On Tuesday, after school, Paley met Hig at the Guild. He sat in his usual spot in the corner, and Paley sat down opposite him.
"So, I found a new contract for us to do." Hig began.
"What is it?" Paley asked.
"A bunch of Ice and Lightning type monsters have been approaching Gouon from the northeast. The guards managed to hold them back, but they need our help to kill the monsters." Hig explained.
"They need *our* help?"
"Yeah. Apparently, word's spread about us. People call us the Rookie Duo. Isn't that awesome?" Hig grinned.
"That's great," He replied sarcastically, "So, they just need us to clear out the monsters?"
"Yep."
"How much is the reward?" Paley leaned in optimistically.
"One diamond coin."
"That high?" Paley asked, taken aback. Usually, a simple hunt like this one would get them two gold coins max.
"I was surprised too, but it turns out the monsters have been abducting people and probably taking them to a nest where they eat them."
"I see." Paley showed slight excitement at receiving his first diamond coin, "Have they stopped people from going near there?"
"Yes, they've spread the word about it."
"Alright then, what do you say about going there this weekend?"
"Sure. I'll see you then, then." Hig shook his hand and began to leave.
"Wait, Hig." Paley stopped him, hesitating over something.
"What's up?"
"I have to tell you something."
"Go on."
"...I'm a Quimnia." He thought that Hig wouldn't believe him, seeing as he paused for a second to absorb his words, so he prepared to show him all the elements. But Hig broke out into a shocked panic.
"What!? For real?" He asked.
"Yep," Paley continued and showed him Air, Fire, Water, and Earth magic.
"I can't believe it," Hig said, his mouth stunned open. "So, you can use every magic type?"
After ten minutes of showing Hig all sorts of spells and making him promise not to tell anyone, Paley left to go home. He told everyone about the hunt and that it paid a diamond coin.
Madella, as usual, voiced her concerns and told him to be careful, and so did Jurie. The others were more encouraging, telling him to bring back the heads of the monsters.
The next day, he told Libon and his apprentices of the hunt, and they became eager to join him, especially Negie, who aspired to become a monster hunter. (Negie is one of the ex-servant girls. She's slightly shorter than Paley and has brown skin like Amasha.)
They offered to carry the bags of loot, which eventually made Paley accept them coming along. He wanted to pay them ten gold coins, but they negotiated it down to one gold coin. Somehow, the apprentices were ordering their master to be more selfish. Paley told them too of his being a Quimnia, leading to yet another tiring few moments where they questioned him relentlessly.
Over the next two days, Paley prepared 12 Firebolt Runestones for the hunt. He was going to give everyone two runestones each so they could protect themselves if anything happened.
When Saturday came, they met at the Guild early in the morning. Paley was the first one there; Hig arrived around ten minutes later. He carried a rucksack filled with water canteens and food in case the hunt lasted longer than expected.
"Hey, Paley." He greeted with a half-anxious half-excited look on his face.
"Hey,"
"Something happened. The reward for the hunt went up to two diamond and 43 gold."
"What? Why?"
"A wealthy merchant called Ferhund didn't hear about the monsters, so he tried coming straight to Gouon this morning instead of taking the long route through the northern town. The monsters most likely abducted him, so we have to bring him back alive if we find him." Hig explained.
"Okay. Let's leave as soon as possible when the others get here."
"Others?"
"My apprentices are coming on the hunt."
"You have apprentices!?" Hig was surprised yet again.
About half an hour later, Paley's apprentices came in a supply carriage rented out by Libon. They all sat around six large bags in the box the two horses were drawing along. During the ride, Libon gave Paley the books on Arts he requested the day before and three papers.
"Here you go, Paley." He said.
"Oh, thank you. I didn't expect you to get them so quick." Paley said and flipped through them before putting them into his bag. "What are these?" He looked through the three additional papers Libon gave him. They detailed five Ice and Lightning type monsters;
Biki: an Ice type monster. It is short and slender, moving very quickly as a result. Long hair often covers its head and back, making it look like a black haze when it moves. It produces ice daggers to use as weapons.
Dolshoy: a Lightning type monster. It's big and walks upright; its arms are long and skinny compared to the rest of its muscular body. It has a wide mouth and full lips. With Lightning magic to boost its speed and reaction time, combined with its long reach, it can grab someone and eat them before they even realize it.
Kolduni: A fragile Ice type monster. It has human stature but is often extremely skinny from starvation. This is because it casts spells with its Ice staff and is easy to kill because of its weakness in close-range combat. However, it can become lethal when working with other monsters since it provides long-range cover for them.
