Chapter Seventeen: Guild, Atsuhira And Slime

Kenjiro walked out of the Inn waving goodbye to the Innkeeper as he walked through the town. He was heading towards the adventurers guild today.

He had just had a pretty filling breakfast, and his day seemed to be going well so far. He just hoped nothing would happen to ruin that.

It didn't take him long to get there and once he did he could already hear the sound of people in there.

Kenjiro took a breath. 'It was just the sound of a bunch of people in an enclosed space, no big deal, you can deal with this.' Kenjiro said, hyping himself up.

He walked into the guild and the sound immediately got louder, but he tried to zone it out as to calm himself calm. It worked, kinda. Kenjiro wasn't getting overwhelmed, but the sound wasn't exactly the easiest thing to ignore.

Kenjiro also had to meet Saku. Once he got his ID and said he wasn't planning on taking a quest that day, she offered to pick one out for him that would allow for him to get out F-Rank fast. It seemed Saku had taken a liking to Kenjiro after their first meeting.

So, Kenjiro wormed his way past the people crowding a part of the adventurers guild, the place he assumed had the quest board. And made his way to the desk.

He saw Saku talking to someone who didn't seem to be in any hurry, leaning on the desk with a smile on his face. Saku, on the other hand, looked bored out of her tree.

When she saw him making his way to the front she called someone from the back and pointed over to a desk further away from the crowd that wasn't being used, where she wanted Kenjiro to go.

Another staff member of the guild made his way to where Saku was before to help the man she was talking to. But it seemed he didn't have an interest any more and went over to the quest board with a pissed off look.

When Kenjiro made his way to where Saku was she had three sheets in front of her. "This is what I've got for you. If you complete these two," she said as she pushed forward two what Kenjiro now knew were quests, "then you'll almost be out of F-Rank. And this one," she pushed forward another sheet, "you just need to get as many as you can. If you get, at least… twenty of them, then you'll be in E-Rank."

Kenjiro nodded his head as he looked down at the quests. As Saku sat down on a chair, letting out a sigh of exhaustion.

While Kenjiro was looking at the quests he started a conversation with Saku, although he was insecure about his voice, couldn't talk much and she had called his voice weird during their first meeting, she didn't seem to mind it and he was told by Kentaro that if he didn't use his voice at all that it could harm his progress in recovery. After all the voice was a muscle, he needed to use it for it to get stronger but not over use it, that it got hurt.

"You okay?" Kenjiro asked, worried, seeing her already exhausted even though it was the start of the day.

Saku looked up, her mind already zoning out from doing nothing. She just let out a huff while scratching the back of her head. "Just a bit tired. The start of the day is always the worst, but it'll calm down from here on." Saku reassured him with her voice still just as deadpan as he remembered it from yesterday.

Kenjiro nodded his head. Even though he couldn't fully understand, he thought it was kinda like school. It was difficult at the start of the day because everyone was tired but then it got easier as he woke up. "Who was the guy from before? He's not bothering you, is he?"

Saku looked at Kenjiro a little surprised as they both looked at the man he was talking about, he was glaring at Kenjiro, probably the reason he asked about it. "Oh, him?" She asked her head, jerking to the person, while Kenjiro nodded his head.

Saku just shook her head in exasperation at the who they were talking about. "That's Atsuhira. A D-Rank adventure. Don't think about fighting him, he's not like the others, he's a thief and murderer, but there's no proof of it. He takes high risk quests for his rank and strength, so although people know he's killing his party the guild can't do anything about it without proof." Saku explained to Kenjiro.

Kenjiro nodded his head, keeping note of that. "But is he bothering you?" He asked again.

Saku tilted her head a little in confusion, her eyes narrowing a little, wondering why Kenjiro was even worried about her and why he was still talking to her, after all he had long since finished reading the quests. "A little, he wants me to be his. But I just ignore him whenever I can, it's not that hard. The guild has bedrooms for the staff after all." She said to him, but she then repeated her warning. "But I will say this again, do not, and I mean it, do not get into a fight with him."

Kenjiro just let out a suppressed 'okay' as he was about to say he wanted to do the quests, Saku this time asked a question. "Why do you even care if he's bothering me?"

Kenjiro just tiled his head in confusion at what was a weird question to him. "My mother taught me manners. That I was always supposed to help out a girl if they were in trouble." Kenjiro said honestly.

He could imagine his mother was here right now, behind him putting a supporting hand on his shoulder. She wasn't dead, but they were, literally, worlds apart. And it hurt him a little to know that he probably wouldn't see her for at least a year.

"She taught you well then, I guess." Saku said honestly. "But then you should also know not to get involved in other people's business, I can handle Atsuhira. I'm not like those princesses in fairy tales." Saku said, her voice sharp as she spoke.

