Oh no. It’s the retard again. Toby's mood plummeted to the depths of the Mariana Trench.

The moment Toby and Lukas came out of the testing room, someone from the next room also came out. Too bad that someone was the ‘Hero’ who was hired as a bodyguard for Rufus’s caravan. Jerek Voss, Hero of Swiftness.

“We settle this now, damned turtle.” Voss pulled his sword out and pointed it at Toby.

Toby looked at the guy, then flopped himself away with Lukas behind. Completely ignored him.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Voss roared and charged at Toby with his right hand pulled back, ready to stab. But when he crossed the opened room Toby and Lukas came out from, a small hand with long fingers grabbed his back collar and stopped him where he stood, choking him in the process.

Voss fell to his knees and coughed as if his life depended on it.

“Who the…” He snapped his head back, only to find the Guild Master standing there as she looked at him with one eye. The kind of eye someone used when looking at garbage. Yet it was also the eye that would scan someone from head to toe as it dug into their secrets and let nothing out of her sight.

“Hum…” She made a sound like she was curious. “How about you tell me who you are and what happens?”

“Why should I tell you anything? I’m a Hero.” He pointed his sword at Toby, who was still flopping away, as his eyes flared red and Light Element gathered around his sword. “I have a score to settle with that damn turtle.”

“You are not the only Hero around, kid.” Guild Master Elaria sighed and shook her head.

“And if you want to settle the score, issue an official challenge. Do not draw out your sword and attack someone out of the blue. That’s behavior isn’t welcome here.”

“Who are you to tell me what to do?” He pointed his sword at Elaria.

“Guild Master, is there a problem, madam?” The proctor who tested Voss walked out of his testing room and asked when he saw the scene.

“Guild… Master?” Voss's eyes returned to their blue color as he shallowed and lowered his sword.

“Just the Guild Master of this Adventurer Guild’s branch.” Elaria shrugged. “And you, this kind of behavior must never happen again. Have I made myself clear?” She glared at Voss.

“Yes.” He mumbled and frowned.

“Good.” Elaria nodded. “Now, for your punishment.”

“Huh?”

Before Voss could react, Elaria was right in front of him. She raised her hand and slapped his face with deadly grace and strength. Voss was sent smashing into the wall. He dropped his sword and got turned into another decoration.

“It has been a while since anyone was stupid enough to point their blade at the famed Storm Breaker.” The proctor said.

“It’s all in the past.” Elaria touched her neck with her hand and shook her neck from side to side. “I’m too old for this. Why can’t I just stay at home and play with my grandchildren?”

-----

“Here are your tags.” The fox girl receptionist gave two bronze tags to Toby and Lukas after they finished registering their names, races, Paths, purposes of becoming adventurers, gave their Mana Signatures, and listened to the introduction on what the rules were.

It seemed like this whole adventuring business was much more lax than Toby thought.

From the receptionist's explanation, the test was put in place to ensure random civilians wouldn’t just try to do whatever on their own and die. Anyone who wanted to become an adventurer needed to prove to be at least capable of killing a Rank 2 monster, aka the wooden dummy. Bonus points are added if they could damage a Rank 5 monster, aka the steel dummy.

The second test was about survival. No matter what their Path was, any adventurer must be able to survive out in the wild. The chase was only to mimic one of such situations. Too bad Toby and Lukas skipped that part. From what the fox receptionist said, the testing room would change the terrain inside the room according to what the proctor set up. It would have been a sight to behold.

“Thank you.” The two said as they wore their tags on their necks before Lukas walked toward Grillion with Toby on his head.

“Congratulation on becoming Adventurers,” Grillion smiled as he gave them two strawberry colored candy.

“I’m not a child anymore, Grandpa Grill.” Lukas puffed his cheek.

“You not going to eat them then? Nice. More for me.” Toby teased.

“What? No. I never said anything about not wanting to eat the candy. I’m just saying that I’m also an Adventurer now.” Lukas said as he took the candies and gave one to Toby.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Can we accept a Bronze Rank commission now?” Toby asked.

“Yes, we can start right away,” Grillion answered.

The goblin led the two toward the commission board and looked at what they could do together. There were commissions about picking up herbs, searching for lost pets, hunting Rank 1 monsters, so on and so forth. From what Toby could see, these were simple daily tasks that almost no one should find hard to do. Then, two questions popped into his mind.

“Gramp.”

“What is it, little Toby?”

“Why are you still a Bronze Rank if you only need to finish ten Bronze Rank commissions in one mon… in thirty days and kill at least ten Rank 2 monsters to become a Silver Rank? You’re not weak either. You took care of that archer.”

It was strange. The condition was surprisingly simple and easy. Yet, Grillion was still a Bronze Rank after ten years.

“I have a goal different from most Adventurers, that’s all.” Grillion smiled. “I just needed the guild’s tag as a form of identification when I’m traveling around. If my Adventurer Rank is too high, it might cause quite the unnecessary troubles.”

“I see.” Toby nodded. “What about the three that attacked us? They didn’t seem like Bronze Ranks.”

“I reported them to the guild. They will investigate it in our stead. The guild’s reputation is on the line after all.” Grillion said as he took a mushroom gathering commission. “Let’s do this one. We can use this chance to go around and study the surroundings environment.”

“Okay, I’ll follow you, Grandpa Grill.” Lukas cheerfully said.

“You’re the leader, Gramp.” Toby nodded.

