“We o have a guild employee with you to monitor your party.” Was what we were told at the adventurer’s guild.

  We had gotten there, Paulina had expihe direct request quests and hahem over. Then as we were accepting the first one of them, we got that little bit of news from the guild.

  “Why is that necessary? Brian hasn’t failed any of his guild quests, has he?” Paulina asked. Do they send out someoh the party if the party fails a lot of quests?

  “I uand that, but you also have to sider our view on this matter. He, and the rest of you, have been pleting quests so fast that it should be impossible. We simply must know what you are doing differently, so other adventurers also use simir teiques.” The employee expined.

  Yeah, good luck with that. Just buy an airship and use that. I’m sure every adventurer will have the money for one.

  “Brian, what do you think?” Paulina turo me and asked. Then she added in a quieter voice. “This is your quest, so you do have the right to just say you won’t do it uhat dition if you don’t want to.”

  “Will that reflect badly on us?” I asked quietly.

  “No. It will actually look bad on the guild, as the quest giver, my father, clearly trusts your report and wants more of them from you. So for the guild to set a dition that you don’t agree with, causing the quest to be left undone, or having to be given to someone else will refle the guild. Remember that as an adventurer, outside of emergencies, you are allowed to refuse a quest for any reason, including no reason.”

  “... maybe I should …” I pondered my options.

  If I refuse, the guild might panid allow us to go without someone spying on us, sidering the quest giver. Or they might just say “The named adventurer didn’t accept the quest.” or something like that. But they should realize that Paulina will tell the real reason to her father. And even if the quest actually fails, the Earl just ask me to do the quest outside of the guild's influehere is nothing strange about a lord sending someo to check the safety on the roads ierritory. And while usually those missions are given to adventurers, sometimes the knight order does them instead. Or so I’ve been told.

  But at the same time, refusing the guild’s auditor would look bad on me. Like I want to keep secrets. Which I of course do, but that’s a different matter. They might ask for something more ime, like me showing my status or something. But at that point I could just say F them and quit being an adventurer. I don’t he money and while sure it would be cool to get to be an S-rank adventurer, it might not be worth it.

  “Paulina, say I actally happeo travel up and down the road we were supposed to check today, then I just happeo write a report about it and deliver it to your father, do you think he would still pay me for it?” I asked so that the adventurer’s guild employee definitely heard all of it.

  “Of course he would. And he would cel the guild quest right after that. He might even stop sending jobs to the guild as a whole, sidering how much they seem to doubt people he trusts.” Paulina answered, keeping up my not at all subtle hint that I really didn’t want anyone from the guild to e with us.

  “Well, I guess that will make this simple.” I said before turning back to the guild employee. “I’d like to ref…”

  “Please don’t!” She panicked a bit and interrupted me. “Please just wait a moment. I’ll call the guild master. I’m sure he will approve you doing this quest without anyone from the guild having to monitor you.”

  “... sure. Go call him then.” I said. “But please do hurry. I don’t have all day.” I added, just to add a bit more pressure to the guild.

  It’s not that I want to do this, but e on. You have no reason to send someoh us. Overdrive is ohing, but having to expin B.E.S. Big Core to the guild. Yeah, I’d rather not.

  “I already said that he needs an observer, so make sure he has one.” I heard someone speaking in a loud voice, as he roag the front ter.

  “But…” The employee likely tried to tell him something.

  “No buts. Either he is observed, or he doesn’t take the job.” The loud male said, as they finally made it to the main room of the guild.

  He robably in his early thirties, by my estimation. Not too muscur, but still detly well built and his hair was lime green in color.

  I guess I alked about hair colors in this world, so I’ll mention it now. Most people, about 85%, have what I would call ‘normal’ hair colors. You know, brown, bck, blond, gihings you see oh, outside of someone visiting a hair salon. But there are also some with colors that are pletely wild, like his lime green. Assuming that his hair is a natural color, not the result of some magic hair dye.

