“No can do, kiddo.”

“What? Why not?”

“Look, I’m getting old. I’m near my forties and I still got a family to take care of. I’m only here because of the money. But, that thing is still out there. I can’t be the one that will train you, so, you should go see another adventurer that will help you train.”

I should be able to train myself. What am I thinking? I can’t train myself. I need guidance. That monster man is killing innocent people. 

I go to my room and begun to sleep it off. I dreamt that that man is waiting for something. He was sitting there on top of the roof. Then, there was a big explosion. I wake up.

That dream was something that I shouldn’t ignore, I think.

I get up from bed and headed back to a restaurant. Once I got there, he was there, Riku. He was eating some kind of.... Food? I ordered chicken breast and sits over next to him. He was ignoring me.

I greeted him, but he won’t response. I’ve never been frustrated like this before. I checked at what his eating, and I regretted it. It was full of gross intestines and purple blood with green eyeballs.

“What are you eating?”

“What does it look like? It’s food.”

“What kind of food are you eating?!? Anyway, you finally talked.”

“tssh”

“Hahahaha, I made you talk. There’s no going back now.”

He stand up with his food then he vanished. That coward!! Why does he hate talking to us?

“Man, he really does hate that.”

My food just arrived after his gone. I ate alone. There is a bunch of adventures that are having some fun over the other table. I should’ve invited my friends and Lion-san. 

The next day, I came to the same restaurant and, he was there again. I sit beside him again but he did the same thing before. I got frustrated. Everyday repeats, I got to the same restaurant and he was there again, then he vanished after I sit beside him. 

It’s been five days and the same thing has happen over and over again. I give up and when I entered my room, I saw a note on the table: “If you really want to talk to me that badly, go to the woods by yourself. Don’t bring anyone else or I’ll kill you all.” 

I finally got to talk to him.

The next day. I go to the woods with my full equipment. I already chanted some magic to prepare for some tricks he is going to pull. I got just got there and he was already waiting for me. He is wearing all crimson red coat with a face mask covering his mouth and nose, and a head band.

He was waiting by the tree, he seems to be full of openings, if someone to attack him now, I bet he won’t react fast enough.

“You’re here. Now, it’s time.”

“Time for what?”

He’s walking towards me with a scary look in his face. I panicked and accidentally let out my most powerful spell: the smog blast, to him.

Once he was blasted by my spell, he didn’t react to it at all. He was just standing over there, menacingly.

“Oh no. Did I kill him?”

“Do you think I would be harmed by that spell? It was so weak that it didn’t even dirty my clothes.”

What? He didn’t even flinched. He has no scratches and has no stain in his clothes. He was just there, standing. That was my most powerful spell. That spell was used to wipe out hundreds of warriors. He didn’t even get hurt? How is that even possible.”

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

He being all casual. He’s ignoring that scene like it didn’t happen at all. Is that spell to small to be able to notice by you?

“I-I-I want to talk about you.”

“What?”

“Will you join us to exterminate the monster at vortire? It is an E rank monster that’s been causing trouble for the past month.”

“What, why do I want to exterminate some small fry monster?”

Hmmm, that’s true. Why would he even want to kill some monster that’s barely even matches a quarter or an eighth of his power? Still, it would be faster and easier to kill it with Riku’s help.

“Wait! Did you know that the monster is going to be a chimera?”

“A chimera? But there is no chimera on vortire.”

Got him. Now if he just got interested in the fact that there is something abnormal going on, maybe he can help us investigate it.

“How about it? Will you train me or come with us?”

“Hmmm......”

“Hey, hey. What do we have here? Some bunch of lonely adventurers talking to each other. What an unexpected turn of event, that is.”

While were talking, an adventurer just came to us. He looked like a very powerful adventurer. But I still think Riku is more powerful.

“Hey, didn’t you hear what I said?”

“Shut up, we’re talking here.” Said Riku.

“Huh? What was that punk?”

“Now, what was I saying....”

“Hey! Don’t ignore me!!”

