An adventurer's guild filled with noises of the adventurers, Ryu was sitting at a chair on the corner table waiting for Snow,
'I wonder what kind of chant she would give me today,' thought Ryu as he looked around the adventurer guild,
A decently sized hall with a reception, a quest board, chairs, and table arrangement at one side, a deposit counter on the other side, and a few doors and stairs beside reception leading to the second floor Guild master's office.
'Surrounded by this many swords feel like I am in an anime convention,' Ryu thought with a nostalgic gaze, remembering when he visited Animejapan once,
It has already been 2 years since Ryu started learning chanting and glyphs from Snow. She sometimes takes Ryu with her on small quests for the practical practice of magic, and Ryu still goes to the forest with the Village chief four times a week.
Day by day it is getting easier to kill lower-level monsters, and he even raised his targets a bit including stunt lizards and Venom sprayers which are snake-like monsters spraying venom from a distance, the efforts resulted in Ryu gaining a few levels, and due to Geld's advice, he started exercising to increase his base potential since a young age too,
"Ryu let's go!" Snow, who just returned from reception, said, showing two papers,
"Let's go," Ryu said, stepping down from the chair. As Snow and Ryu were moving towards the exit of the adventurer guild, some adventurers were whispering about them.
"Hey, they are again at it," a guy spoke in a lowered voice
"I wonder when that kid will register," another guy spoke
"Shouldn't we already scout him? He is cute…" a girl said in an adoring voice
"Yea, being taught by her, he is bound to be talented," another girl said,
'They are at it again.' Ryu frowned while moving a bit faster towards the door
'at least there is no sign of her today… we should hurry!!' he thought as he opened the door for himself and Snow, but was disappointed as soon as he saw her.
"Good morning!! Ryu, Snow, you weren't going to leave me behind, right?" the 16-year-old looking girl with dark purple hair said as she ruffled Ryu's hair wildly.
"Good morning, Felicia," Snow said as she nodded.
"Good morning, Felicia, today's quests are too easy. You might get bored," Ryu said while frowning while looking up at her,
Felicia is a catkin with dark purple hair, mustard color eyes, cat ears a sly tail coming out of her skirt, dressed in chain-mail over a T-shirt, leather long boots, a short skirt with matching color to her shirt, having 2 swords one on each side of her skirt she is playful and Ryu's wary of her because she is too active some parts of her are like Hina,
After Phoenix's Gate left the town, Snow was mostly alone doing quests on her own other parties don't bother inviting her because Snow was a B ranked adventurer famous for rejecting solicitations of almost everyone who invited her, that was when Felicia approached her or one could say bombarded her with the requests of forming a party,
Snow first tried ignoring her but soon give in due to her repetitive approach and also, she saw her earnest behavior, this is how their party Snowflake came to being, they do various quests together and Felicia visited home too and become a close person,
"It would not be boring. after all, I do not get many chances playing with Ryu right," Felicia said as she stopped, ruffling tilting her face,
"But it isn't playing. It is my magic practice!" Ryu said exasperated,
"Now now, Ryu, your cute face doesn't look good when you frown… Right Snow?" Felicia said with a playful giggle before Ryu could reply
"Ryu looks cute always," Snow said proudly, and Ryu got embarrassed being praised this much by two beautiful ladies,
But they weren't wrong in their praise of Ryu's blue hairs which now came a bit on his forehead and his height was taller than before a bit more than average, he looks smart yet his crimson red eyes give a hint of danger these were the reasons Ryu was becoming more and more popular,
"Ahh, you blushing Ryu," Felicia teased him, patting his head,
"It is nothing… let's go!!" Ryu answered back, still flustered, and started walking faster than them.
They made their way towards the Zerah forest from the side adventurers mostly enter it is only with Snow that he uses this path, many adventurers use this path as it is where the forest is least dense, Ryu when he came in the forest as Grandpa chief visit next town is always on the opposite side of this path,
"So the Quest is to collect 5 Stunt Lizard's bodies without a scratch and to harvest yukel herb," Felicia recited as she read the contents of two papers,
"All the best Ryu, if it gets scary you can ask this big sister for help!" she said pointing to herself, and Snow pouted a bit, thinking
'I will be the one helping.'
