Looking Ahead for Earning Money
Spring was the season for work. For a guild mber, it was a delightful ti.
The folks who had been sequestered deep within the Baroa Forest extended their activity range outward to the periphery, making hunting feasible.
There were minor negatives, like the fur of Charge Deer decreasing in value due to shedding, but it was a pleasant ti to walk around, with the potential to pick up shed antlers without having to hunt, and a bounty of wild plants and herbs.
That being said, spring was also a season when one couldn't exclusively focus on the Baroa Forest.
The ti of awakening. Spring was the season when insects would proliferate.
It was also the ti when Pike Hoppers, large locust-like monsters, were causing disturbances everywhere.
In Halperia, the insect-type monsters known as Pike Hoppers were relatively rare, being grasshoppers about the size of a dog. Their pointed head was robust, and the headbutt executed from their strong jumps could easily kill a child.
However, due to their large size, they lacked-nimbleness, making it not particularly difficult to dodge them as long as you stayed out of their direct path. They were monsters that even an Iron-class guild mber could adequately defeat.
However, the problem with Pike Hoppers wasn't their combat strength. The big issue lay in their choice of primary food: wheat.
Their enormous size and plant-eating nature were bad enough, but their targeting of wheat, a staple food for humans, made them despised far more than any ordinary pest in this country.
Fortunately, Pike Hoppers weren't the type of monsters that moved together in swarms targeting wheat. They couldn't fly either, so even simple fences could sowhat restrain their movent.
Despite that, as an agricultural nation, this monster could not be allowed to exist.
Thus, the guild's spring Pike Hopper extermination was carried out on a grand scale.
「I can hear them, the hopping contribution points.」
As soon as I entered the woods near the farm, the sound of sothing heartlessly trampling through the thickets ca from the other side.
It was a Pike Hopper. Despite exhibiting a cicada-like life cycle where they grow underground from an egg to an adult, once they crawl out to the surface, they are unmistakably grasshoppers.
Their extermination paid poorly, but the contribution points were decent.
Unfortunately, their materials were hard to sell. Although they could be dismantled to yield edible parts akin to chicken, the culture in Halperia was generally not favorable towards eating insects, partly as a counter to Sangreale's practices. To be honest, I didn't particularly feel like going to the trouble of dismantling and eating them either.
Nonetheless, for soone like , these kinds of monsters were quite convenient.
「Limited attack power, unintelligent enough not to run away, and not much blood splatter. I quite like you guys.」
From the thickets, the Pike Hopper rushed towards .
I easily sidestepped to dodge it, and after continuing its charge for a while, the Pike Hopper slowly began to change direction. Its movents felt sowhat tank-like.
「This is great—it's easy to hit when you show
your flank like this.」
The Pike Hopper's biggest vulnerability was during this directional change after a charge.
If I slamd its flank with my bastard sword, that would be enough to bring it down. Normally, they weren't soft enough for slashing attacks to work, but I could manage easily.
Even if I did take a hit from one of their charges, it would hardly affect . Their charges couldn't penetrate my reinforced light armor. In that sense, they were stress-free opponents to fight.
「Co on, bring it on. I need the money, so give
a horde of a hundred or so.」
That day, I continued to cut down Pike Hoppers until near sunset, but twenty was about as far as I could go.
It was a number that would take a few days to hunt, but it wasn't much profit considering it was a task that could be done solo.
There were ways to process their hind legs into short weapon handles, but it wasn't popular, unfortunately.
「Guess I'll head to the guild and see if they can offer a good job.」
With a sack full of Pike Hopper heads with their pointed shell on their foreheads, I decided to head back.
However, the guild was busy this ti of year.
In addition to Elena and Mylene at reception, even soone like Florence, who usually worked behind the scenes, was roped in, frantically handling requests.
With one-on-one etings with clients occurring frequently, there were many staff mbers moving back and forth within the building.
If I were to queue up now and vaguely ask for "any good jobs?」
I'd be a real pest. Better to wait until the line thinned out a bit before joining.
