Calico city, one of the many small cities dotting the west, known for its fertile lands and flourishing agriculture, with the Denatro Forest to its south and the White Woodland to its north it made for both a safe area and a good trading hub

On one of the unnamed roads of said city a cloaked figure entered a rundown building

“This one’s worse than the last one”

Muttered the figure before heading toward the receptionist

“I would like to see the quests available for low Bronze”

“Sure thing, hand me your card please”

The figure hesitated a bit before handing her the card

“Okay Zombie-ch…chan? Umm I will give you the low and low-mid Bronze list of missions”

The receptionist said as she handed him the card back, all while barely holding her laughter in

‘Great I’ll have to deal with this for the rest of my life’

Thought the cloaked Yu to himself, this scenario made him feel like the revenge took against the receptionist seem exceptionally small, sure they lost some business, but that comes and goes, he on the other hand would have to bear with it for the rest of his career as a mercenary

“Thanks” grunted Yu as he took the list, at least there were some missions to be done

But as soon as he eyed the missions his mood took another dip

“Why are there only three missions? I heard the White Woodlands beasts are plenty?”

“Yes they are indeed plenty but they don’t get near the Calico city, they only attack the towns on the road to Begaria, and sometimes they make a horde to besiege Begaria itself”

“They would attack a city like Begaria but would not get close to Calico? How is that even possible”

The receptionist shrugged helplessly, many before him had asked the same question but she could only shrug every time, hell even the baron of Calico didn’t know why the beasts didn’t attack them, but he sure as hell liked to brag about it

Turning back to the list Yu sighed at the content of the three tasks

“Find the source of the increasing Wushu Rats, track down the ancient vase thieves, kill the Spring Spalax’s that are invading the farm. All these tasks take a lot of time but pay low, I assume that’s why no one takes them?”

“Yes, locating the source of the Wushu Rats is hard since they tent to sneak around all the time, it would also take them days to get back to their nest, killing the Spring Spalax is hard since they remain far underground, as for finding the thieves it’s pretty impossible since the owner has no info whatsoever, and none one in this city has contracted a tracking beast”

The sudden mention of Contracted Souls caught Yu off guard, but he was soon delighted, it seems the chances of this being another world had dwindled a lot, which was a major relief to him

“Alright, thank you but I be doing any of these, may I ask though how many people are publicly known to own Contracted Souls around here?”

“Sure, only five people own Contracted Souls here, that would be the baron of this city, Mund Secor, his two sons, the head butler of their house, Harma, and a mercenary named Ulv. Ulv travels a lot though so he isn’t in the city right now”

“I see; their beasts should be at the Silver Rank I presume?”

“Hehehe, you’re a funny one aren’t you? Where would this small city gain a decent Soul Stone from? It’s already good the baron got himself four of them, finding a Soul Stone that can house a Silver Ranked beast would be impossible in these parts”

“I’ve heard this was a good trading hub so I thought they could have some Soul Stones for sale, it seems I had set my expectations too high, thank you for your time”

Yu then walked out with a small smile suffused on his lips. Discovering that there were Contracted Souls meant he wouldn’t be chased down for walking about with a creature, though he would be chased for other reasons

‘I gotta be care full who I summon Lyra in front lest someone gets greedy and comes after me to steal the “Soul Stone” “

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Yu knew his limits, while taking down an entire colony of similarly ranked beast would give anyone the right to brag Yu knew it was only because he was good at trickery, when he is faced with a direct confrontation against warriors he could only turtle behind the shield and pray for Lyra to take care of them

‘Now back to work, I need to find some decent income or else I will be bankrupt, I already spent too much in Denatro, though I’ve still got ways to go before I spend it all I shouldn’t dally till that day’

Thinking back to the mercenary list Yu shakes his head, it wasn’t worth wasting so much time for bread crumbs

‘Especially those Spring Spalax, what am I supposed to do? dig till I find the spring?’

He mockingly shook his head and continued, his next destination would be….

