Chapter 2 (1/2)

Loren knew in his head what goblins were.

Goblins were ugly creatures. Their color ranged from green to dark green, and were the size of a child.

They could be found almost anywhere and reproduced quickly.

They were ferocious monsters but had low intelligence, and were not that strong either.

But their high reproduction rates and strength in numbers were not to be underestimated.

There was an undeniable fact that goblins could mate and reproduce with almost any living thing that has reproductive organs, and fully grow during the span of a few days.

Although new adventurers hunt them day by day, they show no sign of going extinct.

“No wonder he says it’s an easy quest,” thought Loren as he gazed at the rest of the swordsman-like young man’s party members.

The young man’s name was Sarfe.

He was quite new to the job of an adventurer himself, and dreamed of being a hero. While Sarfe was going on and on about his dreams, Loren couldn’t understand what made Sarfe be this optimistic, despite being similar ages. As Sarfe went on, Loren decided not to pay much attention to him.

Siting next to Sarfe was a girl with short brown hair dressed like a thief. She was looking at Sarfe, who was still going on about his dream to become a hero, with sparkling eyes and a small blush.

Loren recalled that her name was Naren.

She was Sarfe’s childhood friend and left her village along with Sarfe to become an adventurer. With nimble movements and skillful fingers, she was the party’s thief.

Although the class name is thief, they are not criminals.

The class ‘thief’ as an adventurer is completely different from the criminal ‘thief’, and as an adventurer, it is legal to introduce yourself as a ‘thief’.

Their job is to locate and disable traps as well as pick and open locks. Loren had no idea as to why the class was called ‘thief’, just like the criminal ‘thief’.

“I guess they couldn’t think of a good name for the class,” thought Loren as moved his gaze to the next person.

Next to the thief was a female magician wearing a blue robe and a staff propped next to her, and was listening to Sarfe with a bored expression.

Although she acted annoyed by Sarfe, Loren could see that she glanced at Sarfe every time brushed her blond hair out of her eyes and let out a small sigh.

It was obvious that she was only acting annoyed and was very intrigued by Sarfe.

Her name was Oxy, and although she didn’t know Sarfe as long as Naren, she met them the day Sarfe and Naren became adventurers, and formed a party together.

She was around the same age as the two, but she graduated from a school for magicians, and her staff was proof of that.

Sarfe told Loren that she was able to use 3 spells a day, but Loren had no idea how impressive that was because he didn’t know any magicians during his days as a mercenary.

Magicians were usually hired by aristocrats or royalty, and the ones who weren’t were usually adventurers. Loren knew of no one who was a magician that was a mercenary.

Since Sarfe told him so proudly, he decided that 3 spells a day must be an extraordinary feat, but wondered if a person who can only use 3 spells a day be useful at all.

Since Loren didn’t want the party to hate him, he decided not to say it out loud.

Loren believed that in order to survive as a mercenary, there was a need to read between the lines and not create a bad atmosphere.

Loren then looked at the last person.

Sitting next to Oxy was a girl wearing a white colored priest’s robe and her black hair tied up in a ponytail.

Her name was Lapis.

As a priest she served the god of knowledge, and continually glanced at Loren with apologetic eyes and a troubled smile.

She was also invited by Sarfe to join the party, and she knew them longer than Loren but shorter than Oxy.

She became a full-fledged priest not too long ago, but instead of working for the church, she became an adventurer in order to see what the world was like to gain experience.

Priests prayed to their deity to perform divine arts, and Lapis told Loren in an embarrassed manner that her skill in divine arts was not that great, and she can only use divine arts twice a day.

Loren didn’t understand why she was acting embarrassed, but assumed it was because she couldn’t use divine arts as frequently as other priests.

Same with magicians, from Loren’s knowledge, there were almost no priests that worked as mercenaries.

They usually worked in the church, and the few that did come out of the church would not willingly work as a mercenary.

Loren had never seen a divine art, but he had thought a number of times how having a priest that can use divine arts, which can heal injuries and poison, would be beneficial to the group.

By this time, Loren thought that Sarfe would get bored of talking, but seeing that he was still at it, Loren interrupted him by saying,

“Can we talk about the quest now?”

Loren sighed inside as he looked at Sarfe, who looked disappointed being stopped from talking, and the two girls gave Loren dirty looks as well.

Although Loren was low on money, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he joined a difficult party to work with.

One problem was that Loren just became an adventurer and had no experience at all, but the rest of the party did not have much more than he did.

The other problem was that everyone else in the party except for Sarfe was female.

The party was balanced class-wise, but was unbalanced gender-wise.

In a mercenary group, there are usually no women.