"What mission did you take, mister Garrick?" Dustin asked worriedly.
"Stop calling me mister. And don't worry, I took an F-Rank one."
"Phew. Okay, sounds good."
"But you'll do all the work. I'll just observe you on this one, since it would end with one strike otherwise."
"Well there's only four F-Rank monsters in Ashbrook. The Venomfang Snake and Forest Creeper are both venomous monsters who move quickly. They're small and difficult to judge your fighting abilities against. The remaining ones would be the Giant Rat and the Feral Dog—
But a single Giant Rat wouldn't be much of a challenge even for you, if you're not caught off guard."
"So, the Feral Dog?" Dustin looked nervous.
"Yeah. You must've fought one before since you said you killed F-Rank monsters before, right?"
"Only once. I mostly went after single Giant Rats roaming in the slums near the underground canals. But I almost died when I fought that Feral Dog, it was too scary."
Garrick sighed. "But you still killed it. Didn't that make you realize that any adult man can handle a single Feral Dog? As long as you're well prepared and don't let your guard down, it shouldn't put your life at risk."
"Gulp."
"I know that in my head, but I froze when it stared at me with those scary eyes and growled at me. It jumped at me before I could get into position."
"A Feral Dog currently only has two advantages over you, Dustin." Garrick said seriously on their way out of the city.
"What are they?"
"First is the fact that it's quicker and more agile than you. You just need to use your brain and time your movements correctly to counter that. Never lose sight of it."
"Second is, the Feral Dog isn't scared of you but you are of it. That can only be overcome by getting your shit together and face it without freezing up. Although it's more fearless than other monsters, even a Feral Dog will hesitate once you cut it a few times."
Dustin clenched his fists.
He looked at other adventures coming and going from the monster forest. Some looked serious and fearless, while others laughed amongst themselves, like this was just another day on the job.
'I don't want to stay this weak.'
'I will become a more respectable adventurer than my father was.'
—
As Garrick found something entertaining to do and Jayson was busy with Franklin—
William was already inside the monster forest with Richard, who he was desperately hoping to recruit.
"Hey Richard. How about getting a beer after this? This Forest Lynx will get us some money to spend." William said while pointing at the corpse in front of them.
"No thanks."
"Oh, sure haha. Got plans already?"
"No."
'Ugh. Seriously.'
"Alright then."
'How am I supposed to get closer to him? Maybe things will change once Osric is fully back and we invite Richard on a mission with us.'
William was frustrated by Richard's cold personality, but he didn't want to give up on him.
'He's not a bad guy. And finding a more capable archer is impossible, especially one that doesn't belong to any group.'
—
Currently inside the city of Ashbrook.
Paul was at the bakery helping his wife.
And Osric headed to the city's main library after sleeping in for the first time in a very long time.
The library wasn't anything impressive, but it was better than the small one he was at before and definitely a lot better than the old and dusty one is Lowbrook that was just a front for information brokers.
'I hope they have better books to read. I need to make my time profitable to me and help me grow my knowledge on useful matters.'
Osric was anxious about not being able to test his upgraded stats and skills.
After wasting away most of his time all these past years in his life, he wanted to make every second count. All of his time, Osric wanted to spend on his improvement and the growth in power.
But his rapid growth in strength was gaining the attention of not just regular citizens and adventurers.
—
Inside the mercenary guild building.
A still new small band of youngsters were hanging around at a table.
Another young F-Rank mercenary, belonging to their band, came running towards them after entering the loud building filled with dozens of small mercenary bands.
"Hey captain Philip! I heard news about the guy you mentioned before." He shouted with a raised hand.
Philip, who sat at the head of the table, raised his head.
"What is it?"
His two fellow friends from the Blackmill orphanage, Carl and Jeffrey, looked curious. And so did the three other band members.
The one who shouted had to catch his breath first.
"It's about Osric. He just beat one of the arena champions, Piers! His adventurer party also keeps growing with strong members like an experienced mercenary that's an elite arena fighter too."
Philip's hand around his beer tightened and his sneaky, sharp and blue eyes narrowed in annoyance.
"Him again?" He responded.
"Osric? How is that possible? He was just a weakling not long ago." Carl said.
Jeffrey looked unsettled. "Philip. We should really do something about him this time. I'm sure he's using dirty tricks, but we can't let his reputation keep growing like this. If he gets any more followers, it could become a problem if he wants revenge."
"Yeah, I agree. It's fucking annoying that he gets so much attention. I always hated his defiant face when we were kids. If he didn't want us to torture him, he should've just begged like we told him to." Carl added.
Philip's expression became colder but somehow very unsettling. He clenched his jaw and the other felt a chill.
"What do you mean by revenge? We did nothing wrong. All we did was teach a useless mutt some lessons."
'Fucking psycho.' Jeffrey thought.
"Hah! You're right. He's not even a human. You guys remember his hollow expression while we tried to break him? He's clearly some kind of dirty demon without any power. Any human would've cried and crumbled while kissing our balls." Carl said laughingly.
'Why am I surrounded by a psychopath and an idiotic barbarian?' Jeffrey somewhat regretted his life choices.
'Whatever. It's the natural order of things to stand with the strong and for the powerful to crush the weak. How is it my fault that Osric was so useless and weird?'
"So what do you guys want to do?" A different member asked.
Philip's mercenary band already had seven members, including himself, Carl and Jeffrey. Carl's strength and his cleverness naturally attracted guys who thought alike.
"There's nothing to think about. Let's finally get rid of his annoying existence. But first, find information on those around him."
"Hahaha! Sounds good."
"Agreed."
"Alright."
"Yes, captain!"
—
Inside the Greydell castle, other people were also getting news about Osric.
"Hey Ruben, did you hear about that Osric guy?" Another apprentice knight and soldier trainee asked him.
Ruben was cleaning his sword off the blood of another trainee's corpse.
"Hm? Did you say Osric?"