Chapter 33: First Mission. (2)

"You were sleeping in that?" Renata asked as her eyes were barely open and looked at Alseace who was sitting at the campfire in a black shirt and dark-gray trousers. "Also... good morning..." Renata said as she yawned and walked out of her tent in black short pants and a white tank top.

"No, I woke up a few hours ago and took a bath after in the river," Alseace answered as he made a hot tea. "You want some?" Alseace asked.

"Yes, please," Renata sat down next to Alseace and stared blankly at the campfire.

Alseace made instant corn soup for them to eat and cooked sausage with eggs. Renata was amazed that Alseace knew how to cook while she always ate outside because she didn't know how to cook at all. She went to the river to clean herself after she ate her breakfast since they wanted to clear the last portal.

Renata was taking a bath and floated on the river as she enjoyed the sound of chirping birds. But suddenly the birds flew away and it made her notice that something was off about the atmosphere. She immediately put on her tank top and pants, but then she heard a roar from somewhere on the other side of the river.

"Renata, catch!" Alseace said as he walked down to the river.

Renata caught the cane that Alseace brought back with him.

"Did you hear that?" Renata asked.

"No, I don't know anything, but I saw the birds flying away so I thought something happened here," Alseace answered. "But I can feel a strong presence over there. Let's check it out," Alseace said as he pointed in the direction from where Renata heard the roar.

They both jumped to the other side of the river and started running toward it. Renata was following behind Alseace and was amazed by how strong his sense was that he was able to feel something that she couldn't. Alseace then stopped running and looked in the distance as he squinted his eyes.

"It's a monster, a wyvern, but he's still young since it's not that big," Alseace said quietly.

Renata saw it and she was shocked that a potential S-Rank monster appeared out of nowhere. She then asked, "Did an outbreak happen? Why's there a monster here if there isn't a portal or a vortex around here?"

"I'm not sure, but we can't ignore it or it will bring havoc to the city near us," Alseace replied and slowly walked toward the wyvern as he put his staff on his back. "I'm not sure if my magic would be enough because it has magic resistance, so let's get closer and I'll distract him while you try to cut off one of his wings," Alseace explained as he unsheathed his sword on his waist.

"I can't... my sword isn't for slashing. It's for thrusting. How about you do it? I'll distract him," Renata asked.

"Let's do that," Alseace nodded in agreement.

Alseace took a detour and approached the wyvern from the back as Renata tried to be stealthy as possible. The moment they both were close enough, Alseace waited for Renata to make the first move so he could take the wyvern by surprise.

"I'm going to be fine... just relax..." Renata said as she was close enough to the wyvern who was busy eating a deer.

The wyvern smelt her and immediately glared at her who was hiding in the bushes. The wyvern roared at her and started charging with his wings folded.

Renata immediately turned around and ran as fast as she could because a wyvern could run faster than her, and not to mention how the wyvern could topple the trees with its wings and body. She looked over her shoulder and saw the wyvern getting closer and closer. But then she saw Alseace just fly past her vision and saw him cut the wyvern's left wing.

"(He's so fast! I barely saw him!)" Renata said as she turned around and saw Alseace standing on top of the wyvern to cut its right wing.

Alseace cut the wyvern's right wing, and the wyvern started to giggle as it whipped its tail at him repeatedly, but he dodged them. He then cut off the tail and slid down to the back. The moment he landed, he cut off both of the wyvern's legs to immobilize it.

"You can take the kill," Alseace said as he wiped the blood off his sword.

Renata didn't ask any questions since he always said that whenever he managed to subjugate the monsters he was fighting. She immediately stabbed the wyvern's head and pierced through its skull and killed the wyvern.

[0.002436% EXP]

[Dexterity has increased by 0.64 points]

Alseace was surprised that his [Scavanger] skill got activated, and he was quite happy about it.

"I'll make a call to Miss Gratya. She needs to hear this," Renata said as she pulled out her satellite phone.

Renata informed Gratya about what had happened, and she asked if there was any vortex outbreak anywhere near them. Gratya checked the area but she didn't see any vortex in the area they were in, and the last time the observation and discovery team made a sweep around that area was 3 days ago. With that being said, even if there was a vortex, it shouldn't break since it hadn't been 7 days.

