"Atsushi's Wares, what kind of place is this?" Noboru questioned.
"Supposedly, it's a shop meant for adventurers." Mizuki told him as they walked inside.
Upon entering, Atsushi spoke. "Welcome! E-Eh? Mizuki?" He got up from his chair.
"Do you know this guy…?" Sli-Mai asked.
"No… I've never been here before." Mizuki was confused.
"I know you, because a certain adventurer told me about you during a visit, I believe his name was… Akihiko?" Mizuki's eyes widened at the mention of Akihiko.
"Oh… That makes sense, I didn't know he would go around talking about me to everyone he came across though…" Mizuki stated.
"He told me that if you were to come here, that I should give you something. Follow me, you two can also come since you two will also need what I'm giving Mizuki." He explained before walking into the back.
As they followed him they noticed a chest, Atsushi opened it and handed each of them rare equipment. "...What is this…?" Mizuki questioned.
"Wait, you don't know? There are 3 categories of equipment. Common, Rare, and Legendary. What I just gave you are rare items crafted by me personally! Unlike common items they should improve as you level… Which saves a lot of time going back and forth, right?" He explained.
"Ohh! That's really helpful, thank you Atsushi! Do we need to pay for these…?" She asked.
"Oh, no you don't… I just have one condition, if you ever find someone who is looking for a blacksmith, tell them about my shop. Akihiko let me know about your potential, and after meeting you myself, I can also see it." He told her.
"What is this potential that they keep mentioning when people meet Mizuki?" Noburo asked Sli-Mai.
"Don't worry about it you two, you'll find out what her potential is as you fight alongside her!" Atsushi laughed.
"But how did you even know what our classes were gonna be, or how many of us were gonna show up…?" Mizuki questioned.
"Oh. I didn't." He pointed toward the chest which was filled to the brim with rare equipment.
"I just made as much as I could!" He laughed.
"Well, thank you, Atsushi… We will be going now." Mizuki told him.
"Good luck, Mizuki. Not that you'll need much luck, haha…" They left the store and went to the border of the Kingdom of Hirano.
Upon taking another step, they found themselves in the Slimey Flatlands, an area covering the entire outskirts of Hirano. Slimes are seen wandering around everywhere you can look.
"Ok, we should probably head in that direction, as once we finish our first quest, we will need to go to the forest of Mysterious Shrooms…" Mizuki explained while pointing to the east.
Sli-Mai and Noburo nodded as they started walking toward the forest of Mysterious Shrooms.
Mizuki glanced at a slime before holding out her new staff, pointing at the slime. "Let's see how this works… Fireball!" A small fireball shot out toward the slime, the impact burned the slime to ashes.
"Wait… What day is it, Noburo?" Sli-Mai looked at him.
"...It's friday? Why?" He questioned.
"Oh… Um, Mizuki…! You shouldn't harm slimes on fridays!" Sli-Mai shouted.
"Wait, what? Why would that be a rule-" The ground started to shake as they began to see something, or rather a LOT of things coming from the distance. It was a horde of slimes.
"W-What the hell is that?!" Noburo asked.
"S-Slimes have a sort-of break during fridays… If you harm one during a friday, every slime in the area will hunt you down…" Sli-Mai explained as Noburo's eyes widened.
"O-Okay, this isn't a problem at all, I'll just shoot 4 fireballs at 4 slimes…" Mizuki fired 4 more fireballs at the horde, killing 4 slimes, thus completing the quest, "Slimes 1".
"Now… RUN!" Mizuki bolted toward the forest of Mysterious Shrooms.
"T-That was your idea…?!" Sli-Mai and Noburo followed as the horde chased after them, the moment they stepped into the forest of Mysterious Shrooms, the slimes halted and went back slowly.
As they caught their breath, Noburo spoke. "Never… Never kill a slime on a friday again, Mizuki…" Noburo told her before sitting down.
"O-Okay… How about while you two rest here for a minute, I will go try to find the item we need to find for the second quest…" She suggested.
"S-Sure… Just be careful…" Sli-Mai agreed as Mizuki began to walk further into the forest.
Mizuki glanced around, there were many mushrooms, and the trees made it hard to see much. Suddenly, she noticed a small clearing and went toward it.
Upon stumbling into the clearing. Mizuki noticed a man standing in the center, seeming to be lost in thought.
"Should I have gone that way…? Or maybe that way…? This forest is so hard to navigate…" He mumbled to himself before noticing Mizuki, the moment he laid eyes on Mizuki, his face turned a bright red.
"You… What is your name?" He asked.
"H-Hirayama Mizuki…?" She replied, slightly confused.
"Mizuki… Please, go out with me!" He suddenly shouted. Mizuki stood there for a moment completely taken aback.
"...M-My name is Takao… H-Hayashi Takao… You may have heard of me, I'm the hero of Adventure-Lands…" He told her shyly.
Mizuki was still processing what had just happened, the hero? Asked her out? "U-Um… I don't know too much about love… Sorry, I don't think I could give you an answer right now…" She told him.
Takao blinked as if shocked. "O-Oh… That's fine, I guess… Do you happen to know how to get out of this forest…?" He asked.
"Y-You're the hero, but you are lost?" She questioned skeptically.
"Yeah… I tend to get lost in forests easily… They are like mazes…" He explained.
Mizuki sighed. "Fine… In exchange, have you seen a… Shroomy Flower around here…?" She asked.
Takao thought for a moment before realization hit. "Oh! Look right there!" He pointed at what was indeed a Shroomy Flower.
Mizuki picked it up and put it in her bag. "Great… Now I just need to bring it back to the guild later…"
Meanwhile…
"N-Noburo… Where did you go?!" Sli-Mai shouted, Noburo had suddenly disappeared.
Within an instant, Noburo appeared behind a bush and yelled "Boo!", causing Sli-Mai to scream, her scream was heard throughout the entire forest.
Mizuki and Takao looked around, alarmed. "W-What?" Takao glanced around.
"That was… Sli-Mai, I think-" Suddenly Mizuki heard a voice inside of her head.
"You have unlocked, Unique Quests." The message ended just as fast as it started. Mizuki looked even more confused.
"Takao… What are unique quests?" She asked.
"U-Unique quests? Can't say I've heard of those… I've done so many quests but I've never heard of such quests before." He told her.
Mizuki opened her adventurers menu, immediately noticing that the ??? option was replaced with unique quests. Takao glanced at her menu before his eyes widened.
"Wow… You've done something even I couldn't do, I tried to figure out what that option was a few years ago, however I couldn't figure it out…" He explained.
"W-Woah… So I may be the only person in Adventure-Lands to know about this…" She closed her menu and brought Takao with her toward Sli-Mai and Noburo.
"Welcome back, Mizuki-" Noburo stopped as he noticed the hero behind her. "T-Takao?!" He exclaimed.
"Do you know him…?" Sli-Mai asked.
"Know him…? He's the hero of Adventure-Lands!" Noburo explained.
Takao blinked in confusion. "M-Mizuki, can we get out of this forest… I don't wanna get lost again…"
"Sure…" They quickly left Mysterious Shrooms and went back into the Slimey Flatlands, thankfully it seemed the slimes had backed off.
"T-Thank goodness… I better be going, I was there for a few days and my party must be worried about me… I'll see you again, Mizuki. In the meantime, think about my confession, please…" Takao quickly ran off toward Hirano.
"C-Confession?!" Sli-Mai and Noburo shouted as they were surprised.