The day had just started, but the place was already getting a bit rowdy. Some people drank beer in broad daylight, some people fell asleep in the tavern, and some had pretty sleepy faces. The Furian Adventurer Guild has always been packed full of people from all across the continent, and doubles as a tavern. It's always a busy day.
In the Salis continent, Furian has always been praised for having some of the most skilled people. If you're asking for a construction build, some people in Furian are best suited people for that kind of quest. It's not just that, as well. They're almost very much educated to handle almost every single occupation. If someone wanted to hire someone, then Furian is the best place to go.
This is where most of the powerful magicians reside. Furian was also known for their reputation because of a certain hero that was a part of Furian. At the time, the town was just a small little neighborhood with the battle between humans and demons arising. The hero took quick work of that, and eventually, the human race won .because of the hero Furian had. That hero had his statue built in the capital of Salis.
Nowadays, it's pretty unusual to see a demon of higher ranking in this world because of the hero. Some decided to live with them, but most of them kept getting discriminated because of their race. Some humans have learned to live in peace with them, but a war could spark at any time.
"One breakfast set, please," a guy said to a waitress.
"You're pretty early today," the young waitress said, listing down the usual for this man. "Don't you usually sleep in at times like these? You seem to like your beauty sleep that I can't even believe you're an adventurer."
"Please just keep your opinions about me to yourself. I'm up early because money is running low lately, and if I don't try making some, it'll come to bite me."
"So you do care about being an adventurer."
"I don't. I just want to live."
After getting the order, she left the adventurer alone to get his order ready.
The guy was a regular in this tavern, and he was also an adventurer. He doesn't seem to like being an adventurer though, and is a completely laid-back type of person. He enjoys spending most of his free time doing nothing, and when he's on the red, he takes a few quests to earn a bit of cash. It's actually pretty impressive how he hasn't retired yet. Though that's probably because he wouldn't have any money if he did.
He started being an adventurer the moment he dropped out of his school. That's the time his parents decided to disown him because of the sheer disappointment he gave to them. Because of that, he doesn't have a name that he can just freely give out because of personal issues. That's also the reason why almost no one from Furian, or even any place in general, knows who he is. The only ones who do know are the ones that made his title of being an adventurer; the guild master and the guild manager.
Today was one of the days he needed some money. He accidentally got drunk last night that his money got stolen by a few brats that kept making him drink the same amount of beer. Fortunately, he's already sobered up and ready to go.
After waiting for a bit, his order was now ready to go and was brought to him by the same waitress. It was just the usual: two sausages, three smoked meats, a sunny side up egg and a crusty bread. It was mostly enough to fill his stomach. He also got served a large cup full of water. After that was done, the waitress sat down on the other side of the adventurer, facing him.
"Shouldn't you be getting back to work?" he said, taking a bite from the meat while also eating a bit from the salad.
"As much as I would like to, it's not like there's a lot of people coming in and out in the morning. I could just wait for one to arrive, but someone would most likely take over it before I get there. It's not like there's much of a morning rush around here."
"I thought it was always a busy day around here, being the Furian Adventurer Guild and all that."
"Some days it's true, and some days it's not. If it was always busy, then the costumers would just be working us to death every day."
"So the saying is false, then," he said, drinking a bit of water.
"There was never such a saying in the first place, you know?"
The adventurer has been a part of the Furian Adventurer Guild ever since he dropped out of school. It was like home to him at this point. And it's not just him that thinks so as well. Almost every single person that's ever worked in this tavern or even just visited for a nice beer would know of him despite not knowing his name. The young waitress wasn't an exception. In fact, the time the guy was appointed an adventurer title, it was the same time the girl was hired in this tavern. Her name was Jean Hazel, but the adventurer never revealed his.
It wasn't even turning noon yet, but the people coming in to the tavern was already thinning down, as evident from the noise. Mornings or noon's wasn't exactly good times. In rare occasions, a lot of people would come in the morning, but in most cases, the rush hour only occurs when evening arrives; when every single people are done with whatever they were doing and just starting to relax for the end of the day.
As the adventurer ate his food, Jean got called by her senior, most likely stopping her from speaking with the adventurer. In other words, just stopping Jean from slacking off her work.
"Well, good luck with your work! Be careful not to get fired!" Jean shouted as she skipped to the counter.
"You should be saying that to yourself!" the adventurer shouted back.
"Hm… Not a lot of good paying quests for now, huh," the adventurer said with a deep sigh, looking dejected.
After he was done eating up his food, he started to go through the quest board to find a quest that was easily done, but paid lots. Of course, no such quest existed—at least, not one he's yet to find—and is still looking for more.
There were quests like clearing out small monsters that invaded a farm, help finding a lost pet, stuff like that. In the world of adventurers, these quests are considered a rank of C.
People can post a quest for an adventurer to do in a guild by a quest board. It can be almost anything, whether you'll pay for someone to sleep with you, or for someone to be your best bud forever. However, any quest doesn't come for free, so the person who employed the adventurer is needed to pay a certain amount of price.
That's where quest ranks are put up. Quest ranks are ranks that vary the difficulty of a quest and how high they pay the adventurer who took that quest. For example, a quest of clearing out monsters in a small invaded farm in considered a rank of C; not really that good. The payment is low, and you'd only really live for three days with that kind of payment. The higher the rank of a certain quest though, the better the compensation for the troubles you helped fixed.
There are only five types of quest ranks for guilds. The first four are S, A, B, and C, from high paying to low paying respectively. The only unique quest rank is considered neither high nor low in terms of difficulty, and it's almost never seen on a quest board because of how rare it occurs. That's the quest rank of G. It's the only quest rank to have a meaning behind it's letter, and it's Government. It's usually given by people that are affiliated with the higher ranks.
If this type of quest rank is seen in a quest board, that could mean that even the people that are powerful are getting desperate for that specific kind of quest to be done. It also pays really well compared to all the other ranks, so quests like these are pretty rare. Unlike the rank of S which is incredibly difficult though, G can pretty much be any difficulty. That's why these types of ranks are rare because once someone sees it, they'd pretty much accept it because of how good it could change their life, especially if it can be done easily.
The adventurer searched for a few more minutes. Delivery services, more farm invaded land, helping out in a place. These were all considered C rank, and the adventurer more or less didn't want these types of quests. So, he kept searching and searching. Until he reached a dead end.
