"'S'at so?" Grimsley asked of The Adventurer's Guild employee that had come knocking on his door in the late afternoon.

"Yes," the employee replied. "If you wish to visit your apprentice, please, do so at the guild."

"Hahaha, fookin' helluva cunt, aye?" Grimsley rhetorically asked. "Leave it tae Lone tae go an' fookin' put some snobby-arsed pricks barely outta the womb in their places."

The guild staff member smiled wryly. "Indeed, well, farewell..."

"Aye, off wae ya," Grimsley rudely said as he waved his hand dismissively. "Cheers fae fillin' ma in."

The employee bowed his head politely then promptly left.

Immediately, the happy look on Grimsley's face vanished and was replaced with one of raw depression.

He closed the door and made his way over to his new casket of dwarven ale. "Things arnae goin' well wae Shana, an' now Lone's gone an' got 'imself on hoose arrest?... If ah cannae find a contract mage in the next fortnight, ah may have to just pack up shop an' flee... 'At damn'd sack ah shite of an 'ero... 'Ow the fuck'd 'e get the bright idea tae start sniffing around the slums?"

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"I still don't know nearly enough," Lone complained as he lay there on his bed in his and Soph's room in the residential floor of The Adventurer's Guild.

He was simply staring at the ceiling as he went over his knowledge regarding eyes.

"Don't know enough about what?" the girl curled up on his chest asked as she rubbed her eyes wearily.

Lone smiled and kissed the top of her head. "About you, you adorable blob of cuteness."

Soph pouted. "I'm not a blob... I'm not getting f-fatter, am I?"

Lone grinned. "So what if you are or ever did? I'd love you all the same, but no, you're not. Sophie is still getting lessons from her swordsmanship instructor, so, if anything, I think you're starting to get some real muscles. The barely-visible but slightly toned kind."

"I-Is that bad?" Soph worried.

Lone laughed. "No. It's incredibly sexy on your oldest body."

"O-Oh..." Her face became a blanket of embarrassment.

Seeing that the conversation had ended, Lone returned to his thoughts but kept them private this time as he stroked Soph's golden-blonde locks. 'I can barely recreate a fucked-up mutated eye, let alone a perfect one that actually works. This is going to take me months to do... Either months or I risk it and let the system or whatever the fuck controls my Creation Magic to take full control and fix Soph's eyes for me, but I have no idea if that'll even work... Can it change something's very nature?'

Lone had no answer to that question, and, honestly, if he wanted one, he was scared of what he'd have to do to obtain it.

At that moment, they both heard a loud rap at the door. "Yes?" Lone asked.

"Guildmaster Gilbert has selected a quest for you to go on with him. Meet him in the main lobby as soon as you possibly can, please."

"Oh, okay, we'll be right out," Lone answered.

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"It only took you 10-minutes to get ready?" Gilbert asked as he glanced at Lone's loose and comfortable adventurer gear and then at Sophie's bulky equipment. "That's rather fast for such complex armour."

Lone smiled. "I've gotten good at dressing her."

"He's better at undressing us, though," Sophie teased.

"That, I did not need to know," Gilbert said with a short laugh. "Anyway, we'll be on our way then if you're both prepared?"

Lone nodded. "Yeah, we're good to go. Um, will you be fine in those loose robes?"

Guildmaster Gilbert was draped in a pair of white robes that matched the colour of his horns and his dragon tail. On those robes could be seen many golden runes that certainly looked magical, though Lone had no idea if they were just decorative or if they had any actual effects.

"Ah, these? I'm what the world calls a master mage. In simple terms, that means I have over five skills in a certain school of magic which are all above expert-rank. Are you curious as to what schools?" the handsome man asked with a grin spread across his lips.

Lone, a fanatic of all things magical as evidenced by the fact that he still kept the strange black orb with him wherever he went, quickly nodded. "Absolutely."

"Haha, well, you'll have to wait and see, now won't you? Where's the fun in simply telling you?" Gilbert asked rhetorically. "Anyway, the hope is that I won't have to use any magic during our adventure. On that topic, I chose a C-ranked quest. I've seen you both training and while Sophie is probably more suited to quests for E-ranked adventurers, if you can really teleport, then you should be just fine," he said as he whispered that last part.

"Awesome," Lone replied excitedly. "So, uh, what's the quest, exactly?"

"We're hunting some Blue Orcs," Gilbert happily answered. "With a bunch more adventurers too."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

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"Why is he here?" Lone asked as he tried his best to not subconsciously glare at Daisuke Tamiko, Milindo's summoned hero.

Lone, Sophie and Gilbert had just arrived at the designated area for the adventurer coalition which had gathered to wipe out the main camp of the Blue Orcs who had been terrorising the local countryside.

"Because he found the orc's fortress, and also because he wants to personally one-up you two. He still thinks that you are responsible for 'stealing' the Manasilk Spider Queen from him. The foolish boy," Gilbert explained.

As he and Lone were talking, many eyes were drawn onto their group.

"By the Primals, is that the guildmaster? What's he doing here?"

"He's even in his battle robes... I've never seen him in action before... Will we get to see him fight today?"

"Man, I hope not. That'd be... problematic."

"R-Right. Wouldn't want to get outdone by a demi, of all things..."

"Why's he with that other demi and the girl in heavy armour though?"

"Those two are in protective custody after offending some noble kids."

"Huh. I did hear the guildmaster was biased towards demis... Guess even as a guildmaster, he can't help but look out for his own kind."

"I still don't get why our guildmaster is a damned demi... Any human could run the place better than him."

"Right? I got told I was too cruel when I asked for my silver plate promotion. What a load of horseshit. He's just being hard on humans."

