Within just a few days, the lively atmosphere in the guild hall began to fade. Soon only a quarter of the tables were still occupied by our fellow adventurers.I heard some words about a new guild hall in the northern district, the wealthier area of the city, opening their doors to us adventurers.

  It was only logical that many would move to the new guild hall. The main building had been especially crowded during lunch hours when most adventurers returned from their quests. Less adventurers in the building also meant less commotion, which was a huge relief for us.

  We still witnessed the occasional brawl or argument amongst other parties, but it never escalated to the point where weapons were drawn.

  Another amazing change was that we could use the guild’s library, training hall, dining area and bath more freely. With fewer people around, these places felt quieter and more private, even during the day.

  Shizuka and I sat at one of the long tables in the main hall, which was completely empty except for a few other adventurers and guild staff. We were preparing for our next quest, which would finally raise our party’s rank from “F” to “E”. A party’s rank was determined by the average of its member’s ranks. All of us were “F”-rank adventurers and we had completed all of our quests together, so it was logical that we would all rank up together. To rank up from “F” to “E”, you had to successfully complete three quests.

  After the incident on our quest as bodyguards of a prisoner transport, the guild granted us the privilege to take on “E”-rank quests, even though we were only “F”-rank, such as the quest on the piece of paper in front of me and Shizuka. The difficulty of quests scaled exponentially with their ranks, and while “F”-rank quests were simple things like guard work, heavy physical labor, searching for missing pets, running errands or babysitting children, “E”-rank quests were already mostly only about fighting off monsters, bandits and wild animals.

  The quest in front of us was a little different, something unusual for an “E”-rank quest. We were asked to uncover the disappearance of people in Sural’s outskirts that has happened over the course of the last few weeks. Kuro and Hina were currently out shopping for anything we might need on this quest, while Shizuka and I remained at the guild. We initially asked Chris to tag along, but it seemed that he was busy with his own quest. He had already ranked up to the “E”-rank by completing quests on his own, and we barely saw him at the guild anymore.

  The smell of today's lunch drifted through the hall, making my mouth water. Shizuka and I had talked so much about this quest this morning that I was tired from even thinking about talking more. My mouth needed to do something different, like chewing on the delicious meat and bread that the guild’s chefs were preparing right now.

  When Shizuka's stomach growled loudly, I realized I wasn't the only one starving, so we went to the bar counter where you could order the food and got ourselves a plate that was filled with heaven on earth. The cost of food at the guild was very cheap, just like the rooms. As a group of young adventurers with not much money, the low prices were real lifesavers, allowing us to save some money for gear and supplies.

  Shizuka and I ate quietly, while basking in the warmth and comfort of each other’s company and the incredible food in front of us. The meat and bread were perfect and just eating this delicious meal filled me with joy and energy.

  Once we finished our Lunch, we brought the plates back to the bar counter and thanked the chefs for the delicious meal. We gathered all of our belongings and went up the stairs to our rooms to pack up all of the important stuff we might need for our quest. While scanning the room with my eyes, looking for important stuff we might need, I noticed that my sword looked pretty roughed up. I took good care of it and polished it every day, but it was a cheap sword of low quality, so it still suffered quite some damage from the daily training with my friends.

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  Anyway, there was no way I’d be able to afford a new sword soon, so I slid it back into its sheath and packed all the stuff we might need into our backpacks. Our sleeping bags, my chainmail, Kuro’s short sword, some spare clothes for us, our coin pouches and our canteens which were made from goat leather roughly filled out around 75% of our backpacks, so we still had some space for whatever Kuro and Hina would bring back from the shopping trip. I put the two backpacks next to the door and went over to the girls’ room. Just as I wanted to knock, Shizuka opened the door and stepped out, almost walking into me. She flinched and stepped back, but quickly caught herself and let out a small embarrassed laugh

  “Ah, you’re done as well, I didn’t expect you to come over.” Her voice was a bit shaky and the tips of her pointy ears had reddened a bit.

  I was a little startled as well, but tried not to let it show.

  “Oh yeah, we didn’t have much stuff to pack and we didn’t talk about where we would meet up once we were done so I decided to come over and see if you needed some help.”

  “Thank you, but I just got done packing as well. Shall we wait for the others downstairs?”

  I replied with a quick “sure” and led the way back downstairs into the main hall.

  Another adventurer group we'd talked to a few times had just returned from a quest, so I gave them a brief nod as we walked by. We sat down at one of the tables that were close to the front door, where we could see Kuro and Hina instantly when they returned. It took about 30 more minutes until Hina and Kuro came back, and both of them looked very spent when they joined us at the table. They had bought some dried meat, dried fruits, bread, new arrows for Shizuka, a map of the city and its outskirts and a deck of cards. I didn’t know how they did it, but they got all of this for less than fifteen silver coins.

  As Kuro presented us with the map, he pointed at a specific point in the outskirts.

  “This is the village where the disappearances have happened, we’ll need around three or four hours if we travel there by foot, so I think it’s worth it to save the money for the carriage and walk there. Also, it’s important that we stay vigilant at all times. This was an “F”-rank quest initially, but got promoted to “E”-rank after two other parties disappeared.”

  This information was new to me, and it made cold sweat run down my back. It seemed like the others were the same, as none of us spoke a word and I could even see Shizuka getting chills. After thirty seconds of silence, I finally managed to say something.

  “In that case, we should make a foolproof plan before heading there.”

  Shizuka and Hina nodded in agreement, almost at the same time. Kuro pointed at another place on the map.

  “We will build our camp here. On the way, we will have Hina at the front, me in the middle and Ryu at the rear. Shizuka, you will stay around us and scout the area for danger. When you see something suspicious or need help, call for us.”

  Hina raised her hand, apparently wanting to say something.

  “No need to raise your hand, go ahead”

  Hina nodded, then asked her question.

  “What if we get attacked in our sleep? We should have someone stay awake at night and look out.”

  Just as Kuro wanted to answer, Shizuka cut him off.

  “We should take turns and switch every two hours. It doesn’t make sense to have anyone stay up all night and be tired during the day.”

  Her take made a lot of sense and all of us agreed to it.

  We spent another hour talking about every little detail, before we finally got our pre-packed backpacks from our rooms and headed out. The sun was already high, so it would probably be dusk by the time we reached the village. As we started walking to the south gate of the city, we slowly started to get into the formation we discussed before.

  I slowly started to fall back and take my place at the rear of the group. There was no need for Shizuka to scout while we were still inside the city walls, so she walked around between me, Kuro and Hina, conveying any information that we had to share with the others. Even though this was only our third quest, I slowly got the feeling that we became real adventurers. Just like the ones that I read about when I was young, and just like the person that I looked up to the most.

  “Layla… someday I will catch up to you.”

  As we slowly made our way out of the hustling and bustling of the city, the sky gradually darkened and the night approached us. As day turned to night, we didn’t spot the dark figure with their yellow, gem-like eyes that was hiding in the shadows.