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Chapter 28: At the Forbidden Grounds, The Beginning of the Journey (1)

"The entire Karshiko branch sincerely congratulates Lord Arzen on his promotion to the Diamond Rank. We will continue to do our best to assist you in the future."

The staff members of the adventurer branch all stood in formal respect, while Kitan and Jerome, who were standing nearby, clapped their hands.

"Congratulations, Arzen!"

"It\'s infuriating that a human surpassed this great Dwarf to achieve the Diamond Rank, but I must offer my congratulations."

Arzen arrogantly extended his hand, issuing a command.

"Hahaha! Praise me more! Worship me! I, who have reached the Diamond Rank! From now on, I will rule and reign over all with overwhelming power and absolute authority!"

At that moment, Sia silently approached and, without warning, kissed Arzen on the forehead.

Suddenly, the world turned completely white.

Cheers erupted from all around, but Arzen couldn’t even breathe.

\'What the hell is that smell?\'

It wasn\'t from excitement, but because the breath was unbearably foul.

\'Is this for real?\'

From within that foul breath, a voice emerged.

"Chirp. Chirp chirp."

Chirp?

At that point, even breathing became painful, and then the illusion lifted.

When Arzen opened his eyes, he saw a house mouse wandering across his nose.

\'A mouse...\'

Of course, it was just a dream.

For Arzen, living alongside mice had been a part of his daily life since childhood, so he wasn’t even surprised.

He swiftly grabbed the mouse by the tail and dangled it in the air.

"How dare you interrupt my pleasant dream? Do you have a death wish? Worker Bee, your master is greatly displeased."

Bzzzzz... The dimension of the Void opened, and Worker Bee appeared, fluttering its wings.

The mouse flailed madly in panic, eventually slipping from Arzen\'s grasp and escaping.

Arzen watched it flee into a hole, then yawned and stretched.

\'I slept in today for the first time since the liberation. Must be around 10 AM?\'

He drew back the curtains of his lodging and opened the window, causing a pigeon perched on the window frame to fly away.

Sunlight streamed in, dazzling his eyes.

Only when the sunlight hit him directly did the remnants of sleep finally dissipate, bringing him back to full awareness.

\'A dream…\'

His face still felt flushed.

He threw on his coat haphazardly and opened the holy book that had been sitting on the nightstand.

The Void.

One must be careful, as the yearning for the rift can lead to disdain for connection.

La Tsi Qua, breathe life into the creatures of the Void and guide the balance of all things toward the rift.

This had always been a miracle that required the precondition of 30 Voidworms, but after yesterday\'s battle with the mutant goblins, it was unlocked.

\'The number of Voidworms has suddenly increased as well.\'

Upon reflection...

Though it wasn’t quite like the giant slime that gave him a master key...

The life force of those mutant goblins must have accelerated the growth of the Void.

‘Could it be that the power of the Void grows stronger by devouring life?’

Arzen recalled the fight from two days ago.

He had used Baralus to protect Jerome.

However, to get within the effective range of one meter, he had to throw himself into the fray.

That kind of fighting style doesn’t suit a ruler.

"A king is a king because they carry themselves with dignity!"

If a future Diamond Rank were to act rashly, like recklessly throwing themselves, it would ruin their dignity in front of their subordinates.

"So, I have no choice but to rely on this new Void miracle..."

He hadn\'t been able to use it while returning to Euphoria due to being completely exhausted. And after arriving, he collapsed and couldn’t try it out.

Just as he was about to test his new skill, a sound interrupted Arzen.

Grrrrr...

It was the sound of his own stomach, the sound of life itself.

"Right, let’s eat first."

After all, there\'s a saying: even the Red Mountains are better after a meal.

Arzen closed the holy book, rubbed his eyes, and went downstairs, where Kitan waved at him cheerfully.

"Arzen! Over here. I almost ate your portion, but I resisted."

For a Bronze Rank rookie, he sure is polite. Approved.

Of course, that level of courtesy is to be expected if one doesn’t want to lose a noble profession like being a healer.

"Still..."

It had been a long time since anyone greeted him so warmly in the morning.

"Alright."

Arzen briefly raised his hand in acknowledgment, just enough for Kitan to see, then lowered it immediately.

He sat down next to Kitan.

The adventurer guild’s early morning scene had a somewhat fairy tale-like atmosphere.

Citizens lined up at the counters to submit their requests.

Guild staff were cleaning with brooms and mops.

Adventurers who had arrived early in search of good requests.

And adventurers, like Arzen, who had stayed in the second-floor dormitories, coming down for breakfast.

"Hmm, so this is the vibe."

On the table were fried eggs, sautéed bacon and onions, and steaming rye bread.

"This is the guild’s famous breakfast special. You haven’t tried it yet, have you? It’s really good."

Kitan was already on his third empty plate.

"Where did you originally operate, Arzen? Judging by your slightly tanned skin, it must be the Adrion Continent, right?"

"Yeah."

"Did they have lots of pretty women there?"

"No, just a bunch of scary ladies."

In the first place, there aren’t many adventurers who are both good with a sword and beautiful.

"Ugh, that’s the worst. I hate scary women. Especially ones like Sia. I prefer gentle women, don’t you?"

Sia… hearing her name made Arzen recall his dream, and he choked.

"That horrible breath, ugh."

He had to spit out two pieces of bacon, unfortunately.

"Speaking of which, I don’t see those two around."

"Jerome went to work on some equipment. Dwarf gear is complicated, you know? Guns or something. So after each expedition, he’s busy repairing them."

"You’ve been traveling together for a while?"

