The First King of Beasts

'I wonder what the reaction would be if they saw the sacks I received as reward after I got to the town.' Dustin thought to himself.

He left the collection centre, and then the town's hall. After walking for a while and making he was out of the sight of any possible onlooker, he swiftly placed the sack into his inventory space, then came out and continued walking. Today, he was going to eat out just to pass the time before going to look for another quest to do.

He headed to one of the shops he had bought food from before, where he got the best roasted meat and honey beer. The meat there was so delicious, and the honey beer was also very memorable, so he wanted to have that before anything else.

Dustin got to the shop, which he found quite amazing how they didn't become a tavern or similar seeing the kind of cuisine they served. He bought what he came there for, and as there weren't many people there at that moment for whatever reason, he enjoyed himself very well and ate various servings, and in the end he still wasn't full, and his stomach had yet to move past it's size.

"The food here is just great." Dustin said.

He paid for everything he had eaten, and even added a few extra points in there. The food was cheap, and there was no trouble for him at all spending a little from time to time.

On his way back to the town's hall after resting for a while, he ran into Raven and the others, and it seemed they had just returned from their quest too. Dustin spoke with them for a while as they walked together to the town's hall. From them, he learned that quests could be completed with a group, or otherwise known as a party. The four girls had actually teamed up for the most part and split into two groups on some occasions.

They had also chosen one of the difficult quests, as they were four of them; it was absolutely no trouble for them at all. When they would split up, Raven and Aria would be in one group, while Mizu and Kim would be in one. This was the best way according to Raven, since she wasn't confident in Mizu's ability to relate with children, even though this one was matured.

"That's pretty good Aria, so you can fight on your own now, huh?" Dustin said.

"Yes, I'm being thought well." Aria responded.

Dustin could see that she was a good girl, not even crediting herself and sharing her praise with others. In children, it shows that they are kind souls. He only wished she didn't become too kind in future.

After they got to the town's hall, both parties split ways and went their separate ways. Dustin wasted no time after collecting a new quest, and left the town again. This time, the quest required him to eradicate the wild beasts within a specific area.

Just like before with the first quest, the path to where the quest would begin didn't lead anywhere outside the safe zone, and unlike the first time, Dustin saw many people around this time, but also, just like last time there was no one else where he was going to take his quest. Seems this quest was also that hard that no one dared to even see what would happen, or test whether they could do it or not.

The moment Dustin reached a point in the forest where there were some blue particles flying around that looked just like the ones that covered his body when he had smashed the return stone, the message appeared before him from the system.

[You have entered the Quest Area]

[Quest has started]

[You cannot leave the quest area until the quest is completed or unless with the aid of a return stone]

Dustin began the quest, and to his surprise it was exactly what Raven and the rest told him about, it was the same quest they had done some time ago. Dustin of course cleared it easily using his beasts, and since the environment was that of a forest, he brought out the serpent at the later stages and allowed it to kill the E+ rank monster that appeared, which was an enormous black bear. After taking care of everything, the quest was completed, and he could now leave the quest area.

[Quest Complete]

[You can now leave the quest area]

[Rewards for the quest can be collected from the Collection Centre]

Dustin didn't get a return stone this time, and though he tried not to think too much of it, he couldn't shake the feeling that one of his beasts had swallowed it, and wanted to search their bellies for it if he could, but then something like that would just be madness. He traced his steps back until he reached the entrance and just like that, he exited the quest area.

[You are leaving the Quest Area]

Dustin appeared this time with no bright particles of light, but even now he couldn't shake the eyes that stared at him. Everyone present knew of the condition where one couldn't leave the quest area unless they had completed it, and as rumours would fly, they knew the difficulty of the quest Dustin just came from.

Even if the people around wanted, they couldn't stop staring. For one fact, he had survived the quest and came back out, but the real shocker was the time it took for him to complete the quest. Even the easier quests didn't take this time to complete, it was just that much out of the normal standard.

Dustin ignored the eyes around him and headed back to the town. He originally wanted to live a quite life and stay anonymous, but with the way things were going, that dream of his had already been thrown to the gutter before it even began.

'Heh, Alas, I am too strong.'