Ch.5Toward the Tinder (1)

Jingle~ Jingle~

With a cheerful bell sound, the door to the Adventurer’s Guild opened.

I went to an empty counter and reported the completion of my request.

“I’d like to receive payment for completing a request.”

As I handed over the request form, the receptionist checked it and promptly took out several copper coins from below.

By my rough estimate, it seemed that each giant rat was worth one copper coin.

“Thank you for your hard work. Forty-six copper coins. I’ll pay you now.”

As the receptionist handed me the coins, I attached the pouch to my waist and held out the dead adventurer’s identification card that I had been holding in my left hand.

“And this…”

“What’s this…?”

“I found a dead adventurer’s ID card in the sewers, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The receptionist suddenly pulled out a large book and began to carefully examine something in it.

After about five minutes, the receptionist took the ID card I had handed over and instead gave me a silver coin.

“Silver?”

“There’s a regulation that states one silver coin is to be given to anyone who brings in a lost ID card. In the future, if you find any more ID cards without owners, please bring them in.”

“Sure.”

Unexpectedly, my side income became greater than my main income, but what does it matter?

The more money, the better.

“By the way, what’s the next rank after Straw?”

“Tinder. You’ve completed one request. You’ll need to complete nine more.”

“Is there any separate examination?”

“No, but if there are any defects in your request completion, the required number may increase.”

“I see.”

Nine more requests to go…

I moved forward to the request board again.

It must have been a day off, as the muscular man wasn’t visible today, which allowed me to approach the request board without being stopped by anyone.

The crowd at the board was sparser than yesterday, probably because it was getting late.

I lowered my head to look at the Straw-rank requests, and among them, I occasionally saw requests that needed laborers rather than adventurers.

“It really is like an employment office…”

I chose a loading and unloading job among the physical labor requests, both because it was the closest and because it had an “URGENT!” tag attached to it, meaning I could receive additional payment.

*

When I arrived at the site, people were already busy loading and unloading, and I explained to the work supervisor that I had come for the request.

“Oh! Finally, additional manpower. Have you ever done loading and unloading work before?”

“I’ve carried salt at the docks before…”

“Then there shouldn’t be a problem! See those carts? We need to move everything in them into this warehouse by today.”

“Right… I’ll have to move quickly.”

I rolled up my sleeves and joined the line connecting the carts to the warehouse.

“Huh? What’s this, it’s just a kid?”

“Don’t slow us down.”

The other workers showed sharp reactions, but that was all.

In a situation where they needed to borrow even a cat’s paw, they knew they desperately needed my help, despite my youth, as I had well-developed muscles.

“Heave!”

Thud!

I began placing heavy flour sacks on my shoulders.

Memories flashed through my mind of when I dropped a salt bag into the sea while moving them at the docks and was beaten severely by the work supervisor.

“Ha! Kid, you’re pretty strong!”

As I carried two flour sacks on each shoulder—a total of four sacks—the work supervisor laughed heartily.

Perhaps because I was better fed, better rested, and had developed more height and strength than when I carried salt, I had much more stamina now.

Before long, one cart was emptied, and the latch on the next cart was released.

There were about 100 workers here including me, and among them were adults who couldn’t work as hard as I could.

Judging by their wrinkles and lack of muscle, they seemed like people who had been unemployed at home and finally ended up doing this kind of work because they couldn’t withstand their parents’ pressure.

Well, other people’s family matters weren’t my business.

And so, I sweated until the sun set and the moon rose, and I was able to get a completion stamp on my parchment, which had swollen from the sweat.

“Urrrgh…..”

As the labor ended, another wave of intense pain hit my body.

Looking around, I saw that the gentleman had completely collapsed on the ground, and others had propped him against the building wall to prevent him from being run over by carts.

“You worked well. There aren’t many kids like you these days. You have a good work ethic.”

“Thanks… Could you call a rickshaw for me? I can’t move…”

“Sure, no problem.”

The rickshaw arrived quickly.

I climbed onto it, looking like dried radish greens, and gave the rickshaw puller two copper leaves as payment. He ran quickly and took me to the Adventurer’s Guild in no time.

*

“Yes… request completion confirmed. Here are sixty copper coins.”

“Wow.”

Sixty copper coins. That’s a larger amount than what I got for risking my life to hunt giant rats.

“You look very tired. I think you should go home now.”

“Yeah… I will.”

How should I put it… It feels like my entire body is turning into a wooden puppet.

It’s as if I can feel my joints wearing down in real time.

I squeezed out all my strength to head to the Iron Trout Inn and barely managed to sit down on a chair.

“Ughhhh…”

“Here’s your dinner.”

As arranged beforehand, I received a few warm pieces of bread, some butter, and oatmeal.

Ugh… No. This won’t replenish the salt I’ve lost…

“Excuse me, what was that spicy meat dish from before?”

“Jeyuk?”

“Yes, that. Add that, please.”

Not long after, as I was struggling to spread butter on bread, a meat side dish with an appetizing aroma was delivered to me. I put the jeyuk on top of the oatmeal and ate it, feeling vitality gradually returning to my body.

Such a meal was like luxury to me.

Not only butter but even margarine was hard to come by, and if I wanted meat, I had to fish or catch rats myself.

Naturally, I suffered from stomachaches every day, and the concept of “deliciousness” was something very distant to me.

But now, I was enjoying a proper meal in a clean inn on a bustling street.

As a vagrant with no parents, siblings, friends, or relatives, wasn’t I quite fortunate to be living like this?

“Haah…”

Having skipped lunch and worked all day, the food in front of me disappeared in an instant.

After scraping up the remaining jeyuk sauce with bread crumbs, I asked for a refreshing beer, and the kitchen staff brought me a cold glass in less than a minute.

Finishing my meal with a glass of beer, I handed a copper coin to the staff and asked them to prepare bath water. The employee ran up to room 203.

After paying for the jeyuk and beer, I slowly climbed the stairs with my heavy stomach. The employee was just coming out of my room, and before the door closed, I entered room 203, locked the door with the key, and hung the key on a nearby hook.

Then, in a state where I wasn’t sure if I was taking off my clothes or throwing them, I entered the bathtub, and the warm water filled to the brim touched my skin.

Splash!!!

The water, increased in volume, overflowed from the tub, and I scrubbed my sweat-stained body to remove the accumulated dust and grime.

Having spent half the day in the sewers and the other half at a construction site, the once-clear water soon began to turn gray.

“Phew…”

As the water became lukewarm, I got out of the tub, dried myself with a hanging towel, and began soaking my discarded clothes in water and scrubbing them with soap.

When bubbles appeared, I stopped applying soap and rubbed the clothes together to remove the day’s grime.

After finishing the laundry, I wrung out the water, hung the clothes on a hanger, and changed into one of the outfits I had bought at the clothing store.

And finally… I could lie down on the bed.

Poof!

With the sound of air escaping, my body sank into the bed.

I completed two requests today, so if I can solve two requests a day, I should be able to rank up to Tinder in about four days.

Since I have a lot of money saved up, I should take requests that provide experience as an adventurer, even if they don’t pay much.

“Haah… Can this even be called an adventure?”

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Is an adventurer who shuttles between sewers and construction sites really having an adventure?

I want to get out of this city quickly.

I want to leave this city where I was born and raised, where the scent of salty seawater lingers.

I wanted to hear birds chirping along the trails on high mountains.

For now, it’s just my greed.

But now, I’ve become an adventurer.

Let me take on more requests.

Let me reach a higher rank.

Until someday, I can leave this city with a smile.