(Chapter 4: Quests)

King actually didn't even need to look around, it was literally just a 5 minute walk from the inn. King even passed by the building earlier. As King walked in, everyone suddenly stared at him, as if they predator stalking their prey. Thankfully, a major amount looked away due to King's natural intimidation aura. Only a few amount kept looking, and those gazes weren't hostile, but one of finding a good, new seed. King ignored those stares, and walked to the notice board to find a quest or something that he could undertake, and found out...

He couldn't read shit. But with his honed instincts and veteran experience... as a gamer, he could tell the gist of what the requests were asking from the length of the words, and the color, pattern, and size of the seal. So King took one which he assumed was about delivery, or subjugation. It was a 60/40 chance respectively, so since King had an actual motorcycle from his inventory, which King was surprised about, would help him to deliver things faster.

And even if not, the seal didn't look all that impressive, and it was small, and the color of the wax was green. From King's experience, red, large seals are the ones that are hard to do. Small ones are not worth mentioning. "I'd like this one." King said to the receptionist in a lax manner which people would assume he was just a newbie adventure... not. King's vision was drastically different from what others saw. In their eyes...

{Random High-Ranked Adventurer Vision in 1st person}

Holy shit. Holy. Shit. I've been through my fair share of fights and lived to tell the tale. I've even killed more bandits, trolls, goblins, etc. than I've eaten a full meal in my entire life. That's not a joke. I, leader of the strongest adventurer team from this branch, Garfield, was known as the [Bloody Butcher] for a reason. I've gotten to the point like a veteran would be able to tell the strength of someone when they are strong themselves...

I know for a fact, that every adventurer I know that are regulars are all here now, because the majority of them have returned from a massive orc-stronghold subjugation that the imperial palace sent out, and the others have also came back from their respective requests. Barnabas, Maximilian, Raymond, Natalia, all my friends and teammates and I escaped unscathed from a Wyvern hunt, and just earned a massive haul of 200 gold coins. We could buy a house with that!

Everyone was partying hard. But then a newcomer must've come in, because we heard a bell ring. Everyone looked at this newcomer, wanting to crush him early on, like nearly all adventurer-veterans do. I and Barnabus, my best friend since childhood, and right-hand man, wanted to make sure no-one gets overboard, but then...

Killing Intent.

That was radiating off this man's very bones. even rookies know to stay away from him. And for those like me... The whole 2nd floor where all the veterans were cheering and singing, started quaking in our boots. The whole guild went silent. As I looked out, I saw his face.

Blond hair, blue eyes, three scars on his left eye, his face... It could not be forgotten. It has been engraved into my mind. Such power, coming off him... If goblins saw him, they'd probably run off, even with the whole pack. Goblins are as smart as the average 12-year old child, and even they know, they're better off running. He walked to the board. Everyone assumed he'd get a troll-slaying one or a bandit-camp busting. What he chose...Minimum Orichalcum-ranked adventurer, or at least a team of 6 silver-adventurers, or 36 people? And a royal-level seal of approval? And he's going alone? With my superior vision from my class of Hunter, the request was...

"Wyvern nest elimination, reward, 30 Platinum coins." He's even so lax about it while reading... is he that strong? He scoffed at it once finished, bored, and when he finally spoke... "I'd like this request." His voice, it was light and carefree, yet weighed thousands of pounds of pressure to everyone in the guild. I, and every one of my friends, level 19 on average, are struggling not to pass out.

Even the receptionist was at least level 15, stronger than the city guards, yet a new one to the job, somewhere around level 6, her legs were visibly trembling, and as she just walked into the room, she instantly ran back to the previous room. A foul smell then came from the other side of the door. Usually, in a situation like this, everyone'd laugh at her from losing control at her age, but this time it was different.

