Who Says I'm Not a Proper Adventurer?
Chapter 24: Unlocking the Illustrated Guide

Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Unlocking the Illustrated Guide

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bar.

Hakon, his eyes hazy with drink, glanced idly toward a corner of the room.

When he recognized Lance sitting there quietly eating his meal, a look of displeasure crossed his face.

He recognized Lance, the guy who was often teased in this tavern as the "pretty boy Copyist."

"Tch, pretty boy..."

He threw his head back and chugged a mouthful of ale. The sting of the alcohol caused the image of the out-of-town Adventurer who had stolen his lover to gradually merge with the clean-cut Copyist before him.

On top of that, he had just heard that this kid was even getting special treatment from Amber.

The nameless anger simmering inside him instantly boiled over.

Hakon staggered to his feet and, emboldened by the alcohol, made a beeline for Lance.

THUD!

A dull thud echoed.

Hakon slammed his heavy wooden mug down on the table in front of Lance, and the splashing ale nearly landed in Lance’s plate.

"Hey, pretty boy."

Hakon looked down at Lance, his breath reeking of alcohol and his eyes full of provocation.

"This is a seat for Adventurers. A guy like you who lives off women can piss off."

The surrounding noise died down instantly as many patrons turned to watch the show.

Lance stopped cutting his meat.

He looked up, glanced calmly at Hakon, and then at Amber, who was busy in the distance.

’There’s no benefit to starting a fight here. It would only cause trouble for Amber.’

’Besides, getting tangled up with a drunken piece of trash like this is beneath me, and it might expose my true strength.’

"Fine."

Without arguing, Lance picked up his plate and silently moved two seats over.

Seeing the other man be so "sensible," Hakon felt the frustration in his chest instantly dissipate.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

He let out a piercing, wild laugh and pointed at Lance, taunting loudly,

"Look! Everyone, look at this pretty boy! What a spineless little chick!"

As if that wasn’t enough, he even leaned in close to Lance’s face, intending to further humiliate the seemingly weak young man.

But in the next second,

SPLASH!

A full, frothy mug of cold ale was viciously thrown in Hakon’s repulsive face.

Hakon’s arrogant laughter stopped abruptly.

The cold liquid dripped down from his hair and beard, making him look utterly ridiculous.

"You..."

Hakon was about to start cursing but snapped his mouth shut.

He was met with the sight of Amber’s furious face.

"Watch your damn mouth!"

The young woman stood with her hands on her hips, like a lioness protecting her cub.

Hakon was about to fly into a rage, ready to teach this insolent little brat a lesson.

Just then, the half-closed curtain to the back kitchen was swept aside by a thick, strong hand.

A middle-aged man with a build as burly as a brown bear walked out.

He wore a grease-stained apron, and his two bare arms were covered in a crisscrossing network of old scars.

He leaned lazily against the doorframe, toying with a boning knife in his hand, his gaze fixed coldly on Hakon.

He didn’t say a single word.

But the oppressive aura of a man who had climbed out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood instantly sobered Hakon up, and a cold sweat broke out on his back.

’This guy is the real deal, a true killer.’

The rage that had just surged within Hakon was extinguished in an instant.

He swallowed hard, wiped his face dejectedly with his sleeve, and turned to leave this troublesome place.

"Stop."

Amber’s cold voice rang out from behind him.

"The money for the ale."

Hakon froze, his expression as ugly as if he’d swallowed a fly.

"I... I already paid."

His voice was thin and reedy, like a duck being strangled, betraying his guilty conscience.

"I mean the one on your face."

Amber was expressionless, her cold gaze an exact copy of her old man’s.

Hakon trembled with rage, his fists clenched so tight they cracked.

But after a glance at the burly man in the kitchen doorway, who was now cleaning his nails with the boning knife, he ultimately chickened out.

He resentfully fished two Copper Coins out of his pocket and slapped them heavily onto the counter.

Then, without looking back, he stormed out of the tavern.

Lance sat nearby, watching Hakon’s back disappear into the night, a cold, almost imperceptible glint in his eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Amber turned around, the coldness on her face instantly melting away as she looked at Lance with concern.

Lance pulled his gaze back and gave her a brilliant smile, flashing a set of pearly whites.

"I’m fine. Just a drunk."

He noticed that the burly man leaning against the doorframe, seeing that the situation had calmed down, silently put away his knife and returned to the back kitchen.

’A true master who hides his achievements and fame.’

