The two A-rank missions Yecheng had accepted were: one to eliminate a poisonous magical beast, and another to explore a newly discovered underground dungeon.
The poisonous beast was said to be a massive lizard whose toxic sacs emitted gas that had already affected surrounding villages, causing many to fall ill.
As for the underground dungeon, it had only recently been discovered. Judging by the monsters inside, it wasn't classified as very high level, but the boss guarding it was reported to be an especially tricky magical beast.
Since the boss was said to be weak only to fire magic, the guild master had assumed that Yecheng, after witnessing his Red Fire Cannon, was proficient in fire spells and assigned him both tasks.
Neither the lizard hunt nor the dungeon exploration was something that could be done in a single day, especially given the distance involved. A round trip in a day was out of the question.
Tired of eating tasteless roasted beast meat, Yecheng knew he needed proper food and clean water for the journey. While he didn't require armor, a decent blade was a must.
His previous bone sword had been crafted from the rib of a magical beast he defeated. When he cleaved through the Red Fireball using his Divine Rend technique, the weapon crumbled to dust under the pressure of his magic.
Penniless, Yecheng couldn't even afford food or water, let alone a proper weapon. With no other choice, he shamelessly borrowed money from Soya again.
He figured—if he was already living off her, what's one more bowl of free food?
The longsword he picked up from the weapons shop obviously didn't compare to his Zanpakutō, but it was far superior to the bone blade.
After purchasing the sword and stocking up on food, Yecheng didn't rush out immediately. Instead, he returned to the house Soya had temporarily lent him.
He tidied up his room a bit and, after locking the door behind him, finally set out on his journey.
Unfortunately, he never ran into the other rumored strong and beautiful female tenant Soya mentioned. He wouldn't have minded meeting her. After all, if they were living under the same roof, he wouldn't mind lending a hand if she ever needed help changing a lightbulb… or unclogging a drain.
Five days later, several hundred kilometers south of town, Yecheng stood on a vast prairie, map in hand, having finally arrived at the supposed lair of the poisonous beast.
In the previous few days, he had first gone to the underground dungeon. It only took him half a day to completely clear the dungeon that was supposedly only conquerable by A-rank adventurers.
The dungeon boss was a massive ice serpent capable of releasing extremely cold breath.
When Yecheng entered the lowest level of the dungeon, he saw several adventurers frozen into lifeless statues of ice—clearly casualties of previous failed attempts.
Being an adventurer was risky business. While it could be extremely lucrative, it was also a job where your life was always on the line. Those frozen statues were a grim reminder of that.
Sensing an intruder, the ice serpent let out a threatening hiss.
Magical beasts had far keener instincts than humans. The moment the serpent saw Yecheng, it realized this human was on a whole different level from the weaklings before and tried to scare him off.
Too bad Yecheng wasn't the least bit intimidated. He simply drew the longsword at his waist.
The intense battle everyone might have imagined never happened. In Yecheng's eyes, the ice serpent's power was about equivalent to a Gillian from the Soul Society.
Its icy breath had some bite, but not much. Under his bombardment of Red Fire Cannon and Blue Fire Crash, the serpent was dead within a minute.
After harvesting some rare materials from the beast and securing proof of his dungeon conquest, Yecheng quickly made his way to his next objective.
Now, after several days of travel, Yecheng stood on the prairie and finally found the poisonous magical beast… and was completely dumbfounded.
Staring at the enormous creature snoring at the entrance of a cave, Yecheng was speechless. Even though he was still new to this world, he was pretty damn sure that what he was seeing wasn't just a "giant lizard" like the intel said.
"This has got to be a dragon, right?! I mean, in what universe is that just a lizard?Sure, Western dragons do kind of resemble big lizards, but what kind of lizard has horns and wings?!"
According to the intel he'd received from the adventurer's guild, the target was supposed to be a giant lizard-like magical beast about three meters in length.
Its specialty was releasing poisonous gas, and its threat level was estimated to be manageable for A-rank adventurers.
But after seeing the real thing—and comparing it to the crude sketch on the mission request—Yecheng finally understood the meaning of "Images are for reference only. Actual product may vary."
The report claimed it was five meters long. The thing in front of him was clearly more than fifteen meters long!
And this wasn't just a "lizard-like" beast. Even if it wasn't a full-fledged dragon, it was definitely some sort of dragon subspecies.
Dragons—no matter the world—were always at the top of the food chain. The enormous, purple-scaled beast in front of him was not A-rank, no matter how you looked at it!
"Dammit… Either the intel was completely wrong, or I got played!How the hell does a five-meter lizard turn into this in just a few days?! What'd they do, feed it steroids?!"
Yecheng didn't think the guild was to blame. More likely, it was the local villagers or nobles who had issued the quest trying to scam him.
That kind of thing wasn't uncommon. After all, the fee for exterminating a five-meter lizard was vastly different from the cost of taking down a fifteen-meter poison dragon hybrid.
By underreporting the difficulty, they could save money on the commission. If an adventurer actually managed to kill it, they scored big.
If the adventurer failed, they could just claim they "misjudged" the monster's strength and offer a bit more money for someone stronger.
As for the dead adventurers? Who cares? That's just the nature of the job.
Seeing how wildly the real situation differed from the intel, Yecheng wasn't about to let himself be played. He immediately turned to leave.
But just as he was about to walk away, he spotted a stunning elven girl with long orange hair slowly approaching the poison dragon, sword in hand…