Chapter 5: I Shouldn't Have Done That (5)
It had been a long time since I last thought about my parents.
But filial piety was one thing, and Quests were another. There were still six items left to find.
“Wait.”
I had checked every other area of the sewers, so the remaining six had to be here.
I searched around where the kid had been tied up, finding some bones hidden between the roots.
“M-mom…”
As I did, the child recognized the skeleton’s belongings as his mother’s and started crying, but… I couldn’t do anything for him except properly retrieve her corpse.
Anyway, I had found all thirteen various keepsakes, but I felt I would go blind from straining my eyes to look for them without a single indication of their location.
Seriously, those Deep Sea Pearl guys. They had admittedly built a well-made game, but they really hadn’t taken the player’s convenience into account. Well, it wasn’t that bad, though.
“Little brat.”
“Mom… Waah.”
It seemed the child wouldn’t move by himself, so I just carried him in one arm and left the cave. Considering I could easily swing a giant sword with both hands, carrying this kid was easy as pie.
「Purification │ A space becomes Demonized after Demons have settled in it. Once this happens, it must go through Purification.The Demonized space can be Purified by burning it with Divine Power or Pure Flames. Depending on one’s class, Purification methods may vary.
Demons respawn in Unpurified spaces.
Do not let Demons tread this land again.」 It said the place needed Purification, so I pulled an oil container from my bag and sprayed its contents everywhere.This system also existed in the original and was actually pretty easy to perform. You got an oil container as a starting item, after all.
Just as I was about to throw a lit torch onto the oil I had spread, the blocked roads came to mind.
…I had just remembered that part. I was sure I had to burn these places to fill the gauge to 100%, right?
「Purification progress: 1%」 「Purification progress: 4%」 「Purification progress: 7%」 Achieving 100% Purification wasn’t a condition to finish this Quest, so it probably didn’t matter much. However, as I expected, not doing it would leave me uncomfortable, so I should try it on my way out.With such thoughts in mind, I made my way out once I saw that the Purification progress was slowly rising. I felt slightly suffocated, after all. It seemed they had also simulated the lack of oxygen caused by lighting a fire in a closed-off cave.
It would have been nice if they’d just inflicted a slight suffocation. Instead, I could even feel a tightness in my lungs and my heart rising into my throat.
Despite the pain level being set pretty low, it felt extremely unpleasant.
While I lacked any asphyxiation-related trauma, this might cause some controversy. Would others be okay?
I coughed a bit and quickened my steps, covering my mouth with my gauntlet. I still had to hurry since I didn’t know how the child would fare.
Cough, cough.
“…Tsk.”
When I heard the child coughing, I just ran, fortunately much faster than I’d thought.
“You okay?”
“…Yes.”
We escaped that space in under three minutes, though I hadn’t yet left the sewers. I’d only rushed to a place where the smoke couldn’t reach us yet.
The rest was easy. Now that I had learned starting fires would only harm me, I didn’t attempt to Purify this place any further, and finding my way out was very easy as it was a road I had already walked on.
Fortunately, I had a pretty decent memory when it came to orientation. I hadn’t really noticed when dealing with the Goblins, but these passages were unusually long.
I felt like I had been walking for more than half an hour.
Creak.
Bam!
Still, I eventually found the exit, kicked the iron door open, and took a deep breath. It still smelled musty, but the air was fresher than in the sewers.
The rays of the setting sun stung my eyes.
Had it taken me about two or three hours, then? I couldn’t remember when I had entered the sewers, but I knew it was daytime, and an in-game day had eight hours.
Well, it should have taken a good amount of time to find my way around the sewers and defeat all those Demons. Besides, considering the size of that sewer system I had just explored, I felt like even more time had passed, like I had been in there for four or five hours.
If they had provided something like a clock function, I would have known exactly how much time had passed, so that was a bit disappointing.
“Little kid.”
“…?”
Anyway, I checked on the kid in my arms. I could see a confused expression on his dirty face.
Tears still flowed from his eyes, but as long as he was alive, that was enough for me.
I climbed up the riverbank and slowly made my way back to town. I had been told to report to the guild about the mission, so that was what I needed to do now.
