Chapter 20: CH 20

There was a difference in the atmosphere of the adventurers’ guild when Momon visited the guild yesterday. Inside were several well armed adventurers, a warrior in full plate mail armor, an archer with light armor, a priest in holy robes and on his hands was a staff with a holy sigil. The last person was a magic caster with his magician robes and staff.

They were choosing their next potential job with the receptionist, and were discussing among themselves about the details of the job listed on the parchment. Their aura of vitality befitted the members of the adventurers guild.

As Momon walked into the building, the gazes of all the adventurers were directed at him. The gazes moved away as quick as they came, the owners lost interest. In other words, the subject did not reach a status befitting their attention. None the less, there were those with keen observation skills, like several people dressed like thieves outfit, whom were monitoring Momon’s actions closely. Their action did not meant that they were hostile, it was the normal behavior of a thief, whom generally act as the team’s eyes and ears. It was in their habit to maintain a minimal sense of vigilance.

While acting that he did not notice anything, Momon headed to the counter.

As luck would have it, the discussion ended pretty fast. Although there were several girls manning the counter. The spot in front of Ishpen was empty.

“Good morning.”

They greeted each other. Momon was slightly annoyed in contrast to Ishpen. However, he was able to hide his feelings behind his smile. Ishpen examined both of Momon’s arms. But quickly redirected her gaze, as she did not have any lingering doubts.

“Etto, the Axe of Cyclone have just arrived.”

“Is that so. Even though I intended to arrive earlier.”

There was still another 30 minutes before the appointed time. But the members of the Axe of Cyclone have already gathered. As such, it is not acceptable for Momon, who held a lower status, to be late.

“Then, please allowed me to lead you. This way please.”

Ishpen stood up from her spot, and moved behind the other receptionist, and exited from the side of the counter. She took out a small bronze piece that could be easily hidden inside her palm.

Momon followed Ishpen into one of the guild rooms.

There were several set of doors inside the room, probably rooms for meeting individuals.

The doors were made to be sound proof, but if Momon concentrated, it was possible to hear faintly, allowing him to gain a slight understanding of the contents.

On the door that Ishpen had guided him to, there a plate etched with words hanging on the door. While it could not be read or understood, by looking at it, one could tell it meant that the room was occupied. Currently, this plate was hanging from several doors, and all of them indicated the presence of people.

“Before that.”

Ishpen held a thin metal plate and handed it to Momon.

“Your member card.”

The member card was a small brass metal plate with alphabets and numbers carved on it, and it was likely Momon’s name was also written on it. To those who were more conscious about it, they would think of them as dog tags. At the corner of the members card, a small hole was present.

Recalling the adventurers that were previously at the counter, there were a lot of them but they all had this hanging from their nack. This hole was probably for threading a chain through.

“What is this?”

“This is the item that I have explained simply to Momon-san before. This is the number assigned to Momon-san, if this number is given, it is possible to search quickly.”

“Hmph.”

“The materials for a novice and F are brass, E is bronze, D is iron, C is silver, B is gold, and A is platinum. And the highest A+ is mithril. Well, the A++ Rank is honorary and is made of the rarest metal Adamantium.”

“Hmph.”

“Ah, thread this through the hole, and please hang it from your neck.”

Ishpen took out a short chain from her pocket, and threaded the chain through the hole at the side. She looped it around Momon’s neck. Momon then directed his cold look at the brass member card.

“……Has any magic been applied?”

“No? It has nothing inside.”

“Has the Guild or anybody ever told you to treat the card like a magical object?”

“I have not heard about the Guild doing such a thing.”

“I see……”

The existence of a member card enchanted with information gathering magic, which pinpoints the owner’s location was not something impossible. As Ishpen was not aware of it, Momon was arranging his thoughts quietly. That type of magical knowledge was one of the things being investigated by Momon’s superior, Sebas Tian. Should he wait for Sebas’s investigation to complete? Or should he initiate the investigation himself? For this problem, it was best to act according to the situation.  

Then should I behave until the investigation is over? Or should I investigate as well? I should adapt to the circumstances.

Momon bowed to Ishpen, and placed it in his pocket.

After Ishpen confirmed that everything was in order, she stood in front of one of the doors and knocked it a few times. She announced to the people inside.

“Apologies, I am a Guild receptionist.”

Without waiting for a reply, Ishpen opened the door.

“I have brought Momon-san.”

