The receptionist/guild girl looked at us uncertainly, not sure if she had heard Herman's request correctly. She took a deep breath and ran a hand through her long strawberry blond hair, which had been plaited into a single braid that she allowed to fall through her front. I recalled that she was one of those girls who had a crush on my master.
"You want a high-ranking quest?" she repeated.
"That's right," Herman affirmed. The guild girl swallowed.
"But your ranks aren't high enough. Most of you are porcelain rank. Klein is bronze, and Bradley is steel. We can't just give you a silver-ranked mission…"
"I'm a Hero!" Herman insisted. "We can handle it! With all the demons attacking Havan, this is no time for us to be climbing up the ranks!"
"Even so, if you could get a single silver-ranked adventurer to accompany you…" The guild girl glanced at me. "Or maybe wait for a bit until Klein reaches silver rank…"
"We won't make it in time!" Herman practically pounded the desk. "Think of all the victims who will suffer or die because we decided to dally here with less important quests that can be handled by other adventurers!"
"Let them take it."
"Eh?!" The guild girl turned around and caught sight of the overall guild supervisor descending the stairs. He nodded gravely, to confirm that she hadn't heard wrong.
"The Hero is right. This is no time for them to be dawdling around low-ranked demons. All the other Heroes are already fighting on the frontlines and taking part in the greater war. They can't afford to relax. Also…"
He smiled ominously and I felt a chill run down my spine when I saw that condescending expression.
"If the Hero dies so easily to a demon, then we're better off without him in the first place. He wouldn't deserve the title of Hero."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Bradley growled, slamming a fist against the counter and causing the guild girl to flinch. I bowed to her apologetically, but she shook her head to assure me that she was all right.
Her supervisor was unfazed. "Just stating facts. But I'm sure you'll be able to defeat whatever demon I ask you to, right? So where's the problem?"
"That's right!" Herman sounded eager. "Do you have any target in mind?"
"I do, actually." The supervisor took out a flyer from his jacket pocket and placed it on the counter. "There's a village that is currently being plagued by a vicious venomous viper. It's a silver ranked quest. But since you're the Hero party, it should be no problem for you, right?"
"Of course!" Herman snapped impatiently, snatching the parchment to study it in detail. "Vincent Village, huh? We'll head there immediately!"
"You'll regret underestimating us, brat!" Bradley snarled. The supervisor was a couple of years younger than him, probably also in his late twenties, so I found that term of address hilarious. Not that I was going to mention it, though. I was far more concerned with something else.
"Wait, wait, wait." I held up my hands. "Do any of you guys know what a vicious venomous viper is? Are you sure you want to fight it immediately?"
My fellow party members stared at me blankly, as if I had asked a stupid question.
"It's just a monster, isn't it?" Yvonne replied dryly.
"I assume it's a type of snake," Miranda added.
"Don't worry…even if you're worried about the viper's venom, my healing magic should still be able to heal you. I have antidote and antivenomous spells." Irene sounded super-cheerful.
"Bradley and I will cut it apart with our blades!" Herman declared confidently.
"That's right!" Bradley flexed his arm. "It's just a stupid snake!"
"Are you serious?!" I stared at all of them in disbelief. "Just a snake? Just a monster? You guys have no idea what a vicious venomous viper is at all! It's the size of a damned house! They can stretch up to fifty meters in length! They are massive! You can't just cut one apart with swords and axes!"
The rest of my party exchanged uneasy looks, but their stubborn pride wouldn't allow them to back down. Herman cleared his throat and turned away.
"Even so, as the Hero, it is my responsibility to fight this monster. I can't just run away."
"Besides, they are clearly looking down on us!" Miranda pointed at the guild supervisor, who had maintained his smile this entire time. "You want them to continue laughing at us!"
"No one's laughing at you," the guild supervisor assured her, but he clearly looked amused at the whole thing.
"Whatever! We'll figure things out when we actually fight the damned thing!" Bradley scoffed. "Don't worry, I've faced worse things before! Scarier and stronger monsters! A fifty-meter long snake isn't going to be a problem!"
Did the idiot even know how long fifty meters was? I had the feeling he couldn't even count past ten, and that was because that was the number of fingers he had.
"Bradley is right. We can't run away just because we're scared or because the monster is dangerous. It's our duty to protect the villagers from monsters!" Herman swallowed, resolved himself and took off. The rest of the party followed him.
"Wait! At least make some proper preparations first, or recruit veteran adventurers to help us…" I trailed off, realizing that no one was listening to me. The guild supervisor shot me a sympathetic glance.
"You really have it tough, don't you?" he lamented.
"You should leave that Hero party," the guild girl advised, looking very concerned. She dropped her voice so that the rest of my comrades couldn't hear her. "That warrior, Bradley…he's pretty notorious. He is actually a criminal who was kicked out of the knight regiment and imprisoned for sexually assaulting women. You can't trust him."
Oh…that was news to me, but for some reason, I wasn't surprised. There was one part of me that already knew that. And that part of me was screaming for some reason, trying to tell me something. But I continued to ignore it for now. Every time I tried to listen to the vague voice, I couldn't make out anything. Just something scratching at the edges of my consciousness. I had a feeling that it wasn't real.
Or was it my world that wasn't real?
"Also…that multi-mage, Miranda…" the receptionist continued. "I also heard nasty rumors about her. They said that she was performing experiments in live human specimens. She never had the ability to cast spells from multiple elements before, but…apparently, there was this one time when she and a group of mages went somewhere. They all disappeared for a few months, and she was the only one who returned. It is said that she somehow took their elements for herself through forbidden research."
