We arrived at the Adventure Society’s gigantic glass building and entered, approaching the front desk.

Lucy, the blonde catonid receptionist greeted me with her usual charm.

“Mr Akabane, it’s been a while. Your new armour is lovely.” She smiled as she walked around the side of the reception desk and picked Panda up under the arms, placing him on the desk where he sat and began puffing smoke from his bamboo pipe.

“Thanks.” I replied. “I came to hand in the quest I took. It’s been completed.”

“That’s brilliant news. If you could just fill out this report I’ll arrange for your reward.” She said, reaching under the desk and passing me some paper and a pen. She then leant on the counter and fondly scratched Panda behind the ears.

I took the form from her. It was basically a field report. It asked me to explain what had happened during the quest.

It was a simple matter; except I only knew how to write in English.

My personal skill Speak English Damnit! Allowed me to understand other languages and somehow it translated my speech, or maybe everyone else had a similar skill that translated speech for them, but it didn’t say anything about writing.

Panda looked towards me and nodded.

I guessed it was worth a shot so I began writing my report in English. I explained about the 10,000+ slimes I’d exterminated, the slime queen, and described the circular layout of the sewers.

I also included the weakness of the slime queen being the core, her level and the affects her body had on me when I was swallowed.

That was a little embarrassing to admit, but the only use of these reports that I could think of was to gather information. If my embarrassment could save another adventurer later down the line then it was a small price to pay.

It didn’t take long to fill out the report and I quickly returned it to Lucy, looking on nervously as she examined it.

“Wow, you defeated a slime queen by yourself? That’s quite impressive Mr Akabane. I think it also warrants a better reward.

“This was supposed to be a temp level quest but it seems it should have been posted for iron rank adventurers instead.”

I sighed in relief as I realised that she could read my writing. I had no idea how the skill had translated it, but I put it down to system fuckery and was just glad it worked.

“If you’ll follow me Mr Akabane, we’ll go report this to Administrator Gonzo right away.”

I had no idea who that was but I nodded anyway and followed her behind the reception area.

There was a door at the back which led into an office-style hallway. The walls were adorned with corporate propaganda posters. There was even the famous one I’d seen on TV with a cat hanging onto a washing line.

I still found it strange how similar the backroom work environments in Havar were to the ones back home. Outside of the offices the world was a pure fantasy land, yet bureaucracy still prevailed inside office buildings.

Perhaps bureaucracy was universal, that was a chilling thought.

We passed through an area of cubicle spaces which were mostly dominated by bored looking humans who were clock watching.

At the back of that room was a small office. Lucy knocked on the door and it opened on its own.

She entered and we followed.

The office itself wasn’t anything to write home about. It was small and windowless with a desk piled with paperwork shoved in the corner and a few seats on our side of it.

Sitting at the desk, looking rather stressed, was a catonid man with grey whiskers.

“Administrator.” Lucy began. “This is Mr Akabane, he is a temp adventurer who joined us recently. He has just returned from the slime extermination quest and his report was quite unusual.”

“Let’s have a look.” Gonzo replied without looking up from his paperwork. He held out a slender hand and snatched the paper from Lucy.

He scanned over it for a moment and I watched as his facial expression went from bored, to intrigued, to outright shocked.

“A slime queen, living in the sewers? It seems you’ve done us quite the service Mr…”

“Akabane sir.” Lucy advised.

“Yes, yes, Mr Akabane. Good job, I’ll have your reward upgraded.”

“Thank you sir.” Lucy said, bowing slightly to the distracted administrator before gesturing for us to leave.

We walked in silence back through the cubicle area and to the reception desk.

“So, what will I get from this upgraded reward?” I asked as we returned to the reception area.

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“More gold probably and it’ll be added as a feat to your record with us. We look at those when it comes time to promote people.

“It doesn’t apply to you yet, but once you pass the exam and become iron rank you can be promoted within that rank.

“The maximum is a three-star promotion which qualifies you for more complicated quests. These are usually less about fighting and need more of a delicate touch. There can be more to adventuring than fighting monsters.”

A three-star ranking system within each actual rank? Yup, this place was the epitome of corporate bureaucracy.

“Oh, cool.” I said sceptically.

“For now, I believe the director wished to speak with you. I’ll have your reward ready when you’re done.”

She smiled and I took that as my cue to leave. I walked towards the magic elevator with Panda in tow.

I pressed the button in the centre of the magic circle on the wall but nothing seemed to happen. I tried again, still nothing. I pushed it a few more times before I registered Panda snickering behind me.

“What?” I asked irritably.

“You need mana to use a magic elevator.” He replied, giggling as he spoke.

“Well then it’s a good job I’ve got a familiar to do that for me.” I replied.

He huffed and began trying to reach the button which was just too high on the wall for him.

“Oh, can’t you reach?” I asked teasingly.

He glowered and I picked him up so he could press the button for me. The elevator arrived and we took it to the top floor.

It opened into the familiar and large office of Director Lucas. The man himself was stood straight backed and facing out of the window that took up the entire back wall.

