Upon the darkness of night, a predator was silently stalking its prey. Paws padded carefully over the terrain of the killing field to avoid any noise that might ruin the glorious hunt.

Body crouched and claws ready to spring, the feline inches ever closer to its quarry. The taste of victory and blood was already on its tongue.

The elusive prey will elude it no more. It has captured and sunk its fangs into the entities of the sky, the scaled ones that crawled the earth and even a few of the things that lurked under the water. Tonight, so too shall it slay the great black furred serpent before the slippery thing can hide in the embrace of the mighty Provider.

Stepping ever closer to the still undulating mass that was its target, the hunter primed itself for the pounce. Its muscles pulled tense, tendons strained under the built up power and, ever carefully, the floodgates were opened.

The predator launched itself straight ahead, claws extended and ready to shred whatever resistance that might meet them. In less than a fraction of a second, the first claws found purchase in the thick fur. The mouth followed nigh immediately after and clamped down on the jugular area of the serpentine creature.

The killing bite elicited an instantaneous response. the furry serpent reared up in an attempt to knock its attacker off and retreat. The first couple of attempts might have succeeded, but this time the hunter has learned. Its before useless back legs came into play.

The old instincts to always use front claws to grasp and back claws to maim by kicking were overruled. The two back legs wrapped around each other hold the hunter in place to apply more force to the killing blow.

Fangs so close to drawing blood and shearing windpipes were suddenly rocked free. In an hitherto unseen feat of strength the furred snake flicked the entire predator into the mighty Provider.

A moment of clarity came. The cunning prey has left its predator in the clutches of an even greater beast. As the arms of the Provider reached out to grasp the flailing feline.

In a soft rumble, characteristic of the awakening Provider, the predator heard an incomprehensible mumble as the enormous being hovered its head over the prone animal.

“What are you doing with my tail, Lucky?”

Taryn blearily looked down at the grey cat that was gnawing at his tail, it’s while paws still adamantly trying to dispatch the appendage. Smiling at the cute little thing trying its damnedest to take down his tail, he put a hand behind its ears and began to scratch.

Claws and fangs quickly eased out of his tail as the cat began to rub into his hand. Some more effort in his petting eventually yielded some purring and Taryn laid down on his bed again with the cat on his chest.

Continuing run his fingers through the soft and short fur, he thought back on how the little critter even came to be with him.

He was out doing one of his solo hunting quests without Monica’s aid or Agatha’s supervision, something that was only given a clear after he gave a substantial amount of reasons and passed Agatha’s personal test. One of her smaller animals was required to be with him though, so it might not be an actual solo mission in hindsight.

Reflection aside, the quest was not all that interesting, though Taryn did take great pleasure in eviscerating the monsters, and the only notable part was that he noticed some small animal circling his person when he stopped for a lunch break.

This pattern had continued for roughly four days with the, identified on the second day, cat becoming bolder and bolder every passing day until Taryn decided to just be nice and just give it some meat.

He was prepared for the cat to enjoy its meal, beg for more and then leave once it’s full as all animals do.

He was, however, not prepared for the cat to track down his scent and badger him for food whenever it saw him. Eventually though, the cute act was too much to handle and he took the cat in as his pet so he could at least justify feeding the thing.

So now here he was, petting the critter at the wee hours of a new day. Smiling some more at the absurd process of pet acquisition, Taryn turned his thoughts back on how he could get the little girl to put those claws to other uses than just to assassinate his tail. She would be such a useful aid for him if he succeeded.

Closing his eyes, the dog saw himself working with a cat, tearing apart every monster that came within sight and leaving behind a trail of bodies, and slept soundly.

The morning greeted Taryn the way it did for the last 3 years in the “Big inn”, with a very accurate ray of sunlight aimed through impossible distances to hit him directly in the right eye. Waking up fully and finishing his morning routine, Taryn was reminded of his a new part of his morning when Lucky began to meow.

