Ordinary Adventurers

Karasuri Region, Duchy of Bombay.

In its capital city of Bombay, there was a hero.

An incredibly plain hero, yet one that Ria and Carla had considered dangerous—-a bearer of a Gift.

That Gift's name was "Search."

In other words, she was a human Wiki.

The higher her level rose, the more extensive her searchable knowledge became.

If she could identify the monster before her, she could extract information about it from the world itself.

"In other words, I can understand any spell formula or skill for what it is."

"And for monsters, as long as the world knows about them, you can find their weaknesses."

The saving grace was that levels existed.

Her current Gift level was 7. If it reached 10, she might even be able to search for knowledge about Void Magic—-the magic that supposedly no one could use.

It was unknown which god had granted this Gift, but in a sense, it was the ultimate cheat Gift.

Now then, what was this girl with such a cheat Gift doing?

She wasn't an adventurer.

Nor was she an explorer, and certainly not a mercenary.

She was using her Gift in a certain apt way.

Hero Hibiki Imai's job was as a receptionist at the Adventurer's Guild.

"It's been a while! Hii-chan!"

Mako approached Imai-san as she was heading home from the guild.

She called out boldly in the middle of a crowded street.

"Huh? Wait, what?"

Imai-san stared at Mako with a puzzled expression.

They moved to a dining hall, and the conversation proceeded smoothly.

"A world crisis, huh… Mako-chan, you've gotten yourself involved in something ridiculous again."

"In return, my level went up. I can handle most monsters now."

Imai-san sighed and then told them about what had happened to her, though nothing was particularly unusual.

Having been teleported near this city, Imai-san had registered as an adventurer in the ordinary way.

However, perhaps due to her Gift's effect, her quest completion rate was exceptionally high.

The guild master, who had been watching this, recruited her, suggesting she put her knowledge to use for the guild instead.

Finding appeal in a less dangerous occupation, she made the career change.

"Returning isn't a problem, but the handover is going to be tough…"

A receptionist, in a way, was harder to replace than an ordinary adventurer.

It might look like she was simply dealing with adventurers, but there was specialized knowledge and procedures to learn.

"I'll need to talk to the guild master too… It's going to take some time."

When asked specifically how long, she said it would take about half a month.

"Half a month, huh…"

Contacting other heroes during that time would be difficult.

To get from Karasuri to the Dragon Fang Continent, one would need to cross the Luabra Region, an area largely covered in desert, and there were no heroes there.

Flying over the sea in their acquired airship carried a high risk of being attacked by sea monsters.

The desert had many undulations, making Lavi's teleportation less useful, and carriages were also impractical.

Their plan was to float leisurely over the desert in the airship, but it seemed like it would take quite some time.

"Then again, even if we prioritized the Dragon Fang Continent, we'd still need to come back…"

While Mako was pondering with furrowed brows, Sei was thinking of a solution—-or rather, a reasonable way to spend the time.

"Why don't we just work as adventurers normally? Or spar with people who specialize in training?"

"I want to fight strong opponents."

Gantz, who had been silently drinking ale until then, spoke up, and Bungol agreed.

"We've only fought monsters on the road, so I'd like Ane-deshi to properly train me."

Kukuri, Lavi, and Laila, the three of them, apparently had no particular opinion.

"Then let's work as adventurers… Come to think of it, isn't this the first time? Actually working properly, I mean."

They had registered as adventurers at the dwarf village, but indeed, it had been nothing but traveling since then.

"This feels a bit like sightseeing, somehow."

When Mako said that, Imai-san looked slightly worried.

The adventurer guilds across the Dragon Bone Continent, with very few exceptions, were affiliated with each other.

The guild card made in Ogress could be used in Karasuri as well. Though of course, they were all the lowest rank—-wooden plate adventurers.

With a certain level of contribution and quest completion, this would change to a bronze plate, and those considered first-rate had silver plates.

Above that were gold plate adventurers, but these were people who would be called heroes in at least their entire region.

Wooden plate adventurers were truly rookies, and normally they would only run errands around town or be hired as temporary laborers.

Of course, they could accept higher-ranked quests, but most would be stopped at the reception counter.

It was rare for beginners to take on subjugation requests.

Rare, meaning there were exceptions.

That would be when a party of beginners with overwhelming strength asked a receptionist they knew personally.

"How about this one? Recommended level around 40."

What Mako took from the quest board was a request to subjugate a steel bear that had been spotted near a neighboring village.

"I'd prefer this one though."

Wyvern eggs wanted. Recommended level 70 and above.

Knights riding wyverns often appeared as subjects in stories, but there were hardly any people who actually rode real dragons.

Knights who rode wyverns were usually called dragon knights. They were particularly common in Ogress on the Dragon Bone Continent.

"… Why don't we take both?"

"Oh, that works. How do we split up?"

