The Dawn of the Sun

Outside the village, a huge smoke was seen inside, and the group of adventurers watched before deciding to walk away. Love was caressing Mirya's back; she's not the only one who's disappointed about the outcome of their investigation.

"I'm sorry, Love, Mirya." Lack tried to look away; he doesn't want any of them to see his current facial expressions. Hakku and Nicor grab and pat his back; they know well what he feels right now. "We better hurry and report this to the guild master," Hakku said.

They took a different path away from the road and entered the forest. They must hurry to go back to Merton town and report their findings.

During the night, Lack and Love are still awake; these two are the ones in charge of guarding the whole team while the other members are sleeping. Every four hours, they need to switch so they can get some sleep.

Love walks and sits beside Lack, and she gives him a hot tea. "So, can you tell me why?" Love asked him while sipping her own tea. Lack didn't answer for awhile, and Love only kept her silence, waiting for him to answer.

He sighed. "The parchment they had was signed by more prominent people than us." He finally answered but didn't disclose the people who signed the order paper. Love didn't ask any further questions; she knows Lack very well. She knows that Lack was not just a mere member of the Morton Adventurers Guild but much more.

She looks at the sky, thinking about the child while holding the choker she got from her. "You know Lack—" "Shh," Lack said, extending his finger to his lips. He looked at the distance before closing his eyes. He used his long ears to try to locate the sounds he was hearing.

After several minutes, he knack an arrow into his bow. "Wake up everyone! Faster!" he instructed, and he shot his arrow from the distance. Love stands up and rashly runs towards the other members, waking them up.

"Aah, what happened?" Mirya asked while yawning. Hakku and Nicor sheathed out their swords. "What the hell are you waiting for? Get ready!" Hakku raised his voice at Mirya. "Enemy?" She stood up immediately and grabbed her stuff. She also started to chant to prepare for the worst.

"How the hell have you become a rank AA if you're that sloppy to notice your surroundings?" Hakku berated her, and this irked Mirya. "Aah, the hell is your problem, man? I'm sorry, okay?" Nicor started to laugh at the side, grab his alcohol flask, and drink a little bit of liquor.

"Please be quiet, both of you," Love said as she started to chant a support spell. "Please, Oh Light, hug us with your protection." A golden scripture started to flow and circled her with light, then the script spread, moved, and started circling towards Nicor, Hakku, and Mirya.

She was not content to stop there; she performed another spell just after that one. Another golden text surfaced and spread to everyone: "Hasten our recovery by the dust of your light." The writing circled around the bodies of the four of them now, protecting them, but soon after, Lack launched a barrage of arrows from behind him as he moved in their direction.

A wolfbear appeared with lots of arrows in its body. "Mother of Garan! How big is that wolf-bear?" Nicor started to scan it's height when it started to stand up with two legs. "Fireball!" Mirya rains the wolfbear with fireballs nonstop, and the wolfbear uses its paws to slap some of them and tank the other fireballs.

"It has no effect, Hakku!" Lack signaled for Hakku and Nicor to attack the wolfbear. They ran towards it and tried to slash and stab, but their blades didn't leave a single scratch. Nicor surprisingly said, "What tough skin!"

The wolfbear has literally no skill other than attacking using its claws and teeth, but this monster was a little bit odd. He started to inhale a lot of air until his stomach looked bloated, then released it by roaring a scream. The Dawn of the Sun was caught off guard and received the attack head-on.

Hakku and Nicor were stunned, and their ears started to bleed. Love and Mirya chanted a spell immediately while enduring the wolfbear roar to protect themselves. Lack was safe even though he has the strongest hearing; it seems he was not affected at all, but he tried to knack an arrow towards its mouth but got repelled by the scream.

"Mother of Garan, my ears!" Nicor and Hakku's vision began to double as their heads were ringing from the vibration that the wolfbear roared. But even though they were in this situation, they didn't let go of their weapons and started to attack the monster.

Lack chanted a spell, and its arrow head stared to glow light green. "Head shot!" When he let go of the arrow, it started to navigate towards the head of the wolfbear, and when it hit, the arrow then exploded. The wolfbear roared after the explosion, and it tried to find out who'd shot him.

It saw Lack towards the back and started to run towards him. The wolfbear slammed Hakku using its claws and used his jaw to break Nicor's body. Thanks for the light protection, and the wolfbear teeth didn't even penetrate the shield, but even so, it dragged and ran towards Lack while Nicor was in his mouth, still trying to chew him to pieces.

Love chants, "illuminate!" and the whole field gets bright, then she jumps sideways to dodge the rampaging attack of the wolfbear. Mirya recovered after a second, then chanted a fire whip spell. She then hit the back of the wolfbear. And like his fireballs, it doesn't have any effects.

"Tch" Lack abandoned his range advantage and ran towards the wolfbear; he clearly knew that the monster was aiming for him. The bear was in rage; he tried to swipe Lack several times, but he dodged. Angrily, the monster exerted a lot more bite force towards Nicor, and this made a crack in the spell barrier.

Even though she couldn't see clearly, Love felt the barrier she cast was going to break soon. Love cast another scripture. She closed her eyes, but this time she only focused on Nicor. "Please, Oh Light, hug us with your protection." He felt receiving another blessing. Nicor grabbed a hidden knife and stabbed it directly into the wolfbear eye. The wolfbear reacts by exerting more bite force on Nicor.

Mirya uses her fire whip to tangle the wolfbear's legs to restrict its movement. Love continued to cast her spell towards Nicor so it wouldn't break his shield buff, while Hakku prepared his sword act. Lack also used this chance; he quickly drew his breath, knackered his arrow, and aimed for its head.

Lack turned a little less visible as his passive ability activated.

[Tree skill: Full Draw] He shot his arrow with force, and when it hit the head, it penetrated the skull of the wolfbear, then the special effect of knockback activated. Hakku didn't lose power as he used his sword and hunter skill [Rush Dog] and aimed at the nape of the wolfbear. With the help of the full draw, Hakku successfully cut the wolfbear head.

Mirya breathed with relief, then ran towards Nicor to see if he was still breathing. "Hey, are you alive?" Nicor looked at her, then said, "What do you think?" The both of them laughed to ease the tension. "Argh, Hakku! Please help!" Hakku then arrived and laughed at him when he saw he was still at the mouth of the wolfbear. "Ahahaha, please open this mouth; I couldn't move." "Alright, alright," Hakku put in a lot of effort just to open the monster's mouth.

Meanwhile, at the back, Love and Lack are discussing something. "Lack, this wolfbear isn't ordinary; it's much bigger and had a skill," Love furrowed her eyebrows as she continued, "and it seems we are still not ready to aim for a much more difficult quest job."

Lack closed his eyes as he inhaled and exhaled to calm his muscles down. "We are still inept at this kind of danger. If this keeps on, I'm afraid we need to disband." Love looked at him with worries. She didn't want to accept his comment, but she couldn't refute it.

After calming himself and seeing that Nicor was released, he said to them, "We need to move now. This place is a lot more dangerous than we thought." The three of them agreed and started to get their items. Even though it's still dark, they couldn't stay any longer and started to move and find a much safer place in this forest.