The m.

  After Momonga and Lupu finished setting the “gear in motion” the previous day, the four headed to the Adventurer’s Guild to start the first step to the rise of their fame and heroism.

  Upon arriving, the first thing they saw as they ehe hall was the ter, where three of the guild’s receptionists greeted the adventurers with business smiles on their faces.

  There were warriors in full pte armor, nimble fellows in light armor and bearing bows, people in priest’s garb and adorned with all manner of holy symbols, as well as robed are magic casters with their staves.

  On the left was a rge door, and on the right was a notice board. There were several pieces of part upon it which Yuuji and the others had not seeerday during their registration. There were several adventurers chatting in front of it.

  As soon as they entered, all eyes quickly turowards them…

  And quickly, after an initial look of shock, many didn’t even hide their look of curiosity, awe, and most of all, envy.

  “Gods… Who are they? I’ve never seen them before.”

  “A warrior, two magic casters, and that brown-skinned woman… a fighter?

  “Damn, look at that armor though… Those look expensive as hell!”

  “The magic casters also seemed to be repping some expensive robes.”

  “Damn, those women look hot!”

  “Sssh! They look strong. Don’t say that so loudly!”

  “Bah, are you blind? ’t you see their copper ptes?”

  “Eh, are you serious?”

  “Tch, is it another rich kid pying adventurer with bodyguards hired by their papas?!”

  “Oh? Then I guess it’s time for me to teach them a couple of lessons! As for the payment… Guess I settle for a night with those chicks!”

  “Hahaha! t me in! I’ll take the tanned one. I like my womay!”

  “Fine by me! I like that masked womaer anyway.”

  The whispered ents of envy, which was to be expected given the quality of armor Yuuji dohe robes Aika and Momonga had adorned, and the massive, jet-bck mace strapped behind Lupu, quickly devolved into the cries of men riddled with inferiority plex and lust they could only satisfy with their own hands.

  It was the only way they could cope with their own pitiful pathetiess; by disrespeg and degrading women so they could feel more superior in their owy heads.

  But these too, were unshog. In fact, Yuuji and Aika khey would hear such cliched lines from no name mobs in the many isekai light hey’ve read.

  They were pitiful… But unfortunately, Aika had no pity for such disgusting is. So, she didn’t even bother with them.

  Yuuji, Aika, Momonga, and Lupu made their way to one of the ters which had been freed up just as they arrived.

  “Good m. We are here to take on a quest. Would it be possible for you to provide us with a list of requests avaible for the taking?”

  The first rea he received from the matured receptionist dy was stunned awe as she looked with widened eyes at the immacute and majestic white and gold armor in the image of a dragon.

  While she had seey of adventurers, no adventurers in E-Rantle had ever donned armor of such level…

  “A-Ah, yes of course! I mean- If you wish to take on a quest, please head to the billboard there, where requests are posted. Once you find a suitable quest, you may bring one bae tister your party for the quest.”

  “Very well. Thank you for your help.”

  The receptionist dy nodded in a daze as the armored dragon knight turned and walked away with his rades, her eyes still lingering on his babsp;

  She could still feel her heart reverberating when she was in his presend when he spoke to her.

  Such a force of presenot overwhelming and forceful, but all enpassing, majestid… warm. Just by being in his presence, she felt somehow… safe.

  She had never seen a hero, a knight in white armor who would always save the day and the princess and vanquish all evil she read in so many children’s books. But this feeling…

  A thought quickly came to mind. Could she perhaps… be in the presence of one?

  Meanwhile, looking at the billboard, Yuuji studied the myriad request parts one by one.

  But, as he expected, he could not read the words written on them. Aika and Momonga also looked around curiously at the billboard, but just like him, the two couldn’t read them as well.

  And while they perused the billboard, Lupu just waited while looking around the guild hall, waving at the female adventurers and ign the men, while silently remembering the faces of those who had insulted her masters.

  Yuuji studied the parts for a while.

  He had a spell called “prehend Language” which would grant him the ability to read any nguage written on a surface he could touch. However, casting a spell while being the ter of attention of literally every single person in the guild would undoubtedly raise some eyebrows.

  So, in the end, Yuuji took the part with the highest number written on it, hoping it’d correspond to the rank.