Everyone was also struggling to stand straight. If a normal person were to walk in here, facing this pressure, they'd fall over, unconscious, as the natural instincts would kick in for survival, they'd give up, nothing would remain, as every muscle in the body loosens, and prepares for imminent death. In the worst case, even the heart might stop from pressure.

This man was no joke. That much was known. The receptionist was stammering to get her words out. "T-t-this request r-r-requires one to be at least an O-Orichalcum-ranked adventurer, o-or a team of 6 silver-ranked adventurer, or 36 people!" The man sighed, and asked, "Do I need to be an Orichalcum adventurer to do this solo?"

Silence. He wasn't even an adventurer? All that blood-lust and power, and he's not an adventurer? An assassin? A high-ranking knight from the capital undergoing secret raining? Everyone's mind must've had many things flowing through them, but none of them should be able to guess what he is. Such power, yet no one knows him here? Even I feel but an ant compared to him.

{Normal View}

King didn't expect that... what he thought would be a subjugation/delivery was going to be a subjugation... for wyverns. King just only looked harder at the paper, and suddenly, [Skill: Language {Human} Acquired]

Reading further, it was a subjugation request for wyverns indeed... for an entire wyvern nest. "Well. Shit." King said inwardly, before taking a look around, realizing this was nearly the same from reality. The fact that everyone notices him from a total misunderstanding.

"Hmm, since I already went with this much momentum, stopping now would just be plain wrong. Ah, it's just some wyverns. I'll just kill them one-by-one, and if things get bad, I'll just kill them with my cheat-items." King thought to himself, as he awaited the receptionist's answer. King was actually quite reluctant to use his cheat-items, as they break immersion. What kinda guy gets insta-op items right of the bat? King absolutely LOATHED plot armor.

"So.. Do I need to be an adventurer to accept... or is it acceptable by normal people?" King asked normally, in which obviously the opposite side view it as a demon asking questions with a blade to their necks. Yes, they view King that way. If King knew it was going to go this way, he'd at least wear the heavy armor he couldn't wear earlier, since he could now, because the helmet covered even his face.

"U-U-Um... you need t-to be an adventurer to accept!" The receptionist mustered all her courage into that one sentence. It may seem easy to just string a few words together, but coupled with the fear of imminent death literally in front of you, even if it wasn't meant to kill someone, you'd probably need a Russian Soldier's courage to remain standing.

And thankfully, King received something which helped him out GREATLY. [Skill: {Deception},{Confusion}, and {Persuasion} acquired]. But, unlike all skills, King checked them out, and it says...

"Wait, why are they all leveled 99?" King thought to himself. That was the level of King's deception. near years of deception in the real world, King now has a silver-tongue, yet that would be an understatement. So let's say platinum-tongued...encrusted with shining jewels, laden with bits of ivory.. you get the idea.

So with that, King activated it, and to others, the weight of his aura had finally decreased to a acceptable level, and they can breathe freely now. So King said with a light smile, "Okay, I'll register as an adventurer then."

Everyone was dumbfounded. First, he had enough pressure to crush coal into diamonds, stop people from breathing easy, and literally make a professional fighter-level person (The level 6 newbie-girl) piss herself from fear, and suddenly it disappears like nothing happened in the first place? It wasn't realistic.

"O-okay.. registering costs 3 copper, and 7 copper for a title plate, so 10 copper coins in total." The receptionist started speaking normally again. King took out a silver coin from his pouch, and paid the price. He received 90 copper coins back. The lady then walked into the staff room, and took out a bronze plate and handed it to King.

"Oh, and before I go, how many quests can one person undertake at once?" King asked the receptionist, which replied, "Oh, you can take as many as you want, but be sure you read the proper requirements, or else you might end up dying. But the one you took earlier can only be undertaken by a team, or an Orichalcum-rank adventurer. The Orichalcum-rank is required at least, and or a team of 6 silver adventurers, but the party of 36 doesn't matter, as long as it is 36 people."

