CH 283

Our Next Objective

After the ability assessment was done, I went to the same old northern plains to test out the [Effect Spread] skill but………..

I tried various things but found no clear effect or change in my body, and ended up wasting time.

Although my inability to figure the skill out left me feeling a bit frustrated and gloomy, but since I had already promised to talk with Esta and Ralf this evening for our upcoming plans, I had to stop my testing midway and go back to [Gorush].

When I got home, the others had not yet returned but, by the time I was done taking a shower and freshening up, the two and Snow were back home as well.

“Sorry, the guild was really packed and it took longer than usual to just report the request completion, which made us all late.”

“Don’t worry, I only came back just a while ago as well. So, did the request go well?”

“Of course! Even without you Chris, we’ve become capable enough to complete platinum rank requests on our own!”

“Ralf may be acting all proud, but in reality a lot of our success is thanks to Snow working especially hard. We mostly focus on killing enemies that Snow missed out on, and really, things have been quite easy thanks to that.”

“I see. Good job, Snow.”

“Aurf!!”

Giving some headrubs to Snow who came running to me, I praised it a lot as thanks for doing a good job in my absence.

Once we’re done talking, I should reward it with some nice fruit and meat to enjoy.

“Hey, not just Snow,  I’m also working pretty hard to keep the enemies’ attacks from reaching you guys aren’t I!?”

“Yes yes, anyway, we should start our meeting already. We’re already late as it is.”

“I suppose. Don’t you two want to take a shower first?”

“I ain’t that dirty today so I can wait until later!”

“Same here. I can also take a shower afterwards.”

“I see. Then let’s start.”

We sat down on the chairs around the table in a circle, and got ready to have our usual meetings.

Putting down the sweets I bought while returning from the northern plains down in the centre of the table, I began speaking first.

“Alright, right away, let’s first decide how we’ll move from tomorrow onwards. I know we have a bit of leeway when it comes to money thanks to you two continuing to complete requests but, do either of you have any recommendations?”

“I think we should continue doing more requests and save up a bit more money. We used up quite a lot of our funds during the Roza forest expedition, so I’m still worried even if we have a bit of leeway now.”

“I feel like we should try something different now! We already got a huge reward in the way of the fruits of skill from the expedition so we don’t need to be so cautious anymore!”

And the opinions are split already.

I get both of them but, quite frankly, this time I agree with what Ralf said.

We’ve made the agreement with the princess and I have finally gotten the fruits of skill that I had longed for so it’s not an exaggeration to say that in terms of preparations, we’re almost done.

Of course, sometimes that itself can make you restless as well but, now I really want to make some progress and move forward with my main goal.

“I understand where Ralf’s coming from but, you have to remember Chris-san only just recovered from his illness, we should wait until he’s back fully fit and running again before taking any big steps. We haven’t even seen the full strength of what new skills he has gained so we too should slowly get used to his new skills while facing monsters during requests.”

“…………well when you put it that way, I have no rebuttal! What do you think Chris?”

“To be honest I agreed with Ralf originally but, what Esta says is not incorrect either. While making a bit more money, we maybe should take a few requests that allow us to test our party coordination and chemistry once again. That might the best choice for now.”

Looks like we’ll focus on doing requests with me rejoining the party from tomorrow in that case.

With the fruits of skill in hand, I did think that it was time to start getting ready to go to the capital now but, before anything, you need money for that.

Then there’s also the skill I gained most recently that I haven’t fully figured out yet, so it really might be better to continue doing some requests and test various things about this new skill.

“I think that settles our plans for the upcoming weeks but, once we have enough money, what then? Both of you said that we should try something new and different didn’t you? Do you have something in mind?”

“The Dungeon of course! Klaus and his party beat the 50th floor didn’t they? Then that’s the best way for us to test and compare our own abilities!”

“……….I’m sorry Ralf but the Dungeon is not in our plans for now. I personally am also very interested in it but, the dungeon is too peculiar of an environment and there’s too many uncertainties. I just don’t see any merit in going dungeon diving at this point, and challenging the 50th floor just as a test of strength is nothing more than  waste of time.”

“EH!? I thought you were excited for it too, but we’re really not going to do it!? I mean, we’re in Edestor, and when you think of Edestor, the first thing you think of is the dungeon right!?”

“Once I have accomplished my main goal, we can always come back and challenge it later. Don’t the dungeon floors go even beyond the 50th? It’d be more fun when we’re not at a time limit and can take our time going through it all.”

“……….well if you put it that way, sure! But it’s a promise alright, we’re going to come back. No excuses later!!”

Of course, it depends on whether I can actually survive after fighting Klaus but, I do want to challenge the dungeon at some point.

It’d be fun to compete with the [Moonlight Fangs] as well, so when everything’s over, I’d love to come back to the dungeon.

“Well, if the Dungeon is out of the picture, what exactly did you have in mind Chris-san?”

“yeah yeah! Is there something else you wanna do then?”

“It’s the place we went for our first request here in Edestor. I have been curious about it since the day we came.”

Both of them tilted their heads in confusion as it didn’t click inside their head what I was talking about.

A lot has happened since we came to Edestor so it makes sense that they don’t recall but………I bet Bors-san will be really sad if he saw them like this.

“I’m talking about the Barbadd mountains of course. Remember, that’s where we went with Bors-san?”

When I said that, both of them hit their palm with their fist having finally recalled it.