Book 1: Chapter 61: Disbelief and Gilbert
Shortly after waking up the next morning and post having breakfast, Lone stored the fort he had self-built and had immense feelings of pride for into his Dimensional Storage.
One day, hed make this little fort a sprawling castle that could fly. Well, that was the dream, at least. Lone couldnt even begin to imagine how many different types of magic he would need to accomplish something like that.
If I werent so worried it would break, Id consider using it as a weapon. Imagine that. Fighting little old me then boom! A whole fuckin building pops out of nowhere on your head, Lone thought with a chuckle.
Regardless, he stopped thinking so fancifully as he forcefully collapsed the Illusionary Dome that surrounded the spot their home was in mere moments ago.
You good? he asked the fully armoured Soph.
She nodded. Yup! Im, uh, looking forward to going to the city again, to be honest.
Lone smiled. Despite the discrimination, yeah, I am too. Theres something comforting about civilisation.
He and Soph then walked back to Ranton at a leisurely pace. As they travelled, Lone used his Crude Fireball on any low-level monsters like goblins, mutated dears, and the odd Blue Orc Soph was able to detect with her Mana Sensing.
Just as they were approaching Ranton's walls and Lone was going to call it quits for now in regards to practising his fiery magic skill, it evolved.
Hed been using it for hours now on and off, so it gaining ten entire levels wasnt entirely unexpected given its crude nature.
Congratulations! The hosts active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Master Rank 10.
Congratulations! Due to the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] having reached Master Level 10, it has evolved into the active fire magic skill [Fireball].
Active Fire Magic Skill: Fireball A standard application of the fire magic school where the caster focuses the element of fire into a condensed ball of pure fire. Cost:2,500 MP Mastery:Beginner Level 1
"Just like Crude Lightning Bolt when that evolved..." Lone muttered. "It's a bit more costly now than the previous master rank version of Crude Fireball, but I don't need to chant it at all anymore."
Soph smiled as she hugged a tail. "Um, congrats, Lone..."
"Thanks, Soph," Lone replied as he flashed her a charming smile, putting his hidden stats to work.
The two of them then approached the entry queue and lined up to enter the Holy City of Milindo, Ranton.
Sadly, Lone was harassed a little bit by today's guards and was forced to pay double the normal demi entry tax. Money wasn't much of an object to him since he could just create it, but that didn't mean that he wasn't pissed off by the whole interaction.
It wasn't exactly cheap on his MP to create coins, but he could do it. Regardless of that, it still hurt Lone to be treated like a sub-person and no amount of enjoying the perks of civilisation would make him ignore that.
He did try to though as he and Soph returned to the Amberbark Inn.
Phil was manning the reception desk today and he raised a curious eyebrow upon their entry. Welcome back. I assume youll want to rebook your room?
Lone nodded. Thatd be great. For a week this time, no need for hot water but a tub would be appreciated. Meals included too.
Phil gave them a lazy nod. Sure.
Once everything was all said and done, they got settled in their bedroom. Soph had a nap while Lone used what was left of his MP to restock their gold supply.
Later that day, Sophie took control of her and Soph's body, donned her armour, then the two of them both greeted and said farewell to Phils sister, Grella, as they left the inn.
Before long, they had returned to The Adventurer's Guild after a four day long excursion. The guild was rather busy today, so after a 30 minute wait, they were finally seen to by their usual member of staff.
"Ah, Sir Immortus, Miss Vladimirovich. Did you give up on the quest, or perhaps you managed to kill one or two of the Manasilk Spiders? Regardless, your faces are a most welcome sight to see," the receptionist asked and then claimed with a relieved smile.
'I guess he was worried that we'd get ourselves killed...' Lone returned the man's smile with his own and then leaned over the counter slightly. "I'd like to make my report in private if that's possible. I know you're busy right now, but it's sort of necessary for what I'm going to say and show to you. You know, to avoid drawing even more attention to Sophie and myself."
"Oh? I understand. There is a fee that will be deducted from your quest reward or that will need to be paid in cash if you wish to make a private report. The fee is one silver coin. Is that okay with you?" the employee asked.
Lone nodded. 'If I can successfully and discreetly report having killed the queen, then there's no doubt I'll easily make back a simple silver coin.'
As Lone's thoughts would imply, he was planning to report his successful subjugation of the Manasilk Spider Queen. The only reason he was doing this was to gain more favour with the guild.
