Misty Path

The party, made up of ten adventurers and one Mage, had no name.

Adventurers helping one another and sharing hardship was the stuff of Bards' tales, at least in Brekka Town.

After all, this was a business that could cost you your head. Who would entrust theirs to someone else? In the Phantom Forest, then, "teammate" meant much the same thing as "cannon fodder" or "sacrificial pawn."

Renato, however, was quite pleased with his teammates this time. Everyone looked the part, wearing armor and carrying metal weapons. They were far better than those lunatics who dared go adventuring with nothing but a wooden mallet or club.

There were plenty of veterans, too. Renato alone recognized "Little Finger" Joe, "Deserter" Marcus, and "Big Guy" Bagg. The rest looked familiar as well. Not a single newcomer among them.

Under the Mage's direction, the party formed a semicircle, sheltering him in the middle. They had little choice-he was the one paying them, after all.

At the rear flank of the party, "Little Finger" Joe sidled up to Renato and struck up a conversation:

"What brings the young master out adventuring in person?"

"Young master" was Renato's nickname in Brekka Town. It was easy enough to see why; his appearance and manner of speaking were worlds apart from theirs.

Perhaps the nickname had originally been meant to mock his straitened circumstances. A real noble reduced to this might have found it a sore point, but the current Renato was an Earthling born in the internet age.

He therefore found nothing particularly insulting about the nickname, though that did not stop him from answering:

"Careful, Joe. Watch out, or someone might cut off your other little finger."

With their usual greetings out of the way, "Little Finger" Joe got to the point:

"What's that fellow's background?" He gestured with his chin toward the Mage in the middle of the party. "Is he really a Mage? Why haven't I seen his Mage insignia?"

Drawing on the knowledge in his memory, Renato replied:

"Don't pretend you know so much. No one wears a Mage insignia except Mages from the Mage Association."

"Little Finger" Joe looked thoughtful. After trading a few more jibes, the two returned to their places in the party.

Mages stood far above ordinary people. Even in Renato's memories from when he was still a noble, he could count his encounters with them on one hand. He knew even less about them.

Without the description in the [Adventurer's Guide], he would not have dared be certain that the man was a Mage. After all, plenty of classes possessed spell-like abilities.

Renato and Little Finger knew each other reasonably well. They were hardly close, but they at least got along on the surface, so he did not mind offering a hint to keep Joe from doing something he should not later on.

In the Phantom Forest, "adventurer" and "bandit" were sometimes synonymous, too.

As the party ventured deeper, the patches of light filtering through the leaves gradually vanished, replaced by an increasingly dense gray-white mist.

Renato knew this meant they had left the Phantom Forest's safe zone and officially entered the forest proper.

According to the Adventurers' Guild, this mist came from a bewildering array set up by the Mages of the Niter Kingdom. The Guild's Mages claimed that all the lethal spells within it had been dispelled.

Watching the mist grow thicker, Renato could only trust the Guild's account and hope it belonged to the array's nonlethal spells, which would explain why the Guild's Mages had left it intact.

The party rested on a large boulder beside the road, and the Mage, who had been silent for some time, finally outlined their route:

"We need to pass through the Misty Path before noon tomorrow, approach from the southeast, and follow the shore of Mirror Lake to the entrance of Mute Valley."

It was a straightforward route, neither a shortcut nor a detour, so no one objected.

Rather than the Phantom Forest, which everyone knew well, Renato focused his attention on the Mage before him.

Compared with his voice, the Mage's face was surprisingly young. But Renato knew that Mages had all manner of ways to prolong their lives. A youthful appearance was no reliable measure.

A finely made map with precise markings was spread out. Renato privately estimated that it was worth at least ten silver coins.

As the Mage showed everyone the route on the map, Renato spotted two rings on his fingers. One was set with a deep-blue crystal that radiated a magical aura.

Renato could not tell what spell had been enchanted into it, but recalling the price of magical accessories, he found its effect on him comparable to the first-circle spell Courage. It gave him more confidence in this adventure.

The Mage's words seemed to have broken the party's silence. During their brief rest, the adventurers grew more talkative.

"Have you heard? Someone spotted a dragon on the Misty Path!"

The familiar northern accent told Renato at once that this was "Big Guy" Bagg.

"A dragon? On the Misty Path? Did you spill your brains along with your seed on some whore's belly yesterday?"

The others burst out laughing, but Bagg ignored their mockery and explained in earnest:

"It's absolutely true! People were attacked by a dragon on the Misty Path yesterday! The few who escaped all said so!"

"Little Finger" Joe snorted, then dismissed the claim:

"You heard that from some Sally or Harry, didn't you? I know what happened yesterday. Just a few peasants who'd only recently arrived. They'd probably mistake a lizard for a dragon!"

As the others roared with laughter again and the conversation turned to which whore Bagg had slept with yesterday, Renato could not help reflecting on those unfortunate peasant adventurers. It was as though livestock had died rather than people. No one cared.

That was how Brekka Town was. Every day, countless people came to the Phantom Forest to throw their lives away: slum dwellers, landless peasants, debtors...

They often had no combat skills, poor physiques, and no knowledge of the monsters they encountered. Some did not even have weapons, only sharpened branches... After all, their money might have gone entirely toward the two-silver registration fee.

These people rarely survived their first assignment, and monsters were not even always to blame. Most died because they lost their way, wandered into areas they should never have entered, and were driven mad by illusions and bewildering arrays. Eventually, their food ran out, and they starved to death in some corner.

Only by paying for their lessons in death could the newcomers lucky enough to survive their first assignment gradually learn the rules of the Phantom Forest. Once they survived their third assignment, Brekka Town would finally "accept" them as true "adventurers."

Renato did not join the adventurers' idle chatter. Instead, he opened his satchel out of habit and checked his tools, making sure they would work in an emergency.

"Bandages, clotting powder, hemostatic cotton, antidote, compass, rope, lantern..."

As an extra precaution, Renato had also brought five lead-headed throwing darts and an oak shield.

Unless he had to do otherwise, he would stay in the back and throw darts. Completing the assignment did not necessarily mean going in to snatch spider eggs. He could just coast along and collect the experience.

Who knew what it was really like inside the spiders' nest? Renato thought to himself. If things looked bad, staying alive came first. My life is worth far more than silver coins.