Adventurers!

"Say, Principal, why are we in this situation once again? Did you call me here just to reenact the last time we watched Miren in a hospital bed?"

Mike and the principal were both standing on the side of the infirmary bed where Miren was lying, his burn marks now covered with bandages and his tattered clothes replaced with a gown. The last time they had been here, it had been after the first official recording of the students of class 1-A. That time, Miren had imploded because of his inner stress which had led his [Overclock] to run wild, ultimately leading him to exude enough pressure to make his classmates faint, and finally himself.

It was hard for Mike not to feel guilty when remembering how they had manipulated the small student to make him show his true colors, his true potential. They had both acted in a despicable way but at least it had served its purpose.

However, while the big suited man was thinking about the past, the Principal was fully focused on the present, "I think he has been chosen by Druk. I don't know how it worked, but I think that old fool somehow managed to plant some of his stream of consciousness inside the essence."

Mike's face distorted when hearing what the principal had to say, "So that means that the primordials are once again meddling in the affairs of mortals..."

His words led to the headmaster turning his head to the big man while sighing, "Haaa... You already know that the primordials have been meddling with mortals since the awakening. You weren't even born back then, but we who saw what happened have known for a long time that it was inevitable for the primordials to intervene at some point."

Mike just scratched his head, unable to retort to the story of more than a hundred years ago. Not many would know, but the principal had lived for an incredibly long time, probably longer than any human living on this planet currently. However, even with all the knowledge he had acquired, he still wouldn't meddle unnecessarily, afraid to disturb the flow of time. Something Mike had also been forced to accept when he had accepted being his right-hand man.

"Then, is this a sign that war is coming? That Druk is preparing for the inevitable?"

They both looked at the tiny student lying in the bed, unaware of the grand event he would somehow be forced to be a part of.

"Unfortunately, I don't think so. Knowing his personality, he probably didn't care about the war when he gave me his essence. He most likely just wanted to impart his power to someone for his legacy to live on. That old fool never really cared about the human race, after all."

Mike couldn't help but pale a bit, "So, Miren will be forced to become a human weapon of mass destruction just because of the whims of a dragon?"

"Unfortunately, that seems to be the case. We cannot stop what the primordials decide, even if it is the will of an idiot."

****

[Sophie's Pov]

'Finally! I can finally become a real adventurer!'

Me and Misa had somehow been able to find two party members and registered ourselves as an official adventurer party. We had just gotten our adventurer IDs from one of the adventurer houses that were spread over the entire human world.

(The difference between adventurers and hunters is pretty much that one could be regarded as a free agent while the other most often got contracted to guilds. There are situations where adventurers also got contracted to a guild, but these are very often for a limited amount of time.)

Looking around at my little group of misfits was almost enough for me to shed a tear, having finally, after so many years, been able to make my own adventurer party, symbolizing a new start in this life.

Currently sitting at a table in a small bar in the outer ring of District 5, I let my eyes travel between my newfound comrades. Thomas Miller and Stephen Miller and although they were brothers, they were so incredibly different.

Thomas was the older one, his body big and robust, and his head was adorned with short ginger hair. He was an incredibly silent man, not talking much unless spoken to. Thomas was pretty unique due to the fact that he was a tanker that used the water attribute, an element otherwise known to almost exclusively be used by mages or supporters.

Stephen was the younger sibling and although he had a similar height to Thomas, his body was a lot thinner, however that didn't mean that he was scrawny, it was more of a build akin to long-distance runners, which suited his profession. He was a ranger with the fire element, specializing in long-range combat using his bow. Also in contrast to Thomas, he was incredibly outgoing and his hair was long, although they shared the same ginger color.

They were both 4-stars that were in the upper range of the grading, not far from breaking through. In most cases, 4-stars were pretty hard to find, even more, so finding these two seemed to fit our composition incredibly well. The main reason why we had been able to recruit them, sadly, was that they had been unable to find anyone else who would accept them.

Because of Thomas's uniqueness, a tanker with the water attribute, they had been ignored by almost every other adventure, forcing them to work as hunters for a small guild. This had led them to have to clear out the same miserable goblin dungeon for the past 3 years, unable to find other work.

Misa had somehow gotten information about them and had recruited them as quickly as she could. As stated, it was pretty rare that 4-stars would be up for grabs, as most of them were already part of established groups, either as adventurers or hunters, thus we didn't hesitate.

"Cheers!"

Stephen had been the one to raise his glass of cider, as he made a cheer to celebrate our officially registered party, "But man, I can't believe we finally got to be a part of a real party. It almost feels like a dream! Even more so getting to hang out with these two beautiful ladies! Don't you think so too, Thomas?"

The big man, clad casually in a white t-shirt and some blue jeans, just nodded a bit, "Mm. It's good."

Most likely used to his older brother's tendencies to speak sparsely, Stephen just kept on smiling, taking a sip of his drink. He wasn't a bad-looking guy by any means, but we were all aware that romantic feelings couldn't be a part of an effective group of adventurers. He was also aware of it, and his words had been more of a playful joke to lighten the mood more than anything else.

Having a good time was fine and all, but my body and heart were already itching to start planning for the future. "Let's discuss our first excursion! Me and Misa have already checked out a couple of good dungeons in the wastelands that are suitable for us."

As I brought up a small tablet, I send the information about the different dungeons to everyone, who in turn started reading up on the different dungeons.

Stephen was, once again, the first to open his mouth. "The Spider's rest looks like the one most in line with our star gradings, but I don't know how effective our composition will be in a cave..."

His analysis of our group was pretty accurate. Not only did I need some space around me to use my skills effectively, but his use as an archer would also be greatly reduced. Thus I accepted his reasoning and went on with the second alternative, "What about the Warrior's Den? It's supposedly a mixture between forests and open fields. It seems fitting for us, even if it is a 5-star dungeon."

Most adventurers would almost always choose to challenge a dungeon that was below the average rating of their group, but I felt pretty confident that we would be able to do some good work in there. However, Misa interjected with a voice of reason, "Let's look through the rest of the dungeons before we decide anything. We have the whole night, after all."

Of course, she was right. That was one of the reasons why I wanted her to join me, she always kept her head pretty calm. She would never act recklessly, unlike that small boyfriend of hers. I had already been thinking that I also wanted Miren to join us in the future after he had graduated from Kirkegaard.

'I wonder what that little guy is up to?'