Inside the room were four men. Bronze member cards hanged down from their necks. Everyone seemed to be younger than 20.

But, their age did not match the grim aura exerted by the group. Momon noticed, although they seemed relaxed, but underneath they still maintained a sense of vigilance. They had put their weapons aside. But still, their equipment was conveniently placed in a way for them equip themselves at a moment’s notice.

The behavior was likely to have been molded after experiencing certain death countless times.

Of course, if one compared the four with Momon, whose ability far out-stripped them, their behavior was akin to child’s play. Their grim expression was just to impress others.

Weaklings. Momon suppressed his urge to narrow his eyes.

From Momon’s perspective, their combined strength was as thin as a piece of paper. He held little expectations for E-class adventurers, placing them on par with garbage. If he used his magic ability, he could slaughter them in seconds.

Of course, Momon did consider whether they were hiding their capabilities just like him. If they were actually masking their ability, Momon was confidant that he would be able to see through it. At this moment, he knew that they were not hiding anything. He could sense that they did not have any exceptional ability.

The possibility of their abilities far surpassing Momon or even the Floor Guardians was not completely zero. However, Momon thought that the likelihood of it being truth was akin to an asteroid dropping from the sky at that very moment.

These were E-class adventurers. He must use this chance to gather vital information, no matter how long it would take. Should he break character as a simple villager? As Momon thought about it, he refused that idea.

Avoid any action that garners attention. Momon was given such an order when he was summoned to the private room of his master. A maid that disobeyed her master was garbage. Then there was no need for Momon to consider anything for himself.

Momon smiled, and lowered his head towards the people in the room.

“I am Momon. Nice to meet you.”

Following Ishpen, Momon entered the room.

This narrow room was four metres wide in all directions.

There was a small round table in the centre, and surrounding it were six chairs. In addition, several chairs were placed in the corners of the room. There was a considerable large shoiko placed against the wall. It was probably for Momon to carry.

There was a man with an air of a warrior wearing a hauberk upon which interwoven strips of thin metal bands were held together by leather –  <Banded Armour>.

Wearing Soft Leather Armour that seemed easy to move it, the thief like man left his bow and quiver at his side.

A man with a delicate face was wearing something that looked like what the Innkeeper called a suit of leather armor but seemed a little too light to be called armor.   

And then there was a seated man that was dressed in leathers much like the thief except reinforced with additional layers of leather <Hard Leather Armor>.

The four adventurers looked up and down at Momon in  appraising manner. What drew their attention the most seemed to be the soft gauntlets Momon was wearing.

“I am late this time, my deepest apologies.”

Momon said as he stood at the entrance with his head lowered.

“Don’t worry about it Momon-san. We had a bit of a rough morning ourselves.” A pained smile floated across his face. “It’s just that we were woken up early by some woman throwing a tantrum near our rooms”  

With that, it was as if a bag had broken open as the other adventurers started voicing their displeasure.

“And to think we had chosen the highest class of Inn just so that we could get a good rest! Getting up woken by some dumb broad early in the morning really pisses me off”

“We don’t know which rich merchant it was, but to have a daughter like that must be quite a handful. The butler seemed to have a terrible time too…”

“Well, thanks to the tantrum, we got to enjoy a luxurious breakfast. Let’s be generous and forgive her”

“—-Anyway, take a seat please. For now I’ll like to start with a self-introduction and then talk about the  nature of the request and details of the job at hand.”

How unexpected.

Momon was a little surprised by how different they were from his expectation.

He had expected to be treated more like a subordinate, but thanks to the good nature of the adventurers, things progressed smoothly. Ishpen hardly needed to be there.

Momon chose an empty seat and sat on it—-

“Then I will be taking my leave.”

“Ah, thank you very much.”

—-Ishpen closed the door, and left. She stuck up her thumb, and smiled wryly like a man.

“Interested?”

“What……”

The remaining four adventurers gazed at Momon. The warrior like man then stood up as their representative.

Black hair, black eyes. An ordinary face with no outstanding features. A deep scar running down the right side of his face. The nicks and dents on his armor stood in mute testament to the number of fights with monsters this man had survived.   

“Anyway Momon-san, nice to meet you. I am the man acting as the leader of the [Axe of Cyclone], Peter Mork. Anyway, I was thinking to give a simple introduction from everyone here.”

“Then, he is the ranger acting as our eyes and ears, Lukeluther Volve.”

