Paintbrush Summoner – 32

Chapter 32 – Muzeria, the Processing Industry City

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“Hah…hah…hah…”

How did this happen? The boy wondered as he desperately moved his feet forward. He repeated the action in order to get away from the approaching threat from behind.

“Wait!”

“There he is. Call for backup!”

The voices of his pursuers rang.

He ran through the narrow alley, crashing into crates and trash.

He was already exhausted.

If he went out into the main street, he might be able to lose them. And so he made a turn towards the direction where he heard human voices.

“Oh, sorry.”

As soon as he went out into the main street, he crashed into a man and fell to the ground. While he was wearing a robe, he was not caring a staff.

Next to him was a warrior who was wearing glasses. His armor appeared to be of very good quality.

“Are you alright?”

“Mi-mister…help…me…”

As the boy did not get up, the young man in the robes offered his hand.

The boy clung to him desperately as he lost consciousness.

“Help him? What should we do? We can’t just leave him here…”

Menew said as he looked at the boy and then at Ralph.

While Ralph narrowed his brows, it was true that the boy was unconscious. And so he let out a great sigh.

“We have no choice… We’ll take him to an inn.”

“Yes. We must wait for him to wake up.”

Menew was happy that Ralph agreed with his decision. He immediately used Search to check if the boy was injured, but it merely showed ‘Exhaustion,’ and so he hesitated to take him to the medical guild.

And so they picked up the boy and took him back to the inn that they had just left.

“Innkeeper. Could we take another room?”

“I don’t mind. …Who is that?”

“He suddenly fainted. And so we need a place to let him rest.”

As soon as they arrived in Muzeria, they went to this inn right near the gates.

It was a small inn, owned by a portly innkeeper and her daughter. But it was also cheap, as they only charged one copper for a room, which came with breakfast. They had paid two silvers in advance, and so the plan was to stay for ten days.

Menew then paid one copper for the boy, and was guided to a room where he could rest.

It was a large city, with wide streets that made a cross, separating the place into districts. There were four gates, east, west, north and south. Menew and Ralph had entered from the south gate, which had the residential and production districts.

There was a guild near the center of the town, and it was on their way there that they had encountered the boy. That meant that he had come out of the production district.

“Do you think that I should cast Heal on him?”

“Leave him be. If it’s necessary, we can take him to the medical guild.”

Indeed, it would not be good to take their jobs. Besides, it did not seem like there was any need to make him recover immediately.

And so Menew left a pitcher of water and cup by the boy’s bed and left the room. And he asked the innkeeper to look after him.

In the first place, they had gone out today so that Ralph could register at the Adventurers Guild, and to find work.

There was a dungeon close to Muzeria. On their way here, it had been decided that Menew would make a contract with a monster there, just like a normal Summoner.

But in order to enter places where monsters lived, like the dungeons, forests and valleys, you had to receive permission from the Guild. Otherwise, people might die.

If you accept a quest, then the guild automatically gives its permission, and so it was a perfect way to raise money for their travels.

Things went smoothly at the guild.

“I see that you are a fighter, Mr. Ralph. Though, after seeing both of your statuses, there seems to be a large gap…”

“That is fine.”

“I see. In any case, if you do accept a quest, it will have to be Rank-E…or D. If there is anything you want from that quest board, please bring it to the counter.”

And so Ralph and Menew went over to the questboard.

“I suppose we have to start at the bottom.”

“Yes. …Gathering wood, gathering herbs… For D-Rank, there is hunting large wolves…”

This was their first day after registration, and since they did not want to attract attention, they thought it best to just quietly gather herbs.

They took the request to the counter and were given a simple explanation.

“If you complete 20 E-Rank quests, you will be promoted to D-Rank. You can also complete multiple quests at once if they are in the same location.”

“The wood gathering was in the Mamia forest too, wasn’t it?”

“I’ll gather that then.”

Menew took the wood gathering quest and they accepted both at the same time.

Then they borrowed baskets and axes from the guild and left.

As Mamia forest was closest to the south gate, they returned to the inn first. This was because they decided to leave on the morning of the following day.

While they were there, they looked into the boy’s room and saw that he was awake and drinking the water.

He was wearing round spectacles and had hair that was almost blue. He appeared to be about twelve.

“Mister. Thank you for helping me.”

“It’s nothing at all. Are you alright?”

The boy put the cup on the table and bowed his head.

“I’m Totto, an alchemist. Please. I need shelter for some time.”

He said as he brought up his status.

It was most unusual. He was showing all of it.

Most of it was just one or two digits. But his Magic Defense was above 500, and his MP was incredibly high.

He was only two 0s behind Menew… The shocking number, ‘90,000’ was displayed there.

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