“Alright everyone, we’ll set camp up here later.” Brell voiced out to us as he came to a halt. “Just like yesterday, let’s break off into the same pairs and monitor the same ways.” He continued as he turned his horse around and began walking it towards me. Following suit, the other four split into two pairs and began taking off on their respective sides.

When Brell walked past me, I as well turned my horse around and followed behind him. As we began travelling, Brell looked over his shoulder “You know, I hope we do run into a monster or some bandits.”.

“Why is that?” I asked him, confused.

“I still want to see how you handle that sword.” He answered. He then turned to look the other way “Either way though, if you spar with Lin tonight, I’ll see it then.”.

I thought that it wasn’t too bad if she wanted to spar after we set up camp since it would give me a good feeling about rank C adventurers and more importantly I was interested in how she fights. After that bit of small talk as we walked north, it was quite quiet.

The sun was beginning to set when Brell turned his horse back around. “Alright, this should be good for now, let’s head back.” He said as he rode past me. Following his lead, I turned around myself and trailed behind him back to camp.

We were about an hour's ride away from the camp when Brell came to a halt. When he did, I knew why as I felt the presence of something and stopped as well. With both of us surveying the area, it wasn’t long before the thing was spotted.

To our left was a beast lurking in the tall grass before the tree line. Brell and I were both looking at it and with doing so, the beast started crawling out with a low growl. What was revealed was a monster with black fur and on all fours. It had long curved tusks that protruded from both sides of its mouth. As it looked at us, there was drool seeping down from its mouth while steam was exhausted out every time it exhaled.

“A Chicha? I didn’t expect us to run into one like this.” Brell started mumbling to himself. He then turned to me “Be careful, with tusks like those, this one is more mature than the average Chicha.”.

I understood what was to come next so I got off the horse and drew my blade, pointing it to the monster; ready to fight. Before I charged in, I peered behind me to catch a glimpse of Brell uptop his horse, intently watching me.

As I turned my attention back to the Chicha, it was already charging towards me. Before I could take action, it already leapt towards me from quite a distance away. Surprised by its actions, all I did was prepare to block. I turned my blade sideways with the hilt in one hand and the other laying against the flat side of my sword.

With its claws now having something in the way, blocking it, the Chicha instead locked its long claws upon the sword, gripping it. I stared at the beast eye to eye as it exhaled a bunch of steam at me which smelt like something was decaying.

I then let go of the hand on my blade and while it started pushing me back, I threw a fist square on its nose. The Chicha let go of the sword as it jumped backwards, yelping.

It recovered swiftly and began growling at me. This time, I went on the attack and broke ground towards it. I made a sweeping strike, attacking its forelegs. The Chicha jumped backwards causing a miss. I then came in with a second sweep. The Chicha jumped back again but not in time as my blade scraped its legs. Before it had any time to respond, I spun around and swung down, overhead.

I saw the Chicha look up at my sword and instead of jumping away, it took a step back. I then saw it swipe it’s head to the side. I heard a loud clang as the Chicha’s tusk hit my sword, causing my body to jolt to the right. After recovering, I looked at the Chicha, still growling. I then looked over to Brell and saw him closely observing the fight. I wanted to try and use magic to get more used to it in a fight but I don’t want the guild to uncover my secrets. While I was in thought, the Chicha already closed the distance to me.

As it did, I stood there and let it jump towards me. Instead of trying to block or counter, I jump to the side. It flies by and recovers on its legs quickly and turns back to me. I turned to it as well and made sure Brell was behind me. I then closed my eyes and pulled as much mana as I could from my pool to my arms before the Chicha charged at me again.

I then heard the Chicha close the distance to me and when I heard the footsteps stop, I opened my eyes. I went for a swing as I saw the Chicha flying in the air towards me. When it saw me swing, it turned it’s head to block the strike with its tusk. When my blade met its tusk, it stopped for a split second before it shattered the part in the way and began carving through part of it’s head. As my blade felt like cutting through grass, I kept swinging full strength. By the time I felt nothing, I turned around as the Chicha flew past me somehow. I realized how when I saw it separated by half of its face and it’s front right leg that it stopped close towards the hind leg.

After realizing how much of the body I cut through without knowing, I looked down to the sword held by my hands. I moved the blade around a bit to feel how light it was and it felt like holding parchment. I then closed my eyes and retracted the remaining mana from my hands and back to the mana pool. I then remembered that someone was watching and opened my eyes. I looked up to Brell who looked astonished.

When he saw me lay eyes on him, he said “Chicha’s tusks are very tough and that one was more mature than a young one but you cut through it and almost half of its body with what looked like ease!”. He then looked at my blade “Is that a special kind of sword? Or was that just brute strength?”.

