Yesterday, we went to the adventurer’s guild to register ourselves and took the provisional test or placement examination and we both passed and now we are going there again to take the adventurer’s tag since it will take a day to make the tag we decided to rest yesterday. It’s not that we’re tired for the past few days but it’s just a whim of us so I took that chance to learn how to read and write with Kaezar teaching me the letters while looking after the shop. It’s not that hard since I already encountered it at Earth but memorizing the characters are a bit troublesome. I somehow succeeded at it and now I can read and write a little. Learning language is troublesome but having a beautiful teacher who smiled when you did it correctly motivates you to learn. Oh right, yesterday Gino became a blacksmith. It seems that he’s already level 9 when I first came here and leveled up while we are hunting together. Well, I’m currently level 3 but I’m thinking on what job I should get. Maybe I’ll become a swordsman since Gino’s a blacksmith and all but it would mean that I would go to the frontline where I’ll see gore stuff right in front of me. I do believe that I can adjust to it since humans can adjust to their environment but I don’t want to adopt by close exposure to it. What if a mage then? It looks cool and all casting spells one after another and I bet it will feel like I’m inside a certain fantasy movie that have an antagonist who don’t have a nose but Kaezar said that magic-type job class have a high cost maintenance, you’ll need to buy magic books which the cheapest is 10 gold coins, an invocation tool that will allow you to cast magic and the cheapest of it cost 10 silver coins and other things that you’ll need and also there’s no magic related association in this village. There’s also the crafting jobs which Gino took and I’m slightly interested to alchemy since I watched a certain anime where alchemist fight the seven deadly sins but that fantasy of mine was crushed by Kaezar, she said that the alchemist don’t have that kind of power and they suck at battle. Maybe I’ll just become an archer? I experienced it once at the provisional test and it seems fun so for now I’ll set my sight on it.
Anyways, I’m already geared up waiting for Gino inside the shop. Today we are going to try taking a quest.
“It’s already too late for this but are you really sure you’ll be an adventurer?”
Without me noticing, Kaezar was already inside the shop while carry a broom. She’s looking at me worriedly when she asked that question.
“I’m sure of it.”
“But it’s a dangerous profession…”
“I know.”
“Then why? If you need money then you can work here, you don’t need to risk your life for it.”
“It’s not about money.”
‘I wonder why she’s this worried about me. She only knew me for a past few days, it’s not even a week since she met me but she’s genuinely concerned about me. It was as if I’m his lover…’ that embarrassing thought surfaced to my mind and I know that’s not the reason why she’s concerned on my well-being. Yesterday she told me that it’s pretty lonely in this house before we came and having us, Gino and I, took her loneliness away.
“Is it for fame?”
“It’s not about fame or money or anything else. I become an adventurer to find a way to go back home.”
“But this could be your…”
She stops in the middle of her talk and look down at the floor. Honestly, I know what she’s going to say.
‘But this could be your home.’
I would love to stay here but my mother would be lonely without me. My father was already dead and she focuses on raising me so much that she forgot that she’s still young when father died and she’s beautiful, in fact 3 years after father died there are too many man who tried to woe her but she refused them all while some still continues to woe her but none of them was entertained. There are also some who used me to get close to my mother but they still failed.
I don’t want her to feel the pain of losing someone again. I’ll make sure that I’ll go back and take care of my mother. But sadly, I don’t have any method of going back nor information about it. This is why I became an adventurer. First of all, this method will surely give me money needed to survive in this world. No matter where you are as long as you have money you’ll be fine of course if you are in place which money is useless then it won’t matter but money is just a thing used to satisfy the other party. It can be an item, a food, anything as long as it satisfies others then it can be called money. Secondly, this profession will make me famous though it would take a long time but it’s much faster than others. Fame can let you access more information than the others. And lastly, I am a gamer. These kinds of things make our blood boil but heck even though you’re not as long as you are a man then it will surely make your blood boil.
Smiling at her I said.
“It’s okay, I promise that I will always come back here.”
Though I said that in the end I’ll leave this world and go back to my own.
Maybe satisfied with my response, Kaezar smiled and passes me two boxes covered with blue clothes and red clothes.