"I won't need your help this time," Ryu proclaimed. He had killed many stunt lizards before, but the difference is when he is practicing with Snow, he is not allowed to use anything besides Magic,
After walking a bit more they came across 3 stunt lizards each of them varies a bit in size but on average are as big as a small cat they can paralyze one by the contact with their tongue although it isn't that strong it makes moving harder and also, they all got razor teeth,
Ryu checked their status
(Level- 9
Title- [Cold blooded]
Skills- [Paralyze lick], [Slash], [Rush], [Intimidation VIII]).
"Ryu defeat," Snow said, pointing towards the stunt lizards,
"Ryu, the big sister, is right here. If you need help, don't worry okay," Felicia said grinning,
"I will do it!" Ryu said and stepped forwards and the Lizards sensed him, Ryu began chanting
"O flame blazing through my will burn the enemy!! Fireball" and a small fireball came out of Ryu's arm rushing towards the Lizards,
'Shit!! the force of the ball is still less; I should channel more mana at the blazing part!!" Ryu thought as he stepped back to make distance from the Lizards that came running towards him and chanting again,
"O undine the spirit of water in your name I summon!! Water cannon" and three water balls much smaller and more concentrated than that of a fireball appear behind Ryu and rushed towards the lizard, smashing them on the ground.
Ryu ran towards the Lizards drawing the frost glyph around them, finally finishing them by freezing happily. He looked back and shouted,
"I did…" but before he could speak further, he reflexively jumped aside,
Felicia came rushing towards him, both of her swords drawn, and pushed Ryu aside. Falling to the ground, Ryu was confused until he saw what was standing where he was.
'A mist croc…!' Ryu was thrilled as he saw Felicia jumping nimbly like a cat stabbing both of her rapiers in mist crocs eyes the swords that entered crocs eyes came out of its head, she was a twin rapiers user her using her sword is a scene to behold,
'Cool!!' that was all Ryu could think as he saw Felicia finishing off mist croc.
Felicia and Snow came towards Ryu, Felicia stood at his head side and Snow at his foot side, and Ryu looked up in hopes of seeing Felicia's face but due to her skirt being too short he saw something else too and blushed,
"Pink!!" he said calmly as he sat hurriedly.
Felicia for confused for a bit until she realized what Ryu saw as she spoke teasingly.
"Ryu mist croc was grey and purple, what pink did you see!!" her tail swaying enjoying teasing Ryu, but Ryu decided to play defiant
"Thanks for helping me, Felicia sister," he said. If not for Felicia and his [Instantaneous detection] he would've gotten injured heavily,
Mist croc is fourth in the strength ranking of this forest not to be joked around with, it shows how much strong Felicia is to handle one this smoothly,
"Ryu, you injured?" Snow asked with a concerned voice.
"I am fine Snow," Ryu answered and then added "I am sorry I still can't perfect fireball"
"It is fine," Snow patted him,
Since Ryu started learning magic, he came to know his affinity for water in the element is larger than other elements because he was doing mostly water glyphs for safety purposes before,
'I still am nowhere near them in chanting,' Ryu thought as he remembered the fight his father and holy knight did, chatting while rushing towards each other's sword clashing,
Ryu has a hard time chanting while fighting with a dagger, as he sometimes puts more mana in the wrong place or less mana in the required place in the chant messing it up, and also casting water cannon while being too near a monster can affect him too,
"Ryu, hurry up and stand!! You are making Snow more concerned," Felicia said as she gave her hand to Ryu,
"I was lost in thought," Ryu said as he pulled himself back on his feet,
"No more fighting for Ryu now, just helps," Snow said with a resolved look, and Ryu did not argue. He knew there was no worth in arguing when Snow has that expression,
They roamed around a bit in the forest. Some other adventurers watch Ryu using magic proficiently along with Snow, helping her. This is one of the reasons Snow plans on not letting Ryu register as an adventurer in the near future because she knew he would be bothered with soliciting by these adventurers.
After finishing both of their quests, they walk back to town for claiming their completion reward at Adventurer's Guild.
-to be continued