Althea and Garan’s first goal, the legendary Elyssian Stone, was said to be—if it existed—in the desert area. Specifically, where the Undead resided.

Since they were heading to a place teeming with them, they might as well finish a mission as well. Further, they could also find out more about who set such a mission, and perhaps they had more information about what had been going on in there.

Of course, there could be anonymity in the missions, but since they were delivering items, they could find clues.

The plant, the igneus flower, was something Althea was familiar with thanks to Dune Town.

It had already been an established fact that many subsidiaries, allies, and even guests would continuously bring any plant they could that was not endemic around Alterra. This was one of the first desert plants that reached Alterra.

It was a plant that grew exclusively in the desert area on what should be this world’s succulent plants. They were not exactly rare, even bordering the ’common’ status, but they were troublesome to collect en masse.

After all, the desert was a dangerous place and one difficult to traverse. The plants were also sparse. Even if some grew in clusters, those clusters weren’t too large.

While the cactuses grew flowers fairly quickly, how much could a forager actually gather in a day? The local demand was also not low.

This flower had quite a lot of uses. The petals, when brewed into tea, could help with dehydration and prevent heat stroke.

The powdered petals, on the other hand, could help preserve food, like salt. The effectiveness was much less than salt, but it was much more affordable.

Dune Town had a lot of this, but not much reached Alterra. The demand and need for it locally was too high, and it wasn’t like Alterra didn’t have better alternatives.

For a place like the desert, however, the petals were lifesavers.

Speaking of Dune Town, the couple wasn’t planning on heading there for now. The location of the undead was at least a day away from Metteo, while Dune Town was more than a day away in the opposite direction.

There was inevitably a large portion of the trip that would be on foot, so it was impractical to lengthen that part of the trip. They did, however, send Post from Metteo Town to Dune Town that they had arrived in the area. Dune Town didn’t have to do anything or send anything for now, but it was better that they were prepared to depart if they needed them.

Anyway, even if Metteo itself was not in the desert, the temperature was already on the high side.

They knew the place they were heading to was a little hot, so they dressed for the occasion before they even entered the territory. Althea wore a sleeveless shirt and breathable cotton pants, while Garan wore a light-colored v-neck shirt and tactical-style trousers.

On top of this, they had breathable coats to protect their skin while also covering their current attire. People here were conservative after all. This way, they felt airy while not directly exposing their skin to the sun. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Althea also took out her electric hand fan from the Specialty Store. It was charged solar even before she left, and she even had power banks on hand.

The employer was someone called Josef, a merchant in the town. They met him in his store located somewhere at the business district. Before heading in, they studied the mission and the employer a bit since he didn’t set it up as anonymous.

Interestingly, the mission was continuous, which was to say, people could repeatedly take it. They also found out that the same mission was also posted locally. This showed that the owner had a consistent need for the undead cores.

When they arrived, the middle-aged man was leisurely reading a papyrus book at the counter. His shop specialized in selling processed Igneus petals, mostly in tea or powdered form.

"You must be the mercenaries from the outside," he said, putting the papyrus down. "Basically, just take them here, and I’d exchange them for a bit of ingenus flowers. If you want them processed, I can give that, but naturally, the quantity will be different."

The two of them nodded, but did not leave immediately. Instead, Althea went forward and handed a little gift, which was just a few pieces of Alterran candy.

These were normal candies. Althea would never give away mana candies, even if she had buckets of them, since she would probably need them someday.

This might look stingy in Terran standards (and it is), but these were rare delicacies here, and even a few pieces showed a lot of face.

"This..." Josef’s eyebrows rose as he looked at the sweets. "What are they?"

"A gift," she said. "Just a little snack."

Josef slowly unwrapped them to check. He was a merchant, so he did have an eye for products, even if they were unfamiliar.

He bravely put it into his mouth, and his eyes brightened, and the explosive and interesting fruity sweetness partnered with unfamiliar texture and hardness.

"This should not be cheap, at least not here," Josef said, looking at the couple with interest. He had already made transactions with dozens of people over the years, but this was the first time he was given a gift.

"We like to maintain good relations with fair employers," Althea said, smiling.

Other than Maika, who had already gone back to her base and her family, this was the first connection they had with Metteo.

Since Metteo had a mercenary hall, this could be one of their mainstays whenever they send people in this region. As such, it was good to get established early on.

Not to mention, a man who could establish a big shop and post permanent missions should have a considerably large wallet.

"We have a few friends in the area. It makes me curious why you need so many undead cores," she said.

Medussa saw that they could become power sources, though with various processing in between. Did the locals use it the same way?

"They are fertilizers for the Igneus Plant," he said. It was no secret. His father had to declare it early on. After all, those undead had always been seen as morbid things that cause illness.

Even his igneus farm was outside the territory. Those undead also tended to be attracted by the concentration of cores.

It was why he really, really welcomed hunting of those buggers.