Four days had passed since Gideon had officially joined the Adventurers' Guild of the Figliad branch. Since then, he had completed several tasks that did not involve fighting or putting himself in danger. Harvesting flowers and vegetables from the landowners' flower farms, mining stones from the caves nearby the town, and errand running were the types of quests available to him as a Class E adventurer, which was the lowest rank of the guild and had a significantly lower reward compared to what Class D quests could give.
He spent his mornings milking cows and doing ranch work, and the rest of the days doing another quest to cover his living expenses. He could complete three quests per day at most, each with a reward of one or two silver coins.
Gideon was looking down while eating silently in the guildhall cafeteria, eating a single loaf of bread and soup with a glass of orange juice and attempting to ignore the gazes of the adventurers around him. He became hesitant to make eye contact with them because they gave him cheerful smiles and words every time their eyes met, believing that they were only doing it out of pity for him because of what happened in his sparring with Dirian.
The truth, however, was quite the opposite.
Gideon stood up and walked toward the quest board, where he picked up the doable quest with the highest reward attached. He walked toward the registrar while holding the paper and smiling as he showed it to Seilyn.
"I'll take this quest," he said cheerfully, masking his true feelings.
Seilyn quickly took the paper and read what was written on it. "30 Blue Pensecran for two silver coins, you're going to mine again, huh?"
"Yes, that kind of quest has quite generous rewards, so I can't help but take more of that," he laughed.
"I see," Seilyn said, nodding and signing the paper before clearing her throat. "Anyway, Ordy's party arrived this morning, and they embarked on yet another monster material gathering adventure... It just surprised me that you didn't come with them, despite the fact that you are now a member of their party," she said as she handed the paper to Gideon, her eyes hidden behind her glasses directed to Gideon.
Gideon paused for a few seconds, thinking that if he went, he would be a burden to them. "Yeah, I'm still trying to get the hang of adventuring, so I'd like to stay on this kind of quest first," he said, taking the paper and waving his hand away. "I'm leaving now; I'll see you at sundown."
The massive cave of Agiza, located on the town's southwestern outskirts, was where adventurers gathered to perform mining quests. One of the three cave systems in Figliad, but the most crowded due to its proximity to the guild hall. The cave's entrance was a massive hole in the middle of a massive grassland, a few miles away from the mountainous trails of the main route toward Meirhan's capital.
The cave was rich in coal, gemstones, limestones, and even salt, as well as useful materials like gravel and clay, metals like iron, copper, and rare ones like silver and gold.
Due to the scorching rays of the sun above, the entrance hole of the cave was deserted, with only Gideon walking toward the cave, which was already familiar to him. He was wearing a brown fabric helmet and wielding a pickaxe with a chiseled gray stone head that he had purchased the day before.
Gideon entered the cave, walked down the carved-rock staircase, and slung the pickaxe's rod over his shoulder. His narrowed eyes adjusted slowly to the sudden darkness of his surroundings, and he easily traveled the silent and dimly lit up route thanks to the lamps hanging on the cave's brown, hard walls.
For a few moments, all that could be heard were his tired footsteps and repeated sighs, as well as silence. However, as he neared the bottom of the staircase, the sounds of the adventurers ahead echoed throughout the area. And, upon hearing them, Gideon exhaled before leaping into the mine's interior, a huge smile on his face and a hand waving.
"Yo!" he yelled.
Inside the rocky chamber were five adventurers of the same class rank as him, and when they saw him, they immediately waved their pickaxes while smiling broadly.
"Gideon, my lad!" exclaimed one of them. He was dressed in a set of tunics and wore a leather helmet on his head.
Then came the other four, all wearing the same helmets. "How was your morning, my lad?"
Gideon laughed in response. "As always, it's fantastic," he said as he walked toward a massive hole in front of him. The mining system could be located just ahead. "Are you going home now?"
"Yes, we're done for the day, I'm not like you who is a hard worker," one of them joked while laughing.
Gideon simply smiled and nodded. "I don't have much of a choice."
"Why don't you just join Ordy's party on their adventures if you really want to get more rewards? Aren't you a reserved member of their party?"
"I agree with him, you know it's extremely difficult to join a party while still being a Class E, our guild members are quite supportive, but we can't blame them for being hesitant to recruit a newbie who can't fight, but you, you already have one waiting for you," said the skinny one with red hair.
Gideon shook his head. "It's not like that; I just happened to meet them and they decided to recruit me without seeing my abilities; I'm sure they had second thoughts after seeing me sparring with Sir Dirian."
"What do you mean? What I heard was the inverse of what you just said. If I'm being honest, you don't belong here, My lad," said the other, his face hidden behind a brown mask, his weak chuckle audible.
Gideon returned his gaze, staring at the masked face of the person who said it. "Do I not belong here?" he inquired.
The man who said it laughed and took off his mask, revealing his bald head. "Yes, I heard you did an excellent job sparring against Dirian, and everyone's attention is on you, which makes me wonder why you're still here and doing low-reward quests. If I were you, I'd be running around with Ordy and his crew, collecting gold coins that you'd never get mining or milking a hundred cows."
"I heard you knocked down Dirian, which no newbie in his career as a trainer had ever done; I couldn't even land a hit on him after training with him for a few months," the redhead stated.
Gideon, on the other hand, just laughed at what he heard, which he thought was ridiculous. "You heard it wrong, I didn't knock Sir Dirian and I don't think I ever will, the story you heard was just an exaggeration," he said as he walked toward the hole, heading to the cave system, leaving the other five shaking their heads and looking at each other as his back disappeared in the dark.
Gideon's lifeless eyes wandered around until he reached the end of the tunnel while silently walking in the dark hole just large enough to fit a person inside. As he emerged, he found himself in front of a massive dome with five levels of platforms, where countless more tunnels could be seen thanks to the lamps scattered throughout the cave. He entered one of the tunnels and reached the end after a few seconds. He began slamming the pickaxe against the hard ground in front of him, making a crunchy sound with each strike.
He repeatedly slammed the wall with his pickaxe for a few seconds before stopping to rest. While chasing his own breath, his gaze was fixed on the rocky wall in front of him, displaying no emotion.
"I don't fit in anywhere."