The ground was green, the grass vibrant and standing tall. Colorful flowers were scattered here and there. In the distance, ruins made of bricks covered in moss could be seen. Amidst this lush landscape, a group of individuals walked, clad in armor and gripping their weapons as they made their way toward the ruins.
"Ten goblins. This shouldn't be a hard quest, right?" asked a human adventurer with a bow slung over his shoulder and a white headband on his forehead.
"Of course not!" replied a short girl with rabbit ears, gripping her daggers.
"Look at that hill," said another member of the party, a burly young man with an axe strapped to his back.
Everyone turned their gaze toward one of the hills in this green land. What they saw was a young man with white hair, swinging a sword with a blue blade while being jumped on by small monsters with red heads. From his appearance, he didn't look like an adventurer at all. In fact, everything about him screamed "villager who got tired of hard labor and decided to take on some guild quests."
"The town is getting flooded with villagers..." the rabbit-eared girl muttered as she sheathed her daggers into the small scabbards strapped to her thick thighs.
"But look at that sword. It looks really valuable," said the burly man.
"Yeah..." the human archer murmured as he stared at the white-haired villager wielding the blue-bladed sword.
That was Laos, and it seemed he was in the middle of completing a guild quest. Atop the hill, Laos held the Astral Sword, his eyes fixed on the small monsters attacking him. There were three of them, about the size of a rabbit, with red heads, some speckled with white. Yes, they were mushrooms, but they had long claws and legs, along with small, sharp teeth and angry expressions.
"So these are Mushroom Monsters!" Laos shouted as he cut one of them down.
Now, only two remained. Laos panted slightly as he stared cautiously at one of them, sensing something dangerous about it. And indeed, the monster leaped at Laos. It was a stupid jump—full of openings. The creature had completely let down its guard, stretching out its hands in an attempt to grab him. Without hesitation, Laos swung his sword quickly, slicing the Mushroom Monster clean in half.
"Water Slash," he whispered, his face showing exhaustion as sweat dripped from him.
After that, he unleashed another slash, swiftly cutting down the last remaining mushroom. At this moment, Laos collapsed to the ground. Another figure ascended from the base of the hill—Maris. She ran toward him, her chest bouncing with each step. Sitting behind Laos, she began chanting healing spells. After a while, Laos stored away Astral Sword and stood up, his black hair swaying.
"Fifty Mushroom Monsters... This was too hard!" Laos groaned, still panting.
"You did amazing! We'll get one nova for this quest!"
"No, this isn't amazing. I need to return nineteen nova to the bank, and I have only a week to do it... Maris, we need another quest," Laos said as he began collecting the mushroom heads and placing them in a sack.
"What about goblins?" Maris suggested as she helped him gather the heads.
"Mushroom Monsters are tier 1, same as slimes and urchitoes. What tier are goblins?"
"Tier 2," Maris replied.
"I'll think about it... Let's return to the guild for now," Laos said.
With that, they withdrew from the hill. The land was green, the sun shone brightly, and the sky was clear. This was summer in the world of Staria. Far from this green area stood a settlement, a town filled with houses—their destination: Iveleth. It also seemed that this was one of the places where Iveleth's adventurers ventured—vast green lands where Mushroom Monsters roamed, wild snakes slithered through the plants, and slimes bounced across the hills.
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"Fifty Mushroom Monsters, done," Laos said as he placed a full sack on a wooden counter, where an old man sat.
The old man took the sack and opened it, pulling out the mushroom heads one by one and counting them. After a while, he placed them back in the sack, kept it, and handed Laos a dark blue coin engraved with a crown. This was one nova, the currency of the Kingdom of Yarum.
After that, Laos put the coin in his pocket and headed to the quest board, which was crowded with adventurers. Instead of pushing or asking them to move aside to see the quests, like any other adventurer would, he simply stood alone, watching them. He waited for a while, and finally, a small gap appeared that he could slip through, allowing him to see the quests at last.
Damn! This place is packed! How many adventurers are in here, what the hell?! This is a ridiculous number. Some are sitting at tables, some are wandering around, others are talking to the receptionists, and a huge number are jammed in front of the quest boards. There were three quest boards, yet all of them were completely full. Alis really needs to open more branches. This place is way too crowded!
Alright, what do we have here? "Please help me find my cat"… "Bring the Slime King's core from the seventh floor of the western dungeon"… No, no, that's too hard. "Collect four branches from the Veltar trees on the third floor of the southern dungeon"… "Kill ten goblins in the Moon Ruins, reward: three nova"—this one's good! Yeah, I'll take this quest!
I snatched the quest paper from the board and tried to squeeze my way out of the crowd. As I struggled to escape, I suddenly felt a finger touch my ass, making me spin around immediately to see which fucker did that. But all I could see was an endless sea of faces. Fuck, which son of a bitch stuck his finger in my ass… This is so embarrassing.
I finally got out of the crowd and felt a huge sense of relief. Fuck! If I could find out who that fucker was, I swear I'd kill him no matter his rank… Okay, maybe I wouldn't. I headed toward the old man's desk, but then I noticed another desk with a human girl sitting behind it. She had long brown hair and beautiful boobs, but I wasn't going to her. I don't know why, but I felt a little shy. I went to the ugly old man instead, placed the quest paper down, and said:
"I'll take this quest."
He then stamped it with the guild's seal and asked me to sign it. That was the process for accepting a quest. After that, I left… This is my life now. This is my first day as an adventurer, and it looks like I'm doing fine. I need to pay off my debt somehow. I already paid the guild fee this morning, so all that's left is my bank debt. Come on, Laos, it's easy. You can do this, you fucking NPC!
Outside, Maris was waiting for me. I walked up to her and said as I moved away from the guild:
"Let's have lunch."
"No, no, we already had breakfast for eighty bils, that's enough for today. We need to save up to pay off the debt," Maris replied. What a perfect wife.
I placed my hand on her shoulder, and we walked together. Now, should I go straight to kill ten goblins, or should I rest? I was exhausted from fighting the mushroom monsters, but I need money. I have to push myself, put all my energy into this. I have to push myself… Alright, I should ask first.
"So, should we do the quest now, or should we rest?" I asked.
"Hmm… I'd rather finish the quest now," Maris answered. Perfect!
We kept walking toward the town's exit. Alright, the goblins are in the ruins, so I have to travel a bit far from Iveleth… Haaah, look at this beauty. This isekai life that every neet addicted to web novels dreams of—it's real. I'm living it. Look at me, you isekai-addicted assholes. Look at me while you're still stuck on Earth, studying. Look at me walking with my wife, heading off to kill goblins. Goblins, huh! Things you'd only see in games, and here I am, about to kill them.
"By the way, Maris, are there no adventurer ranks in this world?" I asked, remembering one of the most important things in isekai stories—adventurer ranks.
"What? Didn't you read the terms and conditions paper?"
"I did. Wait, were the adventurer ranks written on it?!"
"Idiot, they were on the back… Hah! Funny!" Maris chuckled, covering her mouth as she laughed.
"So, what are they?"
"There were ten ranks, so of course, I couldn't remember them all. But we're in the Leaf rank, which is the weakest rank."
After a long walk, we had gotten far away from Iveleth and its noise, and we were now welcomed by the peaceful beauty of nature. The ruins appeared in the distance. They reminded me of the ones near the palace, but these were massive—huge and white, with tall plants wrapping around them. After a while, we finally arrived. God, just getting here was exhausting because of the steep terrain. Fuck.
"We finally made it," Maris said, sitting on the ground to rest.
When we arrived, we discovered that the ruins were even larger than we had expected. The Moon Ruins—one of the most famous adventurer locations. Alright, let's go!
Maris got up after a while, and we walked between the crumbling walls, some of which had collapsed entirely. Parts of the ruins had broken ceilings, allowing the sun to beat down on us harshly as we crawled through the shadows cast by the wreckage. Suddenly, I heard a noise approaching… Goblins!
"We should go to the dungeons. I'm getting tired of these ruins," a long-haired boy holding a silver sword muttered to another guy. Goddamn it, I thought they were goblins.
