I walked slowly along the narrow corridor of the ship, peering as nonchalantly as I could into each room. To those insides, I probably looked as if I was searching for someone, some friend or group of confidantes with whom to pass the time during the trip, and this was intentional. The last thing that I wanted anyone to notice was that, despite the brave act I had displayed with my sisters, Mocha and Vanille when I left home, I was nervous. My stomach knotted and churned as if I'd had gulped down a bottle of expired milk.

With a sigh, I opened the door at the end of the corridor and stepped carefully through the stairway into the lower floor. The first room that I peeked was full of girls. They were talking animatedly to one another, already apparently the best of friends despite the fact that, most likely, they had only just met. One of them glanced up and saw me staring. I quickly looked away, pretending to admire a flower painting on the wall. Feeling my cheeks go a little red, I continued down the corridor.

"If only Mocha has reached level 20 she'd be here with me."

Yes, Mocha was my lil sis and I knew it was a little bit embarrassing to have the same level as her. But it would've been nice to have at least one familiar face along with me.

It wasn't that I was worried about going to Astaria, a landlocked sovereign city-state located near Amazon jungle. In fact, I'd been looking forward to this day for most of my life, ever since I was old enough to understand that my father was the one who saved the world... Three times.

I was positively itching with anticipation of my first quest, of meeting with new friends and created a party, but more than anything, I was looking forward to receiving my first Class and entering a portal, and maybe, just maybe... I could live up to my dad's reputation.

But the moment I entered this ship, was where my excitement began to melt into cold anxiety. I suddenly remembered the story, told to me dozens of times (although never by my own dad) of how the young him had cleared his second Portal on his first try, by driving his fist into Rank S Variant's cheek.

The teller of the tale, one of dad's former party member, Uncle Sushi would always laugh uproariously, delightedly, and if Dad was there, he'd smile sheepishly while scratching the back of his head as Uncle Latte clapped him on the back.

Yep... There was no way I could beat or even have that kind of a record in my life. The best I could hope for to match dad's record was to close one portal before my eighteenth birthday, or at least that was what everyone would expect of me, the first-born son of the hero.

But what if I couldn't clear a single portal, as my dad had done? What if I wasn't as good on combat? What if I was slow, or weak, or straight up useless? What if I didn't even clear the first floor? That would only be a mild disappointment.

Not to mention the rules for entering a portal had been changed, very few new adventurers ever entered a Portal. For me, however, that would mean I already hadn't measured up to expectations. I would already have failed to be as great as the great Piccolo Latte. And if I couldn't even measure up to my dad in terms of something as elemental as entering a portal, how could I ever hope to live up to his legend?

I stopped in the corridor, suddenly overcome by a cold certainty that the worst had already happened, I had already failed miserably even before I'd begun to try. I felt a deep, sudden stab of homesickness and blinked back tears, looking quickly into the next room.

There were two bunk bed, one for each side just like the other rooms. Between them were two sofas and a table. There were two boys inside, neither talking, both looking out the window as the waves rolling in and out.

I opened the door and blundered in quickly. The two other boys turned their attention to me. One was seated on the same side as me, closer to the window. He was thin, with a square head, close-cropped black hair, and dark skin. It didn't take long before he turned his attention back and was flipping lazily through a book called Class Tier: What to Know for a New Adventurer. I'd seen copies of those being sold from a small stall on the pier. On the cover, a good-looking young adventurer was winking. When the boy flipped the cover backwards and settled in to read one of the articles, his foot was tapping with a somewhat relaxing rhythm on the floor, following the rhythm of whatever kind of music he was listening through his headphones.

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I figured out he didn't have an intention to talk, so I turned my attention to the boy across from me, who was looking at me openly, smiling.

"I've got a dog." said the boy, out of nowhere. I blinked at him while tilting my head, and then I noticed the box sitting

on the seat next to the boy. It had a hinged grate for a door and a small grey pug could be seen inside, lounging and licking its forepaw.

