Chapter 9: Then VS Now [STAR]

Both of us headed downstairs to the quest-board’s area. Time to see what’s my first quest is going to be. Let’s see, monster hunting with a minimum rank of Fighter, no can’t choose that. Hunting demons with minimum rank of Shadow Knight, no, I doubt Rick will agree to that. Oh, this seems to be the only Warrior rank quest available today. Find missing kettle. Guess this’ll have to do.

“Seems like you’re going to be looking for a missing animal then,” said Rick as he read the same quest paper pinned to the quest-board.

“It’s the only one available for my rank. Don’t really have a choice, do I? Do I need to inform someone that we will be taking this quest?” I asked him.

“Of course, take the paper and head over to that counter there. They will assign this quest to your name,” said Rick.

Time for me to get the quest registered then. My first quest, how exciting. I rushed towards the counter that Rick pointed. Oh, it’s Miss Angelica. That’s odd, I thought she was a receptionist.

“Hello there, I would like to take this quest with Rick senpai over there, if you don’t mind,” I said to her.

“Sure, just give me a moment to get it sorted. Congratulations in joining the guild by the way,” she smiled at me.

“Thank you. I guess you are promoted as well? Since you’re working here instead of the reception?” I asked her.

“Oh, no silly. We have shifts that move us around. We alternate between the reception and the quest counter often,” she smiled.

I am glad my previous joke did not affect our conversation. I would hate for things to be awkward since I get the feeling that I’ll be speaking to her often.

“I see, sorry about my previous joke earlier. I was just kidding by the way,” I assured her.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. You are not the first to flirt with me anyway. Although, you’re certainly the the first to make my heart skip,” she trailed off at the end which I couldn’t hear.

“I’m sorry, what did you say? I couldn’t hear what you said at the end,” I asked her.

“Your quest is assigned to you now. You can head out on your quest,” she smiled upon handing me the paperwork.

“Oh, thank you very much,” I smiled at her and retrieved the papers.

Alright, time to head out on my first quest. I won’t lie, kind of excited. I showed Rick the papers and he said that we’re good to go. Onwards and upwards then.

Side Quest Unlocked: Find missing kette

We headed towards the location of the quest giver where the address was written at the bottom of the main paper. Hm? Oh, there seems to be some event or festival up ahead. Is that the reason as to why there were no side stores opened yesterday?

What is it about though? I tried to peek through but all I could see were nothing but trees of adult legs. I lost interest after a few attempts and decided to continue heading towards the address of the quest giver. I was suddenly lifted up by someone. I turned around and saw Rick lifting me up. Wow, the performers were wearing black as well as all the decorations. Is this.. a marching band or something? Perhaps a parade. I asked Rick to put me down before I start to look like Simba. I swear I can already start hearing the “Ahhhhhhh”.

“What is this festival about? Everything seems to be in black colour,” I asked Rick.

“Hm, if I’m not mistaken, legend has it that a young boy wanted to see a marching band inside the city. But sadly, the boy passed before he managed to see one. The father decided to honour his wish and making sure that no children will ever miss the chance to see one. Hence, he decided to throw a parade on this particular date every year. What a father, for honouring his child’s wish,” Rick gave a sad smile while being impressed.

The father must had be a great person for people to carry out his legacy and continue to celebrate the festival until today. Oh well, time for me to carry on. Onwards to the location.

We reached by evening time and I proceeded to knock on the door. Seeing that Rick is just here to “supervise” me most of the time, I have to take the initiative. Not a moment later, a blond haired woman opened the door.

“Hello miss, I am here to solve your quest that you submitted to the Dark guild. May I ask some questions pertaining to it?” I asked her as politely as possible. She seemed like a nice lady.

“Oh, aren’t you adorable, and handsome too. Here is what I can tell you. My kette went missing a few days ago and I couldn’t find him anywhere. I even used his favourite food to lure him back but he was nowhere in sight. He hadn’t returned for a few days now. Please help me find where he went as I really missed him,” said the lady.

“Rest assured, I will find your kette. May I ask some specific details about your kette? Like how does he looked like?” I asked her.

I am sure there are plenty of kette around the city so I will need more details about her kette. It could be anywhere right about now. I sure how it had not sneaked out of the city’s walls.

