Chapter 94: Chapter 75: First Quest accepted.

“Ah, good day to you, Kus…uhm.” As the velociraptor-looking scale-kin greeted us, Colwyn intended to reciprocate it but stumbled on his words for some reason.

“Kushlek’zar is my name,” the scale-kin answered with a polite bow, swinging his brown-green scaled robes around in a dignified way.

Colwyn flinched back, quickly apologizing to him for his failure to remember his name, “Oh! Crap, sorry about that. That was inappropriate as your contractor.”

"I take no offense, you may rest your worries, Chief Colwyn. It is a hard name to pronounce for anybody not used to us saurians,” the saurian crackled in a weird, delayed manner, sounding a bit like a robot. With his moving his head around, he was also swinging his green head plumage around in a mesmerizing manner.

He calls himself a saurian but what is so different from him compared to a lizardfolk? Is the giant guy also a saurian? But he looks more or less like Caszcur, but with a larger frame and more menacing features.

Hmmm, should I use [Identify] on them? I kinda want to know how strong they are for a C rank mercenary party.

As I was contemplating the idea, the giant crocodile saurian suddenly moved its head to face our direction, seemingly returning the stare I was giving him. Flustered, I abandoned any thought of using [Identify] and just turned back to the discussion on hand.

Besides, I thought it might be best to use [Identify] reservedly on people I wasn’t planning to fight. I didn’t know about others but Saori and I considered it to be a breach of privacy and something we shouldn't be using just to satisfy our curiosity.

Just thinking about what could happen made me reluctant. For example, what would happen if their [Identity Blocker] were to level up if I used [Identify] on them? If I were in their shoes, I would immediately become suspicious. It would just ruin any first impression, making things just difficult.

Outside of this circumstance, you technically didn’t get any warnings or notifications if somebody appraised you. Saori and Tasianna had tried it on me during their [Identify] training, so I knew it well. Unless you knew the person had the skill, you couldn’t anticipate it. Although, I kinda instinctively knew the garm matriarch, Asterios, and the leviathan spied on my Profile.

It certainly wasn’t a good feeling to know somebody would appraise you even if you knew them well. Common sense, right? That was why using [Identify] on them was an idiotic choice. We were supposed to work together, so I wanted our relationship to be amicable.

Remind me to level my own [Identity Blocker] later in the day, parallel minds.

After finishing the talks with Colwyn, the leader of this party finally turned our direction, greeting us with another prayer-like bow before politely asking who we were, “Ashlak’leel sa’got toth zacotl, guests to our camp. My name is Kushlek’zar and I am the speaker for my comrades. May we know who you are?”

Understanding that it was our time to introduce ourselves, we walked forwards and Saori began for us, “It is a pleasure to have made your acquaintance, Mister Kushlek’zar. I am Saori Segawa. I hope we are not intruding.”

“Oh, a wolfkin, I presume? I am still not perfectly capable of identifying the beastmen from Altrust, so I hope I did not guess wrongly," he said with a wide grin, fitting for a dinosaur-like head. “Miss Saori, it is an honor to meet someone like you.”

“May your wellspring of life be ever filled with joy, Mister Kushlek’zar. May the Depth Goddess’s kindness bless you with good tides,” Tasianna curtsied, greeting him respectfully as a fellow worshipper of Plesia. My name is Tasianna Marina Silverpond, and I greet you on our Lady’s behalf.”

Huh? She’s back to her usual self? I thought as Tasianna took a step back with a warm smile.

“Ocean’s bounty to you too, Miss Tasianna. It is always a pleasure to be acquainted with more of our goddess’s followers. For the land is lonesome so far from the sea,” he responded as he held onto a pendant with an emblem of a woman’s head, framed by tentacle-looking hair. “Am I right to conclude that this is your mistress, Miss Saori and Miss Tasianna?”

He let go of his pendant and placed one hand on his chest and the other behind his back, greeting me with a formal bow, “It is a great honor to meet a dragonewt so far from Loatryx. I must admit, I did not expect to meet another scale-kin so deep into the continent of Altrust.”

Pinching the hem of my robes, I reciprocated his greeting with an elegant curtsy while raising my tail, “The honor is mine, Mister Kushlek’zar, this young scale salutes you with her tail raised. My name is Hestia Atsuko and my party is here at the request of Chief Colwyn to meet our potential allies for his Quest.”

Nailing the formal speech was pretty satisfying when you consider I've only been speaking this language for two months now. Granted, I had a pretty good tutor in Tasianna who could immediately send this sorta information through [Telepathy] into my mind. Although not exactly a translator, it allowed me to understand the meaning behind words far easier.

I’d been having my parallel minds just remember as many words as possible, accelerating my learning process while I practiced sentence structure and grammar by speaking with Tasianna and Saori. As the former had been our primary language tutor, our accent and speaking habits were mostly influenced by hers. Then again, I did pick up some words and ways of speaking from the lizardmen.

Hmm, why exactly are we introducing ourselves with our full names? I guess it's more formal?

