Chapter 5 – Herbalism Quest #1

“You worked hard today too, adventurer. As promised, I’ll give you one sinew.”

Disposing of Cyclops’ body took longer than before. It must be because there are many parts that need to be handled more delicately than the basilisk.
I felt like I did quite a bit of hard work until late at night, but I have no complaints.
Instead, a genuine laugh broke out.

“Haha…”

There must be a reason why the foreman stabbed the 20-cooper tendon with a pooch.
I was lucky enough to learn how to feel mana while stealing classes from the Mage Tower. I changed my clothes and quickly went back to the inn just in case someone caught me.

‘You mean to feel the warm energy in the abdomen?’

After filling my stomach with the soup prepared by the innkeeper, I went into the room and hurriedly began practicing magic. To help feel a bit, I took off my outerwear. I went up on the bed with only one piece of underwear on and made a hand sign.

Now, there is no need to look at the pictures in the magic book.
After repeating the practice for several days, I had memorized the order of making hand signs. If you repeat only 10 movements hundreds of times, anyone will be able to memorize them.

You should feel the energy.
I focused on the sensation in my stomach.
I tried to feel the movement of the mana in it. If someone was watching me from afar, it must be a ridiculous sight. It’s like a naked young man making bizarre hand movements for hours.

But as a party, I was serious.
I wanted to learn speed and magic and use it to make money.

I want to learn a special skill that is different from others and find a job in an adventurer party with great specs. I want to receive a high-ranking request and eat three full meals with the reward. If I can afford it, I want to save money and buy my own house. It was a wish she had had since she became an adventurer two years ago.

“…Oh.”

An obsessive desire filled with lust for water.
Has that earnest heart finally reached the sky?
At some point, I felt a strange sensation in my abdomen. The sensation of something gently flowing inside the body. Every time you repeat the hand sign, the sensation begins to be felt more clearly.

‘This, is this mana?’

For the first time in my life, I felt mana.
As time went by, I was convinced that the aura flowing through my body was mana. Every time I signed a hand sign, the energy was flowing through my body in a specific direction. The last place the energy reaches is my hand. The mana that flowed out of the body through the tips of the fingers gathered in the air and created a surprising change.

After feeling the mana, time passed.

“Magic Missile.”

Squeak-.
A glowing sphere formed on my palm.
An orb emitting faint light was floating above his hand. It was a sphere of exactly the same shape as the picture in the magic book.
Surprised that I had really used magic, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut for a while.

“Oh, oh…”

An exclamation that flows out without me knowing.

The sphere soon dissipated in midair.
It must have disappeared after the end of its sustainable time.
But no problem.
It is a sphere that can be summoned again after making a hand sign.

I made spheres, and when the spheres disappeared, I made them again.
It was only a small sphere, but every time I saw it, my head burned with excitement. I never thought studying magic would be so much fun. I understood a little why the wizards were so enthusiastic about learning new magic.

From the next day, I decided to change my training method.
Having succeeded in creating a sphere, he now felt the need to go one step further. According to the explanation in the magic book, magic missiles were originally offensive magic.

Magic that fires spheres to strike enemies.
There was no detailed description of its power, so I personally verified it while training.

Of course, you can’t continue training at the inn.
It would be a big deal if you damaged the property while shooting magic.

I went out of the inn and headed down a dark alleyway down the street. Like a medieval land with an unplanned urban design, there are many alleys throughout the streets. Knowing a lesser-known place among them, I chose it as my new training ground.

Right after reaching the alley.
I took a few pieces of wood out of my pocket.
The wood block was picked up from an abandoned object near the carpentry shop. If you’re training to fire a ball, you’ll need a target you can hit, of course. It was easy to set the wooden block on the floor because I deliberately chose a thick one.

Took!
Putting a thick block of wood on the side of the alleyway, I took a few steps back. Then, without hesitation, he immediately cast the spell.

“Magic Missile.”

A glowing sphere floating on the palm of your hand.
As explained in the magic book, I had the will to eject the sphere. At that moment, the sphere flew forward at breakneck speed. Biting its tail, the flying sphere gradually accelerated. The moment the sphere collided with something, I closed my eyes tightly in surprise.

Kung-!

“Ugh…”

When you open your eyes again
I realized that the magic missile had missed.
Because the wooden block that stood up was fine.
Instead, there were traces of the impact of the sphere on the stone floor that was far away from the side.

Traces of being hit hard with a tool hammer.
In terms of destructive power alone, it is a passing score. It’s a decent power to deal with low-level monsters like goblins. However, there were minor problems in adopting magic missiles in real combat.

I don’t know why it strayed so far.
I fired the magic missile again as a test. He made a sphere out of his palm and focused his consciousness on the target piece of wood. Soon after, the ejected sphere flew forward.

And again, the sphere hit the floor helplessly.

I didn’t think it was that far.
Because I was about 5m away from the block of wood. The target wasn’t far enough to look like a dot, so I thought I’d be able to hit it at this distance.

‘I’ll have to practice some more.’

I continuously fired magic missiles.
Since then, the magic missile has been fired a total of 10 times.
Fortunately, not all attempts have gone awry. The last 10th magic missile fired was lucky enough to brush the corner of the wooden block. As the number of repetitions increased, I felt that the range of misses decreased slightly. Maybe it’s just a whim, but it might be worth practicing.

The magic missile firing training was unexpectedly exhausting.
After about 3 hours, I stopped my magic training. It seemed that if I pulled out any more spheres, I would collapse from exhaustion. Rather than overdoing it and causing an accident, it was better to make an appointment for the next day.

I returned to the inn, dragging a limp body out of strength.

