Without letting a moment go by after her words left her mouth, I quickly pulled Claret's proverbial reins. Sometimes I was lead to wonder if I should put actual ones on her for times like this.
"Master! Who knows what other sort of trick those bastards had set! It's safer to just eliminate her!"
<Well, I mean, it's true that it's possible there might be something, but at the same time there might not! And besides, having strong allies is going to be important in case things escalate!>
"But it's not like she's that strong! Sure, she's way stronger than most people, but if it's you, you can find plenty of stronger people!"
<But it's better to try to get in good standing with as many as we can! Who knows when such allies can be useful! And besides, I can't find any other suspicious things about her. Did you notice anything Alicia?>
<Huh? Ummm, no I didn't, but I don't think I'd be able to find anything well hidden.>
<Except hidden skills themselves are extremely well hidden. Normally there's no way to even see them in the first place, so finding one would take extraordinary abilities. So do you have it?>
I turned my attention back to the dark spirit.
"Yes Master, if that's what you want."
I didn't like putting down Claret like some aggressive mongrel, but she did have the volatility of nitroglycerine when it came to my safety. There probably wasn't a single thing I could do about that, aside from perhaps providing some evidence that I wasn't the Scarlet she's always thought, but fat chance at that.
<Anyways, so the best I can tell, the skill had been properly disabled, so there should be no chance for the ones who sent Sarah to be able to observe her any more. At least through that skill.>
<Do you think there's another way they can be watching?>
<I practically guarantee it. The question is how, and how much can they learn though it. Simply put, it doesn't make much sense for people who have power like reincarnating people into various worlds to not be able to observe the status of those worlds they operate on. Else they wouldn't know how to make adjustments if they were needed.>
<So that would mean that they'd have the ability to look at how things are going in the world. But how?>
That, was the million dollar question.
<Considering that they needed a special skill to see details on the level of individuals, I'm betting that their observation method is on a pretty macro scale. Meaning that they can see a lot, but not in detail.>
<So they can see how a country is doing, but not each person in that country?>
Alicia's analogy wasn't too far off. It really was impressive just how fast her mind could run.
<Kinda. Since something like the status of a nation is incredibly abstract and beyond the capabilities of the system, I'm thinking that their main way to observe is from above, as if they're hiding in the clouds looking down on us.>
In other words, the best they can do is look at the world from the view point of a spy satellite. That said, spy satellites on Earth were getting advanced enough that they could easily track individuals, though identifying two people apart who wore the same coloured clothes and had the same colour hair was way beyond even their capabilities. It was difficult to say how the observation system that these people compared to Earth's spy satellites.
I could only hope that it wasn't more capable, but it depended in its purpose in the first place. If it was more to observe the greater environmental shifts, then as long as I didn't do anything to change the shape of the land, I'd be virtually invisible to such a system.
"I see! If they're looking down from the clouds, then no matter how good their eyesight is, there's no way for them to see how one person is moving around!"
(Ah, looks like we've got someone who took my words literally.)
<Then even if they do manage to find us, every time we go indoors they'll have trouble finding us again!>
(Wait, Alicia took that literally. too?! Well, if it eases their nerves, then whatever.)
It really didn't matter that much, and trying to explain the very concept of extra-dimensional space as well as remote observations was probably going to take quite a lot of time, so it was probably better to simply drop the subject.
"Umm...are you alright Scarlet?"
Suddenly an unexpected voice came from the side.
"Huh? Oh, yea, I am."
"Are you sure? You were staring off into space for quite a while."
It seemed like this little conversation of ours had taken a bit more time than I expected. Or rather, I had entirely forgotten that Sarah was even around by the end.
"Yea, I'm fine. Sometimes I have a lot of things on my mind."
"Did you come up with a way to improve your schteev?!"
"...No, I didn't."
Was I going to have to add gluttonous to this person's title?
"I was thinking about where to head out after leaving this dungeon."
It was a bit half-assed, but the excuse was close enough to the truth.
"I see. Well, I heard that there's a martial tournament starting up in the south."
I was a bit surprised. I had figured that she was some stuck up racist who pretty much ignored everyone around her seeing them as primitive barbarians or something, and was only reasonable to me due to the fact that I kicked her ass on top of the fact that I had proven to her to at least have a bit more modern knowledge than the other locals. I couldn't deny that if I thought I could return to a modern world soon after, I might've had a similar mindset.
