Subjugating monsters, gathering herbs, and helping citizens, the days passed with us doing different quests due to that I was finally promoted to Iron rank like Denn but that's not the only thing that worth celebrating for as my skills in spear also improved, from the placement of my feet to the movements of my hips I was guided by my comrades so I was thankful to them for gifting me these precious knowledge and experience.

“Hurry up!” Bart's voice woke me up from reminiscing.

I looked towards him and saw that he's really excited shown from how he was ahead from the rest of us.

“Why are you wasting your energy like that, it's still in the morning those monsters won't run from you.” Alexa reminded him.

“But I want to finish it fast, don't you want to catch up to them?

And also Denn said that we would start harder quest after we all became Iron rank, that's why I can't wait.”

That's right Bart and Alexa only need one more quest to rank up and I remember Denn saying something like that.

So that's why he is so impatient. I chuckled a little.

The two continued bickering until Denn stopped them seeing that we arrived at the forest we then followed a route heading straight towards the mountainside. The quest this time is to kill some salamander but to get to where they are we must first enter a cave where they live the problem is this place is full of caves that are either occupied by monsters, thankfully we have an information from the guild about where salamaders dwell and from it we scoured the mountainside for a cave with no monsters living in it because from the information guild has these salamander or generally reptile monsters love eating rats and bats.

After a while we found a cave where there are no footprints of any monster so Denn told us to stop and discuss our plan.

“After entering the cave don't make any unnecessary noise if you want to say something use the signs that we made.” he showed as a couple of gestures of his hands then after seeing as all nod he continued. “I heard from someone that bats are asleep when its day so we must be careful not to wake them up or else they would sucked all our blood.”

After his explanation I saw Alexa became a little pale but still force herself to ask a question.

“Isn't it dark inside will we use a torch? It might wake them up if we do that.”

“No. We will use this.”

Denn showed us a vial with a green liquid in it.

“What is that?” I as curious as always asked about it.

“It is an item called 'glowing liquid', the alchemist I bought it from told me it glows in the dark after applying it to something.” after saying that he took a branch from a nearby tree and tied a cloth over it, it was like a torch but instead of gas Denn poured the green liquid in it until half of the vial is empty, the cloth then became a little green but after a little time passed it slowly vanished.

“Would it really work with just that little maybe you should pour it all.” Bart said with a disappointed look.

“The alchemist told me that this vial can be use twice, maybe we will see its effect after we enter the cave.”

We followed Denn inside and as we slowly strode forward the darker our surrounding became while the torch which Denn put the green liquid on started to light up giving a soft green light enough for us to see something ahead from us.

“Amazing!” Bart said in a loud voice making Denn stopped and looked back to him to gesture him to quiet, Bart was about to say something again but was blocked by Alexa's hand, he looked at her angrily but I have no time to pay him attention as I noticed Alexa and Denn's focus are not on Bart but up the ceiling, I slowly turned my head upwards and I almost yelped but I hold it in by grabbing my mouth with my hands forcing it back in my throat.

The countless stars in the sky was beautiful, I thought as I looked at those thousands of glowing eyes above our heads. I looked towards Denn and gestured him with my shaking hands what do we do? And he replied with his gestures telling me to 'stay put and be quiet.' I followed his instruction and looked up the ceiling of the cave again, I don't know how long we stood there but slowly the red 'stars' vanish one by one making the glowing torch in Denn's hand stand out.

We then all sighed in relief and gave Bart another warning before we started walking again.

As we tread deeper inside sweat started building up in my forehead I was about to wipe it with my hand when Denn suddenly gave us a sign to stop and pointed ahead of us, there a lizard with a beautiful fiery scale and a size reaching my knees was munching a bat for its meal.

'This is the salamander that the book I read describes.'

The salamander was also called 'little dragon' as its main attack is spewing fire in its mouth like what the dragons in the fairy tales do they also have sharp claws and teeths so its one the most hardest quest for the copper rank mercenaries, but its body is like a bag of coins as every part of it can be used for a lot of things.

Alexa aims her bow into the salamander and the three of us move towards the possible spots that it would run to if her arrow is not enough for it to die.

After we're in position Denn gave her a go sign as the drawn bow released its arrow, it flew straight towards the head of the salamander but its golden reptilian eyes moved as it lowered its head close to ground dodging the arrow before swallowing its food it then it head towards me, if it was me a couple days ago I would probably panic let it escape or attack me but now I am different. As it run towards me I steadied myself and my hands holding the spear relaxs, the salamander must be planning to spew fire on me as its chest started to swell and lit up but before it open its mouth I took a step forward then thrust my spear straight in its head, only a smoke came out from the gaps of its mouth.

