Chapter 3: The Quest

“So, today’s finally the day my little princess goes off on her adventurer.” My father says to me, standing at the doorway.

Today I’m supposed to do my first quest with Thoth, and right now I was going to go to the [Adventurer’s Guild] to meet up with her. I was also carrying a backpack my father prepared for me. Most of the time, high level quests took a long period of time to complete, and we were searching for [A-Ranked] quests. It’s very likely that it’ll take at least a week to complete, so he packed me several things he deemed necessary for a long term adventure.

“Remember, don’t get overconfident and pick something beyond your power. Be sure to do whatever you can within your power, but rely on Thoth a bit as well. Alright?” He advises me. I nod to this, and he smiles before rubbing my head.

“Good girl. I’m sure you’ll listen to daddy. It’s kind of a disappointment that Hana isn’t here today to see you off, but I’m sure she’d be in tears while doing so. I know that she’d be proud though, seeing her little girl go off on her first adventure. Be safe, and have fun.” Again, I nod to this, before turning around and walking down the road.

As I walk away from home, I spin around and wave at my father. He waves back, and I turn back to the road and sprint towards the mall. Time for my first quest.

–––––––

“...repeat that.” I say to the smiling girl standing in front of me.

“I said, we’re going to go dragon slaying! I found it as an emergency quest that requires at least [Mortal Tier] [A-Ranked] adventurers! There’s going to be a raid against a dragon that attacked a nearby city the other day, and escaped into the [Undead Mountain] after sustaining heavy wounds!” Thoth repeats for me, following my request.

“...bye.” I immediately start walking away, before Thoth grabs the hem of my shirt in a panick.

“Wait! Why!? It’s a dragon! A dragon I tell you! I haven’t fought one since the year before our final battle! Come on! It’ll be so exciting!” Desperate to have me come, she holds onto my shirt as I drag her behind me.

Currently, we were in the middle of the lobby for the [Guild Office], which was the designated meeting point. We attract the attention of several other adventurers around us, shamelessly causing a scene. At this point, we’re building ourselves a reputation of being two eccentric girls.

Our reputation started building up yesterday when we rejected the advances of the men and easily beaten in two aspects; speed and strength. After that, Thoth went on her little tantrum about her rank, the scene of Pyrion and I literally dragging her outside the building.  Obviously, this gave more cause for them to think we’re eccentric, but it’s not like I’m denying it.

“...troublesome.” I stop and say to the girl holding on my shirt.

“What do you mean troublesome!? It’s a dragon! Of course it’s not going to be easy to kill it, unless you cheat!” She yells. Of course by cheating, she must be referring to unsealing myself.

“...too much work.” I try again with another excuse

“Now you’re lazy!? Forget that! You’re coming anyway!” She yells out loud.

With a sudden surge in strength, she grabs me in a choke hold and drags me across the lobby into the main room. I don’t resist at all, because doing so will only make her try even harder. Whenever Thoth became like this, it was pretty much impossible for me to change her mind. At least, I haven’t found a way yet, but I’d appreciate it if someone else found a method that would let me do so.

“Okay! I already accepted the quest, so you go ahead and use the pylon! I’m going to look through the [Unions], see if there’s anything interesting to join!” Thoth puts her hands on the pylon immediately afterwards, and closes her eyes. I do the same, feeling my consciousness being pulled into the glass pillar.

“Welcome to the [Adventurer’s Guild] network.” The androgynous voice speaks out.

The blue space around me sudden shifts, before it transforms into a large room. The interior was made of some sort of black stained glass, which was barely transparent at all. At least, I thought it was supposed to be glass, but then a dim, white light suddenly illuminates from it. A few seconds after, several progress bars appear in every wall surrounding me. After all of the bars were filled, a huge display of windows popped up on the glass screens surrounding me.

Each wall had different subjects being displayed, the subjects being; [Archives], [], [Unions] and [Quests]. Although I was interested in the [Archives], I didn’t want to keep Thoth waiting. Facing the screen that displays the quests, I only saw two options being displayed:

[Available Quests]

[Quests in Progress]

I immediately touch the first choice on the glass, and a new window appears displaying five more options:

[Mortal Tier]

[Immortal Tier]

[Legend Tier]

[God Tier]

[Titan Tier]

So they had the quests categorized as well. I try tapping the [Immortal Tier] choice to see what would happen, and it brought up a window displaying the message; ‘Unable to access. Immortal Tier status required.’ It was quite unexpected, being unable to even view the quests. It didn’t really matter to me, though, so I simply swipe away the window and select the [Mortal Tier] option.

