Translator: SCP-423

Editor: AdCaelum

Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 039 – Emergency Escort

Alright, it’s the weekend! Let’s just play with Vidello-san! When I logged in with that enthusiasm, there was a notice posted on the front door of the workshop.

To Mac,
I need a bit of help.
Crash from the General Store

It was the first time he’d put up some kind of notice, so I wondered if something had happened and hurried over. The quests I got from him were always passive since they would come up in conversations when I wandered into Crash’s place. But this time was completely different from usual. When I arrived at the general store, Crash was putting potions in a transport box on the counter. By the looks of it, the medicine I sold him was in there too.

“What’s wrong, Crash? Did something happen?”

Crash saw me rush in and said in his usual tone, “Hey, I’ve been waiting for you. Mac, you can fight, right? I’ve got a designated request from the Adventurers’ Guild, and I was wondering if you could help me with it.”

“Oh, Crash, you got a designated request?”

“Yeah, from my mother.”

Ah, come to think of it, wasn’t Crash’s mom an upper-level guild member?

“I was surprised and panicked because it was the first time a notice was put on my door. Is it a big deal?”

“I don’t think it’s that hard, but I’m going on a bit of a trip, so I’m thinking of hiring an escort locally.”

“Huh?”

Hiring an escort locally? The moment I tilted my head, not understanding what that meant, the quest box lit up with a ping. I immediately opened it.

【NEW】Escort Crash!

　　Let’s deliver potions to the city of Sette with Crash!
　　Right now, there is a serious shortage of potions in Sette.
　　Join Crash in delivering potions to the Adventurers’ Guild in Sette!

　　500 High Potions in the possession of Crash
　　500 Magic High Potions in the possession of Crash
　　99 other High Potions
　　99 Magic High Potions
　　Delivered to the Adventurers’ Guild in Sette
　　Safely bring Crash to the Adventurers’ Guild!

　　Time limit is 3 days.
　　(Quick Horse Carriages owned by the Adventurers’ Guild can be used)

　　Clear rewards: 100,000 Gal. Adventurer rank up 1.
　　Quest Failure: The specified number was not delivered. The general store will be closed.

Wow, that was unexpected, I guess. I’d never taken on an escort quest or anything like that before, so I didn’t know what the proper reward was. I wondered if a fixed set of money as a reward meant that anyone from the guild could accept the request. Because a lot of the rewards from Crash were related to things that you almost couldn’t get anywhere else.

I wondered if this was a quest I could take.

But there didn’t seem to be many other people who could deliver potions. I heard that the pharmacist I knew wasn’t making potions at the moment either. He seemed to be aiming higher than that. I hadn’t raised my adventurer rank at all, so I wondered if this was a good chance to raise it here.

Thinking about it, I suddenly recalled Yuta’s words.

“An escort request with a very good reward will almost certainly involve attacks from brigands and bandits.”

This was exactly that. I’m sure they’ll attack me on the way. I wondered if the Quest Failure that closes the general store might greatly affect Crash’s future. This was a little crazy. It wasn’t about the reward; it was like Crash’s life was at stake. It was the kind of thing that if you didn’t take it, he’ll definitely fail. But why me? I mean, Crash, are you not close enough with any of the other players out there?.

“I’ll take it. I’ll take the request, so can you let me prepare for a bit?”

“Thanks for the help. I don’t know that many other people I can trust.”

I knew it. I got called upon because he likes me. I can’t let Crash, who smiles and says he’s happy to see me, die unnecessarily.

“I’ll stop by the guild and borrow a carriage, so can you come back to the shop in an hour?”

“Got it.”

With a smiling Crash seeing me off, I hurried to the workshop. I had plenty of potions and other provisions to spare, so I shoved everything I had into my inventory. I loaded my inventory so that no matter what happened on the road, I could deal with it except instant death. I didn’t care if my inventory was getting filled up with potions. I also packed some condition-altering potions that I was running low on. As long as there wasn’t a big monster or something, I can generally get by with these. What should I do if it’s a bandit or something? I’ve never PKed before. Even if it’s a Red Name, I’m going to hesitate. I imagine desperately weighing up the life of Crash and the life of the Red Name NPCs. Okay, it’ll probably be fine. What else do we need? Food items might also be necessary if we go off the path, assuming we end up escaping from something.

I stuffed things into my inventory one after another, intently muttering to myself that I was prepared and had nothing to worry about.

“Wait, wait, wait. We’re going to take a total of 1,000 bottles of potions from Crash’s shop, aren’t we? What would we do if we ended up having to use the potions we packed in the carriage because of a bandit attack?! No, I need to free up more inventory space. If I stuff some in here, we’ll still have items and complete the request even in the worst case scenario if we lose the carriage. Okay, I’ll protect Crash alongside the potions. Let’s head off now. Let’s also disguise the carriage so it doesn’t look like it’s carrying any luggage.”

Quests that you know are dangerous from the beginning are very bad for your heart because you can only imagine it not going well.

“Oh, that’s right. Let’s contact Yuta just in case.”

Suddenly remembering that Yuta was in Sette, I opened the chat box for the first time in a while. This was the one where you could send messages if the other person wasn’t in combat. I hadn’t chatted much because nothing had really happened. Besides, Yuta was usually in the middle of fighting.

‘I’m about to go to Sette because of a request. It’s an escort quest designated for me. It sounds like the one Takahashi was talking about. Something’s definitely going to happen on the way. I’ll contact you when I arrive safely.’

I sent the message and closed the chat box. I then managed to carefully select a few things and returned to Crash’s general store.

There was a huge horse in front of the general store. Its back was so high that I couldn’t reach it even if I stretched out. This made the cart it was pulling look ridiculously small.

“Wow… it’s huge.”

I thought I would never see the Quick Horse I had heard so much about, but it was right here in front of me.

“I borrowed it from my mother. There’s no pharmacist over there at the moment so we need to hurry because the crops on the farm are apparently being damaged by some kind of disease.”

“Disease, huh…”

This sounded like something similar to the quest I frantically completed popped up over there, but someone had failed. That’s too tragic. My brow wrinkled involuntarily as I remembered those withered plants. I had the recipe for that pest control agent, so if it was the same thing, I’d make it over there and give it to the farm. However, the pharmacist wondered if  there was a method to clear it other than with alchemy. Could it be cleared using a different method? Or maybe there were actually other alchemists out there. If that was the case, I must definitely network with them! With that in mind, I sat on the carriage’s coach box with Crash.

As we approached the gate, Crash pulled the reins in his hand, causing the carriage to slow down and come to a complete stop. I looked to the side and saw Vidello-san in his armor standing there, looking at me in surprise.

“We don’t have much time because we’re in a hurry. What do you want to do, Mac?”

Crash seemed to have considered me. I was a little happy. I thanked him and turned to Vidello-san.

“Vidello-san, I’m going to go with Crash to Sette now for a small request.”

“That’s a long way away. With Crash? You mustn’t cheat on me.”

It was funny to see him say that with a serious face. There was no way I would do anything to anyone other than Vidello-san. Crash also burst into laughter on the side.

“Go on; take care. I’d like to follow you, but it’s difficult because it’s far away.”

“Vidello-san, you know I’m pretty strong, right? I’ll be fine. I’m going to enjoy the speed of the Quick Horse! I won’t get another chance like this!”

With the flick of the reins, Crash got the carriage moving again. I waved to Vidello-san who looked at me anxiously, and Crash and I left the city. The Quick Horse gradually picked up speed, and pretty soon, Vidello-san’s figure disappeared from my sight.