[Heaven Rewards Diligence, an end will surely come.]

[Current Skills: Basic Sword Technique lv.3, Basic Dodge lv.3, Execution Hand Blade lv.3, Sword Qi Slash lv.3, Hypnosis Resistance lv.2, Advanced Meditation Method lv.1, Wrath of Finality (Uninitiated)]

[Current Remaining Time: Six years.]

[Held Monster Time: Seventy years.]

---

The next morning, Banxia returned the magic tome and notebook to Roxy.

The speed of it made her assume he'd given up on pursuing magic altogether.

Not that she was complaining. She let out a quiet breath of relief. He was already a terrifyingly powerful warrior, if he kept advancing in magic on top of that, she'd have essentially zero presence.

Though, if she was being honest, her presence wasn't exactly overwhelming to begin with...

Over the next few days, Banxia stayed home to rest and recuperate. In between, he found a blacksmith and had a scabbard fitted for the greatsword. Only when his body and mind had both hit their peak did he finally step out the door.

"Eh? Another quest already?" Roxy looked up at him from the doorway, surprised.

Most adventurers spent a good stretch of time recovering after a job, plenty of them burned through their earnings just enjoying the downtime. When money wasn't an issue, very few were eager to go back to dancing on the edge of death. Especially when they'd just walked away with a haul as big as this one.

"Is that a problem?" Banxia asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Uh — no, it's not a problem. Give me a moment to pack."

---

The Adventurers Guild.

It was still early. Only a handful of morning risers drifted in front of the commission board, scanning the listings with unhurried eyes.

Since word had gotten out that the guild master was injured by a powerful monster, the city gate inspections had tightened and the number of available commissions had shrunk, but there hadn't been a hard freeze. Quests were still posted, just nowhere near the flood of them that had been available at peak times.

That left more than a few parties quietly nursing their wounds. Every commission slip they'd grabbed carried a deadline, and missing it meant paying breach penalties. The more aggressively they'd snatched them up, the worse the bleeding felt now.

"Looking for a vanguard and a mage, anyone want to run a quest together?!"

Near the edge of the hall, three young adventurers held up a quest slip and scanned the room hopefully.

Nobody bit. Veterans took one look at that clearly cobbled-together party and decided they'd rather go it alone.

"Maybe we should just drop it," the rogue said first. "It's only a Copper-rank investigation job. One cleric, one rogue, one ranger, we can handle it easy."

"I say the same," the ranger added. "Two fewer people means a bigger cut."

Lucius, the cleric and party leader, frowned.

The three of them had grown up together in a small village near Alterna, only recently climbing from novice to Copper rank. The warrior and mage who used to round out their group had both died in combat, lost to monsters, and those two slots had stayed empty ever since.

For a combat quest, filling them wasn't optional. But the commission in Lucius's hand was, at the end of the day, just an investigation...

Lucius was still turning it over when a calm voice cut through from just ahead.

"What's the quest?"

Lucius looked up.

The first thing Lucius saw was a two-handed greatsword dangling from one hand, the blade as tall as a person, held like it weighed nothing. The young man carrying it was powerfully built, wrapped in a dark gray coat. Standing there, he looked like a silent wall.

At his side was a petite girl in a pointed hat, blue twin-tails framing her face, a staff in her hand.

A warrior and a mage. Exactly what the party needed.

Except,

"The quest is about drowned spirits showing up at the docks. They've already killed several sailors, apparently... Adventurers are needed to go investigate..."

Lucius couldn't explain it. Those calm eyes were just looking at Lucius, not doing anything, and still Lucius's throat tightened and the words came out in pieces.

"The rank?"

"C, Copper rank."

"An investigation quest." Banxia's expression didn't shift. "Sorry to bother you, then."

"N, no, it's fine..."

The two figures turned and walked away. Only then did the rogue and ranger, who had not breathed the entire time, rush forward to steady Lucius.

"You okay?"

Lucius shook their head slowly.

They watched that broad back move away through the hall, greatsword still in hand, not a single glance behind. After a moment, Lucius let out a quiet sigh.

"If we could ever recruit a vanguard that strong..."

The other two exchanged a look, then glanced down at the Copper rank stamped on their tags and smiled wryly.

"For adventurers who came out of a little village like ours, landing an Iron-rank vanguard someday would already be something to brag about."

---

"I'm sorry, sir. You're still a novice adventurer, and regulations don't permit accepting quests above your current rank."

