“Thank you,” Li Xiuman said, stowing away his adventurer's license.
“Um... Do you need to take on a quest?” the receptionist asked.
“A quest?”
Li Xiuman glanced at the rank on his adventurer's license.
Apprentice Adventurer.
The adventurer ranks were divided into: Apprentice Adventurer, Low-Tier Adventurer, Mid-Tier Adventurer, High-Tier Adventurer, Elite Adventurer, and Legendary Adventurer.
Then he looked at the quest board for tasks available to Apprentice Adventurers.
Weeding.
“You want me to pull weeds?”
“No, no, no!”
“To have a powerhouse like you pull weeds would be a failure of the Adventurer's Association.”
“According to the association's regulations, when a famous powerhouse like you joins, you can take on a promotion quest corresponding to your strength.”
“If you agree, I can help you apply for it right now.”
Li Xiuman nodded in agreement.
Since he could skip ranks directly, he had no desire to waste time climbing from the bottom step by step.
“Based on your strength in diving alone below the twentieth floor of the dungeon, I believe applying for the Mid-Tier Adventurer evaluation would be most appropriate.”
“The Mid-Tier Adventurer quests... are these. You can choose from them.”
The receptionist laid out a list of quests.
“Subjugate a Tier 2 troll,” “Assist in conquering up to the 27th floor of the labyrinth,” “Hunt the dungeon's second stratum Unique Variant, the Lizardman King”...
“Hunt the Lizardman King?” Li Xiuman pointed at that specific quest.
“That is correct, Sir Skeleton.”
“In the dungeon's second major stratum—that is, floors eleven through twenty—a Unique Variant lizardman king has appeared.”
“It has caused great losses to the Adventurer's Association.”
“The bounty is eighty gold coins.”
“Upon successful completion, you will need to bring back either the lizardman king's horn or its magic stone as proof.”
“You can choose to keep the horn and magic stone, or sell them to the Adventurer's Association.”
“The association will offer you a highly satisfactory price,” the receptionist explained.
The Lizardman King.
Li Xiuman had encountered one before. If he went hunting for it, it wasn't as if he had no chance of taking it down.
Furthermore, the horn and magic stone of a lizardman king were exceptionally rare.
“What is the time limit?”
“Bringing back proof within one month after accepting the quest counts as a successful completion.”
“However, this is a public quest open to all adventurers, so others may take it on as well,” the receptionist reminded him.
“A competition, then.”
“I will take this quest.”
“Very well, I will process the registration for you. May your adventure go smoothly, Sir Skeleton.”
Putting his adventurer's license away, Li Xiuman left the Adventurer's Association.
Dozens of eyes watched him leave. The moment the door closed behind him, a torrent of chatter exploded.
“Skeleton took that Lizardman King quest!”
“I always thought that was a party quest. I didn't expect it to be a solo quest for a powerhouse like Skeleton.”
“This is great news! Our party hasn't dared to enter the eleventh floor because of the Lizardman King, and our profits have tanked.”
“But Skeleton's aura is truly terrifying. When he walked in, I honestly thought a monster had entered the city!”
...
Leaving the association, Li Xiuman made his way toward the Reby Merchant Association.
With a day having passed, Tedela should have processed and packed those Octagonal Fire Crystals, preparing them for delivery.
Since they were the Octagonal Fire Crystals he had harvested, and it directly affected his interests, he felt it necessary to check on them to prevent any unforeseen incidents.
He entered the Reby Merchant Association.
The Octagonal Fire Crystals were individually packed piece by piece, filling a large chest.
Li Xiuman didn't quite understand why a single pouch of Octagonal Fire Crystals needed such a massive chest.
This was probably what they called excessive packaging.
“How is it going?” Li Xiuman asked as he walked into the guildmaster's office.
“So far, so good,” Tedela replied.
“According to the contract, even that fellow wouldn't dare violate the kingdom's laws, right?”
“The kingdom's laws...”
Li Xiuman frowned.
In this era, the law was never meant to restrain the powerful; it existed solely to bind the weak, making them easier to manage and exploit.
As if to prove Li Xiuman's theory, a frantic knocking suddenly pounded on the office door.
“Come in.”
“President! Terrible news!”
“Guards have surrounded the association!” Ramantiel shouted in a panic.
“How can this be?!”
Tedela stood up from her chair and rushed to the window, looking outside.
At that moment, guards completely surrounded the association, inside and out.
Flanked by the guards, that pig of a noble was staring up at her with a smirk.
It was a cat-and-mouse expression, as though everything was firmly in his grasp.
“How does he dare? He's just a minor noble—how does he dare violate the kingdom's laws?export!”
Tedela's face turned pale, then flushed with anger.
“He certainly wouldn't dare violate them openly, but playing dumb while twisting the truth and turning black into white is second nature to them.”
“At this point, let's go down first and see what he has to say.”
The two of them walked down the stairs to the lobby.
Li Xiuman suspected that this noble might not be targeting Tedela, but him.
After all, he had barely set foot inside the association before the guards surrounded the place. The timing was too perfect.
The noble likely wanted to eliminate him first as a threat.
The lobby was packed with guards clad in armor and clutching weapons, radiating a heavy presence.
Seeing Li Xiuman and Tedela descend, the guards rushed forward in unison, surrounding them.
The guard captain stepped forward, glaring at Li Xiuman as he read out his charges.
“Adventurer Skeleton, you murdered fellow adventurers in the dungeon and stole their Octagonal Fire Crystals.”
“Trampling on life is also a violation of the laws of the Duchy of Mande and the Lantes United Kingdom.”
“In accordance with the kingdom's laws, you will be sentenced to death.”
“The stolen loot, the Octagonal Fire Crystals, will also be confiscated.”
An uproar broke out.
Tedela trembled with rage.
The very person openly trampling on the law was accusing someone else of doing so.
He was blatantly turning the law into a weapon to destroy others.
Li Xiuman, however, was not surprised. In fact, accusing him of killing adventurers wasn't actually slander.
“How dare you slander him so blatantly! Do you have not even a shred of human conscience?!” Tedela shouted in righteous indignation.
“I knew you would make excuses. By the Goddess of Light, we would never falsely accuse any citizen of the kingdom.”
“Bring in the witness.”
Next, several guards carried a miserably battered adventurer into the guildhall.
His wretched state would move anyone to tears—there was barely a patch of healthy skin left on his entire body.
“This is the poor adventurer we discovered in the dungeon. When we found him, he was at death's door, tortured by this demon.”
“Please describe exactly what you experienced in the dungeon,” the guard captain told the miserable adventurer.
“It was him!”
He pointed a trembling finger directly at Li Xiuman, who was encircled by the guards.
“He killed every single member of our party and stole the Octagonal Fire Crystals we worked so hard to harvest!”
“He even tortured me, warning me never to speak a word of this to anyone, or else he would murder me!”
“Please, Guard Captain, give me justice!”
Rate on N.U.
