I leaped away from the hole just in time when a swarm burst out.
A bunch of huge bugs came out of the hole. Each of them are around twice the size of a human head, and their shape is round, unlike a cockroach that's oval.
"Oh, what the fuck? I have to fight these!!?"
What even are they?? Beatles? I don't think so!?
The bugs are flying in the air, and I noticed that there is only one way to fight it. I have to move quickly.
Bugs are known to be fast. Like, very fast. Have you ever seen a cockroach run? Imagine being chased by it if it was the same size as you. It's probably faster than any fastest man alive.
And here, they could fly. A flying cockroach is bad enough, but now they have to be human sized.
Great.
I'm loving this world more and more.
Counting, there are about 12 of them. One of them is bigger than the other and is coloured black red. The others are just pitch black, so I immediately deducted why that is the case.
"Queen, huh?"
I immediately began guessing. If you kill it, will all the other bugs give up?
But, there is the problem of how to kill it.
I remembered buying a throwing knife from the shop. I only have two of them, so let's make this count.
The bugs began to attack one by one, and they quickly dived down like rockets, with their claw-like mouths ready to cut me down. But, I'm much faster than them.
As they dive down in speed, I simply dodge to the right, left, up, and even slice some of them as I dodge.
I slowly reduce their number as I dodge from their attacks, and I did that by slicing them with my sword. But the queen is staying up there, waiting for something.
As I sliced the fourth bug, I made a mistake. I jumped too high, and landing again will take a couple seconds.
The queen saw this opportunity. She suddenly bobbed her head, and threw a spit at me. Wrong, it's an acid spit, and it's quite huge.
I can't dodge it.
I can only watch as the giant spit of acid flew at me with high speed, then a blur came from my right.
BRUKK!!
I landed on the ground with my body intact. But, there's something else besides me. No, 'someone' else.
"Hey there, Rize. You seemed fine."
I turned and found the archer guy from before. No, I think Klane said he was a hunter?
"Mister Stalker. You just couldn't watch anymore, could you?"
"Nope."
Rath the hunter helped me stand up, and I took his hand awkwardly. The queen is now spinning in the air like crazy, so I guess she's pissed that her target dodged her secret attack.
"Say, who told you to stalk on me?"
"Klane did, but Jrake was the one who asked me to come."
"I see. I guess I have to thank them."
"Hey, I'm the one who saved you!"
"You know I got it handled, right?"
"Yeah, right!"
Maybe, I do have it handled. There is a way to move like that, even in the air. If I force enough energy to my hand and punch the air, I will be thrown away to the opposite direction due to the force of the punch. It's just like a rocket punch.
But to do that requires concentration, which is something difficult for me since I panicked when the acid is flying at me. So having him saving me was actually good.
"You can use those bow and arrow, right? Shoot that thing, please."
"No way! This is your mission."
"... If you say so."
I put my hand in my side pocket and took out the throwing knife. I held it with my right hand. And as I held it, I focused my magic energy on my hand. I can feel my muscles being supported by the magic.
Now. The aiming.
I opened my eyes wide and stared at the queen bug, not minding anything else happening around me. Time felt like it slowed down again, and I can even see the wings of the queen flap around slowly, where previously all I saw was a blur.
I waited for the perfect moment, and finally found the right timing. With confidence, I threw the knife.
FWOOSSHHH!!!!!
At the trajectory, two more bugs flew in front of their queen.
I guess they have the feeling it might endanger the queen, so they moved on the way to take the hit. But that knife was thrown with a powerful magic enhanced hand. Plus, their body can barely handle a single arrow shot.
ZREBB!!!
ZREEBBB!!!!
The thrown knife thrusted through both the minion bugs rapidly, and is now rushing towards the queen bug. The queen bug tried moving away, but the thrown knife was still moving very fast.
It can't dodge at all.
JLEBB!!!!!!!
Three bugs got shot down, including the queen.
Rath just watches from the side, in complete shock. Throwing knives usually meant to cut things from far away, but I just used it like a dart. That's a function he probably didn't know, because he looked very surprised.
