287 - - 30 years. - No, no.

Dadaan watched Thor and the others walk up the stairs, holding his wife's hand.

The first few years were very difficult.

The town was unknown, so the number of adventurers was small, and the quality of their work was not very good.

Not a day went by without trouble, and it was not uncommon for incidents to end in bloody confrontations.

Because of this, residents did not stay long and money could not be collected and circulated.

It would have been easier to attract skilled people and maintain security if they had been paid more.

However, most of the money they had saved up as adventurers had already disappeared with the construction of the outer walls of the city, which they had asked the Temple of Service to build for them.

The remaining half was quickly consumed by the labor costs of setting up and maintaining the Adventurer's Bureau, the buying station, and other facilities, as well as attracting other temples to the city.

Fortunately, we were still able to gather quality lumber from the ogre-infested forests near the city.

It was also significant that we were able to mine a reasonable amount of ore from the small labyrinth in the forest.

However, Dadaan had no way to sell the ore.

In the end, they had no choice but to ask for assistance from Hakri's home country through the court temple, and were introduced to merchants who dealt in timber.

This debt would later have a large impact on them.

Finally, in the tenth year, the town began to look like a city.

The construction of an inner moat and the division of the residential area into two halves reduced the chances of getting into trouble, and the number of residents increased, as they felt safer from a defense standpoint.

The number of merchants and craftsmen also increased, and the tax revenue became stable.

The successful attraction of trading temples seems to have contributed to the increase in this area.

In the area of exploration, people breaking through the wilderness of broken winds began to appear here and there.

This is partly because the construction of the temple has made it possible to take some risks, but the humble work of Dadan should not be overlooked.

The director himself stood at the outer gate and directly approached prospective adventurers, offering them a variety of advice.

He also taught those who were willing to learn how to use weapons.

It was then that I met Thor.

At first I thought him a reckless fool.

I tried to teach him how to fight a little, but I thought he would soon run for his life.

But the recklessness of a boy who ventures into the dangerous forest day after day, without giving up, changes Dadaan's mind.

What was in Thor's eyes was not money or honor, but something else.

When he tried to teach him seriously, he was not sure if he had any talent or not, but the young adventurer's skill improved little by little as he continued to swing his sword.

Dadaan, his mentor, was reminded by the young adventurer.

He realized that as long as one does not stop moving forward, one can move forward.

But Thor, who had no martial arts skills and only useless magic skills, was limited to the forest of kobolds.

After 20 years, the town had completely become a border town.

The supply of lumber, iron, magic stone, and meat has stabilized, and the streets lined with buildings are lit up by magic stone lamps.

The distribution of people and goods became more prosperous, as the city and the other border towns pooled their money and built roads connecting them.

The construction of temples of exploration also improved the quality and number of inhabitants, as well as their education.

In addition, many adventurers who quit their jobs are usually prone to problems because of the lack of employment opportunities.

However, Dadan, who had been an adventurer himself, understood their situation and did not abandon them.

He employed many of the retired adventurers to guard the city and maintain security.

This made the town more secure and attracted more people and goods, and adventurers who heard the rumors began to register one after another.

The establishment of various security systems for adventurers was also a major boost to the city.

Finally, the search for the miasma finally reached the marshes of the miasma.

But here, the border town of Dadan ran into a big problem.

There is a witch who lives in the swamp.

The city's top adventurers took on this monster, which was later recognized as a lore-class monster, and the city's pride and joy was destroyed.

This set back the momentum for exploration.

The Adventurers' Bureau had no choice but to keep the witch's existence a secret because of the possibility of a state of panic if the residents were to find out about it.

Around this time, Cocolara, which had been protecting this town from the depths of the earth, reached its limits.

Dadaan did not allow his sons to become adventurers because he did not want them to suffer the same fate as he and his sons.

Such a mere mortal could not approach the great miasma pit, which was filled with a strong miasma even though it was sealed up.

Nor could the priests stay too long, as they could not bear the presence of the relic beast.

Separated from her beloved children, the twenty years of solitude she spent under the ground without day or night were enough to break Cocolara's heart.

The unexpected dead end of the search, and his wife's behavior gradually becoming strange.

