To the forest-

I went to the adventurer's guild and Amiya went to her so-called 'mercenary' guild.

I had a feeling she'd be against me going to the guild but she wasn't.

She did give me a warning though- apparently no matter what- I wasn't allowed to have more than 4 mistresses.

If I went beyond that number, she was going to slit my throat in my sleep.

Except, I didn't sleep.

So- muahahahah!

Ring!

The bell above the door rang and we went into the guild.

Oddly the two cats were kind of happy today. Did something nice happen to them?

Anyway- I was about to pick a job when-

"Oh, you're back?" The pig-faced receptionist kind of came to greet me.

Apparently, his name was Marjan.

And no- I didn't see the hot lady anywhere…

Kind of sad.

"Yeah." I didn't want to stay here for long though.

Cause last night Amiya kind of made a mess and right now I didn't want to deal with it.

Yeah, I was the talk of the town for my exploits but it was also true- my six-round news kind of circulated around a bit too fast… and it wasn't even up-to-date information anymore.

"Heard you got promoted to silver- great job!" He laughed, giving my back a slap and kind of laughing some more. "Congrats on being a real adventurer!"

Uh-huh…

'How did I not hear that though.'

Oh yeah, last night I got dragged out by the Harpy and this was the first time I was coming back to the guild… no wonder…

The rowdy people were rowdy as usual. Did those people not go on jobs and just hang around in the guild all day long or something?

"This means I can take Ruby quests now, right?" If I remember correctly, I could take quests from up to two ranks above me… and pay a hefty fine in case I failed…

Instead of picking a gold one, I went for the two Rubies.

The highest quest on offer.

Oddly, they didn't have any mithril or Adamantium quests. This town didn't have adventurers of those ranks either.

"I actually wouldn't bother-" Marjan shrugged. "You're good, I know. But that kid's tough. It's been going around for over seven decades now. The only reason the quest's still Ruby is because no one has died yet- at least not officially; otherwise, this'd clearly be a Mithril at the least- so you'll only be coming back and paying 25 gold for no reason." Basically, he was saying I'd fail and pay the compensation.

A ruby quest.

To exorcise the soul of a wailing kid. Rumors state that the boy died over a century ago and now haunts the east coast of the forest- preventing traffic and valuable ore mining. Also- it was stated that the boy could summon an army of undead and lay ruin to the city in case his slumber ever got disrupted.

But so far, he never did anything like that and he never harmed anyone either.

Which did beg the question- what was going on?

Regardless- the reward was a whopping 250 gold and a Wyrmheir horse.

The gold wasn't that big of a deal- the horse though- yeah, I wanted one.

The Harpy could fly- the cats could run- me- I was literally the weakest link in our group. I didn't tire but I sure wasn't fast enough.

And Wyrmheirs were one of the fastest horses on the continent.

So- yeah.

"I don't like that smile on your face though…" Marjan kind of paled and offered me my new silver plate.

Apparently, I could also keep my old one too.

"I'll just take this one…" I could have just taken both quests but I figured, just one was enough. "Say hi to the hot receptionist."

I started walking out.

"Hot receptionist?" Marjan mumbled before going, "Oh…"

I still had to properly test out my strength anyway.

Still- 'The monsters aren't even posing minimum threat thanks to the cats…'

The only time something bad happened was yesterday when I purposefully screwed up, underestimating the circumstances.

Assuming I didn't screw up, nothing could possibly go wrong.

But even thinking that was a potential screw up too.

Which was why-

This time-

I was going to be very cautious.

***

Buying some lunch, I headed off the east coast of the forest surrounding the city, basically just past the river.

Barely a half an hour walk.

I had quite a few things to do.

One, get stronger.

Two, get my revenge.

And three, conquer the world.

Also, be happy while doing all three.

But- in order to get stronger- I had to slay stronger monsters.

In order to get my revenge, just being stronger wasn't enough and I had to have a proper plan and backup.

And to conquer the world- I needed an even bigger plan and an underground community.

Getting a better rank and title was just a step toward all that.

After all- things just fell in place for those who had money and power.

'It's not going to be that easy though…' And I didn't have the luxury of time.

So- I had to climb up the ranks fast-

"Still, this place really is empty, huh?"

Lots of greenery.

Or at least there was lots of greenery and even life till now. Wildlife!

Now there wasn't.

Green trees were replaced by dead decaying ones.

And the dead trunks were pretty big too.

'Did people live in these things or something?'

The quest notes never mentioned anything about old civilizations. Actually, it didn't mention anything about this god-awful smell either, so I probably couldn't trust this piece of scrap.

"We should just camp out here for now," I spoke to the mother cat.

She gave me a nod.

She could understand me just fine and I could too. And even now that was kind of amusing…

Apparently, we were at the very edge of the green zone.

Just in front of us was the dead, decaying forest and basically no life.

Lots of rot and smell.

And behind, the greenery.

It was almost the afternoon and if we just waited out here for now, we'd be able to rest and then go in at night, confronting the said haunted kid.

Otherwise, going in now would mean we'd not only be drained mentally, but we'd also be strained physically since we traveled all noon- though me and the mother cat weren't tired- so it only kind of applied to the kitty.

Speaking of the kitty, it was leveling up just alongside me and was somehow getting more HP and MP than me….

Why the hell was that?

Why not me?

It wasn't like I was jealous or anything!