"Alright, let's see." As he presses his spectacles for the last time, he summons out a hologram that shows him the current checklist that he has put out for the past few hours. "Some notes here and there, and, ah, there you are..."
Pressing the document folder on the hologram, he enters into a subspace where he could see the identification files of the few other legends that he may have to encounter and collect. "Should I go with her first, this one? Hmm."
Choosing between the nearest two targets he could find and take care of, he calculated the outcome and possibility of which would be the presumptive best option. Being satisfied with one which would be a better fit, he taps the file and checks it as a showcase for easier access.
With a smile, he then gets out from his seat, does the same procedure of safe-keeping with the laptop and latches on his watch onto his wrist before injecting some nano-bots which will help link in the connection towards the chip in his brain.
He never told anyone about the chip in his head, not even his friends and family. It was made and inserted into him after small-time participation in a test with the small team of the government that Minister Fusui, well Princess Fusui in this timeline would insert this chip which would help accelerate his thinking process in his cerebral cortex.
Even though he was already considered a precious and smart student in his university. He only felt a little pathetic realising this chip only made him smarter when he already was.
It felt this would leave him a bad impression if he ever told anyone else about it, so he decided to keep it a secret and not tell anyone about it. This chip, however, is pretty special in its components. It has no metallic nor a proper physical form, so that means it cannot ever be noticed in a midst of being scanned by a detector or be involved in some sort of x-ray machine in the more advanced security systems.
This, however, can also be dangerous because if the chip malfunctions, it would then be harder for it to be removed as it can be barely seen with the naked eye.
Not as close to a nano-bot but still needs a special periscope or even microscope to be exactly noticed. Walking through the set of corridors and the long hallway, he knocks three times on the room of Kisuen and slowly slides the door. Greeted with a smell of perfume, the sly lass decides to pop right in front of his face and gives her a warm welcome of a hug. "Morning, darling Conundrum.."
As she gives her tight and playful hug, Ryuu pushes off of her gently as he smiles and adjusts his glasses. "Good day, silly fox. Are you ready to start your job now?" Removing his spectacles, he then folds them into a compact size before slipping them between his lab coat's pocket.
"Why, yes gladly..." Sipping onto her bottle of what seems to be whiskey, she then grabs his arms with her free hand before dragging him towards the staircase. "Phew, that's a good start of the day... Let's make a good search today." As her fire-fox flames floated around her two animistic ears, Ryuu pulls out of her antics and followed her as if he was used to it.
Reaching the lobby, he sees the Arachna, Nia the receptionist Cat-girl and Princess Fusui resting themselves at the waiting lobby as the other visiting residence minded their own business going in and out of the establishment.
Don in her kingdom's given Armour, Princess Fusui holstered her sword properly by her hip as she then puts on her knight's helmet, which had multiple holes for better sight and hearing. "Good morning, you two... as per planned yesterday night. We are ready. Also, the Arachnid is joining us after Nia explained to her all about it."
"You're kidding, that fast? That's interesting." He realized the probability of surpassing the future outcome of the kingdom has spiked as he found out the Arachnid accepted their adventuring invitation. "Miss, are you sure? How about the child, who is going to take care of it?"
The arachnid faces Ryuu as she played with the baby with her other sets of arms. With a smile, her eight eyes simultaneously blinked as she opens her mouth without extracting her sharp jaws. "I will take the child along with my journey if you don't mind. No worries, you can trust me in taking care of her."
"But isn't it a little dangerous when we end up in tough situations? Perhaps we may need to pass some guards or even fight monsters." As Ryuu asks surprisingly, he scratches his head as he then nears them and picks up his custom-made bat beside the couch and rests it on his shoulder as he held onto it.
"Don't worry, she has her tricks of solving that," Nia answered as she rubs her face onto him, placing her territorial scent onto him and giving her an early morning greeting.
"Well, if she knows what she is doing, that is fine. I suppose she is like Kisuen's case of oddities..." He teased as the Arachnid looks at the drunk Yoko so early in the morning getting tipsy.
"Right..." She answers as she chuckles. "Anyway, we are prepared to leave if you are ready. You haven't had breakfast though."
Ryuu gestures her with a wave as he then smiles guiltily. "I barely have breakfast so early. I mostly eat during the journey's walk. A little rude but bear with me."
"Hmm, that's fine I guess. If you forgot my name it's Arania, I am the Arachnid from North-Side. Care-taker of this child and also a chief of a long-forgotten tribe. Call me Aria for short."
As she hands him one of her free hands, he took the courtesy to shake her flimsy and thim hands that felt so light and easy to be snapped. As he shook, he smiled at her and re-greeted himself. "The name's Ryuu, Ryuu Conundrum. Just Ryuu is fine and I am the founder of The Guardian's Inn and also the Honourary Knight of The Leaf Wolf Clan."
As they finished greeting, Nia then closes the shop, she removes her receptionist clothing and dresses up in her adventuring gear. A pinkish gown with a few straps of leather chest pads and knee pads, she barely held a weapon and only has a small pouch where she kept her tools for her sneaky side of work. "Alright, let's go."
