Akira sat back in the Guild relaxing after a day of job completing. It had been three full days since he became an adventurer, and he'd made a name for himself already. "Now let's see, skills skills skills...increase this aaaand get that combo strength." He said finishing up in his card. Now, at level 10, he was well a match for the monsters around Axel. "I wish a harder mission would pop up..." he said walking over to the job board with a drink in hand. He looked them over seeing strange things: a guy looking for his daughter, someone searching for some weird elder scrolls, a group trying to summon some giant squad-face monster needing stopped. "Ahhh! All so boring!" Akira said frustrated. 'I wish a good kill quest would pop up.' Akira thought to himself before his eyes landed on a particular quest.
'Help! Need a good Adventurer to kill a strong monster harassing towns folk. Or resides within the forest just outside of Axel, has black fur, and is ferocious! Non-rookie adventurers required of you wish to survive!' The poster read. Akira smiles at this and grabbed ahold of it before taking it to Luna for approval. "Luna Luna Luna! I got a job I need approved!" He said rushing to the desk she sat behind and handing her the poster.
Luna looked it over before her eyes widened a bit at some parts and she nervously looked up. "W-while it is true you're progressing faster than most beginner adventurers, are you sure you want this job? It is dangerous for people without a little more experience." She says carefully. She was trying to dissuade him from going but she knew just from the past three days it wouldn't work.
"I'm sure! I've been waiting for a job like this for days now! You gotta let me go, I'm tough as nails and can handle it!" He said throwing off some air jabs to prove his point. Luna sighed and put the poster below a stamp and gave it the approval seal. "Thanks Luna!" Akira said rushing out quickly before stopping and turning back. "Uhh...which way is the forest it's in?" He asks making Luna facepalm.
After he got a map of where he was needed he started his journey. He had a new outfit after these past few days of saving and working and he loved it so much. His outfit was a Black Tailcoat with a grey armored waistcoat. Grey denim pants covered his bottom along with some high-grade adventurer boots.
Turning the corner he approached the bridge that left Axel, and with a look over his job poster and a wave to the guardsmen he was let out into the wild to hunt his target. He traversed the area until he got to the woods Luna instructed himself to go to: it looked dark and eerie from outside and gave off a chill. "Well...here I go." Akira said to himself going in with Gilgamesh already summoned. He wandered the woods for sometime, trying to find his target monster. He fought smaller ones that came out to attack him: a giant wolf here, a Unicorn Bunny there, some toads even when he got to the more swampy area of the place; but he still hadn't found his target.
"Come on! Where are you you piece of shit." He says to himself as he sits on a downed tree. His eyes glance over the stump where it had been toppled from, his attention heightening at its appearance: claw marks fell this tree- not an axe or saw- so not a human. He stiffened as he heard a low growl from behind him and the hot breath of a creature on his neck. Slowly turning he saw the creature that was eager to make him its next snack: black fur, yellow eyes, fangs and claws as sharp as the best sword. This was his target. "Well hi- oh my god!" He yelled as he jumped over a slash attack.
The thing looked close to a werewolf in a way, it walked in all fours but mostly had its two arms out for support where it used its back legs to walk. It snarled at the miss of its attack and glared at Akira who was in a fighting stance. No games this time he figured, this was serious.
The beast circled him, Akira mirroring its movements. "You're not like the other monsters here, you actually aren't just charging in: you're waiting for me. So that means you gotta be pretty smart." He said making it growl in response. A twig snapped from behind Akira making him turn his gaze for a split second, a mistake he soon regretted as the monster launched forward and slashed at his torso. He flipped out of the way in time and brought his leg down onto the creatures hand making it recoil back in pain.
In response it leapt over him and then skidded to a stop behind, charging from there. Akira readied an attack but was tricked as the creature stopped its charge and let his fist fly through the air with no mark. Making its next choice fast it hit him hard enough to send him through a tree and into a small stream that went the length of the forest. He got up and coughed, shaking his head as he popped his back. "Gonna feel that tomorrow." He said listening for his target. He began to charge an attack in anticipation, the energy from Gilgamesh turning red as he did until the creature kept forward.
Unleashing the attack his fist connected hard with the creatures lower-jaw sending it to the side. It quickly recovered and tried to bite Akira only to find his foot kicking into its mouth. With Gilgamesh protecting him from its bite he twisted and used his other foot to kick the side of its head forcing it to let him go. Using the momentum he reeled around and charged his fist for a brutal punch that tore through the torso of the monster and killed it. Akira tanked his hand out and shook it off with a look of disgust.
"Well...that was disgusting." He said taking a claw from its hand and leaving back for Axel to claim his reward.
/Meanwhile\\
Ash was a good three days into his journey to Axel. He passed by small settlements here and there, farms and ranches as well that gave him some food in return for quick work. It was a long journey ahead of him still he figured because the city looked to still be a hefty distance away from him. He sighed as he looked up to the sky, clouds passing by and birds flying on their way. "Why did they put me so far out from, where I assume, is the starting city?" He asked in annoyance. Along the path he had met bandits and monsters alike, all trying to steal or kill him.
They didn't last long.
Ash had dispatched more than he could count already on this journey alone, and because of this he felt stronger, as if he had been gaining experience and leveling up the whole time. He didn't know how to check this yet, but he knew when he got to Axel he'd be able to rest for a bit.
