//------------------------------//
// The first quest 
// Story: The Adventures Paused 
// by Dragon Shimmer 
//------------------------------//

After one hour of preparation, Karen, Jezz, and Sunset are ready to go but Eldaro said that the requester will arrive in this town in one hour more, making them have to wait. After thirty minutes of waiting, they hear a knock on the door, the mailman says "Delivery". Eldaro opens the door and gets the parcel from the mailman. Then he put the parcel on the table. 

Sunset tilts her head in confusion, "Okay, what is it in that parcel? You buy something?" 

Eldaro takes the knife and opens the parcel, "Well, this is from Leo," Jezz and Karen drop their cups while Sunset smirks at it. When the parcel is opened, it has a black coat and a wooden staff inside. Sunset turns her head away from that item while Eldaro giggles at her reaction.

 Jezz grabs the black coat, "Why did the king send us these things? Is this something special?"

Sunset waves her claw not wanting Eldaro to talk about it. When Karen turns her head to look at Sunset, Sunset puts her claws down and tries to act like normal. Eldaro takes out the wooden staff and replies, "Well, this is the item that the Black Mage gives to the king." Eldaro puts his fist to his chin, "I got to say after that, the king tries to find her but does not work. He gave up just a week ago to focus on this kingdom." Then Eldaro picks up the cup, "The King tried to invite the heroes to join his army but denied him already." 

 Karen rubs his chin and says, "Well, I met her once. When I went to the jungle to get some mushrooms, I got attacked by a hoard of giant bees." Karen takes bottles of wine and pours them into a cobbler shaker. "Well, the Black Mage appeared after that and saved me from the bees." Karen starts shaking the cobbler shaker for a while then pours it into the cup. "I just asked her name but she didn't talk. If I meet her again, I swear that I will take off that coat." 

Sunset takes the cup and drinks the wine. " Well... uh.. I hope you will meet her soon." 

Jezz puts the coat on him but Eldaro takes the coat and hangs it on the roof. Jezz sits down and grumbles, "Anyway, Karen. Did you see any of her? Many people have tried to disguise themselves as her but they got caught after that though." Jezz rubs his head, "Well, she is the best." 

 "Hey, me too." Karen grabs Jezz's hand as they smile together, "To answer your question. Well, I have seen her use only one spell but can clear the bees. That spell seems like "Fire slash" but has dragon form and the damage seems stronger." 

 "Speaking about dragons." Jezz turns his head to Sunset, who is facing down on the table to hide her blush because of embarrassment. Jezz then turns his head to Karen, "Well, I don't think she is." 

 Karen waves her hand away, "Oh sorry, but this dragon always makes explosions at her house. Do you think Sunny is the Black Mage? I would lose 500 Mara to this," Karen and Jezz laugh out loud.

The duo keeps chatting with each other while Sunset takes out a flute and going to play it to calm herself but she hears the knock on the door. Eldaro opens the door and sees a gray-haired man wearing a formal vest is standing there. Eldaro feels curious about this but welcomes him to go inside. The man sits on the chair and starts drinking some wine. 

 The man coughs and puts the cups down, "Sorry for disturbing all of you. But I need your help to find my kids." The man puts his hand on Eldaro's shoulder and begs. "Please, help me."

Eldaro pushes the man a little bit, "Woah Woah Woah, come down. Take a seat first," The man sits down, Eldaro sighs and continues, "Okay, first please tell me who you are and why are you asking us to help?

 "My apologies," The man put his hands under his chin, "My name is Ken, I am a merchant of the Ochna Village." 

 "Ken, you are a noble right?" Ken nods as Eldaro continues, "Okay, now you should start your story, I am listening."

Ken starts telling his story. According to Ken, his kids were lost three days ago and no sign of coming back. When Eldaro asks about where the last time Ken saw them, Ken says they were lost near the Maple Jungle. Eldaro nods at this information and promises that his guild will rescue them. Ken shakes Eldaro's hand furiously and comes out.

Eldaro turns to the others, "You all should prepare for the quest, the requester is here." The trio stands up, grabs their things, and goes out of the guild. 


