“Good morning everyone!” The Adventurer’s guild master announced. “As most of you might know, I’m the Adventurer’s guild master over here, and I’ll be briefing you on this mission. As in, the mission of clearing the orc’s nest. That is, unless if you think you are here to knit?”

From beside the adventurer’s guild hall, I sighed.

A nervous laugh spread through the adventurers, as the guild master nodded, “Ok, since all of you are here, there are few things to tell you, first, your status plate will automatically record of the strength of the orc you killed, and how much damage you dealt to it. Your rewards are based on the kills and the damage dealt, so if you think that taking last hits are profitable. Hah! We got you guys now!” He suddenly shouted and laughed, creeping most of the adventurers.

“Anyways, remember to survive, your families and friends are waiting for you, if you feel that it’s going to be dangerous, flee. Try not to risk death. That’s all! Good luck hunting!”

I scowled at the words. Does anyone even care? If you want them to be safe, why put a momentary reward? Damn those nobles.

The adventurers cheered and ran off immediately, leaving the Guild master sighing. “Even though I say that, few of them would die, I know that, but I can’t stop them…”

I walked out of the shadows, sighing.

“Well you can’t protect them all, but at the very least help them on the Orc Chief, Dusk.” The Guild Leader said, and sat down on a bench nearby.

I said nothing, and simply walked off, towards the direction of the newbies.

It had been 10 years since I left the orphanage and lived with the few people in the lab. It was hard training, even though I was a ‘prodigy’. And finally, I had graduated. Thanks to Elanor, I’m now an adventurer, and as my first mission, I am supposed to join 99 other newbies to clear out an orc village that was too close to human borders.

At least that’s what the mission note said. Also, I soon found out that I was one of the few that actually read the actual mission notes, as almost all the other newbies were discussing what mission they might get.

Don’t they read instructions?

After some time, the adventurer’s guild master came out, and coughed once to get our attention. “Good morning everyone!” The Adventurer’s guild master announced. “As most of you might know, I’m the Adventurer’s guild master over here, and I’ll be briefing you on this mission. As in, the mission of clearing the orc’s nest. That is, unless if you think you are here to knit?”

“…” Was that an attempt to make a joke?

Nonetheless, a nervous laugh spread through us.

The guild master nodded, and continued, “Ok, since all of you are here, there are few things to tell you, first, your status plate will automatically record of the strength of the orc you killed, and how much damage you dealt to it.” He paused a while letting the newbies discuss about how they want to steal kills, before interrupting them suddenly. “Your rewards are based on the kills and the damage dealt, so if you think that taking last hits are profitable. Hah! We got you guys now!”

… I think I’ll stop trying to understand him.

He was laughing at the shocked newbies, but mostly at their disappointed faces. But what did they expect? We are the newbies, not they. Of course they knew how to counter our petty tricks…

“Anyways, remember to survive, your families and friends are waiting for you, if you feel that it’s going to be dangerous, flee. A veteran will join in midway to assist. Try not to risk death. That’s all! Good luck hunting!”

A veteran? I thought, but before I could further that, the briefing was over, and with that a few people automatically took charge. “Guys, the village is just nearby, follow us to reach it.” And following that, he left with most of the others. Seeing no other choice of action, the rest of us followed them.

It was a boring walk, to sum it up. I stretched my arms, careful not to hit anyone with my huge cannon, which was my final gift from Elanor. Lucky I had my power suit, another gift from Elanor, else I wouldn’t even be able to hold this.

I miss my master already.

That stretch though, caught the attention of the girl beside me, who smiled nervously. “Erm… Hi?”

She stood slightly taller to me, but her rack is far larger than my non-existent ones. Damn! She had short red hair, reaching just to her breasts… Damn it! I cursed myself for being distracted by something I didn’t like.

““It’s your first time as well, right?” She asked nervously.

“This is a quest for first timers.” I pointed out, “All of us are newbies.” My words caused her to fluster. Hm? Oh, I just made her look like an idiot? “Stay calm, they wouldn’t send us to our deaths as our first mission.”

She seemed flustered… Oh? Did I make her feel stupid? It seems that Elanor was right, I should have come out to speak to people more often… I feel bad for making her feed stupid.

“Um… Yeah…” She nodded nervously. “Um… May I ask why you would be an adventurer at such a young age?”

Me? Young? She herself looked 18 like me! Shrugging it off, I replied, “I finished my engineering training, and my master sent me off to get real experience.”

“Ah! Engineer? There isn’t many of them though… In fact… You’re the first one I know…”

“Well, my name’s Shiina. 18 this year, what’s yours?”

“Mel, also 18… wait! You’re 18?” She leaned forwards.

I glared at her. Of course I’m 18! But already, she had been distracted my something. She was sniffing… me?

“You… smell so nice… Can I hug you?”

“Wait! No!” I quickly stepped back, holding my cannon between us while we continued walking.

She tried to get over the cannon though, but we soon stopped to get some rest before the actual raid. I say down, pulling out a metal ball from my pouch, as well as a tablet, a small screen that is like a computer.

Has anyone here even seen a computer though? Mel herself was confused, and was shocked when the screen suddenly glowed, with the ball expanding into a round duck. It was fully round, with no actual neck, and the body being the head. It had tiny, non-existent wings, but upon activating a function, a rotor appeared, and it flew off.

I sent it high up, intending to scout, but through my duck, I realized something.

The orc camp was busy, obviously mobilizing for war. And doubtlessly, against us.

I got up quickly, with Mel suddenly getting knocked to the side, but the leaders of the group had already gotten up and was calling for everyone to get ready. Beside them was a man with a worn out coat, with a blue shirt inside, and a pair of brown pants. He had short dark blue hair, with sharp black eyes, and he was scanning through us. He looked at me, slightly interested, but quickly continued his scan, before finally taking a spot at the wall of shields, pulling out a long, but slim, sword. In his other hand was multiple grey cards, but… what are they?

After being briefed of the main weapon types, I never seen the ‘card’.

There isn’t any time to ponder though. I readied my weapon at higher ground, crouching with the cannon over my shoulder. The tablet on the ground so that I have a bird’s eye view. Mel stood beside me, taking deep breaths.

We were ready for them.

A scout ran back into the clearing, shouting, “They’re here!” and everyone beside me readied their shields.

Being the only one without a shield, I seemed to be an obvious weak point, but that is only if the enemy was strong.

For things like orcs, they stood no chance.

That was what I was thinking as I cut the wrist of the orc in front of me. The cut opened a huge bloody wound, and the blood splattered on the [Barrier] I created. My sword stabbed through the barrier, into the orc’s heart, and it fell to the ground, dead.

With a huge series of roars, the orcs charged out of the clearing. Their weapons met our shield wall, and some of the weaker adventurer’s was instantly pushed back. Luckily, with a few warriors behind them attacking the orcs, we managed to hold the wall. Few fell back injured, but nobody died.

An few orcs charged me, who was at the front, but I quickly cut their ankles, causing them to fall over before killing them. Knowing that I had little strength, Drax, my master, thought me all about weak points. My fighting style includes disabling my enemies before killing them, and for orcs, it was extremely effective.

They stood no chance agasint me, and any orc charging towards me was quickly butchered. At one point, I stopped using barrier to block the blood. Even if this old coat gets dirty, it doesn’t matter much.

[Clean] is really a life saver in these cases, although useless in almost every other situation.

To the sides, sometimes, the orcs will push back some of the people, but often, a rocket will fly and explode into the orcs before they could abuse the breach, and by the time they recovered, the breach will be long since fixed, with the healers healing the shield man rapidly.

But the rockets seem to be Elanor’s design…? I met her a few times in the past, she was quite an annoying person, honestly, but her artifacts were epicly strong. Most of them, she said, were her apprentice’s ideas though.

There are also arrows and spells flying overhead, smashing into the orc army, and killing them off one by one. The battle continued for some time while we slowly cut down the enemy numbers, someone charged straight towards our shield wall.

It seemed that the general of this orc army had appeared. He raised a huge axe, and roared at us. Most of the newbies faltered, but thanks to the ranged units, the overall damage we took is minimal.

I see a two of them losing their lives as the orcs got in lucky hits, and I cursed. I had to do something before more lives are wasted.

I stepped out of the shield wall, and the person behind me took my place, as I pulled out a grey card. “Deal with the rest of the orcs, I’ll kill this guy.”

The orc general charged at me, swinging his axe, but I swung my sword in a circle, activating my card [Force]. The sword, getting additional force suddenly, sent all of it to the axe, and it flew off the orc’s hands into the other orcs behind him. Before he could understand anything though, I stabbed both its ankles before stabbing its neck.

It died, just like that.

“Clear them out.” I said, before jumping over the shield back, watching over the battle.

I helped far more than I should already. It’s up to them at this point.

For now, let me watch that engineer from afar.

I was firing shot after shot since the beginning. The orcs, sometimes trying to break through the wall, are my main targets. From this high ground, as well as Ducky’s lock-on system, I won’t miss my shots, and every time the enemy almost broke through, a rocket will fly towards them before they could.

The general at one point, and the roar stunned most of the defenders. I had 28 shots in my cannon left, and I released the ammo lock, pulling a lever that appeared at the side, which unloaded the cannon of the rockets it had. The rockets flew towards the orcs, and exploded on them. ()

Most of the orcs staggered, but a few of them survived, crushing two defenders, with their heads turned into meaty pulp.

Interesting. So that’s how it looks like inside a human? I only seen machines myself.

Beside me, Mel covered her mouth with her hand, and looked away.

The general was dangerous, and I was rapidly reloading my cannon to deal with it, but suddenly, the person in the worn out coat stepped out from the shield line, and faced the general alone. Ignoring most of the orcs that tried to surround him. The general swung an axe at him, but he simply knocked it away with his flimsy sword.

Strong!

And in another move, the general crumpled onto the ground, dead.

With that spectacle, morale returned, and most of us quickly forgotten about the deaths of 2 allies, and the orcs were quickly pushed back even without any more help from the seasoned adventurer.

He must be the veteran that is supposed to help us anyways.

With the battle over, a few of the leaders went over to him, speaking to him. He scowled, before shrugging, sitting down beside a nearby tree.

Is something wrong? The leaders called for everyone, telling all of us to follow them… but… The veteran simply sat at the side, sighing.

Everyone followed them, all of them including Mel, but I stayed back, facing the man in the worn black coat.