The Dungeon Inn - English

B02C05 - Work reduction

The next morning I was rudely awakened. First something landed on my stomach and then my cheeks were hit several times until I finally opened my eyes. It was Potty.

"Meow"

"Argh. Good morning Potty, why are you waking me up?"

"Meow"

Potty pointed to her mouth with a paw. Garden cats were very intelligent and could understand spoken language. But they were not able to speak and had to make do with gestures.

"Something to eat? Can't you go to Hilda?"

Potty shook her head.

It seemed it was my turn to prepare her food today. I dragged myself out of bed and prepared a horned rabbit for her. Potty seemed to have awaken me from a deep sleep, otherwise I would have been back on my feet more quickly. I had also probably slept longer than usual because of the exertion yesterday.

Would I really get used to this new daily routine? Prepare meat in the morning and then hand it to the adventurer in rounds. Because they didn't all come at the same time, it took quite a long time. After that, Hilda would work on me for quite a while. Followed by sword training with Sven until lunch preparation. Lunch would take up a lot of time again because of the rounds. Then came spear training and Paul's lessons for the outpost, and then dinner preparation. Only after that did I have free time. From what I was asked yesterday, I seemed to be overdoing it.

But where could I take breaks? Reading and writing were important for the outpost, so neither Hilda's nor Paul's time could be cut short. Bruno and Sven would also point out, that we could be discovered or attacked at any time and that I therefore couldn't neglect my training. All that was left was the meals. Could I improve something there? Maybe I should hand them over, the cutting up of the snakes and all the stirring was exhausting after a while. I understood what Bruno meant when Hilda literally filled him with frog legs. It's fine sporadically, but all the time it's stressful. I didn't just prepare it three times a day, but several times per meal.

Who could I hand over the work to? Bruno was involved with the craftsmen. At first they were opposed to the idea, but when they saw him carrying several beams on his own, that changed. The young ones in particular, who often had to carry the building materials, were happy to be able to burden someone else with it. The older ones weren't so happy about it, but allowed it because Bruno was quicker and they wanted to finish as quickly as possible. So he was busy with it all day. Sarah was my bodyguard and I wasn't sure whether the work would be too much for her in the long run. That left only Sven.

"Sven, can you help me with breakfast and lunch? I'd like to be able to rest a bit more."

"I'd be happy to do that, sir. You looked very tired yesterday. I was worried that it would affect your training. What were you thinking of?"

"Preparing and cutting up the meat and stirring all the cooking pots. As soon as everything is cooked, I would withdraw and leave the food distribution to you."

This would reduce the physical strain on the one hand and also save me some time at the end. Nevertheless, I asked Paul whether the apprenticeship time could be reduced by concentrating only on the essentials. After all, I didn't need to know all the rules, just those relevant to the outpost.

"Do you think I'm doing the lessons for fun? I'm only teaching you the bare minimum. There's a lot more I could teach you. For example, the various herbs or types of trees in the forest that are sometimes in demand. But these can only be handed in at the main guild and are not your area of ​​expertise. You have to know the medicinal herbs of the forest, so that you can help yourself as best as possible with the treatment. You are also supposed to monitor the forest, so it's not enough for me to teach you what each piece of evidence looks like, you also have to understand how the individual monsters behave, so that you can effectively keep them under control. I am aware that there are a lot of things that you suddenly have to internalize, but that's exactly why we started so early. Also remember that it's not like building a house, where you can easily see the progress. We may have to repeat certain things because they didn't stick well enough. The faster you pick up the things, the faster we can finish the lessons and do a final check of your knowledge."

"Did you see that? Bruno helps out the craftsmen."

Winfried sounded worried.

"He was able to convince them with his bear-like strength. I saw how he carried heavy things as if they were air. Maybe you should train more and then they'll accept you too."

"I'm not in the mood for your taunts, Mia. If it continues like this, we won't attract enough attention. What can we do?"

"Our hunting ensures supplies. I think we're an important part of this operation."

"But is what we're doing enough, Albert?"

"If you want to attract attention, we can try to do something special today."

Viktor later shot down two particularly large bird monsters with his bow. Albert handed them to Marco before dinner, smiling.

"Did you see how Marco opened his eyes wide? I'm sure he understands our value now."

Winfried sounded much happier.

"I'm looking forward to dinner today. No snake meat this time, but nice bird meat", agreed Mia.

That couldn't be true. The huge snakes were already enough work and now they were really bringing birds to me? All that feather plucking was the last thing I needed.

"Sven, can you take over here, please?"

At least we were soon able to record our first success.