The sky had darkened, so we parted ways as I changed my course for the inn. A cool breeze hushed against my back, giving me a sense that it was already late which made me hasten my feet forward to a large building that slowly came into view.

“Big brother!” a high-pitched voice said as a small girl came running toward me from ahead. “You’re back! Then the assessment has finished, right?” The girl with brown hair tied with a ribbon was obviously Tina.

“Mm, yep.” I patted her head which had become a routine and bragged, “And now I’ve become an Iron-ranked adventurer.”

“Ooh! Then, what are we waiting for? We should tell the others of this great news! Let’s get inside, shall we?” Tina took my patting hand and dragged me aggressively into the inn with her small hands.

I never knew she could be that forceful, but I guessed it was typical for a girl her age to be driven by impulse.

“Mom! Dad! Big Brother Vincent’s come back and passed the assessment!” Her shout echoed well into the dining place.

“Yahahaha!” The laugh of a middle-aged man resonated from deep within the kitchen before Steve came out while bringing a wooden ladle in hand and said, “I knew that you’d pass that test easily, lad.”

“Haha. I’m just lucky.” Can’t really say that it was easy…

“What? You should be more confident! Listen, it’s common to see first-timers failing their assessments the first time ‘round,” he told in a stern tone, as expected for a former veteran liberator. “Anyway, for this occasion, there should be a feast.”

“Seriously?”

“Of course, lad, of course! Now sit anywhere you like.” Steve laughed and went back to the kitchen.

“Big brother, please take a seat here.” Tina motioned for me to sit at the table that she just cleaned.

“Thanks.”

“Sure! Please wait until the food’s ready, then I’ll serve it to you.” Tina smiled sweetly and then sauntered to the kitchen.

Twenty minutes later or so, she rushed back with two trays of assorted dishes. The trays were so packed with food that she almost tumbled down, though I forestalled it from happening by catching the trays at the last moment, thankfully.

And a feast it was.

Amidst the other guests’ jealous gazes, I feasted on the tantalizing special dishes of the inn that only appeared on special occasions — there was even a hybrid steak!

Really. What a hard-earned reward.

“Such a waste that Lorelei can’t accompany me to enjoy these scrumptious delicacies,” I mused to myself.

***

The first thing I did in the morning was to head for the guild to get my card. No time to waste, I must go back to the dungeon as soon as possible.

The Adventurer’s Guild had always been busy in the morning, but it appeared that it was more so today — it even took a little while to get my turn.

“Morning, Tia. Is my card ready?”

It had become habitual for me to come to Tia whenever in the Adventurer’s Guild. And it appeared that most other adventurers like to be attended with the same receptionist they were familiar with. However, since Tia was among the stricter ones, not many lined up on her line, which just worked to my advantage.

“Good morning. Yes. Here it is.” She handed me a new white guild card made out of iron.

Its surface was quite silvery and reflective, definitely something that was made out of high-quality material. The uneven part of the carvings still felt good to be touched, yet I wasn’t among the majority that preferred to add a strap to make it a necklace.

“Thank you.” Before leaving yesterday, I’d returned my previous card, so getting a cut above made me feel elated.

“No problem. Now allow me to brief you on the benefits of becoming an Iron-ranked adventurer, you can expect more different kinds of quests and by that means more ample rewards, and also… some of the low-rank dungeons are open for you. Of course, liberating a dungeon protected by the guilds is prohibited by all means, unless under special circumstances.” Then, she inquired, “So, are you available to do some quests or…?”

“I’m afraid I have to postpone that for a few days.” Currently, checking the beastkin’s condition was the top priority.

“Very we—”

“You’ll regret this!”

The door of the interview room was slammed open as a short man fled out from there to the outside of the building.

Raklum swiftly came out from the same room and leaned against the door. “Yeah, like we will. Hmph.”

“What’s going on back there?”

“Oh, that.” Tia crossed her arms and made a serious expression, making the perpetual smile on her face wane. “Well, that’s what they got from cheating in the assessment. A demotion is an inevitability, but the more serious cheating will ban them from adventuring in this town, or even permanent suspension. But rest assured, an exemplary adventurer like you will not have to worry about this matter.”

“I see… And what’s Raklum doing there?”

“Raklum’s job is to be the observer of the interview. We can’t ignore the possibility of retaliation from the cheating adventurers, after all,” explained Tia.

Suddenly, another female receptionist I was quite familiar with approached Tia and whispered something in her ear. Her countenance changed for the worse; whatever the news she received, it didn’t seem like a good thing.

“Is something wrong?” I asked after the other receptionist had left. “Does Elie want to catch some sleep again?” I tried to loosen up the situation a bit while also inquiring about the matter.

Whenever Tia wasn’t around, Elie, the previous receptionist, was the second choice among the others that I went to. Although, she always had a fatigued appearance like she hadn’t rested for months — I wouldn’t be surprised if what I said was true.

“Pfft, no.” She chuckled. “Well, there’s a noxious rumor that has been circulating and being a serious discussion lately.”

“Hm?” It’s not about the appearance of the hybrid wolf in the assessment, right? “What rumor?” I decided to play dumb and asked, anyway.

She looked left and right before speaking in a low voice, “Um, there are reports of cases of village raiding, kidnapping, and illegal hu— No, illegal people trafficking.”

