Adventurers' Guild

Run—run for your life! Dean knew he was a mage with poor stamina, but he still had to run for all he was worth.

The latest magical detection had revealed at least fifty Goblins nearby, not even counting the ones it had failed to detect.

Thirty-two... twenty-four... eleven...

Finally, after several life-detection scans, there wasn't a single Goblin following them. They probably hadn't been able to keep up and had given up—or perhaps there was some other reason. In any case, the four of them were safe for the moment.

"Hey... hey, Dean, what happened?" Those few hundred meters had been nothing more than a warm-up for Kana. Yanxi and Lamore were both perfectly fine, while Dean was the only one panting heavily from exhaustion.

"Don't... don't worry about that for now. We... we need to get out of here and seek help from the Adventurers' Guild." As he spoke, Dean started walking again.

This place was far too dangerous. Dean had no intention of staying here for even one more second.

"There was a huge force of Goblins behind us. Conservatively speaking, there must have been at least a hundred." Dean spoke without turning his head.

Kana and the other two trembled when they heard this. They exchanged glances, and each saw disbelief in the other's eyes. How was that possible? More than a hundred Goblins—was this place about to become a battlefield?

Kana and the other two finally understood why Dean hadn't explained anything earlier and had only had time to tell them to run. He hadn't even had time to say another word.

They might have been only a hair's breadth away from failing to escape. At the thought, the three of them shuddered and hurried to catch up with Dean ahead of them.

The journey had originally taken an hour, but the return trip took less than half that time. After returning to Blue Town, Dean and the other three went straight to the hall of the Adventurers' Guild.

A chubby, middle-aged man had already been waiting there.

"Oh-ho-ho~ I've finally been waiting for you! Looks like the team's pretty efficient—you actually completed the task today! Hurry and let me see the evidence." The plump middle-aged man spoke enthusiastically. Seeing that the four of them looked rather pale, he assumed it was because the task had been exhausting.

He was the farmer who had issued this task. His farm was some distance from Blue Town, and this was a search job that would also require them to fight Goblins afterward. So, naturally, the four of them looked worn out.

"The three Goblins have already been dealt with. We didn't collect any evidence; I'll explain everything to you later. Right now, we have something more important to discuss." Kana spoke somewhat anxiously, and her tone was not particularly friendly.

"Oh? You didn't collect any evidence? Then your commission doesn't count as a success. Heh heh heh!" The fat uncle laughed. He said no more, and when he saw Kana and the others head inside, he hurried over to the bounty verification office!

Kana led the three of them straight to the inner hall of the Adventurers' Guild. She merely took out a small token and showed it to the guard, after which the inner hall—which ordinary people were forbidden to enter—opened to them just like that.

The guard went to the other side. Before long, he emerged behind a burly middle-aged man. Once the middle-aged man had taken the main seat in the inner hall, the guard returned to the doorway and resumed his post.

Clearly, judging from this scene, the middle-aged man had a very powerful background.

"I am Rukta, the president of the Adventurers' Guild in Blue Town." The burly middle-aged man, Rukta, spoke with some respect, but Dean and the other two felt baffled.

Although he was only the president of the Adventurers' Guild in a small place like Blue Town, he was still the president. Why would he show such respect to a few Junior Adventurers?

However, none of the four knew what kind of background the others had. They had formed a team simply because they wanted to go adventuring.

Perhaps Kana had an extraordinary background. That was what Dean and the other two thought, especially because of the token she had just shown. It could be said that President Rukta was treating them—or rather, Kana—with such respect precisely because of that token.

But none of that mattered for now.

"Hello, President Rukta. We need to report something extremely important to the guild!" Kana said with a solemn expression.

As she spoke, she placed the same token on the table. The instant Rukta saw it, he lowered his head and bowed deeply toward it.

This time, Dean finally had the chance to see the token clearly.

The token was made of silver with a red border. It was thin and long, though not quite as long as a palm, and its narrowest part was less thick than a finger. A flying bird was engraved on its face.

Or perhaps calling it a bird was incorrect. It was a far nobler creature. Instinct told Dean that this so-called bird was actually an extremely terrifying and powerful Magic Beast.

"The Phoenix Token. I understand. Miss, please tell me what happened, and I'll send people to investigate immediately!" Rukta changed in an instant. He was no longer the Guild president, but seemed like the most loyal and dependable retainer of Kana's Lineage.

Kana, however, did not find this strange. She immediately told Rukta what Dean had described. After she finished, Kana bade President Rukta farewell with the air of someone who had finally cast off a heavy burden.

Dean and the other two followed behind Kana with blank expressions. What was going on? They didn't even need to confirm anything? Everything they had said was true—they hadn't lied in the slightest—but could the Adventurers' Guild President of a small town really believe Kana so easily?

Facts proved that whether or not the three of them believed it, the matter had happened right before their eyes. Kana, meanwhile, looked as though everything were perfectly natural, just as when she had ordered Dean and Lamore to do the heavy labor without hesitation. There had even been a trace of impatience, as if she thought Dean was working too slowly.

"Let's go collect our reward. What happens next is beyond anything we can handle." After President Rukta hurried away, Kana spoke casually to the three of them.

They didn't ask any more questions. Just as the three of them hadn't dug too deeply into Dean's affairs, they didn't press Kana any further this time. The team was still the same team, and Kana was still the same Kana.

They didn't want to know anything unnecessary. If they learned an identity they shouldn't know, then this team might face the danger of disbanding.

Kana did not want to disband the team, and Dean and the other three felt the same.

Speaking of the reward, Dean and the other two came back to their senses. The reward this time was quite substantial—each of them would receive five silver coins.

This task had been carefully selected by Kana. Not only would a Junior Adventurer Team struggle to complete it, even a Level-One Adventurer Team might not be able to handle this task, which was nearly on the level of a Level-Two one.

This also proved that Dean's team was now capable of qualifying as a Level-One Adventurer Team.

(The End of the Chapter)