The group of three started walking towards the largest building in the street, which was the hunters guild.

They opened the doors to find a medium-sized crowd of people chatting and laughing in various groups.

One after another, everyone’s eyes wandered towards the trio and immediately froze. A wave of silence spread across the room.

A young boy, a long and red-haired swordswoman, accompanied by a tall and youthful dragon - it was a very unusual group.

Of course, Blaze stood out the most in their group. Very few people in the world had seen a dragon in real life. For everyone in the hall, this was the first time seeing one. They started whispering to each other in hushed tones while observing the group with curiosity. But no one dared to mess with them.

The group walked straight to the receptionist, who was a young lady. Normally, she would have received them quickly and warmly, however, she too was dumbfounded at the moment, to see a real-life dragon. No words would come out of her mouth.

“Hey!” Helen exclaimed, bringing the receptionist back from her trance.

“Oh, hi! Sorry about that. Welcome to the hunters guild, how can I help you?” she asked, composing herself again.

“We would like to register as hunters,” Helen replied.

“Of course. You just have to fill these in,” the receptionist replied, handing them three forms.

Drake took a form and saw that it just asked for some basic details, such as their names, where they were staying, emergency contact information, and of course, their cultivation.

They quickly filled in their respective forms and handed them in and the receptionist collected them with a smile.

“Okay let’s see. Helen, age 20, perfect stage tempered body, Drake Reynard, age 11 and a half and early-stage…” she looked at Drake questioningly. “Are you sure this is right? It says here that you have cultivated the steel body.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Drake responded.

The receptionist almost couldn’t believe him and several onlookers also gasped in surprise. Reaching steel body at 11 and a half years was very abnormal. Even the talented Elwin had only reached steel body close to 15 years old. But Elwin practised a very average cultivation technique. It was actually a testament to Elwin’s talent that he was able to progress so quickly with an average cultivation technique.

On the other hand, Drake had almost an equal natural talent for martial arts as his brother and used an extremely rare cultivation technique passed down from a mage emperor. Hence, he was able to progress much faster.

Of course, the receptionist didn’t know that.

However, cultivation realms were easy to verify so she didn’t think Drake would lie about it. She decided to move on and look at Blaze.

“Blaze Emberclaw, 87 years old, late-stage true mage and late-stage steel body,” she glanced at Blaze. For a dragon, 87 years old was very young. Given that he would probably live for thousands of years, it was hard to say what heights Blaze would be able to reach in cultivation.

“Very well. Your details all look good to me. Would you like to register as a party together?” the receptionist asked.

“A party?” Blaze blinked, confused.

“Yes, forming a party is essentially an informal agreement you are making with each other, that you will take on missions together and work as a team.”

“Oh, that sounds great,” Blaze replied, looking at Helen, then Drake, and added, “If you guys are okay with it as well, I mean.”

“Of course,” Drake responded and Helen nodded in agreement.

“Wonderful. In that case, I will just note down a few things…” she started writing a couple of things but was done in a few seconds. “Okay. I have registered you three as a party together. Given your details, I can make you an iron class party.”

“Iron class?” they all looked confused.

“Hunter parties are categorised into classes of copper, iron, platinum, mythril, and adamantite, which is similar to cultivation realms, but are based on the overall strength of the party instead. It shows roughly what class demons and onis your party could take on, to help you choose missions.”

“I see,” Drake replied. “How do we go about selecting missions?”

“Please, come with me,” the receptionist said, standing up and straightening her skirt, before leading the party to a board which had a bunch of posters nailed to it. “These are the missions we have available, and the top right shows roughly what class party could take it. You can take on any missions that are at your class or lower.”

“I see, that makes sense,” Helen nodded.

Drake scanned the board and spotted various missions, ranging from defeating demons, collecting herbs, collecting demon materials, protecting travellers, etc. One particular mission caught his eye.

“How about this one?” Drake asked, pointing to a poster.

It was a mission to investigate and clear out a pack of demon monkeys that had made camp in a forest area near the town. It was an independent forest, not connected to the Beast Woods, but still contained some demons, such as the demon monkeys this mission was talking about.

Most of the demon monkeys were estimated to be servant class, with a few warrior class, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for their group, however, the reward was very generous.

Stolen story; please report.

Drake looked at Blaze and Helen who both didn’t seem to have a problem with it, and then at the receptionist. She took the poster and scanned it once more to check it was okay.

“Very well, this seems good for your party. I will allocate this mission to you immediately.”

After completing some more formalities, the mission was allocated to them. The group rented a carriage and started making their way to the designated area.

The carriage was relatively small, much smaller than the luxurious carriage Hazezel had prepared for their four-month travel to Basindale. However, unlike with such a long trip, they needed speed much more than comfort now. So, a light, cheap carriage pulled by strong horses that would get them to their destination as soon as possible was what they chose.

Drake and Helen were sitting squashed next to each other, while Blaze sat opposite to them, with his large, wrapped sword laid to rest on the side.

“That’s a pretty cool sword,” Drake said.

“Thanks,” Blaze replied happily. “It was a gift given to me by my tribe to help me while I’m out on my journey.”

“Oh, is it an artifact then?” Drake asked.

Blaze nodded, “Indeed, it’s a rank three artifact,” Blaze replied casually.

Rank three artifact!

Drake and Helen gasped.

Drake had never seen such a high-ranked artifact before. Out of their three villages, possibly only the elves had a few rank three artifacts, created by Myra Wan. Jain and Leon villages only had a few rank two artifacts at best, which were mostly kept in the treasury and occasionally used by the village elders.

“Wow, that’s impressive,” Drake said, amazed.

“Is your armour an artifact too?” Helen asked curiously, looking at his loose leather armour and boots.