This time, it showed six more options, from [D-Rank] to [S-Rank] and an [Emergency Quest] option above all of them. I assume that these options were the same at the previous. If someone wasn’t a high enough rank, they probably wouldn’t be able to pick these quests. It seems like there’s a system adventurers can only view quests within their rank and abilities, which is a pretty good way to prevent overconfident rookies from selecting quests out of their league.

I select the [Emergency Quest] choice, and a new window pops up, displaying what should be a list, but only had one option in it. Probably because it was the only emergency quest available. Upon touched the name, the details came up for it along with the choice to accept or decline it.

Emergency QuestDragon SlayingRequirements[Mortal Tier] [Rank A] adventurerDetailsA dragon has attacked [Belsburg], and has escaped to a nearby dungeon field. Adventurers with statuses of [Mortal Tier] [A-Ranked] or higher are requested to join the subjugation of the dragon.LocationThe gathering point will be at the town of [Belsburg] on June 31st, before the expedition to the [Undead Mountain] begins.Rewards10 gold, a share of the materials harvested from the dragonAcceptDecline

I accepted the quest, and the window closes itself before bringing me back to the previous menu, with all the quests categorized in ranks. The choice for [Emergency Quest] was gone though, probably because there were none left for me to take. I decide to look at the [S-Ranked] quests available and see if there’s anything that might interest me at all.

The list was fairly short, probably because there wasn’t much need for [S-Ranked] adventurers on Sykerion. Most of the quests contained subjugations and escorts through dangerous [Dungeon Fields], which were all boring to me. There was one that slightly piqued my interest though.

S-Ranked QuestComposite Magic Research AssistanceRequirementsProficiency with multiple categories of magic, at least level 5 in each.DetailsHigh Mage Yubin requires an assistant to help research advanced composite magic. Research involves elemental magic, runic magic and spiritual magic.LocationPeak of the Undead MountainRewardsKnowledge of advanced composite magicAcceptDecline

I can barely see anyone actually fulfilling the requirements, and I doubt most people would care for advanced [Composite Magic], but this was something I found interest in. Learning magic that I don’t already know is one of my greater hobbies, because it’s always nice to have a large arsenal of magic for any situation. Combining advanced magic kind of interested me anyway. Besides, the location stated that the mage would be at the top of the [Undead Mountain], my next location. I’ll be able to go there after slaying the dragon

I accept the quest, and closed all the windows that were opened. The glass screen returned to displaying the first two options given to me. Now that I’m done with everything, I decided to leave. Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t know how to leave the pylon.

“...how to leave?” I try asking.

“If you wish to exit the pylon, simply just break the glass anywhere, and you’ll be transported back out.” The voice answers me. As soon as I hear this, I back hand the glass and shatter it. My vision is filled with a bright light, and the feeling of a heavy gust of wind hits me again, just like last time. When the light disappears, I open my eyes and again, find myself in the real world.

“You accepted the quest. right!? Right!?” She asks loudly, and I nod in reply.

“Let’s get going then! C’mon!” She yells as she grabs my hand, and runs out the door.

Several adventurers watch us burst out the door to the main room and head towards the elevator. There were other adventurers using it, the doors already starting to close. Before I realize it, Thoth lets go of my hand for a second and sprints to the elevator, grabbing hold of the doors just before they close. Obviously, this surprises the adventurers inside, but she nonchalantly forces the elevator doors wide open again and step in.

She keeps the doors opened for me, letting go after I enter the elevator. It looks like there was a small party of adventurers in here as well. A total of three girls and two boys, and they look like they were much older than us. Every single one of them wore heavy plated armor with elaborate designs on them, and the royal insignia was embedded onto their shoulderplates. A party full of heavy warriors, it seems.

“Sorry about that, but we’re kind of in a rush!” She apologizes to them.

“Ah, it’s fine! Just a bit surprised, seeing a cute girl suddenly forcing her way into the elevator.” One of the boys replies. Although the group was surprised at Thoth’s sudden action, they regained their calm almost immediately.

