Volume 2 Chapter 2 Adventurer's Baptism
One of the things I learn at the training school is the etiquette at the guild.
'Listen up, if you flaunt your wealth beyond your abilities, you'll undoubtedly be targeted by thug-like adventurers. Those guys can be surprisingly tough. It's crucial not to show that side of yourself.'
But there might come a time when you're found out, the instructor continued.
'At that point, report less gold than you have and just give it to them. They're idiots, so they'll be satisfied with that. Then, focus on getting stronger as quickly as possible and reclaim what's yours from those thugs.'
Understand this: for adventurers, strength is justice.
Recalling those concluding words, facing a bunch of rough-looking adventurers.
They're all have muscular muscles with intimidating faces... but we've just defeated a far more terrifying chimera than any of them.
"Hey hey! Did the rookie just wet himself? Standing there all frozen, can't say a word!"
"Heh heh heh!" The thugs chuckled with crude laughter.
"...What should we do? Wade-kun..."
"Well..."
I glance back at the lady at the exchange Counter. However, she just wears an archaic smile, pretending not to notice. Is this what they call non-intervention? Well, then, the course of action is clear.
"Can you let us through? I want to take on a quest."
"Let you through? Ha! What a joke! You guys are real idiot, huh!? Gyahahaha! You don't understand a thing about the situation, do you~!?"
The thugs burst into laughter. I glance at their adventurer's badges. Each one of them has a copper-tier adventurer badge for swords. Seems like they're sword specialists.
"Hey, you loser. You're a graduate from the training school, right? What kind of magic do you have? Depending on the situation, you might even join our party."
"Hey, you cute girl over there! You must be forced so come with us! But we don't need that fatty over there, so scram!"
I furrow my brows and respond,
"Gravity magic."
"...Gravity magic, huh? Like Slow Magic...?"
"---Bftt, gyahahaha! This is gold! Listen up, everyone! It seems we have a graduate with Slow Magic here! Must've been quite a slacker!"
The adventurers dining in the dining hall burst into laughter. Ridiculous...
"Hey, whether you got saved by that fatty over there or this cute girl, doesn't matter. Soon enough, the likes of you will be beaten to a pulp by goblins in the dungeon. You better head back to the countryside pronto."
Facing their intimidating words, I sigh and say,
"If I show my adventurer's badge, will you disappear?"
"Huh?! What good does showing an adventurer's badge do anyway? It just means you've got a bunch of iron adventurer's badges lined up, right...?"
When I flashed my three matching copper-tier adventurer's badge, the thugs all fell silent. They took a step back and said,
"He's a graduate, with all copper..."
"Seriously, if torches are copper, that's messed up..."
"If his bow is copper, then this guy must be pretty handy with magic too, huh...?"
Muttering among themselves, the thugs gradually backed away, step by step. I told them one more time.
"Hey, I want to take on a quest. Can you let us through?"
"Y-yeah, we got it. Got it, so quit pulling any funny business. We didn't do anything to you guys. If anything, we were just messing around. Can't you let that slide?"
"Answer my question. Can you let us through?"
Without a word, the thugs moved aside from us. Watching this, the adventurers nearby started buzzing with excitement.
"Hey, who are those rookies...?" "They just brushed off those rookie-hunting thugs without breaking a sweat." "One of them mentioned Slow Magic. Did the others handle it?" "But I think only the Slow Magic guy spoke."
Ignoring all the attention, we stood in front of the quest board. Then, we exchanged secretive glances and chuckled.
"Guilds are more trouble than I thought."
"Hehe... yeah."
"But it felt good. And we didn't resort to violence. It was the right way to handle it."
"Thanks, Clay."
With a quick nod of thanks, I looked up at the quest board. As the name suggests, it's a corkboard where quest requests are posted.
The quests, each indicating the level required with adventurer's badges, were pinned up in abundance. As we scanned through them, we couldn't help but grunt.
"Looks like mostly copper-level quests."
"Well, yeah, that's usually the case. Copper level still means you're a full-fledged adventurer. Iron is just for newcomers."
"There are plenty of iron-level quests too, though. What do you think, Wade-kun?"
We examined the quests before us. Iron quests were pretty straightforward, like village patrols, herb gathering, or exploring the 1st floor of a dungeon.
Then there were copper quests. They were a bit more challenging, like clearing out bandits, submitting werewolf fur, or dealing with goblins.
"Let's go for a copper-level quest for now."
"Hehe... Wade-kun, you're still the daredevil, huh?"
"Yeah, iron quests just don't cut it anymore."
"---I've decided. Let's go with this one."
I removed the quest from the corkboard. It read:
'Looking for a copper-tier adventurer party to retrieve stolen property from nighttime thieves.'
"Taking down nighttime thieves, huh... And it seems like searching is part of the mission too, judging by the nuance."
"I thought this might be fun too. Is this okay?"
"Yeah... I'm in, no objections, right?"
"I think this works too. We just defeated a chimera, so rushing into more might just tire us out even more."
And so, we secured the quest request and took it to the guild's quest counter.
"We'd like to take on this quest."
"Yes, of course. I'll handle it."
As we waited, we pondered on how to solve the quest. First, the search part, who would do it and how. Then, how to approach it, how to defeat them. As we discussed these matters, the receptionist lady exclaimed, "Oh!"
"What's wrong?"
"...The party name was Wade Party (temporary), and it was a three-person party."
"Yes."
The receptionist lady showed us the quest request and pointed to a section labeled "requirements."
"You need a party of four or more to accept this quest."
"Oops..."
We exchanged glances. It seemed like our party needed to recruit one more member.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Donate me
Support Me with USDC
(ERC20)
Support Me with XLM
(Stellar Lumens)