Chapter 6: Adventurer time

As we decided to became adventurers, we ate our diner and decided to go sleep. However, there was a problem. There was only one bed.

"I-I will sleep on the floor, so please take the bed."

"What? No! You are supposed to play the master, what if someone walks in? What do you think they will think?!"

"Well, if someone tries to enter those locked doors, it won't be with good intentions."

"Uuuu... get in the bed. Now!" Syl now sounded more commanding then when she was showing me how to feel magic.

"This..."

"No excuses!" Syl dived under sheets and patted the empty part of the bed.

I can't help but let my mind run wild... what can and can't be seen... No! Get a grip Tarumi! What would grandpa said if he saw me?!

"Do it. Do it now. Take action as soon as you can."

Somehow grandpa's words rised in back of my mind. Ah, I forgot that grandpa was always up to no good whenever grandma took her eyes of him... let's remember her, what did she used to say?

"When oportunity strikes, hold it as strongly as you can!"

Neither of you is of any help!!!!!

Feeling betrayed by my own memories, I sit in the bed, and silently entered the blankets.

"Good. Very good," Syl got closer to me and placed her hand on my chest.

"Um, Syl?"

"Just... let me listen to your heart... before I fall asleep."

Why was I thinking dirty things?! Taking advantage? I would only betray her trust! I need to get grip this instant!!!

"Sure, whatever you want," I placed my hand on hers, trying to calm myself.

***

The next morning.

"I'm so tired..." I stiffened a yawn as we went.

At the end, I had so hard time to fall asleep, and I tried to keep my heart calm at the same time that I actually did fall asleep. Still, I did not feel refreshed at all.

"Good morning you two? Would you like some breakfast?"

"Thanks..." I yawned ad fell to the chair at the nearest table for two.

"You see him? He's eating with slave..."

"Does he not know manners?"

I could pick up whispers from a nearby table, where a group of men who looked like merchants slash thieves were eating their bread and bacon.

"Alright! Here you go! Bread, bacon and clean hot water."

"Here, Master," Syl, getting into her role smiled at me as she handed me a pouch with leaves. The tea from yesterday, eh? You are really something, Syl.

"Thanks, uaaaah!" I yawned one last time and put some of the leaves in the mug. After stirring it a little, the water changed color to lime green and I took a sip.

"Yeaaaaah~ nothing can beat your tea," I smiled as I instantly refreshed.

"I'm glad you still like it, master," Syl bowed politely and bite into the bread with bacon to stiffen her laughter.

We both knew we needed to be serious, but something about our way of acting tick us as comedical.

"Are those two for real?"

"That girl doesn't look like slave at all, right?"

"Yeah, if my slaves had this look in their eyes I would have no trouble selling them..."

The merchants continued their conversation like nobody's bussiness.

"That was good. Let's go," I stood up, leaving the dishes to the girl and secretly giving her a copper coin for her work.

"Thank you for the food," Syl bowed politely as she cleaned her lips with handkerchief and followed shortly after me with helmet on.

Exiting the inn, I was once again reminded how awful the streets were. The mud and smell hit my nose even stronger then yesterday.

"Let's walk swiftly. If I read the map correctly, then the Adventurers guild should be that building over there."

"Hmm, it seems different from the time I was here last time..."

"And when was that?"

"Not that long, just around ten or so years ago, I'd say."

That's an elf for you, the sence of time is comletly off, there's no one who would say that ten years is not that long ago.

"I see. Anyway we should be able to safely pass, right?"

"I mean, with your magical prowness and my marksmanship? We have this in the bag," Syl smiled and opened the doors to the adventurers guild we made it to in the meantime.

As we entered, some gazes fell on us, while most didn't even bother to look at us.

"It's suprisingly empty, does it look like this all the time?"

"No, we just came at wrong hour. Most of the adventurers get here with the sunrise, waiting for new quests."

"You are indeed correct," someone spoke to us from the behind.

Once I turned around I saw a man in his late fourties, good two meters tall with mascular build that could rival any bodybuilder I've ever seen. And in this giants arms, was a child, no not just a child, it looked like a newborn.

