The Man Picked Up By the Gods (Reboot)

Volume 1 Chapter 18

---

When I got back to the guild, I spoke to the receptionist girl again.

“Excuse me.” [Ryouma]

“Oh, youre that kid from this morning.” [Receptionist]

“Its done.” [Ryouma]

“Eh? Done? Its only been 3 hours, are you sure you dont mean youre giving up?” [Receptionist]

“Nope, I completed the request.” [Ryouma]

As I said that I handed the request form.

“…Wow you really did complete the job. You even got a bonus… Amazing. Although this job isnt particularly hard, the stench is horrible and most people lose their resolve just from seeing all that trash pouring in endlessly through the hole.” [Receptionist]

“I knew a convenient spell.” [Ryouma]

“Good job. Heres your reward for completing the request: 30 silver coins.” [Receptionist]

The receptionist girl brought me the reward on a plate.

Hmm? Thats a lot more than the request posted for.

“I did hear I would be getting a bonus, but isnt that a bit much?” [Ryouma]

“Miya-san has been increasing the reward since everyone kept refusing, and on top of that, you even got a bonus. This much is just right.” [Receptionist]

“I see.” [Ryouma]

“By the way, the guild master asked me to call you to his room when you returned. Mind dropping by?” [Receptionist]

“The guild master?” [???]

The one who replied to the receptionist wasnt me but the man on the next counter.

“Dont worry, its nothing special, just the usual.” [Receptionist]

“What do you mean? Im Ryouma Takebayashi, by the way.” [Ryouma]

“Im Jeff Grange. That old mans a busy body and just loves to help out young fresh recruits under 13 like you. He helped me too when I was new. He looks more of a bandit than any real bandits, but theres no need to be afraid.” [Jeff]

“I see. Thanks.” [Ryouma]

“Its fine.” [Jeff]

After that a voice called out inside the counter. It was the guild master.

“Exactly. You dont have to thank that guy.” [Wogan]

“Ah, guild master.” [Receptionist]

“Geh! Old man.” [Jeff]

“You goGeh after seeing someones face!? And whose face looks more like a bandits than real bandits, huh!?” [Wogan]

“Yours obviously, old man!” [Jeff]

“Shut it! Its not my fault my face is so stiff! And I dont recall ever making an evil face like some bandits!” [Wogan]

“Dont Women and children run when they see you in a dark place?” [Jeff]

“Gu… But the people of this town dont.” [Wogan]

“Thats because theyre already used to it!!” [Jeff]

“*COUGH! …Enough …Ryouma, come.” [Wogan]

Seemingly hurt by Jeff-sans words, the guild master pushed down on his chest called me over as he went back inside. I followed him in after saying my goodbyes to the receptionist and to Jeff-san.

The room I was brought to was the same room as yesterdays, the guild masters room.

“Sit where you like… Is that a basket? You stand out like a sore thumb.” [Wogan]

“Sorry, my familiars are inside.” [Ryouma]

“You were a monster tamer? I thought for sure you were a hunter.” [Wogan]

“Theyre just slimes and I only learned from watching, so at most, you could call me a monster taming hunter. I mainly just use the sticky slimes for traps and the poison slimes to coat my arrows in poison.” [Ryouma]

The guild master broadly grinned.

“…Thats a nasty combination you have there.” [Wogan]

“You think? Theyre just slimes, you know.” [Ryouma]

“Im sure you already know this, but dont look down on advanced slime variants.

A lot of adventurers think theyre no different from normal slimes, but they couldnt be more wrong. Well, ok, a lot of them are still weak, but an acid slimes acid can spoil armor. Fighting those repeatedly will easily turn new armor into rags. Poison can take your life, and a stick slime is a pain in the ass. After all, if you cant move, what are you gonna do when another monster shows up? Nothing, you just wait and die.

Adventurers whove fought with slimes like those will never look down on them.” [Wogan]

“I see… It looks like Ill have an easier time in the Adventurers Guild then. Actually, I went to the Tamers Guild, but apparently, theres a current trend of looking down on slimes.” [Ryouma]

“Ive heard that story lots from that old guild master. So thats why you came here, huh.” [Wogan]

“Yes. Slimes cant take on manual labor, so I came here to find some other work.” [Ryouma]

Wogan nodded several times.

“So thats why… Anyway, on to business. I heard you took on your first job already. From the looks of things, it seems you did well.” [Wogan]

“Yes, the client was satisfied with my work. I even got a bonus.” [Ryouma]

“Ho, you were able to do it that well, huh. I heard it was a cleaning job of sort, what job was it?” [Wogan]

“I cleaned Miya-sans house.” [Ryouma]

The guild masters eyes opened wide.

