Gideon woke up early by 5:00 AM the next day which has now been his regular wake up time since he started performing the Constitution Enhancement Exercise. He opened his phone to check on the messages and emails, but was not surprised to see any as he didn't have anyone to call friends in the school.
He decided to earn money by taking on tasks from the Adventures Association, not the tasks to gather herbs or help the villagers, but to take on hunting tasks, to go out of the village defence wall and hunt wild monsters which will be life threatening if he is not careful. But, it will also give him the chance to perform the Constitution Enhancement Exercise and find if the theory he has in his mind is true.
He washed his body, checked his weapon and armor twice to confirm it is in acceptable condition as he hasn't used them much in the past month except for practicing. He cleaned the sword and washed the armor the day before, but still checked it as one can never be too cautious when he is going on a hunt.
He also checked the backpack which he got from the Adventures Association which will be helpful for him in the hunt to harvest the meat, skin and other valuables from the monsters he would hunt.
It is a large backpack that covers his entire back, acting as a secondary protection over his cloth armor. It also has 10 smaller compartments inside it to store meat, skin and other stuff, including medicinal herbs separately that would not spoil for a few days if in case he is unable to return to the village soon.
It took him an hour to check everything thrice before he went to the common hall of the house to see both Henry and Sienna ready to leave to the farm.
He hesitated a little as he had to get their permission 1st to start taking on hunting tasks from the Adventures Association. Being his foster parents they have to give him the permission to go out of the defence wall of the village to hunt the monsters to earn some money to help them stabilize the house and farm expenses.
He was not sure if he would get their permission because of their cautious nature when it comes to him. They didn't even allow him to get a weapon of his own to practice when he was in school, only allowing him to use the wooden sword that was given to him indicating 'kids shouldn't be using sharp objects' which made him a laughing stock in school for a few days.
To his surprise, he got permission from them easily, without any verbal fight. They even had a written letter ready for him when he hesitantly asked for their permission to take on tasks from the Adventures Association signed by both Henry and Sienna.
The only problem he could see is that they have given him permission only to take on level-1 tasks which are like a kids play and not a real battle for life and death.
They incited that he needs the experience of venturing into the wild 1st before he takes on any harder tasks which would involve a considerable amount of dangers outside the defence wall.
He reluctantly agreed as he knew there are many kids who took tasks which are in higher levels and met their doom early before even starting their journey as an adventurer.
While Henry was showing his full confidence in him, Sienna was showing a little worried expression which didn't escape Gideon's eyes, but didn't want to ask as it might create some trouble for him which will lead to rejection of him taking the tasks.
"Are you sure you are ready for this Gideon?" Sienna asked after fidgeting for a few seconds.
'Is this where I get to say I was born ready?' Gideon thought, but immediately controlled himself from saying that as it would be too cringe and thought 'can I just say I was trained to be ready?'
Seeing him being quiet made Sienna even more apprehended, making her come close to him and caress his hair while saying "You don't have to go out on tasks if you are not sure you are ready for it, son."
"I am ready, mom." Gideon said immediately with a confident smile. "But I am just wondering how long I should be taking level-1 tasks to gain your approval to go on higher level tasks." He continued without breathing thinking he had to completely say what was in his mind.
"You will get our approval when the time is right for it, son." Henry said with a wink and a mischievous smile which made him look like an 18 year old kid looking at someone he is going to play a prank on.
"Daddy, that is not fair." Gideon refuted to which Henry shook his head saying "Don't 'daddy' me on this son. This is for your own good. Gain the experience we told you about, then we will decide if the time is right." Which made Gideon look down on the floor with a sigh of defeat.
"Don't get disappointed son. You might get our permission sooner than you think." Sienna said, still caressing his hair trying to encourage him, which she thought would work on Gideon, but didn't.
He was disappointed, thinking it could be because of the monster he Soul Integrated with, Jaice, the 'Breeze Crow' which usually flies around in groups no less than 10 showing power with quantity and not quality as they do not have any strong offence or defence when it comes to a fight.
That is one of the reasons why he was able to get Jaice at a lower cost of 500 dallans as it would not be sold for higher cost and only has the potential to reach Tier-2, level-5 at max if left alone in the wild.
But, he did not regret in Soul Integrating with Jaice as he felt something that is peculiar in her ability of controlling the air after he Soul Integrated with her, which he cannot point at which or what for the time being.
He had dumped it at the back of his mind for now as he had to find a way to tier-up as quickly as possible as his peers would have already started leveling up turning 15 years old by a few months before him.
Gideon had his breakfast with Henry and Sienna giving him a lot of cautions and advice for him when choosing his tasks and when venturing out of the village defence wall which he took time to memorize all, without leaving even a tiny detail as it could be helpful for him at any time when he goes out on tasks, even though it is going to be a level-1 tasks, you would not know when he would face a monster in the wild that is far above his ability to fight.
He reached the Adventures Association at 9:15 AM with Jaice tagging along with him, after getting all the advice on the breakfast time along with the experiences which they had while they were adventurers along with a small romantic store of how they both met in the wild, which made him feel a little awkward, but he didn't complain and endured it for the sake of reaching here soon.
Upon entering, he noticed and was surprised to see Nila was replaced by another male receptionist in the Soul Integration table. When he looked around, he noticed her sitting on another table that is labelled 'Task Management' which he was looking for.
He went directly to the digital boards displaying the tasks that are currently in need of adventurers to complete.
He was unable to find any tasks that would be giving him more experience outside the defence wall as most of it was helping the villagers in farming or other miscellaneous work, which he was not interested in.
After looking at it for a few minutes, he finally found a task which would allow him to go outside the defence wall, but not too far, just about 20 km away from the village where there was a nest of steel coated mantis causing trouble for the travelers and needed to be 'handled' immediately.
Even though it is close to the village, not many adventurers wanted to take it as it is an easy level-1 task with only 100 dallans commission which is too less for many around.
Gideon wanted to take this task and go, not for the commission, but to fight the monsters in the wild for the first time, to gain insight of how good he is and can improve. He was too excited and wanted to see if he could take on all the steel coated mantises all by himself.
He immediately took a note of the task number and went to stand in the queue that was standing at the front of the Task Management table where Nila was stationed with an excited smile on his face.