In over a month, Michael travelled hundreds of kilometers before settling in a town called Doralei, which was a pleasant port town sandwiched by the Endless Sea on one side, and the Greenwilde Forest on the other side

It was at least 5 villages or towns away from Edwardia, which he wanted to forget after being summoned and discarded so casually

He also didn't know how many villages he missed as he was taken to the elf village and rejoined the road somewhere in the middle. He was even unsure if it was even the same road he took when he rejoined it!

He rented a room here in one of the inns on a long term basis as he joined the local adventurer's guild

The adventurer was as he expected, full of adventurers of all kinds from many races. 

Besides humans, there were dwarves, lizardmen, halflings, half breeds who were outcasts from their own societies like half-orcs and half-elves, and even those arrogant elves

Oh how he hated elves. 

Although the ones here were quite friendly towards him, and they were well liked and popular, Michael was still very hesitant to be friends with them. He just didn't trust them. 

But then again, as an outsider from another world, he didn't really trust anybody. 

And although he kept telling himself that he hated elves, he subconsciously looked at every female elf and compared them, finding them nowhere as beautiful as the Princess Ryania, whom he hated the most. 

He said he hated her, but his activities with his hand said otherwise. 

If he ever met her again, he didn't know if he wanted to fight her, or fuck her. He knew she was superior in every physical way to him and he stood no chance. He didn't know about Princess Ryania's mental and magical abilities

He even wondered how her physical abilities matched those of Roland, Achilles, Cuchulain or Temujin when they fully powered up with chi or aura or whatever. 

Speaking of which, even in the Adventurer's Guild, where news travels the fastest, there was no news of those heroes attacking the Demon Lord. 

Did they fail? Even if the King wanted to keep them a secret for strategic purposes, surely some news would be going out about them

After keeping his ear open for any news about them, he finally found some news from a wandering minstral

Finally, there was news of a single hero summoned. One with brown hair and whom they called the Punisher who is currently being hunted by the Demon Lord!

"Fuck! I've been set up" Michael realized

Fortunately, since the cave he hid in, he has always worn his helmet and no one except Ryania knew who he was under the helmet

He had given everyone the fake name of Frank Castle, so at least his identity was safe

As a masked adventurer, he registered himself under the name of Mason, his last name.

He was a new adventurer and had to start from the bottom as an E Rank, slowly taking jobs and earning money from the missions in the guild

He had previously exterminated a goblin nest, a grade C mission. Even though goblins were not weak, they are vicious and crafty and even managed to abduct those elves and impregnate them, even though they were physically superior

As such, Michael found that the E Rank missions easy, but he wasn't complaining

It paid for his food and lodging, and that was enough for him. 

He made many friends among the adventurers and also among the shopkeepers

There was Duncan the dwarf metalsmith. Michael had suggested several weapon alterations and Duncan was more than happy to experiment and build them. 

Because of that, he had upgraded his crossbow to be able to fire 5 bolts, one after the other with an automatic lever to that reloads the weapon. He also designed his dagger with a syringe function that injects poison as he stabs, that paralyses his opponent

As for his sword, he made an electricity charged sword, powered by lemons and potatoes in the handle. Not the most glamorous way of doing it, but it's good enough for one off battles. 

From the local mage and alchemist Citrus, he was a regular to buy potions, limited use magic rings and single use scrolls

Today, he was going on a group mission, to investigate disappearing cattle on a farm at night. 

This was a vague mission, but was typically not very dangerous. However, the guild was cautious as the reason could range from simple bandits, to wolves to extremely dangerous monsters. No one knows

So besides Michael, several newbies followed along, accompanied by 3 C Ranked Adventurers

Michael hiked, together in a group with the 3 C Rankers Mattril the Ranger, Ulmina a priestess and Wolfgang the mage

There were other E Ranks like Michael, namely the the Timon, Rasmussen, Tina, Agnar and Tulisan, all warriors carrying swords, shields and spears. 

They really weren't specialists in any weapons and were beginners. 

Michael kept to himself. He was a veteran fighter, unlike the youngter E Ranks, who looked barely past their teens

They arrived at the farm after half a day of walking and met Farmer Toyle, whose cattle was missing

He had a whole herd, so he had plenty more cattle, but even losing a few was a big loss to him. 

They camped for the night in the barn, overlooking the fields

Agnar, Tulisan and Mattril went out to take the first shift in guarding the field, standing around to keep watch

Suddenly, something swooped down and a cow mooed as it was suddenly snatched and carried away into the air

"Over there!" Mattril the C Rank Ranger yelled

The rest ran out of the barn as Tina took out her bow and started firing at the direction Mattril pointed in

"Light!" Wolfgang cast as a light shone from his staff like a spotlight scanning the air

Suddenly, something large swooped down again and Tina screamed as two large claws grabbed her and picked her into the air 

"Tina!" her boyfriend Rasmussen yelled towards her when the light hit the creature that grabbed her

"It....it's a griphon!" Mattril yelled, seeing the creature carry Tina into the air

Angry that a light shone on it, it tore the poor girl in half, dropping one half of her body towards the ground

Suddenly, another large griphon grabbed her other half in mid air and started eating her!

