In the end, my buddies ended up helping me out on my logging quest. Just as I’d suggested, we decided to split the proceeds seventy-thirty.
Just as we were about to head to the forest, however, Blade spoke up. “Huh? We’re not using a wagon?”
“I don’t have anything like that,” I replied.
“You’ve gotta be kidding! Are you nuts?! Why didn’t you just borrow one from— Oh, right. F rank adventurers wouldn’t have the connections to borrow one yet. No problem, we’ll rent one for you.”
Wow, now that would be a big help. After all, each of us could only carry two logs at a time, one under each arm. Without a wagon, we’d be limited to only eight logs per trip.
“I mean, with a wagon, you could carry up to six logs!” Blade said.
“In that case, maybe we don’t need one after all.” I replied.
“H-Huh? Really?”
“No, wait. If we could carry six logs each, wagons might be better after all.”
“Whoa, hold on! Just how many trees are you planning to cut down?!”
Hm? As many as I can, of course.
“It costs one large copper per day to rent one wagon,” Blade informed me. “Can we really make enough on this job to comfortably afford renting four?”
“For sure! Piece of cake!” I said.
“Seriously?! That magic of yours is something else.”
“C’mon, Blade. Surely you know better than to swallow her words at face value,” Shildon said.
“In fact, aren’t you a little too trusting of her as of late? Something happen between you two?” Sekko chimed in.
“Sure did. A few things happened while me and her were at Shunrai. I’ll never forget all I witnessed that night...”
Wait, you saw everything too?! Just what all did you see?! The tidbits Harumikazuchi told me were embarrassing enough on their own!
“Don’t worry, guys! She’s a girl we can trust! I guarantee it!”
“Uh, Karina, what did you do to him? Did you become...his mistress?”
“Absolutely not. But keep the Shunrai thing a secret anyway.”
That night was just as embarrassing for me, after all... Sure wish I could remember it, though!
Anyway, thanks to Blade’s referral, I was able to rent four wagons. After that, we made for the forest.
“All right, time to cut down some trees!” I said.
“Go right ahead!” Blade said. “We’ll watch the area for monsters in the meantime!”
“Heeere we go!”
“Whoa, already?!”
In one fell swoop, I used my spatial magic to instantly down one tree. Right before it hit the ground, I solidified the space—freezing the tree in place—then I lowered it gently.
“I-I didn’t even see the spell activate!” Sekko said in shock.
“That’s because I just used some slight wind magic,” I replied.
“Wind magic can do that?!”
“What’d I tell ya? Karina’s pretty awesome, huh?”
“Why do you look so proud, Blade? Well, at least it looks like we’ll get our money’s worth with these wagons.”
He was right about that. If each wagon could carry six logs, I could cut down twenty-three more trees in no time.
“Then, at least leave the branches to us,” Shildon said. “Now that the tree’s cut down, we can use Blade’s woodworking skill to—”
“Oh, right, I forgot about the branches. Hyah!”
“You sliced them all off in one go?! What are you, superhuman?! Then at least let us load them into the—”
“Oh, that won’t be necessary. I can use magic to make them as light as a feather.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me...”
Wow! Not only can I cut the tree down in an instant, I can lop off its branches just as fast! Then by hollowing out the logs’ contents by creating a space of holding inside the log, I can make them incredibly light! (Of course, I’d have to replace the log’s contents afterward so it wouldn’t look suspicious.) Mwa ha ha... Witness the divine might of spatial magic in action!
“I guess you really can do this all by yourself after all, huh, Karina?” Blade said. “Did we really even need to be here?”
“As a formality, yes.”
“A formality? What formality?”
“Men, shoulder your cargo! Everyone got their logs?!” I recited.
“Whoa! She prepared another wagon’s worth just like that?!”
Because it took practically no time to prepare a load, we were able to make two round trips in one day, turning in a grand total of forty-eight logs.
When we dropped a stack of forty-eight receipts for complete delivery onto the guild’s counter, the receptionist’s smile stiffened.
