CH 94

It’s the morning of the day after he gave Aeris her wand as a gift.

Tauro and his E-rank team, the Black Golden Wings, a.k.a. “Kurogane,” had come to the guild to receive their first E-rank quest, but there was some commotion at the reception desk.

When he looked over, he saw Momo, the cat-person girlfriend of D-rank adventurer and village hero, Bob the dog-person, desperately complaining about something to the new receptionist.

Chloe, the branch manager and Shiroi, the deputy branch manager joined the commotion and entered into a short discussion and Chloe said in a serious tone.

“It’s an urgent quest. We need to find and protect a team of D-ranked adventurers who haven’t been heard from in three days. In some cases, it may include the recovery of bodies.”

She said to the adventurers in the lobby.

The lobby was buzzing and Momo sobbed on the spot at Chloe’s last words.

“What quest did that team get?”　

One of the adventurers demanded information.

“It was a request from a mountain village half a day from here to investigate and defeat the orcs that have been appearing lately. The team members are Tom, Sam, Anne, and Bob. An emergency call came from the mountain village to Momo, who happened to be at the entrance of the village and she reported the incident. There was a red smoke signal rising from the mountain where the team was headed.”

The red smoke signal is something that adventurers raise in times of crisis and although it is rarely seen because most adventurers die before raising it, it was a common method of emergency communication for the adventurers’ guild.

Adventurers are given a small red bag by the guild as a good luck charm when they choose to do certain quests in the E rank zone and Tauro and his friends were scheduled to receive one depending on their E rank quests.

Tauro couldn’t hide his surprise at Chloe’s words.

It was because Bob was on the team.

Momo was probably waiting at the entrance to the village to see if her boyfriend Bob would come back, since he hadn’t been back since the day he was supposed to.

Then, a villager from the mountain village comes to make an urgent call.

Maybe Momo had a sixth sense about Bob’s danger.

The cat people seem to have a keen intuition about such things.

Tauro didn’t have a choice, he couldn’t decline this urgent quest in front of Momo.

“…Guys, I want to take this quest.”He turned around and checked with the three of them.

“”OK!””

The three agreed without a pause.

Then the four raised their hands.

“We’re going to take on this quest ””””team “Black Golden Wings”””””

They declared.

Following the young team, a B-ranked team raised their hands, as did C-ranked and D-ranked teams.

“Normally, we’d leave out the newly E-ranked Black Golden Wings, but we need more people for the search, so we’ll let them go. Don’t overdo it and rely on the teams around you. Then, the teams that are ready should rush to the scene.”

Chloe said to Tauro and the others as if she was giving them a nudge.

“Yes!”

Tauro replied on behalf of the team and they immediately began to prepare for departure.

The “Black Golden Wings” team did very little in the way of preparation.

They had everything they needed in Tauro’s magic storage.

So, when they set off, we were the second team to arrive at the mountain village after Team B.

“That’s fast, we just got here too. Looks like it’s not all bravado.”

The leader of the B-team praised Tauro and his team with admiration.

“Quickly, the villagers say that a red smoke has risen from that mountain.”

He pointed to a mountain that overlooked the village.

“We’ll split up and look for around, we’ll take the area around it, you take the one to the left of it and the rest of you get the word from the villagers.”

The B-team leader instructed, pointing to the mountain.

Tauro and the others nodded.

“I understand. We’ll head there right away.”

Tauro replied on behalf of the team and nodded to the three of them to head for the site.

Tauro and the others entered the mountain from the left side as seen from the mountain village.

The trees were tall and the grass was overgrown, so visibility was not good.

However, with Tauro’s sense of presence, there would be no unexpected encounters.

“Tauro, how are you doing, do you see anything?”

Aeris spoke to the leading Tauro.

“There are animals presences, but right now…oh. This presence is an orc. There are two of them just ahead.”

Everyone became tense.

For teams in the E-rank bands, Orcs are the target of the higher D-rank band subjugation.

Orcs are humanoid monsters with the appearance of pigs and they have fangs growing out of their mouths.

They are strong and intelligent.

Like goblins, they fight with weapons and sometimes form groups.

Both of them were armed with clubs, Tauro confirmed by the silhouettes he saw with his ‘true eye’.

“Let’s try to avoid them here. Our priority right now is to find Bob and the missing adventurers.”

The four of them nodded and decided to take a detour with Tauro’s guidance.