Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Beyond the Crossroad

“You two are designated Coal-Ranked adventurers with high progress.” The staff who approached them after the whole ordeal, leaving them confused.

“Huh?” Marko let out his puzzlement hearing the good news despite being so miserable not too long ago.

“Anything need clearing up?” The staff asked, noticing his confusion.

“I’ll talk to them about it. You can go tell the receptionist that I’ll bring them to her later.” The one who defeated them spoke up, approaching the duo. The staff simply nodded before walking off.

“What the hell is going on?” Marko asked, absolutely flabbergasted at what he just heard, same with Dane who doesn’t seem to even be thinking right now.

“What? Didn’t I tell you at the beginning that it’s the performance and not necessarily the result?” She said nonchalantly, even seeming to be confused by his confusion. “Obviously since you lost I can’t recommend higher than this but you still passed.”

“(…Fuck. She did say that huh…)” Marko thought to himself. Embarrassed that he didn’t pick up on it.

“Wait. So we get to…” Meanwhile Dane looked as if he just registered all that was said.

“Yeah you two get to be adventurers and all that nonsense, now follow me.” She replied, gesturing at the two to follow.

“There you are. Please fill out the forms.” The receptionist instructed seeing the two walking over.

There’s not much to fill out so it took the two no time at all and handing it back.

“Now time for you two to wait some more. The staff will call you two soon enough.” The spellsword instructed before walking off, sitting at a table, just relaxing after all is said and done.

Dane decides to approach her anyway while Marko is left rather confused by the whole ordeal and undecided as to what to do next.

“Didn’t exactly say that you need to be by me but whatever…” She remarked seeing the two sit nearby.

“Well I wanna ask you some stuff if you don’t mind.” Dane said in his usual friendly tone.

“How bold of you. Well I just got my pay and don’t have any plans for the day so ask away.” She replied.

“You’re so strong, what rank are you?” Dane asked without any hesitation.

“Silver half-way.” She nonchalantly stated.

“Huh!? I thought you were like Gold or even close to Mythril!” Dane commented, voicing his surprise rather loudly.

“So I’ve been told. Admittedly I haven’t really put much effort into increasing my rank, I just went along with the gang and their lower risk requests.” She casually admitted.

“Huh? So those guys aren’t as strong? That’s a bit of a bummer. Have you tried doing a request on your own then?” Dane keeps asking and asking.

“Low risk one unless something urgent comes up. I only tried out more dangerous requests when the party was present.” She answered. Something he wasn’t quite expecting.

“But aren’t you super strong? I don’t think there’s a lot that can match up to you, is there?” He asked, feeling puzzled that someone so strong is so cautious and reserved.

“Well the fact that there is something or someone that can threaten me is a good enough reason isn’t it? Unless your strength leaves everything else in the dust, going solo will do you no good. There is strength in numbers.” She turned her head to look at Dane directly saying all of that. “Isn’t that why you two came here together?”

“...I guess it was, but we weren’t really sure how well we’ll do out here in the first place, and we've been friends since we were kids, I really don’t want him out of sight.” Dane explained his circumstance, and the value he puts in friendship and bonds.

“Well if you wanna keep going I suggest finding more people besides him. Not to sound rude of course, but two people can only do so much.” She advised him.

“I’ll take note of that. Hey Marko, who do you think- Wait. Marko?” Dane responded and turnt to ask his friend something, only to notice him napping. “Guess I’ll have to ask him later… Oh right. What’s your name? Sorry but I don’t remember you telling us.”

“Huh. Right. I never introduced myself properly did I. Ahem.” She replied with a subdued reaction, and then cleared her throat. “My name is Pira.”

“Nice name. I’ll make sure to remember it.” Dane remarked cheerfully.

“Aren’t you sweet.” She commented. The two were clearly having a moment, with one side simply waiting and the other having time to kill. The other adventurers around were polite enough to keep things to themselves.

“Excuse me. Dane and Marko please go to the reception to pick up your adventurer cards.” One of the staff members approached them and said so, killing the mood short unfortunately, evident with Pira’s frown and Dane’s exaggerated sigh. The staff can tell he came at a bad time. “I’m sorry for the interruption.”

“Don’t worry about it. Hey Marko! The cards!” Dane replied to the staff member before yelling at Marko, waking him wide awake and jumping.

“Ugh. Heard loud and clear.” He responded with a groan. The two walk to the counter while Pira observes them, still idling about.

The two picked up and inspected their cards with a sense of wonder, with Dane audibly gasping out loud while Marko kept his enthusiasm to himself.