A hand was quickly put to work on calming the famished feline as Taryn put on his usual get up. The first piece of equipment to go on was the upper body armor made up of a main cover with added padding over his pectorals and abdominals. Once the bulk of Armor was fastened, Taryn began to attach the shoulder guards, more strips of  overlaying leather. Moving to his lower body, Taryn strapped on the cuisses and greaves over his pants. To finish his ensemble, Taryn attached the familiar round shield and scimitar set on his back.

Giving himself a once over in the mirror, Taryn spent a vain moment enjoying his own visage. The time out in the field and training has left Taryn with a rather muscular physique and a nice tan. With the armor on and the rather shaggy mane of black hair, he finally resembled some of the warriors he read about.

Done with self admiration, Taryn called out to Monica. 

“I’ll be down there for Lucky’s breakfast. I’ll be waiting for you to join. So get up now. Ok?”

The girl cracked open an eye and replied slowly.

“Um. Sure, I’ll be…”

The sleepy reply was not even finished before Monica fell back into blissful sleep. Sigh passing out of his mouth, Taryn walked over to Lucky and picked her up.

Smirking at the exposed victim below him, the harbinger let go of his cat-tastrophe. Paws touching the blankets, Lucky jumped up and screeched. In response, Monica jumped up and screeched an undignified ”Kyaaaa”.

The now up and very awake Monica directed a hateful glare at Taryn. Or at least she tried to. The perpetrator was already out and down the stairs, Lucky hot on his heels for some food.

Once he has gotten a piece of fish for Lucky and two plates from his and Monica’s own breakfast, Taryn began the process of heading towards their usual table.

Putting his plate onto the side table, Taryn looked between the two ghostly critters that Agatha has made to oversee them, a small squirrel and a little sparrow, and put his hand down for the squirrel to climb on like usual.

Safety routine done, Taryn settled down in his seat and waited for Monica.

The wait proved to be rather tedious and Taryn began to idly pet Lucky as she ate under the table. After Lucky has finished her breakfast and Taryn’s stomach was beginning to rumble, Monica’s slender form finally graced the dining hall.

Monica's attire was always something that caught other's eyes. Just like her mother, Monica wore a set of cloth armor reminiscent of a toga around her left shoulder. But instead of the faded look that Agatha's traditional elven garb had, Monica's looked much more prestine.

The disparity only continued, while Agatha protected her right arm with a simple wrapping of cloth, Monica opted for some thing a bit more heavy duty.

Instead of light protection for added arrow reload, Monica chose to place interlocking metal plates over her shoulder and upper arm for maximum protection, a choice made only possible by her ability to forget about pulling out new arrows. 

Even with the added weight, Monica's trip towards the table was full of grace. Every step  flowing into each other as she neared her destination. 

As her long flowing locks of sky blue fluttered on the march towards the table, Monica allowed herself a small smile at the sight of Taryn grimacing from hunger. Her smile could be considered a cute one with her rather beautiful and innocent features 

But as Monica spotted Taryn, the latter also saw her and frowned at the implicit curve of her mouth, no matter how good it looked.

“Soo, hope you didn’t wait too long.”

The mirth in her tone only solidified his conclusion. Monica could have came earlier, but withheld only to spite him and his stomach. Accepting the well played retaliation, Taryn waited for Monica to sit down before he started eating.

A few spoonfuls into the meal, Taryn questioned, “Are you going with me today or do you have another party’s request for an archer?” while hoping he would get another job request with her.

“Hmm. I actually got a permanent thing going on today.”

Taryn was about to visibly deflate before he picked up a small titbit.

“Really. Permanent thing. And you didn’t tell me.”

Monica had the decency to look sheepish before replying.

“Ehehe. I kinda forgot.”

Palm met face in a rather spectacular and decided to bond for a while before Taryn sighed and continued.

“Alright. Why did you decide to go for something permanent then. I thought you took up party member jobs just to be around new people and learn new things. This is the same as sticking with me.”

“Well~. It would have. But this guy was a noble.”

“Anddd?”

