[Ranged Needle Mastery leveled up!]
[Ranged Needle Mastery leveled up!]
[Ranged Needle Mastery leveled up!]
[Ranged Needle Mastery leveled up!]
[Telekinesis leveled up!]
[Telekinesis leveled up!]
[Telekinesis leveled up!]
[Telekinesis leveled up!]
[Precision Prick leveled up!]
[Precision Prick leveled up!]
[Precision Prick leveled up!]
[Precision Prick leveled up!]
[Mana Perception leveled up!]
[Mana Perception leveled up!]
[Mana Perception leveled up!]
[Mana Perception leveled up!]
And the numbers went on and on and on. Ezra had started by moving small objects around, focusing on increasing his speed and control. He could only practice with his needle, but he believed the potential was enormous if he could improve his abilities. He tried lifting more than a pound and it ended predictably—in seconds, he ran out of mana. When that happened he switched to throwing his needle into the stone wall, leveling up his Ranged abilities by a fair chunk. While he did this, he flickered his Mana Perception on and off. It was the slowest leveler by far, but Ezra was willing to invest the necessary time to make it more useful.
He reviewed his new levels.
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 14
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 3
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 30
[Stealth] - Lv. 15
[Ranged Needle Mastery] - Lv. 10
[Precision Prick] - Lv. 15
[Air Attack] - Lv. MAX
[Spirtual Seal] - Lv. MAX
[Mana Perception] - Lv. 5
[Telekinesis] - Lv. 6
He was expanding his strengths and becoming well-rounded. It wouldn’t be long before he could come back and challenge Idia. He just needed to level up a bit more.
The next several days passed by in a blur. He’d wake up, kill monsters, head back, grind, then repeat the cycle. Most of the quests he’d been taking were of the same quality as the rat-slaying quest. Several of the ones he’d done were rat-slaying quests. Mixed in there were a few different types of monster-killing quests, but the worst he’d done were the goddamn fetch quests. Get twenty sparkling reeds, obtain fifty killer wasp eggs—Ezra hated it. At first, E rank felt like a natural first step. Now it was beginning to feel like the dream after all this. God, one of his quests had been to do someone’s laundry.
F-rank quests were a total joke. Prise had tried her best to push him up to the next rank but had been denied flat-out. Villscha claimed that they couldn’t risk a guild investigation from the capital. If Ezra wanted E rank, he’d have to get there legally—or at least, semi-legally.
He’d spent long enough wallowing in his sorrows. He shifted his body to get up and winced. The only problem with all this leveling was that it meant he’d barely gotten five hours of sleep. When he woke up, his limbs seemed to be melting into the bed and his eyelids felt like they had lead weights attached to them. Filamenta berated him for several minutes until he forced himself up and out the door. Prise hadn’t been there to greet him—she probably went on ahead.
As he exited the door, he could’ve sworn he heard someone muttering through the walls.
This place was haunted.
He skipped out and made his way back to the center of town.
“So, what’s the plan, Ezra? I hope you don’t plan to do another rat quest,” Filamenta said, from her position on his shoulder.
“I ought to do that just to pay you back for waking me up like that.” Ezra yawned and lifted a hand to cover his mouth. “I need sleep, for goodness’s sake.”
“You shouldn’t have been up until midnight if you wanted sleep.”
Ezra’s left eye twitched and he looked at his shoulder. “I want to squash you.”
“Try it. See how far you get.”
Ezra stopped in the middle of the street and glared at Filamenta. Passer-bys watched the spider and man duo with vague interest.
“Sir,” someone called out.
Ezra’s head snapped over toward the person who was pointing at him. The man loomed over Ezra, strapped with muscle from head to toe. The little hair that remained on his body was pure white and he seemed to be missing most of his teeth. He stood in front of a stall where the scent of cooking beef emanated.
Stall Guy - Lv ???
“You want a Chulcalf sandwich, boy?” the stall guy said.
More than a few people cringed at the man, glanced at Ezra, and shook their heads.
Ezra took another sniff. It smelled like…
“Burgers?” he said and walked forward instinctively.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
The man shrugged. “I dunno what a burger is.”
Ezra looked at what was being cooked. It was burgers. The man was literally just cooking beef patties and tossing them onto a sandwich along with a blue, lettuce-like plant and some cheese. Ezra’s mouth started watering. How long had it been since he’d had a burger?
Ezra looked up at the man. “How much?”
“Two copper coins.”
Ezra reached into his pocket and passed the man the coins.
Burger-guy nodded. “Enjoy.”
