I thought that I was going to have a hard time to fall asleep because of that huge worm incident. I guess the fatigue was just so strong that I got knocked out so fast. It was already morning before I knew it.

I got up from my bed and did a few stretching exercises. My body felt even sorer today than it was yesterday because of all the running we did.

I heard a noise as if something fell down. I was afraid that it might be caused by an earthquake. If it was then the worm might be in the area.

I quickly got my sword from its scabbard and went out of my room.

“M-master?” Ovis was stunned by the sight of me.

“Huh?”

I stood there dumbfounded while I was holding my sword with my two hands. Ovis was on the floor with a cloth and a pail, while a chair was lying on the ground.

“Wait so that sound is…”

“S-sorry, Master! I was c-cleaning when I accidentally bumped that c-chair… D-did I wake you up?”

“No, I was already up. I just thought that it might be an attack,” I gave an awkward laugh.

Ovis just nodded then she resumed cleaning. I went back to my room to resume doing my stretches in order to calm my mind down.

After a while, we ate breakfast, did our morning training then we went straight to the guild to learn about the status of our report.

Miss Mathi previously said that they would investigate the matter. If my statements were true then I would not be receiving any penalty for failing the quest.

I was sure as hell that I was telling the truth and I doubt that there was no one else who saw a monster that big from afar. I was still nervous though. I could not look away from the possibility that they would shrug it off as I was merely a long nosed newbie, just like what happened yesterday.

 I entered the guild with sweaty palms. As predicted, everyone’s attention was directed at me the moment I entered. I tried to ignore as I went straight to the front desk.

“Oh Mest, great timing!” Miss Mathi clapped her hands.

“What’s the matter?”

“The guild master wants to talk to you, Lavinia is already there with him.”

“The guild master? You mean the big boss of all the tamers?” My eyes widened.

“Don’t be nervous. He is at the room upstairs.”

“Oh got it. Let’s go then, Ovis.”

“Why don’t you have Ovis wait for you here? Lavinia’s familiars are here too.” Miss Mathi pointed to the right.

I looked at where her fingers were directed and I saw the Dogkin and Lizardkin familiars who were under Lavinia. The Dogkin waved at me while the Lizardkin silently nodded.

“Go wait with them until I get back, okay?”

“Y-yes, Master.”

Ovis sat with the other familiars while I climbed up the stairs as Miss Mathi instructed. I was facing the door, feeling all antsy. I swallowed my saliva before I knocked.

“It’s Mest, can I come in?”

“Go ahead.” A voice of a man responded from the other side of the door.

I opened the door and invited myself in. The room was spacious and the walls were full of paintings of various Beastkins. There was a desk at the back of the room while there was a long table with several chairs by it at the center. Lavinia and the guy who seemed to be the guild master were sitting by the table.

The guild master had a dark long hair and was wearing black rimmed eyeglasses. He had a black coat on with a white cloth hanging by his collar. He was also wearing a white glove on his left hand while his right hand was bare. Looking at him gave me an impression of a mature adult who was maybe on his thirties.

“Ah Mest, welcome. Have a seat.” The guy invited.

I did what he said and parked myself beside Lavinia. I smiled at her while she just gave me a glare of daggers.

“My name is Reyvin, I am the current guild master of the this guild”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Mathi said you want to talk about me with something?”

“Ah yes, your timing is perfect since Lavinia is here as well.”

Reyvin stood up then got into his knees, he lowered his head until it touched the floor.

“In behalf of the guild, I sincerely apologize for the encounter you met yesterday.”

“Wait, what?” I was clueless.

I looked at Lavinia and she also seemed surprise.

“The guild was responsible for the hunting of the monster you just met yesterday. Highly ranked tamers have been tracking it down for weeks yet were unsuccessful in slaying it,” said Reyvin without lifting his head.

“Could you please get back to your rightful seat? Continuing the conversation like this is inappropriate,” said Lavinia in her commanding tone.

“Ah yes, I apologize.” Reyvin did what the girl said.

“So you guys are already aware of the existence of this beast?” I asked.

“Yes, we refer to it as the Chaos Worm. It is a mystical beast that was said to be lurking in the far southern forests. We were surprised to hear that it was already able to reach near the city’s vicinity.”

“A mystical beast?”

“A mystical beast is a special kind of beast who feeds on magic. The more it eats individuals possessing high magic power, the stronger it becomes.

“I see.”

His statement explained why the beast was always after Lavinia instead of her familiars. It was because of her magic powers.

“But if the guild has already been hunting it for a while, why was it kept as a secret?” I asked.

“Not only to prevent panic, it was also to prevent foolish lower ranked tamers to try and challenge the mystical beast for a chance for an easy way up. Since it already appeared for everyone to see, we cannot keep it as a secret no longer.”

“That sounds logical.” I scratched my chin as I glanced at the girl beside me.

“If we were able to vanquish it sooner then you lower ranked tamers would not have been exposed to such danger. I sincerely apologize in behalf of the guild.”

“Now that we heard your apology, how would you compensate for us?”

“Hey!” My jaw dropped as to what Lavinia just said.

“What? The guy already admitted his shortcoming.” The girl folded her arms.

“The young lady speaks the truth.”

“What do you offer then?” Lavinia stared expectantly.

“Despite not being able to fulfil the conditions of accomplishing five F rank quests, I will allow the two of you to participate in tomorrow’s rank up exams.”

“Really? That’s great!” I cheered.

