The Golem Adventurer - Chapter 14 Training

With three extra bodies with me, travel time on the road was a bit longer. The mage, Johann, was a still in a battered state but ambulatory at least. I offered to carry him but he refused profusely. He should be less worried about his self esteem and more worried about his injuries. The Elf Hunter, Aelinor, kept a close eye on him as a result. My healing was a stopgap. Johann would need more effective medicine or just straight up proper rest. Erwyn, the warrior, was the least injured due to his armor. Using a long sword like me, I’m surprised he came out the way he did without a shield, especially with that mishmash of metal plates and leather gear. I could learn a thing or two about evasiveness from him.

We finally returned to Haldin and decided to report the matter of the Orcs directly to the Guildmaster. Entering the Adventurer’s Guild, we walked over to the secretarial kiosk next to the stairs, the same desk that I had applied at when I first joined. The same receptionist was there today as well.

She noticed our approach and immediately greeted us, “What can I help you all with today? Oh, Arlan! Is this your new party? If I remember correctly, you’re all a more experienced newbie group right?” she directed her comment towards my companions.

Erwyn spoke up, “Thank you for remembering us Miss Vella. We’re here to see if the Guildmaster is available. We ran into some trouble when we were doing a quest in the forest and I believe he should know immediately. We found evidence there might be an Orc Sty somewhere there.”

The receptionist, Vella looked worried, “D-Did you say a Sty? Oh dear, that could be trouble indeed… Let me call the Guildmaster.”

She walked over to the wall behind her where a long brass pipe hanged. Speaking into the horn, she yells, “Guildmaster Kurtz, I have something that requires your attention. I have a group over here saying they have evidence that an Orc Sty might be in the forest south of here.”

A moment passes until the Guildmaster’s voice booms out from the horn itself, “W-What!? G-Give me a minute, I’ll be right down!”

Didn’t he sound a little too panicked? Vella answered my thoughts however, “Haaah~ I bet he was napping again… I gave him some overdue paperwork that needs his approval an hour ago. I bet he’s barely touched it.”

“I heard that, Vella! I may be old but I’m not going deaf just yet!” Guildmaster Kurtz exited his upper level office and lazily goes down the stairs, rubbing his back along the way. The old man probably fell asleep in his chair.

“Guildmaster Kurtz, have you done the paperwork I asked of you?” said Vella.

“Eh? You just need me to stamp them right? It’ll just take me a moment to do that anyway,” the Guildmaster was showing off his laissez faire attitude again.

Of course Vella was having none of it, “Some of those approvals are for expenses! You need to read them before we go over budget again!”

The Guildmaster just waves his hands at her dismissively, “Yes yes, I’ll get right on that, I promise. Anywho, so you’re the group who says they found an Orc Sty?”

“Not the Sty itself, Guildmaster. But we found three Orcs. They were definitely wearing crafted gear. No weapons other than whittled clubs though. We were only half a mile into the forest before we were ambushed by them,” said Erwyn.

“It looked like they were just a scouting party, Guildmaster. In fact, we would have been killed if Arlan hadn’t found us. He’s quite the heroic golem,” said Aelinor.

The Guildmaster turned his attention towards me, “Hoh, I was wondering why you were here Arlan. Did you ditch Tessa and decided elves were more your thing? I can assume by your voice that you’re a man, right? Hina explained most things to me when we discussed your situation privately the other day.”

Aelinor just coughed politely at the Guildmaster’s vulgar comment but Johann seemed to have a bit of a mixed look on his face. Hmm. “I ran into them in the forest when they were being attacked, Guildmaster.”

“It’s true. Arlan… defeated the Orcs himself.” I can hear it in your voice Johann.

“Really now? That would have been quite the sight to see,” replied the Guildmaster, “I’ll have to organize a scout party to go deep into the forest and search for clues. For now, just leave the rest to the Guild. You kids turn in your work for today and rest.”

We bowed towards the Guildmaster and headed towards Penelope’s kiosk.

She greeted us with a smile, “Welcome back, Erwyn! Did your group drive off those wolves? Oh, you’re with Arlan too!”

