Chapter 1 (1/2)

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.

There he saw a board that gave adventurers, people who did things that normal people would not do for a living, jobs in the form of quests.

“Man, there are more of them now”

The board was filled up with pieces of papers advertising quests up to the point where you couldn’t see the board itself. Loren heard the adventurers in front of it, trying to decide what quest to go on.

“The village was south of Vesta. Well, it was close to the Forest of Chaos”

“But it wasn’t that deep into it. Does a monster that could destroy a whole village even live there?”

“Maybe it was a herd of them. That would be a catastrophe for farmers”

Although Loren was listening to their chatter, it wasn’t the fact that the adventurers were loud and distracting or the reason behind the destruction of the village that was the problem. The problem that he was facing was,

“I’m broke……”

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.

But there was another problem.

“There’s no one for me to go on a quest with……”

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.