The next day, Alum decided to finally head to the guild to find a request of sorts. He was unsure if he’d find any party members or an actual job on the board….

 His personality is a little… complicated, for lack of better words. He wasn’t the best at speaking to strangers, though he had no problem communicating.

 It’s just that…for these types of jobs, there needs to be some sort of trust between the people working together. However… Alum had difficulty trusting people despite opening up to a select few.

 *Sigh…*

 He couldn’t go on a quest alone either since he promised Amethely not to be reckless—going alone is the definition of reckless.

 Alum also wore a robe that hid his face and hair. He usually draws a lot of attention even by himself, but… now that he’s known as Saint Amethely’s lover….

 Well… he needed to be careful.

 But that isn’t his only reason for hiding. It was also because he didn’t want the new people he met to judge him based on that, at least if he could help it. He wanted their first impression of him as him and not Amethely’s lover.

 And as he enters the guild. He was greeted by the sight of lively adventurers chatting with one another in the lounge, casually talking—having meals after a quest to celibate, etc.

 None of them seemed to suspect him of anything, as many people dressed like him anyway. Though… he did have to learn that the hard way.

 When Alum first arrived here, he had casual clothes, so he ended up sticking out like a sore thumb.

 He walked to the listings to see if there was anything catching his attention. There were some about collecting herbs, wild berries and so on.

 Some escort quests, whether on land, sea or air, though mostly air….

 Lastly, monster hunting. Pretty self-explanatory, but it entails hunting monsters that are in the wrong habitat or if the population is too big.

 Though in truth, it was to also get their meat—if they were edible or delicious. Or it was to get magic stones if they were magical creatures.

 Those three were the most common ones he found. The rest was… let's say… odd jobs.

 He headed to the reception to ask if there were any parties that were looking for a member, and to his surprise… the receptionist instantly recognised him.

 “Ooh my, ooh my~! If it isn’t Mister Boyfriend~!”

 …

 “Keep it down… please.”

 He was surprised and took a few steps back, giving her a cold look. And then said, “Please do your job….”

 But she didn’t take his words so seriously and giggled.

 “Anyhow, is there anything you specifically after? Mister Boyfriend?”

 (…..)

 Alum was getting slightly impatient and put his adventurer card on the counter.

 Name: Alum Miller

 Rank: D

 Class: Attack Mage & Blade Disciple

 Magic: Water specialist

 “...I’d like to find a party, if possible, soon.”

 “Hmm~ I see, I see~!” She excitedly responded and headed somewhere.

 And when she returned, she introduced him to a party of four, two men and two women. She then proceeded to introduce them.

 “Alum, this is Jan, Turen, Nuli and Jua,” she winked. She then seemed surprised and covered her mouth. “Oh my! I forgot to introduce myself… didn’t I? The name’s Miala.”

 They were then led to a table, and Milu left them alone as they suspiciously eyed Alum.

 “...There aren’t too many around. Do you mind removing the hood?” the warrior-looking guy said.

 (If I remember correctly, his name is Turen, the other beastman is Jan…. Turen also seems to be their leader…)

 Alum thought about it, and yes… he did look suspicious, though this getup was the usual… mostly for mages. Alum kind of went to the extreme by hiding his features….

 “...My apologies….” Alum said, removing his hood and showing his face. You’re Mister Turen, right? Nice to meet you.”

 “.....”

 The four of them froze as they saw Alum’s face.

 “Ooh, honey~ look! A pretty boy!” said one of the girls.

 And the man she was referring to, ‘honey,’ was none other than Turen. He stared at Alum, saying, “Hmm ~, you’re right!”

 The other two, however, sighed, seeing their reactions.

 “Please excuse them…” Jua said, looking apologetic.

 And Jan, who was beside her, also apologised.

 “Sorry… you can ignore that dumb couple over there…..”

 ““Hey! We’re not a dumb couple!”” Both Nuli and Turen retorts.

 Jua and Jan had a ‘you sure?’ look on their face. This resulted in Alum chuckling a little, seeing as they were so close.