With a nod and approval of the close of the shop, they all headed outside as they breathed in the fresh green grass and the moist air. As sunny as it was, the forest surrounding it is pretty dark and gloomy. Perfect to avoid innocent civilians to be stumbling in this massive open field.
Breaking the barrier that he set up, he smiles and greets the witch that for the most part visits them every morning from time to time having her morning tea. Sipping slowly while reading her huge book of spells, she studied for some time before getting up and following them.
"Morning, Black Witch." Nia ecstatically greets as she waves continuously to her. As the others headed deep into the forest, Nia and the witch followed up as they had their daily conversation of unknown topics.
"So, West-Side, huh? Been ages since we ever decided to go there. Why though?" Princess Fusui asked as her ears wiggled through the slits her helmet was added with.
"Why? Didn't we plan it? We were supposed to hunt down the dragon that popped up recently but we managed to also track down the forest where the Tree Guardian live."
As Ryuu explained, he pushes a bush that blocked their path as they then entered the townsite where they were greeted with multiple eyeing civilians who notice a strange lad donned in an odd uniform as he guided the monster girls.
As the daily chatter and vinegrapeing go among the women and the curious children that tried to tease them, the ever-busy place of humans noticing strange beasts passing their path made them ever worried. They whispered rumours and also predictions as they were excused to go through.
Passing by the alleyway that made the encounter with Aria and Ryuu's first meeting, she felt a little worried she and him may be called out as they took a short glance and back as they pushed through the adventurer guild's wooden door.
The adventurers were hearty, loud and most of all determined in their jobs. Most of them took care by wearing personal or cheap armour as they used their sharp dependencies while the armours decided to go in a more supportive route. As few go putting up a time to learn spells or making elixirs, some even entrusted themselves with the ever few monsters that had a similar interest to them.
In the adventurer's guild, monsters and the girls, in general, feel safer here as they are more widely accepted than the human-kind that were badly educated in the true reasons of these beings. As Ryuu's team looked around with a smile and the ever-new recruits they passed by as they stared at them in either awe or disgust.
Ryuu then walks up to the receptionist who greeted them with a lovely and mature smile. "Good morning, adventurer Ryuu. Have you and your partners decided on today's job?"
"Sure, we would like to take up a few of your C Grade bounties and a couple of higher-ups if they are available." As Ryuu answered, Nia, explains to Aria the difference in the grade of missions.
"Monster girls don't need an adventuring license to hunt or slaughter as they are mostly a rogue pack of beings that have our own individually born weapons and or creations. So we just have to rely on our category of styles. Missions that adventurers can get like Ryuu here differs in the rank, he is in."
"He is currently gold so he can go for higher rank missions such as B, A, S or even SS but the other three ranks after B is quite rare and also very dangerous to the point it could overcome death as an outcome. C is a pretty common pick and the others downwards till F is pretty minimal, easy and efficient yet lowly paid. We mostly do that as side-quests or just leave it to the recruits." As Nia explained, Aria sucks up the answers and calibrates them in her brain before confidently nodding her head.
"C and B's or the other "Special Ones"?" As the receptionist felt a little curious yet physically worried, she then snags a few scrolls from her drawer under her table as places them onto the table for Ryuu to see.
Using his chip and watch to read the probabilities and future sightings of the outcomes, he then picks the few easier bounties which are near the way to North-Side as he then pulls up two S rank bounties and reads through it. "Hmm, I guess I will take these two too. I am pretty sure our team is enough to handle it."
As he turns and looks at them as they were busily conversing, he then scans their probability as he reads their fortunes and outcomes. ("Perfect... low percentages. Even the child will be safe.")
Without hesitation, he then turns back to the receptionist and nods to her with a smile. "I will take the slaying the Wilshire Dragon and also the Greenvale Orc-Giant." As he replies with a confident look, the receptionist smiles with a little worry as she grins at him.
"A-are you sure, adventurer? You are only gold so if you take this mission, you may end up in trouble if your team can't handle it. In case, you are willing, you could perhaps pay up some Platinum and Diamond ranks if you so wish." As she explains, she then folds the bounties into an envelope and stamps it with an approval wax sigil on a stick before giving him. "I wish you good luck out there and also make sure you take care of your feminine companions, Orcs has a rather "interesting" way of capturing them."
"I get what you mean. Not to be overconfident, but we will do our best and pass. So see you soon." As he smiles and walks away, the receptionist goes back to her work to attend to other people as she wished Ryuu as much good luck as possible. You could say it is a misjudgement but in the end, it's better to be safe than sorry.
"Come on girls, we are heading to Greenvale and Wilshire. After that, North-Side." As he announced, he then explains what they will do as he gives them a map each with his plans of what they will do during their fights and scout-outs.
As he gave them a tactical explanation, as they sat down at the bench near the entrance, a few curious adventurers listened in to his explanation as they learned a thing or two when it comes to party setups.
"These boy knows his stuff. He seems pretty young, but he talks like some sort of high-war military tactician." A swordsman told his friend who was drinking his mug of beer and munching on the bread. "What do you think? I heard he decided on taking an S-rank mission. Hard stuff, death is not the only thing his female compadres can worry about."