“Here your lunchboxes. The blue one is for Gino and the red ones for you. Sorry for saying those things but I want you to know that those are my real feelings. I still think that you guys should just help in our shop but I guess there’s nothing I can do about it. Both of you are man so I guess it’s only natural for you to become an adventurer. Even my dad wanted to be an adventurer again…”
I heard her muttered the last but let’s just ignore it. I can’t imagine Fernando being an adventurer but she’s right, there’s something in that profession that pulls the heartstrings of men.
“Sorry to keep you waiting let’s go!”
Gino came wearing his leather armor with a sword and dagger on his waist. On his right hand he carries a shield while his left hand carries a sack-like bag.
“Oh Kaezar you’re there! Well, I’ll just borrow your boyfriend here and rest assured I’ll give him back without a scratch!”
Hearing Gino’s jokes Kaezar’s face suddenly becomes red.
“He’s not my boyfriend!”
“Then your love one.”
Kaezar denied what he said but Gino quickly responded with more teasing making Kaezar’s face redder than before. Well, if she’s giving that kind of reaction I might misunderstand it and think that she has something to me but I know that she doesn’t… Maybe…
“A-anyways! I hope that you’ll come back unscathed Jasper as for the other one, I don’t mind if you abandon him when things got rough.”
Kaezar tried to change the topic but it’s meaningless towards Gino.
“Hou~ you’re really concerned towards the well-being of Jasper but don’t care about me? You really do love him do ya?”
See, Gino will just ignore what you did and continued to tease you. No matter what happen he won’t let go of his prey.
“I-it’s not that! I’m concerned because he’s my friend and I don’t care about someone who tells those kinds of jokes!”
“Yes yes. He’s your friend alright. Now Jasper-kun, how does it feel like to be friendzoned?”
Honestly, I feel an urge to tease Kaezar too but if I support Gino here it won’t end so let’s just ignore him.
“Whatever let’s go.”
I said as I walk towards the exit. Gino complained but seeing me uninterested to support him he shut-up and follows me.
\ \ \
After leaving Fernando’s house we went straight to the adventurer’s guild. The guild is more crowded than yesterday making Gino want to go back but since we are here and all, we’ll proceed as planned.
After taking our badges, we proceeded to the information board. The badge looks like a dog tag used by military men. The metal used corresponds our rank and in our case, it’s made of silver with our names and ID number carved on it. There’s also a stag crest carved in it representing the kingdom. At first, I thought that it was copied by a reincarnated person from a famous fantasy series but it seems that the stag represents the legendary creature who gave this land to the first king as a respect to it the royal family uses the stag as their crest. As we are walking towards the information board we saw Jeziel sitting alone in the table drinking in broad daylight. Sensing that something’s wrong, Gino walks towards Jeziel and sat in front of her. I thought that she’s bad at dealing with her but I guess his worry for her is stronger than that.
“Yo why the long face?”
Gino said with his usual cheerful voice. Jeziel slowly looks at Gino then to me and looks down again to her mug.
“My party kicked me out. They said that I’m terrible and would only endanger our party if I continue to come with them.”
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“I never had that kind of experience in my whole life but it sucks being told that you’re terrible at something.”
“They said that I’m weak and I should just attend the shop of my father. That there’s no need for me to be an adventurer and there’s no place for me in this kind of profession. But you know… It’s my dream to become an adventurer ever since I was a kid. Seeing those guys wearing armor, fighting monsters, keeping this village safe made me dream of becoming one. I mean… *Sniff Sniff* I want to wear armor too, I want to fight monsters and keep the village safe but they said that I’m not suited in this kind of work and throws me aside like I’m some garbage. We all started at the same time and they aren’t stronger than me but they still kicked me out.”
“Maybe there’s a reason behind it.”
“A reason? There is one! They said that I’m weak and terrible but I know the real reason, the reason was the…”
Maybe I’ll just let Gino console her and pick an adequate quest for us. I mean, I know that she need someone whom she can let out all of her grudge and I’m not fitted on that role. I mean, there’s someone who’s concerned on her well-being even though that someone felt awkward dealing with her plus that someone is a good listener, he’ll listen to anything you said and give an appropriate response on them, so yeah, let’s leave her to him. It’s not because of I’m not good at those type of talk okay? I’m just giving my friend something like a push in the back.