“If you have any questions about doing requests don’t be afraid to ask.” The receptionist said, a routine for her whenever new adventurers got their cards.

“(Hell yeah… But now what? I guess we shoul-) Ow…” Marko was moving around a tad erratically as he thought of the next course of action, or at least tried to until the pain from the exam returned. Dane seeing this visibly shows his concern, he himself not certain if either is fully recovered.

“How about we just relax for now… Actually why don’t we go and wash ourselves like you want? That’ll freshen us up.” Dane suggested, bringing up the early morning topic.

“Yeah… That sounds good right now…” Marko groaned out. “Where the heck is it anyway?”

“You know where to take a bath?” Dane turned around to ask the receptionist.

“There’s a public bathhouse not too far from here. Do you have the map of the town yet?” She answered.

“Uhh… Nope.” Dane replied to her inquiry.

“I recommend you buy one for you and your friend.” She advised him, pulling out the map of the town of her own, showing it to the two and pointing at two locations. “You should find all of the necessary adventurer gear here including the maps, just a few buildings north of here. As for the bathhouse here it is.”

The two took their time memorizing the layout of the town, particularly the shops.

“Seems you two need some time to adjust and rest. Sorry for the brutal fight.” Pira nonchalantly commented as she approached them. “Also it’s good to see that you two want to clean yourselves up, you two were unpleasant to be honest.”

“See what I said now?” Marko said, poking fun at Dane.

“Well sorry about that…” He weakly replied, but didn't actually take the jab too hard.

“Well you boys have fun. Only here to get a nice fight and a paycheck, see you two later.” Pira said to them before walking to the entrance ready to leave.

*Creak*

The entrance door opened with a rather tall woman standing on the other side, with many noticing her right away, seeing the oh-so recognizable face.

The air feels cold in the building because of the presence of the individual who stood just outside of it. Pira in particular stood in front of the one who towers over her, looking slightly shocked at her presence, while Dane and Marko, despite having no idea who she is, already can tell she’s someone of importance, despite not getting a good look at her with Pira obscuring their view.

“H-Hello.” Pira muttered out while the rest remained silent, trying to walk past her only for the green-haired lady to deny escape.

“Glad to see you’re still kicking, how about we continue this little reunion elsewhere.” She said with a cold tone with only small hints of emotions none can decipher.

“Sure…” Pira mindlessly replied, turning to look around seeing everyone on edge. “Let’s get going already, you’re scaring everyone!”
The two walked out of everyone’s view and the suffocating atmosphere dissipated. Some give a long sigh and others become more chatty.

“(Something feels familiar… I’m not sure why.)” Marko thought to himself in regards to the irregular event that had just occurred. “Dane, what do you make of that?”

“No idea but let’s get a good rest and wash, you really need it.” Dane simply brushed the question off and left the guild, with Marko silently walking behind despite not getting much of an answer.

It didn’t take long for them to find the bathhouse mentioned, obviously separated by gender.

“(This really remind me of Japanese stories…)” Marko thought to himself. He has read and seen more than a few stories with this kind of facility. Back in his old life he never found and went to anything even close to resembling this. “(Maybe if I travel out I would, but I never did.)

The two took a bit of time looking around and asking the staff member about the etiquette. To Marko’s surprise it feels reminiscent of those fictions as well. The two entered the public bath, a large and warm bath for more than just two people.

“(Honestly it feels jarring to the medieval sort of feel I get from this world…)” Marko further thought to himself, submerging his body in the warm bath. Not many people were around so it’s quiet enough for him to gather his thoughts, or rather that his friend chose to be quiet right now. “(It’s good that he knows when to not speaks up loudly.)”

Both are enjoying a nice long bath, one Marko thought they should have in the morning and not now. Feeling of warmth covering their body and resting their soul. Taking their time, washing their body, and calming their mind.

“That’s enough cleaning for me…” Dane muttered as he stood up, feeling cleaned enough but seeing that Marko was still relaxing silently. “Is it okay if I go out first?”

“Sure. If you can wait then wait at the inn. Also buy some maps too…” Marko replied groggily, dismissing his friend while he continued to relax.

“Duly noted.” Dane said with a reassuring smile before walking out of the bathhouse and leaving his friend all by his lonesome. Just relaxing and lost in thought…

 

Over an hour later the two can be seen looking at requests, having very few options due to starting at the lowest rank. Dane, feeling a little bit more impatient than usual as Marko kept him waiting for longer than expected, kept looking for them and skimming the content a bit to Marko’s chagrin.