They let me go first since I had just a few things to turn in. Penelope counted the bundles for each quest and confirmed the amounts, “You’ve gathered quite a few here! 6 bundles of Kapole, Topoko and Palaka herbs each. With the required amounts that’s 36 silver total. That’s quite a bit for someone to make in F-Rank. Keep this up and the potion makers will love you!”

With that, I’ve knocked out three quests. Thank you Oracle, you’re the search engine I never knew I wanted.

I let Erwyn’s group go next. They had quite a few wolf ears as proof of defeat for their quest. We had decided we were going to turn in all of our parts together and split the difference evenly between the four of us. When we told Penelope we had Orc materials, she beamed excitedly.

“Orc Materials!? I thought I’d have to wait till I got promoted to man the C-Rank counter to handle those!” she exclaimed.

She rummaged through and inspected each part of the orcs we delivered. The table she used to do it was quite small compared to the ones at other kiosks. Probably because D-Ranks shouldn’t be fighting anything big. The table itself was a bit wobbly from all the weight put on it, especially all the “pork”.

After appraising the materials, it totaled up to 6 gold coins. Erwyn ended up giving me two gold instead of evenly dividing it all. He said it was from the fact I was sharing the profits instead of it all being rightfully mine, along with saving their lives. I wanted to decline but they all insisted. Even earning a single gold coin at their rank was a rarity and they were more than happy with their share.

After all that, we decided to part ways. They stayed at different Inns from me, unfortunately. Moonlight Inn was apparently a more higher tier establishment.

Johann was standing there thinking to himself before he uttered, “I think I’ll meet you guys over there later. After what happened to us, I think I should train my magic skills.”

I thought I heard a stupid idea and decided to put a stop to it. I grabbed his shoulder and faced him towards me, “No.”

“A-Arlan, we’re just acquaintances! Don’t tell me what to do!”, replied Johann.

“You’re injured,” I said frankly, “Go to the inn. And rest. Now.”

Above being a soldier, I was a medic. No patient I helped treat was going to do something stupid like train, open their wounds and undo all my work.

I looked over at Aelinor, “I’m putting you in charge of him. Make sure he goes straight to bed. Keep an eye on him until he’s properly healed.”

“Y-Yes!” Aelinor jumps at my sudden commanding tone.

Erwyn just laughs at the scene. He escorts the both of them out before turning around, giving me a sly wink for understanding what I was trying to do. Well, mostly. I really was worried about Johann opening up his wounds again. The thing with Aelinor was just a bonus so he’d stop pouting at me. I’m a golem with a cubed head, I’m not going to go around swooning females anytime soon in this body.

“Oi, Arlan! Where do you think you’re going!?”

I turned around and found the Guildmaster just a foot away from me. How’d he sneak up on me like that!?

“Uh, home?” I replied.

“Hah! No. Come with me, young man.” He leads me outside to the Guild’s training yard. I was a bit confused. Did he want more information on the orcs?

Like he was reading my mind, he replies “We’re going to do a bit of training. You fought those orcs right? With that sword on your belt? I bet you swung it around like an untrained whelp, hoping your overwhelming strength would carry you through the fight, right?”

I was a bit insulted, “I do have trained, at least. I wasn’t flailing that thing around like a fish.”

“Hoh, do you now? Well, that makes things easier,” He walks over to one of the weapon racks and pulls out a training sword. “We should train now while the battle is fresh in your mind.”

“W-What? Listen, Guildmaster, I need to go get some food and recharge. I’m a bit spent!”

“Nonsense! Listen to your elders, boy! Especially from someone with experience like myself, willing to impart my bevy of knowledge for free. You’re a blade heated from that battle. And this training shall be that hammer that hones your edge into perfection! Accept this and be grateful!”

“W-Wait!” I shout, but he launched himself at me anyway.

I trained with him until twilight. It was the first time in this world I’d felt mentally exhausted. Both from the training and Guildmaster Kurtz antics. A former S-Rank, huh?
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