chapter 1

The carriage drove over the pavement and made loud creaking sound.

“… Another world… Hey, it really is another world. Eh, it’s for real? I am going to used magic and adventure in this world?”

I was trembling with excitement because of the scene before me and started talking to myself.

Before my eyes were houses built from red bricks, the streets right out of Europe in the Middle Ages.

There were no cars, bikes, power lines or telecommunication cables.

“Ah… Ah… Ahh…”

I looked around the street, watching the people passing by.

“Animal ears! There is someone with animal ears! And elf ears! Is that an elf? With such striking facial features, she definitely is one! Good bye hikikomori life! Hello different world! If it was this world, I am willing to go out and work obediently!”

“Ahh… Ahhh…. Ahhhh!”

I turned around and looked at Aqua who was hugging her head screaming.

“Hey, you are noisy. What if they think I am related to a crazy woman like you? Stop screaming, you should be giving something to me at a time like this right? Look at what I am wearing. Gym clothes? I finally arrived in a fantasy world but I am wearing a full set of gym clothes. According to the norm in games, you should be giving me the minimum equipment…”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh–!”

The goddess screamed as she pounced over to grab me.

“Woah! What, what are you doing, don’t act this way! I get it, I will do something about the basic equipment. I should say that I was wrong! If you are unwilling, please go back . I will think about what to do in the future.”

Aqua tried to strangle me with teary eyes, so I shook off her hand and tried to shoo her away with an annoyed expression.

In the end, Aqua said with trembling hands:

“What are you talking about? I am troubled because I can’t go back! What now? Nah, what should I do! What am I going to do in the future?”

Aqua fell into a panic in tears, pacing about while hugging her head.

Her waist length hair was a mess, she looked crazy right now, although she’s was a beauty when she kept quiet.

“Hey, calm down goddess. The first place to visit should be the tavern. Everything starts from collecting information at a tavern. This is the standard in role playing games.”

“Huh…! You are just a hikikomori gaming NEET, why are you so reliable? Ah, Kazuma, my name is Aqua. I don’t mind you addressing me as goddess, but do call me by my name whenever possible. Or else we would be surrounded by citizens and couldn’t go on adventures and take down the demon king. This might be a different world, but I am still one of the revered gods of this world.”

Aqua said as she followed behind me confidently.

Alright, there should a group formed to take on the demon king or an adventurer guild made to defeat monsters.

Speaking of which, Aqua is a goddess, he can ask her if he had any questions.

“Aqua, please tell me where is the position of the adventurers guild. Which way should we go?”

I asked Aqua, but she just looked at me blankly.

“…? I won’t know even if you ask me. I know the common knowledge of this world, but not the situation in town. This is just one of the many existing planets, and just a small town at that! How would I know?”

This girl was useless.

There’s no other way, so I asked a middle aged lady passing by.

I didn’t asked guys for fear of meeting delinquents, while the difficulty of talking to young girls was too high for me.

“Excuse me– may I ask something? I am looking for a place similar to an Adventurers guild…”

“Guild! Ara, to not know where the guild is, could you be from out of town?”

From what the madam was saying, there really was a guild here, which made me relieved.

“That’s right, I am a traveler who came from a far away land, I just reached this town.”

“Ara ara… Since you came to this town, you must be aiming to become an adventurer. Welcome to the town of novice adventurers, Axel. Follow the main road and turn right, you will see the signboard for the guild.”

“Take a right down the road, got it, thank you very much! … Hey, let’s go.”

A town for novice adventurers.

I see. This was a good starting point for the dead who gets transported here.

After thanking the lady, I followed her directions while Aqua followed me with respect in her eyes and sighed:

“Nah, you came up with an excuse right on the spot, why are you able to handle this so perfectly? You seemed to be a capable guy, why were you a hikiNEET without any girls or friends? Why did you want to stay at home all day and be a hikiNEET?”

“Not having a girl or friends isn’t a bad thing. The value of a person cannot be measured by the number of friends or having a significant other. And don’t call me a hikiNEET. Damn bitch. Don’t combine hikikomori and NEET together, and I am just 16, too young to be a NEET by society’s standard… There it is.”

Aqua pounced over to strangle me for calling her a bitch, but I ignored her and entered the Adventurers guild.

— Adventurers guild–

A place for adventurers to take up jobs, which was a staple in games, an organization that supported the adventurers.

The job agency of this world.

There was a rather large establishment before them and the fragrance of food drifted from within.

Some rough characters would definitely be inside.

They might find trouble with me if they saw unfamiliar faces.

After preparing myself mentally and entering…

“Ah, welcome~ Please approach the counter if you looking for jobs. If you are here to dine, please take any empty seat~!”

A waitress with short red hair received us warmly.

The slightly dim interior seemed to double as a bar.

Groups of men in armor could be seen congregating inside, but they didn’t seem to bear ill will.

But unfamiliar faces seemed to be rare, everyone was focusing on us.

… I realized why they were looking this way.

“Nah nah, they are looking this way too blatantly. It must be the holy aura coming from me, they must have discovered that I am a goddess.”

The reason was the appearance of the goddess speaking dumb words.

She looked like a beauty if she stayed quiet, and was attracting everyone’s eyes.

For now, I ignored their gaze and went about my original objective.

“… Listen carefully Aqua, they will gave us a tutorial if we register, enabling us to earn a living. That’s the kind of place adventurers guilds are. We should be able to take a loan to prepare ourselves, complete simple jobs to get by and introduce us to a good tavern. Most games start out this way. Normally, preparing the bare essentials to live in this world should be your job… But never mind. For today, let’s register with the guild, get some equipment and money, and find a place to sleep.”