“What do you mean, special blade?” I asked him, curiously.

Brell’s eyes turned back towards me “Like is it made out of a special material or is it also an artifact?” he asked.

I looked down at the blade, uncertain how to answer it. I looked at it for several seconds before deciding to make something up. “Someone close gave it to me.” As the words left my mouth, I felt a pain in my head and as I grabbed it while closing my eyes, I saw a silhouette of a woman with long hair. The pain then left as well as the silhouette.

Once the pain settled, I heard a thud and looked up to see Brell get off his horse. When he sees me he asks concerned “Hey, are you okay?”.

I nodded to him “It was just a small bit of pain in my head.”.

“A headache? I bet you got that since you don’t sleep.” He responds as he stops walking towards me. “Anyways, I can see why you’re capable of being rank B with no party now.” He said with a look of impression. He then walks up to the corpse of the Chicha and picks up part of its body “Lets clean this up and quickly head back to not make them worry.”.

I then placed my sword upon my back and went to grab the other half. Following what Brell did, I tossed it into the forestline. Afterwards, he walked back towards where the corpse was and grabbed a fragment of the Chicha and placed it in a bag hanging off his horse. Once we were all done in the area, he began mounting the horse with me doing the same shortly after.

As we began riding back, I asked him “Why did you take part of the tusk with you?”.

He then looked at me peculiarly “Have you not been with the guild for long?”. I shook my head to him. “You really must have been a freelance adventurer if you’re at the skill of a rank B without a party.” He mentions. Brell then elaborates “You must know at least that you need proof of a kill for the guild.”.

“Oh right, I just forgot about that part.” I said as I remember being told constantly about it again.

Brell then asks me curiously “How long have you been with the guild?”.

I think back to how long ago it was since I was in Trennent. “About maybe forty or fifty days ago?” I answer him with no fear since that's probably public information from the guild.

Brell looked at me surprised. “I’d ask what kind of things you did as a freelancer but from what I heard about freelancers, it’s probably private stuff.” He said.

I was uncertain on how to answer him and just nodded to him so I didn’t have to tell the truth or come up with lies. After he saw me nod, we rode the rest of the way back to camp.

.

.

.

Once we arrived back at camp, we realized we were the first ones back. When Brell saw that, he got off his horse “Seems like the others are dealing with monsters or bandits as well.”. He then turned to me “Let's set up camp so they can get rest as soon as they are back.”. Following what he said, I got off my horse and began going around and collecting firewood for the night.

By the time we were lighting the fire, we heard rustling and turned to find Krello and Howari. “You two look fine, how’d it go?” Brell called out to them.

Krello’s eyes looked to the side towards Howari “Howari made it easy.”.

Howari, then looking embarrassed while looking towards her horse, elaborated “We found several bandits setting up a camp…”. She then looked at Brell “I just fought how Brell told us to!”.

With a smile on Brell’s face, he spoke up “I may have told you how to fight but your magic is your own skill.”. Howari just looked back down, embarrassed.

Several seconds of silence passed before we heard rattling coming from the opposite direction Krello and Howari came from. What was revealed was Suta and Lin. When they came into view Suta spoke out “Sorry guys, we didn’t run into anything but Lin got distracted and caused us to get lost.”.

“Hey! I’m sorry I wanted to go and pet the harmless bunny!” Lin responded, upset.

Suta let out a sigh “Yeah sure that would have been fine if you didn’t get distracted for a while, making us go in all random directions.”.

“That doesn’t matter Suta, we made it back anyways!” Lin said. Her eyes then turned towards me “I wouldn’t want to miss out on showing a red guy who's stronger!”.

“Yes, yes I know. You wouldn’t keep quiet about it the whole patrol.” Suta said while rolling his eyes. He then looked to see the camp not fully set up “Lin, it seems like they recently got back as well, lets help finish setting up camp and then you two can spar.”.

Lin with an upset look responded with “What? Why can’t we spar right now?”.

Suta shakes his head “That much should be obvious.”. He then gestured towards me “Look, even Crim the one you want to spar is setting up the camp”.

Brell then intervened “No it’s fine, they can spar right now. All we really need is the fire.”.

With a happy look on Lin’s face, she got off her horse and went to the clearing near her. “Let’s fight now!” She said while beckoning me over.

I thought that I might as well get it over with right away and walked towards the clearing as well. Once we were in front of each other at a small distance, I drew my blade. We got ready to fight but as soon as one of us made a move, Brell called out “Wait, one more thing before you two fight.”