“This elder scale is joyous to have met you,” Kushlek’zar grinned happily, revealing his long tongue. “I am also glad to hear that you have acquired more help for us, Chief Colwyn. It is always better to have more allies before one jumps into the water’s depths. Confident as we are, money is wasted on the dead.”

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“Ah, yes, of course. We just got word that the mercenaries who previously accepted this quest were defeated. I hope your party is still willing to take on the Quest,” Colwyn informed them, looking a bit anxious that they would decline the request now.

“Your concerns are ill-placed, Chief Colwyn. We fully intended to resolve this matter with or without allies.” It didn’t sound arrogant at all, it felt more like he was trying to sooth the nervous chief’s worries. “We are members of the Tide Watchers, free-roaming Depth Guards. We serve the Goddess of Water by seeing justice be assured, so how can we overlook your suffering?”

Upon hearing that, Colwyn heaved a sigh in relief. "Oh, thank you so very much! If there is anything you need, then please ask me before you leave! I cannot pay you any more than the Quest is offering but I’ll provide whatever rations or tools you need!"

“I thank you on behalf of my brothers-in-arms, however, by bringing more fighters, you have helped us enough.” Kushlek’zar stared at us inquisitively, nodding in content. “Krim-Slak. Grazlahta. What are your opinions on our guests?”

The two tall saurians who were sitting behind Kushlek’zar stopped sharpening their weapons and took a look at the three of us. Considering we were planning to do the same to them, it was only fair if we reciprocated their actions.

Compared to Kushlek’zar who was just a bit taller than Saori, these tall saurians were about two meters tall (6’7”). Equipped with giant reptilian muscles that could make a human strongman look weak, these two had two short, spiked crests above their eyes that looked exactly what you would expect if the ferocious dinosaur carnotaurus were to become a humanoid.

Showing some scars despite being armored to the teeth with their thick, hardened scales and heavy, scaled armor, these two were undoubtedly seasoned warriors. Veterans of the battlefield. What you would expect from the fighter stereotype.

Without needing to use [Identify], my draconic instincts were telling me that these guys were strong. I wasn’t sure how strong they were, but they were clearly C rank or above if they were to be considered monsters.

“… No armor and their clothing aren’t enchanted. Obviously no warriors, Kush, so we’ll stay in the front,” the red saurian on the left, Krim-slak, said concisely. “… I wouldn’t underestimate them, though. The young scale and wolfkin are experienced, I can see it from their eyes. They know how to observe others with keen focus. Haha, wouldn’t hurt having some more mages!”

“Hmm, also no visible catalyst. No belongings.” The green saurian on the right, Grazlahta, squinted his eyes at me. “I agree with Krim. The young scale looks like a cleric, the wolfkin’s blood-red eyes has the ‘chill,’ and the elf isn’t trying to show-off. Good in my book. Also, they aren’t perturbed by Akast, so shouldn’t have any problems.”

"Mhm, no catalysts, no grimoires, and their mana clothing aren’t enchanted, either. How intriguing, right? Ha ha ha ha!” the saurian laughed, making the three of us pretty anxious since he and his companions quickly and accurately pointed those things out. We probably weren’t looking like conventional adventurers. “Hmm, I apologize for our failure. We cannot fully understand your abilities from sight alone. As we will become future companions, could we get a look at your IDs?”

Uh oh…

“Uhh, Kushlek’zar? I didn’t get to that point yet,” Colwyn said as he scratched his head. “These lasses don’t have any IDs. They told me that they lost them in the Belzac Forest.”

“Belzac Forest?” Kushlek’zar’s eyes widened in surprise, turning away from Colwyn and back to us. "… Still, as mercenaries, you must understand we cannot believe those words without proof. Under Xohulotel, the serpent god’s eye, I cannot risk my party’s safety by accepting unknown adventurers. If you cannot produce IDs to display your abilities, then may I appraise you with my [Identify]?”

“Pardon?” Saori exclaimed. “You wish to see our Profiles?”

"Yes, however, if you do not wish to show specific information then I will have no problem if you block it with [Identity Blocker]. I only wish to know your combat prowess,” he answered. “After all, if you are mages, then you must understand the value of knowledge, right? God Istari demands we elucidate ourselves! Always striving for more information! Rest assured, my party will not divulge your information unless needed, I swear as my tail is my witness.”

Realizing what he meant by that, our party quickly held a telepathic conversation, [“Bump it up to level 10?”]

[“Agreed, Hestia.”]

[“By your command, Lady Hestia.”]

<Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Identity Blocker Lv. 4] evolved into [Identity Blocker Lv. 10]. 2350 SP remaining>

Oof, 1750 SP spent…but I guess we will need this to hide our status boards from others. Our luck that this guy is polite enough to warn us before using [Identify]!

From doing skill experiments with Saori and Tasianna, I’d learned that the skill [Identity Blocker] could allow me to only hide certain information if I wanted to. This meant I could allow people with lower leveled [Identify] to see my Profile if I wanted to, or only partial. However, I couldn’t falsify anything, and if I blocked even a single skill, it would have “Information Blocked” under the Profile.

So, after taking out everything related to the gods, my dragon heritage, and being a reincarnator, my status board looked like this now: