Chapter 65 – Clan Gathering Part 2
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Translator: SFBaka
Editor: Thor’s Stone
We had a lively dinner like usual, and when things settled down a bit, we announced the fact that all the members of the Shining Star party were promoted to A-rank. After we did so, all the other Clan members began wildly celebrating. It looks like everyone also felt that we took a significant step forward toward our goal.
Elna even brought out a full wine barrel she bought with her own money this afternoon, and the rest of the dinner turned into an all-out celebration party. Cleria, Sharon, and Selena were all pretty high-tensioned as well. Anyway, we’re still on break tomorrow, so I guess this much is okay. Yep. It’s nice to be able to just kick up a huge racket with everyone from time to time.
I ended up drinking more than usual as well. Of course, I wouldn’t really get myself drunk thanks to Nanom, but it really has been a while since I drank this much. They poured me ale almost non-stop, and it’s not like I could refuse either since that would ruin the mood. The next day, I set off to attend the Clan gathering after having a nice, long bath. Now then, I wonder how the discussions will go.
When I arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild, I went up to the receptionist counter, and the lady staff manning it immediately led me to the usual meeting room. There’s still some time before the meeting officially begins. Well, I think it’s a sign of good manners to always try to arrive earlier than the scheduled time to avoid making others wait.
When we entered the meeting room, I noticed that only two other people have arrived before me. And one of them was quite familiar. It was the leader of Gale, Karl. It looks like he wasn’t kidding about Gale being a big Clan since he was really invited as well.
“Hey there! It’s been a while, Karl!”
Karl had a blank look on his face. Did he actually forget about me already?
“C’mon! It’s me! Alan, remember?”
“It’s not like I already forgot your face, y’know! I see. So the rumors really were true… That Shining Star Clan was a newly founded Clan that made a big splash by hunting down a large number of bandit groups. That’s your Clan, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I did tell you we were gonna start a Clan before, right?”
“But ain’t your Shining Star a large Clan with several tens of members already!? I just came back to Gantz yesterday and heard the rumors, but I can’t believe someone as young as you ended up really leading such a large Clan. I rushed over to the Spring Breeze in to confirm it for myself, but they told me you already moved out a good while back.”
“Oh, right! Sorry. I kinda forgot leaving a message since moving to the new Home got so hectic. I’m really sorry about that, man.”
“Nah, it’s fine. I see… You really are quite the character, ain’t ya?”
“Nah, not really. The amazing ones are my comrades.”
The main contributor for making our Clan as large as it is was Cleria after all. Without her, I doubt we could have gathered a hundred capable people right from the start.
“Well, alright. But those comrades of yours all look up to you as their leader, right? That means you really are impressive. C’mon. Don’t get all humble on me now.”
Other people gradually started arriving at the meeting room as Karl and I chatted. There were seven of us, all in all. When the meeting time arrived, Guild Chief Kevin finally entered the room as well.
“Good. Since all of you are here, let’s get this meeting underway. First, I’m sure most of you are unfamiliar with him yet, so let me introduce you. The one sitting over there is Alan. He’s the leader of the newly established Clan, Shining Star.”
“It’s a pleasure, everyone.”
“The bandit hunting guys!?”
“This young’un is the leader, you say!?”
Uh, I kinda expected their reactions. I did look quite young. I didn’t exactly look like your average twenty-something year old. But that’s all thanks to Nanom as well.
“With that out of the way, let’s start the meeting, shall we? There have been some abnormal incidents spotted within the Demon Forest lately. As for what those exactly are, some reports tell of a low, rumbling roar resounding from the depths of the sea of trees that even makes the ground visibly shake. There are also reports of people seeing phenomena akin to bright lighting flashes emanating from the depths at night. Does anyone here have an idea about these incidents as well?”
“Ah, now that you mention it chief. There certainly are some of my boys who’ve been talking about experiencing strange stuff like those lately.”
The one who spoke was a middle-aged man who looked unfamiliar to me. I see. I haven’t received any report from Iris about those though.
“This is the first time something like this happened around these parts. The guild specialists are suspecting it might be signs of a stampede.”
“A stampede…”
The meeting room descended into silence. It sounded like a severe problem for sure.
“Furthermore, though unconfirmed, there have been reports of people sighting dragons from a distance.”
“”Dragons!?””
The meeting room instantly exploded into a huge uproar.
Dragons huh… Iris did mention spotting several of them living in the depths of the forest in her previous report. A video record of a dragon flying through the sky was also sent to me a while back, and it certainly didn’t look like your average monster. It was virtually a huge flying dinosaur.
“Well, it’s certainly going to be difficult to put up countermeasures against dragons. However, it’s relatively easier to deal with a stampede to some extent. So we’re thinking of taking steps to thin out the number of monsters inside the forest as much as possible.”
The meeting room became noisy once again.
“Most of our Clan members are out on an escort quest right now, so we’re short on manpower! So please assign us an easy area if possible, chief!”
“We’re almost all in the same boat anyway! You can’t use something like that as an excuse!”
“We’re fine with the spot we got assigned to before.”
Everyone started kicking up more of a fuss. I wonder what’s going on though?
“Hey, Karl. What are all of them talking about?”
“Oh, they’re trying to secure favorable assignment areas. In short, the guild will assign you to a particular area and your Clan will be responsible for hunting down monsters exclusively there. The number of monsters will become uneven if everyone does their own thing after all. Well, something like that is mostly for peace of mind though.”
“I see. So that’s how it is… Is this a compulsory request by the way?”
