And so, I became unemployed.
Although I wasn’t stripped of my adventurer qualification and was still legally an adventurer of the guild since requests just weren’t coming in…
That was only legally speaking, but how is a day laborer without work any different from an unemployed person?
At least to me, it was the same.
In the sense that money kept going out without doing any work.
“I seem to be seeing you quite often these days. Have you perhaps quit your adventurer job? If you’re going to vacate the room, two days in advance—”
It seemed that not only me but others thought so too.
Seeing the innkeeper who asked discreetly if I had finally become unemployed while handing me a bowl of stew I had ordered.
Well, I suppose I did look like an unemployed person idling around without work to anyone who saw me.
When I was busy working, I would leave the inn and only return after two to four days, but lately, I had been frequenting only the inn’s bed.
“No, I’m just taking a short break.”
“That’s what everyone says when they’re quitting.”
“It’s really not like that. If I was going to quit, I would have done so long ago. Back when I was a wooden token suffering from the iron tokens’ hazing.”
I shook my head as I received the boiling mixed stew.
Contrary to the innkeeper’s misunderstanding, I hadn’t quit my job but had it suspended.
…Though there’s not much difference, to be honest.
A request suspension with no set time limit.
To be frank, if any other iron token adventurer had received such a punishment, they would have given up everything and left for another city.
Unlike copper token or higher adventurers who could rest for a few weeks without starving to death, most iron token or wooden token adventurers were poor.
To the point where they couldn’t even pay for their room if they took a week off work.
Unless they were exceptionally tough, how could they endure starving while waiting indefinitely to receive requests again?
That’s why when they receive a request suspension, they have no choice but to flee to another city and re-apply to the adventurers’ guild there.
They would have to throw away all their experience and start again from wooden token… but still, demotion is a hundred, thousand times better than starving.
In other words, although a request suspension has no enforcement, it’s essentially no different from an expulsion order.
Generally speaking.
Of course, I was an exception. My wallet wouldn’t empty just from resting for 2-3 weeks.
Unlike other adventurers who lived day to day and blew their money on drinking whenever they had some extra, I was different.
Thanks to the earnings from my two-month journey and the generous loot handed over by the looters.
Each one wasn’t much, but as they say, many a little makes a mickle, and after cutting down about forty of them, I was able to amass quite a fortune.
So I didn’t have to worry about making a living.
Of course, if this situation continued not for a few weeks but for several months, even I would have no choice… but I could rest easy about that part.
The receptionist girl had assured me. If I just stay quiet for a while, she would somehow lift the suspension.
She said it would take at most about two weeks.
Therefore, for me, the suspension was nothing more than an extended vacation.
Indeed, it’s good to have connections and things to do. I felt it was really good that I had saved that girl, Yuni or whatever her name was.
In reality, Yuni didn’t like me very much.
Maybe because when the bandits took her hostage, I answered that I didn’t care about the girl’s life, and they could kill her if they wanted to?
Well, I had no choice but to do that then.
Showing concern for a hostage’s life would only be taken advantage of. Right?
With a knife at the neck of a woman I’d never seen before, they said if I didn’t want to see her die, I should put down my sword and surrender…
What madman in the world would put down their sword after hearing such nonsense?
I would just become a 1+1 free gift, and it’s not like I could save the woman taken hostage anyway.
The receptionist girl understood this well, so even after hearing the full story, she expressed only gratitude without any particular resentment…
But that Yuni, maybe because she’s still at an immature age, while grateful for being saved, was still sulking about the fact that I didn’t care about her life at all.
No, rather than sulking… how should I put it, she seemed uncomfortable with me? That kind of feeling. Like she’s grateful but too scared.
Kids these days, really.
* * *
A vacation of up to two weeks.
For modern people who can’t escape being work cattle, this would be a sweet rest so moving that they’d be brought to tears…
“…I’m bored to death, don’t you have any interesting news or something?”
Perhaps because I had already fully adapted to this world? Each day was unbearably boring.
Come to think of it, it’s natural, isn’t it?
Unlike the modern Earth overflowing with entertainment, the entertainment in this world was limited to things like drinking, gambling, watching the arena, or drake racing.
Drake racing was quite… no, honestly, it was extremely fun, but it was only held on weekends, so I couldn’t watch it on weekdays like today.
Sightseeing in the downtown area is fine for a day or two, but after three days, it tends to become tedious.
