I put my hand over the rotting corpse to examine it. 'Hmm. Mana intensity is bit low. She probably died yesterday or before. Judging from the marks and signs of struggle, it must be a beast. But why is it-'
UGAHHH! A scream sounds nearby, I draw Melsier's sword and put the shoulder pad in my pocket. The mana field detects something unusual. 'Someone's fighting…. Just a peek wouldn't hurt, right?'
I give a lame excuse to justify my actions and dash towards the fighting. The closer I get, the more unstable mana field becomes. 'Whoever is casting these spells, knows a thing or two.'
On my next step, I feel the very earth shaking. By reflex, I shut my mana field and silently creep closer. Outside of the cave, I see an unnatural crater, likely created by the destructive spells. The ground shakes again and the ceiling above me collapses.
BOOM! While escaping my eyes caught a silhouette of a woman. An elf woman to be exact. I roll behind a rock and watch the flashy spells destroying the entire 2nd floor.
BOOM! BOOM!
"You damn lizard! Why don't you die now?" A fierce voice cuts through the sound of explosions. With a sweep of her hand, the elf woman fires multiple dark scythes. Another section of the cave collapses, with the rubble a 30 foot long rock cobra falls on the ground.
WHOOM! The cobra moves his elastic like body and hisses at the woman. 'Ohh no. That elf woman is in trouble.' I express my concern with a smile.
Again, the elf woman summons multiple spells on her arm and sweeps at the snake. The scythes made of pure dark mana did no damage at the cobra's hard rock skin. I click my tongue. 'The rock cobra is an ambush predator and often camouflage themselves as small hill or rocky terrain. Those energy spells won't be able to penetrate it's tough scales.'
Like a whip the cobra smashes it's giant tail at the elf woman. I sense something and duck to avoid being blown away.
WHOOM!
'A mana shield? Worst case, her insides are splattered in every corner of the cave.' I carefully peek again and my worst assumption is somehow even worst. 'A black shield?' The dust finally settles which reveals the woman's face to me. 'It's that witch!'
The witch turns her gaze to me.
HISSS!!! The rock cobra launches at her.
BOOM! The witch raises a wall of ice to act as a bait and transforms into a gust of wind at the last second. After breaking the ice walls into a million pieces, the cobra searches his prey only to look me.
I point upwards.
The witch falls from nowhere and lands on the cobra's head. "Now burn!" She lights the entire cobra on fire along with herself. The cobra wails in pain, it smashes his head onto the wall.
The witch gets herself splattered like an egg.
Behind me, the cobra continues to burn while smashing into every corner like a frenzied dog. I glance down at the witch. "We meet again."
I greet the witch who is near her end. She does not look beautiful anymore, her eyes swollen and red and that half burned elf ear still attached, skull half opened while the lower half completely splashed into a pool of blood. With much difficult the witch looks at me. "Do I know you?"
"Soul hunting?" I ask with a chuckle.
"W-Who are you?" Her voice shows disdain and disgust.
"Speak when I permit you to do so. Your demonic masters treat you like trash which you deserve to be. Answer my question!"
"N-No! I am not-"
"Liar! You lured this juvenile Rock Cobra into upper floors to stage mass murder of rookie adventures….. and explorers."
"I-I wanted to b-brew a potion that's all."
I stare at the witch for a second. 'She is telling the truth.'
"Which potion?"
The witch avoids eye contact and speaks. "Life prolongment."
A sudden realisation hit me as I point Melsier's sword at her. "Open your mouth!" I stabbed the witch's lips which forced her to open her mouth. 'No tongue…'
I withdrew my blade only to laugh deviously. "It's a runaway witch! What's wrong? Couldn't provide for your demon husband? Or did he find a new toy?"
The witch started to cry bloody tears. "Laugh all you want! If! If I o-only I had a year or two, I c-could have b-become the greatest mage o-on the continent!"
Her words piqued my curiosity. "Oh? How are you going to do that?"
"Inheritance! The royal mage of the empire left his inheritance in this dungeon! Altaris's inheritance is here!"
My laughing expression was completely wiped out. 'Royal mage's inheritance? I didn't leave one. Is she mistaking me for someone else? No, she definitely took my name.'
With me being shocked, it was the witch's turn to laugh. "Hahaha. What would a boy like you know about the mighty empire which ruled the world-"
"I know." I looked at the witch with sadness in my eyes. "I know."
THUD!
For the first time, the witch smiles as she looks at me. "I feel sorry for you boy. Unlike me, you are going to die so young."
HISSS!
