Down to Business

As they were walking to the guild, Mibu kept walking behind him. “Err...is that normal? Can you just walk beside me?”

Mibu blushed and nodded, taking a few quick steps to catch up with him. “As you wish, Master.”

“Just call me Kris, I don't have a 'Master' fetish...”

Mibu seemed confused, “Fet-itch?”

Oh, guess that's not a concept here. Although I'm sure people have them... “Uh, let's just use names, I'd prefer that.”

Mibu nodded, “Yes...Kris.”

Since the ice had been somewhat broken, Kris decided to ask “Is there a reason they gave you the maid outfit? I mean, it's better than the rags you had, and it's cute, but...”

Mibu blushed, “Yes. I was being marketed as a household sex slave, not a combat slave, since my level is so low. This is the normal outfit they give for that purpose.”

Kris shook his head. “Well, I don't have any money for a different outfit yet, so hopefully that's okay for now.”

Mibu smiled and nodded vigorously, her tail wagging a bit, “Yes, I can make do.”

Kris looked away and cried internally. Mibu...you're too accepting...

Arriving at the guild, Mibu did get a couple glances as they went in, as he presumed she would. She's pretty cute, but the maid outfit stands out a lot when everyone else is in adventurer gear... Looking down at himself, still wearing the tracksuit he had been isekai'd in, he realized, Maybe I do, too.

As they walked to the front desk, Corinne saw them approaching, setting down whatever she was working on and grabbing a paper, seemingly expecting their arrival.

Smiling at Mibu, she asked “Status screen?”

Mibu opened her status screen, spinning it to Corinne, who once again scrolled through them rapid-fire as she wrote various things down. After a couple minutes, she slid a paper over to Mibu, grabbed her hand for a prick, and stamped her thumb down, causing the paper to glow blue.

“I will assign her to your party. I just called it 'Kris's Party', unless you have a name you want to use?” Corinne asked.

Kris shook his head, “Thanks. And...can I change it later?”

“Of course.”

“Um...just leave it as that and I'll let you know if I think of a good name.” Though that's the least of my concerns right now.

Corinne nodded. “Understood. You're good to go then,” she added with a smile.

After they had Mibu signed up and gotten her Guild card (she was, unsurprisingly, assigned Wood-Rank as well), he had her sit with him at a table.

“Mibu...” he said, looking at her with a serious expression.

“Yes!?” she said, sitting straight up.

“I...don't have any money.”

Mibu nodded, “I understand, since you needed to take a loan to buy me, I figured-”

Kris shook his head. “No, like I don't have any money,” he emphasized, taking out his coinpurse and holding it upside down, only for no money to come out.

“At...all?” Mibu asked nervously.

“No, nothing,” Kris confirmed.

“Umm...sorry,” Mibu replied, looking down.

Kris shook his head, “No, its not your fault. In fact, I'm sorry, buying you when I have nothing to offer.”

Mibu shook her head back, doing a fist pump, “It's fine, we just have to work hard!”

Kris looked away, crying internally again. You really are too accepting Mibu...

Mibu turned her head to look at the Wood-level requests. “How much do you think we need to make a day?”

Kris turned back, explaining, “I have to pay forty silver a month for the loan, so about one silver and thirty-three coppers a day. We can survive on probably twenty coppers a days for lodging and food, but realistically we need more than that if we want to buy anything. Some armor would be nice, too,” he added, looking at their respective clothing.

Mibu nodded. “There's no time to waste then!” and got up, looking over the requests.

Kris joined her, trying to find one that seemed reasonable. After a bit of looking, he found one that seemed like he could do.

'Purchasing boars, three coppers per kilo, no limit.' He grabbed it, and revealed a stack of them underneath, all saying the same thing. I guess it's an ongoing request anyone can pick up? I wonder if they're a butcher.

While he was reading the boar request, Mibu had grabbed a different one. 'Need Noxbliss flowers, five copper each.' Underneath the request was a sketch of what he presumed was Noxbliss, but Kris wasn't sure if he could really tell it apart from others.

“Err...you wanna do that one too? I guess doing multiple requests at the same time could help us make enough,” Kris mused.

Mibu nodded vigorously. “Yes, I thought so too. I used to pick Noxbliss with my mother, so I can grab some while we're searching for boars.”

Kris smiled, “Good thinking, we'll be able to get our money situation sorted out quickly this way.”

