"Both of you are currently rank 1 vanguards, which is the lowest rank. At your rank, both of you aren't allowed to take on missions by yourselves and are to be supervised by me during any vanguard related activities.

At rank 2, both of you will be given more independence, but I will still be in charge of you two. You're allowed to take on low ranked missions by yourselves, but it will have to be approved by me first.

At rank 3, you two will be fully independent and I will no longer be your trainer, but you will also be given more responsibilities and will be called upon for emergency missions if necessary.

At rank 4, you two will be considered as experienced vanguards and have the option to become a trainer such as myself. This is the highest rank most vanguards can reach before they retire.

Rank 5 is the highest and hardest rank you can achieve. Vanguards of this rank are given the most responsibilities as well as special missions directly from the head vanguard."

"Uh huh, I see." Zeigel nodded. "Just one question. Why do we have five missions! Isn't that too much for our first day?"

"It's too little in my opinion." Saliza added. "I'm feeling fired up! How about ten missions instead!"

Ugh, she has even more energy now after eating that stew. I'm feeling pretty invigorated too, but not invigorated enough to do five fucking missions in one day!

"We'll only do five for today, and these are relatively easy missions. You'll be gathering items for three of them and hunting one and two star monsters for the other two."

"One and two stars? What does that mean?" Saliza asked.

"Stars indicate a monster's strength. The stronger they are, the more stars they have, and the more stars they have, the more exp they give. One and two star monsters are weak enough that even a regular person can slay them. Of course, you're going to need weapons to fight those monsters, and since your levels are too low to create any weapons, I'll create them for you."

"Oh! Oh! Gimme a big axe!" Saliza said excitedly.

Reizo held his hand out and slowly created a great axe. The axe looked crude and the edge was little blunt, but it was good enough to serve as a weapon.

"It takes a lot of concentration to create anything detailed, so this is the best I can do. Once you've earned enough money, you can get some better weapons and armour at the blacksmith."

Saliza swung her axe around a few times, making Zeigel take a few steps back.

"Be careful with that!" Zeigel scolded.

"This works great! Thanks Reizo!"

Reizo nodded and turned to Zeigel. "What about you?"

"I'll get a dagger."

Even with my stats making me stronger, I still wouldn't want to carry around a heavy weapon all day.

Just like the axe, the dagger that Reizo made wasn't of high quality, but it was still usable as a weapon.

"We'll search the forest for what we need and slowly complete each mission."

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

It wasn't long before they found one of the monsters they had to hunt for their mission.

Oh you've gotta be kidding me.

One of their missions required them to slay five cirakens, and they had just found seven of them in a pack. Five of them were asleep while two were on lookout. None of the cirakens had spotted them yet, but the two lookouts were on high alert.

Zeigel and Saliza were hidden inside a bush with Reizo squatting down behind them.

"Alright, let's do this." Saliza raised her axe and stepped out of the bush, only to be dragged back by Zeigel.

"Can you please just use your brain and think for once?" Zeigel scolded as quietly as he can. "There's seven of them and two of us. Do you honestly think we can beat them all at once?"

"Of course we can." Saliza said with confidence in her voice. "We're vanguards. Vanguards are strong."

"But we're only level one you dumbass. What can we possibly do."

"Our best."

Saliza sprang out of the bush before Zeigel could grab her and rushed towards the cirakens.

"That fucking idiot," Zeigel grumbled. "Hey Reizo can you..."

He turned around and much to his dismay, Reizo was gone.

Oh god damn it! What do I do now?

His train of thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Saliza calling his name.

"Good news Zeigel!" Saliza shouted as she sprinted towards him with her axe and right hand missing. "I killed two of them! The bad news is one of them bit my hand off before it died and the other five woke up."

Behind her were the remaining five cirakens chasing after her.

"I need more time to heal my hand so can you go deal with them? Thanks." Saliza said as she leapt into the bush.

"Get out! You're gonna bring those things towards me!" Zeigel snapped as he tries to shove Saliza out of the bush.

"Then go fight them! It'll be easy! All you gotta do is swing your weapon as hard as you can like I did."

"You lost your hand fighting two of them! How am I supposed to fight five of those things at once?"

"You just gotta believe in yourself."

"I believe I'll die if you don't get out!"

While arguing with each other, the cirakens had reached them and were about to pounce on them.