“I don’t care about that. My job was sending the dead to this world. But I get it. I am not familiar with games, but what you said was common sense for this world. So I just need to register to be an adventurer too, right?”

“That’s right. Alright then, let’s go.”

Taking Aqua with me, I made a beeline for the counter.

There are four counter staff.

Two of them were female.

I queue up at the counter with the prettier lady.

“… Nah, the other 3 counters are empty, why are you queuing here? We won’t have to wait if we go to another counter… Ah, because this counter staff is the prettiest? Really, I was just a bit impressed and thought that you were reliable, but you are doing this?”

Aqua who was following me didn’t know anything, so I whispered to her quietly:

“Building a good rapport with the guild’s counter staff is the basics. And the pretty counter lady definitely had plenty of flags to raise. This means there will be more shocking hidden side quest waiting for us. For example, the counter lady might be a powerful adventurer or something.”

“… Now that you mentioned it, I saw something similar in a manga. Sorry, I will wait in line obediently.”

Because we did not approach the other empty counter and intentionally queue here, the other staff was looking at us curiously. But I decided to pretend not to notice.

It was finally our turn.

“Good morning, how may I help you?”

The counter staff was a gentle beauty.

Her wavy hair and large breasts made her look matured.

“Eh, I want to be an adventurer. I came from the countryside and didn’t know anything…”

If I tell the counter staff I came from the countryside or a far away nation, they will give a more thorough explanation.

“I see. There will be a registration fee, will that be okay?”

That’s right, this is the basic tutorial.

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I will just need to follow the instruction of the counter staff…

… Registration fee?

“… Hey Aqua, you have any cash on you?”

“I was transported here all of a sudden, how is it possible for me to have money?”

… How could this be, shouldn’t they loan some money to us or put it on the tab for now?

I moved away from the counter and discuss the strategy with Aqua.

“… Hey, what now? We are in a pinch right from the beginning. In games, you would normally get the minimal equipment and some money for living expenses too.”

“All of a sudden, you became unreliable. But it can’t be helped, you are a hikikomori after all. Alright, it’s time for me to shine. Just watch, I will show you the capability of a goddess.”

A man wearing the loose and cumbersome clothing of a priest was seated at a table.

Aqua approached that man confidently…

“Man of the cloth, please state thy religion! I am Aqua. That’s right, Goddess Aqua, worshipped by the Axis theocracy! If thou art a believer…! …Could you give me some aid by lending me some money?”

With an attitude that seemed aloft yet humble, she asked him for money.

“… I am from the Eris sect.”

“Ah, I see, sorry…”

I don’t get it, but they seemed to be from different religious orders.

When the dejected Aqua was preparing to come back, the priest stopped her.

“Ah… Madam, you must be a follower of Axis. There were stories about Goddess Aqua and Goddess Eris being close, so this might be fate. I had been observing you, you have trouble paying the registration fee correct? It’s just a small fee, so please take it as a blessing from Goddess Eris. But no matter how devout you are, you shouldn’t use the title of the Goddess in vain.”

“Ah… Okay, sorry… Thank you very much…”

The eyes of Aqua looked dead as she returned with the money.

“Hahaha… He didn’t believed that I am a goddess… By the way, goddess Eris is my junior… I was pitied by the believer of my junior goddess, and received his money…”

“What matters is that you completed the task. Think about it, if he really believed that you are a goddess, there would be a different kind of trouble!”

Aqua had an expression that seemed to say she lost something important, so I encouraged her half heartedly.

“Eh… We are back with the registration fees.”

“I… I see… The registration fees are 1000 Eris…”

Aqua received 3000 Eris from the priest.

According to Aqua, 1 Eris is about 1 yen, so she received about 3000 yen.

The counter lady didn’t interfere the commotion we stirred up, and was unwilling to look at me and Aqua in the eye.

It seems I had broken the flag between this lady and me.

“Alright. Since you said you want to be an adventurer, you should have some level of understanding, but I will explain it from the start… First, adventurers are responsible for the extermination of the monsters wandering outside the town… People who get rid of dangerous creatures that might harm the citizens. They are also jack of all trades, taking on odd jobs that require their talents… People who earn a living this way are known collectively as adventurers. And among adventurers, there are different jobs.”

Finally, it’s coming.

This is a norm for adventurers. Be it jobs, class or whatever they are called, you have to choose the way you fight in this world.

Compared to the blunt warrior profession, flashy jobs like mage would be better.

The counter lady handed me and Aqua one card each.

It was about the size of a driving license, and seemed to be a kind of identification card.

“Please look over here, do you see the word level? As both of you know, all things in the world have souls. No matter what form it takes, if you eat or kill a being, you can absorb a part of the memory of the soul. This is known as ‘Experience Points’.

‘Experience Points’ are normally intangible things, but…”

The counter lady pointed to one part of the card and continued:

“With this card, the ‘Experience Points’ the adventurer had absorbed would be shown here. At the same time, the level corresponding to your ‘Experience Points’ would also be displayed. This show how strong an adventurer is, and how many enemy you defeat would be recorded here. With the accumulation of ‘Experience Points’, all creatures would grow stronger rapidly at some point. This is known as leveling up… Simply put, leveling up will grant you all sorts of perks, such as skill points to learn new skills. So please work hard to increase your level.”

After listening to the explanation, I recalled something Aqua said.

She asked me ‘Do you… like games?’

I got it. After listening to all that, this world was just like a game.

“First of all, please fill in your height, weight, age and other details in the blanks.”

I filled in my particulars in the form given to me by the counter lady.

Height is 165cm, weight 55kg. 16 years old, brown hair and eyes…

“That will be fine. Please touch this card. This will display the strength of each of your abilities as reference to choose your job. After accumulating skill points, you can learn skills that are available to your jobs. This is one of the key points in choosing jobs.”

