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Volume 2 Chapter 32 - Rewards for Completing Requests and the Like

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In the end, he waited for several hours until well past noon when Gideon returned in a good mood and, as expected, he refused the herbs Allen delivered.

Allen complained when the delivery was refused because he had no fault in the collection method or time, but Gideon said, “I've already paid for that share. Besides, even though you accepted the request, you haven't come and delivered medicinal herbs here for the past few days,” and he couldn’t keep speaking any further.

After all, the request had not been withdrawn or revised, so it was certain that he still paid the reward for the several days during which Allen did not deliver them.

Up until now, Allen had been working to deliver the items as soon as he accepted the request, so it didn't bother him that much, but this time he hadn't delivered for four days, including the day he went out with Rebecca.

In other words, he would be receiving 120,000 zenny without doing anything.

This was because of the flow of events in the dungeon, but that still bothered Allen. That's why he sent Rebecca to the city and immediately returned to the dungeon.

It was obvious that he’d refuse even if he offered to return the money, so unable to accept that, Allen headed back to the dungeon, somehow collected the medicinal herbs at one of the designated locations, and delivered them.

Now that he managed to avoid five consecutive days without delivery, Allen breathed a sigh of relief.

“Haa, it's pretty late. I'm glad I heard that Rebecca was going to eat by herself.” (Allen)

Allen bought a random take-out meal at a store on the way home as he hurried home, walking quickly down the streets that were deserted after the sun had already set.

Not long after, Allen arrived at his house and opened the door, and saw Rebecca slumped over the desk, burnt out. Seeing that, Allen panicked and rushed over to her.

“O-oi. Are you okay?” (Allen)

“Ah, Len-nii, welcome back. I’m okay, I’m okay. I'm just a little tired, rather, it's the kind from a great success. Then, now that I've seen Len-nii's face, I'm going to take a rest.” (Rebecca)

Rebecca said that as she raised her body sluggishly, and Allen gazed at her with a worried look. As if to allay Allen's fears, Rebecca grinned a little, and waddled back to her room.

Allen watched her on the spot until her figure disappeared. The worried look on his face didn't change when she saw Rebecca's bravado, in fact, it deepened.

“Don't stay up just to see my face, get some rest.” (Allen)

After muttering those words of worry that could almost be called complaints, Allen ate the take-out meal he had brought home, even though it didn't seem to be very tasty.

.

.

.

The next day, when Allen woke up, Rebecca had already left the house.

However, considering the words written at the end of the letter on the table, which said, “I will give Len-nii a big surprise, so look forward to it,” Allen was convinced that she had recovered from the state she was in last night.

And now that he felt relieved, Allen headed to the dungeon to complete his request.

Allen’s bottleneck for the medicinal herb collection request was not the method of collection or transportation, but the time limit from collection to delivery.

Of course, while that time cannot be said to be long, it takes into consideration the time to leave the collection floor and the time to return to Lilac City. If he collects it from one place at a time, it won't be a big problem.

However, if he wanted to complete the request efficiently, this could be quite an obstacle. Because he’d have to go back and forth between the city and the dungeon many times to deliver the items, and as a result it would take several days to complete the request.

However, Allen had already found a solution to that problem.

During yesterday’s delivery, he didn't have time to check with Gideon to see if there was any problem, so he didn't do it, but during last night’s delivery, Allen had already confirmed that there was no problem with that collection method.

Gideon himself seemed to have doubts as to whether such a thing was really possible though.

“Let’s go.” (Allen)

Allen entered Lilac Dungeon and searched for medicinal herbs that were growing in locations that match the conditions specified in the request.

Allen had many years of experience as an adventurer, and he had recently explored many locations on various floors for the medicinal herbs collection request, so he searched for locations that met the conditions without getting lost, and soon found enough medicinal herbs for the delivery.

“Okay, next.” (Allen)

However, Allen didn't collect them right away, just memorized the location, and began searching for medicinal herbs that met other conditions.

Allen continued the work and gradually moved to deeper and deeper floors, until he finally reached the 10th floor, the deepest floor among the current conditions.

Once he was in front of the medicinal herbs that meet the conditions on the 10th floor, Allen let out a sigh and organized his mind.

Allen clearly envisioned the route he would take, and then he smiled happily.

“Then, let the continuous collection begin.” (Allen)

After muttering that, Allen started collecting the medicinal herbs in front of him.

Although he collected them carefully so as not to damage their roots or leaves, his speed was impossibly fast. Then, after carefully wrapping up the medicinal herbs he had collected and putting them into his bag, he started running along the route he had envisioned earlier.

Then, at his next destination, Allen found medicinal herbs, collected them as before, and ran again. Naturally, medicinal herbs that met the conditions were growing there.

Allen's idea was simple; since there was a time limit, he would just mark it in advance and start by collecting the ones in the deeper floors where the time limit was longer and collect the other ones on his way back, although he would have to take a bit of a detour. With this method, he could deliver all those medicinal herbs in one go.

Of course, there was a possibility that the medicinal herbs that Allen had marked might be collected by someone else, but he still decided to give it a try, thinking it would still save him some time and effort.

As it turned out, it was a great success.

The medicinal herbs Allen had marked on the 2nd floor had been collected, but fortunately, he discovered herbs that met those conditions by chance while heading to the first floor, and with that luck, he succeeded in delivering all the requested herbs in one go.