Seeing the queen die, the bugs started flying randomly. After a while, they went away beyond sight since they were heading in random directions.
"Told ya."
I said while still looking to the skies, and Rath turned to me with shocked eyes.
"... What the hell was that technique?"
"All I did was strengthen my hand and throw the knife. Was that so hard?"
"But that aim... Not even archers can do it."
I lightly tapped on his shoulder.
"Calm down. Your job is just surveillance. Not asking questions."
After that, I left him alone on that battle ground to the nearby village, where the carriage is at.
After a few minutes of waiting for the carriage to depart, I saw him running to the carriage from the woods. Immediately I knew that he was running to have a talk.
He arrived right next to the carriage, and he lowered his body from being out of breath. Meanwhile, I looked at him in pity from the carriage.
"Rize! Hah... Hahh..."
"Calm down. Breathe..."
What is wrong with him?
Right after I said that, he did the exact opposite and stood up straight again. He turned his eyes at me and began asking.
"Rize, are you... taking part in the upcoming Gray ranked test?"
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Then... I want to make a request!"
"...?"
His expression looks very worried, which gets me intrigued a little bit. But that doesn't mean I really want to help him.
"There is someone who is also taking part in the test. My younger brother."
"... And?"
I didn't recall anyone that looks like him at the table last night, or when I was with Jrake on the back arena earlier today. Or maybe, he never attended any of the meetings.
"Is this your real brother or someone you proclaimed as a brother?"
"No, no. This is my real younger brother!"
I took a deep breath and let it out. Then I glared at him with a tired face.
"So? What's the request?"
"I want you to protect him. He is weak, and there is a high chance he might get attacked by the goblins at the dungeon and somehow lost."
"... Are you kidding? If you know he's weak, why would you let him take the test?"
"He is persistent! I can't change his mind once he's dead set with it! I've been meaning to find a Red adventurer who's strong and wishes to come on the ranking up test. But so far, I've found no one..."
"So? Have you found anyone?"
That question successfully pissed him off. That was my intention, after all.
"Ugh, you little... Please! Help him out! If he gets hurt, I'll never forgive myself! If he dies, I'll... I'll be lonely."
His expression is getting more and more convincing, and I can understand why he wants me to protect his brother.
Lonely, huh…? I came to this world alone. But, I quickly found some people who can assist me. Klane, Jrake, Miss Vane, even the fruit seller, Urek. You could never be truly alone. You just have to try.
And this guy, he is trying his best to keep his brother safe. I respect that, but whether his brother is worthy of saving or not...
I took out a deep breath. He did save me from that acid spit from the queen bug, so I guess I owed him one.
"I'll see whether or not your brother is worthy of saving. You don't have to worry if you believe he's a good person."
He suddenly smiles brightly.
"Don't worry. He is!"
"Just so you know, if it were up to me, I wouldn't let anyone die right in front of me. So if they are good people, without you pestering me, I would already be saving them."
"That's… Thank you! Thank you so much!"
He bowed right in front of me. Everyone on the carriage seemed to be looking at us, but I started to get used to all this attention thing.
"We are going!"
The carriage driver shouted out loud, and everyone around the carriage started to enter the carriage.
What the hell…?
"Why are you riding this carriage?"
I asked him, who is sitting right across from me. To my question, he was simply grinning.
"I was in the same carriage as you before, but you just didn't realize it."
I didn't recall anyone with a hunter's hat in my carriage before... Or could he be...
"Were you… up on the top?"
"Yep."
"Then go back up there, stalker."
We spent the whole road... just… talking nonsense. It was mostly him telling the story of how he got this job of following me, while I continuously roasted him for being a stalker.
He doesn't like that, and I think I have successfully changed his mind about continuing to be a stalker anymore.
By the time we arrived at the kingdom, I walked back to the office to report my mission while Rath went home. Klane is finally done with her work, but she is taking her break, so I met with Keila instead.
With this, I've completed the requirements to take the Gray rank test.
