“I wasn’t spying on you,” the wounded Human girl protested. “I was just walking through the forest when I saw you and decided to come over and have a look.”


    Zoe wanted to make a show of sharing a skeptical glance with Sasha—but the third member of their impromptu trio was still busying herself making sure nothing else would go up in flames. “Okay, so you just happened to be having a stroll in the exact part of the middle of nowhere that we happened to be in, and then.” Zoe lifted a finger before Millie could form excuses. She wasn’t finished yet. “And then, having miraculously chanced upon our location, you decided to pretend to be a squirrel to spy on us.”


    Millie opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then opened her mouth again. “You are still a healer, right?” Zoe arched a brow at the blatant change of subject. Millie scowled. “Okay, fine. I guess you could say I got a bit nosy when I saw you, but it really was just an accident at first! I was headed home for the equinox festival, well Verdanport is home too I guess but anyway I was heading towards Blossomfell—is that where you’re going too?”


    Zoe couldn’t quite keep up with the deluge of unnecessary information, so she mostly ignored it as she relented and took to healing the burns she’d unwittingly inflicted.


    Mending Touch!


    The freckled young woman squirmed and yelped a little as the skill took effect. Contrary to Zoe’s expectations, mending touch didn’t feel at all like a soothing warmth. It wasn’t exactly painful either—aside from the blood cost—but it could range between relieving and somewhat uncomfortable. Judging by Millie’s reactions, healing over the burns itched her or something.


    The enchanter sighed as Zoe finished. “Thanks. That’s some good healing, definitely appreciate that.” Sitting up, she nodded to Sasha—the wolf woman was putting out the last flames by beating them with a rotten log. “So who’s the Lycan?”


    “Her name is Sasha.”


    Millie looked between them with a questioning glance. Zoe knew she wanted her to say more—but Zoe didn’t. Sasha was almost finished up. Zoe would let the other two sort out the introductions on their own.


    “Alright, fire’s out.” And with that, Sasha finished and sat down with them, completing their cross-legged triangle. “So who the hell is the not-squirrel?”


    Millie looked at Zoe again. But Zoe just grinned and shook her head slightly. You’re on your own for this one. Millie sighed and faced the Lycan. “Just another backwoods Human lass with the misfortune of getting way too involved with terrifying and powerful people, and now apparently Demons too like Zoe here.”


    Hey. Zoe didn’t know if she’d be less offended if she hadn’t been implicitly separated from the former list.


    “Oh and yes I can turn into a squirrel, it’s a pretty cool skill!” Millie’s brightening smile wavered. “Well, it takes a lot of mana though and it’s not all that useful, but…”


    Zoe shrugged. “Still sounds useful to me.”


    “Yeah!” Sasha chimed in as well. “Like, it’s super useful for getting yourself cooked by a startled Demon!”


    “Ha, very funny.” Millie cleared her throat. “Okay, so I’m really not spying on you, but where are you going? Cause if you’re going to Blossomfell too then I wouldn’t mind traveling together.”


    A look between Demon and Lycan showed they were thinking the same thing. Zoe recalled the name being listed on the signpost back where the road forked off to the South and West—but there hadn’t been much information. In fact, for all the names on the western route, it wasn’t clear what was even a town and what was perhaps just a useful landmark or other useful area.


    “That depends,” Zoe hedged. “What’s Blossomfell like?”


    _____


    As it turned out, Blossomfell was not far at all. Millie claimed they had a chance to make it there before nightfall, and that encouraged the rest of them to move with haste. Whenever Zoe got too tired she just ate one of the many monster cores she still had stashed away in her inventory.


    They were wonderful refreshments, though she expected it would cause a whole lot of core progression whenever she next leveled up. Not that getting another evolution wouldn’t be a good thing.


    Millie had been surprised to learn that Zoe and Sasha met during a massive prison break just the day before. She was less surprised to learn that Zoe started it, and even less surprised to learn that Lily’s uncle was the true culprit.


    “That guy is worse than Lord Asshole himself,” she’d stated, “and Darius sure is a real ass at times.” Zoe chuckled at that. It’s true, she admitted. Lord Darius could be an ass, as she’d learned in her brief time with him. And it was also true that Basil Von Blodmane was worse.


    Zoe did neglect to mention that Basil was also a cult leader who’d kidnapped and murdered at least a dozen or so people for a Demonic ritual. That was certainly a big thing to leave out—but she was realizing now that no one seemed to know about it. Not even Lily acted like her Uncle was involved in anything that unsavory. He was just a cocky Rank B adventurer who happened to be in the main branch of House Blodmane, right?


    It certainly explained some things about various interactions Zoe had experienced, and she would keep it to herself for now. The reason being, maintaining silence would give her a great bargaining chip, should she ever need it. Blackmail is perfectly okay in self-defense. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    The hours blurred together like the trees along the road as they hurried their way onwards towards Blossomfell and Millie’s supposed home there. The forest was nice, but it was all pretty similar looking. Even as Sasha ran out of stamina and Zoe took to carrying her, the boredom grew—so she went back to learning magic and practicing her skills.


    _____


    Rejuvenate has reached level 8!


    …


    Rejuvenate has reached level 10!


    Rejuvenate has reached Tier II.


