Published at 20th of November 2020 10:34:26 PM
Chapter 53
Translator: SFBaka
Editor: Thor’s Stone
『It’s morning . Please wake up . 』
I got woken up by Nanom like usual and took a morning bath . In this inn, apart from the scheduled cleaning late at night, it seems you can enter the bath whenever you wish . I was the only one using the bath at this time . Man . Life with a bath available really is the best .
After stepping out of the bath and drying myself up, I proceeded to check the info I asked the drone to collect last night . As I thought, the areas closer to the Great Demon Forest have the greatest concentrations of monsters . Oh, this info looks like it will come in handy later .
It was about time for breakfast so I went down to the dining hall . I asked the proprietress Kirsan yesterday to prepare our breakfast earlier since we planned on departing early in the morning for adventurer work . I did say it would be fine to serve it at the usual time if preparing it that early would be a bother, but Kirsan said she and her family wake up quite early anyway, so she humored my request in the end .
After a little while, the girls also went down to the dining hall one by one . We then proceeded to have our breakfast . The breakfast set was bread with some sort of jam, some salad, and a generous helping of soup . It was your typical breakfast set .
After finishing our breakfast, we immediately went out and headed for the Adventurer’s Guild . We walked for about fifteen minutes to reach the guild building and found there were already a lot of adventurers present .
“It’s still so early in the morning, but it’s already so lively here . ”
“The guild is indeed already so packed in the morning,” Elna agreed .
Everyone was enthusiastically checking out the request board .
“Let’s split up and check out all the B and C ranked quests on the board . We’re just getting a feel for things today, so don’t pick the ones that require us to travel too far out of the city . ”
“”Understood . ””
The requests of different ranks were separated on different sections of the board . We are a C-ranked party, so the highest-ranked requests we can take on are B-ranked ones .
The B rank and C rank sections were not too crowded, so we managed to comb through all the requests before long . We gathered in a corner a bit further from the board so as to not get in the way of the other adventurers .
“Did you manage to find good quests?”
“There wasn’t anything particularly of note, I think,” Elna informed .
Everyone else also shook their heads . There were escort requests and some rare magic stone and material gathering ones, but there wasn’t anything that would fit a newbie party like us .
“Hm . Certainly . Then shall we go for some regular monster extermination quests?”
The regular monster extermination quests are quests that are posted on the board indefinitely and offer fixed rewards . For example, one may require you to exterminate Gray Hounds in the surrounding areas . You can then sell the magic stones at the guild for 300 Guineas apiece, and get a fixed 50 Guinea reward per Gray Hound killed .
It looks like everyone was on board with it, so we decided to proceed . But we can’t just pick one recklessly . We’ll have to decide on a target monster first .
“What do you think we should hunt? I personally think orcs would be good . ”
Orc magic stones go for 600 Guineas each, and the extermination reward is 150 Guineas per kill . They aren’t any harder than Gray Hounds, and they were a perfect fit for us since every member of our party can use magic .
“That sounds nice, but the problem is where exactly the orcs are located,” Elma answered .
“Oh, leave that to me . I kind of have an idea where we can find them . ”
“Haa… Alright . Let us go hunt some orcs then,” Elna agreed .
“It’s a bit far from here though . It’s probably about fifteen kilometers away from the city . It’s a bit too far to reach by foot, right?”
“That’s right . Well, since we do have horses now, why don’t we go there by horseback? It would be good for Tarth and Syrah to get some exercise as well . Let’s just get some more horses from a rental stable somewhere,” Elna suggested .
Oh! So there are actually rental stables huh? That sounds good . We’ll have to ask around to find one then .
We exited the Adventurer’s Guild building in order to search for a rental stable . After walking around town for a while, someone called out to us .
“Are you looking for something bro?”
It was a ten or eleven-year-old boy wearing messy clothing .
“Yeah . We’re looking for a rental stable . ”
“If that’s the case, I can guide you to one bro . ”
“…How much?”
“Te– No, five Guineas . ”
“Alright . Go ahead . ”
“Thanks for the patronage . I’m Teo by the way . There are two rental stables in this city . There’s an expensive one, but it has great horses, and there’s a really cheap one . Which do you want to visit?”
