The next day, we arrived at the Adventurers' Guild. Since I still felt eyes on us from yesterday, I used "Detection" just to be safe. No hostile reactions. Good—now I could relax.
We walked up to the counter and saw Slyvie bowing her head over a pile of paperwork. I called out to her.
"Ms. Slyvie."
"How can I hel— Ah! Mr. Karen, Ms. Lina! Thank goodness you're safe! I'm so sorry, I never should have let you take that quest!"
She started speaking in her usual calm tone, but the moment she looked up and saw us, her expression twisted into panic. She jumped up from her chair and bowed deeply.
I raised my hand to tell her not to worry and took out the quest sheet.
"It's fine. We completed the quest. We're here for the reward."
"C–Completed…? Come again?"
Slyvie stared at us, frozen in shock. So I repeated myself.
"We hunted all the Orcs down in the eastern forest, just as written on the quest sheet."
At that, Slyvie frowned and spoke more seriously.
"Mr. Karen, this quest is nearly Green-rank. I let you take it because I wasn't thinking straight, but Orcs are no joke. There is no way Indigo-rank adventurers could finish it in half a day."
I see. To adventurers of our rank, wiping out more than fifty Orcs in half a day was simply impossible—so of course it sounded like a lie.
"Lina, step back a little."
"Okay."
Once Lina stepped aside, I opened my storage hole and began taking out Orc corpses, piling them one after another.
Slyvie's jaw dropped so far it might've hit the counter. Her eyes were wide, her pretty face distorted in pure shock.
(See? Showing them is faster.)
"Wooow—seven, eight, nine…!"
People nearby began gathering, counting aloud with every corpse I pulled out.
By the twentieth, the floor was full, so I called out to Slyvie.
"Ms. Slyvie."
"Uwah!"
She jolted like she'd been stabbed, taking a moment to settle down.
"A-Are you done?"
"Not yet. There's no more space."
"Can I… ask how many there are in total?"
She asked in a trembling voice, though she didn't need to fear the answer.
"About fifty-something."
"F–Fifty…!? I need to get the Guild master!"
A moment later, Wiley appeared, glanced at the corpses, and said:
"Karen, store the bodies again. You two—come with me. We're going to the disassembly room."
"Okay."
I put nineteen of the corpses back into storage and followed Wiley with Lina to a tool-filled room behind the guild.
Wiley walked up to a middle-aged man sleeping on a bench and kicked it.
"Hey. Get up."
"Nngh… morning already?"
The man sat up, looking messy and half-asleep.
"Up. There are fifty Orcs waiting."
"Yeah yeah… you said fifty?"
"That's right. Hurry up."
"Are you serious…?"
The man stretched, looked around, then muttered,
"So where are the Orcs?"
"Karen."
Called by Wiley, I began pulling out the Orc bodies, one after another, heads and all.
"That's… quite the mountain," the man muttered.
"Start working," Wiley snapped.
"Okay, okay."
He grabbed a knife, leaned toward a corpse, thrust the blade into its chest, sliced it open, reached inside, and pulled out a finger-sized magic core. The corpse vanished.
"Why did it disappear?" I asked.
He answered while continuing the process.
"The magic core is basically the monster's heart. It's always near the center of the body. When it's removed, the body disappears automatically. Saves a lot of cleanup."
"What about usable monster parts? Won't they disappear too?"
If the body vanished, the materials were part of the body. How were they kept?
"Nope. Once a part is cut off, it's no longer linked to the magic core. As long as you cut the parts you need before the magic core is exposed, they'll stay. See? The Orc heads didn't disappear."
I looked—indeed, the heads remained.
"So if we want materials, the magic core has to be removed last?"
"Exactly."
I see. Monster parts became permanent once separated. Had I known that, I wouldn't have brought back so many heads…
The man suddenly froze as he looked at a much larger corpse.
"Wiley… This is Orc King… Those two brats are amazing. They really scored big this time!"
