Volume 3 Chapter 1: Part 2: The Abnormal

"Understood." Onyx nodded and walked up with Rena in tow. The employees on the second floor greeted him as the two walked. Onyx and Rena had been called so much that it was a usual sight for the employees.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Oliver." Hearing Onyx's voice, Oliver laughed, "Come in then! You don't need to knock on my door every time."

Onyx opened the door only to find Oliver working on signing papers,

"So you guys are finished with your quest?"

"Mmhmm. It was a simple quest. It didn't take long for us to finish."

A simple quest? Oliver chuckled. If another adventurer heard that, they would beat you up on the spot!

Onyx and Rena took on a C-rank quest. It would take days to finish for a C-rank adventurer.

Yet these two only took a day to finish it!

And look at his face made it even worse.

Onyx was so calm about it. Like there was nothing wrong with what he said. Those adventurers would smack themselves in the faces, for ever thinking they were strong.

"Rena, how is the armor working out for you?" Rena wore leather armor that was given by the guild. Adventurers who were starting out could borrow armor and gear from them to start out.

But compared to Onyx's equipment, it was miles apart.

"It's doing fine," Rena responded. The leather armor had scratches before and was a little loose on the side. But it was still better than nothing.

"We should go and get you new equipment later." Using the guild equipment was just temporary. Onyx asked Gus to make some armor for her.

Oliver smiled. But then asked, "Also, you should go and talk with Michelle from time to time. She's kept asking about you. Me and Gilbert can't take it any longer."

Oliver clutched his head, remembering how she acted. She kept coming to the guild hall or the auction house, pestering him and Gilbert. It blocked him from doing his work.

"..." Hearing that, Rena looked over to Onyx, and he nodded.

Rena smiled, "Then I will talk to Michelle when I have time." Michelle was one of the people who she was close with. Not talking to her was something she never wanted to happen.

"What do you need me to do, Oliver? I know you didn't call me here to talk about Michelle." Oliver wasn't the type to call him over for something useless.

"Heh, always straight to the point." Oliver chuckled a bit before his face turned serious, "There's a quest for you to do. Actually, more of a request."

Hmm? A request? "Who's the request from?"

"This is a request from two other people and me. You know one of them." Oliver smiled.

Hmm? Someone, I know? Who is it? There were a lot of people he knew in Advent city. Even so, "Sure. What do you want me to do?" Onyx owes Oliver a lot for helping him out with Rena.

"I need you to investigate towns and villages around the city." Oliver's face turned serious as he said this.

"What happened to them?"

Oliver got closer to him. "Don't tell anybody about this, but lately, villages around the Riqueza kingdom are being killed off."

"Huh?" "Shh! Don't scream so loudly! Do you want everybody to know about this?!" Onyx quickly shut up, realizing his mistake. But then he asked,

"How many people know what's going on?"

"Only a handful of people. We have to keep this on the down-low for now." Oliver sighed. He knows this would cause a riot if anybody else heard it.

"This request came from the leader of the Riqueza kingdom and the Espoir kingdom's king."

Walter asked for this? Onyx's face turned stern upon hearing this. If Walter was asking for help, then something strange was going on.

"Mmhmm. For a couple of days, many villages and towns were destroyed. Nobody knows what's going on. Each kingdom sent its guards over to those villages, but they disappeared too."

"So you want me to go over there and check it out?" Onyx got the picture.

"Mmmhmm. Since our city is between the two, they requested me to send some adventurers to check on the site." Because the city was between the two, they had to help out.

"Then why don't you send Stewart and Lyle's group to check it out too?" Onyx was more than happy to help out Oliver and Walter. However, he was only a D-rank adventurer.

With how seriously Oliver talked about it, he shouldn't be doing something like this.

Oliver shook his head, "Their mission is to check out the destroyed villages. They have left earlier so they can move further ahead." Of course, he asked Stewart and Lyle about this as well. More so, they were given a more dangerous task than him.

