Three Birds, One Problem...

The mountain of a man continued to lead me throughout the bar into a hallway which promptly led to a wooden spiral staircase. I suppose he noticed my unease, as he looked at me for a moment before flashing a smile.

"Don't ya worry lad. Aint nothing here going to bite you. Come on now." He finished nodding at the stairs.

With a small smile in return against my best judgment, I followed him down the stairs. What I thought would be either a torture chamber or a place for even more drink, exceeded my expectations in a wild manner;

It was a small room, that was only lit by an odd mirror that was placed in the center of the room. The odd thing was that light was shining from both sides of the mirror, illuminating the room in a low ambient hue.

"The hell..." I could not but help to let out my surprise.

Who would be able to when the first and only thing you saw was a mirror with no reflection spitting light out around a damp wooden room?

The man bear began to walk towards the mirror before he swiftly spun on his heel, where he ended up facing me.

With a large smile, he stuck his hand out, obviously waiting for me to shake it. "Name's Yugo, Yugo Varma. I'm a dwarf, I already know who you are Mr. Kirchner, so please follow me through the gate.

And with his introduction, I followed him through the mirror or gate I suppose. It was an odd feeling. Both warm and cold, both bright and dark. Yet those feelings only lasted for a moment as I soon opened my eyes to a massive hall.

Darting my eyes throughout the structure, I scanned many people, some sleeping, some talking in large groups, yet almost all of them were in some form of heavy armor. I was in some sort of fancy building with pristine white granite lining the floor and columns. Which supported a staircase that led to a place I couldn't see.

Yugo continued to lead me until we arrived at a dark polished semi circle of a desk. Every few feet there was either an incredibly attractive woman or an incredibly muscular man.

We soon arrived in front of a lady with bright blue eyes, that held an almost hypnotic charm.

"Mr. Kirchner, I prusume?" She asked, her voice was as smooth as Laurents as well as awfully seductive.

I stared into her eyes for a moment, or hell perhaps an hour as I felt a slight nudge hitting my side from Yugo. He cleared his throat as he glanced back at the lady in front.

Shaking my head I quickly recovered from her beauty. "Y-yeah... Um, where is this place?

Embracing my question the lady beamed, "This is Oasis Adventure Agency. Or as many like to call it the 'OAA'. Many mages and knights apply here for jobs, adventures, or teams that are recruiting."

She finished and quickly began to pull paperwork from drawers that were under the desk. In total, she pulled out twenty-seven sheets.

"Here ya' go. Three per person, please give those to your teammates whenever you have the chance." She directed, handing me the paperwork, I split off my three and as I tuck the sheets into the bag that Luci gave me earlier, Yugo lightly tapped my shoulder.

"I'll take those for you, I need to head back to the bar now, so I'll hand these off to Princess Luci. Amra, can you take care of our guest?" He stated before bowing slightly at both me and the woman named Amra.

My eyebrow furrowed slightly, although I had known the man for perhaps all of four minutes he seemed much more professional and reserved. He now surely held much more respect in my heart.

With a slight screech of a chair, Arma pushed herself up and took a moment to walk all the way around the large semi-circle. She was a tall and slender woman, standing at perhaps 5'10.

However despite her good looks, that soft and warm charm practically vanished as she stood in front of me.

"Look, I already know your some leveler, being backed by the kingdom, but if you think that means you're going to fuck me, you are very much wrong." She spat out pointing in my face, nearly taking my eye out.

And before I could even offer a rebuttal she turned on her heel and began to walk. "Say nothing, just follow me." And follow her I did, she led me through an almost whimsical building, the pristine and luxurious lobby, twisting into stone catacombs, large caves, and wooden rooms filled with potions, and animal parts.

After walking for perhaps ten minutes I was in a room with nothing but white. The walls were all padded, and a stark white. And in the center was an orb, held in the air by what seemed to be a massive arm.