"What?! I promised my wife to watch over our daughter today, do you have a problem?"

"Oh, no, not at all. I just came to register myself as as you spoke to me I was hoping you could show us the way."

"A newbie eh? I'm Warren, a guildmaster here. You need to go to that counter over there," Warren pointed with his giant arm over to the counter all the way in the back.

"Thank you, I'm on my way," I nodded as a sign of thanks and goodbyes and went on my way towards the counter at the back with Syl right next to me.

"Did you see that? He didn't even blink before the guildmaster!"

"I know, crazy right? But do you see that armored thing behind him? That thing let out some seriously terrifying vibes as well!"

Some of the adventurers who were looking at us were whispering, most likely about us, but I didn't pick up on most of the things.

"Hey there I wanna register," I smiled at the woman in the counter and she looked lazily at me.

"Occupation?"

"Mage I guess?"

"And what about that sword?"

"It's for self-deffence," I smiled at her as I patted the sheathed curved blade at my waist.

"So a Spellsword, can be?"

"I guess it's fine."

"Alright, your name, age, prefered type of magic... party formation too?" the woman pushed up her glasses as she bowed under the table for a parchment. This entire thing actually looked like she melted due to her oversized cloak.

"Yes."

"If that one behind you is a slave, she will only have to be written on the party formation list with her position, is that okay?"

"Yes."

"Alright, now answear my previous questions."

"My name is Tarumi Sojka, I'm eighteen and my preffered types of magic are water and wind."

"A dual weilder, eh? Here fill this ball with magical power so I can gauge your strenght."

"I understand," I nodded and took the ball from the counter, where she placed it.

Alright, I've trained magic circulation with Syl, I can do this...

As I thought this, the ball started to shine dimly, but soon, the light got brighter and brighter.

"Eh?! How is this possible?! How can you have as much magic as court magicians?!"

Okay, now it's time to slow down, slooooow, dooooown...

I did the same thing as when we were training and cut the connection short, making the ball get dimmer and dimmer until it stopped shining again.

"Magnificent master, as I would've expected from you," Syl was clapping her hands.

Hey! I see that stiffened laugh!

"Um... given you have such a high mana capacity, would you like to see our library? We have some grimoires there," the girl at the counter started speaking politely all of a sudden.

"Um, sure..."

"P-please follow me! I shall show you to the study room!!!" the girl practically shot out of her booth with papers in one hand and showing me the way with the other.

We followed her to the upper floor and were met with a wall filled with books from floor to cieling. The smell of the old books entered my lungs and I had to remember Grandpa's study room where he was hiding his treasures (and booze) from grandma.

"Please have a look! We have books about all four main elements and several higher elements as well! Though we do not possess healing and light magic books as those are from the most parts in private possesion of the Church of Origin."

Yeah, of course they are...

"I understand, thank you."

"I will return shortly with your guild card and party tags... oh, what kind of name should we put on them?"

"A name for our party? Blue Jay."

"I understand, I will return promptly," the girl bowed once more and left.

"Fuuu... finaly over..."

"Yeah, but what about that name?"

"Ah, it's a little play. My name is Sojka, which is a czech word for Jay and the 'Blue' part is reffering to one specific kind of bird, but also to color of most of my family's eyes."

"But your eyes are black like mine."

"Yeah, that's becouse I take strongly after my mother's side. My sister however takes after father and have blue eyes like him."

"Aah, I see now. A family memento."

"Yes exactly. Now let's look at the spells here, shall we?"

"Yeah, go on. I never learned spells at the elvish empire so my information is limited to witchcraft and curses. Oh, and little remedy making."

"Those are quite useful skills to have though. Let's see, I told them I can do Wind and Water, but I'm interested in those higher ranked spells too."

Taking out my phone, I started taking pictures of the spell's circles.

"That little black thing again? Too bad you don't have two of those it would go quicker."

"That certainly would, but it is at it is."

The battery will last for six more hours so I should be fine if I transfer those photos to my laptop. Good thing I always bring my cabels with me. Oh, maybe if I learn some lightning magic I will be able to create a way to charge these things!

As my mind derailed a little, I continued taking pictures of the spell books.

