CH 4

Chapter 4: Chain Quest

The sun was setting.

Mari was a store worker for a weapons shop and was in the process of closing the store.

Since she was 8, she had started working at the store, first as a mere grunt worker who helped with whatever dirty work needed to be done. For 10 years, she worked tirelessly doing various jobs that made her feel like death would be a welcome relief, but even while complaining, she stuck with it.

Because of that, her boss gave her full authority over the store and was the head manager.

She may still be working for him, but among all the rest of the workers, she stood at the top.

The only person above her is the store owner himself.

From her humble origins, she climbed her way to the top over the last 10 years.

As she was cleaning up the store, from the rear entrance, she heard a familiar sound.

A whoosh! Slide and then whoosh! Repeated endlessly.

It is the sound of a wooden sword swing and feet dragging against the ground.

She has heard the sound for 10 years and knew who exactly it was.

As she headed to the rear entrance, just she expected, he was there.

A boy with black hair and dark eyes - the only human being to have those traits in the Labyrinth City of Kronos - Yuto was at the backyard of the store swinging his sword again.

Being the lowest-ranked adventurer, his income is very unstable.

Being the weakest adventurer did not help either.

Because he had such poor nutrition, and just held himself barely above starvation, Yuto was several times smaller than his peers.

With that small body, he swung the sword with all his might.

Mari: “Yuto—, I gotta close shop—“

Yuto: “...”

She calls on him, but he’s so focused on his swings that he’s left in his own world.

She was ignored, but instead of getting upset, she relented and just drew a long, slow breath.

He’s always been like this.

Once he sets his mind on something, no matter how many times she tries to grab his attention, it’s no use.

Working at the weapons shop means doing tough manual labor. There were days when she would be so sore after work that she would cry herself to sleep.

“My whole body hurts”

“I don’t want to go to work”

“It’s too hard”

“I don’t want to do this anymore”

“I just want to quit”

Mari was sent away to dwindle the number of mouths to feed, and she managed to land a job here at Plutos. She was 8 then.

She had to carry armor twice her size, and the labor was too much for an 8 year d girl.

But the reason why she made it thus far was because she always saw Yuto in the back, practicing his swings.

He would keep swinging his sword with dead set focus. She would wonder how he never got bored. He seemed pathologically obsessed about swinging that sword around.

He would swing so much that the skin on his hands would blister and peel, but he continued.

Blood would be trickling from the grip of his hands, but he did not stop.

Mari only heard about his weak status from a customer.

“What was that kid’s name? Yuto? Anyways, I heard he’s still stuck at level 1.”

“What? Hasn’t it been 3 years since he’s become an adventurer?”

“Wait, really? There’s someone like that?”

“Dang dude, he must be cursed or something.”

He worked that hard and was still just Level 1. That fact was unbelievable to Mari.

Even Mari who worked as a grunt worker leveled up to Level 3.

“My whole body hurts”

“I don’t want to go to work”

“I don’t want to do this anymore”

“I just want to quit”

Yuto can’t even level up and yet he continues to train even harder.

So can it be okay for me who leveled up to give up sooner than he does?

—-Of course not!!

From that day on, Mari stopped complaining altogether. Whenever she felt down, she would remind herself about Yuto.

If Yuto is not giving up, she could not possibly give up.

By the time the store was closed up, Yuto continued to swing his sword.

Mari: “Hello Mr. Yuto—. The store already closed—. Are you even listening—?”

No matter how much she tries to get his attention, there is no response.

This time, she got a little annoyed and threw a small rock his way.

Yuto deflected the rock with his wooden sword.

Mari: “Wow! Look at you!”

He did not respond to Mari’s voice, but he did respond to an attack.

Even though his level does not go up, he has gained a tremendous amount of experience as an adventurer, and the way he just responded is so like Yuto.

The store has already completed all of its business.

Any other day, she would have headed to her dormitory, but Yuto is here today.

Mari sits down on a wooden box, and watches Yuto swing his sword.

Yuto: “...999….1000!”

Yuto seems to have completed his sword swinging regiment. He lowers his wooden sword and looks up at the empty sky.

Mari: “Great work, Yuto.”

Yuto: “WHAAA----! Oh, it’s you, Mari.”

Mari: “What do you mean, ‘Oh it’s you.’ Like I shouldn’t be here or something?!”’

Yuto: “Oh no, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t think you would still be here.”

Mari: “Yuto, this is the backyard of my workplace. No one would be surprised to find me here.”

Yuto: “But it’s already so dark.”

Yuto was wondering why Mari decided to stay out so late, but she couldn’t look him in the eye.

Mari: “Okay okay. C’mon Mr. Suspicious Figure. Please return home immediately.” Yuro: “Who’re you calling suspicious!”

