Calla is the name of a village, that just happened to be close to a certain forest.
In such a village, lies a man called Zich.
Zich is a former knight, and now a hunter belonging to Calla Village.
Besides this background, there is nothing special about the man named Zich besides one other thing.
And that is the fact his head is round, very round, and it not just his circle shaped head that is rounded, even his brown eyes also are round as well.
Yet, as this appearance may stands out, strangely so.
But in this world of magic, such appearance that Zich has is commonplace.
After all, it is common to found those with round or square shaped heads, not to mention, there also those who has normal shaped heads, but their heads are bigger than a third or more of their whole body.
Standing at the doorway that leads to his own house. Zich stood in front of his house, wearing leather light armour, the kind that hunters often wear on his body, and on his back lies a longbow along with a quiver of arrows.
As his role as a hunter, when it comes to this time of the year, when summer just fallen onto the village. It is the time of the year when Zich begins his hunts for the village, especially before winter comes before Calla.
This is how Zich and his wife makes a living in Calla.
As Zich personally hunts the game and meat for the village, while his wife on the other hand, will either smoke or dry the meat and game he has brought back from his hunts.
Upon leaving his house and saying his farewell to his sweet wife as he walks away. Zich made his way out of the village, but halted halfway via the village, when a certain old man came before Zich.
And this very old man happened to be village head of Calla himself.
"Zich, is it this time of the year again?" Went the village chef, as he looked at Zich, who is fully in his hunter gear.
"Yes, it is this time again, and don't worry I will also make sure to check the hut by the lake as well. I normally treat that place as my base when I hunt anyway… speaking of which, I think I left my flask there from the last hunt…" Zich told, remember the flask he has left behind in that hut.
It wasn't normal flask, but a Magic Tool known as the Cleansing Flask, which has the ability to clean and cleanse itself, or what goes inside it.
Which is why the flask itself costed Zich 10,000 Jewels instead of 300 Jewels like any normal flask will cost him.
(AN: 1 Jewel is 1 Yen, 100 Yen is $1.00 of course that is just the value price, not the exchange rate price. The magic flask costed 10,000 yen or $100. But the exchange rate cost will be $66.67 as of 06/10/2025)
"I see, thanks Zich for doing this for our village. I can still remember the day, when that Wizard came to Calla, our village, how many years ago was that? Asking and hiring our village to build that hut for him… he was a nice man, even if he didn't have to, he always often help around the village." Went the village elder, recalling something from the past.
Zich didn't say a word at this.
This wasn't the first time he heard about the Wizard themselves.
In Calla, this wizard is very famous, even if the younger generation has never met the guy, but they too have heard of the tales told by the old generation of this village about this Wizard.
Not to mention, even his wife knew this wizard is, as she was only a child herself, when that wizard came to Calla.
"I bet he is; it is a shame I never met him." Zich simply went, pleasing the elder before him.
"It is from a long time ago… never mind that. I don't want to keep you too long from your hunt, your hunting is very important to us, especially when the winter comes. But be careful, while Monsters don't often roam the forest these days, but in my days they did, there is no telling when they might return back to the forest." Went the village elder.
"Don't worry, I know very well, how dangerous Monsters can be." Zich said, as he only can bitterly smiled at the warm warning from the chef of the village.
Zich is no fool, he knew as a normal person, who cannot use Magic will be nothing, but a dead man if he were to recklessly face a Monster.
At best, as a former knight, Zich knew if he were to face a lesser end ranked E-Class monster, he might be able to defeat it, and with the current hunting gear he has on, dealing with two or three E-Class monsters alone will not be a problem either.
And D-Class?
Not impossible to defeat, but facing any D-Class Monster head on, without any sneak attacks or tricks, will be the end of Zich.
But C-Class?
Impossible, it is impossible for a normal person, who cannot use either Magic or Magic Item to slay a C-Class Monster.
Within this world, it is known fact, that Monsters are way stronger then human beings, that only Wizards, or Knights can slay them.
After all, the role of Knights in this world are not titles given to just Wizards, but even people like Zich, who cannot use Magic at all.
Non-wizard Knights, while they do not fight with Magic, but their armour, their sword, their shield, or any other weapon they carry are not normal weapons or armour, but Magic Items themselves, allowing their armour to not just protect them, but strengthen the Knight so they can face D-Class and above ranked Monsters.
However, as Zich might be a former Knight, and once fought and worn such armour and welded such a sword that could slay a C-Class monster alone.
The thing about Knights, their sword and armour they wear, and weld do not belong to them, their Magic Items belong to either the Kingdom they serve, or the noble household they belonged to.
This is why even as a former Knight, Zich no longer has the means to face C-Class Monster anymore, since he no longer has any Magic Armour or Magic Sword to fight with as a former Knight.
And yet again, even if that is the case, in this forest he heading to, has no such Monsters to begin with. And even if they are any Monster within the forest, he doubts he will face any above E-Class if he were to face a Monster in that forest.
Saying his farewell to the village head, Zich made his way to the forest, and recalled something about the hut by the lake.
