The Adventurer’s Guild was still bustling, even though the facility here was a bit smaller than the one in Ishtar.
“What’re they chatting about?” asked Cross.
“Yesterday, an A-rank adventurer and his party got beaten to a pulp by an S-rank adventurer who showed up out of nowhere!” answered the boy.
“That’s surprising.”
“Yup. The A-rank was famous around here, but he apparently got involved in some black quest.”
“A black quest, huh?”
“According to the story, the S-rank who beat him was some crazy strong shieldmaster. He’s the talk of the Adventurer’s Guild right now.”
“A sh-shieldmaster...?” Daggers immediately popped into Cross’s mind. There weren’t many S-rank shieldmasters out there, and given the timing, it almost certainly was him.
“There’s also rumors about some explosions in the woods!”
“Explosions?”
“Apparently, some woman wielding a staff is behind it, but no one knows for sure...” Cross had no idea who this was. He had no way of knowing the woman behind all this was Silica. “Well, anyway, let’s go take on a quest.”
“Th-That’s right. What’s your rank, sir?”
“Hmm... The same as yours, I guess.” While it wasn’t something he needed to hide, he couldn’t accept any dangerous quests with an E-rank kid in tow anyway. Thus, Cross had every intention of accepting a D-rank quest that would be on this boy’s level, and he didn’t want the title of S-rank adventurer to be on the kid’s mind either.
“Oh, so we’re the same!”
“Y-Yup...” Cross couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty seeing how happy the boy was to find a fellow E-rank adventurer. Still, he kept his true rank a secret. “Anyway, I’ll go choose something random. That good with you?”
“Sure! I don’t mind you picking the quest for us.”
Thus, Cross approached the counter alone. “Uh, I’d like to accept a quest...”
“Sure. Could I see your adventurer’s badge?”
Cross pulled his badge out of his pocket and handed it over to the receptionist. “So you’re Cross, the S-rank adventurer... Wait, S-rank?! But you’re so young!” This had the girl excited.
“Uh, could we keep that between us? I’m going on a quest with that kid over there.”
“Oh! So, you’re here with Lin?”
“You know him?”
“Yes, he’s famous for being a hard worker, but well... A certain group’s taken to calling him ‘Lin the Eternal E-rank.’”
“I see,” commented Cross before muttering, “Must be hard,” under his breath.
“He’s only thirteen, but he’s doing his best for his parents. He comes to take on new quests every single day.”
Typically, one could register as an adventurer starting at the age of twelve, which meant Lin had joined the guild as soon as he could. Before you turned fifteen, you’d be capped at B-rank. But given that many parents didn’t approve, there were very few who climbed to such a high rank while still that young.
“Well, I guess that’s when Yui became an adventurer too...”
After joining the guild, Yui had quickly climbed the ranks and had immediately been granted S-rank as soon as she turned fifteen, but she was an incredibly rare case. Though someone remaining E-rank for a whole year despite taking on quests every day was rare in and of itself.
“Well, I guess I started out with a friend when I was still just fifteen myself...” Cross had climbed to S-rank in just two and a half years, but that was quite rare too.
In fact, all the members of his party had received the title while they were still quite young, and they were all perfectly aware of how uncommon that was. Typically, even the youngest S-rank adventurers were in their mid-twenties. While that might still seem young for some people, becoming an S-rank adventurer wasn’t something you could achieve with hard work alone. Thus, most earned the title right at the age when talent shined the brightest, and adventurers would always think that the difference between S-ranks and A-ranks was the difference between being twenty-five and twenty-six.
“Um, if you’re adventuring with Lin, how difficult of a quest would you like?”
“Hmm... Since we’re both archers, let’s go with D-rank.”
Two archers didn’t make for a well-balanced party.
“Right. Then how’s this? It seems perfect for teaching Lin archery.” The woman handed over a quest to defeat some red slimes. Just as the name would suggest, they were a red subspecies of slime monster.
“You’re right, it would make for some good bow practice. Let’s go with this one.”
“Right. Please take good care of Lin for me, okay?”
“Of course. Leave it to me.”
Cross accepted the quest and headed back over to Lin.
“That took a while. Is everything okay?” Lin asked.
“I was just chatting with the receptionist. Let’s get going.”
“R-Right!”
Cross brought Lin to the nearby forest and in the opposite direction of the exploding sounds, which the receptionist had warned them about. After a short walk, they arrived at the nest of red slimes.
“Storage,” muttered Cross, retrieving his bow.
“Huh?! How’d you do that?!”
“Oh...” Cross had messed up. “This is the only thing I’m good at. A friend taught me how to do it a while ago.”
“I see...”
Somehow, he had made it through. He sighed in relief. “Anyway, let’s get on with it.”
“Right!”
