“Strange. Why does no one want to join our party?” Tootha sighed.

“I don’t know, maybe try not to get into every woman’s pants.” Toby rolled his eyes.

“I’m hurt by your sharp words, my friend. What’s so wrong about praising their beauty? What’s so wrong with being a gentleman? Society is so cruel to this lonesome bard.” Tootha wiped an invisible tear from his eyes.

“Big bro Toby,” Lukas looked at the turtle.

“…Fine,” Toby said begrudgingly.

“Have you two thought of something without me knowing? Ah, my friends are reliable indeed.”

Toby squinted at the playboy vampire, “I’m warning you. Keep your hands to yourself this time. If you try something funny, don’t blame me for slapping your teeth off.”

“Hahaha, my friend, you surely jest. Why would that ever happen?”

-----

“Ah, my fair lady. Words cannot describe how your beauty illuminates the sky with your presence. If there’s a flower garden, I would surely plug the most beautiful rose and present it to y… Ack.”

Toby jumped up and slapped the perverted vampire on the back of his head before he could finish his nonsense.

“I told you I would slap you if you try something funny.”

As Tootha rubbed his head with tearful eyes, he wailed with indignity. “That was too much, my friend. How could you hit me like that? What’s so wrong about complimenting a beautiful lady through equally beautiful words?"

Toby turned to look at Lily. “Sorry for that, Lily. This is Tootha, a Bard we recruited to help with the upcoming mission.”

“…You recruited someone... unique,” Lily said as she put her book down. “And please keep quiet, this is a library.”

After Elaria’s announcement, the temporary party went to the city’s library to find Lily for one simple reason.

“Do you… want to join us for this mission, Lily?” Toby said with great difficulty.

“You sound like you don’t want me to join.”

“Yeah, why don’t you want the fair lady to…” Tootha shut up when Toby glared at him like he wanted to eat the bard alive.

“To be frank, I think this mission is dangerous and…”

“And you think I'm a burden.”

“That’s wrong, big sis Lily.” Lukas's loud voice met with the “Shhhh” of the people around him. The boy covered his mouth with his hands before continuing to speak in whispers.

“We are here because we think you are the best Mage and want you to join us, big sis Lily. Big bro Toby said he thinks this is dangerous and doesn’t want both of us to join, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I can’t give up. And I really want us to go on an adventure together.”

Lily looked at Toby, only to find the turtle’s long sigh.

“I will join you,” Lily said as she patted Lukas’s head. “What is the mission?”

“From what master Elaria said, two parties will be chosen and be trained by her and the Hero of Lighting. After that, the parties need to infiltrate the sunken ruins and get rid of the vampires nesting there once and for all.” Toby explained.

“Is there no detail plan yet?” Lily asked.

“No,” Toby shook his head. “I think they will only give us the details if we are selected.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go apply.” Lily said as she closed her book.

“Hold on, we're still missing one more person.” Toby stopped her.

“Grandpa Grillion?” Lukas asked.

Toby smirked, “Might as well get the whole team, don’t you think?”

-----

“Your application has been approved. Please wait until tomorrow for the result. Thank you.” Anya said with her cheerful smile as usual.

“Thank you,” Grillion said before turning around to leave.

“Please wait, there’s a message for Mr. Toby,” Anya called out.

“For me?”

“Yes, please come closer.

Grillion picked Toby up from the top of his head and put him on the counter. Once he was there, Anya took out a piece of paper and showed it to Toby. The piece of paper read, “Tomorrow, come to train as soon as you can.”

Toby's eyes went wide for a second before they went back to normal. He nodded at Anya, “Thanks for letting me know.”

Toby turned back toward Grillion, “Let’s go, Gramp.”

Grillion picked Toby up, then left. After they went out of the guild, Grillion said.

“I won’t stop you from doing what you need to do, little Toby. But being safe is the most important thing. Don’t get involved in anything that would only bring trouble for you.”

“I know, Gramp. I know.”

-----

The next morning, Toby went to the training ground while it was still pitch-black outside. But when he arrived, Elaria had already been there since who knew when.

“You’re late.” She said.

