"Nah lad, missions not actually about the jewels. We needed to thin out the Gisbirs numbers, cause they were getting too rowdy in here and started coming up to the town. It stinks of fish to us, but to them? It smells like a feast," replied Striga as she tried cleaning herself up.

'Thanks system, the subt.i.tles are a life saver here, actually had no idea what she said.'

-No problem, Donis.-

Striga walked up to the very first Gisbir she cleaved in half and crouched beside the corpse. Fingering through the mound of flesh she picked up a small s.h.i.+ny blood coloured gem.

"Lad, do you have a dimensional ring or amulet or something?" said Striga.

"Yeah, I do. Why?" replied Donis.

"Well, we may not have found Jimmies jewels, but we might as well take these jewels as compensation for our work, right?" smirked Striga as she tossed the gem at Donis.

-Red Mana Crystal-

[Grade: Good]

[Special Property: Can be used to store Mana, invoke runes, forge metals and materials, recharge magical equipment, etc.]

"What's this? Uh.. wait what's your name?" said Donis trying to fake ignorance as to who she is, or to what this is.

"Oh f.u.c.k you're right, here I was, mowing down poor innocent creatures of the swamp, taking a wee boy around a dangerous adventure and I've yet to even introduce myself. Excuse my poor etiquette city lad," laughed Striga.

"I'm Striga Rubens, the Captain of Darkwater, an adventurer group of [Monster Specialists] that are solely situated in these swamps that span for thousands of kilometers. A pleasure," said Striga as she bowed still covered in Gisbir blood from head to toe.

'System, that wasn't even human language, how did you translate that?'

-I'm programmed to understand any language in this universe.-

"A pleasure to meet you too Striga Rubens, I'm Donis Laurent, a student of the Magisterium of Vernaic. A little late on the introductions, sorry," said Donis as he tried to shake her blood-drenched hand.

"Sure lad don't worry too much. I'm sorta the forgetful type. Anyway, that right there is actually a Mana Crystal and it's not even that bad of a type, these Gisbirs must be getting ready to evolve soon," said Striga as she nonchalantly summoned a small column of water around her. It quickly washed all of the blood off of her but left her drenched.

"There's actually so much to teach you yet, young friend. Come along, lets head back to the headquarters."

***

At the Grimbay [Monster Specialist] headquarters.

Striga, Jimmy, Donis and a few others who have yet to name themselves were situated around a nearly smashed up table. Donis was the only one actually sitting up vertically, as everyone else felt like laying on their sides - or in Jimmies case, laying flat on his back whilst crying.

"Today I'll just explain what's going to be the status quo for you, and for us. Since you're brand new, and probably s.h.i.+t, you're going to accompany us for survey missions in which you're not allowed to a.s.sist us just yet. You're probably what, level 2 or 3?" said Striga whilst reading over some doc.u.ments she summoned.

"Actually, I'm level 19 and I have the [Breath] Mana State," said Donis with a slight smirk.

"Right okay, I don't believe you. Now, tomorrow we're gonna take you to the Calneer since if the monsters there attack you, you wont die in one hit with us around. We're going to write up what you saw today in these here parchments and send them on to the Information Boards for the Royal Family," said Striga as she handed out parchment papers to her crew.

Instead of replying to Strigas remark, Donis summoned Etheria and walked outside the guild. Thankfully they could see the door from where they sat, because what Donis did next would have only made him seem like a fool if they couldn't see the door.

He cast -Dragonfire- as Etheria chirped loudly and ran circles around him, colluding with the fire that came out of his mouth. It was magnificent, breathtaking, even Etheria was intoxicated with the idea of breathing fire.

Striga raised an eyebrow at the scene before her. It already impressed her when she saw Etheria, but when she saw him breathing fire she knew the kid may not be entirely worthless.

"Come back you dumba.s.s, you're going to either set us on fire, or scare away the dirty cityfolk. I get it, you're not entirely s.h.i.+t. We're still going ahead with what I said earlier, but we might have to change up your schedule a little bit actually. After this meeting, brief me on your abilities, but until then, keep your mouth shut when I'm talking about work. Even little Jimmy over there is quiet. Now.." said Striga as she continued debriefing the rest of the crew.

