I woke up to a wet substance on my shoulder area and I see Aqua literally drooling on my shoulder while locking my arm in place.
"What the hell? Get off me!"
I push her off which wakes her up and I hear Kazuma walking to our stable.
"Aqua, why were you slobbering all over my shoulder? That's gross!"
Aqua: "I-I'm sorry, Y/N! I didn't know I was doing that."
"Whatever, at least your face looked normal for a second when you were sleeping."
I got up and walked towards Kazuma.
"Kazuma!"
Kazuma: "Kazuma here."
"You said we needed to go get jobs today right? I was thinking why don't we go apply at a shop or something since we both have good amounts of luck which is perfect for merchants!"
Kazuma: "But you're a crusader. You should be off killing giant monsters or something."
"But that's booooring! I wanna do something with my friends!"
Kazuma: "Me and Aqua will handle the manual labor part of money making. You can go get a quest or something."
"Fine, I'll go get a kill quest or something."
I left the stables and started walking towards the guild.
---
Luna: "Welcome back, Y/N!"
"Hello to you as well, Luna. Do you know where the quests are?"
Luna: "Yup! They're right there to your right. If you see one that peaks your interest, come back and talk to me to accept the quest."
"Alright, thanks."
I walk over to the quest board and see a lot of quests that haven't been accepted yet. I was about to pick a quest that required me to slay five toads that have been roaming the area before I was stopped with another hand about to pick that same quest.
"Hey, that's my-"
I looked to my right and saw a blonde haired woman that looks to be at least three years older than me. I was quickly taken aback by her looks.
???: "S-Sorry, I was about to pick that quest too..."
"No problem, we could always do it together, if you'd like to."
???: "That sounds nice. What's your class?"
"I'm of the crusader class and my name is Y/N L/N, what about you?"
Darkness: "I am also of the crusader class. You can call me Darkness."
"That names sounds both edgy and cool..."
"Nice to meet you, let's go take the quest together."
Darkness and I both accepted the quest as a temporal alliance and set out to kill the toads. Along the way, I tried to make some small talk.
"So, you have any friends or a party?"
Darkness: "I do have a friend but not really a party to join. Do you?"
"I have a party but we basically just started out and haven't really recruited anyone yet. But, you look strong so I'm surprised you weren't invited by anyone."
Darkness smiles at me and we continue walking until we see a field full of giant toads.
"HOLY SHIT THEY ARE MASSIVE!"
Darkness: "T-They look pretty strong and tough..."
"Are you okay? You scared?"
Darkness: "I-I am not scared! Just the thought of being slowly gobbled up by those creatures..."
"What!? Whatever, we need to focus."
I take the object the carries my sword and it opens, revealing the Dimensional Sword and I do a little pose with it before rushing the toad.
I teleport behind the toad that was coming towards us and slash at it three times, hitting it successfully and killing it. I smile and look at the sword seeing that it was practically glowing with power.
"Darkness! Where are you?!"
I look to my right and see Darkness literally offering herself to become toad food. I put my hand through a portal beside Darkness and pushed her out of harm's way before teleporting to the toad and doing one giant slice.
Darkness: "Y-You saved my life! Thank you!"
"What the hell were you doing? Were you trying to be eaten by that toad!?"
Darkness: "Mmph!"
Darkness' moan caught me off guard and coincidentally, a toad was right behind me, gobbling me up whole.
"It smells like ass in here!"
I quickly slashed at it's tongue, making it open wide for me to escape, then slicing it's entire body in half with a strong slice.
Darkness: "A-Are you okay? Y/N?"
"I'm just fine Darkness! I smell like ass and I think I just got traumatized, but yes, I'm fine!"
Darkness: "I'm sorry! I tried to help but I was stunned at the mere sight of you getting eaten!"
"Lemme guess, you wished that it was you getting eaten instead, you masochistic freak!"
Darkness: "I'm not a masochist!"
"Whatever, how many toads do we have left?"
