11 years later
My feet kick at the ground, rushing to her side. My arm outstretched to grab ahold of her of the silver of hope she would somehow be saved.
Reigner was lying on the floor, split in two, Lime was unconscious behind me, and Leyla was a few meters in front of me her hand reaching for me, Unshed tears in her eyes. her lips moved but I did not hear her words. Her head was about to be smashed by a huge club, wielded by a Highland Orc.
The events of the day scrolling through my mind, what had brought us here.
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The morning
"Today will be my first day as an adventurer!! Wish me luck!" My voice reverberated throughout my home. My father had trained me a bit in swordsmanship and my mother in magic, Lime, Reigner, and I were forming a party today and taking on a quest to kill some goblins.
I headed to our meeting point in the adventurers guild but when I got there someone unexpected was there with them. Leyla, is an orphan like Lime and Reigner. She was from the same orphanage as them I've interacted with her often enough to know that my heartbeat sped up when I was around her, my words would get twisted in my mouth, and I would get very nervous.
He was sitting with them around a circular table, one seat placed beside her which I assume is meant for me. "We are all here. Are you all ready to sign up?" I gave him a nod a so did everyone at the table. "Let's go then."
A blond woman was standing at the front desk, hoping she was an employee of the adventurers guild. "Hello, are you here to register as adventurers?" Lime smiled and nodded to her question "Aren't you guys a bit too young?" A flash of concern crossed her eyes but disappeared just as quickly.
"We are Orphans so we want to be ready for when we have to leave our home." He said out 'our' background, "E-rank missions are all that we can take anyway, super easy ones." He gave her a winning smile.
"Okay, okay give me a second." She crouched down, and after a few seconds, she came back up with 4 scrolls. "Ok hold these please" She handed us a scroll each and they lit in various shades of blue.
"Hand me the scroll, I will be right back with your adventurer cards." We handed her the scrolls and she left through a door behind the desk.
"It's almost done guys, we will finally be adventurers!" Lime looked like he was just barely holding it in, he was vibrating in his boots.
"So why is Leyla here? Don't get me wrong, It's not like I don't lik- want you here I mean. But why join us in adventuring?" I was concerned about her reason for joining us.
"Umm w-well girls at the orphanage, after they leave, have some options to live, work at the orphanage, become a w-w-well a... doing that for money and hope a relatively well off customer to take a liking to the girl, and finally being an adventurer and hope you live long enough to make money and get married. So, I believe some training now would be best for me." She then looked down, hands behind her back, and her foot made circles, "and you're here" She then looked up her face red "Lime, and Reigner too so I'll be safe and gain experience!!" Her hands moved around frantically.
"Oh." Didn't know why but when she said because I was here my heart felt great like flying or something exhilarating, but then she said the of the other 2 guys, and the balloon lifting me popped and fell, making me feel like my heart was lightly squeezed by someone.
"Oh, okay then." I fell, or more like my mood fell and she tried to say something to me but nothing came out. When she mustered up the courage to say what she wanted to say, the adventurers guild woman came back holding 4 cards.
"Here you are, your own adventurers' cards, don't lose them because reissuing them is expensive." She handed each one of us our respective card, they were not too fancy. They had our names, age, class, and level.
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Name: Nouzen Entei
Class: Warrior
Age: 14
Level: 32
Rank: E
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---
Name: Lime Latte
Class: Rouge
Age: 14
Level: 23
Rank: E
---
---
Name: Reigner
Class: Warrior
Age: 15
Level: 25
Rank: E
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Name: Leyla
Class: Healer
Age: 14
Level: 21
Rank: E
---
The levels on our card were high for our no surprise since we trained most of the time, even if we designed to training times as a game. What surprised me was Leylas' Level, I do not remember ever seeing her train.
"Now that we are officially adventurers let's do a quest!!" Lime said then paused and turned to the guild woman. "Any recommendations?"
"Hmm" She stuck a thinking pose, pushing her lower lip with her index finger. "For your Level, I'd say foraging/collecting healing herbs in the nearby forest or exterminating small monsters which are only a bit harder but they mostly are in the wasteland which means high-level demi-humans can appear." She warned us with a serious expression.
"It's okay, we can just run away." Lime said, confident in his speed. He went over to the quest board and pulled down a quest to kill five kobolds, to prove we had done it we a to bring 5 ears. "This quest will be great for us, right guys?"
"Yeah"
"Sure"
"Mmhmm"
We all agreed that it didn't look too difficult or too easy for us. "Ok then it is decided, we will go on this quest."
"Very well so then it will be the four of you right, does your party have a name?" She took a piece of paper from her desk and a quill to write the name of our party and the request we took. "I Apologize I forgot to inform you that if you decide to rescind a quest you took before completing it or starting for any circumstance you will be fined. Thankfully those are only for rank D and above so you don't have to worry. Like escorting a caravan, rescuing someone, or some quest with a time limit, your word is your word is your rep so the more you go back on your word the less you will be trusted."She gave us a bit more info before going back to writing down our info and quest.
"Oh huh okay thank you for the info." Lime thanked her and turned back to us. "So any ideas? I vote for 'Lime and Lemons'." We all gave him a 'seriously' look.
"I don't have any better ideas so vote for it," I said and they gave me the same look.
"I-Is you vote for it in approval then so will I," Leyla said a little shyly.
"Ahh damn, it's already 3 to 1 so it's decided, isn't it? Fine." Reigner being outnumbered agreed to it.
"Ok, then Line and Lemons will take on this quest, good hunting." She gave us a small smile and a wave and we walked out.
We didn't have very good equipment, I had a double-edged sword with no shield or armor. Lime, a short with leather bracers and shin guards, Reigner a full set of leather armor, buckler, and a sword, Leyla was wearing a robe and wielded a staff or more a long stick.
We had made the leather from animals we hunted in the forest, and did not do the best work with it, but it should work. For the weapons we had to pay in work to a blacksmith for the weapons he decided were not up to snuff.
On the road there we were so excited that I forgot all the warnings my parents informed me about the dangers of the wasteland.
As the wasteland got closer and closer the buildings got smaller and smaller, going from 3-story buildings to 2 to 1. Also fewer and fewer people, at least regular-looking people and more adventurers.
"According to the information of the quest, the goblins are around the base in the wasteland, a few kilometers out. Get ready for a long journey." Lime led the way to the base as the rest of us gawked around at the wasteland.
It was as its name implied, a wasteland. Gray stone as far as the eye could see, no plants anywhere. Rocky spikes growing everywhere.
---
An hour later
Lime lifted his hand, his hand open. " Stop, those are kobolds right?" He pointed at some dog-like creatures walking in their two hindlegs.
"Yeah, remember the combat formation, me and Reigner go in front of everyone, Leyla behind us using her healing and we defend her while you Lime go behind them and hit them where they least expect it." I reminded them of our plan of attack that I had come up with.
"There are only 3 so it's not like we will be in trouble anyway." Lime pointed out.
"It doesn't matter, we will go at it cautiously, it's our first combat encounter so we have to be cautious. Now get Ready!" I unsheathed my sword from the scabbard on my waist.
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Word count 1562
If there are any grammatical errors let me with a comment on the paragraph.
Thank you guys appreciate your reading so far.