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Over the Infinite – Chapter 1 (1)

 

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Translator: mii

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First Arc -「The Pair in Labyrinth City」

 

Chapter 1 -「Labyrinth City」

 

－１－

 

『Adventurer, huh? You might’ve guessed this just by listening to the name, but they are mercenaries soldier who fights with monsters and magical beasts.

 

It’s not the profession that explores ancient ruins or adventures in unexplored places where no one else has ever stepped in like those fairy tales.』

 

Who was the person who once said that to me?

 

If I remembered correctly, it was my senior at my work… Ah, he was the person who was arrested for stealing the money from the store. I forgot his name.

 

Well, he was not a trustworthy person, but it seemed like it wasn’t a lie that he had various experiences, and he was also familiar with the occupation that was called as adventurer.

 

『Although they were basically not involved in wars between humans, what they do is the same as an escort, guard, basic freelance mercenaries soldier, and bodyguard.

 

Adventurer is recognized as an adventurer because they are specialized in exterminating monsters. It seems like they are requested by the village representatives, lords, or people with that kind of position.』

 

『After they defeat the monsters, do they dissect the body?』

 

My image of an adventurer was the people with the impression of making weapons and armors with monster skin and bones, and burned the meat and eat it. Then, they would chip off the ear or nose of the monster as the proof of defeating it.

 

…If I put it like this, they sound like a frightful savage tribes, huh.

 

『Why do they want to dissect the body? Unlike animals, monster’s meat can’t be eaten, and their skin and bones will suddenly deteriorate and rot the moment the body dies. It’s different from hunting, you know.

 

By the way, being a beast hunter is safer, and also far more profitable. If you’re wondering why don’t everyone just become a beast hunter, it’s because getting a license for that is very hard. That’s why poaching is popular.』

 

Now that I think of it, when I ate goblin in the past, it tasted bad and rot in no time.

 

I didn’t sell it later on, but I was still poaching. I’m sorry about that.

 

『Then, how do adventurers make money? They won’t be able to eat just by depending on irregular extermination request, right?』

 

『They also do those daily labour at those services work site, don’t they? Like those manual labours. They will work on those daily labours irregularly to earn their living expenses, save some money to prepare for the equipment necessary to defeat the monsters, and wait for monster extermination request that will give them a little bit profit.』

 

『So those mercenaries soldier and city guards won’t exterminate monsters?』

 

『I don’t think they completely don’t do that, but they generally don’t. Monsters are strong and dangerous after all. They will just leave such dangerous job to the adventurer which is a low class occupation.』

 

I was once again aware of the reality on how tough the world was.

 

After hearing that, I actually asked various people, but it seemed like being an adventurer was something like that no matter what the place was.

 

In fantasy novel, an adventurer was a star occupation and the most popular occupation, but it was treated as a low class occupation in this world. Even the adventurers themselves were aware of it, so it should be no doubt of it.

 

At least, it didn’t seem to be an occupation that would let you make a lot of money.

 

Now that I think of it, the people who came to the bar that looked like they were adventurers usually only ordered cheap alcohol. Adventurers were poor, even if their occupation took a toll on their body.

 

In some games and novels, the situation would be different for adventurer with high ranks, but there were no high ranked adventurers existed in this world. In the first place, the adventurers were not ranked.

 

Bringing goblin ears wouldn’t give you any reward cash, and even if you could see your status display if you go to the church, you wouldn’t get any experience by killing monsters. There was no level system anyway.

 

Well, strength and skill would improve with the experience, but this would increase even without fighting monsters separately.

 

The reason why they still exterminate the monsters was so that their name was known to some extent, making the nobles and wealthy merchants more willing to employ them as guards, private bodyguards, escorts, or even get to join famous mercenary groups as mercenary soldiers.

 

In other words, this was an occupation that relied on prestige. They got prestige by putting their life on the line.

 

This was completely different from what I was talking about, but goblin was the most famous monsters that adventurers fought against.

 

They looked like a small and dirty old uncle, and their disposition was rough. It wasn’t wrong to describe them as the same image as those goblins that appeared in RPGs.

 

I heard that these goblins were actually spirits, so in a strict sense, they were not monsters. In large categories, they were the same as elves and dwarves.

 

Although they were treated as a small fish monster in fantasy RPG in my previous life, it seemed like they were also originally a spirit there.

 

Whether it was a spirit or a monster, it didn’t matter to the people who actually took damages because of the goblins. Even in this world, there was that kind of classification here.

 

I also had encountered with goblin when I was still surviving in my native village. I was so desperate in living that I didn’t remember what happened quite well, but I remembered how the terror fighting with opponents who had humanoid appearance with weapons was different from fighting with beasts. Yeah.

 

I used the goblin’s iron sword that I received (took away after I killed it) as my weapon until it became tattered and unusable.

 

The reason why I remembered so much about goblin right now was probably because of the goblin in front of me.

 

「Really, you guys have a good timing. You can always register for the Labyrinth Guild, but the license issuance procedure and beginner lectures only happen once a month.

 

There’s no rule that specify that you have to take the lecture at the time of registration, and you can just receive it before the regular licence is issued, but taking the lectures while you’re on it is nice, right?」

 

「Uhm, you started explaining as if it’s a natural thing to do, but you are a goblin, right?」

 

Yuki made a retort, but the reason who was explaining about the Labyrinth Guild in front of us was certainly not a human.

 

It was a goblin who took over the role of explaining about the guild registration from the sister at the receptionist. He also started explaining as if nothing was wrong.

 

The goblin had the same figure as the one I killed one day in the forest, with the exception of wearing a suit and glasses. I couldn’t tell the difference from their appearance.

 

「Oops, excuse me. I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Gobtarou. I’m one of the oldest clerk in this guild.」

 

I wonder if goblin was really not a monster. Ah, they were fairies, right?

 

Even so, his name was really irresponsible. What’s with Gobtarou… Don’t tell me that there’s also Jirou and Saburou.

 

「Well, both of you just came here from the outside world. I understand what you want to say. Just like what you’ve pointed out, I am a goblin.

 

You may haven’t seen it yet, but there are many other races in this city other than humans, and there are also residents who come from what you called as “monster category”.」

 

「Err, is that really alright?」

 

Even other than this city, I had heard that sub-racials such as beastmen and fairies like elves and dwarves are also living in cities, and I didn’t oppose it.

 

Rather, as a person who used to live in Heisei Japan, I wanted to see and meet a lot of people and become their friends.

 

But then, the creatures in the monster category that I knew were one hundred percent enemy races.

 

「Anyone with evil intentions won’t be able to go in and out of the labyrinth. You will also get the wit to be able to understand after leveling up to some extent.

 

In addition, laws for monsters are much stricter than for humans, so only a very small part of them who live in the city.

 

Even the monsters in the dungeon won’t attack the humans if they are following their instinct.

 

They will just attack anything that looks like their food since their head is kind of slow. But if they have something to eat, they won’t attack humans. It tastes bad anyway.」

 

So it tasted bad, huh….

 

It seemed like Gobtarou-san had eaten it before. I’d also eaten goblin before, so we were similar.

 

Now that I think about it very very properly, if I had to choose between pig that had been raised for eating and a normal human being, of course the livestock would be more delicious.

 

Then, I wonder if carnivorous dragons were also tasteless.

 

「Haa, I see.」

 

Yuki gave a vague reply that I didn’t really understand whether he understood or not.

 

However, I was more interested in Gobtarou-san’s words.

 

「Level…?」

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