Chapter 1
There was a small rumor that a village was destroyed .
“That’s not an unusual thing to happen”, thought Loren, as he was drinking at a bar run by the Adventurer’s Guild .
It was unfortunate for the people in the village, but for a pioneered village that was developed to create more farmland, it kind of made sense .
It was a village that was built on land that people dared not to venture into .
To whatever that the land was home to, humans were the invaders .
If the conflict is between human beings, it would be an argument concerning right of residence . But since it is usually in lands untouched by humans, conflict with the previous residents most likely cannot be resolved by talking . If the previous residents are not happy with the new ones, destruction is the only possible destination they will end up at .
Loren then turned his slightly drunk eyes down towards the front desk of the Guild .
Loren was not originally an adventurer .
He belonged in a mercenary group, and he was a mercenary that would fight in wars for his clients .
He was there for as long as he could remember, and was there ever since, until recently the group was destroyed during a war . As a result, Loren was sitting in the back of the bar, with only a glass of alcohol to company him .
As someone who used to be a mercenary, Loren had experienced numerous victories as well as losses .
For a long time, the group was able to make it through the losses . But in the most recent battle that they participated in, their luck finally ran out . What looked like a won battle suddenly turned south, and Loren saw his group be split apart and many of his comrades being killed, but he managed to survive and escape .
Because of all that happened to him, it was not surprising that his wallet was almost empty .
The words ‘mercenary’ and ‘saving’ didn’t go along with each other, and that was true for Loren . He did not have any money saved up, or even tried to . He even had to ditch most of his belongings at the battle site .
The only thing Loren had was the leather armor he wore, his great sword, and a few silver coins in his pocket .
That was all of Loren’s possessions .
It was better than nothing, but it was clear that if he could not find a job, he would be wandering in the streets soon enough . While fingering the metal tag around his neck, he tried to think of a way to make some money .
The metal thing around his neck was his identification tag, which served as proof that you were an adventurer .
The material used to make the tag reflected your adventurer rank, and Loren’s tag was made of cheap copper .
As your rank goes up, your tag is made from a better, rarer metal, but to Loren that was of little concern .
What filled his head were ways to obtain a certain amount of money through quests that adventurers of his rank could take .
His comrades were either killed, or separated .
From the eyes of others, mercenaries were people who made a living from killing people, and were not viewed fondly .
It was natural to only know people from your own mercenary group, and have no friends or acquaintances outside of the group .
Loren was no exception, and being someone who escaped from the battlefield, there was no one he could trust .
That was also the reason that he chose to become an adventurer .
It was not hard to become an adventurer, with no background checks aside from criminal records .
He was easily able to become an adventurer by paying the registration fee .
But it was troublesome that he had no comrades to go on quests with him .
In whatever you do, doing it alone was not a good sign .
Whether the job may be slaying monsters, gathering herbs or stones, or looking for lost objects or persons, doing it alone was too dangerous .
“I guess I’ll clean the ditches . ”
It was not a job he was looking forward to doing .
To Loren’s surprise, there were many quests that seemed far from something that adventurers would do, such as cleaning ditches or going down into the sewers .
But it was less dangerous than other quests, and the rewards were unexpectedly high .
In order to survive and get food on the table, getting covered in mud and sewer waste was not a bad choice .
It wasn’t that he wanted to be covered in mud and grime, but as a war veteran, if someone asked him to choose between battle trenches and sewers, he would choose the sewers . He was willing to turn a blind eye on smell and unfavorable working conditions if it meant earning money .
Plus, ditches and sewers were within human living areas which made the job safer than most, even when alone .
“Hey you . You’re looking for a quest, aren’t you?”
Loren looked up and saw a young man with blond hair wearing a new set of leather armor and a sword by his side .
“If this were back when I was a mercenary, I would definitely refuse,” thought Loren as he observed the young man sitting in front of him .
If you accepted every job offer that came to you, you wouldn’t be able to live long as a mercenary .
Gathering information and performing background checks on the client, as well as the area of operation was the norm for Loren .
But this was an exception .
To put it simply, it was because he had no money .
In society, people won’t take you seriously without any money to back you up .
Loren asked, thinking that the guy was looking for a frontline because he already had a quest in mind .
“I told you, it’s an easy quest . We just need to hunt some goblins that appeared in the forest,”
the young man laughed, while Loren could do nothing but nod awkwardly .