Oh, it was time for this.

The time to show my amazing potential and create a big commotion in the guild.

With tense emotion and a heart of expectation, I touched the card.

“… Alright, thank you. Satou Kazuma san right. Let’s see… Strength, vitality, magic, agility and speed… All of them are average, intelligence is a slightly better than average… Huh? Luck is very high. But it is not very relevant for adventurers… This is troubling, from the numbers, you can only choose the most basic ‘adventurer’ job! Since your luck is so high, I suggest you give up being an adventurer and be a merchant… What would you like to do?”

Hey, my life of adventuring was being denied right from the very start, what is this.

The corners of Aqua’s lips were high in a smile, tempting me to punch her.

Me being weak doesn’t help your cause.

“Erm, I would like to be an adventurer…”

The counter lady said with a face of worry:

“It, it’s fine, after leveling up and your stats improve, you can change your job! And the adventurer job is similar to its definition, it is a combination of all jobs… That’s right, it might be a basic level job, but it doesn’t mean it is worse than others! Adventurers could learn and use the skills of all jobs after all!”

“On the other hand, you need more skill points to learn skills. Without the bonus attribute of the actual job, your skills would be weaker when compared to them. It’s a jack of all trade, master of none.”

After the counter lady point out the good points, Aqua immediately shot me down.

I should find a place to throw her away.

It seems that I would be taking a basic job, or a beginner job.

Anyway, it was the weakest job.

But I am still an adventurer that appeared in this world.

As I received my card with my name and the job ‘adventurer’ written on it with a heavy heart…

“Eh? Huh~! What is with these numbers? Besides the lower than average intelligence, and luck which is pit bottom, the rest of your stats drastically exceeds the average! Especially your magic, it is abnormally high, who in the world are you…?”

The counter lady screamed after looking at the card Aqua touched.

The place was in an uproar.

… Weird, shouldn’t that be happening to me instead?

“Ah, is that right? So it means I am amazing? Ara~ it is normal by my standard.”

No matter how useless, she was still a goddess.

But Aqua being so happy that she’s became embarrassed pissed me off.

“This, this was way past amazing! Mage type jobs which requires high intelligence is not available… But you can choose any other jobs! The holy knight with its strongest defense ‘Crusader’, the swordsman with the strongest attack ‘Swordmaster’, the top tier cleric ‘Archpriest’… You can choose most of the top tier jobs right now…!”

Aqua was slightly troubled by the counter lady’s question and said:

“Well, it’s a pity that ‘goddess’ isn’t available as a job… It should be grand cleric for me.”

“Archpriest! Archpriest can use all kinds of recovery and support spells, they could even take the role of vanguards, a strong all rounder job! I will register you now… It’s done. Welcome to the adventurers guild, Aqua-sama, all our staff look forward to your grand exploits!”

The counter lady said with a pleasant smile.

… Strange, what is this?

Like I said, this should be happening to me…

Forget it, anyway–

And so, my life as an adventurer began in this world.

Part 2

“Alright– good work everyone–! That’s it for today! Here, this is the salary for today.”

“Thank you. Good job today boss-!”

“Good job-!”

After the boss announced the end of the work day, Aqua and I received our salary, bowed and greeted him.

“Everyone, we will make a move first-!”

“Good bye-!”

“Oh- thanks for your hard work! I’m counting on you tomorrow too.”

I bid farewell to my seniors while Aqua followed my lead.

After hearing the reply from the seniors, Aqua and I left the workplace.

Ah, I worked the whole of today too.

Even I am beginning to doubt that I was ever a hikikomori.

Aqua and I took our salary for the day and head for the public bath.

The public bath was no different from the ones in Japan.

Judging from the average salary, the entrance fee were higher than Japan. But I couldn’t change the habit of taking a bath after finishing work.

“Ah~… I’m alive again~…”

I soaked my shoulders into the warm water, leisurely relieving my fatigue from work.

This place seemed to be from the middle ages, so I thought it would be luxurious to take a bath here, but that was just me.

I am grateful, so grateful…!

After leaving the bath, I saw Aqua waiting at the entrance for me.

Bathing longer than a girl was a bit off, but that was the nature of Japanese.

“What would you like to eat today? I want some smoke lizard hamburger steak. And the heart freezing crimson neroid!”

“I want to eat meat too. Let’s go to the tavern and get two smoke lizard steak set meal.”

“Agreed!”

After finishing our meal, Aqua and I didn’t have anything to do and went to the stables.

Picking hay that wasn’t stained by horse manure to make a bed, we lay down immediately.

Aqua was sleeping besides me as usual.

“Well then, good night~”

“Good night. Phew… I worked hard today too…”

And so I drifted off into dream land…

“No, wait a minute.”

I suddenly sat up.

“What is it? You forgot to go to the washroom? It’s dark out there, need me to accompany you?”

“No way. Hold on, it’s not that. I just realized we had been living the life of a manual laborer so far.”

That’s right.

For the past 2 weeks, Aqua and I had been working on the walls outside the city.

We were construction workers.

That was too far off from the life of an adventurer I was aspiring to live in this world.

Or rather, why did Aqua got used to this lifestyle without any complains.

Weren’t you a goddess?

“You don’t work, you don’t eat, isn’t that obvious? HikiNEETs are really picky. If you prefer to, you can work as a store clerk too!”

“No! It’s not that. How should I put this? What I am after is an exciting battle against monsters! A life like that! And isn’t this world in a crisis with the invasion of the demon king? Isn’t it amazingly peaceful here, there are no signs of demons at all, hey!”