"You dumb bitch!" A voice suddenly said from ahead of him. He heard a voice yell out in pain and picked up his pace till he saw a small party of adventurers standing around a young girl. "Crimson Demon or not, level 6 or 50, you are theist worthless party members ever! I should have listened to the others at the Guild about you!" The party leader said to her.
"Please! No other party will take me now! You have to let me stay with you, I won't be able to properly unleash my explosions!" The girl said pleasingly. She had brown shoulder-length hair, crimson eyes, and a classic witch attire plus an eyepatch. She had fair skin with a light complexion, but was shorter then the people surrounding her.
"I don't give a damn about that! Give me the cut of today's reward and after that, I don't wanna see you around my party ever again!" The guy said pushing her down and holding his sword out to her. "Otherwise I'm gonna have to hurt you." He said. The girl carefully pulled out a pouch Ash assumed was filled with Eris and gave it to the man who weighed it. "Oi...stop messing around. I can tell it's not all here." The man said.
"What do you mean! That's the full reward you have to me!" She said.
"Bullshit! You're trying to cheat us now to huh!? Fine! I'll just have to hurt you so you remember not to do it ever again!" The leader said swinging his sword down.
Ash had seen enough and began to walk toward them. Throwing the Yamato scabbard he saw as the container hit the sword on the flat side and redirected it to hit the ground instead.
"What the? Who are you?" The guy asks Ash as he approaches with Yamato in hand.
"Who or what I am is of no concern for someone like you. What is a concern, is what'll happen to you if you do not return that money to the girl and leave." Ash said threateningly. The leader looked a bit sacred from the approaching person; he couldn't explain why, but it felt as if he had an aura about him that was dark and oppressing.
"A-and if I don't? What'll you do then huh!?" He yells out as Ash now stands before him grabbing his scabbard. "Don't ignore me you bitch!" The leader yells running at Ash with his sword ready. Aah simply uses his sheathed katana to trip the man. A click could be heard as the man stood and suddenly...his pants fell down. "What the!?"
Ash kept a small smile to himself as the girl and even the persons party members laughed at him. "Now." Ash said walking to him and pushing him down. "The money. Give it back." He said leaning down and pushing Yamato's blade a bit against his neck.
He gave the pouch to Ash with a shaky hand before he was allowed to stand and leave.
"Leave my sight." Ash said scaring the party leader more as he pulled up his pants, holding them in place as he ran with the other party member. He carefully walked over to the girl and held out the pouch. She looked at him before grabbing it and his hand to get up.
"Thank you." She says simply to Ash.
"No problem. I hate seeing people like him still wondering around freely, allowed to do whatever they want. I am Ash." He said simply to her getting a smile.
She quickly and suddenly did a pose that Ash notes was extremely anime-esc in nature. "Wahahahahaha! Well citizen, before you stands the proud Arch-Wizard Megumin! I harness the destructive and all-mighty force of explosion magic! I thank you for saving me when no one else would, as I have been ostracized by the world for my power!" Megumin said making Ash confused. She did another pose with her staff. "With permission, I would like to travel with you! The power of explosions could be yours for-"
"Ok." Ash said simply making her nearly fall over.
"What?" She asked surprised by the sudden one word answer.
"I said ok, I don't mind traveling with someone. I am headed to Axel to properly apply to become an adventurer; once there if you need help you can call upon me however you see fit, or we can stay partied up." He said turning and walking.
Megumin watched on as his jacket moved with the wind making him look like some kind of cool fantasy hero to her as he moved, sword in hand ready to slay any creature.
"Well are you coming or not?" He asked turning back to her snapping her out of her daze. She nodded and ran over to him where they began walking to Axel together. "So, what was that guy talking about back there anyway?" Ash asks.
"What do you mean?"
"What he said, level 6 and a Crimson Demon? What did he mean?" Ash asks oblivious to the worlds workings still.
"Well, I am a Level 6 Adventurer. And when he said Crimson Demon, that's what I am." She said simply to him, wondering how he's never heard of such things.
"Interesting...well then if you're Level 6 and an Arch-Wizard as you said then you must be powerful." Ash simply states.
"Indeed! I use the ultimate offensive magic: Explosion! With it I can reduce mountains to dust, split boulders in two! Make landscape completely change shape!" She says passionately.
"And what else?" Ash asks making her stop quickly and flinching. The lack of response didn't bode too well with him as he began to worry. "You still back there?" He asks looking back to indeed see Megumin.
"Uh...y-yes I'm still here. But the thing is I can only use Explosion magic. I spent and continue to spend all my skill points on it because it's my passion!" Megumin said. "I-it's why...no other party is willing to take me actually. And I can't use my magic more than once a day because it costs more mana then I have, so it leaves me immobile." She says sadly.
Ash stops walking causing her to stop as well. She looked up to his back worried for a second that he'd make her leave too. "That's just stupid. Even if it's once a day, barring indoors and dungeons, an explosion can be a huge difference maker in any fight. Cluster an enemy and take them out in one hit, collapse a wall or roof on someplace and deny access to it while possibly simultaneously crushing something in the debris. It's a fine magic." Ash said to her before continuing to walk.
Megumin's eyes slowly widened and she smiled catching up to be by Ash's side. "So you get it! Explosions are useful and the ultimate magic!" She says excitedly to him getting a small chuckle.
"I wouldn't say ultimate magic, because there's always someone or something stronger than you out there who can use better and more convenient magic; but for now, I guess it is." Ash said simply as they walked along the path for Axel. It was still a three day so they had a long walk ahead of them.