No Kindness Without a Price

The snickers echoing through the Quest Office made my face burn.

"Aria, why are those people laughing?"

"I... I'm not sure, either..."

A man sauntered over and chimed in.

"Aigoo, pal. Of all the skills you could've pulled, you got Primordial Power?"

"What's wrong with Primordial Power?"

"It's the weakest skill there is. A total dud. Doesn't give you a single actual ability."

"......"

Not like I could say, Well, it still made my dick bigger, though.

No wonder the skill description for Primordial Power had felt so half-assed from the start.

The Receptionist chimed in next, an awkward look on her face.

"The people who've received Primordial Power so far haven't lasted very long. You might want to look into something else as soon as you can."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Skills really matter here, and Primordial Power doesn't provide any abilities at all. Every Participant who went out on a mission with it ended up dead. The usual move is to give up fast and transfer over to menial work in another district."

"Ah..."

So what the hell do I do now?

I think I'm fucked...

"W-well, you are going to take a mission, right...? E-Rank missions aren't that dangerous, so they're worth trying at least once."

"Haah..."

The Receptionist was being kind about it, but that didn't stop the world from going dark in front of my eyes.

A week's worth of hope and effort suddenly felt utterly pointless. Every last scrap of motivation melted away like snow in the sun.

"Minwoo, are you all right? Then please don't push yourself. You don't have to take a mission..."

"No, I'm fine. Filling out a party of three is the most important thing right now, isn't it?"

"That's true, but..."

Aria was worried enough to tell me I didn't have to go. But these two hadn't even been able to accept missions because they were short a person.

If I bailed here just because my skill was garbage, what would happen to the two of them?

From what I'd gathered, Aria's skill was lightning magic, and mages were rare enough around here that she'd been getting transfer offers left and right.

Kiki's skill, though, was Guardian — and until it grew to a certain point, it was about as useful as mine.

Was Aria the only one in our soul trio who was actually worth anything?

"For now, they say an E-Rank mission shouldn't be too much of a stretch, so how about we give it a shot? I'll do my best not to hold you back."

"Yes, I'd be grateful. Thank you, Minwoo."

With that, we headed over to where the E-Rank requests were posted. A handful of quest notices were tacked up, and we narrowed them down to two that looked doable.

"Minwoo, what do you think about taking the goblin subjugation?"

"Yeah, I think that's a good call. You already fought goblins during the tutorial, after all."

The moment I agreed, Aria reached up to pull the notice down and take it to the Receptionist.

"You're going to take that one? Just a bunch of newbies?"

A man's voice suddenly cut in from behind us.

I turned around to find two men who looked to be in their late twenties. One had an ordinary build and short hair; the other was skinny and wore glasses.

Neither of them quite felt like they were from Earth. More like adventurers out of a fantasy world, if I had to put a finger on it.

"Ah, Bren! Eden!"

Aria lit up and greeted them.

"Aria, did you finally find a party member?"

The one called Bren looked me up and down as he spoke.

"Yes. This is Minwoo. He cleared the tutorial with us."

"Ah, the one they said died back then? So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you made it after all."

"Ah, about that..."

"Haha, I got summoned a bit late and wandered around for a while."

I cut in before Aria could answer.

It's weird that they never mentioned the Wanderer skill earlier.

The Receptionist definitely hadn't said a word about the Wanderer skill when I registered.

Which meant she'd either hidden it on purpose, or that device simply hadn't recognized Wanderer at all.

And from what Aria had told me, other Participants never got to go back to their original worlds.

Putting all that together, it seemed smarter not to go around advertising what Wanderer could do.

I was already having a rough enough time thanks to Primordial Power. The last thing I wanted was more attention.

"Well... anyway. The three of you are heading out on an E-Rank? That's going to be pretty dangerous."

The glasses-wearing one — Eden — said it like he was genuinely concerned.

"E-Rank is nothing like the tutorial. It's much harder. Especially in that zone — I heard there were already fatalities during the tutorial, weren't there?"

"Ah, well, that's true, but..."

"Then we'll help you out!"

"What? Really?"

Aria's eyes sparkled.

"We had our own mission last week so we couldn't lend a hand, but we've got time today. Seniors have to look after the juniors, right?"

Bren let out a big, hearty laugh.

Hold on. Something about this feels off...

Were these guys just into Aria's looks?

Or were they trying to use us for something?

Either way, this kind of one-sided generosity sat very, very badly with me. Call it a working adult's instinct.

"Ah, just a moment... I'd like to discuss this first. Sorry."

"No problem. Talk it over as much as you like and let us know."

I excused us from Bren and Eden, pulled Aria aside, and dropped my voice.

"Aria, can those two actually be trusted?"

"What? Why would you ask that?"

"No, it's just... I've got a feeling..."

"Minwoo, you shouldn't be suspicious like that. Bren and Eden spent the whole week teaching us all sorts of things. They're good people."

"Yeah, but this kind of one-sided kindness usually..."

"Minwoo, doubting someone's goodwill is rude. And in our situation, I think we should take help whenever we can get it."

Aria's tone was so firm I couldn't push back any further.

Man... I've got a really bad feeling about this...

