A Bug In Fate

"Take this one."

"No, no. This escort mission pays better."

"Oi! I saw it first!"

Groups of adventurers crowded around the enormous quest board, reaching for notices while arguing with one another. Some discussed rewards with their teammates, while others hurriedly tore requests from the board before someone else could claim them.

Alden squeezed through the crowd and stopped before the Bronze-rank section.

The massive board was almost completely covered in neatly pinned parchments. Fresh requests overlapped older ones, while several empty spots showed where missions had already been claimed. Every few seconds, another adventurer stepped forward, tore a notice from the board, and walked away with purpose.

His eyes swept across one notice after another.

Collect 20 Ironleaf Herbs.

Reward: 15 Silver Coins.

Escort a Merchant Caravan to Graystone Village.

Reward: 2 Gold Coins.

Eliminate Five Forest Wolves.

Reward: 3 Gold Coins.

Find a Missing Cat.

Reward: 5 Silver Coins.

"..."

"Pfft."

A chuckle escaped his lips.

"A missing cat..."

For a split second, a familiar image flashed through his mind.

A black cat pouncing on a snake.

"...Maybe another time."

Shaking his head, Alden continued reading.

Most of the requests were ordinary jobs—escorts, herb gathering, hunting beasts, and deliveries. Nothing stood out enough to catch his interest.

Just as he was about to move on, one particular notice caught his attention.

Emergency Request

Subjugate the Morkel Pack damaging the eastern farmlands.

Reward: 4 Gold Coins

Location: Eastfield Farms (2 km east of Ravenhold)

Alden narrowed his eyes.

Monsters destroying crops?

He had expected monsters to lurk deep within forests or mountains.

Why would they raid farmland instead?

His curiosity was immediately piqued.

"Morkels?"

"First time hearing about them?"

A rough-looking adventurer beside him chuckled.

"They’ve got noses sharper than hunting hounds. Once crops ripen, they can smell them from kilometers away. If the farmers don’t drive them off, they’ll tear through an entire field before sunrise."

"I see... thanks for the information."

"It’s nothing."

The adventurer shrugged before disappearing into the crowd.

Alden looked back at the request.

Four gold coins...

The reward wasn’t extraordinary, but it was more than enough for his first mission. More importantly, it sounded like a straightforward hunt rather than something that would throw him into unnecessary danger.

Without another thought, he tore the notice from the board.

---

A short while later, he found himself standing before the same reception counter.

Fortunately, the line wasn’t long.

Unbeknownst to Alden, most adventurers instinctively chose the female receptionists, leaving the chubby young man with noticeably fewer visitors.

"I’d like to accept this mission."

"Oh?"

The receptionist looked up before taking the request from Alden’s hand.

"You’re back already."

His eyes scanned the paper before a grin spread across his face.

"Hmm... an interesting choice."

"It’s not particularly dangerous..."

He paused dramatically.

"...but I wouldn’t call it easy either."

Alden raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

The receptionist only smiled.

"Why don’t you find out yourself?"

"Hehe... you’re in for a surprise."

"..."

Alden let out a quiet sigh.

"I’ll take it."

"Good."

The receptionist reached beneath the counter and pulled out a heavy brass stamp.

The base of the stamp was engraved with the Adventurers’ Guild’s emblem—a sturdy shield crossed by a sword, encircled by a laurel wreath. At its center rested an eight-pointed star, symbolizing the countless paths walked by adventurers throughout the world.

With a practiced motion, he pressed it firmly onto the request.

Thump.

A crisp bronze seal appeared in the corner of the parchment, bearing the guild’s insignia and the word APPROVED beneath it. For a brief moment, the seal shimmered faintly before the glow faded, leaving behind a flawless imprint.

He handed the request back.

"Take this to the guards at the eastern gate."

"They’ll point you toward Eastfield Farms."

"Good luck, Rookie."

Alden nodded before tucking the approved request into his pocket.

"Thanks."

With that, he turned and made his way toward the guild’s exit.

The moment he stepped outside, the bustling sounds of the city greeted him once more.

A faint smile spread across his face.

His first mission.

Ever since arriving in Umbersoul, he had been fighting simply to survive. Now, for the first time, he was setting out as a genuine adventurer.

Just thinking about it sent a thrill through him.

Before leaving the city, however, another thought crossed his mind.

It’s been a while since I checked my status.

Without hesitation, he summoned the familiar translucent panel before him.

══════════════════════════════════════

STATUS

══════════════════════════════════════

NAME: ALDEN CROWE

RACE: HUMAN

TITLE: A BUG

REALM: AWAKENED (PEAK)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ATTRIBUTES

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Strength : 338

Agility : 362

Stamina : 345

Intelligence : 392

Vitality : 354

Mana : 398

Luck : Unpredictable (???)

