Volume 7 (1/2)

[]Warning Ier usualy coincide with the provided story which is froht Novel and Web Novel will start to diverge from eachother from this point on in some aspects

”Het? Rudeus which do you think is better?”

[Mana Calamity]

The term commonly used to describe the event known as the [Fedoa Territory Metastasis Incident] which happened 5 years ago

Since that time, it was reported that the territory's feudal lord, Sauros Boreas Greyrat, was executed

From the city of Roa, the mayor, Philip Boreas Greyrat, and his wife, Hilda Greyrat, also reportedly died

And in the latest reports, the daughter of Philip, Eris Boreas Greyrat, was also listed as deceased

With this conclusion, the High Minister, Darius Silva Ganius, teree camp's search and rescue efforts, and instead, he redirected the focus of that organization to land recla

Only private parties continued independent rescue efforts

In this way, the Asura Kingdom's involvement with the Mana Calamity ended

But for those who still had concerns involving the Mana Cala had ended

Year of Aron 422

The location is Basherant Dukedom in the Northwestern part of the Central Continent

Basherant Dukedoic Nations, and as such, is one of the most powerful nations in the northern lands

In this nation, we arrive at the third city [Pipia]

He has attached himself to the city as an adventurer for a while now and has becomire] [1]

Thisto a far-off place by the Mana Calamity and is only one of thy return of several years to the Fedoa Region

He moved towards the so-called 'Northern Lands' of the Central Continent in an effort to find his still- an adventurer

It is early in the mire

Before the day begins, he hiion

He offers a prayer to his God - A quiet prayer for the 'shi+nto and Buddhist' deities that he has stored in a s that would not be accepted by the Milis Religion

No, perhaps if soion saw it, they would frown upon the nature of it, but they could never dispute the earnestness of the prayers of the faithful Quagmire

After ing into some comfortable and easy to move clothes, he does laps around the town

The Quagth is one of the basics of being an adventurer

[Though I aood is it if I can't move hen it counts?]

He does the training unique to his ho

He then performs an exercise not seen anywhere in the Basherant Dukedoround being elevated and lowered, repeatedly by using only the arms

He repeats this activity 100 times

Afterwards, he changes positions onto his back and proceeds to raise and lower his upper torso 100 times as well

It is said that he never misses these daily activities

[Muscles are enviable! They work everyday without fail without needing to be reconciled in some way Like a lady friend But, unlike the lady who disappears suddenly, muscles will never become a traitor]

Said the Quag voice had a bit of loneliness to it

After he finishes the oes to the town

Where he goes is a dining room on the first floor of an inn to have his breakfast

The average aeneral populace is about 2-3 times more

The cost of food in the Northern Lands is high, and occasionally, one has to skip a meal here and there to save coin

However, the Quagmire is different from even the normal adventurer

He eats

He eats about 12 times the amount of food even a normal adventurer does!

Vigorously eating dishes that are piled high with rice and beans

The th

After eating, he heads towards the Adventurer's Guild

The place where the town's ather

When Quagmire enters, he is at the center of everyone's attention

The reason being is that Quagmire has no official party affiliation

Oh, but he will temporarily join one if the situation requires it, or if it is a dangerous mission to solo

The dereat

And today, like usual, the leader of an S-rank adventuring party called out to him

[Oi!, Quagon has been spotted here in the Northern Lands!]

The S-rank Adventurer [Soldat Heckler]

The man hadin the Northern Lands

He had attained the swordsmanshi+p ranks of:

Sword God Style: Advanced

Water God Style: Intermediate

He also is one of the most famous adventurers around this area

He is the leader of [Stepped Leader], a party affiliated with a larger clan known as [Thunderbolt], which is active throughout the whole Basherant Dukedom

It is a coation requests

[Stepped Leader]'s party composition consists of 6 people

2 Swordsmen,

1 Warrior,

2 Healers, and

1 Magician

The party had a 7th ician at one point, but he died in an unexpected accident

So their firepoas lacking

[C'mire, why don't you join our party officially already? You surely can't be feeling uncoht?]