*

A week had passed since I wrestled with a block of wood in the alley.
In other words, the period of eating only rice and practicing magic became a week. When I woke up in the morning, I realized that I had run out of money.
I rummaged through my pockets, but all I got was 3 Coopers.
With this money, you can pay for breakfast today.

It’s time to get to work.
The reward he received from the Magic Tower had already been wasted.
I thought I sold Cyclops tendons to a general store and made quite a bit of money.
I had no choice but to go to the adventurer’s guild early in the morning while sighing.

‘I can’t even handle magic missiles perfectly yet…’

I’ve been practicing magic for the past week, but nothing has changed much.
As a result of repeated training, the magic missile’s hit rate increased. If you fire 10 shots, on average, one shot will hit. However, a 10% probability is unreliable in a real battle where you have to fight a monster for life and death.

– Shoots a magic missile that hits with a 10% chance.

When you apply for an adventurer’s party, an introduction like this won’t mean much. At least until the hit rate improved, it seemed that he would not be able to brag about it to others.
The moment I arrived at the adventurer’s guild while thinking about this and that, I saw Wendy sitting at the reception desk.

She said, “I’m here for a commission.”

Wendy looked at my face and she gave me a soft smile.

“I’ll see you in a week. I heard the report about the body disposal request. The person in charge at the Mage Tower is very satisfied with Mr. Luke?”
“You see?”

I tilted my head at the unexpected remark.
It’s not that I don’t know what ‘report’ means. As a rule, adventurers are supposed to report their achievements to the guild after completing the request.

Sometimes the adventurer himself reports, and sometimes the person in charge of the organization that entrusted the request reports. The last corpse disposal request I handled was the latter.
The way the person in charge of the Mage Tower conveys the evaluation of me to the guild.
If you say the person in charge here, you’re probably referring to Mr. Thompson, the foreman.

“Have you written anything nice? In the report papers?”
“They say they have excellent skills in handling disassembly tools. They also said that they had strong mental strength, so they didn’t seem to be disturbed even after working for a long time. Besides that, there is a long text written on the document. In terms of the number of characters, it’s about 5700 words… “
“5700 characters?”

Oh my gosh.
It seemed that the foreman quite liked my workmanship. Well, there are few adventurers who can skillfully carry out the corpse disposal request. Most of the newcomers get in the way or turn into fugitive ninjas.

“As expected, Luke-sama has a sense of responsibility. Unlike the other dreamers, he’s someone you can trust.”

I felt a little better at Wendy’s compliment.
What could be more satisfying than being pampered by a beautiful woman?
Even if the praised field is a terrible job of tinkering with corpses.

“Anyway, you said you came to receive a request? What kind of request should I introduce you to?”
“If possible, it would be nice if it was a request that I could complete alone. If I put it in the party anyway, it would be rejected like a knife.”
“Then, as before, the request to dispose of the monster corpse—-.”
“Oh, I don’t do that.”

I cut off Wendy’s words and refused.
Even thinking about it, I shook my head with a hard expression.

“Never, never will. If I have to fiddle with monster corpses again. I’d rather bite my tongue and die. Every visit to the waste dump feels like my life is cut short.”

Did I use too harsh an expression?
It was when she closed her mouth and looked at Wendy’s expression, feeling slightly pricked.
For some reason, Wendy had a smile on her lips.

“I’m kidding, Luke.”
“Yes?”
“No matter how much I do, I can’t entrust the same adventurer with a corpse disposal request three times. I’m not that much of a bloodless, tearless dog bitch. Actually, I have a separate request prepared for Luke-sama. The corpse disposal request As a reward for doing it without saying anything.”

You said you prepared a separate request?
I listened to Wendy, but I didn’t have much expectations.
Anyway, among the quests assigned to the incubus, are there any proper items?
Garbage-like quests that only people at the bottom of society carry out.
Such requests as disposing of corpses and cleaning the sewer must be prepared.

However, Wendy’s words went beyond my expectations.

“It’s a party quest. The content of the request is to gather herbs! You can gather herbs that are blooming in the plains with your party members.”
“Oh.”

I opened my eyes wide in surprise.
It was because the request for collecting herbs was usually treated as honey sucking in the adventurer industry.
It’s not about subjugating dangerous monsters, it’s a quest where you just have to pick up the grass growing on the ground.

However, I have rarely performed herbal collection quests.
This kind of request is likely to be snatched by adventurers who have formed a party.
Of course, it wasn’t a request that was so difficult that he couldn’t complete it alone. After all, a party will be more competitive than solo.
It’s an adventurer’s party with a rather high hurdle for an incubus to participate in.

“Now, wait a minute. It’s a party quest. Can I participate in that? Few party members accept dream magic. I could go out to the recruiting location without saying anything and the party could be disbanded with a single knife.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve put my hand on it. I told the other two adventurers who were decided to be party members in advance. I fully explained that Luke-nim is a reliable talent.”
“Well, what did he say? What was the reaction like?”

Wendy replied with a smile.

“Both of the adventurers said that Luke didn’t care if he was an Incubus.
“…Oh, my God.”

I was thrilled with both hands clasped.
I never thought I would be rewarded for my hard work at the waste disposal site.
I felt very grateful to Wendy for caring about me.

“Thank you, Mr. Wendy. I believed you!

Actually, I didn’t believe it, but I’m sorry~.
After hearing the explanation about the herbs to be gathered, I took the wooden tablet and hurriedly left the Adventurer’s Guild.

[Herb Gathering Request]
Grade: E
Description: Gather the moonlight plant that grows on the shores of Lake Mersil.
Reward: 60 copper, 1 dose of antidote

A summary of the request is roughly as follows.
It was a low-level quest, so I’ll be able to finish it quickly and come back.
I thought so even when I left the guild.