The Adventurer’s Life is Tough

“I didn’t know, I’m sorry. There’s no way a top-tier adventurer party like Big Bro’s would do something dirty like using a decoy.”

“Top-tier adventurer…”

Muttering “top-tier adventurer,” Gonz’s face gradually broke into a smile. Too easy, way too easy. Are you okay, Gonz? You’re so easily pleased it’s starting to worry me a bit.

“There are proper scouts, right? Let me take that role.”

“There are scout positions, but real scouts are usually retired soldiers or top-notch hunters who switched careers. Scout-related skills are said to be especially difficult to learn.”

When Al said that, Kimon, the hunter, nodded in agreement.

“Everyone, lend me your ears. Just between us…” I leaned in, and in a quiet voice, I said, “actually, I’ve got the skills of detecting and concealing presences.”

“What?! For real, Yajin?!” Gonz shouted at the top of his lungs. Because I was speaking quietly, everyone had leaned in close. His sudden loud voice made our ears ring.

Everyone frowned and pressed their hands to their ears, glaring at Gonz.

“Ah… sorry. I just shouted too loud.”

Gonz’s outburst completely interrupted the flow of the conversation.

They asked me again if I really had the skills. I said I had presence-related skills, but there was no way to prove it.

I begged Gonz and the others to take me along on a quest at least once. After I flattered Gonz a little here and there, he brightened up and said, “Fine, fine… I’ll take you along just this once.”

Before accepting a quest, you need to gather the supplies required for adventuring.

But I had no idea what anything was worth. Afraid of getting ripped off, I asked them to come shopping with me. Despite my shameless request, they didn’t make a face and agreed to help. I thought they were surprisingly considerate.

You can’t exactly fight monsters in plain clothes, so our first stop was to buy armor.

I had basically been fighting almost naked before, wearing only a loincloth. But after nearly dying when I fought the hobgoblin, I knew armor was important.

The weapon shop and the armor shop were next to each other, but apparently run by different owners. The armor shop owner seemed to be on good terms with Gonz, chatting cheerfully with him. Come on, man, do some customer service!

Since I’d be a scout, I asked for armor that wouldn’t restrict my movements. From there, they helped me choose something within my budget.

The hunter Kimon brought a few options, and Al checked the prices and made the decision. If the armor fit properly during the try-on, we’d buy it.

And so, my very first armor in this other world was chosen.

It was a thin leather armor, and because it was soft, it wouldn’t restrict movement much.

It wasn’t hard leather, so it was weak against blades, but thin iron plates were built into the chest and shins, providing just enough protection.

It felt a little awkward since I wasn’t used to wearing armor, but it was manageable. Al said I’d get used to it after wearing it for a while.

My budget was tight, so my options were limited. Since the two active adventurers had chosen it, I figured it couldn’t be wrong.

When I brought the armor to the counter, Gonz turned to the armor shop owner he had been chatting with and said, “Hey. This guy, Yajin, is with me now. Do a little something extra for a promising adventurer, yeah?”

Then he put his hand on the owner’s shoulder. I heard the creak of bones under the pressure. Immediately, Gonz started demanding that the price be cut to less than half.

The armor shop owner, sweating under the pressure on his creaking shoulder, said that price was impossible.

“Come on, show some generosity,” Gonz said with a smile, pressing down even harder with his hand on the shoulder.

Just as the armor shop owner’s shoulder was about to reach its limit, Al stepped in to stop Gonz. Gonz, smart enough to know better, backed off without resistance.

Al then handled the price negotiation with the shop owner. In the end, we managed to buy the armor at an incredible 30% discount.

What a terrifying duo. They must have handled negotiations like this countless times before. The scary thing about Gonz is the aura he projects that makes people think, “This guy might actually go through with it.”

Still spattered in blood, he looks like the sort of man who’d, without batting an eye, say something like, “Didn’t like him, so I split his head with an axe. No big deal.” That’s the kind of dangerous air he gives off.

And it’s probably not just an act. He’d actually go through with it.Come to think of it, he was carrying an axe the first time he picked a fight with me, too.

If I had made the wrong choice, that axe would have hit my head without hesitation.

Good job, me! I silently congratulated myself.

