Chapter 3:
A Deal with the Guild
It was the first morning of our stay at the inn. I woke up staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. Not that I could wake up, because I didn’t actually need sleep.
I woke Fran up and helped her change since she was always groggy in the morning. I cleaned her body with Cleansing Magic and washed her face with some conjured water. Fran’s hair was cut short with the sides slightly long, and her cowlicks stuck out in all directions this morning, so I made sure to straighten her hair out with some water.
“Good morning.”
Did you get a good night’s sleep?
“Perfect.”
We went to the cafeteria for breakfast.
“Here’s your breakfast platter!”
Breakfast was served on a wooden plate. It had tough rye bread and fried eggs, two links of sausage, and some boiled carrots. It came with clam chowder on the side.
How is it?
“Good.”
Fran, the former slave, was happily munching away at her large meal. Eat up so you can grow big and strong, Fran.
“Your cooking’s still better, though.”
Haha. Thanks for the compliment.
“It’s true. I wanna eat your cooking again.”
It was all thanks to maxing out my Cooking skill. Ironically enough, the greatest chef in the city of Alessa was a talking sword; I even had the title of Master Chef to prove it. But even without my Cooking skill, I’d still be better than Fran at cooking since I had retained memories of my past life. In any case, no matter how high my Cooking level was, I couldn’t cook anything that didn’t exist in this world. I was going to need to do large amounts of meal preparation and storage since Fran liked my food so much.
I’ll make you lunch since we’re going out today.
“Can’t wait. Let’s go.”
Let’s go take on some quests then.
“Sure.”
And so, we went to the Adventurer’s Guild.
“Hi.”
“Hello, looking to take on some quests?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll find the quest board over there. G-Rank adventurers can only take on F- and G-Rank quests. They’re the leftmost part of the board.”
We began by browsing through the G-Rank quests.
No one was standing in front of the G-Rank quest board. Maybe we were too early, or maybe it was because there weren’t enough G-Rank adventurers to begin with.
Medicinal Herb Gathering; Boar Hunting; Mansion Lawn Mowing… Clean the Garbage Off the Streets?
“Lame.”
You’re right. And the pay’s cheap too.
What about the F-Rank quests?
They’re slightly better…
Kill five goblins; Fanged Rat Extermination; Mushroom Collecting in the Forest.
But they were all dull too. We couldn’t take on any other quests, so there was nothing we could do. Fran was still at a low level, so she would have to train with the weak monsters to level up.
“I’ll take this one.”
Medicinal Herb Gathering? Doesn’t sound too bad for your first job.
The herbs were used to make Tier 5 potions and other such products. They mostly grew in the forest.
“Here.”
“All right. Are you sure you want to accept this quest?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what a medicinal herb looks like? We have some samples if you want to take a look.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Affirmative. Once you clear five quests, you can take on a Rank Up Quest to promote you to F-Rank.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Nell the receptionist seemed to like us despite our making a huge scene the other day. This was good news.
All right, let’s go!
“Yeah.”
We showed our Guild Card at the gates and the gatekeeper let us pass through. He seemed to remember who Fran was though, and was thoroughly surprised when he saw she was an adventurer.
Where to?
“Hm… That way.”
Why?
“Just a feeling.”
Good answer. The quest didn’t have a due date, so we could take our time.
Let’s pick up the ones that aren’t healing herbs too. We’ll be able to turn those quests in as well once we get back.
“You’re so smart, Teacher.”
Hahaha, thanks. Keep going.
“You’re a genius.”
We strolled through the forest in a relaxed mood. We’d already gathered up the healing herbs we needed for the quest, and we had collected other herbs, mushrooms, and berries along the way too. We were able to tell which of the plants had any use thanks to the Harvesting, Herbology, and Cooking skills; even Danger Sense had an effect when we got close to poisonous plants. As a result, we knew how to use each plant even if it happened to be poisonous. The Pocket Dimension allowed us to bring whatever we wanted with us, so anything that caught our fancy went right in.
“Teacher.”
Yeah?
Suddenly, Fran stopped in her tracks. I wasn’t surprised, because I could feel what she was feeling.
Goblins? And there’re more than ten of them.
“Yeah.”
That’s a lot of goblins…
Fran had already gripped my handle and went into full alert. I didn’t stop her—going up against a pack of goblins would make for perfect EXP. Not that I could recommend it to a normal beginner.
Are they ganging up on adventurers?
“Over there.”
Three adventurers against…
“…thirteen goblins.”
Even high-rank goblins are mixed in there.
There was a goblin soldier, thief, and archer among the goblin pack.
On the flip side, the adventurers were just starting out. Anyone could tell going by their cheap armor and weaponry, even their pale faces, as the goblins closed in on them.
A fighter, an archer, and a mage. That’s good team composition, but it won’t do them much good with this many enemies surrounding them.
They’d all taken damage already too. The mage in particular was in a critical state.
“I’m helping them.”
All right.
“We’ll break them up with magic and move in.”
We both began casting our spells. I cast Stone Bullet, which shot out little pebbles that didn’t usually do too much damage. But, if I charged it, each individual pebble could be made five times stronger. It didn’t take much for the damage to add up, and against a stationary target it was enough to punch holes through them. I could only do this because I had the Mage skill. It didn’t transfer over to Fran, so she had to make do with the normal version of the spell.
We could’ve razed all of them with a single fire spell, but I was worried about the possibility of a forest fire and decided against it.
“Stone Arrow.”
Stone Bullet!
We targeted the Goblin Thief together. Fran’s single projectile along with my five made for six consecutive shots into his body.
Fran is now Level 4.
That was enough to level her up. As weak as the goblin was, it was still a high-rank one.