“So much boring labor work…” Dane commented seeing all the requests suitable for their rank.

“No kidding…” Marko replied, also looking over the requests as well. Even for iron and higher ranks there are a lot of requests that involve more down to earth problems instead of hunting down monsters or criminals. “Maybe we should check the bounty board instead.”

“And searching for them for who knows how long? I’ll pass.” Dane immediately shot down the idea, just thinking about how long it might take to find these people makes him uneasy and repulsed by the prospect.

“Fine… (It’s not like we can’t do anything else in the meantime.)” Marko responded with a sigh.

“Oh! This one seems pretty alright.” Dane said while picking up a quest asking to destroy a pack of monstrous wolves in the nearby forest. From the date it has been up for quite some time, but that’s not where Marko has his concerns.

“This one is at least Iron-ranked Dane… Not to mention recommended for a party of at 3 or more.” Marko pointed out. Dane didn’t quite realize this and looked taken aback.

“Aw crap.” Dane muttered under his own breath.

“Huh? Oh it’s you two!” Suddenly both of them heard a familiar voice behind them, and saw the other three adventurers who came to their aid yesterday. “Looks like you are picking up a request, how’s it going?”

“Not well… There’s so much boring shit.” Marko answered, making his frustration pretty clear.

“Well what did you expect? It’s not like we are attacked by monsters all day and night, and when that happens unless you’re really high ranked no one's gonna trust you to do it.” The archer explained, before thinking for a moment. “What is your rank anyway?”

“Coal…” Dane mentioned sounding disappointed.

“Wha? How in the… Who did you go up against?” The heavy warrior asked, flabbergasted by the answer. From how well they perform against the group of bandits they should be Iron-ranked at least.

“Your mage friend.” Marko answered somewhat bitterly. The three look at them sympathetically hearing that.

“Ah no wonder… Yikes…” The spearman muttered.

“It was painful…” Dane mentioned. Despite their best effort she was only somewhat winded in the end with no attacks landed on her.

“Where is she anyway?” The heavy warrior asked, looking around and not seeing the bright orange-haired lady anywhere.

“Someone came to visit her I think? She was tall and wore a black coat, and also had a really weird hair color.” Dane described what more-or-less happened. The three look uneasy hearing the description.

“Right… So you have difficulty finding a request you actually wanna fulfill?” The archer asked, trying to deviate the conversation, seeing the request in Dane’s hand and the rank requirement on it. “This one seems troublesome with only two people from the look of it. What do you two think?”

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“Well if we’re the one taking it they can join in as well.” The spearman noted. The two hearing this start to have a little hope.

“That’s true. Our ranks are more than good enough to compensate, they won’t question a thing.” The heavy warrior added, who then turned around to look straight at the two newbies with a friendly smile. “What do you think?”

“That’s fine with me.” Dane immediately answered, sounding his enthusiasm.

“Same here…” Marko followed with less conviction, being neutral on the offer.

“Good! Follow us then! Don’t forget to take notes out there.” The heavy warrior said as he led the way, snatching the request paper from Dane.

The two silently follow along as they see the party approaching the receptionist, talking out the details and having the objective marked on a map, and leaving the guild to get ready for the task at hand.

“Hope everyone got a large bag on hand, ‘cause it looks like we have to bring a frick ton of proof to bring back.” The heavy warrior mentioned, showing off the bag that he hung on his shoulder. His two party members also have them, and the duo have the large bag that they carry their supplies in. “Seems like we do! Anyone need to prep things up?”

“I’m fine as is.” The spearman answered first.

“Already checked my equipment.” The archer followed.

“We’re good.” Dane said for both of them.

“(I mean we could’ve double-checked at least, but I guess he is getting really impatient.)” Marko thought to himself, not wanting to stir anything up between them so he simply went with it.

“Good! Then let’s get moving!” The heavy warrior said as he led the way.

“There you go again choosing to lead the party yourself.” The spearman snarked even as he went along with his party member’s self-appointed leadership.

The five traveled out of town and went north towards the concerning forest. It’s about what Marko expected, just a large area covered in plantations that no doubt conceals many monsters inside with paths laid out by those who came before them.

“(Pretty convenient that there’s someone before us who made a clean path into the forest… Then again this request wouldn’t come up if someone didn’t go in here in the first place… And survived…)” Marko thought to himself.

“I’ll scout ahead, try not to stray too far.” The archer announced as she leaped up into the trees with relative ease, gaining a vantage point, both Marko and Dane impressed by her performance, while for her two party members it was just the usual.

