*Interlude*

*tap! tap! tap!*

A one-armed young boy can be seen running through the forest.

That boy is Miika who is holding a dagger on his right hand. He is wearing blue shirt, black long pants and an armor set similar to Shion's set (silver small breastplate, 1 silver arm guard, and 2 silver leg guards).

He stops running when he reaches an area with lesser number of trees surrounding it. Then he turn around as if he expects something to come towards him.

The "something" that he is expecting stretches out its orange furry hand. It grabs a vine and let the vine carry it's orange furry body until it can jump out to another vine.

Meanwhile, Miika is focusing his gaze towards the forest while remembering Shion's advice.

(Look properly... Search properly...)

After few seconds, he can finally see the monster that is chasing him. An orange monkey monster with long tail and brown face.

(Study properly...)

He remembers its attack pattern from his previous encounters when he was working with Panthos. Miika used to act as a bait to attract multiple monsters and the experience is currently helping him in figuring out its attack pattern.

*screech!*

The monkey monster lets out its screech and placing its left hand downwards revealing it's sharp claws.

It uses the momentum of the vine to go towards Miika who is on the ground.

(Think properly!)

After knowing the method of incoming attack, he immediately construct a plan to counter attack. Or rather, he already constructed the plan before this encounter. So all he needs to do is just to remember the counterattack plan within 1 second.

The claw is coming to take Miika's life. In response to that, Miika steps to the right and place his right hand, which is holding a dagger, near the his left waist.

*splitch!*

Miika evades and slashes the orange monkey's waist at the same time.

*screech!*

The monkey screeches out of pain and falls to the ground due to the pain from Miika's dagger.

Miika almost loses balance due to the unexpected heavy pressure of the monkey's body. The dagger is not sharp enough to cut the monkey's waist cleanly so it's stuck there.

Miika regains his balance quickly and realize that the dagger is no longer on his hand. He notices where the stuck dagger is and run towards the orange monket whose height is actually similar to him.

The orange monkey monster looks really angry at Miika and then open its mouth. A black magic circle is suddenly formed in front of the monkey's opened mouth.

"!?"

Miika immediately realizes that a magic attack is coming but he is not skillful enough to dodge it.

"KEEP GOING!"

Suddenly, Shion's words can be heard. Her voice alone is enough for Miika to put away all his hesitation and run straight towards the orange monkey.

*whooshh!*

The orange monkey magic attack is unleashed, releasing a huge amount of black liquid from the black magic circle. However, the orange monkey's face is the one who got splattered by that black ink much to that monster's surprise.

Miika uses this chance to grab the dagger that was stuck on the orange monkey's waist and pull it out.

Then he immediately stab the orange monkey's neck using the same dagger and slash the neck with force.

*splurt!*

Blood gushes out from that orange monkey's neck. Then it falls with it's back facing the ground.

"..."

Miika is looking at the orange monkey cautiously.

".... WOW."

Shion who is standing around 20 metres away from Miika is surprised looking at Miika's performance.

(And this guy is supposed to be a kid who usually eat hard bread and bones... where did this guy get all that strength from?)

While Shion is appraising Miika's strength, another orange monkey monster jumps out from a tree behind Shion and bares its claw towards her.

However, since Shion can sense Astral bodies from any direction, this attack is already within her calculation.

She takes out her green blade using her right hand. However, she is holding it in a position where the green blade and hilt position are reversed compared to how she first used it.

The hilt of that blade is already covered by some kind of cloth material.

*woom!*

A green blade of light emerged from the opposite end of the green blade.

Shion immediately turn around while stepping to the left at the same time.

*swash!*

With just 1 swing, Shion cut the body of the orange monkey monster in half using horizontal slash attack.

*thud! thud!*

The divided orange monkey corpses quickly fall to the floor and forming two pools of red blood.

(And this weapon... is also amazing...)

Shion looks once again at the modified Emeraldian, the blade that used to be the spearhead of Panthos' weapon.

*End of interlude*

_______________________________________

I turn the green blade off because it's looks more dangerous than before.

