Tl Note: A reader requested I put back this note from the old translations for the previous chapter, so here it is. I’m putting it here too, so those who already read the chapter can see it.
The ‘meet’ used by Elia when she says, “Let’s meet again.” Uses 逢う and not 会う. Meaning it is an emotional meeting. The kind of meeting where you’re going, “My love, my love! Where art thou? Thou hast left mine chest cold. And mine heart in tatters. Ah! If I could fly I would and embrace thee now! Ah I want to meet thee!”… ♫ well something like that. Basically, it’s emotional whereas the other is just routine.
We will be hunting monsters at the mine today too.
I made up my mind to become independent yesterday, so I should do what I can now.
First, I need to provide the basic necessities to live. If I don’t have any clothes, I should buy some from the store. As for my house, I’ll be living at the mines, so that won’t be an issue. As for food, I could look for a new place to hunt, and then buy from town if I need more, but that’ll cost money.
I currently have 700 small gold coins from the reward for taking out a bandit, and 40 medium gold coins from the bandits themselves. I also have plenty of coins from all the work I’ve done at the guild, so living expenses shouldn’t pose a problem. In fact, I have enough to live luxuriously, but if I do that, I’ll go poor before I know it.
That being said, I can make 30 medium silver coins or 3,000 suits just from cleaning the 30 latrine pits. That’s enough to pay for a person’s 30 days’ worth of living expenses. On top of that, I can also make money selling iron ingots and waterproof cloths to Serge-san, so… yeah. Money won’t be an issue, and if anything, matters regarding finances should be a smooth sail.
But as I thought about it, I couldn’t help but be depressed. After all, it’s not like I’m the one cleaning the latrine pits. It’s the scavenger slimes who clean them. If I just live off their work like that, then what’s the point in me leaving the duke’s family?
I need another source of income. Something other than adventurer work. Not just for independence’s sake, but also as a failsafe in case I’m unable to continue working as an adventurer for whatever reason.
It’s a bit extreme considering I haven’t spent a single suit since coming to this world and meeting the duke, but it should be enough so long as I make just enough to scrape by. As for the fortune I have now, I should only use it when it’s really needed, so… A hundred suits a day. Yeah. That should do. If I make at least that much, I should be able to get by.
“Ryouma-kun. He~y, are you listening~?” [Mizelia]
Oops, I shouldn’t be dozing off like this.
“Sorry, I was thinking about something. What is it?” [Ryouma]
“Your head shouldn’t be up in the clouds during a battle —Is what i was about to say, but…” [Mizelia]
“Even though you’re not focused, you can still take down the monsters easily, huh.” [Syria]
“We haven’t been able to get even a single one, you know.” [Wereanna]
“Ah, sorry. My body just moved by itself.” [Ryouma]
“I don’t really mind, nyaa, but please stop muttering to yourself while killing all the monsters nonchalantly. It’s scary, nyaa.” [Miya]
“S-Sorry…” [Ryouma]
Was I talking out loud?
“Are you troubled by money? I think I heard you say something about living expenses.”
“Actually…” [Ryouma]
“A meeting’s been called! Everyone is to gather at the mine entrance!!” [Male Adventurer]
I was about to talk about my circumstances, but suddenly, a male adventurer came out of nowhere, panicking.
Is there an emergency?
“Did something happen!?” [Wereanna]
“Apparently, a goblin town was spotted in one part of the tunnels. It’s big too. Fortunately, no one died, but some of the G Ranks are wounded.” [Male Adventurer]
“A goblin village, huh. That’s a pain. If we don’t get rid of them now, they’ll multiply.” [Jeff]
“I have to call the others, so you guys go ahead and gather at the mine entrance!!” [Male Adventurer]
After the man said that, he left.
We hurried back to the entrance of the mine just as we were told, and when we got there, there was already a huge crowd of adventurers.
We waited for a while, and then the guild master went up the stage the guild prepared.
“I think you’ve already been informed, but I’ll brief you on the situation anyway! Just a while ago, we found some goblins in a tunnel, and shortly after, a goblin village! As such, we will now be starting the operation to exterminate the goblins! It will be a medium-scale operation and there are at least 500 goblins predicted! To minimize casualties, only D Rankers and above will be able to join! Gather according to rank and follow your orders!!” [Wogan]
After that the guild master called for me.
“Also… Ryouma, you there?” [Wogan]
“Present.” [Ryouma]
“You’re currently an F Ranker, but your abilities are already above E Rank, so since you’ve already fulfilled the conditions for promotion with this job, you’re going to be promoted to E Rank ahead of schedule.” [Wogan]
“Understood.” [Ryouma]
“Anyone has a problem with that?” [Wogan]
No one answered the guild master’s question. It seems yesterday’s incident was quite effective.
“Good! Now, go and prepare! If you’re lacking any necessities, come to me! If it’s something we can give, we’ll give it to you! Once you’re ready, gather according to rank and memorize your battle plans!” [Wogan]
Gather according to rank… Hmm, the leader for the E Rank adventurers should be a woman named Prolia.
After meeting my group, another meeting began with her as the facilitator.
“I’ll explain the plan… Our job is to lead the F and G Rank adventurers to block the escape route of the goblins. There we will finish them off.” [Prolia]
She started explaining the plan using a map.
“Rankers A to D will attack the tunnel and the village from both sides. Alone, they should be able to take out most of the goblins, but despite the encirclement, some of the goblins are still bound to escape due to their great numbers.
