----Hank the Adventurer's pov----
We doing the same old job of hunting some monsters to make ends meet and when we were resting one of the mountains nearby just suddenly collapsed in on itself.
our huntress Ria a red-headed beauty of the human race covered in leather garbs and straps, a good number of small knives with a bow and quiver full of arrows ended mentioning an interesting story while munching on the meat from one of the beasts she hunted.
"One of the guild members said that when a mountain suddenly collapses on itself would mean two things..."
as if waiting for those words to sink in she stopped a bit before our frontline Jacob a half-dwarf standing at 5'9" being the usual hot head under all that iron armor, with a large Axe and shield with a helmet that only left a small gap for the eyes impatiently asked, no, demanded that she hurry up kinda pissed me off a bit but someone took care of it for me.
"Ria stop leaving us hanging and tell us already!"
the cool-headed sorceress Anna a blue-haired petite gnome that makes her a legal loli wearing the typical mage robe (that hid some good assets found out when I peeked on her bathing) and cape, with a witch hat and a large staff made him sit back to listen with just a few words.
"Jacob sit your arse down or do you want to go around flying again?"
mind your he was a hulk of a man even I was jealous of the muscles he had yet Jacob looked and acted like a wronged puppy right as he cowered to the tree near him while covering his head with his hands that could bend iron, even if it made me curious as to what the damned loli did I'd rather not experience it too lest I end up like Jacob.
So I cut in and asked Ria to kindly continue.
Ria thanked us with a nod since she was still stuffing herself with more meat then continued since she had the most interest in information about almost anything which would've helped her become an excellent mage but a pity that she had no talent in magic...
"thank you, Hank(yeah that's me!), anna for making the large oaf shut up, now, where was i?"
Upon hearing the girl call him Oaf Jacob was about to say something but a simple glare from Anna made him reign in his emotions and words.
Ria said.
"the guild member, i talked to mention that any mountains that suddenly collapsed can mean two things a good amount of treasure to be claimed since some idiot has gotten themselves kill by some old traps the easy stuff to get or a battle between two powerhouses which in turn will still leave some good stuff of a possible legacy however if this is the case we can all get killed if we approach the area carelessly"
I asked about the latter.
"but doesn't the rules of the guild mention that we can't kill anyone of the same profession as us?"
That was when Ria made a dark sneer before mentioning a little loop in the rules while making a low giggle.
"while party members and those in the town are off-limits since you will be detected by the magic field and our cards are connected to alert the guild should any of us backstab the other, outside the areas that don't have it and those that aren't our party members are free game we just need to make sure there won't be any witnesses."
I gave her a wry smile before telling her this.
"Ria my dear, you can be very scary at times~!"
She gave me a pout before saying the word i never ever want to hear!
"if you keep saying such things, will be sleeping separately for a while!"
Yes, she was my lover and like any man that didn't want to miss out on some high-quality booty, I immediately apologized as I clung to her thigh while saying all the sweet words I could think of!
Anna rolled her eyes at our antics since this was our usual thing a lover's quarrel before bring us back on topic ending the fiasco right then and there...for now since I'll be 'disciplining' later making me nearly drooled from the idea of Ria and her flexible body under me again.
"So are we going or not?"
the playful and cozy atmosphere was gone it was replaced by a bloodthirsty kind as greed for wealth and power was always a good source to motivate our party.
you know the usual stuff Jacob wants to be a Royal Knight serving the royal family, as his ancestors did in the past, in the near future, Anna just wants her own Magic tower full of her books and other magical mumbo jumbos, Ria wanted fame and prestige, while I, the future hero, want power!
Anyone that has the strength to back by reaching an S rank in the adventurer's guild can become a hero or king of a nation just that sadly there have only been two S ranks for the past fifty years since the requirement of becoming one included being capable of using both physical and magical skills because if you lack one or the other your enemies will use your weakness against you and nothing could be done.
Trinkets can only resist so much armor included, weapons could only make you reach so far before it was rendered obsolete as monsters of a certain tier and upward are immune against weapons or magic.
so imagine you reached a certain amount of strength or power and the monster that is immune to your specialty tries to hunt you down?