“Th-This is an amount I’d normally expect from a designated logging team.”
“I know, right?” Blade said with a wry grin. “We were just as surprised.”
“Seriously. I think this might be the first time something Blade was excited about actually lived up to the hype,” Shildon said.
“Oh, you think so too?” Sekko said.
The senior adventurers still hadn’t gotten over their astonishment.
“Er... You were going to split it seventy-thirty, correct?” the receptionist said, and she handed me seventy percent of the reward.
“Karina, just go ahead and take four large silvers’ worth,” Blade said.
“Huh? But wait, my share should be thirty-three silvers and six large coppers. The monsters I killed on the way should’ve covered the cost of the wagons too, so isn’t that a little much?”
“Considering how little we did, I’d feel bad even taking thirty percent. Consider it the stubbornness of a senior adventurer... Ah, dammit! With power like that, you really are gonna be a big deal someday! I guarantee it!”
“’Preciate it!”
Apparently it wasn’t that he’d miscalculated the ratio. Shildon and Sekko were nodding in agreement as well. In that case, I’ll take you up on your offer without refusing! A novice should show deference to their mentors, after all.
“In addition to your reward, you’ve gone up an adventurer rank!” the receptionist announced. “Congratulations, you are now Rank E!”
“Huh? I ranked up already? I’m not a novice anymore? That was fast! Wait, this is only my third day since registering, though. Is that really okay? What standard is rank even determined by?”
“Anyone earning a total of one large silver’s worth over the course of a single month is automatically promoted to Rank E. In other words, the criteria for Rank E is based on your earnings.”
I see. I’d just earned four large silvers in the course of a single day, so that would definitely qualify. She went on to explain that to reach Rank D, I’d need to earn a total of two large silvers’ worth in a month and be actively registered in the guild for a certain amount of time. For Rank C, I’d also have to have completed a certain number of quests and gained the trust of the guild to a certain degree. So both of those ranks would actually take time to attain.
“Guess that means you guys in Sun Bacchus must be pretty seasoned adventurers after all,” I commented.
“Hey now, that’s rude. Do we not look like seasoned adventurers to you?” Blade replied.
“Well, at the start, you just looked like a drunk trying to hit on me.”
“Ugh.” Blade had no rebuttal.
“So, Karina, what do you plan to do from here on? Before, I was thinking I’d invite you to join our party, but seeing what you can accomplish on your own, I think we’d just get in your way.”
Wow, what an honest guy! I would’ve thought he’d try and exploit a newbie like me more since I didn’t know anything. That would’ve been a more interesting development, anyway.
“You said you wanted to become a merchant, right?” he continued.
“Oh—yeah, but I have another quest I have to complete first, so I was thinking I might try and find somewhere to buy a slave.”
That’s right, a quest—in other words, sock gathering. I was planning to buy a cute slave girl and dress her in stockings to naturally farm SP! Even if my own socks aren’t any good, the Goddess shouldn’t have any complaints about that! Not to mention, slave girls are an isekai staple. Tussling and arguing with a cute slave girl—now that sounds like fun!
So I decided to ask Blade and the others where I could buy a slave and how much they would run.
“Karina...I don’t think you should do that.”
Immediate disapproval!
“You dashed my hopes right from the start!”
“Well, I mean, think about it from their perspective! They didn’t become slaves because they wanted to.”
“Yeah, I suppose not.” Nobody would—unless they were a crazy, masochistic pervert.
“They all want to get out of slavery. You understand that, right?”
“Return to a free lifestyle. Yeah, I see.” Anyone would want to live a free life rather than be a slave. Right. That went without saying.
“That’s why they generally shouldn’t be trusted. A few will genuinely work hard to earn the trust of their master, sure. But unless you want to get swindled, you should always assume they’re trying to deceive you. Whatever you do, don’t trust them with anything until they’ve squared their debts away and returned to a normal life.”
“Huh? How come?”
“Because their attitudes often suddenly change once they’re no longer a slave. Take this scenario, for example.”