“As soon as you can isn’t exactly a specific time, master Elaria.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“I see that you are still relaxed enough to make jokes,” Elaria smirked with one of her eyebrows raised.

“Would it serve me any good to wallow in anxiety instead? If I have time to worry about something all day, I would rather use that time to do something about it instead.” Toby shrugged.

“Well said,” Elaria agreed. “Let’s cut to the chase. This mission about infiltrating the ruin is nothing but a farce. I don’t know what that bastard’s goal is, but for now, he wants to bring Lukas and Voss back to the Holy Empire with him.”

“…Since they are Heroes?”

“Yes.”

“From the sound of it, I assume you neither like nor trust that guy, master Elaria.”

“What about you? Do you trust him?”

Toby shook his head. “To be honest, that guy gives me the creep. I don’t want to get anywhere near him at all.”

“That makes the two of us.” Elaria nodded.

“And you don’t want Lukas here for this talk because the boy idolized that guy too much. Which is understandable. The guy did save his life.”

“…Never trust that man, Toby. Never.” She stared at him with dead serious eyes.

“I kind of get that already, Master Elaria. What do you want me to do?”

“There are two things I want. First, keep that wolfie and your teammates safe. Second, find something that is most likely one of that man’s goals down there. I already threw out the bait, and he took it.”

“You didn’t even need to ask me about the first one. But what is down there, Master Elaria?”

Elaria didn’t speak right away. She raised her head and looked at the dark sky for a while before finally said something that Toby didn’t expect.

“Have you ever heard our sea shanty about the sunken ruins?”

“Yes, I have.”

“I won’t hide it. If my intel is correct, then there is indeed a treasure hidden down there. But it’s not the kind of treasure that anyone could get. There’s one condition that makes it so that only one person could ever get that treasure.”

“…That sounds ominous.”

“You don’t need to hide it. I already know. Just because you use a blindfold and change your eyes’ color after that man appears doesn’t mean I didn’t notice. I fought both Heroes and Guardian Beasts before. You are neither.”

“I suppose this is a threat?” Toby sighed.

“I don’t do threats, tiny turtle. If I wanted you dead, I would have already killed you.”

Toby smiled. He appreciated unhinged people like Elaira. They wouldn’t hesitate to let him know their minds. Sometimes, they even told him they hated him in his face. He preferred that a lot more than people who smiled in front of him then stabbed him in the back while still wearing that same smile.

“What would you like me to do with it, master Elaria?”

“Keep it away from that man’s hands. Do not let the other party or your party member know of that treasure’s existence. I don’t know what that treasure does, but it was hidden under the sea for a reason.”

“That’s a tall order for a Rank 2 turtle.”

“Do you think I call you here just to talk?” Elaria stood up and walked toward him.

“Eh?” Toby got a bad feeling about this.

“I’m going to train you to the point you will have nightmares just from hearing the word training.” She smirked evilly – the same smirk she had during his test to join the Adventurer Guild.

With the speed of light, Elaria grabbed Toby and dashed toward the sea. She jumped and ran on the streets, on the walls, on the roofs, anywhere she could place her feet was the path. She ran so fast that Toby could barely see as everything passed by in a blur.

Elaria made a final jump and got higher than the highest Storm-breaker Spire in the city. From the great vantage point, Toby saw the waves roar and smash into the L-shape dam as the wind howled and cut into his flesh with chilling cold. It was a surreal scene to watch the world breathe at such a height. Civilization down below felt so small and tiny compared to the might of nature. Yet, the people held on and survived despite the indifferent waves. Small, weak lanterns dotted the ground in the darkness of night. It was like the sky and the earth were reversed. The black sky was the deep abyss and the ground where the city stood became the sky, while the lanterns became the stars.

“Beautiful.” Toby couldn’t help but exclaim.

Elaria peaked at him, only to find an awed and mesmerized turtle. She smiled slightly before landing on top of the L-shaped dam.

Toby looked down from where they stood. The megastructure, at least as tall as a forty-floor skyscraper, stood firm without shaking even a little bit, even in the face of the sea's rage. Water droplets shot up from below like reverse rain and created a pure white mist cloud.

