Chapter 61.2

The town of Cid. At the adventurer’s guild there, the demand for medicinal herbs has recently increased dramatically.

Medicinal herbs are the raw material for recovery items called potions. Starting with stamina potions that restore physical strength, herbs are also used to make potions for various conditions.

Recently, however, the number of merchants coming in and out of town has been decreasing, and the supply of potions from outside has been dwindling.

As a result, the stock of potions stored in the guild was rapidly dwindling. The warehouse was nearly empty.

Potions are a necessity for adventurers. Injuries are an everyday occurrence for them, and potions are an indispensable recovery item.

However, with merchants rarely visiting the town, it is difficult to secure potions… Therefore, the Adventurers’ Guild has been making potions from scratch using medicinal herbs to maintain the current situation.

The adventurer’s guild has its own alchemists. We asked them to make potions, but now we were running low on herbs, the raw material.

The shortage of potions led to a shortage of medicinal herbs, which in turn led to a shortage of raw materials.

Moreover, with the recent increase in the number of demons around the town, the consumption of potions has been increasing at an accelerated rate.

As the supply of potions is low, the price of medicinal herbs at the Adventurer’s Guild is several times higher than usual.

As for the requests to kill demons, the guilds directly place the orders and offer a large reward.

This is because the town administration gives money to the guilds for defeating demons, which is then returned to the adventurers.

The more skilled adventurers take on requests from the guilds to kill demons, while most of the others go out to collect medicinal herbs, which are in high demand.

All the adventurers were now heading out of the city to collect herbs or to kill demons.

However, there was one concern among the adventurers.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the existence of giant demons.

There have been whispers of huge beasts that are at least ten meters tall, and the shadows of giants that have been seen outside the town. Since the number of witnesses was quite large, the stories were said to be highly credible.

As a result of the rumors, the number of merchants coming to Cid for business has decreased, and the Adventurer’s Guild is no longer able to stock potions.

The adventurers feel a bit uneasy at the prospect of running into such a nuisance while completing their quests, but it doesn’t change the fact that they have to fulfill their requests.

They are adventurers because they are willing to take risks.

Today, they spent their time gathering herbs and killing demons.

Here are two young adventurers, a man, and a woman, who are busy gathering herbs, but for some reason, they are being chased by a wolf-shaped demon.

“Fuck! That’s bullshit! You motherfuckers! You’re the ones who pushed them on us and got away with it!”

“Th-There’s no point in saying that~! Ha, ha…! For now, just run!”

“I-I know!”

A male adventurer with dark brown hair cut extremely short, wearing a sword on his waist. And running behind him, desperately, is a female adventurer with a wooden staff in her hand and her cherry-red hair pulled up in pigtails.

Behind them, a pack of wolves, numbering perhaps twenty in number, drooled from their mouths and gave chase. Each wolf was about 50 to 60 centimeters long and covered in gray fur.

It was a pack of demons called greyhounds that were chasing after the prey, their golden eyes shining brightly.

“Ro, Ro-chan, I can’t run anymore~~”

“I told you not to call me that, Priscilla! I mean, force it and run!! You want to get eaten?”

“I can’t run~ My feet hurt~!”

Ro~chan… whose real name is Roy, scolds her partner for giving up.

The woman called Priscilla tangled her legs and managed to put her feet in front of her while whining.

If the herd catches up here, the only thing that’s going to happen is that we’re going to be munched on alive and well.

A bad thought flashed through her mind, and she turned pale and put more energy into her legs to run as fast as she could.

“Ha, ha, ha…!!!”

Both of them were sweating like waterfalls from their foreheads, and breathing was ragged, but they managed to keep their legs moving.

But even so, the distance between them and the demons was gradually narrowing, and it was obvious that they would be caught up in the not-too-distant future if things continued as they were.

In the first place, why are the two of them in this situation…?

They are childhood friends who have known each other for a long time, but have only recently started as adventurers.

They managed to earn a living by collecting medicinal herbs daily. When it came to defeating demons, they managed to be included in a party of skilled adventurers, and barely managed to hunt low-grade demons. That was their current strength as adventurers.

However, a phenomenon occurred in front of them: the demand for medicinal herbs jumped due to the commotion of a giant demon. The purchase price is double the usual price. For two people who are just starting and are forced to live in extreme poverty, the situation is truly a blessing in disguise.

Naturally, the two of them worked harder than ever to collect herbs.

Today, Roy and his friends left the guild to go out to collect herbs as usual.

However, something unusual happens here.

A senior adventurer, who usually shuns the two newcomers in his party, asked them to join him today.

Apparently, he wanted to ask the two of us, who had been collecting herbs until recently, to guide him to some good spots.

They were told that their share of the reward would be the same as what they collected, with no sharing, and that they would also be paid a guide fee.

The two of them, who were always collecting medicinal herbs, had naturally secured a few good spots.

They were hesitant to reveal one of them, but there were rumors of a huge demon, and they said they could take their share of the reward itself, not split it up.

Although it sounded a bit fishy, the two of them accepted the invitation from the party and headed out to collect medicinal herbs.

However, at that time, they never dreamed that a herd of demons had taken up residence in their favorite spot.

When we first arrived at the spot, the greyhound we found was not a pack, but a single animal.

It was an E-rank demon, which meant that even a novice adventurer could hunt it if it was alone.

There was no way that the party that accompanied me would be intimidated by a weak demon, so one of the members of the party tried to approach the greyhound without hesitation.

However, the greyhound noticed his approach and let out a single howl. In the blink of an eye, his companions appeared, and before he knew it, the greyhound had increased its numbers to over 20.

As expected, there was no way to win when the number of greyhounds swelled to this level.

They had no choice but to give up on the collection and retreat from this place.

That’s when it happened.

The leader of the adventurers who had accompanied them unexpectedly thrust Priscilla in front of a group of greyhounds.

For a moment, the demons focused their gaze on Priscilla. In the gap, they all ran away at once.

Leaving the two new adventurers in front of the pack of demons.

In short, Roy and his friends were left behind as a decoy to escape the demons.

Like a frog stared at by a snake, Priscilla cowered and was unable to move.

Roy immediately threw one of his magic tools,【Flashbulb】, to the ground. Took away the greyhound’s vision and managed to rescue his childhood friend.

They succeeded in getting out of the way, but the flashbulb didn’t last long, and they were chased by the greyhounds.

“―――Hahh, hahh, Ro-chan… I can’t do it anymore… I’ll try to use magic to hold them back, and then you can run away…”

“You idiot! If you do that, you’re a fool!”

“B-But it’s impossible for the two of us to escape together… Then at least, I’ll have to… distract the slower one…”

“Stop it! I wouldn’t have helped you in the first place if I was going to leave you here! Don’t waste your time talking, just move your feet! If we go out to the street, there might be other adventurers there… so don’t stop there! Run!”

“Uh-uh～～～～～!”

Priscilla bites her lip at Roy’s words.

While she was happy to hear her childhood friend’s words, she didn’t know if there would be any adventurers on the street, and even if there were, she didn’t know if they would be strong enough to take on the 20-plus greyhounds.

Roy’s words were positive without giving up hope, but Priscilla couldn’t shake her despair and tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.

In the worst-case scenario, not only herself but even her childhood friend might be killed by the greyhounds.

Priscilla couldn’t help but imagine the worst possible future.

Hence, she prayed.

Please, let there be someone strong on the streets…