《Try again?》 Chapter 1: Is it wrong to start directly with the elf? ¡¯When was the last time I laid on my back just to watch the sky, I wonder...?¡¯ I hadn''t done that in who knows how much time. To feel the refreshing wind caressing my skin. It was like one of those rare moments when you slow down for a moment, diverting your attention from your usual routine just to reflect on your life. Maybe to reflect upon the choices you made that brought you up to that point... The sky was blue. I was lucky since I got a clear blue sky without a single cloud to admire while reflecting on my choices in life. It wasn''t a nice and relaxing day though... The multitude of little sparks that stained my perfect blue sky confirmed the exact opposite. Not that it bothered me too much. The night sky had its own charm as well. Some people might argue that the night sky was even prettier. Though, that wasn''t the real problem there. What bothered me was the beautiful dark-blue moon. It was also the reason I was contemplating irrelevant things right now trying to dodge reality. ¡¯Still blue, huh?¡¯ No matter how much I thought about it, the anomaly that was right in front of me didn''t change. And that was a moon-sized anomaly. Pretty hard to ignore or brush away such a huge anomaly. Like how the moon I knew from the moment I was born had some craters on the surface; this one had some darker, circular ripples instead. I had to admit that the overall picture was mesmerizing. No matter how much I tried to find a rational explanation, my mind was unable to find one for the strange phenomena. No matter how much I searched through my memories, there was no such thing as a blue moon. On the other hand, I should have questioned myself for even trying to find something like that in the first place. But the fact that I was still watching the beautiful dark-blue moon didn''t change. I wasn''t under the effect of questionable substances either. My train of thoughts was too clear, too detailed to be a dream either. I even tried to inflict some pain on myself the way I saw it on the TV. I pinched myself. And nothing happened. The pain was still there, but outside of that, nothing else happened. In the back of my mind, I was already aware that nothing would happen, but there was that last sliver of hope we all have despite the obvious. But just like that, the last hope died tragically. Bringing myself back to reality¡ª since I could not deny it forever¡ª a new question popped into my mind. ¡¯How the hell did I ended up like this...¡¯ A perfect and logical question. To respond to my own question in the simplest and shortest way: I just chose to try again. It didn''t make much sense at that time, and it wasn''t making any sense right now. Back then, I was as confused as I was at the moment. Maybe even more... Searching my hazy memories of the event¡ª even though it happened moments earlier¡ª I could barely recall a blue screen asking me if I wanted to try again. I did not remember exactly what happened after that but I assumed that I accepted the proposal. Why would I be here if not? Staying on my back... Watching the blue moon... Casually taking my time to think it though... In the end, a picture formed in my mind. ¡¯Holy crap... Thanks to all the Gods that I was in the mood of trying again at that time...¡¯ Me on my back, watching the blue moon should have been a result of that. I didn''t even want to know what would have happened if I didn''t choose to try again... Now that the dots were connected and a kind of theory started to sprout in my mind, I could safely unravel the other irregularities graciously ignored up to this point. Besides the blue moon, of course... The next tormenting thing on the list was the existence of my breasts. ¡¯At least, my breast weren''t blue or something.¡¯ It seemed that whoever put me in this situation still had some common sense. They were ordinary breasts, probably... Your day-to-day, normal-looking, average boobs. Actually, the size was quite impressive. I had to take my time to check this for the sake of accuracy. Definitely not for other reasons. But back to the main issue... The real problem was that I wasn''t supposed to have such things in the first place. *sigh* A sigh escaped from my mouth together with the irony of the situation. ¡¯Who knows... Maybe I finally got insane...¡¯ The funny thing was that the probability of me going insane was less laughable¡ª or dire¡ª than the one I arrived at. Unfortunately, the reality seemed to agree with my one despite the odds. No matter how much I thought about it, that was not the moon I know of, and this body was not my own either. I wasn''t even a male anymore. *sigh* ¡¯Should I try the theory with the dream again? Or maybe I''ll be able to get something else to fit in if I try hard enough...¡¯ *sigh* ¡¯Or maybe not... Why am I even trying to deny it at this point...¡¯ My breasts were amazing by the way. How could a girl get bored of this bliss...It was like how that ball for stress was working to erase your stress, but somehow even better. Exactly what I needed at that point. I could already picture in my head what kind of expression someone would make if said person were to see me at this moment. With some reluctance, I stopped that purely-for-asserting-the-situation and definitely-not-for-satisfying-my-own-curiosity groping and continued to examine the situation further. I had some clothes on me at least. A simple gray shirt and some pants. On my feet, I was wearing some kind of strange sandals with colorful patterns on them. It seemed that my new body came equipped with a full set of clothes at least. I wasn''t saying that that was bad. On the contrary, I was very thankful for it. I didn''t even want to imagine what should I do if I were to be naked. *shiver* ¡¯Thanks to God that I''m not naked.¡¯ I kind of wanted to know what was going on though... How and why was I in that situation... And for what reason... I wasn''t the most religious person you could find but when faced with the inexplicable... ¡¯Soooo... What was it again? The Buddhist thing maybe... They had that theory with the reincarnation or something...¡¯ I wasn''t that knowledgeable in the field, to be honest. But even I was aware that you couldn''t reincarnate if you didn''t die first. That was the base for the reincarnation concept after all. Not having any memories of me dying or even being in a situation that could have pushed me to that wasn''t helping. But since there was a try again thing, at least I could safely assume that I failed to do something. Try again was not the script for when you win something. Applying it to my case, it was acceptable to assume that I died and for some reason got another chance to live... I was not making much sense but what other options did I have at that moment? If for example, this was just a very elaborate dream, nothing would happen even if I tried to do something. But if that wasn''t the case and everything was real, wouldn''t that mean that I could lose the second chance to live? Even though I was yet to discover why was it given to me... ¡± Huuuh... ¡± Closing my eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, I just let all it out accompanied by my mental tiredness. The strange, high-pitched, girly voice that came out of my mouth was sounding so strange, mainly because it was coming from my own mouth but I made an effort and ignored it for the moment. I had other things to be concerned with. I could not come to a conclusion just by laying on my back. I stood up slowly and looked at my surroundings just to be greeted by a huge plain of grassland. Because I didn''t know how was I supposed to discern the cardinals at that moment, I just noted it in my head as a wast expanse of plains as far as you could see with the naked eye. ¡¯Not very helpful.¡¯ Turning around instead, I was greeted with something different. There was a vast forest at the base of what I assumed to be a mountain chain. Since it was night, I couldn''t make much of it. More like... I was surprised that I was capable to see that far in the first place. ¡¯This is not looking too good... Not even a single trace of civilization.¡¯ I didn''t expect to magically find a city in this bare land, but at least a road or something. If I stayed to think about it, I didn''t even know what kind of level of civilization I should expect from this place. As I was frantically looking for any clues around the place, I noticed something light and silvery flowing on my shoulders. And I froze. After some time of staring at what seemed to be my hair, I came to the most dreadful conclusion so far. And I freaked out. ¡¯No... no, no, no, no... This is not possible.¡¯ I grabbed a stand of it, looking closely at it. I turned around, analyzing the rest of my body...There was no extra hands or legs, the shape was okay, the color was fine too. Except for my hair, that was it. I let another sigh in exhaustion. ¡± Maybe... Maybe in this place, it is not weird to have colored hair. ¡± Calmed down by my humanoid shape, I tried to reassure myself when I froze again. I touched my ears. ¡± T-This... this is definitely not something... something a human being is supposed to have. ¡± Now that I think about it, how did it took me so long to notice them. These ears were so long after all... ¡± He... Hehehe... Pfffehehee... Haaaaaaah... But an elf, huh...? Actually, you know what? Fuck it! Fuck! It! ¡± At least I wasn''t some sort of animal. That was something I was grateful for. Seeing how not just my gender was changed but even my race, turning into an animal or who knows what else should have been possible. ¡± Maybe I can even use magic if that exists here. ¡± Nodding to myself in approval, a small smile formed on my lips. If fantastic creatures like elves and blue moons were a thing in this place, then magic should have been a thing too. And if that was the case... ¡± Hehehe... Magic, here I came! ¡± I started giggling at the prospect. After all, who the hell had seen an elf that couldn''t use magic? That was absurd. FDSIO Hi there! Author here :) I finally decided to rewrite the early chapters due to the lots and lots of mistakes I made when I first started to write. I do not plan to change the plot but I still want to flesh out some scenes and make the reading flow better. Edit: The initial estimation for chapters that needed to be rewritten was around 15-20. It turned out just for the first 17 of them to be needed a little bit more work and changes. [Progress: 17 out of 17.] (Finished) The plot was not touched much. Just a small change here and there... Well, I plan to continue to make small changes to the rest of the chapters as well. What was hard was done already. I just liked the way I was keeping a progress bar here so I would do the same for the rest of the editing process as well. [Latest chapter edited: Chapter 38.] Chapter 2: First step to the new world and another shocking discovery. A cold breeze shook me from my train of thought. ¡± Yeah... ¡± I muttered under my breath after the sudden chill. ¡± I can''t stay here forever, I need to move... ¡± Considering my situation and surroundings, the best way to go was to set some immediate goals. The philosophical talk could wait for later. First, I needed to know where the hell I was. ¡¯Yeah... Plains and a forest... This is not helping much... Next.¡¯ Since any hope for external help from other people¡ª or other elves¡ª was close to zero, I didn''t really know what to do... Being an elf, it was more logical to think that I should be seeking help from my new kind rather than other humans, right? No matter how strange that sounded in my head... Anyway, since there was nothing to suggest any kind of civilization around, I was basically on my own. If I wanted to survive, I had to at least find and secure a source of water and shelter. And, of course, acquiring something to eat was the next one in line. ¡¯What de hell do elves eat in the first place?¡¯ If my memory served me right, they lived in the woods so maybe some vegetables and fruits in general... That was a tough question. I didn''t want to poison myself with something strange... or meat. I had to take my new biology into consideration. ¡¯Or maybe elves eat meat as well...? Whatever, I''m not going to take unnecessary risks if I can find something else.¡¯ Not to mention that I couldn''t hope to get any meat in the first place... Not by myself anyway. I was nothing close to a hunter after all. That made me a little sad though... The elf and the bow were my default image when it came to elves but there was nothing I could do. I wasn''t a real elf. What can one expect from a couple of minutes old elf? Or maybe a couple of hours? I didn''t even know myself. I didn''t even have a bow so that was out of questions. My reincarnation kit included some basic pieces of clothing¡ª which I was really grateful for¡ª and nothing else. No bow, no hunt, no meat. It was pretty clear to me. ¡± Good. The first destination is settled on the forest. ¡± I said out loud to gain some courage. The plains weren''t a good idea. The forest probably had something to eat like fruits or maybe edible plants. It was easier to find shelter as well, not to mention that it sounded more elf-like too... What made me a little uncomfortable was that since I turned out into a fantasy creature, there was a very high chance for other such creatures to exist too. Not like a normal wild beast wasn''t enough, but one thing was a bear and another was a freaking dragon. No matter how cool that might be, I didn''t want to meet one at the moment. After a few steps, I discovered that my race and gender wasn''t the only thing that changed. I was a little shorter than I was supposed to be, which made my gait quite funny. ¡± I think I''m younger too... ¡± My voice was quite childish, high-pitched, and combined with the height... It wasn''t impossible. Or had it something to do with my new race? ¡¯Fuck... I don''t know... My head is starting to hurt just thinking about it... And goddammit, not being able to walk properly isn''t helping at all.¡¯ *sigh* ¡± Alright... aaalright... Breathe in, breathe out. Keep calm. Think about the positives. ¡± The elves were supposed to live long lives. ¡± Yeah, that must be it. I¡¯m a long-living race. These changes must be adjustments to my new race. I''m a freaking long-living race! ¡± A smile bloomed on my face. ¡± At least I''m a long-living race. ¡± I didn''t know exactly how much longer elves lived, but longer than a human. If not, I would be quite disappointed. With new resolve, I started to walk toward the forest. With caution, of course... I didn''t want to throw my potentially much longer life into the belly of some fantasy beast. That would be unforgivable, a complete waste. ?After what seemed to be maybe half an hour I reached the forest boundaries. My walking technique improved as well. I looked less like a retarded duck and more like a person at least. ¡¯Good! Let''s head in. One step at a time though. Maybe I''ll be lucky enough to find a water source or something equally useful.¡¯ I continued to advance while looking around for everything that looked even remotely useful. I spotted a lot of plants and trees that I was unfamiliar with but that wasn''t something shocking. Even in my former world, if you took me from my home and tossed me in a different part of the world, I wouldn''t be able to recognize much of the flora anyway. Much less in my current situation. But even so... What the fuck!? There were some... unique ones to say the least. I wasn''t going to approach the blue-leafed and slightly growing ones for sure. Not unless I want to be grabbed and eaten. It was better to stick with the green ones. ¡± Yup. Let''s try to find some fruits. ¡± Fruits from normal-looking trees and also staying as far as possible from any kind of mushrooms. Definitely not the mushrooms route! You had to be retarded to take that route. Everyone would agree on that one if they were to be in my shoes. ¡± But even so... The place¡¯s quite peaceful... ¡± I had seen a couple of birds and small rodents but nothing bigger. On that field, all was surprisingly normal. Maybe I was wrong and this was a peaceful world without monsters and dragons. ¡¯Yeah... Highly improbable since I''m a thing here. Stay vigilant me! Lest you''re eaten by a wild dinosaur or whatever.¡¯ Thinking about it, I let a silent prayer for the little green ones to not exist there. The famous little green ones that seemed to plague most of the fantasy stories I had read in the past. Meeting those guys while being a girl was probably even worse than death. It didn''t matter how I tried to put it, the fact that I was a girl was a constant factor of discomfort whenever I remembered it. ¡±I still hope for magic though. ¡± Yep... Better to focus on the positives. ¡± Magic and the long-living me! ¡± I nodded to myself and continued to push forward trying hard not to think about it anymore. The forest started to thicken a little and weird bushes started to sprout here and there. I tried to stay as far as possible from the really suspicious ones. You never know when one of the slightly glowing ones would grab and eat you. After some more exploration, I finally found something promising. It was something I recognized. ¡¯Wild berries.¡¯ While not an expert, I prided myself on at least several mountain climbing expeditions. The problem was that even if the thing was looking familiar, I was currently in another freaking world. Nothing was guaranteed to be as I remembered it. I just passed by the weird mushroom-like giant tree not long ago. I approached the berry bush and took one for a closer inspection. The bush didn''t attempt to eat me, which was a good thing. That was how it was supposed to be, but what followed after that was not. [*Ding: You have successfully examined a Wild Berry!] [Wild Berry] ¡± Is this... ¡± *sigh* I closed my eyes and waited for some second. ¡± If this is a bad joke I¡¯d like to stop right now. ¡± And I opened my eyes again. [Wild Berry] ¡± Oh my God, the thing is still there! ¡± The berry wasn''t the problem, but the freaking screen was! If the berry disappeared after I closed the eyes, that would have been quite bad too but that was not the point. The point was that the screen was still there. Staring smugly at me in all its glorious screeny glory... ¡± Please disappear, Screen. I got through a lot already... please... Nope... You don''t wanna, huh...? Yeah, I figured that was the case...¡± ¡¯Oh my freaking God, I''m speaking with a floating screen! Maybe I am really insane after all.¡¯ Something was definitely wrong there. Maybe I prayed to the wrong god? I was an elf. Since that was the case, was I supposed to believe in some sort of Holy Tree? It had to be that so I needed to try again. I closed my eyes. ¡± I don''t know how it works but Divine Tree, I promise that I will not skip any of the daily prayers if you help me to understand what''s going on there. I''m begging you! ¡± And I opened my eyes again. [Wild Berry] ¡± He... Hehe... Hehehehe... I give up. So it must be that kind of world. I still don''t believe it. For fucks sake, nothing makes sense anymore... ¡± I needed to calm down and analyze the situation but that was harder than I thought it would be. After some undeterminable amount of time that I spent just staring at nothing in particular while laughing like a madman¡ª or to be more precise mad-elf-girl-thing¡ª I started to collect some more berries and to search for a more suitable place. I looked around for a while, took a risk, and climbed a particular tree with flat and thick branches. One of the more normal-ish ones to be sure... While the tree had massive branches attached to an equally massive trunk, it wasn''t particularly tall and the first branches started from quite low making it easy for me to climb it. ¡± Good, it looks fine for the moment. ¡± I said to nobody in particular and prepared myself for what I was going to do next. ¡± Status! ¡± ¡± Open status! ¡± ¡± Profile! ¡± ¡± Hocus Pocus! ¡± ¡± Sesam... Sesame something-ish...? Please... ¡± ¡± ... ¡± ¡± Shit, it doesn''t work... B-But why!? ¡± I was aware that the last ones were rather questionable but if you thought about it, for me, in the last several hour''s nothing made much sense so I had an excuse. ¡± Maybe I don''t need to speak it out loud... Let''s try it. ¡± ¡¯ Status. ¡¯ ---------------------------- ---------------------------- ¡± Oh... I feel so stupid right now. ¡± But at least it worked. The freaking thing worked which was good and bad at the same time. Good since the thing just proved my earlier suspicions to be true and bad since it further confirmed my theory that I was going insane slowly but surely. Ignoring the desire to laugh like some cheap villain from a bad movie, I forced myself to examine my status further. It was quite possible that the information screen was conected with the [Appraisal] thing somehow. Maybe it was some sort of description function. Starring at it for a bit longer, the screen changed and showed me something completely different. [Appraisal: The skill is collecting information from the user and compile it with the general information from the rest of the world to create a description. *The higher the level of the skill, the more accurate the description ] At least I was making progress. ¡¯Ohh... Nice one to have. And it''s at level 4 already...¡¯ I didn''t know if level 4 was high or low but it was better than 1, 2, and 3. I had to be positive. *Growl* ¡¯Yeah, yeah... I got the hint belly. Don''t be so impatient...¡¯ In the end, I decided to just try a single berry and wait for at least half an hour to see what would happen. There was not much else I could do after all. Chapter 3: Some advanced research and a name? After swallowing the first berry I almost questioned my sanity once again. I still ate it despite clearly sensing the sweet and sour taste it had, something like a weird combination of lemon and honey. The jelly-like texture was just a bonus to add to the list of how a normal berry should not taste like. ¡¯Well... What''s done is done. Not the first stupid thing I''ve done in my life. Heck, spending all my gems for several more chances on that SSR despite not getting it with hundreds of free shots collected in the spam of the entire month. That was stupid... Though, this is on an entirely new level of stupidity...¡¯ Well, taste aside, the [Appraisal] description didn''t say anything about being poisonous. If the berry was not ripe enough, it wasn''t strange at all to taste a little sour either. I didn''t know if I should give credit to my level 4 [Appraisal] but it wasn''t like I had any other option at the moment. *sigh* Letting out a tired sigh, I decided to stick to the original plan of waiting to see if something bad would happen. I was lost. I was hungry. It wouldn''t be long until I would be thirsty too, not to mention that I was in an alien world with an alien body. I couldn''t afford to be picky at the moment. Resting my head on the thick trunk, I closed my eyes again and indulged myself in the silence of the night. This world was not good for my sanity. Even if I wasn''t insane yet, that wouldn''t be the case anymore if things continued like that for much longer. ¡¯Hmmm... Wait a second... I could have done... Well, that would be... whatever... what''s done is done.¡¯ If I wanted to check the veridicality of that [Appraisal] skill, I could have used it on a bunch of things with a high probability to be poisonous¡ª like the mushrooms from earlier ¡ª and confirm it. Yeah, I could have done that... ¡¯But it''s too late right now... Well, it''s not but I really don''t feel like going down to do it... My head is already hurting like shit!¡¯ . . . ¡¯Shit! I think if fell asleep for a little bit.¡¯ Thankfully, the blue moon was still up so it shouldn''t have been asleep for too long. At least my head wasn''t hurting that bad anymore. ¡¯I should really check that status thing though... I feel like so much would have been avoided if I was thinking straight from the start. Well, let''s do that... First, the things that looked like some kind of statuses... Uhh...¡¯ [Vitality: Represents the vital force for living beings. The higher it is, the higher the stamina, regenerative power, toughness, resistance towards external stimuli, and survivability in a critical situation increases.] ¡¯Yeah... This seems to be quite an important one. A shame that I don''t know if 77 is considered a lot or not. Judging from how tired and sloppy I feel this doesn''t seem to be the case...¡¯ ¡± Next is... ¡± [Power: Represents the raw force for living beings. Power is also directly correlated with speed. *Has a small influence on stamina and toughness.] ¡± Pretty easy to understand. Let''s see dexterity. ¡± [Dexterity: Shows the individual''s capacity to perform actions that require a certain amount of accuracy. The higher the level the better the result. *Also the main factor for learning and developing skills that require handling a weapon or other skills of precision.] And that was my lowest status... Was that the way the world chose to tell me that I was incompetent? Was I indirectly insulted by my status thing? Or was I more on the magic side? Well, not like I was opposing the idea. Magic was exciting and judging by the next two statuses I was almost certain that it was a thing in this world. The last one was a status for mana for fuck¡¯s sake. ¡± Ehem... First, let''s check the spirit thing... ¡± [Spirit: The principal factor when performing magic activities. The higher it is, the higher the mana capacity. It affects the stability and control over magic spells and also influences the learning process and advancement in magic-related activities.] ¡± Ugh... It''s barely three points over dexterity... Shit... my dreams of being a mage... ¡± That was depressing. My glorious fireballs, gone... It was almost physically painful... Unless I figured out how to max that spirit thing my glorious future was already destroyed... ¡± Next! ¡± [Mana: Represents the magical power residing in a living organism or inanimate object. It is needed to fuel magical activities. *It is directly correlated to the Spirit status.] Good... That took more than I thought it would be. After checking to see if there wasn''t anything else hidden, I moved to the next section. ¡¯I already know what the [Appraisal] is doing. Next is... the passive ones?¡¯ [Amissi Common Language: The common language used in the Amissi continent.] [Elven Language: The language used by elves.] ¡¯Yup... Not too much to say about these two. At least I should be able to communicate with these two... I hope.¡¯ I specially left the racial ones for the last. These seemed to be related to my new race so I was quite excited to see if I would be OP or not. I sincerely didn''t mind some badass cheat skills... ¡± Divine Tree, I put my hope in you. I will pick some nice fertilizer if I''m going to like the next ones.¡± I muttered a little prayer, half-joking and regretting doing it afterward. If there really was a Tree God or something like that, I was screwed. It wasn''t a good idea to piss off your new boss. [Child of the Forest: Affinity for the natural elements increased. All abilities are enhanced in the forest environment.] [Elemental Magic Affinity: All magic affinities related to the elements are increased.] [Enchanted Senses: Higher sensitivity and better observation skills development.] [Superior Bow Technique: Inborn talent with the bow. Highly increase the efficiency with a bow.] Forest buffs, elemental magic buffs, high spatial awareness, and some sort of buff for ranged weapons. I must say that I was quite pleased. It was not a bad decision to chose the forest. Judging by that bow related skill, I was quite certain that it wouldn''t be too hard to learn how to use one. Shame that I didn''t have a bow to being with. ¡¯Well... Thank you, Holy Tree. And now I''m not even joking anymore... I''m not a religious person but after a day like this, I don''t mind some divine assistance... If you are there somewhere I don''t mind believing in you from now on...¡¯ And... nothing. Not that I lost anything anyway... That was worth a shot at least. ¡± Hmmm... Now that I look closer to this status, why don''t I have a name? ¡± Well, I was a girl so my old one wouldn''t fit anymore... Not to mention the race change... Mine wouldn''t have worked anymore... probably... I needed a new one. ¡¯But how... And even more importantly... what to chose for my new name?¡¯ I didn''t know this world¡¯s naming sense, let alone what was common for elves... I didn''t want to pick something weird sounding for the natives if I had to choose. Unneeded attention was the last thing I wanted. ¡¯I don''t believe this world is too advanced. Medieval times or something similar should be the most plausible. I mean, I''m a freaking elf! I could not imagine an elf driving a car... And the [Appraisal] mentioned swords and there was the bow thing too... Nothing related to guns anyway.¡¯ Coming back to the main issue, I needed something to fit in for my new name. Something to make you think about elves when it was spoken. I was quite sure that my actions and behavior wouldn''t be quite elf-like, so at least my name had to be decent. I didn''t know how to be an elf after all. ¡± Maybe something like holy-ish or churchy? Sophia or Emily? Oh, oh... Ellena fits there as well. ¡± Maybe something more wizard-like would be better. I wanted to be a mage so that would be a nice one. A shame that I didn''t know any wizards to know what was wizard-like and what was not... ¡± Hehe... Well, it''s not that bad. ¡± I spoke out loud again and took a deep breath of fresh air. At least all the useless rambling made me relax a little bit. The wild berry didn''t seem to do anything to me. After a little nap and rest, I was quite good actually... Albeit still hungry... Throwing another berry in my mouth, I took another look at the night sky. The blue moon was almost gone so I concluded that the day was up in several hours. ¡¯Nope, I can''t find anything... Maybe something more aloof? The elven race is supposed to be a prideful one, no?¡¯ ¡± Something noble-like then? Like Elizabeth or something? Ohoho, I like this one, I can even abbreviate it like Lizza. And I can...¡± [*Ding: A name has been chosen!] ¡±...¡± ¡±...¡± ¡±...¡± ¡¯Oh nooo. What the hell am I doing? Am I retarded? Oh, no, no, no. Let''s be more specific, right now I have a name so...¡¯ ¡¯ Status ¡¯ ¡± Yeah, Elizabeth are you an idiot? Where de heck have you heard of Elizabeth the elf... Oh... yes, you haven''t! Goddamit. ¡± And suddenly I felt like my head started to hurt again... And I wanted to cry on top of that too... ¡¯Why is this happening to me?¡¯ It was certainly not because my retarded-self played whit something I should have not. That was for sure. Chapter 4: Crafting and the Red Sun? ¡± Huuuh... ¡± ¡¯Inhale, exhale... Breathe in... And breathe out... and calm down!¡¯ At least all the strange and unexpected things thus far made it easier to take in another one. I started to get accustomed to them just popping out of nowhere even though I didn''t know if that was a good thing. Probably not. If I continued like that, something really unfortunate might happen. *sigh* I let out another sigh and crunched on another berry. All distractions from the main issue lead me to bigger problems. ¡¯Maybe it''s not too big of a deal... It''s not like I can do anything to change it anymore and I have bigger concerns right now...¡¯ I wasn''t even sure how was I able to choose one in the first place let alone changing it. After a short while and several more berry sacrifices, my belly stopped protesting. I had time to think about my actions and take in my surroundings while doing so. Unfortunately, the conclusion I managed to come to was not a pleasant one. I pretty much confirmed that there were edible things in the forest, which was great, but after thinking it thought, the forest was still a forest. And a forest was bound to have wildlife living in it, even more so if it was a fantasy-like forest. ¡± This is a problem. ¡± I muttered to myself as my eyes slipped back to my status screen. More specifically to my skills. Unfortunately, I had no idea how these skills worked. It was stated there that I should have been good at magic, yet I didn''t feel too much like a wizard at all... Or was it sorceress in my case? I would have to deal with possible dangerous things while all my combat experience could be summarized to light fights as a child and not much else... As such, I made up my mind to at least try and prepare for such a situation. To engage with whatever was lurking there in the shadows unarmed was a stupid thing to do. I got down from the tree, making sure that nothing was stalking around while searching for a possible weapon. Well, I was well aware that I wasn''t going to casually find some weapons lying around just like that. No sword embedded in stone waiting for me to pull it out either. But that didn''t mean I couldn''t improvise something. After some search, trials, and errors, I was seated on a large boulder with a two-meter long and sharpened stick in my hands. I was looking at it with a complicated expression. I had to smash it with a rock and hope that the stick would end with an sharp end. Of course, it didn''t and I had to find two more suitable ones to get it right. ¡±I feel like a blacksmith. ¡± I said while chuckling at the sheer stupidity of my statement. ¡± A woodsmith then? Or perhaps craftsman? I wonder if those guys exist... ¡± I was speaking about the short ones with a talent for smithing. Dwarfs, to be more precise. Me and my race being a thing was a good enough reason to think that maybe the dwarves were a thing too. Though, they probably would burn me on a stake at the sight of my proud craftmanship. Better not to let them see that. ¡± Actually... Now that I think about it... Appraisal! Ah... ¡± ¡¯Appraisal¡¯ [Crude wooden spear] ¡¯Fuck yeah! I''m a freaking woodsmith!¡¯ I didn''t even care about the description that sounded more like an insult. I freaking crafted something! ¡± Good... good... Another one. What to do next? Hehehe... ¡± It was not bad having something else in stock. Though, making another spear was not that appealing. ¡¯Maybe a club... Ugh, I fell like a caveman just by thinking about something like that... Well, whatever. Club it is!¡¯ After some scrambling around, trying to break a large branch with no success, I finally found something close enough to a club. [Wooden stick] Well, that was not how I expected it to be. Just a stick, but why? No grades or something? Was it because I just found it like that and did not craft it myself? It didn''t count as a crafted weapon? ¡± Well... In that case... ¡± After some more search, I managed to find some vines that fit my plan and another nicely-shaped rock. The end result: [Crude rock club] ¡¯Yep, my theory was correct. And Medium-Amateur grade on top of that. Maybe the rock helped here...¡¯ I smiled a little while eyeing the new addition. I got even further and congratulated myself for a job well done, but for some reason, something seemed a little off. Looking around was enough to prove that my gut feeling was not without reason. The whole forest seemed to take on a subtle reddish color. And that... that was no good sign. Things turning red was never a good sign. Anything turning red was no good sign... I had a bad premonition, though, after several seconds of paranoia and frantically looking around for the cause I finally looked up as well... ¡± What the... what the hell... is... that? ¡± I blinked once, I blinked twice... I rubbed my eyes and looked at the sky again... but... nothing changed... A bright red ball in the sky? ¡± Excuse me but... What the fuck? Where is my beautiful blue moon? Ohh... there you are... ¡± I let out a sigh of relief. The blue moon was just about to fall past the horizon while the new... red sun? The new red sun was just rising. ¡± We have a red sun, huh? ¡± But even so, my gut feeling that something bad was going to happen didn''t leave me... It was still there even though the blue moon didn''t morph into a red one and the newcomer was just the sun. Weird new sun but the moon wasn''t any different, so... ¡¯A red sun in the middle of the starry sky. Quote weird...¡¯ But even so, the stars still being visible in the sky was¡ª *Krack* ¡¯Hmmm!?¡¯ *Kikikki Kokok ki* ¡¯What was that?¡¯ The first sound was likely a branch cracking but the second one was different. Instantly, my blood ran cold and I hid in the first bush while trying to control my ragged breath. Waiting for some time, that, to be honest, felt like an eternity, I saw them. ¡¯Oh Shit, Oh God, Oh Buddha, Oh my Great Tree... What in the world are those things?¡¯ At that moment, I wished I actually didn''t know what they were but sadly, I did. Short stature, no taller than a meter, green-muddy skin with rough texture, ugly faces with sharp and big teeth, and big yellow eyes. And even worse, there were four of them. ¡± Goblins. ¡± I almost hit myself in the face for muttering that out loud but that would cause even more noise so I just bit my lips and hoped for the best. Fortunately, even with their big ears, they didn''t hear my slip-up. ¡¯Those things are no good! Shit! Oh, shit... shit... shit! I''m a freaking woman now... Oh, shiiiiit... Wait, no! Maybe not... Appraisal!¡¯ ¡¯Oh, no... ohhh, no... No, no, no, no. I can''t even see their stats... At least I can see their level... and... it''s higher than mine... shit. Next one...¡¯ That kokokiki or whatever was definitely not this continent''s common language. Amissi or whatever. It was not. That was a full-fledged monster. ¡¯Nope...¡¯ I fought the urge to just close my eyes and instead, looked directly at them from my bush while trying to think of what to do next. One of them was even level 13. Actually... There was nothing to think about. I didn''t want to stay a second more in this place. ¡¯Let''s slowly get the hell out of here right now.¡¯ I was finished if these guys had some kind of smell senses or who knows... maybe smell skills? Girl detection skills? I definitely didn''t want to find out. So I carefully took my leave. Slowly and in the most silent way I could while keeping an eye on them. I was lucky that they did not pay much attention to their surroundings and seemed to be in a hurry. ¡¯Not a smart race at least.¡¯ *Awwwww* ¡¯Ohh, no!¡¯ What was going on there? The seemingly peaceful forest got wild all at once? ¡¯Okay, so not in that direction... if the goblins can''t smell me, a wolf or whatever that was will be able for sure.¡¯ After that horrible encounter, I wandered from one place to another while trying to stay away from basically anything and running away from even the most inconspicuous sound. And that exhausted me. On top of driving me almost crazy. There were a lot of them. Everywhere. Goblins, wolves, some weird and scary wild boar, and a four-armed monkey. I didn''t even know how I managed to escape from all of them thus far but I had an inkling that my enhanced senses had something to do with that. I was so grateful for being able to sense and hear them before they could do the same for me. Even so, these damn monkeys were able to climb trees like it was nothing. I had to stay vigilant for the trees as well. I didn''t want one of those to jump on my back out of nowhere. And I couldn''t climb a tree for safety either with them around. My train of thought was interrupted by a familiar sound. * Kikiko koki* ¡¯Ohh, shit... Shit... these guys again... After the sun appeared all this stuff happens¡ª *kokoki kiko* The sound came from behind the bushes several dozens meters to my left, but something was different this time. I didn''t know why I had that feeling but after a period of consideration, I decided to take a peek. Maybe I really got crazy...? Chapter 5: An important decision. While slowly crawling through the thick bush, accumulating small scratches at every step, the idea of taking just a small peek lost some of the initial appeal... Not that it had much, to begin with... Crouching a little bit more and taking another step with caution so as to not make any noise¡ª and to not scratch my body even more than I already did ¡ªmy eyes landed on the thing. No, the monster. *kokiki ki keke* Fortunately, there was just one of those green little dudes, crouched down, munching on a small rodent resembling a squirrel. The rodent was too bloodied for me to recognize anything else regarding its origins. Not that there would have been much of a difference if it wasn''t in that state. I didn''t recognize most of anything anyway... As for the goblin... There was not much to say outside of the obvious savagery in which it devoured the poor thing while letting creepy sounds from time to time. Oh, no... There was something. The thing was without a doubt a male. It was easy to see that since there was no dirty loincloth or anything to hide his... thing... *ke keke ki* *shiver* ¡¯Fuck it... I''m out. Goddamit goblin laughing like a freaking monster... Cmon feet, move!¡¯ And they didn''t. Despite my internal ramblings and random curses, my eyes were still glued on the goblin. Disgusted and terrified as I was, but at the same time fascinated by it. A thought that scared me even more than the thing in front of me formed in my head. I tried with all my might to discard it but somehow it wasn''t working. That was a chance. Probably the only one I had. The thing was distracted and unarmed. His club was two good meters away from him. I had the element of surprise on my side and a weapon. Well, two weapons actually. On one hand, I had to be cautious, and not take unnecessary risks, but on the other hand, risks had their own benefits. In short, I didn''t know what to do. I was not stupid enough to think that the option of running away would be there forever. Sooner or later I would have no other option but to confront them, and the thing called level was obvious to me, as well as its significance and the most obvious method to increase it. If I discarded such an advantageous situation... Well, this world did not look like a place where weaklings and softies had much of a chance at survival. Even more so if you were just dumped in a place full of monsters without any kind of preparations or information. ¡¯Speaking of information... Appraisal¡¯ The level was a little high but with all the advantages I had... There was a big chance of success. ¡¯Though, if the thing finishes that meal... yeah, the advantage is gone... no good...¡¯ Even so, it was not a good decision to just charge blindly without a prior plan. Even if I wouldn''t die this time, there was no telling what would happen the next time. Damn, I should have stabbed something or at least try to familiarize myself with my spear a little. If I were to get out of this alive, that would be high on the to-do list. It could prove useful in situations like this one. Anyway, back to the original problem... I had the element of surprise. I had to make it count. I started to look for vulnerable parts that I could take advantage of. The head was out of the question. I probably wouldn''t be able to stab its skull with my improvised spear and the club had too little range to my liking. *shiver* I could feel how my blood was going cold and goosebumps crawled on my spine. It was said that in these situations someone would start to sweat. Me, not so much. On the other hand, I could feel my body going cold as if I was naked in the winter and the problem wasn''t some sudden decrease in temperature. It was just an uncomfortable feeling. Like some cold tinglings all over the body. ¡¯Whatever... Not the head. What else?¡¯ The legs... was not a bad choice. Hindering his movement useless was a good plan in case things would go bad and I had to run away... But the thing was still a monster and it could just ignore it for all I know. I doubted that pain and fear worked for it as it worked for me. And it certainly worked wonders for me. Worse, it could enrage the thing and make it aggressive. ¡¯Too big of a risk. Something else. The one-shot head is no good, the legs were not good either... What else? Ehh... the belly?¡¯ That would make huge damage for sure, not so much as the head but even so. The problem was that I couldn''t attack it from the front so I had to strike it from the side. Fortunately, I got tired of carrying the spear and the club at the same time and attached the latter to my waist. I made some kind of belt from the same vines I used to make the club to cart it easier. If the situation got messy and I somehow lost the spear, the club would be within reach. I made my way out of the bush, with small steps, my spear poised to stab it with all the courage I could muster. Fortunately, the thing was with its back to me and didn''t seem to sense my approach. When I was close enough, I stabbed forward. *Kiiikiiiikiki* The goblin started to scream and try to turn around to face its aggressor but my spear was embedded in his right side and I refused to let go of it. As long as I could keep it pinned down and didn''t let it stand, the victory would be mine. As the realization came to me, I strengthened my grip on the spear even further. I just had to keep it down like that. I just had to not let it go. The beast struggled on the ground, screaming and throwing his hands and legs all over the place. His wild movements shock me from side to side but I didn''t let it go as if my life depended on it. And that was because it was. After some time the goblin started to slow down seemingly losing his strength. The loss of blood was probably part of the reason too, but even so, it had taken too long. It was likely that our fight to be noticed by... by... I didn''t even know... Noticed by anything around here was bad. So, I had to finish it fast. Making my decision, I let the spear go, grabbed the club resting on my makeshift belt, raised it high, and jumped straight at the weakened goblin while the thing descended right on its skull. The goblin attempted to stand but at that point, there was not much it could do. I smashed my club on his head and heard a sharp cracking sound. The goblin twitched a little after which got limp. [*Ding: You have killed level 8 Cave Goblin!] [*Ding: You have reached level 2!] [*Ding: You have reached level 3!] ¡± Oh my God, I have done it. ¡± I said while losing all the strength in my legs and crumbled to the ground. My breath was rough and my heart was beating wildly while all kinds of thoughts were spinning through my mind. Unfortunately, there was no time for resting. I was still aware of that much at least. ¡¯Now... haah... haa... let''s get the hell out of this place... and quickly.¡¯ Unstable and shakily as I was, I got up, grabbed my spear¡ª which was still embedded in the goblin¡ª and the club, and prepared to get the hell out of there. I looked at the now lifeless corpse for the last time and ran away. After some time I slowed down a little. There was no safe place anywhere anyway. I didn''t want to tire myself for no reason. My spear and club were still dirty with the goblin blood. Which was not good. I started to rub the spearhead on the ground to scrape the blood from it. I wiped the rest of the blood with some grass and leaves. Using the same steps for my club, I managed to mask the smell as best I could. Keeping them was still a risk but I could not abandon my only weapons like that. I tightened the vines that got somehow loosened from the impact with the goblin¡¯s skull and I was ready to keep moving. ¡± But first, a quick look at my status. ¡± ---------------------------- ---------------------------- ¡± Are you kidding me? There''s barely any growth at all... At least I was right and the stats got up... ¡± There should have been a reason for it... And I couldn''t pick a fight with the world for being unjust anyway... And there was no time for complaints either. ¡¯Do not forget where you are... Elizabeth.¡¯ ¡± ... ¡± ¡¯This is so damn awkward.¡¯ Worse, it was supposed to be my name from now on. Even worse, it was chosen by me... I couldn''t even say it in my mind without cringing, let alone out loud. I didn''t even want to imagine introducing myself to someone else like that... Well, it could be worse... It could be them calling me by that name... ¡±...¡± *sigh* I sighed in defeat and decided that it was better to keep moving. For some reason, the forest was full of monsters out of nowhere and I didn''t want to stay in one place for too long. Chapter 6: The valiant one has fallen. (Side story) The blue ball was glowing above the forest and above my glorious self as always. The forest was quite and peaceful at first glance but I couldn''t be tricked that easily. I was to smart to fall for that. I was not like the other ones of my kind; the fools without a brain. I was aware that after the blue one would disappear, the red one would show up. That was how it was. I wasn''t easy for one to not be overwhelmed by my intellect. I had always known that for my kind, it wasn''t easy but they had to do it. I was simply that smart. ¡¯Blue... safe, go hunt! Red... Danger! Many, many dangers!¡¯ Not many others had the chance to listen to my glorious speeches. My speeches were not that cheap, and not many had the wisdom to listen to me... But the ones who did it managed to survive much longer than others. From the day when I and my brothers had to step out of our cave and start the conquest of the very forest we lived in, I was mistreated by that supposed group leader just because he was a Greater Cave Goblin and had some more levels. ¡¯How outrageous!¡¯ They must have been blind to not see how great I was. If I was the leader, this forest would have been ours in no time at all. But the mistreatment didn''t last long. Not long after we departed from our cave we came across some big and fat humanoid-pigs much bigger than us. What atrocious creatures they have been. I had to shield my eyes for my great self to not be blinded by the sheer ugliness. From birth, I was aware that even within my peers I was the most handsome one but for me to actually witness such ugly creatures. I had no words. And even worse. They were big. Way too big. I had to take some of my close peers and run away from there while that foolish leader of ours, in his foolishness, tried to engage them. ¡¯Stupid... stupid, stupid, foolish, stupid... Stupid false leader. Me, true leader!¡¯ At least, that hateful false leader had fallen there. That fool. After that, I continued our glorious conquest from where that incapable fool left it but problems continued to appear one after another. The forest was full to the brim with so many ugly creatures. It didn''t matter in how many glorious battles I led my peers, they continue to appear to no end. We had to exterminate these stains. These insults to our beautiful race of strong warriors. In time, I had learned from mistakes. When the red glob would shine, our warrior blood would awaken. It was truly wonderful but at the same time, truly dangerous. The red ball from the ski would make my and my brother''s blood boil with vigor and shine in on the battlefield. But unfortunately, that was true for our ugly foes as well. When the red one appeared again, the hateful pigs would emerge from the depths of the forest. We had no choice but to leave for the borders. ¡¯Pigs... Big. Hateful. Pigs. Ugly big pigs!¡¯ At least my stupid brothers were always amazed by my intellect. I was the smartest as I previously said but I had to remind them from time to time for them to not forget it. They were big dummies after all. To be the most handsome and also the smartest. I had to bear with it since that was my fate. One day I had discovered that two clubs were better than just one. When my great self had shared the discovery with my brothers, I was shocked to discover another thing. None of them had ever tried to count. They didn''t even know how to count how many clubs they could handle so I had to personally do that for them. I had to take every one of them and count their limbs to know how many clubs they could wield. Except for the ones who lost some of them in glorious battles, we learned that for most of us, the limb count was the same. A monumental achievement. That day all my brothers praised me to no end and I must say that I was deserving of their praises. I was a genius after all. But even a genius had his own shortcomings. One day we stumbled upon another hateful enemy. Not big like the pigs but worse than them nonetheless. The monkeys. That cheating and hateful race. They had so many limbs that not even my great self was capable to count. I had lost all my brothers in that battle. A tragic day. ¡¯Hateful monkeys... To. Many. Limbs. Gyaaahhh!¡¯ That was a truly tragic day indeed. The next day, the red glowing globe surfaced again, and with it, the hateful enemies from the depths of the forest emerged as well. I had to move my valiant self to the borders. It didn''t matter how superior I was to my peers, I couldn''t face all those ugly creatures alone. . . . I had not eaten for two days in a row. Being alone was hard. I decided to hunt something on my way to the border. With my superior abilities, I had successfully hunted down some weird little creature. Nothing too hard for my great self. *Kikiko koki* I laughed with vigor at my prey. I could feel the fear in its eyes while struggling to escape from my grip. I tried to explain to it that it was a futile effort to try and oppose my great self to no avail. These lowly creatures weren''t gifted with the right to understand our superior language. It was simply how it was. With their stupid heads, that was an impossible feat. *ke keke ki* I couldn''t help but laugh again. It was hard to stop glorifying my perfect self. I was too good for this hateful forest. After this day, I was going to adventure outside of the forest... Kekeke, maybe I would start my own nest. Better than the one in which I was born. ¡¯Women... just for elders... and chief... Bad nest. Mine, much better!