 “Still, it’s a surprise to meet Saint Amethelyt’s boyfriend like this,” Jan commented.

 Seeing that Alum didn’t deny it, their assumption of him being The Saint’s boyfriend was true, and they started to bombard him with some questions.

 In the end… they teased him…..

 But Alum didn’t mind since the relatively stiff atmosphere was gone.

 He’d later learn that they were a C-Ranked party. Turen was the party leader, a B-ranked adventurer, and the others were C-ranks.

 Turen was their vanguard, Jan was a scout, Jua was an archer, and Nuli was the support. All in all, they had a solid team, though. Maybe they lacked a little firepower with just one attacker. At least that’s what Alum has learned playing games with Noel.

 And he was correct. Their party was balanced, but they also said that sometimes, they needed a fill member, and more often than not, they lacked the offensive capabilities for some quests.

 This was the role that Alum was going to take; it was perfect since he specialised in attack spells, and he even had some self-defence, which meant that they wouldn’t have to guard him so much. At least, that’s what the guild told them….

 “I see,” Alum replied after hearing their explanation.

 (…Well, it’s true that I can defend myself to a certain extent while also being able to go on the offensive.)

 “Yeah, we were actually supposed to leave a little earlier, but Miala stopped us,” Turen said.

 “Mm-hmm!” Nuli did a follow-up, “We usually manage, but… it would be convenient to bring you along too. We get firepower, and you’ll have a party to quest with!”

 “I see. Well, that does sound like a solid argument,” Alum said. “Well then? What sort of quest is it?”

 “It’s a beast-slaying quest,” Jua responded.

 “Beast slaying? What sort?” Alum asked, tilting his head.

 “Yeah… about that, there has apparently been a sight of giant lizards near a village. We’re supposed to eliminate them and gather material such as scales and meat.” Jan said as he read the quest request.

 “Yup! But we have to be careful, though. These elemental lizards are fast and fierce, so we need to take them down. Otherwise, they’d just regenerate again!”

 “...Sounds like a hassle,” Alum replied.

 To which all of them nodded.

 “They’re D-Ranked, though… the quest is C-Ranked since there’s a horde of them….” Jan said as he crossed his arms. He then said, “About 10 of them, to be precise.”

 “Yeah… the hunters requested this since they can’t bring the village guards out that far from the village. That’s why this is a job for us!” Turen said.

 “...You think I’m suited for the job?” Alum cautiously asked.

 They reposed with a nod.

 “Yeah, attack mages are valuable in situations like this since they usually have a varied range of attack spells, so… we assume you have a good amount of AoE spells?” Jua asked.

 “...I do, though… yeah, I do.”

 They didn’t know why he hesitated a little, but… since the guild recommended him, it should be fine… right?

 “Very well! Let’s head out, shall we!” Turen said as he got up.

 Surprised by this, Alum asked, “Now?”

 The other members sighed but nodded.

 “Yes… as said before, we were originally supposed to head out, but Miala stopped us, saying that it would be a good idea to bring you along,” Jan said. “So… are you coming?”

 Alum had to give it some thought. He’d told Amethely that he was only looking for possible quests today, but…he might miss this opportunity….

 “We already did all the preparations, oh… don’t worry about your part, we always prepare extra in case someone joins in. so… food and other gear should suit you as well. The carriage is waiting outside the city gates… do you need anything, or… will you stay behind?” Turen asked.

 “...No, it’s fine. I have the things I need,” Alum replied. “Oh… but do you have paper? I need to write a letter.”

 They looked at Alum and grinned. The letter was presumably for Amethely.

 “Sure~,” Turen responded and gave him a piece of paper.

 …

  …..

 …

 A day later, Alum was on a journey with the four people he’d just met, and well… another one too, which was the carriage driver.

 Alum has come to learn that their party name was Night Ouen and that Jan and Jua are from the same village—they’re also childhood sweethearts. Nuli and Turen were married….

 Originally, they were a separate party, but after a quest together, they learned that they had great chemistry, which is why they officially teamed up and became a party.

