Chapter 19

Тhе nехt day.

Кhаn, whо hаd unknоwingly fallen аslеep, оpenеd his еуеs аt dаwn.

‘I dozed оff.’

He immеdiаtelу rоsе frоm thе bed аnd went оutside the rооm.

“Sir Кhаn, it seemеd yоu retired eаrlу last night. Are yоu nоt hungry? If you wish, I can рrеpare a meаl fоr you аnytimе.”

“It’s finе.”

Еvеn in the early dаwn, numerous sеrvаnts wеre visible thrоughоut thе mansion.

Кhan wasn’t рarticularly hungrу, sо he wavеd оff the sеrvant and mоved his steps tоward thе mаnsion’s exit.

“Are уou реrhаps gоing out? Mау I аsk where уou аrе hеаdеd?”

“I’ll just takе а shоrt walk аrоund the vicinity.”

“Understood.”

The servant continued to follow Khan, watching him until he completely left the mansion.

“Hoo….”

Once outside, Khan began strolling around the mansion grounds.

Perhaps it was because he had slept too much.

For some reason, he just felt like walking and breathing in the dawn air.

But that was short-lived.

Right next to the mansion where Khan was staying was the mansion assigned to Byutek.

From the entrance of that mansion, Byutek was walking out, fully armed.

“Eh…? Sir Khan! As expected… Even for Sir Khan, it seems this Commission is making you a bit nervous. To be awake at this hour, haha! Actually, I’m also feeling tense, so I woke up early!”

“Is that so.”

Khan didn’t think this Monster extermination would be difficult at all.

If it were just Khan and Byutek exterminating the Monsters from the start, he might have been tense.

But the personnel deployed for this Quest alone numbered several dozen when combining the Knights and Mercenaries.

“I was planning to warm up a bit in advance. Would you care to join me?”

Byutek asked Khan with a lively smile.

“It’s fine.”

The mood of wanting to walk and breathe the dawn air vanished completely the moment he met Byutek.

“Well, Sir Khan is such an outstanding Mage that you probably don’t need to warm up like I do! Haha! I guess I’m still not fully awake!”

Khan ignored Byutek’s noisy chatter and entered his own mansion.

Seeing this, Byutek scratched his head and said.

“Did I do something wrong…?”

Khan simply didn’t want to hear Byutek’s unnecessary talk from the morning.

* * *

The sun had fully risen, and morning had arrived.

In front of the Baron’s mansion, Mercenaries and Knights were lined up in rows of ten each.

And at the front of those lines was Baron Jurente.

“It seems we are the last to arrive. My apologies.”

Byutek and Khan had come right after finishing their meal, but it seemed they were a bit late.

They could feel the piercing gazes of the Mercenaries and Knights directed at them.

‘They clearly look very dissatisfied.’

The Knights and Mercenaries present here must all be people living in Grodek.

Especially the Knights seemed to view the outsiders Khan and Byutek with even more distaste.

‘Those guys… are lucky. They caught the Baron’s eye, so if they do well from now on, they’ll probably rise in status.’

Mostly, it was looks of inferiority and jealousy.

But Byutek and Khan ignored those gazes and joined the lines.

“Hmm… I didn’t give the two of you an exact time, so it’s fine. Now that everyone is gathered, I will explain the plan.”

Baron Jurente didn’t seem to mind Khan and Byutek’s lateness much and began explaining about the Monsters in the western forest.

Khan, already knowing everything, was thinking of something else.

‘I wonder if I can clear this Quest with somewhat favorable conditions as well.’

In the last Quest exterminating the assassination squad, he obtained quite a lot of rewards unexpectedly.

Since he gained the trust of Sharin and Deilis, they would likely grant almost any request Khan made to them.

‘This time too, I want to clear the Quest with the best possible conditions if I can.’

Of course, even in the <Geo Arc> Community, not much is known in detail about the Quest, so Khan didn’t know properly either.

While the rewards for Quests in <Geo Arc> change depending on how you clear them, often they are just cleared as given, obtaining only the basic rewards.

Khan quietly checked the Levels of the Knights and Mercenaries in the lines.

‘The Knights are on average around Level 7 to 8, and the Mercenaries are around 5…’

The Grodek Knights showed Levels higher than Khan’s, but Khan didn’t expect much from them.

‘The average Level of Monsters appearing in the western forest is around 8 to 9.’

Khan was confident he could defeat Monsters of that level now, but he doubted whether the Knights and Mercenaries present here could properly defeat such Monsters.

“The number of Monsters appearing in the western forest isn’t that high. With your strength, you should be able to exterminate the Monsters sufficiently. If you just kill all the Monsters and return, I will provide the rewards properly.”

“Understood!”

The Knights and Mercenaries answered loudly.

Byutek next to Khan, perhaps not thinking much, answered in a loud voice just like them.

‘This guy might really die if things go wrong.’

Above Byutek’s head, ‘LV.3’ was still written.

‘Is he not growing…? Must be disgustingly lacking in Talent.’

Originally, in this Quest, several Knights and Mercenaries would die.

NPCs dying in this Quest was a foreseen future.

But Khan had no intention of letting Byutek, let alone the Knights and Mercenaries present here, die.

‘Perhaps the most perfect clear condition for this Quest is exterminating the Monsters without a single person dying.’

It’s just speculation for now, but even if it’s a game, isn’t it a good thing if people don’t die?

Having resolved himself thus, Khan carefully familiarized himself with the faces of the Knights and Mercenaries.

