Chapter 1
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Earthbound Spirit
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Tutorial.
It's a term you can usually encounter easily in the early parts of a game.
Dictionary-wise, it means something like "user guide."
I'm not bringing it up to study English words or anything.
In games, the tutorial is used in a similar sense.
It's the section that teaches you basic controls, item usage, future directions, and goals.
A stage everyone passes through but no one lingers in—that's the tutorial.
This place has a section called the tutorial too.
The tower's 1st floor.
Where adventurers' footsteps begin... and at some point, come to a halt.
I decided to stay here.
Today's routine is no different from any other day.
I opened the door to the request office.
"Earthbound Spirit, you're as diligent as ever today."
"Raymond, drinking already in broad daylight?"
"Heh heh, who knows how long I can keep this up. No telling when the off-season will end."
The innkeeper, Raymond, sits in the exact same spot every time.
I get it—no customers during the off-season, so he starts drinking from morning. But I can't fathom why he bothers coming all the way to the request office drunk.
You can't accept requests while intoxicated, and besides, an innkeeper like Raymond has no reason to take any in the first place.
Oh, by the way, "Earthbound Spirit" is my nickname.
I don't know why they overlook my perfectly fine real name and call me that, but most of the townsfolk do.
Even after introducing myself properly multiple times, they still use the nickname, so I've given up.
It's like someone jokingly set my nickname in a game, and since there were no duplicates, it stuck.
"Earthbound Spirit, sir! You've arrived!"
"Ellie, same as always today."
Ellie, the receptionist at the request office.
With her white hair, she was reliably standing behind the counter as usual.
Adding honorifics to a nickname makes for a truly bizarre title.
Not "adventurer, sir," but "Earthbound Spirit, sir." What even is that?
There are various ways to receive quests in the tower.
You can even get inn warehouse cleaning quests from Raymond sitting right next to me sometimes.
Errands from the fruit shop or finding lost items for neighbors happen too.
Yet the request office and receptionist exist because this is the only place to get monster subjugation quests.
I don't know about other floors, but that's how it is on the 1st.
【Quest: Slime Extermination 《COMMON》】
· Goal: Slimes defeated (0/5), Slime Cores (925/5)
· Reward: 500 Coins, 200 EXP
This is the only standing quest.
A request to hunt 5 slimes in the forest outside the village.
Familiar goal, familiar reward. Today, I take the same request again.
"Please come back safely!"
"Hah, safely? Even if a hundred slimes attacked, this young man would be fine."
"You still need to be careful!"
Amid Raymond's drunken chuckle and Ellie's worry, I headed out of the request office.
"I'll be back."
To the damp forest where slimes dwell.
No real comparison, but the village wasn't all that big.
The damp forest was in the opposite direction from the request office, but the entrance came into view after just 10 minutes of walking.
"Halt. This is a dangerous area infested with slimes...... Ah, it's you, Earthbound Spirit, sir. My apologies."
"Hard at work again today."
"Not at all. Off to subjugate slimes again today?"
At the forest entrance stood Koon, the tutorial village guard.
"As for precautions...... you know them all, so I'll skip the explanation."
"Yeah. Keep it up, Koon."
"Safe hunting."
He used to be so stiff when we first met.
But running into him daily on slime subjugation runs has built up some familiarity now.
As I entered between the dense trees, the familiar humidity hit me.
Around the trees, slimes with a shine-musk color bounced around with soft squelching sounds.
I drew the sword from my waist.
No need for skills.
I poked their slippery bodies with the sharp tip of the blade.
The impaled slimes burst with a pop! sound.
I collected the slime cores as proof of subjugation.
【Quest: Slime Extermination 《COMMON》】
· Goal: Slimes defeated (5/5), Slime Cores (930/5)
· Reward: 500 Coins, 200 EXP
I've hunted slimes countless times, so the cores are overflowing, but no reason to leave spoils behind.
Time to head back to the request office.
The travel time took longer than the actual hunting.
"As expected, you're fast! It's been less than 30 minutes since you took the request!"