"Rebecca," the supervisor said sternly. "The guild is not a place for gossip."
"I…I apologize!" Rebecca bowed her head apologetically. The supervisor shook his head and turned back to me.
"But Rebecca is correct. Be careful around those party members. The Hero aside, the rest don't seem very trustworthy. And I worry for the Hero as well – he seems very impressionable. Try not to let him fall to their bad influence." The supervisor clenched his fists. "There is nothing more dangerous than a corrupted Hero."
Something inside me scoffed, but outwardly I nodded seriously.
"Thank you for your advice."
"Klein! Hurry up! Everyone's waiting!"
At Irene's voice, I bowed to the guild receptionists before hastily catching up with the rest of the party.
*
"Nobody said the viper would be this big!"
Bradley was complaining as he backed away from the gigantic vicious venomous viper, holding his axe in front of him. Like I said, the damned thing was as big as a house…no, bigger. Snarling, it darted toward us with its jaws wide open. It was capable of swallowing an adult male whole, which was why Bradley was so anxious.
"Klein did," Irene said unhelpfully. "He warned us of its immense size before."
"I know that, but still…! He wasn't very specific enough!"
"Klein literally told us the exact length and even explained that it's as big as a house," Herman pointed out dryly. "How much more specific do you want him to be?"
"S…shut up! He just wasn't specific enough, okay?!"
Bradley swung his axe, parrying a fang that dripped corrosive venom. Before the gigantic viper could devour him and gulp him down, he dove to the side and rolled away.
"Some support here?!" he called out frantically.
"I'm trying!" Miranda shouted, launching fireballs at the viper, to no avail. The flaming projectiles exploded harmlessly against its armored scales, the spells dispelling ineffectually. Cursing under her breath, Miranda switched tactics and cast an earth spell this time.
Rock spikes erupted from the ground to try and pierce the vicious venomous viper. Again, they weren't able to penetrate the enormous monster's armored hide, their sharp tips shattering upon impact.
Miranda wasn't stupid, though. She was still a prodigy, and she instantly adapted, twisting the earth spikes about to ensnare and trap the venomous viper, inhibiting its movements. This worked far better, the earth appendages snaking around the writhing venomous viper and immobilizing it momentarily.
"Good job, Miranda!" Herman yelled, rushing forward when he saw the chance to counterattack. Raising his sword, he sought to behead the viper.
Before he could, however, I grabbed hold of his shoulder and yanked him back. He turned on me furiously.
"What's that for?!"
His question was answered a second later when the vicious viper spat out a glob of venom. The corrosive fluids struck the ground and immediately ate the soil, leaving a sizzling crater. Herman's eyes widened at the sight.
"T…thanks. You saved me…"
"Don't worry! I got it!"
Bradley seized the chance to swing his axe, dealing a deep wound to the side of the vicious venomous viper's neck. His brute strength actually allowed him to deliver more damage than Miranda's spells, the axe smashing apart armored scales and biting deeply into the meat underneath.
The vicious venomous viper hissed in agony before thrashing about, throwing Bradley off. With a sudden surge of strength, it broke free of its confinements and lunged at the fallen Bradley, ready to swallow him whole.
"No! Save me!" Bradley cried, holding his axe up in a futile gesture.
Miranda's spells and Yvonne's arrows proved ineffective, the projectiles harmlessly glancing off the viper's armored scales.
"Damn it! Its scales are too tough!" Yvonne growled.
"Magic is not very effective against it!" Miranda moaned.
"That's because you're using basic spells." I sighed and shut my eyes, conjuring an intermediate spell. Mouthing an incantation, I cast it, and in a moment, the entire vicious venomous viper literally froze in its tracks. Its massive body entombed completely in ice, its frozen mouth halted a couple of meters away from Bradley, who was about to piss his pants.
"What took you so long?!" he hollered at me. Fucking ingrate. I should have let the viper eat him.
"The more powerful a spell is, the longer it takes to cast. That's just common sense." I nodded at Miranda. "Miranda can tell you as much."
"K…Klein is right." Miranda sulked. "I still have a long way to go."
"Don't relax just yet," I said and turned to Herman. "The vicious venomous viper is a very tenacious monster. My spell didn't kill it. It's possible that it'll break free any time soon, so you should hurry and finish it off before it escapes my ice."
"Roger that." Taking a deep breath, Herman raised his sword and charged forward. Bradley did too, bringing his axe up to swing it down on the viper, but before he could do so, he backed away.
"The ice…it's breaking out already!"
Like he said, the viper was gradually shaking its frozen restraints loose. Fragments of frost crumbled, broke away and rained down from its violently vibrating body.
"If you know that, then hurry up and killed it!" I yelled, frustrated.
"I'm trying!" Herman said as he charged forward, but he wasn't going to reach the viper in time. I was actually directing those words to the ineffectual Bradley, but never mind…
Whatever the case, neither of them needed to make a move. Before Herman could reach the viper, someone else descended from the skies. There were a few dozen flashes of silver light, and then the head of the venomous viper fell, detached from the rest of its body.
A young man in a dark hood dropped to the ground in a kneeling position before slowly rising to his feet. He sheathed his gleaming daggers and turned to us.
"W…who?" Herman breathed, his voice ragged in awe and disbelief.
"Who the hell are you?!" Bradley demanded before Herman could complete his question. The burly warrior was clearly in shock. That didn't excuse his rudeness, though, especially since he just had his ass saved.
The newcomer bowed with a flourish, his dark eyes never leaving us.
"My name is Alan Assam," he replied flatly. "I am an assassin. The League of Shadows has dispatched me to assist you, the Hero party, in slaying the Demonic Emperor."