CH. 1

Vain left the tavern after hearing what he needed. Well, he ate dinner but he didn't feel full at all. Honestly, he would have ate more but he still need money for lodging. Well, aside from that, he still hadn't sold the things he got after the monster extermination mission just a little while ago. He got his pay but because there was a lot of people that came, his portion was enough for a meal.

After leaving the bustling streets, Vain went to a corner and entered an alleyway. Then he went through tight alleys and wove through the maze like small rides in the center of the slum district until he found a small store.

As he entered the store, the usual unsold goods were displayed catching dust.

"You're back huh?"

"I've got things to sell, you'll buy right?"

"It depends in what you got kid"

The store owner, a small dwarf, wearing ragged clothes and an eye patch over his left eye, scoffed at Vain.

Vain then made an opening with his black storage and took out sacks from their and placed them all on the counter. The rickety counter creaked from the weight but nevertheless, hold out.

"Hmmm.... these are damn fine wyvern scales and even wind types too. Behemoth fang? Damn, this thing looks like you just pulled it right out of the poor thing"

The dwarf, Dwargen, mutters as he opened up bags filled with blood covered pale green colored scales and a large fang that has stint roots at the end.

Vain's face didn't showed much emotion, just waiting for the old dwarf to finish.

"There's bug drills' stingers, magic crystals from all sorts huh? Then... wait, didn't I told you to stop bringing in armors from other mercenaries? It's hard to sell them"

There were two sacks of chestplates covered in blood. Some had holes in them, which can easily tell where the poor owners were struck before dying.

"If it's sold, it can sell. As long as I've get my money, I don't care where it's from"

Vain replied coldly.

"Kid, you've got some serious issues there. Try fixing them once in a while"

"I'll try to"

"I was being sarcastic..... haaaah..."

Well, Dwargen couldn't just kick the boy out of his store when he brings in good stuff and buys goods from him. Since he was one of the few customers that knows of this decrepit store, he was reluctant to chase him away.

Like that, he pulled out bags of money and gave it to Vain. But Vain only two bags out of five. Vain took out his trusty two meter great sword, which was in poor shape and leans it on the counter.

"I'll leave the maintenance to you again"

"The hell are you even swinging this on?! The edges cracked all over!!"

Dwargen's eyes pops out as he examined the large sword which was three times his height.

"Didn't I told you to maintain this thing yourself? Heck, I even taught you how to do it!"

"I did but you're better at it than me so I gave up doing it. Plus, there were five flocks of wyverns and three behemoths. It was inevitable so I rough it up a bit"

Hearing the amount of monsters he just fought just a sword caused Dwargen's head to ache. He couldn't tell if the kid was either sane or suicidal. That amount of mobsters was enough to issue a small army of magic armors to sort out. Not even including their danger ranks.

"Seriously, I don't kno where you pop out off but you're one ridiculous brat you know?"

"....."

Dwargen grumbles but still accepted the job. Vain got a spare sword for the mean time so there was some ways he could fight while his main arms was at repairs.

It has been six months since he left that facility, after coming to learn how small the world he was living in, Vain trained himself for six months until he got strong enough to fight monsters on his own.

Thanks to him having great aptitude at White magic, learning healing magic at a small price gave him quite an advantage in training. Pushing himself until he vomited blood, heck, he even nearly died once because he was overworking his body.

Now, at 16 year old, he was young man but his body was tightly built with firm muscles all over. Though he doesn't carry luggage because of his Black magic: Black storage, he has a lot of things inside his magic dimension storage that can last him a long time.

Vain left Dwargen's store before heading out once more.

The sun was still high and there was still lots of work to do on the city's notice board. Mercs like Vain comes and visit the notice boar in order to get work. They are different from adventurers that gets to venture in dungeons and easily get materials from monsters in there.

Standing before the notice board, Vain took the another extermination job and head to the harbor. After buying a ticket, he headed to the place where the extermination requester lives.

Boarding a small airship, Vain then quietly waited until he reached his destination.....

———

"There's been stories about a Merc exterminating monsters alone. Heard anything about that?"

"I'm sorry but, there is no such person in this small island"

"Is that so, sorry for the trouble then"

Private Class Knight of the Light wing squadron, Emann Wells, sighed as he couldn't get any lead from the mysterious Merc that goes around fighting monsters alone. 

There have been eyewitnesses about the said Merc but never did anyone see his face as he always got a hood over his head.

With heavy steps and shoulders dropped, Emann Wells, returned to his high ranking officer, which was waiting in a tavern with his other squad mates.

There, a girl with long platinum blonde hair and cherry red irises, quietly sipping tea with her legs crossed on top of the other, waiting for him.

Emann Wells grumbled "This woman and her tea. Can't she see that old goats are looking at her legs? Sheesh....." then walked towards the woman.

"Commander Cynthia, there's no one here that knows the Merc. We probably have better chance in large cities"

Cynthia Locks McGuiness, leader of the Light Wing Knight Squad of the Roland Empire. She was hailed as an amazing swordsman at the grand tournament of swords in the capital and was also known as a great pilot of a magic armor.

Her sharp eyes glanced at Emann Wells, which caused the poor guy to suddenly flinch. After all, Cynthia was very known to dislike people that interrupts her tea time.

"No luck here as well huh?"

"Y-Yeah.The guy is just plain mysterious. No one knows who he is and where he lives. Just that he always goes to missions that issues and extermination of large number of monsters"

"Honestly, guy is more like a damn story book character than a real person...." Emann Wells added, sighing dejectedly at the wasted effort he had given in this information gathering work.

