As he approached the Guild Hall, he noticed the designs a lot better. It was made of well constructed stone slabs, and logs. The roof was gilded, making it stand out against the backdrop of generic housing. He could hear the sound of a shouting match coming from the building, as he entered.

“You left us to die! You think we wouldn’t notice you breaking formation?”

“The formation was poorly structured, I was in danger. You survived, so I don’t see why you’re complaining.”

“My wife is in critical condition because of you!”

They began shoving each other and the asshole was pushed right into Rose as he walked by. “Get out of the way you stupid brat! You wanna fight too?” Rose simply flashed his guild card, showing the fat A Rank. The guy turned away, only to take a straight to the mouth, knocking him down. The other man jumped on top of him, and the fight almost seemed like two children roughhousing.

Helena ran to intervene, “Please don’t fight in the Guild please, we wouldn’t want to revoke your adventuring license now would we?” she asked with a scary glare, and slowly peace returned to the Guild Hall. Rose approached the quest board, seeing if anything in particular interested him.

Crumpled Parchment stuck to the board with metal stakes, knives, and various other objects, each piece its own story. He glanced over them, taking in the feeling of finally being an adventurer and spotted one he wanted. He decided he wanted to travel a little bit, so he brought up a ticket for a carriage bodyguard. The rank required was B, but he decided it would be fun.

“Ah Rose, will this be your first mission? I just want to warn you that if you’re attacked by bandits it can be kill or be killed,” Helena said, with a pained look across her face. Rose remembered the first time he took a life, sweat began to drip under the mask. The sensation of a life taken still lingering in his memory.

“Y-Yea, I understand. I would still want to take this mission please.” Rose didn’t want to show his inexperience here, so he didn’t back down. He knew he could deal with someone without killing them. “Besides, bandits are no big deal.” He flexed his bicep, and laughed.

He was assigned to escort high end cargo from Golden Bloom to Iltern, a bigger city in the North that liked to buy his family’s crops. He figured he might actually get a chance to visit while up there. He was looking forward to it.

He approached the cart waiting at the designated location, a sketchy road near the gate. He approached the merchant. The man looked habitually annoyed, with his facial wrinkles showing his constant disdain and stress. He had dark black hair, wore gaudy clothing, as if trying to look rich, and had a shitty handlebar mustache. Not to mention he was short and overweight. The whole picture looked like something from a poorly produced picture book.

“Are you working this job? You seem awfully small to handle a trip like this.” Rose thought to himself, ‘So do you, but I’m not complaining.’ He snickered at the thought, but quickly corrected himself. “Name’s Rose, I’m an A rank adventurer. If there are any problems with that, then I’ll be on my way.”

Rose turned around and the man caved, “Sorry, sorry, I appreciate the help of someone so qualified for this trip. Last trip was rough, I lost some cargo, an escort was killed, and so was one of my horses. These are stressful times.” The man bowed, “My name is Fernando Alteran, pleased to meet you Rose. It would be an honour to have you along.”

Rose felt a little bad being judgmental now. “Ahh it’s alright, I just like to be concise with how I handle new jobs. I apologize if I seemed rude as well.” The two talked for a while, and slowly a few others appeared, taking the job as well it seemed.

There was a magician, and based on her blue robe, and staff depicting ocean creatures, it was clear she focused on learning water magic. Despite her affinity for water, her hair and eyes were a bright crimson, freckles dotting across her face.

There was a man who towered over the rest of us, almost as tall as the cart. He had short spiked black hair, dark brown eyes, and armor wrapping around his entire body. He also carried a full body shield almost as tall as he was. ‘Must be a custom work,’ Rose thought to himself.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Finally was a woman who carried daggers and throwing knives. Her dark blue hair was in a ponytail, her eyes shone a bright yellow, and her gear was light, mostly made of thick fabric.

Their attitudes seemed pleasant enough. The big guy didn’t talk too much, mostly nodding along to general conversation. The water mage seemed a bit cocky, but overall courteous with the merchant. The assassin woman seemed a bit gloomy, but still interacted fine enough.

