The second capital of the Valc Kingdom Elk is only a few meters in front of Soma, in front of him there were two gates, one used to enter the town and one used as an exit, there were a lot of people exiting the town but no one was entering and the guard on the entering side was looking at the people exiting the town with a bored expression on his face.

“Oi! The white-haired kid over there! Are you here to enter the town?”(Entrance Guard)

Right now Soma is using his appearance when he is in Spirit Possession state so his hair is white and his eyes are blue, he decided to use this appearance from now on after his encounter with a group of knights who were being attacked by bandits after being betrayed by one of the female knights.

“Yeah, I’m here to enter”(Soma)

“Judging from your appearance you seem to be a combatant, are you perhaps an adventurer or a mercenary?”(Entrance Guard)

“Neither, I am a traveler”(Soma)

“Well, as long as you can fight then you are welcome here, at times like these when the Flood is near we really need as many combatants as possible”(Entrance Guard)

“When will the flood arrive?”(Soma)

“One month from now, but the number of monsters around this area started to increase already that’s why people are already escaping”(Entrance Guard)

“I see… well, how much is the entrance tax?”(Soma)

“None, till the flood is over, all taxes are exempted for combatants, so you can enter for free but I recommend that you join either the adventurers guild or the mercenary guild, that way no one is going to suspect you of being a fake combatant”(Entrance Guard)

“I see, thanks for the information”(Soma)

Soma thanked the guard and entered the town, upon entering he started walking around the town to look for places with good exposure to the sunlight during the day and to moonlight during the night, they are the ideal places for reading, after all. After walking around the town for three hours he changed his target from reading locations to the mercenary guild.

Soma chose to register with the mercenary guild and not the adventurers guild, the mercenary guild is a place managed by the government for combatants to take subjection requests to hunt monsters and wild beasts for food and to kill dangerous monsters and bandits. The adventurers guild is the same in that aspect but the difference is that the adventurers guild is an organization that operates in all human countries but is controlled by none of them, or that’s what known to most people that is, in reality, the adventurers guild is controlled by the holy kingdom Vitos and is used by them to keep the other countries’ power levels in check.

Soma found the location of the mercenary guild and walked straight to the building, the mercenary guild’s building is a wooden building with all of its windows sealed by iron bars, Soma opened the front door and walked in, inside the building was mostly empty but there were some people sitting on the tavern-like side of the building, Soma walked towards the male receptionist sitting behind a counter that is protected by iron bars.

“How may I help you?”(Receptionist)

“I would like to register as a new member”(Soma)

“This is the mercenary guild you know? Are sure you are in the right place?”(Receptionist)

“I know that this place is the mercenary guild, I intently came here to register with you, or is it that you need to see if I can fight properly? If so then I am ready to accept any challenge you have”(Soma)

“No no no! That’s not it! Sorry if I was rude with you, but it’s just that a lot of our mercenaries has left us to join the adventurers guild and all the new combatants who arrive in the town go to them instead of us”(Receptionist)

“I see, but don’t worry, I chose the mercenary guild over the adventurers guild intently”(Soma)

“Got it! Now let me explain to you what our job is… we in the mercenary guild receive jobs to hunt monsters and wild beasts for food and to kill dangerous monsters and bandits and to escort carriages between the towns of Valc Kingdom, here in the mercenary guild we don’t operate on a rank-based system, but on a merit-based system, after registration, you will receive a medal made out of silver and you’ll have to wear it on your neck at all time having it visible for everyone around you all the time, and at the beginning that medal will have {100%} curved on it and that percentage will represent the completion rate of the requests you took, and to that medal will be attached another small silver piece with the number of requests you have done up to that moment, do you have any questions?”(Receptionist)

“Yes, why must I wear the medal at all times and have it seen by others?”(Soma)

“That’s for your own good, by having the medal on your neck at all time people will know of your ability without them seeing you fight making it possible to receive personal requests from them and that way people are able to specify the individuals they wish to take the requests they provide”(Receptionist)

“Okay, I understand now”(Soma)

“Before we start the registration I must tell you that the laws of the country are applied on all mercenaries regardless of their completion rate or the number of requests done, and if you have any production skills you can sell your products through the mercenary guild if you want, here… if you agree with all that I said to you please fill this form here”(Receptionist)

“Got it…….. here done”(Soma)

“Thank you very much! Here your medal!..... now do you wish to take any request today?”(Receptionist)

“Yes, do you have any requests to hunt for monsters that have been appearing a lot around the town lately?”(Soma)