¡¯ What a loss for those fools. They didn''t know what monumental loss they had committed. My glorious genes went to waste. I should have taken this decision long ago. I could not imagine that out there was a woman who would not accept my great self. There would not be a need to even kidnap them like those fools. Just a look at me and that would be all. I started to worry that I would not be able to handle all of them. The greatest as I was, there was a limit even for me. *stab* *Gyaaaaaahaah* While I was eating the unfortunate prey and contemplating on my glorious future, some coward attacked me from behind. ¡¯What cowardice!¡¯ To actually hit from the back. In my desperate attempt to witness the hateful and coward foe, I tried to turn around but I was pinned to the ground whit a long stick. I could not express my shock. The coward enemy was woman. It seemed that I didn''t even need to get out of the forest to get to them. But even so, I never saw one that beautiful in the nest. On a second thought, that was to be expected. It was logic that the beautiful ones would come to me after all. *Kekeke keki...* I let out another laugher but the wound on my side stopped me haft through it. Something was not right there. ¡¯Why woman attack great me?¡¯ Maybe she couldn''t see my greatness. My valiant side. After all, she attacked me from my back. That must have been the reason. I tried hard to turn around, ignoring the pain from the side to show her that the reason for her arrival in this forest was right in front of her. Unfortunately, that wasn''t going well. She couldn''t see me. How could that be possible? To come this far for me and to end like this... I had to do something. I tried to stand up, to move left and right, but nothing worked. I started to panic. I could not end like this. The world would lose a great being like me. I could already see the tears that this woman would shed after me. Not to mention the others that would follow after this one. What a tragedy. I started to slowly lose my strength. This was not a good sign but the woman facial expressions had changed. Ohh, she had to finally realize who I was. She finally let go of the stick which she used to stab me. ¡¯Kekeeke... Come, come!¡¯ For my future woman, I decided that I would show my greatness and forgive her for her mistakes. I hardly could move but I must at least try to stand up. It was impossible for a great being like myself to receive my first woman like that. ¡¯Come... Woman! Serve. Me... Hugh? What doing... with club?¡¯ A feeling of doubt started to sprout in my mind for the first time. *Crack* ? ( That was a tragic day for the goblin race! They had lost a great one! ) FDSIO My glorious first attempt for a Side Story. (If a monster perspective can fit there). Also, funny that my first POV happened to a mob character that died in his first chapter of existence. Back to the subject, I don''t know if you enjoy it but I hope you did. To be honest, it was pretty fun for me to write it and I''d like to see your opinions on the matter as well. Chapter 7: Laying down the hunter path. That was traumatic. After a while, I decided upon a relatively safe resting point under a big tree with a myriad of thin and long branches covered with matching long and green leaves. Soon after, the realization of what I just did stuck me. ¡¯I killed a monster...¡¯ I couldn''t believe it. Despite all the facts being laid in front of me, there was still a part of me that wished to deny all of it. To ignore everything. And that was because if I were to acknowledge the facts, there was no turning back. If I were to acknowledge that, there would have been nothing I could cling to. All that would have remained would have been the cold and merciless truth. And despite all of that, the only option I had was to move forward, no matter what. Escaping reality was no longer an option. ¡¯Aaahhhh... My head hurts... Hehe... This is soooo freaking funny... Who would have thought that killing monsters on a screen, seated in your comfortable chair would be sooo freaking different from killing them in person...¡¯ Well, everyone with half a brain would have thought that, but it was just when you were facing it that you realize how badly you underestimated the situation. How dire the predicament really was. *sigh* I let out another sigh and moved my hand through my long and silvery hair. The whole encounter made what I had to expect from now on apparent. It wasn''t pretty but that was how it was. ¡± At least, the goblin was not that strong despite the difference in levels. ¡± I whispered to myself while continuing to play with a strand of my hair. The action calmed me. ¡± Maybe the race is a big factor too... ¡± It was a possibility. Though I had a lot of advantages back then and everything went as it was planned, maybe even better. It wasn''t exactly the best reference. At least I got two levels from that fight. It seemed good to me but frankly, I didn''t know if it truly was like that or not. Not knowing what I assumed to be basic stuff for the possible inhabitants of this world would be a problem in the future. More importantly, it was a really big issue right now as well. Actually, outside of the variety of monsters I already saw roaming around, I didn''t even know what to expect outside of them... Humans? Unless I saw one of them I couldn''t even be sure if they existed in this world. Elves? I was the living example so no matter how hilarious it seemed, meeting elves around had a bigger probability than meeting a human... ¡¯Not to mention the cultural differences... What if I stumble upon some kind of barbaric or savage race?¡¯ The goblins proved to not be the most civilized or peaceful humanoids thus far. They had makeshift tools like clubs so they were something akin to cavemen... probably. *Kuku keki ko* ¡¯Fuuuuuck... Not again! No, no... calm down...¡¯ At that point, I was quite acquainted with that particular sound. And I still didn''t like it at all. I moved my head to the direction the voice was heard and peeked through the thick foliage. It felt like I was hiding inside of a green waterfall but it let enough visibility for me to still be able to see outside of it. Two goblins stepped out of some bushes a dozen or so meters away from me. For some reason, they seemed to be rather agitated and one of them was limping with his left leg. They also had smaller fresh scars all over their bodies. ¡¯What the hell... Appraisal.¡¯ ¡¯That''s... surprisingly low.¡¯ But the problem was not solved yet. Something attacked these guys, and judging by their restless behavior it was still on their trail. ¡¯Shit! They''re coming this way...¡¯ They would definitely notice me if I were to run. The damn monsters were heading straight towards me so I could not retreat slowly either... ¡¯What to do, what to... Oh, no... Those are bite marks. Wolves...¡¯ The situation turned incredibly dire. Meeting wolves was the last thing I wanted to happen. I was pretty much sure I wouldn''t be able to escape from them. ¡¯Fuck it... Sorry guys, but between you and me, I''m pretty much willing to sacrifice you two.¡¯ The moment the distance between us shortened enough, I stabbed the one that wasn''t limping with my spear as hard as I could. I targeted him first because I wanted to have a chance at running if the circumstances needed it. *kikiki ki* I stuck him right in the middle of his chest, the goblin let out a loud scream, tripped, and fell on his back with my spear still embedded in him. My ears were ringing from the sudden scream but that was my last concern at that moment. The other seemed to be still confused since all he saw was a spear striking his colleague out of nowhere. I grabbed my club as fast as I could and jumped from the foliage at the other one, not giving him enough time to fully grasp what the hell was even happening. Unfortunately, the goblin managed to move his body at the last moment and I missed his head, striking his shoulder. He was forced to take two or three steps backward but I didn''t manage to make it fall. *Kiikii KKikee* ¡± Ohh, shut up already! ¡± I screamed back at the goblin as my ears started to throb again. It seemed that I wasn''t fully accustomed to my new body... ¡¯My ears were too freaking sensitive...¡¯ I cursed again in my head and took a quick look at the other one. He tried to stand us but fell back down again. My spear probably caused much more damage than I initially thought. Maybe it hit something vital...? Changing my mind, I ran to it and smug my club right to his head. *Crack* The goblin was stuck down again while his head made a nasty crunchy sound. But that was not enough. ¡± Again, damn it! ¡± I raised the club again and the hit stuck his head for the second time. [*Ding: You have killed... The notification popped up but I didn''t have the time for it. It was necessary to get used to them, even more so when another angered goblin was right at your back. I instinctively jumped to the left while the thing missed me at a hair¡¯s breadth. Actually, no. His claws still managed to catch my right shoulder but the wound left wasn''t deep. I didn''t felt much at the moment since I was still full of adrenaline, but I was sure that it would hurt quite a bit the next day. I was lucky since the leg impeded him, he couldn''t react faster and save his colleague. What I did was quite stupid, I realized. And the situation turned to some kind of one-on-one. I still had the opportunity to run away since he had a leg problem. ¡± To hell with it, die you little scum. For all the girls who can''t sleep peacefully at night because of you. ¡± I didn''t even know if that was the case but who cared at that moment? I just needed something to be motivated. I started to circle it and while the goblin was eyeing me with caution. It didn''t try to jump at me again. Probably because I was aware of him. That proved that these things had some kind of intelligence at least. It wasn''t just a mere beast, which was good and bad at the same time. Even so, it was still nothing compared to me. The makeshift club lost its rock head when I hit the other goblin the second time and at that point was just a piece of wood. But even that had its use. ¡± Now, now... You stupid little freak! ¡± As I approached the corpse and most importantly my spear, I throw what was left of the club at the goblin, buying enough of a distraction to take the spear from his deceased colleague. What I did not expect to happen was the club to actually hit him. He was more wounded than I initially thought. Not wasting more time, I stuck with the spear right in his chest. [*Ding: You have killed level 4 Cave Goblin!] [*Ding: You have gained the skill {Crude Spear Technique 1}!] [*Ding: You have reached level 5!] ¡± Haha ha... Level 5 already? This is pretty good... I''ll be OP in no time at this rate. Heehe¡ª *Awooooo* ¡¯Ohh shit... I forgot about it...¡¯ I turned to the direction from where the goblins appeared and surely enough, that was the place the howl came from. I ran away, not even looking back. The spear was on the verge of breaking and was covered with blood so I left it there as well. At that point, I just hoped that the wolves would be happy with the two corpses and wouldn''t try to search for the thing that killed them. My wounded shoulder wasn''t bleeding that much either but I still had to clean it at least. I really needed a source of water. I changed my direction several times as I was running even though I doubted that something like that would work against their sense of smell. But it made me feel a little bit more secure. I almost stumbled upon some kind of red wild boar but I was lucky and the thing didn''t notice me. The next hour or so I walked aimlessly, running from anything I saw, while not remarking that the terrain had changed slightly. The trees were more scarce and I felt like climbing a hill. Looking in the distance I could see that I was right. And to my surprise, it was not an ordinary hill. It seemed that I had stumbled upon a hill with some weird temple ruins on top of it. Chapter 8: Do not touch things when you’re strolling through the ruins. It didn''t take more than a thought to make me move again towards the ruins. I needed a place to stay and rest and everything was better than the forest. I arrived at what looked like the outer wall or to be more precise, what was left of it, in less than twenty minutes. It was mostly destroyed or decayed to the point that it was barely recognizable. Just a bunch of rocks surrounding the whole place. Stepping past it and looking further, it was clear that the structure was abandoned for a long time. At least the main building was still standing somehow. Vegetation reclaimed most of what should have been the main courtyard, some trees scattered around, grass growing in between what looked like a pavement made from huge rock slices. Mostly, what would happen with anything abandoned long enough. ¡¯Creepy or not, it''s still better than back there.¡¯ I hardened my resolve once again and followed the rocky path to the main building. Looking closely, even that was so ruined that it had a lot of holes in the outer walls and seemed to miss a good chunk of the roof as well. At least, the structure was made mainly from roks and other such materials. The place gave me a temple vibe of some sort so I decided to refer to it as such. It was still too little for a proper castle but too complex to be a random building. Not to mention that it was in the middle of the forest. ¡± What in the world am I doing here...? ¡± I shook my head from the useless thoughts and stepped in. The old and creepy building would not bite me. The wolves would pretty much do exactly that if they decided to follow me. As expected, a lot of the roof was already destroyed. Just the west part of the structure had some roof still standing so I decided to take a quick look to the east side and let the good one for later. I strolled through the building but there was nothing of note besides garbage and fallen rocks. Some of the walls had holes in them, some were completely missing. It made me wonder how the thing was still standing... Outside of the multitude of small rooms, there was also a big one that resembled a hall of some kind. The walls looked like they were painted at some point but then again, too much time had passed for someone to understand what was their purpose. Letting my eyes wander, I could see that in a remote corner was something resembling a destroyed statue. I could not say what it represented but it had a humanoid shape. That was a good sign. ¡¯Lest hope the west wing is in a better condition...¡¯ After all, it still had a roof. There should have been a bit of a difference between a place with a roof and one without. I snuck in through what was left of a huge double door. At least the interior was not that bad. There were still holes in the roof and the walls but overall, a lot better than the eastern wing. *shriek* *flap* *flap* The high-pitched noises of the bats sent shivers down to my spine. ¡± Of course that a desolate place like this can''t miss those little shits... My poor ears. ¡± I muttered to myself, half expecting some kind of vampire to pop up from somewhere... It would have been fitting for the setting. ¡¯Better not...¡¯ I looked around the place to see all kinds of rooms and what was left of the furniture it once had. Nothing of interest besides a pair of sturdy-looking doors that remained even after everything else decayed. It was an impressive feat if not for the big hole in the wall next to it. I decided to take a peek inside. Contrary to my expectations, the room was a big disappointment. Just broken and rotten pieces of furniture. There was also a big hole in the ceiling that aggravated the situation. Everything that had some value to this place must have been gone long ago and what was left... ¡¯Yeah, everything rotten or broken all over the place...¡¯ Even so, it must have been an impressive sight in its former days of glory. It was a mystery how much time had passed for it to end in that way. Distracted by my thoughts, I failed to notice the damaged floor under a significantly bigger hole in the ceiling. When I noticed the crunching sound it made under my feet, it was too late. ¡± Kyaaaaaa! ¡± *Thud* *thud* *Baam* ¡¯Ouch... That was seriously dangerous. I was lucky that the fall wasn''t too big.¡¯ Looking up, I could see the place where the floor collapsed with a big hole in it. ¡¯Maybe two to three meters... More importantly, are those stairs I landed on?¡¯ It could have been worse. Instead of stairs, there could have been some spikes. Like in the stories with old and dangerous temples. I stood up and looked around. There was not much to see. Pieces of the floor that collapsed with me and the stairs leading... underground? The place was not too wide and seemed untouched. A wild tough ran through my head and a grin bloomed on my face. ¡± Maybe not everything is gone from this place. ¡± The further I descended, the darker it became but was still manageable... somehow. A perk of being an elf I guessed. At the end of the stairs, I was greeted by another pair of dors. ¡± The lock is still on the door. ¡± My luck seemed to be quite good. ¡± But how to unlock it? Hmmm... Oh, nevermind... ¡± Judging by how much time had passed, the lock was as rusty as it could have been. To the point that it barely looked like one anymore. I got upstairs and picked a slightly bigger rock to crack the lock with. After two or three attempts, the lock already crumbled as expected. It was almost sad that I wasted more time pushing the doors open than I needed for the actual lock. ¡¯If the people who built this place find out about this in their afterlife, I do want to see their facial expressions.¡¯ With an expectant face, i walked in and looked at the symbols that were still bravely resting on the walls even after so much time had passed. The designs were so intriguing and ambiguous they probably would have stirred the interest of everyone looking at them. Making my way into the dusty chamber, I found a lot of bookshelves that still contained remnants of old books. My curiosity increased with every step that I took. There was still a bit of suspicion in the back of my head about the whole thing, but I shook it off. There were living, breathing monsters outside, what could a messy ghost do worse than that... ¡± If not for this damn darkness. Where is the light? Where are the torches that usually light up when people walk in such places? ¡± It seemed that my expectations were a little bit too high... Strolling through the bookshelves, I discovered that some of the books were in better shape than others. And even had some strange runes like the ones on the walls. Taking a closer look, I was stupefied to see that some of them were glowing a little as I was tracing my finger on them. ¡± This is ridiculous. This must be some kind of preservation magic, isn''t it? This must be magic! ¡± *Haa... haha... Hahaha...* A loud and uncontrollable laugh escaped from my mouth. If someone happened to see me at that particular moment, I didn''t want to know what they could have thought of me. ¡¯No good, no good. This is not how a noble elf should be at all. This is the scary psycho elf way...¡¯ I shook my head while still chuckling a little at that. Even if it was magic, I had to be calm. ¡± Pfffee... hehe... Hehehehe... ¡± And I lost it again for quite some time. I really couldn''t do anything about it. It was goddamn magic after all. It was real. ¡±Haaaaa... I really got crazy... ¡± It was one thing to just assume its existence even though it was very likely to be true and another thing to actually see it in front of you. Opening one of the books and taking a look, I could see something resembling strange hieroglyphs but what was even strange was that I was able to read them somehow. I assumed that it had to do with that skill regarding the language. The common language one most likely. This place must have been in the Amissi continent after all. ¡¯Good. Good, time to collect all of them. I should gather all of them at the entrance or at least in a single place.¡¯ After some trips from one bookshelf to another and back to the entrance, something else piqued my interest. The poor visibility had made me miss it for quite some time. Seated in the middle of the chamber was a table with a miniature chest on it. The chair was broken but the table looked like would still stand for some time. But not that was the problem. The chest seemed almost new. ¡± If this is not something important then I don''t know what can be. ¡± The chest didn''t have a lock on it so it was all good. After a contemplating moment, I decided to open it. On a miniature pedestal inside the chest was the only thing within it. ¡± A ring? ¡± Pitch black and seemingly unimportant, unremarkable to the point that if it was found on the ground probably nobody would care to take it. ¡¯Seriously? That is all? Where is my treasure? Where was my chest full of gold coins? I''m being bullied here.¡¯ *sigh* Nope. I should not judge something based on appearance. I was aware of at least that much. That was the important-looking chest. ¡¯This ring is most likely a treasure of some sort... Or, those guys wanted to play a prank on whoever discovered this place.¡¯ Making up my mind, I extended my hand to grab the ring but the moment that the hand touched the ring, I felt a sharp pain on my finger. I instantly let go of the ring and even fell on my bottom in surprise. Looking at my hand, I saw a little bit of blood on my finger and stared at it in amazement for a long time. ¡± The ring has... And I was... ¡± I was still not able to believe what just happened. ¡± Was I bitten by... a ring? ¡± Chapter 9: Bond of blood. From the moment I opened my eyes in this damn place and until now, I could say that I witnessed quite a bit of strange or straight-out terrifying stuff. But even so, to be bitten by a ring was a tad bit too much. After what I experienced outside, I was expecting most living stuff to be dangerous but I did not expect to be bitten by freaking objects too. ¡¯This world is insane...¡¯ What was next? Being attacked by furniture? Should I be cautious to not be stabbed by one of the books from earlier too? The more I thought about it, the more unreasonable it became. It was not right. It was impossib¡ª [*Ding: You have discovered an ancient lost item!] [You will be rewarded with a corresponding amount of experience points fitting for your current level!] [*Ding: You have reached level 6!] [*Ding: You have reached level 7!] [*Ding: You have reached level 8!] [*Ding: You hav... ... [*Ding: You have reached level 15!] [*Ding: A bond of blood has been created!] [*Ding: You have gained the passive skill {Odder¡¯s Black Ring: Bond of Blood}!] That... explained quite a bit. If it was some lost, ancient, and whatever stuff the notification said, it was still acceptable to be bitten by it... ¡¯Nope... Not even close... And the problem became even complicated...¡¯ While the levels were a good thing, what followed after that, not so much. I did not want to be cursed by some random ring. ¡¯Doesn''t matter in which way I look at it, a bond of blood sounds like a full-time curse with the premium optional package.¡¯ Was it because I made jokes about the Holy Tree earlier? Was it some sort of punishment? ¡¯I''m very sorry. Please forgive me, Holy Tree!¡¯ And... nothing. ¡¯Though, I should really stop making jokes about it... It won''t be funny if the thing was real...¡¯ *sigh* Was I overthinking? At least, I didn''t feel bad. I actually felt a little better... Was it the extra levels? Maybe I could find something about the ring in one of the books. It was there with them after all. Feeling much calmer, I picked myself up and looked around after the ring. It took me a while in the dark chamber. ¡± You little prick, to think that something so ordinary hides so many secrets... An ancient item, huh? ¡± At least the ring wasn''t looking like one or I might be in danger. I doubted that stuff like that was common and looking unremarkable helped quite a bit. ¡¯Let''s see what my best friend [Appraisal] have to say about you.¡¯ [Odder¡¯s Black Ring] ?¡± Ohh... Oho... Oho ho ho... What. The. Hell? ¡± No, no, no, no. Pause, pause. That was not possible. That was too good to be real. Was that some kind of illusion? ¡± You can''t casually pick a... What was it again? A mythical grade ring. ¡± It did not feel right no matter how you looked at it. I didn''t even know what a mythical grade was but I did not even need to. If there was the word mythical in the description, for me, that was already enough. And what was that (???) symbol. Some sealed abilities? Was the ring partially broken? Was I incapable of seeing the full thing with my appraisal level? ¡± Pfff... It''s understandable that I can''t. Why did I even expect to read a mythical grade thing with my level 4 appraisal? ¡± But even so, there was still something that I managed to read. [Space Enchantment: The space is modified and enchanted with magic to contain more than it might suggest.] ¡° This is... No. If someone happens to find about this... Yeah, extra careful with the ring from now on... But first, let''s try it. ¡± I placed it on my left hand and felt a pleasant feeling. Like how my thoughts were suddenly more clear. ¡¯I like it more and more already.¡¯ After playing with the ring a little bit longer, I remembered that I gained some kind of skill from my latest fight with goblins as well. Something about a spear... I was not sure. And there was the passive one regarding a blood bond that needed to be checked as well. ¡¯Appraisal¡¯ ---------------------------- As expected from around ten levels worth of progress. My statuses increased quite a bit. I was even happier since the spirit stat went through the roof. That was a good sign for my future as the greatest mage ever. ¡¯Next... to the creepy cursed bound.¡¯ [Odder¡¯s Black Ring: Bond of Blood: A bond has been created between you and the ring. It can never be used by someone else as long as you are alive.] Good news and bad news. It could not be stolen but the bad news was that it was still possible to be stolen If they murdered me. ¡¯Ahh... no... It''s not quite right. It is still possible to steal it but not use it... Soooo... there was not a single piece of good news.¡¯ ¡± Conclusion: Do not show the ring to anyone and if they ask just say it''s a simple ring or something related to your deceased family. ¡± Emotional things could not be explained with logic so that made the perfect cover. ¡¯Aaaaand the last thing from the list is... tam, tam, tam... the skill gained in the fight with the goblins. Appraisal.¡¯ [Crude Spear Technique 1: The lowest form of technique for the spear. Usually self-taught.] ¡±...¡± Why was I under the impression that the system liked to insult me? Was the same with my crafted stuff... I crafted that spear and club and I was proud of both of them. The system insulted me for no reason. As long as the weapons did the job, I had no complaints. . . . With the ring equipped, I started to collect the rest of the books. It took me some time to select what was still in good shape in the dark. But a new problem presented itself. ¡¯How do I put them the books in the ring now that i collected all of them?¡¯ I was sure that there was a way. At least the description suggested there was and I was sure as hell that I could not carry all of them around on my back. There were at least twenty or thirty of them in total. And while searching the place for the rest of the books, I accidentally found three coins that looked to be made from silver. The coin''s design was almost non-existent though... So I could not figure anything else about them. ¡¯Back to the books, back to the books... How do I store them?¡¯ I took a book in hand and thought that I wanted the book in the ring. In an instant, I felt my palm lighten and the book was gone. ¡±...¡± ¡¯No fucking way!¡¯ It actually worked. And on the first attempt. I almost felt like a genius. Playing with my new discovery a little more, storing all the books, and experimenting further, I managed to make them appear at will. It was... overwhelmingly enjoyable in a strange kind of way. It seemed that you could vaguely search with some strange mental link through everything you stored in it. Quite bizarre but very useful. Also, the hand with the ring, or more precisely the ring itself had to be in contact with the objective you wanted to store for it to work. Checking my status, I discovered that a little bit of my mana was used as well. But that didn''t matter. The information was power and I intended to use it to the fullest. ¡¯Speaking of information...¡¯ I willed a book to appear in my hand. I hoped to find at least something useful regarding this word in these books. I could be from who knew how long ago but I didn''t care. At that moment, everything was good enough for me. ¡± Good. This will be my first base... soooo, I guess I need to climb out of here first... somehow. ¡± Chapter 10: Living at the temple makes you a monk? There was a lot of work to do. Finding the temple was a stroke of luck, one of which I intended to use to the fullest. With a last scan through the room, I decided to head to the stairs and back up in the upper chamber. With every step I took toward the hole at the end of the stairs, the atmosphere became brighter and brighter. ¡¯Damn darkness... Next time I''ll bring a flashlight with me... Haaa... I wish... Maybe a torch?¡¯ Initially, I intended to use the fallen rocks, putting all of them together to create some kind of footstep for me but I got a better idea. While testing to discover the ring¡¯s limitations, I actually stored the whole table and the chest. Testing further it was revealed that I could not bring stuff back if there was not enough space for it. Taking it out, I managed to climb back but something was not right. The place was too bright. Much brighter than I remembered. ¡¯What in the world...¡¯ Driven by my curiosity, I stepped out of the room through the hole in the wall, followed the path I used to get there and out in the main courtyard. The next few minutes were spent just looking at the sky with what I could describe as one of the most shocked and confused expression I ever had on my face. Not that I could see my face but it felt exactly like that. ¡± The hell is wrong with this world? Another... sun? A yellow one this time? Damn, this world really likes to make fun of me... ¡± I could not even bring myself to think about how to regard this one. Was it as dangerous as the red one? The whole situation made less and less sense¡ª ¡¯Wait, no... The stars also disappeared... And the brightness... Holy crap!¡¯ Was that the actual day and the whole red sun was actually another moon... Actually, yes. Why wouldn''t have this world two moons? ¡¯Wait, wait, wait, wait... World, is this all? Is there something else? Do you plan to prank me even further?¡¯ Or was it the Holy Tree? That thing liked to plank me waaaay too much... Whatever, the conclusion: two moons, one sun. One relatively harmless blue moon, one bad and dangerous red moon, and a still questionable yellow sun. The latest needed more research. I honestly hoped for it to be harmless and frankly the last one... I could live without a fourth ghostly green one just fine. I also hoped that I didn''t just jinx myself right there. Though the only option I had was to wait for a complete cycle. To wait until the blue one would reappear. *sigh* ¡± I''m not paid enough for this shit... ¡± And no. This world containing magic was starting to not be worth enough to deal with all of the shit alone. ¡¯Focus, focus... The hole in the wall... the surroundings... the monsters... I''ll die if I don''t do something about it... Get you ass together and do the job me.¡¯ . . . I started to collect rocks and carry them to the hole in the wall. It was hard work, though, that changed when I realized that I could simply store them in the ring and take them out right next to the wall. The mana loss would regenerate on its own over time. Some of the losses during the experimenting process were already regenerated so I was sure of it. After that, the process became much easier. I managed to fill the hole in the wall in no time. Next on the list was the door, or to be more explicit, everything around the door. I needed to clean all the trash and stuff around it to make it open to some extent. As for the hole in the roof... there was not much I could do about it. I didn''t see any monsters capable of flying; at least not yet, but I was good enough. If I was proved to be wrong, I would rest in the room at the end of the stairs and that was it. After the job was mainly done, I decided to take a stroll outside and explore the rest of the temple and the courtyard. In the end, there was not much to see so I climbed a taller tree to oversee the surroundings. It paid off the effort. I could see quite a bit of the forest and the rest of the hill¡¯s surroundings. I could see what looked like the plains from where I came from and the mountains in the distance. The mountain chain was huge. Actually, it was not just huge, it was HUGE. To the point that I could not even see the peak since it was way above the level of the clouds. If this world had dragons, I could bet my three silver coins that they were right on top of that¡ª ¡¯Wait... Is that a river? Ohhh, yeaaah... That''s how it should be! That''s a freaking river... And not too far from here... Good job, Holy Tree. I''ll be your faithful believer from now on. Two sacks of fertilizer from me if we''ll meet in the future...¡¯ But as the saying was going¡ª everything that seemed too good to be true, probably wasn''t¡ª I also spotted what likely was a group of little green and ugly fellows which I started to despise the more contact I had with them. ¡¯What the fuck are they doing there? Yellow sun, are you betraying me? You are, you little shit... And I started to have some faith in you... Bad sun.¡¯ ¡± Soooo... these guys are roaming the forest day and night, huh. Well, damn... ¡± At least there didn''t seem to be as many compared with the red moon. I just needed to be more careful and to stay the hell out of the forest when the red moon was us. Preferably in the new base. With the new goal set, my first move was to get down and search for new crafting materials. I could not live without water. I had to make the trip no matter what but I couldn''t if I was unarmed. With the goblins roaming around pretty much everywhere and all the time, that was too dangerous. In the end, I was still stuck with sticks, rocks, and vines as always. And probably what could be of use from the temple. The final result: [Crude wooden spear] x3 [Crude rock club] x2 I decided to make more of them. With the new ability to store them and also take them out at will, there was no reason to not do so. I could not use mana for anything else... yet. As for the piece of resistance... [Crude rusty metal spear] That was my masterpiece. I was lucky enough to find a sharp piece of metal in one of the rooms and use it as a spearhead. I failed quite a bit until I made a cut in the spear shaft¡¯s end, shoved the piece of metal in between, and tied up tightly with more vines. It was not as easy as it sounded, not without the right tools. It did not matter that the system named it [Crude rusty metal spear]. That was the best one I could get in the current situation. The other three were mostly like the last one but I put a little bit more effort into sharpening them. As for clubs, I failed to make a metal one. There was no suitable piece of metal and on top of it, that wasn''t really necessary either. For a blunt weapon, the rock head was good enough. As for a knife... It was just a petty dream. Unless I found one around there was no way to make one myself. ¡± Good. Let''s get going... I started to get quite thirty anyway. I hope that the river won''t run away from me or something... ¡± ¡¯Seriously, don''t. Don''t fucking run away from me.¡¯ With this world throwing new shit at me constantly, I was starting to believe that nothing was impossible... Why not a running river? . . . With caution, I started the little expedition toward the river. It was quite anticlimactic after all the preparations. I did not regret them though... I had to go back as well. There was no say in what would happen on the way back. As for the river, the water seemed clean and without signs of contamination. It was ideal to boil it but unfortunately, there was no way to do that at the moment. I also wanted a bottle of two to take some water back to the temple. I could not make the trip whenever I got thirsty. ¡¯Actually... I don''t even know how I look anymore.¡¯ Being chased by monsters all night didn''t give me to worry about such small problems. Maybe it was better like that. All the agitation distracted me from the... issue. *sigh* ¡± Still, I want at least to know how I look. Now or never... ¡± Making my resolve, I searched for a portion of the river where the water was clearer and smoother and approached it quietly with small steps. Whatever the future was, I had no choice but to accept it. I was still myself. No matter what changes my body had gone through I could still make it further as it was. Outside of the marriage stuff and the interaction with the opposite sex, there was not much of a difference... At least that was what I hoped. ¡¯Funny enough, I''m actually living at a temple... I''m basically a monk... Yeah, probably not.¡¯ Getting closer to the water I finally got the chance to take a peek at my reflection. The quality could not be compared with a real mirror but was good enough. ¡± As expected for an elf. At least the myth about their beauty is not a lie. ¡± What I was in the water was a well-proportioned face with smooth skin, a small nose, and pink little lips staring back at me. The deep and radiant green eyes were matching perfectly with the almost surreal image and the rest of the facial features. They were also matching with the rest of the forest greens that were reflected in the water around me. It was somehow like an assortment... Like I was an accessory for the forest itself. If not for the long ears peeking out of my long silver hair, the image would be just that of a beautiful young girl and nothing more. I did not complain one bit. Maybe these features would cause me problems in the future, but at that moment I did not give a damn about it. If I was to be turned into a woman, at least I wanted to be a beautiful one. ¡¯Fuck the hypocrisy! I want to be the most beautiful one... And everyone else to be ugly as shit... Yeah, and to laugh at them all, ugly bastards.¡¯ ¡± Haaaaa... Venting is sooo damn good! ¡± Damn, I wanted to see my silver hair glittering with droplets of water slowly flowing through it. That would have made the perfect elf-like image. Chapter 11: Life at the temple. Dreaming and venting was good sometimes, but forgetting in the middle of what kind of forest I stood was not as good. Not to mention that I started to be really thirsty... It was better to let the future me deal with future problems. Kneeling and washing my hands first, I made them into a cup and drank some water. While doing that I couldn''t help but wonder if I could not do something similar with a piece of wood. To use it as an improvised bowl. I did not have to search for long either. Just a few meters downstream was seated a tree with fruits similar to coconut. Albeit a little softer and with a sticky green fluid in the middle. But it was good enough. After a thorough wash, it was usable. I stored several in my ring while making sure that the water would not spill no matter how I was shaking the ring. Another good piece of information. The wound that I received last night was another mystery. I was no doctor but even I could tell that something was not right there. As shallow as it was, the wound was still healing way too fast. I did not pay much attention to the wound since the bleeding already stopped at the moment I arrived at the temple, but cleaning the dry blood around it made me curious. I did not even know when it stopped hurting. Was it a trait of my new body and consequently one of my new race? Or was it because of the fast leveling? The status, especially the vitality one was a possibility as well. Maybe the biggest one. Or a combination of all of them. I did not know so I left the problem for the future me to find an answer to it. After that, I looked around for some big and soft leaves from which to make a makeshift bed. Outside of that, I collected everything that seemed edible while doing so. *rustle* *crack* ¡¯Hmm!? What was that?¡¯ I turned around and looked in the direction from where the sound was heard. I had to give the credit to my new ears and senses even though, sometimes, these new additions were quite bothersome to have. ¡¯Fuck... a wolf... Were there more of them around?¡¯ Luckily, there didn''t seem to be more. Just that one. The creature seemed surprised that I was able to sense it. It was gazing at me with predatory glowing eyes. And I was sure as heck that normal wolves did not have glowing eyes. At least not the ones I was acquitted with. *grrrr* I was also painfully aware that I could not escape it. The thing was probably way faster than me but at least, I wanted to see what odds I had if I were to fight it. ¡¯Appraisal¡¯ To say that I was just a bit surprised was an understatement. I did not know why I could see his statuses but at the moment there was no time for such concerns. Just in raw numbers, my only obvious advantage was the spirit status which was useless since I couldn''t use any magic. Outside of that, taking into consideration the power status, the wolf was supposed to be much stronger than me. But that was fine. As long as the difference was not overwhelmingly painful, the situation was still to my advantage. I did not want to make it a contest of raw power anyway; I had weapons. The spear range could keep the wolf at a safe distance but I did not take it out yet. As several seconds of appraising each other passed in silence, the wolf finally broke the silence and started to approach at a walking pace. It was still cautious and that hinted that he was most probably alone. *grrrowll* ¡¯Shit... It''s still scary as hell...¡¯ Taking some steps back at a slower pace than the wolf was approaching, the distance between us shortened. When the distance was lower than three meters the wolf jumped at me but that was a mistake on his part. There was a reason I did not take my weapon out earlier. That would have taken from me the element of surprise. The moment the wolf prepared to jump at me, I steadied myself and prepared to take out the spear. *Aowww* A painful howl escaped from the wolf¡¯s mouth. My spear ripped through his back giving him a nasty wound and forcing me to take several steps back. I would have preferred to stab his belly but the real wolves did not jump at you with leaps of meters in the air like in movies. There was a height difference and I was the taller one there. From there on, the rest should have been an easy victory, but the difference in power did not agree with mine. The spear was shaken out of my hands while I was forced to step back. I could not just pin it down as I did with the goblin. Even so, there was little the wolf could do with such a wound on his back. He probably would die even if escaped but that would have been a waste on my part. I had no intention to let it escape neither wanted I to play fair. Maintaining the distance, I took out another spear and stabbed with it again. *Aowww* The wolf made another pained howl and tried in his desperation to run but that was another mistake. I still had two more spears and after throwing the next one at him, the wolf¡¯s life was ended. [*Ding: You have killed level 12 Silver Wolf!] ¡±...¡± ¡¯That... was way easier than I would have thought... A beast is still a beast in the end, huh... With the right tactic and the right weapon at least...¡¯ But the situation would have been very different if there were two or more of them. I still had to be very careful in the future. I took back the spears and cleaned the blood in the river and successfully stored the wolf body in the ring as well. At least, that was the case with the dead ones. Quite creepy if you were to think about the possibility of people randomly walking on the street with dead bodies stored in rings. Creepy but very nonetheless useful for me at the moment. . . . The way back to the temple was almost as uneventful as the way to the river. I had to take a little detour as to not cross paths with a group of goblins. After leveling that much and with proper weapons I was positive that I could take one or two with ease but no more. It wasn''t good to get careless and be killed in such a stupid way. Back to the temple, I took out the leaves and improvised a decent enough bed. Much better than sleeping on the rocky floor. The wolf corpse needed to be taken out of the ring and to be drained of its blood. I was still unsure about the idea of eating wolf meat but eating unknown fruits and such was equally dangerous. Maybe even more dangerous. Meat was just... meat. After that, I started to search for branches and wood pieces in the temple¡¯s courtyard. There were quite a few dead and weathered trees scattered around. It was not hard finding dry wood in a forest. To make a fire, on the other hand, was not as simple as that. It took me an entire hour while I tried every possible method I had learned from survival in the wilderness tutorials and videos I saw in the past. I did not pray for a match so badly in my whole life. As a side note, the Holy Tree did not answer my prayers... To actually dismantle the wolf or to be more accurate, to crush with stones and rip pieces of meat from it had taken even more time. Also made me feel like a savage. At the time I successfully roasted/burned some of it and started to eat, the night was almost there so the rest of the roasted meat was stored in the ring as well as the rest of the wolf body. That had been a long day and I needed some rest so I dragged my tired body in the improvised bed to rest. The night went quite peacefully. A lot more howls and growls as the red moon appeared but overall, I had my first good rest from the moment I woke up in that cursed land. I did not forget to maintain the fire either. The howls that woken me from time to time helped me to do so at least. The fire would be useful for me to better explore the underground chamber. In the morning, I took out some meat to eat and checked if the equipment¡ª a.k.a. my spears ¡ªsustained any damage. ¡± All good for now. ¡± Descending back in the hidden room, I took my time to search and found another three missed books and more money scattered on the floor. With the previous three pieces of silver, I had a total of 23 pieces of bronze coins, 14 pieces of silver coins, and 2 pieces of gold coins. After the discovery of the first gold one, the real search had started. From the left to the right, even the bookshelves were moved for a better inspection. Seven innocent torches were sacrificed on that day without a shred of mercy. The book research was also delayed but that was not important. ¡¯This... this is gold... We are speaking about real gold here... Real fuking gold, I say!¡¯ . . . After the gold-digging expedition from the first day, the next one had ended without much fanfare. I took a quick stroll outside of the temple to collect more comfortable leaves for my bed and to gather more dry wood for the fire. Outside of that, I started to read some of the books. It seemed to me that the majority of the books treated some sort of enchanting art and skills regarding it. Some sort of profession but more magical oriented. Some of them were about alchemy and to a lesser extent about blacksmithing. For enchanting and alchemy, the higher your spirit status was, the better. That was even more so for enchanting in particular. For blacksmith wasn''t as important but there was a minimal requirement too. After that, I pushed myself to read until nightfall. It would not hurt to learn how to enchant my own weapons and equipment. That would help me with the magic part as well. It seemed that I had to learn some basic skills regarding basic mana manipulation to even start to learn enchanting. Luckily, some of the methods and explanations were written in the books. ¡± Hehe he... fireballs and cool magic stuff, wait for me! ¡± Though, before that, it was better to learn the free ancient enchanting skills. Free stuff was free stuff after all. Chapter 12: Progress. After around two weeks living at the temple, everything seemed to cool down a little. I somehow got used to all the crazy stuff going on around the place. The fact that I busied myself with reading and learning new stuff while hunting monsters and exploring the forest in the spare time helped to keep me occupied. I even started to enjoy the experience. The increase in levels was a bonus too. But the most remarkable achievement and also the thing that I was the proudest Was that I successfully learned how to use magic. The downside of it was that I still did not know any magic as of yet. All that was written in the books were related to the enchanting mostly, alchemy, some blacksmith related stuff, and a few unrelated to magic stuff. It was still useful. The basic skill [Mana Manipulation] was still there witch was the fundament for both enchanting stuff or throwing fireballs. The problem was that it did not elaborate further thus I was still incapable of throwing burning balls of fire at my enemies... And so, I had to choose between the non-combat available ones. I excluded the alchemy from the start. As appealing as the name was, the requirements for practicing it were way too many and on top of that too diverse. The alchemy required the usage of materials such as plants, minerals, recipes, and sometimes even monster parts. It was simply impossible for me. Instead of alchemy, I had chosen enchanting. It was not easier by any means, but the range of material it worked on was more suitable for my situation. The piece of equipment you wanted to enchant, a monster core, and... money. The monster core was; as one would have expected, acquired from monsters. I did not know how the monster anatomy was working but the core was the place where the monster was storing mana. Some kind of round nucleus situated usually around the heart. As for the money part, it was exactly as I started it. The enchanting profession was literally eating raw money. Copper, silver, and gold were the main ingredients. The symbols from the underground chamber turned out to be enchantments and the ones from the books were of some preservation type. Basically, it was like drawing some circuits but more complex. There was no electricity but instead, the thing was running on mana. And for that, there was a need for a material with a high-level of mana conductivity. From there, it was pretty easy to understand what these high-level mana conductivity materials were. It was quite amazing. The gold and silver had no longer just symbolic value but also practical use. That explained the lack of design on the coins. All that needed to be considered further was the quality and quantity. The bronze had the lowest quality followed by silver and at the top was gold. There were also two more materials even better than those but these were very rare and needed an absurd skill level to work with them. The first three were the basic while also worked as monetary value. ¡¯Though, there was nothing regarding the actual value... Or how much a gold coin is worth in silvers and respectively coppers...¡¯ That... was still something I had to research on my own... somehow. But going back to the enchanting stuff, one of the main benefits of the enchanting was that it enabled mana flows easier through the equipment. Since I was quite familiar with working electric parts not too long ago, the stuff was easier to catch for me. The familiarity with the concept went hand in hand with the new stuff. While I had some money to work with, the monster cores were another story. I had to personally go out and hunt them, which was not as hard after the first few times. ¡¯I can be called a full-fledged monster-hunter already! And a real one at that...¡¯ And besides the cores which were used in my experiments, I stockpiled quite a bit of monster bodies in my ring. Now that I was aware that some of the materials were useful for things like alchemy and others, there was no reason to waste possible sources of money. Also, the ring capacity was quite... big. And when I said quite big, I meant freaking huge... I did not even know how much could be stored there. After all the things were stuffed in, I had a feeling that the ring was not even near its limits... ¡¯The damn ring is quite... ridiculous... Even for a mythical one... there should be a limit... right?¡¯ As for the money part, I started to run out in the second week but my drive to push forward with the work made me extract the copper from the subterranean room walls to exercise with it. And outside the fact that it was ridiculously hard, the process took a lot of time and monster cores. But even so, I did not want to use the gold and silver coins as of yet. I used just copper ones to enchant my iron spears and the other stuff. And for questions like how did I even get iron spears to try and enchant them, the reason was simple. I became a blacksmith too! ¡¯Well... Not really...