“The expensive one then . ”
“That’s the way bro! J-Just a minute . ”
Teo went to a corner of the street, took the hand of a four-year-old girl wearing a dress akin to rags already, and pulled her along .
“It’s this way bro!”
He started leading the way, but he was walking too fast . He was half-dragging the little girl already .
“Hey, you don’t really have to hurry that much . Is she your sister?”
“That’s right bro . Here Ella, say hello to big bro . ”
“…I’m Ella, big bro . ”
“I see . I’m Alan . Nice to meet you . ”
Fortunately, the rental stable was actually in the same direction as the inn, so we didn’t have to go too far .
“Here you go, Teo . Your payment . ”
I handed him five large bronze coins . In other words, 50 Guineas .
“Eh!? But I thought I said five…”
“Go ahead and take them . Get yourself and Ella something nice to eat . ”
“T-Thank you bro! Thank bro as well Ella . ”
“Big bro . ”
Big bro isn’t the same as thank you though . Oh well .
Elna chose three horses from the stable and Teo received a tip from the stable owner as well . So he’ll be able to earn a little cash every time he brings in customers huh .
The price for the rental was 300 Guineas per day for each horse . There was also a deposit of 10,000 Guineas per horse . Of course, we’ll get the deposit back later once we return the horses . But people without that much money probably can’t afford to rent horses at this stable .
Elna pulled the three horses we rented along back to the inn where we left Tarth and Syrah . Teo also tagged along with us .
“Hm? What’s wrong, you two?”
“No, um, I just thought I’d guide you more since we received too much, bro . ”
“We’ll be going out of the city with the horses once we reach the inn though . You won’t be able to follow after us anyway . ”
“I’ll at least send you all off then . We’re really quite free bro . ”
“Do as you please . ”
“Hey Alan, how about we hire Teo for trash disposal duty?” Selena suggested .
“Oh! Taking out the trash is my specialty . That’s actually my main occupation . I’ll clean up any kind of filth, bro!”
“Hm . Alright then . Might as well . ”
Did we have some trash in need of disposing though?
We had the inn’s stable boy prepare Tarth and Syrah for heading out . Selena and Sharon went up to our rooms upstairs and brought down some of the preserved foodstuffs we didn’t eat during the journey here, including dried meat, baked bread, and dried beans . There were actually quite a lot of them left .
I see . It’s true that these would actually go bad if we didn’t eat them soon, and once they did, they’ll be the same as garbage .
Selena and Sharon really are kind girls after all .
“These are trash…?”
“It’s our leftovers . We probably won’t be able to finish them all anymore . So we’ll give them to you,” Sharon offered .
“T-Thanks a lot, big sis!”
We exited the city while being sent off by the cheerful smiles of Teo and Ella .
It looks like they don’t require people to get checked whenever they go out of the city . We copied the adventurer party ahead of us and showed the guards our guild IDs . We were allowed to pass the city gates without much fuss .
“Okay then . Our goal is in this direction . ”
I went ahead and led the way . The target destination is of course an area near the Demon Forest . It was also called the Sea of Trees, but the areas around Gantz have been mostly cleared, and I confirmed via aerial footage that we can reach our destination without any trouble through horseback .
After traveling for two hours, we encountered five Gray Hounds and three goblins . It looks like there’s a higher concentration of monsters in the areas near the Demon Forest after all .
We dismounted on a spot with a great view of the surroundings due to high elevation .
“Have we arrived?” Elna asked .
“Yeah . The orcs are just 700 meters from where we are currently . The area’s practically crawling with them . ”
“……Is that perhaps an orc settlement?” Elna inquired again .
“Hm? Do those guys actually form settlements? There was nothing about that written in the monster guide though . ”
“They do! Alan, this is too much for us! We can’t just attack an entire orc settlement with these numbers!” Elna warned .
“Really? Um, the number of orcs is about 75 men or so . Hey Elna, is it okay to count orcs as men?”
“…Orcs are monsters you know . Alan! This is reckless! You say there are at least 75 orcs in there… . Wait? …C-Can we actually beat them?” Elna faltered .
“Um, Elna, I think we probably can,” Cleria followed up .