He had already hit the left side of the board, but there was still nothing good for him to take. C rank quests were definitely not preferable when it comes to this guy. Seeing the last posted quest having labelled the rank of C, he let out a heavy sigh.
"…Seriously? Again?" he muttered.
The last time he did C rank quests was about two weeks ago. At that time, he kept doing quests after quests of the same low rank just for his cash to go up. And when he was finished with it, he was so tired that he didn't even get the chance to enjoy himself after a long day's work and just slept like a cat.
He gave up and grabbed a random quest without even looking at it, knowing it was a C rank, and made his way to the guild manager to take in the job.
As he was nearing it, he saw what looked to be a girl wearing a long white coat, so long it reached the floor, with a short orange hair standing by the area where quests were both requested and taken—where the guild manager of Furian resided, and the one in charge of such tasks.
The girl was kind of short that the only part of her body that reached the counter was her chest. Other than that, she seemed incredibly short. After taking a paper from the guild manager, she made her way to the quest board.
Probably going to post another C rank quest, the adventurer thought to himself.
"I'm here to take a quest," the adventurer declared after he reached the counter.
"Okay, yeah, please wait a moment," the guild manager said, disinterested.
The guild manager was a young woman who looked to be around her twenties, and her tone suggested that she was a girl in distress. Well, that's what it seemed to sound like to the adventurer anyway. She was actually just irritated to see the adventurer again. Her name is Talia Hiden.
It hasn't always been like this, though. When the adventurer first got his current occupation, the young woman was present at the time. It was also the time when she was still an adventurer. It was only going to take a couple of years before she became what she was today.
In Talia's adventuring days, she was on the same squad as the adventurer back when he was still learning the ropes. She taught him, so of course, it was natural that they both got along well. And they did. Almost as if both of them had been siblings, as if you couldn't tell whether they were both related or not.
However, the day she got the promotion of being guild manager, she stopped being nice to the adventurer. Perhaps it was just the young woman getting sick of him, but there was no way for the adventurer to know about anything. All he could do was just accept the fact that she didn't like him anymore and left it at that. It's not like the feeling is mutual, but it did kind of leave a mark on him considering how long they were both in a squad.
"So? What's your business this time?" Talia asked after taking her time with whatever she was doing.
"Right… I'm here to take on a quest," he said as he placed the paper down.
To be honest, he felt a little sad about her treatment to him.
"Okay, sure…"
She started checking the paper. After that, she went back to where she was earlier and started ransacking through a drawer to presumably pick something up. However, she was quite struggling. Heck, it felt like it would take a bit before she actually got what she was looking for.
However, all the adventurer could do was wait patiently. While doing that, he noticed the same small girl that had just passed him earlier was having a hard time trying to pin the paper in the board due to her being short.
He planned on just patiently waiting for the quest to be processed by Talia, but even after a few seconds, Talia hasn't been able to do any progress on the processing thing.
At the same time, that girl had trouble posting her quest because of how short she appeared. If we were to do a size comparison between the girl and the adventurer, the would only appear to be at the adventurer's chest.
"Hey, is that still going to take longer…?" the adventurer asked to the not-so-managing guild master.
"Just wait for a few more minutes, will ya? Stuff like these take time, so just sit there quietly."
Geez, she really has changed.
The adventurer wasn't fazed by her response, but hearing it like that felt really strange for him. If he at least knew what her problem was, then maybe he could try to resolve the issue Talia has been having. It doesn't show, but because of their relationship back then, even he started to feel quite sad about it. And the only thing worse than that is that he can't do anything about it.
Shaking his head to rid of such thoughts, he started heading back to the quest board. Seeing that girl with the white coat kept him from relaxing, especially since she kept struggling from pinning her quest, so he couldn't just sit there and wait.
"Need some help on that?" he asked as soon as he reached the girl.
The girl visibly flinched and then slowly looked towards the adventurer with a cautious look in her eyes. After a few moments of processing, she sighed from relief, though the adventurer didn't know what she was supposed to be relieved by.
"Thank you, Adventurer. I would appreciate that," she said after a few seconds.
She handed her the paper and the adventurer accepted it. He took a pin from a tin can next to the board and started pinning the paper with the rest of the C rank quests. It was a certainly new feeling for him, as if it was the adventurer himself pinning his own quest to be taken care of. That wasn't an option for him though because he didn't like other people doing his job for him. And also because he didn't want to pay them.
It was kind of tough at first because he couldn't find a convenient spot to pin it because of all the other quests around, but he kept searching until he found one.
"And that takes care of that," he said as he clapped his hand. The adventurer then started directing his attention towards the girl. "Certainly strange seeing a girl of your age hanging quests like these. Your kite got stuck in a tree or something?"
When he asked that, the girl first had a confused look on her face, as evidence by her tilting her head to the side. After a few seconds, she giggled and then started speaking in a manner that didn't exactly befit that of a young girl of her appearance.
"Appearance can certainly be deceiving, but I am afraid you're quite wrong with your assumption, Adventurer. Though it is quite fascinating to see other people react that way towards me. Yes, truly fascinating indeed," she said, nodding.
"What now?"
The adventurer more or less didn't understand much of what she had just said. Sure, he did understand what "appearances can be deceiving" meant, but the rest felt to him as if it was just a load of crap the girl spouted out of her mouth. Like she was just saying big words that could make her sound smarter.
And while that was indeed the case, it wasn't the full story.
"I'm sorry my small stature confused me to that of a young girl. My name is Poppy Abel. I stand at a proper adult age of 22, and am now a former Royal Scientist from the kingdom of Vastum, the capital of the southeast continent Eldoria," she said as she gave the adventurer a polite bow.
"Vastum…?"
She's just the same age as me.
While the adventurer rarely did quests that were outside of the continent of Salis, he was still quite familiar with the other countries that resided in the other continents. One of these countries—or rather, kingdoms—was called Vastum. While Furian was just a small town and Vastum was something much more large-scale, they weren't exactly that far from each other and shared very similar traits.
If Furian was a town proud of its population of adventurers, then the kingdom of Vastum could be praised for its population of nobles—the rich, the grand, and the aristocratic. This is where all of the people who are highly favored come from. Kings and queens that come from other kingdoms also take wonderful vacations here when they don't have work. There was even something called a Royal Guard that far exceeded the skills that an average adventurer would have.
