CHAPTER 75: D-RANK QUEST

The next day. I woke up and practiced in the courtyard with Esther.

　When the practice was over, I made our breakfast.

　Lily did not come down to the living room when breakfast time came.

　Apparently, she is not a morning person.

　After breakfast, each of us got ready for the day ahead.

　Starting today, we will go on our first adventure after getting a house.

“Oh, good morning Lily.”

“…Hmm” (Lily)

　Before leaving the house, I came across Lily.

　She looked like she had just woken up and she has bed hair.

　She was just wearing a plain robe. The material was so thin that you could almost see through it.

　I turned my eyes away, thinking that it would be rude to see too much of her.

“Good morning, Lily. I am about to go on an adventure, but what about Lily?”

“…… ‘M fine.” (Lily)

“I see.”

　Lily is a B-rank adventurer.

　It has been a common occurrence that adventurers who had just become D rank usually are invited or declined.

　Do I just wait for it, or do I just ask?

　Esther just nodded her head without any sign of reluctance.

　Soon we arrive at the guild and immediately head to the bulletin board.

　From today, we are browsing the D-rank bulletin board.

　I am so excited to check the requests.

・ Goblin Leader Subjugation 1 silver coin

・ Kobold Chief Subjugation 1 silver coin

・ Sunlight Flower Collection 5 silver coins

“Oh, as expected, D-rank. The reward is completely different from E-rank.”

　The rewards are all over one silver coin. [A/N: Around 10,000 Japanese yen]

“That is right, it is D-rank. The fee for completing a request is this price, but it does not include the fee for selling materials. If you include material sales, it will be a considerable amount of money.” (Esther)

“I see”

　The commission fee is indeed inexpensive when you consider that you are putting your life on the scale.

　However, if you include the price of selling the materials, the reward is more than worth the risk.

　However, the collection request is different.

　There is no additional charge for Sunlight Flower requests other than the request fee.

　Since the price includes the sales fee, they are giving at a higher reward than subjugation requests.

　While listening to Esther, I look at every corner of the bulletin board.

“Oh?”

　Then, I became interested in a certain request.

“How about this orc subjugation?”

“Mmm? Orc…” (Esther)

　Esther had a slightly reluctant look on her face.

・ Subdue 10 Orcs 1 silver coin

　I am a little worried about the reward of 10 bronze coins per animal, but I was more interested in the orcs themselves.

“Do orcs taste good?”

“Taste …. Certainly, orc meat is delicious.” (Esther)

　“Hmm”, Esther crossed her arms with her index finger on her chin.

“But orcs are mostly covered in fat and have few edible parts. In addition to being a hassle to dismantle at the site of the killing, the orcs themselves are so heavy that we can only bring back one per killing. Perhaps that is why orc meat fetches such a high price in the market.

　As an adventurer, orcs are famous for the small amount of material they can be sold for. It is not that you cannot make money from selling meat, but it is not enough to force you to take it back.

　The difficulty of defeating them is high among the D ranks. The difficulty of killing orcs is high, which is why no adventurer will take on an orc if they have other requests.” (Esther)

“Hmm.”

　“I see”, I thought.

　Adventurers earn their living daily.

　Among the D-rank requests, orc seems to be unpopular because it has very few benefits.

　That is why Esther made a bitter expression.

　However, I was quite curious.

　I wondered how good orc meat is, it was a staple in fantasy stories!

(If I want to take an orc home, there is no problem)

　I have [Inventory]. No matter how much I hunt, I do not have to worry about our return trip.

　I also think that our fighting power can match orcs.

　I have already defeated the C-rank Queen Rock Worm and the C-rank Werewolf.

　I was confident that if it were just a D-rank oak, it would be okay as long as a large number of them did not surround us.

　If that was the case, then it was time to get moving.

　I lined up at the reception desk with a request form on Orcs.

“Oh, so we are going with Orcs after all.” (Esther)

　Esther’s shoulders sagged in defeat.

　Apparently, she does not want requests that have low rewards.

“Yes, I do. I am sure you will love dinner.”

“That is…………” (Esther)

　When I said that, Esther’s face warped in confusion.

　However, gradually her eyes began to shine.

　Apparently, she could not resist the temptation of food.

　After the reception, we passed through the east gate and headed for the northern part of the Finlis Forest.

　However, at that time, Esther must not have thought that she would be in an unexpected situation.

　Today was my first visit to the northern part of Finlis Forest.

　I used to go to the Finlis Forest itself, but we have only visited the forest beyond the South Gate.

　The forest of Finlis is separated from the south and north by a river.

　It is a small river, only about a meter wide, but the monsters that appear at the border between the two rivers vary greatly.

　In the shallow southern part, goblins and Silver Wolves appear.

　On the north side of the river, large creatures such as orcs and trolls appear.

　It is still unclear why the monsters that appear just beyond the river are different.

　However, thanks to this boundary, novice adventurers are lucky enough not to encounter strong enemies.

　While listening to Esther’s lecture, we are now entering the northern part of Finlis Forest.

　The appearance of the forest is the same as on the south side.

　The visibility is poor and it is difficult to walk.

　I am always on the lookout for surprises, but so far my [Intuition] has not picked up any signs of monsters.

“I think I walked quite a bit, but how often do orcs appear?”

“I heard that they come out even on the shallow areas of the forest.” (Esther)

“Huh, I did not know that. …… Hmm, should we try going a little deeper?”

“If you go too deep, you will get lost, and more importantly, there is a chance that strong monsters will appear. And besides, this forest is in the demon’s territory” (Esther)

“Demon territory!?”

　Demons.

　This is the first time I have heard the word “demon” and it intrigued me.

　A demon is a classic race that appears in the fantasy genre. As a fantasy race, they are often equated with Evil.

　In addition, most of the time, they do not get along with humans.

“Demons are one of the races that live in Eargard. They have developed control organs to suppress their extremely amounts of magic power.” (Esther)

“Control organs?”

“The most common are horns. Others have crests on their bodies.” (Esther)

“Wow. So they are in conflict with humans?”

“Hmm? No, I do not think so. I would not say we get along well, but we are not bad. It is just that we are from different countries. There is just a certain sense of separation between us.” (Esther)

　I wondered if that was the case.

　If you ask a Japanese person if they like the Commonwealth of St. Kitts and Nevis, the majority of their opinion will be that they neither like nor dislike it.

　It is the same here.

“It takes a few days to get to the border if you walk, but be careful. If you cross the border without being screened, you will be detained without question. You cannot make an excuse and say you did not know.” (Esther)

“Got it.”

　Toru reminded himself not to go too deep into the forest of Finlis.

　However, I suddenly thought.

(Come to think of it, what country did that village where Lid lived belong to?)

　Lid, the original owner of the body, lived in an unnamed village in the depths of the forest.

　Esther said, “It will take several days to reach the border if we walk,” but what if we run?

　After leaving the village, I ran through the woods with all my might to get used to my body.

　As expected, even then, it was highly unlikely that I would have reached the border.

　However, it might have been a village along the border.

　Also, the village is located in the middle of a forest where monsters live.

(Why would anyone live in a place like that…?)

　As I recall, there were many strange things about the village.

　As he was thinking about it, my [Intuition] caught a hint of a monster.

“Roger that.” (Esther)

　As soon as she said that, Esther drew her sword.

　A blade that looked as if it was glistening appeared.

　It is a special mithril sword made by me.

(It is always beautiful to look at.)

　Despite admiring the sword, I summon my own [magic sword].

　Around the time I was ready, a monster appeared, with sounds footsteps coming from the depths of the forest.