CH 10

Chapter 10: Quest

Before going out on an expedition, we always meet at the Grandes Church beforehand.

In the morning, we were all in good condition, but just as we were about to leave, I stop and call back Jend and Cyril.

Jend: “What’s wrong Henry? Are you not feeling well?”

Cyril: “Do you need to go to the bathroom?”

Henry: “No. That’s not it.”

I wave my hand in a gesture of denial.

We’ve been adventuring together for quite a bit now, but there is still something we have yet to do. We need to talk about that.

Henry: “What do you both think about performing some quests today?”

Quests are job requests made to adventurers.

It is difficult for normal civilians to go about doing things in demon-filled areas, and there are materials such as certain plants and precious metals that can only be gathered there.

Of course, if they have nothing else to do, Adventurers may collect some of these resources, but there are very few who specialize in this area, and in most cases, there are severe shortages of these resources year-round.

I’ll pay you a reward, so please go collect these things. This is the most typical resource collection quest available.

But there are others. Some ask for very specific drop items from demonic creatures, and sometimes you are asked by the Kingdom or City to vanquish certain demonic creatures causing problems.

And finally, most adventurers are exceptionally strong and can use spells, so there are jobs catered in asking for assistance in a day job when there’s not enough help.

Well, anyways, if the church inspects the reward and quest contents and finds no issues, most jobs will find their way to the quest board.

There are some who start making a better living performing a certain kind of occupation and transfer out from being an adventurer. Adventuring is an unstable job and position afterall. We are all the followers of the god, Grandes, but we are not employed by the church directly. And there are many adventurers who do expeditions as a side job to their main occupation.

Jend: “Quests, huh. Now that I think about it, I haven’t taken any. I thought you had to be an established adventurer before accepting them.”

Henry: “You got it backwards. Most adventurers start off with no money or skills so in order to buy proper equipment, they’ll do easy quests in the beginning.”

Of course, there are quests that are only given to trusted adventurers.

But for resource collection quests, as long as you bring the goods, they won’t turn you away.

Cyril: “Huh… but it’s not like we need the money right now.”

Henry: “In the future, when you’re trying to accept a big quest, if you don’t know how the paperwork and quest acceptance process works, you’ll be pretty embarrassed when that time comes.”

Cyril: “Oh… I see…”

Henry: “And no matter how strong you are, no one who is not approved by the church will be able to become a Heroic Warrior. Instead of only taking demonic creatures slaying quests, performing these other quests will make the church pause and take a second look at you.”

When you complete quests, you actually have more interactions with the church rather than just going by their sell counter with drops. Yes, it can be cumbersome having to do this often, but having the church personnel know your name and face will come in handy in a lot of ways.

If I started solo adventuring in this area, my first step would have been to start completing random quests left and right to get settled.

Jend: “Well, if that’s the case, let’s do it. What kinds of quests should we do?”

Henry: “Hmm, well. Usually, the resource collecting quests are the go-to starting point for all adventurers, but we’ve been slaying a lots of demonic creatures, so they should have some idea of who we are already.

I gesture to them to come with me, and we all head to the church’s receptionist counter.

If you had some qualifying goods to complete quests, you can typically find them posted on the Quest Board and tell the receptionist that your items are for that quest.

Let’s see if we can take some other type of quest today.

Henry: “Hey, good morning.”

Receptionist: “Oh hi, good morning Mr. Henry, Ms. Cyril, and Mr. Jend. Are you not leaving to go on a Hunting Quest today?”

Henry: “Actually, I was hoping to see if there are any quests available that will be just right for these two. It will be a great experience for them if there are any available.”

Receptionist: “Oh I see. In that case, please hold while I search through the available quests we have on hand.”

Ms. Felicia moves through her files very efficiently.

She is a clergy of the church and is wearing a nun’s outfit.

She has voluminous breasts that raise up her outfit that makes it look sexier in a way, and she’s slender beauty, so I typically go to her when I need something here.

All the other adventurers think the same way, and there’s a line that forms right here. I even heard that there’s a fan club somewhere.

Cyril: “Henry, all men should be a gentlemen, right?”

Henry: “Ow ow ow! Stop it, Cyril.”

And somehow Cyril picks up on my vibes, and tugs hard at my ear from behind.

Felicia: “Hehe, you two get along so well, even though you’ve only been a party for a month or so.”

Henry: “You think so?”