Allen grinned proudly at Gideon's surprised expression when he delivered them, but soon after, Gideon chased him away, telling him that he needed to do some serious research, and that grin turned into a wry smile.

As Allen was walking towards the Adventurers’ Guild in good spirits after somehow managing to get the request completion proof, he spotted a familiar figure coming out of a side street.

And the same was true for that figure, Iseria.

“Allen-san.” (Iseria)

Seeing Iseria, dressed in casual clothes with a calm impression, approaching him after calling out to him, Allen for a moment thought ‘Don’t come to me, I’m not in Nella form right now,’ but now that he thought about it, he remembered that he had already interacted with her as Allen.

Seeing Iseria so relaxed made Allen’s cheeks twitch a little, but he still smiled at her and replied.

“Yo, Iseria-san, are you on your way back from a request? I guess it doesn’t seem like it.” (Allen)

“Yes, today is my day off, so I was just wandering around the city. Incidentally, Allen-san, what if I told you I was looking for you?” (Iseria)

Iseria bent down slightly and looked into him while blushing, and Allen smiled wryly as he stared at that gesture.

A normal man would have thump’d at that sweet appearance, but to Allen who has known Iseria for somewhat long, he could clearly see that there was a hint of teasing in her expression.

“Rest assured I won't be running off with your magic bag.” (Allen)

“Mu, no effect, is it? It was part 3 of the ‘gesture to captivate a man’ that Rebecca-san taught me though. Putting that aside...” (Iseria)

Allen replied indifferently, and Iseria smiled at him, looking a little disappointed.

And, as if to signal that was the end of it, Iseria tried to switch to another topic, but her words were stopped by Allen.

“No, what the hell is that girl telling you. Or rather, part 3 you say, there other parts?” (Allen)

“Yes, I was taught up to 10, which is the beginner course.” (Iseria)

“What was she thinking, that idiot?” (Allen)

Seeing Allen covering his head with one hand and grimacing, Iseria let out a small sound and smiled. Not the fake smile she had before, but a natural smile.

Iseria watched Allen for a while, but then she remembered what she had to say and called out to Allen again.

“Let's leave that aside for now. It seems like they want you to show up at the guild.” (Iseria)

“Hm, aren’t we going there now... wait, you’re talking about that person, huh?” (Allen)

“Yes.” (Iseria)

Allen implicitly said that he is talking about going as Nella and Iseria nodded.

Allen understood what she's talking about, but he hadn’t accepted any requests as Nella, so he wracked his brain wondering if there's anything in particular he needed to do, and seeing that, Iseria added in a low voice.

“It seems that the sale of the aforementioned materials has been settled.” (Iseria)

“Aah, that, huh.” (Allen)

Allen immediately remembered something when he heard those words.

The aforementioned materials were the materials from the dragon puppies that Allen had frozen and defeated using Ice Coffin spell during the stampede of the Dragon Dungeon.

Allen had intended to leave them alone, but apparently, it was collected properly after that, and after the sale was settled, the money would be transferred to him.

He thought it didn't exist in the first place, and he left everything from retrieval to dismantling up to others, so Allen’s impression on it was extremely thin.

“Yes. The total is about 600 million zenny, so the guild doesn't want to keep it either, so they asked me, an acquaintance, to send the message.” (Iseria)

“!!?” (Allen)

Allen couldn’t help but almost cry out, but he managed to keep his mouth shut and refrain from making a sound.

Of course, it’s because the amount presented was far beyond Allen's imagination.

“No, isn’t that too high?” (Allen)

“It seems that there were some people who bought them at a high price. It seems that the fact that they were defeated by the hero who defended against the stampede and that the materials were undamaged gave them a high rating. Well then, I have conveyed the message.” (Iseria)

Saying that, Iseria walked toward a different direction from Allen, in the direction of her own inn.

After seeing her retreating figure, and while feeling his head drifting by the amount of money that exceeded his tolerance, Allen reported to the guild that the request had been completed, almost forgot to collect his reward, and left the guild.

After somehow managing to return home, Allen found Rebecca relaxing in the room, and that’s when he regained his senses.

For the sake of his peace of mind, Allen decided to postpone the problem for the time being, but Rebecca noticed that he had come home and ran up to him.

“Welcome home, Len-nii.” (Rebecca)

“Ou, I’m home.” (Allen)

“Here, the reward this time. It's Len-nii’s share.” (Rebecca)

Allen took the bag that Rebecca had hidden behind her back, and his cheeks twitched as he felt the weight of it.

Seeing Allen like that, ‘Nishishi,’ Rebecca laughed and said one thing to stop him.

“The reward for 1 set of 10 is 80,000 zenny. This time we achieved 461 sets, so Len-nii's share is 18,440,000 zenny. Geez, thanks to Iseria-san, we made more money than we expected.” (Rebecca)

Considering the amount of 600 million zenny he heard from Iseria earlier, the figure Rebecca told him while laughing with a ‘tehe’ should be much lighter.

However, the strangely realistic figure and the weight of it in his hand accurately pierced Allen's heart, and his thoughts stopped completely.

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(Translator announcement: my motivation has dropped, so I'm temporarily lowering my release rate of this series to 1 chapter every 2 days until my motivation is back. I know this is still pretty fast though.)

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