After our battle with the goblin mob, we quickly returned to Alessa.
I wanted to go to have Fran’s armor repaired, but we were forced to go to the guild first.
I used purification magic to clean some of the filth off Fran, but it didn’t have much of an effect.
Though no one at the guild seemed to mind.
“Alibont-san, what is the matter?”
“Ah. There’s something we have to report to the Guild Master.”
“Please wait here. I will make sure he is ready for guests.”
She seemed to have noticed from Alivont’s serious face the gravity of the situation.
Nel-san hurriedly walked farther inside the guild.
A few minutes later. Nel-san came to bring us inside.
“The Guild Master has called for you all. Please come this way.”
Inside the Guild Master’s office were the Guild Master and Dunadrond.
“Please give us your report.”
“Ahh. Krall’s party was heading to the site, and along the way they met Fran.”
“We were already done fighting.”
“I see. I would like to hear what happened next from Fran-san…”
The Guild Master gave a soft sigh. Likely because he knew Fran wasn’t the talkative type.
He looked worried about what exactly to ask Fran. Well, things were pretty serious, so I should give him a hand.
“Will you please report what happened?”
『Fran, take out the horns』
“Un. Here.”
Fran acted like she was taking something out of her pocket and took out a hobgoblin’s horn from Dimensional Storage.
“Is this…a hobgoblin’s horn?”
The Guild Master’s became serious after he used Appraisal to find out what it was, and he took it from Fran.
“So there were hobgoblins mixed among the bunch! And how many goblins were there total? And how many hobgoblins?”
Dunadrond was also shocked as he held a horn in his hand
“There were a lot.”
“Hmm, give us a bit more detail.”
『About 130 of them.』
“About 130.”
『Four hobgoblins, and about twenty high ranks.』
“Four hobgoblins, twenty high ranks.”
Dunadrond got up without realizing it.
“That means there’s going to be a goblin stampede!”
“Please keep calm, Dunadrond-kun.”
“M-My apologies.”
“Then, Fran-san, I have a question for you. What did you do about the goblins? Did you retreat?”
“I beat them all.”
“I see. And you didn’t retreat.”
“Un. I didn’t stop until I got them all.”
“That is unfortunate news.”
What could be wrong?
Based on what the Guild Master said, it seemed like that mob of goblins were forced out of their den because their numbers were too high.
As they continued to sp.a.w.n, the Goblin King ordered the extra goblins out of the den.
They were probably prepared to die to stop Fran because they saw her as a threat to their den.
And he said that because there were hobgoblins and high rank goblins mixed in, it was safe to say that the den was already defended by nothing but hobgoblins.
“The size of the goblin stampede will likely be quite large,” said Dunadrond.
“We should have an emergency meeting with all the adventurers,” said the Guild Master.
“We will prepare today and tomorrow for the annihilation of their den. Is that our plan?”
“Yes, please have the thief-type adventurers find the location of the den. I will create a special request.”
Things were chaotic.
The Guild Master called in Nel-san and other receptionists and gave them a variety of instructions.
“However, Alibont-san. May I ask you to go out once more?”
“Would you like me to lead them to the site?”
“Yes. If you could, please take the thief-type adventurers there and come back with them.”
“Understood. On this vital occasion. I will do my best.”
After Alibont said that, the other adventurers nodded their heads enthusiastically.
It looked like they wanted Fran to come along too, but that was a no go.
She needed to have her armor repaired, so I should have her rest for today. I couldn’t yield on this.
“Fran-san…please rest for today. I cannot ask you to strain your armor even more.”
“…Un.”
Fran nodded her head, almost angrily. Good job, Guild Master!
Alibont and the others seemed to want more detailed plans.
“I’ll go now.”
“Ahh, please wait. Before you leave, please go to the reception desk. We have completed the process to increase your rank to F.”
“I haven’t finished five requests yet.”
“We could not possible leave an adventurer who has annihilated such a large number of goblins as a G rank adventurer. Also because if you were not a G rank adventurer, you would not be able to partic.i.p.ate in this request. This is partly for our own convenience as well.”
“Kuhahaha. The more strong adventurers we have, the better,” said Dunadrond.
“Because we have just created this request, we still have no idea as to how many adventurers will show up. People like yourself who we know will be a strong a.s.set are important,” said the Guild Master.
“There’ll be a request to partic.i.p.ate in the extermination, so make sure to check that.”
“Un. I will for sure.”
“Thank you very much.”
“I’ll go then.”
As the Guild Master said, the receptionist did the procedures for the rank up.
It all went through without a problem. And it only took a few minutes.
All that happened was the letter F was engraved on the guild card.
“It went up!”
Fran looked happy. She may not have looked very different to others, but it was clear to me by the way she looked at the card that she cared about her rank. And her level.
Well, they also acted as gauges for her strength so it made sense.
『Great. The fighting’s over so let’s go get our armor repaired. But do you think we have enough money?』
“I want to sell weapons.”
『Can we sell them at the guild?』
We asked the receptionist, but she said that the guild only purchases materials and other loot.
『Then how about we take them to Old Man Garth’s shop?』
The problem was if Old Man Garth would accept such shoddy weaponry.
『No, wait. There’s another merchant we know!』
“Un?”
『Don’t you remember? Well, he didn’t leave much of an impression. I’m talking about Randel.』
“Ahh.”
Don’t react as if you’re saying, “Oh yeah, there guy exists, too.” Well, I was in no position to complain, though.
