Lowest-Rank Adventurer? (2)
The man we had spoken with was named Cav.
He explained the dungeons to us in careful detail.
Here on the Faeirn Continent, countless dungeons were born, conquered, and vanished, only for new ones to form in their place—an endless cycle.
As time passed and the number of those who cleared dungeons grew, people began to classify them systematically, drawing on accumulated experience and information. In that way the seventy-two major dungeons were established, each assigned its own rank.
Whenever one of those seventy-two was conquered and disappeared, a new dungeon would rise to fill the vacancy, as if to close the gap.
The reason only seventy-two major dungeons were recognized across so vast a continent was clear: to control and manage those spaces of chaos and danger with greater precision.
“Many people think of dungeons as nothing more than targets to be conquered, but in truth a dungeon is an inherently perilous place. I don’t simply mean that failing a conquest puts your life at risk—the very existence of a dungeon poses a grave danger to us.”
According to Cav, if a dungeon was left neglected for too long, the magic beasts within would reverse-flow and spill out into the world beyond.
Hearing that, I recalled the Seven Fiend Caves Arnen had once mentioned. The seven dungeons that had never been conquered since ancient times were called by that name—so were there reverse-flowed magic beasts from those places as well?
I asked without delay. Cav answered with a faintly bitter smile.
“You know of the Seven Fiend Caves. You must take quite an interest in dungeons. Or… perhaps you have ties to high-ranking adventurers.”
He added only that brief remark and closed his mouth again.
“There are… definitely reverse-flowed magic beasts from there as well.”
He clearly knew more, yet seemed unwilling to say anything further. So I did not press him.
Afterward I set out for the apprentice dungeon with the Arnen sisters, following the directions written on the parchment Cav had given us.
He had said the apprentice dungeon was a place even novice adventurers could clear without great difficulty.
Dungeons outside the seventy-two major ones were managed by the adventurer branches scattered across the continent and put to use according to each branch’s needs. The apprentice dungeon was one of those.
Cav’s claim that it could be cleared with ease proved accurate.
In truth I had imagined a dungeon as a place swarming with monsters like some forbidden zone.
Half right. Creatures I had never seen before lived there. More precisely, they were called magic beasts.
According to the parchment Cav had handed us, the first magic beast we encountered was a goblin. Green-skinned, no taller than a child, clutching crudely fashioned weapons.
Yet their strength was nowhere near what I had expected. Far weaker, in fact—weaker even than the polluted beasts that lived in the Forest of Monsters.
Because it’s an “apprentice” dungeon, maybe.
And so the lead in combat passed naturally to Arnen and Elia rather than me.
I fell back and watched the two of them pick their way through the dark cave.
Arnen and Elia possessed skills honed by hunting beasts—how to move in silence, how to loose an arrow, and at times how to use a dagger.
It was different from swinging fists, yet after watching them several times the flow of their movements grew familiar.
Before long I found myself coaching them, pointing out better approaches each time they brought a goblin down.
The dungeon itself was not especially long.
Arnen and Elia handled the goblins well enough and pressed steadily forward.
Defeating the magic beasts inside a dungeon could yield magic stones, though in low-rank places like an apprentice dungeon the beasts rarely carried them.
As expected, we split open the chest of every goblin we killed and found nothing.
When we reached the far end of the cave we faced a magic beast called a hobgoblin. Most dungeons had a powerful individual known as the boss that ruled like a chieftain.
The apprentice dungeon’s boss was a hobgoblin.
It was certainly larger than an ordinary goblin, and the weapon it carried was a little more refined, yet in the end the difference was not great.
Arnen and Elia took it down with practiced coordination. Whether from simple bad luck or not, no magic stone came from the hobgoblin either.
Adventurers were said to earn their coin by selling treasures hidden in dungeons or the magic stones taken from magic-beast corpses…
But money had never been our goal, so we felt no real disappointment.
When we returned to the adventurer headquarters carrying the hobgoblin’s head, Cav handed each of us a grayish plaque. The palm-sized round token bore, at its center, the same emblem that flew on the flag hanging from the outer wall of the adventurer guild building.
“This is the apprentice adventurer token. Carry it and you can prove you belong to us.”
“Is there something like guild affiliation as well?”
“There is. We’re a guild that mainly operates in the central continent. Different affiliations don’t change how you’re treated all that much, but when higher dungeons are cleared several guilds work together, and having a clear affiliation makes a lot of things easier then.”
Finished speaking, Cav took a liquor bottle from the shelf behind him and casually offered it toward me. His eyes seemed to ask whether I wanted any; I shook my head, and he returned the bottle to the shelf with a bland look.
“Clear the apprentice dungeon a few more times and you’ll be able to become lowest-rank adventurers. If the three of you form a party and travel together the ranks will rise as a group, but I don’t recommend it. A rank that doesn’t match one’s ability is only poison.”
Cav never said it outright, yet he clearly believed I had led the conquest. Looking around, people with a build as solid as mine were rare, so the assumption was understandable.
“Ah—for those of outstanding skill that process can feel tedious. If you feel the same way, Mr. Bell, there is a method.”
“A way to raise the rank quickly?”
“Yes. Very simple.”
Cav bent and drew something from beneath the bar.
It was a blue crystal sphere large enough that both hands were needed to hold it.
“Inject mana and you can prove your skill at once; we can then raise you to a matching rank. Would you like to try?”
“….”
Mana?
The unexpected word left me blank for a moment. Did they judge strength by mana here?
On the off chance, I carefully laid my hand upon the crystal sphere. Arnen had told me the power I possessed was different from mana, yet that had never been certain.
Once my hand rested on the sphere, however, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
I always drew up Will when there was a clear purpose—the desire to kill, the desire to defend, even the simple desire to dodge. Only then did that will take shape and appear.
Placing a hand on a crystal sphere required no will at all. What mindset was one meant to hold when injecting mana?
Of course I could force it if I wished.
I called up killing intent; red energy condensed around my hand.
That was all.
The crystal sphere remained silent. No reaction, no light, no tremor—as though it could not sense the power at all.
“…It seems you have never learned mana. But this red energy…”
Cav trailed off, his face showing rare fluster.
His gaze lingered on the red energy that hovered at my fingertips; realizing once more that it was not mana, I simply withdrew it.
After a thoughtful pause Cav lifted his head.
“Since the crystal sphere shows no reaction, I regret that raising your rank appears impossible.”
“Interested in raising your rank?”
Clank. The sound of metal armor plates striking together. I turned and saw a man who had been sitting at a nearby table rise from his seat.
He wore armor far denser than the leather most of the surrounding adventurers favored, small plate pieces set into it.
Sweeping back his blond hair, he came to stand beside me and leaned against the bar. Cav spoke first.
“Mr. Chainber…”
Cav clearly knew him. When I cast a questioning look, Cav felt my gaze and turned back to me.
“He is an upper-rank adventurer belonging to the party known as Blood Blade—Mr. Chainber. …And this is apprentice adventurer Mr. Bell.”
“I already know he’s an apprentice. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but sitting so close I naturally overheard.”
He looked me over as though appraising my body, then spoke with a gleam in his eyes.
“If what you want is to raise your adventurer rank, I believe I can help. As it happens a job has come up that needs a good deal of manpower. And of course I also hold the authority to promote an apprentice adventurer.”
“Mr. Chainber… that authority belongs not to you but to the party leader, Estelle.”
“I’m saying this because she delegated the matter to me.”
Brushing Cav’s words aside with easy indifference, Chainber smiled with leisurely confidence. An air of unhurried composure hung about him.
I was familiar with men who carried that kind of atmosphere. The Special Class Warriors who served in the king’s royal guard had often worn the same look.
“So—interested?”