"Great. Nice to have you. Though that sentiment may change. Depends on your performance." 

Nato then walks to one of the board to the right of the receptionist counter and grabs a piece of parchment with barely a glance. Quite a ballsy move considering we are committing our lives to this. Or so I thought until the Miya said "Hmmm... This one? Are you sure? For a D rank's first trip too? I saw you staring at the boards and thinking deeply enough to ignore most of our conversation earlier while we were talking and using The Judge, but are you sure? Really sure? Even for an A rank, this one's going to be hard, you know?"

"Uhm. Yes. This one is what many call an adventurer's romance. I have never done it because of the lack of party members. But I can't consider myself an adventurer if I do not do it. When I finally have the chance." replied Nato

"All right then. I'll help you out with the party registration and approve you for this quest then. Have fun!"

"Umu."

Oh. So she has thoroughly considered it? Well then, I shall place my trust on her then.

Right. That was a mistake. The past me was unexpectedly naive. All that 'trust in your comrades' bullcrap? Nah.

After receiving my adventurer's metal tag, I finally felt like I am an adventurer. I told Yuki where I was staying and told her she was welcome, she immediately declined in a prompt fashion while looking at me as if I was a wild animal. What? What's wrong with invi-... Oh no. That's probably not a good idea... Inviting a girl you just met to where you lived, and to an inn of all places, also at night too. Damn my lack of tact!

While cringing at what I did, I went back to the inn for the night.

The inn shone it's soft interior lit candle lamp lights, welcoming in a tired me who has endured a hectic day. I pushed open the inn's wooden door. While thinking about why it was so quiet and wondering if this world had different after-work celebration culture, I noticed many customers were sitting around the tables, staring at their piles of charcoal while grimacing. Someone looked up from his plate after hearing the creaking sound of the wooden door opening. Upon seeing me, his face lit up like the night sky during a summer festival, "The Chef! The Chef is back! Everyone! The Chef is back!" he shouted ecstatically. The other customers looked up, seeing me stand at the entrance with an expression that probably looked like I was wondering what the heck is going on. They quickly tried to get up, stumbled over themselves and pushing off others to stand up, and some even shook the table with their abrupt launch off their seats. They all came rushing over like a tide of molasses, thick and quick. Some ran like zombies after a certain train to B*san, some jumped from table to table and some others even slid on both knees over to me. All of them individually spoke up, chaotically. Through the chaos, I sort of understood that they are begging me with tears in their eyes, asking for me to take charge of the kitchen while promising to give me a big tip if I did.

Heh. The regulars probably came back for my food but got Lucy's instead huh. Poor them, getting the old bait and switched. After taking their bribery money, which by the way, amounted to a couple of golds, while remarking that they sure are rich, I headed to the kitchen. I stepped into the kitchen to witness... Lucy in front of a stove, with what looked like it was formally... bread? She was furiously smacking her spatula against the wok as if beating trying to beat wok and everything in it into submission. I snatched the spatula from her and after looking at the meal request slips, started cooking away while telling her I shall be off on a quest tomorrow. She cheered me on, telling me good luck. She seemed relieved to be relieved of her wok smacking duty.

While eating my food and thanking me with tears in their eyes, the drug-addict like customers threw some more money at me. After telling them that I shall be off on a quest tomorrow and wouldn't be back for a while, they threw even more money at me and thanked me for the advanced notice.

Early morning the next day, Yuki came to the inn while staring at me distrustingly. She ordered some food, which I then prepared for her. While preparing her food, I noticed her looking around at the decor or the lack thereof in the dining hall. Staring at everything intently, as if to microscopic detail... She is not checking for bombs or whatever this world's equivalent of bombs is... right?

She finished staring at about the same time as the food was done. While plating the food, I see her doing her, by this time, signature weird grin while muttering what I presume to be the word 'efficiency'. After the food arrived at the table, she gestured and spoke under her breath, as if to mutter some spell over the food before eating.

... Hold up. I hope that was a spell for extra flavouring. Or was she worried I drugged her food? Come on now, do I look like I am that sort of person? What sort of life has this poor woman been living up till now? Not even trusting food from an inn that is supposedly famous around here?... Granted it is empty early in the morning making it even more suspicious, but really? Checking for traps and poison?

We then ate together while discussing the day's plans. She seemed to not be that distrustful after using the spell and then eating my cooking.

Oh well, if that gets her to trust me I will let it go then.

We went to buy some equipment and provisions, using the money which I have fortunately got from the shotgun like throwing of coins the customers showered unto my face yesterday.

Most of it was cold resistance gear, and honestly, I should have suspected something was amiss at this point, but I digress.

We stocked up simple provisions like jerky, some bread and water before setting off, saying goodbye to Miya. At the front gate, Yuki suddenly got on all fours, while muttering something about efficiency and how the centre of mass is more evenly distributed before dashing off like a spider, with a weird grin on her face. She gained a couple of kilometres while I stood there staring and wondering what the heck just happened. After reorganising my thoughts, I quickly ran after her. As if a switch has been flipped in me, I found out what strength and agility towards the upper end of 4 digits felt like. Surprisingly, you could run pretty quickly with no obstacles in your way. Though trying to catch up to Yuki was surprisingly hard. I guess that is the difference between an A rank and a D rank.

The hot winds of the summer rushed past my face as the blazing sun tried it's best to pressure cook me to death in my cold resistance winter wear as I dashed furiously after my, at this point, questionably humanoid party member.

We seemed to have dashed far enough to reach an ocean. Feeling the cool sea breeze against my slightly heatstroked face felt good. After we crashed through a wave, leaving a human spider sized hole and a Mechakucha sized hole in it, sufficient to say, my clothes got wet, adding a couple of kilograms. I slowed down a little after that, causing the formerly surprisingly rock hard ocean surface to turn into something like thick corn starch. I struggled to stand back up and continue my pace, like trying to escape quicksand. Finally, I understood why Yuki was muttering about efficiency. Going along the ocean surface like a pond skeeter is way more doable than running on it while weighing about twice as heavy as my usual body weight. Or at least I feel twice as heavy because of the soaked clothes and supplies.

We managed to cross the ocean safely. Of course on the way across I saw many strange things like a tentacle the size of skyscrapers and mermaid-like creatures singing what I assume to be beautiful songs on a shore. Unfortunately, the hot wind was busy blaring its own tune across my saltwater soaked ears for me to hear anything.

After madly sprinting for a couple of kilometres in a few seconds, all while wearing the sweltering hot clothes known as cold resistance gear, the air around us suddenly got cooler, as if we went past an air curtain like in a supermarket's entrance. Except this is stretched as far as, if not further than the eye could see, seemingly like we entered the ice biome in M*ncraft.

Feeling as if the sweat on my skin and the water in my clothes have flash-frozen, which I am pretty certain they have, I moved stiffly like a puppet. Yuki seemed to have stopped... walking? crawling? skittering?... moving, right. She stopped moving and stood up. Staring at a cave a couple of metres away. Oh! She found us a place to camp out for the night! How dependable and trustworthy.

"This is the dungeon we are entering. Prepare your headlight helmet. We are going in." she says as if to drop a bomb, blasting away my previous assumptions to smithereens.

"Wait wait wait. Hold up. What is the quest?" to which Yuki replies "Icy Plains Dungeon. Materials extraction quest. Targets are mostly slimes. And anything else we can find."

"Slimes? Are they not super easy to kill?" Or so my years of Light Novel reading experience has taught me.

"We are not trying to kill the slimes. We are harvesting them. Though slimes are not the problem. The problem is everything else."

A few moments later, I got what she meant.