She gave me the payment for the mission, which was quite… a lot. Apparently killing a single bug gives you 20 Jules and I murdered like 10, along with the queen. So I just got 200 Jules from that.
After giving me the payment, Keila continued her business with the other adventurer.
I was about to walk upstairs, but then I remembered that the room wasn't my room anymore.
So I went to Jrake to ask about where to look for the right place to stay. He was still at the back arena, talking with the other guys like before.
Jrake said there are plenty of good inns around this area, so I just need to find the right one.
That's why I'm asking, you bald head...
I also told Jrake that I've completed the requirements to take the test, and he said that he will take care of the paperwork with Klane. That way, I can just come on the day of the test.
Once I got everything sorted with Jrake, I left the office to look for a place to stay.
There is one right next to the office, but I don't want it to be too close. Plus, it looks ugly from the outside. So, next!
There is one right next to a diner. It looks expensive. Let's try it.
They say that a room is 20 Jules per night. Holy hell, that's quite expensive. Wait, is it?
I told the receptionist that I will tell my friends about it. But in reality I'm just looking for more places and finding out their prices.
There are around 4 more inns on the main road, and I just looked at two. So let's look at two more.
The third one is 22 Jules a night. It's said to have a bathroom inside, but it wasn't that large. Next!
The fourth is 17 Jules. Outside bathroom, but large. Hell no, I want my own bathroom.
After checking all four inns, I began pondering in the middle of the road while walking. The second inn I checked had a bathroom inside, but the room was stiff. But I'm looking for quality, not the cheapest, so I guess I'm picking the third one.
22 Jules a night, that's quite a fair price. Let's see the room.
To compare things, I used the bedroom that I used at the Office. The Office's bedrooms are actually quite shitty. There's dust everywhere, the bed being hard, and the table and chair was very old. It's literally only for poor adventurers who don't have a place to stay at all, or who are too poor to rent an inn room.
So after taking a look at the room of this 22 Jules inn, it makes this room like a five star small hotel.
The floor is cleanly wiped. The bed is nicely done, with two pillows. The table is a nice quality, and the bathroom is very clean and well planned. There's also a shower too, where the one at the Office only has a simple bucket.
My god, can I just buy this room permanently??
But is this good for my economics? Hmm, let's think about it.
A single mission, I can get around 100 Jules lowest. Staying in a room costs 22 Jules a night, so I have 78 Jules left. Eating twice a day, along with the drinks is at least 14 Jules. So that leaves me with 64 Jules.
In a single day I can still make 64 Jules extra, so I guess my missions were quite big of a payment after all. Or is it because adventurers have a high payment since they risk their lives? I'm not sure.
I guess my money is quite safe. Looks like I'll be staying here permanently.
I paid for the room at the front desk, but only for one night. I might need to do a lot more missions, so I can pay for a weekly or even monthly stay. For now, I'll have to pay daily since I don't have that much.
It's still daytime, so I thought of walking around the town. I changed into a set of casual clothes, and I was immediately reminded of how weird my situation was.
... I can never get used to this. Do I really have to wear ladies' clothes everyday…? It really is making me feel like an extreme lined pervert or something.
I took my space ring and walked outside the inn to stroll around the other parts of the town. There are sides of the kingdom that I haven't visited. All this time, I have only been on the main road of the south-east side, the South-East Main Road. There is still the Northern Main Road and the Western Main Road. The capital city is very large, after all.
The main castle, where the king and queen lives, is at the center of the kingdom. The Northern part is where knights reside, basically their barracks, homes, and also some shopping areas. The South-East side is for the main road of the higher class. There are diners, parks, and the Adventurer's Office is there too. They say that the people's public market is on the Western Main Road, so that's where I'm going.
What kind of goodie meals can I find at the market? I haven't eaten fruit in a long time, so I am quite curious.
And so, I have decided that I will visit the people's market. I quickly moved my legs towards the Market, all while taking a look around the road for entertainment.
Meanwhile, at the market, a family of four is having an issue with two knights.