Edited by Pantherocker
Volume One – Chapter 02: Getting recruited and deciding on the trip
Even though he had only become an adventurer recently, Loren had some knowledge about goblins.
An extremely ugly creature that had the shape of a human. Their skin color varied from light to dark green and their height barely reached that of a child. Their range of activity went from forests to swamps to mountains and they bred at a very fast pace.
They have a cruel attitude and they were not very intelligent. Even a person who does not usually fight against monsters could manage to defeat a single one.
They are indeed famous for being weak and were often called a 'tiny demon' but the real threat came with their numbers.
On top of their ability to mate with most other creatures and have offspring, those children grew up to be adults that were ready to repeat the same process in only a few days. That's why it's generally tough for a novice to keep up with their huge number as they do not show signs of diminishing no matter how long they're subjugated. It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that their tenaciousness could beat that of a dragon.
While sitting in a different chair with the young man and gazing at his party member, Loren thought that it was normal for the young man to consider a goblin subjugation quest to be easy.
His name was Safy.
He had become a swordsman right after registering in the guild and strove to join some people who were likely to become heroes in the future, which was something that Loren, who was the same age as him, didn't relate to. He considered asking the reason that made him so fired up about becoming a hero, but since he could see himself spending the night in his seat listening to the young man's enthusiastic explanation, he decided to keep silent and ignore his speech while it was still short.
Sitting next to Safy was a girl with a light brown hair, who seemed to be a thief, blushing while watching him elaborate on his delusion.
Her name was Naron, if Loren still remembered the name correctly.
Apparently, she was Safy's childhood friend and they moved together from their home village looking for a town where they could become adventurers. She chose the thief class because of her agility and dexterity and joined Safy's party in order to support him.
Though, despite the title of the thief, she was not a criminal.
There was a distinct difference between an adventurer thief and a normal one. That is the fact that an adventurer thief would not get arrested if claims to be one were true.
Of course, once thieves dirty their hands in something that a normal thief does, they could be arrested as a criminal.
Next to the thief girl a magician girl was watching Safy with an unconcerned face. She wearing a dark blue robe and her staff was leaning against the table.
She was making an expression as if she was uninterested in his speech, but Loren didn't overlook her odd behavior of waving her blond hair while stealing a few glimpses of Safy. It was pretty obvious that her uninterested behavior was just an act to hide her true feelings.
Her name was Oxy. She became acquaintances with Safy and Naron the day when they registered in the guild and had joined their party at that time.
Loren was impressed after realizing that she was around the same age age him, not because of the appearance but the implication that she graduated as a mage at such a young age. Her staff was proof enough.
Safy told him that she could use magic three times a day, though Loren did not understand what was so great about it. After all, he had never met with a mage when he was a mercenary.
A magician is generally recruited by either a country or nobles and even if that was not the case, they ended up being adventurers like Oxy. As far as Loren knew, there wasn't a magician who worked as a mercenary.
In any case, she must be a powerful mage, as Safy was proudly talking about her skills. Loren could not help wondering how a mage who could use magic only three times a day could be of any help. However, it looked to be natural he concluded, after observing both Safy and Oxy, so he didn't bring that question up. Loren believed that reading the mood in certain situation was an important skill for a mercenary to have to live a long life.
If he were to speak anything that were to flow into his mind, it would only result in unnecessary quarrels, which was not a good sign for someone who worked as a mercenary.
Loren moved his sight once again to the last person, who was sitting next to Oxy.
It was a girl with a long black hair styled in a ponytail and wearing a white priest uniform.
Her name was Lapis.
The girl, who had told that she served the God of Knowledge, was smiling bitterly and seemed to be slightly troubled.
She became a party member after Safy and Noren moved to this town. According to Safy, she was the last one who joined them.
She was an inexperienced girl who had officially become a priest just recently, and dared to chose the adventurer path instead of working in the church as a way to pile up more experience. To Loren, she looked pretty different from the rest.
It was told that a priest could bring forth fragments of miracles by praying to their god, but that did not necessarily mean that they were overpowered. Especially in Lapis' case. She had told him that she could only use her techniques two times a day while seeming to be embarrassed. Of course, Loren did not understand why she seemed so embarrassed.
Loren thought that it would be just because compared her attack limits with those of Noren who could use magic three times a day. But still, that did not explain the reason behind her shame.
Needless to say, a priest does not exist inside a group of mercenaries for the simple reason that such an upper class being who could rarely be witnessed outside the church would not go out of the way and choose to participate in wars as a way to make a living.
He did think that it would be convenient for a priest to be a part of mercenary group since he had heard that they could heal wounds and remove poison.
It made him feel that life did not go as a person wanted now that he met a priest for the first time right after his group got wiped out.
"So how about we start discussing the quest."
Loren thought that Safy would get eventually tired and stop talking, though the young man didn't show a sign doing so, forcing Loren to interrupt his speech.
As a result, he was pierced by both Safy's discontent glance—who looked like he was disrupted in a good place—and Naron's gaze. Naron did not make the least bit of effort to hide her displeasure towards him. Loren let out a big sigh in his mind.