Mibu smiled back, nodding vigorously.

After they had put the requests into their status screens, they stopped off at the Noxbliss requester first, a nearby Alchemy store. The old lady in charge was very happy to see them, giving them a basket to carry them in.

Next, farther down the street, was the hog butcher, who pointed out on his map the best place to gather boar. The butcher seemed skeptical when they came up to him, but gave Kris a couple sacks to put any boars they killed in nonetheless.

Having acquired the necessary tools and info, they headed out of town to the nearby forest.

A couple hours later, and they had not seen a single boar.

Kris walked with his shoulders slumped, I was hoping there would just be a bunch of boars everywhere. I don't know how to track them or anything...

Mibu, seeing Kris was depressed, gave a fist pump, “Don't worry, we'll find some eventually.”

Kris cried internally again at Mibu's upbeat attitude.

Luckily, Mibu was a flower-spotting savant, and already had thirteen Noxbliss flowers in her basket. She seemed to be at home in the forest, having no issue traversing and keeping track of where they were.

At least we'll be able to get a room and dinner tonight, I don't want Mibu sleeping on the street and-

His thoughts were cut off as he heard a familiar sound that made his blood freeze.

“Yabba yabbah!”

From a little ways away, they could see two goblins walking along, carrying something on a spear between them.

Mibu sniffed, “They caught a boar.”

Looking closer, Kris could see she was right. On a stick they were carrying between them they had a decent-sized boar.

I...gotta get that, right?

Kris asked, “Have you ever fought goblins?”

Mibu shook her head. “I'm fast so I always just run away. I've never really fought before, I don't have any skills besides Healing.”

Oh yeah, I knew that.

“Well, that's fine. I'm going to try and get both of them with Scorch and take their boar. I'll need you to heal me if I get stabbed again,” Kris explained.

“Again?” Mibu asked, curious and slightly worried.

“Yeah, I have some...history, with goblins...” Kris replied, shuddering a bit.

The goblins were almost out of sight, so they started after them, trying to make sure they weren't seen. Luckily, the goblins seemed to be focused on their dinner, and were not paying attention to their surroundings or the amount of noise they were making.

Eventually, they stopped at their camp (another thing Kris was all too familiar with) and started yabbering at each other and pointing to the boar.

Are they arguing over who has to cook it? Whatever, I'm going to take this opportunity. He started to creep closer, before having a realization. Whispering to Mibu, he asked, “Can you...smell any other goblins?”

Mibu sniffed, “No, there's no other animals close. The goblins probably scared them off.”

Kris nodded, before resuming his sneaking. He walked low, behind one goblin so that he wouldn't be in the field of vision of either of them.

Getting close, he figured he would try to get two birds with one stone. Or in this case, two goblins with one spell.

Scorch! he thought.

A blast of flame came through his hand. The goblin with it's back to him fell forward, a hole through it's chest. The other goblin fell to its knees, clutching it's neck, where the spell had hit it after going through the first goblin. After a moment, the second goblin stopped moving as well.

“Nice job!” Mibu called out excitedly, running up to him, her tail wagging side-to-side.

It's a lot nicer having someone with me, he realized, smiling back at her.

Looking at the boar, he took out one of his bags, starting to try and heft and slide the boar into it. “Can you check-”

He stopped as he saw that Mibu was a step ahead of him, rooting through the camp, presumably searching for money or anything valuable.

Kris went back to shoving the boar in. After a couple of sweat-inducing minutes, he managed to get it in, tying off the side.

Phew, he wiped off his eyebrow. That was tougher than actually killing the goblins.

Mibu returned, “I didn't find any money, but I found this,” she held up a sheathed dagger. Taking it out, it looked like it was probably made of steel. “Now I can defend myself properly.”

Kris nodded, “Yeah, don't want my healer to be un-”.

He was cut off as Mibu put her hand over his mouth, frantically sniffing.

“We need to leave,” was all she said.

Kris nodded, going towards the boar to grab it.

Mibu ran over to grab the basket of flowers, looking worried. “Let's go...” she trailed off, looking over Kris's shoulder.

Turning around, Kris saw what she was looking at. Another boar, probably three times as large as the one in the bag, and this one very much alive.

It snorted, so strongly it kicked up some dirt underneath it.

Mibu got low and started to back away.

