Chapter 63

A rough-looking man ripped off a chunk of tough, leathery bread from the loaf with but his teeth. After chewing, and, consequently, swallowing the substance that was hard to call ‘food’, he subtly gestured towards a pair of people on the other end of the room and spoke.

“It’s them, ain’t it? The so-called prodigies.”

The one he spoke to―an equally rugged man who sat beside him―merely snorted at the words.

“Hah. What, those guys? Nah, it couldn’t be, you stupid or somethin’? That’s a kid, duh. It don’t matter how “prodigious” someone is, there ain’t no way a kid could climb up from the bottom to C-rank in one month.”

The scruffy men were both adventurers. Currently, they sat at one of the tables in the Adventurer Guild’s tavern section. The Guild introduced it as a way of both making extra money from the adventurers who successfully returned from missions and for celebrations.

On top of that, it was a place where information was frequently bought and exchanged, and a place where parties could gather to plan for future missions.

The first man scratched his head as he chewed the terrible bread, “Well, I s’pose you’re right... But still, I heard rumours that one of ‘em was a child, so couldn’t there be a chance of it bein’ true?”

“That’s only a rumour. I can bet my Guild Card that it’s false.”

“―Ohoh? So, you’re that confident, eh?”

Suddenly, a third man barged into the conversation. He, too, seemed to be an adventurer, however, from his elated expression and the fresh sweat that coated his face, it seemed that he had just returned from a difficult mission.

“What about it?”, the second man laughed confidently, “Just use your brain. It’s obvious they aren’t the ‘prodigious rookies’. Hell, maybe the prodigious rookies never existed in the first place. It’s probably--no, definitely a fraud.”

The third man looked at him with a smirk.

“Well... If I were you, I’d take a moment to think about whether you really want to bet your Guild Card on this, but...”

The second man looked at him questioningly.

Losing one’s Guild Card was one of the worst things for an adventurer, as to get a new one, they would need to apply again and start from the very beginning. In other words, all of their achievements would be gone, and they would need to start from scratch as an adventurer.

The exception to this was for high-ranking adventurers who were famous and had gained titles, or in other cases where the adventurer could obtain absolute proof that it was them, such as by having registered Unique Skills.

Does he know something I don’t? Otherwise, there’s no reason why he would say that... Shit.

Just as the adventurer regretted betting his Guild Card, a commotion erupted within the Guild.

The centre of it all was the two peculiar adventurers―a young man and a young boy―standing at the reception desk.

“Adventurer Jang, congratulations on your promotion to Rank B! This is an unprecedented achievement for any Guild member! Would you like to hear an introduction on the new privileges unlocked upon achieving B-rank?”

Jae stared at the hyped-up receptionist in front of him like an idiot, perfectly ignoring her question.

“It’s just me?”

“...Pardon?”

She seemed confused as to why Jae had ignored his promotion like nothing, but he paid her reaction no mind and continued.

“Is it just me that got promoted?”

“Oh, yes. I’m sorry, but...”, her gaze moved to Bailey, who stood quietly beside Jae, ”Children under 15 years of age cannot rank up beyond C-rank under any circumstances. However, any additional missions completed now will contribute to future ranking assessments.”

Jae frowned, clearly displeased with the new information.

“What? Why? You said that he couldn’t be C-rank last time because of the same thing, but you changed your mind after seeing what he was capable of, right? Why are you doing this again?”

“Sir, even that was a rare exception... I apologise. There really is nothing we can do about it since it is a legal issue.”

...Well, whatever. C-rank is enough for Bailey right now. He can always just rank up in the future. I should at least get to A-rank, though, before we return to the castle. It shouldn’t take more than two weeks.

Deciding on the short-term plan for the future, Jae told the receptionist.

“We’d like to take on another request right now. What B-rank missions are available?”

In the Adventurer’s Guild, an adventurer may only challenge missions that are either equal to or one rank below their adventurer rank. As such, Jae, who is now B-rank, can only accept C-rank or B-rank missions. The only exception to this rule is for a party.

In a party, this range extends one rank up, and it begins from the average rank of the whole party. However, the party cannot take missions that are two ranks above the rank of the party leader.

For example, if the average rank of a party is C, then that party can take missions that range from ranks D to B. But, if the party leader was only rank D, then that party would no longer be able to take B-rank missions, despite having an average rank of C.

“Ah, yes, one moment please.”

Reaching below the desk, the receptionist produced a pile of papers. Placing them on the desk, she explained to Jae.

“These are all of the currently available B-rank missions. Of course, there will also be a number of B-rank missions on the quest board, but these are all of them.”

“I see...”

One by one, Jae picked up and scanned over the contents of each quest. There were too many for him to go through every single one, and he couldn’t be bothered to do that in the first place, so instead, he asked the receptionist to pick the most suitable mission for him.

