Advantageous Negotiations

The Balua Forest northeast of Legol is an important lumber harvesting area for Legol.

Lacking resources, Legol has high demand especially for timber as building material. Huge amounts also needed as firewood in winter.

The clear detriment of it also being monster habitat can’t be ignored, but somehow people can’t live without the forest’s bounty.

Scattered through Balua Forest are several work sheds, providing simple lodging and workbenches for tool maintenance and repair.

Used by hunters, forestry workers and more, these work sheds aren’t open to just anyone however.

Use is restricted, only permitted for those with guild … Read the rest

The Reward of a Single Arrow

“Wait. Pitfall trap here.”

I stopped the trailing Artemis members and crouched by some bushes.

No doubt about it, concealed by the branches. An artificially set trap.

Just ropes to snag limbs and restrain, but a huge pain if you get caught walking through the woods.

Traps like this require nearby colored ropes indicating trap placement, and numbered tags sold by the guild attached to the trap itself, but this had neither.

And buried at the trap’s base were iron fragments to further weaken snared prey. Quite the full set of egregious violations.

Country … Read the rest

Something Like a Counterbalanced Spear

I ended up taking a joint request with Artemis.

The flow being they want me to prove I have the fighting ability to protect Raina if I’m going to keep taking her out. Can’t call it overprotective. No one wants to entrust a young woman alone to some sketchy guy.

Above all I’m aware I come off as a weird old dude, so I know this sort of reprisal would come somewhere down the line. Not the first time my skill’s been tested either.

The quest to assess my skill was a 2-day forest search.… Read the rest

The Lonely Foreigner

After an influx of newbies, things in the guild start to settle down after a while.

The clearly unfit wash out and quietly return home, while the reckless idiots quickly become a nuisance for the city guard and get thrown in jail.

The new party “Lightning that Slays Gods” had their leader fall to criminal slave status and disbanded in a flash. They couldn’t even slay goblins, let alone gods. In a sense that was record speed collapse…

Then those unable to earn money consistently break apart and vanish rapidly.

Having way too many members with no … Read the rest

Life is Shrimp

Today’s fishing haul was 10 river shrimp and a cyclops eyeball. But Raina caught all the shrimp. Can’t put on any senior airs at this rate. I need to study up on fishing techniques for next time it seems.

“A cyclops wandering around, crazy stuff. There weren’t any standing requests for it right?”

“It was over by Silsalis Bridge or something, just one on the other side of the river.”

“That’s bad news. Gotta send someone to investigate.”

At the processor I had them check the cyclops parts and write up an exchange ticket to turn in … Read the rest

Shrimp Fishing and Outliers

New guild members fresh out of training can’t really contribute as battle force to any quests.

First, they can’t do security jobs. These are just country kids with no connections backing them up.

If they were relatives of a village elder or something they might get a letter of introduction and be able to take jobs through the guild, but basically no one trusts some no-name kid with important work.

Material collection is tough too. It’s not like most citizens here don’t have farming experience. Any eye-catching herbs and plants that fetch a price have pretty … Read the rest

Guilds have parties.

…I guess I don’t need to explain what they are at this point? But just in case there are some endangered species out there thinking “Guild parties…? Like festivals…?” I should give a brief explanation. There are some subtle differences, after all.

Parties are teams formed by multiple guild members.

Groups of 2 or more can register as a party, and can take on and post quests under the party name.

It’s like adventuring parties in Dragon Quest – hero, mage, warrior, priest, etc. It should be easy to understand if you imagine something like that.

Though … Read the rest

**Portable Rations and Wasteful Spending**

When the harvest season ends, the prices of grains plummet dramatically.

And what happens then is the cost of stuff like porridge and bread decreases just a little.

I should have glad to hear that. But the truth is I’m not at all happy about the fact.

That’s becase the carbohydrates in this world aren’t delicious. It’s not that I want white rice specifically because I was Japanese in my past life. French bread or naan would be fine if they existed.

This is already a world lacking in entertainment. At least let me eat … Read the rest

**Gleaning**

“Uwhahahaha! I am the Chaos Emperor Tera Chaos! Young heroes of Turman Village! Bow down before my evil power!”

“Kyaa!”

“Woaah!”

A suspicious person wearing a large Dirt Hydra snake head on his hat is plunging the village children into the depths of terror.

Yes, there’s no hiding it, I, Mongrel… No! I am the Chaos Emperor Tera Chaos!

“Kishaaa!”

“Kyaa! Scary!”

“Th-this!”

“Uwhahaha! Such weapons have no effect on the Chaos Emperor!”

“Take this! And this! Damn you!”

“Ow, you little- hitting exposed skin is a pretty nasty trait! Hmm! An evil boss’s privilege – destroying weapons!”

Yes, … Read the rest

**Raina and Mireille’s Tea Time**

Raina’s Perspective

“Huh? Mongrel senpai turned down joining our party for the dispatch patrol?”

“Well, I casually recommended it, but it seems like he wasn’t feeling it with Artemis.”

“Ehh… What’s with that…”

It’s harvest season. For guild members, it’s the work season.

Some return home to help with the harvest, while many hustle at work to earn contribution points characteristic of this period.

My party Artemis has mostly women, so we get a good amount of work escorting noblewomen and such.

But that’s unrelated to this dispatch patrol… I wonder if Mongrel senpai turned … Read the rest