"Oh, good morning sir, what would you like for breakfast?"
While I was walking down the stairs, I heard a feminine voice.
The voice came from the red-haired beauty from yesterday. This beauty was the owner of this place.
"What's on the menu, miss?"
"Today we serve steak and coffee," the girl said with a smile. There was a noticeable blush on her face.
I noticed the blush. I was used to this reaction, so I ignored it.
"By the way, I am John Alver, just call me John." —John.
"I'm Rosetta Rose, just call me Rosetta." —Rosetta.
"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Rosetta." —John.
"The pleasure is all mine, Sir John." —Rosetta.
"See you later, I'm going to prepare your breakfast." Rosetta went into the kitchen.
I sat at the counter, waiting.
While waiting, I noticed a guy selling newspapers at the corner of my eye. The guy was enjoying his breakfast with a goofy smile.
"The steak is delicious as ever, I would never be tired of this," the guy said in a loud voice. Similar comments echoed in the tavern.
I went to the guy, planning to buy one.
"How much is this?" I said, pointing at the newspaper.
"That would be 80 valis."
"Give me one."
After buying one, I went back to my seat, reading the newspaper while waiting for my breakfast.
In the headlines of the newspaper, there was a photo that was magically moving like a video. The picture showed a beautiful woman with golden hair and emerald eyes. She wore a blue knee-length dress, black stockings, and black high-heeled boots. On her waist rested a golden sword with a black handle.
In front of her was a huge monster, a white twelve-legged horse. The monstrous horse exuded a deadly aura. Even though it was just a moving image, I could feel the strong aura of the monster.
Below the moving picture was the headline:
Artoria Pendragon, King of Knights Vs. Horse King Rapture.
Reading the name Artoria Pendragon, I was confused for a bit. Isn't she from another universe, not here?
I continued to read and discovered that this is not the Artoria Pendragon I knew from the series. She is Artoria Pendragon likely from the mysterious nation, Chaos Sovereignty. If she came from that nation, her strength is no doubt absolute.
The Horse King Rapture is a ???-Class Behemoth Monster with a Danger Level of Continent+.
I don't know what a ???-Class Titanous Monster or a Danger Level of Continent+ means, but I could slightly deduce what they are.
???-Class Titanous Monster might be a classification for monsters of great size, which means that this class reflects the average size of massive monsters in each class. For example, a monster classified as a Hundreds-km-Class Titanous Monster would have a body size of hundreds of kilometers. Following this logic, ???-Class Titanous Monsters are monsters with a body size of ???.
On the other hand, danger level must be a measurement for how dangerous a monster could be, but I don't know exactly how they measure it. But based on what I read, they must be using the amount of damage a monster can do. For example, if a monster could destroy a continent, the danger level must be Continent-Level—basically, they could destroy continents. I figured that much, but I don't know what Continent+ Level means.
I tried asking the people around me and the barmaid, but they only said they didn't know. Apparently, information about this measurement is known only by those influential people who was considered a pillar of an organization or strong people at the top.
If I want to know more about this, I need to become a First-Class Adventurer or become a strong man at the peak of this old world. Or just go straight to Chaos Saverignty they are the one who made the system.
For those who don't remember, Chaos Sovereignty is the ruler of everything—even the seemingly Old and Given that was claimed as owned by people outside their nation was a white lie. They actually control everything in the Old and Given World. After all, they are the one who give this place, one word from them and all nations would surrender and follow their commands. If not, they would be erased from existence—literally. There was an event where they erased a nation as a demonstration. That nation was erased even from the memories of all things. It was like they never existed. When they undid it, that nation came back, and everything about its existence returned and was remembered by all. Since that day, no one ever dared to resist them again.
But despite this, all beings from the Old and Given World are free to do what they want, as long as they don't involve the Chaos Sovereignty.
The headlines showed a detailed story on how Artoria Pendragon repelled the unimaginably massive monster, Horse King Rapture, just by locking eyes with it. After a few minutes, Rapture backed down, saving 2nd Fortress City from destruction.
When the Horse King left, Artoria also left without a word.
The camera didn't catch the true essence of how Artoria repelled the Horse King, making the moving picture unable to show the essence either. But the minuscule emotion I saw in the Horse King's eyes… I can confidently say Artoria used some kind of intimidating technique. I don't know exactly what she used, but if I had to guess, I'd say she used magic power.
By releasing her magic power, the Horse King could feel the true power of the one who released it, and at that moment, he saw he was no match. In fact, he might have felt that a monster even more monstrous than him was standing before him.
Based on what was shown, Artoria Pendragon was not the Artoria I knew from that series. The Artoria in this newspaper was endlessly stronger—like comparing an all-powerful god to an insignificant insect. There is no comparison at all. The Artoria in the newspaper was from the Chaos Sovereignty. The newspaper already hinted at that, but only people who knew quite a bit about the Sovereignty could understand the hint.
I continued to read and picked up some information that piqued my interest, such as the Magic Council and, under it, the Magic Guilds, Mercenary Guilds, Dark Guilds, Merchant Guilds. Heroic Guild—where Artoria Pendragon belongs, etc. Alongside the Magic Council, there is also the World Government. They've existed for a very long time, and no one knows where they came from.
These organizations also belong to the Chaos Sovereignty. The evidence was already in the article about Artoria Pendragon. Coupled with those hints and what I already knew, I reached this conclusion.
I need a deeper investigation to confirm this, but that's not my main priority for now. I'll investigate when the time comes. For now, I'll focus on my current goal: the Dungeon.
"Your breakfast is ready. Please enjoy."
"Thank you, Miss." I said burning the news paper with my magic.
"You're welcome. I'll be taking my leave."
Later, after eating my breakfast, I went to the Adventurer Guild Headquarters.
Pantheon, the main building of the adventurer guild.
At this hour, the Pantheon lobby was a bit empty. Most adventurers were already in the Dungeon grinding for money.
Pantheon has a large lobby with desks where guild adventurers talk to their advisors. There is also an exchange area. There are small meeting boxes where adventurers can talk one-on-one with their advisor without anyone else hearing. Aside from that, there's a library area. Most employees work on the first floor of the building, while the high-ranking officials work on the second floor.
The floor was covered in white marble. The ceiling was a combination of white and green marble forming a unique pattern. On the walls were paintings of great heroes and their adventures, immortalizing their glory.
I looked at the desks and went to an empty one, avoiding the ones with queues.
The desk I approached was managed by a familiar face. It was a beautiful half-elf with a slim body, pointy ears, shoulder-length brown hair, and emerald-colored eyes. She wore the guild's uniform and silver glasses.
If I remember correctly, this girl was Eina Tulle, Bell Cranel's advisor in the original series.
I stopped using my misdirection technique and went to her desk. As soon as I did that, a few eyes locked onto me, and whispers filled the air.
"Did you see that guy? He's huge," a girl said, focusing on my height and failing to see ny face.
Her friend, on the other hand, blushed. "He's so handsome..." The girl who noticed me began to gossip, blushing in infatuation.
The guys, on the other hand, were wary toward John.
"When did this guy enter?"
"I don't know, I just noticed him now."
"How long did this dude stand there? I didn't see him till now."
"This guy is quite dangerous. I need to warn them not to mess with him."
But some were greedy toward John's fancy-looking robes and the prospect that John was wealthy—a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.
"What a pricey-looking robe."
"Is he some young master wanting to play hero?"
"Haha, a fat sheep just showed himself to us."
I ignored them completely and focused my attention on the beautiful half-elf, who was focused on the documents in her hands, failing to notice me.
Those people with bad intentions would die, while the rest would be ignored. The greedy ones would face their worst nightmares.