Chapter 1

In the small town of Izlude, located in the Rune-Midgarts Kingdom, there stands a large building. Its formal name is the Royal Criatura Academy, but most people just call it the Academy. This is the beginning place of all adventurers. Here, you learn all the basics of combat and survival. It can even be said that without the Academy, there would be no adventurers.

Room and boarding were free. In return, adventurers were expected to offer their services to the Kingdom in some way. Usually, that meant that they would hunt monsters that were threatening the Kingdom’s towns and cities. And any loot they found from the monsters were theirs to keep or sell. It was a great deal benefitting the adventurers.

However, that doesn’t mean that adventurers had it easy. Their income could be called anything but stable. Even if they encountered a lot of easy prey that day, the prey may drop no valuable loot. In that case, they would make next to nothing on that day. Not to mention other factors, such as rain, that could make them unable to hunt, effectively taking a whole day’s worth of income away.

On top of that, there was the danger. An adventurer’s daily living depended on combat and taking the lives of monsters. Naturally, no monster would let itself be killed without a problem. Monsters fought back when attacked. There were even some that attacked humans on sight. It was truly a lifestyle where one had to put his or her life on the line.

For this reason, not everyone desired to be an adventurer. Some made a living though cooking, or smithing, or even teaching. After all, that’s all adventuring came down to�" a way to make money. And like any other jobs out there, some were naturally more cut out for this than others.

The vice versa is equally true. Some people just aren’t cut out for this kind of job.

______

It must have been a bizarre sight. Two young teenagers being chased down a hillside by a pink butterfly-looking monster screaming for their lives. By the looks of their clothing, one was an Acolyte while the other was a Novice. If I was a spectator, I would be thinking what those two were doing that made the monster chase after them. Sadly, I was not a bystander, but a reluctant participant of this ‘bizarre sight’.

“Run for your life!” the girl shouted at me.

“I’m already running!” I shouted in response. 

“Run faster!”

“I am!”

“Why would you go and provoke a Creamy?!” the girl yelled at me.

“It was an accident!”

Creamys were unaggressive by nature. It would never attack someone unless it was attacked first. Then why was this normally passive monster chasing us?

Well, like the girl said, it was my fault. My actual target was a Pupa. It was a cocoon monster incapable of moving. It was an easy target, and because of that, I let my guard down. Naturally, something hatches from cocoons, and I didn’t realize that the Pupa was hatching and swung my dagger at the emerging Creamy.

Which is how we got into this situation.

Suddenly, there was a queal from behind us. When I stopped to turn around, I found the butterfly dead with an arrow through it.

“Are you two okay?” a woman ran to us followed by a brown falcon flying not too far behind her. Seeing how the woman was holding a bow, she must have been the one who shot the Creamy.

“Y-Yes,” the girl responded, out of breath. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” I said as well.

Still catching my breath, I looked over to the dead insect. Monsters fade when they are killed leaving behind the leftover parts, which we call loot. Most of the loot are worthless, but still sellable. Once in a while, a very valuable item is dropped. And something caught my eye in the fading corpse of the butterfly monster.

“Oh, what do you know. The Creamy dropped a card.” The lady walked over to the corpse and pulled a small card from its body.

I gulped.

A monster card. When a monster is killed, they sometimes drop a card. No one knows where they come from or how they get there, but the benefits of the cards are undeniable. Cards are used to strengthen equipment. Depending on what monster the card dropped from, equipment slotted with a card have their performance enhanced drastically. And that’s not all; if you picked up a card that you don’t really want, you could sell it to others. People buy cards for a hefty amount. From what I remember, last time I poked around the market, Creamy cards sold for at least five million Zeny.

I bit my lip at the frustration. If only I was strong enough to kill that monster, that money could have gone to us. But a monster’s drops goes to the killer. And any adventurer who broke that rule was sure to suffer consequences.

Seeing my disheartenment, the lady awkwardly scratched her head.

“Well, don’t go around messing with Creamys anymore,” she said as she ran off with a wave.

“That lady was a Hunter, wasn’t she?” the girl asked, breaking the silence.

“I think so,” I replied, swallowing my discouragement. “They usually have falcons with them.”

The girl was my childhood friend and party member Pout. We lived relatively near each other when we were kids and were in the same class during our time at the Academy. Her wavy brown hair almost reached her hips, and I guess she would be someone you consider pretty. I’ll admit, there are times when I think her large brown eyes are cute.

But she’s a childhood friend, nothing more. I don’t like her in that way.

Anyways, she became an Acolyte after graduating from the Academy. Acolyte is a class that specializes in healing and buffing their party members. They usually advance into the Priest class as they gained more experience. Though there are some oddball Acolytes who specialize in killing monsters with their maces rather than supporting, majority of them were of the supporting variety. Pout was of the supportive type.

After graduation, we immediately set out to the Prontera Fields, which was the closest area where monsters appeared form the Academy. Most of them are harmless, almost like you’d rather have them as a pet rather than kill.

There’s a pink bubble-like monster called Poring and its smaller counterpart Little Poring.

An overly hairy rabbit called Lunatic.

A fat, green caterpillar that is spikey called Fabre.

And the Pupa and Creamy we encountered earlier.

All of these monsters, with the exception of Creamy, were weak enough that even Pout, who had no offensive ability whatsoever, could take them out in a few hits. If, for some reason, either of us were hurt while fighting these monsters, Pout could use her Heal and, well, heal us. Though her Heal was weak, it was enough to get rid of some light scratches and stuff.

Now, Pout was an Acolyte, and that was her class or Job. I was still a Novice, which is an unofficial Job title for those without one. Don’t get me wrong, I still graduated from the Academy. For personal reasons, I decided to remain a Novice. This meant that I could not learn any skills aside from the most basic one, First Aid.

When I first told my decision to the Academy principal, the Academy principal was firmly against me graduating as a Novice. He said that it was needlessly dangerous and reckless for an adventurer to venture out without any skills whatsoever. However, after I continuously insisted that this is what I wanted to do, he relented. And when I graduated, he gifted me with a Novice Cutter, a type of dagger that was stronger than the ones usually used by the students.

It was my excitement of this new weapon that brought us here. I wanted to try out the Cutter right away, and Pout, as my party member, was dragged along. At first, it was just me who was killing the monsters. I guess Pout must have gotten bored because she started to go after monsters herself.

Oh, I should mention that Pout was gifted with a Novice Mace from her instructor upon graduating. It was a simple blunt weapon for hitting enemies.

We picked up any loot the monsters dropped. Most of the items were jellopies, which are small crystallizations created by some monsters. They didn’t sell for much, but it was better than nothing. Other than those, we also picked up feathers, fluffs, carrots, and clovers. Pout and I both had a bag to put all these items.

It was then, while we were doing this, when I hit the emerging Creamy.

“Should we go back for today?” I asked looking at the setting sun. Pout looked as worn out as I felt. We have been running around since noon after all.

“Yeah, sure,” she replied.