– Adventurer Life Day 75 (Fri) – Noon – Goldew Town – Lakeside
Once the concern about the Ziggurat was done, it was about noon, so we had lunch.
As something that was bought from town, it was bread with pickled eggs and vegetables for 5 people.
— Benedetta was the one who had bought these as usual.
Then again, it’s still the same as last time. There’s not much room for variation with food in this town…
“Mm. Still though, this is nice.”
“The eggs are refreshing. Do you want something to drink?”
“By the way, Gawain. It’s about those treasures you’re searching, I’m considering looking into it.”
“Thank you for that.”
“However, when it comes to the Juunon cult, there should be no problems between us and them right?”
“Of course.”
To be honest, I think it’s more appropriate to determine who those people are than it is to try and escape from them.
I’m worried the other side might have a huge network of information from different towns, but I do also want to fulfill Gawain’s wishes.
If the Juunon group will help me with that, it’ll make things much easier… that’s the idea anyways.
Information regarding Benedetta’s home country would also be more readily available as well.
However, there’s still that problem with the accidental ‘Plating’ back in Olbia, so I can’t really return back until that one’s dealt with.
Maybe I could move to another big city and think of a plan from there…
While being lost in thought, I noticed Gawain and Phillips had been talking about something with each other.
“Sir Phillips. I would like it if you were to just call me Gawain. We will be comrades from now on afterall.”
“If that’s the case, then I would also like it if you could do the same.”
I had a feeling these two would get along really well, given their similar personalities.
After that, mealtime was over.
The caravan is full of dismantled carcasses of Babirusas, so it’s already about time to return back to town. However, since we’re here by the lake, I’d like to check the geography of the surrounding area.
We’ve been hunting monsters around this area for the past couple of hours, so there should be nothing to worry about here. Not to mention, having two heroes walking by the front of the caravan with the addition of Centurion and Benedetta by the sides.
“Would this lake be the one responsible for the waterfalls flowing from Goldew?”
“I don’t think so. I haven’t seen any river passing towards the town, but then again, I can’t say for sure.”
This huge lake seems to extend in the northeast direction. We are walking along the southern shore of it.
On the way, there seemed to be countless rivers flowing out of the lake.
We walked for about 10 minutes until we were blocked by one of those rivers.
The width of it is about 3 meters, but the depth of it is deep, and the water flows quite strongly on this.
I wanted to look a little farther.
— Here, I made some plans about making a bridge.
I think for a moment, before reaching out to an exposed rock on the ground.
“What are you planning on doing?”
Centurion comes over here.
I wondered if I could build it the same way as I built those forts before.
I made three stone pillars all at once.
Next, Talos was called out, and the stone pillars were placed below the bridge.
This sort of work is really a specialty of Talos, as he could just stand on some strong currents and not be affected by it.
In the middle, I make a dent on the stone pillars so it fits in the coastal rock wall.
On the areas where it will be stood on, I had that flattened out.
“Did you really need to do this?”
“… I also thought the same thing travelling around by carriage.”
The carriage was a bit heavy, so I added four more pillars just in case.
“Let’s try hunting here tomorrow then. If we continue hunting non-stop near the town, I feel we won’t get much out of it.”
“That’s right, there are many flat areas around, so it’s easier to traverse the area with a horse.”
“It may be better to cut down the timber here. It’s pretty far from where I am, but there should be no problems with other people.”
“Well, the quality of wood around here is really high enough.”
The surrounding of Goldew is filled with an abundance of forests. — As a person from Comnes, it seems quite enviable, since this town here has an abundant of resources from the forest and a large lake nearby, along with the high concentration of mana as well. Surely Goldew will be able to grow its population plenty with that, if managed properly.
After turning back and crossing the bridge to return back to Goldew, for some reason, Phillips and Gawain have been arguing about something.
Once I arrived, they both asked me for a permission to fight, so I tried calming them down first to hear what happened.
“Lord! Listen!”
“This one is more correct!”
When I first heard what they were talking about, apparently they considered it as some small talk from the party.
I have a lot of skeletons that I can summon at once, but I only really use them for hunting. So the both of them seemed to take their military background into account and raised up the question of, ‘What would be the best way to optimize the unit?’
Good so far.
However, it later devolved into a quarrel once their opinions start to contradict one another.
They’re normally calm, so I wondered what could have gotten them so heated up…
“Once you get occupied by the moving cavalry from front using a dense formation of spearmen, the battle is already over once the cavalry inevitably surrounds that!”
“That’s an old tactic! Spearmen have a chance to take an advantage against cavalry if they form a back-to-back formation!”
“With the cavalries’ mobility, you can’t even hit them in your position!”