“Sir Knight.”
I stopped for a second. After calming down slightly, the kid called out to me in a whimper.
“Mom will be happy by God’s side, right?”
It was a question with a fixed answer.
“Yes.”
I soon reached the Adventurers’ Guild.
* * *
“Oh, Adventurer? What happened… What’s with the child?”
Maybe because it was now evening, the guild was even noisier than before. However, the service windows were a little emptier than before as most of those present were here to get drunk.
Thanks to that, it was very easy to reach the clerk, Izren. I had to report to her and hand the child over as well.
“Take him.”
I pushed the child to her as she came from behind the window.
I expected members of the general public who didn’t carry around giant greatswords would find it relatively difficult to hold him, but the clerk carried him pretty well.
Amazing. I would have stumbled if given a child like that in real life.
“This child…”
“He’s the son of a worker. He said he went into the sewers to find his mother. If you want more information, listen to my detailed report.”
I didn’t really want to go into too many specifics with the child around, so I just roughly summed up what had happened.
“What?!”
Naturally, the clerk looked back at the child I had handed to her like a relay baton. The kid was tightly clutching his mother’s keepsake, remaining silent.
“I-I’ll see to this matter right away. We will take care of the child for now.”
「❖ Cleaning the Dirty Sewers∎ Demons eliminated: 71 / ??
∎ Subquest - Keepsakes found: 13 / 13
∎ Subquest - Traces of deceased Adventurers retrieved: 10 / ??
∎ Optional: Saved the Child」 Once the clerk said that, one part of the Quest was shown as cleared. I guessed the others would also get cleared once I reported the rest.“Where should I put the recovered belongings?”
“Ah, did you bring back the workers’ belongings? You can just put them down over here for now.”
The clerk handed the child to her colleague and led me to the service window. Following her hand, I saw a bench-like desk that was neither very wide nor narrow. It seemed she was asking me to put them there.
Clatter.
I poured out all the keepsakes on top of it without any hesitation. I’d brought back accessories and clothes as keepsakes. For traces of dead adventurers, I’d retrieved things like adventurer’s cards to prevent any mix-ups.
“Y-you brought back a lot.”
Of course. How could I just ignore Subquests unless I was in a situation where I couldn’t do them? Well, it had been me who gave them the impression I would just ignore others’ circumstances, of course.
I looked down at the clerk with a frown on my face. The clerk slightly gulped and quickly went through the keepsakes.
“By any chance, are these the belongings of all 13 deceased workers?”
“What else does it look like?”
Regardless of what I was thinking on the inside, I saw the clerk reacting quite nervously, which made me feel somewhat guilty.
“M-my apologies. We will deliver the belongings to the client first to verify the identity of their owners. As for these adventurer’s cards…”
She choked up a bit. A bloody, bronze-colored card was at her fingertips.
“…On behalf of the guild, I would like to thank you.”
That slightly muffled voice made me feel somewhat strange because it was an exceedingly human reaction. I had always longed for realistic NPCs, so why was I so uncomfortable now that I had them?
I wondered if this was how Skynet was actually born. Of course, it was still fun, so I obviously would keep going!
“Have you finished hunting for the day?”
“…?”
What was she talking about? Why would a player suddenly stop their hunt partway?
“Ah… Are you going to go back to the sewers now? Do remember to rest a little, though…”
“I don’t understand what you mean. Why should I go back to the sewers?”
Hmm, was it because of the Purification? But wasn’t it kind of weird that I had to do it myself?
“Do I have to do the Purification as well?”
“You have to catch… the other Demons…? What? Purification?”
I frowned as I remembered that the Purification progress had halted at about 43%.
It wasn’t that big of a deal if one could just use a Purification Stone to take care of things, but the Demon Knight could only Purify Demonized places with fire. I might end up suffocating to death if I did the Purification myself. I wanted to avoid that if possible.
“L-let me ask you something… Have you already eliminated all the Demons, by any chance?”
That was a rather sudden question. I raised my eyebrows.
“Do you think I’d be standing before you now if I hadn’t?”
“To make me… take the child back to his home?”