Much like that, Soldat has invited the Quagmire just shakes his head in rejection

[There's no point in sticking around that long I'h here already, and I have other countries I must still visit and spread my name]

Quag that

Family

He was searching for his mother

However, Quagmire knows that because it has been five years since the Mana Calamity, the discovery of any new information on her whereabouts will not be easy to uncover

So, Quagmire spreads word of his name while he carefully searches each country he visits fro

If he becoh in each area, surely a fanize and find him, or so he speculates

[Ah, but still, at least join us for the stray Red Dragon Extermination!]

Quagmire received the job request

If it is successful, he will becoon

So together they went to the counter and registered the party

[U is it? Where are the other parties who are also participating?]

[There'll bejob like this in a while Everyone will be motivated to join!]

Dragon exterether

To do so with only one party is pretty much suicidal

Five parties expressed desire to join in the Dragon Extermination

S-rank party [Stepped Leader]

A-rank party [Road Knights]

A-rank party [Iron Lump Corps]

A-rank party [Cellar World]

A-rank party [Drunken Jokers]

In total, a 25 roup

A certain kill group would consist of at least 7 or ht now is rather low

[Oi! Oi! It's a Red Dragon you know? It's a huge bounty, so where is everyone already? Everyone here is A-rank, where are all the S-rankers at?]

[Word is that a new labyrinth was discovered out in the east, so everyone went to take a look at it]

Soldat was impatient

Inside the Adventurer's Guild, one hed then chimed in

[I guess with just this few, it's probably impossible to accomplish it after all]

So the party [Cellar World] withdrew from the raid, and there were just 21 members left

It seemed that a total dissolution of the mission could be expected at this point

With the number of people left, it was a very risky proposition Everyone thought so

At that point, Soldat spoke with great authority

[Alright! 21 People, that er cut from the bounty!]

Everyone was anxious enough, but after that, no one said anything disheartening

21 adventurers walked the chilly tundra of the Northern Lands

A thin layer of snodered the trails

The leaves fell fro from the chilly air

Soon, the long winter will come

[Quagmire, Can you scout ahead?]

Following the order of Soldat, Quagic

He brought forth a pillar of earth and snow that he stood atop as it rose high up into the air, granting hireat vision for quite some distance

Quagon

One that is not difficult to be missed with continual reconnaissance

What's this?

Quag else

[Raster Grizzly at 2 o'clock See the hell up out of the snow!]

[How many are there!?]

[8no wait, 10 of the from dead ahead! And fast!]

These h

For the so few h spare energy to go wasting on small fry monsters like this

However, when evil comes, one must defend

[Everyone, spread out! Quag to need you for support!]

[Understood!]

Soldat gave the order, and four parties deployed their members

The plan was to flank the enemire's ambush

[Quagmire!]

[I'm on it!]

On Soldat's order, Quagmire moved

He was called ”Quagic

He had an a down enemies

Landing himire]

A herd of ten Raster Grizzly were funneled towards hihly adhesive mud in which they found themselves quite stuck in

”Now!”

Theout froing in and ruthlessly dispatching each and every one

No mercy

Anywas common sense to an adventurer

And in short order, the Raster Grizzly threat was eliminated

However, after dealing with these enemies, someone noticed IT

[Hey! It's the Red Dragon! It's co!]

[Ah, these Grizzlyaway from it!]

The Stray

Red Dragon

The strongest monster that exists on the Central Continent

And his prey was the group of Raster Grizzly we defeated

[Quaguy here?]

[Itin the wake of the snoder that was being kicked up by the Grizzly I didn't see it anywhere before!]

In regards to dealing with the sudden arrival of the Red Dragon, the adventurers pretty much lost their wits about them

Originally the plan was to prepare an ambush from farther away, then launch a surprise attack on it

And now, not only was there no preparation, but the dragon was launching a surprise attack on the raid group instead

There was practically no chance of winning this fight

[damn it! Retreat, everyone Retreat!]