From his research and from what he'd heard from Lefakern, Phil, Grimsley, and the receptionist himself, The Adventurer's Guild was a wholly neutral force that was independent of all of the many nations, countries, and empires on the continent.
The guild had a very strict policy which discouraged and punished any and all speciesism or racism, so Lone felt like if he could trust anyone in this hateful kingdom, it'd be The Adventurer's Guild.
Needless to mention he also wanted to improve his plate rating. The better ones adventurer plate, the more access to guild information and resources one got.
Silver plate was the immediate goal since that was the threshold to be recognised as a trustworthy adventurer continent-wide.
Lone took out a single silver coin and slid it across the desk. The employee took a second to inspect it, and then he tucked it away in a register of sorts that was underneath his desk.
"Well then, Sir Immortus, Miss Vladimirovich, please, follow me," the receptionist requested politely.
The two did so, and two minutes later, they were in a very quaint office of sorts.
Sitting down, the employee said, "This room is enchanted to prevent sound from leaving it, so please, feel at ease giving your report."
Lone nodded once again and took a seat on the other side of the desk the employee was sitting behind while Sophie chose to stand.
It was a bit awkward to sit in her armour, so she was more comfortable this way, or so she had explained to Lone previously. He had a sneaking suspicion she just didnt want to be made even smaller by sitting.
After all, even in her adult form which she assumed most of the time, she was a full head shorter than Lone.
He scratched his head then said, "Well, when we were hunting the spiders, we ran into the queen."
"So there is a queen... This is very valuable information, Sir Immortus." The guild staff member claimed. "Manasilk Spider Queens very rapidly rise through the ranks and before even a year passes, they almost always become SS-ranked monsters with complete ease. Thankfully, they have very limited lifespans regardless of them ranking up, but still, the amount of spawn they can birth during that brief period of a few years... It's quite frightening. I'm glad you managed to escape after encountering one such creature."
'Huh. I guess this confirms it. First Kerny said people can add more years to their life via ranking up, then there's that asshole duke who's been protecting Milindo for over a century... So ranking up adds more years to your natural lifespan... I wonder how that works?' Lone thought.
After all, some species lived longer naturally regardless of ranking up. Humans could make it to about 100 on average. Elves, 2,000. Dwarves, 300. Giants, 10,000. Beastkin, eternity if not awakened.
There were too many sentient species to list them all but considering the vast difference in just those five examples, Lone could only assume it wasnt a flat increase.
His best assumption was that it was percentage based but he had no evidence to substantiate that.
A few moments passed before he snapped back to reality and shook his head. "You don't need to worry about the queen."
The employee looked a bit confused for a second before he replied, "No, Sir Immortus, we have a lot to worry about. At the bare minimum, the guildmaster would have to participate in the subjugation if we let the monster grow for too long."
Lone smiled awkwardly. "That's not what I meant. I, uh, I already killed it..."
"You... did what?" The sheer amount of raw disbelief in the man's tone was almost ludicrous. "Do you have any evidence?"
Lone nodded for the third time. "I have its body in my, uh, Adventurers Pouch."
'Space magic is a thing on this planet, I know that much from Grimsleys grumblings... Here's hoping a pouch big enough to hold that fuckin' things corpse isn't too uncommon,' Lone privately thought.
"Is that so?" the man was far more composed now after having a few seconds to collect his thoughts. "Could you please show me? Only a part of the body will do if you don't mind. This room isn't nearly large enough to host something like the corpse of a Manasilk Spider Queen. If you somehow defeated it and it's still in one piece, I'll clear out a larger room for you. There will be a fee if you're found to be lying."
'I like this. He isn't immediately thinking I'm full of shit, but he's still giving me a chance to prove my claim. It's guys like you that make me not hate my former species entirely. Well, there's Soph, Sophie, and Kerny's kids too, who all prove not all humans are speciesist trash,' Lone praised the man internally.
In preparation for selling the monster's body off or simply displaying it, Lone had made a bag that resembled an Adventurers Pouch but was actually just a glorified purse.
Reaching his hand into it, he accessed his Dimensional Storage and pulled out one of the four legs that were previously housed in his gut.
The employee took the leg from Lone and inspected it incredibly thoroughly before his face paled. "This is far above my pay grade. If you don't mind waiting here, sir, miss, I would like to have you meet the guildmaster. Only he'll know how to adequately reward you for slaying this beast."
