----------- Guild Master’s POV --------------

Today was tiresome. I just returned to my office at the Adventurer’s Guild from a meeting with the lord and other town leaders. The crops aren’t growing properly. They are dry and wilted. This way, we won’t have much to go through winter, much less to sell and pay the poll taxes. If too much people fall into tax slavery and are brought out of town to work on other more promising communities, it can become a downward spiral because there won’t be enough workforce next year too. Things are bad. Maybe we will need to use that girl.

While I muse over the fate of the town, someone knocks on my door. It is one of the town guards.

“Sir, there is a report from the gate guard.”

“What is it? Speak your mind, soldier.”

“Some adventurers returned from the ‘Forest of Beginning’ and reported a new monster.”

This is serious. The monster population around a town must be controlled at all costs. Otherwise the town safety will be in jeopardy.

“What adventurers?” - I have a hunch on whom they are, but I need to make sure. A Guild Master that takes decisions based on hunches doesn’t live long.

“The kids from the town, three of them. Cloude and Marcy, and another boy that fainted.”

Yeah, bad things do pile up. They were a party of four, they just graduated and got their licenses. But for three kids to return, it means one was left behind, or killed. What is worse, the girl Marcy is my apprentice. Depending on how much they messed up, it might affect my standing. I rein in my rage. I must be composed now.

“Is there any of these three kids that can give me a statement?”

“The girl, Marcy, is coming to the Guild as we speak, master. She insisted to be allowed to talk to you first.”

Good girl. That is exactly what you should do. Report to me first, then I can do damage control. But I am concerned about the other girl, the fourth one. She is important to our plans.

----- Marcy’s POV -----

Helen is… Oh, Helen… I’m sorry Helen. They told me not to take a winter child into an expedition, but I could not bear leaving you behind. And then I just did it. Rationally, I’m sure she is no longer alive. But I must hope she is. That Helen somehow ran and hid from the monster. That she is there waiting for me to rescue her.

I am now at the waiting room of the Guild Master’s Office. After a while, I’m called in.

“Marcy, tell me everything. What happened?”

I do not dare to look at the eyes of my master. I am focusing my gaze at the desk in shame.

“We hunted all the wolves and gathered all the herbs we needed on the first afternoon after we arrived. We also had two rabbits. Then we set up camp, Cloude activated the repellent potion, and Julius went out to gather firewood. I was talking to Helen, when a huge monster came into the clearing we were camping at.”

“Can you describe this monster to me?”

Just conjuring the image of that creature in my mind is enough to make me damp in cold sweat. My hands just freeze. I take a deep breath. Monster recognition is paramount to anyone on the job of [Scout]. I wanted to be an [Archer] like my master, but he told me that I should be a [Scout] because I was very agile. I can still use a bow, so I think it is for the best. I should trust the advice of my elders.

“It was big, about 10 feet tall. It had an elongated jaw with pointy tusks, almost a snout, and two goat horns in the head. He was muscular and hunched, and had two large arms that almost reached the ground. The arms had long claws. It was naked. Its male parts were dangling.”

“Very good description, Marcy. I am proud of you.” - Master gives me a blank compliment. No way he is proud of a failure that runs away at the first real monster.

Master gets up, and walks to the bookshelf. He takes a big book from the top shelf, brings it to the desk by my side.

He opens the book, and flips some pages. The book smells of mold. In this book, there are drawings of monsters on the left side, and some descriptions on the right side. Next to each drawing, on the lower right corner, is a well-drawn letter, this is the monster’s rating.

This book is very important to every Adventurer’s Guild branch. The monster compendium allows witnesses to assess the presence of strong monsters. If a strong monster takes residence near a human community, it must be killed, or the entire community will be destroyed. It is common knowledge for everyone. It must be killed at any cost. And this cost can very well mean the ruin of the community anyway. Because we are paying for its extermination.

While I muse over the images and dread the fate of our town, Master stops at a page. There it is. This image will never leave me. I slowly look down to the letter of the threat rating. There, a big red “B” is drawn. There are several skulls drawn along the lines of the letter, like a relief. One of those should be me. Not Helen, but me. Oh, Helen.

“I see. You don’t have to say anything. Marcy, you did well.” - Master puts his hand on my shoulder. A warm, kind hand that taught me how to use a bow and a dagger. - “This report was inestimable. Way more valuable than an hundred wolf tails. The monster is a troll. Now we can take action.”

Master closes my book, but I read some of the description. Trolls are cowards, that fight to their pleasure because they won’t die even from a severed head. But they fear fire and acid. If you confront it with fire, it will run away.

