Becoming an Angler Adventurer
Not long after we left the forest behind, the distant silhouette of Ryukel began to sharpen, little by little, into something real.
At first it was nothing more than a few jagged rooftops poking up between the trees, but with every step I took, the gray city wall encircling them came into view, and beyond it stretched a dense jumble of buildings large and small. Wispy smoke curled up from chimneys, and when I caught sight of soldiers patrolling along the top of the wall and flags snapping in the wind, it finally hit me—I had actually arrived at a place where people lived.
"A town…!"
My face lit up before I could help it.
I'd briefly forgotten this in the chaos of meeting Hyunmoo, but in the entire day since I'd opened my eyes, I hadn't spoken to a single proper human being. I'd woken up as a little girl, realized I'd been pulled into a game, gotten lost almost immediately, and the only company I'd found was a rickety-sized divine beast.
So Ryukel standing there before me couldn't help but mean far more than just another town.
"I can finally meet people!"
I readjusted the basket on my back, gripped my fishing rod tight, and broke into a run toward Ryukel.
"Hah… hah…"
Before long, my pace had slowed to a crawl.
No matter how impatient I felt, this body refused to move the way it had when I was a twenty-eight-year-old man. My short legs kicked frantically at the ground but covered far less distance than I expected, and the basket on my back jolted and tugged at me with every stride, so that I was winded to the point of gasping long before I reached the town.
Still, my spirits were high.
Until a moment ago I hadn't even known where to go, but now, at least, my destination was right in front of me.
And yet the closer I got, the slower my steps became.
"…It's bigger than I thought."
Through a game screen, Ryukel had just been a small starter village where players lingered briefly in the early game. It was close to a tutorial zone—where you geared up for the first time, picked up beginner quests at the Adventurer's Guild, and dabbled in the various life professions.
But the Ryukel my own eyes were seeing now was far too massive to call a 'small town.'
A wall thick enough for several people to stand abreast on top wrapped around the entire settlement, and the main gate at its front was so tall I had to crane my neck all the way back just to see its peak. Armored soldiers with spears kept watch from the battlements, and through the wide-open gate streamed an endless procession of wagons, merchants, and armed folk.
Everything that had merely been part of the background on my monitor now stood before me at full, real-world scale.
Without quite noticing when it happened, the person who'd been giddily sprinting a moment ago had slowed to a cautious walk.
And then it struck me.
A very fundamental problem.
"…Wait."
My feet stopped dead.
Can I—can I even talk to people here?
A cold sweat ran down my spine.
Because my conversation with Hyunmoo had flowed so naturally, I'd completely forgotten about the language issue. In the game, of course, every NPC spoke Korean and all the text displayed in Korean, but there was no guarantee that rule still applied now that the world had become real.
Just then, faint traces of conversation drifted over from the gate, though whether from the distance or something else, I couldn't make out a word of it.
There's no way it'll all sound like alien gibberish when I get there, right?
My feet began to sneak backward on their own.
I had nowhere to return to at this point, and yet some part of me desperately wanted to run away anyway.
Sweat trickled in thin lines down my temple.
For a while I stood there, looking back and forth between the gate and the forest, then swallowed drily.
"…No."
Hyunmoo and I had clearly communicated.
I had no idea whether the beast had actually used human language, or whether some mysterious power had delivered its meaning directly into my head, but having come all this way, I couldn't turn back without even checking.
"Let's go."
I muttered the resolve to no one in particular and started walking again.
As I approached the gate, two soldiers flanking it came into view. They were armored in metal from head to chest, and each gripped a spear that looked several times longer than I was.
…That's terrifying.
My heart started pounding even though I hadn't done anything wrong.
Then another problem surfaced.
Identification.
I don't have any ID.
Obviously I didn't mean a resident registration card or anything like that.
I had absolutely no idea what people in a fantasy world like this used to prove who they were. The game never bothered with tedious ID checks whenever you entered a town, so I had zero relevant knowledge either.
What if I got hauled off as a suspicious person for failing to prove my identity?
