Chapter CLXVIII - Blue Ranked (part 1)

I woke up early, got into the bathroom and cleaned up, and then headed to the Office to do a mission easily and went home.

The end.

No… it didn't go like that.

I woke up late. The sun was already shining quite up there, and I immediately rushed to take a bath. The others must be waiting in the Office right now, and I don't want to let them wait any longer.

Last night we agreed to take a heavy mission together, it will be our first one in a while. And we will meet up first at the Office a little bit after the first bell.

It has been two hours since the first bell.

I am so incredibly late.

I ran to the bathroom, but since the bathroom is downstairs, I had to go down the stairs, and I fell because of the sleepiness.

My head smacked the ground really hard and caused a slight crack on the floor. I cursed while healing my forehead and continued going to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, I realized that someone forgot to clean the blood from the mop. Eva must have simply washed the blood away from the floor with the mop, but the blood is still sticking on the mop, and now it's turning the whole room to stench.

I was forced to bathe with my nose closed.

This is not a good morning.

After bathing, I put on my adventurer's clothes and then my armour, and finally went flying from the front lawn straight to the Office. I did not spare time by walking there and enjoying the morning environment, considering how incredibly late I am.

I entered the Office and quickly headed to the diner, where everyone was waiting.

"Captain! Where were you!?"

"Sorry, I overslept..."

Fran let out a sigh, but then she forgives me really quickly. Wait, why?

"Well, everyone else also overslept. Apparently..."

"Oh... That's great then!"

"But you are still the last one to arrive! What kind of captain came late??"

"The kind that hosted a party at their house last night? Which nooooobody helped with cleaning up, by the way."

Everyone quickly looked away from my annoyed stare. 

Looks like we are ready to do yet another mission today.

The mission we will be doing is Yellow ranked, and it will take place in a small village in the northwest. Unlike other missions where the location is usually nearby the said village, this one particularly happened exactly in the middle of the village.

"There was a lair of monsters that was opened when they were digging a well, and well, well, well, monsters came out."

Everyone grumbled and sighed when I did the beautiful pun while reading the mission objective aloud. I simply chuckled and went to the receptionist.

"I still can't believe you are a Green and you became their captain. But I guess that means they look up to you."

The new receptionist girl that I still don't know the name of said to me and gave me the Yellow ranked mission scroll. I thanked her while grinning and returned to the others. We all went and bought out an entire carriage for the day and went to the said village.

When we arrived, the village was pretty much empty. It was said that the villagers were evacuated to another nearby village, and they stayed there for two days already.

I felt sorry for them, because while I was busy making my home, they lost theirs.

The entire village looked really devastated and cobwebs are everywhere. I can feel tons of pressure hiding within the village's destroyed buildings. Without a doubt, this village has become the monster's home.

"Say, those cobwebs looked pretty big… they aren't… spiders, are they?"

I asked while being a little bit scared, and Fran noticed the fear in my tone. She turned to me and chuckled.

"What's this? The great Rize is afraid of spiders?"

"Everyone has to be scared of something!"

I shouted a little louder than I wanted, causing more noise echoing towards the village.

Thanks to my shout, the entire population hidden inside the village are all flowing out. The entire wave of blackness came and nearly covered the entire village as sounds of spiders hissing and crawling can be heard from here.

Now that I have super hearing, I can actually hear the details to their sounds, and I… covered my ears while crouching. My face looked super terrified as I watched those gigantic long legged monsters gradually get closer to us.

"Oh dear, we might have to do this without her."

Fran said and Cane nodded. But before they were able to move, a giant fire blaze came from the left.

VWOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!

Emily did not think of anything at all and immediately shot out the fire blaze. Her face is just as terrified as I am.

"E-Emily--"

"Burn everything. The entire village... Burn it down."

Emily is too engrossed in burning the spiders, she didn't even listen to anyone else. The entire village became cladded in green and red flames, and the spiders either died or escaped to the well.

"G-Good one, Emily!!"

I complimented her, and she gave me a thumbs up with a really fearsome face. 

Everyone else facepalmed.

Seeing that the spiders were gone, I stood up again and lifted my hand. The flames in the village quickly got sucked into my palm and instantly died out.

"Woah, that's a neat trick."

Cane said after seeing that trick, and everybody else whistled. Emily and the others began moving deeper into the village, while I let out a sigh.

"Why does it have to be spiders…"

And so, we headed to the well to remove the spiders once and for all. 

I shot my fire blaze inside the well, and the ground became hot immediately. I pulled all the fire out of the well and Cane went inside to look while being held by my shadow rope.

Below the well, is a cave. A giant and wide one, previously housing those giant long legged monsters.

Cane gradually got lower and lower inside the cave, and he used the light magic to look around the lair, and confirmed that all the spiders inside had died.

Brod and Rath also went down to check while the girls stayed up. While the boys went down, Fran talked with me and Emily about our fears. I simply told her I just hate hairy spiders and I have a reason for it.

Once I had a giant tarantula landed on the back of my neck when I was dealing with a dungeon during my Gray rank days. The fucker was big and scary, and somehow landed on the back of my neck from the ceiling. Luckily I was still a solo back then, because I screamed like an actual maniac that day.

Luckily it didn't bite me, otherwise I would have died there. I didn't have healing magic then, and if it was genuinely venomous, I'd be dead-dead.

Ever since then, I have been terrified of spiders.

The boys came out around ten minutes later and confirmed that all spiders got reduced to dust. There's nearly no air inside and they can't breathe anymore.

It doesn't seem to be a dungeon, and was simply a lair or home of those spiders.

Brod closed the well with his earth magic and Rath looked for another spot for the well using his super senses. He heard the sound of water just a little bit outside the village and had Brod dug it.

And it looks like a good water source.

Since the village where the villagers stayed is rather nearby, Fran and I went ahead and left to notify them that the village is now clear. We flew there to make things quick.

When we arrived, we talked with the village chief, and they decided to send some men to rebuild. 

Ah, and since we felt bad, we also told them we will help out in rebuilding.

Not just because the houses are in wreckage thanks to Emily's massive fireblaze, but also because we simply wanted to help out because we can.

Brod with his earth magic, Rath with his godlike senses, and everyone else with their abilities. We can definitely help out.

After returning with the villagers, we started the rebuilding process.