The strongest sage of disqualified crest

Chapter 192 Strongest Sage, Ordered

"...Was Folkia a mining town?"

"I don't think I've heard anything like that..."

The quest is about ore mining.
The name of the ore in question isn't mentioned, but apparently it's used to make a [Sturdy Building Material].

The reward is on the higher side for a quest that doesn't involve fighting monsters... but it's frankly pretty low for an adventurer's quest.
Since there's no other quest present, adventurers must have no choice but to take up this quest.

"Are you here to accept quests?"

A man came out of the guild's interior and approached us while we were looking at the quest form.
From his attires, apparently he's a receptionist, but...

『Um, this is...』

『Yep, a demon.』

The guild receptionist is a demon.
And the demon cast a spell chantlessly on us as he walked here.

『Thought Dampen』--In short, a spell to dull the target's judgment.
This spell seems to have been adjusted to work with general populace in this era, so it's not working on us... but in exchange, it's hard to detect.
Ordinary adventurers probably wouldn't have any clue when this demon cast the spell.

The reason why fake bandits are sent to raid on high-ranking adventurers is probably related to this magic.
As there might be high-ranking adventurers capable of noticing the spell being cast on them.

Adventurers who noticed it would flee, and spread the story about weird things happening at Folkia Guild.

『Did he just cast a spell?』

『Yea. A spell that's not working on us... no doubt about it now. This mining quest is connected to demons.』

I look at the demon while talking through comm magic.
We'd better... pretend that we've been affected by his spell here.
We'll infiltrate their inside in in the meantime and show everyone these sub-demons at the site.

"That's right. We're here to take a quest."

"Then I recommend this quest. You can complete it without fighting monsters, the reward is pretty bountiful too."

The receptionist (demon) gave us the mining quest form.

"I got it. We'll take it."

I immediately signed the form and handed it back.

"I also need your guild cards to process the form. Do you have them with you?"

"Yea."

I fetched four... fake guild cards from my bosom pocket and handed them over to the demon.
Since the demons seemed to be cautious of high-ranking adventurers, I've camouflaged our cards to be of Rank E in the way here.

There's not many high-ranking adventurers in the world, disguising as one wouldn't last long once they looks at the guild register and such... but not even the guild note down every Rank E adventurer's names.

"Thank you."

As expected, the demon took the cards, and handed them back after nodding in satisfaction.

『Is it really okay for us to take this quest... oh, is this like an undercover investigation?』

『Exactly. Declining here would make him wary of us cause his spell didn't show any effect.』

While we were having a briefing, the demon completed the quest form processing and came back here.

"This quest has two stages of operation. Mining and refining. You're free to participate in either of them... which one?"

"The refining please."

"Okay. The refinery's location is marked on this map."

The demon handed me a map.
It shows locations of the refinery, first-aid station and other facilities.

Looking at the number of facilities, this mining operation looks to be quite a large scale project.

"Err... This way."

The refinery is right in the center of the town, very easy to spot.
It's a very sturdy building that's been reinforced with magic.

And there's a demon standing in front of it.
...This place is really full of demons.

"We're here for the ore refinery quest."

I gave the demon the quest form while saying that.

"Got it. I'll have you guys work immediately."

While saying that--the demon cast another [Thought Dampen] spell on us.
Most likely, these demons cast [Thought Dampen] on the adventurers every step of the way to make them work like robots for demons.

But demons are still demons despite being a subspecies.
They should be able to yield way more ore by doing it themselves rather than gathering a bunch of humans to do it for them, why would they out of their way to--.

I got the answer of that question when the demon opened the refinery door.
The ore gathered here looks familiar.

『...Rankine Ore huh.』