Vol. 14 - Ch. 4 - Novice Adventurers Keith and Aria

One month before Halt and the others took the advancement exam—I’m Keith, and together with my childhood friend Aira, we traveled all the way from the countryside to this kingdom’s royal city. We have finally become adventurers here today.

It might take time, but our goal was to become C-rank adventurers. We wanted to become stronger so that we could send the money that we earned back to our village and to make the lives of everyone there better.

Our village was situated deep, deep in the mountains, so it was very inconvenient—everything's inconvenient—but even so, I really love our village. I love my family and everyone there.

“Let’s become adventurers that earn a lot of money, Keith,” Aria said as she gazed at the imposing gates of Glendale’s Royal Capital beside me.

Just like me, she also wanted to improve the lives of the people in the village. She must’ve been worried if I was on my own, so she followed me, though… I’m really happy.

I went all the way here to the royal capital when the traveling merchants said, ‘If you want to earn lots of money, then you should go to the royal city and be an adventurer there.’ I hunted the monsters around the village, so my level increased somewhat, and I’ve been traversing the steep mountains for so long, so I’m pretty confident with my physical strength. There shouldn’t be any problems hunting monsters and selling raw materials from there.

Even so, leaving the village meant I had to live on my own, and I couldn’t help but be anxious about that.

Aria and I have always been together since we were little kids, so I was really happy that she followed me despite having to defy her parents’ opposition. It took around one week before we reached the royal capital, and I expressed my gratitude to Aria every single day of that week.

She’d probably get a horrible scolding later, though.

“Let’s do our best, Aria. And really, thanks for coming with me, I mean it.” S~eaʀᴄh the NôvelFire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Ugh, I already told you it’s fine. I wanted to come with Keith, so I’ve been with you until now!”

Aria grabbed my hand.

“Okay, let’s go!”

“Y-Yup!”

──＊＊＊──

"Yes. With this, you are now registered as adventurers.”

The lady receptionist of the Adventurers’ Guild handed the guild cards to us.

We were questioned about previous criminal offenses, to which we answered “none” while holding a crystal ball, and that was it. Becoming an adventurer was so easy that it felt anti-climactic.

“Thank you very much!”

“Thank you very much. We did it, Keith!”

Aria was also happy that we became adventurers without a hitch.

“Becoming adventurers is a piece of cake. You just have to be 15 years old and older, and you can register as long as you don’t have any criminal record. What’s hard is staying an adventurer.”

We expressed our joy without abandon, so the lady receptionist burst our bubble.

“O-Oh, yes, that’s right. We’ll do our best!”

Aria seriously took her advice. However, the merchants told me that adventurers shouldn’t put up with being taken lightly. That was why I took a confident stance.

“Aria, it’s fine. It’ll work out, we’re pretty strong, after all.”

Well, it was also true that I’m a bit confident in my skills.

I’m a Level 35 Fighter, while Aria was a Level 29 Mage. Both of us had been hunting monsters for a long time around our village, so our level reached this point in a blink of an eye. By the way, all the people in our village could fight the monsters that appear near the village.

Based on the information we gathered on our way to the royal city, the monsters we usually defeated were known as orcs, and they were D-rank monsters. We call them pigmen in our village.

That meant we were strong enough to defeat monsters that have a D-rank hazard level. The hazard ranking was used as the standard of the adventurer’s level—you have the same ranking as the monster you could defeat.

In other words, we were already powerful enough to be D-ranked adventurers, so a little bit of confidence should be okay. Besides, wouldn’t that show that we’re pretty powerful?

“Miss, I know it’s a bit too soon, but do you have any commissions for us? Defeating D-rank monsters is a piece of cake for us.”

“Hmm… We can’t let people who just registered as adventurers subjugate D-rank monsters right away. First, you have to perform well and accumulate points in tasks such as gathering medicinal herbs—”

“Eh! Gathering medicinal herbs? That won’t do. That’s the sort of work the villager kids do. It’s better to get monster subjugation jobs!!”

“H-Hey, Keith, stop that.”

“Aria, why don’t you tell them that winning against orcs is just child’s play for us?"

“O-Orcs? You guys?”