Man... this is one hell of an incredible weapon.

Compared to my previous short sword, this thing can cut things better even if that short sword was enchanted by Light Sabre magic. On top of that, this weapon is WAY lighter making it a lot easier for me to swing.

Gotta be careful to not get hurt by this thing.

"Shion!"

I see Miika running towards me. He immediately talks after approaching me.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But still..."

I look at the divided corpses of orange monkey monster.

"So this is Marmarott Gaboon huh... they are too troublesome for only 5 silver coins each..."

If it were not for this Emeraldian, I would have been in deep trouble.

I remember the surprised face of Antarea when I showed her how I use the modified Emeraldian this morning. She is dumbfounded when she saw the green light blade appearing on the opposite end of the spearhead.

She is shocked by the fact that I used Plasma Sabre magic without using any vessel to contain it.

This magic weapon's normal function is to use Plasma Sabre magic when the user pour mana into it. The user does not have to know how to use the magic to make it work.

I modified the Plasma Sabre magic embedded inside it so that it can bring out the light blade without having to touch the green spearhead. That way, the heat energy won't melt the spearhead which is also the tank to save mana in this weapon.

Thanks to the spearhead's function as a mana tank, I can use this blade just by pouring mana from that tank to the magic formula. A perfect magic weapon for a person who does not have an astral body like me.

However, this modification also comes with some drawbacks. I can indeed use Plasma Sabre magic without the vessel but I need concentration and strong image of the weapon in order to use it this way.

Once I lost my concentration in maintaining the image, this Plasma Sabre magic will disappear. So I need to be careful around that part.

And as for why I get the strong image of this weapon... I used to watch a lot of sci-fi movies back in my previous world. Among the ones that I usually watched during weekends (if I don't have any overtime work), there is this very famous movie that used the light saber weapon similar to mine. I used to enjoy lots of those movies while having some snacks and beer.

"... Shion?"

Miika called my name with confused tone. I have been spacing out because I miss the taste of beer whom I never taste for so many years.

Geez, I need to get a grip of myself.

"Y- yes. What is it?"

"...Sorry."

"Hm?"

I am confused by Miika's sudden apology.

"If only I did not get chased by the Sword Wolves too far, we would not have to enter this dangerous area..."

"Oh... don't mind it. I mean, look at the result."

I point at the Marmarott Gaboon that I just killed.

"We manage to kill 3 Sword Wolves and 2 of those Gaboon monsters. For our first try in hunting together, this is actually an excellent result. We just have to be more careful next time. Ok?"

"... yes."

Miika looks relieved. Well, it's not like I have the right complain considering I am the one who asked him to be the bait so that I can kill the Sword Wolves from behind.

His athletic ability is a good trait to cover my weakness.

"More importantly, those Gaboon monsters are actually outside of the quest requirements. What to do with them?"

"They are still monsters around Liasr area. I think the Guild card can still record them."

I take out my guild card. My rank is still D.

This guild card is actually a magic item. One of its functions is to record the astral body of the killed monster. That way, the guild can recognize how many monsters that the adventurer killed and give them the appropriate reward for clearing the quest.

I look at my guild card and look at a big text box on the right side of my D rank letter.

3 Sword Wolves and 2 Marmarott Gaboons huh....

Despite Miika killing 1 other Gaboon, it's still recorded in my guild card. This is the function of this card's Party system.

You can register other person to partake in the same quest through this system and have their achievement be regarded as your own achievement.

In case of 2 guild card holders forming party together, the achievements will still be combined on all cards but the guild will only take the record of 1 card while refreshing all cards' list.

The previous record of me killing 1 Sword Wolf was already erased by Rimikia because the guild's usual procedure is to refresh the list of monsters killed before giving the reward to the adventurer.

This recording function won't activate unless the guild card owner participate in monster subjugating quest. At least they will record monsters other than the quest target.

"Yeah, they are already recorded."

"Then what should we do about the materials?"

.... he is talking about getting monsters' limbs and sell them for extra money. People usually call it materials because most of them are used to create weapons and other kinds of tools.

