I'm Not the Hero! Volume 3, page 15
Hence why we’d struck out into the unknown to find new dungeons no one had discovered yet. As a result, we’d come to be known as the Special Scouting Team of Freelea’s Adventurers’ Guild. However, even if we spent most of our time touring the unexplored frontiers, we had to go back to civilization every now and then—no matter how much you stuffed your Inventory before an expedition, you always ran out of something or the other after some time passed, and every once in a while you needed time to rest and recover after weeks in the wilderness.
We tended to go back to the nearest village once or twice a month to resupply and take a break, so anyone who wanted to reach us usually sent a letter to that village. And this time when we’d returned, the letter waiting for us turned out to be far more important than we’d realized.
It had been sent by Old Man Eld. He’d been our mentor when we’d been brats just starting out as adventurers, and he was also Freelea’s Guild Master. Though according to the letter we’d just gotten, it seemed he’d retired and Veteram had stepped up to take over his duties.
Are you serious...?
Needless to say, the three of us were shocked when we read the letter. Not because Veteram had become Guild Master, though. We were familiar with Veteram, since he was quite famous in Freelea. Plus, we knew that Eld had actually been asking Veteram to take over for him for a while now.
Honestly, we’d also thought Veteram would make for a suitable successor. As adventurers we were about as skilled as Veteram, but we lacked the charisma he did. That man drew people to him in a way we never could. Besides, he was the kind of person who gave it his all not for himself, but for the sake of others. He was a far cry from us brats who’d only gotten stronger for ourselves.
Still, it’s too soon.
While we had no qualms with Veteram being the next Guild Master, the thing that bothered us was why he’d succeeded the position now of all times. Eld was old, no doubt, but he was healthy enough that he could easily keep going for another 20 years if he wanted to. More importantly, Veteram himself had said he would rather stay an active adventurer for another decade or so. That was in fact why he’d initially rejected Eld’s request to succeed him.
If Veteram had retired from adventuring, then something serious must have happened. Either he’d gotten injured so badly he couldn’t keep adventuring, or something unexpected had happened to Eld or the city that had led to Veteram taking up the post earlier than intended.
However, Eld’s letter made no mention of why he’d retired. Instead he’d written: “The world has changed greatly. You should return to Freelea; I promise you won’t regret it!”
His handwriting had been as steady as always, proving that he was still as energetic as he used to be. And so we’d made our way back to Freelea, more confused than worried really.
❈❈❈
I know you said the world had changed, but this is too much change! I thought to myself as I stared at the completely transformed Guild building.
It had been only been a few months since we’d last been in Freelea, but Eld had greeted us with a smile at the front gates, looking more lively than ever now that he’d been freed from the burdens and responsibilities of being Guild Master. We’d asked him repeatedly what he’d meant in his letter, but he’d just grinned and said nothing. The whole time he’d just asked us about what we’d been up to, until we’d gotten fed up and demanded he let us know what was going on. To which he’d replied, “It’ll be faster if you guys see it for yourselves. Go check out the Adventurers’ Guild.”
“What the heck happened?” I muttered.
The city streets had seemed normal enough. Freelea had been bustling like usual, and we’d let the nostalgia of human civilization sink in for a while as we’d leisurely made our way to the Guild. The only difference from the Freelea we’d remembered was that there had been cloth-covered barrels set up on every street corner, but we’d figured that was just preparations for a festival of some sort or the other. Honestly, our steps had started to grow heavy with how similar Freelea seemed.
“I hope that old man hasn’t gone senile,” I’d muttered after we’d parted ways with him. Eld had just handed us a gift, saying, “Sorry it’s a hand-me-down, but I hope you find it useful.”
Despite his words, the gift the old man had given us had just been a plain old Anti-paralysis Ring.
Maybe it was one he used while still active as a Guild Master or something, I thought.
The only thing special about it was that the number S-91 had been engraved into it. Of course, a ring like this was quite useful for newbie adventurers, but you found tons of them while exploring dungeons and we already had a stock ourselves. I didn’t wear them normally, since that would mean losing the effects of one of my currently equipped rings. The one I could most afford to remove would be my Strength Ring, but as the party’s attacker and scout I needed to boost my Attack power as much as possible. Plus, high offense matched my fighting style.
Eld used to be an adventurer himself, surely he knows all of that.
Difficult though it was to believe, perhaps Veteram had taken over for Eld because Eld had lost his marbles. But then we’d reached the Adventurers’ Guild and all of our doubts had been blown away.
“Dax,” Geeko said, and I turned to him. “What the flying fuck is going on here?”
I just shook my head at his flabbergasted voice. Eld clearly hadn’t gone senile. Something truly monumental must have happened to the Guild. The question was what.
Baltore, my other party member, suddenly piped up. “Dax, Geeko. Look at the seat over there.”
Though Baltore looked like an overly cautious bodybuilder, the truth was he was the brains of our group. We looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw a man whose presence was so overwhelming he was distinctly noticeable even in the crowd.
“That man’s wearing desert tribe garb. Also, I’ve seen that face somewhere before. I’m pretty sure that’s the A-rank adventurer, Dean the Sand Lord.”