Vastum was praised to be one of the best kingdom in the world. The reason for this was because during the war three years ago, Vastum was the continent who contributed the most when the hero was nowhere to be found, just next to Salis. Heck, that kingdom could've probably handled the war fine even without the hero's help.
They're not just praised for their people. The most powerful church, Exousia, also resides within Vastum. The role of Exousia is to appoint the world's leaders—the kings and queens—to other countries or kingdoms that are in need of one. Only a few people have actually been picked out by the royal church. If that ever happened, it could mean that you're either capable of managing such tasks or worthy of the title. It wouldn't matter if you're rich or poor as long as you had potential.
Another thing they do is not only appoint the world's leaders, but also the Royal Guardsmen of the respective countries or kingdoms. If that ever happened, you'd be granted with power that could rival that of an army. Having such title could actually receive more praise than being a king or queen. Even an average adventurer would be down right before they even blink an eye if there were ever a fight like that to break out; that's just how much power the Royal Guards are granted. Fewer people have actually gotten this title as getting picked by the church as a leader was already at an all-time low, so being like this was even more unlikely; you could even consider yourself lucky if that ever happened. The only people that can defeat a Royal Guard is a hero, a demon commander, or someone who's accumulated a lot of power.
The war has ended now though, and the hero is nowhere to be found ever since that happened. Nowadays, Vastum is just considered just a place where most rich people lived.
"Vastum, huh," the adventurer muttered. "You must have a lot of money with you then. You should probably be careful around here because while Furian is a place where most adventurers live, it's not a place where you can be safe."
After all, he did get all his money stolen just because he got drunk. By kids. And it was certainly no joking manner. However, the reaction of the so-called Royal Scientist contradicts that logic. She just giggled.
"If it is money you're worried about, then you needn't to fret about anything," she calmly answered. "While I may have come from the prestigious kingdom of Vastum, I have spent most of my money just from travelling there to here. Therefore, I am now in the red after spending the rest of the money that I had."
"Really? That's pretty surprising. I thought all the people of that kingdom had money that was near limitless. I see people from Vastum come here sometimes."
"Not at all. While our money are indeed many, everything has its limits. Same goes for fame, materials, and all sorts of valuable things."
"Well, that is true. Just…never expected to see one in person."
"That's what most say," she said with the same giggle as she did before.
"Hey, I told you to wait, didn't I?" someone suddenly said behind the adventurer.
He reflexively jumped forward before looking back, hands at the handle of his sword ready to be pulled out—basically preparing to attack—when he realized that it was Talia, the guild manager. He immediately dispersed his fighting formation.
"Glad to see your skills are still in good shape," Talia said as she stared at him with no emotion in her face. Really, it just seemed as though she had no interest in talking with the adventurer but just forces herself.
"Oh, uh, thanks…?" the adventurer answered, slightly confused.
The fact that Talia suddenly just appeared behind the adventurer without even the slight bit of sound impressed him.
He's worked with her for a few years back, even learning most of her techniques, but she seemed almost impossible to sense every time. That's why the adventurer just interpreted her voice as a danger and reflexively did that.
"Here's the quest you asked for," Talia said.
She handed the adventurer a paper that was different to the one he handed over to her. It had some important details that's required whenever going on a quest; the location of where the quest takes place, the person who posted that quest, and the payment. The adventurer sulked as he saw that the payment wasn't exactly much.
"I've already contacted the one who posted it, so you should just head there already. They'll become annoyed if you don't come up sooner."
She handed the adventurer a paper that had the important things about the quest he was having listed on it. The location of where the quest is supposed to take, the duration of the quest, the reward, and who posted that quest as well. It was all here.
He grabbed the paper and decided to take a look at it. It was a quest for a young kid who needed to carry some stuff over to a pretty far away village, and a monster village to boot. The duration for the quest was pretty long. Forever, to be exact—or that's what was listed in the paper anyway. The reward was just about ten whole copper coins.
"I accepted this quest…?" the adventurer sighed in disbelief after reading the whole list. It was his own fault for not looking at the quest first anyways.
"Well then, get to it," Talia said, going back to the table.
He got his butt going to the road where the kid—his client—was located.
If you thought about it, adventurers are somewhat related to the people known as mercenaries. The only difference about them is that you can only present them with something of value, whether it'd be a lot of money or an ancient artifact.
The adventurers in Furian, on the other hand, aren't like that.
While you can give a quest on just about anything, it also has its limits. You can't assign an adventurer to kill someone for you, or something like that. Everything that is related to quests all have a limit on them. Mercenaries are the opposite of that; they'd do anything as long as it's for their own benefit.
It doesn't just range from simple tasks just like farming, delivering, or any of the like. You can also go above and beyond with it: hire someone to become your own slave, kill someone for you, anything, really. As long as the price is worth it, mercenaries will accept them without even a question.
The adventurer, even though an adventurer, felt like he was now a mercenary just because of the quests that he randomly picks.
It was turning evening. After seven consecutive C rank quests—it mostly felt like manual labor, though—he felt incredibly tired. He was currently just laying his head down at a table inside the tavern where he took his quests as he waited for his food. Once it arrived, he would take one last quest to end the day.
A ding! sound came from the counter, and then Jean, the same waitress that served him his breakfast earlier, took the food and took it to his table.
"Hey! I decided to take a break for a bit!" Jean declared as soon as she reached the adventurer's seat, while also taking a seat on the opposite end of the table. The adventurer paid her no mind as he started eating his food. "How's work coming along? How much accumulation so far?"
"…A silver and a half," the adventurer halfheartedly replied.
"Ooh, that's great! You'll reach gold after a week, so keep it up!"
The currency in this world worked just like any other.
There's three types of coins in this world: copper, silver, and gold; from lowest to highest respectively. It was a simple one just like any other.
The currency isn't varied from how the material quality is, like how much karats there is on the gold. It varies on the amount. One copper coin can be found just about anywhere, so that's the lowest one; almost no value whatsoever. In order for you to have a silver coin, you need to have 100 copper coins. The same goes for gold, except you need 100,000 copper coins, or 100 silver coins.
