The sharp, metallic click of an enchanted stamp echoed through the reception area.
"Alright, we are officially done, Mr. Shin'ya," the receptionist said, offering a highly respectful bow as he slid the finalized plate across the polished wooden counter.
Shin'ya reached out and picked up the heavy, silver-tinted metallic card. The surface was cool to the touch, pulsing with a faint, localized magical glow that displayed his freshly registered profile:
ADVENTURER'S GUILD: OAKHAVEN CENTRAL BRANCH
Name: Shin'ya Arata
Age: 14
Rank: C+ ~ B
Affinity: Shadow
Mana Core Rank: [Adventurer's mana core couldn't be ranked yet]
Class: Vanguard
Weapons: Single-Edged Sword (Tachi)
Shin'ya stared at the layout, his inner anime nerd silently analyzing the stats. Rank C+ to B right out of the gate? That was a massive leap for a rookie, clearly a direct result of him effortlessly cleaving those heavy oak targeting dummies in the courtyard.
But his eyes quickly locked onto the anomaly in the middle. Couldn't be ranked yet. He suppressed a smirk. Of course it couldn't. His internal mana pathways were forged under the absolute, logic-defying training of Yuki. This world's single-affinity measurement systems probably looked at his multi-layered, dimension-crossed energy pool and completely short-circuited. To them, he was a total walking paradox.
"Thank you," Shin'ya said politely, smoothly pocketing the metallic card into his dirty Earth hoodie.
The moment the administrative stuff was out of the way, instinct took over. Shin'ya didn't even ask for directions; he pivoted on his heel and walked straight toward the massive, bustling wall on the far side of the tavern hall.
Because he just knew it had to be there.
Sure enough, a giant, iron-rimmed wooden bulletin board stretched across the stone wall, absolutely plastered with hundreds of parchment papers pinned by rusted daggers and brass tacks. Groups of battle-hardened mercenaries and roguish scouts were crowded around it, whispering, arguing, and tearing down sheets.
The Quest Board.
Shin'ya squeezed his way through the crowd of towering armored warriors, his eyes scanning the colorful papers. He needed currency, he needed information, and most importantly, he needed to keep moving so he wouldn't accidentally fall asleep in the middle of a public tavern.
His eyes locked onto a freshly pinned request near the center of the board, the ink still stark and dark against the parchment.
The text was written in bold, urgent strokes:
[QUEST: HIGH-PRIORITY EXTERMINATION]
Target: Eliminate the Shadow Panther Alpha.
Location: The Whispering Woods (Eastern Sector).
Danger Rating: B+ -Rank.
Reward: 45,000 Gold Pieces + Guild Merit Points.
Note: The Alpha has mutated. It utilizes advanced stealth capabilities and has wiped out two standard C-Rank sub-parties this week alone.
Shin'ya stared at the paper, a slow, highly amused smile spreading across his face.
*A Shadow Panther Alpha in the Whispering Woods?* "Are you genuine right now?" Shin'ya muttered to himself, shaking his head. "A shadow-based monster? Against a guy whose entire current arsenal is literally *Shadow Slip* and *Shadow Slash*? It's like this world is actively setting up my tutorial stage."
It was the absolute perfect target. Not only was the reward money massive enough to secure him food and a safe place to hide out, but fighting a creature that manipulated the exact same element as his Ketsugai meant he would have an innate understanding of how it operated. Plus, tracking a stealth-based predator in a dark forest would keep his adrenaline spiking—exactly what he needed to stave off the crushing exhaustion threatening to pull him back into a deep, dimension-hopping sleep.
Without hesitating for a single second, Shin'ya reached out, grabbed the parchment by its edges, and ripped it cleanly off the iron-rimmed bulletin board.
The sudden movement caught the attention of a group of veteran adventurers standing nearby. A burly, scar-faced warrior with a heavy broadsword turned around, his eyes dropping from the B-rank paper straight to Shin'ya's modern Earth hoodie.
"Hey, kid!" the warrior barked, his voice echoing over the tavern chatter. "What do you think you're doing? That's a mutated Alpha hunt. That thing tears veteran vanguard units to pieces, and you look like you just wandered away from a tailor's scrap heap. Put it back before you get yourself killed!"
Shin'ya didn't even flinch. He casually folded the paper, slipped it into his pocket, and gave the massive warrior a calm, completely unbothered look.
"Don't worry about it," Shin'ya said, tapping the hilt of the black tachi at his hip. "I'm just going to go walk the dog."
Before the stunned warrior could even process the disrespect, Shin'ya pivoted and walked straight out of the guild.
An hour later, the towering stone walls of Oakhaven faded into the background as Shin'ya stepped beneath the dense, suffocating canopy of the Whispering Woods.
The forest lived up to its name. The leaves rustled with a low, continuous murmur, and the canopy was so thick that it blocked out most of the afternoon sun, casting the forest floor into a permanent, eerie twilight. It was the absolute perfect hunting ground for a creature born from darkness.
Yet, our boy Shin'ya was still super chill.
He walked down the overgrown path with his hands lazily tucked into his hoodie pockets, his expression completely relaxed. His anime-nerd brain was already casually analyzing the situation. Alright, so how exactly am I going to track this thing down? It's an alpha predator with a shadow affinity, meaning it probably uses the shadows between these trees as its personal highway. It literally matches my own current toolkit. If I were a giant mutated cat that can blend into darkness, where would I—
Rustle.
The faint, sharp snapping of a twig cut through the ambient whispers of the forest.
Shin'ya's relaxed demeanor vanished in a millisecond. His eyes narrowed, his body instantly dropping into a low, defensive center of gravity. His right hand blurred, gripping the hilt of the Ketsugai and drawing it smoothly from its pitch-black sheath. The dark blade hummed softly, ready to absorb the ambient light.
He stood perfectly still, scanning the dense foliage ahead, his ears straining for the next sound.
But the threat didn't come from the front.
SHRRR!
From the absolute blindness of the thick shadows directly behind him, a massive, pitch-black form erupted into the air. It was a terrifyingly large panther, its fur made of pure, shifting darkness, its violet eyes glowing with a predatory, lethal hunger. The Alpha didn't just ambush him—it lunged with terrifying, unnatural velocity, its razor-sharp claws extended straight toward Shin'ya's neck.
The wind howled as the beast closed the distance in a fraction of a second.
[To Be Continued]