Chapter 3 TRG Vol. 1 Chapter 1 Part 1

Chapter 1 (The Public Story)

The old man introduced me to a merchant who visited the village. I hitched a ride on his returning wagon and was on my way to the biggest town in the area.

“If you’re the old man’s apprentice, this is the least I can do,” the merchant said. Apparently, the old geezer had saved him when he was attacked by wolves or something on his way to the village. So, he was actually doing his job as a hunter, huh?

All I ever saw him do was either put me through his abusive training or maintain his traps, so I’d just assumed he was bored.

On the way to town, I couldn’t just let the merchant do all the talking, so I told him I wanted to be an adventurer. He said I should head straight for the Adventurer’s Guild when we arrived.

“The adventurers from that town patrol the roads around all the villages here. Their numbers took a hit after a monster outbreak a few years back, so they’ll probably be happy to have a new face like you, kid.”

Oho? This sounds like the perfect time to become an adventurer. A backwater town and they’re short on people? This is the perfect situation for a no-talent, fake-it-’til-you-make-it adventurer like me to get some decent treatment.

The merchant dropped me off at the entrance to the ‘big town’ and pointed me toward the Adventurer’s Guild. I set off, full of confidence. The roads weren’t paved, but they were wide, and the main street was lined with stalls. Unlike the villages I’d seen so far, this town was surrounded by a stone wall, separating the inside from the out. This was clearly the central hub for the whole region.

I walked toward the center of town and spotted a large building with a gaudy red-and-white sign. That had to be the Adventurer’s Guild.

I’m still just a kid, a crappy-ass swordsman who struggled against a squirrel. I can’t just become someone’s master right away. First, I need to register as an adventurer in this town and grind some EXP until I can at least handle the local monsters without breaking a sweat.

Then, I’ll find some protagonist-looking person, show off my ‘chip-damage strategy,’ and settle into the cool master role.

My first step to posing as a master begins right here, at this guild!

“You’re not wanted. Get lost.”

My first step was immediately tripped up by the old guy standing at the reception counter.

I couldn’t give up that easily. I pressed him, asking why not, but his eyes were cold.

“A kid, becoming an adventurer all by himself? Don’t be an idiot. We don’t have any jobs to spare for some brat we know nothing about.”

His logic was so straightforward and sound, I was speechless. Apparently, in this world, being an adventurer is a licensed profession, and you need a referral from someone or a letter of introduction. It’s a life-threatening job involving patrolling roads, clearing out beasts and bandits, and sometimes even fighting monsters. On top of that, it’s hard to supervise, so they don’t just give work to anyone who isn’t trustworthy.

…Now that he mentions it, that makes perfect sense, but where did the standard fantasy clichés go?! Isn’t an adventurer supposed to be like a day-laborer, ‘adventuring’ by killing slimes and doing odd jobs to earn cash for the day?!

“If you don’t have a referral, you’ll have to pay the identity-verification deposit.”

The sum he quoted me was something I couldn’t possibly pay. Even if I scraped together every last coin the old geezer gave me for the road, it wouldn’t be nearly enough!

“If you get it, then scram. Go home and help your parents, kid.”

And just like that, I was unceremoniously tossed out of the Adventurer’s Guild. Gah! I never thought I’d stumble on the very first step. And why didn’t the old geezer tell me I needed a referral?! He’s an ex-adventurer, he could have at least written me a letter!

I silently cursed the old man, who was probably back in his hut making charcoal right now. …But then again, maybe the system changed after he retired.

In any case, if I can’t become an adventurer, I won’t just miss my goal; I’ll be out on the street tonight. I had to find a way to make ends meet…

I stood in front of the guild, arms crossed, and suddenly remembered another fantasy-world classic. Guilds sometimes buy monster materials, like pelts, claws, fangs, and horns, don’t they? Even if I can’t be an adventurer, maybe they’d at least buy my stuff?

I immediately spun on my heel and walked right back into the guild. It doubled as a tavern, a common fantasy setup, and a bunch of adventurer-looking old guys were already drinking, even though it was the middle of the day. I could feel their pitying stares, all of them clearly thinking, “This kid doesn’t give up…”

“…You don’t give up, do you.”

This time, the old guy at the counter actually said it out loud.

“Monster materials? …If you bring ’em in, I guess we can buy ’em. But the price will be way lower than what we give our registered adventurers. It’s not gonna be worth your while, kid.”

He looked at me with an expression of pure, unadulterated exasperation.

I don’t care if it’s cheap. If it’s money, it’s profit. I have no other way to earn cash right now. I have to at least make enough for an inn. For food, worst case, I can hunt some animals while I’m hunting monsters. But if I don’t have a place to sleep when it gets cold, I’m dead.

