It was Dave's 58th day working at the research center. As the dawn started, Dave rose from his bed, put some clothes on, and headed to the research center. When Dave arrived in front of the research center, he looked up. There, he saw all five of its floors. The 1st floor, also referred to as the ground floor, was where the old receptionist worked. It was the largest floor. Next were the 2nd and 3rd floors. The wipers were located on the second floor. The 2nd and 3rd floors had the same amount of space. The 4th and 5th floors were, in fact, a small tower sticking out of the 3rd floor of the research center. While Dave had been to some of the rooms on the first three floors, he had not been on the 4th or 5th floors. Dave heard there was also a basement below the first floor, but he had not been there either.
Dave entered the research center and headed to the wiper room. As usual, Nell was already sleeping there, and it seemed like Donn had just started reading a book. The book was called 'Five ways to not slay a demon'. Dave had heard from Donn and Nell how they fought, but he hadn't yet seen them fight himself. He only saw a glimpse when Donn chased the assassins.
Donn was a tall, muscular man with short, slick black hair. If Dave were from Earth, he might have said that Donn looked like a bodybuilder.
Nell, on the other hand, wasn't that tall. His height was about average for a warrior. Nell had a square face and blonde hair. His face slightly resembled a rectangular hammer.
The trio was used to lying on the sofas and doing nothing. It seemed Donn really liked reading books about others failures in combat.
Nell liked to sleep.
Dave didn't really like lazing around that much, but he did like the pay. So far, he hadn't done a single monster wipe yet. This was going to change today.
Tom ran into the Wiper room.
"Get up! We have a
Dave was surprised to see how quickly Nell leaped out of the sofa and stood there as if he hadn't fallen asleep a few moments ago. Dave thought to himself that he should probably ask Nell about this technique sometime in the near future.
Donn rolled out of his sofa and stood straight. Dave followed as he got up as well. Tom gave them a paper and left. Nell started to read out what was written on the paper. After this, he spoke.
"Lucky us, we have a job!"
Donn followed up with
"Heh, now we have an excuse to stretch our muscles."
The trio headed to the designated position to talk with the customer. This time, the mission was sent to them by a customer who needed some monsters wiped out. After talking with the customer, they got the full context of the job.
Simply put, there has been a pack of seven Nirana cats near the northern road to Copper Canyon. This pack has marked the road as part of their territory. Thus, they attack any merchants going through this region. This merchant here is in fact representing many merchants who have all put together a large sum of money for the Wipers to get rid of these Nirana cats.
After this, the wipers were given a map marked with the general position of the Nirana Cats territory. With the mal at hand, the three headed out towards the Nirana Cat Territory. The trio weren't in a hurry to arrive; this is because if they were to rush all the way to the cats territory, they would be exhausted and would take on needless danger. The three walked calmly but silently. They may joke around when they're lazing around, but out here in the wild, such behavior could get one killed. Donn was wearing his two gauntlets and two bronze boots with some odd carvings and crystals within. Donn also had a strange metallic rod on his back. Meanwhile, Nell held a strange sword in his left hand. According to what Donn told Dave, Nell was a left-handed person.
Dave held his machete tightly as they got closer and closer. Eventually they entered the marked Nirana Cat's territory; however, there weren't any Nirana Cats in sight. This was usual since Nirana cats normally have a wide territory, sometimes even spanning multiple kilometers. They continued to advance deeper into Nirana Cat territory. They walked and walked, searching for their targets. Until…
*Growl*
After a single growl, multiple Nirana cats sprung up from the tall grass surrounding the trio. They were surprised to see that there were eight cats leaping at them. They didn't have time to plan as each of them selected their targets and counter-attacked.
Dave shot steam at the pouncing Nirana cats, causing two of them to fall on their backs. Nell swung his sword, causing a thin white magical line to fly out of the tip of the sword's tip. It slashed four of the Nirana cats, flinging them away from the trio. Meanwhile, at the same time, Donn simply punched away each of the two remaining cats leaping at him. The trio were surrounded by grass that got up to their chins, making it hard to see where the Nirana cats were, but in exchange, the Nirana cats couldn't spew fire unless they wanted to burn themselves. Dave had fought five Nirana cats by himself and had even killed four; however, this time there were almost twice as many Nirana cats. Dave had to rely on the skills of the other two Wipers if he wanted to win.
