“You’re such a darling, Noor. I can always count on you!”
“Not at all, Mrs. Stella. Thank you for always commissioning me.”
Mrs. Stella was an older woman and the client for the drain-cleaning commission that I had just completed. In an exchange that was quite familiar to us by now, she signed off on the commission slip I held out to her, after which I bid her farewell and dashed off to my next job.
The memory of when I first came by her home was still fresh in my mind. It was, after all, my very first job as an adventurer. Mrs. Stella lived in a district of the royal capital that people called “the old quarter” because it had been around for forever. While it was undeniably a part of the city, its proximity to the outermost limits meant it had no access to the city’s cleaning services, which were scrupulous in their work in the central districts. As such, the residents of the old quarter had to clean for themselves.
However, Mrs. Stella, who had lived alone ever since her husband and son passed away, had ailing legs and poor eyesight. Without anyone around to help her, the task of cleaning had only become more insurmountable with each passing day. Then, the drains around her home, having gone uncleaned for quite some time, inevitably began to give off an unpleasant reek.
While very much willing to handle the problem, Mrs. Stella nevertheless found herself very much unable to. And so, at her wit’s end, she made up her mind to put in a commission at the Adventurers Guild.
“Please,” read the request, “would somebody be kind enough to help me?”
And yet, nobody did.
From what I understood, in the eyes of your everyday adventurer, the reward Mrs. Stella offered was simply not very enticing. Most preferred high-profit commissions such as monster hunting or urgent material gathering, and those were the types of commissions the Guild usually prioritized when mediating with clients.
So, perhaps because everyone involved thought that cleaning some residential drains could be handled whenever, by anybody else with free time, Mrs. Stella’s commission went ignored. Then, in a stroke of luck, just as she was at a total loss for what to do, I showed up.
She was so thankful upon the completion of my first job that she became a regular client and started requesting me by name. In fact, because of just how happy she was every time I assisted her, I found myself doing a bit extra, instead of just sticking to the details of the commission. As I grew more used to the work, the time it took me to finish the requested sections of drain grew shorter—so, gradually, I would clean out more and more of the surrounding sections too.
Though some might say it was a waste of time, Mrs. Stella’s neighbors were very grateful, so I happily continued. Sure, the pay for this job wasn’t anything special, but to me, it was worth doing. After all, I got to see the smiles it brought to people’s faces, and feel the satisfaction of knowing that I was making the city just that little bit cleaner with my own hands.
That being said, I’d probably overdone it today. Somewhere during the cleaning, I’d lost track of the time, so I’d left for my next job later than I’d intended.
“Am I going to make it?” I wondered out loud.
I hurried through the city’s streets, taking two turns along the way, and finally arrived at the construction site that was my destination. As usual, the foreman, who was my second client of the day, came over to greet me.
“Right on time, Noor. It’s the usual today. I’m countin’ on ya!”
These days, my daily schedule generally consisted of cleaning drains in the morning, followed by moving dirt at this construction site in the afternoon.
As I understood it, the royal capital where I was situated was famously nicknamed “the Adventurer’s Holy Land” due to the presence of a massive and ancient dungeon within the city’s limits. Since the city had been carrying out some large-scale construction as of late with the intention of enlarging the roads in front of the dungeon, calls had been sent out for the great deal of manpower required for the project. Eventually, because of a labor shortage, those had become commissions put in at the Guild.
But, like with drain cleaning, local construction work wasn’t very enticing to your everyday adventurer. Apparently, I had been the only person to take the commission by choice. That did nothing to change my opinion that I couldn’t have asked for a better job, though.
After all, here, no matter who you were, you were judged solely on the amount of work you put in. The more dirt you carried, the more you were paid. With the [Physical Enhancement] skill I’d picked up from my warrior training, I could easily carry five times more than the average person, and with [Low Heal], the barely-even-a-skill that I’d developed from my cleric training, I could slowly but steadily heal myself as I worked, so I didn’t even feel fatigued.
