If it hadn’t been worded like that, even if it would have been a hard fight, it wouldn’t have been to the point of a life or death struggle.
The adventurer party whose leader is the master swordsman, Bir Sheet, is one of the first parties that became Regular Patrons of the Mist Town, and have spread their name in Tsige.
They have brought back a great quantity of information about that town. They don’t only have skills as fighters, their information gathering ability is also known far and wide, and the expectation from the leaders of Tsige is also big.
But there’s one blindspot.
When seen from the side of the Mist Town, there’s a difference in expectations and they have been evaluated favorably to a certain degree, but the higher ups of Tsige and Birgit themselves are not that aware of it.
It is true that a situation where someone goes from one organization to another is not impossible, however, despite the Mist Town and Tsige having a clear relationship, it is an existence that still has a lot of mysteries to it.
They are still not aware that adventurers are being evaluated.
Putting it in a slightly bad way, the residents of the Mist Town are beginning to evaluate the members of Birgit as a decently usable bunch.
“There’s something I want to request of you.”
It was just two hours ago that an elder dwarf had consulted with them.
“A request…for us?” (Bir)
Bir ended up repeating those words because of how unnatural it was since it came from someone that’s technically training him daily.
Bir is sure that it was because of the training here that he was able to open the path from rounin to samurai, and then to master samurai.
Rash remarks like ‘You are still a master swordsman in name only’, ‘the real deal wouldn’t be this disappointing’, and ‘ah, could it be that the Job is simply master samurai in name only?’ would fly his way, but he could only groan at them since the residents of the Mist Town have that much ability, and they must have abundant knowledge that Bir doesn’t know of.
For him, this town was currently the best learning place.
Without this place, he might have passed his whole life without meeting his best partner, the katana.
“That’s right. There’s a slightly problematic one rampaging around, you see. In terms of ability…well, it would be a tough warrior class. You might lose your life in a 1 vs 1, but I would say it isn’t an impossible opponent to take on if you surround it with a party.”
“…One opponent…an animal?” (Bir)
‘A problematic one is rampaging’, Bir could somewhat tell what the contents of the request are with those words of Jiel.
“Oh, right. It is of course one animal. The opponent is like a demonic beast. Well, it can’t talk, so it is a troublesome one when it goes wild. It is twice as big as an orc warrior from this town. It is called a Moon Grizzly.” (Jiel)
Bir furrowed his brows at the name of the mamono he had not heard of before.
A basic of adventurers is that a mamono you fight for the first time carries a lot of risks. That doesn’t change in the wasteland or in the Mist Town.
It would be one thing if he had heard of its name but not seen it, but the honest instinct of an adventurer is to avoid fighting a completely unknown mamono.
“May I?” (Ranai)
The brains of Birgit and healer, Ranai, interjected.
Because Bir himself is the naive type that can’t weight loss and gains, it is mostly the women in their party that take the negotiation table.
In other words, this was the natural flow.
The elder dwarf blacksmith that was making a request of them, Jiel, doesn’t seem to be bothered by the interjection either.
“Umu, what is it, Ranai?” (Jiel)
“From what I hear, this seems decently dangerous. In that case, no matter if this is the request of a friend and benefactor, we need to think about the reward. Because you are not asking us to investigate that demonic beast, but to defeat it, right?” (Ranai)
“No, Ranai, if you are going to bring that out, we have been under their care here the whole time though?” (Bir)
“What are you saying, Bir? That compensation is properly separate, it is a matter of adventurers, and giving back in the form of information. What Ranai says is correct.” (Jiel)
“Muuh… Is that so? I don’t know if it is okay to nod at this as a person though…” (Bir)
“Now then, a reward…a reward… Right, you guys seemed to be interested in the colosseum, so how about I give a special exception and bring you to the other side of the gate?” (Jiel)
““!!””
The words of Jiel made everyone in the party gulp.
The other side of the gate.
A domain that most likely not a single adventurer of Tsige has stepped into and is covered in a veil of mystery.