“So, what’s the rush for? Are you doing the emergency quest too?” One of the girls ask.

“That’s right! Are you all going too!?” The others nod in reply to Thoth’s question.

“Yeah, we’re going to fly there via transport helicopter. It’ll be much faster than going by foot.” They tell us.

“Oh my god, that sounds so cool! Do you have two more seats that can fit me and my friend!?” I don’t like where this is going.

“I believe so, but I don’t think our supervisor will take random people with us… maybe we can ask for permission?” The same boy who replied earlier answers again, so it seems like he’s the leader of this small party.

“Most likely she’ll just test them and depending on how they do, she’ll let them join.” A member of his group confirms. Upon hearing this, a huge grin appears on Thoth’s face.

“Aria, can we go to Belsburg with these guys!? Come on, I never rode on any sort of aircraft before! Pretty please!?” She says while hugging my right arm, and looking up at me with puppy eyes.

I sigh to myself as I nod in acceptance. This was something she started doing recently when there was something she really wanted, and I couldn’t really resist whenever I saw those eyes. It seems like Thoth will always be able to get her way with me no matter what I do.

“Woohoo! Thank you Aria! Okay, now let’s go take that test and get a free ride to Belsburg!” She yells out with excitement. We leave the mall with the group of soldier adventurers, following them.

–––––––

Currently, we were being driven to the group’s military base settled outside of the city. On the way, Thoth began making conversation with them. We told them our names and adventurer ranks, which they didn’t believe until we showed them our license. After, we learnt their name, rank, and even their classes.

The boy who represented their group was indeed the leader, his name was Jinada. He was as [Immortal Tier] [C-Ranked] adventurer, and his class was [Paladin]. His hair was short and blond, with a handsome appearance. Although we couldn’t really see his body, he seemed fairly sturdy and strong to wear that armor around casually. He is very kind to us, and reminded me of Pyrion in a way. I feel like I’ve seen him before, but I can’t remember when.

The other male was the strongest of the party, from what they say. His name is Morne, and he was an [Immortal Tier] [A-Ranked] adventurer, the highest rank in their party. His class was [Berserker], which has the most offensive capabilities within the common classes. His hair was short and black, his eyes also blue. He is the total opposite of Jinada; I believe he falls under the ‘pervert,’ based on what Raina and Thoth told me.

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The three girls were all sisters, with similar appearances. The difference between them were their hair, eyes and their personalities; the former being relative to a different color. The color of their armor was even based of off their own hair colors, and they were all [Magic Knights] with their own affinities. Their respective colors were red, blue and green.

The girl in red is named Pyre, and she’s not so different from Thoth; a fiery attitude and always overexcited. She has medium red hair tied into a ponytail, and her armor is a flaming red color. Her weapon is a huge lance that’s normally used for cavalry charges, a weapon choice I’m not questioning. From what she told us, her magic affinity is [Elemental Magic], which is the most common for [Magic Knights].

The second girl’s name is Mira, and she’s more calm and composed than the other two, but was quite cold to us. Her dark blue hair ran down her back, nearly reaching her waist. Her armor has a sea blue color, and her weapon of choice is a longsword. Her magic affinity is [Runic Magic], which was quite an interesting choice for a [Magic Knight].

The final sister was someone who I wouldn’t expect to even be an adventurer at all. A timid girl named Cam, she was the smallest of the three. Her hair was the shortest, cut in a bob cut style, and her armor and hair color was green. Despite being so small, she also wore the heavy armor without a sweat, and her weapon was a battle axe that was bigger than her body. Her magic affinity was the strangest for a [Magic Knight], which was [Support Magic].

“You know, even though she doesn’t look like it, she’s the strongest out of the three.” Morne whispers to us, just out of earshot of the three sisters.

“Seriously!? No way! She’s like a little bunny! That adorable little girl makes me think of a colleague I graduated with. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come today, because she was going to stay with her family for a bit, and they’re living outside the city.” Thoth has a disappointed expression for a bit, but it returns to normal a second afterwards.

“Anyway! Time for our introduction! I’m Thoth Farlite, a [Mortal Tier] [A-Rank] adventurer! And this is my faithful pet–” I smack her head lightly before she finishes that sentence.

“–friend, Aria Brynhildr!” She changes her sentence quickly, before turning to me and sticking tongue out playfully.