『He said he’s at the far west side.』
“I’ll find him.”
I was worried if we’d be able to find Randel when Alessa is so huge, but we found his shop right away.
Because Randel was standing outside his shop that was near the western entrance.
“Oh, Fran-san! Were you looking for my shop?”
“Un. To sell stuff.”
“I’m glad to hear that! C’mon, c’mon. Come inside.”
Randel led us inside his shop.
『How should I put it. It’s really messy.』
The store’s wares were packed together and displayed inside that cramped shop.
There was no organization as honey was displayed next to poisons, and general goods were next to weapons.
“It’s dirty.”
『Oh no. She really doesn’t beat around the bus.h.!.+』
I looked at Randel and he was laughing bitterly.
“Haha. I hear that a lot. Because I put all the items that sell well on display.”
But even so, isn’t there too much variety? This wasn’t for me to say, but the average person would have trouble shopping here.
“This, buy it.”
“Wow. So you have an Item Pocket!”
“For now.”
Randel took a small step back as weapons continued to come out.
“That aside, there’s…a lot.”
“I have more.”
“What? Wait. Sorry, but could you put them on the floor?”
“Okay.”
“That Item Pocket must be super high quality if it could fit this much stuff. I’m jealous. Mine’s hard to use since it’s so small.”
He was acting like a pro as he Appraised the weapons even while making such chit-chat. He was keenly eyeing the items with a merchant-like face.
“Hmm, they aren’t in very good condition.”
“Goblins dropped them.”
“Ahh, so that’s where they’re from. The good news is that there are a few steel weapons, but…altogether, it looks to be about 13,000 gil?”
‘Is that okay?’
『So on average, one’s about 200 gil…considering their condition, I guess it’s okay?』
“Okay. That much is fine.”
“Then come this way.”
“Un.”
Fran put all the money we got into Dimensional Storage.
“Thanks. I’ll come again.”
There were lots of interesting items he had on sale so we may end up coming here again. We should buy something when that time comes.
Since we made some money, we headed off for Old Man Garth’s shop.
We hurried to plaza that the old man’s shop was in.
“There’re lots of merchants.”
In the plaza were many merchants as usual. Do the other shop owners not get mad at them for the hustle and bustle from those merchants?
We used the same backdoor we used yesterday and entered the shop.
『h.e.l.lo.』
“Ohh, it’s you two! Why’d you come by? Your scabbard isn’t done yet, though.”
“Un, we’re here for something different today.”
『We were hoping you could fix Fran’s armor…』
And the first thing Garth said after getting after turning around was, “Wha-What the heck happened to you?!”
“Hey now. How’d you end up like that in just a day… What in the world happened?”
“We fought goblins.”
“Goblins?”
『Specifically, a goblin horde. More than a hundred.』
“There were hobgoblins, too.”
“What? That’s incredibly important! There’ll be a stampede soon!”
『We already reported this to the Adventurer’s Guild.』
“I see. But from the look of you, you were lucky to make it out alive.”
“Thanks to Master.”
“Master?”
『That’s my name.』
Come to think of it, I might have forgotten to tell Garth my name. But I had a bad feeling.
“What? Why do you have such a weird——.”
『Isn’t it a great name?! Fran thought of it! Don’t you think so too, Garth?』
Hurry up and notice, Garth!
“Ah, ahh. What a good name. For real.”
『Right? You think so too, right?』
“The best name! A name befitting a fine sword!”
Phew. That was close. Garth seemed to have noticed what I was hinting at because he glanced at Fran and complimented my name to an unnatural degree.
“S-So you came here to have your armor repaired?”
『That’s right! Can you fix it? We have to go suppress the goblins the day after tomorrow.』
“That’s no problem. I can complete any repairs right away.”
“How much will it cost?”
It seemed like Fran didn’t notice. Thank goodness.
“Let’s see…about 10,000 gil.”
『That’s very low.』
“Well, it’s only the fee for the mana shard.”
『Mana shard?』
“It’s a kind of crystal distinct from magic crystals that’s mined from the ground. We can store mana in it and use it as a catalyst for the procedure.
『This is my first time hearing about that.』
“I can use the smithing magic Repair, and to use it, I need a mana shard as a catalyst.”
『And you can fix the armor by using that spell?』
“Yeah. Would you like to watch?”
『Is that okay?』
And so, we ended up observing Old Man Garth repair Fran’s armor.
The old man put the armor on his worktable. There was a magic circle drawn on the table. And he put a yellow mana shard on something that looked like a stand.
The rest was no different from the old man using a slightly long spell.
“——Repair!”
The mana shard s.h.i.+ned as if in response to Garth’s powerful voice.
And after the light dimmed, the armor lay there without a dent or scratch.
“Amazing.”
『Yeah. It looks brand new.』
“It’s not that convenient a spell. The efficiency of the spell drops the more you use it on the same piece of armor. A small mana shard was enough this time, but it’ll need a bigger one next time. And it’ll cost about 30,000 gil.”
Then does that mean it might be cheaper to buy new armor?
I’ll need to see how much money we have when that time comes.
“Thanks.”
“It was nothing much. After all, you’d be in some trouble if you weren’t at peak condition when you’re fighting hobgoblins!”
“Leave it to us.”
『We’ll take down the King and Queen, too!』
“Un. They’re our prey.”
“Hahahaha. You two sure are reliable!”