Chapter 25:
Completing The First Job

We approached the snakes kicking up a dust cloud in their slithering.

Ares unsheathed his sword while running, seemingly ready for a fight. I stopped to unwrap my staff, but by the time I caught the cloth, I was left in the dust. Ares and Alek were running at fast speeds and hadn't stopped to look where I was.

"Hey! Wait up!" I shouted at them, hastily folding the cloth and stuffing it into my pocket. Ares glanced back at me and furrowed his eyebrows at me. Come on! At least slow down! I gave up on the cloth, opting to throw it behind me.

I jumped into the air, using wind magic to propel me forward by several meters. I slammed back onto the ground and stumbled forward. Wow, that worked?

I had caught up with the rest of the party, so I slowed down my speed. I needed to get clothes more suited to the environment since they slowed me down.

"Jeez, look at those things," Ares breathily said, staring at the massive snakes.

From what I could see from here, they were massive. They had to be at least ten meters in height; with the speed they were coming at us, they were going to be meeting us halfway.

"Are you sure you can land a hit on one of those things?" I asked in between breaths.

"A North God Swordsman doesn't just rely on their sword, you know?" Ares said, grinning.

Alek skidded to a stop, holding up his sword. "Stop right here. We'll collide with them if we go any faster." Ares dragged his feet across the ground as he decelerated. I stopped sprinting and stood.

The dust cloud caused by the snake's rapid movement towards us hit us almost instantly after we stopped. I couldn't make anything out thanks to it, and the dust irritated my eyes.

"Lumina!" A voice cried out from within the cloud. "Cast a blast of wind, now!" I recognized the owner of the voice, Alek. I held out my staff in front of me as I channeled mana into the crystal at the top. I conjured a massive gust of wind and released it, causing me to nearly lose my footing.

The rush of wind blew away my hood, but I grabbed it before it was gone. The dust in the air had been blown away, and I blinked away the debris in my eyes. When I looked forward, I saw that a group of massive snakes and cobras were there, flicking their tongues out.

They were much more intimidating up close. The one closest to me had scales that were a pale white color, and its eight eyes were all a deep, crimson red. It opened its fang-filled maw and hissed. It lurched its mouth forward, aiming straight at me. Shit. I shouldn't have stopped to stare!

I put all of my strength into diving away from the serpent's jaws, landing on the harsh ground while scraping my knees in the process. Alek sprinted in my direction, running in between the monster and me.

"...Hmph!" He raised his greatsword and brought it down with tremendous force. The sound of Alek's sword impacting the snake was a sickeningly loud crunch.

In the meantime, Ares was getting busy with a large brown cobra. He circled to the back of the snake, sprinting with his sword outstretched. He leaped in the air by some miracle of athleticism, slicing a clean, deep cut through the cobra's tail.

The cobra screeched, raising its head high, and tried to bite Ares on the rebound. Its fangs were big enough to pierce a man in half, but Ares didn't waver. He swiftly jumped out of the way, smirking as he turned around to face the cobra that had died from its wound.

In doing so, he failed to realize that another snake had crept up behind him.

"Ares! Behind you!" I yelled. I scrambled to my feet and jumped into a sprint to try to reach him. Ares looked behind him and widened his eyes in horror. The second snake slammed its tail into Ares, sending him barreling towards a wall.

"Augh!" He grunted, impacting the wall with enough force to shatter a few bones.

"Hiss!" The snake flicked its tongue out, focusing all of its eyes on Ares. "Dammit…" I muttered. I filled my staff with mana and adjusted my attack.

There was no time to try any moves like Curse Magic. I couldn't put Ares in danger by trying to do experiments in the middle of a battle. I'd have to go with something simpler…

I crouched down to the ground, holding my staff out with one hand pointed towards the snake. I poured mana into it, with the light of the crystal at the tip intensifying. Then, I focused on the ground directly beneath the snake, and I released the spell. A massive earthen lance penetrated the ground, punching a hole straight through the middle of the snake. Blood and brown scales flew out in all directions, and the snake thumped to the ground.

I'd killed it. Quite harshly, too.

"Haah…" I exhaled, ruffling my hair. I heard a groan coming from the nearby wall. The source of it was Ares.

"Ares, are you okay?" I called out, rushing towards him. I reached his side to see him hurt badly. There was a large splatter of blood from where he had impacted, and his forehead was spilling blood.

