Rishi was looking for a way back to his clan when he came across a group of three young adventurers.
They all appeared to be approximately 13 years old. Rishi was overjoyed and approached them when he saw them,
He said, "Hello, friends."
When the three adventurers heard Rishi's voice, they became cautious, but they relaxed their guard when they saw a person younger than them approaching them wearing beast skin clothing.
When the group noticed Rishi approaching, one of them inquired, "Who are you?"
Rishi approached them and explained his situation and why he was alone. He told them he had become separated from his people when a level 5 wild beast attacked them while traveling to the city.
"Which City were you going to?" asked the tallest one, who had long red hair and bright red eyes.
"I was going to Mazar," replied Rishi.
"Mazar? We are also from there," replied the one with black glasses, curly brown hair, and black eyes.
After asking some more questions, the trio discussed among themselves whether they should let this stranger join them or not; the red-haired one denied while the brown-haired one said they should help.
At last the decision was to be made by the boy who had been quiet till now; he was the guy with black hair, blue eyes, and a muscular body. He said, "Let's help him; it is advised by the government to help if you find anyone in need."
After entering the group, Rishi followed them on their adventure around the forest; they hunted many powerful magic beasts.
When Rishi noticed that they ignored him, he decided to introduce himself to get close to them. He said, "Hello, my name is Rishi; nice to meet you. Thanks for letting me join."
"No need to thank me, I even voted against you," replied the red haired boy.
"It was not a big deal, and it's our responsibility to help any person in need; I am Ajit," replied the one with brown hair and glasses.
"He is Dilip,," he added, pointing at the red-haired boy before looking at the black-haired boy.
"Hi, I am Dev; you can ask me if you need anything" said Dev with a smile.
After about 2-3 days of living together, Rishi became closer to them. Rishi was good at cooking, so he decided to help them; the food made Rishi was delicious they started accepting him as a member.
Some more days passed, and they looked from one place to another; Rishi asked, "Ajit, tell me something more about you; let's start with myself. I am Rishi Rawat from the Rawat Clan of Puna Town; my goal is to become a powerful beast tamer and form a famous guild."
"You are from the Rawat clan? That's cool, but why didn't you tell us earlier" asked Ajit.
"Ajit, I have gone through a lot in the past week; I have escaped death by a small margin many times, which made me very cautious as my enemies could also be very close by looking for me. I am sorry I even lied to you about the wild beast attack bandits attacked me," replied Rishi.
Dev raised his brows in surprise while Dilip had a mocking smirk.
"First wild beast, then bandits, Ajit. I told you before we can't trust him," commented Dilip.
"Dilip, didn't you hear him correctly? He was just being cautious and scared as he had been in danger for a week and said bandits had attacked him. Does it even matter who attacked him? In both cases, he is just a victim," said Ajit.
"Dev, it looks like he has fooled Ajit; why don't you say something," asked Dilip.
"Dilip, I would have to disagree with you in this matter; it makes sense for him not to reveal everything when he is unsure about our identities," said Dev.
"As for your previous question, I am from Manila Town. My goal is to become the leader of a famous guild," he added.
"I am from Dhaneta City; I want to become a manager of a top guild," said Ajit before looking at Dilip.
"I am also from Manila Town; I don't have any goals for now; I just want to have fun; I heard from Ajit that guilds have guild tournaments where various guild fight. It seems exciting to me," said Dilip.
Rishi nodded in acknowledgment, his appearance had drastically changed, and he was utterly unrecognizable in ordinary clothes. He told them everything about him and how he was in such a miserable situation.
They comforted him when they realized how much he had suffered without even doing anything wrong. He could have hidden his identity if Rishi wanted, but he decided to trust them.
He discovered they were all students of Mazar Beast Tamer Academy; Rishi said, "I will also join your academy after some months."
"You will need to train much more and improve if you want to join our academy; the competition there is very high," said Dev.