Our ambush confused both parties and they all looked around to see what was going on. Fran used this opening to move in on the goblins.
Seven left.
“Huff.”
She cut two of them down as she passed by and slid through the adventurers and the goblin pack. I was on duty too. I had taken care of the ranged annoyance that was the Goblin Archer with a well-aimed Stone Arrow.
“What’s a little girl doing here?”
“She’s strong!”
The adventurers were astonished.
Some of the goblins had regained their footing and charged ahead, following the Goblin Soldier’s lead.
“Gya gyaooo!”
I see. They were smart enough to identify the most dangerous threat to them and decided to take her down first. Good thinking, for a bunch of goblins.
Too bad it’s not gonna work! Stone Bullet!
I was casting my spells throughout the battle. It was easy since I didn’t need to catch my breath for incantations. Stone Bullet shot out in a near instant with the two goblins on the right taking the hail head-on. They coughed up blood and soon died. Meanwhile, the two on the left were no match for Fran.
“Too slow.”
She used Double Slash to take down the last two in a flash. The adventurers just stood there, dumbstruck. The tide of battle had turned in their favor in under twenty seconds. I was sympathetic to their awe, but we might lose the injured mage if we didn’t do anything to help him.
Let’s put those healing spells to good use.
His health was terribly low when I looked at his stats. Fortunately, it didn’t look like he had any missing limbs or negative status effects.
Just use a normal Heal on him.
“Healing Light, Circle Heal.”
Circle Heal was a Level 7, area-of-effect healing spell. The other two adventurers were hurt too, so Fran must’ve wanted to heal their wounds while she was at it. What a nice girl she was!
“This little girl can use Circle Heal?”
“Wha… But that’s an intermediate spell!”
The eyes of the fighter and archer bulged in surprise.
“And is that an enchanted sword?”
Oh, they noticed me. Well, I did look more elegant than your run of the mill factory sword, so it was hard not to be noticed, really. What’s a talking sword to do?
“N-never mind that. Eustace! Are you okay?”
“Are you still with us?”
“Huh? I’m…fully healed?”
The injured mage seemed fine now too.
If you ask Fran any weird questions or try to use her, I thought to myself, I’m going to be very upset, understand?
“You okay?”
“Y-yeah. You saved us.”
“Thank you. Come on, you too!”
“Huh? Uh, thanks?”
They weren’t like the idiots we had run into the other day.
“Are you…an adventurer?”
“Yeah.”
“Um, can I get your name?”
“Fran.”
The adventurers traded meaningful glances with each other.
“Ring any bells?”
“No. If I knew someone as strong as her, I’d remember.”
“Right?”
“Don’t look at me.”
That was probably the gist of their silent conversation.
“My name’s Crull. This is Lily, and that’s Eustace.”
The fighter introduced his crew politely, but Fran had already lost interest in them.
“Hi. Bye.”
She wanted to get the pleasantries over with so she could check her stats.
Are you sure? We could get a reward for saving them.
“Poor things.”
I suppose. These guys were just starting out too. We couldn’t expect much even if we asked them for money. We might as well be robbing them if we forced them.
But Crull, their leader, stopped Fran from disappearing into the woods.
“W-wait.”
“Huh?”
“You’re the one who killed these goblins.”
“What? This little girl? You’re talking crazy.”
“Will you just shut up!”
“You already saved our lives. We can’t accept any more charity than that.”
He had a good heart, this one. It’d be bad manners on our part to turn him down.
We’ll just take the materials of the high-rank ones.
“Okay. I’ll take the high-rank materials.”
“Huh? There were some high-rank goblins in there?!”
Come on, you couldn’t tell? I mean, sure, they all looked the same, but these ones had bigger bodies and horns, you know.
“Hm.”
Fran left the three to their stunned silence and calmly carved up her prize. The adventurers looked shocked upon confirming the existence of the soldier, thief, and archer.
Fran took their horns and proceeded to put them in her item bag. It was a front, of course—she was actually putting them in her Pocket Dimension.
“Three high ranks?”
“Wait, isn’t that supposed to be bad? We have to tell the guild…”
“Okay, let’s calm down. Are we sure they’re high ranks?”
“Pretty sure. Look at the size of those three.”
Something was amiss here.
“What is it?”
“Well, if there really are three high-rank goblins, then we have to inform the Adventurer’s Guild!”
“Why?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“What?”
“If there are high-rank goblins here, that means a King’s not far behind.”
The adventurers proceeded to explain the situation.
The presence of a Goblin King increased the goblins’ fighting prowess by way of his majesty’s leadership. I was already aware of this fact.
The more this united front hunted together, the more likely they were to take down stronger monsters with fewer casualties on their side. This vicious cycle allowed them to multiply at a rapid rate. When the crew got big enough, it would produce a Queen, something the goblin crew in the grasslands lacked, likely due to the fact that they were surrounded by immensely strong monsters.
The crucial part of all this was that a Goblin King and Queen produced hobgoblins as offspring. Worse, a hobgoblin mating with a regular goblin would produce nothing but hobgoblins.
Hobgoblins were F-Rank monsters, one rank higher than the goblins. A crew of goblins with a Goblin King would be at D-Rank. It didn’t take an astounding leap of logic to deduce that a Goblin King leading a pack of hobgoblins would be a C-Rank threat.
“We wouldn’t be able to manage them at that point. It’d be a monstrous disaster.”
“I don’t even want to think about how many villages would get wiped out.”
I see. It was a matter of life and death to the local adventurers. We should take care of them as soon as we could.
“We’ll go to the Adventurer’s Guild to inform them of this matter.”
