?

The half-ogre Hou's cave was not far from Black Well. After winding through various paths for nearly ten kilometers, it was fortunate that Hou's sense of direction was decent.

He was a local bully; usually, he was the one harassing others, and no one dared to provoke him. Because he was leading the way, no one dared to cause trouble.

The mountain path was somewhat difficult to traverse, and since Gavin was driving a cart, it was even more troublesome. Fortunately, the half-ogre was strong enough that, combined with the horse's power, they could push it through.

When they were still over a hundred meters from the cave, Gavin knew they had arrived.

The smell was simply too massive and pungent, hitting them straight in the head. Gorse and the group of kobolds were all rolling their eyes from the stench.

Gavin, however, didn't even blink. Compared to a pile of corpses in the middle of June, this smell was nothing.

He had guessed correctly: scavenging the half-ogre's cave was like treasure hunting in a landfill.

Not only were there scraps of metal extorted from goblins and kobolds, but there was also his daily household waste—various bone fragments and excrement were piled up everywhere.

Fortunately, he had anticipated this and brought a small squad of kobolds.

This dirty work was naturally left to them, while Gavin was responsible only for inventorying the goods.

If you dig through enough trash, you can eventually find treasure.

Hou's trash pile had been accumulating for quite some time, starting from his mother's generation.

However, the things his mother had collected accounted for less than a tenth of the total, because his mother wasn't as clever as he was; she relied entirely on brute force to seize things from other races.

Although his mother's pile was smaller, the treasures unearthed from it were somewhat better than Hou's, because many were items left behind by adventurers who had come to crusade against her. Although they were old and somewhat battered, they were still better than most of the tributes Hou collected from goblins and kobolds.

Even if they were just scrap metal, since Gavin was here, he didn't intend to let anything go.

They still had value for smelting, which was higher than the value of most raw ore.

The Spirit Crystals Gavin valued most were mostly collected by the half-ogre Hou, but this man of poor taste had a very unique aesthetic.

These little things, which most intelligent beings would find beautiful, were nothing but useless trash in his eyes. He only brought them back out of pure greed; because they were small and didn't take up much space, he simply dumped them into his storage pile along with the rest of the garbage.

This made the collection process for Gavin and his crew as difficult as sifting through sand, as they had to screen the half-ogre's trash pile inside and out.