Honestly, I prefer to just leave them there because bringing monsters' limbs back to town seems like a hassle... but money is money so...

"Can I leave it to you?"

Miika smiles after hearing my response.

"Got it."

Then he prepares his dagger and walk towards the corpse of the Marmarott Gaboon that I just killed.

I wanted to help but I'll watch his back just in case a monster or dangerous animal show up.

... this is definitely not an excuse to avoid touching the bloody monster's corpses. Yup, that is definitely not the case. I swear.

.....

....

...

Miika is currently holding both the materials and the bag filled with potions and extra weapons.

I know that it's easier if I let him put the material inside that bag but I don't want the blood to stain the potion bottles. Maybe I should bring a bag exclusive for gathering monsters' materials next time.

Speaking of monsters materials...

"I heard that Liasr guild card only record the monsters around the area near Liasr and not other area in this continent. Is this true?"

"? Yeah, that's how it is."

"That sounds bothersome. Why won't the guild card just register all monsters at least inside this continent."

"?"

Miika looks at me with confused expression again.

"? What is it?"

I don't think I said something strange though.

"Why would the guild pay for killing monsters which do not trouble their own area?"

"... fair point."

I get it now. It seems like even the guilds in this continent are pretty much disconnected to each other.

In Brahmastra, all guilds works under Kingdom. So no matter where you kill the monster, any guilds there will compensate you for it because the Kingdom is the one who provides the fund.

But Elverwad does not have a single government who rule the whole continent so the guilds here work separately. Looks like I have to ask for a new guild card if I work in another town... what a hassle.

"Hm?"

I suddenly notice a place that felt nostalgic to me. I walk towards there to see if I was right.

"Shion?"

"Just a minute."

Miika sounds confused because I suddenly change my direction but still follows me.

When I arrived, I see the same cliff where I cried for the first time after being teleported to this continent.

... It has been quite a long time since I came here huh.

The day when I lost people that are precious to me.

The day when I got betrayed by the person whom I trusted for years.

The day when I realized just how naive I have been all this time.

I walk towards the cliff reminiscing that day.

"S- Shion. It's dangerous..."

"Don't worry. I know what I am doing."

I look below the cliff. It's an area covered in forest as I expected. However, I realized that there is also a river whom I never notice before

The river looks quite wide and it's stream is quite violent.

"... looks like it will be hard to swim there huh."

I say that out of whim but Miika replies in a worrying tone.

"Please don't try that, it's actually deep enough to make people drown."

"Hoo... you sure know your stuff."

"Master once threw me inside there before to become bait for a fish monster after all. Luckily, my body hit a big rock that prevented me from being taken away by the stream so I used that chance to get out of the river."

Geez, him again huh... Can he just stop calling that person "Master" already?

While my mood is turning for the worse, I notice a person near that river.

It's far but I somehow can tell that the person is lying there.

What is that guy doing there- wait, don't tell me that person is unconscious.

"...!"

I got a bad feeling about this.

I stand away from the cliff.

"Miika! Forget about the materials! Prepare your dagger!"

"Eh!?"

Miika is confused by my sudden instruction but I believe that he can still act on time.

"We're descending real quick! Follow me!"

I start running towards the forest while preparing my Emeraldian just in case a monster attacks. Miika is following me from behind.

.....

....

...

"Haaah haaah...!"

My stamina is at it's limit after descending. Miika does not look tired at all despite going through the same way as me while carrying my bag.

"Are you okay?"

"Do... do I look... okay... to you..?"

I'm so tired that it's hard to even speak.

I followed the river but the sight of that person is nowhere to be-

But then I suddenly notice the person whom I spotted before.

I carefully approach that person who is wearing a black witch-like outfit together with witch hat. That person is mostly like the person I know.

After looking around and sense the surrounding with my mana sense, I can at least say that this is not a trap... at least from my perspective.

"Miika. Watch my back."

Miika nod as I carefully walk towards person.

I turn around the body of that person and see the face of an unconscious old woman.

I know this woman.

She is the owner of the only magic shop in Liasr Town, Griselda Kisatoa.