“Hey, why aren't we leaving yet? I thought we were already late because we recalibrated Unknown since he was babbling about that magic things again." (Female Knight)
"People said that one of the merchants from our territory is still collecting letters whose the recipient is in the town we are going at." (Elf)
"To town too?" (Female Knight)
"Correct." (Elf)
"Ohh." (Female Knight)
"..." (Elf)
“Ugh ... But why he took so long? Did he get attacked by bandits?" (Female Knight)
"Do you think bandits are in this territory?" (Elf)
"..." (Female Knight)
"How long will it take us to get to the town, Leader?" (Unknown)
“Hmm… if on the road there is no problem. Four days at most. " (Leader)
"That includes rest, right?" (Princess)
"Yes." (Leader)
"..."
This 25-30-year-old guy is called Casey. He's D-Rank Adventure.
Maybe you already know that the rank in Adventure is from F, E, D, C, B, A, and the highest is S-Rank.
But don't underestimate the D-Rank.
And don't dare to look down the F-Rank either.
In this world where there is no magic, the physical strength, skills, and experience that Adventure possesses roughly match their rank. Every time they are promoted or go up in rank, there are tests they must pass in order to be promoted and these tests have their own difficulty level.
Casey and his group consisting of eight people. 3 swords users, 2 archers, and 3 shields users.
Casey was the only D-rank in his party, as well as a leader. While Casey's peers were all E-ranks. However, the equipment they wore looked high quality and well maintained.
At first glance, we wouldn't have known they were E-Ranks if Casey didn't tell us.
If they claim to be D-Rank like him, maybe we will believe it too, seeing the equipment they carry.
If these Adventure ranks were classified and compared, their strength could be grouped as this Casey said.
F-Rank was equivalent to the strength of an average man.
E-Rank is equivalent to Average Soldier = 2-3 average men.
D-Rank equivalent to Average Knight = 4 - 5 average men.
C-Rank equivalent to Average Royal Knight = 9 - 12 average men.
For the rest of the ranks like B-Rank and above, Casey didn't dare to estimate their strength at roughly what scale.
Casey has only met and is acquainted with one C-Rank Adventure and he is a Guild Master in town which we will go to (the town where our party and this merchant is going to) and with that, we can understand that the C-Rank and above is hard to find or rare like gacha stuff you want most.
People like Casey who have gone back and forth from town to town, even claiming to have never met them (C-Rank and above) even once except that town guild master, and the knowledge about how big is a scale of their strength (B-Rank and above), many cannot measuring this one because they all very powerful and very skilled.
However, Casey told us from the words of the other people's he knew, they (C-Rank Adventures and above) might be found in the regions where there were many powerful monsters and in the big cities in the Kingdom, worked as private guards for wealthy and influential nobles or worked in the Capital.
I didn't immediately believe the information Casey provided because generally, people always exaggerate a story, only half I believe Casey's words, the rest I speculate that he was trying to make people who heard his story be amazed about the power of C-Rank and above.
But it's also interesting if it's true and where did they get that kind of power? Is that really just a combined result of their hard training, skill, and experience?
"Oh, right. I heard there is a rank limit for each adventure in taking missions, can you explain that?" (Unknown)
"Correct. For F-Rank, they generally can only take daily chores missions. They may join the escort mission, but there must be an E-Rank or above to accompany it. "
"That means F to E-Rank can take on monster slaying missions?"
"Yes, the small monster one actually. Like the greyhound or wolf pack, goblins, and other small monsters. They are large in number and they breeding quickly, so the missions are continuous and become daily missions and are always available in every Adventure Guild. But I think there is a possibility that kind of stuff might be different in some of Adventure Guild in another town.”
"..."
“Are you worried about the Adventure entrance exam? Relax, from the equipment I saw and the way you guys walk and move, I think you will succeed."
"Thank you." We said in unison.
“…” My friends continued talking to him, but I turned my attention to the horse carriage.
This horse-drawn carriage has a curved roof and the interior is quite spacious, specifically to be able to carry more load than the usual carriage which generally just brings passengers.
