Liberty was brought to a room full of bookshelves, high cabinets, and a single desk. A window sits on the back of the desk and a green curtain is actively blocking the sunlight from coming in, coloring the room in a green-yellow hue.

  The filing room smelled of old dust and strangely enough, iron. Stacks upon stacks of documents hug the wall, which shouldn't be that hygienic right? There's gotta be a law that dictates leaving paper like that was illegal.

  "Those are no longer important, but are kept because of the information they possess, as it might be useful in the future." Siohel said like she was reading Liberty's mind, though she probably just noticed the disgusted expression Liberty had right now.

  'If they're here because they have valuable information—' and what's written on these papers could be classified as such, otherwise they wouldn't be kept for future references. '— then why the hell are they all just left here to rot?!'

  What if bugs come around and start eating stuff? Does this place have moth repellents? Because if it doesn't then there's a non-zero chance these things will get eaten. Seriously, even if the likelihood of these documents being used again is low, they shouldn't be stored in such a half-assed manner, it's just simply disrespectful.

  "You shouldn't think so deeply about this, those papers are none of your concern... Well, some of these are." Siohel pulled on a cabinet and took out a brown envelope, she opened it and took out three sheets of paper.

  "Are those the only retrieval missions available?" Liberty asked, tone skeptical. Was Siohel picking missions for her?

  "Look, I understand how you feel, you want to be a hero or whatever but believe me when I say that I am doing this for your own safety. There are places out there that have caused dozens of missing hunters, and we don't even know why!" The receptionist laughed hysterically.

  "... Fair enough, what do you want me to do?" Maybe she shouldn't dive into being a retriever so excitedly, a bit of caution was good, and that starts with her testing how well she does in this new job first.

  'We're starting small, with whatever it is that Siohel gives me, and then I'm gonna see if I can take on bigger missions.' She realized that while she has survived in the wilderness in the past, it wasn't with the intent of rescuing someone or killing monsters.

  She merely just survived, and that's it.

  Running head first into a monster den was never part of her routine while traveling, if anything, she avoided monsters like the plague and only really used her supplies when necessary. Now, all of that is gonna have to change, she's going to willingly fight monsters and instead of them coming to her, it's the exact opposite.

  'How fast will my medical bag deplete through this?' Preferably, she didn't have to use anything during a retrieval. 'I need to keep myself safe, then? But what about the people I rescue?'

  Liberty frowns, and this is something Siohel immediately noticed.

  "So you finally realize just what you are getting into huh? Hunting monsters isn't all sunshine and rainbows, they're gonna kill you, and you better avoid them. Especially the Okui, which are more common than you think." The warning was carefully noted by Liberty. "I have asked you this before and you said that it's okay but just to be sure, are you confident that your crossbow is good enough?"

  "... I am." Liberty hesitated, she knew it was. She nods, determined. "I am. It's good enough."

  "Well if you say so." Siohel says, exasperated. She pushed a sheet of paper forward, it goes to Liberty's side of the table, she reads as Siohel describes what's going on. "The retrieval is a fairly straight forward one, a hunter by the name of Roi was sent to a village in the east to investigate why the river water rises far too much in the early morning, this phenomena started a week before Roi was sent, it has been two since he went missing."

  "So almost a month?" Concern gripped Liberty's heart when she saw Siohel nod in confirmation. "Doesn't this mean that whatever is attacking the town has already succeeded? There's no way those people could have defended themselves."

  "We suspect that the cause of the disturbance were actually Dreggies."

  "I'm sorry, Dreggies?" Liberty has never heard of such creatures even after living in this world for years. "Are they just local here or something? I've never seen those before, and I have been to multiple river and port cities."

  "Dreggies are aquatic rats that have adapted to live in fresh water rivers, their ventrils have evolved to become something close to an air storage as it allows them to gather air and then use it to stay underwater for days on end."

  All of that made sense but there's a detail Siohel failed to add for some reason.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  "Uhuh, and how can a bunch of soaked rats cause a river to overflow?" And in the morning at that! So what, do they schedule stuff or something?

  "Well, see, here's the thing, they build structures that block water, primitive dams, so to say." So they're just beavers, then. Huh. "With their sharp claws, they chop down trees and plants, then they bring it to the river where it would be used to build stuff."

  "Interesting, and they have sharp teeth?"

  "Nope, they have the snout of a regular city rat, their biggest change is their feet actually." Siohel's lips were pursed as she said that. "Or legs, rather, they have powerful lower limbs which they use to swim and a prehensile tail that allows them to anchor themselves in the river bed or on branches during particularly harsh currents."

  "They have a thin tail?!"

  "Yeah? Did you focus on that instead of the part where they had powerful legs? You do realize that it is the danger you should put all your attention to, yes?"

  "Of course I do." Liberty rolled her eyes. "I was just shocked, that's all."

  Beavers use their flat tail to stomp on the mud and reinforce it but maybe these rodents evolved to use their legs instead? Now it's making Liberty curious and she really wants to see one of these rats...