The thug ran over to Riku and tried to slice him with his sword. “This sword is made from pure obsidian. You can say your last word now!!” He said. He lifted his sword as he ran and had hit Riku in the head. We we’re both surprised when the sword shattered into a million pieces.

“How? How? How did you break my obsidian sword?”

“Now, If I may speak. About that chimera.....”

“Hey!! I’m still talking to you!!”

“I will go with you IF, you kill that person.”

“What?”

What is he thinking? I can’t possibly kill that guy. Of course, he did tried to mug us but, isn’t that too cruel?

“Hey, isn’t that too cruel?”

“This whole world is cruel. If you can’t counter that, you can’t survive on your own. Now! Kill him.”

I tried to hold my sword, but I was too nervous and I was shaking too. I walked over to him slowly. He is screaming “Don’t do it” and “I kill you if you kill me!” I lifted my sword and tried to cut his head. I couldn’t do it. I was too afraid to kill someone. I throw down my sword and looked at Riku.

Riku had a disappointed face and I think he is getting piss off. Riku walked over here and picked up the sword. He was looking at the sword and he suddenly broke it to pieces. 

“I understand. You can’t possibly kill someone with that sword.”

He opened a portal and reached out . He pulled out a scythe made out of vortinium( equipment of a ruby) and had thrown it to me. “Pick it up” he said.

I picked it up and I feel that there is something engulfing me. It was like a red mist. It was reaching out to me. “I can rid you of fear” it kept saying. I feel that I fear nothing. I begun having a grin in my face. I kept smiling even though I don’t want to.

“Now kill him.”

I walked over to that thug and lifted my scythe. “I’m so sorry” I said to him. I kept smiling and smiling even though I was about to kill someone. I closed my eyes and before I even know, I had sliced his head off.

I let go of the scythe and looked at Riku again.

“What have you made me do?”

He stared at me and said: “What do you think? I made you into a real warrior. A warrior that is not afraid to be stained with blood. That’s what I made you into.”

He picked up the scythe and put it back at the portal thing he had.

“How does it feel to kill a person?”

“How could I possibly answer that question?”

He still has his face mask on but I can tell he is smiling under there.

“Now about the chimera.....”

“The chimera? The chimera on vortire, right. I need you to come with us. We might need your help if we’re in trouble.”

“Hmmm, if there is strange activity involving the chimera, then I’ll gladly come with you.”

After that twisted event, I went back to the inn and lie down on the bed. There’s a month more till the chimera. I hope that there isn’t particularly strange about it like Riku said.

After I lie down, there was something that went through my window. It was so fast that I didn’t saw it coming. I looked at the other side and as I figured, it’s Riku. He was sitting on the table and was wearing something different. He has a dark blue coat and has a face mask that covered his whole face. 

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, I figured that I need to talk to your friends too, specially lion.”

“Why lion?”

“You’ll know why.”

It was still early and the we haven’t have dinner yet. So I figured that we should eat with Riku and by that time, he should be able to talk to them.

Wait, what about Riku's appetite? He was eating monster food when I encounter him in the diner. Does he even eat human food? Or does he eat humans too?

“Hey, what about tonight’s dinner. You should join us if you want to talk to my friends. They are all there and will plan out the operation.”

“Hmmm, what do you guys eat?”

“Well, we’ll be ordering some curry with some clucksters.”

“Hmmm, can you order me some monster meat? The rare kind.”

“I don’t think they sell monster meat. We humans can’t eat monster meat. Once we eat monster meat, our body will dissolve and will tear apart.”

“...”

“Wait, how can you eat monster meat?”

“Well you see.....”

After he finished his sentence, he disappeared and leaved a note. The note says: “don’t ask that”. He just avoided a question with running away. Why didn’t he just say don’t asked me that like the one in the note he left?

After that, I invited all my friends and Lion-san to the diner to eat dinner together. They all agreed and I said I was going to invite another guest to the dinner. They all said: “Who is it?” I didn’t answer, all I said was it was a secret.

They all gather at the dinner and picked a table. We ordered good and just after we ordered, he appeared within the shadow of mine. He was wearing a black-violet coat with a face mask that covered his mouth and nose. I introduced him to them and it was unexpected.

