"Hmph. Just wait until you see a Goddess's stats. You're going to be scared out of your minds!"
The instant her hand touched the crystal ball, a dazzling blue light shot upward and lit up the entire guild hall.
The adventurers who had been drinking nearby all stopped what they were doing and turned to stare in shock.
"Th-this is..." Luna covered her mouth in surprise as she looked at the values displayed on the card. "Aside from Luck and Intelligence being below average, every other stat is far beyond human limits! And her magic power can't even be measured! This is incredible!"
"Wahahahaha!" Aqua threw her hands onto her hips and burst into a triumphant laugh. "See that?! That's this Goddess's true power! Now hurry up and tell me. Can I become the strongest class or not?"
"Y-yes!" Luna said excitedly. "You can directly take the advanced class of Arch Priest! It is the highest rank of holy caster, able to use powerful healing and support magic!"
"Arch Priest! That sounds awesome!" Aqua looked at Kōichi and Kazuma in smug delight. "Well? Aren't you two going to worship me already?"
Kōichi and Kazuma exchanged a glance and silently looked away.
"Below-average Intelligence..." Kazuma muttered under his breath.
"And Luck is bottom-tier too..." Kōichi added.
"Just what we thought. A useless wreck with nothing but a pretty status sheet." The two of them reached the same conclusion.
Next came Kazuma's turn.
He nervously placed his hand on the crystal ball, and the light it gave off was so weak it looked like a flashlight running out of batteries.
"Um... Satou-san's stats..." Luna looked at the card with a somewhat awkward expression. "Aside from extremely high Luck, and Intelligence being just a little above average, all of your other stats are... very ordinary.
You can only take the most basic class, Adventurer."
"Ordinary?! Adventurer?!" Kazuma looked like he had just been struck by lightning, his whole body turning gray with shock. "Why? Why is that idiot an Arch Priest while I'm stuck as the lowest-level Adventurer? Are the gods of this world blind?!"
Finally, it was Kōichi's turn.
Kōichi took a deep breath and placed his hand on the crystal ball.
The past few days of hauling bricks had been brutal, but he could tell his body really had gotten a lot tougher.
Bzzz.
A light flared up. It was not as blinding as Aqua's, but it was still impressively bright.
"Oh!" Luna's eyes lit up as she looked at Kōichi's stats. "Kōichi-san, your numbers are excellent across the board! Strength and magic in particular are both very high and remarkably well balanced! You can choose to become a front-line Swordsman, a back-line Wizard, or even potentially aim for the advanced class Arch Wizard in the future!"
"Arch Wizard?!" Kazuma was so jealous he was practically drooling. "Hey, Kōichi! You're a hidden talent too? Am I the only loser here?!"
Kōichi looked at the class options shown on the card, and a small smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
He still needed a few more levels before he could change into Arch Wizard, but right now he could already take the Wizard class directly.
"I choose Wizard," Kōichi said without hesitation.
In this world, magic was a man's romance. And with magic, everything from fighting monsters to everyday life, like lighting fires or making water, would become much more convenient.
"All right! Registration complete!"
Luna handed the three of them their brand-new adventurer cards.
Looking at the cards in their hands, printed with their names and classes, Kōichi and Kazuma finally felt it.
Ah. Life in another world was finally beginning.
"All right!" Kōichi put away his card and gave a broad wave of his hand. "Now we're proper adventurers! Target: the plains outside the city! Mission: subjugate Giant Toads! Let's go earn our first pot of gold!"
"Oooh! I'm going to show those toads the true power of an Arch Priest too!" Aqua shouted, pumping her fist.
"I'll just try not to drag you two down..." Kazuma grumbled, but he had already tightened his grip on his short sword.
What the three of them did not know, however, was that for beginner adventurers, this was the worst possible season to face Giant Toads.
It was breeding season.
Which meant... their appetites were at their peak.
The plains outside Axel were covered in lush green grass, and a light breeze brushed against their faces.
And yet, in that seemingly peaceful landscape, several green monsters the size of small hills stood towering in the distance.
They had round, bloated bodies, huge eyes like bulging lamps, and skin that secreted thick, sticky slime. Every time one of them leaped, the ground shook.
These were the nightmare of every beginner adventurer.
Giant Toads.