The swashbuckler in leather dipped his head lightly in acknowledgement. A slender man, his long hands and feet made him look like a spider. Rather than giving an impression of weakness, his slender form was lean and powerful.

His eyes and ears were black.

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And then our magic caster, the knowledgeable one. Ninya—-[The Spellcaster]”

“Nice to meet you.”

Ninya was probably the youngest of the group. Not quite an adult with an overly boyish smile, he bowed lightly.

Blond hair and green eyes. Skin pale in contrast to the sun-bronzed complexion of the other adventurers.

He was also the most handsome of the group. Not handsome in a manly way, but Ninya had nice regular features. His voice was also a little high pitched for a man.

However, the slight smile that  appeared on his face seemed pasted on like a mask. His smile wasn’t exactly fake, but to Momon it seemed a little too perfect. It was, however, a minor point and Momon dismissed the matter.

In contrast with the  armor clad forms of his companions, he was the only one who was dressed in little more than a leather outfit. Instead, various strange and unusual items could be seen hanging from his belt.  Things like strangely shaped bottles and wood carvings and other knick knacks.

“However, could you please stop that embarrassing nickname?”

“Eh? Isn’t it fine?”

Seeing Momon being curious, Lukeluther opened his mouth to comment.

“No, this guy is a genius magic caster and quite famous.”

“Heh.”

“Is it a talent that allows shorten a person’s time to master magical skills from ten years to four years instead? I am not a magic caster myself, so I am not sure how useful it is.”

“I actually have a dream. So I’m frantically working hard.”

“Your way of thinking is not wrong, having talent is important too.

“Mah, I can’t deny that……”

Overall, the team appeared strong. But if they were judged by using Momon as a reference, all of them were unmistakably weaklings.

“The last person is our nature worshipper or  <Druid>, Dayne Woodwonder. He is highly proficient in healing and nature’s magic. He is quite knowledgeable in herbology too. If you are feeling unwell, just look for him. He has some effective medicine dealing with stomach pain.”

With an unkempt beard around his mouth, and a strong body, the man with a savage-like impression nodded. But his appearance seemed to be younger than Momon. There was a slight scent of grass in the air. Its source was probably from the bag hanging from his waist.

“Them, I am Momon. This is my first job. As I will do my best to not be a burden please take care of me.”

“Yes, we’ll be in your care too. I apologise for ending our introduction early as we would like to  return to the main topic, the job we took. Erm, did the guild tell you any details about our work?”

“Yes, subjugating the monsters nearby and protecting our cargo transportation.”

“That is the gist of it. Our job this time is to hunt down any monsters in the areas surrounding the city.”

The ranger—-Lukeluther opened his mouth.

“After the monster hunt, the guild will reward us according to how strong the monster was. Hence any adventurers not taking any jobs will go around hunting monsters.”

“It is for our sake of our rice bowls that we took on jobs like this.”

The druid, Dayne interjected quietly from the side.

“To us, it might be a source of income. It still reduces the danger for those staying around the area. Merchants can travel safely while the Kingdom benefited from the extra taxes gained. Everybody stands to gain from this.

“Any country that had a guild had enacted such a policy. Surprisingly, the policy was not implemented untill five years ago.”

The magic caster, Ninya added. His teammates nodded in support of his statement.

“Completely agree.”

“Long live the princess.”

“It was initially proposed that adventurers would be exempted from taxation. But it did not come into fruition.”

“Oh, to think that they would give much preferential treatment to adventurers.”

“I should further add that some view us as mercenary group with no loyalty to the country. Other times we are being treated as enemies. Even the Empire would not treat us that well.”

“The princess is very wise, for her to proposed that many beneficial plans…….Sadly, many were rejected outright.”

“I want to marry a beauty like her~”

“Then what about working hard to become a noble?”

“Ah, totally impossible, im-pos-si-ble. I cannot accept a life with so many restrictions.”

“It is not a bad idea to gain nobility status since the country has no law against the nobles for suppressing the plebeians. I can just do whatever my heart desires.”

Other than Momon and Ninya, everybody’s expression stiffened. Lukeluther tried to followed up with the conversation by talking casually.

“Ouch, your mouth is sharp as ever. Looks you still hold those nobles in contempt.”

“I know that some nobles still maintain a sense of chivalry. But my elder sister was taken away by that pig. My hatred for all nobles stem from there”

“…….We’re straying off topic. I don’t think we should be discussing this matter in front of him.”