"Can't be help. Let's search on another island"

Cynthia Locks McGuiness stands up from her seat and walks passed Emann Wells. The scent of her beautiful long platinum blonde hair tickled his nose but the pressing matter of his boss leaving without paying took his attention more than the scent of his boss's shampoo.

He quickly placed five silver coins on the table before chasing after her. The squad mates that was inside, quietly sighed and followed......

After heading outside, Cynthia and her men were about to reach the harbor where they left their airship there when a small vessel came and parked right next to their ship.

There numerous people came out. But when Cynthia stops for a moment and glanced at the exiting passenger, there was a robed man carrying nothing walking down the platform.

The robed man pulled down his hood and held out a piece of paper from his pocket then looks around before eventually leaving.

Cynthia Locks McGuiness's eyes followed the young man's back until he disappeared behind a building.

Emann Wells, who tilted his head the weird expression on his boss's face, glanced at the decreasing passengers.

"Is there something there Commander?"

"It's nothing. Let's go, the next island is a large one where three cities are right? Let's look there"

"Understood...."

Cynthia shook her head before boarding their ship. Emann Wells and his other squad mates shrugged their shoulders and quietly followed the commander.

———

Vain got the info from the mayor of the town. There large numbers of winged horned rabbits and Flying piranhas on one part of the island. It seems that because of the new abyss gate opening, the large numbers of monsters migrating to inhabited islands increased.

A mercenary like Vain would go around exterminating these monsters for a price then get paid highly depending on how high the danger the mission was.

For now, Vain mission was about Rank 4 In the danger meter. Which goes from Rank 5 as the lowest then Rank 1 at the highest.

Vain opened up his black storage and pulled the spare sword he bough from Dwargen. Since it was just a long sword, it was quite different from his usual two meter great sword.

Nevertheless, a mission was a mission. He passed through the mangrove the headed to a large opening at the other side of the island. There, quite a large number of Winged horned rabbits were hopping around while the flying piranhas were swimming on the edges of the island.

Vain then breaks into a sprint then sliced one clueless winged horned rabbit. With it's blood splashed openly like that, the attention of all the monsters in the area was drawn to Vain.

Ten more winged horned rabbits came, charging at Vain. However Vain ducks down and swung his sword horizontally in a wide fan swing. The ten winged horned rabbits were cut in half. 

Vain was careful not to damage the horns since that was the most valuable part of the winged horned rabbits. The meat and magic crystals are secondary since they doesn't sell much as ordinary meat and their magic crystals were fingernail size small.

Vain looks up, sensing an attack coming from above. There, the flying piranhas shot basketball size water balls. There were more than twenty of them.

Vain raised his left hand then shot black bullets from his palm. The piranhas were hit by the wide and numerous buckshot, killing them rather instantly.

Then Vain glanced the winged horned rabbits, there were still thirty of them at least but because the piranhas were dropping down from the sky one by one and more than half of their kind was killed in an instant, they became wary of Vain.

But Vain wouldn't let them run away. Money was money, and since the horns of those winged horned rabbits can be sold, he wouldn't let a single one of them go. As for the Flying piranhas, they were just pests. They wouldn't even sell much since their meat weren't that delicious and their body are full of spines.

"........"

Vain continued his hunt until the wide green plain was just covered in blood......

———

After getting his reward, Vain returned to the town. Since it was nearly night time, Vain rented an inn after eating dinner.

Now, inside his room, Vain lit up a candle and from his black storage, he took out a table and different kinds of tools along with jars filled with all sorts of stones and magic crystals.

Then, in his hand was a book.....

"Hmm...... magic items are harder to make than I imagine..."

Following the instructions on the book, Vain was making a simple magic item. A lamp of sorts that produces light just from loading magic crystals inside.

Vain learned mostly from self teaching so he doesn't know things that are more standard. Most people would study first before following an instruction manual but Vain was doing both at the same time.

On the table was a jar. Inside was a light source object and it was submerged in a liquefied magic crystals that was cure using magic.

Vain bought all sorts of books after being a mercenary. Sometimes when he joins raid groups that was organized by knights, then raids bandit bases or evil cult bases, Vain always collects books no matter what kind they were.

As such, his knowledge expanded and he was able to make things in pure curiosity. As a child he grew up having no parents and having nothing at all, the greatest thing he has was his books.

His White magic, he uses it to heal himself and cure him from poisons and purifies curses. Using his Black magic, he makes sold black bullets and shoot away faraway targets.

Not only Vain was good with sword because he trained himself quite heavily, he knows how to use a bow and arrow, a shield and even a spear. Because of that, he can manage in different situations and survive in battles that requires him to be flexible.

Moreover, he knows how to reinforce himself with magic to boost his physical abilities. Thanks to those things, Vain was quite formidable in a battlefield.

After a few trial and errors in his handiworks, the lanterns glowed dimly until it slowly gave off a bright light. Then, after the success, he blew off the candle and the pale green light coming from the jar, shined in the room.

His slightly rose as he felt the sense of accomplishment well up inside him.

"I've come a long way huh....."

From a poor child who only knows how to bark to a young man that was now able to make a small lamp, from how much he had been through, Vain was proud that he reached this point in his life.

16 years. It was quite short but for Vain, it was so long that he thought he was already more than thirty years old. 

He really didn't thought of anything but surviving. Then just like that, he became a mercenary that does odd jobs from time to time then works on extermination jobs.

Vain let out a small laugh before storing everything back to his black storage. Then with his bag laid on the soft bed, his thoughts reminisce of the time when he was sleeping on a pile of smelly garbage...

Such thoughts carried him to sleep....