Little Adventurer Tia (Age 26)

Having etched into my heart the mission to save the world in Selena's place, I headed straight for the Adventurers' Guild.

I shoved open the creaking door and stepped inside, and every uncomfortable gaze in the place locked onto me at once.

"What the hell is that?"

"Probably looking for her dad."

"Kahaha! Why look for him here? Tell her to try the goblins out in the forest!"

"Heh heh heh…"

Even I would have reacted about the same way if some little kid wandered into an adventurers' guild — but the real problem was the ones among them licking their lips.

Careful not to ruffle anyone's feathers, I kept my eyes on the floor and made for the counter, which sat about level with my line of sight.

A rough-looking mountain of a man who seemed to be staff ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠soon addressed me.

"What do you want? This ain't a restaurant. Scram, kid."

Faced with that aggressive tone, I shrank in on myself and quietly opened my mouth.

"I came to become an adventurer…"

And for good reason. In the original story, the protagonist got strung up in the plaza over some petty argument. One wrong word, one bad impression, and I might end up the same way. Safety first, always.

"An adventurer? You? Looking at those clothes, you were raised soft. You even know how to fight?"

"Probably."

"Probably? You must've heard monsters go easy on girls — you think this is some little playground game? If you don't want something ugly happening to you, just get lost."

"It's fine. I have to become an adventurer."

I had a duty to protect the purity of this world. I was not backing down.

After a few more exchanges, the man seemed to give up. He heaved a long sigh.

"Haa… You really don't listen, do you. Fine. I've said my piece. Do whatever you want."

Seeing I had no intention of retreating, he gave up, pulled a form out from under the counter, and set it in front of me.

"Can you write?"

"Yes."

I answered with confidence — I'd be writing in Korean anyway — and picked up the pen. But my height made it impossible to get a proper writing posture over the paper.

I was still struggling on tiptoe when the man sighed again, snatched the pen away, and said:

"Ah."

"Name and age."

"Uh… Tia. And I'm twenty-six."

"If you're gonna mess around, get out."

"…Eleven."

At my age, his hand paused for a moment. He glared at me once, then went back to filling out the form.

"Birthday."

Birthday? I could have given my real one, but since things had come this far, I might as well pick a new one.

"Today."

I'd arrived here today, so it was basically a birthday.

"May fifth…. Tch. Here, take this. Don't go showing off on your birthday and get something nasty done to you. Play adventurer near the village, kid."

"Yes. Thank you."

I took the small wooden token proving I was an F-rank adventurer and shoved it into my pocket.

Registration done. I was about to turn and leave the guild when another man who'd sidled up out of nowhere spoke to me.

"Hey, little one. Heading out alone? Want to party up with Uncle here?"

It was one of the ones who'd been licking his lips when I first walked in. His intentions were obvious. This was an event that triggered at exactly this point in the original, too — a male adventurer approaching a brand-new protagonist, pretending to form a party, then assaulting them outside the city.

I absolutely could not go with someone like that. No — in this world, I simply could not trust men.

"No. I'm fine. I'll travel alone."

"Uncle's just worried. You need someone who can help if something happens, right? It's more dangerous outside the city than you think."

Yeah, dangerous — because of people like you.

"I won't go anywhere dangerous, so I'll be fine alone."

"No, no. Think it over again. You never know what the world will throw at you."

"I'm really fine."

"Tia, was it? Tia, do you know what happens when monsters get hold of you? Something truly horrible. So if the worst comes to pass, Uncle here wants to be there to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠save you."

This lunatic. What kind of grown man gets this persistent with a child?

I wanted to spit a curse in his face and drive him off, but making an enemy of him would be a disaster. All I could do — galling as it was — was keep refusing him indirectly.

Just as his relentless clinging was starting to corner me, the man at the counter suddenly picked a fight with him.

"Hey, Jordan. Cut the crap and go drink yourself stupid already."

"What did you say?"

"Watching you fail to pick up a single woman and go after something like that makes me sick. Get the hell out of my face."

"You son of a bitch!"

What, a fight?

Adventurers who'd been drinking at the tables crowded toward the counter to watch, and the whole building erupted into a noisy throng egging the two of them on. I seized the opening and slipped out of the Adventurers' Guild in a hurry.

"Whew."

The man who'd stepped in for me — Barto, I think? Anyway, thanks to him, I'd gotten through a sticky situation easily enough.

In the original, he was the type ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who harassed the protagonist every time they came back from a quest. Apparently he wasn't rotten enough to mess with a little kid, though — his attitude toward me was a bit different. I had no intention of thinking well of him or letting my guard down, but it was a chance to notice that even this form had its own small advantages.

Next I went to a jewelry shop and bought a ring that would let me use a simple offensive spell.

It cost every last coin of my starting funds, but it was worth every bit of it. Low mana cost, and more than enough to handle the goblins I'd be facing first — solid gear for a mage-type class until they learned real attack magic.

I still wasn't sure what the Mascot class actually was, but looking at my pathetic stats, magic was the only number that wasn't completely bottomed out, so it had to be mage-adjacent. Either way, I'd be leaning on this ring hard through the early game.

As for armor…

I looked down at what I was wearing. A thin little dress. Completely unsuitable for combat. For safety's sake, even something basic would have been better — but according to the original, armor barely mattered for mages early on, and I needed to save money for lodging…

I'd just go without.