So it’s that huh… Phillips wants to claim that spearmen can take an advantage above cavalry, whilst Gawain says otherwise.
I’m not sure if Gawain knows the extent of Phillips’ ability in commanding spearmen, but he seems to be particularly more biased about cavalry.
After a long debate about it, they both wanted their subordinates to have some sort of practice match between each other.
But listening to it further, they both began to say they wanted to recreate the entire thing and try out using military-era equipment.
(This is getting a little unreasonable…)
Fighting it out is one thing… but wanting an equipment upgrade when none of Gawain’s subordinates even have a sword equipped is a little too much.
“I’m thinking of borrowing some horses from you my Lord — Would it be possible to increase the number of golem horses to where it can accommodate with the skeleton subordinates I have?”
“What do you think I am? My abilities aren’t high enough to where I can do that. Or rather, I don’t think things would work in such a convenient way!”
“…”
Taking down Gawain’s horse request, Phillips came soon after.
“Lord. The spear! If you could extend the base a little, it will be possible to recreate the tactics used in the past!”
“… Well, I suppose that’s fine. How long will that be?”
So long as it doesn’t involve the blade of the spear, I can use Ingot and Modelling to extend it. Materials will need to be prepared for that though.
“Twice the length.”
He made an estimate of how long the spear would be, which was taller than him.
“Too long! How can you even use a 6 meter spear for hunting!”
“…”
Gawain doesn’t seem like he’s calming down either, and has been speaking to Benedetta about something… what now?
“I heard from Benedetta that right now you can call up to three golem horses. I won’t ask for much, but I would like to use them all.”
“What do you mean, ‘not asking much’! What about the caravan!”
While we were talking, Benedetta had already gotten off of her horse and had been making a regretful look… No, it’s fine. No one will be taking your horse…
“First of all, calm down. Do you want me to be unable to bring along a caravan? In the first place, somehow, wouldn’t you need a long spear to attack on top of a horse? Or is there something else from that?”
Though I say that, neither of them are willing to pull back…
When I tried to say something again, Centurion spoke up before I did.
“PHILLIPS. When HUNTING, you would NEED both SHORT and LONG spears, but WHERE are you going to PUT them? The CARAVAN is always FULL…”
“Gh…”
Phillips remained silent from that question.
Centurion then faces Gawain.
“From what I SAW, the HORSES from OLBIA cost around 150,000 to 200,000 GOLDAS.”
“… Lord. Is that expensive… ?”
… Actually, it’s about 250,000 Goldas there. It’s going to be impossible to buy anymore than one…
“But, WARHORSES are three to five times more EXPENSIVE than a PACK horse. If you take the CHEAPER ones in BATTLE, they’ll be too scared and USELESS.”
“I see —. So the horse is no good if it had not been trained.”
“There is also the MAINTENANCE fee to take into ACCOUNT. They don’t EAT half as much as a COW, but it’s STILL something to CONSIDER.”
“Yes. So it really is impossible.”
The one who managed to calm the two was the unexpected Centurion.
When hearing this, they finally went silent. Though, I am a little curious about their conversation, but I gave the condition to not argue with each other when it happens.
While listening to them earlier, I couldn’t really understand much because I didn’t have enough basic knowledge about it.
First, in Phillips’ case, he gave out a strategy in which spearmen are lined up closely, to the point where their shoulders touch each other, guarded with a shield and spear.
In a square formation, they guard their flanks by pointing their spears out to wherever the enemy is coming.
“Place these individual formations on the forefront, with each being at the center, left wing and right wing, to which then they can advance to the enemy, pressuring them.”
However, according to Gawain, this tactic is weak to use against a cavalry or other fast moving soldiers with a strong rushing attack.
The strength of the formation is too concentrated on the front, so a strong attack to the side could cause it to collapse.
Therefore, lightly armed spearmen, javelin throwers, or crossbowmen, will be placed in those gaps in order to counter that weakness.
In Phillips’ era, the number of cavalry was small, so this was enough to keep them at bay.
On the other hand, in the southern area where Gawain was in service, the threat of monsters wasn’t that high, and so horse breeding was safer there.
In addition, there are large breeds of horses that can be trained for warfare, (although, it does sound to be inferior compared to the large horses in the previous world), and so heavy cavalry was more common there.
It reminds me of an army of armored demon horns, which made me kind of shudder at the thought.
“However, though their means of combat is quite strong, quite frankly, cavalry operations are very limited.”
According to Phillips, spear soldiers from this era surround themselves in a square formation and aim the spear in all directions.
In this way, you can block the cavalry from charging all around.
Naturally, horses have a habit of stopping before it reaches the spears. Afterall, they wouldn’t last long in any scenario if they were to be trained to act suicidal.