  He brought it back to the receptionist, and the moment Yuuji gave her the part, her eyes went wide in shobsp;

  “E-Eh?! U-Uhm… This is a mithril-ranked quest…”

  Yuuji nodded.

  “Indeed.”

  “...”

  His response silehe receptionist, not out of awe, but out of sheer shod fusion.

  “...Please five me. However, since you and your rades are all still Copper-ranked adventurers, you are not permitted to take requests above your rank. This is a rule created by the guild to protect its adventurers from foolishly diving into dahey are not ready to face for s. And even if you were able to return with your limbs and lives in tack, you will be dealt a heavy penalty for failing the quest!”

  The receptionist raised her void begahing heavily to catch her breath. She looked at the white armor-cd man with eyes filled with annoyance, frustration, and .

  A mithril-ranked quest was not something a new adventurer should even begin to imagine doing!

  Moreover, the quest he brought back was of the highest difficulty! Although he might have expensive armor and three possibly skilled bodyguards to protect him, just four people would not be able to clear it if at least one of them didn’t have the strength of an Adamantite level adventurer.

  The receptionist expected a number of responses from the adventurer before her.

  If the man was indeed a rich son of a hen his bodyguards might bee upset with her for daring to be rude to their master.

  If the man had a high pride, then he would be mad at her instead for insinuating his ck of strength.

  And if the man was sensible, then he would accept her words and apologize.

  But to her shoone of her assumptions were correct as the maured to the beautiful woman in white robe and fox mask, and the man bck robe.

  “My partner and my friend here are magic casters capable of casting spells up to a third level.”

  Yuuji theured towards Lupu.

  “While me and my female friend here are warriors and fighters of the same caliber. So, while we may have a copper pte hanging down our necks, it does not reflect our skill, but rather the time ent as an adventurer, which was 2 days. I assure you of our skills, and we wish to take a quest that suited our level.”

  The hall went silent, before murmurs of shod disbelief quickly filled the guild once again.

  Even the receptionist was shocked by his decration. And at this point, she had bee unsure if what he said was the truth, or a false bravado spoken to save his pride.

  “I-I apologize. But we ot let you take on this request as per the guild’s rules… ”

  “... I uand. It seems I have put you in a difficult situation. I apologize.” Yuuji bowed his head slightly.

  “Then, please give us the most challenging copper-ranked quest we take. There should be others besides the ones iice board, right”

  “Yes! Right away!”

  The receptionist finally smiled and bowed in gratitude before leaving to select a quest suitable for the group of adventurers before her.

  And as Yuuji and the others were waiting, a voice calling for their attention resounded.

  “How about helping us with our work, then?”

  “Hm?”

  Yuuji, Aika, Momonga, and Lupu turo see a four-man adveeam, their silver ptes glittering on their neckbsp;

  The one who spoke was the young man at the front, typical blonde hair and blue eyes typical of the Kingdom, wearing some sort of banded armor with strips of metals woven together with metal threads of leather or bag. He carried himself like a warrior, and the leader of the party.

  And upon seeing them, Yuuji, Aika, and Momonga hid the look nition underh their helm, mask, and hood as they all thought the same thing in unison.

  ‘Ah, there they are. The Swords Of Darkness.’

  Yuuji observed the three young men and the one slightly smaller “boy” for a moment, looking at them in silence as he was reminded of their figures in the anime.

  It was a casual observation. But somehow, to the ones being observed, they suddenly felt like they were beihrough pletely by the man from beh his cool draic helm.

  They couldn’t help but straighten up nervously.

  “I see. Worthwhile jobs are certainly what we seek. But before t, I would like to hear what sort of job it might be.”

  The young man at the front nodded, and asked the receptionist to prepare a room for them.

  It was a normal meeting room with a long wooden table lined with chairs on both sides in the middle.

  The members of the Sword of Darkness party streamed in and sat down, followed by Yuuji and the others.

  And before discussing the job, the leader of the Swords of Darkness began introdug themselves.

  “I’m the leader of the “Swords of Darkness”, Peter Mauk. That fellow over there is the eyes and ears of our team, the ranger, Lukrut Volve.”

  The leather-armored blond man nodded in aowledgement, his brown eyes seemed to have a spark of delight in them. He was slender and long-limbed, kind of like a spider, but his lean torso was wiry and muscur.