Ranai was trembling in excitement.
She is the type that has decently strong worldly desires, so there was obviously a reason as to why her eyes were shining despite it being basically something like a trammit pass even though it is an important opportunity.
There’s a little bit of the curiosity of the unknown as an adventurer, but she had high expectations for the worth of that information.
Who knows how much coin this information will give them when they return to Tsige.
There’s the chance the Rembrandt Company will jump in and buy it at an unbelievable price.
But well, in the cases when information about the Mist Town is disclosed despite being told not to, the gates to this town will close.
There’s no exception to this rule, no matter if you are a Regular Patron or a party.
The losses if that were to happen would be incalculable.
Ranai understands this plenty well.
That’s why she must have explicit confirmation.
Whether it will just end as an important experience, or if they can expect a plus alpha from this.
If it is information that cannot be disclosed, then it must be spiced up with a reward, since there’s the chance that this request will end up being too dangerous it doesn’t match the reward.
“That’s wonderful. Hey, Jiel, this is just for confirmation, but the things that we see past the gate—” (Ranai)
“Also I will call it even for the compensation of 10 katanas that Bir has wasted.” (Jiel)
“Deal!” (Bir)
“Hey, Bir?! You big idiot!” (Ranai)
“You are the idiot, Ranai! Not only are we allowed to see past the gate, but we also get 10 katanas that this dwarf sells! Asking for more than this will only cause harm, you know!” (Bir)
“Listen here! If we don’t know whether we can disclose what we see past the gate, it wouldn’t be a reward, right?!” (Ranai)
“Kakaka! I am happy that you evaluate our weapons highly, Bir! Also, each and every fear of Ranai is understandable. I don’t know what will happen when I bring you there, so I can’t promise you that you can disclose everything, but…there aren’t many things we want to keep a secret anyways.” (Jiel)
“!! Then we will gladly accept. So, what information has been confirmed about this mamono?” (Ranai)
“It is currently in a complete berserker state, so it is just a big tough and ferocious beast. There’s no real poison, and if I had to say something, it would be that magic is more effective than physical attacks.” (Jiel)
“So it is a simple power type.” (Ranai)
“Umu. But there’s one point that I want you to be careful about.” (Jiel)
““……””
Akos and Git -the remaining members- had also come close and were listening intently.
“I want you to incapacitate it, but no killing. I ask for no deaths this time around.” (Jiel)
“A-A power type enemy without killing it…”
“Capturing alive… No wonder the reward sounded so good despite the request.”
“The burden on me will definitely be big. Please make it a short battle.”
“”It is far better than fighting a neptune, I suppose.”
Even when being given a difficult condition like not killing, they didn’t refuse the request.
Not long after, the Birgit party was guided to a part of the forest that spread far and wide in all directions.
From the claw marks left along the way on the trees and the traces of destruction they could tell it certainly is a power type beast as they continued onward.
There was no need to begin an actual search, they found the enemy soon enough.
They encountered the Moon Grizzly and entered combat no questions asked.
And then…
Taking distance from the big framed bear that had completely lost consciousness, they collapsed while still keeping their guard up.
A life or death struggle of over 1 hour.
The wish of Akos that serves the role of tank wasn’t fulfilled.
The moment they showered a combo of attacks on it in their first move and took distance, Ranai’s expression spoke fluently about her feelings that this would be a long battle.
The Moon Grizzly is still alive.
Her eyes have the special ability of seeing the lifeforce of the target, so it can be trusted.
The Moon Grizzly was ferocious.
The overwhelming power drawn from that tough body, on top of its defense that comes from the thick fat and muscles that were hard to an unbelievable extent, and its durability that felt as if it is inexhaustible had left Bir and his party in shock several times.
Most of all, anger was surging constantly from the Moon Grizzly which was far stronger than its killing intent and hostility.
Even so, Birgit had overcome their fair share of trials and tribulations, so just as Jiel had expected, they somehow managed to fulfill the request.
Was this a request, was this part of their training, or was this a trial?
They soon learned the truth later.