“He came all the way here from the desert?!”
Most desert dwellers were insular folk who rarely interacted with outsiders or left their home region. Desert tribe adventurers were a bit more sociable than most, but it was still rare to see a desert tribe adventurer in a big city like this. Especially an A-rank one.
Someone like Dean the Sand Lord showing up would certainly cause a stir in the city, but it seemed there were more surprises yet to come. Baltore pointed to another person close to Dean.
“He’s not the only one here. Look at that group staring at the quest board. They’re a famous party from the empire. And the woman sitting on the table over there is from the Republic.”
“Are you saying people from all around the world came specifically here to Freelea for something?”
“I can’t say for sure, but it’s a possibility,” Baltore said, looking more happy than shaken. He was a man who hated stagnation and loved change, so it made sense that he was enjoying this.
Just then, a bell rang out in a familiar pattern, and I felt a bit of relief at hearing something I recognized.
“Congratulations! Pretty Cats, your party has advanced to D-rank!”
All of the adventurers in the room clapped and cheered as the receptionist announced the promotion.
Man, that takes me back. I guess even when the world changes there are still some things that don’t.
I clapped along with everyone else, finally feeling like I’d come back home. But then, as I applauded, I realized I recognized the party name.
Isn’t that the...? It is!
It was the name of the party of young girls who’d passed me on the way in.
We were in their shoes once long ago.
D-rank was still a beginner rank, but if you could advance to D-rank it meant you were a real adventurer now. Putting aside a few special exceptions, adventurers always started at Rank E, so the promotion from E to D was the first real hurdle an adventurer faced. There was no age requirement to rank up, and promotions were based solely on skill. Still, if you didn’t learn how to fight monsters efficiently and grow stronger, you could be stuck at E rank forever.
Everyone in the Guild had congratulated us brats when we’d gone from Rank E to D as well. That had been the moment where we’d gone from nobodies to adventurers people actually recognized and respected. It had been a defining moment in my life. I figured these girls were probably overjoyed too, since they were even younger than I’d been when I’d first ranked up.
“We’re prodigies, so of course we’d rank up this quickly! Anyway, let us rent out that equipment again!”
To my surprise, the girls seemed completely unmoved by the fact that they were D-rank now and apparently were already looking to go on their next quest.
Wh-What’s with those girls? I thought incredulously.
The receptionist seemed used to their attitude, and she just let out a resigned sigh as she started fishing for the equipment they requested. “Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about your reservation. Oh, and also...” The receptionist lowered her voice to a whisper, but thanks to my sharpened senses as our party’s Scout, I was still able to hear her. “That ring you wanted was returned yesterday. You can borrow it now if you’d like.”
“Yaaay!” Cried one of the girls. She grabbed her comrades’ hands and started jumping up and down, far more excited about the ring than she had been about her promotion.
As I watched, the receptionist waved the girl forward, and the two vanished deeper into the Guild hall. I was completely lost.
“Did our Guild have an equipment rental service?” Geeko asked, looking confused.
“Hmm. Maybe the reason there’s so many newbies at the Guild is because a service like that started up recently,” Baltore mused.
If the Guild was lending out powerful equipment to newbie adventurers, that would explain why there were so many of them here, and why they all looked so hopeful.
“I can’t say I like it myself,” I muttered.
It was true that newbies would have an easier time clearing dungeons if they had stronger equipment, but if they grew to rely on equipment for everything they wouldn’t become strong enough to handle the truly difficult dungeons. Besides, you needed to be decently strong yourself to effectively use strong equipment. Honestly, I felt like an equipment rental system like this did more harm than good.
“Oh, looks like they’re back,” Geeko said as the girls returned from whatever room they’d gone into.
Let’s see what they got. Is the Guild handing out mythril equipment, or orichalcum?
I looked on, half-jealous and half-curious. But then we saw what equipment the girls were carrying in their arms and our jaws dropped open.
“What?!”
❈❈❈
“Hold on!” I shouted, calling out to the Pretty Cats party.
I’d followed them out of the Guild and waited until we were on a deserted street to talk to them.
The three of them jumped in surprise, then warily turned to me. “What do you want? We need to tweak the equipment we borrowed so we can’t stay and chat.”
The girl tried to keep her voice even, but I could sense the slight nervousness in her tone.
Little girl or not, she’s still an adventurer it seems, I mused. Her reaction was appropriate for someone who fought deadly monsters on a day to day basis. Which was precisely why I’d wanted to warn her.
“Your equipment is exactly what I wanna talk about.”
“Huh. Don’t tell me you’re trying to steal it from us, old timer. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“O-Old timer?!” Geeko shouted, looking mildly offended.
I held out a hand to stop him. From their perspective, we certainly were old, considering they were twelve or thirteen at most. Plus, even though we were A-rank adventurers, we weren’t famous the way Veteram was.
Also, though I didn’t want to admit it, I knew we looked pretty scary. Anna from the bar had said I looked rugged and cool, but I didn’t expect little girls to share that sentiment. The Pretty Cats had every reason to be wary of us based on first impressions, so I didn’t want to make things any worse.
