10

O(I)O(I)

The stranger was bothered by the unfettered nerve of the bald man. After Pief introduced him to Saitama as Clive and asked him to come back tomorrow so she could properly renew the quest he accepted he strolled through the streets to the darkest square wall square he could find; first he walked one squeaky foot at a time before he just power walked the rest of the way with seething anger willowing from his gritted teeth.

While he murmured to himself of the temerity of that man, three silhouette's of bulgy shadows gathered around him. The first to step into the light was his green priest Alxo. Alxo was 5'8" with teal magician robes, short hair with spiky strands, orange eyes, over a dozen metal buttons scattered adjacent to his zipper, and a makeshift scythe that used to be a scepter.

Followed by him was his thief and finally his brawler Scino and Trug. Scino was orange haired with his backhead jutting long strands of hair nearly 3 feet long, a green headband with triangular insignia's in a pattern-green followed by black-over his blue eyes. He had a silver collar around his neck, an orange sleeveless shirt with snake tattoos etched in his arms, baggy green pants, and a belt holstering a multitude of different knives.

Trug wore a blue sleeveless shirt with more rips in it showing off his muscular body, hazel skinned, grey eyed, almost bald except for a blond ponytail jutting out of a metallic green ring behind his head, blue jeans, and he had scars all over his fingers.

Alxo and Trug stood with faces that were devoid of happiness, excitement or anger while Scino couldn't hide his teetering.

"I take it things went well?"

"Oh lick me!" Clive answered with furrowed eyebrows. "You all know that the newest member I tried to recruit not only refused my offer...he insisted he could beat us at completing the mission we worked so hard to finish ourselves...for three months we did everything we could to finally reach that final room, slay the monster inside and take the reward, and now some amateur is going to imperil everything we worked towards."

Trug finally did something: he raised his thumb which only had a small cut underneath.

"I'll break him...torture him...kill him...and I'll do it all with THIS THUMB!" He exclaimed.

Alxo the green priest finally stepped in. "If he's really just a newbie slash amateur adventurer then there's nothing to fear. In fact, this might work well for us. We can let him go to the monsters' lair himself and let him try to wipe out every small fry monster inside. And after he's done that we kill him and reap what he's accomplished."

At first Clive's mouth was wide open trying to absorb this tidbit of information he didn't think of-usually their prey was with them the whole way-but then he smiled toothily and wickedly.

"Yes...Yes. We can tell them he died trying to overcome his limitations and be a hero only to fall in the end. Rest well, brothers, for we leave tomorrow mid-evening."

O(I)O(I)

Saitama woke up for the first time without an alarm clock blurring in his ears. He was sleeping on a makeshift futon: dozen small sticks with strong rope conjoining them to make an uncomfortable mattress while for his head he had a pillow but with no covering.

Being too poor to find someplace to sleep he did the only thing he could do: ask the poor couple from the rural village if they would let him stay a night in their home-he had to run 142 miles just to get back there and it only took him fifteen minutes. Speaking of the couple, they were squatting near a fireplace made out of hay and sticks burning something for the cauldron hanging over it.

Saitama stood and greeted them.

"Good morning."

The first to hear him was the wife, and she turned around looking very happy to see him-something that usually never happens with him and most females.

"Good morning, brave warrior. How did you sleep?"

'It's like she sounds like my mother.' Saitama thought. "Pretty okay. I was so tired I would sleep on monster jaws before they tried to eat me." He took a whiff of the inside of the hot, and besides the smell of manure and hay he also smelled the burning inside the cauldron. "Are we having fish?"

She smiled with her eyes closed and her hands rubbing each other. "Yes. Thanks to you scaring away those knights we had time to wander away and do some fishing. I caught five fish while my sweet dear only caught one. And we get to have rice too."

It astounded Saitama how optimistic these two dirt covered people could be, but he was famished and needed to keep them happy so they would feed him so he said nothing.

