Departure

Waking up from the sound of ringing noises, Simon turned to the side while slapping the magic-powered alarm clock that his uncle Mavis invented.

Snaping his finger a small golden glowing orb appeared out of a small magic circle. The small Orb with one pair of big wings and one pair of smaller pairs beneath fluttered happily around Simon´s head. Illuminating the giant room in soft golden light, making the room look slightly magical. Yawning he got out of the king-sized bed. Looking at the clock he saw that it was just 3 in the morning. Opening the window he let the chilly morning air in. The moon was nearly gone as the sun began to rise in a few hours. Taking a deep breath his mind cleared.

After refreshing himself up in the bathroom he went towards his bag and took out a dim glowing stone. Upon seeing the glowing stone a few glittering sparks appeared in the room.

"Phiii~"

"Good morning Phii, as happy as ever aren´t you?"

"Phiii~ Phiii~"

Chuckling a little he stretching out his hand. "Here is a little reward for you." After dancing happily in the air Phii landed near Simon´s hand and consumed the stone. Finishing eating the stone Phii floated gently beside Simon.

Draping over his robe, and picking up his staff and bag he went towards the meeting room with a glowing orb with wings next to him.

Opening the door he was greeted by Mavis, Fitz, Fines and the and the silent beauty Eliza chatting with each other. Well, they were chatting and Eliza just sat there emotionlessly. Upon seeing Simon they greeted him while Eliza gave Simon a nod. Greeting them back Simon sat down on a vacant chair.

"Is this one of your spirits Simon?" asked Fines the shy elven adventurer.

"Yes, that is right. This one is called Phii a minor spirit and my weakest spirit."

"Phii.." said Phii with sadness.

"But also one of the most useful and cutest spirits I have." continued Simon, earning him a happy Phii dancing around as the room glittered in golden dust.

"Phiiii~"

Everyone chuckled at the happy spirit dancing in the air.

While they waited for the others to arrive they swapped some stories about the adventures they went on and Simon was fascinated by all the places Fitz and Mavis went.

It didn´t take long for everyone to arrive as they were all professionals and veterans in their job. After a short briefing and going over the plan they walked towards the throne room.

Kneeling over the king spoke, "I will be awaiting good results Katharina, and remember your life is more precious than the mission." Even with the stern look, Katharina knows that her father is a doting parent and loves to spoil his daughters like every father. "Take care my child." said the queen before walking down the few steps and giving her child a big hug. "And take here are all the necessary things you will need for the mission. Inside are camping gear, food and water for two weeks, and many other useful things that you might need." Opening a small box she showed us 8 small black rings with a purple gem on top.

Taking the rings Katharina gave everyone one ring, before giving her another tight hug. "Now go my child."

Leaving the throne room everyone marveled over the storage ring, as it was extremely pricy and only a few nobles and S rank adventurers have them.

"Wow, I have never seen a storage ring before" marveled Milly in excitement.

"Even as a guild master of Featherwind we only have one that possesses one," said Fitz the half fahm.

Mavis who already possessed a storage ring just transferred all the items into his own before storing the empty storage ring.

Leading the group towards the portal room the knights in front saluted respectfully after seeing the princess.

Going inside they quickly teleported to the nearest gate. "It never gets boring using a teleportation gate," commented Patrus now in his heavy red and gold armor. Only his weapons did he put inside the ring as he couldn´t carry his giant ax and shield everywhere.

Arriving in the trade city Centus, they took two large carriages that transported them to the woodland dungeon.

The ride was mostly silent with only a few discussions here and there.

It didn´t take long for them to reach the dungeon. Stepping out of the carriages they made a last equipment check, before going in. The guards in front let them pass effortlessly.

Feeling excited Katharina who was in light leader armor slowed down and walked beside Simon, "It has been quite some time since we last adventure together, right Simon?"

Glancing at her he replied while reminiscing about the past, "Ture, the last time we went was when we were on the extermination quest in the south. Hmm, it has been a few years it seems."

"Hihihi, I miss the old days." giggled Kathy remembering all the quests they were on when they just got old enough to register inside the adventurers guild.

Arriving in the first save zone, the mana pond. They sat down for a few minutes. "So here is where you found the dead Nagirus?" asked Mavis Simon.

"Yes, just there right in front of you in the tall grass," said Simon pointing at the tall glowing grass near the pond.