The wheels are made of wood which is made into a circular shape. There is no suspension, just put it under the carriage so that the carriage can move.
"..."
A few minutes later we found several people running here carry a bag as big as a baby.
"Ah, sorry-sorry. *pant-pant. Let's go." Said the oldest person in the group of people who had just run earlier, they then got into the carriage.
So they finished collecting the letters?
Some of the other merchants and employees who had gotten off the carriage because they were tired of waiting, I saw them getting back on their carriage and telling the carriage driver to move his horse. The carriage then moves and we walked.
Eh? On foot?
Yes, we walk on foot. We did not ride in the carriage. The space in that carriage was limited and the group who joined in this group was more than 28 people.
Only merchants who have carriages and their employees are passengers on the carriage, the rest are walking on foot.
Well, actually there are two people each riding a horse. One of them is the leader of the escort team in this group, Casey, and the other one is an employee of one of the traveling merchants. The horse they ride is a spare horse for carriage.
The speed of this horse-drawn carriage is not too fast because per carriage only one horse is pulling the carriage. Per carriage contains several loads such as items that merchants want to sell, our baggage (food, drink, etc.), and the baggage of the Casey party and some other passengers (merchants and their employees), including the driver.
There are a total of four carriages in this group. Two belong to traveling merchants and the rest belong to merchants from our territory.
Ok, I'll give you the details.
9 traveling merchants and their employees, their 2 drivers, 8 escorts (Casey's Party). 1 horse in each of the 2 carriages, and 2 spare horses.
8 merchants and their employees from our territory, 2 of their drivers. 5 escorts (our party), 1 horse in each of the 2 carriages.
Our speed is walking at about the same as the horse speed. I estimate the traveling speed of this group is around 5 to 7 km per hour.
If my body back on Earth is treated like this. Maybe after half an hour, my feet were already crying in pain.
Not long after, we found that one of the employees of our territory merchant, who was part of the group that collected the letters earlier, called the five of us by waving his hand.
The five of us accelerated our steps and approached the carriage that was carrying him.
"Hey, I heard you guys want to register as adventurers when you get to town. Is it true?"
"Yes." (Female Knight)
" ...?" (Princess)
"You know-"
"Hey! I told you, you sent it yourself!" Suddenly the oldest merchant from the group who collected the letters before went to the back of the carriage and scolded this guy.
"Y-yes, sir!" The employee panicked and then step down.
"..."
"Forgive me, lad. If you are called by him again, don't mind him.."
"Is there any problem?" I asked.
"There is nothing you need to fret of, kid. It was his responsibility. He's already taking the money. So you don't have to worry. "
"Is that about the letters earlier?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Is the destination where the letters were sent is, the recipients are not all in one town we going at?"
"No. All the recipients are in the town we are going to."
"How many?"
"Three letters."
"I see."
"But each of my men's received 10 to 15 verbal messages."
In this world, sending news or information is not as easy as writing a message on your smartphone application. They know the letters are, but they still don't use that kind of like postal service. Although there are many of the people living here who cannot read and write. The letters' delivery costs are also very expensive.
Generally, to reduce costs, they trust traveling merchants to send letters to inform their relatives.
For those who can read and write and have money to buy parchment (A medium for writing. Yes, kinda like paper, but this is from animal skin), ink, and quill. They entrust traveling merchants to send the letter if they happen to be the destination the letter is the same as the destination with the traveling merchant.
If they can't read or write, they often send messages by word of mouth alone, which usually travel merchants do too (mostly their employees doing the jobs).
Indeed, there are many consequences of how to send messages like this, for example, the privacy risk is known to people they trust to send that messages, or the length of time for sending and receiving replies to messages sent, and other shortcomings that cannot be mentioned one by one, but what else can they do?
if they did not do that, their faraway families risked not receiving any news from them.
"So what's the matter? Can we know what made your men's like that?" (Unknown)
“Ohh!! Do you want to help me? Actual- "
"I said SHUT UP!"
"Y-yes, sir!" He step down again.
To Be Continued
Lol