Now that I had the children learning, it was time to resolve my other plans. Specifically, my goblin farms. With the points I had saved up for the dungeon, I upgraded both of my goblin farms twice, making them able to spawn four goblins per day. Then, using the points I acquired over the next couple of days, I upgraded all three of my rabbit farms once each.
It would have been best to do this while Wesley was here, but that wasn’t exactly an option at the moment.
Within the church, the rabbit-eared Prim slowly looked upwards from where she had been kneeling, a serene smile on her face. “I understand, my lord,” she said calmly, before turning to walk out of the tavern. Outside, the villagers were going about their work. Prim saw several of the newer villagers, still anxious about finding work in the village.
She knew that they would find their place soon enough, but also that they were being paid quite well thanks to their children in the school. However, that was not what she had come out for. Instead, she made her way towards the tavern, where the majority of the adventurers spent their days. Without a proper guild hall, this was the only place where they could come to relax.
Upon entering, she found it as rowdy as ever. While there were no fistfights taking place, there were numerous heated conversations. “Excuse me, adventurers,” Prim called out in a calm tone that cut through the disorder within the tavern. “I believe that I have work for you all.”
“Oh?” one of the adventurers turned with an interested smile. “What kind of work? Don’t tell me that you want us to go work the fields now?” he said in a lighthearted tone, earning a few chuckles from the other tables.
Prim didn’t take his words seriously, knowing that he was simply joking. “I cannot fault you for that assumption, but no. The lord has detected sightings of goblins near the edge of the forest. Although few in number, it is best to prevent them from leaving and making their way to our lands.”
“As such, we would like to ask any adventurer willing to venture into the forest to subjugate these goblins. For the reward, you may naturally sell the goblin’s mana stones to the general store. In addition, the village will pay twice as much from its own treasury, due to the nature of this mission. Similarly, any additional magic stones you acquire along the way shall be purchased as well.”
This got the attention of the adventurers, who began to take the words seriously. They hadn’t had a proper chance to fight for quite a while, and had thus been short on funds. Several of them had already been talking amongst themselves of leaving the village altogether.
“I’m in!” Sylphy shouted, raising one hand eagerly into the air. She was already calculating the profits in the back of her mind, thinking how many meals she could buy if she captured enough goblins. Plus, this would be a good chance to test out her offensive divine powers.
While Prim was rallying the adventurers, I had Ugor doing his own work. He selected fifty of the strongest goblins and arranged them into groups of two or three, before sending them out under the guise of scouting the nearby terrain. Among these goblins was a single hobgoblin that had managed to successfully evolve at the altar, as well as a few others that had received lesser blessings.
These goblins were the ones most likely to try to usurp Ugor’s power, so it was a good way to get rid of them. This would satisfy the adventurer’s need for work while also solidifying his control over the nests.
After this, it was just a matter of watching the battle unfold. After arriving in the forest, the groups of adventurers that had accepted the mission began to split off, moving in different directions to hunt. Some of them moved outside of the territory that I had established, while others remained. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
With the goblins split into such small groups, they were easy pickings for the adventurers. Only the hobgoblin managed to actually injure one of the groups, forcing them to work together with another nearby party to subjugate it.
Meanwhile, those that left the territory managed to find their own prey. Some of them returned with goblin trophies, while others came back with mana stones of various monsters.
Just looking at the rate that the goblins repopulated, it would be a good idea to do this kind of hunt once a week to keep their numbers under control.
The next day, I was monitoring the territory when another research option appeared to me. Thankfully, just in case a cheap option appeared, I had been making sure to keep my points full until classes ended for the day.
This research was for a tier one herb garden, and the research for it cost one hundred points. Since it was within my budget, I naturally purchased the research right away. After purchasing the research, I planned to immediately construct the garden to start growing herbs, assuming that it functioned similar to a farm.
However, I was instead greeted with a second window. This one said that I lacked the necessary building prerequisite to purchase the garden, so it would remain locked until I did so. So, in other words, not only do I have to wait for a random research to appear, but it might not even be a research that I’m capable of using right away? I was understandably annoyed by this development, but did my best not to let it bother me.
