Holy frickening, that was scary. But I did it, I killed the bear in one strike.
I studied the corpse of the bear, and found the way how I killed it. As fast as I could, I swung the sword through its face, slicing the head all the way in half vertically. No human nor animal will live after its head got sliced like that, so the bear died right away before it even touched the ground.
But seeing the opened head of the bear, it felt like something inside of me wanted to come out… literally.
I quickly held my mouth to stop myself from puking. As I was doing that, I began to hear commotion from the village, and found the village people all rushing towards my position.
As they arrived at my position, praises came out from their mouths non-stop.
"You are amazing!!"
"That was awesome!!"
"Are you a high ranking??"
The villagers, all looking widely surprised at what just happened, are staring me down as if I'm some superstar that they came across. Since it was my first time handling such a thing, all I did was shrug the back of my head awkwardly and smiled at them.
The chief then moved through the crowd of sweaty farmers and grabbed my hand immediately. His eyes stared into me purely with amazement, to the point that it's tearing up.
"Thank you... You are amazing!"
His eyes are glimmering with tears as he said that. I guess he is really happy.
"Emm... Do I get paid extra?"
Wow. Way to go with the straight to the point, Rize.
Hearing me saying that, the chief quickly realized what he was doing and cleared his throat.
"About that... I can pay you extra, but I can't raise the difficulty of the mission now that it is complete. So you won't be getting the achievement of 'beating a Purple ranked mission as a Red'."
"That's fine. I only needed the money."
"Many thanks!"
Well, that ended way quicker than I thought. At least now, I have learned a very important lesson for myself.
If you are confident at something, just do it. Wasting time will only get people killed.
After receiving an extra payment from the chief (100 Jules as an extra), I went back to Mazino. The chief offered to take the carriage that belonged to the village, but I declined.
I wanted to become tired. It's counted as training, after all.
And walking back to the kingdom... was hell.
That jump, the one I used right before I killed the bear, took SO MUCH energy. No joke, I only felt it when I just left the village, and my legs were quivering non stop.
Not just that, I also did this mission right after training. Not to mention I only got to sit down and rest for only a minute until the bear came. I was not in a condition to fight the bear, and I definitely should have rested first right after I fought. I walked so far and so long, I only got to rest for a minute when the bear came.
To add to all of that…
I didn't ask for water.
I certainly didn't calculate this at all.
My body couldn't move by the time I arrived at the south-eastern gate. When I arrived at the said gate, my expression was so exhausted that the knights at the gate became so confused as to what they wanted to do with me.
Luckily, there was someone familiar nearby.
In the end, the knight lady from before who was currently stationed, saw me and offered to pick me up and piggy back me to the office.
It's Miss Vane, thank god she was here.
"So you pushed yourself to the limit?"
She asked, and I chuckled as I rested my chin on her metal shoulder pad.
Being piggybacked by a cute knight lady is the best thing ever, but only if I was a man. Now, we looked like a pair of lesbians. But, I still don't mind.
"Hmm... Kind of."
I said to her, barely describing anything.
"Where?"
"The farmers' village in the south."
"I see... I heard an adventurer came there and killed a demonized bear in one swoop."
"Hmm... He must be some adventurer..."
"It was said that it's a she."
"Uhuh..."
"And she has red hair."
"Okay, I gave up."
I chuckled slightly, and she followed. Feeling her giggling while being on her back made me literally feel her body shake, which made me weird for some reason.
"You sure have gotten far… What happened?"
She asked after chuckling, and I placed my chin on her shoulder again.
"The people at the Adventurer's Office helped me. A test conductor there took me in and trained me. The receptionist lady taught me how to read and bought me food. I guess… I'm in a family now."
"Is that so…?"
Her tone changed during the walk, and I can tell the change in her idea about adventurers as a whole. I'm not sure as to why she disliked adventurers, but I hope she can change her mind regarding that, because what happened to me was so nice and it does not deserve any hate.
I turned my gaze around, and found that everyone seemed to be glaring at us. I can already feel how awkward it is already, but since I couldn't move, I can't do anything about this situation.
I just hope Miss Vane doesn't mind it…
"You don't seem to like adventurers much, Miss Vane."
