First mission

Akio scratched his eyes as the old alarm clock blared in his ears. He got up rather swiftly as he put on his normal clothing and put his set of armor into his system storage. Dragging his feet out the door and down the stairs groggily. While it may be his first source of income, waking up before the crack of dawn was still not his favorite thing in the world. He exited the door to the inn without being disturbed as the maids were still cleaning for the day to come.

The chilling morning air blasted his face as he stepped out from the inn, walking towards the Knight hall as normal. He saw civilians setting up stalls for the day's work as well as some knights also on their way to the knight hall, some coming back from a night shift as well.

Akio sighed, turning into the small square opening with the fountain. The water was crisp as the wind carried some spare droplets into his face.

"Good morning!" A voice boomed into his ear as he felt a shoulder run into him.

Hu was there with a large smile on his face as he put his arm around him.

"Good morning to you as well" Akio responded with as much enthusiasm as he could.

The Double door leading to the old knight hall were already open as they walked through and took a seat down on one of the longer couches set up for them to take a rest in.

"Ayo, i don't think you should be here." Hu said as they sat down.

"Take a right when you walk in instead." He continued, pointing across the room to a door where I saw a couple of people enter.

Akio released a sigh, it seems missing a day can put you behind on knowledge.

He stood up from the couch and followed the small group of people inside where he saw a carriage awaiting for them. Akio hopped on one of them and sat there waiting for things to start.

"Mornin" He heard sam's voice call to him as she jumped into the cart and took a seat beside him. Her hair was a mess as she yawned as she sat back in her chair. The cloth surrounding the carriage didn't give them much support so Akio couldn't lean back onto it like Sam could.

"Morning" he responded with another yawn as well, setting off a small chain reaction around the cart as most of them yawned and tried to get a free nap while in the carriage.

"I heard you had a fight with the Pierce family yesterday and that you won. Congratulations. You may be able to get into the school for free with that achievement alone." She said meekly as she closed her eyes.

"I'm just messing with you though, tuition at that school isn't a lot. Unless you enter the prestige academy. Ya know, the one in the town?" She opened her eyes a little and stared at the cloth cover of the carriage. The carriage shook a bit as it started to move towards what he could assume was the backline hall

Akio shook his head "No I don't, I only know that the giant area in the middle of the town is for nobles and a small campus."

"Well, that's the prestigious academy, it's where all of the gifted and noble kids go. It costs a gold coin just to attend that school for a month, not including dorms and other stuff. Other schools do exist around the empire but they aren't nearly as good. That's why most people either enter the knights or become lower adventurers. If you're lucky you can make some pretty big cash adventering. But you gotta learn somewhere, That's why all of the best adventurers all attended the academy. Lucky bastards." She trailed off her long speech on the schools.

Akio was grateful for the information and that Nell was attending the prestigious one because he snagged a couple of kills from the higher phase monsters the knights were fighting. He didn't feel bad though, He got them and he can't reverse it now.

He grinned a little remembering the amount of money he had saved up. He could probably afford tuition for himself for 5 months. But he couldn't leave Milda hanging like that, he wanted her to attend as well before he stayed there to learn.

The carriage slowly turned to a stop and everyone hoped off, the lucky ones who got a quick nap stretching their arms as they got out.

Fuyoko was seen walking towards them with a small smile, counting whoever was there.

"Looks like we're all here, good follow me." She shook her hand towards the large building behind her. Her steps on the cold stone created a clacking noise as we followed behind her.

Once entering the building we saw the set of couches and sat in them as she walked to the front of the room.

"I know this may be a tall task to ask from you guys, but we need all the hands we can get for this mission. So this will be your first assigned task of your career." She pointed to what looked like a small white board.

"We are tasked to defend a small series of towns located about 200 miles north of here. A monster raid has slowly been developing on the outskirts of these towns and we are tasked with defending them. All backline knights will be heading to this location, we estimate that we will have more than enough power. I want you to use this opportunity to gain battle experience and power from your superiors in combat." She trailed off as she looked at us with a rather serious face.

"I would have told you to pack up yesterday but the assignment wasn't ours, but now it is. So i'm going to ask you to please return to your living spaces and pack for two weeks worth of travel gear and about a gold in expenses. If you can not afford that it will come from your paycheck." She continued as she put her hands on her desk.

"I want you all back here in three hours, you are dismissed."

Everyone had mixed reactions to this new mission, some groaned in annoyance while others shot up and ran out with impatience to leave.

Akio stood up slowly, he didn't have to pack anything because he kept forgetting to remove the pair of clothing he put in his storage before the gate raid. but he did have to tell Milda he was going to be gone for a while. It seems not abandoning her was going to be a small issue for a while

Opening the door to the inn Akio spotted Milda currently serving another customer. So he decided to wait by the door for a couple of minutes before another maid came up to him.

"Hello sir, How many will be with you today?" She gave him a welcoming smile.

"Oh, No, I'm not here to eat. But would you please fetch Milda for me? I was just signed up for a mission so I need to speak with her." The maid frowned at the first part of my request. But then gave a sigh of relief.

"I thought you were going to hit on her, of course she'll be right in a second." SHe walked up and tapped Milda's shoulder and pointed to me.

It didn't take her too long to walk towards me.

"Hey, You said you needed me?" SHe asked with a worried look since Akios never requested her attention before.

"Yes, I was just put on a mission and I came to report that I will be gone for the next two weeks or less." I replied calmly.

Milda looked at me weirdly but sighed sadly.

"I guess that's just part of your job. Just please come back safely." she gave me a forced smile as she said so.

"I promise, i wont do anything too dumb." Akio replied with a large smile.

His smile slowly dropped into a more sincere look "Please tell Nell i said Bye, ill see her in a bit and bring her a gift."

"Yea.. I think she would love that and Don't do ANYTHING dumb." She responded sternly, apparently she spotted the obvious meaning behind that sentence and frowned.

Akio laughed and waved goodbye. But Milda grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her. He was caught off guard so the pull easily worked as he stumbled towards her. Nell placed a kiss right on the side of his cheek and then pushed him off.

"I mean it, okay?" Her red face hidden by her hair as she looked down on the floor. SHe slowly stepped away towards the other maids who watched with a large smile.

Akio stood there stunned for multiple moments before turning and exiting the door and walked slowly back to the carriage with a dazed smile.

[Still think she's shooting a little high here.]

The deep voice whispered but Akio couldn't hear it as he walked down the street