Chapter 25 - First Quest

LIGHT'S POV:-

8:00 PM

After meditating for a few more hours, I open my eyes and start thinking about my immediate next move.

I already have plans to save the Royal princess as a means to get the entry ticket to Heaven's Library.

If worse comes to worst I might just find something else to help them with, resulting in them owing me a favour.

But right now other than getting stronger, there isn't much to do. So I should try to fill those empty hours with something useful.

After thinking for a moment, I decide to pass some time checking other races. Maybe I'll find something interesting there.

'Let's start with pixies and wood fairies'

I look around to see Chase and Corey still training.

With their training going smoothly they should be able to reach platinum rank in a half year or so.

Considering a person takes years or even decades to reach platinum rank from gold rank, their talent really is terrifying.

I move towards them then,

"Icelos, from tomorrow onwards, challenge as many gold adventurers as you can every day. This is your task from tomorrow onwards from 3 PM till night. The morning will be the usual."

I speak to Icelos as he is catching his breath.

Then I look at Corey, "Your schedule will remain the same for one week, after that you too should get a rank and start challenging gold rank adventurers."

Experience along with daily training will give them the maximum benefits and this form of training also help them understand how to tackle different types of opponents.

Looking around I find that Lucy has already left.

I then speak, "I am going on a quest with Kaneto. I'll return within two weeks. After I come, I will personally test you both." I speak the last line in a dominant tone.

They flinch at the mention of test and start practising harder than before.

I look at Kaneto, "Kaneto, let's get going."

He looks at me, then nods.

Honestly, with how Kaneto doesn't interfere with my shenanigans, he is my favourite person I met, since I came to this world.

No unnecessary questions. Just pure business.

This is how people should be.

Anyways, so leaving Corey and Chase behind, we move to the adventurers guild and I ask him to collect some quests regarding Pixies or Wood Fairies.

After skimming through the quests he shows me 7 quests that piqued his interest.

After taking a look at those quests I put my fingers on a specific quest and decide to take it.

|||

Rank:1Ruby/2platinum/6Gold

Quest requirement: Meet the Pixie royals and solve their crisis

Difficulty:Unspecified

Location:Greater Leaf Forest(west)

Rewards:10Gold

|||

"Hmmm?" Kaneto frowns a bit looking at the quest details.

They are vague, too vague.

And the rewards aren't worth for 6 gold rank adventurers to put their efforts into it.

It reeks of suspicions.

'That's why it's interesting.'

"Is it a prank?" I hear someone shouting behind us.

Looking behind us I see 2 girls arguing.

They are roughly of 20-21 years each.

One wearing a blue dress with a leather breastplate and the other one a red adventure t-shirt with a mini skirt.

The mini-skirt girl lowers her voice after watching that everyone is looking at her.

She looks a bit embarrassed and bows to everyone as an apology.

Then she turns at the blue dress girl with a fierce gaze.

The gaze is probably directed at a third person.

"How can that bastard ask us something like that?" Says the 'mini-skirt' girl glaring at the blue dress girl with her arms crossed.

"I don't know, but since he holds our weakness, there is nothing we can do about it." Replies the blue dressed girl with a sympathetic look as she lowers her head.

"Will the guards even allow it?" Mini skirt girl is now showing signs of frustration on her face and starts tapping the floor with her feet.

"I don't think so, to get into the Greater Leaf you need to be at least a platinum or have minimum 5 Gold ranks. Plus if you aren't an elf, pixie or wood fairy you need some form of clarification for why you need to enter."

'So they have the same destination as us, huh?'

Since the chance itself came to us, it will be a pity to waste it.

I move towards them and say,

"I have a clarification"

"Huh?" They both look in our direction a bit surprised at my sudden intrusion.

Kaneto understanding my intentions moves forward and shows them the quest details while speaking,

"We have a quest to go to pixies but we lack headcount"

They look at the quest with a doubting gaze then asks a few questions regarding why we want to take such a quest and all, at which I make up some believable bullshit.

While talking we got to know that the 'miniskirt' girl's name is Lisa while the 'blue dress' girl's name is Leena.

After a round of Qs and As,

"Hmmm, okay since that's the case it won't hurt to help you guys out but we will back out if the quest turns out to be more than what we can handle." The mini-skirt girl, Lisa speaks with a serious gaze. She is a priest- warrior having both healing and fighting abilities.

"Now we need one more" The blue dress, Leena, who is an archer, speaks looking in a certain direction.

Before we could start to look around to find someone, Leena starts walking towards a person with a bright smile on her face. A tinge of embarrassment is also present on her face.

"Hey, what rank are you?", she asks the person sitting at one of the chairs nearby with her hands at the back and leaning forward in that person's direction.

'She is trying to seduce that guy, isn't she?'

I thought amused at her reaction.

The boy looks really handsome though, wearing a gentleman suit and black hair with grey eyes. He really looks dashing.

'I don't think I have seen anyone as handsome as him before.'

"Gold" he replies nonchalantly, he is polishing his dark black scythe with red outlines.

'Nice choice' I mutter.

"This idiot," says Lisa, irritated by her actions.

'Maybe this isn't the first time she has done something like this' I thought.

Looking back, he looks quite bored and a bit irritated though.