“Let’s see, he has pure white fur all across his body. He is quite picky with his food and usually prefers the more expensive ones,” said the lady with a thinking face.

How does his food palate’s preference help me in searching for this kette? Unfortunately, that detail was the very reason how I managed to find this damn kette. I searched everywhere for it. High and low, wet and dry. I put out flyers and asked houses after houses about it’s whereabouts.

One week it took me to find this kette. ONE WEEK! I finished my first quest by taking exactly one week. And why? It was because this damn kette was enjoying its life in a fancy kette cafe. Apparently he was the main attraction of the cafe as he knew how to sit on a chair and eat from a plate on the table. I informed the owner after finally finding out where her kette went and she immediately ran towards the cafe.

Upon reaching, she barged in and found her kette still sitting on a chair. She then started scolding and pointed her index finger at her kette. A waitress in black hair was holding the owner back. All the while, the kette gave an expressionless face.

“You damn kette! I was worried sake that you were kidnapped or something but here you are enjoying expensive food! You are going to cost me a lot of money, you damn kette!” she shouted.

Rick and I decided to head out as we waited for the lady to finish her scolding. I just need her signature and my first quest will officially be completed. She came out some time after and I quickly asked her to sign off the quest. Glad she was sensible enough and signed off on the spot. Finally done!

I apologised to Rick as it took me a stupid amount of time to find this damn kette. He sighed and said that it happen sometimes. Things just never to the way you want it to. It is won’t be the first nor will it be the last, he told me. Sadly, this will not reflect well in my portfolio as it’s my first quest but I was doing it alone. There is only so many locations I can search in a day inside this huge city. And who would be expecting a kette to be inside a damn cafe?

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Now you understand why I was not eager to tell my daughter about this? That quest made me hate kettes so much that I refused to keep one at home. Alright, enough about my first quest. Time to focus on my current quest at hand.

***

I left Daisy at her school and headed towards the settlement listed in the quest letter. A yellow dragon, huh? Been a while since I hunted one. Allow me to list down on what dragon types exist in this world.

The weakest of all the dragons are the green dragon. Although I say weakest, it can still take down a thousand soldiers before falling, not to mention tanking thousands of cannon fire beforehand. Yet grandfather took down one single-handedly if you recalled. But so did I. It was a challenge for me at first but now it’s not too much of a hassle.

Next, we have the yellow dragon followed by the blue and ending with the red. Both green and red uses fire for their breath attack while yellow uses acid and blue uses ice. Why is red dragon the strongest you ask? That is because they are the biggest, meanest and toughest of their kind. Their fire breath are capable of melting even rocks in just a few seconds. Not to mention fire spreads which causes further overwhelming destructions.

How strong are these dragons though? Let me put their power in accordance to our guild ranks. Keep in mind that the power of a standard Dark Knight is estimated to be about a 1000 soldiers.

Green Dragon

Roughly 1 or 2 Dark Knights

Yellow Dragon

Roughly 2 or 4 Dark Knights

Blue Dragon

Roughly 4 or 6 Dark Knights

Red Dragon

Roughly 6 or 10 Dark Knights

Until date, I had not single-handedly defeated a blue or red dragon before. I “might” be able to solo a blue dragon but it will still be a challenge for sure. I do not wish to measure my full powers on a whim when I have a wife and daughter waiting for me at home.

I arrived at the settlement. It is clear that a yellow dragon had attacked here recently. Multiple houses were melted along with the fences or nearby trees. Quite an aggressive dragon we have here. I headed into the settlement to see if there were any survivors. I am glad there were a couple of them as I headed in and a few doors opened to see me walking by. Their expression changed from sorrow to delight upon seeing me. I guess I looked much more dependable now as compared to my younger days. I am still wearing a black cloak albeit a more superior version to what the blacksmith at ‘Holly Begonia’ sold to me years ago.

The survivors pointed me towards the direction of where the mayor is located. Upon seeing me, he went on his knees and bowed until his head completely touched the ground. He was grateful that I had finally came and begged me to get rid of the dragon that had plagued them these past months. I held his arm and pulled him up. I gave him my word that I will get rid of this dragon when it comes to attack again.

And here I was hoping that I might be able to finish this quest by noon and be on my merry way by evening. I am sorry wifey, I guess you might have to pick Daisy up from school today.

