Naturally, I paid for my own meal today.
Reina-san had tried to cover it, but I stood my ground and managed to pay for my own share.
To be honest, I had wanted to treat Reina-san instead.
However, taking it that far would have only prompted her to try paying for mine in return, so I abandoned the idea.
"Well then, time to get back to work."
Returning to the warehouse, I picked up where I had left off with the cleaning.
I started by continuing to organize the shelving units.
There were still plenty of shelves left to sort through, and I cleared them out one by one.
"Reina-san, I'm all done."
A short while after the first evening bell rang, I finally finished cleaning the designated area.
I then headed over to report to Reina-san.
"You'd already gotten so much done by noon, but it took until this hour?"
"Well, the more I dug in, the more I found misplaced materials across various shelves, so sorting everything properly took some extra time."
"...Was it really that disorganized?"
"There were medicinal herbs inside crates meant for ores, and completely different herbs mixed together in the herb containers. Everything was jumbled up."
I answered honestly.
"Everyone was instructed to sort their materials properly before bringing them down to the warehouse, but it seems plenty of people didn't bother. I'm sorry, Erik-kun, especially after I posted it as such a casual request."
"It's quite all right. I wanted to return the favor to you anyway, Reina-san, so I'm glad I could help."
After reassuring her, we headed toward the warehouse for an inspection.
Along the way, Ryan-san, who had just finished work, came down the stairs.
"What's this? If it isn't Reina and the kid. Where are you two off to?"
"I gave Erik-kun a request to clean the warehouse this morning. You know how filthy the Adventurer's Guild's storage has been lately."
"Ah, true enough. Materials were tossed everywhere. While you could grab the valuable stuff right away, tracking down anything else took an hour of rummaging through the shelves... All right, as guildmaster, I'll tag along for the inspection too."
With Ryan-san joining us, the three of us headed down to the underground warehouse.
"...What in the world?"
"Huh? Is this really the same warehouse? Materials were overflowing right onto the floor in front of the shelves before, so how is there actually empty space on them now!?"
Stepping inside, Ryan-san and Reina-san stared in utter astonishment at the transformed shelves before them.
I guided them around the cleared area, explaining what I had done.
"You prepared crates for each material and sorted them into separate sections by type... With this setup, it'll be easy to understand and won't get cluttered again when people use the warehouse later."
"The crates for Permanent Requests are larger than the others, and they even have wheels attached underneath. That way, even when they're full, one person can easily move them around. Erik-kun, did you do this modification yourself too?"
"It wasn't difficult, really. I just took the wheels off some handcarts and fastened them on. Though, I don't think they're particularly durable, so it would probably be best to have a professional craft proper ones."
In truth, I explained to them that my setup was merely makeshift.
I figured that if a professional carpenter or blacksmith made something along these lines, the warehouse would become far more practical to use.
"Even so, this is incredible... Was this place always this spacious?"
"Right? When using it normally, it always felt so cramped because of all the clutter, but it's surprisingly open like this."
"Besides, the section for valuable materials—which we thought we were keeping tidy—actually looks filthy by comparison now... Hm, what are those stacked boxes over there?"
"Those are materials that had fallen beneath or behind the shelves. Putting them in with the rest would be problematic since some were damaged, so I kept them separated."
Saying that, I opened one of the stacked boxes and showed them the contents.
"...T-this much had fallen back there?"
"They were scattered in all sorts of places, and once I gathered them up, there were enough to fill every one of these boxes. I tried to separate the valuable materials as best as I could tell, but some might be in the wrong place, so please have the guild staff double-check them."
"Y-yeah, I'll have the staff look over it. Hey, Reina. Was the kid always this good at cleaning?"
"Most of the town commissions he's taken have been cleaning jobs, and he received top marks on every single one. Even so, until seeing it firsthand today, I had no idea his cleaning ability was on this level."
Reina-san answered Ryan-san's question.
"Hey, kid, do you have the [Cleaning] skill that helps with tidying up?"
"...Huh? There's a skill for cleaning?"
I blinked in surprise at Ryan-san's question.
"Guildmaster, Erik-kun only recently arrived from a rural village. It's only natural there are skills he doesn't know about yet."
"Well, yeah, I suppose that's true..."
Ryan-san nodded in understanding at Reina-san's explanation.
He then went on to explain [Cleaning] to me.
Just as the name implied, [Cleaning] was a skill that enhanced one's efficiency and ability at cleaning.
"I see, so a skill like that exists. I had no idea."
"On the contrary, it's unbelievable you cleaned this place so thoroughly without the skill. Wouldn't this be tough even for someone who actually has it?"
"Indeed. Some of our staff members possess the [Cleaning] skill, but Erik-kun is noticeably better at it than they are."
As Ryan-san and Reina-san discussed the matter, Reina-san suddenly had a flash of realization.
"Erik-kun, what about the [Cooking] skill? You went to help out at a diner before, right?"
"Ah, I don't have even 1 EXP in the [Cooking] skill either. When I took that request, I wasn't very knowledgeable about special skills yet."
I did intend to pay attention to it next time, though.
However, looking over today's job postings, there hadn't been any requests from Harold-san's shop, so I hadn't been able to take one.
When I told Reina-san that, both she and Ryan-san wore thoroughly exhausted expressions.