This is bullshit! Not only do I have twenty fucking missions to complete, but the missions are even harder! This is only my second day as a vanguard god dammit!

Zeigel grumbled throughout their search for cirakens, only stopping once they found a pack with twelve of them.

Zeigel and Saliza watched the pack from afar in a bush with Reizo keeping an eye on them from behind.

"Unlike your last mission hunting these monsters, this one requires you to collect their wings without damaging them too much." Reizo explained before disappearing.

"So ya got a plan?" Saliza asked, gripping her axe with excitement. "Do we even need a plan though? I feel like I've gotten strong enough to take them all at once."

I wouldn't mind you doing just that, but Reizo's watching me and he's gonna get all pissy again if I don't help out.

"Don't rush in alone Saliza." Zeigel said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"As your dear friend, I'll help you out." The enthusiasm in his voice didn't match his words in the slightest.

"Great! We'll launch our attack in three...two...o-"

"Wait I just said don't rush in!" Zeigel yanked her back before she could leap out of the bush.

"There's twelve of them! It's not gonna be easy fighting that many at once don't you think?"

"Eh, I like a challenge." Saliza shrugged.

"But I don't, so don't charge in just yet."

I can try setting up a trap to kill them again, but it has to be something that won't damage the ciraken's wings. No, what I need is a trap that can help Saliza kill them with ease.

----------------------------------------

The twelve cirakens roamed the forest, looking for their next prey. One of them spotted Saliza wearing thick wooden boots and shrieked to alert the rest of her presence.

"Can y'all hurry up follow me!" Saliza shouted. "I can only take these uncomfortable boots off once I've slain you all, so hurry up and get over here already!"

The cirakens chased after her as she led them to a large puddle underneath a tree.

Once all the cirakens stepped into the puddle, a bolt of lightning shot out from atop the tree and into the puddle, electrocuting everything in the puddle except Saliza who was protected by her wooden boots.

With the cirakens paralyzed, Saliza carefully trudged forth and decapitated each one until she reached the tenth one.

After decapitating ciraken number ten, she noticed her bracer glowing.

"Hey Zeigel I leveled up!" She cheerfully shouted up at the tree.

"Okay, very nice, now hurry up and kill the last two." Zeigel ordered from atop the tree.

Saliza summoned her stat screen and added two points to SPD and one into ATK. She then tossed her axe in the air and stood in front of the remaining two cirakens with her hands arrogantly placed on her hips.

When the two cirakens lunged at her with their jaws, Saliza quickly slammed both their heads against each other, leaving them dazed.

"Hoho! They seem so slow now!" She laughed.

She caught her falling axe and in one swift motion, she sliced the two ciraken's heads off.

"Nice work Saliza!" Zeigel praised her as he slowly made his way down from the tree.

"Twelve cirakens would give us 48 wings. We need 52 more wings so we're gonna need to kill thirteen more cirakens."

But this was a lot easier than I thought, especially thanks to Saliza's higher level.

"Hey." A deadpan voice behind Zeigel startled him.

"You're just doing that on purpose aren't you!" Zeigel scolded.

"I'm not."

"Bullshit! I know you are!"

"Bullshit? I understand shit but what does bull mean?"

"Err, nevermind, forget what I said. What is it that you want to tell us?"

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Once you've chopped their wings off, place them in a box and hand it over to me."

The two did as they were told, dragging the ciraken corpses out of the puddle before chopping their wings off and tossing them into a wooden box they created.

After handing the boxes to Reizo, they continued their search for more cirakens and repeated the same strategy they used to slay the twelve cirakens earlier until they reached their goal of collecting a hundred wings.

Once that was done, they went on to their next mission which was to collect some fruits.

They found an area full of trees growing the plump green fruit they were looking for, but there was a monster in the area feasting on the same fruit they had to collect.

The monster was a large bear with green rubbery hide and thick stone arms.

"Oh hey, I know what monster that is. It's a doruso." Saliza pointed out.

"That's right," Reizo nodded. "it's a three star monster. It's not quite as big as a zinite, but it has comparable strength and greater speed."

"So don't fight it then. Got it." Said Zeigel.

"Saliza, go find a glimfoot." Zeigel instructed.

Saliza did as she was told and ran off to find one. It didn't take long for her to return with a glimfoot thrashing about in her grip.

"Okay, now chuck it at the doruso." Zeigel instructed while creating two boxes.

Saliza took aim and launched the glimfoot at the doruso with a powerful throw. The glimfoot bounced off the doruso's back, getting its attention as it skittered away from the doruso who gave chase.

"Perfect. Now let's go get those fruits." Zeigel handed Saliza a box and the two got to plucking the fruits out of the trees.

Once they were done, they covered the boxes and hurried out of the area before the doruso returned.