"Will you help us out?", Leena asks him, before he could reply, she proceeds to explain everything about the quest and other details.

"Will it be interesting?" He asks an amusing question with a serious face.

"Yes," Leena immediately speaks out, without even properly hearing his question.

He then smiles a bit at which some girls start shouting a bit away from us.

Leena almost faints but composes herself.

Lisa herself is in a daze.

Moving his hand forward

"Okay, then..my name is Leraye, let's have fun fighting till we are dead someday," he greets in an unusual way.

Leena takes a few steps back.

She looks a bit creeped out by his greeting.

The other girls look like they are doubting what they heard.

An awkward silence follows.

Seeing that no one is responding, he takes his hand back but before he could do so, I move forward and shake his hand.

"The name is Morpheus, a pleasure to have you."

I speak with a smile on my face.

Then we depart from the area.

On our way, Leraye kept on babbling about his misfortunes.

How he followed some strong people, but they stopped him from following them.

They warned him not to follow them.

Not listening to them, he challenged them but they said that they will fight someone of at least a platinum rank.

When asked how he could get a platinum rank, he was sent to adventurers guild and here he got his gold rank.

He then immediately challenged a platinum rank but all the platinum ranks were busy doing some quests or other tasks, so systematically he can't ascend to the next rank.

That led to him being bored all day before meeting us.

After walking for a while, we reach the east outer gate.

The east outer gate has two guard towers at both sides.

A few guards are patrolling there, with a few adventurers standing by.

Some knights can also be seen around.

The atmosphere is pleasant with two full moons in the sky and street lights all around us.

We move towards the gate and reach one of the guards.

The guard asks our purpose of entering the Greater Leaf Forest.

Kaneto shows him our badges and the quest.

He looks at us, before clarifying the authenticity of the quest and then allows us to go but,

"You can't go kid, the rules say no kids below the age of 12 are allowed to enter that forest unless you have someone of Ruby rank to look over you."

He speaks to me with a serious tone with his eyes looking directly at me.

Everyone except me turns to Kaneto waiting for him to make the next move.

I then look around to see someone exiting the guard tower beside the gate.

An elf with a gold tiara and green coat with a design of 5 branches on its back. The elf looks elegant and dignified. Golden hair and azure eyes.

"ZWAIN!!" I shout with all my might and raise my hand asking him to come here.

He is Zwain, the Fifth Branch of Alfheim.

He looks in my direction and almost trips.

A few elves who seem to be following him are looking at me with a curious gaze.

Zwain then looks around before moving towards me,

"What do you want, Morpheus?" He asks in a heavy but not so overbearing tone.

"I want to enter the forest but the guard says I can't. Can't you do something about it?" I say with an innocent smile at which he slightly flinches but doesn't show outside.

Zwain then proceeds to look at the guard before sighing.

'Who's face did I see after waking up today?' He mumbles silently

"Let them go." He speaks looking at the guard.

Then he proceeds to leave without any explanation.

'That's one way of doing it.' I thought amused at his reaction.

With his current behaviour, he might have already caught the tail of the devils and now proceeded to deal with it.

'He looks tired, I wonder why'

It should take him a week at best and two weeks at most to find The Princess.

'So by the time we return, a chaos might have already started in this city'

A smile then comes on my lips.

'It will be a good training for Corey and Chase'

I look at the guard then,

The guard tries to speak to Zwain but then stops.

He looks at me with complicated expression then allows me to move into the Greater Leaf Forest.

The other elves and my new adventurer friends are dumbfounded.

Leraye stares at Zwain with a curious gaze then at me with the same gaze.

Ignoring them I and Kaneto move towards the forest and soon the rest follows.

We reach the Greater Leaf Forest's west area and proceed to call the pixies.

Pixies are of the size of a human's palm.

Pixies are like elves except they have a pointed nose and are of small size. They also have wings of different colours on their back. Their species is specialised in taking care of nature and it's protection, in return for [nature's blessing].

It's a give and take relationship. Unlike fairies that can openly communicate with their natural elements and are born with blessings, pixies need to form a bond with the nature. Though pixies have an advantage of having multiple elements than a single specified element.

After waiting for a few more minutes a few pixie guards come and ask us our purpose of entering their territory.

They clearly look hostile.

We show them the quest, which they start reading.

After reading, their gaze turns respectful from the previous fierce gaze.

We are taken deeper into the forest and asked to wait.

After a few moments, some other pixies come.

One of them comes forward,

"I am Ilia, the Royal Princess. Brave adventures, thank you for coming to help us, at our selfish request. But before I proceed to tell, can we assess your strengths?" She asks.

Since it doesn't harm us, Kaneto moves his hand forward, which llia touches it. Then a smile blooms on her face.

[Higher Pixies and fairies can assess mana in a person by getting in contact with them]

"You passed, with your strength you alone should be enough. Do you want the others to come with you?" She inquires.

'Looks like we are extras in her eyes' I think.

Kaneto nods then llia doesn't asks any other question.

Looks like she believes in Kaneto and according to her, any other addition won't change the results much.

'Probably a small quest then' mutters Leena.

Her view is shattered when,

"Please save my mother, the Pixie Queen, Aria. She was kidnapped by a Supreme Devil.." Says Ilia.