It wasn’t as if he were some reverse mountain god.
He had gold rings and silver rings, yet he chose to give me a jade ring. That was one nasty mindset.
Still, I had no choice but to accept the offer.
I was curious about the performance of the items I’d receive as a reward,
and the penalty that all hidden stages would be deleted was weighing on me too.
“Then I shall guide you to the village.”
The road to the village together.
When he’d been running away earlier, he’d been free and easy, but after revealing his identity, he seemed to start paying attention to etiquette.
His splay-footed walk had turned into an elegant strut like a peacock’s, and it was painfully obvious that he was trying to speak with proper courtesy.
An execution officer, was it?
Just from the name, it sounded like a good job, so why had he run away?
I wondered if Rachel knew something and asked her, and she answered like this.
“Brother, an execution officer is, quite literally, an execution officer.”
At that profound answer, my eyebrows furrowed on their own.
“So what is that, exactly? Can’t you explain it simply?”
“Uh…”
“Tell me clearly and concisely what an execution officer does.”
“Well, you see…”
Rachel dragged out the end of her words as if she didn’t really know.
Adel, who had been walking ahead, must have overheard, because he answered in her stead.
“It is a profession that carries out sentences, arrests criminals who disturb the Empire’s public order, handles paperwork, and deals with petitioners.”
Now I understood why he had run.
Police work plus dealing with petitioners?
No ordinary mentality could endure that.
Suddenly, Adel looked pitiful.
That miserly air of trying to save money was probably because of the low pay unique to civil servants,
and that cultured, dignified attitude was probably a habit he’d developed to prevent being bombarded with complaints.
Now that I looked, the back of his head seemed a little bare too. So even in a fantasy world, stress was the cause of hair loss.
Adel tilted his head as he saw me looking at him with pity.
Then he snapped his fingers and said,
“Ah, now that I think of it, I was the only one who gave my name. You have yet to tell me yours.”
“I’m Seo U-ri.”
“I’m called Ray…”
“Those are unusual names. I shall call you Master Seoul and Miss Ray.”
I was used to being called by nicknames, so I didn’t bother correcting him.
After repeating our names to himself a few times to memorize them, he started to remove a ring from his finger, then hesitated and glanced at us.
“Would it be all right if I gave you the ring after the work is finished? You might take the item and run away, you see.”
Ah, fuck.
Why did I feel like crying?
Even that shameless attitude of trying to make us work for peanuts was just like a civil servant.
“That’s fine. Do whatever’s comfortable.”
“Ohh, thank you.”
Come to think of it, when would this informal speech of mine ever get fixed?
I felt needlessly sorry speaking casually to someone older than me.
It kind of made me feel like a difficult complainant.
Still, it wouldn’t change.
Well, I’d just have to get used to it.
***
After about half a day of walking, we arrived at the village.
No, could this even be called a village?
It was so small and shabby that it felt rude to call it one.
There were only three or four private houses at most.
Even those were surrounded by trees, giving off the strong impression of an abandoned bandit hideout.
“Wow.”
“Nice.”
Still, out of courtesy, we at least gave some exclamations of admiration.
He’d gone to the trouble of calling it a village for us, so we couldn’t just stand around evaluating it.
It wasn’t like this was The Sims or Minecraft.
“By the way, I don’t see any residents.”
“Ah, they said they were going to a nearby village to buy the materials they need. They should arrive around tomorrow, but with the number of monsters in the area increasing, they might be a little late.”
“So what are we supposed to do?”
It had shown up in the quest, so I already knew, but since I hadn’t heard it directly, I asked.
“I think it will be enough if you cut down about one hundred trees.”
“Okay, got it.”
I accepted immediately without negotiating.
Cutting down a mere hundred trees would be nothing to Rachel.
We’d finish it quickly, go back, and rest.
“That’s fine, right, Rachel?”
“Yes!”
Rachel smiled brightly, hehe.
“I’ll do my best!”
Burning with enthusiasm, Rachel drew her sword.
Even to me, a complete outsider when it came to swords, there was some kind of energy flowing through Rachel’s holy sword.
The power that Hunters called aura, and that martial arts novels called sword qi, seemed to maximize the destructive force of the blade.
In any case, Rachel swung her sword.
A slash of sword energy shot out horizontally and felled the trees far too easily.
The trees had even cut surfaces, as if sliced by a chainsaw.
“Ohh… I knew it from the moment you slew that enormous monster with a single strike earlier, but you truly possess remarkable skill.”
Of course she did.
She was a hero.
“So that’s it, right?”
“No, not yet.”
“Huh? She clearly cut down more than a hundred.”
To be sure, I opened the quest window.
[Village Construction—Cut down 100 trees. (0/100)]
“Don’t tell me we have to move them too?”
“No. All you need to do is fell them. We will move them ourselves.”
No, she clearly knocked down more than a hundred.
But not a single one counted?
Looking at the trees toppled like dominoes before my eyes, at least one should have been counted.
I wondered if it took time to register and waited, but the number still didn’t change.
What, was there some specific condition?
Like cutting a certain type of tree,
or cutting trees within a certain radius of the village.
‘I don’t remember hearing anything like that.’
All I’d heard was that we just had to cut down the trees they would use.
Wondering if something was hidden, I read the quest again.
There was nothing else written there either.
Then shouldn’t it count if we cut down any tree?
Just as I was wondering what was going on, a voice rang out.
“Master Seoul, please show us your skills as well. The skills of the man called the Empire’s greatest swordsman.”
No way. Surely not.
For now, I denied reality.
But it seemed my guess was right after all.
“Winter will soon arrive, so we need a lot of firewood for heating.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a weapon…”
“Here. If that is the problem, please use this.”