“No,” Blaze replied. “But they are made from everlast leather to facilitate our dragon form without tearing.”

“Everlast? Dragon… form?” Helen asked confused.

“Dragon form,” Blaze explained. “It’s the name of the technique to transform our bodies into actual dragons.”

Drake and Helen slightly gasped in surprise but Blaze continued.

“And everlast leather is a special type of leather that is extremely flexible so it won’t tear during our transformation. It is also very durable and naturally provides defence equivalent to a rank one defensive artifact.”

“Wow that’s incredible! Then, can you transform into a dragon, Blaze?” Helen asked excitedly.

“Haha, sadly no. I would need to become an adult and practise lots of time to be able to do that. However…” Blaze grinned before continuing, “I can transform an arm or a leg into that of a dragon.”

“That’s crazy,” Drake said. “Can you show us?”

Blaze shook his head. “It consumes a lot of mana, so I don’t want to use it now. I might use it in battle sometime if the need arises.”

“Cool, I bet it would be amazing,” Drake replied.

Blaze smiled. “What about you guys? Tell me about more about you. I don’t know much about humans either so I’d love to learn more,” he asked curiously.

Though Blaze was old by human standards and clearly quite powerful, he still carried a youthful curiosity. Combined with his friendliness, he had the personality of someone young, reflecting the fact that Blaze was quite young in dragon years. Seeing his demeanour, no one would believe that he was actually from the fearsome dragon race.

Helen looked at Drake and he began to talk a bit about their background, how they came from the Jain village close to the Beast Woods, having to flee due to dark mages. He left out the part where Hazezel destroyed his mana core, which he kept from everyone except Helen. And even Helen only knew that his mana core was destroyed and didn’t know that Hazezel had caused it.

Drake just didn’t feel comfortable sharing his weakness with anyone. Especially after being betrayed by Hazezel, he chose to be more wary of people and didn’t want to tell them any information they could potentially use against him.

So, Drake simply explained that their entire village including most of his family had died, apart from his sister who had fled to Duskville just before the final demon invasion.

Blaze listened intently and clenched his fists, listening to the story.

“I’m… so sorry,” he said melancholically.

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault,” Drake replied.

“Yes, we did our best to fight them, but there was nothing else that could be done,” Helen added, though her tone suggested that she was trying to convince herself as well along with Blaze.

For a while, the carriage became quiet as everyone ruminated their own thoughts about the tragedy.

“We’ve arrived!” the driver announced, pulling the horses to a stop.

The group looked outside to spot a couple of trees which quickly turned into a dense forest further ahead.

Everyone exited the carriage.

“Thank you,” Drake said to the driver. “Please wait here, we’ll be back soon.”

“Sure thing,” the driver responded, stretching his arms before relaxing back on his seat and closing his eyes, clearly tired from the drive. “Let me know when you’re back.”

Drake nodded and the group started to make their way into the forest.

The camp of the demon monkeys was actually not too deep within the forest. They estimated a fifteen-minute walk at most, but it was possible that they might encounter other demons along the way which would delay their journey.

So, the group walked through the forest warily. Drake and Helen had their swords unsheathed, and even Blaze had unwrapped his sword and was holding it forward with both hands. It was a large, black, and magnificent sword. Engraved along its length were three runes, consequently granting its wielder three abilities.

Drake wondered what they did but decided not to ask. He would find out soon enough.

The group managed to reach the camp without any surprises. Hiding behind a tree, they looked into the distance.

Drake activated acute sense to zoom in and spotted two servant class demon monkeys hopping from one tree to another. Behind them, several more demon monkeys were hanging from different trees. They were all servant class as well, but the mission said that there were some warrior class demon monkeys too.

Although they didn’t pose much of a threat to their group, it would be troublesome if they were taken by surprise, so they had to be careful.

“I will launch a surprise attack,” Blaze whispered to the others. Drake and Helen looked at each other and nodded.

Blaze focused on the monkeys again.

‘Dragon step!’ he whispered, activating his martial technique. Immediately, Blaze’s body turned into a fiery mist and disappeared.

‘So fast!’ Drake thought. His acute sense was just about able to keep track of Blaze, who had now silently moved much closer to the monkeys. The monkeys who were playing in the trees still didn’t notice him.

Using this opportunity, Blaze raised his sword and poured his mana into it. The central rune was activated and started glowing bright red.

“Firestorm!” Blaze shouted. Immediately, a whirlwind of fire appeared around him and shot towards the monkeys, burning through the trees.

The demon monkeys shrieked in fear but the attack was so close that they couldn’t react in time. The group of several demon monkeys were instantly incinerated, their cries drowned by the loud explosion, leaving behind a large clearing of burnt trees, smoke rising into the air.

Drake and Helen quickly approached Blaze.

“Good job! That was very cool!” Drake said excitedly.

“Thanks,” Blaze replied, but then his eyes became serious. A large number of ominous cries could be heard all around them, rapidly getting closer.

The group stood with their backs against each other on high alert, ready to face the demon monkeys’ retaliation.

Over sixty different monkeys appeared, some wielding sticks and poles, and others, menacingly bouncing large rocks in their palms as they all stared daggers at the group. A dozen of the monkeys were warrior class.

“Let’s do it like this. I take this half, you two take that half,” Blaze whispered to Drake and Helen. They had no issues with it and agreed.

Drake whispered to Helen, adding “I’ll take care of the warrior class demons first, you hold back the servant class demons till I’m done.”

“Yes, master Drake!” she replied immediately. As a tempered body martial artist, Helen was the weakest in the group so she could not fight the warrior class demons. However, she was in the perfect stage tempered body, so it would be easy for her to deal with most servant class demons.

Having agreed on a plan, they all made their moves.