There were people downstream the river. He heard a conversation of a middle-aged man raising a fishing pole and his wife.
“D-dear.”
“Hm?”
“We just… caught sashimi!”
A live catfish with its bandages almost fallen off had bitten their fishing pole's bait and was coming up.
“The world is truly difficult.”
SwordNoob sat down under a large old tree.
His Sword Mastery skill was Advanced level 6 at 89 %. With growth at an unbelievable speed, it was at a stage where Master level of Sword Mastery was not far. But what worth was there in raising his level and polishing his Sword Mastery skill?
“This is the vice of an old dog. Might there not be a middle-aged woman wandering around alone?”
Even trying to start a conversation with pretended friendliness with a woman he'd never seen before was awkward. A husband coming to take her away while he was observing and agonizing over whether it was fine to talk to her had happened to him a couple times, so he didn't even have the will to try anymore.
When SwordNoob was condemning himself, a girl who looked to be in her late teens approached him.
“Mister, what are you doing here?”
“…”
SwordNoob didn't reply and flicked his hand as if to shoo her away. Looking like a player, the human girl was considerably cute and pretty.
'She'll probably just ask me about the hunting ground.'
Normally he would answer her kindly. It wasn't because he wanted to do something bad to the adorable and young girl, but so that he could give her at least a little help.
'Zephyr also gave advice. It's important to have lots of conversations with women.'
Actually, a girl starting a conversation with him only numbered a few times in SwordNoob's life. He was big, so his appearance was one that women couldn't easily approach. But more than that, his eyes and spirit were on a different level from normal people, so even gangsters avoided him.
Right now, he wanted to be alone because he felt like wanting to quit it all. However, the girl sat down in front of SwordNoob with no intention of leaving.
“Hey mister, are you alone?”
SwordNoob only slightly nodded his head. 'Seeing as she's intentionally asking on, is she a merchant who's trying to sell something? Or does she want help? Guess I should give her a roughly useful weapon if I've got one left.'
The girl hesitated for a moment before asking again. “Would you like to hunt with us?”
At the words that differed from his expectations, SwordNoob was a little curious. “Are you inviting me to your party right now?”
Towards his disciples, he stuck to a short and stern way of talking. He tried not to alarm the girl, but his voice was even more low and grave because he didn't have much experience with talking to the opposite sex.
Spurred on by his not-adverse reaction, the girl's voice gained strength. “Let's hunt together, okay?”
“Maybe. It's a pain… if you'd like a hunting ground recommendation, I can do that much for you.”
“We came all the way here from Rosenheim Kingdom. It's a little too much for us to hunt on our own, you see.”
“Huh.” In the end, SwordNoob couldn't refuse this cute girl's request and rose from his seat. 'Alright. I've got nothing else to do, so it won't be bad to hunt with them for a bit.'
Even if the girl had come acting friendly on purpose because she wanted help, he planned to let that much go.
SwordNoob asked without much thought, “Your other companions are?”
“There are two people, my mom and youngest aunt. Mom's profession is Elementalist and Aunt's profession is Summoner.”
Women often picked those professions because the spirits or summoned creatures were cute.
'Elementalist, Summoner. And is this child a Magician? I guess it would be hard for the three of them to hunt.'
Even as they walked to the party, the girl kept chattering. “Dad is busy from work, so he can't play with us. My youngest aunt still doesn't have a boyfriend from graduating from college and studying abroad.” For some reason, the girl was describing the youngest aunt in detail. “She's an accountant. She's thirty-two this year, but she's never dated 'cause she drowned herself in studying. She's pretty, skinny, and also has a good personality. There's a big age gap between her and my mom, so she also played with me like a sister since I was young.”
“I see.”
“But her standards are high, so… she went on a few blind dates, but she said she didn't even see most men as men and left right away.”
“Her standards must be high.”
SwordNoob listened to her words impassively. Then they reached the location of the girl's party. There was a calm-looking, middle-aged woman with a big dog-like spirit, and a lady with a graceful face in her early 30s.
The girl grinned as she said, “My aunt likes macho men. She also likes martial arts.”
“…!”
The Assassin Steer was in charge of information gathering for the Hermes Guild. Using contact groups spread extensively, his task was to keep an eye on the trends of the Versailles Continent.
“There's a high possibility that the Lord of the North's Morata is Wargod Weed…”
Steer considered this a matter that needed to be reported to his superior.
Bardray was currently in the Ziubellin Dungeon of Haven Kingdom. It was not an exaggeration to say that the hunting ground poured out monsters. Not only in Haven Kingdom, but no matter where you went on the Versailles Continent, it was among the worst hunting grounds for players. Turning off his whispers and even the guild chatting window, Bardray had declared that he wouldn't come out before he hunted the formidable sorcerer named Ziubellin.
“What should we we do, Steer-nim?” asked his subordinate in information.
Bardray spent most of his time inside dungeons with his teammates. Nobody knew when their hunt would end.
Steer sighed. “We have no choice but go ourselves. Send a request to the guild corps. We'll enter the dungeon in order to meet guild master Bardray-nim.”
Steer and 30 members of the Hermes Guild entered the dungeon. They were all over level 360, but the level of the monsters was too high in Ziubellin Dungeon, so they couldn't help but shrink back. After many complications, they finally reached the place where Bardray was at.
Bardray was resting and maintaining his weapons with his 12 Elite Guard. Monster corpses were lying around the place where they were resting, exuding a foul smell.
“Bardray-nim.”
“For what matter did you come all the way here, Steer?”
“There is something I must report.”
Bardray looked interested. As befitting of him, who dominated as the strongest in the Versailles Continent and was completely equipped with ultimate items, he had overflowing composure.
“It's about Wargod Weed.”
“Weed, you say…”
Bardray nodded his head. “If it's about him, then it would be worthwhile for you to come find me all the way here.”
“Weed's identity has been exposed. I believe he is the Lord of Morata. Though of course, there are still many parts about him that I still cannot understand.”
“And those are?”
“It's estimated that he's a player who started in Rosenheim Kingdom, but it's that it hasn't even been a year and six months since he started Royal Road. That doesn't make much sense. And the more shocking thing is that he is sculpting as a side job.”
“Side job?”
“Considering his fighting ability, you'd think that he wasn't actually a Sculptor. Even so, he made a Magnum Opus with the sculpting he did as a hobby, and he's good enough to shake the continent.”