“They have soo many stuff. Probably did a lot of things too. Plus I am tired of moving from party to party too. You can actually join this time too. I knew you didn’t like the other parties because they got in your way. But this one is pretty good.”

“Really~? What can they do anyways?”

“Well. The noble is from house Lionheart, so he has something with golden glowing lion in it. He also uses a sword and shield, you’re gonna like him.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Sounds flashy. What about the other guy?”

“He is a magic caster. Got a [blessing] that turns all of his mana into holy mana. So lots of healing and shielding. Pretty good party right?”

“Yeah. I have to say it again though. Sounds ‘really’ flashy. But I’ll think about it. Still on that daily slime harvest thing. So I’ll give you an answer around dinner and, if I say yes, join your thing at the end of this week. Cool?”

“Cool. And don’t take those extended harvest thing. I still do a few tougher quests with you. Remember. You don’t leave a girl waiting.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Get to eating already. You always have to run early meetings in this type of thing. And that whole make me wait thing is just worse for you.”

“Righttt~. Mine eating the veggies for me then. Helps make things quicker.”

“Sure.”

Agreement reach, the two entered a comfortable silence as both finished their meals.

With the assistance with vegetables, Monica was already out of the dining hall after a quick goodbye.

A few minutes later marked Taryn’s own departure. Cat in tow, the teen wolf marched on through the gates of Central Aurora towards a common slime hunting ground for adventurers, made privy thanks to Agatha’s own experience and contact.

As the walk continued on, Taryn began to find another use for Lucky. She was proving to be a very good practice of situational awareness.

Trying to keep track of the wandering cat while moving in the right direction was a very interesting experience for Taryn. Eventually the interesting bit was over and Taryn has reached the slime cave.

Or so he wished, slime caves were a rare commodity. Most known ones are always sold to larger organizations to be harvested. All of the slime quests that the guild had was more targeted to the more common swamp variety.

Looking down at the depressing mud, Taryn let out a breath and reminded himself why this quest was a good and safe one.

Sufficiently psyched up, He began standard preparation for a swamp trip. His compass was first pulled out to determine what direction was shore. Ropes were then tied around his boots and pant legs to somewhat seal them. And finally, Taryn picked up a nearby branch to use as a depth checker.

Prep work completed, the aspiring adventurer waded into the swamp, stick jabbing ahead to check for depth as well as hidden monsters.

A decent distance into the swamp and shin deep in mud, Taryn spotted his first quarry.

Hidden behind some reeds was a gelatinous blob of blue in a shade reminiscent of mana was scuttling along on the surface of the swamp, slowly pulling up dead plant material to digest within its acidic body.

Once within range of the common slime, Taryn gave it a quick jab in the core at its center and twisted. With the core damaged and loosed from the rest of its body, the slime quickly collapsed.

Gently pulling back the scimitar with the core still on it, Taryn opened up a waterproof bag half full of water and put the core inside for preservation.

The first slime of the day’s fifty quota handled, Taryn moved on.

As the sun slowly rose to its highest point, the water bag was also rising with slime core. But the collector eventually had to return to shore and get his lunch.

Surprise was not there as Taryn found Lucky walking up and meowing to him the moment he reached shore, surprise was only there when he saw her the first time trying to steal his lunch.

Now he just simply unpacked the packaged meal and picked out a small bit of everything and set it on a leaf for Lucky.

Lunch offered a small lull in activity as Taryn took in the sight of nature and the peace of it all. He got all of a minute before his traitorous brain turned on him.

The calming of nature was replaced with loneliness. When his thoughts began to wander over towards Monica and a smile was on his face, Taryn saw a problem.

His longing for Monica has begun to increase after she started to take the party member requests months ago.

Initially, he simply blew it off as missing a close friend who went on her own adventures. But as he tried different things to distract from Monica like wood carving or, not that he would admit it, taking care of a pet.

But they never seemed to work for long and he would be back here again. So it was with some rather conclusive evidence that Taryn reached a conclusion.