It was inevitable that Dadan looked elsewhere for a way out.

The Liberation Temple, which had been his friend since the town's establishment, approached him with a proposal.

Two highly skilled adventurers would be joining the temple, and the adventurers would be guided by a hero.

It sounds very appealing, but it is a proposal to give preferential treatment to those who have the Liberation Temple's blessing.

Zazam, his uncle and the head of the Temple of the Tribunal, strongly opposed the proposal, but Dadan dared to accept it.

As the city flourishes, it attracts more and more people and money, and there is a need for coordination between the Chamber of Commerce and the Temple.

Daily meetings took up so much of his time that he could not even make it to the Adventurer's Bureau.

At this rate, he would not be able to be involved in the field and would not be able to take any good measures.

And if he did not seal off the next noxious gas, he would not be able to save his wife.

It was a decision made after much deliberation.

Sacco, who is appointed deputy director, immediately sets forth a policy of attacking the miasma pits with a small group of elite operatives.

To achieve this, he had to select competent adventurers, and the warm conventions were abolished and tightened at once.

This was the complete opposite of the adventurer-friendly approach of the time of Dadan.

Thus, although there was a great deal of opposition, the result was a party worthy of the name of the Kongo class.

Within a few years, a system to monitor the witches was in place, and at last the search for the underground prison where the miasma was believed to exist began.

And the next decade passes in a blink of an eye.

Of course, in the meantime, there were many incidents that rocked the city.

The attack of kobolds on the city, caused by the decrease in the number of new adventurers, the fall of Bossalia, the neighboring city, and so on.

And let us not forget the case of Sacco's only daughter who explored the court temple on her own and wandered into the underground chamber by accident.

The most important thing for Dadaan was that this encounter brought back his wife's emotions, even if only a little.

The look on his wife's face as she happily muttered to Bettina, who was planning to take Cocolara out of the house at any moment, that she was a troubled child, is still etched deep in the old man's heart.

But the good times are over too soon.

The smile on his wife's face was wiped out again when the girl was seriously injured by an attack of kobolds and sent back to Toukoku Zuma.

Moreover, around that time, she began to hear bad things about her beloved disciple, Thor.

He still stayed in the forest of kobolds, doing nothing but easy work targeting only slimes.

For Dadan, who knew Thor's sincere attitude in the past, this was hard to believe.

Not wanting to leave him behind, he approached Thor several times about joining the staff of the Adventurers' Bureau, but Thor stubbornly refused.

Dhadang, who had no time to spare, stopped his involvement because of his stubborn attitude.

And so, with a sense of unease in the air, Dadan's border town entered its 30th year.

While his days are as busy as ever, a rumor comes to Dadan's ears.

It is said that his apprentice, who was supposed to have given up on him, has suddenly increased the number of his friends and has killed a large number of kobolds.

Dadan is skeptical, but is relieved to see that Thor has not changed after meeting him for the first time in a long time.

He was also astonished to see how much he had changed.

What Thor produced in the following six months was a torrent of events.

From secretly protecting the city from hordes of cunning kobolds, to solving the troublesome problems of the bloody river and the windswept wilderness.

He has conquered and successfully recaptured an ant's nest in the neighboring town of Bossalia, vanquished a vicious gregarious dragon species, and even vanquished a swamp witch, a monster of folklore.

--These are unbelievable feats.

All that remains is to seal off the great miasma and reach the heights of greatness.

But to do so, we need the power of the relic.

For some time now, the Temple of the Court has been asking us to secure Mu as a candidate for the next generation of beast priestesses.

In addition, a similar request has been received from the home country.

It is almost impossible for the border town of Dadan, which has received numerous financial and human resources, to resist the request.

Dadaan also sent a letter to the target, saying that the age of the subject should be taken into consideration, but all that came back was a merciless notice.

Hakuli's situation seems to be getting that much worse.

We hesitated many times, but this did not change the fact that the miasma could not be sealed without the relics.

Dadaan decides that Thor and the others should at least make that choice, and asks the twins to protect Mu.

Today, the transfer of the relic unexpectedly ended in failure.

Dadaan is surprised, but a greater emotion occupies his mind now.