They picked up the corpses of the high-rank goblins as they left. Even if they didn’t have the parts we’d carved off, their carcasses should make for more than enough proof.
“Okay.”
“If you’ll excuse us.”
“Thank you so much.”
“It looks like you saved my life. Thanks!”
We got some goblin materials and helped some promising youngsters in the process. I’d call that a good day.
Let’s absorb those crystals.
I began absorbing crystals once I was far enough from the newbie adventurers. I already had all the skills the goblins had to offer, but every crystal counted toward my evolution. Plus, they were really tasty.
“Could you show me my stats?”
All right, all right. I’m throwing it up now.
“’Kay.”
Name: Fran
Age: 12
Race: Beastman; Black Cat Tribe
Class: Spellsword
LV: 4
HP: 31; Magic: 29; Strength: 28; Agility: 49
Her stats had gone up quite a bit. Her Strength and Agility especially, which went up by four points per level up, thanks to her being a Spellsword. I relayed the information to Fran.
“Good.”
Yeah. Let’s keep at it and level up more.
“Yeah.” Fran was so cute when she pumped her fists in the air with a blank expression on her face.
All right, time to go hunting!
It had been an hour since we parted ways with the newbie group.
We were now neck-deep in goblins.
“Double Slash!”
“Gyaah!”
“Gyoo!”
The skill produced quick diagonal slashes which cut through two goblins.
Fran is now Level 5.
“I leveled up again.”
I know. We can check your stats later.
I kept blasting the goblins away with magic while Fran’s Sword Arts cut them in two.
There was no end to the horde. I initially thought we would snuff out the goblins for some easy EXP, but they kept coming in one after another. There must’ve been more than a hundred of them. We never thought we’d be going up against this many goblins in one day. I might have underestimated the goblin horde through my greed for EXP.
Their cave must’ve been nearby. No matter how fast we cut them down they kept on getting reinforcements. There were even some high-rank goblins mixed in.
Incoming!
“Got it!”
The goblins had taken position in the forest and unleashed a hail of rocks and splinters at Fran. They had us completely surrounded. We couldn’t possibly dodge all the projectiles.
“Teacher!”
I got it. Fire Wall!
A dome of fire covered Fran, protecting her from the rocks and splinters. But the goblins weren’t finished with their assault.
They’re coming!
“Right!”
Fran braced with me in hand, waiting for the flame barrier to dissipate.
“Graargh!”
“Gyogyoga!”
“Gyaroo!”
Ten goblins mobbed Fran all at the same time. Two of them jumped the gun, still on fire from charging through the Fire Wall.
“Heavy Slash!”
She dodged their attacks and swung me in a huge arc to cut through five goblins at once.
“Gyaha!”
“Guh…”
“Raargh!”
“Ow!”
She couldn’t keep dodging the goblins, however, and blood had begun seeping through her armor. A sword cut the tip of her shoulder and a spear had pierced her back. Fran withstood the sharp pain and kept swinging her sword without missing a beat. I wanted to equip Painkiller, but it had the side-effect of dulling her sense of touch; she could end up being less nimble because of it.
“Hyaaaaaa!” Fran screamed as she killed her tenth goblin, a sound I didn’t hear too often considering her quiet disposition. It joined the mound of forty-odd goblins that she’d slaughtered throughout this battle. Yet it didn’t look like the number of the goblins surrounding Fran was decreasing.
Great Heal!
Fran panted heavily.
Fran! Talk to me!
“I’m fine,” she huffed.
Let’s get out of here. There’re easier ways to farm for EXP.
We’d underestimated the fight with the goblins. I was all right since I couldn’t feel pain. Even if something chipped my blade, a few moments of Self-Repair would put me back to normal. I could go up against anything except the strongest of monsters. But it also meant I had no real sense of danger, for better or worse. As much as I wanted to tell Fran something was too dangerous for her, I’d believed deep down that she’d be fine so long as she had me around.
Which is why we got into this mess with mere goblins. But it was too late for second thoughts. We had healing spells and self-regeneration skills at our disposal. We even had a skill that would prevent us from dying from a would-be fatal attack. We would win this fight if we kept going, but I didn’t know how much pain Fran could put up with. She couldn’t have been ready for such a difficult battle right out the gate. The last thing I wanted was for this fight to traumatize her.
They’re coming in hot! There’s still time to get out of here!
We could maneuver through the air using a combination of Float and Air Hop. Breaking through the goblin ranks should be easy.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Fran, you don’t have to be a hero! We can go hunt some bigger monsters for better EXP! This fight is a lost cause!
Was she getting stubborn?
“It’s not a lost cause,” Fran muttered, bracing herself against me. She had a look of determination on her face.
“I won’t die if you’re with me, Teacher. I’ll take on this pain. That’s the only way I can get used to fighting. That’s the only way I can get stronger.”
Fran…
“The only way to get stronger is to fight to within an inch of my life. This battle is perfect that way.”
Her lips curled in a savage smile. I had underestimated her. She’d been ready a long time ago; I was the one who wasn’t ready. I didn’t want to see her hurt.
Sure, I could make her stronger. All she had to do was wield me to gain a few levels. But could you call that real strength?
No, real strength was a matter of experience and mental fortitude. All the levels in the world were worthless if you’d never actually been in a real fight.
Fran understood that.
“Teacher, you’re on support.”
Her resolve was nothing like mine; I was the one who was raised in air-conditioned Japan.
But, all right. I’ve got your back, Fran! And I wouldn’t romanticize this whole adventuring business anymore.
My User wasn’t a weak kitten who needed taking care of. She was a savage cub whose fangs needed teething.
Leave the healing to me!
“Okay! Here I go!”
Fran charged right into the heart of the goblin horde.