¡¯ Not a real one at least. I just got the skill while experimenting with the scraps of metal that were abandoned in the temple. It was only possible just after I learned [Mana Manipulation] skill and how to use it to work with the copper as an enchanter. And that gave me an idea. It was true that copper, silver, and gold were the highest mana conductors and after working with copper, I had to agree with that statement. It was also true that the three of them could be shaped easier with the enchanting techniques infusing mana in them, but that did not mean that other metals did not have any kind of mana conductivity. It was just way harder to shape and the effect would be close to nothing. But that was fine since I didn''t plan to use it for enchanting. I just wanted to shape it in the way I needed. With that principle in mind, I started to work on everything I got. I softened the metal with the enchanting technique and hammered it with a rock and after some time, I got the skill. ¡± That... surprised me quite a bit... ¡± I muttered to myself as I remembered how startled I was when the notification appeared out of nowhere. I somehow managed to become a blacksmith without using fire and with rocks in place of a hammer. If someone were to consider the factors, that would have made quite the achievement... *sigh* ¡± What the hell am I doing here... ¡± Shaking my head from the useless thoughts, I moved my attention to the current objective. I finally felt prepared to work with silver on the best spear I managed to craft thus far. Even though it was the first time working with silver, that did not mean I could afford to fail. The metal was probably way more expensive compared with the copper one. *sigh* ¡¯Gooood... Let''s get started!¡¯ --------------------------------------------- -A certain slave¡¯s POV- ¡± Hey! Do you hear me, Ron? Are you really sure about this? We can''t step back right now but you are sure about it, right? ¡± The human named Ron who was leading the group, seemingly irritated by the constant questions, made a gesture to stop the advancement and turned back to the one who asked. ¡± Of course I know what I''m doing and all will be good as long as you shut down your big mouth. Understood Gerrard? ¡± An audible grumble escaped from the one named Gerrard. It seemed that he could not understand as always. How had he survived so long in this world I did not understand. ¡± Listen here, Gerrard... We are in the forest. It''s still ok, we have the blue moon for the moment but the next one will be red. ¡± Ron made a pause there to let the much slower one comprehend so far the explanation. ¡± That is the problem, Ron. If we go deeper into the forest, all of us will die when the red moon will appear. ¡± I was surprised that the idiot managed to understand so much on its own. Maybe his intelligence could be compared with the one of a slightly bigger child¡¯s after all. ¡± All will be good as long as we don''t go deeper right now, Gerrard. We will stay here at the borders, waiting for the day, and then we will depart. As long as you will shut up and don''t make too much noise, everything will be fine. ¡± I was surprised at how patient the one called Ron was... And that would be a problem for me in the future. ¡± Ron, why was there a need to bring this incompetent with us? It''s obvious that he will do something to endanger us. ¡± the third and the last member of the group outside of me spoke for the first time. ¡± What was that woman? You say that I''m incompetent? Come here to see how competent I really am. ¡± the idiot roared back. *cling* ¡± Vanessa, put that dagger back. ¡± The tension in the group was rising. Maybe that was my chance. ¡¯Do something stupid.¡¯ ¡± What are you laughing at, you slut? I will chop your head off. ¡± the idiot roared at me too. ¡± Calm down, Gerrard. We still need her for the night and I don''t think she''s yours to being with. ¡± ¡± Ron, explain to this incompetent properly what we were doing here... I think he''s possible to think with his lower head judging by the way he looked at the slave till now... ¡± ¡± Now you really pissed me off. Come here and I''ll chop your head first. Who do you think I am to sleep with a lower-human? ¡± ¡± We are losing time Gerrard, Vanessa. I brought her because she''s a WolfKin and has Night Vision. She wears the collar and cannot escape... That, if she wants to live and I''m sure she wants. So shut up and let''s move. ¡± After that, we continued the advancement and camped near a river. The red moon would come out soon. ¡¯How to proceed? If I do not escape this time, the chances for the next time...¡¯ ¡± Hey, I know what you are thinking. We are near the border with Brigantia but let me tell you a thing. You can''t. ¡± the man called Ron said as he seated himself opposite to me. ¡¯What arrogance... if not for this damn collar...¡¯ ¡± You do not seem to listen, huh? Not like I care but you''ll do the job for which I brought you here... Are we clear? If we have a good time, you''ll have one as well so don''t make things harder for yourself. ¡± The man tried to stand up but seemed to want to say another thing. He pondered a little and fixed his eyes to me again. ¡± Do not even try to run or do something dangerous. For this expedition, that collar is set to explode if I do not imbue it with my mana daily. As such, you will not survive without me. Nobody will help you with it either in this country... And to make your way to Brigantia takes several days at the shortest. ¡± After that, he stood up and made his way back to the others. ¡± That is for me to decide... not for you, human. ¡± I muttered out loud my first words on that day. Observing him further, it seemed that he planned to extinguish the fire for the red moon arrival. The others complained a bit but complied in the end. ¡¯At least, he seems to be the only one with a brain in the group...¡¯ Chapter 13: Encounter… or not? ¡¯Come on, come on... Don''t let me down right now.¡¯ [*Ding: You have successfully enchanted... [*Ding: Your {Aprentice Enchanter} skill has risen to level 4!] ¡± Yes, I did it... After so much work and failed attempts... At least it was not for nothing. ¡± I had used three whole silver coins on it to make sure that the enchantment would work. It was also my first attempt with silver so it could not be helped. But I could not afford to spend more than that. Silver was still silver after all. ¡¯After all... ehh, all that''s left is just 2 bronze, 11 silvers, and 2 gold... I think. I should check again after this...¡¯ I had kept 2 bronze coins in case of something unexpected too... To at least own some from all types. ¡¯Hehehe... And the moment of truth. Let''s see how this beauty shine... Appraisal!¡¯ [Common Iron Spear] The dexterity was there. To manage it was so much harder than simply enchanting in the normal way. The three silver coins weren''t spent for nothing. After praising myself for some time, I checked my full status as well... There had been some advancement in the last two weeks. With the new spear equipped, my dexterity status would get updated to 40. There were also differences between the difficulties of enchanting different statuses. For example, the dexterity status was simply harder than the power one. If I was to enchant power and not dexterity on the spear, it would have been around 3 or 4. The piece of equipment you wanted to enchant it was important too. If I would have chosen vitality for the spear, the status would have been even lower than the dexterity one. On the other hand, if I would have enchanted a breastplate with it, the status would have been around 4 or 5. As I suspected earlier, one of the unreadable statuses of my ring was related to the spirit status. With the ring on my hand, the spirit status was up to 78. But if I were to take it down, the status would drop to 63. Even so, 63 in spirit was quite high. And much like my spirit status, which increased way easier than the others, my skill with the bow was growing way faster than the one with the spear. I suspected that the cause was closely tied with my new race. ¡± Goddamn weird world and goddamn weird grass... ¡± I could not help but mutter to myself. It was a habit I was developing the more I lived alone in that forest. As for what was wrong with the grass¡ª even wronger than everything else around there¡ª was something I wished to forget completely. It was better to say that the living plant had sticky... Very, very sticky little tentacles to catch prey. *shudder* The only good part was that the little tentacles ranged from extremely thin to quite thick and the thin ones were a very good material to be used as strings for my bow; after thoroughly washing them. The tentacles had a very good elasticity too, so I used them to create new and improvised clubs that wouldn''t break apart after the first use. I named them clubs v2. Thanks to them, I was able to hunt monsters easier. Ambushing them with arrows from the distance was way easier and safer. It got to the point that I designed an easy to climb tree around the temple as a watchtower to spot lonely preys. ¡± Haaa... Damn forest. At this point, I''m almost like a caveman... ugh... c-cavewoman... ¡± It was no use. Even after half a month worth of time, I was still awkward when thinking about that change. ¡± I should go to the river and get some water... I almost run out of it... ¡± I spoke again toward nobody else than myself as to shake my thoughts from the change and left the temple. ¡± To the river! ¡± If I were to meet a lonely monster on the way, that would be even better. Two birds with one stone as the saying was saying. Nothing really special had happened in the last two days and I started to feel a little bored. I was entertaining the thought of leaving the temple to explore the rest of the world more and more. It was not like I wanted to meet new monstrosities, but not having diversity was bad too. ¡¯It was like¡ª My thought was not even finished when I saw a wolf corpse. That was nothing special. Some monsters would fight each other all the time around these parts. It was normal to spot a corpse¡ª usually half eaten¡ª from time to time. ¡¯What the hell?¡¯ But this one was different. The wolf corpse had blade wounds on it. I was not certain about it but that was a pretty good guess. ¡± Now... that''s something that will not often happen around here... ¡± I felt like I just jinxed myself. On the other hand, that was an opportunity to meet other people. Assuming that the one who left the body there wasn''t some kind of blade monster. I was quite sure that I wouldn''t be able to get buddy-buddy with a giant-mantis-monster or something. With anxiety in my little heart, I decided that a small peek wouldn''t hurt anyone. If the situation was bad... ¡¯Well, in that case... I''ll just run, I suppose...¡¯ I took stored the wolf corpse in the ring and followed the traces. Judging by the wolf corpse that was still hot, I guessed that whoever killed it had to be close. I just had to follow the traces and see where it was going. . . . Following the traces, I got three more wolves but that was not the problem here. ¡¯I can''t believe it... To think that I would actually see something like that here is... No, no, no... stop staring and go help. ¡± The almost collapsed person that was surrounded by wolves had something that every cosplay lover dreamed about. ¡¯If those things are the real deal...¡¯ The ears... fluffy ones... And a freaking fluffy tail as well... I wasn''t sure of the color with all the red blood that was mixed with her hair, but if I had to guess; a mixture of gray with occasional black stains. A beast person. And if I save her... maybe I''ll get some information as well... And for the fluff... no, no, no... Focus, focus!¡¯ To save her was a must! ¡¯You greedy wolves. Do not touch the fluff... I mean, the girl.¡¯ And so, my retarded heroic-self with a tint of false righteousness was awakened; and as such, my brain cells temporarily got to sleep. But I was in the right there. A little wolf girl was bullied by the other wolves. ¡¯Unacceptable!¡¯ I had no choice but to be the hero and save the girl. For the fluff... No, no, not that one... the justice... that one, yeah. That was definitely not my fluff obsession. And she must have been from some kind of settlement near the forest. At the very least, to know the way back to the nearest settlement. Or even better, a city. Not to mention that my habit of speaking alone was getting worse by the day. I severely lacked human interaction. Or would it be more accurately elf-beast person interaction? The situation was getting worse by the second so I decided to take out my bow and arrows for the time being. Aiming at the one who seemed like he was readying himself to attack the girl, I let go of the arrow. ---------------------------------- -A certain runaway slave¡¯s POV- ¡¯That retard... He must have been hit in the head a loot to be that stupid.¡¯ I was barely able to escape. And I did not want to do ut in this way. I already had the collar to worry about; I did not want additional problems... ¡¯I can''t lose my time on these damn wolves.¡¯ That idiot had to bring the orcs on us... I barely escaped, but the noise attracted the stupid wolves. After a long chase through the forest, my legs started to give up, and the single route to escape was to bet on the river. ¡¯Trow myself and hope for the better. Maybe the wolves will give up.¡¯ I started to take small steps backward toward the river while facing the wolves to guard against surprise attacks. When I approached the small cliff, one of them had lost his patience and jumped at me. But that was too late. Mustering the last strength my feet could bring, I jumped back-first in the cold water. ¡¯Sorry... No food for you today, doggy...¡¯ Even at the death door, my dry humor seemed to be as bad as ever. ¡¯That is the reason I never joked around¡¯ I remembered... But even so, it was not too bad. My consciousness started to fade away and I felt my body making contact with the water surface. The last thing that I saw was the wolf was preparing to jump after me. ¡¯Goddammit... I don''t want to die here...¡¯ My consciousness went blank just as I heard the wolf¡¯s howling as in pain... Chapter 14: Acting like a hero is not easy. ¡¯No, no, no, no... Why the hell are you jumping in the water? Hmmm... Probably because I was retarded and blabbered about useless stuff while she was in danger... That was why!¡¯ And besides the departing fluff, I got extra problems on top of that because the wolf¡¯s attention was redirected to me. Not exactly to me since I was hidden, but they were alerted and wouldn''t be much until I was found. ¡¯ Shit... I don''t have time for this right now... two more. Come on... ¡± The wolves would pick my scent so I took out another arrow to shot at the second wolf. I was hoping to disable or at least wound it. The arrow flew at the closest wolf and penetrated right through his neck but that was not enough. The beast was still standing. The other one had discovered my position and sprinted at me. I was a little anxious since I was not used to engaging with more than one or two at a time. I took the spear out and directed it in the wolf''s direction. I had always taken a defensive approach and waited for the enemy to come at me, but there was no time for that. I had to kill these wolves fast and hurry after my possible new pillow... . . . That wolves were tougher than I assumed. If I wouldn''t have wounded the first two, I didn''t know what would have happened. Even with a single one of them in good shape I was barely able to emerge victorious without hurting myself. It also took way too long. The ability to end a fight quickly was not one of my fortes. I was used to waiting and taking any advantage I got. To disable the enemy from a distance and to pick just the fights that I was certain of winning. ¡¯Note for the future: You lack any kind of experience with offensive fighting... Try to train with it!¡¯ After catching my breath for a few seconds and stored the wolves, I rushed after my new pillow. I was lucky that the river currents weren''t too fast on that part of the river. In five to six minutes of running, I spotted the girl floating on her back. She most probably fainted but at least her face was above the water level. ¡¯But that doesn''t mean that she can''t drown even like that... I need to take her out before she swallows too much water.¡¯ I jumped after her and grabbed the girl with one hand to take her out. It was harder than I thought since her body was practically limp and I had to be sure that her head stayed above water. On top of that, swimming with just one hand was not easy either. My respect for the people who rescued drowning people as their job was growing with every second of struggle. I doubted that I would be able to take out a panicked person that would struggle in desperation... From the two options, I still preferred for my target to stay put and let me save her. The first thing I did after we managed to successfully arrive on the solid ground was to check if she was still breathing. ¡± Pfiuu... All good for now... No need to apply my questionable rescue techniques... ¡± I said and thanked to the Holy Tree for that. Other than some highly questionable TV-learned techniques, I feared that could not do too much... The wounds received from the wolves were not too deep. She had quite a few scratches and small cuts. I checked for broken bones or if she had wounded her head. I saw a few rocks emerging from the water and I wanted to be sure that she did not bump her head in any of them. As I finished checking, her wounds already stopped bleeding. I did know that my body had had some impressive healing abilities but compared with this girl, it was nothing. ¡¯What the hell... Her vitality must be ridiculous...Now that I think about it... she took down quite a few wolves on her way to the river... She must be quite tough.¡¯ I made a mental note to be prepared in case of something unexpected. She was not as powerless like I assumed at first. ¡¯Though... I saved her, right? That must count as something at least... I can''t back down after all of this anyway... I can''t let her here while unconscious.¡¯ Making sure that the wolf-girl was in no danger anymore I quickly refined my water reserves. After that, I took her in my arms in princess-carry mode and make my way back to the temple. I made sure to not stumble upon anything while doing so. I already had quite the experience in that part of the forest and it wasn''t that hard. After we arrived, I put her on my improvised bed and decided that was better to make a fire and prepare some meat for when she would wake up. ¡¯Strategy number 1: If a stranger offers you food out of nowhere that''s definitely not strange...¡¯ ¡± Yeah... This plan already seems like a failure... ¡± *sigh* ¡¯Do not hesitate me! If you save someone and after that you offer some food is another story...¡¯ I was hoping for it. In all the stories with rescued girls in the wilderness, the hero would cook something at the fire and wait for the rescued girl to wake up. ¡¯And looking cool in the meantime for a good impression... Yup, Let''s proceed with it. Cook the wolf and try to look cool while doing it.¡¯ After some internal struggle, I decided that even with her wet clothes it was better to not strip her. Instead, I moved her and the improvised bed closer to the fire. Nobody would feel good being undressed by a stranger while unconscious. I wanted to play as safe as it was possible. I was sure that everyone would have thought the same in my position. As I was pondering about unnecessary things like usual, I caught a little movement from her. Her finger was slightly moving. ¡± Ohh... oohhh... She''s starting to awake. ¡± And I was not prepared. And I wasn''t cooking stuff while looking cool either... That was a mess. *sigh* ¡¯Calm down, me! Go, check the girl! Yeah, yeah... check the girl... I will do exactly that.¡¯ I took my place opposite her, checking for any movement, and continued to cook the stuff as of plan B. She slowly opened her eyes, after a few moments she looked at the unfamiliar ceiling and around the place. I could see the confusion on her face. ¡± It''s alright, no need to worry. ¡± I said slowly and with clarity to not startle her. She moved her head in my direction and glared at me intensely. I could see another round of confusion. If we analyzed the situation, she just jumped into the river¡ª while being chased by wolves¡ª after which, she found herself in some abandoned ruins with an elf-girl who she did not know. Of course, she was suspicious of the strange development. Who would have not been suspicious about something like that? It was still not as suspicious as a man clad in black offering candies to the kids who followed him in his car. Not that suspicious, but suspicious enough. What was I supposed to do in that situation? She was glaring at me, obviously waiting for an explanation. So I had to provide one. ¡± You were chased by the wolves. I happen to be nearly and follow the tracks. I saw you just as you jumped in the river. After that, I killed the remaining wolves and took you here. ¡± Not that bad... It was not that bad... It wasn''t a hero level explanation but it was decent. But I wasn''t even finished with my internal praise and I saw her brows raising in surprise. ¡± What is an elf doing... being nearly in this forest? And more importantly, why did you help me? Is this some kind of joke? ¡± And the situation turned ugly without even doing anything stupid yet. It looked like she accused me of doing stuff I didn''t even know I was doing... Was I not supposed to be there? But that was not even the worst part. The worst was that it seemed like I was strange for me to help her. ¡¯Ohh my Holy Tree... What the hell were my elven brothers and sisters doing to actually be strange if I were to try and save someone?¡¯ I could literally see how my fluff chances were smashed to the ground. I almost cried there... But I had to be strong. ¡± It doesn''t matter that much what I was doing here and it is unimportant for the moment. Regarding the helping you part... What''s so strange about saving someone who is attacked by wolves? ¡± Her eyes widened in shock and surprise. It was to the point that she stopped her attempt of standing up to process my answer. It seemed that I messed something again. ¡¯Holy shit! No... no, no, no. Do not tell me that there is supposed to be some kind of war between elves and what she was... Or any kind of hate between races...¡¯ My fluff chances... Slowly fading away... I almost cried again... ¡± What is an elf doing so far from the Zylfir forests is not my business and personally, i don''t care. I should not have asked. But what is a proud and high elf doing, saving and bringing me here as if all of that was the most normal thing to do? ¡± ¡¯Ohh damn... My race personality is garbage. They had just ruined my fluff chances here...¡¯ At least, there was no war between our species. Maybe I could get through it somehow... ? Chapter 15: Deceiving the fluff. I had to stay calm, confident, and slightly more aloof to give the correct impression for the moment. And that would not have been that hard if I was not in pain. While my exterior was looking like a perfect elf image, on the interior I was almost crying. How was I supposed¡ª as a proud and elegant elf¡ª to hug that fluffy tail? After the involuntary bath in the river and after her hair was almost completely dried thanks to the fire, her damn tail was painfully fluffy. ¡¯My eyes are bleeding here... I demand that tail.¡¯ I started back at her, thinking about how to respond when an idea came to me. ¡± You''ve ever seen an elf before? ¡± She said that the elves were proud and all that, but it looked like something she heard about from others rather than her own experience. If I was right and she never saw one, my chances would have been much better. ¡± No. ¡± Good. That was a favorable response for me. To make full use of her lack of actual interaction with a living elf, I had to combine her beliefs of my race with something more convenient to me. After all, I was a living elf right in front of her. Hearing about something and actually seeing it couldn''t be compared. More so if what you could see was vaguely related to what you know. And like that, I decided to play a somehow proud elf with good intentions. ¡¯The mission for deceiving the fluff has been officially started!¡¯ ¡± Is that so? You shouldn''t say such rude words to your savior. If I can easily save you then I''ll do it. I don''t know what you heard about us or from where but do not treat my race like we were all indifferent and cold to others. It''s not completely wrong, since some of us were like that, but that depends a lot on which one you''ll meet. We are not all the same. ¡± I had stopped my impulses to throw in the speech some pompous phrases and words like peasant or you ignorant little girl as to not ruin my play and go too far even if that would have been fun. ¡± Is that so? ¡± the girl said while making a face as if even she was unsure of what to believe. And that signaled to me that the bait had been taken. It was hard to stop my grinning at the clueless little fluff but I had to do it. To deceive her like that... What a bad villain I was. ¡± Of course it is... And if you''re finished questioning my integrity, we can proceed to your situation. How about telling me your name and how did you get in that situation? ¡± She seemed rather taken aback by my aggressive question but that was the best way to proceed further. I wanted to extract some information from her while doing so, but... she was not saying anything. ¡¯Why?¡¯ I couldn''t understand. Even if it was risky, I decided to offer my name first. ¡± My name is Elizabeth. But you can simply refer to me as Lizza. ¡± I said and smiled at her. It was a dangerous move but that was needed at the moment. It would make the conversation easier and I hoped that the gesture would make the situation friendlier somehow. She seemed taken aback for a moment but felt in what I could think as deep thoughts after that. Maybe my name was a little weird as I expected... ¡± My name is Fiona. ¡± That... was surprisingly easy. I was on the right track. ¡± In that case, I''m gonna call you Fio from now on. As I said earlier, you can call me Lizza too if you want. ¡± She reacted rather well to that and I decided to proceed further with my plan. ¡± Actually, I''m not sure how to explain this but... I''m here, in this forest, from a series of coincidences. If you were from nearby, do tell me where is the closest city. Hmmm, I know a little bit of archery and spearmanship, maybe a little bit enchanting too... It would be safer to travel together if you want. ¡± ¡± You are an enchanter? ¡± she calmly asked back, but I could see some interest in her eyes. No, looking closely, it was more like desperation rather than simple curiosity. I still wanted to play it safe though. I didn''t know much of anything after all. ¡± Is something wrong for me to be an enchanter? ¡± ¡± No, it''s just that... ¡± she said and stopped her sentence in the middle ?while pointing at her collar. I had not paid much attention to the collar but now that she mentioned it, my interest was piqued and I discovered that it was some sort of enchanted collar. ¡± Oh, the collar... ¡± That was bad. She was looking at me like I was supposed to recognize the collar. Or... was I supposed to recognize the enchantment? It was an enchanted item but I was still unable to understand why was she pointed it to me? Was it broken or something? ¡± I was wondering if you can do something about it. I don''t know how much I was asleep, but it must have been less than a day because it was supposed to be activated by then. Maybe it''s too much to ask, but at least, can you take a look at it? ¡± ¡¯What was supposed to be activated? Be more specific, pillow... I mean Fillow... Ehhh... maybe Fio? Yes, that was the one!¡¯ Whatever... I could not be seen as incompetent. If the collar was something basic, then I would certainly be seen as one. ¡± Let me check it but so you know from now, I won''t promise anything. Come here. ¡±I said and hoped that I could understand what was wrong with it if I took a closer look. It was better than nothing. She slowly stood up, walked closely, and seated herself down in front of me. Her hair was in the way so she moved it on her back while making it easier for me to look at the collar. I had some chances to look at her on the way back from the river and when she was unconscious, but I was not shameless enough to stare at her that closely. But now that she stood at less than twenty centimeters in front of me, I was able to get a better picture of her. I had to give up and say that even without her fluffy accessories, she was quite the appealing girl from my point of view. And with her fluffy pair of ears combined with her gray hair was almost a devastating combination. What was impossible for me to see before she woke up was her eyes. They were yellow and I doubted that she was wearing lenses. If she showed me a smile at that moment, I was expecting to see some cute canines as well. ¡± I''m ready. You can start if you want. ¡± ¡± Ah... Sorry, I''ll start right now. ¡± Resisting the urge to find a hole and throw myself in it, I placed my hand on the collar and felt the flow of mana. The patterns were unfamiliar with what I was usually working but there was a vague resemblance. I could see some slots for mana signatures and there was also something resembling a type of receptor... The problem was that I did not know what was I supposed to look for. ¡± Can you tell me a little more about it? From where do you have this collar and for¡ª ¡± I don''t know. After I was caught, they simply put this slave collar on my neck and that''s all. Are there differences between collars or something? ¡± I was not able to finish my question when she interrupted me at the final. And I thanked the Holy Tree for that or my scheme would have been exposed. I almost asked her what was the collar supposed to do. ¡± Is something wrong? ¡± I was so shocked... My stare seemed uncomfortable for her but that was my last concern at the moment. How could I be so stupid? A freaking enchanted collar on the beast-girl neck. This was so cliche to the point that I had not even considered it a possibility... Even though it was the simplest and most logical option there could have been. On the other hand, this confirmed the fact that slavery was a thing and this collar was a tool used for it. I did not even know what was I supposed to do from that point on. A lonely elf was very likely an easy target for these slave traders as well. ¡± Hey Elizabeth, so the collar can¡¯t¡ª ¡± No. I don''t think that I can remove the collar without any risk to trigger it. The best I can do is to mess with some parts of it that will deactivate the mechanism. Practically, it can''t be taken down until I figure out the trick or we find someone who knows how to do the job properly. What do you say? ¡± ¡± It''s good like this, thanks. ¡± she said back to me with her flat face but I could see sprouting some hope in those yellow eyes of hers. ¡¯You mom did not teach you to not believe what the strangers were saying? Meh... my fluff chances have been increased exponentially so why would I care?¡¯ Chapter 16: How many times can you mess up things? ¡¯Hard. Way too hard... What''s wrong with these people? Making weird and overly complicated stuff...¡¯ But the worst was that I had no idea what to do to the damn thing to make it stop working. I from the past would have laughed at me from present as to how I wasn''t even able to break some mere enchantment while I just claimed that I was able to make them. And even worse was that I couldn''t even back down anymore. The fluff was relying on me. ¡± Hey... I know that you don''t know how this works but any information could be useful right now. Tell me all you know about the collar. Maybe the slavers did something to it sometimes... Or, I don''t know... Everything is useful right now. ¡± After that, the silence descended again while she seemed to think hard for anything useful. ¡± Ron was forced to put his mana in the collar daily or it will explode. I don''t know if that helps somehow. ¡± ¡¯Who''s Ron? And the collar would explode? That means that if the collar explodes... Holy crap... I''m in danger as well...¡¯ ¡± Think of everything else you remember while I search for a solution here... ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± Instead of searching aimlessly as I did earlier, this time I tried to search for the place where Ron had to put his mana. ¡± I think I got something... Also, you didn''t tell me how did you end in this situation. ¡± With a collar that would explode in a day, she couldn''t run too far from her masters. That meant that she could potentially be followed by them and that was really dangerous. For both of us at that. ¡± Before to escape, I destroyed the controller that was linked to my collar. They can''t follow me anymore even if they are still alive. ¡± she said while looking at me with a knowing eye. Okay... the situation was more complicated than I imagined... There was something that was linked to the collar? Maybe for that was the receptor... I liked the thing less and less as I learned about it. ¡± I will deactivate the receptor too. Doesn''t matter that you already destroyed the controller; it''s better to be safe. I don''t want surprises and I think you do not either. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she nodded at my statement and I resumed my work. The correct spot that would make the collar explode should have been linked to the receptor. I had to analyze the pattern and find where was going the mana that Ron was feeding to the collar. ¡± How had you ended in this situation in the first place, Fio? If it''s not too much to ask. ¡± ¡± The slave traders. After they kidnapped and put the collar on me, I switched some owners before to be sold in this country that allows slavery. ¡± ¡¯Yeah... The country allows slavery... I¡¯m probably fucked up already...¡¯ The country was allowing you to have slaves and I literally asked a runaway slave to bring me to a city... I could not see that ending well no matter how I looked at it. ¡± You said you are lost in this forest. Did you cross the border from Brigandia without knowing? We are quite close to the borer here. ¡± Or... maybe I was not fucked up just yet... What she just said smelled like a big and fat opportunity to me. ¡± Now that you mentioned it, I think that''s possible. Maybe I messed up things much more than I expected. ¡± ¡± Mm. You''re an elf, but not even that will stop these garbages to catch and sell you to some nobles on the black market. ¡± she said, paused for a moment and looked like she was considering a variety of factors after which continued: ¡± If you can help me with this collar, we can go together to Brigandia. We are not too far, maybe a week worth of time if we avoid the main road. That was my original plan anyway... ¡± That was it. My clueless and fluffy source of information. I already started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. ¡± Thanks, Fio. I think that''s the best solution at the moment. ¡± *ZzzZzzz* ¡± What happened? ¡± her eyes widened while looking frantically at me for an answer but I was even more scared than her. Clueless too. At least she wasn''t aware that I had not much of an idea of what I was doing to the collar. The real problem was that I was knowing that. I couldn''t lie to myself after all. ¡± Don''t worry... I know what I''m doing. ¡± I reassured her since it was better for both of us if she was calm. ¡± A-Are you sure? The collar is making a weird sound. ¡± ¡¯I can hear it as well... Thank you very much.¡¯ ¡± Stay calm and don''t talk right now... I''m focussing on the collar and you are distracting me. ¡± In other words; shut up fluff. I had enough stress to deal with even without your questions. The surplus wasn''t needed. Turning my attention back to the collar, I resumed the work. To break things at random would be stupid so I started to follow the source again and observe what just happened. After locating all of the mana circuits connected to the receptor and transmitters, I started to sever all of them. When a pattern would start to activate, I would severe it. The collar would glow sometimes but that was all. While severing all the things that tried to activate, the glowing and occasional buzzing sounds faded away completely and I could see that the collar was pretty much messed up to the better part of it. I stopped there. I did not know what else could I safely mess up without activating the collar by mistake. And judging by the way the collar was looking I thought that I did a pretty good job. ¡± That''s all, I think... I can''t risk taking it down from your neck but that''s all... It will not explode anymore. ¡± I hope that at least. ¡± Thank you. ¡± And that was all. She was looking at me and I was looking at her... I had to break the ice again and say something. ¡± I was cooking some wolf meat before you wake up so we can eat... If you are hungry, of course. ¡± I pointed my finger to the meat, or at least what was supposed to be meat. The fire already transformed my meat into some black thing. ¡± Yeah, I think that I''ll have to prepare another one... ¡± I awkwardly took another piece of meat and throw away the charred one. The fire started to fade so I added some wood as well. She looked at me the entire time without saying anything. I was feeling awkward so I suggested for her to take a spot close to the fire. ¡± So Fio, it''s better to stay here for today and make our way to Brigandia tomorrow... The night is would fall soon so it''s safer that way. ¡± She nodded at me and said nothing. ¡± You are not a talkative one, aren''t you? ¡± ¡± I''m surprised that you are actually... I heard that the elves rarely spoke with other races. And that is said for the ones that are leaving the forest and live outside of it. ¡± And so, my race fucked me once again. My fluff was probably thinking that I was a weirdo even among my peers. ¡± I did not talk to someone for quite some time so that''s why. And I talk normally with other races as well. ¡± ¡± Oh, so that was the reason... I came across a weird one then. ¡± she said while looking at me with a straight face. ¡±...¡± That was plain out rude. She was not even hiding her thoughts. ¡± Whatever... Here, take a piece. But be careful since it''s still hot... And unfortunately, this is all I have at the moment. ¡± She took the piece of meat while looking suspiciously at me. If I did something wrong again, I did not even care anymore. I took my piece from the fire, waited a few seconds to cool down, and bite on it. All the way while she stared at me the whole time. Was she thinking that I was planning to poison her with that? Waiting for me to eat first? After the whole experience from earlier? ¡± What are you looking at? ¡± I asked her since I had to know. ¡± I still don''t understand why have you done so much for me. I have nothing to repay you with. ¡± That was a reasonable question... Sincerely, I did not know what to tell her either. It would be weird if I told her that the main reason was her fluffy tail or ears... I took another bite from the meat and glanced intently at her. The meat was simple, there was not even salt on it but was better than nothing. ¡± Don''t worry about it, you will have opportunities to repay me on the journey and maybe even after that. ¡± I had spread my seeds like the good farmer I was. To make her think that she was indebted to me; which she really was. After that, all that was needed was for them to grow... And without suspecting anything, my little fluffy would be mine. ¡¯Goddamnit, I feel like a villain... I can''t believe that I want to take advantage of a poor girl¡ª ¡± Also, I didn¡¯t know that elves were eating meat. ¡± *cough* *cough* ¡¯Oh no... I screwed it again.¡¯ Chapter 17: Starting the journey. It seemed that I had a real talent to mess up everything. How could that be remediated? Did I want it to be remediated? The meat was pretty much everything I had in my diet. And even if that wasn''t the case, I wasn''t that willing to be a vegetarian just because that was how elves lived. There were no adverse effects from consuming it either, at least not so far. I probably would put with it in front of any other members of my new race, but in front of her... I already messed up her elf portrayal enough. One more thing was not a big deal. ¡± That is just a rumor. It depends on the person. Some of us eat and others not. ¡± She looked at me like she did not entirely believe my flat-out bullshit but I managed to speak with such indifference that she said nothing else. I was, after all, a living specimen of my race right in front of her. Who would argue with me about what I could eat and what I could not? ¡± If you say so... ¡± she said and gave up in the end, not really interested in the subject either. Probably her empty stomach paid an important role in that as well. When she would learn the truth, that would be too late. ¡± Mehehehe... ¡± ¡± Why are you laughing? ¡± ¡± Nothing, it''s nothing... Just a bad habit of mine, don''t worry about it. ¡± My habit of speaking you loud, or in this particular case; of laughing like a maniac had to be controlled somehow in the near future. There was another person around me and I wasn''t willing to be seen as an even bigger weirdo than the one I was already. ¡± So Fio, how should be the best way to proceed tomorrow morning? I assume that the faster we move, the safer it will be. ¡± ¡± Mm. I''m not so sure myself. Now that the problem with my collar is resolved, there''s no need to hurry. But I think that will still be better to avoid contact with any big city. ¡± That was reasonable. No need for unexpected trouble. We discussed and decided to make a stop at one of the smaller villages that were in our way to prepare for the journey instead. She had wanted to stay on guard for the night but I convinced her that we were relatively safe in the temple and we needed to be in our best condition for tomorrow. She argued a little but complied in the end. Of course, that was just my excuse to sleep on the same bed with the fluff and maybe to sneak a completely accidental hand on that fluffy tail. Unfortunately, my plan failed because she was somehow on guard even in her sleep. After the night was over and the sun started to peek from the horizon we ate some of the remaining meat and packed the rest to take with us. I couldn''t reveal my ring to her before to even know how precious an item with space enchantment truly was. To ask her about it was even stranger. An enchanter who did not know about stuff from his field of work was dubious. And I doubted that she was more knowledgeable in the matter than me. And if the ring was something super rare¡ª which I was pretty sure it was¡ª it was better to not mention it at all. We took another trip to the river to retrieve her knife and drink some water. To actually find it had taken around an hour but leaving without her weapon would be dangerous. I was also forced to carry my better spear around from that point on but that was a minor issue. ¡± Well... You are the guide, Fio. What direction we''ll take? What''s the plan? ¡± ¡± We need to follow the mountain chain north-vest. We''re going to make a small detour and exit the forest first. After that, we will take the less used roads to one of the border villages. ¡± Before leaving, I took a last glance at the ruined temple; at my first home I had in this new world. In my mind, the old and desolate building had been changed with a place of safety in the middle of the hostile forest. What for others was nothing more than a ruin, for me was something akin to salvation. A lost oasis that I was lucky enough to stumble upon. ¡± Let''s go Fio. ¡± She nodded in return and we started to walk vest to exit the forest. Now that I wasn''t alone anymore, the journey would progress much easier. I was aware that she was pretty strong herself. That made me quite curious about her but I refrained from asking her personal questions. Maybe there was common sense to not ask about level and skills... She never mentioned hers and did not ask for mine either. I did not regret throwing some of mine at the beginning. If I had not, we wouldn''t have been together at this point. I was still feeling somehow tricked but that was all. We proceed further with caution to not attract too many monsters to us. She had as good hearing and senses as I had; maybe even better. The scenario was slowly changing, with scarcer trees and smaller bushes. We encounter fewer monsters as we exited the forest. ¡± Elizabeth, if we continue this way, we¡¯ll get to the main road leading to Tagar City and also smaller roads connecting the city to the nearby villages. ¡± She probably implied that would be better to avoid the main road as much as we could. I agreed with her. It was better to keep interaction with the people from this country at a minimum. ¡± So, what do you think we should do from here, Fio? Follow one of the small roads to a village? ¡± I replyed at her after weighing the possibilities. ¡± And we are journey comrades now, please call me Lizza. ¡± She looked strangely at me again. Like how someone would look at modern art, but that was bothering me less and less. It turned from awkward to quite entertaining at some point. At least she was putting some emotions in her stares. It was always better to provoke an emotion in someone even if that emotion was a slightly negative one. To represent something for a person was better than to not exist at all. I could see that she was the could type of person. But even a negative impression could be changed into a positive one in time. The important thing was to be regarded as something in her perspective. After some time of consideration, she nodded in agreement. ¡± I suppose we are... I''m going to call you Lizza from now on. I hope that you do not mind. ¡± ¡± Not at all. ¡± I said, smiling at her. ¡± I''m quite happy that you''ll do so... ¡± That... was a huge success. I was one step closer to my fluffy goal. And with that settled, it was better to resume the less important problem. ¡± Soooo, back to the road... ¡± I said and looked at her with a demanding eye. ¡± We could walk while following the road from a distance. That would be much safer. ¡± ¡¯As expected from my fluff.¡¯ She was a smart little ball of cuteness. Except that she wasn''t a ball... and she was just a little bit shorter than me. Outside of that, we looked approximately the same; age-wise at least. ¡± Good idea. We will go with that and we will stop at a small village to make some preparations. Maybe we can buy a rucksack and other necessary things. ¡± ¡± Mm. That would be best. ¡± . . . We resumed our way north following the road from a distance. The time passed without events. At times, I could see caravans on the road. All of them were guarded by at least several people on horses, maybe even more who were sitting in the carriages. That was pretty normal if we took into consideration all the dangers in the forest. I was very curious about the identities of these people... If we were in a fantasy world¡ª filled with monsters and all the funny stuff¡ª then there was a small possibility even for that famous organization to exist... No... Thinking again, for that organization to not be a part of every fantasy world would be akin to madness. I would start one myself if that was not established already. I would make it my purpose of coming to this world. For me to lay the foundation of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. . . . The time slowly passed and we had to make a stop for the night. We shifted at regular intervals to be sure that nothing dangerous would come near us. There was not much danger after we exited the forest but you could never be too careful when you weigh it with your own life. In the morning, we resumed our trip further. Sometimes, a stray goblin or wolf would appear from the forest but all of them were taken care of by Fiona. When the sun seemed to signal the middle of the day, I could see the shape of what must have been a village. That would be my first contact with the civilization of this world. Not strangely, I was very anxious about it. Chapter 18: To be a beauty is tiring. From a distance, the village was not much. I could see a good portion of the buildings that were surrounded by a wooden wall that was around three meters tall. It was quite shabby for a village positioned in the vicinity of the forest. The houses were not giving so much of an impression either, but maybe my opinion would be different after we would property enter the vulgar and I would be able to take a better look at them. Maybe the buildings from the center of the village were more impressive. ¡± Now that I think about it, you still have that collar on you... Wouldn''t that be a problem? ¡± I turned around to Fiona and asked. I did not think that the slaves would be free to roam where they want after all. We might get into trouble if we were to freely stroll through the village like that. ¡± That wouldn''t be a problem. I''ll pretend to be your slave. ¡± ¡± Huh? ¡± I let out a weird sound. ¡±...¡± and she was looking strangely at me again. Was it normal for me to have a slave? This was not what she told me before. Wasn''t there a possibility even for me to be captured? How could I have a slave when I was a possible target myself? ¡± But I''m an elf as well... Wouldn''t be that rather suspicious? ¡± ¡± It seems that you don''t know that much about this country... You should pay more attention to these things or you''ll get in dangerous situations from negligence. ¡± she retorted back at me. But she did not elaborate further... ¡¯Give me material to work with, fluff! Ghyahh... Do you think that I''m not aware of my shabby common sense? What do you expect from a poor elf not even a month old? Goddamit, I want to scream my mind out loud soooo badly...¡¯ But I did not. I still needed her... and still wanted fluff... and despite the relative cold shoulder, I felt strangely comfortable in her presence. And so, I decided that it was better to mix or rather, to shape some of the truth in the next answer. ¡± Yeah, I don''t know too much about it to be honest. But that doesn''t change the fact that something is strange with what you proposed. ¡± That reminded me that I was lying to her pretty much. Even if the situation was in such a way that I couldn''t be honest in most of the cases, it still felt bad in a way. But the complete truth would probably create unnecessary trouble for both of us. Maybe in the future¡ª ¡¯Wait, wait, wait... Is she smirking at me?¡¯ I saw it. I definitely saw it. Her lips had curved slightly for a moment after she heard that. Was she mocking me? She was, wasn''t she? She was looking at me like you''ll look at someone who asked how to walk or something. ¡± I know that elves were not so fond about slavery but these people don''t know that. They were mostly simple villagers. And because your kind rarely leaves that forest; you don''t have that many chances to see one around. ¡± ¡± But you said that is dangerous even for me in this country. ¡± ¡± I said that is possible to be targeted by a noble or a slave trader who eventually will sell you to one of them despite the risks. We are pretty far from your forest for them to try. ¡± she said and turned her eyes back to the village pointing it to me. ¡± But for these people, it doesn''t matter what you are as long as you have money. ¡± I simply nodded my head and urged her to continue. ¡± In a remote place like this, the most you can expect to see outside of villagers are some adventurers and mercenaries since it''s pretty close to the forest. But they were stopping just to supply, just like us. No need to worry. There''s also chances to meet traveling merchants but the chances are even lower for that. ¡± ¡± I see. ¡± ¡± Compared with a big city like Tagar, there''s not much for us to fear. ¡± I wondered if there was any use in hiding my ears. In the end, I combed my hair around them somehow to hide them and pretend to be a human. But as Fiona reassured me, I started to doubt its utility. And if my hair was another elven symbol, that would be for naught, even more so if she would discover that I didn''t know. ¡± If that is all, let''s go! No need to waste any more time here. ¡± I said and started to walk a little bit more confidently. After we came closer to the village, Fiona slowed down and started to walk with two steps behind. It was at that moment that I realized a critical aspect of the plan. I was the master in our master-servant relationship. As such, I was the one that needed to speak and do all the important things. And I knew close to nothing about pretty much everything. At the very least, the village gates were opened so my mood improved a little bit. ¡± Hey, who are you? ¡± came the voice of a man who was sitting on a little chair at one of the sides of the gate. He was in his early twenties with average stature and common looking face. He was wearing what you would expect from a commoner in a fantasy world. That, if you were to ignore the big mace that was resting on the wall behind him. ¡¯Probably the guard... I wonder if¡ª ¡± Huuaaa... you can''t see that I''m trying to sleep here, boy? Shut up and let them go already... ¡± another voice came from the other side of the gate. One that seemed to be from a much older man this time. He was apparently sleeping on duty. ¡± B-But Roan, this... this is not like how we usually¡ª ¡± Oh, shut up already. What the hell is not like usually? You are disturbing my sleep all the time for all those small details and... ¡± he stopped the moment he saw us. ¡± ...what the actual fuck! ¡± came shortly, after the initial shock. His relaxed attitude was blown in an instant when his eyes landed on me. His eyes were wide like two circles and his mouth was like a bigger one. It was almost hilarious. ¡¯You don''t need to be that surprised... For fuck sake... I start to doubt this plan already.