A jail cell?
Imaginary me found himself behind iron bars.
Or… summary execution?
Imaginary me vanished before even making it into the cell.
"…"
My mood plummeted.
Still, having come this far, all I could do was barge in and find out.
Walking toward the gate far more slowly than before, I watched—just as I'd expected—as both soldiers' gazes swung to me at once. And the instant I tried to pass through, the soldiers on either side lowered their spears at a slant, barring my way.
Clank.
I froze solid.
I knew it!
Was I being arrested already?
When I finally worked up the nerve to look up, one soldier was peering down at me. The face beneath the helmet showed more bewilderment than menace, and the soldier beside him was exchanging glances with his partner, apparently unsure what to say.
After a moment, the one on the right spoke first.
"Uh… hey there, kiddo. Haven't seen you before."
I understood him perfectly, as naturally as anything.
That one fact alone melted half my tension, and I let out an unconscious breath of relief. But the moment the soldier carefully asked whether I had anything to prove my identity, the heart that had just settled back down shot right back up into my throat.
"I-ID, sir?"
The soldier nodded.
I fumbled frantically at my sleeves and waistband. Naturally nothing turned up, and as a last desperate hope I pulled the basket off my back and rifled through it—but the situation didn't change.
Fishing gear.
A few odds and ends.
And…
"…"
A fish.
I stared silently at the silvery fish lying in the basket.
The fish seemed to be staring back at me.
Would this… do?
I hesitated for a moment.
Then, accepting the brutal reality that I had nothing else to offer, I gripped the fish's body with both hands.
A giant fish appeared before the soldiers' eyes.
"…You can have this one."
"…"
The soldier looked at the fish.
Then he looked at my face.
Then back at the fish.
The soldier beside him did exactly the same.
My face was growing hotter and hotter, but it would have been even more embarrassing to stuff the fish back in, so I held it out and did my best to keep an utterly serious expression.
"It's an expensive one…"
I have no idea why I felt the need to add that.
The corner of one soldier's mouth twitched in a distinctly odd way.
The other soldier had turned his head entirely away.
After a moment, the soldier in front of me let out a long sigh and withdrew his spear. Then, looking at my face rather than the fish, he spoke in a voice grown considerably gentler—like someone who'd just spotted a lost child.
"Keep the fish, kid."
"…Can I go in, then?"
"Yeah. Once you're inside, follow this road straight ahead. You'll hit the Adventurer's Guild, and the Merchant's Guild is right nearby, so best to make an identification tag first—either of those places can do it."
I blinked up at him, fish hugged to my chest.
That had gone far more smoothly than I expected.
Apparently worried I might wander off somewhere absurd again, the soldier even gave me a quick rundown of what the guild buildings looked like and which direction they were in, and I nodded over and over, determined not to miss a single word, before bowing deeply at the waist.
"Thank you!"
I stuffed the fish back into the basket and passed through the gate.
And barely a few steps later, a new dilemma began.
Adventurer's Guild, or Merchant's Guild?
Honestly, judging purely by my current state, the latter was the far more realistic choice. My vocation was Angler, for starters; I had zero combat experience, and the only thing I owned that could even charitably be called a weapon was a single fishing rod.
But Hyunmoo's words kept echoing in my head.
The beast had said it would lend me a portion of its power.
Whatever that meant exactly, the power of a divine beast was bound to be anything but ordinary.
"…All right."
I'd go and check, at least.
If it came to nothing, it wouldn't be too late to head for the Merchant's Guild afterward.
I set off for the Adventurer's Guild.
The inside of Ryukel was far more complicated than anything the game had shown. Buildings of timber and stone lined both sides of the neatly cobbled road, unfamiliar signboards hanging from every eave. Loaded carts rumbled past, their wheels grinding against the stone, while merchants hawking their wares, the clang of a blacksmith's hammer, and the smell of roasting meat drifting from somewhere all blended together into pure sensory overload.
It resembled the Ryukel of the game, but it wasn't identical.