“That’s right . I also think so too,” Sharon seconded .
“…Fine . I understand . Let’s do it then,” Elna conceded with a resigned sigh .
We secured the horses, and I drew a simple map on the ground to help with the strategic planning . In the end, we decided to break through together instead of dispersing our combat strength . If anything untoward happens, we’ll all run back here and make our escape together .
(D-1, make sure monsters don’t get near the horses . )
『Acknowledged . 』
The five of us carefully trudged through the trees . When we advanced two hundred meters, two patrolling orcs started heading in our direction . But they weren’t going straight for us . They should pass us by from the side . Of course, they still didn’t manage to notice our presence .
I signaled for Cleria to finish them off . I used the hand signal for requesting a headshot . Once they came into range, Cleria manifested two arrows of flame and promptly killed the two patrolling orcs .
The orcs fell down without much noise .
We advanced another hundred meters nearer the orc settlement . This time, we encountered five orcs . We moved in even closer and found them sleeping around on a small clearing . They were snoring comfortably .
I signaled for Cleria, Sharon, and Selena to finish them all off via headshot . I continued to give hand signal instructions to specify which orc each of them needs to target . Afterward, the three of them got into position and promptly fired off Flame Arrow spells . All the magic projectiles hit the heads of the sleeping orcs dead on .
Sharon and Selena hit their heads with two arrows and Cleria hit them with one each .
We continued to advance another two hundred meters and found another bunch of sleeping orcs . This time, there were seven of them . Again, I had Sharon, Selena, and Cleria finish them off . Now we’ve cleaned up 14 of them . That makes 61 remaining orcs .
We advanced yet another hundred meters and finally got a glimpse of the orc settlement, which looked like a crudely constructed village . The crude buildings were placed inside a circular clearing with a diameter of about 150 meters . The dwellings were just crudely built sheds lined with long leaves of some sort of plant . Most of the orcs were sleeping underneath those dwellings .
Now that we’ve come this close, it’ll be better to fire magic spells off from a decent distance . Anyway, let’s finish off the ones walking around first .
I signaled for Cleria, Sharon, and Selena to start finishing them off via headshots once more, starting from the ones closest to our position . They fell down one after another, and once nine were killed, a cry rang out from the back of the village . Looks like we were finally noticed .
“Everyone, open fire!”
I entered the village after giving out the order . I locked on to every orc in my line of sight and killed them with high-speed flame arrows . I hit the orcs right in the middle of the brows or right on their temples . Lots of orcs fell dead all at once .
I saw a Wind Cutter spell fly past . It must have been Elna . The heads of several orcs got separated from their bodies . Impressive, Elna .
After I fired off several more flame arrows, a terrible scream resounded from the back of the village .
“T-This is–!? This is bad Alan! That’s probably a General Orc!” Elna warned .
That sounds quite impressive! I finally saw the source of the scream before long . It was an orc several times larger and more muscular than its brethren .
It was still 70 meters out, but it sure has quite a bit more presence than the other orcs . It’s probably more than 3 meters tall .
“Elna! Tell me how dangerous a General Orc is!”
“Alan! It’s a General Orc you know!? U-Um…… Er…… I-If possible… can you try not to aim at its face?”
“…Huh? Okay . ”
I hit the General Orc’s large body with five high-speed flame arrows, and it fell down in quite an anti-climactic fashion .
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The rest of the orcs were already killed off by Cleria, Selena, and Sharon . Oops, there’s some hiding over there . Almost missed them . I finished off the two orcs hiding in the bushes nearby .
With this, all the orcs in this settlement have been killed .
“Alright, operation over! Great job everyone . Hey Cleria, I killed a big prey! Let’s go check it out . ”
I called out to Cleria and went over to check out the fallen General Orc . It really was different from all the other orcs . Its height was about 3 meters and 20 centimeters . It had a savage-looking face and had two tusks protruding from its lower jaw .
“It sure has an intimidating face . Hey Elna, why couldn’t I attack its face?”
“We can sell its severed head for a lot of money . It’s used as some sort of charm against evil spirits or something,” Elna explained .
