Three years had passed since the last Phantasia, and now we're graduated from Tyone Academy. We are now going to the guild as we're looking around the city. This city hasn't changed at all. Well, there are some new buildings though, like a library that wasn't there before. That library is so huge and tall, I wonder what's inside. I was too busy with my school and controlling Lunette's behavior. I hope it will subside since we've graduated from our school. I can't help but worry about what will happen next.
We arrived at the Guild and we entered the building as soon as we arrived. The people were looking directly at us as soon as we entered the building. Their gaze looks so scary like they're wondering why kids like us enter this building. I can feel the coldness from their gaze, it looks like they're trying to gather some information from us. Well, information is useful no matter how it is. Hunters are often fighting each other as well, so it will be good to know something about their magic or weapon.
The Guild Master greets us and calls for us in a hurry tone, "Luna! Lunette! Over here!"
Lunette quickly runs towards him and I just follow behind her. Doesn't she feel anything about the glares around us? She looks like nothing happened and doesn't feel anything at all. Some of them are playing with their guns, swords, and other weapons. Of course, there are some of them that don't mind us. They are just searching for a good quest for them. I can't help but feel nervous, it almost makes me crazy.
"Hey, Guild Master, long time no see." Lunette speaks after we reach in front of him with a cheerful tone.
The Guild Master raises his eyebrow and says, "Long time no see? It's not that long, right? Only a few months ago." Then he looks at me.
I sigh and answer him, "Yes, not that long. The last time we were here was when our big sister drank and sang in the guild hall. Many of her fans gathered in the guild hall and cheered for her."
That time was such chaos. Big Sister Wave sang in a drunken state, but her voice was beautiful as always. Guild Master was drunk as well, he danced together with the other fans and hunters who were in the guild too. Lunette is being Lunette, she took a cup of alcohol from a hunter and took a sip then quickly got drunk. The whole guild was filled with laughs and chatters, everyone was having fun in the guild. To be honest, it was such chaos, but also fun.
Back to the present, Guild Master speaks to us again with a serious tone, "Luna, Lunette, do you mind checking on a cave-like dungeon? It was just newly discovered." He said with a serious tone to us.
I was surprised by the sudden request, so I tried to compose myself and prepare myself to listen to the details. I speak with a slight hesitation in my voice, "Are you sure? This is our first quest and we're completely amateurs."
The Guild Master speaks again, "Come on, it's just a quick expedition. We need to know how dangerous the dungeon is, then I'll give you permission to get to other cities. What do you think?"
Huh? That's a good offer, but too good for us. Why did he give us an offer that doesn't give him any benefits? I think we need to think carefully before we act. It's clear that the Guild Master is planning on something.
Then, Lunette suddenly speaks up with full excitement, "We take it!!"
Huh? Wait!! Don't you even dare to take the quest without my confirmation. Lunette!!
"Okay, it's settled then. Take the mission, and I'll give you the permission to travel to each country you want." The Guild Master laughs and gives us the quest.
I quickly turn my gaze to Lunette and shake her body vigorously while screaming at her, "LUNETTE!!!"
She is just laughing nonchalantly like there is no problem. She winks at the Guild Master and vice versa as he gives Lunette a thumb up for dragging me in. Why is she so annoying?! What would big sister say if she heard about this?! Stupid Lunette!! She almost kills me at this point, my hands are trembling and shaking in fear as I think about how Big Sister Wave heard all of this. My heart is beating in panic and the sweats are coming through my skin as we walk home. It's not like we can stay silent about this as well, we need to tell her, but she would be angry if she heard this.
Once we're home, we're sitting on the ground with Big Sister Wave towering us. Her hands are on her hips. We don't need to look at her to tell if she's mad or not. Her facial expression is telling us that she's very mad right now. The way she frowns, the way she glares at us, the way she stands. Every part of her is so scary. We don't even dare to speak to her. The atmosphere is very heavy and so silent, there is only a voice of our breathing in the room. Oh my goodness, I'm dead. She's so scary right now, like a beast.
