Chapter 058 - Level III Promotion Quest
Chapter 058 - Level III Promotion Quest
About a month and a half later, we were running quickly while wearing full equipment in the middle of a thick, verdant forest.
We were wearing field clothes with belts around our waists, equipped with several pouches attached to those belts by ALICE clips.
We had combat protectors on our elbows and knees.
Our combat boots were firmly planted on the ground.
Xiah was at the lead, followed by Snow, Chrisse, and I lining up behind.
Through her eye-protection gear (goggle-type), Xiah aimed her Meiya-made AK-47 at the prepared target and fired.
TL Note : Basically, a tactical gear that protects covers the area of your eyes in clear-like plastic.
BANG!
The target on the ground had its center blown away.
Snow and I with AK-47s then shot through targets hanging from tree branches.
Chrisse stayed behind while watching our surroundings.
Once all targets were shot through, we started moving again.
We continued the training until all the prepared targets were destroyed.
The final target was shot from 100 meters away right on the bullseye by Chrisse.
"Welcome back, everyone!"
Once we finished training, we slipped out of the forest to where Meiya was waiting.
The Meiya Residence maids prepared chairs, a table, and a parasol—making a simple rest area.
We were outside of town at a nearby forest.
We put on a notice at the Adventurer’s Guild and did some outdoors training.
Monsters were previously driven away.
But still, there seemed to be some left, so we dealt with those that we encountered during training.
The one who sensed the remaining monsters faster than anyone else was Xiah.
Before she became a slave, when she was an adventurer, it seems she took the role of a scout, sensing monsters" movements before anyone else could.
Her presence-sensing towered above others’ by far.
It was to the point that Xiah declared that “While I was an adventurer, I never got caught in a surprise attack even once”.
We believed her and made her a scout that time—in my previous world, she"d be called a Pointman.
The result was beyond imagination.
We"d probably have used this formation again the next time it’s needed.
We took off our eye-protection gear and put down our AK-47s and M700P.
I took off my helmet and sat on a chair alone.
I wiped my head and neck with a cold, wet towel the maids handed me; it soon became stained with dirt and sweat.
I took off the cap off the canteen that was attached by ALICE clip, then I emptied the lukewarm water.
After I rehydrated myself, the sweat poured out again, and I received a new towel.
After I enjoyed my little break, I checked everyone’s equipment’ conditions.
“In the training, have you noticed anything that bothers you ? Like, is your movement is restricted, or does the size not match or is it hard to use?”
“As I thought, I don’t need the helmet!” x3
OH, all the girls objected with “HELMET, NO!”
I gave them before training, but they all had their reasons and didn’t wear it even once.
Snow’s was because “My ears hurt.”
Chrisse’s was because “Uncomfortable so I can’t concentrate.”
Xiah just said one word in “nuisance” and put it away.
Even though I diligently made them ….
As a result, I was the only one who was using it.
“An..anything else ?”
[Onii-chan, can’t this eye-protection gear be easier to see through ?]
“Yeah, I did my best though …”
The eye-protection gear was goggles-type gla.s.ses.
In battle, there are many potential damages to your eyes--wind and dust, ejected cartridges from allies, and scattering pieces of wood or rock caused by a bullet. There are also fragments from the blast of magic and such. If your eyes get hurt, then your combat potential will drop significantly. For those reasons, it becomes a necessity.
The problem is the gla.s.s part.
Some products like [Ess Ice] that is currently adopted in the American army have strength that can even withstand shotgun buckshot.
TL Note : Ess Ice sample product ->
But that stuff doesn’t exist in this world.
Meiya and I collaborated and did a lot of trial and error; as a result, we chose goggle-type eye-protection gear. For the gla.s.ses part, we made them in the shape of beehive with magic liquid metal. For the gap, we used the magic stone’s power placed at the back of the head to create a thin water membrane to prevent small dust, sand and such.
TL Note : fear my G.o.dly paint skill using it in reality does obstruct your visibility a lot.
But if I make the beehive hole bigger, then it won’t be able to block incoming fragments. The water membrane isn’t that strong, so I could only experiment over and over to find the balance afterward.
“Understood, I’ll devise it to make it a little easier to see. Anything else ?”
“For me it’s this … bulletproof vest? ...It’s a little tight, especially around the chest area.”
TL Note: She’s not sure what the bulletproof vest is called.
The bulletproof-vest name is the same as the previous world’s, but I made it to defend against arrows, spears and swords but not bullets.
The material I’m using is a monster called Pterosaur that resemble dragon, they have wings in place of hands.
Even though the defensive power is lower than a dragon’s, the price is reasonable, I lined the scales up and fixed them to a khaki-coloured clothes.
A light but also high-defense product.
But the elasticity is pretty low.
Snow’s then growing b.r.e.a.s.t.s were being cramped at that point.
It was the night-hustling fault of mine though!
“Go..get it, I’ll tide it over. Anything else? Any problem with the AK, Xiah?”
“Absolutely none.”
“That’s obvious! Because it"s a product that has been made by my and Lute-sama"s teacher-student lovey-dovey collaboration! Please handle it with care, Xiah-san”
Right. The AK47 Xiah was using was made together by Meiya and I.
Ever since Meiya met me, she had been studying everything about guns all the time.
Furthermore, in order to remember the iron plate not with just her head but also body, whenever she had time, she touched, licked and smelled it to experience the strength, and she punched it, chewed it, and pressed it against her cheeks to feel the coldness, too.
TL Note : …. L..lewd. rei_hunter
The result of that endeavour: she finally acquired the power to imagine it vividly.
