"Alright, well, since we are all loaded now, how about we set out for today's quest?" Alex finally sets his beer glass down after chugging it all down in a single motion. Would he be able to fight in a drunken state, or was it normal for people to drink this much in the morning around here?
"Fine, but I refuse to be the bait this time!" Seras proclaims with such commitment that it only makes me curious. "Bait for what?" I ask Alex and Nero, who naturally avoid me, leaving the answer responsibility to Seras. "Today's mission involves hunting a bunch of evil fairies who attack lower-level people only, so these two always use me for that task!"
"Oh, come on, dear Seras! You know we are both too powerful to fool the fairies! You're the only one with a weak enough magical signature to do the job!" Nero tries his best to plead to Seras to be the bait for the task at hand, but after hearing about the magical signature, an idea pops into my head. Wouldn't that mean I would be the perfect bait?
"What if you used me instead? I can completely nullify my magical signature." I say to them while hoping they believe that whole 'I can hide my power' shit because the truth was that I didn't have a magical signature to begin with, and even if I did, the Goddess curse would be more than strong enough to nullify it.
"But nobody can do such a thing, not against the perception of fairies." Alex follows on my thread, which I then follow up with a clever response. "Well, a new adventurer getting Adamantite rank as a beginner was also thought of as impossible, but then look at me." Nero shakes his head in agreement with me as he follows up.
"Uhm, she does have a valid point. After all, this kid is not just any ordinary teenager; fine with me! If you want to cut Seras a break and be the bait, you get an upvote from me!" Nero raises his hand in agreement with his own statement, followed by Seras, who instantly jumps on the opportunity to drop being the bait.
"Yes! What a brilliant idea! You have my complete support!" Seras pats my head as Alex shakes his, accepting the majority's ruling over his judgment, probably regretting letting me join them for their advantage. "Fine! But if we fail, it will all be on you two! Now, let's head out before those fairies move away from the east part."
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And so, without further ado and with a new goal in mind, I set out with my newly formed team of new adventurers to hunt down fairies. Talk about how different this world is; back in mine, fairies didn't cause anyone any harm, but in this one, it seems like people treat them like unlikable pests.
The commission paper is clear: "Please hunt down the new group of fairies located somewhere in the east regions of the traveling road; their unwanted presence and malicious illusions have caused many to fall to their deaths." So, fairies enjoy tricking people into following them to their deaths? But why would they do that?
I wonder as my mind starts racing with awful thoughts of cute little fairies eating people's limbs and stuff. Ewk! I know all species have to eat at some point, but why target humans? It seems a little counterproductive to make enemies with the abundant, intelligent, powerful race in this world.
"By the way, kid, are you not using a weapon? I don't see you carrying anything." Alex asks me while we walk in the middle of the road with a lot of eyes on us, especially from Martigan, who stares at me across the street while pretending to hide. "I usually use a bow and arrow, but I lost them when I drowned an ogre to death a couple of days ago."
"You took down an Ogre!? Holy shit!" Alex asks me right away, followed by Nero. "No way, you actually did that?" Nero says as he looks at me in awe. "Yeah, yeah, but it was a close encounter; the truth is that I also almost died; that river current was too strong." Seras doesn't seem to believe anything about what I say, but she keeps it to herself for now, which was fine with me.
"Well, I personally have a couple of savings I was planning on using to get better armor, but I can get you a bow and arrow from the Smith shop if you'd like." Nero suddenly starts looking around his waist for what I assumed would be a money bag, which I declined. "No need; if you have an extra knife, that should be all I need for this mission."
"Sure, I'll let you use my primary backup blade; it's small because it's meant for close combat, but it should be big enough for you." Nero suddenly throws something at me that looks like a tiny little dagger and a holster for it as well, all from his waist belt, which he apparently used to carry lots of stuff around.
I was honestly a bit jealous about all the stuff he could carry with the use of a belt since my usual dresses hardly let me carry anything. As to the clothes I had now, they still looked like a dress, albeit a bit more from the middle-class side, since the guy's clothes I stole were not cheap like I had expected.
"Thank you. I will return it once this is done." I say to Nero, who just nods my way as we leave the safety of the town behind. Alright, adventure time, it is again! I got a team of people who know their way of life better than me, and they're all quite unique in their own way. What could possibly go wrong? Oh boy, am I jinxing myself too much!?
