Volume 1 Chapter 10 (1/2)

Weed’s Role in the Punitive Force

The punitive force bound for Village Baran!

Located on the borderline of hudodoanized oblins and Orcs that raided to pillage autuave the royal court a headache

The roup quest to take over Village Baran that had fallen into the hands of the lizardmen Those who joined the punitive force shared the same quest, and they, composed of three hundred users, would coe

This topic had been rattling around the Citadel of Serabourg for the last few days Even users fro into the Citadel to join the quest,it even more crowded

A iven EXPs, not to do about it, yet it had escaped Weed as he was busy carving statues at his street stall

Weed agreed todon

“Nice to see you again, Weed-ni time no see!”

Surka and Irene welcoreatly in his absence

Surka wore a fine tunic, and Irene a snohite clerical veste, it was a standard black robe

They were surprised that Weed had still not changed his outfit

“Weed-ni story…”

Before Weed could answer fully, Surka cut in and said,

“I understand You haven’t signed in for weeks, right?”

“…”

“Oh, are you going to join the punitive force quest? Please come with us, Weed-nim!”

Romuna slipped her arm into Weed’s as if they were a couple

Pale the ranger atching them with a wounded look that sent a chill down Weed’s spine He already sensed that Pale was secretly courting Roe arrip, Weed asked,

“What’s your level now?”

“I’ht I died five or six ti us,”

Surka said sheepishly

“I’m fifty-one,” Irene said

“Same here,” Romuna said

“I’m level fifty-three,” Pale said still disturbed by the scene

Weed learned that his teammates were all friends in reality, so they had always huntedup at an identical pace Still, it was evident that they had been on serious hunting sprees because they had leveled up faster than other typical users

They confided to Weed that they had withdrawn frouessed that they had since played Royal Road aled in their dark rooms like isolated, socially reclusive individuals

Pale soon established that Weed would co with them to join the punitive force quest

“They posted that the level requireives a premium on earned experience You can also win some fame”

The punitive force was scheduled to encounter nuet was the lizarde, but chances were that they would face relatively less dangerous goblins

“The mission is a little risky, but we can call for help froency I’m now sick and tired of spiders and bandits” Pale made an appalled face

While Weed ay, his teaeon It was the spider dungeon, where red spiders and poisonous arachnids were lurking behind every stalactite Poison was taken care of by Irene, but Pale had been trau pathetically against saliva-dripping giant spiders

Weed nodded, understanding exactly what Pale had been through He had had a tough tiantic worms “It wouldn’t be so bad to take part in the punitive force”

“We welcome you, Weed-nim By the way…”

“Yes?”

“Did you find the class?”

As far as the class was concerned, Weed had been undecided when he had been teaaot a class, but—”

“What class is it? Tell us”

Irene, usually reserved, approached Weed with twinkling eyes As a priestess in charge of healing and buffs that supported the other teammates, she was supposed to know every teammate’s class

There are so many divisions for the warrior class alone, not to mention other branches of the combative classes that specialize in different weapons and styles of combat Tanker types are heavy on defense and vitality, and deals dath

In the case of Surka and Pale, they belonged to supportive classes with higher agility, but less strength and vitality cohters

Furtherhts, can use divine power, including Healing Hand, for self-healing, thanks to their exclusive stat of faith

Weed scratched his head “I’m a sculptor”

“Wow, cool! You chose an artist class” Surka laughed brightly, but the rest looked less than delighted The prejudice that associated a sculptor eakness was deeply engraved in their subconscious

In fact, the sculptor class is one of the craft classes that had nothing to do with coth and vitality

Still, they embraced Weed as one of their own froh to turn their backs on their former brother-in-arms just because he had converted to one of the least desirable classes

“We were on our way to Sir Darius to join the punitive force Come with us,” Pale said

“But, you see, I’m a sculptor,” Weed said

“Don’t worry We canWe should hurry before someone else fills the empty slot The size of the punitive force is limited to three hundred users and two hundred NPC soldier participants in the order of arrival,” Pale said

“Let’s go, Weed-nim,” Romuna said

“If you think you aren’t qualified for a spot ‘cause you’re a sculptor, ill help you out Please?” Surka said

