"The man who leads the meat lover's party! He who led the people through the unexplored regions, the man who took down a dragon alone, the man who needless to say, has all of our support! DENZELL!!"
The crowd roared, as the muscular man emerged from one side of a makeshift arena, built with flimsy wooden sticks poked in the ground in a circular fashion. A classic.
"And on this side... we have uh... Kitzuma... I actually feel sorry for this guy, why has he been dragged into this again?" the referee wondered.
"YOU GUYS......" screamed a certain ill-fated adventurer.
Dominic pushed Kitzuma into the ring.
"GO KITZUMA, I BET MY MONEY ON THE OTHER GUY BUT MY HEART IS ROOTING FOR YOU" Perlin shouted.
"THAT'S ONE WORTHLESS HEART YOU HAVE" Kitzuma cried internally.
Kitzuma stared at the man who overshadowed his entire figure before him. He started to recall, back to this morning where it all started.
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The sunlight trickled through a small crack in the broken walls. The Kitzuma residence has upgraded itself from a tent in the park to a small rundown inn owned by a 78-year-old woman whose husband had recently died. Needless to say, the food was overcooked without the slightest trace of effort, with dirty dishes remaining from the previous night.
Flies buzzed around the inn like no one's business.
"Morning" Kitzuma realized that he was talking to himself. Dominic went off to stay at some other inn, while the other two didn't have enough money to even afford this. The image of a certain fire mage and a certain arch-priest that were scammed of their money brought a smile to his face.
Needless to say, his current predicament was brought upon by paying off their debts.
"Hiz" Kitzuma sighed.
He slowly walked down the stairs, only to see his breakfast ravaged by flies. Ignoring the dazed women looking out the window, Kitzuma walked out of the inn. Another day in the life of a sad adventurer.
"Grrrr," his stomach warned.
Standing up straight, Kitzuma headed towards the adventurer's guild. The breakfast was cheap, and it was where they would meet up after all.
Opening the door, the man who has accepted and basked in the sins of the world immediately placed his hand on his forehead. Before him, lay the best, the strongest adventurer's group in the town, and they were in a heated debate with... his teammates. Correction, ex-teammates.
Remaining calm, Kitzuma ignored the gaze of Perlin and Rachel. He simply walked toward the nearest table and began to order his food.
However, his sharp ears couldn't leave him alone. A weakness of someone as strong as him, or more accurately, they had slowly brought the debate over to his table, by walking towards his location.
"Here's your order" the waiter quickly placed his coffee and toast on the table.
The door swung open once again, and Dominic entered the fray. Atop his head, rested Bob, the slime that had saved their lives.
"THIS IS NOT GOOD" Kitzuma panicked.
"ah, good morning" Dominic nodded towards the two who were arguing and stepped through them to his table. As though it was natural, he sat down and began to order his breakfast.
"Hey, you!" a commanding voice shot towards Dominic and Kitzuma. The voice was brought by the muscular team leader named Denzell.
"And also, another two sets of Special Breakfast set B" Dominic ignored him like he was air.
Kitzuma was shaking, but he followed the lead.
Taking a sip of the coffee, he began to make small talk with Dominic.
"Are you seriously ignoring me!?" Denzell's fist flew past their faces.
"Anyways, we are saying that even the leader of a small division in the army can easily wreck your stupid muscle headed leader" Rachel declared with no fear nor hesitation.
The other members of the Meat Lover's Party with stories of their own to tell simply scoffed at that statement.
"Don't get cocky just because you survived a rescue mission kid" the busty red haired female mage from the party threatened.
"Awww why are you threatening kids?" Rachel shot back.
"Can I know what led to this?" Kitzuma pleaded.
"Well... I guess its partially our fault" Denzell shrugged.
"It was this morning, where we were still a little tipsy from the previous night. So, Caitlin, there was blabbering about how silly it was for people to run from their countries instead of standing their ground and fighting like a man. And that was when your teammates there caught wind of it and then..." he pointed towards the arguing bunch.
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"You can say how strong the demons are on your own, but I heard that you passed out when their puny little division head arrived" Caitlin taunted.
"ugh, but we still made it back, as I think...someone in our party was strong enough to withstand it" Rachel stood back.
"Oho, why not you have the guy who withstood it fight our leader here" Caitlin taunted.
"Fine! Go! Kitzuma!" Dominic cut in.
"wait what?" Kitzuma stared at him in shock.
"Excuse me-"
"Now now, there's no fear, its time to show them what you're made of!" Dominic cut in.
"Go Kitzuma, prove that we are right!" Rachel added on.
"By the way, was it really Kitzuma?" Rachel whispered.
"Why do you think he pissed his pants?" Dominic replied.
And then, back to the present.
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"Alright, here I come" Denzell announced. His greatsword was swung with ease. The pressure alone made the spectators back away from the area.
"There's no way I'm going down without a fight" Kitzuma attempted to hype himself up.
"Freeze!" he froze the ground, attempting to make Denzell slip.
However, the ungodly strength held by Denzell simply broke the ice as his charge wasn't stopped. And then, without a single moment to spare, the adventurer known as Kitzuma was seen flying in the air.
"WHY ARE YOU SO WEAK!" Rachel cried out.