Alleys that had been impossible to enter in the game existed here in the flesh, and even the people who'd once been nothing but background NPCs had their own conversations to hold and destinations to reach.
So absorbed was I in gawking at these differences that the building the sentry had described appeared before I knew it.
"Is this the place?"
It was a large structure built of thick timber. Above the entrance hung a sign carved with the image of crossed sword and shield, and the board beside the door was plastered layer upon layer with dozens of sheets of paper. Watching armored, weapon-toting people come and go as if it were the most natural thing in the world, I didn't need any further confirmation of where I was.
I pushed open the door.
Creeeak—
The moment I stepped inside, the smell of old wood, of ale, of iron and leather all washed over me at once. The ceiling was high, with thick blackened beams left exposed overhead, and a huge board covering nearly one entire wall was densely papered with what looked like quest notices. On the other side, monster horns and claws and some kind of glowing stones were displayed behind glass, while at the worn tables in the center sat people armed to the teeth, drinking ale or poring over maps in animated discussion.
Whoa.
It looked exactly as if someone had plucked the adventurer's guild of my fantasy imagination and dropped it into reality.
The trouble was what came next.
As I entered, the eyes of a few people nearby drifted naturally my way.
A hulking figure in full armor.
A woman with a scar over one eye.
A man with an enormous bow slung across his back.
Every last one of them looked like someone I'd have stepped off the path for, had I met them in the forest.
I pretended not to see any of them.
Reception desk. Just find the reception desk.
Scanning the interior, I spotted a long wooden counter.
Someone stood behind it.
I walked over quickly and planted myself in front of the counter.
"Excuse me."
No reaction.
The receptionist was sorting paperwork.
"…Excuse me?"
This time I called a little louder.
The receptionist looked up… and glanced around the room.
I narrowed my eyes.
Oh, you have got to be kidding.
The counter was tall.
"Over here."
I thrust one hand high into the air and waggled it above the counter.
Only then did the receptionist's gaze drop.
"…Huh?"
Our eyes met.
Flustered surprise spread across her face. She looked back and forth between me and the height of the counter for a moment, then finally came around from her seat to my side of it. Up close she was a young woman with her hair neatly tied back, a small metal badge engraved with the guild crest hanging at her waist.
"What can I do for you, sweetie? Did you lose your parents?"
"N-no."
I shook my head.
Then, with the most serious expression I could manage:
"I'm here to register as an adventurer."
The receptionist froze.
After a brief silence, she looked me over slowly from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. She checked the straw hat, the fishing rod, and the basket on my back in turn, and when her eyes returned to my face, the question are you serious? was written there in unmistakably clear letters.
"There's no age limit for registering as an adventurer, for what it's worth. But new registrants start at the Stone rank, and you can't take on commissions above your assigned grade. Dangerous quests come with extra conditions attached, too."
The receptionist asked once more, as if checking whether I'd really come on a whim.
"You still want to register?"
I nodded immediately.
"All right then. The registration fee is one silver."
"…"
Silence fell.
The receptionist looked at me.
I looked at the receptionist.
And then, very slowly, I looked down at my basket.
For the second time that day, I reached into the basket.
"Would this…"
The head of the silvery fish poked out.
The receptionist's eyes went wide.
"Would it not work?"
From somewhere deep inside the guild came the unmistakable sound of someone stifling laughter.
My face went up in flames.
The receptionist pressed her lips tight together, looking back and forth between the fish and me, before finally covering her mouth with one hand. Her shoulders were trembling ever so slightly—she was definitely laughing.
"…Keep the fish."
"But it's expensive…"
I felt a little cheated.
Still, I did as I was told and put the fish back in the basket.
The receptionist let out a sigh that might have been a laugh or might have been exasperation, then studied my face beneath the straw hat for a moment. Eventually, with a look of resigned helplessness, she smiled and turned back toward the counter.
"This time I'll cover it for you. In return, you pay me back when you make some money. Deal?"
"Really?!"
My answer came so fast that she snorted with laughter.
