The moment Halls walked in, he spotted Steve registering his commission. He leaned over to peek at the counter, rubbing his chest as he muttered,
"So you're an adventurer here, huh? How come I've never seen you before?
"Wait—Steve, is that your name or your golem's name?"
The Adventurer's Token had a built-in verification system that could display personal data. After a few quick inputs from Lilith, Steve's photo appeared on the form—
a two-inch, front-facing, full-color portrait.
Which… definitely wasn't standard. Golems weren't supposed to have adventurer registrations.
But the seal was authentic, and Lilith wasn't about to dig through mountains of old records to figure out who screwed up. After a moment's hesitation, she decided to let it slide.
If anyone messed up, it was her predecessor anyway—not her problem.
"Your registration's complete. Please carry out the commission promptly and return with the issuer's proof to claim your reward," Lilith said politely, handing the token back.
Steve didn't take it. He just stood there, butt slightly out, waving his right hand repeatedly at… nothing.
The strange movement made Lilith uneasy. Carefully, she set the token down on the counter and pushed it toward him.
This time, Steve picked it up.
"You don't like taking things from people, huh?" Halls muttered. Then, curious, he placed an Iron Ingot on the counter as well.
Steve immediately took that too.
"Hey!" Halls blinked. "Didn't you already give that to me? How come you're taking it back now?"
He waved his arms to get Steve's attention, but the man had already hopped his way out of the guild hall.
"Unbelievable!"
Halls ran after him, leaving Lilith behind with her mouth half-open. By the time she thought to speak, both men were gone.
All she could do was sigh and glance toward Elina and the others chatting nearby.
"I was right," Elina said, holding the Bunny Girl Outfit in her arms. "Every time that strange force appears, it means he's giving us something."
"You saw it too, right? He gave her those emeralds—and this outfit."
Jack nodded. Lilith, overhearing, rubbed one of the smooth emeralds between her fingers, an odd thought flickering through her mind.
Was that… meant for me?
Following the dotted line on the ground, Steve soon found the pack of Spotted Serpents.
Unlike the blocky mobs he remembered, these snakes were sleek, long, and huge. Fortunately, they didn't have any ranged attacks. With a shield in hand, Steve dispatched them easily.
Halls, tagging along behind him, caught sight of something hovering midair—snake fangs and scales spinning slowly in place.
But when he tried to touch them, his hand passed right through. Only when Steve approached did the materials float toward him and disappear into his body.
Another unfamiliar phenomenon. Halls's curiosity burned even brighter.
As Steve turned to leave, Halls called out, "You don't want those materials?"
Steve ignored him completely. So Halls sighed and gathered them up himself, feeling more and more like Steve's personal assistant.
Luckily, he'd done his share of adventuring in the past, so the cleanup didn't take long.
When they returned to the village, however, a group of villagers stood there clutching farm tools, panic written all over their faces.
Halls quickly realized the problem—they weren't used to seeing supernatural power, let alone a sentient magical construct. He hurried forward to calm them down, explaining the situation in detail until the tension eased. Then, after some discussion, he managed to obtain a stamped proof from the village chief.
"Here, I got the proof for you," Halls said, holding up both the certificate and the bag of monster parts. "These materials are my payment, alright?"
After a moment's thought, he set the proof down on the ground. Sure enough, Steve made it vanish into thin air.
Halls's mouth twitched. "You really do hate taking things directly, huh."
Back at the Adventurer's Guild, Steve submitted the commission. A small treasure chest materialized in his hands.
[Bronze Commission Reward Chest]
When he crouched down and opened it, he found:
10 Iron Ingots, 15 Copper Ingots, a pile of wood, and a saddle.
Not bad, not great. Probably because it was a low-rank quest. Maybe higher-tier commissions would yield Diamonds.
After checking the crafting recipes, he traded the useless snake fangs and scales to Lilith in exchange for four Emeralds, then turned to head home.
Lilith's Commission trades were now marked with an X—he'd hit the trading limit. It would take some time for her stock to refresh.
That was a first for him in this world.
Lilith, meanwhile, was still bewildered. Even after Elina's explanation of Steve's "binding" ability, she couldn't help but wonder—were these materials also meant as gifts?
Something about the whole situation just felt... strange.
When Steve returned to the village, he decided it was time to breed some baby Villagers.
Every Villager he'd met so far already had a profession. That was just how this world worked—but he didn't like it.
Without their workstations, he couldn't reset their professions. And later, he'd need a proper Villager Trading Hall, filled with librarians. That would be impossible with preassigned professions.
Baby Villagers, though—that was different. If he managed things right, he could control their jobs just like in the original game.
So he got to work.
He built a staircase of stone slabs leading up to a raised platform outside the village gate, then set down some beds he'd taken from the houses.
He'd thought about crafting new ones using wool or string, but there weren't any sheep nearby, and the tailor charged way too many Emeralds for thread.
So he just took the existing beds.
Next, he used trapdoors and water buckets to make a small filtration chamber for baby Villagers. Then, using a boat, he ferried two random Villagers up the stairs, sealed the area off, and broke the boat.
To prevent any unwanted accidents, he built a roof over the structure and placed torches all around.
Then he headed to the farmland he'd reworked overnight—rows of wheat sprouting from seeds dropped by grass.
Even though this world ran on a stretched twenty-four-hour day, the wheat still grew at the same fast rate he remembered.
After harvesting, he crafted bread in batches of three and tossed the whole pile to the two Villagers.
In the original world, that would've been enough. Whether it worked here or not… he'd just have to wait and see.
Rose and Jack exchanged uneasy looks as Steve left.
"What's that man trying to do?" Rose asked, frowning.
"How would I know?" Jack sighed. He was just an eighteen-year-old kid dreaming of moving to a big city—he had no clue what went on in Steve's mind.
Rose gave him a disapproving look. "Didn't you go to town? You didn't ask around about him?"
"They didn't know either," Jack said helplessly. "But it's true—he is some kind of magical construct."
As they spoke, Steve suddenly came back, tossing something toward them.
The objects floated in midair, spinning slowly. Their golden-brown color and shape made it clear—they were loaves of bread.
"What's this?"
Jack reached out to grab one.
Big mistake.
The instant his fingers touched it, the bread exploded outward, bursting into dozens of pieces that splattered all over his face.
He yelped and fell backward, landing flat on the ground as more bread rained down, nearly burying him under a pile of foot-long loaves.