So everything I needed to do was to pick up a wood stick from the campfire and wave at it. And Helen would be alive…

I break down. If only I knew better about the monsters. If only I had read that compendium and burned every single detail of it in my eyes. That hateful critter would not have … to Helen. Oh goodness.

While I cry my heart out with my hands on my face, Master calls to me.

“Marcy! Marcy! Oh, Marcy, get up!”

----------- Guild Master’s POV --------------

She turns around, looks at me and her expression softens. Good. This is the sight of loyalty. I can work with that. Now, to avoid a breakdown while I am not here to pull her around, let’s give her some tranquility.

“I will run there and see the monster for myself. And this…” - I take my trump card out of my desk drawer. Wyvern poison. It is so deadly that anything other than a dragon will die within a couple minutes. - “Do you know what is this? Wyvern poison. I think I can kill this troll with this poison. And then everything will be fine. The materials we can get from that monster will become this community’s wealth.”

The community’s wealth and my ticket out of this pit, I mean.

“Good luck Master. I believe you can kill that thing. If it is Master, the community is safe.”

I don’t understand women. One moment she is crying, the other she is smiling like everything is fine.

“Yes, Marcy. Do you see now how important is your report? Now we can take the proper action. Now everything will be fine. Don’t cry.”

She needs some comfort to get by, that is it. I kiss her on the forehead, and pat her head a little. She closes her eyes and smile. So she is satisfied with this little. Good girl.

I leave the guild, and walk to the gate. It is already late, if it were any other townsfolk, the gate guards would persuade the person to stay inside the walls. But I am the Guild Master. They salute me while I cross the gate.

Now there is no time to waste. I use a movement skill, and run to the forest.

I arrive at the forest, and begin tracking the kid’s trail. They ran really fast, the footprints are deep and the spacing between them is wide. My MP and INT is crap, so I never bothered to waste skill points into [Presence Detection]. But I am confident in my senses and tracking skill.

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After an hour or so, I see a clearing ahead. And there is something moving in there. I climb a tree with a good view, and position myself. I ready my bow, and leave one arrow nearby, ready to be nocked. But if the Troll is there, I will need to use the poison on the first shot. I want it to end in an instant.

Then I see what could be the worst possible scene I can imagine. There is a fucking troll in the clearing, and the thing is WEARING CLOTHES. It has what? 3 meters of height? Crap, this is really awful. If this thing is wearing clothes, it means it is intelligent. And there is almost nothing worse than an intelligent monster. Then it turns around, and things get even worse. The wheat girl is alive, in good health and fucking smiling at the monster.

Now collect the data. Marcy said the troll is a male. The wheat girl was not eaten or brutally murdered, as a normal troll would do. This troll is an intelligent subspecies, maybe a mutant. So if that vicious troll didn’t murder or eat the girl, then it means he raped her.

If a monster rapes a human woman, it might lead to an Hybrid birth. Hybrids are classified as demons, a higher ranking. Hybrid demons have a core, and they can gather ambient mana. But they also have a soul, and it allows them to use jobs and magic. Their growth is unlimited. Some powerful hybrids grow to be classified as Demon Lords. And then entire kingdoms fall.

There are animals at the bottom, they don’t have cores. Then any creature with a core is a monster. Cores are organs that crystallize mana into a stone, and grant the monster several abilities. Then monsters are divided into ordinary “monster”, “dragon” and “demon” at the top.

Fuck! The town needs that girl. If I knew of her potential, I wouldn’t have let her register at the Guild.

She has wheat colored hair, this is very rare. And she has a [Harvest Princess] title.

I know that because when one registers as an adventurer, the crystal engraving their stats into the guild card can read into hidden status. And a record of every single adventurer registered at a branch is available to the Guild Master. If we used her mana on the crops, the wilting could be reversed. But she is with the troll, and can be considered as already impregnated by his seed.

I must kill her. Maybe she can be of use even poisoned by the wyvern venom. The troll won’t eat a poisoned body, and will probably leave her alone. Then I recover the body, and take her to the town hall, where we can help with the crop issue.

I take out a special poison arrow, the one with grooves in the arrowhead to dip in venom. This one is the best arrow out of the ones in my quiver, all hand crafted. I dip the arrowhead into the wyvern venom, and let the groves suck the venom up. It is actually sticky ichor mixed with the venom. We can’t allow even one drop to spill outside. After that, I set the arrow aside, and quickly put the cork back in the crystal vial. Wyvern venom is too vicious, it can only be kept in crystal vials that can resist corrosion. Even the cork to seal the vial is made of crystal. Now safely stow the vial back in its wooden case. If it breaks while carried by me, I’m dead.