If we were to believe the adventurer, he would have at least one hundred and fifty copper coins with him. Or, like he said, a silver and a half. As he groaned internally at that thought, he kept eating the dish that was served to him.
The dish was a pretty practical one this time of the day. It was a salad, mixed in with all kinds of vegetables that the adventurer didn't even bother trying to identify each of them individually. He just kept eating and eating.
Unlike the pretty meaty meal he got for breakfast, this one was actually pretty healthy. Even though the adventurer regretted this decision, it's not like he had any other choice.
Something like what he ordered for breakfast in this tavern earlier cost 80 copper coins, so if he bought something of the same portion every single day—not to mention that he only eats breakfast and dinner—he'd pretty much be on the red all of the time. And he wouldn't be able to reach a gold coin after a week, like Jean had just said. Luckily though, the salad that he was currently eating was just 30 copper coins. He can save up money and slack off after doing so and keep himself healthy. Healthy enough to do quests, at least.
"By the way," Jean said, the adventurer not noticing her just staring deep into him. "There's a girl that's been in here for a bit now."
"Oh really?" He had no interest whatsoever, though not willingly. It was mostly caused by the fatigue of working seven quests that made his whole body grow tired and unemotional. This happens quite a few times every time he gets on the grind.
Jean didn't know about this, though.
"Yeah, ever since this morning when I entered for my shift."
Wow, that's basically almost half a day of wasted time, he thought.
The tavern is usually open at around, well, almost 24/7. There were adventurers who preferred working when it was midnight, and when the war was happening a few years ago, every tavern in the world was pretty much always open in order to replenish the other adventurers who were hired to help fight in the war. You could say it became a tradition to have a tavern that never closes.
Jean also checks in every 6 a.m., so Poppy has probably been waiting for someone to take her quest for about twelve hours now. Pretty much half a day.
"I saw you talking to her earlier this morning, so I thought you might know her. Or I thought you might be interested of her being the topic."
"Oh, that girl… Hm."
He more or less just shrugged her off, but Jean kept on pursuing.
"So…do you know her?" she asked in a pretty intrigued tone.
Her true nature often showed whenever he was around the adventurer. Well, rather than true nature, it was more proper to call it her teasing nature around him.
They've known each other for a good eight years now, but the adventurer never seemed to take any interest whenever it came in romance. Jean, on the other hand, was the complete opposite; she's never had a boyfriend herself, though.
Because of this, Jean often teased him whenever she saw him talking with some girl other than Talia or herself. And the adventurer would just try and ignore her every time this happened, much like what he was doing now.
"Said her name's Poppy," the adventurer said, munching on a tomato.
"Ooh, Poppy! That's a cute name befitting a nice young lady—"
"She's 22, apparently."
Jean just froze in surprise. The adventurer didn't mind this and just kept eating his salad, though. He started munching on a lettuce, and it crunched inside his mouth.
This continued on for about thirty seconds before Jean finally spoke. The adventurer finished most of the lettuce on the salad in that amount of time, though.
"S-So she's older than me?"
"Apparently."
"Even though she's so cute that I just want to cuddle her in my hands never ever want to let go of her even if she hates it?"
"That's oddly specific, but pretty much."
He didn't know Jean adored cute. Well, most girls her age probably do, though. It wouldn't be strange if he just saw her having a huge teddy bear in her room; not like he's been in her room, of course. It still felt a bit new to the adventurer, though.
After finishing the last bits of his salad, he finally drank some water. He hasn't received the money he earns after he did the quests to pay for the food yet, but the money gets paid to the adventurers whenever they want. It's usually because some adventurers take too much quests on a single day that they don't really want the weight of the coins dragging them down on a battle, so they just let it accumulate for a bit before getting. Another reason is because the guild also acts as a bank.
"You're going to do more quests?" Jean asked, her previous manner dissipating. "That's not healthy even if you eat healthy food, you know?"
"Relax, I'm just going to do one more to end the day and my paycheck. After that, I'm going to sleep."
"Oh, great. I'll come to your place later, so prepare me a tea or something after you've completed that final quest of yours."
"Why are you going to my house—"
"Well then, see you later!" Jean said, running off to the kitchen on the tavern.
Jean often visits his house every once and a while, mostly because she just eats with him every time. He's already eaten his dinner in here though, so there wasn't much reason for her to visit. Jean left the adventurer in wonder as he made his way to the quest board.
Despite having done seven quests (also adding the other ones other adventurers got), there wasn't much change in the board. It was still filled with C rank quests, so much so that despite having so many options, there wasn't much of them to choose from. That probably didn't make much sense.
This time, instead of just picking a random quest by random, he decided to once again inspect every single paper to see if there was any people that posted a quest rank higher than the rest, so he started inspecting.
A quest about taking care of a kid, a quest about finding a lost puppy, a quest about getting a simple ingredient… Seriously, almost any kinds of jobs excluding the one mercenaries do are just straight up here on the quest board. He didn't stop when he encountered those, though. Instead, he just kept skimming through.
One by one, he kept scanning and scanning, reading and reading, and most of them were just almost useless. If he could find a job that at least compensated with the effort that he put in the quest, then that would be fine. However, not a single one of the quests actually motivated him to actually put any. He felt like giving up.
After thirty seconds, he hit the edge of the board just like earlier. Basically saying that there wasn't any quests that was worth doing. There was just no quests here that gave him the impression of "worth it." All of them just kept asking about doing stupid things about their everyday lives.
When he went ahead and decided to give up, he noticed something out of place in the board. Well, it was already pretty much out of place to begin with, but it didn't feel like the same unlike every other time. And the reason was pretty much simple.
There was a pin in the board. With a paper. Actually, a ripped piece of paper pinned in the board. It wasn't unusual to see this, but he knew that there was supposed to be something in that pin. In that specific location. Because he felt as if he'd pinned something there before when he's never actually gotten people to help him out via quests. And that's when it hit him without much surprise.
That was the spot where Poppy had asked him—or the adventurer just forcefully interjected himself—to pin the quest that Poppy requested. And there were a few indicators to prove this.
The color of the pin matched the one that he used to pin it, which was the color red; no surprise there, as there was just mostly tons of pins barely getting pulled out along with the paper. Some were even sticking out like a sore thumb.
