Chapter Six: Blades for Hire
I awoke to the sun shining brightly through the open window of the small room. I sat up in the straw bed I was laying in and stretched out my neck and shoulders, hearing the stiff joints pop I turned my head to look over at Naofumi. As I expected, he was still asleep after the long walk to Lute. Gingerly getting out of bed, I shambled over to the bag we had stuffed all the monster bits in to inspect its contents. The little bag looked like it was about to split open at its seams with how full it was. I was cataloging its contents when I heard the other bed groan. I looked over at the lump that had now rolled over onto its back, staring at the ceiling.
"Hey, buddy, you dead over there?" I asked the lump, causing it to look at me with a shell shocked expression on its face.
"I am not dead, but I feel like I am," Naofumi said, moving to sit on the edge of his bed. He reached out and took the pitcher of water off the table between the beds and poured himself a drink. He took a few deep gulps before looking back at me and continuing, "I feel like I was hit by a truck, is this how it is going to be every day?" he asked looking less than thrilled.
"Pretty much, we are going to have to walk everywhere until we get a filolial and carriage to pull us around. Toss one of these into your shield and see what it does," I said, tossing him a piece of a balloon. He deftly caught it in the air before rolling it around in his fingers. He examined the part before he shrugged and brought up his arm with the shield before touching the scrap to the gem. A bright flash went through the room as the jewel ate the balloon shard.
I could see his eyes twitching about the room, indicating that a screen had popped up in his vision. He scanned it carefully before he responded.
"It took the shard and used it to unlock a new shield, says it was the orange ballon small shield. It looks like I should be able to let the shield eat almost anything to get a new shield or a stat buff," he finished explaining while I examined the bag of loot.
"That's interesting if the buffs stack that could be a powerful tool. Here let it eat these while you're at it," I stated, handing him one of each of the different types of drop we had collected. I paused for a moment and looked back to the pelt the cook had sent up after dinner. I grabbed it and made an executive decision. Reaching behind my back, I unsheathed my knife and cut one of the pelt's ears off before handing the parts to Naofumi. He cocked an eyebrow at me before accepting the parts and dropping both into his shield.
I saw his eyes start to twitch around the air again before he spoke, "That was a good move. I got two unlocks that time; they are both parts of the Pill Rabbit tree. The pelt got me a gray fur shield, and the ear got me a skill that will allow me to hear better. I should be able to pinpoint a location just by the noise something made." he explained what he was seeing, "That should be a useful trick considering we could be jumped by monsters at any time." He finished going back to his drink.
"Go ahead and get us some breakfast. I am going to go sell our loot from yesterday. Oh, and don't order anything heavy," I said, collecting the various bits from the ground and returning them to the bag.
"Yeah, will do, it shouldn't be hard to sell those, I saw a few vendors on the way to the inn," He said still reading over the messages on his hud.
"I gave him a curt nod before I walked out the door in the small room. I was aware of the vendors that he had mentioned and was mentally planning out the best path to get to them when I walked down the steps into the inn's lobby.
"Oh, good morning sir, did you have a pleasant night?" The redheaded girl staffing the counter asked with a smile on her face.
"Yes, we did miss, we were grateful to find the inn yesterday. We walked here from just outside the capital," I responded to her kindly. A rouge thought crossed my mind before I turned around at the door to speak to the girl again, "Do you know if there is any local work we might be able to get in town?"
"Well," She started with her index finger on her chin, "I did hear about Mr. Bill needing help at his filolial ranch outside of town. And the mine's foreman has a notice up for help clearing out a section of the mine." She finished happily.
"Thank you, miss, that is going to be a big help to us. Do you know where I might be able to find Mr. Bill and the foreman at this hour?" I asked her while she looked over the inn's ledger.
"Mr. Bill is normally at the market right now, and the foreman would be at the bunkhouse at the end of the road just before the town wall if you head east from the inn," She explained, pointing to the left.
"Thank you miss, I will be sure to inquire with them about the jobs they need to be done," I said, exiting the inn. I was surveying the town as I walked down the main road back to the gate we entered the day before, It was a charming little hamlet well away from the capital. 'Good, that will put us out of reach of anyone in the capital that would try to snare us for right now.' I thought as I walked. It was not long before I came upon the market we had seen.
I stopped in the street with the bag slung over my right shoulder as I looked around at the stalls flanking the road. I saw that they looked like ones in the capital with brightly colored awnings and signs. I kept looking at the wares being traded as I walked down the main strip with my head on a swivel until I spotted what I was looking for. A stall almost at the main gate had a wide assortment of monster parts hanging up around the counter that indicated what was for sale or purchase. I gave a polite nod to the vendor as I approached the counter.
"Goodmorning sir," I said, stepping up to the wooden counter.