Now that Weed had disclosed his class, he was left without an excuse to say no

The women felt so maternal toward Weed that they could not abandon hied him to join the punitive force quest to repay what he had done for them before

Persuaded by their persistence, Weed headed for where Darius’s troops were stationed

Duke Kanus held a regular hts ithin the Citadel, without exception, had been called to attend it In the , they discussed how to drive ent military issues

“You have done an excellent job, Lord Midvale, and the soldiers whoned are trained competently I’m impressed that their levels all exceed fifty,” Duke Kanus said

“That was not , your Excellency,” Sir Midvale said

“Huh? I personally entrusted this task to you Tell me what happened,” Duke Kanus said

“If you insist, Your Excellency,” Sir Midvale said Lord Midvale then reported in detail the events that had taken place in the Lair of Litvart

“Hroohts also looked taken aback that a foreigner, other than a Versailles native, had done the job so well The NPCs recognize themselves as locals born on the Versailles Continent, and that users are freedmen sent by Gaea the Holy Seer They had eraence

“A fine man, indeed Lord Midvale, why didn’t you recruit him to the Rosenheim Army?” Duke Kanus asked

“I asked him to be a military officer twice, but he said he wanted to retain his liberty and slay monsters at his oill,” Sir Midvale said

“A freedman, he is,” Duke Kanus said, ih he does not belong to our Kingdoain to Rosenheim,” Sir Midvale said

“If you say so, we’ll see his sword by our side again someday,” Duke Kanus said and dropped the subject about the Lair of Litvart and moved on to the next one

On the way to Darius, Weed stopped by a grocery store

“Weed-nim, why do we stop here?”

“You’ll see”

The grocery store was croith lots of customers They were mostly delivery boys from restaurants in the Citadel

A boy, clad in what reseer’s attire, yelled,

“I want fresh breasts!”

“Puhaha, you are at the wrong place, young tiger A brothel is at the next corner down the street Hope you’ve got a photo ID,” the shopkeeper said

“Shoot I want chicken breasts!”

The boy griue, was only s

“Only chicken breasts? Don’t you need eggs, too?”

“Oops, I forgot… I need eggs, too”

“Stay put I’ll give you eggs when hens lay thes hatch, sir”

Irene giggled at the exchange between the shopkeeper and the delivery boy

“Funny kid”

“I guess he got a job in a restaurant ‘cause he can’t leave the Citadel for the first four weeks”

“Bad choice Why did he decide to work at a restaurant where there’s nothing much to learn?”

In Pale’s eyes, it wasn’t wise to make a career in a restaurant

Newbies are advised to take quests that pay well or, in the case of spell-casting wannabes, to read and learn s in a library This is so they can buy ear, huntrun

Weed disagreed with Pale’s opinion, though “If you work in a restaurant, you can learn the cooking skill It pays off,” Weed said

“I know, but what’s the point of learning a useless skill like cooking? If you buy rye bread that is processed by the food preservation spell, it will last for a ht Why do we need to learn how to cook e can raise the satisfaction factor easily?”

Surka asked

To Weed, Pale and Surka sounded stupid to the point of childishness They underesti skill just as much as they had looked down upon sculpture reat meals could have on the stats

‘These people don’t knohat a poor life is like,’ he said to himself

Weed’s eyes darkened Those who actually have been through tinificance of the cooking skill Iine you are forced to eat only rye bread when you hunt monsters in the field

If you are a low-level newbie, running out of money, you will stand it because you have no alternative But once your level reaches a point where you can afford to buy ue will automatically reject the rye bread

In truth, even Pale didn’t always put rye bread where his mouth was When it comes to the bottom line, people are the same They have the saer by itself In particular, the basic needs of housing, clothing and food are inseparable fro skill works in real life As the cooking skill ives you a list of available recipes based on the types of ingredients that you have now You can try a new recipe in the virtual ga out If you e, you will never need to worry about getting a job because any restaurant will hire you with arms wide open

Virtual reality It inary world In other words, what is learned in the virtual game also works in reality Royal Road is such a detailed and realistic game

Of course, thecraft skills as widely as Weed will never comprehend what it is really about until they experience it with their own hands

‘I wonder if they will ever want to try it, anyway’

Weed anticipated that the value of the cooking skill would get higher as users leveled up in their hundreds

Forskill, they had a temporary bonus effect on life, so ould it be like when a master presented his cuisine?

