On a scorching summer day, the relentless sun blazed down from a nearly cloudless sky.

Seth rested against the wall, placing his hand upon it, and inhaled deeply.

"Five days. It's been five days, and yet we are only done with two quests," he said impatiently.

He had expected that the quests would take at most one day. And by the next day, he would get promoted to be a D-rank adventurer.

Celia chuckled from beside him. "We got a bit sidetracked, but we also got to try Mrs. Jane's family recipe of Poached Dream Ladybird, which has been passed down from generation to generation and is now only known to her."

“It did taste good,” he begrudgingly admitted.

It tasted like fried chicken.

He had anticipated that Celia might occasionally lend a hand to some people who needed help while they were doing their quests, but Isaac also did the same. The locals requested their assistance in running errands after knowing that they were adventurers.

It included things like helping heartbroken villagers find their missing animals, collecting rare herbs for the local apothecary, escorting travelers or merchants through the area, protecting farmers' crops from pests, foraging for edible mushrooms in the forest, etc.

Neither Celia nor Isaac would say no each time.

In five days, Seth also avoided another assassination attempt.

"But still..."

"I knew that Sir Isaac was a good man."

"Him?"

Their gaze was drawn to Isaac, who was assisting the old guy in transporting a large piece of luggage to a local inn.

Seth wanted to agree with Celia. ‘In The Summoned Hero, however, Isaac ends up siding with the demons.’

After talking with the old man, Isaac approached them with the lost item for their third quest. It was a necklace that a noblewoman had lost when she was traveling.

"The man picked it up on the way here."

"Finally."

They were done with the E-rank quests.

“I didn’t expect that you liked helping people,” Seth commented.

“Well…”

‘There it is.’ Seth noticed.

The melancholy in Isaac's eyes became more apparent.

Seth changed the topic as he asked him, "About the dragon… Is it still following us?"

“The dragon is still here?” Celia looked at both of them in surprise.

“He’s not with us right now,” Isaac replied.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Maybe he’s hunting for food.”

‘So the dragon didn’t run away?’ Seth had speculated on it since Isaac did not leave; however, he was not sure since he could not sense the dragon.

As they made their way through the busy streets to go back to the guild, Seth noticed an elderly woman dressed in a tattered hood in an alley.

"Would you like to know your future?" she asked, her gaze piercing.

‘Suspicious.’ Seth stared at the woman for two seconds. "Who are you talking to?"

"The less handsome gentleman there."

Seth looked at Isaac, and Isaac looked back at him. Neither of them moved until the old woman’s voice came out again.

"The blonde-haired young one."

‘I’m the less handsome one?’ Seth grumbled and gave their pouch full of coins to Celia and Isaac. "Why don't you two go buy the supplies for the D-rank dungeon quest first? I'll be right back."

“Alright. Do you need anything?”

“Just get me some sweets.”

"Welcome, dear esteemed customer."

Seth sat across from the woman in the tent in the dimly lit alley. A small wooden table separated them.

As he examined the woman carefully, he noticed that the woman had one eye half-closed, the other bulging. At last, he remembered that The Summed Hero mentioned her. They dubbed her "The Seer." To predict his destiny, Im Haeseong always met her before battles.

‘The Seer’ had a sly smirk on her face as she looked over his clothes.

Seth noticed her action and asked, "Is it because you’re wearing an expensive outfit that I called you?"

"What? How did you know-" she corrected herself by faking coughing. "Oh, you see, doing business is getting tougher these days. Why don’t we get started?”

“Yeah, sure.”

The Seer took out a deck of tarot cards and shuffled them before she began to lay them out on the weathered table before them. “Choose one.”

Three cards were in front of him. As Seth was contemplating, a foreboding atmosphere hung in the air, and he couldn't shake the unease that settled in the pit of his stomach. He randomly chose the card on the right. It wasn’t like he had superhuman vision to see the hidden picture.