A Red Dragon is a creature that flies in the sky

Its outer shell is resilient and is deceptively dexterous

And truth be told, a Dragon on the ground is a dreadfully powerful thing

In this chaotic scene

The Quagoes to work

[I' up the smokescreen! Please scatter while you retreat!]

Quagmire was calm

Using ic, he vaporizes the latent snow around him to raise a wall of steam

A s nature

A skilledthe enemy of its vision

However, the Stray Dragon was also clever and sharp-eyed

It took aimire

[Kuh!]

Quag group members

If he was targeted, it was his role to ive chase

Speedy Quagmire

He was alive now because of the training he did every

He knew the secret to staying alive was to be able to keep running, to keepaway

The vexed dragon's ; it opened wide, and what spewed forth was a hellish flame

In aarea was painted with fire

It was the Red Dragon's finishi+ng move: [Fire Breath]

Everything in the path of the flame was incinerated

Was the Quagmire killed by this?

No, He was still alive

Quaglanced backward quickly and instantly raised a titanic wall of water

As Quag steam

Ee of his robe

He paid it noof rock

The rock bullet shot forth at a high speed and pierced the scaly hide of the Red Dragon

[GYAaaaa!]

Rock bullets were released one after another

The Red Dragon ed to avoid several of them

However, it could not avoid all of the bullets that traveled at such a high speed

The Red Dragon iht

The Red Dragon was also a wise creature It ih offensive power

The Quagive chase

Did he let the precious prey escape?

It seemed so at the time

[GUKYAaaaAA!]

The howl of the Red Dragon echoed

Before it could get away, a quagmire came to be in existence

The Red Dragon found itself having sunk into a highly adhesive ical power forth The Red Dragon madly tries to escape fro

[Ah, captured]

The little Quag so unexpected, then proceeded to son with an enormous mass of rock

The scattered adventurers returned

[Jeez, Quaguy]

[Seeic Continent paid off]

[But still, to defeat THAT, you have to be on another level of strong!]

The coance

He knew that acting arrogant noould just cause friction for everyone

[The raid was close to certain death, right? I mean, I didn't think for a second that I could defeat this thing just by ure out how all of us are going to handle looting this Dragon's corpse for the return trip]

So he extends the sense of achieveon to every one of the adventurers

In doing so, he ensures that fahout the country

[All of us? Are you good with that?]

[I can't loot it all by myself, and if I leave it here, otten, because I must burn the body soon It'll be probleon Zombie]

Thus, the day of the Quagmire is over

Actually, locating the Red Dragon and returning from the trip took about seven actual days, but the [day] of the Quagmire was over

Today's harvest was on

After selling a fortune's worth ofin his chest

Before turning in to bed, he stops for a meal at the bar and eats a substantially smaller amount of food as compared to his breakfast

He who is devoted, prays to God gratefully for passing yet another day safely

The Good Night ritual is not so to him

Because itlost family on the morrow

--- From Rudeus's point of view ---

The nightly event

I a a meal as usual in the bar

Of course I'm by myself

The h for myself

This guy is rich and lonely

But it's not like it's a bad thing

Because I hate being crowded anyways

[It was right at that on had appeared!]

On the stage in the bar, three an to play

One stands in front of the others and with a sweet sounding voice, spins a tale The two others perfor in with a JARAN~ sound effect

The Minstrel

It's an occupation thatabout or reciting poetic tales

In the case of a big town, it's normal to be part of a Theater and to have exclusive contracts to certain places

But it's not just that

Adventurers with the occupation [Minstrel] are splendid people

They sing of their travels with other adventurers, and the tales they twist are funny and exciting

The affinity between an adventurer and ood

In addition, in this world without copyright, on a daily basis, the tales they hear are often taken in and retold in a new and unique way

There are also the tiather, share ideas, and evolve their craft

A the a band and travelling the world

Of course, even they have enough skill to fight against monsters

A singing, dancing, fighting adventurer

In this world, that is what a Minstrel is!

