Don't drop your guard in the farmlands, please! part 1

"I'm telling you mister Lorenzo, I was very tired and couldn't activate any skills"

"Uh!? you're telling me you were so tired you couldn't even defeat a single goblin that a ten year old would defeat in their sleep? is that what you're telling me?"

"Yes, but please, don't put my friends in another group"

"I'm telling you, there's no chance I'm letting you join Risa's team. She's an instructor just like me but she always takes on hard quests to train the stronger adventurers"

"That may be so, but still, I can be of help"

"You! seriously, how many times are you going to make me repeat myself? you had to be carried back by Bob, are you even able to feel shame? he brought you back in a princess carry. Gods, that scene will haunt me forever"

After coming back to Celarent Lorenzo decided to give a passing grade to everyone, even after my poor performance. That was solely because of how useful I was in making the trip more comfortable. But Bob and Luke did so well Lorenzo sent them to train with miss Risa.

After being offered the chance to step up their game and set a record as the first adventurers to ever been taken under her care after their first mission, they couldn't refuse the offer.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with them being hypnotized by her almost naked breasts.

Now I'm stuck here with Sera and Lorenzo, our new assignment is to gather medicinal herbs. It's not that I dislike to gather herbs, on the contrary, I love to stroll around the woods and learn about different plants, I especially like to draw them and write notes about them in case I discover some new and interesting uses for them, but the best part is to be surrounded by nature.

I don't know if it was part of my original personality, but I do love the fresh breeze that howls in the forests, I love to watch the beautiful scenery where man has yet to lay their hands on and to wet my feet on clear running water.

What bothers me is not the quest nor the reward, but the fact that it was me who posted the request. Well, I didn't do so myself since I wanted to distance myself from the shop enough so people don't know I actually own it, that's why I asked Mia to post the quests.

Now the only work I do at the shop is craft healing potions and brew tonics, I haven't even had the chance to experiment on new potions. Since the craftmen station is so wasteful I'm also teaching Mia how to use the distiller, but she's either too dumb or not willing to learn how to use it properly.

Anyways, basically, I'm paying myself to gather herbs for the shop and the only one who gets something out of it is the adventurer's guild.

We went back to the same forest where I faced that goblin, but this time we spent about an hour gathering herbs before going back. Of course me and Sera picked up way more herbs than the quest required and instead of turning them in we just kept them for the shop.

Other than that it was a completely uneventful quest and we went back safe. This time we made it back in time for lunch and Lorenzo treated us to a decent meal at the adventurers guild, being a skilled cook I could tell they did a good job with the ingredients, but the recipe itself was a bit on the dull side.

Sera and I left our plates clean as always, surprising Lorenzo who thought Sera would have a more demure behavior. She's a beauty after all, especially now she's completely healthy and well developed.

"You guys sure eat a lot."

"We come from Ironwoods after all."

Sera replied shrugging her shoulders.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

That's right, most people didn't know about the affairs of other towns since news travel really slow and Ironwoods was pretty isolated too.

"Up until this year, we've been suffering from famish. People starved and it wasn't uncommon for townsmen to drop dead on the streets despite having work, house and sometimes even money."

"How could that be?"

Lorenzo gasped, without anything to say I just listen to their conversation. I'm not from Ironwoods after all and I don't know how things were before I started living in there.

"Our land wasn't fertile and the weather is cold all year around, there's hot days once in a while, but most of the time is so cold crops would die. Even if we were able to plow the land and sow, even animals were starving most of the time so they attacked us so we had to stop."

"That sounds harsh indeed, but why didn't you just trade with other towns or cities?"

Fearing Sera could say something unnecessary I intervened.

"There's some circumstances we're not allowed to talk about, I hope you understand mister Lorenzo. What's important is people at Ironwoods have it difficult."

"Eat to your hearts content then! I'll ask for another order."

"Sera, you need to be careful with what you share, Lorenzo may be friendly, but don't forget he's and adventurer too and we have people we care about back at Ironwoods."

As Lorenzo stood up and headed to the counter I spoke to Sera in a hushed voice.

"Yes mister Ryu."

The sounds of people speaking in loud voices while eating and drinking gave the whole place a cheerful ambience and the smell of different dishes mixed in, but not to the point it was bothersome. The building was really spacious after all.

When we finished eating the instructor took us to the courtyard again.

Bob waved at me with a smile when he noticed I was there. They were currently sparring with miss Risa, both at the same time. Now I could see her turning and crouching while dodging every attack with a smile on her face, she looked relaxed as she taunted them.

Lorenzo came back with a rope and tied it to a pole.

"Alright, it's training time. I'll wave the rope and you're going to avoid being hit by it"

"uhm, Instructor Lorenzo... this looks like a game children at Ironwoods played all the time."

"It doesn't look like it, it's exactly the same game."

He laughed and I turned to look at Sera who, for some unknown reason, was smiling with sparkling eyes.

"Since you're so excited, you're up first miss Sera."

Sera nodded and got into position. Once she was ready Lorenzo started slowly waving the rope and Sera jumped nimbly avoiding it in between giggles. Her broad smile was so intense she looked really pretty.

After a while Lorenzo started waving the rope a a bit faster, but still close to the ground, until Sera caught up the pace and then he started twisting the rope making it go above Sera's head forcing her to jump as it got close to the ground. Sera giggled as she kept dodging the rope despite the sudden change in motion, but then I saw something that distracted me completely from the exercise.

She wasn't wearing her armor, which meant she was wearing only her normal clothes. That shouldn't be a problem for the kind of training she was performing but... her breasts kept bouncing up and down with every jump she made.

That along with her panting made it look so enticing It took me back to the night we spent together. She was really mischievous back then, but now she looks so innocent and completely unaware of her lewd appearance.

Lorenzo, on the other hand, seemed to be completely in the know and when Sera got tired he let her rest.

"whew! it was my first time playing that! It was so fun!"

Sera cheerfully declared breathing heavily.

It was my turn now and I feel a little anxious about the meaning of this game..

The rope moved so slowly I felt like asking our instructor to step up the speed, but I'm nothing but a patient man. I'm quite sure there must be a reason why we're doing this instead of sparring.

The first minute is way too easy, but once the rope started going above my head it started getting a bit more difficult. It wasn't that the rope moved too fast, but I didn't have the time to catch my breath and every jump was a bit more difficult than the last.

I'd say my stamina is above average, but because of the increasing speed and my decreasing stamina I wasn't able to keep it up for much longer.

I would say I lasted about the same time as Sera did, which is a lot considering her stats are way higher than mine.

"Since you're just getting started there's no point in doing sparring, what you need the most is an increase in stats and knowledge, that's why whenever we train we'll be doing high performance exercises and then some learning"

Lorenzo spoke to us in his usual solemn voice, but we were completely drained in the floor already.