Under the dark clouds covering the light of the newly risen sun, Rex sat. Cross-legged and with eyes closed, he concentrated on the energy within him, yet he still failed to bring it to the surface. He had made much progress in the last week, having started to feel the energy inside him as he entered deep meditation, but the next step eluded him. He opened his eyes as a sigh followed right after.

He noticed the dark clouds looming above, blocking out the sun ‘Guess the townsfolk weren’t just joking aroud.’ he thought, having overheard talks of a rainy season soon approaching. He put a hand inside his bag and took out two bottles, one of oil and one of wax, and with them he also took out a cloth. First he took his sword, taking it out of its scabbard, he took the cloth and oiled the blade before waxing the leather on the handle and once again putting it away in its sheathe. The talks of a rainy season had reminded him that if he didn’t maintain his weapons they would eventually be taken by rust and the young man wished to avoid that. Not only would it be a waste of money, but he didn’t know when he’d be able to acquire another weapon once the ones he had were useless.

Next he took his dagger, no longer an iron one, but one made of the better steel instead. He had bought this as he thought the old dagger would be a waste of money to maintain. He had sold that one off for ten silver, less as a weapon considering how old and unmaintained it was and more for the material it was made out of. The blacksmith might have even given him a better deal than most merchants would. He looked like a man that was serious about his trade. After applying the oil and wax on the dagger in the same way he sheathed it and stood up, attaching it to the back of his belt and the sword to his side. He took his quiver and slung it over his shoulder followed by his bow, before heading off to town, taking a fruit or two from his bag and eating them on the way, the assortment of equipment not weighing him down in the least.

This had been his routine for the last week. He would meditate at night, sleeping every few days. In the mornings he would go to the adventurer’s guild, check the jobs while hanging around for a bit, trying to possibly get some information on labyrinths either from the girl at the counter as she seemed less professional than the old man or from other adventurers. And then he would go to the forest and either practice with his sword, gather fruit and herbs or hunt for the rest of the day. Out of these he had to admit the hunting was his favorite. He would practice with his bow, throwing his dagger and stealth not to mention he got free food. It was by far the most productive of his tasks. Even if practicing with his sword and meditating were still necessary and actions he enjoyed performing, the hunting was what he looked forward to the most.

Passing through Fyric’s gate, he headed straight for the adventurer guild’s building, stepping inside.

“Oh Rex! How about a drink today?” called out instantly one of the guys who’d gotten used to his presence. The guy’s name was Eric. He was one of the bigger men around, with his choice of weapon being a large axe and usually wearing heavy armor. Or at least he would if he could afford it, he said to Rex while having a laugh about it once.

He walked over to the request board without answering as per usual, but something today stuck out to him.

“I’ll be passing on the drink today.” He said to Eric’s disappointment as he walked over to the counter. It was the girl on the counter today it seemed. He still had yet to learn her name and he didn’t plan on it either. He had no reason to after all. “I want to take the non-official C-rank request.” The request seemed simple. Kill a monster threatening a village. There were a few more details written down, but in his excitement Rex neglected reading them. It was just a C-rank request so it couldn’t be too difficult and he could find out the details from the issuer.

“I thought you’d say that.” She answered with a smile. She was well aware of Rex’s desire for C-rank work so he could advance. She took out a paper and handed it to him. “This is the current address of the issuer. Head there as soon as possible.”

Rex took the paper and headed out the door immediately only to be stopped, reminded of the dark clouds, alerting him that it would be raining soon. With a grumble he headed to the nearby tailor rather than directly to his destination.

There were some outfits displayed at the front and even more revealed themselves as the boy opened the door and entered, walking up directly to the counter. He had visited this store once or twice before. The man behind the counter was the husband of the woman actually producing everything here. The best part was there were also leather items rather than just cloth.

“Welcome. What’re you looking for today?” The man asked, clearly remembering the Drakin from his previous visits.

