The Kingdom of Ceirth's city of Bellmare was situated at the border between the Republic of Altertis and the Kingdom of Djafu. It was protected by three layers of walls.

The zones between each layer had their own unique characteristics.

The outermost walls were used by the merchants of the Kingdom and it's neighbouring nations, so that's where the storehouses were.

The innermost wall housed the administrative zone. This zone has its own warehouses for food, and was heavily protected by the kingdom's soldiers.

The zone in between these two areas was the residential area for civilians. When you hear the word city, this was the zone that matched it.

Of the several plazas within this zone, the biggest one was called the central plaza.

In the center square, the area's largest, vendors at open-air stalls offered a wide range of goods, including everything from fresh vegetables to prepared foods.

In the crowd of people, shopkeepers earnestly peppered passersby with lively sales pitches; elderly shoppers looking for the freshest produce haggled with merchants; lured by the grilling aromas, young men purchased kebabs dripping with juices.

The city was bursting with midday liveliness and it seemed that the din in the square would continue on into the evening.

However, the peace was disturbed by the emergence of a certain pair from an adjacent building.

One of the pair was a handsome man and had something about himself that stole the people's attention.

It was not just due to his handsomeness, there was something about the manner in which he walked. His movements were slow and deliberate, which seemed to betray his immense confidence.

The golden sword dangling on his hips seemed to somehow compliment his walk, further boasting his calm aura.

The warm look in his blue eyes got quite a few women in the center swooning.

The man's partner was wearing a silky, black, long-sleeved shirt and baggy pants. The belt around the pants waist was a simple, black band. If judged by facial features alone, he had a face that'd get lost in a crowd.

Yet, he still attracted attention. And it was all because of his crimson eyes, which seemed to suck the very souls of those who made eye contact with him.

The two of them looked out over the square, and the handsome man set off walking first. Witnesses followed the departing figures with their eyes, murmuring rumors among themselves. It wasn’t that they were frightened or put on guard by the weirdness of the pair, but that they had seen a curious sight.

The reason they weren’t more unnerved was because the building from which the pair had emerged was a place where people who specialized in monster extermination looked for work, the Adventurers Guild. It wasn’t at all rare to see strange people coming and going from there.

Those with sharp eyes had been able to spot the one-star tattoo around each of the pair’s necks. It was clear, then, that the only reason they were getting attention was because of the man's appearance and his partner's crimson eyes.

The pair walked silently down the not very wide street. Puddles in wagon wheel ruts reflected the sunlight. It wasn’t a proper paved road but a mix of dirt and mud that made it hard to walk. One wrong step and there was nothing to do but trip, but perhaps due to their superior senses of balance, these two walked with the same gait they would have used on cobblestones.

Moving with a light step, the crimson-eyed man checked to make sure no one was around and then spoke to the handsome man. “Why were they staring at me like that?"

"Well, maybe it's because of your boundless charm," Malazan tried his best to stifle his laughter, but a slight pfft still made its way out of his mouth.

"It was a dry joke." Cloven said disdainfully.

"Being a bit sensitive won't hurt you, you know?" Malazan coughed.

"By the way, what do you think of this place?" He changed the topic with an abrupt question.

"It's nauseating. The people here reek of rotting stench" Cloven said with a frown.

"I see. Still, there's nothing you can do about it. Just don't go stiring up trouble," Malazan said merrily.

Cloven nodded, signaling his understanding.

Seeing this, Malazan decided to put the matter at rest. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could sense a lot of stares directed his way, mostly from women charmed by his looks.

The fact he was receiving this kind of attention was not enough to cause the slightest bit of ripple in his heart.

Throughout his life, he has been constantly reminded of how special his looks were.

He had felt smug at first, but the novelty worn off too quickly to completely savor it.

Suddenly, he saw that Cloven had slowed down, almost to the point of halting his walk, a drastic change compared to his previous pace.

"What?" He asked.

"Err..why did you not register as a Spell-Lord? You'd have been immediately promoted to seven-star ranking with your status alone." With innocent curiosity painted on his face, Cloven turned back to look at him.

This guy…is a masterpiece.

"Don't be foolish! There are no true Spell-Masters in this kingdom, much less a Spell-Lord! If my status were to be exposed, we'd have an army at our doorsteps the next morning." The young man named Cloven, who had the bloodlust of a thousand demons, was a lost cause when it came thinking straight.

If he were asked to assassinate someone, I'd doubt any could do a job better than him. The boy has a natural talent for killing people, it is in his blood.

However, there was still a lot he needed to be taught about the world.

Understanding the gravity of the situation, Cloven nodded.

"Besides, I had already decided to register as a warrior the moment I defeated the man at the inn. I had demonstrated a bit of my physical prowess in front of the adventurers present there. And it does not need to be said out loud that spellcasters who are good at melee combat are almost non-existent."

After all, if one had time to train one’s body, one could easily spend that time on learning magic.

That was simple common sense that applied to everyone but him.

He continued, "Not to mention, there are no six-star adventurers in this kingdom, so I don't need to tell you what would happen if a seven-star adventurer suddenly appeared out of thin air?"

