Chapter 6

Under the direction of Mr. Bardock, Sasuke summoned a giant hawk and flew with it to the concerned town or Afan town.

It had been a couple of days since Mr. Bardock heard this news, and it required more or less 3 days walking distance between the towns, thus Sasuke thought the monster's accident should have happened about a week ago or more, he wasn't sure if the town whether had been destroyed or not, the Magic Guild could have solved the trouble either.

Nevertheless, Sasuke still gave it a chance; it's not about the reward he cared about, but... ever since he was exiled and traveled around, he had grown accustomed to helping people, and he admitted it himself that it made him felt encouraged and hopeful.

Although, he still didn't know the purpose of his action or the reason for his behavior, all he knew was that helping people made him feel good.

It took half a day to reach Afan, after a brief look from above, Sasuke thought the situation was far better than he originally assumed, even almost an entire week, only about half of the town was in ruin, which he originally thought would be more than that.

Not far from the town was a riverside, he saw many tents were set up beside it, Sasuke dropped from the hawk and entered the settlement, it was no doubt the people who lived in the town, now they evacuated away from it.

"Where is the town's chief?" Sasuke approached the closest person, it was a thin man with a straw jacket.

"Who's asking?"

"I heard you have a monster's problem, I am here to take care of it."

"Hey look, the guild finally sends someone!!!"

All of a sudden, the thin man yelled, his voice spread to the surrounding area. The moment people heard him, they turned to look at Sasuke, then excitedly gathered around him.

"Finally!"

"Please, help us!"

"Please kill the monster!"

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Sasuke lifted his hand trying to calm down the people, and he only managed to do so after a while.

Although they mistook him for the Magic Guild, Sasuke didn't bother to correct them, then the thin man delivered Sasuke to meet with the town's chief; it was a tall man, with a long pair of sideburns.

"Oh, thank you for answering my request..." the chief said with a hint of relief, he invited Sasuke to the inside of his tent.

"Actually, I am not from any Guild..." then Sasuke began to explain how he knew the news.

"Ah, I see, well, indeed no one from Fairy Tail has come yet, but it is understandable, we sent someone to file the quest about five days ago, it takes two days journey to Magnolia," the chief rubbed the back of his head, then said, "while I don't mind for you to solve the problem, but I will feel guilty in case they have sent someone."

Fairy Tail? Sasuke couldn't help but slightly surprised, wasn't it the Magic Guild where Natsu, Lucy, and Happy stayed?

Sasuke had gathered some info about Fairy Tail, he knew how famous they were and quite a troublemaker. The short explanation about them was that they wouldn't give a damn about the law and the Magic Council hated them for it.

But despite their status, Fairy Tail didn't commit any illegal actions, while the action of their mages often caused discomfort, alright, sometimes it was a little out of the boundary, but not to the point of an evil deed such as murderer, etc.

"Or we can wait until the representative of Fairy Tail to arrive, I will leave at once if they didn't need me," Sasuke nodded, he thought it was a hassle to create conflict with one of the biggest Magic Guild.

"But what if the monster attack?"

"I'll take care of it," Sasuke said, he thought for a while, then said, "in the meantime, tell me about the monster, what's its characteristic, what kind of attack it has."

"It is twice the size of our house, bulky with a couple of sharp bull-like horns on its head. it carries a double edge ax, one swing tore down one of our buildings, it would roar occasionally, and when we heard it, it's like fear creeping up our nerve, we became mortified," the chief trembled, his hand grasped his arm, "it attacked anything on sight, its red eyes won't differentiate between human and chicken."

Such a big monster, it's impossible to travel anywhere without anyone noticing.

"Do you know where it is come from?"

The Chief shook his head, then he said, "Well, there is a rumor." Sasuke wrinkled his eyebrow.

"There is a ruin inside the nearby forest... however, it doesn't have any gate, door, or sort, just a prison-like room, not larger than an ordinary house," the Chief said.

"What makes people think the monster comes from there?"

"Have you ever heard something called 'Portal'?"

Sasuke shook his head.

"It's a magic door leading to a different dimension, the rumor says this ruin is this portal, and the monster had spawned from a different dimension."

"..." Sasuke frowned, he didn't distrust this kind of rumor, after all, the concept of a different dimension was not something unique to him.

For example, the animals that would be called through the summoning technique. They didn't live in the same dimension as them, that's why the flow of time could be different.

As for some outwordly creature, yeah, he didn't need evidence, he had seen, even fought the living proof herself.

"I'll go check the ruin..." Sasuke thought, then he said, "by the way, can you think of any reason why the monster attack your town?"

"I don't know," the Chief shook his head.

...

The ruin matched with the description of the Chief, it was too small to consider any secret could have hidden beneath it.

The Chief delivered Sasuke to the entrance of the forest and went back to the evacuation site, under Sasuke's request, of course, it would dangerous if they were suddenly attacked by the monster.

However, Sasuke saw nothing nearby the ruin, but he did discover a track of footprint among the broken drying patch of grass, large footprints.

He scanned around the ruin, but he discovered nothing, no monster, no weird phenomenon, just nature, and the old ruin.

After he made sure the perimeter was clear, he entered the ruin, it was indeed a prison-like room, three solid walls with cold stones surface below.

Sasuke looked at his surrounding, there were strange words carved on the wall, neither in the language of Elemental Nation or Earth land.

"Hm?" Sasuke startled, he concentrated his eyes on the words, he could swear a few of them were moving a bit.

"..." but after a while, nothing noted happened, everything was static as usual.

'Was it my feeling?' Sasuke thought, then he left the ruin since his investigation resulted in nothing.

He returned to the camp and headed straight to the Chief's tent, as soon as he entered, his sight was greeted with an unfamiliar presence.

A woman, not younger than him, but probably slightly older, her hair was scarlet...

Her bearing, along with the armor she wore giving off the impression of a chivalrous aura...

"Ah, he's here!" the chief was the first one to notice, then the woman.

She gazed at Sasuke, and Sasuke at her.

"Ms. Scarlet, this is the man I talk about."

"Hello, my name is Erza Scarlet, and you are...?" Erza approached Sasuke then offering her hand.

"Sasuke."

He grasped her iron-clad glove, then let it off.

"I hear you went to check on the ruin inside the forest? How did it go?" Erza said, straight to the point.

"No monster, the ruin also nothing special, although the words scribbled on the wall caught my interest."

"Oh yeah, about those words, years ago people also had tried to investigate it, but they came up with nothing," the Chief said, "however, I heard from someone that a professor at Era still trying to decipher it, maybe if you have the time."

"A monster that big shouldn't just disappear..." Erza frowned, it seemed she had no interest with the subject about the words, she lifted her chin and said, "Chief, is there other places that the monster might have hiding?"

"The forest is the only place it won't be seen by people, anyone could have spotted the monster whether in the lake or behind the hill."

"Hmm... if we can't search it, then we wait until it shows up again, when it attacked the last time?"

"Two days ago, it's the reason why we were evacuating, we thought it would only attack us once..."

"When it attacks the first time?"

"A week ago..."

"Five days after the first attack..." Erza mumbled, she said, "so it will attack again in the next three days; if it follows this pattern."

"Ms. Scarlet, now that you are here, do you require my assistance or not?" Sasuke said.

"Please, just Erza," she gave a slight smile, "I am not sure, but since you are here, then we might as well we cooperate, we can split the reward."

Sasuke went silent, then he nodded, "I leave that arrangement to you."

"Let's hope the two of us are enough to bring it down," Erza said as they continued discussing the plan.