Even with the Rock cobra hissing directly at me in the distance, I don't falter and raise my hand in the air. With extreme effort, I push mana out of my fingernails and form a fireball. Some of my blood gets sucked out as well which makes the fireball turn bit more red. Compared to the witch's attack earlier, my fireball was laughable.
The Rock cobra strikes at me and I fire my fireball straight into the air. Just as the Rock cobra was about to dig it's teeth into me, a large stalactite fell directly on it's head, killing it on the spot.
WHOOM! The impact creates a large dust cloud behind me.
I coldly stare in the bloody eyes of the witch. "Don't call me boy. My name is Altaris."
The witch's eyes finally showed fear for the first time. "Altaris? You are lying! Who are you? Who sent you? Was it the hunt-"
I grab the witch's skull and inject all of my mana. "I was going to let you die and harvest your memories for information. But you proved to be more important…."
I craft my first ever magic circle ever since waking up in this body which screaming at me to stop. Blood was leaking from possible route of my body with my insides burning from mana exhaustion.
Meanwhile, the witch was hitting me with rapid telepathy. "Stop! You are not the real Altaris! He was the saviour of the empire! Not a lowly black magician like youuuu!"
I increase the intensity of the spell and the black circle on back of my palm started glowing. "Stop yelling. The next steps will force your physical voice." Then I began pulling the very soul of the witch.
That day, many adventures reported inhuman screams from 5th floor and above.
Stella awkwardly smiled at my bloody stature. "Looks like your first day didn't went well."
I grab few things from my coat and place them on the desk. "It was fine. Here, Johna is confirmed dead, she was eaten my beasts-"
"Alterums you mean." She cuts me.
I stare at her coldly for a second before continuing. "Yes… Alterums. Take this scroll back. Also, I found the doll." I hand the lost doll to her and fix my coat.
Stella examines it for a second. "Uh huh. It's sad that Johna died but that counts as job completed. As for the doll, give me a minute to assign the job to you, then you can hand me the doll officially."
I nod to Stella as she began signing bunch of papers.
"While I am doing this, why don't you tell me about this cute creature on your shoulder?"
"Oh… It's a mouse. I found it in the dungeon."
"Aww! He is so cute."
The mouse chirps aggressively at Stella. I glare at the mouse. "It's a female."
The receptionist cutely puts her hand on her mouth. "Oops! Please forgive me…. What's her name?"
Oblivious myself, I ask the witch via telepathy. "Dortha Belimis Ver Gunt…. Dora for short."
Again, Stella smiles awkwardly. "T-That is a very unique name. Yes."
I remain silent as Dora continues to chirp at Stella.
Few minutes later, Stella takes the doll and the shoulder pad and stamps it as job complete. "Good work, Altaris! You completed your trials."
I raise my eyebrow in question. "That was a trial?"
"Of course. Here at the Cross Guild every job and quest is treated as a trial where the guildmaster watches over you."
I immediately become alarmed. 'She watches? But I didn't sense anything?'
'Don't bother it, Altaris. Look at her.' Dora points at Stella humming by herself. 'She probably means it in a spiritually rather than a literal action.'
Convinced by Dora's thoughts, I pretend to care about Stella's words. "She does? Wow."
Stella claps her hands together. "Oh yes, the Guildmaster does! With you passing the trails gives me the authority to give you this." She presents me a box which has fancy white ribbon with Cross Guild's symbol. "Please wrap it somewhere to be seen at all times."
I take the ribbon and wrap it around my arm. 'It is magically enchanted.' Dora speaks in my mind.
"Oh, yes! Please! Take. Ugh. All of these!" Stella slams a bunch of books on the desk. "These will definitely assist you on your next exploration."
I stare the books and cry silently as I have to carry them all the way to my home.
"And lastly, here are the rewards for your jobs. 40 bronze coins!"
I snatch the coins and stare at Stella.
"Um… Is something wrong?" She couldn't help but ask.
"Uh… I was told that I would get some residency here."
Stella scratches cheek as she struggles to find an excuse. "Well, the thing is… there are no room available right now."
'Liar.' I easily caught her lying and stare at her intensely.
My judgemental eyes worked as Stella immediately broke down. "Okay! It's my fault! I was supposed to find a vacant room for you but a close colleague asked a sudden favour and I couldn't say no! Please don't kill me!"
"I won't! But please get off the floor!"
Stella gets up and rubs her eyes. "Do you forgive me? Of course, you will! Don't worry, tomorrow I will assign you a room!" She even goes far and shows me a thumbs up.
I couldn't help but sigh at Stella's comical actions.