It had been a day after the clearing ratmen tribes from the northwestern forest and I was now staring boredly at a rack of meat being smoked. Since the day before, we had been traveling south from the forests and slaughtering ratmen along the way. So combined with yesterday’s haul, we have a total of two hundred and sixty ratmen tails. Apart from that, we did some unpaid work when it came to removing wild dogs and feral pigs. 

Our plan for the rest of the trip is to travel southeast towards the Damask’s western wetlands. There we would deal with the remainder of the requests. Our quarry consisted of even more ratmen, a few clusters of marauder crabs, a man-eating crocodile, and a group of reed serpents. Considering the nature of the terrain, it would take us more than a day to safely finish all of these tasks. Whether it takes two, three, or even more is dependent on luck and tracking. 

Later that night, I was woken up by Sekh who was softly caressing my cheek. 

“Morning,” I said while flashing a sleepy smile. 

“Mhm,” Sekh hummed back. “You know, you have a really cute sleeping face.”

“You look a bit scary right now,” I replied with a soft laugh. “It feels like I might get eaten any moment.”

It’s not as though I could actually see her facial expressions in the poorly illuminated tent. Instead, all I could clearly make out were two glowing eyes staring right at me. 

“I was considering that,” Sekh giggled. “Though there are too many people for privacy.”

“What a shame,” I said while pulling myself out of my bedroll. “I’m curious, but you’re going to sleep in my bedroll, aren’t you?”

“Why is that even a question?” Sekh laughed. 

After tucking Sekh in and giving her a good night kiss, I slipped out the tent for my shift. Next time, I need to make sure to get a spot closer to the fire so that Sekh doesn’t get reduced to a pair of glowing eyes. 

“Nice to see you, instructor,” Justin greeted me when I began my shift.

“Good morning” Irene added groggily as she stood by her friend’s side. 

“Good to see you as well,” I replied with an easy smile. “Shall we pass the time together?”

“That’s the reason you place me on your shift,” Justin remarked. “Though I find it quite enjoyable as well.”

As for Irene, she volunteered for our shift instead of her usual second shift. Probably to get a more comfortable sleep schedule, though it seems that it isn’t doing her much good. 

“So how has hunting the ratmen been?” I asked while we walked around the outskirts of the camp. 

“It’s fine,” Justin replied as he scratched his chin. “A bit monotonous, but I think it’s a good experience.”

“I started feeling bad for the rats a while back,” Irene remarked. “But then I keep remembering the time my pet rabbit got stolen.”

“You have my condolences,” I commented. “But I’m glad you two are having an easy time with the ratmen, since it shouldn’t be a problem for any competent person.” 

“Taking a jab at some people huh?” Irene said with a smirk. 

“It’s a bit more than some,” I chuckled. “But in all honesty, I really do want you all to succeed. Even if you chose to be mercenaries, I hope that all of you can find happiness and live long lives.”

“You said you’re 19 right?” Irene asked. “Seems more like 59 to me.”

“No need to remind me that I’m getting old,” I sighed jokingly. “Then again, growing old in this profession is quite the accomplishment.”

“That’s why we plan to quit as soon as it’s suitable,” Justin informed me. “Once we’ve had our fill of travel and built up enough savings, we intend to come back to our village and settle down.”

“How romantic,” I said playfully. 

“It’s not like that,” the two of them said in unison, Justin rubbing the back of his head while Irene was flailing her hands around. 

“I’m not saying it’s a bad idea,” I continued, ignoring their protests. “In fact, that’s actually what I’m going for right now.”

As my two companions tried to explain to me the nuances of their relationship, I mentally slipped away into my fantasies. Settling down with Sekh does seem great. Maybe we could purchase a nice house in the city, have kids, and live the rest of our lives together. 

