“Yo there, you okay? Phew. Those people sure do love to make trouble, huh.” Zeth walked toward me and thumbed himself. “Anywho, the name’s Zeth! Let’s make friends.”

“Y-Yeah sure…” I was a bit perplexed by his intrusive personality and to find someone like him — being so proactive at helping the weak. What a character.

Now closer, Zeth stood a bit taller than me and wore classic adventurer-style equipment, with leather armor, boots, a red bandana tied around his right arm, and a pair of gauntlets on his hands. He looked like a guy that would charge into danger without a second thought, which he did.

“What’s yours?”

“Mine is Vincent. A Marble-ranked adventurer.”

“Marble rank?” Pallad broke in, a glint in his eyes, “I saw that you secretly used magic when we were in the scuffle. I guess you are more than capable to fend for yourself.”

Holy cow! He’s quite sharp. Although, he had it wrong since it was no magic.

“Hey, Pallad, don’t be so pedantic! He’s just trying to help us.”

“That’s true!” Lara seconded.

“Let me introduce you to these two, Vincent: This is Pallad, my pal, and this is Lara,” Zeth said without waiting for my confirmation.

“H-Hi there. I… am Lara, a cleric. I-If you get hurt, you can come to see me. I can use Holy Magic,” she stuttered while partially covering her reddened mouth and cheeks.

Lara was a petite girl with a round face and cute light brown bob-cut hair, looking to be two to three years younger than me. She wore a priest-like garb with a round cotton cap on top, which made her look like a healer. Finally, right in her hand was a long golden staff embellished like a religious staff popular in temples.

But what made me a bit nervous in front of her was that she had a body figure and curves that equaled Lorelei in her adult form, which made me not know where to look except a few inches above her head. Yeah, this was for the best.

But still, Holy Magic, huh? Is it a kind of healing magic? A shame she didn’t use it just now. To the best of my knowledge, only the members of the Great Church of Alexia could use this magic. Is she part of the Great Church? My train of thoughts was quickly interrupted by Zeth’s laugh.

“Hahaha. She’s a bit shy to new people, but she will get over it soon.”

“What do you mean by that? Geez!” Lara weakly threw a punch at Zeth a few times.

“Ouch, ouch! It’s a joke!”

“Sorry for what I said earlier. My name is Pallad. Nice to meet you.”

The guy named Pallad introduced himself politely. He was a guy slightly shorter and about as old as Zeth with chocolate-brown hair kept to the side. Unlike Zeth that had a wild, unkempt appearance, Pallad dressed in more stylish and clean clothes, layered with leather armor and a bastard sword on his waist.

“Sure. Nice meeting you guys and thank you for your assistance earlier.”

“Hahaha! Don’t mind it! We are willing to help those in need since that is the whole reason we become adventurers.”

Pallad and Lara also agreed to what Zeth blurted out.

I hadn’t done this earlier, so I checked the ZPL Trio’s (I decided to call them that) status screens. What was stunning, both Zeth and Pallad had an E- evaluation which both eclipsed me almost in everything. As for their Vocations they had [Expert Brawling] and [Great Swordsmanship], respectively.

On the other side of the coin, Lara, despite having the same evaluation as me, her status and Vocation stole my attention the most.

Name: Lara

Species: Human

Sex: Female

Age: 17 years old

Height: 162 cm

Occupation: Adventurer, cleric, elementalist

Vocation: [Innocent Prayer]

Stats:

STR: F (12) AGI: F (10) VIT: F (11) MAG: E (28) SPR: F+ (19)

Accumulation Points: 11 [F+]

[Innocent Prayer]

An ability that can activate in moments of need as long as there is purity in the user’s heart; they can perform miracles beyond their capabilities.

I wondered what sort of miracle this Vocation spoke of… Enhancing the effect of magic, perhaps? Or even bringing good luck? Who knows?

“What are you staring at the air for? Let’s not tarry here any longer and make haste for the Adventurer’s Guild to report, shall we?” Zeth suggested.

“It’s too late; those troublemakers will reach there first. But we don’t have to worry — not many know this — the guild has its own way to ascertain the matter. So, they are digging their own grave by reporting,” Pallad explained. “Though we still have to go there to be eyewitnesses.”

