Zeigel and Saliza made their way down to the lobby and spotted Layda at the receptionist counter.

"Hey guys." Layda greeted them with a wave. "I just finished picking out your missions."

"Hi Layda!" Saliza waved at her. "So what missions are we going on today?"

Layda gave her a brief look of surprise before answering. "Uh, we're doing five hunting missions."

"Hey Layda, can we go on a few more?" Saliza enthusiastically asked and received another look of surprise.

"Do you guys always address Reizo as just 'Reizo'?" Layda asked.

Saliza nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"And he hasn't said a thing about it?"

"Why would he?"

"Well, it's a common courtesy for rank 1 and 2 vanguards to address rank 4 and above vanguards as 'master' since more often than not they'll be learning from them." Layda explained. "But if Reizo has never addressed it, then he probably doesn't care how you address him."

"Oh, so should we call you master then?" Saliza asked. "It feels kinda weird though."

"Yeah, it makes it sound as if I'm your servant or something." Zeigel added.

"It's fine if you two don't want to call us masters. Laren doesn't call me or Coronis that either."

"Okay great. Can we go on more missions then, Layda?" Saliza asked.

"Five is enough! Stop asking for more!" Zeigel snapped.

"Sorry but I'd rather not go on more missions. Five hunting missions with only two vanguards is going to take awhile to complete." Said Layda. "I'm already being forced to do extra work because of that jerk Reizo going on yet another trip, so I'd rather not prolong it any longer." She grumbled.

"Aww." Saliza hung her head low. Seeing this, Layda continued.

"But if Testra and Coronis still hasn't brought the other trainees out to complete their missions by the time we return, then you might be able to tag along with them."

"Oh right! Come on Zeigel! Let's finish up these missions quickly!" Saliza rushed off to the gate.

"Hey wait up!" Layda went after her, leaving Zeigel behind.

"Yeah sure, just go on ahead without me. It's not like I have a much lower SPD stat or anything." Zeigel grumbled to himself.

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Saliza sprinted through the forest, searching for one of the five monsters they had to hunt. Layda followed her from behind while carrying Zeigel under her arm.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, what are your levels?" Layda asked.

"We're both level 11." Zeigel told her.

"You're both level 11 already?" Layda sounded surprised. "I guess it makes sense considering how many missions you two had to go on."

"Found one!" Saliza called out to the two behind her. Her loud voice alerted the Doruso up ahead. It let out a vicious roar and charged towards her.

Layda set Zeigel down and stepped away from them. "Alright guys, time show me what you've got."

Saliza turned to Zeigel, not caring about the incoming monster behind her. "Hey Zeigel, do you mind if I take on this doruso myself? I wanna see if I can kill it myself this time."

Zeigel shrugged and backed away. "All yours."

"Are you sure you can handle a doruso by yourself?" Layda asked. "They're quite tough to defeat alone at your level."

"Don't worry, I'm pretty strong." Saliza told her with her back facing the nearing Doruso.

Before it reached Saliza, the doruso raised one of its thick and heavy arms. Saliza backflipped over the doruso before it could slam its arm down onto her and landed behind it. She then grabbed its hind legs.

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"Let's see if I'm strong enough to pull it off." Saliza muttered to herself. She twisted her body and flung the doruso away. It smashed through a tree and got back up as if it had barely taken any damage from it.

"Alright, it's not that heavy. I can definitely pull it off!"

"Oh wow, she's actually doing quite well by herself." Layda commented.

Zeigel turned his head and looked at her a little surprised. "Eh? You're still here?"

"Of course I'm still here, I'm your temporary trainer after all. I can't exactly abandon you guys, otherwise Reizo's gonna kill me."

"Oh no, it's just that Reizo usually disappears when we're fighting monsters."

"...I'm definitely talking to him about that when he gets back."

The doruso charged at Saliza again and she casually walked towards it as if it wasn't a threat. Right as the doruso raised its arm to attack, Saliza dashed towards it with explosive speed.

She threw a swift uppercut to the doruso's jaw before it could bring down its arm, knocking its head upwards. She then moved behind it and wrapped her arms around its body and proceeded to suplex the doruso with enough force to bury its head into the ground.

She ripped her axe off her back and dashed to the doruso's exposed belly, slashing it wide open and spilling its guts all over the floor.

Saliza threw her arms up. "Whoo! One down, four more to go!"

Layda let out a low whistle. "Impressive. Your skills might just be on the same level as Laren and Illia."

"Are they strong?" Saliza asked.

"Well, Laren's a Wreistar and Illia is almost as talented as him, so yeah, they're strong."