Some more days passed, and they all became friendly; they also started to treat Rihsi as one of them; Dilip was against Rishi ast first, but Rishi understood about him in the few days he was with him; Dilip liked to hear praise from others. Everything else didn't matter to him; he even gave Rihsi some fighting tips.
Rishi saw Dev sitting upset, so he decided to ask Dilip, "What happened to him?"
"Nothing special; he's just upset because he can't finish his mission," Dilip explained.
"Which mission did you guys choose?" Rishi inquired.
"I didn't choose any mission," Dilip explained to Rishi. "I'm just here to keep these idiots alive. Their mission was to bring the Fangs of the rarely seen magic beast Black Serpent; they expected it to be simple, but no one could have predicted how difficult it would be to locate that magic beast."
"Isn't it common for an adventurer to fail a mission?" Rishi said. "Why is he so depressed about it?"
"It's not a big deal; he's upset because his mother is ill, and he requires money to treat her," Dilip responded.
Rishi looked at Dilip in surprise. He thought if even Dev's mother's health was not a big deal for him, what was?
Rishi sighed in disappointment as one of them came to the jungle to treat his mother; because Dev didn't accept any money, the other two joined him on his adventure without hesitation.
They have also helped him in the past few days, so Rishi decides to return their favor. "Will this one work?" Rishi asked Dilip as he showed him the Fangs.
Dilip initially thought Rishi was joking, but upon further investigation, he discovered that these were the fangs they had been searching for for several days.
He thanked Rishi and ran up to Dev, saying, "Dev, look! I found the black serpent fangs you are searching for."
Dev just stared at the river in front of him.
Dilip assumed Dev hadn't heard him, so he shouted again, this time louder, "Dev, look! I found the fangs. From today, I am the leader."
Ajit mistakenly took it as one of Dilip's pranks and yelled at him, "Dilip, it's not time for pranks. We're in a terrible situation."
Dilip decided it was best to show it, so he took his fangs from his pouch and showed them to Ajit.
Ajit looked at the fang, thinking it was from another snake beas,t and was about to throw it away when he noticed it had the same structure, pattern, and even color.
"Where did you get it?" he inquired Dilip.
"It's a long story, but you just need to know that I saw one of my followers crying, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and started looking for that snake and eventually found it," Dilip replied shamelessly. "You know me very well; if I set my mind to do something, no one in the world can stop me."
Ajit massaged his temples as he listened to Dilip's nonsense, then said, "Tell me the whole story."
Dilip was initially disappointed to learn that his follower doubted him, but he realized that he would need to put in more effort from now on.
He abruptly straightened up and spoke solemnly.
"While I was jogging through the forest, I felt the urge to urinate,
I unzipped my pants and let it all out, feeling immediate relief.
I was having a good time when the sound of "hissing" interrupted my reverie.
When I turned around, I was startled to see a snake. Then..." he paused, a fearful expression on his face.
"Don't be afraid, Dilip; I'm here to help you."
"Tell me what happened after that," Ajit urged.
"I backed away, realizing it was the black serpent we were looking for."
"I was just about to catch it when..." he paused again, his face fearful, like a helpless woman who had just survived a sexual assault.
His eyes welled up with tears.
Ajit comforted him once more. "Don't worry, Dilip; your brother will assist you. Please tell me what happened next."
"I was surprised when I realized it wasn't attacking and appeared lovestruck." Dilip went on.
"Initially, I was perplexed until I realized my blunder of not zipping my pants back up."
"That pervy snake was lusting after my Cobra," he said, with a helpless expression.
He even put his hands in front of his most prized possession as if he were protecting it.
Ajit wanted to smack his head against a wall for almost believing this idiot's nonsense, but he quickly regretted feeling sorry for this asshole.
As if that wasn't enough, this lunatic boasted, "I previously believed my charm only worked on human girls, but now it appears to be much, much more than that!"
Dilip saw three attacks coming from three directions when he wanted to brag about himself again.
Several punches and kicks landed all over his body before he could comprehend his situation, making him appear helpless.