Chapter 9: First mission

We went out the east gate and walked for about 2 hours before we reached the location.

A big fenced off field surrounded by forest. A pack of Black hounds have been killing livestock in this farm, and our commission is to get rid of them.

We walked up to the small wooden house and knocked on the door.

When it opened, there stood a middle aged man with short brown hair and a small beard. He's built quite well, decadent of someone who is used to physical labor.

"Oh, Alice and Gravel."

Alice, "Hello Mr. Brista."

Gravel, "Heard you've got a hound problem that needs taken care of."

Brista, "Oh yes. Come in. Come in. Let's talk inside."

As we walked inside, I spotted a little girl running strength towards us, full speed.

She jumps at Gravel, "BIG SIS GRAVEL!!"

Gravel, "Uh hehe. Hay there you little rascal. You miss me?"

"Big sis, are you here to get rid of the bad hounds?"

Gravel, "Yep, sure am." She gives head pats.

Brista picks up the little girl, "Alright Calli, get off of Gravel now. Let's go to the living room. We can talk there."

Alice nods in agreement. As we continue to the living room, she takes a quick look around and asks, "Where's your wife?"

Brista, "She went to town to sell the products."

Alice, "Oh... right."

Gravel, "Well then, let's get to the point." We take a seat on the sofa opposite Brista and Calli.

He explained the situation to us over some tea.

Alice is taking small sips, while listening to Brista explain. The other one however, is sitting with her ankles on her lap and cross armed in the middle of the sofa. Hasn't even touched her tea.

If I were the other party right now, I wouldn't know how to describe this scene...

Alice, "I see. So about the same situation as always."

Brista, "Yes, pretty much."

Gravel grabs her tea and chugs it before almost slamming the cup back on the table. But it looks like she caught herself in time, "Let's get going then!"

... Are we all just going to ignore the fact that that almost happen?

Then we went to the field to investigate the scene of the attack. There, Gravel was able to discern that the hounds went in to the woods north of the field, and we followed the trail they left behind.

Once we got in the woods, Gravel started tracking the hounds. Noticing every footprint, every peace of fur and every disturbance in the foliage.

Despite how she usually acts, she is a silver rank adventurer and is quite capable.

We kept following Gravel and soon enough, they noticed us. Before we noticed anything, we were surrounded. I count at least 12, their levels are 2-4 and they have around 70 Hp each. A bit higher than the last hounds I encountered.

Alice, "That's a lot of hounds. This is bad, Ether stay behind me."

"We're surrounded, I don't think that's going to help." But I try to stick close anyway.

Then, Gravel charged in first and skewered the first hound with her spear. I guess it's time to find out how my Bard skills work.

First off, Carried by Winds. A 2nd level spell, 200Mp. It's a bard spell that increases my allies speed. I just think of the skill and start playing. It consumed the 200Mp and the rest is pretty much automated.

My body moves according to my intentions, smoothly. Like I've drilled this over and over again.

And it looks like the skill worked. There are yellow notes floating off the ground underneath their feet. In the game, this was used to indicate allies affected by the spell. And judging from the reactions on their faces, they noticed it too.

Alright, next, Twin Strings. A 3rd level spell, 300Mp. It allows you to play two songs at once.

Then Flickering Flames. A 2nd level spell, 200Mp, increases allies attack power. Now, in addition to the yellow notes, I can also see red notes.

I also have 4th level spells and even 5th level, but due to my level decrease I don't meet the requirements to use them.

That's annoying, you know how long it takes to level up to max from level 157?!

Whatever...

I kept playing and with the buff from me, they're taking out the hounds with ease. They look really happy with the buff. Enough to lose focus it seems...

There's one coming in from their blind spot. I guess this is as good a time as any to try.

In the game, once your Mage reaches the appropriate level, they can get a passive skill that allows them to cast spells without the use of Spell Catalysts. But more importantly, it lets you perform long ranged magic attacks that don't require Mp. It's their form of a basic attack.

If I remember correctly, the character in the game only makes a simple hand gestures to perform the attack.

As I try swiping my hand at the hound, I saw a slash of white energy hit the hound and it went down in one shot. The other two didn't seem to notice. Good.

We finished off the hounds easily. One was trying to escape, but I pulled out my bow and took care of it. Then..

Gravel, "DUDE!! That was awesome!! How'd you do that?! I was just fighting normally and then all of the sudden I was like wooshhh and woosh, and my spear went through them so easily it didn't even feel like I hit anything at all!"

Alice, "She's right. That was such a surprise, I'm still trembling a bit." She raises her hand to show. "How did you do it?"

"I told you didn't I. I'm a bard, supporting from the back line is what I do."

Alice, "You have an amazing skill, I've never seen anyone do that before." Wow. Was it really that surprising? I'm still hearing some trembling in her voice.

"Thanks, but you two were the ones doing all the fighting. All I did was give you some background music to dance to."

We took all the valuable parts from the hounds before going back to see Brista.

Although these were Black hounds, they didn't have cores in them because they weren't cursed.

They told me that cursed monsters are usually stronger than the normal ones.

You can tell them apart because cursed monsters give off a dark aura and they have a blood lust towards people. I couldn't see this dark aura they were talking about but the name of that Alpha black hound was in yellow. That's probably my indicator.

Brista, "Welcome back. Done already?"

Gravel, "Yeah, with this guy here it was a piece of cake." She slaps my shoulder, almost tumbling me. "Was there only one pack?"

Brista, "Yes, I suspect there's only one." He signs a piece of parchment and hands it to Gravel.

Gravel, "Alright, I'll make another round around the farm and we'll be off."

Brista, "Oh, wait. Here take this." As he hands her a small block of cheese. "This one turned out pretty good."

Gravel, "Thank you."

Brista, "You two always help out the town, it's the least I can do."

"You make cheese here?"

Brista, "Yes, we also have milk, yogurt and butter. So if you want any come by."

After that exchange, we went around the farm one more time before saying goodbye to Brista and Calli.

And so. My first mission as an adventurer comes to an end and we headed back to town.

I'm looking forward to what this world has in store...