Appearance:
Ars is a fairly short young man, with a slender build.

Name: Ars Argento

Race: Human

Magic/Abilities/Equipment:

Ars is a talented but novice spell caster who has been taught a wide variety of spells useful for a lone traveler. He's particularly skilled in fire-type spells, but lacks any real combat ability. He hopes to make up for it with his diligent practice. Physical capabilities are about average for a human, meaning he can't really beat a monster in melee.
Carries a knife for general purposes and self defense, and a wooden staff, which is mostly for show as the symbol of a spell caster. Both were given to him by Master Lucian as parting gifts and have mostly sentimental value.

Personality:
Ars has developed a great deal of curiosity about the world from hearing many stories of adventures. Due to never having any friends, he finds social interactions to be a complicated affair and often deal with them in an almost mechanical fashion, emulating what he expects social interactions to be, which unfortunately is influenced by the overly formal interactions he saw his father do with his clients, meaning he can often come across as distant. A particularly humiliating incident with his sister, where he was forced to walk around town in girl's clothing, left him with a form of gynophobia in which he actively avoids dealing with females. He is also fairly sensitive on the subject of his low stature and unmanly build.

Aside from that, Ars is well natured. He doesn't harbor any intention of becoming a hero or "helping those in need", but he is likely to aid those in front of him mostly out of a sense that that's what an adventurer should do.

On the subject of monsters, his opinion is mostly neutral, shaped by the stories he heard of Master Lucian's travels, which include both benign and malign monsters. The attitude of people around Boreal Port is friendly towards them, so he has no inherent prejudice. Overall though, his gynophobia and the fact that monsters are female makes him feel that he would be fine if he never needed to interact with one of them ever.

Background:
Ars was born the third child of the Argento family, wealthy merchants operating out of Boreal Port. A popular saying in the city was that no goods would pass through the harbor without the Argento knowing of it and having made a profit. As such, it would have been likely that Ars would have never wanted for anything as he grew up.

Unfortunately, fate dealt him a bad start in life in other ways, as Ars' mother died due to complications of his birth, significantly straining his family's relationship with him growing up. His father, a stern old man, dove head first into his work, as if to ease the pain, always seeming distant and mostly neglecting his duties as a father. Of his older brother, Ars' ended up knowing and remembering little, the young man was several years older than him, and, around the time Ars completed 5 years of age, left to establish a merchant outpost for the family's company in a far away land. But, the worst by far was Ars' older sister, Ariella. Ariella deeply resented Ars, believing he had somehow been responsible for their mother's death "If you hadn't been born, mother would still be here!" The older girl seemingly made her life's purpose to make Ars miserable, and would often bully him while accompanied by her friends.

It was in such an atmosphere that Ars grew up, believing himself an unwanted child. Often, to escape abuse from his sister's gang, he would run to the harbor, where they would have a hard time finding him. Ars would often watch the ships, wishing he could go with one of them, traveling to lands far away. "Anywhere that's not here, anywhere would be fine." It was by chance, in one of such days where he watched the ships, that the boy by chance met and befriended a man named Lucian. The man, as it turned out, was a traveling mage, with an awfully cheerful disposition. The man laughed upon learning of why Ars watched the ships so often. "Rather than traveling because you want to run away from a place, isn't it better if you want to travel to find new places?"

Lucian, or Master Lucian as Ars would soon take to calling him, started teaching him magic. A wanderer who would come and go as he pleased, Master Lucian would often teach him a spell and tell him to master it before Lucian's retun, a time span which could be weeks or months. With each visit, Master Lucian would share stories of adventures. Slowly but surely, Ars soon was also yearning for the same kind of adventure and would train diligently the spells that he was taught. In this fashion, the years passed by.

It was only a few days ago that this happened. Master Lucian arrived to their usual meeting spot in the harbor, with an even brighter and mischievous smile than usual. "I received an invitation from an acquaintance to take part in an adventurers guild. It sounds like too much work, so how about you going in my stead? Just tell Bart that I sent you, it will be fun." Ars jumped at the opportunity given to him. This was Master Lucian's way of saying he was ready. Ars left a letter to his father and set off on his journey towards the place Master Lucian had spoken off. He would find this mister Bart and his guild, and that would be the beginning of his very own adventure.

Other: My favorite monster girl is probably the Lamia, I think, though that might just be the hours sunk into Monster Girl Quest speaking, heheh. Dullahans do make me think of interesting possibilities, though....