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Goshiki Tsutomu knew he and his partner in adventuring were an odd sight. But as he walked through the town to get to the Adventure Guild, he couldn't find it in himself to care too much. He was a paladin himself, which meant he used a lot of Holy magic with his lance weapon and shield. His partner, Yamagata Hayato, was an extremely odd mage. He was technically a necromancer, dealing with the dead.
Saying 'dealing with the dead' was a bit of a stretch though, Yamagata mostly used the skeletons of beasts to do his work. He did have a couple gargantuan beasts that he had made rise from some troll souls, but those were more of a summon-at-will kind of thing. He didn't have the gargantuans with him all the time, since they consumed a lot of magic power to maintain. If anything, Yamagata normally had a bone vulture with him that had been raised in level enough to fly and deliver messages. Hane, the ironic name that Yamagata had given him, was also used for scouting.
Tsutomu had laughed outloud when he found that Hane had been named after the feathered wings that he no longer had, and that was also before he could even fly. Hane was a grounded vulture for the longest time, until finally he got to a level that he could fly at.
Tsutomu was usually the one who dealt with others out of their duo, not a whole lot of people liked dealing with a necromancer, even though the skill was really not up to Yamagata at all. A person didn't choose the magic that they specialized in. You either were good at a type of magic or you weren't. Tsutomu himself was just more inclined for Holy magic, and Yamagata was more suited for Death magic.
That didn't get through to a lot of people, hence why Tsutomu had to deal with most of the dealings with civilians at least. Other adventurers mostly got it, but Tsutomu could tell they were also sometimes wary of them. It sometimes irked Tsutomu, but he couldn't blame people for their natural stipulations about death.
The two adventurers stepped into the guild hall, Yamagata immediately heading over to the quest board. Tsutomu usually liked to go to the front desk counter to ask Yachi Hitoka if there were any quests she thought suited them. There were a couple people waiting to turn in their quest results, so Tsutomu was still waiting when Yamagata came back up to him and handed him a quest voucher.
"It's an easy subjugation quest, Tsum-Tsum. I think even my gargantuans can take it." Tsutomu rolled his eyes at the nickname. He was just lucky that there weren't any puns or weird nicknames that one could make with the name Hayato.
Tsutomu looked over the voucher himself as he stepped up the counter, "If it's so easy, then why not take a couple gathering quests too?"
Yachi had smiled when the two adventurers stepped up to the counter, and she giggled when she heard Tsutomu mentioned more quests, "You two are really good at subjugations! If you want to pick a couple gathering quests, as long as you bring the materials, that should be fine."
Yamagata was waved off and he came back with two quests to gather some various herbs. Yachi signed off on all three quests, which basically means she noted who was taking them on and the deadline. This was so that if they weren't able to fulfill it then the guild would know who to blame.
By the time Tsutomu and Yamagata made it out of the town gate, it was just getting to be late morning. If they played their cards right, they could be back by late evening with their subjugation. The quest was to slay a large goblins nest, which could have anywhere from 10 to 35 goblins. If Yamagata was to be believed, then he would be able to summon his gargantuan trolls and let them loose on the goblins, hopefully taking them all out. The only thing either of them would have to do is take the ears for proof of the subjugation.
For the herbs they had to collect, Tsutomu kept an eye out as they were walking. By the time they had reached the area that was reported as the goblin nest, Tsutomu had pretty much gathered everything they needed. There were just maybe two or three herbs that he would need to get on their way back, but they weren't too rare that he wouldn't be able to find them as they walked.
Yamagata was quick to summon his gargantuans once they spied the goblins themselves, they were no good otherwise. One of the two troll souls that Yamagata had to summon was from an older brutish mountain troll that they had stumbled upon on a quest one time. He was a very angry soul that had resisted for the longest time to fight for Yamagata even though he had already risen again thanks to his necromancy.
The other soul that Yamagata had to summon was from a younger able-bodied troll that they had specifically tracked down due to Yamagata's need for a strong soul to fight for him. He had been the pride of his tribe, but had recently been ostracized due to losing a fight with another upcoming adolescent. They gathered the information based off of visual cues and their own amusement, so those stories might have been farcical and really needed to be fact-checked.
