6 Adventurer

There was nothing more than what Jae Farley wanted but revenge against those who tormented him.

Scratch that.

He also wanted a sandwich. Meat. Anything to fill his empty stomach other than fruits and nuts!

"Why the h*** are we still in a godforsaken forest?" Scarlett Fenn, a lizardman, cursed as even she was tired of nuts and berries.

Apparently, Altwidus's barrier kept monsters and animals out. The gorilla-like creature Jae had encountered near the steam was one of Altwidus's servants. They could only resort to being vegan since dangerous monsters were outside the barrier.

Three days had passed since the group left Dahlia's Forest of Rejuvenation. However, outside that forest, was lo and behold, another forest.

"Are we going up? North? South? Who knows? Altwidus just said to go straight and we'll be out. But it's impossible to go straight in a forest filled with curves and winding trails. Why is it that forests arcs begin most alternate world fantasies?" Nora, the slime bounced on Wendy's back.

"I-I wonder if we'll e-ever get out…" Natalie, the Fishman, said.

On the bright side, they didn't run into any monsters. But at the same time, they could not obtain any meat.

Jae sighed as he thought about what the group had discussed a few days ago.

There were three end goals the group had collectively agreed on: First, to find the truth of the researchers and complete their revenge. Second, to undo the changes in their bodies whether on the outside or inside. Third, to find safety and comfort while living in this world.

Although they had considered finding a way back to their home planet, they all knew the idea was far too improbable as according to Altwidus, spatial magic was rare. Even if they can find someone that can use spatial magic, there was no guarantee that they would return to the same world and time period they were in before. As a result, no one had voiced a desire to return out loud. It wasn't pleasant to remind themselves that they may never see their families again.

In order to fulfill their wishes, they decided to visit a settlement of any intelligent race, such as humans or elves, to gather information and supplies.

"Wait, there is something ahead, Ms. Hargraves, stay behind me," Alexis, the crystal golem, walked in front of Jade and made a stance. As Jade's bodyguard, she was proficient in various martial arts.

"Gaaaah!"

"Hyah!"

Slash. Splatter.

Creeping closer to the noise, the children hid behind the trees and peeked their heads out to see what was happening.

Three people were fighting a group of four-armed monkeys with mushrooms all over their bodies. The monsters reminded Jae of Altwidus's servant as he internally cheered for the monkeys' demise. One human male held a sword in front of an elfen girl with a long staff. Another woman was shooting arrows at a distance. It didn't take long for the monkeys to perish. Taking out knives, the trio began to dismember the monkeys.

"Should we ask them for the way out?" Bridget, the arachnid, whispered.

While continuing on looking at the trio, Jade replied, "Jae, as the most human-like of us, confront them. Alexis will back you up in case something happens."

Jae nodded and trod carefully towards the strangers.

The elven girl's ears twitched as she turned her head towards Jae.

"A child?"

"What?" the other two paused their work and looked at who the elven girl referred to. They held their weapons and faced the child warily.

"Hello child, what are you doing here alone?" The elven girl approached Jae without hesitation and crouched down.

Jae raised his voice and acted like a scared child, "I-I'm lost. My m-mommy and daddy were killed by monsters. D-Do you know the way out?" Crocodile tears spilled out of his eyes.

"Aw. Don't worry, you're safe now," the elf brought Jae closer and hugged him, "I'm Farlyn, the two behind me are Arnold and Liz."

The two behind the elven girl put away their weapons and came closer to Jae. As Jae "calmed down" and stopped crying, the man asked, "What's your name? Where are you from?"

"My name is Jae. I'm from a faraway place. My parents were peddlers. We were traveling to find somewhere to settle down, but we ran into monsters..."

"Arnold! Don't remind him!" Farlyn admonished, "There, there child. You are safe now."

"In any case, we have to leave before any monsters are attracted to the corpses," the archer called Liz said.

"Don't worry, we'll take you out," Farlyn smiled as she held Jae's hand.

The trio quickly finished cutting apart the monkey corpses as they escorted Jae out of the forest.

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"What horrible B-grade acting that was! I give it one star," Melody Sun, a fairy, pouted, "I can do way better."

"Hahaha. J-Jae even cried," Scarlett laughed so hard that she began convulsing.

"Hush or we'll get found out," Clara hissed.

The rest of the children were following Jae and the trio from afar.