“You cleaned her house?” [Wogan]

“You know about it?” [Ryouma]

“Well, Miya is an adventurer who lives in this town, so yeah. I see her around a lot.” [Wogan]

“I see.” [Ryouma]

“Still, since you were able to complete her request, that must mean you were able to clean her house.” [Wogan]

“Yes.” [Ryouma]

“I didnt think thered actually be anyone who could clean her house… So, how did you clean it?” [Gowen]

“I knew a spell suitable for the job, but it costs a lot of mana, so its hard to use and isnt very popular.” [Ryouma]

“Ho? In that case, I have another job Id like you to take.” [Wogan]

Could it be?

“Are you by any chance referring to the common toilet?” [Ryouma]

“What? You knew about it?” [Wogan]

“Yes, I was choosing between that and Miya-sans house this morning.” [Ryouma]

“Thatll make this quick then. We were tasked by the government office to clean the common toilet, so now were being blamed for it. It was originally their fault for not paying the slum residents, but the people are starting to complain.” [Wogan]

“I heard that from the receptionist, actually. Is that really true?” [Ryouma]

“It is. You know the towns income has been decreasing these past years, right?” [Wogan]

“I heard its because of the declining mines.” [Ryouma]

“Right, so the government office cut down on expenses, but their methods mainly revolved around cutting the budget for the towns management and shifting the problems to the people.” [Wogan]

The biggest cut was the budget allocated to the slum people.

The government office has been gradually cutting down on personnel, until eventually, they didnt have enough people anymore.

When certain jobs couldnt be finished on time, they shifted the blame onto the workers, saying that its only because they werent taking it seriously that the job wasnt done yet, and then forcefully drove down their pay.

When the people started to complain, they argued that theres no point in hiring a large group from the slum people since they wont take the work seriously. But with the pay provided being essentially zero, it was only natural that the slum people wasnt interested in working for them.

“They may be poor, but if theres not enough compensation, even the slum people wont be willing to work. Its not like theyre asking much either. But if the compensation they receive isnt even enough to cover their minimum living expenses, then whats the point of risking getting sick? All that will do is just make their lives worse. It wasnt worth the risk.” [Wogan]

I see, so thats what happened.

“Just let me get ready and Ill do the job. The soonest I can do it is tomorrow.” [Ryouma]

“Thanks. Ill pay you lots, so do a good job.” [Wogan]

“You can count on me.” [Ryouma]

I should try talking to Reinhart-san and the others too. Theyre the ones with the most authority around here. Theyll be interested to hear what I did today too. Once theyve been informed, Im sure theyll take care of it.

“…What are you thinking?” [Wogan]

Did it show on my face?

“Well, Im by myself today, but I was thinking of talking to the people who accompanied me yesterday.” [Ryouma]

The guild master broadly grinned.

…No wonder Jeff-san says you look like a bandit. That face…

“Well, arent you a nice kid? Do you think theyll help?” [Wogan]

“Im sure theyll do something about it so long as theyre informed.” [Ryouma]

“On what basis?” [Wogan]

“Well, Im an orphan living in the forest, and they just happened to meet me by chance, yet they actually went out of their way to help me out. We were strangers, you know.

Of course, its impossible for them to do the same for a large group of people like the entire slum, but theres no way people like that will just sit and do nothing after knowing the situation.” [Ryouma]

“I see. Ill be looking forward to it then.” [Wogan]

“…If thats all, can I go? I need to prepare for tomorrow.” [Ryouma]

“Yeah, Ill leave it to you. Ill tell them to prioritize you when you drop by, not that its really needed since no one wants to take the job on anyway.” [Wogan]

“Thats true.”

We laughed and I went back to the inn. Along the way I bought some cheap cloth and a set of sewing tools from a cheap shop. I also bought a spool of thread that thread cant enter.

Tl Note:?Not really sure what that last line means. I dont know a lot about sewing other than sticking the needle in, pulling out, and repeating, but anyway, thats pretty much a literal translation, so if someone could figure out what its actually talking about and post it in the comments, that would be nice.

Another way to interpret it: a spool of thread that thread hasnt entered or doesnt enter.

Oh, and reminder to use spoiler tags when discussing or answering questions with information from the previous version. Im sure there are people who decided not to read it and are solely reading this version (I do recommend reading the old version though). To use them, just put the contents in between these things (no space): [ spoiler ] [ /spoiler ]

Comments with spoiler tags might need approval, so just wait for me to approve it. I didnt set that rule by the way, they just keep getting caught for some reason.