I got excited as I spoke and my voice got louder, and was lectured by our neighbors.

“Hey, can it! Be quiet!”

“Ah, sorry!”

Adventurers who were just starting out were poor.

It was normally impossible for us to rent a room in the tavern every night.

Normally, they will share the rent with other adventurers and sleep in the communal room.

Or they could do what we were doing and sleep on the hay in the stables.

Yes, this was different from the adventurer lifestyle in the alternate way I was looking forward to.

Staying in the tavern daily was the same as sleeping in a hotel every day in Japan.

It was impossible for adventurers with unstable income.

… That’s right, our income wasn’t stable.

There wasn’t any simple herb picking or monster hunting ‘missions’ that appeared in games

Monsters don’t burst into treats and money when you kill them.

The monsters staying in the forest near town had long been exterminated.

The forest had turned safe after the monsters were gone, so no one would hire people to harvest material for them.

This was obvious.

The outdoors was so safe that the children were allowed to roam free.

There were guards manning the gate, but instead of maintaining round the clock security, it was easier to exterminate all the dangerous monsters since the forest wasn’t too large.

It was the most logical method, but I would rather not know this.

An adventurer who was just slightly stronger than normal people could spend half a day harvesting herbs that were easy to spot, and earn enough for food and lodging.

There was no way such an easy job existed.

Japan was a prosperous nation on earth, but there wasn’t any laborer who could live in a hotel with their daily income.

Minimum wage? Labor laws? What are those, can we eat it?

That’s the world this was.

“It’s useless even if you tell me these. This is the town furthest away from the demon king’s castle after all! Who would come all the way to attack a novice town at the borders… Anyway, Kazuma wants to live more like an adventurer right? You don’t even have the proper equipment!”

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Aqua went straight to the point, and I couldn’t protest.

That’s right, Aqua and I don’t even have the minimum equipment. We were hoping to buy them, that’s why we were working so hard at the construction site.

“I’m getting bored of construction too… I didn’t come to this world to be a laborer. I came to this world with no computers and games in order to adventure. And didn’t you send me here to challenge the demon king?”

After hearing what I said, Aqua made a ‘what are you talking about face’, pondered for a moment and responded:

“Oh! There was such a thing! I was so immersed in the happiness of labor that I forgot. I couldn’t go back if Kazuma don’t defeat the demon king.”

Listening to her dumb reply, I recalled the counter lady’s words. Seems that this girl’s intelligence was really below average.

“Alright, let’s go challenge the demon king! Don’t worry, it will be a breeze with me here! Look forward to my performance!”

“That made me uneasy… But you are a goddess after all. I’m counting on you! Okay, we will buy some basic weapons and armor with the money we saved and go grinding tomorrow!”

“Leave it to me!”

“Didn’t I tell you to can it! You want me to beat you up?!”

“I am very sorry!” x2

As I apologized to the other adventurers, I got ready to sleep with an excited heart.

Part 3

Under the clear blue sky.

“Ahhhhh! Help! Aqua, save me~~!”

“Puhehe! This is so funny! Kazuma your face is all red, you are tearing up and working really hard!”

Okay, I will bury this girl before going back.

As I make up my mind, I continue to run and scream for help as a giant toad like monster chased me.

This was the open plain outside of town.

We took a mission from the guild in the morning and headed here…

As for the bare minimum weapon needed, I chose a short sword.

Aqua was acting dumb, saying a goddess wielding weapons were unglamorous and wasn’t equipped with anything. She was watching the toads chasing me leisurely.

Don’t look down on them just because they were toads.

They were bigger than bulls. It was their mating season, so they were accumulating nutrition in order to lay eggs. They roam around the human settlement where food were more plentiful, swallowing goats raised by farmers in a single gulp.

If they could swallow a goat whole, swallowing me and Aqua would be easy too.

In fact, children and farmers often went missing during the mating season of these toads.

Even though their appearance were just that of a giant toad.

But they were still dangerous monsters, stronger than the small monsters near town that were exterminated.

By the way, their meat was a bit tough, but it was pleasant and refreshing, a rather popular ingredient.

Its thick fat was effective against blunt attack.

They hate metals, so you won’t be hunted if your equipment were full. It was an easy foe for normal adventurers.

That’s why skillful adventurers like to hunt them. But…

“Aqua-! Aqua-! Stop laughing and save me–!”

“For a start, add a ‘san’ when you address me.”

“Aqua-sama–!”

I will bury this girl all the way, only leaving her head above ground. I will let her know the horror of being targeted by toads.

I was on the verge of tears, looking back at the toad hopping behind me.

At this moment, I realized that the toad were heading in a different direction from me.

Before the toad was…

“Can’t be helped-! Alright, I will save you, hikiNEET! But you will need to worship this goddess from tomorrow onwards! You have to join the Aqua sect in town, and pray to me 3 times a day! You can’t object if I take any side dishes from you during meals! And also, ugh?”

Aqua who was puffing her chest out and rumbling on about something disappeared.

I turned my head and saw the toad had stopped moving.

Something white were dangling from the corner of the toad’s mouth.

That white thing was…

“Aqua-! You, how could you get eaten-!”

Aqua who was eaten by the toad had one leg dangling out of its mouth which was spasming.

And so I drew my short sword and charged the toad!

“Sob… Ugh, ugh– Wah…!”

Before me, Aqua was covered in sticky toad fluid hugging her knees while sitting on the ground sobbing.

Besides her was the toad with its head smashed.

“Ugh… Sob… Thank, thank you… Kazuma, thank you…! Wahhhhhhhhh….!”

Aqua had been crying non stop since I dragged her out of the toad’s mouth.

Even a goddess couldn’t stand the horror of being preyed on.

