Travel, Contemplation, and Quest Part 1

Helping Gwen pack up the supplies needed for the quest took less time than Ethan expected it would. What surprised him the most was the normal-size travel bag, which even after a large portion of supplies were packed into it stayed the same size. It wasn't surprising that some form of spatial magic or enchantment magic had been etched in it somewhere.

Putting aside the intriguing aspect of the travel bag for later, the duo headed outside, and started their trek onto the nearest dirt path to town. Both verbally going over the details of the C class-rated quest on their way.

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C Class Quest: Vulcan Extermination {Explanation for rank at the end of the chapter.}

- The Vulcans are located in the peaks of Mt. Hakobe.

- Kill more than twenty Vulcan and collect kill confirmation for the major reward. Each additional Vulcan fetches 25,000 more jewels.

- For the minor reward, kill at least Ten Vulcan and collect kill confirmation.

Reward:

- 230,000 Jewels {AN: 100 jewels equal one dollar, so this is 2,300 dollars. I will just put this next to these from now on and just put the dollar amount only. To keep immersion!}

- 80,000 Jewels

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It was honestly a simple extermination quest, the only downside being possibly being overwhelmed by the Vulcan, and that's not even taking into account their Take Over magic. Could he just beat them in one go with the Omnitrix?

Ethan, having not exactly messed with the Omnitrix since he got here, finally attempted looking at his playlist one selection. Pressing two fingers against the faceplate, a selection wheel appeared above his fingers, but unlike the Omniverse selection wheel, a silhouette of whatever alien he had in the wheel appeared inside the middle, giving a good idea as to who the aliens were. To be honest, his current playlist had decent aliens, them being: Franken Strike, Swampfire, Big Chill, XLR8, Diamondhead, Brainstorm, Cannonbolt, Ditto, NRG, and Gutrot.

This selection, albeit a bit odd, was honestly preferable, as most of these aliens had abilities that had many applications for his new profession. Such as Brainstorm of logical and deductive reasoning, Ditto for numbers, Gutrot for incapacitation of enemy's, and XLR8 for mobility. So no transformation was exactly dead weight, as each one had a strength that came in handy for those specific types of situations, not just their combat capability.

Having gone over his decent selections in his playlist, he moved his hand away, and the faceplate slide right back into place, not popping up the core. Ethan honestly couldn't tell if that was his doing or the watch exactly, but they were almost at the town, thus bringing an end to his speculation.

[Magnolia Town]

Magnolia Town is a beautifully large built-up area that extends over a rectangular surface to the shores of Lake Sciliora. Splitting the town vertically and horizontally is a majority of roads leading in and out. The beauty of the houses and greenery adds to the town's overall welcoming appeal.

Magnolia, beside housing civilians and merchants, houses the distinguished Fairy Tail guild. A guild known for their destructive tendencies, strong wizards, and unique ideals. If not for his hesitance about joining any guild in general, Ethan may have joined Fairy Tail, but for the moment he was ok with his mercenary like lifestyle.

Magnolias train station encompassed a large area, making it rather easy to find in the bustling town. Ethan and Gwen, albeit fairly new to Magnolia, decided that sightseeing could be saved for later and headed to the station ticket booth. Purchasing a ticket that each amounted to around two hundred and fifty jewels each. Upon purchasing the tickets, the ticket agent punched their tickets, and let them into the nearest train car.

[Around Twenty Minutes Later]

Ethan and Gwen, while waiting for the train to leave the station, started to converse about the initial game plan they had going into this C class quest.

"Gwen, what way should we go about tackling this quest? After all, if they are in a larger group, it's going to be rather difficult to take them out without getting jumped by at least five of them. That's not including the possibility of them having used Take Over magic on a creature stronger than them to increase their overall abilities."