The reactions that followed were all over the map. Some people shot curious glances my way, as if they'd found an amusing spectacle; others couldn't have cared less that some child was registering as an adventurer, and just kept tipping back their mugs. Someone even openly scoffed, but I did my best to tune it all out.
After a moment, the receptionist returned with a blank rectangular card and a single sharp iron stylus.
"You prick the tip of your finger, then let one drop of blood fall here."
I took the stylus.
It was a little scary, but I squeezed my eyes shut and pricked my fingertip.
"Owie…"
A round bead of blood welled up.
Just as I let it fall onto the card—
Fwoosh—
"Whoa."
A faint glow spread across the entire card. Faint lines began appearing one by one on the blank surface, strange patterns flickering into existence and fading away in turn.
The receptionist watched the card with practiced ease and started explaining. It would take a little time, she said, for the registration to complete.
The role of the Adventurer's Guild, as she explained it while we waited, was far broader than I'd imagined. It wasn't merely a place to take commissions and hunt monsters—it was closer to a full cooperative, handling adventurer registration and credential management, quest mediation and reward payouts, the purchase and appraisal of magic stones and monster byproducts, and even administrative work like mediating party recruitment.
Adventurer ranks came in seven tiers altogether.
You started at the very bottom as Stone and climbed up through Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Emerald, all the way to the pinnacle rank of Diamond.
The higher your rank, the more quests you could accept and the more privileges and benefits the guild extended—but simply completing a mountain of commissions didn't guarantee promotion. From a certain tier onward, you needed to pass separate qualification reviews and examinations on top of your track record.
I nodded along, stacking each explanation neatly inside my head.
At its core, this really is Ryu Origin.
Plenty matched my memories—the Adventurer's Guild, the rank system.
But the finer details were different.
Whether that was a matter of convenience cut from the game, or whether this world simply wasn't the identical game I remembered, I couldn't judge yet.
"And the most important thing is your vocation."
At the receptionist's words, I focused again.
"My vocation?"
"Mm-hm. Every human is granted a vocation by the gods at birth. Some are suited for combat, like Swordsmen or Hunters; others specialize in daily life, like Blacksmiths or Herbalists. Even people with the same vocation can differ slightly in their innate abilities and the path their growth takes."
My eyes drifted, quite naturally, to the card still glowing on the counter.
Then my vocation is…
An Angler, almost certainly.
Just thinking it left me with strangely complicated feelings.
"What about magic?"
The receptionist considered my question for a moment, then shrugged.
"Magic does exist, but it's a somewhat different domain from vocations. Even among adventurers, the ones who handle it properly are rare, so you needn't worry yourself about it."
I nodded again.
The more I learned, the more certain I was: this is Ryu Origin.
And that was the exact moment.
"Ha! Now I've seen everything."
A rasping voice rang out from behind me.
When I turned, a man who'd been monopolizing an entire table with his drinking was rising from his seat.
A massive, muscle-bound frame.
A glistening bald head, without a single strand of hair.
His face was flushed red—clearly well into his cups—and in one hand he hefted a halberd as tall as a grown man.
Despite his stagger, the man approached with steps that were, oddly, steady in a way that spoke of long familiarity with being drunk.
"You lot really take anyone now, huh? Even brats like this? The Ryukel Adventurer's Guild really has hit rock bottom."
The inside of the guild grew a little quieter.
The smile vanished from the receptionist's face.
She shifted half a step in front of me, naturally, and faced the man down.
"Anyone who meets the conditions may register as an adventurer. And I must ask you not to make a disturbance inside the guild."
The man sneered at that, then dropped his gaze to me.
"Hey, runt."
The smell of alcohol rolled over me.
"Do yourself a favor and hit the Merchant's Guild next door. Something like you? One weak monster and you're a one-bite snack."
A few scattered chuckles rose around us.
It stung.
It wasn't wrong, either.
Just this very morning, I'd been worrying whether I'd die the moment I met a slime.
Still, hearing it said to my face was a different story entirely.
I pressed my lips tight and looked up at the man.