“Are, are you okay Aqua, be strong… Let’s go back for today. The mission we took on was exterminating 5 toads in 3 days, but they are not opponents we could handle. Let’s try again when we have better equipment. Look, I only have a short sword and no armor, I’m still wearing my gym clothes. Let’s come back when we are dressed more like adventurers.”

To be honest, a novice like me only defeated the toad because it stopped moving as it tried to swallow Aqua.

If the toad attacked me without hesitation, I don’t have the courage to face it.

Aqua stood up with the glossy fluid all over her body.

“Ugh… For a goddess like me to be humiliated by a toad, how could we retreat! I am already defiled. If a believer saw how dirty I am, their faith would definitely plummet! If people knew I ran from toads, it would be a disgrace to the name of the beautiful goddess Aqua!”

Don’t worry about that. You carried several times more construction materials than the men at the work site, and looked so happy while working. Your greatest joy was eating dinner after taking a bath, you were sleeping so soundly that you even drooled while sleeping in the stables beside me. After seeing the way you acted, being covered in goo wasn’t much.

But before I could stopped her, Aqua charged towards another toad in the distance.

“Ah! Hey, hold up, Aqua!”

Aqua ignored my restraint, drawing closer to the toad using her moment to throw a punch at the belly of the toad.

“Feel the wrath of a goddess! You dare to oppose a goddess? Repent in hell! God Blow!”

I remembered the staff in the guild telling me that physical attacks weren’t effective against giant toads.

Her fist sunk into the soft abdomen, while the toad seemed unaffected…

Aqua looked at the toad meekly in the eye and said softly:

“… Look, looking closely, toads are actually quite cute right?”

… And so, I defeated a 2nd giant toad that stopped moving as it attempted to swallow its prey. The adventure for today ended with me bringing a wailing goddess covered in slime back to town.

Part 4

“I get it. Just us two isn’t enough. Let’s recruit more members!”

After returning to town, the first thing we did was head to the bath house to wash up. We then ate fried toad meat in the Adventurers guild and discuss our plans.

Apart from being a meeting place for adventurers, the adventurers guild also doubled as a bar. It allowed adventurer to sell the monster they hunted as well and cooking tasty monsters was also a selling point.

We sold the meat of the two toad we hunted to the guild, earning some allowance.

The toad was too big for the two of us to carry.

But if you turn in a request to the guild, they will provide delivery service, transporting the monster we defeated.

Selling one toad and deducting the transport fee, we earned 5000 Eris.

The earnings were about the same as doing construction work.

But the slightly tough fried toad meat was unexpectedly tasty, which made me surprised.

When I first came to this world, I was a bit hesitant about eating lizard and toads. But when it was prepared and served to me, I found it to be delicious.

Although the goddess before me ate anything without hesitation.

“But… Even if we want to recruit comrades, do you think anyone would want to team up with novices like us who don’t even have proper equipment?”

With a mouthful of toad meat, Aqua waved the fork in her hand.

“Wiff mi hare, yuu juice node…”

“Swallow. Swallow before you speak.”

After Aqua swallowed, she said:

“With me here, I just need to holler and people will line up to join us. I am a high cleric after all, the top tier job! I can use all sorts of healing spells, support magic, relieve poison and paralysis status. I can even perform resurrection, definitely a talent any team would want. I might have fallen into the mortal world and my power were far from my peak, but I am still a goddess… Ahem! I am Aqua-sama after all! I just need to put up a notice and a bunch of people begging me to ‘bring me along to missions’ will show up! If you understand, then give me another piece of fried toad meat!”

After finishing, the self proclaimed goddess grabbed a piece of fried toad meat from my plate as I watched her with worried eyes.

Part 5

The next time, at the Adventurers guild.

“… No one is coming…”

Aqua mumbled to herself dejectedly.

After displaying a recruitment notice, we sat at a table inside the Adventurers guild and wait for companions of the hero to show up. It had been half a day.

The other adventurers definitely saw our notice.

Besides us, a number of adventurers were recruiting members. They had conducted interviews, talked with them and went off.

I knew very well why no one was coming.

“… Nah, let’s lower the standard. Our goal is to defeat the demon king, so such conditions were necessary… but ‘only recruiting top tier jobs’ is a bit too grueling.”

“Ugh… But…”

In this world, the adventurers jobs were divided into tiers, with some being top tier.

Aqua’s high cleric was one of the top tier jobs.

It was difficult for normal people to pick this job, she could very well be a hero candidate.

And it was normal for such hero candidates to enjoy a privileged life in other teams…

Aqua probably wanted to recruit powerful companions in order to take down the demon king.

But…

“If this goes on, no one would apply! You might have a top tier job, but mine is the weakest. I will lose my place if I am suddenly surrounded by elites. How about lowering the entry requirements…”

As I was preparing to stand up,

“I saw the notice to recruit adventurers with top tier, is that you guys?”

Her eyes with red pupils looked sleepy.

Her smooth black hair reached her shoulders.

For us, she was a girl in a classical witch attire, with black cloak, dark boots, pointy hat and a staff.

Her features were delicate like a porcelain doll – it’s a loli.

It wasn’t surprising for children to work in this world…

The small frail girl who looked about 12-13 had an eye patch covering one eye. She flung her cloak hard and said:

“I am Megumin! An arch wizard with the strongest attack spell, explosion…!”

“… Are you here to tease us?”

“I, I’m not!”

I couldn’t help retorting the self introduction of this girl, and she denied in a panic.

And what was with the name Megumin.

“That red eye… Are you Crimson Demon race?”

The girl nodded in response to Aqua’s query and presented her adventurer card to Aqua.