"Ah, I'm not doing too well…tell my master that I'm grateful…" Ares said, raising his arm. I grimaced. "You're not dying just yet. Hold still."

I hesitantly raised Ares's shirt and placed both of my hands on his bare chest.

"Now…isn't that time for that…Lumina!" Ares squeaked out.

"Be quiet!" I said, ignoring his comment. I silently cast an Advanced-tier healing spell, to make sure I got everything healed. Thank you for teaching me this, Mother.

After a few moments, Ares steadily rose, wiping the blood from his forehead.

"Eh? My back…is fine?" Ares said, before coughing up some blood.

As I was tending to Ares, I heard a loud boom behind me. I whipped my head around to see Alek standing atop a giant pile of snake and cobra corpses, with his greatsword embedded into one.

"Looks like you two have a lot to learn!" shouted Alek. He pulled his greatsword out of the corpses and jumped off of them. Landing with a crash, he walked over to us.

Ares looked down, dejected. "...I got too caught up in the moment. I didn't have a good grasp of my surroundings, and that's why I got hurt." Ares said.

"You've got a long road ahead of you, Ares," Alek said, offering Ares a hand.

Ares silently looked up at Alek, seeming conflicted. It seemed he had succumbed to the classic case of having a head that was too big for him.

Ares grabbed hold of his hand, getting up from the ground.

Meanwhile, my heart was still racing from the battle. I won! I killed it! Woo-hoo! I silently celebrated, twirling around in joy. Ah… I was beginning to grow fond of the adrenaline rush I got from physical activity.
"Ahh." Ares nestled his face into his hands, seemingly ashamed. "Thank you, Lumina. You saved me." He said, interrupting my celebration. I smirked at him.

"It was nothing. I saw a boy in peril and had to swoop in, you know?" I said mockingly, flashing a toothy grin at him. Ares furrowed his eyebrows at me.

"...Right."


Life is great. Here I was, digging out the scales of several housed-sized snakes along with two others. The scales, like any material harvested from a dangerous monster, went for a sizable amount of money. We had already finished picking up a bag's worth of sunstones, so the actual quest we had taken was complete.

I expected Ares to complain, but there he was, tearing out scales left and right. My hands were already getting tired, but he showed no signs of stopping.

Sigh. The sky was turning dark, so we needed to get on our way soon or set up camp. Otherwise, we'd risk getting ambushed by many monsters at once.

A while later, Alek decided to set up camp. We set aside the scales and sunstones we had collected and started a campfire. The heat felt nice against the evening breeze.

"We're going to sleep here?" Ares asked.

"Yes. It wouldn't be a good idea to try to make our way back to Rikarisu in the dark considering the half-day time investment." Alek explained, setting up a makeshift tent.

"What if we get attacked when we're asleep?" Ares asked, looking out at the valley.

"Don't worry about that, I'll keep watch during the night. It wouldn't be the first or the last time I've gone without sleep," Alek replied, waving him off.

"I see," Ares said, sitting down near the campfire.

It was reassuring, to say the least. Although I didn't doubt my safety when Mr. North God was around, it was nice to know Alek was looking out for any danger.

I looked down at my clothes and frowned. Thanks to the fight and the scavenging, my clothes were pretty ruined. I looked over to Ares's clothes, and they were in similar condition. Except, he was also soaked in his blood.

"Ah, once we get back to Rikarisu, we should probably get new clothes," I muttered. This quest would probably net us around thirty stone coins, which alone could probably get us enough money to buy them. But that wasn't to mention the snake scales that we had harvested.

Ares hummed in agreement. "Sure. When are we going to be getting out of Rikarisu anyway?" He asked.

I hadn't thought about it. We'd been there for around a week, so I had started to get used to it. It was obvious that we would have to get on the road regardless.

"Hmm… I'd say it depends. We have no reason to stay other than to get enough food to make the journey to the next city." Of course, I didn't know where said city was, but that didn't matter.

"As long as we get up to… I'd give it five hundred stone coins, we would be in the clear to leave the city," Alek said.

We had 135 stone coins saved up right now so that probably wouldn't take more than a week if we took a few C-rank quests.

"After that, we can get moving," I said, nodding my head. I didn't want to stay in one place for long if I could help it.

"That reminds me, Ares," I began. Ares looked at me, tilting his head to the side.

