Chapter 67 Even Herb Collection Quests Are Dangerous

"I am ready, Mistress," Katsuki reported, her outfit having been changed to a simple set of leather armour that I used to use back when I was physically younger.

Honestly, I actually forgot that I still had that stored inside my Pack of Folding and only remembered it when I started digging through it to get my map.

She was quite embarrassed when I suggested she use it for now.

Somehow, Katsuki managed to strap all of the weapons on her, most of them somehow hidden somewhere on her body.

The total cost of it was five hundred and twenty Creas which was honestly less than what I thought it would be. That left me with just a little over one thousand two hundred Creas after that trip.

Now that Katsuki was properly equipped… It's time to set off to pick some herbs!!

With my trusty map guiding us, we soon arrived in an open field at the edge of the forest northeast of the city and close to the edge of a cliff.

From what I know, this city also once served as a bastion against invaders since the cliffs provided natural defences and attackers only had one road leading up here which leads directly to the city.

It is here on this cliff that we will start our herb collection quest!

Since Katsuki has already helped me with this quest before, she already knew how the herbs look so it was easy for her to find the herbs needed.

Surprisingly, unlike the last time, there was actually another group of Mercenaries also combing through the fields earlier than we were.

It seems like they were a bunch of six Mahun teenagers, four of them being boys while the last two were girls.

The youngest looking one was a girl with black, shoulder length hair whom I guessed was about fourteen while the oldest looking one was a tall boy that looked sixteen.

The younger girl gasped when she saw us and immediately ran towards the tall boy, "Brother! Brother! There's people!"

He looked up and squinted at us before letting out a smile, "Hello! I assume you're also here for a Milgras Herb collection quest?"

I nodded, "Yes we are. I hope it's ok for us to take from here?"

He waved his hand, "Oh of course, the field's big enough. I'm Leonard! An E rank Mercenary! These are my friends and also my little sister! Nice to meet you!"

The others around him waved at us with smiles on their faces.

I idly wondered how these kids managed to pay the two hundred Creas needed to sign up as a Guild member but quickly recovered and returned his greeting.

"Hello Leonard, I'm Aster and this is my companion, Katsuki. We're both F rank Mercenaries who just started."

"Nice to meet you, miss Aster. No need to worry about us and good luck with your quest!" He waved before going back to picking the herbs.

We decided to move a short distance away from them to collect our own herbs.

I also took the chance to check the stats for Leonard.

[Name: Leonard

Title: Big brother

Race: Mahun

Stats:

17 Strength

15 Dexterity

15 Endurance

11 Magic

Skills:

Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier 1)), Hunting (Tier 1)]

Hmm… I suppose the stats aren't that surprising for someone his age. Although I still don't understand how titles work…

"So… They definitely don't look like the children of rich merchants or nobles, how did kids like them save up two hundred Creas to sign up as Guild members?" I asked Katsuki in a whisper.

"Oh, this is quite common, Mistress. Did you realise that Leonard was the only one who introduced himself as a Mercenary?"

"Eh? Does that mean he's the rich one?"

Katsuki giggled, "Not at all Mistress. Usually people like them aren't able to afford such an exorbitant fee on their own. So what they do is have a few of them pool in their money to register one person who has the highest chance of passing the entry test. That person will then take on quests and bring along everyone else to complete it and the money earned will be split amongst them. Once they've earned enough, the others might also sign up as Mercenaries too."

"And The Guild allows this?"

She shrugged, "There's nothing wrong with it and it's not like the rewards they pay out are any different. Besides, the quest would still be registered to that one person so they're still limited in what they can do since officially, it's a one man party."

How interesting…

"In that case, why doesn't everyone just be a Guild member instead of working other jobs?" I wondered.

"They still need to at least be proficient in combat in some way to pass the Guild's test, Mistress. So this method isn't for everyone. I would guess that the boy is probably the son of a former Mercenary or even a city guard, so he has had some training while growing up. His friends might only be in on this for the extra pocket money and leave to pursue their own dreams later on. Quite a common arrangement, actually."

With my curiosity sated, we started collecting our own herbs from our side of the field.

Thanks to my [Screen], I could easily identify the Milgras Herbs from the normal grass and weeds around the place. As for Katsuki… Well, she definitely has a talent for it.

The result was fifty herbs collected in just under half an hour of searching.

It could have been shorter but the herbs were actually quite spread out over the place.

Also, Leonard's group was still busy collecting the herbs even after we were done. Either their quest required them to collect more or they were having trouble with finding them.

Putting that aside, now that our quest was done, it was time for Katsuki's training!

Which is why I quickly shared with her my training regime back when I was first starting out with Mother.

"Eh? So Mistress was doing such exercises everyday?" She asked.

"Mmhmm~ You're just starting out so I guess we can start off with the most basic one first! So let's start off with a ten kilometre run!"

"Understood, Mistress!"

Thanks to my Trusty Map, I already mapped out a route for us ahead of time for the run so I let her set the pace for our run.

Truthfully, I was expecting her to go slow but… The moment I called her to start, she had sprinted away at top speed.

Umm… Katsuki? It's a ten klick run you know? Are you sure you should be sprinting?

Oh wait… Her Dexterity stat is at thirty isn't it? I was already running fifty kilometres at that point… Ten kilometres shouldn't even be a problem for her…

Whatever, it's the first day anyway so we can just ramp this up slowly and get used to harder exercises later on.

I caught up with her and kept pace just behind Katsuki, watching over her as we completed our lap around the field in record time.

The run only took us a little under thirty minutes with Katsuki managing to keep up her sprint the entire distance. Inugamis are really good at running it seems.

Just as we returned to the field though, what surprised us was the fact that there was a group of six goblins encircling the teenagers we met earlier.

Ah… What's with these events popping up? Then again, Katsuki did mention how even this quest requires people to have a guard or two.

"Damnit! Where did these monsters come from?!" One of the boys shouted, clutching his dagger clumsily in his hands.

"Stay calm! Girls, stay in the centre! Everyone else, be careful of their weapons and hold the line!" Leonard ordered, holding his short sword steadily in front of him.

The younger girl gasped, "Big brother! Look out!"

While he had been busy giving instructions, one of the goblins had leapt from his blind spot with his club raised in the air, swinging it down towards his unprotected side.

The boy tried to move his sword to deflect it but wasn't fast enough as the weapon smashed into his side, sending him crashing onto the ground.

The goblin then stepped in front of him, raising the club once more to deliver the killing blow.

Katsuki turned to look at me and I nodded, prompting her to dash ahead towards them.

She swung out her arm in an arc and three throwing knives embedded itself in the goblin's neck causing it to stumble back and drop its weapon while clawing at his throat.

I had taken the chance to reach out my hand and charged up a [Static Bolt], firing off the paralysing bolt that blasted another goblin dead centre on his back.

Katsuki leapt up and threw out a few more throwing knives, though these were dodged by the goblins who were already aware of her.

That did not stop her from skewering the Goblin I paralysed with her daggers though, killing him instantly.

I charged ahead and performed a lariat on one of the goblins, knocking it down flat on its back before punching another one in the chest.

What I didn't expect was for my fist to cause the entire portion of his chest to cave in from the force before it got blown back by at least twenty feet.

I quickly recovered and finished off the goblin on the ground by kicking it in the head before it could get up.

Turning back, I saw Katsuki struggling against one of the goblins trying to skewer her with his spear.

Good thing Leonard had managed to get up by then and proceeded to cut down that goblin from behind.

The last goblin had dropped its weapon and tried to flee, so I fired off another [Static Bolt] to paralyse it, allowing Katsuki to cut him down as well.

All in a day's work I would say.