Ten Requests

Weather forecasts, Demonic Tides—those were all new terms I'd never heard before.

I still hadn't learned how monsters came into being.

I'd have to brush up on that when I had time.

Lu Cang replied with a cheerful smile, "I was just planning to take on some monster-slaying requests."

Hearing his response, Xili smiled happily. "It's wonderful that little Lu Cang is willing to help. Otherwise, with monsters running rampant, we'd have to seal off the town and forbid people from leaving while we waited for assistance to arrive."

"That's a real headache for the workers who want to gather herbs or mine for ore during Harvest Moon."

Besides people like adventurers, who hunted monsters for rewards,

there were also people who changed to non-combat professions and made a living through farming, gathering herbs, forging, mining, and other such work.

There were usually people who patrolled the areas around a town on a regular basis...

If they came across some weaker, low-level monsters, the patrol would clear them out along the way.

If they encountered a more troublesome monster, they'd follow procedure and report it. Depending on the situation, they might hunt it themselves or have the Adventurer's Guild post a slaying request.

The Adventurer's Guild and the official patrols worked together.

Unless it was an extremely urgent situation, high-level personnel wouldn't get involved.

Basically, they'd outsource the work first and handle only the crucial matters themselves.

"Big sister Xili, how many requests can I take?"

Xili said, "Normally, a Level 2 adventurer can only take on two requests at once."

"But these are special circumstances, and you're a member of the Legendary Adventurer Group, little Lu Cang."

"How many do you want to take?"

Seeing Xili's answer, Lu Cang didn't hold back. He simply pointed along the row of requests.

"These nine."

"And... this one."

There was a row of requests to hunt Tier 3 Lord-class monsters, along with one request to deal with a monster group.

Even Xili's mouth twitched slightly.

He really was asking for a lot.

"Is that okay?" Lu Cang asked, turning to her.

Xili pressed her fingers to her temples.

She knew Lu Cang was Iz's disciple and was very strong...

But letting an eight-year-old child, a Level 2 mage, take on so many high-difficulty requests—

"Hmm... let me think."

Xili pondered for a moment.

Phew—

"Sure."

Lu Cang smiled brightly. "Thank you, big sister Xili."

"Big sister Xili, could you help me post a request?"

"Same as yesterday, but this time I'm recruiting Level 3 adventurers."

Xili asked, "Are you recruiting adventurers to protect you? Well, since you're taking on so many requests, I can help you find a few suitable candidates."

Just like the day before, Lu Cang posted a request.

[Hiring Level 3 Healers, Defenders, and Gatherers from different parties.

The requirement for Defenders is the same as before: they must have learned Shared Damage.

Task: Quickly hunt nine Tier 3 monster lords in a single day.

Reward: 1 gold per monster.]

After posting the request, Lu Cang wasn't in a hurry.

He found an empty seat in the guild and read a book.

About half an hour later, an adventurer came over to him.

A new face.

Lu Cang looked over the black-haired healer in front of him, whose hair was tied into twin tails.

Most healers were women, so it wasn't surprising.

There were male healers too; Lu Cang just hadn't met any yet.

"You... want to hire Level 3 adventurers?"

Seeing the young eight-year-old, Loth couldn't help feeling a little doubtful.

"Yeah, that's me."

All right.

Looks like she didn't know who I was.

Explaining it would be such a hassle. I really should get a bit of a reputation; otherwise, people would question me no matter what I did.

"I'm Izpalut's disciple."

Lu Cang thought it over and came up with what seemed like the most useful explanation.

However...

All it got him was a hearty burst of laughter.

"Ha, hahahaha..."

"Everyone knows Iz has lots of disciples, kid. Adventuring isn't something someone your age should be doing."

Loth held her head and shook it.

She headed over to Xili, seemingly planning to complain about something.

She spread her hands and shook her head at Xili with a sigh, looking quite disappointed.

Xili simply covered her mouth and explained with a quiet laugh.

Then Lu Cang saw Loth exchange a few words with Xili.

Loth turned to look back at him in surprise.

Lu Cang smiled and flashed her a peace sign.

She turned to Xili again.

Xili smiled and nodded, then seemed to say something else to her.

Loth turned to Lu Cang once more.

This time, she looked as if she'd seen a ghost.

Her face was full of shock.

"No way?!!"

"This kid is the strongest magic prodigy since Iz?!!"

She was far more shocked than he'd expected.

Lu Cang had thought she'd be surprised, but he hadn't expected her to be this surprised.

Lu Cang covered his ears slightly.

Her shriek had carried through the entire Adventurer's Guild.

There was no need to shout so loudly... People who made a fuss over everything seemed like a real hassle.

After her shock wore off,

Loth came back and took Lu Cang's small hand in hers.

"Kid, I was blind. Please, take me along."

"I'm broke."

Xili followed behind Loth, coming over with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, little Lu Cang."

"Loth may be careless with money, but she's actually a pretty capable healer."

"I was the one who recommended your party to her."

Oh~

What a complete 180-degree change in attitude.

Since Xili said she was capable, Lu Cang had no reason to be picky. Everyone ran into money troubles at some point.

As long as her abilities were up to par, that was all that mattered.

Forming the party took quite a while.

After some effort, they managed to get everyone together. Lu Cang still insisted on recruiting people from different parties.

This seemingly casual requirement actually had another purpose.

It meant that none of them knew each other well.

If he teamed up with people who were already in the same party, they might conspire behind his back.

For example... they could turn malicious and work together to kill him.

It never hurt to be cautious.

Even though Lu Cang treated people with goodwill, he still had to guard against the risk of being plotted against.

Of course, Lu Cang wasn't going to be overly suspicious about extremely unlikely scenarios. Caution and paranoia weren't the same thing.

On the Dragon Rhino carriage—

"Hmm... so you came to Rhein Town on your own, you haven't found a suitable party yet, and you're planning to team up temporarily."

Lu Cang confirmed.

Loth nodded. "Mm, that's right."

The other two nodded as well.

Compared to the Tier 2 adventurers, the Tier 3 adventurers' equipment was clearly much better.

Loth was a [Level 3 Healer/Level 1 Diviner/Level 1 Apothecary].

Maizer was a [Level 3 Gatherer/Level 2 Archer/Level 1 Healer].

Trand was a [Level 3 Defender/Level 1 Blacksmith/Level 1 Gatherer].

Some of their professions overlapped. Maizer even had a side profession as a Level 1 healer.

The Level 3 adventurers had clearly picked up a much wider range of professions than they'd had at Levels 1 and 2. They'd already started taking on three professions each.

Looks like I should start thinking about a second profession too.