The southern forest — home to goblins, the first monsters you could encounter in this world.

The moment I called the skill to mind, a small ball of flame condensed in my palm —

Fwoosh—

Kieeek—!

—and flew straight into a goblin, dropping it.

"Oh. Nice."

They always said a guy who got genderbent ended up a mage. I never thought I'd actually become a TS mage and start casting for real.

Kiiiik—!

I put a fireball through the next one's skull as it charged, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠showing off my marksmanship from my days as a Korean reservist, and before long my tiny little head was swimming with dopamine.

"Hehe."

Even if goblins were the weakest trash in the setting — didn't this mean I had talent?

Grinning to myself, I was stepping past their corpses when something occurred to me and I stopped.

"Right. The ears."

To get paid at the Adventurers' Guild, you needed monster ears. The left one, I was pretty sure.

I cut the left ears from the fallen bodies, stuffed them in my pocket, and kept moving. After dropping a few more goblins that turned up along the way, a message window suddenly appeared.

There it was.

Perks. Separate from class-unique abilities and skills, they were a system for growing your character. I opened the status window at once and checked them.

Probably meant to block nonsense builds like magic martial artists — a perk that forced you to gain one set of abilities by abandoning another. My Strength and Stamina were already horrific, and now I was supposed to give up growing them entirely.

Of course, there was no other option. Unlocking this perk opened the next tier, and only then could I learn class-appropriate skills.

No choice…

With a bitter heart, I learned the perk — castrating myself of the last scraps of masculinity, solid muscle and hardy stamina, by my own hand.

In return came a pitiful little stat bump, and other perks unlocked.

What is this. I was actually a buffer?

I'd half expected it from the class name Mascot, but I never thought I'd really be a support. That meant I was basically forced to form a party to progress.

I wanted to solo…

In the original game, story progression let you recruit fixed companions. Their performance was solid and party play had plenty of advantages, so there was no real reason to go solo — except for those damn forced events.

Companions you partied with lost their virginity in the mandatory events that came later. It wasn't that I hated them for becoming non-virgins. The problem was having to watch the entire process of them losing their purity. What worse torture could there be for a unicorn?

Obviously I had zero intention of sitting still and watching that. But whether I could dodge events reeking of the developer's malice was another question entirely.

Still…

I was a long way from forming a party. Didn't that make these skills completely useless right now? Would they maybe throw me a companion early?

…Yeah, right.

As if that developer would show that kind of consideration.

I clicked my tongue and kept scrolling through the perk window.

And right on cue, the Switch button. Pressing it would probably…

Click—

"……."

I shut the status window immediately.

A perk I never touched even when playing the game for fun. A lewd crest on a virgin's body? Absolutely unforgivable. Even if this body was fated to lose its purity to the Demon King, willingly defiling it was a completely different matter. No — just carving a lewd crest onto this body as it was now was already an automatic out.

Forget it. Back to killing goblins.

Done sightseeing the perks, I went back to hunting. Goblin screams rang through the forest, and after I'd made about a dozen earless corpses, I arrived at a clearing packed with them.

…That's a lot.

Easily more than ten at a glance. There hadn't been this many in the game.

"Hmm…"

Better not to push it if I could help it — but I didn't have a choice. To cover the expensive early-game lodging, I needed to kill as many goblins as possible and make money. There were cheap inns in the back alleys, even free nights in a stable, but those places had a chance of triggering some very unpleasant events. With no real options, I resolved to wipe them all out for the inn fee.

At this range…

Two before they spotted me. Three while they charged. Three more while I put distance on the far side. The rest… I'd figure it out.

Kiek—!

Kihek, kihehek—!

They were snickering among themselves like they were trading jokes. I slipped through the undergrowth without them noticing, closing to spell range.

And then—

Fwoosh—

The fireball flew and roasted the first goblin's head. While they spun around at the sudden attack—

Fwoooosh—

—another fireball slammed into the nearest one. Only then did the pack spot me and charge.

Just as planned, I dropped three more before they reached me.

Good. Now run the other way—

Thud—!

But my plan shattered completely under a heavy blow to the back of my head. I didn't lose consciousness, but the world spun.

"Ugh…!"

By the time I came to my senses, goblins already had my arms and legs pinned. What? An ambush? I was sure I'd cleared every goblin in the area. Had more been hiding in the brush?

None of that mattered now. Whatever it was, I had to get free.

"Nngh…! Let— go!"

But with this tiny frame and Strength so abysmal it was almost a joke, I couldn't even break a goblin's grip. I went down, and they pinned me.

Kihek—! Kikik—!

While about six goblins held my limbs, one more approached from below. This was an erotic game world. There was no mistaking what it intended.

"Let go…! I said let go!"

No matter how I thrashed, all I got was their sickening laughter. Already? On day one? After all that talk about the Demon King's forced events — and I was going to lose this pathetically to goblins?

The goblin that had been approaching now stood right at my legs.

"Get away…! You crazy goblin bastard!"

Snickering, it reached for the rag at its waist.

"Th-this is insane…!"

Just as I thought everything was over—

Whoosh—

Huh…?

The world drained into black and white, and a heavy silence settled over me. The clouds in the sky froze in place. The goblins' laughter cut off mid-sound. In that sensation of time itself stopping, a message window appeared.