Illegal people trafficking. What she meant by “people” were all sorts of humanoid races and not limited to humans. According to the bits and pieces of information I gathered, except for minor races that had little to speak of, there were no more than five major races: humans, elves, beastmen, dwarves, and demons — they were all “people.”

“Shouldn’t the army be on the move, then?”

“That would’ve been possible if only they could determine the number of enemies as well as their important base. Nevertheless, the enemy was cunning and slick, escaping easily without leaving any important traces.”

Indeed, moving an entire army wasn’t something that could be decided on a whim, or else they incurred significant expenses that could crash the economy… Well, partly. On the other hand, sending out smaller squads blindly would be suicidal because they didn’t know the total number of the enemy they were facing.

“Bandit hunting is a job usually taken by mercenaries, but you see, there is a special circumstance going on in the Mercenary Guild that makes most mercenaries reluctant to take the job…” she added.

Other than the Adventurer’s Guild, there were myriads of other guilds: Mercenary Guild, Commerce Guild, Magic Guild, and several others. Unlike Adventurer’s Guild, which focused on fighting dangerous beasts, monsters, and hybrids and liberating dungeons, the Mercenary Guild was engaged in things like hunting down bandits for bounties and riches, protecting caravans, and even becoming paid soldiers for the lord of the region.

“Why is that?” I couldn’t help but ask. Luckily, there was no one behind me waiting for their next turn at the moment.

She didn’t reply and simply looked around before whispering so quietly I thought she was whistling, “Have you ever heard about the ‘Axiom Order’?”

Axiom Order, huh? Who would have thought that its name would appear here? My intuition was screaming that a conflict would arise between us sooner or later, like when Rowan and his henchmen came invading my dungeon. Thus, I intended to gather more data… or information.

“Yes… it does ring a bell, but I don’t know much.” I decided to play the oblivious.

Since for all I knew, it was an underworld syndicate organization that dealt in that sort of thing. Nonetheless, I hadn’t got the chance to interrogate Rowan thoroughly on this matter yet, so I should probably do that as soon as I got back.

“The information that I’m going to tell you isn’t exactly a secret, but please beware of the implications.” While still in a whispering tone, Tia explained to me: “The Axiom Order was once not an organization that focused on doing criminal activities. In fact, they were a mercenary group that centered on gathering information or an informant group of sorts. However, for an unknown reason, they suddenly turned to banditry and had their status in the Mercenary Guild stripped. Their crimes are not only limited to raiding nearby villages but also capturing villagers. Even so, because of their past achievements, most mercenaries were indebted to them, and on top of that, their boss, Zero, was once hailed as the most promising mercenary to advance into a B-rank mercenary, hence their reluctance to get involved in this matter. Thus, all we can do is to mobilize adventurers to places likely to be attacked next.”

A B-rank mercenary!

Unlike the Adventurer’s Guild, which had its own unique way of naming, other similar guilds used an alphabetical system from the lowest “F” to the highest “A.” Similarly, the highest rank a mercenary had attained in this city was B and that was a long time ago, as far as I knew. Besides, who knew how long since the time Zero left the Mercenary Guild, maybe he had since attained the capability of a B-rank mercenary…

Whatever the case, I seemed to have asked too much, so I thanked her for the information before leaving the guild.

***

Having hurried back to the dungeon, I chanced to meet Blizzard midway through the journey.

“Did you wait for me?” It was no coincidence she was here; she must have stayed instead of going back as per my instruction.

Patting her head, I didn’t linger in the matter and swiftly rode on her. And while the sun was still high in the sky, we reached our destination. Having a mount sure was convenient!

Without further ado, I made a portal into the Artificial Realm. In lieu of the garden near the mansion, I was greeted with scenery out of the ordinary — it was midnight, in the middle of a dark forest.

“The heck is this place?” I stuck close to Blizzard while inspecting the area.

“That’s quick.” As though a spooky ghost, a figure appeared while holding a black lantern in hand.

“Whoa!” I held my chest. “For a moment I thought that you’re the guardian spirit of this forest. What’s up with the place and that lantern? Is this your new trick to scare me or something?”

“Well, that was none of my intentions, though I figured it’d be hilarious to change the theme once in a while.” Sheesh. Her strange sense of humor is always one of a kind.

“So where’s the mansion?” All around were trees — it was hard to see anything else.

“Follow me.” Like a guiding mysterious figure, Lorelei beckoned at me before walking in a certain direction.

While I was at it, I asked her about the condition of the beastkin after I’d left.

“She regained consciousness not long after you left the dungeon. Luckily, her condition is much better than before, and she’s able to calm down. Just that…”

“Just what?”

“Just that she almost refused to eat anything I’d given her, only taking a bite or two because I forced her to.”

“Wait! You didn’t give her roasted rats, did you?” That might be the sole reason why she was adamantly refusing to eat.

“Of course not.” Her tone changed slightly as if her pride had been hit. “You told me to give her food from the Dungeon Menu… and so I did.”

“That’s good then.”

“Also, she tried to speak to me about something quite impatiently, but I held her down to wait for you.”

“I see, then we should quicken up.”

Along the way, I wondered what the point of walking was when we could just teleport straight to here until the mansion was in sight.