It seemed like the receptionist lady couldn’t believe it.

Apparently, the Adventurers’ Guild would compensate the adventurer if they brought back parts of the body of the monster that they subjugated. We should’ve brought the ear or something of the pig man we hunted earlier so that the receptionist lady would believe us…

Just as I was thinking about that—

“Hoh, seems like we got some spirited kids, huh.”

Somebody commented behind us.

I noticed that whoever it was was approaching us.

“Ah, Shiryoo-san!”

This Shiryoo guy that Ms. Receptionist greeted was a red-haired, ripped uncle, and he seemed very powerful.

“...Uncle, you need something from us?”

“Uncle!? Hey, this person here is —”

“Ah, it’s fine. I don’t mind, don’t worry about it.”

The lady receptionist got mad, so Shiryoo replied to her with a smile before facing us.

Now that he was facing us directly, I once again felt that he must be a powerful guy—maybe as strong as, or even stronger than the village chief, even.

“Uncle, you must be strong, huh.”

“Oh, you can tell? Seems like you have sharp eyes too, boy.” Shiryoo grinned.

I couldn’t help but feel chills running down my spine for a moment.

“I like you! You guys, come with me to my house!”

“Sh-Shiryoo-san, are you serious!?”

The lady receptionist was shocked.

I was at a loss too.

“Where’s your house?”

“You don’t know? Shiryoo-san is an A-rank adventurer leading an enormous clan!!”

Ah, no, I didn’t know.

It was only a week ago that I decided to be an adventurer, after all. We’ve come this far after asking people about information like how to register as adventurers and whatnot, so there was no way I’d know about the strong guys.

“Hmm. So, what’s a clan, by the way?”

“What, you don’t even know what a clan is? Ahh, I really wanna bring you home.”

“No, you have to explain to us what a clan is.”

“Keith, listen carefully. Clans are formed by several adventurer parties—adventurers form groups of people called parties for safety purposes, and it’s a well-known tactic. The number of people in the party will depend on the monster to be subjugated.”

Forming groups with a number of people?

Was there any need for that?

“Aria and I hunted whatever monster it was between the two of us, me protecting her while she fired her attack magic.”

“You’re oozing with confidence, and that’s good, but—”

“!?”

Shiryoo’s presence suddenly became heavy, and I felt an overwhelming pressure from him.

“Between you and me, who do you think is stronger, huh?”

“...Y-You.”

“Hmm. Thanks, it’s good that you know.”

The pressure dissipated.

“In this world, there are a lot of other people that are stronger than you guys. You’ve been scared of me, but there are powerful monsters out there that are several times stronger than me. Even so, we as adventurers still have to fight against those monsters in order to save people.”

Shiryoo stared at me straight in the eye.

I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him.

“That’s why we form parties with other comrades when fighting. There are enemies out there that are so strong that one party isn’t enough to handle them. That’s why we form clans.”

“... Then, why are you recruiting weaklings like us?”

“Well, it’s true that you’re weak compared to me. However, even weaklings can become great assets after they’ve been trained well. I can especially see that potential from you guys.”

Shiryoo extended his hand to us.

“Come to our house. I’ll turn you guys into top-notch adventurers.”

What to do?

I glanced at Aria.

“I’ll go wherever you’ll go, Keith.”

“Got it—no, we understand. My name is Keith. Shriyoo-san, please admit us to your clan.”

I bowed my head after taking Shiryoo’s outstretched hand.

“Thanks!! Nice call!”

He grasped my hand tightly.

The receptionist lady who had been watching us all this time seemed to be in high spirits for some reason.

“This is amazing, Keith! Shiryoo-san’s clan is the greatest in this kingdom, after all.”

I see.

But I didn’t really care about that.

What was important was that Shiryoo-san would be training us.

I wanted to become stronger and be an adventurer who could earn lots of money. Ah, if we asked, would Shriya-san also teach us how to efficiently hunt so that we’d earn a lot?

Whatever the case, it seemed like Aria and my adventurer’s career path seemed to have taken the right trajectory.

“Keith and Aria, I know this is a bit too soon, but let me take you to the clan. Oops, but first, welcome to our clan—Notorius!”