Mission over

"God damn!" Damien repeated with eyes wide in excitement. 

I breathed heavily as I leaned on the tree, the toll of hunting for so long catching up with me. 

"That was fucking amazing! Who taught you to fight like that? Sure, there are some flaws but for a G rank, that was incredible!"

He talked about my fight as if there wasn't one he could be paying attention to right now.

The giant goblin was hurt pretty bad, its skin had been tinged red and its movements were clumsy, stab wounds prevalent on its legs and torso and burn marls covered its face as it was missing one of its eyes.

Seigfried didn't look great either, better than the goblin but his breaths were sharp and short and he had to retreat many times in combat. 

The tanks shield was scrap metal and his armor was in shreds, but aside from a sprained arm he seemed fine as did the mage and swordsman. 

"I wouldn't worry about them, the goblin champions on his last legs. He'll be dead pretty soon."

Damien said as he noticed me spectating the battle. 

"Or, you could finish it earlier." Damien said in a mischievous tone. 

Looking up I saw him handing me an arrow covered in blood.

The goblin champion as he called it had several areas of charred skin, which meant that with a well place charged shot I could kill him.

"No."

I refused the arrow as I continued watching the fight. 

The money and mana tempted me but if I did that Seigfried would throw a temper tantrum that I was in no mood to deal with.

"Fair enough."

Damien said as he sat down with me and watched the fight from afar. 

A fire bolt hit the champions remaining eye as it cried out in pain, the swordsman made a cut to his leg causing it to lose balance.

The tank ran towards it and jumped, before punching it in the gut causing ot to fall to the ground with a thud. 

Seigfried jumped on top of it, evading its blind swings and stabbed into its eye socket and with a disgusting sound, the goblin champion stopped moving. 

The rest of the party broke into celebration while Seigfried had a proud smirk. 

Damien used water jets to propel himself towards the party while I followed on foot, jumping atop goblin huts.

"Congratulations guys! You killed ONE enemy!" 

He said in an overly cheery sarcastic voice. 

They stopped celebrating for a moment as they looked at the rest of the goblin camp which had now fallen silent. 

"That thing was probably more powerful than all of those small fry's combined!"

Seigfried said defensively.

"No. No, it was not."

Damien patted him on the shoulder with a smirk.

"You-!"

*DING*

All of our bracelets lit up at the same time as a notification appeared. 

------------------------------------------------------------

All goblin camps and wanderers have been exterminated. Please evacuate in time for the cleaners.

User Stats:

Regular Goblins killed: 28

Fighters killed: 14

Shamans killed: 16

Chief Shaman: 1

Performance Review: Outstanding.

Rewards will be calculated and credited to mercenary account.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The group looked at their stats with varying reactions, some were happy, Seigfried was not, Damien didn't care. 

Not keen on hearing those two argue anymore I began going around the camp looking around for arrows that had retained their sharpness. 

Most had bent or damaged tips, due to multiple uses but some were salvageable. 

As I was going around, I found the corpse of the Chief Shaman and picked up his staff.

It was made of a wood that resembled a stripped birch log, with intricate patterns and carvings etched into it. 

Most notably at the top there was a gemstone embedded into the wood which resembled a ruby. 

"It's a shaman stone, selling one of these bad boys in good quality is a payday even for me, the research department has almost succeeded in recreating it and believe they can use it to boost the capabilities of human mages." 

Damien said, appearing out of seemingly nowhere again.

'They're right.'

Enhancing stones could improve the potency of a grimoire later in the story but were also very expensive. 

"Ugh... this is a weird one." He said as he used mana to separate the mask of the shaman from the decapitated head.

Disgust was visible in his eye as he used water magic to clean the mask before inspecting it further.

"We're not sure if this is ceremonial but somehow, this increases the rate at which shamans can cast spells, it's like a natural artifact that only works for goblins." 

He said as he tilted his head. 

"Well anyway, that's for the nerds to care about. All this means to us is one hell of a pay out." 

He wrapped the two items in a bundle before tying it to his back. 

"I'll carry this for you till we get back. Come on." 

I didn't hesitate much because despite the way he acted, Damien could probably easily get these items on his own. 

