Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Contrast, Not So Cute

In front of a roadside stall in the southern district of Anka Market

Yaya was voraciously devouring a piece of grilled meat of unknown origin, chewing while mumbling a vague thank you to Jadka sitting beside her: "Gulp... many woofs! Good... woof!"

"Thank you very much." Mo also held a vegetable skewer and smiled at the old mage: "And you're treating us to a meal."

The old man chuckled and shook his head, saying: "No problem, no problem. These days, we adventurers all have it tough. I heard about the trouble this half-orc girl caused earlier. Those goblins only care about money, not their lives. They must have extorted quite a bit from you, right?"

"A friend of mine helped repay the debt." Mo said honestly: "I'm truly penniless. As for Yaya, I've actually only known her for a short time~"

Jadka took a sip of the local drink, also of unknown origin, and smiled at Mo: "Having more friends is a good thing. If someone is willing to help, it means you're worth that help. Mo, right? You're really not bad..."

As he spoke, a hint of loneliness flickered in Jadka's eyes, followed by a long sigh: "To accept a shameless waste of a mage like me as a teammate... that kind of tolerance and courage is truly..."

"Everyone who perseveres deserves respect." Mo replied lightly: "Even though effort and reward are often not proportional, what does it matter?"

By now, Yaya had finished the grilled meat in her hands and was contentedly letting out small burps~

Jadka stared at Mo for a long while, then after Mo and Yaya stood up, he paid the bill and walked alongside the young man, heading out of the city with them.

"I was born into a family of knights." Only after they passed through the city gate did Jadka slowly begin to speak: "My father was a Great Knight, my grandfather a High Crusader Knight. They say several notable Lord Knights appeared in our family history..."

Mo had already heard most of this from Kasha, the mage of the Manticore Mercenary Company, but he still listened quietly as Jadka continued, showing no sign of impatience or annoyance.

"Everyone thought I should be a knight~" Jadka shrugged and made a funny face at Mo and Yaya: "But I've been fervently wanting to become a mage since I was a child! Even though my Elemental Perception is terrible, and my so-called Fire Element Affinity only keeps me from blowing myself up, I still wanted to be a mage."

Yaya blinked: "Woof element..."

Mo helplessly pinched her ear, trying to keep the girl quiet for a moment.

"Haha~" Jadka just laughed heartily, clearly not bothered, and continued: "Elegantly wielding the power of nature, learned, mysterious, wise, strong—meditating to comprehend the power of the elements, discussing scholarship and knowledge with companions in a mage tower, being the most trustworthy partner in battle, turning the tide with a casual word... Naive, isn't it?"

Mo shook his head slightly: "I think it's pretty cool."

"I think it's pretty cool too~" Jadka gave his smoking staff another 'ice compress' treatment. "That's why I didn't hesitate to leave my family, why I treasure this staff I picked up from the black market for two gold coins. It's not that I enjoy causing explosions—I simply can't use higher-end staves. At least this thing lets me barely perceive a trace of the elements."

"I think it's repaid that affection." Mo Tan cracked a joke: "At least you're still alive and well, aren't you?"

Jadka shot him a surprised glance, clearly taken aback by that oddly angled bit of comfort, then gently clenched his fist: "Maybe, or it could be a constitution issue. When I was a kid, my family always said I was a born knight. Even now, arm-wrestling some not-too-strong orc warriors, I might not necessarily lose. Yet after all these years, the only things about me that resemble a mage are my appearance and age. Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?"

"No, you don't resemble a mage." Mo Tan said this instead, then nodded to Jadka, whose face was flushing slightly: "You are a mage. Even if one day you can defeat a giant dragon in melee combat, you're still a mage."

This time, the other man's silence stretched especially long...

"Call me Jadka, buddy." The old mage finally said this to Mo Tan as they neared their destination: "Thanks."

Mo Tan patted the old man on the shoulder: "Alright, Jadka~"

"Woofka!" Yaya happily barked at Jadka: "Woofka! Meat, thank you woof!"

"Haha~ Yaya has such a good personality."

"Doesn't she though~"

"Woof!"

...

Five minutes later, not far south of Anka Market, Jerry's Farm

"That's about it." A spirited old orc said to Mo Tan and the other two: "So for this one day I'm visiting relatives, the farm is in your hands."

Mo Tan nodded: "Clear the weeds outside, fertilize the crops, and get rid of the pests."

Jadka continued: "Fix the leaky roof, check if the fence is sturdy, and drive away any wild animals trying to ruin the crops."

Yaya tilted her head: "Meals included woof!"

"Meals included, meals included~" The old orc pointed to a stone house not far away: "There's plenty of ingredients and cooking tools in there. Use them as you like."

