Alterna.

The only major defensive fortress on the border of the Kingdom of Arabagia, sitting in the region of the Tenryu Mountains.

To the south it bordered the sea, but the coastline was a nest of monsters, no fishing ports, no merchant ships, nothing of the sort.

Mountain ranges stretched in every direction. Large merchant caravans simply couldn't get through.

This city lacked everything. Everything, that is, except things related to monsters.

The sole trade route into the kingdom's interior cut straight through the Cairo Forest, where the beastfolk made their home.

Which was precisely why Alterna's city lord went to such lengths to stay in the good graces of the beastfolk tribes, those "half-breeds" that the pure-blood humans of the inland treated like dirt.

Banxia pushed out through the outer edge of the Cairo Forest and drew a long, slow breath of air that held no trace of blood.

"Praise the Goddess, I'm still alive."

He mocked the phrasing of those church types, lifted his foot, and started toward the city gates.

He made it two steps before he stopped and turned back, eyes drifting toward the depths of the forest behind him.

His enhanced body gave him hearing that left ordinary humans far behind, and right now it was picking up the sound of a carriage rolling in from somewhere in the distance.

Coming out of the Cairo Forest, it could only be someone from another city.

Sure enough, before long, a cheap open-top carriage trundled into view.

The bed was piled high with lumpy cargo bundled under coarse cloth.

"Traveling merchants."

Traveling merchants: traders who belonged to no guild, working alone, buying local goods from one city and hauling them to wherever demand was high enough to turn a profit.

It sounded like a good life. In practice, it was brutal.

Communication in this world was nothing like the modern era. You had no way of knowing whether your cartload of goods would be worth anything by the time you reached the next city. One bad trip could wipe you out entirely.

Add in the dangers of the road, and this wasn't a life just anyone had the nerve for.

Banxia's gaze sharpened slightly, settling on the two figures at the front of the carriage.

A man and a woman. Both looked young, probably a few years younger than him.

Venturing out into the world alone at that age. He felt something, briefly. Not much, but something.

He had no intention of getting involved, though. He stepped off the muddy main road, moving a few paces to the side, planning to let the carriage pass before he got moving again.

He didn't expect it to slow to a stop right beside him.

"Hey, is Alterna up ahead?"

The youth at the reins looked down and asked.

Medium-length blonde hair slid off one shoulder, catching the light that filtered through the tree canopy in a faint shimmer.

"Yeah. Follow this road straight and you'll be there in a few minutes," Banxia answered without much thought.

His eyes lingered on the other's face a beat longer than intended.

An androgynous voice. A face softer than most women's. A frame almost too slender.

Could a man actually be that beautiful?

...I've been under too much stress. I need to get back and decompress. He turned the thought over privately and shifted his gaze to the woman sitting beside the blonde youth.

She wasn't tall, and a wide-brimmed lace-trimmed hat was pulled low over most of her face, which only made you want to look closer.

"We're traveling merchants from Twin Moon City," the blonde youth offered. "We've got a load of specialty pelts from over there. Looking to sell them here. Though we're not sure what the market's like..."

"If it's trade advice you're after, I can't help you," Banxia said, waving a hand. "I only got here a month ago."

"'Got here?'" At those words, the young woman's hat tilted up slightly. Wine-red eyes turned toward him.

The blonde youth went briefly still, then spoke quickly. "My apologies — my spouse is from outside the Kingdom of Arabagia..."

"No need." Banxia shrugged it off. "The Church pulling people from other worlds to use as cannon fodder isn't exactly a secret."

"Ah. So you're one of the heroes summoned from another world."

"Just call me Banxia."

"Banxia. You can call me Hashaka."

...

Catching a ride on the carriage cut a good chunk off his travel time, and Banxia made it back to the city sooner than expected.

He said his goodbyes to the young merchant couple and walked straight for the Adventurers Guild.

About thirty minutes later, a four-story building rose up ahead of him.

In a district of mostly two- and three-story low buildings, the Adventurers Guild was the undisputed centerpiece of the whole street.

People streamed in and out of the entrance in a constant flow, as loud and lively as a market that never closed.

Above the stone portico hung a heavy wooden sign:

[Continental Adventurers Guild · Alterna Branch]

This was only Banxia's second time here.

The first was a month ago, the day he'd been summoned, coming here with Marl to pick up equipment and register their identity nameplates.

He hadn't expected that in just one short month, the place would be exactly the same while everything else had changed.

He shook his head, once, and walked inside.