Eating fish was the same as eating an onigiri. He grabbed it, squeezed it a little which caused the rice or in this case bones to move around, and took a bite of it leaving a small chomp mark. Although they cooked it well, tasted like hot shrimp at a fish restaurant, it had a lot of bones inside. Saitama tried making up for this by stuffing rice in the part he bit so he could try biting again. This fruitless attempt of mixing food to make it better didn't work.

The farmers ate their meal the same way he did only they didn't seem to have the same troubles eating where there was no bone, or maybe they just weren't bothered by the bone. Husband and wife living in poverty yet striving in their own way...

"I feel rude for not asking this earlier but what are your names?" Saitama asked.

They both swallowed their fish down and stared at him as if the question was something they weren't used to. Finally, the man spoke.

"My name is Nolb."

"And I'm Gava." She said.

"My name is-"

"Great Warrior." She interjected. "Yes, Great Warrior, we know your time is too ordeal to remember us peasants' names but we are glad you try learning about your people. Thank you."

This people acted in a certain nuance he wasn't used to. They were in an analogy like the grandparents who live far away from their grandparents ergo are nice to them when they finally see them. After finishing his bowl of rice where the bowl was made of clay they probably sculpted themselves he offered to clean up, only to be politely shut down.

"It's okay, Great Warrior. We are quite capable of doing our poor people job of cleaning up while you return to your guild to help those less fortunate. Feel free to carry my fish with you when you go and good luck making our world a better place."

Saitama didn't know if he should be happy she was so kind or confused over how much she sounded like an NPC in an open world RPG game. Nevertheless, he bowed his farewells and ran his ridiculously fast sprint back to the castle he found work in.

Along the way he stopped and tried very hard to finish down his fish. It tasted warmer and was easier to swallow then it was back at the couples' home. It could be he moved so fast the bones shot out while he was moving or he was just working so hard food went down smoother. Nonetheless, he wasn't alone.

Hissing and gnarling at him was the eight-legged shadowy appearance of a giant spider with five ghostly white eyes. It raised its front legs and stood on its rear legs trying to intimidate Saitama. However, instead of fighting the arachnid he took off so fast it was pushed down by the sheer sonic boom he made.

In less than ten minutes he was back at the guild open again. He walked inside and moved straight to the receptionist Pief's desk. She was standing behind her desk like she was when he first met her, had her fingers entwined with her fingers close, and had three sheets of paper in front of her. Not three seconds after standing in front of her did she start yammering on about what she "believed" he wanted to hear.

"Good news, we have three new jobs for you to take: arsenal polisher, firefly capturing, and mill worker for a day." Saitama stood speechless and still like a statue during this where she continued giving him a pouch with the amount of money he earned completing his job yesterday. "You did a valuable job yesterday...and soon you might show everyone how good you are when you rise up the rank and can go after monsters."

She stopped talking; Saitama's cue.

"Where is Clive?"

"Uh, you just missed him. He walked in and renewed his job form. He's now on his way to complete his quest this time for sure."

"And where did he go?" He asked. She furrowed her eyebrows at the question.

"I'm sorry, but there was only one form for that quest. It's against guild rules to tell another member where the location of a quest already in process is. These three missions are exciting too; give one of them a chance."

The words for the guild master echoed in his head: "I will start him off low in our missions without any fighting."

Since he couldn't persuade her to bend that rule he took a random sheet of paper-didn't know which one and couldn't really read it anyways-and moved with a huff towards the entrance/exit. However, he passed by Baragon on the way out...who spoke to him.

"He's on his way to Istum Serpentine Ridge."

Saitama froze, moved slowly around tip-toe by tip-toe until he was facing Baragon, asked "How do you know that?"

Baragon scoffed. "A dwarf knows everything about the dirt in a person's shoes; where they've been and how they got there. You'll find this place by moving North until you spot some Moder and then take a left where you move until you see a mountain wrapped in two skeletons. That is all the help I can give you." Saitama turned around to leave, however..."Before you go know this: this fight isn't something your brute strength will save you in. Only your brains can help you there. Good luck."