Closing the status screens, I nodded, “Uh-huh. I think what Pallad said makes sense. Let’s go anyway.”

“I-I agree.”

Afterward, the four of us walked down the road to the Adventurer’s Guild while exchanging information. From here I learned that they were adventurers that just came to this city from a nearby town in order to become full-fledged adventurers or like that, more or less — this city was indeed a central hub for fledgling adventurers with dangers and opportunities abounded, a city of adventurers.

Zeth proclaimed out loud, “We are dreaming of becoming liberators in the future! All this for the glory it will bring to our homeland back in the village.”

“Village?”

“Indeed! Before we come to town, we were just kids dreaming of adventuring and making it big. And here we are, one step at a time.”

“Vincent, what about you?” Pallad asked. “It’s rare to see someone with black hair around here.”

“Oh, I come from a country up to the northwest… It’s a faraway place, so you wouldn’t know.”

“M-Must be a long, hard journey coming here.”

“Yup...” It’s indeed hard coming from the dungeon to here… “Anyways, did you guys already know each other much before or…?”

“Obviously!” Zeth affirmed with an aggressive nod. “We came from the same village — Penrith Village — south of here.”

Small wonder that people inspired by adventurer stories exploring dungeons and collecting riches appeared to be a dime a dozen around this land. Thus, inspiring countless people like them to become adventurers themselves. Without the proper knowledge, people were easily influenced by word of mouth alone.

We continued our idle chatter until we reached the plaza… There, I saw a crowd of people circling the central fountain.

“There’s an archaic tale to be told. That of which of an ancient one. That of which traveled among the gods. That of which beheld lands undone, seas spun.”

Right before the knight fountain, a bard, clad in green, gave a strum of his lyre.

“Hrm, what was that? A bard playing music about some sort of past tale or something?”

“Yeah, and I know this! Let’s go watch!” Zeth dashed to the middle of the crowd.

“Oh, there he goes again! Going off by himself.” Pallad went off to chase after him.

“S-Sorry…” Lara was fidgeting in shame over Zeth’s action. “He’s always been like that, even though we’re in the midst of all this.”

“Haha. That’s okay, let’s just see the performance while we’re at it.”

And so, we headed for the crowd and began listening to what the bard had to offer.

“In people’s fear of dungeons and monsters run rampant! Cornered to their last bastion.”

The notes echoed around the afternoon street. More people stopped to listen, drawn by the powerful yet melancholy tune.

“O, behold Integrity Knight’s tall posture on the horizon. His shining sword descends upon this land, tempered in true silver, never to betray its master.”

Young and old, men and women, rich and poor, people of every walk of life watched the bard. I knew that his peculiar epic would depend entirely on his own skill for its success.

“But he is a man of integrity! Exterminating evil, vanquishing monsters, and liberating dungeons. Not bound by the greed of mortals.”

A few young girls in the front row let out a warm chuckle. The bard held back the smile that pulled at his lips and continued soberly:

“Now the age of fear has long gone by, but people still remember the deeds of this past hero. May future generations remember what the good deeds he has done for us.”

Strum, strum, strum.

“Thank you! That is as far as I shall carry the tale of the Integrity Knight, hero of the past era, today.”

Numerous claps rang from around along with the clattering of piling coins tossed into the bard’s cap before the audience dispersed with a murmur. I put in one hundred Zernial for his good performance since this was the first time for me, and he thanked me with an elegant bow.

“That was good!”

“Zeth, we ought to go to the guild now,” Pallad reminded.

“I-It’s not good to keep Vincent here for long.”

“Ahh, my bad, almost forgot ‘bout that!” Zeth scratched his head awkwardly.

We entered the Adventurer's Guild building after that. Inside, there wasn't any of the commotion I expected, except for the usually bustling reception area. I even spotted a man with a large build who looked somewhat familiar from his back, speaking rather closely with Tia. Huh? Was he her boyfriend?

We were about to get to another receptionist that had now cleared out of people when someone called me, “Hey, you’re Vincent? I presume we met about half a month ago. It’s me, Raklum!”