Ezra walked along the city streets, enjoying his pseudo-burger. He’d forgotten how much he loved actual, modern food. Most of what he’d been eating on the road had been crappy bread, whereas at the castle… gosh, he couldn’t even remember what he’d eaten there. Had he even eaten anything?
“You’re not curious about Stall Guy?” Filamenta said. “You saw his level. He might be as powerful as Synica.”
“I doubt it,” Ezra said. “But even if he is, there’s nothing we can do about it. What if we look into the guy’s past and he sniffs it out and decides to take care of us? I think it’s in our best interests to just avoid antagonizing him.”
Filamenta didn’t have a response.
Before long, he’d scarfed down the meal and arrived at the guild hall.
As soon as it opened, he had to step back to avoid being barrelled over by a tall man with an axe strapped to his back.
The man looked down and nodded his head. “Apologies.”
He continued walking.
Ezra peeked into the building. The place was packed from top to bottom. Several people were lined up at the guild desks and even more were in the cafeteria area, mingling and chatting. A handful stood at the bounty board, looking at potential quests. Ezra stuck his hands into his pocket and ducked down. He walked and passed by a woman dressed in a witch’s outfit who was chatting with a young blond man.
Multiple eyes watched him despite his attempt to stay down. Why were they watching him? Did they know who he was? In his distraction, his shoulder bumped into someone else who was walking in the opposite direction. He walked forward as if nothing had happened.
“Hey, you!” someone said.
Ezra paused and slowly turned around.
The man talking to him was another tall individual. He was wearing grey plate armor without a helmet. Strapped to his side was a longsword.
“Me?” Ezra said.
“Yes, you. I want an apology.”
Filamenta chuckled.
“Oh, this’ll be entertaining,” she said.
Ezra ignored her and looked at the man closer. The two of them watched each other closely.
Nobinar - Heavy Knight - Monster Slayer II - Lv. 51
Huh. High leveled. Ezra might have his hands full, here.
The man blinked.
“Hold on a second, you’re that guy who killed the overgrown lizard,” he said.
A man to Ezra’s left stepped back in shock.
“Wait, that’s him?”
“He’s a bit shorter than I expected.”
“Did he actually kill the lizard on his own? I thought it all happened too fast for anyone to tell.”
The man in armored plate sneered.
“No way you killed that lizard. You don’t have a solid weapon on you, you’re pathetically tiny, and you obviously aren’t a mage. Hell, I’ve never even heard of you.” He stepped forward and loomed over Ezra. “Let me tell you, I don’t appreciate you coming in and just trying to insert yourself into our guild.”
Ezra glared up at the man. His left hand clenched. This was probably a bad idea, but…
“Listen up, pal,” he said. “I’ve had four hours of sleep and I’m not in the mood. Turn around.”
The armored man’s jaw clenched.
“Was that a threat?” he said.
Ezra reached up and patted his head.
“Yup,” he said. “Now why don’t you play with your sword while the adults get to work, okay?”
Absolute silence. The man looked at Ezra intently.
“Right then, it’s clear you need to be humbled,” he said.
He raised his hand up for a punch.
To his credit, the attack was actually really, really fast. Unfortunately for him, Ezra could see it coming a mile away thanks to Wisdom.
Ezra ducked underneath the attack and rolled out of the way. He pointed his hand back, whispered under his breath, and threads wrapped around the man. They tightened and slammed him to the ground with a loud bang.
“Hey, what the hell was that!?” he said. “Get me out of here!”
Silence.
Ezra walked over to the guy with his hands still in his pocket and kicked him in the side of the head. The man shouted and tried to slip out of the restraints. The strings began to fray. Before Nobinar could get out, Ezra threw another kick, then a couple more for good measure. The man went limp. Ezra didn’t have a ton of strength, but a solid kick to the head on a downed target would knock just about anyone out.
Ezra knew from personal experience.
He walked forward and the mercenaries parted before him like water.
“He just—“
“Nobinar was skilled. B rank, right?”
“B rank!? With how quickly he was taken down, that felt more like a C rank hazing an F rank!”
Ezra tuned out the conversation and stepped in front of Prise.
She gave a small, coy smile.
“I half-expected something like this to happen,” she said. “New mercenaries are usually hazed. New mercenaries with a reputation? They’re hated. But a show of strength like that, it’s gonna reverse their opinion pretty quickly, I’m impressed.”
Ezra rolled his eyes and looked down at her.
“Did the payment go through?” he said.
She blinked, then nodded. “Yes, I have your payment right here.”