"Um…Big sister, I can explain." I dare myself to speak to her with a scared tone in my voice.
She quickly looks at me with a cold glare, "You dare to speak back to me? Explain it then." Her voice is so stern, almost like she can kill me with only her voice.
I quickly fell silent once again, my gaze fixed on the ground. All of my limbs are shaking even more than when I was traumatized. Oh my god, she's so scary! I want to run away from her right now, but it will give us more trouble. I glanced at Lunette with an upset glare, silently telling her how much I was angry at her. She gives me a slight, hesitant smile. DOES SHE UNDERSTAND ABOUT OUR CONDITION RIGHT NOW?!
Big Sister Wave coughs to get our attention, and we suddenly drop our faces at the ground again. Our eyes stuck on the ground. I can't do anything right now, nor say anything. The room falls silent so eerie and the pressure almost kills me. I can feel my own legs start feeling numb and in pain. If I try to stand up, I'm sure I will fall in no time since my strength is leaving my legs.
She speaks with a scolding tone and a slightly raised tone, "Why don't you understand? You both just became hunters recently, you haven't taken any quest yet! And now you both want to explore a dungeon? You both can't even hit me for once!" She continues scolding us by raising her tone.
Ugh…Thanks to Lunette, we get scolded by big sister. I know she's worried about us, and she's right. She's always right. She doesn't want anything to happen to us. It's not like she doesn't want us to be hunters like her, but she wants us to take step by step from small quests. Yet, Lunette just suddenly accepted the high quest that's threatening our lives. Though, we can't refuse it now since we accepted it on our own. Even if we know the Guild Master we won't get any special treatments.
If we don't clear the quest, we probably will get a fine. I don't wanna lose my sword or guns, but I don't have any money right now. We haven't done any single quest and have no income.
Big Sister Waves sighed and spoke to us, "Alright, I think we have no choice. You two, make sure you don't get any serious injuries, that's the condition." Her voice is stern and leaves no arguments.
Lunette spoke at her, trying to argue with her, "But, big sis-"
She glances at her with cold glares like telling her, "Don't you dare to speak back at me." Lunette suddenly falls silent as her body is trembling.
I just look at Big Sister Wave and say, "Okay, big sister. I promise I won't let myself get any injuries."
Big Sister Wave nods and lets me leave the room before glancing at Lunette who's sitting on the ground again. She speaks to her, "Lunette, I know you're the culprit. Why don't you explain yourself?"
Lunette sighs and sulks, "Eh~ Why me?"
She speaks again at her, "Because you're the one who always drags Luna into a problem."
Lunette speaks again with a sulking tone,"But that is not fair!"
She speaks again at her, "It's not about fair or not, stop acting like a child. You're 15 years old already, y'know?"
Lunette finally gives in and surrenders, "Ugh…Fine…"
And so, we both go through the day with Lunette getting scolded by her. She doesn't let her go anytime. At night, we prepare ourselves if we need something for the next day.
Next day, we have ourselves in front of the Guild and about to walk to the quest location. The Guild Master and Big Sister Wave see us off. We have a quick chat with them before we begin our quest. He said our party will be near the dungeon, and the dungeon's shape will be like a cave. We've learned the basic things, like what we need to do in certain conditions and some about monster types.
Technically, depending on the area monsters are different. Like in the forest there are usually beast type and plant type monsters. And in watery areas there will be water type monsters. Of course, sometimes there is an unexpected situation where the monster doesn't fit with the area. But that's quite a rare situation. I wonder what kind of monsters we will meet in the cave. If it's in the middle of the forest then it must be something that is related to it.
We leave the city and there are only trees around us. The place feels so cold and comfortable. The wind breezes our hair and our skins. I think I will cherish this moment for a while. But then, a plant monster appears from the ground. Its color is really similar with the trees around us, it's very difficult to distinguish between the monster and the trees.
