ââŚThe town. Doesnât it seem different from usual?â
Said the slime as soon as we entered it.
We had only been gone for a day, and yet there was something about it that had changed.
âItâs kind of scary.â
The slimes thought so too.
The Adventurers that we passed all seemed to be wearing armor as if they were getting prepared to fight.
We continued to walk through the town until we reached the guild.
As I could not take the wolf into the building, I tied him up at the entrance.
âHuh? Mister Yuji, didnât you go out to gather some Dria flowers? Did you fail the quest thenâŚâ
The receptionist asked me.
She seemed quite interested in the Dria flower quest.
âNo, I didnât fail. A lot happened, and I was able to gather them quickly.â
I said as I took out a few flowers from the slime and showed them to her.
She looked at them and her expression turned both happy and relieved.
âThâŚthatâs so great! It would have been incredibly bad if you failedâŚâ
âBad? Wa-was this really that important of a quest?â
I donât remember anything about it being important when accepting it.
As I thought about this, the receptionist continued.
âIt wasnât important when you first accepted itâŚbut since then, there has been a need for a lot of medicine, and in a hurry tooâŚoh, uh. Just how much did you get?â
âUhhâŚslime. If you please.â
I said. And then I put the slime on the counter.
âOkay!â
The slime replied. Then it started to noisily unload the Dria flowers all over the desk.
In less than a minute, the entire desk was covered in them.
âWh-why is there so muchâŚare these real?â
âYeah. Maybe it wasnât the usual way, but they should all be real.â
She heard this and-
âIâŚI must tell the manager!â
She screamed and then disappeared towards the back of the guild.
And then a few minutes passed.
Then Manager Agias came out.
ââŚYuji. Itâs you again. I heard that you brought in a yearâs worth of Dria flowers this timeâŚâ
He said. Then he looked at the Dria flowers on the counter.
And then he looked at the receptionist.
ââŚThis. This isnât a yearâs worth. It is at least two yearsâ worth.â
âIâm very sorry. I could not count all of themâŚâ
The Dryad had given me that much thenâŚ
Well, it had taken me half an hour to gather them, so I had thought it was a lot.
However, the guild didnât seem to be too happy about suddenly having two yearsâ worth of it unloaded onto them.
âWas it too much?â
I asked.
And then I tried to get the slime to store them again.
HoweverâŚAgiasâs reply was most unexpected.
âNo, weâll buy it all. This is exactly what the guild needs right now.â
ââŚYou need a two years supply of flowers? Did something happen?â
âIn fact, a swarm of monsters has been sighted near a closeby mountain. âŚAnd they have come in incredible numbers. It may not be long until that swarm comes to attack our town.â
âŚA monster outbreak, huh?
Now that I think about it, I had heard something about how the number of monsters was increasing recently.
Maybe itâs related to that.
âAnd they are coming to this town?â
âNo. We donât know which town they will attack. And that is why they are dangerous. As a guild, we cannot focus all our strength in one place. That is why we need medicine.â
The manager said as he picked up one of the Dria flowers and inspected it.
Then he nodded with satisfaction.
ââŚWith this much, we could reduce the damage. Medicine made from Dria flowers is highly effective. âŚHere is your reward. Please take it.â
The manager then stacked the gold coins in front of me.
As it was supposed to be a safe quest, I had only accepted it as practiceâŚand yet it had turned out to be quite lucrative.
Still, it wasnât all good news.
There were many monsters. And we didnât know when or where they would attack.
âSo the guild is going to take care of everything regarding the monsters?â
âYes. And so we are currently refusing any requests that are unrelated to the monster outbreak. âŚWill you help us, Yuji?â
The manager asked as he stared at me.
I did not hesitate to answer.
âOf course. âŚSo, what should I do?â
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