“Hmm. Which one of these will get me to A-rank the fastest?”

“If you give me a moment, I can sort them by reward and give you a list of the top missions?”

...Was it a commonly asked question? I thought she’d be surprised., but she responded rather quickly.

“Oh, thanks.”

It was common to judge the difficulty of a mission based on the reward it offered upon completion. And, naturally, higher difficulty missions gave more ‘rank experience’, which is why the receptionist said she would sort them by reward.

“―But, I don’t care about the reward or difficulty. Just whatever gets me to A-rank the fastest.”

“I understand. Then, sir, please wait for a moment.”

Be that as it may, it wasn’t always the case that a high reward gave a lot of progress to ranking up, such as was the case with many particular kinds of missions like gathering or delivery types. This is because the amount of reward offered is dictated solely by the one who submitted the request to the Guild, whereas the rank experience is designated by the Guild.

“Sir, it’s all done. Here is the request that most closely matches your requirements.”

For reference, monster subjugation missions usually give the most in terms of rank experience, which is how Jae and Bailey were able to rank up so quickly.

“Hm...”

Jae accepted the document handed to him by the receptionist.

...As I thought, it’s a monster extermination request. Monsters pestering a farm? Should be easy enough... Huh? What’s this? Has there been a mistake?

“Excuse me. Something’s wrong with this request.”, Jae said as he placed the paper on the counter. He pointed at some of the text and continued.

“Here, look. It doesn’t state the rank of the mission. Are you sure this is a B-rank request?”

He was pointing at a line that read [Mission Difficulty: ?]. The receptionist looked at it and then seemed to realised something.

“Hm...? Ah! Pardon me, sir. There is no mistake with the request. You are correct; this isn’t a B-rank quest. It’s something that the Guild is currently in the middle of figuring out.”

“...”

With a mysterious expression on his face, Jae eyed the receptionist dubiously.

“...You gave me an incomplete request? Is that allowed? Will this even account for anything?”

Perhaps she sensed something from his tone, but the receptionist immediately lowered her head in a cold sweat.

“I-It’s part of the B-rank privileges, sir. I’m sorry, I didn’t inform you beforehand...”

Oh, right, she mentioned something like that before.

“B-rank privileges... Does it mean I gain early access to missions or something?”

“Th-that’s correct, sir. Although it’s not recommended because of the dangers involved, it is within an adventurer’s authority to undertake a request without a determined difficulty, granted they are B-rank or higher.”

“I see. And do undetermined requests give more rank experience?”

“That’s correct. Because the dangers are unknown, missions with an undetermined rank.”

I thought so. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have offered me this one when I asked for something regardless of the difficulty... But, isn’t having more extravagant rewards for potentially deadlier missions just promoting reckless behaviour? Well, it’s not something I need to care about, so whatever.

“So, why is this one unknown? Isn’t it just getting rid of some annoying pests who keep ruining some farm? The reward is a meagre 60 silver coins, too. It says the request was issued two months ago, so why has it taken so long to determine the mission difficulty?”

“The Guild hasn’t had enough available staff for these kinds of activities... No, in truth, it means that the Guild hasn’t properly ascertained the situation. Once sufficient information is obtained, a rank will be recorded. And, the information that we’re missing for this request...”

The last of her words trailed off with a slight tremble present in her voice.

Ah.

The two stared at the mission paper silently for a moment. Of course, Jae understood why the receptionist was nervous.

“The monsters that keep attacking the farm in this request... The Guild doesn’t know what they are?”

“That is... Correct, sir. All we know currently is that it always ‘eats’ everything on the farm, regardless of whether it’s dead, alive, wheat, animal feed, or even plain old rocks. Whatever it is, every few nights, everything on the farm vanishes without a trace; as if it was like that in the first place.”

It eats everything, huh... Hm. It’s been two months, yet they still don’t know what type of monster it is? Strange... The Guild officials that determine the difficulty of missions are those skilled enough to fight even A-rank monsters with ease, so for them to be unable to figure out what monster is attacking this farm after two whole months certainly gives off an eerie feeling.

“...I’ll take this request.”

―Nonetheless. Regardless of what kind of monster it is, I won’t have any problems handling it.

After declaring such with abundant confidence and thanking the receptionist for the information, Jae and Bailey left the Adventurer’s Guild building, mission paper in hand.

In front of Jae, what used to be a rich field, full of crops, lay a dry, barren land.

This is the place...? There really is nothing but dirt. Whatever monster it is, it really did a number on the place. I wouldn’t have even known this is a farm if I wasn’t already aware.

“Master, look over there.”

“Hm? Oh, a house. There’s someone inside, so it’s probably the owner of the farm.”

As they made their way over, the house’s front door opened before they even arrived. Out from it came an old man with a dishevelled image, the dark circles beneath his eyes indicating a severe lack of sleep.