Occasionally, this party of threehave been seen in the Adventurer's Guild from time to time

They must have been a C-rank party

Their na Voice Band]

It was a wonderfully ostentatious name

However, they weren't really talented, and their oorks were unpopular

In an effort to keep creating so more popular, I received an interview request about this and that and the subjugation job I did the other day

The song being sung now is the story they heard me tell of my journey

I consider the one who's singing

Is he doing alright?

Hmm, it's okay

In my previous life, I was crazy about music

I tried to produce a song for a certain Vocaloid[2], but it ended up as a complete failure

Since then, the only musical instrument I continue to say I can play is the KETSU-Drum [3]

I am always up to the task to play those drums

They twisted a tale just from the story I told them of what happened

Even if they aren't talented, their creativeness will at least be accepted

The song is played in the style of a village's storytelling old gramps

It reram

It should be interesting to hear it

But the narration is bland, and the song will likely remain unpopular

Even if they were to change it now, the heckling has already started

Even I, the actual hero of the story, would say it is terrible

Around the tis

BAM!

Suddenly the door to the bar is thrown open

A chilly air blew in

Eyes stared

People trembled

[At last I've finally found you, ”Rudeus of the Quagmire”!]

There stood aEar Tribe with hair like French bread

While it looked like an adventurer, its clothes were suitably dress-like

It wore a backpack and had a sword and shi+eld hung around the waist

The only word needed to describe her face was Beautiful

Al ears, and lustrous blonde hair

A slender body with a flat chest and long ears

It certainly feels like this is what's called an 'Elf'

Before she could point a finger

All eyes were fixed on me

[Geh ”Quagmire” isn't here?]

Thenoore an unpleasant face

I disregard it

Because I'm tolerant

I turn back and look at the Elf

[Have I finally been found at last?]

I suitably replied

However, she doesn't recognize me for the moment

I certainly haven't done anything in the last few years to warrant soe

I work in order to make my name famous

The namire'

I help others, I don't pick fights, and I aet a bad reputation

I have often been given thanks to by those I wasn't really acquainted with, but this is the first time I have been talked to this way by such a beautiful woman

She is probably one of those types too

But then again, my intuition tells me differently

[Since you are famous, you were easily found]

[Eh, just a o, didn't you say you had 'finally' found me?]

[Actually, I thought you were still to the East a bit more]

The woman said as such and quietly watched me with such beautiful eyes

Soan to slide down the side of her mouth

She quickly licks it away

Heh, is it love at first sight for her?

Or perhaps she desires my body which has recently become quite toned

I have been training a lot recently, and I arowth period

And so of course muscles would form

Muscles

[Is there so?]

[No, no, there is nothing wrong at all!]

The Elvish woman cleared her throat with a sound like 'Ko~hon[4]' then took a seat next to me

Suddenly the bar was filled hispers of ”Ooohhh!”

I heard somire's woman]

What a surprising thing to hear

How is it possible that I have soeous as this woman?

[Fuu~]

She unloads the backpack and places it by her feet, grabs a chair, and with a bang, it hits the ground next to me, then she sits down close

CLOSE

WAY TOO CLOSE

If I was still a DT[5] I would think ”What's there to like about this guy?”

[My naonroad A former party member with your father, Paul]

[Hmm]

I see

Paul's friend

Itfor me

[Of course, I am also a friend of Roxy as well]

[EH!! A friend of sensei! Where is sensei now?]

It's been a long time since I've heard the name Roxy spoken from another person's mouth

I was excited to hear about it so I leaned in closer

Elinalise didn't answer the question I wanted to hear about the most

I leaned in closer still and practically kissed my ear to her mouth

[I heard it, you know, that you had a on]

[Eh well sort of, though, everyone and I was nearly killed]

[I can understand why you are Roxy's pride and joy]

But there was a lotwith it

Coon God Orsted, the pressure was significantly less

If you consider a ely calm

[To hear that I' after all Is it because I'm emotional about it inside?]

