"Have you heard? Rumor says that a boss of the demon king army had taken over an old castle which is situated in the hills a short walk from town."
In the corner of the bar operated by the guild. I was listening to a man sitting at my table and drinking during the day. I am not drinking beer though, but Neroid swish.
What is Neroid?
What is swish?
Neroid is the name of the drink I think. Swish is the uhh… sensation you feel when you drink it. Kinda like carbonated drink but softer, so it's like, you know, 'swish' through your throat instead of bubbling. It's not bad to be honest, makes me wonder how this'll taste like with cola.
"Oi, aren't you the guy who claimed that you're gonna defeat the demon king?" a guy beside me said.
"Yep, I'm planning on it," and plan I did. I've already map out the location of this castle and did my research on who could be staying in that castle. It took quite a lot of digging and information gathering, but apparently it is the sword master of the Demon King.
Verdia the Dullahan.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not stupid enough to challenge someone like Demon King's sword master into a sword fight. So right now, I'm looking for the quickest, most safest way to grind my level enough to upgrade my ranged skills.
Yes, I need to grind. What's that? The exp from Rookie Killer, Goblins, and Zombie Maker? Well, usually that would at least get you to your twenties, but not this guy.
I'm still level fourteen. Yes, fourteen. Seriously!
Still, I got a LOT of points to spare. So I have that going for me, which is nice. Though, I still need to figure out how to defeat the demon king general…
I sighed a little and plopped my head on the bar table. This is harder than I expected. Even with Megumin's explosion, there's no guarantee it can kill the demon king general in one shot. Aqua might have a chance since a Dullahan is a type of undead. But I don't want to bet on it.
With that sombre thought, I stood up from the bar and walked back to the table where the rest of my party is waiting. They're all looking at me intensely, as if waiting for me to say something.
"Good morning," I greeted them, not having anything to say. They're still staring at me intensely, making me a bit nervous. "Uhh, why are you looking me like that?"
"Nothing–? I wasn't worried about Kazuma joining another party or anything." Aqua said as she looked at me with uneasy eyes.
"…? Eh, I was only gathering information, that is the basics of adventurers." I took a seat at their table and reached for a vegetable stick.
The vegetable stick dodged my out reached hand.
Oi, you're not supposed to do that…
I cast steal and grabbed it tightly in my hand.
"So you're not leaving then?" Megumin asked suddenly.
"No! Just how did you get into the conclusion?"
"Well, you seem so happy talking to other party member. Seeing Kazuma being on good terms with the other parties, the melancholic feeling is mixed with something good… Could this be the legendary NTR…?" Darkness moaned a little after saying that.
She even gets off from that?! Holy shit, just what the hell is wrong with this girl!?
"Look, listen everyone, I'm not leaving Fantastic Dreamer for some nameless party," I told them. "That's why we're going to do some mission briefing for now," I looked at each and every single one of my teammate.
Aqua, an actual goddess with mastery over holy type skills, healing, and party tricks. She's dead useful as long as you keep her on a tight leash. Have her do what she wants and her pit bottom intellect will punish you for it.
Megumin, a Crimson Demon with mastery over the explosion spell. Basically, a walking, breathing, once a day use nuke. Extremely useful once a day before becoming a dead weight. Use her sparingly and wait for that sweet, perfect, opportunity and she'll be your new best friend.
Darkness, a Crusader with a powerful defense. She's a meat shield that just loves getting beaten up. It took more effort dragging her away from enemy than getting her to block an enemy's attack. Keep her on a tight but not too tight leash and she'll be the perfect for bait and stalling. Just don't expect any DPS coming from her.
Finally, me, the adventurer and self-proclaimed master strategist. Pretty good at swordplay, extremely good at utilizing basic spells, and has the luck of Eris. With enough effort, I can put in some decent DPS and support.
Not the worst line up if you ask me…
"Okay, let's talk about managing our funds," I told them. "I told you guys in the recruitment poster that you won't get any monetary value from joining this group. That's why all, yes, all of the money from the cabbages you caught will go straight to the party's fund. All of it free to be used by other member."
Megumin and Darkness looked at each other for a moment before shrugging a little. "Well, our party did get a lot of cabbages…" Megumin said. "I don't mind sharing my share with everyone else."
"Yes, and we did work together to gather those cabbages," Darkness added. "It will be fair if we all use it for ourselves."
I nodded a little, satisfied. Then I turned to Aqua who looked extremely annoyed. "Come on Aqua, what's wrong with sharing our bounty?"
