Shujinkou Janai! - Ch 25
The door opened with a squeaky sound, and the hustle and bustle of the building came rushing in.
Without hesitation, we stepped inside the building, and at the same time, we could feel a number of impudent stares directed at us.
(There are more people than usual here. I guess it was because noon huh.)
All Adventurers are good-for-nothing wanderers, heavily drunk at night and finally getting up at noon to do their work……. whatever Quest is available at that noon.
That is why Adventurers gather at noon, or so I remembered an old man in some Adventurer Guild say back in the game.
(……We’re getting a lot more attention than I thought we would.)
We’re not doing anything special.
Still, as we moved forward, a wave of people naturally broke off and made their way in front of us.
However, the kind of attention we’re getting seems to be more malicious than favorable.
I could hear bits and pieces of words like “A-Rank”, “incompetent”, and “Demon” among those murmurs.
(I guess this is that so-called cocktail party effect huh. This feels slightly different though.)
However, it’s okay.
Whatever reaction they have, it’s important that I caught their attention now.
(This isn’t my intention, but I guess it was a good thing I brought Resilia.)
An A-Rank Adventurer dressed in all-black and a beautiful girl who has been the talk of the Guild’s training grounds lately is walking side by side.
Their reaction is probably justified.
As for Resilia, I looked a little behind me and saw that she was following me without feeling timid at all.
She has a strong heart.
She and I proceeded through the Guild, our gazes focused.
We avoided the counter where several people are lined up and walked without hesitation to the line where a bored-looking receptionist is taking care of things by herself.
[Eh……?]
The receptionist, who had been blankly staring at nothing, suddenly saw me coming in front of her and her eyes widened.
Incidentally, I know this receptionist from the game.
I think she’s called Erina, a Sub-Character that gives out some standalone events.
She seemed to be shaken, but I could see the professionalism expected from her.
She recovered from her confusion in just a few seconds, and looking slightly troubled, she spoke.
[Errr, You’re the A-Rank Adventurer, Rex-sama, right? I’m sorry, but I think you’re on the wrong counter. This is the counter where the public……]
[I know.]
In a situation like this, it’s highly likely that those who do the first move would gain a certain victory.
I didn’t let her finish, and with my left hand outstretched, I dumped a large number of gold coins onto the counter.
[……Huh?]
The gold coins hit the counter in front of the receptionist, who froze with her eyes wide-open, and as they piled up on the hard desk, they made a sound so loud that it drew the people’s attention.
The sound startled not only those who had been watching us, but everyone in the room, and they all turned to look at me.
[————-Including fees, 300 million for a Quest Commission.]
My voice was the only sound that echoed in the rapidly quieting guild.
[The Quest is “Gathering of Useful Equipment”. Here is the Quest form.]
[……Eh, ummm.]
I give the receptionist, who still doesn’t understand the situation, the biggest smile I can muster.
[Didn’t you hear me? I’m commissioning a Quest. ……I’m offering this much money. I’m expecting the strenuous efforts Frelia’s Adventurers would exert.]
A few moments later, as if a spell had been lifted, the clamor just like earlier, no, even more than before erupted behind us.
The receptionist, finally realizing the significance of the large sum of money piled up in front of her, said “I- I will call the Guildmaster!”, and ran off to the back.
※ ※ ※
Eventually, the Guildmaster arrived, and although I was chastised for careless behavior and the receptionist was glaring at me with tears in her eyes, saying “How could an Adventurer let someone else collect their equipment……”, my Quest was accepted without incident.
(Well, if someone suddenly offered me 300 million yen in front of me, of course I would have been scared.)
Even though prices are quite random since this is a fantasy world, the impact a large amount of money would have should be about the same.
I may have done something bad to the receptionist.
Thinking that I would follow up with her later if I had the chance, I leisurely left the still noisy Guild.
On the way home, as if out of the blue, Resilia, who was walking next to me, asked.
“”
[I think I know your intentions are, but did you really have to go that far?]
[Hmmm. I wonder.]
I don’t really like that kind of style of slapping people with money either.