Darkness: "Around two more, but if we slay more we can get extra money."
"I trust you enough to at least take out the remaining two, I'll go kill another two more!"
I teleported out of there and saw two toads hopping towards me. I grin and think of a brilliant idea.
"Can I use ki?"
I remembered that Janemba could shoot ki beams out of his mouth, so I tried doing that, only for it to not work and almost get eaten by a toad again.
"Alright, sticking to swords!"
I concentrated enough power in the sword to do a slash that killed both of the toads at the same time which made me smirk in response. I look to my left and see Darkness struggling with a singular toad while another toad was approaching behind her.
"Oh no, she's not getting toaded."
I teleported behind the toad that was going towards Darkness and sliced it clean in half. I then see Darkness successfully slice the toad's tongue, which kills it.
"Darkness! Are you good?"
Darkness: "I'm fine! I'm more surprised that I actually hit something!"
"Is your accuracy just that bad? I could probably train you if you want."
Darkness: "I would like that, thank you."
We both laugh and start making it way back to Axel. Darkness avoided coming too close to me since the toad saliva and blood smelled like literal dogass.
Eventually, we made it back to Axel and made it back to the guild.
Luna: "Here is your reward! 40,000 Eris for killing seven toads!"
"40,000 seems like a little bit, but I'm not complaining!
Darkness: "You could take 35,000 while I take 5,000, I don't really mind it at all."
"Why? We both did it together so we should split it half and half."
Darkness: "You did much more than me, you should take it."
"Here, why don't I take 30,000 for me and my party while you take 10,000. I know it's not half and half but you did make a good point of me doing more than you."
Darkness: "I'm fine with that. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow for training?"
"Uh, yeah sure. Just be at the guild around afternoonish time."
Darkness: "Will do, thank you Y/N. Bye!"
"Bye Darkness!"
---
I leave the guild and walk back to the stables. I enter the stables and see Kazuma and Darkness practically panting with exhaustion.
"What happened to you guys?"
Aqua: "Kazuma and I had to move stuff with construction workers and build walls."
Kazuma: "Don't act like you're tired! You barely did anything while I did the hard work!"
"Calm down, at least you both got paid right?"
Kazuma: "Yeah, we got paid 5,000 Eris for our first day. What about you?"
"I went to kill toads and got 30,000 Eris. It was originally 40,000 but I had to share with the partner I was working with."
Kazuma: "Is that why you smell like ass?"
"You try getting swallowed by a toad! It was scary" *fake cries*
Aqua: "Partner? Did you two share the same quest?"
"Yeah. She and I killed the toads together but we both agreed that since I did the most work, I'd keep 30,000 and she keeps 10,000."
Kazuma: "She? A female adventurer? Was she hot?"
"You have no idea, bro."
Aqua: "You two are pathetic, anyways, let's just go to sleep since I'm exhausted."
"Careful who you're calling pathetic, useless goddess."
Aqua: "I'm not useless!"
--
Timeskip about four months of Y/N training Darkness while also doing small kill quests and learning new skills while Kazuma and Aqua work at random jobs they could find.
--
"Darkness! You have to remember to always block using your sword, not relying onyour armor!"
Darkness: "You're too fast, Y/N! Slow down!"
"Please, I'm going easy on you. I know you can do this Darkness!"
She charges towards me, sword in hand but I side step away just in time to see her falling first onto the ground.
"I don't really want to ask this but, are you okay?"
Darkness: "I'm just fine! Please, make me get hurt like that even more!"
For the past four months, every single time she felt a single amount of pain, she would blush and say some weird stuff like that. It annoyed me for the first week or so but after a while, I got used to it that I don't really care anymore.
"Okay, we're gonna end training here since my party wants to go do something. Is that fine with you?"
Darkness: "I'm fine with it. See you later, Y/N."
I wave goodbye to Darkness and walk towards the stables where I see Kazuma just standing and looking at Aqua sleeping.