In a blink of an eye, Reizo appeared behind his two trainees and pulled them far away from the cirakens.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"OH SHI-, wait, I'm alive?" Zeigel checked his body to confirm that he wasn't a ghost.

"Oh hey Reizo." Saliza waved.

"Good grief," Reizo pinched the bridge of his nose. "What exactly were you two doing?"

"Zeigel was being too big of a wuss to fight."

"It's not my fault you recklessly rushed in!"

Reizo let out a long sigh.

"The cirakens are right up ahead, still searching the area for you two. I suggest you both use this time to come up with a plan before you engage them."

"Okay. By the way, I lost my axe. Can I have another one?" Saliza asked.

"No."

"What! Why not?"

"This is your mission to complete. I won't interfere unless necessary."

"Boo."

What am I supposed to do? There's five of them and two of us! Not to mention Saliza is unarmed and I'd rather not fight those things!

"While I won't interfere, I can provide some advice that you two seem to desperately need."

Reizo turned to Saliza first. "From the way you fought Zeigel and those cirakens, I can tell that you only focus on attacking and nothing else. As a result, you often leave you wide open while attacking."

"But I heard that if I attack more than my enemy, I'll win."

"That usually only applies to vanguards with high ATK and DEF stats. I don't recommend having that mindset at your level."

"Then...I should attack less?"

"What I'm saying is, don't just focus on offense. Your defense is just as important. Pay attention to incoming attacks and try to block or evade them."

Reizo then turned to Zeigel. "As for you, have more faith in yourself."

"But there's fi-"

"You see that?" Reizo cut him off. "Without even trying, you've already given up. You doubt yourself so much that you immediately assume that it's impossible to win, just like what happened in your first spar."

"I'm not good at fighting okay!"

"Did I say you need to fight them head on?"

"No, but my only other options are to use spells, and they don't have much fire power."

"And do spells need firepower to be useful?"

Zeigel wanted to refute him, but then it hit him. He could use spells for a lot more than just attacking. Even if he couldn't create much at his level, there were still more options he hadn't consider trying out.

"I take it that you've found the answer to my question." Reizo said as he watched Zeigel creating metal in his hand.

"I did, and I think I might have a way to kill those cirakens."

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

"And...that should do it." Zeigel said as he finished laying out a large, thick patch of leaves in front of him.

"Alright Saliza, just stick to my plan and hopefully everything will work out fine."

"You got it."

"Seriously, don't do anything stupid this time."

"But I didn't do anything stupid."

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't."

"Are you two are done bickering?" Reizo asked before briefly disappearing from his spot. "The cirakens are leaving the area soon."

"Ah crap! Do it now Saliza!"

Saliza took a deep breath and shouted at the top of her lungs, "HEY CIRAKENS! I HAVE A NICE TASTY HAND THAT YOU CAN'T HAVE!"

Recognizing her voice, the ciraken immediately ran towards their direction. It didn't take long for the cirakens to be in sight. Zeigel positioned himself further back while Saliza stood in front with Zeigel's dagger in hand.

"Good luck." Reizo said before vanishing.

As the cirakens drew closer, Saliza stretched herself while Zeigel began shooting fireballs aimed at the cirakens on the sides to ensure that they'll run into his trap.

The cirakens that stepped onto the patch of leaves that Zeigel laid out had their feet stabbed by caltrops hidden underneath, causing them to either stop or significantly slow down.

Zeigel targeted two of the cirakens that had stopped moving and assaulted them with a barrage of fireballs. They toppled over from his attack and died as multiple caltrops pierced into their bodies.

Two cirakens were able to push forward and make it through the caltrops, where they faced Saliza.

She lunged at one of the cirakens and tried to slash it with a wide swing, but just as she did, the ciraken retaliated by swiping at her with its claws, forcing her back.

"Aw man, that worked earlier. Why'd you pick such a tiny weapon Zeigel?"

"Less complaining, more fighting!"

Zeigel didn't want to be anywhere near the cirakens, and he didn't want to risk risk accidentally hitting Saliza with a fireball as she was too close to them. All he could do was watch.

Unlike her axe, the dagger has a much smaller range that forces her to get close to the ciraken to attack. Any reckless attacks at that range would result in her getting slashed or bitten.

She recalled Reizo's advice and began focusing on the ciraken's movements.

"So I just gotta pay attention to what the ciraken does, right?" She mumbled to herself as the ciraken lunged at her.

