Chương 125: Don't quest with strangers, please! part 1

"Master, please don't kill me. I'll be good I promise! It was just a joke! waaaah"

Mia pouted and tried to reach for Ryu's hand as they walked into the west forest.

"For the tenth time Mia, I'm not going to kill you!"

"But I'm too weak, I don't get why did you want me to come all of a sudden"

"That's precisely the reason why I asked you to come, this way you'll be prepared in case something happens. Besides, I don't want to go questing with miss Risa right now, things are a little awkward with her after what happened last time"

"Are you sure this is not some sort of punishment because we tried to pull a joke on you?"

"Sera, can you please tell her something to keep her quiet?"

"Calm down Mia, Mister Ryu wouldn't have made you wear leather armor if he wanted to kill you. Besides we're going to gather some herbs and even you can do that"

"Yeah, now that Athela failed to pay what she owes me for the tonics and ran away from Celarent, all we need to do is keep supplying the market and gold coins will keep coming. The reason why I need to do so many quests is so I can be able to rank up and join Bob and Luke on their party"

"But master is strong, why can't you simply accompany them?"

"Because I don't want to show my skills at the guild and I'm still rank F, both of them are rank C right now and since the difference is so big we can't make a party together"

They kept walking down the forest path, everyone wearing light leather armor bought at the adventurer's guild. It wasn't just any ordinary armor though, instead of the usual brown they had lively colors because they were made with the skin of different D rank beasts. The reason why Ryu spent so much money in them was because the leather obtained from a high rank beast can barely be scratched by monsters with a lower ranking. This meant that even if they met a big rat they should be safe.

Knowing they were heading into a potentially dangerous situation Ryu prepared his party to the best his means could allow. He had several spare weapons strapped into his vest and he brought his pets along with him. This, of course, included Mia too. Thanks to the amarok pulling a handcart he didn't have to carry the herbs and materials on him, thanks to Mia he wouldn't need to do the gathering himself and he could focus solely on defense and thanks to Mochi the pushcart was a little bit heavier because he refused to get off of it and didn't help in any way.

No matter how many times they tried to get the lazy cat to walk, he would simply climb back on top of the pushcart again and they ended up giving up and just letting him do as he pleased.

"So I do all the work and master gets the rewards? doesn't seem fair to me"

Mia complained after a few minutes of harvesting medicinal herbs.

"Seriously Mia? you're just cutting grass and you make it sound like he's forcing you to dig a moat or something"

Sera glared at Mia.

"But I want a reward too!"

"Stop distracting mister Ryu, he's standing watch, you don't know how dangerous it can get"

Hearing Mia's whining and complains, Ryu wondered if he made the right choice by asking her to come with them. She was way too loud in the wilderness and she could attract all sorts of predators towards them.

"My hat is too tight"

"It's not a hat, it's a helmet, or would you rather get killed instantly after being hit in the head"

"Would you two please be quiet!?"

Losing his patience, Ryu yelled to the top of his lungs without thinking and, for a few seconds, it was as if the whole forest had became silent.

"This is bad! Dog follow me!"

The big dog wasn't nearly as stupid as Sera and the rest thought, or at least he was able to follow simple commands as he promptly followed his master. The main reason why most people thought the amarok was lacking on brains was because he was always sticking out his tongue and had a funny expression on its face and, despite being big for a dog, he didn't look menacing in the slightest.

Mia, Ryu and Sera only stopped running once they got back to the city.

"That was close!"

Ryu heaved a sigh of relief.

"What was it? was something following us mister Ryu?"

"Stop being so exaggerated! we were like ten minutes into the forest, even children go to play in there, look!"

Mia pointed at a group of kids coming out of the forest carrying berries.

"Things are only safe until they're not, you need to take this seriously or I'll leave you home next time"

Mia didn't know why, but Ryu's words made it sound like staying back at the shop was a bad thing, so she lowered her gaze and apologized.

"I'm sorry master, I'll work hard next time"

Entering the adventurer's guild some people took notice of Ryu's unusual party composition and mumbled among themselves. But it wasn't the presence of the weird dog, the fluffy cat or their new gear. Most eyes were staring at both girls, the light leather armor failed to cover their beauty, if anything, it only accentuated their womanly attributes. The more experienced adventurers looked at Ryu with respect, thinking there must be a reason why two beautiful girls would join such a weak adventurer, be it wealth or hidden skills. While others simply envied him and wished him ill.

Day after day, for a whole week history repeated itself. They would go gathering herbs in the morning, go back for lunch, and then head again into the forest in the evening. But despite their hard work, Ryu's and Sera's rank remained the same.

"Good afternoon miss Ebi"

"Hey Ryu! what can I do for you today?"

Ebi replied in a cheerful tone.

"I want to know why am I not ranking up, we've been working hard"

"I know, but it's impossible for you to rank up if you keep doing F rank missions. You need to perform a few higher rank quests before being able to rank up"

"That's not fair, you always assign me to F rank quests!"

"I didn't make the rules"

She shrugged.

"How am I supposed to rank up then!?"

"You can either prove you've become stronger by showing us your souldbound card or you can join a higher rank party. I heard you're loaded, why don't you try paying some adventurers? I heard many nobles to that in order to rank up"

"What are you saying!? mister Ryu would never do something like that!"

Sera declared confidently, what she didn't know, because she was next to him and wasn't able to see his face, was his expression brightened when Ebisu said that. Her words made it impossible for him to do that without swallowing his pride.

Disappointed, Ryu went back to the shop where Claire and Taffy were currently working.

Ryu attempted to clear his head while crafting potions. By mixing the distiller and the craftman station's properties he was able to create even more powerful medicine than before, as if that wasn't enough, now that he was able to manage his skills properly the outcome of any action he performed was enhanced thanks to his passive skills.

There were two skills he would always keep on while crafting anything, which were fast learner and calm mind. But for crafting potions, the most useful was pharmacist, which allowed him to turn potions into pills. They had a milder effect, but they were long lasting and they didn't break as easily as potions. Also, instead of vials he started using copper flasks to keep potions because it didn't alter their properties and was sturdier than glass.

Ryu knew his pills would earn him a fortune in Celarent if he was to put them up for sale, but they would also attract the eyes of the greedy merchant's association and he didn't want to get involved with them ever again.

But still, thanks to his cheap and good quality potions and tonics the town was experiencing an unprecedented power boost. Less adventurers would die when out on quests because if they were to get hurt, all they had to do was to drink a potion. This also brought an unexpected consequence, which was that support adventurers were on high demand.

Usually, a support adventurer would simply take care of packing, unpacking and hauling materials, and during battles they would hand weapons and provide cover. But now, even the weakest adventurer would be able to save the life of just anyone, by simply providing a potion when someone got hurt.

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