"Oh, so that's the way out. I knew we should have made a turn at that strange rock," Nora wiggled.

"Well, let's finally get out of this godforsaken forest," Clara grumbled.

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"What should I do now…"

After leaving the forest, Jae ended up in a nearby human town as a day had passed. Farlyn took Jae to her room at an Inn for now. Since Jae did not have an identification card, she planned on taking care of Jae until he could get one. Without a card, he could not wander around town without a guardian nor leave freely. If he tried to run away, he'd be detained until identified.

Although he was worried about his companions, he believed that Jade can lead them properly to safety.

"Have you settled down yet?" A gentle voice sounded.

"Yes, thank you."

Farlyn entered the room with a bag of groceries. She appeared around seventeen in age, however, her elf lineage said otherwise.

"If you were older, I would refer you to the guards. But, considering how young you are, I would be worried," Farlyn sighed, "It's always dangerous outside at night regardless of whether in town or the wilderness."

"Is there any way for me to get an identification card faster?" He asked. Normally it would take a week to get one.

"Hm, there are three ways that I can think of. One would be to join a guild or union such as the Adventurer's Guild. Another would be if you have a letter of recommendation from an important figure. Last, would be for a special case."

"What's the Adventurer's Guild?" He generally knew what it was from his limited gaming knowledge but asked anyway.

"It's a guild that provides information and requests for adventurers like me and my group. Although you're quite young, it's not uncommon for kids your age to join and do small requests."

He thought for a moment. Obtaining information would be easier when joining and he could leave the guild at any time. "Then I want to join."

"Alrighty," Farlyn rustled his hair, "We can head over after breakfast. What would you like to eat?"

"Anything with meat!"

"Sorry, I'm vegan, so we have to make do with what I have here."

It seems like it will be a while longer for him to escape his vegetarian lifestyle.

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Unlike appearing similar to a tavern like in games, the Adventurer's Guild's office had a relatively neat appearance. It reminded Jae of a bank or financial aid office.

A male receptionist noticed the duo's arrival and smiled, "Welcome back, Farlyn. I see you've brought the kid you found. I heard about the kid from your party members." There were dark circles under his eyes as he yawned.

"Yup. This is Jae. She-I mean he would like to join the guild." While about to change in front of him yesterday, Jae clarified that he was a boy. But Farlyn still felt he was too young for her to care.

"It's good that you're early. There aren't many people around this time," the receptionist replied as he went through a pile of documents, "Oh, here it is." He handed the paper and a pen to Jae.

Jae skimmed through the document which asked for basic things including his name, parents, age, etc. Of course, since he didn't know his age or birth location, he bull****ed his way through just like his test answers back in high school.

"Here," he turned in the handout.

"Oh, almost forgot. Just to verify, place a drop of blood on this sheet of magic paper. It should give some information about your status, affinities, and whatnot." Whipping out a knife from under the counter and a black sheet of paper, the receptionist pushed the items toward Jae.

Oh, sh**.

Jae hesitated. He wasn't sure if he was still human due to the modifications, not to mention the information he wrote would be revealed to be fake.

"Hm? If you don't want to disclose information about your status, you don't need to. This is just a formality. Or...are you afraid of cutting yourself?" the receptionist grinned, "Don't worry, you just need a tiny swipe of the knife and done."

Internally sighing, Jae picked up the knife and did as the receptionist said. Only, he slit his wrist. Deeply.

"What are you doing!"

Farlyn was reading through the papers on the request board when she saw red in the corner of her vision. Blood splattered messily as Farlyn hurriedly dressed the wound. After the series of experiments, Jae was numb to "small" injuries like this one.

"Oops."

Most of the paper was covered in blood, but Farlyn and the receptionist could care less about seeing Jae's information.

"Why the hell is Jae using blood to activate the paper? He could have just channeled a bit of mana!"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that for a second. Sorry, kid." The receptionist honestly seemed paler than Jae.

"...you really need a break if you can't remember even that."

"I know right! I had overtime yesterday and the day before! Not only that, I spent an all-nighter without extra pay! Listen Farlyn, the boss is just plain terrible! Two days before, she assigned a week's length of documents to only me and it's due tonight! I really need a new job…" the receptionist began to complain endlessly.

While the two were chatting, Jae took a look at the paper.

"Eh?"