And as I took care of Snow’s AK, Meiya did Xiah’s. While checking the parts together, we a.s.sembled and made it.
Surprisingly, at this stage, I discovered the magic liquid metal’s weak, problematic point.
I thought that the more magic I poured in, the stronger metal it produces, but it turned out that the magic liquid metal had a property that if the magic exceeded a certain threshold, it wouldbecome brittle.
Meiya and I made the same part, but somehow, there were a lot of cases where hers was abnormally brittle.
At first, we thought it was because she couldn’t imagine vividly, but the fault seemed to lie in pouring in too much magic.
If I recalled correctly, it was the same with alcohol; at 90%-plus, the sterilizing property drops instead.
At about 70%-85%, the sterilizing property becomes its highest, or so I read in some medical manga.
Magic liquid metal probably has the same property.
It’s a property that was only discovered because it was made by B- rank magician Meiya.
It went gone undiscovered because it was been made by the no-talent magician Moi. It was one act that made me realized again that my magic pool was really low.
But it was a problem that could be solved by adjusting the amount of magic poured in.
The problem was then gone because Meiya adjusted the amount of magic she poured in.
Again, about AK production, I designed some small parts to fit the girls’ personalities.
Snow’s design was almost the same as mine.
The only difference was that it wasn’t black but white.
Maybe it was because of her name, but she liked to use white.
That’s why I changed the colour so they could be differentiated at a glance as to whose was whose.
In Xiah’s case, the stock (the farthest part at the back of the gun that is placed against the shoulder) is not metal frame. The open hole is filled up, thereby making it heavier than our guns.
According to the person herself -- she didn’t like it because it was too light and thus made her feel as if she’s not carrying anything.
After training, I briefly asked everyone, but it seemed there was no special inconvenience.
“Well then, tomorrow let’s go to the guild and see if there is any Level III quest.”
Everyone agreed.
Finally, we started to do quest to get to Level III.
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The next morning, the four of us—Me, Snow, Chrisse, Xiah—had breakfast.
Since we weren’t likely to go on a quest right away, we did not carry AK-47s, and we went to the Adventurer’s Guild in plain clothes with only gun belts hanging from our waists.
This is the first time we came with Xiah, but she took a wooden tag branded with a series of numerals with practiced hands.
Soon our number was called.
"...... tch, welcome, did you get another wife?"
The demon race oneesan, who always looked after us, received us in an irritated manner.
"No, she"s not my wife. We were about to rank up to Level III, so we employed her. We"re still beginners, so there are lots of things about adventuring that we still don"t know about."
There was no need to expressly state that Xiah is our slave in public.
If we hid the brand on her arm and took off her collar, n.o.body could have told by looking.
Being accompanied by a magic-user’s slave might have troubled us by causing something annoying.
We told that to the person herself.
Xiah took out a tag from her neck and handed it to the receptionist.
"I"m Xiah. Pleased to meet you."
"Excuse me. I"m pleased to meet you, too. Xiah-san is a Level III, aren"t you? So you"re taking on a quest to raise the others to Level III, is it?"
"Yes, please."
Having Xiah"s answer, the receptionist fluidly turned over some doc.u.ments.
She"s good at what she did and had a good appearance and character, so I wondered why couldn’t she get married….
The receptionist presented us with a sheet of paper.
Without looking at the doc.u.ment, she read out the terms written on it.
"So how about this one? The requested matter is to guard the transportation of some packages. The destination is from here through the dragon mines to the dragon kingdom. It will take about 16 days, and because of the long duration, each person gets two gold coins this time. Food and drinks are to be prepared by yourselves. The employer prepares nothing other than a carriage. The day of departure is in the morning the day after tomorrow. Should you accept, you are to come to the Adventurer’s Guild at noon tomorrow to meet with the employer."
The transported goods were something related to magic tools.
There was already one team working as guards, but the employer seemed to want another team just in case. Because it was so sudden, there was no problem with using it to rise to Level III—that"s the situation.
It was certainly convenient for us.
Xiah examined the request and told the receptionist that we accepted it.
"Well then, we"ll take this, please."
"All right. All of you please lend me your tags. Also, from Level III onwards you"re going to have to put in some deposit money. That"ll be one silver coin per person this time."
The procedures regarding our quest acceptance that time were handled by the only Level III with us, Xiah.
We handed tags and the deposit money (4 silver coins) to the receptionist.
She smoothly filled in the quest with a magic-quill pen.
Once she finished, she returned the tags to us.
"Then see you at the Adventurer’s Guild at noon tomorrow."
"Understood. Please tell the employer that we won"t be needing a carriage."
"Alright. I"ll be sure to tell them."
Her work finished, Xiah left her seat.
We followed along behind her.
"Hey Xiah, why did you refuse the carriage they prepared?"
Since she refused, we had to prepare one by ourselves.
Which meant there would be extra expenses for that.
Xiah explained to us as we walked.
"If we don"t prepare one ourselves, they"re going to put us with the other team on a cheap carriage and horned horses. The employer would want to pin down their expenses. For our own safety, we have to loan or prepare a carriage ourselves beforehand, that"s how adventurers do it."
It seemed that if the adventurer didn’t have money, they would be using the allotted carriage and horses.
We never knew of anything like that.
I was really glad that we bought Xiah.
Then we turned towards the carriage-sellers.
Once we loaned a carriage, we went to the marketplace to buy everything else we needed.
In order to go on the Level III Quest the day after tomorrow, we began our preparations.
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