"The bear should be in the forest, so we can't do without Kukuri… Bungol, you're with that group?"

"Then I'll take Laila since she's good with wind magic for this one, and you get Lavi and Gantz… Feels like overkill though."

Taking the request forms to Imai-san, she gave them a puzzled look.

"Um… you're taking both at the same time?"

"No, we're splitting into two groups."

"The thing is… the mountain range where wyverns are spotted has other particularly dangerous monsters…"

"Uh, Imai-san, you can use Identify magic, right? Take a look at me with it."

He had heard she was proficient in such magic as a rear support specialist.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you'll understand once you see."

She cast the spell with a short incantation, gazing at Sei who had released his disguise concealment.

"Wha…"

Imai momentarily lost her words but swallowed and regained her composure.

"Is that… the power you gained from crossing over to this world?"

"No, my starting level was 5. But I'm immortal, you see. I could do reckless training as much as I wanted, and the person who trained me was incredible."

"I understand… But please be careful."

And so, Sei and Mako split into two groups.

And a week later, they returned without incident.

"A wyvern egg… It's real…"

Appraisers with the Identify skill and principle magic users took turns verifying it, and they were paid in gold coins equal to the egg's weight.

"Also, I heard you buy wyvern hide and claws?"

"Y-yes. We do that at the purchasing counter over here."

"Ah, we brought whole ones, so it's a bit…"

"Wh-whole ones?"

"I have something similar to a treasury as a Gift."

The adjacent lot also served as a butchering site for large monsters, so they moved there.

When Sei produced ten wyverns, the staff reeled back.

"It was too difficult to butcher them on site, so I brought them directly. They haven't decayed, so the meat is edible too."

"H-how did you get this many wyverns… and… each one in a single strike?"

"Well, yes. Most monsters die if you cut off their heads."

Sei answered matter-of-factly, but the eyes of Bungol and Laila who had accompanied him looked a bit strange.

Just the material purchases alone came to a decent sum.

"Hmm, sounds like your side put up more of a fight."

Mako's group had also completed their quest successfully, but apparently there had been a small-scale monster outbreak.

A lesser dragon had come down from deep in the mountains, which had caused the steel bears and other creatures to relocate.

Of course, they had also taken down the lesser dragon while they were at it, and now it was all in Mako's stomach.

And now, the seven of them plus Imai had been summoned to the guild master's office.

"What in the world happened here…"

He wasn't trying to reprimand them. He simply couldn't comprehend the abnormality of this situation.

Wooden plate adventurers had completed work that gold plate adventurers would handle. That was all.

"Hibiki-kun, what exactly are these people…?"

"They're heroes. Genuine ones…"

"So are you, aren't you? But you're—-how do I put this—-on a different level."

"It's partly that my Gift isn't suited for combat, but apparently they stopped a monster outbreak at the elf village."

"The elf village?! You mean the Great Forest?! But why… no wait, that young lady over there is an elf, so that's the connection…"

The guild master arrived at his own conclusion, but a question arose in his mind.

"So then, the strongest one would be you?"

His gaze was directed at Laila. It was well known that long-lived elves weren't necessarily the age they appeared, so he must have guessed based on that.

"No, if we're talking pure strength…"

The gazes of Sei, Mako, and even Laila turned to Lavi.

To those gazes, Lavi tilted her head cutely.

"A magic user… is she? But she doesn't seem to have a staff."

"Ah, she's… well, she's strong regardless of weapons or magic."

That answer only deepened the guild master's suspicions.

"I wouldn't have minded taking on one more job though…"

Saying that, Sei was sparring with Bungol using wooden swords in the training grounds managed by the guild.

Bungol was also wielding a wooden sword, but he could barely land hits on Sei, and even when he did, it didn't do proper damage.

"Align the edge and draw-cut. A katana is a weapon where speed matters, not just power."

Beyond the two of them huffing and puffing as they sparred, Mako was attacking Lavi with a staff while Lavi was barehanded.

Even a real spear wouldn't work on Lavi, but it would look too dangerous.

Lavi was catching Mako's attacks with monstrous strength that belied her slender arms, but that wasn't good enough.

"When your opponent attacks, dive into their reach. Strike faster than their weapon can."

According to Lavi's own report, her hand-to-hand combat skill had reached level 2.

Though her true strength lay in her vast magical power as a divine dragon, she couldn't exactly transform into a dragon whenever she wanted, so she was learning martial arts.

Beyond the two pairs doing their advanced training, Gantz was dominating the adventurers who challenged him.

Kukuri sat in a corner, composing verses about the heroes' exploits.

The extraordinary adventurers left the city of Bombay, taking one receptionist with them.

The ballad of the wyvern slayers that Kukuri composed, which he himself said wasn't very good, still became quite popular in the city for a while.

Karasuri Arc - End