 Currently, Jan did the scouting and went ahead. Meanwhile, everyone saved their energy in case anything happened.

 Which left the five of them willy-nilly chatting with each other or the driver. Though… Alum mostly read a book and would occasionally join in when he was included.

 The ride was very smooth, and the ground drakes were very well-behaved. Alum took an interest in them as he’d occasionally glance while he read his book.

 But… as peaceful as it was, it wasn’t going to last for much longer as Jan came back and reported that there was a hoard of goblins attacking a carriage in front of them about 3 kilometres away.

 “How does the situation look?” Turen asked.

 “They’re defending a carriage against goblins… however, there’s so many of them it seems that they are about to collapse any time soon.

 “We can’t reach them in time with the phase we’re going at….” Jua points out.

 “But we can’t simply leave the carriage either….” Nuli said.

 Alum watched the situation as it unfolded and came up with an idea. He then suggested, “What if I go? And Jan can show me the way?”

 The others glanced at one another and thought about it. They weren’t sure if it was a good idea since they’d never seen Alum in a fight before, and he was a mage at that. Could he keep up with Jan? But then again… he came up with the idea, so he probably has a way to realise that very idea.

 Not only that, he seemed to have the guild’s approval. Although he’s a newbie, he’s already a D-Rank, so he more or less knows what he's doing.

 “Well then, kiddo, if you go ahead with Jan, we’ll be right behind ya!” Turen said as he gave Alum a pat on the shoulder.

 “Mmm,” Alum responds with a nod.

 And with that said, he and Jan headed toward the hoard of goblins.

 “...Will he be okay?” Nuli worriedly asked.

 Turen just laughed in turn, saying, “It’s fine. He has Jan with him, and they can run away if it gets too risky.”

 …

  …..

 …

 As Jan was leading the way, he found it a little surprising that a mage like Alum was able to keep up since he thought he moved pretty fast….

 And in just a few minutes, they arrived and saw a sight of goblins attacking a carriage.

 “Up ahead, there are about 50 goblins; don’t underestimate them just because they’re E-Ranked monsters. They’re quite agile and relatively intelligent.”

 Jag gave Alum a short warning since new adventurers tend to get a little overconfident since goblins are rather weak. But… in reality, they’re agile and have pretty decent coordination.

 “Understood,” Alum responded.

 Watching over the battlefield, they could see bloodstains, and the stench of blood reached them. Guards that were escorting the carriage held back the hoard as their numbers dwindled.

 Goblins were attacking from all directions, surrounding the carriage, making it difficult to escape. What’s more, goblins kept coming out of the forest, and from the looks of it, they’d been going at it for quite some time as the guards looked weary and exhausted from continuously repelling the attacks.

 “Maybe we should wait for the others,” Jan said, looking at the grim situation.

 (True… running in and save them would be… reckless, but… I can’t just watch…. Eliminating them wouldn’t be that hard—that’s if I use destruction magic, but there’s no point in that, though…) Alum pondered about what course of action to take and came to a rather reckless conclusion.

 “I have a plan,” he said.

 Jan looked at him with slight concern but was interested in what this newbie would come up with.

 “Hmm, do tell?”

 “I’ll disrupt their movements and slow them down, buying time for the others to arrive, and at that, take some weight off the guards. And what I want you to do is find the leader since… from the looks of it, they seem too coordinated, and their massive numbers indicate that, don’t you agree?”

 Jan responds with a nod, saying, “You’ve read up,” before turning his attention to the forest. “Will you be able to handle it?” he later asked.

 “Positive,” Alum declared.

 And seeing the confident newbie, he sighed.

 “Well then, shall we try it out?”

 “Mmm,” Alum nods.

 And with that, they began to execute the plan.

 Alum enhances his physical capabilities and starts to dash toward the carriage. He uses a simple water spell called [Water Wall] to surround the carriage.

 The guards holding back the hoard panicked at the sight of this but soon realised that it wasn’t targeting them as the water wall pushed the goblins to the other slide. Those who attempted to cross the barrier of water were met with resistance and were forced out.