“Why do you think we built this thing, tiny turtle?” Elaria suddenly asked.

“To stop the wave?” Toby answered.

“That’s one reason,” She pointed at somewhere further away, closer to the horizon. Toby squinted his eyes, but he couldn’t see anything in the darkness. No, there was something. Something was moving beneath the sea’s surface. Something big. Very big.

“We built this thing to stop monsters’ attack.” Elaria looked at Toby and smirked.

Toby swallowed as his eyes dashed around for help. But there was no one who could answer his prayer. He looked up at the smirking demon disguised as an elf and asked awkwardly.

“You are not going to throw me down there, right, master Elaria? I’m just a weak turtle.”

“Of course not, what kind of demon do you think I am?”

Toby breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m taking you there myself. You need to kill all kinds of monsters to get used to fighting underwater and Level Up at the same time. You can Rank Up when you want, but any Level you can get will be of great use to you.”

“Wha… Aaaaaaaaaaaa.”

Before Toby could react, Elaria slid down from the dam toward the wave, disregarding the might of the sea. Toby stared at the massive waves rushing at them as he wanted nothing more than to retract into his shell and let this crazy woman take it all. But when the waves smashed into them, he felt nothing. They weren’t wet at all.

When he took a closer look, there was a thick layer of Mana around them that blocked the waves and kept them dry.

“This is something only Monks can use – manipulate and add physical properties to something as intangible as Mana. It was supposed to be a Skill only a Rank 7 Monk or above could even start to train in.” She smiled. “But that doesn’t apply to you, does it?”

When Elaria slid down to the sea surface, she kicked it as if she were kicking solid ground and shot upward, over the waves. She did it again and again as she moved above the sea. Toby sent out a wave of Mana to sense Elaria’s technique. Turned out, it was quite simple. She focused Mana at the bottom of her foot, turned it solid, then kicked that. But the masterful thing was she used barely enough Mana to create a small foothold strong enough to withstand her kick before it broke.

“If you try to study someone’s technique, don’t be so obvious. I can sense your Mana wave the moment you send it out.” She said as she kept jumping forward.

“Then what should I do?”

“Focus your Mana sense on what you want to study. If you sent out Mana wave to study the technique better, your opponent can surely feel it and overwhelm or distort your Mana wave to give you false information. Try focusing your Mana senses on the technique itself and filtering it out from the rest of the world.”

“…That sounds easy,” Toby said sarcastically.

“Don’t try to be snarky with me. Practice. Your life depends on it.”

They traveled a bit further until they reached a deserted island. Or rather, a piece of rock in the middle of the sea with nothing on it. A single flat piece of rock that was as big and wide as a two-story house.

“From now until the mission starts, you will be coming here with me to train before the others wake up for our training.”

“I have no problem with that, but why can’t they train with us?”

“Do you want to expose yourself that badly?”

“Most of them already know what I can do though. Only Tootha doesn't know. I just met him.”

“Oh.” Elaria scratched her head awkwardly at Toby’s answer. “Anyway, we can do that starting tomorrow.”

The elf quickly moved on. She must have felt embarrassed at her impulsive action. But for a Guild Master to take impulsive actions, it wasn’t a good sign.

“I need to hunt sea monsters from here, right, master Elaria?”

“Correct. You will hunt sea monsters to get used to fighting underwater and to Level Up. I suggest you don’t Rank Up unless you feel it is necessary. Many rushed to Rank Up and, as a result, fell to Level Up and trained enough to fight monsters their Rank. That was a stupid decision that caused not just their own but their party’s members' deaths too. Do not Rank Up until your level and fighting experience are sufficient. Did I make myself clear?”

"Yes, ma’am,” Toby nodded. What she said aligned with what he thought.

“Good. First, kill that.” She pointed at something beneath the water.

Toby looked at what she was pointing at.

[Lighting Eel – Rank. 2 – Lv. 6]

[Alliance: Monster – Suggestion: Gather more information]

“Eh?” Toby was speechless. Toby was Rank 2, Lv. 4, and he had never fought underwater before. How was he supposed to fight this thing?

But before Toby could complain, Elaria picked him up and threw him at the eel.