In any case, there’s no need for me to choose one side from these two.
“It doesn’t matter anyways. After all, there’s no way to cover the costs of these expenses.”
“Spears will be possible!”
Phillips proclaims.
Though he does have a point… hmm… but, is there even a need to buy more spears right now?
“Well, there’s still some skeletons of yours that aren’t equipped yet, so we can consider it…”
Right, there shouldn’t be much of a problem with the cost of that one. I can’t help but admit that.
So long as it improves the quality of hunting, I suppose anything goes.
If I can’t think of anything else, there’s no reason to reject it.
Hearing that, Gawain…
“Um, how about me…”
“Horses are impossible. It takes a lot of money to buy the swords already.”
“Ugh.”
I feel kind of bad about that, but Gawain is finally silent.
It’s not such a bad thing if we could use it to pressure strong monsters like that Elite demon horn, but this is already overkill when it comes to just normal hunting.
Strengthening the skeleton’s personal equipment is the priority…
Physically speaking, steel equipment is still stronger than bone equipment.
It’s obvious enough that anyone can tell the difference, when used.
(What should I do about money in order to keep up with this?)
While on that thought, there was the view in front of me where everyone was eating, though sitting on top of a rock.
It’s really just an ordinary rock sitting in the middle of some bushes.
But, there was an idea that popped into my head to make use of my skill to make money.
It’s something I already came up with long before…
(But considering the reaction, it couldn’t hurt to try.)
If I do it as it is, it’s a given that it would stand out too much, but there’s no other way to earn money apart from this that I could think of, so it can’t be helped.
– Adventurer Life Day 75 (Fri) – Evening – Goldew Town – Behind Adventurer’s Guild
This is my third return to the town today.
Every time we enter town, Phillips and Gawain are returned to their coins because of their conspicuous appearance.
Phillips’ case is obvious enough, but Gawain still has those black flames sparking out between the openings of his armor, even after recreating a new set of armor for him, and so there was no choice but to hide him for the time being.
“I’m back with the second batch of logs.”
“Sorry for troubling you again. It’s a big help.”
Shaking her black hair, Guildmaster Lucia finishes the estimation for us, to which we then entered back into the cargo container-like building.
Inside were four men, who I was already told in advance about, and were sitting at the guild table making some records.
Yesterday, I was interviewed about defeating the Elite demon horn.
Sitting at the forefront was a man, probably in his late thirties, which I had recognised to be that knight I talked with yesterday.
I don’t recognise the others though.
Once we made eye contact, a well-dressed 20 something year old man introduced himself.
He looks like an official aristocrat sent by the lord of the town. The fabric of his tailored clothing clearly screams out high-class.
The other two, who seem to be about 40-50ish, claim to be the head of the commercial guild, and the town’s representative, respectively.
Immediately after defeating the Elite, the knight mentioned that more than ten people would like to speak with me.
However, I declined the offer for the time being, and wanted it to at least be done in the guild.
It seemed like it worked out, as the number of people has been reduced to this number since it didn’t seem like they could bring a large number of people in such a small building.
The guild only has a table for six people, which was made after connecting two tables together.
Starting from Lucia, next to her would be… hm?
A man with black hair, and seemed to be in his forties, sat by that seat.
“Hey. It’s been a while. It’s surprising that after defeating that harpy on your way to Olbia, you took another Elite down in this town. Not to mention, it’s a ridiculously large one at that.”
“You are… Gratt?”
“Haha. You remember?”
He was one of the guild officials who had interviewed us before, when we came to Olbia.
Was it because of his seemingly extensive knowledge of monsters the reason why he was dispatched here?
“I have something I want to talk to you about personally, but I’ll put that on hold for now.”
“Sure.”
— Following that, we start on the topic regarding the Elite.
Once all of that was done, a number of them had left the guild building.
Lucia was rubbing her temples and showing a tired look, but Gratt’s tension level didn’t seem to change much at all since the beginning.
He even seems to have a somewhat relaxed expression on him.
“Ah. I’m tired. I don’t get what the point is in asking me, if there’s another huge monster coming to Goldew.”
She grumbles to herself once the last person from that group had left.
I understand the unease about this, but the head of the commercial guild and that town’s representative couldn’t stop, from what soon sounds to be more like, pointless complaints.
There is no way of knowing when the next Elite will suddenly show up.
Nonetheless, I noticed that the meeting had some possibility of spreading to the townspeople, so I try to make some safe answers to keep the tension from rising any higher.
“But, if such DANGEROUS monsters can just APPEAR all of a SUDDEN like that, then it’s HARD to tell how SAFE the main ROADS are going to be.”