“Haaa!”
“Gyogyaa!”
She immediately began swinging her sword. The force of her swing was so great that it split the goblins’ helmets along with their heads. The goblins didn’t expect such ferocity and speed, and she stabbed them in the hearts before they could react.
She was experimenting with her swordsmanship, the surrounding goblins her test subjects. She wanted to know her limits through this fight. It was more about the experience she gained than the number of goblins she killed.
She wanted to be stronger, faster, better.
Fran cut through every goblin, a picture of her ideal self in the back of her mind. Each kill was a step she took toward evolution.
The goblins got a few hits in on her at times, however. The pain slowed her down which created an opening for a goblin to stab her left arm with a spear. A short sword had also cut through her leg.
The goblins were just as prepared to die as she was. They bit her, and some even threw the innards of their fallen comrades at her as gruesome clubs.
But Fran stood her ground.
The goblins’ attacks became second nature to her. She’d figured out the methods of the goblin horde’s assault. She did her best not to be bested by the same tricks twice. No matter how many cuts or bruises they inflicted on her, she wouldn’t stop moving. Most importantly, she didn’t take her attention away from the horde for a second.
I could see the resolve in Fran’s eyes as I fought with her. I was going to play support until Fran had enough on-ground experience. I would help with her slashes until she adjusted to my weight.
But then I noticed something during the fight—
“Ha! Raah!”
Her movements were becoming quicker. She hadn’t used Triple Thrust, but the speed was roughly equivalent.
Again, she launched an attack which was as fast as Double Slash—no, those slashes were even faster than Double Slash.
I thought she was getting used to using her Sword Arts, but it looked like she wasn’t using them at all.
Was that even possible?
Her mind and body couldn’t have adjusted to a high-level Sword Mastery in such a short period of time. She had only been fighting weak monsters, and most of the fights were over before they even started so the problem never actually came up.
In an all-out fight to the death, Skill and body became as one.
Up till now, her sword arm benefited from her instincts and speed. The enemies she faced before this had broadcast their attacks, which made them trivial to dodge.
But it was different now.
Every time she dodged a goblin’s attack, the more precise her own attacks became. She was getting rid of the inefficiencies in her movements. Sword and body were now one. The battle showed me how much Fran had grown in both body and spirit in such a short time.
Two hours later…
“Huff… Huff…”
You did it, Fran!
“Yeah…”
Goblin corpses littered the ground. Blood and entrails soaked the earth. It looked like a scene straight from hell. Fran stood in the middle of it all, struggling to stay upright.
There wasn’t a scratch on her, thanks to Healing Magic. Her exhaustion was so great that she heaved a heavy sigh. Her entire body was covered in blood and dirt; there wasn’t a clean spot on her. Her newly-bought armor was now tinted a reddish brown. Her dress armor was so beat up that we were going to need to fix it right after this.
I could’ve made the fight easier if I had gone on the offensive, but Fran needed this fight. She was only at Level 8 now, but the battlefield experience was invaluable. She had learned to target the goblins’ weak points—their crystals—in the middle of the frenzied fight.
Stamina Heal.
I healed her stamina along with her physical wounds, though the spell didn’t help much with her mental exhaustion.
Get some rest. I’ll stay on lookout.
I needed to gather up materials and absorb those crystals anyway.
“I’ll help.”
Whoa, hey. Are you sure?
“The sooner we get out of here the better.”
I guess you’re right… We haven’t run into the King yet. We should leave before reinforcements arrive.
“Yeah.”
I’ll leave the carving and looting to you. I’ll take the crystals.
“Got it.”
Thirty minutes later…
I think that’s all of it.
“Big haul.”
You can say that again. We got close to 200 crystals from that.
The high-rank goblins notwithstanding, we took down more than a hundred normal goblins.
Good thing the other monsters aren’t getting in the way.
“Easy pickings.”
Wild monsters should’ve been swarming the place with how much blood there was. They got close but turned tail when they saw the gory battlefield. They may have lacked intelligence, but they knew to steer clear of anything that could kill a goblin horde. It was nice to see Fran excited over our loot though.
We got some new skills too. They look interesting.
Fran was the big winner of this fight, no doubt about it. She had gained so many levels and got a ton of actual battle experience. But we got a huge amount of loot on the side too. There were about fifty cracked pieces of weapons made of either steel or bronze. We also got some armor pieces, but most of them stank to high heaven so we had to leave them behind. We got a bunch of magical items though. I’d have to research them later.
As for the new skills we got: Speedcasting; Acrobatics; Kick Arts; Necromancy; Absorb Poison; Poison Magic; Axe Mastery; Steadfast. The ones we got off of the four hobgoblins that led the pack: Hobgoblin Dark Mage; Hobgoblin Necromancer; Hobgoblin Grappler; Hobgoblin Gladiator…which posed a difficult problem.
There were hobgoblins in there.
“Yeah.”
The four hobgoblins we had taken the skills from were about as strong as the Goblin King I killed once upon a time. So then, did they already have a Queen then? Had she already begun breeding?
How fast do goblins grow?
“They take about ten days to mature.”
My God, they’re like bugs. This may be bad.
There was a high likelihood the hobgoblins had begun breeding.
We should head back to the guild to report this. We can’t hunt them all by ourselves, and this might become a terrible disaster if left unchecked.
“Okay.”
Let’s just collect all the hobgoblin corpses for now—
That’s when I felt the presence of an outsider in the vicinity.
Fran!
“Got it.”
A floating sword would raise some eyebrows, so I wasted no time in floating back into Fran’s hands. She calmly gripped my handle.
Soon, we saw a group of adventurers come out of the forest; a dwarf was leading them. He was unimaginably fast given his short limbs. The team of newbie adventurers followed behind him.