I sat on one of the roof of the few houses that had not melted and decided to meditate as I waited for the dragon to return.

You’re probably wondering as to how such a small settlement was able to afford such a request to hire adventurers to slay this dragon. First, it starts with the settlement or village informing the city about their problems and depending on the severity of the issue, the administration will decide on whether it is fit to create a quest for it.

Usually a dragon slaying request will be approved after a minor investigation and the reward will be handed out straight from the city’s treasury. Very rarely do such settlement be able to afford to hire such high ranking adventurers in the first place. In the event they do bring in some rewards, then the city will top-up from there. City Of Pines is in a much better state now as compared to how it was previously. More on that later as I can hear the dragon flapping its wings in the distance. It will be coming here soon. I guess it’s my lucky day.

“Everyone! Hide your cattle and seek shelter immediately! The dragon will be coming soon!” I shouted as loud as I could for everyone to hear.

I headed away from the settlement to look for a clearing. There, seems like a good place to fight. I looked towards the sky and saw the dragon flying towards the settlement. Most probably to steal more food or something. But the forest should have bigger preys for them to hunt than these small cattle. Something must be riling the dragons to hunt food from humans.

The dragon flew by but ignored me. I will make you notice me, then. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This is now a common routine for me whenever I prepare myself for combat. I exhaled and opened my eyes. This puts me in a Focused State of Mind. From what I learned in the City of Heliotrope Ixia, this state is called “Ekāgratā" which means to pursue a single object with undisturbed attention. For me, I just call it Concentration. Or to be more exact, Perfect Concentration.

According to Rose, my eyes starts glowing in this state. Who is Rose, you ask? More about her later.

Dragons are creatures that uses all their senses whenever they are flying to scan their vast surroundings. This is how they detect presences in their vicinity. Using Perfect Concentration will force its attention on me and solely me. State of Mind affects the surroundings depending on which state I am using, all have different effects.

Glad it worked or I’ll have to start throwing my weapons at it. The dragon is losing control over its flight path now. It can’t even fly properly now. Come on, come to papa.

Thuum!!

The dragon crash landed in front of me. Even from where I stood, I can smell its acid coated breath. Man, it stinks badly. I maintained Concentration and summoned Inazuma with the flick of my right hand. I was about to charge in to begin my attack when the dragon suddenly started talking to me.

“You…. human. Be…. ware the…. Demon King,” spoke the dragon as it struggled to form words.

I won’t lie, I was certainly taken aback. This had never happened before in my entire life. Did I somehow become a dragonborn? Since when can dragons speak? No less in human tongue. What the hell is going on right now?

“The Demon King? Isn’t he dead?” I replied cautiously.

“N— not dead… just… sealed,” answered the dragon.

“Why tell me this? Are you asking me to spare your life in exchange for this information? I’m afraid I can’t do that as you attacked this settlement and endangered human lives when you can hunt for food inside the forest peacefully,” I told the dragon.

“No…. choice… his influence… affects us,” spoke the dragon.

I had met the Demon King’s influence before but I assumed that it was just some fragment of his remnant powers. To think it is strong enough to even affect dragons. Damn it, that is bad news indeed. To think my parents sacrificed their lives just to ‘seal’ the Demon King. And here I thought they had destroyed him for good.

The dragon kept shaking its head and trashed about. Is it.. losing itself or something? Perhaps the Demon King’s influence is taking over its mind. I stood at the ready expecting it to lunged me at a moment’s notice, and indeed it did.

The dragon let out a loud shriek that almost broke Concentration. It lunged at me with it’s mouth wide opened attempting to bite me. I dodged it aside with ease. The beauty of using Perfect Concentration is that it sets your mind to be completely focused on the enemy in front of you. Extremely useful in one-on-one situation, but flawed against multiple enemies. Your mind can only focus so much in this state.

The dragon immediately followed up with a swing of its back tail. I leaped onto its back to avoid the tail. I immediately jabbed Inazuma onto the dragon’s back as I can sort of predict what it wants to do next. The dragon tried to shake me off by trashing about. I held onto Inazuma as my foothold so I wouldn’t fall off.

