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Chapter 35: A Smooth Start
Part 1
On the second day when we were outside the guild, a lizard-faced man's voice reached out to us.
[Ah, hello. We have raised our rank.]
Who is this guy?
Just when I am thinking of that, the bug-eyed woman stands up and I finally remember they are the kidnappers from yesterday.
I think their names are Jaril and Veskel.
Recognizing faces is difficult because there are many lizard-faced people in this town.
One of the reasons why I did not recognize them is also because they are wearing different clothes from yesterday.
Yesterday, Person A wore clothes that were ordinary.
Today, Adventurer A is wearing leather armor that is ordinary.
Even though these two attires are ordinary looking, the impressions they give to others are very different.
[Ah, Jaril-san, thank you for your efforts.]
[W-what's with, the way you're talking, this is uncomfortable...]
[It's keigo. Should I not use that?]
[N-never mind.]
He stares at me for a moment and moves his eyes away.
[Veskel-san, please give me your guidance from today onwards.]
[Ah... Yes.]
Veskel is still afraid of Ruijerd.
Ruijerd is still glaring at them.
Well, that cannot be helped. Just to add on, she is also wearing an adventurer's outfit.
[Then let us go in.]
[Ah, sure.]
Jaril displays an uneasy expression and nods at my words.
Part 2
When we are about to enter the guild, the sharp eyed Horse-faced man sees us and walks over.
[Hey!]
[... Hi.]
This guy is also lurking at the guild today...?
He's really not doing any work at all, right?
[Ara, today you're with 『P-Hunter』.]
[Y-yo, Nokopara, it's been a long time.]
It seems the horse-faced guy and lizard face know each other.
[It certainly has been a long time. I heard about it, Jaril. You raised your rank to C. Are you fine with that? If you are Rank C you won't be able to find pets anymore right?]
Nokopara says that and compares us together with his eyes. The horse-faced man neighs.
[I see. No wonder you did well with the job, your request was done with 『P-Hunter』's help right?]
P-Hunter seems to be Jaril's party name.
I see, this is good!
[Yes! We met each other yesterday when we were searching for the pet! They also taught us the technique to search for the pets!]
I randomly throw in a few lines of lies.
[Ha, ha, the cowardly Jaril finally has his own student! And it's the fake Superd, hahaha...!]
This misunderstanding is really good for us.
This fellow is really simple.
The horse-faced man laughs for a while and suddenly looks behind Jaril.
[I say, where's Roman, what happened to him?]
[Ah, hm... Roman is... dead.]
[Is that so, that's really a pity.]
Roman should be the guy's name whom Ruijerd killed yesterday. Nokopara only reacted faintly after hearing about that guy's death.
Among the adventurers, it's probably not a big deal when someone dies. Could it be only me who is finding it to be a big deal?
When it comes down to it, Jaril and Veskel were not particularly concerned when Roman got killed as well.
[But since Roman is dead, why are you raising your rank up? Isn't he the strongest in your party?]
[T-that's...]
Jaril looks at me once.
Nokopara neighs, no, he snorts and nods.
[Ah—– Hoh—–, I see, you don't need to say anymore. So it's like this—-. Since you have an apprentice, even if it's just a little it's still pride!]
Nokopara arbitrarily comes to an understanding on his own, noisily pats on Jaril's back and returns to the interior of the guild. Jaril sighs with relief.
But what's with that guy, sticking to us from day to night. Could it be possible that he likes me...?
No, maybe in his eyes there's only Ruijerd, meaning...
No, I am just kidding.
[Well, let's take a look at the requests.]
When we enter the guild, there are still people who cast curious glances at us.
I should just ignore them for now.
It is better to behave like we are apprentices. I ask Jaril as we both look at the requests from D to B ranks.
[What's the difference between gathering and harvesting?]
[Eh? Ah, hmm, harvesting is pointing to plants, gathering is most likely pointing to monsters...]
Jaril gives a vague reply, but it certainly seems to feel that way.
Gathering refers to living creatures, and non-living creatures is harvesting.
As examples, the request for gathering is written as,
=======================
C
– Job: Gather fur pelts
– Reward: 6 Iron coins
– Job Contents: Pack coyote fur pelts * 20
– Location: Outside of town
– Duration: None
– Time limit: None
– Name of Requester: Adventurer's guild.
