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Life of an Adventurer in a Harsh World – Part 03

Hikaru, oblivious to what had transpired at the guild’s counter, headed to the guild after a quick lunch at a food stall. He had changed his outfit, so he could’ve gone into a restaurant instead, but he had taken a liking to street food. Today’s lunch was some mix between a quiche and okonomiyaki.

An unfamiliar woman was at the counter. Though just like with Freya, adventurers also surrounded her.

“What’s the guild up to gathering pretty ladies?” Hikaru wondered. “Is there some kind of a statistic that shows there’s a high survival rate for adventurers if the receptionist is beautiful? Freya said there was so much work, but because the pay is really good, the job attracts pretty women? Is that it?”

Nonetheless, Hikaru was relieved Freya wasn’t around. She looked completely exhausted. She should have plenty of time to rest in the afternoon.

Since Freya wasn’t around, Hikaru assumed no one would call for him. He went straight to the bulletin board. The commissions were separated by fields: Plant Hunter, Monster Hunter, etc.

The category with the fewer commissions was Bodyguard. Although most of them required ten or more adventurers.

There weren’t a lot of quests that a rank G adventurer could take.

I think it’s still hard for me to get involved in fights… He scanned the board and found jobs like cleaning or shopping. I should be able to do these. The rewards are more like tips, though.

“Are you looking for commissions?”

The purple-haired woman from the counter was standing next to him. She smelled sweet.

Why is she talking to me?

Then he realized that Gloria was carrying a bunch of commission forms. He concluded that she was here to post new commissions, not talk to him.

Makes sense. She doesn’t know me, after all.

Hikaru understood, but the adventurers did not.

“Hey, why is Gloria talking to that dude?”

“Isn’t he the guy that made Freya cry?”

“I heard he threatens Freya so she’d sleep with him every night.”

Ridiculous statements were flying about.

---

Gloria looked puzzled.

Hmm?

She spoke to the boy who she assumed was Hikaru—the one on Freya’s mind. And yet, she didn’t feel anything special from him. So she decided to do some probing.

“I have a commission here that might be right up your alley,” Gloria said. “What’s your rank?”

Hikaru showed his guild card, confirming Gloria’s guess.

So his name really is Hikaru. No family name. So he can’t be a noble.

It was not uncommon for adventurers to not have family names. There were plenty of ordinary citizens with family names. But for orphans or those who’d left their home, their family names did not show up in their Soul’s Records.

He’s neither a noble nor someone wealthy… In that case, it’s his Blessing?

Just ever so slightly, Gloria’s soft eyebrows drew together in a frown.

The Blessing displayed on his guild card was Metropolitan Residents, Townspeople, and Villagers Relief God: Civilian. He was just an ordinary guy.

“Mr. Hikaru,” she said. “What other Blessings do you have besides Civilian?”

Young boys liked to show off. If he had a unique Blessing, he would select it. Especially if a pretty lady like her talked to him. He would want to brag. Such was the nature of men.

“Um, I’m not sure I understand your question,” the boy replied.

“I’m a guild staff, so please tell me. Freya knows too, right?”

“I have no other Blessing,” he insisted, shaking his head.

No other Blessing? Only Civilian? No. Freya must have told him to hide it. She got the jump on me.

Hiding it only made Gloria more curious. Perhaps he had an extraordinary four-character Blessing for a rookie. Or a three-character one. No, three characters was too much.

In that case, I should make him like me, not Freya.

“How about this commission?” Gloria said, presenting a piece of paper. “It’s just a delivery, so it won’t take long. It’s perfect for a Civilian like you.”

“Really?” Hikaru studied the commission form. “Not bad. Looks like I can get it done by the end of the day.”

“All right. Please wait inside the booth, so I can give you the details.”

Gloria led the way with a dark smile.

---

After accepting the delivery quest, Hikaru left the guild.

【Quest Hunter】
【Delivery】Deliver a letter to Kelbeck, an Artificer living in Pond.
【Reward】200 gilans

Gloria showed Hikaru a map of Pond to guide him to the delivery address. Since maps were expensive, and what the guild had was special-made and detailed, they couldn’t lend it to others. Now that he thought about it, the map in the archives was simple.

“That lady seemed to be up to something,” Hikaru mumbled.

