Small Fry Didn't Deserve Names

Rhode bent down and followed Lilia's finger to read the words on the wanted poster.

"Wanted: vicious Giant Spider."

"This vicious Giant Spider is currently roaming near Maple Forest to the west and has injured many travelers. It has successfully resisted every attempt to hunt it down so far. A generous bounty has been offered for its elimination. Adventurers seeking the reward must enter the forest and slay the beast."

Maple Forest to the west?

Wasn't that the spider whose mouth he'd stabbed with a pitchfork last time?

It had to be. How many spiders that huge could there possibly be around here?

Then Rhode saw the picture of the spider on the wanted poster. Its threatening pose looked pretty close to the real thing, only not nearly as disgusting.

Farther down, he found the bounty: one gold coin and fifty silver coins!

Rhode's eyes lit up.

Being an adventurer really was where the money was. This one bounty was worth two years of his income as a farmer.

While Rhode was still thinking, Lilia had already bounded over to the crowd and called out to the clerk, "We wounded this spider! Can we get a reward?"

Everyone turned to look.

At first, a flicker of surprise crossed the clerk's face when he heard her, but when he looked down and saw Lilia, he couldn't help laughing.

"Little girl, you can't collect a bounty for stepping on an ordinary little spider. Go home and ask your daddy for a reward."

The crowd burst into laughter, filling the watchtower with merriment.

"We really did wound it," a man's voice spoke up. Naturally, it was Rhode. "But I assume you have to kill it to collect the bounty?"

The crowd fell silent again.

Even though this man had only said they had "wounded" it, that was surprising enough.

In fact, among the many adventurers who had ventured into Maple Forest, few had even returned alive, let alone wounded the creature.

Yet the man before them wore ordinary coarse clothes and looked like a completely unremarkable farmer. Could he really have escaped the Giant Spider unscathed and even injured it?

As for that little girl, it was even less likely.

He was bluffing, surely? Nobody had seen it, anyway. Bragging wasn't a crime.

At that moment, the officer whom Sheriff Redpath had addressed as "Lieutenant Orinel" rose to his feet. Apparently, they had finished their discussion.

"Mr. Whitesteed, our clerk," Lieutenant Orinel said to the man, "please register them. They're the help Sheriff Redpath found for us."

Someone in the crowd of adventurers gave a surprised gasp.

Appearances really could be deceiving. This farmer apparently had some real ability-he was an expert recommended by the marshal himself!

Mr. Whitesteed looked a little surprised too, but he said, "Oh," and walked over to the noticeboard, preparing to take down the Giant Spider's wanted poster.

"Oh, not that one." Lieutenant Orinel also approached the board and pointed to a sheet posted lower down on one side. "This one."

"Ah!" Several startled cries suddenly rose from the crowd.

Then a hubbub of discussion broke out again. Everyone seemed restless and uneasy, and a sense of tension even hung in the air.

What could be that formidable?

Rhode walked over as well.

The sheet looked rather worn, as though it had been posted there for a long time.

The lettering was a little faded too. Rhode began reading carefully.

"Wanted: Yetius."

"Yetius must die! This enormous Abominable Snowman has occupied the cave on Darrow Hill to the north. He attacks anyone passing through and seizes anything that interests him. He is a truly dangerous creature! We urge all adventurers seeking the bounty to form a sufficiently large party to ensure his extermination!"

Below that was, naturally, a picture of Yetius.

Rhode had never seen a so-called Abominable Snowman in this world, but the picture suggested a gorilla-like body, horns like those of a bull or a ram, and a vaguely human face.

Still, this fellow looked dangerous.

For one thing, he actually had a name of his own!

Whether in this world or in a game, a monster with a name had to be boss-level. Ordinary small-fry monsters didn't deserve names. At most, they would be called things like "Enraged Abominable Snowman," "Giant Yeti," or "Vicious Yeti."

And the wanted poster specifically stressed that adventurers should go in a party. Clearly, it would take a dungeon party with a tank, a healer, and DPS to deal with him.

No wonder those adventurers were so nervous. Yetius had probably killed far too many people already, just as Sheriff Redpath had said.

But what caught Rhode's attention now was the bounty: five gold coins!

Ahhh, so much money!

With that money, he could pay the miners back and still have some left over. He could even get ready to leave soon, instead of sitting around here waiting for war to break out...

"Aren't snowmen supposed to be all white, with a carrot stuck in for a nose? Why does this one look like that?" Lilia asked, tilting her head.

She had some trouble making out this wanted poster, but she had managed to read it.

The little girl's cuteness made everyone laugh, and the tension in the air vanished with it.

Rhode gently patted Lilia's head, glanced once more at the gold coins offered as a reward, then turned to Lieutenant Orinel and said firmly, "Yes, this is the bounty we want to take on. Is there any paperwork we need to do?"

"Register first." Mr. Whitesteed handed Rhode a sheet of parchment.

It was an adventurer registration form.

Perhaps only after registering could someone become an officially recognized adventurer and be commissioned to carry out the tasks on the wanted posters.

Gold lettering stood out on the parchment. Rhode looked over the headings: name, sex, age, class...

As Rhode took it, another stir ran through the crowd.

Some looked surprised, some shook their heads, and others sighed, as though what Rhode had accepted was a death notice.

But Rhode wasn't afraid anymore.

He was already quite proficient with Mage Hand, and with a little more study, he should be able to get a pretty good grasp of Fireball too.

What did an accomplished mage have to fear from a yeti?

So he began filling out the form.

Name: Rhode

Sex: male

When he reached the class field, Rhode hesitated for a moment.

"Class... mage, then," Rhode murmured, and wrote it down.

When he looked up, he found the clerk staring at him with a strange expression.

Seeing the clerk's expression, the adventurers watching nearby leaned in curiously to look. Then their faces took on the same expression.

A mage?

This fellow dressed like a farmer was actually a mage?

The news quickly spread to everyone in the watchtower, and another round of discussion began.

Well, ever since Rhode and Lilia had come in, they had already given everyone plenty to talk about.

This time, though, the way they looked at Rhode had changed a little.

Admiration, fear... some kept nodding, wearing expressions that said, "Now I understand."

Of course!

Of course it would take someone as powerful as a mage to dare accept a bounty like this!