Though I wonder how Minerva and Zeph would fit into the picture. From what I can tell, Minerva will probably get promoted to some sort of administrative job. This means I might end up seeing her at work, since I’ll likely take a job as a military instructor for the Doux. More importantly, we both value our friendship with each other so there’s that to consider. As for Zeph, I don’t know what she’ll do. Maybe she’ll resume traveling or she might latch onto Sekh. At this point, I can’t make a solid conclusion. Actually at this point, I should be more concerned with my immediate problems than the distant future. 

The rest of the night proceeded much like the previous nights: we walked around, made jokes, and someone got scared by ambiguous noises. 

Since we had already been making headway towards the wetlands, we arrived at the location slightly before evening on the next day. While the more injured members of our group went to set up camp, the rest of us went out to scout the area and remove some pests. The result was another ten ratmen tails in inventory and the discovery of some rather large crocodile tracks. 

“This might be a problem,” Zeph commented when she saw the prints. “I think we might have to take over for this one.”

“Agreed,” I replied. “We can let the rookies assist as support, but we definitely have to do the heavy lifting for this crocodile.”

The threat level of the crocodile is an interesting thing to consider. While it is hardly ahead of a direwolf in terms of raw strength, a single crocodile poses a much greater threat. In addition to the watery environment, the crocodile’s method of attack, a death roll, mostly ignores armor. In fact, a crocodile would actually perform better against an armored opponent than a king reed serpent. 

“I’ll take care of the scouting then,” Sekh informed us. “We’ll do it like we normally do; I find our prey then we all gang up on the problem.”

“Bring along some rookies for assistance,” I told her. “They should be able to provide extra coverage for you. Or they can carry water at the very least.”

“Got it,” Sekh replied. “I have three people in mind right now, so I’ll ask them about it tonight.”

“Thanks Sekh,” I said as I began to rub her head. 

As Sekh started to hum happily, Zeph gave her typical sigh. I say typical, though her sighs seem to be getting more endearing by the day. Either she’s warming up more or I’m losing my grasp on reality. 

We all woke up early the next day to commence the last stretch of our hunt. Similar to before, we split into small groups and spread out around the wetlands. The less experienced groups were relegated to drier areas that didn’t have signs of crocodiles or reed serpents. 

Thus I was now prowling the marshland in search of man-eating reptiles. And from morning to the afternoon, I found nothing of the sort. Instead, I picked off a few ratmen with my bow and cracked some marauder crabs with my glaive. 

However, we came upon our first real challenge around evening. A short distance to our west was a reed serpent nest. A larger serpent lay dormant around a heap of eggs, while its smaller brethren patrolled around the area. 

“Sekh and Zeph, target the big one,” I announced. “The rest of us will pick off the smaller ones.”

Soon after, Sekh’s javelin soared through the air with the aid of magical wind. The spear quickly impaled itself into the large serpent’s upper body before it could react. Pinned by the javelin, the big snake couldn’t avoid the second javelin which struck it in the upper body once more. 

As the largest snake was becoming a murder victim, the rest of its brethren were suffering a similar fate. Each serpent was being harried by a mixture of arrows, bolts, and javelins. Although the slippery shits avoided most of the projectiles, their numbers were quickly being whittled away. In particular, the arrows shot by Zeph and I were reaping a heavy toll on their numbers. 

Zeph and I quickly broke off from the group as the serpents were dispersing. From there, the two of us hunted down the fleeing reed serpents together. I served as the vanguard and stabbed away at the monsters while Zeph backed me up with magic. 

When we came back to the nest from our foray, we found Sekh and the rookies hauling a pile of reed serpent eggs. Without a doubt, Sekh plans to use those eggs to make omelettes with the marauder crabs. 

“How about we add some boar bacon?” I asked Sekh as we were making dinner. 

“Sounds great,” Sekh said cheerily. “Though it might end up too rich.”

“That’s why we add more onions,” I replied. “And I get a reason to bust out my stash of alcohol.”

Despite not being the last night of our trip, we had a feast. Unfortunately, two people managed to get cut up by marauder crabs so this would be their last night of action. 

