Duties

I was falling through an empty void, then suddenly I found myself laying on my bed in my bedroom with my school uniform on.

My family and friends from earth stood around my bed and stared at me with wide-open eyes and a big smile. For some reason, I couldn't move my body. I couldn't even lift a finger or tilt my head. Everyone slowly opened their mouths in unison and made a loud ringing sound.

I opened my eyes and turned my head to see the alarm clock ringing. Saliza and Serith were already awake and brushing their teeth.

"Wake up Zeigel or you're gonna be late. You know what Reizo is gonna do if you're late right? Well none of us do but you know how Reizo is so it's best if we don't find out."

I covered my face with my pillow and groaned while wondering if this was karma for the things I did when I was a delinquent.

We had our breakfast and made our way to the training room where Reizo was waiting.

"Today you three will begin your duties as ventgards, but before that, there's something I want to give you guys." Reizo took out a large stack of money and showed it to us.

"I've cut, skinned and gutted the monsters you defeated during training and sold all their parts. This is the money that you've accumulated."

Me and Saliza's jaw dropped when we found out that the money Reizo was holding was the money we earned. As Saliza tried to take the money, Reizo moved the money away from her.

"Hold it. There are some things that you three need to pay by the end of the month. The fee for joining the ventgards, the room that was given to you guys and the meals you've been getting. I'll pay them for you using your money."

Reizo deducted the money from the stack and put it inside his pocket. The stack of money was still relatively big.

"Ah, my bad, I only took enough money to pay for one of you."

Reizo took even more money from the stack and divided the remaining money into three and gave it to us.

After receiving the cash, Saliza and I gave back the money we owed Serith.

"One more thing, last night I found spell book that one of you borrowed. The book was badly damaged. Whoever did it go pay for the book or you're going to get into trouble."

I really shouldn't have lost my temper and thrown that book on the floor. I'm not sure how much that book costs but it's definitely going to leave me without any money.

"Now that we've cleared that, I'm going to give you guys another test. For this test, you'll be fighting me."

The three of us immediately gave up upon hearing that we need to fight him. We stand absolutely no chance at beating him in a fight. The three of us stood there silently not wanting to do the test.

"Why so quiet? How's this then, I won't use any weapons or spells and all you need to do in order to pass is hit me once. Even a small scratch will do. If you manage to pass, I'll instantly promote you to professional rank ventgards, then you won't have to see my face again."

Now this sounds like a test we have a shot at passing. If it's just one hit then we should be able to do it.

The three of us readied our weapons and summoned all the monsters in our active slots. Reizo took a stance as we charged at him.

He dodged all of our attacks and struck our summoned monsters with enough force to destroy them and put our summoning slots into cooldown.

We continued to try to hit him with our weapons but he was too fast. None of our attacks landed on him and he kicked all of us away from him.

"I'm sorry about this Reizo." Serith got up and fired a volley of fireballs at Reizo. As he was dodging Serith's attack, Saliza ignited her axe with her skill and started swinging it at him.

Reizo disarmed her with ease and used her as a meat shield to block Serith's attack while getting closer to him.

"Crap! Sorry Saliza!" Serith stopped firing spells after hitting Saliza. Reizo threw her at Serith and they both crashed into the wall.

I snuck up behind Reizo and raised my blade to stab him. He turned around once I got close and tried to grab me. I knew sneaking up on him wouldn't work but I needed him to think that it was my plan so that I could catch him off guard with my new skill.

I activated twin steps and blinked beside Reizo. When he turned to face me, I used the second step to blink above him. Before my sword could reach his head, Reizo grabbed my arm and threw me on the floor before kicking me towards Saliza and Serith.

"He's too fast. Even if we boost our speed, we can't hit him." Serith said.

"I have an idea, remember when we were fighting the burarks." Saliza and Serith knew what I was thinking and readied a spell.

Reizo slowly approached us as we got back up. We pointed out weapons at him and he took a stance.

Saliza and Serith created a large wall of fire around Reizo that reached the back of the room to stop him from escaping. The spell was draining alot of their mana so I had to be quick. I shot an explosive ball of energy at Reizo. There's no way he can dodge it.

Reizo quickly stomped his foot into the ground and kicked the floor up to block the explosion from my attack. He then ripped off a large piece of the floor and used it as a shield to get through the wall of fire.

In one final desperate attempt, we charged at Reizo.

"I think it's very clear..."

He knocked us all down with swift punches to the face.