"Fuu... that should be it. I copied five spells from each of Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Ice and Darkness magics."

"Good work—"

"I've returned! Here's your guild card and two tags. If you wish for more tags to be made you will need to ask at the counter opposite to my station," the girl returned with a bright smile as she handed me two white tags with 'Blue Jay – Leader' and 'Blue Jay – Slave' written on them. Then she gave me a white card with my informations written on them.

"As you might know these are artefacts left behind by Great crafter Potupota from ancient times. Thankfully the way of their creation was left behind in some fragments so we can still create some knockoffs, but this card is the work of one of the remaining original machines— Ah! Sorry about that! I'm originally a researcher so I have a tendency to talk about these things. Anyway, as you can see the corners of your card are currently white, that is becouse White is sign of the lowest class. So please work hard on reaching higher ranks with your strenght!"

"You can bet on that. Anyway, are there some extermination quests available? I would like to try a new spell I picked up here."

"Ah, yes! Wait a minute..." she started looking through papers she had with her, "Ah, here. There is a quest to defeat running mushes and bring back their caps. Reward is fairly decent at two coppers per cap."

"I see, shall we take it?"

"If master wishes for it, then I have no problem. Running mushes may be tricky to capture, but it should not be problem for you, master," Syl bowed with a dignified look, which didn't really suit her.

"I see..." I stiffened a laugh and accepted the quest.

Exiting the adventurers guild, we went stright for a smithing shop to get some more items before we went on our way to the hunting grounds outside the city.

"Some mosters have their bodily fluids highly acidic and in rare cases even corrosive. For that, a pair of gloves like these are essential, and a hunting knife, oh, you actually have the folding one, right? Okay then, this light armor and this..." inside the shop Syl instantly went and sniffed out the best items we could ask for so only thing I had to do was to hold the things she picked up and pay for them. Somehow, this feels like a date.

Once we made it outside I streched my back, "That was quick..."

"Yeah, it's a good thing they had items for begginers so close."

"Yeah. That being said, you were moving there like a pro, were you adventuring before?"

"Once I learned about illusions, I lived some time as a human adventurer," Syl said flatly as she fasten her new gloves.

"I see, I see— Wait doesn't that mean you could use it to fool those guys at the guild?"

"Aaah, now that you mention it… well whatever, it's not like humans can live for hundreads of years," Syl shrugged and continued walking towards the gate.

"Oh, good to see you guys again," a familiar voice called out to us.

"Oh, hello Sir Kork. Are you of duty today?" I noticed a man walking towards us. While his face was not as imposing as the guildmasters, I could guess those two were related.

"Naah, just on errand for my sister-in-law and my wife. You see those two are sisters and some kind of fate made me and my brother marry them."

"That seems rather cute," Syl whispered behind me.

"Then don't have us keep you. We took a quest with the adventurers guild to make some money before we resume our travels, so we are rather in hurry," I bowed and as I was about to leave, the knight captain called out to me once more.

"You better move fast, the Aide is furious about yesterday and from what I heard it's you who is the source."

"Ah, don't worry, I will be gone before you know it," I waved at him and went through the gate.

Though, I can't say I'm not concerned, but if someone comes to us, I need to protect what's important.

"You okay, Tarumi?" Syl looked back at me and the sun gave her mysterious charm, I was not expecting.

"…It's fine, just setting priorities seems to got much easier since coming to this world."

"Oh, really?"

Yeah, and I guess it's thanks to you, Syl. Corners of my mouth crooked in a smile as I looked at her slightly confused look.

"Yeah, now let's get looking for those mushes!"

"Yeah!"

Though we said that, there were none in our vincinity, and even when I send Spirits to look for them, they found nothing.

"Aaah, this is so… maybe some other monster scared them away… we might find that one before we find the mushes."

"Yeah, you're right. Anyway you said you wanted to enlarge the space in my bag with a magic stone. I was wondering where we could find them."

"Usually you find them as minerals in dungeons, but they are not as valuable, so they are only brought back when a request is made."

"Why are they not valuable?"

"Oh, I mean for adventurers! Only blacksmiths, enchanters and mages buy them most of the time with the second group making the most of the numbers. We should be able to buy it from the guild but you need to be at least Yellow ranked."

