Chapter 23: Goblin Hunter

While he was making his way out of the crowded lobby of the Adventurers Guild, he simultaneously opened up his friends' list and tapped on Ars' name. Thereafter, three options were made available for him to select from, and he could either choose to send her a private message, call her, or delete her name in his friends' list.

Since it was too much of a hassle to type out a message and send it to her while he was walking in this hall filled with people—he directly opted to press the option to call her instead. After only a few rings, the call connected and a girl's shy voice could be heard from the other end of the line.

"...H-Hello? Is this Renan…?"

"Yes Miss Ars, it's me. I'm just calling to ask where you are right now."

"Well… I'm currently on the second floor of the Adventurers Guild's pub area."

"I see. Do you perhaps still want to party up with me, or do you have other plans in mind today?"

"What, plans? O-Oh no, I don't have any plans and I would be more than happy to tag along with you on another quest."

"Alright, that's good to hear. I'm now heading outside of the Adventurers Guild, so I'll meet you at the exit then?"

"Okay, I'll be there in a jiffy."

"Then we'll see each other soon, Miss Ars."

The call ended there, and just as it finished Renan finally managed to get through the exit and step outside of the building. For a moment, he inhaled the open air of the outside world before surveying his surroundings to look for a good spot to wait for someone.

It only took him a moment to find a spot where there weren't a lot of people, and so, he went and stood there with his back leaning against the building's wall. But out of nowhere, he was startled by a sudden window notification popping up in front of him.

"The heck is this?" He muttered subconsciously before reading its contents. "A friend request from Fuse? Is this Alec's character name?"

For now, he accepted it to check and see if it was really him. Just when he did a call quickly followed in, making him reflexively raise an eyebrow in surprise.

"This guy sure is fast."

He promptly accepted the call and it connected. Then, it was followed by a youth's energetic voice flowing through the line.

"Yo Renan, it's me Alec. I see you've just logged in. Man, you have no idea how many times I've been trying to reach ya, but the system kept saying over and over that the player was offline."

"Yeah, sorry for the long wait. I'm guessing you're still in the middle of the town's public square?"

"Yep, still here waiting for ya. But dude, sh*t's crazy down here. There's this random guy in a full set of armor shouting at the top of his lungs and waving a sign that says he will pay anyone who has valuable information about goblins."

"Hmm? Goblins, you say?" Renan asked as his interest was piqued.

"It's funny really. This guy seems to hate his goblins."

"Now I wonder what that could be about?"

"Hey man, who knows. Anyway, I'll be waiting close to this insane goblin dude, so look for me there."

"Okay, will do."

Another call ended, and another person entered his line of sight—it was Ars who was coming out of the building's exit. He promptly stood straight from his leaning position and waved a hand happily at her. After quickly scanning the area, Ars found him and hurriedly approached.

"Sorry about that… Did I make you wait long…?"

"No, it's fine Miss Ars. Besides, I had something to do while killing time so it's all good." Renan gave her a refreshing smile to make her at ease. "Well then, shall we get going?"

…

After ten minutes of walking around Elisa town, Ars finally couldn't hold in her curiosity and began asking.

"Hey, umm… Can I ask where we're going, Renan? It looks like you have a specific location already in mind."

"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot to tell you Miss Ars. Actually, there's someone I would really like you to meet, and he's currently waiting for us in the town square."

"So we're heading to the town square to pick up a friend of yours?"

"Yes, exactly. His in-game name is Fuse, and he just joined the game today. I'm hoping that the three of us could form a party so that we can take on even harder quests."

"I see… Then I'm excited to meet this new addition to the team. I trust that the people you're friends with are gonna be great."

"Mhm. Don't worry, he may seem and act brash on the outside, but he's actually a pretty loyal friend once you get to know him. And it looks like we've arrived at our destination."

Elisa town's public square—a huge open space with only a single statue of the Faelbeast King and several large fountains dotting the area. While situated on the roadsides were various shops and stalls for players and citizens to browse in. And yet, on one of the large fountains, a crowd was gathered together and apparently watching a single man shouting at the top of his lungs.

"What is that man shouting about over there?" Ars curiously gazed at the fully armored man in the center of the crowd. "All I can catch from his words is goblins and selling information."

"That must be where Fuse is. He said to me on our call earlier that he would be waiting for us near a shouting man holding up a sign. Come on, let's go look for him Miss Ars." Renan said and dragged her along with him.

Both of them shortly arrived somewhere in the back of the crowd, and they couldn't help but look and listen to the man shouting out his words in a deranged manner.

"Listen up you maggots! I'm the E-rank adventurer known as the Goooblin Hunter. And I hunt goblins to eradicate their nests, and caves, and caves, and nests! Basically, I enjoy destroying their home bases and slaughtering their babies and children to stop them from increasing in numbers. Those damn gooooblins propagate like a bunch of horny rabbits wanting to mate with anything that has a hole in it! A bunch of disgusting, hair-raising, and irritating heathens that need to be purged from this world; that's what goblins are!"

Oddly enough, his speech was movingly passionate (but in the wrong kind of way though). It was like watching a veteran soldier spilling rambles of madness from his time in the army that was constantly going to war each day. This fully armored guy donning on a helmet to cover his head from God knows what in this town was clearly a bonafide madman.