“This is Riku, he will be joining us to the subjugation.”

“Ri-Riku?!? How did you get Riku to talk to you?”

“Don’t tell them.” Said Riku.

“Well, let’s start dinner, shall we?”

We all sit down awkwardly, specially lion-san. The food came and Riku was left out. He was watching us eating something and opened a portal. He pulled out a piece of monster meat and asked the waiter a plate. He begun eating with us.

We we’re all shocked when we saw his face. He is handsome and very pale. He has fangs and his eyes was glowing redder when he eats. Up close, we can see he has horns that looks like it belongs to a demon. 

“Why do you have horns and fangs?”

“Why would you even ask me that?”

“Umm, I was just wandering.”

“So, why don’t we just begin sharing information about the chimera?”

“Great idea.”

We talked about the chimera about how long he has been in the town and how to kill it. It wouldn’t be a problem if Riku was there. So, the chime was ten meters big and has three faces but became five after a few days ago. He has two tails with snake heads and has wings that looks like bat wings and, apparently, it breathes fire. It has been rampaging in that town at night and had been to other town before. 

It has been said that it was an F class monster before but it was raised to an E class monster after it defeated a bunch of E rank adventurers. It is said that it growing after it ate one of the adventurers.

Chimeras have an ability to mutate and change it’s appearance. It starts with an ordinary looking lion but when it ate something, it transform to something a lion and whatever it ate, to a single form. It’s very disgusting to see.

“Hmmm, where is it again?”

“It’s in vortire, and it said that it was changing it’s appearance whenever it was showing up. I don’t know where it came from but I think there is something fishy about it. What do you think?”

“You’re definitely right. A chimera doesn’t change it’s appearance whenever it’s about to hunt. It wants his prey to remember it’s form to make them know fear. When you said changing, do you mean it’s additional body parts?” Riku said.

“Yes.”

“Hmmm.....”

“What do you think?”

“A chimera can’t get rid of its parts. It can only grow another. There is something unnatural about this. I think that there aren’t just one.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just like I said, It can only grow additional parts. It’s likely there’s another one or two in there.” Riku said.

“Hmmm, maybe there isn’t just another three or two. They said it’s different every night.”

“Maybe there’s a whole colony of chimeras.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that there is something leading them. Someone or something being their ruler, their leader.” Riku said.

“What? It can’t be! Nothing can lead a bunch of chimera! What do you mean by that?”

“You’re right, nothing can lead a whole colony of chimeras except........” Riku stuttered.

“What? What? Tell me! Except what?”

“Oh my, this is my lucky day. This really is my lucky day!”

“What do you mean my that Riku-san?”

“There’s a Chimera Lord.”

“A chimera lord?!? There is no such thing as a Chimera Lord.”

“Yes there is. I’ve read it somewhere. It’s one of the 20 monster lord in this world.”

“20!?!? I thought there is only 1 of them: the demon lord.”

“No, there are 20 of them: the Demon Lord, Chimera lord, Goblin Lord, Orc Lord, Dragon King, and much more of them.”

“No way. They are that many?!”

“Yes. I didn’t think that there is one in this mission.”

I can’t tell if Riku is bored or excited but he sure is saying all this stuff. I didn’t know that there are that many of them. What is his goal? Is he really gonna help us or is he just after the Chimera lord? Well, whatever happens, I’m sure that he will help us exterminate the chimeras. He will get what he wants and I will get what I want. It’s a win-win.

“So...... who will be our leader?”

“I think Riku will. What do you guys think?”

“What?!? Why me?”

“Well, you clearly know what your talking about, plus, you’re very strong. You can cut heads in a flash.”

“Hmph, well, you haven’t seen me getting serious yet.”

“Hahahahaha” we all laughed except Riku.

“What’s so funny?”

Well, we are now prepared for the extermination, not really. But we have a crew who can manage anything, plus, we got some mysteriously strong man on our side. 

We will win this. We will exterminate the “Chimera.”