That Unique Monster Who Just Got the 'Consciousness' Passive Skill

With the steady flow of time going still, more days passed and we, today, attended our art magic cursus classes. What a pain that was. Then again, I got to spend time with Cetha the elf, so I could see the bright side of things and bear it… but today, that would change. When, as bored as I was, I continued to chat about this and that, talking to either myself, the elven princess when she had time to listen to me, or no one at all, at some point, the grandmaster who taught us probably felt as annoyed as I was and blamed my chitchat on both me and Cetha.

As he saw it, either one of us should transfer to another seat so that we may stop idly chatting.

"Crap." I apologized to Cetha for that. She was so serious and studious a student—assuredly the best out of all the apprentices in the room. Because of my own carelessness, she would be seen as lesser than she was. The old mage got back to his course and the most majestic forest fairy's divine soul felt so kind and magnanimous as to have mercy on the wretched peasant, me, who miserably failed her, saying it was "fine."

"See you afterward," I read on her lips as the divine fairy established herself onto a new valley that befitted her majesty and gorgeousness, not so far away from the miserable offender she just forgave with so splendid a smile.

Peering into her eyes, the miserable peasant me felt so grateful to the noblest fairy maiden that I smiled back, whispered to her "Hall hail Madam Fairy!" with tears in my eyes so much kind she was… but then shook my head at the comment she made. I wouldn't see my fairy afterward! No. Duty called onto me.

I was a man of my word, after all. When I say this joke of an education has lasted long enough, it means it shall end at all costs.

Standing up, I harrumphed as I slammed both hands on my desk. "Humph!"

…Ring! A notification rang out.

❮ Quest "Learning the ropes of the job!" — The Player has had enough of all the tedious studying: head out of the Amphitheater and meet with the Party. 0/1 ❯

Weeks ago, as I fought my way into becoming a full-fledged monster hunter on the battlefield of Greenfield, I met with a certain party of professional adventurers. At the time, the System steered me so that I would at least meet with them after I inadvertently saved one of their party members on the battlefield, so we can get to know each other a little. I let myself be guided and ended the quest… but then, no following up was coming around.

The System didn't hit me up with new instructions at all, and I ended up forgetting about both the party and the quest as time went by. Today, I remembered, grinned, and nodded at my power, the System. "About time, Sys'. …About time."

Filled with determination to see through that one quest—"Learning the ropes of the job!"—I slammed both hands on the desk and brought the full corpus of students' attention to me. My feral grin vanished at once and was replaced by a blank expression, I said I was sorry for the brief commotion, and the grandmaster ordered me to gain back my seat. Again, I said I was sorry; that wouldn't do it for me. Jumping off my seat, I stood in the background of the lecture hall where the seats were the most elevated, did some quick warm-up stretches under the eyes of everyone, and decided it was time to pull it.

If, then and there, my fairy chose to totally ignore me and tell the apprentices who turned to her what the problem was with her weirdo lover and tell them they got the wrong person, that she didn't know me, I would have sagely understood, but the fairy simply turned bright red with embarrassment at the mention of the word "lover," and didn't manage any reply at all.

That didn't matter one bit, and the next moment, I was all set, placed myself like a professional athlete before he runs a long sprint, and then took off. Running as fast as I was, I jumped out of the opened windows, got into a decorative tree (still within the Academy's domain), and skillfully climbed it down like a skillful monkey.

My presence up there isn't mandatory, I thought, in any case. So it's all right, hm? Well, I'm already out anyway! Too late, now. You can't blame me. Nobody can. If somebody does, I'll just cut 'em down real quick, and a dead man can't blame anyone anymore.

"Learning the ropes," the Quest said. That was just what I needed after I wasted all this time at the Academy. At the time, I even thought I should have never bothered to enroll in the system… but hey, now, that might have been an exaggeration since, in the future, who knew, maybe I was coming back here when more interesting things started up, like a school tournament for instance. In any case, for the time being, I was out.

To do what? To be "learning the ropes."

I'd just exited the lecture hall, and now, a bigger hall opened itself to me. Many people were here, students of all ages, and far less numerous masters of their own fields. As usual, the main hall never got empty during the day. This hall was huge; it linked both the broad area of the Institution and one of the many quarters of the Guild Bureau, blending these two associates in what people called the Academy of Art Magic.

Only a few of the apprentices of the Institution ever turned to the Guild, however, so the area granted to the adventurers' guild wasn't so grand, here. The system was so that while being a student at the Institution, one could also partake in the Guild's activities. That could be for any reason, but most people, when accepting jobs as monster hunters, were mostly doing it for either practical combat training or to earn their own money. Only poorer students usually did that, and since the Academy was found within the aristocratic area of the city, where the richer people lived, very few people got familiar with the Guild's quarters on the site.

Incidentally, hardly five percent of the corpus of students ever opted to, as learned students, become either soldiers or independent monster hunters. I was quite shocked to learn that, but most activities and jobs weren't centered around fighting at all.

The Player, contrary to most people here, belonged more to the Guild than the Institution. Also, I'd had enough of mindlessly shoving useless information within my head endlessly, so I headed outside of the gigantic welcoming hall. Now, the outside world was here again, and I quickly bumped into "them."

I obviously waited for that part, and, at last, the System led me to the Party. The babe's party. They didn't see me, but I saw them. After I climbed down the lengthy stairs found before the entrance to the Academy, I hopped down on the cobblestones of the ground, situated a bit farther ahead down the stairs.

What was the team of commoner adventurers even doing here in the aristocratic area? Proceeding towards them, I counted only three adventurers. Last time, they were only four: the leader, the meek an' cool sluggish sack of fat, the angry guy I bumped into, and lastly, the babe who saved me. My steps took me to them, I poked the leader's back and briefly saluted them: "Yo, sir. Mind if I accompany you adventurers out in the outside world? …Sir?"

"...Oh? Hey, is that the little man?" he turned to me. "We bump into each other again!"

"We bump into each other again," I eagerly confirmed, waiting for my demand to be accepted.

"C-Could it be that one teenage boy who… gave us a hand last time? Oh yes, I do recognize the hair." A short lady, one who dressed like a gloomy sorceress, gave me an ample bow and thanked me for taking part in saving her life. Abruptly, I told her to stop. "A-As you wish…"

"Uh… the one and only, yup. What brings you here, little man?"

"I have come to you adventurers to ask you a favor, sir." If they wouldn't mind my presence I was going out adventuring with them at once. In order to learn, to gain experience, to be stimulated and gather information as I always did, and because joining them sounded like fun. "As per the quest," I finished.

"Out… as in, where, little man?"

"Out out. Out adventuring. Out with the adventurers… and the quest… Out, uh…"

The leader said he understood. "Okay, sure, but… I mean, why us?"

Thankfully, they were just about to gather up with the rest of the team and go out on a quest. To hunt goblins.