There wasn't much point in just analyzing the pin, since it could just mean that someone had already taken the quest. However, that's the strange part. If someone already took the quest, then wouldn't that mean Poppy would be already gone by this point on? As Jean had just said, she was pretty much still in this guild slash tavern, and if Poppy's quest was already completed, then what was she still doing here?
Taking another look at the pin, he noticed that the piece of paper hanging from it was oddly large. So large, in fact, that it could only reveal a single piece of character from the text, shaded in bold. While some adventurers wouldn't pay some mind to this, the adventurer had ripped off so many quests that he knew what that character was supposed to be.
He started walking back to the dining hall and analyzed the surroundings. There were a few orcs in one table just talking about some stupid stuff as they laughed as they ate food, a few humans on another table doing pretty much the same thing, and then another one wearing a lab coat that didn't exactly look suited for a tavern.
That's what the adventurer ended up looking at because it stuck out pretty well. It was none other than Poppy Abel, the woman he'd been speaking with earlier.
"Hey there," the adventurer said as soon as he reached Poppy's location.
Poppy jumped a bit before turning her head to see where that voice came from.
Just as before, the adventurer saw the same eyes that he saw the first time they talked to each other. She was really cautious of the people around her.
"How may I help you?" Poppy asked.
"Oh, uh…"
Crap, I just came here without thinking about it, the adventurer thought.
He hasn't always been the best when it came to communicating, even back then. If you gave him two options, he'll most likely try and refuse both of them. That's how much he hates speaking to different people. So what caused him to help Poppy pin her quest in the board earlier this morning?
Simple. He just got annoyed of watching her struggle like that.
"Ah, you're the adventurer who helped me," she said after analyzing the adventurer for a few seconds. "How has your quests been coming along?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"It's been six hours since I last saw you, and in that time span, all you have done is go to the quest board and to the guild manager back and forth, so I wondered about your quests. I believe you have done seven quests so far, have you not?"
"Y-Yeah. Pretty much."
Although the one who started the conversation was the adventurer, he didn't quite expect that it was going to be Poppy to continue it. Not that he hated it or anything. In fact, he felt quite grateful for it.
"So why are you still here?" the adventurer asked. "It seems like your quest has been taken care of by someone, so I don't see much point in staying in this place."
"Ah, so the reason you came to me is because of that…," Poppy murmured. The adventurer heard it, but it wasn't like Poppy was trying to hide it. "It has been quite tough, unfortunately. One reason is because there are a lot of quests posted on the board that mine does not seem to entice much adventurers."
"I guess I kind of get that."
The quests posted on the board are somewhat piling up, after all. The board is always filled with new quests every day that there's not much to choose from. Heck, if you chose to post a quest in this board, it'd most likely take a month before it's taken by an adventurer. Most of the time, the quests that most adventurers take is either already abandoned or finished by the employer.
While the adventurer did complete five quests earlier, it was actually seven; two of which were deemed already completed or unavailable. It's actually quite a miracle that he managed to snatch five actual quests. It's also why he hated doing quests.
"Why didn't you just wait, then?" the adventurer asked. "I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but not having the patience of waiting for your quest to be accepted doesn't make your patience differ from an average commoner like me."
While it was true that he was a commoner, he wasn't really the type of person to run out of patience even if you go ahead and talk trash about him.
She let off a dry giggle.
"Well, I guess it would seem to be that way. I am but only a former Royal Scientist, but even then, I still try to manage my time properly. Even if it makes my class grow lower, it is all for the name for science."
"I-I see…"
I didn't expect her to take me so lightly…, the adventurer thought. Guess she isn't the same as those people who are from well-to-do families.
This was his first time seeing someone like this. Most people that were from Vastum that came to visit Furian were often quite greedy and would spend a lot of money on things that they as adventurers wouldn't be able to buy.
In Poppy's case though, she cares not for fame nor for money, but for the name of science. These types of people were pretty hard to find nowadays, the ones that aren't obsessed with money, anyways.
He still didn't expect her response, though.
"But…," Poppy said. "At this rate, I might not be able to finish it anytime soon."
"What are you doing?"
"Researching, as a scientist does."
"I thought you were a former one?"
"I am an independent researcher. It is rather tough without having neither funds nor a team, but nevertheless, I still keep researching. Whether former or not, I am and always be a scientist at heart."
What a heartfelt dialogue.
He didn't know what an independent researcher meant, but the feelings embedded were already quite powerful that he didn't really need to know about it. At least, that's what the adventurer thought.
Yet Poppy let out a sad giggle.
"I uttered such words," she said. "But even I am not exactly sure about this anymore. A single person to manage all of the tasks that doesn't involve disrupting my research would be quite the spectacle, but ever since I left Eldoria to pursue my research in Salis, it has been quite tough."
Just like how he tried to badmouth her earlier, he was once again left in a state of confusion. What she said earlier was kind of contradicting her words now, so he didn't quite know what she felt this time. Of course, he didn't need to know. After all, the adventurer was just a stranger to her; a nobody.
"So are you just going to give up being a scientist?"
"I plan on not doing that; that is the oath that I made to myself the moment I left Eldoria. However, that oath that I made to selfishly push myself to being a scientist has led me to a somewhat tricky path. At this rate, I might not be able to pursue being a scientist any longer… So for the final answer to your question, I think I just might."
For some reason, those words went deep to the adventurer's heart. It felt to him like everything that he's done up to this point has been pointless. But who was he to feel such a thing? That's what he said to himself.
After hearing that, he somehow couldn't just accept that. After all, after being a scientist for who knows how long and then just suddenly hearing that she'll give up just because she became a "former Royal Scientist" seemed like it hit a nerve for the adventurer.
And he couldn't just accept that.
"By the way," the adventurer said as if he was trying to change the subject. However, it was far from that. "Where is that paper you wrote your quest on?"
"Oh, it's here." Poppy grabbed a piece of folded paper from one of the pockets of her long white coat, the one that the adventurer posted on the quest board earlier, and handed it to the adventurer.
He reached out to grab the paper. When he unfolded it, he noticed a pretty big piece ripped at the top center of the paper. It looked as though it was forcefully grabbed at the bottom of the paper and pulled pretty hard. The crumpled part said as much, anyways. She must've leaped to grab it from the board.