"I have two ideas. The first involves smoking them out, laying traps to temporarily restrain them, and finishing them off while those that aren't trapped are recovering. My second plan is separating them into groups of two to three and picking them off bit by bit. Both in all honesty could go off the rails at any time, thus saving our full strength for when things go wrong would be our safest option.", Gwen says, giving the situation lots of thought.

"Our best option would be for me to use Gutrot in the mist of their group, knocking them out, and then collecting the bounty would be a sinch. That option, although the best, does leave us unsure of what our level of strength actually is, because power, while it is naturally good to have, does not correlate to combat experience.", Ethan says shortly after his tone is serious.

"I know Ethan. Most quests under C class are mostly general things like helping people out with daily issues. So we don't exactly have a benchmark for us to gauge our strength to an accurate degree, and it doesn't help this was the only C class quest available.", Gwen says while reading a book, her eyes never leaving its pages.

"Then our best option is to play it safe, and if driven into a corner, pull out all the stops."

Ethan, after giving his final input on the situation, felt the train slow down to a crawl, the train conductor shouting, "All those heading to Mt. Hakobe, we have arrived at the transport area. Please exit in a calm manner and good luck.", and the doors opened. Outside an ordinarily large building stood, carriages lining the front lot, and in them were Coachmen.

Walking up to the nearest coachmen, Ethan said, "How much to as close as you can to Mt. Hakobe?" and it wasn't but a split second before the man said, "Two thousand jewels each, and should harm come to the wagon another payment amounting to five thousand jewels each.".

Ethan paying the amount for both him and Gwen hopped into the back of what he'd considered a rather cozy carriage. The floor inside has a lacquer-like finish, the seats are adorned with cushions, and the walls have a rather soft carpet-like texture. It was essentially the best carriage one could afford outside of pure luxury carriages that were normally owned by the wealthy. Most wizards, although well off, would not spend an extravagant amount to travel most distances.

Ethan, having sat down, decided to take a nap until they arrived at their destination. Gwen, on the other hand pulled another book out of her bag and continued to read.

[Mt. Hakobe Base] [Two Hours Later]

"Wake up, Ethan; we're here.", Gwen says, trying to wake the rather heavy sleeper, whose head is laying on her lap.

"I'm awake. Let me just get my stuff.", Ethan says while getting up and grabbing his travel bag from the storage compartment.

Exiting the carriage, a cold wind assaulted the duo, ruffling their clothes and making them shiver. Quickly steadying themselves, they moved forward, starting their ascent up the mountain. Each step increasing in difficulty the further up they went, the trail slowly, but surely becoming narrower.

[Mt. Hakobe Cave] [An Hour Later]

Finally, having reached somewhere around the top of the mountain, they entered a large opening. The inside is made up of ice and rock, with a few pillars supporting it. Further in lay six passageways leading deeper into the mountain, each seemingly marked by an odd symbol.

"Gwen which one should we enter or smoke out first?"

"The third one we will enter first. Scout it out using Big Chill without getting caught and then come back."

"Got it.", Ethan says, placing his fingers against the watch's faceplate and activating the interface. After finding Big Chill on the wheel, he slid his finger upward on the faceplate, causing it to slide back and pop up the core. Rather than slamming it down like Ben would, he gently pushed in the core so as not to randomize the time limit.

Instantly, the transformation took place. In place of Ethan's normal human like body stood a 6'8" blue and black bug like creature with winged appendages that took the form of a hood.

Ethan knew that Big Chill was way bigger than Ben height wise in the show, but being able to feel the difference this way was bizarre. Realizing that he had been standing in place, Ethan quickly flew forward, becoming intangible as he dove into the passageway. Doing this in a different form might have been dangerous, but the rigid walls just passed right through him.

{AN: Hey its Recluse I hope you enjoyed the chapter to be honest it was rather hard to type this chapter because of Web novel being a pain in the ass. Like my word count wouldn't show up for two whole hours, and when it did fix I hadn't finished as much as I would liked to have done. Anyways this chapter is about 1600 words with this note included, so see you all next chapter.}