When they saw Rose, the mage rolled her eyes, the big guy nodded, and the assassin approached. “Are you Rose?” He nodded, “Yes I am, how did you know?” She smiled, “Name’s Serah, Helena is a close friend of mine. She talked about your match. I’m interested to see what you can do in person, but hopefully this mission goes smoothly so that isn’t necessary.”

They exchanged nods, and climbed into the cart. The big guy, Tarles, had to sit next to the merchant upfront as the space wasn’t enough in the cart itself. When he sat, the entire cart lurched forward.

Rose had a vague strategy of what he wanted to do. ‘Stand out as a fantastic swordsman as to both create accolades that the old men who run parts of the military would love to see, as well as being able to hide most of his abilities.’

He tried talking to the magician, but she refused to acknowledge him. “So what did Helena say about me then?” Rose smiled under the mask, turning back towards Serah.

“She said that you could move really fast, and you even managed to make Hedgar buckle to your strength,” she smirked, “but you didn’t let him fully power up before taking advantage.” She winked at him.

Rose scratched the back of his head, “Yea, didn’t know how strong he would get, so I cut him off mid incantation. He was a bit shocked I guess.” They talked a little bit more about each other, Rose divulging a little about his sword training when he was younger, and Serah talked about her connection to the Guild, and her training.

She had to put her dad in a position where he would lose his life if she wished if she wanted to ever leave out on her own. She worked at it daily, and it wasn’t until after her fifteenth birthday when she succeeded, at which point he gave her some gear he used when he was younger, and a few pointers. That was a few months ago for her.

Compared to Rose’s upbringing, he was a bit shocked, but she bragged about her skills she gained training hard for success. She seemed proud of how hard she worked.

They talked for a while, when suddenly Rose noticed something moving in the vicinity, his mana mapping technique he used for invisibility sight going the whole time.

He quickly sat up, leaning out of the cart. Focusing his mana to where he noticed a disturbance in the mana ring he had set up. “Three people or creatures approaching from the right side!” he called out to the group.

He dashed out quickly, hopping off the cart, and quickly entering the woods. Once out of sight he turned invisible, to take a feel around. He approached the creatures from behind, they were humanoid. He couldn’t make out any other details, so he kicked his invisibility off to get a real look at them.

What he saw shocked him. They were sickly green, with distended stomachs. Their noses were large, their eyes a sickly yellow, and their ears in a jagged point. They had sharp claws, and the one leading the group held a bloody dagger. Once he dissipated his mana cloak, they quickly turned on him.

He could tell they weren’t human, and they attacked on instinct. He found them revolting; they smelled of piss and bile. He quickly impaled their chests in rapid succession. Three strikes in a single second. They cried out, and yellowish green blood spilled out of their bodies. The others from the group finally caught up to him, and stood stunned.

The mage spoke up first, “What the hell are those? And what is that smell?” She pinched her fingers over her nose so as to not breathe it in. The big guy Tarles just shook his head. “They were able to use tools, and it looks like they took it from someone. I have no idea what they are, and I’ve never read about anything like them in any of my studies,” Rose explained and went in depth about their reaction to his presence.

“We should report this to the guild, based on the quality of blade they had it seems like some C class were taken out by them,” Serah said, a look of frustration and what if across her face.

“Come on guys, this shipment is needed on a tight time schedule, I’ll get chewed out if I’m late,” Fernando called out to the group. Rose’s sympathy slowly grew for the overworked merchant. What kind of client has this man stressed out this much. Rose couldn’t imagine.

“I would bring it along, but they smell so bad. Can anyone draw a sketch of them so we have some visual information instead of just our word?” Rose asked, looking around. Tarles nodded, pulled out some parchment and got to work. It looked incredible to Rose, well as good as these grotesque things can look. Almost a perfect one to one match.

With that strange diversion their trip continued. They spent the next few hours speculating what those creatures were or where they came from. Serah even started workshopping a spooky legend to go along with them. Her smile was bright, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Something was bothering her.