'Retards,' Daisuke thought. 'It's obvious that he's the guildmaster to uplift the image of demis in Milindo. The grand guildmaster is trying to spread that equality BS that the guild is so proud of.'

Daisuke wasn't really a racist in any regard, no, he just didn't believe in equality. He felt it was a pointless ideal that was impossible to realise so long as people existed.

"Can you all shut the fuck up? I'd like to get this quest over and done with, personally," Daisuke rudely shouted with an arrogant tone to his voice. 'The sooner we're done killing these oversized pigs, the sooner I can get back to Ranton and raid that idiot dwarf's home. I swear to God, if he does have Harem Member Three hidden in that smithy of his, then he'd wish he was dead by the time I'm through with him.'

Gilbert nodded, though a bit unwillingly. "Indeed. I am merely here to observe and keep you all alive or to step in if the chieftain is far stronger than our initial estimates." He then glanced at Daisuke. "I'm also present to make sure no... unfortunate accidents happen."

The Japanese hero shrugged.

Lone looked at the man's two slaves who seemed to be even more lifeless than when they had last met. The young foxkin girl's tail was clearly missing a lot of its fur and the elf girl's silky smooth skin had become a bit dry and... thin.

'Is he starving them?' Lone wondered in anger. 'Bastard. They're only kids, for fuck's sake... What a scumbag... I'm really curious what kind of a person he was before he came here... Was he always a sick fuck or did he become one as he lived here? Sadly, both seem probable.'

Regardless of Lone's upset and revulsion of Daisuke, the quest proceeded.

There were exactly 20 adventurers not including Gilbert, so they decided to split up into groups of five. Daisuke insisted on being grouped up with Lone and Sophie, and, of course, no one refused him. In fact, some even thanked him for taking the hit of working with a demi, though, to Lone's eyes, these appreciations all seemed a bit... false.

'I've got a bad feeling... Did he group up with us to stealthily betray us or something? But with Gilbert here, that'll never work... What are you up to, you sick fuck?' Lone asked in thought.

Daisuke ignored Lone's inquisitive gaze as he said, "Don't hold me back. Two useless meatshields are more than enough already as it is."

Not waiting for a reply, he led his two slaves over the rear wooden barricade of the Blue Orcs fort.

Lone furrowed his brow. Their goal was to flank the chieftain along with another group while the other two groups distracted and slowly wiped out the normal Blue Orcs.

"Damn it. I kinda want to just stay here, but I'd feel like fuckin' shit if we let those girls die..." Lone muttered.

Sophie shrugged. "We do not know, perhaps death would be a kinder fate for them."

"Tell that to the you that was chained up in a cave for over a century," Lone retorted.

"Point taken," Sophie replied. "Anyway, let's move quickly. The frontal group is almost upon the largest mana signature."

Lone nodded then crouched to allow Sophie to step on his cupped hands. With tensed arms and a deep breath, Lone launched Sophie over the wall. Not a moment later, he had jumped over himself very nimbly.

"I was worried you weren't coming," Daisuke said. "I'd have been pissed off if we actually had to fight that thing. Especially since it's enraged."

Lone was confused by the hero's words. He quickly tried to scan his surroundings only to see Daisuke's slaves very hastily slitting the throats of the children and the stomachs of the females who were all cowering submissively in fear. The two girls were also filling wooden buckets with the blood and guts that spilt out.

'What's that for? Some sort of blood magic or something? But then why did Daisuke say something so clearly traitorous?' Lone's mind was spinning and he wasn't sure what to do.

The other group of five adventurers were putting their all into dodging or blocking the crazed movements of the 9-foot tall chieftain who was trying his hardest to make it to his struggling family, to the future of his clan.

Daisuke smirked then said, "I've been meaning to find a good spot to get rid of those two useless sacks of shit. They hardly put out anymore since they're so lifeless, making them deadweight. Well, this is also perfect to get my payback for stealing that spider from me."

The hero's hands moved faster than Lone could react, and before he knew it, both he and Sophie were covered head to toe in Blue Orc guts and blood. Daisuke had swiftly taken the buckets from his slaves and poured their contents over Lone and Sophie.

"I think I'm gonna be sick. What a stench. Well, just so you know, I paid off the other groups to intentionally struggle so that retarded goat will have to help them if he doesn't want them to die. See you in the afterlife, well, if demis go there." Daisuke cast a wistful glance in Sophie's direction before he shook his head and disappeared over the wall.

'... What the fuck just happened?' Lone asked as he struggled to keep his lunch in his stomach. He quickly moved to clear his face of the blood and internal organs that were now smeared all over it.

Seeing the hero flee, the five adventurers enduring the chieftain's attacks immediately threw a smoke bomb to the ground then vanished just as quickly as Daisuke had.

Sophie quickly wiped the gory mess from her helmet's visor and she wore a frown on her face. "Fight or flight? We can catch that slimy bastard if we so desire."

At that moment, the chieftain whipped his head around and saw the brutal mess that was his wives and his children. He had been too late...

He then saw the blood-soaked daggers in the hands of the two slaves and he very soon found himself glaring at the gut-covered Lone and Sophie.

"Graaaaaaaahhhh!" he powerfully yelled before he put some strength in his hind legs and began charging towards the four of them.

Lone unstrapped the swordspear from his back as he tried his best to stop his hands from violently trembling. "I'll kill that motherfucker. I fucking swear to God, he's fuckin' dead. Dead."

'Are you talking about the orc or about the hero, Lone?' Sophie privately thought as she unsheathed her shortswords and got ready for what was bound to be a difficult battle since Lone didn't seem intent on using his Mental Destruction to end this quickly.