While Cecil and Lucia were talking, a group of teenagers around their age approached them. Maybe they saw how enthusiastic Lucia was explaining things to Cecil, but ever since they've sat down and started chatting, the group had been sending glances towards Cecil and Lucia and seemed to be eavesdropping on their conversation. After curiosity got the best of them, the group decided to approach the enthusiastic duo.

"Uhm, hello!" Said the person who seemed to be the leader of the group.

Lucia stopped talking and looked up. She was a little mad that someone interrupted her sweet time with Cecil, but after seeing the person who greeted her, she quickly replied with a smile, "Hi~"

The person who was in the lead was a Lizardkin girl. She had red scales covering her arms and some on her youthful face. She had long red hair and her eyes were amber with slits like a reptile. It was really fascinating looking at them. Lucia noticed that the girl didn't seem to bare any ill will so she polite in greeting her back.

After taking a look at her, Cecil glanced towards the rest of her party. There were 4 of them in total. Besides, the girl that greeted them, on her right and left were more lizardkin like her. On her left was a male lizardkin who seemed older than everyone else by 2-3 years. He had similar features as the girl in the lead and had a rather muscular build for his age.

Cecil noticed that he had a pair of swords equipped to his waist and deduced that he was either a dual-wielding swordsman...or a show off. Dual wielding weapons wasn't easy after all. You had to be masterful in your swordplay or else you're just asking to get yourself hurt. He noticed the calluses on the boy's hands and reckoned that this guy was likely the former.

Continuing on, the person on the girl's right was another male, he was shorter than the girl and the person who Cecil deduced was her brother, but he looked pretty wild. He had hair that was flaring all over like a lion's mane. He had gauntlets on his fists and he was staring at Cecil and Lucia curiously, but staying silent. The last one was a young girl who was a cat-kin. She had brown hair and a tail that had white ring patterns decorating it. She walked behind the 3 so Cecil only noticed her last.

She was almost the same height as Cecil, but just a little bit taller. It was also because of her height that Cecil didn't notice her quickly and thought that the group were only a party of 3 at first glance. The cat girl seemed to be the shy and quiet type; since she was clutching her tail insecurely and her chocolate colored eyes were darting around everywhere...

"Are the both of you in a party?"

Cecil look towards Lucia and she glanced back at him before replying to the girl's question.

"Yup, it's just a party with me and him, we also have a monster companion so that makes us a party of 3~"

"I see, well, aside your pet, it's only you two right?"

"Uhuh."

"Then would you like joining our party? The party limit is 6 anyway and we are only 4. Plus you 2, then we'd hit the limit of 6!"

"Oh, uhm... Cel?"

Seeing that Lucia did not know how to answer; Cecil took it upon himself to reply to the girl's invitation.

"Before we answer your question, I'd like to ask. Are you planning to have Forest Hill Town as your base?"

"That's the plan~, by the way, my name's Milly, a flame spellcaster. This is my older brother Miles."

She pointed to the lizardman on her right. He smiled and introduced himself, "Miles, Swordsman."

"And this is– "

"The name's Tyr, Martial Artist, how's it going?!"

Tyr, the wild haired boy that was on Milly's left quickly cut in and introduced himself in a boisterous manner. Just like his hair, his attitude was a bit wild too.

"Ok, settle down Tyr, no need to yell. We're inside the guild so don't start shouting all of a sudden. You're being rude."

"M'kay."

"Tyr is my cousin. And the shy little kitty behind us is Cathy."

"Uhm... uhh... hello... Cathy, h-healer. Nice t-to meet you."

"And the four of us are in a party called Scarlet Blaze!"

"Nice to meet you all. My name's Cecil and this is Lucia."

"Hello~ I'm Lucia, novice spellcaster and enchanter. This dumbo is a magic swordsman~"

"Ohhh, a spellcaster and magic swordsman. So the two of you have been to an academy before? Does this mean you're out to gain experience on the field?" Milly asked rather expectantly.

"Ohh, no~ We're not from any academy, not now at least. We're planning to register as adventurers before continuing our journey to enroll at the magic academy at the capital."

"Ohh, I see."

Lucia quickly replied to Milly's enthusiastic response, but was met with a rather dejected reply. After the introductions, which were kind of late, Cecil quickly cut in and raised his initial question to Milly again.

"So, back to my earlier question. Are you having Forest Hill Town as your base?"

"Oh yeah, yeah. Well, that's the plan."

Hearing that, Cecil had to reject Milly's invitation.

"I see... well, I'm sorry, but I don't think we can join your party."

"Yeah, figures." Milly replied dejectedly. "You guys are going to head to the capital after all."

"Yes, we were only planning to register as adventurers here in Forest Hill Town and accept requests while moving on our way toward the capital city, Angla."

