– Adventurer"s Life Day 40 (Fri) – Before Noon – Comnes Town – Alleyway

… Right now, we"ve been heading to skeleton C Mario"s location ever since his emergency contact. However, I haven"t heard what the problem was, and I couldn"t even get visual information from the skeleton either…

Benedetta also came along as well, so the entire party was pacing quickly through town.

The skeletons and Golem that were not holding anything were returned back to their coins, so the number out right now were about 27.

Like that, we made a beeline towards Rostam.

– Adventurer"s Life Day 40 (Fri) – Noon – Comnes Town – Workshop – Rostam

Upon arriving, the door to the shop was closed.

I banged on the door and called out my name to which Adrianne opened with tears in her eyes.

Because the skeletons had their hands full from all the luggage, I told them to wait outside as we entered… the street outside is usually empty so it"s alright.

Once entered, we immediately noticed skeleton C, the body Mario had been possessing, sitting on the chair with Zem, Pietro and his son, and several other people who I don"t recognise.

Mario had his helmet removed, so I immediately noticed something wrong.

(… The moustache…)

Mario"s signature appearance as a skeleton, the Kaiser Moustache, is gone…

When panicking on what to do with this situation, skeleton C began to speak with a faint voice… It was Mario.

"Master… very sorry for calling you here all of a sudden…"

"Mario! What happened?"

"Guess it"s time for me to leave now… All my regrets here seemed to have already been satisfied…"

I tried forcibly sending out mana to him, but not all of it seemed to be getting through.

"Ohh… Master. I can feel myself recovering a little… but I doubt I would be able to stay here for long…"

Did the skill have some sort of time limit on it…?

I can feel his existence slowly fading away. It"s like this parting was inevitable.

"I"d like to apologise… Despite Master doing so much for me, I haven"t done anything in return… Even so, there"s something I"d like to ask you."

"Say it."

I urged him to continue, worried about how much little time he has left.

Right now, propping up Mario onto a chair, he and Adrianne gathered everyone around and spoke about how much the shop changed compared to how it was before.

I"ve been relaying the message to them through Mario as he couldn"t speak well anymore, and about how he feels relieved from finally seeing off his wife and shop with a safe future.

With Mario"s regrets pretty much gone… it won"t be long before he disappears.

Before that, Adrianne and everyone else in the workshop gave their final farewells to him.

Not wanting to get in the way, me and Benedetta left the shop early and waited inside of Pietro"s workshop.

After a while later, we went back.

Adriannes eyes were still red, but she thanked us for everything.

We also gave our thanks to her for how much they helped us.

By the end, we took skeleton C and took our leave.

We left the items originally from Mario in the workshop, like his battle axe and mantle, while keeping the bone shield with us.

(… Was he really that fine leaving things like this I wonder…)

Having a somewhat depressing atmosphere here, Benedetta even seems to be struggling to decide what to say…

(… Well, I suppose moments like this are inevitable…)

I returned skeleton C back to its coin…

"Ah…"

"What"s the matter? … Ah!"

Until now, the coin had always had the carving of a sideways skull, but now a carving of an axe and shield have been seemingly added onto it.

I held the coin up higher to see it better.

(… Hmm… Well now…)

At least I had a nice memento to remember him by.

– Adventurer"s Life Day 41 (Sat) – Morning – Comnes Town – Near the North Gate

Once we got ready, we were heading over to the hunting grounds like usual, until we caught sight of a guild officer talking to some of the stationed guards.

At that, a triangular yellow flag had been raised by the entrance.

"Seems like there"s a new emergency request or something…"

"Had something happened…?"

It"s the flag used by the guild to inform of an emergency request… and if not, then it would be like some sort of warning we"ll need to take precaution of.

Either way it"ll still be best to attend, so we head over to the guild.

– Adventurer"s Life Day 41 (Sat) – Morning – Comnes Town – Adventurers Guild – Front

Once arriving in front of the guild, there was a message written on the bulletin just outside.

The message was shown conspicuously on the road, not just adventurers but anyone pa.s.sing by could look to see. 

The details were written as such,

"An ‘Elite" among sh.e.l.led rabbits have appeared within the premise of the rock field. There have been several incidents caused already. Therefore, entry to the rock fields have been prohibited. The names listed below are to partic.i.p.ate for the guild"s emergency request…"

Unless you were already out of town, it"ll be impossible to avoid the emergency request without any sort of detriment once you"ve been specifically named.

It"s best just to go to the guild and get this over with… Not that it doesn"t make it any less dangerous.

"Nemo… Have you heard of the rumour of the so called ‘Elite" monsters suddenly appearing?"

"… That"s the first time I"ve heard of it… Do you reckon it has something to do with the ones we"ve been encountering…?"

"…"

Continuing on from the message, it seems like there appears yet another ‘Elite", making this one our third… though I"m not sure if even more have appeared elsewhere.

"Ah… Nemo look…"

"Hm?… Ugh."

There were a list of party names who were selected to partic.i.p.ate in the emergency request, with my name sticking out like a sore thumb…

Why!? I"m not a party, so why are they specifically calling me out!?

"You"re not thinking of going alone now are you? Of course, I"m also going."

"Ahh… Thanks…"

I really didn"t think a party name would be of any use… Regardless, we head over to the reception desk for more information.

We were directed into a large room in the guild and about 30 adventurers were already inside, listening to the details from trainer Dorris.

It"s quite simple, defeat the ‘Elite" sh.e.l.led rabbit and its surrounding monsters.

