Chapter 74 (1/2)

Ch. 74: Deciding After Listening

“I’ve thought about why the jobs always go wrong. Why Loren fails them, even though you have more than enough skill.”

Loren swallowed the urge to say that since they were a party, his failures was her failures as well.

There was no way Lapis didn’t know that.

If she put it that way even thought she knew, it meant that she was doing it on purpose.

Loren didn’t respond and gazed back at Lapis, knowing that she was trying to tease him, and eventually Lapis beaming face started to cloud, and eventually turned into one of disappointment.

“Umm, I don’t think failing a job is the responsibility of a single party member alone…”

When Klaus tried to interrupt, looking back and forth between Loren, who didn’t respond, and Lapis, whose expression became darker and darker, Lapis glared like him like a guard dog glaring at a stranger.

“I know that. I’m not looking for a response from you. I’m so disappointed.”

Lapis said angrily, but it didn’t look like she was as angered as she talked, so when Loren nudged her to go on, she changed her expression and started talking about what she had realized like it was something good.

“We fail because we accept the job.”

“What’s that?”

“If we don’t accept a job, we can’t fail.”

“Are you drunk already?”

Loren responded coldly at Lapis, who had a proud look on her face.

Part of what she had said made sense.

Success and failure came with the job.

Then if they didn’t go on a job, there wouldn’t be any evaluation, therefore they couldn’t fail.

It was a legitimate thought.

Other than the fact that they wouldn’t be able to work as a result.

Adventurers received jobs from the adventurer’s guild and made a living off the rewards.

If an adventurer were to do as Lapis just suggested and not take jobs, they wouldn’t have any income and go broke.

Although, Loren had been failing job after job, so he hadn’t been able to receive enough rewards, so it was hard to say he was making a living.

Loren’s mood got darker as he reached that thought.

“Um, what part of that is a good thought? The only thing I’m hearing is stop being an adventurer.”

In his dark mood, Loren didn’t even feel like asking, but Klaus asked Lapis in his place.

Lapis realized that she had tread into dangerous waters as she saw Loren’s mood, so instead of biting at Klaus like she had done before, she answered his question.

“To put it simply, we should do jobs that aren’t in the form of a quest.”

Loren wondered what she was even saying at this point, but in front of him, Klaus clapped his hands together, like he had understood what Lapis was trying to say.

He realized that he was the only one that didn’t get the direction the conversation was going, so he asked for an explanation, not caring if it was the stuck-up priestess or the nodding swordsman.

“So what Lapis is trying to suggest is going hunting to receive extermination rewards, right?”

“Exactly what this womanizer just said.”

Klaus asked for confirmation, and Lapis nodded with an insult.

Ignoring Klaus, who sighed, Lapis started explaining to Loren in detail.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a quest.

Although it wasn’t a job that was specifically requested by anyone, the adventurer’s guild had a different set of job that consisted of adventurers exterminating monsters and bringing in parts of them as proof of extermination and getting paid for it.

This was paid during normal quests as well, so there were many like Loren who thought they were a set, but in fact they were completely unrelated to quests so the guild would take the parts and pay the rewards regardless of where they were collected from.

This was because exterminating monsters contributed to making the area safer, and by paying for adventurers to do so, the guild could say that they were trying to make places safer and it would give them a better image.

On top of that, some guilds would receive money from the nation it was in for its efforts, and since materials from monsters were usually brought to it, they could sell those for profit as well.

The nations would have safer areas for a low cost, while citizens would have to worry less about monsters, adventurers could get paid even without accepting quests, and the guild would gain both money and reputation, which became a positive system for everyone.

“So, I would like to suggest following the highway to the north from here and exterminating some monsters in that area.”

If they took the highway to the north, the chances of encountering monsters declined drastically.

That was why Lapis had suggested travelling a distance away from the highway yet following its path.

And they would be travelling for quite a few days, so they would need to buy food and items to last them the whole trip.

Loren thought that if he couldn’t defeat enough monsters to compensate for the costs, he would be in the red, which wouldn’t be any different from failing a quest.

When he told that to Lapis, she had an answer even for that.

“I’m thinking of hunting near the > which is north of here, and it’s a place that’s abundant in monsters, but even if it ends in an empty swing, if we report the route that we used to the guild, we could receive money for that.”