When Daisuke arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild butcher shop, he noticed several wagons preparing to depart through a rge door at the back of the expansive facility. These wagons, belonging to both local traders and traveling merts, relied on the guild for s monstron and other essential odities.

  Cleave was in the process of cluding a busiransa with a respectful handshake when Daisuke approached.

  “Oh, Haxks!” the man turned and greeted ohe er left. “I heard you had fallen into a dungeon! I’m gd to see that you’re alright.”

  “There were a few close calls,” Daisuke returned with a smile, “but I mao make it back out in one piece.”

  “So? How long of a break will you be taking?”

  Daisuke frowned, fusion flickering across his face. “Break?”

  “Oh. Well, usually when young adventurers experience such close calls, they tend to take some time off to mentally recover from the trauma.”

  Sounds abht, Daisuke thought to himself. Except I’m only a kid in appearance. “Actually, I was hoping to leave some monsters with you to process.”

  Cleave looked a bit surprised, but he smoothed his angur face bato a wide grin and began slipping on his bloodstained gloves. “Sure thing! Did you ma back more of the mohis time around?”

  Without a word, Daisuke summoned his iory and promptly retrieved the motionless corpse of the Giant Inferno Wolf.

  Cleave recoiled in abject shock, his eyes widening as they flowed over the sheer size of the lupi that took up a signifit portion of spa the room. “W-What? It ’t be! Isn’t that a Giant Inferno Wolf?” He shifted his gaze to Daisuke in disbelief. “But that’s a Fluardian! How did you—”

  Daisuke allowed a smug smile to grace his lips, memories of the 11th floor of the dungeon flickering through his mind. He recalled the moment he had told Elena and the others that he was going to retrieve his dagger that was left in the Fluardian’s body. But, in actuality, he just wao secretly test whether it ossible to store the monster’s corpse inside his iory. The result:

  “This is unbelievable!” Cleave raved, his eyes twinkling like a lovesick teenager fawning over her high-school crush. “I ’t remember the st time I’ve received a monster of this caliber! And it’s almost in perfect dition!”

  I guess that makes a lot of sense, Daisuke thought.

  While pyers did have access to iories, st entire monster corpses was unfortunately not feasible. Additionally, these carcasses didn’t linger for long after being sin, making it impossible to transport them via wagon.

  As for NPCs, although monsters sin by them left behind corpses that persisted for some time, transportation posed a challenge. As Daisuke had learned firsthand, magic bags were exorbitantly priced, putting them out of reaost adventurers—and relying on wagons preses ow of risks.

  Corpse transportation was plicated by the presence of open wounds, and many monsters were drawn to the st of blood. Hauling corpses around was not only bor-intensive and time-ing but also akin to sending out a free dinner invitation to nearby monsters.

  “Do you have any more space?” Daisuke asked casually.

  “More space?” Cleave raised his bushy eyebrows suspiciously. “Wait! You don’t mean—”

  In a rger room adjat to the former, Cleave tilted his head back, his arms dangling limply at his sides and his mouth agape as he stared i a mountain of monsters.

  Daisuke’s lips stretched into an awkward smile as Cleave circled the t mass with childish exuberance. I bet that excitement would immediately turn to panic if I had released the Orc, too.

  “The rger monsters,” Cleave gushed, his eyes wide with wonder, “most of them are Fluardians! You…” he turo face Daisuke with disbelief. “You didn’t just escape from that dungeon, did you? You pletely domi! Just who are you, exactly?!”

  “You make it sound as if I cleared the entire dungeon all on my own,” responded Daisuke in a humble tone, hoping to keep a low profile.

  “You try to py it down as much as you’d like,” said Cleave, shaking his head in awe, “but this is impressive no matter how you look at it.”

  Daisuke flinched baervously. He’s not buying it at all, is he?

  “This is going to be a lot of work, so I may o call in some help,” Cleave informed with glee, more to the tower of corpses than to Daisuke. “e baorrow; I should have everything done by then.”

  “Sure thing, thanks.”

  ***

  “What happened?” excimed Thalia, her eyes widening as she took in the disheveled trio before her. They looked like they had been run over by a herd of wild minitaurs. “Are you three alright?”

  “We were chased by a group of goblins on our way back from a quest,” one of the girls whimpered tearfully.

  “We barely mao escape!” whined a young boy.

  “Didn’t you receive the guild’s summons over four weeks ago?” Thalia’s tourned grave. “You three were required to be part of an important curriculum tailored to help you bee better adventurers.”

  “Sorry, but we lost our lise. It happened when we fell down a waterfall while running away from a Lipanthyer,” muttered the sed girl in embarrassment.

  Thalia sighed heavily, a bination of pity and annoyance. “For now, why don’t you three make your way to the id get fixed up. I’ll begin w on the paperwork for your rept IDs and your enrollment into the guild academy. Report bae as soon as you’re able.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the trio answered in unison, their voices tinged with regret as they hung their heads and shuffled away.

  Thalia rested her head on the ter with a grunt and blew upward at the wisps of hair on her forehead.

  “…Looks like you’re having a pretty rough day.”

  Thalia perked up like a puppy about to be fed, her eyes sparkling like nterns. “Haxks! You’re back!” she beamed, even more so wheiced that Elena was no longer by his side. “I’m so happy that you’re okay. I take it everythi well?”

  A group of guys in the line advang to the ter grumbled at the heartwarming se. “She’s never been that excited for us before,” they murmured indignantly.

  Thalia shot them an icy gre and growled threateningly. In respohe men immediately straightened up and pressed their lips into a thin line.

  Daisuke chuckled awkwardly at the sight. “I see you’re as popur as ever.”

  “More importantly,” Thalia smiled warmly, her cheeks flushing slightly. “You’re bad in one piece—thank you for not disappearing for ahree weeks again.”

  Daisuke turo the side, his hand absentmindedly tousling the back of his head. A flicker nition danced in his eyes as he caught sight of a familiar figure by the guild’s mairance, visible through the gss windows. Instantly, his expression hardehe once pyful curve of his lips now repced by a stern twist.

  Without a word, he turned on his heel and marched away, his departure as swift and decisive as the storm brewing within him.

  Thalia had her gaze lowered in a anner, fidgeting with her fingers nervously as she mustered her ce. “Um, Haxks,” she began softly, “…after I finish work today, if you don’t mind… would you like to—”

  “Yes! Yes, whatever it is, yes!” ahusiastic voiterrupted.

  It beloo a stranger who eyed the young clerk with uling desire. Startled, Thalia lifted her gaze to find herself the object of his predatory stare. She recoiled in shock as he poked his head over the ter, invading her personal space.

  Thalia reacted with a cry, her hand darting forward like lightning to deliver a satisfying punch directly to the creep’s face. The impact sent him stumbling backward, crashing to the floor in a heap of humiliation.

  As ughter filled the lobby, Thalia’s worried gaze swept the room. Haxks, she thought anxiously, where did you go?