Chapter 16 - Adventure in the goblin forest

In the reception hall of the adventurer guild, there were adventurers sitting at the tables, chatting and making arrangements. The excitement over new adventures brought about a cheerful mood that you would not expect from adventurers living life day-by-day.

On the board there were quests for monster hunts and medicinal herbs and mineral collecting, and in front of it were new adventurers staring at it intently.

This adventurer guild, New Beads didn’t put out very profitable quests. After all, this guild was nothing more than a perch for new adventurers to rest on until they were ready to fly. What adventurers in this guild really needed to do was…

“Labyrinth exploration.”

“That’s right!” “Yes.” “Of course.”

The three of them agreed with Nick.

“First of all, we’re rank G… The lowest rank. We have inexperienced members and we just formed our party so I guess it can’t be helped… So I was thinking our first goal should be to get to rank F.”

“What do we get if we rank up?”

Nick answered Tianna’s question.

“There are only three labyrinths G ranked parties can explore, but if we reach rank F, we’ll be able to explore more. Among them there are some we can easily beat with this party.

“So we have to rank up first. How do we do that?”

“In the deepest part of a labyrinth lies its strongest monster, the boss. We need to defeat the three bosses of the G rank labyrinths and bring back proof.”

“It sounds easy, at least in theory.”

“It’s not that hard. It’s like training for people with no experience fighting monsters.”

Nick took out a map from his pocket as he was talking.

It was a rough map for adventurers, centered around the Labyrinth City and with the location of labyrinths around it.

“We have the goblin nest ‘Goblin Forest’, the ‘Sticky Goo Gate’ crawling with slime, and the ‘Shadow Wolf Cave’ with shadow apes and shadow wolves.

They’re all about half a day away from the city, and if things go well we can beat one in one day.

But…”

“But?”

“Tianna and Sem, do you have any experience exploring labyrinths or fighting monsters?”

Tianna and Sem answered with a serious look on their faces.

“I took down monsters when I was training magic… But I’ve never actually been inside of a labyrinth.”

“Same here. I only helped take down monsters that wandered onto the road as I was traveling.”

“It’s alright, it’s only natural to have beginners with us. That’s the whole reason why there’s restrictions on the labyrinths. Karan, you have experience don’t you?”

“Yes… But…”

“But?”

“I don’t really remember the goblin forest, sticky goo gate, or shadow wolf cave. I only went there once and explored intermediate labyrinths most of the time.

“Ahh…”

People who possessed combat skills before becoming adventurers didn’t pay a lot of importance to beginner level labyrinths, especially if someone powerful joined the party. It was best to finish those labyrinths quickly and move on to more profitable ones.

“Karan, how about we take our time exploring instead of just defeating the boss and leaving?”

“Why? I think it’s better to move up to rank F and move on to other labyrinths…”

Karan asked, and Nick raised his index finger.

“We can think of it as training. Each of the three labyrinths have different characteristics. Goblin Forest has a lot of goblins, and while they’re individually weak, they move in packs, the slime in Sticky Goo Gate are a pain because they’re strong against magic, and the monsters in Shadow Wolf Den aren’t strong, but they are very good at concealing their presence.

“It sounds like they all have their own obstacles.”

Said Tianna, to which Nick lightly nodded in agreement.

“I want to see if we can deal with various types of labyrinths. And there is another important factor in labyrinth exploration.”

“Important factor… What is it?”

“We have to turn the monsters we defeat into cash”

Everyone enthusiastically nodded in agreement.

Everyone in Survivors had a common problem.

They needed to earn money quickly, even if wasn’t  not much, to pay for their inn and livelihood in general.

“Monsters have magic energy accumulated in certain body parts, like slime cores and wolf fangs. Goblins don’t have a lot of magic energy, but they can be a problem if there are too many of them, so if we cut off the ears of the goblins we kill, the guild will pay for them.

“I don’t really want to do that, but I guess we have no choice…”

“I only have experience picking medicinal herbs…”

Tianna and Sem shrugged.

“There’s a method to it, and you’ll get the hang of it as you get used to it. It’s modest work, but if you neglect it you won’t make a lot of money even on harder dungeons, right Karan?

“S-Sorry… I’ve never done it.”

“Then you can learn alongside Tianna and Sem. Alright?”

“Got it.”

Karan saw no issue with it and agreed.

“The monsters in G ranked labyrinths aren’t strong, but they are numerous. The longer we stay and hunt them, the more money we’ll make. Let’s start by steadily making money and going up from there.”

“Yes, first I need money for rent…”

Tianna whispered while gripping her staff.

“Your room is in a nice spot, that’s why it’s so expensive.”

“That’s not it. It’s just the money I have right now… You know…”

[It’s not a lot because you spent so much on gambling…] Thought Nick, but he didn’t actually say it. His reason for not having money was not too different.

“W-Well then! Let’s go explore a labyrinth right away!”

Said Nick, and everyone agreed as they braced themselves.

“Alright.” “Yes.” “Understood.”