"You were thinking something pretty rude, weren't you?"
"Nonsense."
"sigh Well, it's pretty hard to not hear when everyone talked about it. Apparently it's one of the biggest events around, so quite a lot of people go, especially those that think they're strong. If you joined the tournament, you'd probably be able to easily win."
"Not interested."
Straight up, I couldn't see a single useful thing about participating in such an event. Normally the point of such a thing would be to gain fame, rewards, and perhaps to test your own abilities, but none of those really appealed to me.
It was possible to go as a spectator, but my meeting with Sarah had told me that I no longer could afford the leisure of wasting time like that. At the very least, I needed to progress towards one of my goals, and even if I couldn't find any clues for making a new body for Alicia, I'd have to go and get even stronger soon. Especially when I had no idea how the next attempt would go, just overall increasing my strength was a sure-fire way to reduce the risk.
No matter how I cut it, the tournament was not a good use of my time as it was. Maybe I'd check it out in the future, but in the meantime, there was little benefit and too many drawbacks.
"Well, I'm going to be heading to the surface now. Keep up the practice and you should be able to use magic pretty quickly. After that, it shouldn't be difficult to learn to fire your gun and make new ammo."
"How long do you think until I could make a shock rifle?"
"...Probably quite a while. Try to stick with simpler designs, and you should be able to make a gun you like pretty quickly, depending on how good you are at designing them."
I had little expectations for her to actually being able to pick up designing a weapon from almost scratch within any short time period. The only reason why I was so good at it was thanks to the time I had spent making graphical assets for my game.
Thinking back, it felt like so long ago, like an entire lifetime ago.
(...technically it really was a lifetime ago now that I think about it.)
I shouldered my bag then checked my clothes, making sure that everything was covering my body as well as they could. After adjusting my hat to sit snugly on my head, I took my steps towards the fountain.
"Oh right, take these as well, just in case."
"What are they?"
It wasn't much, but I handed over a handful of vials Alicia had identified while we were sorting out the contents of my magic bag.
"Healing potions. If you get hurt, drink one and it'll fix you back up."
"Is that really alright? You've given me so much already. I even tried to kill you."
(Tried is the operative word, and frankly it was kinda pathetic from my perspective.)
"It's fine. I don't have any need of them."
It was true as well. Those potions weren't that strong, so they'd only recover a small percentage of my health. If used several at once, they'd benefit Claret, but I'd much rather just cast healing magic on her. And beyond even that, I had better healing potions anyways if magic wasn't an option. If anything, Sarah was helping me out by taking some of the clutter from my bag.
"Umm, that's right! Also that pile of things you left in the other fountain room! Don't forget to pick them up!"
"...I said that you can have that all before."
"Ah, right. You really meant that huh?"
That stuff really was just trash anyways. If she sold them she'd probably make a bit of cash, but after that treasure chest at the bottom of this dungeon, anything I'd get from that pile would probably little more than chump change. Even if the contents of that chest didn't add up to nearly as much as I imagined, selling all that junk off wasn't really worth the effort.
"Well, I'll be heading off now."
"Thank you! For everything! And, umm...I'll call!"
I kinda hoped she wouldn't, but the hopeful way she stated that made me hesitate to try to let her down. The fact that she looked like she was about ready to tear up further made things awkward on my side for having such a thought.
"Right. Later then."
With those half-hearted parting words, I put my hand on the fountain and sent the command to return to the first floor.
I stretched my arms over my head as I enjoyed the coolness in the deep shadow in an alley across from the city's adventurers' guild.
As always, the real sun was an excessively bright, oppressive thing. While just as bright, at least the dungeon's artificial sun wasn't such a scary thing. The fact that it was just past noon when I exited the dungeon only made things worse.
Looking up to confirm that all the little fluffballs had finished their little mana treats, I cleared the smile that had crept up onto my face and headed towards the guild building.
The inside was as noisy and dirty as the last time I had been here. Unlike Linsington City, the building wasn't devoid of activity in the middle of the day. Most likely the dungeon had something to do with that, as people could exit at any time of the day since keeping track of time inside wasn't easy,
That said, it wasn't that busy. There were two groups sitting at a table enjoying a meal, and a single person at the reception desk turning in some sort of request.