I feel like anyone can get along with Cyril without effort.

Felicia: “Thank you for your patience. These are the quests the church can offer to your party at the moment.”

The church will meticulously inspect your abilities, reliability, and background behind the scenes. They make note of your conduct at the church, your movements during training on the training grounds, rumors spread by other adventurers, and your score with the gods which is impossible to cheat.

And of course, my team has our data collected, reviewed, and assessed. With all this under consideration, we got the following quests

On each sheet of paper, we have the contents of the request, the period of time to complete, and the associated rewards. There are about 5 pages worth, and we thumb through the results together.

Henry: “So what do you guys think?”

Jend: “Hmmm… well, to be honest, I really don’t know. Are these really jobs for adventurers? I feel like some of these have nothing to do with expeditions.”

Cyril: “Right? Look over there. On the board is a White Bear’s liver quest. What about that?”

Henry: “Don’t ever sign up for rare drop item requests. If you get stuck with one, you may be working on it nonstop for months.”

Those kind of quests are fulfilled by adventurers who got lucky.

Henry: “And for your reference, I recommend this one.”

I show them the sheet I chose.

“”whhhhaaaaaaaat….”

Henry: “Hey, trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

Jend: “Well, if you insist Henry. I’ll give it a shot.”

Cyril: “Yeah, I guess I don’t mind, but will I be of any use with this request?”

What are you talking about, Cyril. These kinds are requests are actually more perfect for you than Jend or I.

Henry: “Alright, we can accept this request right away, so let’s go to the Quest giver.

We finish the paperwork to accept the Quest, and with our adventuring gear still on, we head to the meeting spot specified.

・・・

Ms. Felicia gave us the following options.

Removal of abandoned building

Guard duty to the port town

Patrol duty of the main roads

Sewage cleaning

Field clearing request

We chose the Field Clearing Quest.

We will help clear the ground for expanding the Flowtier farmlands. We go to a spot in the wilderness, and we will cultivate the land so it’s ready for seed planting.

Directed by the supervisor, we first move the giant boulders that are in the way. This used to be part of the forest, but the trees have been cleared away, and now they need to clear out the rest of the obstacles.

Jend: “Can I ask why you chose the quest for us?”

I move a 5 meter tall boulder with Jend’s help and carry it across the field.

Henry: “Hmmmm? We’re appealing to the public. This is partly for show.”

Jend: “...to the public? Show?”

Henry: “Yeah, we’re spreading our recognition and fame to the local townspeople. If we work diligently and have the skills to complete the job, they might give us a better quest later down the road.”

In Flowtier, Jend is the son of a famous local merchant so he is pretty widely known.

But when asked about his adventuring, the gossip will stop at, “Oh I heard he’s an adventurer.” “Oh really?”

And now comes the benefits of this quest.

To be frank, moving a builder of this size will be tough for any average adventurer.

The other quest participants are looking at us with jaws dropped. Of course, there a few who can use physical strength boost magic and are not adventurers, but they would be nowhere near our level.

Henry: “By showing off our strength, the rumors about us will shift with more recognition like, “Daaaaaaamn, did you see Jend, my bro? He’s a macho libre strong.” Or “Man, this job can only be done by Mr. Jend, the master muscle builder.”

Jend: “Putting your terrible impressions of the townspeople aside, I get what you’re saying .”

What? Terrible? What are you talking about. That’s totally how people talk nowadays.

Henry: “Of course, you’ll be recognized if you finish the other quests properly.”

Like demolishing an abandoned building. Cyril can do it in one shot, but she would only be seen by the supervisor. Jend and I would have no role to play.

The guard duty to the port. Only the people you’re guarding will see you work, so it’s low visibility as well. Plus, you shouldn’t take on jobs that take multiple days to complete so easily.

Patrolling the main roads. Boring.

Sewage Cleaning. Who’s gonna watch you do that?

So all in all, out of the 5, this was the best quest available.

It was a wide area, and the boulders we’re holding back the crew and causing delays in their schedule, so the people were very thankful for our help.

Henry: “And we have to use our local sorceress to our advantage, right?”

Jend: “I didn’t think you could use magic like that.”

We glance towards where Cyril stands after the boulders are removed.

Cyril: “[GROUND POUND!!] HAHAHAHA——!!”

Cyril unleashes her spell with a full smile. The ground explodes.

