Chapter 46: The Logging and The Reward

I arrived at the Guild.

I saw a few more people in the Guild than usual, but still far from the number of adventurers that I had seen in the city.

I saw about 10 people or so.

Well, it was natural to see a gathering before the strategy meeting to expand the suppression range of the upcoming quest.

I wondered if some of them were kind of a liaison*.

However, it seemed that there was no strategy meeting, unlike the special requests received directly from the Guild.

That’s right, for me it did not matter much when it came to strategical meetings. I was just here to cut trees.

The mayor declared.

「Then, we will start logging one hour from now, and we will perform the task assigned to each person. Logging will end with the explosion, but be careful, as monsters will attack us fervently.」

The adventurers left through the open door one after another without replying to the mayor.

They did not reply loudly as in the military.

By the way, the explosion was an operation between the explosion magic tool and the barrier magic tool.

An explosion magic tool used a relatively small magic stone confined inside the barrier magic tool using another smaller magic stone, and then, detonated.

By using the barrier, the sound became louder. It was just a Decibator standard procedure.

「Excuse me. Can I start the logging? 」

I checked with the mayor who stayed behind for the time being.

My role was different from other people.

「Wait about a quarter of an hour before you leave. There is a speed difference between you and the other adventurers. I don’t know what will happen if we rush things. After you hear the explosion, you must stop logging and join the subjugation of the monsters in the cut area.」

Well, it was natural because I was doing logging to prepare for the subjugation.

If I did it my way, I wouldn’t have to wait until today in the first place.

We waited for about 15 minutes and checked our weapons, even though there was no particular need. Then, I departed.

I flew in the sky and descended to the side closest to the Decibator side.

I held the magic sword in my right hand, grabbed the left side of a tree and flew at about 40 km / h.

Cutting herbs was different from cutting trees. The trunks were often thick. It meant it was not a matter of magical control, but a simpler issue of sword crossing.

When I was flying while thinking about such things, I cut off the trees in a row and I went out to the beach area.

The density of the trees was different in some places, so there were some uncut parts, but it wouldn’t be a problem if I cut them later on.

In addition, it seemed that I cut some other trees but they did not fall straight to the ground. But, for the time being, I decided to reduce the number of trees as much as possible.

I flipped and cut them further.

At this speed, control was easy.

Now that I had some time to spare, I thought about how I could manage the medicinal herbs.

The first problem with herb gathering was the difference between the height of the cut on trunks and the height of herbs.

There was no point in tearing only the upper part of the herb, because it was necessary to cut them from the ground.

The length of the sword could not be enough, and logging required a certain height.

I had been trying to pull the herbs using the magic system that pulled the herbs from a while ago…It was no good.

After all, in order to make effective use of my resources, it was necessary to balance both of the cutting methods.

For the time being, I did an acrobatic flight.

I raised my right hand and put out the magic sword to the left, and then I extended my left hand all the way down. I pulled out the wand sword to the right and lowered the altitude a little.

For a moment, the wand sword cut through the Zunana grass, but it was no good after that.

First, the magic sword. It was impossible for me to fly by a tree while doing the trick of holding the sword in the opposite hand and lifting it up in order to keep it horizontal.

Next was the wand sword.

It was true that the blade cut through the Zunana grass to some extent, but the undergrowth of the plants hit my hand as I tried to cut them.

In addition, if I tried to reach the ground, the stones on the ground could hit my hand, so I tried to cut them about 15 cm from the ground.

It was a medicinal herb anyway, so it may not be a problem if I got them with no roots.

I stored the herbs that I managed to cut when they hit my hand. However, the amount was meaningless.

Was I only complaining? Complaining would not fix this issue.

Was it magic after all?

A cutting magic…

Well, I decided to leave the herb gathering with swords for the time being. Honestly, I didn’t feel like cutting them myself. If nothing else was good, why should I not try some sort of magic?

Then, Wind Magic.

I saw RPGs** cutting monsters with the wind, but I didn’t understand how to do it.

But cutting herbs was not the same as cutting monsters.

Should I partially freeze them and thaw or break? It sounded rather difficult and troublesome. I never activated Ice Magic in the first place, and since I never did it, I was not sure about the accuracy or range.

So, like an orthodox RPG, should I cut with something like a wind cutter?

I tried cutting the nearby Zunana grass, but it did not even activate.

Should I look for a different method?

I had to create something that could cut them efficiently.

…Nonetheless, I felt that the number of cutting tools that I could create was very limited.

The Hitler’s Buzzsaw# wouldn’t fit into a cutting tool since it was a gun.

So…Should I use a water cutter?

The magic to release water already existed, and if I speeded it up, it could be possible to cut the herbs properly.