"Touch the sphere, don't touch the basilisk, you might wake it up," Arma said pointing to the middle of the room.

'How cliché', I thought as I continued to the center. "What is this? Some sort of power gauge?" I asked with a sly smirk on my face.

Arma simply shrugged as she pulled out a long slender object from her skirt pocket. "Flame." She said, and within moments a small yet dazzlingly bright blue ball of fire formed from the tip of her finger.

She let the flame hover for a moment before she inserted the object into the heart of the fire.

Putting it up to her thin red lips her mouth puckered as she sucked in.

'Oh, a cigarette.'

Exhaling a long deep sigh, she began to speak once more. "It can be used as one, but I already know you're a leveler so there really isn't any reason to check. You should be level one or two, maybe even three. So the orb would only tell me what I already know, you're a Tier-2 mage."

She stated before taking another long drag from her cigarette. Waving her hand to the orb and shooing me in its direction she opened her mouth once again. "Go!"

Ignoring her brash attitude I started for the orb and pressed my palm against it. The cold sphere shinned a brilliant purple, filling in all the light in my eye, yet dimmed quickly after.

With a quiet mechanical hiss, a needle was soon produced from the orb right below my thumb. The needle shoved itself into my thumb, pricking it ever so slightly. Arma quickly walked up behind me allowing the droplet of blood to flow down onto one of the sheets of paperwork she had previously handed from me.

With a flashing smile, she beamed up at me. "Alright! Your paper works all finished, you sir are now an offical licensed mage at OAA!" Her face and demeanor are once again bright and cheery she continued to congratulate me.

However, this time I quickly dismissed her siren-like charm and stared at her blankly.

"Thanks, now my mission is to kill three things. Where do wild beasts live?" I asked her calmly.

Although it was easy to tell that she was pissed I had not fallen for her honey trap, noted by the enlarged vein that threatened to burst from her forehead a smile remained on her face as she looked up at me.

"Ahem, if you'd like to make things really easy you can just shuffle around until you find a Gate that exits to a forest. They typically have the best monsters for Hunters below C Rank."

My ear perked as she began to speak, she had started to walk once more assumingly back to her desk station to soon help other people. Following her tail I spoke once more.

"What do you mean C-Rank? Earlier you had called me a Tier-2 Mage, so what is a C-Rank?" I asked almost out of breath perplexed at how fast she was walking and how effortless it seemed for her.

She sighed deeply before she stopped in her tracks and turned to look at me. "Mages and Knights are scaled by tiers. While Hunters, adventurers whatever you'd like to call it, or scaled by rank. Like Yugo, although he's a Tier-5 Knight he only falls around C-Rank due to the fact his a bumbling idiot and a drunk."

I nodded my head as I digested this new knowledge, this world really was just like a game or light novel. Placing my chin between my thumb and finger I stopped her once more. "So earlier you had said I was a Tier-2 Mage, and now you said Yugo was a Tier-5 Knight, are we ranked the same?" I asked my eyes glued to hers.

"Hmm, more or less kid. The higher the Tier the stronger the Knight, or in your case Mage. Now if that's all I really do need to get back to my seat, the Gates around here shift every now and then so leaving sooner is going to be your best bet." Arma finished as she began to walk once more, however, this time I did not give chase.

I watched her figure soon turn into a silhouette as I heard her mutter her last words as she vanished from my eyesight completely. "Damn, levelers think they get special treatment." She said with a huff.

I laughed slightly as I looked around the room I had followed her into as she left earlier, it was a different color than I remembered. In fact, it was an entirely different hall.

This one was dark and oaky, with a strong smell of tobacco. As much as I wanted to turn around and find a new way either to a Gate or to the exit a light hum echoed in the chambers of my mind, piercing the watery lump that was a brain.

After a few more seconds it sounded less like a hum and more like a pulse, a smooth and steady pulse. And with that pulse soon came directions, perhaps it was something scientific like echolocation, or more likely it was simply magic but this hum was certainly leading me somewhere.