“This isn’t good for my health,” Zeph remarked as she ate. “How do you two manage to eat this much meat?”

“I have a different digestive system, remember?” Sekh replied as she had another bite of the omelettes. 

“It just works for me,” I said with a shrug, earning a confused look from Zeph. 

“Just pass me some of the wild dandelion then,” Zeph sighed. 

Compared to her, the rookies were content with stuffing themselves with the omelettes. Though I think indigestion might be an issue since they forgot about the importance of a balanced diet.

The next day we continued our hunt. Due to the continued threat of the crocodile, our elite group had to keep searching for the overgrown lizard. 

“We’re getting close,” Sekh announced around noon. “The crocodile should be in this area. But make sure to stay clear of the river or anything deeper than a puddle.”

“How do we even know if it’s the crocodile that we’re after?” Zeph wondered as we were searching.

“It’s supposed to have a nasty looking scar on its head,” I informed her. “Plus we heard that it’s quite big for a crocodile.”

“Big and scarred,” Zeph complained. “It sounds like a textbook murderer.”

“Maybe it’s just misunderstood,” I joked. “Perhaps you should try giving it a hug.”

“I’ll do it if you go first,” she replied with a cocky smile. 

“Is that a challenge?” I quipped. “I’ll have you know that I won’t die so easily.”

“We’ll see about that,” Zeph said smugly. 

For the next hour, we carefully scoured the area in search of the crocodile. The time passed slowly, like sand trickling down an hourglass. 

Our efforts eventually paid off when Sekh called everyone over to a nearby stream. There, we hid ourselves behind some vegetation. At the water’s surface was a pair of eyes. Behind the eyes was a mass of split skin, the original wound long healed. 

“You think this is the one?” Zeph asked as we peered at the crocodile. 

“Definitely,” Sekh replied. “It matches the descriptions perfectly. Plus it seemed to react rather violently when it saw me before. So it’s clearly accustomed to people and has some understanding of weapons.”

“So much for hugs,” I sighed. “You think I can lure it out of the stream by myself? Or should we just try to pelt it with projectiles?”

“The stream looks deep enough that the crocodile can just take cover,” Sekh replied glumly. “I’m not sure if our chunk of smoked ham and a rope are good enough, but it’s better than having someone act as live bait.”

And so we made our makeshift crocodile lure, a leg of smoked ham tied to a rope of hemp. Once we finished making our contraption, I hid myself by some foliage near the stream. From the bush, I slung our trap towards the location of the crocodile, the ham splashing into the water. The moment that the meat made contact, I poked my head from the bush to check the situation.

Just like I had hoped, the crocodile was drawn to the bait. Thus I began to reel the ham to the shore, leading the lizard along. Soon, I managed to lure the crocodile a good distance from the water.

“Now!” Sekh shouted in the distance. 

Right on call, a volley of magically boosted projectiles rained down on the unsuspecting lizard. Due to the presence of magic, all the missiles found their mark and inflicted heavy damage on the crocodile. However, the creature roared defiantly, still clinging onto life as it tried to run back into the water. As it was fleeing, I hurriedly took out my bow and shot an arrow into its back. But my arrow was only a participant of the second barrage that struck the crocodile. Still, the lizard continued its escape into the water, slinking away into the stream as it was harried by a few more arrows. 

“Now we follow and wait,” Sekh announced as we grouped up along the shore. “With that many injuries, it can’t possibly survive.”

Sekh’s words proved true as the stream became increasingly red. Soon the corpse of the crocodile came near the shoreline, so I could drag it onto the shore. From there, we dissected its stomach to see if it had the remains of people inside, though this search proved futile.

Since all of our extermination requests were paid through the Bureau, we planned to haul the skin back to the Bureau as evidence of our completion. After dragging the crocodile back to our camp, we split up once more. Sekh and the exhausted rookies stayed back to skin the crocodile, while Zeph and I returned to the fields.