    +8 Vitality, +2 Perception


    Zoe fist pumped when she got the notification that another skill had gotten up to level ten and reached Tier II. It was the main one she’d been practicing on the journey so far. She wanted to practice mana channeling and her shiny new mana manipulation, but her wisdom said to wait for a better time and place. She’d get that soon enough.


    And while she was positively itching to screw around with the other newest skills—hellfire blast and the higher rank hellfire eruption—that would be plain stupid. She wasn’t going to slow them down or hurt someone because she was impatient to blow things up.


    “Really? That sounds like something we’d do, you know.”


    Lilith—might have a point there, Zoe conceded. But she was mature, and she would not do that. Not this time.


    But what should she train now? It needed to be something safe, something that was on the lower end of her current skill levels—but she also wanted something that wouldn’t take too much energy or focus. Her new primary class, sanguine disciple, had the most skills, and it had all of the Tier II ones. Zoe decided to switch to shoring up her secondary class, demagogue.


    Let’s see. What should she start with? Acting, persuasion, and cloak of scorn would be awkward in the case of the first two and dangerous to her companions in the case of the last. That left two options—and one of them was both lower leveled and far more important.


    Lesser Disguise!


    _____


    Lesser Disguise has reached level 4!


    Zoe only managed to raise the level of her invaluable shapeshifting skill twice before the waist-high, moss-covered outer stone wall of Blossomfell came into view ahead of them. It wasn’t any surprise, as they’d turned off the main road only a few minutes ago. The broad, leaf-strewn dirt track thudded beneath Zoe’s feet as she ground out the last stretch of her jog to the finish.


    It was a good thing she’d been practicing the disguise skill, because there were two guards lounging around at the gate. Zoe didn’t understand why there was a gate at all when the entire wall could be scaled by an ordinary child. Probably just to get a look at people coming in from the road, she decided.


    Regardless, it was clear that they’d spotted her—so Zoe slowed down to a brisk walk, not wanting to seem alarming. This in turn allowed the other two to catch up from behind her. They were both panting from exhaustion, as Millie couldn’t eat monster cores for a quick boost and Sasha just had low stamina. The Lycan could have eaten some of Zoe’s cores, but she never asked.


    “Yes, and you were very careful to be discreet about it,” Lilith added. “Surely that had nothing to do with you not wanting to share?”


    Zoe ignored that. She waved to the guards, cheerfully. “Hey! Do we actually have to talk to you guys or can we just go in?”


    The two guards shared a look, but neither moved to get up from their lounging positions. One was also clearly a bit older and better equipped than the other. New guy and mentor, maybe?


    The older guy squinted at all three of them. A flash of familiar recognition lit up his face when he saw Millie. “That depends,” he said at last. “Are you intending to stay for longer than two weeks? If so, we just have to record you.”


    Zoe chewed her lip. There was a decent chance she would be staying here for longer than two weeks, yes—though she wasn’t entirely certain. But did she want to be listed? The whole point of coming here instead of Verdanport was to keep low. She could just lie, right?


    It was Millie who answered first. “Yeah, and you already know me.” She turned to look at Zoe and Sasha. “Don’t take too long if you want me to wait for you.” And then she simply strolled past the low stone wall and into the quaint little town.


    Shrugging, Zoe stepped closer, until she was just in front of the still-seated guards. They looked bored and just barely curious. “I won’t be here for longer than two weeks. But let’s say something changes and I do end up staying longer—which I most definitely do not intend to. Is that a problem?”


    It was the younger, fresher-looking guard who spoke this time. “Well, according to the official protocol the mayor—“


    And he was promptly interrupted by his senior. “Not a problem. Not a problem at all, as long as you don’t cause trouble, and if you have the coin to afford our town’s lovely services.” He glared at the younger guard to keep him quiet. Zoe thought she got the hint here.


    “Alright, thanks. You two have been quite helpful, so how about a tip?” And with that, she reached into her inventory for a few silver coins. The guard grinned. Zoe remembered this time to act like she’d taken them from the storage ring on her hand and not from the trait she had from her monster core.


    “A most generous tip, madame. I hope you enjoy your stay, however long or short it may be.”


    Now grinning herself, Zoe beckoned for Sasha to follow her through. Well, that was easy. Having a big stash of cultist money sure was nice, not least when it turned out you could bribe people. Though she was a bit worried when the younger guard shot both her and his coworker a dark glare—up until said coworker tossed him one of the silvers. That put a guilty smile back on his face.


    “I can’t believe that worked,” Sasha whispered to her after they had entered the town proper. “Every time I’ve tried to bribe guards it just makes the whole thing even harder. Although… I’ve never really had silver on hand to toss at random civil servants like that.”


    Zoe laughed. “Well yeah, that’s why it worked for me and not you. You don’t get to bribe people if you’re poor. That’s literally how bribery works. Come on, let’s go check out this town.”


    Zoe was more excited than she sounded. It wasn’t a high energy excitement—she’d had plenty of high energy. Really, she appreciated the prospect of a nice little town where she could take things easy while still training and leveling. Surely there had to be monsters in the area who were in need of someone to go around killing them.


    One thing was certain—I’m going to hit Rank E before leaving. There was a high likelihood someone would try to interfere with that. It was clear by this point that Zoe would need to get stronger. But there was something in this world she was already good at, and it made her new purpose quite clear:


    Level up through excessive violence.