The ichor mixed with venom dries a little. This is important because I don’t want any splatter showering my face while I shoot the arrow. Many comrades died because of this mistake.

When it is dry enough, I nock the arrow and aim at the girl’s head. I’m sorry Marcy. Your friend is no longer human. She is already dead. I’m killing a monster’s whore and a demon lord candidate here.

The arrow flies true. My bow is a powerful compound bow, with a precision enchantment. It is not made for stealth, but for range and firepower. Perfect for me.

And then, the monster moves his arm to intercept the arrow, right before it hits the girl. The arrow sinks into Its forearm. Fuck, this creature is indeed intelligent. It protected its bride at the cost of its own life. A demon lord will be born out of this unholy union. The world is doomed.

It is searching for me. I must move away. I will go downwind so it is harder for him to pick my scent. East.

The monster squats in front of the girl, covering her entirely. It is searching for me, but no way it would know where I moved to.

And just where is my luck? It looks at me. It is looking straight into my eyes. I never felt fear like this moment. It takes a deep breath. The arrow is still lodged to his arm. Excellent. The venom is already in its blood. But variants have strange resistances. I can’t estimate how long it will take for it to become incapacitated. It might be enough time to kill me.

And then the monster lets out a huge surge of mana, with a mighty roar. Around me, I can hear wolves crying and running, birds flying away, even rabbits dying on the spot. My heart races, breathing becomes impossible, my fingers becme numb, heat drains from my face and hands.

No way in tarnation this thing is ‘just’ a B rank. It is an A rank or even an S.

I can’t die here. The monster’s death sentence is sealed in that arrow. I’ll run back to town, and gather reinforcements. Then we will collect the monster’s body and the girl.

With this achievement, I can even earn peerage.

----- Marcy’s POV -----

Iis noon of the following day when I wake up.

I go out, and following the routine ingrained in me for the last three years, I wander into the Aventurer’s Guild. I am no longer an apprentice, but the Guild is my second home. There I meet Cloude at the Guild’s courtyard, AKA training grounds. He is with a wooden sword, hitting a dummy. Violently. I lean against the building wall, and watch as he hopelessly break two wooden swords. When he turns to pick up the third wooden sword in the rack, he notices me.

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have anything better to do?” - Sourrrrr. Cloude could curd milk with his mood alone.

“Me? Nothing. I am waiting on Master. He left to slay that monster. He will avenge Helen.”

“Helen…” - Cloude hangs his head. All the energy he had while he was torturing the training dummy left his body upon hearing ‘Avenge Helen’.

“You don’t expect that girl to be alive, do you? She was a winter child. She had no stamina. She did not follow you while you guys were running.”

Some rowdy adventurer comes and demolish whatever composture we had left. This guy is six years our senior. But is someone that is always getting into trouble. He was tax slave until last year.

Cloude looks at Rowdy with rage.

“Oh, those are good eyes. If you looked at the ‘monster’ with those eyes, I am sure it would be dead instead of the wheat-haired girl.”

This last provocation was the last drop for Cloude. He takes the training sword, and lunges at Rowdy, that parries with his forearm guard and kicks Cloude in the stomach. Cloude falls down and rolls on the ground. I am glad it was this late in the day, or Cloude would’ve lost his breakfast.

“You saw it, lass. The kid came at me with a weapon.” - Rowdy recruits me as his witness. More trouble for Cloude. He is bad at defense. And his HP stat is even lower than mine. Using the party settings, I look for Cloude HP bar. Then it hits me.

Julius had not dissolved the party. It is still the four of us. There are four HP bars on the screen. And three of them are completely full. I open a huge smile.

“Cloude, Cloude, the party is still set with the four of us!!! This is great!!! I can see it! The HP bar!!”

Cloude looks at me with scorn.

“Yeah, laugh all you want. I know I almost died from a single kick. But he is D rank, you know?”

“Not your HP bar, silly. Helen’s. HELEN’S.” - I’m so happy that I could kiss Cloude. Omg. I can’t believe I thought that. Eww.

Cloude gasps, and recites the incantation to open party status.

“She is alive!!!”

Cloude’s tension drains like a cup of water in a sand bank. He faints. I go inside the guild, and yell:

“Hey Rowdy, Cloude fainted over here, come back and take him home. It is your responsibility for not pulling your kick. For goodness sake, what are you doing to a children.” - And after that I avenge myself for ever considering kissing Cloude by dragging Cloude’s reputation on the mud.