"No."
The man's laughter stopped.
"What was that?"
"I'm going to be an adventurer."
The man's drunken face twisted into something ugly. He stared down at me for a moment, clicked his tongue around in his mouth, and then, finding some fresh amusement, curled his lips upward again.
"Oh yeah?"
The man raised the halberd.
In an instant, the receptionist's expression hardened. Several adventurers nearby rose from their seats as well, but the bald man raised the weapon high above his head as if savoring every reaction.
"Then surely you can dodge this much, can't you?"
The blood drained from my face.
There was no genuine killing intent in the man's posture. Most likely he intended to slam the blade down right in front of me, or stop it short above my head, just to frighten me.
But there was no way the current me had the composure to make that kind of cold judgment.
"H-hey, wait a—"
The halberd came down.
The moment I heard the heavy blade tearing through the air above my head, I instinctively crouched where I stood, wrapping both arms over my head.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I'm going to die!
But the impact never came.
Instead—
CRACK—!
A sharp sound, like glass and metal shattering at once, shook the entire guild.
"…?"
Still curled into a ball, I cracked my eyelids open just a sliver.
Something had fallen to the floor.
Clink.
Metal fragments.
The shattered blade of the halberd was raining down onto the floor right in front of me.
"…Huh?"
A similar slack-jawed sound escaped the bald man's mouth.
His eyes had gone impossibly wide. In his hand, the halberd hung with only its handle intact; the fearsomely gleaming metal blade from moments ago had broken apart without a trace and lay scattered across the floor.
And between me and the man—
Something was floating in empty air, where nothing had been a moment before.
"What… is that?"
A translucent green.
Layer upon layer of interlocking plates had woven themselves together into a barrier that shielded my small body completely. As I stared at the curved surface and the regular pattern of hexagons, it looked less like a shield than like a piece of some colossal turtle's shell lifted whole and set before my eyes.
And in that instant, one being surfaced in my mind.
Could it be…
Hyunmoo.
The power the beast had spoken of.
I remained crouched where I was, staring blankly at the green barrier.
The surroundings were just as silent.
The people who'd been drinking and chattering moments before, the adventurers who'd been laughing at me—all of them had their mouths shut, staring this way.
"No way…"
The bald man looked down at his shattered halberd.
His face was that of a man suddenly, violently sobered.
The moment he took a step forward, two other adventurers moved in from deeper inside the guild.
"That's far enough."
The pair grabbed the bald man's arms and dragged him back. He sputtered in confusion and protested, but this time nobody laughed; the receptionist, her expression like stone, declared flatly that he would face separate consequences for swinging a weapon inside the guild.
But something was odd.
Her voice was clearly directed at the man, yet her gaze was fixed somewhere else entirely.
Behind me.
Or rather—on the registration card lying on the counter.
"Uh…?"
A small sound slipped from the receptionist's lips.
I tore my eyes from the green barrier and slowly turned my head.
The card had stopped glowing.
In its place, on the surface that had been blank only moments ago, black letters were settling into place, one by one.
Name. Vocation. Adventurer rank.
And beneath them—
The color drained from the receptionist's face.
"What's wrong?"
When I asked, she didn't answer.
She looked back and forth between the card and me, again and again, her eyes growing wider and wider, her lips moving as though trying to read something aloud yet unable to produce a proper sound.
The adventurers around us were beginning to notice her strange reaction too.
Then, at last—
With a trembling finger, the receptionist pointed to one corner of the card.
"H-hi…"
Her voice cracked.
"H-hi… Hidden Skill holder…"
"Yes?"
I tried to stand, but my legs, still not recovered, wobbled beneath me.
The receptionist seemed to have no attention to spare for my state.
Her gaze was locked on a single line of lettering engraved on the card.
And finally—
In a trembling voice, as if beholding something impossible, she read the name aloud.
"…Protection of the Black Tortoise?"
I blinked.
The green shell of light still lingering before me scattered a faint shimmer and slowly faded away.
"Huh…?"