A Bottom-Tier Adventurer Devoted to Supporting Their Idol Activities: Every Time, They Offer Rare Materials and Stir Up the Elites - Episode 2: The Adventurers' Guild

Episode 2: The Adventurers’ Guild

On the main street of the royal capital, food stalls lined every inch. Among them, the shadiest-looking stall had its owner with his back turned to the customers. He was rummaging through a large black bag.

“Oy, old man, gimme a meat bun.”

The owner twitched like he’d been caught doing something bad. He then turned around with a forced smile on his face.

“Oh, it’s you, Roger.”

“What’s with the ‘oh’? I’m a paying customer! Give me a meat bun.”

“Yeah, yeah, just a sec.”

The meat bun stall owner placed meat on a magical stove and began grilling it.

“The meat today’s safe, right?”

Watching the meat sizzle and smoke with a gamey odor, I asked.

“So far, no one’s keeled over after eating it,. So it should be fine,” 

The owner replied as he kept grilling.

The meat buns sold here were literally just bread with meat inside. But they never told you what kind of meat. Actually, most of the time, even the owner didn’t know.

Why?

Because this stall bought up the unpopular meat that the Adventurers’ Guild wouldn’t take.

The guild only accepted certain types of monster meat. Around the royal capital, something like Horn Rabbits were acceptable. But meat from Grass Wolves—also found nearby—was too smelly and got rejected.

This meat bun stall bought up those kinds of rejected meats from adventurers, grilled them, and sold them in buns.

So the meat inside changed daily. Some days were good, some days were terrible. On the worst days, you’d be stuck with a stomachache for several days.

That’s the kind of fast, cheap, and risky food the meat bun stall offered.

“Here ya go. Extra sauce.”

He handed me a bun stuffed with freshly grilled mystery meat. In exchange, I gave him three copper coins.

“Hey, that meat you brought the other day, Roger, it was super popular. Bring me more if you can.”

Oh, he means that White Dragon meat. Of course it was good—it’s Dragon meat. I still had a bunch left in my backpack. The backpack I got from my parents had a space expansion enchantment; it could fit an entire house inside. It also had a delay enchantment. So the meat wouldn’t spoil anytime soon.

“Yeah, that was from a Giant Snail Lizard. If I find another, I’ll bring it.”

“What the hell kind of monster is that? Don’t make stuff up.”

I didn’t plan on selling any more White Dragon meat. Dragon meat was apparently a powerful lure for other monsters—it made excellent bait. For monsters, eating a Dragon is a special thing.

I waved to the meat bun vendor and strolled down the central street. I was munching as I went.

Tch. That old man put way too much sauce. It’s dripping all over my hand.

And the meat’s tough. Super tough. This must be from an old Grass Wolf… I can’t even bite through it.

I circulated magic quickly around my jaw—partial body enhancement. While I was at it, I sent magic to my stomach too. It was to avoid indigestion.

With my magically enhanced jaw, I easily chewed the tough meat and left the digestion to my stomach.

Magic is super handy. Circulate it inside your body, and your physical abilities increase. The faster the circulation, the stronger the effect.

But the more you circulate it, the faster it drains. The key is to send the necessary amount to the right part at the right time.

Finishing my meat bun, I licked the sauce off my hand and turned off the main street into a side alley.

Suddenly, the sunlight dimmed and the number of people thinned out. The air even felt damper.

A little further in, no one was around. I could now hear the sound of my own footsteps. Which had been drowned out before.

This area was filled with material shops that regular people rarely visited.

Among the buildings here, I entered the sketchiest and messiest one.

“Centipede Shop.”

That’s what I call it. The owner was a hairy old man with caterpillar-like eyebrows. The official name was probably similar.

Materials were piled high—monster hides, horns, jars with strange eyeballs, clearly dangerous dried mushrooms… the goods were truly varied.

I carefully navigated through the store without knocking anything over and reached the caterpillar-browed shopkeeper in the back.

“Yo, old man. You open?”

“Oh, it’s you, Roger.”

He responded disinterestedly.

“Wanna sell some materials.”

“Geez… You’re an adventurer, right? Just sell ‘em at the guild.”

Such a pain…

“No thanks. The guild always appraises stuff, which takes forever. And if I bring in something good, they look at me like, ‘Huh? An F-rank with this? Must be stolen.’ Total hassle.”

