Chapter 29: Main Scenario 4
A man with whiskers like a rat's tail entered as I sat at the guild's table.
His somewhat familiar face suggested he frequented the Adventurer's Guild often.
He seemed like a nobleman who only bought adventurers' spoils to emphasize his masculinity.
I wondered if my guess was right as he quickly found me, strode over, and extended his hand.
"I never thought I'd meet the city's hero like this!"
"Hero is too flattering a title. Weren't the guards who fought with weapons the ones who actually defeated the monsters?"
He pretended our meeting was a coincidence.
"Ha-ha, so humble too. If only other adventurers were as modest as Sir Roland."
"Sir? I'm just an adventurer without any knighthood."
"But who would question Sir Roland's honor after you saved the citizens?"
After praising me for a while, the man requested a handshake, handed me something in the palm of my hand, and disappeared outside the guild with a sly smile.
He left me with a silk pouch containing six gold coins.
The pouch itself was worth at least three silver coins.
"Is that man the last one?"
"Yes. He's the last nobleman officially coming to express gratitude. Your pouch must be quite hefty now. Please use that to fix the damage from before."
"Alright, I understand. I'm living comfortably thanks to the guild."
"It's not the guild, it's me."
"To me, the guild is you."
Not even two gold coins would cover the cost of repairing the building and doors, but each nobleman I met gave me five gold coins to save face.
They wanted to say, "I personally commended the adventurer who saved the city this time," in social gatherings, using excuses like "the city's hero had to pay for the repair of the buildings destroyed in the aftermath" or "he saved my servant."
"Anyway, these noblemen. Just to make a talking point, they throw around gold coins like that."
"Most of the noblemen in the Adventurer's City are quite rich."
***
Raei Translations
***
After seeing off the mustached guest, I briefly checked the statuses of other players through the forum.
The information was limited since it wasn't an internet forum but Han Se-ah's personal forum.
However, I could learn quite a lot thanks to the netizens who loved comparisons.
First, the Horned Wolf's city appearance conditions were to reach the 10th floor and hunt a certain number of times.
It was unclear whether the count was for horned wolf magic stones or their by-products, but the event only started for players who could hunt the horned wolves without difficulty.
Second, the situation after the event were different for other players.
In Han Se-ah's case, I was able to look at the chat and took immediate action, but other players didn't have a 6 Paladin Roland.
Consequently, casualties increased, and the city became more chaotic.
Of course, the extent of the damage didn't reach a level where buildings were destroyed or city security was compromised.
If a player fought the horned wolves with their party members, guards would detect the commotion and start looking for other monsters.
Extra NPCs died in larger numbers, and if players were really unlucky, the innkeeper or restaurant owner where they stayed would die, causing them to lose their accommodation and property.
Thanks to Han Se-ah's stream, rumors about the Horned Wolves spread across the internet, with comments suggesting that they were less dangerous.
While it could be an exaggeration driven by fans, gamers with a sense of intuition would have figured it out.
Worst case, they could just reset to the morning before.
"The frequency of encountering people on the 10th floor has increased quite a bit."
"Apparently, parties hunting above the 11th floor have come down too."
As I followed Han Se-ah, thinking about various things, another adventurer greeted us with a nod.
It seemed they recognized my face, showing no wariness and even attempting to approach us discreetly before deciding to step aside out of politeness.
Their actions were rather cute; if only they weren't a scarred man who appeared to be 2 meters tall.
From the spiked armor to the massive two-handed axe, he was definitely not a novice adventurer hunting Horned Wolves.
Judging by the numerous scratches on his armor, he was a veteran warrior with his own unique battle style.
The other party members trailing behind him also seemed quite skilled.
"They've spread the rumor about what we saw in the guild. A silver Horned Wolf, much larger than the normal ones, has appeared."
"Isn't it better to hunt in the middle floors?"
"No. If you succeed in hunting that Horned Wolf, the nobles will seek you out."
Grace tilted her head at my words, possibly because she didn't understand the implications of being involved with nobility as a novice adventurer.
"What are the byproducts of the Horned Wolves?"
Sandwiched between extraordinary physical abilities and a sensitive scout, Han Se-ah asked us in confusion.
"Um, what's going on?"
"...Someone's screaming, right?"
Still not used to speaking informally.
I left explaining to Grace and immediately sprang up from my seat.
My first step was a smooth leap, followed by a launch up that tore through the grassy plains.
"Find your way back!"
"Yes!"
With Grace's confident reply, I rushed towards the screams.
I couldn't hear shrieks from the peculiar creatures of the plains.
Therefore
"Ro-Roland?!"
"Bandits?"
It was possible that the troublemakers were not Horned Wolves but bandits preying on the influx of adventurers on the 10th floor.
A distinctively ugly man with a hooked nose aimed his weapon at me as I charged towards him, tearing through the earth.
A party of four men in armor were pinning down two women.
The two women might have come to hunt Horned Wolves, but one man's sledgehammer was covered in blood, and a pair of legs protruded from the tall bushes.
A group of inexperienced adventurers consisting of one man and two women had been caught by a party of intermediate-level adventurers.
"Ah, damn it."
"Help us, please!"
One of the women, covered in dirt from being pressed on the ground, reached out to me, sobbing.
A tear rolled down her cheek, revealing her fair skin beneath.
Judging by the fact that the three of them had reached the 10th floor, the woman must be a 2 adventurer.
Gacha characters were blessed with beauty incomparable to ordinary country girls.
It seemed that a party of dark-hearted men had succumbed to their desires and attacked.
"Hey, do you have any excuses?"
"Dieee!"
One of them, seemingly unaware of who I was, charged at me with a sword drawn.
The other three shivered without showing any intention to resist.
They must have been overwhelmed by my charge, tearing through the earth.
No matter how kind and polite I may be, I am not so benevolent as to catch criminals gently and hand them over to the guards.
The panicked men knew this as soon as our eyes met.
But as an intermediate adventurer, his thrust was well-executed.
He aimed for the gaps in my armor, his blade piercing through as if he was more experienced in killing humans than monsters.
The sword penetrated the seams of my lightweight armor, accurately stabbing my armpit.
"Ouch, damn. This isn't the skill of someone who's only tried it once or twice."
"Wha-what?"
The sword that pierced my skin crumpled and broke as if smashed by a hydraulic press.
From the tip of the blade to the hilt, and even the hand of the man holding it.
With a gruesome crunching sound, everything below his elbow twisted grotesquely.
It was the reflective damage that could even shatter the skull of the 10th floor boss.
A mere human body could not withstand it.
Come to think of it, was Roland designed as a PvP character?
Reflective damage wouldn't be as significant against boss monsters.
***
Uhh the website will be all over place this weekend, I'll try and set the updates overnight but the server requires 48hrs to properly set so I'm sorry to anyone caught reading at those times... multiple refreshes until it loads a working version does work though.
I'll probably finish the chapter releases for the week sooner then wait the night of before applying the changes.
2/4 Enjoy the chappy!
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