As soon as we passed the door, we found ourselves back in front of the dungeon entrance. "Wait, wouldn't the boss drop some loot?"

We stopped and looked into the hole. "At least we got the stuff from the shark?" Tom asked with a sigh.

"Yeah! I guess our treasure was the monsters killed along the way." I nodded sagely and waved my hand forward. "Let's get our mark before it gets too late!"

We left the underground, into the city blanketed in the soft dusk light. The cat paused to admire the sky, but Diada already ran to the other side of the street. "Let's go! We can get sister's burgers once we get back home!!"

The boy shook his head and overtook the little spiderling. "You weren't paying attention when we came here, right? Let me lead." He said and patted his free shoulder. "Get on."

Diada shrugged and lifted herself up. She tapped her feet on his chest and began humming a light melody. I chuckled and joined the song. Horrific stench of decades-old rot? What's that? Never smelled that. Piles of moving flesh? Never seen it.

"Think he will be back home, or he stayed and got caught by someone else?" I asked once the shelter was within sight.

"Dunno, but he didn't seem very smart." Tom wondered aloud. "I mean, who would go hunt slimes in the sewers?"

I shrugged. It was a common enough thing in fantasy stories. If I got dropped in the middle of a strange city, I might have gone and checked myself. After all, it would be no fun to ask people. Actually, I wouldn't have checked. Sewers are not known for smelling nice, so I'd leave them to be the last resort.

We walked in the front door without issue and looked around. The spacious hall was split in the middle, the right side in wood and brick style, while the left looked like a nice reception for a high class, twenty-first-century apartment building. The boy had modern style clothes, so... I boosted over to the reception desk and nodded my head to the human lady behind the desk.

"Hello, a friend of mine should live here. We met soon after being transported into this world and we were supposed to pick him up for supper. Honestly, I so wanted to take him shopping, but he said he'd be training the entire day. Any new-coming human teenagers lately? He was supposed to stay at the shelter, but he just likes to do things his own way." I trilled out, hoping the receptionist wouldn't ask for a name. Worst case scenario, maybe Diada could find him through her map? She had me tagged before we even met.

"Well, newly transported come by rather often. What is the name of your friend?" The woman smiled professionally and focused on my face, some blue flashing through her eyes.

"I don't actually remember, I've had friends whose names I didn't remember for years of hanging out weekly." I hung my head and waved my arms in resignation. "I guess I will just have to hope he will somehow find his way to my place..."

"Could you at least describe your, friend?" The woman's voice sharpened a little bit.

"Sure. If he didn't change his look since we last met..." I paused. What were the chances, but... "Plastic glasses, green shirt and he listened to music through regular earphones. Thanks to my friends, I knew my way around the Guild and helped him get his bearing there... before he fainted for some reason."

"Oh, Adam! So he made friends, I worried he didn't have anyone to find himself in the world with. Sadly, not many teenagers were transported over the last year." The ladies demeanour warmed up and she rummaged through her computer. "He's on the first floor, there is a yellow doormat before his door."

"Thank you!" I smiled and waved at the woman, then boosted back onto Tom's shoulder. He heard our conversation and swiftly walked over into the corridor behind the reception. We passed two apartments and chose to walk up the stairs, rather than wait for the elevator.

Our target's door was in the middle of the corridor, facing the street. Tom knocked on the door and moved aside from it. A sound of something falling off a shelf resounded, followed by a rush of steps. "Coming!"

The boy barely got his head out the door, when Diada jumped over him and tied him up with mana-strings. "Criminal captured."

The spiderling strapped the package onto Tom's back and sat on his shoulder, self-satisfied smile blossoming on her face. I turned around and patted our money on the head. "Don't worry, you will probably just get some community service. Maybe a day or two in a jail-cell."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Tom reached out to close the door, but I stopped him. "Let's leave through a window, no need to stress out the reception lady."

The kitten shrugged and walked into the apartment. It was a nice, humble place. The walls were painted in warm beige - not my favourite colour for walls - and covered in small pictures of faraway places. To the right was a tiny, white kitchen. We ignored the bathroom in the middle and walked into the only room the apartment had.

Maybe a Tom and a half wide, three Toms long, the room was spacious enough. We ignored the floor covered in clothes, newspapers and dictionaries and swiftly got out, back on the street, through the window above the unkempt bed.

"Do we take him to the police or the Guild?" I asked and checked if the kid was fine after the jump. He wasn't wiggling or trying to scream in pain, so there probably wasn't any issues.

