These Familiars Are Strange

The receptionist knitted her brows when she heard this.

She narrowed her eyes to look at me before saying in a voice that had a trace of concern in it, "Are you sure about that? You just went into a dungeon, you don't have to risk your life like this. There should be more than enough money in that account for you to live on for a while."

She was right about that.

I had seen the summary of the account that she showed me earlier and it was already more than what my parents made in a month.

Being an explorer certainly was lucrative, but one had to remember that this was a job that risked one's life. This kind of wealth was earned at the risk of one's life.

However, it was the only way that some people would be able to rise up in this world.

I had already made up my mind, so I said, "I know, but the Slime Hole was easy, which is why I want to test myself in another dungeon. I won't take things too far, I'll just take an E Rank Dungeon."

The receptionist narrowed her eyes to look at me, but I didn't turn away as I looked right back at her.

After a while, she slowly gave a nod.

Though it was clear that there was a worried look that was in her eyes.

Even though she had no reason to be worried about me, she was worried about me. That just went to show what kind of person she was and I couldn't help being a bit touched.

But the receptionist could also see that I was perfectly fine after the Slime Hole.

I didn't even have a single scratch on me, which just went to show that I wasn't lying about how it had been easy for me.

So instead of saying anything else, she looked at the piece of paper that I put on the table and started putting the information into the computer in front of her.

When she was done, she handed me the documents I needed without saying a word.

Though she did turn away as if she was sending me off.

So with a trace of bitterness in my smile, I said, "Thank you."

Then without waiting, I turned around to leave.

After he left, the receptionist turned back around to look in the direction that he headed off in and said with a sigh, "Kids like that are always the ones that get in trouble...But I hope that he'll be fine."

…

"Are you sure that you want to go in?"

The guard at the entrance of the dungeon asked me after taking my documents.

I just gave a simple nod in response.

He raised a brow to look at me before turning to the other guards.

They had the same look as they looked at me.

It seemed that all of them were surprised to see that I was here.

It wasn't as if I didn't understand why they acted this way.

Since they had the documents from the Explorer Association, that meant that they had my information. That meant that they also knew what kind of familiar I had, which was why they were worried about me heading into this dungeon.

The dungeon that I had chosen was an E Rank Dungeon known as the Mist Forest.

It was another open field dungeon, but this one was a misty forest that was filled with many different beast type monsters. This was one of those dungeons that gave corpses as loot, which was what my parents and other workers like my parents worked on.

Seeing that I wouldn't back down even though they questioned me like this, they had no choice but to let me into the dungeon in the end.

Though I did hear them whispering a few things.

"It seems like the rumours about the Explorer Association are true."

"Right, they were just sending those with low grade familiars to their deaths to cut the population."

"My son's around his age…"

I knew that they did all this because they were worried about me, but I didn't say anything.

After all, the best way to prove them wrong was to come back with loot from this dungeon.

So without any further hesitation, I walked right through the gate of the dungeon and all of the sounds around me disappeared.

When I came back to my senses, I saw that I was now in the middle of a clearing that was surrounded by forest. Behind me was a portal that was the exit to the dungeon that I had just come out of.

After looking around for a bit, I just headed off in a random direction.

It wasn't as if there was anything that I could gain from standing here and time was precious, so I was looking for something to kill. I was looking for any kind of monster to take down to get some loot.

It didn't take long before I heard a sound from in front of me.

"Ao!"

It was the howling of wolves.

I was familiar with this sound because of the time that I had spent with the Gale Wolves.

So I knew that these were wolf monsters that were either in a fight or they were gathered in a pack.

Regardless of what it was, this was perfect for me.

After heading in that direction for a bit, I found what it was.

It was a pack of wolves that were currently hunting down a deer.

The deer was running towards me with the pack of wolves chasing after it and when that deer saw me, it ran even faster at me.

A faint smile appeared on my lips when I saw this since I knew exactly what the deer was planning.

It was just that I wasn't planning on letting this deer use me.

When they came closer, I suddenly said, "Freeze."

The Echo Bat on my shoulder suddenly let out a screech.