"Whoo! I'm better than a Wreistar!"

"Hey whoa, that is not what I said." Layda quickly corrected her. "Also don't go around insulting the Wreistars. I nearly got in trouble with one of them over a joke."

"Huh? Aren't they supposed to be heroes or something?" Saliza asked. "It's not very heroic to start trouble over a joke."

"Just try not to offend them." Layda told her. "Nothing good ever comes out of pissing them off."

"Yeah, or try to avoid those oversensitive piss babies as much as possible." Zeigel added.

Layda was left stunned after hearing what he called them and gave him a look of concern. "L-Lets just not say anything around them."

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

After running around the forest for close to ten minutes, Saliza was able to find the next monster they had to hunt.

"Look," Saliza pointed at a giant snake with smooth stone scales coiled up and asleep. It was large enough to swallow entire cars whole. "I found the slithone."

Zeigel stared at the giant snake with a look of disgust.

Ugh, snakes. Not nearly as creepy or gross as spiders and roaches, but they're still creepy.

"Alright, let's get this over with." Zeigel aimed the tip of his sword at the slithone's head and charged up as much mana as he could into a spell.

"Hey! Wake up and fight me!" Saliza shouted at the slithone, waking it up from its slumber.

"You fucking idiot!" Zeigel screeched. "Why did you do that! I could've killed it while it was asleep!"

"Yeah, why sabotage yourself?" Layda asked in confusion.

Saliza readied her axe, giddy with excitement to face a new monster. "Where's the fun in killing a sleeping monster?"

The slithone raised its head and hissed at the three vanguards infront of it. Zeigel fired a fully charged lightning bolt at the slithone, but the giant snake was aware of his attack and swiftly shifted its head just in time to avoid it.

God damn it Saliza!

"Bring it on!" Saliza rushed towards the slithone. The slithone uncoiled itself and lunged towards Saliza with its large gaping maw wide open. It came at her faster than she had anticipated. She dodged to the side right before the slithone reached her.

"Hoho, a fast one. This could be fun." Saliza set her axe ablaze, enthusiastic to fight an opponent other than Reizo who could match her speed.

Before she could launch another attack, a pebble landed between her and the slithone. A bright flash of lightning shot out of the pebble, blinding the two.

"Ah! My eyes! What did you do Zeigel!" Saliza wildly swung her axe around while healing her eyes.

Once her vision returned, she found the slithone dead with roots protruding out of its skull. On an area of its body not too far from its head was Zeigel pulling out his sword that was buried in its flesh. Around the blade of his sword were roots that he was burning away.

Okay, so if I create a small object and register it as an equipment, I can throw them and cast any spells or skills through it and turn it into a bomb. Of course this means that I have to have one spare equipment slot for it, but right now it's not an issue for me since I have two unused slots.

"Hey! You ruined my fight!" Saliza complained.

"You're the one who ruined an easy kill! You're basically pulling a Reizo!" Zeigel shot back.

Layda gave him a confused look. "Pulling a what?"

"That bastard Reizo sabotages us during some of our hunts!" Zeigel explained.

"...I really need to have a chat with him when he gets back." Layda muttered.

"I don't remember Reizo sabotaging us." Said Saliza.

"That's because you're an oblivious dumbass!" Zeigel growled.

"Says the guy who drinks detergent and eats monster feed!"

Despite it being less than half an hour since their missions started, Layda was somehow already feeling tired. "Look, I know you two don't like each other that much but-"

"What?" Zeigel cut her off. "Who said that we don't like each other?"

"Yeah, we're friends. What makes you think that we hate each other?" Saliza asked.

"I-I didn't know that okay. You two bicker a lot so it's hard to tell that you guys are friends." Layda quickly defended herself. "Maybe you two should try being nicer to each other."

"But we're already such good friends. Hey Saliza, I'm a good friend to you right?" Zeigel asked.

"Yeah. I'm a good friend to you too, right Zeigel?"

"Yeah. We're like amazing friends to each other."

"We're the bestest of friends."

"We both have PhDs in friendship."

"We pretty much have the best friendship in the world. "

"Friendship so good that it's better than marriage."

"Our friendship is something that needs to be studied."

"We can even weaponize our friendship and kill monsters with it."

"Yeah! let's kill the next monster with the power of friendship!"

"We're gonna show those anime protagonists how it's done!"

"No idea what that means but yeeeaaahhh!"

With their arms around each other's shoulders, the two trainees went off to search for the next monster, leaving Layda scratching her head as she watched them.

"I really don't get those two..."