For me, I just went towards the materials counter. There was a bored looking middle aged man sitting while propping his chin in the palm of one hand while he rested his elbow on the counter.
If a single word could describe the man, it would have been clean. If a second could be allowed, then I would've picked poor. Not poor as in for penniless, but someone who was a bit pitiful. He was clean shaven and his uniform was free of dirt and even wrinkles, but the top of his head was equally as void of decorations, including hair.
He didn't look that old, yet somehow there was a distinct desertification of hair from the front of his crown to the rear, leaving nothing behind. It was so bad that I wondered if it might have been better if he had just given up and removed all of it, pretending it was a fashion choice, rather than advertising the fact that he lost the genetic lottery.
"Excuse me, I'd like to sell some things."
"Welcome miss. Wild materials or dungeon materials?"
It seemed like they got enough of both to not just presume that everyone who came to sell off things were bringing one or the other.
"Dungeon. Do you accept items as well?"
"Sure, we handle that sort of thing as well. I don't see any sacks, but you have a magic bag?"
"That's right."
I unshouldered my bag and opened it up. The fact that the man froze for a moment when he saw the killer bunny's face didn't escape me.
The various items I had found in the dungeon, both from monster drops and the boss treasure chests were placed on the counter.
Mounds of claws, fangs, various veiny difficult to identify organs as well as equipment I didn't need were piled up.
"Wait wait wait! Let me clear some of this off!"
Before I could finish fishing out everything I wanted to get rid of, the clerk called out to stop me. He went through the piles and scribbled onto a stone tablet with some chalk, transferring the materials into boxes behind him.
"Umm…are you miss Scarlet?"
As the clerk was working at tallying and putting everything into crates, an older woman wearing the guild's usual uniform came over from the receptions counter. She was a tall, well portioned woman, standing more than a head taller than me, with a bit of a noticeable flare at the hips preventing orthodox proportions. A pair of long ears peeked out from the sides of her head. Her shoulder length blonde hair had a slight green tinge to it, and appeared pretty well kept at a glance. The slight slouch nor the large black circles under her eyes did nothing to detract from her beauty. On the other hand, the way she looked like she was born tired made me hesitate to comment about her appearances. It felt like she had dealt with more than her own fair share over the years. Whatever that happened to be.
"That's right."
Her eyes appeared to focus a little to my side for a moment before returning to my eyes when I responded. There wasn't any change to her expression I could tell, but that action and the fact that she was an elf suggested that she might have noticed Claret's presence.
"The one that finished an escort request from Linsington City four days ago?"
"Yes."
"If you don't mind, the guild master wishes to speak with you."
I froze at the receptionist's words. There wasn't anything I could imagine that I've done that would warrant a meeting with someone as high ranked as a guild master of the adventurers' guild. Well, anything that the guild would've known about at least.
"...Alright."
"Please come with me."
Following the elf woman's lead, we went through a door in the back and up a series of stairs to the top floor.
I couldn't help but notice how the way she walked caused her rear to sway invitingly. Or rather, not just that, but they were quite large and shapely. I didn't notice until she was guiding me up the stairs due to a large hip pouch she was wearing, but from below it was almost impossible not to notice.
The thought of what sort of events caused her to start wearing such an obstructive and heavy looking hip pouch quickly made me sympathize with this woman. I hadn't spent that much time in the female form, and even less in the presence of leering men, but the small taste I had gotten was more than enough for a lifetime. I couldn't imagine what this woman might have tolerated to have exhaustion etched into her face so thoroughly.
We finally reached the top floor and the receptionist opened one of the doors, gesturing me to pass through. What greeted me was a large office with a large window embedded in the back wall allowing the glare of the sun to fill the room despite the sun having already passed the view from the window.
The side walls were covered in bookshelves filled with slabs of wood and bark. There were even a few actual books on the top shelf higher than I could reach without floating. In the middle was a heavy looking wooden desk covered in all sorts of documents in various piles. Behind that desk was a large man that somehow I was forced to look up at, despite the fact that he was still sitting.
<What's that guy's race?>
<Huh? He's human. Why?>
<Ummm, no, it's nothing.>
The very sight of him made me wonder if he might have been half giant or something, but it seemed like my guess was wrong.