Prise reached under the table and pulled a handful of coins. She counted them out one by one and handed him… eight copper coins. Ezra stared down at it.
“I subtracted two for rent,” she said.
Ezra slipped the coins into his pocket. “Yeah, whatever. Thanks. How long before I move up the ranks?”
Prise stroked her chin.
“I think fifteen more missions should be enough to bump you up to D rank,” she said. “F rank is really designed as more of a screener to prevent people from getting killed if they’re totally unprepared.”
Ezra was starting to get a little bit irritated. He still owed Prise more money—it was clear she was being nice for some reason, but eventaully he’d have to pay her back. Then he’d wake up and get more food, further putting him in trouble. He needed to climb up the ranks as quickly as possible so that he could get some disposible income.
“What would you recommend for my next mission?” he said.
Prise blinked. “You’re asking me?”
“Yes. What would you recommend?”
Prise looked down and furrowed her eyebrows. After a moment, she looked up.
“I think this one would really help you,” she said. “Follow me.”
She stepped over toward the bounty board, and Ezra followed behind her. The adventurers looked away conspicuously, sneaking glances at the two of them when they thought Ezra wasn’t looking.
Idiots.
Prise plucked one off the bounty board and handed it to Ezra.
“Technically, you just need to take care of a single Hornblower that’s hitting up some farmer’s crops.” She leaned in and whispered. “If you manage to track down the whole herd and take it out, I’ll be able to do something and you’ll be able to skip over the rest of the F rank requirements.”
Ezra raised an eyebrow. Prise was actually helpful? That wasn’t something he was expecting for the day. They walked back to the guild stall and Prise signed off on the quest. A moment later, a convenient little quest marker appeared in the minimap at the corner of his vision.
----------------------------------------
Ezra set out and followed the cursor to the location, passing outside of the town and back into the world outside. Grazing animals and fields alike dotted the landscape. Luckily, the farm he was looking for wasn’t too far away. Ezra met up with the farmer, showed him the quest details, and the farmer gave him permission to enter his land.
With that, Ezra came up with a plan of attack. He would wait until the creature appeared, let it damage some of the crops, then follow it back. From there, he’d run into the herd, then presumably figure out some kind of way to kill all of them.
Ezra found a section of the field that was out of the way from where the Hornblower would attack, then dug out a hole for him to lay down in. Once he’d done that, he placed himself into the hidden area and covered himself with dirt. Ezra didn’t know what a Hornblower looked like, but he figured it was one of those things where he would know it when he saw it.
With that, there was nothing to do but wait.
“Are you seriously planning to just sit here until it shows up?” a voice said.
Filamenta crawled forward in front of his face. Her spider eyes looked at him curiously.
Ezra’s lips drew thin.
“Yes?” he said. “This is how you do it. Wait patiently.”
“And how would you know that, exactly?”
“My old man used to take me hunting,” he said. “It was a long time ago, and admittedly I’m improvising the dirt thing, but this is how you do it.”
Filamenta grunted and moved out of his way. “This had better not take long,” she said. “I’m going to get bored really quick.”
“It’ll probably be two or three hours, so strap in.”
Filamenta groaned and wandered off toward some other part of the field. Ezra didn’t mind, it was unlikely she’d scare off the Hornblower. His breathing leveled out. He twitched his legs and various muscles to prevent them from cramping as he waited. The minutes ticked by, wearing away at him.
Then, what he’d been waiting for happened. There was a crack and Ezra’s head snapped over toward it.
It was the Hornblower.
Hornblower - Lv. 13
The creature emerged from the shadows, its hulking form outlined by the sun. A massive brown shell bristling with jagged spikes covered its back, each spike glinting as it shifted. The creature’s limbs were sinewy and muscular, ending in razor-sharp claws that dug into the earth with every step. Two bull horns poked out from the left and right on the head of the creature.
Ezra stayed perfectly still. He couldn’t risk tipping off the creature to his existence. The Hornblower let out a sniff and stepped forward. It reached down and started chewing on some of the crops the farmer had been growing. Ezra sucked in a slow breath.
A noise echoed out to Ezra’s left. He looked over just in time to see three more of the creatures heading toward the first Hornblower. The only problem?
Ezra was right in their way.
They marched closer, their footsteps banging against the ground. Ezra’s heart picked up in speed and his limbs froze.
They fanned out, ignoring his existence and going for the fruits.
Ezra let out a sigh of relief.
Then he felt something tap the back of his leg.
He turned around and the face of a Hornblower about to dig into his leg greeted him.