The evening passed calmly, and soon, morning crept around to take its place.

Lone said good morning and goodbye to Phil after he and Soph were prepared and fed. Lone had felt a bit bad for skipping dinner last night when he had promised to eat at the inn, so he chose to have breakfast here with Soph instead.

Phil and Grella's mother, as well as Lofakern's wife, was a lovely portly lady with a charming smile despite her large size. Her cooking was also exceptional, so Lone had renewed his promise to return for dinner, which simply made the woman laugh politely and tell him that he didn't need to act so seriously about a bit of food.

"Don't get drunk this time, 'kay? There's a good chance we'll get jumped by slummers again. They'd have to be geniuses at being stupid if they couldn't figure out my bluff from yesterday. It'd be very helpful if I could have Sophie with me to deal with the possibility of having to kill them if things get out of hand, so no mead today." Lone's tone was soft, but he meant every word that he said.

He was not as confident in being able to trick them again should the same men and boys surround him and Soph, and he really did want to avoid murder. Oddly enough, he found himself wanting to not kill more so to avoid trouble with the law as opposed to his moral reasoning.

He couldn't explain why this was. Perhaps because demis could be persecuted at any possible moment without valid justification from what he had heard? Perhaps due to the fear of possible enslavement? These questions could be overruling his sense of morality. He didn't really know if that was true, but regardless, he'd like to have Sophie by his side if and when the time for him to end another person's life came.

"I promise. I don't want a headache again anyway," Soph mumbled in response.

Contrary to Lone's unoptimistic expectations, no one attempted to kidnap him and Soph on their way to Grimsley's smithy nor as they left the slums.

However, as Lone had expected, his first lesson with Grimsley was very basic. It was wholly knowledge-based, which he could appreciate.

While he would undoubtedly learn the Blacksmithing and Metalworking skills with ease, a normal person wouldn't, so he didn't mind being forced to sit through a semi-drunken dwarf's explanation on the basic metals and where they came from. Information was a valuable resource, so he had no complaints there.

He and Soph were now stood in the bookstore which Phil had said was neutral in regards to demis. It was roughly three times as large as the miscellaneous store back in Ros, and it was obviously only selling books and manuscripts.

"Um, excuse me," Lone said as he called out to a young human boy of maybe fourteen years who was dusting off an empty shelf. "Do you work here?"

The boy paused what he was doing and smiled. "Yes, Sir, I do. How can I help you?"

"Great. I'm looking for novels on ranking up, levels, and skills. Does the store sell those kinds of novels? Also, anything on the history of Altros as a whole would be perfect," Lone requested.

The boy nodded. "I'll go fetch some and bring them to the counter if that works for you? If not, I can point out those particular books, but I'd suggest accepting my recommendations. I've read every book in the store, after all."

"I'll trust your judgement." And with that, Lone and Soph's funds from the Goblin King's dungeon were reduced by eight silver coins, but their collection of books had increased by sixteen volumes.

Lone was eager to read them, of course, so he returned to the inn.

Phil raised an eyebrow as he yawned lightly. "Back so soon? It's not even noon."

Lone grinned. "I've started an apprenticeship with Grimsley - the demi blacksmith you told us about. After his lesson, we visited a bookstore." He showed the single tome that he was carrying for appearances while the other ones had been covertly stored in his Dimensional Storage. "I returned to read this in peace."

Phil 'hmmed' audibly. His eyes moved from Lone and landed on Soph. "She ain't your master, is she?"

"What makes you say that?" Lone asked only somewhat seriously. He felt that he could trust the family running this inn, so he didn't particularly mind exposing this little secret of theirs which he was barely even trying to hide now that they were in a safer city for demis than Ros was.

"Even for a blind girl, she's too submissive, and you're too assertive. If anything, she'd be the slave and you'd be the master," Phil explained with a shrug. "Not that I really care anyway. I assume ya wanna keep this hush-hush?"

Lone smiled. "I'd appreciate that, thanks."

"No worries. Seeya tomorrow. I'm off to my herbalist's apprenticeship now anyway," Phil replied as he picked up a rucksack from behind the counter and left the building the second Grella appeared to take his place.

The girl laughed a bit awkwardly. "He's a keen study despite how bored he always acts here."

"I don't think he acts bored intentionally, I just think that nothing here interests him. Maybe you should buy him a book on herbology or alchemy or something like that for his next birthday? I'd expect that to keep him entertained while he's manning the desk," Lone suggested as he started walking up the stairs with Soph in tow.

Grella smiled softly. "What a good idea. I'll be sure to do that!" She was a bit air-headed in Lone's opinion, but like the rest of her family, she wasn't a particularly bad person.

Lone rubbed his forehead and cracked his neck as he put down the book explaining levels and ranks in a decent amount of detail.

"Okay, so fighting is the only known way to gain enlightenment as far as this book's author is aware. I guess that's good news. Still, the ranks are only documented up to triple-X-rank. I wonder why? So I to A, then S to triple-S, and lastly, X to triple-X, but what comes after that? Nothing?" Lone sighed.

