Chapter 1: A Request from the Culprit
*Great Sin City-State of Greed – Tavern [The Hideout of the Greedy]
“Escort Quest”
To buy back a sister who was sold off due to a debt incurred by a family member.
In such an utterly unreasonable situation, Ur and Shizuku had just recently managed to become full-fledged Bronze-rank adventurers. The request came to them shortly before they received their Bronze-rank certification, during a celebration party held to commemorate their defeat of the bounty target, the *Gem Doll*.
Receiving a quest request wasn’t unusual. Sometimes it came through the Adventurers’ Guild, a mutual aid organization, and sometimes it came directly to the adventurers themselves.
“Escort… or rather, more accurately, general chores? I’d like to ask you to handle various small tasks for a while. Oh, of course, this is assuming you both successfully become Bronze-rank adventurers first.”
The problem was that the person making the request was none other than *Diz Gran Phoenix*, the moneylender who had taken Ur’s sister away and was the very reason Ur had become an adventurer in the first place.
That said, Ur didn’t hold any negative feelings toward Diz herself. While she was the root cause of this situation, the reason Ur’s sister had been taken as collateral was due to their father, and the transaction itself had been legitimate.
If anything, it was Ur who had been the one asking for favors and patience. So while he didn’t harbor any hatred or resentment, being asked for help by Diz was still somewhat puzzling.
“But why us?”
It was Shizuku, the silver-haired girl with a voice as clear as a bell, who voiced Ur’s question. As a member of Ur’s adventuring party, she tilted her head curiously, her almost ethereally beautiful face showing a hint of confusion.
“If it’s just chores, don’t you already have servants, Lady Diz?”
“I’ll be parting ways with her in the next city-state. Jenna is quite capable, so I’d like to assign her to another task.”
Then, Diz turned her gaze to Ur and smiled.
“And you’d like to stay close to Akane, wouldn’t you?”
[I dooo!]
The response didn’t come from Ur. Instead, it came from Akane, Ur’s sister, who was currently in the form of a fairy perched on Diz’s shoulder. Due to a rare phenomenon known as *Spirit Possession*, Akane had gained a peculiar constitution, which had led to her being valued at an outrageous sum of 1,000 gold coins.
[Nii-tan, you never know what might happen if we’re apart!]
“Akane’s so kind… Well, from my perspective, it’s a wish come true.”
“We were planning to leave Greed soon anyway,”
As an adventurer, Ur’s goal was to rise through the ranks and buy back his sister.
To achieve this, he had to earn 1,000 gold coins within three years.
Therefore, the question of *how to act as an adventurer, rise in rank, and earn money* was crucial.
Great Sin City-State of Greed, was home to one of the world’s largest labyrinths, the *Labyrinth of Greed*. While it was undoubtedly a suitable environment for adventurers, there were still issues when considering Ur’s current objective.
“If we just keep diving into the labyrinth, our rise in rank will be slow.”
Continually diving into the same labyrinth, defeating the same monsters, and collecting magic stones—this so-called “labyrinth diving” approach didn’t earn much recognition from the Adventurers’ Guild. Since it involved dealing with similar monsters, the growth in magic absorption was also gradual.
To rapidly increase both magic absorption and Guild recognition, Ur and his party had recently taken on the *Gem Doll*, a bounty target. However, in a labyrinth with a constant flow of adventurers and no time for monsters to grow, such targets rarely appeared.
Thus, their plan was to travel from place to place, hunt down bounty targets, earn recognition from the Guild, and gather bounties along the way.
Accompanying Diz on her travels, they would take on any bounty targets near the city-states they arrived at, time permitting. Diz’s proposal was a godsend… or so it seemed.
“…Is this out of pity?”
“That might be part of it.”
“Hey.”
Ur’s face twitched at the blunt admission, but Diz remained serious.
“I’m curious to see how you’ll strive. There’s also some pity for taking Akane away from you completely. And of course, I genuinely need someone trustworthy to handle chores… Oh, and the pay will be at the standard rate for Bronze-rank adventurers.”