From there, I moved fast. I thanked the old guy, ran out of the guild, and spent the meager funds the geezer gave me on basic provisions and camping gear. Then, I headed straight for the forest just outside of town.

This is a backwater, not even a proper ‘starting town,’ so the monsters here have to be as weak as that squirrel, or weaker. I figured even a kid like me could handle them. From here on, it’s a grinding marathon: hunt until I have enough materials, sell, repeat.

“That Rat-Beast was a ‘master’ that had laired on that mountain for years, building up power,” the old man had said before I left. “If you could beat that, you can probably beat any of the common rabble out there.”

Of course, he was probably just trying to save face, embarrassed that he’d struggled against a monster a kid like me could beat. But still, it was the tutorial boss, so it must have given more EXP than these small-fry monsters.

“Alright, you monsters! Time to turn into my living expenses!”

Now, my life of posing as a master truly begins!

“Today’s haul… not a single monster. Only regular animals.”

That night, my mood was the complete opposite of what it had been that afternoon. I sat hunched over my campfire, utterly dejected. I mean, I knew it was a backwater town, but I never imagined I’d wander the forest for an entire day and not even see a monster.

In the end, the only thing I ‘hunted’ was a rabbit-like creature I caught in a trap for dinner.

“How am I supposed to grind EXP like this…?” I muttered to myself, tearing into the meat. I had this whole plan to be like a hero in a game, grinding slimes in the starting town to over-level. But with an encounter rate this low, that plan was already dead in the water.

…Well, I don’t even know if this world has a ‘level up’ concept, anyway.

“Status Open!”

I held up my right hand and shouted. Just as always, no mysterious hologram showing my level, HP, and MP appeared. This world is so inconvenient! Why can’t I get a clear, visualized indicator of my own growth?!

“Even after beating that squirrel, if I leveled up at all, I’m probably just Level 2 or something.”

I finished dinner, stood up, and grabbed my sword. I had to at least get my daily training in before bed. If I can’t level up by fighting, I have to at least maintain my current level. Besides, after all those days with the old man, swinging a sword has become a habit. It’s like brushing my teeth; if I don’t do it, my body feels antsy and I can’t settle down.

It’s frustrating, but I’m gonna swing anyway!

After swinging until my arms were numb and I couldn’t lift them, I wrapped myself in my thick cloak and closed my eyes. I’d set up a simple perimeter alarm, so if a beast tried to attack me in my sleep, I should at least be able to wake up and run.

For a while after that, my life was ruled by a simple loop: wake up, walk the forest, hunt an animal, eat lunch, practice swings, walk the forest, hunt an animal, eat dinner, practice swings, sleep.

I set up my camp near a river so I could at least keep myself clean enough not to make people plug their noses when I went to town. But I could feel my body adapting far more to this forest life than to town. …Wait a minute. Is this any different from helping the old man with his hunter job back home?

Losing my patience, I started to swing by the guild every so often to ask if any monster-slaying quests had been posted.

“Huh? You still haven’t given up? No, we don’t have anything like that. At least, not for you.”

The old counter guy—he’s no receptionist—always gave me the same cold reply. But I wasn’t asking so I could take the quest. If a quest was posted, it meant there was a monster there. I just had to get to it before another adventurer did. It was a scummy plan, but it wasn’t working out anyway.

Maybe the old guy was just refusing to give me info so I couldn’t steal the quests. Thanks to him, I was steadily becoming a permanent resident of the forest.

I’d even started doing odd jobs for the townspeople, gathering herbs and wood for them.

“This is a huge help! We’re scared to go in the woods with all the beasts, and if a monster showed up… But the pay for a request this cheap isn’t enough to get a real adventurer to move.”

I got a few coins today for delivering some medicinal herbs. The pay really was just allowance money. No wonder a real adventurer wouldn’t bother. Not that the town didn’t have a pharmacy; I’m pretty sure the townspeople just felt sorry for me and were giving me these ‘jobs’ as an excuse to give me spare change.

Just as I was getting used to my life as a forest-dweller, I was on my usual walk and found an unfamiliar set of tracks leading deeper into the woods. Oho? Could this be…?

I followed them. Along the way, I saw the scattered carcasses of beasts, clearly killed by… whatever I was tracking. Not just deer and rabbits, but wolves and bears, too. This thing was stronger than a normal animal, which means… I’m finally getting an encounter! I can’t believe monsters are this rare!

Deep in the woods, in a small clearing where the trees had been knocked down, there it was.

It looked like a pitch-black horse. Except its eyes glowed an unnatural red, and just like the squirrel monster, it had a magnificent horn on its forehead.

I was a little disappointed by the ‘horse motif’—it just didn’t seem that strong. But at my current level, it was probably dangerous to fight anything tougher, so I decided it was perfect.

I gently drew the sword at my waist and crept through the shadows, positioning myself behind the monster.