The trio is walking for a while and they meet a crimson-haired man, who is sitting in the car. When the man meets them, he immediately asks them if they are his guardian or not. Sunset simply answers that they are. Then he asking their rank, and Sunset lies that she is "F" rank and stops Jezz and Karen say anything about her. The man introduces himself that he is a merchant, wants some adventurer to slay some "Leaf Eater"s to make sure that his road of trading is safe. The trio nods as they go inside the car. 

 On the way to the place of the quest, Sunset just lies down and pretends to sleep, while Jezz and Karen ask something about the requester. 

"Sorry sir, but I don't know your name," Jezz says while eating some chips, "If you don't mind me eating in your car."

 "Nah, I don't mind," the man waves his hand, "My name is Jack by the way." 
 
 "I see. So how is your business?" Karen asks, "I see many merchants have failed in their business though."

"My business is fine," Jack turns his head to the trio and smiles, "Don't worry about them."

 The car keeps going inside the Maple Jungle until it suddenly stops. Jezz and Karen are confused, they try to get out but they can't go out. They turn to Jack and see that Jack is pulling a level, smoke comes out and they fall asleep. After a moment, they are sleeping. Jack smiles at this and whistles. A bunch of bandits come out and laugh at Jack. 

 "Hey, good job bro," A bandit pats Jack's shoulder, "Let's see what we got." the bandit goes inside, he is amazed about Sunset, "Oh hey, we got a robot that can sell a lot of money for her inside.  Luckily our smoke can affect the robot too." 

 "I know right?" Jack waves his hand, "We will play with this baby dragon until we are bored, right?" 

The bandit agrees, "But anyway, we should carry her to our boss. He will be excited for this girl." 

The bandits and Jack carry the trio to their base. After a while, they put Jezz and Karen in the prison with two kids while carrying Sunset to another way. Jack knocks on the door and the door opens, there is a navy-haired girl wearing a dress with her bodyguards. She is sitting on the chair and writing something. 

 "Hey boss, we got a rare robot here." Jack waves his hand to call her, "We will show you." 

 The boss stops writing and looks at Jack, "All right, what is it, Jack? I hope you don't disappoint me." 

 "Don't worry, Jenny," Jack drags Sunset, who is pretending to sleep. "there you go." 

Jenny sees Sunset and immediately stands up. "Whoa, I love her right now." then she goes around the dragon, "So detailed, so real ~." Then Jenny looks at Jack, "I will reward you later, now prepare the room." 

"Yes, madam." 


Jack and Jenny go to a room. Inside that room, there are many mechanic tools and torture tools for operating the robot. Jenny asks Jack to come out while she puts Sunset on the table. 

 "Well, well, well," Jenny take out a screwdriver, "Let see what can I do to change her mind ~" 

"You can change anything, Jenny," A voice comes from Sunset, making Jenny turn her head back. Sunset opens her eyes and gets up, then she sits on the table, "So this is your base, huh? I wonder where are the adventurers who you kidnapped before."

Jenny forms a lighting ball, "They are "serving" this bandit band," Then Jenny licks her lip, "Don't worry, I will sell your friends down here too."  

 "I see," Sunset folds her claw together, "and you think you can make a robot with that lighting ball? I don't think you can." 

 "Well," Jenny snaps her finger, and many men from outside come inside the room, some of them are aiming the gun at Sunset while some of them are using shield spells to protect them and the team, "There we go. Now you can't attack or defend this time. Surrender and you will be my servant or you die."

Sunset raises her claw to the bandits and waves it to taunt them, "Then you can try to shoot me." 

"As you wish," Jenny claps her hand, and her bandit shoots at Sunset's spot, creating a cloud of smoke at Sunset's spot. Jenny raises her hand to stop. When the smoke fades, Sunset is not there. The bandits look around to search for her, "Where is she?" 

"Miss me," Sunset is standing on the shield with a black staff that has a ruby on it, making Jenny step back, "How about we start?" Sunset punches at the shield and it has broken down. Jenny's mouth shakes when sees that. The gunners start shooting at her but Sunset teleports above them and forms a large waterball. The waterball is broken and leaves raining on the bandit. After a while, they are standing on the large puddle as Sunset just floats around there by her wings. 

Jenny smirks at her. "What a pathetic dragon." Then she forms an electric ball and tries to throw it at Sunset but Sunset teleports in front of her and uses two fingers at Jenny's wrist, making Jenny can't hold the electric ball. It then falls into the puddle and all of the bandits are electrocuted. After a moment, they fainted including Jenny. 

