I opened my eyes and found myself inside the very room I was familiar with. I chose this room since I had nowhere else to sleep, but that wasn't the main point... the bed was comfortable.
I looked outside the window, and it was nighttime, just like in my own world... so I lay on the bed and slept soundly, as this was going to be the start of my one-month vacation.
The next day, I woke up with a lot of energy, which was the only thing I needed. I changed my position on the bed and let out a yawn, which prevented me from seeing the person who was sitting on a chair in front of my bed.
"Good morning, mister," said the kid, whom I'd seen before.
"Rewill! Good morning to you, but what are you doing in my room?" I said, acting like I hadn't stuttered.
"Um, how did you get to your room yesterday? I was cleaning the church the whole night and still am, by the way, but I didn't see you," he said, with a lot of emotions going across his face.
In the moment of surprise, I instantly blurted something completely random and said, "I'm an adventurer, so you probably didn't see me going into my room."
"Good point." He seemed convinced.
I stood up and put on my shoes. I looked into the mirror and saw the scratches, made by fighting monsters, had completely disappeared, which was also a little underwhelming to notice.
As I was standing, Rewill took notice of my non-combat clothing, which made him ask, "Where did you get those cloth-!"
"Okay, Rewill. Where is Sister Atna right now?" I said to change the subject.
"Oh, that reminds me. Sister told me to tell you to go and meet her after I saw you. Should we go together... since she is in the hall right now?"
"Sure(?)."
We went down the noted staircase to the main hall. The majestic sensation felt new as it had seemed to be a long time since the last time I saw it.
Atna was reading while sitting on one of the chairs in front of the podium. Rewill stopped walking towards her and instead gestured for me to go to her.
"Hello, sister. Hope you aren't forgetting about us in your prayers," I said with a calming tone.
She closed the book she was reading, faced me, and said, "Ethan. I wasn't expecting you to be in the church. Have you regained your memories?"
"Sadly not. I'm sorry if I'm causing any trouble for the church."
"Absolutely not. Everyone will receive help from our church if they want to."
"Rewill told me that you wanted to say something to me."
"Oh yes, I want you to go to the adventurers guild and ask about Diego Fronter. Once you find him, tell him that I sent you."
"Why is that?"
"You will find out once you meet him. I'm sure he can help you with your situation," she said with a small smile, brighter than her usual expression.
It was a little confusing, and the fact that I didn't know a lot of people in this world wasn't helping... though I knew this was going to be helpful, just like anything I had received from Atna.
"Very well, I will go after I get prepared."
I returned to my room and started getting ready for battle. I wore my leather armor and took out everything unnecessary from my backpack, and put them into the storage box in the room.
I didn't know why, but it felt a little strange to go out of the church to the adventurers guild, despite spending more than enough time on that exact path. I thought that this might be caused by my pounding excitement at being the only one who knew about the two worlds.
I pushed open the guild's door and was met with the familiar mixture of sweat and drinks, which was carved into the very core of the building. Many adventurers, despite working for a long time by their clothing, wore bright expressions.
I went to the receptionist, whom I was all too familiar with from my registration day, and asked, "Hello, I was looking for someone around here. Can you help me with that?"
"Oh absolutely. Just give me the name, and I will look at the files," he said, with his usual professional expression.
I put aside his strangeness and said, "I believe they were Diego Fronter."
The receptionist was shocked as soon as I said the name, just like when I first registered.
He placed what seemed to be the list of available people and said with annoyance, "Diego is... on a mission and won't be back until night. What do you want from him?"
"I was told to deliver a message. Why do you ask?"
"Don't worry about that. I just want to tell you that nothing good will come out of that crazy hunter. Think of this as a warning."
"Is that so?" I said, puzzled.
After hearing what the receptionist said, my idea of "nothing bad will come out of the church's help" shook a little. I had no idea how a person with such infamy could help me, but even that was good, given my situation.
I decided to put this off for the night and instead went toward the table with people I knew. Dan, Lisa, and Myer were sitting and talking with one another, planning to go on a mission based on their armors and weapons.
I got closer and said, "I hope I'm not meddling with anything."
Myer was surprised by my presence and said, "Ethan! You haven't been here for a while. Something happened?"
"I was doing some personal job. Can I still join in for the mission?"
As Myer was about to reply, Lisa said, "Are you joking? Having someone as good as you on our team is a blessing. We thought you went to another team since you were clearly better at fighting."
"I would never. I still have lots to learn," I said genuinely.
I sat at the table and started having a much cleaner conversation with all three of them since it seemed like it was a bigger deal to them, which I didn't mind.
After that, we went on and prepared for the mission, with a little explanation for me, who didn't know about the content.
Today's mission was a collecting mission, and our main objective was to harvest herbs, which weren't very safe to collect from deep within the forest. This was completely different from the jobs I had been doing inside this world, but since I was going to stay there for a while, I thought getting this world's currency wasn't a bad thing.
As we were entering the forest, I got closer to Dan, who was nearest to me, and asked, "Do you know who Diego Fronter is?"
"Hmm? Why do you ask?" Dan said.
"Someone told me to seek him about something... though I don't know about him at all."
"Mr. Fronter is a sixth-tier adventurer, who's mainly active in Arkena. He saved our city multiple times and gained a lot of influence through it. There are a lot of rumors about his crude personality since no one is partnering with him," he said with a delicate demeanor.
"Thanks for telling me."
"It's my pleasure to help my teammates," he said, not dropping the fancy tone.
We walked for a long time, just like what I had expected, and after a while, we entered the monsters' section of the forest.
After coming and going for a while, I got used to being within the section, and I knew just like a dungeon, this place wasn't somewhere to drop your guard.
"Monsters incoming!" shouted Lisa, warning everyone about the upcoming monsters, which was a little unexpected for me.
This was the first time we encountered monsters this soon.
Cling, clang-! The sound of bones colliding could be heard from the monsters' direction. This wasn't nice, but what took me aback was the type of monsters that we faced.
Skeletons, mainly the low-level ones, although low level, couldn't be belittled. Due to their body structure and human-like attacking pattern, they were recognized to be difficult monsters amongst D-ranks, especially for newbies... but I had seen how they fought before.
"Everyone stay in formation," said Myer.
Since the team noticed my "ability" in hunting monsters, I got assigned to the rear to be a dealer. This was a great thing for me, who had newly acquired new skills, so without a doubt, I was going to get the most out of it.
The four skeletons started dashing towards us at increasing speed. All four were holding rusty swords, which showed their close combat ability, so Myer started grabbing all of their attention by dashing forward, just like any normal tank.
As short-distance dealers, Dan and I started attacking the blocked skeletons while Lisa handled them with her long-distance attacks.
[ Skill "Focused Unsheathing ⌜1⌟" Activated ]
Since the monster was distracted by Myer, I used a skill, hoping to end the fight by damaging a critical point, but the skeleton dodged by what seemed to be pure coincidence and only received a shallow blow.
The skeleton I attacked transferred its aggro from Myer to me and started attacking tirelessly.
I started moving and dodging its attacks while continuing my sword contact with its blade, waiting for an opening... and that worked.
Swish-![ Skill "Swift Slash ⌜2⌟" Activated ]
With enough force, I crushed the skeleton's skull, rendering it defeated... but that wasn't the end of it since others were still dealing with the skeletons.