The first hurdle during their training Monk met almost immediately.

"Hit me."

"...excuse you?"

"I need to know how strong you can hit a guy." God Hand shrugged indifferently. "Told you I'm not much of a teacher."

"Oh, um, no, that's not a problem, it's just..." She spared with her father during her training, but she was never told to just straight up hit someone. Even if her new tutor was a Gold adventurer, what if she hit him too well or somewhere vital? No matter how fabulous, he was still a man.

"Don't worry about me. I've taken hits from some tough customers over the years." He assured her with a chuckle, presenting himself wide open for her. "Now, give me your best shot." Well, there would be no going around it. All that Monk was do was to follow his lead.

As far as combat went, her specialty was a roundhouse kick. It was strong and flashy, but not very fast and left her wide open in case of a whiff or a block. She was planning to branch out eventually, and only use this one in appropriate situations – that was how she knocked the lights out of one of the wild boars the other day. Probably best not to try and hold back: he'd only chastise her for it, she felt.

Taking a deep breath, Monk assumed a combat stance – and then spun almost immediately after, her boot impacting with God Hand's face dead on. She could feel the visceral feeling of a confirmed hit, the shocking tingle that came from such sudden body-to-body interaction, and the force of her own momentum… and yet, once she lost the latter, her foot stopped on the man's cheek as if it was a rock.

The girl blinked, shocked at how casually God Hand took her hit. "Not bad. You know, ignoring the fact that your opponent could kick you twice in the same time." With a nonchalant gesture, he gently pushed her leg away, which was enough for her to lose balance and land on her tush. "I know this is rich coming from me, but strength ain't everything."

"Y-yes, sir..." She mumbled, trying and failing not to blush like a ripe tomato. He leaned down, offering her a hand to stand up on, which she gingerly took.

"Let's try it again. Hit me with that kick again." The brunette nodded, assuming her combat stance. One deep breath, and she let her leg rip once more – except this time God Hand dashed forward to meet her, stopping her kick before it could even reach him. The sudden lack of distance between them was enough to make her turn red again – and then let out a startled gasp when he jabbed her with his thumb, right under the rib. "And you're dead as dreams, kid."

Over the next few hours, they went over the most basic of basics. Contrary to his flashy fighting style, God Hand advertised to learn how to practice the most standard, boring punches and kicks. She knew how to do them, but didn't complain – it was something she did many times over with her father as well. Work your way from the mound until you can see the mountain, and then scale it and conquer it.

It was the theory after that gave her pause. "Guess that will be enough of that for now. Good effort." God Hand nodded as the two of them took a seat in the shadow of a great oak near the city gates, savoring some water. The new pair of guards had been watching them for a while, but these two knew better than to bother two martial art weirdos.

"Thank you. I'll try to work on what you said needs work."

"Don't let it stop you from practicing other stuff too. Flexibility is how you win a fight: by always having something up your sleeve to surprise the other guy with." It was a really sobering thought, Monk mused. Though they were as different as they come, both God Hand and Goblin Slayer praised the same innovative approach. The former simply had a lot more flair to his name. "By the way, kid… what does it mean for you to fight?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You know, why you're a Monk? Being an Adventurer for profit and glory is one thing, but everyone wants something else out of it too. Like, that Warrior guy apparently wants to be the greatest swordsman in the kingdom."

"Oh yeah, I guess. It's been his lifelong dream to reach peerless swordsmanship."

"You guys know each other for long?"

"Since we were children, really." Monk leaned back against the log. Wonder what the rest of the group was up to. Hopefully they wouldn't set out without her… "My parents and his mother were Adventurers once, until they retired to the same village. Those were good days." The girl's expression turned melancholic. "Before the plague took Warrior's mother, he vowed to her he'll make her proud. It was the same with me once my father was on his deathbed a few years later."

"Sorry to hear that. And your mom?"

"Don't really remember her. She died when I was little." A moment of silence. "What about you, s-God Hand?"

"Well, my dad was one hell of a rake." The man scratched his head awkwardly. Hatchet Girl was kind enough not to peer into his past – this was in fact a first for him. Did the rookies have to get all emotional and sad about their adventuring these days? "And mom, I don't even know which of the ladies in his bed was it."

"O-oh. I'm sorry."

"Pft. It's fine." Monk blinked. "I ran when I was, I dunno, seven-eight? Never looked back. No idea if he's around still. I was a big kid for my age, so I started beating people up. First for pocket change, then for bigger stuff." The brunette blinked again. All Adventurers started from somewhere, sure, but she didn't expect such a glum story from God Hand, of all people. For whatever reason, her thoughts trailed over to Goblin Slayer...

