Konbini Ossan Volume 1 Chapter 25 – Herb Gathering and Skill Imbuing
After dealing with the man, I checked the requests posted at the guild.
Requests are broadly divided into two types:
- One is the standard request — These are the ones taken on by a single adventurer or a party, and the job ends once the request is fulfilled.
- The other is called a permanent request — For example, exterminating wolves or gathering medicinal herbs – jobs that are always available and have no limit.
These do not require prior acceptance at the counter; simply bringing proof of the monster hunt or collected materials will be enough to process the request as completed.
No matter how many times these are fulfilled, permanent requests are never withdrawn.
By the time I checked the requests, it was already early afternoon, so the easy jobs had all been taken.
Therefore, I didn’t formally accept any request and decided to fulfill a permanent one instead.
Among them, the one I aimed for was herb gathering.
There were several reasons, but the main one was simple — I’m weak. I don’t have any weapons, and my stats are low.
Taking on a monster extermination request is out of the question.
So I prepared myself and headed to the forest designated as a herb-gathering area. It's about a thirty-minute walk from the royal capital.
Naturally, I knew this thanks to the knowledge written in the beginner’s manual.
Despite the name, the beginner’s manual is filled with surprisingly detailed information about the adventurer’s line of work — key nearby gathering areas, monster habitats, their ecology, weaknesses, and more.
It contains a wealth of information not just about how to act as an adventurer, but also about survival and earning potential.
It would be a huge waste for any beginner not to read it.
That said, it’s understandable. Adventurers generally don’t have high literacy.
Many can understand basic words and numbers, but reading a book is tough.
Hiring someone to read it for them costs money, too. So it’s natural that no one wants to read it.
Anyway, I started gathering herbs based on the information I’d read. Not just one type, but all the ones listed in the permanent requests.
I sorted the different herbs into separate bags. Once a bag was full, I stored it in my item storage pouch. Then, I pulled out another empty bag from that same pouch.
Amazingly, my item storage pouch was stocked with all the tools essential for an adventurer.
A dozen leather pouches for sorting gathered goods, some gold, silver, and copper coins, a dismantling knife, a water pouch, and basic camping gear.
Even a catalyst brush for drawing magic circles.
I can’t thank Shuri-sensei enough. He’s cute and incredibly dependable.
(E/N: Get married already, damnit!)
I kept gathering herbs steadily, but of course, things didn’t go smoothly the whole time.
This forest is home to a type of monster known as goblins. They enjoy eating human flesh and have enough intelligence to wield primitive weapons like clubs.
They’re known to lie in wait and ambush adventurers.
There are many stories of people who, while gathering herbs alone, suddenly found themselves surrounded. This too, I learned from the manual.
And sure enough, while I was idly thinking about that, I got surrounded.
Five goblins. Some had clubs, and one of them was even holding a battered, rusted dagger.
One of them lunged at me. It raised its club and aimed for my head. I didn’t dodge it.
The club hit me with a dull, soft thud — and bounced off the tattered cloth robe I was wearing.
“Gegya?!”
The goblin looked bewildered, glancing back and forth between me and its club.
I can’t blame it. After all, this shabby-looking robe of mine is a custom defensive robe imbued with three skills.
Currently, this robe has «Shape Memory», «Shock Absorption» and «Blade Resistance» imbued into it.
«Shape Memory» and «Shock Absorption» are skills possessed by a magical metal called soft iron, which is also used in guild cards.
It absorbs shock and doesn’t deform even when struck — an incredibly useful trait.
Soft iron is difficult to cut through, but this cloth robe would normally allow blades to pass through.
That’s why I also added «Blade Resistance» to protect against bladed weapons, claws, and fangs.
The «Blade Resistance» skill comes from a plant called Silk Thorne, whose fibrous cotton-like bulbs contain sharp, needle-like threads.
These protect its seeds from monster fangs and digestive fluids. Even if eaten, the seeds survive through feces, return to the soil, and sprout.
I’ve imbued this robe with the blade-resistant properties of that cotton.
By the way, «Shape Memory» and «Shock Absorption» can be imbued into any non-living material, while «Blade Resistance» just requires the material to be a plant-based fiber.
So this tattered robe, made of old cotton clothes I bought in town, fits the bill perfectly.
The goblins, unaware of all this, seemed to have mistaken me for some mysterious powerful enemy.
Even with five of them, they were hesitating and shuffling in place.
In that case… let’s use another skill to drive them off.
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E/N:
New chapter! We have yet to see the list of skills Ossan has but, aren't they too strong? No damage at all can mean the skills were something the Goddess personally tampered with, right?
Anyway, skills will be encased in « » with italics from here on. Let's see what Ossan does to fight back next chappy!
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