007 – The Mole on the Shoulder #2
Toast, seared crisp on the outside.
Top it with a golden fried egg and thin-sliced ham, then squeeze on a nice line of ketchup and—
“Yor omakase, complete!”
I didn’t know if it was okay to have such a luxurious meal first thing in the morning.
On the other hand?
Young Master Felix just picked at a few nuts that looked like almonds or pine nuts, and that was it.
For someone who moved around that much, he was seriously half-assing breakfast.
“Young Master, is that really enough to eat?”
You had to eat properly if you didn’t want heart disease, you know.
“Felix! Yor is right!”
Rattle.
Mr. Hammer pushed a plate toward Felix.
It was a dish filled with thick, long sausages and something like red beans.
“You’re still growing, so you should eat more! If you collapse from hunger at a crucial moment, all of us will be in trouble!”
“Mr. Hammer, I’m twenty-three. Surely I’m not going to grow any more at this point.”
Felix had his stubborn side too.
“I prefer to have an empty stomach before work. If I eat too much, the food sloshes around inside me and gets in the way of moving.”
That made sense in its own way, too.
Did I eat too much for nothing?
“Mr. Hammer, where are we sortieing today? We must still have a lot left before we meet our quota, so shouldn’t we make this exploration a long one?”
“Quota?”
I asked while slipping the sausage Felix hadn’t eaten into my pocket.
Hermit, who had been elegantly wiping his lips with a handkerchief, answered in his stead.
“You offered half the aether you earned on your first sortie to His Majesty the Emperor too, didn’t you? Each unit has a fixed tax quota they have to offer like that. Ours is ten million a month.”
If we paid ten million aether in taxes, that meant we had to earn at least twenty million aether every month, didn’t it?
I couldn’t tell if that was easy or hard.
This was my first time hunting in a party.
But what I was really curious about was this.
“What happens if we don’t meet the quota? Do we get fired or something?”
“The unit gets reshuffled! Blessed are high-quality personnel in their own right, so they don’t just get cut so easily. Instead, they’re scattered into more efficient units. But!”
Smack.
Mr. Hammer struck the table.
“Explorer units made up of guys who got transferred in like that usually don’t end well. There’s a high chance they’re just a bunch of people who aren’t diligent and don’t have any ability!”
“What if they still can’t meet the quota after getting reshuffled over and over?”
“If that happens? Well… I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone brazen enough to go that far. Whatever it is, nothing good would happen. And we don’t need to worry about that.”
Tap.
A handkerchief-sized map appeared in Mr. Hammer’s hand, the same hand he had used to strike the table earlier.
Mr. Hammer tapped at a place embroidered with a castle-like building.
“I saw a forecast that the sun will rise over Misscanic University. It’s supposed to stay up for about twelve hours, so we grab what we can and get out before night falls. The target tax is two million!”
So that meant we had to earn four million aether.
In other words, each person had to produce around one million aether’s worth of results.
‘If I calculate aether and won at a one-to-one ratio… that means I have to earn a daily wage of one million won in twelve hours today?’
One million won per person for the day.
How many Nightlings, which gave fifty aether each, would we have to catch?
As I was counting that out, Hermit polished the glass orb at the end of her staff with a handkerchief and spoke.
“If it’s Misscanic University, then it’s practically a sacred place for old-style magic. Mr. Hammer, during the search, could you plot us a route through places likely to have a lot of old texts and materials?”
“I was planning to do that anyway. The antiques that come out of Misscanic University make you mages and the Magic Tower go crazy and pay good prices, don’t they? In that case, we’ll fill two million aether in no time.”
“Ooooh! So you exchange items for aether with other people too!”
Like trading game items!
It was obvious, in a way, but I had no idea why it felt so thrilling.
Mr. Hammer put a hand on my shoulder.
“Yor, that’s why your role is important. Rooms that have expensive old books and magic tools are usually locked. And packed with traps.”
“Yes, sir! Just leave it to me!”
I looked at the tattoo on the back of my hand.
「Star Key Lv.1」
「If there is a hole a key can enter, it can unlock it at a low probability.」
The blessing I had received.
Honestly, the back of my hand was itching because I wanted to try using it.
# # #
I felt as though I was brushing past a dark, murky fog.
When I came to my senses, I was standing on the rooftop of some building.
“A rooftop start, huh. Not bad.”
Mr. Hammer, who had somehow appeared beside me, hefted two enormous hammers onto his shoulders.
Even one of those looked heavy, but he was carrying two.
Just looking at him made me feel reassured, and respect welled up in me.
“We’ll clear the surroundings first.”
Shing.
Felix soon drew the sword at his waist and charged at a nearby grotesque creature.
—Waaloo!
—Waloo!
The strange creatures looked like giant squids, but the fascinating thing was that they weren’t swimming in the sea. They were floating through the air.
I felt like there had been monsters like that in the game I’d played too.
「+300 Aether」
「Actopus Tentacle: It smells terribly fishy, but has a chewy texture. Quite a few people prefer this taste.」
Actopus!
Right, I think that was the name.
These things gave a whopping three hundred aether each.
Six times as much as a Nightling!
If we spent all day catching only things like this, meeting the four-million-aether quota might not be hard at all.
