The Following Morning.

  I was up early, but did not head to the Adventuring Guild building. Instead, I had decided to take a little walk through the city — to explore it a bit more, as well as stop by… a different location.

  The streets of Ordial were busy as always – even this early – with people going on with their morning. Some were walking around with groceries in hand, some were carrying materials around, occasional armed guards moved through as well, children were running past, playing with each other — it was a lively atmosphere. Certainly different to the one I was used to back home.

  The entire feel of the city was different – though that most likely was because of the architecture of the city and the complete lack of technology that I was used to. While moving through the streets, I eventually found myself at the market of the city once more, which, as expected, was bustling with people.

  It was so crowded already — it was almost impressive just how many people were there at this hour of the morning.

  Guess the days started early here.

  While passing by the different stalls, my eyes eventually fell onto a certain stall, at which some vegetables were being sold, with a young girl standing there as the clerk. Recognising her, I put on a bright smile and decided to walk over to it – remembering the ‘promise’ I had made to the owner of this stall.

  As I approached, the little girl looked at me and immediately lit up with a bright smile, before running inside the building behind the stall. “Mama, the mister has returned!”

  I heard her shout as her silhouette disappeared inside the house. I rubbed the back of my neck, chuckling lightly to myself. “Children always have so much energy in them… I could never be like that at my age anymore.” I thought. After a moment or two, the mother of the girl came outside and upon seeing me, also smiled.

  “Ah, you’ve returned traveller! Have you managed to sign up at the Adventuring Guild or Mercenary Guild?” She asked, with a cheerful expression. I nodded.

  “Yeah, I signed up for the Adventurers Guild. In fact, I have already done three days of non stop quests.” I replied, before letting out a small exhale and then looking down at the vegetables on offer. The lady, noticing this subtle gaze shift, smiled.

  Then, she let out a light hearted laugh.

  “I see! Well, as you’re here I assume you want to purchase some of our fresh vegetables?” I looked at the lady and nodded lightly. “Yeah, I thought that I may as well give them a try.”

  “Glad to hear that! Then please, do take anything that catches your eyes. The prices here are as low as they can be and as honest as they can be!” She exclaimed proudly, before crossing her arms.

  I browsed through the vegetables on offer, paying attention to their price as well. There were cabbages, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, pears and even radishes all on offer. Not a huge variety, but just enough. I scratched my chin lightly.

  “The cabbages and lettuce are the cheapest at just fifty copper for one, then potatoes, tomatoes, radishes and carrots are slightly more expensive at seventy copper per one and then the apples and pears are the most expensive at ninety copper per one. If I just crunch the numbers a bit…”

  …Economy in this world…. It is certainly interesting.

  I sighed lightly, before looking at the apples and pears. I honestly felt like some fruit was the only thing worth buying, since I usually ate meals prepared at the inn I was staying at. Besides, if I was out in the wild for an extended period of time, I would simply hunt some monsters down to eat.

  After a bit of thinking, I nodded lightly and pointed down at the apples. “I will take three apples, if that’s alright.”

  The lady nodded. “Of course! Let me prepare a pouch for you.” She said, before turning to look at her daughter. “Deliah, go get one will you?”

  “Okay!” The child ran inside the building again.

  After a bit, she ran back out carrying a small pouch, which the lady took and then turned back around, reaching and taking three apples and placing them inside before closing the pouch. “That’ll be twenty seven Silvers.” She stated. At first, hearing the price sent shivers down my spine, but I didn’t show it and simply reached into my bag on my hip and picked out the twenty seven silvers, before handing them to the lady, who then handed me the pouch of apples.

  Afterwards, I turned away to continue my walk, waving them a goodbye. “Come again, any time traveller!” The lady called to me, while waving bye to me with her daughter.

  I looked away and shed a light sweat. “Almost half my current silver coins disappeared in that one purchase. I have to be a bit more careful and probably go into overdrive to be able to raise my rank, so that I can earn more – Otherwise I’ll run out of cash fast.” I sighed, before opening the pouch of apples and taking one out. Now that I got a better look at it, the apples I bought were genuinely kind of massive. They easily filled my entire palm and were easily bigger than any apples I had seen back in my previous life.

  “Size is impressive… Hopefully the taste is worth it as well.” I commented in my mind before biting into the large fruit. Immediately, I was struck with the delicious flavour of the apple. It was juicy, not overly sweet or sour and just tasty…

  Guess the claims about quality weren't a lie.

  “At least it’s not some overpriced garbage.” I exhaled in relief, before continuing to eat away at the apple as I walked through the market.

  Eventually, I exited the market once more, having finished two of the apples I had bought while sliding the last one inside my bag, cleaning off my mouth with my right hand. “Now, time to head to my destination. I don’t want to be late.” I looked around a bit, before quickly activating ‘Enlightened’ to act as a bit of tracking radar to directly find where I was headed.

  Once I locked onto it, I immediately began marching towards it.

  Where was I headed like this, so seriously and even slightly nervously? Well…

  After a while, I stood in front of a large building, one that was similar to the Adventuring Guild building, just a lot more darker toned and creepily looking, with darker coloured materials being used for it. There were some people outside the building, standing around and talking to one another – each one looking on the rough side with clear battle experience – and not the monster battle experience.

  Shedding a slight sweat, my gaze went up towards the sign hanging above the entrance.

  ‘Ordial Mercenary Guild’ — “Well, I’ve arrived, but now that I’m standing here, I’m having serious doubts about entering.” Even though I knew there was no way this was going to happen, a part of me was terrified of being immediately attacked as soon as I entered. And while I probably would be able to handle some enemies on the weaker side, I knew that I would never beat anyone very strong. I am not one to overestimate my strength.

  Shedding a cold sweat, I eventually gathered enough courage and approached the door. The mercenaries that stood outside moved their gazes onto me, as I passed by them and up the stairs towards the doors. I felt this rather uncomfortable pressure building on top of me. “Why is everyone staring at me?”

  As I reached the door, I placed my hand on the handle and took in a deep breath. If I showed fear or stress, I’d only be driven out. This place isn’t as light hearted and welcoming as the Adventuring Guild – but I shouldn’t be intimidated by it. No one will take someone who is intimidated by a building seriously.

  Opening the door, I entered the guild with confidence and a serious expression.

  Once inside, the door shut behind me and I felt many, many gazes shift towards me. There were a lot of mercenaries inside, all drinking, talking or doing other things. Each one looked just as rough and experienced as the ones outside the guild.

  I walked past all of them and towards the reception desk of the guild, where a single receptionist sat — a young woman, dressed more like a pirate with an eyepatch and a pirate hat as well as ragged clothes, that appeared more like just a bunch of cloth and scraps thrown together covering her body.

  On her hip, using some ropes, she had a sheathed, curved sword.

  As I approached, she looked up at me from her book, before taking her legs off of the counter that she was previously using as a rest for them. “Good day sir, how may I help you today?”

  Despite her appearance, her tone and speech was… polite.

  Guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover, huh? I stopped at the counter and then looked around. “I’m searching for a certain mercenary.”

  The girl exhaled and rested her head onto her right hand. “Which one? We have a lot of them. Who are you searching for?”

  I hesitated for a second, but then pushed out the name. “I’m looking for Avid—” As soon as I said the name out loud, the atmosphere of the guild changed. I felt all the other mercenaries in the building turn their gazes towards me, while the receptionist narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, I felt a bit of pressure again — Had I messed up?

  The receptionist remained silent for a bit, before sighing. “Avid? You got your head in the clouds if you think you can hire someone like him for your job. He’s a top notch mercenary and certainly not cheap.” She said, turning her head away and leaning back into her chair.

  Top Notch mercenary..? He certainly was not weak in the brief fight I had with him, though I guess I did kind of win only because of Arvalor. And hire him–? I wasn’t here to hire him…

  “I’m afraid you got it mixed up ma’am— I’m not looking to hire him, he—”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Then you can get lost.” She cut me off. I raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

  She scoffed. “What? Turned deaf suddenly? If you’re not here to hire him or sign up with us, then you have no reason to stay at the guild. The Mercenary Guild isn’t like the Adventuring Guild where you can come in and have a casual conversation with people.” Suddenly, her attitude had changed. She had gone from polite and somewhat kind, to more rude and very much unwelcoming.

  The other mercenaries in the building laughed among themselves, all while watching this conversation. I shed a sweat, before exhaling. “Listen ma’am, I really—”

  Then, ‘Enlightened’ went off and I leapt back as she suddenly drew her sword and attempted to slash at me, her gaze sharp and fierce. The mercenaries in the room looked rather impressed while the Receptionist looked at me with a serious expression and a cold glare. “I said, if you aren’t here to hire anyone, get lost.”

  “What the hell? Is she insane—? What if I was just a regular person without a skill like ‘Enlightened’? Would she have just killed me?” I felt Arvalor tremble a bit in my shadow, as well as let loose a small growl. It appears that the attempt on my life just now had made the Shadow Beast rather unpleased.

  I looked at the beast in my shadow, gesturing to him to not come out. Luckily for me, the Chimera listened and returned to a dormant state, while I turned my head back to look at the receptionist, standing up. “I’m sorry, but I was told—”

  “I give you four seconds.” She cut me off again.

  “This woman is insane— How the hell is she the receptionist?” Without even counting, after the fourth second, she lunged at me, with her blade. I just barely managed to dodge out of the way with the use of ‘Enlightened’ however I shed a cold sweat. She was fast! Like, really fast!

  I can’t afford a fight here — otherwise I could ruin my reputation, maybe I should just leave and—

  Then, before ‘Enlightened’ could warn me, the receptionist lunged at me again from behind, about to slice my head off – however then…

  “Angie, enough.” She stopped the sword blade just centimeters away from my head. Then, she sighed. I looked towards the source of the call just now and saw the one I was looking for — Avid, just standing at the top of the stairs, arms crossed and his back leaned up against the wall. The receptionist turned to look at the masked mercenary.

  “You just had to ruin my fun, Avid.”

  “You’re on shift – remember the guild rules.” He replied, walking down the stairs after he kicked himself off of the wall he was leaned up against. “You aren’t allowed to attack anyone without reasonable suspicion. What if the person who had come wasn’t someone capable of dodging your attacks? How would you explain yourself before the Duke and Guildmaster?” Avid asked, as he approached and stood tall over the receptionist.

  Angie, still visibly annoyed, scoffed before drawing back her sword and sheathing it up and walking back over to the reception desk and hopping behind it, sitting back down and resting her legs onto the counter again.

  Then, Avid exhaled and looked at me. “My apologies for her behaviour. She can get a little heated up when she meets someone strong.”

  “...Right.” I eased up, letting out a sigh of relief. For a second, I thought that I was either dead or Arvalor would suddenly leap out to defend me, like he had done before. Afterwards, Avid cleared his throat and crossed his arms. “Since you’re here, I assume you’ll help me with what I asked?”

  I remained silent for a bit, before nodding. “Perhaps. I wanted to hear a bit more first though.” Avid looked a bit hesitant upon hearing my answer, but after a little bit, he exhaled and walked past me. “Then follow me, this isn’t a good place to talk.” As he walked out of the guild, I heard whispers exchanged among the mercenaries.

  It appears that Avid really was a bigshot mercenary within the guild — I should tread carefully with how I interact with him. After a moment, I ran after the masked man, leaving the guild.

  Back on the streets of Ordial, I chased after Avid, who was moving swiftly through the street and past all the people on it, towards. “Hey—! Wait up!” I called out to him, pushing through the people in front of me as I finally caught up to him. Catching my breath for a second, I sighed. “Where are we headed?”

  “Outside the city. The matter you wish to discuss cannot be overheard by anyone.” He replied, without even turning around to look at me — he kept moving at a rapid pace. I raised an eyebrow for a second, before letting out a small sigh and simply walking beside him.

  If I had to wait before speaking about it, I had to wait.

  In the meantime… I could ask more about the guild. “Soo… Why did that guild receptionist attack me all of a sudden? How did someone like that become a receptionist?”

  Avid remained silent for a moment. “That was Angie. You’ll have to excuse her — despite her appearance, she is a retired mercenary who I would say is on par with me.”

  “Retired? But she looked so young.” If I had to guess, she wasn’t older than even thirty. I was twenty eight before dying and I didn’t look like someone who’s almost in his thirties. Avid once again, remained silent for a bit – as if hesitating to answer – before exhaling. “She went through an accident that left her with only one eye and serious damage to her heart. While she can still live, she is unable to push her body too far and so was forced to retire. Now she works as a receptionist alongside her sister.”

  “Sister? She has a sister?” Avid nodded. “Though her sister is much younger, she also works at the Mercenary Guild. She is quite beloved there for her kindness and polite nature towards Mercenaries, who are usually viewed as brutes by most people.” He then looked at me, chuckling lightly under his breath. “You got a bit unlucky and came in on the day that she had a day off.”

  So if I had come another day, I could have avoided that entire thing? Great — Just my curiosity and impatience at play. I sighed lightly, rubbing the back of my neck, before looking at the ground. “She certainly didn’t appear as someone with great damage on the inside from the way she moved and talked, but then again, I guess a mercenary could not care less about the damage they sustain as they live for this kind of experience.”

  The two of us moved past many people and eventually reached the front gates, at which Avid chatted a bit with one of the guards before gesturing to me to follow, leading me outside the city walls once more. I threw a look back after catching up to him. “So, can we discuss the help you need now?”

  Avid looked around, before back and then away once more. “Not yet. Let’s first enter the forest and then we can discuss. I don’t trust that no one will overhear us.”

  “He’s very cautious. Whatever he needs help with must be super, super important.” I commented in my mind. Avid led me down the dirt road that led into the forest, before leading me off of it and towards the south part of the forest.

  We wandered quite deep into the forest, before Avid stopped and looked around, before leaning against a tree. “Alright, this should be far enough. Now we can discuss the details.”

  I nodded, before quickly creating a seat using the shadows of the trees around us and sitting down on it, crossing my legs. “Alright, then start sharing. What do you need my help with exactly?”

  “It’s quite simple — There’s been some strange activity detected within the Abyssal Woods recently.” Avid began, which immediately piqued my interest. “Strange activity?”

  “A sudden decrease in monsters and their activity.” As soon as Avid said this, I felt my face turn pale and a horrible chill run down my spine. During the month I spent wandering these woods as a snake, I had killed a lot of monsters— I sure hope that the decreased monster presence and activity is not my fault.

  “Isn’t that a… good thing?” I asked, slightly nervous.

  Avid nodded.

  “In some sense, it is. Less monsters means that we have no worries of Adventurers, collectors, travellers or mercenaries losing their life in the Abyssal Woods – however, at the same time, the sudden decrease in them is also very suspicious.” Avid replied, before looking to the side. “Usually a sharp decrease in monsters and their activity means that something much more dangerous may have appeared in the area, which has either scared off the other monsters or killed them.”

  ….Shit.

  As Avid continued his explanation, I couldn’t help but grow more nervous. As more and more he said, more and more I started to feel like this was my fault. I had hunted a lot of monsters during my time in the woods… Although it was in a different part of the forest, it was still within the forest. Who knows how far I managed to travel through them and slaughter the monsters?

  “The Duke requested the Mercenary guild to launch an investigation on this matter — or rather, he requested that I launch an investigation.”

  “You? Why specifically you?” I tilted my head slightly to the side.

  “That’s what happens when you are a high ranked mercenary. Even Nobles can’t help but seek you out for jobs.” Avid looked at me again. “And considering that if you don’t count the guildmaster or the Mercenary Victoria, who is off on a special mission in Licua, I am the strongest mercenary within Ordial right now.” When he said that, I felt my heart sink a bit.

  The strongest mercenary in Ordial?

  Sure he was strong when we fought, but he didn’t seem like someone who would hold a title such as that… Unless…

  “....Were you holding back in our clash?”

  “A lot.”

  Just give it to me straight, eh?

  Well that works as well — it seems that I am still not all that good at reading people. I have to be more aware. I shed a cold sweat, exhaling. “Then I suppose my victory over you isn’t all that impressive.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, while I was holding back a lot during that encounter, you still managed to stand your ground against me. Not many can do that.” Avid stated. I couldn’t really deny him there — I did manage to not get my head sliced off by him.

  I guess my ‘victory’ still has some merit then.

  After a quick exhale, I leaned back a bit. “Anyways, what do you need help with exactly? If it’s just investigating monster activity, surely more people with you would slow you down?”

  “Normally, yes. However, I had uncovered something that could potentially serve as the answer to this mysterious monster's disappearance.”

  “That is…?”

  Avid remained silent once more.

  He appeared to be hesitant to answer. I guess the next thing he is going to tell me is that he can’t share the details unless I agree to help him – it was a classic trap people could pull off in order to get someone to join them.

  “...The monsters aren’t being killed. They’re going somewhere — almost like something is drawing them towards it.” I was a bit taken back by his reply. He actually shared his discovery without me agreeing to help yet?

  Either he was putting a LOT of trust in me, or just being an idiot right now. Afterwards, Avid kicked himself off of the tree and turned around. “That’s all I have to share. If you wish to know anymore, you’ll need to agree to help me.”

  Ah–

  There it was.

  I thought about his offer for a minute. It certainly didn’t seem like a difficult job – I just needed to help out with investigating the mysterious disappearance of monsters within this region of the forest – which I guess in this scenario meant finding out where they all were going.

  There wasn’t really anything for me to lose here, however…

  “What’s in it for me?”

  Avid seemingly appeared disappointed slightly as soon as I asked that question – as if he had expected me to ask it. Throwing a gaze over his left shoulder at me, he remained silent for a moment, before turning to face me. “I’ll pay you greatly. And if you help me solve this mystery, I’ll allow you to hire for whatever you need for free at any point. Is that a good deal?”

  …It certainly was appealing.

  I get paid cash and gain access to a very powerful mercenary who I can reach out to at any point? It definitely seemed worth it to me.

  After a second of consideration, I exhaled and got up from my shadow seat, making it disappear, before reaching out my hand towards the mercenary. “Alright. I’m in.”

  Avid seemingly smiled under his mask, before taking my handshake and nodding. “Glad to have you then….”

  …

  “What is your name—?”

  …Right – I never did tell him.”

  “Call me Riyo.” I replied, breaking the slight second of awkwardness between us. Avid nodded lightly. “Right. Glad to have you onboard, Riyo.”