The Chair Gains a bit of Monetary Sense

After half an hour, we finally circled around to the entrance of the cave. With the acid rain dying down, the surrounding landscape had started to revert back to their original hues. The green and brown of the trees returned much faster than the grass, creating a gorgeous gradient, though I doubted that the others noticed.

The entrance itself was massive – about five times Emma’s height, or five times my height plus an extra head. Some of the sunlight from the afternoon suns shone through, revealing a normal looking cavity. However, after a certain point, the sunlight couldn’t reach any further, leaving behind a pitch black void, as though nothing existed beyond that point. The party settled in the lit portion, taking care to avoid the dark parts on instinct.

Aster touched the ground first, checking to see if the ground inside the cave was damp with acid. There was a clear cutoff between the acid soaked dirt and the rest of the cave, but she checked anyway. Once she confirmed it was safe, Ai dispelled her vines. The entire party collapsed along the cave wall. Rufus had minor cuts all over his body and a knuckle fused right hand. Aster had a few holes, wearing rags that covered basically nothing. Ai seemed fine at first glance, but her eyes remained unfocused. Emma’s arms were partially broken, though they were somehow still usable.

“Ai, is there a chance someone’s in the cave right now?” Rufus asked with a huff.

“Potentially. I don’t see any crates nearby, so they’re probably further in. However, I doubt they’ll come to the entrance in broad daylight, especially with all those beasts hanging around the outskirts.”

“Then, let’s take a few hours to recover before exploring. Sounds good?” Everyone was completely exhausted, so a break sounded wonderful to them. “Emma, would you mind keeping watch?”

“Sure.” Emma agreed easily.

“Thanks,” Rufus mumbled before drifting off to sleep. Ai kept her vines spread out, but she fell asleep not long after. Aster’s body morphed back into its natural state before passing out. Emma grabbed a rag and threw it over her body before it finished morphing, wincing with every motion.

“So, what are you going to do about your arms?”

Emma jumped at that comment, her eyes darting around. “You noticed?”

“Your face scrunches whenever you move. It isn’t hard to figure out.”

“...right…would you mind helping me with a splint? I have some leftover branches from the last campfire.” I sighed, but there was nothing else to do while she was awake, so I acquiesced.

As I tied up her arm, I decided to ask a few questions. “So, why did you break your arms during training?”

Emma was shocked. “How did you know that?”

“I mean, everyone was exhausted this morning. It’s not hard to imagine why. Plus, the only reason your bones would’ve broken from that much force was if they were already damaged,” I said, making up the excuse on the fly.

“Oh…”

“So, why?”

Emma remained silent, but eventually, she gave a reason. “I know I’m not strong physically. I can’t manipulate my mana. It’s painfully difficult to even win a fight against an F-ranked beast. I never bothered to learn how to fight. I thought that my party would be strong enough to carry me, so if I support them, I’ll be strong too. But in situations like these, I’m useless. I had to get stronger. If breaking my arms achieved my goal, I would gladly take it.”

“Well, there are plenty of ways to keep yourself protected or increase your strength once you get back to town. You could learn how to use a magic tool, get a trainer to improve your physical ability, use long range attacks to cover any gaps in your party’s defense, and so on.”

“You do realize those options cost large silvers or a small gold, right?”

“Isn’t that what a C-rank party makes in a season?”

“Wha–? Are you crazy?! C-rank parties don’t make more than a few large bronzes, maybe a small silver for a big job. Most of that gets put back into maintenance and supplies. I only make at most a small bronze after splitting whatever’s leftover! We can barely afford a stable lifestyle taking five or six quests a week! Coins don’t grow on trees, you know!”

“Huh…” Adventurers made less than I thought. I knew my common sense was a bit skewed, but I didn’t realize Kumari was paying me so much. Though, she did have me find rare materials and defeat terribly annoying beasts all the time.

I sighed at my ignorance, before tossing a coin over to Emma. “Catch.” She was puzzled for a moment before taking a look. Her face was priceless.

“W-what is t-this?”

“Consider it an advance on the notebook. I can pick up the finished copy at the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“Don’t shrug it off like it’s no big deal. This is a gold coin! Not a small gold coin. An actual gold coin! That’s five times more than we agreed on! Also, who carries a gold coin around in their pocket! That’s insane!”

“Well, it should cover whatever you need. You should have a little left over for yourself too.

“A little left over?! A little left over!? I’m pretty sure I couldn’t spend half of this for everything we needed!” She was starting to go crazy again.

“I can just take it back if you’re going to complain that much.” I reached over to grab the coin out of her hand, but she instinctively pulled it to her chest. She opened one of the front pockets on her rucksack, putting the coin inside.

“Thanks…”

“That’s an excessive amount of care for a single coin.”

Emma promptly kicked me in response.