After I had made it back to the town, it was already night time. The Guild had been empty apart from a single receptionist, who was there to greet me, saying that she had been waiting for me to return. After I handed in all the items for the commissions I had accepted, the receptionist disappeared into the back room and a little while later, came out with a small pouch of money, which she handed me with a smile, before wishing me a good night.

  From there, I had left the guild and headed back to the inn I was staying at. The streets of Ordial weren’t as empty as I had expected at night, with quite a few people walking around the streets that were actually pretty well lit. There were poles, with orbs at their top scattered around the streets, spaced out from one another with a distance of five meters between each one.

  They reminded me a lot of the ‘lamp posts’ from my previous world – however, they definitely weren’t the same, as the orbs at the top had very, very faint magical energy leaking from them.

  Light Orb

  Magic Item

  “It must be pretty easy to produce one, if it is used this much as a way to light up a street at night.” I commented in my thoughts. When I got back to the ‘Night Owl’ inn, I immediately checked in at the reception desk, before having a nice dinner and only then heading upstairs into my room.

  There, I sat down at the desk in the room, pouring the money I had so far out onto the table. “I have fifty five copper coins and forty silver coins… If I do some quick maths with the help of ‘Enlightened’ - that accounts for…”

  A single copper coin was about the same as one european euro, which equates to about hundred and sixty or so yen… That means that if I was in my world's europe, in copper coins I’d have about…

  Fifty five euros. That’s about… eight thousand and nine hundred yen. Almost nine thousand… in just copper coins. A silver coin was about the same worth as ten copper coins, which would mean my forty silver coins equated to about… four hundred copper coins, right?

  Then that would translate to about…

  As ‘Enlightened’ crunched the numbers, my jaw drooped a bit. Four hundred euros, which when I convert them to yen would be…

  “...Sixty five thousand yen…” I commented to myself and looked down at the money on the table in front of me. I was left a little speechless. While in the grand scheme of things, this probably was pocket change, the fact I had earned this much in less than two days from just doing some quests…

  I guess even low ranked adventurers are quite well paid here, huh?

  “That lady I met when I first came to this town said that the Adventurers Guild's pay isn’t amazing, but I know some people who would kill to get this kind of money in less than a week…” I exhaled, quickly scooping up the coins and dropping them back into the pouch, before closing it.

  Speaking of the nice lady I met when I first came…

  I should go and visit her stall when I have the chance. I did sort of promise to purchase some of her fresh vegetables as a thanks for helping me out. I placed the pouch of money into the small bag I carried with me, before taking off my boots and dropping my jacket onto the chairs backrest and hopping into the bed, flipping the blanket over myself immediately.

  Time to get some rest — especially after that entire A-Rank dungeon incident. I felt a little sluggish the whole time after leaving it. I guess being hit with the ‘corruption’ takes quite a toll on someone's body…

  I guess no surprises there, when this corruption was able to even take control of someone like Arabor. This ‘Evil’ that the Primal Dragons had sealed away… It probably was quite powerful if it was able to do something like take control of a being that was supposedly a god.

  After some more light thinking, I sighed and closed my eyes – clearing my mind with the slight help of ‘Enlightened’. I wanted a peaceful night's rest.

  That also meant… that I hopefully wouldn’t have any nightmares.

  Please, whatever god can hear me… Do make sure I can sleep peacefully tonight – even if it is only tonight.

  The Next Day, I was out in the Abyssal Woods, searching.

  I had accepted four quests today — all of them being to hunt down some rare monsters. Luckily for me, they were all F-Rank, which meant I could actually accept them. The monsters I had to hunt were Greater Direwolves, Greater Slimes, Hobgoblins and a monster that was being called simply ‘Kat’. Unsure why it was called that, since when I asked about it at the reception, the receptionist just told me to ‘not worry’ about it.

  By the way — the receptionist I had talked to, to accept the quests, had been the same one I had talked to, to accept the quests yesterday. The one who was reading a book and didn’t look at all cheerful or lively.

  “Maybe she just didn’t want to do too much work… I can kinda get it.” I laughed to myself in my mind. While I wandered further and further in, I heard a rustle. Immediately I leapt back, before activating ‘Shadowlord’ and grabbing two shadowy poles and combining them into a spear.

  The nearby bushes were rustling — something was moving.

  Then, three large wolves leapt out towards me. Bingo – these were the ‘Greater Direwolves’ I needed to find. “Came to me on a silver platter. Thank you a ton, canine meat eaters!” I smirked, before spinning the spear in my hands and dashing at the wolves.

  In a matter of seconds, I had killed all three direwolves, before collecting their tails and then their eyes. It felt disgusting and immoral as hell to remove their eyeballs after killing them, however, the guild had stated that their eyes were an essential ingredient in the production of antivenom needed to face a ‘Greater Serpentine’ – which apparently was highly dangerous because of its venom.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  But as I gathered the required items from the wolf corpses, I thought.

  “Wasn’t I a Greater Serpentine at some point? I think I remember seeing that as my species at one point…” I thought. After collecting the eyes and tails, I stuffed them into my bag — it was so useful to be able to do this. This bag was simply amazing, especially since it was connected to the Shadow World, it could essentially store an infinite amount of items — and it didn’t even matter how big the item was!

  Plus, even if Arvalor was in the shadow world, he didn’t need to eat - as he was a shadow - so I wasn’t worried about him eating up the eyes or anything else I was putting in the Shadow World.

  I resumed my journey into the forest, leaving behind the rest of the remaining parts of the direwolf bodies. While moving, I managed to catch the presence of… someone. It wasn’t another adventurer – that was for sure – since this person was deliberately following me. In fact, if I think about it, I think I had managed to catch a glimpse of their presence after I left Ordial.

