Ugh… My body hurts so bad… Greo opened his eyes. A girl's face came into his view. I guess I'm still alive… I mean, I can see Aelee looking at me with a relieved look on her face. Greo thought.
"How are you feeling, Greo?"
"My body still hurts but nothing serious."
"Haha! Be grateful, human boy. Without this demon girl's barrier, you would have died!" Said the fire wolf in a loud voice resembling that of an old man. He stabbed a good number of fish laid out in front of him using his claw and brought it to his mouth. It looks a lot less than before.
Wait… "You can talk!? And why is that wolf still here!?" Greo asked.
"It's alright now, Mr. Astral. With the help of Miss Zelentriya, we have come to a compromise." The one who answered was the caretaker of the pond, Sal. "In exchange for a fixed number of fishes a day, Mr. Fire wolf here would protect the pond from the wild beasts. To be honest, a lot of snake wolf are appearing these days, taking a lot of our precious fish. Not just from this pond but the ones near here too."
Greo looked around and thought, now that I take a look at it, this isn't the only pond here.
"What? You don't have to worry about those cretins anymore. Just bring me the agreed amount and there won't be any problem."
"That's reassuring." Said the caretaker, Sal.
While Sal and the fire wolf are talking to each other with Zelentriya watching them, Greo whispered to Aelee. "So, what happened while I was passed out?"
"I'm not really sure. While I was tending you, Zelentriya went and talked to the fire wolf."
"Hmm, Greo… was it?" The fire wolf continued, "Your performance earlier was amusing, to say the least. This demon girl told me that you are actually a Summoner rather than a mage that I first thought you were." He stopped talking to eat the fishes on his claw before continuing. "Your proficiency in magic is close to a mage who just started to learn magic. It's not bad."
"Is that so…?" Greo asked, confused. From his point of view, his words sounded like a mentor who just found a new interesting individual.
The fire wolf nodded after swallowing his meal. "Yeah. If I was a normal fire wolf, you would've probably, just probably, stood a chance. IF I was a normal fire wolf." He laughed. The fire wolf repeated the words "IF I was a normal wolf" suggesting that he is different from his predecessors.
This was then confirmed by Zelentriya who was only watching before. "Well, he's probably telling the truth. Normal fire wolves can't communicate with humans after all." She sighed, looking a bit dejected. "I was expecting him to attack me when I walked towards him earlier, but he just stood there and waited. What a coward!"
"I am not so stupid to fight someone who could crush me in an instant. Even I know when to back down and surrender." Having his stomach filled, he let out a burp. The fire wolf turned to Sal. "Well then, I will uphold my promise to protect your precious ponds as long as you do your part."
With that, after finishing his meal, the fire wolf went into the forest nearby where he could clearly see all of the ponds. While Greo's party went back to Luminus town's guild to submit the completion of their quest.
*****
Greo's party is now walking in the market on their way to the guild when Zelentriya let out a "Hmm…" with her right hand below her chin.
She seems to be in deep thought. Greo noticed. He looked at her and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Hmm, it's probably nothing. Anyway, I demand that we eat first. I'm hungry." Zelentriya, you see, she's the type of person—or rather, demon—who will shove away unimportant troubles at the back of her head if she's hungry. Her reasoning is that it's better to think when your stomach is full. If you push yourself to think on an empty stomach, you will have lapse in your judgement. She lives by the words "Food first, thinking later". Most of the time anyway.
"I guess we should, I'm kinda hungry too. What about you Aelee?" Greo asked.
"Sure." Aelee agreed. "Oh! But let's try that newly opened restaurant. It's on our way to the guild."
"Alright."
*****
Greo's party arrived in front of the restaurant. It's not that big but it could at least accommodate at least sixty customers, at the same time, at best.
Greo's eyes scanned the building's exterior. Beside the door, under the two windows, are different kind of flowerpots. The windows are adorned with red curtains that prevent sunlight from going inside.
A female attendant stands in front the door. Her job is to greet the customers, open the door for them and inform them if the restaurant currently has no available table for them. Of course, this is someone Greo knows. How many years do you think he's been on this town?
"Ohh. If it isn't Jenna. Diul finally let you work huh?" Greo waved and greeted the female attendant.
"My, Greo. It's been a while. Here for table of three I assume?" Jenna asked, looking at the two girls beside him.
"Someone you know, Greo?" Aelee curiously asked.
"Oh right, this is Jenna. I once helped their son do his first quest."
When Greo was training under Glen he was also working at the guild. He cleans the floor, windows, and the tables and chairs as his one of his part time jobs. One day while he was moping the floor, Glen came in with a young boy beside him.
The boy is eight years old. His black hair is messy, his face adorned with a pair of glasses. He wears a black robe and at his right hand is a wooden staff. He's a mage.