With a mental sigh, I allowed the monotony of the village to gradually resume. Although more research options appeared over the next few days, I ignored them, as none of them were cheap enough for me to worry about.
Then, as the next caravan returned from the weekly deliveries, I caught sight of another large group accompanying them. This group was easily more than twice the size of the last influx of villagers, and I counted sixty new faces by the time they reached the front of the village.
Moreover, among those faces was none other than Wesley, who had been gone for almost two months. Two months…? I hesitated, thinking back to the intermittent weather. No wonder it’s been getting colder lately. Autumn is almost over now…
That must have been why Wesley had chosen this time to return, knowing that winter was just around the corner. Did that mean that I wouldn’t be able to get any new villagers until spring…?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, I felt something shift. Another group was approaching along the road, though this one was coming from the south. The A-ranked party that went to deal with the dungeon to the south was making their way along the road, escorting a smaller group of what looked like civilians.
“Ehhh, why’d we have to get saddled with this escort mission?” Jira complained, rolling her shoulders. “It took so long just to finish off that one dungeon, and now we gotta babysit?”
Roman shook his head at that. “We were going to stop by the village anyway. We might as well pick up some spare change along the way. Or did you not want to eat at that tavern again?”
Jira’s eyes widened at the reminder, her stomach already grumbling. “R-right, I forgot about that. But, why so many?” she asked, looking back at the wagons of people that they had brought with them.
“Apparently, the guild in Leonin is attempting to foster good relations with the village,” Roman recalled the explanation from the guildmaster. “Since Wesley left on a journey shortly after we did, they haven’t been able to maintain communications. This should be a show of goodwill, if nothing else. Besides, as I understand it, many of these people lost their homes to the war recently.”
Roman sent a soft look back towards the haggard civilians, most of them humans that looked like they’d barely been eating. There were a few skilled craftsmen in the mix, but most of them seemed only there to make up the numbers. The source of this chapter is g.com.
“Either way, we’ll be leaving after we have a meal and pack some of those drinks you liked. We need to report back to the royal capital.”
As Roman said that, he spotted the village up ahead, just past the next hill. It didn’t seem to have changed from when they last left it, though he could also spot a small caravan heading for the village as well.
Prim greeted the Rose Blades to the south while Glynda greeted those to the north. There were no children among the group from Leonin, so it was better for Prim to greet the adventurers herself. “Hello again,” she said with a serene smile. “I’m glad to see that you all returned safely from the dungeon.”
Roman let out a sigh of resignation. “It was just as you said. We managed to push through the dungeon after memorizing its various layouts, only for a humanoid creature to appear and try to beg us for mercy, claiming to be a human from Earth.”
“Almost fell for it, too, you big softy,” Jira teased, earning a look of reproach from the warrior.
“There were parts of his story which didn’t seem to match up. He claimed that he never wanted to hurt people, but there had been dozens of deaths along this route that could only be attributed to the developing dungeon. Similarly, he attacked us with such ruthlessness that we could hardly see him as harmless.”
“Next, he said that he only attacked because we invaded first. At the same time, Jira spotted several slimes moving to block off our retreat. In the end, he confessed to being a death row prisoner when we pressed him for information. Once he did, his true colors began to show, and we were forced to eliminate him.”
Prim lowered her head with a sigh. “I see. It would have been nice if there was a kindred spirit in the neighboring lands, but it would appear that was wishful thinking. Though, I would also ask about these civilians with you?”
Jira stepped forward, patting her chest proudly. “Naturally, we’re escorting them to your village. The guild hasn’t heard from you guys in a while, and wants to make sure you’re all doing okay, you know?”
The other members of Jira’s party looked at her in exasperation, but Prim simply maintained that smile. “I see. Since we have two waves of new villagers all at once, wouldn’t this call for a celebratory feast? It will be our treat.”
Jira’s eyes practically popped out of their sockets when she heard this, her stomach letting forth a low rumble. “W-well, I certainly won’t turn down a feast!”
Prim looked over at Roman next. “Please, feel free to stay for the night. It is quite the walk to Corvath, so it would be best to get some proper rest while you can.”