– Notes: The fur pelts are running low. Please assist us. Do not take down this request, just bring your gathered fur pelts to the counter.
==========================
As I read I suddenly remember, the materials that were sold to the merchants are 4 iron coins. They really underpaid us...
No, perhaps this request's rewards are overly high, usually the transactions for such materials are not that high.
[Ruijerd-san.]
[What is it?]
[I must apologize, I think we should earn money and raise our levels at the same time.]
[... Why are you telling me this?]
[If we do this, we need to postpone that matter for a while.]
Even though I informed Veskel and Jaril to spread Ruijerd's name, I do not have high expectations for them.
I have considered it.
They have courteously received our mission, and so I will basically not interfere with their actions.
Without interfering, I will not be able to oversee their actions.
If someone sees them do any criminal acts and their claims are made that Ruijerd forced them to do those acts, they will be laughed at because their ranks are higher than him, as well as the fact that he is also seen as a fake by others.
[I see. I got it.]
After receiving Ruijerd's assent, Jaril and I discussed the requests that we received.
Part 3
After greeting the gatekeeper, we walked outside of town.
Pack Coyotes, Acid Wolves, Grand Tortoise and Giant Rock Turtle.
These Monsters are our targets at the outskirts of the town.
We are to gather the fur pelts of the Pack Coyotes, Acid Wolfs fangs and tails, the Grand tortoise's meat, and the Magical stone from the Giant Rock turtle.
First of all, we will ignore the Grand Tortoise as the meat is too heavy.
The priority will be the Giant Rock Turtle, as the Magical stones from them are small and it can be sold.
Even though our priority is on the Giant Rock Turtle's Magical stone (which is a pretty good conversion for money), but there are just too few. They will also not appear near the town.
In the end, the Pack Coyotes were chosen as our focus, since a single battle allows us to hunt them in a group, thus it's easier to earn money from them.
Our request is gathering the Pack Coyotes fur pelts. The advantage in hunting them is to allow us to gather the materials quickly, and considering the time to search for the enemies and skin them, hunting them is like hunting the Acid Wolf.
Of course, once we see an Acid Wolf we will also hunt it. Even if we did not receive requests related to the Acid Wolf, it is better to gather the materials first before waiting for such a request. When we do receive a request, we can simply bring it to the counter and finish everything.
The largest group for Pack Coyotes is at most 10 of them together, and considering the time to search and skin them, we can't hunt very many in a day.
At first I thought that it would turn out that way.
After we killed the initial batch of Pack Coyotes and skinned them, Ruijerd collected their bodies and brought them to one spot.
When I was contemplating what he was doing,
[Can you use Wind Magic to carry the scent of blood?]
Ruijerd's query answered my question.
It is to use the scent of blood to lure them.
I follow his request and use Wind Magic to change the wind directions to blow everywhere.
[Even though we can't hunt the Giant Rock Turtles in this manner, the surrounding Pack Coyotes will gather together.]
It ended up how he just said.
On that day we ended up hunting over 100 Pack Coyotes, and it feels like we have hunted all of the surrounding Pack Coyotes.
Well, that possibility should be zero.
But this is hard labor.
Ruijerd and Eris kept killing the endlessly approaching Pack coyotes, while I skinned them for their fur.
After 30 of them, my hands felt like lead and my shoulders started to hurt, and I was a little nauseous from the smell of the blood.
It would be much easier if we killed them and they all turned to Magical stones...
Even though I kept complaining, I still continued to work.
But after 70 of them I reached my limit and exchanged with Eris.
Using Magic to kill the Pack Coyotes was much easier than skinning them.
In order to take them down and not do any damage to the fur, I made a minor adjustment to lower the strength of the magic, and killed them carefully one by one.
As expected I am more suited to use my mind to do such work.
After skinning around 30 of them, Eris started complaining.
She is indeed unsuited to do this type of laborious work.
I considered to have Ruijerd skin the rest of them, but there was enough at hand, and we needed to separate them into batches to carry to town.
[Wait, we need to burn the bodies first.]
Ruijerd says before we started moving them.
[Burn? Are we going to eat them?]
[No, Pack Coyote tastes terrible. We need to burn the bodies and bury them.]
If we leave the bodies, other Monsters will eat them and increase in population. But if we just simply burned them, they would still get eaten by other creatures.
Also, if we simply bury them deep down in the ground, they might become Zombie Coyotes.
In order to prevent such a thing, it is necessary to follow the procedure of burning first and then burying it.
Just cleanly take their fur pelts > Take the risk of letting them become Zombie Coyote > The guild does a request of suppressing them > Remove them.
I am thinking of this money linked process, but I am stopped by Ruijerd.
It seems that it is forbidden to intentionally increase the number of Monsters.
I wish that someone would write this local rule somewhere.
[But we didn't do this step along the way right?]
[If it's just a few there should be no problem.]
Even though I am uncertain of where to draw the line, the current amount of bodies here might be the start of a plague.
Since there is no special reason to refuse, I burn the bodies into charcoal.
The sun has already set when we finished transporting all the fur pelts. Today's hunt should end here.
I worked a lot today, and I really want to go back to the inn and rest.
But do we need to continue doing this endless gathering tomorrow?
Even though I really want to take a good rest tomorrow.
[We really earned a lot today! Let's keep at this pace tomorrow!]
Eris is full of energy.
I can't complain in front of this Eris.
Part 4
Three days later, [Dead End] rose up to E rank. That was pretty fast.
[Good work.]
I say an appreciative line to Jaril, and handed 10% of today's earnings to him.
[T-thank you...]
I do not think it is a big figure, but this amount of money should be enough for them.
After I inquired about a few things from them, I got to know they are different from the other adventurers.
They seem to have a fixed job in this town.
[What kind of job?]
[It's a pet store.]
I see. To sell them and kidnap them later on.
They are really corrupted merchants.
[Don't do too many bad things.]
[I know.]
In the beginning, they captured the wild animals in the town and gave them a little training to become pets in their pet store.
His race, the Lugonia, seems to be quite good at training wild animals. Their training methods have been handed down from ancient times, and they are able to make everything from wild dogs to the most prideful beast submit.
Hmm, hmm. They are really an incredible race.
If Ruijerd and Eris are not here, I would not have stayed silent and would have certainly said [Please teach me this technique at any cost], nuzzle my head against him and become his apprentice.
Well, leaving that aside, the pet shop is certainly a good job that combines the job of removing harmful animals too.
The adventurer's guild should be their side job.
[You already have such a good job, why do you need to kidnap the pets...?]
[At first it was to protect them, but it ended up getting too tempting.]
They got tempted into this and became intoxicated with it, thus ended up like this?
[But it must be tiring to operate a pet shop and become adventurers right?]
[Not really, since there are a lot of pets.]
It seems they open the store until afternoon, then do requests until evening.
[Well, we won't say anything else as long as you accomplish the requests.]
[Just leave it to us. We're still low tiered adventurers after all. We're also spreading the Dead End's name properly.]
Is that really true?
Part 5
Our current wealth —- 6 Iron coins, 8 Scrap Iron coins, 5 Stone coins.
We're slightly richer now, so we head off to buy some common defensive equipment.
To start with, we will go to the peddlers to buy some everyday clothes.
Eris buys things very quickly. She chooses attires that are durable and easy to move in as the rationale. She did not buy any dresses, and all of them are long pants.
Although they are suited for young people to wear them, it is not very fashionable. These clothes were chosen under a situation she has considered thoroughly, but she should buy at least one dress that's a little more feminine.
So I look around the store and find a pink frilly dress, and try recommending it to her, but the result is her showing an obvious expression of distaste.
[... You want me to wear something like that?]
[Is there anything bad about you buying one?]
[Then Rudeus should buy something more manly.]
Eris forcefully hands me a leather skin vest that looks like bandits attire.
For a moment, I think that it is a good exchange for me to wear this if Eris wears the frilly dress, but after imagining the two of us standing together wearing that, I gave up.
After buying the clothes, we walk to the armor store.
Right now, Ruijerd and Eris do not have any major injuries. Any small injuries can be immediately healed if I use Healing Magic.
So I asked if it is fine if we do not use armor.
Ruijerd replied with a [It's better if we have them.].