\ \ \
After a while looking at the board, I found something that we can safely finish. It’s goblin subjugation. We need to hunt goblins and bring their right ear as a proof to the guild. It does not indicate on how many goblins we should hunt and I guess just like other web-novels that I read goblins were treated as a pest and also tearing the request paper of it is prohibited and the reward is 1 copper coin per ear. Well, I’ll discuss it with Gino and get on with it.
While walking towards Gino, I use my [Calculation] skill to level it up. This kind of level system is a bother since it would make your skill weak despite being high level and it’s time consuming but then again, there’s nothing I can do about it. I am not the one who designed this kind of system so I’ll just stick with it.
Oh the consultation was already over and Jeziel is smiling now while Gino is looking at me apologetically. I wonder what happen.
“Hey Jasper can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure, what’s wrong?”
“I invited Jeziel to our party but is it alright?”
It seems that this guy invited her without thinking on what I would say about it and he’s worried about my reaction but he must know that I don’t mind these things. I look at Jeziel and she suddenly became stiff. I’m not going to eat you, you know?
“Well, we can try forming a party with her and if it succeeds then we can add her.”
Hearing my response both of them smiled and said thank you to me. I didn’t do anything to have their gratitude though.
“Anyways, since I went to the board and pick a suitable quest for us I would like you to hear about it.”
“Well, we can just subjugate goblins outside and pick some herbs as an extra income though~”
Gino said carefree tone while putting both of his hands on the back of his head and Jeziel nodded at what he said.
“That’s something that I am planning to explain but I guess it’s unnecessary now.”
“Well, when you say you’re a newbie adventurer you’ll start with the weakest slowly climbing to the top right? And the weakest monsters in the surrounding of the village are goblins.”
Once again, Jeziel nodded at his remark. Did she become a yes girl and can’t say anything to oppose Gino?
“Right then, let’s go!”
I said raising my motivation and they replied with a “Oohh!” and we left the guild.
\ \ \
We are now inside the forest near the spot where Gino gathers the herbs. On the way here the two of them, Jeziel and Gino, are talking or more likely flirting with each other. Once in a while I’ll hear Jeziel’s giggles and Gino’s jokes combined with some smooth sweet lines which you won’t notice if he’s serious about it or not due to his tone. There are too many times where I wanted to tell them to go back at the village if they want to flirt but I restrained myself since it’s just the first day and I’ll support my friend on getting the girl he wanted.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your lovey-dovey time but we’re entering the part where monster lurks so please be wary on your surroundings.”
I said teasingly but instead of getting a flustered reaction from both of them, Jeziel smiled wryly and said “we’re not having that kind of time” while Gino grinned while saying “You’re jealous, aren’t you? Don’t worry when we come back I’ll let you flirt to your heart’s content.” And this guy prepared a counter. I would love to say something back but I feel that once I opened my mouth our attention will be directed to our battering making our wariness towards our surroundings to fade.
I’ll also snob the annoying smug face of Gino.
\ \ \
After walking for about 30 minutes we haven’t encounter any monsters yet so Gino said that he’ll harvest some herbs while we watch over him.
“Well, I guess it’s better to have something when we go back than nothing. Besides not encountering one is good since we won’t have to fight.”
Gino said while picking up herbs and due to boredom Jeziel also help gathering some herbs. Didn’t he casually raise a flag there? I hope that it won’t happen though.
Betraying my hope, I heard some rustling sounds towards my left and I carefully looks towards that direction observing the places where they could come out. I prepared my bow and nock an arrow to it. Remaining vigilant I warn both of them and they quickly stand up and pulls out their swords.
The rustling sounds become louder and I can now hear footsteps making their way towards us then it suddenly stops for a moment just to yell something incomprehensible maybe a warning or a signal towards its allies. After that more rustling sounds could be heard on our surroundings with footsteps as if they are running and just like before it halts for a moment but instead of yelling something, these guys simultaneously run towards us.
As they come nearer to us, I can now see their silhouette behind the bushes and trees. They are 10 small shadows rushing towards us raising one of their arms holding something like a club based on their shadows.
“In front of us I can see ten of them!”
I shout while aiming my bow to the one who’s running in front of the group. A crosshair appears on my vision so I automatically adjust my sight just above the shadows head so that it would hit them. Back at the provisional test I didn’t have the chance to try the range and aim of the bow since we’re at the top of a stage and it’s too little for me to adjust it but now I got a feeling that it won’t hit them if I let the aim as it is.