If I had found him in the middle of my exploration, that might have been the case… Did she think I ended my day’s exploration because I found that kid?
Was this NPC programmed to show such a reaction if the clear time was faster than normal? But I didn’t think I cleared the dungeon that quickly, though.
“…How very unpleasant. Are you looking down on me?”
She desperately shook her head when my expression changed into a frown.
“No, I didn’t mean to look down on you. My apologies, Adventurer. So all Demons have been removed, leaving only the Purification?
“Yes.”
“…I shall contact the client right away then.”
Fortunately, I didn’t have to take care of everything. It would have been difficult to fulfill that condition. How lucky.
「❖ Clean the Dirty Sewers∎ Talk to the Client」 Adding to my confidence, the Quest information was updated. The sewer Quest was really over.* * *
* * *
「Adventurers’ Guild │ You can do various things in the Adventurers’ Guild, such as accepting Quests, reporting the completion of Quests, and receiving rewards.In the Guild’s Tavern, you can enjoy cheap meals and alcohol, but the taste will be inferior. However, if you’re lucky, you might receive some useful information.」 While waiting for the client, I gained more insight into the Guild’s system and even got some dinner.Right around when I finished my meal, the Quest NPC’s messenger arrived.
“This is the commission fee. And… we will pay the broker fee for you.”
A high-ranking member of that company had called for me, so I’d had no choice but to come to them. Instead, they decided to pay the broker fee for me.
I wondered if anything would have changed had I not collected all the workers’ belongings. Honestly, I was the only one unhappy with these kinds of Quests since NPCs had no qualms about sending players out on such missions.
“Will that be alright, Miss Clerk?”
“If that is what you decided, I believe it should be fine.”
“Alright then, here you go. The promised 400,000 Gal.”
I knew I would receive that much money, but was it really correct? I had also been surprised by the amount before, but even after I received the sum, I still couldn’t believe it.
Wasn’t this a bit much to give out as a reward for finishing the tutorial?
“I have confirmed the amount.”
The moment I pushed the gold coins into my inventory, I could barely suppress my trembling heart as I admired the insane amount of money displayed in the bottom corner. I had no other choice but to feel that way.
Most games, even the original Legend of Heroes , only gave out money in units of hundreds or thousands for the completion of a Quest. In some cases, they didn’t even pay with Gal but instead offered pieces of cheap equipment or consumable items as a reward.
That was because one could gain even more loot by just walking along the road or hunting some mobs than by completing Quests.
The remake was different, though. Instead of getting money by hunting mobs, it seemed they made it possible to earn money just by completing Quests. Otherwise, they wouldn’t give out Quest rewards in units of hundreds of thousands.
“About the spoils from the Demons…”
No, there weren’t any. Earlier, I mostly focused on Attack and Defense skills and hadn’t even looked at any Survival skills, but it seemed there was a skill called [Butcher] among them.
It was a skill that enabled one to get spoils from the carcasses of animals or Demons. If one selected it, they could earn money just by hunting instead of doing Quests.
I really wondered if I could make more money than this through that method.
“I’m not interested…”
That said, I didn’t regret choosing [Melee Combat]. Considering my character settings, it was doubtful I would ever even think of trying to get spoils from Goblins.
On the other hand, the [Melee Combat] skill and the [Parry] skill I’d gotten right after came in handy. Even if I knew of the existence of [Butcher], I definitely wouldn’t have chosen it first.
“...in the pocket change I would gain from those worms.”
I stood firm and refused all extra rewards. It’s not that I didn’t consider it a waste, but for the sake of my roleplaying, I had to overcome these kinds of things.
I could assure you that I didn’t feel the slightest regret in my answer.
“Is that all?”
With my legs and arms crossed and my head slightly lowered, I asked in a rather mocking tone. The middle-aged NPC picked up on that and replied with ‘Yes.’
Tada dada!
The SFX for completing the Quest sounded in my ears.
“Then there’s no reason for me to stay here any longer.”
Whoops. My expression almost broke. Why did those guys set the sound effect volume so damn high? If I didn’t lower it, it might give me a heart attack one of these days.
“I’ll go now.”
