"Hey. Good morning."
"It's not morning anymore—it's practically noon, you idiot."
"Don't worry about it."
"That's exactly why you never rank up, no matter how long you wait."
"Give me a break. I didn't get back until the middle of the night yesterday. Cut me some slack."
"Oh right, was that the Himikwa subjugation?"
"Yeah, that's the one. The thing's not strong or anything, but it's fast as hell when it runs. I spent over half a day chasing it down before I finally took it out—didn't finish until well past midnight. I'm dead on my feet. Honestly, the fact that I even got up at this hour is impressive."
"Whatever you say."
"Oh hey, Luxo and the others aren't around today, are they?"
"Nope. Apparently there's a report of an ogre spotted in the forest. They went out on a subjugation quest for it."
"An ogre? That's rare around here."
"Right? Gilmas thinks it might be a straggler that wandered in from somewhere."
"Could be. There aren't exactly any places around here where ogres normally show up."
"No, there aren't. Well, where it came from isn't really our problem to figure out. It's a rare catch, so right about now there's probably an all-out ogre scramble going on in that forest."
"Ahh, so that's why the guild's so dead today."
"Bingo."
"How about you?"
"Hmm?"
"Why didn't you go?"
"Too much trouble."
"Hey—"
"I mean, where I used to be I fought ogres pretty regularly, so I figured I'd let the eager juniors have a shot this time."
"Sure, sure. Excuses, excuses."
"What? You wanna go now, then?"
"Of course not. Everyone and their mother's already out there—there's no way we'd make it in time."
"True. Wanna bet on which party takes it down?"
"Not a chance. For starters, I don't even know who's participating this time."
"Luxo's party, probably—Kohan's group, Agilis, Kuas, Regen, and..."
"There's still more of them?"
"Pretty much everyone at C-Rank and above joined up, didn't they?"
"That's overkill for a single ogre. Man. I almost feel sorry for the ogre."
"Ogres are only D-Rank, after all. If it had evolved, that'd be one thing, but from what I've heard it's just a regular ogre."
"What happens when an ogre evolves?"
"First stage gives you three variants: Fighter, Ranger, and Shaman. Same as goblins. Second stage is a High Ogre. Third stage is an Ogre General. Fourth stage is an Ogre King. Once you hit King-tier, the danger level's B. They usually lead packs too, so depending on the scale, they can reach S-Rank equivalent."
"Huh. Do they change much in appearance?"
"They do. Evolution comes with getting bigger. A regular ogre isn't that different from a human, so they're easy enough to tell apart."
"As expected of an A-Rank adventurer. So well-read."
"Flattery's not getting you anything. Besides, you're A-Rank too."
"Yeah, but I've never left this city, so... I've never actually seen an ogre."
"Curious about them?"
"A little. Around here, the only humanoid monsters worth mentioning are the goblins in the Demon Mountains."
"
"Goblins can't be measured by raw Status alone. And that location makes them even worse."
"Running into them while climbing the mountain... yeah, that's a nightmare."
"The gathering quests for medicinal herbs you can only find in the Demon Mountains—that's a nightmare everyone's experienced at least once."
"I actually ran away from one of those once."
"That was the right call. A mob of combat-oriented Monsters—you'd need more lives than you've got to take them on."
"Thankfully they only show up in limited areas of the Demon Mountains."
"True. Oh, by the way—you know about that village at the foot of the Demon Mountains, right?"
"Yeah. The Empire built it as part of some initiative to develop the Demon Mountains or whatever. Never actually been there myself."
"Apparently it got destroyed."
"Huh? Why?"
"Beats me. I only heard bits and pieces, but adventurers heading into the Demon Mountains apparently found the village in ruins."
"So they gave up on the whole Demon Mountains development thing and pulled out?"
"Not sure. Like I said, I only caught snippets. It was a convenient stop whenever you headed to the Demon Mountains though, so it's a pain that it's gone."
"Can't do much about something that's already destroyed. It wasn't goblins that did it, was it?"
"No way. The guy stationed there—
"Really?"
"Yeah. At the very least he's our equal at A-Rank. Could even be S-Rank class for all I know."
"Now that's impressive. Goes to show the Empire's military is on another level."
"Gilmas! Is Gilmas here!?"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Huh? Wait—isn't that Luxo?"
"It is. Hey! I thought you went to take down the ogre?"
"Mr.
"Hey, calm down."
"What's got you so worked up?"
"How the hell am I supposed to calm down?! That thing—it—!"
"That thing?"
"The ogre! The ogre—it killed everyone! Everyone!"
"Hey, what happened? What's going on?"
"The ogre killed them all!!"
"What?"
"Hold on. The ogre did?"
"Yes! That thing—it wasn't a normal ogre! Everyone, everyone was killed!"
"I'll go find Gilmas."
"Right. I'm counting on you."