The giant of a man's dome was clean, void of anything aside from the clear fact that he had polished it with wax or something, as it reflected the sun's light from behind causing me to squint. His features were as big as the rest of his body, complete with a jaw so squared off that it almost looked like it was built with Sega Saturn graphics.
While he wore the same uniform as all the other staff here, for some reason the sleeves were gone. Most likely ripped off, as I could easily see the frayed ends at the shoulders. His upper arms looked thicker than my waist and each hand bigger than my feet, both of them combined.
If his outfit was made out of black leather and had a few spikes added, he would've looked like he would've belonged in some post apocalypse story where gasoline was even more valuable than water.
The very sight of the man intimidated me, and it took until Claret started rubbing her cheek against my own out of boredom that I snapped out of my stunned silence and finished making my way to the front of the desk.
Behind me the door closed and the elf woman stepped past me until she turned to face my way from behind and to the side of the giant man.
"Oh, I like you."
As the man's voice boomed, I winced a little at the loudness, doing my best to suppress the urge to cover my ears.
"Almost everyone freezes when they see me, but you recovered much faster than most."
(Ah, that's why the receptionist didn't do anything when I froze? It's already an established fact that people do that around this guy?)
"This man is the guild master, Japetus Titanicus, and...I am the assistant guild master Peitho Suada."
"Ah, I'm Scarlet. Nice to meet you."
Peitho glanced at the guild master when she introduce him, yet paused right before introducing herself. I wasn't entirely sure, but it looked like she let out a small tired sigh in between. Maybe I was only partially right when it came to the cause of her perpetually exhausted look.
"Just Scarlet huh? Well, your record also said that anyways. Well, go kill the wyvern at Firestone Mountain."
"Haaa?"
(What's with this guy just giving me orders like that right after we met? And furthermore he gave me so little information that I had no idea where to even start.)
"sigh I apologize. Allow me to explain."
The assistant guild master bowed her head after letting out a pretty obvious sigh. It was looking like this was normal for these two. Maybe this guy was actually the main reason why she looked so tired?
"Three days ago, an adventurer party came back in the middle of a request to report that a strong monster had been spotted flying around Firestone Mountain to the east. When we sent a scout to check on the information, the report that came back stated that a black wyvern seemed to have made a nest near the peak of the mountain."
"…I see…"
While I had fought wyverns before in the dungeon, it really wasn't that big of a deal. I think it was floor 48 which was a canyon floor, and there was a grey scaled wyvern as a boss. At the time it was a tough fight as it would keep dive bombing me over and over. My magic couldn't do much as it was so hard to hit such a target that quickly escaped my limited range.
I ended up beating it by timing a jump and [Float] to catch it in one of its dives and grabbed onto one wing from which I simply tore it apart with my claws until it couldn't fly anymore. Once I had grounded it, it could hardly have been called fight. Its beak-like maw snapped for all its worth, but since like a bat, its wings also served as its forelegs when on the ground, with one of them nothing but a pulpy mess, it was effectively immobilized.
"We believe it to be an ash wyvern, a B rank threat."
That statement made even more difficult to understand how I had anything to do with it. I was only a D rank adventurer.
"About two weeks ago, we had received a message from guild master Strongear from Linsington City. It said that he had recently personally gave a ranking exam to a new adventurer, and while he could only give that woman a rank of D as per the rules of the guild, she was someone who's skill in battle far exceeded that rank. He estimated she was at least a B rank in capability, possibly even higher."
It seemed like my little trick had made me stand out significantly more than I wanted.
"To be honest, I was pretty surprised to discover that someone taking the initiate ranking exam would be able to beat that Strongear of all people."
"That's right! Hey, before you go, let's go have a duel downstairs to see who's stronger!"
Suddenly the guild master stood up and his voice boomed once again. I just barely suppressed the urge to cover my ears.
"Guild master, you've been warned about this."
"Erk!"
It seemed like this was a bad habit of his."
"Would you like me to report to central and have them send you your fourteenth warning?"
(What's the point of a warning if they send so many without doing anything about it?!)
It wasn't like I actually wanted to test my strength, nor develop some reputation regarding it in the first place. I was fine with nobody finding out how strong I was, though it seemed like it was already a bit impossible. I could only hope that it wouldn't become common knowledge and turn me into some sort of celebrity or something. I didn't need that in my life.