"What's the matter? She caught your interest or something?"
Kazuma: "Hell no! I was just wondering why we haven't been doing anything interesting or adventurey for the past four months that we've been here!"
"That's why I suggested we get a kill quest yesterday, to boost our party's morale."
Aqua slowly wakes up and blinks at us.
Aqua: "Good morning, Y/N and Kazuma..."
Kazuma: "Don't "good morning" me! It's almost noon and we have to do a kill quest today!"
Aqua: "Relax, I'll go get ready. Go with Y/N and find a quest for us."
"Let's just go kill toads since I'm pretty used to them. It'll be easy too, trust me."
Kazuma: "Whatever you say, just make sure I don't get eaten!
-Timeskip-
All three of us were in a field full of toads just hopping around and enjoying their day.
"Never liked seeing all these toads just going about their day, makes me sick."
Kazuma: "Alright, let's go, Aqua! Y/N!"
Literally five minutes later Kazuma was being chased by a toad. I wanted to go help him but Aqua kept telling me to relax and that he'll be fine.
Kazuma: "AQUA! Y/N! HELP ME!
Aqua: "You'll get help when you start adding -sama at the end of my name!"
Kazuma: "AQUA-SAMA PLEASE HELP ME!"
"Okay, I'm gonna go help him now."
I teleported behind the toad and slashed it clean in half, spraying toad blood basically everywhere on me.
"You good, Kazuma?"
Kazuma: "I'm fine. Thanks, Y/N."
Aqua: "You were screaming like a little girl! That was so hilarious!"
Aqua was laughing hysterically while Kazuma muttered something that I couldn't quite hear but in the far distance, Kazuma and I both saw a toad coming straight for Aqua.
Kazuma and Y/N: "AQUA! BEHIND-"
While Aqua was still laughing, the toad swallowed her up whole and Kazuma and I freaked out. I immediately dashed towards the toad while Kazuma jumped up in the air and we both slashed it at the same time.
Aqua was covered in slime and crying while Kazuma and I were panting like crazy.
Aqua: *sniffles* "Thank you two, you saved my life!" *sniffles*
Aqua started climbing on Kazuma while I tried my best not to laugh.
Kazuma: "She smells like ass!"
We eventually gathered our stuff and started walking back to Axel.
--
Once we made it back to Axel, we decided to hit the showers and then go to the guild to order some food. I was taking a nice and relaxing bath and decided to pull out my Adventurer card.
"You'd think after four months of just doing small kill quests I'd be a higher level, but I'm only level 16!"
I didn't have much stat points to get the skills I wanted but decided that when I needed to really use my points, I would spend it on a skill that's good for utility like the ability to extend my arm and grab people.
After my bath, I walked in the guild and saw Kazuma and Aqua already eating some food so went over to them to eat.
"Who knew toad meat tasted really good?"
Aqua: "The outside is kinda tough but the inside is juicy and tender!"
Kazuma and I start eating more and more until Aqua suggested an idea, but with food in her mouth.
Aqua: "I wash thinnking thhat wee couldd havv anotther mem-"
"Finish your food before you talk!"
She quickly swallowed all of the food in her mouth then started speaking again.
Aqua: "I was saying that we could recruit a new member in our party!"
Kazuma: "Who would want to join us? We have a novice Adventurer that's me, a useless goddess who doesn't do anything that's you, and Y/N who's really the only good member of the team."
"Hey, I think you're all useful in your own ways. Don't beat yourself up over it."
Aqua: "Let's just see in the morning. I'll make a poster for us and see if anyone comes!"
"Fine by me. Let's just head to bed already."
Kazuma: "If it's fine with Y/N then it's cool with me. Let's just go back already."
We pay our bill and leave the guild, making our way back to the stables. Kazuma and Aqua take their original sleeping positions while I just get in mine.
"I'm just hoping some weirdo doesn't join our party. "
=========================================
New chapter already!? Crazy. Anyway, thanks for reading!