I was still only barely a bronze-rank adventurer, so I didn’t feel like I had the skills to warrant that much appreciation. I couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious of Hester for being so eager.
I’d honestly assumed that, once they’d reached the level where they could easily slay goblins, they’d decide they didn’t really want to team up after all. But they were still every bit as intent to form a party with me, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand it.
Everything was riding on how tomorrow went, but considering I was the one who’d dragged them into a life of adventuring, and considering that they had some pretty powerful potential, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to team up after all.
“Well, enough of that for now. I bought us some meat skewers, so let’s dig in,” I said.
“All right! I’d love some meat skewers!” said Ralph.
“Thanks for always thinking of us,” said Hester.
After handing them their portions, I pulled myself together and took out my botany notebook.
Next to the entries for all the plants I’d eaten today, I recorded that they’d had no effect. Then I set the rest of the samples for those species aside so they wouldn’t get mixed in with the others.
Now I would know not to pick any plants from those species next time I ventured into Patia Forest.
It was dull, expensive work to categorize these plants, but when I thought about how it was all going to pay off one day, I didn’t mind a bit.
“Hey, why’re you always messing around with all that weird dried grass?” Ralph asked as he chewed cheerfully on a meat skewer.
“I’ll tell you once we’ve officially formed a party.”
“I bet you’re making some kind of weird potion with those, aren’t you? Let me eat one!”
Just as Ralph leaned down to pick up one of the samples I’d laid out on the floor, I stopped him. “You’ll die if you eat that.”
I had no idea how toxic the plants were, or even if they were actually toxic at all, but there was a real risk that they could kill a normal person.
“Whaddaya mean, I’ll die? You telling me that you’re bringing killer plants into our room?”
“Look, I don’t really know the whole story around these plants yet. But just don’t eat them and you’ll be fine,” I said.
“Hey, is that where you get all your money from? From selling this stuff? You know, I bet this is the stuff they use to poison people.”
“You really are an idiot, you know that? You’re crazy if you think anyone would buy ingredients for poison from some low-level, nobody adventurer. Besides, it’s not like people are getting poisoned to death on the regular.”
“Okay, but what the hell are those for, then?”
“For me to eat. I’ve got poison immunity, remember?”
“Yeah, but surely that doesn’t mean you have to eat a bunch of poisonous dried grass?” Ralph said. Then, after a thoughtful pause, he asked, “Does it...taste good?”
“Nope. It’s dizzyingly disgusting, actually.”
Ralph looked at me like I was insane, but I just ignored him and kept working.
I’d let them in on the full story once we were officially a party, but for now, I didn’t care what he or Hester thought of me.
After a while, Ralph and Hester began their strategy meeting to figure out their plan for tomorrow. I listened to them as I worked, and continued working until late into the night.
“Chris, wake up,” said Hester.
I opened my eyes and saw that the sun had only barely begun to rise.
Come to think of it, they do always seem to get an early start. They’re gone by the time I get up every morning, I thought.
After letting out a big yawn, I forced myself to crawl out of bed.
“Good morning. We’re going to head out for that goblin-hunting quest soon, so you should get ready to go too,” Hester said.
“Right.”
At Hester’s urging, I quickly set about getting my things ready for the day.
Hester and Ralph would be taking the lead today, so I decided to just bring my sword, some water, and some light armor. They were only going up against goblins, so we weren’t exactly going to be in any real danger.
As soon as I finished packing up my stuff, we left the hotel and headed out.
Ralph was waiting for us outside the hotel. Apparently, he’d already stopped by the Adventurers’ Guild to accept the day’s quest.
As you’d expect of two pickpocket accomplices, they were completely in sync. They managed to coordinate things pretty smoothly between the two of them.
Without a party, I had to do everything by myself, so it was a lot less efficient.
While I reflected on the advantages of having teammates, the three of us headed to the quest’s location: the woods southwest of the city.
“Why do you guys always head out so early every morning?” I asked.
“Simple: ’cause of me,” answered Ralph. “It takes me forever to get anywhere.”
“Oh... Because of your knee injury?”
“Yeah. It takes a long time for us to get to the quest location, and then it takes a long time for us to slay any goblins.”
So that’s why it’s such an undertaking for them to even slay a goblin, I thought.
I’d figured that helping Hester learn magic would be the top priority, but this really drove home for me that it was actually more important to do something about Ralph’s knee.