When I entered the guild, I walked straight towards the counter and in front of Ilise. “Oh, Crim! I was wondering when you were going to show up but I didn’t expect you this early.” she says with a relieved tone.

“Were you looking for me?” I ask, confused.

“Yes! I completely forgot to give you your reward for the evaluation quest.” she says, clearing up my confusion and begins reaching for a few things underneath the counter. She then takes out from underneath the counter, a pouch and some silver coins and begins quickly counting them out to twenty underneath her breath.

After a brief moment, Ilise then tightens the bag before placing it in front of me “I’m sorry about this, my boss somehow caught wind of me forgetting to give you your reward and scolded me all night!” Ilise then bows down while I’m confused on how to handle this.

She didn’t stay bowed over for long before fixing herself and asking like nothing happened “So what can I help you with today?”.

“Is there any way the guild can set up a meeting with Serval Grue for me?” I ask, curiously.

Ilise unfortunately shakes her head “If we could do it, we wouldn’t since you just joined the guild and are only a rank C.”.

“Okay, I understand.” I say dejected. I then stand in front of the desk thinking what I could do since the guild couldn’t. While I stand there, a thought crosses my mind, reminding me about the chasm. “I do have another question.”. Ilise tilts her head, wondering what I’d ask “When I was in the dungeon, there was a huge hole in the deepest part of the dungeon, is there a reason it’s there?”.

Ilise takes a moment before speaking out “Ah, you’re wondering about that.”. “That dungeon is normally a place that Trennent has been using for ore and the guild commissions E rank adventurers to clear monsters that climb their way up the hole.” Ilise then starts tapping the counter while looking towards the roof. “And about the hole, hmm… if I remember correctly, the guild has tried commissioning people to figure out what the hole is but sadly to no avail.”.

It was unfortunate that it didn’t really answer the question I asked but was still satisfied with it. I then change the topic “What kind of quests are there that I can take?”.

“If you’re wondering about that, there was a recent urgent request of the guild looking for adventurers to deal with the bandit problem that has been getting increasingly worse.” as she mentions the bandits, I think about Chelsey and Vaero. “Oh wait, sorry. That quest is actually only for rank B and up since reports say that their leader has really good swordsmanship.” when she talks about their leader, I think back to when we got ambushed by the bandits on the way here and what he said.

Before she could continue talking, I asked abruptly “What way is it to the capital?”.

“The capital? If you want to go there, once you go out the main gates, take a right and it should wrap around the outer-” before she could finish, I grabbed the pouch on the counter and was already walking towards the exit.

After I leave the guild, I quickly start making my way to the main gates. Once in front of the main gates, a guard stops me before I make it out “Sir, I just want to warn you even if you are an adventurer, be careful, reports have been piling in about bandits starting to become extremely active now.”.

I stopped when hearing this and turned to him “Earlier this morning, did a carriage with two horses leave this way?”.

“A carriage in the morning… hmm… ah yes, I remember there was. I told them that they shouldn’t leave but the driver insisted on letting them pass.” as soon as the guard finishes talking, I quickly walk past him before he could hold me up any longer.

I walked along the path that wrapped around the outside of Trennent for almost the whole length of the village before it broke off to the left, leading towards a forest. While I was nearing the forest, I was thinking about the bandit I fought against again. It may have been coincidental but there’s a chance that he was targeting Chelsey, it would make sense since the bandits activity randomly got increasingly more prevalent and it’s only noon. Also if that is the case, maybe that's the reason he said we’d probably fight again.

As I entered the forest, I began looking everywhere for signs of any struggle anywhere. I was probably walking for several hours now along the road in the forest and was just about to give up and turn around until I spotted a familiar looking horse. I then approached it to get a better look so I could confirm my suspicion.

Once I confirmed it was sadly the horse from Chelsey’s carriage, I began running in the direction of where the horse was. Night was falling while I was restlessly looking everywhere through the forest. I spent a couple more hours after nightfall before I stumbled upon a building that had a bonfire by it with roughly six rough looking guys with a majority of them wearing tattered leather chest plates that were drinking, eating and talking loudly.

Not wanting to be spotted, I quietly begin getting closer to see if this is the place I‘m looking for. When I was close enough to hear them, I began to listen in.

“I don’t know how tha boss does it but we sure scored big today!” after one of them says that, they all begin shouting out in joy and clash their wooden mugs together, causing liquid to fly about.

“I jus wish da boss would let us have our way with tha pretty little lady.” a shorter guy says.

“He’s tha bosses personal one, if he heard you say that, say goodbye to your tongue, just like Reffer earlier.” the tallest one says while smacking the back of the shorter one. “Anyways, if you have some stress he said we can do whatever to that other boy.”

Another starts laughing out loud “I can’t believe that kid thought he was a match for tha boss.”. After he finished speaking, they all start laughing loudly.