"There are more of them!" Tulisan yelled

Michael was concerned as a griphon was more than even a C Rank could handle, and there were more than one of them

Another griphon swooped down in the darkness towards Agnar

"Down!" Michael yelled, but Agnar dropped too late as the griphon missed him but managed to grab his head and yank it right off his body!

"Damn!" Michael said as he shot his crossbow several times, hitting the griphon in the abdomen!

It shrieked in pain as it flew off

Rasmussen was on his knees where blood of his girlfriend Tina was all there was left

"No! Why! Take me, take me!" he screamed in anguish

As if the griphons knew what he was yelling, another griphon swooped down and grabbed him by the shoulders and took him to the sky

"No! Let me go! Let me go!" he yelled in pain, changing his mind before another griphon met that one in mid air and both tore him into pieces and started eating him!

"Damn it! Retreat! We can't handle this!" Mattril yelled as he ordered everyone back into the barn

"No! We'll be picked off one by one!" Michael said as he got on his knees and reloaded his crossbow

True enough, Timon was picked up as he ran towards the barn and was never seen again in the dark sky

Timon's screams could be heard before suddenly stopping 

He suddenly heard a noise behind him and rolled, stabbing his poison dagger at the creature 

Somehow the claws of the griphon seemed to stop in mid air before it's abdomen was stabbed and he injected the poison

By now Michael had counted 3 griphons creating all the mayham

But even a single griphon needed at least an A Rank to be among them, and he knew the rest were not up for it

He jumped onto the griphon he stabbed, who looked like it was having a seizure as his paralyzing poison started working and affecting it's coordination

Without hesitation, he used his sword and sliced it's neck!

The other 2 griphons screeched angrily as both charged at him

He pointed his cross bow at the one approaching the closest, and it quickly dodged as his previous bolts had shot this one and it remembered his crossbow bolts

But he second one didn't know what to expect and several bolts hit it squarely in it's face!

The bolts entered one of it's eyes and shot through it's beak and part of it's face

It screamed in pain as it's face became a bloody mangled mess from his crossbow bolts

The earlier dodging griphon's had dodged and flown past him as he concentrated on the second creature and Michael didn't notice that the first one kicked out with it's horse hind legs, hitting him on the side of his face with it's full impact!

 Michael's body flew off the griphon he was standing on, as his helmet was blown apart and his face was a bloodied mess

"No!" a voice yelled in shock

The two surviving griphons approached his unconscious body, one with a mangled face and the other with the initial bolts in it's belly

They were going to rip him apart and there was nothing the surviving Adventurers could do about it

Suddenly, wind blades appeared together with multiple arrows hitting both griphons and wounding them

The one with the mangled face had its other eye poked out by an arrow as several more arrows pierced it's throat and abdomen. The wind blades sliced it's neck and it's claws completely cutting them off

The other one managed to move it's face to dodge, but it's body became covered in slashes by the wind blades and arrows piercing it's wings and body, making it unable to fly!

They all came from a female figure, dressed in all white, and wearing a white mask hiding her features

The mask had a lightning bolt on it's face and blonde long hair tied in a ponytail came out from behind her head

If Michael was conscious, he would think that she looked like a fencer in full uniform, only all white including the mask

She immediately rushed to the fallen Michael and saw his jaw was hanging by only the bones on one side of his face as his jaw was badly broken

This was a good thing in a way, because if the kick had gotten anywhere else, his brain would have been kicked in and smashed!

She started immediately healing Michael by placing her hand over his face

"Who... who are you?" the C Rank Mattril asked as he ran over

"I am.. the Storm, an A Rank from another city. I was just in the area when I saw 3 griphons!" she said 

By now Ulmina and Wolfgang the other C Ranks had also ran over, as well as the surviving Tulisan, the last of the E Ranks 

"I think... I think I've heard of you in my travels" Ulmina said

"So have I" Wolfgang added

Indeed Storm was a fabled name. She had appeared on and off over the past decade, but she never stayed in one place, and nobody knew who she was. She appeared and disappeared with no explanation

Now, here she was cradling Michael and healing his jaw 

"I never knew Michael was so handsome. Why did he wear his helmet to hide it?" Ulmina asked

 "There... he should have a full recovery after some rest" Storm said 

"Er.. thank you. With you killing the last griphon, we should head back in the morning. Would you be joining us back to Doralei with us? There are so many casualties in this mission" Mattril said

"No. I am on another mission. I just so happen stumble across this battle" she said as she gently put Michael's head on the ground and disappeared