¡¯ ¡± Holy shit, Holy fucking shit... I don''t believe this. Boy, why on earth did you not warned me about this faster. ¡± ¡± B-But I was about to... and you said that¡ª ¡± No excuses here! ¡± The younger one looked really perplexed there. I actually could feel his frustration from where I stood. Despite the lack of motivation from earlier, the older one, ironically, looked more like a guard than the younger one. He had a sword at his hip and was wearing a piece of leather armor; a chest plate. ¡± But Roan, what is... that? ¡± the younger guard asked the older one. ¡± You don''t hear to shut up? You have done enough already. ¡± ¡± B-But she¡ª ¡± Yes, yes, boy. She is a beauty! I can see that as well... ¡± Oh my Holy Tree, there were so many wrong things about his statement. Let alone me, even that young guard was showing a dumb expression from what he heard. As if not even caring about the circus from moments earlier, the older one cleared his throat and spoke to us. Or to be more exactly; to me. ¡± So, what brings an elf beauty to our small and remote village. Oh, and I can see that you have a slave there. What a lovely pair of master and servant. ¡± ¡¯Ohhh... ohhh, my Holy Tree... give me the power to somehow make it out of this mess without pouring at him all the crap that''s in my mind right now.¡¯ While I was struggling to keep a straight face, he was literally winking at me. I was so stupefied that I almost grimaced at that. ¡± Humm... what''s the problem, little beauty? Do you need a strong man to help you with something? ¡± he said and literally flexed his biceps as he continued. ¡± I''m here to help you if that''s the case... ¡± ¡± Ummm, Roan... She''s not looking too nicely at you. I don''t think that¡ª ¡± Shut up, boy. I know what I''m doing. Trust me... You don''t have the chance to meet an elf so often... Just wait to tell about this to my brothers and see what expressions they''ll make. Ha ha ha ha... ¡± ¡¯Ohh... hell no!¡¯ This was going in the wrong direction. I had to put an end to it right there. ¡± We are just travelers. I hope to buy some supplies from this village if it''s possible. That is all. ¡± I said while putting an emphasis on the last sentence. He stopped laughing after hearing my response. I could feel his disappointment but that was for the better; definitely better. ¡± Fuaaa, what a shame... I thought it was my chance with the beauty... What a shame... ¡± he said while shaking his head. As he was about to turn around, he stopped and looked back at us. To be more precise; he looked at Fiona. He did not seem to have paid much attention to her before. ¡± Ahh, one more thing... You can go but you have to take that knife from the slave. She is not allowed to have one inside the village. ¡± ¡± Oh, sure. ¡± I could guess why was like that. You couldn''t let your slave in public places with a knife after all. Fiona approached me and I took her knife. The older guard nodded at me to advance with an upset expression. I felt like I just dodged a bullet there. ¡± Hey Roan, you let them go like this? Look at her ears, they are¡ª ¡± Shut up. You don''t see that I''m not in the mood for this... Don''t wake me up for all the small things again. ¡± ¡±B-But that is not... That was not... ¡± I could still hear their conversation from afar. At least we had successfully entered the village. I just hoped for what happened at the gate to be an isolated case... I did not know what to do if that was the reaction to the elven race in general. Chapter 19: The village. ¡± That was really dangerous, Fio. I can''t believe that a guard would act like that. ¡± I said while still grimacing from that interaction. It was not how I portrayed my first interaction with civilization. ¡± It''s better like this... Being distracted with small things is working is our advantage. ¡± Maybe that was a small thing for her, but for me... for me... It was like... It was better to say that a former man being praised by another man for his¡ª or to be more accurately her¡ª beauty would not be the most pleasant experience. I would have taken it easier even if he insulted me instead. At least, in that case, I would have known how to react. ¡± Let''s just forget about that for now. Let''s just... forget about it. More importantly, Fio... what should we do now? ¡± I was aware that I had relied on her quite a bit from the moment we started our journey, but that was inevitable... My common sense was different from theirs. Not to even mention culture, tradition, and even history which probably played a big role as well. To have someone accustomed to all of that and not using that to your advantage would be simply stupid. ¡± We need to go to the village center first. Usually, there are no shops and facilities in normal villages but this one is closer to the forest. They probably earn money from selling provisions and equipment to the passersby and adventurers. ¡± That was understandable. I saw some small plots of land with some crops on them on the other side of the village but that was enough to sustain their lives. Most probably they were relying on hunting and trading for sustenance. That was giving me another idea. ¡± If that''s the case, we have some good chances to buy clothes and other useful goods as well, isn''t it? ¡± Where was a hunter, there must be someone to work with the pelts and other materials provided by them. And that was the reason we could meet merchants here as well. Buying from the source and selling with a higher price was the basis for a merchant. ¡± That depends on how much money do you have. I was a slave so I have no money if you remember that. ¡± Before leaving the temple, I had cleverly dropped a silver coin on the ground for her to see it and she reacted normally. She gave it back to me like nothing was wrong with it. At least, there was no problem with the money. The real issue was that I had no idea about their value. I concluded that was better to subtly confirm it with Fiona and roughly estimate their value. ¡± I have 11 silver and 2 copper coins to spend. I don''t think that there''s a good idea to show gold coins here. I have some as well. ¡± ¡± If you have 11 silver coins is good enough. Would have been better if you had some lesser silver ones as well... but is good enough as it is. No need for trouble. ¡± My info fluff was working hard for me again. With some clever turns of discussion, I discovered that there was another type of coin called Lesser Silver Coin which valued roughly 20 Copper Coins. The coin was named like that because there was just 25% silver in the middle of the coin and 75% of some unimportant metal to make it look like the other coins. I hadn''t noticed so far that all the coins were the same in size and shape but that seemed to be the case. If we took that logically, a silver coin was worth 4 lesser ones or roughly 80 copper ones. The gold value was put on hold for now. At least, I could assume that his value was pretty high if it was enough to make us trouble there. Probably gold coins were beyond the commoner''s reach. In the meantime, we arrived at what seemed to be the center of the village. I could see people looking strangely in my direction and kids pointing their fingers at me like I was some new zoo attraction. There was a little girl who asked her mother about me, but the mother was more clueless than her daughter. It was a mind-opening experience, to say the least. Is my race that rare?¡¯ When Fiona pointed out the fact that elves rarely left their forest I hadn''t paid much attention. But I could see now that it was a mistake. Being a walking attraction would give me endless amounts of trouble. She said that our current location was fairly far from the elven forest... ¡¯How was it named again? How the hell did I forget something like the name of my supposed birth and childhood place?¡¯ I had to pay attention next time when Fiona would mention it again. Some people seemed to be cautious for me but most of them were just curious. There were not that many villagers and most of them were women and children. Some people seemed to be cautious for me but most of them were just curious. Especially the children. That was not strange. The majority of men must be out hunting or working. I could see some children playing with sticks too. To become a knight or a swordsman was a real possibility and probably a true profession in this world. Deciding to not pay attention to them anymore, I stepped closer to Fiona to consult with her about what we needed to do now from that point on. ¡± Say Fio, where should we go first? ¡± She surveyed the place for a moment and looked like she was pleased with it. It seemed that the Holy Tree was watching over me. ¡± Mm. How I expected. First, that shop. ¡± she pointed be at one building. It wasn''t much different from the rest and I would definitely not notice it on my own. For that was my fluff after all. ¡± That must be a general shop. We could buy provisions and other things useful for expeditions in the forest. ¡± she said shortly afterward and I nodded at her to continue. ¡± The one from there is a tailoring shop and if I''m not wrong... That one must be a collection center. But we don''t have anything to sell with us. ¡± The general shop and tailoring shop sounded good but the last thing attracted my attention. To sell what? I would like to know that but I somehow managed to resist the impulse to ask her. She mentioned it like that was normal for anyone to know. And that was despite knowing that I laked a bit of general information. And I had no desire to aggravate the situation. We made our way to the general shop building. Again, It was not much different from the rest. The door was opened so we simply stepped inside. The walls had some kind of supports attached to them to sustain stuff. Some tables and shelves in the middle and a counter where was seated a middle-aged woman. She had short brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was not skinny but not fat either. More like in transition between the two. The aging process was never coming alone after all. She looked at us and looked relatively surprised as she saw me. That seemed to be the norm already. I was not going to react anymore to these things. ¡± Welcome to my shop, what brings you here, if I may ask? ¡± she said after a little while. ¡± We are here to buy some stuff for our trip. We had an accident and lost some of our baggage. I''m going to buy a rucksack or two if you have any. ¡± She was still looking at my unusual appearance but the buying part made her soften a little. That was the power of money. It can even shorten the distance between different races. ¡± We have, we have... Don''t worry, sweetie. ¡± she said and put a business smile on fee face. ¡± I assume that you want a delicate one for the beautiful lady and another one for the slave, am I right? I can bring some of them for you to take a look at if you want. ¡± That was way too big of a change in her attitude. The power of money was not to be trifled with. And the contrast between me and Fiona was somehow shocking as well... She looked at her like it was natural in that way. Fiona was not counted as a person in this woman¡¯s eyes. She took her way to some of the boxes from the corner and started to take out random stuff. After some time of continuous rummaging from one box to another, she came back with four different types of rucksacks. ¡± This is all I have at the moment. If you buy more things besides these, I''ll make a discount for you. ¡± she said while continuing to smile at me. There was a smaller one with delicate workmanship and probably the most expensive of them all even if it was the smallest. The second and third were the same. With a big compartment and three more pockets. The last one was the biggest and the roughest. With a single big compartment. ¡± I''m going to buy these two. They were quite decent as well. ¡± I said and pointed to the two identical rucksacks. ¡± Oh, are you sure you don''t want this one? I think it suits you much better. ¡± the woman said and pointed at the small and delicate one. That... was not going to work on me. I would say no to the fancy and expensive one and take the cheaper and more practical one. A person like me had to put with way more clever selling strategies in the past. The woman¡¯s attempt was not even looking cute in comparison. ¡± Yes, these two would be more useful to us. Now... if you have some blankets and preserved food? ¡± She seemed a little disappointed but that wasn''t my concern. We took three blankets, food, some bottles of water, and other useful equipment. That was 5 silver and 2 lesser silver coins with her promised discount. We thanked her and left the shop. And when I said we thanked I was referring just to me. Fiona was silent for the entire period. She looked even more pissed than usual for some reason. Overall, the first shopping experience ended quite well. We looked around a little and we prepared to make our way to the next destination. Maybe the whole thing would end much better than I initially feared. FDSIO Hmmm, a little delay from the schedule with this chapter but also a little longer than the usual ones... Sooo yeah, I hope you''ll enjoy it anyway. I was busy these days but I managed somehow to make it. Chapter 20: Trouble at every step. The next stop was at the tailoring shop. I was regrettable that I couldn''t sell any monster parts or anything else without revealing my ring but that was it. With a new rucksack, it wasn''t impossible to go to that collecting center thing and just pretend to take out stuff from it. But I had to do it alone or expose my ring to Fiona. I could not simply let her outside either. Judging by the way these people treated her, that was not a viable option. ¡¯What if some douchebag would have the brilliant idea to make trouble for her? My fluff must be protected.¡¯ The people around us stared at me like usual while I was just ignoring all of it, but when some of them got some friends too to stare at me... Well, I started to grow anxious again. I was not used to that level of attention. The sensation was somehow unpleasant... ¡± Fio, I know that these people never saw an elf but isn''t this a bit too much? They are staring at me like I''m some kind of curiosity. ¡± ¡± What is so strange about it? I hadn''t seen Brigandia yet, but there''s not like this too? Even if they accept other races, that matters little for you. An elf will be a rare sight anywhere you go. ¡± That could not be real. I refused to pry further in the subject since everyone was still gazing at us and we quickened our way to the tailoring shop. . . . I had prepared myself for it but the sight was still disappointing. Plain and simple. And that description was for the clothes that I recognized as clothes. Some of them looked like pieces of material sewed together with a hole for the head and two for the hands. There was a high possibility for that to be the case actually. There was something resembling a poncho too. If there was a sombrero as well, it could have been a complete set. I could see that all the clothes were designed to be easy to make. Nothing extravagant or made with aesthetic in mind. There wasn''t needed some genius to make a hole into a blanket and sell it as an improvised poncho after all. I randomly moved my eyes to all the products in the store and decided on simple pants and shirts. I said simple but for these villagers, that was the highest quality. I saw some kind of hood as well but that was in the back so I decided to ask the vigilant shop owner who was sleeping like a log on the counter about them. ¡± Hello! ¡± ¡±...¡± *cough* *cough* My attempt at coughing and making some noise was useless as well. If someone wanted, I didn''t doubt that they could just take what they needed and leave the shop. ¡± Hi, do you hear me? ¡± ¡±...¡± The guy was still sleeping. If he wasn''t probably a poor villager I would have gladly grabbed his stuff and left the shop. But I did not. I was not as noble and righteous as a hero but I had my limits as well. On the other hand, I would gladly rob any fat pig-like noble who enjoyed enslaving fluffy beastkins like Fiona or any bad person like that. ¡± Helooooo! ¡± ¡±...¡± The guy was seriously asking for a thief. I let out a sigh and shake his shoulder lightly. *snore* *snore* ¡±...¡± I was speechless. Something like that was not possible. Was he drugged or anything? Was he making fun of us? I could not tell. ¡± Hey, wake up already! ¡± I said and slammed my hand into the counter and a loud *bang* reverberated in the entire building. My hand started to ache but at least the guy seemed to be waking up. ¡± Uaaaa, what.... who... Lena don''t go! ¡± he abruptly stood up while muttering something random. At that moment I didn''t even want to know who Lena was but judging by the guy; she was definitely in danger in his dream. I practically saved a person right there. ¡± Huh? What are you doing here? ¡± he said, finally noticing us aster a long period of confusion. I could see some saliva at the corner of his mouth... Not a pretty image for sure. But most importantly, he was asking me what was I doing in a shop... His shop. I had to say that I saw my share of stupid people in life, but this guy could be still classified in the upper echelon despite knowing him for several minutes. ¡± I want to buy things. We are in a shop, remember? ¡± ¡± Quite the sharp tongue you have there, you lass... ¡± And he paused as his eyes focused on me more intently. ¡±Holy fuck, those ears... ¡± I could not tell that I didn''t expect that, but at least he was awakened. Or at least he was giving the impression that he was... I hoped he was... He still had the retarded face on though... ¡± What the hell... Am I still dreaming? ¡± he said and rubbed his eyes... ¡± No, you are not... ¡± I replied. He looked back at me again... No, he was staring at me with wide-open eyes. Yeah, the normal reaction. I had to wake him up again... What a pain. ¡± Heloooo, are you still there? We came here to buy clothes. ¡± ¡± Yeah, I mean... Yes, clothes, clothes... Sure. ¡± And nothing... The guy was no good. If we weren''t here in this world I could bet my money that he had smoked something... Actually, that seemed one of the most plausible explanations at that point. Nobody could be that stupid. Maybe he had been doing it without knowing? ¡± Have you chewed some questionable weeds recently? Or maybe smoked them? ¡± The silence descended again in the shop. This time, even Fiona was looking at me with perplexed eyes. Like I was the strange one right now. ¡± Letting that aside, we want to buy some clothes. One set of clothes for both of us and maybe two of these hoods from the back? ¡± I said and pointed at the hoods. I seriously wanted to just finish and just leave the shop. He awkwardly made his way back and packed what we wanted. I hoped to take two sets for both of us but I couldn''t afford it. I was left with just 1 lesser silver coin and 17 copper coins after I paid him for the clothes. I could not accept clothes with three holes for the design though; even if we would have been able to buy more sets from them in exchange. The clothes were chosen at our appreciation; there was no probing or something like that. I just hoped that we fit them... *crack* As we were packing the clothes in our new rucksacks, the floor cracked when other customers came inside and I moved my head to take a look at the intruders. There were two men and a woman. All of them were wearing tattered clothes and had bruises and some wounds all over the body. ¡± To hell with all this. Ron, I''m gonna go back there, search and find that slut and kill her. ¡± one of the two men grunted to the other one, being visible in a bad mood. The woman from the group and the one called Ron seemed in a bad disposition as well so I decided that it was better to avoid them. ¡± Calm down, Gerrard. She''s already dead. If she wasn''t killed by the wolves, then she¡¯s dead from the collar. ¡± responded the one called Ron, without minding too much his companion words. ¡± I''m gonna kill her again. We almost died there from her fault. ¡± ¡± You dumb-ass, that was almost entirely your fault. She just took the opportunity to run away. ¡± the woman interjected in conversation. ¡¯Oh no! No, no, no, no, no...¡¯ That discussion was giving me goosebumps for some reason. I took a peek at Fiona and she was extremely pale. Her face almost lost all color and I wasn''t so stupid to be oblivious of the reason. ¡± Fio, behind that table. ¡± I said and pulled her behind the table and take out one of the hoods from the rucksack. Who could have imagined that it would prove useful so fast? I positioned myself and the rucksack in from of her to further obstruct their view and helped Fiona to take her hood. The shop owner looked at us suspiciously but I wasn''t in the mood to care about it. He was a retard anyway. The real problem was that the shocked expression on Fiona¡¯s face started to turn into one of hate. I could see her teeth clenching and making a crushing sound. If she did something stupid there, we both would have been doomed. I had to do something about it. I grabbed her hand and put some pressure on it to awake her from that state of rage. ¡± We want to buy some new clothes. ¡± the woman said to the shop owner, not caring much about anything else. The situation was growing too dangerous so I tried to drag Fiona closer to the exit, slowly as to not make us look suspicious. Ron spared a glance at me but he focused back on the owner without much care so we continued our steps to the exit. ¡± Uooo, what kind of beastkin is that? I never saw one like that... ¡± said the one called Gerrard. ¡± I can''t believe that you are stupid to this degree. That''s an elf, you moron. ¡± the woman corrected his statement looking at him with disgust. ¡± What''s the difference? Does that mean she''s even rarer? We got some luck after all this shit at least. ¡± his eyes were glowing with greed looking at me and started to make his way in my direction. Since after we left the temple I had to carry my spear with me everywhere and as such, it was always prepared. As he approached us, I unceremoniously pointed it in his direction with a glare. He wasn''t minding my glare at all and put his hand on his sword handle to take it out whit a big grin on his face. Fiona was starting to grow restless as well so the situation was looking even worse. ¡± Gerrard, don''t do something stupid again. We don''t have time to capture a stray beastkin, let alone an elf. She can''t be sold so easily even on the black market after all. Unless you want to arrange a trade with a noble house who will take the risk by yourself. ¡± said Ron without even turning back at us. It seemed that he was accustomed to his companion''s behavior. He grunted at us and turned back toward the woman''s side who looked like she was going to mock him further about it. I did not want to waste any more time in that place so I grabbed Fiona¡¯s hand to leave the place immediately. I could not believe how close that was to a disaster. I did not care why I could not be sold with ease or why it was dangerous to have an elven slave, but for the first time, I was grateful for something that my race had done in this world. At least I had some kind of protection. If I remembered correctly, even Fiona had said something similar before... It would be better to get some serious information about my race in the future. This time we got lucky, but we could not rely on such flimsy things when our lives were at stake. Chapter 21: Misdirection. We hurried out of the shop while increasing our pace even further. I could tell that the woman and the impulsive one hadn''t realized who was behind the hood but I couldn''t say for sure if that was true for the last one. Even if he was aware of it, he wouldn''t make a move right there in the shop. I guessed that he wasn''t the type to make a ruckus, which was good and bad at the same time. The smartest choice would be to track us and ambush when we were alone or when we would leave the village. It wasn''t necessary to create a commotion here. Maybe I was just paranoid but there was nothing to lose if we proceed with caution in a dangerous situation. We got what we needed from the village so it was better to leave. ¡± Fio, maybe it will bring you bad memories but... you must tell me about these people. You must know about them at least a little bit. How strong they are? ¡± ¡± I should be able to handle one of them but if I have to fight with two... I''m not so sure about it. ¡± She stopped and looked at me from head to toe for several moments after which, she looked straight into my eyes. ¡± The rest depends on how strong you are. Maybe we can lay a trap or wait for an ambush. ¡± Yeah, that wasn''t the answer I hoped for. If she was indeed levels above them she wouldn''t be in their possession in the first place. Not to mention that there wasn''t a need to fight with them, at least not for now. That was just in case they figured out and decided to follow us. I had no idea if I had a month in this world and if we considered the existence of levels and skills, to fight someone who spent years of life in this world would be stupid. Fiona was quite strong. I already saw that in the short time we traveled together and if she could not take more than one of them, then there was a very high chance for me to not even be able to handle even one alone. In the end, we decided to leave the village as fast as we could. The village had just one entrance so we were forced to go with it. At the moment we reached the gate, I saw the younger guard and an idea came to me. ¡± Excuse me, do you know in which direction is the biggest town close to this village? We came here from far away so I''m not so accustomed to the place yet. ¡± I asked the young guard with a smile. If you wanted to track someone, you had to follow their steps. Asking the gate guard in which direction your target was moving could be described as basic protocol. If that was the case, then feeding them false information wouldn''t be so bad. ¡± Oh, you are already leaving? ¡± ¡± Yes, we just stopped here to resupply. ¡± He was pondering about something for a second but ultimately answered my question. Apparently, there was a bigger city conected to all the smaller villages three days south-west from the village. I expressed our gratitude and we moved south-west conform to the instructions we just received. ¡± We agreed to cross the borders to Brigandia, don''t we? Why change the destination so sudden? ¡± she asked me before I was able to clarify it first. ¡± That''s because we won''t change the destination. We just need to make it look like we did. After we are far enough from the guard line of sight, we''ll change our way to follow the original direction. ¡± ¡± Mm, so that''s why... ¡± she nodded at me while giving me another quick glance from top to bottom. I just smiled at her and motioned for us to hurry. It wasn''t like I didn''t like the silent praise in her eyes¡ª which made me question if I wasn''t turning into an arrogant elf for real ¡ªbut that wasn''t the moment for it. I just hoped that my worries were unnecessary. It was way better for my preparations to be for nothing. ---------------------------------------- -Ron¡¯s POV- Ronald could not believe his own eyes even though the reality was laying in front of him. There was definitely something wrong with the situation so he had to proceed with caution. He learned that lesson in the hard and painful way after all. ¡¯Fortunately, my stupid companions didn''t found it.¡¯ The beastkin managed to hide fast enough for them to not notice but he still caught it. Even so, there was a problem. She was still alive but somehow, she acquired a troublesome helper. The man pretended to ask the shop owner something fitting the context and took a peek at the troublesome intruder without making any eye contact with Fiona. It was essential for them to assume that he hadn''t taken notice yet. The elf was young... or so seemed to him. You couldn''t accurately guess how old an elf truly was just by appearance. At least, not someone who was in their company regularly. Ronald heard that they weren''t even considered adults before fifty years or so. But even he was able to tell that she was yet to that standard. He guessed that she was in her twenties or early thirties at most. However, the problem was exactly in that fact. Because she was so young, there was a high chance that she wasn''t alone. If she had other companions, the situation would be even worse. They started to slowly step toward the door. That was within his expectations but something he hadn''t expected was bound to happen. ¡± Uooo, what kind of beastkin is that? I never saw one like that... ¡± As easy to manipulate as Gerrard was¡ª which was the reason Ron was keeping him around ¡ªhe was causing a lot of trouble lately. The situation was moving in a dangerous direction so Ronald had to step in and remediate it before it was too late. He had to seriously consider finding another easy to manipulate companion; one with less enthusiasm. They followed shortly after the slave and the elven girl had left and traced them to the village gate. That proved for Ronald that there was a high chance for them to be alone or at least that they were not willing to confront them. ¡¯She will find soon that running away from me was not the smartest move.¡¯ The faster he followed after them, the better. He stopped wasting precious time and asked the guard boy for some information. ¡± Do you know in which direction has left that elf girl? ¡± ¡± Huh, why do you ask? ¡± the young guard responded somehow taken by surprise. ¡± I have something to speak with her but unfortunately she had left before to have a chance. ¡± ¡± Oh, is... is that so? In that case, you need to hurry to catch up to them. She just came here to resupply and had left north. I... I didn''t pay much attention to it though. ¡± ¡¯North... That means they were heading toward the border with Brigandia.¡¯ That was the logical conclusion but something seemed off about this guard. He definitely was hiding something at how nervous he looked and Ronald decided to play a little with him to find what it was. He took his sword and pointed it at his neck faster than the boy could react. ¡± It''s not good to lie. Your friend out there seems to have a nice nap right now so it''ll be a waste to bother him, don''t you think? If you try to scream or something... I''m gonna cut your neck. How about you tell me why were you lying to us? ¡± *gulp* ¡± I... I can''t reveal to some suspicious men in which direction had gone two defenseless girls. ¡± he said with a trembling voice trying to take a peek at his sleeping companion. His face was started to get pale and Ronald could see his feet trembling. Just another little push and he would spit all out. ¡± Hehehe, we have a little knight right here, Ron. How about teaching him about how things truly works. ¡± Gerrard stepped in the conversation with a big and threatening grin on his face. Ronald had to admit that his thug behavior was useful sometimes. He couldn''t miss such a good opportunity. ¡± I know that you had good intentions... But you also need to take into consideration your own safety, right? If I accidentally press my sword a little harder we don''t know what might happen. I don''t think that two girls who you don''t even know we''re worth the risk, right? ¡± ¡± I, I don''t... I mean... They don''t... ¡± the young guard gibberish was not helping out. That started to become annoying for them so he pressed a little harder and a red liquid started to slowly descend on his blade. The guard stopped spouting nonsense but his body started to shake even harder. If he screamed or something, the situation would get quite complicated. Not to mention that the whole charade took already too much time. Ronald needed to press him harder and finish it quickly. ¡± Listen here boy, you spit what you know and we leave as nothing had happened. How about it? Or we cut your head and simply follow after them. We can''t waste too much time with you. ¡± ¡± She... She asked about the closest town and seemed to be in a hurry for some reason. I... I don''t know why. I told her about Tar City two days south-west from here. That... That''s all I know, please don''t kill me. ¡± ¡± Tar city, huh? ¡± ¡¯That is certainly a possibility.¡¯ He saw that the slave still had that collar around her neck so maybe she needed to take it off in a limited amount of time... He had no idea how she managed to deal with the collar but that would be valuable information as well. The slave traders would pay for such information. Looking back at the young guard, the boy started to cry as well so he doubted that he was lying to him a second time. He took back his sword and the boy fell on his ass with a thud. ¡± Let''s go. We need to catch a running dog and a little thief before they get to the city. ¡± Ronald said and they all hurried south-west. Chapter 22: Unchangeable past, unknown future and… a campfire? The sun started to fall into the horizon and the blue moon to rise. We got into the village at midday but after we bumped into that particular group we could not afford to stop until nightfall. From what I had observed so far, one day in this world was definitely longer compared to my former world. It was a shame that there wasn''t something like a watch to measure it. I wonder if the seasons were a thing here. I got lucky to not came here in the middle of winter or something... *rumbling* My wandering mind was disturbed by a sound that came from below. If I remembered correctly we hadn''t had the opportunity to eat anything with all the agitation in the village. ¡± Are you hungry, Fio? We got some distance from the village so I think we can make a pause to eat something. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she gave me one of her usual short answers and started to gather some dry branches for the campfire. Even if we could make it just fine while the blue moon was up it was better to take a pause, eat and get some sleep. We needed to be ready for the red moon. We couldn''t sleep in the most dangerous period of the night after all. We changed our ragged clothes with the ones we got from the village since we hadn''t been able to do it earlier with all the mess we almost got in. It wasn''t bad, at least the clothes weren''t uncomfortable and wouldn''t obstruct your movement either. Fiona already started lighting the fire by the time I finished changing my clothes. She was much faster than me since I somehow avoided peeking at her but mostly because I tried to hide myself for some reason. We were both girls but it was still awkward. My mind wasn''t accustomed to it yet. Yes, I had gone through a lot with this body¡ª from washing it to other biological needs and problems I wasn''t willing to speak of¡ª but it felt wrong to me to cross that line. I was not that degenerated... yet. It took quite a bit for Fiona to make that fire without a lighter or something similar to it. As she was struggling with that, I was wondering if there were primitive versions for these day to day necessities. Maybe the primitive term wasn''t entirely fitting. Even though this world was clearly culturally and technologically inferior to my previous one, this one had magic and that counted quite a bit. While I had acquired [Fire Manipulation] which allowed me to do just that, manipulate already existing fire. There were superior versions or other skills that allowed you to create it and the necessity for a lighter was greatly diminished. If I had to guess, maybe there really was something invented¡ª some magical lighter ¡ªbut I wasn''t sure that something like that was available for commoners. On the other side of the coin, there was the possibility that the magic factor allowed for things that were impossible in my previous world. Maybe flying vehicles... no, flying carriages. Maybe flying carriages existed there. Or even the teleportation thing... *sigh* I let out a sigh and shake my head from the useless thoughts. That wasn''t the time to contemplate about life and stuff. I grabbed the rucksack and took some empty bottles. We just passed by a small stream of water not so long ago. I could as well do something useful until Fiona was done with the fire. . . . While I was gone to fill the bottles with fresh water, Fiona finished with the fire. We took out from the rucksack some preserved food and a blanket to sit on it. I sit down next to her and grabbed a piece of something resembling bread. It was hard. There was not puffiness to it at all. There was no yeast probably so it was understandable. ¡± Say Fio, it may be a little inappropriate to ask like this, but I just realized that I don''t know too much about my trip companion. Soooo... I''m a little curious. ¡± She stopped eating and turned her head to look at me. Her eyes seemed to demand a further explanation of what I wanted to know. Maybe she was in a good mood? In that case, I couldn''t miss it. I decided to go for it. ¡± Emmm, you just told me that you got caught by the slave traders and nothing more... like from where you are or what you were doing before that... ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she simply nodded while turning her stare from me to the burning fire and took another bite of bread. ¡± Not much to be told... I wasn''t someone special in any way, just a normal girl you can find anywhere in my tribe. ¡± she said somehow with a sad voice. ¡± Oh. ¡± I nodded in acknowledgment and prompted her to continue. Most people would stop there but I wasn''t most people. We almost got in serious trouble due to her past and I wasn''t willing to help further for no reason. At least, I wanted to know for who was I risking my life. Maybe she wasn''t aware of it but even with that small sentence, she had already attracted my full attention. She said tribe. In other words, that implied that there were different types of beastkin people. I already expected to be like that but a confirmation to my theory was always welcomed. That also implied a different form of society. ¡± My tribe was located in the north-west of the beastkin territory. We lived mainly from hunting and fishing because the sea was close to us. We also weren''t that far from the Mermaid¡¯s Archipelago and because that was the most accessible route that conected the north and the south of the continent besides the mountain range¡ª which is pretty much untraversable ¡ªyou can guess how they captured me. ¡± her face darkened at the final but she quickly changed it back to normal. ¡¯Yeah...¡¯ I could already see from the way the people from that village treated her that the relationship between humans and beastkin people wasn''t that bright. Even the remote village shared the same mentally so I could assume that it was the same for the entire country. I had also seen that she wasn''t that fond of them, which was somehow understandable. If you lived a relatively peaceful life with your tribe and some vile human slave trader kidnapped you to sell you as a slave in a faraway country... Yeah, I could see from where was coming all that resentment toward humans. At least that Brigandia country where we planned to go seemed to not allow slavery and was not discriminating toward other races. I sincerely hoped to be like that. After all, I was supposed to come from that place and crossed the border from a mistake. ¡± I don''t know what to say to you but I hope we can make it safe to Brigandia and maybe you could find a way to return home afterward. Or maybe you could start a new life from there... ¡± I was never good at reassuring people in these kinds of situations. Even if I planned to keep her with me, she had a proper family somewhere there which most probably loved and was grieving after her loss. Whatever the result would be at least I managed to make a friend in this strange world and that was a step further. Even if she decided to go back, I would acknowledge her decision. ¡± That won''t be easy. I need to cross this country again if I want to return. The next one is even worse than this and after that, I need a boat to make it further. ¡± she said with a dejected face. That was sad. But if she could not return, that was it. Even if it wasn''t the noblest thing to feel reassured by the situation, that seemed to be the case. I still wanted her to stay with me. It seemed that I was not that good of a person. ¡± Fio, you can accompany me even after we will arrive there. To be frank, I was mostly running from place to place and I arrived in Brigandia not long ago so we are almost in the same situation. It would be nice to stay with someone I know and trust after we arrive there... ¡± I said while combining some truth with some lies in order to align the situation with what I lied before. I felt a little sad for lying to her so often but that was the best way for now. ¡± Mm. Thank you. ¡± she slowly nodded her head while she continued to look at the fire. She said nothing more after that. I thought that I had to cheer her up somehow but after several moments of silence, she seemed to suddenly brighten up for some reason. I could have vowed that I saw a little smile on her face for a moment. I rubbed my eyes. Maybe I really needed a bit of rest after all. FDSIO I somehow messed up the release schedule due to my chaotic program and also because I tried to make more than I was capable of doing. However, to be sure that a situation similar to this will not appear again I decided to announce a schedule of two releases per week. That means one chapter every 3,5 days and if I had enough time that week an additional surprise chapter. This is all I want to say for now and I hope you enjoyed my story so far. Chapter 23: I’ll never lie my fluff ever again. The night went uneventful... As uneventful as it could be for a place full of monsters and wild animals on a rampage festival. Maybe I should have been bothered by the fact that I was starting to get accustomed to such a thing? At least, we stocked some wolf meat provisions thanks to it. I had read somewhere that seeing the positive part of the situation helped in difficult situations... I just had to focus on that. Regarding the poor wolves, it was a waste but we couldn''t take all of them unless I revealed my ring. We took the core and the rest of the materials and enough meat for a day or two because it would be meaningless if we could get fresh meat at the next red moon. Having someone to watch your back at times like these was really something else. To sleep without the fear that some monster could come from nowhere and take a bite out of you... I couldn''t go back to being alone anymore after I tasted this bliss. As the first rays of sunlight pierced through the forest foliage, Fiona started to pack our things and I took some dirt to cover what was left from the campfire. You never could be too sure about what might follow you in this place. Outside of the wild animal types of monsters, the forest housed relatively intelligent ones as well; like the goblins. I wouldn''t be too surprised if they could follow these traces. And I was fairly sure that the goblin wasn''t the top predator you might bump into in this world. There was no telling what kind of terrifying creatures lived out there, smart enough to get these clues and follow us. ¡± Are you ready Fio? We need to move... ¡± I shook my head to disperse the bad thoughts and moved my attention back to Fiona but I stopped mid-sentence noticing something unbelievable. ¡¯Oh My Godly Tree, she¡¯s shaking her fluffy tail.¡¯ I could see how she was slowly moving it from right to left and then again from left to right. The tail seemed like a fluffy little whip. I wasn''t a fan of that kind of thing but I wouldn''t mind being whipped with that fluffy one. ¡± Mm!? Is something wrong? ¡± she turned her head and asked with a curious look on her face. Of course, there was. I wanted to... I wanted to touch that... that... fluffy tail soooo damn hard! ¡± No, it''s nothing. We should prepare for departure. ¡± But of course I couldn''t say that... Not unless I wanted to look like a creep in her eyes or something. No matter what, I had a reputation to maintain. And so, with tears in my eyes, I moved my gaze from the still shaking tail and grabbed one of the rucksacks. My small heart wasn''t designed for such torture. ¡¯Tail...¡¯ *sniff* *sniff* ¡¯Fluffy tail...¡¯ Oblivious of my internal suffering and with heart-wrenching swings of her tail, she took her rucksack as well and we resumed our trip north. . . . As time went by, I could see her peeking at me from time to time. Mostly when she thought I wasn''t paying attention. ¡¯Too bad, Fluff. I''m always paying attention. Always...¡¯ There was no way I wouldn''t pay attention to my wolfy companion... She had fluffy ears on top of her head and a freaking tail... Worse even, the tail was still swinging... At that point, I was positively sure that there was definitely something wrong with it. I had to find out what the problem was before she would feel like twitching her ears as well. Together with her tail... No... I wouldn''t be able to stand my ground against something of that magnitude. My heart wouldn''t be able to take a blow like that. ¡± Say Fio, you seem to be in a good mood. Did something good happen? ¡± I couldn''t resist any longer and asked her what was going on there. She definitely was hiding something from me. ¡± Huh, ah... No, I was just thinking about something. ¡± she answered in a hurry like a child that was desperately trying to hide something. ¡±...¡± ¡¯Ooookay... That was definitely abnormal...¡¯ And on top of that, her ears were slowly tilting down like pressed by guilt. I wanted to caress them so badly to the point that my mouth was almost drooling at the thought. ¡¯I... must... resist... Bad me, baaaad. Get a grip of yourself, me! Good... good... take in... push it out... again... and again. Calm yourself.¡¯ ¡± Lizza!? ¡± ¡± Hmmm!? Oh, sorry... I spaced up a bit... Anyway, if there is something you want to tell me, just say it. No need to be afraid. I will properly listen to everything you had to say. ¡± I said while corrected my expression from daydreaming to solemnity. I hoped that I hadn''t messed my image too bad already. I was a serious elf... Yeah, a serious and dignified elf. Believe me, fluff! On the other hand¡ª and contrary to my earlier concern¡ª she couldn''t care less about my supposed image at the moment. Looking at how anxious she seemed to be, I barely recognized her as the fluff I was used to... Even though I knew her for just several days, such changes in behavior were impossible to miss. ¡± I told you about my situation last night... ¡± In the end, she seemed like she made her resolve and spoke to me while watching me right in the eyes. ¡± Yeah... You told me. ¡± I just nodded absentmindedly. That... was fast... ¡± I was thinking about your circumstances too. And... what you told me, but... ¡± she stopped and averaged her gaze from me again. At that moment I could have bet on my pee-pee that something was wrong there. That... If I still had one at least... Anyway, the important thing was to find out what was going on. ¡± Yes, but if you don''t speak it out loud, I wouldn''t be able to get it. ¡± I urged her to continue, softening my voice a little to give her some courage. ¡± I thought from the moment we met that there must be something about you... ¡± ¡¯Ooooooo shit...¡¯ Panic started to envelop me like a tide and a metaphorical drop of sweat dripped from my forehead. ¡± A young elf traveling alone so far from her home. Maybe this has something to do with your... er... with your parent''s origins? ¡± she said the last part peeking at my face to see a reaction. And I had a reaction. I was almost frozen like a statue. I was not expecting that. I wasn''t even aware if I had parents in this world, let alone their origins. I was fairly sure that my kind wasn''t born from thin air like I ironically was. ¡± What... What do you mean by that? ¡± I asked her with a much weaker voice than I originally intended. She raised her head while biting her lower lip as if not sure how to word the next phrase. I wasn''t any better either though... I could even see her cute canines. If we wouldn''t have been in that situation, my soul would have been already melted from that image alone. ¡± I was just wondering if that was the cause of you not staying in the Zylfir forest. Maybe it... umm, had to do with that? ¡± she said after what must have been an eternity. But contrary to earlier, her eyes seemed to sparkle a little in anticipation. She probably wasn''t aware of how accurate she was... In a weird kind of twisted logic at least... You couldn''t stay in the Zylfir forest if you hadn''t been born there. She was very much right about that. On the other hand, that represented a good opportunity for me. In that way, I had no reason to pretend that I know things about that Zylfir place when I didn''t even know where it was located. ¡± Yeah, to be honest, I wasn''t born in that forest... But I don''t like to speak too much about this subject. ¡± Thinking about it, that was one of the rare moments I hadn''t actually lied to her about me. I had nothing to do with that place and that was true. Though she may have misunderstood something along the lines so theoretically it was an indirect lie. But that was fine... probably... It gave me some room to breathe and less to worry about. ¡± Mm. I... I understand. ¡± she said with an understanding expression on her face. She even messed her words a little bit there but I let that as it was... ¡± Exactly how I thought... ¡± Her tail was swinging even wilder than before and her ears were lively again. I could see a rare and beautiful smile on her face as well. She seemed to be back in shape again... even more so than the usual... I even thought that I heard her muttered something like ¡¯maybe she''s in that situation as well... ¡¯ but I couldn''t be sure. Despite my good hearing, she barely whispered that to herself. I had no idea what she had understood from our conversation¡ª since I was still as confused as I was at the beginning, maybe even more¡ª but taking into consideration how her mood switched after it... Yeah, if I were to be found with this particular lie, the situation would be very troublesome. Even though it wasn''t technically a lie. ¡¯Aaaahhh... My head hurts again... Good job, Fluff... Change of subject... Change of subject...¡¯ ¡± We shouldn''t waste too much time in a place like this, we are not safe yet. ¡± I said starting to walk again to dodge other troublesome questions. She nodded with an enthusiasm I never saw in her thus far and followed after me. She wasn''t upset at all when I vaguely responded to her questions about me or when I completely dodged the next questions. She was simply nodding her head and waging her tail like she was understanding my reason for not talking about it more and more. I could feel cold sweat forming on my back every time I answered a particularly troublesome question. ¡¯I swear that I will not lie to her again... So, please help this small elf Holy Tree...¡¯ Of course, there was no divine intervention for me... The day passed so slowly I thought I was going to die from accelerated aging. Luckily, I was a long-living race... The only good thing was that Fiona was more cheerful than ever so it wasn''t that bad. I rushed through the meal and quickly skipped our campfire time with a pathetic excuse that we needed to properly rest or something on that line. She wasn''t that happy about it but accepted with a disappointed face. I could see that she was eager to ask other troublesome questions so it was better like this. I was also against the idea of speaking with her in her sleep-time. Her strange burst of enthusiasm was going way too far so I had to put an end to it. Not sleeping was bad. I had often done it in my past life so I was aware of what I was speaking about. You would be like a living zombie the next day so I personally forced her in that blanket to make her sleep. After that, we made our way through the red moon without much trouble. I even gained another level in [Fire Manipulation] that night playing with the campfire to distract my thoughts. In the morning, we quickly packed our stuff and I stealthy put some of the burning embers in my ring to have an easier time next time we needed a fire. The sun started to show itself so it was time to resume our trip. ¡± Let''s go, Fio. ¡± ¡± Mm. Let''s go, Lizza. ¡± The cold sweet instantly returned after I heard her cheerful response. She had gone so far as to even use the short version of my name... In a cheerful kind of way... *sigh* I let out a long sigh and we started to head north again. It seemed that there would be a long way before her enthusiasm would fade even a little bit. FDSIO Hehe... Hehehe... I realized that I didn''t make a single poll from the first chapter up until now. There was no way to let things like that, sooooo... I decided to make one for fun. Enjoy! Chapter 24: Hidden danger. As we continued our trip, Fiona had no intention of stopping from pestering me with a ton of questions. In a strange way, I started to get accustomed to it after a while and the fact that our relationship improved even more due to it wasn''t a bad thing. I still regretted a little bit the fact that I lied to her about some stuff... A really lot of stuff, but I could do nothing about that. What was done, was done, and I had to move on with it. The environment started to show signs of changing as we moved forward. Not by much at first but as we advanced more and more, the trees stood more scarcely from one another, the terrain got a tad bit rockier, and judging by how the temperature dropped a bit every night, it was safe to assume that we got some altitude too. It wasn''t like there was a need to climb the really big mountain but we had to stay closer to its periphery so we could slip the border easier. At least Fiona wasn''t fixated on how I crossed that border by mistake. I definitely wasn''t going to remind her of it either. ¡¯Border!? What border??? There was no border... Hahaha...