“Alright, time to get me some EXP—!”

I’d gotten a perfect ambush position, but I ruined it by shouting as I leaped out.

“You’re just a small-fry monster, stop making me work so hard…”

That night, I was back at my campfire, bitterly staring at the sword in my hands. That horse monster… its attacks were simple, just like the squirrel’s. It just charged or tried to kick. As long as I kept my distance, I could dodge. But its hide was way too tough. I already knew this from the squirrel, but it’s like, are your bodies made of iron?! My chip-damage strategy eventually wore down its neck, but the sword the old man gave me as a parting gift got pretty banged up in the process.

The hardest part was butchering the horn after I killed it. Why is the post-battle part even harder?!

“Well, at least I have a source of income now.”

The encounter rate is way too low, but if it ‘pops’ in that area, I’ll just go there every day and kill it as soon as it appears. I cut my training short that night, my mind buzzing with how much that horn would sell for, and fell asleep.

“…This is a monster horn, all right. It’s not a fake.”

The old counter guy stared at the horn I brought to the guild. He was silent for so long I was starting to get nervous, but he finally spoke.

“Kid. Where did you find this?”

I told him it was from deep in the forest. I’d found some weird tracks and they led me to a ‘spawn point’ for monsters.

“…A ‘spawn point,’ huh.”

The old counter guy muttered this, took the horn behind the counter, and came back with a few coins.

“This is your cut. No complaints. You should be grateful we’re buying from a non-adventurer at all. And one more thing… I’m not just some ‘old guy.’ I’m the Guild Master who runs this place.”

So, the old counter guy was… the Guild Master. Why would someone that important be working the front desk? I almost said it out loud, but I bit my tongue. I guess I should let him feel important in front of a kid like me. It’s kinda sad.

I just nodded, took the money, and asked where the nearest blacksmith was. I told him I needed my sword maintained; it would be a disaster if it broke while I was butchering a monster.

I left the guild and headed to the blacksmith the old-guy-who’s-a-self-proclaimed-Guild-Master told me about, and got my battered sword sharpened. I couldn’t afford a new one… I really need to hunt more monsters and save up. I made a firm decision: starting tomorrow, I’d camp that spawn point and kill any monster the instant it appeared.

From the next day, I started commuting to the place I assumed was the ‘respawn point.’ Just as I thought, monsters would pop up there every so often. It was a little disappointing that it was only squirrels and horses, but I couldn’t be picky. Thus began my new life: hunt, haul to guild, get paid.

It was a daily grind of saving money while enduring the hard-to-read expressions from the Guild Master and the equally unreadable stares from the old-guy adventurers who were always drinking in the tavern.

I mean, from their perspective, I must look like a total bottom-tier adventurer, a ‘small-fry specialist’ who just hunts the weakest monsters as soon as they appear. I’m aware of that. But I’m planning to leave town as soon as I save a little more money and find a ‘protagonist’ to be my disciple, so I don’t care. I’d just take my money, go back to my camp, and do my daily swings.

After a while, even if I was just a bottom-tier hunter, I got to the point where I could hunt squirrels and horses with no trouble. And really, those seemed to be the only two types of monsters around here. Oh well. The old guy at the guild bought the materials all the same, and if it was easy money, I wasn’t complaining.

Once I’d saved up a decent amount, I bought a new sword. My hand-me-down was getting so banged up that even maintenance wasn’t helping, and it was making me nervous. I also took the monster hides to the blacksmith and had him make me some simple leather armor. Now I at least looked like a rookie adventurer.

To the other adventurers, I was probably the lowest of the low, stealing their prey. But aside from the weird looks, no one said anything, so I told myself it was fine.

“Where the hell are you ‘finding’ all this material? …If you’re going to keep doing this, I might… consider that deposit.”

The old guy adventurers might be ignoring me, but the self-proclaimed Guild Master pulled me aside. He was telling me to stop taking the food out of other adventurers’ mouths, and that if I was going to do it, I should at least register.

But paying that deposit now seemed like a waste. I mean, I don’t even struggle with the monsters around here anymore. I’d rather just save the money. I couldn’t say that, obviously, so I just dodged the question by saying something like, “I’m not worthy of being an adventurer.”

It’s true. I’m just a small-fry specialist. If I registered for real, I’d just be a ‘landmine’ holding everyone else back. Though, I might already be seen that way.

“Not worthy…? Kid, you’ve got to be…”

The Guild Master sighed, looking at me with total exasperation. Crap. He saw right through me. He knows I’m just being cheap. I really don’t want him to spread that rumor and have the other adventurers beat me up, so I bowed my head and begged him to keep it a secret.

“Keep it a… sigh. Why am I the one…?”

The old guy scratched his head, put the money on the counter, and sighed again. I counted it… it was a little more than usual. I looked at him, confused, and he just gave me a little ‘shoo’ wave.