“By the way. What did you mean back then when you said ‘bottom of the barrel?” Dane suddenly asked as they waited.

“Hm? Guess you haven’t heard. There’s two extremes when it comes to an adventurer’s reputation.” The heavy warrior began explaining to the two new adventurers. “Either people thought of us as lowlife who can’t find a job and mostly consist of rowdy and barbaric people, or a celebrated hero. Seems like you two think going into this thinking that you’ll reach the latter.”

“So that’s why…” Dane muttered.

“Make sense I guess. Still there seems to be a lot of people being one anyway isn’t it?” Marko commented. Even during the morning with fewer people in the guild there were still a few groups going about.

“Romanticized tales of adventurers will do that, and it’s not like there’s actually that many job options for us normal folk.” The spearman answered his inquiry. “It’s usually either this or plowing away at the fields til we grow old and die.”
“Dramatic much?” The heavy warrior commented on his friend’s answer.

“Oh come on, you know it’s true!” He snapped back.

“(Have quite a sitcom back-and-forth friendship these two.)” Marko remarked to himself.

The archer soon came back with a slightly disturbed face much to the concern of the party.

“Roye, what did you see?” The heavy warrior immediately asked, seeing her expression.

“Nothing good. It’s just like the request said, a literal hoard of monstrous wolves. Many deformed looking ones as you would expect. There’s a lot of animal carcasses in there too, they hunted almost all of them here I would’ve imagined. Counted over a few dozen from afar, not to mention some of them are massive…” She explained while also pointing in the general direction of where it is.

“What the hell? This sounds like way too much for us, let alone Iron-ranked.” The spearman noted.

“Maybe the situation has changed since the request was put up. Anyhow we need to at least bring back some proof, else we’re gonna be in trouble.” The archer, Roye, deduced. It’s what they came here to do and going back with nothing won’t help their credibility.

“If we have that expensive as all hell ‘chimera’ or whatever it’s called we probably won’t have to fight at all.” The spearman commented.

“Yeah but why would we even have that around? Isn’t the capital the only place you can even get it anyway?” The heavy warrior asked.

“Well recon requests practically require them, which by the way you’re very not keen on doing. Also shut up.” He snapped back.

“(Chimera? Shouldn’t it mean some kind of hybrid monster?)” Marko thought to himself hearing the two bicker again.

“It’s not even called that… You two just shut up already and let’s do something about this!” Roye exasperatedly interjected.

“R-Right! Okay then team let’s get at least… Ten! No at least five proofs and let’s run! We can come back later with more people no doubt.” The heavy warrior responded and immediately set a goal for the party.

“So that’s one for each of us.” Marko noted. It shouldn’t be too hard if it’s just one each.

“Yep. So let’s get to it… somehow. We need to lure them out if we don’t want the entire hoard coming at us.” The heavy warrior noted.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they already did. These things probably have heightened perceptions considering how far they’re mutated. I tried to observe them from afar but who knows if one or two noticed me.” The archer noted almost too nonchalantly…

…

“If that’s the case we’re fucked.” The spearman rightly pointed out. “Please tell me that won’t be the case…”

*HOWL*

“I think we got our answer! Run!” The heavy warrior yelled out as the party heard more than a few erratic footsteps coming from deeper in the forest as everyone immediately ran out. They can see multiple massive wolves silhouettes approaching them before they make a run for it.

All of them run out to the road leading to the town, but to their dismay the extremely agile wolf monsters will not stop their pursuit, about half a dozen leaving the forest and relentlessly pursuing the party.

“Why the hell are some of them so eldritch-looking!” Marko loudly yelled out as he took a look and saw some dramatically different looking wolves.

One was standing on two legs standing about five times the size of a regular human and having four arms, another was even bigger but stood on all-eight legs with six eyes and three tails. Others don’t look as weird but certainly off-putting regardless.

“Well monsters should be monstrous shouldn’t it!?” The heavy warrior yelled back.

Unfortunately the party wasn’t moving at the same speed. With the heavy warrior running the slowest with the spearman just a tad faster while Roye and Dane ran way ahead of them and Marko even more so. Some of the wolves are closing in on them.

“I don’t think running is going to work for long!” The spearman pointed out, with him and the heavy warrior at the risk of getting caught.

“Marko! Do your magic trick!” Dane shouted out from behind Marko.

“Ugh fine! [Flight Step]!” Marko shouted back and activated his prized spell, boosting his speed further and he ran back and began concentrating mana for a bigger spell. “[Spike Wall]!”