I approached, but he didn’t turn around. I moved to stand next to him and took in the glorious view of the city of Havar.

It was truly a sight to behold from this high up. No wonder CEO’s felt so powerful if they got to see views like this every day.

It felt like the entire city was beneath us as I took it in with all its glory. The busy people rushing through the streets below looked like ants from this high up.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” Lucas asked absently as he took a sip from a fancy crystal glass.

“It’s certainly something.” I replied.

“You know Kaleb when I first moved here I was disappointed with the transfer. I was supposed to be an influential figure on the continent, but alas my power topped out and I had no more potential to show my tyrannical father.

“He sent me out here as punishment. Over the years though, I’ve come to enjoy the laid-back island lifestyle. It truly is a paradise.” He sighed. “Take a seat.”

I complied and sat next to Panda in front of his large desk.

“I heard you fought a slime queen on your most recent quest.”

“Word sure travels fast around here.” I replied.

“I’d like to offer my apologies. Had we known, we never would have posted that quest on the temp board. Of course, the issue with adventuring is that quests are submitted by non-adventurers.

“They often can’t tell the difference between different types of monsters. They rarely get the numbers right and they have no idea which ones are powerful and which are insignificant.

“We do our best to grade each request correctly, but we don’t always get it right. Information is often lacking when quests are submitted. That is a lesson you’d do well to take heed of.” He said, refilling his glass with amber liquid from a finely cut decanter.

I understood what he was trying to say but I honestly didn’t see what all the fuss was about. The slime queen wasn’t easy to defeat, sure, but the rest of the quest was about as safe as I could imagine.

The slimes didn’t even fight back. It was a slaughter.

“Anyway, you did a fine job defeating the queen and lasting down in the sewer for such a long time. I guess you must have a poison resistance skill.” He continued.

“That’s right, how did you know?” I asked slowly.

“Because the sewer’s fumes are poisonous. Something else that wasn’t included in the quest proposal.”

“Oh great, and no one thought to tell me that before I went down there?” I snapped.

“So it seems.” Lucas continued calmly. “Adventuring is a dangerous game as I’m sure you know.”

He didn’t even apologise that time. I’m sure he thought it a moot point due to my Minor Poison Resistance skill, but not everyone had that. Hell, he didn’t even know I had it before I came back.

I got the distinct impression that these corporate assholes would have happily let me die down there from a stupid oversight. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t piss me off.

“Anyway, that’s not what I called you up here to discuss.” Lucas continued, brushing past my anger at the fucked-up situation. “I wanted to talk to you about your final trial quest.”

“An interesting one has come across my desk recently and I’d like you to take it.”

“And what kind of oversights should I expect on this one.” I asked bitterly, folding my arms, and sitting back in my seat.

“Adventurers should always expect the unexpected so naturally you should proceed with caution on every quest. However, this one should be pretty straight forward.” He replied calmly.

“We’ve received word that a fortress wall has appeared on one of the smaller islands just off the coast of Havar. We believe that it belongs to a small sect of cultists. We usually leave them alone as long as they tend to keep to themselves, but this group is a little too close to the city to just leave them be.

“The quest is to go there and investigate. Use of lethal force is permitted. Though, of course, if you deem it unnecessary then that is also acceptable as long as you gather enough information to justify your choice.

“It is also acceptable to return and advise we send a full adventuring team if you deem them to be too numerous or strong for a single adventurer to handle.

“The choice is yours.”

“Is this a test?” I replied bitterly.

“Everything in life is a test young Kaleb.” He smiled secretively.

It seemed simple enough. Having multiple ways to complete the quest would be a first. Hell, I could just go have a nosey and then come back and I’d qualify to take the exam.

Overall it seemed like a pretty good deal. Still, something about it didn’t sit well with me. The director had just shown me his callousness in how he spoke about the oversights on my last quest.

“Fine.” I said after a few moments of silence.

“Perfect. I’ll have Lucy assign it to you on your way out.”

That was obviously my cue to leave but I needed to ask something first that had been tickling the back of my mind.

“Is it normal for the director to meet with temp adventurers?” I asked as I stood up from my seat.

“Define normal Mr Akabane. Your entire existence is extremely abnormal. There are over four billion people of various races that inhabit Celestia. Do you know how many outworlders we have?”

“I’m guessing not many.” I replied.

“Less than 3000 that we know of, though I’m sure there are more. Outworlders are known of only by the powerful and those in the know. Most citizens think of you as a fairy tale. That is how rare you are.

“So, whilst I don’t make it a habit of meeting with low ranked adventurers often, you are an exception. So, naturally, if you ever need anything please don’t hesitate to come see me.” His tone moved from dark to friendly in a single sentence.

I couldn’t sense mana, but my intuition told me there was more than meets the eye with this one. I learnt something valuable though: the Adventure Society only knew about 3000 of the 10,000 outworlders in Celestia.

The system had transported 10,000 of us here, but Lucas didn’t seem to know that.

I’d better keep that to myself for now. I thought.