“This girl, is the one person you don’t want to mess with. I’m sure you’ve all at least heard of her name.” She says with a proud look on her face.

“Nope.”

“Don’t think so.”

“Sorry, doesn’t ring a bell.”

“...” A moment of silence runs through the group for a bit, before Thoth breaks it.

“Are you kidding me!? Did none of you watch any of the [Inter-School Tournaments]?!

“Nope.”

“Wasn’t interested.”

“I’m usually outside the city during that time of the year.”

“...” Another moment of silence fills the air as Thoth processes their excuses in her head.

“How have none of you seen at least one in the past 6 years!?” Thoth blows up again, angrily shouting now. The others were finding this hilarious though, and began laughing as her temper flared. Before she got any more heated up, I put my hand on her head and start patting it.

“...they’ll see.” I say, trying to calm her down. This seems to work every time, so it was useful whenever she was mad like this.

“...yeah. They’ll be able to see you in action soon enough!” She replies with a smile.

For the rest of the way, the group shared their adventurer stories with us. Apparently, they are members of the royal military, and are actually apart of a special operations squad. This group is called the [Arcadian Knights], an elite force that is often sent to undergo special tasks for the kingdom. This can vary from major incidents like this dragon attack, or they are occasionally assigned to travel to other worlds to complete certain quests.

When they finally lead us to their destination, we found ourselves standing in front of a massive, arched steel gate with two doors. If both the [Yeti] and [Inferno Bear] walked through together side by side, they’d be able to fit through with no problem at all. The walls were made with a special magic resistant stone called [Arcin], and there were several towers set up with soldiers stationed in them.

“And we’re finally here! Welcome to area 9, also known as [Arcadia]!” Jinada says proudly.

“So, which one of you wants to try first?” Pyre suddenly asks.

“Huh?” Thoth lets out, confused. I didn’t understand either.

“See the gate? It takes both Jinada and I to even push it open. Want to try testing your strength?” Morne explains to us, before making the same offer.

“Oh~ is that so? Okay then! I’ll go first!” Thoth says enthusiastically, while skipping to the gate.

“You sure you want to do it alone? It’d be easier if Aria were to help–” Morne says.

He doesn’t finish his sentence though, because the sight in front of him was unbelievable. With both hands, Thoth pushes the left gate open. It was obvious that she wasn’t exerting that much force, because her expression remained casual as she did this. The gate opened slowly, until it’s finally pushed out all the way, and there wasn’t even a drop of sweat on her.

“Phew~ what a nice warmup!” Thoth says while stretching her arms.

“Only a warmup? Something like that should’ve been impossible!” Mira tells us. The entire group stares at Thoth in astonishment, but she shrugged her shoulders in response.

“Aria, try to push the door.” Thoth motions me to come over, and I comply.

I walk up to the right door of the gate that was still closed, and rest my palm on it. Currently, I only have two of my marks enabled, so my strength was over 700 right now. I push forward with a moderate amount of strength, and the gate bursts open as if a storm just blasted through. At this point, the expressions on the faces of our new friends were priceless.

“Okay! Let’s go meet your supervisor person and pass this test of hers!” Thoth ignores the reaction of the five knights, and turns to enter the gate.

“What test? And what kind of demons are you two to open the gates of [Arcadia] so easily?” A mature woman suddenly appears before us. Her hair was apple red, and her figure was imposing despite being quite small. I can feel a large amount of mana residing in her body, so she seems to be a powerful mage. I feel like I recognize her as well, but I can’t remember from where.

“Ah, Ms. Evalot! What a coincidence, I was about ask for you!” Jinada says before we could answer. Upon seeing him, the woman immediately bows to him.

“My lord, I came right away upon being notified by the guards of your return.” She immediately replies. So this guy was also royalty, it seems. “May I ask why you’ve brought these two children here? Though I can imagine why from what I just saw, but I’m hoping that you really didn’t bring them for that reason.”

“If you’re thinking transportation to Belsburg, then you got it right.” Jinada replies, leading his party through the gates.

“They’re adventurers who are also participating in the subjugation, and they’ve definitely met the requirements for it with their strength alone, as you just saw.” Upon hearing Jinada’s words, the woman named Evalot sighs heavily.

“Even so, we can’t just randomly take along passengers that are not part of the military. We need permission from either the [Adventurer’s Guild] or the King himself.” For some reason, she was glaring at the both of us for a second, but it disappears quickly.