Multiple spikes protrude high up from the ground behind the party, wide and tall as to hopefully stall the wolves’ pursuit. He quickly goes back to actually running from them.

“Wait. Won’t it be a problem if we ended up luring them to the town!?” Dane asked, shouting for everyone to hear him clearly.

*Smash*

As he said that the wolves simply smashed through the spike wall with only a small loss in speed, such a rush job turned out quite ineffective. The wall was too tall for the wolves to actually smash into its spiky top.

“Are you kidding me!” Marko said with a clear tone of frustration. “Damn these things!”

He stopped running and turned back to channel even more spells to throw at the pursuing monsters.

“[Rock Arrows]! [Fireballs]!” Multiple arrows made of stones manifested along with multiple fireballs, all launched at the wolves who were far enough from him to safely cast so many spells.

His party members all tried to not get in the way of his attacks as they continued to run, with the two slowest starting to feel a burning pain in their chest.

While a few spells didn’t land, the majority of them did. While the smaller ones are heavily staggered from just a single spell connecting, the two notable mutants were at most flinching after being hit by more than a few incoming arrows and flames.

“Those won’t be enough!” Roye said out loud as she turned around and grabbed her bow and arrows, starting to shoot at the two giant wolves Marko had trouble slowing down.

“Guess now we stop running!” Dane remarked as he ran back towards the wolves to the surprise of the heavy warrior and spearman. It was such a sudden shift they took pause, and were more than a little concerned.

Dane rushed towards the eight-legged wolf which had much more trouble dodging Marko and Roye’s attacks than its bipedal colleague.

*Slash*

He began slashing at its legs while distracted from the projectiles. While unable to slice through its legs completely, he still got a clean slash at them and severely cripple its mobility.

“Whoa!” He however still has to be mindful of the wolves, both big and small. Even with the barrages of attacks coming in they are still extremely aggressive and could easily get his head bit off if he’s not careful when getting up-close and personal. If he didn’t pay any attention just now one of the smaller wolves would’ve bite a chunk of his head off.

“Seems like we have to stop running!” The heavy warrior commented despite not having much breath to spare.

“I can tell!” The spearman replied. Despite the two being the most out of breath they are still willing to lend a hand to Dane, who is the only one fighting them up-close.

They rushed in and took out the smaller wolves while Dane was completely preoccupied with the two large wolf monsters who noticed him and tried to kill him, ending up acting as a distraction to give others breathing room from the largest threat.

*Clutch*
Dane then chose to jump onto the eight-legged wolf, hanging by its neck by clutching tight on its fur with his left hand, with it weakly trying to scratch him off with its injured leg and shaking head, while he continued to persevere and aim his sword.

*STAB*

Stabbing the eight-legged wolf’s neck and pushing himself off the beast with the bloodied sword in hand. Not a pretty sight to see up close to say the least.

“Ugh…” Dane makes his discomfort heard, not helped by the beast still standing. If this was an ordinary wolf it would’ve no doubt been fatal, but a monster can take much more punishment.

The other two melee fighters were dealing with smaller wolves who still towers over them, taking them all out with well-placed attacks to their vital areas and a lot of force. A spear to the head, the massive sword to cut its legs clean off, and so on. It greatly tired them out having to manage from taking one out at a time and dealing with others swarming them.

Unfortunately for Dane neither have remotely enough stamina to help him with dealing with the two gigantic wolves. To worsen the matter however…

“About to run out of MP…” Marko muttered to himself while also seeing that the archer besides him had no arrows left as well. The support fire that keeps the two giants from killing Dane right then and there is now absent. He was feeling light headed. “Can we even beat these two up-close?”

“Like hell we can. All of us are out of ammo and energy, we’re not gonna get another clean shot in.” The archer answered, assessing the situation and knowing all too well they won’t stand a chance. “We need to run… But if we tried to go back to the town then they might… Wait…”

“Hm? Did you figure something out?” Marko noticed Roye’s realization.

“Say. You said a peculiar woman came to visit Pira right?” Hearing that Marko just nodded. “Tall, with red armor, green hair, and black coat?”

“Yeah that one.” Marko answered, unsure of what she’s planning.

“Right… I’ll run back to town. Distract them and lure them closer to the town. It’s risky but trust me on this… Understand?” She said instructing Marko.

“What?” Marko is completely baffled and wonders what she could be thinking of right now, but seeing the three avoiding the two massive wolves for dear life makes him unwilling to argue. Brandishing his sword and ready to aid the three. “Fine! But this better work!”

“(I sure hope it does…)” Roye thought to herself as she nodded at him and ran off, while Marko ran in.

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