 "What a dumb girl!" Sunset lands in the puddle and feels the electric flow through her body, "Luckily I got electrocuted a lot when I studied and experienced new magic." Then she rubs her head, "Now where is the prison? I forgot to ask them."


------In the prison------

The wardens are laughing at each other since they got a big capture while Karen and Jezz try to comfort the kids. One of the wardens goes to the prison. 

He points at Karen and says, "I think you are a good bartender since you made good wine in that guild,"  Karen glares at him as the warden continues, "Oh, you will "serve" me this time." 

The warden takes the key and goes to open the door to take Karen but the prison door is suddenly opened. Following that a bandit that heavily breathes, the warden turns his head to the bandit, "Hey, what's wrong? Don't you see I am going to have fun with someone?"

 "We got a problem," The bandit says between breaths, "A dragon robot is raiding this base. We fought with her but her power is too strong," 
  
 "What? We have many members there. How can we fall like that?" 

 "Well,... " The bandit is going to say something but suddenly a strong light appears in the prison. Make all of the people have to cover their eyes. Sunset rushes to the room, jumps up, and slams the ground. The piles of earth rising around the bandit and wardens, hold them down. 

Sunset looks around and sees the warden is struggling out of the earth, she sighs, "Wow, this base is bigger than I thought." then she turns to the prison, "You guys ok?" 

 Karen yells at Sunset, "You have to explain all of this, Sunny."

 Sunset rolls her eyes, "Sure, I will explain all when we go back to the guild," She raises her claw and slash all the bar of the prison, "Take the children and get out of here. The police will be here soon." Jezz and Karen nod as they carry the children and go with Sunset to get out of there. Sunset takes one of the bandits and glares death at him, "You have to lead us the exit or..." a fireball appears at her claw, "Your body will turn into the dust," 

 "Okay okay, please don't hurt me." The bandit waves his hand and looks away at Sunset, "I will lead all of you out of here." 

The bandit leads the team to the exit of the base. The team has encountered many bandits but Sunset knocks them out mostly. Karen and Jezz knock some when they charge at the children. By the time they get out of the base, they meet a group with four people who have full equipment on their body. Sunset forms a fireball to threaten them while her leg is holding the bandit's leg. 

The man in heavy armor raises his hand, "Chill out girl, we just ask if this is the bandit base or not." 

Sunset deforms the fireball, "It used to be because all of the bandits in there have fainted and the police are coming here to arrest them." 

 The others are surprised when hearing that, the masked girl in the group says, "Impossible. How can this base be destroyed like that? We come here to raid this too." The girl rubs her head, "I thought that you all are "B" to "S" rank adventurers."

 "Actually... " Karen rubs her head, "Me and Jezz here is the "F" rank while the dragon you are talking about is "C" rank." 

The man with a bow attracts on his back points at Sunset, "Are you kidding me? How can a "C" rank do this? It's..." But he is cut off when the man in heavy armor raises his hand.

 "Don't be like that, Mike." The armored man comes to Sunset and bows to her, "Apologies for their rudeness, look like we are late for this. So can I know what guild you are in?"

 "Well, we are in a Fantasy guild group," Sunset faceclaws by this name, "A silly name that I regret joining." 

The armored man tilts his head, "Fantasy guild, a new guild in Maple Village right?" Sunset nods, the armored man continues, "Well you're right, that is the silly names. Anyway, how rude am I to forget my introduction for you? My name is Javen, the tank." Then Javen points at his teammate, "They are Mike, the archer. Sakira, the assassin, and Vero, the mage. We are in the Eagle Guild in Lavita city."

 "Nice to meet you," Sunset walks past them, "Now I have to go to treat the children, see ya." 

Sunset and her team walk past the Eagle Guild to come to the car. Then the car is engaging and starts the way to go back to Fantasy guild. The Eagle guild team just looks back at them as the policies are coming to the base, and starts arresting the bandit. 

Javen looks at Sakira, "How is that dragon's magic power?" 

"Sorry, Javen." Sakira sighs, "I can't read her magic power and mana." 

Javen just silents as he turns his head to the way that car disappears. He smiles as he waves his hand, "Oh right, we have nothing to do here. We will come to the tavern nearby and rest. My treat." The team members hope to join and they go to the Ochna village to rest.