"sigh Back to the story, since we heard that you were strong enough to beat a retired A rank adventurer, even if it was during an exam, we decided to offer you a designated request for the subjugation of the wyvern."
"Alright, I understand what you want from me, but why me? As you know I'm not that high of a rank. For all you know, my victory against the Linsington City's guild master was a fluke or something, and his praises were a gross overestimation of my abilities."
If that guy was spreading word of my strength, I wanted to quash at least a bit of it immediately. If I were to gain such a reputation, I didn't know what sort of things might come out of it in the future. It might become difficult to enter large cities if people started to recognize me and start asking for my help, or the guild might start to give me constant designated requests in the hopes to have me deal with strong monsters that weren't much of an immediate threat.
The worst would be attracting the attention of people in power when I didn't have any significant backing myself. It would be quickly grow hard to do as I like if they started to demand things from me and used their power to try to get what they wanted if I refused.
"While it certainly is possible, he is still a well respected guild master and despite having been stuck at a desk for the past few years, his strength shouldn't have fallen to the point that someone below a typical B rank's strength to have beaten him, even with a surprise attack. His appraisal of your strength comes with quite a lot of weight."
"Fine, but still, I don't get why me? B rank adventurers shouldn't be that rare, right?"
In the end, this was the biggest mystery after all. There was a dungeon in this city, even if it wasn't that tough. It didn't make much sense that they couldn't have gotten an actual B or A ranked adventurer rather than blasting the usual rules away and asking for a D ranker like myself to help.
"The truth is, aside from the guild master, you're probably the strongest person in the city."
"...!"
While it wasn't too surprising to be around the top of the list, beyond just actually being at the top, for these people to know it when I went through such pains to conceal my level was a disturbing thought.
"Rest assured, we have not employed means to discover your true strength. You have your own reasons to hide it, and it is not within the guild policy to pry into personal circumstances such as those."
But it meant that she knew I was hiding my real strength.
(Or rather, did she just figure it out from my expression?)
"The reason why we knew you were the strongest in the city was due to the Championship of Arms being held in Praeliator City. All the strongest adventurers had gone to the city either to participate or to spectate. Since there's a rumour that the hero is going to fight in the tournament, it had drawn even more people than usual, leaving us without any adventurers above C rank at the moment."
"I see..."
It sounded like that tournament was causing some real problems all around. And if that many people were going to check it out, it made me glad that I decided against going.
"So thus, without any adventurers ranked high enough to take this request, we were forced to resort to asking you. While you are an adventurer who is far too low ranked to normally take such a request, the recommendation from guild master Strongear has made you our only possible candidate. Thus, we implore that you accept this designated request despite the unusual nature of the situation."
"Hey, like I said before, instead of sending this little twerp, I can just go and do it!"
Once again I winced at the loudness of his voice.
(Shouldn't this guy get a muzzle or something until he learns to control his voice?)
"sigh As I keep telling you guild master, your job is to stay in the city and administrate the city's adventurers' guild. NOT going off and turning parts of the world into broken wastelands."
The elf woman started to rub her temples as she countered the giant man. I was really feeling sorry for the sort of thing she was forced to deal with.
"sigh Well, as I said, you are the only person in the city we can rely on. As we don't know when any high ranked adventurers are going to pass through the city I ask you to do this favour for the guild. Please. Before anyone loses their lives to that wyvern."
The assistant guild master gave me a deep bow. There was no doubt in my mind as to the sincerity and desperation that she was filled with.
On the other hand, the guild master looked away with his arms crossed while grumbling something incoherent.
I wasn't really sure what to make of this situation, but I wanted to help this woman out.
"Well, alright. I guess I'll do it."
Ninetailed_Furball
Hi everybody! It's your usual furball once again! (/◕ヮ◕)/
Sorry for another late release. I hope the greater length makes up for it a bit.
I really need to fix my time management skills. Or stop paying Space Engineer. More than once I went into that game only intending to play a little bit, only to realize that it had been seven hours or something by the time I closed the game. (._.)
It's worse than crack, I tell you. Then again, I've never tried crack. Probably can't afford it anyways.
Anyways, hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. I'll try to get the next chapter out soon!
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