I said to her, and she turned her gaze to me slightly.
"Hmm? I'm glad you remembered my name."
Of course, I do! You're so hot!!
"Why is it that you hated adventurers?"
I asked her again, and she began explaining to me.
"It's not that I don't like adventurers. I'm just worried about what you will go through if you become one.
I often see adventurers walk out of that gate and never come back. Your line of work is truly dangerous. I tried warning you, but it seems like you managed to do it."
Oh… it was that bad, huh?
Being an adventurer really is a dangerous job. If it was anybody else fighting that massive bear instead of me, would they have survived?
"Yeah, well... I don't really let on easily."
"How did you fix your... issue?"
She must have meant the sickness, how I kept on getting tired and such. She was the first to notice this, so it wouldn't be weird for her to ask.
"Apparently it was a sickness..."
I began telling her about my experience living in the Adventurer's Office, how I trained every single day to fix my condition, and how I only recently turned healthy.
The two of us talked as we marched towards the office. People around us just see two girls chatting like normal, with one of them on the back of another. This is truly not something they see everyday, and they definitely thought we're into those things or something. I mean, hey. I don't mind.
The talking made me not realize the time, and we arrived without me even noticing. From the receptionist desk, Klane dropped her gaze at us and panicked instantly.
"Rize!?"
Klane immediately ran out of the receptionist room and rushed to my position. Everyone inside the lobby turned their eyes towards us, and watched as the scene rolled.
"What happened?"
Klane asked as I was slowly standing up by myself, being helped by Miss Vane.
"She killed the bear."
"R-Really?"
She turned her head towards me, but I'm already on the verge of darkness.
"Hey, Klane..."
I said,
And I fell asleep.
.
When I opened my eyes, I spotted a familiar ceiling. My bedroom, the room I've stayed the entire time.
Klane is nowhere to be found, but I'm not alone. I turned to the side, and found a large built man sitting by the table. He seemed to be sleeping on the table, which surprises me as to how he isn't snoring loudly.
I noticed who he was and called for him.
"Hey, man."
I said with my head still on the pillow. After hearing my voice, Jrake suddenly woke up. He stood up and then looked around to find me, only to realize that I'm still down here on the bed.
"R-Rize! You're awake! H-How do you feel!?"
"I'm fine, so please don't shout. I had enough loud screams today from the bear…"
I slowly moved up and leaned my back on the wall behind the pillow. Seeing that I'm sitting up, Jrake also sat back down on the chair.
"How is Klane?"
I asked him, but he is shaking his head.
"Shouldn't you be worrying about yourself first?"
"I told you. I'm fine."
I'm genuinely fine. I'm not hurt in any way, and the only reason I collapsed was because I'm tired, that's all.
I studied my body again, and found that my legs do feel a little crampy down there. Not just that, it felt like I'm still quite tired despite however long I've rested.
"This mission totally did me good…"
I said while rubbing my legs to get the pain away, while Jrake began to think by himself.
"Of course, it does. But at least from now on, you won't be as tired like this anymore if you take a mission."
"You're right."
He looked at me for a while, as if confirming that I was really okay. Once he was sure, he then stood back up.
"Klane is downstairs, worrying about you. The knight lady said you took down a demonized bear? And in one swoop?"
"Yes. I did."
"Oh, dear... Why didn't you go back to report that the bear got demonized? You could receive even more money, as well as an achievement of defeating a Purple ranked beast.
No. If anything, you shouldn't even be there to begin with. A Red ranked adventurer fighting a Purple ranked beast? That is just out of the question."
"I told the village's chief the same thing. If I leave that place or if it was left alone, the demonized bear will come at any time. It can kill a lot of people if no one is ready to fight it."
"That's… right. But how did you know about that?"
I glanced at the book of monsters right on top of the desk, the very table that he was sleeping on previously. He followed my eyes and saw it as well, and he laughed after realizing.
"Haha! You're smart, little lady!!"
I chuckled at him and nodded, and he began walking towards the door.
"I'll go tell Klane you are awake. You just take a rest, and… maybe read more books. It might actually save other people's lives."
