Chapter 92 Party

"Thank you, bab— ma'am." The adventurer lady sighed. "You're sort of like my old man: I'm grateful that you helped me."

"A-An old man, huh…?"

"Yes, an old man."

"Don't call me an old man."

"I won't call you an old man. Thank you, ma'am."

"You're awfully polite despite your rude comments every now and then, aren't you, boy? I helped you and you helped me. One can say we're even."

"Even."

"Yes. Even. Now tell me. You did know about all I explained to you, didn't you?"

"No."

"...We're seriously going to have to find your party, or at the very least one of your party members. They're the ones who brought you here, I blame them for leaving such a clueless boy by himself here. Some may call it "training," but I think that's plain irresponsibility."

After a long discussion, both she and I were informed of what we needed to know. As for me, I learned two facts. The first fact was about the origin of the fireball I saw when I was out of the wall: If I wanted to make it mine, the redfire, then I simply had to learn about magic; that was good to know, even though it was trivial.

What came after this fact was the info about the orc heads she talked about. I already knew about the information, but it was confirmed to me. The first time I heard about it was from the first adventurers I killed on the battlefield, the second time was from the System and its Compulsory Quest, and the last was from the charming adventurer babe standing right in front of me.

What about the charming adventurer lady, now? After a long discussion, I said both she and I were informed of what we needed to immediately go about, and so, she was informed, by herself, that she needed to help her lost puppy to find his party before I got more lost than ever, out in the dangerous world.

"Say, would you mind telling me where the... Guild Bureau is?"

"I'll help you find your party—"

Knowing what we had to do, we both spoke at the same time. The babe was confused for a second, then asked me whether it was all right for me to go on and trade my loot for silver without my party. I replied it was quite all right, and after a minute of debating out loud whether she should accompany the clueless boy she had just found outside, she hesitated. I insisted she didn't have to accompany me, and that I'd was seriously all right; all I needed was a direction before I took off.

The fact was, I already had that direction thanks to the System and its guiding tool, but I thought there was no harm in asking her anyway. Also, I figured she wouldn't let me go on my own if she thought I was still as clueless as ever.

Reluctantly, as if she wasn't willing to part with me yet and that we still had some business together, she showed me a route that had been slightly dug here thanks to the walking over of all manners of people, going back and forth between the front and the rear, I nodded to the girl and took off at once using Quick Pace.

If possible, I'd become an adventurer, then, I thought. All the quests I went about or had already completed, they told me to be an adventurer. I created my Character like an adventurer, got my humanoid form like an adventurer, saved an elven princess like an adventurer, and all of it was so great I liked it so much. I, an adventurer.

And Cetha would join me becoming an adventurer, too, maybe. Oh, and the old geezer, too; you can't forget him when he's proved his usefulness so quickly. So I'd become an adventurer; that was the plan. Right this instant. If I could have snapped my fingers and turn into an adventurer, that's what I'd do right away— In fact, that's what I would do. Of course. I just had to think about it, and I trusted I would be served.

To be an adventurer, have much fun, survive, be good at life, get to discover more wonderful things and kill enemies, and get more stimulation from the Outside World, as it is what I must do. That was the plan. I just had to close my eyes tight, snap my fingers, open them back, and Snap—

Whack!

"Urk!"

No, I wasn't an adventurer. The only thing I got from doing this was to bump into some human. Square into the stomach. The man cried out at my sudden bumping into his stomach. Ouch. Taking off, as I shut my eyes tight and snapped my fingers, my head was tilted forward like crazy. I thought maybe it would work. Maybe I'd become an adventurer right away. Unfortunately, no. All I got was the right for my head to go right through that person's stomach. The strength I'd put into my setting away using Quick Pace allowed me to probably be as quick as the wind.

All the strength I put into that skill made me headbutt the person's stomach with even more might. All of which surprised me more than anyone, I was sure. The guy I bumped into might have felt the pain, but at least he saw it coming. And, better be in pain than unprepared, right? Or no, yeah, maybe the man was as surprised as I was, stumbling his way backward with a scrunched-up face, he fell down like a dead leaf. Thankfully, I didn't put so much strength in that headbutt.

"H-Hey! What was that?!" the man said, recovering rather quickly from his surprise, and assaulted me with words rather than a sword. I thought it was weird, I personally was ready to kill him on the spot. It was then that I identified the creature as a human male in his late teens.

The human fell down, and I just did the same. Although I wasn't proud of it, upon charging into him, I bounced off too, maybe due to the fact I tried to do as little damage as possible and avoid breaking some parts of the human male at all cost; I ended up falling down flat on my butt as he did. So that was round one. Should we pursue this fight or will the human not mind my unintended attack?

"You brat! Watch it, will ya?!"

As I looked upon the human male, my eyes glistening with a murderous gleam, my face being as cold as could be; I glowered at him, and he seemed to get the message. The commotion was on me and I was sorry for causing it, but he sure as hell mustn't take such an arrogant tone with a monster. The man was still on his butt, just like me, and all the animosity seemed to vanish from his face, leaving it pale and recoiling. Good.

But there was more to this situation than meets the eye: "Oh hey, guys! You're here already," the babe exclaimed, as cheerful as ever.

"Yeah. We're here."

"We're… uh… back."

Two people were produced from next to the angry man. That's how I met the party. The party I would kill some time from now. Sort of. The party I sent to their death, because of my behavior. That was them. A while back, I totally forgot about it with all that was going around me, but the System issued some Voluntary Quest to me.

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Whether I went along with it or not depended solely on me, as it was only that: voluntary. Well, now the quest came back at me as if the System urged me not to forget about the game. Two people were produced from the crowd of adventurers walking around the rear.

The first to speak was a bright man who tried to smile as much as possible despite the hardships of life, justifying his action by saying that smiling should be the only thing that would forever be free. He was also in his late teens, maybe a bit older than the guy I bumped into, and he was the leader of the babe's party.

The second to speak was a chunky human sack of fat, he was a male, about the same age or a bit older, with a huge broadsword hanging by his side. He was timid, so small in presence, but so gigantically big and imposing in volume.