"Hmm..." Lone stroked his chin in thought as he and Soph looked over one of the quest boards at The Adventurer's Guild. "None of those monsters are very magical in nature... Anything on your side of the board?"
Soph unpinned two requests and showed them to Lone. "This one is to kill a Lesser Hydra, but only S-rankers or above can take the quest on, so maybe we shouldn’t bother? Uh, this one here though is to wipe out a colony of Manasilk Spiders. There are no requirements on it since it's urgent, but the notice does say that the recommended adventurer should be a part of a silver-plated group or an A-ranker."
"Perfect. Put the Lesser Hydra one back since we can't even legally claim it, but we'll do that spider one," Lone said excitedly. ‘As much as I want to test Mental Destruction on a powerful creature, a Hydra could have multiple minds so yeah, not gonna fuck with that.’
He made a mental note of the Lesser Hydra’s reported location though to avoid it. After that, he and Soph headed to the kind receptionist from two days ago since the man was on duty today.
There was a bit of a line unlike yesterday, so after 20 minutes of waiting, the two of them were finally seen to.
"Ah, Mister Immortus and Miss Vladimirovich. It's good to see you both again. How can I help you on this fine afternoon?" the man politely asked with a lovely smile spread across his lips.
"Hi," Lone replied in a friendly manner as he passed the Manasilk Spider quest notice to the receptionist. "We'd like to take on this quest."
"Of course. Let's see here..." the employee adjusted his glasses and then frowned after reading the details written upon the piece of parchment. "Are you sure you wish to take on this quest? I can't rightly stop you since it is a quest with no acceptance requirements, but I feel it would certainly be unwise to attempt exterminating a colony of Manasilk Spiders at your personal ranks."
A few other adventurers heard what the staff member had said and they all chuckled or outright mocked Lone and Soph for being stupid.
Since they were a fairly common pest for the surroundings regions, it was basic knowledge that Manasilk Spiders weren’t to be underestimated.
Just one could easily kill an entire group of C-ranker if they were caught with their trousers around their ankles.
Lone knew this too. He’d done his research of the dangerous critters, and he was confident he, Soph, and Sophie, could deal with them given their unique talents.
Trying not to mind the ridicule of their peers, Lone shook his head. "No, we'll be taking on this quest. If we're confident in anything, it's our ability to run away."
Still frowning, the employee pulled open a drawer from behind him and then placed two sheets of paper on the desk. After doing that, he opened a second drawer and took out a list of sorts.
He wrote down Lone and Soph's names then passed his quill over to Lone. "Please sign these waivers which state that The Adventurer's Guild holds no responsibility should you die on this quest, as you have been adequately warned by a member of staff."
Lone was a bit shocked at how advanced the paperwork here actually was. 'First the agreement of no responsibility during a duel, now a far more formal one here for a pretty dangerous quest? Well, at least it's a serious organisation.'
He nodded and signed one of the forms before he said, "My companion is blind. Is it okay for me to sign in her place?"
"So that's why I’ve never seen her open her eyes... I assumed it was an odd sensing-based martial skill she was practising. But then how-, no, it doesn't matter. Of course, sir. So long as she consents, I have no issue with you signing on her behalf," the employee politely replied.
"Mmm, it’s fine," Soph happily replied with a blooming smile.
The receptionist smiled back then gave Lone a bit of helpful information. "The forest that the Manasilk Spiders can be found in is 17 miles due north of here, close to the country's northern border. They are rather weak to fire but burning down the entire forest is not an option since the lumber is a valuable resource for the county in which the forest belongs. Also, whatever you do, please do not directly engage should you run into the colony's queen. If you insist on fighting her, only do so when she is asleep and make sure to employ any possible tricks and dirty tactics you can. Your lives matter more than your honour does."
“I’ll raise me glass to that!” one of the guild’s adventurers and a prospective bar patron cheered.
Several more men and woman chuckled as they raised their drinks in celebrations.
