Still, He Was Naive

Beyond the gate lay a plain.

No—perhaps it had once been a forest.

In the distance, a forest still spread out, and it was likely cleared away for defensive purposes.

And above all, what stood out the most was—

“There’s all kinds of grass growing here…”

Kikori could not even tell whether it was weeds or not, but he could see that many different types of grass were growing.

Even so, he had no idea whether picking them at random would let him sell them.

More than anything, he did not want to be seen as “someone who causes trouble by doing unnecessary things.”

“Nibe grass, nibe grass… it’s not here.”

He searched and searched. Still, he could not find any nibe grass.

“That’s strange. This is supposed to be a beginner request, right? Why isn’t there any…”

“What’s with you—looking for nibe grass?”

“Wah!?”

Startled by the sudden voice, Kikori reflexively jumped back.

The male adventurer who had apparently spoken to him laughed at Kikori’s reaction.

“You’re way too jumpy. Anyway, you’re a rookie, right? You wouldn’t be looking for nibe grass in a place like this otherwise.”

“Y-yeah. Well…”

“It’s not here. This area’s the first place everyone checks, so it’s basically been picked clean.”

“Huh…”

“Even so, medicinal herbs do grow in the Contaminated Region pretty often… but you get it, right? Anything like that gets yanked out the moment it sprouts.”

That was true, now that he thought about it. Kikori was not the only adventurer.

Of course everyone would take medicinal herbs from relatively safe areas.

“So… does that mean I should give up on gathering nibe grass?”

“No, no need to be that pessimistic. If you go deeper in, monsters start being more profitable. Which means people stop bothering with things like nibe grass, even if they find it.”

“That… means…”

“Yeah, it’s dangerous. But, well, danger comes with the territory if you want to live.”

Saying that, the adventurer walked off.

As Kikori watched his back disappear toward the forest, he took the axe off his back.

“That’s right. I was… still naive.”

Even though he had decided to live as an adventurer, he had not been prepared to take risks.

He had to go deeper in there.

Now he understood. The reason those medicinal herb request sheets had been printed—printed in such numbers—was to teach this reality.

That adventurers who could not even defeat goblins had no value. That they would not survive anyway.

That was what those sheets were meant to convey.

“I’ll do it. To survive… I’ll slaughter goblins.”

Gripping his axe, he stepped into the forest.

It was the moment he steeled his resolve—

And also the moment Kikori placed his own life on the table as a chip.