Once the explanation was done, the adventurers proceeded to head out towards the rock field in a brisk pace.

I too wanted this to be over and done with quickly…

"Ah, Nemo… please remain sitting. This will not be long…"

It seems like they wanted a party name from us here… It"s inconvenient for the guild to call for us when we still haven"t decided on a party name yet.

Benedetta also seemed to be waiting for me to decide on one, so I just gave out the name ‘Legion". It"s something I had decided on just a while ago… 

We caught up with the rest of the adventurers, but it doesn"t seem like any of them are particularly enthusiastic in doing this… I"m not particularly motivated by this either, so I"m just trodding down with the rest… Along the way,

"Hey, you… you seemed to be getting pretty high for yourself recently, but don"t go doing anything that"ll slow us down…"

I was whispered so.

Who is this guy? Turning my head towards it, there was a shaven blonde adventurer that quickly pa.s.sed by me from behind… joining up with the other 3 from his party, they had the appearance of some typical hoodlums as they sneered towards me.

… Oh dear, not this…

"What was that!? What an unpleasant bunch!"

Eh? Benedetta actually got ticked off by that?

Compared to the blonde guy from earlier, I"ve been worrying more about Benedetta flaring up before arriving to the southeastern gate.

… Speaking of which, I haven"t met with Ruben at all recently… must be busy with work, I guess.

– Adventurer"s Life Day 41 (Sat) – Morning – Comnes Town – Eastern Plains

We came over to the place where we were informed the "Elite" sh.e.l.led rabbit would be.

The area here is alright, but there"s not much development going on as the main road only pa.s.ses through the north and south side. 

However, since there are only sh.e.l.led rabbits around here, it"s very popular with beginners.

As the surrounding gra.s.s started to get taller, the group became more and more split into their parties.

From that, there was another mixed four person party going in the same direction as us.

I had ourselves stop where we were and let the other party move on ahead, watching their reaction.

"What"s wrong… ? Did you not want others to see it?"

"It"s a simple process, but I feel uncomfortable having other people see how I summon…"

I would guess it"s already quite well known to everyone that I can take command of a large group of skeletons, especially for those who I encounter in the gravel fields, but I"ve been discreet with how I summon my skeletons and golem.

It"s something that can probably be taken advantage of, so I have no intention of showing it to others.

I summoned out 33 skeletons from the coins I"ve dropped inside the tall gra.s.s.

Greek styled armoured skeletons then emerged one after another.

I"ve kept hold of the golem on me for the time being… On my hand, I have a stone bullet with me as another precaution.

Mario"s trusty battle axe is not with skeleton C anymore, so instead I gave it an iron mace…

"MACE has been EQUIPPED."

Benedetta and I gave a look at each other…

"Did this guy talk just now…"

"He did. I think."

I looked back to skeleton C, and talked to it.

"Who are you?"

"NAME has not been SET. I am the BONE SERVANT of master NEMO the summoner."

I wonder if it has something to do with how this guy"s coin had a different design.

There"s no doubt Mario"s possession had a hand in this.

Then again, it didn"t seem like Mario"s lingering thoughts had been left over…

"Alright. Your new name now is Centurion. Centurion, state what you can do."

I"m not sure what it was, but I think the name fits quite well given what their helmets look like.

"My given name is CENTURION. I will now report CENTURION"s capabilities. ‘One handed axe", ‘Two handed axe", ‘Shield", ‘Gathering", ‘Negotiation", "Handicraft"…"

As far as I"m concerned about all the things he listed, he sounded like listing proficiencies Mario would"ve had… Well, it"s pretty useful if this guy were to have these.

"… "Command up to 2 skeletons"…"

I see. So like Mario, Centurion could also lend additional skeletons his abilities if it"s taken under his command… not to mention taking control of some of the skeletons would make things a little easier for me.

"Centurion, switch equipment with the skeleton holding the hatchet and kite shield from over there. After that, take two skeletons with you."

"I understand. Master."

Skeleton A swapped over its equipment with a mace, and along with skeleton B, the two skeletons with the best equipment were put under Centurion"s command.

(Later on, let"s change up the skeletons naming system for a bit.)

Skeleton C is gone, with Centurion now taking its place. Skeletons D and onwards would have to go back a letter.

"Alright, time for some rabbit hunting."

Somehow, summoning Centurion kinda helped in clearing my mood from earlier.

We had ourselves form into groups spreading into the gra.s.slands… the defeated sh.e.l.led rabbits would be used to increase the skeleton number.

(… Another 3, and that"ll make 36…)

Like that, Legion increases its numbers once again… 

—- Summoning Memo —-

Centurion: Hatchet + 7/6, Kite shield (Metal) + 7/6, Greek armor and helmet + 6/6

A: Mace + 7/6, Heavy round shield (bone) + 6/6, Blood stained leather armor + 0/6.

B: Mace + 7/6, Round shield with iron frame (wood) + 7/6, Greek armor and helmet + 7/6

C + 36: Club (bone) + 7/6, Heavy round shield (bone) + 7/6, Greek armor and helmet + 7/6

・ One stone golem

*: + X / Y describes the level of "sculptor" / "alchemist" at the time of "engraved" / "plating" for convenience.

TL note: What"s a good robot sounding voice for Centurion? He uses random katakana when talking.

That said, I"m making Centurion a ‘he". Author never really specified it, but since it came from Mario I"ll just call it ‘he" too. Hope no one minds.