Dayne wanted to put the original topic back on track, as Peter faked a cough.

“Ahem, Ahem. Mah, we will explore the surrounding areas. Since the areas were considered developed zones. Hence, there will not be any strong monsters, please do not worry.”

“Since this is Momon’s first job, hence…..”

Peter unfolded a parchment on the table, which is a map of the surrounding area. On it were symbols for nearby villages, forest and river.

“Basically, we will be exploring the southern region.”

His finger traced the map, beginning from the middle and moving south towards an area bordering the forest.

“Our prey will be monsters occupying the forest bordering the Slaine Theocracy. We will use range weapons to attack enemies at the rear. Most of them will be goblins. Mah, the difficulty of the goblin is 10. So, we do not have much to worry about.”

“Bah, taking down weak monster like this, our rewards are at most will be one silver coin.”

Understood.”

Towards their confident act, Momon harbored some doubts.

From Momon’s personal knowledge, there was a big gap in the strength of goblins. For example a Goblin Leader, there is a chance that it could be considered a boss level monster. But they think that goblins were pushovers.

Are they sure something like that will not exist? Or that in this world, the goblins strength is that little? The weakest goblin that  Momon knew were Level 3 goblins. For those goblins to be opponents, even this group of people could defeat them.

However, confirming the information about goblins race was better.

“……..Will they be any chances for exceptionally strong goblins to appear?”

The members of the Axe of Cyclone looked at each other. As if they came to an unspoken consensus, they replied Momon’s answer in a manner to allay his fears.

“Don’t worry, it is true that there are strong goblins. But they will not appear in the forest we are headed. This is because those strong goblin are leaders that control their tribes. It is unlikely that they will mobilise their tribe.”

“Goblins are familiar with territories under human occupation. Hence, they know that attacking en masse will be troublesome for them. Especially those highly intelligent strong goblins that acted as leaders.”

“I see, I understand. However, could you inform me of the monsters we might encounter, such as their difficulty levels?”

The members of the Axe of Cyclone simultaneously looked at Ninya. Accepting it, Ninya adopted the expression of a teacher and began his explanation.

“Firstly, the goblins we will likely encounter have a difficulty level of 6. Wolves are 10. There have been no records of other beasts we could encounter reaching the later half of the 20s. The highest is the first half of the 20s. The  most dangerous thing we could encounter in the plains are level 20 Ogres.”

“I have been hearing about this since earlier, but are we not going to enter the forest?”

“Yes. We are avoiding it purely because the danger level is quite high. We can still manage the Jumping Leech and most large insect type monsters. But the Hanging Spiders that spits its webs from the trees, and Forest Worms that attacked from underground by using its large mouths are  monsters that are at the upper ranges of difficulty level 20, will be trickier to handle. Hence, we will not enter the forest. If we enter the forest, our difficulties will rise sharply.

I see. Momon nodded. It was just hunting monsters within the boundary of the forest to the plains.

“And so please do not worry, Momon-san. We will definitely protect you.”

Momon expressionlessly faced Lukeluther, who was trying to dispel Momon’s unease through jesting. However, the way that he talked to him, Momon’s mind is ablaze with dark flames of anger.  He tried hard to suppressed it.

The feeling of being assured by lesser beings.

What was worse was that they honestly thought that Momon was weaker than them. A subordinate of Sebas, one that is given the honor to guard the last floor at heart of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, Momon or her true identity as Narberal Gamma, was being perceived as a weakling.

Momon slowly but repeatedly inhaled and exhaled, to dispel the heat within him.

“Then, Momon-san. There do not seem to be any more questions, and we want to make preparations, and I think it will be fine, but could you carry that shoiko?”

“Ah, yes. Understood.”

In the direction Peter was pointing to stood a shoiko.

Momon walked there, and lifted the shoiko. Everyone there was shocked, and let out a voice of admiration as they saw that he did not use much power to lift it up.

“That’s more than enough, Momon-san.”

“Ah, lifting it that easily, I’m surprised.  Your outer appearance is completely different from your abilities.”

“In the village, I have carried this type of luggage before.”

“I see. Peter. We will be fine.”

“Yes, that’s right. Everyone please take note. Momon with stay behind us in case we have to fight. There is a metal plate affixed on the portering carrier. We can use it as a shield as the arrows will not be able to pierce it. Moreover, prioritise your own safety even when we might fall into dangerous situations.”

“Understood.”

“Then shall we make a move—-”

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