Herb Gathering Quest #1
Herb Gathering Quest #1
"You've worked hard again today, adventurer. As promised, I'll hand over one tendon."
Dismantling the cyclops's corpse took longer this time, probably because there were far more parts to handle delicately compared to the basilisk.
I had put in some heavy labor until late at night, but I had no particular complaints.
In fact, a small chuckle escaped me.
"Heh-heh...."
Part of it was because the work supervisor had slipped me a twenty-copper tendon as a bonus.
But mainly, it was because I'd managed to eavesdrop on the Magic Tower's lessons and, by sheer luck, figured out the trick to sensing mana. Afraid someone might grab me at any moment, I changed clothes and rushed back to the inn.
'So I'm supposed to try and feel a warm energy in my abdomen, right?'
After quickly filling my stomach with the soup the innkeeper had prepared, I went into my room and hurriedly began my magic training. To help myself sense the feeling even a little, I took off my outer clothes. I climbed onto the bed wearing nothing but my underwear and began forming hand seals.
I no longer needed to look at the illustrations in the magic book.
I had repeated the motions for days and had completely memorized the sequence of the hand seals. After repeating a mere ten different gestures hundreds of times, anyone would memorize them.
I needed to sense the energy.
I focused my mind on the sensations inside my abdomen.
I tried to feel the movement of the mana that should be contained within. It must have been a ridiculous sight to anyone watching from afar: a naked young man making bizarre hand gestures for hours on end.
But I, the person in question, was dead serious.
I wanted to learn magic fast and use it to make money.
I wanted to master a special skill that set me apart from others, so I could get hired by an adventurer party with impressive specs. I wanted to take on high-rank requests and earn enough reward money to eat three square meals a day. If I could save up, I wanted to put money aside and eventually get my own house. It was a wish I'd held ever since I became an adventurer two years ago.
"......Oh."
A persistent wish, brimming with avarice.
Had that desperate yearning finally reached the heavens?
At some point, I began to feel a strange sensation in my abdomen—the feeling of something flowing gently inside my body. With every repetition of the hand seals, that sensation became clearer.
'I-is this mana?'
For the first time in my life, I felt mana.
As time passed, I became certain that the energy flowing inside my body was mana, because every time I formed a hand seal, the energy flowed along my body in a specific direction. The final destination of that energy was my hand. The mana that flowed out of my body through my fingertips gathered in the air and created a surprising change.
It was some time after I first sensed my mana.
"Magic Missile."
Swish.
A shining sphere materialized above my palm.
A sphere emitting a faint light floated above my hand, its shape identical to the one I'd seen in the illustrations of the magic book.
I was so shocked that I'd actually used magic that I was speechless for a moment.
"O, oooh......."
An exclamation of admiration slipped out without my realizing it.
The sphere soon vanished into thin air.
Its duration must have expired, so it disappeared.
But that wasn't a problem.
Forming the hand seals would let me call forth the sphere again.
I created a sphere, and when it disappeared, I created another.
It was just a tiny sphere, but every time I saw it, I burned with excitement. I had no idea studying magic could be this enjoyable. I began to understand a little why those mage bastards were so fanatical about learning new magic.
From the next day on, I decided to change up my training methods.
Having succeeded in creating the sphere, I felt the need to take a step further. According to the explanation in the magic book, Magic Missile was originally an offensive spell.
A spell that launches a sphere to strike an enemy.
Its power wasn't described in detail, so I verified it myself during training.
Of course, I couldn't keep training at the inn.
If I fired off magic and broke the furniture, it would be a disaster.
I went outside the inn and headed for a dark alleyway. As was typical of a medieval fantasy land with unsystematic city planning, there were plenty of alleys scattered about. I knew one spot that was particularly devoid of foot traffic, so I chose it as my new training location.
Right after I arrived in the alleyway, I took a few blocks of wood out of my pocket.
The blocks were scraps I'd picked up from what was discarded near a woodworking shop. If I was going to practice launching the sphere, naturally I needed a target to aim at. I had deliberately chosen thick pieces, so they were easy to stand up on the ground.
Thunk!
After setting up a thick wood block at one side of the alley, I stepped back several paces. Then, without dragging it out, I immediately cast the spell.
"Magic Missile."
A shining sphere floated up above my palm.
Just as the magic book described, I willed the sphere to launch. In that instant, it flew forward with ferocious speed. The sphere, trailing a tail of light, gradually picked up acceleration. The moment it collided with something, I was so startled I squeezed my eyes shut.
BANG━!
"Ugh...."
I opened my eyes again.
I realized the Magic Missile had gone wide.
The wood block I'd set up was perfectly intact.
Instead, there was a trace of the sphere's impact on the stone floor, far off to the side.
It was a mark that looked like someone had swung a heavy work hammer at it.
In terms of sheer destructive power, it was a passing grade—decent firepower for dealing with low-rank monsters like goblins. But there was one minor problem with using Magic Missile in actual combat right away.
I had no idea why it was missing so badly.
I tried firing Magic Missile again as a test. I created the sphere in my palm and focused my mind on the wood block I'd set up as a target. The sphere was soon launched and flew straight ahead.
Once again, the sphere smacked the ground uselessly.
I didn't think the distance was that far.
I was keeping a distance of roughly five meters from the wood block. The target wasn't so far away that it looked like a mere dot; I thought at this distance, I could definitely hit it.
'I guess I need to practice more.'
I fired Magic Missile repeatedly.
After that, the total number of Magic Missiles I fired was ten.
Thankfully, not every attempt had ended in failure. The very last, tenth Magic Missile I fired had actually grazed the corner of the wood block. With each attempt, I felt the margin of error shrinking ever so slightly. Maybe it was just my imagination, but it was worth practicing.
The launch training for Magic Missile was surprisingly draining on my stamina.
After roughly three hours, I stopped my magic training, because it felt like if I squeezed out any more spheres, I'd collapse from exhaustion. It was better to wait for the next day rather than push myself and cause an accident.
Dragging my limp, exhausted body along, I returned to the inn.
*
A week had passed since I'd started wrestling with those wood blocks in the alleyway.
In other words, I had done nothing but eat and practice magic for a solid week. When I opened my eyes in the morning, I realized my money had hit rock bottom.
I rummaged through my pockets, but all I could grab was a measly three coppers.
With this money, I could pay for today's breakfast and that was it.
It was time to work.
I'd already blown through the payment I received from the Magic Tower.
I thought I'd earned quite a bit, even after selling the cyclops tendon to a general goods store.
Letting out a sigh, I had no choice but to head out to the Adventurer's Guild early in the morning.
'I can't even handle Magic Missile perfectly yet....'
I'd trained in magic for the past week, but nothing much had changed.
As a result of repeated practice, my accuracy with Magic Missile had gone up, sure. On average, I could land about one out of ten shots. But in a real fight where you're battling monsters to the death, a ten percent success rate wasn't something you could rely on.
━ I can fire Magic Missile with a 10% hit rate.
An introduction line like that would be pretty meaningless when applying to an adventurer party. It seemed like I wouldn't be able to brag to others about it until my accuracy had improved at least a bit.
Lost in various thoughts, I arrived at the Adventurer's Guild, and my eyes immediately landed on Wendy, who was sitting at the reception desk.
"I'm here to take a request."
When she saw me, Wendy gave a gentle smile.
"It's been a week. I heard the report about the corpse disposal request. The staff member from the Magic Tower seemed very satisfied with you, Luke."
"A report?"
I tilted my head at the unexpected remark.
It wasn't that I didn't know what a 'report' was. Adventurers were, in principle, supposed to report their performance results to the guild after completing a request.
Sometimes the adventurer themselves filed the report, and sometimes the person in charge from the commissioning organization did. The corpse disposal request I handled last time was the latter case.
In this case, it meant the Magic Tower staff member had delivered their evaluation of me to the guild.
If they meant the person in charge here, that was probably Mr. Thompson, the work supervisor.
"Did they write something good in the report?"