Mavis nodded and cast a quick spell scanning the surrounding for monsters. Narrowing his eyes he walked towards it and kneeled down. Spotting a slightly glimmering thing he inspected it. Using magic he let the thing levitating in the air right in front of him. Simon who walked next to Mavis asked, "Have you found something?"

Turning around Mavis showed him the thing, "It seems like our little target left behind his skin..."

Simon´s eyes widen as he saw the grey outline of a snake. "Damn it, it seems like I overlooked it last time." *sigh*

"Don´t worry about that, and thanks for the Nagirus we managed to find out the venom of the monster. So, the skin wouldn´t have been really useful for us anyway. Well, maybe if it evolves a few times." explained to his uncle while thinking about the things he could do with the skin.

Simon visibly relaxed and stored the skin for research purposes in his storage ring.

"Break is over," exclaimed Mavis. He took over the role of the leader as he regularly dives into the dungeon to search for new ingredients or monster parts so he is the most experienced amongst them.

While casually going deeper, they slaughtered hundreds if not thousands of monster groups. "The dungeon is even more aggressive than a day before," mumbled Simon as he scribbling inside his notebook. All around him were the sounds of explosions, monsters dying, and sound barrier-breaking.

"Those are some nasty monsters," complained Milly, but had a battle-crazed grin on her face while smashing monsters left and right with her two gauntlets, but as she was an S rank adventurer every strike killed dozens of them without any effort. The rest of the group just walked in formation while killing the stray monsters that got from behind. They left all the killing to Milly as the small fries didn´t really do anything towards them even if they just let them attack them.

"So what are you gonna name the new species Simon," asked Mavis while casually killing a goblin with a grain of sand that he flicked.

"Heh?"

"You haven´t thought about that?"

"Emm, I didn´t really think that I could name it."

"Well, you are the one that discovered it." chimed in Katharina.

Getting a little excited about naming a newfound species, he thought for a while. "I will think about a name once we see it" commented Simon.

The others just nodded. Finishing killing all the monsters Milly strode back towards the group covered in blood. "Mohh~ they are too weak! Can´t we go quicker? It is boring to kill all the small fry!" complained Milly.

"Pah, stop yapping all the time. You were killing them like you had the time of your life," said Patrus while heaving his heavy battle-ax over his shoulder.

"Hah, what did you say pussy cat?!"

Grinding his teeth he glared at her, "You want to fight small fry?!"

Fines tried to calm them down, but due to her shy nature, she failed miserably.

"Stop it."

Turning their faces away they harumphed and went back in formation.

Kathy and Mavis could only sigh while Fitz chuckled. Casting a quick cleaning spell on Milly they went on.

Fighting through the forest they reached the sanctuary that is being infested by a swarm of Nagirus. "My goodness, the flames are completely extinguished," stated Katharina standing in front of the two statues of goddesses holding two bowls.

"Just a day before the fire was still burning, albeit small but it burned."

"Hmm, the high mana in the air must have put out the flames," said Mavis as he examined the bowl in the statue's hands.

"Can you rekindle it, uncle?" asked Simon.

"Maybe, let me try."

Closing his eyes he silently mumbled under his breath as a pearl white magic circle appeared under the status. Opening his eyes he pointed his staff at the statues, as white light engulfed them.

Turning away from the light everyone got blinded by the bright light. As the light died down, a small blue flame burned. The group was amazed by what Mavis just did. Even the silent Eliza raised her brows, but it soon died down as the flames burned out.

"No, can´t do it even if I rekindle it, it will just go out again."

"Nevertheless, it was still a marvelous feat star mage Mavis." complemented Fitz.

Meanwhile, Fines' eyes gleamed like stars. As a high elf, she is highly sensitive to magic and mana and could feel the sheer amount of power the spell had behind the spell.

With a nod, he continued, "Let us continue then. First, we have to cleanse this place. Simon, you will do it alone. The rest will just watch."

Following his commands, he raised his staff before slamming it into the ground. "Hear my call and eliminate everyone in our path, summon Harth the red fall."

As he said those words the trees in the vicinity rattled and slowly dried out and lost all of their leaves. The fallen leaves gathered in front of Simon in a big pile. The leaves slowly turned red as they morph together into the masked spirit, with antlers.

*Whistle* "what a strong spirit you got there, young Simon."

"Hmm, I think I will recruit you if you ever want to be an adventurer."

"Oh, so that is how your new spirit looks like. Not bad, not bad."

"Wow, Simon got a new spirit."

"Is that a forest guardian spirit?" exclaimed the shy elf Fines silently.