"Haha, bummer~ it would have been great if you could join us."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Likewise, but we plan on being wandering adventurers for now. We have no plans of staying in one place for too long."

"I see, I see. Well good luck with your journey to the capital! But, before going, are you guys planning on joining the hunting game?"

"Hunting Game? Oh, you mean the Monster Hunting Event?"

"Yes, that one. If you hunt enough monsters, you could earn a pretty penny just by selling the monster materials. Not to mention the winner gets a cash reward and if you enter using an adventurer's ID, you could get promoted to a higher rank if you slay enough monsters, too!"

"Oh... that sounds interesting."

Hearing more about the Monster Hunting, Cecil's interest was piqued, especially the part where you could get promoted to higher ranks if you slayed enough monsters during the monster hunting event. It'd be much more efficient to win the event and raise ranks that way than to do low rank requests for a week or two. If Lucia and him could win the event, they could quickly raise their ranks, accept an escort quest and hurry on to the next village, town, or city.

"... does this apply to a party as well?"

"Yes! That's why we wanted to ask you two to join us!"

Cecil suddenly came up with an idea.

"I see, is it possible for us to join your party temporarily for this event only? We also plan on joining, but since its just us two, I feel that it would be safer if we partied with you, Scarlet Blaze."

Milly quickly turned to her older brother and asked, "...Is that possible big bro?"

"There's no rule that doesn't allow that. We could have them join our party only for this event."

"Awesome! We'd love to have you both on board! Even if only once just for this event!"

Cecil smiled and turned to Lucia, "Cool, then we'd be happy to join. What do you say Lulu?"

"I'm fine with whatever Cel wants~"

"Okay, then its set. We'll join your party for this event. Please look after us, even if only for this one time."

"Haha, ditto. We're happy to have you on board!"

Just as they finished talking, a guild staff called over Milly and her party's names. It seemed that their guild cards have been successfully issued.

"Oh, that's us. We'll see you later then! How about we meet up at noon at the town center?"

"Okay, we'll head over after our guild cards are issued and after we get something to eat."

"Alright, see you later then~"

After accepting their guild cards, the party members of Scarlet Blaze exited the guild and went on their way to the town square to register for the monster hunting event.

"Hey, cous. I was right wasn't I?!!" Tyr shouted.

"Hmm?"

"They were strong right?! I told you, my instincts are never wrong. Especially that short kid. He was especially strong, he had a faint smell of blood lingering on him. He's experienced in fights, that's for sure."

"Like you're one to talk, your short too! But, yeah they sure were. The fox girl, Lucia, she had a strong mana emission. She says she's a spellcaster, but she seems somewhat inexperienced. I guess that's why they said they would be joining the mage academy at the capital." Milly said wonderingly.

"Hmm. The boy had a sword on his back. Since he's as strong as you've said Tyr, it's no wonder such a small boy could wield such a large sword. I'd like to see how he'd do during the event." Miles also voiced out his thoughts.

"Don't be so serious Miles, I just hope with the addition of those two, we'd be able to cinch first place and rank up easy. I want to skip all that low rank hassle!" Tyr said carelessly.

"I-it's b-better if we b-be careful... d-during the event..." Cathy said worriedly.

"Haha, no worries Cathy! With you there to heal and back us up, we'd be able to fight with ease."

"Stop it Tyr, Cathy's right. No matter how strong those two are and how good we are as a party. We'd still need to be careful. There's no way the town would issue a monster hunting event if there was no crisis of a monster wave happening soon." Miles replied to Tyr's reckless comment.

"Yes, the amount of monsters in the forest would be much more higher than it would be normally, so caution is still necessary."

"D-don't push your s-self t-too hard... T-Tyr..."

The party, Scarlet Blaze, were talking about their encounter with Cecil and Lucia. From what Tyr's instincts picked up they assessed that Cecil, although young and short, felt like a seasoned warrior, as if he had been fighting life and death battles frequently. This was an aura that Cecil subconsciously emitted through his gaze and stance.

Although to others Cecil appeared to be lax and easy going, his aura spoke the opposite. He was always vigilant and ready to attack at a moment's notice. Lucia on the other hand had a strong mana emission due to the fact that she learned a technique where she could store excess amounts of mana that couldn't be stored inside her mana point into her 3 tails. They acted as portable rechargeable batteries that provided her with mana anytime she needed them. As for the strong mana emission, this was caused by Lucia's lack of understanding towards the technique.

The tails couldn't completely store the mana into her tails since she wasn't proficient in it, she couldn't make her tails act as complete mana points yet, hence the mana emission. The technique she was learning was an ancient technique passed down from her mother's side of the family that was tailored for her species of fox kin. The history behind this technique and lineage was pretty deep, but Lucia didn't know about it and thought that it was just a family technique that her mother created.