「Hey there, Elena. Busy day, huh?」
「Phew... It's really tough. So, Mongrel-san, what brings you here today?」
「Sorry to bother you when you're this busy, but I was hoping you'd have a profitable job that even a Bronze 3 mber could take. Any physically demanding work available?」
「Running low on funds again?」
「There have been a lot of interesting products around lately.」
「Perhaps you're spending extravagantly? Well, the markets are bustling, so I understand the temptation. Hmm, let's see... Oh, there is a good job. There's a shared warehouse hidden away in an alley that's in the process of being sold off to a trading company. There's a task for moving the heavy tools stored inside it.」
Ah, straightforward manual labor, I see.
「Since it's a shared warehouse, everything needs to be delivered to each owner's spot. However, since the area is narrow, they can't use equipnt to transport, making the job challenging. It seems like a lot of really heavy items, like iron anvils mounted on wooden platforms... Originally, they wanted about three workers.」
「This is perfect for . I can handle it alone. No need for three people.」
「I thought you'd say that... As there's a need to adjust the request, would you mind waiting a couple of days?」
「Take your ti. As a physically demanding job with the workload of several people, it sounds like good money.」
「Honestly, taking a Silver-class job would pay more, though.」
「We'll leave that for another ti.」
It seed like, indeed, good jobs existed where you least expected them to.
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Two days later, I got hold of work sooner than anticipated.
Apparently, they were eager to clear out the warehouse and hand it over to the trading company, and the owner seed to be rather in a hurry.
「My young ones don't have the strength, you see. If I were a bit younger, I could have managed to carry so of this stuff myself.」
Nurous heavy-looking tools were placed near the warehouse entrance. Transporting these through the narrow alley would certainly be tough.
Even having a lot of people wouldn't solve the issue.
It seed that new houses built in front of the warehouse were the main obstruction. There wasn't much that could be done about that though...
「I'll carry them out one by one. You sir, just make sure to put sothing like a tag on each item to identify the owner. I'll make sure to deliver as per the tags.」
「Much appreciated. If you could move them into the basent storage, that would be especially helpful.」
「Sure thing, I don't mind. But it's a hassle to keep going up and down, so do you mind if I gather them all just in front of there first?」
「That would help a lot. Thanks for doing that.」
Once decided, it was ti to get the warehouse cleared up quickly.
「Whoa!? You're quite the strongman, huh... As expected of a guild mber. I thought hiring soone through the guild would be expensive, but I'm glad we did.」
「It's nothing. I'm working for my wage, ya know.」
There were four users of the shared warehouse. I had to deliver large loads to each of four locations, but with so stored in basents or tucked away in narrow alleys, it was indeed a botherso task. I could understand why soone wouldn't want to reorganize a warehouse without body-strengthening magic.
Yet, with my strength, it wasn't a big deal. The only issue was actually moving it around, but I steadily transported the loads and emptied the warehouse by noon.
Uncle generously bought
lunch, and I spent the afternoon lowering the loads I had gathered for each store into their respective storage. That too was done within about an hour.
There were heavy loads, but the number was small. There were no issues with careful transportation, and it wrapped up like that.
「It's great that the job was completed in a day. Thanks a lot, Mongrel-san.」
「This is my job, so think nothing of it. If there's anything else, feel free to request through the guild or reach out to
directly.」
「Would contacting you directly and not through the guild make it cheaper?」
「Ah, if it's tasks that wouldn't get
in trouble with the guild, then yeah. Consider it as 'helping a friend'.」
「I see... Well, we don't want to get on the wrong side with the guild either, but if there's an opportunity, I'd like to rely on you directly, Mongrel-san.」
Hmph, it's a relief working with understanding folks.
The smaller the shop, the more they feel the pinch of the guild's cut. In such cases, it wouldn't be bad for
to work directly. While operating as a party might be cumberso, there's almost no issue with helping out individually.
The only problem is if a dispute arises over the reward, the guild wouldn't diate, but it should be fine if the work stays within Regor. If paynts were delayed, I'd also have my ways to deal with them anyway—in a slightly passive-aggressive manner.
「Alright... I've saved up so shopping funds again.」
After spending on spices and so seaweed-like thing, my budget was tight, but I managed to recover a bit here.
I still had magic textbooks and new gear to buy.
Running around a bit more to earn money wouldn't be so bad for now.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
We see Mongrel's attributes bit by bit. It seems he likes heavy lifting.
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