Chapter 1

It took a few years for the many cities on the continent to recover from the sudden attack of the black dragon. The collective people were resilient and hardy folk; the cities and towns on the outside recovered quickly as to restore trade and the flow of resources. The capital took a bit longer but, being the place where the dragon fell, the people were eager to help. It was around the same time a nobleman and courtier of the king suggested forming an adventurer's guild to aid the normal folk. Their members would travel far and wide to lend assistance wherever it was needed. This would not only bring praise to the royal family but if they traveled to other lands that were allied to them, would also strengthen their ties and alliances.

The king was impressed and readily agreed to support this beneficial endeavor. Thus, Aruran Daiso established the headquarters of the adventurer's guild in Rivirapolis. He also made an effort to link up with Sireos' School of Might and Magic to provide a place of work once the students leave or graduate from it. All adventurers both of this world and outside of it were welcome, as the noble did proudly proclaim. Quite a number of people accepted. Many more traveled to the capital when word of this new guild spread.

Travel boots crunched softly on the gravel. A young girl in clothes colored orange, blue, and white looked at the rebuilt city in awe. She continued to walk down the street, her ox-horn styled hair bobbing up and down. She paused to look at the piece of paper and started to make her way down another road. After a few more minutes of walking, she caught sight of a large building that was across a bar called Robel. It was two stories high, made of brick and wood. It looked very sturdy and the open double doors were brightly painted and inviting. She crossed the road, eager to go in and sign up. Then…

"KIRA!"

...she heard two shouts coming from inside the building, startling her. A second later, a blue-haired young girl ran out with bagpipes draped across her shoulder, the sound of laughter trailing behind her. Another second, then two guys ran out after her. One had pink hair and had black, segmentation lines over his arms and head. The other had black hair and wore a hooded robe that hung back loosely as he ran. She watched dumbfoundedly as the trio ran down the street.

"Strange," said a soft-spoken voice behind her. Looking around, she saw a beautiful blue-haired elf in fine blue clothes. Floating behind her was a cute white thing in a pot. Was it a mini-bear? A mouse? She couldn't really tell.

"Hello, my name is Nene Momosuzu," she introduced herself, holding out her hand, "Are you here to join the guild too?"

"Lamy Yukihana. Pleased to meet you," she replied politely, "Yes, I am."

Nene grinned, "Oh, that's great. I hope we can be good friends. Let's go sign up!"

Lamy nodded and smiled. They immediately went inside. Several feet from the door was a counter, manned by a cute, red-haired man in a white uniform. He smiled at them as they came up to the counter and greeted, "Welcome to the guild. My name is Miyabi. How may I help you?"

"We would like to sign up, please," spoke up Nene.

"We would like to join up too," spoke up a voice as its owner stepped up to the counter. She looked human save for a set of animal ears as well as shaggy, long whitish-grey hair that framed her head like a lion's mane. Beside her was a smiling girl with fox ears on her head. The lion girl wore dark traveling clothes while the fox girl had bright, colorful traveling clothes.

"Certainly," replied Miyabi with an ever-present smile, pausing to retrieve something from under the counter, "Please prepare five gold each for registration. Then, I shall help you fill out the forms, so please, if you would take turns to tell me your particulars. Once I fill these forms, I shall help you get acquainted with the guild house." He placed several pieces of official-looking papers, an open ink bottle, and a quill.

"...And we're done," declared the guild clerk with satisfaction, "Right, so if you look to your right, there is a bulletin board." He then motioned to his left, drawing everyone's attention. "This is where we put one-time requests for help. You'll get paid depending on the request. The side room to your right is a waiting room where you can relax to do your own stuff. Upstairs, we have several rooms where you can rest for free if you wish to spend the night. If you need food and drink, Robel across the street can accommodate you. The bartender's name is Roberu and let him know you're with the guild to get a discount. We have an agreement with him so if there are any emergencies or urgent quests, I'll head over and announce it myself. Erm, we have a basement… but it's currently not used for anything and Lord Daiso forbade anyone from going downstairs. So, any questions?"

"Any quests we can go on right now?" asked the fox girl, who introduced herself as Polka Omaru during registration.

"Hmm, let me see," muttered Miyabi as he stepped around the counter to scrutinize the board. After a few seconds, he pulled a piece of paper off and handed it to her, "Here. If you go with them, I'm sure this request could be done in no time."

"Ah, thanks!" she exclaimed happily before reading it aloud, "Two hundred silver pieces minimum… help with pest culling in… the… sewer… ew." She wrinkled her nose a little at the thought.

"I suppose that's fine… " murmured the lion girl, who called herself Botan Shishiro, "After all, we should start somewhere..."

