Xia Nan raised his mug and took what he hoped looked like a completely casual sip.
Malt filled his nose.
Hops left a faint bitterness on his tongue, followed by the crisp sweetness of chilled ale.
Under normal circumstances, he might have enjoyed experiencing a drink from another world.
Right now, he barely tasted it.
His shoulders were tense.
Five seconds passed.
Maybe six.
Only when the sharp gaze behind him finally disappeared did Xia Nan let out the breath he had been holding.
[That feeling…]
He replayed the moment in his head.
That utterly ordinary man.
No.
There was no way Xia Nan had imagined it.
Even when sitting in plain sight, the man’s presence had been so faint that the eye seemed to slide right over him.
And the instant Xia Nan noticed him, that almost nonexistent presence had sharpened.
The man’s gaze had locked onto him with unmistakable warning.
It reminded Xia Nan of high-level equipment in online games back on Earth.
Sometimes the difference in level was so obvious that you did not need to fight.
One glance was enough.
[Could he be a real class holder? Someone who already has a class level?]
That was Xia Nan’s best guess.
Fortunately, all he had done was notice the man.
He had not stared.
He had not approached.
He had not done anything offensive.
So the warning had lasted only a moment before disappearing back into the tavern’s noise.
A minor incident.
Nothing more.
Xia Nan did not turn around again.
He drained the rest of his ale instead.
Still, the encounter left his thoughts unsettled.
[How do you even get a class level in the first place?]
Maji had once mentioned that a person’s “class” had something to do with the combat techniques they chose to study.
Unfortunately, he had never explained the connection in detail.
Xia Nan had skimmed through the [Adventurer’s Handbook] as well, but there was nothing useful about it there.
[I’ll ask an experienced adventurer when I get the chance.]
[If information like that costs money, so be it.]
He shook his head.
There was no point worrying about it now.
He was still a novice adventurer.
Class levels could wait.
[First, sleep.]
…
The rooms at White Chickadee Tavern were not good.
There was no gentler way to put it.
The bed was made of hard wooden planks and carried a faint, unpleasant smell.
The walls were thin enough that the creaking bed next door might as well have been inside his room.
Every step on the staircase groaned.
Noise from the tavern below carried upward late into the night.
And every so often, something small with claws scurried through the space above the ceiling.
Compared with the hotels of Xia Nan’s previous life, the place was miserable.
Forget hotels.
A newspaper spread across a park bench might have been quieter.
Xia Nan still slept until noon.
He barely moved.
Part of the reason was that he had stayed up late reading the [Adventurer’s Handbook], trying to stuff as much useful information about Rivervale Town into his head as possible.
The bigger reason was simple.
He was exhausted.
The Misty Forest was dangerous enough that even when Elki and Gagu were still alive and the party had four members, they had needed to take turns keeping watch every night.
Proper sleep had been impossible.
Now, for the first time since crossing into this world, Xia Nan was in a place where he could close his eyes without wondering whether something would tear his throat out before dawn.
His body took full advantage.
After waking, washing up, and enjoying another satisfying meal at White Chickadee Tavern, Xia Nan headed back toward the Adventurers’ Association.
He stopped in front of the crowded entrance.
To be perfectly honest, Xia Nan had never dreamed of becoming an adventurer.
In his previous life, he had been an ordinary office worker.
Adventuring was the exact opposite of ordinary.
It meant living from job to job, walking a tightrope, never knowing whether the next trip would be the one you failed to return from.
There was nothing appealing about that.
And yet…
A man who had spent his entire life in a mundane, technological world had suddenly been dropped into a genuine fantasy world.
Magic existed.
Monsters existed.
Supernatural power was real.
Now that Xia Nan had seen all of that with his own eyes, expecting him to take the hundred-odd gold coins in his possession and quietly return to a peaceful life of farming from sunrise to sunset was equally unrealistic.