Yaya's eyes went wide: "Good woof!"

"Then I'll be off." The employer nodded: "I'm leaving the rest of today and tomorrow evening to you three!"

With that, the old orc swung himself onto a sickly, seemingly half-dead goat-like creature beside him, and wobbled away at a pace even slower than normal walking.

"Woof goat, in trouble?" Yaya scratched her cheek, watching the pitiful animal's staggering figure fade into the distance: "So, being woof-punished?"

Jadka stroked his beard: "No, I don't think it's punishment. Just plain bad luck..."

"Agreed." Mo Tan nodded in agreement: "Really bad luck..."

And wasn't it! The old orc plus the bundle on his back was nearly twice the size of that goat-like creature!

After a brief moment of reflection, the three decided to get to work.

The technical skill required for this job wasn't particularly high—even a few ordinary people with no abilities could handle it. In fact, aside from the three tasks of fertilizing, pest control, and roof repair, even a well-trained dog could manage the rest.

By the way, the above statement carries absolutely no implication or metaphor whatsoever...

"I'll take care of the fertilizing and pest control," Jadka said to the other two. "Mo, go check out the roof. Yaya, inspect the fence to see if it's sturdy enough. Any objections?"

Mo Tan readily agreed, and Yaya nodded vigorously to show she had no issues.

And so... they began work...

Relying on his abilities as a level 3 Warrior (he had used the experience rewarded from the previous debt repayment quest), Mo Tan easily climbed onto the roof of the farmhouse's main building. Watching Jadka, who was striding briskly with a bucket of fertilizer in each hand, and Yaya, who was hopping around near the fence, he felt the outlook for this task was bright~

But it had to be said, this task really wasn't difficult at all. The reason Receptionist Sister Chris could casually assign it to the three of them was partly out of a little favoritism, but also because no other adventurers were interested.

Both the reward and the adventurer experience points were pitifully low, and it was also very time-consuming. Even newly minted rookie adventurers wouldn't find much interest in this task.

But these three didn't seem to mind at all...

Setting aside Mo Tan, who always maintained the mindset of 'never fail to do a good deed because it's small,' Jadka—who was often isolated and ostracized by other low-level adventurers (high-level adventurers and genuine mages couldn't be bothered to ostracize him)—certainly didn't mind. As for Yaya, forget it—being able to do a quest with everyone had the girl as excited as could be.

Everything was going smoothly, and then...

Then, after working for half a day, the three prepared to eat dinner. Was someone expecting something else? Come on, the time wasn't right yet~

During this period, Mo Tan had used the materials left by the farm owner to make a simple repair to the main building's roof, leaving only the finer details. Jadka had also finished the fertilizing, needing only to clean up the few remaining pests before dark. Yaya had given a few unstable sections of the fence a good pounding, making them incredibly sturdy...

"This girl sure is strong," Jadka clicked his tongue while stirring a pot of vegetable and meat soup. "Almost as strong as me!"

Now, was that really something a mage should be saying...?

Mo Tan nodded as well. He had previously checked Yaya's work (because he wasn't entirely at ease), and gave the dog-eared girl a thumbs up: "Impressive~"

"Hehe!" The latter immediately put her hands on her hips and said loudly: "Woof has, since woof was little, been full of woof strength!"

Then she continued staring intently at the vegetable soup in the pot~

Yaya couldn't cook (which came as no surprise to Mo Tan), and while Mo Tan was a decent cook, the ingredients of the Innocent Continent were far too unfamiliar to him. He was worried that if he rashly took action, it might lead to food poisoning for the three of them, so in the end, it fell to Jadka to do the cooking.

Still, this old mage who looked like a grandmaster seemed quite happy to do it.

...

The sun gradually dipped westward. After eating and drinking their fill, the three continued working. Mo Tan quickly finished repairing the roof, which was nearly complete, while Jadka spent twenty minutes crushing some pests with his bare hands (...). During this time, Yaya was busy tackling the weeds.

By the time the other two had finished their work, the girl still seemed to have made little progress. Of course, this was only to be expected—no one had noticed earlier that Yaya had completely ignored the scythe and other tools piled nearby, instead hopping around and grabbing at the weeds with her hands...

Even if her nails were sharp, they were still human hands! The half-orc's features weren't as pronounced as Mo Tan's half-dragon traits. The former only had beast ears, a tail, and sharp tiger fangs, while the latter, with a few scales on his face and a slightly prominent forehead, still looked human enough, but it was hard to discern the player's original appearance.

Of course, it was still far better than players who randomly rolled goblin or ogre races—at least there was some exotic charm, right?

"Yaya, step aside," Jadka said, clapping his hands. He picked up the unstable explosive beside him and rolled up his sleeves. "Let me handle these things!"

