I approach the three of them, who are already looking impatiently through the air, and then notice me as I walk toward them.I should give them the swords later, but first I will enchant them—with Sharpness and Lightness, so the swords become stronger and better. Lightness as well, so even weak people can carry them.The girls are not the most muscular, so I will put that on them too.
I reach the girls and stop thinking about enchantments.
"So, I just went shopping real quick. We can get started," I say with a smile.
The girls nod and wait until I stand in the middle in front of them, then follow me into the guild.As we walk through the door, some people who are already inside the guild look at us. I look around, and at the reception stands the same woman from last night, but this time with her hair open.
We go to the quest board and look at the quests hanging there today, since at least five new quests are added every day.I see a good quest that the girls can probably do on their own, so I can calmly enchant the new swords during that time. My dagger is also not enchanted and already pretty worn down. I should probably visit the dagger merchant sometime.
I take a quest in my hand that says we have to collect 20 flowers in the territory of the Shadow Wolves and defeat 40 of them.This is a C-rank quest of the upper class, but the girls are probably strong enough. The only problem is that Shadow Wolves can use shadow magic, and they can hide in shadows.
I show the quest to the girls, and they nod in agreement since they know what I am asking.We go to the woman and have the quest stamped, then leave the guild. The young woman watches us with a worried expression as we walk through the guild door.
There are many people on the streets, and we walk through the side alley again, where it is dark and a lot of trash is lying around.We pass through it and end up outside the city.
We do not go into the forest, but to a flower field with various flowers and Shadow Wolves lurking in the shadows of the surrounding mountains.A perfect place for Shadow Wolves—many mountains all around, and only sunlight in the middle where the flowers can grow.
We head there to complete the quest as fast as possible, because I still want to train with the three of them afterward.
The Shadow Wolves retreat into the shadows so they cannot be seen anymore, but their aura can still be felt.However, the girls do not seem to notice where the wolves are. They go to the flowers and start picking the red-yellow ones.
"I'll leave this to you," I say with a smile.
I sit down on a rock leaning against a mountain, while the girls glance at me briefly and then agree.I open the dimensional rift and take out one of the three swords, examining it closely.
While the girls are still searching for the last five red-yellow flowers, I create a mana layer around the blade so I can pour enchantment magic into it without the blade breaking.I slowly let mana flow into the blade, which begins to glow.
Just then, the first Shadow Wolves leap out of the shadows and attack the girls.They barely manage to defend themselves and are surrounded by 20 of the 40 Shadow Wolves.
I hurry with the enchantment, and the sword glows even brighter.The light fades, and I throw it toward Lui, who is the best of the three at handling a sword.
"Lui, catch! I just finished it!" I shout to her.
The sword flies across the ground at incredible speed and kills two of the 20 Shadow Wolves, while Lui looks in my direction and skillfully catches it.She smiles and swings the sword, coating it with water that slices through several wolves.
Only eight wolves remain standing, and now the remaining 20 also jump out of the shadows.The girls flinch and jump backward, ending up standing tightly together.
Lui swings the sword again, but the wolves dodge as if it is no problem at all.
I look back at the dimensional rift and wonder whether I should help or continue working on the swords.
"Help, Cro," Mori says desperately and fearfully."Yes, please, Cro," Sür says as well, her voice trembling.
I stand up, blur in the motion of rising, and appear inside the wolf horde.The dimensional rift disappears, and I draw my dagger.
But when I think about it, I really just need to enchant my dagger. I'll do that right after.
I create an ice vortex around the dagger, spin perfectly in a full 360 degrees, and kill 15 wolves.There are 15 left.
Once again, I vanish in motion and appear behind the horde, which collapses one by one while I sheath my dagger.
"Wow, Cro, that was incredible again," Lui says excitedly.
I smile lightly and walk over to the girls.
"Alright, could you please put everything in here?" I say, pointing at the dimensional rift I created.
I take the other two swords out of the rift.While Lui puts the sword I threw earlier into its sheath, I enchant the other two swords the same way and give them to Sür and Mori.
While Lui is putting away the last corpse, I take out four soups, give one to each girl, and keep one for myself.We start eating, while the girls occasionally look around.
I finish eating first and put my soup bowl into the dimensional rift.I briefly stick my head inside to search for something and find it.
I take out a stone plate and throw it away—it was a heating stone, but I no longer need it.The girls look at me in confusion, then hand me their bowls, which I immediately store away.
I close the dimensional rift and stand up.
While the girls are still looking at the swords I gave them, I fly upward and look at the peaks, where a mountain ogre is still sleeping.I could slice it apart with a single surprise attack, but I decide to calmly continue flying upward instead.
The air becomes thinner, so I cancel the flight spell and land hard on the ground, yet stand as if I had only fallen a few centimeters.I see that the girls have stood up as well.
We look at each other and then head back to the city of Kimura, which is only a few minutes away.
We arrive and walk through the dark alley toward the guild.When we enter, many adventurers are already standing in line.
The man and the young woman are at the reception, but everyone is lined up only for the man.We go to the young woman instead.
The other adventurers look at us as if we are approaching someone who is not even a guild receptionist.
The woman looks at me with a smile.
"Oh, Cro, and you three girls are back already," she says cheerfully and calmly.
We wave at her with a smile and nod.She points at the counter, and I create the dimensional rift, which slowly opens and this time is even larger.
All 40 wolves and all the red flowers fall out.
The woman looks at us in confusion as she counts everything, thinking that the quest stated the flowers did not matter—and red flowers are by far the rarest.
She walks down the hallway and enters a room on the right with a sign on the door that says "Office."She goes inside and closes the door behind her.
Inside the office sits an elderly man with dark green hair and a light beard.The woman stands in front of his desk.
"Cro's group. They collected 20 red flowers that actually drain mana. This group is not normal," she says to the guild master.
The guild master looks up, starts laughing, and stamps the quest.
The woman is startled by his reaction, takes the paper, waves to him once more, and leaves.She returns with the stamped quest.
We look at the quest again and notice that it does not say "red."We start giggling, then laughing.
The woman places 28,000 yen on the counter, and I casually store it in the dimensional rift.I then turn to the girls, who have placed their swords at their waists—except for Lui, who carries hers diagonally on her back.
Which, of course, is much better than other positions, since it allows you to block immediately if attacked from behind.But it also requires good reflexes.
If I were not a dagger fighter, I would probably fight with a sword.There is also another weapon type called katanas—long, curved swords that supposedly exist only here in the land of Manduro and are especially strong against large enemies.
But I am someone who focuses on speed, and such weapons would only hold me back.That is why I chose daggers back then.
"Guild card, please," the receptionist says.
Lost in thought, I flinch slightly and hand her my guild card.She places it on an update stone, and the "E" displayed above it turns into a "D."
The same happens to the three girls, and we receive our guild cards back.
We turn around and start walking toward the quest board.
"Hey, you three, shouldn't we train your sword skills first?" I ask with a questioning expression.
The girls look at me, then at the quest board.We stop and then look at their swords.
It would be a good opportunity to train them before continuing with more quests.
"Yeah, that wouldn't be a bad idea, Cro," Sür says with a smile and looks at the other two.
The other two nod in agreement and then look toward the exit, unsure where we would do that.
A few minutes later, we are standing on an open area outside the city.Around us are many adventurers who are also training.
The girls realize that this is the place where I killed the golems.