“All right, let me explain. First, this is the quest posting, and...”
“Sorry, could you wait just a moment?” Daggers was about to start the debriefing, but I interrupted him.
“Hmm? Sure...”
I activated my storage magic and took out a pen and notepad. “All right, continue.”
“You sure are serious...” muttered Daggers, staring at me. “Um... Anyway, I want you to take a look at the posting. This quest involves...”
I listened to Daggers, all the while making note of the most important information. His explanation was surprisingly short but easy to understand, as he made sure to dumb it down to only the most salient points.
“Anyway, that’s the gist. Did you get all that?”
“Yeah. I think I got it down pretty well.” With that, I closed my notepad and stored it away.
Our job was to eradicate the high wolves that had been ravaging farmland owned by the client, Marcus. High wolves were monsters that typically traversed the forest in packs and hunted other monsters for sustenance. They were fearsome foes, as they operated in packs, but a B-rank adventurer party should have been strong enough to face them.
However, the high wolves in this quest had appeared in abnormally high numbers, raising the difficulty to A-rank, and thus making this a quest that could only be accepted by A-rank adventurer parties or higher. However, this town didn’t just lack any A-rank parties, but any A-rank adventurers at all, which was why Yui and the others had accepted this quest.
“A pack of high wolves, huh...?”
Typically, high wolves lived together in the forest in relatively small numbers, twenty at the most. Occasionally, you’d hear talk of them wandering onto farmland, but I had never heard of them ravaging farmland before. Not to mention, based on what the others told me, this farmland only had vegetables, not livestock. However, high wolves were carnivores and didn’t eat vegetables. So just why were they ravaging these fields...?
That wasn’t the only problem. “I get that our job is to defeat these high wolves, but...the quest doesn’t specify exactly how many of them there are,” muttered Yui, holding the job posting in her hands.
She was exactly right, and that was the other problem with this quest. All it specified was that there were an “abnormal number” of these high wolves. In other words, we didn’t know exactly how many foes we’d be facing.
“All we know is that there’s an ‘abnormal number,’ which...” Daggers trailed off.
Cross chimed in. “Yeah. That doesn’t really help much.”
“Perhaps that means there’s too many of them to estimate?” offered Silica.
We all stared at the job posting on the table.
“Well, if there’s a lot of ’em, then it’s your time to shine, Silica! The rest of us can’t defeat a whole horde at once, after all.”
You couldn’t slay multiple monsters at once with a sword or a bow. From that perspective, Yui’s occupation of swordsman and Cross’s occupation of archer weren’t well suited for this quest.
“I suppose so... But ranged magic is quite limited, and it greatly consumes MP. That might be difficult depending on how many of our enemies there are...”
“Yeah, I guess it’ll be hard fighting them all yourself... Do you have any ranged attack spells, Lloyd?” asked Yui.
“Oh, me?”
Hmm... Ranged attack spells...
It’s not like I couldn’t use them, but a white mage couldn’t produce as much power as an offensive class, even if I did use buffs to strengthen my magic and up my power. And if it came to that, then it’d be more effective to focus on supporting Silica and cast buffs on her instead.
“I technically can use them, but... I think we should leave that to Silica.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I was really shocked by your magic, Lloyd, but a white mage really just can’t produce the same power, huh?”
“Yeah. Which is why rather than having me attack with shoddy offensive spells, it’d be better for me to focus on support.” I frankly communicated my thoughts with the others.
“So I’ll have the opportunity to experience your support magic, Lloyd... I’m quite excited!” said Silica, looking at me.
But “excited”? I wasn’t so sure I had the skills to live up to her expectations. I mean, it would probably take everything I had just to not hold them back.
“Don’t set your hopes too high.”
Having such expectations placed on me only added to the pressure, and I really didn’t want to disappoint them by not living up to their hopes.
“Hmm... Y’know, from what I’ve seen, you’ve really gotta have some more self-confidence, Lloyd...” muttered Yui. “Well, I’m sure you’ve got your reasons. And I’d rather have someone humble like Lloyd than someone who lets their skills get to their head, anyway!”
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Cross, agreeing with Yui.
“Yui, Cross. Let’s set that aside for now and get back to the matter at hand,” chastised Daggers. “Then let me explain the strategy I’ve thought up. First, Yui and I will draw the high wolves’ attention. Then once we’ve gathered them in one place, Silica will fire at them with her magic. How does that sound?”
Cross raised his hand. “Hey, and what am I supposed to do?”
“You protect Silica and Lloyd. Lloyd, you’re in charge of support magic and healing.”
“Got it.” It was a simple plan, but I didn’t have any objections. Plus...
“Well, we can work out the details once we get there. We don’t know anything about the actual number of high wolves we’ll be facing or what the terrain is like... We just don’t have enough intel.”
Daggers was right. The details of this quest really were lacking, which meant we couldn’t decide on anything concrete until we arrived at our destination. Usually, a difficult request like this required some preliminary investigations, but given how far away it was, that seemed to have not been possible.
“Let’s decide the rest once we get there.”
“Yeah...”
“Well, for now, we’ve decided, then!” cheerfully said Yui with a smile. She took her beer mug that was sitting on the table into her hands. “So today...let’s drink until—”
Daggers lifted Yui into the air.
“Hey, what’re you doing?!”
“We’ve got an important job to do tomorrow. We can’t afford to be hungover. Let’s go home.”
“B-But, I still wanna...” Yui tried to protest, but Daggers got out of his seat and walked off with Yui still in hand. He was headed for the register to pay our bill. “I don’t wanna! I haven’t drunk enough yet!”
Daggers sighed. “Enough. We’re going home.”
“I. Don’t. Wanna!!!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Daggers paid the bill as Yui loudly protested within his grasp. Then, we exited the tavern. Yui was still throwing a violent fit, but Daggers forced her toward their inn.
Yes, Yui was currently being dragged to an inn. The four of them all had separate rooms but were staying at the same place. They all seemed to be in good spirits as I watched them from behind, slightly jealous. If only I had comrades like them...
“Oh, that’s right.” As that thought passed through my mind, I realized something. I had almost forgotten to ask. “Hey, Daggers? Where are we meeting tomorrow?”
“Huh? You’re not staying at the same inn as us? Oh, that’s right. You don’t have any cash right now.”
Yeah, I didn’t, and that was why I couldn’t stay at the same inn. Tonight, I planned on using the camping equipment I had stored away using magic to stay in a safe forest on the outskirts of Ishtar.
If I could remember the signature of their MP, I’d be able to find them tomorrow with detection magic, but I wanted to avoid wasting MP with a quest ahead of us. Searching for a specific person consumed a lot of it.
“Yeah, that’s why...”
“Here. Use this.” Daggers tossed me a pouch with something inside. I caught it, opened it, and found money. He was telling me to use it to spend the night at their inn.
But they had just paid for my meal. I couldn’t accept money for lodging on top of that. “I can’t—”
“Relax. I’m not giving it to you. I’ll be taking those funds out of your share of the reward. You wouldn’t let me just give it to you anyways, right?” he said, grinning. These people really were so kind.
“Yeah, you’re right... I’ll make sure to pay you back with my work.”
I put away the money Daggers had lent me with my storage magic and followed after them.