When we reached Nartuca Village we were greeted by the people. Their kind, welcoming smiles, and pointy ears were all over us, like they hadn't seen visitors in a long while.
Wait... Pointy ears?
These people were Elves! All of them were beautiful, including the men. Some had green hair, some blonde, some blue, and the rare sight of white.
I don't believe this! Real Elves! It's like a dream come true!
The town itself was peaceful and showed no signs of modern civilization. What I meant by this was there were no bricks, roads, or pavement. No, none of that. The houses were made of the stumps of cut down trees, which from the size, had been huge. Each house had vines wrapped around it in all directions, with circular shaped flowers that spanned every few feet on them. My guess was that they were Illuminares.
"Hello," a young and beautiful Elf approached us.
Her hair was green and cut short, easily showing off her pointed ears, but her side burns flowed down to her shoulders like a green waterfall, or since it's green maybe it was more like a twizzler, or some snot that was hanging from your nose. Though I guess that'd be a rude analogy.
Her green eyes shun in the light of the sun and the spear on her back hinted she was an adventurer. Her skin glowed like the moon itself was shining in the light of day, and her figure was similar to Sora's, but while Sora had breasts, this girl did not.
She wore white and green attire, colors that befitted the elves. The only leather on her armor was the leather on her chest, though her armor exposed some of her upper chest. If her boobs were large you'd see cleavage, but all I could see was a flat board. She was five four at most. "How can I help y-" her eyes met mine and she fell silent.
Great.
It's just like back in school. Anytime I came into someone's sight they would fall silent, either out of spite, or awkwardness. I couldn't let the silence stand so I decided to fight against my nature and speak.
"We need to see the mayor." She blinked at me several times before speaking.
"I-I see, well, follow me." The path she led us down was created by flowers. It seemed that instead of having roads or pavements to walk on, they walked on the grass, and the flowers created these paths of grass for you to follow. And I'd assume you couldn't stray of the created path, as you would harm the flowers.
I played a game with a quest like that once.
"So...y'all completed the request?" Her side burns bounced up and down with each step she took.
"Yeah," Sora answered. "It was difficult, but we managed."
"Barely," Han added amusedly.
"Hey, that's not the point," Sora puffed her chest. "The point is that what's done is done."
"Ha-Ha," the Elf girl laughed. "Well, anyway, we're here," she opened the wooden door to the house, which like the others, was made of a tree stump. Although this one is much larger. It also just so happened to be in the center of the village, a cliché for those that play games.
The inside of the house was more luxurious than you would have thought. The furniture was made of Dark Oak wood, making it of the highest quality. There were ivory vines all along the walls and ceiling. Just like on the outside, there were luminous flowers attached to the vines. These ones glowed though, casting a soft green light into the room. I couldn't help but awe at it all.
"Welcome, adventures, what brings you to my village?" The mayor was an Elf with long white hair. He looked old, and yet still had youth in his eyes and his voice.
"They have come to inform you that the quest you submitted was completed," It was the Elf girl who spoke.
"These three?" He looked at Sora and friends, totally ignoring the fact I was standing a few feet away from them. "You completed the quest I sent out? You only look like beginners. How do I know you are telling the truth?" The mayor had reason to doubt the claim. The party was rather...weak looking. "You there, did you carry this party through this quest? Or are you allowing them to take credit for it?" He looked over at me and spoke.
"Huh?" I gave him a look that said "what are you, stupid?"
"No, I'm actually the lowest level out of all of them here." His eyes opened wide and a strange sound preceded from his throat.
"Hrk! What?! But you are the only one that has any decent gear. You even have a Legendary Sword on your back."
Appraisal. That's what that was, how he knew the grade of my gear, which I had not.
It was a skill Elves had in most games, allowing them to read an items description, name, and its value.
"....I don't really care." I waved off what the Mayor had said. It's true. I really didn't care what rank or grade the sword was. I couldn't even use it to the best of its abilities with my current stats, so I didn't want to know what I was missing out on. If I knew, it'd just piss me off more.
"But the answer is still no. I didn't carry their party. In fact, I actually recently joined them."
"But he did save us," Han jumped in. "If not for him running into us when he had, we would all be dead and that quest uncompleted."
"Even with me we almost died," I shot down the compliment.
"But we didn't. That's what I'm trying to say."
"Tch." I didn't like being praised. The thanks and the kind stares all made me feel uneasy.
"I see..." The Mayor stared at me. "Well I don't sense any lies in your words, so I believe you, and you shall be rewarded as promised. 10,000 Gold coins and 10,000 EXP, such is a suitable award for such a dangerous quest."
"WHAT!" It was Sora who raised her voice in surprise, although all the others looked just as surprised as she sounded, even me. "The form said 1,000 gold coins and 1,000 EXP, but you're saying it's 10,000?!"
The mayor raised an eyebrow, it was obvious that he was confused. He knew very well what he put as the rewards for the difficult quest he submitted, yet we were saying it was less than that. "Please hand me the form." Sora did as he asked. He skimmed over it with narrowed eyes. "That's odd."
"What?" It was Han who spoke this time.
"It has been written over with Transparent Ink, and magic has been used to make false writing appear over it."
Sora sighed and immediately explained to the mayor what they had discovered earlier when the rank was shown as a D but was actually a B. Rubellia also joined in later on, with Han soon after. They all told the Mayor about the party they encountered who gave them the quest, and how shady they were, also explaining they did the same to other parties, giving out quests that where too late to get one. Something they hadn't told me.
"Hmm, it seems that party you mentioned is Party Beguiling."
"Party what?" Sora and friends spoke in sync.
Seriously? They do that in this world?
It was a horrible thing, Party Beguiling. Stronger parties would trick weaker parties into doing a quest to hard for them and get them killed. It was a test to see if you deserved to be in a guild. And it was only given to parties that were thought to be the weakest.
I'd actually had seen this happen several times in my gaming days. Not to me, but other parties. I'd of course help them, because in the games in which this was done in, when you died you would lose all your gear. And half the time when you did die, the party that tricked you would come after and loot all your gear. It was sickening.
I stopped all that though in the games I played, saved them, just like anyone else would do.
The mayor was about to explain to them what it meant, but I beat him to the punch. I couldn't hold my tongue on this.
"Party Beguiling, it's fairly common actually. Higher ranked parties will use magic or whatever means they can to change the stats of a quest to make it look lower then it is and hand them out to weaker parties. It's a means of killing off parties, especially newer and weaker ones. It's kind of a test to see who deserves to be an adventurer. If you come back alive, then good job. If you die...well, you get the point." I sneered. "It makes me sick."
I never expected it to be a thing they'd do in this world though. After all, there is no respawn, if you die, you die.
"You seem to know a lot about this. Has this happened to you before?" The mayor asked.
"No. I only know about it because I'd always help the parties that this happened to."
"So, you're a hero of sorts...?"
"No."
"Then you did it for a reward?"
"No."
"Then you are a hero. Helping the innocent without asking for anything in return, that sounds like a hero in my book."