"Sky blue?"

"Oh yeah, that receptionist didn't said anything about ranks right? First is White and Gray. Then the ranks go up in this order: Yellow, Sky blue, Lime, Orange, Blue, Green, Red, and finally Black. That is the highest rank."

"I see, so we need to make our through Gray to make it… aaaah, that actually sounds like a pain…"

SCRI-RIIIIIIIII!!!!

Suddenly, a loud roar could be heard from little way afar from us.

"A beast?"

"More like a giant bug."

"Spirits lead the way!" I said in a commanding voice, which I was not really used to, unless under high pressure and stress.

"You got better at using spirits, I almost feel useless here," Syl smiled mysteriously, yet I could feel sadness in her tone.

"What are you talking about? I can't read this words letters, honestly I'm glad I at least understand the language."

"Huh? But in the guild… is that why you were taking pictures?"

"Yep. I can understand the pictures, but the text was a no go for me."

"Yeah, let's get to you to learn the language before it gets us in trouble."

"Thanks… The spirits located the monster, let's go."

"Yeah!"

We broke into run. As the surroundings of the city were mostly flatlands, only places where monsters could hide were at the hilly area to the west from us or in forest even further west.

"How far is it?"

"Behind the hill over there!" I pointed at the closest hill to us, "There is a giant bug and three human-like figures."

"Alright!" Syl picked up her bow from her pouch without slowing down, "I still have some arrows with paralysis effect, should I use them?"

"Let's see the situation first. I might need you to cover for me."

"Okay! Leave your back to me!" Syl smiled brightly as we run up the hill.

Once on top, we could see what was happening down below. There was a mantis-like monster good four meters tall. While it was hunged over, it was still terrifyingly tall. The three human figures the spirits told me about were adventurers protecting a carriage. From what I could see, the carriage was filled with beastman and other types of demi-humans.

"Tsk. A slave trader. Let's leave them to their fate. A hunter mantis is Lime ranked monster."

"So, if we defeat it, our ranks would go high up, right?"

"I guess…"

"Don't think badly of me, I don't want to help slavers or anything, but this may be a chance to get what we need—"

As I said that, one of the adventurer guards, attacked the mantis, but was instantly repelled by it's tough exoskeleton. In next second the mantis attacked with it's scythe arms and locked the man in place. With a horrible scream the man died, having his head bitten off.

What disgusted me even more was the mantis's next action. Instead of eating the man in it's grasp, the mantis let it's body fall to the ground and looked at the remaining adventurers with sadistic pleasure.

"Also, I forgot to tell you, but I really hate bugs," with that, I broke into run of the hill while maintaining my posture to prevent fall.

"Eat this! Spiral wind lance!!!!" I chanted a spell I've seen in the book and released it from my left hand.

Wind blew around me with greenish light and formed a lance infront of my hand. One it grew to the size of my arm it took of, securely locked at the target.

As the mantis tried to snug another adventurer, my spell flew into it and crushed it's scythe shaped leg at the joint I aimed for.

SKI-RI-QUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!

Feeling extreme and unknown pain send the Hunter mantis into panic. Looking in direction where the pain came from, it's compound eyes locked at me.

"Come at me you overgrown ant!" I yelled at the mantis as I took out my saber that shone with the sunlight falling on it.

SKRI-RIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!

Totaly enraged, the mantis let the adventurers be and went at me.

"Spirits of the wind give me speed!" As I commanded the wind enveloped my feet and I flew with explosive speed. My eyes weren't used to it really much, but given I went at the mantis in straight line, I just needed to have a rough image of my enemy to strike.

SKRI-RIIIIIIIIIIII…

The cry of the mantis died down as I expertly cut of it's head.

"Just like any other bug," I cleared the blade with a slash through the air and checked on it's edge, "Cut off their head and they are down for the count… it seems like the blade have no blemishes or chips… a fine blade."

"Geez, you didn't even need my help… Anyway I'm going to take this thing appart. There are things that can be sold for high price. You go talk to those adventurers and slave trader," Syl whispered to me as she arrived at the scene.