‘Heh. Nice atmosphere, this place. Way less discrimination than anywhere else thus far. I’d much rather be called an idiot when it looks like I’m being stupid than being made fun of for my tails and ears,’ Lone commented internally.
“Drunk layabouts. If you have the time to waste your coin on our imported drinks, then you should be spending that time getting stronger or by doing quests. There’s no end to the menial tasks,” the employee muttered as he shook his head wryly.
He then picked up the quest notice and handed it back to Lone. "Please return the notice to the board as it is not an exclusive quest, so more than one person or a single team can accept it. Also, please be careful. Run the moment you think that you are in danger. The guild loses enough hopeful youths every month as it is already. I don't want to be inadvertently responsible for the deaths of two more."
'He feels responsible? Even if the quest is open to all? This guy really is a kind person, isn't he?' Lone smiled faintly. "Thanks. I promise. We'll be back, uh, when we're done, I guess, haha."
"I look forward to your return," the man replied as he mirrored Lone's smile with his own.
----------------------------------------
Lone felt the control on his thoughts return as he finished his chanting. Pointing his palm to the sky, he invoked the spell, "Crude Fireball."
A small collection of flames no bigger than a person's head flew out of his hand and soared up into the sky, smacking and killing an unsuspecting bird instantly.
It was too busy watching the skies to detect the soaring mass of fiery death that had engulfed it, Lone suspected. That, or he just got lucky. It was his second attempt, after all. The other bird had escaped his clutches scot-free, having dodged the magic and fled for its life.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
"Well, three level-ups on a bird isn't bad, but boy is using magic other than Lightning Bolt a big fucking waste of MP," Lone grumbled as he continued walking with Sophie who wasn't far from him.
The girl had taken control back from Soph almost as soon as they had left Ranton’s city walls, clearly thrilled at the prospect of killing things after Lone had forced her to spare those nobles at the arena.
Sophie cocked her head to the side and cast a questioning look his way with that cold expression of hers. "Why did you not use it on yourself? Would that not have been more efficient than killing some helpless poultry?"
Lone rolled his eyes. "Firstly, that was a wild bird, not poultry, secondly, it's fuckin’ expensive. It costs 5,000 mana per use. I only have a little over 12k total, and it takes, like, half a day to refill my mana. There's also the fact that it's really boring waiting for the 100 lines of text to automatically read in my head. As for using it on myself, I'd rather not ruin a perfectly good set of clothes and give myself third-degree burns, thanks."
Sophie shrugged. "We care not for your naked flesh so you could simply do it without wearing clothing. Besides, you would heal in no time."
Lone gave her a look that was begging for an explanation as to why she could be so heartless. "Even if I have Physical Pain Resistance and Fire Magic Resistance, all they do is make the pain easier to tolerate, they don't actually lessen the pain."
"How did that idiom of yours go that you were always saying when you were tossing Lightning Bolts into the ocean that you also happened to be in? 'No pain, no gain', we believe it was?" Sophie asked with a smirk.
Lone sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I do need to stop being a bitch and just grind out the other magic skills I got from the gobs on myself, but the mana cost is gonna make it take a few days since, at a bare minimum, I need to get them all to at least intermediate rank."
"To decrease the costs?" Sophie asked somewhat disinterestedly.
"That and reduce the magic lines that need to be chanted," Lone said as he took a quick moment to reference his map of Milindo that he'd bought from a bookstore as they had left the city. "Yup, we turn left here at this T-junction."
He put the map back into his Dimensional Storage and then continued from where he had left off. "The mana cost got quartered and so did the needed lines when it came to my lightning magic. So, 5,000 MP became 3,750, and the 100 lines became 75. I'm hopeful and expectant that the other magics will follow that same improvement scheme as they rank up."
"Why stop there? You should evolve all of them like you did with Lightning Bolt. Or, at the very least, reach master-rank with the crude versions so the cost is negligible," Sophie suggested.
"I could, yeah, but if I focused on that, then I'd have no room to tinker and experiment with my Creation Magic. That's hardly free," Lone replied.