The receptionist delivered this with a polite smile to the large young man across the counter.

"...I turned in a quest last time. Why am I still a novice?" He didn't sound pleased.

"It works like this, sir." She paused, gentling her tone a fraction. "That previous commission was accepted under the name of Miss Roxy, the Iron-rank adventurer beside you. When it was submitted, the completed record was credited to Miss Roxy alone."

"Are you serious..."

"Please understand, the guild's assessment system has always worked this way. It exists to prevent people who aren't ready from being carried by a party, only to become a liability in the field and get someone killed."

Banxia: "..."

"Oh, and, Miss Roxy." The receptionist shifted her attention to the petite girl beside him. "After you left the city last time, we reviewed your records. Your completed commission count has reached the promotion threshold. Would you like to upgrade your tag to Silver-rank now?"

"...Please." Roxy glanced once at Banxia before holding out her tag.

Whatever the case, the higher her rank, the wider the range of commissions their two-person party could take on. That was good for both of them.

"In that case," Banxia said, after turning it over for a moment, "are there any novice quests worth recommending?"

He'd heard enough from veterans in taverns and pleasure houses, travelers who had crossed half the continent and back, that the Continental Adventurers Guild had branches spread across the entire continent, and an adventurer tag carried more weight than a noble's letter of introduction. Sometimes more than a king's own decree.

He was heading north eventually. Higher rank meant fewer doors closed in his face.

"Let me check what novice quests we're currently recommending." The receptionist lowered her head and flipped through the logbook.

"We have harvesting purulent scab moss — that's the primary ingredient for wound-healing potions — delivering a letter to the docks, and slaying five goblins with ears collected as proof..."

"Goblins."

"May your quest go smoothly."

---

They were through the guild doors before Roxy finally let out what she'd been holding back.

"Mr. Banxia... you're actually still a novice adventurer."

"Yep."

"I assumed that because your previous party was wiped out, you were just... reluctant to accept quests under your own tag."

"Why would I do that?"

Roxy: "..."

➤ Next: I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 36 - I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Goblins were an exceptionally weak monster.

They had survived to this day not because humanity lacked the means to deal with them, but because the returns on exterminating them were simply too low.

Dispatching an army for a sweep would cost more in military expenditure than the spoils could ever recover. A net loss. So the kingdom simply turned a blind eye.

The goblins of this world weren't quite like the ones Banxia had seen in fantasy stories during his past life.

They didn't drag women back to their nests for breeding. They were just ordinary monsters.

He had never really understood that kind of trope. If goblins were truly that repulsive yet lacked the racial strength to back it up, how could they possibly survive under the noses of human armies and high-ranked adventurers without being wiped out entirely?

The two-person adventurer party rented horses from the merchant guild and rode out past the city gates.

"If I remember right, the Old District and the New District are goblin territory, aren't they?"

Banxia studied the hazy outline of the forest in the distance. He had no interest in wasting time wandering through the wilderness hunting monsters one by one on blind luck.

"That's correct." Roxy considered for a moment, pulling from what she'd read. "Though goblins as a species migrate with their entire clan when the seasons change. Once harsh winter hits in the south, they move north."

"There's actually something like that?!" Banxia blinked.

He had always treated the goblin clan as his own personal back garden, planning to wait until his strength was even more overwhelming, then head in and farm a massive haul all at once.

And now he was being told this back garden could grow legs and walk away on its own.

"It hasn't snowed yet, though, so for now it should only be the Goblin King leading a small advance group to start the migration."

"Is that so. Then we'd better move fast."

Watching the young man sink into thought, Roxy offered some reassurance.

"There's really no need to be that tense. Even if most of the goblins have migrated, we only need five. At most, that's a day's work."

Banxia said nothing.

And so the two of them rode through the forest for quite a while.

Gradually, the furrow in Banxia's brow eased. Something seemed to occur to him. He turned and looked at the blue-haired girl riding beside him.

"Miss Roxy, in the wild — what draws monsters fastest, and over the widest range?"

"Probably the mana fluctuations a mage releases," Roxy answered on instinct.

The moment the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

His eyes were fixed on her, unblinking. The intensity burning in them made her look away.

"Miss Roxy, I have never once asked anyone for a favor in this world..."

"Mr. Banxia, why are you suddenly being so strange..." The bizarre phrasing set off every alarm she had. She instinctively edged away, both hands already raised to guard her chest.