This was not a new strategy that the two adventurers used, so the gargantuans were already gearing up to go fight. Tsutomu used to be eager to watch the souls fight, but now it was hardly exciting. The trolls would decimate anything smaller than another troll, so he had no doubt that the goblins would be taken care of. While the trolls attacked in a wave, he and Yamagata started to pick over the dead goblins and cut off the right ear as proof of subjugation.
It didn't take too long to wipe out the goblins, and by the time they had all their ears for proof of subjugation, it was just hitting mid-day. Tsutomu sighed, "We'll probably get back to town by dinner time. Wanna eat as we walk?"
Yamagata also sighed, they usually ate while walking just because it was faster. They had dried meats and bread to eat, so it didn't have to be prepared with a fire. It had been a tradition after so long of being on the road, in the middle of the forest, not wanting to set up a fire to cook stuff. Tsutomu started drying meats and buying bread in bulk. Now, it was more habit than anything.
Eating was a short affair, and Tsutomu ended up gathering the rest of the herbs needed for their two gathering quests by the time they sashayed back to town. Tsutomu was honestly surprised that they hadn't run into other adventurers during their excursion. Normally they gave Yamagata a wide berth if they saw zombies walking around.
It was about a half mile from the town when Tsutomu heard a scream. He and Yamagata turned as one towards the sound, and they didn't even have to discuss it as they started to head towards the location. When they got there, Tsutomu was a little baffled to find a couple of young-looking adventurers fighting a pack of kobolds. It looked like it had been going well, there sat about a half dozen fallen kobolds, but one of the adventurers was bleeding from a pretty deep looking stab wound in her leg. That must have been the scream they heard before.
Yamagata was quick to start chanting to help, which ended up being about a dozen skeleton soldiers. The two adventurers looked a bit startled to suddenly be surrounded by skeletons, but when they saw they were also fighting the kobolds, they seemed to relax their weariness. The rest of the kobolds were quickly taken care of, and the two adventurers sat down with heavy sighs and thanks.
They introduced themselves as Kawanishi Taichi and Shirabu Kenjirou. Shirabu was the one who had been hurt, Kawanishi stoic and off to the side. Tsutomu cast a quick healing spell on the wound, it wasn't enough to heal the whole wound, but it stopped the bleeding and cleaned the cut so that no infection could get in. The two adventurers thanked both Tsutomu and Yamagata for their assistance, "If it wasn't for you guys we probably would've been killed by these things."
Yamagata waved off the thanks, they didn't really need to think about helping others. Tsutomu wouldn't have been able to sleep that night if they had gone on their way after hearing that scream.
Shirabu and Kawanishi didn't have a whole lot of time to spare, they were on a crunch deadline for gathering their own quest items, so they headed off soon after, leaving Tsutomu and Yamagata to go back to town themselves. Tsutomu was ready to go home, he had had enough excitement for one day.
As they were walking back into camp, Hane, Yamagata's bone vulture circled them and landed on Tsutomu's shoulder. It had a note tied around its leg with some wire, probably to make sure it stayed on there. Yamagata sighed as he pulled the note off of the wire and unrolled it, "At least it wasn't so important that Hane needed to find us out in the wild."
Tsutomu was already walking to the guild hall to turn in their herbs and goblin ears, he knew Yamagata would catch up. He was just leaving the guild hall when Yamagata finally caught up, the money for the subjugation and herb gathering tucked away in his money pouch, "Hey, Satori and Eita want to team up in a squad to take out some wyverns."
Tsutomu was confused, "Didn't they just take down like 100 wyverns the other day?" Yamagata shrugged, Hane almost falling off the bony shoulders of his master. Tsutomu wasn't the biggest fan of teaming with Tendou Satori and Semi Eita, they were both too competitive for their own good.
"I think it was a request from the guild master, so who knows~." Yamagata had a point, there was no real point in worrying about it. With the four of them, taking out more wyverns will be a no brainer.
Tsutomu guessed those two would want to leave as soon as possible, which meant either that same day or early the next morning. Tsutomu sighed. So much for some relaxing in the town.