While the shop owner was confused by the intimidating presence of Gonz, Al intervened, stopping him and using clever negotiation skills to steer the deal in our favor, earning goodwill in the process.

An unbelievably reliable combination.

The shop owner, who had been chatting with Gonz, wasn’t actually friends with him, he was just trying to stay in Gonz’s good graces to avoid unreasonable demands.

That’s how it went at every shop we visited. Thanks to the relentless haggling, I was able to buy a full set of armor and supplies even on my tiny budget.

I thought about how absurd it was to drink and eat like idiots on someone else’s money, but the amount we saved with discounts was actually more than what we spent. Truly amazing.

The downside, of course, is that the employees at the stores we visited probably have the worst impression of us. I’ll have to be careful not to get stuck with low-quality gear…

While shopping, I noticed something: most of the store clerks couldn’t do multiplication or division.

At the general store, I bought four healing potions. I bought a few extra just in case, but that’s when I noticed something odd.

Instead of multiplying the price by four, the clerk added the price three times. They were using some kind of mysterious abacus-like tool and kept adding repeatedly.

I’d heard that the nobility and the church monopolized knowledge and deliberately kept it from spreading. But I never expected that even people who ran businesses couldn’t handle basic arithmetic.

No wonder civilization isn’t progressing. The nobles probably want to keep the common people completely ignorant to protect their privileges.

Even if they misgovern, as long as the people don’t understand the meaning, uprisings are unlikely. Al had told me, “The nobles do whatever they want. Never get involved with them,” and now I understood why.

I would think that pushing things too far would accumulate enough hatred to spark revolts or even revolutions, and nobles would be killed, but apparently, this world is different.

The nobles increase their power through “power-leveling” and can use magic, so they’re simply strong.

The fact that magic is monopolized by the nobility is a huge factor.

To the common people, who have almost no scientific knowledge, the ability to manipulate magic, a force of nature, is terrifying, almost godlike.

Since this world is filled with death, its residents are extremely indifferent to the deaths of anyone outside their close circle. Even if a noble executes a commoner without reason, most people don’t even care.

Nobles who manipulate nature with magic are seen as agents of gods or spirits, transcending natural phenomena. The deaths they cause are treated like natural disasters. Everyone outside the victims views them with detached indifference.

They are simply strong individuals with the ability to use magic that seems otherworldly. On top of that, by keeping the common people ignorant, they prevent dissatisfaction from arising.

By monopolizing knowledge, they also prevent revolutions that could wipe out the nobility entirely.

If such a revolution were to eliminate all nobles, the knowledge-holding class would disappear, and civilization could not be sustained.

For centuries, the nobles have monopolized knowledge, economics, and magic, shaping the populace into docile, livestock-like citizens.

“Whatever the nobles do,” people say, resigning themselves to it. That’s why Al had told me to never get involved with them.

I realized it firsthand when I actually went into town.

The populace, stripped of knowledge and teeth over centuries, lives alongside nobles who cling to their privileges and, despite the threat of monsters, deliberately keep civilization stagnant.

This distorted relationship revealed the true fearsome nature of the nobles. Swearing to myself to never get involved with them, I continued walking until I reached the Adventurers’ Guild.

Al takes one of the request sheets and shows it to me. Then, he carefully explained everything written on it, the details of the task, the client, the reward, the deadline, and so on.

I had wondered if I might not be able to read it, since my “cheat” only let me understand languages by nuance. But I could read it perfectly, so I quietly thanked that mischievous little god for once.

In Gonz’s party, only Al can read. So, basically, he chooses the assignments.

By the way, Gonz isn’t very bright. He can’t count beyond ten because he runs out of fingers. I avoid teasing him about it because an axe would probably come crashing down on my head.

As a joke, I suggested using his toes to count up to twenty. He responded, “That’s a good idea!” and started moving his toes.

He said he would practice to get better at it.

I thought to myself that if he’s going to practice moving his toes so dexterously, he might as well learn numbers and arithmetic, but saying that out loud would probably get the axe back on my head. So I kept it to myself.

Even though my cover story was that I’m a descendant of slaves, I can read and do calculations. To avoid raising suspicion, I said I had been helping the village chief with his work.

But I didn’t realize just how low the average townsfolk’s knowledge level was.

