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Volume 2 Chapter 27 - Securing Treant Building Materials

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With a ‘koon, koon’ sound, Rebecca was swinging the axe she took out from her magic bag toward the trunk of a treant.

All of the treant's branches had already been removed, and the treant, unable to resist, could only look at Rebecca with resentment.

Nearby, Allen was peeling the bark of another treant and cutting its trunk clean and straight to make building materials.

Seeing the straight, undisturbed result that would be worthy of a craftsman, Allen nodded with satisfaction and stuffed the finished product into the magic bag he was given.

“Ooi, I’m done here.” (Allen)

“Um. I’m just a little bit more!” (Rebecca)

The axe Rebecca was swinging gradually buried itself into the trunk, but the treant did not fall easily. That said, the blade had already reached halfway, so it wouldn't be long before it was defeated, Allen thought.

Up until now, they had fought against several treants, and although the first one was fought with the two of them, it was Rebecca who defeated the treants after that.

This was because of how they split their roles; after they dragged the defeated treant to the next treant, Rebecca would be fighting the new treant, while Allen would be processing the treant she had defeated earlier.

For Allen, he thought it would be nice if this could help Rebecca raise her level, so he decided to watch over her and not touch her treant even if he finished processing his treant first.

Rebecca started swinging her axe from the opposite side, and after a while, the treant’s body slowly collapsed while making a creaking sound.

Seeing that, Rebecca wiped her sweat with her sleeve, and Allen approached her and handed her a towel.

“Good job.” (Allen)

“Ah, Len-nii. Thank you.” (Rebecca)

Rebecca wiped her face with the towel she received, and then let out a deep breath with a refreshed face.

Allen could sense some fatigue in her expression, so, with a worried look on his face, he made a suggestion.

“Should we take a break?” (Allen)

“Hmm, I guess we should.” (Rebecca)

After pretending to ponder a bit, Rebecca nodded, perhaps having calmly assessed her state, and then she sat down on top of the treant she had just defeated. Allen then handed Rebecca a water bottle as he sat down next to her.

Rebecca opened the water bottle she had received, slurping and gulping as she rehydrated herself, then she took her mouth away and let out another deep breath.

“Geez, treants are more incompatible with me than I thought.” (Rebecca)

“After clearing the branches, the stronger ones will have an advantage after all. You’re focused on agility, Rebecca, so it might be difficult for you.” (Allen)

When Rebecca said that while looking tired and dangling her hands, Allen agreed with her while giving her a wry smile.

In reality, Rebecca wasn’t compatible with treants. She had no problem clearing the branches, but the process of cutting down the trunk after that inevitably took a long time.

As Allen said, Rebecca's strength is not very strong.

That said, compared to Nick, a civilian who comes here every once in a while and does the same thing, she’s much faster though.

“If I can't catch up with Len-nii's speed, the efficiency will be,” (Rebecca)

As Rebecca stood up while muttering something like that, Allen followed after her and also stood up, and then he thrust his hand into the open hole that used to be the treant's mouth.

Then he grabbed there, which was easy to hold like a handle, and dragged it, following Rebecca ahead of him.

Rebecca, who was leading the way, was muttering to herself as she gathered her thoughts on what to do. Her face was that of a merchant, not an adventurer.

“It’s not like we’re losing that much time, so isn’t it fine?” (Allen)

“No, it's not. Even if it's just a small difference, if we pile up a lot of them, it'll be a big deal. Hmm, I wish we have at least one more person. But then, we’ll fight over distribution, and I also want to keep the information confidential...” (Rebecca)

Seeing Rebecca placing her hand on her chin as she continued her thought, Allen was secretly impressed even as he smiled wryly. Seeing her troubled by completely different things from him made him realize that she truly was a merchant.

In fact, Allen himself had a bit of a problem, but since Rebecca was in such a state, he felt like this wasn’t the time to express them, so he mulled it over in the back of his mind while keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings.

(This makes it 3 sets. In other words, my share will be 120,000 zenny. Is this really okay?) (Allen)

Allen thought while tilting his head slightly as he kept his guard up with his eyes.