  Oher hand, dhampirs seem to have a much higher ce for rare hair colors. Putting Lua’s crimson and Ria’s silver aside, all of them have some more rare color. Red and blue were the most on in the vilge, but there was also silver and even the indigo hair of Rosemary. I inally thought that the color of the hair came from magic attributes or something, but that clearly isn’t the case, as shown by Lua and Ria.

  Humans are probably just a b race. Maybe the unnatural hair colors are caused by interbreeding with other races. … or maybe not. I don’t know. I think Tahlia would be better at calg geics than I am. But then again, I feel like she would rather i a time mae or some sort of teleportation device than work out how geics work.

  Anyway, back to the situation at hand.

  “Is that the guild master?” I asked Paulina. I know the st time I ied with a GM for the first time, it didn’t go so well, so if he is the GM, I’ll try to aodate him a bit better. I still won’t allow an observer, but maybe I won’t threaten his job or something like that.

  “No. He is the assistant guild master. He is also the third son of baron Hari Bloggs.” Paulina answered.

  “Oh. Alright.” So he is just an assistant GM. I guess going for his job is fair game then. … Okay, I’ll try not to do it.

  “So, are you the kid who cheats on his quests?” The assistant GM asked.

  “Cheats? Hardly. I uand your suspis about the safety check, but how do you cheat an escort quest or a monster hunt?” I asked.

  “So you admitted it. And it is quite easy. You just buy the monster corpses from other adventurers and have the quest giver fake the paperwork.” The AGM answered.

  “... alright. Well, I guess you could.” I agreed.

  “And another admission. Because of your less than normal speed at pleting quests, we have decided to send an observer with you on your mission. I believe you will have no problem with that.”

  “Well, actually I do. And I won’t go on a quest with an observer.” I answered.

  “... I see. Well, if that is how you want it, so be it. Lei, cel the quest.” He said to the employee.

  “But sir…” She began.

  “cel it. He is a cheater and until he is willing to go out with an observer, he won’t be taking a single quest from this guild.”

  “But sir, the quest he was about to take is nominated for him. And it es from the Earl’s house.” Lei finally was able to say what she wanted.

  “... wa? Show me the quest form!”

  “Sir, please don’t yell. Lady Paulina from the Sawyer house is also present and she would be going on the quest with Mr. Brian.” Lei added, as she hahe form over to the AGM.

  The AGM quickly firmed that statement, by making eye tact with Paulina. Paulina just waved back pyfully. The AGM thehrough the quest form.

  “... fine. Because it es from the Earl and a member of his family is here to make sure it is dht.” He muttered, before talking to us. “But don’t think this is it. Just because you have tact with the nobility, doesn’t mean that you cheat your rank.”

  “I don’t cheat.” I told him. Well, I do, but not with these quests. I cheat in all the other pces. I cheat the system, not the guild. “I’ll be accepting an apology from you when you realize that.” I added.

  “Then just take an observer with you.” He said. “If you show them that you don’t do anything wrong, I’ll gdly apologize for my words.”

  “Sorry, but not to this quest. I have to use some quite secretive teiques to get this quest done in a day, which I don’t want to share. I hope you uand that.”

  “Just because it is the adventurer’s right to keep their status secret outside of their registration, doesn’t mean that the guild likes it. But do as you wish.”

  “Thanks.” I turned back to Lei. “So we are good to go?”

  “Yes. I apologize for all the issues and the dey.”

  “Paulina, are you sure this won’t cause any problems?” I asked as we rode Overdrive towards the nate. Today’s check was going to be on the road heading north. Ironically enough, we would actually pass the town of Bloggs, where the AGM is from. We would also go a bit beyond it, all the way ter town ruled by a vist, who would be attending the birthday party.

  “As the guild gave in, I think it will be fine. But if they cause more troubles, we will help you with them. But at the same time, the guild master should know your situation … with the system, so I don’t think he will allow anything more than that.”

  “... oh. But the assistant GM doesn’t know?”

  “I believe the info was limited just to guild masters, if I recall correctly.”