"What I noticed when we trained is that our approach to fighting couldn't be more different." The man stood up and stretched. "You're from a clean, fancy dojo. Fighting is means to an end for you. You probably want to uphold righteous ideals or some shit."

"I, well..."

"Meanwhile I'm fighting for fighting's sake. It's a drug worse than any liquor or whatever the nobles snort in the Capital." He chuckled, giving a one-two to an imaginary opponent. The hits were short and crisp – Monk could feel how the air rippled around his arms even from here. "That's how I got that God Hand slapped on me, in fact."

"I'd still like you to teach me. Well, as much as you can." She stood up after him, nodding resolutely. God Hand raised an eyebrow and then chuckled. "Nobody said these two styles couldn't be combined, after all."

"I like the way you think, kid."

"...[name]." Monk flushed red. "I m-mean, that's my name. If y-you'd like to use it, and all..."

"Alright, alright. Let's start again." The man offered his divine limb in a silver brace. "I'm [name]." The girl stared at the outstretched hand dumbly before nodding once more and returning the gesture, smiling radiantly. "Pleased to be working with you." God Hand smiled back.

Cow Girl had never had such a guest.

With Uncle out in the city, it was only her at the farm. Goblin Slayer was out on a quest, but promised to return once he was done with that. He had never gone back on such a promise, and so the redhead knew to trust him. The life at the dairy farm was about as exciting as an average person would think, but it was an honest living and she liked it that way.

Since it was a bit off the beaten path, she didn't have many guests – and so this particular woman was all the more striking. Dressed in an attire both sexy and imposing, with pink colors, spikes, and a heart-shaped scepter for a weapon – seems she was some sort of mage – she smiled seductively, one shapely leg over the other as she enjoyed the tea. Her companion was even weirder: a huge beastman in a weird mask and tight pants, with a barrel chest full of black hair. There was no chair big enough to accommodate him, but the beastman seemed content to simply stand behind his… Mistress? Princess? Charge? Who knew?

"I've been told that you know quite a lot about this Goblin Slayer fellow." Second Deva hummed from over her tea, fishing for the redhead's reaction. Really now: blessing a simple farmhand with this much land? That was a king's generosity, right there.

"Yeah. He's a dear friend. Why, do you need some help with goblins?"

"Something among these lines." Naturally, the seductress was well aware that someone as obsessed as Goblin Slayer would not simply stop after asked to stop. She had to put in some additional persuasion. Persuading mortals was, of course, her specialty. "I dare say it might be the biggest goblin quest he's ever been to."

"That sounds like a tall order… all goblin quests are the biggest for him." Cow Girl tilted her head in thought. "Why come here though? Wouldn't it be easier for you to leave a note in the Guild?"

"I happen to know that he lives here. Figured I'll simply come and pay a visit. Plus, well, some people in the Guild don't like me very much."

"Aw, why's that? You seem like a nice lady." And you must have traded all your brains for that dairy farm on your chest, Second Deva thought sourly. "...something on my shirt?" Oh whoops, her eyes were looking down.

"Long story." The Deva laughed, waving off Cow Girl's concern. The big beastman in a silly mask shifted in his place, making a small grunt. "Either way, do you know when can we expect him?"

As if tempting fate, accompanied by a natural 1 – and thus depriving the demoness from some spare time to perhaps get more info out of Cow Girl – the aforementioned specialist simply walked in without a pause. "I'm home." He stated with a flat drone, ignoring the befuddled look from a Second Deva – as well as the huge beastman in silly clothes. "Didn't know you have guests."

"Welcome back! Ah, well, actually, the lady here wanted to meet you."

"Is that so?" Now he looked towards the Deva. "Then why not discuss it outside? Will there be some tea for me too, Cow Girl?"

"Oh yeah, I still have lots. Let me prepare some." The redhead smiled and left to do as she herself advertised, oblivious of how close she might have come to a terrible death. Goblin Slayer watched her go before heading outside, not beckoning Second Deva nor her bodyguard after him. The two looked at each other before following him.

"Excuse me, Lady Wizard. A moment of your time, if you'd be so kind?"

Wizard looked up from her grimoire ("Seventy Reasons Why Fireballs Suck") with an incredulous look at a lizardman in a ritual headdress, smiling like a harmless lamb. She had no prior experiences with the race, but it's been told by many that they weren't the kind to usually get chummy with Praying Races. And yet, the lizardman was accompanied by two such fellow Adventurers: a green-haired, small elf and a stocky dwarf in foreign clothing. All three of them wore Silver tags on their necks. Veterans from afar.