I followed behind him, leaving the previously goblin infested areas and arriving once again at the town and then the Wald Inn. 

Upon returning we found a lot of the mercenaries enjoying food and drink while chatting with each other and the sign in front of the inn had been changed. 

'Thank you, brave adventurers!' 

Many of the townspeople celebrated with the mercenaries. 

"This is the best part of the job." 

Damien said as we headed inside, stepping into the packed entrance hall.

"You going to stay back for a while?"

"No."

"Why? You gotta date or something?"

"I don't know anyone here." 

I said ignoring his comment.

"Who cares? I don't know most people here either, i'm just here for the food."

He said with a laugh. 

I didn't reply for a bit as I place the wooden mask and staff in my weapons case along with the bow and quiver. 

"You don't have to of course, but it's nice to get out of your comfort zone every now and then. Can't spend the prime years of your life training now, can you?"

"..."

"I don't want to nag you about it, but lay off the awakened stuff for a bit, what's the point of being strong if you're alone, right?"

He spoke in a somewhat sad tone. 

"God, I sound old! Anyway, I'll leave you for now but think about it alright?" 

I nodded as he gave a slight smile before leaving the room. 

'He sounds a lot like Adam.'

I smiled slightly as I thought of the similarities. 

I felt bad, brushing off their advice. 

I appreciated it, I really did but I also felt like I couldn't really follow it. 

I felt like I was on a clock, if I took a moment to rest, I would fall behind.

Or maybe that was just an excuse. 

I always said I wanted a better life but was unwilling to change the reasons why it was bad in the first place. 

'Whatever the case I can't afford to make changes right now.'

I deposited my bracelet and body camera before changing out of training clothes before making my way out of the inn. 

I said goodbye to Damien on the way, who gave a sad smile before waving goodbye. 

The noise of the inn faded away as I left the sleepy town again. 

I looked at my phone as I went back home, looking at the available missions once again. 

In total there were a total of 8 extermination mission happening in the next 2 days. 

------------------------------------------

Confirm Application to following mission?

Time remaining: 1 day 32 hours 52 minutes 12 seconds.

Extermination: Owlbear Nest. (550 CR per kill)

Threat level: G+

-Yes-  -No-

------------------------------------------

I tapped on yes, applying for one tomorrow wasn't possible due to restrictions placed by the mercenary organization. 

That was for the best, I need to adjust my training schedule but not change it completely, combat manuals were still a priority. 

However, now that I had to train with the fact that I was a vessel in mind, it became difficult to ignore the questions I had about how I got into this world. 

I ignored them previously, finding an answer seemed unlikely and I didn't have the time to waste searching for them. 

'It's not like I'm not curious.'

I had looked up the cathedral in a library as well as on the internet. 

Not much was known about them for the simple reason that it was considered impossible to enter the cathedral. 

The doors wouldn't budge no matter the force of the push and even the most vulnerable parts of it such as the stained glass were protected by an odd force. 

If a spell was used on it the mana would simply disappear before it did any damage and any objects thrown at it would also just disappear. 

Trying to attack it physically had caused severe injuries as parts of the attacker's body were swallowed whole. 

Hence, the name cursed site. 

There were other cursed sites but the only one that was similar to the cathedral was a cave opening in the Czero Empire, that had claimed the lives of some B class heroes. 

  In short, there was no information, and my only lead was on the other side of this world and the cause of death of many of the current strongest beings in this world. 

For the time being I would just have to live with the odd occurrences that happened due to me being a vessel, like the shrieker caves, the abnormal mana count or even the modified system. 

I was worried about the bracelet storing my mana count, after all the only other human like race to get such high mana from killing were corrupted. 

However, corrupted are easy to spot so the bracelet doesn't store user data after the bracelet is returned, to preserve the anonymity of users. 

I wasn't sure of what would happen long term but short term it was better for me, as early stat growth would be easier. 

Taking the route from the train station to the mercenary building, I reported the completion of my first contract as advised. 

"Congratulations on a successful debut! We look forward to your participation in further contracts." 

I got an updated mercenary card that allowed me to use it to make purchases as well as my status as an open contract mercenary being made official. 

Although no matter how many times I looked at it, the balance was pretty hard to believe. 

'41800 CR.'