I probably like like her.

Stepping over the hurdle of acceptance, Taryn’s mind was now wracked with questions.

Every bite of lunch was punctuated with a thought from an eclectic mix of every possible topic that his feelings of longing could entail.

One minute was spent on how the feelings were possibly mutual. Then to follow that, Taryn would break out in a silly grin of the things they could do together if that was true.

But the good times never lasts and his thoughts turned south fairly quickly. His mind started pointing out how it was even more possible that she did not like him.

He never stayed long in the parties she joined, and now doesn’t even go to those anymore. He couldn’t help but imagine her displeasure with what he did, even if she said she didn’t mind.

The requests she did do with him was probably just a responsibility she has to a friend too if he was being a bit pessimistic.

He didn’t even share a lot of her hobbies. While they both read books, Monica now does a lot of artsy things too like drawing and calligraphy, He could do carving, but that’s it. And even the books were not helping, Monica still had her romance thing and he was too into violent killing of monsters.

As more and more doubt began to pile onto the happy ending, he tried to steer his thoughts back into clearer weather. But all that did was make him realise the earlier positive thoughts were far too ambiguous.

He didn’t have any ideas beyond spending time with her like he used to, even if they appeared to be a lot closer, and all the visions were now gone. How couples proceed after the male made his feelings known and the female also reciprocated was not something that Taryn had the slightest ideas on.

Boat full of holes and heading to nowhere, Taryn sighed loudly and lured Lucky over with a piece of leftover meat.

Cat in hand, Taryn slowly let go of the bad thoughts and simply enjoyed a silence for a bit.

After a while, Taryn had to get back to his job and re-entered the swamp.

But again, with the silence and even more solitude without Lucky, clouds rose over Taryn’s head once again. The directionless and sinking ship then sailed right into a storm.

The thoughts during lunch had never actually ventured into what would happen if Monica said no.

Thinking back on how bad he felt just from thinking of the possibility of rejection, Taryn was already afraid.

Yet the conscious and subconscious rarely agreed.

The fallout of a rejection was already playing in his mind. He would tell her he liked and her and she would say no. He couldn’t look at her the same and she too if things went down like that. The nice thing going on between them as friends would be gone.

No more little jabs here and there between the two. No more Monica focusing her arrows to pierce his aura armor. No more him laughing when he got it tougher and she couldn’t penetrate anymore. She probably won’t let him sleep in the same room with that going on too. She would be uncomfortable around him and that would just kill him.

Then things would even more awkward with him kinda relying on Agatha for a place to live, even if he had enough money saved away to take care of himself.

But as he went on absentmindedly killing slimes and stewed in the negativity, he was hit with a thought worse than all others.

The lost of the relationship with Monica was not that bad without this tiny detail. He only had Monica as a friend. All of the other bits might be very devastating for anyone to suffer, but they could move on. Taryn couldn’t. He just had Monica and Monica alone.

As the iceberg drove itself into the hull amidst the storm, Taryn now had to find a way to abandon ship.

Yet lifeboats could not be seen within the swamp, nor ways to resolve Taryn’s conundrum.

Deciding that finding a solution to his problem was more important than a failed daily quota to deliver, Taryn headed back to Lucky and the shore. A quick mental note to add the missing cores to tomorrow’s quota, he started the trip back to Central Aurora.

Finally back at the guild around early afternoon, Taryn moved over to the reception desk for some adult advice from the one other person he knew that was not involved with his dilemma.

The few last steps towards the desk was never made.

Taryn already ran through the possibility of Lanna telling Monica and he did not like those prospects.

So it was with resignation that Taryn settled down into one of the many waiting tables of the guild and tried to at least pick a direction to go.