She stepped back to avoid a claw swipe and dodged to the side as it tries to bite her. She noticed the other ciraken charging towards her from the right and ducked as it tries to bite her neck before thrusting the dagger into its throat, causing it to drop lifelessly to the ground.

"Nice! Just one more to go Saliza!" Zeigel cheered.

"Ha! I'm awesome aren't I?"

"Yeah, yeah,"

"I bet I don't even need a weapon to fight." She said as she tossed the dagger back to Zeigel.

"What? No!" Zeigel exclaimed. "Don't be stupid! You do need a weapon to fight!"

"Watch me!" Saliza said with confidence as she faced the last ciraken, pouring all of her focus into evading its attacks.

She sidestepped the ciraken as it lunged at her with its jaws and swayed back as it swiped at her with its claws before delivering a swift kick to the side of its head, leaving it dazed.

She then ignited her feet in flames and performed a devastating roundhouse kick to the ciraken's head, causing it to nearly twist backwards. The monster dropped lifelessly to the ground, signalling her victory.

"Haha! Did you see that Zeigel? I told you I didn't need a weapon!"

Alright, I'll admit, that was pretty impressive.

"Nice work Saliza. Now that the remaining four are dead, we can move on with...wait a second." Zeigel paused. "Weren't there five of them?"

"Zeigel look out!" Saliza yelled as she began sprinting towards him.

"What?" Zeigel turned around and found the last ciraken about to pounce on him.

Before it could reach him, Saliza kicked it out of the air and onto the ground. She then slammed her heel onto its head with enough force that it turned into a bloody pancake.

"You okay?" Saliza reached her hand out to Zeigel who had fallen over from shock and pulled him back up.

He placed a had on her shoulder and said with a trembling voice, "Sorry for burning your leg earlier. As vanguards we must always look out for each other."

That was way too scary! I really need Saliza to protect me.

"Haha! No worries! We're friends after all."

"By the way, how did you reach me so quickly? You were further away from me than the ciraken was."

"Oh yeah! I leveled up just now and put my points into SPD."

Thank god you did that. I take back everything I said about you.

"Well done you two."

"AYE!" Zeigel shrieked as he heard a voice behind him.

"Oh hey Reizo." Saliza waved.

"That was the hardest mission you two had for today, good job."

Oh good, we got the hardest one out the way.

"We'll rest for awhile before continuing with the rest of your missions." Reizo said before briefly disappearing and reappearing with Saliza's axe in hand.

"Here." He handed the axe back to her.

"Hey, you said that the bracer only allows us to create elements and heal right?" Zeigel asked. "Then come you're able to teleport?"

"I can't teleport." Reizo said before disappearing and reappearing a meter away from where he stood.

"If you're referring to this, then this is simply me moving faster than your eye can track. Once your SPD stat is high enough, you'll be able to see my movements."

"It's true." Saliza added. "I can actually see him move a little before he disappears."

"Oh, I see." Zeigel said with disappoinment in his voice.

It would've been nice if I could teleport.

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

For their next mission, they had to collect blue pointy mushrooms that grew under certain trees. These mushrooms are known as needlecaps.

Reizo had brought the two to an area that was abundant in needlecaps, but there was one problem.

A two legged monster that was six meters tall was in the area. It had the appearance of a large flightless bird with a long neck, arms instead of wings equipped with large razor sharp claws, and silver feathers covering its body.

The monster was busy eating the needlecaps and didn't notice the three vanguards hidden behind a large tree.

"That monster is called a zinite. They're omnivorous monsters and are highly aggressive." Reizo explained.

"Alright! Let's beat that thing and get our needlecaps!" Saliza excitedly rushed forward and was pulled by back Reizo. He shushed her before peeking at the zinite. Luckily, it was still busy eating the needlecaps.

"Zinites are three star monsters, one star higher than a ciraken. You can't beat them at your level." Reizo explained.

"Huh? But if it's only one star higher than a ciraken then it shouldn't be that much harder to kill right?" Saliza asked.

"That one extra star makes a big difference. It's recommended to reach level ten before fighting a three star monster."

"But we're no where near that level yet! There's no way we can kill it!" Zeigel protested.

"Then don't kill it. Your mission is to collect needlecaps. There's no hunting involved."

Reizo created a small wooden box and handed it to Zeigel.

"Fill this up with needlecaps and you can leave the area."

Zeigel looked down at the empty box.

"But I still think it's too danger-"

When he looked up, Reizo was gone.

GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!