Lunette smirks and says, "I think this is the first time we will beat a monster, huh?"
I nod and answer her, "I think you're right. This species is a treant?"
The monster has a brown body color with a big mouth on its stomach. It just looks like other trees with its body covered by wood-like skin. It has leaves on its head just like other trees and it has two hands like a normal human and four legs but everything was made of wood. The treant screams at us while walking towards us.
Lunette speaks in a confident tone, "Looks like this tree wants to have a fight, huh?" She smirks with a hint of confidence like she can beat the monster easily.
Ugh…Why is she always like this? I look back at the treant that is walking towards us, trying to gather some information from it. Its movement is slow due to its big body. I think it's not that hard to beat it.
Lunette charges towards the treant and wields her sword from her sheath. "Time to shine, Aurius!" She speaks as she calls her own sword name.
The monster blows a punch at Lunette, but she quickly dodge it by jumping into the air. She then attacks the treant with her sword and gives it a scratch to its head. Seems like its skin is harder than iron. I don't know how, but it's true. If it was just normal wood, then Lunette's sword would easily cut it into pieces.
"Ugh…Just a small scratch?" She said with an annoyed tone.
She stops swinging her sword then starts circling the monster. She throws a barrage of fireballs at the monster while continuing circling it. The treant screams as it takes the damage from Lunette's magic. Plant type monsters are weak against fire, after all. Slowly but surely, the fire on the treant spreads and its skin is peeled slowly before turning into ashes.
I think I don't need to intervene in her fight. She looks like can handle it by herself. The treant continues to scream in pain as Lunette continues to attack the treant. Her fire burns its body, even some of its leaves are burnt and almost leaving it only a piece of wood. I can see how thin its body is right now. A tree without leaves isn't a tree, right?
The treant uses all of its strength to blow a final attack at Lunette with its burnt arms. Lunette dodges it and blows a final strike with her sword. She cuts the treant into two pieces. All I do is just watch her fight with the monster.
Before the treant is completely burnt I speak to Lunette, "Lunette! Dumb! Don't burn the monster completely!"
I quickly use my magic to remove the flame and freeze it. We won't get any materials if she burns the monster into ashes. Lunette just smirks nonchalantly like it's not a problem at all. I can't help but sighed as I walked approaching the treant's body. I remove the ice by deactivating my magic. I touch its arm but it quickly turns into ashes. Lunette always does everything too much. Guess she will burn the whole cave if she really needs to.
Lunette stops me and speaks to me, "Luna, what are you doing?"
I tilt my head and give her a curious expression, "Hm? What do you mean? I'm gathering the material from the monster."
Her eyes are looking at me like I'm the weird one. What is she thinking? It's normal to gather the materials from the monsters we beat. Stop, don't look at me like that.
She sighs desperately and says, "Luna, do you know our inventories are limited? It's not like we're bringing a huge bag with us."
Ah…She's right. Why do I never think about that? I guess I'm used to her careless behavior and start forgetting basic things. But really, how did that cross her mind? I stand up and clean my clothes from the dust.
After that, I walk towards Lunette and say, "It's rare to see you using your brain."
Lunette is surprised and she pouts at me, "Hey! That's not true!"
I just walk past her and say, "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
She scoffs at me but starts following me eventually. We continue our journey to the place that is written on the quest. There are some monsters blocking our way, but we quickly clear our path so we can reach the place. Sometimes there is a plant type monster, whether it's a treant or killer grass, or maybe other species. Sometimes, there are beast monsters like wolves, owlbears, or basilisk. And some insect type monsters blocking our way as well like formica and redfungus. Formica is a giant black ant-like monster that usually works in groups. Different from redfungus, they're a passive monster but if someone reaches their territory they will turn alive and attack them. Redfungus is a mushroom-like monster and they have red bodies with red hats on their heads, it's hard to notice them when they're passive. Even though we call them red, some of them have purple or violet body colors but still in the same species.