“There!”
“Are these all goblins?”
“What the hell happened…?”
Cavalry’s here.
Crull and his crew had come with backup after letting the guild know about the goblin outbreak.
“Little lady, are you okay?!”
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
“You… You killed all of them?”
“Yeah.” Fran nodded, shocking the ten adventurers who were present.
“You took down this many…alone? Really?”
“You must be an E-Rank… No, a D-Rank then. This wasn’t a small nest you took out—this was an entire army.”
“What?! D-Rank?!”
“Seriously?”
It looked like Fran was creating a stir among them. If I remembered correctly, an adventurer’s rank was determined by the threat level of the monsters they could handle on their own. Specifically, an adventurer would be able to solo monsters whose threat level were one lower than their current rank.
So, E-Rank adventurers banded together to take on E-Rank monsters. The same E-Rank adventurer could take on an F-Rank monster by himself.
Let’s see… One goblin is G-Rank, 10 goblins is F-Rank, 100 goblins is E-Rank. I think…
Which meant Fran was a D-Rank adventurer at the very least. But her rank estimate was increased since there were some high-rank variations thrown into the mix.
At least that’s what I could make out from the dwarf’s explanation. It felt nice that they were complimenting Fran. Feel free to lay it on thick, I thought to myself.
Fran herself was less interested in how people thought of her. She ignored the dwarf’s words and plopped the hobgoblin corpse in front of him.
“Here.”
“Is this a hobgoblin?”
“There’s some over there too.”
“Four of them in all?”
“The hobgoblins are already leaving their nest!”
It was too little too late for preventative measures. A Goblin Stampede was upon us in ten days.
“Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. The name’s Elevent. I’m a D-Rank adventurer from Alessa. What’s your name?”
“Fran.”
“You a drifter? Thanks for taking care of the goblins for us.”
“No? I’m an adventurer from Alessa too.”
“What? I don’t remember ever seeing you in all my ten years of adventuring in Alessa…”
He didn’t think it was possible for a small, cute girl like Fran to be such a powerhouse. The three men in Elevent’s group nodded in agreement. The other beastman seemed to feel the same way.
“I just signed up yesterday.”
“What?”
“No way! What’s your rank?”
“G.”
“G-Rank? Impossible!”
“Rank and actual strength have poor correlation with each other. You remember the elf who signed up to our guild? He’d been living off the forest a long time before he came to a human settlement. The guy was a G-Rank, but he was just as strong as a D-Rank.”
“I-I see.”
“I knew it.”
“Oh, you’re such a kidder, Fran.”
They had reached the conclusion that Fran belonged to a race with a long lifespan. It made more sense to believe that she was older, and therefore stronger, than her childish looks suggested.
They look satisfied with their explanation, but are you okay with this, Fran? They probably think you’re older than you look.
“I don’t mind.”
She didn’t seem to care what the others thought of her. It was too bad; I wanted to see the looks on their faces when she told them the truth.
Explaining ourselves would take up more time anyway.
“A-anyway, we won’t be able to raid the Queen’s cave on our own. Back to the guild!”
“He’s right. We’ll need you to come with us too, Fran.”
“All right.”
“Thanks. Let’s go, boys and girls. We don’t have a moment to lose!”
“Yeah!”
Name: Fran
Age: 12
Race: Beastman; Black Cat Tribe
Class: Spellsword
LV: 12
HP: 113; Magic: 66; Strength: 89; Agility: 91
Titles: Disassembly Expert; Healing Mage; Skill Collector; Fire Mage; Master Chef
[NEW] Veteran; Goblin Killer; Butcher
Fran had received so many extra points into her stats from all those level ups. She even got three extra titles!
Veteran: Defeat more than 100 enemies in a single battle. Effects: Life +40; Strength +20; unlocks the Determination skill.
Goblin Killer: Kill more than 100 goblins in a single battle. Effects: Unlocks the Goblin Killer skill.
Butcher: Kill more than 100 enemies in a single battle. Effects: Agility +10; unlocks the Calm Mind skill.
Skills
Determination: Grants immunity to Fear; greatly increases Recovery Rate.
Goblin Killer: Increases damage dealt toward goblins.
Calm Mind: Grants a calm mind by lowering psychological inhibitions to killing.
I wished I could get titles. They looked so cool. I guessed swords couldn’t get titles for themselves.
The Veteran title was particularly great. It was difficult to unlock, so it gave appropriately strong buffs. So strong that I thought it’d make the rest of our travels a cakewalk.
And there was something else I noticed…
The skills Fran had gained for herself weren’t counted toward my equipped skills. This meant she didn’t have to equip the skills I already had, allowing us to mix and match easier.
“Veteran? That’s super rare!”
Yeah?
“Only war heroes get that!”
It was nice seeing Fran get excited for her new titles.
“So, where’s the rest of your party?”
“I don’t have one.”
“You don’t? In that case, do you wanna team up with me?” Elevent extended his invitation. He sounded serious about it too.
“Hold on a minute, we were going to ask her to join our party.”
“Of course you were. Everyone wants a skilled adventurer on their team. But you’re much too inexperienced for her. She’ll throw off your team balance.”
The other parties began offering their invitations. They were finally taking Fran seriously now.
What do you think?
“You’re the only one I need on my team, Teacher.”
You could still join another party. Just don’t tell them about me.
“No thanks. You’re enough.”
All right then.
Working with a party would be difficult, since she wouldn’t be able to use me to my fullest extent. We’d give up on joining one, at least for now.
We hurried back to Alessa after the goblin skirmish.