The Seer flipped it over. In the center of the card, a cloaked man stood alone in the shadows of a towering, gnarled tree. The figure was hunched, and his face was hidden by darkness. The dim light of the moon accentuated the tree's gnarled branches, which seemed to reach out like skeleton fingers toward the cloaked person. The tree's roots spread into the ground, descending into the depths of the earth. The card's background was enveloped in a murky, fog-like mist.

The picture looked suffocating to him. Even without the Seer reading the card to him, Seth already knew that it was a bad one. ‘What a damn luck.’

The Seer’s eyes met his eerily, and she said, "It seems like you're headed towards a path filled with challenges. This card foretells a difficult and treacherous journey. Beware of the choices you make.”

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Seth felt a sense of dread after the terrible tarot reading. ‘Does this mean my plan of having revenge will go awry?’

The Seer was waiting for him to accept her reading until he said, “It’s not a coincidence that we meet here.”

The Seer had an amused smile. “Perhaps it’s destiny that compelled me to show this to you.”

"Then why don’t I tell you a bit about your future?" The Seer gave him a dumbfounded look.

Seth smiled at the Seer. "Soon, you'll meet a man named Im Haeseong. He'll come to you often. That being said, I hope that the future you see for him will always be a good one."

‘So that meant there wouldn't be lots of wars going on.’ Seth continued inwardly.

She laughed loudly. "You are one amusing child."

"Unfortunately, the future that I see is a fixed one." Seth put some silver coins on the table and left, ignoring the gaze stuck on his back.

He wandered around on the streets for a while until he met Celia and Isaac in a bakery shop.

"Is this really where nobles buy desserts? It costs one month of my parent's wages."

"What a waste of money. He said anything sweet, so just buy him some candies from the stall across the street."

"Seth is a noble. Would he eat it?"

Seth coughed lightly from behind them. They were startled to see him.

"I've traveled with you guys for several days and eaten whatever is available."

Celia was flustered as she replied. "You're right."

Seth decided to ignore the matter at hand and asked them instead, "What did you guys get for the dungeon quest?"

"We bought some mana potions, water, matches, and a map."

"I think that's enough to bring. It'll only take around two to three hours to mine the mana crystals. We better move now if we want to finish before the sun sets."

"Sure."

Isaac had a serious expression on his face as he stared at the pickaxe he was holding, seemingly wavering about his choice.

Seth took out the map, and they headed into the dungeon before he could say anything else. Their task for the day was to mine mana stones.

They made their way through the winding passages, their torchlight flickering in the darkness. Shadows danced across the walls, forming unsettling shapes. Seth let Isaac lead the way deeper into the dungeon.

"It's my first time entering a dungeon," Celia suddenly said.

"This is my second time," Seth replied.

"Huh, isn't dungeon hunting a common thing for adventurers?" Celia asked.

"Not for low-rank adventurers like me. I'll get killed the moment I step foot into a dungeon filled with monsters."

The path they traveled was littered with the remnants of defeated monsters. Amidst this scene, their attention was drawn to a chest on the ground. Seth walked over to the chest, and Celia reminded him to be careful. As Celia looked at Seth from next to him, they opened it, only to find it empty.

“What a pity,” Seth said with a sigh.

They kept walking until they noticed another chest. Once more, it was vacant.

"As expected. The adventurers wouldn't be so stupid to leave anything behind," Seth said solemnly.

“It's alright. Simply put, we're not lucky,” Celia tried to reassure him. “When we found the chest in the labyrinth, we did find a lot of treasures.”

‘That wasn’t luck. Isaac found it first.’ Seth did not explain it to her.

After remaining silent for a while, Isaac finally asked, "What is it that you need in this dungeon?"

Confused, Celia responded, "Huh? What do you mean?"

Isaac crossed his arms and squinted his eyes at him. “You belong to the nobility. Why would you need to mine mana stones? The only thing that can be sold for mana stone is money, and you have plenty of it. If you want to train yourself, you would choose dungeons with plenty of monsters to fight.”

