"Are you sure you'll be fine on your own today?" Lily asked as she was getting ready to leave.

Kazuma had spent a few days familiarizing himself with Lorm city, especially the area around Lily's house. He wanted to get used to the city without relying on Lily to guide him everywhere he went.

"Yes yes, I'll be fine, don't worry about it. If anything I'm pumped up for today!" Kazuma reassured her.

"If you say so... I'll be back by tomorrow afternoon, so take care of yourself, alright?"

Lily was heading out because she was hired to join a party today for her healing magic. She had mentioned to him before that her skills were even required at some hospitals in the city, making herself quite well known. Though she was not at the same level as Aqua who could use resurrection. Even then, her skills with combat magic was also very high, making her an excellent mage.

"Of course, don't worry about it!" Kazuma said, giving her a thumbs up.

Lily let out a sigh before she said goodbye and headed out.

Now that Kazuma was on his own, he quickly went to get dressed for the day.

Today was the day he was to pick up his new sword and repaired mantle, so he wanted to go on a quest since it had been some time since his last one.

Once he was ready, he locked up before he took off. As he was walking, he thought about how he had spent the last few days.

He spent the last few days hanging out with Lily, and occasionally Dale, when he wasn't exploring the city. Surprisingly he's been enjoying his time with the two. Dale is a really cool guy to hang out with. They went to the Guild to get some drinks where they told some stories of their past.

There was one particular story that was really funny. While he was still in training, his group of soldiers attended a summer camp where they trained in the mountains. They had stayed at an inn that had hot springs. One night, he and a bunch of guys had the (predictable) idea of trying to peek at the girls. When they made their attempt by using an employee door, they were caught by the captain, who was a woman, who scared the living hell out of them. It was like the Devil King himself had resided in her body as she reprimanded them. That night he and the guys who joined him were strung up in public and humiliated.

It didn't take long for him to realize he had made it to the "Smith's Forge". He stared at the sign for some time before he couldn't help but snicker a bit.

'The fact that the man who runs this shop is named John Smith is just really amusing.' Kazuma thought to himself.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts before he entered.

"Hey there Kazuma, just in time for your new weapon! Couldn't wait, huh?" John asked as he waved at Kazuma.

"I've been slacking around for quite a while now, can't wait to get back out there." Kazuma said as he took swings with an imaginary sword.

John laughed. "I like your enthusiasm! Come around the back and I'll show you what I made!" John said as he waved him over, entering the door to the back.

Kazuma followed him into the room to see on a table a sword wrapped in a cloth.

John picked up the weapon and brought it over to Kazuma.

"Are you ready?" John asked.

Kazuma nodded his head. He carefully unwrapped the cloth. When the cloth was fully removed, he marveled at his new weapon.

Its blade shined a bright grey while it seemed extremely sharp, its hilt and pommel donned with gold, and the grip was green. Imbued the blade was a green gem, which reflected light beautifully. It was a well crafted sword that's for certain.

"What do you think?" John asked.

"I love it!"

"Hahaha! That's good to hear! Now make sure to kill a bunch of monsters with it, I didn't craft that sword to hang on the wall as decoration!"

"You got it!"

After thanking John, Kazuma strapped the sword on his hip and left, jogging over to the Guild.

When he entered he could hear a bunch of people talking up above at the dining area, where a bunch of parties were eating. Many were eating, and some were just drinking, having a good time with each other. It reminded Kazuma of all the times he partied in the Guild at Axel. He smiled slightly at memory before he felt his stomach growl. In his excitement he forgot to eat before leaving, making him have to go up for a meal.

He was greeted by one of the waitresses before being seated near the corner. He browsed over the menu before finally settling on some boar meat served with potatoes. He ate in relative silence, though the other tables were loud. He finished his meal and paid for it before he walked down to the Quest board.

Like usual, there were a bunch of quests, ranging from low danger quests with low rewards to ones needing a party full of advanced classes that would reward millions of eris.

'I should probably start with something fairly easy. I haven't been active for almost a week now, so my moves might be a bit sluggish' Kazuma thought to himself as he looked over the quests.

He finally settled on a quest to take care of a camp of goblins that had settled in the forest to the west of the city. The reward would turn out to ten thousand eris.

After he initiated the quest, he set off to Bonnie's shop for his mantle. He had felt like that green cape of his had become a staple of his look, so there was no way he could go off adventuring without it.

As he walked through the southern section of the city, two boys that were playing tag just ahead of him. One one ahead didn't watch where he was going and bumped into Kazuma, causing him to fall on his behind.

Kazuma crouched down to the boy and asked "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm alright." The boy responded.

"Good, now you better run, your friend is gonna catch you."

"Oh no! Bye mister!" The boy said as he quickly got up and ran, the other one running past him to give chase.

Kazuma smiled at the two boys as they ran off. It somewhat reminded him about his own childhood, that is to say the more positive parts of it.

He continued his stride towards Bonnie's shop, which had the sign set to open. He entered the shop, bell ringing from the door, and Bonnie called out from inside. "I'll be right there!"

She then quickly emerged from the back to greet him.

"Kazuma! Here to pick up your mantle?" She asked. She had learned his name from the first time he visited.

"Yeah, is it ready?" He asked her.

"Yes! Right here! I got to say, it was quite damaged, but that didn't stop me from fixing it!" She said as she handed him his mantle.

Kazuma inspected it to see the repairs. He was amazed to find that the thing looked almost like the day he bought it.

"It's perfect! Thank you!" Kazuma said as he slipped on the green cape.

He looked in the mirror to see his familiar look. He was ready.

"Perfect! Not only does the green and gold colors suit you nicely, the gold parts and green jewel from your sword that can be seen through your scabbard match it perfectly!" Bonnie said as she admired the look.