Alseace joined the conversation and asked if there was a cave under the ground that might be hidden. He believed that something like what happened in East Dasmein could happen there as well. Gratya wasn't sure about it, and she immediately sent a team to check because if there was indeed a cave down there, that would make sense.

"Do you want to explore the area? I think we both can agree that we don't see this wyvern fly, so there's a big chance this monster had been walking around the forest ever since it came out of the ground," Renata said as she looked deep into the forest.

"Fine by me," Alseace nodded his head.

They started to explore the area and tried to track down the footprints of the wyvern. They did find them. In fact, there were a lot of them on the ground, and Renata's theory was right that the wyvern had been on foot the whole time.

As they were walking and wandering around the forest, Alseace suddenly grabbed Renata's waist and stopped her. She was startled, but then Alseace pointed at the ground in front of her that looked like it was burrowed. It was big enough and believed the wyvern might have come out of that hole.

"Let's confirm it first before we report it to Gratya," Renata said as she looked down.

Alseace used Earth Magic and cleared out the path so they both could enter it. They started walking in a tunnel with Alseace providing light with fire magic. They traveled through the tunnel for a few minutes until they saw another hole below. They looked down and finally confirmed it was a cave since they were on top of the cave's ceiling.

They both jumped down and it was slippery that Renata almost slipped. They both then looked at the ground and hoped to see where the Wyvern was coming from. Alseace somehow could sense the aura of the vortex since he started to feel sensitive with the Mana around him.

Alseace followed his guts, and they found the vortex only a few hundred meters away from where they jumped down. The color of the vortex was dark red, which meant it could be a high B-Rank or an A-Rank. The vortex could be entered, and that meant the only monster that came out was that wyvern alone.

"We can't enter it since we need a whole group to enter," Renata said after she touched the vortex and saw the warning screen in front of her. "I'll go back and inform Renata. Are you going to stay?" Renata looked at Alseace.

"Yes. I want to make sure there are no more monsters that come out from the vortex," Alseace answered as he looked at the vortex.

"Alright, I'll be right back!" Renata said as she walked back and walked in the dark.

Renata managed to get back to the surface and immediately called Gratya about their discovery.

"You found a dark red vortex and it's hidden underground?" Gratya was surprised that Alseace's intuition was right about it.

"Yes, and what do you want to do? Are you going to send a team?" Renata asked as she rubbed her eyebrow.

"Yes, and you both will have to be the leader. Alseace is strong enough to deal with it, and I believe you both are experienced enough for this," Gratya answered without hesitation.

"I don't know Miss Gratya, this is too much for me and I haven't been in an A-Rank before," Renata said and she was nervous about it.

"Alseace had cleared an S-Rank vortex on his own, remember? You don't have to worry about it. Just believe in him," Gratya replied. "I'll send the team and they should be there in an hour with supplies that are needed inside the vortex," Gratya said and hung up the phone.

Renata sighed as she looked at the phone, and then went back to her tent since she needed to gear up. She then went back to the cave and informed Alseace about the plan. She asked him if he was fine with it, and he didn't mind at all because they might be the only ones who could do it at that moment.

"It's been an hour, they should be here any moment since Miss Gratya tracked my location above the ground near the hole earlier," Renata said as she looked at the portal.

"Speaking of the devil, they're here," Alseace looked up since he could feel their presence.

They both looked in the distance in the dark, and then Renata whistled using her thumb and middle fingers to notify the team. It only took a minute until they all showed up. There were 8 people, and all of them were Renata's friends. They were the ones who joined Renata during her 2 vortexes clearance.

"Alright, it's time to group up," Renata said as she looked at her friends.

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

Group's Panel

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

1. Alseace LaRoze (Lv.6)

2. Renata Baeyn (Lv.85)

3. Hiltwin Gisler (Lv.72)

4. Leonardo Busenhart (Lv.73)

5. Chris Reiser (Lv.75)

6. Eduard Aegerter (Lv.68)

7. Nevio Fawer (Lv.66)

8. Mirella Barker (Lv.69)

9. Amelie Bischoff (Lv.71)

10. Franzi Jost (Lv.79)

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

"We good?" Renata asked her friends.

They all nodded their heads and looked at Alseace since they had heard about him.

"Let's go in," Renata said and looked at Alseace since she wanted him to be the leader.

Alseace and the others entered the portal.