The moment he stepped through the door and looked up, it was there: a giant serpent skull mounted high on the wall at the far end of the hall, so massive it would take two people with arms fully extended to wrap around it.

Word was that decades ago, a Platinum-rank adventurer passing through Alterna had killed this thing personally.

More than a few people newly arrived from the modern world had had their legs give out at first sight of it.

Even seeing it a second time, Banxia felt his attention snag. The serpent had been dead for years, but its imperishable skeleton, and the overwhelming pressure that had practically solidified into something physical, still spoke of what it had been when it was alive.

And the organization that could produce adventurers capable of killing something like this, what kind of titan was that?

This was only a single branch, in one corner of one continent.

He pulled his gaze away, used what he remembered from his first visit to navigate around the people moving through the hall, and made his way to the reception counter along the side wall.

Behind the counter, a young receptionist with a short ponytail had her head down, working through the commissions submitted by the line of adventurers one by one.

The line wasn't long. He only waited a short while before it was his turn.

"Hi. Quest turn-in."

He set two pouches on the counter, one holding scabby moss, the other goblin ears.

"Where's your party badge?" The receptionist looked up at him with a puzzled expression.

"Party badge? Does this work?" Banxia placed the pendant he'd taken from Marl on the counter in front of her.

"That's Cleric Marl's party." The receptionist seemed to remember. An androgynous appearance wasn't something you forgot easily.

"Just yesterday you all paid ten silver coins and registered in such high spirits, and you've already completed the commission you took? That really is remark—"

"Cleric Marl and the other two members of the party are dead."

"Eh?"

"We were caught in a goblin trap and surrounded. We fought as hard as we could. I was the only one who made it out."

"I see..." The receptionist paused for just a moment. When she looked back at him, there was a faint trace of pity in her eyes.

"Don't be too sad. From the moment they chose to become adventurers, they must have been ready for this. The mortality rate in this line of work has always been what it is..."

"Yeah." Banxia nodded.

The receptionist said nothing more, as though partings like this were something she'd long since stopped feeling.

She lowered her head again and worked through the documents, checking each item against the records.

"The scabby moss you brought back is more than enough — it actually exceeds the commission amount. But that's fine; the guild will purchase the surplus at the standard rate all the same."

"As for the goblin ears, the apothecaries in the inner city are always buying. Market rate is one silver coin per pair. The guild can handle the sale on your behalf, though a processing fee will be deducted per regulations."

"And then there are the damaged silver coins. You understand how it is, damaged currency loses a significant portion of its value, and most shops won't touch them. The guild can only handle them as a pawn transaction, at most forty copper coins per damaged silver coin."

"That said, if those terms don't work for you, you're free to find your own buyers. The guild is just one option."

"..."

➤ Next: Class Card

Chapter 6 - Class Card

"By the way, looking at you, I'm guessing you haven't bought a Class Card yet?"

Seeing the young man pick up his coin pouch and turn to leave, the receptionist seized her chance to make a pitch.

"A Class Card?"

"It's a new thing the Church only rolled out a few years ago. It displays an adventurer's specific status and rates them on a scale of level one to one hundred."

"So there's something that convenient." Banxia perked up.

"Of course. This is a miraculous invention from the Holy Capital Stral — the beacon of hope for all mankind."

"...It's not too expensive, is it?"

"Not at all. A mere twenty silver coins, and you get a complete picture of where you stand."

"That's pretty expensive..."

"How is that expensive? It's been that price for years."

"...All right, could I get one, please."

After a moment's thought, Banxia decided to pay up.

He had absolutely no concrete sense of where his strength currently stood.

One-shotting a few goblins was hardly something to brag about.

The weakest monsters out there simply weren't enough to show him which tier he actually occupied.

"Thank you for your business!"

The receptionist accepted the silver coins with a smile.

Banxia took from her a card made of some material he couldn't quite identify.

"How do I use this?"

"Hold it in your palm and silently count to five."

Banxia did as instructed.

A few seconds later, a projection resembling an online game's stat panel floated up in front of him.

[Name: Banxia

Identity: Pureblood Human

Class: Warrior

Level: 18

Status: Good]

"That's it?" Banxia felt vaguely cheated. This thing was far too bare-bones.

"So, how'd it go?" The receptionist perked up. "By the time most newbies scrape together enough to buy one of these, they've already passed level five — and turned into middle-aged men in the process. What level are you?"

"Can't the Guild see it from your end?"

"Of course not. It's a Church item, after all. Unless the person shows it themselves, outsiders just see a wall of fog... Don't tell me you're level one?"

