CH 16.1

Chapter 16.1: Archer Training

[T/N]: So… regrettably, leaving the swearing uncensored has turned out to be not an option. Sorry, guys, I know the popular opinion was to uncensor the swearing! >.< But it was pointed out to me that Google AdSense might take issue with that (thanks, hafarasama!) and upon checking their website, they do say that any offensive content (like swearing) would be against their policies. I know, I’m very disappointed, too. Again, sorry, everyone!

——

It was yet another day of hard work for the diligent alchemists in Arsenal of the Spirits’ boiler room.

Arri barked out orders to the workers under her command while keeping a watchful eye on the ores she was refining in the boiler.

The girl who barely knew what she was doing when she first came to Arsenal of the Spirits was gone. In her place, there was a top-class alchemist capable of manning five boilers and managing five other alchemists at once.

“Boilers One and Two, stop.”

At Arri’s instruction, the men working at those boilers shut the fire off and withdrew the ores, bringing them to Arri.

This one will only be B -grade silver. This looks like it could be A -grade.

“This one will only be B -grade, at best, so just finish off the refinement process. This one will be A -grade; I’ll take it from here.”

Arri struck off the impurities from the possibly A -grade silver, and instructed the worker to put it back into the boiler.

At the end of the refinement, they produced splendid A -grade silver.

The workers ‘ooh’-ed and ‘aah’-ed over the quality of the silver they had managed.

“Another A -grade.”

“Isn’t that the eleventh, just today?”

“Damn, Arri-san is unbeatable.”

“Ugh, it’s going to be so sad when we have to go back to the guild; I want to keep studying under Arri-san.”

Arri made a strange expression when she heard that.

These men were on temporary loan from a major guild, and they were even well-known alchemists in the city. Yet none of them were on par with herself.

In the end, there wasn’t anyone better at refining than me. Even though they’re supposed to be a big, fancy alchemist guild, they’re not much, huh?

It had yet to click with her, but after working with them, Arri was finally getting a sneaking suspicion that, perhaps, she was the best alchemist in the city.

——

“How’s the refining coming?” Laurent asked.

“Not bad. Arri-san’s work is just as reliable as ever,” Ranju replied.

Laurent looked over the production numbers that Ranju had submitted. Just as Ranju had said, A -grade silver and Earth Stone productions were proceeding smoothly.

“Hm. Arri does good work, as usual.”

“But with the workers that Zens-san dispatched to us going back to their guild, next week’s production will run slower. Did you manage to find any staff members?”

“I asked around at a few workshops, and they said that they could send over a smelter and a miner. That should do it, I think.”

“Really? Thank goodness,” Ranju said, pressing down on his chest in relief.

Lucius had banned the alchemist guilds under his command from trading with Arsenal of the Spirits, but that didn’t affect the smaller, peripheral guilds.

A guild directly under Golden Hawk’s command would have no choice but to submit to their authority; but for a boutique guild that was already struggling to make ends meet, it was of little concern to them.

After all, that they were struggling so much in the first place was due to Lucius driving prices down to an absurd degree.

“Obviously, they’re not as good as the ones we got from Zens’s guild, but you can make it work, right?”

“That’s fine. As long as you managed to get people, I’ll make something of it somehow.”

“Thank you. I really am glad that you’re here with us.”

That dealt with most of his worries for now, and Laurent turned his focus wholly onto his special consultant role.

——

Lilianne submitted the budget estimate for the next month to Guardians of the Magical Tree’s Guild Leader.

“Guild Leader, this is next month’s cost estimate for the battalion. If you could please sign them.”

“Lilianne-kun, about the matter with the special consultant…” the Guild Leader began in his usual timid way. “I was just wondering if it might be better to comply with Lucius’s request. I received a report from Wilkes, and he has quite a few reservations about Laurent’s competence as a trainer. Not to mention, I’m not so sure about confronting Golden Hawk directly…”

“Guild Leader!” Lilianne leaned forward and brought her hands down on the table with a loud slam.

The Guild Leader jumped.

“We don’t have another choice, do we? All we have left is to throw our efforts into training. If we let Laurent-san slip through our hands now, we’ll never prevail against Golden Hawk.”

He whimpered. “But still…”

“If you truly decide to expel Laurent-san despite everything, then I ask that you fire me first. That way, I can start up my own adventurers’ guild with Laurent-san.”

“I-I understand. I’ll give it a bit more time.”

Lilianne swept out of the Guild Leader’s office, releasing her breath.

Honestly. Such a tizzy from just appointing Laurent-san as a special consultant. I fear for our future.

She leaned against the wall, barely realising she was doing so.

She’d been running around everywhere, trying to make sure the groundwork was in place, so she was a little short on sleep.

But if I don’t keep it up, all the hard work I’ve put in until now will have been for nothing. I have to support Laurent-san.

Lilianne closed her eyes and allowed herself a few more moments’ rest, then she willed herself to part from the wall.

——

It was the beginning of a new month.

At the edges of the city, three new dungeons appeared.

Forest Dungeon was occupied by Beasts; Mineral Dungeon was infested with Undead; and Spirit Dungeon was where Demons reigned.

Adventurers were rushing to the Quest Reception Office in a horde, looking for a good quest within their rank. Those looking for items put out commissions at the Office, as well.

Some quests were open to the public, but others were only made available to guilds.

The best quests were divided up between Golden Hawk and Guardians of the Magical Tree, who got first picks before the quests were made public.

The two guilds analysed the quests for the newly-appeared dungeons and planned for their battalion formation accordingly.

At Guardians of the Magical Tree, their main attack force, which was solely under Lilianne’s command, discussed extensively which of the three dungeons they would make an attempt for.

In addition to the guild’s upper management, Laurent was attending the strategy meeting in his capacity as special consultant.

