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A little time later.

I had now left the Tiger Fire and had arrived at the Adventurers Guild.

The sky was already starting to darken, and so I wanted to offer some firewood to the town while I could.

“…All the quests are for firewood.”

I realized this as I looked at the quest board.

The prices went up the newer the requests. Firewood was becoming very expensive.

The newest one was offering 30 cicols per kilogram.

Perhaps that was cheap compared to what the Tiger Fire offered. But you could still make quite a lot if you cut down a whole lot of trees.

I thought about this as I grabbed the newest one and went over to the counter.

I was sure I could collect this much firewood. And if there were some left, I could accept another quest and then turn it in immediately.

“I would like to accept this quest.”

“Thank you. …Is this your first time accepting a quest for firewood?”

The woman asked as she looked at the sheet.

…If she meant as an official quest, it was my first time.

“Yeah. It’s my first.”

“Then you must go and see Mister Udoka first. Firewood that is brought to the guild must be of a size and shape that meet our standards. So you will take a brief course in advance.”

They had courses for this?

Well, I suppose it was possible that a newcomer might accidentally bring back something entirely different by accident.

So maybe it was completely reasonable to have a course.

“And where is this person?”

“Go out through the east gate of the town. Udoka should be making firewood there. Just say that the guild sent you and he will teach you how to chop wood.”

“Got it.”

And with that, I left the guild.

…My method involved using slimes, which seemed like it would be difficult to explain…

Well, I wanted to think that I’d be able to do it well enough to pa.s.s the course.

I wondered about this as I went out of Rikardo’s east gate.

I then saw that there was a man who was about to cut a tree with an axe.

He had an armband that read, ‘Adventurer’s Guild – Special Woodcutting Instructor.’

He had likely been appointed this position because of the current emergency.

This was without a doubt, Mister Udoka.

“I came to be instructed in wood chopping. Am I in the right place?”

“Yeah. We’re always glad to have some extra hands here. There is just never enough firewood.”

“You seem to be having a terrible shortage.”

“Well, usually such a situation would have been unimaginable. But now we have to ask the neighboring towns for help. And it’s still not enough.”

…Yes, it would be hard to gather enough firewood even with the help of the neighbors.

Firewood was heavy, so it would be difficult to carry it this far. Besides, the other towns wouldn’t even have that much firewood, to begin with.

The land around here was warm enough that they didn’t use firewood to heat their stoves.

It was mostly just used for cooking.

“I guess the other towns don’t have much of it stored either.”

“Exactly. The village of Meshias has a lot of firewood. But now they are charging outrageous prices for it.”

That wasn’t surprising. Once they knew there were shortages, they would try to profit off of it.

It wasn’t very nice, but that was business.

“Do they use a lot of firewood in Meshias?”

If they had a lot of firewood, then they must be using it for something.

I could use that route to get more firewood.

Or so I thought…But Mister Udoka shook his head to the side.

“We have no idea what they are doing in the town of Meshias. I tried talking to the residents, but they wouldn’t tell me anything. …It’s a strange village. We shouldn’t have even bothered trying to buy from them. It’s said that they are a village of about 30 people… But I don’t know if that’s actually true.”

A mysterious village…

It didn’t seem very helpful.

“And so we have no choice but to solve this problem by ourselves… Have you ever chopped firewood?”

Udoka said as he stopped cutting.

The trunk had been cut a third of the way.

“I have a little experience.”

I said as I showed him the axe that I summoned.

Mister Udoka looked at it with an odd expression.

“…It looks very new. Are you used to using it?”

“No, not exactly…”

Mister Udoka looked quite disappointed when he heard my answer.

Well, seeing how desperate the situation was, he probably wanted someone that could be sent out quickly.

Having someone who didn’t know how to use an axe well was bound to be disappointing.

And so I continued in order to lessen his worry.

“I’m not used to doing it, but I can cut down trees.”

“Alright. Then let’s see you do it. I’ll instruct you after I watch.”

“Okay. …It’s dangerous when the tree falls, so you should stand back a little.”

I said as I faced a nearby tree.

I made sure that he was a safe distance away, and then I held the axe up…

“Why are you holding it like that?”

I hadn’t even swung, and he was already complaining about my style.

…I had a feeling that I was holding it wrong, and it turned out I was right.

However, I could still cut trees like this.

“This is my personal style. I can still cut like…this!”

I said as I swung with all of my might.

The tree I had cut for the Tiger Fire was about 50 cm thick. But this one was only 30 cm.

With the help of Ultra Combat Art, I was able to cut it in half with just one hit.

And then the tree slowly fell over.

…Mister Udoka watched this with his mouth hanging open.