"That you've failed this test."

When Serith got up, he started panicking.

"What's going to happen to us since we've failed? Are you going to kick us out of the team?"

Reizo shook his head and inspected the damage to the floor. "Relax, I just want to see how much you've improved. Overall I'm satisfied with the progress you've made."

Serith thanked Reizo and talked about how he wants to become a better ventgard, but Reizo completely ignored him and wondered how he should fix the floor.

"We'll rest for five minutes before going on your first mission so make sure you heal yourselves."

Saliza and Serith were curious about what the mission was about and kept asking Reizo. He told them that they'll find out later. Hopefully it's not as dangerous as our training.

After our break, Reizo brought us to the receptionist where we will be informed about our mission.

"Good morning team Reizo. You're here for the mission right? Team Rising Fury and team Soaring Luck have already begun the mission and are currently investigating these places."

The receptionist took out a map and pointed at different areas.

When Saliza heard the team names, she started protesting. "Why is our team named 'Team Reizo' while the other teams have better names? I never agreed on that name and neither did Serith and Zeigel."

Serith and I didn't say a thing because Serith was fine with the name and I feared that Reizo would rip me in half if I angered him.

"Reizo didn't make this your team name. Since you're still being trained by Reizo, your team name will simply use your captain's name. Once you reached the advanced rank, you can choose a new name for your team."

Once Saliza calmed down, the receptionist explained our mission.

"There has been an increase in bandit activities lately. We need you to investigate this area where many bandits have been spotted."

The receptionist circled the area on the map where we need to go to. I'm still not familiar with this place so I'm not entirely sure where we'll be going.

We set off to investigate the area. While walking, Reizo explained to us about bandits.

"Bandits are usually extremely weak compared to a ventgard, but what they lack in strength and speed, they make up with stealth and trickery. They tend to disguise themselves as normal people but they have one thing that distinguishes them from a civilian. All bandits have a symbol tattooed somewhere on their bodies to identify each other."

"If becoming a ventgard is an easy way to earn money, why do some people still resort to becoming a bandit." Serith asked.

"Most bandits I've encountered are people who failed the tests to become ventgards, people who are in urgent need of money and ex-ventgards who have been fired usually for abusing their powers."

When we reached the area, which was the back of a closed shop, we searched around for bandits. There wasn't a single person there.

"There's no one here, but the receptionist said that bandits have been spotted here so we'll hide and see if anyone comes here."

Reizo summoned a gendion and hid behind the camouflaged monster. We followed Reizo and waited behind our gendions. After a few minutes went by, we heard footsteps.

A man in a hoodie crept out of a corner and inspected the area. He carefully searched the area to see if anyone was there. He then took out a small bottle and dipped his finger into it.

He drew a symbol on the floor at the back of the store and someone's head came out of the floor. There was a strange-looking helmet on the head.

"Are there any ventgards nearby?" The head asked.

"No, but earlier I was stalking Reizo and his new team. I saw them walk into this place but when I came here I couldn't find them. Keep an eye out for Reizo or else we're all dead."

Reizo moved his gendion aside and tackled the hooded man to the ground. The head that he was talking to quickly disappeared into the ground.

Reizo ripped off the sleeve of the hooded man. He had a tattoo on his arm, and I recognized that tattoo. It was a slightly modified tattoo used by the infamous gang that terrorized the locals back where I live, the tarsec gang. They must be the reason why this world hates earth so much. It's because of them that I have to fear people finding out my origins. I'm no longer on earth and yet those pieces of shit still try to ruin my life. At least I have a shot at killing them now with the magic in this world.

"This is the tattoo of bandits. If you see anyone with this tattoo then do not hesitate to stop them."

I'm gonna do more than just simply stopping those good for nothing low life scum for ruining the reputation of our world and making my life harder to live.

Reizo walked over to the area where the head popped out of while holding the hooded bandit by the neck. The symbol that the bandit drew was already gone. Reizo stomped the floor and smashed through it. There was a tunnel hidden under the shop.

"Head back to the headquarters and tell Meitre about this, I'll deal with the rest."

Reizo dashed through the tunnels and after a few seconds, horrified bloodcurdling screams echoed out of the tunnel.

Before we could leave the area, someone dropped a smokescreen on us.

"We may not be able to kill Reizo, but we should be able to kill his recruits." A voice echoed around us.

We stood close to each other with our weapons drawn. When the smoke cleared, we found ourselves surrounded by bandits.