After losing nearly 500 GP on scratchcards, the three of us loitered outside the lottery shop. “So, what’s the plan now?” asked Newmill.
“To ban child marriage, abolish slavery, and prevent the genocide of monsters!” I raised my fist into the air. “Who’s with me?”
My two allies did not move, and passersby gave me weird looks. Penrin said, “I didn’t agree to do all that. Also, I think His Highness meant how are you going to accomplish those things.”
“By levelling up of course. A perk that we Earthlings have is our XP gain rate. I’ll put that to my advantage and use it to help make this awful world a little better.”
Penrin looked down upon me as if I were a child dreaming of one day becoming a dragon. How dare she? I was the one who was supposed to condescend to her. I was the adult here. “Question for you, Yarm,” Penrin said.
“Go ahead.”
“Are the 99 other ‘Earthlings’ aligned with you?”
“Uhm, no. Not really. They kind of prefer to keep the status quo in this world.”
“In other words, they’re against you. They’re levelling too, right? And they have the perk as well. Unless you can surpass them somehow, nothing can change. Have you found a way to level up faster than them? Have you been granted a rare boon that gives you the edge over them?”
“No…” She was really taking the wind out of my sails.
“Then why do you think levelling will help you?”
“I was kinda hoping that the System would give me a super awesome skill called ‘Free the Slaves’ or something.”
Penrin struck her forehead with her palm.
“There is no other path for me. I’m not smart enough to explain to people why slavery is unethical. I couldn’t even persuade my fellow Earthlings of that, so there’s no chance that I convince the people of this world. No one will listen to me. If my words aren’t enough then what choice do I have left but to use the System? And to top things off, my social skills are so lacking that the only allies I’ve managed to secure are two children!”
Penrin and Newmill looked at each other.
“Plus, this System has already been successful in helping me free over one hundred slaves. I’m sure if I levelled up, I would be capable of far more. Even if I can’t save everyone, I want to try and help the people that I can.”
Penrin stumbled back. “Wait, you’re the one who did that? We lost the maid we were going to buy thanks to you!” The girl shuddered. “I can’t believe I’m in a party with an infamous criminal who committed one of the most heinous acts of theft this century has seen.”
Newmill half-covered his mouth and whispered to me, “You might want to be a little more secretive about your criminal background. Your identity wasn’t made public, so no one knows that you’re the perpetrator.”
“Why keep it a secret? It’s a source of pride for me,” I said.
“Other people might form a negative impression of you, once they find out.”
“Let them. If anyone finds it objectionable that I should free slaves, they can kiss my arse.”
“Ew, no. I’m not doing that,” said Penrin.
“It’s a figure of speech, Penny…”
“Don’t call me that.”
I cleared my throat. “Anyway, I’ve got a pretty good plan for what we should do now.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“Your pessimism is really reducing team morale, Penrin.” I pulled the chalkboard out of my bag and began drawing out my plan onto it. “First, we go to the guild.” I drew a crude picture of a building. “Second, we get a quest to kill monsters.” I drew some stick figures and pointed to them. “Third—”
Newmill interrupted, “Wait, I thought we weren’t going to kill monsters?”
“We aren’t. You see, third—”
“Why not?” Penrin interrupted.
“Because I said so. Third—”
“Is that supposed to be a drawing of monsters or humans?” Newmill asked.
“Save your questions to the end please!” I shouted. “Third, we are going to spare the monsters. Fourth, we are going to pretend like we fulfilled the guild request and get the rewards.”
“Isn’t that fraud?” asked Penrin.
“Sometimes you have to commit a little fraud for the good of the world, ok?” I said in a high-pitched voice.
“If you don’t kill the monsters and just leave them there, won’t the guild find out?” wondered Newmill.
“No, you see I have a skill that will teleport them to a faraway location.” I would’ve shown my System to the two of them, but I wasn’t sure if they were ready to see my Villain title.
Newmill slapped his right fist into his left hand. “I understand now! The way you saved all those slaves was by using that teleport skill! Isn’t that so?”
“What? No. I just unlocked their cuffs with lockpicking.”
The prince’s shoulders slumped. “Oh…”
I patted him on the back. “It was a good guess, though.”
“Why are you so opposed to the killing of monsters, Yarm?” Penrin asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” she yelled. “You’re sure going through a lot of effort to save monsters for someone who ‘doesn’t know’.”
“By taking on these quests, I want to figure out why they hate humans.” The plan was simple. I would take requests from the guild to kill monsters but then use Spare Monster on them instead. This would give me XP, gold, and an opportunity to talk to more monsters. The last part was most important. Stopping the genocide of monsters from the human side wasn’t enough. That was only the first half of the solution. I had to also convince the monsters to stop their planned genocide of humans.
The three of us went to the local guildhall that I had visited once before.
