BXBX NOVEL Chapter 191.2 - Village Lunch (2/2)
“The first thing I thought of when I joined the mud salmander hunt for the first time today is that there’s way more of them than I expected. We somehow managed to deal with all of the ones within our area of responsibility, but there were teams that couldn’t completely defend their areas, right?” [Ryouma]
“Yeah, that’s right.” [Kai]
“This time it was another team that failed to hold an area, but we very well could find ourselves in a similar situation where there are simply too many enemies to deal with, so I was thinking that we ought to think of a more efficient way of fighting. Efficient enough so that even if a lot of mud salamander attack us at the same time, we’ll be able to deal with them.” [Ryouma]
“I think it’s fine.” [Peiron]
“Yeah. I agree.” [Kei]
“No complaints here.” [Shin]
“Same.” [Sein]
“In that case, we’ll be helping Ryouma-kun then.” [Kai]
Well, that was easy. Is it really okay for them to agree just like that?
At the company I worked at before, when the topic of how a certain new job is done, even if it’s a necessary change, they’ll refuse it, saying, ‘this is how we’ve done things until now.’
What’s worse is that the very suggestion to do things differently will incur one the ire of other employees.
They’ll say stuff like, ‘And what about us who’ve been doing this inefficient work all this time?’ or ‘Since we didn’t try to improve it when it could be improved, are you trying to insinuate that we’re incompetent?’ or ‘You’re out of line.’
But of course, those are extreme examples… Anyway, people are generally resistant to doing things differently. They would much rather just continue doing what they’ve used to. Because of that I was thinking that these guys would be more against my proposition, but somehow they were quick to accept.
I asked them why, and everyone made a wry smile and looked at each other. Shin-san was the one to answer my question.
“Actually, The way we did it this morning is just how the fishermen do it. People like us that are from around here do things similarly, but the adventurers all have their own way of doing things. All that really matters is that they’re able to accomplish what’s asked of them. We don’t mind you doing things your own way either since it’ll also be a learning experience for us to see how an adventurer from elsewhere does things.
A senpai from before told me that preparing beforehand and studying everyday – doing basic stuff like that and grinding away everyday is really important. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I didn’t really understand that advice until just recently when we got back from our trip after we met you.” [Shin]
Because of their lack of preparations, they suffered on that long journey for nothing.
Although it was thanks to them that I was able to get my hands on a bloody slime, it seems they’ve reflected on their actions since then.
In any case, I’m glad that they’re open-minded enough to hear me out without harboring any grudges.
“Alright, I hope you don’t mind, but I have some more questions I’d like to ask. Today, I noticed that there weren’t any mages fighting the mud salamanders. Is magic prohibited?” [Ryouma]
“No. We just don’t have any mages out here in the countryside. And adventurer mages wouldn’t bother going to a town like this either. If anything, they’re more likely to defend a bigger town.” [Sein]
“And there’s also just too many mud salmanders. With that many you’re bound to run out of mana, right? Of course, the reward is pretty good, but if you have to use mana recovery medicine just to do the job, if you mismanage your mana, you might just find yourself in the red instead.” [Kei]
“Fire isn’t very effective too and lightning spells might end up hurting friendlies. It would be great to defeat a lot of mud salamanders in one go with a spell, but if the fishes end up running away, that’ll just serve as a hindrance to the fishermen. Poison is out of the question. If you want to use magic, I think you’ll need to be very cautious.” [Peiron]
Sein-san, Kei-san, and Peiron-san were the ones to answer my question this time.
Although I have to pay attention to the things that they mentioned, in the end, they still gave me the go for magic.
Like this I asked them the questions I had in mind while eating. Afterwards, I started thinking about how I could use my familiars (mostly slimes) in the upcoming hunts.