—Waaloo!
—Waloo!
—Waloo!
“Look at them swarming over just because one died. Yor, you stay back. Those are the kind you can only kill around level ten. Excluding you, our average level is thirteen, so we’ll be fine!”
“Yes, sir!”
At our leader Mr. Hammer’s words, I decided to obediently stay out of it.
Bang, bang, slash-slash-slash, fwoosh—boom!
Soon, Mr. Hammer took the lead and tenderized the giant squids with his hammers, Young Master Felix sliced them to ribbons, and Hermit finished them off by spewing fireballs.
「+300 Aether」
「+300 Aether」
「+300 Aether」
「+300 Aether」
...
..
.
They were mowing them down like planting rice or something.
There wasn’t even any room for me to cut in.
But just standing around watching felt awkward too.
I had to prove my usefulness to the party, didn’t I?
Whoosh, whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
So I picked up the coins scattered on the ground, and while I was at it, I picked up the tentacles too.
Like that, the wide rooftop of the building was fully cleared.
I showed Mr. Hammer my bag and spared no praise.
“Hehehe, we earned as much as sixty thousand aether in less than ten minutes. We’re off to a good start! Everyone’s coordination is perfect too. Party hunting really is different!”
“Killing small fry like these is nothing. Still, aether coins are dropping especially well today, aren’t they? We’re lucky!”
“Are there times when aether coins don’t drop?”
“Yeah. Usually, they drop once every two or three monsters.”
What? Killing monsters didn’t automatically give aether every time?
I hadn’t known because every time I killed a Nightling, it gave me aether.
That was how it had worked in the game too.
Mr. Hammer picked up the remaining coins on the ground.
“Yor, maybe it’s thanks to you. I heard you came back alive twice even after having a noose around your neck at the gallows. Since you’re that lucky, some of that luck must be rubbing off on us!”
Kahahaha!
I followed Mr. Hammer’s hearty laughter and, feeling good for no reason, laughed, “Puh-hehe.”
Hermit prodded the squirming tentacles on the ground with her staff and said,
“I did think it was strange that aether and tentacle byproducts were dropping every time we killed a monster. Are you saying that’s because Yor is here?”
“What else could explain it? If we catch a boss monster, maybe a crystal stone or engraving book will pop right out. Then we’d meet the quota in no time!”
Crystal stones and engraving books!
I didn’t know exactly what those were, but I could tell for sure that they were expensive items.
I wanted to see them!
However, Young Master Felix shook the bodily fluids off his sword and spoke coldly.
“Mr. Hammer, our party has no priest, so boss monster subjugation is impossible. Above all, this Misscanic is within the church bastards’ sphere of influence, so nothing good will come of staying long.”
“I know. I know. I was just saying. Felix, I can’t even joke in front of you.”
“We can’t catch boss monsters?”
It felt like the crystal stones and engraving books I had never even seen were flying far, far away.
At my question, which carried my disappointment, Felix answered.
“Subjugating a leader-class monster fundamentally requires a drawn-out war of attrition. Our party has no priest, so we can’t do it. A subjugation party might be able to.”
Blessed parties were generally said to be divided into two types.
One was a subjugation party.
Most of them had a “priest” included, and they fought fierce enemies while recovering from injuries through the priest’s healing prayers, aiming for high-grade spoils.
The second was an explorer party like ours.
Parties like this generally had “thieves” included. Instead of fighting powerful enemies, they explored every nook and cranny, aiming for loot rewards like treasure chests or secret rooms.
Mr. Hammer added an explanation.
“The spoils you get from killing leader-class monsters are good too, but the loot from these ‘treasure chests’ is extremely profitable as well. That’s why parties go out of their way to include uncontrollable criminals like ‘thieves.’”
“So that means my role is extremely important and irreplaceable!”
My goodness, this was the first time I had ever been given such an important role.
At the same time, I felt like I was starting to understand the party’s “hatred of thieves.”
Originally, when street trash got to sit on top of other people’s heads, their basic passive was trying to boss everyone around.
They never knew when they’d get an opportunity like that again, so they probably tried to milk it for all it was worth.
You know that rat that sneaks into the chef’s hat and controls him.
Was it Ratta-ratta?
That was exactly what it was like.
Then they got too cocky and ended up stabbed to death by their party members.
I didn’t want to end up like that.
“Ahem, I’ll try to become a trustworthy thief.”
Were “trustworthy” and “thief” even words that could be used on the same line?
It sounded a bit weird even as I said it.
Anyway, the important thing was what Mr. Hammer said next.
“Then I’ll look at the map with my blessing, 「Bird’s-Eye View」. There’s a room with a treasure chest on the floor directly below the rooftop. Let’s go straight there. We should give our Yor a chance to shine, shouldn’t we?”
“Ooooh!”
Good!
The 「Star Key」 in my left hand was howling!
With that thought, we left the rooftop and headed straight to the floor below.
And the moment we entered the place where the treasure chest supposedly was—
“What the hell are you bastards?”
“This is our spot!”
Spot…?
A bunch of rough-looking humans were holding weapons and aiming them at us.
So we weren’t the only people in this bizarre building!