While on my freezing path together with the town-girl Cyra, hurrying back to ‘The Town’, I take a look at my stats after the quick half-hour ‘Dungeoneering’.

Status Name Lilith Race Human Class Elementalist Health Points 755/755 (+1/sec) Mana Points 1805/1805 (+4/sec) Strength 49 Dexterity 73 Constitution 66 Intelligence 268 Willpower 176 Physical Resistance 103 Magical Resistance 281

Very nice. Though I will need to [Appraise] some more formidable monsters, to figure out where I stand in this world's food chain. But while, currently, the stats don’t tell me much without reference, at the very least the constant MP increase is very welcome to help me spam more of my skills and raise in power even faster.

Then I see another tab flashing next to the status page. It’s titled [Achievements]. I press it. Two small screens pop up before my eyes, one after the other.

Serial Killer Kill at least ten peaceful characters Anti-Adventurer Kill at least ten adventurers.

Oh, right. I killed some people. Oh well, sacrifices have to be made in the name of my ultimate glory. Wait. How many exactly did I kill? I need some stats!

The achievements disappear, and in their place, another, larger, status screen appears.

Stats Monsters Killed: 542 Characters Killed: 43 Character versus Character Wins: 7 Character versus Character Loses: 0 Total Dungeons Cleared: 1 Copper Dungeons 0 Bronze Dungeons 0 Silver Dungeons 1 Gold Dungeons 0 Platinum Dungeons 0 Palladium Dungeons 0 Mithril Dungeons 0 Unobtainium Dungeons 0 Total Quests Completed: 0

Holy—! So, twenty-plus is from the Crystal Valley, then at least nine ruffians, some are probably from the Magical Rainforest… I see—it adds up quickly.

The ‘Duels’, if I can call them that, must be from when the ruffians willingly attacked me. There are no ‘Players’ here, that’s why it’s ‘CvC’ instead of ‘PvP’, right? And those that were not even trying to attack me, count as Pk, no, I mean Ck.

Also, that’s a lot of Ranks! I guess I’m still pretty low on the food chain with my Silver medallion.

While I checked my statistics, we arrived at ‘The Town’.

“Can you show me where The Guild is?” I ask Cyra.

“Alright, but I’ll have to leave you there,” Cyra says and guides me through the town. “Things tend to… Take a while there, and I have a scheduled dinner.”

“Aw!” I try to look as sad as possible, forcing tears out of my eyes, trying to pull on her heartstrings.

“That won’t work on me, sorry!”

She has no heartstrings!

Anyway, after passing the coffee shop, where I see through the shop’s window a bunch of cute catgirls in maid uniforms, we take a sharp turn into a dark and dirty alley. A startled catgirl nearly jumps up and hastily adjusts her wrinkled uniform. I’m convinced there’s someone else, hiding behind that huge pile of garbage bags, but I have more important things to worry about. I take care not to step on… anything.

Exiting the alley, I find myself standing in the middle of a wide-open square, in front of a grand three-story building. The building must be at least a hundred feet wide, probably more. The façade is smooth, in yellow color with protruding white pillars between each of the many square windows. A wide, white marble staircase leads to carved and varnished ten-feet-high wooden entrance doors. Above the doors, metallic letters shine brightly in the sun. They resemble silver, but are much prettier, glowing in constantly-changing colors of the rainbow.

“The Adventurer’s Guild,” I read the letters, quietly. I can’t deny I’m a bit impressed. I can only wonder what The Guild’s building looks like in the capital if there is such a thing here. There probably is.

Countless adventurers of different races are entering and leaving the building. Among the different kinds of beast-men, of varying degrees of furry, the standouts for me are the two metallic golems and a small party of leper gnomes. The sleek seven-feet tall, metallic golems have no weapons or armor. They wear nothing at all actually. But while they do look extremely top-heavy, they move effortlessly through the crowd. And as for the leper gnomes, they stink worse than the alley we passed through. Wherever they walk, a wide empty area forms around them. It seems I’m not the only one who’s not a fan of their smell.

Many adventurers are gathered in the open area, talking about their prowess and achievements, boasting on who will be the one to score the kill on the mythical creature. A few robe-wearing blue lizardmen are placing bets on which adventurer will be the first to die.

“Alright, good luck!” Cyra says to me, waves goodbye and off she goes, back through the alley. I wave at her back, genuinely sad. After a heavy sigh, I turn around and walk up the staircase, and inside the building.

Inside is a giant hall, brightly lit from the daylight sun coming in through the windows that take up most of the wall. The hall is filled with adventurers, though, for being filled with so many people, it is strangely quiet. Most are sitting in rows of wooden, red chairs. Some people are reading the newspaper, more than a few are taking a nap. I have a bad feeling. I have felt this oppressive, cold and indifferent aura before.

“Please take a number,” a slender panther girl says to me right at the entrance, gesturing to a stand with several signs and papers with numbers attached beneath each of those.

‘Registrations’, ’Quests’, ’Complaints’, ’Other’.

“Erm. I need to register so that I can join the hunt,” I say.

“First take this number,” the girl with black fur and long whiskers points at the ‘Registration’ numbers. “After successful registration, you can come back and take a number for Quest applying or completion.”

“Can’t I take both at once?”

“You can. But you cannot apply for a quest until you have registered in The Guild. If your ‘Quest’ number comes up before you have registered you will have to take a new number. And a fine will also apply, as well as a strike on your future Guild’s membership for wastefully using up Guild’s resources.”

I sigh and rip off the brown piece of paper that has ‘R755’ written on it. Then I hear an announcement echo through the giant hall, coming from somewhere in the ceiling.

“R three hundred fifty-two! R three hundred fifty-two!”

H-how are there so many!? My little loli-heart sinks.