When I was done hearing what I wanted to, I began sneaking around to get closer while trying to figure out how to handle this. Once I was close enough, right before coming out of the forest, out into the clearing, a man came out of the house “What ta hell are ya boys doing! Are ya tryin to get everyone's attention!?”. As I heard the voice, I quickly realized it really is the bandit that ambushed us before.

“What you mean boss? You can and have taken on everyone who they sent already.” the tallest one says.

“Oi, Frey don’t ya say that, we don’t know fo sure.” the leader snaps at the one named Frey.

“Wha? Is the boss scar-” the one with the name Frey says teasingly but was abruptly interrupted by the leader who had his sword drawn, pointing towards Frey’s neck. While a commotion was starting, I tried using the opportunity to get even closer, breaking through the tree line.

The leader lifts his own chin, mimicking the way he was holding Frey’s chin with the end of his blade “What I say, Frey? I can take ya life right now because I-”. He stops talking and peers towards the area I was in and a smirk slowly forms. He then turns back to Frey and lifts up his sword more “I will forgive ya if all ya guys can kill that man.”. Right after he finishes talking, he swipes his blade from underneath Frey’s chin and points it towards my exact position which made all people present look towards it.

I wasn’t expecting to get caught so soon but was happy I could confront them straight on instead so I stood up straight and walked out of the bush I was trying to hide behind, brandishing my blade.

“Wha? When that guy get here?”.

Before they could have time to grab their weapons and prepare, I was already charging them down. I started with the closest one which was the shortest who was still reaching for his sword and before he could even point it my way, a crimson edge was already carving away through his neck. By the time his body caught up, his head was already rolling around.

“Wha? Kill this man! He killed Murri!” a chubbier one shouted out while charging towards me recklessly swinging his sword. After all the sparring and fighting against swords for a bit now, I was easily able to see through this guys' reckless swings. After blocking the first few strikes from the chubbier one, I guide his third predictable strike to the side, making him lose his footing. Before the guy could regain himself, my sword was already piercing through his neck.

Learning from the last fight with the goblins and not letting them coordinate any attack, I then let the one still impaled with my sword slide off and quickly charge at the next.

While charging to the next bandit, I caught a glimpse of their boss and he just smirked at me. While tapping his blade against his shoulder he then said “Ya better kill all mah men, or else ya ain’t worth mah time!”.

“Wait Boss what you me-” said one of the few bandits but was interrupted by my blade splitting his body from his shoulder.

With three down, there were three more to go before their boss. The three left were the one named Frey, a bulkier guy with a crude claymore, and one other.

“He’s killing us one ba one! Let's all charge at him, I’ll distract him while you get him Reffer.” he says towards the bulkier one and then quickly begins charging towards me. Not wanting to get caught up in their plan, I charge towards them too.

As both Frey and I were sword length apart, he begins swinging his sword towards me. Instead of clashing my blade with his, I jumped to the side, going right by him, making him stumble forwards and slamming his sword into the ground. The next one behind Frey was the other bandit with the bigger one named Reffer behind him.

I closed in on the last nameless bandit and he began swinging his sword down towards me as well. I bring my sword to my side and jump to the right of the bandit while swinging. My blade cleanly cuts off the bandits leg and he drops to the ground yelping.

Before the bulkier one was in distance to me, I impaled the bandit with one leg left from behind. I pull my blade out of the bandit as I turn around, swinging at the incoming bandit. Clang! A loud clash echoes around as my blade was stopped by his claymore “Da a li sod” he says and begins laughing.

I was caught off guard by his actions and he used the time to push my sword back and swing his crude claymore towards me. With Frey also behind me, my only option was to block the strike. “Dis ow yu wing a sod” the bandit says as our swords clash. The force was unexpectedly tremendous, forcing me to drop to one knee.

Hearing footsteps getting close behind me, I quickly grab the end of my blade and push it to the left, forcing the claymore off me. I quickly got up but before I could turn around, a sharp pain pierced through me and I looked down to see a blade poking through my gut. After realizing what happened, I regain my senses and throw an elbow behind me. I feel my elbow connect with his head and his whole jolts to the left before he collapses, pulling the blade out of my gut.

I feel a sharp pain once more as the blade leaves my body, but with little time to think about pain, I quickly raise my sword and bring it down towards the bandit in front of me before he could make his next attack.

I swung my sword with as much strength as I could use since I wanted to show him real strength, he then tried to block my sword, the same way I blocked him. As my sword connected with his, a loud clang sounded out followed by shattered metal scattering about while my sword broke the bandits claymore and began carving it’s way down his body.

When I turn around to deal with the last bandit, to my surprise I find their boss impaling his sword into Frey’s neck “Ya guys couldn’t evan do it when ya guys had da numbas.”. He then pulls out his sword, making blood splatter everywhere as he brings it up to his shoulder, resting it there. “I got worried when ya wern’t wit them but ere ya are. I hope ya warmed up” he says with a smirk.

The wound from the sword earlier starts to become numb as I ready myself to fight the next fight.