"More or less." Banxia gave a vague reply.

"Hmph~ I knew it."

"By the way, what's the highest level on record at the Guild?"

"That I couldn't say exactly, but the Guildmaster is a Platinum-rank adventurer at level twenty-nine."

"Only level twenty-nine?"

"What do you mean, 'only' twenty-nine!" The receptionist's brow furrowed. "Newbies shouldn't be so arrogant.

The Guildmaster is one of the strongest fighters in Alterna. Level twenty-nine is genuinely remarkable."

"Ah, sorry, sorry."

"Hmph. That's more like it. Newbies should stop daydreaming and focus on making it to level five within ten years, earn your Iron-rank first, then talk."

The receptionist was clearly still annoyed, and Banxia had no interest in poking the bear further. He said his goodbyes and left.

Still, he'd picked up quite a bit of useful information from the exchange. Level five was roughly the minimum threshold for Iron-rank adventurer status.

He'd gotten a rough picture of the Guild's ranking structure a month ago.

F-rank requests were for fresh beginners just starting out; above that, those who could take E-rank missions were Iron-rank adventurers; D-rank required Silver; C-rank required Gold.

Higher-tier requests were monopolized entirely by the top tier, Platinum-rank adventurers.

Going by what the receptionist said, level five was the floor for Iron-rank.

Which meant his current Warrior panel at level eighteen, plus two lv.1 skills, probably put him somewhere decent among all the adventurers in this city.

"..."

......

Outside the Guild, Banxia weighed the shriveled coin pouch in his hand. Seven silver coins left.

Dead man's money plus mission reward, and buying one basic Class Card had eaten through most of it.

He let out a sigh.

In this world, money really didn't go far.

But having lived two lives, he'd long since made peace with that. Live for the moment, that was the only right answer.

Besides, didn't they always say that only when you're pushed to the brink of death do you truly see what you want most?

After his fierce fight with those goblins, Banxia knew exactly what he needed right now.

"Pleasure house! Here I come!"

The layout of Alterna's city districts was nothing like the typical medieval castle town he had in mind.

This was a massive border city packed with a full two hundred thousand people.

The Continental Adventurers Guild sat at the center of the outer ward, and this area was also where they, the summoned cannon fodder heroes, had been put up.

Worn down by years of war and neglect, the outer ward was in shambles almost everywhere except for the main road leading to the inner city, and even the guards on patrol were ordinary mortals.

Banxia's preferred high-end pleasure houses, on the other hand, were all in the inner city.

Land there was worth its weight in gold. It was where the upper nobility clustered, alongside the finest noble academies and high-ranking clergy.

He'd even heard adventurers at the tavern mention that many of the inner city's guards were seasoned retired adventurers.

The streets were wide and clean. The civilians living there carried themselves in a way that was entirely unlike the people of the outer ward, and class holders were everywhere you looked.

The kingdom's most elite troops were stationed there as well. Even petty criminals were rarely seen, it was a hundred times safer than the outer ward.

He hadn't felt it so sharply while living inside, but now, coming back from his very first mission outside the walls, a line surfaced in his mind unbidden.

Behind vermilion gates, meat and wine rot; along the road lie the bones of the frozen.

The privileged nobles of his previous life had at least put on a show of pretending.

But here, separated by nothing more than a single city wall, it was the difference between heaven and hell.

The root of it was simple: individual martial power had long since reached a point where raw numbers alone couldn't bury it.

Take Banxia right now, to bring him down using nothing but ordinary people, you'd need at least eight hundred of them, by conservative estimate.

And only if he held his ground and fought to the death without retreating.

"...Whatever. It's not sage time yet. Why am I even thinking about this."

Banxia tucked the remaining seven silver coins into his pocket and turned toward the inner city with a light step.

"I didn't get to enjoy the full experience with that Forest Elf last time. This time I'm going all the way."

......

Dusk had already fallen, yet Alterna's most renowned pleasure street was still blazing with light.

Not just oil lamps, some of the more extravagant establishments had commissioned mages to craft custom magical devices that emitted neon-colored glows, bathing the entire street in a hazy, ambiguous shimmer.

Shops from every race lined up side by side, each door opening onto an entirely different world.

"Hey, handsome — just a little while~"

"This..."

"You're so good-looking, I'll give you thirty percent off."

"..."

Banxia, who had been thinking about finding the Forest Elf to discuss the great matters of life, now found himself facing a serious crisis.

......

......

"..."

......

➤ Next: A Certain Beauty in Sheer Strength