"We're looking for Orcbolg. People around the town keep saying you and your team know him." The elf threw in her own explanation, but that only served to further the redhead's confusion. Was that Elven? Her linguistics were a little behind, unfortunately.

"Leave it to you, Anvil, to just confuse the poor lass." Dwarf laughed, ignoring the withering glare the elf shot him. "She means Beard-Cutter."

"Like she's gonna know Dwarven any better, you idiot!" Wizard knew Dwarven better than Elven, admittedly, but that word still meant nothing to her.

"My quarreling companions are referring to a fellow known as Goblin Slayer." Lizard Priest concluded the confusing questions with an enlightening moral. Now that was a name she knew. "We tried asking Lady Priestess, but it seems my reptilian countenance scared her away, for which I can only deeply apologize."

"Yeah, we know him. I haven't seen him today though." The redhead nodded, closing the book on Reason Twenty One ("You know what friendly fire is, right?"). "Did you ask the Guild Girl?"

"We were meaning to, but that lover boy over there" High Elf Archer pointed at Spearman at the desk, trying and failing to flirt with the receptionist, much to her sheepish refusal. "has her pretty distracted."

"Oh, I can… deal with that… problem." Wizard's mentor, the purple-haired Witch, smiled as she approached fellow Silver tags and her protege. "As for Goblin… Slayer, well… you may want… to visit the dairy… farm nearby town."

"Dairy farm? Now that's an odd place for a lad of his profession to be in." Dwarf Shaman mused. Something about the lizardman shifted in the meantime – his eyes sparkled with unbridled joy.

"D-dairy…? Could it, perhaps, be where cheese is made…?" Wizard raised an eyebrow. Her eyes met Witch's, and the wise look from her mentor simply told to roll with the punches here.

"Quite. Goblin Slayer… has a friend in… the proprietor of… said farm."

"Incredible! Not only is he the gallant knight of a noble countenance, his tastes too are nothing short of sublime!" Lizard Priest seemed elated at the prospect of meeting the two Witch mentioned.

"I wouldn't call him a knight. Or gallant, or noble." Wizard shook her head. High Elf Archer raised an eyebrow. "Don't get me wrong, he's an upstanding guy, but I think you three might have a rose-colored view of him."

"Is that right? Well, from the mouth of babes ye shall know him." Dwarf Shaman nodded wisely. "What is Beard-Cutter like?"

"Super intense." Everyone's heads turned towards the two newcomers entering the Guild building: a young brunette Monk with a very mean purple bruise under her eye, and a Gold tagged man in a stupid coat with a very conspicuous teeth mark on his bicep. Right after them rushed in Priestess, looking more than enough worried for the two of them. "Goblins now, goblins then, goblins forever. You won't find a second man more dedicated to his job." God Hand nodded sagely, trying and ignoring the fact that he and Monk looked positively bruised up.

"...what the hell have you two been doing?" Wizard frowned, adjusting her glasses. The brunette looked away sheepishly.

"Training."

"What she said."

Once their blonde healer was done casting all of her daily Minor Heals on the two overeager martial artists, it was Hatchet Girl's turn to lay down the (verbal) smackdown, once she arrived at the scene.

"More like a God Dumb!" She smacked the hapless Gold tag across the head with a newspaper. The headline read "Gold Adventurer appointed to the Frontier". "One, you missed the meeting with the Governor. Two, since when are you training anyone but yourself?!"

"Oh, lay off me!" He rolled his eyes, avoiding the second newspaper smack with a nonchalant sway. "It's fine."

"You're a big guy. You should know better than give her a black eye."

"It's f-fine. I didn't feel a thing." Mostly because she clocked out the moment his hook connected with her face. The next thing Monk knew, she woke up with a wet face and her very concerned teacher holding the water bottle over her. Not that the spar wasn't enlightening, even if the main rule she learned from it was "anything goes". A little disheartening, but what possibilities it opened for further growth! (like adding bite attacks to the repertoire)

"See? She says it's fine."

"Dammit, [name]. I know it was only yesterday, but you got promoted! You need to start acting like it!"

"Well, I didn't ask to be promoted, did I?"

"Because you flunked on the meeting with a King! Gee, I wonder where that came from!" Monk couldn't help but feel uneasy. God Hand and Hatchet Girl seemed like good friends – even if of a vitriolic kind – so to see them butt heads like that felt a lot like her fault. Maybe if she didn't ask him to tutor him…? But how could she not? Wouldn't she be throwing away the biggest opportunity of her life? Who knew?