Donis sat in silence, puzzled over the fact that the woman in front of him wasn't as impressed as he hoped her to be. Everyone so far had basically been bending over backwards to him when they find out he's able to do all of these things already.

As the meeting concluded Donis was beckoned over by Striga into a private room. Following her in, he noticed that this place was actually kept meticulously clean, unlike the outside meeting hall. That place was closer to a pigsty rather than someplace inhabited by humans.

The shelves were stocked nicely with reports, pictures, and books with all sorts of t.i.tles, ranging from "Colluding with Monsters" to "Differences in Skin Tones and their Conjectures". There was a magical light floating above each shelf, and one on her desk, illuminating the place and giving it a soft ambiance.

A second chair appeared out of ring on Strigas left hand. It struck Donis that he never carried any sort of furniture in his [Inventory], which made no sense, since he had tools and ingredients for Alchemy, yet nothing to make his life any easier out in the field.

Promising himself that he'll fix that at a later date, he sat down beside Striga and let her start the conversation.

"So, boy, listen. Even with the [Breath] Mana State, you're still not where we need you really. You're not level 20 so you don't have a combat job, and you almost definitely don't have skills that could honestly impact our work here. I know you're excited, and I probably didn't give you the reaction you wanted, but I need your head in the right place. Tell me about your abilities honestly, and don't try to make yourself out to be what you're not. We've had kids who arrogantly spoke about themselves, had Soul Contracts too, and have far out leveled the normal students that come here. They all died."

"I'm not here to praise you, I'm not here to please you, I'm here to try and keep you alive and give you a taste of the world that is [Monster Specialist]. So, Donis Laurent, tell me, what do you have to offer?"

Donis swallowed. He knew he was excited for the adventure ahead of him, but he didn't realise that maybe he'd been too excited. He experienced the fear of death already, but that was at the hands of a human. Maybe the idea that these monsters are just that, monsters, gave him a false sense of security. He didn't know, but he calmed himself anyway.

'One step at a time Donis, one step at a time,' he mentally chanted.

After a little bit, Donis finished up his speech on his skills and abilities, clearly leaving out some of the more secretive bits of his repertoire.

"Wait, I take it back. You're perfect. What the f.u.c.k. We needed a scout! You've got such nice basic skills for an a.s.sa.s.sin, and yet you still want to kick it up with us? Are you sure you're not actually some rich boy from the Royals above us?" said Striga with a brand new opinion of Donis.

"No, as I told you, I'm just the son of a [Runeforger]. I just got lucky is all. Also, if I may ask, you keep mentioning the Royals, who are they?" said

"Oh boy, okay, you're definitely not one of them so. The Royals are the lads above any headquarter, or body of power. f.u.c.k, they ARE power. Your dad or mam should have mentioned the fact that n.o.bles work off of power right? Well, the Royals are basically the ones who keep these idiots in check. We report to their information networks because well, telling the Royals about all of our matters would take up too much time. There are too many of us. Sorry off track off track, anyway, they're basically THE bosses. They tell you to do something, you do it," said Striga with her fist clenched slightly.

"Anyway, tomorrow we're going to go Calneer and we're going to survey the monsters there, cull a few, and collect the Mana Crystals, h.o.a.rd them until the end of the month, and make a tidy Erzi. After that, we're gonna figure out how to safely employ you. Leave that with me," said Striga relaxing a little bit into her chair. Her accent still hitting it strong, betraying the tiredness in her words.

"Thank you Striga, if I may ask, where are the sleeping quarters? I'm actually so tired from the journey as I literally slept on that carriage for the past month nearly." asked Donis as he stood up.

"Sleeping quarters? Hahaha, we don't have those here. f.u.c.k, you're lucky we have a floor at this point with how hard the boys party when they come back alive and mostly in one piece!" shouted Striga as laughter filled her belly.

Donis's demure quickly crumbled as he realised he'd be sleeping on the floor.

"Ah f.u.c.k," sighed Donis.

"You're catching on quick there boy," grinned Striga.