CH 110

Episode 110 – Monthly Refresh

It was the next day after my mock battle with Kirty.

It seemed that battling against another human exerted completely different muscles because when I woke up, my entire body was completely sore. I was feeling a little unwilling to get out of bed, but I had no choice but to grit my teeth and brace my legs as I climbed out of bed.

I was supposed to go to Mount Cornello with [Iron Gear] today, but since my movements were lethargic due to the muscle soreness, I decided to drink a Recovery Potion so I wouldn’t cause them any unnecessary trouble. After that, I took out a vial of Medical Herb-imbued Slime liquid and smeared the Recovery Slime all over my sore body. I also steeped some Mint Leaves in there beforehand, so it felt cool and refreshingly comfortable.

After treating my muscle soreness, I ate my daily bowl of Dumbbell Weed curry and then got dressed. I performed a final check on my luggage and the things I bought yesterday to make sure I didn’t forget anything, and with that my preparations were complete. It was still quite early, but I decided to just head on over to the meeting point in front of the Adventurer’s Guild.

As I approached the Adventurer’s Guild, I saw the figures of [Iron Gear] waiting for me as usual. Today as well, they had arrived far earlier than our appointed meeting time.

“Mornin’, Lewin! Thanks for requesting us again today!” (Byrne)

Just the other day, I heard from the bald Guild Chief that even though they just promoted to E-rank not that long ago, they were completing high rank quest commissions at an unbelievable speed. They told me before that in the two months that they were training under Edward from [The Egg Club], they pretty much didn’t do any quest commissions, only completing the bare minimum number each month. But when their training period was over about a month ago, they started doing way more quest commissions, mostly at a C-rank level, completing them at an explosive rate.

At that time, the skinhead Guild Chief was singing their praises, saying their growth rate was the fastest he’d seen in recent years, and with their momentum, they would be able to climb to C-rank at a record speed.

“Maybe if you only look at the price itself, but we want to be working with you, Lewin!” (Lyra)

“Yup, it’s just as Lyra said. You were the driving force for us to work so hard, Lewin. No matter how much our rank goes up in the future, we’re never gonna turn down a quest commission from you!” (Byrne)

“I agree, but… by the looks of it, Lewin’s gonna be needing our escort less and less as time goes on. With each passing day, his body is getting more and more toned,” Porta said in response to Lyra and Byrne’s concurring remarks. Certainly… At this rate, under Kirty’s guidance, I guess if I eventually became strong enough I wouldn’t need escorting as much anymore, huh?

Except… I was thinking that even still, my feelings coincided with [Iron Gear] and I wanted to still go on quest commissions with them. Even if it might be annoying to them, in the time that I was still in Grezesta, I wanted to continue requesting them as long as they wouldn’t refuse.

“Even if I grew strong enough to not need your escort anymore, I still want to continue to request [Iron Gear] so we can keep going on quest commissions!” (Lewin)

“…I’m glad you feel that way. We’ll also wholeheartedly respond to that sentiment, so let’s do our best in the future!” Nina responded. Before we departed, I was able to confirm the feelings of [Iron Gear], and we set off for Mount Cornello with a warm and fluffy atmosphere.

For several hours after that, the members of [Iron Gear] and I engaged in silly, trifling conversations as we walked. Before we knew it, in front of our eyes once again was the familiar sight of Mount Cornello rising in the distance. This mountain, which was so scary to me not long ago, was now a place that made me feel nothing but excitement. After that time I slaughtered an Angry Wolf in one blow, we were never attacked by an Angry Wolf ever again. I even started thinking that it was about time for me to be attacked any moment now.

I felt that the current [Iron Gear] and I, who had both trained so much, would be able to defeat them through our own strength now, without having to bet on any lucky chances. Well, even if I thought that way, no attacks were going to be coming though.

As I found myself entertaining the idea of an Angry Wolf attack in my mind, before I knew it we had already arrived at our base location halfway up the mountain. All of the monsters that we encountered on the mountain path were cleaned up by Lyra and Nina in an instant, so we hardly even had to stop as we climbed our way up. Speaking of their stability, I felt that their performance was comparable to the first time I came here when Dion and Smash were fighting off the monsters on our way up.

“Aaand, we’re here!! We’re already way too familiar with Mount Cornello, huh?” (Lyra)

“Yeah, but there’s still Angry Wolves on this mountain. Don’t let your guard down now.” (Byrne)

“Then just as always, me and Byrne will go with Lewin to go gathering. Lyra and Nina will set up the base as usual, is that good?” (Porta)

“I’m cool with that! Also, today… that “thing” we promised Lewin before… we bought various ingredients for it, so you can look forward to it!” (Lyra)

“Hm? What is it, that thing you promised Lewin?” (Byrne)

“It’s a secret! Right, Lewin?” (Lyra)

“…………?” (Lewin)

Huh….? What could that promised “thing” be? I couldn’t remember at all what kind of promise I made with Lyra.

“…..Oi, Lewin doesn’t get it at all, does he?”

“Gah, how cruel!! Even though I was all fired up while preparing for it!” (Lyra)

I mean, even if you say that… What should I do? I totally can’t remember at all. I don’t feel like I’ve made any promises in the first place…

“Then about that promise, we’ll be looking forward to it when we come back to the base. We’re gonna go gathering for now.” (Porta)

“Alright… Well, it’s probably a one-sided misunderstanding on Lyra’s part, in my opinion.” (Nina)

“No way! It’s just that Lewin’s a dummy so he forgot! Right, Nina?!” (Lyra)

“…Well I don’t think he’s a dummy, but he certainly did make a promise.” (Nina)

I also thought Lyra was misunderstanding something here, but if Nina said that too, then I must have really made a promise. I didn’t remember a thing about it, but it didn’t look like they’d be telling me about it at this point, so as Porta said, we would just have to wait until we got back from gathering to see what it was.

Hmm, just what was it that I promised again…?