As Dave charged in the direction of the Nirana cats, he blasted them. He was shocked to see a Nirana cat charging at him. It launched him 2 meters into the air. Dave crashed onto the ground, almost dropping his machete. As he attempted to get up, he saw the Nirana cat charging at him, but this time its mouth was wide open. Dave rolled back and slashed with his machete. The machete slashed the monster's head, causing a deep cut, but the machete couldn't penetrate its skull.
The beast roared furiously as it swiped at Dave with its claws. Dave blasted its paws away. The momentum was so great that the beast's frontal foot seemed to get dislocated. Just as Dave was about to finish it, the other Nirana cat arrived. It pounced at Dave with its claws stretched out to tear Dave to pieces.
Dave barely dodged to the right on time. As its claws hit the ground, the beast leaped at him again. Dave rolled back, dodging its attack again. Right after he flipped up, he took out his machete and jumped to the right of its neck as he slashed down, killing it.
Nirana cats are big creatures with big sturdy bodies and tough bones. This makes killing them very hard, with their major lethal weak points being their neck, stomach, and eyes.
Dave charged towards the disabled Nirana Cat as quickly as he could. Just as he was about to slice its neck, another Nirana cat leaped out of the grass. This Nrana cat had a scar running across one of its eyes. It was clear that this Nirana cat had been cut by a bladed weapon. This Nirana cat must have fought humans before.
The Nirana cat didn't pounce on him but attempted to slash at Dave. Dave backed away quickly, dodging its attack. However, it did not stop and instead headbutted Dave, pushing him even further away.
Dave almost fell to the ground again, but he managed to turn his fall into a roll as he used it to get up again. To his surprise, the Nirana cat turned away and ran. Davw thought it might be scared of him, so he turned to look for the other Nirana cats. However, just as he was about to charge at his new target, he saw, from the edge of his eye, the scarred Nirana Cat charging at him.
It was as if it was an expert at fighting humans. Dave tried to shoot steam at it, but to no avail. As it flung Dave into the air. As Dave was being flipped in the air again, Donn was punching away the two Nirana cats. It was as if he were in a wrestling match against a bunch of lions. Meanwhile, Nell was also in the air. However, he wasn't flung into the air like Dave. Nell had two white wings of magic on his back. He was dodging the fire spewing out of the mouths of the Nitana cats below him. Dave only caught a few glimpses of this during the few seconds he was in the air.
As Dave was about to fall to the ground, he saw the hind of the scarred Nirana cat. There were clear burn marks. At this instant, Dave recognized this Nirana cat; it was clearly the leader of the Nirana cats, he thought during his last day as a resource collector.
Its scar was left there by none other than Dave himself. As Dave's shoulder got slammed into the ground, he already lifted his other arm and blasted the Nirana cat. By now, Dave's steam shot had a longer range than his steam blast.
This did not matter, though, as it still had a sufficient recoil force upon impact to slow down the Nirana Cat for long enough for Dave to get up.
As he got up, he dashed diagonally forwards towards the right side of the Nirana Cat. Before it could slash at Dave, he chopped off the Nirana cat's head.
He then once again charged towards the disabled Nirana Cat. It tried to limp away, but Dave was faster than it. As Dave reached it, he stabbed the machete into its neck, killing the beast.
At this time, he saw that Donn had already finished off the Nirana cats that he wrestled with and was now helping Nell fight the last remaining Nirana cat. Dave ran up to help them, but before he could even say a word, Nell dived down from the sky and penetrated its skull with his sword. The sight was gruesome even for Dave, as the sword went through its tongue and came out of its jaw.
After this, the trio made sure that there weren't any Nirana cats left and then headed back to Copper Cantury.
They started to speak only once they reached a safe part of the road to Copper Canyon. Donn was slightly confused about why there were eight Nirana cats instead of seven. Nell said it must have joined them recently. Dave decided to tell them of his battle with the five Nirana cats he had almost a month ago.
He then said that he recognized the leader of the pack he fought earlier inside the pack they fought today. Donn wasn't so excited about it, but at least Dave solved the problem that he caused himself by killing that Nirana cat.
As they arrived back in the city, they presented the eight severed heads to the merchants, who paid for the job to be done. After that, they had to write down a brief explanation of everything they did. Dave and Nell killed three Nirana cats, while Donn killed two.
When Dave saw how much James was paid for this single job, he understood why paying three people to laze around for an entire month was profitable. In fact, the trio was going to receive the same amount of money for their work today as they would on a normal day when they would laze around. However, since these privately hired missions aren't common, this deal is quite fair. They get paid the same in times of peace and in times of chaos.
Thus, the job has a very stable payment, and it's not a small amount by any means.