We had wanted to go to the blacksmith to get Fran’s armor repaired, but we had to report to the guild first. I cast Cleansing Magic on her as a matter of etiquette, but it didn’t quite help with the bloodstains and battered armor. Fortunately, the other adventurers didn’t seem to mind.
“How can I help you, Elevent?”
“I’d like to make a report to the GM.”
“Of course.”
Nell hurried to the back of the room. She understood how grave the situation was by the look on Elevent’s face. She came back a few minutes later to call us in.
“The Guildmaster will see you now. Right this way.”
We entered the Guildmaster’s office to find the GM and Donadrond waiting for us.
“Report.”
“Sir. We went to the site of the goblin sightings with Crull’s party. Fran was already on location when we got there.”
“And the battle was already over.”
“I see… Fran, I would like to ask for further details but…” The GM sighed. He knew how quiet Fran tended to be. He scrunched his face, trying to figure out a way to make her talk. I should throw him a bone here; the situation was looking dire. “Is there anything you’d like to share with us?”
Fran, show him the horns.
“Yeah. Here.”
Fran took the hobgoblin horns out of the Pocket Dimension.
“Are these…hobgoblin horns?”
The GM picked up the horns and cast Identify on them. A grim look of realization dawned on his face when he affirmed their authenticity.
“You mean you fought goblins and hobgoblins?! How many of them were there?” Donadrond shouted after looking at the horns.
“Lots.”
“Could you be more specific?”
About a hundred and thirty.
“About a hundred and thirty.”
Four hobgoblins. About twenty high-rank goblins.
“Four hobgoblins. About twenty high-rank goblins.”
“What?!” Donadrond sat up. “We’ve got the beginnings of a Goblin Stampede on our hands!”
“Calm down, Donadrond.”
“E-excuse me, sir…”
“Another question then, Fran. What happened to the goblins? Did they retreat?”
“I killed them all.”
“I see. So you killed them as they came.”
“Every last one.”
“That’s no good.”
How was that bad?
The GM proceeded to explain that the goblins Fran had fought were sent out of the goblin cave due to overpopulation. The goblins were breeding swimmingly, and the low-rank goblins were simply pushed out of house and home because of it. It accounted for their desperate ferocity in facing Fran. The fact that hobgoblins and high-ranks were mixed in their exiled horde meant the cave was already brimming with hobgoblins.
“Looks like we’re in for one hell of a Goblin Stampede this year.”
“Put out an emergency call to all our adventurers.”
“We’ll make preparations today and tomorrow. We’ll attempt to destroy the cave the day after that. Sound good?”
“Yes. We’ll get the Thief Class adventurers to scout ahead to locate the cave. We’ll put it up in the Special Requests board.”
“All right, I’ll get to rationing potions.”
It got busy all of a sudden. Even Nell called out to the other receptionists and began giving them orders.
“Elevent, we have another favor to ask of you, if you don’t mind.”
“You want me to take you to the location of the sighting?”
“Yes, and take some Thieves with you.”
“Got it. The very fate of Alessa hangs in the balance. I’ll pitch in what I can.”
The other adventurers nodded in agreement.
Fran looked like she wanted to go too, but I wasn’t going to allow it. We were going to get her armor fixed, and then, to bed. And that was that.
“Fran…please take the rest of the day off. I doubt that armor of yours could take any more punishment.”
“…’Kay.” Fran gave a disappointed nod. Thanks, GM!
They sorted out all the loose ends with Elevent’s team before they headed out.
“See you, I guess.”
“Oh, hold on. Please go to reception before you leave. You are now eligible for a promotion to F-Rank.”
“But I haven’t cleared five quests yet.”
“It’s silly to think an adventurer who could take on an entire army of goblins would still be in G-Rank. Also, G-Ranks won’t be able to participate in the Goblin Stampede raid. It’s much more convenient for us if we just give you a promotion.”
“Heh, yeah, we’ll need all the able-bodied adventurers we can get.”
“It’s an emergency request after all. We don’t know how many adventurers can join us. The more people who can contribute to our firepower the better.”
“We’ll put up the raid request tomorrow. Make sure to sign up for it.”
“I will.”
“Thank you.”
“Bye.”
We stopped by reception to get our Rank Up, per the GM’s instructions. The process was simple, and it only took a few minutes to complete. By the time we were done, Fran had an “F” on her Guild Card.
“It went up!” Fran exclaimed. She didn’t care what others thought of her, but was very particular about her own level and rank. It was a convenient way to measure her strength.
Okay. Now that that’s settled, let’s get your armor fixed. Do we have enough money for repairs?
“We’ll sell our weapons.”
Can we sell them to the guild?
The answer to that question was “no.” The guild only bought materials and produce from adventurers.
I guess we’ll take them to Garrus. What a blacksmith of Garrus’s caliber would do with such shoddy weapons, I had no idea.
Wait a second… We have another merchant friend we can go to!
“Who?”
Come on, I know he didn’t make much of an impression, but you remember Randell, right?
“Oh.”
I felt bad for Randell that Fran had almost forgotten about him, but I was guilty of the same thing.
He said his shop was along the west avenue.
“On it.”
I was worried how we were going to find his shop in the big city of Alessa, but we got there after a bit of searching. Randell’s store was near the entrance of the street, and he stood outside.
“Why hello, Fran! Fancy meeting you here. Decided to drop in?”
“Yeah. There’s some stuff I wanna sell.”
“Wonderful! Come in, please.” Randell opened the door to let us in.
The place is more of a mess than I expected. Goods were scattered about the cramped interior. There was an entire assortment of goods from honey and antidotes, to necessities and weapons.
“What a mess.”
Come on, I was trying to be nice!
Randell smiled wryly. “Haha. We get that a lot. I try to display whatever merchandise people might want to buy.”