Kris, on the other hand, had grander aspirations. That's gotta be worth a fortune, right? Walking slowly up to it, the boar started to charge. Alright...Scorch!

The Scorch hit the boar squarely in the face, causing it give a loud squeal of pain. It also...kept running, hitting Kris squarely with a headbutt, causing him to be sent flying back.

“Kris!” Mibu shouted, running over. A green light came out of her hands, enveloping Kris, who felt a tingly sensation.

Yeah, no doubts now it was a good idea to get her. As he was about to thank her, he saw the boar was about to charge them again. Grabbing Mibu's shoulders, he rolled them to the side as it charged past again.

Landing on top of Mibu, he blushed and said “Sorry.”

“Thank you,” Mibu said at the exact same time, also blushing.

Quickly realizing this wasn't the time to be blushing at each other, Kris quickly got to his feet, feeling fine.

Looking at the boar, while it hadn't gotten a hole in it like the goblins, it definitely looked like he had done some damage. I'll try firing off two in quick succession.

The boar started charging again, but much more slowly.

Kris cast Scorch again, and had time to side-step and cast Scorch once more, hitting it in the flank, causing it to squeal in pain again, as it lost its balance and fell to its stomach, sliding a ways due to it's momentum.

Kris walked over as the boar was unable to get up. Before he could do anything, Mibu came over, slitting it's throat.

“No reason to let it suffer,” she explained, wiping its blood off her new dagger on the grass.

Kris nodded. Now that he was right next to it, he could appreciate it's size. And realized a problem. This isn't going to fit in the bag.

Mibu, seeing his dilemma as he held the bag, suggested, “Why don't we try to put it on top and slide it?”

“Good idea!” he replied, giving a thumbs up. With Mibu's help, they rolled the boar onto the bag. While it was slow going, he could probably slide the boar along. “Are you able to-” he started to ask Mibu, but as he looked at her, she easily hefted the other boar onto her shoulder.

Kris's eyes widened, “Mibu...I didn't realize you were so strong!”

Mibu seemed confused, looking between Kris and the bag. “I'm not...the bags just have a weight-reducing enchantment. That's why you're able to slide the other one, it affects anything it touches.”

Kris looked at the huge boar laying on the bag, If it's still that heavy with the weight-reduction, there's no way I'd be able to slide it without the enchantment.

With the boars taken care of, they started to make the slow trek back to Coburn.

After a while of slow plodding and sliding, Kris looked up at the sky, thinking it might be dusk soon. “How far away are we, Mibu?” he asked, wondering if she would know.

As predicted, she looked up, “Probably another hour at our current rate.”

Kris sighed, “Hold on then, I need a quick breather.”

Mibu nodded, dropping the smaller boar sack that she had been carrying.

Sitting on the boar, he caught his breath.

Mibu started searching for more potential Noxbliss in their immediate area, although she seemed to be keeping an eye on Kris as well.

She seems confident in the forest, so that's...something. Kris took the opportunity to pull up his status screen. His Fire Magic was now showing as 'lv. 3', although he still only knew Scorch. He also saw that his Sneak had gone up to level 1. I guess it involves attacking while unseen.

Standing up, he decided to test his ability. Crouching down, he tried to hide from Mibu.

Mibu's head snapped to stare at him.

Guess that's a failure. “I was seeing if my Sneak skill worked, but it doesn't seem very good, at least at level 1.”

Mibu shook her head, “No, I actually lost sight of you for a moment, but I could still find you with smell.”

Kris sniffed his armpits, not able to really tell how he smelled. Maybe I'll see if I can take a bath after this. I think I remembered seeing a bathhouse when I was walking around last night.

Eventually, they made their way back to Coburn as dusk was nearing. They got a few inquisitive looks at the large boar being dragged, and a couple of the guards even gave him a salute as he walked through the gate.

While walking past the Guild Hall, he was stopped by a group of four, including Misty.

One of them, a big brawny wolfkin, laughed, “Haha, you were that injured newbie, right? Did you kill that yourself?”

Kris nodded, smug smile on his face. “I did indeed. Well, Mibu helped...”

The wolfkin motioned to the other two men, an orc and a human, and they each grabbed a corner of the bag, hefting it up. “We'll help you get to the butchers before it closes.”

Kris was appreciative, “Thank you so much, I was getting worried.”

“Haha, no problem! You owe us a drink later, though,” he said with a grin.