"Okay, thanks." King thanked the receptionist, and looked for something that he could actually complete. But obviously, he's taking at least 10. At least. "I'll take these." The receptionist sweat-dropped, and saw they were all subjugation requests, well, except for one escort one. "Okay. So you'll be accepting..." After the receptionist finished helping King formally accept the quests, King left the guild to start his quests.

But before actually leaving the city, King went back to the inn. "Oh, welcome back, sir!" Minako-no, Karrie greeted King, to which King smiled, and went back to his room, and put on the heavy steel-plated armor from the beginning, since he could wear it without difficulty now. The heavy steel-plate armor was just worn over King's regular attire, because taking off his life-insurance was just plain illogical.

"Okay, so the first one is a 'destroy goblin-nest', at the edge of the town called {Minisculus}... hey, isn't that just called small in Latin?" King thought aloud while taking his flying carpet there. Yes, he had a flying carpet somewhere in his inventory. He reached the town in about 3 minutes, since it was just 3 kilometers away. King set the speed to be somewhat slow since he wanted to continue studying the map for a bit.

{King Vision}

So next to {Minisculus}... would be {Admentin}, and the city was actually called {Blueford}... what kind of names are these? If I have enough time, I'll just make a code for them, like at home, like City A, City B, etc. But well, when the time comes, I'd probably wake up. I look up from the map and realize I've reached my destination. I keep the flying carpet, and head to the village to ask for details.

I walk to the nearest building which looked like an inn, and open the door, greeted by:

"Alright, everyone don't move, or else you get dead!"... really? A robbery already? I look around, and see 3..6..12 people in total, wearing leather armor, I think? and rusted iron swords. So you're saying, this village can't even protect itself from something like a bandit raid/robbery? And not just that, the quality of their weapons and items are horrible... That's just sad. Hmm, I guess I can test out my actual combat capabilities.

"So, someone's here to donate-" Some bandit must've thought I was another commoner from the small village, since he looked at my direction, sneering, until he saw me. In full steel-plate armor. "U-um... boss?" The thin-bearded man called out to someone in another room, him boss, obviously, and I prepared to fight, Since that was why I didn't just leave right away.

"The hell!? I'm in the middle of something, remember-!" Their boss peeked out his head, and I saw a half-bald, bearded, fat-faced man, so he's probably the leader. "Oh, his armor looks good... I've been wanting a new set after my old one got broken by that damn Garfield... boys! Kill him and take his armor for me! But be careful, we don't know how strong he is!" Huh, wasn't Garfield that name on the top-adventurer ranking paper I saw on the notice board?

Of course, they're idiots. Even though the boss said to be careful, only 7 out of 13 people surround me, sneering, as if they've already won the fight. But after all, newbies always think like that numbers are a huge advantage, so whatever. One lanky dude with brown hair, the one that sneered, took his sword and slashed at me. I don't really like killing, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but I guess since this is a dream, I don't need to care so much about it.

As he lunged to me, I avoided him, grabbed his head, and tried squeezing it, to test my strength... eh? I crushed the leather helmet as well... needless to say, he'd dead, but I thought I was only level 23? I shouldn't have this strength, unless they're all just really weak... "Ehhh!?" The other 6 backed off, scared that one of them was eliminated so easily.

"B-Boss! This man just killed Frank!" A burly man among the 7 called out, and suddenly the boss rushed out, in full leopard-skin chain-mail together with his black double-handed axe. "FRANK!?" He yelled, scaring the other villagers, and a few girls peed themselves. Are all the girls here incontinent or something? What kind of weak bladder-strength is that? I mean, there was that one time I did that myself, but that was a demon-level bird. Thankfully Saitama-bro was there.

This time... this man ain't even something like that one squid-monster, and even then I was bored. Obviously wolf-level threat, and incredibly sad, too. It's only desire was to make people eat dried squid, since he was once a bankrupt dried-squid manufacturing company CEO. Arrested by myself, he didn't dare move around, and now he works as a Heroes Association Chef. Gotta hand it to him, he made some good food. If he's cooking, and there's something with squid, you can bet most heroes are gonna rush to the Heroes Association Cafeteria.