He could not wave away the feeling that he was picked by the wrong party while he was in a critical situation.
Leaving aside that Loren was still a novice as an adventurer, having people with little experience surrounding him was not reassuring.
What made him further confused was that everyone except for Safy in the party were females.
Concerning the roles, the team had a good balance however, the ratio of females to males was overwhelming.
Loren once heard from his comrades that a team with too many females tended to fall into many problems, although he had never experienced it himself, as a mercenary group did not recruit females.
This was indeed a topic on which any woman would frown upon hearing, but Loren had heard enough stories about some groups breaking or splitting due to those kinds of problems to be able to judge its credibility.
Despite that, Loren kept on convincing himself with the excuse that he joined their party for the sole purpose of earning money and turned to address Safy.
"We won't achieve anything if we keep chatting like this. I don't know about you guys but I'm pretty much broke. I'd like to talk about this quest you invited me to join. Is it a problem perhaps?"
"Yeah, you're not wrong. We already know about each other now, so I guess it's about time to move on to the real matter."
"Hey, Safy. Are you really fine with bringing this guy?"
It was Naron who displayed her complainants with a satisfied face when Safy was about to start speaking.
"He was a mercenary, right? Are you sure you want to let someone who does anything for money join our party?"
Loren was astonished by her cruel misunderstanding but did not object.
In fact, there were plenty of mercenary groups who would do any kind of job, however filthy it may be, if it meant money for them. However, those groups represented only a small percentage of current mercenaries.
If someone were to accept any kind of dirty job without making any distinction he would surely end up dead from a grudge no matter how many lives he had.
A wise mercenary soldier is the one who avoids such disturbing jobs. However as much as wise mercenaries exist, there would always be unwise mercenaries too, and the unwise ones were the people who would increase the infamy of them all.
"You're the one who told me it would be dangerous to be a vanguard alone."
"Yes, I did. But you could have chosen someone else you know."
"It can't be helped now."
The one who interrupted Naron's complaints was Oxy.
"It's not even possible for a party of novices like ours to find a good adventurer who can help us out. I think that just the fact that he has actual fighting experience is already a plus for us."
"That might be true, but… what do you think Lapis?"
Naron asked the priest girl as if she was asking for support. Lapis then glanced back at her and switched her sight to Loren. She tilted her head.
"I wonder, he doesn't seem to be a bad person."
"Ahh, I should have expected this reply from someone who was raised to be a priest. You're saying that because you don't really know anything about mercenary soldiers."
"You're right that I don't know much about mercenaries since I was brought up in a church, however, I still have the eyes to discern people."
Naron snorted with an uninterested face after hearing Lapis' answer.
"It's not like he will be part of our party forever."
Despite knowing how troublesome it would be to work with this party, Loren thought that it was much better than wasting more time searching for another one.
Back in his mercenary days, he teamed up with many people he didn't like, so enduring it this time as well wasn't something that hard for him.
"It's just a temporary partnership for this quest, so please be patient."
Property of © Fantasy-Books.live; outside of it, it is stolen."I can make you a permanent member whenever you want you know."
Loren remained silent in response to Safy's invitation.
Loren knew very well that nothing but demerits came out from joining a group that was unable to build friendly relationships.
If he was in a slightly better financial situation, he’d have already gone to look for a new party.
"Our quest this time is about goblin subjugation. The client's request is to exterminate all the goblins that left the forest near a village in the east. It will take us 3 days walking to arrive there."
"The village is Ain, right? Since we were going to such a faraway place couldn't you pick a better quest?"
Safy made a complex expression in response to Naron's complaint.
The person who helped him out once again was Oxy.
"You mean the quest of exploring the newly discovered ruins? There's no way we can take that quest. Even the guild will want to entrust it to a notable party."
"We will always keep accepting cheap quests if we keep saying that."
"We need to accept this kind of quests as much as possible. That way the guild will notice our achievements and start giving us important jobs. So for now, just endure with this quest."
With Safy's reply, Naron halted her arguing while making a displeased expression and pouting.
While feeling disappointed by the lack of unity in the team, Loren tried asking a question of Safy.
"And do you know anything about their numbers or the way they're moving?"
"I don't. All we know is that the villagers encountered them while hunting in the forest and escaped. Well they're just goblins, their number doesn't matter." declared Safy with an easy mood.
Loren felt a bit uneasy about his optimism, but considering that goblins were indeed weak monsters he decided to not press him with more questions.
"If things keep going like this, I think we should depart tomorrow. What do you think?"
"Well… why not?"
"In that case, everyone should prepare their luggage for the trip. Let's meet at the eastern gate tomorrow, okay?"
No one objected to his proposal, but Loren pondered about his financial situation.
Once he bought enough food for a six-day trip his wallet would really be empty. But it should not be a problem since they would probably be camping in the night, not to mention, he could find some animals to hunt on the way too.
Thinking that it would be okay if he could eat at least one meal a day, Loren declared that he had no objections, resulting in a temporary dissolution.