"I know you can." Kenjiro said he wasn't belittling her when he offered his help. It was just his first instinct to offer help to girls that seemed like they needed it, it was something ingrained in him from his mother. "But my help is there if you ever need it."

Saku took a breath to calm down, although all throughout the conversation her face hadn't changed from its deadpan expression and her voice had barely changed from its normal tone. "Sorry for that, I was being rude even though you were trying to help me." She said as she bowed before getting professional again. "Are you going to do these quests?" She asked.

Kenjiro nodded his head. And Saku took out a clipboard and wrote down the quests that he took and his name. When she was done she looked back up again and spoke. "If that is all that you need then you can go do your quests."

Kenjiro nodded his head and he started to leave, doing a little wave goodbye to Saku.

Meanwhile somewhere out in a forest outside of the town Atsuhira stabbed his spear into a Metal Tooth Wolf as he thought about what he saw in the guild. "If that fucker thinks he can steal my Saku then he's got another thing coming for him! When I get the chance… I'LL KILL HIM!!" Atsuhira swore to himself.

Meanwhile Kenjiro just passed by the knight at the entrance of the town nodding his head to him before going into one of the forests at the side of the city.

He had taken three quests. Unlike regular quests these ones were able to be taken as many times as anyone wanted to and any party could take them at the same time. The reason for this, despite there being a rule in the guild against it, was because of how common it was.

It was three simple quests, two for monsters and one for collecting herbs.

The first monster hunting quest was hunting Slimes. They were the weakest monster that was known to anyone, that they could be killed without a weapon with some ease. They were small, blue, had a tiny stone called a magic crystal in the middle of them and they were made out of… you guessed it, Slime.

Although the magic crystal was in the description of the Slime, it was in every monster. And the bigger it was, usually equals the amount of power they had, although that wasn't always the case.

The second quest he took was a collecting quest for herbs, it didn't really matter which you found, as some were common and others were rare, but as long as you found some, the quest could be considered completed. Saku had actually been nice enough to him to draw out the basic image of some of the herbs as well as the places they usually grew.

And then the third quest was hunting an old pal of his. Goblins. Although technically he had only killed two goblins, he had killed and eaten a Goblin Lord, so he was probably much stronger than a regular goblin, although if there were enough of them he imagined they would give him trouble.

Slimes were apparently the most common, and he only had to hunt five of them, for the quest to be completed, but it didn't say he couldn't go over it if he wished to. So that was what he was going for first. And for the quest to be completed when he came back he just had to show the Magic Crystal, as the slime of the Slime, wasn't valuable.

Although parts of monsters could have some value, as they could be used for gear and medicine.

While Kenjiro was lost in his mind with thoughts of everything he felt something soft push into him. He didn't pay any attention at first, thinking he was imagining it, but when it happened again and something cold spread across him and he looked down and saw a Slime starting to climb up his leg.

In a panic, as he didn't expect it and the slime was cool and wet, something he didn't expect, he shook his leg around and the Slime went flying off him.

It crashed into a tree where it lay at the bottom, forming into a puddle of slime.

Kenjiro let out a breath and silently laughed at himself for panicking over something so stupid he walked over to the, presumably, dead Slime.

He grabbed the sword hanging off his back and poked the Slime with the Golden Lion Sword. It didn't move, only wobbling like a slime normally would when something poked it.

He then bent down and grabbed the Crystal in it and the Slime went even flatter and spread out a bit more then it didn't before. Now he knew it was properly dead. As the only way to kill a slime was to take out the Crystal inside of it.

Kenjiro then looked around to make sure no one was around and grabbed a handful of the Slime, feeling it in his hand.

It was a disgusting thing to feel. Kenjiro never liked holding this type of slime, whether it was a monster or just something created by people, before in his life.

He took a gulp while looking at the Smile, inwardly debating with himself… to eat or not to eat? That is the question.

Kenjiro took a breath and decided that it was for the greater good, what greater good? You might be asking. Well Kenjiro himself didn't know, but it seemed the greater good demanded he ate it.

So, taking his mask off, showing his lower face full of scars he 'slurped' down the slime. He didn't know 'how' to eat a slime, but he knew just by feeling it, it wasn't something you were supposed to chew.

It went down his throat like a cold drink, kinda like a slushy, but more disgusting. And when it was all down inside of him he shivered in disgust.

He started coughing almost nonstop, his body trying to get the slime up, but not retching. He hit his chest a few times, telling his body to keep it down and accept it even though it didn't have a choice and he didn't want it in his body any more than his body itself.

After that calmed down he let out a breath and wiped his face before putting his mask back on and out the Magic Crystal in a pouch he had and his sword back on his back.

He shivered in disgust again, thinking about it before knowing he was going to have to get used to it as he was going to eat four more and a few goblins. It was going to be disgusting, and he didn't want to, but he made a promise to himself, he was going to see his family again, go back to his world, no matter the cost.