An Old Veteran Charges into the Labyrinth: The Legendary S-Rank Ogre 作：naow
This is Chapter 1 of my original web novel. Please note that I am a Japanese author, and because I cannot read or write English at all, I have used an AI translation tool to prepare these first three chapters for you.
My ultimate goal is to find a passionate writer or creator in the English-speaking community who falls in love with this world and characters! I am officially looking for someone to "adopt" this project and write the continuation from Chapter 4 onward.
If you are inspired by this setting and want to take over the story to write what happens next, please feel free to do so! You have my full permission to take this concept, run with it, and make it your own.
A city on the frontier.
Deep within the Margrave’s domain, enclosed by sheer peaks and trackless woods, lies the absolute edge of the wilds—right in the literal heart of the great forest.
Connected to the world by an overland route so robust it borders on unnecessary, this place is the furthest brink, yet, in a sense, the very core of the territory.
Small but bursting with raw vitality, fully equipped with every essential amenity, it is both a graveyard and a utopia for adventurers.
Adashino, the Dungeon Blockade City.
Whether it truly deserves the title of "city" is a matter of debate, so remarkably small is its scale. Who gave it its name remains lost to history. Some say a swordsman from the East muttered it while standing before a mountain of adventurers' corpses. Others claim it was voiced by a sage from a foreign land. Rumors abound.
But whichever is true, it no longer matters.
To an adventurer, this place is a deadly hunting ground and, at the same exact time, a cavern of ambitious dreams. Everything else is mere decoration. Betting nothing but their own lives on the gambling table, they push through the jaws of death, relying solely on their own flesh and bone. Or, locking hands with comrades, they use their bonds as a weapon to carve out a path.
Such reckless, death-defying passion steams and simmers within this tiny, tiny city.
This is a sight common to the so-called "Dungeon Cities" scattered across the globe.
The Adventurers' Guild—rumored to span the entire world, leaving almost no corner untouched—is at its absolute most frantic here. Our curtain rises from this very stronghold of dungeon exploration.
***
The man looked to be of advanced age.
Stroking his completely bald head, he looked up at the sturdy structure, seemingly lost in thought.
He had stepped clear of the entrance so as not to block the flow of traffic, but there was no mistaking it—he had business with this establishment. A neatly groomed white beard, grown in place of his missing hair, shrouded his mouth, making it difficult to read his thoughts from a distance.
"Um... excuse me, grandfather? This is the Adventurers' Guild, and it's full of rough crowds inside... It might be dangerous if you linger around here too long."
Lana, a guild receptionist who happened to be out for a late lunch break, couldn't bring herself to leave the old man alone and called out to his back.
She assumed he was a villager bringing a request from some farming commune, or perhaps an immigrant seeking work who had mistaken this place for the Lord's manor. With that guess in mind, she spoke gently. But when the old man turned around, meeting his calm gaze, she froze for a fraction of a second, her heart skipping a beat.
The old man looked perfectly affable and was certainly smiling.
And yet, the moment she looked into his eyes, a primordial dread ran down her spine.
"Oh, my apologies, young lady. No, you see, I heard that exploration of this dungeon has only just begun. I was simply marveling at what a magnificent building you have here," the old man replied.
His tone was gentle, carrying a distinct accent. Lana recognized it—it was the dialect of the northern regions, where many dwarves resided.
The contrast between the spine-chilling terror she had felt a moment ago and his cheerful, pleasant demeanor made her mind wander to trivial thoughts.
"Y-Yes, this is the Adashino Branch of the Adventurers' Guild. It's the base of operations for adventurers who gather here to conquer and liberate the Adashino Dungeon. Do you have business here today, grandfather?"
Still, she was a professional guild receptionist. Regaining her composure quickly, she explained what the building was with a polite smile.
Adventurers were those who took on requests ranging from cleaning the streets to hunting dangerous beasts and monsters, or challenging dungeons. Of course, their temperaments varied, but to the public, they were seen as nothing more than a "mob of lawless thugs."
She didn't think this elderly man was an adventurer, but surely he had some reason for being here—either to post a request or because he was simply lost. In any case, standing around out here made him an easy target for low-to-mid-rank fools who lacked composure and mistook thuggery for strength.
"Ho ho ho. Well, I am an adventurer myself, you see. I thought I'd challenge the dungeon and perhaps knock out a few suitable requests while I am at it."
Lana had been planning to guide him to safety, so the old man's words caught her completely off guard.
His bald head caught the light, and his back... no, his posture was remarkably straight, even imposing. The loose-fitting clothing he wore was unfamiliar, though she recalled it being a style from the north. It wasn't brand new, but it was clean, without stains or loose threads. A neat appearance. Indeed, looking closely, he was clearly no ordinary villager.
But even so... he was unmistakably an old man.
"An... adventurer? Forgive me, but... you mean a *former* adventurer, right?"
Lana stared blankly. Though she knew it was rude, she couldn't stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth.
"Ho ho ho, I may look like this, but I am still active. Look, here is my guild card. What do you think?"
Not offended by Lana's reaction in the slightest, the old man pulled a palm-sized metal card from his chest pocket. It was then that Lana recognized his clothing as a "kimono," a garment common in the Six Northern Kingdoms.
It was a trivial detail, certainly nothing to focus on right now. Her mind had only latched onto it because she could not mentally accept the reality of the card's color.
A small plate made of an iron-based alloy, infused with a small amount of mythril and an even scarcer amount of orichalcum.
Mythril, which carried immense danger just to mine, and orichalcum, a legendary metal of microscopic yield. A card utilizing both was the ultimate proof.
Those who held it were S-Rank. Mighty individuals whose numbers could be counted on one's fingers across the entire continent.
"A... A... You are... *that*..."
Lana, who had handled and even scolded countless rowdy adventurers dreaming of dungeon conquest in this city, found her voice trembling with a mixture of awe and absolute terror.
Seeing the receptionist's state, the old man let out a small sigh.
*Good grief, even here?*
He stroked his bald head and looked up at the sky. It was fine while he was diving in the dungeons, but once he came back to the surface, this kind of interaction was never-ending.
"The Demon...! Mugai Yatsushiro...!"
Facing Lana, whose expression was now pale with shock and fear, the old man—Mugai—helplessly knitted his white brows into a troubled frown. With his idle right hand, he scratched his cheek in sheer awkwardness.