After finishing all the reporting, the receptionist girl quickly scribbled a result report while pressing her temple with her left hand.
“A vengeful spirit spider. It’s not a monster that should appear in such a place originally… Why on earth…?”
“I wouldn’t know. Maybe there’s a dungeon underneath the mine shaft?”
I shook my head and answered.
The dungeon’s energy might have corrupted the soul of an old man who died harboring resentment, turning it into a vengeful spirit and overlaying it on a giant spider’s body.
Personally, I thought it might be something like that.
“First the Abyss Priest incident, and now this… It seems like accidents and incidents never end around you, Ms. Hilde…”
The receptionist girl let out a faint sigh. I had similar thoughts, so I had no room to argue.
“Oh, speaking of which, what happened to the Abyss Priest? Was he subjugated?”
The ‘Lowborn Slaughterer’, was it? The cruel and vicious serial killer who massacred entire villages of weak slash-and-burn farmers to create undead.
We had found traces of him in the dungeon we went to on Amy’s request and reported it, so by now, it wouldn’t be strange if the subjugation had been completed.
“Ah, about that…”
However, the receptionist girl clicked her tongue and said that, surprisingly, the subjugation of the villain had ended in failure.
The church side had dispatched paladins and priests to attack the dungeon ‘Crude Catacomb’ where he was hiding, but…
“It seems the number of undead was more than expected. Several undead surpassing wights also appeared.”
As expected of an Abyss Priest, I suppose. They say he had created an army of undead on the fourth floor of the dungeon.
To the extent that there seemed to be no end to the fighting.
“So, for now, they retreated after just sealing the dungeon entrance, and have requested large-scale personnel reinforcement from our guild.”
Ah, so that’s why the guild was strangely bustling. Since it’s a request from the church side, both the merit points and compensation should be considerable.
Large-scale personnel reinforcement would mean at least dozens of people would be mobilized, so the risk wouldn’t be too great either.
“When does that request start? What are the participation conditions?”
“In three days. Copper token level adventurers with a minimum of 3 people. It shouldn’t be a problem for you, Ms. Hilde, but Mr. Kikel won’t be able to participate.”
So they’re not accepting riffraff like iron or wooden tokens? That’s a bit unfortunate.
“Can’t be helped. Then I’ll have to find two copper token level adventurers…”
“Oh, Hilde! Is that you, Hilde?”
While I was looking around the request office wondering if there might be any useful people, I heard a familiar voice and turned my head towards it.
“It really is Hilde!”
A magician girl with short red hair and light freckles. Amy was waving at me, with a copper token level adventurer badge around her neck.
…Good, it seems I’ve found one person already.
“It’s been a while, Amy.”
I nodded with a smile as if pleased to see her. Amy grinned and quickly came over, sitting on the chair next to me.
“Have you been well? I see you’re wearing a copper token, so I guess you’ve been recognized as a full-fledged magician.”
“That’s right. As soon as I got rid of my apprentice label, I immediately registered as an adventurer too. Now I’m a proper full-fledged magician and copper token adventurer, you know?”
I excused myself to the receptionist girl and had a brief chat with Amy.
Had she heard about the Abyss Priest?
Was she interested in joining the church’s request?
How did my armor end up in such a state?
Things like that.
“A vengeful spirit spider…? That’s amazing. It’s not a monster that a swordswoman can take down alone.”
As expected, Amy also couldn’t hide her surprise, covering her mouth slightly with her left hand and expressing admiration.
And was that all?
When I explained that I was planning to sell the vengeful spirit spider’s byproducts to replace my armor, she offered to sell everything to the Magic Tower under her responsibility.
She said she could get a price about 30% higher than if an adventurer not affiliated with the Magic Tower sold it.
She asked for only 10% as her share, and since it was still an extremely profitable deal even after giving her that, I readily agreed.
* * *
After completing party registration with Amy, we posted a notice recruiting one more copper token level adventurer and left the request office for the city center.
To hand over the vengeful spirit spider’s head and journal to the church side, report the village chief’s patricide, sell the obtained loot to the Magic Tower, and use that money to get new equipment.
Of course, since Wolfgang had no share in the vengeful spirit spider’s loot, we parted ways with him as soon as we left the request office, just handing over his request reward.
“Hmm. I’m overjoyed to have met such good companions. I hope we can meet again next time.”
Meet again next time, how could he say such a thing? It was a hair-raising curse.
After that, we went to the Magic Tower and sold off all the vengeful spirit spider’s byproducts. Except for the head we needed to submit as evidence.
“The carapace and claws of a vengeful spirit spider, and even its venom sac… Hmm, you’ve brought quite rare items indeed.”
Thanks to Amy, we were able to earn considerable income.
Selling all the byproducts of the giant spiders and the vengeful spirit spider brought in nearly 50 silver coins, and even after dividing it with Amy and Laute, 25 silver remained.
Laute said she would take care of reporting to the church herself and left with the vengeful spirit spider’s head and journal, and Kikel also returned to his lodgings, saying it was getting quite cold.
Thus, only Amy was left by my side.
She didn’t leave even after selling off the vengeful spirit spider’s byproducts, and subtly suggested having a drink together since we met after a long time, but…
“Sorry, not today.”
I declined, saying I was too tired to drink and that I needed to change my armor first.
After all, I had to leave the city in just three days to fight a horde of undead.
“Is that so…? Well, if that’s the case, it can’t be helped. It’s not like today’s the only day.”
