[Bonus Mission: Complete S-ranked Mission “Fruit of Knowledge”. 1/1]

Yeoman accepted the pouch of gold coins the receptionist passed over the counter. It was a bit heavier than last time. Yeoman raised an eyebrow. “Why does an S-ranked mission give more gold than an SSS-ranked one?”

“People pay more money for Fruits of Knowledge,” the receptionist said. “So, the reward is higher.”

Yeoman nodded. It made sense. Just because something was easier to get didn’t mean less people wanted it. With this reward, he had a total of two hundred forty-nine gold coins and some odd sum of silver ones. It was enough to buy a cheap mithril weapon. Yeoman bade the receptionist farewell and left the adventurers’ guild. After leaving some food and water behind for the poor elf, Yeoman had gone straight back to town to turn in the quest. Now, even if the elves, skeletons, and Corrupted One found him and killed him, he wouldn’t mind. He already confirmed another five thousand points. The missions had seemed so daunting at the start, but now, there was only one task left: stealing a dragon egg.

“Back already?”

Yeoman glanced to the side. There was an old man leaning against a counter, sipping on a cup of hot liquid. He was the owner of the weapon store, and it was through him that Yeoman discovered how expensive orichalcum weapons were. “I have two hundred forty gold,” Yeoman said and closed the door behind him. “You said that was the minimum price for mithril weapons.”

“I did say that,” the old man said and placed his cup down. “What kind of weapon are you looking for?”

Yeoman furrowed his brow. “Can I see your selection?” He liked the idea of hammers and maces, heavy weapons that didn’t require much skill to use, but if they were going to be made of mithril and orichalcum, the cost would be exorbitant. Also, while hammers and maces were nice, they were also inconvenient at times. Right now, he could lug around his giant mace thanks to Lindyss’ shadow pouch, but once it expired, he’d have to go back to carrying it around with one hand.

The old man slid out of his chair, his feet thumping upon hitting the ground. “Follow me,” he said, leaving his cup on the counter. He walked towards the back of the store and gestured at a shelf. “Everything on this shelf costs two hundred twenty-five gold coins.” The old man looked Yeoman up and down. “You’re a big fellow, aren’t you? I recommend these caesti right here.”

Yeoman had never heard of a caesti before, but he figured out what they were upon seeing the object in the old man’s hand. It looked like a torn black glove with studs in it. He took the offered weapon, and a gold light flashed from his wrist.

[Obtained Wyvern-Skin Caestus (Rare)]

[Wyvern-Skin Caestus (Rare): If you punch someone while wearing this, they will probably cry.]

Yeoman’s brow furrowed. The item descriptions were hit-or-miss, and Yeoman suspected they were written by two different groups of aliens. Sometimes the descriptions explained item effects, but other times, they were just plain snarky. It seemed like these gloves were identified by the snarky group. “How do I wear it?”

“You’ve never worn a glove before?” the old man asked. “You slip it on. You tighten it. Make sure you can still bend your fingers.”

Yeoman slid the caestus on. At first, it didn’t seem like it would fit, but the material was surprisingly stretchy. It easily expanded to fit his hand, and once it was through, it wrapped snugly around his wrist. The caestus looked like a glove, but it only covered the back portion of his hand. There were a few mithril pieces embedded along the knuckle portion of the glove. They were blue and shaped like rhombuses, matching the scale pattern of the leather. Yeoman opened and closed his hand a few times. It didn’t feel uncomfortable; it’d take a lot to make a zombie feel discomfort. He had to admit, the caestus felt nice, and it was perfect considering he hadn’t really learned how to fight with weapons. It was just a bit … lackluster.

Yeoman swept his gaze over the rest of the weapons on the shelf, but they didn’t seem that appealing either. They did contain mithril, but the amount was so scarce that he wondered if it even mattered. There was a dagger the size of a fruit knife. There was a sword with only its edge lined in the material. There was a mace, but the head was smaller than a tennis ball.

The old man raised an eyebrow, seemingly sensing Yeoman’s dissatisfaction. “Would you like to try hitting something?”