"Hello sir, You look like an adventurer have you got any monster parts to sell today?" The man who I could now see was about middle age said as I set the bag on the counter.
"Yessir, my friend and I had quite the haul yesterday. I have mostly balloon parts with some other parts mixed in to sell today," I said with a smile as I passed the bag over to him. He gave a polite nod and accepted the sack before opening it and sliding the material down passed the stacked parts.
"So I can see, it looks like quite the hunting adventure," He said, taking out a jewelers glass and beginning to inspect the various parts and pieces. He gave a few hums and mutterings while he looked over some of the piles at random. After about five minutes, he let the glass drop on its chain to hang from his neck before speaking. "Most of these drops are in remarkable condition, your partner and yourself must be incredibly skilled to be able to kill the monsters without damaging their hides. I reckon I can give you top pay for these," He said, holding a balloon skin up to the sun and looking through it.
"Thank you, sir, we appreciate that. We are actually staying in town for the time being and looking for work, I was told that your rancher Mr. Bill needed a hand with some monsters. Could you identify him for me?" I said pleased that we should get a nice sum for the monster bits.
"Why, of course! Bill is an old friend of mine if you like I will have my shop hand go and fetch him for us, while we talk business," He said jovially with a broad smile on his face.
"That would be quite kind of you, sir, thank you," I said, accepting his offer to help. He gave a polite nod and looked at the young man packing away more parts behind the counter.
"Kraft my boy, would you please go and get Old Bill for us, tell him I have a man here interested in helping him with his monster problem. He should be at Claira's stall right now," He said to the blonde teen.
"Right away, Mr. Lawrence!" Kraft responded, taking off down the road back towards the inn.
"He's a good lad, they should be back in about ten minutes. Until then, let's get your loot settled; you have a good verity of balloon skins and a few mushrooms. I can do a bronze for every orange skin, three bronze for every red skin, and ten bronze on both of the black skins. For the mushes, they have a bit more value to them for the greens I can do five bronze, browns are five, and purples will get you ten. So in total, that would be," Lawrence paused as he added up the skins on a pad of paper, "Two silver and thirty-three bronze for the lot, I will even give you five extra bronze as a bonus for the exceptional quality. Does that sound fair?" He asked, turning the pad around so I could see the math.
"Yes, that sound like quite a deal," I agreed, reaching across the counter and shaking his hand, "Thank you, sir, this will be a great help to us," I said as Lawrence began to count out our pay from his coin purse.
"So, you must have been an adventurer for some time to get kills that clean," Lawrence guessed, holding out a coin purse to me.
"No, sir, both my partner and myself started yesterday, although I have been a soldier for over a decade, so I am competent with my weapon," I explained, stuffing the coin purse into my leather vest.
"You must have seen some real action then, unlike those parade knights in the capital," Lawrence said with a laugh, "And they have the nerve to call themselves the most honored knights in the kingdom!" He espoused with a cheeky grin on his face.
"You mean all the knights protecting the palace are decorative soldiers? How did they get that posting, did they buy their commissions?" I asked, hoping to gain some information on the knights of the capital.
"You best believe they did, nine out of ten knights in the capital are the rich sons or daughters of the nobility. However, it is that one in ten you need to be wary of if you aggravate the king; they are actually the best forces in Melromarc. Well, them and the queen's Shadows," He explained leaning on the counter.
"The queen's shadows? What role do they perform, black ops?" I guessed, imitating Lawrence's posture. He leaned in close to my face to keep our conversation from being overheard.
"The way I hear it that is exactly the case, they say the shadows can slip into an enemies castle and slit the monarchs throat without being detected, there are tales from adventures that have seen people in black cloaks disappear without a trace without ever looking away from them, and the best part it is believed that all the shadows are women," He surveyed the crowd around us before speaking again, "Personally I think the rumors are true but, I also think they are spies who watch over the kingdom and report directly to the queen. It seems like whenever a disaster happens, the queen knows about it almost while it's happening." He finished conspiratorially.
"They sound quite capable, I have run into some special forces while on deployments, and they seem to be immune to the mistake that would plague a normal person," I said impressed with the spy network of the queen.
"Has you should," Lawrence said, standing upright again, "There exists no other force like them anywhere else in the world," He finished. A moment later, Kraft returned with a man in his sixties in tow.
"Hello, Bill! How is the ranch treating you these days?" Lawrence announced to the man with a smile.
"I suppose I can't really complain if it wasn't for these monsters lurking about everything would be just dandy. Marge found another filolial dead in the fields this morning; if this keeps up, I will be out of birds in a week," Bill said, grasping Lawrence's forearm in greeting. "Anyway young Kraft here tells me you have a team of adventurers looking for some local work, is that true?" Bill said, looking hopeful.