“They might have to require more escorts, making travelling more expensive, thus making the market prices rise. It’s going to damage the economy at this rate…”
Centurion and Benedetta sympathized with the concerns of the town.
Indeed, the problems here are pretty big, and I’m a little worried about it too…
Grat, who had been silent until then, spoke up.
“There’s only been one other example as of recent, so I can’t really say it as an example, but the guild also has heard of another giant Elite attacking a town.”
“…!? There was another one? Where?”
“The southern city of Taibas. It happened to appear in an area where the troops had already gathered, so it seems like they managed to defeat it right away, but the casualties from there reached to the double digits.”
“You serious…”
Taking the main high road from Olbia, south from there would be the city of Taibas. They have maintained a friendly relationship with Olbia.
Naturally, the traffic of travelling merchants between the cities is high, and so information about it spreads very quickly.
Mr Gratt didn’t mention it earlier because he doesn’t believe either the head of the commercial guild and the town’s representative would make any use of it. He doesn’t want information like this to suddenly leak and cause them to make unnecessarily drastic measures.
When examining the Elite from the Taibas’s adventurer’s guild, according to the researchers in Taibas, they have considered it to be a ‘giant variation’ of the Elite’s.
“So… what’s so special about those ‘giant types’?”
Listening in further, for the moment, they’ve been alleged to be huge in size and act alone.
The fact that their defences and attacks are particularly strong seemed to be the same characteristic as the giant Elite from that city.
When dissecting it’s stomach from Taibas, they discovered traces of monsters from the same species as it, even though such a type hasn’t been known to cannibalize.
Maybe this is the reason why it acts alone?
“… Hearing that… I don’t think such important information should be kept hidden from everyone.”
“I think the same, which is why I had planned for them to take this information separately. I’ll need you to be the one to relay it to this town’s Chief.”
“…”
EEH!?
I was visibly shaken. Why suddenly tell me this!?
“… I – I’m going to have to reject that…”
“But the town chief says he wants to see you. He seems to want to purchase that Giant Variation from you as well.”
“Couldn’t you just discuss it here? The town’s representative was here literally just moments ago!”
“I couldn’t. That man already has specific information to relay back already. In times like this, it’s best to speak with the person directly. Despite this town growing steadily, its management system hasn’t caught up yet from when it was still a village.”
“…”
If it’s like this, I’ll get in trouble if I ignore it for too long. I have no choice but to go…
In the first place, when it comes to the command of the town’s chief, Gratt is just a messenger.
It’s been decided that I will be going with Gratt tomorrow at the same time.
Lucia, who had been fishing for papers from her usual seat, came back here with a good smile.
“By the way Gratt. It’s a little awkward to say this now, but you’ll be working here from now on, and be helping me out with the guild work.”
“What!? I never heard of this!”
In front of his surprise, Lucia points to one of the documents on hand.
“The guild has already given the official transfer. You’ll be working here in Goldew at least until the end of this winter.”
“…”
Speaking of which, Lucia has always been busy.
When we first visited the guild, she was sleeping. But then again, she has also been supporting the guild all by herself.
Knowing that, I wasn’t too surprised to see her merrily preparing Grat’s new desk.
Meeting with the town’s chief all of a sudden was a little absurd, but I suppose Grat having a sudden transfer is somewhat worse.
– Adventurer Life Day 75 (Fri) – Night – Goldew Town – Chief Estate
A while later, two men were speaking in a room under the dimly lit glowstone.
The man reporting was the same knight who had met with Nemo just earlier.
“I rushed to the scene at the time of the incident, but the number of people surrounding the monster seemed to be over ten. When approached, they fell into the grassland and disappeared, but it was definitely a skeleton made of iron.”
“Skeletons… Is it as many as our current force…? Is that really from a divine blessing? To begin with, is that person even an adventurer? There’s a lot of things to question here.”
“I don’t have an answer to any of those unfortunately…”
The knight then continues to speak.
“But, with the current situation Goldew is in, I will have to rely on him.”
“In your opinion, what do you make of this person?”
“Probably relieved. That person saved our town from a crisis, and the townsfolk were able to return back to work as normal. When I saw him at the guild, he never boasted about his own merit, neither did he demand a reward from the town. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t seem to be the kind of obsessive or antisocial person, and so on. It would be good if we can cooperate.”
“Actually, some people felt that way too. Then at the next invitation?”
“Yeah. I can’t really afford much time, but it should be possible.”
And that’s the end of that.
However, even after their long discussion, the lord of Goldew did not seem to be exhausted. It seems like he has already been used to this sort of thing.
Time passed by even further until the lights in the room finally went out.