Kris nodded, “Of course, I'll buy everyone a round...once I'm paid,” he added.

Misty went and held the flower basket for Mibu, so she could carry the boar with both arms. “Thanks,” she said demurely.

“It's no problem,” Misty said with a smile.

With the other groups help, they were able to quickly get the boars to the butcher.

“By the goddess, it's been a while since I've seen a boar that large!” he exclaimed. With one swift motion, he picked the boar up, heaving it onto a large scale he had.

He then reached over, delicately taking the other boar from Mibu with a smile, and dumped it out onto the other. Adjusting the scale, he measured them, before writing up an invoice.

“Here,” he said, handing it to Kris. “There's gonna be a lot of meat on that big one, so I threw in a bit extra.”

Kris took the paper, and his jaw dropped. Six silver!? That's amazing! We could take tomorrow off...though that's probably not a good idea...

After leaving the butchers, the other group left to go to the inn across from the guild, while Kris and Mibu headed to the Alchemist.

Kris showed Mibu the paper, causing her to get a giddy grin on her face. “That's great! We'll be able to get a few extra things, then.”

Kris nodded, “Yeah, if we get some armor, I'd feel better. Plus, we could take some harder requests and maybe make money quicker that way, too.”

Reaching the Alchemist, she thanked them with a cheery smile, writing up a similar paper to the butcher, this one for seventy-five coppers.

Taking their leave, they headed back to the guild.

Since it was now dusk, the guild hall was mostly empty, a few stragglers sitting around talking, while Corinne was in her normal spot at the desk.

Smiling at they walked up with papers, she grabbed them without saying anything. After reading them, she nodded and stood up. “Excellent work,” she said, before heading to the back.

“Oh, hold on,” Kris said, pulling up his Monster Log. “It's not much, but I killed a couple goblins, too.”

“Every little bit helps,” Corrine responded, nodding after checking his status screen.

Coming back after a minute, she dropped six silver and eighty-five coppers.

Kris went to deposit them in his coinpurse as they walked out the door, but kept one silver out and gave it to Mibu. “Here, you probably want to buy something besides your maid outfit, right? The shops are probably closed, but you can get something for yourself in the morning.”

Mibu shook her head, “No, you should buy some armor for yourself, first.”

Kris shook his head back, “No, I mean, I am going to buy some armor. I meant you should buy something to wear around town.”

Mibu blushed, looking away, “I thought you said the maid outfit was cute?”

Kris blushed back, scratching his cheek, “It is, but don't you want something else? Like some pajamas or whatever?”

Mibu blushed even further, mumbling out an “Okay,” before grabbing the coin.

Heading into the tavern, he stopped at the desk to get a room from John.

The wolfkin man who had helped him, saw him come in and shouted, “Here's the mighty boar hunter!”

At that, the tavern cheered.

John laughed, “Guess they were expecting you. Getting a room for the night?” he said, giving a glance at Mibu.

Kris nodded, sliding ten coppers over to John, who slid a key over.

“Same one as last time.”

Thanking John, he then went over to the wolfkin man, who pulled out a chair for him.

Mibu stood behind him, waiting.

“Why are-” he started, before remembering his experience from a couple days ago. It feels weird having Mibu just stand behind me, though.

“Mibu, you can-” he started to say, but Misty walked over to her.

“Mibu, right? Come get a drink with me.”

Mibu looked at Kris, who smiled and nodded, so she followed Misty over to the bar.

The three men in Misty's group were already halfway through their drink,

The orc man shouted, “Frieda, boar hunter here is buying us a round.”

Frieda, who was getting an order from Mibu and Misty, shouted back, “Finish the one you got first!”

This got a roar of laughter from the table.

The human man turned to Kris, “So, tell us how you slew that huge boar. Was it difficult?”

Kris nodded. “Is it really that impressive?”

The other three looked at each other and laughed. The wolfkin responded, “For us? Nah. But you're both Wood-rank, right? That couldn't have been easy with your levels.”

Since they wanted to hear, Kris launched into the tale of how they came to kill the boar, staying mostly truthful, although embellishing the action a bit as they got further into their drink.

By the end, they were slapping him on the back.

“Haha! You protected the girl and slew the beast! You'll make a fine Adventurer!” the wolfkin roared.

“Yeah, I did pretty good, didn't I?” Kris replied, taking another swig from his second mug.

Now this feels like an isekai fantasy!