I was fully expecting the dragon to start flying but as it turns out, I was wrong. The dragon stopped moving and reared its head facing where I was. You got to be kidding me, is it— planning to use acid breath? Directly onto its back?! Dragons are no doubt able to use their own specific breath but that does not mean they are immune to it. Sure, they are more resistant to their own breath type but no sane dragon will be crazy enough to actually use it on their body directly.

I quickly released Inazuma and leapt away from the dragon, leaving Inazuma pierced on the dragon’s back.

And sure enough, the dragon used his breath on himself. This dragon must had lost its sanity. I should end this fight quickly before things get worse. I quickly resummoned Inazuma by flicking my right wrist again. I ran full speed and slit the dragon’s right front leg, the underbelly and left leg. The dragon roared in pain as it was badly wounded now. Not to mention, its own back is starting to melt due to its own acid breath.

The dragon spread it wings and took flight. I thought it would flee but it was just hovering above me. Is it planning to body slam me or something? It was then I saw acids building up in its mouth. Not good, the coverage of the breath will level the landscapes.

I immediately summoned Inazuma’s scabbard and sheathed it. I slotted Inazuma onto my left hips and made an Iaido stance. I need to quickly end this fight before it melts the entire landscapes nearby. With Perfect Concentration still active, my attack power is stronger. Time for me to end this. I shut my eyes and focused power on my right hand. Feeling sufficient power gathered, I opened my eyes and unsheathed Inazuma, performing a diagonal slash towards the flying dragon.

“Kirin’s Thunderbolt,” I mumbled softly. Kirin’s horn is famed for being extremely sharp and capable of generating ridiculous amount of piercing power. I once accidentally sliced off a mountain while using this spell for training. Not to mention with lightning generated from Kirin, not many beings are capable of standing up to this Celestial’s power.

We had some typical roommates drama in the past but we eventually came to an agreement. I will take care and maintain Inazuma to the best of my abilities while making it my primary weapon. In exchange, he will be lending me his powers directly.

I used the bare minimum of his powers and yet it still sliced through the ground, trees and thankfully the dragon as well. Massive amount of blood started gushing out from the wound and it fell back to the ground. I did not sliced it in half as there was no need for such an overkill technique.

I walked closer to the dragon to deliver the coup de grâce. The dragon was barely moving at this point and was mostly shaking as it was tried to stand up. The dragon moved its eyes to look at me once again. With its last breath, it spoke to me.

“T— thank you,” it rolled its eyes soon after. I guess there was no need for me to do anything further.

The dragon is dead now. And with it, comes more troubling news. The Demon King is returning. Even now, his influence is strong enough to affect strong creatures such as dragons. No wonder they started to attack settlements or villages out of the blue. I shudder to think what he is capable of when he returns. Perhaps the four great powers can help out when he officially returns. See, I told you my story has not ended yet.

Alright, I should wrap things up and return home. I looted the dragon for the heart and some of its claws. Every part of the dragon is extremely valuable but these will have to suffice. The dragon’s heart is the most valuable part of the dragon and there is no way I am not going to haul the entire corpse all the way back to the city. The fangs and claws of the dragon will make for excellent weapons while the hide can be turned into valuable armours. My current cloak is actually made out of red dragonhide soaked in black. I just like roleplaying my guild.

I left the dragon’s carcass and proceeded to the settlement to have the mayor to close the quest. A company that is known for monster corpse retrieval will be helping me to retrieve it later. This company works closely with all the guilds to help in retrieving items or in my case, a dragon’s corpse. It is usually things that adventurers find it too troubling to haul back all the way to the city.

Ending my quest, I wrote two letters and tied it up.

“Q, are you there?” I spoke loudly.

Q poked his head out of the ground and looked at me as he made a “kew” sound. Most probably wondering why I suddenly summoned him out of nowhere. Damn, is he just adorable. How cute (O kawaii koto).

I passed three letters to him. The quest’s letter, news for the guildmasters and the last one for my sensei.

“You know who to send these to, right? Thanks Q,” I said to him.

He burrowed back into the ground while biting the letters in his mouth.

Alright, time for me to pickup Daisy from school and head back. I am sure that you have a lot of questions from today’s adventure. Such as, who is Rose? When did I met with the Demon King’s influence? And who is my sensei. I promise that I will tell you all about it as the story goes along. At least I skipped in telling Daisy my first quest. All shall be revealed. Look forward to it.