He shook his head as he muttered, "No. There's no way. Admittedly, I haven't researched the gods that brought us here yet, but I have a feeling that they're beyond this world's highest standard... Weird. Why the fuck do I feel that way?" to himself.

Soph's body - which was sleeping on their bed - suddenly grew until it was in its fifteen-year-old form. A cold expression took over her face as she sat up and started putting on some clothes. "Talking to yourself again, Lone?"

"Yeah, sorry. It's easier to visualise my thoughts if I say them out loud. Anyway, what're you doing taking control and getting all prepped for, Sophie?" Lone asked curiously.

She gave him a weird look. "We heard you say that fighting is how one ranks up, so of course, we are preparing to help you hunt some monsters. You were planning to go to this 'Adventurer's Guild' and accept a commission from them, yes?"

Lone smiled wryly. "Yup. You're very smart, you know that, right?"

"Of course we are and do." Sophie finished putting on her clothes and glanced at Lone again. "Armour. Bring it out and help us into it."

"Sure," he replied as he shrugged and stored the book that he was previously reading.

As Lone was helping the girl into her suit of armour, she spoke to him again. "We expect for the ones who attacked us in the slums to do so again when we leave the city, assuming we leave the city."

Naturally, despite Soph being asleep at that time, Sophie had seen Lone get surrounded by the slummers before she was returned to The Summoning Room.

Lone nodded. "I know. I'm ready for that. I promise that I won't hold you back."

"Good," Sophie replied as she hid her blush at his considerate words.

Grella gave Lone and Sophie a very strange look when they passed her on their way out. More so Sophie than Lone. It wasn't every day that you saw a little girl fully clad in reinforced-steel armour, after all.

She felt that Sophie might have been maybe a half-inch or an inch taller, but after some thinking, she simply chalked it down to the fact that she was wearing heavy armour. Little did the young woman know that her acute senses were very accurate.

Lone and Sophie swiftly weaved their way through the city and found themselves at The Adventurer's Guild.

It was a decently-sized building with five floors and a big, grandiose plaque indicating that it was the guild for adventurers hung above the large entry doors. People flowing in and out of it like a stream, but they made room for Lone and Sophie in consideration of the exquisiteness of her armour and the oddness of his race and peculiar weapon.

As they walked through the massive hall towards one of the many staffed desks to ask some questions, Lone couldn't help but wonder, 'Will I be accosted for my race in here? That sounds like a pretty good excuse to pick a fight with me like in those cliched novels from back home. I wonder if that'd help me or hinder me? I could always use some new skills, so I wouldn't exactly be opposed to such a stupid situation occurring.'

As if the stars were perfectly aligned, or perhaps due to some of Sophie's luck rubbing off on Lone, two human men approached them with annoyed looks on their faces.

"Hey, what the fuck is a kid doing in here? In all armour too. Isn't that fake?" the taller of the two men who had a large greatsword affixed to his back asked as he eyed Sophie top-to-bottom.

The other - an average man in every single possible regard - sneered as he looked at Lone. "What's a demi doin' walkin' in here like he owns the place? I bet ye'r not even an H-ranker, are ye? Ye should run back off into the wild where ya belong, ya fuckin' mutt."

Lone frowned despite being mildly surprised and a little bit happy that the men who'd chosen to cause trouble with him and Sophie seemed entirely beatable. They appeared a bit... weak. Or at least, they looked and felt weak to Lone. He was no expert, but he felt like the starved Goblin King was stronger than these two men combined. 'I wonder if they even have any skills that I can steal?'

"Can we help you two?" Lone asked.

"Yeah, you can get out. The Adventurer's Guild is no place for kids or the weak," the more well-spoken one said.

The other one didn't comment on Lone being a demi again but instead chose to threaten the two with a gesture involving his knife and his throat.

Lone saw someone wearing what looked like the guild's official clothing approaching him, Sophie, and the two men, so he looked at his direction and smiled. "Is there something we can do about this? It seems that my friend and I have accidentally offended these guys somehow."

The employee returned Lone's smile with his own. "I'm very sorry for their actions. They're drunk and this happens quite often." The man then looked at the two before saying, "You know that the guildmaster won't be happy if he hears that you insulted a beastkin, right? Especially a nine-traited one."

The shorter man spat on the wooden floor. "Fuck the guildmast'r. I haven't gone out on a quest today, so my thirst for blood hasn't been quenched yet, ya see? I wanna invoke the Adventurer's Duel on this walkin'-furball."

"I'll challenge the kid too. Show her her place. Adventuring isn't to be taken lightly. If any old stinking kid barely off their mum's tit could do it, then the profession would become a joke," the taller man said to back up his friend.

The employee shook his head. "You can't. These two aren't adventurers if I'm not wrong. This should be their first time here, yes?" he asked as he looked back and forth between Lone and Sophie.

Lone nodded. "That's true, but we don't mind applying and then accepting these guys' challenge. Can we become adventurers and then have you tell us the details?"

The employee frowned again. 'Guildmaster Gilbert won't like this... Although, that strange spear weapon and the girl's armour look expertly crafted... Perhaps they're strong?' He sighed lightly before he said, "Okay. If everyone is happy with that, and all of the fees are paid, who am I to stop a friendly duel or two? This way, please."