"That's the spirit," praised the guild clerk with an encouraging smile, "I'm sure you will go far if you keep your mind to it."

"Right, let's go then," cheered on Nene, "So, who do we see about this?"

After stowing their stuff and getting directions to the sewer cleaners guild, the new party headed there immediately after the half-snow elf asked her snow sprite to guard her belongings. Nene hummed a jaunty tune with Polka whistling along. They were welcomed by the vice-leader of the guild, a rather young man with fiery red hair.

"Right, nice to see new blood willing to help out," he stated as he led them downstairs to the sewers entrance. Before he opened the metal door, he warned, "Right, cover your nose."

The smell wasn't as bad as expected, though their half-animal party mates were gagging a little.

"Right, the smell shouldn't be as bad at this time of year," he informed them before they went in, "Also… try and keep a tally of what you kill down there. Maybe, for example, rat ears or some small body part if you wish to keep count that way. Try to bring at least ten at minimum. Ten silver each for any extra. Oh, and knock as loud as you can if you're done."

"That sounded a little barbaric," murmured Lamy as the door closed behind them.

"It sounded fine," rebutted Botan, "If you're that disturbed, I'll keep count then."

"Fine with me," the half-elf agreed.

The party then made their way down the sewers. True enough, the smell wasn't overwhelmingly strong, but it was disturbing enough that they frequently had a grimace on their faces. Green tinted water flowed through the middle of the tunnels and all they heard were sounds of dripping water. Eventually, they could hear faint chittering and squeals in the background. At first, they couldn't tell where the sounds were coming from but eventually, a loud enough creak drew their attention. What they saw sent shivers up their collective spines.

A sizable group of giant cockroaches was skittering around a mound of fresh waste and trash.

"Erm… we don't have to fight them, right?" whispered Polka, "They don't look like the rats we're looking for."

"But don't these count as pests too?" asked Nene.

"...Disgusting monsters," murmured Lamy in revulsion as she clutched her amulet.

"I think we should try and kill them as fast as we could," decided Botan as she nocked an arrow to her shortbow.

"Will we be able to… what was that?" started the half-snow elf when she heard some loud squeaking behind her. The party glanced around and were surprised to find rats. Giant rats.

"...This looks bad… and I think the giant cockroaches noticed us too," warned the bard as she pulled out her rapier and a dagger.

"Ha… alright, let's put them down," the lion girl sighed while the fennec girl played with a dart on one hand. Thankfully, there was only enough space for two on two fights to stand on the raised areas above the drain.

Nene threw her dagger at the giant roach that tried to attack Botan, causing it to skitter back in surprise. Meanwhile, the rats lunged at the lion and the fennec, biting their legs. The former shook hers off and used her claws to disembowel it. The latter kicked hers into the air and kicked it again into the drain, sending it into the soup of muck with a plop. They repeated those actions with the other two rats while the bard skewered the roach that attacked her. Lamy, who had blessed the others beforehand, healed the fennec monk as she looked a little shaken by the rat bites. She then ran forward and slammed her mace on one roach, breaking through its body and splattering its insides over the floor.

"Lamy, can you boost me in there?" asked Nene suddenly as Botan and Polka killed off another two roaches.

Getting a nod, the bard jumped onto the cleric's shield, who pushed her to the front and into the middle of the pack of giant cockroaches. As she landed, she shouted an arcane word and the sound of a thunderclap roared through the sewer tunnel. The roaches seemed shaken and disorientated, leaving them open to attack. The others wasted no time in attacking, taking down three more of them. The giant insects tried to repay the favor but another arcane word clapped down on them and shook them even further, one of them even falling over dead. Then, she mopped them up with Lamy's help.

"Eugh, ew, ew, ew," sounded Polka as she dug into the dead roaches to retrieve her darts.

"Hn, have to wash later," muttered Botan as she pulled out the arrow used in the fight. She turned to the bard and asked, "Can I borrow your dagger?"

"Sure," replied the bard as she handed the dagger she had thrown to the fighter, who proceeded to cut off the ears of the rats. One each. Lamy frowned but didn't say anything, as she was just following the vice-leader's instructions. The lion girl then went over to the roaches and snapped off a leg from their bodies. By the time she was done, she had four ears and ten spindly legs, which she stuffed in her belt pouch and quiver respectively.

"So…do we go back now? I mean… we got the min and some extra," asked the fennec monk.

"No. I think we can push on and find a few more," rebutted the lion fighter as she returned the dagger.

"But I won't be able to heal anything right now," informed the half-elf worriedly, "If I cast anything more right now, I'll get a headache."

"I'm not sure about this either..." added the bard hesitantly.

