Chapter 5
One week later.
“To think it would be this popular...”
“Me didn’t expect this, either. Well, this is delicious, though.slurp.”
Like a child enjoying her drink, Amber slurped the boba tea lightly. Nia looked at the line forming in front of my stall with admiration, while her hand holds the straw in her plastic glass, spinning the tea inside slightly. My tea and coffee stand had just turned into a boba stand, and it’s busier than ever. With this kind of development, I’ll be rich in no time.
Nia and Amber weren’t the only ones looking in awe. Raben and Lisya, standing near the receptionist, were also looking at the stand while whispering something between themselves. Emma, who supposedly knew about boba, was also looking at the line in shock.
“I still have tons of ideas and stuff to make.”
I cheekily whispered to Amber.
“Me will hear every single one of them.”
There are a ton of possibilities in this world. For example, Games and TV didn’t exist yet, which means a free opportunity for me.
“Being rich is good and all, but what about the adventures?”
Amel warily asked. She had just returned from investigating Amber’s old workplace. Both of them are in shock regarding how long the line is. The line is around 30 meters long, filled with both adventurers and your average person interested in trying the new drink in town.
I have concerns that this will die out after a couple of days, but that concern has resulted in yet another brilliant idea.
Lisya told me that if this continues, the guild will be forced to kick us out as the long line is obstructing the guild’s day-to-day operation. At first, I thought they meant the tavern going bankrupt, but after seeing the line for myself, it’s pretty hard for people to get in and out as the line stretches even beyond the front door.
So, after some consideration, I bought a small building near the guild. I’m currently turning it into a cafe, and I have plans for my expansion. Bring as much as Earth’s food as possible while maintaining a time gap between new menus. This way, people will constantly come to see what’s new.
The location was also a strategic place, as it was in the center of the city, and was very close to the guild. We will benefit from the high traffic the guild generates, and also from adventurers who have just received their pay.
Amber is on board, of course. Nia will do whatever we do. Emma will... well... she’s quite bored, but she’ll be fine, for now. Amel, on the other hand...
“Hey, let’s accept this one!”
She said as she brought in a piece of paper.
“Rejected.”
“Wh... Wha... Why? You haven’t even seen it yet!”
“Oh please, how could that drawing of a dragon be even more obvious?”
Amel averted her gaze. I had actually seen that request before. It was a fire dragon making camp near the eastern mountains. The area isn’t really important, as there are no villages in its close vicinity. However, since it was a dragon, it was still considered a dangerous threat. Omega is dispatching knights to assist in the mission, although why such a quest would be available to the general public is out of my mind.
Rejected, Amel returned the quest to the board.
“You know... we could try something, at least.”
Emma let out a sigh of boredom. I glanced at the other two girls.
Nia nodded to me, while Amber was still busy drawing the jelly machine I requested from her.
“Fine... I’ll go check the board myself.”
I stood up from the table and walked toward Amel who was resticking the quest back to the board.
’Let’s not try anything too hard...”
I scanned the board for an easy-medium level quest that we could handle, but to my surprise, there were none. Well, there were several easy quests, but they had terrible pay.
“Lisya... where did all the quests go?”
Seeing my gaze, Lisya approached me. She took a look at the board, before looking at my stall.
“Well... guess your plan backfired..”
“Plan?”
Both I and Amel were confused by those words until we looked back at the stall.
Ah... I understand now.
The boba became so popular that adventurers are keener to do quests and buy more boba as a result. It didn’t backfire for me, who would be fine with lazing around, but it doesn’t seem to make Amel or Emma happy.
The two of us looked back at the board.
Well... I guess there’s one quest that we could do.
“I knew something was on when you asked me to grab my rifle...”
Emma said while adjusting her scope.
“This is your time to shine, so don’t complain. Besides, you were the bored one. I’m fine with flying back to Alpha right now.”
She snorted before returning her attention to the camp ahead of us.
“20 goblins. A bit more than what they told us.”
The request was to eliminate another goblin camp. The reason this quest was considered high-level is because of two main things. One, there’s not much intel available. Two, There were 17 goblins spotted. It was not something your average four-man party could handle. That number had now increased to 20.
As of now, our party consisted of Emma, Nia, Amber, and Amel. Amber decided to come as she was looking for inspiration. I’m unsure how killing goblins would relate to finding inspiration, though.
Despite being a five-member party, Emma would be the only one fighting. Her full-auto sniper rifle could fire bullets without much delay, making it ideal for fighting a large group of enemies.
The vantage point we were on was also really good, as it gave us a full view of the camp, although this small hill is quite far from the camp, around 1000 meters. It was a lot farther compared to the hill we used in the previous goblin strike.
“What do we do after we finish?”
Emma asked. I could only shake my head.
“I don’t know, maybe we should just return to the guild.”
“Do ye mind if us grab some ingredients when us come back?”
“I could accompany you shopping, Senpai.”
“That would be appreciated.”
Nia was currently lying down beside Emma, acting as her spotter.
“Do you see that cloth? The large red and black one hanging below the big tree?”
“I see it.”
“The leader is under that cloth. Its head is the small green ball just barely visible from here.”
“Roger.”
Emma pulled the trigger, and a bolt of laser traveled through the silent air. The laser hits its target, and the goblin soon collapses. The surrounding goblin watched in silence as their leader fell down, then soon joined it.
Using the guidance of Nia, Emma made easy work of the remaining goblins. The goblins didn’t know where the shots were coming from, and they were sitting ducks for us. Out of all 20, only three manage to escape into the forest.
“Alright, another quest is done!”
I said as I stretched my hands. Maybe I should consider starting to farm these kinds of quests. Emma gave me a side-eye, probably annoyed at the fact that I didn’t do anything.
“Alright, let’s head back.”
I said as I turned towards Amber’s ship.
“Shouldn’t we explore the camp?.”
Amel’s words stopped all of us. We looked at her, who was now standing at the edge of the hill, looking into the distance.
“W...”
I wanted to ask why, but her face this time is different. It’s a lot more serious than usual. Without waiting for us, Amel hopped off the edge and started going downward. We realized we won’t be able to match her speed, and decided to just take the ship instead.
When we arrived at the camp, Amel was already looking through the goblin camp. Many remains of dead goblins littered the ground. They’re a real inconvenience.
Most of them have burnt marks on their head, where Emma’s laser hit them.
“Did you find anything?”
I asked as I pushed the bodies around.
“Only this.”
Amel said as she pulled out a piece of paper from under the leader’s dead body. The previous goblin leader did not have anything like that. She gave the paper to Nia. Nia took a close examination of the piece of paper, with Amber standing beside her.
“It’s gibberish.”
Amber said. Nia continued looking at the paper for quite a while.
“Nia?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, it’s gibberish.”
...
I thought it would somehow relate to the eventual Asparagus main storyline quest.
Or maybe it does? And this was a part of a mystery we need to solve?
I don’t know, I just want to return to my boba stall.
“So... what now?”
We stood there, silent. Looking around at our surroundings, this doesn’t feel like a normal quest. Something is going on in the background.
Emma just soloed an entire goblin camp that appeared out of nowhere, in such a short amount of timespan.
Technically it’s quest complete, but the feeling is a bit lackluster.
After the silence, Emma decided to speak up.
“Let’s head back to the guild, and see where we went from there.”
“Alright.”
We then made our way back to Alpha.