Releasing the arrow, it flies towards the shadow hitting the head of it. The shadow falls on its back while the others ignored that their comrade got killed in a matter of seconds.
“One down!”
I quickly shoot another one but this time it missed. Clicking my tongue, I nock another arrow and aim. This time I’ll point the center of the crosshair to their heads then releases it. Just like the first shot, it finds its way towards the head of my target killing it.
“Two down! Get ready to intercept!”
Judging that they will come out of the bushes before I nock another arrow, I commanded my two vanguards.
“Roger!”
Gino stood in front of us while raising his wooden shield and prepares to intercept anything that will try to run past through him while Jeziel doesn’t know how to move since we did not talk about anything in regards to our battle formation. She just stands right there while keeping her guard up.
“Jeziel to Gino’s right!”
Honestly, I am not sure if my decision of letting Jeziel go in front is the correct choice but knowing that Gino is there to protect her and I’ll cover them from the rear I tell her to go forward and help Gino at intercepting them.
Just after I nock and aim another arrow they already came out of the bushes. They are child-like humanoid being with pointed ears and yellow eyes, goblins have appeared. As soon as they saw us, they raise a battle cry with their filthy mouth without stopping for a moment. I release my arrow and it successfully hit the head of another one killing it. 5 of them attacked Gino and Jeziel while the remaining two charges towards me running at the left side of Gino and the right side of Jeziel. Without fearing on my own safety, I nock another arrow and aim at the head of one of the two goblins who tried to run past Gino and Jeziel. My target is the one that Jeziel let pass. Jeziel herself is fighting two goblins at a time and she’s having a hard time dealing with them while Gino handled three of them with a leisure to check the distance between him and the fourth goblin who aim to run past him.
Releasing my arrow, it finds it’s mark towards the goblin’s head killing it while the other one failed at dodging the stab suddenly came from Gino.
I release another arrow to support Jeziel. This time I didn’t bother to correct my aim and just fired the arrow to the place where I feel that it will help her. As if verifying what I feel one of the goblins got hit on its leg and it raises a sharp yell while it falls down. It’s not dead yet but it seems that the pain it receives will hold it for a little while. I nock and aim another one. This time I am planning on killing the other goblin which Jeziel is fighting. As I tried to predict the moves of Jeziel and the goblin I took a glance towards Gino and he’s doing fine. In fact, he manages to kill one, decreasing the goblins he needs to handle.
I almost shoot another arrow but Gino already beaten another one while the last one got stabbed in the back by Jeziel. I don’t know why her previous teammates kicked her out since I don’t see anything wrong on how she moves during combat.
After the combat, Gino started to cut off the ears of the nearby goblins while the other two will be collected after it.
“You two are too strong…”
Jeziel suddenly mutters. I don’t get it why she said that we are too strong. It’s just goblins and they are charging towards us disregarding their defenses so it’s easy to take them down though they have the advantage of numbers but in the end, they are dumb and didn’t make use of their advantage.
“Is that so?”
“Yes! Back then we fought two goblins with 5 people yet we had a hard fight against them but in our case, we fought eight goblins with ease…”
Is that really the case? True that fighting against an opponent with greater numbers is hard but they are just goblins so I think it’s pretty normal or maybe we are really just the weird ones here. With this remodeled body of ours, I can move like I am controlling myself over the monitor playing a first-person fantasy RPG game.
“Are we perhaps OP?”
Gino jokingly said so I retorted “If killing 10 goblins is considered as OP then there are too many OP beings in this world.” And he just laughs and continued to cut the ears.
Certainly, the feat of subjugating 10 goblins with three people is hard on our rank, the lowest rank where you can take subjugation quests, it’s still not enough to be called as OP. We might be stronger than others or have a better cooperation than others but there are too many adventurers that can easily handle this much. There are, aren’t they?
\ \ \
After cutting all the goblin’s ears we went to Gino’s secret place and gather some herbs. The herbs we collected were divided equally for the three of us but I think my share would end up with Gino or Fernando to process. As for Jeziel, she decided to sell hers to gain some extra income.
When we come back to the guild, there’s a strange atmosphere inside. Almost everyone inside, not only the adventurers but also the employees are both excited and tense. Not knowing what is happening, we walk towards a girl receptionist to pass our quest and ask about it.