"Hmm..." Sophie held her chin as she thought. "Why do you not simply focus on training offensive magic when we are out on excursions like this, and when we are within the relative safety of Ranton's city walls, you can practice your Creation Magic and any other less battle-oriented magic skills that you learn?"
Lone wore a ponderous expression for a few seconds before he nodded slowly. "Okay. I can agree to that." After saying so, he cracked his neck and grinned at the surprisingly helpful Sophie. "We should hurry up a bit. I only told Grimsley that we'd be gone for three to four days tops, so we can't be wasting so much time walking."
He'd booked their room at the Amberbark Inn for a full week, so they were safe on that front, at least.
Sophie was the one to sigh this time. "Yes, yes, and we cannot abuse my Teleportation since we may need it to escape a precarious situation. We have delicate feet, so we expect a foot massage if you're going to make us walk faster than this in full plate."
"Consider it done," Lone replied as he maintained his grin.
----------------------------------------
A fireball quickly whizzed past several trees before it slammed onto the head of a blue-striped spider that was easily the same size as Lone's mini-fridge which was sat in the corner of his apartment back in Scotland.
Or, at least, that was where he'd last left it, but that was months ago now, so it could rightly be anywhere now for all he knew.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 6.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 7.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 8.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 9.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 10.
Congratulations! The host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 1.
Lone quickly stored the now-dead spider's corpse as he dismissed the rest of his notification log, mainly the updated information of the skill.
He rushed to Sophie's side and asked, "How many?"
"16 are heading over here," she very calmly replied, but she failed to hide the slight hints of anxiety and fear that were leaking out from her expression.
"Okay. We're done for today. Teleport us out of this forest and into a place big and stable enough for our fort and an Illusionary Dome," Lone ordered.
Sophie gave him no sass and immediately did as she was told. Over a dozen teleports later, the two of them were standing in some nearby abandoned farmlands.
Not minding the state of the untilled soil and trusting Sophie's judgement, Lone brought their personal fort out from his Dimensional Storage.
"I wonder if I can store something massive like that colosseum? Heh. It'd be funny to see the reactions of those racists if the entire fuckin’ building disappeared mid-fight. I would be using it, so maybe it’s possible…" Lone entertained himself with such thoughts as he used what was left of his MP to create an Illusionary Dome.
Congratulations! The host's active illusion magic skill [Illusionary Dome] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 3.
"Oh, a level-up. That's rare for this skill nowadays," Lone noted. A moment passed in silence, which confused him, so he spun around to look at Sophie. "Why're you not telling me to stop talking to my-... Are you shaking?"
Trembling lightly in her armour, Sophie didn't answer and she just walked into the Illusionary Dome. Naturally, Lone followed her.
"Wait, are you scared of spiders or something?" Lone asked as he caught up to her.
A big frown covered the girl's face. "Yes, we are. Most insects do not bother us, but spiders... During our time when we were imprisoned by the Templars, in our lonely little cave, many spiders crawled all over our body, bit us, made nests out of our hair, covered us in webs... So yes, we are scared of spiders. Laugh all you wish, but first, help us out of our armour. Forget the foot massage. We wish to swap with Soph and sleep," she said as she took her helmet off and roughly shoved it into Lone's hands.
Storing the helmet, he didn't make fun of her, instead, Lone smiled warmly. "That might be the girliest thing you've ever said. Well, ignoring the whole imprisonment and nest thing, but scared of spiders, huh? That's really cute."
"Is that so?" Sophie's expression worsened. "We do not think it to be. Regardless, please help us out of our armour."
"Sure," Lone replied instantly and got to work. "Still don't want that massage? I'm perfectly happy to try my hand at giving you one. I do have the Massage Mastery skill, after all…"
Sophie's cheeks turned red as she ultimately sighed. "Fine. You win. We want it. We did not expect you to understand us, in truth. Our mood is already a bit better now."
'I guess I'll leave checking the rank ups I skipped over and my status until later.' Lone smirked. "Great, maybe I'll get a new skill out of it?" he teased. "That, or just level up Massage Mastery."