Chapter 3 - Thirty silver coins for two parties.
Neatly tied red hair, and freckles set shyly over her white skin.
Guise’s mercenary guild receptionist was a young girl.
Is this because this world came from a game? Or is it because Guise’s security is stable enough? Or is it because the mercenary guild is in a position of absolute superiority to the mercenaries?
“What’s your name, priest?”
I cleared my mind. What should I say? Writing the name I’ve been using until now would bring too much attention, telling everyone I’m here and alive.
“Marnak. My name is Marnak.”
Marnak. I just brought up the name I wanted to give to this character when I first created him.
The receptionist went through the paperwork with a pen in her hand. Mainly a description of my appearance and information about the god I worship. After a while, the receptionist said with a friendly smile.
She looks pretty beautiful like this.
“Yes. Priest Marnak. Can you wait here for a moment? It will take some time to make the bronze mercenary plaque.”
I smiled brightly.
“I can wait as long as you want.”
When the receptionist heard my answer, she got up from her seat and walked upstairs with the documents.
No matter how you look at it, she’s a beauty. There were many strangely beautiful women in this world. Is it because this is a world from a game?
‘Kill!’
“I’m not in love with her. Mother of Corruption. I just thought she was beautiful.”
‘Kill!’
I patted the wriggling hand of the goddess and asked in a low voice.
“By the way, how many fingers was the receptionist just now?”
In my chest pocket, a dry hand stretched out two fingers.
Two fingers.
“Then I’m sure she’s a bit of a pushover. Or a fairly high-ranking person.”
What the Mother of Corruption’s outstretched fingers meant was very simple.
One finger is ten divinity.
Two fingers are a hundred divinity.
Three fingers are a thousand divinity.
Four fingers are ten thousand divinity.
Five fingers are a hundred thousand divinity.
As the Priest of Corruption, the way I obtained divinity was very simple and intuitive.
It is just to reap the death from a corpse of an intelligent being.
For example, if I killed that two-finger receptionist now and sent her back to the Mother of Corruption, I could get a hundred divinity right away.
But it would be quite annoying to take care of the aftermath.
However, this simple divinity acquisition system was quite generous, as I didn’t have to kill the opponent myself. As long as there was a body that had not been dead for a long time, it could be sent back to the Mother of Corruption and acquire divinity.
When I first found out about this, I had found work near the cemetery for a while. But unfortunately, I wasn’t a necromancer. The bodies coming to the cemetery were bodies that were dead for too long for me to harvest.
“Priest Marnak. Here’s your ID.”
Before I knew it, the red-haired receptionist, who came down from upstairs, smiled kindly and gave me a bronze plaque. I carefully accepted the card and smiled as reverently as possible.
“Thank you, but do you have any suitable work for me?”
Yes. Since I was impersonating a priest, there were many ways for me to obtain an ID. Nevertheless, there is only one reason why I came to the Mercenary Guild.
It was because I didn’t have a penny now. No matter how bad the taste was and how long I could starve, it wasn’t okay to starve forever.
“Wait a minute.”
The receptionist rummaged through the pile of papers.
“There was something that a priest who serves the goddess of maintenance could do.”
(Tl/N: Previously the goddess of ‘Yuji’, now the goddess of ‘maintenance’. I didn’t know how to tl it so it would make sense, and decided on that name in the end. I’ll try to correct it in the previous chapter too. It can also mean ‘dying wishes’.)
The receptionist talked to me, scrambling through the documents with deft hands.
“We don’t have much work in the mercenary guild these days because it’s the middle of winter. By the way, did you run out of money during your ‘pilgrimage’ to find a mercenary job?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
A pilgrimage.
This game was made under the motto of having the freedom to choose, so there were many gods involved in the continent. Thanks to this, each religion has always struggled with missionary work, and the representative action was the “pilgrimage.”
The pilgrimage literally meant that priests with a certain level of skill traveled around the world, giving people the power of God and carrying out missionary work. Of course, since priests are also humans, it was quite a common sight to help mercenaries to earn some coins when they ran out of money.
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“Oh, here it is! This is it, priest Marnak.”
I took the paper and quickly read the text. The receptionist smiled broadly at the sight.
“As expected, it’s convenient that you’re a priest. It’s common to read them word by word for other mercenaries.”
An announcement from the lord of Guise. The goal is to defeat bandits and monsters. A mission that has come down due to a subtle increase in the number of missing peasants on the way to Guise.
If the success pay is as written on this paper, after reconnaissance, if we succeed in eradicating the cause, it’s about thirty silver coins for two parties. Even if I can’t catch anything and come back empty-handed, they’ll give me a silver coin.
The conditions aren’t bad.