Yeoman nodded. The old man chuckled. “Wait right here,” he said and went through a door in the back of the store. Moments later, he reappeared with a black lump and placed it on the ground. “It’s a solid chunk of iron. Give it a whack.”

Yeoman frowned and examined the lump of iron. It was chunky, and there were a few sharp edges sticking out of it. If he hit it with his fist, he didn’t doubt his flesh would be torn. However, the caestus was made from wyvern skin, and it was a well-known fact iron couldn’t hurt wyverns; at least, not from the outside—eyeballs not included. Yeoman balled his hand up into a fist and leaned forward. He swung his fist while taking a step, punching downwards at the iron chunk. It felt like he was punching wet clay. His hand sank into the metal, causing it to spread outwards from his fist. Yeoman blinked. Was the lump really iron? He couldn’t help but take a look at the old man, looking for any signs of a scammer taking pride in tricking a fool.

“How is it?” the old man asked and grinned. “Once you’ve experienced mithril, nothing except orichalcum will ever feel right again.” He examined the lump of iron. “Your personal strength is nothing to scoff at either.” He pointed at the deep gouge in the chunk. “This was caused by the mithril, but this”—his fingers circled around the gouge where there was a slightly less deep imprint—“this was you.”

Yeoman raised an eyebrow. He knew his bones had been strengthened after Lindyss broke them, but he didn’t think he could shape iron by punching it. Could he even be called a human anymore? Surely, he had entered the realm of superhuman; perhaps he had entered it long ago. “I’ll buy them.”

The old man nodded. “Not a bad choice.”

Yeoman paid the man two hundred twenty-five gold coins and wore both caesti. They were fingerless, so they wouldn’t affect his everyday life. Then again, his everyday life didn’t consist of much other than eating and resting like a gargoyle on the roof of a building. It felt odd being stuck in a different world for so long. For his sanity’s sake, he decided to treat the experience like a vacation. He didn’t have to worry about anything at all regarding Earth: Bills didn’t need to be paid. He didn’t have to visit the doctor or his dentist, making sure to use up his insurance money for the year. He didn’t have to go to the DMV to renew his license and registration. All he had to do was complete a task, and if he failed, the consequence was there but barely tangible.

Yeoman went to the inn. He hadn’t eaten in a while. He was starting to feel a little bit of regret for turning down his hunger levels, but when he thought about how desperately he wanted to eat people, the regret disappeared. In the middle of Yeoman’s meal, something unexpected happened. Cody and the rest had returned.

“I told you we could find him here.” That was the first thing Cody said when he saw Yeoman. “Yeoman! Good shit, my dude.”

Yeoman assumed Cody was referring to the completion of two bonus missions. Actually, it was four bonus missions considering he had ranked the party up to S as well. “Thanks.” Yeoman took a look at his party members. There was something different about them compared to the last time he had seen them. It wasn’t a difference in their armor, rather, a difference in demeanor. “You’ve changed.”

“You can tell?” Cody asked and smirked. “We’ve been grinding nonstop, killing things every damn day.” He took a look at Yeoman’s head before sighing. “Apparently, we’re not the only ones who’ve gone through a change. What’s with the leaves?”

“How did you do it?” Joanne asked before Yeoman could respond to Cody. Aakash and Kat wore expressions filled with a mixture of respect and curiosity as well. As for Ella, the old lady was more interested in what Yeoman was eating—a mystery meat stew.

Yeoman picked up the stew and drank all of it in one go, leaving chunks of meat and vegetables in the bowl. Afterwards, he leaned back and told the story of what happened to him after he was separated from his party. He wasn’t that good of a storyteller, but his party listened without interrupting—mostly.

“I knew turning into a zombie would attract a harem of non-human women,” Cody said when Yeoman elaborated on his experiences with the dryads. Kat slapped him after he said that, and Yeoman was a bit surprised at how close the two had gotten. Then again, they had spent the past few months living in close contact, experiencing situations where they had to put their lives in each other’s hands nonstop. It wouldn’t make sense if some feelings hadn’t developed. However, there didn’t seem to be anything going on between Aakash and Joanne. As for Ella, she was already married. Yeoman scratched his head. Maybe Aakash and Joanne were married too; honestly, he knew nothing about the new party members.

