Taking a Mission

Lake had finally reached the 4th stage after a whole year had passed. In reality he was also astonished at the speed with which he broke through.

Before sparring with Lyra Lake felt that he would still need more than half a year before reaching the 2nd stage. But fighting against Lyra ha been a good motivator in his training, allowing him to advance much quicker than he had anticipated.

Though when he sparred with Lyra he would always restrain his power so as not to harm her.

Lyra had incredible gains as well, reaching the 3rd copper esper stage from before she was also encroaching upon the 4th stage.

There was a time where Lake had asked her to use her ability to fight him. Lyra had agreed and immediately summoned a rain of ice shards and fired at him.

Lake had used quick feet to dodge them all while also having shelled armor active, but despite those advantages he couldn't get close enough to actually attack landing him in a stalemate.

Though he knew that he wouldn't be able to fight against an ability user, he was still a little disappointed when seeing the results.

But he didn't let that disappointment impede his progress, on the contrary it fueled his determination to quickly complete the system's mission.

Lake felt that with his breakthrough it was an appropriate time to take on a mission from the Association.

Lake hadn't done any before since none of the rewards had enticed him enough. They mostly rewarded money and elixirs, but Lake, as an alchemist, didn't lack either.

The only rewards he felt were worth it were only part of the higher ranked mission he didn't have access to those missions just yet unfortunately.

Recently however there was a mission that had caught his attention.

It was issued by a hunter that had been injured while out on a hunt. He had been in the outskirts of Starview Forest and hunting evo beasts to sell with his companions.

But misfortune had struck while they were there. A class 2 evo beast had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked them.

The group was immediately devastated and attempted escape, but only he had escaped with heavy injuries. While running he had lost a necklace he had on him that belonged to his late wife.

His request was to go into the forest and retrieve it for him. The reward wasn't anything special either, the reason that Lake found it interesting was that the system had reacted and issued him a mission.

------------------------------------

Missions:

[Achieve Stage 5 Copper Esper]

Time Limit - 3 years

Reward - Awaken User's Ability

Difficulty Level - 5

[Lost Memento] - Retrieve the necklace for the hunter.

Time Limit - N/A

Reward - Devouring Elixir

Difficulty Level - 5

------------------------------------

"This is a 2 star mission but the system deems it a level 5 mission, since it's based on my current level it should be a medium difficulty mission. A class 2 evo beast is around the same level as a 5th stage copper esper. I should be able to take care of it if I'm careful."

Deciding to try his luck Lake accepted the mission from the association database as well as from the system. The area where the mission indicated was a little further from where Gregory had dropped him in the forest.

Lake had prepared some provisions and placed them into his inventory to minimize the weight he had to carry. He mostly brought water and some food along with an extra pair of clothes.

He prepared himself to go in the morning the next day.

As the sun rose Lake had already set off towards the gates and exited the city after showing the guards his ID.

***

In another location stood a group of men clothed in black cloaks and masks that hid their appearance.

They were surrounding a young boy with sunken eyes and a pale complexion.

"You have your orders. As soon as you see an opportunity, kill him!" The young man spoke with a venomous tone.

'Lake! Because of you I had to face humiliation! Locked up for an entire year within this place, it's all your fault! if I don't stomp on your corpse then I don't deserve to be alive!'

The one who spoke, the young man, was incredibly Gregory Chor. After fighting Lake and being defeated he had had to go the hospital for his injuries. While there his father had visited him with a look of utter disappointment on his face.

He already had a low status within the Chor family and now his only son was sent into the hospital with such injuries.

When he saw his son in such a wretched state he truly felt disappointment. "After you recover come back home, you shall stay there until you can finally make a breakthrough."

After saying those words he turned around and left Gregory to his own thoughts, hoping his son would realize his errors.

Yet unfortunately the only thoughts Gregory had were of revenge.

***

As Lake stepped into the forest he was reminded of the first time he was there, he was brought there against his will and almost died by the blood hyena,

At the time he was in a hurry to get back to the city but now that he had time to think he was confused as to why the corpse was there?

But that was the past and he was in the present, he made sure to focus on his current objective. He was much stronger compared to the first time as well.

Lake wasn't in too much danger while in the outskirts so didn't feel the need to rush, especially since rushing might just attract other evo beasts to him.

Cautiously he traversed the forest on foot at walking speed, he slowly made his way towards the location where the hunter dropped his necklace.

Lake had already activated the minimap and made sure to avoid any red spots on the map, but as he moved he suddenly saw a red dot moving towards his direction.

"So they saw me anyway huh?" Seeing the red dot approaching Lake didn't try to run, instead he hid behind a tree and watched as a small figure appeared in a clearing.

It had a small body covered with black fur and a mane going from it's head to it's back. It had a large snout and two white tusks protruding from it's face while it made aggressive grunting noises towards Lake's location.

'A black boar, this one seems like a child. Where are it's parents?' As soon as he thought that he saw another much larger boar coming from behind it.

A black boar was a class 1 evo beast that was known for it's tough tusks and great strength albeit was lacking in terms of speed.

Lake checked his minimap and saw that they were quite far from any other beasts so he no longer hesitated and rushed out with quick feet.

Arriving in front of the boars he took a dagger out of his inventory and thrusted it at the adult, stabbing it in the head.

It didn't even have a chance to cry out as it collapsed on the ground with red blood spilling out of the cut in it's head.

The little boar gave a loud squeal in anger before rushing at Lake and tackling him. Lake activated shelled armor while taking out the dagger.

When the boar impacted the barrier Lake was pushed back as his feet made marks in the ground.

"This thing is stronger than I thought! Just a child is already this strong, luckily I killed the adult first then." As he thought that he ran at the little boar and stabbed it in the head, ending it's life.

Lake immediately ran off as the scent of the blood was sure to attract attention from other beasts in the area.