Ignoring the ripped parts, he read the contents of the paper. The first thing he noticed was the pretty obvious one. Unlike every single quest posted on the board, this one was quite special; it had a quest rank of A. Unlike C rank quests, this one pays almost 300 times of that. This is one of the reasons why higher rank quests are preferable. By the way, B rank quests pays 100 times of C, and S ranked ones pay 1000 times of that. G is customizable to the employers likings, but most of them are expected to be just as high as A or S.
The quest was pretty much just the same as the one that he first accepted today. It was a quest about delivering a bunch of stuff. The difference with this one is that the location was pretty far away. It was between the border of Salis and another continent Cogitatio—otherwise known as the land of the wizards.
Cogitatio was a pretty isolated continent unlike the previously mentioned ones, even before, during, or after the war. The capital of the continent, Intrare, was the home of many magicians and wizards all across the world. It's also the place where one of the most valuable artifacts is located; the Magic Core.
Like Vastum, Intrare would've been able to handle the war just fine without the hero's help. Unlike Vastum though, Intrare didn't have as much money as the kingdom had. When it came to wealth, Intrare was considered to be the lowest compared to other countries and kingdoms.
They were, however, very rich when it came to magical energy. The continent of Cogitatio was very abundant with that compared to other countries and kingdoms.
The reason Intrare would be able to handle the war just fine wasn't because of the magical energy the land provided; though, it's still important. It was actually the Magic Core that would.
Before the war started, Intrare wasn't actually on any of the maps in the world. It was a place that was concealed from the rest of the world that it remained hidden for over a thousand years. However, when the war started, the barrier that was keeping their very country hidden suddenly got overwhelmed by the amount of attacks it received that hiding it became very difficult. As such, not only did the war start at that time, a new country appeared on the map.
When the war ended, it was finally considered as a proper country by everyone that it was even added on the map because of how much they contributed to the war. However, Intrare still chose to be hidden away from the rest of the world, trying to stay insignificant. The only ones that could visit Cogitatio are powerful people; kings and queens, the hero, or the Royal Guards. The demons are unwelcome, but they can destroy the barrier in order to get in. They wouldn't get a warm welcome, though.
Cogitatio is located at the northwest of Salis, the opposite direction from Eldoria where Poppy was when she first left. Travelling from Eldoria to Salis, it would take at least half a year by foot without the proper transportation, and two weeks otherwise. Salis to Cogitatio was a completely different story, though. Travelling by foot is about eight months, and even with the proper transportation, it would still take at least six months because of how rocky the road is towards there.
"A-Are you seriously going to Cogitatio…?" the adventurer asked, bewildered just from reading the location.
"Not exactly, Adventurer. I only plan on going between the borders of the two continents."
"You do understand this would take months, right?"
"Indeed. That is the first thought that came to me when I planned on going. Thus, I figured it would be more efficient if I left as soon as possible."
"Do you even have the proper amount of money to even do this…?"
"It has been unfortunately tough lately, but I can save on funds if I travel by foot. It can also give me the proper exercise to keep me fit and healthy."
It was really surprising. The adventurer thought that Poppy was just like any of the other people from Vastum, but just from her words alone, she proved that she wasn't like them. She didn't sought convenience for anything, even for transportation. As long as she gets the job done, that's all that matters for her.
He saw Poppy in a completely different light now. He thought that she was the type of person that would give up as soon as the situation grew dire. He thought that she was just going to be just like any other person who would give up on everything.
He thought that she was going to be just like him.
But instead she proved him wrong.
The adventurer just looked at her with a bewildered face. At that moment, all he could feel was regret. From the moment he was born until today, this feeling was a first for him more than anything.
And he didn't want to let go of it.
"You know," the adventurer started. "I always thought that putting effort in things were completely pointless."
"Hm?" Poppy said. "Why would you think that?"
"Ever since I was a child, I've always been a failure. No matter what I do or how much effort I put into it, it always end with me just failing. Maybe that's why I got dropped out of school and instead came to work here."
"Well, you do seem a bit too young to have this kind of profession."
Whether it was writing or drawing, he never once became good at any of this, even as a child. He didn't know anything about everything, and everything didn't even try to understand anything about him. That's how he felt when he left his hometown. Nothing was trying to accept anything about him.
"And at this point, I've probably already given up on life."
Wake up, eat, sleep. Run out of money, go to the quest board, apply for a quest, save up some money, and repeat. Over and over again, like sort of machine forced to do the programming he never once tried to break free out of.
Like a person who's already given up on life.
"…For a person who's already given up on life, you sure do seem like a healthy person to me," Poppy said. "You look the part, too."
"What's that supposed to imply?"
"Please try and listen to yourself. If you have truly given up on life as a whole, then you'd just be throwing your own body on just about anywhere. Even if you do try, once a point eventually comes, you break free from the grasp of that. You once again become a normal being, a normal human with a normal life."
"What are you trying to say here…?"
"You haven't given up on life. You only try to fake it like a sad little boy cowering away when he got into a fight with his parents. You are absolutely terrible."
That was the first time the adventurer has ever heard her say something like that. He tried dodging that statement by trying to think that it was just payback for badmouthing her earlier, but she didn't stop there.
"What is your definition of 'given up on life'? Is it just waking up, eating, go to bed, and then repeat? Because if so, then you have not experienced the true way of giving up on it. You're just making it feel as though it is."
She closed her distance to the adventurer and then grabbed him by his arm. The adventurer didn't react to it.
"As an adventurer, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you want to give up on life, throw that title away and kill yourself. That is the true definition of giving up."
As she spoke, her grip on his arm grew tighter.
"I will not tolerate this kind of view."
He was left completely speechless. Just a while ago, she was a respectable, mature, and proper lady, but the moment the adventurer said those things, she suddenly shifted her behavior into something that contradicted the previous ones.
The adventurer thought she was just going to give him another comment on his situation, but instead, she gave him something that he was not expecting. And that was discipline. It was something that he was supposed to get a long time ago; at least, that's what the adventurer thought.
"U-Um…" Without warning, someone suddenly appeared beside them. "Please don't fight…?"
When she heard these words, Poppy suddenly snapped back and quickly released the hand that was gripping the adventurer's arm.
When he looked, the adventurer saw Jean with a worried and confused look on her face. Either she's on her break, or decided to check out what was happening. But either way, the adventurer felt strangely relieved when she appeared.