"Where'd Raymond go?"
"He said he felt dizzy and went back to the inn."
Drinking in broad daylight will do that to your head.
"Here's your quest reward! Thanks to you, our village is even safer!"
Ellie took the 5 slime cores and handed over 500 coins.
"Safer? Slimes are monsters even guards handle easily, and you say the same thing every time."
"Who else clears the same quests every day like you, Earthbound Spirit, sir? Heh heh."
I've probably cleared slime subjugation over 500 times.
Never counted, but it must be around there.
"Heading to the 2nd floor?"
"Not yet."
"Knew it. Just being polite."
Despite her prim tone, Ellie's expression looked relieved.
"You knew, yet you ask every day?"
"Practice. Can't lose my touch."
On the 1st floor, you only encounter basic monsters.
Adventurers who can handle slimes and such have no reason to stay.
Today, yesterday, last week, last month.
I'm the only one coming to Ellie for subjugation requests.
Excluding me, no adventurers have visited the 1st floor request office for quests in months.
To begin with, no adventurers stick around the 1st floor for long.
Those aiming to grow stronger naturally head to higher floors—it's the obvious path.
"You're a really strange adventurer, Earthbound Spirit, sir."
"You say that to my face?"
"No one else to talk to otherwise."
If no one came, Ellie would stand behind the counter all day guarding an empty request office.
"I'll be waiting tomorrow too."
The daily quests never end.
Tomorrow, next week, next month.
I finish quests daily and look forward to the next day.
Can't lose my touch either.
I'm happy to be part of this hamster wheel.
The rest of the schedule went as expected.
I helped the fruit shop owner with deliveries and brought materials needed by the blacksmith.
Bought food from the bakery with the 500 coins earned today.
Watered the flower beds in the square.
Some say familiarity breeds boredom.
To me, it's just comfort.
Familiar quests.
Familiar people.
Nothing disrupts my comfort.
"Whoa, you're still here?"
Until I spotted that face.
"Chanting 'Earthbound Spirit' all the time, and you really turned into one?"
Flowing red hair.
A witch's hat beyond standard sizes.
Gaudy outfit straight out of a game.
Even that playful expression.
Vanguard Guild, Crimson Flame Guild.
That guild's guild master,
"Park Sua."
"Don't call me by that name! Amelia! Call me Amelia!"
"Why do you hate your real name?"
"You don't use your real name either and let everyone call you Earthbound Spirit!"
"I don't like that nickname. Just use my real name."
Hers is a title; mine's a nickname.
This acquaintance I hadn't seen in ages had a talent for making me never want to meet again after just one minute of talk.
Addicted to foreign cosplay or something?
When we first met in the tower, she had black bobbed hair. Now she's dyed it red and even ditched her Korean name.
"Image is key for leadership and charisma. What would a loner like you know?"
"Cut the nonsense. What brings the great guild master down to the 1st floor?"
"What other business would I have here besides 'that'?"
The 1st floor is always quiet—no adventurers lingering.
The village runs on the locals who live here.
That's the off-season.
If there's an off-season, there must be peak season too.
"Already time for the next batch to arrive?"
"Faster than the expected cycle."
"Starts in a few days?"
"Tomorrow."
Bad news for Raymond.
No more daytime drinking starting tomorrow.
"Hope this batch has some decent rookies. The last one was a total bust."
Every certain cycle, a passage opens from the outside to the tower.
Of course, you can't leave the tower—it's one-way, from outside in.
As guild leader, Sua comes to the 1st floor at new adventurer influx times to recruit talent.
Got to scout the talented ones early before other guilds snag them.
"Still no thoughts of climbing?"
"Nope."
"Join our guild, and I'll take really good care of you. I'll even make you vice guild master."
"No thanks."
"Nowhere better than my guild. We just cleared the 60th floor!"
"Not interested."
This is why I hate peak season.
Tomorrow, HR from other guilds will flood the 1st floor too.
Already exhausted.
My hamster wheel's broken.