I didn't do a good job describing the characters in this novel, so I feel like I need them. Maybe I'll do a shittty sketch tommorow and hopefully one of you guys can improve upon it. That would be fantastic.
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Over the past month, Vesra-chan and I have been going to villages and 'negotiating' like we did in Rukerford. By now, the tale of the griffin riding hero is known throughout almost the entirety of the Grand Wilds. Most of the small villages willingly submit their rule to us once they see me or the griffin though. While it might seem strange that people living in a monster forest are scared of a single griffin, there are reasons for it.
The people of the Great Wilds survive through knowledge and preparation. Rather than having strong warriors to defeat any and all threats, the use scents to ward off monsters, keep mindful of their territorial habits, hide in underground shelters during attacks, kill them during their inactive periods, etc. If humans had the strength to defeat monsters, well, they wouldn't be stuck in this shithole forest. /We/ wouldn't be stuck in this shithole village. The griffin is a rare monster only found in the area around Tikral Village, so others have probably never seen one in their lives. For the people whose lives depend on such things, having an unknown monster swoop into the middle of your village can be a big shock.
With my auto-translation cheat, I've been discussing the plans for the construction of roads among each village. The roads we're building are paved with stone, though not many villages can actually mine and cut stone. Hopefully, things will change once some of the roads are in place. Really, the technology here is abysmal. For now, a total of 22 villages within a 100 mile radius of Tikral are building roads between each other. The main problem is the monsters. Like I said before, most villages are experienced in dealing with the local monsters, but that only goes as far as avoiding them. There's no good way to defend road workers from the monsters in the area.
Right now, Vesra-chan and I are traveling to an elf city to try and steal some slaves that can fight so that we can get our roads going. Once we have enough roads built we might be able to create a central army to further defend the construction of roads.
I also want to see the situation of humans for myself. To be honest, I'm also excited about going to a real fantasy town. Obviously, we can't appear to be humans, so both of us are wearing decent clothing with hoods in the hopes of disguising ourselves until we complete our objective. We got the clothing from a village specializing in cloths, and we also dyed our hair blonde from a village specializing in dyes. The plan is to travel by griffin most of the way and walk the last 2 miles so we don't seems suspicious.
"Oi, you two, where did you come from? You came to a frontier settlement like this by foot?"
Shit, we look suspicious after all!
"We rode here most of way, but we lost our horses in a monster attack."
"Hmmmmmm, is that right? How long do you two plan on staying?"
That's a good question. If possible, I want to get a job and buy the slaves to avoid attracting attention, but there's no telling how long that might take, and it also depends on if I can find a decent job in the first place. In these types of settings, what's the easiest way to make money?
"Mister, is there anything like an Adventurer Guild or Mercenary Guild here?"
He narrows his eyes at my question.
"Of course there's an Adventurer Guild here. There's one in every city in Alterria. Just where on Ysir are you from?"
Damn. Think, what do I know about that continent? Can't say I'm from Alterria anymore. These guys hate Vristill, and Corax hates elves. Nnn, there are nomadic Beastman mercenaries, but would it be believable for a pair of elves to have been living among them? Only one way to find out, I guess.
"To tell you the truth, the two of us were traveling with beast-men mercenaries in the south. We were picked up as babies while they were on a job and took pity on us. The two of us recently decided to see the land of the elves for ourselves."
The guard's eyes softened.
"I understand. Please enjoy your stay in Irilyn."
This city really looks like a proper fantasy one. I could already tell from the huge stone wall surrounding it, but this place is amazing. There's taverns, merchant's stalls, large crowds, and I think I even see a castle in the center of the city. They said this was just some frontier town too, so I'm having a hard imagining what the capital would look like.
The first order of business is to check prices for slaves, then drop by the Adventurer's Guild to see if making enough money to buy them legally is doable. The problem is, neither Vesra-chan nor I can read any of the signs. I think that building over there is the Adventurer's Guild based on it's size and the types of people going in and out, but I don't think the slave market will be as overt...
Let's try asking one of the merchants here.
"Excuse me. Do you know where one might purchase some slaves?"
"Hah? Slavery huh... how distasteful. People like you should just disappear."
