Chapter 6: Adventurers, I warn you.

When I arrived at my destination I walked right in.

“Welcome to the adventurers guild! How can I help you?” I was greeted by a young woman, probably about 18 or 19. Her grin was bright and warm to most, but I saw through how fake it was.

“Hi. I was wondering how I could start adventuring?” I asked,

“Ah yes. May I see your ID?”

I changed my ID earlier to say that I was 13, while I didn’t look it, I wouldn’t look it for a long time due to my aging cycle. Thank god the age on your ID just works on the honors system.

“Here it is.”

“Oh you’re 13? Well then Iro, I’ll go write in some info on your ID, then you’ll be set.”

“Alright.”

After a couple of minutes, the woman gave my ID back. It now contained some adventurering info on it, including a place to write my class. I asked what it meant, although it seemed pretty straight forward, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.

“Oh your class? It just means what items you use most often. If you typically use swords, you’re a knight. If you like magic, you’re a magician. You understand?”

“Yeah. It seems to make sense.” I guided myself over to what looked like a quest board. It had many papers on it, with the job title, the description, and a place to sign it.

Some of the papers had a stamp on them that said, “Permanent” I asked the woman from earlier what it meant, and she said that it just meant that it will always be an available quest. Made sense.

I took a permanent quest. It was called, “Slime slaying at Copper Dungeon.” The description read this,

“Capture and/or kill 15 slimes at the Copper Dungeon. Copper Dungeon is the most recommended dungeon for beginners.”

The description led me to believe this would be an easy quest.

You can probably tell this wasn’t an easy quest.

When I found myself at the gate, I opened it to a nest of slimes. There were 4 slimes attacking me at the same time.

I visualized the slimes bursting into flames, melting and turning into a gross goo.

I watched it happen, but as I had killed 3 of them, 4 more came at me.

I did the same to those ones.

I imagined the nest sinking into the ground, and so did the other slimes.

I would think that the slimes suffocated. If slimes even breath.

When I went down one more floor, I only needed to kill 6 more slimes, then I could get out of there.

I was greeted by not a slime, but 5 goblins. Their skin falling apart, their clothing ripped, and their teeth showing.

2 of the goblins were holding mallets made of wood.

I imagined the mallets bursting into flames, at the goblin’s hearts were pierced by a spike in the earth.

Exactly what I imagined.

This felt too easy.

Until I walked down one more floor into the Copper Dungeon. I found 6 slimes. Exactly what I needed. But there was also a type of monster I had never even imagined.

It was a large black figure, it’s arms long, and legs short. The only thing making me identify it from a shadow was it’s helmet, made of metal. If the monster had a mouth, it would be grinning.

I tried to just target the slimes, because if I just killed the slimes, then I could get out of there without worrying about the other monster.

I imagined the slimes bursting into flames once again, but my mind was interrupted.

I heard Akafmowa saying,

“How could you just give up on me? Was our world not good enough for you? Was I not kind enough to you?”

I heard the king from back on Akafwhuwa say,

“To think I put trust in you.”

I couldn’t think. My mind was blocked, and I knew it was the shadow like monster.

I grabbed onto my head, yelling, “You’re wrong! I didn’t mean to do it! That wasn’t me! It was like I was being possessed!”

I drove myself into the floor. Just as the slimes drove their bodies into my head, trying to drown me in their slime.

But just as I started losing consciousness, I felt reborn.

It happened again.

Then I remembered what God told me.

“You are invincible.”

I can’t die.

No matter what, I can’t die.

I asked God, “Why? Why does everyone around me die, but I just keep on living, no matter what? Why can’t I die for once?”

I just laid there. If there was no fear of death, then why care? Why bother?

I don’t really remember what happened, until it felt like I was being jolted awake.

“Hello? You should be more careful around here. I know it seems really safe, but every once and a while high level monsters like that one appear.”

It was a girl, her hair a light pink, and her clothing suggesting a mage class. She seemed only about a year or so older than me.

“Where… Did the shadow go?”

“Oh, the Unidentified? I cast a spell on it, it’s gone now.”

“Unidentified? What does that mean? And how did you still cast a spell?”

“I can tell you are just as much of a beginner as I was 3 months ago, I learned a lot in those 3 months. Basically, most creatures have a simple name, but that shadow-like creature appears in so many different forms, most people just call it Unidentified. And casting a spell on it? Unidentifieds feed off of regret, and send thoughts about regret directly to your brain, disrupting your thought process. I just avoid it by not having any regret.”

No regret? I’ve killed billions of people, how am I supposed to not have regret?

The girl kept a smile on her face. Unlike everyone else, I saw a true smile. I could tell, she wasn’t lying. She doesn’t have any regret.

“Thank you.” I said, realizing I had just been saved by a random girl on the first quest.

“No problem.” She said, “Just try to be more careful next time.”

“Er, could I ask your name?” I asked. I wanted to pay her back someday, because I don’t want to be in debt.

“My name? It’s Redrae. Yours?”

“Iro.”

“Iro? That’s a name I’ve never heard before.”

“Yeah, I came from Futae.”

“Really? Did you escape?”

“Yeah. I didn’t feel any opportunity there.” Why was I telling her this!? She’s not a friend or anything, so why does she need to know?

“Really? You went through a warzone? That’s amazing!”

“Not really…”

“You’re amazing! Hey, do you want to join my party? There’s a lot of good people there and-” I looked down. When she said that, I thought that maybe we would be friends. And I can’t let that happen.

“Sorry, no thanks.”

“I see…”

I heard another person call out Redrae’s name, “Alright! I’m coming!” Redrae responded, “Sorry, I’ve got to head out. See you!”

I went back up a floor, and killed the last 6 slimes.

When I got back to the guild, they gave me my pay of 5 silver coins. I found out that a copper coin is about equal to 100 yen, and 10 copper coins make up a silver. 10 silvers make up a gold, and so on and so forth.

My 5 silver coins was just enough to pay for an inn for a night.

The room was smaller than expected, but it worked.

I woke up in the middle of the night. I heard something. It looked about midnight outside. I looked out into the darkness, out my window. It was a monster. One from Akafwhuwa? And…

“Emi?”