"Yes, it is; in fact, my friend here is part of that team," Lawrence explained with a sweeping motion at myself. "You should see some of the hides he just brought in, expert stuff really," He continued handing two of the hides over to Bill.
"Clean cuts and only one in each hide, you must have felled them in a single swipe. Quite impressive for an adventurer, normally the hides they bring in are so full of holes you can bearly tell what the monster was," Bill agreed holding the hide up to the sun. "So you're looking for some work, eh? Well, I should have something that suits you. Do you know where your party members are at I would like to speak to you all at once if possible," Bill said, handing the hide back to Lawrence.
"I do, in fact, I left my teammate back at the inn to order breakfast while I went out to sell our haul from yesterday, we can head back there if you like," I explained gesturing back towards the inn.
"That will do just fine, let me fetch my carriage from the general store and I will meet you both at the inn," Bill affirmed with a nod.
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I returned to the inn quickly and after giving a polite nod to the redhead made my way up to the room, giving a quick rap on the door with my knuckles I waited for Naofumi to answer,
"Hello?" His voice called out from the other side of the door.
"It's me bud," I responded, opening the door and poking my head into the room, "We will be eating in the dining area downstairs this morning. I arranged for us to have a meeting with a local rancher about clearing out some monsters for him; he should be here in about five minutes." I explained to him quickly.
"That's fantastic! How did selling the monster parts from yesterday go?" He inquired, getting up from the small table in the room and striding over to the door.
"It went well, we ended up getting top dollar for the parts," I explained stepping into the hall fully while Naofumi joined me, "In total, we received two silver and forty bronze for our work," I continued as we walked downstairs.
Naofumi gave a slight hum in response, I could see that he was mulling something over in his head, so I gave him a moment as we strode into the dining area and sat at one of the grayed and scarred wooden tables and benches. He slit onto the bench across from me before responding.
"We paid fifty bronze for the room last night, and it cost us twenty-five for the food and drink, at the rate we are making right now we should be okay on money until we need to update our gear and equipment." He finished thoughtfully with his hand under his chin.
"That's true, but we still cannot stay at an inn every night," I said as I saw Mr. Bill enter the dining room, I gave a tilt of my head to Bill letting and continued, "we need to be careful still around the castle, and I don't like being around too many people we don't know for long. We will talk more on this latter Mr. Bill is here." I finished standing up and making my way over to the man in question.
"Its good to see you again, sir; let me introduce you to my partner Naofumi Iwatani," I said, greeting Bill politely and escorting him over to our table. Naofumi stood up and shook Bill's hand in greeting.
"It is good to meet you Mr. Naofumi, you and your partner here seem to be just what the doctor ordered," Bill sated shaking Naofumi's hand excitedly he took the seat across from Naofumi as I slid in next to him. "Yes it is good fortune to meet you both today, you see; my ranch is normally to close to the outer wall for monsters to be much of a problem, but with the last wave being so close there are too many of them stocked in the woods around the ranch right now. They don't pose much of a threat to the older birds at the ranch, but the younglings and chicks can't defend themselves. He finished looking exasperated with the issue.
"That sounds like quite the situation," I said, leaning onto the table, "We are all too happy to help, but we are going to know what we are going to be dealing with before we can make any promises. I finished gesturing to Naofumi to see if he had anything to add.
His head swiveled from me to Bill, "That's right sir, I don't want to make you a promise that we won't be able to deliver on."
Bill gave a nod of his head, "That's a fair concern, so far my wife and I have not seen anything too strong, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out the there is a minor alpha monster lurking nearby. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say it was a balloon, or a mush should be around level fifteen. What I really need you to do is thin out the pack of monsters that is there already and then to kill the alpha to drive them off for good." He finished looking serious.
"That sound like a tall order, what would you consider to be fair compensation for all of that?" I said, looking over to my Naofumi.
Bill looked deep in thought for a moment and then looked up to the ceiling for a while before responding. "My wife and I don't have too much money to offer. . . but if you would be agreeable to it, we could pay you two bronze for every shroom and ballon you eliminate plus three silver if you can bring me the head of the alpha. That would be in addition to what you can get for the hides you collect." He finished looking first to Naofumi and then to myself.
Naofumi and I shared a look for a moment before he gave a slight nod, "I think that sounds fair enough; we will, of course, need a place to stay and food and drink while we are under your employ." I finished stretching my hand out towards him.
Bill almost lept across the table to shake my hand and then Naofumi's, "You have a deal, sirs! Thank you so much! You have no idea how relieved I am to finally have someone willing to help!" He shouted happily, still shaking my hand. " Bartender! Let me get a round for myself and my new friends here!" He shouted over to the bar, getting a clear "Aye!" in response.
After the waitress brought over our drinks and we had toasted to a deal well struck we resumed talking, "We will be more than happy to join you today we will just need a moment to collect our things from upstairs," I said after taking a swig of my beer.
"Aye, that will be fine after we finish our drinks if you would like. I will pull the wagon around, and you both can ride back to the ranch with me," Bill said, taking a deep drink from his glass.
"That sounds great to me," Naofumi said, "If you don't mind excusing me, I will just go get the packs now." He said, getting up and going to grab the packs after getting a polite nod from Bill.
"Not much of a drinker is he?" Bill asked, looking at me with a smile seeing Naofumi had left half of his drink behind.
"Don't mind him," I said, emptying my glass, "He is a young man with a lot to learn but he has got promise, and his heart is in the right place." I finished reaching over and grabbing Naofumi's now abandoned glass.
Bill gave a hearty chuckle and said: "I will drink to that, hears too well-meaning adventures." He said, lifting his glass high.
I lifted the glass up and let them come together with a solid clink, we both drained the rest of the the beer before standing up, "Well Mr. Bill it looks like we have some work to do." I said smiling as we walked out of the dining area.
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The wagon we wear riding in was an old and well worn thing with wheels that where not quite round anymore, it joslted the cargo area where Naofumi and I were sitting everytime we went over a divit in the path we were following around the small wall surrounding the village. I could see the ranch out infront of us has we tracked around the wall some more, it was made up of a cluster of five good sized wooden buildings set around a centreal well. As I scanned around I could see three main fenced in areas around the buildings that were bordered by the forest.
"You can see the ranch fully now those over there are the barns," Bill anouced after another moment of the wagon bounce over the uneaven path and pointipensng at three of the building that backed up to the penned in areas, "You would normally see the filolials running about but with the current problem we thought it best to keep them inside as much as possible." He finished gesturing at the empty pens.
"If you are keeping them in the barns how are monsters getting to your birds?" I asked him.
"Filolials are smart and dumb at the same time," The bird pulling the wagon preened for a second and then gave an indignat squak at his comment, "Hush Kero," Bill said tossing a treat to the beast that it munched quickly. "They also have an appetite to rivail a dragon. Even keeping them in the barns outside of feeding them they will sneak out at night if they think they can scratch up some more food. That's when the monsters are getting them." Bill fnished as we pulled up to one of the barns.
"I see," I began as I stood up and grabbed my pack from next to the resting Naofumi rousing him from his nap, "They must be quite the creature to need so much food." I finished pointing at the large stacks of seed in the wagon.
"Aye, that they are. All of this should last about a week and its almost double what I normally would get for them." Bill explaind while he detached the large pink and white bird from the front of the wagon. "Normally we can have them free to roam from in the barns to the pens as they like and they could forage for small animals and game that wanders in from the forest looking for extra seed they missed; but, sadly the mosters are eating all that up too and we don't make enough from the birds to buy them fresh meet." Bill fnished as Kero gave a soft crowing noise.
"Well we are here now so you shouldn't have anymore problems hopefully." I said to Bill giving Kero a scratch under the beak. Kero cawed softly at the attention and nuzzed into my hand.
"You have quite the way with her," Bill said coming up to me and grabbing Kero's rigns, "Normally she's not to fond of people she doesn't know."
"Thanks, I have a small herd of horses back home so being around large animals isn't new to me." I responded to him with a smile as Naofumi came around from the back of the wagon.
"Anyway let me take your round to the farm house over yonder and get you introduced to the ranch hands," Bill said leading us and Kero behind him. He gave a loud shout of "Hey everybody! Come on round to the well we have guest!," as he hitched Kero up to a water trough next to the well.
One of the houses doors suddenly busted open and two small brown haired children ran out, one was a little boy who looked like he was about seven and dressed in a pair of denim overalls and a white tunic ran up to Bill and latched onto him with a hug.
"Grandpa Bill! I did all my chores today already so Grandma said I could play with the chicks until supper!" He shouted happily holding onto Bill's leg and looking up at him.
"You did! Well then I guess you can have one of the sweet-rolls I bought in town today." Bill said picking the little boy up and resting him on one hip.
I saw the other child was a little girl with big green eyes and wearing a green dress with white flowers on it had retreated to the door they had come out of and was eyeing Naofumi and myself shyly peaking out from the side of the doorframe. I gave her a wave and a smile before she was picked up from behind by a man with the same brown hair as the children as he walked outside. Coming down the steps of the house he called out to Bill.
"Welcome, back dad. I see that you have come back with more than just grain this time," He said in a slightly deep voice giving a nod to Naofumi and me, "So who are our guests." He finished taking the other child from Bill.
"This is Mr. Williamson and Mr. Naofumi; they are adventurers who have agreed to help us with the monster problem we have been having," Bill said to his son with a smile and giving the girl a pat on the head.