“That’s correct! I am an elite mage from the Crimson Demon race, Megumin! My magic is powerful enough to split the mountains…! … That’s how it is, do you need an excellent mage? … By the way, I have a favor to ask. I haven’t ate in 3 days, could you give me something to eat before the interview…”

Megumin looked at us with sorrowful eyes.

The heartbreaking ‘Ugu’ sound came from Megumin’s stomach region.

“… I’m fine with treating you to a meal, but why are you wearing an eye patch? If you are injured, do you need this girl to heal you?”

“Hmmp… this is a tool to restrain my overwhelming power… If you pull it off… A gigantic disaster will befall the world…

“Oh… So it is something like a seal.”

“I made that up. This is just a normal eye patch, it just look nice… Ah, sorry, please don’t pull on that, stop!”

“Eh… listen Kazuma, the Crimson Demon race are born with high intellect and strong magic affinity, most of them have the potential to become a professional mage. The Crimson Demon race are known for their red eyes… and their strange names.”

Aqua explained as I pulled on Megumin’s eye patch.

… I understand. Just listening to her name and seeing that eye patch, I thought she was teasing me.

I released the eye patch, and she said sternly:

“It’s rude to say our names are weird. I think the names of the people in town are the weird ones.”

“… Right, may I ask for your parent’s name?”

“My mother is Yuiyui, my father is Hyoizaburo.”

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“…” x2

Aqua and I were silent.

“… Anyway, the race this girl is from produced many powerful mages right? Could we recruit her as a companion?”

“Hey, if you have any problem with the names of my parents, say it to my face.”

Megumin leans forward, and Aqua returned the adventurer’s card to her at this moment.

“It should be fine right? The adventurer’s card is real, her job is really top tier with the ability to use powerful spells– Arch wizard. The magic stat on the card is very high, so she has a lot of potential. If she really can use explosion magic, that would be amazing! Explosion spell is the top grade spell in the detonation series magic and is hard to learn.”

“Hey, stop addressing me as she, use my name!”

As Megumin protest, I handed the food menu to her.

“Don’t mind the details, order something to eat. I am Kazuma. This is Aqua. Please to meet you, Arch wizard.”

Megumin seemed like she had something to say, but just took the menu quietly in the end.

Part 6

“Explosion is the strongest spell. On the other hand, it requires a long casting time. Before I am ready, please keep that toad at bay.”

We brought Megumin who had eaten her full along to seek revenge against those giant toads.

I could see a toad in the distance on the plain.

That toad had already noticed us and was charging our way.

And I could see another toad heading towards us from the opposite direction.

“Please target the toad further away. As for the one nearer… Hey, let’s go Aqua. We will avenge ourselves this time. You are a former goddess right? How about showing what you are made of sometimes?”

“What do you mean by former? I am a current goddess! My position of a high cleric is just a disguise!”

Megumin looked at the self proclaimed goddess choking me and said:

“…Goddess?”

“… Just a pitiful woman claiming to be a goddess. She will say stuff like that from time to time, please don’t mind her.”

After hearing my explanation, Megumin looked at Aqua with sympathetic eyes.

Aqua was on the verge of tears, and charged towards the nearer toad in frustration with her fist clenched.

“You are just toads that are strong against physical attacks, let me show you the power of a goddess! Kazuma, watch this carefully! I haven’t done anything great yet, but I will definitely succeed today!”

Aqua who lacked the capacity to learn shouted and succeeded in infiltrating into the body of the toad, stopping the movement of one toad.

As expected of a goddess, sacrificing herself to buy time for us.

… At this point, the air around Megumin started to tremble.

Even a novice to magic like me could tell Megumin was preparing to use amazing magic.

Megumin’s chanting got louder as sweat falls from her temples.

“Watch closely. This is the strongest possible attack of humans… The ultimate attack magic.”

The tip of Megumin’s staff started to glow.

The scale might be small, but it seemed to accumulate vast amount of light as it shone brightly.

Megumin’s red eye was wide open with a brilliant light.

“‘Explosion’!”

A light flashed through the plains.

The light emitted from the tip of Megumin’s staff pointed towards the distance, hitting the toad approaching us dead on…!

The violent effect of the spell could be seen immediately.

That dazzling light and the loud bang reverberating in the air made the toad explode into pieces.

I was almost blown away by that strong wind as I covered my face and braced myself.

After the dust settled, a crater 20 meter in diameter could be seen where the toad was, showing how powerful that explosion was.

“… Amazing– so this is magic…”

The power of Megumin’s spell moved me, and at this moment.

A toad climbed out slowly from underground, probably woken up by the shockwave and sound of the explosion.

I was thinking that without rain and water source in the plains, the toads dry up under the hot sun. It turned out they burrow underground to avoid being baked alive.

The toad that was climbing out was near Megumin, but its movement were very slow.

If we use this chance to move away from the toad, and let Megumin use her ‘explosion’ spell again, we could blow the toad into cinders.

“Megumin! Let’s retreat for now, and attack from a distance…”

I looked over at Megumin at this point.

And my body turned stiff.

Because Megumin was lying face down on the ground.

“Hmmp… Explosion is my ultimate spell, it is powerful and used a lot of mana… Simply put, the mana I used exceeded my limit, so I couldn’t move. Ah, to think a toad would appear out of nowhere… No good, I will get eaten. Sorry, please save me… Hya…!”

And so, I finished off the two toads whose movement were sealed by the body of Aqua and Megumin.

We completed the mission to defeat 5 giant toads in 3 days.

Part 7

“Ugh… Ugug… sniff… it smells… it smells like fish…”

Aqua who was covered in slime sniveled as she followed behind me.