Yaya turned around and blinked. "Woof?"

Then she shuffled two steps to the side...

"Are you sure about this?" Mo Tan asked uneasily. "Safety first..."

"No problem!" Jadka grinned confidently and began waving his staff. "I may only be a novice mage, but dealing with these weeds is no big deal!"

Mo Tan glanced around Jadka, making sure there was nothing nearby that would be troublesome if it got blown up, then nodded and also shuffled a few steps to the side.

"Red Cloud!" Jadka shouted excitedly, flicking his staff to trace a trail of fire. Within a second, the flames rapidly spread across the ground toward the weeds, vanishing just before they could reach the fence.

A perfect spellcast!

"Impressive!" Mo immediately clapped his hands. "How convenient!"

Jadka stroked his beard and was about to say something when he suddenly heard a low growl not far away...

Mo Tan heard it too and stiffly turned his head to look.

He then saw Yaya crouched on the ground, her right hand clutching the tip of her tail, staring straight at them. Her originally emerald-green eyes were now tinged with crimson, and the tiger fangs at the corners of her mouth seemed to have grown a bit longer...

At the tip of her tail, there was a clear patch of scorched black...

At that moment, Mo Tan suddenly recalled the words of that receptionist sister, Chris, from before...

[Tore down half a house~]

[Plowed up someone's yard~]

"With extremely high slaughter efficiency... Yes, that's exactly what I mean~"

There seemed to be a few more lines, but there was no time to think!

Yaya was charging over!!

"Ow!!! It hurts!!!" The girl appeared in front of Jadka in an instant, grabbing the collar of his dirty mage robe and, before he could react, hurling him away with force: "It hurts, you bastard! If you don't explode, you burn my tail, huh! Can't you live without causing trouble?!"

For some reason, her usual soft, puppy-like voice (…) was now filled with a cold, mature tone, and more importantly...

She was speaking Common Language with perfect fluency! And at lightning speed!!

"Yaya!" Mo Tan suddenly realized this wasn't the time to be amazed. He jolted awake and rushed to the girl's side, shaking his head: "Calm down, you—"

Bang!!

With a fifth of his health gone, Mo Tan flew backward gracefully, crashing straight into the main house!

"Don't get in my way, you idiot!" Yaya shouted without looking back, then dropped to all fours, pushed off the ground, and appeared behind Jadka, who had just gotten up, leaving an afterimage: "How dare you treat a lady's precious fur like that! Go die a thousand times, you old bastard!!!"

Her long right leg swept low across the ground, disrupting the novice mage's balance, followed immediately by a knee strike to the spine and a shoulder throw. Finally, she grabbed him by the legs and started spinning him wildly, shrieking: "Die, die, die, die, die, you rookie mage!!!"

Whoosh!

With a flick of her hand, Jadka flew sideways in a spinning arc, plowing a deep trench through the farmland before crashing into the kitchen they had been using, collapsing it. He didn't stop until he smashed through a large section of fence.

"Yaya!" Mo Tan finally crawled out of the half-collapsed main house, shouting: "Calm down! Stop messing around—"

"You're so annoying!" Yaya's eyes flashed with a violent red light as she dashed behind Mo Tan in one step: "I'll hit you too, believe me?!"

And then Mo Tan flew too...

Flying straight toward Jadka, who was struggling to get up...

And half a second later, they collided hard, rolling several meters away!

"Are you okay?" Mo Tan, now at half health, immediately looked at the old mage who had been thoroughly beaten, asking with concern: "Any serious injuries?"

The latter shook his head: "No, I'm pretty tough..."

A whistling sound rose again, and Yaya, now in some strange state, charged at them without pause!

"Get out of the way!" Jadka shouted at Mo Tan: "I remember a binding spell that might temporarily subdue her!"

Mo Tan immediately scrambled several meters to the side... his legs were a bit numb now...

At the same time, Yaya pounced like a gust of wind!

And then...

Boom!!!!!!!

It was that familiar feeling again. The moment Mo Tan was sent flying, he already understood—this wasn't Yaya's attack, nor some kind of binding magic. It was Jadka's staff, written as a staff but read as an unstable explosive, that had exploded again!

...

"Finally, after Yaya woke up, she and Jadka told me to go back to town and rest, leaving them at the farm to clean up the mess." Mo Tan sat on the sofa in the living room with a dark face, speaking to Yi Dong on the other end of the phone. "Later, on my way back to town to buy repair tools, I disconnected and switched characters. After that, nothing much happened... Hey, are you listening to me? Hello?"

A few seconds later, a burst of hysterical laughter erupted from the other end of the phone...

Chapter 46: The End