[Your chest It's rather strong]

Before I realized it, Elinalise was feeling around my upper arm and chest with her hands

It tickles

She said I was strong, and I didn't feel egotistical about it

[What's this?]

The fingers of Elinalise were touching so

It was the pendant I had received from Lilia

[I see, I see It's cute and cluave it to you?]

[My family's house maid]

[Maid? by chance, are they of the Long Ear Tribe?]

[Eh? No, she's not why do you ask?]

Oh daed topics

[It's not a big deal, however]

Elinalise seemed to particularly mind the sword attached to her waist

She shows me what is attached to the scabbard

It is a similarly shaped pendant

However, it is far more elaborate than mine

Mine is an amateur's work - hers is definitely professional

[It seems we match]

Elinalise has seeled in closer and closer to me

What's going on here?

She has been way too extremely frisky with me for a while now

[Is yours frouy you really like?]

[Yeah, he's a goodreally I wanted to orous and A~MA~ZING]

I wonder if I' teased

I'm a bit excited

[Well, the Onee-chan here is also quite beautiful]

Hmph

I am not such a DT that I will panic when teased

So, I quickly push a finger up to closejaw

[Nnn]

Then, Elinalise quietly closed her eyes

It was the full gesture of waiting for a kiss

Even though it seemed like a joke, her hand reached around the back of my head and moved in

[eh?]

Seriously?

Was there the atmosphere for this?

Is it alright?

It's alright if I go Zukyuu~~n? [6]

The ht that, the eyes of Elinalise opened with a click sound

[Yaaa, That was my fault I'll stop here]

[You really shouldn't go that overboard with the teasing]

[I am not the kind of person to leave it at a tease with a hter of Paul

I also wish to stay friends with Roxy as well]

That explained the matter

What kind of thing happened back in those days when Paul split from his party that this woman doesn't even want to associate with his son?

Whatever, it's fine like this anyways

[Well then, Elinalise-san, do you have official business with me?]

[Sort of I caood news]

Elinalise gave me a sweet smile

On that day

I learned my mother Zenith had been located

One week has passed since I heard that Zenith has been found

I still redom

I want to head to the Begaritto Continent, but winter quickly approached

So, I decided I would stay in this country for a little while longer

The winters in the Northern Lands of the Central Continent are severe

Snow continually falls and can get as deep as 5 meters

The highway and soes when heading to foreign lands

I could use ic to stop a snow storm, melt the snow and travel onwards

However I don't know a ic to clear all the roads, so there's no way toto camp outside

I would likely meet with a disaster

Anyway, Zenith is alive, and the as that the labyrinth is being sought

Though there were a couple of proble there

And Elinalise said that there was no need to rush there

It was better to head there after the winter when the danger was minimal

So, with plans to eventually go there, I continued with imen

I wake up in the

Duringas I can, that's why right now my body moves well

After all, a healthy body is a healthy mind

In the afternoon I didn't head towards the Adventurer's Guild

It is a one-week holiday right now

I'll do training until midday, then I'll look around the market

If winter is coet appropriate clothes now

While thinking about various things, I began training

It's a bit difficult because it's a holiday

Running through the snow, I reached the outer wall of the town and assisted by ic, I climbed the hill

[Whoa~!? Say, Quago out! How about you take a break today?]

[Can't, I've got to do ]

[You're a hard worker aren't ya? Ah, that's right, can you helpa wall next time? I'll reward you with some rice!]

[If you let hter's tits, I'll rebuild your whole house!]

[Now listen here you]

[Just kidding!]

After greeting with the soldier on top of the outer wall, I jumped down to the city outskirts

Then I proceeded to run one lap around the city

Unlike the freshly snow-shoveled streets in the city interior, snow is piled high outside the wall

I run while ic

Afterexercises

I learned how to do i fro today was Ruijerd

I can ainst him

I have to train harder

Afterwards, I took the same route home

When I was returning to the hotel, I saw Elinalise appear in theof the room on the second floor

[Ah Isn't it, Rudei, err, -us, welcome home]