Chapter 514: Victor’s First Subjugation Quest

Victor’s First Subjugation Quest

The receptionist opened her mouth, hoping she could talk Victor out of his request.

"Sir, perhaps you should reconsider—"

"Give him the quests."

Evelyne’s voice cut through the conversation.

The receptionist stopped mid-sentence.

She turned toward Evelyne, then glanced at Victor. For a moment, she seemed unsure how to respond.

"Lady Evelyne..."

Evelyne’s expression remained unchanged.

"He knows what he’s doing."

"But..." The receptionist hesitated. "There are quite a few subjugation quests. Taking on so many at once could be dangerous, even for an experienced adventurer."

Evelyne’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"Just do as he asked."

That settled it.

The receptionist swallowed her remaining objections and lowered her head.

"Yes, Lady Evelyne."

Still, she couldn’t simply hand over every quest on her own authority. Some of the requests required approval, especially when they involved multiple targets or dangerous creatures.

There was only one person who could make that decision.

The Guild Master.

She quickly sent word to him.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long.

A man soon emerged from the back of the building. He wore the familiar attire of an experienced adventurer, and his broad shoulders carried the quiet confidence of someone who had survived more than a few dangerous encounters.

He was an A-rank adventurer and the Guild Master of this branch.

In a major city, the position might have belonged to an S-rank adventurer. Smaller towns were different. The surrounding monsters posed little threat compared to those found in more dangerous regions.

An A-rank adventurer was more than capable of keeping this branch running.

The moment he noticed Evelyne, however, his expression changed.

He straightened slightly and approached her with a respectful nod.

"Lady Evelyne."

Evelyne acknowledged him with a small nod of her own.

The Guild Master then shifted his attention to Victor.

He studied the young man for a moment.

Something about Victor immediately caught his attention. It wasn’t merely the scythe he carried or the calm way he stood. There was something difficult to put into words about him, something that made it unwise to judge him at first glance.

The Guild Master had spent years dealing with adventurers. He knew better than to underestimate someone simply because they looked young.

Still, Evelyne’s presence mattered more at the moment.

If she was willing to stand beside Victor and personally vouch for his request, there was little reason to interfere without a good cause.

The Adventurers Guild wasn’t a servant of the royal family. Nor was it directly controlled by a single kingdom. Its branches enjoyed considerable independence in their daily operations.

That independence, however, had its limits.

The Guild still needed to maintain good relations with the nobles and influential families in the territories where it operated. Creating unnecessary disputes with a powerful figure could bring trouble to an entire branch.

And Victor’s request wasn’t unreasonable.

He wasn’t asking the Guild to involve itself in a war. He wasn’t demanding protection for a criminal or requesting that the Guild violate its own rules.

He simply wanted subjugation quests.

There was no convincing reason to refuse him.

"Give him the available quests," the Guild Master ordered.

The receptionist immediately got to work.

She returned with a stack of documents and placed them on the counter in front of Victor.

One quest concerned a goblin infestation.

Another requested the extermination of monsters that had been attacking travelers near a forest.

There was also a report of a beast roaming too close to a mountain road, along with several requests involving creatures that had begun threatening nearby settlements.

The papers kept coming.

Victor stood at the counter and examined each one. His gaze moved steadily from one document to the next, taking in the information without wasting time on unnecessary details.

Gradually, a faint glint appeared in his golden eyes.

This was exactly what he needed.

Money?

He had little interest in it at the moment.

Fame?

Even less.

Recognition from the Adventurers Guild meant nothing to him.

What he wanted was mana.

Every living creature he killed with his scythe would contribute to the growth of his mana capacity. The weaker the creature, the smaller the gain would be, but that wasn’t a problem.

There were plenty of monsters in the world.

A single goblin might offer very little. A dozen wouldn’t change much either. But if he kept hunting, moving from one area to another and clearing out every suitable target he encountered, those small gains would eventually add up.

That was all that mattered.

Victor gathered the documents into a neat stack.

"That’s everything?"

The Guild Master nodded.

"Everything currently available in the B-rank subjugation category."

"Good."

Victor tucked the quest papers away and turned toward the entrance.

Evelyne followed him.

They crossed the guild hall together, passing adventurers who were busy drinking, chatting, or checking the latest notices. A few people glanced in their direction, but Victor paid them no attention.

He had already begun thinking about where to hunt first.

Just as they approached the entrance, however, he slowed down.

Evelyne nearly took another step before realizing he had stopped.

She looked at him questioningly.

Victor turned to face her.

"You don’t need to follow me."

Evelyne blinked.

For a moment, she seemed to think she had misheard him.

"But, Master, I already said I would come with you."

"I know."

Victor’s answer was calm.

There was no irritation in his voice, nor did his golden eyes hold any trace of coldness. He simply looked at her with the same quiet certainty he had shown from the beginning.

"Go back and practice your sword technique."

Evelyne’s expression stiffened slightly.

Before she could protest, Victor continued.

"Think about what happened earlier. Your strength isn’t enough yet."

His words weren’t harsh, but they struck closer to home than she would have liked.

"You still have plenty of room to improve. Following me around won’t help with that. Use this time to work on your swordsmanship instead."

Evelyne lowered her eyes.

She knew he was right.

