Read Novel Full Chapter 215
Chapter 215
Hello, I apologize for the delay. My mother’s condition worsened, so I rushed back to my hometown, a 10-hour drive away, to see her. Now that her condition is improving, I have returned to my home and am finally able to work on a few chapters. I hope you understand my situation, and thank you for your patience. Cheers, and please enjoy the chapter~
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Chapter 215 – The Start of Mercenary Life
“Hmm, this feels unusually heavy. Did the scale break?”
“No, I don’t think so. There’s quite a lot of it!”
At the dismantling site inside the Hunter’s Guild in Grille Morg,
There, an old man weighs finely crushed magic stones in leather bags.
I was nervous he would notice my inner thoughts, but I had to keep a straight face and act cool.
It took me half a day to break the large magic stone, and I cried while doing so.
I smashed the magic stone against another magic stone. When it was roughly broken, I covered it with a leather bag and used all my strength to punch it.
My fists needed time to recover, and the physical discomfort was excruciating. Needless to say, I vowed to myself that next time, I would go to the dismantling site with confidence.
Next time, I won’t stop halfway with such a half-hearted “contraction.”
I managed to crush them all. Though it was half-hearted, the old man was surprisingly sensitive when I brought today’s haul to the dismantling site.
Looking inside, he picked up a single piece and said,
“There’s something oddly round about this part…”
“The color is a bit different from the others, isn’t it?”
He started nitpicking, and I couldn’t help but think, “This old man is actually pretty impressive, despite his appearance!”
Then he said, “It’s heavy.”
Come on, give me a break!
It’s evening, and everyone is waiting in line, so hurry up!
“The total weight is 52 kg. Did you handle a giant one?”
“…Why?”
“There was a sighting today. A Poison Cloud was seen high in the sky. It seems to have scattered quickly in the wind.”
“H-Huh, really? Does that happen sometimes?”
“It only happens once every few years and spreads to a height of several tens of meters. Sometimes, on days when the wind is strong, it absorbs other magic stones, but the wind ends up dispersing it quickly.”
“Hoho.”
“Hmm… Now that I think about it, the wind wasn’t that strong today. The magic stones the hunters collected weren’t big enough to cause something that huge. What’s going on?”
“E-Everyone was lining up! So please hurry!”
I hurried the old man, who had started some strange speculation, to collect the wooden boards. Then, I ran away from the demolition site as fast as I could.
I’m grateful to have learned that the Poison Cloud grew larger due to the wind rather than the passage of time, but my thinking was a little too simplistic.
With such dense mist rising so high into the sky, it wouldn’t be surprising if someone saw it, no matter how remote the location.
In reality, it wasn’t even dozens of meters high.
This is it. If I had just waited, I probably would have had a serious battle with the hidden boss, assuming everyone around me would have noticed.
I had planned to secretly hunt the boss, but it didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. I finished exchanging it for money, and my shoulders slumped.
From there, I avoided growing too large and split the currency exchange into two sessions, morning and afternoon. I focused on prioritizing the number of monsters defeated.
If growing larger accelerates skill level-ups, then I would grow until I could reliably defeat the boss within my current range.
No skill changes were observed while contracting into black mist, so it must emerge after the Poison Cloud and contraction are complete.
These two patterns must categorize the monsters completely separately.
Enlarging similar monsters halfway in the future would only be a waste.
Understanding this is another step forward.
After a day of hunting, I always stop by the mercenary guild to check the request board.
Incidentally, I only check two boards: “Capture and Extermination of Criminals” and “High-Reward Requests.”
I ignore “Escort Requests” and “Large-Scale Domestic Requests or Long-Term Requests” because hunting is my top priority.
(Hmm, there are still some left today.)
I’m particularly interested in information related to bandits and thieves.
“Capture and defeat criminals” requests are special because many of them don’t require you to accept the request after viewing the public information.
Some may be requests from the lord, but they’re similar to emergency search requests for hunters. It’s basically first come, first served.
Once I complete a request, I just need to report back with proof to receive the reward. I want to know how quickly these requests disappear.
I tracked their progress daily.
I found that about five bandit- or thief-related requests or escaped criminals were posted daily, and one of them was replaced daily.
While this is not always the case, I was able to determine that requests rotate at this approximate pace.
Today is the ninth day.
