The card arrived after a while of waiting. On the card, there was what it seemd to be some simple information like my name, and profession... of course I didn't know exactly, since the language was unknown to me. The color of the card was grayish, with a single star at the very top, which represented the 1st-tier.
"Now that we've wrapped everything up, is there anything else you need?" asked the receptionist, who was clearly about to lose his temper.
I waited for a bit, then said, "Actually, yes. I'm looking to join a party for a monster hunting mission. Could you help me find one?" with an innocent smile.
The receptionist thought for a second, then said, "You should be fine joining the team over there." He pointed at a table with three adventurers seated at it. "They're newbies like you, though they should be 2nd-tier by now."
"Thank you," I said genuinely.
"No problem. Helping out is part of the job."
After leaving the receptionist, I approached the mentioned team with a lot of optimism. By the atmosphere around the adventurers' guild, I was sure meeting fellow hunters was a good occasion... especially for me.
"Hello, I'm Ethan. Sorry for bothering you," I said.
The person closest to me replied, "Hey, Ethan. What's up?"
The other two people sitting at the table fell silent as the man with the biggest build started speaking.
"I was hoping to join your party a monster subjugation mission. Do you guys have any free space?"
"We do, but what's your reason for joining us?" he asked reasonably.
"I'm a first-tier adventurer, so my options are limited. The receptionist suggested your team," I said honestly.
As a 1st-tier adventurer, I didn't have many options for my missions since most available quests for 1st-tier weren't related to monster hunting and didn't have many rewards. For me, the only way to access higher-tier missions was by joining a team... but there was a slight problem.
I could see the skeptical gazes of others after they heard me... and this was pretty reasonable. As a well-experienced porter, I knew a newbie could endanger the entire team with their recklessness, and knowing adventurers weren't any different from awakeners, this should be no different.
"Sure, you can come with us," said the man I was speaking with.
I stopped and thought about what I just heard, since I was getting myself ready to plead.
"I thought newbies weren't welcome in teams," I said to clarify my confusion.
"The receptionist might not have told you, but we're the new recruit team. Arkena's guild pairs up beginners to gain experience. I'm the current senior member, trained by the last group. Once someone can take over me, I'll move on," he said with a calm expression.
Between adventurers and awakeners, there were many differences. And as a person who was experiencing both worlds, I could tell the adventurers had the upper hand. Most awakeners in my world were people who wanted money and power, but the adventurers in front of me were... wanderers... of course, what meets the eye isn't always the truth.
"Thank you."
"No need for that. Actually, we have a plan to go on a hunting mission in about an hour, so how about joining us for today?"
"That would be awesome."
This was a great start for me, an outsider. Even though I was waiting tirelessly to meet this world's monsters, I suppressed my excitement to create a little connection.
By the way they were talking with each other, I could sense the trust among them. Besides, with a tank as the party leader, a swordsman as a dealer, and an archer as support, these three were up to standard in terms of balance, which reassured me even more.
After an hour of team bonding, we started heading toward the monster hunting ground selected by the team.
As a person with no idea about their location, I tried my hardest to memorize each and every direction we took, just so I wouldn't get lost if no one was around.
"You're not from around here, are you?" asked Lisa, the archer.
She asked me as we were walking toward our destination. The party leader and the dealer were walking ahead of us, and we were alone, so the sudden talk wasn't out of the blue.
"What makes you say that?" I asked the question with an answer already in mind.
"Oh, don't get the wrong idea. Many newcomers lack basic knowledge. It's more about your hair color," she replied hurriedly.
"What's wrong with black?" I asked genuinely.
"It's a bit rare, and I only see a handful of people with black hair."
"I didn't know that."
"... anyway. I guess we're getting closer to the hunting grounds." She then started running to the front.
Although this seemed like a normal talk, with these little bits of information I could learn about this world, which meant finding a good way to get money... and possibly getting stronger.
I increased my speed to catch up to the others.
In front, they were walking and talking with smiles on their faces, as I watched from behind. This scene was just like my time as a porter, but I didn't feel as insignificant...
"Alright, we're entering the hunting section of the forest. Everyone stay alert," said Myer, our tank and party leader.
As soon as I heard that, I started looking for any differences between the hunting ground and the place we came from. The number of big trees in this section of the woods was high, and not a lot of light could pass through them easily. The terrain was too harsh for battle-related activities and filled with many obstacles.
I was hoping for a clue on where we could find the monsters, but no matter how much I looked, I couldn't find anything besides a semi-normal forest... in such a place, finding a monster was equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack.
As we were walking around, seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into hours... but we never saw a single monster.
I wanted to ask the team for a reason, but I stopped and guessed it. As per Atna's words, Arkena was a secure town protected by its adventurers, so monsters shouldn't be easily found in a novice-exclusive location like where we were. This was a bit saddening for me, but I placed my worries aside, knowing that in the worst-case scenario, I would need to look for another way to get money.
Suddenly, as I was looking around the area for any possibilities, Myer shouted, "Goblins in sight. Everyone in position."
As he shouted, I looked ahead to see what was happening, which put me in disbelief. I saw goblins, the monsters that everybody in my world knew about. Monsters with short height, green skin, and unlikable faces, who would attack any living thing within their sight.
'How can they be here?' I thought to myself, for I had only seen those monsters inside dungeons. I was expecting many things from the monsters in this world, but for them to be the monsters from my own world... it was unexpected. Also, the goblins' movements were exactly like those from my own world, which made the idea a certainty.
"Ethan, stay in the back and just look," said Myer, reasonably.
I listened to what Myer said and stayed back. I didn't want to disrupt their formation since doing so would be hard to handle for a newbie. Besides, I wanted to see their fighting style, to maybe find similarities.
"Dan, attack," commanded Myer from the front.
I observed the fight, and for starters, they were doing a good job of crowd-controlling. Myer was getting all of the monsters' attention, and the other two were attacking without hindering the tank. Although there were some minor problems with their formation, the overall performance was pretty good for newbies like them... but there was a slight problem.
"Why aren't they using any skills?" I said to myself.
Skills were essential for fighting. Without them, not a lot of monsters could be killed easily, so not using them would make the job a lot harder. Plus, if a person started using their skills from the very start, they could level them up a lot faster.
Slash-! "Okay, let's take care of this monster's corpse and move on," said Myer.
"I can do it," I volunteered.
"Are you sure? Getting the mana stones out of the body is hard for a newbie."
"Don't worry, I know my job."
I took out my knife and started butchering the bodies. This was all too familiar since it wasn't my first time handling goblin corpses. With this, I made sure that the goblins were exactly like the goblins in my own world.
"Wow, you're so good at this," said Myer with amazement.
"It was my previous job before becoming an adventurer," I said honestly.
After a moment of pause, I placed the stones in my backpack and stood up to walk, but then Lisa shouted, "Myer, more goblins ahead!"
As soon as Myer noticed that, he said, "Ethan, fall back now."
I looked ahead and saw two goblins getting closer to us through the uneven terrain. This was expected since goblins had a superior sense of smell, so they probably noticed the dead goblins.
After a bit of thought, I took out my knife and muttered calmly, "Don't worry, I've got this."