Then, he saw faces he knew.

No, to be precise, he hadn’t noticed earlier as he only checked their Levels, but seeing the names written next to the Levels, they were names he saw yesterday.

[LV.4 Dandy Mercenary Group Mercenary Ming]

[LV.7 Magic Apprentice Niyen]

The shell game trickster from the Mercenary group shop and the Artifact shop owner, Niyen.

Looking closely, all the Mercenaries present here were from the Dandy Mercenary Group.

“Then, let us depart for the western forest now. I hope to hear good news.”

“Yes!”

As soon as the Baron finished speaking, the Knights and Mercenaries turned and began walking.

“Huh? Tha, tha, that guy! It’s that guy from yesterday…!!”

Ming from the Dandy Mercenary Group spotted Khan.

She seemed very surprised, pointing at Khan and stammering.

Khan ignored Ming like that, turned around, and moved his steps toward the western forest.

“What, did that guy also receive this Commission? What an unlucky guy…”

Ming also muttered to herself and followed the others, walking toward the western forest.

And Niyen, who was among the Mercenaries, also saw Khan and thought.

‘That’s the person from yesterday…?’

Somehow, when she saw him yesterday, she thought he might be a skilled Mage, and that guess seemed to be exactly right.

‘Of course, he must be a Mage from outside. I wonder what kind of Magic he’ll use.’

Grodek is such a rural city that it’s really hard to see Mages.

Of course, even the few Mages that exist aren’t real Mages, just half-baked ones.

Still, Niyen expected Khan to be different from them.

* * *

The group of just over twenty people, having crossed Grodek’s city wall and entered the western forest.

Among them, Khan and Byutek were walking at the very front.

With Knights, Mercenaries, and outsiders mixed, no hierarchy was established within this group.

Amidst this, one Grodek Knight shouted at Khan, who was in the very front row.

“I don’t know where you’re from, mister! If you’re just going to shoot Magic, stay in the back! What are you doing up front like that!”

One of Grodek’s Knights openly started picking a fight with Khan.

“Hey, Mister Mage. I get that you’re acting high and mighty because you have a skilled Knight beside you, but why don’t you come to the back slowly? If you die here, we won’t know, okay?”

That’s where the sparks began to fly.

Other Knights also started picking fights with Khan one by one.

Khan, who looked quite frail at a glance, couldn’t help but be an object of disregard for the Knights armed with muscles and Armor.

“These bastards……!!”

“Leave them be.”

Byutek, hearing those words, got angry and was about to say something to the Knights—but Khan stopped him.

‘Once Monsters appear, everyone will quiet down anyway.’

Meanwhile, Ming, who was watching this, thought it served them right.

‘If I could, I’d love to just curse them out a whole bunch too. But if he’s a real Mage, why is he deliberately taking the lead?’

Ming had no idea about Khan’s Magic skills.

‘Whatever.’

She thought that and continued walking deeper into the forest.

They continued walking for about thirty minutes like that, but not even a shadow of a Monster was visible in the forest.

But that was also short-lived.

Thud…! Thud…!

Thud…! Thud…!

From between the trees on the other side of the forest, an Orc was walking out.

[LV.7 Orc]

A massive Orc whose size easily exceeded 2 meters.

The basic Orc was the weakest individual among Orcs.

“It appeared!”

“Everyone, get ready!”

“Hey, Mister Mage. Enough playing around now, get to the back! You could really die!”

The Knights, now that a Monster had appeared, shouted at Khan in a serious tone.

But Khan, not paying heed to their words, tightly gripped the Staff he was holding in his right hand.

“Hey! Are you really crazy?! Mages are supposed to provide supporting fire from the rear, of course! Don’t be stubborn and come to the back quickly!”

Frankly, they didn’t like Khan, but they didn’t intend to just let him die either.

The image of Mages that ordinary Knights and Mercenaries knew was not fighting Monsters head-on but shooting Magic from behind the lines.

Khan calls them Magic Apprentices or half-baked Mages, but that’s exactly the typical image of a Mage in this world.

Because most of them had never seen a real Mage.

“Be quiet.”

Khan, seemingly annoyed by the Knights shouting noisily, threw a remark at them.

“That bastard…! Is he really crazy?! Do whatever you want, die or not! An Orc is a Monster even I find difficult to face one-on-one…!”

One Knight, seemingly irritated by Khan’s words, gave up and spat curses at him.

Indeed, perhaps because he was a Knight belonging to the relatively small city of Grodek, no dignity of a Knight was visible from him.

Meanwhile, the Mercenaries who had been quiet began to expect what kind of Magic Khan, who was so confident, would show.

Especially Ming and Niyen were looking at Khan without even paying attention to the Monster.

‘That guy, to the extent he saw my hand movements with his eyes… He might really be a skilled Mage. Let’s see.’

‘I’m really looking forward to… what kind of Magic he’ll show.’

Niyen, also a Mage, looked at Khan with eyes that seemed truly interested.

Flick.

Khan, receiving everyone’s gaze, extended his Staff forward while simultaneously reciting the Incantation in his mind.

‘Arrow.’

A total of twelve Magic Arrows formed around Khan.

“What, how can he make so many Magic Arrows at once…?!”

The Knights were surprised seeing that.

But they had no idea what was about to happen next.

Compared to what was about to unfold soon, this was nothing.

Whooom…!!!

Khan began rapidly accelerating the Circle around his heart.