"That's great news! I'm sure ma will be happy to hear that she won't be having to worry about Kero at night anymore." The man said with his booming voice. He turned to Naofumi and myself before speaking, "It is good to know that we finally have some help, but where are my manners my name is Bill but must just call me Junior. And this here is little Billy and Lily." He said, looking at each kid in turn. "I would shake your hands, but as you can see," He trailed off.
"That's fine, Mr. Junior; we are glad we can help," Naofumi said to the man giving a little wave to each kid.
"Well, y'all better just come on in, then I'm sure ma and the wife can't wait to meet ya," Junior chuckled while walking back up the step into the farmhouse.
Bill gave us a nod before saying, "You can go with Junior there, and I will go rustle up the ranch hands, they should be around here somewhere." Before and once again took Kero's reins and lead her off towards one of the barns.
Naofumi and I said our goodbyes to Bill and headed up the steps into the farmhouse after Junior and the kids, stepping inside Junior set the kids down and told them to run along and stay out of trouble. They quickly scampered off down a hallway and went into one of the rooms. Junior led us through the house to a kitchen and dining room, when I entered the room I could see two women tending to something on the hearth in the kitchen.
"Sarah, ma, I got the guest that dad brought with him," Junior said anoucing us to the women.
Both women turned around quickly at the sound of Junior's voice, the younger of the duo, who must have been his wife Sarah had blonde hair tied into a simple ponytail and was about five and a half feet tall. As the other woman turned I could see that she was around Bill's age but that the years had been kind to her, she had white hair that was pulled into a tight bun in the back and bangs that framed her face. She smiled at us kindly before she spoke.
"Well then, I can see what all the hullabaloo was about, y'all must be adventures." She said, dusting her hands off and holding one out.
"Yes ma'am," I said taking her offered hand, despite her age she had a firm handshake, "I ran into Mr. Bill this morning at the market after we discussed the situation my partner and I have agreed to help clear out the monsters infesting your land." I finished as Naofumi came up and shook her hand next.
"It's a pleasure miss," Naofumi said.
"Well we are glad you're here, you can put your packs down right over by the door and sit for a spell at the big table over there," She said gesturing to the large table along one wall, "I will get us some drinks, Bill should be along any minute with the rest of the ranch and then we can all talk about a plan together." She finished kindly as she walked back to a cupboard and got out two stacks of glasses.
"Thank you miss." I said as Naofumi and I set down our packs and took a set together at the table. Junior sat in one of the empty chairs and was joined by his wife Sarah who sat next to him. His mother hummed quietly as she set out glasses at all the chairs for the table and then walked outside.
"You came just in time, I was beging to worry that the ranch might become overrun soon. We are capable ranchers but we are no fighters." Sarah said leaning forward tworards us.
"You really did, is was starting to worry that the ranch might now be safe for our youngins anymore. The ranchhands and I can take on a couple of balloons, but the kids are so small still." Junior said with a sigh, "Just this morning, I saw a pack of balloons lurking just at the edge of the forest." He finished as he took one of his wife's and held it.
"We promise you, Junior, after we are finished with the job here, you won't have to worry about monsters anymore," Naofumi said with determination.
"He's right; we will make sure that any monsters we come across won't be getting another chance to cause you trouble ever again," I assured him, backing Naofumi up. Just after I had finished speaking, Bill entered the room, followed closely by two more people. Some of the group exchanged nods of greeting, and everybody sat down around the table with Bill and his wife at the head.
"Alright everybody, it shouldn't be a mystery why we have our two new friends here," He started as his wife returned carrying a jug of water which she proceeded to pour into everybody's glass, "This is Mr. Williamson and Mr. Naofumi, they are going to clear out that hive in the woods for us." He finished looking around the table. "In return, they are going to be staying in the bunkhouse with y'all," he said, looking at the two men that followed him in.
"No problems here,"
"We have got plenty of empty beds,"
"No objections on our end," I said.
"By the way, those two are Larry and Mathew Smalls," Bill said, pointing to each brother in turn. Larry the bigger one gave a wave down to us as Mathew chugged his water. "So you have you two got a plan?" Bill asked us.
"I have the beganings of one but I will need to see how bad the raids are tonight to come up with a better one," I started to explain, "We will make a few passes around the ranch between the wall and the woods today and kill off anything dumb enough to come out in the day light. After that we are going to sleep from lunch until dinner so we will be able to stay up all night and make sure no more of your flock falls victim to the monsters." I finished and took a couple of swigs from my glass.
"We could also set up some traps if you have some twine and large sticks laying about," Naofumi said leaning forward, "Balloons and mushes are opportunity preditors and scavengers if you bait the traps with some meat we should be able to stop a good number without having to fight them." He finished looking around the table.