With a grunt, the merchant at the stall turns his head away. Ahh, this is really ironic. At least no one suspects me of being a human.
After a few tries, I manage to find the store that sell slaves. It's a small shop bordering an alley, so it looks really shady. That might just be my bias though. The person at the counter is an attractive young woman, probably younger than me. Her long golden hair is really eye-catching, especially because she's somewhat flat. I don't discriminate though. I decide to greet her strongly.
"Hey there~!"
She flashes me a smile in response.
"Oh my, are you sure you're in the right place? My slaves are really high quality, you know, so I don't think someone like you can afford them."
She emphasized 'someone like you'. Ouch. Still, I won't back down! I lean sideways on the counter and bring my face closer to hers.
"It's as you say. However, I'm actually a great adventurer, so I'll shortly return after completing some requests. I just came here to see just how cheap your slaves were."
Both of us are smiling right now, but I feel like neither of us mean it.
"Is that so? Very well, what sort of slave are you looking for?"
Hm? She's actually going to be helpful now?
"I need slaves that can fight!"
"The cheapest slave that be considered to fight competently is 25 gold, so until that time comes, don't come back, kay?"
I see. From that derogatory tone, she wanted to break my spirit by telling me about the high prices here. Jokes on her, I have no sense of value for the currency in this world! Haha... fuck. I'm going to have to go around and investigate prices before I buy anything in this world. It wouldn't do to get scammed.
"Then, look forward to my visit~!"
Once we leave the store, Vesra-chan starts talking to herself.
"Damn that woman, who does she think she is? Why was Hisenaga-sama paying so much attention to her? Maybe I should kill her, then surely..."
"Nn? Vesra-chan, did you say something?"
"Nothing at all, Hisenaga-sama."
The inside of the Adventurer's Guild is mostly how I imagined it. There's a reception desk and a bulletin board full of requests. There's tables full of people, but most of them are elves or beast-men. I'm really disappointed because the Beastmen of this world are just anthropomorphic animals, there are no cat-girls or anything, as far as Vesra-chan knows.
I walk up to the reception desk and ask the lady there if she can tell me about the Guild system. So far, it's very generic. There are 7 ranks with 3 sub-ranks each. From lowest to highest: D-, D, D+, C-, C, C+... A (+/-), S (+/-), SS (+/-), SSS(+/-). The difference between a C+ and a B is apparently much higher than say, the difference between an A and an A+. The receptionist was just as surprised as the guard was when I told her to explain all this to me, but to her credit she did it without complaint.
Each rank is defined as being approximately 10x more powerful than the previous one, with the D rank being 10x stronger than the average person. Strength is defined as effectiveness in battle. Monsters are also ranked according to this system. The strongest adventurer right now is B+ ranked, in other words, more than 1000x more powerful than the average person. The legendary monsters in this world are S ranked, but it seems far in the past there were even stronger ones.
Anyone can take any request, and your rank is an average of the 10 highest rank requests they have successfully completed. The ranking system itself is only used for reference by the guild and prestige, so it doesn't matter too much. There are also F ranked herb collection requests too, but they don't help your rank at all.
I walk over to the bulletin board, and that's when I remember. I can't read. Damn. Maybe if I ask that reception lady she can have someone read to me. Before I can though, a big-breasted onee-san type elf with short hair approaches me. She's probably in her early twenties, and she's taller than me, so she's a bit intimidating. I can't be picky about something like this though. Is it finally time to add an elf to my harem?!
"Hoh? It looks like you're having trouble, could it be that you can't read?"
"Y-yes Onee-chan, that's right."
I look down and pretend to look sad. To lure in older women, this is the best method!
"Heee, if you'd like, Myra Onee-chan here can read some of the requests for you."
"Really?"
I put on a big smile with some puppy eyes for added effect. Heh, everyone is looking at Myra and whispering. They must be super jealous.
"Of course! Here, if this is your first request, then I suggest something simple like human subjugation. This one is 50 coppers for every human ear you bring in."
