Chapter 11

After the Castillo's joined us for the next month, we fell into a rhythm of pairing up to complete missions that renewed weekly, while also helping to restore the farm to its former glory under the direction of Old Man Dew, who seemed over the moon.

Unfortunately, even though we completed 16 missions over the course of this month and gathered a whopping 7,920 gold along with much more in equipment, I soon encountered a problem: the lack of hero contracts, which now seemed as rare as diamonds.

However, I wasn't too upset, as the six of us were enough to clear the missions as they appeared. Speaking of missions, I upgraded the board twice during this time, allowing us to take on six missions instead of four as it reached level 3. But it took most of the gold we earned over this time. Still, two missions per duo was not half bad, though I did begin noticing the exhaustion on everyone in the guild. The farm work combined with the missions was quite tiring.

Maybe I can take them on a vacation.

"Hey Duke, you good?" Snapping out of my thoughts, I was met by Lily, who, noticing my deep thoughts, came to talk to me. It made me realize I had spaced out.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking of a place we could go to take a break." Saying this, I explained my thoughts from the last few weeks, causing her to nod as she spoke.

"We can think about that later. Right now, my skeletons are struggling to take down the boss, so you might need to step up." Reminding me that we were on a mission, I immediately looked over at Lily's skeletons, who were being tossed around by a kobold. Unlike its smaller brethren, this one stood at a horrifying 1.9 meters and was using its pitch-black scales to tank hits while delivering heavy attacks with what looked to be a rusted axe.

"Don't worry, I got this." Saying this, I flexed my muscles as I grabbed my axe, which, sadly, was still the same one I started with, as my luck proved to be terrible. All I had gotten in the meantime were a bunch of common-ranked axes.

"ROAR!" The skeletons began to retreat at Lily's order as I approached the roaring creature. Noticing my approach, it wasted no time charging forward and raising its axe, but sadly for it, thanks to the missions we completed over the past month, we had reached level 4, and I can now proudly say I'm quite a bit stronger than your average human.

BAM

Instead of raising my axe to block, I stepped to the side, barely avoiding the axe attack. Not stopping there, I quickly raised my axe, but instead of aiming straight, I targeted its arm, cleanly severing its limb and leaving it a writhing mess on the floor.

"That should be it." Saying that, I left the skeletons to finish off the Kobold Chieftain as Lily and I were then transferred out of the mission, having completed it and received our rewards.

"See you later, Duke. I'm going to find Olivia so we can hang out. Hope you pick somewhere good." Saying that, Lily quickly disappeared from view as she headed in the direction of Olivia and Noah's cabin, leaving me alone near the pig pen where we had accepted the mission.

With nothing else to do today, I decided to wander the farm and observe the animals. At some point, I ran into Alejandro, who, over the course of the month, had leveled his skill to level 4 and could now promote the growth of the crops on the farm—something he's been doing secretly, causing Old Man Dew immense surprise as the plants, which had at least a good month left, grew almost overnight.

We didn't talk much, but at some point in the middle of our conversation, I got a call on my phone, and the caller surprised me greatly—it was my father. So, quickly saying goodbye to Alejandro, who went back to promoting the growth of the land, I quickly picked up the phone as I walked away.

"Hey, son! It's your pops!" I pulled the phone away from my ear at the loud, joyful voice of my father, smiling slightly. I expected this, and as I placed the phone back to my ear as I responded.

"Hey, Dad. How's it going? Sorry I haven't called you in a while—I've been really busy." As I said this, I felt a wave of disappointment in myself for neglecting to contact my parents for so long.

"No worries, son. Just glad to know you're living nearby, and I wanted to invite you to come see your old man!" My father's voice was notably less loud but still carried a quiet excitement. He sounded thrilled, and I couldn't help but share in his excitement as I realized I could take my friends along for a fun visit.

"Hey, Dad, I should be able to visit in a couple of days. Can I bring some friends?" I asked, already anticipating the surprise I was about to hear.

"What?! Yo-you've got friends? Who are they? What are their names? Did you threaten them? Son, answer me—son!" My father's voice boomed with confusion and concern, much to my exasperation at his disbelief. Deciding to stop his wild thoughts, I quickly responded.

"Is it so surprising that I have friends? We're pretty close—just the other day, I was playing chess with my friend Miguel." My words seemed to have the opposite effect as my father's voice grew even more disbelieving.

"Son, that's like me saying I hate video games. That's a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence!" My dad's words stung slightly, weakening my defense, but before I could respond, he continued.

"Anyway, son, I gotta go—closing time is approaching. I'll text you the address. I'll be waiting for your visit with your 'friends.'" With that, my father hung up, and I decided to talk to the group to see if they'd like to visit my dad with me.

"Yeah, sure, bro, I wouldn't mind. It would be good to get out!" The first person I asked was Noah, whom I found doing pull-ups outside of his and Olivia's home.

"We'd love to go; we need to buy new clothes anyway." Walking into the small house, I found both Lily and Olivia relaxing at the table, enjoying what looked to be banana pudding. They stopped and answered my question before shooing me away. I then went to search for Miguel and Alejandro.

"I'm good. I'd prefer to stay on the farm—it's quite relaxing." Alejandro closed his eyes and went back to meditating, something he'd been doing more and more regularly, often in increasingly odd places. Sometimes, I'd find him on top of Old Man Dew's house, while other times, he'd be in the bushes.

"I've got nothing better to do, might as well." The last to be asked was Miguel, who was helping the old man repair his tractor, which had broken down after hitting a weirdly angled rock.

Speaking of the old man, I turned to him, wanting to ask if we could have a day off. As if anticipating this after hearing me ask Miguel, he told me we could have the next two days off after tomorrow, as nothing on the farm needed to be done during that time. Much to my joy, I thanked him before walking off to relax and check up on the area around the farm. Lately, we've been finding random holes in the wooden fence, likely caused by a fairly large creature, but we've yet to figure out what it is. Every time we go to check, it's already gone without leaving any signs.

"Seems it hasn't come back," I said after checking around the farm and finding nothing damaged or broken. I sighed and prepared to turn around and leave after spending a good hour patrolling.

SCRRREEEEEcH

I froze as an unholy screech echoed from the distant forest beyond the farm. Fear clouded my mind like a thick fog, but it quickly dissipated as everyone, including Old Man Dew, came running from all directions to crowd around me.

"What in God's good name was that? It nearly caused the boy to break my tractor!" Old Man Dew, armed with a shotgun I didn't even know he owned, exclaimed as he looked toward the forest edge. There, we both saw the shadow of a creature, the size of a bear, slinking deeper into the woods.

"Is it a bear?" asked Noah, who had armed himself with his sword. He calmed down but kept the weapon out of Old Man Dew's view as he voiced the question we were all thinking.

"For sure not a bear. I know their roars, and not a single one can make that noise," Alejandro said, his voice confident yet tinged with horror.

"Maybe we should all stay at Old Man Dew's house in case it decides to come back?" Olivia suggested. With no one disagreeing, we all slinked back to Old Man Dew's house, where we spent the rest of the night unable to sleep. Eventually, dawn came, and the chickens made that fact apparent.