Raklum…? Oh, the eccentric adventurer I met when seeing the quest billboard.

It seemed that the year here consisted of thirteen months with each month except for the last having twenty-eight days, which meant a total of at least 364 days a year — quite similar to that of Earth. Thus, when he said half a month ago was right on the mark.

“You know him, Vincent?” Pallad asked.

“Somewhat.” I turned toward Raklum and Tia and inquired, “Is there anything wrong?”

“Nothin’ much.” Raklum laughed and waved his hand, watering down what he said next, “We’d just gotten a report that you have been stealing and injuring a group of adventurers.”

“Indeed, and we have been expecting the four of you to come here. Of course, there isn’t any proof, so it was treated as an alleged report and thus inadmissible, but we just want to make sure,” explained Tia.

“No! Vincent didn’t do any of that!” Zeth vehemently denied the accusations and stepped in front of me.

“Yes! W-We can be the testimonies,” Lara affirmed.

Pallad voiced out, “Agreed. Miss Receptionist, have you ascertained the matter?”

“You three have also been included in the report, and as a result, your testimonies are invalid— However,” she quickly added, “we have a magic tool to prove lies from truths, and you haven’t been telling any lies, a contrast to them.”

“Phew!” Zeth was letting out a big sigh of relief as if he was the one in a deep predicament.

“But what about those scum— Adventurers...” It was an open secret that those scumbags were a bunch of troublemakers, but what they did today finally crossed the line. It would be for the best if they got the corresponding punishment for what they did.

“The accusers are currently detained in a room and guarded by Raklum’s party members that just went back from liberating a dungeon.” Tia didn’t hold back in her disdain over them, as shown by her harsh squint.

“Liberating a dungeon? So you’re now a liberator?” I inquired.

“That’s so cool!” Zeth exclaimed with a pair of glimmering eyes. “Please tell me about the details!”

Even both Pallad and Lara perked up their ears.

“Hahaha! It’s no big deal, though it took us almost two weeks…” Raklum began bragging about his dungeon liberation to the trio.

I hadn’t had the chance to check Raklum’s status screen, so I went ahead and did so.

Name: Raklum

Species: Human

Sex: Male

Age: 26 years old

Height: 197 cm

Occupation: Adventurer, liberator

Vocation: [Wind Elemental Transformation (*)]

Stats:

STR: C- (62) AGI: C (67) VIT: C- (61) MAG: F+ (38) SPR: F (59)

Accumulation Points: 86 [D+]

So strong! Isn’t he stronger than Rowan? But I still had yet to find anyone beyond D+ evaluation except for “that guy.” Wait, what’s that asterisk mark on the Vocation?

[Wind Elemental Transformation (*)]

An ability that allows the user to transform into a wind elemental, giving them the power to control air to their will. The wind spirits shall bow down upon the might of the wind elemental.

First Constellation

There was such an ability, huh… But “First Constellation”? I don’t get it. I put the thought of digging more about this at the back of my head for now since the description didn’t reveal a single word more, although it definitely had something to do with liberating a dungeon.

“So, what kind of punishment will those people be subjected to?” I asked Tia.

“They will be permanently expelled from the Adventurer’s Guild and never be able to register ever again at the lightest.” Then, she added with serious eyes, “But looking at their bad track records, they will likely be sent to the mine and turned into mining slaves for a few years in addition to that at the worst.”

Whoa, that’s pretty harsh… I don’t wanna be a slave… definitely. The hard work will kill me. But slavery, huh… I wasn’t sure whether she really meant that or just used it as a figurative word…

“Th-That’s good to hear. I hope the guild can give a justified punishment to them.”

“Certainly, they won’t get off scot-free,” Tia gave her confirmation. “Oh, one more thing, it’s a good coincidence that the four of you adventurers are here.”

The trio turned their attention toward Tia with expecting gazes.

“The three of you should be aware there will be a rank-up assessment soon. And, Vincent, you’re eligible to take the Iron rank assessment, which will be conducted tomorrow at the outskirts of the Great Elion Forest.”

“Seriously?”