This Was What a Normal Mission Was Like

"Mm, there are a few young ones too. They're flying around up there."

With Dim-Light Vision, Rain could clearly see several much smaller vampire bats darting frantically around the cavern ceiling.

"Rain, leave these to me!"

"Otherwise, I'll have done nothing on this mission."

Fabian pulled the hand crossbow from his belt and began aiming at the panicked Giant Vampire Bat young.

"Save two for me. I'll join in." Chris drew his hand crossbow too.

"All right!" Rain nodded.

Lately, he had been busy learning the hammer and shield under Humbert, so he really hadn't had time to learn the bow or crossbow.

But watching Fabian and Chris hit almost every shot, Rain thought he might practice with a hand crossbow sometime.

After all, spells still drained too much of his mental energy. He could cast them only a limited number of times in a fight.

A hand crossbow would make a useful ranged option to fall back on.

A few minutes later.

Once the remaining young bats had been dealt with, the cavern fell quiet again, though the smell of blood would linger for some time.

"That mission was easy." Chris put away his hand crossbow with a smile.

"We have Rain to thank. Without him, just locating the Giant Vampire Bat cave would've been a hassle." Fabian put away his dagger.

"Mm. Rain took out more than half the Giant Vampire Bats himself. Of course it was easy for us." Grand nodded in agreement.

Indeed, much of the credit for the mission going so smoothly belonged to Rain's Keen Scent, a passive talent inherited from the Boarfolk, which had let him find the bats' nest quickly.

Otherwise, searching for and confirming the nest alone would have taken quite some time.

If they had run into other monsters in one of the other fissures, that would have been a whole other problem.

Besides, Grand was right.

If Rain hadn't used the narrow passage to repeatedly strike with Shield Bash and kill more than half the Giant Vampire Bats, the group would have had to fight them inside the cavern. Someone would almost certainly have been bitten or scratched.

The Giant Vampire Bats carried potent venom in both their fangs and claws. An injury wouldn't have been too serious, but without a priest or a trained physician, dealing with it wouldn't have been easy.

They would need an antidote.

"I just did what I was supposed to. It was everyone working together that mattered."

"Too bad we didn't run into a mutated Giant Vampire Bat this time. The reward could've been higher," Chris said with a hint of regret.

"What are you thinking? We can't run into a special specimen every time. This is what a mission's normal difficulty is like." Fabian dismissed Chris's remark.

"Mm!" Rain smiled and nodded in agreement.

If the danger was manageable, he would naturally have liked to encounter a special or mutated specimen. But how could that happen every time?

Still, he was more than satisfied with what he had gained today.

Rain glanced at the nine Giant Vampire Bat icons in his pack, feeling quite pleased.

And even without a mutated specimen, he could fuse them. The result might not be any worse.

"Rain, leave collecting proof for the mission to me." Chris stepped ahead of him and began gathering Giant Vampire Bat fangs and fleshy wings as proof of completion.

Meanwhile.

Leia was growing anxious as she waited at the cave entrance.

She had kept her bow drawn and her eyes on the net reinforced across the fissure, but nothing had happened for quite some time. Not a single Giant Vampire Bat had flown out and struck the net.

That was nothing like what they had expected.

Strange. Could this not be the Giant Vampire Bats' nest? Did Rain get it wrong? Leia wondered.

After a little longer, the anxiety on her face deepened.

No. If it wasn't the nest, they should have come out by now.

Don't tell me something happened to them?

Leia's heart sank.

Just then, she faintly heard movement inside the cave.

"Finally."

She immediately raised her bow and took aim.

"Huh? Wait!"

What she could faintly hear from the cave entrance was Chris and Fabian laughing.

Soon, under Leia's astonished gaze, the four of them opened the net they had set across the fissure and walked out.

Leia hardly needed to ask. The large bundles of fleshy bat wings Fabian and Chris were carrying told her everything.

"How... how did you kill every last one? Not a single bat got out!" Leia blinked her beautiful eyes.

"Haha, Captain, this was much easier than that last time..." Chris eagerly launched into an account of the fight.

Chris was, it had to be said, every bit as good a storyteller as an ordinary Bard.

Even Rain, the hero of the story, felt a little embarrassed listening from beside him.

Leia looked Rain up and down with her beautiful eyes, as though meeting him for the first time.

"Rain, I had no idea you were this strong."

"If that's the case, we can pick a slightly harder mission next time."

"Well..." Rain had meant to refuse, but thinking about it another way, it might not be a bad thing.

After all, a harder mission meant stronger monsters.

With the mission successfully completed, the group returned to Mill Town by carriage before dark.

The round trip had taken most of the day, while the mission itself had lasted less than an hour.

When Rain and the others returned to the Adventurers' Association branch, the receptionist was quite surprised. She glanced at Leia several times.

That was fast!

"Nineteen Giant Vampire Bats in all. The total reward is seventy-six silver coins. Captain Leia, here you are."

"Mm, thank you."

Soon, Leia returned to the carriage smiling, a heavy bag of coins in her hand.

"Seventy-six silver coins total. The reinforced fishing net and two barrels of lamp oil cost two silver, and renting the carriage cost one. That leaves seventy-three silver coins."

"But I suggest we give Rain..."

"Wait, Captain. Don't give me a share this time." Rain interrupted before Leia could finish.

"No. We can't break the rules." Leia rejected his suggestion outright.

"Exactly, Rain. Without you, this wouldn't have been nearly so easy." Chris patted Rain on the shoulder with a smile.

"Rain, I think you'd better listen to the captain," Fabian teased.

"Rain gets eight extra silver coins, and the rest is split evenly. Thirteen silver coins each." Leia made the final decision.

"Agreed!"

"Agreed."

"Well... all right." Rain sounded somewhat helpless.

Twice in a row, his performance had earned him the largest share in the team. He was starting to feel a little embarrassed.

"By the way, Rain, when are you free to trade some combat tips?" Chris came over and raised his shield toward Rain.