NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9
<Chapter 9> If you go a little out of the center of Penrose, the capital of the Artes Empire, there is a ‘Street of Abundance’.Several guilds were located in the alleyway, and at first glance, they looked similar to pubs or inns.The guild received a request from a client, that is a quest, and arranged the quest to the right person to carry out the quest.Starting with finding hard-to-find objects and information, he also killed people of course, illegal things like the latter are handled only by the Dark Guild.And in return, the guild was operating with a small fee from both the client and the worker.People said that there was nothing they could not find in this street where the guilds were concentrated, so this place was called ‘Street of Abundance’.Even today, the guild member, who was sitting at the counter and smoking a cigarette while enjoying the repetitive boredom of daily life, found a monk entering the guild and greeted me with a bittersweet smile.“Welcome.”The person who entered the guild was a young woman with a face they had never seen before.The people who came to the guild varied from foreigners to children, so the guild members were not particularly impressed by the woman’s visit.The white and pretty face had natural eyes, but that was all.“Oh no, I’ve run out of quests for you, what should I do?”Most of the quests that women and children could do were simple, non-dangerous labor such as picking up duck eggs by the river and making tapestry. It was not dangerous, so there were many competitors.“Things like that are competitive. If you have quick feet, you can take it. Come early tomorrow.”But Elsez responded as if she wasn’t interested in such a thing.“Give me a quest to catch a monster.”At Elsez’s words, the guild member looked at her with questionable eyes.Just by looking at her slender neck and wrist, it seemed that she could not even wield a sword, let alone catch a monster.“Even the weakest monster is hard to catch by yourself. Do you have any companions?”“No.”“Are you a wizard?”“Well, I don’t think so.”“… Do you have any weapons?”“I don’t have one, so I’m just trying to make money.”“Then you’re going to catch monsters with your bare hands?!”“I’m pretty strong.”The guild member looked at Elsez with an absurd expression.I’m not a wizard, I don’t have any friends, I don’t have a weapon, so I’m going to catch a monster. She has good guts, or she doesn’t know anything.Elsez raised her finger with a confident expression as if reading his expression.“It’s okay, so let’s leave it to me.”The guild member handed Elsez a quest scroll tied with a blue thread with a confused expression.For some reason, he felt uncomfortable because it seemed like he was putting a weak young lady like his nephew into danger.However, Elsez who received the scroll returned it without even opening it.‘I’m afraid she’s going to quit after receiving the scroll.’The guild member thought so and got the scroll back.“Well, catching monsters isn’t that easy—”Before he could finish his words, Elsez pointed to the scroll box behind the guild member.“I want to accept that quest.”What Elsez was pointing to was a scroll tied with red thread.In the guild, quests that children and women can do are grouped with green thread, quests that those who know how to use their power can do with blue thread, and high-risk quests with red thread are grouped together.The blue thread caught monsters, and the red thread caught low-ranking beasts that were higher than the monsters.In particular, the quest to catch the beast was very few people who could solve it, so the reward was incomparably large compared to other quests.However, it is usually difficult to catch a low-level beast alone, so several guild members would organize a party to solve it.The guild members were deeply surprised that Elsez knew the taxonomy, but soon refused.“I don’t know how urgent the money is, but I give you a red thread quest, miss.”“That’s a quest to catch a low-level beast. Do you know what magic is? They aren’t small and cute like monsters. Very big and strong!”Another man who had been watching Elsez and the guild members from the other side suddenly intervened. He was a member of the guild next to him.Then, the guild members, who had been drinking since broad daylight, received a reward for completing the quest, and intervened one by one with curiosity.“Aspirations are good, but low-level beasts are at the level that well-trained mercenaries or heroes with the seal of the Holy Kingdom can catch.”“But what kind of a man is your father to send his weak little daughter to make money?”Elsez smiled awkwardly at the guild members who cursed Viscount Rohain.‘Due to a business disease, he died leaving only a lot of debt.’The words of the guild members were far-fetched, but it wasn’t too bad.In any case, she was a seemingly fragile noblewoman, and I could understand their worried reaction.Elsez snatched the quest scroll that the counter’s guild member had given her for the first time.“Then, when I come across this blue quest, how about entrusting it to me? Instead, don’t hand over the quest to someone else until I come.”The guild member at the counter still looked unwilling, but Elsez’s attention seemed unusual, so he nodded his head.“Instead, if you think it’s dangerous, don’t panic and run away immediately.”“Don’t give that quest to anyone else.”Elsez smiled confidently, listened to the worries of the guild members, and left the guild, pleading with God.One of the guild members, who was watching Elseez’s back, said anxiously.“ Shouldn’t someone follow her? If it gets dangerous.”“It wouldn’t be a big deal for low-ranking monsters because their speed is very slow or their attack power is weak. Because if she gives up she can run.”At the time when everyone turned off and was about to drink, one of the guild members slammed the table and drew attention.“I’m bored of just drinking, how about we make a bet?”“What bet?”“You predict when that girl will come back, and the one with the closest guess gets the bet. The losers buy me drinks as a bonus.”Guild members gathered at the table, probably because they were bored and had a taste for it.“She’s not coming back, I bet she will run away!”“Ah, but still, a young girl full of ambition. How do you think she’ll catch it and come back in the evening?”When they were betting on the possibility they thought, a guild member who found a man quietly drinking alcohol on one side of the guild approached him as well.“Perth, are you going to join us too?”