“No, no, that’s not it. Umm, miss...”
I plastered on my best smile, but that only made the girls even warier of me. They huddled closer together and glared at me.
Why, I’m trying to be polite here!
Unable to bear watching us flounder any longer, Baltore stepped forward and explained, “Trust me, that’s not why we’re here. It’s just that we recognize that equipment that you rented, so we thought we’d warn you.”
This was why he was the talker of the party. Upon hearing what he said, the girls let go of each other and relaxed slightly.
Baltore nodded his head to me and I picked up from where he left off.
“Look, I dunno what the guys at the Guild told you, but that equipment’s garbage.”
The girls gave me a confused look. However, what I’d told them was the unvarnished truth. When they’d come out of the Guild room carrying their equipment we’d been surprised not because it was powerful but rather because it was so garbage we’d been left speechless.
Did Old Man Eld send us here because he wanted us to take a look at what was going on? I wondered.
Though we’d butted heads with the Adventurers’ Guild a few times in the past, we still trusted them a decent amount. But if they were renting out equipment this shitty, it made me wonder if the Guild’s new management was trying to prey on newbies or something.
It’s not really my style to tell people what to do, but I might need to knock some sense into Veteram.
It was the least we could do for the city of Freelea. True, we’d abandoned it to go exploring the unknown, but we still felt some attachment to our old roost.
“Huh? What do you mean it’s garbage?!”
Naturally, the girls didn’t believe us immediately. I met the leader’s gaze, noting her sharp scowl. “Sorry, let me explain from the beginning.” I pointed to the gauntlet the strong-willed girl to the right of the leader was cradling so preciously. “That gauntlet may look novel and shiny, but it’s made of basic bronze. In fact, it’s worse than the steel equipment you have on you right now.”
You could get a decent idea of how strong equipment was based on the material used to craft it. Bronze was the weakest metal, iron was stronger than bronze, steel was stronger than iron, mythril was stronger than steel, and orichalcum was stronger than mythril. To give you an idea of how weak it was, bronze equipment was so shitty even beginners didn’t use it. Stores didn’t even stock bronze equipment because there was no point. The only way most people got their hands on it was from low-tier dungeon drops. The main use for bronze equipment was more senior adventurers scamming newbies who didn’t know any better. Embarrassing though it was to admit, I myself had fallen to prey to one such scam when I’d been starting out.
“U-Uh-huh...”
The girls looked taken aback by what I’d said. Encouraged, I next pointed to the equipment the girl to the left of the leader was holding.
“Let me tell you about that ring. It’s called the Pretty Ring. It doesn’t do anything when equipped. All it’s good for is selling to shops for an okay price.”
At this point, the girls were speechless. Though it hurt my conscience a little to dash their hopes, this was for their own good.
“Finally, we have the last thing you borrowed.”
I pointed to the wristband the leader—who had her hair up in pigtails—was holding.
“That wristband is even worse than bronze equipment. It actually makes you weaker when you equip it.”
I recognized the wristband since it occasionally dropped in beginner dungeons, and for some reason it dropped with even more frequency in mid-tier dungeons. Though it was a trap item that lowered your stats, it could at least be sold for a decent amount. Whenever one of them dropped, I’d throw it in my Inventory and sell them in bulk next time I stopped by a city. I hadn’t done that yet this time around because our return to Freelea had been so hectic from the get-go.
Man, you never know what experiences might come in handy in the future.
I took a wristband out of my Inventory that looked just like the girl’s, as well as another trap item that I happened to have on hand.
“As you can see, we’ve picked up a few similar items during our own dungeon dives. I promise you the only use for these things is to sell them. Trust me, you guys should give this crappy equipment back to the Guild and...” I trailed off, noticing that the girls had exchanged glances and were now grinning at us like they’d found a fun new toy to play with. “Wh-What is it?” I asked, surprised by the sudden change.
These girls might be young enough to be our daughters, but the predatory look they gave us scared me a little still.
“Sorry, give us a sec to talk this out!” the leader said, holding up a hand to stall me. She then took her comrades off to a corner of the street and they started whispering to each other. But of course as a Scout, my ears were sharp enough to pick up at least half of what they were saying.
“Yikes! That’s just mean, Chisha!”
“Oh come on, everyone does it! It’s fine!”
“In that case, how about we...”
Even if I could hear the words though, I had no idea what they were talking about.
I really don’t get kids these days.
Granted I’d been bad at figuring out what girls were thinking even when I’d been younger. Now that I was a geezer it was even harder to understand young girls. And frankly I didn’t care enough to try.
“All right we’re back, old timers!” the girls suddenly said, running back.
“O-Okay...”
They were still smiling at us, but there was something about those smiles that unnerved me.
The leader stepped forward and asked, “You guys just got to this city recently, right?”
“Actually, I...” I’d been adventuring in this city since before this girl had been born. But I suspected that wasn’t quite what the girl was asking about. “Yeah, you could say that I guess,” I replied with a nod.
