"What kind of devil puts twenty rabbits on a hitlist? Isn't that a little too cruel for a quest...?"
Ian crossed his arms with a disappointed look in his eyes, the mix of adventurers and mercenaries beside him at the quest board with equally conflicted expressions.
"You're right kid... that's a little much, don't you think?"
Ian's eyes shifted to his right, falling upon the individual who had spoken.
A tall, muscular man who had not even a single hair on his head stood beside Ian, his eyes scanning over the request, squinting as if he could not see the words clearly.
"Rabbits huh...? Sounds like a lame quest," the buff male grumbled before glancing at Ian with a small grin. "Should work for a punk like you though, no?"
Ian frowned at the man's words, but didn't deny them.
If there's one thing he learned by just visiting guilds and talking with mercenaries about experience, it was that they loved to talk...
...Talk a lot of crap, that is.
"Yeah yeah, I guess I'll take it. What have I got to lose to rabbits?" Ian grumbled, shaking his head. "I guess I don't mind playing psycho for a bit of money."
The buff adventurer only side-eyed Ian, concern for the young man's unfiltered words.
"Forget you being a punk. You need to visit the church, kid."
Ian ignored his words, but could not ignore the man's shining baldness.
"..."
Without thinking (clearly), Ian opened his hand and leapt upwards, firmly slamming his hand down and gripping the taller man's bald head.
This earned gritting teeth and a bulging vein on said man's head... and perhaps some steam as well.
"...What the hell are you doing, you brat—"
Before the taller man could do anything about his shining dome being grabbed, Ian snatched the request document off the board and shuffled past the other occupants of the Guild, heading towards one of the receptionists desk as the other members of the bald man's party held the fuming mercenary back.
Sitting at a receptionist's desk was an average height girl with milk chocolate skin and fluffy, peach-like hair down to her shoulders.
"Guess you were serious about that hero stuff, huh Ian~?"
Ian bristled slightly at the girl's teasing tone, before letting out a sigh of slight exasperation.
"It was either rot on the streets of the village or make some money to live. Can you blame me?"
The receptionist only giggled at his words, taking a look at the quest form of his as she snatched it from his hands.
"Hah... still, seeing that kid who used to be all 'I will save everyone' walk up to my desk years later with a sword on his back is a little mind-boggling."
"You make it sound like I died and reincarnated, isn't that a bit much?"
"Considering you basically turned into a hermit almost a decade ago, not at all! I practically haven't seen you since you were... a little, shut-in kid who gave up on everything! That was nine years ago!"
"Thanks for making me sound like a loser, Liz..."
The receptionist, Liz, was a somewhat short lady. Now a young woman in her mid-twenties, she was one of the residents who used to reside in the village Ian came from.
"You sounded more depressing than anything else... I would've came back and took care of you, y'know!"
Liz turned to the side with a huff, before her eyes slowly glossed over Ian's figure with interest.
"And when did you get so... tall!? Not only that, you've gotten a lot more... buff! What could you have been lifting all those years I was gone?!"
"I worked out, duh. I think it's common sense to be athletic in order to swing a sword, Liz..."
"Still... I can't believe a shut-in like you can just switch around! Maybe those books you dug into really did fix that broken head of yours..."
"Something like that, I guess... the old lady was the only who visited me back then."
Her eyes scanned the document with a suspicious look, the coral-colored irises side-eyeing the young adventurer across the counter.
"You know... this request doesn't exactly give good 'hero vibes'... like at all..."
"It was either rabbits for gold, or kill a dragon. I'm not fighting a dragon, Liz."
"At least one of them would be considered heroic... like hero heroic."
"I'd be considered a fool rather than a hero if I chose that. I haven't exactly done a job yet."
"Seriously? You've just been getting all... beefed up and swinging the sword at the air all this time?"
"...is that bad?"
"What are you, some kind of hero in a novel?"
"...that is my inspiration, yes..."
"...oh."
Liz then brought out a stamp and slammed it onto the top right of the quest form, a large "G.C" imprinted in red on the paper. She slid the form back to Ian before leaning onto her elbows, resting them on the mahogany counter top.
"Anyways... what made you click back into your old, hero-aspiring self? Come on, I'm curious! Couldn't have been just the books!"