"Sometimes I wonder that as well" a teary-eyed Kitzuma pathetically dropped onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Next is, you!" Denzell pointed towards Dominic who was laughing in the crowd.
"Ehhhhhhh??" the whole audience resonated including Dominic resonated at once.
Of course, the Meat Lover's Party didn't seem surprised. After all, it was their objective in the first place.
"KITZUMA YOU'RE USELESS!! I ONLY EARNED ONE CREDIT!" Perlin screamed as she healed Kitzuma while beating him with her new staff.
Denzell was a man born with a certain pair of eyes. In fact, his entire village had these pair of eyes. They were ones that glowed purple in the night while retaining its golden vigor in the day. Also, they allowed the user to discern the combat ability of the people around him. They were really a good pair of eyes, so much so that they were the best at making decisions in whether to run away or to stay and fight. They register what they see as "battle power", a collection of data revolving around their items, stats, and experience. For example, an experienced fighter with a lower stat may have a higher battle power than his opponent.
What Denzell can see in front of him was a guy who was blown away had the second highest battle power in their group. It was a mystery why he felt so weak, in the most likely scenario, he was holding back, be it involuntarily or on purpose. [Battle Power: 1012] (Kitzuma)
He took a look to the left, to see the boastful mage [Battle Power: 5012>425] (Rachel). This meant that she probably had a skill that allowed her battle power to explode exponentially before decreasing.
And the priest with a surprisingly high battle power as well. [Battle Power: 1004] (Perlin). It was a mystery why they aren't even D ranked adventurers yet.
And finally, the cream of the crop.
[Battle Power: Unknown] (Dominic)
He heard that they were friends from before and that Dominic just joined the adventuring business. The only other time he saw this was when he made the rash decision to fight the dragon. Furthermore, if it was simply a blocking ability, it wouldn't even be displayed.
"His strong, so strong that I can't even begin to discern his strength" Denzell stared at the harmless looking guy.
"Nah, I don't want to waste bullets" Dominic replied.
It sounded like a pretty reasonable explanation.
"We'll pay for it" Denzell replied.
"Its limited edition only from the academic city" Dominic answered.
"Anyways, you can't force a duel you know" Dominic stated, before turning tails and leaving.
"What's a strong adventurer doing picking on the weak anyways?" he added on.
Dominic walked forward and rejoined with Kitzuma and the others.
Without any sudden notice, Denzell appeared behind Dominic and attempted to strike him down. Why? It was a simple fact that humans can never contain their own curiosity. The sword missed, as Dominic dodged down, to poke at Kitzuma. At the same time, he took out his gun and pointed it at Denzell's chest.
"And that ends the duel right?" he asked.
"As expected of the master strategist, he was walking into your trap all along!" Perlin's eyes sparkled with amazement.
"hahaha" Dominic gave a light laugh.
"It is my defeat" Denzell announced, as he headed back to his adventuring party.
"Bob here gave me a little help" Dominic patted Bob who did nothing on the top of his head.
"You know what would be better since we are strong enough to catch their attention?!" Perlin began her wind-up.
"A quest!"
"A quest!"
Rachel resounded with her.
"That actually sounds good for once" Kitzuma sighed as he thought about the future that laid ahead. His treasury was being depleted day by day after all.
"How does fighting off the migrating pack of walking-grass sound?" the adventurer guild's reception who was watching the fight came up and passed them a piece of paper.
"Ohhh!" Rachel's eyes lit up.
"Fine. Let's go" Kitzuma sighed once more.
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Thyrum found himself dreaming.
It was that strange sort of dream. One where he was sure that he was still asleep.
He looked at the figure of a young woman with flowing blonde hair. She was in the kitchen, making a sandwich as the apron strapped around her waist only served to further enhanced her figure. He found himself slouched against the sofa, as the TV watches him watch his wife.
A memory of when they finally got married.
"Hey" he called out to her, with a nice gentle smile.
The women turned around, and the scene immediately distorted, her face was that of a skeleton, burned, battered and broken.
"Wake up" she uttered, as she got closer and closer.
Thyrum woke up with a jolt. His eyes wide open in shock and horror.
"Hey, wake up!" a Valkyrie was standing next to him.
"Oh, it's you, what's up?" Thyrum calmed himself down. He knew that it was too good to be true. A nice dream that is, one that he never experienced for many years.
"Don't you what's up me! The demonic army is pushing in again! The citizens have already evacuated, so let's leave this village already!" she pushed him.
"Oh right" Thyrum lazily stood up.
He scanned the scenery before him. Piles and piles of corpses laid up, all scattered by the forest, which was burned down till its roots.
"No wonder I can't get a good night's sleep" he muttered under his breath.
"Come on! Let's get going" the valkyrie dragged him along, as Thyrum finally managed to walk on his own two feet.
"Alright, so where are we supposed to go?" Thyrum wondered.
"Why are you still following me?" he looked at the Valkyrie.
"Cause you're a good training partner!" she used the excuse consistently.
"mmm," Thyrum wondered about that.
"Its almost that time of the year huh? How about we head home?" Thyrum looked towards the Valkyrie.
"Understood," she replied.
From her inventory, she took out a spray can, and began to spray on the floor.
"The old man and his weird inventions as always huh?" Thyrum looked as the magic circle began to glow on the floor. A fateful meeting awaited just beyond that glowing light.