"It said your proficiency in handling dissection tools was outstanding. It also noted that your mental fortitude is strong, so you didn't show any signs of losing focus even during long hours of work. Besides that, there's a lengthy passage written on the report document—by character count, it's about 5700 characters...."
"5700 characters?"
Good heavens.
That work supervisor must have been incredibly pleased with my skills. Well, adventurers who can skillfully handle corpse disposal requests are rare, after all. Most new recruits just got in the way or ended up vanishing like deserting ninjas.
"As expected, you're a responsible person, Luke. Unlike other incubi, you're someone who can be trusted."
I felt a little pleased by Wendy's compliment.
What could possibly feel better than being praised by a beautiful woman?
Even if the subject of her praise was the gruesome work of handling corpses.
"Anyway, you said you came to take a request? What kind of request should I introduce to you?"
"If possible, I'd prefer a request I can handle solo. Since if I try applying to a party, I'll just get shot down."
"In that case, how about the same monster corpse disposal request as last time━."
"Ah, I'm not doing that."
I cut Wendy off flatly.
I shook my head with what even I thought was a ridiculously stiff expression.
"Absolutely not. I'll absolutely, positively not do it. If I have to fiddle with monster corpses again, I'd rather bite my tongue and die. Every time I visit the waste disposal area, it feels like my lifespan is being chipped away."
Did I use too aggressive an expression?
I clamped my mouth shut and, feeling slightly guilty, checked Wendy's expression.
For some reason, Wendy had the hint of a suppressed laugh on her lips.
"It's a joke, Luke."
"Huh?"
"Even so, we can't assign a corpse disposal request to the same adventurer three times. I'm not that much of a heartless dog bitch, you know. The truth is, I had a request set aside especially for you. As thanks for completing the corpse disposal request without a single complaint."
She'd set aside a request specifically for me?
I heard what Wendy said, but I didn't feel any particular sense of expectation.
What kind of decent job would they ever allocate to an incubus, anyway?
It would just be some garbage request that only the bottom-feeders of society carried out.
Corpse disposal, sewer cleaning, they probably had that kind of request ready.
But Wendy's following words proved my expectations wrong.
"It's a party quest. The request is herb collection! You just need to collect the herbs blooming on the plains together with your party members."
"Oh."
I was so surprised my eyes flew wide open.
That's because in the adventuring business, herb collection requests were usually treated as sweet, honey-sucking gigs.
It wasn't about subjugating dangerous monsters, but just a request to pick some plants growing from the dirt.
However, I had almost never carried out a herb collection request before.
Because these requests were almost always snatched up by adventurers who were already in a party.
Of course, it wasn't so difficult a request that you couldn't do it alone. But a party would naturally be more competitive than a solo act.
An adventurer party is a high hurdle for an incubus to join━.
"W-wait a minute. It's a party quest. Are you saying I can participate in that? Almost no party accepts an incubus. If I go to the meeting spot without a word, the party might disband right then and there."
"Don't worry. I've taken care of things. I spoke in advance with the other two adventurers who are already confirmed as party members. I thoroughly explained to them that you, Luke, are a trustworthy talent."
"A-and what did they say? What was their reaction?"
Wendy answered with a smile.
"Both adventurers said they don't care if you're an incubus, Luke. I heard them say there's no problem with completing the request together."
"......Oh my god."
I clasped my hands together, deeply moved.
To think that all that running around like a headless chicken in the waste disposal area would be rewarded.
I felt incredibly grateful to Wendy for having looked out for me.
"Thank you, Ms. Wendy. I believed in you! Hell yeah~!"
Actually, I hadn't believed, but still, hell yeah~.
After hearing an explanation about the herbs to be collected, I received my wooden tag and hurriedly left the Adventurer's Guild.
[Herb Collection Request]
Grade: E
Details: Collect Moonlight Herbs growing on the shores of Lake Mersil
Reward: 60 copper, 1 dose of Antidote Herb
The outline of the request was roughly this.
It was a low-grade request, so I'd probably finish it fast and be back.
That's what I thought when I left the guild.