More importantly, the one thing he had that even vaguely resembled a cheat, his attribute panel, only seemed to function in matters connected to adventuring.
Not using it would be ridiculous.
“I’ll start with the easiest jobs.”
Xia Nan looked at the flow of adventurers moving through the entrance.
He had made his decision.
His feet moved.
A moment later, his figure disappeared into the crowd.
“Something wrong, Wood?”
Hai’an’s voice pulled Wood’s attention away.
Wood watched Xia Nan’s back vanish through the doors before withdrawing his gaze.
“It’s nothing, Young Master.”
But he was not convinced.
Yesterday, in the tavern, that black-haired young man had somehow noticed him while he was using Presence Concealment.
Today, they had run into each other again outside the Adventurers’ Association.
Coincidence?
Perhaps.
But Wood had built his life around caution.
He did not dismiss things like that easily.
Then again, he had observed Xia Nan carefully yesterday.
The young man had sharp features and carried himself like someone with some training, but everything else was unmistakable.
His clothes.
His habits.
The way he moved.
A complete novice.
[Am I really overthinking this?]
Wood’s brow tightened.
Nearby, Hai’an had no idea what his guard was thinking.
The silver-haired, gray-eyed half-elf was busy explaining the mission to the party’s newest recruit.
“It should be somewhere inside this area.”
Hai’an indicated the rough range.
“If we don’t find anything, we can widen the search.”
The lean, dark-skinned man in front of him stared.
Leather armor.
Leather boots.
Every inch of him looked like a typical adventurer.
“So you don’t actually know what you’re looking for?”
His disbelief was obvious.
“The Misty Forest isn’t somewhere you can just wander around.”
“We’ll stay on the outskirts. It shouldn’t…”
“Three days!”
A loud voice cut Hai’an off.
The slightly plump young man in the luxurious gold-trimmed robe thrust three fingers into the air.
“Three days. That’s it!”
He sounded as though he had already grown tired of the entire discussion.
“We don’t even need you to help search. Stay with us for three days, then leave when the time’s up. What are you making such a fuss about?”
He glanced toward Wood.
“And as for safety… that’s not your problem.”
The lean man stared at him through narrowed eyes.
“Fine.”
Then he clenched his jaw.
“But I want 70 gold.”
“Seventy?”
The plump young man’s voice shot upward.
“Fifty!”
His face twisted with outrage.
“This is the Adventurers’ Association. You don’t want the job? Fine. There are plenty of people who do!”
He had made no effort to keep his voice down.
Naturally, the argument began attracting attention.
People nearby slowed.
A few turned to look.
That seemed to be the last straw for the blonde woman beside him, who had looked bored and irritated from beginning to end.
“Larry.”
Her voice was sharp with impatience.
“We’ve already been stuck in this town for days. There’s nothing to do here. I want to go home.”
The effect was immediate.
Larry’s aggressive posture vanished.
His voice softened.
His expression transformed.
Dragging the hem of his expensive custom robe behind him, he hurried closer with an ingratiating smile.
“Don’t worry, Doris. We’ll leave soon!”
He leaned in eagerly.
“I heard from the guards back home that the white mist in the Misty Forest is actually condensed mana. Apparently, if you breathe in even one mouthful…”
Hai’an looked away from the pair with visible helplessness.
Then he returned his attention to the lean adventurer in front of him.
The man had agreed to join the party, only to turn around and demand more money.
Hai’an’s patience, however, seemed entirely intact.
“Our offer is 50 gold.”
His voice remained calm.
“If that doesn’t work for you, then I’m afraid we’ll have to find someone else.”
In a strange way, Larry’s outburst had actually helped.
The lean man clearly did not want an easy, well-paying job to slip away over twenty gold.
He hesitated.
Then, with the expression of someone making a great sacrifice, he nodded.
“Fine.”
“Fifty gold.”
He looked between them.
“When do we leave?”
“Today.”
Hai’an answered without hesitation.
“We’ve already prepared the supplies.”