I did a trial. I released a tiny amount of Water Magic. The thinness was about 3 mm.

The water hit the Zunana grass about 10m away from me and shook the Zunana grass.

It just shook it.

Although I hit the part close to the root, it shook greatly, but it was far from cutting.

The speed of the water was probably enough. What was missing?

Oh, by the way, the speed and power of magic had nothing to do with it.

I forgot about it. I could just use more of the MP, even if it consumed just a little.

When I tried it, the Zunana grass broke when I increased the MP consumption by about 10 times.

However, it did not seem to have a great piercing power, and rather than cutting the grass, the the water penetrated through the grass. It took time to cut all of the grass.

Efficiency was still subtle.

Anyway. Since I was so close, I didn’t have to cut them with my own hands, so I could invoke water from the position just below the ground under my feet.

I did not cut just one at the time, but 15 on each side, which the water cut to some extent. Moreover, despite the efficiency not being that great, the lack of power meant that I did not need to worry about the safety of the other adventurers.

Therefore. I kept logging with my right hand, and cutting the medicinal herbs with magic under my feet while collecting them with my left hand.

I became both a lumberjack and lawn mower. Then, I heard a “bang” sound about five hours after I started destroying the landscape at an accelerating rate.

A signal to finish logging.

I rounded up the logging and returned to the city.

I cut the monsters I saw on the way with the magic sword and returned to the city while storing them in the item box.

I saw the adventurers on the way.

It seemed that they were still going to the battle, but the front line had risen considerably from the city.

They seemed to be in good shape.

I hunted some monsters a little away from the adventurers before reaching the city. Then, I talked to the adventurers when some of them seemed to be free.

「What is the battle situation. 」

「It’s going well as you can see. The MP of the wizard is running out, but if he prolongs it a bit longer, it will be okay. A bit tight but okay.」

Was the logging useful? Well, it would be dark in an hour or two, so they had to finish it now.

「I understand. Thank you very much.」

With that said, I continued to hunt monsters away from the adventurers.

There was no point in having two forces annihilating monsters in one single party.

In addition, it was also troublesome to meddle with others when it came to store the defeated monsters. Acting solo was the best choice.

After hunting for about 30 minutes, the monster subjugation was over.

I wondered if I didn’t notice a large amount of monsters when I cut trees. Perhaps, cutting trees made them evacuate the area in a large number.

I returned to the Guild.

The total number of logging was 2431 trees along with the killing of monsters, which gave me a total income of 123,544,000 Tael.

The budget they had for defense was worrisome. Would they have money to pay me?

It was okay for me to earn some money without going to the front lines, but I didn’t want to be a lumberjack forever.

When I was worried about financial resources when the mayor called me.

Was it a strategy meeting or a consultation on lowering the remuneration?

Well, I should listen to understand what he had to say.

「Ah, I’m glad you came. 」

「Yes. It went smooth at the spot that you assigned me to the logging job. But will it be okay in the meantime?」

Even if there was one tree per 4m square, I had to cut by about 100m x 500m.

Moreover, it was about 10 kilometers to other side of the city, and the width was about 3 kilometers long.

I calculated the costs and I would finish logging in about 600 days.

…It was a long time, and the total cost would exceed 60 billion Tael.

What was the national budget?

「Yes, it’s going to be okay. From tomorrow onwards, it’s likely that we’ll do a similar schedule like today, but I have one consultation to do with you.」

「What is it? 」

「It’s okay because I have a budget that I couldn’t use until now, but when it comes to pushing the logging towards the other side of the city, my budget becomes too tight. I apologize for this, but can I give you the reward of about 1:5000 Tael from now on?」

I knew it.

Even one tenth was 6 billion Tael, which was enough income.

The reason why the mayor could not use the budget was because he did not have enough adventurers, and the battle situation made things worse.

「I understand. Instead, can I take a break from time to time? If possible, I also want the corpses of the monsters that had been left behind after being annihilated.」

「I’m grateful. And I don’t mind. I will contact the adventurers about the corpses of the abandoned monsters, because there’s no disadvantage to the adventurers. The Guild is not in a position to bind adventurers in the first place when it comes to days off. It’s actually myself who is forcing you to work while lowering your reward.」

Adventurers other than me also got a decent reward.

How much of a budget did he have?

Was it at the level where all the defense budget of one country was given to one city alone such as this one?

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*communication or cooperation which facilitates a close working relationship between people or organizations (as between parts of an armed force).

**Role-playing video game. Electronic game genre in which players advance through a story quest, and often many side quests, for which their character or party of characters gain experience that improves various attributes and abilities.

#An MG 42 machine gun. It was nicknamed as “Hitler’s Buzzsaw” because of the way it cut down troops in swaths.

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