“Geh . What bad taste . Are you sure people would even want to display something like this in their rooms? Uh, since it can sell for a lot, we might as well take it . Let’s cut it off right away and drain the blood . Harvest the magic stones from the corpses before other monsters come running, everyone . Oh, and the proof of subjugation is their right ears, so don’t forget to cut them off as well . ”
I handed two jute bags to everyone and had them recover the magic stones and the proofs of subjugation . It took about one and a half hours for all five of us to finish collecting the magic stones and ears .
The General Orc’s hut had old swords that were probably from dead adventurers, metal shards, five large silver coins, and a few assorted small coins that were worth a total of 575 Guineas . Man . They sure loved money even though they’re just pigs . Let’s take them too .
“Yosh . Let’s withdraw . ”
“Fuu . Recovering magic stones sure is tiring,” Sharon sighed .
“Yeah . I wonder if there’s a method to take the magic stones from monster’s corpses in an easier manner?”
“But I must say, Alan, the hand signals you taught us were truly quite useful,” Elna praised .
“Yeah . I came up with them specifically to be used in operations like this, so I’m glad they proved useful . ”
We went back to where we left the horses and rode back to Gantz . It’s already past eleven in the morning . We should be back in Gantz by one in the afternoon .
Fortunately, we encountered no more monsters on our way back .
When we reached the city gates, we got off the horses and showed the guards our guild IDs .
“What’s the contents of the bags?”
“They contain the severed ears of orcs as well as an orc head . Do you want to check them out?”
“N-No, it’s fine! Go right ahead . ”
I felt conflicted when we reached the guild building . We should have returned the horses first before coming to the guild, but I was already pretty tired out and couldn’t muster the motivation, so we ended up tying the horses to a spot inside the guild building’s parking lot . We then saw the men that served as temporary guards approach us . Now that I got a good look at their leader, he was blind in one eye . Maybe it’s an old injury .
“How much?”
“Five horses will be 50 Guineas, mister . ”
“Here you go . ”
“Thank you for the patronage . ”
The man and his companions stood guard near the horses .
“Now then, which counter should we report in?”
“It’s most likely that one,” Elna pointed out .
Unlike the usual reception counters, it was placed behind a fairly large booth . A signboard with ‘Assessment Counter’ written on it was hung up on top of the booth in question .
“What is your business with us today?”
The man in charge of the counter promptly asked what our purpose was .
“We’re handing over orc magic stones, right ears, and a General Orc’s head . ”
“Ahaha, you sure make some interesting jokes sir . ”
He gestured for me to hand over the bags for checking, so I gave him the one with the General Orc’s head . He looked at the content of the bag and closed it with a start . He peeked inside again and closed it once more .
“T-This is–!?”
“The severed head of a General Orc . ”
“…So you were actually serious?”
He slowly opened the bag once more and closed it almost immediately after getting a little peek . He tied the mouth of the bag securely .
“I’ll call some more people over, so please wait here!”
The man hurriedly took off after placing the jute bag with the General Orc’s head under the counter .
“What was that?”
“”No idea,”” replied Sharon and Selena as they shook their heads .
“Well, I thought it would turn out like this . I knew it,” Elna sighed .
A total of six men ran out of the back of the guild office .
“Where is it!?”
“It’s in this bag, sir . ”
The newly arrived man looked at the contents of the bag .
“…There’s no mistake . It’s a bit inconvenient to continue discussions out here . Can you all come to the back so we can continue?”
“Alright . Let’s go, everyone . ”
We entered the inner office of the guild and went somewhere which resembled a private conference room . The man who seemed to be other men’s superior placed the General Orc’s head on top of the table without caring about the mess it caused .
“Can you show me your guild identity plates?”
We obediently handed our guild IDs .
“C rank huh . What happened to this General Orc?”
“We hunted it down of course?”
“Where?”
“It was an area about two hours by horse from Gantz . ”
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“Didn’t a report come in about one month ago regarding some sightings?” one of the other men chimed in .
“Probably . But you managed to hunt it down with just five members?”
“Yes . That’s right . ”
“…I can’t believe it . You really finished it off with just five people?”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“……No, not really . So does this mean you wish to hand this head over to the guild?”
“Um, are there other places that accept trophies like this one?”
