Semi-retired Adventurer Lives Leisurely Chapter 12

Published at 6th of June 2021 10:50:50 AM

Chapter 12: Gathering Party Members

Jend: “ORAAAAAHH!!”

At the front, Jend yells and swings down his sword decisively.

The Wild Bear was cut diagonally and fire spread from its wounds as it fell to the ground.

There are many more Wild Bears around, but Jend used the one he just defeated as a wall and cover to avoid being completely surrounded.

…..He looks okay to hold out on his own for a bit.

Henry: “So let’s take care of our side then!”

I smack a shabby arrow with the back of my fist strengthened by [PHYSICAL BOOST]. With the arrow, 3 creatures came charging forward - humanoid demonic creatures with a head of a dog, Kobalts. I sweep them to the side with one swing of my spear.

Kobalts are intelligent, and they will gather resources from nature to make simple weapons and armor. The ones I’m facing right now are carrying stone axes.

And what’s really annoying about them is…

Henry: “Ergh!”

I swing my spear and break the arrows they fired at Cyril who is singing and preparing her spell.

It’s this. They have 3 archers firing from 3 different directions, and it’s really getting on my nerves.

Cyril bought the “Mr. Forcefield” artifact, and it should be enough to deflect the arrows, but that can also break her spellcrafting concentration, so I’m doing my best to deflect all arrows heading her way.

Cyril: “I’M READY!! [BRIGHT FLOOD]!!”

Cyril casts her spell.

A stream of light blows back 10 Kobalts and among them might have been one of the archers.

Unfortunately, this was only one side of their formation that is currently surrounding us in a half circle.

This was one of the bigger packs with about 50-60 creatures.

Cyril: “Henry! What should I do next?!”

Henry: “Same spell to the right side this time!”

3 Kobalts on the left and 2 Kobalts from the right pincer us, but Cyril goes straight into singing.

She must trust me a lot. Then let’s not disappoint her.

Henry: “[WATER] Eedle + [FIRE] Ignus + [LAUNCH] Veros!!”

Hot boiling water rains upon the 3 on the left.

“GRAHHHHH!!”

“KYAN! KYAN!”

They scream and shriek in pain. They don’t have good defense so that alone slows them down.

I quickly takedown the two on the right who stepped into range with two quick, deadly stabs. Two arrows fly at me and one misses while the other bounces off my body strengthened with [PHYSICAL BOOST].

The Kobalts on the left and right are coming at us in waves but….

Cyril: “[BRIGHT FLOOD]!!”

We countered with her spell, and the entire right side got struck and wiped out.

Good. That only leaves the 20 on the left-side. I was a little worried when they surrounded us, but we got throug——

Just as I was about to let out a small sigh of relief, I hear the sound of large wings flapping overhead.

Crap. I feel a chill crawl down my spine.

It’s coming straight down above us. He’s aiming for Cyril!

Henry: “LIKE I’LL LET YOU!!”

I intercept the claws stretched out for Cyril’s head with the Nyoiten Spear, I bumped into Cyril hard covering for her, and I hope she forgives me.

With the descending velocity, its weight, and the magic strengthening its claws, my heels dig deep into the ground as I hold it back, but this is nothing. I raise my [PHYSICAL BOOST] input and push it right back.

“GYAU?!?!”

Instantly feeling the difference in strength, the Griffin uses my push to escape back into the sky.

It probably thinks that it’ll be safe back in its domain high in the sky.

Henry: “Sorry, but you’re not getting away! [STRENGTHEN] Hazac + [STRENGTHEN] Hazac!!”

I cast the spell on my legs. Instead of boosting spell power, you can also use [STRENGTHEN] Hazac in this way.

I hold the spear pointing upwards, and jump. I jump hard and fast enough to easily catch up to the Griffin, and charge straight into it.

I pierce the Griffin, but my momentum continues upwards.

Crap, I put too much power into my jump.

Looking down, the remaining Kobalts are charging in towards Cyril.

Henry: “....hut!”

I rotate in the air to regain my composure. I adjust the blade and length of the Nyoiten Spear and throw it downwards.

I’m impressed with my own aim as my throw flies and pierdes the head of the Kobalt leading the charge.

The shock causes the others to stop momentarily, and that was enough. Cyril completes and releases her spell for the 3rd time and blows the Kobalts away.

From the air, I see Jend slay the last Wild Bear.

There are a few Kobalts retreating, but there is no reason to chase them down.

I land with those thoughts, and call back my spear protruding from the Kobalts head, and let out a deep breath.

Henry: “Well, that was unexpectedly difficult.”

I feel a bit worn out.

Henry: “Let’s recruit another party member.”

We returned from our expedition and finished cashing in our drops.

At the church tavern, we tell each other good job, and begin talking about what went wrong today. This was my first comment.

Jend: “That’s kind of sudden, Henry. I’m not against the idea, but why now?”

Cyril: “Yeah, we defeated a huge horde of demonic creatures so we should be celebrating instead! You took out a Griffin by yourself! That was really impressive!”

Oh, so that’s how these two perceived that situation. They both have skills, so I keep forgetting that they’re both new at this.

Henry: “Look, getting out if that situation unscathed really is amazing, and I’m proud of you both, but the fact is, we shouldn’t let ourselves get caught and pulled into a situation like that in the first place.”

