Chapter 49

As cherry blossoms danced in the wind, Misaki opened the old diary and read the words of promise written there.

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Xiaoming stood at the classroom door, took a deep breath, and firmly gripped the secret letter from his mother.

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After receiving the monster and the reward, the next morning, I fell asleep.

I woke up at the usual time as always.

Although I have never been woken up by monsters before, it might be because I am staying at an inn near the center of town, or perhaps it's because I have moved the front line.

Thinking about it, I checked my status and found that the skills "Explosion Magic 5" and "Barrier Magic 5" had been added.

My level, which was 27 before the explosion, is now 30, and my INT, which I don't remember the original value of, is now 280.

Since my stats have generally increased in an arithmetic sequence so far, they are probably about 1.1 times higher.

It also feels like they have increased significantly every 10 levels, so they might have increased even more.

With this, I can expand the explosion range.

While thinking about these things, I ate the Green Wolf set for breakfast.

I don't think I have had a proper breakfast since I came here.

Well, I probably burn an extraordinary amount of calories, but I'm even worried about starving to death.

Since I have accumulated quite a few monsters, I want to go to Photren once.

Even if there are 10 employees and they are all NEETs, and the store is closed, I have enough initial funds to live for a year, so I probably don't need to worry, but I want to expand the scale.

Now that I can annihilate monsters with tactical-level magic and bring back materials and food, and soon I will even have income from coke-related activities.

I'm not involved in places that use coke, so I don't know the situation, but from the reaction, it seems there is some income.

It might take a few months or even years, but once the equipment investment is complete, the income will start coming in.

I might even consider investing in a lump sum myself; with my current flying ability, I can make a round trip to Eleera in half a day.

While thinking about these things, I crossed the outer wall of Desibatora.

This morning, I will save my magic power and hunt monsters normally.

Even though I have almost infinite magic power, it's a bit strange to talk about saving it.

It would be convenient if there were more tools like magic swords that can use magic power outside the 10 seconds per second limit.

Anyway, since I plan to go to Photren, I want to secure some time.

I'll talk to the mayor and take a break from logging tomorrow.

If I just fly there and explode, it won't take 30 minutes, and if I can keep two days' worth of magic power, I can just bombard the forest with two days' worth of magic power the next day.

Yeah, that's what I'll do.

While making these plans, I used wind magic to accelerate a bit and slammed my magic sword into a large, blackish gargoyle.

According to my guild card, this is called a Galden.

I don't really care; it's just a monster that can be killed while I'm thinking.

To me, it's more like food and resources.

Even if a Metal Lizard appeared, I would probably put it in the same category.

Bring on any sub-dragon or whatever.

Ah, never mind.

If it appeared now, it would interfere with my trip to Photren.

If it appears, I'll bomb it all at once the day after tomorrow, and I hope it gets caught in the blast and dies.

While thinking about these trivial things, I annihilated the monsters and cut down the trees that were left standing, storing them in my item box.

Compared to using full magic power in battle, the speed is much slower, and the enemies are much weaker, so I can't do it without thinking.

The fact that my magic armor doesn't let attacks through also adds to the lack of tension, and the front line is so devastated that the visibility is good, so I lose the urge to be vigilant.

It's more like a job than a battle.

It's no different from picking herbs.

I hunted monsters like this, gathered at noon, and then blasted the forest and logged until evening.

It's a peaceful, routine day in Desibatora.

While reporting on the logging (or rather, the blasting), I asked about the next day.

Incidentally, I cut down 50,032 trees today, finally surpassing the 50,000 mark.

"Tomorrow, I want to go to Photren in the morning. Is that okay?"

"As I said before, the Adventurer's Guild cannot bind adventurers. Of course, there's no problem, but if you have a set return date, I'd like to know."

"I plan to be back by the afternoon or evening, if nothing comes up."

"Starting in the morning, won't that be too short? I heard it took about 15 hours to get here."

Ah, that was when I was escorted.