My skills might not have been considered useful enough for me to register as an adventurer, but they were a great help for my current lifestyle. [Featherstep], from my thief training, was perfect for catching lost pet cats, and [Tiny Flame], from my magician training, came in handy for cooking. I didn’t have much use for my hunter skill, [Stone Throw], but being able to hit faraway things was great for impressing kids.
However, despite it being the one skill that I’d trained so desperately, I found no real use for [Parry] at all.
I still kept up with my training, even now; it was hard to drop a habit that I’d built up over the course of fifteen years. And since I continued to harbor the faint hope that my efforts would one day bear fruit, I had no intentions of stopping—even if that possibility was infinitesimally low.
At any rate, my prospects of becoming a normal adventurer aside, my skills were more than enough to help me pay for the expenses associated with living in the royal capital. Though, as much as I’d like to think that all my training wasn’t for nothing, I was still a far cry from even a Beginner-rank adventurer. As things stood, I knew full well that my dream of becoming a hero told of in epics was arrogant beyond belief.
From time to time, I would even ask myself, Why not just settle for what you have? After all, my dream of becoming an adventurer stemmed from my desire to help people, and, well, I was already doing that. I was undertaking commissions, being paid for them, and people were thanking me. Day by day, that was how I lived my life. That alone was fulfilling enough; it would be greedy to want anything more.
Besides, I had no family to look after, and nothing I needed large sums of money for. Taking on risky commissions trying to get rich quick would just be unnecessary.
I guess doing this until I die wouldn’t be so bad.
That had been the thought running through my mind as I worked all over the city, and before I knew it, three months had passed.
These days, I had a proper place of residence. I’d taken a liking to the cheap inn that the guildsman had introduced me to, and had stayed there ever since. Part of why it was cheap was that meals weren’t included, but since I’d been cooking for myself my whole life, that didn’t really bother me.
It didn’t have a bath either, but there were plenty of public bathhouses in the city. There were all sorts of different kinds just a short walk away, so I could pick based on how I was feeling that day. Sometimes, after washing myself clean of sweat, I’d even treat myself to something delicious from one of the street stalls. Here in the royal capital, my life was comfortable.
“You do fine work, Noor,” said the construction site foreman. “Damn fine work. It’s a right pity you’re an adventurer. You sure ya don’t want to work with me and my boys? I’d pay ya three...no, five times the usual salary. More, if ya want. I know you’re good for every coin you’ll earn.”
The foreman had taken a liking to me a while back, and he’d made a habit of making me similar offers ever since. Still...
“Thanks,” I replied, “but I’m already happy where I am.”
...I’d made a habit of turning him down with the same response each time.
“A right pity, I tell ya,” he said, sighing and giving me a dejected look.
He did that each time too. I felt kind of guilty about it. But, to my own lack of surprise, I couldn’t bring myself to give up on my long-cherished dream. That, too, had become something of a habit. At the end of the day, I wanted to be an adventurer. Though the other construction workers teased me about it, I strove to go on adventures like the ones told of in epics. It was a silly dream, sure, but that didn’t matter to me.
I worked hard, moving dirt...and the next thing I knew, the sun had started to go down. It was time to finish up.
“That’s all for today,” said the foreman. “We’re ahead of schedule thanks to you, Noor. I’m countin’ on ya for tomorrow too.”
“I’ll be there,” I replied. “See you tomorrow.”
Then, like always, I held my commission slip out for him to sign. After reporting to the Guild and receiving my pay for the day, I’d take a bath, then go to my usual spot and train.
Just as I was leaving, however, I thought I saw a flash of light. It had come from the back of the construction site, where the entrance to the Dungeon of the Lost was found.
“What was that?” I asked myself.
Had it just been my imagination?
No, I decided; I had seen something. An intense purple-red light of some kind. And as that confirmation took hold—
“Some... Help...!”
—I thought I heard a faint scream.