-----

“Is this mushroom even edible?” Toby asked as he held the purple-black, with spores all over the mushroom in his flipper. The commission did state that they needed these to cook something.

“It is,” Grillion said as he pointed at the grass around the mushroom. “Look at the trace on the ground. The animals’ footprints show us that not only do they come here often to eat this mushroom, but this is also a spot where this kind of mushroom grows consistently.”

“The animal can eat it, but that might not be the cause for us,” Toby said.

“Then we just have to see. The commissioner asked for these to cook, but if it’s dangerous to eat, then we must stop them from doing so, shouldn’t we?” Grillion smiled.

“Grandpa Grill, big bro Toby. I found a bunch of these mushrooms over here.” Lukas shouted from behind a tree about ten feet away.

Grillion looked at Toby as he flopped himself with small jumps on the ground.

“You know, little Toby, since no one knows what a special turtle like you can do, with you being the first of your kind, you can pretend to be able to swim in the air, can’t you?”

Toby stopped dead in his tracks after Grillion said so. He slapped his forehead and looked at the sky.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” The turtle lamented.

He pushed the ground to jump up, then pretended to be swimming around while using [Float] and [Push] to move around. It was super awkward at first with how he had to time his flippers’ movements when he used his Skills. But it was better than needing to hit the ground to jump every time he needed to move. He wasn’t a bunny after all.

As Toby tried to practice swimming in the air, Grillion moved toward Lukas.

“Right here, Grandpa Grill. There’s a lot of them.” Lukas cheerfully said.

The goblin looked at the spot Lukas was pointing at. Indeed, there were a lot of mushrooms there. Grillion smiled and praised Lukas.

“Good job, Lukas. With this, we can finish our commission already.”

“Hehe,” The boy rubbed his nose as his tail wagged around.

-----

“Hello, is anyone home?” Grillion knocked on the unassuming door.

“We are Adventurers who accepted your commission. We brought a basket of mushrooms as requested. May we know if anyone is home?”

An old, small human woman, barely a head taller than Grillion opened the door. She had a head full of tidy gray hair, combed backward and kept in place by a black veil with rose embroidery. She stood straight as the brown scarf gently wrapped around her shoulder. Her pristine two-layer tunic – black on the inside, white on the outside – made Toby think it was brand new. But the fading white color on the tunic’s sleeves, making the color look more like the yellow of spoiled milk, said otherwise.

“Thank you for your help.” The woman reached into her pouch. “Here you go, your payment.”

Grillion gave the woman the mushroom basket in one hand while receiving the bronze coins in the other. “Thank you.”

[First Bronze Rank commission complete]

[Reward: 40 Life Exp. Life Exp: 40 -> 80]

“Oh dear, you're hurt.” She looked at the small wound on Grillion’s hand.

“This is just a small prick by some thorns, madam. No need to concern yourself with it.” Grillion smiled.

“That won’t do.” She placed her hand on Grillion’s. Green light shone, and the small woman healed the wound on Grillion's hand just like that.

“Huh?” Toby stared unblinkingly at what he was seeing. “Wait. What? How did you do that, Granny?”

The old woman looked at the turtle, “Oh my. This is the first time I have seen a talking turtle.”

“I’m Toby, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Toby. I’m Nanna.”

“So, um, how did you heal Gramp’s wound without using any Elements or Items, Granny? Can you heal life force like that too?”

Nanna looked at Toby with an unreadable gaze.

“…Is someone dear to you have problems with their life force?”

“Yes, my little sister’s life force is broken, or damaged. I don’t really know. But I want to heal her.”

The old woman kept her deep gaze on Toby a bit too long for him to be comfortable with. But looking away while asking for someone’s help was extremely rude. That was why Toby kept their gaze locked, no matter how uncomfortable he was.

Old Nanna smiled while touching her cheek with her right hand. “What to do? It’s a trade secret. I don’t know if I want to share it with strangers.”

“Oh.” Toby hung his head.

“But if someone was not a stranger to me anymore, then I might just share it.” She smiled.

“Really?” Toby's eyes shone. “Great. I’ll come by occasionally. I’ll bring cookies too. Freshly bake cookies, right out of the oven.” Toby slapped his chest.

“I’ll look forward to it.” She smiled kindly. “And can you bring your sister sometime? I want to see if I can help.”

“Thank you so much, Grandma Nanna.” Lukas shot up and gave the old woman a big hug.

Nanna looked at the wolf boy, then at Toby and Grillion, who had awkward smiles.

“He’s my little brother, Lukas,” Toby said before slapping Lukas’s head.

“Ah,” Lukas let go of Nanna and backed off. “I’m sorry. It’s just that the thought of you might be able to heal big sis Lily makes me so happy.”

Nanna smiled and pinched the boy’s cheeks. “Nice to meet you, Lukas.”

“Nica ta meat you two.” Lukas replied.

Nanna looked at the setting up at the edge of her vision. “It’s getting late. I should head back and rest for now. I’ll see you two children later.”

“Thank you for everything, madam.” Grillion bowed politely.

The old woman smiled, “Good night, sir goblin. Good night, Toby. Good night, Lukas.”

“Good night, Granny.”

“Good night, Grandma Nanna.”

The old woman closed the door with a gentle smile still painted on her face. It was almost like it was the only expression she could show after experiencing the ups and downs of life.

“I like Grandma Nanna. She’s nice.” Lukas said on their way back.

“Yeah,” Toby nodded.

There was hope.