“…To be honest, with a splendidly preserved head like this one, you can get a good amount of profit by selling it to the Commerce Guild or putting it up for auction . ”
“I see… But will our party evaluation increase if we do decide to hand it over to the guild?”
“But of course . Any adventurer who contributes greatly to the prosperity of the guild will get the appropriate favorable treatment . ”
“What do you think, guys?”
I turned to my party members and asked their opinions .
“I think it’s fine,” Elna answered . The others all nodded as well .
“Okay then . We’ll hand it over to you . By the way, how much will we be getting for it?”
“Oh, we will need to determine it by basing on the previous purchase price . We will need some time to determine an appropriate reward amount . ”
“I don’t mind . We’re not in any particular hurry anyway . Well then, please calculate the price of the magic stones and the subjugation rewards first . ”
I nodded to Selena and Sharon, and they placed the other jute bags on the table .
“These are?”
“They contain the magic stones and subjugations proofs of the rest of the orcs . ”
“Oh, so you managed to hunt more orcs?”
“…Yes . ”
We actually hunted down the General Orc as a bonus though .
The man gestured to another guild staff . The staff opened the bags and checked the contents .
“This–!”
“What’s wrong!?”
“No, um, there is an impressive amount of orc magic stones and subjugation proofs inside these bags . ”
“What!?”
The leader opened the bags in a fluster .
“This–!? Just how many did you hunt?”
“There were seventy-four orcs all in all . ”
The magic stone of the General Orc was a lot larger and more brilliant than the magic stones of the normal orcs, so I decided to keep it . It may come in handy later .
“These were also hunted in the same place as the General Orc?”
“That’s right . It was an orc settlement, I think?”
“……In other words, you all attacked an orc settlement and killed all the orcs living there?”
“That’s right . ”
“Just the five of you?”
“Uhuh . ”
“I see……… I understand . We will calculate your rewards immediately . ”
The other guild staff began to hastily inspect the magic stones and cut-off ears .
“These are undoubtedly from seventy-four orcs sir . ”
One of the guild staff then hurriedly went out of the room . He went back in before long and handed the leader something .
“Well then, an orc magic stone is 600 Guineas each, and each orc kill has a reward of 150 Guineas . Since you hunted a total of seventy-two orcs, your total reward is 55,500 Guineas . Please receive the reward . ”
“Yes, we’ve certainly received them . Thank you very much . Well then, if there’s nothing else, we’ll be going ahead . ”
“Oh, um, please wait . I almost forgot to introduce myself . I am Kevin, the leader of the Gantz Adventurer’s Guild branch . ”
“So you are the guild leader sir . Please excuse my impoliteness . My name is Alan, and I am the party leader of the C-ranked party Shining Star . We will be working here for the time being, so we will be in your care, sir . ”
“No, please, the pleasure’s all mine . Can you also introduce your members, Mr . Alan?”
I exchanged gazes with everyone .
“I’m Ria . ”
“My name is Elna sir . ”
“I’m called Sharon . ”
“Selena . ”
“What an assortment of beau– No, never mind . We’re looking forward to working with you all . ”
“We’ll be going then . ”
We were led out of the room by one of the staff and finally exited the guild building .
“Fuu, it turned into quite the commotion . ”
“I thought it would turn out like this . I knew it,” Elna sighed as she repeated her earlier comment .
Oh, right . We asked those folks to watch the horses .
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“Sorry guys . We took quite a bit of time . Please take this as well . ”
I gave the leader of the temporary guards an extra five large copper coins as a tip .
“…Thank you very much, sir . Can I ask for your name if you don’t mind?”
“The name’s Alan . We’ll be counting on you guys again . ”
“Yes, best regards, Alan-sama . ”
“And what about you? What’s your name?”
“This one is called Jill . ”
“Be seeing you then, Jill . ”
“Yes . ”
We returned the rented horses to the rental stable and retrieved the deposits . It’s nearly two o’clock in the afternoon .
“It’s already so late . ”
“Yes . Um, I kind of want to take a bath right about now…” Sharon muttered .
“Yeah . Me too . ”
Everyone else was in agreement, so after returning to the inn, we all took a nice, long soak and planned to have some late lunch afterward .