From the knowledge level of the townspeople, literacy and numeracy would be a huge advantage. Saying I helped the village chief with his work might sound unnatural, but Al had already crafted the story and seemed satisfied with it.

The reason my mother was freed from slavery was that she had an affair with the village chief. I was born from that union. So when the village chief’s son took over, they treated me harshly because I was the child of his father’s affair with a former slave.

Apparently, that kind of story is common among nobles, and for some reason, Al patted my shoulder with a gentle smile.

Well, it seems prying into an adventurer’s past is strictly taboo. As long as my story isn’t ridiculously unnatural, it should be fine.

The quest Al chose was a wolf-hunting job, targeting a pack of wolves called Gray Wolves. The request was to eliminate them because they had been attacking livestock.

It was close enough to be completed in a single day, and the reward wasn’t bad. However, Gray Wolves travel in packs, so adventurers with only middling skill would likely be killed if they tried to face them.

That was why the quest was still available.

The good quests are gone by morning. Even if you stay up late, you have to get into the habit of waking up in the morning, Al said.

I nodded and tried my best to cram that into my small brain.

The equipment was ready. We would depart the next morning.

This would be a test whether I really had the skills, and whether I could function properly as a scout.

So this is finally my adventurer debut… My chest thumped with both excitement and anxiety.

Al said we would go over actual coordination and movements on the way to the site. But first, he wanted to teach me the most important thing about being an adventurer in Rock Cliff.

Staring straight into my eyes, he spoke with a serious expression.

I straightened my posture and focused, determined not to miss a single word.

The thing you have to watch out for most in a small nation cluster isn’t monsters or cunning clients. It’s other adventurers, Al said.

The reason the Minor States are looked down upon by other countries isn’t just that their populations are descendants of criminals. Right now, criminals are still flocking to the Minor States.

Criminals gathering? I wondered if they meant some massive criminal organization, but I decided to stay quiet and just listen.

Both the Megad Empire and the Leagam Kingdom apparently have different laws in each territory governed by high-ranking nobles. It’s especially pronounced in the Leagam Kingdom, where the power of the nobles is strong.

Even if you commit a crime and are wanted, you can escape by going to the territory of another high-ranking noble.

Unless you commit a serious crime that harms a noble, crimes committed in another territory are ignored. Being wanted across the entire country with your likeness posted everywhere hardly ever happens.

You’re only wanted within the territory governed by the noble in question.

Since laws differ between territories, and nobles’ pride complicates things further, criminals are rarely extradited.

As a result, criminals move around like migratory birds, accumulating crimes as they go. Adventurers who roam in search of work or prey apparently make good companions, or prey, for such criminals.

And in most cases, criminals who end up with no place to go after being wanted in high-noble territories finally drift into the small nation clusters.

Violent brutes who explode at the slightest provocation are eliminated quickly unless, like Gonz, they are blessed with exceptional base stats. So they’re not a problem.

Those who make it to the small nation clusters are the truly cunning survivors, the pure-blooded criminals who lived long enough to evade justice.

They don’t surpass the Level 15 wall and possess only average adventurer strength. Yet, they’ve committed crimes across borders, survived being exiled, and lived through countless dangers.

Most new adventurers fall prey to them. Even those who survive are toughened by these encounters, becoming stronger and more cunning than the criminals themselves.

The reason they initially eyed me with suspicion was that they probably thought I was working for another adventurer.

However, my unusual appearance and extreme lack of common knowledge made me unsuitable to infiltrate a party, so they no longer suspect me.

Sure, I do look weird, my base stats seem low, and I’ve got zero common sense… Yeah, no one would want a guy like that in their party.

Hearing myself say it actually hurt a little.

So that was the reason for the dangerous atmosphere I felt when I first entered the adventurer’s guild. It all made sense.

If every adventurer guild had that kind of atmosphere, the very existence of the guilds probably wouldn’t be tolerated.

But the fact that other adventurers are the biggest threat? That’s way too much of a hard mode. I thought being an adventurer was supposed to be a dream job.

Life is harsh. Being an adventurer is tough. And I haven’t even debuted yet…

Faced with the cruel truth of adventuring, my eyes welled up with tears.