22 Let's Make A Party!

Upon traveling westwards towards Sen Mag, he was stopped by another portal, where the 'Sealstone' had also been removed. On the right side before the portal, another signpost labeled,

"Extreme Caution Ahead. Sen Mag Prairie is home to the strongest Fomors in Uladh and houses the Peaca Dungeon. Highly recommended for Silver ranked adventurers or higher."

"Oh well, this doesn't really apply to me anymore." Axel thought. After all, he could fly away and teleport if he met any real danger.

The Sen Mag Prairie was once a home to countless ancestors of the dwellers of Erinn. As Axel hiked further along the green plains, he saw the ancient ruins of the stone houses. The walls had eroded down with the passage of time and moss had grown everywhere.

The breath taking trip along the plains had taken the entire morning and Axel decided to take a lunch break by the time he was at one of the original market boards at the crossways near the middle of the Sen Mag Prairie. However, he noticed that this had become a request board as well in this world. There was a lone male attendant that sat behind a wooden table, and Axel briskly walked up to ask,

"May I register as a new adventurer?" The effects of the Anti-Magic Robe enabled him to assume a second identity as a human adventurer.

"Please put your hand on the elemental orb." The male attendant said as he brought out the translucent orb.

After a few moments, the attendant observed a dark green glow from the orb and said,

"Adventurer Azel, is it? Looks like you are already Level 12 and the orb had deemed that you automatically be placed at Iron rank for now. Congratulations on registering!"

Axel let out a heavy sigh as he heard the results. The Anti-Magic Robe was truly wonderous in not only the concealment of his mana, but the alterations that had been made to his name as well. No one would guess that Azel and Axel were the same person.

Waving a sign of thanks to the attendant, he proceeded to look over the requests on the board. Most of the requests required defeating ghouls in Peaca Dungeon or hunting bears in the fields of Sen Mag Prairie. The monsters in Peaca Dungeon was obviously out of question as the minamum requirement to join in the dungeon was to be at Mythril rank, the level of his Master Max. He decide to rip off a request to hunt bears.

"Defeat 5 Grizzly Bears and collect its fur. Location: Sen Mag Prairie. Rewards: Dependant on the type of Grizzly Bear fur collected. Base Gold Reward: 1200 gold per Red Grizzly Bear Fur"

"Before I would have never taken this request, but with my Incubus Overlord abilities, I should be able to bypass many upfront dangers that most adventurers would have to face." Axel thought to himself.

At the same time Axel pulled off the request, another adventurer who had also been in front of the request board stared at Axel in disbelief. The adventurer was a young man with light brown hair, and looked to be in his early 20s. He was equipped with a full set of archery gear. His Leathered Long Bow on his bow was an excellent bow that had high balance when shooting an arrow. It would considered a high grade bow in the early phases of the game of Mabinogi. What had shocked him was the fact that this young hooded teen in an overall black robe who looked much younger than himself was challenging a Grizzly Bear request that even Black ranked adventurers would hesitate to take. Even as a Silver ranked adventurer himself, he would never take this request unless there was at least one more party member, as bears often would fight in groups and call their comrades if the they were cornered. One had to know that Bears were extremely powerful, as each strike from its paws had a destructiveness that could equal a mini-boss in most dungeons. This could only been seen as an act of suicide as he had also seen that this young man had just registered with the adventurer's guild. The orb had shined dark green, indicating that he was only Iron rank.

Right as the young man was about to head off in the distance, the Silver ranked archer stopped him by yelling out,

"Wait up, young man! You can't be possibly going off to hunt the bears by yourself right?"

"Yup, that's exactly what I'm going to do! Is there any problem with it?" Axel asked politely.

"Young man, you have to know your own limits before taking a request….Or else you won't know even how you died when you fight those bears!" the archer said seriously.

"I'll be fine, but thanks for your concern, big brother!" Axel cheerfully replied.

The archer pondered for a bit before asking again,

"How about this? Let's team up and we can split the earnings 50-50. I'm a Silver ranked adventurer myself, and with the two of us fending for each other, we shouldn't fall into a dangerous situation so easily."

Axel scratched his head when hearing this offer. 50-50 seemed to be a fair deal considering the difficulty of the request. It would save him a lot of effort and time as well as lowering the risks of being surrounded by groups of bears.

"Alright, Mr. Archer, let's go find some bears then!" Axel said jokingly.

"Young man I have a name called Baxtor!" Baxtor roared in annoyance as he followed the young man into the southern parts of Sen Mag Prairie.

...

After searching the prairie for a few hours, they had not seen a single bear, as the area of space the prairie covered was simply too vast, Axel decided to settle in one of the ruins of an old house with Baxtor.

With the campfire lit, Axel put a few bacon pieces over a stick that he had founded and roasted it over the fire. The fatty oils seem to drip off the meat, and its mellow aroma seemed to fill the entire ruins altogether.

"Mmmmmmm!!! I should have brought some bacon, but I've been short on gold lately so I can only buy bread. Now that I think about it, I never asked your name young man." Baxtor said as he ripped off a part of a bread.

"I'm Azel, and my class is a warrior." Axel said briefly. He could never tell anyone his real name, as real identity was mostly likely on the Wanted list in almost every town in Uladh.

"Azel, huh...You didn't strike me as the warrior type....You seem more like a thief or scout!" said Baxtor with a questionable look in his eyes.

Right as Axel was about to chew on a piece of bacon, a huge shadow lured over his back.