  “ is our spellcaster and the brains of roup, Ninya, The Spellcaster.”

  “Pleased to meet you.”

  Probably the you in the group with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Though “he” was an adult, the smile on his face looked too youthful.

  And Yuuji’s group knew very well who “he” truly was. A poor vilge “boy” trying to gain mohrough adventuring using the meager skills in magic “he” had to try and buy back his elder sister, who was kidnapped, used, and sold off by a scummy noble who unfortunately came to their vilge and saw her.

  A tragic story that would end in tragedy. At least, if they don’t do anything about it.

  “...But Peter, you not use that embarrassing niame?”

  “Eh? But it’s a good one.”

  “Eh~? You have a niame? That’s cool~”

  Lupu asked, her beautiful voice stunning the four Swords of Darkness members for a moment.

  “Y-Yes, he’s a talent-holder, and a genius magic caster.”

  “Wow~ That sounds amazing~”

  Lupu did not uand what they meant by “talent-holder”, but it was fun seeing them being proud of something so seemingly insignifit and small.

  “That is amazing.”

  Yuuji plimented, causing Ninya to blush and waved his hand around in denial.

  “I-It’s nothing much! It’s just that I happeo have a taleaining to that area.”

  Much like martial arts, talents were abilities that did in YGGDRASIL but which were uo this world. About one in every 200 people was born with a talent. While talent-holders were not rare, the abilities themselves varied greatly in potend type.

  For instahere were things like being able to prediorrow’s weather with 70% accuracy, the ability tthen summoned monsters, hastening the harvest by several days, using the magic ons that once ruled the world, and so on.

  But these were all inborn abilities which could not be chosen or ged. And it was on to enter situations where these abilities could not be applied.

  If someone was born with the talent to improve the destructiveness of their magic but they never had the ce to bee a magic caster, then the magic would be useless.

  There were very few people who could make good use of their talents. And there were almost no talents that could dictate someone’s dire in life, except for a few very powerful ones.

  And even without talent, some could go on to bee a promi figure, such as Gazef Stronoff.

  But despite everything, Yuuji do pn on gathering the people with useful and powerful talents. Not only tthen Nazarick by having talented people under his banner, but to also prevent them from being taken by those in opposition to him and his friends.

  “I think his talent has something to do with being suited to studying magic. I mean, he only took four years to learn what should’ve take. I’m not a magic caster though, so I’m not sure how great that is.”

  And Ninya’s talent… with time and the myriad of magical knowledge within Nazarick, she would have the potential to bee the ti’s greatest magic caster, barring those within Nazaribsp;

  It was a talent he won’t simply let go just like that.

  “That’s certainly amazing… I did not expect to find such talent so soon.”

  “A-Ahahaha…”

  Yuuji praised, and the “boy” couldn’t help but rub the back of his head shyly.

  He didn’t press further. It wasn’t time for him to pull Ninya into his grasp. The right time… would e soon.

  “tinuing, could you tell us about your st friend?”

  “Yes. He’s a druid, Dyne Woodwonder. He uses healing spells and magic that trols nature, and he’s well versed in herbal lore. You let him know if there’s anything wrong with your body; he has medie that’s good for stomach pains.”

  “Pleased to meet you!”

  The heartfelt and eic greeting came from the burly, barbaric-looking man with a full, bushy beard. He seemed youhan he first appeared, ae his manly, rugged appearance, he had a warm, friendly smile beh his beard and a pair of soft looking eyes.

  “Likewise. Then, I shall also introduce myself and my friends.”

  Yuuji lowered his head slightly and pced a hand on his chest. The very movement elicited awe from the oners before him with sheer elegance.

  “My name is Alexander Kyrielight. The vanguard of our party. This is my partner…”

  “Lilith~ o meet you~”

  The men all blushed iently upon hearing her beautiful, alluring voice. And Ninya was simirly awed by it, entranced for a moment.

  Moreover, just from the glimpse they saw of her smile right beh her fox’s mask… They were sure; She must be hiding an otherworldly beauty beh it.

  Yuuji theured towards Momonga and Lupu with his hand.

  “This is Momon and Lupu, also a magic caster and the fighter of our party respectively.”

  “Wonderful. I hope we work well together, Sir Alexander.”

  “Likewise. And please, simply call me Alex.”

  “Alright!”

  VergsX