“It ain’t. For now anyway. And you also don’t get a separate quest reward. It’s not a very profitable quest for big Clans like us.”
I see. So we won’t get a separate quest reward and will only get to hunt within the area assigned to us. In other words, our income will just be from the usual subjugation rewards and from magic stones. It’s certainly a bit unprofitable.
It’s possible to set out only to swing and miss because no monsters are lurking around the area you got assigned to after all. And even if there were, it would still be a loss if the only ones you find are goblins or the like.
But on the other hand, it’s also possible to slack off and not hunt monsters at all since there’s no specific quota. Well, I guess the pride and reputation of the entire Clan are at stake, so no Clan would willingly take that option anyway.
And so, they are aiming either for an area with only a few monsters to have an easier time or an area with fairly valuable monsters to make more money. I see. So that’s why everyone is making such a fuss.
Afterward, a large hand-drawn map of the Demon Forest was brought out, and the chief began assigning an area to each Clan. There’s also the Clan’s size and overall abilities to consider, so it turned out to be quite difficult to decide each Clan’s assignment.
I didn’t really have a spot I was particularly set on, so I just watched the proceedings calmly.
“Alright. Your assignment will be from this area to here, Shining Star. How about it?”
“Understood.”
“Wha–!? Wait, that area’s just too much no matter how you look at it! Don’t make promises lightly like that, Alan!”
“No, I believe they will be able to handle it. Shining Star has more than a hundred members after all. And all of them are C-ranked or above.”
“What did you say, chief!?”
“A hundred…”
“C-ranked…”
“It’s okay, Karl. We’ll manage.”
It took a while, but all the Clans present were finally assigned an area on the map.
“We’ll proceed with this arrangement then. Of course, it’s still up in the air if these countermeasures will be enough to prevent or at least lessen the effect of the stampede, but things will be too late if we don’t move now. Please do your best and cooperate, everyone. If a stampede does happen, monsters will still appear in droves even if we do start to thin out their numbers now. So please concentrate on thinning them out as much as you can to lessen the impact as much as possible. Do you have any questions?”
I see. So stampedes are like that huh… Now’s a good opportunity, so I decided to ask about something that Iris was curious about as well.
“You mentioned dragon sightings earlier chief, but have there been any casualties resulting in dragon attacks around here before?”
“Ah, the last dragon attack with casualties happened about 60 years ago. Adventurers out on the field got attacked, and I think there were more than fifty dead. Fortunately, dragons don’t seem all that interested in humans. There certainly was a sighting report this time as well, but honestly, I’m not very worried about the dragon.”
“I see. Understood.”
“If you encounter any strange or suspicious incidents while out there, please immediately make a report to the Adventurer’s Guild. Alright then. The meeting is now adjourned.”
It took quite some time, but the meeting was finally over. We didn’t really have a lot to discuss, but the meeting still took more than two hours.
“Hey, Karl, are you free after this?”
“I don’t have any particular business right now, yeah.”
“Let’s go for a drink then. My treat.”
“That sounds great, buddy! I certainly can’t pass up such an offer.”
We decided to drink at the pub near the guild. We ordered ale and some snacks from the waitress.
“Hey, Karl. Do things like this incident happen often?”
“Not really. But sometimes the number of monsters balloon a lot and quite a number of adventurer parties and Clans suffer damage and casualties as a result. At those times, the guild organizes the major Clans just like this time in order to cull the monster numbers to manageable levels again. I think the last time that happened was two years ago.”
“I see. Hey, have you ever seen a dragon for yourself, Karl?”
“I did spot one when I was a kid. Just once though. That definitely wasn’t just a wyvern. I got pretty lucky, I guess.”
“I haven’t managed to see one yet though. Is it true that they breathe fire?”
“Yeah, it’s true. Not just any flame though. More like a gigantic blaze. Some also spit out something similar to the Fire Ball spell too.”
“Hou, that sounds really amazing. I wanna see one myself if possible.”
“Anyway, let’s talk about your Clan, man! You guys are really impressive, you know that? I mean, there’s more than a hundred of you, and all of you are C-rankers and above!”
“Oh, right. Haha. Well, we sort of just came together and decided to raise our flag here in Gantz.”
“Can you give me more details, man?”
I told him some things with some embellishments and white lies mixed in. We also exchanged info regarding bandits and possible bandit hideouts. It was a very meaningful afternoon.
We wrapped up our little drinking session when it was near dusk and promised to go out for a drink again next time.
I felt pleasantly drunk, so I decided to plop down on my bed to rest until dinnertime once I got back Home.
I thought about today’s Clan meeting as I laid flat on the bed. Stampede huh… It really would be a big problem if something like that were to happen. Maybe Iris can give me more detailed info.
(Iris.)
『Yes, Captain.』
(I heard that there were some strange phenomena happening within the Great Demon Forest lately. Do you know anything about it?)
『No. There doesn’t seem to be anything worthy of note that’s happened recently. ……Well, apart from the base-building activities I am currently supervising anyway.』
(………So you’re saying the sounds and light flashes that are being sighted here are from our base construction activities?)
『No. I don’t think they will be able to spot our activities all the way over there. I can’t say with a hundred percent certainty though.』
Come to think of it, I haven’t really checked out the progress of our base huh. I thought it would still be a long way off to getting finished, but it has been a few months already after all. There should be some noticeable progress now.
(Can you show me the current state of the base?)
『Understood. We’ve already accomplished this much.』
A holo-video of an aerial shot above the base suddenly appeared before my eyes.
(What the–!?)
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