Appraiser's Job Chapter 35: The Departure of the Novice Party

This was the third time he'd worn these clothes.

Having donned my traveling clothes, I entered the street, sword in hand, where the lad's party had come to wait for me. This appearance…was just my preparation for the sake of caution. I certainly don't need the monster they're hunting this time to come my way. I thought I should at least make the least amount of preparation needed as a means of protecting myself.

With my s.h.i.+tty sword technique, I don't believe I can do anything to the monster, but that's more or less the kind of guy I am.

"Mr. Io!" The figures of a boy and girl ran energetically toward me from the street.

The pair, with their faces overflowing with eagerness, arrived in front of me with weapon in hand. The lad, a wooden staff curved into a half-moon at the top. Ms. Kornia, a thin double-edged blade.

They seemed quite raring to go.

"Please take care of us!"

"Mr. Io, are you a sorcerer?" Ms. Kornia asked as soon as she saw my appearance.

Aaah, I do appear to look that way, don't I.

I gave a wry smile as I pinched the hem of my robe between my fingers. "I can only appraise things. I received these clothes from the sewing guild who tailored them specifically for a job."

"That's so cool. I want custom-made clothes from my adventures, too."

Adventurers basically gathered in front of clothing stores to buy the traveling clothes they ma.s.s produced. Because of that they're less expensive. Even for weapons and armor, if the equipment is custom-made, they'll basically cost a large sum. This itself is proof of an adventurer's ability to earn a living.

"I'll give it my all so that someday I can wear clothes like that."

Ms. Kornia pulled out a sheet of paper from the pouch at her lower back. The paper held the details of the job they'd be doing this time around.

"Uhh...It looks like the Crawler is a little ways off of this highway."

"Alright, let's do this!" yelled the lad, boosting his enthusiasm as he started walking along the highway. Ms. Kornia followed after him.

I accompanied them from a short distance away as I watched over the two.

The problem Crawler's nest was not far from the road; we'd been walking for about 30 minutes when we discovered the place. We could see a glittering white membrane between two trees. This was the thread Crawlers spit out. The two grimaced as they avoided the spider web like strands that were wrapped completely around it.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

"The Crawler?" Ms. Kornia scanned her surroundings.

As if waiting on those words. A gigantic caterpillar crawled out from the shadow of a tree. With its yellow body and characteristic black eyeball pattern, it looked like a large swallowtail b.u.t.terfly larva based on its outward appearance.

It wasn't a very belligerent monster; either that or else it just didn't realize we were there, but regardless I didn't feel that it'd attack us for the time being.

The air held the feeling that if someone hurled magic at it from afar, it'd kill it just like that.

I wondered if the two realized that as the lad took a step forward and held up his staff.

"I'm going to kill it with magic," he said as he focused his consciousness into his staff.

With a pop.

A small fire like that of a candle light, appeared at the tip of the staff. Seeing it I recalled how during out dungeon investigation, Ms. Ruka's magic had had many flames. Strictly speaking, that level of power is to be expected but….

「Fireball!」

The fireball he created shot off in the direction of the Crawler. The fire flew through the air drawing a gentle arc as though a pebble had been thrown. Because it was too small, I couldn't tell where it'd land with the slight distance it had to travel.

But it's unreasonable for it to kill the Crawler.

The Crawler leisurely turned its head our direction. Did the flame just now hit it? It seemed to finally notice our existence over here.

Ms. Kornia brandished her sword. "It's not that it's entirely ineffective!"

No. It seems impossible. With that level of power.

The lad grasped his staff tightly and glared at the Crawler. "I'll shoot off as many as it takes until it's effective!"

It's fine to not give up, but isn't it important to face reality at a time like this?

The Crawler slowly creeped toward us.

….It'd be bad if I also didn't prepare to attack. Standing guard behind Ms. Kronia, I held my own sword ready in front of me.

And thus the curtain raised on the novice party's first fight.

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Footnotes:

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T/N: I can see how Io's att.i.tude can be annoying with how negative he is all the time. But I choose to think of him as an ordinary person in this world. Running away at the first sign of a monster and such. The man wants to be more, but his inner fear and doubt is always there.

Also, I'll prolly change how I translate -san/-chan/-kun in the near future. -kun is throwing me for a loop and annoying the s.h.i.+t out of me as I translate.

Spoiler: The fight against the Crawler is next! (not really a spoiler as this should be kinda obvious)

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