After elaborating on his experiences, Cody told Yeoman’s about theirs. It was as he expected; Party First had encountered a dungeon and decided to grind upon seeing how generously the monsters inside respawned. They had gotten four gene unlocks each: goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, and lizardmen. There was a bitter expression on Cody’s face though. “I thought we passed you, but what the hell, man?” He shook his head. “Do you have any plans to complete the last mission?”

Yeoman shook his head. “I’m not exactly the best at planning. I was thinking about flying over, stealing an egg, and teleporting back.”

Cody grinned. “Well, it’s a good thing I’m here,” he said. “I have a plan to steal a dragon egg. Actually, I had plans for the Fruits of Knowledge and Fountain of Youth as well, but you’ve saved me the trouble of implementing them.”

Yeoman wasn’t sure if Cody was serious or not about having plans to obtain them, seeing as he couldn’t follow the original plan of reaching rank A.

Cody cleared his throat. “Instead of targeting the dragons, all we have to do is target The Red Blades, the adventurer party that steals the egg in the first place. We already know from The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons that after stealing the egg, they split up and entered six different towns before teleporting back to the capital. From that piece of information, all I needed was a map to figure out which six towns they went to.”

Kat’s eyes lit up as if a lightbulb had turned on over her head. “So that’s what you were doing back then! You thought that far ahead?”

“Of course,” Cody said. “You can’t just hope to luckily complete these missions like Yeoman here.”

“Aren’t there a few problems with your plan?” Joanne asked. “How do you know who’s carrying the egg? Are we going to mug these people in broad daylight? Are we even strong enough to defeat these adventurers? In The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons, they went on to Fuselage and did pretty well for themselves.”

“Well, do you have any suggestions?” Cody asked, raising an eyebrow. The two glared at each other, and Joanne turned her head away first. “We won’t be mugging them in broad daylight, at least, not in the town. I bought a map of the wilderness, and there’s clear routes they’ll have to follow to reach these six towns. We’ll set traps along these roads. With the help of the traps, we should be able to take them on even if we split into two groups of three. If we’re feeling brave, we can split into three groups of two.” Cody looked at his party members. “As for whether or not we obtain the egg, that’s all up to luck. Our chances aren’t that bad especially if we decide to cover three routes.”

Yeoman nodded. Defeating lone adventurers was definitely less dangerous than entering a dragon’s den. Aakash cleared his throats, drawing everyone’s attention. “I think we can increase our chances of obtaining the egg even further,” he said, his three heads speaking at once. “If it’s a one-vs-one fight, I’m confident in defeating any enemy on my own. If there’s anyone else”—his three heads stared at Yeoman—“who’s confident in winning by themselves, we can cover four routes.”

Yeoman raised an eyebrow. Evidently, the Indian man was referring to him. Was Yeoman confident in winning a one-vs-one fight? “I can do it.”

“Count me in as well,” Cody said. “Let me borrow that kickass bow you got.”

Kat blinked hard, her whiskers twitching upwards. “Does that mean Joanne, Ella, and I are going to be in one group?”

“No,” Ella said and stretched her arms forward with her fingers interlocking. Her knuckles cracked. “I think I can take someone on by myself too. People often underestimate old ladies.”

Kat stared at Ella with a blank expression. She turned her furry head towards Joanne. “Are you…?”

“We can work together,” Joanne said, shaking her head. “I’m not stupid enough to believe I can kill an S-ranked adventurer by myself.”

Kat exhaled and nodded, the tension leaving her chest. “Thank God. I thought I was going crazy.”

“With that, we’ll have five of the routes covered,” Cody said. He turned to look at Yeoman, focusing on the ring on the zombie’s finger. “If you finish your fight early, you can teleport to the end of the last route. That’s only if you’re feeling comfortable, of course.”

Yeoman furrowed his brow. If he used Nature’s Fury in his first fight, he wouldn’t be able to teleport to the second location. However, if he flew, he might make it in time. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Cody grinned. “It looks like we’ll be completing all the missions in this stage.”

Yeoman couldn’t help but frown when he heard that. Cody’s plans usually went awry.