Glen brought him at the guild to help him register as an adventurer. After doing so, they immediately went to the Bronze-I quest board and took a quest.
Greo, who was resting in one of the guild's tables after finishing his job for the day, was approached by Glen. He asked him if he could accompany the young boy on his first quest. He would only help him if the boy encounters something he wouldn't be able to handle.
"After that, he sometimes asks me to teach him some things." Greo reminisced.
"You're quite popular, aren't you, Greo?" teased Aelee.
A resounding "Hey!" cut off the conversation. "When are we going to eat? I'm hungry." it was Zelentriya. She then turned to Jenna. "You, lady. Nice to meet you, we need a table for three."
Jenna giggled. "Understood. Please excuse me for a while." After a minute she came back and said, "Please come in. Follow the attendant inside. He'll lead you to your table."
"Kept me waiting. You two, let's go." Urged Zelentriya.
*****
"Aah… I sure ate a lot." She said as she was patting her belly. After filling her stomach with different kind of foods, they immediately went on their way towards the guild.
They arrived and saw that there's little to no people. This is the usual scene in the guild every noon. The only people left are the adventurers who woke late and is now in a hurry or those who are taking the day off. The guild also serves food and different kind of drinks after all.
"Good afternoon, Miss Bel." Greeted Greo.
"My, you're back already?"
"Ah… yeah. Here, Sal's letter."
Bel received the letter and inspected it. "That's pretty amazing. Your party's quest success rate is still at 100%. A lot of other parties are waiting for you to climb "the rankings" so they could ask you to do a collaboration quest with them."
"The rankings" is different from the party's rank. Party's rank is basically just the average rank of the party while the rankings is list of parties who's completed different types of quests with outstanding results. Their ranking is determined by their success rate, the requestor's feedback, and the difficulty of the quests. So even if you have a 100% success rate, you will not make it to the list if it was all made up of low-rank quests. But that doesn't mean your reputation is bad.
Greo's party have been doing different kind of quests at different ranks so most adventurers at Luminus town guild recognizes them as a rising star party. Of course, Greo is aware of this. Currently their party is at twenty-eighth place out of thirty. It's not a bad place for a party that just started a few months ago.
"Oh, I remember Plio telling me that." Greo seemingly embarrassed. Seeing this, Aelee can't help but let out a giggle at his reaction.
"In any case, please do continue the good work. It helps both the guild and the town. Please do take a seat. We'll process your quest completion. Your adventurer cards please."
After talking to Bel, they went and took a seat. While they were waiting, they were doing some idle talks. The process is not really that long but it still takes time if you consciously wait for it. So, if you do something while waiting, time will pass before you know it.
Three minutes passed and Greo's name was called. He then quickly went to the reception desk and received their adventurer cards back. Since their reward is in huge sum, the guild deposited it in their [Bank]. Each of them received 100,000 oires.
Even though the quest is a subjugation quest, none of the three has a "Fire Wolf" on their monster kill log. But because of the content of Sal's letter, they still received their reward, and the quest was counted as a success.
"Here, your cards." Greo handed back their cards. "Alright, that's it for today. I'll be going back home to rest. What about you two?" he asked.
The first to respond was Aelee. "I think I'll go rest for today too."
Zelentriya followed. "Same here."
With that, they decided to go back home and went on their way outside.
As they were about to leave, the door opened, and a boy made his way in. "Ahh! Brother Greo!" said the boy, clearly pleased that he met him.
"Hmm?" Greo squinted his eyes. And then, he remembered… "Wait, Jiuru?"
"Yes! It's been a while." Jiuru replied. Excitement can be seen on his eyes. It's practically glittering. Greo's been his first friend and later on, Jiuru treats Greo as his older brother.
"Summoner boy, you know him?" Zelentriya asked, a bit curious.
"Yeah. He's Jenna's son, the attendant that we met earlier." He explained. "Oh, right." Greo turned to Jiuru and introduced both Zelentriya and Aelee. "This is Aelee and Zelentriya. They're both my precious party members."
"Nice to meet you Ms. Aelee and Ms. Zelentriya. I'm Jiuru Trelio. A level four Mage." After finishing his introduction, he bowed.
"Yes. Nice to meet you too, Jiuru. My name is Aelee. I'm level twenty-three and an ArchPriest."
"Zelentriya. Level forty-five ArchMage. Nice meeting you too."
"Oh wow…" Jiuru seemingly amazed. "Your party sounds amazing, Brother Greo. Is it still possible for me to join?"
"You wanna join mine even though there are better parties?" Greo asked.
"Yes. I might slow you down sometimes, but I'll do my best to be useful."
"I don't see why not." Those words weren't from Greo but rather, Zelentriya. Aelee also nodded.
"I see. If you're that sure, then I'm more than happy to have you."
"Thank you very much!"