"Not that long. About half a year? Sia used to be part of a really promising party from the Empire, but something happened, and she left."

A promising party?

Arzen flinched and dropped his fork.

"A ranker party?"

If it\'s promising, it doesn\'t mean it’s famous yet.

Arzen hoped it wouldn\'t come to that.

If they were a well-known party, they might have seen his embarrassing moments during the joint mission with the Divine Guillotine.

"Those days are a disgrace! This Arzen, who will reign over the adventurer world like a future Diamond Rank, has to keep such shame hidden!"

But if they were from the Empire... he probably didn’t have to worry too much.

"I don\'t know the rankings either. It\'s a small group. The party leader apparently leveled up to Gold Rank at lightning speed. What was their name again? Was it a priest or a paladin?"

Heh, even though they\'re partners, being just a Gold Rank doesn\'t seem impressive.

He felt an inexplicable sense of superiority.

Even if he was treated like a slave, he had been part of a Platinum Rank adventuring party at one point.

"I worried for nothing. Even though my teammates were awful and I couldn\'t level up, if I had been able to earn contributions properly, I would have reached Gold Rank ages ago."

"But Arzen, you’re Steel Rank."

"Don’t you have ears? I couldn’t rise because I met the wrong team!"

Kitan\'s comment killed his appetite.

\'Thinking about it again makes me mad. Where did my youth go?\'

With a slightly gloomy feeling, Arzen popped the yolk into his mouth.

Kitan was now on his fourth empty plate.

"Eat up, Arzen! We just tackled a Rank 9 quest. Your pockets are overflowing."

He was right.

Since it was a Rank 9 quest, the rewards were substantial compared to the lowest tier requests.

Was it just money?

His contributions had also increased significantly, so at this rate, he could graduate from Steel Rank in no time.

"Arzen, my motto is to eat a lot and sleep a lot. Especially after having a hearty breakfast, crawling back into bed is the happiest moment for me."

"That’s true."

It was at that moment that Sia appeared.

"What kind of lazy thinking is that for someone your age?"

Just like when they first met, she was dressed simply in casual wear without any armor.

The chilling aura she exuded during battles was nowhere to be felt now.

"Ah, the anger representative."

Arzen teased, feeling playful.

"Right now, she’s the dung representative. Sia probably just took a dump."

Kitan waved his fork in disbelief.

"What are you saying?!"

Sia punched Kitan on the head and took her seat.

Soon, a guild staff member brought out the same menu that the two had been eating.

Arzen stole glances at Sia.

The women from the Empire, with their fair skin, seemed more beautiful than those with tanned skin from the Republic.

For the record, Sia was also fair-skinned.

The northern republics at the southern tip of the Acrad continent had whiter skin compared to the southern republics of the Adrion continent, which made them more attractive.

‘For instance, Kitan’s skin tone from the northern republic… he might be a bit dim-witted, but he seems like a decent guy.’

Maybe it was just the whole southern republic that he disliked.

In reality, he couldn’t bring himself to like them.

He had lost everything in that land.

His father had died, his mother had died, and all the happiness of his childhood was taken away.

He vowed to never return if he could help it.

“I noticed there are quite a few strange requests showing up on the status board,” Sia said, tearing a piece of bread with both hands.

“Strange requests?” Kitan looked up from his fifth plate.

How has this guy managed to stay thin despite eating like this?

“Yeah, if you go northeast from here, there\'s a Gold Zone,” she explained.

“Gold Zone?”

“It’s a place called Blood Tree Forest. But in every nearby village, goblins are swarming unusually.”

“Oh?”

“There’s no geological reason for such a large-scale occurrence, especially since it’s not a mining area.”

The Gold Zone was a restricted area, either due to it being an Abyssal den or because important facilities were located there.

For instance, the Desert of the Flowing Sands that annihilated the Divine Guillotine was the former.

‘But this one is likely the latter!’

If the southern part of the Adrion continent was a boundary with the Abyss, then the northern part of the Acrad continent was the land’s end.

“I thought about it while looking at this. It smells fishy…”

Sia flashed a meaningful smile, reminiscent of the one she wore when they took down the goblins last time.

It was a smile that hinted at some thrilling discovery.

“Smelly? That’s just because Sia just took a dump,” Kitan remarked.

Arzen instinctively pinched his nose, remembering the stench he’d encountered in his dreams.

Sia started punching Kitan’s head repeatedly, yelling, “Ugh, that damn poop! I didn’t just take a dump, you brat!”

“Ouch! Then what kind of smell is it?”

“Why are you asking when you already know?!”

“What kind of smell is it?” Arzen interjected.

Sia, who had been beating up Kitan, finally sat down with a sigh.

“I have a good nose. I can smell money or the strong scent of monsters really well. That’s why I came here.”

Arzen smirked slyly.

‘You don’t seem to realize that I plan to use you like slaves to climb higher. Hehe.’

Sia narrowed her eyes at Arzen’s grin.

“What’s with that creepy smile? Don’t make that face—it gives me an unsettling feeling, you jerk. Anyway, I plan to head to that Gold Zone for the next quest.”

“Right away?”

“Yeah, right at dawn tomorrow. The stronger folks around here will soon flock there. It’s better to secure a good spot first.”

Kitan, patting his bloated stomach and burping, received another smack from Sia.

“Have you seen Jerome?”

“He’s probably wrestling with some merchants at the hardware store. Making iron bullets, I guess.”

“Iron bullets?”

Sia answered Arzen’s question, “That guy carries around his own mold for making bullets. He says if he uses anything that doesn’t fit his gun’s specifications, it’ll break quickly.”