Amber pulled over a high stool and sat down directly across from Lance, resting her chin in her hands and enthusiastically launching into the gossip she’d heard that day.

It was her unique way of de-stressing.

"Hey, hey, did you hear? I heard that Auntie Mowenna from the Potion shop is in love!"

"Someone saw her and some older Adventurer getting all handsy in the back alley, ahhh..."

Lance nodded along agreeably as he cut his steak.

Usually, after finishing his meal, he would stay and chat with Amber for a while, enjoying the rare moment of leisure.

But today was different.

Lance was eating much faster than usual.

The moment he stuffed the last piece of beef into his mouth, he quickly wiped his lips and placed the money for the meal on the table.

"Amber, I just remembered I have something urgent to take care of at home."

Lance stood up and said apologetically,

"I can’t chat today. I’ll come back tomorrow to hear the rest of the story."

Without waiting for Amber to react, he strode quickly out of the tavern.

Amber watched his rapidly departing back, her face a picture of disappointment. The gossip she had been in the middle of telling got stuck in her throat.

A passing waitress saw her young boss’s expression and then glanced in the direction Lance had disappeared.

She couldn’t help but mutter under her breath,

"Jerk."

...

In the shadows of the alley behind the tavern, the air was thick with the nauseating stench of piss.

Hakon hummed an unidentifiable tune, staggering along the base of the wall as he freely relieved the pressure in his bladder.

The cold night wind, rather than sobering him up, only fanned the wicked flames of anger in his heart.

Being publicly humiliated by that damn brat Amber in the tavern and losing money on top of it all made him angrier the more he thought about it.

He wasn’t planning on going home. Instead, he was heading to the brothel at the edge of town that specialized in the flesh trade to find a woman and vent his pent-up fury.

With a final shiver, Hakon contentedly pulled up his pants.

However, just as he finished buckling his belt, the light above him suddenly dimmed.

A musty-smelling burlap sack, like a predator’s net, dropped over his head without warning.

"Who’s there?!"

He was, after all, an Adventurer who lived on the edge. Even drunk, his instincts were still sharp.

Hakon roared, his right hand instinctively reaching for the short dagger at his waist.

’As long as I have a blade in my hand,’ he thought, ’I’m confident I can run this reckless attacker straight through.’

But he had clearly underestimated his assailant’s methods.

The instant his fingers touched the cold hilt, a sharp pain exploded in his abdomen.

"Oof!"

Lance had held nothing back with that punch.

He used the power-generating technique of a thrust from Castro Swordsmanship, twisting his entire body’s Power into a single point and instantly channeling it through his fist, piercing Hakon’s weak abdominal muscles.

Hakon felt as if his intestines were about to be pulverized by the blow. His smooth draw of the dagger froze, and his body bent over like a cooked shrimp.

Lance’s eyes were ice-cold, his movements as fast as lightning.

Taking advantage of his opponent’s momentary paralysis, he seized Hakon’s wrist, twisted it against the joint, and the short dagger was in his hand.

Immediately after, Lance lunged forward.

This wasn’t a simple shove, but an elbow strike derived from a Shield Strike technique.

The immense force slammed Hakon hard against the rough stone wall with a dull thud.

Lance deftly spun the dagger in his palm from a reverse grip to a standard one, and the hilt whistled through the air as it struck the major artery on the back of Hakon’s neck.

"Urk..."

Hakon’s eyes rolled back in his head. Before he could even utter a plea for mercy, he slid down the wall like a pile of mud.

SPLAT.

His face landed, dead center, right in the warm puddle of liquid he had just created.

[You have defeated an opponent with a degree of local social standing. You have unlocked the Illustrated Guide function.]

Looking at the rather disgusting scene, Lance took two steps back in distaste, even dusting off his clothes, which hadn’t gotten dirty at all.

’It gives me the creeps.’

If this had been a few months ago, right after he’d transmigrated, he would have been completely powerless against the provocations of a veteran thug like this. He might have had to swallow his anger and even force a smile.

But things were different now.

He hadn’t spent day and night swinging a sword and drawing a bow, developing his eight-pack abs and calloused hands, just to be a coward who hides in his shell.

He had backed down in the tavern only to avoid involving Amber.

’If you make an enemy, you must get revenge.’

’Out here, only heaven and earth know what happened.’

’Only by venting this anger can my thoughts be clear.’

However, Lance quickly recalled that a special notification seemed to have popped up in his vision the moment he took Hakon down.

’An Illustrated Guide?’