"You do know that this whole journey is to get back to Fittoa, right? But you said you don't come from there," I said.

"...I know that much. But no, I don't come from Fittoa," He replied.

"Then what are you going to do once we get to the Central Continent?" I asked.

Ares looked thoughtful. "I don't have anywhere but the Sword Sanctum to go to. I wish to reunite with Auber there," He said, quietly.

"The Sword Sanctum, you say?" The Sword Sanctum was where the greatest up-and-coming Sword God style users trained en masse, located at the northwestern tip of the Central Continent. In part, it made sense. Sword users usually stick to one style of swordsmanship, but much greater strength could be had if you practiced in other styles, like what Paul did. Ares seemed to be a normal beginner swordsman, but when I saw Ares at my party, he looked like a regular noble. He acted like one, too. So what was up?

"What was with that get-up at my party, then? I thought you were a noble," I said.

As soon as I finished my sentence, Ares's face darkened, and he averted his eyes. It was silent for a few moments before he spoke up.

"...My past doesn't matter. It's none of your business, either." He said, now looking me in the eyes.

We sat in silence for a while after that. Everyone had things that they didn't want to share with anyone; I especially knew that best. I didn't want to pry, but I couldn't help but wonder what he wouldn't disclose.

The awkward silence made me uncomfortable, so I decided to turn in for the night.


"So this is the Adventurer's Guild? It looks nothing like what I imagined…" Ares said, glancing around the guild hall.

It was now the next day, and we had returned to Rikarisu. We needed to cash in our reward, as well as register Ares to our party.

Alek walked over to the receptionist and handed her the bag full of sunstones. She peered in, seemingly confirming the quest was complete. Smiling, she went to the back room.

When she returned, she held a small brown bag. She handed it to Alek, and he nodded in assent. She was about to go tend to another adventurer, but then Alek hauled over the several bags full of doomsnake scales.

She exclaimed with her eyes wide. Alek grinned sheepishly, conversing with her calmly. This time, she called for another receptionist, who had a similar reaction.

Ares and I were just spectating in silence.

"Do you think this is anything normal? I mean, they looked pretty surprised," I whispered to Ares.

"It's probably normal for Alek, but not for anyone else. I don't blame them for reacting this way, honestly," He whispered back.

The people in the Guild started whispering, seemingly interested in the commotion that the receptionists were stirring up. I didn't doubt that they knew who Alek was, but Alek said he hadn't shown himself in a large city for quite some time. So maybe they hadn't seen just what he was capable of.

The receptionist came back from the back room, with a smaller bag this time. It looked like there wasn't as much in the bag compared to the first one, but I just assumed there was higher currency in there.

Cutting off the receptionist again, he motioned to Ares and said a few words to her.

"What's he saying?" Ares turned and asked me.

"The only thing I could make out was 'Adventurer'," I responded. "He's probably asking to have you let in the party officially."

"...Party, huh?" He whispered.

Alek looked over at us. "Ares. Come here and place your hand on this," He said, jerking his head in the direction of a transparent board. It was the same one I had used to register as an adventurer.

"This is for the party, right?" He asked.

Alek nodded. Ares placed his hand on the board, and it lit up in response. The receptionist hummed and handed Ares his guild card. I tried to get a peek at it, but the only thing I could read before Ares swiped it away was, "Age: 12."

Then, he grew irritated. "Hah? It says I'm owned by Lumina!" He exclaimed, glaring daggers at the receptionist.

Alek gave him a puzzled look. "Are you not? I suppose she was the one who paid for you, so she's your owner," He said, nonchalantly.

I burst out in laughter. "Y-Yeah, Ares… You can c-call me, Master!" The thought of owning someone so strong-willed like him was hilarious.

Ares looked like he was about to snap. "I'm never calling you that!" He yelled. It just made me laugh all the harder. Alek sighed and finished his conversation with the receptionist.

And so, that was how Ares became a member of the Dragon King's Odyssey.

Author's Note:
Thank you for waiting this long for the chapter. I hope you enjoyed this one, as I had a ton of fun writing it. Expect 26 within a week from now, as always. Thank you for reading :

I'd also appreciate it if you checked out the Ao3 version, as when the chapters eventually have more mature content, I will only be able to post the full uncensored chapters there. Additionally, they have better grammar and retouched events. Thank you again!