We kept moving forward, but all we found were a handful of slimes and some adventurers heading back after completing their quests. After a long time exploring, I finally heard a sound… It was identical to the goblin noises I'd heard in anime. Their growls echoed in my ears, bringing back nostalgic memories of my past life—coming home from school and binge-watching twelve full episodes of some random isekai anime… It's them!
I stepped toward the source of the sound, gripping Astral tightly. Maris followed cautiously behind me. This would be the first time I'd ever seen a goblin! This was so exciting! Then, when I entered a stone chamber in the ruins, I finally saw them… They were small, hunched creatures wielding crude clubs and rusty daggers. There were only two of them. Their green skin, massive noses, ragged cloth tunics, and bald heads covered in disgusting fungal patches… But… what is this feeling?
For a moment, I couldn't move forward. A heavy tension gripped me. I kept staring at them cautiously, making sure they hadn't noticed me yet. They walked around, licking their drooling lips hungrily. No… this wasn't just tension. It was fear. I instinctively took a step back. What the fuck are you doing, you dumbass?! I was scared of them! I never expected this to happen, not even once. My heart pounded wildly, and sweat poured down my face before the fight had even begun. Then, a familiar feminine voice echoed in my mind: "Are you afraid?"
"Thalesa?!"
"You're a married man, and yet you're scared of goblins? My goddess, you just keep proving how much of a failure you are every single day." Thalesa's cold, unforgiving voice pierced through my head.
"This is not the time for your toxic attitude, spirit."
"And this is not the time for your cowardice, you pathetic failure." With that, Thalesa fell silent again, leaving me alone with these fucking goblins.
God, just move! Why are you so afraid? They're just goblins! Imagine if you had gotten a combat class—you'd be fighting demons! On god, how can you be scared of two goblins?!! Even Thalesa noticed my fear. This is humiliating and pathetic. Just attack! A single Water Slash should be enough—I'm sure of it. If I don't act now, even Maris will realize how terrified I am.
Suddenly, I felt hands wrap around mine, the ones holding Astral—shaking hands I hadn't even noticed were trembling. Fuck. Was I really trembling that much? A warm, reassuring touch surrounded my fingers. Then, Maris's gentle voice reached my ears: "You can do it. I believe in you, my brave husband."
"Yeah!"
W motivation. Maris!! You heard that, you fucking NPC! Don't let your wife down! With renewed determination, I lunged forward and fired a Water Slash directly at one of the goblins' heads. And I actually managed to slice it off—oh wait, no, not completely. But his neck was barely holding together, and he collapsed to the ground, thrashing wildly as his life drained away, spraying blood everywhere… Shit!
The other goblin rushed at me with his club. I had taken out the one with the dagger first since he was the bigger threat. But it turned out the club had spikes on it, too. I quickly jumped back and swung my sword to slash him, but he leaped away.
Looks like Water Slash is the only thing that really works on them. I waited for him to charge at me so I wouldn't miss my next attack. Then, in the most unfortunate moment possible, sunlight hit my eyes directly as I stepped back. For less than a second, my vision blurred from the blinding light. But that was all it took.
Whether the goblin realized I was blinded or just attacked out of dumb luck, I didn't know. But I felt sharp spikes bury deep into my left thigh. Pain exploded through my leg, and I collapsed onto one knee. Right in front of me, the ugliest goblin I had ever seen locked eyes with me, his yellow pupils gleaming as he stared.
My heart pounded violently. A wave of fear consumed me. Then, out of nowhere, an arrow pierced through the back of the goblin's skull. The creature dropped dead right in front of me. A long arrow was embedded deep in the back of his head. I lifted my gaze and spotted a group of three adventurers.
One was a tall, broad-shouldered human wielding a steel axe. Another was a slightly shorter human, and judging by the bow in his hand and the quiver of arrows on his back, he was probably the one who saved me. The last was a girl, even shorter than the other two, with white rabbit ears and twin daggers in her hands.
"Fuck… I couldn't kill the goblin by myself."