– Adventurer Life Day 75 (Fri) – Noon – Goldew Town – Lakeside
Once the concern about the Ziggurat was done, it was about noon, so we had lunch.
As something that was bought from town, it was bread with pickled eggs and vegetables for 5 people.
— Benedetta was the one who had bought these as usual.
Then again, it’s still the same as last time. There’s not much room for variation with food in this town…
“Mm. Still though, this is nice.”
“The eggs are refreshing. Do you want something to drink?”
“By the way, Gawain. It’s about those treasures you’re searching, I’m considering looking into it.”
“Thank you for that.”
“However, when it comes to the Juunon cult, there should be no problems between us and them right?”
“Of course.”
To be honest, I think it’s more appropriate to determine who those people are than it is to try and escape from them.
I’m worried the other side might have a huge network of information from different towns, but I do also want to fulfill Gawain’s wishes.
If the Juunon group will help me with that, it’ll make things much easier… that’s the idea anyways.
Information regarding Benedetta’s home country would also be more readily available as well.
However, there’s still that problem with the accidental ‘Plating’ back in Olbia, so I can’t really return back until that one’s dealt with.
Maybe I could move to another big city and think of a plan from there…
While being lost in thought, I noticed Gawain and Phillips had been talking about something with each other.
“Sir Phillips. I would like it if you were to just call me Gawain. We will be comrades from now on afterall.”
“If that’s the case, then I would also like it if you could do the same.”
I had a feeling these two would get along really well, given their similar personalities.
After that, mealtime was over.
The caravan is full of dismantled carcasses of Babirusas, so it’s already about time to return back to town. However, since we’re here by the lake, I’d like to check the geography of the surrounding area.
We’ve been hunting monsters around this area for the past couple of hours, so there should be nothing to worry about here. Not to mention, having two heroes walking by the front of the caravan with the addition of Centurion and Benedetta by the sides.
“Would this lake be the one responsible for the waterfalls flowing from Goldew?”
“I don’t think so. I haven’t seen any river passing towards the town, but then again, I can’t say for sure.”
This huge lake seems to extend in the northeast direction. We are walking along the southern shore of it.
On the way, there seemed to be countless rivers flowing out of the lake.
We walked for about 10 minutes until we were blocked by one of those rivers.
The width of it is about 3 meters, but the depth of it is deep, and the water flows quite strongly on this.
I wanted to look a little farther.
— Here, I made some plans about making a bridge.
I think for a moment, before reaching out to an exposed rock on the ground.
“What are you planning on doing?”
Centurion comes over here.
I wondered if I could build it the same way as I built those forts before.
I made three stone pillars all at once.
Next, Talos was called out, and the stone pillars were placed below the bridge.
This sort of work is really a specialty of Talos, as he could just stand on some strong currents and not be affected by it.
In the middle, I make a dent on the stone pillars so it fits in the coastal rock wall.
On the areas where it will be stood on, I had that flattened out.
“Did you really need to do this?”
“… I also thought the same thing travelling around by carriage.”
The carriage was a bit heavy, so I added four more pillars just in case.
“Let’s try hunting here tomorrow then. If we continue hunting non-stop near the town, I feel we won’t get much out of it.”
“That’s right, there are many flat areas around, so it’s easier to traverse the area with a horse.”
“It may be better to cut down the timber here. It’s pretty far from where I am, but there should be no problems with other people.”
“Well, the quality of wood around here is really high enough.”
The surrounding of Goldew is filled with an abundance of forests. — As a person from Comnes, it seems quite enviable, since this town here has an abundant of resources from the forest and a large lake nearby, along with the high concentration of mana as well. Surely Goldew will be able to grow its population plenty with that, if managed properly.
After turning back and crossing the bridge to return back to Goldew, for some reason, Phillips and Gawain have been arguing about something.
Once I arrived, they both asked me for a permission to fight, so I tried calming them down first to hear what happened.
“Lord! Listen!”
“This one is more correct!”
When I first heard what they were talking about, apparently they considered it as some small talk from the party.
I have a lot of skeletons that I can summon at once, but I only really use them for hunting. So the both of them seemed to take their military background into account and raised up the question of, ‘What would be the best way to optimize the unit?’
Good so far.
However, it later devolved into a quarrel once their opinions start to contradict one another.
They’re normally calm, so I wondered what could have gotten them so heated up…
“Once you get occupied by the moving cavalry from front using a dense formation of spearmen, the battle is already over once the cavalry inevitably surrounds that!”
“That’s an old tactic! Spearmen have a chance to take an advantage against cavalry if they form a back-to-back formation!”
“With the cavalries’ mobility, you can’t even hit them in your position!”