"That's an idea worth a gold coin right there," Bill said as he turned to the Small sibling, "After we get the cart empty and the flocks out and fed I want yall to go out and gather all the stick that with take a good whack on a tree and pile them up at the well." He fnished getting a pair of "Aye's" from the brothers. "Martha have you got anymore of the twine we were using to tie up the bales from winter?" He asked his wife.
"Sure do hun, I rolled all of it up and stored it up in the top of the nesting barn." She said with nod.
"Good, Junior you and Sarah are gonna keep to the regular schedule and if ya don't mind pitch in where ya can." Bill said to the couple getting a pair of firm nods.
"Alright then, we have our plan for now. Y'all two wait right there I got something that should make you lives a little easier." Bill said getting up from the table and walking down the hall.
"Come on Larry we got a wagon to start on," Mathew said getting up and coming around the table with his brother. "It was nice meeting y'all, be seeing you at lunch." Mathew said as they left the house.
The next couple to leave the table was Junior and Sarah, who politely excused themselves Junior went to help the brothers with the wagon whilst Sarah went to check up on the kids. Martha and Naofumi where exchangeing small talk while I settleld in for a minute to check over my knife and spear, it was not too much longer before Bill returned from down the hall.
"Sorry for the delay, I had lost track of where I had put this," Bill said placing a bow and quiver of arrows down on the table, "I got this on trade from a man passing through a while back." He added with a smile. "I figured it might come in handy one day but never became a good enough shot to use it, hopefully y'all will find it much more to your liking."
I picked up and examined to bow, it was a sturdy and well crafted thing with the main body made out of a rich dark wood and steel endcaps where the string was attached. I stode up from my chair and gave the string a few practice pulls to test the draw streangth, finding it to my liking a examined an arrow. The arrorws looked to be a normal broad head affixed to a length of wood and were about two feet in length.
"This should serve us quite nicely," I said swinging to bow and it's quiver over my shoulder, "I have some practice with bows so hopefully I have not forgotten too much." I said with a slight grin.
"Im sure you will do fine dearie," Martha said standing up, "Now, if you will excuse me, I need to get back to getting lunch ready for the ranch." She explained and went over to check the pot over the hearth.
"Well, I think that is everything we needed," Bill said after a moment, "Lunch will be ready when you hear the bell ringing, now I should go and let the filolials out before they get antsy." He added, walking out of the room.
"We should get started as well Naofumi, you start on the south end, and patrol to the north, and I will start the other way and patrol in a widening arc to the south. When you get to the other side of the ranch, turn around and head back the other way till lunch." I explained, giving him his marching orders.
"Right, if I see a large gathering of monsters, I will try to take them all out." He said with a quick nod. "You should take the loot bag with you. I can just store most of the loot in the shield." He added, handing over the bag.
Having made our plan, for the time being, we each left the house and headed to opposite sides of the ranch. I made sure to keep an eye out to memorize the layout of the buildings and get a feel for where everything was, I saw that Bill had let all the birds out into their respective pens and that Junior was walking around spreading feed for the full-grown ones. It only took me a few minutes to make it to the north end of the ranch. I was mildly surprised to see that a balloon had already made it's way to the end of the path and fence line, seeing as it was a good opportunity I stopped about twenty yards away and drew the bow. I took a deep breath and the unleashed the arrow.
It flew fast and silent through the air and clipping the balloon on the side of it's mouth the arrow embedded itself in the ground with a solid "thunk", despite not being a direct hit it was still more than enough to kill the beast before it knew what happen. I quickly pulled another arrow and jogged over to claim my arrow and the large balloon shard. Stowing the loot I kept the bow at the ready and began to walk briskly to the south. It was a rather nice day out so thankfully it was cooler then it could be with a nice breeze.
I was making sure to keep my eyes open as I walked along the border of the woods, I would ocastionaly stop and check in all directions for any monster activity before resuming my path. I was about halfway past the chicks pen when I saw a group of pillrabbits heading for the fence, I quickly pulled the arrow back and loosed a shot into the center mass of the lead rabbit drawing the attention of the others. They quickly split off, with one running back into the trees and the other charging me. I slung the bow back over a shoulder and drew my knife as the beast reached me, it gave a powerful leap from the ground and lunged teeth out at my face. I stepped to the right while I brought my blade down on the critter ending it in one strike.
Nothing of any real interest happened until I crossed Naofumi a little more the halfway around the ranch, seeing him approach I called out to him. "How's it going? I caught three already near the fence," I bellowed so he could hear me.
"I got four balloons that were hiding one tree in, other than that I haven't seen anything." He responded, closing the gap at a jog.
"Good, keep on your path when I reach the southern point I am going to go about 10 yards into the forest." I started, taking out my canteen and taking a drink, "I don't expect to come across any real resistance until nightfall, but, if I come across any nest, I am going to wipe them out and mark the area. Hopefully the critters will get the message and start clearing out." I added.