 This was a relatively simple spell, but keeping it up needed someone with some mana capacity to spare.

 The guards took advantage of this and killed every goblin inside the wall, leaving none alive inside. Goblins started to realise that Alum was the cause of this as they started to rush his way.

 This, however, didn’t faze him at all since diverging their attention was his plan all along. He later froze the water with another simple spell called [Freeze], and with that, the guards slumped down, feeling that some pressure had been relieved.

 Alum could hear some cheers from inside the walls of ice, but he didn't have time to feel relieved for their sake as the goblins were running toward him faster than he had anticipated.

 He cast another spell called [Water Plains], which was a mid-class utility spell that covered a massive area. He wasn’t planning to freeze that since the field of water was very shallow, around 1 cm, making it a little useless in that use-case.

 Instead, he used [Static Chains], which was a relatively simple spell, but since Alum’s mana was so condensed, the output of that electrical shock would be more significant… And the spell already required some decent amount of mana despite being simple.

 (…In all honesty, if it were just the goblins, this wouldn’t be such a hassle.)

 After all, he could always blow everything up using destruction magic. Well… he would have done that from the start if he was capable of casting high-level barrier magic to withstand his own magic….

 In this situation, a situation he’s currently in, however… he had to reserve some of his mana by using low to mid-class spells.

 After all, he sought to help the ones in need, and massacring all the goblins was a second priority as he needed to save mana for the first.

 After having used [Static Chains] to bounce electricity around between the goblins with the help of [Water Plains], they were either fried or were left stunned.

 But… goblins kept coming out of the forest, which surrounded the wall of ice as they started to chip away at it.

 Alum wouldn’t allow that, as he’d restore the wall again. This time, he added spikes, and whenever the goblins came in contact with those spikes, they’d slowly freeze the goblin's blood from the inside.

 Then… there was a loud roar from the forest, and with this, they started to become disoriented and relentlessly kept attacking the wall as they were out of control.

 Alum was getting closer to the walls, and as they saw him, they changed their target to him instead. Alum dodged one and each of their attacks as he killed them one by one with condensed water needles and threads weaving through their heads, splitting their skulls.

 (…Isn’t this the perfect opportunity to test out Depth cutter?)

 Depth cutter was the sword tailor-made for him.

 As Alum summons Depth cutter from the ring. He effortlessly sliced through the goblins and was impressed by its sharpness as there was no resistance at all when cut through flesh and bones.

 (Wow. Still heavy despite enhancement magic…)

 Depth cutter was 8kg without the scabbard, which…did baffle him.

 Well, it wasn’t only because of the innate capabilities that made it so deadly and sharp. Since Alum is cautious, he coated the blade with crystalised mana, making it more durable.

 He kept fighting, and his eyes met with one of the guards from the other side of the see-through wall of ice.

 They seemed to have recovered enough and wanted to join in on the fight.

 (They had healers as well? Well… that’s good.)

 With those thoughts out of the way, he made a gap in the ice, and the guards rushed out to help him. Now fighting together, one of the guards asked if Alum knew how to use healing spells since they saw him use water magic.

 Alum nodded, and the guard seemed a little surprised, mainly because mages would only focus on what they’re good at, and Alum seemed to be able to utilise a variety amount of spells.

 “Can I ask you to heal the severely injured?” the guard asked.

 Alum gave him a nod and entered the ice wall. He saw many injured, which is precisely why he’d been stingy with his mana.

 Healing magic takes a lot of mana, even low-level ones, and lightning magic was similar in that regard, but… Alum wouldn’t have a chance to use it much due to its destructive nature.

 He started to heal the severely injured alongside the other healers, and as no one was dying, he decided to go out to help.

 He still had about half his mana left still… there was a certain stench coming from the carriage itself, which may have caused the goblins to attack in the first place.

 So… before he decided to head out, he became curious, and without anyone paying attention to him, he opened it.

 When he did, something thudded and rolled on the ground, and many more of such things started to flood out.

 ….What came out of the carriage were decapitated human heads. Adult, children, men and women heads filled the colossal carriage.