¡¯ The day went off like that and we started the night preparations. She threw some questionable glances at how fast I finished the campfire but she didn''t ask anything about it. As a side note, I definitely had to research about that ring of mine when I had the opportunity. To freeze things in time wasn''t a small feat. Even I, the less than a month-old elf knew that. Looking at it again for a little longer, the appraisal description popped in the corner of my field of view. [Odder¡¯s Black Ring] Even with [Appraisal] at level 5, the question marks didn''t change one bit. Maybe the ring was damaged as I assumed first? Or my Appraisal wasn''t high enough... *sigh* The sighs of frustration became a common occurrence these days and that was signaling me that I needed a break. Not for my body which wasn''t that exhausted even after that much walk but my mind was different. My mind had been constantly flooded with problems which slowly but steadily accumulated a lot of stress. While looking at the ring in contemplation, another thought came to me which made me raise my eyebrows. I never tried that appraisal on other people. I didn''t even know if that would work but I was so focused on what we had to do in that village that I ignored it completely. I could see my status and that was true for other living beings even though all of them were monsters. There were chances to work on other people as well. I looked at Fiona who for some reason was staring at a big boulder in the distance and muttered the magical word in my head to see if my theory was accurate. ---------------------------- Well, I should have expected it. I hoped for it to be lower level than me, but that wasn''t the case. Two statuses in three digits as well and because I didn''t know anything about it, not even the race was revealed. If you know that a wolf was a wolf, sometimes the skill was kind enough to tell you what kind of wolf that was. But with no information at all... that was the result. Three-digit statuses for Vitality and Power. That thing was comparable with Fiona at least in raw strength. There were skills on our side and we had a thing called brain, which these monsters weren''t that eager to use. As such, I didn''t think Fiona would lose to one or two of them, but more than that wouldn''t be possible even for her. ¡± Lizza, we really need to go... Right now! ¡± she said waking me up from my thoughts. Even more of these things started to make their way out of the main cave. I didn''t even reply to her and started to head back from this place in the quickest and quietest manner I was capable of. But we didn''t even make it half the way back and we started to hear roars from our abandoned camp. ¡¯Great, the situation just worsened to a whole new level.¡¯ Chapter 25: Sometimes, the hunter becomes the prey. I didn''t even want to think about what would have happened if Fiona wasn''t with me. Probably I wouldn''t be here in the first place but that wasn''t the point. Her sharp senses saved us this time. That was good. Maybe I would praise her after we get out of here. But that wasn''t what bothered me at the moment. The real issue was that these unknown monsters wouldn''t roar like that without a reason. They were monsters but that wouldn''t explain this behavior. That meant that something else was attracted by our campfire and met with these ugly guys, starting a fight. We would have been so dead if we didn''t get away from there... ¡± Fuck with all of this. Come here, you piece of shit! ¡± another loud roar reverberated through the place, this time one that we could understand. Fiona frowned instantly. And it wasn''t that hard to guess why... The voice was a familiar voice even to me, and I heard it just once. ¡± Fio, we were followed. ¡± I... kind of felt stupid for pointing out the obvious but... Looking at her, she didn''t said anything but I knew that she was feeling guilty about it. ¡± This isn''t your fault, Fio. I chose to take you with me and that''s all. If they came after us... that means that we have to take care of it somehow. ¡± The problem was... how to do that? ¡± How? ¡± She looked back at me. ¡± If they followed us this far just to catch us, I don''t think that we can escape so easily. ¡± She had a point, and a really good one at that. Was Fiona that valuable for them to go to this extent to get her back? The answer was most likely no. If she was that valuable, they wouldn''t put an explosive device tied to her neck. ¡¯Then, were they after me?¡¯ I couldn''t think of another reason... Unless there was no reason at all. Not a logical one, at least. I saw my fair share of pettiness from people you wouldn''t expect. ¡± Let''s go and take a look. Maybe the monsters will do the job for us. ¡± I said after a bit of weighing our options. She simply nodded her head¡ª albeit with a somehow awkward expression on her face¡ª and we moved slowly towards our abandoned camp. Fortunately for us, we made our camp in a small opening, so we couldn''t get by surprise and all that. If they were still in the same place, we could observe them from a distance without much risk. At the moment we arrived close enough to see what was going on, we could also hear a lot of swearing and cursing between the monster''s roars. They seemed quite pissed off... It wasn''t that hard to spot them since there were torches thrown on the ground around them. My vision wasn''t as good as Fiona¡¯s but I could see in the dark quite good just as well. The three of them were in the middle surrounded by the monsters. There were six monsters growlings at them and searching for an opportunity to attack. They were quite smart¡ª as expected of humanoids. They weren''t blindly throwing themselves at their prey. Even so, I could also see two monster bodies lying on the ground not too far. Using [Appraisal] on our followers was for naught. They were too high level for me to pry anything we didn''t know already and question marks for the anything else. But there were two monsters with a lower level than me. ... Also, from the foul-mouthed man called Gerrard, I learned that these monsters were called trolls. Not that it had any importance anymore. ¡± What to do, Lizza? ¡± Fiona asked me in a quiet voice. Looking at her, I could almost see the anger in her eyes as she was glaring at them. It wasn''t too hard to guess what she wanted to do and frankly, I was a bit tempted by that as well. For some reason, I could almost hear in my head bells ringing and signaling that this was our only opportunity. My breath got rougher and I could hear my heart beating faster and faster. I could feel my body heating up as well. It was the same sensation I felt when I killed my first goblin. But something was different this time. This time, it wasn''t just me killing a monster. But backing off wasn''t an option anymore. It was now or never. ¡± Fiona, I don''t think they will stop chasing us even if we get away this time. ¡± I said with my serious voice without taking my eyes off the battle. ¡± Mm. I think so too. ¡± she nodded at me. ¡± I''m going to show you something... ¡± I said and paused for her to look at me. ¡± but I don''t like talking too much about it and I would like for you to keep it a secret in the future as well. ¡± ¡± I understand. ¡± She was... surprisingly cooperative at times like these. I extended my left hand and a bow appeared on top of my hand. I had some spare ones from the time I had to figure out how to improve my current one. She widened her eyes for a moment but recovered quickly after that. Maybe this useful ability wasn''t that rare? Or that wasn''t the moment for questions? Most likely the second one. ¡± But I don''t have any skills with the bow. ¡± she said and took the bow with a bit of hesitation. ¡± You don''t need to have. All you have to do is to shot from a different direction to make it harder to predict from where I shoot. If you actually hit, that would be even better but you don''t need to worry about it. ¡± ¡± Oh, ok... ¡± she said taking some arrows I prepared for her. ¡± Come back to me after you shot all the arrows. Don''t do something stupid like going there to fight head-on. ¡± I warned her. She didn''t seem the impulsive type but you never know what could happen in situations like those. I also barely knew her for several days so anything was possible. She considered what I said for a bit but nodded her head to me in the end. I could not believe that she had to consider the options... ¡¯Maybe my warning wasn''t for nothing...¡¯ After she left, my vision focused again on the trio and I took out my bow and some arrows from the ring. There was quite a bit of distance between me and them but I didn''t want to risk and approach even further. I had to work with what I had. I put the arrow on the bowstring and focused on which one to aim. Two men with swords and a woman with a bow. There wasn''t even a doubt about who I should aim for. I patiently waited for the woman to put an arrow on her bowstring and to shoot at one of the trolls. I had just a single shot before they notice our presence so I didn''t need to mess with this one. The best opportunity to shot her was when she had her guard at the lowest and that was when she was concentrated on her target. That was the moment I was waiting for. I now understand what they meant with the saying ¡¯seconds were like whole hours¡¯ and I perfectly agreed with it. It was absolutely nerve-wracking. Even though just a few seconds passed, my hands were already sweaty. When she finally decided to shot at a troll who approached them dangerously close was the moment I let go of my arrow as well. There wasn''t any special effect to it or some dramatic slow-motion thing like in the movies. The arrow just went straight at her and pierced through her neck. There wasn''t even a dramatic struggle or something. She simply fell off to the ground and twitched a little. There was a small attempt at grabbing the arrow but soon she stopped any movement at all. ¡± Vanessa... ¡± the one called Ron shouted at her. ¡± Hey Ron, what happened to her? ¡± ¡± Someone shot her with an arrow, that happened. Stay on guard. ¡± ¡± Fucking hell, exactly at this moment... ¡± I could hear their panicked voices but I didn''t have the time to process what they just said because another thing stole my attention. [*Ding: You have killed level 36 Human (Vanessa)!] [*Ding: You have reached level 24!] She died. I just killed a human. But outside of the huge relief I felt since I didn''t miss, there wasn''t anything else... When I killed that first goblin, I just pushed the issue on him being just a monster but this proved me wrong. There was nothing, no crushing guilt or anything like that. If I were to describe the current situation, ironically, I was relieved that my arrow didn''t miss the target. Even a little scared at how easy was for me to take a life. I even gained experience for it, the single difference between killing a monster and killing a human was that there was a name attached to that damned announcement screen. Maybe this was what they call the heat of the moment but I could fell that this world changed me in ways that I wouldn''t have imaged before. ¡¯If I were to make it out alive of here, I should... I should...¡¯ I didn''t even know what I should do, and to be honest, that wasn''t the time to dwell on philosophical stuff either. In a sense, it was better than I wasn''t affected by her death at that moment. Chapter 26: Maybe I look like a villain but I’m the victim here, right? ¡± Damn you coward, show yourself. ¡± Gerrard started to yell like a madman. As if I was that stupid... Who in his right mind would do something like that? Or should I assume that he would do? ¡¯Yeaaaah... He''s not that smart after all...¡¯ Meanwhile, another arrow was released from where Fiona was. Unfortunately, the arrow missed his foot and landed some centimeters away from it. ¡± What the hell... Ron, there''s more of them. ¡± he said backing off to look at the place from where the arrow had been fired. Good job, Fiona. Even though you missed, he got distracted by it. I had to make use of this opportunity so I put another arrow on the bowstring and fired it. ¡± Gerrard, another one. ¡± ¡± Haaa? Where... Fuuuck! That hurt you cowardly piece of shit. ¡± he said trying to break my arrow that was stuck in his left shoulder. I aimed for his head but I couldn''t complain with just [Apprentice Bow Technique] at level 3. I suspected that it would have been even less likely to hit without my racial [Superior Bow Technique]. While I prepared my next arrow, Fiona shot another one which missed and ironically happened to hit one of the trolls. The monster waved his hand with a roar and broke the arrow in two, not caring too much for the half that was still embedded in his body. He didn''t seem to be too affected by it in the first place. Their skin must have been really tough and the arrow couldn''t penetrate deep enough to damage anything important. The fact that the troll did not even removed the whole arrow and the tip was still stuck there, prevented the shedding of too much blood and made them bleed less. In a sense, it was the right thing to do. Unlike Gerrard who simply took it out. A perfect fit for the saying ¡¯what you don''t know, won''t affect you¡¯. But an injury was still an injury. Even though that Vanessa had to aim for their belies, neck and other vulnerable places, she still damaged them quite badly while the other two were protecting her. To bad for them that I arrived just in time to break their formation. Even so, as we shot some more arrows, Ron succeeded to finish the one that Vanessa hit with her last arrow. I shot at him next but he managed to avoid it in the last moment jumping to the side. Maybe I could hit him in two or three attempts but I doubt that I could manage a fatal or serious injury. He was quite skilled. ¡± Gerrard, we need to break through these monsters and move from here now. ¡± he shouted loudly for the first time. Probably he finally acknowledged the situation to be critical. ¡± Fucking hell. I''m not gonna run from these fuckers. Do you hear me? Bastards, I''m gonna kill you all. ¡± Gerrard yelled even louder with a maniacal expression on his face. While the situation wasn''t too bright for them, our helpers weren''t in a better shape either. From all five remaining trolls, I could barely see two of them carrying a large piece of wood as a weapon. I couldn''t let two of them escape from there that easily, so I had to do something about it. When I was about to shot another arrow an idea suddenly pooped in my mind. If they were mad at how I cornered them there and shot from a distance, I was curious about how they would react at my new idea. I put the bow back in my ring and took one of my rock clubs which I barely used anymore. The time for them to be shine again was there. Taking a step back and preparing myself, I throw the club at them with all my might. A small laugh escaped my mouth as I saw their confused expressions when they spotted an unidentified object flying past them and hitting one of the trolls. I quickly took the other two clubs I had and tossed them as well before heading toward where Fiona was. My position was already exposed so I had no choice but to move. As I approached her, she stopped firing arrows at them and looked at me with a doubtful eye. ¡± Lizza, why did you¡ª ¡± You... You fucking motherfuckers. ¡± She couldn''t finish her question because another round of swearing echoed through the forest. I switched my attention back to our enemies and saw that two of my clubs were picked up by the trolls. One by a troll that didn''t have any weapon and the other by one that already had a bat. I was about to make a joke about him being a dual-wielder but that wasn''t the time or the place for it. ¡± Lizza, this... ¡± Fiona said with a shocked expression. ¡± We need to make use of everything we can. Sometimes, the most bizarre and unusual strategies work because your opponent wouldn''t expect something like that. It''s a proved fact in history... ¡± I cracked a smile but stopped my last sentence since it wasn''t that good to mention historical events that didn''t happen in this world¡¯s history. ¡± Yes, but that... No, you are right. Even though your methods look really strange sometimes, at least they work. ¡± she said with a resolute expression. My awkward smile cracked even further at her words which were spoken with so much conviction. I know that my behavior may be a little different from the norm but it was still troubling to hear it in that way. *Cough* *Cough* ¡± Anyway, we need to move, Fio. Come after me. We don''t have that much time. ¡± I said while coughing a little to get rid of the awkwardness. After that, me moved from one place to another, circling them and firing arrows in the meantime to distract them and give an advantage to the trolls. When we arrived at the place opposite to where the troll cave was I stopped and handed some more arrows to Fiona. ¡± Fio, take some distance and shot from there. Don''t let them head in this direction. ¡± If they wanted to retreat and we couldn''t stop them, at least we could guide in which direction they had to retreat. That was the advantage of advantage of knowing the terrain. I wondered what kind of expression would they have as they popped right in front of the troll cave. Fiona nodded her head somehow troubled by the situation and took some distance to fire her arrows as we had done the last time. Now that I thought about it, wasn''t I looking like a real villain? Shooting people who were already attacked by monsters from a distance, giving weapons to monsters because they weren''t dangerous enough and on top of that, trying to make them retreat toward their nest. No matter how I looked at it, I was looking like a genuine villain despite being the victim. I shook my head and focus again on the fight. I put another arrow on my bowstring and shot it at Ron when he jumped back to evade a club strike. Judging at how my club broke at the moment it hit the ground, the trolls raw power wasn''t something to be trifled with. But that distraction was enough for me to land a good arrow on his right leg. ¡± Aaahhhh, fuck... ¡± he screams in frustration and brandished his sword to cut down the arrow in half. ¡± He he, that looks pretty good. ¡± I couldn''t help but laugh a little. If something unexpected wouldn''t pop up from nowhere¡ª *Roaaar* Even though my habit of speaking alone was mostly gone due to my interaction with Fiona, it had to come out again at this moment and set a damn flag. ¡± Fuck... Ron, there are more trolls coming. ¡± ¡± I heard that as well, Gerrard. ¡± Another furious roar was heard from the other side of the clearing and two other trolls appeared from the foliage. One of them even stopped to pick up the last club I throw before resuming his advance. That wasn''t that good. The more we stayed here, the greater the danger became. If we were to be discovered by the trolls as well, our situation may be reversed. We had to finish with the last two of them and run the hell out of there immediately. FDSIO Hello guys, the battle should be resolved in the next chapter so I hope you guys can handle this cliff again... hehe.. hehehe... *cough* *cough* Anyway, I wanted to ask what do you think about another monster side story like the one with the goblin. This time my target is one of the trolls... A fun chapter as the end of this semi-sort-of-somehow-arc (I don''t even know how to name it) and the next one... I think I have a good idea about how to make it entertaining and fun to read. The goblin one was well received and is in top at ¡¯Favorite¡¯ from all my chapters so far, but I would like so see your opinions as well. (If I''ll do it and most probably I''ll do, the Side Story chapter will be released after the next one to not break the flow...) Chapter 27: You must have been so lonely… FDSIO Muhahaah... Longest chapter thus far... Also, the one with which I end this first arc ( if I may call it like this... ). Oh, there will be the monster POV as well before we move forward with the story... Pfiu... Ok, ok... without other intrusions, enjoy the chapter. *Roar* The battle quickly escalated to a mess with the arrival of the newcomers. The already wrecked duo was lucky that some trolls were attracted by the dead body of their companion. They seemed to drag her back to the cave... I didn''t even wanted to know what would happen with her afterwards. At least, they didn''t start the business right there... I seriously didn''t wanted to see something like that... *shiver* ¡± Calm down Elizabeth. They were monsters and that''s the fate of everything that gets in their hands. ¡± I muttered to myself to try and calm down at least a little bit. I saw a lot of death from the day I came to this world. I killed monsters and wild animals myself, and right now I killed a person. But that... For a human being to end like that, I couldn''t help but shiver again. I didn''t think that I would grow accustomed to something like that and I didn''t wanted to do so either. Also, I inexplicably grew quite fond of my new name lately... Maybe that was because Fiona was calling me like that and I started to become accustomed to it? *sigh* I let out a long sigh and took in a breath of fresh air to clean the mind. Fiona was relying on me to shot them down so I had to rise to her expectations. I was the only one who could do it after all. Aiming at the one who was swearing non-stop, I let go another arrow who hit him in the back. It seemed that this one caused some serious damage because he let go of his sword and yelled in pain. Maybe it hit a weak point in his leather armor because that one was the first arrow to penetrate right through the middle of it. ¡± Gerrard, get up. ¡± shouted Ron, trying to get closer to his partner. ¡± Fuck... Ron, this is... Oh, no, no, no, no... gyaahhhh. ¡± Before Ron could get closer to him, one of the trolls jumped at Gerrard and landed a claw on his side. The nearby trolls didn''t miss the opportunity and jumped at him as well to finish the work. ¡± Ron... Roooon... Kughh... R... ¡± he tried to scream for help but Ron took the opportunity to break through their encirclement when they were drawn by his fallen comrade and fled. Even though the chances to save him were practically zero at that point, letting him die without batting an eye wasn''t the prettiest thing to see. Not that I expected too much from the likes of them in the first place... The real issue was that he obviously decided to flee in our direction since he saw from where those two new trolls emerged. To make things worse, he was followed by two of them as well. *tsk* Taking him down before he came too close to us was ideal, but even with an injured leg and followed by two trolls he was still able to defend against my arrows. But even so, as he came closer, my aim became more accurate. If not for the fact that he wore a chest plate which protected him form takin a fatal injury, he would have been already dead. He even managed to take down a troll by stabbing it in the throat when he was about to be bitten by it. I was prepared to shot another arrow when he opened his mouth to spout something unexpected. ¡± I know that''s you, elf girl. ¡± I froze for a second but that was it. He didn''t need to be a genius to figure out at least that much... If he knew or not who I was had no longer any meaning at that point so I let go of the arrow. *clink* ¡± Hooaaa... What a violent girl. That was so close... But that means the other archer is my slave. ¡± he said, changing his direction to where Fiona was. ¡¯No, no, no, no...¡¯ I wasn''t sure if Fiona could bring him down before he would get to her... And I didn''t want for the fight to become something like close combat either. Not with all the monsters swarming around us. I frantically shot some more arrows but without success. He already managed escaped from the clearing. Fiona didn''t manage to land a fatal hit on him either. ¡¯God dammit!¡¯ I rushed to catch to them before the situation escalated even further. I was running and thinking about how to proceed if we were to fight with him in close combat. I couldn''t help it. He was a goddamn human monster fighting other monsters while taking multiple arrows and still managing to make it through all of that. On the other hand, I was was a goddamn elf which was supposed to be the supernatural being there but I felt more human than he was at that point. Where the hell was my superiority? For what the hell was my race proud? For being more human than the actual humans? Where was my magic, my freaking magic, my fire... ball? ¡± Huh? ¡± That was it. Screw with my useless race. If I couldn''t use real magic yet, all I needed to do was to improvise it somehow. I took out my spear to make a little improvisation to it before catching to them. When I came close enough, the second troll which followed after Ron was already dead and I could see Fiona standing face to face with him. She had a furious expression on her face like she wanted to brutally tear his every limb apart. The bow I gave her was thrown near a tree and she was wielding her sword instead. They slowly circling each other with small steps preparing for the incoming battle. Ron seemed to want to start already but didn''t afford to be careless with his current injuries. Maybe he wanted to finish before I could catch up to them. ¡± I don''t know how you managed to stop the collar from exploding... but your luck ends here. ¡± he said while taking out from his pocket a small object. I could see Fiona¡¯s expression changing when she saw that thing. Her eyes narrowed and her canines peeked out as she was clenching her teeth. ¡± Take it easy, you beast. Do you think I didn''t have a reserve? One wrong step and I''m gonna blow you up. ¡± he laughed as he was waving the small device in from of her eyes. ¡±...¡± ¡± Now be a good slave like you should be and maybe I will forgive you just this time. When that elf came here, you will help me out. It''s important to catch her alive to make up for all the loses you caused... Alright? ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± Say something, you useless beast. ¡± Ron yelled at her. Since she wasn''t responding to him, he seemed to lose his patience. This wasn''t going in a good direction. I had to do something so I took my bow and shot an arrow at him since his attention was focused on Fiona. I hoped to stuck his head with the arrow and end the whole thing there but he reacted faster than I expected and the arrow stuck his shoulder instead. ¡± Fucking hell. ¡± he yelled in anger and moved his sword to block Fiona¡¯s strike. *clang* She didn''t hesitate to take advantage of my arrow and managed to make him lose the little object which most likely was connected to the collar. They exchanged another two or three strikes before I could even take out another arrow. ¡± Why, why, why you stupid whore... ¡± When I was waiting for them to take some distance as to not accidentally hit Fiona he seemed to lose his mind and started to direct his rage at me. ¡± I don''t understand at all why an elf would go so far to help a freaking beast. An impure beast nonetheless. ¡± he spoke yet another round of nonsense but for some reason, Fiona stopped her advance when she heard that. ¡± What''s with that face, you whore? Don''t tell me that she didn''t know? No, no, no... It''s obvious that you didn''t tell her. Or she wouldn''t help you from the very beginning. ¡± he started to scream and laugh even harder while Fiona was almost frozen in pace. ¡± My chance. ¡± he said and swing his sword. ¡± Fio, take care... ¡± I tried to snap her from that trance but that was a little too late. She barely managed to block it and was thrown down from the impact. *clink* I shot another arrow to make him take some distance from her and give her some time to get up. ¡± Hey, hey, hey... Didn''t you get it already? She was lying to you. Come out and I''ll prove it to you. ¡± he said enraged from some reason. I wasn''t able to comprehend what was going on with Fiona either. We were pressed by time here while those trolls could come at any moment. I didn''t understand at all what lies was he speaking about but she seemed to be horrified by it. Even though we could bring him down very easy with the current formation, it seemed to no longer be an option due to the sudden turn of events. Fiona started to tremble very hard for some reason. I had no choice but to switch to my second plan. Even though I came up with it moments earlier, I wasn''t so sure about it anymore. I put my bow back in my ring and took out the improvised spear. I said improvised, but all I had done to it was to wrap the tip of the spear with my previous clothes and add some embers in between. I was so lucky that I stored some more from the previous campfire. I put my hand closer to it and started to use my [Fire Manipulation]. It was true that my skill wasn''t enough to make actual fire to appear out of nowhere, but at least I was able to manipulate the existing one to some extent. It didn''t take long for the choth to burst out in flames and for it to extend almost a whole meter in the air. ¡± Ughh... ¡± I had to act before the fuel would be consumed. Even I was surprised at how effective it was so I started to step in their direction trying to prevent the cloth from burning to fast. ¡± Holy shit, a magic warrior. And an elf on top of that... ¡± Ron said with disbelief clearly showing in his eyes. Even so, he was still peeking at Fiona from time to time. He was somehow really bothered by my flaming spear. ¡±...¡± I was not a magic warrior or whatever he said, but I wasn''t going to point that out to him. Also, it sounded like someone you didn''t want to mess with. Even the burning sensation I felt became a bit more manageable as he said these words. With newfound confidence, I adopted the most serious face I could and pointed the spear towards him. ¡± Wait, wait, wait just a moment... I don''t understand. How did a slave like her managed to get help from someone like you? ¡± he said while pointing his finger at her with disgust. ¡± Actually, it doesn''t matter... I think I know what she did. She lied to you. What did she tell you? That she was captured from the south, right? ¡± he said and seemed to wait for my confirmation. I just nodded since that was actually the truth. I had to find out what was going on and what was the reason for this turn of events. Looking back at Fiona, her whole body seemed to tense as she saw me nodding my head. The moment our eyes met, she quickly looked down without uttering a single word. ¡± As expected. Then let me tell you why she lied to you. She probably don''t even know what''s like to live in the south or how to get there. ¡± he said with an accusatory tone while pointing the tip of his short at Fiona. ¡± Her mother was the one captured and enslaved. After that, she was sold at a brothel as a whore. That slut gave birth to this impure wretch and even had the guts to keep her. She''s an abomination birthed from two races. ¡± he said and spit a big mouth of saliva and blood on the ground as if to clean it from what he just said. ¡± Just look at her face. If not for the fact that she''s impure, do you think that the brothel was so stupid to sell someone with that face and body to us? I''m surprised that they didn''t kill her at birth. Something about her mother threatening with her life... Whatever, her mother became an obedient slut so she could raise this impure trash and they let her be. After she died, they sold her to us. ¡± ¡±...¡± I still couldn''t comprehend what he was blabbering about. Was I supposed to be disgusted or shocked by that? Well, I was. But definitely not because she was born the way she was... I wasn''t even upset that she lied to me. Whit that kind of origin, it was perfectly normal and understandable if she wasn''t comfortable revealing it. *sigh* I let out a sigh and glanced back at Fiona. At this point she was shaking uncontrollably and tears started to flow on her cheeks. She was born from a beastkin and most likely a human. While searching through the books from the temple, I happened to stumble upon a paragraph detailing how it was impossible to create a hybrid of two principal races. But there was an exception. It was a pitifully low chance to happen, but sometimes, a child was born from such a union. The problem was that the child would always inherit just his mother''s genes. No matter the combination, the child would be born with his mother''s race as if his father didn''t even contribute to it at all. I... didn''t know what to say anymore. If she was a real hybrid of two races, I could have understood what he wanted to say. But it was clear that she wasn''t. And despite all of that, they were still discriminated and called impure. *clang* As I was stuck in my thoughts, Fiona let go of her sword and dropped on her knees. Looking at her, her face was already a mess of tears. She wasn''t even able to say something in her defense. ¡± Ha? Have you finally accepted your fate? You have nowhere to go, and nobody will accept something like you. Your brain must be damaged to approach an elf from all races... It''s almost pitiful. ¡± Ron mocked her, taking my silence as a sigh of approval. While he might have been right that if she happened to approach any other elf, that could have been the case, she luckily stumbled upon me. And I wasn''t giving a damn about all that stuff. It took me a while, but I wasn''t so dense to not be able to connect the dots even at this point. She was so scared and full of anxiety when she asked about my parents back then. About how maybe I couldn''t live in that forest for some particular reason related to my parents... How happy she was when my answers were somehow matching her theories... I had to be retarded to not understand at this point what she was implying. Ironically, she wasn''t completely wrong. It was true that I wasn''t born from two different species but it was also true that maybe I was the only true half-race that existed in this world. While they all were born just with their mother¡¯s genes, they weren''t hybrids. I, on the other hand, was a genuine human in an elf body. In a sense, I was more of a hybrid than she was. ¡± Let me clean your miserable existence from this world. ¡± seemingly tired of waiting, Ron declared and started to move toward her preparing his sword. An inexplicable feeling of rage burst out from my already pained heart. He was so convinced that she had no value in my eyes anymore, to the point of turning his unprotected back to me? Had he forgotten how he followed and tried to kill or enslave the both of us? About how two of his companions were killed just moments earlier? Was his hate so intense to the point of blinding him? He didn''t even manage to make another step before my spear pierced through the back of his neck, making its way through the other side. I long lost control of the fire which expanded at the very limit of my ability and engulfed his whole body in a shower of flames. His body dropped on the ground without any kind of resistance. A strong smell of burnt flesh penetrated my nostrils and made me to snap back from my berserk state. [*Ding: You have killed level 57 Human (Ronald)!] [*Ding: You have reached level 25!] [*Ding: You have reached level 26!] [*Ding: {Fire Manipulation} reached level 5!] A quick death wasn''t what this wrecked human... No, he was no human. I could not associate something like that with what I once was. Let me resume. A quick death wasn''t what this wrecked monster in human shape deserved. ¡± Damn it. ¡± The troll which I assumed dead started to move a little so I took the spear from the lifeless body and stabbed the troll through his wide-open mouth in frustration as well. *hiccup* *sob* ¡± W-W-Why? ¡± asked Fiona in a trembling voice. She seemed very shocked and confused by the sudden turn of events. *sob* ¡± I-I''m... I am impu... ¡± ¡± Shut up! ¡± I yelled at her. *hiccup* ¡± I''m s-sorry...¡± ¡± You are not impure. ¡± I said as she finally raised her head from the ground to look at me. Her beautiful yellow eyes were stained with tears and her lips were trembling. I could not imagine what kind of life she lived to bring her down in such a state but that was in the past. I stepped closer to her and bent down to embrace her. She tried to resist somehow but all the physical strength her kind was so proud of was nowhere to be seen. She was shivering and muttering implausible things as I embrace her even harder. ¡± It must have been hard on you... But it''s all fine now. ¡± I comforted her. ¡± I-I...¡± ¡± Shhhh... Even though we were surrounded by those monsters and we need to get the hell out of here, at least for a moment, you can let it go and cry for a bit... Because, you are no longer alone. ¡± ¡± Wwaaaaa! ¡± and she did. Chapter 28: A call from The Great One. (Side story) For a hunter, all roads lead to The Great One. And the duty of our kind was to step further until the journey was completed. For a hunter, there was no bigger honor. I was no exception. While I was considered young, the burning desire for domination was already there. Like most of our kind, I was born with it. From the day my eyes shot open, I had known it. Still, there was no such thing as a free meal, neither any honor in it. If The Great One bestowed upon any of us blessings such as great power to dominate the rest, we had the duty to put in the effort and became an example to be followed. . . . *drip* I had no name. But that wasn''t going to remain like that forever. All I had to do was to achieve a great feat during the sacred hunt and I was sure that the Great One would grant me one. *drip* ¡± Grrowwl... sleeeep. ¡± A drop of water attempted to wake up one of my kind... but failed miserably. These slags. Bringing shame to us and dishonoring the name of The Great One. It was a shame, but while the desire for greatness was present in most of us, few were the ones to achieve it. *snort* They could stay there and rot in misery while great feats would be achieved by me. There wouldn''t be much until I gained enough strength to beat the current leader an became the new one. All females would become mine as well. After that, I was going to bring our tribe to new heights. Whit this resolve in my heart, I stepped outside of our cave. The Great One was going to grant his great red blessing upon us soon. Even the laziest of our kind would come out to join in the sacred hunt at that time. My eyes bathed in the scenery outside of our cave and my heart jolted at the thought of adding a new trophy of my great hunt to it. Which prey would have the honor to decorate and stand as evidence of my glorious feat? Nobody knew what The Great One prepared for them until the very moment. That was the thrill of the hunt. I raised my head and looked at the sky. It would manifest soon. Our bodies would be bathed in the gift of The Great One. *Grrowwl* I could hardly maintain my composure at times like these. I couldn''t help it. It was soon. I could feel it. The time to prove my worth in from of The Great One was close. *sniff* *sniff* An intriguing smell awakened me from my daydreaming state. That wasn''t good. For a hunter to be oblivious of his surroundings like that... More importantly, that particular smell was not something we meet so often. On the contrary, sometimes, it was a sign for one of the rarest prey. Even though I never hunted those rare prey, I had witnessed in the past how our tribe did it. It was not too long after my birth so I wasn''t allowed to join at that time, but this time was different. I looked frantically in the direction from where the smell came and saw the gray mist rising to the skies. These stupid prey liked to make that thing which allowed us to find them much easier. How could creatures so stupid survived until this day was a real mystery. With that behavior, they should have been at the bottom of the food chain. Thinking about it, I understood why they were so rare in these parts. They must be hunted down by a lot of predators. My enthusiasm somehow dropped at the thought. An easy hunt wasn''t what our kind longed for. Neither any honor in it. I could not understand why our elders made a big ruckus about these weak creatures at that time... There must be something special about them. ¡± Grrowwwll... grray... mist. ¡± a sweet voice came from my back. Aaaaahhhhh... That couldn''t be... ¡± Gray... miszt. Ggrrrrr... ¡± The angelic voice came again so I had to accept the truth. I turned my head, somehow upset that I could no longer hunt these weaklings alone. ¡± Grrowwwll... grray... ¡± she sweetly growled while pointing her big hand toward the direction from where the smell came. ¡± Ggrrrr... ¡± I had no choice but to acknowledge the fact. She growled back at me and headed back into the cave to announce the discovery. Her back was big and hairy as always. I could hardly believe that she was a female of our tribe. She was so big that very few of our males could compare with her. The strongest and wildest female I had ever seen. Not to mention that the number of strong trolls she gave birth thus far wasn''t small. ¡± Gggrrrr... ggrrrr... ¡± My breath started to get heavier and my lust popped up like a volcano which was about to break rampant. I had to become the new leader and get her. ¡± Grrowwwll... mine... ggrrrr... mineee... Grrowwwll... MINEEEE... ¡± She had to be mine. She would be mine soon. That... was something I was confident in. ¡± Sshe... ggrrr... mine now. ¡± No. She couldn''t be mine right now. She was very excited about these weaklings. I had to break them into pieces and impress her. The old leader didn''t need to know. ¡± GRROWWWLL... ¡± ¡± Quieeet... roaaarrr... ¡± another ragged voice came from behind me again, this time one which I despised very much. A big and bulky troll with a lot of scars and a missing fang growled at me. He was accompanied by other trolls prepared to start the hunt. I had to recognize that he looked like a real hunter, with all those battle marks engraved on his very skin and fur. But his glory wouldn''t last much longer. I would take that place sooner or later. ¡± Hunt... GO!! ¡± he roared and we marched towards the gray mist with anticipation. Somehow, the mist vanished as we approached but the smell was still there. Our prey was so stupid to think that they could fool us. When we approached the place where the mist came from, we could see three atrocious creatures. While they shared some similarities with us, they were devoid of most bodily fur. They were even uglier than the goblins. At least the goblins had fangs and claws, but this abomination of a creature... How could they mate I wondered? With that ugliness, nobody would want you as a mate... Maybe that was the real reason for them being so few? I somehow started to pity them for their misfortune. But as a hunter, I had to grant a suitable death to these pitiful creatures no matter how ugly they might be. ¡± GRROWWWLL... ¡± We didn''t waste any more time and headed toward them in full force and my previous assumption was proved to be on point. They weren''t just weak and ugly, they were cowards as well. They didn''t fight as a real warrior would do, instead, they run away from left to right and there was one that was throwing sticks at us from a distance. I did understand at that moment why my kind was so eager to hunt these miserable creatures. Their existence was an insult to the hunt. They didn''t deserve my pity. They were rightfully made so ugly to match their ugly behavior. While I was preparing to throw myself in the fight like a real warrior, the hateful one which was throwing sticks at us was ironically hit by a similar stick that came out of nowhere and died on the spot. ¡± Grrowwwll... DIEEE. ¡± The punishment was delivered. That must have been The Great One watching upon us. He punished that wretched creature for his sins. Now that The Great One was with us, I didn''t have a reason to hold back anymore. I had to show him my worth. I assumed the others were thinking the same as how eager they got. We started to fight with even more vigor as our prey continued with their cowardly behavior. From time to time, The Great One would hit them with a stick as a form of punishment but not even this stopped them. What a disgusting creature. I had to do something. I couldn''t afford to let this disgraceful fight to continue when our God was watching upon us even one more second. When I was prepared to step in again with a mighty charge, my face was suddenly hit by something. When I looked to see what it was, I couldn''t believe my eyes. There was a club. One of the greatest weapons our kind was capable of crafting. Was my God telling me to use it? That must have been the case... While I picked it up, more clubs were thrown towards the others. That hateful leader picked up one of them even though he already had a weapon. *Roaaar* Reinforcements started to come from the cave as well. These hateful creatures had to die here. With the newcomers and the help from The Great One we quickly took down another one but the last creature managed to run away. I could not believe how far their cowardice could go... I quickly ran after it to finally put an end to this shameful hunt. It seemed that the leader had the same idea. We had to bring him down no matter what but while we followed the coward, the leader made a mistake and got stabbed right in the middle of his chest. ¡± GGROWWWWLL... dead... ¡± I roared with all my might. That eyesore might be finally dead. I had to bring down my prey no matter what, so I could take his place as the new leader. What a joyous and fortunate course of events. I quickly followed him up and headed toward the other side of the forest. . . . My memory became a bit foggy after I followed the prey out of the clearing. I vaguely remember another creature that was a little bit more pleasant to the eye than the previous ones. Not by much but that one had more fur, sharper fangs and longer claws. My head started to hurt the more I tried to remember. But I was sure that they got me in a cowardly manner. I was unwilling. I was unwilling to accept such a fate but alas, my conscious slowly faded away... . . . The next time I opened my eyes, I was shocked to witness a small silhouette clad in a burning aura approaching us. My view was a bit blurred but I managed to engrave it in my memory. After a short period, the strange newcomer killed effortlessly that hateful coward. My consciousness started to fade again but I mustered all my power for a weak grunt. At that point, I was sure. The Great One wasn''t capable to endure that coward and descended there personally to bring down the punishment. I could feel the burning aura coming closer and closer to me. Even though I wanted to be the new leader, to be with our God was something I didn''t even dared to think about after my failure. I... I wasn''t worthy of such honor. My consciousness faded away again as the burning sensation was approaching my face. . . . . . [*Ding: You survived from a near-death experience!] [*Ding: Your faith had surpassed the threshold!] [*Ding: Individual {Cave Troll} eligible for evolution!] . . . [*Ding: Anomalies detected in the surroundings!] [*Ding: Reloading... . . . [*Ding: A name was granted to you(Kurzol)!] [*Ding: Due to abnormal individual traits and special conditions fulfilled, a special evolution was completed. Race changed from {Cave Troll} to {Troll King}!] When I woke up again, the occasional voices and symbols appeared in my mind. This time, however, I was able to understand them far better. I was able to understand a lot more than I ever did. My body changed. My mind changed. I felt stronger... No, I felt better than ever before. But most importantly, I knew that I was granted a new chance to prove myself in front of The Great One. This time, for sure, I wouldn''t fail. Chapter 29: A rainy day. *sob* ¡± ... ¡± *sob* Moving my hand gently, I wiped off the small tear falling down her cheek. It had been a common occurrence these past few days... ¡± Shhhh... shhh... Everything is fine now. ¡± I whispered close to her fluffy ear and slowly moved my hand through her hair. After that day, she developed a habit of never sleeping without hugging each other. It was partially my fault for it though. Not that it bothered me that much... That night, I took her far away from the troll nest and kept her in my embrace until she fell asleep. I had to continuously reassure her that I wouldn''t leave her alone when she was asleep so there was no other choice. I felt a bit stiff at first, with all the physical contact and everything, but there was no way for me to miss such an amazing opportunity. The white knight saving the beauty in distress really did its job. Being able to caress her hair and play with her ears was a nice bonus as well. She wasn''t even showing any kind of displeasure even though the later would tickle her sometimes. Letting that aside, I actually did my best to make her feel comfortable and safe... as much as I could. Somehow, if I were to look at the situation from a certain angle, it wasn''t entirely wrong to say that she was in that state because of me. She probably didn''t receive any kind of affection during her childhood, the sole exception being her mother... probably. I refrained from asking the sensitive questions. What I was certain of, was that she grew up in a hostile world. She had to endure abuses and mistreatment while being accused as impure. No normal person would be able to live like that without shutting themselves in a protective shell, not letting anyone reach them. My continuous actions most likely made her remove that shell and allowed me in, but the possibility of me despising and abandoning her brought her in that miserable state. ¡± Hiiiaa... ¡± As a drop of water fell on the tip of my ear. *Shudder* Looking down on my lap, I let out a sigh of relief. At least I didn''t wake her up. I stroked her head again in an attempt to let her feel comfortable but when I took a closer look at her face, a little grin bloomed on her lips. She was trying with all her might to hide it and pretend to be asleep but that made it even more obvious. If she had gone so far to hide it, I played along and let myself be fooled to make her happy. . . . I looked up at the cloudy sky. We had to take a break when the rain started and hide under the biggest tree we could find. I said the biggest tree but even that was relatively average when compared with what we saw on the road here. The foliage wasn''t even dense enough to shelter us properly. Water droplets would occasionally go through it and assault my poor ears... According to Fiona, we should have passed in Brigandia already, but we decided to push further to be safe. Even in Brigandia, the border wasn''t that safe. The law''s application tended to be a little weaker and the corruption level was a lot higher. Our current goal was to find a road or something to guide us toward a city. The most important thing to do was to take down that slave collar, but I had a lot of other things to take into consideration. We needed a safe place to stay and rest. We needed a way to get money and sustain our living expenses. I decided to keep Fiona by my side so I couldn''t make rushed decisions and mess up anymore. But even though I took that decision... Even though I didn''t want to put us in dangerous situations... Beside hunting monsters, I couldn''t think of another plausible way for us to earn money... I couldn''t imagine myself and Fiona growing things on a field. Not to mention that we didn''t have a field. Or experience in doing so. Working as an enchanter or other magic-related stuff wasn''t plausible either since outside of a few tricks, I didn''t knew much. At least, selling cores and other valuable parts was a sure thing. And most importantly, this was a freaking fantasy world. My soul couldn''t accept being a farmer... Let alone a fantasy medieval-ish version of it. For a person like me, who came from another world, not doing fantasy related work would be akin to blasphemy. ¡± MMmmmm... Still raining, Lizza? ¡± Fiona said while stretching to show me that she just wake up. I had to admit that her clumsy attempt at fooling me was a bit cute, so I let it slide this time. ¡± Yeah, I don''t know when will stop. We might as well eat something to make use of the lost time... Hope that the rain will stop soon. ¡± Since Fiona already knew about my ring, there wasn''t a need to make a fire and prepare our meal. It was very convenient to just make more at a time and just take it out when you wanted to eat. Since it could keep our meals nice and hot, why not? *Tsk* Thinking back at it, before running from there that night, I actually forgot to loot the enemy. As a former gamer, I felt ashamed with myself. At least, I took the sword that Ron used and his small rucksack. I was a bit annoyed that it couldn''t be stuffed in the ring but since the time was pressuring us, I shrugged the thought off and put it on my back. After a closer inspection, it turned out to be an enchanted rucksack. The rucksack allowed in it quite a bit more than should. It was only a [Medium-Uncommon grade] so I thought that maybe objects like my ring weren''t that rare after all. ¡¯Who am I fooling here...¡¯ The quality between the two wasn''t something comparable... Size and capacity aside, there was the INT boost and the time-freezing feature. The rucksack had none of that. It wasn''t possible to store anything that didn''t fit the entrance and the weight of anything stored in was still there. The more I compared the two, the more I started to understand why the ring was labeled as Mythical. No wonder we stumbled from trouble to trouble the whole journey. My luck must have been completely depleted after finding the ring. Looking down at the girl resting on my lap, I had just one question on my mind. ¡± Meat? ¡± Her tail started to wiggle a bit. ¡± Mm. Meat. ¡± ¡¯Hehehe... So easy...