As my vision came back to me and the space turned back to a solid state, I found myself among a sea of trees. Merlin stood a short distance away, squinting his eyes. The cold air and moist walls of the dungeon no longer surrounded us from all sides, but were instead replaced by warmth and vivid greenery, teeming with life.

 

“Looks like we safely made it out. How far from the camp are we, Merlin?”

 

Merlin quickly looked at his map and approximated the distance in his head.

 

“Around 600 meters. A good distance away, I’d say. I knew Sera said it was possible, but it’s still incredible. Being able to manipulate our exit point, something that is normally predetermined by the system, is insane.”

 

<Thank you for the praise.>

 

“How far is the nearest settlement that isn’t the capital? If it’s even visible on [Map].”

 

Merlin started zooming out on his [Map], but to me it looked only like he was trying to shove air away with his fingers.

 

“There is a town called Sandhol about 25 kilometers away. Since it’s slightly past noon, we’re not making it by the time it gets dark.”

 

25 kilometers huh. Should take us about a day to get there then, give or take a few hours. I looked up at the sky through the treetops and the sun that was just the slightest bit off center. By my best guesswork, I’d say it’s about 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Plenty of time for us to cover quite a distance before it gets dark.

 

“Alright, lead the way, since I have no clue which way we should go.”

 

“Got it.”

 

And so, we promptly departed from the place we got transported to from the dungeon. It took us about half an hour to finally run into something that resembled a path and we thought this was a good enough distance from the encampment to safely travel without running into any of the knights.

 

“So, what can you tell me about this town of Sandhol? If there even is anything you can gleam from that [Map] apart from general topography.”

 

Merlin’s expression turned into a stupid smug. I almost instinctively hit him for how annoying he looked, because all that followed this stupid face was usually a ludicrous amount of gloating. Good thing I can control myself. You owe me one, Merlin.

 

“Listen and be amazed! Not only can I see the topography in great detail, I can even see specific buildings! For example, despite Sandhol being a fairly small town, it has all the important facilities, such as the Adventurer Guild, Mercenary Guild, a few smithies and a few inns and restaurants.”

 

Oh, looks like we’ll be able to get everything we need once we reach Sandhol, how lucky.

 

“The Adventurer Guild, huh? Yep, I think our primary target of interest is set.”

 

“Agreed. We urgently need some form of identification. Saying we’re ‘heroes’ summoned by the country’s king is probably not going to end well for us.”

 

Merlin supported my idea of visiting the Adventurer Guild as soon as possible in order to get us some identification. We continued chatting like that and sharing our plans and ideas for the future, which led to us deciding our immediate goals.

 

First, get registered with the adventurer’s guild and obtain some form of identification. From what we learned in the library, most cities in this world require you to have some identification in order to get in. Alternatively, if the guard is corrupt, there is the possibility you could bribe them into letting you in anyway, but that approach isn’t guaranteed to work. Having an adventurer card would allow us to freely pass into any nation and city, as the Adventurer Guild is a special, independent organization, not loyal to any country. Adventurers having the ability to quickly move between nations and cities allows them to tackle dungeons and monsters around the cities with ease, so they enjoy some special privileges like this, which I think is exactly what we need right now.

 

Second, get out of Hosefelia. This one is a no brainer, as staying here would inevitably lead to us getting found and dragged back to the capital. I’m not sure how extensive Hosefelia’s intelligence and spy networks are, but this is a fantasy world with a sinister government. I’d rather not take my chances.

 

Third, level up and get stronger. Our classes will allow us to rival and overpower everyone else if get to a high enough level, so getting stronger is a must if we want to protect our freedom.

 

Our talk had gone on four hours and the sun was slowly starting to set. We found a small collapsed dugout in the ground and decided to make camp in it for tonight. After clearing out some of the debris, Merlin started building an impromptu shelter with magic while I went to gather some firewood and look for anything I could hunt or gather for dinner. Thanks to [Abnormal Status Immunity] we didn’t have to worry whether something was poisonous or not, so I just grabbed everything that looked like food. Mostly some kind of yellow berries that tasted a lot like blueberries from Earth.