"Ahh, if he can give such a talk and strategy, I am sure they can pass. After all, prodigies are pretty common lately in the guild. If they are so confident in doing an S-rank mission, that shows how strong our future generation can become. Let them be, bud. The only thing to wait is his return and also his beauties over there." As his friend drunk his last sip of beer, he then wipes his mouth before burping.
Listening closely to Ryuu's tactics, the girls took as much as they could with their intellect as they then kept their map into their pockets or special holding points. Affirming they can do it, they then got up and took their leave as Ryuu lagged upon, using his chip to read their probability again. Making sure it's fine, he then turns to the receptionist and gives her a wave. "See you later, miss!"
Waving back, she sees them leave as she wishes them luck again under her breath.
...
On their way to Greenvale, they took a ride through a horse-wagon as the elderly driver did as much as he could in his wrinkled state. Looking around at the wonderful change of scenery with brown and red leaves and also wild rabbit tumbling about in fear, Greenvale wasn't exactly how it was pictured but was better than expected.
Her ears perked, listening to the lovely tunes the bird whistled, Fusui smirks as she looks around and smells the air. "This place is pretty cosy. Where the Dragon? Usually, dragons leave patches of burnt grass and damaged villages but this place looks fine."
"Written here, the type of dragon is nature-based and if you didn't know, nature-based dragons tend to force and quickly grow nature which can be quite damaging for the farmers to handle their harvest. Sometimes even houses can be accumulated with nasty weed which can be troublesome to cut off." Reading the bounty after pulling the wax stamp, he then hands it to her for her eyes to see.
"Ohh, a nature Dragon. I thought it was a regular old dragon. Male or female? Usually female can transform to a girl form if they so wish." Fusui asked as she hands back the bounty to him, which he then folds and places back into the letter before tucking it back into his side pocket.
"Probably male. If it was female, I reckon she was mostly protecting, punishing or is just hunting someone to mate with." Ryuu answers before the driver stops in front of a village, which to my surprise was exactly how Ryuu explained it to be.
"Sir, this is Greenvale's only village. As you can see, it is covered in the greenery caused by the dragon that has been stealing and eating their crops recently. If you so can, do your best to take care of it." As the old man explains in a very slow and ageing way, Ryuu nods and listens patiently before paying him a bag of coins. "No worries, gramps. We would do our best."
"Thank you, Sonny. My son used to live here and now he is forced with his wife to live in my house until this whole problem is solved. I am glad someone decides to help us." With a wave, he then whips his horse before riding back in the opposite direction back to North-Side. "Good luck out there!"
"First step to West-side..." The Black Witch chuckles as she stayed in her adult form looking and inspecting the greenery by rubbing her gloved hands over the vines. "I can feel the magic lingering in the roots, this is quite recent."
"Any idea where it can be? Faster for us, if we know its exact location." Princess Fusui explains as she sniffs around the area alongside Nia who was being curious as she climbed on a vine before walking around the reed and weeded roofs of the remaining intact houses.
"Hmm, I could try to use my magic on it but it may take some time. Perhaps if I snap on of the roots, I can use my magic over time as we walk around in search of herbs or other goods." As The Black Witch answered, she then passes by Ryuu and exhales onto his neck teasingly with a freezing breath before grabbing hold of a vine.
Tugging onto it, she then snaps off a part of it before tapping her right hand's finger onto it as she chants a spell.
Rubbing his nape as he shivered, Ryuu then follows Aria as he looks around the interior of the houses in case there's anything that could be proven useful for her to keep or carry. With her available pouches, she could carry multiple things at her back's sac without worrying much about the weight. "Hmm, would this be useful for you?" As he shows Aria a book on cooking and making cheap elixirs."
"I suppose we can use it. I don't know how to cook elixirs, but it may help one way or another. As her child was wrapped with a web behind her back, she steadily reaches for the book before storing it in her sac's extra pockets for future use. "Let's check that house over there. Seems to be a blacksmith shop, I may need some armour."
Hopping from one house roof to another, Nia kneels before looking at Ryuu and Aria. "You know we could have just bought armour at the town."
"Impossible for that to happen. The Blacksmith cheats newcomers and his armour aren't even that good. It's mostly for recruits. If you want good and even better armour, it's best to scavenge around or just head north towards the town of merchants and rich-men The Pavillion." Ryuu explained as he grips his bat before smashing the entrance door down as it was locked tight.
Being empty as it should be, he looks around to see, there was armour all around and even weapons. It seems the owner must have been in a rush and had no time to take along his goods. It was a good time to be scavenging for rare stuff but at the same time, if the owner found out, it would be stealing and a sad day for him.
To be kind, Ryuu decided to leave his register alone and places a bag of coins beside it as payment as he looked around the various armours for Aria to wear on her chest and abdominal areas. Most of her body was protected through external armour she protruded and also spikes that helped in self-defence, so she barely needed any armour in the first place. But as her stomach and chestal region are rather soft and vital, they may need some form of protection, nonetheless.