The Seeker Of The Flames

"2 Yawn Kid's Eyes, 5 Buffalo Horns, 20 Forest Orbs, 4 Magic Sticks of Qua'rualama, and..."

Adin was reading his quest paper while walking in the forest at the same time, checking the materials required to complete the quest.

"Boring boring boring! It's way more boring than I'd thought. What's the point? These materials are going to reach some fat-ass dealers and brokers or local blacksmiths and alchemists."

Adventurers looked so cool and appealing. Almost all of the kids in the Kingdom wished to work as an adventurer in the future. That was the most interesting job for humanity. They could see the unknown world and new things in the way; what could be more exciting than that?

However, for Adin the Immortal who had experienced everything in the world, nothing was surprising or new, so adventuring wouldn't really entertain him. Since he hadn't found even a single clue about the flames, his adventure was nothing but tiresome.

He usually tried to show energetic emotions through his gestures and act ebullient and spirited to run away from this dull dream. But no matter how much he wanted to not look bored, he couldn't fool himself. Except for those flames and his desperately-craving death, everything else appeared too repetitive and tedious.

Adin also had another reason to act friendly and lively among people. He had to stabilize a strong relationship with the other adventurers while hiding his identity; it'd be much less troublesome and be effective in the near future.

Only having information could solve his problems. But how would one get that information without a hint? He could only move forward and hope for a miracle to happen, a sudden event guiding him to the flames.

Although it took some time, he finally came to accept it. Adin stopped complaining about how boring things were and tended to end the quest as soon as possible.

The forest sounded a bit less active than usual. It stood in peace and silence. Normally, there should've been sounds like the clanks of swords and cries of monsters being echoed across the trees.

The plants and trees had a greater size than those of the other forests'. This large green area on the map was called: Grandwood

Many different magical creatures had resided in the Grandwood from ancient times. Those beings had lived for hundreds of thousands of years. There existed different types of races and levels for the Grandwood's inhabitants.

No monster or adventurer came into view, making Adin impatient gradually. He stopped moving any further.

"It's been hours that I'm walking now... I should be deep enough in the forest to face some monsters. Why aren't there any?"

Adin couldn't sense any magical pressure nearby. A large range of forest was wiped out of monsters.

"Damn! Even though I've come this far... It's just been a waste of time. I can't use my powers now; I should act normal, but I can't do it like this. Is there anything else I can do..."

While contemplating what to do next, a sudden mysterious force from the east started to be sensed.

"Something's coming..." Adin said, turning left toward the source of that magical power coming right to him.

Adin's infinite knowledge and control over magic helped him extend his range of powers, thus having much sharper senses to notice the surroundings.

"It's about... 12 miles away? I can't say it for sure, but it should be a Yawn and... a human? It's getting closer really fast. 11... 10..."

The ground under his feet began shaking slightly.

"9... 8... 7..."

The shakings intensified as the branches quaked violently along with the trees' trunks vibrating rapidly.

"6... 5... 4..."

The earth beat much more furiously over time, shaking everything with a deep rumbling sound.

"3... 2... 1..."

The constant trembles and quakes of the ground sent everything flying in near midair. As the rushing magic force had less than 1 mile of distance to reach Adin, the series of trees in the east began breaking one after another, the branches and leaves spreading around quickly and swiftly.

Silent and quiet, the atmosphere suddenly became calm, and the earthquakes ceased to vibrate the surroundings. Like a calm before the storm, everything happened to stay still in a quiet atmosphere. A silhouette in the sky had overshadowed a large area of the forest.

Adin changed the direction of his eyes to the sky, looking overhead.

"And... Zero."

Hearing a sudden powerful blast, the surges of dirt and dust spread around from the green spot before him. The body of a dead monster had landed there from the sky.

The fallen beast before him appeared so gigantic and enormous in size. Even its nose was about 10 feet, twice as high as a human's normal height. No wonder it could overshadow such a large area with its big form. The extent of its body spread over a vast area of forest.

It had smooth skin with green hair covering the body perfectly, large green eyes in a dark setting, and a hideous face with a closed mouth and no lips or ears at all.

Those attributes corresponded to Yawns, an ancient race of giant beasts living in the Grandwood.

A human figure stood on top of the monster's enormous head, holding a massive sword. Giving more attention, one could see the steel armor's prominences in the c.h.e.s.t area. That human was a female. She possessed waist-length blonde hairs, wearing them in long casual braids.

She wore a rather light metallic garment over a white fabric of linen and short apron of metal strips, fastened by a lavender belt. Her long silver sword had golden engravings in an ancient language.

Adin remembered her; she was the same girl from before in the guild, Liora.

"Apparently, this girl is the cause of this silence. She must've killed all of the monsters in my range. Too troublesome... now I have to move to another spot to get those materials since she's already finished off this area's beasts. Really., too troublesome..."