Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 34 - Cooperation — The Conversation

Too slow.

This rate of earning money is just too slow.

F-rank adventurers can only take requests meant for F and E ranks?

What kind of garbage rule is that.

Three hours gathering herbs in the morning. Two hours surveying terrain in the afternoon. Two requests done, and I walked away with forty copper coins.

That won't cut it. I need at least one gold coin a day. Two if possible.

"Rudeus! I want to kill monsters! Requests like these aren't what adventurers are supposed to be doing!"

"Yeah. That's exactly what I was planning."

"Oh oh! How do we do it? We can't take monster-slaying requests, right?"

So Eris does know the adventurer rank rules. I half-expected her not to think about it at all.

"Monster materials can be exchanged directly for money, so we don't actually need to take official requests. All we have to do is check the locations listed on A-rank and B-rank requests, head to those spots, and hunt the monsters ourselves. We'll miss out on the request reward, but selling the materials we collect will still bring in decent coin."

"That's right! That's exactly how we sold the monsters we killed on the Demon Continent before!"

"Exactly."

Now the real question was whether the monsters around here were worth anything.

The ones we killed in the northeastern Demon Continent were at least B-rank. I hauled back a load of materials from those and only got five gold coins. Was I cheated?

Probably not. Those materials were most likely just priced that way. I only brought back claws and similar scraps to begin with.

Anyway, Eris and I made our way back to the Adventurer's Guild and stood side by side in front of the request board.

[B]

· Task: Kill the Earth Serpents residing in the plains of the Demon Continent

· Reward: Two gold coins

· Details: Kill the monsters, leave the bodies intact

· Location: Demon Continent plains

· Deadline: None

[A]

· Task: Kill the Swamp Dragon residing in the marshlands

· Reward: Eight gold coins

· Details: Kill the monster

· Location: Marshlands west of town

· Deadline: None

Hmm. The request fee for one Earth Serpent kill was two gold coins, but I'd already tried selling Earth Serpent materials here, they weren't worth much.

So unless the monster itself is powerful, the real value comes down to how badly the requester needs it done?

That was bad news. The monsters weren't worth as much as the request rewards.

"Oh? What are little brother and little sister doing staring at B-rank and A-rank requests? Feeling inspired?"

While I was turning this over in my head, a voice reached my ears.

Eris couldn't understand the words, but she could tell someone was addressing her. She turned.

I looked over too. Not her, them.

Three people: a dwarf, a lizardman, and a brown-haired Demon Race girl.

"Hello. May I ask who you are?"

"We're the B-rank party Shiki No Uta. Were you just looking at B and A-rank requests?"

The leader was the lizardman. Female, judging by the voice. A sword hung at her hip, swordswoman, then.

"Yes. Honestly, we're in a difficult spot. We need money urgently, but because of rank restrictions, we're stuck doing F and E-rank requests."

"Oh? You mean your strength is actually enough for B or A-rank work?"

How should I play this.

Confirm it and try for a partnership? Split the rewards fifty-fifty? Or cooperate until the job was done and then kill them. The request would be completed under their name. They'd simply have been sacrificed along the way. Eris and I were just collaborators, the money would end up entirely in our hands.

Either way.

"Yes. The girl beside me and I walked here from the northeastern Demon Continent on foot. Two months on the road. Every monster we encountered, we killed."

"Oh? Kid. You can lie without even blinking?"

The lizardman leader reached for her sword, probably to scare me. She never got the chance. Eris was already moving, bursting out from behind me in an instant, kicking the sword clean from the lizardman's grip, and pressing her own blade to the woman's throat in one fluid motion.

Eris couldn't understand the words. But a hand going to a weapon was enough to trigger her instincts. Impressive.

"That's enough, Eris. You know she can't hurt me. You can stand down."

"Hmph!"

I said that line deliberately in the Demon God Language, so the three of them understood that I could command a swordswoman like this. As for why Eris seemed to understand and sheathed her blade, that was because of the hand signal I gave her.

The lizardman's expression was still frozen in shock. She'd collapsed to the ground and was gulping air.

The commotion had drawn eyes from across the guild.

I took two steps toward her.

The dwarf and the little demon girl shifted into ready stances. The girl was a mage, noted.

I held out a hand to pull the lizardman up.

"In the northeastern Demon Continent, if your reflexes aren't like that, you end up inside a monster. It's that simple."

"I... I understand..."

She was still breathing hard. I pulled her to her feet.

I glanced around. Half the guild was watching us.

"Shall we take this outside?"

---

"So. You're willing to cooperate with us?"

"Yes. We take an A-rank task and split the earnings evenly between both parties."

"No. That's not fair to us. We'd be carrying the risk of getting caught — bringing F-rank rookies along on an A-rank request could get us demoted. And we have more people."

Greedy.

"That applies to us equally, doesn't it? If we're discovered, we lose our adventurer qualifications outright. And if no one in your party talks, no one else will ever know."

"H-how can it go that cleanly? We might run into other adventurers on the road..."

"I'll kill them."

"What?"

"Any adventurer who sees us. I'll kill them. Don't worry about it."

"..."

"Something still a problem?"

"No... Before we get into any of that, can we try one simple B-rank task first? Just to, you know, test our coordination as a team..."

"I understand. You're the captain. Being responsible for your people makes sense. Pick any B-rank task when you get back. Tomorrow morning, a quarter-hour after sunrise — meet at the main gate."

"O... okay."

"Good. We're done here."

Eris and I left the alley. Evening was already settling in.

"Rudeus... what were you all talking about?"

She had that faintly sulky look on her face. Following me around for this long without understanding a word of it had to be dull.

"Tomorrow we can go kill monsters. We'll start with a B-rank request."

"Oh... oh! B-rank!"

"For tonight, let's just head back. Get to the inn, take a bath, then eat dinner with Aisha."

"Mm!"

"One more thing, Eris. This is important — you absolutely cannot mention anything about Aisha to those people."

"I know! Besides, I can't even speak the Demon God Language!"

Why does she look so proud of that.

"Fair point."

---

In the dimming light of the alley, the three members of Shiki No Uta stood in silence.

"Captain..."

"Relax. That girl is genuinely that strong. That's not a bad thing for us."

"Mm..."

The lizardman leader thought it over, then turned to the dwarf at her side.

"Thaurissan, look into those two. They just arrived in this city, shouldn't be hard to dig up."

"Mm. Leave it to me."

The Demon Race girl shifted on her feet, voice hesitant.

"Maybe we shouldn't... It feels dangerous..."

"I know what I'm doing. We start working with them tomorrow. Any objections?"

"None."

"Mm..."

➤ Next: The Transaction