“I propose the Mineral Dungeon,” Lilianne said. “Currently, our goal is to increase the scale of Arsenal of the Spirits. To do so, we need ores and minerals. As such, I believe it is best if we capture the Mineral Dungeon, which has a plentiful amount of ores we can mine.”

Lucius has severely restricted our access to ores, Laurent thought. If Golden Hawk manages to take this dungeon, we’re finished. Capturing the Mineral Dungeon is our highest priority. But of course, Lucius will know that, too.

“What do you think, Laurent-san?” Lilianne said, interrupting his train of thought.

“Yes, I think taking the mine would be best, as well. But Golden Hawk will also be well-aware of that. It’ll be a close fight.”

“And we are prepared for that,” Lilianne said, baring her teeth in a vicious smile.

“Oh?” If that’s what Lilianne says, then the only thing to do is to trust her word. “In that case, I’ll redouble my focus on training. If we can get the rookies up to par—”

“Excuse me, I have something I’d like to say,” Wilkes interrupted as Laurent was about to explain his plan.

“… What is it?”

“Look, we’re all thinking it. Was it really a good decision to hand over all training responsibilities to Laurent-san, someone who just randomly came along? No, right? I’m just saying, putting too much pressure on Laurent-san probably won’t turn out well.”

“Wilkes,” Lilianne said, “I thought we’d gone over this already? Laurent-san is—”

“And so I gave it some thought. How about we split the responsibilities between myself and Laurent-san?” Wilkes plowed onwards, ignoring Lilianne’s interjection.

“What does that mean?”

“I mean that Laurent-san will look after half of the rookies, and I’ll look after the other half. And we’ll be able to test out then just whose instruction is superior. The winner will take point on the guild’s training structure.”

“That works,” the Guild Leader said. Until this moment, he had not said anything, only wiping the sweat off his brow, but now, he was suddenly eager to voice his approval.

Lilianne sent him a piercing glare, and he quickly looked away.

But there was no retracting his words.

In truth, this was an idea that Wilkes and the Guild Leader had come up with beforehand.

The plan went something like this:

If Laurent won, the guild would become stronger, which would be good for them; if Wilkes won, they could ice Laurent out and repair their relationship with Golden Hawk.

Whatever the outcome, the guild’s security would be ensured.

It also had the additional outcome of keeping Lilianne in check.

Lilianne’s been getting too big for her britches lately, the Guild Leader thought. This will humiliate her a little, just enough to make her more docile.

“That’s fine,” Laurent said smoothly.

“Ah, see? Laurent-san agrees with us.”

“However, could we not let this bet get out to the guild members? I just don’t want to place any unnecessary pressure on the rookies, especially considering the timing.”

Thus, Laurent and Wilkes divided up the adventurers they were responsible for between them, and agreed that whoever’s adventurers had grown the most by the end of the month would lay out the training plan, and the loser would have to obey.

——

While Guardians of the Magical Tree was consolidating their dungeon strategy and their training plan, Golden Hawk was holding a strategy meeting of their own.

Only A -rank adventurers and battalion captains were allowed to attend Golden Hawk’s dungeon strategy conference, which was also considered the supreme decision-making body within the organisation.

As Guardians of the Magical Tree had launched their attack last month, each person at the Golden Hawk meeting was particularly eager to reconquer all three dungeons this month. But the conference was a bit of a mess from the very beginning.

“Lucius, what is the meaning of this?” demanded Alric, upon seeing Lucius’s proposed battalion formations. He was an A -rank adventurer and the leader of Golden Hawk’s First Battalion.

“Is there something that you don’t find agreeable?”

“Agreeable? You’ve removed all our B -rank archers, support mages and healers from the main battalions! Are our ranged, support and healing units all being ordered to conquer a dungeon alongside our C -ranks?”

“Our B -rank archers, support mages and healers have more important duties to attend to.”

“More important duties? More important than subjugating a dungeon?”

“Alric. When did it become your place to question how I run the battalions?”

“…”

“All you have to do is think about conquering dungeons. Besides, this wouldn’t have been a concern in the first place if you and your battalion hadn’t grown so dependent on Golden Hawk’s organisational capacity.”

“What?”

“You’ve been quite happy to call on backup whenever you please, but you can’t be so indulgent when training B -rank adventurers. Are you not able to conquer a dungeon without padding your battalion with B -rank adventurers? If you’re a captain of Golden Hawk, you should be perfectly able to conquer dungeons and training your men. At least show me you’re capable of that much.”

“Exactly, Alric. Don’t tell me you’re losing your nerve now?” Savast, another A -rank captain, said. He was reclining languidly in his seat.

“I’m not losing my nerve… I only think we should be more cautious—”

“Aside from Lilianne’s battalion, Guardians of the Magical Tree only has B -rank and C -rank battalions. Surely, they won’t be much of a threat to you?”

“…”

“Well, there’s another option,” Savast said. “The Second Battalion could go to the Mineral Dungeon instead of the First Battalion.”

Alric ground his teeth together.

Savast might have the strength of an A -rank adventurer, but he was overconfident.

It didn’t help that he considered himself to be Alric’s rival, and when the opportunity arose to get one over him, Savast did not hesitate.

And Alric couldn’t possibly back down now after a blatant challenge like that.

“Anyone else have any other opinions to share? No?” Lucius said while Alric remained silent. “Then this strategy meeting is over. Try not to embarrass Golden Hawk’s name.” He dismissed the meeting.

Alric still had a few choice words he wanted to express, but he only bit his tongue.

Recently, he was being pushed further and further into a corner by Lucius and Savast.

Previously, he had Marco who would advise caution as well, so they were tied, two against two.

In this way, the two guilds began investigating the dungeons, both divided by internal dissent and high tensions.