The hard top soil breaks up revealing the softer soil below. And she also takes out the tree trunks and roots that were deep in the ground at the same time.

The amount of dirt she blew up totaled to a few hundred tons. This would have taken 30 mages to do what she just did.

Using spellcraft actually tires you out mentally and emotionally. Cyril did all of this with one spell, but the mages would have had to repeatedly perform the same spell to cover the same amount of ground. This would have fatigued them greatly.

She had to sing for about 5 minutes to store enough power into her spell, so this would not have been very practical to try in actual combat. Even so, this is incredibly useful when you need a large scale spell for a job of this magnitude. There are lunatics who can do the same thing with magecraft, but I’d rather not think about it.

Henry: “Here we go, and done!”

I drop the boulder in the discard space.

Henry: “Is that it for the big ones?”

Jend: “Yeah, the rest you and I could carry alone.”

Yeah, don’t group me with you. There’s a couple of boulders still left that I would have trouble on my own.

Even if we are both physical boost magic users, Jend is power, and I use mine for speed.

Even if my overall magic capacity is larger than Jend’s, Jend has more ability to pump more magic into his physical boost.

I can win in a race, but not in weight lifting.

We still have to go collect the tree stumps uprooted by Cyril too,

We already did 3 to 4 times more than our pay grade, so I guess we can take it easy.

・・・

The noon sun peaked at its highest point when we took a break.

This quest included a lunch.

They packed salted rice into a large ball which is a dish served in the island country of Rishu. They call it onigiri. It’s served with salted meat and pickled vegetables.

….this is a meal catered to hard labor workers.

But since coming to Flowtier, I have yet to be disappointed by the food, so I take a bite.

Cyril: “Fwew. Rice after hard work really hits the spot. It’s delicious.”

Henry: “Cyril, you’ve been firing off large-scale spells left and right today. Do you still have magic left in you?”

Cyril: “Hehe, don’t underestimate me, Henry. I did use up a lot, but I can still keep going and do the same thing this afternoon.

This girl… even from a conservative point of view, she’s a monster.

She has more magic capacity than anyone I know. Her only downfall is her physical frailty.

Cyril: “Hehe, so which plot of land wants to suffer the wrath of Ms. Cyril next?”

Henry: “There’s none.”

Cyril: “Excuse me?”

Cyril tilts her head to the side.

Henry: “Think about it. You already blasted every inch of the land set aside for development. Now they’re going to sow the seeds and fertilizer, and finalize the agricultural planning.”

Wow, I can’t believe we finished that work in less than a day. Jend and I did take care of the majority of the heavy lifting. I thought about taking it easy, but they were complimenting me so much, I ended up lifting up 10 tree trunks at once and carrying it all.

Because of that, all of the work for us was complete. We can go home after we eat. Since we finished a job that was supposed to take a few days in half a day, he’s giving us a bit of a bonus on top of our reward.

Cyril: “Nooooo——, I haven’t been able to fire so many spells like this ever… It is a little boring casting the same spell over and over though..”

Of course. Under what other circumstance can you blow up the ground for acres at a time and not call it ecoterrorism.

Cyril: “OH! I got it! Why don’t I just completely decimate the Flowtier Forrest altogether?! We’ll get so many points that we’ll be drowning in them!”

Henry: “Idiot.”

Cyril: “Owie—“

I karate chop her head.

We leave the forest alone because gathering demonic creature drops and rare forest resources is part of the economic structure of Flowtier. Destroying that is equivalent to destroying the city from its foundations.

But Cyril should definitely already know this.

Henry: “Do you joke around because you like it when I hit you? You a masochist?”

Cyril: “N-O-O-O-O… It’s just a light joke to spark more conversations.”

Remembering how energetic and motivated she was blasting her magic at full power today, I don’t think she was purely joking.

Cyril: “I’m not as careless and irresponsible as you think. Don’t you think the frontlines could use my power?”

Henry: “I know they can, but don’t you think about going! This isn’t a joke!!”

I’m starting to wonder if she wants to go to the frontlines just so she can blast her full magic power without reservation...

—-holding these doubts in the back of my mind, our first day of questing came to an end.

In the following days…

A mountain of construction requests asking for Cyril piled onto the church receptionist’s desk. Poor Ms. Felicia.

I knew Cyril only wanted to use large-scale spells so we kindly refused any quests that did not require a large area spell.