“I hope that old man hasn’t gone senile,” I’d muttered after we’d parted ways with him. Eld had just handed us a gift, saying, “Sorry it’s a hand-me-down, but I hope you find it useful.”
Despite his words, the gift the old man had given us had just been a plain old Anti-paralysis Ring.
Maybe it was one he used while still active as a Guild Master or something, I thought.
The only thing special about it was that the number S-91 had been engraved into it. Of course, a ring like this was quite useful for newbie adventurers, but you found tons of them while exploring dungeons and we already had a stock ourselves. I didn’t wear them normally, since that would mean losing the effects of one of my currently equipped rings. The one I could most afford to remove would be my Strength Ring, but as the party’s attacker and scout I needed to boost my Attack power as much as possible. Plus, high offense matched my fighting style.
Eld used to be an adventurer himself, surely he knows all of that.
Difficult though it was to believe, perhaps Veteram had taken over for Eld because Eld had lost his marbles. But then we’d reached the Adventurers’ Guild and all of our doubts had been blown away.
“Dax,” Geeko said, and I turned to him. “What the flying fuck is going on here?”
I just shook my head at his flabbergasted voice. Eld clearly hadn’t gone senile. Something truly monumental must have happened to the Guild. The question was what.
Baltore, my other party member, suddenly piped up. “Dax, Geeko. Look at the seat over there.”
Though Baltore looked like an overly cautious bodybuilder, the truth was he was the brains of our group. We looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw a man whose presence was so overwhelming he was distinctly noticeable even in the crowd.
“That man’s wearing desert tribe garb. Also, I’ve seen that face somewhere before. I’m pretty sure that’s the A-rank adventurer, Dean the Sand Lord.”
“He came all the way here from the desert?!”
Most desert dwellers were insular folk who rarely interacted with outsiders or left their home region. Desert tribe adventurers were a bit more sociable than most, but it was still rare to see a desert tribe adventurer in a big city like this. Especially an A-rank one.
Someone like Dean the Sand Lord showing up would certainly cause a stir in the city, but it seemed there were more surprises yet to come. Baltore pointed to another person close to Dean.
“He’s not the only one here. Look at that group staring at the quest board. They’re a famous party from the empire. And the woman sitting on the table over there is from the Republic.”
“Are you saying people from all around the world came specifically here to Freelea for something?”
“I can’t say for sure, but it’s a possibility,” Baltore said, looking more happy than shaken. He was a man who hated stagnation and loved change, so it made sense that he was enjoying this.
Just then, a bell rang out in a familiar pattern, and I felt a bit of relief at hearing something I recognized.
“Congratulations! Pretty Cats, your party has advanced to D-rank!”
All of the adventurers in the room clapped and cheered as the receptionist announced the promotion.
Man, that takes me back. I guess even when the world changes there are still some things that don’t.
I clapped along with everyone else, finally feeling like I’d come back home. But then, as I applauded, I realized I recognized the party name.
Isn’t that the...? It is!
It was the name of the party of young girls who’d passed me on the way in.
We were in their shoes once long ago.
D-rank was still a beginner rank, but if you could advance to D-rank it meant you were a real adventurer now. Putting aside a few special exceptions, adventurers always started at Rank E, so the promotion from E to D was the first real hurdle an adventurer faced. There was no age requirement to rank up, and promotions were based solely on skill. Still, if you didn’t learn how to fight monsters efficiently and grow stronger, you could be stuck at E rank forever.
Everyone in the Guild had congratulated us brats when we’d gone from Rank E to D as well. That had been the moment where we’d gone from nobodies to adventurers people actually recognized and respected. It had been a defining moment in my life. I figured these girls were probably overjoyed too, since they were even younger than I’d been when I’d first ranked up.
“We’re prodigies, so of course we’d rank up this quickly! Anyway, let us rent out that equipment again!”
To my surprise, the girls seemed completely unmoved by the fact that they were D-rank now and apparently were already looking to go on their next quest.
Wh-What’s with those girls? I thought incredulously.
The receptionist seemed used to their attitude, and she just let out a resigned sigh as she started fishing for the equipment they requested. “Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about your reservation. Oh, and also...” The receptionist lowered her voice to a whisper, but thanks to my sharpened senses as our party’s Scout, I was still able to hear her. “That ring you wanted was returned yesterday. You can borrow it now if you’d like.”
“Yaaay!” Cried one of the girls. She grabbed her comrades’ hands and started jumping up and down, far more excited about the ring than she had been about her promotion.
As I watched, the receptionist waved the girl forward, and the two vanished deeper into the Guild hall. I was completely lost.
“Did our Guild have an equipment rental service?” Geeko asked, looking confused.
“Hmm. Maybe the reason there’s so many newbies at the Guild is because a service like that started up recently,” Baltore mused.
If the Guild was lending out powerful equipment to newbie adventurers, that would explain why there were so many of them here, and why they all looked so hopeful.
“I can’t say I like it myself,” I muttered.
It was true that newbies would have an easier time clearing dungeons if they had stronger equipment, but if they grew to rely on equipment for everything they wouldn’t become strong enough to handle the truly difficult dungeons. Besides, you needed to be decently strong yourself to effectively use strong equipment. Honestly, I felt like an equipment rental system like this did more harm than good.
“Oh, looks like they’re back,” Geeko said as the girls returned from whatever room they’d gone into.
Let’s see what they got. Is the Guild handing out mythril equipment, or orichalcum?
I looked on, half-jealous and half-curious. But then we saw what equipment the girls were carrying in their arms and our jaws dropped open.
“What?!”
❈❈❈
“Hold on!” I shouted, calling out to the Pretty Cats party.
I’d followed them out of the Guild and waited until we were on a deserted street to talk to them.
The three of them jumped in surprise, then warily turned to me. “What do you want? We need to tweak the equipment we borrowed so we can’t stay and chat.”
The girl tried to keep her voice even, but I could sense the slight nervousness in her tone.
Little girl or not, she’s still an adventurer it seems, I mused. Her reaction was appropriate for someone who fought deadly monsters on a day to day basis. Which was precisely why I’d wanted to warn her.
“Your equipment is exactly what I wanna talk about.”
“Huh. Don’t tell me you’re trying to steal it from us, old timer. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“O-Old timer?!” Geeko shouted, looking mildly offended.