Sherv: an Ice type monster. It's a five-meter long but thin snake that wraps around its victim and freezes them to death.
Loberaa: A Lightning falcon that can grow up to a meter in size. If it grabs onto you with its talons, it will shock you to death.
"We did some research over the past two days," Tugas (the one wearing oversized glasses) began, "The guards who were keeping the monsters at bay described them to us. The monsters are all ice or lightning type, and we narrowed it down from their descriptions to those five. Those five monsters are the ones that were abducting people."
"These are weak monsters. We can handle them." Paley said.
"They are weak, but they are also workers in their society, like ants. This means that they aren't just randomly abducting people but bringing them back to their leader. And the leader is always the same magic type as its underlings, meaning that the leader, in this case, is both Lightning and Ice type." Tugas explained.
"So his weaknesses are both Fire and Water." Paley caught on. He'd have to use Fire magic when the leader used Ice magic; and Water magic for Lightning magic.
"Exactly."
"Good job." Paley handed him back the papers after reading through them.
They spent the rest of the journey loitering at the back of the carriage as they passed through huge fields of grass and wheat. The journey lasted a total of thirty minutes, and Paley spent all of it staring up at the beautiful blue sky. There were clouds dotted around, some covering the sun partially.
They got off at a camp where a group of apprentice knights was resting. The camp consisted of white tents, a fireplace, and ration reserves.
"The Rookie Duo is here!" One of the younger knights exclaimed, and they all came rushing out of their tents and resting places.
"You've finally come! We've been waiting for so long." The leading knights said, relieved. They'd lost about three men fighting the monsters, and they were pushed back here from a kilometer ahead, where their first camp was.
"What's the situation?" Paley stepped down from the carriage, stretching subtly. The knight's leader didn't feel comfortable taking orders from a twelve-year-old but tried to ignore it.
"The monsters have begun to leak out in two directions. There's just not enough knights or guards to contain them." The knights' leader explained.
"Okay, then. Can you handle the leaks?"
"Of course."
"Alright, we'll go and deal with the leader of the monsters." Paley walked through the camp and ahead, towards a forest beyond which the monsters were. His apprentices and Hig followed him into the forest as he took out the 12 runestones he prepared.
"Take these," He gave everyone two runestones each, "Use them if things go wrong. The activation condition is the word Firebolt."
"Got it," They took the runestones and put them in their pockets.
It was a thin forest they were walking through, letting Paley look up at the sunny sky through the thin canopy. He was both excited and dreadful about the coming summer. For one, he liked the cold better rather than the scorching, sweaty heat of summer. On the other hand, he would get to practice his magic and read all sorts of books, both fiction and non-fiction, the entire holiday.
He couldn't wait to read the book on Arts with Dillie, but more so the fact that she would be overjoyed at it.
He grew so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the sunny blue sky turn into a dull expanse of grey. The lukewarmth of early May slowly and unnoticeably turned into a congealing cold.
They were entering a mana zone.
The water vapor from their breaths became visible and they all began shivering intensely.
"I'll warm us up," Paley said and snapped his fingers. The air around them gradually increased in temperature until it felt cozy, and they stopped shivering. As they continued forward, Paley had to increase the strength of the heating spell around them. Additionally, a putrid, rotting smell made them all close their noses and wince as it still managed to pierce through. Paley was the only one seemingly unaffected by the smell.
Out of nowhere, a Biki (the short, slender, and quick Ice monster) attacked them. The black hair that covered its head and back made Paley notice it late, but he managed to put up a barrier in time to block one of its ice daggers. In response, it jumped up, off the barrier, and threw the other dagger at his ear.
Luckily, the dagger missed and sliced a small chunk off his lobe. Paley ignored the searing pain and, without hesitation, blasted the Biki with a powerful wave of fire. By the time he was done burning it until it was charred and breaking apart, another Biki sprung up from the forest. This time, he was prepared and erected a barrier around everyone.
"Guys, take the runestones out. You might need them." He ordered and they complied. After a few moments of waiting for another attack to come, he continued moving, still keeping the barrier around them. A shadow of a bird flew over them, and they looked up to see a light greyish blue falcon soaring in the skies above.
They watched it fly forward and join an enormous flock of them swirling around something.
"This might be worse than a mana zone," Paley said as they approached the end of the forest.
"What do you mean?" Homar (the other girl ex-servant) asked. They exited the forest to find a colossal hole in the ground with inwardly slanted walls. It was about forty meters wide but shallow because they could see very clearly the hordes of monsters wandering in an orderly fashion below.
"This is a dungeon."