Well, easiest thing would be to just make some new friends. But how exactly do I go about with that? Hmm. I could try the thing Monica did with the member for hire thing. Nope. Monni dragged me into it once, the guys there were B-A-D, bad. Maybe I could move away from Monni. That might help with this. I get time to myself to sort this whole “like Monica” business out. She also gets some time away from me and might even start missing me. Then things could be good. Where to go though? People with proper training were always government soldiers or part of the Mercenary Union so I could try going there. But Agatha has a thing against both of them. Doing things against her ideas is just asking for it. Can’t really sneak and run from Agatha either. So I have to pick something that Agatha would approve. Maybe there are Member exchange requests between guilds. I could ask Lanna about it.

Plan somewhat formed, Taryn once again began the trip to the desk, this time intent on finishing the last few steps.

“Hey, Lanna. Can I ask you something.”

“Oh, It’s you Taryn. And sure what can I do for you?”

“Is there some sort of exchange program between guilds in different cities?”

“No. The guild is not a high school, Taryn. And that specific type of program is only available for really high class institutions in the big cities of the Mennes empire. So what exactly gave you that idea?”

“Nothing really. I just wanted something that involves travelling that I can do.”

“Oh. You want to travel already. I thought Monica would be the one that asked that first. Is there a particular reason you are doing this?”

At the query, Taryn paused a bit before giving a rushed half-lie-half-truth.

“Um. I just realised that Monica is my only friend and I kinda want to make more.”

“Could you not do that here?”

“Well~,” Taryn thought for a passable lie before trying the reliable half truth, ”I also want to learn something from my friends. No teen around here can teach me anything. So I want something new.”

“Hmm. I guess you didn’t really change, Taryn. And if you just wanted that. There is an escort request going down towards the southern regions. It’s fairly safe so a decent amount of young adventurers are present. You should make friends just fine.”

“Thanks. That should work. When does that start?”

“There’s a forward party going ahead to make camp and scout, and the main convoy. The former leaves at dawn tomorrow but has an attendance check tonight. The latter is the same, just one day behind.”

“I’ll take the latter then. Thank you so much Lanna.”

“Heh. You’re welcome.”

“Bye Lanna.”

After the goodbye, Taryn was out of the door and was about to merrily back into the “Big inn” with Lucky to relax for the rest of the day. Only for him to pause for a bit and his tail to droop before heading in again towards the desk.

“Hey, I can still take that forward party request right?”

“Yes. But can I ask why?”

“I kinda want to leave town a bit sooner. I just thought of the new fighting styles I might get to see. Can’t wait any longer you know.”

Sensing a bit of a rush in the reasoning, but respecting the boy’s privacy, Lanna replied evenly.

“That’s alright. I can do that for you. And you can show up at any time you feel like tonight. But it is advised that early arrival is preferred. I’ll tell Agatha when she comes in later while you are packing.”

“Thanks again Lanna. Bye”

“Goodbye Taryn.”

The oddity did not stop as Taryn ducked out into one of the side entrances. Wondering to herself what was wrong, Lanna got back to her work until another familiar voice interrupted her.

“Heyyyy~. Lanna.”

“Oh. Hello to you too Monica. How was the meeting with that new party you are joining?”

“It’s really nice. We did a small goblin hunt to try things out with coordination.”

“That’s good. You seem to be in a chipper mood. Anything else I need to know.”

Seeming to remember something, Monica suddenly pulled a rather tall and well built blonde from the waiting area in front of Lanna. As the other teen turned around, a confident smile on a rather good looking face greeted Lanna.

“Hi. I think you still know me from my request registration.”

“Yes. Mister Daniel Lionheart,” Lanna turned to Monica and continued, “And you brought him over because?”

“He just asked me out for dinner tonight in the food center. Isn’t it nice?”

A flash of recognition entered Lanna’s features before she smoothed it out.

“It is very nice. And let me finish the procedure of finalising you party. I take it that you will use the name your father used previously,” receiving a nod from Daniel, Lanna continued, “Alright, you are now an official named party.”

“Great, Bye Lanna.”

The trio completely out of sight, Lanna sighed for both the troublesome business with nobles and the poor boy before muttering.

“Can’t catch a break, can you Taryn?”