WildHorizon Guild — Outside the Wall, 9:00 AM
Dylan and his party arrived back in Salusbreath after completing their quest and reported directly to Derek.
Derek thoroughly inspected the blood flowers, verifying that they were in good condition. He then moved on to examine the leather pouch, noting right away that it was packed with goblin ears—alongside two belonging to Hobgoblins.
"How many goblins did you run into out there?" Derek asked, incredulous at the sheer number of ears.
"Three separate bands—about forty-five goblins in total, if I recall correctly," Dylan revealed.
"So it's true... their numbers are rising rapidly," Derek muttered to himself, making a mental note. (I'll need to submit a formal report regarding the imminent surge in goblin activity.)
Derek nodded, marking the contract as completed before stamping the parchment with an ink mark that read: COMPLETED. He then handed over their payment: 10 copper coins each.
"A pittance..." Rose grumbled.
"Well, if you want bigger payouts, you'll have to rank up and take on more dangerous, high-tier contracts," Derek encouraged them. Every receptionist liked seeing their assigned adventurers climb the ranks—in a way, it brought prestige to them as well.
"Whatever. I'm going to sleep," Dylan said. He wanted to claim he was exhausted, but that would have been a blatant lie. He felt as though he had enough surging energy to go weeks without a single wink of sleep.
Dylan trudged out of the guild hall and headed toward the familiar street where adventurers gathered to rest outdoors. A dull, growing ache was beginning to pulse behind his temples from the sheer lack of sleep.
Spotting an unoccupied wooden bench, he collapsed onto it, closing his eyes and waiting for sleep to claim him.
But it didn't come.
A full day passed, and Dylan remained on that same bench trying to sleep. No matter how hard he tried to force himself to drift off, slumber eluded him entirely.
Even Connor and Rose had already woken up and headed back into the guild hall, letting him know they would be waiting for him inside.
Dylan remained on the bench a while longer, attempting to induce sleep, but nothing worked.
"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," Dylan admitted to himself, sitting up on the bench.
In frustration, he rubbed his face with both hands before pushing himself up and heading back toward the guild hall. Perhaps Connor or Derek knew a quick trick to force his body to sleep.
WildHorizon Guild — Outside the Wall, 11:00 AM
Dylan stepped into the guild hall wearing a thoroughly miserable expression. His brow was furrowed, he was visibly stressed, and his head was throbbing with an excruciating migraine.
He walked straight over toward the table where Connor was seated with Rose. Connor was busy reviewing several quest scrolls Derek had offered them, while Rose sat atop the table right beside the papers, her back turned to Connor.
"I'm telling you seriously, Connor—my ass is incredible! Look at me, I'm practically an top-tier Femboy!" Rose declared, sounding oddly proud of herself.
"I have no idea where you keep picking up those bizarre words..." Connor replied without looking up from his reading.
This was hardly the first time Rose had used strange slang or offered explanations that neither Connor nor any native adventurer could comprehend. Usually, they relied on Dylan to translate Rose's vocabulary, though he often kept many definitions to himself, claiming 'there was no need to know that.'
"For God's sake, how can you not know what a Femboy is?!" Rose gasped in disbelief.
"A woman in a man's body?" Connor hazarded a guess, clearly lacking any genuine interest.
"NO! It's a guy who dresses and looks like a girl, but still identifies as a guy!" Rose explained rapidly, under the impression that Connor was as invested in the topic as she was.
Rose instantly fell silent, her mouth hanging open. She had never actually stopped to think through the logic before.
"Then... what am I?" Rose contemplated the question as if it were the single greatest philosophical dilemma she had ever encountered. She knew of no term back on Earth to describe her exact situation.
Dylan, who had been listening to the conversation from a few meters away, decided to veer off toward Derek instead; he was in no mood to navigate Rose's existential crises right now.
Approaching the reception counter in the middle of the hall, Dylan overheard Derek and Melissa engaged in a heated exchange.
"Again, Melissa?!" Derek scolded. "What did the Master and I tell you about this?!"
Derek held up a sheet of parchment—an official application form requesting a specific role within the guild, bearing Lydia's signature.
Melissa lowered her head sheepishly, cursing Lydia to high heaven in her mind.
"I'm so sorry, Derek! I swear I talked to Lydia about this and she swore she wouldn't apply again! I have no idea how that paper slipped past me!" Melissa apologized rapidly. (Damn it, Lydia! We literally talked about this!) she raged internally.
Dylan stepped up to the wooden counter and tapped lightly on the surface to draw their attention.
"Excuse me, am I interrupting something?" Dylan asked.
"Not at all!" Melissa replied instantly, forgetting her panic in a heartbeat, delighted that Dylan's arrival had saved her from Derek's lecture.
"Don't think I'm letting this slide... I have way too much paperwork as it is without having to argue with the Master over Lydia's career choices," Derek warned in a quiet mutter before turning to face Dylan. "What's up, Dyl—wow, what happened to you?"
Both Derek and Melissa immediately registered Dylan's terrible condition. At a single glance, it was obvious something was wrong: he looked pale, and the deep, irritable scowl on his face was far from normal for him.
"That's why I'm here..." Dylan muttered wearily, leaning his weight against the counter. "I haven't been able to sleep for two days straight... I feel like..."
"Like you're overflowing with energy?" Derek finished, catching Dylan off guard.
"You know what's happening to me?!" Dylan asked eagerly, hopeful that they had a solution.