I quickly glanced through the documents to get a rough idea of the situation, and humbly answered the receptionist.
“Not being able to read is probably just because not everyone gets the chance to learn it. It’s not really a special talent.”
I was already able to read and write the letters of this world the moment I fell here. There was no need to study separately because of the comfortable conditions.
“By the way, when does this job start?”
“The priest came just at the right time. This is because they are leaving tomorrow.”
The reason this receptionist was strangely friendly towards me was that I was a priest. In this world, the priests are an intellectual class, and since they are priests, the minimum level of education is guaranteed, plus they all have different kinds of powers.
Because of that, people were basically as polite as they could in dealing with priests.
A class of both strength and knowledge. That was the priest.
The problem was that I was a priest of corruption that the whole class of priests hated.
I smiled as friendly as possible to the receptionist and spoke carefully.
“Would I be able to receive a portion of the reward in advance?”
I really didn’t have a penny in my hands right now.
I was finally able to get a silver coin in advance after hearing from the receptionist that even the priest should pay a penalty if he is late for his departure tomorrow.
“She was a pretty talkative receptionist. Mother.”
‘Kill!’
“I’m not going to kill her, Mother. She might be a bit talkative, but why would you want to kill her?”
‘Kill!’
“I’m not in love with her! If you keep pushing me like that, I’ll get really mad.”
‘Waddling Rabbit.’
That name, which risked being eaten by a fox, was the name of the cheap inn I was staying at. After paying the room price, including meals, for ten coppers, I now have only ninety coppers left in my pockets.
I’m poor…
I ate the stew with a spoon, not knowing what was in it. There was also no taste whatsoever.
I stared at the stew. It didn’t look very appetizing to see all the ingredients floating around.
Yeah, if I had my sense of taste, I might not have been able to swallow this stew because it was so bad.
I looked around mechanically passing over the stew. Groups of people gathered here and there, talking.
On the other hand, I was alone.
The moment I was about to cry a little.
‘Kill!’
As if to tell I’m not alone, a voice resounded in my head.
“Don’t worry. Mother, your son has a strong heart. I was just thinking about getting a decent weapon if I got paid this time.”
The stew has finished. I left the bowl and went up to the room. Since I used more coins, my room is a private one. Lying on a hard bed, I tried to sleep.
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I have arrived at the borders of Guise, the place that the receptionist lady has repeatedly emphasized. Maybe it’s because the sun wasn’t up yet? I was the first to arrive at the gathering place. It was also thanks to my body that I didn’t need to sleep that much.
‘Kill!’
“I came early. Mother, isn’t it too late to kill everyone?”
As I was talking with the Mother of Corruption, people gathered one by one.
An official from the castle called each person’s name to check his or her mercenary plaque and attendance. As I saw my name being crossed with a line, I slowly stepped back and looked at the person in charge of this mission.
The name of the middle-aged man, a silver-plate mercenary, was Galad. He was wearing thick fur over his armor. His old-fashioned look went well with the fur coat, and by the way he was conversing with the official in a very friendly manner, he seemed to be a mercenary who had worked for Guise for a long time.
When the official left after finishing the story, Galad was the first to come up to me and smile.
“Aren’t you cold? Priest?”
My outfit is just a white priest’s suit, not even wearing a common fur coat. For me, who is a reinforced human being, this cold was nothing.
In fact, I didn’t even have the money to buy furry clothes.
“I’m fine.”
“It seems that even the cold cannot penetrate the noble spirits of the priests.”
Galad seemed very satisfied with the word “noble” he used. After a while, Galad asked me carefully.
(Tl/N: noble and orphan sound similar in Korean)
“I heard you serve the goddess of maintenance. Do you mind if I ask what power you can use?”
What he expected from me was very simple.
“I can ‘maintain’ the condition of the injury to prevent it from deteriorating.”
Galad laughed with satisfaction. A look of relief that the power he expected was right.
“As expected, you have the power of a priest who serves the goddess of maintenance.”
To be precise, it was a simple ability to delay the decay and deterioration of wounds, but the results were similar anyway, so there would be no difference for Galad.
Galad spoke to each and every member of his party in turn. The total number of people gathered was ten.
I talked to the mother of corruption while Galad was catching people.
“How many fingers does everyone have?”
The result was normal. That Galad was a finger and a half. The rest were from half to one.
Half a finger meant the probability of growing to the next number. There was no additional divinity payment at the time of harvest just because there were half more.
In other words, the amount of divinity gained by killing and harvesting a finger and a half or a finger immediately was the same.
There was no one special.
After carefully checking all the personnel, Galad sent the departure signal.
That’s how the two parties’ thirty-silver mission started.
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