“If you put money on this side, the young lady will run away, and if you put money on this side, the young lady will catch it and come back later. Perth, where are you going?”A middle-aged man named Perth took a sip and looked at the betting board, then took a rook from his pocket and put it on the other side.“I bet she will be back in two hours.”Even the distance from here to the forest haunted by monsters took an hour round trip by horse-drawn carriage.It was difficult for even the most skilled people to find and catch the monster in the wide forest for the remaining hour, excluding the time to go back and forth.The guild members ridiculed Perth’s hopeless bet.“You just want to buy us a drink, don’t you, Perth?”But Perth just quietly drank beer. ***** Leti, who came out of Elsez’s inner pocket in the rattling carriage, looked up at Elsez who closed her eyes as if she were sleeping with a puzzled look.“Human! Are you sleeping?”“Why.”Elsez answered dryly with her eyes still closed. Then, Leti ran around Elsez’s sides and asked.“Where are we going now?”Elsez pretended, opened her closed eyes and spoke softly.“To collect candy.”“Candy?”At the word ‘candy’, Leti’s eyes twinkled.“Yeah, candy. I’m thinking of a quick way to collect candy, so be quiet.”“Today, I want to eat strawberry flavored candy.”Elsez closed her eyes again as she finished speaking, but Leti smirked and revealed his preferences.“No, I want to try the lemon flavor too.”Elsez let out the rumble and looked back at her memories.‘Do I remember? It’s a memory from three years ago.’The quest and the geography of the forest that I had cleared hundreds or thousands of times during the 1st Possession 3 years ago.However, only a vaguely emotional feeling came to mind, and no detailed memories came to mind.At that moment, when Elsez frowned, the carriage stopped.Elsez paid the coachman and got off the carriage. Then, in front of her, a vast forest opened up.Leti asked, pointing to the forest with a puzzled expression.“Is there no candy here?”“Stay, let’s see.”Elsez put on half-gloves instead of a weapon. No matter how strong the body was, it took a long time to attack with bare hands.“Haah….”Elsez took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Let’s do this…‘Memories…’I can’t think of a path in my head, but my body reacted reflexively. Strangely.Elsez, who opened her eyes again, caught the coachman who was about to turn around and leave.“I’ll pay you more, so will you wait a little longer?”“Yes? Doesn’t it take quite a while to catch a monster?”It takes quite a while to catch a monster, so the carriage would usually pick up a guild member and then return to the village with another guild member who completed the quest.But he has to wait for me.When the coachman looked at Elsez with puzzled eyes, Elsez confidently raised her pocket and said,“An hour and a half… No, an hour is enough.”Elsez left behind the coachman and followed the familiar path that her body remembered into the forest.The composition of the forest was drawn in my mind as if it were a house, or more familiar than a house.‘From here, around the snake-headed rock, there is a creek. 50 more steps across the creek… plum tree.’Elsez followed the memory of her body, passing a rock in the shape of a snake’s head, and crossing a creek. And after 50 more steps along the path that appeared, a plum tree appeared.Elsez smiled and passed the plum tree.‘It’s a quest that has been repeated hundreds of thousands of times, so I can’t forget it.’The products from catching monsters and beasts were often used as materials for magic tools, magic, and special potions, so the demand never stopped.So this kind of quest was one of the quests that could be repeated almost infinitely.aka ‘Nogada Quest’ in game terms.Elsez, who secured funds and fostered heroes, knew where the monsters appeared, the shortest route to and from that location, and even the weaknesses of each monster.‘And if you turn left here…!’A monster appeared with a large single eye and wings, but could not fly high.It was Kiru, the monster Elsez had to catch.‘As expected!’Elsez immediately approached the monster, but it was already in a confrontation with another person.Elsez immediately turned around and moved to the next point without showing any signs of regret.‘At this point, a tree with a red ribbon appears.’As soon as Elsez finished thinking, a tree tied with a red ribbon appeared.As she went a little further past that tree, a wide beautiful tree appeared.There was another monster Elsez was looking for under the tree.The corners of Elsez’s lips, who found Kiru, rose in an arc with confidence.“I found it, Candy.” **** That day, it was not Perth that bought alcohol, but the rest of the guild.Elsez, who went to hunt monsters, came back after exactly two and a half hours.“It’s ten Kiru’s wings, right?”Elsez pulled out a quest scroll from her pocket-type inventory and held it out. Obtain 10 Kiru’s WingsLocation: South of the Forest of BeginningsReward: 2 rooksProgress: 10/10 The quest scroll had its own inventory, so you could put items related to the quest in it.The guild member who was in charge of the counter took out Kiru’s wings with wide eyes and checked it.Exactly ten wings.“That’s right, that’s right…”The guild members who were drinking were astonished.‘Is it possible to catch five monsters in an hour?’Catching a low-level monster itself isn’t that difficult if you have the knack, but the problem was the time it took to find the monster.It would take quite a long time to find the five monsters in that vast forest, but Elsez managed to catch them in an hour.Unless you have the ability to predict the location of monsters, you can’t achieve such a high speed.Suddenly, they got chills and goosebumps.‘No, where did such a monster suddenly pop out…?’For some reason, they felt like they had witnessed the appearance of a huge figure of interest.“Here, quest reward.”The guild member of the counter offered Elsez a quest reward.“As promised, I’ll also give you a quest for the lesser magical beasts.”“Oh, yes.”With a bewildered face, the guild member handed the quest scroll tied with a red thread to Elsez.Elsez, who turned around with the reward and the quest scroll, shrugged as she met the eyes looking at her with envy.‘For now, let’s go home and go catch the low-ranking beast tomorrow.’It’s also the easiest way to make money.As Elsez was about to leave the guild while humming a hum, an unfamiliar voice from behind called out Elsez.“Hey, you.”Looking back with puzzled eyes, there was Perth holding a glass of wine he had received from the guild members.“Let’s talk for a second.”Looking at Elsez with a meaningful expression.