  “Then how do you know about it? Well, I know I told you, but how do you know info about the guild?”

  “I have my ways.”

  “Of course you do.”

  Once we were outside, we sed to Big Core.

  Other than that, the missio basically the same as it did st time. First, we flew up, north, all the way, marking all of the problem monsters and otherwise pleting the report.

  Then we had a small lunch break.

  “Mystik Wok. Cook up my Hungry Burger.”

  Spoiler[colpse]

  This was going to be today's lunch. I really was craving for a burger. And admittedly, I had eaten all of the bento that I was given by the kit staff at the manor already, because I had been hungry for the entire day. So I had to Wok something up. And when you are super hungry, what is better than a huge burger? Well, maybe pizza. Or a kebab roll.

  But a burger might still be the best because the excessive carbs will make you feel full faster.

  “Brian? Want to expin that?” Paulina asked.

  “I , but what about it? It's just a card that makes me food.”

  “It cooked up your monster, didn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “ you use it to cook up any of your monsters?”

  “Pretty much yeah. But some of my monsters are … metallic, so I don’t think they would taste that good.”

  “But you cook a dragon with it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “... I see. How much would something like that cost? Say I wao buy a cooked dragon for a party.”

  “Like for a birthday party? We e up with a price both of us agree to. Depending on the dragon.” I answered. Admittedly, I have been wanting to taste dragon as well, so I’m more than willing to go along with this. Sure I could do it in the dhampir vilge, but I think a dragon deserves a more fitting pce to be served than that, no offense. And I serve them dragon blood instead.

  “But that burger, it is way te. The ones in the capital are small enough that you hold them in your hand.” Paulina said.

  “... there are burgers in the capital?”

  “Yes. They e from a tiny dungeon, turned restaurant, whily makes burgers. They are quite tasty.”

  “... okay. Well, that’s cool. But don’t worry about the part where the burger is too big. I’ll just use this. Micro Ray.”

  Spoilerspan>

  nro_8

  [colpse]

  A strange device appeared and beamed the cooked burger. As it did, the burger shrunk down to a size where it was ner than a regur burger you get at a standard fast food pce.

  After the device disappeared, I picked up the burger and bit into it.

  “... alright I guess.” It wasn’t the best burger by any means. It was fine, but I’m not the biggest fan of tomato in my burgers and it needed some sauce. So remove the tomato, add some ketchup and mayo, maybe some pickles and the burger would likely be better. But that is just my opinion.

  “Brian, you make me one?” Alice asked.

  “Sure. What about you two? Do you want one as well?” I asked Paulina and Ria.

  “Yes please.”

  “If you would be so kind.”

  With the positive answers, I cooked up four more burgers, shrunk them down and we all ehem. Yes, I wanted a sed for myself. I’m hungry.

  There was one problem with using Micro Ray though. It removed the healing effect of the food. It was still good food and did fill your stomach, but it wouldn’t heal you.

  I guess I o get Shrink instead. At least with that, I should get half of the healing. Hopefully. Also, in case you were w, Ria really liked the burger, but Alid Paulina just found it … fine. Like I did. But then again, Ria likes basically anything. I guess after a lifetime of just blood, anything will taste good. I even asked Ria what her favorite this far has been and she gave an immediate answer.

  “The bck pudding stuff Agatha made.”

  Well, a dhampir is a dhampir. Now I really o make some blood sausages. Then I make bloody hot dogs. … wow that sounded wrong. But still, I think it would be good. Maybe make a blood sauce for it as well. I think you do that at least. And as I ow freeze time in my iory, excuse me, in my ste, I make a big batch of stuff and just hold the rest of it there. venience. Also, we o look into that DDF kit and smithy project.

  After we finished our burgers, we got into a freshly summoned Big Core for our return trip. We also had a moo kill. Alid Ria will have to deal with it as I’m still uhe exp ban from Laura. But I’m sure they will manage, even though it is a B-rank monster.

  nro_8