A Spark Between Roses, A Brand New Quest

When Elly left Nero behind, she had hurried off to find her brother Raynas, but while moving, she noticed that her friend request was accepted. She smiled as she thought to herself, 'Hmph! So he did accept it, I may have given up for now, but that doesn't mean I'll keep this loss... I'll challenge him in the arena when I get my Inherence. Plus, he now owes me a favor; it looks like I'll need to come up with something hard.'

Elly was so busy scheming; she didn't notice that someone had appeared before her, walking along with a similar kind of dazed look.

Bang! The two collided into each other, almost falling onto the ground, they held their heads and glared at each other, but as they saw their features, they couldn't help but become a bit alarmed.

Other than Elly's refined and petite features, the other party was of a similarly gorgeous girl with a taller stature, with orange hair and cute looking orange-white tail, garbed in a red combat dress. Her skin was pure white, and she had long eyelashes over large slanted eyes.

Both were initially upset, but as if they were sizing each other up in silence, they didn't lash out as the first to show anger would lose out in feminine charm.

Suddenly, the orange-haired girl with fox ears made a gentle smile, reaching her hand forward as she spoke, "Hello there, you should be a bit more careful, spacing out while walking is quite dangerous. Are you okay?"

Elly hearing her lecturing tone was angry, but she didn't want to lose her image, she stared at the girl deeply before grabbing her hand and replying with a gentle look, "Yes, I am fine, since we were both distracted this couldn't have been avoided, let's both try to be careful from now on, okay."

The other girl frowned at those words; it implied that she was also not paying attention. Both Elly and this girl looked at each other in silence as a vague spark flashed between them, but the other girl stared at Elly up and down, noticing their difference in height and body features.

She smirked and walked away while speaking, "Hehe, I'll also keep it in mind, but we 'grown women' sometimes find it hard to keep a degree of awareness, there are far too many troublesome things on our minds."

Elly had a warm smile on her face, but her eyes soon turned cold, she no longer thought about bullying Nero, her mind was filled with hate for that girl as she heard her use the word - grown.

She knew that she was implying more than just her current petite stature; unlike the other, she didn't have ample and abundant features in core areas. However, Elly calmed herself while thinking, 'It's only for now, mother always said those good things sprout last. I shouldn't be concerned about some cow on the street.'

Not bothering to overthink that girl's words, Elly once more continued on her way to the garden. Soon, she had arrived at its outskirts, but right then and there an angry voice sounded, "Elly, get over right now!"

Elly trembled for a bit before answering, "Yes, brother!"

No matter how much of a troublemaker she would be, there were those in this world that could curb her when needed. Unlike this scene, the orange-haired beauty continued her way with pride, as she moved her large breasts would bounce as it swayed the eyes of many male novices roaming in parties or as lone wolves.

As if she didn't care about this scene, she stepped with pride as she recalled the coldness from Elly. She smirked while thinking, "Hmph! I wonder how she must be feeling by now?"

She was feeling proud that she could curb the other party, but right now, due to her distraction, she had collided into another individual, falling onto her rear as she looked up in anger.

At this time, Nero was the victim of this stranger, he was already in a bad mood after leaving the greedy monk, and this was the second time a scatter-brained girl had collided with him.

He coldly looked down and spoke, "Why don't you watch where you're going?"

After Nero said this, he didn't even wait for a reply, he continued on his way, moving towards the Village Chief's abode.

The girl stared at Nero's back in shock, as she didn't think she would have received such a statement, she was boiling with anger, but soon found that he looked somewhat familiar.

'Hmm? Isn't he that handsome newbie who struggled against the slime? To think we'd bump into each other, hehe, I'll have to pay him for this sometime real soon...' The beauty said with a smile as she licked her lips, her orange pupils flashing in an odd light.

"That girl… she's fox, right? That newbie talent on the Rising Novice List..." Someone who noticed her asked another.

"Hmm, now that you mention it, you're right, the description seems on point, especially that tail of hers and the red battle dress," Another replied as they looked at her.

Fox seeing that she had become the center of attention, shook her head. After staring at Nero's distant back for a moment, she got up from the ground and dusted off her clothes as she made a jump and vanished from their sights.

"Ah, she's left, I wonder what she was doing just now?" Someone asked with a puzzled look on their face.

"Like heck I'd know..." Another replied with a shrug.

A distance away from this scene, Nero had continued on his way to the Village Chief. At this hour of daylight, the area before the reasonably crowded teleporter was busy. It flashed every once and a while as injured and none injured individuals would appear now and then, some with dark looks on their faces while others looked around curiously.

Nero knew that this teleporter was both used to summon newbies, and as a respawn point if one were to die in the deep wilderness as a novice. Naturally, the rules will be much different when one reaches a higher rank.

Not paying them any mind, promptly join the line to the Village Chief, and waited for a fair amount of time before he had finally arrived before her.

As usual, Village Chief Pan's eyes brightened when she saw Nero, and spoke to him with active interest, "Little one, you seem ready, that's good, I've prepared a fine quest for you."

Nero's eyes flashed with excitement as he looked at her in anticipation, Village Chief Pan's mouth curved into a smile as she spoke again, "Novice Nero, there are troublesome creatures in the wild plain's Bamboo Grove. They have been harassing the local travelers hindering their movements to the nearest town. I would like for you to demolish every one of them..."

Soon after her words, was a notification that popped up into Nero's eyes.

[Quest: Slay the Pests of the Bamboo Grove]

[Difficulty: Normal]

[Description: Defeat the pests that lurk around the passageway through the Bamboo Grove!]

[Rewards:]

[400 EXP, Prestige 100]

[Village Chief Pan of the Winfrey Village has offered you a Normal Quest. There will be no penalties if you choose to reject it.]

[Do you accept the Quest, Yes or No?]

Nero was a bit suspicious when he read the term 'pest' and recalled her words, 'creatures,' but as this was his first Quest, he didn't think it would be that bad, or to be more accurate, he hoped it wouldn't.

He promptly accepted by speaking in a firm tone, "Grandma Pan, you can count on me!"

Village Chief Pan was happy at his determination, she smiled and replied, "Good, now go on little one, do your best."

[Quest accepted!]

As Nero heard those words, he promptly left the area and headed towards the village entrance. While moving, he couldn't help but ask inwardly, 'Hey, do you know anything about these creatures?'

Adult Nero remained silent, not ushering a word, Nero seeing this frowned as he complained, 'Fine then, you can keep it to yourself, it's not like I'll just die out of the blue...'

Adult Nero chuckled causing Nero to feel a bit nervous, but he didn't bother with him, he quickly went along a path of soil and grass, headed towards the plains.

Soon, he had taken a step which caused him to feel a strange feeling. With a buzzing sound, he found that he suddenly arrived in an even wider open field, with many kinds of monsters scattered about sparsely. Looking ahead, he even saw teams or lone Digitizers, fighting against them as they made their way towards different places.

Nero was a bit surprised, he turned around and saw that a semi-transparent yellowish light that cut off the area of Winfrey Village was behind him.

'Oh, that's pretty neat, so I'm guessing if I didn't have a Traveling Licence, I would have never been able to leave that barrier,' Nero thought with flashing eyes.

"Correct, there are more areas like these, but we'll get around that in the future, for now, my advice to you is to do your very best to practice with these simple monsters while you make your way over to the Quest Zone," Adult Nero said in a serious tone.

Nero hearing this had a bad feeling, he didn't dare to reject the idea as he stared at the vast field ahead of him and summoned his Common Iron Sword while ushered in a soft tone, "I'll do my best..."

A cool wind blowing across the field as it shook the grasses and swung his hair, sending leaves and bushes about as his sword shimmered in a cold ray, prepared to draw new blood.