WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈

Chapter 18: First Mission (2)

──────

To attack from the right while avoiding the wall, they would naturally have to contend with the shield, making it difficult to land a hit.

Gerik had unconsciously looked down on the two adventurers at first because they were only Wood Plates, but seeing them now reminded him that years of accumulated experience could not be ignored.

"Kie!! Kiee!!"

While the party quickly took up their combat positions, about ten ugly green monsters appeared before them.

"Kii!! Kiii!!"

"Kyak!! Kyakyak!!"

Though there were only three of them, the Goblins did not charge as aggressively as they had when Gerik first encountered them. The three adventurers, standing in a practiced formation with sharp weapons in hand, looked far from easy prey.

Instead, the creatures banged their crude clubs against the ground and their shields, threatening the party.

Creak... Click!

As if familiar with the situation, Olin silently held his position at the front, waiting for something despite the Goblins' threats.

Gerik also realized that Wilber, the Gnome at the rear, was preparing something. He stayed still, ready only for their charge.

Fwoosh!

Not long after the standoff began, a sharp whistle cut through the air behind Gerik.

At the same time, a quarrel buried itself in the shoulder of a Goblin that had been screaming at the front.

"Kieek!!"

The Goblin, foolishly screaming when the quarrel struck its shoulder, let out a pained cry and collapsed to the ground.

Unbothered, Wilber mechanically reloaded another quarrel and prepared to fire again.

Fwoosh!!

Another quarrel flew out moments later. This time, perhaps because the first shot had caught them off guard, the Goblin raised its shield and barely blocked it.

The Goblin leader also realized that remaining in a standoff would put them at a disadvantage against ranged attacks, so it ordered a charge.

"Kiiik!!"

"Hup!!!"

Olin raised his sword, held his shield before him, and waited for the lead Goblin to attack.

When one thrust its shoddy shortsword at him from the front, he blocked the crude attack with his shield, then skillfully brought down his raised arming sword on its shoulder.

"Keee!!!"

Smack!

As the heavy arming sword came down on a body no bigger than an elementary school child's, a miserable scream burst from the Goblin's mouth.

It writhed in pain on the floor, and Olin kicked it away.

"Kek!!"

When Olin attacked and briefly exposed an opening, a Goblin on his right raised its club and aimed for his torso.

'...Slash!'

Gerik, who had been carefully watching the situation from a high guard, finally felt that his turn had come.

He drove down his raised sword and used the skill he had practiced countless times, Slash.

Shhk!!

A sharp silver flash struck the Goblin's neck. The blade's path, cutting diagonally from right to left to avoid harming Olin, severed the Goblin's neck without the slightest error. Its ugly head soared into the air.

'Slash...!!'

Gerik had sent one head flying in an instant, but he did not stop. He used Slash again.

Just as he had practiced countless times, the longsword lowered to the ground swept swiftly from below into the middle guard at his will, cutting through the neck of the Goblin charging in behind it.

Shhk!!

The chilling sound of flesh tearing echoed through the sewer again. Another Goblin head shot into the air.

At the gruesome sight, the Goblins that had charged without fear faltered for the first time.

Fwoosh!! Fwoosh!!

As if mocking them, more quarrels whistled through the air from behind Gerik.

The first missed, but the second pierced through a Goblin's thigh.

"Kiee...!!"

The wounded Goblin dropped to the ground in an awkward position, blocking its companions.

Olin noticed that it had become an obstacle between the front and rear Goblins, creating a bottleneck. He did not miss the perfect chance and swiftly swung his arming sword at an adjacent Goblin.

Smack!!

Unlike Gerik, whose skill allowed him to attack at superhuman speed, Olin's attack was only what one would expect from a strong adult.

That allowed the Goblin to barely block it with its crude shield.

'An opening...!!'

Seeing the large opening created as it blocked Olin's attack, Gerik used the longsword's reach to thrust his blade into the Goblin's torso.

"Kie..."

A pained groan escaped the Goblin's mouth as the sword pierced its body. As soon as Gerik pulled it out, Olin skillfully kicked the creature away and cleared the obstruction.

Fwoosh!! Fwoosh!!

So that no stray quarrels would fly into the front line, Wilber, unusually quiet for a Gnome, kept firing quarrels from his crossbow at the Goblins in the rear.

"Kik!! Kiik!!"

It was suppressive fire, so the quarrels were not especially accurate. Still, even a stray shot was dangerous if it hit, and that was enough to slow the Goblins' charge.

"Charge!"

Once their numbers had fallen by more than half, Olin called for his companions to go on the offensive.

Gerik and Wilber, who had no objections, each drew a melee weapon and charged the Goblins before them.

"Hiik!!"

The Goblins' cowardly nature surfaced. They were brave in numbers, but helpless once they were reduced to a few.

Their earlier aggression was nowhere to be seen as they turned and tried to flee.

'Slash...!!'

Shhk...!!

One fleeing Goblin's head flew off from Slash.

Against Gerik's party, who had already built up momentum, turning to flee now was nearly impossible.

It was a one-sided slaughter. The Goblins could not even put up a proper fight.

"Whew! Incredible! This is incredible!!"

Wilber whistled with delight after they slaughtered ten Goblins without suffering so much as a scratch.

Grinning from ear to ear, he drew a dagger and began cutting off the Goblins' ears.

