The first mission

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/Fwoosh/

Dale swung his massive 'spear' with great difficulty, its weight made it that much harder to hit the annoying flying spiders.

And unfortunately, due to its size and the insects' weight, each of his movements made the insects scatter rather them precisely hit them.

/FWOOSH!/

But eventually, one of his attacks barely grazed one of the flying spiders, making it fall to the ground as one of its wings was torn.

However, it soon got up and disappeared into the grass.

"?!"

'His eyes darted open into action, following its movements as it dashed for his thumb...'

/Splat!/

[0.1%*2 = 0.2% XP gained]

Dale raised his foot and stomped, squashing that very same spider he had previously knocked down.

The pesky creature had just tried to ambush his feet with its finger-sized fangs, splattering blueish blood all around the grass.

"EWW! It's freaking nasty... I hate these things already!" He exclaimed as he continued to awkwardly move his weapon

And if you know how annoying it is to deal with mosquitos, then you know how these creatures felt for Dale right now.

And even though he could easily see their flight trajectory due to his high stats, the enormous weight of the spear in his hands limited his actions to intercept them.

But surprisingly enough...

"?... What? It ended?" Dale asked as he looked around, the sound of buzzing having suddenly disappeared

Without him knowing, all of the annoying pests retreated back into the grass or were killed, leaving them in peace once more.

"It has... For now. They'll be back eventually, as always."

"Did you see this properly Dale? These creatures are one of the reasons why we can't set up big farms." Misgurd said as he shook his sword, cleaning the blue blood from it

"What are these hellish creations?"

'I did see their names but... I want to know what exactly they are.'

'Normal creatures like pigs and cows, monsters, or something else completely?'

Testros looked around before sheathing his sword and saying:

"Bone Mice."

"Bone… Mice?" Asked Dale in confusion

'Now that he says it, why is the name of these spiders Bone Mice?'

"It may look weird that we gave this spider this relatively unfamiliar name, but the name "Bone Mice" was given to them because these creatures were usually found near dead Mice, where 90% of the time, they would be all bones." Misgurd replied as he looked at their dead bodies on the ground

"In the past they used to be a welcomed sight, hunting pests such as small mice and rodents that would plague the fields, but now, they became said pest..."

"They are a rather peculiar species where the females eat flesh for sustenance, and they can also fly, while the males eat, you guessed it, fruits and sometimes plants… Like our crops."

"Because of this, they're a species where the males target one portion of our livelihood while the females go for the cattle, a single bite can mean the death of one of our Chickens, which would be disastrous."

"We need to keep an eye out 100% of the time because a single one of these creatures, especially a female carrying eggs could mean the end of our cattle or a section of our farm if it's not dealt with in time."

"Thankfully, they usually leave their eggs in the open and they are also rather colorful, this is because they are meant to be able to be able to be born and immediately fly away."

"In the past their numbers used to be controlled by other creatures such as birds, their eggs were their favorite, but now... Can you see any flying in the sky?"

"..."

'Now that he mentions it, I don't see many animals all around...'

"They... Ate it all."

"The only reason why we can even farm is that they don't move at night, so we wake up very early and remain on the farms until deep in the night, to make sure these fuckers remain very far away from our life force, the farms, and cattle."

"Wow… This is really hardcore…" Dale said as he scratched his head

'They have to work on the farms for at least 12H per day from morning to sunrise, not because they want to, but because they have to.'

'And if they need to sleep 8 hours per day, that gives them 4 hours to go back home and relax, but that is almost no time at all…'

'It may even be less since the sun stays up for 12 hours, but that doesn't mean those creatures wake up at those exact time frames.'

"What a terrible creature… You said it ate all of its predators, but how is that possible in the first place?"

'Nature would balance itself, more of a type of prey would mean its predator would also increase... Even if the prey changed, so would the predator unless there were unnatural variables.'

Testros nodded and replied:

"It's due to the climate changes and the environmental changes caused by the desert..."

'As they walked, Testros continued to explain their situation.'

"First, The Bone Mice's life cycle is pretty fast, at most a week of life, and they grow into adults within 5-6 days, leaving them about a day to mate."

"So what you saw here were adults that were about to die, they likely attacked us in droves due to the frenzy of mating, this was likely a hatching spot but given we aren't seeing any eggs laying around means we arrived at the nick of time."

"This is another reason why we can't allow a single one of these into our farms because if we see one, there is a high chance it has already mated and is now searching for a place to lay its eggs."

"The second thing was its most aggressive natural predator, a type of frog with hard skin so they can hunt these spiders without problems but…"

"Due to the hot climate, and also because many of the rivers around here have already dried up, most of the frogs migrated deeper into the forest."

"There are also other creatures that hunt them, but guess where they are now?"

"..."

'If this is one of the lowest creatures in the food chain, I can only cry at what is at the top…'

'Nevertheless, I have learned yet another thing that needs to be resolved.'

'I don't know why my Quest wasn't updated, but if we take this from another perspective, then this is all due to the desert and the environmental changes.'

'Even if I find a way to mass murder all spiders, that will be only a temporary solution.'

"One question then, where does their sustenance come from? Wouldn't they just starve?"

"They do, many do, but no matter how many left there are, as long as one still exists, we'll still have to maintain our lifestyle of waking up early and going to bed late."

"Their sustenance likely comes from smaller insects and fruits that exist on the edge of the forest, that's the only thing I can think of."

"... I see."