“Well, they’ve got no choice. Letting fakes or stolen goods circulate would be a disaster.”

The Adventurers’ Guild always had someone with the [Appraisal] skill to check all materials, magic stones, and meat brought in. Only certified materials got sold to wholesalers.

“So, what’re you selling today?”

I swung my backpack around, reached in, and pulled something out by focusing on it.

“Buy this.”

I laid five large, white-glimmering scales on the counter. Each one was about the size of my palm.

“Whoa… What are these?”

The shopkeeper’s eyes narrowed sharply.

“They’re scales from a Giant Snail Lizard.”

“Bullshit. There’s no such monster! Where’d you get them?”

“Found them in the forest.”

A lie. I had trekked all the way to the border mountains where the White Dragon appeared, fought it to the death, and took these scales.

But I didn’t need to say that. No one would believe an F-rank adventurer did something like that.

“Alright then. One silver coin per scale sound good?”

The guild would probably offer one small gold coin per scale. That’s ten times more. But they’d definitely ask questions, suspect stolen goods, maybe even interrogate me. No thanks.

“Stingy, but fine. I’ve got 45 more. Gimme five small gold coins for the lot.”

“Oh? That many? You really found that many?”

“Yeah. The forests near the capital are full of Giant Snail Lizards lately.”

“Never heard of ‘em.”

The shopkeeper took all fifty scales and laid out five small gold coins on the counter. I tossed them into my backpack.

“Hey Roger, buy something from my store for once. Don’t you like crafting little trinkets?”

I glanced around the store, pretending to think.

“Yeah, but I collect all my own materials for that.”

“Cheh.”

The shopkeeper scowled exaggeratedly. “Fine, fine, get outta here,” he said, waving me off. Though he was smiling. Of course he was—he just got a batch of White Dragon scales for dirt cheap. Even without [Appraisal], any good material dealer would’ve known they were from a Dragon-type.

With a few days’ worth of living expenses in hand, I left the Centipede Shop.

It was lunchtime. It was the time when there were the fewest adventurers at the guild.

I headed back to the main street. I ignored the crowd around the food stalls, and made my way to the center.

Eventually, a solid three-story brick building came into view—the Adventurers’ Guild. As expected, there were few adventurers hanging around. They were either out on jobs or grabbing lunch.

Too many people made it hard to quietly check the job board. That’s why I always came during lunch.

Keeping my presence low, I opened the guild doors.

Looks like the staff were also rotating for lunch breaks. Only a few employees were at the counters. Of course, hardly any adventurers were around—just two veterans sitting on a bench waiting for appraisals.

I silently passed behind the bench and stood in front of the quest board. I wasn’t here to take a job—I just wanted intel on notable monster sightings.

“Oh?”

One request caught my eye: a subjugation mission for a Water Elemental Slime at the southern lake near the capital. Elemental Slimes were Slimes that had absorbed the power of a Spirit. This one had taken in a Water Spirit.

“Maybe I’ll offer this one to my idol next…”

As I grinned and took notes, I suddenly felt a presence behind me. I swiftly hid my memo and turned around.

“Ah, Roger-kun?”

“Oh, it’s the appraiser lady.”

It was a brown-haired girl in the guild uniform. She’d started around the same time I became an adventurer—probably around 18, like me.

“Appraiser lady…? You didn’t remember my name…”

Her face darkened. Yeah, I admit that was rude. But seriously, I don’t remember it!

“If I call you by name, the other adventurers glare at me—like, ‘How dare that F-rank act so familiar?’ I get harassed a lot, so I have to be careful.”

“Oh, I see… sorry about that.”

She brightened up again and continued.

“Haven’t seen you take any requests lately. Find anything interesting today?”

“Nah. All the requests looked kinda tough. So I’m passing today.”

“Hmm. You don’t join a party?”

A party? Ugh, no way. Too much hassle. It’d restrict my schedule and, worst of all, I might miss streams from the White Orchid Magic Corps.

I’ve been supporting Ellel-chan since she was in a sub-group. She finally made it into the main squad.

To keep living my oshi-centered life, I couldn’t afford to waste time in a party!

“If I joined a party, I’d just be a burden to the others.”

“Oh… I’m sorry…”

She put a hand to her mouth.  She was looking like something clicked in her memory.

“I’ve got something to do, so—”

I left her behind and walked out of the guild.