Fair enough, but wasn’t there too much variety in the catalog? I wasn’t one to complain, but it’d be difficult for a guy off the streets to take an interest in most of these items.
“Buy these off me.”
“Why, you have an item bag now!”
“Kinda.”
With every item she pulled out of her bag, Randell became more and more nervous.
“That’s…a lot of stuff you have there.”
“There’s more.”
“What? Okay, hold on. Could you put those on the floor?”
“Okay.”
“That is a fine item bag you have there. I didn’t think it could fit so many items. Mine’s on the smaller side, so I’m quite jealous.” Randell talked to us while examining each and every weapon with a keen eye. It was the mark of a true merchant.
“Hmm, these aren’t in very good condition…”
“I got them off goblins.”
“Aah, that explains it. Some of these are made of steel, so it’s not as bad as it could be… How does 13,000G sound?”
“Well?”
That’s about 200G per weapon… I think it’s pretty good considering how beat up the weapons are.
“Okay, deal.”
“Right this way.”
“Hm.”
We stowed all the money away in the Pocket Dimension. Withdrawing items was a cinch, making it the ideal wallet.
“Pleasure doing business with you. Thank you, and come again!”
I was sure we’d be visiting Randell soon enough. He had many interesting items on display; we’d certainly buy something from him next time.
Now that we had our money, we were off to Garrus’s.
We hurried to the marketplace where his shop was located.
“There’re a lot of merchants around.”
The bustling bazaar was filled with merchants, many of them with sour looks on their faces. I wondered if they had ever lodged complaints against the old blacksmith.
We entered his shop through the back door.
Hello.
“Aah, you two! What’s up? Your scabbard’s not done yet, if that’s what you’re here for.”
“That’s not why we’re here.”
We want you to fix her armor…
Garrus turned around, got one look at Fran and boomed, “WHAT HAPPENED?! It’s only been a day! What have you been up to?!”
“We fought some goblins.”
“Goblins?”
A goblin horde, to be precise. There were at least a hundred of them.
“Hobgoblins too.”
“What?! That’s terrible news! We’re about to have a Goblin Stampede on our hands!”
The Adventurer’s Guild has been informed.
“That’s good. Still, I’m impressed you made it out in one piece.”
“It’s all thanks to Teacher.”
“Teacher?”
That’s my name.
It occurred to me that I had never introduced myself to him. I had a bad feeling at the pit of my hilt.
“What kinda stupid na—”
It’s the best name ever, isn’t it?! Fran thought it up herself! Very fitting. You think so too, right, Garrus?
Work with me, old man!
“Y-yeah… I-It’s a fine name! It really is…something else…”
I know! It’s the best!
“A mighty name for a mighty sword! Yes indeed!”
Phew. That was close. Garrus got the point after my metaphorical wink and was now singing praises of my name, awkward as it was.
“A-anyway. You wanted your armor fixed?”
Yeah! Can you do it? We need it by the day after tomorrow for the goblin raid.
“No problem. Repairs take no time at all.”
“How much?”
Fran hadn’t noticed the slight to her naming sensibilities. Good.
“Let’s see… 10,000G.”
That’s pretty cheap.
“It’s the cost of a mana sphere.”
Mana sphere?
“Unlike crystals, mana spheres are a type of ore you can mine from the earth. They can store magical energy and are used as catalysts in rituals and the like.”
Never heard of ’em.
“To fix your armor, I’ll need a mana sphere as a catalyst for my Repair skill.”
So, you’re fixing it with magic?
“Yep. You wanna watch?”
If you’ll have us, sure.
We went with Garrus to see him work his reparation magic.
He placed the damaged armor on his workbench, which had a magic circle drawn on it. Then he took a yellow mana sphere from one of his stands. The rest of the procedure was no different from a spell with a long incantation.
“Repair!”
The magic circle glowed as if responding to Garrus’s booming voice. The light enveloped Fran’s armor, taking away the nicks and grime that had accrued from today’s battle. When the light settled, it was as good as new.
“Wow.”
Wow indeed. It looks just as good as the day we got it.
“I’ll stop you there and remind you that the spell’s not perfect. The more often you fix a piece of equipment, the more difficult it gets to restore it to its original splendor. A small mana sphere was enough to do the job today, but you’ll need a bigger one if it gets beat up again. It’s gonna cost you about 30,000G too.”
It might be cheaper if we got a new set of armor at that point. We would have to consult him when the time came.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. Can’t have you go up against hobgoblins in broken armor!”
“Leave them to me.”
We’ll kill the King and Queen while we’re at it!
“Yeah. They’re ours.”
“Hahaha. Knock ’em dead!”
Night had fallen on the day we fought the goblin horde.
I was at the inn.
The moons are so pretty here…
The night sky was graced by a great silver half-moon. Two smaller moons appeared to be following alongside it. There were six smaller moons orbiting the great lunar orb, and while they didn’t appear to have moon phases, their number would change according to the day. Tomorrow night there would be three little moons surrounding the great one, then four, then five, then six. After that it would go back to zero. This was how you accounted for an entire week in this world. It was such a fantastical sight that I never got tired of it.
I could spend the entire night just looking at them. I should stop and look at the new skills we just got.
Fran was in the bath. Seeing that I was bored out of my blade, I could think of no better use of my time than examining my newly-acquired skills.
Speaking of baths, I’d been quite surprised to hear that Fran liked them. I mean, she was supposed to be a cat. I couldn’t help blurting out, “But you’re a cat,” when she told me, but it seemed not liking baths was a quality unique to cats of my Earth.