After killing our first salamander Denn gave me a thumbs up before tying the carcass carefully, only four more of to go.

We walked around until we met the next one, this cave is full of creatures hiding in the dark but we avoid fighting them as we don't want to get the attention of every creature in this cave, the second salamander fought back and I saw it spewing fire but different from what I imagined it was just an ember I was a little bit disappointed, it was immediately killed by Alexa's arrow.

I don't know how much time passed because I can't see the sun in this cave but Denn already used the other half of the green liquid when we finally killed the last salamander, as we were preparing to trace our steps back we heard a rustling sound different from the sounds we've been hearing and it was close to us making us alert, Denn used the dim light of the glowing torch to looked around and when the torch's light shone towards our backs we clearly saw a snake's split tounge appear for an instance what made all the hairs in my body stood up is that those tongue are bigger than the my arms combined.

“Run!!!”

Denn's voice echoed around the cave as we all run without even looking back, seeing us run away the creature should be chasing us as the rustling sound in our backs became louder. Like a headless chicken we ran until we finally saw the light from outside the cave, we then exited it but Denn shouted again.

“Continue! Run!”

I looked towards the cave where we are previously in and saw a head of a big snake coming out from it and just ahead of it is Alexa who is breathing heavily, I want to attack the serpent by throwing my weapon but then I realized that my spear is not with me so I shouted towards Denn.

“Denn! Alexa is starting to slow down!”

He looked back before stopping, I and Bart was about to stop too but—

“Continue running! I'll help Alexa!”

Then I saw Denn throwing his shield and it flew straight towards the serpent's right eye making it stopped and cry from pain then he carried the tired Alexa in his shoulder, the serpent was angry at us at it made a loud hissing sound towards us before speeding up.

“Shoot it with your bow!” I heard from behind of me I want to turn my head to look back but due to us going downwards I am descending fast and with all the trees here and there it would be dangerous for me not to look ahead thankfully Bart is in the front and all I need is to follow his path and actions to fully evade the trees.

After a long time of running we finally saw where the forest ends but our feet did not stop until we saw the bricked road heading towards the city.

After catching my breath I took out a water pouch from my bag and drank the water in it until it was almost empty but I remembered the others so I tried offering it to them but when I looked around all of them was already drinking their own so I emptied it, then after long time of relaxation Alexa looked towards Denn and spoke.

“Sorry for slowing you down.”

“It's alright.”

“But—”

“As the leader of this party its my responsibility to protect you so its normal for me to do that.

But I know you and you won't accept that kind of reason so how about this, someday when I'm in trouble save me, alright?”

Hearing those words her cheeks turned a little red.

“Yes I promise! And...thank you for your help.”

“You're welcome.”

“Maaan! That was close one, we almost became food for that snake!” Bart said breaking the nice atmosphere the two of them having.

“That's right, almost.”

“What are you relaxing there we need to go back!” Alexa who was back to her previous self kicked Bart who was laying in the grass making him shout in pain and sat up.

After Denn stopped the two of them from bickering he told them that we were heading back and Bart ran ahead of us, we arrived at the guild after walking for quite a while then we submitted the 5 salamanders we killed for our quest, we also told them about our experience earning us a couple of coins.

The receptionist then gave back at our card before smiling towards us.

“Congratulations on being an Iron rank mercenaries.”

We plan to celebrate their promotion but before that we decided to buy our equipment first. We head towards the blacksmith shop we frequently in and I bought a new spear it is made with steel making it lighter than the wooden one but it is more durable and have sharper blade while Denn bought a small triangular iron shield.

After that the party head towards a shop selling armors as Bart was jealous of us having the only one who have the new items. Alexa bought new light weight armor made from hides of boar it was the same for me just a different style as I only have enough money for it, Bart bought a breastplate made of steel while Denn took a chainmail.

“We don't look like a novice mercenaries anymore.” I muttered after looking at the new equipment donned on our bodies.

“Of course! We are all Iron rank mercenaries after all.”

Bart who respond after hearing me showed his guild badge making the three of us laugh.

We then finished our business in the shop as we moved towards the restaurant we frequently in. Denn ordered the foods and drinks, Bart made the place lively by telling stories and sometimes by being punched in the side by Alexa while I listened and laughed with their antics, this continued until the lights lit up the streets.

“Right, tomorrow we would take an Iron rank quest.” Denn said as we reached the door of the shop.

“Yes!”