I continued to follow the hypnotic trail and soon found a mirror similar to the one inside the basement of Yugo's. The mirror held no reflection, just a soft shine of grey. Almost like that of soft metal.

With a deep breath, I walked inside the Gate, once again being embraced by both cold and warm, and dark and light. And soon I was blinded by a dazzling sun, and luscious greenery that seemed to span forever.

The smells and sounds of wilderness filled my ears and nose and blanketed me in its serenity.

As I kept frolicking throughout the lush green fields a sharp whizzing flew past my ear at tremendous speed, snapping my neck behind me I found the corporate of the sound. A blue and black dagger possessed itself 'afloat' throughout the air barely dodging it as it continued to whiz past me.

"Ugh fuck me!" I shouted as I turned tail and began to flee. For perhaps a full minute I kept running until I was able to wrap my path around a tree quickly getting the blade stuck.

I was profusely out of breath as heavy pounding footsteps rang through my ear.

"Tch, look at this fuckin' loser. Ka'Pal you sure this is the guy?" A man asked. I couldn't see him as he was approaching me from behind the tree.

"Hmg." A deep guttural growl was the only response from who I believed to be Ka'Pal.

And soon within seconds three men and a woman stood over me, each one with a look of greed plastered onto their faces.

The woman spoke up first, with bright red hair and matching eyes. She was quite well developed, two of the men beside her adorned similar outfits; A black button-up tunic and white leather pants. Each had its own set of small armor, such as wrist, knee, and arm guards, and the other with a full chest plate.

All three of them had another thing in common, on their right shoulder there was a emblem of a white bird, a swan, or perhaps a dove.

"Kill..." Was the only word that came out of the... Beast mouth, beast was the only way to describe him. His height and size matched that of Yugo's, but that wasn't what made him beast-like. He had massive arms covered in some form of thick fur and around his neck that of a black lion's mane.

The woman walked in between me and Ka'Pal as I simply continued to huff and puff, my stamina was more or less depleted. Of course, I had fought before, in fact just the other day I had clashed swords with Alex, but this was different, not once in my life had I been in some form of life-threating danger.

I looked up at the four of them with nothing but fear in my eye.

"Tsk tsk, no KP. We can't just 'kill' him, the contract said we delivered him alive. Although I would love to sell the brat, he would certainly fetch a pretty penny." The lady said receiving the dagger that was lodged in the tree.

She walked towards me, allowing her massive bosom to sway in my face before she dropped down to her knees to achieve slight eye level.

Licking her blade she eyed me up and down. "A neat little power of mine is to change my fluids at any moment's notice, and currently this blade is converted in crockbill venom. One stab and you'll be paralyzed from the neck down, and unless you know anyone with Tier-7 healing that's how you're going to stay for the rest of your life." She said grabbing my forehead and throwing my head back into the tree.

Gritting my teeth, I tried pushing myself up. Yet to my dismay a small cut began to seep from my shoulder. The lady in front of me smiled wickedly as she let out a soft "Whoops."

My eyes continued to dart throughout the three of the as I continued trying to find the strength to remove myself from the situation.

'First my mother, than Glendale, some other pricks in my life, Laurent and now these fuckers. I'm getting really fucking tired of people messing with me.' I thought to myself, and as if it was a God answering my prayers a message popped up blocking me of my vision.

{OBJECTIVE}

The Wielder Of Death has smiled upon you... Feast

[Reward]: 5 EXP + Previous Objective Completion

"Tch- so the bastard really is looking out for me." I muttered weakly, feeling the stretht return to my body.

A blade of dazzling white appeared in my hands, with newfound energy pulsing trough me, I sprang from the tree taking the lady's head off nearly instantaneously.

Even though I couldn't see it, I could feel the way my facial muscles pulled and relaxed, there was an absolute crazed smile plastered on my face at the moment.

"Whos next?!"