Mari: “I’m kidding. C’mon, let’s go.”

Mari pushes Yuto’s back. Yuto’s body is extremely small. He’s about the same height as Mari who is quite frail as well.

But even that small body was surrounded in lean muscle.

Typically, Adventurers will allow their level up to increase their physical prowess, but for Yuto, his daily training built up his body to this point.

Just seeing that gave Mari more courage and encouragement.

Mari: (Even if his level isn’t going up, he’s still trying and working so hard. I can’t lose to him!)

Mari: “Hey Yuto, aren’t you almost 18 years old?”

Yuto: “Yeah, I am. So what?”

Mari: “Well… uh, you know… I thought, maybe it’s a good time to retire from being an adventurer…?”

When you’re young, you can push your body beyond your limits and still keep going, but as age catches up with you, it won’t be that easy anymore.

Eventually, your body will give in.

When morning comes, the fatigue from the training will remain. Even if you train hard, it will be difficult to retain your original strength.

If you’re level went up, you can combat the aging to some degree, but for Yuto, without any levels, it’s easy to predict what would happen to him in the near future.

Mari: “There’s a lot of job opportunities in Kronos. Like… like this, you know, one weapons shop who is looking for a male helper…”

Yuto: “Thanks for the concern, but I’m still okay.”

Mari: “Oh yeah…?”

Mari: (He still hasn’t given up his dream.)

Mari secretly let out a big disappointing sigh when Yuto wasn’t looking.

She looks up at Yuto.

When Yuto walked, his sight was always looking slightly upwards.

Just recently, he would only look at the ground.

Mari: (Did something good happen?)

His face was that of someone who just had a huge weight lifted off their shoulder.

Just like Yuto back in the end, his eyes were bright and filled with hope.

・・・

Yuto: “ALRIGHT!!”

Returning to his room, Yuto celebrated at the news.

He completed the sword swinging quest, and his level rose to Level 5.

Level 4 → 5

Skill Point: 5 → 6

It’s true that leveling up lower levels is much easier and faster, but even for normal adventurers, it would take at least one month to move from Level 1 to Level 5.

Yuto was able to accomplish this in one day.

And this is the same man who couldn’t get one level up after 10 years of work!

Yuto: “I’m so glad to be alive...”

Yuto let the tears well up, and shook in joy.

He was not only happy for completing the quest, but something else occurred.

Once he completed the sword swinging quest, another quest opened up as a result.

Chain Quest

Slay 500 Goblins (0/500)

Yes! Yuto felt the rush of excitement. 500 goblins is a lot. A standard solo Adventurer could probably slay 50 in a day. So a normal solo adventurer may take about 10 days to complete this.

But Yuto was more excited about the prospect of what was waiting for him beyond this enormous amount of monsters he had to kill. What if he got some incredible power as a reward?

He wanted to leave immediately and start slaying goblins, but night has already fallen.

Entering a dungeon at night is very dangerous.

That’s because the monsters in the dungeon, similar to their brethren above ground, become more ferocious during the night.

Nobody really knows why the monsters underneath the ground where sunlight doesn’t even touch them grow more violent and vicious.

Maybe it’s because similar to humans having a biological clock, monsters too have a rhythm they follow, but this is just speculation.

Setting that aside, safely hunting monsters must be done at the start of each morning.

This morning, Yuto dreamt that he had died when he woke up.

It was an incredibly vivid and surreal dream.

Yuto cannot shake the feeling that it was more than just a dream.

In a mental state like that, his body may not move as usual even if he goes to the dungeon right now. If his body does not listen to him, he could easily lose his life from one fatal blow.

He finally got to level up. Running into death right now would make it all a waste.

Yuto: “I really want to clear this quest, but ...safety first.”

With a decision made, he begins preparing.

He takes out a single sword from the cupboard.

The handle has worn away long ago, and you can see rust on certain places on this longsword.

This is the only real sword that Yuto bought from Mari’s shop.

As a E-Rank adventurer and remaining as a perpetual Level 1, Yuto could not make any money.

At that time, he scraped what little he could together, and what he lacked, he made up for it with tears and cries of mercy asking Mari for a deeper discount. He obtained this sword at that time.

Although it was quite old, it had not lost its shine.

This is no doubt the work of the famous store owner and resident black smith, Douglar.

Douglar is a dwarf artisan. Dwarves as a race are renowned for their metalsmithing and weapon-making.

And even amongst the dwarves, Douglar’s skills are one step ahead of the game.

Yuto’s sword was one of the cheapest weapons available in that shop. Even so, after 8 years of use, there is still not a single bend in the sword’s metal.

But no matter how well he took care of it, rust eventually got to the outer parts. This is just the fate of any metal weapons.

Yuto carefully removed the rust and sharpened his blade in preparation for tomorrow.