Adventurers' Guild

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

That magical scan just now had detected at least fifty goblins nearby, never mind however many it had missed.

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

Finally, after several life-detection scans, there wasn't a single goblin following them. Perhaps they had given up because they couldn't catch up, or perhaps there was another reason. Either way, the four of them were safe for now.

"Hey... hey, Dean, what happened?" Those few hundred meters had barely counted as a warm-up for Kana. Yanxi and Lamore were fine too. Only Dean was gasping for breath.

"Let's... let's not get into that yet. We... we need to get out of here and ask the Adventurers' Guild for help." As he spoke, Dean started walking again.

This place was far too dangerous. Dean didn't want to stay even a second longer.

"There's a large force of goblins behind us. A conservative estimate would put their numbers at no fewer than a hundred," Dean said without looking back.

Kana and the other two shuddered. They exchanged glances, seeing the same disbelief in one another's eyes. How was that possible? Over a hundred goblins? Was this place about to become a battlefield?

At last, the three of them understood why Dean hadn't explained anything earlier. He'd only had time to tell them to run, without another word to spare.

Perhaps they had come within a hair's breadth of all four being trapped there. The thought sent a shiver through them, and they hurried after Dean.

The journey had originally taken an hour, but the return trip took less than half that time. Once they reached Blue Town, the four of them headed straight for the Adventurers' Guild hall.

A plump, middle-aged man was already waiting there.

"Oh-ho-ho! There you are at last. Looks like you've got an efficient team! You actually finished the job today. Come on, let me see the proof." The plump man greeted them warmly. He noticed their grim expressions but assumed they were simply exhausted.

He was the farmer who had posted this commission. His farm was some distance from Blue Town, and the job involved searching for the goblins before fighting them. It was only natural that the four of them looked worn out.

"We dealt with those three goblins, but we didn't collect any proof. We'll explain later. We have something more important to handle right now," Kana said anxiously, her tone less than friendly.

"Oh? You didn't collect any? Then your commission doesn't count as completed. Heh heh heh!" The plump man chuckled without saying anything more. Once Kana and the others went farther inside, he hurried to the bounty arbitration desk!

Kana led the three of them straight to the Adventurers' Guild's inner hall. All she did was show the guard a small token, and the normally restricted hall was opened to them.

The guard headed off in another direction. Before long, he returned behind a burly, middle-aged man. Once the man had taken the seat of honor in the inner hall, the guard went back to his post at the entrance.

From the look of things, this burly man was clearly someone important.

"I am Rukta, the Adventurers' Guild President of Blue Town," the middle-aged man said with a measure of deference, leaving Dean and the other two rather baffled.

Even if he was only the Adventurers' Guild President in a little place like Blue Town, he was still a guild president. Why would he show such respect to a few novice adventurers?

None of the four knew what backgrounds the others had. They had formed a team simply because they wanted to go adventuring.

Perhaps Kana came from some extraordinary background. That was what Dean and the other two thought, especially after seeing that token. Clearly, the token was why President Rukta treated them... no, treated Kana with such respect.

For now, though, none of that mattered.

"Hello, President Rukta. We have something extremely important to report to the Guild!" Kana said solemnly.

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

This time, Dean finally had a chance to get a good look at the token.

It was silver with red edging, long and slender, though shorter than a palm. Its narrowest section was thinner than a finger, and a bird in flight was engraved on its face.

Or rather, the engraving wasn't of a mere bird, but of a far nobler creature. Dean's instincts told him that this supposed bird was actually an incredibly terrifying and powerful magical beast.

"The Phoenix Token. Understood. Please tell me what happened, my lady. I'll send people to investigate at once!" Rukta changed in an instant. He no longer seemed like a guild president, but rather the most loyal and dependable retainer of Kana's family.

Kana didn't find this strange at all. She simply relayed what Dean had told her to Rukta. Once she finished, she seemed relieved of a great burden and bade President Rukta farewell.

Dean and the other two followed Kana, utterly bewildered. What was going on? He didn't even need to verify it? Everything they'd said was true, without a single lie, but could a town's Adventurers' Guild President really believe Kana so readily?

Whether the three of them believed it or not, it had happened right before their eyes. Yet Kana acted as though it were perfectly natural, just as she did when ordering Dean and Lamore to do manual labor: without the slightest hesitation, and even with a hint of impatience at how slowly Dean worked.

"Let's go collect our payment. Whatever happens next is already beyond anything we can get involved in," Kana told the three of them lightly after President Rukta hurried away.

They asked no further questions. Just as the other three hadn't pried too deeply into Dean's affairs, Dean and the others didn't press Kana this time. Their team was still the same team, and Kana was still Kana.

They didn't want to learn anything more than they needed to. If they discovered an identity they weren't meant to know about, their team might face the prospect of breaking up.

Kana didn't want the team to disband, and neither did Dean or the other two.

The mention of payment brought Dean and the others back to their senses. The reward this time was no small sum: split evenly, it would give each of them five silver coins.

Kana had chosen this job with great care. It was almost a level-two assignment, one that even a level-one adventurer team might struggle to complete, let alone a junior adventurer team.

This also proved that Dean's team was now capable of serving as a level-one adventurer team.

(End of chapter)