So it’s that huh… Phillips wants to claim that spearmen can take an advantage above cavalry, whilst Gawain says otherwise.
I’m not sure if Gawain knows the extent of Phillips’ ability in commanding spearmen, but he seems to be particularly more biased about cavalry.
After a long debate about it, they both wanted their subordinates to have some sort of practice match between each other.
But listening to it further, they both began to say they wanted to recreate the entire thing and try out using military-era equipment.
(This is getting a little unreasonable…)
Fighting it out is one thing… but wanting an equipment upgrade when none of Gawain’s subordinates even have a sword equipped is a little too much.
“I’m thinking of borrowing some horses from you my Lord — Would it be possible to increase the number of golem horses to where it can accommodate with the skeleton subordinates I have?”
“What do you think I am? My abilities aren’t high enough to where I can do that. Or rather, I don’t think things would work in such a convenient way!”
“…”
Taking down Gawain’s horse request, Phillips came soon after.
“Lord. The spear! If you could extend the base a little, it will be possible to recreate the tactics used in the past!”
“… Well, I suppose that’s fine. How long will that be?”
So long as it doesn’t involve the blade of the spear, I can use Ingot and Modelling to extend it. Materials will need to be prepared for that though.
“Twice the length.”
He made an estimate of how long the spear would be, which was taller than him.
“Too long! How can you even use a 6 meter spear for hunting!”
“…”
Gawain doesn’t seem like he’s calming down either, and has been speaking to Benedetta about something… what now?
“I heard from Benedetta that right now you can call up to three golem horses. I won’t ask for much, but I would like to use them all.”
“What do you mean, ‘not asking much’! What about the caravan!”
While we were talking, Benedetta had already gotten off of her horse and had been making a regretful look… No, it’s fine. No one will be taking your horse…
“First of all, calm down. Do you want me to be unable to bring along a caravan? In the first place, somehow, wouldn’t you need a long spear to attack on top of a horse? Or is there something else from that?”
Though I say that, neither of them are willing to pull back…
When I tried to say something again, Centurion spoke up before I did.
“PHILLIPS. When HUNTING, you would NEED both SHORT and LONG spears, but WHERE are you going to PUT them? The CARAVAN is always FULL…”
“Gh…”
Phillips remained silent from that question.
Centurion then faces Gawain.
“From what I SAW, the HORSES from OLBIA cost around 150,000 to 200,000 GOLDAS.”
“… Lord. Is that expensive… ?”
… Actually, it’s about 250,000 Goldas there. It’s going to be impossible to buy anymore than one…
“But, WARHORSES are three to five times more EXPENSIVE than a PACK horse. If you take the CHEAPER ones in BATTLE, they’ll be too scared and USELESS.”
“I see —. So the horse is no good if it had not been trained.”
“There is also the MAINTENANCE fee to take into ACCOUNT. They don’t EAT half as much as a COW, but it’s STILL something to CONSIDER.”
“Yes. So it really is impossible.”
The one who managed to calm the two was the unexpected Centurion.
When hearing this, they finally went silent. Though, I am a little curious about their conversation, but I gave the condition to not argue with each other when it happens.
While listening to them earlier, I couldn’t really understand much because I didn’t have enough basic knowledge about it.
First, in Phillips’ case, he gave out a strategy in which spearmen are lined up closely, to the point where their shoulders touch each other, guarded with a shield and spear.
In a square formation, they guard their flanks by pointing their spears out to wherever the enemy is coming.
“Place these individual formations on the forefront, with each being at the center, left wing and right wing, to which then they can advance to the enemy, pressuring them.”
However, according to Gawain, this tactic is weak to use against a cavalry or other fast moving soldiers with a strong rushing attack.
The strength of the formation is too concentrated on the front, so a strong attack to the side could cause it to collapse.
Therefore, lightly armed spearmen, javelin throwers, or crossbowmen, will be placed in those gaps in order to counter that weakness.
In Phillips’ era, the number of cavalry was small, so this was enough to keep them at bay.
On the other hand, in the southern area where Gawain was in service, the threat of monsters wasn’t that high, and so horse breeding was safer there.
In addition, there are large breeds of horses that can be trained for warfare, (although, it does sound to be inferior compared to the large horses in the previous world), and so heavy cavalry was more common there.
It reminds me of an army of armored demon horns, which made me kind of shudder at the thought.
“However, though their means of combat is quite strong, quite frankly, cavalry operations are very limited.”
According to Phillips, spear soldiers from this era surround themselves in a square formation and aim the spear in all directions.
In this way, you can block the cavalry from charging all around.
Naturally, horses have a habit of stopping before it reaches the spears. Afterall, they wouldn’t last long in any scenario if they were to be trained to act suicidal.