They were far from any settlement. Just the two of them, a man and a woman, alone in the middle of a forest.

If he...

"There is something very important I need to ask of you."

"Th-that sort of thing — not out here..."

...

"Magic to light a campfire."

"Magic to irrigate a field."

The two spells met in midair. Steam and fire collided with a violent burst, throwing up a massive plume of white mist laced with mana fluctuations. It billowed up over the Old District in a roiling column that looked wrong from every angle.

"Is this finally good enough, Mr. Banxia?!" Roxy lowered her staff. Her tone was flat as a board.

"Did I do something to upset you, Miss Roxy?"

"Not in the slightest!"

"..."

Banxia wisely let it go.

Before long, the first wave of guests came creeping toward them, drawn by the mana.

A squad of seven goblins. At their head was one wearing battered, tattered armor, a goblin guard, baring its teeth and peering in their direction.

"Magic to manipulate water flow—" Roxy had barely raised her staff before the young man beside her pushed it back down.

"Leave all the monsters to me."

"Huh? Isn't it all the same?" Roxy was puzzled.

The quest only asked for five goblin ears. What difference did it make who struck the blow?

"This is my trial!"

"What?"

She didn't even have time to make sense of those baffling words before the young man vanished.

A flash of silver. All seven goblins kept walking, completely unaware their heads had already left their shoulders. Half a step forward, and the heads hit the ground in a row.

[Ding! Monster slain: Goblin. Total lifespan acquired: twenty-three years. Remaining lifespan: four years.]

[Ding! Monster slain: Goblin. Total lifespan acquired: twenty-four years. Remaining lifespan: six years.]

[Monster time currently held: one hundred years.]

"It's not like I'd steal your kills. What's the rush..." Roxy muttered under her breath.

"..."

Banxia didn't argue. He was too busy scanning the surroundings, vigilant, terrified that some monster might wander into Roxy's line of fire by accident.

The boost from his enhanced spirit was immediate.

The faintest rustle anywhere nearby, and he already knew about it.

BOOM,

In the ruins to the right, another goblin squad had been quietly closing in. They never got the chance to show themselves. The young man dropped from above and cratered them into the earth, goblins and ground alike reduced to a smear of mangled flesh.

[Ding! Monster slain: Goblin. Total lifespan acquired: twenty-three years. Remaining lifespan: four years.]

"At least leave the ears!" Roxy stared at the unrecognizable pulp on the ground and couldn't stop herself from shouting.

"It's fine."

"How is that fine?! We need the ears to turn in the quest!"

"...Oh. I almost forgot about that."

Roxy took a slow, deliberate breath.

Somehow, even though this was clearly the young man's own rookie quest, she cared about his promotion far more than he did.

What did he mean, "almost forgot"? Hadn't they come all this way specifically to help him get through the rookie period as fast as possible?

She gripped her staff a little tighter and stole a glance at him, crouched at the edge of the ruins, eyes fixed on the distance, attention absolute.

Had Mr. Banxia been keeping his guard up against her this whole time?

Why...?

Aren't we companions?

...

Time passed. The sunset's last light retreated inch by inch through the gaps in the broken walls.

Not a single clean patch of ground was left in the Old District plaza. Goblin remains and dried blood-mud covered every inch.

Roxy stood at the edge of the plaza. She had long since lost count of how many times she'd cast that steam spell today.

But something strange had happened. At some point in the afternoon, it had simply stopped working. No matter how wide she spread the mana fluctuations, not one more monster surfaced. The two of them had ranged far in every direction and found nothing, not a single living creature.

"Um... Mr. Banxia, it's already night," Roxy said carefully.

She hadn't dared raise her voice for a while now.

The man in front of her had planted his greatsword in the ground. He stood in the middle of it all, goblin remains strewn everywhere around him, wearing an expression that was perfectly, impossibly calm. Content, even.

"Night already, huh." Banxia shook the remnants off his blade and exhaled, long and slow. Every muscle in his body felt loose.

[Monster time currently held: 930 years.]

He looked at the number on the panel. He looked down at the debris covering the ground. And a thought arrived, clear and complete.

Was this what the ancients meant by "lay down the butcher's blade and become a Buddha on the spot"?

He hadn't realized he had so much Buddha-nature in him, he reflected, with mild appreciation for himself.

Pity, though, he hadn't even managed to lay down his butcher's blade before the monsters all ran out first.

➤ Next: Mana Concealment