My Healing Magic is unable to heal life threatening injuries and any missing body parts. Since Eris does not have much experience in real battles, it is possible to sustain life threatening injuries due to a moment of carelessness.
So buying the armor seems to be necessary. It's better to listen to Ruijerd on this point.
The shop space for the armor store is quite big, but it is really different compared to the Asura's stores. This place has a more rustic feel to it.
Once we are in the store, I can see goods that are slightly more expensive than the peddlers. Even though the goods are cheaper at the peddlers, and might even have something that is a great buy, the store's goods are more diverse and the quality is assured.
Also, there are more varied sizes, since we're wearing children sized clothes.
Right now I am helping Eris pick out armor. There are many different types when it comes to the chest size.
[It's best to pick a better armor to protect the heart...]
[This will do.]
Eris wears an armor that is about the same size as her and asks, [Is this fine?].
I will not pass up any chance to look at her chest.
... Hmm, it is definitely growing.
[You should buy a bigger sized one.]
[Why's that?]
You want to ask why?
[We're at the age where we're growing. If you buy something that just fits now, you won't be able to fit in it after a while.]
Saying this, I pick an armor that is bigger by one size.
[Isn't this loose?]
[It's okay, it's okay.]
Eris complains at the same time while she buys protective gear for other various parts.
After the recent battles, she is also clear about the areas where it is easy to get hurt.
Leaving the various joints and vitals aside, what about the head?
If it's too heavy the speed will decrease, but the head is also a vital area, what should she use?
[How about this helmet?]
I try recommending a helmet that looks like it belonged to an end-of-the-world tyrant king's younger brother.
Eris bluntly shows a repulsed expression.
[That looks horrible.]
I get refused.
The youths nowadays don't seem to have a taste for the finer things.
After trying a few more helmets, with the reasons of too heavy, too unfashionable, too smelly, the field of vision is too narrow, we ended up choosing something like a headband.
The headband seems to have an iron plate sewn into it, and it seems to be called a Hachikin.
Just to add on, the hood is just used to cover the red hair, and it's useless to use it as a defensive armor.
[And that's it. How is it, Rudeus! Do I look like an adventurer?]
Eris spins around quickly with the attire of an adventurer's light armor, along with a sword that looks like a cutlass received from Robin.
To be honest, it looks like cosplay, although the size of the chest armor doesn't fit at all.
[It looks very well-matched on you. Ojou-sama, no matter where I look at, you're like a veteran warrior.]
[Is that so? Ohoho.]
Eris places her hands onto her waist, looking at herself while smiling.
During the time when Eris is smiling, I bargain and lower the price to 1 metal coin.
As expected, a full set is expensive.
[Rudeus is next!]
[I don't really need it right?]
[No! You need to buy a robe! Robe! Like a magician!]
Becoming a swordsman, while adventuring with her childhood friend magician.
Eris seems to yearn for such a scenario to become adventurers like that.
Even though there are days where it seems she cannot sleep at night, the Eris in the daytime is actually quite bold.
Well that is fine. I'll go along with her.
[Oji-san, is there a robe that suits me?]
Hearing that, the old man in the armor store silently opens up a closet.
[These are for the Hobbit race.]
There are various colored robes, and every one of them has a subtle difference to them.
There are 5 colors —- Red, yellow, green, blue, gray. They are very lightly colored.
[Are there any differences in the colored robes?]
[The robes are made from Monsters' fur, and they have a little resistance in them.]
[Red is fire, yellow is earth... how about the ash colored one?]
[That's just ordinary cloth.]
I see. No wonder the ash colored is at half price. There are some slight differences in pricing for the other colors as well, it probably has something to do with the difference in the materials.
[Rudeus is suited for blue!]
[Why's that...]
If it's close combat I might get blown away by the explosion's shock wave, perhaps red or green is better.
Is it going to be the fox or the raccoon?
[Lad. What magic do you use?]
[I can use all types of attack magic.]
[Hoh. That's impressive. Even though you look so young... Well, even though you need to add a little money...]
The old man says this while taking out a relatively darker gray robe, almost like a rat's color.
[This is made from Mackey rat's hide.]
[Mickey mouse?]
[It's not mouse, it's rat.]
My mind has an image of a guy with red short pants and black color on him, and I quickly brush away that image.