Fran had never even seen a “cat” despite being a black cat herself. She told me only nobles owned such strange creatures. Those cats may be living better lives than the people of the Black Cat tribe who were sold into slavery.
We moved out of the inn we’d stayed in yesterday and were now staying at a slightly better one at the Guild’s recommendation. It was more expensive at 600G a night, but it came with a great bathhouse and copious portions of food.
I began examining the skills I got from the goblin fight: Speedcasting; Acrobatics; Kick Arts; Kick Mastery; Necromancy; Absorb Poison; Poison Magic; Axe Mastery; and Indomitable.
I was unable to use Kick Arts, Kick Mastery, and Axe Mastery, so they would have to wait until Fran came back. Indomitable seemed to give you a cool mind during battle, so I couldn’t test it here either.
Let’s see… I guess I could start with Acrobatics. It said it added bonuses to my balance and jumping ability. I flew about the room to experiment but found no substantial difference. Unfortunate. Still, I was sure Fran would be able to put it to good use.
Next came Poison Magic. Poison Arrow and Create Poison were its Level 1 spells. The poison effects were still quite weak, and a strong enemy would be able to brush it off. Casting it on a civilian would probably give them little more than a stomachache.
I absorbed the toxins I had created with Create Poison using Absorb Poison but didn’t feel anything. It was supposed to restore its user’s Health and was of no use to me, seeing as I had nothing resembling Health. I conjectured that we’d really be able to use Absorb Poison to traverse areas with toxic gas.
Speedcasting was next. The one-second reduction in casting time didn’t seem substantial, but a second could mean the difference between life and death in a battle. A few extra levels and it might prove useful.
And so we came to the last skill: Necromancy.
Let’s see what we can do with this.
It had two spells at Level 1: Raise Zombie and Search Undead. I pulled a goblin corpse out of the Pocket Dimension to experiment, making sure to cast a barrier of cleansing magic around it so as not to dirty the floor. I didn’t want to trouble the inn staff with cleaning up after a goblin corpse.
Raise Zombie!
The goblin corpse groaned to life.
Whoa…
The affront to God looked disgusting. It somehow looked more grotesque than when it was just an ordinary corpse. Good thing I didn’t have a nose, or I’d be throwing up by now.
Stay.
“Wurgghh.”
Looks like it can take orders.
The zombie stood and swayed in place.
I used Search Undead next. It was similar to all the other Sense skills and registered the zombie that was in front of me.
Now that I’d used both skills…
What was I going to do with this guy? Oh God, I had Goblin Zombie in my list of minions now. Couldn’t I unsummon him somehow?
I’m so sorry.
“Hurgh?”
I uttered an apology before cutting the zombie down. It didn’t produce a crystal, though I didn’t know if dungeon zombies shared this trait. I got rid of the zombie’s remains with the Cleansing Magic spell called Undead Return. Appropriately, the zombie was also removed from my minion list.
Rest in peace, buddy.
Practice responsible necromancy. Cease the desecration of goblin corpses! Not that I thought they’d mind, since they were already dead.
Moving on…
I looked at the enchanted items we had retrieved from the horde.
There’s seven of them. I wonder what they do.
Two weapons: a steel knife and steel hammer. They both came equipped with Knife Mastery and Hammer Mastery skill increases. The knife would come in handy for carving, but I left the hammer in the Pocket Dimension since I didn’t know what to do with it.
Next, we had an accessory. It increased your Strength at the cost of reducing your Magic.
Strength +5 and Magic -8… It must be for the more tank-like Classes.
Fran wouldn’t have any use for it, since she needed Magic. It could have been viable if the stat balance were even.
I then came to the three pieces of armor: Iron Armor of Rust Prevention; Leather Armor of Size Adjustment; and Enchanted Helm of Physical Resistance. All of them had low Defense values so they didn’t seem useful. Even Garrus’s armor far outclassed them.
Finally, I came to the Item Bag. However, only the registered user had access to it.
I guess it’s one of those things you have to register for.
Kinda like how Fran had equipped me. The bag still functioned as a normal bag to everyone else. Inside were sticks and stones ideal for throwing at targets. The goblins were also using it to store miscellaneous items.
Overwrite previous user…? Do I have to use a Contract spell?
Let’s give it a shot.
Contract!
Well, that didn’t work. The spell only strengthened whatever contract was already in place. Rewriting a contract was possible, but only at Level 7 and above.
Man, so I have to level up my skills to open this mysterious item bag?
Disappointed, I stowed the item bag for later.
How much money do we have?
We got a total of 109 pairs of goblin horns from today’s battle. Twenty of them were high-rank, which fetched 100G per pair. We also got 100G for completing the Herb Collection quest.
I gave Fran 10,000G, so I was now left with 37,000G.
Should we get some mana potions for the raid? Would it be a waste of money? Would we even have enough? Which reminds me, we gathered a lot of herbs and plants today. I should sort them out.
There were ten poison herbs, ten glowing mushrooms, ten anti-paralysis herbs, ten toxic herbs, and ten healing herbs. There were gathering quests which required us to collect five of each, which meant we could turn in ten quests’ worth of rewards tomorrow. However, since we were already F-Rank, we wouldn’t be able to rank up by turning in G-Rank quests.
Toxic Herb Collection was listed on the F-Rank quests, so we had eighteen quests left to go. There were rank restrictions on exploring dungeons, and I wanted to get our adventurer rank up as soon as possible.
We also had around thirty unidentified hazardous materials. I knew their names and the fact they were dangerous from using Identify on them, but they weren’t listed in the Guild’s delivery quests. I didn’t know whether they were actually of any practical use.
I’ll have to ask Randell about them.
I needed some information on hobgoblins too. Tomorrow was looking to be a busy day.
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