"Sounds good, it looks like it takes half an hour to make a single pass so we should get a decent amount in before lunch." He responded also taking a moment to rest.
"Keep up the good work, I will see you at lunch and brief the ranch on any changes in the plan." I said getting a nod in return as I left back on my patrol.
It wouldn't be until I had made another two passes that I finally made contact with another group of monsters, this time it aperred to be what looked like four purcupines each as big as an average man. I took shelter down wind behind a cluster of ferns and readied my bow, pointing it at the closet monsters head and letting it rest for a moment I could see that the beast in my crosshairs was level ten. I swept my bow across each one in turn and found that it was the one level ten, two level nines, and a level thirteen. I decided that the best course of action was to break off and get Naofumi.
To say that I hauled ass back to the ranch proper might be an understatement when I cleared the woods I could see that Naofumi was coming down back to the midway point from the north side. Turning quickly, I bee-lined it to him; he saw me coming from about 300 yards away and started running to meet me.
"Naofumi! I found a nest of giant porcupines about fifty yards into the forest, it looks like a nest for them!" I shouted as he came closer.
"What's the plan?" He asked, breathing a little deeper from his run.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Junior riding out to us on a pitch-black filolial, I gave the nod in that direction to Naofumi to let him know to look over. He spotted Junior quickly, and we both raised an arm high in the air in greeting as he arrived. His bird nimbly hoped over the fence next to us and skidded to a stop as he pulled back on its reins.
"I saw you running out of the forest what have you got?" He asked quickly.
"Giant porcupines a group of four of them level ten to thirteen, about fifty yards in," I responded just as quickly.
"Damn it, those are some of the more dangerous beasts in the area. I never expected a nest of the so close to a village, will you be able to take them out?" He inquired, looking agitated as he slid down from the bird.
"We should be able to, I was thinking of starting the fight from a distance and hopefully knocking one or two out of the fight before it comes right to us," I said, pointing to the bow on my back.
"If you don't mind letting me us that bow you got there, I'm a pretty good shot," Junior said, gesturing a the aforementioned bow.
"Be my guest, Bill is loaning us that bow why we are working for the ranch so it yours anyway," I explained, sliding off the bow and its quiver and handing it over. Junior quickly took the bow and slung it over like I had.
"So how do you want to do this?" Naofumi asked now that we all had a weapon.
"The longest shot that was clear was about twenty-five yards so I will get one to look straight to Juniors position, he should be able to get it right in the head and take it out. You and I will be closer to the group to ambush them before they can make it to Junior, I will try to take one out with my knife and another with my spear but you are going to have to deflect one maybe two if my knife doesn't outright kill the one it hits." I explained laying out the best plan I had.
"I can do that, if I get anymore clean shots after y'all get on em I will do my best," Junior said with a nod.
"I liked it right up until the part where you're going to let a giant porcupine bum rush me, but I can do it," Naofumi said with a large dose of sarcasm.
"Okay, let's go," I said as we headed off to lay our trap.
It took about twenty minutes for us all to get into position, Junior had set himself up behind a fallen tree downwind of the beast. After that, Naofumi and I had crept up slowly to be about ten yards in front of Junior to cut off the inevitable charge. Now, all we had to do was wait for Junior to give the whistle to begin the attack, looking over to my right I gave Naofumi a nod of encouragement, and just one moment later we heard Junior whistle.
The first beast's head snapped up and looked straight at the now exposed chest of Junior, only for an arrow to zip through the air between Naofumi and I to hit the monster so hard in the face it flipped it over onto it's spiky back. The others let out a quick scream of rage that periced the air and began to charge at breakneck speeds. We stayed hidden until we heard Junior shout "Now!"
Naofumi and I quickly spun out from our spots and made a human wall right in the beast path, fast as a whip I snapped my knife from my holster on my belt into the closest one to me hiting it square in the chest and cuaseing it front flip. I tossed my spear bank to my right side and charged the next one coming. When I lowered to point down at the beast we were closing into too fast to change course. The beast and I came together like a train crash, as soon as I felt my spear connect I forced the point into the air lifting the now skewered beast high and forcing it up over my body to slam the speartip into the forrest floor as I twisted around to carry the momentum. The porcupine only let out a "huff" as it hit the ground and fell silent.
I quickly looked over to Naofumi to see that whilst the one he intercepted put a few quils in him, he had succsefully stopped its charge and throw it back. The beast apperade to twitch its hindquarters which to my surprise shot three quils into me as it charge Naofumi again. I snatched my spear and flipped it around as I yelled "Naofumi duck!", He dropped to the ground as the ball of metal on the end of my spear sored over his head and into the open mouth of the porcupine in midair with a resounding "Crack" as its teath shattered. The force of the hit was so strong that it tossed the monster into the air where an arrow hit it in it's soft belly with a loud "Thwak!".