Damn, humans really are like goblins here. By the way, I actually did end up investigating the prices earlier. A hundred copper is one silver, and a hundred silver is one gold. The cost of a standard meal is 10 coppers, and the total cost of living for most is a silver per day, not including extra expenses like entertainment or travel. Therefore, people spend an average of 40 gold per year. Since those slaves cost 25 gold, there's no way I can do human subjugation, besides the obvious reason.
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"Uhmm, I'm actually a fairly experienced Adventurer, and I'm looking for something that has a reward in the tens of golds."
"Is that so? What's your name, boy?"
"Hisenaga."
"The only requests that would get you something like that are C+ ranked, you know?"
Obviously, I'm not even qualified to be a D- ranked adventurer, but I'm confident that between Vesra-chan and her monsters, I can make do.
"Don't worry about me, Onee-chan, I have a secret weapon!"
She looks at me with an expression that says, 'Aww, how cute.'
"You'll make Onee-chan worried otherwise, so I'll go with you. It seems like you're in a really tight spot with money, so it can't be helped. Here, there's a subjugation request here for Sand Snakes, 30 gold each. Will that do?"
"Wahh~ that's perfect! Thank you, Onee-chan!"
It's really degrading, but it's for the sake of increasing my harem /and/ getting work done, so give me a break, okay?
"By the way, what rank is Onee-chan?"
"Huhuhu, I'm B+ ranked!"
Eh? Myra was the legendary B+ ranked Adventurer? That's nice I guess, since it means Vesra-chan and I don't need to risk exposing ourselves. Only humans tame monsters, so fighting with the bear and the griffin for all to see is actually really risky. On the other hand, if it's discovered we're human, we're as good as dead with a B+ Adventurer here...
"Wow~! Onee-chan is really amazing! By the way, this is Vesra-chan, my..."
"...sister."
Vesra-chan filled in for me. It's not the worse lie, but considering we look nothing alike and the fact that I want to hit on her all the time makes it kind of...
"Oh my, I'm sorry I didn't notice you before. You can also call me Onee-chan, okay?"
Vesra-chan didn't move from her spot and just glared at Myra.
"Don't touch Hisenaga-sama, you dirty woman."
"Hooooh?"
She gave a wry smile but didn't say anything more. Does she think I'm a siscon now or something?
The Balbolge Wastes. A small desert region situated between the Great Wilds and Irilyn, it is a popular trade route despite the fact that many powerful monsters make their homes here. The huge profits from using this route exceed the cost to hire mercenaries.
Normally, if you want to earn money by subjugating monsters there, you would take an escort request at the same time. However, Myra ensured us that that wasn't necessary, and an escort mission would only make it harder to earn money.
Myra leads us to a place a deep inside the wastes before stopping, but it doesn't look any different from normal. I'm really tired since we had to travel here on foot, but neither Myra nor Vesra-chan have broken a sweat, so if I ask for a break I'll appear weak. Right now I can't do that since Vesra-chan thinks I'm a powerful hero and Myra already has doubts about me being a strong Adventurer.
Myra raises her hand up before slamming it down onto the sand. At that moment, large tremors, comparable to the upper ends of the Richter scale, radiate from Myra. It probably isn't as strong as I think since I'm near the epicenter, but it's still incredible.
Once the tremors stop, I can feel a different type of vibration going through the ground. Then, they abruptly stop. Now I understand why an escort mission would have been inconvenient. She's using magic to deliberately bait the Sand Snakes to our location!
Suddenly, 10 Sand Snakes burst out of the ground, surrounding us. Myra seems to have reinforced the nearby sand somehow so that no Sand Snakes would appear directly below us. The fact that she's able to reinforce sand against 10 of these creatures is already very impressive. So this is magic, huh?
I was expecting Sand Snakes to be maybe 8 feet in length, but this is some Dune level stuff. They look like gigantic dust colored king cobras. God damn. Vesra-chan assured me that her bear was at least B-ranked, and her Griffin was C-ranked, but seeing these gigantic monsters surround me makes me doubt that we could've done it by ourselves. Or rather, that Vesra-chan could've done it by herself, because it's not like I would've done anything, lol.