"Well done." Reizo said as he took the boxes from them.

"Hey where're the boxes of wings?" Zeigel asked. "You didn't lose them did you?"

"It's at the gate. I'm placing all the items you've collected there."

"Oh, well that's convenient."

With this mission done, there were eight missions left. Luckily for Zeigel, the next five missions required them to collect herbs, fruits, and mushrooms.

While these missions were tedious and boring, Zeigel still preferred them over having to hunt monsters.

"This is so boooring." Saliza complained as she plucked a red mushroom out of the ground for their seventh mission.

"Hey Reizo, can you tell us a story?" She asked.

"A story?"

"Yeah, maybe tell us about your life before you became our trainer."

"That... I'd rather not talk about." He said with a hint of remorse in his voice.

"Oh come on, there's gotta be something in your past that you're willing to share with us. Just one story, please." Saliza begged.

"I..."

"Oh come on Reizo," Zeigel joined in.

I wanna hear about his past too.

Together, the two began chanting,

"Just one story!"

"Just one story!"

"Just one story!"

"Alright, alright, fine." Reizo sighed as he gave in. He took a moment to search his memory for a suitable story to tell his two trainees.

"Let's see here... I was once on a mission to investigate an area in a desert with my trainer Forran and my two teammates, Testra and Dettra . You two know how god awful water created by spells taste right?"

His two trainees nodded to his question.

"Well during that mission, I had forgotten to bring water. As punishment for being so forgetful, Dettra forbade everyone else from giving me their water and forced me to drink the disgusting spell water."

"Wait, your teammate forbade everyone form giving you water? Including your trainer?" Zeigel asked.

Reizo shrugged. "She tends to take charge of things and Forran wouldn't have any objections with it, especially after she scolded him into submission for getting drunk before a mission."

"Man, your teammate sounds like a real jerk." Saliza commented.

"She's actually a very caring person and worries about us a lot. She just wanted to teach me a lesson about being so forgetful." A faint smile briefly appeared on his face.

"But back to the story, after getting sick of forcing that terrible taste into my mouth everytime I got thirsty, I decided to try drinking water from a different source."

Reizo summoned his katana into his hand. Unlike like last time, the scabbard of his katana was blue. He unsheathed the katana to reveal a blade made of water.

"I tried to lick the water off this blade and well..."

Reizo placed the flat surface of the blade against a nearby tree. The blade of water began violently surging back and forth with explosive speed, ruthlessly shredding apart the bark of the tree.

"I think you can guess what happened."

Ouch.

"Oh my god! Was your tounge torn off?" Saliza asked in shock.

"The tip of it was, and the worst part was the earful I got from Dettra for doing something so stupid. Those ten minutes felt like hours to me."

"Geez, I hope I don't ever have to be scolded by her. She sounds so scary." Saliza shuddered.

"You don't have to worry about that, she's dead. Forran too." He said with a voice filled with shame and regret. "They lost their lives in the great vanguard massacre."

"O-Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Is this why you always look so depressed?" Saliza asked.

"I look depressed?" Reizo asked, sounding surprised.

"Most people would assume so considering how you look more emotionless than a robot." Zeigel pointed out.

"What's a robot?"

"It's uh... what I meant was um... what about Testra?" Zeigel asked, trying to avoid his question.

"Still alive. She's currently a trainer like me, but you won't see her or her trainees for a few weeks as they're all on a mission in Sadonia."

"Oh, I see. So they're in Sadonia." Zeigel nodded.

Is that a country like Mezio?

"Alright, story time's over. Once you're done with this mission, we'll complete three more and you two can take a break."

"Yes sir!" Saliza saluted and resumed collecting the mushrooms along with Zeigel.

"Psst, hey," Zeigel whispered to Saliza. "Sadonia is a country right?"

"Yeah, you don't know that?"

"Of course I know that, I'm just testing you."

"That's a dumb test."

"Whatever."

The two quickly filled up their boxes with mushrooms and handed it to Reizo who went off to place the boxes at the gate.

"I hope we get to hunt something in our next mission." Saliza said. "I'm tired of all these boring collecting missions. We should be fighting more monsters, don't you agree Zeigel?"

"Not in the slightest. I don't even understand why you like fighting monsters."

"It's fun! Don't you just enjoy the thrill of facing off against them?"

"No, what I enjoy is not getting torn apart and eaten alive by them."

"So what you're saying is, you're a wuss."

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know that valuing my life makes me a wuss."

"So you admit you're a wuss."

"I did not say that!"

"Wuss."

"Saliza I swear-"

The two stopped their bickering the moment they heard a familiar chirp behind them.

They turned around and were met with a pleasant surprise.

"OH MAI GAWD! VERNY!'

"Oh hey Verny."