Gragus thought the kid was just something that came as a package deal for having the elf but he was surprisingly good, even better than most people he had seen. The kid knew how to cast spells fast and he seemed to have a lot of magical powers to just keep casting. He didn’t want to be shown up by a kid so he used his sword skills to cut the rabbits like paper. There were still many rabbits but it seemed like the team was doing well enough to get overwhelmed and the rabbits were dropping dead like flies. It took Luke, Alice, and Gragus fighting them seriously for a few minutes to completely wipe out the rabbits. Gragus changed his opinion of Luke and he began to think of him as an asset to the team.

Luke didn’t feel like he broke a sweat, all he did was throw a few fireballs and Alice used wind magic to cut down the rabbits just as fast as him. He would have ended them all in a few seconds if he had been alone and gone up in the air to attack but he didn’t want to show off. He also wanted other people to know he only used fire and earth magic. Air magic would be his last resource for escaping and for facing truly life-threatening dangers. He also had his skills Contract, Gate, and Program if he ever needed them but nobody knows about them yet. He used his magic as a kind of search to see if any other things were headed their way. Luke detected a huge creature that looked like a two-headed dog in the distance and nothing else was around it. This was probably because the other magical beasts could sense that dog in the distance. Sadly for their group, it was this dog that was on the quest board. It was a decent reward too, 10 gold coins for taking it down and bringing its remains in a special bag. He didn’t want to let the team know how he found it but he suggested going deeper into the forest to find the magical beast they were looking for. The team agreed and after walking for twenty minutes or so, they could see the huge dog. “Do we really want to kill that?” Luke said. “Don’t worry it’s probably not as bad as it looks” Gragus said. Alice lied and just said, “it will be a challenge.” Lana was shaking a little and Luke could see it.

As they approach the big dog, Luke decided to name it Cerb, short for Cerberus the guardian of the underworld. Luke didn’t know how to fight enemies this big, it was his first time encountering one this big. He also didn’t have any training but decided that just casing spells would probably be enough. Luke saw the dog, it barked and Luke could understand it saying “Outsiders came to die again.” He didn’t want anyone to know that he could understand a dog’s bark so he just prepared to fight. He brought up some rocks with earth magic and made them into sharp rocks. Gragus drew his sword and produced a shield on his other hand. It was probably his skill as a warrior or knight or some magical item. Lana cast a spell on everyone called “regeneration” and Alice materialized her bow. It was time to attack. Gragus drew it in first then Alice used her bow to shoot at the eye. Luke gave the pieces of rock that he manifested a lot of spin and threw them toward Cerb’s head. There were baseball-sized rock drills heading toward the dog, he stopped two with his mouth and dodged one. Luke knew it was going to be a hard battle if he could just stop these rocks like it was nothing. After ten minutes of fighting Gragus had made some small cuts with his sword and Alice had managed to make the dog blind in one eye. It still had three more eyes and it was mad. Luke had also managed to make small wounds with his earth magic but nothing substantial. The dog was also starting to get smart, he would let out an attack with his claws and then try to move up to attack Alice but Gragus was blocking those advances.

Luke decided it was time to stop pretending as he couldn’t do much, he summoned five fire arrows with his magic. He made them hot as possible, they burned blue and he sent them in a horizontal path towards Cerb. Cerb managed to block two of the arrows but where the arrow landed, it began to burn. The other three arrows went straight through his chest, head, and eye. The dog collapsed.

Lana healed Gragus from some of the hits that had landed on him but he didn’t seem to be in too much pain or have trouble moving. “Gragus, is that a skill you have to not feel pain or get injured as much ?” Luke asked. “It’s a skill for a warrior, it allows me to harden my body and not feel as much pain but it still hurts, Lana’s regeneration spells were helping me heal so you don’t notice the bruises” Gragus explained.

Luke felt like he learned a decent amount from this battle. It was like in most games where there is a tank, a healer, an archer, and a mage doing ranged damage to the boss. He noticed how Gragus had skillfully prevented Cerb from getting past him. He saw how Alice had gone for the eye instead of a vital part with her arrow so it would be easier for the duration of the fight. The spells Lana was using on Gragus, he didn’t even notice because she had kept her distance and she didn’t attract much attention. He knew that even if the other three hadn’t been here, Cerb was no threat to him but this was fighting in a place where he wasn’t cornered and his movement wasn’t limited. Luke knew that it would have been a different scenario if this had been inside a narrow hallway or something where having a warrior would almost be necessary. He had some sword skills but most of them were just basic things that would do nothing against a monster that could take a hit and dish out a counter back.

The party went back to the campground, and rested there for the day. It was starting to get dark and Gragus was especially tired from fighting that beast. Lana started cooking a small meal with the things she had in her magic bag. It was nothing special just some meat, some potatoes, salt, and a few grounded spices. The warm meal was great, it was refreshing and everyone moved to the campfire to have a talk. First, it was just a small congratulations and thank yous from everyone to everyone else. Luke felt that this moment was like a bonding moment for the team. They all shared a few stories from past adventures, drank, and laughed. It was kind of wholesome, nothing like he imagined traveling with a lot of strangers. He wanted to remember this day so Luke made a mental note and kept a journal in his search history. If he had access to other functions of the internet, it would have been a much easier process to write stuff down, set reminders, have clocks, and everything else. This is what he had so he made the most of it. After a few hours, everyone went back to their tents, made from Luke’s earth magic. He thought it would have been a sturdier option than one made of sticks and cloth-like everyone had planned on doing.

There were no surprises during the night but Alice and Lana did take turns watching for half of the night each, just to make sure nothing happened. The next day everyone got back to Notoria safely and without any problems along the way. The part of Cerb they had put into bags were his claws, tail, ears, and eyes. Luke had no idea why the guild had wanted those parts but he made the guess that beasts and their parts were useful in some ways to someone. He just didn’t know who made use of those. The guild assistant was surprised that everyone had made it back safely and back as a team. They handed in the parts and the guild assistant handed Alice and Luke a small card, the card had their name, age, rank, and a logo of the guild. “This is a very important guild card it will help you to get into and out of cities as well as sell items from dungeons and carcass of beasts/demons you hunt. Please try to not lose them as issuing them requires a lot of paperwork to be filed and you will be charged a fee of 10 gold for another one.”