For the rest of the day, we helped the other rookies clear out various reed serpent nests and marauder crab clusters. And just like before, injuries piled up. One person lost a toe to a marauder crab, two people got bit by reed serpents, and eight others received various smaller injuries. 

The following day was just a cleanup. From morning to noon, we swept the area in search of any remaining monsters. Luckily, we only ended up fighting a dozen ratmen and three young marauder crabs. Thus our final total adds up to one crocodile, four reed serpent nests, seven marauder crab clusters, and three hundred fifty six ratmen. As for how the rewards would be divided, the rookies will receive all the bounty money while us instructors get to keep the skins of the crocodile and twenty four serpents. 

But before we could cash in our reward, we spent another day and a half traveling back to Damask. When we arrived back at the city, the time was around midnight, the moon now high in the sky. Exhausted from our journey, all of us just went straight to our quarters instead of celebrating. When we got to the fifth floor of the Bureau, Minerva was fast asleep. Thus I would have to ask her about the situation tomorrow. 

Next morning, I went straight to the Leaping Bass Inn to fetch the rookies. Although I had to drag a few out of bed, everything went well overall. By the time we arrived back at the Bureau, the building had just opened up for business and we immediately began cashing in our payment.

“Seems like you got a lot done,” Minerva remarked as I was waiting for the clerks to document our tasks. 

“Well we did spend more than a week in the countryside,” I replied. “How were things on your end?”

“Alright,” Minerva answered. “We mainly did drills at the sparring field I set up, but I also squeezed in time for a few small jobs. Just some pest control and a few physical labor jobs so they could build up some funds.”

“Physical labor?” I wondered. “Did you just make them do jobs that even vagrants were wary of?”

“Yes,” Minerva said as though it was obvious. “But I didn’t make them do anything dangerous. It’s just that the pay for those jobs was questionable.”

“So you abused their goodwill?” I quipped.

“I made use of my resources,” Minerva explained. “Besides, I am literally paying for their housing and training.”

“Fair enough,” I conceded. 

Shortly after, the clerks brought out the payment for our requests. The final total for the thirty rookies was 102 denarii and 12 nummi. So each person received 2 denarii and 17 nummi. Not the best payment for a week of work, but working in such a large group tends to lower the profit of individuals. Plus the local government doesn’t offer the best pay. And thus I was reminded of how shitty this profession can be. 

After handing out the somewhat measly payment, I guided the rookies to the various shops in Damask. Although I was giving them advice, I had no intention of holding their hands while they purchased new equipment. 

“I would recommend that you buy protective gear if you haven’t already,” I told everyone as we were touring the city. “The next priority would be new weapons. Ranged weapons like a bow or javelins should be your first choice. But if you’re looking for melee weapons, get a spear if you don’t have one, then a sidearm of choice. Axes and shortswords are the most versatile. Regular swords are too expensive and maces are meant to be used against people. Camping equipment is also really useful.  Apart from that, a coat of arms to distinguish yourself isn’t bad. Finally, you might want to start saving up for pack horses.”

Once I was finished with my tour and words of wisdom, I left the rookies to their own devices. My first order of business was to get the skins tanned. Since I wasn’t in a rush, I spent a total of 1 denarii for all the skins, though I would have to wait two weeks for the serpents and six weeks for the crocodile. 

“We’re more than halfway done now,” I said to Minerva when I got back to the Bureau. 

“Are you planning on doing another expedition into the countryside?” she asked. 

“Of course,” I replied. “Let me guess, you don’t want to keep paying for their rooms at the Leaping Bass?”

“Obviously,” she answered.

“I have bad news then,” I said with an uneasy smile. “I’m letting them have today and tomorrow off. Please don’t deduct this from my salary.”

In response, Minerva pursed her lips and stared at me. Hopefully she decides to harass the administration for more funds instead of squeezing it out of my pay. Hopefully.