Sitting alone in an office Jason read through a report. Apparently the man who was attacked by the monster girl saw her again. Though the report also mentioned he wasn't one-hundred percent sure if he was right. Apparently a young Hunter woman heading north with a traveling caravan of merchants looked similar to how the monster girl looked when she initially attacked him.
"But there isn't any more detail. Like a name or something. At least I have a general description of her, not that it's really detailed. Just light brown skin and black hair." Jason mumbled to himself with a sigh. "Well they were heading north, which could mean she's trying to get back to her home town possibly. So if I just head to the Location Dr. Vancer said he found her I might bump into her then."
"Sir!" A young mage woman called out as she entered the room. "We got a report just now, the Church wan't you to deal with it."
Handing him some papers Jason read it over. After he finished her groaned in frustration. He already had enough to deal with chasing the monster girl, he did not need this side quest appearing right now. Over the years he has come to the conclusion that side quest are even more annoying in real life than video games.
"Fine. We'll deal with this then continue heading north."
-- -- --
Standing in front of the army of monsters, Jason watched. Noticing the older man's presence, the monster swarm charged at Jason in a frenzy. Silently lifting his sword, which glimmered ethereal blue, he proceeded to swing it down, saying two words. "Heavenly Slash!"
In an instant, a massive glowing strike flew through the air, gorging the ground out as it traveled. When it reached the swarm of monsters, anything in its path was decimated instantly. The shock waves of the attack itself sent debris flying and killed any monster that was nearby. In an instant, the Monster swarm was obliterated.
A few days after Ruby and the others came across the monster swarm, Jason found himself exterminating it. A group of workers accidentally found a buried entrance to a dungeon while building a railway. As a result, all the monsters that were inside had burst out all at once. The ones that managed to escape found their way to Verland to explain what happened. Jason heard about it and went to deal with the problem.
"A bit of a shame this project ran into such a problem. They don't have trains in this world yet, but now its implementation is going to be delayed." Jason said aloud.
Looking at the transformed landscape in front of him, Jason let out a sigh. His attack caused a massive change to the area, but it wasn't the only thing that caused it. After his attack, the ground caved in to reveal tunnels, which most likely belonged to the dungeon the monsters came from. Looking at them, it was clear the tunnels were already starting to reform and would soon once again be hidden from view.
"Sir, we should make our way inside to find the dungeon core." The swordswoman May said.
"The Church would be very grateful if we could recover a Dungeon core." Jane said, holding her staff.
"Yeah... the Church." Sara said, placing her knives back into their sheaths..
"Sigh, if we have to." With another sigh, Jason hoped into the Dungeon without any hesitation, with his party following him.
He wanted to get this over with and head back north. Dr. Vancer revealed a bit more information about Subject 24-C, telling them where they were found. Jason and his party were planning to go there when this problem came up. With no other leads other than that testimony from that Freddy guy they really had no other plan of action.
"Let's just get this over with already. The longer we take the more likely our one lead will end up being a dead end than it already is." Jason said to his party when they landed.
Jason also had another reason to want to get this over with quickly. Unlike when he's in the open he can't use any of his more destructive or powerful abilities. If he did he'll just cause a collapse on top himself and the others. He despised fighting in enclosed spaces like this. It's not to say he didn't have any ability to use in spaces like these, but it definitely limited him.
Jason and his party went deeper into the dungeon, all hoping to get this little side quest over and done with.
________________________________
--Ruby POV--
Two weeks have passed since Ruby started teaching Sara how to fight. The raven haired girl with Golden-brown eyes faced the brown haired girl with green eyes. The younger girl was covered in dirt and breathing heavily while the older one watched her composed. Storing her knives away, Ruby informed Sara that training was over and started to make her way back inside.
"Thank you again for the training today!" Sara said as she and Ruby sat down in a private room.
"Mm." Making a sound of acknowledgment, Ruby siped her tea.
These past two weeks, Ruby did her best on figuring out Sara's character. What she discovered was that Sara was probably not going to say anything. Honestly, it was hard to tell. The girl was earnest, but Ruby felt it would be very easy for Sara to make some mistake in the heat of the moment and say something. Not that she was going to harm the girl, she still couldn't bring herself to do that for some reason.
"... We should be leaving in another week or so." Ruby said to Sara. Figuring she won't be able to do anything about Sara Ruby decided to just leave her be. Judieth also looked satisfied about the little trust Ruby was able to build with the Prosperty family as well.
"Wait, really?" Looking dejected Sara's excitement dispersed like smoke.
"... We should return soon enough. A month and a half at most?" Ruby said, not entirely sure how long she would actually be gone. She honestly liked this city somewhat.
"OH!? really? That's great!" Sara said, a smile returning to her face
Ruby could do without the girl in front of her, but she really didn't care that much. As the two of them chatted, Sara's personal maid, a beast folk fox girl, whispered something in her ear.
"Looks like I have some lessons to attend to." Sara said with a sigh. "Guess I'll see you next time."
"If you can follow me ma'am i'll escort you out." The maid said to Ruby as Sara made her exit.
Making her way back to the Inn, in a carriage provided by Drakove, Ruby conversed with Maisy. The slime was currently sitting across from Ruby in a maid uniform. Maisy has apparently taken a liking to the maids she saw the past two weeks and has started to copy them. Where she got the outfit from was unknown.
"I like Sara, I wish I could talk with her." Maisy said.
"Mm."
"Are you sure I cant talk with her before we leave? I wan't to learn more about maids."
"Mm-hm."
"Are you even listening?"
It was less of a conversation and more of maisy one-sidedly talking to Ruby.
"I'm listening just don't have much to talk about. Just thinking about what I will do after we complete our two goals." Ruby said.
"Oh? What's you plan?" Maisy asked.
"I don't know. We've been side track a bit thanks to Sara so that gave me more time to think, but I honestly have no idea what to do." Ruby said with a sigh
"I'm sure you and the others can figure something out my Lady." Maisy said, while Ruby cringed at the use of the word 'Lady.' What made it even more awkward was the fact Maisy still looked like a translucent purple version of herself.
"Well I hope so."
The rest of the trip was silent.