“Do you have a leather cloak about my size?” Rex answered with his own question. The man seemed to think for a moment before telling Rex to wait for a moment and going in the back. He came back out with a well-made brown cloak, complete with a hood lined with fur at the edges. It looked like it would be annoyingly hot to wear, but it was exactly what Rex was looking for. He probably wouldn’t be as bothered by it as a human anyway.

“Try this on.” The man handed it to him. Rex took it and looked it over. It had two metal buttons around the neck area along with two strings which seemed to need to be tied together. He donned the cloak and tied together the strings closely so it wouldn’t leave the cloak very open. It was slightly annoying to wear with all his equipment, but it hid it well and he was sure he could get used to it. He nodded once, taking off the hood.

“How much for it?”

“It’s seven gold Rais.”

That sounded reasonable. The steel dagger he bought had costed three gold coins and leather armor cost around ten so this didn’t seem unreasonable at all. He took out seven gold coins from his pouch and gave them to the man, thanking him and leaving the store in a hurry, now ready to head to his destination. The thick cloak was necessary if it was the rainy season. While Rex didn’t mind getting slightly wet, his equipment would disagree. With the thick leather it would be decently protected from the rain pouring over it.

As he took out the paper to look at the address he wasn’t surprised to see it was an inn: “The Yawning Lion”. It certainly sounded like a good inn overall. If only these things could be judged solely by name. The address included some directions which Rex followed, not knowing where the inn was and after asking for directions once or twice he made it to the issuer’s staying place. The inn wasn’t bad, but wasn’t good. Despite the fact it seemed to have a homely feel to it. Rex guessed it was a pretty good deal for probably being a budget inn. He entered, approaching the counter of this place as well.

“O-Oh. Welcome! Would you like to rent a room?” said the girl, stumbling over her own words. The rumors that there was a Drakin in town was something she’d heard about, but she didn’t expect him to show up at her family’s inn.

Rex shook his head “I’m looking for somebody. He should be staying on the second floor? Fifth room on the right?”

“Ah yes. Please go on up.”

Rex walked to the stairway at her words and went up to the second floor, walking down the hallway the fifth room to the right was the second to last in the hallway. He knocked on the door and waited for about half a minute before the door opened to reveal a man somewhere in his forties widening his eyes at the boy in front of him. The cloak covered up his scales completely, allowing for such misunderstanding as the man was currently having and while Rex’s eyes were still different, the man had failed to notice them in his frustration.

“I’ve come for the job you posted at the guild.” Rex stated, not caring for the surprise in the man’s eyes. The man’s eyes narrowed adding a hint of anger to his otherwise serious nature.

“I don’t have the time to deal with children, looking to get themselves killed.” He spouted as he tried closing the door, annoying Rex and causing him to put his foot in the way, stopping him from closing him off.

“If you treat me like a kid you’ll regret it.” Rex warned. Though his warning wasn’t a threat. The man seemed to have a serious problem. He most likely cared for his village and whatever the thing threatening it was, he seemed to believe it was a genuine threat to the village’s survival. The man would really regret it if he rejected him and left the job to a normal D or even C-rank party The man let up on pushing the door and after a few seconds opened it again.

“I don’t have time for games. I’d appreciated it if you reported that you won’t be taking the task to the adventurer’s guild so that I can receive actual help.”

Rex sigher “Look.” He put out his hand and pulled down his sleeve slightly revealing his scales, causing the man to widen his eyes once more. “Can we talk now?”

The man paused for a moment, seemingly thinking it over then stepped aside, leaving the door open. Rex walked into the room taking that as confirmation. The man closed the door behind him and walked over as Rex put his bag on the floor and sat on the bed, making himself at home.

“You’re a Drakin?” asked the man, not quite sure. Rex only nodded as a response. “I guess you may be able to help then… What’s your rank?”

“I’m only D-rank since I started around two or so weeks ago, but I evaluate my strength to be at least B. Possibly A. I can’t answer completely accurately since I’ve never met an adventurer of said ranks.”

“…Why should I believe you?”

“You don’t need to. My race should vouch for my strength. If anything I’m being humble.” He wasn’t Rex knew that he was somewhere around the threshold of B and A-rank adventurers just from what Ann had told him in stories.

“Still I’ll need to know what you’re capable of.”

“If it’ll help the C-rank requests I’ve completed so far are clearing out a kobold-infested mine and wiping out a bandit camp of around forty men. To be honest the latter was probably mis-ranked. The adventurer’s guild probably misjudged the number of bandits. Either that or the request had been hanging for long enough for them to build them up beyond that of C-rank difficulty.”

“… That… should suffice.” The old man said, slowly wrapping his head around the fact that the ten or so looking boy in front of him casually mentioned murdering forty men like it was nothing out of the ordinary for him. His reason knew the boy was far from human, but it was still disturbing to say the least. Especially since he’d had a good amount of interaction with the children in his village. “When will you be able to set out at the earliest?” he asked.

“I’m ready to set out even now, so whenever’s fine.”

“I see… Then I suppose we should discuss what the mission is about and of course. The reward.”

“Give me a briefing first.”

The man nodded “My village is in the mountains and is surrounded by forest full of animals. As such most make their living there through hunting. There are farmers but there’s not a lot of land suited for it and even the one that is isn’t very rich so the best work in the village is usually hunting. Unfortunately, lately something’s started living in that forest. It’s been taking our game, scaring away the animals and I’m afraid that eventually it will even assault the village as well.”

“Mmm. You don’t know what it is?”

“No… I do. We organized a party, even found it’s hiding place. A big cave. Probably used to have something else living there. Maybe a pack of wolves. Maybe a bear. Now it’s resident is an ogre.”

“An ogre? Those aren’t known to be the best hunters.”

“They aren’t. But with that size they can run fast. With that and their enormous appetite even if they tire relatively easily animals in the forest are being forced to move further and further away from there. And further and further away from our village.”

“Well an ogre huh? Hmm... I’m not sure how well I can take something like that down by myself. About twenty gold coins seems a fair price for something like that.”

“We… can only offer fifteen… at the most.”

Rex sighed. He knew it would be like this. Money wasn’t the important part for him anyway. “Well whatever. I’ll do it for fifteen then. I need the task complete on my record rather than the coin.”

“Really?! Then-!” exclaimed the man

“That doesn’t mean I’m willing to starve for it!” Interrupted Rex “I’ll take ten at the VERY least.”

“Ten… I see… That’s a better price than I would’ve probably gotten for anyone else…” He cleared his throat. If they successfully defeated the ogre, he could now be glad that the village won’t completely starve for it. “I forgot to mention, but a few others in the village have offered to help with defeating the monster. You might not have to fight by yourself.”

‘I’m not sure if I want that or not’ thought Rex instantly. A bunch of hunters with no actual training for battle might only get in the way. Though if he crafted a decent plan he would most likely be able to make use of them. It was good to have an option. “Great. When’re we leaving?”

“If you’re really ready to leave now then… meet me at the south-east gate in two hours.”

‘Ugh… guess we’ll be travelling in the rain’ Rex thought, slightly annoyed. He got off the bed and picked his bag up. “In that case I’ll see you there.” Rex turned to leave, but remembered something before exiting, while holding the door half-open he turned slightly back to the hunter. “Ah that’s right. My name is Rex.”

“Tristan.” Answered the man briefly. Thank you for being willing to help despite the low reward…”

Rex smiled slightly, inwardly thinking it quite funny how quickly his attitude changed. With that he turned around and left. He climbed down the stairs and went outside, sparing the young girl at the counter no more than a glance as she waved goodbye to him, nervously. As he left he headed straight for the gate where him and the hunter were supposed to meet, but unsurprisingly not even halfway on his way there he felt a drop of water fall on his cheek. Soon after the drop turned into a few more, before the rain he had been waiting for, for the last three to four hours finally began right at the most inopportune moment. He sighed as he pulled up his hood, thinking where he should wait out the two hours without the rain constantly pelting him.