Ian waved her off with a slight huff.
"Life. No money, no food, no home."
Ian then waved his finger in a circle, his eyes shut closed.
"Become adventurer, make money, buy food, buy home."
In response to his rather pragmatic reasoning, Liz let out a small scoff, shaking her head in amusement.
"Fair, fair... I'm no different. I guess life catches up to all of us, huh?"
"Mhm..."
Liz's expression suddenly softens, her eyes narrowing slightly in concern as she stared at Ian.
"Was it the bandit raid? I heard the old lady's village was raided while I was away."
Ian took a deep breath in, before nodding.
"Yup... everyone is basically back to square one. No one more richer than the other."
"Anyone catch them yet?"
"No, not yet."
"...you're not doing this to get revenge, are you?"
"If I get the chance to, I might go for it. Can't exactly let them get away with messing with the old lady's village, now can I?"
Liz smiles softly at his admission.
"Guess you haven't changed that savior attitude of yours... especially with that old hag."
"Hey, like I said... she's the only one who visited me when I shut down. I owe her a lot for the company during that time."
A moment of silence passing between the two before Liz glances behind Ian with a curious gaze, humming softly.
"No party members for your cruel quest? You know... you can always use the extra hand..."
"It's just getting rid of rabbits, how difficult could that be?"
Liz huffed at his words, unamused with his lack of concern for a quest in general.
His naiviety was as charming as it was ridiculous.
"You never know! They could be rabbits that transform into buff, berserk, carrot-swinging brutes!" She scolded, her arms crossing beneath her chest.
Ian's gaze only narrowed at Liz's insane theory...
"Are you here to give advice or spew fantasies, you crazy woman...?"
"You call me crazy now, but just watch! Let's see you play hero then!"
Ian rubbed his forehead in exhaustion.
Liz had always been a bit of... imaginative person growing up. She was like an adventurous, big-sis who didn't know how to stay put.
"Fine... if that somehow happens, I'll give you a fourth of the gold I earn."
"No takebacks?"
"Sure..."
"A worthy reward for my seer abilities! I accept!"
Liz held out her hand enthusiastically for a handshake, in which Ian accepted.
***
You have got to be kidding me...
Ian stared up at the gigantic rabbit before him, the sun shining behind the creature like the rabbit was a courier from the all-father above.
...and mockingly enough, the rabbit was just as Liz had described them to possibly be.
Gigantic, buff, crazy rabbits that stood on two legs and had it's two other front legs... form into arms... the carrots they stole from that farmer now turned into the size of a large log.
—"Ah, they shouldn't be too harmful! They're just little fellas who've repopulated a little too much by taking my carrots! They shouldn't be too hard to get rid of!"
Ian only gritted his teeth as he recalled the farmer's words during his initial briefing, an imaginative image of the farmer smiling maliciously in his farm house pissing him off even more.
"That old man... he was holding out on me!"
How did this all happen?
Well... Ian didn't give a damn about that anymore.
All that mattered was that the small rabbit he was pursuing into the forest had fooled him, along with that stupid contractor!
"What is this nonsense...?! You don't expect me to actually believe—"
The loud "swoosh" sound of the carrot rippling through the air was enough to send Ian leaping away, hiding behind a tree as he glances at where he once was in distraught.
The tree he stood in front of earlier was now only a stump, the entire tree now toppled over onto the ground.
"...damn you, Liz! I should have never agreed to this stupid bet!"
Ian quickly dove behind another tree, watching the previous one fall like its brother earlier before peeking from the side.
Even though he's massive in size... its weak-point should be the same as any other rabbit. If the head goes off, everything else is going to shutdown.
Ian took a slow, deep breath as he glanced around at the nearby branches.
"Now... just how am I going to win against this thing?" Ian mumbled softly, his eyes analyzing his surroundings. "I haven't tested its reaction time so I'm not sure if I can exploit an opening quick enough when it appears."
Ian glanced over at a nearby rock, before smirking.
"Actually... let's test that right now."
Sliding away and picking up a rock the size of a tennis ball, Ian sprinted towards the rabbit, hurling the rock towards the direction of its left eye with all his might.