Aqua bit her lip. "B-but I want to use it all for myself!"
I rolled my eyes a little. "You get to use it, as long as it's reasonable, look how about this," I cleared my throat a little. "Excluding equipment upgrade or maintenance, everyone can use ten thousand Eris a day to do whatever they want, hmm?"
"So it's something like a salary?" Darkness asked.
"Yes, exactly that. For a purchase over that amount, we will discuss about it. Say you want a brand new armor or," I turned to Megumin. "you want a brand new staff. We'll talk about it before purchasing it."
Everyone seems satisfied with my explanation.
Ha! Take that unstable life of adventurers!
---
It's the day we've been waiting for. All the cabbage captured back then had been sold and the adventurers got their bounties.
We gathered on a table at the corner of the guild, each one of us holding a mysterious amount of money. It's a little bit tense since everyone seems to be thinking that the other is going to lie about the amount.
Well, I have no reason to lie since I cannot physically keep more than one hundred thousand Eris on my side. "Okay everyone, today Fantastic Dreamer's corporation is born," I took a deep breath and took out a tiny sack of coin on to the table. "This is my share."
There was a tinkling sound as a bunch coins dropped on the table. Two mithril coins among a pile of gold coins, roughly 2.500.000. "Two point five million Eris from yours truly," I told them.
Everyone just watched with wide eyes at the sight of the amount of wealth I just culminated over the course of a few days. "You're giving all of it us?" Darkness asked in disbelief.
"Of course, I did say all of them," I gave each and everyone of them a sharp look. "Right?"
Megumin nodded in agreement. "This is all of my bounty, three hundred thousand Eris," she muttered before pouring an assortment of silver and copper coins. "A proud archwizard such as I has no use for trivial things such as wealth."
I nodded a little in response. "Good, good," I turned towards Darkness.
The crusader swiftly poured some coins. "half a million Eris," she said. "Please, use it as you wish," she added.
I smiled a little. "Thank you Darkness," then I turned to Aqua. "Well then Aqua?"
Aqua bit her lip and looking like she's about to cry. But then she took out a sack of money and dropped it in front of us. "Aah! How did lettuce gets mixed up in there!?" she exclaimed in frustration.
Lettuce?
I opened her sack and saw a pitiful amount of copper and some silver mixed in there. I looked back at her and saw her trying hard not to cry. "W-well… This is roughly…" I looked at the money. "Fifty thousand Eris…"
I slid the sack back at her without another words. She mouthed thank you before weeping quietly to herself.
Eris must've really hate her somehow…
"Okay so," I cleared my throat. "Since we have roughly three point three million Eris, let's talk about getting the demon king general's bounty. What do you say?"
Everyone but Aqua nodded in agreement. The latter is still too busy weeping to herself.
"Great, first, equipment," I turned towards Megumin. "Megumin, do you need any new equipment?" I asked her.
The little girl nodded a little. "An upgrade for my staff would be nice, I'd love to add more destructive power to my explosion," she explained.
"How much would you need?"
Megumin averted her gaze. "Well… I was planning to use all my bounty and buy a two hundred and fifty thousand enchantment but…" she blushed a little. "There's this one I really, really want."
"How much?"
"One million…"
"Is it good?"
"It's really, really good. It'll worth every Eris."
I rubbed my chin in deep thought. I can only trust Megumin's words as an actual wizard about the quality of staffs. "What do you think Darkness, Aqua, should we buy it?"
Darkness eyes widened a little after hearing that. "W-why are you asking me? That's more than mine and Megumin's bounty combined!"
"Well it's our money now."
"Kazuma and his Marxist view is corrupting my teammates…" I heard Aqua mumbling to herself.
Shut up you Capitalist Goddess.
"Well… I, I don't mind really," Darkness replied with a sheepish smile. "I only need half a million Eris for my new armor,"
"You sure you don't want a better one?"
"The better one costs five million Eris," Darkness replied. "So I prefer saving all the way up to that amount."
I see, well, armors can be pretty expensive. "That leaves us with around… one point eight million Eris," I told them. "I'm planning on getting some new gears and better weapons too, what about you Aqua?"
"My staff and my hagoromo is enough. I don't need anything… else…" she averted her gaze a little.
"You really don't need anything else?"
Aqua bit her lip. "Can I, borrow… 50.000 Eris to pay a debt?"
I looked at Darkness and Megumin. Even they couldn't look at Aqua in the eyes as they pushed a handful of coins to her direction.
"Th-thank you…" Aqua muttered.
I am giving her a stern talking about borrowing money after this…