  At the time, I didn’t pay much attention to it, especially since the presence had vanished almost instantly, but here it was, back again…

  “Do I have a stalker? Should I try to lose them?” I shed a cold sweat. I didn’t want to make it obvious that I had noticed the person following me, but at the same time…

  It didn’t feel good to know that I was being followed by someone, whose intentions were not known. I continued moving forward, trying to ignore the faint presence I was able to detect behind me, until I eventually ran into a small group of slimes, which were led by two Greater Slimes.

  Immediately, I once again formed the shadowy spear using ‘Shadowlord’ before leaping at the creatures and tearing through them in a matter of a few seconds. When they were all defeated, I took out some bottles from my bag and kneeled down, collecting some of the Greater Slime concentrate. Apparently this was not only a powerful medicinal ingredient, but also extremely tasty when prepared with some potatoes.

  But… Just by looking at it.

  Ooze…～

  Yeah - I’m not buying it.

  After placing the bottles back inside my bag, my ‘Enlightened’ ticked off. A trio of knives flew at me from behind. I quickly spun around and blocked the knives with the spear, before looking at the individual who had thrown them, who had now shown himself.

  It was someone of a fairly tall height, with a build that wasn’t a mountain or the buffest around, however quite fit nonetheless. The individual wore a large coat that covered his entire body, with thick boots and gloves supplied to it. Over his head, he had a hood and covering his face was a grey mask, with a pair of black eye holes, through which, I could just barely make out his eyes.

  “I was wondering when you’d finally show yourself.”

  The masked man scuffed, stepping off of the tree and landing perfectly onto the ground, before standing up. “You noticed me? That’s unexpected.” Then, I caught a glimpse of the man's eyes narrowing.

  “But it also confirms my suspicion. You… You’re a faker!” The man announced before disappearing from sight. I looked around in shock – where did he go?!

  Then, I felt something kick me from behind. I went flying for a second, before using the shadows around me to anchor myself and turn around. The man was now standing where I had stood just moments prior. Did he move so fast that I couldn’t perceive him? No… That can’t be it.

  Even if he was moving fast, ‘Enlightened’ can keep up with things moving at around mach ten speed, which was over three thousand meters in a second. Ain’t no way this man had moved faster than that. Could it have been some kind of concealment skill similar to my ‘Presence Erase’?

  “Hmph, for a faker, you lower your guard too easily.” The man bit, before placing one of his legs back and disappearing again. I heightened the sense of ‘Enlightened’ as much as I could. Everything around me felt like it had started moving three times slower than normal.

  There, I managed to notice the man.

  He wasn’t going ultra fast, he really was erasing his presence with some skill and then just using the fact that I wouldn’t be able to detect him to get the jump on me.

  Or at least, he thought that I couldn’t detect him.

  While I wasn’t fully able to just see through whatever he was using to conceal himself, I was able to catch glimpses of him – which were just enough for me to…

  I flipped around, before swinging my spear down. The man blocked my strike with a pair of daggers, visibly surprised behind his mask. “You… What?” He was perplexed, however I didn’t hold back and quickly let go of the spear, before kicking him in the side, sending him flying into the air a bit.

  The masked man looked at me, scuffed and then vanished again.

  “Won’t help you–!” I heightened ‘Enlightened’ senses again. I managed to just barely catch glimpses of the man dashing down to the ground, before dashing at me. I took a step back, before pressing my other foot onto the ground. The shadows below me shot towards the dashing man, which forced him to slow down before leaping back.

  I used this as an opportunity to dash behind the man, using ‘Presence Erase’ to remove my presence for the single second that I stood still, to confuse the man, before closing the gap between us in basically an instant. I then grabbed him by his collar and slammed the man into the ground, landing back down with a small thud. I exhaled lightly and began to approach the spot I had slammed him into.

  Smoke and a dirt cloud was kicked up from that move, hiding the man.

  “No way I killed him with that, right—?”

  Right as I pondered, a sudden magic circle appeared below me and then chains shot from it, binding me and pulling me down. “What the–?!” I tried to break free, however the chains did not budge. I then looked at some nearby shadows, however as soon as I tried to use ‘Shadowlord’.

  Skill usage has been blocked.

  “W-What…?!” I shed a cold sweat. These chains were probably blocking me from using my skills… Damnit, was this an ace up the man's sleeve. The man sliced through the dirt cloud around him, before approaching me with his two daggers tightly gripped within his hands, as he looked down at me.

  “...Too easy.” He commented, before lifting his right hand into the air. A second later, he slashed it down towards me, as I closed my eyes.

  Arvalor has used the skill [Intimidation].

  A sudden booming roar came from behind me. The man's entire body froze up as he fell under the effects of the ‘Intimidation’. “What…” He looked up, as Arvalor dashed up and knocked him away into a tree with his paw. The magic circle below me then was dispelled by the snake tail, which lightly bit into it, destroying it.

  Arvalor has used the skill [Dispell].

  “Wow… Didn’t know you had such a skill Arvalor.” I petted the large shadow beast lightly, which it seemed to enjoy, as the lion, goat and snake heads all made their own happy sounds. The man grabbed his head lightly, groaning.

  I quickly kicked away the daggers he had dropped, before gesturing to Arvalor to pin the man. In an instant, the chimera pinned the man's body up against the tree, before the snake head sunk its fangs into the man's right shoulder, injecting some venom. The masked man reacted with pain, however was unable to move his body — well, apart from his head.

  “What the hell is that…” He asked, looking at me, while I glared down at the masked man. I smiled a bit.

  “Just a companion.” I replied, before kneeling before the man and wiping off the smile across my face.

  “I don’t want to hurt you or kill you, so I’ll get to the point – who are you and why did you follow me?”