The monstrous rabbit raised it's carrot, deflecting the rock away as Ian slid underneath, preparing to swing his sword upwards towards the rabbit's chin.
However, the rabbit was a bit faster than he expected. The carrot came down at full force towards Ian's own blade much more quicker than he would've liked it to.
Wasting no time, he quickly twisted his body, aiming for one of the legs and leaving a deep wound on it, his blade slicing through the fur and skin with an unpleasant sound, before he spun away, rolling across the dirt.
"It's fast... but there's a chance.
Dusting himself off and leaping to his feet, he glanced around once more for another rock.
"It wouldn't learn my tactic if I kept doing it, right?"
After a moment of contemplation, Ian went in again with the same method, his eyes falling on the small crater the carrot had made at his earlier attempt.
"...what the hell is that carrot made of?"
***
This time, thanks to the wound on its left leg the young man had already inflicted, he could utilize that to take this rabbit down.
He quickly crouched down to the side of the rabbit's injured leg, his eyes staring up at the large carrot swinging down towards his own sword once more.
Ian however, slammed his foot into the injured leg with whatever strength he had, completely turning the joint in its leg and sending the rabbit onto one knee.
The sudden shift in balance was enough to re-direct the trajectory of the large carrot by a small margin.
The abnormally large vegetable landed to Ian's left, crushing into the ground with a large tremble and zipping right past his shoulder, before Ian's eyes glared up at the buff rabbit's face with a satisifed grin.
"Got you!"
Swinging his sword upwards and practically jumping from his frog-like pose, the blade slashed through the rabbit's throat like butter, blood squirting from the corpse as the head slid forwards with a soft "thud" against the dirt.
Dusting himself off, Ian took a deep breath and leaned against his sword stabbed into the ground.
"Whew... what a workout..."
Glancing at the large corpse, Ian then cursed at the realization that there were nineteen more of those he had to get rid of to earn the 100 gold coins.
"Ah... the bell of doom tolls for me..."
Closing his eyes with a resigned smile, Ian took ahold of the rabbit's head, gagging at both the sight and stench, before throwing it into a brown sack he had brought along.
"And I'm supposed to fill it with twenty of these for proof... ugh, the smell is going to be unbearable."
Lifting his sword and trophy bag, Ian continued throughout the forest with blood stained onto his cloak and clothes, his messy white hair now partially stained in red.
"I'm going to kill that farmer when I'm done with this..."
***
Upon reaching his 10th gargantuan rabbit kill, Ian threw himself onto a tree log, groaning in exhaustion as the most recent rabbit's corpse rested nearby.
The sun was beginning to set, and his body was aching in pain from all the exertion.
The sudden switch of intensity between constant running, swinging, and shifting of his body made everything more sore than he'd like.
"Ugh... I'm not even out of breath... just in pain."
Staring up at the dim, yellow-to-orange lit sky, Ian let out a weak laugh, his abdomen and sides hurting while doing so.
"Stupid... damn rabbits... couldn't have been normal ones, ugh..."
Wincing again from the soreness in his muscles, Ian let out a small groan.
A soft gust of wind blew past him in the brief silence he relished in, before a loud grumble roared from his stomach.
"...food, right... damnit..."
Pushing himself up with a loud (and questionable) yell of masculinity, Ian's eyes fell onto the large corpse of the rabbit's, then at the nearby trees surrounding him.
"I know my blade isn't meant for cutting trees but... ah screw it, I'm hungry."
Ian hoisted himself to his feet using his sword as support, before staggering over to a tree.
He then began to swing at the tree with his blade, the momentary breaks of him bending his back in pain becoming a not so flattering sight for the eyes.
Practically limping over to the corpse of the rabbit, his eyes stared at it silently, before Ian stabbed his sword into the ground, leaning his forehead against it as he lowered himself to his knees as if praying at a church.
"...Rest easy rabbit, you will serve my belly well."
Ian then began to chop up the corpse, creating a small campfire with two support wooden beams and a larger stick hanging over the flames, jamming rabbit meat chunks into the overhead stick before groaning in exhaustion.
"After I'm done eating... I'm going into a food coma. I'll finish the rest of the hunting tomorrow..."
Silently watching the sunset, Ian patiently waited for his meal to finish cooking, preparing himself for tomorrow's events.