"You even took down a Orc King… Looks like Slyvie's decision was correct. I shouldn't underestimate you two."
Wiley stood beside him, helping extract the giant magic core from the King's corpse. A stone the size of my palm came out, and the giant body disappeared.
But why was the Orc King's magic core so much bigger?
"Guildmaster, why is the Orc King's magic core bigger than the others?"
"You two don't know the rules of monsters, Right?"
"Yes. We don't know."
"There are two types of monsters: those born from mana, and those born through reproduction. Monsters born from mana create more of their kind. A King appears only when the population reaches a certain size. The King grows stronger, and its magic stone grows with it."
So the magic core grew because the King grew stronger. But did the King's magic core have special uses?
"Is it different from normal magical cores?"
"Of course. Ordinary magic cores are useless once crushed. But a King's magic core can be broken into multiple usable pieces."
"Ah, I see."
One King's magic core could become many magic tools.
After all 63 magic cores were collected, we returned to the front desk. Wiley handed Slyvie a bag and whispered a few things to her.
"There are 63 Orc magic cores and one Orc King magic core. Regular Orcs are 80 copper conis each, the Orc King is 5 silver coins. Disassembly fee is 6 silver 4 copper coins, and the quest reward is 30 silver. That brings us to—"
I cut her off.
"Wait, Slyvie. I'm not selling the Orc King's magic core. Could you return it to me?"
"You're not selling it? King magic core are very valuable."
5 silver coins was a lot, but I'd already decided.
"It was my first real full-power battle. I want to keep it as a memento."
"I understand. Here you go."
She handed me the Orc King's magic core—larger than my entire hand.
"Then minus 5 silver coins… calculating… please wait a moment."
She began doing the math. 63 Orcs at 80 copper coins each, minus the disassembly fee, plus 30 silver coins… How much was that?
Two-digit mental math wasn't my strength, so I gave up and looked at Lina.
"Lina, did you get the total?"
"Mm. 74 silver coins."
"Wow."
As expected of genius Lina—two-digit calculations were instant. I'd once taught her arithmetic; I knew exactly how fast she could be.
"All done. The total is 74 silver coins. Please hand me your adventurer IDs."
We passed our IDs, and Slyvie went to the back.
While waiting, I looked around for Digoman so I could thank them.
They were sitting on a nearby bench, so Lina and I approached.
"Hello. Thank you for carrying me back to the inn yesterday."
I bowed lightly. They looked up.
"Oh, it's you two."
"No problem. The Guild master asked us to."
"But seriously, you really wiped out all those Orcs. That's insane."
…Wait, weren't they the ones who doubted us yesterday? Why did they sound convinced now?
"How did you know we finished them?"
The older member explained:
"After we carried you back, we returned to the forest because the white-haired girl said you used everything you had to fight the Half-Orc King and collapsed. You two looked like you couldn't beat even one, but there were blood trails everywhere and no blood on you. So we went back to confirm."
White-haired girl—Lina. Does that make me the black-haired boy?
"Sorry to trouble you."
"No trouble. We got paid by the Guild master anyway."
Just then, Slyvie called out.
"Mr. Karen, Ms Lina."
"Slyvie's calling. See you."
They waved, and we returned to the counter. Slyvie placed two updated IDs and a pouch of money before us.
"These are your new adventurer IDs and your reward."
"New ones?"
We hadn't even used them long, and none were damaged. Slyvie explained:
"Since you completed a Blue-rank quest, and the guild acknowledges your strength, we've promoted you. Congratulations—you're now Blue-rank adventurers."
I looked at the ID. It really said "Blue Rank."
Slyvie continued:
"However, our guild doesn't have many Blue-rank quests. If you want to continue advancing, I recommend heading to a city."
"Thank you for the advice."
The highest rank in this town was likely blue. If we wanted to grow stronger, we'd need to leave someday.
But for now, our destination was the capital—just as soon as our bicycle was completed.