There were moments when Gloria had a cold look in her eyes as though she could see right through him. She thought she was hiding it well, but Hikaru’s senses were currently sharp. He could sense hostiles easily. A simple-minded adventurer might be fooled, but not him. Hikaru felt sorry for Freya for having to work with her. She seemed to get the short end of the stick a lot.

“Left turn at this intersection.”

Hikaru followed the route Gloria told him about. Unless something serious was going down, he knew better than to use Stealth when walking through town. People would bump into him if he had it on.

Pond was a mid-sized town in the kingdom of Ponsonia, the kingdom where Roland lived his life as a noble. It had a population of about six thousand and was located next to the kingdom’s royal capital, G. Ponsonia. The town served as a distribution center for the capital, earning it the nicknames “Royal Capital’s Leftovers” and the place where “Everything is Inferior”.

But a different perspective would say that it was a nice, orderly town where the necessary stores were all within reach.

“Now, then… this is a good chance to test out the effectiveness of my Stealth.”

Hikaru couldn’t do it yesterday as he was starving. So he opted to test it today, while he was on his way to work on a commission.

First, let’s turn it off.

“Hey there, kid! Would you like to buy some fruits?”

As expected, a man behind his food stall called out to him, as he did with ordinary citizens.

Next Hikaru turned on Life Cloaking and Mana Cloaking. The results were a bit unexpected.

“Hello there, laddie. How about flowers for your mother?”

Life Cloaking and Mana Cloaking both barely had any effect. After thinking about it for a while, he arrived at an obvious conclusion. These two Skills were used to hide oneself from Life Detection and Mana Detection Skills. Unless there was someone with these detection Skills, using Cloaking Skills were pretty much pointless.

What was impressive, however, was Imperceptibility.

“…”

Passing in front of people didn’t draw their attention. He elicited some reaction when he waved both his hands or clapped to make a sound.

“Hmm? Ohhh? How long have you been standing there, kid? “

Once he was noticed, the Skills effects weakened. But if they turned away for even an instant, they would lose sight of him again.

“What? Where’d he go?”

Maybe it’s less me affecting others and more like a curtain appears that hides me. An active camouflage and noise canceller. Incredible.

Imperceptibility had six different levels, from off to 1, 2, and all the way to 5.

Is there even a point in setting it to level one? Well, whatever…

But that wasn’t all. There was still something even more incredible.

The divine buff from the selected Blessing.

The moment Hikaru selected Stealth God: Bearer of Darkness², people seemed to act like he didn’t exist. Waving his hands in front of them or clapping close to their ears did nothing to draw their attention.

I’m like invisible or something.

But sneaking into the women’s bath or burgling still wouldn’t be easy. Hikaru had realized that his Stealth had a weakness.

Traps—similar to those found in dungeons, which incidentally existed in this world. There would definitely be anti-burglar traps set around mansions.

He could hide himself from others, but he couldn’t disable traps.

Sneaking into a women’s bath might be possible, but there weren’t any public baths in this kingdom. With the climate being warm all year, nobles and millionaires pretty much only had saunas in their homes.

Maybe… just maybe, I got myself something extraordinary.

With his Stealth+Blessing combo, there would barely be any risk to his life.

Though there was still the possibility of bumping into others if they couldn’t see him.

I can’t be too cocky. After all, I died in an accident.

He just had to focus. Once couldn’t be too careful.

Next, I need to check out the Soul Board.

Hikaru felt that he needed to do more research on the Soul Board. Was it just used to put points on Skills? Or did it have a different use case?

“Hello, Mister.”

By pure coincidence, Hikaru came across the girl who gave him directions to the guild. He was surprised, as he didn’t expect to see her again. He thought this was some kind of fate—like someone was telling him to test the Soul Board.

Hikaru summoned his Soul Board.

“Can you see this?” he asked.

“Is there something there?” the girl asked back.

She couldn’t see it.

He moved his hand away, and the board just stayed there, floating in the air. He tried lifting it and swinging it around, but to no avail. He wasn’t using his Stealth either, of course.

So others can’t see it, huh? Hmm?

Suddenly Hikaru felt something from deep within the young girl’s core. He tried focusing on it.

【Soul Board】Rana Valcon
Age: 4 | Rank: 4

“What?”

He could see it. Hikaru could see someone else’s Soul Board. He didn’t expect this.