"The Guild I think, the nearest office should be the headquarters in the centre," Tom answered and took off in a jog.

I waved to a penguin in a suit, walking out of the shelter. "Guild business!" I giggled and strengthened my grip on the kitten, he was speeding up.

Next street over, we got onto a faster walkway and the cat turned into his best sprint. "Diada, I will put the kid on a pane, he might get a bit too shaken up from the run."

I extended a mana-bubble around the convict and lifted him over our heads as soon as the spider dissolved the straps. Maybe I'd look for similar jobs in the future, this was fun.

"Maybe we should send some books to the guy later. He's got to be rather desperate to get stronger if he went into the sewers." I mused aloud.

"The sword from the cat dungeon too, maybe? You won't have any use for it, for a couple more years at least and we will find something better by then." Tom proposed. 

"Good idea." I patted the cat on the head. "Let's ask him the precise address once we got into the Guild."

"Be quick, though," Diada said, her impatience leaking out of her voice and expression.

"That's up to the slime hunter over there." I pointed at the cocoon. 

"You hear that mortal? You must be cooperative!" The girl's voice let out a bit of her eldritch heritage, causing some other runners to stumble.

"He is so going to have the wrong impression of us..." I sighed. Well, it's not like we were planning to be friends.

We reached the plaza with the huge statue swiftly and walked into the Guild headquarters, on the opposite side from the Academies office.

The inside was a similar set-up to the smaller offices, but everything was lined in white marble, streaked with veiny lines of black and gold. We got in line for a ticket screen and I hummed a cheery song to myself.

"I will have to ask you to let go of this person," a deep voice came from below me. I turned to its source, to find a head of messy, black hair, barely reaching Tom's armpit. 

Below the head, were large, silver shoulder-plates, decorated with golden runes. The figure even had a long, red cloak. Some hero-wannabe maybe? I shrugged. Fights were prohibited in the Guild - as well as anywhere else that was civilised - so the worst the guy could do was annoy us.

"It's a target for a Guild mission. If our conduct is improper, I'm certain a Guild employee would have already scolded us." Tom informed the annoyance and typed the request details into the screen.

The annoying guy tried to grab our ticket, but his hand passed through it. The kitten calmly grabbed the ticket and handed it to me. I waved the piece of paper above my head and was met with an annoyed look from a pair of brown eyes.

"Do you not know who you are dealing with?! I am..." The boy got cut off by a larger man grabbing him by the nape of his neck.

"I apologise from my son. He gr..." I waved, interrupting the gruff voice of the man.

"It's okay. He has a lot of time to learn manners." I laughed. I thought it'd be fun to annoy the two some more, but Tom already carried me off deeper into the hall.

From the distance, I saw the man brush his beard, before turning his son around for a scolding.

If people were this entertaining, maybe I'd go out more to the populated areas. Especially the ones with adventurers.

After waiting in line for the windows, for another while, we finally placed the slime exterminator on the counter. I jumped over him and waved to the attendant. A middle-aged, pale human woman, with slightly greying, blonde hair.

"Hello, here is our ticket. This boy," I pointed at the cocoon, "was killing slimes in the sewers. He got here recently, so I think he thought he could level up from that." I gave the older lady my best smile and walked around our package. Those counters were wide.

The attendant's eyes flashed blue, as she looked over each of us and the otherworldly boy. "The information matches and the suspect sustained below minimal injuries. Good job." The woman nodded to us and typed something into her computer. "A police officer will take him shortly, but you do not need to wait. Here is the monetary reward and the successful completion of the task is already logged into the system."

"What will be the boy's punishment, if you can tell us?" Tom asked and looked worriedly at the cocoon.

"A day in a jail cell, and some mandatory classes on the basic law, as well as a few weeks of community service. Well, if he didn't get caught for a couple more days, a police officer would have to catch him and then... Well, he'd live." The lady smiled.

"Ah! We were supposed to get his address. Diada if you could untie his mouth." The spiderling nodded and the web over the boy's mouth dissolved. "You heard the question, if you want some compensation for being punished for being an idiot, spit out your address," I demanded and poked exposed cheeks of the teenager.

He stayed silent, so I shrugged. "Suit yourself. It's Academy approved books, you know?"

"The room number is fifteen. Thanks." The boy almost spat out the last word.

"Nice doing business with you, and good day to you miss attendant." I chirped and jumped back onto Tom's shoulder.

"So, it's burger night, tonight?" I turned to the spider.