Naofumi and I looked around to make sure we got em all before he called out to Junior.
"Good shooting Junior! We got them!" He said with a huge smile on his face. Junior let out a whoop in response.
"Great work team," I said to the smiling pair, "Junior do you think the filolial you had earlier can help us drag these back to the ranch?" I asked pulling my knife out of the monster I had thrown it into.
"Yeah Coal should be able to drag them all back," He said as he put his thumb and forefinger in the side of his mouth and let off a loud whistle tawords the ranch.
The black filolial I saw Junior on earlier came bounding to us impresivly fast in response to Juniors call, as it came along side the group Junior reached out and gave it a pat on its head.
"Hey buddy wanna help us get hese back to the ranch?" He asked scratching Coal under his chin, Coal let out a loud cawing noise in response and turned around so we could tie the beast off to his harness.
We made short work of tieing up the dead porcupines and affixing them to Coal, who in turn made it seem like he was perfectly happy dragging the bodys out of the forrest and down to the well rocking his head back and forth and cawing softly the whole way. When we were about halfway back to the ranch we heard the distinct sound of a ringing bell.
"Looks like it's lunch time yall." Junior said nodding to where Sarah was ringing a bell in the middle of the ranch.
"Well I don't think we could have timed it any better," I said with a little bit of a yawn whilst fideling with one of the quils I had been hit with. I gave a hearty wave to Sarah who had seen us approaching and waved back.
Junior tied Coal up to the well and we all headed inside to get some chow, I stopped just inside the door to take of my leather jacket and hang it up on a coat rack before making my way into the kitchen and have a seat at the table. Naofumi walked in a moment later having removed his chainmail and secured it to his pack. Soon enough the other members of the ranch started coming in and joining us at the table one by one.
Once everybody had said there hellos and had a seat around the table Martha brought the pot she had been tending to earlier over and set I down while Sarah brought over a stack of bowls.
"Alright yall know the rules everyone gets a full bowl and then you can fight like animals over the rest," Martha anouced and started passing bowls out around the table getting a thank you from everyone as they got theirs.
Everyone dug in imedeatly and it would be a number of minutes before the talking begun, the stew that she had made was delicious so I could see why. It had a good balance of chunks of meat and vegetables as well as a good roux base to be nice and thick but smooth at the same time.
"So I see you two have been busy," Bill said as he laddeled himself another serving of the stew.
"Yessir, we took out a small number and variety of monsters today but those beast out there are the big catch of the day," I said with a sly grin gesturing over to where we left the porcupines. "Junior was a big help with them." I finished give the man a nod.
"Ah well it was nothing," Junior said scratching his chin while Sarah slapped his arm looking a little put out, "All I did was shoot from a distance. Yout two did all the hard work, plus those quils couldn't have been fun to pull out. He added causing Naofumi to reflexively scratch where he pulled one out of his shoulder.
Sarah looked at us both a little stunned, "Those monsters managed to hit you both and you just shook it off? I got pricked by a baby one when I was a little girl and cried for hours." She explained looking at a loss for words.
"I could imagine, luckly for me my armour stopped all but one from getting throught to me, how did you fair Naofumi?" I asked him interrupting his munching.
"My shield and chainmail worked well, none of them gave me anything worse then a scratch." He responded scrathing at his shoulder again and returning to his bowl.
"Well thank heavens, being that big those beast could seriously hurt someone if they wernot prepared." Martha sighed with relief that we ended our hunt with no casualties.
"So what do you want to do with them? They are going to start rotting in about a day if you don't break them down and use the meat," Bill said having finished his second bowl.
Naofumi just looked at me and shurged, "You can harvest any meat from them that would make for good eating and anything else you can bait the traps with or feed to your flock if filolials will eat it." I finished not really sure myself what to do with them.
"That's awfully kind of you, looks like we will be having steaks for supper and filolials will eat anything so they will be happy to get something more then seed for the first time in a while. We can take care of building the traps and setting them out and Martha and Junior are pretty good butchers so they can break down the pines for you along with any other meater monster you go today." Bill said with a grin.
"Just leave it to us dearies, we will get those beast taken care of in no time." Martha said with a smile.
"Thank you, I think Williamson-sama and I are going to head over to the bunk house and get some rest before we have to get up tonight." Naofumi stated before excusing himself from the table.
"I think my partner has got the right idea," I said standing up as well, "Thank you for the food and I will see you at dinner time before we head back out."
"Y'all have a good rest you have definitely earned it. I will send Billy over to get you when dinner is ready." Sarah said patting the boy on the head as he ate messily.
"Thank you, we will see you all in a couple of hours then," I said giving them a wave as I stepped outside and started heading over to the bunkhouse looking forward to a nice long nap.