To remedy that, they will intentionally leave one side of the encirclement open. Naturally, the goblins will run toward the place of least resistance, but unfortunately for them, we will be waiting on the other side.
Because we will have the F and G Rankers with us, we need to ensure their safety. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to raise your hand.” [Prolia]
Several people raised their hands and suggested various plans. I was one of them. My suggestion was a plan I often used in the forest.
“Ryouma-kun, right? Do you have any suggestions?” [Prolia]
“I have a method suited for fighting goblins en masse. We could dig a deep ditch with earth magic along the route the goblins are expected to take, then we could fill it with acid slimes. And then…” [Ryouma]
I took out a long rod with a knife attached to it from my item box. It looked just like a scythe.
“We could push any goblins that approached us to the acid ditch with weapons like this one. From there, we could bury the fallen goblins with arrows and magic.
With this method the goblins that fall will be immediately neutralized.
There shouldn’t be a lot of goblins who could climb back up, and even if they try to, we could just push them back down with something like a spear.
As a result, only the goblin archers and mages will be left. With the goblin enemies drastically limited, even the inexperienced adventurers shouldn’t have that much difficulties.” [Ryouma]
“I see… Can you prepare the slimes?” [Prolia]
“Yes.” [Ryouma]
Looks like she’s considering it.
After that she asked me a couple of questions, and I responded to each and every one. In the end, it was decided that we will be going with my plan.
“Get ready to move.” [Prolia]
After Prolia calmly said that, we all started moving.
My job was to take the earth mages among the adventurers and lead them to the designated place ahead of everyone else, where we would then dig a big hole.
“Seeing it in person, those cliffs sure are huge.” [Ryouma]
“The goblins definitely won’t be able to climb up those.” [Adventurer Mage 1]
The designated location was like that of a ravine, sandwiched between two cliffs, so the number of goblins that could fit in a row would be limited.
The hole we dug was 4 meters long, 50 meters wide, and 3 meters deep.
” ‘Create Block’!” [Ryouma]
“That spell is amazing.” [Adventurer Mage 1]
” It’s a combination of ‘Rock’ and ‘Break Rock’! It’s really efficient!” [Ryouma]
“Can I try it too?” [Adventurer Mage 1]
“Sure!” [Ryouma]
Working as fast as we could, from time to time teaching the other adventurers a new trick or two, we dug a hole along the route the goblins were expected to take.
To minimize the risks, I’m going to have the slimes hide their nucleus. All they need to release their acid is to form a tentacle with their body and extend it through the small holes we’ve prepared. Like this they’ll be able to safely melt the goblins.
After digging the hole, all that was left was to throw the acid slimes in. With that, our acid pool was complete.
“Can we throw this in as a test?” [Mage Adventurer 1]
“I want to see if it works.” [Mage Adventurer 2]
“Is that a small rat? Sure.” [Ryouma]
At that, the adventurer threw the corpse of the small rat into the acid pool, and in the blink of an eye, its skin melted and the white of its bones showed. Like that it quietly sunk into the bottom of the acid pool.
“…Gruesome.” [Mage Adventurer 1]
“Were acid slimes always this dangerous?” [Male Adventurer 2]
“Well, a little acid on the skin will at most leave burns. For the skin to melt enough to show the bones, you’d have to be sunk into a pool like this with no room to escape.
Also, the melted prey will serve as nutrients to the acid slimes, so they can release more acid as time passes, and the battle will progress much better for us as well.
The acid levels will just keep on rising because of that, but I’ll make sure to tell them to stop once the acid levels are high enough.” [Ryouma]
“I absolutely don’t want to fall…” [Mage Adventurer 1]
“Excuse me! Where should I put these?” [Adventurer]
Oh, it’s the adventurers from the detached force. Looks like the goods are here. After the meeting, the adventurers quickly went to make rods out of the nearby trees and gather the scythes from the cave mantises that were killed yesterday and today.
Cave mantis scythes aren’t very sharp, but because of that they’re durable enough to be used to push the goblins into the acid pool as planned. I ordered the sticky slimes to connect the rod and the scythes with their hardening liquid.
We also used the earth we’ve dug out to create some railings around the acid pool to keep us from falling in ourselves, then we made some platforms for the archers and mages to use. We took extra care to make them easy for the mages and archers to use.
With that, our preparations were complete.
The platform would stand out too much, though, so I also erected an anti-physical barrier. Anti-physical barriers only work on physical things, so the spells should still be able to pass through unhindered.
I reported all of our progress to the leader. My job was finally done. Well, for now, anyway.
“Let’s run through this again! F and G ranked adventurers are to stand near the acid pool and deal with the goblins using the scythes. E Rankers are to engage the goblins in close combat and drive them toward the acid pool. At the same time, you must also ensure that the F and G Rankers are unharmed. As for the archers and the mages, your job is to take out the goblin archers and mages as soon as you spot them.” [Prolia]
All of the adventurers voiced out words of understanding.
“Alright. All platoons are to rest until the commencement of the operation.” [Prolia]
Since all preparations were done, all that’s left was to wait. As such, the surrounding adventurers all relaxed and went about their own ways to rest.
As a result, I once again have nothing to do. This is just like yesterday. Maybe I should check on the slimes and the weapons again…
“Excuse me! D-Do you have time right now!?” [Young Adventurer]
“Huh?” [Ryouma]
I turned around when a voice called out to me, and what greeted me was…
“Ah, you’re from yesterday.” [Ryouma]
Behind me were the six young adventurers from yesterday.