"So this is... a real monster?"
Kazuma's hand trembled slightly around the hilt of his short sword, and his face was pale as paper.
He had seen creatures like this countless times in games, but seeing one appear in front of him for real, with that overwhelming size and that foul stench, was almost enough to suffocate him.
Kōichi swallowed too, his throat going dry.
He had already become a Wizard, but he still had not learned any offensive spells, and the only weapon in his hand was the secondhand wooden staff he had just bought.
"Hey, Kōichi..." Kazuma whispered, his voice trembling a little. "That thing looks pretty hard to deal with... how about we just go back to hauling bricks?"
"Shut up!" Kōichi forced himself to stay calm, even though his own legs were going weak. "We're men who are going to become the strongest adventurers! How can we back down here? Besides... besides, we've got the Goddess with us!"
At that, Kōichi and Kazuma both turned to look behind them at Aqua.
They had assumed that, as an Arch Priest with ridiculously high stats, Aqua would be calm and composed right now, maybe even eager for a fight.
But instead.
"Waaaaahhhh! Don't come over here! Don't come any closer!"
Aqua was currently hiding behind the two of them, clutching tightly at the hems of their clothes with both hands, her whole body curled up into itself and shaking nonstop.
Her eyes were already brimming with tears, and her face was full of fear.
"That's a frog?! Why is it so huge?! And it's so disgusting! If that slimy stuff gets on my clothes, it'll never wash out! This is a Goddess's divine robe!"
"Hey! Aren't you a Goddess?!" Kazuma shouted in total collapse. "Aren't you an Arch Priest?! Where's your holy aura? Where's your purification magic? Hurry up and use your invincible power to blast them into pieces!"
"I can't! I can't!" Aqua shook her head frantically, tears spraying out like a fountain. "Just looking at something that slippery makes me want to throw up! Take me home! I want to go home!"
Just then, one of the Giant Toads seemed to notice the commotion over there.
Its huge eyeballs rolled, locking onto the blue figure radiating a dense aura of magic, in other words, the tastiest one there.
Ribbit!
A deafening croak rang out as the toad suddenly threw open its enormous mouth, and a long, slime-covered tongue shot out like lightning.
"Look out!"
Kōichi and Kazuma instinctively dove to opposite sides.
But Aqua froze in place from sheer terror.
"Huh?"
Splat!
The giant tongue wrapped perfectly around Aqua's waist, then snapped back.
"Waaaaahhhh! Help! Kōichi! Kazuma! Heeelp meeeee!"
Along with that shrill scream, the once-arrogant Goddess was dragged into the Giant Toad's mouth like a rag doll.
Gulp.
The toad shut its mouth and even let out a satisfied belch.
The entire plain instantly fell silent.
Kōichi and Kazuma lay sprawled on the grass, staring blankly at the toad that was now chewing, or more accurately swallowing, with their minds completely empty.
"Um..." Kazuma pointed at the toad with a trembling finger. "Aqua... she got eaten?"
"Looks like it..." Kōichi also found it hard to believe. "She's a Goddess, so she probably won't die... but getting digested in a place like this is way too humiliating, even for her."
"Quit spacing out!" Kazuma suddenly snapped out of it and jumped to his feet. "Hurry up and save her! If we don't, she really is going to turn into frog poop!"
"Hey!! Look over here, you damned green big-eyed freak!"
Even though his legs were still shaking, Kazuma went all in to save that idiot Goddess.
He charged to the Giant Toad's side and swung the short sword in his hand, barely longer than a fruit knife, like a madman. As he did, he hopped around doing some bizarre mating dance and let out a cracking scream.
"That blue one is all water, she's not tasty at all! Me! Look at me! I'm an adventurer, a virgin in the prime of youth! My meat is firm, my flavor is rich! Come eat me instead!"
That utterly self-destructive, and weirdly tragic, declaration of edibility successfully drew the Giant Toad's attention.
It stopped swallowing, and those huge, cloudy eyes slowly turned, locking onto Kazuma, who was leaping around like a monkey.
"Ribbit?"
The Giant Toad seemed to be wondering whether this human had something wrong with his head.
...
If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on p-@-treon.
[email protected]/PinkSnake (30 Chapters Ahead for now).
You can also follow as a free member to read a few advanced chapters.