“You didn’t know? Apparently two [Heroes] were summoned yesterday and the guild received a letter from the capital to the guild master telling him to pick some of his most talented and trustworthy adventurers for the sake of becoming a [Hero’s Vassal] because of that this is the result, the current situation. By the way you did a good job hunting 10 goblins at your first try. It seems that you guys won’t stay D-rank for a long time.”
Quite a fantasy indeed, summoning [Heroes] for some reason or another. Normally summoning [Heroes] would mean that there is a [Demon Lord] somewhere in this world but let’s hope that isn’t the case it may be just because of wars or something else. And also, the [Hero’s Vassal]-thing why would they call it like that if they can just say it as [Hero’s Party]? Did they call it that way just for style? And also, that term [Hero’s Vassal] is kind of familiar to me, I just don’t know where did I hear or read that but I know that I encounter that phrase before.
“Oh there you are Jasper and Gino!”
Someone calls us behind so we turn back to see who is it. There stood a muscled man covered with scars, it’s Clark the former A-ranked adventurer and also the one who supervise or should I say the one we fought at the provisional test.
“Did you hear about the rumors?”
We both nods at his question and because of that he smiles as if everything went according to his plan.
“I see I see. Actually, I recommended you guys to the guild master here so prepare yourselves. And also, quickly raise your rank to at least B-rank that way it would be easier for you guys to get picked by the guild master! The deadline for the guild master to send someone would be one month so you guys still have a month to raise your rankings!”
Hahahaha! Clark walks away while laughing. He never considered our feeling if we even wanted to be a hero’s party member or not but I guess being one of them will allow me access more information about our way home and also, they are summoned from another world and maybe they know how we could get back to Earth. I just hope that they have a convenient language cheat at least! It would be troublesome if they can’t speak the international language.
And also, we need to climb up to B-rank just to get a chance of getting picked as party candidate. I don’t know if we would be able to climb up to B-rank in a month but let’s just give it a try! For now, the aim would be climbing to B-rank within a month! Though I proclaimed as such, I don’t know if Jeziel and Gino is willing to be a part of the hero’s party.
“Hey, Jasper and Gino are you guys going to accept the invitation?”
Jeziel nervously asked. I want to accept it but I can’t decide it on my own. Well, if Gino decided to reject it, I’ll raise my rank alone and accept the proposal though. I look towards Gino who’s looking at the direction where Clark went. It seems that he’s deep in thought and didn’t answer Jeziel’s query. Since he’s quite I am going to say that I’ll accept it but Gino suddenly talks.
“You know, I would love to be part of it but I don’t think that we can raise our rank to B within a month.”
“I think we can though.”
I replied to Gino. I am confident enough to say that we can raise our rank to B within a month.
“We only need 100 points to be eligible to take the promotion examination and now we have 1 point it might look like that we are too far from the rank given but I think that we can raise our rank within this week. The D-rank commission were mainly subjugation of goblins and wolves, there are also some commission about harvesting medicinal herbs and such so we can raise our rank easily with those types of commission.”
“Well, you’re right. We can probably reach C-rank within this week but I don’t think that we would be able to rise to B within 3 weeks.”
I don’t know why but Gino is pessimistic about it. Normally he’s optimistic about everything but right now he’s thinking negatively about this.
“Come on man! Didn’t you said before that there’s only two outcomes in every action we made, it’s either we made it or not. If we can reach B-rank within a month then it’s great and if not, then it’s also good in itself at least we try. It’s better to regret doing something than regret doing nothing at all.”
“Yeah, it’s better to regret doing it than regret doing nothing at all but realistically speaking, raising our rank to B-rank within a month is impossible. If it was then why there’s too many C-rank here? If it’s that easy to raise your rank to B then most of the guys here must be on that rank but that’s not the case, instead there are too many C-rank adventurer’s here meaning raising your rank to B is hard enough for the people to be stuck at C.”
Maybe I’m became too excited that I didn’t notice that simple fact. I guess reaching B-rank is an impossible task after all.
“And also, we are not a protagonist of a web novel where almost everything we need will be given one way or another you know?”
“Well your right but you know, I got this feeling that we will manage somehow if we try…”
“Please do separate dreams and reality Jasper. Just because you have a feeling that we will be able to reach B-rank within a month, it won’t mean that it will come true.”
He’s right but I wonder why. Why do I have this feeling that we will reach B-rank within a month…