"Big Brother Jero, are you heading out on a mission?" Mick asked curiously when he got home from school and saw the group ready to leave.
"Yeah. You probably can't come this time. It's pretty far from Scorched Stone City, over by Water Ditch Town."
During the last school break, Mick had joined Jero's adventuring party on another mission. His remarkable improvement in strength had surprised the other members.
On the mission, he had improved tremendously in combat, reconnaissance, analysis, and planning.
"No wonder. He's been studying under Scholar Heide," they had said.
With the reward from the break-time mission, Mick had managed to trade for a new sword and save some money.
"Too bad I'm still a long way from being able to forge a sword out of Black Steel." He regretted that the break had been so short. If he'd had more time, he could have gone with Jero to Water Ditch Town.
"What's the mission in Water Ditch Town?" Mick casually asked before they left.
"Actually, the same mission was posted last year. Seems some monster whose name nobody knew attacked a caravan," one of the party members replied as he gathered ropes and nets.
"An adventuring party took the job and went there at the time, but the monster never showed up, so they came back empty-handed."
"Now it's appeared again after several months. Jero had time this go around, so he took the job."
"Is the thing dangerous?" Mick asked, leaning against the wall with his head resting on it.
"Who knows? But there weren't any signs of serious damage at the scene, so it probably isn't that strong." By then, they had nearly finished getting ready.
"All right, we're off. Mick, keep studying hard under Scholar Heide while we're gone. Haha."
Though they'd be