Cross and Lin aimed their bows at the red slimes and fired. Then they repeated that process. While all of Cross’s arrows pierced the red slimes’ cores, Lin’s only managed to graze their sides. While Cross was landing bull’s-eyes, Lin was missing the target entirely.
“H-Hey, you okay there?”
“Yup. This is how it always goes,” said Lin, following that up with an awkward laugh and looking like he wasn’t okay at all. The boy was even worse than Cross had expected.
Thus, he stored away his bow and brought his hand to Lin’s. “You’re straining too much, and you need to pull the string back more.” He gently and clearly corrected the boy, pointing out each and every thing that could improve his skills. With each correction, Lin’s shots continued to improve, until eventually...
“I-I did it!” Lin’s arrow admirably pierced a red slime’s core.
“Good job. You think you’ve gotten the hang of things?”
“Yeah, I think so! I’m pretty sure I’ve learned the trick!” said Lin, smiling gleefully.
Cross was convinced that, though it’d take a while, Lin climbing the ranks was only a matter of time. He may have been clumsy, but he was a quick learner. Having to teach himself was probably where he’d gone wrong.
“All right, let’s gather up those slimes and head on back,” said Cross, crouching down. That’s when he sensed something rushing through the foliage and bolting straight toward them. “Lin. Stop.”
“R-Right...” Lin was clearly confused, but he lowered his bow and crouched down anyway.
“So that’s what it was...” muttered Cross.
What appeared from behind the leaves was a lunamagra, a giant, black spider monster. They were nocturnal, omnivorous beasts that would feed on rotting flesh...and a suitable foe for A-rank adventurers and above.
“A l-l-lunamagra?!” Lin’s eyes shot open wide as his knees buckled beneath him. He was face-to-face with a monster an E-rank adventurer had no chance against, and it left him terrified.
Cross was planning to run rather than engage the monster, but given Lin’s reaction, he didn’t have much choice but to take out his bow. “Guess this is just how it’s gotta be...”
He aimed and fired, piercing the beast’s head. His movements had maximum efficiency. Given his perfect form, it made sense that he didn’t have much room for improvement.
“W-Wow...” After seeing Cross take down a lunamagra with a single shot, Lin couldn’t turn away.
“Jeez, what are these things doing here anyway? We’re still pretty close to town,” muttered Cross as he poked at the monster’s dead body.
“S-So you were strong...”
“Uh, no? This was just...”
“It’s okay. I had already kind of figured it out anyway. You’re a pretty high-ranking adventurer, aren’t you?” Lin already had an inkling that Cross wasn’t the newbie he claimed to be. The boy had studied the bow on his own, and had thus watched countless adventurers. While Cross had tried to hide it, Lin realized immediately that his skills were beyond comparison to the average adventurer’s.
“So, you noticed.”
“I did. I thought you had to be B-rank, or maybe an A-rank. I’m sorry.”
“It’s nothing to apologize about. I was the one hiding things.”
After that, Cross handed his badge over, revealing himself to be an S-rank adventurer.
“Huh, you’re S-rank?! Every adventurer out there dreams of being just like you! I can’t believe I got to study the bow under someone like that! I’m kind of sorry, somehow.”
“Like I said, there’s no need to apologize. More importantly, the sun’s about to set. Stronger monsters tend to roam about at night, so we better get back soon.”
“Y-You’re right.”
The two gathered the red slimes’ corpses and Cross stored them away with magic. Then, they headed back to town as quickly as they could.
“I’m only alive thanks to you, sir! I caused you a lot of trouble, didn’t I? I’m really s—”
“Y’know, apologizing is important, but you’re taking this too far.”
“Huh? But...” Lin cut off his words. For a moment, he was silent. Then finally, he bowed. “Th-Thank you.”
Cross chuckled. “Yup, it feels much better to receive some thanks than an apology anyway.”
Afterward, the two reported that they had completed their quest and submitted the multiple red slime carcasses—and single lunamagra carcass—to the guild. Given Lin’s laundry list of fame, he naturally drew attention. The receptionist was incredibly thankful as well.
But just as Cross was about to head back to the inn, Lin stopped him. “U-Um!”
“Hmm?” asked Cross, turning back around.
“On our way back, you said you didn’t have any more room to grow, right?”
“Yeah, I guess I did.”
“This is, um, just my opinion, but I was thinking that maybe you could rapid fire off a bunch of arrows.”
Each arrow required had to be individually nocked and fired, so Cross had never considered that possibility before. “Rapid fire, huh?” That’s when a thought suddenly occurred to him. “Oh, that’s what I can do!”
Rapid fire with a bow was impossible, but that was just a narrow way of thinking. In a way, Lin’s ignorance is what allowed him to see that.
“Thanks, Lin! I know climbing the ranks will be tough, but do your best!” After offering some words of appreciation, Cross was off.
Thus, three small local legends were born.