The fortified city of Garlaige was the largest hub in the upper frontier of Emelia Kingdom. Near the center of the city was the local branch of the Adventurer’s Guild, and on the second floor of that building was a large conference room that parties of Rank B or higher could freely use.
Currently gathered in this room were the members of Black Tiger, the party now guaranteed a promotion to Rank A on the merit of unsealing a territory. They weren’t all that tired, as the guild had taken on the handling of the territory boss’s corpse and even arranged for a luxurious carriage to bring them back to town. Today was the biggest day for them since the founding of their party, and they had more than enough energy left to go all out in celebrating it.
Everyone was all smiles. What they had achieved would be generating a massive sum of money, as all territories were chock-full of exploitable resources. The guild had acknowledged this by preparing food and drink of the highest quality in spades for their in-party blowout.
In terms of living standards, the members of Black Tiger had already made it big. When Sol took an objective look at their situation, he couldn’t help but be impressed. Thanks to Player, the five childhood friends now led lives where they wanted for nothing. The food and drink on their table was essentially what nobles of this country enjoyed. Individually, they each had far more money than even run-of-the-mill merchants did. Every one of them owned a mansion on prime real estate in Garlaige, with Mark, Alan, and Julia even having butlers and maids on payroll.
On top of everything, the monster they had killed today was a treasure trove of raw materials. The Adventurer’s Guild had already promised that it would buy the corpse at a generous price, and that was in addition to the reward it would be paying them for completing such a difficult mission. Black Tiger’s members were going to get another big fat bag of cash soon.
If this had been a picture book, the celebration of defeating the territory boss would be the very last page, concluding with “and they lived happily ever after.”
However, Sol’s goal wasn’t to live in decadent luxury. For as long as he could remember, way before he had gotten Player, he’d had a dream: to be an adventurer and conquer all of the world’s dungeons. Though he now understood how impossible that dream was, it was still burning red-hot in his chest.
Unfortunately, the same wasn’t true of the childhood friends who had once shared that dream. Now that they had obtained more success than any normal person could dare hope for, they valued safety and reassurance. They wanted distinction, but only that which they could acquire without risk. Sol didn’t blame them—that was just human nature. And it was all the more understandable since they were convinced that their success had been their own doing.
This was why Sol’s dream was going to be dashed to pieces tonight. He was never going to conquer dungeons with the friends who had dreamed with him since as far back as he could remember.