Gerik, seeing this, sheathed his longsword across his back, took out his multipurpose shortsword, and began cutting off ears as well.

"Hey, friend! Who taught you that swordsmanship?"

Having finished collecting Goblin ears, Wilber approached Gerik and asked about his fantastic swordsmanship in the cheerful voice typical of a Gnome.

Olin was equally curious about the fluid swordsmanship no novice adventurer should have been capable of displaying.

He did not ask aloud, but he stepped closer to Wilber with a curious expression and waited for Gerik's answer.

"I just... learned from a retired adventurer who lived in my village for a few years."

Gerik could not say that he had learned the skill through the status window, the cheat of a reincarnator, so he gave a vague answer.

"From an adventurer?! What kind of adventurer was he?"

"I'm not really sure..."

Wilber persistently pressed him, but Gerik continued to dodge the question and never explained how he had learned.

Perhaps having lost interest, Wilber smacked his lips and pulled a map from his clothes.

"Let's see... If we go a little farther, there's a large underground chamber. Shall we head there?"

"Let's."

Since losing or damaging the map would be a problem, the party had tacitly agreed to entrust it to Wilber, who provided covering fire from the rear.

That naturally put Wilber in charge of choosing where they explored, and the party headed for their next destination at Wilber's suggestion.

"There they are!!"

After walking for some time, the party spotted a group of around fifteen Goblins. Thanks to their previous battle, they had begun to work well together and naturally formed a combat formation around Olin.

"Gerik!!"

Olin seemed to trust Gerik, whose attacks were sharper, even more than Wilber, whom Olin had worked with for a long time.

Unlike before, Olin stepped toward the Goblins more actively, repeatedly taunting and defending rather than attacking to create openings for Gerik.

'Slash...!!'

Answering Olin's trust, Gerik unleashed Slash with deadly force, harvesting Goblin heads one after another.

"Hehe!! We got twenty-six of them in less than half a day! Incredible! This is incredible!!"

The sun had not even begun to set, yet they had already collected so many Goblin ears. Wilber showed his joy with his whole body.

"Hey! Newbie! How about we work together again next time?!"

"...I'll think about it."

Gerik had secretly taken a liking to Olin and Wilber through today's mission.

Still, past experience had taught him that blindly accepting someone's kindness could put him at a disadvantage, so he subtly played hard to get and left the two of them hanging.

"Oh, come on! Let's do the next sewer mission together too! With our skills, we'll make money in no time, right?!"

"All right. All right."

After a long back-and-forth, Gerik reluctantly agreed as though he had finally given in to Wilber's pleading.

"It's a promise, right?! Great! The sewers are ours now!! Hehe!!"

Having received Gerik's agreement, Wilber radiated the cheerful spirit of a Gnome as if Wilber owned the whole world.

The mood spread through the party, and they left the sewer with bright expressions.

"Are you giving up on the mission?"

A party assigned a subjugation mission usually took two days at the shortest, or three days or more when it ran long. When the temporary party returned in less than half a day, the receptionist seemed to assume they had abandoned the mission because they could not work together.

"What are you talking about... Do you think adventurers with incredi~ble skills like ours would give up? Come on, take a look at this!"

Wilber puffed out his chest and handed the receptionist a bag filled with Goblin ears.

Wilber's attitude was undeniably arrogant, but perhaps because Wilber was a Gnome, the people around them watched with amused expressions rather than taking offense.

"Just a moment..."

Even the receptionist, the target of Wilber's boasting, opened the bag with a doubtful look and began taking out the ears one by one.

"One... Two..."

The Goblin ears had been cut off only hours ago and were still dripping blood, but although the receptionist was a slight woman, she counted them one by one without batting an eye, as if accustomed to the bloody task.

"A total of twenty-six. Everything appears to be in order."

Seeing the fresh Goblin ears, whose blood had not yet dried, along with the guards' verification stamps on their entry passes, the receptionist realized that they really had completed the mission in less than half a day.

Interest briefly flickered across the receptionist's face before it returned to a businesslike expression. The receptionist took out an additional silver coin and several dozen copper coins from behind the counter and handed them to Wilber.

"Good work. This is the promised reward. Your mission completion speed was exceptional, so I will assign a Grade 1 completion rating for this mission. Your base contribution of two points receives the Grade 1 multiplier of two, for a total of four points."

"Grade 1?! Yippee! Nice!"

Seeing that the reward was higher than the original amount, Gerik became curious and asked the receptionist about the rating system.

"After completing a mission, you receive one of five ratings based on factors such as your method of resolution and speed."

The receptionist explained the five completion ratings.

Grades 4 and 5 were effectively disqualifying ratings, Grade 3 was ordinary, Grade 2 was an excellent rating, and Grade 1 could only be received by completing a mission perfectly.

The receptionist added that Grade 5 gave only the reward, with no contribution points, if the process was terrible even though the result was technically successful. Grade 4 gave half contribution, Grade 3 gave normal contribution, Grade 2 gave one and a half times contribution, and Grade 1 gave double contribution.

'And Grades 2 and 1 also give extra compensation... like this time.'

It seemed to be a system intended to stop adventurers from doing the bare minimum for the reward and carelessly wrapping up missions.

Gerik admired the structure, which blended carrot and stick so well.

"Could it be... are contribution points what you use to buy goods from the Adventurers’ Guild or receive its help...?"

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried