It was a hunting day, and I was browsing the boards for quests.

I’d reached the fourth rank recently, so I was reviewing the newly available missions and happened upon one that requested a certain magic herb that grew deep in the forest. It was one that grew near rivers close to the mountains.

Something about the runoff from the mountains allowed the herb to grow a flower containing a small amount of a highly concentrated nectar that could be used to make special potions. These potions were supposed to be much faster at healing the drinker than many others, while not being as taxing on their body.

The reason it caught my eye was the reward. It was far higher than the herb usually went for, making me give the sheet more attention than I normally would.

Most of the time I focused on the hunting requests, keeping track of what beasties were being a problem or sought after and profiting from taking them out. Of course, I also took down any gobs or orcs I came across, as well as any others that looked to be causing issues with their surroundings, even if there wasn’t a request posted. I could always hold onto stuff and turn it in later.

I’d been planning to head close to the mountains to see if there was a monster village to get rid of, so I grabbed the collection request as well. I’d be able to follow the river from the air, so locating the flower shouldn’t be difficult, plus monsters needed to drink as well, so there was a chance they’d be located close to the river as well. Two quests, one river.

Waiting in line for a few minutes, not too long as I’d come early, I accepted the request. The receptionist expressed her concern for me taking the quest alone, since the quest was intended for a group of rank fours, not a solo adventurer, but processed the request, marking me as having accepted it. As long as one was of the proper rank for the posted request, we could take whatever ones we wanted, regardless of actual difficulty, even if it was intended for a larger group.

I reassured her that I’d be fine, and headed out.

The city gates were busier than usual when I exited. There was a group of soldiers camping outside of them, likely on maneuvers or heading to reinforce some place. Hawkers and merchants were doing business near their camp for those who didn’t want to go through the hassle of using their off time to enter the city to make purchases.

One of the merchants was a food cart selling something close to steamed buns that smelled delicious, so I stopped off and picked some up. Some soldiers tried to pick me up as I did so, but I politely declined, saying I was heading out on a quest. I didn’t say where I was going, but indicated a direction other than the one I’d actually be going in.

Thankfully, the soldiers just gave me a disappointed look and left it at that. It was a pain when members of the military tried to use that as an excuse to get away with pulling stuff, but these guys didn’t seem to be like that. We did chat for a bit while we ate the buns, but once I finished mine, at least the one I ate there, more got added to my pantry, we parted. One of them did ask me to consider swinging by and asking for him on my way back, but I made no promises.

I headed off in the direction I’d indicated, opposite where I actually was going to go, before going invisible and lifting off once I was alone. I hadn’t been in this direction before, so it was new terrain for me.

The river I was following upstream didn’t go through the city, instead being just outside the walls. It acted as a moat for the one side of the city walls, though it wasn’t too large. It was enough that small boats could move around on it, but nothing like cargo vessels could use it.

There was another large port city further up the coast that had a massive river that meandered through the country’s heartland and through the capital, although this city was actually closer. The other city was around a peninsula, and the meandering of the river meant that it took about the same length of time to take a trip entirely by water from here as it did to follow the roads to get there.

I’d been considering going through the capital and to the nearby dungeon city. The place required one to be at least rank three to enter with a registered party, but rank fours could enter solo, and I’d just reached that goal. It’s not that I couldn’t work with other people, I’d done it quite a bit, but I couldn’t show my true power before others. They’d hold me back.

Still, it might be amusing to put on a new face and claim to be a nearly pure healer and do quests with someone. Sadly, doing so would require me to show my ID, which would give away my real identity. One couldn’t have more than a single guild card, so no matter what face I take, I couldn’t disguise myself completely.

Ah, I was getting close to the mountains. I’d been thinking as I flew over the river and through the woods… to monster’s house I go. I just found a goblin village!

I came to a halt midair overlooking the place. It was as poorly constructed as usual, though a fair bit larger than other ones I’d destroyed. Scanning the place magically, I detected 231 life signs of goblin size or larger. This included some wolves, so there’d be at least one and probably more tamers. With that many goblins, the place was probably ruled by at least a warlord, if not a general, so higher class goblins would present.

Looks like fun!

I grinned as I settled to the ground. Now, how was I going to deal with these guys? Should I behead them all, put arrows in them, freeze them, burn them? So many choices!

I opted to play with ice. Not freezing them, but sending ice arrows at them. I dropped my invisibility as I neared the ‘wall’ around their village, drawing their attention. Doing so made them excited, after all a female was willingly walking towards them, practically begging them to capture her.

Their lust filled thoughts were the last ones they had as streaks of blue-white ice flew where I looked and reaped their lives. I didn’t feel like waving my hands around every time I cast a spell, like some mages liked to, so I tended to send out attacks along my line of sight for small frys, it increased accuracy over making stuff around me before shooting them.

It took me ten minutes to empty the village of all life, other than myself of course. There were no captives, nor any adventurer IDs to be found, so I didn’t have to worry about reporting any deaths to the guild. Not outside of turning in goblin ears anyway.

The place had been ruled by a general, so I kept that ear separate from the rest. It could be identified as being different than other goblin ears. There were only two types of goblin ears easily identifiable, leaders and everyone else. Leaders only showed up in groups of fifty or more, though numbers didn’t guarantee their appearance. Leaders included Chiefs, Lords, Warlords, Generals, Kings, and finally Emperors.

Outside of the leaders, it required an appraiser to check what specific kind of goblin an ear came from, and doing so was unprofitable, so the weakest goblin grunt was rewarded the same as the strongest goblin knight.

The village must have taken down a good number of adventurers, since there was a good amount of equipment in use, even not having located any proof of who the stuff came from. I also found fair bit of coinage. The goblins didn’t use money, at least as far as monster researchers could tell, but they did like shiny things like magpies, so from amongst their other ‘treasures’ I was able to collect over a platinum’s worth in coin.

Looting took a while, since the village was rather large, and I was occasionally interrupted by returning patrols, but after I took everything of value, the place was torched. Something bothered me while I was doing so, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I ignored it and continued turning the place to ash.

Pest control and cleanup completed, I started hiking along the river, searching for the herb from the request I’d taken. They wanted five of the things, so it took a while, they weren’t a common herb, and I not all the ones I found were mature enough to harvest. It seemed it was actually fairly early in the year for them to appear, most only reaching maturity in mid-autumn, and it was only late summer.

I didn’t actually head back after only collecting the requested number, instead picking three times the amount. Doing so would save time when the request was posted again.

It was nearing dusk when I finished my woodland adventure and headed back towards the city. I’d been lucky enough to happen upon a good number of monsters, and had kept going longer than I normally did. Since the river provided required refreshment to the forest’s inhabitants, strolling along it had made collecting them easy. Plus there was a few tufts of some rare herbs at the bottom of a small pond that I’d taken a dip to collect.

By the time I got back to the city, the sun was already nearly gone below the horizon. Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about the gates being shut on me. This city didn’t completely close itself off at night like some did, though inspections were sometimes more thorough to prevent people from sneaking stuff in under the cover of darkness.

The merchants were all either gone or had closed up shop for the night, except for a couple of food carts. Those had plenty of customers, soldiers who wanted tasty food, not the standard issue meals the army served. The army food was free, but it left a lot to be desired.

As I was getting a bit hungry, having skipped lunch due to distraction, the smells coming from the carts made my stomach rumble, but I ignored it and headed to the guild. I wanted to turn in my quests, then head to a real restaurant.

I was fortunate that most of the end of day rush was done when I reached the guild, so the wait wasn’t terrible. Still, I ended up a little embarrassed as my stomach rumbled loudly at the scents from the guild’s pub. Their food wasn’t great, but it was enough to make my body grumble in dissatisfaction. I could have pulled out something from my pantry to eat, but didn’t want to waste food when being a little patient would suffice.

When my turn came, I carefully passed over the flowers and a couple sets of goblin ears. The flowers had to be handled so as to not spill the nectar, or my efforts would be in vain. As for the ears, at rank four it took twenty-five ears to earn a point towards ranking up.

Each rank up required fifty quests of the same level in order to qualify for the promotion exam, as well as a few other requirements. To get rank four I’d had to prove myself in combat against one of the instructors, as well as complete a specific quest while accompanied by an examiner.

The quest was annoying since I’d had to spend two nights camping to reach the location, take care of the monsters plaguing a village, then head back. I’d have been able to get it all done in a day on my own… but there was a reason I didn’t usually take such quests, I didn’t like wasting the time it took to make it seem like I was normal.

I knew I was abnormal as they come, the result of be an otherworlder, summoned to a third world. My knowledge and skills were strange, but made me powerful. Add on top of that all the blessings I had received, and you got… well, me.

Speaking of those, I have to wonder how that’s going over between the two world’s gods. There should be no way my being summoned escaped notice, even if I went off course due to the timing. As gods they should be able to communicate with each other, though I know there are restrictions for gods communing with mortals.

Maybe I should visit a temple.

I’d had the thought multiple times, but kept putting it off. What if I got pulled into something annoying? Then again, what if I got the title and skill I had in order to make something that would save the world, like something to seal a powerful being intent of ruining or conquering the world?

Even if I went to a temple, would I be able to talk to the gods I’d never met? I’d been able to do so periodically on Valla, though there were steps required in order to make contact. It was how I’d gotten some heads ups that allowed me to prevent some really nasty stuff from happening. Like that guy who was trying to release a plague that wasn’t directly lethal, but left the survivors too crippled to move. That would have basically killed the city if I’d been unable to prevent its release.

---

The next few days I did as usual, spending a day in the dismantling room, and the next one enjoying the city’s cultural scene. There was a new play being performed that I’d heard good things about, so I went to see it.

On Saturday, I crafted, trying out some new things, sometimes I was successful, sometimes not. Still, I enjoyed it. Even if I didn’t get something right, that didn’t mean the materials were wasted, I could still use them to try again, unless things had gone really wrong.

It was during the next week that things got… interesting.

It was Monday, and I was headed to the library for some reading, but that plan was quickly derailed. As soon as I set foot in the library that day, I was abduc… escorted to a different location.

I was getting really worried when I saw the doorplate: Guildmaster’s Office.

Crap. What’s going on? I really don’t want to get involved with politics and the higher ups, and GMs are closely related to those things, since the guilds are vital parts of the local economy and security.

The grizzled old man seated behind a massive desk piled with mountains of paperwork directed me towards a chair.

“Have a seat. I’m almost done with this. Then we can have a chat.”

I did as directed, though I was a little worried about what he wanted to chat about. I hated these kinds of situations. Even having tons of experience on Valla dealing with nobles and royalty didn’t kill that feeling of nervousness I mentally called ‘the principal’s office effect.’

The man who’d been waiting for me in the library prepared tea for us, and was just finishing filling the last cup when the Guildmaster set down his pen and rose from where he was seated.

He was massive. I’d noticed he seemed large, but the dimensions of the desk and the piles of paperwork had disguised his true dimensions. He was at least seven feet tall, probably a bit more. His shoulders were broad, and all of his muscles were huge and well toned. He wasn’t one of those body builder types, whose muscles are unhealthily large, but while he was large, the proportions were reasonable.

Yummy.

My preferences were eclectic, and as prone to changing as my form, but this man definitely stirred something inside of me. Too bad I wouldn’t be here long enough to get to know him.

As I mentally drooled over the muscular old man, he must have been at least in his fifties, so not too far from my own actual age, he came over to the conversation area of the room and offered me his hand.

“Sorry for the wait. I’m Raiden, the local Guildmaster.”

I stood and took his proffered hand, giving it a firm shake.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Rynn, wandering adventurer and bibliophile.”

We sat down and sipped at the tea we’d been poured. The man who’d prepared it for us had disappeared behind the desk, where I could hear him scribbling away. Following my gaze, Raiden introduced the hidden man.

“That’s Jacen, he’s the deputy Guildmaster. We’ve been swamped recently, or he’d be over here with us. He’ll chime in if he has anything to add.” He took a sip and continued. “I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here, so I’ll get right to it. Did you take out a goblin village up the river a few days ago?”

I’d had my poker face activated, yes it was a skill, I’d needed it to keep my face unreadable before his drool-worthiness and size as well as to disguise my nervousness, so I showed no reaction to the question. How does he know about that?

“A goblin village? Do I look like I have the strength to do that?”

““Yes.””

The answer came from both of the men, but Raiden was the one who kept speaking.

“You hide your strength well, but there are a few who can see through it. After getting a report yesterday, we’d looked into you and spoke to some of those who’d seen you. Plus, you don’t get this position without being strong enough to keep other adventurers in line, so we could tell right away. So I’ll ask again. Was it you?”

I gave up the poker face, stared him right in the eyes and asked him a question in response.

“And if I was?”

“Then we’d want to know what else you’ve been up to, but haven’t reported. The guild is responsible for clearing out monsters, so if someone is clearing them out but not reporting it, it makes our job harder.”

Looking him in the eye, I considered his words. Yes, there was a reason to report kills, but I’d been mostly working further away from the city so as not to affect it. Too many kills of any species might make them or the ones they prey on or are prey to shift around to locate better sources of food, or for more safety.

After a bit of an internal struggle, I had to ask.

“How did you know it was me? It could have been someone else that’s strong.”

“Magic. The group reached the village right after you had left, having spotted a person leaving after reducing the place to ash. Fortunately they had the ability to peek into the recent past and got a better view of what happened. This wasn’t the first village to disappear like this without being reported, so the groups exterminating villages were asked to carry an artifact to try and discover what happened, and lo and behold, you showed up.”

Artifacts, one of the other names for rarer magic tools that are extremely difficult or impossible to reproduce. They were generally kept secret due to the value most of them held. That they felt the need to use something like that spoke of how important they must have thought the situation was.

I knew about something similar to the artifact he described, since I could do the same thing with a spell, or enchant the spell into a scroll or tool to allow viewing the past. The problem was that the mana consumption was pretty big, especially the further back one goes. Scrolls would cap at a few minutes back, while tools could be adjusted, and reused, but they could really take it out of you if you tried going more than an hour or two back, or if you kept it up longer than a few minutes at a time.

“Haah, I didn’t want to stand out, plus it’s not like I could take the quests to wipe out the villages myself. I hadn’t even planned on taking them down, but they were there, so I did.”

Goblin village exterminations are at minimum rank five quests, and even then the quest is for a group of at least ten, and preferably more. You don’t want to let too many escape to form a new village, so it’s usually best to surround the place to prevent that.

Orcs are even worse. Their numbers tend to be smaller, but they are much tougher and stronger than goblins, so their villages are given a rank six, likewise with a group.

“But you did take them out. And not only that, I know you were back here the same day. The group that had been sent to deal with the village only got back yesterday.”

So he knew about that too. Not surprising, since I had a schedule I preferred to keep. I had multiple ways to fast travel. Flight was my preference, so long as a place wasn’t hours away. Flying was fun, and allowed me to see beautiful views.

I could use space magic to teleport myself or open a gate to allow group travel, but there were limitations, and that kind of magic was rare at higher levels. Many people tried to learn the lower levels of it to get an item box, but never took it further due to the difficulty.

One of the restrictions was that the caster had to have been to a place before, and be able to recall it well enough to see it in their mind’s eye. Flying allowed me to reach places quickly, making it possible to expand the locations I could visit quickly, while I was able to easily recall places I’d been due to my blessing enhanced memory.

Then there was the fact that the further one wanted to go, the higher the mana cost. It was not a linear progression of cost, though it was also thankfully not exponential. I had enough mana that I could go a thousand miles a jump alone, or a hundred if I used a gate to bring others along.

I opened my mouth to speak, but he waved his hand.

“I don’t care how you did it. Or why you’re trying to remain inconspicuous, though you need to work on that if you really don’t want to stand out. What I need from you is two things. First, an accurate report of your past activities, and second to report future ones promptly.”

“How am I supposed to not stand out if I do that? The receptionist already think I’m going beyond my capabilities and try to warn me off, which is drawing attention, and unwelcome advances from those trying to show off to attempt to impress me.”

“I’ll talk to them.” The deputy, Jacen, spoke for the first time. “As long as you’re the right rank they shouldn’t really be saying anything like that, though they do so in order to protect people from overreaching and ending up dead. Also, don’t worry about them spilling secrets. Everyone who works at the guild is under magical oaths to keep personal information secret.”

“Thanks. I get that they’re trying to be helpful, but I wasn’t certain how to get them to stop without either being rude or getting them in trouble. OK, so here’s what I’ve done since I arrived in the city.”

I started giving my report, as well as pulling out stuff to go along with it.

I started with a map of the surroundings I’d made. It wasn’t great, but it was better than the ones I’d seen available for sale. In this kind of time period maps were of strategic importance, so they were at best pretty vague, so I’d made my own. Flying really high was helpful for doing so. Warming spells and a sphere of air to allow me to breathe helped.

I pointed out where the settlements or notable monsters I had taken out and hadn’t reported had been located, along with the corresponding proofs, if I still had them. I’d unknowingly discarded a few of the trophies along with the garbage when I’d been dismantling stuff earlier on.

It was also king of a relief to get rid of all of those ears. I could only turn them in so many at a time to keep from garnering excess attention.

As I spoke, Jacen had come out of hiding and was listening as I spoke and pointed out things, taking notes on a clipboard. He also kept glancing at the bags of trophies I’d put on the table. Multiple magic bags, a rarity for an adventurer, but not for me since I could make them myself.

I had a bag for the goblins, another for orcs, one for their leaders, mixed species, and a final one I was using to stuff in the other stuff that I hadn’t had bagged before.

It was kind of enjoyable watching their faces as I laid out the results of my outings. They knew I was strong, but hadn’t thought I’d done so much, especially since I only went out one day a week. I didn’t forget to include the wyvern at the end, though I didn’t tell them about where I’d slain them until after they’d gone pale, thinking the city had been in danger.

When I was done, they leaned back in their seat, seemingly exhausted.

“What the hell was your life like for you to get this strong at such a young age?! No, I shouldn’t ask that.”

Heh, the Zelda look I was sporting made me look like I was an older teenager. Should I tell them? Might be amusing.

“I’m older than I look, and that’s all I’ll say on that subject. Plus, I was an adventurer in a different guild before. Your system doesn’t recognize my card, and it’s in a different language.”

I showed my other card, getting the usual response. They looked at it, tried stuff with it, ultimately handed it back having learned nothing.

“What was your rank?”

“I reached S-Rank. They used a letter based system over there instead of numbers. G to A, then S at the top. Some of the S-rankers were monsters, including one guy who reached it within a year of getting started, youngest one ever at eleven years old.”

They exchanged a look, but whatever silent conversation they had, they decided not to bring me into it.

“I’d test your skills and promote you to the proper rank, but I can’t. Oaths and all that. Jacen, can you deal with all that?” He nodded, collecting the bags off the table. With them gone, I retrieved my map, though I saw that he was interested in that as well. “Given how much there is, do you mind waiting till tomorrow for the rewards?”

“That’s fine. I’ve been sitting on the stuff, and I’m not worried about money. Just make sure I get the promotion points, and I’ll be happy.”

“Good, then come back here tomorrow and we’ll get things done.”

I nodded, then headed back to the library, a little skip in my step.

It felt refreshing to not hide my skills… as much.