The other day, I successfully reached level 8 for Poison Resistance and Vaporization, and I’ve become quite wealthy. It’s about time to move on to another town. At that moment, I noticed the two remaining requests.
As someone obsessed with efficiency, wasting my time on a fruitless mission is the last thing I want.
To avoid that, I decided to consider all possibilities and ask around first.
I grab the request board. Ugh! I can’t reach it!
I jumped up, tore down two wooden boards, and rushed over to Milfy-san, breathing heavily.
“Excuse me, can you help me?”
“W-What’s the sudden rush?”
“These are two capture-and-defeat requests that have been pending for over nine days. Do you know why that is?”
“Let me see. Ah, I see. There are a few possible reasons.”
“I’m trying to decide what to do, so could you give me some advice?”
“Hmm… Sure, I can help. If the requests stay open too long, it’ll lower our evaluation here. The most likely reason is the area.”
“By area, do you mean it’s far from this town?”
“That’s not entirely wrong, but it makes it hard to find the target. The Matonbalsa Mountain Path is extremely wide and rugged, and there are multiple routes through it.”
“Ah, I see. So it’s like a territory, and it’s hard to narrow down their base?”
“Exactly. If they’re stupid bandits, they’ll stick to an easy spot and get wiped out quickly. But if they’re smart, they’ll move around to avoid being tracked. There’s also a chance they’ve left this area and are hiding somewhere else.”
“Hmm…”
“Then there’s the simple case where the target is just too strong. It’s not very common, but it’s possible, especially with this one. It’s been over half a month since the request was made, and I’ve heard the damage continues, so that’s likely.”
“So this is the one with a 9.5 million beeke bounty for extermination, with the possibility of a bonus depending on the circumstances if captured?”
“That’s right. As a related point, the reward itself might be too low, causing mercenaries to avoid it.”
“Ah, strong mercenaries won’t move for low rewards, right?”
“Correct. You haven’t accepted a single request yet, but you’ve already figured out how the mercenary system works.”
“Ugh…”
I feel like I’m being made fun of, but I’ll just endure it.
It seems like I’m getting payback for asking so many questions during the initial explanation.
After that, I asked a barrage of questions, and now I’m being crushed as I was in the past. It’s as if I’m not even a mercenary.
I’ve been here for a while, so I’m waiting for the client to raise the reward. Now that time has passed, the bargaining has begun.
There are also rare cases where the client is a noble’s protégé, and the information was leaked before the request was made, so they’ve already disappeared.
They even told me about some really crazy cases.
Yeah, maybe Milfy-san is actually a nice person.
“The town in the north is called ‘Musco,’ and there’s a mountain pass called ‘Matonbalsa’ on the way there. The estimated numbers are around 10 to 15 people. The reward for extermination is low, but I think I’ll go for it.”
The south is more likely to be stronger.
For now, I want to aim for the B-rank hunting ground in the northeast, so I’ll efficiently target the likely candidates on the route.
“Go ahead. It’s supposedly B-rank, but you might die right away.”
“I-I’m not that weak, you know!”
“Sigh… Until you complete about five requests.”
“What?”
“More than 20% of mercenaries die by then. Keep that in mind.”
I understood when I looked into Milfy-san’s eyes.
This is serious, I thought.
The risk of death probably isn’t that high for escort requests.
Judging by the reward amount, this seems like a reasonable, long-term, stable job.
So, I’ll go with this one:
I’ll target the criminal and take on short-term, high-reward jobs.
These two will account for a significant portion of the death rate.
There also seem to be some confidential requests where the details aren’t disclosed. However, they’re not the kind of requests a rookie mercenary like me can take on.
“Thank you for the advice.”
I thank her sincerely and leave the guild.
Don’t get carried away.
Don’t let your guard down.
Just when you think you’re safe, death can strike at any moment in this world.
Despite my advantage of game knowledge, which allows me to predict some future possibilities, this is still the case.
This means that I’m still shallow in my thinking. I’m not cautious enough. I’m too focused on short-term gains.
I’m inviting risk because of my flaws.
On the other hand, I think my knowledge is also causing me to deliberately take risks.
To avoid dying, I must strengthen my resolve.
I will do so with renewed determination the next day.
If masks are acceptable, then Kushikatsu should be as well. After stopping by the church to give Ril and the others some meat, I left Grille Morg, where I had stayed for about ten days, and started mapping my route north.
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