"How do you even get into these kinds of situations. It has only been three days since you became a D rank." Rhia said as she looked at Armaros with surprise.
"I don't know. Guess I'm not that lucky." Armaros said with a shrug as he grabbed the pouch of money for the job and the monsters he had killed.
After his first escort quest in which he had fought and killed orcs, he had taken other D rank quests which almost always had him involved with other forces not part of the quest.
A quest for killing wolves. He meets up with a demonic bear.
A quest for taking care of a small Goblin group. There is a Hobgoblin in there.
A delivery quest. He finds himself being surrounded by bandits.
One way or another, there is always some new factor in the quests he does. Granted, the more enemies he kills, the more money he gets from the Guild, but he didn't want to encounter situations like that, especially since it hasn't even been a week since he had become a D rank Adventurer.
While Adventurers do get paid for doing their quests, they also get paid for the monsters they have slain as well, which is also a source of income for the Adventurers who don't want to take any quests. This also gives an incentive for Adventurers to hunt and kill monsters and dangerous beings which serves to keep the area around the town and other places safe from the monsters.
In any case, no matter what kind of quests he takes, he always seems to find himself in situations where he has to fight and kill monsters and defeat enemies on the part of the bandits. Even with the extra money, the fact that he kept on running into such situations wasn't pleasant for him.
'Now that I think about it. Even when I was travelling after being exiled, I ran into far too many enemies.' Armaros thought to himself as he went to an empty table and ordered some snacks.
He counted the money he got to pass the time as he waited patiently for his snacks as he watched the other Adventurers in the building as they were going about their normal businesses.
He didn't care much about what the other Adventurers are doing, so long as they don't create any problems for them. He wasn't going to keep his guard down even if it's in the Guild building as he doesn't know what kind of a person an Adventurer is.
Soon the snacks he had ordered came as he ate it as he hummed to himself, but he heard the sound of footsteps behind him with his senses, but he didn't react and acted like he didn't notice it.
But then he felt a hand on his left shoulder as he stopped eating and turned his head to see a large man with an axe on his back looking at him with a smile on his face.
"Hey, you're the new kid right? The one who had just become a D rank?" The man asked as he looked at him.
"I am." Armaros said with a nod as he looked at the man.
"Great. My name is Stu. My party needs a swordsman right now since ours was injured. We will give you money for it." Stu said to him with a smile.
"My name is Armaros. What rank is your party?" Armaros asked the man with a curious face.
"My party is C rank. Don't worry kid, we can take care of ourselves." Stu said to him with a smile.
Armaros thought about the offer for a few moments before he gave a nod to the man.
"Alright, what is the quest exactly?" Armaros asked the man with a stoic face.
"We have to defeat some monsters in the forest nearby. It won't take long. Here, have a look." Stu said as he handed the quest sheet to him.
Armaros took the sheet and read through the details as he finished the rest of his snacks as he hummed to himself as the monsters listed in it are ones that he can defeat should he really needs to.
"Okay, when are we going?" Armaros asked the man after giving back the quest sheet.
"In a few moments, come on." Stu said as he beckoned for him to follow.
Armaros shrugged as he followed the man as he gave a small wave to Rhia which she returned as she watched him before she went back to her work, though she did glance at him for a moment before she focused back on her work.
Stu led Armaros to two other Adventurers, both of them were male and he could see that one of them is a mage while the other is an archer. Alongside an axe wielder and now a sword user, he can say that it is a well-rounded party.
"These are my party members..." Stu said as he introduced the two other members.
"Hey." The archer said as Armaros merely nodded back.
"Great. We have a full party now." The mage said with a smile.
The standard number of people needed for a party is four. Of course, if you are strong enough to clear the quests on your own, then the party can be of any size depending on the ones who are in it. But it is generally seen as safe to have multiple different types of Adventurers in the party in case they run into unexpected situations.
"Great. Now let's go and complete the quest quickly." Stu said as he looked at the others as they nodded.
"Okay." Armaros said with a nod of his own.
After that they left the Guild building as they left the city to go to the area where the monsters were said to have been spotted. When he had asked why they weren't taking a carriage, they said that they would have to walk anyways and there was still a lot of daylight so they decided to save money.
Armaros didn't mind it as he would've done the same if he didn't want to waste money on carriage, especially since he has a limited supply and would need everything in case of an emergency.
They walked for a long while before they reached the forest area where the monsters were. The said monsters were a group of monster bears, numbering at 3 as the party hid behind the trees as the three bears were in a small clearing.
"Those are our targets." Stu said as he looked at his members.
"So how do we do this?" The mage asked him as he looked at his leader.
"I will fight one of them. You shoot another in the eyes. And you kid will fight the last one, and he will give you support." Stu said as he gave the instructions to the group.
"Alright." Armaros said with a nod when he heard that as the others noted how calm he is.
'We shall see how calm he really is.' The mage thought to himself as he looked at the boy.
"Alright, let's go!" Stu shouted as he ran out of cover towards the monsters with his axe in his hands.
The archer shot two arrows into the eyes of another bear as Armaros also jumped out and ran towards the group of monsters. The mage shot fireballs which hit the three bears as they cried out in pain.
Stu roared as he used Mana to strengthen himself before he swung his axe and greatly damaged the right shoulder of his target, causing the bears right arm to hung limply in place as blood gushed out as it cried out in pain.
The archer shot more arrows strengthened with mana which hit the shoulders of his bear as it cried out in pain as the arrows lodged into its body.
Armaros was the last as he reached the last bear as it noticed him as it roared in anger as it raised its body with its paws raised as it glared at him. But Armaros didn't get scared, instead he looked at its open mouth and then threw his sword straight to it.