Simple answer... you're fucked!
After we packed all of our stuff we headed out with the large blockhead Jacob as our spearhead thanks to his personal skill fortress it reduced all physical damage by 20% currently, it can only grow by letting him stay close to death while in battle and his lesser regeneration helped him reach the current point it made him a valuable tank within our party but that is also the reason why he is so cranky majority of the time.
Hearing my commentary he attempted to chase me while shouting out.
"i'll beat you to an inch of your life!!"
sadly for him, Jacob's armor hindered him from being able to catch me~
My skill is heightened senses it allowed me to have a constant awareness of my surroundings to was currently 35 meters around me but thanks to this I can help maintain control of the battles and lead my party members, it gets quite taxing on the mind whenever I used the hidden trick of it by shutting off one of my senses I can increase the output of the remaining active ones by half.
which is why I am wearing two layers of light studded leather full body armor so that my skill won't get interrupted by those heavy decorations with two curved blades a hood to hide handsome myself.
Anna interjected.
"you wish, damn slob!"
I coughed at the brutal response of our eavesdropper.
*Cough* bitch *Cough*
Only to make her even more pissed off!
"What was that!?" she asked while threatening me with one of her spells as lightning sparked from her staff, Luckily for me, I escaped the general area with my lover and had Jacob suffer again Seriously some times it's as if he enjoys her 'attention' now putting that aside, moving on to our stacked legal loli!
Anna the Fiery legal loli's personal skill is Mana mastery a tier higher than mana manipulation that made her one of the best mages of her field as she no longer had to chant to make a spell she just had to concentrate and think of it to summon forth an element, one of the reasons why she loved books so much to help her gain insight and ideas on how to fully utilize the skill.
While My lovely Ria's was Body mastery it may sound simple but hear me out she can make her body flexible or as tough as iron currently make herself light or heavy while it is one of the best skills in bed it is also pretty lethal in battle when used right, kinda felt sorry for the packs of monsters we met on the way here since she spammed the skill to kill them with her bare hands the downside was she gets really hungry afterward for manipulating her body so much, but I ain't complaining since it improves the night sessions we get together!
Which earned me a playful punch that I took on whole heartedly~
While it took a few hours, We arrived at our destination it looked more like a damned crater than anything but since there were no signs of strong magic fluctuations according to Anna that was back to her calm and collected we were good to go for checking the place out before those greedy city knights arrive and steal everything for themselves but I think we didn't need to worry too much since the nearest city was a few days from here.
We stayed together just in case there was something else to worry about, during our quick search my party and i found out this used to be an outpost and there were signs of goblins living here recently and signs of a brutal battle as well as some good spoils jewelry and gear but the next stuff we found set both Ria and Anna off in fury we found adventurer cards a good number of them too.
thus we widened our search only to find the remains of the cards' owners i hugged Ria to comfort her as she clenched her hands enough to bleed while she was ruthless to strangers to people she knew she can be an angel, especially to family members one of the bodies we found was her cousin's body it was repeatedly used to bring more monsters into this world then killed by the torturous ways of goblins.
We separated the bodies to prepare a cremation something any adventurer was required do for the dead that they find in any goblin or other monster bases to lessen the chance of them turning into undead monsters.
But the sound of rocks moving brought us all to high alert as I Used my skill to its currently highest potential cutting off my sense of taste, smell, and feeling focusing everything into hearing and sight!
I got to see what it was the monster that popped out of the debris was pale yet covered in spikes, faceless yet I felt a strong gaze fall upon me before I stuttered to our mage.
"A-Anna, what the hell is that thing!?"
Anna frowned as she tried scanning her memories of the monster encyclopedias she had read multiple times yet nothing came to mind but one thing was for sure any monster they came across must be hunted for that is one of the main policies of the guild to prevent the locals from being harmed and if it was a new monster there was a reward from bringing it back dead or alive!
Seeing that Anna had no answer to give the other three prepared themselves as the low growl it was giving as the large tail of the monster rattled threateningly making them believe that this was a fight that they can't just run from.