Dale remained silent for the rest of the journey, and within a minute, they arrived at the crop fields.

The first glaring detail of the crop fields was the surrounding stone wall, not very tall, at most a meter tall, encircling the entire place.

Dale estimated that the total size of all of the crop fields was at most a Hectare but that would be a stretch in itself… Barely enough to cope with the needs of 100 people.

Remember, the techniques used here are not even comparable to the ones used in modern times, the yield of crops here is considerably less…

There were about 5 fields, 3 growing some sort of plant similar in appearance to wheat, and the other two were each growing something else that Dale couldn't really explain.

A green plant with thick leaves with the overall shape of an umbrella.

And a brown plant that was shaped like a cone…

"Everyone seems calm, it seems there are no problems." Misgurd mentioned as he looked at the people working on the farms

"So..."

But Dale was cut off by a loud voice:

"Hey!"

"?"

The trio turned to the side to see a tall man making his way towards them.

It was Edimund, the head of the village.

He was wearing the typical clothes you would expect a farmer to be using, a straw hat, a simple pair of long pants, a white shirt coupled with a pair of leather gloves together with a hoe in his hand…

Although…

"..."

Dale's expression twisted...

'Do farmers in this world go around with war axes on their backs?...'

No one seemed to mind the massive double-edged war Axee on his back as if that was the most common thing in the world.

This guy was definitely not a farmer...

"I've been waiting for you all." Edmund said with a smile

"Hum? How did you know?... Ah… That old crook…" Misgurd said as he shook his head

"Don't call her that, for your own safety… In any case, a nice morning to you all..." Edmund said as he placed his hoe on the ground

He greeted Testros and eventually looked at Dale, who was focused on keeping the spear off the ground with all of his might.

"I expected this to happen eventually ever since you recovered the holy Icon, but it happened faster than I thought…"

"..."

Dale seemed a bit apologetic, but Edimund said:

"Oh no, don't think I am reprimanding you, on the contrary, I believe that hard-working and curious people like you wouldn't be able to resist not exploring beyond the village's walls."

"Young people tend to dream about adventuring, and I was no different..."

"Seeing that you three made your way here… Are you all here to see if we're having any trouble lately?"

Testros nodded.

"Well, being honest, we do have a lot of work to offer, but speaking here about those problems would take forever, and I have some other places to be you see…"

He turned to Misgurd and said:

"So I propose that once I'm done here, I'll compile all of the problems into requests and send them to the Guild, how about that?"

"Good enough for me, although I am not a fan of more paperwork…" Misgurd said as he scratched his bald head

"Aside from this, how about I assign you all a job?" Edimund asked seriously

"Us? No. We won't be doing anything, just him." Testros replied as he pointed at Dale

"..."

'I won't complain... I was the one seeing work anyway... But I feel so... Betrayed.'

"In that case, I know the perfect thing…"

Edimund turned around, leading them somewhere close to the stone walls.

He stopped and pointed at the ground where a small dug path could be seen.

It seemed as if something rather big had slithered through the ground...

"See this?"

The moment he asked, Misgurd smiled slightly while Testros went into deep thought.

"I think it's perfect. What do you think?" Misgurd asked as he looked at Testros

"We have an alchemist now, so it shouldn't be a problem if something bad does happen…"

"..."

'I have no idea what they are talking about…'

"So Dale… Here is your first mission." Testros said as he pointed at the ground

"Track down this creature and slay it."

"..."

'You're kidding me right?'

Dale was left speechless, but he maintained his cool and asked:

"Can I at least know what it is?"

"Of course." Replied Edimund

"It's a Burrowing Anaconda, not commonly seen around these parts, but can be a pain to deal with."

"I am ashamed to say this, but because we were filled with work to do, I didn't send anyone to deal with it, not to say the dangers that come with it..."

"They're from the forest, and normally, they don't come to these parts due to the lack of food as they are quite glutenous, they can hunt those spiders for food, but they are too slow for that."

"This one must've tracked our cattle and is now prowling around it, waiting for a chance to strike."

"Considering its size, it is incapable of taking down the large ones, but I can't say the same about our poor chickens..."

"Not only that, this one is rather strange as for the past 4 days, it has the weird habit of coming into our walls during the night and leaving before the sun rises…"

"It doesn't do anything apart from that but I won't stay still until it does."

"Their main problem is their venom as previously, we had no way of making an antidote…"

"And I also heard that you talked with that girl and had her change for the better, I didn't have a chance previously but, on behalf of the village, thank you."

[Resko's Reputation +5]

"I didn't do much, in fact, I barely even talked…" Dale said humbly as he looked at the ground

'I won't refuse extra rewards like this... Though it came a tad late, I lost the bonus from the previous privilege.'

"You may have talked little, but it was enough, and in the first place, she wouldn't have agreed with us if it wasn't for the materials you brought." Misgurd said with a smile as he tapped his shoulder

"We only need to wait for her now, the same can't be said about this snake." Said Testros as he tried to stir the conversation back onto the topic at hand

[Quest activated, Strange Snake]

"..."

"Dale, get ready, this is your first mission as a Soldier of the Southern Corps, and our duty is to make sure the people are safe, so get to it!"

"..."

'Sigh...'

Dale looked at the old man trio with a frown as sweat fell from his forehead.

The snake's traces were obvious, he just needed to follow it.

'So my first task is to hunt a snake? Alright.'

'Time to work.'

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Notes