And even that was more threatening than this guy. Seriously. I ask, actually wondering if they have bladder problems or something, considering even King felt absolutely NO threat from him. "Wow. Is that really enough for you guys to be scared of him?" The bandit leader didn't get what I meant, presumably, since he tilted his head slightly, but still stayed on guard. "I ain't taking the death of my nephew easily, take this!" He said, as he swung the axe downwards. I easily dodge that, since from my level, my already abnormal perception has increased. I take out my steel sword, and aimed for his throat.

"Not so fast!" He grabbed a dagger, an blocked the sword. I didn't swing with my full strength, so he was able to easily dodge that. I took my sword and threw it to him, which shocked him. He barely dodges it, and then I tackle him, pull out my own dagger, and stab at his throat once more. "Kch! You're skilled!" He says before I swung downwards, and took out another short one-handed axe and blocks it again.

What's with this guy and axes? Although, if I had used my strength, I could've pierced the axe, but then my dagger would get destroyed too. Also, I wanted to test my reflexes. Hopefully, this can help me out later when I wake up. Gotta take any chances I have to hone my reflexes and reaction time. People in real life, their reaction time are just so sad...

He pushes me off, to which I land on my feet, and he takes a stance, and talked to me. "You're good. Why don't you join us? You get women, power, respect, money easily too. And you get to be my right-hand man. Not everyone can just attempt to kill me and live with it." His remaining crew-members opened their mouths in shock, and started conversing among themselves. "Boss is already at level 20, how is he matching him in power and speed?" "Who is he? Boss even offered him to be the right-hand man!"

Those were among what they were talking about. Well, not like I care, anyway. I'm level 23 already, so I'm stronger. Also, even if it was a dream, I don't like harming the innocent. Not even in games. "No thanks. I was just here to ask something anyway, but you guys butted in. Had you just ignored me, whoever that was still could've lived. And you would live another day too."

"Oh... cocky are we?" He says, visibly irritated, and picked up his axe. He rushed at me yelling once more, and I avoid him, bored. I finally got irritated enough, I took a Mithril-infused dagger and stab his spinal cortex, aiming to hopefully go through his windpipe too. I slashed with all my strength and hit him right on target. It even cut through the neck. Hmm, The chain-mail was undamaged, so I think that could be reused.

The surrounding was quiet, since they didn't expect me to win, I suppose...hey, isn't it too quiet? It's been 15 seconds. "O-Oi... Boss is dead... RUN!" Someone finally snapped out of that trance, and the rest followed suit. The villagers were even more stunned, since they stayed in place for at least 3 minutes. And, oh for god's sake, are their bladders REALLY that weak? Damn that smells. HORRIBLE.

Sigh...Now, to do what I came here to do. "Sigh... Who requested a goblin-subjugation quest?" King asked, and among the crowd, someone raised their hand. "Me, I'm the village chief. I requested it because those goblins stole our sheep, and also raided some of our caravans! A few of our people were killed, and the women were missing!"

Okay, standard goblin-harassment procedure, nothing out of the ordinary. "Well, where's the goblin-lair?" I asked the elderly-village chief, and he pointed it onto my map. Well, off I go then. According to the map, it seems like it's just 500 meters away. I guess I'll just walk there. Anything to get away from that village that stinks worse than that public toilet I went in last time. Damn... stop pissing yourselves.

On the way, I was peacefully enjoying the scenery, knowing I was gonna slaughter a few goblins... meh. It's just a dream-game. When I reach what was thought to be the cave, it had a few markings, and a weird staff with a skull-torch on it. Okay, standard goblin den. What could go wrong?

This is DEFINITELY not going to end up like that scene in Goblin Slayer... no sir-ee.