Glancing at the body that was sprawled out on the floor, Liam hesitated before walking over and looking down.

The person was geared with a full set of steel armor, complete with a sword and scabbard. And although from a distance it wasn’t noticeable, upon closer inspection the metal was covered in scratches and dents.

In short, the man was the very image of an adventurer.

Liam was pondering what to do with the body when the system spoke up excitedly.

< Host, this is a high leveled adventurer! Its body will yield a great amount of mana, along with enough experience to go up at least two levels! >

Liam: Huh? Why do I feel like my system isn’t as innocent as before? It actually wants me to commit homicide.

System: < Don’t forget! Adventurers are the natural enemy of us dungeons! Countless dungeon cores have met their ends at the hands of these people! >

The system who had been bound to many dungeon cores before cried out for justice and revenge!

Sensing Liam’s hesitation, it continued on.

< Besides, even without us doing anything, this adventurer is too wounded to live. Since it’s going to die anyway, we shouldn’t let this opportunity go to waste! >

Despite the system’s urging, Liam remained painfully undecided. “You said he’s a high-level adventurer right? Doesn’t that mean a lot of people will come looking if he goes missing?”

The system was firm in its stance:

< Adventuring is a dangerous job, nobody will be suspicious if a person goes missing! >

Liam: Actually, I have a better idea.

Liam: Let’s take advantage of him.

System: < ...what? >

***

As a result, when Theo opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a bed of… slimes?

Slime: <(｀^´)> I will follow my master’s orders until the end!

Looking around, he found himself in a small rock cave, the entrance a few meters away. Theo carefully looked himself over. Although his wounds had mostly healed, he frowned when he found his sword and scabbard to be missing.

When he turned and glared coldly at the slimes, they hurriedly puffed up and rolled away.

Theo: … Aren’t they normally supposed to attack me?

The last thing he remembered before falling unconscious was the notification that he had killed a slime and the shocked face of a person.

That person was missing, along with his sword. The natural assumption was that it had been stolen from him.

Theo felt like his luck was truly terrible. He was just on his way back after completing a monster subjugation quest but had run into a group of adventurers from a rival guild. Although they were a rank below him, he had sustained quite a few injuries.

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And to rub salt into his wounds, he actually had the misfortune to run into a thief while looking for a place to rest for the night. After cursing a bit, however, he found that some things seemed off.

He touched the sack hanging on his belt. A metallic rustling confirmed that his coin purse was still there, untouched. Aside from his weapon, everything seemed normal.

“Hello there.” A low voice interrupted his thoughts.

Turning around rapidly and raising his fists in a combat stance, he cautiously scanned the direction the voice came from.

I had just looked around and there was clearly nobody else here.

“This is yours, isn’t it?” The voice spoke out again, seemingly coming from thin air. Soon after, a soft thud resounded as an object materialized on the floor in front of him. Theo quickly recognized it as his sword and scabbard.

Before picking it up, Theo slowly turned and looked around him again, but like before, there was nobody in the cave.

Slowly opening his mouth, he asked, “Who’s there?”

After a short pause, a white light gradually appeared in the middle of the room. He heard the voice sigh quite… dramatically?

“I am a spirit, and this cave is my resting place.” The voice said, emanating from the fist-sized light.

Theo, who had seen many spirits in his adventures and thought them rather unimpressive: “I see. What kind of spirit are you?”

“A-Ah? I-I am undecided as of now.” The ball of light muttered with a confused tone.

System: < T_T >

System: < Save me, my host is so embarrassing! >

“...what?”

“Holy! I meant Holy, I am a Holy spirit, you see.” It hurriedly said.

Theo found this spirit a little strange. “Then why are there slimes following you?”

A few seconds passed before the spirit coughed awkwardly. “Well, you see, this spirit is kind of… broke.”

Theo stared blankly as the voice kept on speaking.

“The truth is, my home is frequently invaded by monsters. I’ve tried many ways to fend them off to no avail. With my power, all I can do is barely manage to survive. I fear that I may not be able to last much longer.”

The voice kept rambling on, but Theo had stopped listening.

Why does this feel like I’m being told a sob story? And how can a spirit be broke?

Unaware of Theo’s thoughts, Liam finished off his heartfelt ‘story.’

“Therefore, this spirit sincerely asks for the Hero’s protection from such monsters.”

Inwardly, Liam silently admired his plan.

Step 1: Guilt a strong person into protecting his dungeon.

Step 2: Lure monsters into his dungeon.

Step 3: Profit!!!

The system who had been ignored was silently growing mushrooms in the corner.

System: < Requesting advice! My host has left me for someone else… *Sobs* >

Liam was still beaming with self-satisfaction when his thoughts were interrupted.

“My apologies for your situation, but I am unable to help you with your problem as of this moment.”

In an instant, his mood fell down from a ten all the way to a zero.

“...how come?”

Theo replied firmly despite the thread of guilt in his mind.

“As an adventurer, I have many missions to complete. However, you can put in a mission request through the guild and adventurers will certainly be dispatched. Of course, there’s a fee.”

The dungeon core who had never even touched money: “…”

“...I told you that I’m broke, right?”

“Oh, I guess you did huh? You can always put in a request for free, but very few people accept those missions.”

Liam: …

Liam: “So how do I put in a request?”

Theo replied nonchalantly, “The easiest way is to go to the guild in person and talk to the receptionist. You can also send a letter to put in a request, but it takes longer.”

Liam: …

Glancing at the ball of light, he continued on, “Would you like me to submit a request for you?”

“...yes please.”

“Alright then, I’ll be off.” The adventurer nodded his head at the ball of light before turning around.

System: < Ha! This is what you get for ignoring me. Serves you right! >

Liam: (;￣□￣)

Liam: … Fuck! People are actually so heartless!

System: < smugface.jpg >

“Please wait!” Liam called out just as the man was about to step out.

Turning around, Theo gave the ball of light a questioning glance.

“Your name, what is it?”

Opening his mouth, the adventurer answered while curving up the corner of his lips. “Theo Greyalt, B rank adventurer of the Silver Wolf Guild.” As well as future Hero.

With those words echoing in the air, the adventurer turned around and left.

And as for why Liam asked for his name? To put that person on a blacklist, of course!

The system looked at the newly made list that was titled “People to face slap when I’m stronger!” and sighed.

System: < Why is my host so strange… >