After being bombed, it became unclear who was escorting whom.

"That was because I was escorted. If I go alone, it won't take more than an hour."

"You don't need an escort... Indeed, with that magic, the escort would just be a hindrance..."

"It was helpful the first time because I didn't know the way, but from now on, I'll move alone."

"Understood, go ahead."

I wasn't asked for a specific reason for going to Photren, but maybe I should transport food as well.

I'll ask the guild there.

"Yes, thank you."

It seems I got the permission easily.

I'll prepare barrier magic and explosion magic for the day after tomorrow and go to sleep.

Once this logging is done, it might be a good idea to charge and keep non-physical magic ready.

It's inefficient to prepare magic in front of powerful monsters.

The next day, I moved to Photren at a speed slightly below the speed of sound to save magic power, or rather, to protect the ecosystem, and visited the Maple Catherine Magic Tool Store.

I don't know where the Maple Guild is located.

When I entered the store, there was an unfamiliar woman.

She seemed to be the shop assistant, as she was at a counter-like table.

"Excuse me, do you know where the Maple Guild is?"

Since she is the shop assistant at Maple Catherine, I should be in a position to employ her, or rather, be the owner of the store, but I end up using polite language.

I don't know what the polite language in this world is like.

"Well, if you go out of here and turn left at the fourth building, you should find it, but it's still in the process of opening."

"I see, thank you."

Thinking about it, it has only been 2 or 3 days since we started preparing to open.

It feels quite fast that the store location is already determined at this point.

Well, I can't say anything until I see the store.

It would be good if it has reached the stage where I can leave the monsters.

When I went to the location she described, there was a two-story building.

The gate was open, so I peeked inside, and it was quite spacious.

The first floor was probably about twice the size of a convenience store.

If it's run by 10 people, is this the typical size?

There are probably no labor standards in this world, and slaves might even have a 0-day off system.

With 10 people, it feels quite large as a single store.

While thinking about the size of the store, I saw Merzia and asked about the progress.

"How is the store coming along?"

"We have secured the employees and the location, and we have completed the guild registration. All that's left is to stock the products and make the building usable as a store."

Oh, maybe the timing was just right.

"I brought some monsters. Do you have the equipment to make dried meat?"

"Yes, we have the necessary equipment. It's not much, so we will use the warehouse."

So there is a warehouse in addition to this building.

"You've prepared the employees, this building, and the warehouse. How much did it cost?"

It might be a rental, but I can't really imagine renting a store and operating it in this world.

"The building cost 10 million tel, the warehouse 3 million, and I bought 3 slaves for 7.6 million. I plan to hire 5 more."

All slaves.

Well, considering confidentiality and trust, it might be more efficient to use slaves unless there are people I have known for a long time.

"The warehouse seems quite cheap. Is it small?"

"No, it's larger than this. This is in the center of town, so it's more expensive."

Land prices, I guess.

The building itself might not be that expensive.

"I see, it seems to be going smoothly. Can I leave the monsters in the warehouse?"

"Yes, that would be very helpful. Can you wait a moment while I show you?"

"Sure."

Merzia went upstairs, gave some instructions, and came back.

"Shall we go?"

"Yes."

The warehouse was about 500 meters from the store.

The store is on the main street, but the warehouse is 400 meters down the street, then a left turn, and about 100 meters further.

The building is one-story, but much larger than the store.

It's probably five times the size of the first floor of the store.

"It's quite spacious. How many monsters can I leave?"

"How many do you have?"

"I have a certain number... 4,023 Black Wolves, 1,327 Galdens, 2,256 Red Gargons, and 6,257 Hami Crabs. There are also Giant Spider Crabs, but what should we do with them?"

Red Gargons are, as the name suggests, red gargons, a bit larger than gargons.

"Wait... How did you manage to gather so many...?"

"I've been blasting the forest a bit, a byproduct of the anti-monster front line."

Well, a lot of my actions are for the sake of monster materials, so it's not just a byproduct.

"Oh,