The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Chapter 1

There was a small rumor that a village was destroyed .

"That's not an unusual thing to happen", thought Loren, as he was drinking at a bar run by the Adventurer's Guild .

It was unfortunate for the people in the village, but for a pioneered village that was developed to create more farmland, it kind of made sense .

It was a village that was built on land that people dared not to venture into .

To whatever that the land was home to, humans were the invaders .

If the conflict is between human beings, it would be an argument concerning right of residence . But since it is usually in lands untouched by humans, conflict with the previous residents most likely cannot be resolved by talking . If the previous residents are not happy with the new ones, destruction is the only possible destination they will end up at .

Loren then turned his slightly drunk eyes down towards the front desk of the Guild .

Loren was not originally an adventurer .

He belonged in a mercenary group, and he was a mercenary that would fight in wars for his clients .

He was there for as long as he could remember, and was there ever since, until recently the group was destroyed during a war . As a result, Loren was sitting in the back of the bar, with only a glass of alcohol to company him .

As someone who used to be a mercenary, Loren had experienced numerous victories as well as losses .

For a long time, the group was able to make it through the losses . But in the most recent battle that they participated in, their luck finally ran out . What looked like a won battle suddenly turned south, and Loren saw his group be split apart and many of his comrades being killed, but he managed to survive and escape .

Because of all that happened to him, it was not surprising that his wallet was almost empty .

The words 'mercenary' and 'saving' didn't go along with each other, and that was true for Loren . He did not have any money saved up, or even tried to . He even had to ditch most of his belongings at the battle site .

The only thing Loren had was the leather armor he wore, his great sword, and a few silver coins in his pocket .

That was all of Loren's possessions .

It was better than nothing, but it was clear that if he could not find a job, he would be wandering in the streets soon enough . While fingering the metal tag around his neck, he tried to think of a way to make some money .

The metal thing around his neck was his identification tag, which served as proof that you were an adventurer .

The material used to make the tag reflected your adventurer rank, and Loren's tag was made of cheap copper .

As your rank goes up, your tag is made from a better, rarer metal, but to Loren that was of little concern .

What filled his head were ways to obtain a certain amount of money through quests that adventurers of his rank could take .

His comrades were either killed, or separated .

From the eyes of others, mercenaries were people who made a living from killing people, and were not viewed fondly .

It was natural to only know people from your own mercenary group, and have no friends or acquaintances outside of the group .

Loren was no exception, and being someone who escaped from the battlefield, there was no one he could trust .

That was also the reason that he chose to become an adventurer .

It was not hard to become an adventurer, with no background checks aside from criminal records .

He was easily able to become an adventurer by paying the registration fee .

But it was troublesome that he had no comrades to go on quests with him .

In whatever you do, doing it alone was not a good sign .

Whether the job may be slaying monsters, gathering herbs or stones, or looking for lost objects or persons, doing it alone was too dangerous .

"I guess I'll clean the ditches . "

It was not a job he was looking forward to doing .

To Loren's surprise, there were many quests that seemed far from something that adventurers would do, such as cleaning ditches or going down into the sewers .

But it was less dangerous than other quests, and the rewards were unexpectedly high .

In order to survive and get food on the table, getting covered in mud and sewer waste was not a bad choice .

It wasn't that he wanted to be covered in mud and grime, but as a war veteran, if someone asked him to choose between battle trenches and sewers, he would choose the sewers . He was willing to turn a blind eye on smell and unfavorable working conditions if it meant earning money .

Plus, ditches and sewers were within human living areas which made the job safer than most, even when alone .

"Hey you . You're looking for a quest, aren't you?"

Loren looked up and saw a young man with blond hair wearing a new set of leather armor and a sword by his side .

"If this were back when I was a mercenary, I would definitely refuse," thought Loren as he observed the young man sitting in front of him .

If you accepted every job offer that came to you, you wouldn't be able to live long as a mercenary .

Gathering information and performing background checks on the client, as well as the area of operation was the norm for Loren .

But this was an exception .

To put it simply, it was because he had no money .

In society, people won't take you seriously without any money to back you up .

Loren asked, thinking that the guy was looking for a frontline because he already had a quest in mind .

"I told you, it's an easy quest . We just need to hunt some goblins that appeared in the forest,"

the young man laughed, while Loren could do nothing but nod awkwardly .