1 The Beginning

It was a morning just like any other. The birds were chirping. A gentle breeze was making the leaves rustle. Sunlight peeked through the gaps between the curtains of a messy room, illuminating the room ever so slightly.

The room was in disarray. There were things everywhere. A pile of clothes in the middle of the room, a bunch of wooden swords in a corner, books about monsters and the tales of the holy knights scattered everywhere. It wasn't a pretty sight. However, the center of attention among this contest of clumsiness would definitely be the occupant, currently sleeping on his bed while he was huddled in a blanket. His smooth, white hair gleamed under the few rays of light that found their way in his room. He had a weird smile on his face. Perhaps he was dreaming of something good.

A feminine voice broke the silence.

"Blanc! Wake up! It's morning!" it said.

"Ehehe, Five more minutes..." mumbled Blanc as he turned to the other side.

"WAKE UP NOW OR YOU'RE NOT GETTING ANY BREAKFAST!"

bellowed the feminine voice.

His eyes opened in shock, revealing a beautiful red colour that would remind one of rubies.

"Don't be so hasty! I'm coming!"

He shot right out of bed and made his way downstairs.

***

"Gee, you're so ruthless Lia. How could you try to take this delicious meal away from me?" complained Blanc as he was greedily chowing down on the food presented to him.

"If you have a problem with that, why don't you try waking up early for once? You're gonna set a bad example on the young ones. Take a look at Misha and Jack. They already left for the town a while ago." said Lia.

"Uhhh" he averted his eyes.

"Fine, I'll reflect on it"

"Good! You better!" she said with a radiant smile.

Lia was a young girl in her sixteens. She had straight black hair that reached all the way up to her waist. Her glistening green eyes added to her charm. She and Blanc were the oldest residents of the Reshia Orphanage, named after the local goddess on whose shrine it was built. It more like a run down cottage than the orphanages that one could find in the town, but the times were tough. After their caretaker mysteriously disappeared one day, they took it upon themselves to take care of the children too young to fend for themselves.

Blanc would go to the town and take up odd jobs like monster extermination or gathering materials to earn money. Lia had a weak constitution so she didn't leave the house much. However, she was taught how to synthesize medicines by their caretaker. So she would ask Misha and Jack, the oldest of the younger children to gather herbs and sell the medicines in the town in her stead. Other than that, she would take care of the children and do the daily chores like cooking and laundry.

Gobbling up the last traces of food, Blanc got up.

"Thanks for the delicious meal as always. I'll get going now" he said as he donned his wooden sword on his back.

"Alright! Take care! Don't push yourself too hard and try to reach home in time this time"

"Yes yes, Got it" saying so, Blanc made his way out of the house.

***

The Reshia Orphanage was located on the outskirts, so it took some time for them to travel to heart of the town where job givers and various stores were present. While the town itself wasn't much developed as compared to the royal capital, it was still quite lively. Everyone went about their work as Blanc walked towards his destination. There was hustle and bustle everywhere.

Generally, if one wanted to get jobs, they would register with the adventurer's guild and get their jobs from there. However, Blanc could neither afford the registration fees nor did he have proper equipment to be accepted so he had to resort to taking jobs from brokers. Even if he didn't earn much this way, he had no other choice.

He reached his broker's office and got the task for the day. It was a monster extermination request. In particular, it was a slime extermination request.

'Slimes are eating up my crops so I can you get rid of them?' was written in the job request brochure.

It should be a relatively easy request, since slimes were the least deadly amongst all the monsters that could be found here. He had to kill 10 of them and bring back their cores as proof. After confirming the objectives of the job, he made his way towards the forest.

***

Upon reaching the forest, the first thing that Blanc did was to look for traces of slimes. It's common knowledge that they often leave a trail of gel wherever they've been and it's relatively easy to spot. After searching for a while, he finally found a fresh trail. Wasting no time, he immediately followed it. Soon, he was led to a swarm of slimes feasting on the corpses of wild animals.

Not letting this chance go, Blanc took two of the slimes by surprise. He swiftly swung his sword, slicing them cleanly into two halves. As if enraged by the death of their brethren, the rest of the slimes pounced on him. He nimbly took a few steps back to dodge them and proceeded to slaughter them. When he was done, he had taken care of a total of 17 slimes. After carefully collecting and storing their cores, he decided to call it a day and cash in the cores to complete the job. He'd turn in the requested 10 cores and would sell the rest in the market. Although selling slime cores won't yield much, it was still better than nothing. He needed every last coin that he could earn.

The sun had started to set, so it was getting dark. He decided to move, since he had to get home in time. The forest during the day isn't much of a challenge for Blanc. However, the forest at night is nothing to scoff at. Demonic beasts become active at night.

Demonic beasts are creatures that become corrupt because of demonic influence. They gain new abilities and their physical abilities get reinforced. No matter how adept Blanc may be, he's no match for them. At least with his current gear. A blunt wooden sword won't even leave a scratch on the beasts. His thin clothes won't protect him against their strikes. If he ever came across one, his only choice would be to run away.

***

He was on his way back to town. He was feeling hungry after battling those slimes. Just thinking about how he'll get to eat Lia's delicious meals after a long day at work, filled him with joy. 'Better hurry' he thought to himself. Then suddenly-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

A shriek echoed through the forest.