Chapter 192

Chapter 192 Strongest Sage, Ordered

" . . . Was Folkia a mining town?"

"I don't think I've heard anything like that . . . "

The quest is about ore mining .

The name of the ore in question isn't mentioned, but apparently it's used to make a [Sturdy Building Material] .

The reward is on the higher side for a quest that doesn't involve fighting monsters . . . but it's frankly pretty low for an adventurer's quest .

Since there's no other quest present, adventurers must have no choice but to take up this quest .

"Are you here to accept quests?"

A man came out of the guild's interior and approached us while we were looking at the quest form .

From his attires, apparently he's a receptionist, but . . .

『Um, this is . . . 』

『Yep, a demon . 』

The guild receptionist is a demon .

And the demon cast a spell chantlessly on us as he walked here .

『Thought Dampen』–In short, a spell to dull the target's judgment .

This spell seems to have been adjusted to work with general populace in this era, so it's not working on us . . . but in exchange, it's hard to detect .

Ordinary adventurers probably wouldn't have any clue when this demon cast the spell .

The reason why fake bandits are sent to raid on high-ranking adventurers is probably related to this magic .

As there might be high-ranking adventurers capable of noticing the spell being cast on them .

Adventurers who noticed it would flee, and spread the story about weird things happening at Folkia Guild .

『Did he just cast a spell?』

『Yea . A spell that's not working on us . . . no doubt about it now . This mining quest is connected to demons . 』

I look at the demon while talking through comm magic .

We'd better . . . pretend that we've been affected by his spell here .

We'll infiltrate their inside in in the meantime and show everyone these sub-demons at the site .

"That's right . We're here to take a quest . "

"Then I recommend this quest . You can complete it without fighting monsters, the reward is pretty bountiful too . "

The receptionist (demon) gave us the mining quest form .

"I got it . We'll take it . "

I immediately signed the form and handed it back .

"I also need your guild cards to process the form . Do you have them with you?"

"Yea . "

I fetched four . . . fake guild cards from my bosom pocket and handed them over to the demon .

Since the demons seemed to be cautious of high-ranking adventurers, I've camouflaged our cards to be of Rank E in the way here .

There's not many high-ranking adventurers in the world, disguising as one wouldn't last long once they looks at the guild register and such . . . but not even the guild note down every Rank E adventurer's names .

"Thank you . "

As expected, the demon took the cards, and handed them back after nodding in satisfaction .

『Is it really okay for us to take this quest . . . oh, is this like an undercover investigation?』

『Exactly . Declining here would make him wary of us cause his spell didn't show any effect . 』

While we were having a briefing, the demon completed the quest form processing and came back here .

"This quest has two stages of operation . Mining and refining . You're free to participate in either of them . . . which one?"

"The refining please . "

"Okay . The refinery's location is marked on this map . "

The demon handed me a map .

It shows locations of the refinery, first-aid station and other facilities .

Looking at the number of facilities, this mining operation looks to be quite a large scale project .

"Err . . . This way . "

The refinery is right in the center of the town, very easy to spot .

It's a very sturdy building that's been reinforced with magic .

And there's a demon standing in front of it .

. . . This place is really full of demons .

"We're here for the ore refinery quest . "

I gave the demon the quest form while saying that .

"Got it . I'll have you guys work immediately . "

While saying that–the demon cast another [Thought Dampen] spell on us .

Most likely, these demons cast [Thought Dampen] on the adventurers every step of the way to make them work like robots for demons .

But demons are still demons despite being a subspecies .

They should be able to yield way more ore by doing it themselves rather than gathering a bunch of humans to do it for them, why would they out of their way to– .

I got the answer of that question when the demon opened the refinery door .

The ore gathered here looks familiar .

『 . . . Rankine Ore huh . 』