The First Mission? Too Easy!

After spending a few days at the Fairy Tail Guild, Zoro's life had become incredibly routine.

He slept until he woke naturally, found Cana or whoever else was around to drink with, then found a comfortable spot in some corner of the guild to go back to sleep. Occasionally, Natsu's relentless challenges would wake him up, only for him to lazily refuse again... Life was fairly pleasant.

However, a serious problem soon presented itself—he was out of money.

Although Guild Master Makarov had promised to provide food, lodging, and alcohol, Zoro was an immensely proud swordsman. He could accept being "taken in" temporarily, but he could not stand living off others forever. Besides, his three beloved swords, which he valued as dearly as his life, needed regular maintenance with high-quality sword oil. Those things were clearly not included among the guild's "benefits."

"I need to find something to do and make some money." Zoro looked at his empty purse and came to that conclusion.

He remembered the "job requests" Lucy and the others had mentioned before. So, in a rare moment of full sobriety, he walked over to the huge request board in the center of the guild hall.

The board was densely covered in all kinds of parchment sheets, ranging from finding lost cats to subjugating terrifying S-Class monsters.

Zoro's gaze was immediately drawn to the high-paying jobs marked "S-Class" and "SS-Class."

"Subjugate the Ancient Dragon 'Blackflame Lord' in the Black Forest. Reward: 7 million J."

"Escort the 'Tears of the Sun' gemstone to the Cosmos Kingdom. Reward: 5 million J."

"Explore the 'Lost Undersea Temple.' Reward unknown. Any treasures discovered belong to the explorer."

Whether by name or reward, these jobs were full of challenge and perfectly suited his tastes. But just as he reached out to tear down an S-Class Mission, sharp-eyed Mirajane stopped him with a smile.

"My, my, Mr. Zoro, S-Class jobs require the guild master's permission before they can be accepted," she explained gently.

"Huh? What a pain." Zoro frowned. What he hated most was rules.

Lucy hurried over as well and warned him with lingering fear, "Yeah, Zoro! You just got here, so you still don't know much about this place. You should start with easier jobs! What if you get lost?"

"Lost?" Zoro scoffed, utterly disdainful of the word. "What kind of joke is that? How could I possibly get lost?"

Even so, he impatiently shifted his gaze away from those high-reward jobs and casually looked over the colorful low-rank requests below.

In the end, his finger stopped on a parchment that looked the simplest and offered the lowest reward.

He could not even be bothered to read its contents carefully. He only checked the reward—5,000 J. It was pitifully little, but it should be enough to buy a few bottles of quality sword oil.

He casually tore down the parchment and took it to the bar to register with Mirajane.

Mirajane accepted the request sheet and glanced at it. The smile on her face became even sweeter.

"C-rank job: 'Deliver a letter for the bakery owner in the east of town to the blacksmith shop in the west.' Hmm, it's a very safe job."

Lucy leaned over to take a look too. She immediately sighed in relief and patted her chest. "Great! It's just delivering a letter within Magnolia City. Going from east to west, you wouldn't get lost even walking with your eyes closed, right? Nothing can possibly go wrong this time!"

Hearing that, quite a few people in the guild nodded in agreement. To mages like them, this kind of job was as easy as taking a walk outside.

Among the crowd, only two people wore somewhat complicated expressions upon hearing the words "Zoro" and "delivering a letter" together.

Erza paused slightly, her hand holding a strawberry cake. For some reason, a faint, indescribable sense of dread rose in her heart.

Meanwhile, Guild Master Makarov on the second floor gave Zoro's confident expression, which clearly said This is too easy, a meaningful look. Then he silently shook his head and sighed.