He was really perceptive.

Celia blinked her eyes as she realized. She turned to face him. "Are you trying to find something, Seth? I can find it if you tell me."

Facing Isaac’s serious expression, Seth sighed. "Don’t think too much. I just thought I could find something useful in the chests."

"Really?"

"I want to find a money-maker."

The two of them gave Seth questioning looks.

"Nevermind. Let's go mining."

As they rounded a corner, the glimmer of the mana stones illuminated the path ahead. They were embedded in the walls, emitting a glow. They began chipping away at the stone.

These glistening mana stones could be sold in the market for a small price, and they were usually bought by mages.

Celia's eyes lit up with joy as she removed a dark blue mana stone with her hand. Isaac did the same, revealing a vivid blue mana stone with his pickaxe.

They continued mining for an hour, stopping sometimes to rest and talk.

Celia was visibly sweating, yet she filled the bag with many mana stones without giving up or whining. Seth kind of felt bad for letting her work. Isaac was wiping the sweat from his forehead and had already removed the small pouch around his waist that bothered him.

“I think these are enough to complete the quest.”

Three mana stone bags were spread out on the floor.

“This isn’t it…” Seth mumbled. ‘According to the novel The Summoned Hero, there should be a valuable mana stone nearby. More valuable than all of the mana stones we'd collected here.’

‘Is it here?’ He continued mining the mana stones without giving up, determined to find what he was looking for.

“You’re uncharacteristically energetic,” Isaac commented, taking a seat on the piled-up stones.

“Seth, I’ll join you after I finish drinking,” Celia added, her voice filled with exhaustion.

Seth didn't want to force her to continue mining, understanding her fatigue.

“It's fine. You guys can leave if you want. I'll continue,” Seth replied.

“Eh, what do you mean? Why would we do that?” Celia was confused.

“It’s almost dawn outside. It’s getting late.”

In frustration, Seth lifted his pickaxe and struck the stone with all of his might.

Clang!

“Ack!” Seth exclaimed, the pickaxe slipping from his grasp. A sudden surge of energy coursed through his body, leaving him momentarily paralyzed by the unexpected shock.

“Seth!” Celia and Isaac rushed to his side.

“What happened?” Celia asked, her concern evident in her voice.

Seth looked back at the spot where he had just mined.

“Hehe… finally,” Seth muttered, a smile forming on his face.

“Huh?” Isaac turned to see what Seth was staring at and let out a sigh. “So that’s what you are searching for.”

It was a purple mana stone, a rare and valuable find. The energy produced by the mana stone could sustain a building for a century.

Seth carefully extracted the mana stone and cradled it in his arms, treating it like a precious baby. “Celia, we are going to be rich!”

“Ah, rich? What do you mean?” Celia asked, her confusion evident.

“As long as we sold this on the black market, we would become rich. Finally, we wouldn't have to rely on the marquess anymore.”

"That's amazing!”

Isaac sighed as he observed their antics. Their bags were filled with valuable treasures, and their hearts were lifted by the success of their quest.

Suddenly, Isaac unsheathed the plain blade from his waist.

"Isaac, what's wrong?" Celia asked.

‘Is he considering killing us to obtain the stone?’ Seth was guarded and moved away from him.

However, Isaac was looking in another direction, the same path they had just passed through.

"There's a demon coming," he announced.

"A demon?!" Celia and Seth exclaimed in shock.

The group quickly scrambled to retrieve their weapons. Seth secured the purple mana stone in a dimension space box and then picked up a sword from the ground.

As they prepared their stances, a high-pitched voice could be heard from around the corner. "Why would the king send us here to form alliances with the other heroes? Of course, our hero is the best in the world! How can the other heroes compare to Ryu? Only Ryu can defeat the Demon King!"

As they turned the corner, they finally caught sight of the newcomers. There were four of them in total, with the man in the middle surrounded by a harem of women. There was a priestess, a beastwoman, a teenager, and a short girl.