It was already almost three in the afternoon when everyone got out of the bath .
“We’ll ruin our appetites for dinner if we have some heavy lunch right now, so how about strolling around in the city and having some snacks?”
“Let’s do that! I want to get used to this city as well,” Cleria exclaimed in delight .
Since everyone was in agreement, we went out to tour around the city .
We saw quite a number of food stalls, but there wasn’t anything particularly appetizing . It was getting late, so we were about to go back when someone called out to us .
“Bro! And the big sisters too! What’s wrong?” Teo asked in a cheery tone . Ella was also following behind him while snacking on some dried jerky .
“Yo! So It’s you, Teo . You came at the right time . Do you know of some stalls selling delicious food? I’ll treat you as well . ”
“R-Realy!? Over here then bro! We haven’t really eaten anything from there, but we keep hearing everyone say it’s really delicious!”
Teo guided us along while pulling his sister, Ella, who was still busy snacking on her jerky, at a fast pace . We came to a wide street, and at the entrance was a food stall with lots of people crowding around . They seem to be eating some grilled skewers .
“It’s this place bro! They all say the food here is really good!”
Mm . What a tantalizing scent . A rough-looking uncle was busy skewering some large meat and vegetable slices and grilling them on a rack .
“Give me seven of those skewers uncle . ”
“Yessir! Please wait fer a bit . ”
After waiting for about a minute, our skewers were finally cooked .
“Here ya go! That’ll be ten Guineas fer one stick . So it’s 70 Guineas, sir . ”
Hm . That’s surprisingly pricey . I handed the guy the seventy Guineas and distributed the skewers to the rest of the group . I also handed Teo and his sister their share .
“Can I really have two sticks, bro?”
“The other one is for Ella, you dummy . ”
“Say thank you to bro, Ella!”
“Bro . ”
Let’s dig in then .
Hmm! This is good! It looks like chicken meat, but it was extremely tender and had a texture I’ve never experienced before . And the sauce is quite tasty as well . It looks like your basic salt and garlic-flavored sauce, but it’s been enhanced with a number of fragrant herbs . It kinda tastes like mirin . This wonderful fragrance is irresistible . I guess it wasn’t ten Guineas for nothing .
“Hey uncle, what type of meat is this?”
I approached the stall and tried asking the rough-looking uncle .
“These are from a Big Bullfrog’s thigh and calf meat . ”
Oh, so it’s meat from a monster huh . If I remember correctly, it’s a type of monster frog almost one meter in size . It was blue so it didn’t really seem all that appetizing, but the meat was actually this delicious huh .
Everyone was also praising how delicious it is . I better not tell them though . I’m not sure how they’ll take eating monster frog meat after all .
Teo and Ella were also scarfing down on their skewers .
“Teo, what about your parents? Where are they now?”
“Mom’s dead . Dad is doing some adventurer work . Uh, but it’s been a year since he last came home so… But it’s not like I can do anything anyway, so I’m just patiently waiting for news . ”
“…I see . Do your best then . ”
“Of course bro . ”
We separated from Teo and her sister and walked back to the inn . It was right about dinner time when we got back .
We enjoyed tonight’s meal as well . As we were eating, Karinsan paid a visit .
“I’m sorry for disturbing your meal, everyone . Alan-sama . ”
“No, it’s fine . Do you want to drink some wine with us, Karinsan?”
“Unfortunately, I need to go back right away . I came here at Silas-sama’s behest . We will be having a modest dinner tomorrow night at Silas-sama’s mansion to celebrate the safe return of Aristsama . If it’s convenient, we would also like to invite you to partake . ”
“How about it, everyone? I think we should go . ”
Everyone seemed to agree, so we decided to accept the invitation .
“Thank you very much . I will tell them your response then . We will be sending a carriage for you tomorrow at five in the afternoon . ”
“Thanks . That will be helpful . We’ll see you tomorrow then . ”
“Yes . I will be excusing myself then, Alan-sama . ”
“Okay then . Let’s finish a regular subjugation quest right away tomorrow as well so we can come back in time for the party . ”
Everyone nodded in agreement . We then turned in early for the night .