  "Well, do you want to take the retrieval request? It should be fairly simple, the hunter must have just slipped on something while doing a routine patrol and fell to the river, he drowned and then died. Simple enough." Siohel pulled out an empty sheet of paper as well as a quill. "I'll write the report for you beforehand, even, say that the poor fool didn't deserve to die in such a way even though it is entirely his fault."

  "Don't insult him like that." Liberty was trying not to laugh as she scolded the receptionist. "You're so cruel."

  "Am I? I'm simply being pragmatic, you are holding back laughter, which means you find this rather tragic situation funny." Upon being called out, Liberty burst out laughing. "See? I'm the cruel one? Then what are you?"

  "It's just, the way you dismissed him was too much!" Liberty held her mouth to stop herself but she simply couldn't. "How can you be so cold?!"

  "You're blaming me." Siohel said dully. "Please just laugh at these things all by yourself, you don't have to drag anyone to your level."

  "Shut up!" Liberty was still laughing, Siohel gave her a dead eyed stare. "... Okay, I stopped, but seriously, you called him stupid after saying that he tripped and fell."

  "A rather obvious cause and effect, what is there to be surprised about? Smart people wouldn't die on a request as simple as this one." With a roll of her eyes, Siohel grabs the retrieval request and stamps it. "There, you have now officially accepted this task as your very first retrieval. It should be simple enough."

  "Yeah, I guess." Liberty stood up and stretched. "Do I search for the body as well or not? I feel like it's a good idea if I do it right?"

  "Whatever is left of Roi has been eaten by rats by now, the rest is shit that sunk to the river bed, presumably feeding clams and fish." Siohel shook her head. "But if you were to search for it, then I won't stop you, just know that it is a thankless endeavour that will only leave you exhausted in the end."

  "Yeah, fine." Liberty started making her way out of the filing room."I won't search for him, and I guess I'll be back soon? How far is this village anyway?"

  "Not that far, it should be within walking distance if you start from the city gates." Well that was good. "Just know that it will still take you hours to reach it, so I suggest buying rations before you go. Or maybe you already have some?"

  "I do, yeah."

  "Good, at least you're prepared in that way. Little Victories." Siohel didn't sound happy for Liberty and the receptionist was still as monotone as ever.

  Leaving the guild building genuinely felt like something heavy came off her shoulders, now that she has gotten her first ever retrieval request, Liberty can finally start earning some money for herself.

  The pay wouldn't be much— just a 10 or less Stappe. — but at least she gets something out of it, becoming a sponsored Leech of the Hunter's Guild wouldn't be profitable and with the Practitioners Guild out of commission, this is her only option.

  'I don't think it's a bad thing.' Is there even anything bad about becoming a Retriever? 'The reputation, maybe?' Eh, a bad reputation is preferable to poverty. 'Also, if people know me for a different thing then they wouldn't be able to find me easily.'

  Liberty left the front gates and went back out into the wilderness, she carried with her a crossbow with the length of her arm and the width of a pickle jar. The weapon wasn't strong, but it was good enough to kill things.

  'No matter what Siohel says, the crossbow isn't bad. I mean, I literally made this!' Liberty lifted the crossbow to her face in pride, as though she's really arguing in her own thoughts and decided to proudly show her weapon.

  Once she was out of the city's boundaries, the grass beneath her feet began to grow tall, right now, they are as tall as her knees. Shrubs and roots also become more common, rocks as well.

  Liberty trips but quickly catches herself, she points her crossbow behind her and the culprit turns out to be an overgrown tree root. She turns away and continues walking, her boots feel heavy and her eyes are now focused on the path forward.

  That incident didn't repeat itself and for a while, Liberty was more than happy to just walk around. But then that got boring and so she decided to have a bit of fun by picking up rocks and throwing them at things.

  She wasn't that good of a shot but at least all of her throws landed.

  Liberty hit the back of an Oggie, it scurried away, jumping on its tippy toes until it disappeared from Liberty's view. Similar encounters filled her journey to the village, and while she was smiling by the time she reached the settlement, that got wiped off her face pretty quickly once she felt the coldness inside of the village.

  "Hello?" Liberty looked around, she stopped and gently touched the walls of the house next to her. It is made of mud and hay, the windows are literally just wooden bars covered by a flat board. "Is anybody here?"

  No answer.

  That's strange, it's still early so farmers should be going around tending to their crops right? Why hasn't she found any of them yet?

  Liberty got an answer to her question when she stumbled upon an open door, the house inside was a mess, there were shattered vases everywhere, and their tools have suspiciously disappeared from the tool rack.

  Now, she's never seen Dreggies before but Liberty is at least 50 percent sure the giant rats can't do something like this, it had to be something else.

  'Guess this is more complicated than I thought it would be.' What did Siohel say? That this is all just rats? 'She's wrong. Shocker. What's next, the sky is blue?'