“Yes, we have open requests for hunting Orcs for food and Goblins to use their bones in medicine, one Orc is considered as a request and five Goblins are considered as a request, which do you want to take?”(Receptionist)

“Both, and please give me informations about the location they were last seen”(Soma)

“Both?! Are you sure?”(Receptionist)

“Yeah”(Soma)

“….Got it, sign here on these two forms…. Yes thank you, now about where they were last seen that will be yesterday at the southern side of the forest to the west of town”(Receptionist)

“Thank you”(Soma)

“Please be careful out there!”(Receptionist)

Soma returned to the gate and exited the town after waiting for his turn for inspection to come, but he was allowed to leave without any inspection thanks to the medal he is wearing right now, upon reaching the western forest Soma headed south and walked for no more than 30 minutes, and he found a group of five Orcs and ten Goblins moving together, he unsheathed his sword and attacked them, the fight didn’t last even a minute and all the Orcs and Goblins died after losing their heads.

Soma hanged all the Orcs and Goblins he killed upside down from the trees around him to drain their blood, he then took out some wood he had with him since before and started making a low cart he can use to transport the monsters he just killed, he was done with the cart as the blood finished draining from all the corpses he hanged on the trees around him, after that he placed all the corpses on the cart and tied the front of the cart with a rope and tied the other side of the rope to his waist and started walking towards the town while reading from 【The Archives Of Knowledge】 on his left hand.

After walking for half an hour Soma reached the vicinity of the town and his appearance of a white-haired kid pulling a cart filled with Orcs and Goblins while reading a book attracted a lot of attention, some people thought that he was a slave being abused by his owner, but then they noticed the mercenary medal around his neck and this time most of the people became impressed for not only being able to kill all these monsters but also for being able to pull the cart full of them without breaking a sweat, but Soma did not notice any of that.

“Ohh! Kid, you are back? I saw you exit about an hour ago with the mercenary medal around your neck and now you are back with a pretty big haul I see, you must be really strong to be able to hunt all those monsters alone”(Entrance Guard)

“Yeah, I was lucky to find all of them walking together”(Soma)

“I see I see, I hope you are able to sell all of them at a good price!”(Entrance Guard)

“Yeah”(Soma)

Soma passed the gate and started walking towards the mercenary guild with his face glued to the book attracting attention all the while, upon reaching the mercenary guild he peeked his head inside the building and called out to the Receptionist and was told to take the monsters to the back of the building.

“What the-?! D-Did you kill all of these monsters alone?!”(Receptionist)

“Yeah, they were moving together and I killed all of them and drained their blood before bringing them here”(Soma)

“I see…. I didn’t think that you would be this strong, but this is a joyous surprise for us the mercenary guild, each of the Orcs is worth one Silver coin and for the Goblins I’ll give you 20 copper coins each that will be seven silver coins in total, is that alright with you?”(Receptionist)

“Yeah”(Soma)

“Then here is your money and the attachment with number 7 curved on it for your medal”(Receptionist)

“Thank you”(Soma)

“Lastly, my name is Ito, glad to work with you from now on! Soma-sama!”(Ito)

“Soma is enough, glad to work with you as well”(Soma)

The sun was already sitting when Soma’s business with the mercenary guild was done, and so he started walking towards a stall near the water fountain at the center of the square in front of the mercenary guild, the stall owner was an old man, and he was grilling some red meat and white bird meat covered in a red sauce.

“Give me two from each type please!”(Soma)

“On it!”(Old Man)

After the Old man was done grilling the meat he served it up to Soma on a wooden plate, on the plate there were four skewers of different red meat and two skewers of the white bird meat all covered in red sauce, Soma thanked the Old man and started eating the skewers while reading from the book on his left hand while sitting on the rim of the fountain.

“Oh?! I have never seen a book like this one before!...”(??)

Upon hearing that voice Soma raised his face from the book and saw a Dog beastmen girl wearing a maid uniform staring at him with sparkling eyes and wagging tail.

“Who are you?”(Soma)

“Sorry if I have interrupted your reading! My name is Marina and I usually come here to do the same as you are doing right now!”(Marina)

“My name is Soma, and what do you mean by the same?”(Soma)

“Buy meat skewers from that stall and eat while reading, so I was surprised to see someone else sitting here before me and doing the same thing I always do”(Marina)

“I see, do you have books with you right now?”(Soma)

“Yes! Do you want to check them out?”(Marina)

“If it’s possible, that is”(Soma)

“Of course! But in exchange let me see what you have!”(Marina)

“Of course”(Soma)