“You’re laying it all out, huh… You don’t even know if we’ll actually make it to Bronze-rank.”
“Of course I know. If you don’t, then it’s just me making a miscalculation.”
Her openness made trying to guess her motives seem foolish. Maybe that was why it was hard to resent her.
In any case, the conditions were good. Ur glanced at Shizuku, who nodded in agreement.
“Well, there’s no reason to refuse. If we make it to Bronze-rank, we’ll take the job.”
“Excellent,” Diz smiled, standing up with Akane in tow.
“I have some business to attend to, so Akane and I will leave Greed first. We’ll meet up at our next destination and finalize the details.”
It was a bit concerning that the conversation was already assuming they’d achieve Bronze-rank, but Ur nodded. After all, if they didn’t make it to Bronze-rank, the whole thing would be moot.
“Where’s the meeting point?”
“The satellite city-state of *Altoo*, within Greed’s territory.”
“That’s the place with…”
Ur recognized the name. Diz nodded in confirmation.
“It’s the city with the *Mobile Fortress*’s docking port.”
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Greed Territory – Arus Plains
Stepping out of the city, filled with the heat of desire, the vast plains stretched endlessly before them.
Once, human structures had covered the land so densely that the earth itself was barely visible. But now, after the invasion of monsters from the labyrinths, most of those structures had crumbled into rubble, buried beneath the earth and consumed by vegetation, freed from human control.
Several days had passed since Ur and Shizuku left Great Sin City-State of Greed. As they walked along the wild paths tread by the nameless wanderers, they could see the distant Arpus Mountains in the northern part of Greed’s territory.
It was the season of the spring spirits, the Spriggans, when beasts, insects, and plants were full of life.
Among the three seasons, spring was the most peaceful, and many welcomed its arrival.
Even for the nameless wanderers, forced to roam without the right to settle, it was the same.
Outside the city, the threats weren’t limited to monsters. The cold nights and howling winds were equally deadly. The warmth of spring, even if only slightly, was a true blessing for them.
In that warm, pleasant weather, the two of them were currently…
“What nice weather.”
“Yeah… Don’t move, or you’ll die.”
“We’re going to die.”
…on the verge of death.
Not because of an accident or being caught up in some incident. No, it was simply an unavoidable crisis that came with traveling outside the city-states. Namely—
[────GU, GU, OOOOOOOO……]
—an encounter with a powerful monster that ordinary adventurers couldn’t handle.
The monster, with tree-like limbs that shook the ground and a long neck that surveyed its surroundings, was familiar to Ur. He had seen it in the monster encyclopedia drilled into him by Glenn, his mentor at Greed’s training grounds.
“That’s a Plakio, right? I think it’s herbivorous.”
“Yeah. So if it sees a human, it won’t eat them. Instead, it’ll use its long neck to pick them up and toss them away, turning them into mincemeat.”
If rocks, animals, or even corpses suddenly fell from the sky, you’d need to be wary of either winged monsters or this thing. After being toyed with and thrown away like a plaything, the victim would appear to have fallen from the sky.
[Reveal its name…]
Ur muttered, activating the Analyze magic embedded in his Bronze Ring, the mark of an adventurer. The monster’s True Name appeared, along with an estimate of its magic power.
“It’s a Rank 7 monster, huh?”
“I think the Gem Doll was Rank 10.”
“We’re going to die.”
“Yeah, we’re going to die…”
While defeating the Gem Doll and absorbing its magic had made Ur and Shizuku stronger, they were still no match for this monster. Besides, even if they did defeat it, there wasn’t much to gain. Unlike the Gem Doll, this monster didn’t have a bounty on its head.
Monsters of this level were a dime a dozen outside the city-states. So, there was only one option.
“We’ll let it pass… It’s risky, but…”
“Are you sure, Ur?”
“That’s my line, seriously…”
Choosing to avoid the monster, the two slipped into a narrow gap between a large rock and a cliff. Having fled there in a panic, they were now pressed closely together, and Ur sighed as Shizuku, despite the situation, expressed concern for him.
After a while…
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