In any case, there’s no need for me to choose one side from these two.
“It doesn’t matter anyways. After all, there’s no way to cover the costs of these expenses.”
“Spears will be possible!”
Phillips proclaims.
Though he does have a point… hmm… but, is there even a need to buy more spears right now?
“Well, there’s still some skeletons of yours that aren’t equipped yet, so we can consider it…”
Right, there shouldn’t be much of a problem with the cost of that one. I can’t help but admit that.
So long as it improves the quality of hunting, I suppose anything goes.
If I can’t think of anything else, there’s no reason to reject it.
Hearing that, Gawain…
“Um, how about me…”
“Horses are impossible. It takes a lot of money to buy the swords already.”
“Ugh.”
I feel kind of bad about that, but Gawain is finally silent.
It’s not such a bad thing if we could use it to pressure strong monsters like that Elite demon horn, but this is already overkill when it comes to just normal hunting.
Strengthening the skeleton’s personal equipment is the priority…
Physically speaking, steel equipment is still stronger than bone equipment.
It’s obvious enough that anyone can tell the difference, when used.
(What should I do about money in order to keep up with this?)
While on that thought, there was the view in front of me where everyone was eating, though sitting on top of a rock.
It’s really just an ordinary rock sitting in the middle of some bushes.
But, there was an idea that popped into my head to make use of my skill to make money.
It’s something I already came up with long before…
(But considering the reaction, it couldn’t hurt to try.)
If I do it as it is, it’s a given that it would stand out too much, but there’s no other way to earn money apart from this that I could think of, so it can’t be helped.
– Adventurer Life Day 75 (Fri) – Evening – Goldew Town – Behind Adventurer’s Guild
This is my third return to the town today.
Every time we enter town, Phillips and Gawain are returned to their coins because of their conspicuous appearance.
Phillips’ case is obvious enough, but Gawain still has those black flames sparking out between the openings of his armor, even after recreating a new set of armor for him, and so there was no choice but to hide him for the time being.
“I’m back with the second batch of logs.”
“Sorry for troubling you again. It’s a big help.”
Shaking her black hair, Guildmaster Lucia finishes the estimation for us, to which we then entered back into the cargo container-like building.
Inside were four men, who I was already told in advance about, and were sitting at the guild table making some records.
Yesterday, I was interviewed about defeating the Elite demon horn.
Sitting at the forefront was a man, probably in his late thirties, which I had recognised to be that knight I talked with yesterday.
I don’t recognise the others though.
Once we made eye contact, a well-dressed 20 something year old man introduced himself.
He looks like an official aristocrat sent by the lord of the town. The fabric of his tailored clothing clearly screams out high-class.
The other two, who seem to be about 40-50ish, claim to be the head of the commercial guild, and the town’s representative, respectively.
Immediately after defeating the Elite, the knight mentioned that more than ten people would like to speak with me.
However, I declined the offer for the time being, and wanted it to at least be done in the guild.
It seemed like it worked out, as the number of people has been reduced to this number since it didn’t seem like they could bring a large number of people in such a small building.
The guild only has a table for six people, which was made after connecting two tables together.
Starting from Lucia, next to her would be… hm?
A man with black hair, and seemed to be in his forties, sat by that seat.
“Hey. It’s been a while. It’s surprising that after defeating that harpy on your way to Olbia, you took another Elite down in this town. Not to mention, it’s a ridiculously large one at that.”
“You are… Gratt?”
“Haha. You remember?”
He was one of the guild officials who had interviewed us before, when we came to Olbia.
Was it because of his seemingly extensive knowledge of monsters the reason why he was dispatched here?
“I have something I want to talk to you about personally, but I’ll put that on hold for now.”
“Sure.”
— Following that, we start on the topic regarding the Elite.
Once all of that was done, a number of them had left the guild building.
Lucia was rubbing her temples and showing a tired look, but Gratt’s tension level didn’t seem to change much at all since the beginning.
He even seems to have a somewhat relaxed expression on him.
“Ah. I’m tired. I don’t get what the point is in asking me, if there’s another huge monster coming to Goldew.”
She grumbles to herself once the last person from that group had left.
I understand the unease about this, but the head of the commercial guild and that town’s representative couldn’t stop, from what soon sounds to be more like, pointless complaints.
There is no way of knowing when the next Elite will suddenly show up.
Nonetheless, I noticed that the meeting had some possibility of spreading to the townspeople, so I try to make some safe answers to keep the tension from rising any higher.
“But, if such DANGEROUS monsters can just APPEAR all of a SUDDEN like that, then it’s HARD to tell how SAFE the main ROADS are going to be.”