"I-I apologize." Coming back to her senses, Poppy's tone suddenly changed. She bowed down to the adventurer apologetically. "I do not know what got into me, but I apologize deeply."
"U-Um…"
The adventurer didn't know what to say. It was the first time that someone genuinely apologized to him. It was usually him who apologizes whenever he fails to satisfy an employer's need while doing a quest. But this time, although not exactly an employer, it was now the other way around.
As such, the adventurer was once again left in a bewildered state.
That was supposed to be the case. However…
"…Jean," the adventurer called out.
"Huh? Wh-What?"
"I'll be busy tonight, so I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't stop by my house today."
"Wh-Whaat?!" Jean's face went from confused and worried to just frowning and pouting. "You're kidding me! Come on, I already had everything planned out just for tonight!"
"I don't know who gave you permission to just make plans in my own home, but I'm afraid you'll have to cancel those and reschedule them for another time."
"I can't! Today is the only day I'll ever have a day that doesn't involve in me doing any night shifts! This moment only comes at least once a year, so you can't just tell me to reschedule this!"
While Jean does tend to stay over at the adventurer's house sometimes in the night, but she always leaves afterwards to continue working because the tavern always needs a helping hand. You could say that this is just a part of her break.
While that does happen, she occasionally gets a break from it even until midnight. However, it happens so rarely that you could even call it a once-in-a-year opportunity; just like what Jean had said.
"Just do me a favor here, will you?" the adventurer asked.
"No!"
"Ugh, fine. Okay, as a way to make it up to you, I'll do whatever you say."
"No! There's nothing that you'd offer that could possibly—wait, seriously?"
Her sudden change in tone surprised the adventurer, but he ignored it.
"Yeah. Anything that you want, no restrictions, no drawbacks, no twists, just basically anything that you would ever want. I'll try to make it work."
"T-That's unfair…"
Whenever it came to favors, the adventurer was the type of person who asks for one instead of taking one. That's basically his whole motto as an adventurer, and it's a stupid one as well. An adventurer wouldn't exactly be called an adventurer if that was their way of working for their profession.
Because of this, Jean was basically dumbfounded. She's known the adventurer for many years now, but this was the first time that she heard him utter such words to her without even the slightest bit of hesitation.
And it's such a rare opportunity that even Jean was contemplating on whether or not just letting him go.
"Grr…," Jean grumbled.
It's not like she didn't like the option, either. Jean had always wanted the adventurer to do stuff for her, even if just once, but throwing it away just for this was kind of a rip-off, even for her. In the end, she chose to—
"Fine!"
—face the inevitable, and accept the offer. There was no way she was going to refuse this.
The adventurer sighed in relief.
"Thanks. I owe you one."
"You better be! The moment you get home, I'll make your life a living hell!"
"Dial it down a bit, geez… But I guess I'll try and look forward to it."
Jean smiled at his response, and then hesitantly went back to her work. That is to say, she went to the kitchen to probably fetch a few orders.
After she left, the adventurer started walking to the guild manager.
"U-Um…," someone muttered behind him, which was Poppy. "I would appreciate it if you could give me back the quest paper…"
"Hm? Oh, this? I'm taking it."
"Wh-What?"
"I'm taking it."
"You don't need to do such a thing, though… Besides, travelling all the way to the border would take roughly a month, and—"
"What you just said to me earlier," the adventurer interrupted her. "It made me realize. I have been wasting my days so far, up to the point I've acknowledged it as me giving up on life. And while my definition of 'given up on life' isn't exactly as extreme as yours, your definition alone proves something to me."
He slowed down his pace. Poppy tried to match it, walking beside him.
"It's proven to me that as long as I live, I truly haven't given up. Sure, I keep slacking my days off just to live, but that didn't mean I've given up. I was just taking a small break… Yeah. That's all I've been doing for the last six months."
"I-I get that, but forcing yourself to do so just because of me…"
"It's not because of you. Well, it partially is because of you, but at least it's given me something. This quest of yours, I'm taking it not because of the money, but because I'm going to treat it as my way of waking up."
"Waking up?"
"That's right. After I'm done with this quest… I'll try becoming a better person."
Maybe this is what he's been waiting for all this time. Maybe this is what he's been searching for all this time. It doesn't fit him, but at the same time, he wants it to fit him. And the only thing that's ever going to help him through this is this quest. No, its's not the quest actually.
It's going to be Poppy.
After they made their way to the counter, he saw no one managing it. He rang the bell as soon as he placed the quest paper down, but no one still came. He started to repeatedly press it again and again.
Eventually, someone showed up.
"Ah, shut up!" someone shouted. "Just wait for a goddamn minute, I'm busy over here!"
The adventurer looked to the direction of where the scream was, which was just behind the counter, and saw Talia wielding a wooden sword while covered in sweat. She must've been training herself for something. The adventurer didn't know about it, though.
"I'd like to accept this quest, please."
He was completely unfazed by Talia's attempt of scaring him. Not like she was scaring him in the first place, anyway.
"Then wait! You've already taken seven quests, when will you give it up already?!"
He was surprised Talia was keeping count of how much quests he was having.
"Oh, this is my last quest. That's why I was in such a hurry."
Without even looking, Talia snatched the paper, stamped something onto it, crumpled it until it turned into a ball and then threw it towards the adventurer. He caught it, of course.
"There, it's all done! Get the hell out of here and don't interrupt me anymore!"
Does she hate me that much? the adventurer thought. In the end, it was left unanswered because Talia quickly went back to wherever she was doing.
Looking at the ball of paper, he started uncrumpling it and saw the contents completely changed. The rip from earlier was still there, of course, but the contents was the one that surprised him.
The stamp that was supposed to be stamped somewhere was nowhere to be found. Instead, what could be found in its stead was the price of completing this quest. And oh boy, was the adventurer surprised.
"F-Fifty gold coins?!" he muttered, almost shouting. He tried to keep it down.
Sure, he did take the quest knowing that it was a rank of A, but he didn't expect the payout to be this much. With this money, he could live out his days just slacking off more and more.
With this, I can live in peace and harmony without ever worrying about money!
In fact, this is what the adventurer thought of the moment he saw it. He already had something boiling up inside his mind after seeing this amount. When Poppy noticed that and gave him a pretty serious look, he coughed once.
"Ahem… By the way, where's your luggage at?" the adventurer asked.