First, we ran into a pack of Wild Bears, and while we were fighting, a large pack of Kobalts came from behind and surrounded us. Lastly, we got ambushed by a Griffin at the end.

Putting the last Griffin aside, we should have dealt with the Wild Bears and Kobalts separately. We could have even decided to avoid such a large Kobalt pack altogether.”

Jend: “Oh, I get it now. Now that you say that, I see your point.”

Henry: “So that’s why going forward, we need a scout for our party.”

A scout’s role is to go ahead if the party and identify enemies in the path quickly and accurately. They’ll need good eyesight, have high mobility and stealth skills, and understand the various geological traits.

As far as combat strength, if they can guard Cyril, that’s all we need right now. If we have someone like that, I can go help out Jend, and we can expand our offensive tactics.

Henry: “....so, any ideas of who we can recruit?”

Cyril: “Hmmmm… not really from me. How about you, Jend?”

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Jend: “I have a few people I know who are scouts, but all of them are already committed to another party.”

Yeah, I thought so.

Henry: “If it was a solo adventurer and not a scout, we could probably have them do the scout role, but asking them to join our group would be difficult to do.”

Solo adventurers tend to stick with working alone. They might help us one or two times, but they won’t help us out long term.

And for most solo adventurers, they tend to be hard boiled veterans. In this party, I’m 22, and Jend and Cyril are 16. We’re a relatively young group, so an older adventurer would feel out of place here.

You can’t ignore factors like that when talking about party dynamics. Even if you have different levels of strength in the group, if the group dynamics are sound, then you can make it work, but people who feel out of place will start wrecking and poisoning the party’s atmosphere.

Well, if it was a temp party, you’ll just have to deal with the poor dynamics and move on after completing your goal.

So all in all, we need a scout that is in their teens or tweens.

What’s even more difficult is that the scout role requires extensive knowledge and experience.

If we could find someone that easily who fits this criteria, everyone would have an easy time forming amazing parties.

Cyril: “But Henry, how do we even start recruiting in the first place? You just happened to join our group, but we weren’t really looking for recruits then.”

Henry: “Huh? Oh, it’s usually very similar to how I ended up joining your group. You make a temp party, and if it goes well, you start forming a permanent group.”

Cyril: “Well, there’s still the challenge of finding someone. How do you suppose we’ll find anyone who’s interested?”

Huh… really? Cyril really seems to be clueless about how we adventurers function.

Henry: “Well, one is joining a larger scale quest and finding people within that group. Aside from that, you just ask, ‘Hey, anyone who want to go on an expedition with us?’ and call on people that way.

Cyril: “Whaaaa——-t. That sounds embarrassing!”

Henry: “What? Really? Here, it’s easy. Let me just show you.”

Cyril: “Oh, please do.”

Well, it’s my idea mainly to want to incorporate a scout. I wanted these 2 to understand how a party’s functions and roles change with a scout in the group.

I stood up and look around the room.

Since I suddenly got up, all eyes in the room are on me, and I yell.

Henry: “HEY! Anyone interested in being a temp scout for us? We target Wild Bears. We split the rewards evenly. If you’re interested, come by this table!”

After that, there was an awkward silence that followed.

….wh—what. Did I do something wrong?

I was wondering about the when a familiar face showed up. It was Mr. Freeg, a fellow adventurer.

Huh…, we sometimes see him in the forest. He’s a very stable adventurer with high skills. I’m sure he could do scouting for us and will be a welcome addition to our party.

Freeg: “Hey Henry”

Henry: “Hi Mr. Freeg, are you interested in joining us?”

Freeg: “Oh, no. Just came by to give some advice. I’m sure there are other towns where they recruit members just like you did, but not here. If you need someone to join your party, go up to the front desk receptionist and put in a request.”

Henry: “.......huh?”

Now that I think about it, I’ve been here for quite some time, but I haven’t seen any other parties do the same thing.

Crud. I’m gonna be known as that weirdo who just yells randomly.

Freeg: “Well, everyone knows that you’re a Heroic Warrior from another town, so I’m sure the rumors will be mild…..well, good luck to ya.”

Mr. Freeg kindly pays my shoulder as he departs. I can’t stop shaking from the shame boiling over inside of me.

He’s yelling ‘Don’t worry about it so much!” as he goes back to his seat.

I sit down.

Henry: “....well, the lesson here is that different cities have different norms. At least you all now know that.”

Cyril: “It’s okay Henry. There’s always tomorrow.”

Henry: “.....yeah, thanks.”

I place my head on the table. That was really embarrassing. That way if recruiting must have been unique to Ligaleo.

I’m guessing that there were so many adventurers that the church just didn’t have enough capacity to analyze everyone’s personality and traits efficiently enough to help parties find members, and it just ended up the way I just did it now.

Jend: “Uh… um, well! We now know to go to the front desk reception for our scout recruiting!”

Henry: “....yeah, that’s true. Alright. That’s enough for this meeting. We did have a big victory today, so let’s drink up.”

Cyril: “Ye——s, let’s. I’ll try some ale today.”

And we drank and celebrated like we usually do.

And just like Mr. Freeg suggested, we had some people join us as temp scouts on occasion, but just as I suspected, no one wanted to permanently join our group.

And for quite a while, our recruiting efforts went unanswered.

Chapter end