Chapter 85: Ch 85: Did you ask for a stronger monster?
[Tsk, tsk, people these days are so lazy. They look for a way out of any situation. Let me tell you! Back in my day, people used to work all kinds of jobs to be able to afford their rent. Even this system had to work day and night to—]
"How many weapons do I need to enhance to fill my quota?"
Rin cut the system off before it could finish its monologue. He had a feeling the system would never stop if he allowed it to vent its heart out.
[(⸝⸝⩌ ⤙ ⩌⸝⸝)]
[Stop being so impatient. Your quota will be updated in 1 minute.]
That one minute passed at snail’s pace. Rin kept watch on the system and let out a relieved sigh once the task screen got updated.
[A new task has been generated. Number of weapon enhancements remaining before enlightenment: 100
Time left: 2 days]
100 weapons wasn’t a lot to enhance. It was a reasonable number for a rookie. But the problem was the time limit.
There was no way the system expected Rin to be able to enhance all those weapons in 2 days? Especially with the ongoing task.
[Rookie, you need to show your spirit. How can you expect to improve if you don’t give it your all?]
The system tried to make Rin feel guilty to hide its own mistakes. But Rin was not going to fall for its tricks so easily.
"Are you sure you are not trying to dump your own work on me?"
Rin questioned and the system immediately refuted his words.
[The system would never do something like that. Please don’t try to accuse the system of such baseless rumors.]
[However, there is a slight chance that the higher-ups had a ’different plan’ in mind but that did not come to fruition.]
It was the system’s way to tell Rin that it was not its fault but the higher-ups.
Were those higher-ups incompetent or was this a one-time mistake? Why did it feel like this was deliberately aimed at him?
"Hey, what happens if I fail to complete this quota?"
[Sigh. Are you already worried about failing? Don’t worry. We won’t hold a Rookie responsible for failing to complete this task. However, your chances of future promotion might be compromised.]
So it was not a task Rin had to do. But the reward was tempting enough for him to try.
"Alright, let’s get to work."
...
"Ugh, I am never taking such a request from the system again."
Rin complained as he finished the 40th enchanted weapon and put it back in his inventory. He was tempted to give up halfway, but it would waste all the effort he had made to enhance so far.
So he kept going until the sun went down.
[Current exhaustion level: 60%]
Rin looked at the system with hollow eyes. He hadn’t even realized how high it had gotten.
It was time to take a potion.
Rin drank the whole bottle and went back to work. At 80 weapons completed, he had to use his ability to manually reduce his exhaustion.
But somehow, by the middle of the second day, he managed to finish all 100 units.
"I am done. Now give me my reward."
The bastard system did not give Rin his reward. Instead, it took all the weapons from his inventory and started to check them.
[Rookie, you will get your reward once all items are transferred. Please have patience until then. This system will be unavailable until the sales are completed.]
Rin rubbed his forehead and looked at his exhaustion levels.
[Current exhaustion level: 60% (-40%)]
"No wonder I felt like my body was breaking. I need to rest...maybe in a few hours."
There were about 3 hours left in task three. So Rin forced himself to get up and started to make final preparations.
He had already caught a handful of people trying to get close to their sacred tree, but no one had been brave enough to get close enough to pick the fruit. He doubted anyone would make the final push either.
But he still did not want to take any chances before he had a chance to get the fruit for Shelly and Albus.
Most people would call Rin shallow and two-faced, but he accepted that he was such things and more.
"Albus, how are things coming along?"
Rin asked while standing beside his butler. His eyes scanned the various units fighting different monsters. Most of them were being taken out quickly enough that Rin didn’t have to worry about them.
But a few monsters managed to get past the first wave of defence and were taken out by Shelly and Albus’s combined attack. So far, things were going too well.
And that’s when the first act of carelessness occurred.
Rin immediately noticed the man trying to climb up the sacred tree to try and get the fruit. His first reaction was to tell Shelly about it, but she was too busy fighting to see his gesture.
In fact, everyone was busy fighting to pay attention to what was happening at the sacred tree. It left Rin alone to take care of the situation.
Rin was about to run toward the tree himself when Shelly’s eyes met his. He gestured toward the tree and she immediately ran toward it.
The person trying to climb the tree never saw her coming. Shelly pulled him back and threw him Teressa’s way.
Teressa’s powers froze the man and he became another addition to her collection.
"Everyone is becoming too competent. I feel like I am not the only one falling behind."
Rin muttered, only to realize that his butler was smiling at him. Albus had heard every word he said, but was pretending to not know his young master’s incompetence.
As long as he was not willing to speak, Rin had no intention of saying anything either.
But the time to harvest the fruit was getting closer. Rin started to look for a distraction.
’I wish a strong monster could come and distract everyone.’
[Rookie, did you ask for a stronger monster? What a coincidence! The higher-ups have been surprised by your settlement’s actions as well. So they have decided to reward your settlement with higher-difficulty monsters. Good luck~]
That...was not what Rin wanted.
’Fuck you! Why can’t you be useful to me for once?’