Chapter LVI - Epiphany (part 2)

"Hey, this is Cony. Is this Rize?"

She is always on the coms. It's really nice having someone on standby all the time.

"Hai Cony. Yes, it's me. Do you think we can do a mission today?"

"Hmm. I don't know. Well I can, but I don't know about everyone else."

"I can."

Barett's voice came out. Cony chuckled because she wasn't expecting someone else to reply..

"Hey, bar."

"Yoo~. You can go on a mission?"

"Yep. Just finished a meeting with the Office Master."

"Owh... I heard those are tough."

"You tell me."

Barret chuckled from behind the crystal. He then said to reach out to Valey and Hod. I told him I'll go to Hod's and Cony should go to Valey's.

After Cony's confirmation, we closed the coms. And now, I'm heading straight to Hod's restaurant.

It didn't take long to recruit Hod. I went to his shop, and he saw me as soon as I entered.

...

"Done already?"

"Let's go for a mission, Hod."

"Eh?"

...

Twenty minutes later, everyone had gathered at the Office, with Valey and Cony being the last. Me, Hod, and Barret were sitting at the diner, and we ordered a couple of drinks as we waited.

Girls took years to prepare...

"So, what are we going to do today?"

Valey asked while pulling a chair. Hod handed the mission paper to her and drank his tea. We already picked the mission before they came, and this time Hod picked it.

"Oh... This is..."

"Difficult? Hard? We haven't had any interesting missions for a while now."

The last threatening mission to Hod was when fighting the pack of wyverns, next to a city. The mission where I requested was also quite threatening, but they managed to do it perfectly because they were lucky.

We had already picked the mission before Valey and Cony came. And that was like fifteen minutes ago.

"All right. Then, let's hunt dragons!!"

Cony said aloud without even minding her surroundings. And now, nearly everyone around us is staring. Not everyone can hunt dragons, you know Cony?

The mission we are accepting is a Yellow ranked mission. We are requested to hunt a Lesser dragon that was spotted in the area. A Lesser dragon is a Yellow ranked monster, and that is the only monster we are hunting, so it's a fine mission.

We stood up from our seats after drinking the whole glass. Hod took the mission scroll from Keila and we headed out afterwards.

After arriving at the village, we prepared to walk. This village isn't quite 'close' from the mission location. Though this is far, this is the closest living area that the carriage can drop us on.

Which means, we have to walk. Far. Far. Away.

Cony lets out a loud sigh before starting walking. Everyone else followed her.

The walk took around twenty minutes, which to me isn't quite far. But for everyone else, it's nerve-wrecking and tiring.

"Why the hell is there a mission like this? It's hot. It's far. It's really hot."

Cony complained while slapping the sweat away from her arms. Everyone else is also getting the heat, especially Barett since he is wearing the heavy armour. Not only are those heavy, but they absorbed the sunlight's heat and emitted them inside.

"Hoy, Hod. Can't you do something about this heat?"

"Well I could freeze you to death if that's what you want."

"Eek. Sometimes, I don't know if you are joking or not."

I do. For the whole walk, Hod has been releasing a small gush of cold mist from his hand and envelopes us in a cloud of cold. But so far, the heat was able to push through and removes the cloud completely.

Whatever is going on, without Hod's mist, we could have been extremely dehydrated. So I wonder how hot is it outside Hod's mist.

"Stop."

I told everyone. We all stopped walking.

Around us, there is no trees. It's just a land with a bunch of giant rocks around. And the heat around us is really insane.

It should be somewhere around three o'clock. And the cloud is already covering the sun, so it shouldn't really be that hot. And yet...

"Hod, can you thicken the mist?"

I asked Hod, who seemed surprised because he was keeping it a secret. He nodded, and grinned.

"For sure, I thought you guys didn't notice."

He lifted his hand and pour more magic. A mist of frozen air started to engulf around us, completely removing the heat from our body.

"Why didn't you do this earlier?"

"Because I'm saving energy..."

He really thought about it.

I walked to the edge of the mist, and moves my hand outside the mist. The senses on my skin quickly screams as my hand started to grow red. I retracted it immediately and looked at it.

"Sunburn."

"But that's not possible. The sun was covered by the weather."

Barett pointed upwards, where the sun was covered by a thick cloud.

"Something is going on."

Hod lifted both of his hands and poured a great amount of magic energy. This could really tire him out, but we needed him.

With a flick of his fingers, the air around us turned even colder. He created winter with only a flick of his fingers. I looked around us as the surrounding colour turned white.

"Ohhohohh... That felt better."

Cony said as smoke comes out from her mouth.

"Now, around fifteen meters around us is frozen."

Hod looked at me and I nodded at him. I enchanted my legs and with a single leap, I jumped to the nearest giant stone. From up here, I can see what's going on.

About forty meters from here, I can see a pool of magma. It's not that wide. Only somewhere around ten meters in diameter.

And right next to the pool, is two dragons. Two lesser dragons.

I jumped back down and tell my friends.

"Wha... There's two?"

Cony was surprised.

"What should we do?"

Barett asked. We all looked at Hod, who is putting his hand on his chin. Then he opened his eyes wide and spoke.

"We are going to burn the dragons."