However, what happened earlier was a complete performance.
All I needed was to get their attention and make them become aware that I had made that Quest.
……I wasn’t just playing around during the week Radd and his party was training.
I was examining the game elements and steadily gathering money by converting Orichalcons and Mysterious Liquids to improve my equipment and funds.
Having good equipment is essential for training.
However, as I picked up what I needed along the way, I realized that I needed a larger quantity of items than I had imagined.
I tried going to the Armor Shop and General Shop in town to see if I could get a good deal from them, but they seemed to be adhering to the game settings and their selection of items was basically the same as the early-game shops.
I had no choice but to go to dungeons, but there was no way to get “Iron Geta”, “Spring-Loaded Armor” except from Random Drops, and among them, “Black Cat Blessing Coins” were said to have 0.01% chance of being obtained, and I would lose my hair if I kept looking fo such items. I was agonizing about this matter when Resilia arrived.
And then, when she saw the items and said “All you listed seemed to be Trash Items”, when it hit me.
————-“If it’s a pain to gather them all by myself, I should just let other Adventurers gather them for me”!
If what I was looking for were popular items that everyone was clamoring for, going through this option would have been difficult.
However, if I were to believe Resilia’s words, it seems that most of these items haven’t been proven very useful to the average Adventurer in this world.
If they were to obtain these items by chance, it was fully expected that they would give these up without any particular hesitation.
[Then, couldn’t you have the Commission Fee be a little cheaper?]
[No, that would be asking for a disaster.]
Say, they saw us using these items and realized that the items they gave us were useful.
If I had commissioned these items for chump change, it would look as if “we had scammed them”.
However, if we had commissioned these for a lot of money…… they should just be impressed and think about how “they didn’t know that these items had these kinds of uses”.
[Well, I don’t really know much about the subtleties with matters like that, but anyhow, what I need is speed to acquire these times. For that reason, I thought it was important to get the word out about this Quest, so I thought it was important to make a big impact.]
That’s why I put up the 300 million on the spot.
That 300 million was only the total amount of the reward. In reality, the Quest was broken down into smaller pieces, and “if the Adventurer brings even one of the items on the list, they will be paid a set amount based on its value”.
[If they don’t have everything they needed to complete the Quest, then that Quest would never going to be cleared.]
[I was surprised when you started saying “you’re going to commission a Quest to collect equipment”, but it seems that you’re thinking this through. I’m relieved.]
Nonchalantly saying rude things, Resilia nodded.
Determined to return at her later, I took my gaze away from her for the moment.
(Well, I think it’s a very decent idea.)
If it’s in the game or if your life is on the line IRL, it’s normal for people to take any means necessary to raise money to get their equipment.
In fact, many MMOs and other games have systems that allow trading between players, and if Adventurers’ Guilds aren’t a game setting but an actual, natural establishment, it wouldn’t be surprising if equipment trading was adopted as a system elsewhere.
(Is this also an adverse effect of the game-like factors of this world, or is it just a systemic way to binding things?)
But well, the common practice in this world was that Adventurers themselves would almost never submit requests, and doing such a thing could possibly incur some animosity from others.
Then again, it’s possible that the cranky Adventurers wouldn’t hand over the requested items but……
[Well, it should be alright.]
It’s for this reason that I had that large amount of money.
“”
At least, since I paid the money in front of all those people and deposited it with the Guild, they can be sure that whatever problems they may have had with me, they will be paid.
People can’t go against the magic of money.
Not all of them will be cooperative, but most of the items I commissioned will end up rolling into my hands.
[……You’re making that dastardly face again.]
Ignoring a certain little sister’s words, sounding like a nagging mother, I smiled, confident of my plan.
And thus, a few days had passed.
That conviction would soon be proven correct.
For the first three days, there was no activity, as if people were opting for a wait-and-see, but on the fourth day, one person delivered an item. Thereupon, as if the flood gates had been broken, deliveries poured in, filling the items on the list in the blink of an eye.
In the end, it only took two weeks to get 90% of all the items from my list, a plethora of useful items obtained without me setting a single foot outside of the town.