“They might have to require more escorts, making travelling more expensive, thus making the market prices rise. It’s going to damage the economy at this rate…”
Centurion and Benedetta sympathized with the concerns of the town.
Indeed, the problems here are pretty big, and I’m a little worried about it too…
Grat, who had been silent until then, spoke up.
“There’s only been one other example as of recent, so I can’t really say it as an example, but the guild also has heard of another giant Elite attacking a town.”
“…!? There was another one? Where?”
“The southern city of Taibas. It happened to appear in an area where the troops had already gathered, so it seems like they managed to defeat it right away, but the casualties from there reached to the double digits.”
“You serious…”
Taking the main high road from Olbia, south from there would be the city of Taibas. They have maintained a friendly relationship with Olbia.
Naturally, the traffic of travelling merchants between the cities is high, and so information about it spreads very quickly.
Mr Gratt didn’t mention it earlier because he doesn’t believe either the head of the commercial guild and the town’s representative would make any use of it. He doesn’t want information like this to suddenly leak and cause them to make unnecessarily drastic measures.
When examining the Elite from the Taibas’s adventurer’s guild, according to the researchers in Taibas, they have considered it to be a ‘giant variation’ of the Elite’s.
“So… what’s so special about those ‘giant types’?”
Listening in further, for the moment, they’ve been alleged to be huge in size and act alone.
The fact that their defences and attacks are particularly strong seemed to be the same characteristic as the giant Elite from that city.
When dissecting it’s stomach from Taibas, they discovered traces of monsters from the same species as it, even though such a type hasn’t been known to cannibalize.
Maybe this is the reason why it acts alone?
“… Hearing that… I don’t think such important information should be kept hidden from everyone.”
“I think the same, which is why I had planned for them to take this information separately. I’ll need you to be the one to relay it to this town’s Chief.”
“…”
EEH!?
I was visibly shaken. Why suddenly tell me this!?
“… I – I’m going to have to reject that…”
“But the town chief says he wants to see you. He seems to want to purchase that Giant Variation from you as well.”
“Couldn’t you just discuss it here? The town’s representative was here literally just moments ago!”
“I couldn’t. That man already has specific information to relay back already. In times like this, it’s best to speak with the person directly. Despite this town growing steadily, its management system hasn’t caught up yet from when it was still a village.”
“…”
If it’s like this, I’ll get in trouble if I ignore it for too long. I have no choice but to go…
In the first place, when it comes to the command of the town’s chief, Gratt is just a messenger.
It’s been decided that I will be going with Gratt tomorrow at the same time.
Lucia, who had been fishing for papers from her usual seat, came back here with a good smile.
“By the way Gratt. It’s a little awkward to say this now, but you’ll be working here from now on, and be helping me out with the guild work.”
“What!? I never heard of this!”
In front of his surprise, Lucia points to one of the documents on hand.
“The guild has already given the official transfer. You’ll be working here in Goldew at least until the end of this winter.”
“…”
Speaking of which, Lucia has always been busy.
When we first visited the guild, she was sleeping. But then again, she has also been supporting the guild all by herself.
Knowing that, I wasn’t too surprised to see her merrily preparing Grat’s new desk.
Meeting with the town’s chief all of a sudden was a little absurd, but I suppose Grat having a sudden transfer is somewhat worse.
– Adventurer Life Day 75 (Fri) – Night – Goldew Town – Chief Estate
A while later, two men were speaking in a room under the dimly lit glowstone.
The man reporting was the same knight who had met with Nemo just earlier.
“I rushed to the scene at the time of the incident, but the number of people surrounding the monster seemed to be over ten. When approached, they fell into the grassland and disappeared, but it was definitely a skeleton made of iron.”
“Skeletons… Is it as many as our current force…? Is that really from a divine blessing? To begin with, is that person even an adventurer? There’s a lot of things to question here.”
“I don’t have an answer to any of those unfortunately…”
The knight then continues to speak.
“But, with the current situation Goldew is in, I will have to rely on him.”
“In your opinion, what do you make of this person?”
“Probably relieved. That person saved our town from a crisis, and the townsfolk were able to return back to work as normal. When I saw him at the guild, he never boasted about his own merit, neither did he demand a reward from the town. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t seem to be the kind of obsessive or antisocial person, and so on. It would be good if we can cooperate.”
“Actually, some people felt that way too. Then at the next invitation?”
“Yeah. I can’t really afford much time, but it should be possible.”
And that’s the end of that.
However, even after their long discussion, the lord of Goldew did not seem to be exhausted. It seems like he has already been used to this sort of thing.
Time passed by even further until the lights in the room finally went out.