But she wasn't wrong, either.

We were beginners. We were a trash-tier party with a low tutorial survival rate. That much was fact.

And when I factored in my useless Primordial Power, I wasn't even sure I had the standing to be voicing opinions in the first place.

"All right... Then we'll go with what you want."

Aria went back and spoke to Bren and Eden.

"Then, Bren, Eden! We'll be in your care!"

"Great! Then the five of us will go together. With our skills, ten goblins will be over in no time."

The five of us — including Bren and Eden — accepted the E-Rank goblin subjugation mission.

"Missions have to be started from your own Base Camps. It begins in ten minutes, so let's head over ahead of time."

Following Eden's instructions, we split up and headed back to our Base Camp.

Aria didn't say a word the whole way back.

She clearly wasn't happy that I'd been suspicious of people she knew.

Haah... And here I thought we were soul partners...

Then again, she'd only known me for a single day, and those two had been helping her all week. I could understand why the closeness wouldn't be the same.

That didn't stop it from stinging, though.

As the mission timer ticked down, weapons materialized the same way they had last time. This round, I only grabbed a sword.

Aria and Kiki started picking their own gear as well.

Aria took a single dagger, just like before.

Kiki chose a spear along with a tower shield — the same tower shield the skeleton had been carrying during the tutorial.

Come to think of it, the tower shield hadn't even been an option last time. Why was it showing up now?

Had it appeared because we'd stolen one off an enemy and used it?

Anyway, that's beside the point. Is this actually going to be okay?

Bren and Eden... that uneasy feeling just wouldn't go away.

Had years of office life made me this distrustful of people?

Then again, they hadn't actually done anything wrong, or even anything rude. And they'd spent the week I wasn't around teaching Aria all sorts of things and treating her well. Maybe they weren't the bad guys I was making them out to be.

I was still turning it all over in my head when the timer hit zero.

Fwaaat—!

A grassy plain stretched out before my eyes, a hill rising in the distance. Small rocks dotted the ground here and there.

Paht—!

Paht—!

Aria and Kiki appeared around me, followed by Bren and Eden.

Bren raised his sword and spoke.

"All right, introductions first. I have the Swordsmanship skill."

"I've got the Binding skill. I can lock down an enemy's movement."

Eden lifted a hand slightly, and something like black branches snaked up out of the ground.

"The goblins will be scattered around. We'll take them one at a time. We'll handle most of the fighting, but they're quite fast and aggressive, so stay alert."

Bren scanned the area, then pointed past the hill.

"There's one over there!"

He took the lead and started up the slope. The rest of us followed.

A single goblin was wandering around on the other side of the hill.

"Watch closely."

Eden stretched out a hand, and black branches erupted from the ground, seizing the goblin by the legs.

Shwoong—

Bren charged in, swung his sword, and cut down the trapped goblin.

"Kieeek!"

The goblin screamed and collapsed.

"That's how it's done. Skill combos are extremely important."

Bren said it with a smile.

Something's off...

The path his sword took as he swung at the goblin was strange. It was nothing like the swordsmanship I'd spent a week practicing.

How to put it... like his body was being forced through the motions mechanically, with no will of its own behind it?

And more than that — with that level of skill, there was no way they could have breezed through that hellish tutorial.

"Mind if I give it a try?"

I wanted to know whether the swordsmanship I'd learned would work here too.

"Ah... it might be a bit dangerous for someone without a Swordsmanship skill... Goblins aren't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so easy that you can just take them down ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠without one."

"Ah, is that so...?"

They're really looking down on me just because my skill sucks.

Hold on, though. None of this adds up.

Compared to the werewolf and that elf bastard from the tutorial, weren't these goblins ridiculously weak?

Why the hell was an E-Rank mission supposed to be more dangerous than the tutorial?

On top of that, these goblins looked far weaker than the ones we'd run into back then.

Not that I'd been the one who killed those goblins, admittedly.

"Aria, you said your skill was lightning magic, right? Would you try attacking that goblin over there?"

"Ah, yes!"

Crack! Crack!

Lightning gathered in Aria's hands, coalesced into a sphere, and shot toward the goblin.

BOOM!!!

The lightning magic punched into the goblin's gut and detonated, blowing a massive hole through its upper body.

"Kieeeeeek!!"

Smoke rose from the hole as the goblin died on the spot.

"Oh! Lightning magic is incredible. Aria, you'll be able to keep operating as a combatant no problem!"

From there, Aria hung on their every piece of advice and hunted goblins with everything she had.

The hunt went on until she'd completely drained her mana.

"Hah... hah. I've used up all my mana. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I don't think I can cast any more magic."

"You did great, Aria. We'll take care of the rest."

Kiki and I, meanwhile, were kept on the sidelines the entire time. Too dangerous, they said. No practice for us.

When there were about two left, Bren spoke up.

"Aria — and the rest of you as well. There's something I'd like to discuss."

"Yes? What is it?"

"Hasn't it been helpful, learning like this with us?"

"Yes, it's been a great help. Thank you."

Aria dipped her head politely as she answered.

"Then how about using this opportunity to transfer your affiliation to our district? All three of you."

Wait... what? All of a sudden?