"Yup! It means you need a special physical exam in the alchemy wing!" Melissa chimed in rapidly, a wide grin spreading across her face as she prepared to step out from behind the counter. But Derek caught her by the fabric of her dress and yanked her right back into place.
"That won't be necessary," Derek stated firmly.
"Yeah... I don't think I'll be needing any more of those physical exams from here on out, actually," Dylan said, recalling Connor's warning from earlier.
(Shit, who was the loose-lipped idiot that opened their big mouth?!) Melissa grumbled internally upon hearing Dylan's refusal.
"By any chance, were you recently involved in a battle where you experienced sudden bursts of... I don't know, intense adrenaline?" Derek asked.
Dylan paused to think for a moment, his mind quickly flashing back to the Hobgoblin that had blindsided him two days ago—right around the time his symptoms had started.
"Yeah, in a fight against a Hobgoblin. It caught me off guard," Dylan admitted.
A knowing smile crossed Derek's face; he had identified the issue, as had Melissa.
"First off, there's no need to panic. What you're experiencing is completely natural among adventurers, and it has a very simple fix," Derek began to explain.
Relief washed over Dylan's face at Derek's words. "Really?!"
"Yeah, it's actually extremely common," Derek admitted. "What you're suffering from is known as 'Excess Energy Storage,' and it happens whenever an adventurer experiences surges of high adrenaline."
"And why does that happen? How am I storing energy, and how do I get rid of it?" Dylan pressed urgently.
"It's not something you actively control," Melissa chimed in. "Energy storage is a direct side effect of the Initiation Potion. When I examined you earlier, you mentioned noticing how rapidly your body was developing—but did you also notice how you don't get tired as easily?" The source of this chapter is g.com.
Melissa's question hit Dylan like a bucket of ice water. He had never actively paid attention to it, but now it seemed painfully obvious: ever since waking up in the infirmary, he hadn't felt a shred of physical fatigue.
"That happens because of your refined magic core. The core optimizes your body's energy consumption to a ridiculously efficient degree, allowing adventurers to keep fighting even after hours upon hours of continuous combat," Melissa continued explaining; as a guild alchemist, she was uniquely qualified on the topic. "And that's just with your baseline energy—what do you think happens when you get a massive surge of adrenaline?"
"The temporary spike from adrenaline doesn't just dissipate?" Dylan guessed.
"Bingo!" Melissa cheered.
"Then how do I flush this excess energy out? I've tried everything—exercising, meditating, even trying to force myself to sleep—and nothing works," Dylan asked, desperate for an answer.
"There are two primary methods..." Derek began subtly. "First: getting knocked unconscious. This essentially forces all your bodily functions to shut down, causing your core to release the trapped energy upon sensing that you no longer require it while sleeping."
"Ah... yeah, I think I'll pass on that one. I'm not really eager to have someone beat me unconscious," Dylan said quickly. "What's the second option?"
"The second?" Melissa purred, a coy smirk curling her full lips. "The second option is engaging in an activity so physically taxing and demanding that it rapidly drains your stored reserves. Standard exercise won't cut it because it's too slow and actually prompts your core to generate more energy over time. Though it's less common, some adventurers resort to fighting to the point of utter collapse due to the extreme physical strain exerted during battles against high-level threats."
"And what's the common way?" Dylan pressed, eyeing them closely.
Melissa's smirk widened as she prepared to deliver the answer.
"Sex," Derek stated plainly.
"Hey! I was going to say that!" Melissa complained.
"Sex?" Dylan repeated, utterly baffled.
"Yes. Intercourse demands far higher energy output from the core than standard physical training. Adventurers routinely engage in sexual activity with their party members when returning from extremely demanding, high-risk contracts. Like I said, it's standard practice—though usually among Rank C adventurers and above, not Rank F rookies," Derek revealed.
Derek's blunt words hit Dylan like a physical blow, but a moment later, a laugh echoed through the reception area.
"HAHAHA, you almost had me there, guys! So either getting knocked out or extremely grueling physical exercise, huh?" Dylan chuckled, shaking his head. "Thanks for the advice, I'll go ask Connor to spar with me."
Dylan turned and walked away, leaving both Derek and Melissa exhaling heavy sighs.
"He didn't believe us," Melissa noted.
"Expected as much. He's a transmigrator," Derek replied.
"Plenty of transmigrators bought that explanation without a second thought in the past," Melissa argued.
"Well, they weren't Dylan. I'm fairly certain if it were Rose, she would have done whatever it took to jump into bed with someone by now," Derek asserted, well aware of Rose's perverted nature, shared by many transmigrators.
"Now that you mention it... isn't it curious how so many transmigrators end up being... well, like Rose?" Melissa asked, taking care not to sound overly offensive.
Derek pondered the question for a moment before offering a shrug.
"I suppose Vaelthar attracts its own kind. It's not like we're pure saints ourselves," Derek admitted.
He was acutely aware that Vaelthar and its culture were essentially a world of hedonism and perversion compared to Earth, the realm where transmigrators originated.
Sex, polygamy, and even bloodline preservation were commonplace across Vaelthar; even intimate relationships with an adventurer's summoned companion weren't unheard of—and naturally, there was a logical explanation for all of it.
The normalization of sexual activity among adventurers stemmed from sheer necessity following the creation of the Initiation Potion: not every adventurer wanted to be beaten into unconsciousness or train until total physical collapse just to regulate their energy cores.
"I suppose you're right. We're hardly saints... especially me," Melissa affirmed, her eyes lingering on Dylan's rear as he walked off toward Connor and Rose.