“It is smelly inside the toad, but the warm feeling isn’t too bad… I gained some knowledge that I would rather not know…”

Megumin who I was carrying on my back was covered in goo like Aqua, and she told me something I don’t want to know.

If someone uses magic that exceeded their mana capacity, it would drain their life force to make up the difference.

Using powerful spells when your mana is depleted might even lead to death.

“From now on, explosion magic is banned unless there is an emergency. Please work hard by using other spells, Megumin.”

Megumin who heard what I said grabbed my shoulders harder.

“… I can’t.”

“… Huh? You can’t what?”

I parroted Megumin’s words.

Megumin grabbed even harder and pressed her lacking chest onto my back.

“… I can only use explosion spell. I don’t know any other magic.”

“… Are you serious?”

“… Yes.”

As Megumin and I turned silent, Aqua who was sniveling joined in our discussion.

“What do you mean by knowing only explosion magic? If you had enough skill points to learn explosion, you must had learned other spells right?”

… Skill points?

Speaking of which, the counter lady at the guild did mention something about skill points.

Seeing that I am confused, Aqua explained to me:

“Skill points are something you earn when you take choose a job, it is used to learn skills. The better a person is, the more skill points they start out with. You can learn all sorts of skills by investing your skill points in it. For example, the excellent me had learned all the banquet party tricks as well as all the spells of a high cleric.”

“… Where are you going to use the banquet party tricks?”

Aqua pretended not to hear my question and continued:

“Depending on the person and the job, there are restrictions to the skills they may learn. For example, someone with a fear of water would need more points to learn water or ice elemental spells… But detonation series magic are composite spells, you would need deep knowledge of fire and wind magic to master it. This means that people who can learn detonation magic should be able to easily learn other spells.”

“This means that it doesn’t make sense to be unable to learn low grade spells when you know high tier magic from the detonation series… Anyway, where can you make use of banquet party tricks?”

Megumin mumbled when I finished my sentence:

“… I am an arch wizard that loves explosion spell. What I like is not detonation series magic, but explosion spell.”

Really, what’s the difference between detonation spell and explosion magic?

I don’t understand things on this level as Aqua listened to Megumin’s monologue with a series face.

No, compared to that, I am totally distracted by the banquet party tricks.

“Adventures would definitely be easier if I learn other spells. Fire, water, earth, wind and light, learning spells related to this should be good enough… But I couldn’t do it. My only love is explosion magic. Even though I could only cast it once per day, even if I will collapse after using the spell, my one true love is still explosion magic! The only reason I chose the path of the arch mage was to cast explosion spells”

“Incredible! Great! Your resolve to follow your romantic dreams despite knowing it is efficient is deeply moving!”

… Oh no, seemed like this mage was going to be useless.

The best evidence was her hitting it off with Aqua.

After two battles with the toads, I highly suspect the usefulness of this goddess.

Honestly, just Aqua alone was troublesome enough, if another one joined in…

Alright, I made up my mind.

“I see. I think this would definitely be a difficult path, so do work hard. Ah, I can see the town. Let’s divide the rewards equally at the guild. Yes, let’s meet again if our path crossed again.”

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Megumin grabbed me harder after I finished.

“Hmmp… My only wish is to use explosion magic. The bounty is just a complementary bonus. How about this, I don’t need to split the rewards evenly, if you are willing to foot the bill for food, bath and miscellaneous items, I can consider not taking any rewards. That’s right, my power as an arch wizard is available at the price of meals and other miscellaneous fees! How could you miss this opportunity to form a long term contract!”

“No no no, our weak team is not worthy of such amazing power. That’s right, it’s too much to ask Megumin to stay in our team with your amazing powers. A team just starting out should make do with a normal mage. Look at me, my job is the weakest adventurer too.”

In order to chase away Megumin who was grabbing on to me tightly when we reach the guild, I attempted to loosen her grip.

But Megumin refused to let go.

“No no no no, it doesn’t matter if you are novices or weak. I might have a top tier job, but I am still a beginner too. My level is just 6. When my level grows, I wouldn’t collapse after using my spells. So let’s talk this over, then pull my hand away okay?”

“No no no no no, it’s too hard to utilize a mage that can only cast one spell a day. Ugh, she is a mage, but her grip is strong…! Let go, the other teams probably don’t want you too. Or rather, explosion spell couldn’t be used in dungeons or in doors, which would render you useless. Hey, release your grip. I will split the rewards equally with you! Please let go!”

“Please don’t ditch me! No team is willing to take me in! I am willing to carry the luggage or anything when exploring dungeons! Please, don’t throw me away!”

It’s probably because Megumin on my back was yelling ‘don’t throw me away’, the passer bys started whispering while looking at us.

Because we are in town and Aqua’s appearance drew in a lot of attention, it made us the center of focus.

“– No way… That man wants to abandon that child…”

“– He has a girl covered in slime with him.”

“– To toy with such a small child, and to abandon her after that, what a trash. Look! Why are the girls covered in goo? What weird sexual games did that pervert made them do?”

… I was definitely being maligned.

Aqua smiled deviously upon hearing them, how hateful.

Megumin seemed to have heard their whispers too.

I looked at Megumin who was peeking over my shoulder, a malicious smile on her face…

“I am fine with any sort of play! Even using the toad’s slime like just now is okay…”

“Alright– I get! Megumin, I will be in your care!”

Part 8

“Alright, everything is in order. I have confirmed that your team had finished the mission to defeat 5 giant toads in 3 days. Good work.”

After reporting in at the guild’s counter, I received the promised reward.

As for Aqua and Megumin who were covered in slime, they will be too smelly if they don’t wash up. It might cause misunderstanding for me, so I shooed them off to the bath house.