The Adventurer Guild categorizes its members with a star ranking system. The system is divided into a total of seven ranks. Each adventurer has a star tattoo magically imprinted on their necks, which increases in number in accordance with their ranks.

It goes like this: One-star, two-star, three-star, four-star, five-star, six-star, and seven-star.

These tattoos are used to rank adventurers, with one-star being the lowest and seven-star the highest ranking tattoo. And they can be only removed by the spellcaster who imprinted them, or by someone whose magic is overwhelming powerful in comparison to the said spellcaster.

Higher ranking adventurers can choose harder jobs which offer greater rewards. This system was established to prevent adventurers from losing their lives in vain.

Since he recently registered as an adventurer, Malazan only has a one-star tattoo that is assigned to beginners.

People like him can be classified as newbie adventurers who are just hoping to earn money and fame, and some of them probably would.

But the casualties are a lot more in comparison to the successful ones. The life of an adventurer was quite dangerous and for the most part — boring. It was a practical and dull career.

In short, adventurers were 'mercenaries who deal with monsters'.

Although they do explore the ruins of countries destroyed by the ancient beings, and do seek unknown treasures in secret realms; but they are basically monster hunters.

All monsters had unique abilities, so there was a need for people with a wide variety of skills to handle them.

Different from the heroes mentioned in the legends, the governing organizations disliked the existence of armed groups outside their control.

Even setting financial concerns aside, the social status of adventurers was still low.

There were other reasons why countries didn't take in adventurers en masse. Instead of hiring permanent staff with high salaries, it was better to outsource the work to local adventurer guilds, which made more sense as a business.

For companies that can operate without the adventurers guild or a nation that can clear monsters with their military, the status of adventurers was even lower.

"What about our quest, then?" Cloven asked, dragging Malazan out of his reverie.

"We will see to it right now." Accepting quests from the guild was one of the ways to get promoted, so they'd gone ahead and chosen a one-star mission.

They were to kill a group of half dozen goblins, roaming near the outskirts of the city, who were creating trouble for the caravans on their way to the city. It is said that most rookie adventurers lose their lives to these creatures.

But exterminating such low ranking beasts did not pose any danger for them. In fact, it could even be said that it was a disgrace for them to dirty their hands to deal with such creatures.

But what did Master Julian use to say, when in Uspetan, do as the Uspetanians do? Honestly, he didn't really pay attention to the master's lectures most of the times. Heck, he even used to sleep through some of them.

"Let us be on our way, then."

☯☯☯☯☯☯

Arriving at the outskirts of the city, he found out how wrecked the forest was.

Malazan was greeted by destroyed and fallen trees, the aftermath of a fight between adventurers and beasts, possibly trolls or ogres from the size of the grooves on a few trees.

It seemed like rabbits, birds, squirrels, and mice had taken over this area and declared it to be their territory. Underbrush were scattered a few miles away. Though one thing that remained unchanged was the crispy grass under their feet.

"A devasted forest," Cloven said.

Malazan nodded. "I'd have to concur."

"Come on, let's search for those gob-"

"Ugh…Alina…hurry up, heal Giraud!"

And I was interrupted. Sounds like a fight is going on.

"I may have to put you through some work today, Cloven." He smirked mischievously at Cloven.

Why bother doing something bothersome yourself when you could get someone else to do it for you. Ah, it is in times like these, that I love my decision of taking the boy under my wing.

"Oh," Cloven exclaimed monotonously while maintaining his poker face.

Tch, the man is no fun. Looking to his right, he saw thickets masking the fight taking place behind it, preventing him from seeing it.

"「Enhance Eyesight」!" Several series of symbols passed through his eyes, arranging them in an unknown sequence, in less than 0.0001 seconds.

Malazan could still see the thickets, but he could see through them. It was like looking through glass. You could tell the glass was there, but it didn’t impede your vision.

Malazan glanced inside a hole dug into the ground, and as expected, this applied to everything.

The darkness welcomed his eyes now. His eyes were sharper, clearer—he could see further, like the village located eighty kilometers away, like the old woman humming a tune in her kitchen, like the man swinging his sword in impatience. It was intoxicating.

Everything became vivid. His very vision was altered. Malazan eyes turned from azure to golden. Complex patterns appeared inside them. And he seemed to unknowingly radiate a frightening presence.

"Ugh…" Cloven trailed off in agony.

Malazan murmured. "Much better. Now then, what do we have here?"

His eyesight bypassed the bushes and trees, and he saw seven giants attacking a party of four adventurers.

The giant beings were between 270-300 cm.

They looked a bit retarded with their jaws sharply protruding out.

The bulging muscles on their arms were as thick as tree trunks, and the muscles almost reached the ground since the giants’ backs were hunched.

They carried clubs that looked like they had ripped them straight off a tree and wore only an untanned animal skin on the waist.

Their skin, full of warts, was burnt-brown in color. Their thick chests and abdominal muscles seemed rather tough with their pecs and abs built tightly. They looked very strong, and were a cross breed between apes and humans — Demihuman monsters known as ogres.

One of the party members looked heavily injured, and would possibly bleed to death if someone didn't cast healing magic on him.

"Interesting." He smiled to himself.