While the quest did say to escort Poppy to the location, it wasn't all that. The quest also said something about the transportation of the stuff that Poppy brought with her from Vastum.
The adventurer guessed it was probably just a change of clothes or something.
"You're going to take it?" Poppy asked.
"There's not much point in asking that now, is there? I mean, it's already been stamped as taken by the guild manager."
Although the stamp was nowhere to be found, it was nevertheless still stamped.
"Yes, that is true, but there is still time to reconsider. I have already inconvenienced you too much this morning, and I would not like to continue doing so any further…"
"Yeah, I get that. But remember what I said? It's not because of you, but it partially is. I'm doing this out of my own volition. Now that I've come this far, I can't exactly back down on it. I wouldn't want to look like a coward, after all."
"B-But…"
"Well, I guess just think of it like this. If you really don't want to inconvenience me any further that this, then just let me continue helping you. Once I'm finished, you won't need to worry about me anymore and just live on with your days without me, without the thoughts of you bothering me. How does that sound to you?"
It was a pretty stupid reason, even for the adventurer. And while it was stupid, that was all that he could think of because it pretty much matched the way he was currently living. Just letting things pass and going with the flow.
Even Poppy was on an internal disagreement. She herself knew that it was also a stupid idea, because that much was obvious. The adventurer kept saying that it wasn't because of her, but Poppy knew full well that it was all about her, even if he says not.
As a scientist, the proper conclusion to reach was for her to decline his offer, no matter how persistent the adventurer is. On the other hand, as a person, she wanted to respect the adventurer's reason of trying to help her, even though she didn't know what the reason is.
She sighed, ultimately making the latter win.
"If you insist," Poppy answered with a sigh. "However, if you are absolutely certain that you are going to take this quest, I hope you are ready for the obstacles that you are about to face."
"Even if I slack off, I'm still an adventurer, so I'll do my best to overcome any of those obstacles. Come on, show me where those luggage are at."
They both went outside the tavern with Poppy leading the way. It was a fine afternoon today. The green of the fields were already getting stained by the orange of the low sun. Evening was just about to roll in.
Poppy and the adventurer finally went out of the tavern. Poppy led him to where her luggage was supposed to be, just by the entrance of the establishment. It wasn't that hard to discern the moment they got there.
"This is the luggage that I have been carrying with me for the last five months."
When Poppy pointed at the direction of where her stuff was, the adventurer saw not one, not two, but five crates in total, all tied up by multiple ropes that made it seem as though it was one entirely huge bag made of wood.
"…This is your luggage?" the adventurer asked.
"That is correct."
"…And you carried these for five months?"
"Well, not exactly. Before leaving Eldoria, I had a helpful transport with me that transported these for about halfway. Afterwards, money became a bit of a problem especially with the luggage on board, so after a month I decided to drop off into a small town."
"Oh, since carrying it would be kind of stupid because they kind of look heavy. But then how about the four remaining months? Didn't you say you travelled for at least five?"
"That is where the town came in. Fortunately, they had a small library there that taught a bit about magic; the folks that led the town were some elves, and they proudly teach the people there magic."
While Cogitatio was a land that was filled with people who used magic, they weren't the only ones who necessarily had access to it. Creatures that were directly born from nature can gain access from some of them. Such creatures can be elves, fairies, and dryads.
Unlike wizards or witches—some being born with it while others needing to learn magic—these creatures of nature already have access to it since birth. That's why most of them have a general grasp of magic and can easily manipulate it at their will. They're mostly better than wizards or witches.
"That…doesn't really explain much," the adventurer said. "I'm not really sure how a library comes into play in a town, and the elves don't explain much as well."
"Well, the only thing that is important is both the library and the magic. You see, carrying these crates were too big of a task for me, so I needed a better alternative to do so without costing too much money. I remembered there being a magic for wind, so I figured that could use that in order to carry these with me."
"And how would you do that, exactly?"
"By doing this."
Poppy extended her hand towards the crates as if grabbing onto them. Then, she closed her eyes in order to focus. Without even a single word, the area around the crates were blowing off the dust and leaves and small pebbles around it; anything that can be blown off by a simple gust of wind.
After those were cleared up, the crates began going up, albeit a little slow. After a few second, the entire thing was now levitating off the ground. Poppy opened her eyes and put down her extended hand.
"…Phew, it still needs a few adjustments, I suppose," she declared.
"Woah."
It was a rather bizarre sight. All the people who were passing by couldn't help but notice the strange phenomenon that was unfolding near the tavern. Of course, the same could be said for the adventurer. The adventurer couldn't help but just stare at it.
"Seeing the reactions of first-timers is certainly quite amusing," Poppy said with a giggle.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it the first time, but it is kind of rare to see anyone who uses magic other than the people who lives in Cogitatio who passes by here."
"It certainly is so."
Poppy approached the now floating luggage and grabbed a rope that was tied to the other ropes. She tried to pull it, but she seemed to be struggling. Afterwards, the luggage moved towards her direction, albeit just a little. It moved kind of just like a nudge, if anything.
"As you can see, though floating, the weight seems to be unaffected by the wind magic, so pulling it through the means of my own strength is a bit of a hurdle for a person who doesn't have much strength," Poppy said.
"Oh, so that's why. I guess a petite body like yours wouldn't be able to handle the mixed weight of all of that. Can I have it?"
"Here you go," Poppy said, handing him the rope.
Once he got a hold of it, he tried pulling it himself. He first did so by applying just a tad bit of his strength. And that tad bit of strength got him nowhere, as it didn't even move from its position at all.
Next, he tried applying more strength. He felt it move now, but it was a little hard to see. You could say it was just about the distance of when Poppy was the one who pulled the rope earlier. From there, he estimated the weight of the entire thing.
It was about the weight of a wagon. More specifically, it was the type of wagon that horses use to pull goods and the like over long distances.
"I think I can get with this," the adventurer said.
"Really?"
"It's about a weight that I can pull. I can manage with this, I guess."
For an average human, this type of weight is a little too much. However, since the one pulling is an adventurer, it'll be just fine. He's received training, so something like this isn't comparable with the weights that he uses to practice.
"Lead the way."
And with that, Poppy started walking towards the direction of where Cogitatio was located. This was going to be a pretty long journey, especially by foot.