 Blood drips as the unbearable stench becomes more apparent, making him sick to the core.

 He got suspicious and opened the carriage, only to see heads of adults, children, men, and women filling the seemingly colossal carriage.

 From the look of it, the heads are relatively fresh as blood dripped, making him remember the pool of blood of a certain night….

 …This was the reason why the goblins were so desperate to get into the carriage. It contained fresh human heads, and specifically, brains.

 He had read in a book that when a monster eats a human brain or the brain of other intelligent races, they, in turn, become more intelligent themselves and evolve at a certain point.

 Seeing this shocking scene made Alum recall a report not too long ago about a town being raided by a cult as their heads were later used to create abominating beings.

 (Luna and her squad should’ve eradicated them… why is this happening…!?)

 Alum was simply stunned. And at that moment, someone noticed his actions and tried to stab him. But such cheap tricks wouldn’t work on him as he pulled out Depth cutter to effortlessly cut through the cultist’s blade.

 They surrounded him so as not to let him escape, but… they had been weakened a lot, and Alum wasn’t the kind to show mercy as he decapitated them at a frighteningly high speed using his condensed water stings.

 (…..)

 With his head empty and heart tranquil. He infused Depth cutter with lightning magic and maxed his physical enhancement.

 When they saw their comrades getting beheaded, they started to falter, but Alum decided to ignore them as he rushed out and trapped them inside.

 The guards—rather the cultists outside were confused, but they didn’t suspect anything and kept defending the carriage.

 Alum ran away as fast as he could, killing some of them on the way until he was far enough away, overseeing the bloodshed.

 And it was then his party members arrived. They all had a look of puzzlement as their expression said, “Why are you running this way instead of that way?”

 They wanted to say something, but Alum’s eyes were empty and lifeless. So… they could only wait for him to tell them what had occurred. Jan then came out of the forest, running toward them, asking why they were all stationary.

 Jan then saw the look on Alum’s face as his empty eyes told him a little of the story. He had a bad feeling about this….

 “Now that we’re all here, let me fill you in,” Alum calmly said. His tone was cold as ice as his demeanour wasn’t of the somewhat innocent-looking boy they’d just met.

 As Alum explained the situation, their faces turned horrid. Jan noted this down as he attached the content to a bird, sending it away to the capital.

 Turen was boiling red, and the displeasure could be seen on not only his face but the other’s as well.

 “Let’s kill them all!” Turen furiously cried.

 The others shared his sentiment as they were rushing toward the carriage. Alum, on the other hand, just stood there, which puzzled the rest.

 However, what came out of his mouth was so cold that they felt shivers running through their bodies.

 “Don’t bother,” Alum said. “Let me handle it. It’s more efficient that way.”

 The others looked at him. Their faces showed sorrow for the young man as it was his first adventure… but they soon came to realise just how frightening this young lad could be. An enormous amount of magical energy radiated from his body.

 Fog appeared on the battlefield, making it hard to see what went on inside, but they could hear cries, and Alum had tears in his eyes despite his cool look.

 With sorrow and pity, they watched him as he was about to unleash a devastating spell.

 (Ame, I miss you so much…)

 Alum normally chanted the spell’s name inside his head. This time, however, frustration, sadness and anger dwelled in his chest as this heavily weighed his heart.

 ‘I’m sorry,’ Alum utters words to the victims. “Ignite! [Electro Plasmic Mist]!” Alum cried from the bottom of his lungs.

 At that moment, the mist glows up in a blue light, melting the surroundings as a massive explosion erupts.

 (—Nothing has changed...)

 Since Alum’s earlier display of mana leakage, Nuli had put up a very sturdy barrier around them. As Alum’s spell ignited, her mana drained as she collapsed on her knees, trying to keep the barrier up as it was torn apart little by little due to the shockwave and radiation.

 The others watched in awe as they couldn’t believe the newbie that was assigned to them was capable of this mass destruction.

 They glanced at the boy, but he had collapsed due to exhausting his mana.

 (Are you for real…?) They all seem to think as they see the scorched, melted field.