Charm : 450

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

PHYSIQUE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

• Apex Evolution Body

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

AFFINITIES

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Void : D

Ice : A-

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SKILLS

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

• Basic Poison Resistance

• Universal Comprehension

• Mana Sense

• Basic Swordsmanship

══════════════════════════════════════

Alden’s eyes swept across the familiar panel.

His lips curled into a faint smile.

"...Not bad."

Compared to the day he had first arrived in Umbersoul, every one of his attributes had increased dramatically.

Still...

He had no intention of becoming complacent.

The Awakened Realm was merely the first step on the path of cultivation.

An unimaginably long road still lay ahead.

With a thought, the translucent panel dissolved into countless specks of light before disappearing.

"Time to see what these Morkels are capable of."

He had barely taken a few steps before suddenly coming to a stop.

"...Wait."

Alden blinked.

"I don’t even have a weapon."

He stared blankly ahead for a moment before letting out a helpless laugh.

"...Right."

He had become so excited about his first mission that he had forgotten the most important thing.

He wasn’t planning on fighting monsters bare-handed anymore.

Turning on his heel, he headed toward the back of the Adventurers’ Guild.

A few minutes later, a familiar rhythmic sound reached his ears.

Clang!

Clang!

The old dwarf blacksmith he had met earlier was still hard at work, repeatedly bringing his hammer down onto a glowing piece of steel resting atop the anvil.

Beside him, a young apprentice watched every movement with unwavering focus, occasionally adjusting the furnace or handing over another tool.

Without even looking up from his work, the old dwarf spoke.

"Forgot something, did you?"

Alden scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.

"...I need a sword."

The old dwarf finally looked up. A knowing grin spread across his weathered face.

"I figured as much."

"Go ahead and pick whatever catches your eye."

"I see."

The old dwarf glanced at the apprentice beside him.

"Ron, help the customer."

"Got it, Teacher."

The young apprentice hurried over. He looked a year or two younger than Alden.

"Hi! I’m Ron."

He gestured proudly toward the weapon racks.

"These ones here cost five gold coins."

He pointed to another rack.

"Those over there are ten gold."

Finally, he pointed toward a smaller corner.

"And if you’re looking for something cheaper, those are only one gold coin."

He puffed out his chest.

"I made those myself."

"Alright."

Alden nodded and walked over to the five-gold rack.

He didn’t have much money left, but this was a weapon he might entrust his life to. He wasn’t about to settle for the cheapest piece of steel.

His gaze wandered across the neatly arranged weapons.

Longswords.

Greatswords.

Spears.

Axes.

Even a few war hammers rested neatly on their wooden stands.

Every weapon had been polished to a fine shine, their edges catching the light from the forge. Though none of them carried extravagant decorations, they all looked dependable—tools made for surviving battles rather than hanging on a noble’s wall.

After a moment, he frowned.

"Um... don’t you have any sabers?"

"Huh?"

Ron blinked.

"A saber?"

"You use sabers?"

"We used to sell a few," the old dwarf answered while continuing to hammer the glowing metal on the anvil.

Clang!

"But nobody ever bought them."

Clang!

"So I melted them down and forged them into something people actually use."

Each strike sent a shower of bright orange sparks dancing through the workshop. Despite his age, the old dwarf’s movements were powerful and precise, as though he had repeated the same motions tens of thousands of times.

Ron scratched his cheek.

"If you really want one, there’s another blacksmith across the city."

He grinned.

"Though considering you somehow ended up behind the Adventurers’ Guild earlier..."

"I’m not sure you’d ever find it."

"Hehehe..."

Unable to hold it in any longer, Ron burst into laughter.

Alden shot the old dwarf a suspicious look.

The old man simply continued hammering away as if he hadn’t heard a thing.

So he told him...

Alden sighed.

"Fine."

"I’ll just buy a sword."

Ron tilted his head.

"You can use a sword too?"

Alden shrugged.

"A blade is a blade."

"As long as it has an edge, I’ll manage."

He wasn’t trying to boast.

The Basic Swordsmanship skill had already given him a solid grasp of the weapon’s fundamentals. While he was far from being a master, he was confident he could wield a sword well enough for his current level.

The rhythmic hammering stopped.

For the first time since Alden entered the shop, the old dwarf paused his work.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Ho..."

"That’s quite the claim, young man."

Despite speaking, his eyes never left the glowing steel resting on the anvil.

Alden met his gaze without flinching.

"You can believe whatever you want."

The old dwarf’s smile widened.

"Interesting..."

He slowly set the hammer aside.

"How about we make a little bet?"

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