Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

“Sorry about that. It’s hard not to get excited when meeting such an outstanding fellow professional.”

Valeria laughed brightly and proactively displayed the magnanimity expected of an adult.

“Our adventurer party just so happens to be lacking an excellent melee specialist right now.”

“If you plan to explore an Underground Dungeon in the future, please make sure to contact me first.”

Faced with this enthusiastic invitation, a trace of doubt surfaced in Lance’s heart.

The other party seemed utterly convinced that any adventurer wanting to explore an Underground Dungeon absolutely had to rely on a large team.

Although he found it somewhat strange internally—

he chose not to voice the question here and now, instead swallowing it silently.

Lance maintained a polite smile and lightly nodded toward Valeria.

After receiving this courteous promise, the smile on Valeria’s face deepened further.

Once the brief exchange ended, Lance shifted his gaze back toward Cecilia beside him.

“As agreed before.”

He first placed half of the divided money pouch into her hands, then patted the pouch in his own arms through his clothes.

“We made a huge profit today, so naturally we should find a good place to celebrate properly.”

“Tonight, I’m treating you to the most famous barbecue in Graystone Town.”

After saying that, Lance turned his head again and naturally looked toward the visibly envious Yuna and Valeria nearby.

“Do you two have any plans tonight? Want to come along together?”

Yuna was Cecilia’s roommate at the academy.

As for Valeria, she was a professional with plenty of knowledge he didn’t possess.

Since they had coincidentally met in the guild hall today, he might as well invite them too.

The moment she heard the words “come along together,” Yuna’s eyes instantly lit up.

She turned toward Valeria beside her with both anticipation and nervousness.

Valeria noticed Yuna’s longing, yet she still gently shook her head.

“Thank you for the invitation.”

“But our team still has a meeting and equipment preparations tonight, so I’m afraid I can’t spare the time.”

The female swordsman lowered her head and reached out to rub Yuna’s flaxen short hair.

“Still, Yuna, you can go with them. Remember to eat my share of the barbecue too.”

Those understanding words made Yuna so happy she nearly jumped up.

She nodded repeatedly without hesitation and immediately agreed.

Ever since arriving in Graystone Town, this was the first time she could go out for a feast together with her good friends.

After settling Yuna’s situation, Valeria looked back toward Lance again.

Lance instantly understood the meaning behind her gaze and smiled.

“Don’t worry.”

“I’ll make sure to protect the two of them.”

“After dinner, I’ll personally escort them safely back to White Oak Manor.”

Valeria smiled in satisfaction before turning around and leaving the guild hall with her team.

Leaving Cecilia standing there alone, utterly confused.

She looked at Lance discussing barbecue flavors with Yuna, then looked at the guild entrance again.

Why did it suddenly feel like she had become a child who needed adult supervision?

The half-elf girl couldn’t help puffing up her pale cheeks.

Did Senior really treat her like a child?

……

Inside the Guild Master’s office of the Graystone Town Adventurers’ Guild.

Necros sat behind a wide wooden office desk.

Sitting opposite him was the overall person in charge of this internship from Violet Academy.

Sylvester Vane.

He possessed the refined bearing unique to nobles.

A pair of gold-rimmed glasses rested upon the bridge of his nose.

Although he was an eleventh-level Defensive Mage, his sitting posture remained as straight as a spear, a habit born from his service in an ace military unit.

“The internship should be entering a new stage, correct?”

Necros spoke first.

“If I remember correctly, our agreement included helping clean up mana radiation points as a phased mission.”

Cleaning mana radiation points itself was not an extremely dangerous hardship.

Even newly initiated beginner mages could complete the task so long as they mastered the proper mana-sorting techniques.

The problem was that the locations of these nodes were extremely awkward.

Most of them were hidden fairly deep within the outer regions of Copper Creek Forest.

Several nodes had even completely exceeded the relatively safe outer perimeter.

Additionally, sorting mana radiation points required a very long time for mages.

That meant almost every internship team would have to camp overnight inside the dangerous forest.

That was the students’ greatest trial.

Back then, Necros had spared no expense organizing veteran adventurers for a joint extermination operation.

In truth, it was all to ensure these students’ safety.

They had cleared out a sufficiently low-intensity real combat environment in advance for these fledglings from ivory towers.

That was also the core transactional condition allowing the guild and Violet Academy to reach a cooperation agreement.

“A week has passed. How well have the interns and our adventurers adjusted to each other?”

Necros had great confidence in his personnel arrangements.

Sylvester raised his right hand.

He wore an exquisitely crafted fingerless leather glove covered in intricate magical runic patterns.

Then, with perfect elegance, he snapped his fingers crisply.

A thick stack of internship reports instantly appeared in his palm out of thin air.

Necros glanced at the glove.

It was a storage glove permanently enchanted with a minor extradimensional space.

To adventurers who spent all year rolling through mud and danger, this kind of equipment looked somewhat impractical and flashy.

After all, close-fitting gloves were extremely easy to damage during intense melee combat.

Still, deep down, Necros admitted that the thing really was convenient to use—

and the casting motion looked impressively stylish.

“Your adventurer internship mentors all gave the students extremely high evaluations.”

Sylvester handed the reports over.

“That surprised me somewhat.”

Necros accepted the stack of parchment.

He had only read two lines before his face instantly darkened.

Somewhat unwilling to believe it, he rapidly flipped several pages further back.

After reading through the whole thing, every page was filled with absurdly exaggerated praise.

Those crude brutes who normally could barely hold a pen steadily had apparently all transformed into silver-tongued flatterers.

Necros even saw the report Lance submitted regarding Cecilia.

That sheet of parchment was likewise packed with compliments.

With all the ridiculously exaggerated praise reports surrounding it, Necros subjectively felt that the brat Lance had definitely joined in on the bootlicking too.

Such blatant currying of favor made the old Guild Master feel somewhat embarrassed.

Necros rubbed his brow with a headache.

He had to salvage at least a little dignity for his subordinates.

“I believe they only wrote the reports so positively because they wanted these interns to ultimately receive good grades.”

Necros coughed lightly as he explained.

“It definitely wasn’t deliberate flattery.”

He barely managed to preserve a shred of dignity for that hopeless bunch.

“However, I can guarantee that these people were all elites personally selected by me.”

“They absolutely would never falsify anything during the actual combat of mission commissions.”

“I understand.” Sylvester nodded to show understanding.

If anyone else had said such words, this supervisor would definitely have questioned them on the spot.

But facing the old man before him, he could only choose to believe.

Because this man was Necros.

The hero who once single-handedly suppressed an Underground Dungeon Rampage disaster.

That achievement had long since been recorded within the kingdom’s honorary chronicles.

Had the old man not voluntarily requested transfer to this remote town, he should have been enjoying endless honor and reverence in the capital by now.