‘I’m sure even a happily married couple would kill each other to taste a crumb of it’

Not only the taste of food, but also the supplementary bonus would be spectacular

Hard, flavorless rye bread worth three copper vs French cuisine that tastes like heaven and increases various stats! The contest is over before it begins

Weed iined that old

He thought that the value of statues would re as it was an integral part of life, would never diminish in its influence on daily life

The rankers would long for the best food that they could find, and the value of a professional cook would hit the ceiling

‘Well, sost thetheir secrets Theytheir cooking skill’

Weed turned to his teammates with a serious face and said, “I can’t deny you are looking down on the craft skills as a whole The combat skills are i the most necessary skills in the future All the craft skills have so in coest you learn the cooking skill It’s essential to your daily life”

“…”

“I’ot you were a sculptor, and I was thoughtless to speak ill of the crafters I am really sorry,” Pale said

Surka, Pale and Irene were red with ery because they had belittled the cooking skill, one of the craft skills, right to his face

‘That wasn’t what I ’Weed shook his head

No matter how hard he showed it to them, they would not see it until they felt the need to see it

The grocery store had an aular custoister

“hello,” Weed said

“hello I just heard you You have the right idea about the cooking skill!” the shopkeeper said

“Thank you”

“Your face looks farocery shopping a few days ago”

When Weed i skill at the same time, he had visited only this store to buy foodstuff in bulk—for a simple reason: the low price

The easiest way to e amount of materials at a time at a discount Weed had always used the store for his purchases, yet it was the first tiht Thank you for visitingthe path of a cook now?”

“No My primary class is not a cook, but I know the value of the cooking skill”

“Nice So what can I do for you?” The shopkeeper’s eyes shone brightly, sizing up Weed

He had already gathered from the conversation with the delivery boy that the shopkeeper was a user

“Spices and sauces,” Weed said

“Hmm, we have many different kinds of spices,”

the shopkeeper said

“There are salt, sugar and pepper, and I can show you extraordinary local specialties, such as spices from the land of the Elves, and bottles of sap squeezed out of some plants in the north”

On the vast continent, plenty of items with distinctive tastes are harvested by local farh caravans

“I don’t need extraordinary spices Only basic ones”

“Great Only fools ant to i special How about the quality?”

“Of course, I want the best”

“How much?”

Weed counted how much money he had in his pockets He had not sold various types of ore yet, except for the silver he had collected fro theh to enable hiold noant to buy as ive you some extra,” the shopkeeper said

When Weed’s teammates overheard the conversation between hi and respect flowing in between as if the old drinking buddies had been reunited

In fact, the shopkeeper was a user who had already taken the path of the cooking skill When he saw Weed, he realized that a strong rival in the latest wave had showed up

Weed also recognized the shopkeeper as a forerunner in the field of cooking, so they hardly needed a word Eye contact alone told theh

He packed the spices and sauces he had bought frorocery store in the backpacks

Once he was satisfied that he was fully prepared for a new journey, he headed for the camp of Darius’ punitive force with his teammates

The punitive force bound to Baran Village was already the talk of the town, so there were er to join the quest

Darius sat down on a tiny chair, as he interviewed applicants for the quest, “Next, please”

“hello, I aood at Multiple Shot, and my weapon is Lasante’s Bow”

“Passed”

The next in line was Weed’s party with Pale in the foreground, alked to Darius anxiously

Pale spoke as the representative of his party “We are all in the sae in the fire eleer, a monk, and…”

Pale stammered before he introduced Weed because he was afraid that when it was mentioned that Weed was a sculptor, Darius would be upset and reject theether

“Hmm, you have a balanced party Great And he is…” Darius spotted Weed and asked Pale, “Is he part of your party, too?”

“Yes”

“Five total It fits exactly the empty slots left in my army”

“Then…”

“Will you join the quest to take back Baran Village?”

Darius asked, and a ed in front of Weed’s eyes

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Punitive Force to Baran Village

Beyond the border of Rosenheidom was a wilderness of monsters Walls were built, and troops were dispatched in order to keep out the monsters that annually invaded the , a wave of e

With Rosenheie from calamity, and destroy the monsters