"No worries. That was just a big group," assured the fighter confidently, "We just have to keep our eyes out for a more manageable one and we're fine."

"If you're sure..." the former replied hesitantly as everyone followed the lion girl's lead.

Thus, they spent more time down in the sewers. Unfortunately, they didn't stumble into anyone or anything else… although there was one time Polka slipped on a wet patch she didn't notice. She almost fell in. She didn't. Only her foot did. She pretty much shrieked in horror and tried shaking her limb dry, causing everyone to run back and staying quite far away until she stopped.

"There, there, you can wash it up later," comforted Nene, patting the monk on the shoulder while staying away at a respectable distance.

"Hng," sounded off the fennec fox girl with a pout.

"Hey, this is weird," the lion girl said aloud, "I see a light ahead."

True enough, there seemed to be a part of the wall that had crumbled. Going near and peeking around the corner, the girls found a short passage that led to a large-ish room. Polka volunteered to sneak inside to take a peek. Getting everyone's agreement, she snuck in. A few minutes later, she came back and informed worriedly, "I saw two guys inside, all robbed up and suspicious. They had just finished summoning some sort of rotting corpse."

"Evil men!" Lamy declared softly, "We have to stop them."

"Eh, I thought you were seconds away from a headache," chimed in Nene.

"Summoning undead is bad," the cleric retorted as she sent a glare at her, arms akimbo as if she was going to start scolding the bard.

"Yosh, let's rush in and surprise them," the lion girl urged, "We should be able to take them easily if we do this right."

"We better hurry then, just in case try to summon more," added the monk in full agreement.

With the decision made, the party sneaked in as quietly as possible. Unfortunately, Botan kicked some loose debris in the tunnel by accident, causing the robbed figures inside to be warned and by the time the party was in the room, they were forewarned and ready to fight.

"Get them," said one of them as he motioned the zombie to attack.

However, the party was faster. Nene and Polka ran ahead of the rest, the bard stabbing one cultist in the chest. The fox girl jumped and twirled, lashing out with her leg and kicking both men in the head. The first one fell over backward, his skull slamming against the stone floor and cracking apart internally. The second was about to slash her with his sword but was staggered by the blow.

Meanwhile, the other two targeted the zombie. Botan shot at it as she skirted around the fight, hugging the wall, but missed. The arrow flew past and broke against the wall as the zombie lumbered forward and punched the recovering fox monk. She tried to block but it was stronger than expected and the blow left her arms very sore. At the same time, Lamy raised and pointed her finger at the undead.

"The icy floes and frosty chills come, best keep moving or fall to slumber."

Her chant sent a frigid beam of blue light streaking at its chest. It's body frosted over as its movement slowed down.

Taking her chance, the bard stabbed the zombie in the chest. The monk kicked out, the first blow striking the remaining cultist once again in the head with her shin, and the second blow crashed into its arm with her heel. The zombie's arm became bent at an odd angle and its body tilted over to the side, unfortunately shifting it out of the way from the lion girl's arrow. The undead was also trying to attack the fennec fox girl with its broken arm, the limb flailing around uselessly. Such jarring movement sent the limb at an odd angle and blocked the cleric's frost ray. It took the entire attack and it shattered to pieces as it impacted its own head.

The zombie staggered back as Nene stabbed her rapier in its side while Polka punched it in the chest. Her fist went through the fragile body. However, as she pulled her hand out, it groaned out and tried to grab her. She screamed and blindly punched its head off. Its fleshy skull flew off its desiccated body and shattered against the stone wall of the room.

As the party relaxed upon the fall of the zombie, the fighter retrieved the arrow that was still intact and said with a grin, "A good fight."

"I doubt we'd get paid for this," muttered the monk as she looked around the room, "I bet these don't count as pests."

"Can we get back to the sewer cleaners guild, please?" asked the half-snow elf, "Even if it was good that we took them down without much difficulty, I rather we don't push our luck."

"I think I agree with Lamy," added the bard, "Pushing our luck is a bad thing."

"Alright, alright," relented the lion girl, "I admit… I do feel satisfied. We'll go back now."

AN: Hello, readers. Welcome to the sequel. Time for some electric boogaloo with Hololive Gen 5.

Going out into the world to see the wonders it has to offer

Nene Momosuzu

Bard

Leaving behind her noble family to make a name for herself

Lamy Yukihana

Life Domain Cleric

One of two from Gekko, the tribal hunter from the grasslands.

Botan Shishiro

Fighter

Second from Gekko and future ringmaster of her own circus

Polka Omaru

Monk

Our new heroes, everyone. So, we aren't going to follow any one particular person. This time, we follow the group as a whole. Do stick around to read of their adventures. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.