One treant could be made into 4 to 6 building materials of Rebecca’s specifications. As of now, they had defeated 7 of them and finished making 30 building materials, and considering the reward for Rebecca’s designated request, it would be 240,000 zenny. Allen's share would be half of that, which is 120,000 zenny.

It had only been about 3 hours since they reached the 9th floor, yet he had already earned 120,000 zenny.

If they continued this for half a day, he’d earn about 500,000 zenny. Of course, this was a rough estimate that didn’t take breaks into account at all, but it's still an extraordinary amount of money to earn in one day.

This was well illustrated by the fact that Allen's previous annual income was 3 million zenny.

Moreover, Rebecca said that she would repeat this over and over again. Allen couldn’t imagine how much money would come into his hands as a result.

(Could it be, she made a request like this just to give me money... no, there’s no way she’d do that.) (Allen)

Allen immediately dismissed the thought that came to his mind for a moment.

Because, while Allen couldn’t tell for sure if that was her intention, the way Rebecca was thinking about efficiency with a serious expression in front of him gave him a sense of dreadfulness that was the characteristic of one who was seriously dedicated to their work.

Allen put his hand on Rebecca’s shoulder that felt bigger than it looked, and stopped her steps. He then pointed to a treant he had discovered, diagonally in front of them to the right.

“For now, just do your best.” (Allen)

“Un.” (Rebecca)

As he watched Rebecca's back as she enthusiastically broke into a run, Allen began processing the treant he had been dragging along with him.

.

.

.

The two continued to hunt for treants, until the date had already changed and it was almost 12:00 in the afternoon.

Except for a few small breaks, meal breaks, and a four-hour nap between the two of them, they continued defeating treants, netting them a total of 12 sets. In total, the two had completed a job with the reward of 960,000 zenny.

That said, in Rebecca's case, it was a self request, so the money she was going to get was just her own money though.

Allen's condition was much the same as it was in the beginning. In fact, he hardly fought any treant, and even when it came to processing the wood, he was holding back, keeping in mind to lower his speed and be very careful, so he was hardly tired.

Rebecca on the other hand...

“UGAA─H!!” (Rebecca)

“Oooooh, it's piling up.” (Allen)

Her frustration had piled up so much that she let out an incomprehensible scream.

Allen smiled wryly as he looked at Rebecca, knowing that she wouldn't gather any surrounding monsters because of that, as there were only non-moving treants on this floor.

Perhaps noticing Allen's state, Rebecca approached him with an axe in her hand.

The expression on the treant's face as it had been cut halfway through and left alone as if it was saying, ‘Eh, you’re leaving me half-dead?’ seemed sad to Allen, but his field of view was blocked by Rebecca, who was standing in an imposing stance with her axe on her shoulder.

“I know it, it’s impossible for the frail me!” (Rebecca)

“No, frail you say... you’re a lot faster than Nick, you know. Worthy of an iron class adventurer.” (Allen)

“You’re making the wrong comparison. I wish there was another Len-nii.” (Rebecca)

Rebecca started saying that while puffing out her cheeks, and Allen smiled wryly at that. It's not like he didn’t understand what Rebecca was trying to say, but Allen didn’t even want to think about what if there was another one of him.

Partly because of fear of facing an opponent with the same non-standard stats, but mostly physiological.

“If it was Len-nii, it'd just go ‘spaan’.” (Rebecca)

“No, don't take a stance, don’t. And the way you say it makes it feel like I'm being cut with a ‘spaan’.” (Allen)

Rebecca seemed to be imitating Allen swinging an axe at a treant, but Allen held out his hand and tried to stop her. It's obvious that it's a joke because they're both laughing.

But, only those who could see the expressions of the two who were facing each other could tell.

“Put that axe down! If you make any strange movements, I will stop you by force.” (Iseria)

Allen saw the figure of Iseria jumping over Rebecca's body while issuing such a warning.

Then, Allen thought, ‘Why are we meeting in a place like this?’ as he secretly held his head in his hands, making sure that Rebecca didn’t see him as she looked back at him, not understanding what she meant.

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