“Y-Y-Y-You must be adventurers, right?!”, he screamed, “You accepted my request, didn’t you!? Fi-finally! Please! Yo-you must, must, must help me!”

The old man’s crazed eyes created an unsettling atmosphere.

“Calm down. There’s a monster that keeps attacking your farm, right? Do you know where it is?”

“I-I knew it! Yes! Yes, there’s a monster! A-Always... It always comes at night and eats--no, swallows everything!! My entire farm! Gone! In under a month!”

“...”

“Si-since then, o-of course, I tried replacing my old monster repellents, a-and replanting the crops, bu-but it always comes back...!”

“...”

The constant trembling of his eyeballs and the dilation of his pupils―not to mention the rest of his shabby appearance―caused him to look not only deranged, but like some kind of drug-addicted maniac. However, the man was completely sober.

“For now, do you know where the monster lives?”

The farmer’s head shook, left-to-right. Whether it was an intentional answer to his question or not, Jae didn’t know, but it was all he needed.

Of course. This guy’s not going to have any useful information.

“Just take a rest here, alright? I’ll be back with the monster’s corpse before long.”

The farmer violently nodded, “Ye-Yes, adventurer...!”

Just as he turned around to search for the monster, Jae heard the old farmer’s cracked voice once more.

“Oh, wa-wait! Hold on a moment, I need to tell you something!”

“Hm? Is it related to the monster?”

“Ye-yes!”

“...Go on.”

“Yes... There is an old tale among the local folk in this area, of a monster that devours all that it sees. I-I think the monster swallowing my farm could be related to the monster in the tale...! If the monster looks to be made of solidified air or water, then it’s the one from the legend!”

Really now?

“......Thanks. I’ll be back soon.”

“Yes, adventurer!”

Jae and Bailey walked through what used to be a field while sensing the surroundings for any signs of the monster. Meanwhile, Jae was thinking about the old man’s tale.

It makes sense that a monster from a tale would be real since even an old tale, deformed through word-of-mouth, has to have been based on a true event at one point. But, if that was really the case, then wouldn’t they know what monster it is? Especially the description. ‘Solidified air or water’, hm. I’ve never heard of a monster like that before.

Beyond the farm, there was an uninhabited forest. As they ventured deeper, Jae could sense that they were close to their goal.

“...Ah? I think I found something. Bailey, come. This direction.”

Walking for a while, the two soon stumbled across something. Under his breath, Bailey muttered, “A ruin...!”

Jae felt his excitement. What they were looking at were some spread out stone ruins of what seemed like an old place used to hold rituals. Set to one side, there was a spiral staircase leading underground.

The boy wanted to explore some abandoned ruins, just like a true adventurer, and Jae certainly didn’t plan on holding him back. With a smile on his face, he turned to his pupil.

“Shall we take a look inside?”

“!! Yeah!

Thus, they descended the stairs that looked like they could crumble or collapse at any time. Using Light Magic to illuminate the path before them, Bailey was the one to take the lead. Jae was focusing on detecting any traps or monsters, so the boy’s safety was ensured.

...Anyway, this place goes quite a bit deeper than I expected. I wouldn’t be surprised if that monster lived down here during the day. He said it attacked during the night, right?

Unfortunately, exploring the ruins turned out to be a rather dull experience. After the initial staircase, there were only some empty hallways with empty rooms branching off of them, and some more staircases that led to more hallways and rooms.

In short, it was incredibly disappointing, even for Jae.

Tsk. I expected there to at least be some hidden treasure or something, but there’s just nothing here. Well, I guess the chance that people already discovered this place and ransacked it isn’t low, but still... Wait a second. The monster ‘eats everything’, right? Then, the fact this place is empty―it could be related.

Convincing himself of this, Jae cheered up Bailey, who was starting to look a little down out of dissatisfaction, and they continued the exploration with newfound vigour.

―It didn’t take long for Jae to sense something extremely suspicious within the depths of the ruins.

...

......

An unknown amount of time later, the two found themselves in a large room.

...I knew it.

Reflected in their eyes was a swirling vortex. Its colour was a vibrant pink, and the portal emitted a continuous fluorescent glow.

“......Master...”

What was especially strange, however, was the portal’s strange propensity to enchant those who peered to closely into it.

“...Yeah. It’s a Dungeon. And from the colour of it...”

It was as if the portal itself was ‘hungry’.

...Gluttony...

But that wasn’t all.

No, there was something else in the room, aside from the portal. Glancing from the Dungeon entrance to it that sat, asleep, in a corner of the room, Jae could understand why the old man said it had a body of solidified air or water.

I never thought I’d see one with my own eyes... It really is just a gelatinous mass, huh, like jelly...

The true identity of the mysterious monster that kept attacking the old man’s farm and ‘swallowing’ everything he owned.

――A Slime had appeared.