"Yeah, I'm going," I nodded to her and turned to the group. The two men, no looking closely I found out that it was one man and one woman, the woman was just dressed same as the man that confused me at the start were sobbing at the dead body while the slave trader, a fatso with a belly as big as that Aide's lackey, went over to me, not sparing a minute to look at the dead man.

"You there!!! Was it you who used that magic?!" the fatso pointed his chubby finger at me.

"That's none of your bussiness. You have a dead body over there. You should take care of that first," I glared at him.

"Urgh… yeah, you're right… But I want to talk with you after that!!!" he pointed his finger at me once more, "My name is Gustav Monterera of the Montegrande slave company! You shall remember it well!"

As he parted ways with me, I walked behind the adventurers, taking a glance at the sobbing girl and her friend that was trying to calm her down, I picked up the scythe and returned to Syl.

"So?"

"They are trouble. I can't handle that," I scrached the back of my head as I gave her the scythe.

Now that I think back, I was always bad with crying girls. When my sister was bullied by her classmates, I always had to protect her… though I got a cringe nickname becouse of that.

"I see… Anyway, I was able to prepare the head!" Syl picked up the empty shell of the head and put it on over her helmet, "You see this thing can be a good helmet if properly processed."

"Will we find a smith in the city?"

"Human smiths are not really good. If human worked on it, it's durability would be low, I would rather a dwarf to work on it," Syl looked at the carriage meaningfully.

"I see, I will take a look, okay?"

"Thank you."

Leaving Syl to her devices, I once again returned to the carriage, where the two adventurers took out shovels and burried the headless body with the help of four slaves the slaver lent them.

"Sir, thank you for your help," the boy bowed to me when I got close, "Without you, it's most likely that I and Trisha would've died."

"It's fine, I just came here for a quest, oh, by the way my name is Tarumi."

"I'm Josh," the boy and I shook our hands as we introduced ourselves.

"How is she?"

"Trisha? Not good. That man… Barry, was her fiancée."

"I see, sorry for your loss."

"We knew something like this may happen when we became adventurers. Though, it was only me and him in the begining, but sister insisted on joining us… anyway thank you for your help. Sir Monterera will probably want to speak to you about a reward. He's quite rich so don't worry about asking him for anything," he added silently after looking around.

"Hey! Get up you lazy shitter!" the fatso took out a whip and hit with it a girl that fell down to her knees due to exhaustion.

"What a useless dwarf, I should've let you rot in your cell…"

"Sir Monterera…" I instantly went behind him and grabbed shoulder of his raised arm.

"A-Ah! Sir adventurer you've surprised me!"

"Give me that one."

"What?"

"I want that slave. Give it to me."

"B-but she's… not disciplined, I could not sell you a deffective goods!"

"Deffective…" the girls weak raspy voice reached my ears, which triggered my hand to tighten.

"Then conscidered it my payment for saving your ass."

"I-I understand! But if she misbehaves it's not on me!!!" the fatso screamed with fear in his eyes.

"Thanks, I'm glad you are such an understanding man," I gave him a warm smile and went to the girl.

"Ah, ah…"

"Get up."

"Ye-yes…" the girl weakly raised herself to her knees and stood up wobbily. The girl's eyes however were like a those of a fish, dead and empty, "Ah…"

The girl fainted and started to fall.

"Geez, you are really a troublemaker, you know that?" I held her up and brought her to Syl who finished stacking the mantis into her tiny pouch.

"You've procured a dwarf… that was fast," Syl checked on the girl in my arms with a warm smile, though a slight pout appeared on her cheek.

"Hold her for a minute. Oy! We are going to continue our quest, do you guys think you will make it to the town in one piece?"

"Um, yes! Thank you really much!" Josh bowed and the girl next to him, Trisha, did the same.

With a wave we left the place and headed for the nearby forest. Placing the girl in shade of a tree we took a break and ate our breadsticks. And who would have quessed, they were really tasty, just as Syl said.

This world still have a lot of things I do not know about… maybe I should just ditch this and go live in the forest? It wouldn't be so bad, given I have Syl with me, oh and this girl now too…