“Being able to survive in the presence of a mystical beast have already proven your ability hence this decision is justified.” Reyvin then handed a letter to each of us. “That’s your invitation, details of the exam will be written there.”

“That’s it?” Lavinia raised her eyebrows.

“Is something the matter?” Reyvin leaned at the table with his hands holding each other.

“We were literally almost dead back there! You can just directly promote me to at least class D!” she pounded the table with her fist.

“You might be forgetting something, young lady. You were demoted to class F due to your mishandle of a quest. Letting you get a promotion exam easily without fulfilling the specified requirements is already pushing it.”

“Tsk.” Lavinia withdrew her hand.

“I only approved of your qualification for the exam since you did not burn the forest in the process when you encountered the Chaos Worm, enough proof that you learned your lesson.”

If my interpretation of Reyvin’s words were correct, Lavinia actually burned a forest before. No wonder she did not really care about the consequences when she was about to cast her magic. She clearly owed me some thanks for stopping her.

Lavinia suddenly stood up and made her way to the door without saying anything.

“Hey, where are you going?” I called out.

“None of your concern,” she uttered before her presence was completely removed from the room.

“Don’t worry about her. I am already quite used to that behavior of hers,” said the guild master.

“Was she always like that?”

“Yes, cannot blame her though since that is how those of noble blood were raised to be.”

“I see.”

“In behalf of the guild, I would like to offer you more than just allowing you to qualify for the rank up exam. Yet giving further exemptions may result to the crumbling of the rules binding the guild.”

“Don’t worry, it’s already enough. If we are done here then I’ll be leaving as well.”

I stood up and was about to vacate the room when he called out to me.

“Wait a minute.”

“Yes?”

“No, never mind.”

I just smiled at him before I turned my back and left. I walked down the stairs. Lavinia was there, sitting by the table with her familiars and Ovis.

“Took you long enough.” Lavinia looked irritated.

“What? Need me for something?”

“You even dare feign ignorance about what you did to me yesterday?” She stood up and stomped towards me.

“Oh that? I’m sorry for being so aggressive but it turned out fine, right?”

“Aren’t you forgetting that I am of noble blood? Even just touching me marks for a death sentence!”

“Woah, wait a minute. It was you who technically asked for it with your actions! Before you blame me, blame yourself for the way you behaved!” I lost my temper on her spoiled brat reasoning.

“Th-that’s…”

“You might be a noble but you are responsible for your actions just like any Human so don’t dump all the responsibility on me.”

“Tsk, there’s no use reasoning with a commoner.”

 Lavinia walked away with her two familiars who closely followed behind. I took a deep breath when I noticed that everyone was gawking at me with their curious faces.

“Hey hey, Mest! I just looked away for a moment and now you became such a man already!” Kai emerged from the crowd.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“You guys were shouting, everybody heard it! You being aggressive which turned out fine and touching a noble who technically asked for it?” Kai grinned.

“Hey! That’s not totally it!”

A sound of something breaking was suddenly heard. Everyone looked at the direction from where it came from just to see that a whole table was split into two. A man was standing there with his fists clenched just above the table. It seemed like he broke it with his bare hand.

I looked at the man closely. The misunderstanding was brewing an even greater trouble. In fact, I was surprised that he had not attacked me yet.

It was Lavinia’s brother, the one who almost killed me the other day.

 “Let’s go to another place and I’ll tell you the whole story, okay?” I hurriedly dragged Kai away with me out of fear.

“Sure sure, just make sure to drop all the juicy details, yeah?”

“I told you that’s not it!”

We went to the restaurant where we usually grab food whenever we meet. During the meal, I explained to him what happened yesterday including the fact that I had Ovis knock Lavinia out so she would not burn the forest down.

“So so, that was all a misunderstanding in our part eh? Here I thought you were actually able to catch that fiery noble’s heart!”

“None like that can happen especially after what I did.”

“That’s too bad though since if you can make her your girl, I’m sure you won’t be having any financial problems in the future!” Kai spread his arms wide.

“By the way, what are you doing in the guild a while ago? It did not look like you’re going out for a job since you did not bring a familiar with you.” I asked.

“I am having my familiars train today when I heard there was a giant monster rampaging near the city! I went to the guild to gain more info and here we are, straight out of the horse’s mouth” 

“By the way, any tips for the promotion exam tomorrow?”

“Hey hey, so soon? It hasn’t been a week yet since you got Ovis!” Kai flinched.

“Well, things happened and we are now qualified for the exam.”

“Hey hey, that’s really impressive then! If you pass that then you might be labelled as a super rookie!”

“Do you have any advice?”

“Hm… It is hard to give any since the type of exam changes depending on who the examiner is.”

“So it is hard to rely on past experiences then.”

“Yeah, when I was on my rank up exam for rank E, all I have to do was to reach a destination within a limited amount of time.”

“Isn’t that really easy then?”

“Yeah, but I heard from others that the exam last time involved fighting the examiner into a duel.”

“That certainly seems harder than the one you encountered.”

“Yeah, so as for my advice, better hope for some luck.”

“Wow, what a helpful advice.” I said in a sarcastic tone.

“Come on! Luck is a skill too!”

“Sure, if you say so.”

“Just if ever you fail, don’t stress it out too much and just try again later. Failing promotional exams is not as uncommon as you think.”

“Now that’s the helpful advice, thanks Kai.”

After we ate lunch, Ovis and I went home to spend the whole day to rest. I had to make sure that we would be on top condition for the upcoming exam.

That same night, the news about the Chaos Worm was made public which caused an uproar that quickly settled down overnight.