The bounty of 5,332 Ederic Gold Coins for wiping out the bandits was, after all, a massive sum of money.
In a five-person party, each member would receive over a thousand Gold Coins. However, upon careful calculation, there wouldn’t be much left after deducting expenses.
Many laymen stared greedily at the hefty numbers on the Alliance’s quest board. Half out of jealousy and half out of resentment, they would claim that being an adventurer was a highly lucrative profession—as if working for one day could earn enough to fool around for three. Deep down, Randall was actually a very simple guy; he had been thrilled to hear about this "work for one day and rest for three" lifestyle.
Furthermore, he had always loved running around since he was a kid. He was always poking around and touching things. He once yanked a horse’s tail and was nearly kicked to death; the scar from where the tip of the hoof grazed the left side of his forehead was still visible today. He was a notorious menace, thoroughly despised by everyone in the neighboring villages. Hearing that adventurers got paid to travel, poke, and prod around, he was easily tricked into joining the profession.
But... that wasn’t the case at all. If you believed that nonsense about working one day and resting for three, you’d only survive in the Barren Land for four days.
Equipment maintenance, Healing Potions, various consumables... If they didn’t want to die in the Barren Land, rookies and veterans alike had to pack extensively before every departure to ensure absolute safety.
If an adventurer wanted to progress further and become stronger, they had to save up for even more expensive Enhancing Potions and body-tempering materials, not to mention better weapons and gear.
All these supplies were costly. With the money coming and going, the meager income from loot was nowhere near enough.
"Without a systematic and detailed master plan, along with a clear sense of resource management, adventurers won’t just fail to advance and grow—they’ll often end up paying to do their jobs," Randall mused.
Rich and powerful adventurers, like those depicted in rumors, did exist, but they were all highly experienced Advanced Adventurers.
The vast majority of low-to-mid-level adventurers not only couldn’t afford the Magic Potions needed for growth and power, but they also didn’t even have any savings. If they didn’t take a job for a day, they would go hungry for a day.
According to the older Guard and the receptionist at the Alliance Hall, forty percent of the rookie adventurers who came to the Barren Land to chase their dreams realized the cruelty of reality within a year and scurried back home with their tails between their legs.
Another forty percent left their bones permanently on the Kana Plain. They were eaten by wild beasts or absorbed by Demonized Plants. If they were slightly luckier, their corpses might be twisted by overflowing Magic Power into Undead Creatures, their remains wandering eternally through the hazy, putrid dust on the wasteland’s horizon.
The remaining twenty percent became actual adventurers. Some stagnated, while others became low-to-mid-level adventurers. Only the absolute rarest few—about two percent—managed to cross the threshold of level five and beyond, relying on the power-ups from Magic Potion materials and accumulated experience.
During the year he followed the level-six adventurer, [Wind Sword] Norman, Randall didn’t learn any powerful storm sword techniques, nor did he learn any Magic or Magic Potion recipes. He didn’t even get much of a share of the loot.
However, he eagerly trailed after Norman, serving him tea, pouring water, hauling ledgers, and offering eager assistance. He voluntarily gave up a portion of his loot share, hoping only for a chance to linger a bit longer by the ledgers on the desk in Norman’s room. This kind of thick-skinned yet humble attitude toward learning eventually caught the attention of the renowned [Wind Sword] Norman. Up until then, the veteran had only viewed the young man as an extra appendage, brought along merely to fulfill the teaching obligations the Alliance required of Advanced Adventurers.
After confirming that Randall’s attentiveness was purely for the sake of acquiring knowledge—and not because he swung that way or had any other strange motives—Norman finally agreed to let him observe how he formulated his adventure plans. Out of appreciation for the junior adventurer, he even took the initiative to teach him a great deal.
During that year, standing by Norman’s desk, he learned the master planning and organizational skills of a seasoned adventurer with fourteen years of experience. He absorbed everything from piecemeal money-saving tips and the calculation of income and expenses for quest preparations, to daily living expenses and weapon maintenance techniques.
Sitting at his desk, Norman wasn’t the sharp, cold, and fierce [Wind Sword] of legend. Instead, he seemed more like a bookkeeper, a thrifty mother hen, or a strict older brother.
"I come from the coastal western Floren Kingdom, Randall Rysk. It is a nation of oceans and maritime trade." One day, after finishing his planning, Norman had nothing else to do. He sat by his desk, sipping tea, and chatted with Randall like an older brother. "My hometown is by the sea. The damp sea breeze would always turn my treasured books limp and soggy, and outside my window stood a forest of white sails and masts.
"When I was thirteen, I followed my father out to sea to fish. Massive pale sharks roamed the waters, hunting seals. They had dense rows of steel-like teeth and could bite a seal in half with a single snap, dyeing the seawater red. As a young boy out at sea with my father, I would cling to the ship’s rail, terrified that the sharks would eat me."
He chuckled softly.
"But my father told me that most sharks actually hate eating humans," Norman said at the time. "Because humans are too skinny—all bones and lacking in fat and meat. The energy gained from eating a human is less than the energy spent chasing them down and consuming them. If a shark only ate humans, it would grow thinner and thinner, eventually starving to death.
"Sharks are highly intelligent animals. They know that the seemingly bountiful ocean is actually a cruel and difficult expanse of blue barrenness, and every movement costs energy. Therefore, they prioritize hunting prey with high fat content, like seals. As for humans... the investment and return simply don’t add up. They would never take on a losing venture."