The bear monster, not having thought that he would do something like that, was unable to dodge as the sword stabbed and impaled it through its mouth and came out the back of its head as blood gushed out as it let out a strangled cry of pain as it fell on the ground and thrashed.
The bear tried to take the sword out in desperation, but it was for naught as it died soon after. Stu at this moment has also killed the bear he was targetting as his first attack had really damaged it and made it easier for him to kill it. And as for the last bear, it's head was attacked by the archer as he also shot arrows to its neck as well, ensuring that it died.
After that was done the three Adventurers turned to look at Armaros in surprise as he had thrown his weapon to kill the enemy, something a swordsman is never supposed to do, which further reinforced the thought that he was just a rookie.
Armaros went to the dead bear and pulled out his sword as he looked at the blood on it as he scrunched his face at the amount of blood on it. But then he immediately jumped to his left as a boulder shot past where he was standing and impacted the ground.
Armaros landed on the ground as he turned towards the trees to see the mage pointing his staff at him before he had to dodge two arrows from the archer, only for Stu to charge at him as he used his small size to dodge the attack.
"What are you doing?" Armaros asked as he stood with his blade in hand.
"Oh nothing much. Now that the bears have been killed, we can safely take care of you." Stu said with a smirk on his face which causes Armaros to narrow his eyes.
"You asked me to join you in your quest to kill me?" Armaros asked in surprise.
At hearing that Stu chuckled before he laughed out loud alongside the rest of his party members as Armaros looked between the three of them as they stopped laughing after a while.
"Kill you? Please, like we would need to kill a rookie. No, we brought you here so that we can capture and sell you." Stu said with a cruel and amused smirk on his face.
"Sell me?" Armaros said as he narrowed his eyes.
"Yes. Pretty boys like you are hard to find, especially at such a young age and not having any ties to other powerful people. Slaves like you are quite sought after in the slave market, and I'm pretty sure that many nobles would want to get their hands on a blonde haired boy like you." Stu said to him with a smirk on his face.
Armaros felt a shiver when he heard that, as he inadvertently imagined the situation of him being sold off to people as he glared at the man.
"This isn't the first time you've done this, is it?" Armaros asked as he gripped his sword tightly.
"No it's not. It's not just Adventurers, but civilians are also a good bet. Some girls and boys we save are quite beautiful and fetch a good price. It's a great source of money for us." The archer said as he nocked another boy.
"Don't worry kid, it won't hurt much." The mage said as he readied a spell.
Armaros stayed silent as he looked at the three of them before he dashed towards the mage and archer in speeds they haven't seen him use which caught them off guard.
When he was running towards the bear, he wasn't using his normal enhanced speed, as he wanted to gauge the party members and he also didn't have to use too much mana due to the experience he got from his previous quests which meant that he was able to defeat the monster much more easily.
And due to that he was able to use their surprise to his advantage as he ran towards the two as they attacked him. But he nimbly dodged the spells and arrows as he ran towards them.
"Shit!" The mage shouted as he sent a stream of hot flames towards him.
Armaros didn't let up as he created a sphere of light and used it as a shield as he dashed through the flames as he appeared in front of the mage who was wide eyed at seeing how the child has managed to go through his flames.
And before he could use anything that could be used to attack him Armaros's sword sliced through his forearms and then decapitated him as the boy looked at him coldly while the mage's face was stuck in one of shock.
The archer was shocked at what he had seen as Armaros immediately turned and lunged towards him without any kind of ceremony as he hastily shot arrows at him. Armaros grabbed one out of the air and threw it back as it hit his left knee as he cried out in pain.
The archer screamed in pain and shock before he was stabbed through his neck as he coughed out blood as he looked at Armaros before he died as he pulled his sword out as the blood splattered on the ground.
Stu looked at the child in shock as he had just seen two of his party members being killed mercilessly by him. But what shocked him was the way in which he was looking at him.
Adventurers, especially around Armaros's age, while having the mentality for killing monsters during quests, don't have the capability for killing other humans. They have no problem with killing monsters, but they hesitate when it comes to killing people, even if they are bandits.
This also helped Stu and his group to catch other Adventurers, whether girls or boys, even if they are trying to protect themselves, they would hesitate when it comes to dealing lethal and life threatening blows and would always hesitate and be conflicted about it.
But he didn't see the same hesitation in his eyes, instead the only thing he saw was a coldness in his eyes. He didn't have any hesitation and it seems like he doesn't have any problem with killing other humans as he had just seen.
But the most infuriating thing for him was the fact that the boy didn't seem like he was afraid of him, instead what he was in the eyes of cold indifference, as if he, his Adventurer senior was nothing in front of him.
And that angered the man greatly as he gripped his axe as he glared at the boy as he summoned his Mana as he glared at the boy while he increased his power. Armaros himself was just looking at him like wasn't any threat to him.
'That damn brat, I will break his legs and have him beg me fo—' Stu thought to himself before he found his vision swirling as if he was flung into the air.
Then he felt his hair being grabbed as he soon saw his own beheaded body fall on the ground as his eyes widened. His head was then turned and he was able to see Armaros who is staring at him as he realised something.
He had been decapitated before he could even register what had happened to him as his head is now in the hand of Armaros as he is looking at him coldly while holding his head as blood fell down his head.
"You should've just stuck to adventuring. Let's see how the Gods will judge you." Armaros said as he looked at the decapitated head.
The surge of Mana had allowed Stu's head to keep functioning for a few more moments, as now that was gone as his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he died in the boy's hand.
'I would've felt disgusted at doing this, but considering the fact that it's trash like him, I have no problems with this. I don't feel disgusted, but satisfied instead.' Armaros thought to himself as he threw the head back to the body as he swung his sword and rid it of the blood on it.
"Guess bad luck is always following me." Armaros muttered to himself as he remembered how his life has been as he sighed as he looked at the six dead bodies around him.