I stood up from my seat as I calmed my pounding heart, not putting back the chair I had pushed out.
“In that case, I shall take my leave as well.”
The clerk also stood up to follow behind me.
Stepstepstep.
It was then I could hear the unconcealed sound of running from the hallway. I could feel the urgency in their steps.
“What’s going on?”
I opened the door and stepped aside. Soon, someone came rushing into the room, almost falling. The clerk stepped back in surprise.
“S-sir!”
“Is your buttocks on fire or something? What is it?!”
The old man spoke up. I waited and watched the situation while trying to refrain from laughing out loud. It was a bit startling, but this had to be part of the Main Quest.
Even if I didn’t remember much of the original, my years of gaming experience told me this smelled like a Quest.
“We received a rescue signal! A flare has been shot from somewhere nearby! It’s a signal flare belonging to our company!”
“What!?”
As expected.
“I informed the castle guards, but they said it would be difficult to move out at the moment and would take some time…!"
“Those bastards never move their asses despite blowing through our tax money up there!"
The old man yelled, his blood pressure obviously rising through the roof. Seriously, that guy seemed like he could easily live to be 200.
“Send out my men now!”
At that moment, my eyes met with that old NPC.
“You! You also go!”
“…Do not order me around.”
There was no way someone with this character’s temperament would respond well to one-sided orders. He didn’t even say that Demons were involved. Actually, it was pretty uncertain who attacked them.
After reaching that interpretation, I crumpled my facial expression to show off my pride.
“So you’re saying you won’t do it?”
“I have no reason to listen to your orders.”
“Aargh, so are you going to do it or not?!”
However, it would be somewhat weird to refuse outright. I didn’t really have any reason to absolutely refuse.
I glanced at the clerk. She also happened to look at me.
“As this seems to be an urgent matter, we can postpone the creation of a contract.”
“…You’ll have to provide me with reasonable pay.”
“I’ll take care of that!”
“I’ll agree then. Lead the way.”
We should leave right away. But where did we even have to go? After gathering that information, I should hurry up and kill the threat.
「❖ People in Danger∎ Optional: Join the mercenaries
∎ Move to the battle site
∎ Raiders eliminated: 0 / ??
∎ Subquest - Number of survivors: ?? / ??」 I opened the Quest Window just in case and found it holding useful information. Even though the contract hadn’t been written yet, a Quest was created anyway.I checked the Quest contents and tried to guess the location of the battle site. Even without a Minimap, it wasn’t difficult to check for certain locations using my Area Map; it was simply uncomfortable having the entire Map floating before my eyes all the time.
“Get the horses ready right now!”
“Y-yes!”
Fortunately, the messenger also doubled as our guide.
“What about mercenaries—”
“Not necessary.”
It was just a tutorial, so why should I drag those mercenaries with me? I didn’t really want to put up with those nuisances.
「❖ People in Danger∎ Optional: Join the mercenaries
∎ Move to the battle site
∎ Raiders eliminated: 0 / ??
∎ Subquest - Number of survivors: ?? / ??」 The Subquest telling me to find survivors really bothered me.While it didn’t give a definitive number, my intuition as a veteran told me this was a timed Quest. Unless bringing mercenaries with me was absolutely necessary, I thought it would be best to go to the battle site first.
“B-but it’ll be dangerous there.”
“…Are you actually suggesting that I would be in danger?”
It was just a starting Quest. How could something like that be dangerous to me? I was just worried about all those NPCs. Considering how long it would take to get there, I might not be quick enough even if I left now.
“Just let him go!”
Then, the old man suddenly stepped in.
“If he managed to clean up the sewers on his own, he wouldn’t end up croaking even if he went ahead!”
“Y-yes!”
He unexpectedly helped me out. The messenger led me straight to the stables.
“You can ride that one!”
The horse he gave me seemed big and muscular. However, horses were a popular means of transportation in games, so instead of being scared, I immediately got on its back.
One of the games I played before was a horse-racing simulator. It had even been evaluated as being really close to reality.
Thanks to that, I was pretty familiar with horseback riding.
“Giddy up!”
The pole-like legs of the horse began to gallop right away, crushing the earth beneath its hooves.