One of the toad we defeated disintegrated because of the explosion magic, so I was afraid it might affect the completion of the mission. But the type and number of monsters defeated were recorded on the adventurer card, so there were no problems.

I handed in me and Megumin’s card to the counter lady, which she put in a strange box like machine. The confirmation was done just like that.

The things that were developed were magic instead of science, so the technology level of this world was quite advance.

I looked at my card again and saw that I am at level 4.

I heard that those toads were great for novice adventurers to grind levels.

I defeated 4 toads by myself, enough to raised my level to 4.

It was easier for low level people to level up.

All the stats on the card increased slightly, but I don’t feel myself turning any stronger.

“… But, I can really get stronger just by killing monsters…”

I mumbled to myself.

The counter lady did mention that when she explained in the beginning.

All things in the world have souls. No matter what form it takes, if you eat or kill a being, you can absorb a part of the memory of the soul. That’s what she said.

This part felt like a computer game.

Looking closely, there is something called Skill Points on it, which showed the number 3.

Just by spending these points, I could learn skills.

“Well then, turning in 2 giant toads and the bounty for completing the mission is a total of 110,000 Eris. Please take this.”

110,000.

These giant toads yield 5000 Eris after deducting transport fees.

So the bounty for the 5 toads is 100,000 Eris.

Aqua said that missions are done by a team of 4 to 6 adventurers.

So for normal adventurers, risking your life to fight 5 toads for a couple of days will yield about 125,000 Eris. For a 5 men team, that would be 25,000 Eris each.

… It’s not worth it–

Finishing the mission in one day means a daily salary of 25,000.

It might seem like a good deal for a daily salary, but considering the risk involved, it doesn’t seemed to be worth the effort.

If another toad showed up and ate me, the three of us would have been wiped out.

That sent a chill down my spine.

I took a look at the other missions, the ones on the bulletin board were.

— Cut down the Egil trees corrupting the forest, bounty are dependent on the amount turned in

— Help me look for my pet white wolf

— My son’s swordsmanship lesson *Requirement: Rune Knight or Sword master.

— Recruiting subject for magic practice * Requirement: High HP or strong magic resistance…

Yeah.

It’s not easy to survive in this world.

I felt like returning to Japan on my second day of adventuring.

“… Excuse me, may I ask…?”

Just when I was getting a little home sick as I sat down on a chair nearby, someone behind talked to me.

Feeling tired of dealing with the realities of this different world, I turned my head with hollow eyes.

“Is something the… matter…”

I was speechless when I saw the person talking to me.

She was a female knight.

And a super beauty.

She gave off the vibe of a cool beauty at first sight as she looked at me expressionlessly.

She was a bit taller than I am.

My height is 165 cm.

A bit taller than me should be about 170 cm.

She was wearing solid metal armor all over her body, a beauty with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Probably a year or two older than me.

I can’t tell her body shape from her armor, but I felt that she was very feminine.

Her face seemed rather cold… How should I put this, it picked on your masochistic side…

… Ah, that’s not good, I was entranced.

“Ah, eh– What is the matter?”

Facing Aqua who was about my age and Megumin who was younger than me was fine. But this beauty slightly older than me made me stutter.

That was the bad point about living the life of a hikikomori for extended period of time.

“Erm… The team that put up this recruitment notice was you right? Are you still looking for people?”

That female knight showed me a piece of paper.

That’s right, we didn’t tear away that notice after Megumin joined our party.

“Oh– We are still hiring. Although I wouldn’t recommend you to join…”

“Please pick me! Please let me join your party!”

When I was about to reject her tactfully, the female knight suddenly grabbed my hand.

… Eh?

“No, no no, hold up, our party has plenty of problems. The other two members are burdens and my job is the weakest. Because of that, my two companions were covered in slime… Hurts hurts hurts!”

When I mentioned the slime, the female knight increased her grip on my hand.

“I was right, those two covered in goo were your comrades! What happened, how did they end up like that…! I, I also…! Want to experience that…!”

“Huh?”

What did this Big sister said?

“No, I phrased it wrongly. For the two young girls to experience that at such a tender age, I can’t watch idly as a knight. My job is the top tier cross knight. It should fit your recruitment criteria.”

What was with this female knight, her eyes looked dangerous. I thought she was a calm and collected big sister!

But my danger sense was tingling.

She seemed to have something similar with Aqua and Megumin.

… She might be a beauty, but it couldn’t be helped.

“Ara– I didn’t finish. I really don’t recommend you to join. One of the party mates is useless, the other could only cast one spell a day and I have the weakest job. That’s the lame party this is, so I suggest you find another…?”

The female knight strengthened her grip further.

“That is perfect! To be honest, I am confident in my strength and durability, I am not too agile with my hands… So… I can’t hit the enemy…”

My spider sense was right.

“So you don’t need to mind me having a top tier job. I will just charge ahead without a care, so just abuse me like a shield.”

The female knight shoved her pretty face in front of me who was seated on a chair.

Her face was too close!

Because I was sitting, she was looking at me from up high. The female knight’s golden locks brushed against my face, making my heart race.

My time as a hikikomori was affecting me again…!

No, this was simply too stimulating for an adolescence virgin boy, making me uneasy.

Calm down, don’t get seduced by her charm!

“No, how could I let a girl act like a shield. My party is super weak, so the attack will really hit you. The monsters might gang up on you in every fight!”

“That’s the way I like it.”

“No, how should I put this, my 2 companions were eaten by toads and covered in slime! This might happen every day!”

“That’s exactly what I want!”

… Hai,I get it.

That blushing female knight who was holding my hand.

Looking at her, I understood something.

… This girl wasn’t just useless, even her character was rotten.