“Don’t care. As long as they don’t find out it’s fine, it’s not like giving them a ride will result in a world war.” Jinada replies nonchalantly.

“Come on, we have two more spots on the helicopter, may as well use them!” Morne adds.

“...we should bring them.” Even Cam was going along with the flow.

“Hah… really, you guys… fine. They can come along, but you have to promise me one thing. You five will take responsibility for them, so be sure to keep them alive.” Evalot gives up almost immediately, allowing us to join them.

“I’m going to tell the others to prepare the transport helicopter. My lord, I’ll need you to come with me for a bit. The rest of you, go prepare your equipment and get ready to leave.” She says before walking away at a quick pace.

“Ah, Ms. Evalot, wait up!” Jinada chases after her quickly, leaving the rest of the group behind.

“...that was easy.” Thoth says, with a dull look on her face. It was pretty anticlimactic, after all.

“Isn’t that a good thing? Honestly, I didn’t expect her to accept so easily as well, this is a first. Well, let’s just go with it, before she changes her mind!” Pyre says to us.

“Sure! When are you guys leaving?” Thoth asks them.

“2 hours from now. We’re going to pack some equipment and any necessities now, so just go to the barracks and wait for us there.” Mira tells us, before walking away without giving us another glance.

“...cold.” I whisper.

“Yeah, I know right?” Thoth replies back quietly.

–––––––

Third Person Perspective:

“Ms. Evalot, what did you need me for?” Jinada says. He was currently walking besides his former teacher, confused on why he was brought along.

“I apologize for separating you from your friends, but we need to talk about the two you’ve brought.” She replies to him.

“Thoth and Aria? Is there something wrong? If you’re worried about their survival, they can definitely handle themselves. Especially Aria, she was able to open the Arcadian gate with a single hand! How amazing!” Jinada says with amazement in his voice.

“Yes, those two are certainly strong. But there’s something strange with those two.” Upon seeing them, Evalot used [Magic Perception] on see the magic affinities of the two girls. She could hardly believe what she saw.

“Do you know what their classes are?” She asks Jinada.

“Their classes? Now that I think about it, they haven’t told us. They should be some sort of warrior class, otherwise, there would be no way they can open the Arcadian gate so easily.” Jinada speaks his thoughts out loud.

“That’s the natural thing to assume, correct. But, I was able to view their magic affinities without them noticing, and the strength of those two are far beyond comprehension. Not only are the both of them strong, but they are very adept with magic. The smaller girl, Thoth, has a great affinity with [Darkness] and [Runic Magic] in general. If I had to guess, her proficiency with those two are beyond level five.” Evalot tells him.

“No way!? Someone as strong as that is also very capable in magic!? That’s amazing!” Jinada’s now starting to see Thoth in a more positive life. He’s read and listened to the stories about [Arcane Knights], so seeing someone adept in both magic and physical abilities excited him.

“Amazing, huh? Well, in that case, her companion must be godlike.” Evalot suddenly says.

“...huh?” Confused, Jinada suddenly stops walking for a bit.

“Her affinity is of black and white.” Evalot says while turning to face him.

“Wait, black and white? Doesn’t that mean…” Jinada processes this in his mind for a bit, before his eyes slowly become wide opened.

“...yes. It seems like something big may happen in the future.” Evalot begins walking ahead again without waiting for Jinada.

“...an [Arcane Knight].” He whispers to himself.

“Someone who can possibly be an [Arcane Knight]!” Suddenly, his previous calm demeanor completely disappears, and is now replaced with an excited expression.

Now that he’s found someone with the potential to hold the dream class he’s always admired, Jinada wants to make it come true. He is incapable of reaching that level though, but because of Aria’s appearance, he wants to see the training and cultivation of an [Arcane Knight] in person. First off, he had to convince her to go along with the idea of becoming an [Arcane Knight] but along with that, he also needed a way to befriend so she can become a potential ally in the future. An [Arcane Knight] fighting alongside him and his men was something he would like to see.

“Aria, you’re going to be mine!” Though he could’ve worded that better, Jinada says that out loud with determination in his voice.

Only if he knew that Aria was already an [Arcane Knight], and that all his actions in the future will be a hindrance or annoyance rather than actually progressing with the relation.