Chapter 307: Chapter 307: Degree of Growth

I directed a lukewarm gaze at Haumea as she got dragged away by the receptionist. As expected, it being a request from the residential minister of foreign affairs, it was impossible to reject it. As a single Adventurer, Haumea had no choice but to obediently accept it.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

I waved my hand and wished well to Haumea, who was looking at Cole with eyes akin to cattle taken to the slaughterhouse.

I wasn’t so reckless as to butt in here.

“A-Anyway, let’s go look for the herbs, shall we? We also got mushroom commission today too.”

“Mushrooms? They’re growing everywhere, so can’t we just pick them up randomly?”

“Cloud you dummy, those random ones might be poisonous.”

“Gh… Still, since it’s a commission, are they high-class items?”

“Yeah. The Horton company apparently wants them to be used as seasonings.”

“Heh. Could we get a bonus if we grab a whole lot of them?”

“We have to start by testing how tasty they are. We could collect some for ourselves too, right?”

“You sure stay true to yourself, Michelle. But yes, we can do that if we collect enough.”

After discussing it with my comrades, I decided to leave the place at once. This was because the situation around us wasn’t looking very good.

The fight between a noteworthy Adventurer like me and Haumea had gathered a lot of attention. The unexpected meeting had ruined the chance, but I was still standing on the training grounds.

In other words, the entire place was filled with the air that told me they were all thinking this was a good opportunity to challenge me.

Honestly, I didn’t want to waste my stamina fighting against people I didn’t care about. It was natural to avoid getting exhausted, seeing that we had to go to the forest after this.

Still, if I bluntly rejected so many people’s requests here, it could come off as arrogant. Given that I was receiving the patronage of Lyell, Maria and Cortina, I didn’t want to spread bad impressions about me.

“Okay, let’s go at once!”

“Why’s the hurry?”

“Just go!”

Pushing the back of doubtful Letina, I fled the training grounds. From behind, I could hear the begrudged voice of those who missed their chance to fight me.

“Agh, my chance to get locked in a grapple with Nicole…”

“And me with Michelle…”

“My chance to get stepped on by Lady Letina…”

Yeah, I think there really was a need to wipe out some of Raum’s Adventurers.

We left the city as if fleeing, and rushed into the forest.

Since we wasted some time, the sun was already starting to go down. Our time in the forest was limited.

“We were late to depart today, so we need to hurry. But we should still aim for our usual performance with gathering.”

“That sounds quite hectic. However, I suppose it can serve as training to refine our observational powers.”

“It’s as you say, Letina.”

We quickly made our way through the forest, heading to our destination.

Mixus Mushrooms were said to grow in moist areas on the bare ground. That was quite unusual, as mushrooms normally grew on the trees and plants.

There were limited places around here that were damp and also had bare ground. As Raum was surrounded by forest, most of the ground was covered with weeds. If one were to speak of bare ground…

“Damp and bare place. There’s only the riverside that fits those criteria, isn’t there?”

“The river currents in Raum are quite stable, so the riverside ground should be bare and damp, meeting the conditions for the mushrooms to grow.”

“The currents are too calm downstream so even the riverside is covered by weed, so we might need to go upstream.”

“But wouldn’t they just get eaten by animals if they grew in a place like that?”

“These mushrooms are quite stimulating so the animals don’t seem to eat them. And that stimulus apparently works really well as seasoning. So, they should still be left there.”

“I see… Then, over here. The river runs in a zig-zag here as it approaches Raum. If we are going in a straight line, we should head this way.”

We decided on our objective without resting our legs. Our good combination was good harmony we developed over the long period of being together.

We chose a shortcut to go upstream on the river that had a lot of turns. We also gathered Milud leaves and hunted small animals on the way.

We already gathered our usual income just by doing that. In other words, we were able to do our job even faster than usual without any drop in efficiency.

“—I guess it’s about time to aim for a new milestone.”

“Hmm, did you say something?”

“I was just thinking that you all got used to moving while surveying the surroundings.”

“Well, yeah, we’ve been doing it almost daily, after all.”

“Parallel thinking is something indispensable for a magician, too. This much is natural.”

“Your rate of discovering things is the lowest among us, though, Letina.”

“T-That’s because I don’t have any scouting skills!”

She was making excuses with a red face, but it was still a little less than us. Normally, it would take her all just to keep up with us, much less find herbs. The fact that she could do those now showed that she had grown quite a bit.

“That aside, we’ll reach the riverbank soon, so pay attention to your feet.”

“Huh? Eek!?”

Hearing Cloud’s warning, I turned around. But that timing made me miss my footing due to the difference in elevation. I quickly reached out to the nearby tree to fix my posture, but my hand failed to grab anything. Damn it, I could’ve made it if it was my former body!

As my body got slanted, I failed to find an opportunity to fix my posture and rolled down the hill road.

“Waaaaah!”

“Nicole!”

After rolling and rolling, I tumbled into the puddle… No, river, at the end of the road.

After getting submerged in water, I somehow managed to poke my head above water. I saw Michelle looking at me worriedly from the hill.

Incidentally, after confirming my safety, Letina was barely holding back her laughter. I’ll remember that…

Getting out of water, I started climbing the hill back up.

“Are you alright there?”

“Cloud, I wish you’d warn about that stuff a bit sooner.”

“Hey, it’s not like I was that aware of our exact position there!”

With those words, Cloud hurriedly faced another way. Following the gazes he was stealing from me from time to time, I traced them to my chest.

I saw my skin being visible through my damp, white clothes. Not just my chest line that had grown in size lately, even the pinkish tips were in plain sight.

“Michelle, go crush Cloud’s eyes.”

“Roger that!”

“Now that’s just unfair!”

“Shut up. A maiden’s skin comes at a high cost.”

“I’ve already seen it before anyway!”

“Forget what happened at the camp!”

I grabbed the towel Letina threw at me and hurriedly intercepted his gaze.