"Look, just… if you want to teach her" Here Hatchet Girl looked at the brunette with a look of pity, reserved for someone who was not aware what pits of deep excrement they were getting into. "then you'll have to find the time for other, boring stuff too, alright? That's what's expected of you now."

"Ugh. What are you, my mom?"

"Clearly you need someone to baby you." A bit of silence. "Whatever. Just try not to mess up again. It's not like you can't get demoted." Monk shifted in her seat uneasily. Demotion, for a Gold adventurer? Was that even legal? It seemed God Hand was concerned with the notion too, even if he was much better at not showing it. "As for you, young lady, try not to bite him too much. He might grow to like it." Any concern gave way to first-hand embarrassment as Monk made a sound that was… something indescribable, hiding her red hot face in her hands. Hatchet Girl giggled and gave her a pat on the head. "Eight in the morning, in the Governor's office. Don't make me drag you there." With this one last warning for God Hand, the blue-clad woman left them to their own devices.

"So… I guess we were scolded, huh." The man leaned back after the painful silence proved too much for both of them. Still too embarrassed to uncover her face, Monk could only grunt in agreement. "Sorry to put you through it."

"It's fine. I was asking you for a spar, after all." Another moment of silence. "I just hope she won't be mad at you for too long."

"Nah, it's fine." He replied with a cavalier attitude, but something in the way he shifted in his place – Monk caught the movement from between her fingers – suggested otherwise. "God Hand this, God Hand that – I want to kick back and do other stuff once in a while too."

"I mean… if you are to do governing stuff, you shouldn't probably be seen by anyone near me."

"Pfft, says who? If any detractors show up, I'm happy to take them in for a spin, one broken nose at a time."

"That's just gonna make it worse though." God Hand frowned. The girl was right, yeah. It would be a pain in the ass, at the very least. "They might think we're piggybacking off you or something..."

"Well, we'll see how it goes. I shouldn't skip on that Governor meeting now that Hatchet Girl already told me off, I guess..."

"I guess we will..."

"Whatcha thinking about?"

Monk blinked, turning to look at Warrior. Their leader's face was all swelled up – part of his own training; today he was under the wings of the Silver duo of Heavy Swordsman and Noble Knight – but he didn't seem too much bothered by that. "Hm? Oh, sorry, I spaced out. What did you say?"

"I was asking what you're thinking about." What was she thinking about? Maybe that she was being tutored by God Hand? Or about the trouble he got in because of her? It wasn't like this was that strange, right? "You were awfully distracted the whole day. Hope God Hand didn't hit you too hard."

"If he did, I'd probably not have a head anymore." The girl laughed, walking over to her bed. Wizard and Priestess were already asleep in theirs, so it was just the two of them. "Sorry, just… trying to take it all in. Didn't think he'd actually teach me. I mean, he's a Gold tag."

"He sure doesn't act like it." Warrior shook his head, shuffling under the covers of his own bed and idly stretching. "Like, I get it when you're showing off or when you're confident, but it's just..."

"It's fine. I can tell you don't like him." The leader's face turned sour for a moment.

"I don't. I think staying around him is bad news." It was true that hanging with a Gold Tag would invite more dire threats upon them; it was only natural. "I'm happy that you learned from him, but the worlds we live in are two different beasts."

"Funny. The old you would not be this cautious."

"The old me would get mobbed by goblins on his first quest." Warrior laughed, gesturing to the longsword perched up in the corner. He had more opportunities to use it now that they were taking more open-air quests, but it seemed that a shortsword became his primary means of fighting for the time being. "So I'm happy that I've learned something, at least."

"Feeling's mutual. Still, I think that we'll be seeing less of him all in all, once Hatchet Girl gets him to work behind the desk. Sounds like a nightmare."

"Tell me about it. I can't even read." Warrior chuckled, looking up at the ceiling. "You think we can become great?"

"I think we're pretty great already." Monk giggled, kicking off her boots as she sat at the edge of her bed. "We're one quest away from Steel, and we already know each other so well. And to think we pretty much picked Wizard and Priestess on our way to the first quest like they were some strays."

"That's kind of hurtful to say, isn't it?"

"It really is. I'm glad they're not awake to hear it."

"Well, I say we're doing fine all in all." Warrior hummed, resting his head on his arms. "As long as we don't get in over our heads."

What the rookies did not know was that it wasn't meant to last. Once someone ties their fate with God Hand, wacky misadventures await them one way or another. A sobering start into the new life. As the large troupe wagon adorned with a facsimile of a huge, muscular man holding the words "Carnival Extravaganza Extraordinaire" rolled by the gates of Frontier Town and stopped just shy of it, the winds of fate have changed.

The dice have been cast.