"Wait, do they know about this?"

"No. I've only told what happened to Stewart, Lyle, and all the other captains. I made sure to tell them not to tell their party members."

"I see. So how many people are on the job right now."

"Almost a handful of high rank and trustworthy adventuring parties have been tasked with this. Parties that aren't B-rank were kept out. They can't handle something like this." From the information Oliver had, beginner adventurers would die if he asked them to go.

"The reason why I'm telling you this is because I know you can handle this."

Not asking Onyx for assistance was a foolish move. And it was one of the safest moves possible. He could come back home safely. Compared to everybody else, he was the only one who could survive anything coming his way.

He took down a deviled python. That in itself was more than enough to make him capable.

"Understood. So what do you need me to do?" Onyx didn't hesitate as he asked.

Oliver smiled as he took out a map, "What I need you to do is not search the damaged villages. Instead, I want you to go to those that aren't destroyed. Look here."

Onyx looked down at the map. There were a bunch of X marks circling around Advent city.

"The X marks show off the villages that have been taken out. Check up on those that haven't yet. I'll supply you with the transportation and take this map with you."

"Understood." Onyx nodded as he took the map out with him.

As they left the room.

Espoir kingdom. Hearing that name, Onyx began to wonder,

What's Irene doing? It's been a couple of months since Onyx left the Espoir kingdom. That was how long he had been away from Irene. Thinking about it, he felt lonely from not seeing her anymore.

She's probably gotten stronger.

With Walter and Vargar's help, there's no way Irene couldn't get stronger. She may have taken leaps and bound from where she was before.

As he thought about this, Rena cut in,

"Master Onyx, are you sure we should be taking on such a mission?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't you think this is too dangerous?" Villages were destroyed, and they don't know what's going on. That was already enough to say what they were about to do was dangerous.

"Hmm, if you are scared, you don't have to come with me." Onyx did agree to the mission. That was only for him, though. He knew about the risk that's involved with it too. So he wouldn't force Rena to come with him if she didn't want to.

Rena shook her head, "No, it's ok. I will follow you, master Onyx. I'm your slave, so it's my duty to accompany you everywhere." Wherever Onyx goes, she will follow after.

"..." Onyx stayed silent. The next second, he flicked her on the forehead,

"Ow!" Rena held onto her head, surprised he would do something like that.

"Idiot, I don't think of you as my property or something. I think of you as my comrade. You can choose what you want to do and where to go without looking at me." Onyx smiled.

Rena didn't know what to say. Why do you keep saying this? This wasn't the first time Onyx told her this. And every time Onyx did, she didn't know what to say.

"Understood, master."

Onyx smiled, "Before we leave, we will have to prepare some things." Who knows what would happen when they arrived there.

"Yes, sir."

...

"Run faster!" A father said to his wife and daughter as they ran. The mother looked back, "It's gaining on us!" The sounds of screaming came closer and closer to them.

The father didn't hesitate as he changed course, "You guys run away as fast as possible! I'll stall as long as possible!" He grabbed a hoe on the ground as he charged toward the screaming sound.

"Daddy!"The daughter's face paled, seeing her father running back. As she continued to look back, she tripped on a rock.

Her mother quickly picked her up, carrying her while soothing her, "Don't cry, dear! Everything will be alright." But the consoling was short-lived as she could hear the agonizing screams coming behind her.

And what came after this was the sound of destruction. The closer and closer it gets towards them. Feeling a sense of despair and death, the mother quickly looked around and spotted a trash can.

Without any hesitation, she pushed her daughter into it,

"Mommy!" Before she could say anything else, the mother placed her fingers on her lips,

"Shh, Shh. be quiet, dear. This is for your own good. Please be silent. Don't say anything until you hear nothing." The mother kissed her child on her forehead before closing the can shut.

"Over here! Over here!" From afar, the child could hear her mother scream out. After that, the sound continued to get farther and farther away and with the destruction the next second.