One week after my registration as an adventurer, I finally reach D-rank as an adventurer. It's not that fast but it's still considered faster than average time for adventurers reaching this rank after registration.
The receptionist had told me before when I first registered that there are officially five adventurer ranks. From E to A. But there's also a special rank that even the adventurers' guild themselves unable to give without permission from some special people like the King of a country. It's S-rank. Only a few people reached that rank.
I have no desire to be an S-rank adventurer. But increasing my rank is a good goal to have.
Nowadays, I can use slip magic more than before. It's thanks to the fact that I keep using the magic every day and how I smoke the red grass cigarette as much as possible. It's not weird for me to smoke fifty cigarettes in a day.
The increase of mana from a single red grass cigarette is miniscule as I explained before. But fifty a day is good enough to increase the limit of my slip magic usage by one. Even if slip magic doesn't use much mana originally, it's still something, right?
I walk out of the adventurers' guild and grabbed a cigarette from my pocket and a matchstick. I look like a smoke addict but that's not the case at all. I hope that's not the case.
I never felt any side effect from the cigarette after one week of smoking and over two hundreds of cigarettes. I still have good stamina and I still trained my swordsmanship every day. I think this is totally safe.
I wonder why red grass is not useful for mana increase potion. The researchers have looked it up, right? Why is only by inhaling them will it work and no one tried it? Why not other ways of consumption like eating or drinking? I don't know. And that's not important.
"Hey!"
Someone calls me over. I saw him in the guild a few times. He's a fellow adventurer who often takes mission with his party. He's alone now.
"What is it?"
"That. Please give me one," he points his finger at my cigarette.
"Here. I have to warn you that it doesn't have any taste or odor."
Cigars and cigarettes exist in this world and many people are smoking like me. But my cigarette is the only one with no odor or taste.
"Then why are you smoking it?" he asks curiously after he grabs the cigarette I threw at him.
"…To look cool?"
"You're not cool at all. Tell me why," he says as he raises his fingers to his mouth. With the cigarette on his mouth he flicked his finger and light the cigarette ups. He's a mage confident in fire magic.
I actually know him from the game. He's a rather famous adventurer specialized in fire magic, Hal. He's just an extra though and not important for the main storyline. Just had some parts in the side story.
"I can tell you why but you have to keep it a secret because I don't want anyone else to know it. At least not yet."
"Sure. That's easy," he says.
"Red grass is common. There's no effect if consumed normally and they're not material for alchemy or anything. But if you wrap a paper and smoke it, they will increase your maximum mana. It's very miniscule though," I explain it honestly because I knew from the game that he's a loner who doesn't have any friend to talk about. It's not that he's a shy introvert but his party got disbanded after they got recruited by different parties and he ended up working alone since then.
Previously I saw him still in a party but I guess it's happening now. He's going to be a solo adventurer from now.
"Really? Is that the truth?" he asks.
"At least to me it is. But I need to smoke fifty of them in a day to show differences. I can use one extra magic because I smoked fifty of them in a day," I say.
"That's a lot. Any side effect?" Hal asks.
"None. At least there's no side effect that I know of."
"Thanks for telling me. If this helps with my max mana, then I'll smoke this every day. Fifty is a bit too much for me though. But maybe just a few every day. Especially since I will start working on my own from now," Hal says.
"I saw you with your party before. You're already disbanded?" I ask.
"Unfortunately, yeah. It's so sudden and they never told me so I feel betrayed. I think working alone is better for now. This is an advice from a senior adventurer to you. Even with a party, you can only really trust on yourself first," he says.
"I'll keep that in mind."
I think working alone is better for me. But there are still people that I think will be good if they're in a party with me. Maybe I will still be alone but that's okay.
We made a small talk before I finished my cigarette and left. He really considers of harvesting more red grass on his own after this. Whether that's true or not, at least I left some impression on him. He's a good guy at least in the game so being in his good side is nice.
Now that I'm a D-rank adventurer, I want to go out and explore the world. I need to go to places where I can grow stronger. I told my parents at home and they didn't mind it knowing that I will leave one day.
"You can leave. Is there a way for us to contact you then? If you keep travelling, we can't contact each other because you will keep moving from one place to another," Mom asks.
"In a few years once I'm good enough, I think of attending Dahlia Academy. I'll contact you once I got accepted. Before then, maybe I'll go back home once in a while," I say.
With my slip magic, I can manipulate where I'm sliding to and it helps with travel. I can move faster than the fastest horse so maybe I'll return home sooner.
Dahlia Academy is the place I want to go. Well, I don't really need to go there. But that place is where the main story mostly happened in the game. The protagonist will be there as well including many other important characters in the game.
But that's just one school. And in the future, the demons will invade the world and not just one school. The world will be affected by the invasion. It's not like I have to be there.
But there's someone I have to meet there. And after gathering information to find out the current timeline, I know that in three years when I'm eighteen, that's when the protagonist will start going to the academy. I don't wish to be in the same class as him but if I'm in the place where most of the main story happened, I will be able to predict and react to what will happen.
This world is not the same as it was in the game. There's no level so you don't know how strong you are. So if I go somewhere where I know most of the story about, I should be safer than if I'm somewhere that's not mentioned in the main storyline.
I just learned my talent and three years is still too soon for me to face any real danger. Going to the academy will put me in a safer environment where I can grow stronger steadily.
And then a few days later, there's an escort mission to another city. A merchant asks for some adventurers to escort him and his caravan to another city. I decided to take the mission.
Surprisingly, Hal is there as well. He joined the mission with a cigarette in his mouth.
"I'm not addicted to this. I can stop anytime I want," he says when he sees me staring at his cigarette.
Whether that's the truth or not, I don't know. That's probably the same as me as well.
Other than us two, there are other adventurers as well. In total we have seven adventurers. A group of two and another group of three. Only Hal and I are solo adventurers.
I bid my farewell to my parents and join the caravan. We left early in the morning the day after taking up the request.
"You're a D-rank newbie? To reach D-rank in a week is quite average. I reached it in five days," someone from a group of three says.
"I reached it in three days. It's easy if you take harder missions every day," another person from that group says.
Everyone seems friendly other than Hal who prefers to be alone. Although we both smoke, they don't mind it if we're close because the smoke is odorless and doesn't bother anyone. They just believe that we're smoking to look cool. I know it's not, okay?
The journey is one week-long. The destination is another city near the border of Vassel. I'm taking this mission because my destinations are not within Vassel's territory. They're mostly in other countries because there's nothing here that worth it for me to explore.
Once I cleared all those undiscovered dungeons, I should be many times stronger than I am now. I want to clear as many as possible before attending Dahlia Academy in three years.