¡¯ After confirming that I wouldn''t die from eating meat, I didn''t shy away from adding it to my diet, not like I had much of a choice anyway. But that was it. On the other hand, Fiona was a meat person. I didn''t know if that would have been considered racist on my part to assume things, but there was something ravenous in her eyes as she was looking at the piece I gave her. ¡± Ahh, give it back for a second. ¡± I forgot to add some salt to it. We were fortunate to find some between the other stuff Ron carried in his rucksack. At least he was good at something. ¡± How about this, Fio? ¡± I also took out some berries. She cast a doubtful eye at them but picked one in the end. I didn''t blame her. Taking into consideration how lacking in knowledge of pretty much anything around us I proved myself to be these past days, I wouldn''t put anything picked by me in my mouth either if I was in her shoes. ¡± Mm, but are you sure that these are good to eat? ¡± But that didn''t mean it didn''t hurt a little... I puffed my chest, raised my head high, and ate one myself with great confidence. ¡± Yes, they are. I picked them myself. ¡± I even hmpf-ed at the end. These berries were the first thing I was forced to eat upon coming to this world. I tested them on my own so I was pretty confident that these berries were edible. ¡± Do not forget that I''m an elf. I know what I''m doing. ¡± I lied. I had no idea what I was doing. ¡± N-No, but you didn''t act too much like an elf so I forgot about it. ¡± she said after finally trying the berry. ¡± Mm, it tastes good. ¡± ¡¯Y-Y-You forgot that I was an elf?¡¯ Was that even possible? Was I a failure of an elf to the point that she forgot about it? ¡± S-Sorry... I didn''t want to say that... I mean, you are an elf, but... Sometimes you don''t act like one... should? ¡± ¡± Fio. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± How many elven friends do you have again? I kind of forgot... ¡± I gave her the stare. She responded with a questionable glance... ¡± One, I think. ¡± she responded. ¡¯Wait, what!?¡¯ She had other elf friends? ¡± But you said you didn''t¡ª We stare at each other for several seconds in silence. ¡± You mean me, didn''t you? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± You did this on purpose, didn''t you? ¡± I narrowed my eyes. ¡± Mm. But I''m glad you are the first one I met. ¡± I got bet red. She didn''t even flinch. ¡¯Damn... How can she spout such things with a straight face..? Fuck it! I''m not gonna back down.¡¯ ¡± O-Of course I am. D-Don''t forget about it... hmph. ¡± I got even redder. I wanted nothing more than to find a hole and throw myself in. ¡± Mm. Thank you, Lizza. ¡± she said and took a big bite from her meat like it was nothing. Damn, she was so cool¡ª ¡± Lizzha ish the besht. ¡± aaaand she ruined it. Her smile was cute though... ¡± Don''t speak with your mouth full. And don''t swing that tail too much. I don''t want hair on the meat. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± *Sigh* I let out a sigh and pat her head. Looking around, I let out another one. Without monsters roaming around, it almost seemed like an ordinary place. Except for the blue-leafed tree next to our own, that was it. And of course, the girl next to me. Unless something happened to my head after coming here, I was pretty sure that my world didn''t have anything like her. Even after so much time passed, it was a bit unreal. A gray-haired girl with yellow eyes, fluffy wolf ears peeking out of her hair, and a freaking tail. Less noticeable were her fangs and claws. She even had small little puffs-like things on the inside of her hands. As for her nails... Well, I didn''t know how to classify them. They weren''t really claws, but neither normal nails. Like something in between. Longer, stronger, pointy, and to be honest quite dangerous looking. On the other paw... hehe, paw... Ahem, on the other hand, they weren''t realy curved like normal claws were, and she was unable to retract them like normal claws were supposed to either. My final verdict; her puffs were really nice to play with. Case closed. Also, her tail¡ª ¡± You are looking strange at me again, Lizza. ¡± she suddenly raised her head and looked back at me. ¡¯Fuck, did she read my mind? No, that''s impos¡ª ¡± I''m not letting you play with my tail, Lizza. ¡± she deadpaned. ¡± But... how? ¡± ¡± No. ¡± ¡± But it looks soooo fluffy... You can''t do this to me. ¡± I pleaded. ¡± This is why you don''t feel like an elf, Lizza. ¡± she mercilessly crushed my hoped and dreams again. And why was she the one that looked wronged between the two of us? I was the one wronged! ¡± But if it wasn''t that fluffy, I wouldn''t be so tempted to gran it. ¡± I valiantly fought back. ¡± Lizza... ¡± ¡± Hmpf, what is it, Fluff... I mean, Puff... Ugh, I mean, Fio. Y-Yes, what is it? Something to say in your deff¡ª ¡± What if I grab your ears then? It''s your fault because they are so long. ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± The rain seems to have stopped. Let''s finish and get going. ¡± I took another bite from my meat and prompted her to make the same. I couldn''t help but feel shivers down my spine. It was so strange even if a drop of water were to fall on them, let alone to be grabbed by someone. I narrowed my eyes again. Under that fluffy appearance, she was really evil. As they say, a wolf in sheep¡¯s clothing... I nodded to myself and took another bite. FDSIO Finally managed to rewrite this one as well... To be honest, I''m pretty happy with how it went compared with the previous version. I feel like I managed to portray the interaction between the two a lot better this time... Chapter 30: It’s hard for us all… Not long after we finished our meal, the rain stopped. The sky was still clouded but that didn''t matter. At least we could resume the journey. As I was packing the blanket we sat on and storing it back in my ring, I suddenly remembered something. It was true that there wasn''t a need for me to hide the ring from Fiona, but that didn''t mean I could do the same with other people around. We planned to find a city so we needed to interact with other people. ¡± Fio, I think that we should carry a part of our stuff in the rucksack. ¡± She nodded at me, understanding my point and we proceed to pack some monster materials in the enchanted rucksack. We also packed some essentials like blankets, some food, and a few bottles of water. ¡± Good. With this we look like real travelers. ¡± I said with a laugh. ¡± I will carry the one with the materials. ¡± she said and put it on her back without waiting for an answer. Even though we packed lighter materials in it, I still appreciated the gesture... But that won''t do. ¡± No, we will carry that one together. By turn. ¡± ¡± But you should know that I''m stronger... Errr... Lizza, I forgot to ask you how old are you... I heard that elves might be far older than they look. ¡± ¡± Yessss! Hell yeah, bab¡ª ¡±...¡± *cough* *cough* ¡± I mean, yes... That''s true. ¡± I said with what little dignity I had left. She was still staring at me. ¡± A-Anyway, age, age... I''m actually just 17 years old. I don''t think that I''m that much older than you. ¡± At least I hoped it to be. Thinking about it again, she wasn''t human either. Who knew how old she could have been? Actually, who was to say that humans didn''t live hundreds of years as well? ¡± By the way, Fio... Ermm... You didn''t tell me how old you are either. ¡± ¡± I''m 16. I''m carrying this one. ¡± she said with finality. ¡± I''m still older though. ¡± I pointed out. I didn''t want to let a younger girl carry the heavy stuff. I was still a man on the inside. She stared blankly at me. ¡± W-What? ¡± ¡± Lizza, I should be far closer to my maturity cap. My Vitality and Power should be far higher than yours as well. ¡± she looked at me with suspicion. I tried to look as unfazed as I could. What the hell was a maturity cap, I had no idea. ¡± All right. You carry it. ¡± I could practically see how the man inside of me got farther and farther. ¡± Lizza. ¡± ¡± I''m not hiding anything. ¡± ¡± I know that you aren''t higher level than me, so what was that about? ¡± ¡¯Why are you so sharp when you don''t have to, fluff!?¡¯ I couldn''t help but scream in my mind. ¡¯Calm down me, she''s bluffing. She has to be. I didn''t tell her my level either.¡¯ ¡± How do you know that I''m not higher level than you? I might as well be. ¡± I tried. ¡± You can''t fool me with that, Lizza. I have [Appraisal]. I peeked at your status the first time we met. It''s not high level so I didn''t see much, but I can tell that you aren''t higher level than me. ¡± ¡¯Fuck you, [Appraisal]!!!¡¯ ¡± I''m level 29, by the way. ¡± ¡± I see. Then, the difference isn''t that bit. I''m 26. ¡± I left out a sigh of relief. At least she wasn''t secretly some kind of super-strong and important person. I felt stupid for even thinking about that since I already knew that she was a slave previously. Looking back at her, she was still staring at me. I didn''t think that she would let me go like that so I had to ask. ¡± The maturity cap thing... What was that again? ¡± I said with an awkward smile. I wanted nothing more than to hit myself in the head and die right there. Worse even, she just nodded her head and looked at me like I was a small child asking what air was or something like that. I could practically see the pity in her eyes. After a while, she came near me and started to pat my head. ¡± Good girl. ¡± Goddamn, she liked to hit me when I was down. ¡± I''m gonna cry, Fio. Stop bullying me. ¡± I let out any kind of pretense. After such a blow, I wasn''t in the mood anymore. ¡± Now, tell me. We''re not going anywhere till I''m not satisfied. ¡± ¡± Mm. I''m speaking about the statuses that grow with us as we grew older, not the ones from leveling. ¡± she started explaining. I just nodded as if I already knew that. Fortunately, she believed me. At least, I wasn''t that stupid in her eyes... ¡± So, the maturity cap is the end of that. For humans is around 20 years and for me is around 25... I don''t know where is yours Lizza, but it should be higher than mine. ¡± she said and patted my head again with a smile. ¡± I''ll be a full-fledged adult in no time and I''ll take care of Lizza. ¡± Damn, she was downright merciless. Though, the way she puffed her chest in pride at the end told me that she wasn''t really kidding. I was going to be taken care of by a younger girl. Like that, the last piece of dignity as a man was completely shattered. ¡± Hmm!? Are you fine, Lizza? You look a bit down all of a sudden. ¡± ¡± Yeah, I''m perfectly fine. Let''s... Let''s just go, alright? ¡± ¡± ... Alright. ¡± she said, finally letting the matter go. We double-checked to be sure that we didn''t left anything behind and departed shortly after. After a few steps, I internally sighed and grabbed her hand. ¡± Better? ¡± I asked. ¡± Mm. Better. ¡± she said and her tail swayed energetically behind her. It was kind of cute. ---------------------------------------- -A certain traveling merchant POV- *sigh* ¡¯These despicable suckers. Trying to take advantage of us, the small merchants without power.¡¯ I let out another forced sigh and resigned to my fate. This wasn''t the first time and definitely wouldn''t be the last. At the end of the day, the powerful made the rules and the weak had no choice but to obey. That was the way the world worked. I learned that lesson a long time ago. Nothing good would happen from complaining and nobody was benevolent enough to care about you. Well, almost nobody. But ironically, the rare ones who cared to some extent weren''t far better than the rest of us either. ¡¯Can''t care about someone if you can''t relate to them, I suppose...¡¯ There was also the thing about crying over spilled milk. My old friend liked to use that saying all the time. *sigh* I shook my head and made my way back to the Collector Center. My goods should be ready. In the past, we could buy the materials directly from villagers, but they stopped selling us recently. Now, we were forced to buy exclusively from the Center... ¡¯These damn money-grubbers.¡¯ They threatened the villagers with the fact that they wouldn''t buy from them anymore if they sell to us directly. Naturally, the common folk wasn''t happy about that either but stability was still better than a higher price once in a while. I couldn''t blame them for that... ¡± You don''t look too good, Albert. Perhaps you didn''t sleep well last night? ¡± a deep voice greeted me the moment I stepped inside through the front door. I fixed my eyes on the man. The mocking smirk on his lips not matching the spoken words. He was a tall and bulky man with multiple scars on his arms and face. Probably even more under his shirt. ¡± And whose fault do you think it is? ¡± It wasn''t in my nature to argue with the likes of him, but everyone had to went from time to time. ¡± Hooaaa, don''t be like that. It''s hard for us all, ya know? I need to earn a living like us all. ¡± ¡¯Hard for us all my ass.¡¯ Maybe that was the case in the past, judging from the number of scars he had. It wasn''t impossible to heal wounds without letting any scars behind, even the big ones. A high-tier potion or a skilled healer from the temple could have done the job but that wasn''t cheap. It was a pity that even that wouldn''t work if the scar was too old. But that was in the past. Right now he had a stable job, earning good money while ripping off the little bit I earned myself while looking smug in front of me about that. *Cough* ¡± Scum. ¡± *Cough* ¡± Don''t say that. If the guild wouldn¡¯t have opened this branch you wouldn''t even be here. These villagers earn a meal because I''m here, making their lives easier. ¡± ¡± Yeah, yeah, fuck you too... How is my stuff? ¡± ¡± Everything''s ready. Come in the back and check it. I''m gonna get the boys to help you load it in your carriage. Free of charge. You can''t say I''m not helping an old pal. ¡± ¡± Free of charge my ass. That''s how normally is... Wait, do you change others for that? ¡± ¡± Ha, ha, hah... When did I ever pass an opportunity to make money? Even the smallest tip counts. That''s why you do so poor whit being a merchant. ¡± ¡± I''m not doing poorly. ¡± ¡± Whatever you say. I''m just stating facts. We both moved on to... eh, how to put it? If not better, at least less risky professions around the same time. The results though... ¡± he said and chuckled a bit at the end. The fucker had the nerve... I shake my head, holding back another sigh, and followed after him. He was as much of a dick as he was in the past. After I paid and left the Center, I made a small pause at the village store to buy some food for the trip. I checked the rest of the equipment and my sword as well. As a former adventurer, I at least wouldn''t need to hire a guard for small trips like this one. I drove my carriage towards the village gate. There wasn''t a need for payment in those small villages so I moved along the road uninhibited. If all was good, it wouldn''t take more than two days to reach Arian City. . . . The trip was going quite well. Nothing more than a stray goblin or some small wild animal from time to time. The normal stuff. I also had to make a short stop for several hours since it started raining. A bit annoying but I could catch up if I were to fasten the pace a little. The road was quite muddy so I refrained from doing that though. Not long after, I saw two silhouettes coming from the opposite direction. It wasn''t like that was a problem but as of late, the bandits were getting bolder and bolder. It was to be expected since that was what happened every decade or so when that was approaching. ¡¯Calm down. The chances are small. You dealt with far worse than some mere thugs.¡¯ I tried to reassure myself. As we approached each other, I could see their shapes better and better. Two young girls. I wasn''t able to see their faces yet but I was sure that one of them was from the beastkin race. They weren''t that rare though. Even in small villages you get to see one or two occasionally, let alone in big places like Arian city. What was less usual was her companion. The closer I got to them, the more intrigued I became. She was clearly not a beastkin but her hair was silver-colored. I haven''t heard of any human with that kind of hair color. Blessed or not. Silver hair, silver hair... And then, a new possibility hit me but I dismissed it instantly. ¡¯There¡¯s no way for a beastkin and... an...¡¯ ¡± What in the flying fuck... ¡± I couldn''t help but let out these words as we approached even further. Silver hair, vibrant green eyes, and long pointy ears. It turned out that she really was an elf. But what the fuck was an elf doing in this remote area? FDSIO Hello there... How''s going lately? I hope you were good. Let''s talk about the meaning of life and... Joking, joking... This is the author''s note I promised last time. I tried to make it simple and short for you all... Well, that was an old author note that''s not important anymore... Outside of the fact that you can follow me on my profile to know when I post new characters, that''s it. I''m still going to do that after I finish with the rewrites... Chapter 31: A deal. ¡± Lizza, there''s a road in front of us. ¡± Fiona said while pointing her finger at it. ¡± Hmm, where? Oh, finally! ¡± I said, barely resisting jumping around and laughing like someone who hadn''t seen civilization in weeks. Which was true. ¡± What should we do now? ¡± ¡± There''s no point in hiding anymore so... we should go for it? ¡± I half asked. She thought for a bit and just nodded her head. Looking closely, it was a simple dirt road, a little muddy in some places due to the recent rain. Not as bad as it could have been but it didn''t look like it saw regular use. My hopes dropped a little at the realization that the chances for it to lead towards a big city were small. ¡¯We have no choices but to rely on luck this time...¡¯ I took a small twig and throw it in the air. Fiona was looking weirdly at me but she didn''t say anything. I wouldn''t care even if she had something to say about this brilliant method to choose our direction. I always wanted to do something like that even if it was just one time. The twig pointed end was indicating towards our right so we started to move as fate decided. There wasn''t any better method to choose a direction either way, so... why not? We also decided to not wear our hoods for the moment. If we met people on the road, I wanted to see how they would react to us. Better than testing that after arriving at... whatever this road was leading. We barely walked around two or three hours before meeting another party coming from the opposite direction. It was a carriage. It wasn''t moving too fast since the road was muddy so we had plenty of time to discuss what we should do. And by that, I meant to say that I stared expectantly at Fiona to tell me what we should do. ¡± Mm. We should see how they react to you, Lizza. Also to me, and the collar. ¡± ¡¯Yup, that''s my smart fluff.¡¯ ¡± Alright. Then, we just pretend that everything is normal and see what they do? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± As we approached a little closer I could see a single person in the coachman position. I didn''t know what was inside the carriage but he wasn''t giving a bad impression. He was a middle-aged human man with common characteristics. He had brown hair and a short beard. He shouldn''t have been much taller than me but it was possible to misjudge it due to the fact that he was in a sitting position. He was also looking at us. I assumed that he was cautious too... or just curious? Was he a merchant or just a simple traveler? If he was, then my image about merchants was ruined. He. Was. Slim. How could that be? Not even a bit of belly... Maybe he was a good merchant. Maybe just the evil ones had to be fat? ¡± What in the flying fuck! ¡± ¡± Huh? ¡± I let out a surprised voice at the words he spouted out of the blue. Even though his voice wasn''t loud, my ears caught it. ¡± Lizza. ¡± Fiona tapped me on the shoulder, confused by his weird behavior. Well, of course. Her ears were not for show either. She sure heard him as well. Needless to say, she narrowed her eyes and put her hand on her sword. ¡± Don''t be rash, Fio. Let''s ask what the problem is first. ¡± I said, trying to reason with her. Even though we got closer to each other, I hadn''t forgotten that she didn''t particularly like humans. It was good enough if she didn''t hate them. That, and the fact that she wasn''t the most peaceful person you could find out there. Though, I could not blame her for that taking into account her past. The man noticed that we heard him and made a quick signal with his hands to show us that he wasn''t hostile. ¡¯What a good way to start a conversation...¡¯ At least he stopped the carriage. We could ask a question or two in this way so all was good. I cleared my throat and approached the carriage with small steps. I peeked back and saw that Fiona was following me while glaring at the man. *sigh* ¡± Sorry about that. I was just surprised seeing an elf with a beastkin. You can''t see one to often, let alone in this combination. ¡± he said, trying to diffuse the situation. ¡± Don''t worry, I''m used to it. ¡± I replied and gave him a smile. The I need to look friendly since I need your help kind of smile. ¡± Actually, could you tell me where is this road going? We were traveling and stumbled upon it accidentally. I''d like to find a city or a bigger town if there is any in proximity. ¡± ¡± Oh, I thought you came from Arian City but seems to be wrong. In that case, you took the wrong way, Miss... ¡± ¡± Elizabeth. ¡± I said pointing at myself. ¡± Also, she is Fiona. ¡± I continued, pointing at her. For some reason, she was looking strange at me. Again. Even though I didn''t do anything wrong... yet. Actually, my twig method failed, didn''t it? *cough* *cough* ¡± Anyways, is pretty rare to meet an elf like you, Miss... Elizabeth. You can call me Albert. And your compan... ¡± he stopped mid-sentence. His eyes became round while staring at her. He was staring at her collar to be more accurate. ¡±Miss Elizabeth... Is that a slave collar? ¡± he asked, a bit hesitant. At least what Fiona said about this country seemed to be true. ¡± Yes, it is. But she is my companion, not my slave. We are looking for a way to take it down actually. Do you know if we can do it in Arian City? ¡± I could have said a lot of things to evade the issue but that wouldn''t have been of much help. I had to find a way to remove her collar after all. ¡± I see. That might be quite hard actually. You can''t take off something like that at a random enchanter. You need a specialized one that works in the field... ¡± he paused for a moment to take a quick look at me. ¡± The problem is that here, in Brigandia, slavery isn''t a thing unless we are talking about criminals. You either get help from a less legal one, or you have to have connections with one working for security. ¡± ¡± Ugh, is there no other way? ¡± ¡± Well, there might be. For example, for a fair price, it is possible to find a poor merchant with connections. He might know a legal one that is kind enough to help you for another fair price as well, if you get what I mean. ¡± he said with a creepy smile on his face. I had some doubts about these fair prices. Especially about the fair part, but there was nothing wrong with seeing where that was going on first. Fair price or not, it was still way better than trying to get to one by myself. And strangely enough, I was quite relieved since he asked for money. At least, it was clear what he wanted. The only problem was that I was a poor little elf at the moment. I didn''t have the funds to pay unless I sold the materials and... ¡¯That''s it.¡¯ I got a brilliant idea. ¡± Heh... You said a poor merchant, didn''t you? Do you know if that poor merchant will accept his payment in monster parts? I don''t have money at the moment but if we are speaking about a merchant, he will be glad to buy them at a lower price, doesn''t he? ¡± I said and imitated his creepy smile as good as I could. On the other hand, poor Fiona looked like she was lost in our conversation. I couldn''t help but feel a bit smug about that. ¡¯Be confused, fluf. Muhahaha... Beware, the great Elizabeth... No, the mafia boss Elizabeth since it fits well with the situation. You shall call me Don Elizabeth from now on!¡¯ A pity that my daydreaming was interrupted by Albert. ¡± That depends on how cheap you are willing to sell them. I had to admit that my business isn''t doing so well these days. I assume that your rucksack is an enchanted one, am I right? In that case, let''s see what you got. ¡± he said and stepped down from the carriage. I was so glad that we moved a part of our materials in the rucksack. ¡± Fio, give me the rucksack... Actually, come here and help me to take them out. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she said and prepared to take out some of the materials. I took one of the blankets and put it down on the grass at the edge of the road. I didn''t want to get any of them muddy after all. We started to take out the materials and I sneaked some more from the ring when he was busy examining what was already out. ¡± Oho, this is Silverwolf Fur... You got some rare pieces right here, don''t you? Even though the rest is good stuff too, this one... ¡± he pointed at the silvery fur. ¡± I don''t think you can get something like this in Brigandia. ¡± ¡± So? ¡± ¡± Yes. I suppose that we have a deal, Miss Elizabeth. ¡± he said while checking the furs in all possible ways. He even sniffed one of them a little. . . . In the end, he didn''t have enough money to buy all of them but at least we got a total of 4 gold and 26 silver coins. One gold coin was the equivalent of 12 silver ones so we earned a total of 6 gold and 2 silver. And that at a lower price from what you''ll normally get since that was what I said at the beginning. With what I had already, our funds grew up to a total of 6 gold, 27 silver, 2 lesser silver, and 17 copper coins. Inquiring further, we found that we needed at least 9-10 gold coins to even try to bribe his acquaintance. But that was fine. We still had a lot of materials, and I had even more corpses that weren''t even dismantled stored in my ring. Since I wasn''t able to find out its upper limit, we continued to dump everything of value we found. Chapter 32: A delicate situation. *splash* ¡± Ouch... ¡± my voice slipped a bit due to the jolt. One of the front wheels passed over a little pit and splashed water in all directions. I wouldn¡¯t care too much about it if the carriage was equipped with something to prevent these jolts. Of course, the reality wasn''t going to mold after my wishes and a random merchant wouldn''t have such a carriage. My sore butt was begging me for help even though I already had three blankets under it. Fiona wasn''t doing better either. I could tell it judging by her unhappy expression. ¡± Fio, this isn''t enough. We still have two wolf furs in the rucksack. Take them out so we could stay more comfortable. ¡± I said while standing up and massaging the aching butt. The merchant peeked at us from the coachman seat but I didn''t care. My little butt was at stake there. I had to save him at all costs. Fiona didn''t hesitate to take them out and put them on top of the blankets. I nodded at her and we sat down again. After the initial conversation, the rest of the trip was kind of boring. The carriage was covered with some king of cloth material and had just two entrances. One was in the back but that was currently blocked to ensure that the cargo was safe and the other one was in front. *splash* ¡± Haaaa, much better. Don''t you think, Fio? ¡± ¡± Mm, much better. ¡± she said and leaned her head on my shoulder, looking at me expectantly. I sighed internally and wrapped my arms around her like usual. Though, she instinctively kept her tail in the opposite direction from me. I didn''t know why, but she didn''t like her tail to be touched. A pity but I wasn''t going to give up that easy. *Cough* *Cough* Our nice embrace time was rudely interrupted by the loud coughs coming from Albert. As I turned to look at him, he was coughing trying to gasp for air. I obviously panicked a little and decide to ask what might have happened. ¡± What''s wrong, Albert? Something bad had happened? Are you alright? ¡± I said and tried to stand up but he signaled me that everything was fine. He coughed another two or three times and finally stopped. ¡± It''s nothing... ¡± he raised some kind of waterskin. ¡± I thought I saw something... unexpected. Some water got the wrong way, nothing serious. ¡± he said and turned back to his job. I caught him peeking at us from time to time after that, but since we just met it was understandable to be cautious. Or he was just curious about me being an elf and all that... Back then, in that village, most people stared at me as well. That worried me a bit. I didn''t even want to know how many people would stare at me in the city. I definitely had to wear that hood there. Better to be the weird person nobody wanted to approach than the center of attention. But that was for later. Since Albert was alright, and there was still time until we arrived at the city, I shifted my attention back to Fiona. I grabbed her by the shoulders and put her head it in my lap. Knowing what was going to happen, she just closed her eyes and I could swear that I saw a faint smile for just a second. I started to play with her hair and scratch the base of her ears... She loved when I did that for some reason. ¡±Mmmmmmmm...¡± she let out a little moan and cuddled on my lap like a little puppy. Even though she was practically a wolf... I just ignored that and started to tease her ears even further. Unfortunately, that didn''t last long and we got interrupted again. *Cough* *Cough* It seemed that poor Albert was at it again. Being interrupted was a bit annoying, but the carriage was his so I had to be polite. ¡± Are you sure you are alrigh¡ª I tried to ask again but Albert was looking at us with big and round eyes... He looked like he saw a ghost or something. Even though I was an elf, that was a bit excessive... ¡¯Oh no... no, no, no, no... Don''t tell me he thinks that we were doing questionable things behind his back...¡¯ Judging by how shocked he was, I couldn''t think of any other reason. But I just gave Fiona a lap pillow and patted her head for a bit. It wasn''t that strange for two girls to do that, right? Even so, I wasn''t willing to be labeled as a shameless person. I didn''t know what kind of cultural norms they had, thus, I stopped and tried to push Fiona out of my lap... ¡±Mmmmmm, Lizza... Why? ¡± she protested, clinging to my lap as if her life was depending on it. Of course I had no fucking chance of removing her if she really didn''t want to. And she didn''t. I turned my head toward the merchant again... and the situation worsened. His mouth started to hang open even though words wouldn''t come out of it. I tried to push Fiona again but she didn''t move an inch. ¡¯How is she soooo strong? My Holy Tree, please, help me!¡¯ The carriage started to approach the edge of the road since his coachman was just staring at us. What the hell? I had to do something about it before to deviate from the road. ¡± A-Albert, the road... Look at the road. ¡± I said and pointed my finger to distract him from us. ¡± Haa? What... Oh, ohhh noo. ¡± he snapped out of his blank state and finally remembered that he was the one in charge of this carriage. ¡± Fio, we can''t do it right now... The merchant was staring at us. ¡± I whispered before Albert could turn back for a new staring session. Fiona opened her eyes, clearly unsatisfied whit how little caressing she got. If the situation wasn''t as embarrassing as it could have been, her pouty face would have looked kind of cute. She finally let go of me and get up from my lap. The look she was giving to Albert... Anyways. I remembered I still had something to do. ¡± Fio, I have something to speak with Albert. I¡¯ll go there for a bit. ¡± She just switched her attention from glaring at Albert, to less-but-not-that-less glaring at me. ¡± Uhm, I also want to do a little training too. We didn''t have anything else to do after all. ¡± It was also kind of true. ¡± Traini... Ohh, like when you walk barefoot sometimes? ¡± ¡± Yes, like that... ¡± ¡± Or that time when you walked naked through the rain? ¡± she said and nodded while looking at me with judging eyes. ¡¯Please, please... make it so that Albert didn''t hear that. Don''t make me look like an even bigger pervert.¡¯ ¡± Fio... Didn''t you promise me that you''ll forget about that? ¡± ¡± Oh, Mm... Sorry... But Lizza, we were in the carriage and there''s no rain either. ¡± Oh, fuuuuuuu... If that wasn''t on purpose, I didn''t really know what it was. Apparently, she reaaaaally didn''t like the idea of letting her alone there. And the rain... That was a mistake that would never see me light of day ever again. Actually, screw it! It never happened. Water? What water? There was no attempt at getting [Water Manipulation] by doing such thing. ¡± Just... Just forget about the rain. Okay, Fio? And wait here for me. It won''t be long. I promise that I''m going to give you lots of hugs after the sun go down and he wouldn''t be able to see us. Alright? ¡± I pleaded. The carriage wasn''t moving too fast. But even so, it was enough for me to feel the wind. I couldn''t miss such an opportunity. [Wind Manipulation], here we go! I stood up and took one of the furs with me. Albert noticed me approaching and moved a little to make more space for me to sit. He seemed to be a little restless but it was understandable after that scene so I didn''t mind. ¡± Sooo, Albert... ¡± ¡± Oh, yes, yes... What is it? ¡± he said with an akward smile. ¡¯Ohhhh Goddammit. This isn''t going well.¡¯ ¡± I just remembered what you said about the wolf fur. And the rest of my materials, but especially the fur. ¡± ¡± Hmm, yes... That was a very good deal. I already said that the Silver Wolf can''t be found in this country. ¡± he switched to a business attitude at a lightning speed after I mentioned the materials. As expected from a merchant. ¡± But that is the problem, Albert. You see... If we were to sell these materials randomly... Hmm, let''s say that the place from where we just came wouldn''t be hard to guess. ¡± I tried to imply my concerns without actually saying it. Fiona was still having the collar on, and I didn''t know what would happen to her if she was found out. ¡± I can''t say that I don''t have a guess too. And I''m almost sure about it if we count that slave collar as well. But I don''t see the problem. Import is a thing, you know? I was just lucky and got them at a good price. Nothing more, nothing less. ¡± That was a relief. But even so... ¡± Say, Albert... This is a very good trade for you, doesn''t it? ¡± ¡± Of course it is. Let alone the price, just the simple fact that I sell materials from import will boost my business. I must say that this was a fated encounter. ¡± he said and laughed as a true merchant would do. ¡± Then, what would you say if someone will sell you a lot more... Not all at once, of course. Another batch after we arrive in that city. After that, you sell some of them and after some days, you will receive another batch, and so on... ¡± ¡± That... doesn''t sound so bad. Do you still have that many? ¡± he said with a serious face. ¡± Who knows. If you can get rid of them without attracting attention to me, or link them to me, I might have... ¡± ¡± In that care, we got another deal, Miss Elizabeth. Even if I can''t sell them so fast, I can borrow money from my acquaintances. I want to make a profit. I can''t sell to much at a time. ¡± ¡± I understand. I hope you can keep your promise. Oh, and I will stay a little more here to feel the wind. Do you mind? ¡± ¡± Oh, no, no, no. You are my guest... Stay how much you like. ¡± he said with a broad smile on his face. After a deal like that, who wouldn''t have one? I shut down my eyes and started to concentrate on the wind. I had that racial skill, [Elemental Magic Affinity] which probably helped me to gain fire and earth already. Maybe the ring was involved as well? I didn''t know exactly since I couldn''t appraise it completely. My attempt for [Water Manipulation] was a total mess but that might be because I didn''t try hard enough, who knows? I had a huge advantage regarding magic thanks to my race. It was a pity not to use it. Not to mention that my ring boasted my Spirit status which was already pretty advanced compared with someone who just started to learm magic. Chapter 33: It’s bound to leave a scar. [*Ding: You have gained the skill {Wind Manipulation 1}!] [*Ding: {Mana Manipulation} reached level 5!] There it was. Even [Mana Manipulation] reached level 5. Was I lucky or it had something to do with compatibility. So much easier than [Water Manipulation]... Was there a thing like an affinity for different types of magic? ¡¯I don''t remember such a thing... though, it''s not like I was able to learn much of the subject. If there was a book about general stuff back at the temple... Ugh...¡¯ Anyway, I was satisfied with the result. I slowly opened my eyes but as my vision started to clarify, my good mood turned in confusion. The sun was already gone and I was left alone in the carriage. It was stopped not too far from the road. How Albert managed to do that without me noticing, I had no idea. Fiona wasn''t in the back either. Looking around, a campfire was lit not so far from the carriage. Both the merchant and Fiona were sitting near it. They were sitting opposite each other and judging from the heavy atmosphere, I didn''t thought that any of them were having a fun time. *neigh* I turned my head in the opposite direction to see the horses tied to a tree. ¡¯What the... How the...¡¯ Shaking my head a few times, I sighed internally. ¡¯Haaa?¡¯ They didn''t just stopped and parked the carriage without me noticed... Somehow, they took the horses away and started a campfire while at it. How the hell wasn''t I able to notice something like that? ¡¯Actually... It could be because I was too impressed in... But it wasn''t... that bad...¡¯ I was aware that I tended to zoom out sometimes¡ª Fiona pointed that out several times already¡ª but never happened to such a degree. I made a mental note to pay attention the next time I played with mana again. I shouldn''t be doing that without Fiona around either... Though, such a degree of immersion was productive. I learned the skill so much quicker than [Earth Manipulation]. Not to mention how I wasn''t even able to learn [Water Manipulation] yet. Maybe I should try to see if I could do something similar next time we see a river... ¡¯Or maybe not. Greed no good, me... Greed no good.¡¯ I shook my head and dumped the topic for the future me to deal with. I still wanted to know what actually happened, since, it was easier to just ask rather than to came with wild assumptions by myself. As I was stepping down from the carriage, Fiona turned her head and looked at me. For some reason, on her face wasn''t the usual smile that I was used to receive these days. She seemed pretty upset for some reason. I was a little worried so I swiftly approached them. ¡± Oh, Miss Elizabeth is finally awake. It sure feels different when you look at an elf doing their thing. ¡± Albert said as soon as he spotted me. He appeared to be glad that the previous awkward atmosphere was finally over. ¡± You were so immersed in it that we didn''t want to bother you. ¡± Maybe it was my imagination, but I could have sworn that he added something like after the first few times. It was barely audible though. I wasn''t sure if it was meant for me to actually hear that. ¡± Yeah, sorry about that... I think I got too immersed actually. You should have just wake me u¡ª And the mood became awkward again. Ugh... ¡± N-Never mind. Let''s just forget about it. ¡± He just nodded his head. After that, we exchanged a few more words before he decided to leave me and Fiona alone. ¡± Then, that''s it. I already ate, so I''m going to rest first as per how I agreed with Fiona earlier. Since you weren''t here with us and all that... ¡± ¡± Ohh, yeah... No problem. Sorry again... ¡± He nodded again, stretched a bit and left the campfire toward his carriage. As I was about to sit down near Fiona, she turned her head toward me with a sour expression. I just noticed that she hadn''t said anything till now either. ¡± Fio¡ª ¡± You didn''t come back. ¡± she mumbled and looked at me with teary eyes. ¡¯What is she... Oh, I said that I''m gonna get back at her right after... Ugh, this... is not my day...¡¯ I forgot about it. She seemed quite upset about that. But, even so... ¡± Fio, come on. You are not a child¡ª I stopped mid-sentence. Something wasn''t quite right. ¡± Fio, are you alright? ¡± ¡± No. ¡± she whispered while sniffing a bit. ¡± You didn''t come back. ¡± ¡± Fio, I''m sorry. I didn''t mean to... ¡± I wasn''t sure what I should say. She wasn''t... Actually, it wasn''t far from the way she was acting just after that night. ¡¯Oh, fuck... I should have known that this kind of traumas weren''t going to just disappear so easily.¡¯ Sure, she acted with me in that way. But I should have known. Even though she should be capable to fully understand that I didn''t intend to break the promise... Well, traumas weren''t really know for abiding by logic or reason. I had to remedy that, and fast. I kneeled in front of her and looked right in her eyes. She quickly lowered her face. I didn''t know exactly why, but that hurt me a little. ¡± Fiona, I''m really, really, really sorry. Do you understand? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she murmured and raised her head to peek at me a little before lowering it back. Progress. ¡± You know that I wanted to come back but I couldn''t, don''t you? I just forgot that I will enter in that state when I concentrate too hard. ¡± I tried to push a bit. Well, it wasn''t entirely wrong. I had no idea what the hell actually happened. ¡± Mm. ¡± I should to be really careful about what I promise her in the future. I didn''t give to much tough to it, but I became her only pillar of emotional support. And that very support betrayed her trust. ¡± Look. From now on, if I can''t keep a promise, you are allowed to come and do something about it. Alright? However you may see fit, ok? ¡± ¡± Mm... Okay. ¡± ¡± And now, to make up for it, and for you to forgive me... Hmm, how about that. I will hug you double the amount this time. Is that fine? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she said and shifted towards me a bit. I carefully take her in my embrace and started to hug her tightly. I had to really mind my actions from now on. Even though the problem was apparently solved this time, you couldn''t know what might lurk inside her head. For people with mental health problems, it wasn''t enough to simply receive their conscious forgiveness. Deep inside their heads, it was quite possible for them to unconsciously be unable to really forgive you. I had a bitter taste in my mouth just thinking about it. From my carelessness, I already made not one, but two grave mistakes today. It really wasn''t my day. ¡± Are you better now? ¡± ¡± Yes, I''m sorry. ¡± she said and started to tighten her embrace as well. ¡± Don''t worry, it was all my fault. I''ll try my best to not repeat it. As for now, just forgot about it and enjoy your special treatment. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she whispered back and smiled a bit. Her tail was at work as well so I assumed that, this time I managed to fix the problem. But as I was caressing Fiona''s hair, I suddenly remembered about Albert. Looking toward the carriage, I saw him sitting near it, leaning on the front wheel. He didn''t seem that he was paying attention to us so I assumed that he was asleep already. But I was half-convinced that he would wake up if I or anything else were to approach him. The journey was rough when you traveled alone. Being alone in general was rough. I just experienced that after all. ¡± That reminds me... Fio, did you ate with Albert? ¡± ¡± No. I waited for you to wake up. ¡± she said and raised her head to look at me. ¡± Then... How about we eat something? I didn''t eat anything either. ¡± I said and almost winced. Obviously I hadn''t eaten anything. ¡± Mmmmm... But don''t let go. ¡± she demanded while tightening her embrace. ¡± Heheheeh... Don''t look down on me. Do you think I can''t eat while keeping you in my embrace? ¡± I puffed my chest. ¡¯I''m an expert when it comes to eating in the most awkward positions. I liked to eat everywhere but at the table in my previous life. I can''t say that to her though...¡¯ I made her turn around on my lap and rested my chin on her shoulder. Our cheeks touching and all that. Hehe, I was going to feed both of us at the same time. I also made an exception and took out some freshly cooked meat from my ring which was still warm to make up for my mistakes. The merchant wasn''t near anyway. Fiona seemed to regain her previous liveliness while biting with gusto from her share of meat. It was the same thing we ate all the way till here. To be honest, I was quite tired of it but she seemed to enjoy every meal no less than the first time. ¡± Say Fio, what did you do when I was like that? I mean, after you and Albert stopped the carriage. ¡± ¡± Nothing. I made the campfire and waited for you... Why? ¡± she said and licked one of her finger clean. I really hoped to give her a proper meal but that wasn''t possible until we would reach the city. ¡± So... What do you think about Albert? ¡± I lowered my voice while asking the question. Even though he looked like he was asleep, I wouldn''t let my guard down again. ¡± Mm? What do you mean? ¡± she asked and turned her head to me with a confused expression. So close... Her face was too close... Way, way to close... ¡± Oh... Yeah. I didn''t tell you yet. I made a deal with him so we could sell the rest of our materials to him after we get in the city. That way we got a source of information as well. ¡± I tried to play it cool. Judging by the hotness of my face, it wasn''t working. I prayed to the Holy Tree that it was because of the campfire. ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡¯Don''t just Mm me, damnit... A-And move you f-face...¡¯ I sighed in relief as she did so to take another bite. Maybe eating in that position wasn''t my smartest move after all. ¡± I just wanted to know what you think about him. ¡± I asked her again after regaining my composure. Despite how the things were looking, she was an inhabitant of this world... unlike me. I had to consider her point of view as well. ¡± I don''t know... If Lizza thinks that it''s fine, then it''s fine. ¡± she said and smiled at me as if asking for a confirmation to her statement. Ugh, so close... again. ¡± Y-Yeah. I will try my best to live up to your expectations... But if you think that something isn''t right, you should tell me, ok? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± *sigh* Even though she didn''t have too much in common with merchants and their stuff, she shouldn''t leave all the decisions to me like that. As good as our relationship seemed to be on the surface, I couldn''t say that it was a healthy one as well. She didn''t seem to take interest in anything in particular, outside of me. It wasn''t healthy. I was happy that she liked me so much, but that level of dependency worried me a bit. *sigh* I sighed again and started to caress her hair a little. She didn''t seem to mind it and continued to eat another piece of meat. For now, there was no choice but to stick with it since she barely opened her heart to me not too long ago. I hoped to make her interact with other people as well in the future. But that was in the future, when we would have other people to interact with. Chapter 34: Arriving at Arian City. ¡± Mmhm... ¡± I protested. Something was poking my side. ¡± No. Stop it, please... ¡± ¡± Lizza, the merchant is already awake. He''s looking strangely at you. ¡± Fiona said something but I didn''t quite comprehend at the moment. ¡± Hmm... Merchant? What merchant, Fio? ¡± ¡± Eh, Lizza... He is looking really weird at you... Oh, he left. ¡± ¡¯What are you talking about... I''m sleepy since last night... Oh? Oh, shit...¡¯ I opened my eyes and saw that the red moon was about to fade away. Judging by that, there wouldn''t be much until the sun would appear. ¡± Lizza... ¡± Fiona whispered to me and slowly moved her hand through my hair. ¡± Huh? ¡± I let out an incorrigible sound due to the strange situation. This was the first time she was the one doing that to me. Now I understood why she looked so happy when I did that to her. It was so nice that I almost closed my eyes to enjoy the moment but she did mention about a certain merchant looking strangely at me... I moved my line of sight toward the carriage and saw that Albert already started to prepare the horses for departure. ¡± Uugghhhh... No other choice. ¡± I reluctantly stod up and started to prepare what little luggage we had. . . . ¡± We are ready, Albert. ¡± I said while approaching the carriage. ¡± Right on time, Miss Elizabeth. You can get up if all is ready. We have to leave right now if we want to be there today. ¡± ¡± Alright. ¡± I said and signaled for Fiona to came up as well. As we finished the preparations for a comfortable journey, which was top priority after how much my butt had to endure last time, the merchant finished as well and we started to move again. The journey went smoothly from that point. In the end, even the merchant seemed to get tired of peeking at me and Fiona and started to ignore us after some time. Having enough time to thoroughly digest the events of the previous day, it didn''t take long to realize that he might have had a point for all that gawking and exaggerated reactions. I wasn''t sure to what extent, but judging by the information I had at hand, being an elf was akin to being some kind of celebrity. Seeing two ordinary girls acting friendly with one another was a thing, but seeing a celebrity doing that... I could see why that would attract a bit of attention. Even so, after further consideration, I decided to say fuck you to the whole matter. I was already forced to live pretending to be someone I wasn''t. Life was tough. Sometimes, shit way out of your league would be thrown at you, so you had to deal with it. But that was one thing, and limiting myself further just for the sake of not appearing a bit weird in front of a random merchant dude who had no say in the matter was another thing. I had to draw the line somewhere after all. Playing my elven role in from of a king was reasonable. Forcing it upon myself all the time was retarded. And just like that, I decided to show the metaphorical middle finger to Albert and his elven preconceptions and be myself. Not to mention that doing so was a good experiment. I could see in advance what the inhabitants of this world would think about my relationship with Fiona. I closed my eyes and decided to take a short nap. I had to deal with a certain fluff in distress last night so I didn''t catch much sleep. It was reasonable for her to take care of me this time. Her playing with my hair was kind of nice too. . . . Time slowly passed. As the sun was about to go down, Albert turned around to look at us. ¡± The city came in sight, Miss Elizabeth. You can come and take a look if you want. ¡± he said with enthusiasm. He probably saw that sight several times already but I assumed that showing off your homeland good points was universal in any world. Not that I had anything to complain about. More like, I was happy to oblige. ¡± Do you want to see it? ¡± I whispered in the ear of a certain sleeping wolf girl who had her head on my lap. ¡± Mm. ¡± she somehow managed to answer after a bit of consideration. I got the impression that she wasn''t too eager to see it. Well, for her was just another city. ¡± Then hurry up and wake up already. We will have enough time for this later. Oh, that reminds me... ¡± I said with a grin. I moved quickly and managed to pull her off from my lap with a surprise attack. She had a betrayed expression on her face due to my cowardly move but I had no choice. She was too strong physically for me to fight her fair. Sneak attack for the win. ¡± I''ll come to take a look right now, Albert. ¡± I said, letting behind a thoroughly betrayed Fiona. ¡± Ohohooo... ¡± I couldn''t help but let out a surprised sound looking at the sight. I prepared myself for it. From the moment we decided to find a city, I prepared myself but when the actual thing was in front of you... ¡¯Indeed, the real thing is something else...¡¯ I had real troubles trying to suppress the stupid smile who bloomed on my face. I probably was looking like a genuine country-bumpkin who saw for the first time a city. The irony was that the truth wasn''t too far off. It was the first one I saw from the moment I arrived in this world. ¡¯Walls... Big walls. A freaking city almost completely surrounded by freaking big walls.