That's really dangerous–
Even though it feels like a cloth to the touch, it is actually made from an animal's hide?
[Are there any effects on it?]
[Even though it's not magic resistant, it's very durable.]
I try wearing it.
[It's a little big, is there anything smaller?]
[This is the smallest.]
[There should be something for children right?]
[There's nothing like that.]
Why do I feel like the judo practitioner who tries wearing a Normal Suit for the first time.
Well, since my body is still developing, this size might be fine.
The quality is quite good as well, and it's durable like he said, which might have some slashing resistance.
And the rat-color is pretty good, the name and the appearance match each other.
[Well, I'll buy this.]
[You like that? I'll sell it for 8 iron coins.]
[Well...]
I try lowering the price and buy it for 6 iron coins.
I also bought a different colored headbands for Ruijerd and me. If it's necessary, the headband can be used to cover the Magic stone on Ruijerd's forehead.
Why did I buy my own headband?
Because I do not like to be out of place with my friends.
I let Ruijerd observe Veskel at the same time when we went to buy our things.
Even though I did not expect much from them, based on the work they do there is a possibility that our reputation drops.
Thus I let Ruijerd observe them.
He said, [If you're so worried, you shouldn't party up with them in the first place].
You are right.
But thanks to them, we have a surplus of money, and our position is at a neutral standpoint.
Based on the conclusions, they seem to be doing an earnest job. Even though it's F rank, but they did not show any signs of disliking it, and had placed their full efforts into it.
Veskel received a quest to eliminate bugs today. It's a request to eliminate these disgusting things in the kitchen.
She is from the Zumeba's race, and there is poison in her saliva.
That saliva has the capability of luring and killing bugs immediately, or paralyzing them to become the Zumeba's food.
To sum it up, getting rid of bugs is her forte.
The person who made the request is an old woman. She's an eccentric old woman whose lips are in a へ shape.
Ruijerd feels that one will be chased out if she's just a little displeased.
But Veskel did not have any conflicts with her, and quickly exterminated the bugs.
Ruijerd confirmed it as well, and there were no bugs left in the house.
After that she fills the gaps with a thread like thing, and blocks the areas where the bugs could enter.
[Thank you very much Veskel, those bugs had been bothering me for a long time.]
[There's no need to thank me, if you have any other requests, please leave it to 『Dead End's Ruijerd』.」
[『Dead End's Ruijerd』? That's your party name now?]
[Something like that.]
Veskel converses with the old woman.
[If the bugs come again, please use these.]
She finally gave a few vials of her saliva to the old woman and bid farewell.
The request was completed.
She met up with us in the adventurer's guild and collected the payment.
[So from how you described it, they are working hard.]
[... Ah.]
She did her job perfectly, far beyond my imagination. She became acquaintances with the old woman, and even did a service job. Compared to me who blindly imitates others to do things, she had done a better job of impressing others.
[It seems like they are not completely bad people.]
[So it seems.]
Well, even though I'm a little suspicious of them too.
But they should not have any burdens just bringing up the name Ruijerd.
They probably have the mentality of "earning money without any worries", and the probability of betraying us is lowered.
[But the truth that they did bad things cannot be erased.]
[But they are trying hard now like Ruijerd-san.]
[Hmm...]
Even criminals will not continue to do bad things. Just like them, like myself, like Ruijerd.
I did not specifically warn them about kidnapping pets, but they have already stopped doing that.
Well it has only been three days. It's still early for them to forget about the bad memories where they nearly died after their deeds got exposed.
[But the only praiseworthy thing might only be now. If there's another chance it's better to observe them.]
Ruijerd frowns when he hears me saying that.
[You... don't trust the people you work with?]
[Of course not. The only people I trust in this town are you and Eris.]
[... Is that so.]
Ruijerd seems to stretch out his hand to put it on my head, but he did not do so.
Even though I trust Ruijerd, I feel like I have lost his trust.
Well, even if it ends up that way it is fine.
My goal is to return to the Asura's kingdom with Eris, and repair the Superd race's reputation.
Gaining Ruijerd's trust is not my goal.
[Let's go.]
We slowly walk back to the inn under the Magic-illumination stones' light.
—
I think the start of our adventurers' lives is progressing smoothly.
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