 

I shall name them yellowberries (provisional)!

 

<These are Wild Yellowstars, Master.>

 

I did not ask!

 

‘Hm?’

 

When I was on way back with the collected firewood, I ran into what I could only describe as a massive wild boar with red eyes and too many pairs of tusks. It was munching on some of the yellowstars I passed by on my way to collected the firewood and didn’t seem to have notice me yet. As I got closer, I accidentally stepped on a branch and it snapped with a loud noise accompanying it. To nobody’s surprise, the boar noticed me and raised its head in alertness. Its head reached my chest area, meaning that thing was around 150 centimeters in height while on all fours.

 

“Well would you look at that, lady luck must have the hots for me. Sending dinner right to me, how nice of her.”

 

I dropped the firewood and yellowstars and unsheathed the sword I borrowed from Clive. This was the perfect opportunity to put [Aura] to the test. I willed the skill to activate and a purplish hue covered the sword.

 

“Well? What are you waiting for? Stop staring and come at m- HOLYSHITYOU’REFAST!”

 

"Oiiiiiink!”

 

As I was about to taunt it, the boar broke into a charge at speeds that were even faster than the bloody giant ant queen. I quickly jumped out of its path and it passed by me like a bullet.

 

“Sera, what is this thing, exactly?”

 

<This is a dire boar, an F-rank monster. Its only notable feature is its charging speed.>

 

Phew, that calmed me down a lot. I was worried it was some high E-rank or low D-rank monster. If it’s just F-rank and its speed is its main advantage, then a hit or two should be enough to kill it.

 

The boar made a U turn and charged at me once again. I didn’t get flustered this time and bided my time until it got closer. When it was a right in front of me, I stepped to its left and then kicked it with full force in its side with my right leg.

 

“Oink!”

 

This made it instantly lose its balance and it tumbled to the ground. Banking on its defenseless state, I plunged the sword into its throat to go for the kill. The blade, covered in [Aura], sliced the boar’s throat like a hot knife slicing butter. I couldn’t even feel when the blade made contact.

 

[You have obtained 20 XP]

 

I wiped the blood from the sword and put it back in its sheath. I put the yellowstars in my pocket, stuffed all the firewood under my left arm and began to drag the boar behind me with my right arm.

 

“Uuugh! Fuck, you’re heavy! Forget having only speed as your good point, ramming into anyone with this weight will easily break a bunch of bones.”

 

Despite the status increase, dragging an over 100 kg boar was one hell of a workout. Because of the added weight, the trip back took me a good 20 minutes, despite not having travelled far at all.

 

I let go of the boar a ways from the dugout, just in case the blood attracted other predators, but left it within sight. I walked to the edge of the dugout and called out to Merlin.

 

“I hath returned and I bringeth gifts. A bunch of dead trees and some yellow berries. Wouldst thee liketh some?”

 

Merlin looked up at me from the dugout as he was doing the finishing touches on the impromptu shelter.

 

“Since when did you turn into Shakespeare? And good timing, I’m just about finished building the shelter, so I’d really like something to eat.”

 

I threw the dry wood down and then jumped into the dugout. It wasn’t very deep, maybe a meter and a half, but a portion now had a small dirt roof. The area under the roof was slightly elevated to simulate a makeshift bed. It also served to protect us from getting soaked in water in case it rained.

 

“Oh, looks neat. Also, there’s a whole dire boar a few meters away from the dugout. Considering you’re the only one with cooking skills here, I’ll relegate the honors of preparing dinner to you. Be warned, though, that thing is pretty big.”

 

“Ooh, so that’s where the sudden 20 XP came from. Sure. I enjoy cooking anyway.”

 

Back on Earth, Merlin always liked to experiment with foods. I, on the other hand, somehow managed to burn just about anything I try making and when somehow miraculously didn’t burn it, it tasted like a week-old worn sock. Blegh. Never cooking again in my life.

 

I gave Merlin half of the yellowstars I found and he wasted no time shoving them down his throat.

 

I then went back up the dugout and I carried the boar down into the dugout, where a hastily prepared cooking area was already awaiting materials it could turn into food. An elevated table on which we could dissect the boar, a fireplace and even a makeshift sink. Had it not all been made out of magic and looked to be made out of mud and stone, I would have thought Merlin carried a whole kitchen in his [Inventory]. The sink, obviously, didn’t have running water, but was simply filled with water created by magic.

 

“Magic sure is handy, huh.”

 

I looked at Merlin’s ability to create stuff out of thin air with a bit of jealousy. Sure, I had some pretty damn amazing abilities myself, but I was nowhere near as versatile as he was when it came to everyday survivability.

 

Merlin took the sword from me and prepared the boar with skillful movements and uncanny precision. It was obvious this wasn’t his first time he had done this, even if he was cutting into the boar with a sword instead of a knife. I often got invited to their family’s feasts, which were actually just a gathering of family and family friends with good food and some alcohol, though I usually abstained from getting drunk. I don’t like alcoholic beverages due to the taste to begin with, so I never felt the need to purposefully get myself drunk. On the other hand, Merlin got himself plastered practically every time.

 

Soon enough, Merlin had the boar gutted and skinned. All that was left was to leave it hanging to have all the blood drain out, but Merlin apparently figured out a way to get rid of the blood with magic. He said there was a perfect spell for it called Desynthesize in transmutation magic if he used it on small chunks of meat.

 

“Since we don’t have much stuff on hand right now, I’m afraid the best I can do is grill it’s legs on some leaves. We need to buy salt and spices when we’re in Sandhol.”

 

“Sure, if they don’t cost us a fortune. Remember, we still need to get those horses. Well, I’ll leave you to it, not like I’ll be of much help here, anyway.”

 

“In that case, could you bring some more wood? Thanks.”

 

I climbed out of the dugout and went to gather some more wood. Merlin had his [Map], so he’d be the one to know something dangerous was near faster than me. Even if he sped up the cooking process with magic, Merlin said it’ll still take time before the food was done. Thus, I decided to take my time before going back. The sun was slowly but surely starting to give way to the stars and this world’s triplet moons. I already knew this world had three moons from the library, but this was the first time I properly saw them with my own eyes. While we weren’t forbidden from walking around the castle in the night as long as we had somebody accompany us, I was usually dead tired and fell asleep the second I flopped onto the bed after taking a bath, so I didn’t have the chance to go see this majestic wonder with my own eyes yet. The biggest one was called Atraias and the other two smaller moons were called Erma and Irma.

 

Irma was very similar to the Moon we had on Earth, just smaller, and Erma reminded me of a miniature Mars. What was most intriguing, however, was the fact that Atraias was mostly blue with patches of green. This meant that liquid water and life definitely existed on Atraias and I didn’t even need a telescope to confirm this. Even from the surface of this world, which was called Miqta, it was abundantly clear that Atraias held water and its land was covered in forests.

 

I stopped walking and looked up at the trio of moons. A beautiful painting of gray, red and blue, that ameliorated the night sky. For a second, I wondered, how does the flora on Atraias look like? Does Irma have the same craters as the Moon? Was Erma once also a water world like Mars? I thought it would be nice if I could someday stand on Atraias with my own two feet and see this alien life for myself.

 

‘How ridiculous.’

 

I scoffed at my own thoughts. How the hell would I even get up there? It took us centuries to develop technology capable of getting us to the Moon. Can’t imagine such a thing would be possible within my lifetime while on a world with far less advanced technology. Sure, there might be some convenient magic technology for exactly that, but what are the chances of such magi-tech actually existing?

 

I continued walking for a while longer and after about 30 minutes of wandering about, I decided to head back. I grabbed as many fallen branches as possible along the way. It was lucky that everything was dry, as it seemed it hadn’t rained here in quite a while. Well, even if the wood was wet, I’m sure Merlin would be able to dry it with magic. Soon enough I was able to see the small light and some smoke that leaked escaped from the dugout. Guess Merlin already started the fire.

 

“Oh, finally back? You sure took your time.”

 

Merlin greeted me from the provisional kitchen area he created. My nose was hit with a strong fragrance of grilled meat and my mouth started salivating. I hadn’t eaten anything apart from a few Wild Yellowstars all day, after all.

 

“Yeah, I wanted to go on a small walk. For some alone time.”

 

“Understandable. The food will be ready in a few minutes, just make yourself comfortable and wait.”

 

I jumped down into the dugout and dropped the wood I collected next to the fireplace. Having finished all I needed to do, I put the glaive away, sat down and leaned against the wall. I stared at the sky, that had now turned completely black. Stars glinted above the treetops like brilliant diamonds and the three moons shone like beautiful gems. Despite being in a different world, the night sky is still one of the most beautiful things to exist. Actually, this world’s night sky is even prettier than Earth’s, and by quite a lot at that.

 

Forcefully stopping my admiration for the beauty of the night sky, I turned my thoughts to an issue of significant importance, as now that I was sitting down and not actually doing anything, I realized something I partially forgot about. I killed a person earlier today. I was mentally prepared to do it, so I wasn’t feeling regret or guilt. I knew full well that the only way for us to get our freedom was to leave that dungeon with blood on our hands. What I didn’t expect, however, was that I’d feel absolutely nothing at all. No disgust, no second thoughts, no sudden rush of anxiety. Nothing, just a tranquil lull. It might be because he knew what the kingdom tried to shackle us. Or maybe, deep down, I still don’t feel like all of this is real. Or maybe I’m just fine with killing people, who knows.

 

I turned my head and saw Merlin happily turning the slices of meat with a content smile. Yeah, no way that sociopath would feel bad about offing someone. He absolutely relished sowing chaos amongst people back on Earth and watching them fight each other over non-issues. Well, considering I never tried to stop him and had my fun watching the chaos unfold also says quite a lot about my me.

 

Yep. We’re both not fully ok in the head, let’s just chalk it up to that.

 

“Food’s ready! Though I have to warn you, it might not taste great, since we have no seasonings. Or even salt. I tried my best to salvage the taste with some leaves and plants I found in the vicinity to give it some more flavor, but we’ll have to see.”

 

Merlin handed me a stone plate with the grilled boar meat.

 

“Thanks, don’t know what I’d do about food if you weren’t around.”

 

Merlin smirked slightly and put a slice of the meat on his own plate. Despite saying it might not taste great, my mouth was already filling with saliva from the smell alone. Or hunger, could be either of those.

 

I bit a portion of the meat off and started chewing. Certainly, it wasn’t something I’d want to eat every day, but it was more than edible. I might even call it tasty, and I’m a very picky person when it comes to food.

 

“Damn. It actually tastes good. You really are the food wizard.”

 

Merlin chuckled at my comment, but obviously liked the praise. We conversed about this and that while eating, never failing to find something to talk about. After all, we were two weebs stuck in a different world full of monsters and magic with an evil kingdom out to get us. As horrible as this situation sounds, we couldn’t help but be all giddy about it. This was like our fantasies come true. Literally.

 

But, despite all our giddiness, we were in the middle of a forest that was roamed by monsters. Dropping our guards during the night could prove fatal and make our otherworldly stay expire early.

 

“It’s almost midnight right now, so let’s both aim for at least four hours of sleep. I’ll take the first watch and then switch with you in around four hours. We’ll get back on the road at 8 in the morning. Sound good?”

 

“Got it. I’ll go sleep first, then. Goodnight.”

 

“Night.”

 

Merlin agreed with my suggestion to keep watch and we split the watch time half and half. I killed the fire with the water from the makeshift sink and climbed out of the dugout. I sat down with my back against a tree and covered myself in one of the blankets Merlin yoinked to his [Inventory] from the castle, prior to our escape.

 

I was tempted to take five hours of watch instead of only four, but chose against it. Even if I am more used to sleeping out in the forest than Merlin and have a better vitality thanks to my class, three hours of sleep is simply too little, especially after such a tiring day. Hopefully, we could get some proper rest in Sandhol tomorrow.

 

A few hours into my guard duty, I heard some shuffling from the bushes not far from me. I reached for my glaive that was hidden under the blanket, and focused on the direction the sound came from. Not long after, a goblin came into view, illuminated by the silver blue and dim red light reflected from Irma and Erma. Atraias didn’t reflect much light that was visible, due to its oceans and atmosphere absorbing most of it, but Irma and Erma had no oceans or atmosphere to stop the light from leaving the surface, so the nights on Miqta had a dual coloring of blue and red, giving the nighttime a purplish hue when viewed from the right angle.

 

I held my breath and remained still as I watched the goblin with wariness. It didn’t seem to have noticed me, as it made its way slowly towards the dugout, sniffing something. Did it catch the smell of the meat we ate? But we finished that long ago. Or did it perhaps smell us?

 

I slowly and silently moved my arm holding the glaive from under the blanket so I could attack right away in case the goblin got too close. Since this was a goblin, I had no intention of letting it go even if it suddenly started running away. The only good goblin is a dead goblin. I waited with bated breath as it inched ever closer and when it was just a few tens of centimeters away from the edge of the hole…

 

“Spectral Lance.”

 

Thud.

 

I threw my martial art empowered glaive at the goblin. The goblin didn’t even have time to react before it dropped dead. The most it was able to do was turn its head in my direction when it heard me speak, but by then it was too late.

 

I reluctantly got up from the warm blanket and went to collect my glaive and move the goblin’s corpse away from the hole. I simply threw its body into the shrubbery it came out of, to serve as a warning to any would-be additional annoyances. I then went back to the tree where I had my blanket and draped it over myself again.

 

Nothing else happened during the night and the time passed by slowly. I woke up Merlin to switch guard with me and then I got some much-needed shut eye.

 

○○○

 

In the morning, Merlin got rid any evidence of use camping there. He collapsed the shelter, covered the campsite and cleaned out any traces of blood left from the goblin. With our previous pace, we should reach Sandhol around noon, so we grabbed our stuff and set out once more.

 

The way there was uneventful. We didn’t run into any monsters and we didn’t start seeing people until we were about 3 kilometers away from the town. Most of the people were merchants and peddlers, moving between cities. Judging by how we were warmly greeted and nobody had shocked expressions upon seeing us, there has not been a headhunt declared on us just yet. I would’ve been genuinely impressed if they managed to declared all of that in a day.

 

After about thirty minutes, we finally reached our destination, Sandhol. The town had short walls made of grey stone and a short line of people stood in front of the large wooden gate. We moved to the back of the line and waited until it was our time to be inspected. At the gate, you were asked to provide any form of identification and what the purpose of the visit was, before you were allowed to enter the town.

 

The guard was a short and far man with an annoyed expression on his face. Someone that obviously didn’t enjoy this type of work much and would prefer being literally anywhere else, preferably a pub or a brothel. Looks like we’re in luck. This is exactly the type of person we need right now in order to get into Sandhol without any identification while keeping hush about it.

 

Soon enough, it was finally our turn to get into the city and we were called out to.

 

“Show me your identification.”

 

I put on an embarrassed but confident smile and began spouting the false story we thought of last night over dinner. I spoke with a hint of subservience, just enough to showcase I was hoping that he would overlook this, but kept my posture steady, in order to show I was ready to deal with trouble if necessary.

 

“I’m terribly sorry, sir guard, I’m afraid we lost our identification when some of our belongings were stolen by goblins during the night. Please, have mercy on us poor souls and let us through so we could get in contact with our families to ask for their help, we’d be in your debt.”

 

I clasped the guard’s hand and slipped a gold coin in it and he raised an eyebrow at me. The guard took a look at what I just gave him and his annoyed expression immediately turned into one of glee as a greedy smile formed on his face. I could literally how his eyes started to sparkle.

 

“Very well, you may pass.”

 

“Thank you, kind sir! Thank you!”

 

And so, we got into the town without a hitch. Hooray for corrupt guards that hate their job!

 

The town was exactly what you’d expect. Mostly wooden and stone buildings, streets filled with people moving about, peddlers advertising their wares, kids running around and the occasional guard in armor patrolling the streets. It was quite lively, despite the town’s modest size. I guess the town has so much bustle due to its proximity to the capital.

 

In the case the king declares a nationwide manhunt on us, I hope we’ll long be outside Hosefelia’s borders. We needed to become adventurers to help us move between nations and some horses for that, which is exactly why we came to Sandhol.

 

“That was two thirds of our total funds…”

 

Merlin looked a little listless after we bribed the guard, but in my opinion, the gold coin was a necessary sacrifice. Had we used only some of the silver coins and it wasn’t enough to satisfy the guard and he reported us instead, we might’ve been getting dragged off to a cell right about now. I’m seriously grateful this gambit paid off.

 

“Cheer up, we’ll be able to make more money once we become adventurers. For that, though, we need to register first in the Adventurer’s Guild. Lead the way, my trusty compass!”

 

I patted Merlin on the shoulder and tried to cheer him up, but all I got was a grumble from him and an elbow to my ribs. Ouch. Guess he didn’t like being degraded down to a trusty compass. He still performed his function splendidly, though, as we soon found ourselves standing in front of the adventurer’s guild.

 

A three-story stone building with wooden lining and décor. The emblem of the Adventurer’s Guild, two swords forming an X on a shield shaped piece of wood, hung above the main entrance. There were a few windows, but we couldn’t really see inside that well from our position, since the inside seemed to be fairly dim.

 

We walked inside and what I could only describe as ruckus assaulted our ears. This place was about as loud as the bloody main street with peddlers and merchants trying to shout over one another in order to sell more of their stuff. Well, it wasn’t entirely unexpected, considering these people risk their lives daily to stop dungeons from overflowing and help cull the monsters that could endanger people.

 

At the far back, opposite the entrance, was the reception desk. To nobody’s surprise, all the receptionists were young and cute girls. A staple cliché. There were a few lines formed, where the receptionists dealt with customers placing in a request and with adventurers who accepted or already finished one. To the left, what I can only assume is the quest board was surrounded by a bunch of adventurers reading through the quests, wondering which one to pick. To the right, a sort of pub-like area was filled with mainly male adventurers who each had a mug of beer in their hands. I could also see stairs that lead to a sort of second floor that overlooked the first floor from that area.

 

One of the reception booths was empty, so we didn’t hesitate and decided to use it. A cute receptionist with brown hair that ended just above her shoulders greeted us with a warm smile.

 

“Hello and welcome to Sandhol’s Adventurer’s Guild. How can I help you?”

 

The name tag on the left side of her chest read ‘Maya.’ I’d say a cute name like that definitely fits her like a glove.

 

“Hello. We’d like to register as adventurers.”

 

“Very well. One second… where did I put the forms…. Oh, found them! Are you two able to read and write? In case you aren’t, I can read out and write down everything for you.”

 

She rummaged through some of the drawers and then pulled out two sheets of paper and presented them to us.

 

“That won’t be necessary, we’re both literate.”

 

“Great! Here, something to write with. Fill out the forms I gave you, I’ll be right back.”

 

Maya nodded with a happy face and handed us a quill for writing and left to the room that was behind the reception area. I took a look at the forms and it was mostly just some personal information like our names, age, race and stuff related to our battle roles. Like, what magic are we capable of using, whether we prefer fighting in the vanguard or in the backline and so on.

 

We filled out the forms and read through some of the clauses and general contract bullcrap on the backside. Just general stuff you’d hear in any fantasy story: failing a request will result in a fine unless an investigation confirms the quest was wrongly ranked, being an adventurer doesn’t give you immunity from breaking the law, yada yada yada, common sense for the most part. Maya quickly came back holding a small milky white orb and placed it on the counter.

 

“This is a Crime Orb. When you place your hand on it, it’ll glow either green, red or black. Green means you’re a law-abiding citizen, red means you’ve committed a crime in the past and served your sentence and black means you’ll have guards out to capture you in seconds.”

 

She gently pushed the orb towards us with a sunny smile, but despite the warmth she was exuding, I couldn’t help but feel my blood freeze over. After all, we killed Clive only a little over a day ago. I don’t know how the orb measures whether you’ve committed a crime or not, but I pray it doesn’t read the user’s memories.

 

Internally saying ‘fuck it, we’re in too deep to go back now,’ I touched the innocent white orb that could completely screw us over, preparing myself to fight our way out at a moment’s notice, and… green. Phew. It freaking glowed green. We’re safe. I removed my arm and Merlin did the same as I did, and it also showed a green color. I guess these orbs are connected to some database where records of criminals are stored or something. If it read memories, we’d most likely get a black color, considering we killed a noble and a knight of the royal castle just yesterday.

 

“Great, it seems you two are law-abiding citizens, so there should be no problem with getting registered as adventurers. Now, I’m sure you’re not interested in hearing this as it’s common knowledge, but I have to do it. Just last week, a friend of mine was nearly fired for omitting this information, so… I’m sorry, but please bear with me…”

 

Maya then went off on a rather long tangent explaining the structure of the guild, adventurer ranks, advantages adventurers have when traveling between nations, their obligations towards the guild and so on.

 

The rankings go from F-rank to S-rank. Your rank can be increased by completing quests and following the guild’s guidelines. For ranks F to D, all you need to do to rank up is to simply clear quests, but for C-rank and above, you’ll also need to take a test to prove your strength and skills necessary for those ranks. Additionally, to be promoted to S-rank, you’ll need written letters of recommendation from at least two seats of power, meaning at least two national leaders need to approve of your capabilities as an adventurer.

 

Each quest gives a certain number of points depending on its rank and upon accumulating enough points, you’ll be eligible for a rank up. Completing quests below your current rank will not earn you any points. Some quests are repeatable, like gathering quests, and every requested amount will count as having finished the quest once. There is also something called designated quests that aren’t ranked and are given specifically to the requested adventurer. Designated quests always earn you some points, regardless of their difficulty.

 

Quests can be chosen from the quest board present in every Adventurer Guild branch, but you are limited to only quests of at most one rank above yours. So, if you’re an F-rank, you can only take F-rank and E-rank quests. We were also heavily warned to be mindful of the penalty and danger when choosing quests above your rank.

 

The guild also buys monster corpses and then processes them into food or other useful materials. Artifacts found in old ruins also usually get sold for pretty large sums and bringing information about an undiscovered ruin will automatically earn you rights to 20% of the total value found within the ruins.

 

“Phew, that should be all. Any questions?”

 

Maya heaved a sigh and patted her chest. No wonder she said sorry, that’s one massive mountain of information. I smiled at her with sympathy and decided to cut it short, for both our sakes.

 

“No, not for the moment.”

 

“In that case, please wait for a few minutes, your adventurer cards will be prepared shortly. If you would be interested in looking at some of the quests in the meantime, please go ahead and check out the quest board, I’ll call you when your cards are ready.”

 

I decided to take her up on that and we went off to the quest board. It was slightly past noon now, so the only quests that were still up were the repeatable quests and some high rank quests. After skimming through some we’d be eligible to take, one caught my interest.

 

【Quest description: Gather 10 stalks of Hippocrates’ Herb. (Repeatable)

 

Rank: F

 

Reward: 10 bronze coins, 30 guild points】

 

It looked like a perfect quest for us. With Merlin’s [Map], we’d be able to quickly find more of them. A useful synergy we found about when it came to [Analyze] and [Map] is that once Merlin analyzes an object, he’ll be able to search for similar or identical objects on his [Map]. This meant all we needed was for merlin to analyze this Hippocrates’ Herb once and they would then automatically be shown on his [Map].

 

“Sir Astoshan, sir Merlin, your cards are ready!”

 

Maya called us to pick up our adventurer cards. I snatched the repeatable quest off of the quest board and went back to the counter.

 

“Here are your adventurer cards. The cards show your rank by having your name glow in a specific color. For example, when you look at your guild card now, your name will appear yellow, which signifies your status as an F-rank adventurer. They also show how many points you’ve collected and how many are necessary to be eligible for a rank up.”

 

I received the guild card from Maya and took a look at it. Indeed, my name was shining in a yellow color. If I remember correctly, the next color would be green for E-rank, followed by blue, red, silver, gold and finally black for S-rank. I wonder how they achieve the glow… is it some kind of special ink? There was also a column that was simply (0/300) below my name. That’s most likely the points necessary for a rank up Maya mentioned.

 

“I recommend you keep a good eye on them. Getting one re-issued will cost you. These babies are pricier than they look.”

 

Maya warned us against losing them. Yeah, I can imagine that whatever is used in making these isn’t very cheap.

 

“Thank you, we’ll keep that in mind. Ah, right.”

 

I placed the quest on the reception desk in front of Maya.

 

“We’d like to take this quest.”

 

○○○

 

After we finished all our business, I asked Maya whether she had any recommendations for an inn we could crash at and Maya immediately recommended the Spider’s Bed inn. When I inquired about the name, I was told that their beds were so comfortable that it’d feel like you’re stuck in them, just like a spider’s web.

 

The Spider’s Bed is apparently really cheap with its prices despite offering great quality service, making it ideal for newbie adventurers like us. It was also only a few minutes on foot away from the guild, further adding to the inn’s attractiveness.

 

It didn’t take us long to find it, thanks to the short distance from the guild, and we walked in. Right as we walked in, my nose was assaulted by a plethora of pleasant smells coming from the kitchen. The inn itself had a cozy feel to it. Practically all of the building material was wood, at least for the inside of the building.

 

“Welcome to the Spider’s Bed! Are you looking for a place to stay?”

 

A young, cute girl greeted us with a sunny smile on her face. Again. The difference was that while Maya would be somewhere in her early 20s, this girl was at most 15.

 

Actually, taking a closer look at the girl smiling at us from behind the counter, there’s an uncanny resemblance to Maya. I tilted my head, hoping that would somehow give me an answer to all my questions but… nope! Of course, that did jack shit in trying to pinpoint why she was so similar.

 

“Yes. We got a recommendation for this place from Maya at the Adventurer’s Guild.”

 

“In that case, welcome, welcome! I promise you’ll be so satisfied you won’t want to leave your bed in the morning!”

 

That’d create some more problems of its own though, so I hope we’ll be able to leave our beds.

 

“We’re looking to stay for three days.”

 

“Two people, yes? Meals included?”

 

I nodded my head at the girl’s inquiry.

 

“That’ll be 300 coins then. Oh, and I’m Lisa, Maya’s little sister.”

 

So that’s where the resemblance comes from! Merlin forked out three silver coins and paid for our stay. Lisa gave us a key to our room and explained some things to us. The entire first floor was made up of a dining area and the kitchen, so the lodgings started only from the second floor. We were also told when breakfast, lunch and dinner were all served and to let them know if we were going to be gone for more than a day if any of our quests demanded that much time, as we would be provided with packed food for our journey. How thoughtful of them.

 

We thanked Lisa and went off to unpack in our room. We put away our things and then immediately went back downstairs to eat lunch, as it just so coincided that it would be served in a few minutes. According to Lisa, today’s lunch was chicken soup with bread and the main dish was stew with beef, onions and dumplings. My mouth was already watering from the thought of such delicious food.