That’s why, even though I couldn’t receive requests, I would come to the request office and chat with the few acquaintances I had.
Asking them to share any interesting news they had, instead of keeping it to themselves.
“…Hilde. You know I’m not in charge of just you, right?”
“What does it matter, it doesn’t look like you’re particularly busy today anyway.”
I shrugged, looking around the unusually quiet request office.
Empty tables and neatly arranged chairs.
It had only been three days since I killed that looter, Hans or whatever his name was, but what on earth had happened in the meantime?
The interior of the request office, which had been teeming with adventurers, was now as empty as a gambler’s wallet.
“Something must have happened, right?”
I pointed my thumb behind me, asking for the reason.
“Haah… Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell you that much.”
The receptionist girl put down the pen she was holding, let out a light sigh, stretched, and then explained the detailed circumstances to me who was waiting.
It wasn’t a very long story.
Nor was it particularly amazing information.
It was simply a story about a dungeon entrance that had appeared somewhere in a mountain valley about five days’ journey from here.
A mid-level dungeon that seemed to have at least ten underground floors.
“Most of the copper token and silver token adventurers have headed there. A new dungeon, and a mid-level one at that, is a chance to strike it rich.”
That wasn’t wrong.
Unlike low-level dungeons which only had 1-4 floors at most, mid-level dungeons were quite dangerous places, but the rewards were also certain.
Moreover, if it was a new dungeon that had never been discovered before, it was even more so.
So the adventurers must have gone crazy for it.
Not just the adventurers, but also the wealthy folks who would have entrusted them with dungeon exploration requests.
“A mid-level dungeon… You don’t know exactly how many floors it has?”
“We’ll only know that once the exploration is complete. But judging from the information that they encountered orcs right from the entrance, it’s definitely mid-level or higher.”
Orcs…
I think I could win in a one-on-one fight… but I’m not sure about multiple opponents. Even Brunhilde’s instinctive swordsmanship isn’t omnipotent.
Anyway, the news of a new dungeon appearing was quite interesting information.
Although I wouldn’t be allowed entry since I was banned from taking missions and was still only an iron token…once I get promoted to copper token someday, I’ll be able to visit then.
Unlike deep-level dungeons which you should avoid if you want to live a long life, mid-level dungeons were like lifelong companions for adventurers.
Low-level dungeons would only earn you pocket change no matter how many times you explored them, and deep-level dungeons were extremely dangerous as they were connected to demon realms.
Those who entered deep-level dungeons without valuing their lives were usually only the strong who had reasons they had to do so.
Kingdom knights who had the duty to intercept demons crawling up through the dungeons, or hero parties who had to go all the way down to the demon realm to defeat their king.
Other than such people, few entered deep-level dungeons.
On the other hand, mid-level dungeons had moderate danger levels but guaranteed quality loot.
Mid-level dungeons were essentially like the end of deep-level dungeons that had been abandoned for a long time and had their paths completely cut off.
Unlike deep-level dungeons where the demons’ main forces were stationed, the enemies stationed in mid-level dungeons were at best mediocre stragglers who had survived on their own.
Things like orcs or trolls.
Such creatures could be easily taken down by a group of copper token adventurers ganging up on them, or two or three silver token adventurers.
So how could adventurers not go crazy for them?
Things that weren’t too dangerous, but if you managed to catch them, you could occasionally loot equipment from the old demon army.
…Of course, for me right now, it was nothing more than a pie in the sky.
* * *
After that, I spent time chatting about various things with the receptionist girl.
Stories about how the irritation and anger of superiors who were short-handed due to all the silver and copper token adventurers running off on dungeon exploration missions was now directed at them instead of me.
Stories about how it was fortunate that Yuni, who had been insisting on becoming an adventurer, was now showing interest in receptionist work.
We talked about such things for about two hours.
I wondered if it was okay to say in front of an adventurer that it’s fortunate their family didn’t choose to become one…
Well, I could understand that much. It was a profession with a high mortality rate.
Honestly, there were many cases where it didn’t end with death.
The receptionist girl would know that better than anyone, so she couldn’t help but feel relieved that her sister had given up on her dream of becoming an adventurer. That’s how family love works.
* * *
They say you can’t predict what will happen in life.
The discovery of the mid-level dungeon, which I thought would have little to do with me, turned out to be an unexpected boon for me as well.
Just two days after I spent time chatting with the receptionist girl,
“Hilde, a named request has come in, are you interested?”
I got a job again.