'Oh? Well, I trust you, so sure.' Lone kept his honest opinion to himself then said, "Yeah, that's fine. We'll wait."
"Excellent. I'm unsure of how busy the guildmaster is, but I swear on my status as an employee of The Adventurer's Guild that he'll be down to talk with you both in no more than 20 minutes," the staff member said very respectfully, then he quickly left the room.
Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Acting] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 2.
"Huh? Was that for pretending to use an Adventurers Pouch?" Lone asked himself.
"Was what for pretending to use such a thing?" Sophie often ignored Lone's habit of talking to himself, but for once, instead of hitting him or threatening him for it, she decided to pass some time by questioning him instead.
"Ah, Acting levelled up. It was nothing important," Lone replied casually.
Sophie frowned lightly. "We have a good feeling that both Acting and Persuasion will be critical to you in the future.
Lone raised an eyebrow. How so?
She shrugged. In a do-or-die situation with intelligent beings, you can always unsummon us and destroy their minds, but if you are out of daily Mental Destruction uses and are weaker than our opponents, you will only have your tongue to rely on."
"That's contrived, but yeah, you're not wholly wrong," Lone replied with a casual shrug of his own.
He understood her logic, but regardless, he had never disregarded the two skills in question as worthless - especially since they were passives, so Lone felt that his lover's cold personality was making a mountain out of a non-existent molehill.
A short five minutes passed before the employee from earlier returned and asked Lone and Sophie to follow him. Doing as they were told, they were led to a far larger room which had several carving tables in the room's core and a dozen or so tanning racks lining the walls along with several other tools for dismantling and treating monster corpses.
In the centre of the room next to a table, stood a fairly short man who was perhaps a little bit taller than five foot five inches.
His good looks nor his lacking height were his most prominent features, however. No, in fact, that status belonged to his two curled horns and his long scaly tail.
"What... What are you...?" Lone subconsciously asked.
The man smiled as he narrowed his eyes. He swished the sleeves of his robe and then clasped his hands behind his back as he slowly walked forwards. "Never seen a dragonkin before, have you, son?"
"A dragonkin?" Lone was both confused and incredibly excited. "No, I haven't," he replied as he stared at the man's pure-white dragon features.
"Haha, curious lad, aren't you?" the man said as he brought one of his hands to his face and stroked his goatee. He then glanced at his employee. "Charles, you can return to the front desk now. I'd like to talk to both Lone and Sophie here on my own."
Bowing his head slightly, the employee replied, "Yes, Guildmaster. Sir Immortus, Miss Vladimirovich, until I next see you."
"Seeya," Lone replied while Sophie simply nodded.
As soon as the three of them were alone, the dragonkin stretched his hand out and said, "I'm Gilbert Elksworth, or Gilbert Shimmerscales. I prefer the more human moniker like you do though, Lone, so please, call me that. As you also already know, I'm the guildmaster for this branch of The Adventurer's Guild."
'Human moniker? Ah, right. Those foxkin kids had 'Redtail' for their surname, didn't they? So 'Shimmerscales', huh?... Would mine be 'Goldentail', or 'Shinytail' or something?' Lone wondered before he answered, "It's good to meet you, Mister Elksworth."
Sophie gave the man a polite curtsy even despite her armour. Lone, this man has so much mana. Far more than we do, she whispered.
Lone didnt react. Of course he didn't. The guy was the guildmaster of the guild, for Christs sake. That meant he was one of this kingdoms only six SS-rankers, and the singular one not native to this land.
"There's no need for the 'Mister', just call me 'Gilbert'. We're both demis and beastkin to boot, and besides, considering your race of foxkin, I should be the one offering my respects to you, not the other way around, hahaha," the dragonkin said as he showed his pearly whites with a cheeky smile.
"Uh, okay," Lone replied. If that was how Gilbert wanted it, he would hardly refuse the friendly offer.
"Lovely. Anyway, shall we get down to business? You killed the queen, yes? Show me her corpse if you wouldn't mind. I understand you have it in an Adventurers Pouch, yes? Gilbert asked as he opened his eyes slightly and didn't bother to hide his massive interest in both Lone and Sophie as well as the deceased Manasilk Spider Queen.
"Yeah. I almost died during the fight, but thankfully, I have some levels in the Poison Resistance skill," Lone explained as he reached into his fake pouch and took out each of the monster's pieces, leaving the main body for last.
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