Again, Myra raises her hand without any chants. I don't know how common that is, but since this world is so similar to light novels I'm already impressed because of how chantless magic is portrayed in them. This is my first time seeing magic though, so it might be that chants aren't required for magic in this world.
The spell this time summoned a rain of meteors down and crushed the head of each and every Sand Snake. That's what I assume, because one moment each of the Sand Snakes had heads, then there were giant rocks where their head should be the next. I thought that that was the last of the Sand Snakes, but Myra lets out a surprised yelp.
"Oh no!"
"W-what is it?! Did something happen?"
"What if I used too much force and melted the teeth that are the proof of subjugation?"
What? It was something like that. Geez, don't scare me like that.
"Anyways, boy, what ever happened to that 'secret power' of yours?"
She still calls me boy even after I told her my name? Technically I'm not using hers but still...
"Hee? You think I would reveal my power for something as trivial as this? Plus, it was a good opportunity to see your strength for myself. I will admit your skill is somewhat impressive, you might be able to even beat me in some situations. You have my recognition."
I flash her the cockiest smile I can muster. Hehe, don't underestimate my bluffing skills! If I wasn't able to pretend to be better than I actually am, I would've never landed a date in my entire life, you know~! I had to drop my innocent act, but I'm pretty sure she already saw through it. I wasn't seriously planning on keeping that up, anyways.
Myra seems to have bought it since she's looking at me with a serious expression, like she's trying to determine my strength. Sorry~. There's nothing to determine, I'm actually really weak! Haha! Ha. Haaa...
Vesra-chan takes it upon herself to rip out the fangs of each and every Sand Snake for us. Considering each fang is almost a foot long, the fact that she can rip them out and carry them is also impressive. Maybe she really would have been fine on her own.
Myra uses wind magic to transport us back to the city. She's manipulating the wind in order to continually create a vacuum in front of us and lift us through the air. I think she's trying really hard to impress me after my last comment. Yup, she has a really arrogant and satisfied expression on her face. Please stop, I already think of you as a monster...
When we get back to the city, Myra cashes the Sand Snake teeth in for 300 gold. It seems many of the teeth were damaged, but since Myra is widely recognized around here, they took her word for it. Does she pull that kind of stunt often? I swear, I was going to have a heart attack when I saw 10 Sand Snakes appear at once.
This is the hard part. I need to keep projecting a sense of superiority while convincing her to give me 200 gold, even though she did all of the work. But I'm confident that I, the Great Hisenaga, can do it without a problem. Unlike light novels, it's actually really hard to maintain a 'more than friends but less than lovers' relationship with many girls at once, so thanks to my experience with harems social maneuvering and lying is really easy for me now.
"So, about that gold..."
"Don't worry, Onee-chan will give it to you."
"Really?"
"Yes, of course. You just need to give me..."
Myra leans in and whispers in my ear.
".../something/ in return, okay?"
She then licks her lips while looking at me. Vesra-chan looks really angry. Myra's words both scared and excited me a little bit, but for the sake of my harem, I need to turn her down here. It's a future investment.
"S-sorry Onee-chan, but I'm not sure what you mean..."
"Ohhhh? Are you doing some kind of roleplay now? How did you know that that innocent act is my favorite?! Haa! Haa!"
Myra grips me by the shoulders strongly, so strong it feels like my bones are going to break. As expected from a B+ ranked Adventurer. Vesra-chan is watching from the side, but she isn't doing anything. She doesn't even look mad anymore. What the hell, Vesra-chan?! Help me out here!
Myra rips off my shirt, even though we're still inside the Guild Hall. I'm beginning to draw a lot of stares. Ah, I'm really fucking pissed now. Vesra-chan has a really silly grin for a moment, but quickly wipes it off her face once I make eye contact with her. I also direct my gaze to Myra, and she recoils in fear for a second.
"You bastard, just what are you doing to Hisenaga-sama?!"
Vesra-chan is already back to the usual.
"S-sorry. It's because this boy here kept playing around with that defenseless act, so I couldn't help myself. Boy, next time, you shouldn't tease Onee-chan so much, okay?"
What the hell is with these people, it's really tiring me out...
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I forgot to clarify. By 'them' I mean character drawings. I really need character drawings.