On the third day after moving to our new house, I resumed my career as an adventurer.
While I had a desire to take things a bit slower, I had a pressing need due to my empty wallet, which prompted me to resume work.
With the security deposit, key money, and furnishing costs for the new home, most of my savings had vanished, leaving me with only 4 million gold. It was a substantial amount, but when considering two months' worth of rent, it felt precarious.
However, I wasn't overly pessimistic. Among C-rank adventurers, I could earn quite well.
The rewards for C-rank quests on average were around 500,000 gold per day. But I could earn over 3 million gold per day through the purchase of monster materials and rewards for subjugation.
Adventurers who relied on income from purchasing monster materials and rewards for subjugation, like me, had better actual earnings compared to those who simply fulfilled quests. Of course, this was true only if they possessed a high combat ability.
While C-rank quests often involved life-threatening situations, there were times when I could complete them without encountering danger.
A prime example was the escort quest for merchant caravans. Most of the time, just by being vigilant, the quest could be accomplished. Adventurers acted as a deterrent against thieves and were rarely attacked by them. Consequently, since the likelihood of danger was low, the rewards were relatively lower among C-ranked quests.
On the other hand, my income came primarily from the purchase of monster materials and rewards for subjugation, which inherently required defeating monsters. I battled with more than 20 monsters a day.
With my armor and healing potions, the risk of instant death from a single mistake was avoided. However, the danger level was usually higher than for most quests, and as a result, the profits were greater.
Moreover, since I defeated monsters with preemptive one-shot kills, I didn't spend much on repairing armor or replenishing consumable items like healing potions.
Excluding emergency quests such as rescue requests or subjugation of specialized monsters adapted to outside the field, my current approach offered the highest actual income among the top performers.
Thanks to this, despite being a fresh rookie in the C-rank, I was earning a considerable sum.
Currently, I followed a cycle of training, resting, and exploring, which resulted in monthly earnings exceeding 30 million gold. If I repeated exploration diligently, it would even be possible to earn 100 million gold in a month. However, due to the fear of mistakes caused by not being in top condition, that was a last resort.
Maintaining a regular routine of training, resting, and exploring, I continued to increase my funds steadily.
And now, I arrived at the night of my fourth rest period.
"Haruki, the stone is sparkling brightly."
"Hmm?"
As I finished dinner and was dozing off while receiving a massage from Lily, I was suddenly awakened by her.
The object that was sparkling was a magical stone used for communication that the Adventurer's Guild provided me when I got promoted to C-rank. While it couldn't transmit sound or images, it allowed messages to be sent using Morse code-like patterns of blinking light and color.
Its effective range was 5 kilometers, and it couldn't be used within the field due to the influence of miasma. It was mainly for communication within cities. Government agencies and major nobles used relay points to communicate between major cities, but as a regular person, I naturally didn't have permission to use them.
This was the first time it had lit up. The color of the light indicated an adventurer I wasn't familiar with—green—and the blinking pattern indicated a work-related invitation.
Similar to how I could understand the world's languages from the start, I could comprehend the contents of the communication right away. It was a really strange feeling.
However, the person sending the signals was clearly struggling. Like when I first attempted flick input, they were taking time to input each character.
"Haruki here. I want to know the details of the job."
"It's Jack, the leader of the C-rank party 'Order of the Black Iron Warriors.' I heard about you from Bagas. Seems like you're an amazing mage. Five days from now, we're planning to head to Slen Forest to subjugate monsters in cooperation with several other parties. Would you like to join us?"
"How many people are planning to participate?"
"As of now, three C-rank parties, totaling 16 people, are planning to join. Besides you, I'm currently inviting two three-member parties. Shall we discuss the details tomorrow at the Adventurer's Guild?"
"Understood. I'm considering it positively. I'd like to talk in the morning."
"Got it. Let's meet at the guild at 9 AM tomorrow. I'll be carrying a stupidly huge shield and sword. If you spot me, just call out."
With that, the communication was cut off. Probably, he ended it early to accommodate my inexperience. If one was accustomed to it, they could communicate at the same speed as spoken conversation, and most communications seemed to be handled solely through this method.
Considering my future as an adventurer, it seemed wise to get used to signaling communication as soon as possible. Repeatedly meeting up in person to discuss things that could be sorted out through communication felt like a waste of time.
"Lily, would you like to practice communication signals with me?"
"Sure, but is it okay if I go out? I don't think I can negotiate or anything."
"No worries, I'll handle the negotiations. You just need to take notes for the messages."
"Okay."
Since she was here, I decided to teach Lily as well. Having her take notes for the messages would be greatly appreciated.
Besides, practicing together with Lily would likely increase our efficiency. Using each other's cheeks and upper arms as mock communication devices, we could practice while being affectionate, which should help us pick it up quickly.