That was the irritating part.

She had seen enough to understand the gap between her current abilities and the strength she wanted to possess. She couldn’t afford to ignore that difference, not after everything that had happened.

Still, knowing what she ought to do didn’t make it any easier to accept.

She wanted to stay with him.

Perhaps it was because she had grown accustomed to his presence. Perhaps it was because she still had questions she wanted answered.

Or perhaps, after everything they had experienced, the thought of simply turning around and leaving him alone didn’t sit well with her.

"But..."

The word slipped out before she could stop herself.

Victor said nothing.

He merely waited.

That somehow made it harder for Evelyne to argue. Had he been impatient or dismissive, she might have found something to say in return.

Instead, he gave her no opening.

She let out a quiet sigh.

"You’re right, Master."

Evelyne raised her head again. A faint smile touched her lips, though there was a hint of reluctance behind it.

"I suppose I should work on my swordsmanship instead of getting in your way."

"That’s what you should do."

His straightforward response left her with little room to complain.

Evelyne sighed again, this time with a little more resignation.

"Fine. I’ll return and practice."

Victor nodded.

"Good."

For a few seconds, neither of them moved.

There was no grand farewell. Neither tried to turn the moment into something more meaningful than it was.

They had simply reached a point where their paths needed to diverge.

Evelyne eventually turned toward the road leading back into town.

Victor headed in the opposite direction.

They walked away from each other beneath the fading afternoon light, their footsteps carrying them farther apart with every passing moment.

After a while, Evelyne glanced over her shoulder.

Victor hadn’t looked back.

He continued along the road without hesitation, his scythe resting firmly in his hand.

Evelyne watched him for another second.

Then she smiled faintly to herself and turned away.

She had her own work to do.

If she wanted to become stronger, she couldn’t keep relying on the opportunities that came from standing beside him. She needed to improve on her own.

With that thought in mind, she made her way back toward her training.

Victor, meanwhile, continued toward the outskirts.

The sunlight was beginning to soften. Long shadows stretched across the road, and the distant mountains were slowly darkening beneath the approaching evening.

He barely noticed any of it.

His thoughts were already fixed on the quests in his possession.

He needed strength.

And he had no intention of wasting time obtaining it.

Back inside the Adventurers Guild, the Guild Master remained near the counter after Victor had left.

For a moment, he watched the entrance in silence.

Then he turned toward the receptionist.

"Who exactly is that man?"

The receptionist shook her head.

"I don’t know, sir."

The Guild Master frowned slightly.

Neither did he.

He had encountered countless adventurers over the years, but Victor was difficult to place. There was something unusual about the young man, though he couldn’t quite identify what it was.

And then there was Evelyne.

She wasn’t someone who casually involved herself in the affairs of strangers. Yet she had personally supported Victor’s request and addressed him as her master.

That alone was enough to make the Guild Master reconsider his initial impression.

Whoever Victor was, he was clearly someone worth paying attention to.

He glanced once more at the entrance before finally turning away.

For now, there was nothing more to do.

Victor had already left the city behind.

The road gradually narrowed as he moved farther from the outskirts. The sounds of civilization faded with every step. Soon, even the distant voices of travelers disappeared.

Only the wind accompanied him.

It swept across the open ground, carrying the faint smell of grass and damp earth. Ahead, the land began to rise, giving way to a rugged stretch of mountains.

Victor slowed as he approached the foothills.

According to the quest information, a large horde of goblins had been spotted somewhere in this region. Their presence had become a problem for travelers and nearby settlements, which was why the Guild had issued the subjugation request.

The exact location remained uncertain.

That didn’t concern Victor.

His golden eyes moved across the rocky landscape, taking in the uneven ground and the scattered patches of vegetation between the stones.

Then he stopped.

A faint trace had caught his attention.

Victor adjusted his grip on the scythe.

"Found you."

The words left his mouth quietly.

There was no response.

At first glance, the area appeared deserted. The rocky slopes stretched into the distance, and nothing moved among the sparse vegetation.

Evelyne wasn’t there to question him, and Victor had no intention of explaining himself to anyone.

He simply began following the trail.

The signs were easy to miss for an ordinary traveler. A patch of disturbed earth here. A broken branch there. Small details that seemed meaningless on their own but began to form a pattern when viewed together.

Victor followed that pattern without rushing.

Every so often, he paused to examine the ground or look toward a narrow passage between the rocks. He wasn’t searching blindly. He was narrowing down the possibilities, following the traces until the path became clearer.

The farther he went, the more noticeable the signs became.

Eventually, he reached a secluded section of the mountain.

A cave opened in the rock face ahead.

Its entrance was wide enough for several creatures to pass through at once, though darkness concealed whatever lay beyond it. The ground nearby was littered with loose stones, and the surrounding vegetation had been trampled.

Victor stopped a short distance from the opening.

A foul smell drifted out of the cave.

He recognized it immediately as the stench of creatures living in cramped, filthy conditions. Beneath it lingered the unpleasant odor of rotting vegetation and something far less pleasant.

His golden eyes settled on the darkness.

So this was where the goblins had gathered.

Victor shifted the scythe in his hand and took a measured step toward the entrance.

He had come here for a reason.

And he wasn’t leaving empty- handed.