Boy's first System quest (part 2)

"...haaa..."

"Thalia? You keep glancing at the clock. If you have some urgent business, then go - I will cover up for you."

The bespectacled receptionist at the adventurer's guild let out a bothered sigh, and one of her female coworkers approached her and whispered conspicuously.

"Eh? No, it's not like that... it's just that I expected this young gutsy monk to be back already to sulk that the quest is impossible and to ask if there is something easier to do..."

The blond-haired woman sighed and shooked her head, glancing towards the door to the guild.

"Ah, the one from the morning? You sure changed your stance about him real quick – young Miss~."

"Hey!"

The long-eared guildmember snickered, poking Thalia in the side with their elbow, causing her to cry out with a blush.

"So what if I did?! He isn't a noble, and you've heard what he said! He's twelve, which means that he must have barely gone through his registration process! If I knew that first, I would have never let him take on that quest..."

Thalia crossed her arms and looked away with an angry frown before her expression darkened even more as she muttered.

"Cursed house, yeah? You don't have to worry like that. That kid will storm right out of the creepy place like that where living and undead dwarf lesser rats nest together. Even if you try to fight them, the dead ones get reanimated after 5 minutes, and the living ones that get killed rise as undead. Everyone would freak out."

The long-eared woman brushed away her dark-blond hair and assured her colleague.

"The door that blocks the way might spook him, but it barely hangs on its hinges, and even non-combat types can break it open. It's just for the scare."

"..."

She added, patting the silent Thalia's shoulder.

"What if he panics and tries to attack the swarming monsters? Or will he try to fight because he overestimates himself?"

Thalia looked down and asked, regretting not warning the young boy more clearly, just because she was still slightly annoyed and wanted to get back at him.

"Against the hallway full of rats? No way. Don't you remember that all the C ranks who took the quest backed off immediately? And the B rank mage was traumatized by the sight and tried to blow up the entire building but was stopped by the rest of her party? That kid would have to completely lack the common sense to even think about fighting."

The long-eared woman raised her brows and laughed, shaking her hands dismissively.

"He might be so scared that he will not come back in the first place... haah... you know, I think it's high time to call the priest of death to look into the case. Both living and dead monsters occupying the building where someone has killed themselves is not something that we can handle."

She raised her hand and rubbed the tip of her long ear, breathing out in annoyance.

"Tell that to the guild master, not me – he has a grudge against priests of death. He would have called in paladins or holy priests and smote the whole place before he would ask for a priest of death's help despite the cost. The cursed house quest has been here longer than most of our adventurers."

Thalia nodded her head and joined her coworker in sighing over the situation.

"Since the monsters never leave the building and it is in a bad neighborhood, no one is really bothered by it, and therefore, most high-ranked adventurers bother with it. The reward isn't really worth it too."

"Now that you mention it... I think that young monk had a little mixup with what gemstone creation skill does."

The long-eared woman turned around and leaned against the counter while Thalia rubbed her arm with a frown.

"Like what? Do you think he thought this Skill would let him create the stats-boosting gemstones like the ones that crystalize in monsters? Pfff... hmmm... yeah, it's a mistake a rookie like him would do."

The long-eared woman snickered and snorted before suddenly becoming serious as the realization hit her.

"Anyway, don't worry about it. The kid probably is back in his place, hiding under a blanket and shaking from the memory of the rat swarm. Come on that can't do! It's long past the time for a lunch break, and I haven't seen you eat anything!"

She ended up shrugging her shoulders and grabbed Thalia's arm, pulling her away.

"Eh? No, it's okay. I'm not that hungry anyway."

"Oh, come on – young Miss -!"

The bespectacled woman flinched and shook her head, but her coworker was insistent and snickered teasingly.

In the end, Talia gave up and went with the long-eared woman – before going to the back of the guild where the staff room was, she glanced over at the clock hanging on the wall...

...it has been almost seven hours since the black-haired boy accepted the quest...

--------

*WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM*

*WHAM* *WHAM*

[You have defeated dwarf lesser rats]

[EXP points granted]

[TA-DING]

[Skill – Staff proficiency – level up]

The exhausted black-haired boy was spinning his staff, ankles-deep in dust, sending a few remaining monsters flying.

"Appease undead."

*Haaa~*

*crack*

Once he sensed that his MP must have recovered enough, he reached out his hand and used the Skill, causing a body of an incapacitated undead to light up and crack open.

"Scree!"

The spectral white dwarf lesser rat that seeped out of the carcass screeched something, but since Zorey hadn't used the prayer-type Skill on it, nothing was translated, and the apparition dissipated into 0's and 1's without being understood.

*TA-DING*

[You have successfully appeased the undead (Undead dwarf lesser rat)]

[EXP points granted]

*TA-DING*

[You leveled up!]

[Level 10 → Level 11]

[All base stats incressed]

[Your skills have leveled up]

*WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM*

*WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM*

*WHAM* *WHAM*

The notification about advancing to the next level popped up, but Zorey didn't react to it in any way and kept dancing amongst the dust, spinning his weapon and dropping the HP of the reanimated monsters back to 0 to keep them incapacitated.

It had been around five hours since he got inside the house, and the place that had been full of screeches of the rat-type monsters since the door shut on him was now quiet, with the only sound being the ones he and his staff hitting the undead produced.

Although originally, their ratio of undead to living creatures was 3:1, now there were no living ones in sight.

All dwarf lesser rats ended up raising as their undead counterparts just to have their HP dropped to 0 and become incapacitated, bound to wait for their turn to be appeased by the black-haired boy when his MP recovered enough.