Infinity Mage

“Hahahaha!”

Albert let out a loud, gruff chuckle.

“You’re a funny one, I’ll give you that!” he exclaimed. “You’re going to romance five immortal dragon queens? How exactly do you plan on pulling that off?”

Kanie smirked and put his arm around Eric. Eric winced and frowned unpleasantly.

“You see this guy here? He’s had seventeen—yes, seventeen girlfriends,” he said. “I’m thinking maybe he’d know a killer pickup line or two.”

“H-hey, stop. Don’t go saying nonsense that’ll invite misunderstandings, dude,” Eric whispered. “Nobody here knows about our past lives.”

Nyle spit his drink out from atop his gamer’s chair.

“This just keeps escalating, and it’s only been an hour since these guys got there,” he snorted in his bratty voice.

Albert said nothing for a while before laughing again.

“Hahahaha! I can’t say I get it, but they say the previous heroes of Jandariu were as wise as they were powerful! I’m sure the two of you are no different!

Plus, with a mug as handsome as yours, who’s to say—that crazy plan of yours might not be so crazy after all! Do your best to make the rulers of Jandariu fall for you, son!”

He smacked Kanie’s shoulder playfully.

Thank God—I mean, thank Nyle that the people here seem to be operating purely on blind faith. Eric thought. Either that, or they’re so deep in despair that they literally don’t give a damn anymore.

“Speaking of our predecessors, is that them over there?” Kanie asked, pointing to the large statues in the center of the guild.

“Yup, that’s them. It isn’t known who they truly were—only that they appeared a century ago during the beginning of Zarcothida’s assault on Narvec,” explained Albert. “Of course, I wasn’t around then, but my great grandparents were. They passed stories of the heroes down like heirlooms in my family.”

“Did you hear anything about them?” Eric chimed in.

“I did, actually, yeah,” Albert said with a grin. “I don’t know all of the details, but apparently, the two of them saved my great grandmother during the great calamity. She was a teenager when the shit hit the fan, and she got a close look at them when they rescued her.”

“Actually,” he continued. “My great grandmother was the one who provided the sculptor of those statues with details about the heroes’ appearances. Some people in my generation think she was just blowing smoke out her ass, but looking at the two of you up close like this, it’s obvious now that she wasn’t.

You’re practically splitting images of those statues—of the heroes who saved this world all those years ago.”

“Well, we’re not going to let that tragedy happen again,” Kanie said, clenching his fist. “You can count on us. Right, Eri—ka?”

“Right,” said Eric. “The last heroes were sent to stop the monster’s rampage, but we were sent to prevent its resurrection.”

Albert blinked in disbelief.

“But, I thought the earthquakes were a surefire sign that Zarcothida—the Dragon of the End—will inevitable return in a year,” he said. “You’re telling me you can stop this from happening somehow?”

“Y-yeah, that’s the thing,” said Kanie. “That plan I told you about earlier? We have reason to believe that that’s the key to sealing Zarcothida away—forever.”

“Hey, we all need love, right?” Eric added. He pointed to Kanie.

“This poor son of a bitch spent eighteen years a virgin. I can only imagine how the dragon queens must feel.”

“Ahem, wasn’t it you who said not to blurt stuff out that might cause misunderstandings?” Kanie replied wryly.

“Whoops, heh. It just…slipped out.”

“Hahahaha! Well, I’ll trust you to make the right decisions, heroes,” Albert said, his voice jolly and hopeful.

“In truth, those earthquakes that struck Narvec today threw the entire kingdom into a panic.

Fearing Zarcothida’s return, all we could do was wish and pray that the swordsman and witch would show up again to save us, and here you are. It only makes sense to put all of our faith in you—no matter what kind of wild ideas you might come up with.”

“That being said—” he continued.

“Heroes or not, you’ll need to formally register as adventurers to be able to travel across Jandariu hassle-free.”

“Ooh, I’ve always wanted to be an adventurer!” exclaimed Kanie. “How do we register?”

“Come up to the registration counter with me now, and we’ll get you guys started right away,” replied Albert.

Kanie let out a loud belch.

“Alright, uh, in just a sec,” he said. “Need to finish eating first.”

Eric nudged him with an elbow.

“Dude, don’t be so mannerless. And we need to hurry up and register as fast as we can so we can start taking on quests.”

“Why would we want to do that?” Kanie asked, chewing on a piece of meat. “We only have a year before Zarcothida finishes this world off, remember?”

“It’s true we’re on a tight schedule,” Eric said. “—But we’re talking about dealing with five dragons who control entire regions. It could be extremely dangerous, and we need to figure out how our powers work with a test run or two.”

“Guess you’ve got a point there,” Kanie replied, snacking between his words. “If we go ‘kaboom,’ well, no more mission.”

“Alright, I’m good to go,” he said, standing up from the table. He followed Eric and Albert to the registration counter. On top of the counter was a clear crystal ball.

Albert pulled out two rectangular cards and handed them to the heroes. The cards were blank on one side and had empty fields on the other.

“Okay, so the rules of registration are real simple,” he said. “Just lay the card onto the crystal ball so the fielded side is facing upwards, then place your hand directly onto it for five seconds. The ball will stop glowing when your registration is complete, and you’ll be assigned an adventurer rank from F to S.”

“… Really? That’s it?” Eric asked, skeptical.

“That’s it! Of course, if you’re not at least fifteen years old, the crystal ball will glow red and reject your attempt,” Albert warned. “Everybody here over fifteen?”

“Very funny,” Eric retorted. “I may be short, but I’m not a kid.”

“Sheesh,” Kanie said. “Wish it was this simple last lifetime. A few months back, I had to spend an hour at the DMV and bring six points of ID just to take my driver’s test. What was God thinking!?”

“Yeah… I wasn’t,” Nyle said, watching him from his laptop.

Back at the guild, Albert gestured toward the crystal ball.

“So, which of you is going to register first?”

“I’ll go,” Eric said, stepping up. He placed his card onto the ball and rested his hand on top of it. The ball started glowing brightly before dimming out seconds later.

“Please remove your hand, Erika,” instructed Albert, leaning in to get a closer look at the card.

“This is—!” he exclaimed, picking it up with both hands and holding it high in the air.

“Erika, your physical strength is far below average, and your luck is, ugh, Satan-awful, but…”

Eric looked at him.

“But, what?”

“I’ve never seen someone with an infinite stat in magic before! The numbers are only designed to go up to ten! You truly are the legendary witch hero!”

Spectators cheered and raised Eric onto their shoulders. Not knowing how to react, Eric stared blankly into space.

“So, what exactly does an infinite stat in magic imply?” he asked.

“You can use every type of magic there is in this world—flight, healing, offense, defense, necromancy—you name it!

That being said, that doesn’t mean your magic supply is unlimited—do be careful not to overdo things,” explained Albert.

“Also,” he said. “Your agility, endurance, and charisma are all around average.

Your resolve stat, on the other hand, is a perfect ten. I suspect that you’ll be the level-headed one on your mission to save Jandariu.”

“I’ll be counting on you big time, wingman,” Kanie joked.

Eric smacked him over the head with his staff.

“What’s my adventurer rank?” he asked.

“Normally, with the unimpressive scores you had across the board, you’d be a D-rank adventurer—but! That infinite stat pushes you straight to S.”

Nearby adventurers gossiped excitedly. Never before had they met an S-ranked adventurer before. In unison, they began to chant.

“Infinity Mage! Infinity Mage!”

Eric smiled cockily.

“Not a bad nickname,” he said.