He left after winking his right eye, and I can't help but agree.
If I didn't have that information when I came to the village, I'd probably be on my way back when the bear attacks. Who knows how many people will get hurt if that were to happen.
Looks like… the key to surviving in this world is knowledge. I have to know everything, about this world, the language, history, everything.
While I waited for Klane, I began reading the dictionary book to increase my reading capability. I needed to become smarter, because knowledge is the same as strength.
Magic points may be able to kill monsters, but to save people from danger, one requires knowledge. I will thrive to achieve both.
After reading for about thirty minutes, Klane finally went to my room. With an expression... huh?
"Ri… zeeee!!"
PLAKK!!!
She came at me rushing from the door and struck my head really hard. It was really hard too, and I could hear the smacking sound as she did that.
Funny enough, it wasn't that painful.
"I told you that was a bad idea!"
She shouted after smacking me on the head, and I turned to her a little agitated to defend myself.
"Auch! I'm sorry! But if I don't stay and leave, the villagers will die!"
"You are… unbelievable!"
She exclaimed while turning away, and I immediately chuckled seeing her behavior. She is being protective, at least that makes me glad.
After she calmed down, I told her everything. How I stayed in the village knowing that the demon bear could show up at any time and the details as to how I killed the bear.
"That book really helps, after all…"
She said as she comforted herself. Hey, comfort me!
"If only you waited until the mission turned to Purple, you would have it much easier to rank up!"
"I don't really care about ranking up. Plus, the chief did give me extra cash."
I said while doing a little gesture with my two fingers, all while wearing a grin. She probably saw me as someone who's entire life plan revolves around money, and she facepalmed while sighing really hard.
"You really... Why don't you want to rank up? Most adventurers would want a rank up so they can do higher pay missions."
She asked me, and I think this is the time I began telling her about my feelings.
What she said, about Red ranked adventurers getting attacked. What Miss Vane said, about adventurers never coming back from missions.
I… want to do something about it.
"About that… I want to talk to you."
I said to her, and she looked at me even more confused.
"If possible, I want to stay as a low rank. It doesn't matter if it's Gray, or Purple rank. I want to do… the dangerous low rank missions."
"Dangerous? Low rank missions? What do you mean?"
She asked about her confusion, and I began thinking how to explain this to her.
"Remember the time when you said there are adventurers who died because of doing Red ranked missions?"
"Yeah, because they were attacked by something?"
"I wish to do those kinds of quests."
"W-What?"
I looked to the ceiling and pondered over what to say. My next few words must convince her to agree.
"The reason I chose to do gathering missions from now on, is because I want to keep those low ranking adventurers from ever encountering dangerous monsters."
"But that would mean... You need to encounter one!"
"I just killed a Purple ranked bear in one swoop. You think I'm worried?"
I said with a smile, but deep down I know it's actually luck. There are plenty of factors to my victory today, some that I can't control. In real combat against beasts and monsters, a human needs to become more dangerous than it. It was lucky that I just happened to be more dangerous than the demonized bear.
"I don't want low ranking adventurers to die. Not when I can do something about it."
I said to her, while looking as confident as possible. I managed to hide my doubts away completely from my expression, which thankfully made Klane understood.
"Hahh... I guess there really is no choice."
Yes…!
After accepting that, her face turned serious. She then began explaining to me about what these dangerous low ranking missions meant.
"We do have the locations of the potential encounters, but we have to wait until a mission is issued. If a mission did, we could take that off the board and send it directly to you. How does that sound?"
"... Good enough."
"Okay. Do note that the monsters that you will be encountering are different based on the rank. The highest danger rank you will face alone will be at the Green rank. Anything above that rank, I will send an extra group of adventurers to help you out.
For tonight, get some rest. There are actually a few on the board with potential locations, but you have to get some rest first before you are able to do a quest tomorrow. Got it?"
T-Tomorrow??
"Wait, what?"
I looked out the window, and found that it's already dark outside. But I came back here just a few hours before the third bell…
How long… did I sleep?
"All right… But I just woke up. How can I rest again?"
She glared at me with a disbelieving expression, and finally facepalmed while letting out a sigh.
"Come with me, then."