It wasn't about the Wizard that once spent time alone by the lake many years ago, even before Zich settled down at Calla.
No, what Zich recalled, was the fact he was told the hut itself is special, that the hut has some kind of ward or barrier placed within it.
This ward prevented both wildlife and Monsters from coming near the hut itself, and the only exception of this will be what already lives in the lake itself.
Besides that, no wild animals nor Monsters could come near the hut, making the hut itself the safest place within that forest.
And also the reason why Zich often used that old hut as a base, when the hunting seasons comes Calla.
Upon entering the forest, and making his way to the hut, like he always has done, Zich suddenly halted his steps, as his rounded eyes narrowed when he felt something wrong and off putting about this forest.
Something felt off, then it clicked to Zich why something felt out of place.
Ever since Zich walked into the forest, there were no signs of any animal in his surroundings, nor they been any sort of bird fly above him in the sky.
It is odd, this particular part of the forest is often home to the small animals, like rabbits, birds, or even squirrels.
And yet, there is none.
No flocks of birds flying over him, no scurry of squirrels to stalk Zich, or colony rabbits that can be spotted, before they run away when they knew they had been seen.
This alarmed Zich, as the experienced hunter he is, he knew what this meant.
He knew if there no sighs of small animals anywhere. That only means, something dangerous has made their home here.
But the question is… what that is?
Was it an animal?
Or was it a Monster?
Zich felt sweat down his spine, knowing if he not careful, today might be his last.
Nevertheless, no matter how unwilling Zich is, this is also the role of a hunter.
A hunter role is not just to hunt but also track down the information of the forests near their village, meaning, Zich has no choice but to head onwards, because he needed to know what kind of threat has made this forest near Calla as their home.
Then it happened.
As Zich still making his way to the hut, knowing the ward placed there, will protect him from whatever came to this forest.
He saw it, on the way to the hut itself, he saw it, an unbelievable sight lies right before him.
Zich's mind became blank when he saw the chaos before him.
Trees that are either twisted or shattered into countless pieces, as if some kind of storm has rammed into them.
The ground itself has many cracks, as if something heavy passed through the destroyed part of the forest that lies before Zich's rounded eyes, and to make things worse, there are many 'footprints' as holes scattered all over the place.
No matter how Zich looks at it, it looks like a horde of monsters has ruined this part of the forest.
And to make matters worse, there no way a low ranking Monster could leave such destruction behind them, unless it wasn't a low ranking monster who did this, or worse yet, this wasn't done by a single Master, but a horde of them.
Zich felt cold sweat down his spine, because he knew as a hunter and a former Knight, only Monsters that can leave such a mess, will be a horde of C-Class or above Monsters, or worse yet, something that above B-Class did all of this alone.
That is why, Zich dare not to go anywhere further than this, he already got proof, the sight before, that something is wrong with this forest.
Because of that, Zich rushed back to Calla, fearing he might be caught by the Monsters that has found home in the forest near their village!
And when Zich came back to Calla, he went to the village head himself.
After telling the village elder what he found, the village chef did what anyone else will do in his shoes.
He requested the aid of certain Guild, the very Guild where that Wizard who once helped Calla a long time ago used to belong to.
And that guild?
They are known by many titles and names.
But if one were to describe what this Guild is mostly known for.
They will say two things.
The most chaotic guild in the whole of Fiore Kingdom. And also Fiore's strongest guild.
Fairy Tail.
However, no one will know, due to a single mission, due to a single misunderstanding, will cause a never ending bound to be formed between a chaotic group who are as brave as they are as chaotic, and a clueless teenager, who will be known one day as a walking disaster.
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Magnolia.
It is the name of a town, that exists within the Fiore Kingdom, and it not just any kind of town, in the town that can be mistaken as a city by the size of the town itself.
Lies the home of the strongest guild in Fiore.
And that guild is known as Fairy Tail.
If anyone were to ask, what they think of the strongest guild, and the Fairy Wizards, that came from that guild.
Many will call them bold; some will call them adventurous. And there are those who say how friendly they are.
But one thing they all will say, they are a heroic guild, the strongest, and yet most chaotic guild within the Fiore Kingdom.
And right now, in the two story high building, lies the heart of Fairy Tail itself.
In the main office that only the guild masters of the Fairy Tail Guild can use, lies a short old man called Makarov Dreyar, the 3rd Master of Fairy Tail himself.
Makarov is an old man, who is very short for even for his own age. The only white hair Makarov has, is the outer rim of his head, along with a thick white moustache.
Dressed in white shirt, that has the crest mark of Fairy Tail on it, Makarov sighed, as he looked at the papers before him. Which is basically another complaint from the Magic Council.
Flames soon burn the complaint within Makarov's hand, showing how much interest and dislike Makarov has towards the Magic Council itself.
It is no wonder why, as beliefs of Fairy Tail and the Magic Council's nature often crash with each other. But that for another time.
As Makarov burnt the paper, he noticed a new Job that has come, a report of a Monster sighting near a village called Calla.