Guild members and adventurers filled the building, taking up every table and chair for themselves. Staff hurried around to receive orders and serve drinks. “How do we go about this?” I said.
“You and Newmill should register with the receptionist. I’m already a member so I don’t need to.” Penrin led us over to a counter with a pretty half-owl woman behind it.
“How can I help hoot two?” asked the half-owl.
I stood there for a moment trying to decipher what I had just heard. ‘You two’ was what she probably said. “I’d like to register for the Guild.”
“Me too,” said Newmill.
“Perfect. Just fill out these forms.” The half-owl lady handed us some paperwork. We both wrote down our names, addresses, and other personal information before returning the forms. “Perfect! The registration fee is 20 GP per person.”
“There’s a fee?” I asked. “Why didn’t you tell me, Penrin?”
“I didn’t have to pay,” she replied.
“Nobles like Lady Penrin and royalty like His Highness Newmill do not have to pay,” the receptionist explained.
“Wow, classism, huh? What an awful business practice. I’m going to leave a one-star review for this place.” As I said that, a hand slammed 20 GP onto the counter.
“I’ll pay for you.” The speaker was the man who I had helped earlier with his level up game. “Nice to see you again, kid.” He brought his hand to mine for a handshake and then used his other arm to squeeze me into a hug.
“Thanks, man. You’re a lifesaver,” I said.
“Not at all. You helped me out a bunch. The title and skill that I got with your assistance are both incredible.” He let me down and then ruffled my hair. “If you ever need help with anything, just let me know.”
Behind him, I saw his teammates. They all smiled at me and gave me their greetings too. I had celebrated with them for quite some time, so there was a general bond between us all. “Nice to see you all again. Maybe one day we can all go on a quest together.”
The group laughed. “Level up a bit more first, kiddo.”
“Don’t do anything too dangerous for your first mission.”
“We have to set off now, but I hope we’ll meet again soon.”
The group bade me farewell and left the building. I smiled while waving them off. Penrin and Newmill looked at me with jaws agape. “What?” I asked.
“How are you friends with such high-level adventurers?” Penrin wondered.
“Those people are a famous group of adventurers known as Wem’s Flock. They recently killed a dragon with their flying ship. It was all over the news. How do you know them?” Newmill cupped his mouth with both hands.
“I just helped them out with something trivial. I had no idea they were big shots. I should have asked them for more money.” I snapped my fingers in frustration at the missed opportunity. “Anyway, now that we’re registered, shall we find a quest?”
Newmill and Penrin wanted to know more so I explained everything to them. Penrin was quite put off by the tale, but Newmill thought it was funny.
At the quest board, my eyes scanned over hundreds of different jobs. A lot of them were too difficult for me to even consider. Low-level jobs were scarce.
“We can go to another guildhall if you don’t like any of the jobs here,” Penrin suggested.
“We might have to.” Then my eyes spotted it. The perfect job. “This is it.” I plucked it off the wall. “This is perfect.”
Newmill peered over my shoulder and read the request paper. “Kill the Giant Rat that’s terrorising the Eastern Forest. What is so good about that one?”
“I shall have my revenge… Await me, rat. I will defeat you, and you will be spared.”
“Who’s he talking to?” Penrin whispered to Newmill.
The three of us accepted the quest and began to head out. Before leaving, my eye was caught by another large board close to the exit. “Another request board?” I said.
“No, this is the anti-request board,” Penrin explained.
“The what?”
“Anti-requests are placed by individuals or small businesses to attract people. They’re the opposite of requests in the sense that the person who puts them up is asking for people to request things of them. For example, if you’re a baker but can’t afford a bakery, you can ask people to come to your house to request products from you.”
“So, they’re just adverts?”
“They’re anti-requests.”
“Interesting, well I don’t see how I can make use of it. Let’s carry on,” I said.
Penrin said, “Another example would be a person who dabbled in alternative medicine but didn’t have a clinic. They could put up a poster asking ill individuals to visit them for treatment.”
“That’s nice. It still doesn’t relate to me, so let’s complete the quest we just got.”
“Doesn’t relate to you?” Penrin clenched her fists. “Can’t you think of anything at all that this anti-request board would be useful for?”
“Nope.”
Penrin’s teeth grinded together. “Maybe you know someone who can help others by using pointy objects?”
“Hmm,” I pondered. “Wait, you’re right! There is something.” I got a piece of paper from atop a side-drawer and scribbled something down. I picked up one of the provided tacks and stuck the paper to the anti-request board.
‘Some soldiers with pointy swords stole my pixie dust! I’m the study mage that threatened to turn someone into a frog. Please return the item to me posthaste. I’m located at the building for heroes.’
Upon seeing my writing, Penrin slammed her head into the anti-request board causing some of the papers to fall to the ground. “Yarm, that’s not even an anti-request. It’s just a request.”
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