“You’re sleeping in the woods, aren’t you? I’m giving you a little extra. Get a room. And sleep properly.”

He was… worried about me? Whoa, this old guy is… actually nice.

“And from now on, if you’re bringing in materials, just bring the whole carcass. It’ll cost you a small butchering fee, but I’ll make sure it’s done right. You’ll make more money than you do with that sloppy carving you’ve been doing. Your technique is atrocious.”

And so, the old guy revealed his tsundere side. I decided to take him up on his offer. I started dragging the whole monster back. The horse was too big to carry, but I could manage the squirrel. The first few times I brought a full carcass into the guild, the other adventurers would all start murmuring, but by the third or fourth time, they just went quiet.

They were probably just disgusted. This non-adventurer kid not only hunts all the small-fry, but he’s so shameless he makes the guild butcher them, too. They probably just decided to ignore me. Hey, I’m just a kid, cut me some slack.

That’s what I was thinking. Lately, the number of monsters in the forest seemed to be increasing. It used to be I’d be lucky to find one a month. Now I was seeing one a week. The old-guy adventurers in the tavern must be slacking off. Oh well. I was happy to take their leftovers and keep cashing them in.

“You’re bringing in more monsters lately. Know anything about it?” the Guild Master asked me, looking suspicious.

“I dunno, maybe it’s their breeding season?” I said.

“Breeding season… I’ve never heard of monsters having one of those…”

I’d just said it randomly, but the old guy looked down and seemed to be thinking about it really hard. Crap, now I feel guilty for making something up… I cut the conversation short and headed to the inn.

The next day, I went into the forest to earn my keep and immediately noticed something was different.

There were squirrel monsters wandering around, even in the shallow parts of the forest where I’d never seen anything before. And they were on edge—they’d attack me on sight. For me, this was just cash walking around. I was so happy I wanted to dance as I started hunting.

The deeper I went, the more of them I found. Squirrels, and even the horse monsters. This had to be a bonus time.

I finally got to what I figured was the center of the forest, and suddenly… there were no monsters. They must have fled the shallow areas because there was something stronger in the center.

Just as I thought that, I heard a low, threatening growl from among the trees.

The center of the forest was still a clearing, just like when I’d been here before. And in the middle of it was a giant, red-furred bear. It was way bigger than any normal bear I’d ever seen. And a normal bear wouldn’t make a squirrel monster flee in terror. This was a monster.

Sure enough, on its forehead was another magnificent horn. First the squirrel, then the horse, now this. Is there some kind of trend where all monsters have to have horns?

“A perfect step-up for me, after all that leveling on squirrels and horses.”

The bear monster saw me and raised its thick arms in a threatening gesture. Alright, then. Time to become my EXP and travel fund. I gripped my sword with both hands.

If I can beat this, I’ll have finally leveled up enough to start my ‘posing as a master’ act.

“What… is all this…?”

That day, I ended up hunting an uncountable number of monsters. There was no way I could drag all the carcasses back, so I just took the parts—horns, claws, and fangs—carving them off as best I could. My butchering skills were still so bad the old guy would probably wince. But I figured the sheer quantity would be worth enough.

When I brought the materials in, the old guy was stunned silent.

…Was my butchering THAT bad?

“You… all this…?”

I nodded. He suddenly leaned over the counter, his face pale, and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me.

“How many more were there?! Did you see any others?!”

Ow, ow, that hurts! Why is he gripping me so hard?! I just fought a bear monster and I’m banged up all over, can’t he be a little gentle? I winced, and he finally noticed and let go.

“Sorry. But this is… this is a huge amount. The guild needs to know the situation.”

Oh, right. It was way more than usual. This probably would have been a perfect cash-cow quest for rookie adventurers. He was probably thinking he’d post a quest if there were any left.

“Too bad for you. I killed every monster I saw.”

When I told him that, the old guy’s hands fell away from me, and he just stared, slack-jawed.

“All… of them? You… killed all of them?”

“Well, I can’t be sure it was all of them,” I said, covering my bases. “But nothing else attacked me while I was carving up the parts, so I’m pretty sure I cleared them out.”

“I… I see… Right. The money… for all this…”

While I was muttering my excuses, the old guy seemed to remember. He stumbled back behind the counter and returned with a heavy leather pouch.

“Here. Your cut. Also… where in the forest did you kill all these? I need details. I’m sending some of my adventurers to investigate the area.”

He started grilling me about the forest. Hey, I’m exhausted from hunting all those monsters, I thought, trying to look as annoyed as possible. He immediately offered me an ‘information fee’ on top of the payout, so I happily started talking.

What, you think I’m greedy? You gotta earn it when you can! Who knows when a bonus stage like this will happen again?