Amy let out a faint sigh as if disappointed, but readily nodded and left.
After sending Amy away like that.
I went to an armor shop in the shopping district and asked for repairs and reinforcement of my quilted armor.
While at it, I also bought a new pair of leather pants, and right after that, I went to the blacksmith to replace my broken armor and longsword with new ones.
“My, what on earth did you do to make the sword end up like this…”
The blacksmith exhaled in disbelief when he saw the longsword that was on the verge of shattering.
He couldn’t help but be astonished. I had turned a sword I had bought not long ago into scrap after just one request.
“Did you use this to break down walls or something?”
“Something similar. Anyway, I think I’ll need a much sturdier sword than this…”
“Hmm… I’ll melt it down first, mix in some black iron, and forge it anew. That’ll be much cheaper than getting a new one.”
Was it because I had spent a lot of money to get new armor fitted? Or because I had chatted about being promoted to copper token level this time?
It was a surprisingly generous offer for a merchant in this city.
“Yes. Please do that.”
I handed over the scrap-like longsword and armor to him and received the new armor, putting it on.
He said it would take about a day for the sword to be completed? Fortunately, it seemed I wouldn’t be late for the request.
* * *
And then, the next day.
“Ah, Ms. Hilde. There’s someone who wants to join Ms. Hilde’s party.”
When I went to the request office around lunchtime after sleeping in all morning, the receptionist girl handed me a copper token adventurer badge and said that as if she had been waiting.
“It’s not an unarmed combat warrior, is it?”
I asked that first.
“Hehe. No, it’s not. They say it’s a swordswoman who uses a greatsword.”
A greatsword user. That was a good addition to our forces. Anything would be better than an unarmed combat warrior, but still.
“So…”
The receptionist girl continued with a detailed explanation.
Apparently, it’s a copper token adventurer who came from Levant, an adjacent city about five days away by carriage from this Vespian?
If they were iron or wooden token, they would have had to start from wooden token without exception, but being copper token level, they were immediately recognized as copper token as soon as they registered with the Vespian guild.
“It seems they were quite a promising talent in the Levant guild. Their promotion speed even surpassed yours, Ms. Hilde, and they even have a nickname, you know?”
So their skill itself is certain. Given their fast promotion, it seems they also had no personal disqualifications.
It was an introduction that naturally raised expectations. It seemed like a better addition to our forces than I had thought.
“What’s the nickname?”
Given the positive nuance of her explanation, it probably wasn’t a stigma like ‘Iron Face’ Hilde. If so, having a nickname itself would be something worth bonus points.
It meant they had something outstanding about them.
“Hmm, just a moment…”
The receptionist girl flipped through the pages of documents on her desk, then nodded slightly as if she had found something and answered.
“Ah, here it is. So… um… ‘Raven’…?”
Raven what?
“What? Raven?”
It was a somewhat strange nickname. It didn’t seem like a compliment no matter how I looked at it.
“Yes. It’s Raven. Raven Siegfriede. They say the nickname came from their uncommon black hair.”
Black hair.
Indeed, it was an extremely rare hair color here in Hervor.
While black hair is common in the far eastern part of the continent, that’s because the inhabitants there are of a completely different race from here.
It wasn’t easy to see humans with black hair in places other than the eastern part of the continent.
Even in the original story, weren’t there only about eight people including the protagonist Kim Seung-woo?
Given such a rare hair color, it was natural in a way for them to have a nickname like Raven.
“So, was it Siegfriede? Hearing the name, it sounds like a woman, but where is she now? I’d like to meet her.”
“Ah, just a moment. Ms. Siegfriede!”
The receptionist girl looked around briefly, then called out pointing to a table placed in a corner.
Naturally, my gaze also turned in that direction.
“…”
A shaded corner seat where not a single ray of sunlight reached.
A woman with her face hidden by a hood pulled low over an old cloak was sitting quietly there.
Wearing armor with metal overlaid on leather clothes. The greatsword hilt protruding from her back was impressive.
Black curly hair close to being disheveled peeking out from under the hood. The glimpse of her eyes revealed a deep golden color.
‘Isn’t she a bit… small?’
I tilted my head and slightly furrowed my brow.
Even just looking at her seated height, she was quite small for a swordswoman. To the point where I wondered if her greatsword might be longer than her height.
I doubted whether she could even wield a greatsword like that… Well, maybe she had some kind of superhuman strength trait?
“Ms. Siegfriede?”
The receptionist girl called out again to the woman who showed no reaction even when her name was called.
“Ah. I’m sorry.”
Siegfriede finally seemed to come to her senses, raising her head abruptly and standing up, then walked quickly towards us.
While removing her hood to reveal her face.
“A child…?”
For a moment, her appearance was so youthful that such an illusion naturally arose.
“Um, I’m twenty years old…”
Siegfriede slightly lowered her head and protested. As if trying to hide her slightly reddened cheeks.
“Ah, I apologize. It’s just that you look so young.”
I immediately offered words of apology and briefly looked her up and down.
A petite build that seemed at least 10cm shorter than me. Sharp but large eyes. Long disheveled hair as if she had forgotten the concept of haircuts.
She had an appearance like a pretty orphan girl who had been picked up and washed clean.
…Is this really twenty years old? Really?
A transcendental baby face. At twenty, she’s the same age as Brunhilde, but her appearance looked about 5 years younger.