I looked down at the axe in my hands.
It was so heavy that my muscles felt like they’d scream every time I swung it.
Still, there was nothing else I could do, so I started chopping at a nearby tree.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Was it because my Strength was 1? It didn’t even feel like the axe was biting into the tree.
As Adel watched the tree receive no more than a few scratches at best, he clicked his tongue.
For no reason, my pride was hurt, so I made an excuse.
“I’m good with swords, but I’m bad with axes.”
“Ah, I see.”
Adel nodded as if that explained everything.
Good grief. I was helping out of goodwill, yet he was acting in a way that made me want to split his head with the axe.
Endure it. Endure.
If I killed Adel, the quest might fail, so I carved the word patience into my heart.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
When I swung while imagining the tree was that bastard, it definitely felt like more strength went into it than before.
But Adel still didn’t look satisfied.
“If you use only the strength of your arms, the power won’t transfer properly. It will be much easier if you make use of your body’s rotation.”
Did he think this was some senior citizens’ park?
Why was he backseat-driving so much?
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
…Oh?
But when I followed his advice, the blows definitely had more force.
If before it had felt like I was chopping with Power 1, now it felt roughly like 10.
Even though I was using less strength than before.
Only after seeing the gouges deepen did Adel smile in satisfaction.
“Rather than trying to solve everything with brute strength, using technique allows you to achieve greater efficiency with less effort.”
Was he talking about skills? No, it was different from a skill.
He probably meant the know-how one acquired through living life.
“In addition, for your stance, it is best to spread your feet shoulder-width apart and stand at an angle to the tree, not in a straight line with it.”
“……”
“With this technique, even if you lack natural strength, you should be able to fell a hundred trees.”
After receiving the technique, chopping with the axe definitely became easier.
But that was the end of it.
My Strength stat was still low, so the tree didn’t fall with a single swing or anything like that.
‘I want to do logging with one click of swordsmanship like someone else.’
When on earth was this damn tree going to fall?
Judging by the cut, I seemed to have gotten more than halfway through.
No, at this point, shouldn’t he acknowledge me?
“Hmm…”
What was pouring down on me right now wasn’t recognition, but disappointment.
It was probably because Rachel had raised his expectations earlier by calling me the greatest swordsman under heaven and whatnot.
Still, with the kindness unique to civil servants, Adel kept giving me tips until the end.
“Good. Now if you strike the other side just a little, it will fall.”
Just as he said, I went to the opposite side and swung the axe a few times.
Craaaack!
With a loud noise, the tree finally fell.
I immediately checked the quest first.
[Village Construction—Cut down 100 trees. (1/100)]
It went up by one.
Whew. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and looked around.
So now I only had ninety-nine more to go.
…Should I just run away?
While I was agonizing over that, Rachel approached.
“Brother, you were truly wonderful. That passion of yours, refusing to give up halfway no matter how hard it gets! It was just like seeing the old you.”
“I’m sweaty, so let’s talk from a little farther away.”
“Gasp, I don’t mind…”
“I mind.”
My clothes were soaked with sweat, so I subtly put some distance between us.
It might be fine now, but once my clothes dried later, the smell was likely to be terrible.
“Come to think of it, this is bad. I don’t have any clothes to change into.”
“You can switch with me! These are your clothes, Brother.”
Now that I looked, Rachel’s clothes were nice and dry.
I shook my head.
“No, it’s fine. They’ll just get soaked again anyway.”
It was better to finish quickly and go back.
And so, several hours passed.
[Village Construction—Cut down 100 trees. (5/100)]
I had only cut down five trees, yet the sun was setting.
“Are you truly sure you do not need to rest?”
“Yeah. I’m thinking of doing night work.”
“You might get hurt, so please don’t overdo it.”
“Then reduce the number a little.”
“…I shall be heading inside now.”
Adel, who had stayed beside us the whole time, went into a house, and since we were in a forest, the surroundings grew dark in an instant.
On top of that, because Rachel had felled all the nearby trees earlier, we were positioned a little away from the private houses.
“Haa… I don’t think I can do this.”
I had definitely gained some know-how and picked up speed, but once everything around me turned pitch-black, it felt like I had gone back to the starting village.
Even the tree I’d been diligently chopping until a moment ago kept making me miss, so I left it alone for the time being.
“Let’s rest a bit and then continue.”
Leaving the axe lodged in the tree, I sat on a nearby stump.
At the very least, I’d start again after my eyes adjusted to the dark.
As I sat there spacing out with that thought,
Rachel, who had been trotting after me like a puppy, handed me the axe.
“Brother, you need to take this with you.”
“Ah, I left that there on purpose.”
“Gasp! I didn’t know and pulled it out.”
“It’s fine, so could you go put it back in the same spot?”
I didn’t want to touch the axe for a while, and if I put it on the ground and lost it, I’d waste time, so I asked her.
“Yes!”
Answering brightly, Rachel stood in front of the tree and drove the axe in with force.
Crack!
It was the sound of the tree I had struck hundreds of times collapsing.
For a moment, I felt as if the world had crumbled.
‘…After suffering that much, surely not.’
Just in case, I checked the quest.
[5/100]
The number hadn’t gone up at all.
As expected, even though Rachel had knocked the tree down, it didn’t seem to count as me doing it.
No, seriously, it only needed a little more. You’re saying it won’t count just because she stole the last hit?
Until a moment ago, I had been trying to work hard, but my motivation vanished in an instant.
My desire to complete the quest properly disappeared, and my mind rapidly began thinking of exploits.
“Fine. So you’re judging it by the last hit, is that it? Status window, you’re the one who set the precedent.”
All right, let’s see who wins.