Chapter 9

Inside the adventurers guild, a newbie has beaten the odds and passed the fake rank-up exam! Even though normally to rank up you have to finish at least 10 quests, with that the guild was forced to give Cain an E-rank!

“So Mary, did you see that?” Cain asked with a smug face, deep down he did want to show off a bit in front of her.

“I’m sure your stats were lower than your performance! With that 18 intelligence, what are you hiding?” She asked, a bit angry. She was speaking from experience, her working there meant that Cain’s stats weren’t the first she saw and they won’t be the last.

To her judgment, the only impressive thing about Cain’s stats is his high intelligence. Whatever was his performance, it has to be tied to him utilizing that!

“Who knows?” Cain just smiled at her.

“C…Cain.” Sofia whispered behind him, “About what you said earlier?”

Hearing her weak voice behind him, he remembered what he was intending to do.

“Yeah, you’re right! We have no time to waste!” Cain said as he turned his head toward her.

“Mary, Could register us as a formal party?” Cain asked.

Mary just nodded, it was common for adventurers to form parties and tackle hard quests together.

“That would be simple!” She replied, “Just remember, you will receive your E-rank card tomorrow so you can’t take the higher quest today!”

Cain knew that before, he had other things in mind. A quest that was still unfinished.

“Sofia’s quest is still active right?” serious expression on his face.

Mary told him the details, what was Sofia’s quest and her dead end.

The quest was.

[F-rank Quest: Spray Toad repellent on the city outskirts!] The quest was just manual labor that anyone could do. The only element of danger was the possibility of encountering a giant toad!

Giant toads were large creatures, their size ranged from as small as a dog to 10 feet in height! their diet consists of small animals, rodents, and even goats and cattle. There have even been reports of children going missing in the past.

As Sofia was spraying the repellent, she encountered a giant toad. Upon seeing the ugly monstrosity in front of her, she panicked and tried to forcefully cast her magic. That was the last thing she remembered until she woke up covered in toad puke.

Cain could easily guess what happened, The magic sucked all her MP and caused her to faint, of course, the magic would fail then! The frog just swallowed her as she was unconscious, a free meal! Lastly, as she was still carrying the repellent with her, the toad was forced to puke her!

The quest reward was 1 silver coin spraying the repellent. A fair pay, as long as it didn’t involve a giant toad!

“Mary, how much do giant Toad go for? I don’t quite remember the market prices!” Cain asked, Mary didn’t catch on to his intention but Sofia did, and her face turned pale.

Depending on the size, amount of damage the carcass took, and lastly the demands. The price can range from 5 Silver coins up to 2 gold coins! There is an exception, if the frog was poisonous, it won’t sell. if there was proof of it ever feeding on humans, a reward of 10 gold coins will be given for slaying the beast!

“Why do you ask?”

“Nothing, I was just curious!” Cain replied, turning around toward Sofia.

“Let’s go, Spray the repellent!” Told Sofia who was shaking in her place, ‘This man intends to hunt them!!!’ She was screaming in her mind, Those frogs were C-rank monsters! They may be weak to fire magic but for a swordsman like Cain, It’s a losing fight!

After exiting, They headed directly toward the bathhouse to claim their weapons, their clothes have been washed but hadn’t dried yet, and for that, they only took the weapons.

“Aaaa, are you sure about that?” Sofia was noticeably scared, her voice trembling “Those toads are dangerous!”

With a confident smile, Cain encouraged her, “But they are dumb, easy to read! Even you can kill one just by learning their attack patterns!”

It didn’t take long for them to reach the outskirts, The forest edge can be seen in the distance! The sun was still up, dripping warmth on the ground.

“Where were you attacked? Would you mind leading me there?”

With that, and with a worried face, Sofia slowly led Cain to where she was attacked by the toad. The area was hilly, making it hard to see far ahead!

“With all of those hills, I couldn’t see the toad as it approached!” Sofia said, Cain instantly shock his head.

“That isn’t the case!” He was blunt, “If the toad was big enough to swallow, You should have heard it approaching!” Cain looked her directly in the eyes.

Sofia was silent, her face twisting in guilt.

“Don’t lie to me, You were the one to attack the toad first!” Cain was starting to have a scary face, It was understandable as she might have died!

Feeling guilty as well scared that Cain might snap at her, she told him what happened at that time.

As she was spraying the repellent, Sofia heard loud thuds in the distance.

Thud, thud! From that, she instantly knew that a giant toad was approaching.

At the start, she thought of running away but soon stopped.

‘I can’t keep running away!’ The thoughts coursed through her mind, ‘I might be able to use magic if pushed to the limit’

‘No, I might die!’…and then that thought turned into the opposite. ‘What the point in living like I’m now?’

After a long mental struggle, Sofia decided to face the toad, an all-or-nothing fight.

“I thought, Why not? I’m useless after all!” Cain patiently listened to her, she spend over half an hour repeating the same things over and over before stopping. At some points, she even started crying.

“Listen, that’s what people call giving up on life!” Cain said with seriousness.

“You’re not useless, I will make sure you will become strong!” Cain declared before adding “I don’t want to hear that from you ever again!”

Thud! Thud!

Sofia froze in place. “It seems to be close!” Cain said with a grin, he grabbed Sofia from her hand and dragged her toward the sound.

As they scaled the hill, they could spot the thing in the distance.

A green, ugly Giant Toad! It looked like a regular toad from the outside, but was bigger!

“That’s him! He was still here!” Sofia gasped.

As Cain inspected the frog from far away, his eyes opened wide open.

“You passed out as you were trying to use magic right?” Cain asked Sofia, A big grin on his face.

“Yeah, The last thing I remember was me pointing my staff at him!” Sofia replied.

Hehehe! Cain laughed, looking at Sofia in excitement.

“What?” Sofia backed down a bit from him, “You’re giving me a weird look!” She said, being creeped out by Cain’s face.

“That toad…” Cain was laughing.”It has burning marks on its body!”

“Heh?” Sofia was confused as to what Cain talking about.

“It seems I met a gem! Your magic didn’t fail!” Cain declared.

“You’re not a mage, you’re a sorceress!”