Kazuma couldn't help buy agree with her, the sword was a nice touch to the look compared to the standard sword he had back at Axel.

He thanked Bonnie for the mending and set off for the quest.

It took him close to two hours to go from the Bonnie's shop to the forest where the camp of goblins were located at. He was constantly using "Detect Enemy" to see if he could find them easy, but so far he hadn't found anything on his radar.

'This is odd, they said the camp was supposed to be around here...' Kazuma thought to himself. He ventured further into the forest and found what seemed like a campsite. There were a few campfires and makeshift weapons that goblins use around the area.

'This is the camp, but where are the monsters?'

Just as he thought this, a scream rang out from deeper into the forest. Kazuma honed in on the sound and ran deeper into the forest. The light was becoming more dim as the forest got thicker. He activated his skill again as he ran around, looking for the person who screamed. After some time, he finally picked something up to his right. He paused for a moment to see if he could spot the goblin. He first saw a figure running in a direction, before the goblin he picked up was chasing said figure.

'There they are!' Before he could make a move, his skill flared up even more as he detected even more goblins following the lone one.

'Crap!'

Kazuma quickly chased after the figure and single goblin.

He used "Lurk" to make himself harder to detect while giving himself a bit of a speed boost. He soon caught up to the two and drew his sword. Drawing near, he swiftly stabbed the newly made sword clean through the goblin, stopping it in its tracks, effectively killing it.

The figure stopped running when it noticed the goblin stopped chasing it.

Kauzma pulled the sword out of the goblin, letting it fall to the ground, before he spoke. "Are you okay?" He asked.

The figure got closer, revealing to be a black haired girl, around his age, dressed in normal clothes, indicating she was not an adventurer.

"Yes, thank you. But my younger sister, she's still being chased!"

Kazuma turned around where he could sense the other goblins still making their way to them.

"Alright, you get out of here, I'll find your sister." She nodded and turned towards the nearest exit from the forest.

Before she had fully gone out of view, she turned around to shout at him.

"When you find her, say "petunias"! It's a safe word for whenever someone she doesn't know, but I do, comes to help her!"

"Will do!" He shouted back.

She then turned back around and continued to run.

Kazuma turned towards the group of goblins that had finally caught up to him. They stopped before him, noticing their dead comrade at his feet. They growled at Kazuma before they charged at him.

Kazuma swung his sword and knocked back one, dodging another that got closer to him.

'This sword, it feels so well balanced, and quite light!' Kazuma marveled at the sword.

While he was admiring his new sword? he didn't notice that one had ran around him and hit him in the back with a club, knocking him onto the ground.

"Damn... that hurt." Kazuma narrowly dodged another swing from the goblin and kicked it away.

"I gotta be careful, Aqua isn't around to heal me anymore, neither is Darkness to tank all the hits."

He took a stance, ready for any attacks the goblins were to do.

They all charged at him at him at once, which gave him the opportunity to use "Lurk" to sneak around behind them quickly. With his blade gripped tightly, he swung and managed to leave a large cut in every one of their backs. They fell onto the floor, bleeding out from their wounds.

"It's a good thing goblins aren't particularly powerful, that was quite a lot."

Just as he was catching his breath, he heard another scream, from the sounds of it a younger female than the one he ran into, deeper in the woods.

"That must be her sister!" Kazuma darted towards the source.

Darker and darker the forest got as he went deeper until he finally picked up a goblin on his radar. He found the goblin standing above a fallen girl, hair color similar to the one from earlier, club raised and ready to strike a killing blow.

"Tinder!" Kazuma chanted, causing a small fireball to land on the goblin's club. It lit on fire, startling the goblin and causing it to panic, making it move away from the girl.

He got close to it and tackled the goblin, driving his sword into it's chest, killing it.

Kazuma sat for a moment, catching his breath. He extracted the sword from the corpse, wiping off any blood with a cloth before sheathing his sword. He then approached the little girl.

"Hey there, are you lost?" He asked her.

She nodded, but was slightly afraid of him.

"You were here with your sister, right?"

She nodded again.

"Come on, she's waiting for you."

The girl didn't move.

"Oh right, I believe the thing she told me to say was "petunias", right?" He asked.

The girl's face lit up.

"So you're gonna take me to my sister?" She asked him.

"Of course!"

The girl stood up slowly before he led her towards the direction of her sister. They spent quite a bit of time walking through the forest. Once they were close to leaving the forest, they saw the girl from earlier at the edge, waiting for them.

"Big sister!" The small girl shouted as she ran to the other girl.

"There you are! I was so worried about you." She said as she hugged the smaller girl.

"Thank you so much!" She said to Kazuma.

"It was no problem, glad I was there to help!" He responded.

The two talked a little bit more before the two girls said their goodbyes and left.

Kazuma then just fell on his back, back resting on the grass as he stared at the evening sky. The sun was starting to set, making the sky a orangy purple.

"What a day... I guess it was a good thing I took that quest then..." Kazuma said, closing his eyes, enjoying the weather.

He stayed still for a bit until...

"Wait crap!" Kazuma shot up.

"I have to hurry back before the guild closes!"

He quickly got up and ran back towards Lorm.

Once he was far in the distance, a cloaked girl emerged from the shadows of the forest.

"Interesting, he's doing well now. Just you wait Kazuma... Anak will have his revenge... I, Raze, WILL have my revenge on you for the humliation you put me through!" The cloaked girl, now named Raze, looked up more, revealing to be the same girl from the Blood Eyed Bandits who stabbed him.

"Enjoy your peace while it lasts Kazuma, you will pay..." She said with a wicked smile.