"You aren't allergic to dogs, are you?" the chubby boy, with a round face and bowl-cut orange asked earnestly.

"Oh. No," I replied, "My Uncle has a big old of a dog. I've never had a problem with it."

"That's good," The boy answered matter-of-factly. He had a high-pitched and fast manner of speaking that I found a

little amusing. "My mom and dad are both allergic to dogs so we could never have one, but I like them. When I saw that I could bring a dog, I knew that was what I wanted. This is Split. He has a forked tongue, see? It's not particularly special, I suppose, but it makes him interesting. What'd you bring?"

"I've got a slime. He's been in the family for a few years. I wanted a wolf cub, but my dad says a boy should start his adventure with a slime. He says there's no more useful animal... If you could call slime as one, for an adventurer, but I think he just wanted me to have one because he had one."

The boy grinned happily. "Wow! So your dad is an adventurer, too? Mine isn't. Neither is my mom. I'm the first in my family. Even right now I still couldn't believe it that I'm going to Astaria!"

Hearing the boy made me wondered, as I sometimes did, what life was like as a normal person, and sometimes I envied them. You know, just having a normal life where your father could attend your birthday party or just a day without some black uniform guys kneeling in front of your house while begging for the hero to do something for their country.

"Anyway, my name's Zefir Konfeti. Good to meet you!" Zefir reached across the compartment to shake my hand in a gesture that was so guileless and automatic that I almost laughed. I shook Zefir's hand happily, relieved to have so quickly made an

acquaintance. "I'm happy to meet you, too, Zefir. My name's Kofi  Kofi Latte."

"Your last name's Latte?" This came from the third boy in the room. He'd removed his headphone and lowered his book a little.

"Latte... that's the black bitter drink, right? Blegh... I've drunk one, but just the thought of me drinking another is enough to make me sick."

"Just out of curiosity, are you related to this Latte person?" Said the thin boy, ignoring Zefir. "Only I'm reading about him right here in this 'Brief History of the Most Influential Adventurers' article. Seems like he was a pretty big deal."

Messy curly black hair, medium build, long and curvy eyelashes with thick eyebrows... Yep, no matter how many times I saw Dad's photo when he was young, I had enough confidence to say that we looked the same, except for the fact he wore an eyepatch and my eyes were still perfectly sat in their socket.

"Oh, He's my dad. He's less of a big deal when you see him drinking coffee in his boxers each morning though."

The thin boy raised his eyebrows, frowning slightly. "Huh, says here he defeated the most dangerous variant ever.

Some variant named, umm…" He glanced down at the book, scanning it. "It's right here somewhere..."

"You mean the chromatic dragon Haze Dragal, right? Well... it's true," I said. "But really, that was a long time ago. Now he's just an old man."

"Huh..."

To be honest, I was surprised with his bland reaction. Maybe my dad wasn't that big of a deal after all?

"Wait, wait, wait, so your father is THE hero?!" Zefir shouted and leaned forward earnestly, he was watching me with interest. Maybe he really was a big deal?

"He just said it, right?" Said the thin boy, putting aside his book and taking his headphone off. "Name's Samosa, by the way, Samosa Rusks."

Samosa stopped talking for a second before he continued. "I've been trying to get the gist of Adventuring since I stepped into this ship, but hey, since we have the son of a hero in this room, why don't you share one or two advice before we reached Astaria?"

"Oh! Oh! That's a good idea actually, and can I ask for your autograph after you finished with your advice?" Zefir said, turning to dig into his backpack and taking out a piece of pen and paper.

"Well... Even though you guys asked me that, I don't think I can give you any... I mean, everyone has their own advantages and disadvantages, right?" ...At least that was my father told me whenever I asked for a piece of advice, "And why do you even want my autograph?"

Though, to be honest I was surprised and pleased to find that I wasn’t nervous anymore, or at least not much.