Suddenly Yu stopped, turned around, and went back into the rundown mercenary building, he went straight to the receptionist and told her

“On second thought I’ll take the Spring Spalax job, I’m short on money right now”

The receptionist gave Yu ridicules look, one that clearly stated ‘who are you trying to fool?’, as a mercenary receptionist she knew good equipment when she saw one, and the young man in front of her was covered from head to toe with expensive equipment, now he comes and says he is short on money? Brother if you want the job so bad just take it! No need to spout nonsense

Although she was puzzled why such a rich person would want to do such a bad mission she still complied and gave him the permitfor the mission, he just needed to give it to the farmland’s owner and he would be led to the mission target

“Here you go, be careful out there”

“Thanks”

Yu headed to straight toward the address of the client, he wanted to casually do it but when he thought about the profit he could gain out of this he got pretty excited

‘Spring Spalax only appear near bodies of water, the fact that they’re in the farm means there is some sort of large water source there, and since the nearest river is pretty far for it to be connected to the city then that means this must be an underground spring, coming this far into the human lands and proactively protecting the territory means there must be something that makes it worth the risk of fighting humans’

Sprig Spalax’s were generally quite timid, thus they usual stayed underground and only attacked those who intruded into their tunnel system, they were creatures who were blind mole-rats that used their front teeth to dig instead of their arms which had no power to them, they were also truly blind unlike other mole rodents who can see a semblance of light

While recalling the information on the beasts Yu had arrived at the farm situated to the west of the city

“Hurry up and garb the sickles, those moles are back at it again with their ugly teeth, if they so much as harm my crops I will cut your pay by half” An old man yelled at the farmers taking a rest, he didn’t seem to care for their tired appearance as he barked at them to fight beasts

‘Hmm? Farmers scaring beasts? Well the Spalaxes are weak so I guess they could shove them away if it’s not a life and death situation, they will get hurt though’

Indeed, there were some wounds on the farmers, but Yu didn’t concern himself with them, sure it might be unfair how their boss was treating them but he wasn’t a hero that tried to fix every unjust action he saw, if he truly did that he would enter a never ending loop of trouble

“Are you Henry Mcfield?” Yu asked the old man

“Hmm? Yah and who are you?”

“I’m from the Mercenary Union, here to kill those Spring Spalax”

“Oh? Finely someone took the job, you guy still took your sweet time, it’s been three years since I posted that job! Do you know how much trouble I-“

Before the old man went into a mad spittle lecture Yu raised his hand to stop him

“If you want the job done quickly lead me to the area of the beasts”

“What? Boy watch your tone with me, I’ll have you know I own three fields in Calico city, one word from me and I’ll have you thrown out!”

“Go ahead, wait another three years for someone to take them job” Yu shrugged at the seething old man, he didn’t like haughty people and had no reason to tolerate him, plus he had the advantage in this situation

Old Henry was now boiling from top to bottom, but when he thought how he could finely get rid of those rodents he calmed himself, it wouldn’t be too late to teach the brat a lesson after he finished the job, though he couldn’t actually get him thrown out he still had some idea’s in his mind

“Okay follow me”

The old man then led Yu to the outskirts of the fields, where bumps and holes could be seen all over a barren piece of land, it seems the Spalaxes had made this place their home in the past three years

“This is where those darned beasts live, they usually get out at night to grab my vegetables, damn thieves, I’d whack them back into their mother’s hole if I ever saw them myself”

“Didn’t you just call the farmers to deal with them? Its broad daylight how come they were out?”

“You’re asking me? I thought you mercenaries knew beasts like your own mothers, why don’t you go figure that out by yourself” The old man snorted and headed back toward his house

Yu ignored the old man’s rude comments and turned to the plants nearby, he inspected the bite marks and sure enough it belonged to newborns

“Hmm, I didn’t read much on this species but I know they can only reach silver in their entire life, and the beasts don’t have any combat power expect for their ability to shoot out week water jets from their mouth, of course if you let them bite you then you would get your arms ripped clean off but they are slow enough for even me to evade them”

He stepped on the earth and felt its roughness with his hands

“It’s very soft, must be the constant tilling and the moister coming from the water, which means it can’t be that far deep”

Taking a step back he crunched the numbers in his mind

‘All in all I suppose the spring is pretty close to the ground level, possibly ninety meters deep, the amount of Spalaxes should be around ten considering the amount of food they steal from the field, the new ones do not pose any threat, now what I need is a way to dig down while maintaining the ability to fight’

He thought about sending the snake down to hypnotize the rodents to sleep, but with how alert they are it wouldn’t work, plus they were blind, so it wouldn’t work anyway. Then he thought about laying nets on the surface of the well he builds so anyone that comes out of the wall would be stuck, but they could bury him instead of fighting directly

“Lyra won’t be of much help either hmmm”

Yu kept thinking hard, and an idea soon popped into his head