¡¯ I said almost completely since I could see some buildings outside of the walls enclosure. Outside of that, a certain distance further could be seen plots of farmland with roads connecting to the main one leading to the city. A big city needed food to survive, and without industrialization to take care of that, self-sufficiency was a requirement. I was also sure that they shipped food from the surrounding villages as well. I wasn''t able to see beyond the city walls but the houses outside of them were quite small and crowded. For a big city, having something akin to some kind of slums was to be expected. I also noticed that encountering monsters or wildlife became a rarity the more we approached the city. It shouldn''t be that bad living outside of the city walls even in this pseudo-medieval fantasy world. The city was also crossed by a river, but again, I wasn''t able to see much since big walls. ¡± Lizza. ¡± Fiona called to me and tapped lightly on my shoulder. ¡± Oh, Fio... You came to see it after all. ¡± I smiled at her. She was looking like she wasn''t upset anymore. ¡± Mm. ¡± Her lack of interest was as visible as the daylight though. Even Albert seemed to notice that, but he just ignored it. That won''t do. ¡± Come on, Fio. We''ll have to stay here for a while. If you are looking like that even before we got inside... Just look at that river crossing through it and¡ª My speech was suddenly interrupted because I saw something unbelievable. A boat was moving toward the city on the same river I was speaking about. ¡± Mm. If Lizza says so, I''ll try. ¡± she replied. If there wasn''t a freaking boat going up the river towards the city, I would have noticed that her words didn''t match her impassive expression. And before being accused that it was just a boat, it wasn''t just a boat. It wasn''t the type of vessel you could see just by visiting a port city. It was the type you saw in movies. A freaking 18th-century ship with no engine, all wooden, with three masts, and all the cool stuff. I shoved my previous concerns in a corner and looked at Albert, demanding an explanation. ¡± Quite impressive, don''t you think? The river is connected to the sea and not too far away from the Port City Ilassa. Since it is safer and faster to transport things on water, Arian City became quite prosperous because of it. ¡± ¡¯So, that means that the sea isn''t that far from here. Not that I care too much right now but it''s good to know.¡¯ ¡± Anyway, we should hurry up and enter the city when there''s still daytime. It¡¯ll be harder for you to find a place for the night if we don''t do it. ¡± Albert said and increased our pace. ¡¯Huh? For the night... hmm... Oh, yeah. We need a place to stay after all. That would be quite hard to find in the middle of the night.¡¯ The merchant seemed to guess my thoughts and started to laugh at my troubled expression. ¡± Don''t worry, Miss Elizabeth. I can recommend some good places. Takin in account of your identity, I assume that you wouldn''t like to stay at a regular inn. ¡± ¡± A good place? ¡± I prompted him for a more detailed explanation. ¡± Yes. Safer, quieter, cleaner. And not too high priced either. It happens for me to know a very suitable place for you two to stay. ¡± ¡± Oh, that sounds quite nice. And I guess that we don''t have a better choice anyway. We will take your offer, Albert. ¡± I thanked him. ¡¯Hell yeah. This is the power of connections. Finally, after all that shit luck...¡¯ ¡± Oh... But that reminds me... How should we find you afterward? I think that we have to split at some point... ¡± ¡± Don''t worry about it. That place isn''t too far from my place. I don''t want to lose a precious business partner after all. ¡± he said and started laughing again. He seemed to be in a good mood every time the business subject was brought into the discussion. The time slowly passed and our carriage came closer to the main gate. We put on our hoods since I didn''t want unnecessary attention. We already passed beside some other travelers on foot and I didn''t want anyone to notice my or Fiona¡¯s inhuman features. All of them were humans so far. A bit disappointing, since I was more eager to see other races. I was aware that the majority of the population in this country was represented by humans, but Fiona said that other races should be present as well. We didn''t have to wait too much at the gate either. The people on foot were waiting in a separate line and there was just one carriage in front of us. As our turn came, I adjusted my hood in a way that would let my face to be easily seen. It would be bad if they would say something about taking off the hood. I didn''t care if they saw my face or not. All I wanted was to not reveal my peculiar parts... Fiona followed my example and fixed her own as to not reveal her ears or more important, her collar. This time, the guards looked more like guards. Not like the ones I saw in that village... All of them had a complete and standardized set of armor and a sword at their belt. Even though I was all tense and impatient, the result couldn''t be described better than anticlimactic. I had a lot of possible scenarios prepared in my head for the countless things that might get wrong. I thought of some fake identities and situations to fit whatever they might ask us but the reality stuck me hard this time. The guards just spared a glance at us, took a superficial look at the cargo and collected the entrance fee before letting us enter the city. Not that I wasn''t relieved with the outcome, but it took some time before it really clicked to me. They must have had to deal with hundreds of people daily. Unless we looked like a mass-murderer or extremely suspicious, they would just collect the payment and proceed to the next one. In their eyes, we were just two young girls from a nearby village accompanying a merchant. Thinking about it, Albert had some kind of proof to attest his membership with the merchant¡¯s association and that he was running a business in this city. But that was for lowering the entrance payment, not a necessity to enter the city. As the carriage got through the gate, the sun started to fade away so I let these useless thoughts to fade away with it. ¡¯A thing less to worry about. At least we got a good start. Let''s see how things will evolve from now on.¡¯ Chapter 35: Erin ¡± We are almost there, Miss Elizabeth. ¡± Albert said while yawning. I didn''t notice before, but he seemed to be quite tired. Not that it wasn''t understandable. He was leading the way for two days already wile just resting poorly. That, without taking into account the time before we meet. ¡± That''s good to know. You seem to be quite tired, Albert. ¡± I pointed it out. ¡± Yeah, as of right now, I''d want nothing more than to jump in my bed and sleep for two days straight. ¡± I nodded in silence and didn''t pursue the matter. Even I could tell when someone wasn''t in the mood for a small chat. Though, in his case, he was just too tired for that. It wasn''t a big loss anyway. That just gave me more time to observe the city property. Looking around, the road was illuminated with some kind of lamps at regular distances. What attracted my curiosity was that the lamps had no flame inside. And I was quite sure that electricity wasn''t the answer either. Magic, maybe? Letting that aside, the city folk was quite active even though the sun was already down. It made sense. While either one of the two moon phrases were shorter than the sun one, combined, they were longer. Judging by my previous world average of eight hours of sleep out of twenty-four, it was reasonable to think that people around here weren''t sleeping all that time either. I also had a hunch that a day here was actually longer than in my previous life. I didn''t know exactly how much longer, but I guessed that it had to have at least a few extra hours since the difference was big enough for me to notice it. Because it was enough to sleep in either one of the moons time, the citizens seemed to continue their activities during the blue moon time and probably slept as the red one appeared. It made much more sense like that. The rest of the city seemed to be in good shape too. The road was paved with stone and from what I saw till now I suspected that they had some kind of sewage system as well. I wanted to observe a bit more, but it seemed that it had to be postponed. ¡± We are here. ¡± Albert¡¯s voice just confirmed that. We arrived at our destination. The place wasn''t the best illuminated, but I could see that we stopped in from of a rather nice building. It wasn''t too big, but at least it had a second floor. As the majority of the buildings until now, the first floor was made of stone, and the second one was made of wood and lighter materials. I couldn''t see from what was made the roof since it was too dark at the moment. ¡± Your place isn''t bad. ¡± I decided to throw a random compliment. Even if it was random, experience taught me that sometimes, it had a bigger erect than one would expect. It wasn''t just empty words either. Judging by the number of people who were passing by, his place was really good for business. ¡± Ah, no, no. You seem to misunderstand something. ¡± he retorted with a tired laugh. ¡± The place isn''t mine. I wouldn''t even be able to pay the rent if I was alone. I''m sharing the place with a close friend and we split the rent in two. I wouldn''t be this poor if the place was mine. ¡± ¡± Oh... Make some sense now. Anyway, we shouldn''t make you lose more time... You still had to unload all the cargo and so on. ¡± He nodded his head and we parted shortly after that. The place that he recommended for us wasn''t too far away. Just some streets ahead. It wasn''t a regular inn where you could get a room if you paid for it. The place belonged to one of his friends who died some years ago. Now, it was in his wife''s possession and since she was left alone with her two children, her life wasn''t easy. Albert said that she would rent us a room if we were to tell her that we were his friends. I didn''t dislike the idea either. It was way better to stay in a place like that than in some busy inn with lots of people. . . . As we arrived in front of the building which resembled what Albert described to us, I stopped and took my time look around at the side buildings for a moment. It wasn''t like I was postponing the inevitable. It wasn''t. ¡± Lizza... What are you doing? ¡± Fiona asked. It seemed that I took a bit long. ¡± Oh... Sorry about that. I just wanted to see if we arrived at the correct place. ¡± ¡± Mm. Judging by what he said, this must be the place. ¡± she confirmed and prompted me to get going with a look. ¡± T-Then, let''s go inside. ¡± I said with a little stiffness in my voice. I had to admit that I had a little reticence when it came to meeting new people. Usually, it didn''t affect me too much. I just liked more hanging out with the people I was accustomed rather than meeting new ones. This time though, we were two dubious strangers wearing hoods, claiming to be the friends of their friend with no proof of any kind, asking to stay at their house. It would have been strange if I wasn''t worried about how the next meeting would unfold. Fiona seemed to not care though. She just nodded and stepped closer to the front door. Strangely, that gave me a bit of courage as well. Even the fact that I had no choice but to reveal my race to them, wasn''t that concerning anymore. The worst that could happen? We would get rejected, nothing more. Fiona''s collar would be kept a secret though... As we pushed the door and tried to steep inside, it made a cracking sound announcing our arrival. Most likely, the reason was poor maintenance, but the result was the same. The girl which was seated at the counter fixed her sight on us. She looked around Fiona¡¯s age with shoulder-length brown hair and the same eye color. She was wearing simple clothes at first glance but if you paid attention, the material and the way they were manufactured was much better than ours. ¡± Welcome! ¡± she said. ¡± T-Thanks. ¡± I responded and immediately regretted. I could not believe that I stuttered at a time like that. ¡¯Huh... What''s wrong with me... Just calm down and be natural.¡¯ While I was struggling in my mind, Fiona just stepped inside and started looking around and ignoring the girl like this was her place already. If she was born male, I would have sworn that she would have had balls of steel. ¡± Eh, I can help you if you search for something. My mother isn''t here right now but if you are not here for a special request, I know everything we have on sale. ¡± the girl said after a while. Seeing our strange behavior, I was impressed. I cleared my throat and stepped closer to the girl. ¡± Actually, we were looking for your mother... Do you know when she might come back? ¡± ¡± Yes. She¡¯ll be back in half an hour or so. You were here for a request? If you were in a hurry, I can tell you with approximation if my mother can help you. ¡± she said and smiled at me while tilting her head a little to peek under my hood. I couldn''t blame her for being curious. It was still normal to wear one when you walk outside, but to keep it up even after we walked inside... Not to mention that we were the only customers at the moment. ¡± Ehm... We didn''t come here for a request. ¡± I sad with a little hesitation. I didn''t even know what requests they accepted. Looking around, I saw that besides some day to day products, they were selling mainly clothes. There were some articles from leather as well, like leather pants and boots. It was safe to assume that her mother was working in that field... ¡± Err... But then... for what have you come? ¡± she said with a perplexed expression. I tried to force a smile while searching for a good way to ask the question. Then, it clicked to me. ¡± Do you know a merchant named Albert? His shop isn''t too far away from here... ¡± ¡± Ah... yes, Albert was good friends with my father. He helped us a lot after father... ¡± she suddenly stopped and seemed to lose her vigor for a moment but she quickly came back to her initial state. ¡± A-Anyways, did he send you here? That means he came back safely, didn''t he? ¡± she changed the subject. ¡± Yeah... You see, we came here to Arian City with him. ¡± ¡± Oh, is that so? Then, that means that you two were friends with him? ¡± she said and cast a little glance toward Fiona before turning back to me. Fiona was looking around seemingly not minding too much what we were doing. At least, that was the impression she was giving to others. Knowing her, I was aware that she was listening to our conversation but she wasn''t the type to speak too much with strangers. In a way, she was less social than me, though, for a whole different reason. I turned my attention back to... ¡¯Oh, I don''t even know her name...¡¯ I didn''t ask for it and she never mentioned it either. For someone who wanted to stay there, I wasn''t doing a good job. ¡± Somehow... I mean, yeah... We and Albert are friends. By the way, outside of your mother, Sara, he didn''t mention your names. We might as well get acquaintances. My name is Elizabeth and she is Fiona. ¡± I sad and motioned her to do the same. ¡± Oh... yes. My name is Erin. Nice to meet you. ¡± she said a little confused by the strange development. I had to admit that we wandered quite a bit from the main subject. ¡± Nice to meet you too, Erin. Now that we know each other''s name, let''s go back to the main subject. This is the first time we came to this city. Since we don''t know the place at all, Albert said that your mother might rent us a room for some days. We will pay for it, obviously. ¡± ¡± Ehhh... Um... I don¡¯t... I don''t know. M-Maybe... I must ask mother first. ¡± she said a little unsure of what to do. *sigh* She was just a child so I didn''t expect her to decide in the first place. ¡¯But this reaction though...¡¯ Albert recommend the place but that was all. There was a chance to get refused too. ¡¯No other choice... Let''s see how this works. I need to reveal it sooner or later anyway.¡¯ I grabbed my hood and slowly removed it to reveal my head completely. Even though I was wearing it for quite a while, my hair was silky and smooth as always. It would have been a lie to say that I wasn''t a bit proud of that. My hair was nice and pretty. Now that I thought about it, I didn''t even take care of it in a proper way. I had some days from the last bath but it was looking like I just get out from a beauty salon. ¡¯Maybe I can take a bath too since I came here. Oh... Ohhhhh... This is not the time for random blabbering.¡¯ I quickly focused my attention back to Erin but what greeted me was a statue. ¡± Eh... E-Erin? ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± A-Are you ok? ¡± I tried again. ¡±...¡± ¡± Hello, are you alrigh... ¡± ¡± HEEEEEEEEEE... W-W-Wha-Wha... ¡± *Bang* ¡±...¡± This time, I was the one who remained without a word. She somehow tried to come closer but she took a wrong step and now was lying on the floor. Fiona came closer since she saw the scene as well. I didn''t react in any way since I was too stunned by the result. ¡¯S-Seriously... Are you joking with me? What is with all the exaggerated reactions?¡¯ ¡± Eh, Lizza... ¡± Fiona said while approaching. She stepped closer to her, probably to check on her since I didn''t move at all. ¡± Is she alright? ¡± I asked since the girl was still down. ¡± Mn. She does not seem to be hurt or anything but she fainted from the impact. ¡± Fiona gave the verdict. ¡±...¡± What the fuck was I supposed to do with such a development? I was prepared for a lot of things, rejection included, but I wasn''t prepared for this. Chapter 36: Searching for troubles where there wasn’t any… ¡¯Nooo, Holy Tree! Please, no! No! Nooooo!¡¯ ¡± Lizza, what should we do now? ¡± ¡± Why should I know? It''s not like this is happening all the time. ¡± l tried to defend myself, but she was looking at me with suspicion. ¡¯Stop that. Don''t look at me like that.¡¯ Judging by the multitude of reactions she saw thus far, it was fair to be doubtful about that, but I was innocent this time. I didn''t live here a lifetime so this was new for me as well. ¡± Anyway... We should wake her up before to¡ª *Thud* ¡± M-My daughter... W-What have you done to her? ¡± a panicked voice came from behind, accompanied by the sound of something dropping on the floor. ¡¯No... No, no, no, no, no. This isn''t right. Why is my luck soooo bad?¡¯ I instinctively took some steps back to make space for the panicked mother. Fiona was already at a safe distance... I didn''t even saw how she vanished that fast. ¡± E-Erin, don''t scare me. W-Wake up. ¡± she said while shaking the fainted girl. The method didn''t seem to work too well though... From all possible moments, she had to come right now. I had to clarify the situation immediately or the situation was going to turn ugly. ¡± E-Excuse me¡ª ¡± What did you do to my daughter? ¡± she said almost yelling and looked at me with an angry expression. I had to be careful. That was a really angry mother. ¡± We didn''t do anything to¡ª ¡± WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY DAUGHTER? ¡± she repeated the same question visibly running out of patience. She tried to stand up, but a hand grabbed her shoulder, pressing her back down. Judging by how she winced, Fiona put some force in that grip. ¡± Don''t speak like that with Lizza. ¡± she warned her in the chilliest tone I had ever heard her speak till now. Let alone the poor and confused woman, even I was a bit spooked by that. ¡± Lizza already said that we didn''t do anything to her. ¡± she continued, and I was happy that she tried to defend me, but it was certain that we would end up being homeless for the night if she continued in that direction. ¡± Fio, stop! ¡± ¡± But¡ª ¡± I know, I know... But this is just a huge misunderstanding. It''s normal for a mother to react like that for the sake of her children. ¡± I tried to appease to the woman. Fiona finally let her stand up, not before glaring one last time at her. Ugh... ¡± Please listen to us for a moment. ¡± ¡± Alright, I''m listening. ¡± the woman grumbled, rubbing her shoulder with the opposite hand. ¡± We didn''t do anything to her. When I tried to take off my hood, she got too excited for some reason, took a wrong step and fell on the floor... We really didn''t do anything. ¡± I explained calmly, but the more I spoke, the more ridiculous it became. ¡± Your hood? I don''t understa¡ª ¡±...¡± ¡± Ohh... I see. ¡± Her eyes suddenly become round and seemingly lifeless. She was so confused that she didn''t even notice it until now. I grabbed my rucksack since I didn''t want to reveal my ring and made it look like I took a bottle of water from there. ¡± Take it. I don''t think that she is going to wake up just from a little shaking. ¡± I said and approached her with the bottle in hand. She just grabbed it with her eyes fixated on my face. I had to motion to her to start because she was just staring at me. . . . ¡± Ahhh... Wha... No, stop... What... ¡± Erin was forcefully woken up, startled by the surprise shower. She was frantically looking in all directions. ¡± Erin, are you alright? ¡± her mother asked and embraced her. ¡± M-Mother, what are you doing here? What is happening? Ouch... My head hurts. ¡± She carefully touched the little red bump on her forehead and her memories prior to this incident seemed to return to her. She immediately turned her attention to me. ¡± M-Mother... L-Look there... ¡± she pointed at me. ¡± I saw it already. Don''t scare me like that again. ¡± her mother said and hugged her daughter again, before turning around to me. ¡± I''m really, really sorry for¡ª ¡± Don''t worry about it. ¡± I cut her off immediately. I wanted to cast away this incident already. ¡± I''m happy that she isn''t hurt. Even so, we should hurry up and take care of that bump before it gets worse. ¡± She just nodded and helped her daughter sit on a chair, grabbed a towel, soaked it with cold water, and presses it on her bump. I was genuinely surprised at how smooth the things proceeded after that. We properly made acquaintances and she seemed even more ashamed when she found out that we were friends with Albert. And that he was the one who recommended to us this place. Erin was staring at me with sparkling eyes the entire time, which sealed even the slightest possibility to be refused. How could a mother destroy her own child''s hopes and dreams? We still had to pay, of course. To rent a room for a week, we had to pay 7 silver coins. Two lesser silver coins for a person per day. She said that we could find places cheaper than that but the conditions left a lot to be desired. I appreciated the sincerity though. We followed her upstairs. The place wasn''t that big so there were just three rooms, one for deposing stuff, one for them to sleep in and another one which wasn''t used anymore. The parents and children were supposed to sleep in separate rooms but since her husband died, they started to sleep all together in one room. The other one remained unused after that. ¡± This is the room. ¡± she said while pushing the door open. ¡± I suppose that you are quite tired after the journey so I will not bother you any further. This is the key and if you want to eat something, you can come downstairs in maybe half an hour. ¡± she said and handed me the key. ¡± Thank you, Sara. ¡± I grabbed it and thanked her for the hospitality. Meals weren''t included in the payment so it was a bonus. In fact, as I was looking at the room, I guessed that even that payment was too low for it. The room wasn''t too big but it was properly cleaned. There was a bed with clean sheets on it, a table with some chairs, some kind of chest to deposit stuff and so on. It didn''t look like a room left unused for who knows how long. For my standards before coming in this world, it wasn''t much. But compared with sleeping on a bed of leaves in the forest, it was a huge improvement. I put my rucksack in a corner and jumped on the bed. It was surprisingly soft so I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment. I didn''t even know how I managed to survive without one that much time. ¡± Huuuuuhh, this is bliss. A real bed after so much time... ¡± I moaned. ¡± Fio, come here and try it. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she said and took down her hood before sitting down next to me. Looking at her, I couldn''t help but notice how easy to spot her collar was. We had to hide it with a safer method. She would be exposed instantly if her hood would fall down. ¡± Fio, I will definitely take down that thing from your neck. We need to sell some materials for at least one more time, but we''ll get there. You have to endure it at least a few more days. ¡± ¡± Mm, I know. Thank you, Lizza. ¡± she said and tried to shorten the already small distance between us. She was clearly expecting something and I knew exactly what. Since there was still time before our free meal was ready, I stood up and placed her head on my lap. She showed a delightful expression, clearly satisfied with how the situation was progressing. I didn''t want to make her wait too long and started to caress her hair since it was a pleasant feeling for me as well. It was nice to play with other people''s hair in general, let alone if the target had extra fluffy animal ears to play with. ¡± Don''t need to thank me, Fio. After all, we are... ¡± I paused. ¡± friends!? ¡± I didn''t know why but it sounded a bit off. ¡¯Is she just a simple friend?¡¯ Now that I noticed it, she was clearly not just a friend. I barely know Albert for two days but I already upgraded him to my friend list since he helped us so much. Some money had been thrown into that equation, but help was help and I was grateful for that. I didn''t know how she saw it, but I liked to believe that our relationship was much deeper than that. Maybe best friends? That didn''t sound like it either. ¡¯Maybe... Maybe... I-It could be... No, no...¡¯ It couldn''t be that. It wasn''t that. I had to admit that looking from a certain perspective, she was quite attractive. No, she was attractive. Even though I wasn''t a man anymore, that didn''t mean I switched my preferences or something. Dating a man was... out of questions. Thanks to all the Gods and Buddhas and the Holy Tree, I still found myself attracted by women rather than men. But oddly enough, that didn''t seem to be the case either. I wasn''t sure if I was attracted to her in that way. ¡¯I''m basically embracing her right now...¡¯ If it were to be my old self, that would have escalated in a very different way by this point, but right now... I wasn''t sure if I wanted to do that something to her which was rather confusing. It was more like I was happy to make her happy. I... wasn''t a pedophile either. She was basically 16, right? And I didn''t know what her opinion on something like that would be either. It wasn''t going to work anyways. She was a full-time woman after all. She should be attracted to males. ¡± Lizza, something happened? Why did you stop? ¡± I looked down to see that Fiona was staring at me with big, yellow eyes and a curious expression on her face. I smiled at her. ¡± Nothing. Nothing happened. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she nodded happily and wrapped her hands around my waist. ¡¯Maybe a little sister?¡¯ I wasn''t sure if that fitted the bill, but looking at her again, that was the safest bet. ¡¯I never had a little sister anyway... I think? Strange... I don''t quite... I... Ugh...¡¯ . . . ¡± ...zza. Lizza!? ¡± ¡± Huh? Ah, ugh... W-What is it? ¡± I looked around. What was I doing? ¡± Lizza, you spaced out again. Are you sure you''re alright? ¡± ¡± I did? ¡± ¡± Mm. You did. Are you alright? ¡± ¡± Yeah, I think I am. Sorry about that. I don''t know what happened... Maybe I''m more tired than I know. ¡± ¡± I see. ¡± she said, stood up from my lap, literally took me like I weighed nothing, and pushed me in hers. ¡± There. Close your eyes. ¡± And she started petting me. It was so nice... and embarrassing. ¡± I''m not that tired. ¡± I tried to stand. I failed. ¡± Stay there. ¡± she demanded. ¡± I''m really fine though. See? Nothing wrong¡ª ¡± Stay there or we won''t go down to eat either. ¡± she advised. ¡±...¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± A-Alright. ¡± Chapter 37: My first true meal in a while. ¡± I think we should go. Right, Fio? ¡± I tried, again. It was like, the fourth time already? ¡± Mm. Alright. ¡± And she finally gave up. Even though I wasn''t against staying like that and being pampered by her, we had to go down. It wasn''t like we didn''t have other options but I wanted to see what kind of food was common for people from this world. It would help to get rid of the awkward first impression from earlier too. Fiona had to keep the hood as to at least hide her collar. I kept mine as well. It would be strange if she was the only one with it. We really had to find a solution since we could not wear these things all the time. We made our way downstairs but as I was about to call for them, I heard a man¡¯s voice coming from the store. The stairs that lead to our room were somehow separated from the main store by a wall. It was more like a small corridor that was connecting the main store with the kitchen and the second floor. There was another door but I didn''t know what was behind it. I put back my hood and approached to take a look. A man was speaking with Sara while checking a pair of boots. ¡± Ehh... Hey, Erin. ¡± she was standing on a chair behind the counter and since I didn''t want to bother Sara when she was busy, I called for her instead. ¡± Miss elf... ohh... I mean, Miss Elizabeth... ¡± she quickly sprinted in my direction blabbering something I didn''t quite understand. The man simply gave me a short glance and Sara waved her hand at me while smiling. They turned back at what they were previously discussing shortly after. ¡¯At least my hood is doing his job...¡¯ ¡± M-Miss Elizabeth. Mother is a little busy right now but we already prepared the food. ¡± said Erin trying to peek under my hood with sparkling eyes. ¡± You helped too? It seems that Sara has a reliable daughter. ¡± ¡± Hehehe... A-Anyway, come after me. The food is in the kitchen. ¡± *creaky* The door that I previously didn''t know where it was leading opened and a small boy came in. Behind the door seemed to be some kind of warehouse but I didn''t have time to see too in detail since he closed the door shortly afterward. He looked like he was around eight or nine years old and his features resembled pretty much with Erin¡¯s so I assumed that he was the younger sibling. ¡± Sister, who are these people? ¡± he said looking at me and Fiona a little hesitant. ¡± Arron, don''t be rude. They are our guests. ¡± ¡± Mm. Sorry... ¡± ¡± Erin, don''t worry about something like that... ¡± I tried to interject. ¡± No, no. That can''t be. We already made a scene earlier, Miss Elizabeth. ¡± she replied and turned like a tomato as she realized that the scene from earlier was kind of her fault. ¡± I said that we should forget about that already... Anyway, you can call me directly by my name. ¡± I reassured her. I really, really, wanted to get rid of that already. ¡± Eh... But... But mother said that we should be respectful to you and... eh... I''m sorry, I wasn''t supposed to tell you that. ¡± She lowered her head with an anxious expression on her face. She seemed to lose her temper and started to make mistakes after mistakes from the moment she learned about my race. I had to do something to help her to get used to it. Or else, I was sure that another scene was going to unfold soon. *sigh* I let out a sigh and looked at her with fixed eyes. She was taken aback with my sudden change but I didn''t care too much. ¡± Listen, Erin... Didn''t I say that it''s alright to call me by my name? ¡± ¡± Is... Is that really alright? ¡± ¡± Yes, I''m more comfortable like that. ¡± ¡± O-Okay then. I-I¡¯ll do that. ¡± She seemed oddly excited for some reason. Was that such a big deal? Fiona was calling me by an even shorter version of my name without any problems. ¡± Sister... ¡± the little boy grabbed his elder sister''s sleeve and called to her with a weak voice. He seemed to be quite confused by this development. ¡± Ah, yeah... Miss Eli... I mean, E-Elizabeth. This is my little brother, Arron. ¡± ¡± Nice to meet you, Arron. I''m Elizabeth and she is Fiona. We¡¯ll live there for some time so let''s get along. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± he nodded and looked at his sister for help. They seemed to have a good relationship at least. But since Arron didn''t seem to be that comfortable with new people, the conversation ended there and Erin led us in the kitchen. Besides some simple utensils and pots of different shapes and sizes, there was a table with several chairs in the middle. Erin didn''t waste any time and gave each of us some bowls with soup, bread and some kind of weird looking dish with vegetables. The taste wasn''t bad even though it was a little too simple. It would have been much better with some condiments but I was already used to simpler food already. After so much time in the forest, I was forced to be. Looking at it again, there wasn''t much meat in these dishes and that gave me a good idea. Even though it wasn''t much, they shared with us what they had. It would be bad to not help them a little since that was pretty easy for me to do. I quickly stood up and ran upstairs to take my rucksack. As I came back, Sara finished whatever business she had with that man and was already there in the kitchen. ¡± Was there something wrong with the food, Miss Elizabeth? ¡± Sara asked me the moment she saw me coming in the kitchen. ¡± Ah, no, no. I''m sorry that I rushed so suddenly without a word. I just remembered about something I left in the room upstairs. ¡± ¡± Oh, I hope that there wasn''t any problem. ¡± ¡± There wasn''t any problem... But since you invited us to eat together, I remembered that we still had some provisions from the journey. ¡± I said and took out from the rucksack several chunks of meat. Each chunk was poorly wrapped in some kind of gigantic leaf we took from the forest but it was better than nothing. We didn''t have any proper wrappings so we had to go with that. ¡± M-Mommy... Meat, a lot of meat... ¡± the little boy seemed to be excited after he saw what I took out. As I was guessing, it wasn''t that easy to raise two children as a single mother. It was bad to make their lives even harder even though they were the ones who invited us to eat with them. ¡± Arron. ¡± Sara looked at him and called his name with an embarrassed face. ¡± Mm... I''m sorry, mommy. ¡± the little boy lowered his head. ¡± Miss Elizabeth, we can''t accept these. Not to mention that the meat seems to be quite high quality too. ¡± Sara tried to refuse. But I wasn''t going to give up. Not when the high-quality meat wasn''t much for me and Fiona. We had way more than we could eat anyway. ¡± Do not worry, we didn''t buy them. We hunted for it when we came here so it''s not a big deal. ¡± ¡± Even if it''s like that, we can''t accept it for free... ¡± ¡± Then, we can make a deal for it. ¡± I said and took out another two or three chunks of meat. ¡± I''m sorry, but we can''t afford such high-quality meat either. ¡± ¡± Oh, no, no. I didn''t say that you need to buy it. I wanted to say that I''ll give it to you in exchange for some meals during our stay here. ¡± I offered. ¡± Even though you put it like that, the exchange isn''t equal at all... ¡± She was quite adamant about it so I had to at least give her a reason to accept the meat. That would be beneficial for all of us after all. ¡± Sara... We are more than happy with the deal... We don''t have what we need to prepare it, not to mention that it''s too much for us. It wouldn''t last for too long either and we don''t have what we need to preserve it. It would be much easier for us to let the food preparation on you... You could say that we are the ones who gain the most from this deal. ¡± ¡± But¡ª ¡± Please, Sara. ¡± *sigh* ¡± Fine... I''ll give up this time. Thank you very much for it. Erin... Arron... ¡± ¡±¡± Thank you very much. ¡±¡± She quickly took the chunks and moved them as to not be in the way. ¡¯Her expression seems to be a little odd though...¡¯ ¡± You seem to be thinking about something, Sara. Is there a problem with the meat? ¡± ¡±Ah, no, no... It''s just that you mentioned that you hunted for it... Is it possible for you to be an adventurer, Miss Elizabeth? Do you come here for the emergency quest? ¡± ¡± Emergency quest? ¡± I inquired. There was several pieces of interest in what she said earlier. ¡± Oh... So you didn''t come here for it... The Adventurers Guild announced it several days ago. I don''t know too much about it since I''m not an adventurer but there was quite the ruckus about this topic these days. People started to arrive here for it. ¡± ¡± Is that so... Maybe I''ll ask about it tomorrow since it''s pretty late to visit the city right now... What do you think, Fio? ¡± ¡± Mm, tomorrow... ¡± she just nodded and resumed her eating. It was kind of amazing how little interest she had in Sara and the siblings. ¡± Anyway... If Miss Elizabeth didn''t have anything else to surprise us with, we should resume the meal. It won''t be good if it gets cold. ¡± ¡± Okey. Thanks again for the meal, Sara. ¡± ¡± Oh, do not worry about that. ¡± After that, we finished our meal without any major incident. They seemed to be a little surprised when we confirmed that Fiona was part of the beastkin race. Even with the hood, her yellow eyes, long and pointy nails were harder to hide. If not from the first glance, anyone would notice after a while. They said that it was quite rare to meet a single elf, let alone one who was traveling with a member from the beastkin race. At least they had nothing against her race. It was for an instant, but I thought that I saw the corner of her mouth rising a bit as she heard that. I hoped it wasn''t just my imagination. . . . As I was trying to get asleep, resting on a proper bed for the first time in a while, I started to think about what should be done from now on. Fiona¡¯s collar was the most important thing to get rid of, no question asked. But after that, I didn''t have any plans. I was quite surprised as to how smooth things progressed thus far. For the moment, we got a place to stay, our meals were resolved as well, and if all was good, her collar would be removed soon too. If my deal with Albert would be successful, our money problem wouldn''t be a problem anymore either. I was a little worried about what Sara said earlier but since she didn''t seem to worry herself too much, I wouldn''t either for the moment. ¡¯But still... I''m a little curious about what the situation might be...¡¯ It was an emergency quest... You couldn''t be called a man if you wouldn''t be excited about something like that. Even though I wasn''t a man anymore. If I were to take it like that, I wasn''t even a human anymore. ¡¯Anyway... Sleep... sleep... I''ll have to deal with it tomorrow.¡¯ Chapter 38: Taking a stroll through the city. As the sun started to illuminate our room through the small window, Fiona began the usual process of waking me up. Even though we got to bed pretty early, I didn''t like waking up early no matter what. It was a bad habit from my previous life... ¡± Lizza, wake up. ¡± ¡± No. I will not! ¡± I half-declared with a yawn. ¡± Bed good, wake up bad. ¡± On top of that, my reasoning was infallible. ¡± But Lizza... Sara asked if we will take our breakfast with them a little earlier. ¡± Fiona tried to appease to pesky logic and defective reasoning. ¡± Sleep good, breakfast bad. ¡± But the great me was above such things. Nothing was going to wake me up. ¡± But you said that I should wake you up earlier this morning. ¡± ¡± That was then... and now it is now. A thing of the past. We shall forgive about it. ¡± I said and rolled to the other side. ¡±Do you... understand, Fio? We should sleep a little bit more. ¡± ¡± No. That didn''t make any sense, Lizza. If you don''t wake up right now, I''ll bite your ears again. ¡± she said, while whispered the last part close to my endangered part of the body. ¡± Eeeehhh... N-Not the ears. You said you wouldn''t do that again... L-Lier. ¡± ¡± Mm... But it worked. You finally woke up. ¡± she responded with no trace of remorse on her face. What a monster. ¡± You... You... traitor... To use such a method... No morning hug for you. ¡± I declared her punishment. ¡± But... ¡± she tried to complain against my unreasonable verdict. Her smug and victorious expression vanished in an instant as she heard that. ¡± Lizza, that''s not fair... ¡± she said almost with tears in her eyes. If something wasn''t fair, then that pair of teary eyes was unfair. ¡± Ugh... Fine... fine... Come here. ¡± I sand and succumbed to that overwhelming ball of teary fluffiness. At least, I had the opportunity to slack a little bit more and embrace her at the same time. That was a win-win development. After some time I decided that we should get down since we couldn''t make a bad reputation right from the start... I needed to at least look like a decent person. . . . The breakfast was already prepared when we arrived. I started to get a little worried since they might have waited for us. ¡± Sara, I''m sorry if we were late. ¡± ¡± Oh, do not worry. It took a little longer than usual since I had new ingredients this time. We just finished. ¡± What a kind person. I was convinced that it wasn''t the case... ¡± That''s a relief to hear. ¡± I decided to play along though. This time, the soup had a sizable amount of meat as well. It was nice to eat it prepared in other ways after so much meat roasted at the campfire. ¡¯Finally, good fucking food!¡¯ As a certain blonde chef awarded with a shitload of michelin stars would have said. But before my mind wandered who knows where I suddenly remembered that this was a clothing store. It was a good opportunity to look at them since our clothes were a little lacking. I asked Sara to show us around after we finished to eat. She seemed happy that we decided to look at her goods. ¡± These boots are quite good, but I think they were a little too big for my feet.. ¡± I said while probing a pair of new boots. Mine was showing signs that they wouldn''t last long. It was a good idea to replace them before that happened. ¡± I can modify them a little for you if you like them. Since you are my guest, I''ll do the modifications for free. ¡± said Sara with a bring smile while looking around after something else. ¡± No. I''ll pay for it since it''s your work. I don''t want to burden you even more, Sara. ¡± ¡± Do not worry about it... By how many things you took from my shop, that is the least I could do to repay you. ¡± she said and picked some kind of scarf I asked for. It was perfect to hide Fiona¡¯s collar and the material was quite soft as well. It was a little pricey since these pieces of clothing was considered a luxury rather that a necessity. But that wasn''t a problem since I didn''t want to force my fluff to wear a rough piece of cloth around her neck. In the end, we took a full set of new clothes for me and Fiona, that scarf and two pairs of new boots. As for the more intimate pieces, we couldn''t find anything for our upper part there. It was fortunate that neither I nor Fiona had a large bust. On the other hand, we took a few pieces of underwear of the highest quality we could find in Sara¡¯s shop. I didn''t want to be stingy when it came to that particular territory. Sara said that we couldn''t find anything resembling a bra unless we searched for a higher-class store. Strangely, I wasn''t embarrassed in the slightest searching and talking about this kind of stuff. Necessity was indeed, both a good teacher and a good motivation. It was a bit scary as to how easy my mind adapted to my new body. If I hadn¡¯t known that such complex memories as mine couldn''t be just a dream, I might have believed that I was just a female elf with amnesia or something. If all these memories wouldn''t be there, I might even doubted the fact that i was a man in my previous life. That was quite the scary though. But that was that, and this was this. No reason to dwell on what I had no power over. I shook my head a little and continued to browse through Sara¡¯s goods for anything that we could have missed. In the end, we had to pay a total of 2 gold coins and 2 silver ones for all we took, but since the manufacture and the materials were clearly superior to what we had. I had no reason to complain about that at all. If I were to think about it, that was the equivalent of 26 days of rent. It wasn''t that much. . . . After changing in our new clothes, we headed outside for a little stroll. Sara explained to us about the city layout and other important locations. The plan was to pay a visit to Albert but since he must have been busy right now, we decided to take this stroll around and visit him in the afternoon. It wasn''t entirely because I wanted to see the city. Surprisingly, it wasn''t much more crowded compared with what I saw when we arrived. It seemed that my assumption was correct. The city was equally active during the night as well. Since Sara¡¯s shop was placed near the commercial district, we didn''t have to wander too much to arrive there. What greeted us was a large variety of stands and shops so I freed my curiosity to wander around the place. Another thing that attracted my curiosity was the fact that despite the appearances, this world wasn''t that primitive as I first assumed. Medieval city with big walls, soldiers with swords and armor may indicate toward it. But it wasn''t really the case. The walls were necessary in a world with fantasy monsters roaming around. The degree of proficiency with the swords and other classical weapons was further strengthened by skills. Probably the biggest factor was the existence of magic. Since in my world, we slowly replaced these weapons with firearms, this place didn''t seem to follow the same route because of that particular reason. There wasn''t a point to go through the arduous process of creating a gun when you could train the bow skill and enhance the bow and the arrows for a similar effect. Or simply cast a freaking fireball. While the situation in the remote villages like the one I saw for the first time wasn''t that great, this place was at a completely different level. The place was relatively clean, the streets were mostly paved with stone and they had shops with various goods for the large population. As I saw last night, the place was illuminated at night too, and I pretty much guessed that the place had more facilities I simply wasn''t aware of yet. Maybe the harsh environment slowed the process of industrialization? Maybe they had some kind of magic industrialization instead. I had no idea. But the biggest discrepancy between the outward appearances and reality was still the people themselves. I didn''t pay much attention to the fact that Fiona understood the monetary value and she also knew basic calculations with her status as a former slave. It was weird of me to not notice that, I knew. But arrived in the city, I also discovered that Albert, Sara, and Erin knew how to do these things as well and not just that. The majority of the populace seemed to use the monetary system which in fact, wasn''t that normal for a medieval community. In the medieval period, a good chunk of the populace was using the common exchange of goods for other goods rather than money. For using money, it was necessary to know their value and basic math. But looking around me, nobody was doing that. Everyone was using money. By logical deduction, I could assume that the general populace had a basic degree of education. At this point, I wouldn''t be too surprised if at least a part of them were capable of reading and writing as well. ¡± Lizza, it''s almost noon. ¡± Fiona¡¯s voice snapped me from my train of thoughts. I was a little stunned since I didn''t realize how fast the time passed. ¡± That was quite fast... We should go and look after Albert. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± Since my purpose was just to look around, we didn''t purchase anything except for some kind of strange dish that resembled whit a kebab. I was quite curious about it and Fiona seemed to want one as well. We tried one each. The taste was surprisingly good so I took another two or three for later since I could keep them nice and warm in my ring. It was barely 5 copper coins each after all. It was pretty convenient that the commercial district, Sara¡¯s shop, and Albert¡¯s place had a short distance between them. It didn''t take long for us to arrive at the location where we parted with Albert last night. The single difference was that the place wasn''t that free as last night. We cautiously entered the shop and looked around after Albert. Or at least the person who was currently in charge of the place. Albert said last night that the place was shared with someone else if I remember correctly. ¡± Welcome! With what can I be of use to you? ¡± a man in his forties said and approached us while we were looking around. ¡± I assume that you are in charge of this place. ¡± I replied. ¡± Yes, I am. That might be rude from my part, but it''s possible for you two to be the guest that Albert is waiting for? ¡± ¡± Oh... So he was waiting for us. Do you know where he is right now? ¡± ¡± Yes. He asked me to receive you if he happened to not be here. He had some business to do in the morning. ¡± ¡± I see. Thank you. ¡± ¡± No need for that. As to present myself, I''m Carol. Albert already told me your names but since I don''t know who is who... ¡± ¡± Oh... Yeah. Sorry about that. I''m Elizabeth. ¡± I said shortly and looked at Fiona. I decided that it was for her own good to speak for herself from time to time. ¡± Mm. Fiona. ¡± ¡±...¡± It... was a start. *cough* ¡± Then, I may ask you to wait here for a little longer. ¡± ¡± When is he going to come back? ¡± I asked. ¡± Ah, no... He''s upstairs right now, Miss Elizabeth. But I could not let the shop alone since there''s a lot of customers around at the moment. But don''t worry, he should be down in no time. ¡± ¡± It''s fine like that. Thanks for the help. ¡± ¡± It was my pleasure, Miss Elizabeth. ¡± he said and left to attend to another customer. As things were looking, the store seemed to be quite popular. ¡¯I should look around a little as we are waiting for Albert. Maybe I''ll see something interesting around here.¡¯ Chapter 39: Rushing things. As I was looking around the store, the goods on display weren''t what I was expecting them to be. Weapons of all kinds, pieces of armor here and there, though, all of it was on the lighter type. Leather and fabric mostly with small pieces of metal in between. No full-plate armor in sight, unfortunately. I was hoping to see one of those in person... Other than that, I saw camping equipment of all sorts. Tents, sleeping bags, rucksacks, and so on. I didn''t saw supplies though. But all in all, I was pretty sure that the shop was quite popular with the adventurers and their business. Albert took from me just raw materials, but after seeing all of this, it was stupid to believe that he was selling them like that. No normal person was going to buy them. Unless the average person was a crafter, that was it. And I very much doubted that. Most likely he had connections with people specialized in that field of work. Some kind of middle man between adventures and crafters. ¡± Lizza. ¡± Fiona muttered, grabbing my attention from a particular piece of something I wasn''t able to grasp the use for. ¡± Hmm, what is it? Did you saw something interesting? ¡± I responded, turning back to her. ¡± Not really. But that seems to be Albert over there. ¡± she said, pointing at a man who seemed kind of lost in his world. Looking closely, it was indeed Albert. ¡± Ahh, yeah. Finally. Thanks, Fio. ¡± ¡±Mm. ¡± He didn''t notice us even after coming close enough to touch him if I wanted. In his defense, I approached his side so I wasn''t right in from of his eyes. Eyes that seemed kind of drowsy and tired. ¡¯Maybe he didn''t sleep well last night...¡¯ ¡± Albert, are you alright? ¡± I asked, a bit of worry in my tone. ¡± Huh... uh, ohhh... ¡± he mumbled, startled, almost jumping on the spot. ¡± Miss Elizabeth. It''s you. When have you... Actually, nevermind. Just now I was wondering if I should take a small detour to look after you at Sara¡¯s place. How are you? Did all go well? ¡± ¡± Ehm, there was a little incident but all went good in the end... On the other hand, you don''t look too good. I think a little nap would do miracles for you, judging by those bags under your eyes. ¡± ¡± I wish I could do that. I looked forward to a day off or two after coming back, but I had to visit a lot of people this morning since something unexpected appeared. ¡± he said, massaging the bridge of his nose. ¡± If you are that busy, we can speak tomorrow. Or when you are free. ¡± I said, trying to sound reasonable. Even though I was a bit of a letdown, he was still our only connection for resolving Fiona¡¯s problem. And our lives were not on the line anymore. A day, or two, or even a few were not a problem if that meant we could get it over with safely. ¡± Just let me know when to come back, or drop by Sara¡¯s shop when you have time. There''s no need to rush things like that. ¡± ¡± That''s exactly the problem, Miss Elizabeth. We need to speed thing up since the guild... ¡± he stopped and looked straight at us. ¡± Actually, did you hear about the emergency quest? ¡± ¡± Hmm... oh, the emergency quest. Sara told us that the Adventures Guild announced about that not too long ago. I don''t know the details though. ¡± ¡± So you heard about it. That thing messed up our plans quite a bit. ¡± ¡± Is that so? But isn''t that... like... with the adventurers? ¡± I tried. Even though not even I was sure what I said. Luckily, Albert proved to be some kind of sage at deciphering gibberish. ¡± It does. But we are affected by it as well. ¡± ¡± How? ¡± ¡± I asked this morning to see if we can resolve Fiona¡¯s... problem. Normally, it wouldn''t be that much of a trouble, but the whole city is in a ruckus right now. Even the City Guards and the Knight Order is involved in this quest. ¡± That... that wasn''t good. ¡± What we do then, Albert? ¡± Fiona asked, stepping in the conversation for the first time. Even Albert looked a bit surprised. I peeked at her. She wasn''t showing it, but she must have been really concerned with that collar. Probably it didn''t matter that the collar wasn''t working anymore. If I was in her shoes I would have wanted to get rid of it as fast as possible as well. ¡± Well, that''s why I wanted to get to you two as fast as possible. I managed to convinced someone to help. ¡± ¡± Thank you, Albert. ¡± I let out a sigh of relief. ¡± Don''t thank me yet. We have a single shot at it. Today, after this acquaintance of mine finishes with the work. ¡± ¡± Today!? But we don''t have the money¡ª ¡± I also visited some friends around here and borrowed some money. ¡± he interrupted, raising a finger in front of me and showing a knowing smile. ¡± Just in case of someone having more materials for sale. ¡± ¡± You did? ¡± ¡± Yes, I did. ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡±....¡± ¡± But... this is good news then. Well get it over with today. Thank you, Albert. ¡± And I really meant that. I wasn''t sure if he saw right through me and I didn''t care either. I didn''t care even if we got less from the materials. It was worth it. I turned around, grabbed one of Fiona¡¯s hands, and smiled at her. ¡± We''re going to get rid of it. ¡± ¡± Mm, thank you. ¡± she whispered back, squeezing my hand quite hard, though not enough to hurt. Albert didn''t say anything but his knowing smile didn''t disappear for a second. It almost seemed to have grown even larger. But what was done, was done. I turned back to him after Fiona let go of my hand. ¡± I''ll go and bring the materials. We¡¯ll be back in no time, Albert. ¡± ¡± Please do. I''ll be waiting for you here. ¡± . . . We quickly rushed back to grab the rucksack. Seeing us in a hurry, Sara asked if there was a problem. Since we didn''t have much time, we just provided a short, slightly altered version of a story, not mentioning the collar. It was more of an act. Most of the materials were kept in my ring. But if we want to keep my ring a secret, it had to be done. Besides, it wasn''t much of a core anyway. All we had to do was to take them out and pack the rucksack with the most valuable ones. Which proved to be almost all of them. We still had unprocessed carcasses since all the work was done by Fiona unit now. If I had to make an estimation, not even half of them was finished. I wasn''t sure how much money we would have left after we pay but it was a good idea to work on the rest of the remaining materials starting from tomorrow. As we arrived back to Albert, he guided us to a separate room somewhere in the back. He looked as tired as before but for some reason, his eyes were sparkling with excitement. Maybe he was curious to see whatever I had for him this time. ¡± Fio, let''s take them out. ¡± I exclaimed, with a bit of pride in my voice. ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± Please do, please do. ¡± Albert encouraged us, rubbing his hands in a stupidity iconic way. I almost let out a laugh at that. ¡± Ohh, Silver Wolf again. And so many of them. You wouldn''t believe me if I said that I already sold all of what you gave me. From where did you take out that many... ¡± he stopped and looked at me. ¡± Ahh, I forgot that this is not my business. As long as the material is there, why should I care from where it came. ¡± ¡± Uhh... Yeah, I''ll appreciate it if we let it like that. ¡± I replied with with a sigh of relief. That was a merchant for you... If the business was progressing smoothly, why should he be worried about the small details? Counting all of it, we got exactly 7 gold and 21 silver pieces. If converted, it was around 8 gold and 9 silver. Adding that to what we already had, our funds grew up to over 14 gold coins. If I were to roughly count the rest of unprocessed materials, I could double that amount. That, wasn''t a small sum of money at all. I started to think that the amount of money you could earn from slaying and selling monsters was suspiciously profitable. But then I remembered how we carried all the carcasses and the whole dilemma became much clearer. Not even mentioning the transportation problem, but also time spent traveling, time spent hunting and processing them on the spot, and the risks involving that. Supplies and equipment. Even with an enchanted rucksack, the weight of the materials was still there. I just dumped everything in my ring without a care in the world. Even the processed materials we just sold were so heavy that I had them carried by Fiona again. It wasn''t as big of a blow as last time but I wasn''t comfortable letting her do all the hard work. And after all that, the adventurers had to split the profit with the rest of the group since you couldn''t do all of that alone. Well, technically, I had to share them with Fiona as well but that was beside the point. Thinking about all of that, I couldn''t help but take a glance at the small ring on my hand and acknowledge yet again how big of a cheat it really was. ¡¯What an outrageous object.¡¯ . . . Since there was still time before we needed to go, we decided to help Albert sort and deposit the materials. He tried to refuse our help at first but after I insisted several times in a row he gave up. He did a lot for us so I wanted to help him too if I could. As the sun started to settle down, Albert guided us around the city and we stopped in the back of a pretty big building where a man was waiting. I didn''t know the details but the place seemed to be quite important. I spotted what seemed to be guards patrolling around this section of the city far more frequently than before. I started to feel a little doubtful about all of this. ¡± Albert, for fuck sake... Why are you so late? ¡± the man said with an angry expression. ¡± Didn''t you said you''ll be free after the sunset? ¡± ¡± Whatever... They are the ones you told me? ¡± he said, pointing with his eyes at us. ¡± Yes. ¡± ¡± Follow me. We don''t have much time. ¡± he started walking. ¡± I''m gonna be honest, Albert. These days... fucking hell man, a complete mess. I barely manage to smuggle something here and there. They''re like hawks. Hawks. I can''t move a thing anymore. Damn stupid quest and damn stupid wasps. ¡± We quickly rushed after the grumbling man, entering the building through the backdoor. I knew that what we wanted to do was kind of shady, but as I listened to his complaints the situation truly clicked for me. If we were caught... Shaking my head, I decided to ignore it. It wasn''t as if we could turn back anyway. After we walked through a small corridor, we entered a room that looked more like a deposit and he started to roam through seemingly random boxes taking out a lot of strange stuff. All the while still complaining nonstop. I was kind of impressed since he didn''t repeat himself not even once. ¡± The one with the collar. Take the hood off and stay there. ¡± he finally said, pointing at a chair. ¡± Fio, don''t worry. I''ll be right here. ¡± I reassured her, squeezing her hand one last time. Thinking back to it, I wasn''t even sure when we started holding hands... ¡± Mm. ¡± she nodded to me and took off her hood. The man wasn''t surprised at all about her being a beastkin. Albert probably told him about it, or it wasn''t that unusual for beastkins to be in this situation. It made sense since the slavery was legal in the neighborhood country. He grabbed whatever he needed and started to look at the collar from all angles. As he touched the collar to take a closer look, his brows furrowed instantly. ¡± How the hell did you wrecked the collar to such a degree? ¡± he exclaimed, handling the collar a lot rougher than before. Judging by Fiona¡¯s complexion, she wasn''t enjoying it that much but she kept quiet. ¡± The collar was supposed to activate if we let it like that. I had no choice but to stop it somehow. ¡± I finally said, fearing that Fiona would do something to him if he continued like that. ¡± Yeah, I can see that now, but seriously... I didn''t saw one wrecked to this degree till now. Bloody hell, you are lucky that the collar is low quality and we can take it down forcefully. Everything is messed up for a standard procedure. ¡± ¡± Oh. ¡± ¡± Big oh, indeed. If it was high quality and you did this to it, you¡¯ll have had to find someone far more skilled than me to take it out safely. ¡± he said, grabbing yet another small thing that resembled a... pen? ¡± Anyway. I''m not going to do it without at least 10 gold coins. I assume that Albert told you already. I''m risking my job here so not a copper less. ¡± I put my hand in my pocket and pretended to take out 10 gold coins. There wasn''t a point in complaining about the price. If we could get rid of the damn thing, I didn''t care too much anymore. ¡± Ohooo, straight to the point. I already like you. If everyone was like you... ¡± he chirped, the grumbling man from before completely gone. His agitation and the bad mood seemed to have vanished altogether in an instant as the clanking sound of money reverberated in his breast pocket. With the payment done and a smile on his face, He attached some of the devices to the collar and started to work with them. I wasn''t sure what he was really doing and to be honest, I was a little scared as the devices started to glow while the collar was making cracking noises. It was Fiona¡¯s life there we were speaking about and I was quite agitated. I still managed to stay quiet since he seemed to be concentrated on his work. In the end, the side part of the collar undone with a loud clang. He took the collar and put it aside as he started to pack all the things back from where he took them. ¡± That¡¯s all. Now, hurry up and leave. ¡± he said and prompted us to get out of there. He followed shortly after us and closed the door. ¡± Thanks for helping us. ¡± I said as we parted with him. He just nodded and turned back to leave. He seemed quite tired so I assumed that what he did wasn''t as easy as it looked. ¡± With this, I think that we managed to get rid of the problem, Miss Elizabeth. ¡± Albert finally said after the man left. ¡± Yeah. Thank you very much for all, Albert. And don''t deny it, I know that without a connection like you, we wouldn''t have had such an easy time getting rid of it. ¡± ¡± No problem. We are business partners after all. ¡± he said and started laughing in his usual way. He stayed silent the whole process so it was reassuring seeing him like that. ¡±One last question, Albert. Not that it matters anymore, but who was he? I had a suspicion that what we just did was more that just a bit illegal. ¡± ¡± Yeah... I forgot to tell you since we hurried the whole thing. He''s part of the city guards. As I said before, slavery isn''t allowed in this country. The single exception is for prisoners and criminals. Unless you had connections on the black market, you can''t find someone proficient in that area elsewhere. At least, I don''t know any. ¡± He was right. The guards were people too. I doubted that there was something that could not be resolved for the correct sum of money. Since we barely bribed a guard moments earlier, I wasn''t in measure to complain about such a thing either. Fair or unfair, money made this world go around as much as my own was. On a second thought, I wasn''t sure if this world was doing that. The going around thing. Or if it was round. With all the fantasy-ish and magic stuff going on here... yeah. But all in all, I was glad that the problem was finally resolved and we managed to moved forward. *cough* *cough* ¡± If we were done, Miss Elizabeth, I still have some business nearly. I assume that there''s no problem if we were to part here for the moment. ¡± ¡± Oh, yeah, yeah... Do not worry about that. ¡± I said a bit embarrassed. It seemed that I was lost in thoughts again. I extended my hand. ¡± Then, we''ll part here, Albert. ¡± We shook hands and parted shortly after. But since in this world, it was normal to stay awake in either one of the two moons phases, I assumed that it was too soon to go back. Our current location wasn''t far from the river that crossed the city either. Having nothing else to do, we decided that it was a good opportunity to take a look at it. Chapter 40: The Adventurer’s Guild *munch* *munch* ¡± ... ¡± *munch* *munch* ¡± ... ¡± I was sitting on a curb at the edge of the road while observing how a certain furball was wildly munching from one of the kebabs I bought this morning. I know that she must be happy since we finally took off that damn collar but the contrast with her usual self was still astonishing. She was practically shining. I might be blinded if I were to look at her directly. ¡± Anyway, Fio... You don''t have to wear that scarf from now on. Though, it looks quite good on you... ¡± ¡± I like it. Present from Lizza... Also, just now you said that it looks good on me. ¡± *munch* *munch* ¡± Oh, Yeah... If you like it, all is good. ¡± I said and took a bite from my kebab. I didn''t want to eat too much since Sara was probably expecting us to eat with them but a certain fluff made me make an exception. It seemed that she really liked this thing. I should buy some more when I would have the opportunity. In the end, I gave her half of my own too since she liked it that much. Not that I disliked it or something but I wasn''t a glutton in the first place. ¡¯Still... I should pay attention as to not transform my fluff from a wolfy into a piggy...¡¯ We resumed our little exploration shortly afterward. I saw some secluded places around the river and I remembered about my laughable attempt to learn [Water Manipulation] but that was all since I wasn''t in the mood to try again at the moment. Fiona might be able to work with the rest of the monster corpses in the meantime. We couldn''t do it at Sara¡¯s place after all and the river was a good alternative. We returned after spending a little more time looking around the place. Unfortunately, we had to eat without them since we came back pretty late. Erin kept us company though... She was quite fond of spending time around me whenever she had the opportunity. Before to get back to our room we received my boots from Sara. She managed to adjust them to fit me just fine. I was very pleased with the result but she was adamant about not having to pay for the adjustment too. I let things like that for the moment since that was how we set earlier. Laying on my back in the bed, I was just absentmindedly staring at the ceiling and thinking about what should we do from now on. I had a rough idea but that was all. A lot of things had changed and now I wasn''t alone anymore either. ¡± Fio... Hey, Fio... Are you sleeping? ¡± ¡± Hmm!? What it is? ¡± she responded with a little delay. She probably wasn''t asleep yet but she wasn''t too far from it. As I turned my head to look at her, I saw her eyes glittering in the dark since the moonlight was hardly trespassing in our room through the small window. She smiled and extended her hand around me in an attempt to get closer to me. ¡± Lizza... ¡± ¡± Mm... Yeah, come here... ¡± I said and put my hand around her to drag her closer to me too. After spending so much time alone in the wild, it was a common occurrence to sleep side by side. It gave me a sense of protection at that time. Since she was fine with it, I didn''t want to stop doing that even though we weren''t in the wild anymore. ¡± Thank you, Lizza. ¡± she said and buried her face into my chest. ¡± Ugh... Yeah, I promised you after all... ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she said and strengthened her grip even harder. I could hear her grinning for some reason too. ¡± Ehm, Fio... Uhm, do you think... ¡± ¡± No. ¡± ¡± But... ¡± ¡± Liza. Mine. ¡± ¡± Wha... O-Okay... ¡± Even though I accepted my new body and grew accustomed to it to some extent, I had my limits as well. When it comes to these special places being pressed like that, it was quite disturbing. ¡¯I feel like the main reason I woke her up had been lost in the context too at some point.¡¯ *sigh* Since she wouldn''t let me anyway, I resigned to my fate and closed my eyes. I didn''t feel like talking about a serious topic anymore. In the morning, we ate together with Sara and the siblings and decided to head to ¡¯that¡¯ place. Before to go though, we had to borrow Erin to show us a place where I could buy a hat. Since we already resolved the collar problem, all that was left was my own appearance. I couldn''t wear the hood for the rest of my life after all... In the end, I chose one big enough to cover my ears. It had to be like this since I planned to gather all my hair and hide it inside as well. It didn''t look bad either. To be frank, it resembled a summer straw hat for women, just a little bigger. I didn''t know why but the red ribbon on the side didn''t bother me at all despite the overly feminine appearance. On the contrary, I was quite pleased with it. I didn''t know since when I started to see things in this way but maybe that has to do with me turning into a woman. Though, a dress would be too much... I was glad that I wasn''t affected to that degree... I spent 2 silver coins on it but at least now I could walk around like a normal person. Or so I thought but for some reason, a considerable number of people were staring at us as we walked around the road. They were mostly men so I guessed that they didn''t discover my secret. Unfortunately, the actual reason they were staring didn''t make me feel any better. I didn''t have the opportunity to take a look in a mirror yet but I looked at my reflection at the river several times already. I had quite a beautiful face but that wasn''t enough to attract everyone''s attention like that. Maybe the fact that Fiona wasn''t wearing her hood either had its share in this situation. Trying to ignore some rather obvious stares we advanced toward our destination. The closer we went, the more adventurer-like people we encountered on the road. They had swords and were wearing different pieces of armor. I saw some of them carrying staffs with them too. I was quite excited but I managed to not stare at them like how the previous people were staring at us. As we arrived at the destination, I barely managed to suppress my smile looking at the massive building in front of me. It had three floors and was wider than the surrounding buildings by several times. There was a big sign on which was written ¡¯Adventure¡¯s Guild¡¯ so I wasn''t worried about mistaking the place. Attached to the side of the building was some kind of training ground that was extending up to the back. There were people sparing among themselves but most of them were watching or chatting in small groups. ¡± Lizza, are you ok? You look a little weird... ¡± Fiona asked while looking at me from the side with a concerned expression. ¡± Do not worry. I''m perfectly fine. ¡± ¡± Mm. Then let''s go inside. ¡± The main entrance was easy to spot since a lot of people were circulating through it endlessly. I mustered my courage and stepped inside since Fiona was starting to look at me with that concerned expression again. I didn''t want to make her worry for no reason. As I already expected, the place was very wide with a lot of tables spread around the whole place. Almost all of them occupied with groups of people discussing things. There were some single people as well but not that many. As expected from a fantasy world, I could spot some female adventurers even though these were in the minority. At least we didn''t stand out that much. On the wall from the left side of the building was exposed several boards but contrary to my expectations all of them were completely blank. That was quite strange but maybe it was just my misunderstanding. We made our way toward the place that was looking like a counter careful enough as to not encounter any bothersome situation. I know that the chances to actually happen were small but better safe than sorry. At the counter was standing two girls and a man. They were wearing some kind of blue and white uniforms. We obviously chose one of the two girls... The man didn''t even enter in my eyes. What kind of blasphemy would be if I were to be received by a man at the guild? Since there were two more people before our turn, we patiently waited for them to finish. ¡± Welcome. How may I help you? ¡± the receptionist girl greeted us as our turn finally came. ¡± Hello, we came here to register as adventurers. ¡± I get straight to the subject since the place was quite crowded and I didn''t want to cause trouble. ¡± Hmm... Now that I look a little closer, you two seem to be quite young. We don''t really have a restriction in that sense but I must give you a warning. You came in a very inopportune moment too. Since the emergency quest came up, all the normal ones had to be put on pause. That includes the less dangerous quests like the herb gathering ones as well. ¡± ¡± Ohh... That explains the blank boards over there. ¡± ¡± Yes. I''m truly sorry about it. ¡± ¡± Thanks for the advice but we still want to register. ¡± ¡± I see. In that case, you need to fill this paper and give it back to me. You need to pay the registration tax too. Two silver coins for you and your friend. ¡± ¡± Yes. Thank you. ¡± I said and took out two silver coins. She handed us the papers, a jar with ink and two quill feathers. It was the first time I saw one so I absentmindedly stared at it. ¡± Chose a table and come back after you finish it. There are other people waiting as well. ¡± ¡± Oh, yeah... Sorry about that. ¡± As we sit down at a free table and took another look at the paper, a crucial issue came to my mind. It wasn''t like I didn''t know what to write since the paper was already designed for us to just complete it with basic information like our name, age, gender, race, and some other additional things. The problem was that I didn''t know how to write in the first place. FDSIO Hello everyone! Sorry about the late release... Some things came up and I had to delay it but as compensation, the next chapter will be released faster than the usual. Maybe the day after tomorrow if all goes well. Anyway, I hope that you''ll enjoy it. Chapter 41: The emergency quest. ¡± Hey, Fio... We have a problem with... the... Huh? ¡± As I was about to ask her what should we do in this situation, my eyes landed on her half-finished paper. ¡¯Holy Tree, what the heck...¡¯ ¡± Hmm... What is it, Lizza? ¡± ¡± Do you know how to write, Fio? Where did you learn it? ¡± ¡± What do you mean... Is there something wrong with it? ¡± she said with a very confused expression. ¡± Huh? Oh, no, no... It''s nothing... ¡± ¡± Are you sure? ¡± ¡± Yeah, don''t worry about it... Let''s finish these papers first. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± There was definitely something strange about it. There''s no way for a slave to have the opportunity to learn how to write. But the most strange thing was her attitude. She was looking at me as if I asked her something obvious like how was she able to breathe or something... ¡¯There''s no way in hell to... Hold on... Hold on for a second... How the heck was I able to even read all these in the first place?¡¯ Looking again at my paper, I was able to read the unfamiliar symbols like it was the most normal thing to do. If I didn''t pay close attention to them I wouldn''t even realize the anomaly. ¡¯Don''t tell me...¡¯ as the shocking realization came to me, I took my quill and write my name on my paper without any problem. ¡±...¡± Yup, better to give up. If I were to ask another question like this one... Yeah, I didn''t want to look like an even bigger retard in front of Fiona. I didn''t want to lose the little pride that was still there. As we both finished with the writing and were about to leave, a sudden realization came to my mind. Even though I didn''t want to ask about something embarrassing again, that didn''t mean I wasn''t curious. Since the day I came to this world, I was able to speak with the people due to that skill, [Amissi Common Language]. Or at least that was my assumption. ¡¯If that was the case, maybe the reading and writing skills are included in it as well...¡¯ As to prove my hypothesis, I put the tip of the quill in the ink again and write my name on my hand. The sole difference was that for this time, I deliberately chose to think about my second skill related to language and the result was stunning. While I was able to read it like the most normal thing to do, at a closer look, the symbols were different from the previous ones. ¡¯How strange...¡¯ I wonder what would happen if I were to deliberately think about speaking in elvish. If that skill was working in this way, then I subconsciously chose to speak in the common language since I want to be understood. I had to at least try to speak some words in elvish to Fiona and see if she would understand me or not. *tap* *tap* My shoulder was gently touched by Fiona which startled me since I didn''t even know when she came this close to me. It seemed that I was lost again in my thoughts... ¡± Lizza, the receptionist is free right now. We should go before she¡¯ll be busy again. ¡± ¡± Oh, is that so... Let''s go then. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± I took the ink and stepped carefully toward the reception as to not spill it. Fiona took the rest and followed after me. ¡± You finished already? ¡± the receptionist said and took them from us. ¡± Yes. ¡± ¡± Good. Let me briefly check them to see if all is good. ¡± she said and started to read the first paper. ¡± Hmm, Fiona... Let''s see, let''s see... This is good, this is good too... No problem there either... Okay, yours seem to be alright. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± Then, the next one is... Elizabeth, right? ¡± ¡± Yes. ¡± ¡± This is good... this is good too... Huh? Wait a little bit... huh? Are you sure you didn''t make a mistake here? ¡± she said and pointed a particular line while looking at me from top to bottom with a curious look. ¡± What mistake... ohh... That one. Yeah, it''s not a mistake actually. ¡± I said after I took a glance at what she was talking about. It seemed that even at the guild it was rare to see an elf. She didn''t say anything after she saw Fiona and while I was looking around there was a person with a tail too at one of the tables. Maybe I should prove to her or something. ¡± Umm, miss receptionist... Look here... ¡± I said and approached her as I lifted the hat just enough for her to see my ear. ¡± Oh... Oh my, oh my... Ehem, there''s no mistake. Sorry, but I had to confirm when cases like yours appear. ¡± ¡± No problem. ¡± ¡± Good. The rest seem to be fine. That''s all for now. The registration should be finished by tomorrow. Take this and come back then to retrieve your tags. You''ll start from the lowest rank F as anyone else. ¡± she said and gave me a piece of paper with our names and some kind of stamp. ¡± Thank you. Umm... can I ask another thing before to leave? ¡± ¡± Oh, yes. Since there''s no one waiting right now you can ask. Normally, I''ll give you a brief explanation too if you want but as how busy these days had been we couldn''t do it anymore. ¡± ¡± That''s exactly what I wanted to ask. I heard about this emergency quest but I don''t know what exactly had happened. Can you tell me, please? ¡± Since her attitude changed quite a bit after she confirmed my race, I think that asking at least that much wouldn''t be a problem. Despite my early complains it seemed that my race gave me a lot of advantages. I could be considered pretty lucky. ¡± The emergency quest, huh? Then, let me explain. A week ago we received reports about abnormalities in the forest east of this city. After our team investigated and returned it was confirmed that we have to deal with a giant wasps nest. ¡± ¡± Oh, a wasps nest? ¡± ¡± Yes, if we don''t exterminate the queen fast enough and the nest manages to expand too much the situation will turn very ugly. Some of the near villages have been attacked already. ¡± ¡± The situation is that severe? ¡± ¡± Yes. That is the reason we put the emergency quest in the first place. Before the queen extermination team is assembled, we have to focus on decreasing their numbers as much as we can. Are you perhaps interested in it? Your kind is famous for their archery skills. ¡± ¡¯Wha... What happens with the previous warning and stuff... Though, as my actual age was written there, she knows that I''m older than my looks suggest.¡¯ ¡± I''ll think about it. But isn''t that quest restricted in any way? I mean, we just registered. We are just rank F after all. ¡± ¡± Not really. The queen is another story but the normal ones are classified around D rank. It''s not above C rank so it''s still alright. Since you probably are proficient with the bow I just assumed that you might be interested in it. Troublesome as it may be, the profit from hunting them is quite good compared with other monsters at the same rank. ¡± She had a point there. To hunt these things you need a ranged weapon. You couldn''t expect a swordsman to throw his sword after them or something. That would be hilarious. Still, something was bugging me... ¡± Not above rank C... Does that mean that I can''t take quests more than two ranks above mine? ¡± ¡± Ah, no. You seem to misunderstand something. Even if you were a D rank you wouldn''t be able to take a C rank quest unless there is a special situation. C rank adventurers take C rank quests or lower, B rank adventurers take B rank quests or lower and so on. Taking higher-ranked quests will defeat the ranks purpose after all... ¡± *sigh* ¡± You see, the ranks F, E, D were a little special. The adventurers at these ranks were considered more like local adventurers rather than true adventurers. The quests weren''t too complicated like you saw already. For example, the emergency quest which should be classified as D rank. You just have to kill how many wasps you can. The repercussions for failing the quest weren''t that severe either and the advancement at these ranks is easier too. After completing several quests and prove yourself competent, you will be promoted. ¡± So basically the lower rank adventures were more like amateurs. Since their job was to hunt lower level monsters and regulate their number, failing a quest wouldn''t amount too much. Someone else would do the job eventually. The ranks were just to distinguish between them a little. If some individuals were to fail at killing these wasps, that wouldn''t amount much since the quest wasn''t exclusive for them and there would be others who should succeed. On the other hand, failing a high-level quest like killing the queen would be another story. Since the danger-level and the consequences of failing were much more severe they couldn''t entrust quests like these to anybody. ¡± Anyway, since you just started, there''s no reason to think about the higher ranks... If you were to decide on participating in the emergency quest, I¡¯ll tell you about the details then. ¡± ¡± Ahh, yes... Thank you. Then, I''ll be going for now. Goodbye! ¡± ¡± Goodbye! ¡± Chapter 42: Preparing for departure. Since I didn''t know much about how monsters were ranked I had to ask Fiona about it. Even if I know that the wasps were classified as D rank, I didn''t know exactly what that means. Her previous ¡¯owners¡¯ happened to be adventurers and she knows a thing or two about it. Apparently, the wasps weren''t that strong but since they could fly, they were classified like that. Even if I had my bow, that didn''t mean we could go just like that. Even if I could hit them, that didn''t mean that they would die just by that. ¡¯Ugh... What to do, what to do... My first quest, I can''t miss it. But if we can''t get them I don''t know if we can escape since they can fly... Don''t be rash. Don''t get carried away and die pointlessly. You can deal with a normal one to some extent but a flying one...¡¯ *sigh* ¡± What is it, Lizza. Why did you stop? ¡± ¡± Nothing much... I was just thinking about the quest... If they just couldn''t fly... ¡± I said and resumed our pace. ¡± Mm. It''s much harder to deal with the flying types... I can''t do much against them. ¡± ¡± Yeah... Anyway, if we can''t do it then we can''t. We weren''t in shortage of money either so we don''t need to risk pointlessly. We just need to wait and... ¡± ¡± Mm. You are right... Umm... Lizza, why did you stop again. ¡± ¡± Fio. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± I think that I got a nice idea as to how to deal with them. We can take them easily on the ground, right? ¡± ¡± Mm. Very weak on the ground. ¡± ¡± Then, that settles it. Let''s hurry since we have to prepare a lot of things to be ready for tomorrow. ¡± As we returned I already had a list of things that we must prepare for tomorrow. We had to borrow Erin again to act as a guide for us. I felt a little guilty since she must be busy with their own stuff but since Sara didn''t want to take money for it, I had to find another way to repay her work. In the end, we left a good portion of our meat for them to sell and take a share from the profit as payment with the pretense that we had to leave and wouldn''t be able to do it ourselves. She didn''t have any choice but to accept since it was a waste to let that much meat to go to waste. ¡± Thank you very much. I''ll definitely sell it at a good price to repay you. ¡± she said with an astonished expression looking at the giant pile of raw meat. ¡± No need to thank me. We were helping each other in this way. It''s more like a business. ¡± ¡± Don''t say that... Sometimes, is better to just receive others gratitude as it is. I know that you wanted to help us so I want to thank you for that. ¡± ¡± Uhh... Yeah, if you put it that way I think you are right. ¡± While it was true that I wanted to help her, the end result was more like her helping me. I didn''t know how to sell it or where to sell it not even to mention for how much. We parted with her shortly afterward since we had a lot of stuff to prepare. The first place to stop was a weapon shop. I had to replace my hand-made bow with something better. We had to pay a total of 25 silver coins for it and since we also took ten bundles of twenty arrows each, we spent another 6 silver and 1 lesser silver on them. To remain without munition in a dangerous situation was the last thing I wanted to happen. At least the bow was looking quite good although it wasn''t even enchanted yet. [Ironwood Bow] Thanks to my [Appraisal] skill I wasn''t worried about buying a fake one either. I just had to do the enchanting thing myself afterward and all was good. However, I should check about it after we returned since I didn''t saw a single enchanted weapon in the shop. That was quite odd. The next objective on the list was food supplies. Besides the normal food, I had to make a special trip for Fiona to the place where I took that kebab thing. The moment I asked her if we should buy some for the trip, she nodded at me with an expression like that was the most crucial thing to take care of. Since the situation turned that way I had no choice but to buy them because I was the one who mentioned it in the first place. It was nice seeing her enjoying something so I didn''t really mind it either. After finishing with the food supplies, we moved to the main objective, namely the things I need for my grand plan against the wasps. As we continued to buy the stuff, Erin started to look at me with a confused expression since, for an unrelated party, these things have nothing in common with hunting monsters. I couldn''t explain to her for what purpose I had to buy these even if I wanted too. I could not even explain how my rucksack was capable of carrying so much luggage. Maybe she was thinking that it was a high tier one but the truth was that I stealthy moved a part of the cargo in the ring when she wasn''t looking. At the end of the day, all the remaining money I had was somewhere around 7 silver coins. I would have to use 5-6 of them to at least enchant my bow and Fiona¡¯s sword so we basically had nothing left. The sun was already settled when we arrived back so we ate together before to go to our room. As tired as I was after so much roaming around the city, I still had to do one thing before to get in bed. It was still too early to sleep anyway. ¡± Fio, can you take care as to not be disturbed until I finish this? ¡± ¡±Mm. But what do you want to do? ¡± ¡± Mufufufu... You''ll see. ¡± Shifting my attention from the fluff and focusing on the ring, the newly acquired bow magically appeared in my hand. It was fun to look at it no matter how many times I saw already. Like a magic trick with the exception that it wasn''t a trick but real magic. ¡¯Time to start working again...¡¯ In addition to the bow, I took out several cores and the 7 silver coins. I was a little tense since there was quite some time from the last time I had to do it. ¡¯This is happening when you take breaks for too long.¡¯ Drifting away my useless thoughts I took one of the coins in hand and put the core on top of it. For the first step, I had to draw mana from the core and slowly infuse it in the coin. The reason we couldn''t use our mana had to do with the differences in the nature of mana. Actually, it wasn''t impossible but the effort and end result wasn''t worth it. It may sound simple but I had to guide the flow of mana myself in a certain way and take care as to not damage the material in the process. I had to take care as to not move it too fast or too slow and to distribute it evenly since any of these small details would affect the quality. It was a little easier since my [Mana manipulation] had been upgraded to level 5 when I acquired [Wind manipulation] at that time. I should take my time and upgrade all of them in the future. As the coin approached his saturation limit I stopped to infuse mana in it and moved to the next step. This was the moment where the true work was starting. Due to the high mana conductivity these metals had, we could bring them in a weird semi-melted state by charging them with mana and start to shape and draw with it the patterns. I said melted but the term wasn''t exactly correct since the metal temperature wasn''t raised at all. It was more like moving it along with the flow of mana kind of thing. What was left after that was just to draw the pattern. Of course, the difficulty was depending on the complexity of the pattern and what kind of effect do you want to infuse in it. The piece of equipment you had to enchant was important too since to prevent the damaging of the pattern we had to actually engrave it in the material itself to some degree. Without a high enough skill, you couldn''t even work with high-grade equipment. Since the bow was made from a higher grade material I had to struggle a little before to finish it. [Ironwood Bow] In the end, it was upgraded with just a level but I managed to put dexterity on it which was my main aim. Since my performance was directly related to that status even if it was raised with just a bit was worth it. That was even more important for me since there wasn''t a point on firing arrows with a little bit more force if I could not hit the target. The dexterity was the obvious choice here. ¡± Pfiu... That was quite hard, to be honest... ¡± ¡± Are you okay, Lizza? ¡± ¡± Yeah, don''t worry... I''m just a little tired since I didn''t do it in a while. ¡± ¡± Did it work? ¡± ¡± Yup. I''m very proud of it... Even though I had to use 4 silver coins on it... I planned to use silver for your sword too but since it might not even be enough we have no choice but to use copper. ¡± ¡± You don''t have to force yourself... ¡± ¡± Neah... Do not worry, I''m fine. I''ll rest a little and start to work at your sword... ¡± I said and handed her one of the three remaining silver coins. ¡± Take it and go down at Sara to change it in copper ones. If I''m at it, I might as well enchant the dagger you use to dismember the monsters too... It will serve as training for me since I slacked off in the last period. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± Chapter 43: Heading toward our first quest. ¡± Do you really need to go? ¡± said a certain brown-haired girl as we were about to leave the shop. ¡± Erin, don''t bother Miss Elizabeth. She and Fiona need to do their job just like we have to do ours. ¡± said a certain mother toward her daughter as both of them came to say goodbye to us before we could part ourselves. The only missing person was the younger brother but since he was probably still sleeping we didn''t wake him up just for that. It was somehow heartwarming to have a place where you could return even in this strange world. It didn''t matter that we stay here just temporary. The feeling was still there. ¡± Do not worry, Erin. When we came back I will treat you again with that kebab from yesterday. You and Fio seem to like it quite a lot. ¡± I said and patted her gently on her head. For an unrelated party, it may look rather weird since I didn''t look much older than her on the outside. I was just a bit taller but that was all. ¡± Okay... I''ll wait. ¡± ¡± Anyway, we are going to leave now. I''d say goodbye but we''ll be back in several days anyway, Sara. ¡± ¡± Do not worry about it. Just take care of yourself on the journey. The same goes for you too, Fiona. Take care and came back safely. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± We waved at them and started to head to the east gate. We already got to the guild first thing in the morning to accept the quest and retrieve our tags. Unfortunately, the receptionist girl from that time wasn''t here but we didn''t encounter any difficulty. The whole thing moved smoothly since all we had to do was to give the piece of paper we received yesterday as confirmation and they gave us the tags. We received some information about the wasps too so it wasn''t that bad in the end. The tag was quite simple. All of then were made from cheap metal for the lower F, E, and D ranks. For the higher ones, the tags were made from the three precious metals like copper for C rank, silver for B rank and gold for A rank. On the front was engraved my name and rank and on the back was the guild branch name. Apparently, I was part of Adventurer''s Guild Arian City Branch. They didn''t bother to explain further since it was a waste of time. Even if there was something higher than that, the chances to encounter someone like that were pitifully low anyway. At least, in this way, we know with who to not mess around by just looking at their tag. *yawn* ¡± Are you sure you are alright, Lizza? You yawned the whole morning. ¡± ¡± I''m fine, I''m fine... You know that I''m bad at waking up early. ¡± ¡± Mm. But this time is even worse than usual. It''s because you stayed too much last night. ¡± ¡± Ugh... It''s fine, it''s fine... We won''t be able to arrive there today anyway. We''ll have to camp at the forest border tonight so all is good. I''ll get some rest then. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± I could not deny that I crossed the line just a little last night. Since we decided to use copper instead of silver for the rest of the equation, I suddenly got a lot more options. It wasn''t as good as something enchanted with silver but not worse by much. Since the ratio of silver/copper was around 1:80 I could enchant 80 objects instead of just one. [Common Iron Sword] [Common Iron Dagger] ... We could deal with the drop in quality for the moment. At least we got a lot more enchanted equipment and I got some training as well. When my [Apprentice Enchanter] was updated to level 5 I got excited and tried to experiment further. I used the sword we got from Ron since it was better than the one Fiona was using but somehow I failed to put a stat on it so we let it like that. I enchanted my old bows as well. I tried with an arrow but my skill wasn''t high enough so I failed and I continued like that till almost morning. ¡± Hold up. ¡± A guard raised his hand as we were about to leave the city. I saw that they didn''t bother with the ones who were leaving so we just walked like the rest. ¡± Is there a problem? ¡± ¡± Where are you two going? This is the east gate. ¡± he said and pointed his finger at a group of bulky men who just passed around us. One of them just nodded to the guard and walked outside shortly afterward. ¡¯Maybe they were acquaintances...¡¯ ¡± This gate is mainly used for adventurers these days. Where are two young girls going since there''s nothing but these giant insects in that direction? ¡± If I were to look at the people who were exiting through this gate, they all were looking like adventurers. They were all wearing various pieces of armor and carried with them weapons. Besides our complete lack of any kind of armor, our weapons we''re deposited in my ring as well. We were looking like anything but adventurers. Was he worried about us? Probably not... Maybe he was just curious. ¡± We know. We are adventurers too. ¡± I had to point my finger at the metallic tag that was hanging around my neck for him to notice it. ¡± Oh... Seriously? I didn''t notice at all. You don''t look like one. I thought that the guild suspended all the quest besides the emergency one. Didn''t you know? It''s very dangerous out there at the moment. ¡± ¡± Ah... Yes, we know. We are going for that one after all. ¡± ¡± Huh? Are you serious? Are you seriously going to... ¡± ¡± Uaah... Just let them go already. If these girls want to die that badly, just let them be. ¡± the other guard that was lazily resting with his back on the wall intervened in the conversation for the first time. He was quite rude a well. ¡± You just shut up, Arnold. How can I let two young girls go and die? They probably don''t know how dangerous these insects really are. It''s not like gathering some herbs or killing a goblin or two. ¡± he said and smiled at us. Maybe my intuition was wrong this time and he was a good person in the end... Albeit less but there must be good people too. Sara or even Albert were good people. I was just unlucky to meet bad ones at the beginning. ¡± Ohh... Come on, not that again. Seeing a pretty face and instantly changing in the chivalrous type. Just let them go already... ¡± ¡± Arnold, I''ll swear to kill you later. Lying like that just to make me look bad. ¡± ¡±...¡± *Cough* *Cough* ¡± Anyway, I still don''t think that is appropriate for two young ladies to go to such a dangerous place. ¡± ¡¯No, no, no. Don''t tell me you are going to pretend even after he betrayed you.¡¯ Bad person. Very bad person. Somehow, he managed to climb to the highest peak on my list of bad people. I don''t want to deal with someone like that. ¡± Thank you for the concern but we know what we are doing. If that is all we will leave since we have a long way to go. ¡± ¡± Ah... Is that so? Then I wish you good luck. ¡± he said with a disappointed expression. Maybe my dead stare akin to someone who was looking at living garbage was the reason but I didn''t care at all anymore. ¡± Thanks. ¡± I said and started to depart from there without wasting not even a second more. As we took enough distance for a normal human to not hear anymore, things like ¡¯That¡¯s your fault, bastard¡¯ and ¡¯Shut the hell up, you horny pervert¡¯ started to flood in my ears. Unfortunately for them, my hearing was a lot better that one might think and I was able to listen to their conversation even from such a distance if I concentrate a little. *Sigh* ¡± Fio, are all the gate guards around there perverts? If I think about it, the guard from that village said something similar... ¡± ¡± Per... verts!? ¡± she said with a curious voice like she didn''t quite understand what I mean. ¡±...¡± ¡± What do you mean, Lizza? Is something wrong? ¡± ¡¯Ohhh no... This can''t be... How can she not be able to recognize... Hmm... No, no... Wait a minute...¡¯ For her maybe that was the norm. Since she was born where she was born maybe people like that should be the norm for her. Poor Fiona. To be exposed to such bad influences from a small age. Since there exist legal slavery or bandits plundering and killing people around there, a pervert dude trying to get a young girl must be the last concern for the authorities. Since the legal marriage age must be lower than my world standard, maybe what this guard was trying to do was actually legal... ¡± Lizza... Was there something wrong with him? ¡± ¡± Of course there was. He''s a pervert trying to hit on two young girls. ¡± ¡± A pervert trying to hit us? ¡± she said with yet another confused expression. ¡± I don''t think I understand, Lizza... ¡± ¡± How can you not understand what he really wanted... huh!? ¡± Actually, that might be the case. Since nobody should be willing to look at her back then due to their horrible racist view about her origin, this is only natural for her to not understand the more subtle allusions. ¡± Fio, you... ¡± ¡± I-Is something wrong with me, Lizza? ¡± she said while slightly dropping her ears in anxiety. She was looking like someone on the verge of tearing in the next moment. ¡± Do not worry, Fio. There''s nothing wrong with you. I will protect you from any pervert from now on. ¡± ¡± Lizza will protect me? ¡± the light in her eyes seemed to return as she heard my reply. She was so adorable I hardly restrained myself from petting her head. ¡± Yes. ¡± I had to protect Fiona¡¯s innocence at all costs. ¡± Then, I''ll protect Lizza too... ¡± she said with a resolute expression on her face. The urge to hug her was growing even bigger and I had to turn around to control myself. ¡± Lizza? ¡± ¡± Nothing... It''s nothing. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± Anyway... Listen here, Fio. We must be wary of that kind of men from now on. ¡± ¡± Mm, but how? ¡± ¡± Ehh... For example, if any of them is trying to approach you or is trying to give you things while being kind to you for no reason, there must be something off with that. ¡± ¡± I-Is that so? ¡± ¡± Yes, is very possible for them to be perverts. You must be wary of them from now on. ¡± ¡± Mm. I understand. I will protect Lizza from them too. ¡± ¡± Aaawwww... I can''t resist anymore. Come here! ¡± FDSIO Hello, o/ !!! I''m still alive apparently. Sorry about the late release. I had some trouble IRL so I had to take a little pause from writing. Long story short, I managed to resolve the problem but not entirely. I''m still quite busy so yeah... What I want to say is that for the next 2-3 weeks I can''t say with certainty if a chapter will be posted as it was scheduled. That didn''t mean that I''ll stop posting for the next 2-3 weeks. What I mean is that the chapter might come a day or two later or maybe earlier depending on how busy I am. Since that is the case, in this period of time, I can''t announce on my profile when the next chapter will come out since I''m not sure either. I will still announce when it is out but I can''t say for sure when the next one will come, unfortunately. Chapter 44: A pair of siblings. After I finished my little lecture, we started to move again since I didn''t want to lose any more time pointlessly. If I remember correctly, the receptionist girls said something about their materials being pretty valuable as well. We managed to spend our money somehow so we had to succeed in this quest no matter what. We still had the other half of the monster bodies in my ring, the ones that Fiona didn''t manage to work with yet. There was a lot of meat too but that wasn''t enough. If we want to stick to this business, we should prepare some armor for both of us. Something light will be perfect since I couldn''t picture ourselves as two walking lumps of metal. Since that was the case we had to prepare some extra money. If we had to do it, we might as well buy some relatively good stuff. ¡¯There''s no reason to be stingy when it comes to one''s life.¡¯ We wouldn''t be mistaken for little girls that were lost like that pervert guard assumed at first. Almost all the adventures around there were wearing at least some basic kind of armor after all. Not to mention that I want to wear cool looking armor too. Despite my expectations, the road was quite peaceful. We didn''t encounter any monster or wild animal even after we traveled for quite a while. If we exclude the two or three parties of adventurers who were returning to the city, we didn''t encounter anything else. Maybe the reason was the large number of people coming and going for the quest. Since the road was used quite a bit these days, the chances to encounter something was low. Since that was the case, we raised our pace in hopes of arriving here faster. The sole pause we made was for us to eat something. ¡± Lizza. ¡± ¡± Hmm? What is it, Fio? ¡± ¡± I think it should be around an hour already. ¡± ¡± Okey. Then, we should set our camp for the night around here? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± When we asked for some information at the guild this morning, they said that the forest was located two hours on foot from where the principal road was intersected with the closest village to the forest. We didn''t want to camp too close to the forest, at least not on the first night. Instead, we decided to stop here. We took quite the distance from the road since we wanted to make a fire for the night. I started to gather some dry firewood from around while Fiona was preparing the place for the night. ¡± This much should be enough... What do you think, Fio? ¡± ¡± Mm... Enough. ¡± ¡± Mmmm, why did you take out the dagger? ¡± ¡± We run out of materials. I want to prepare the others too. ¡± ¡± Oh... Are you sure? You need to be prepared for tomorrow. Maybe you should rest to be at your peak. ¡± ¡± I can''t sleep that much. There''s still around an hour before the sunset. ¡± She had a point. Despite the time I lived in this world, I still forget sometimes that there was a blue moon and a red moon. Theoretically, this should count around midday or so. No matter how much I tried to get used to this, it was still quite strange for me. ¡± Mmm... Okay, let me take out some of them. I should prepare my stuff too... Maybe... ¡± ¡± Lizza. ¡± an angry voice came from my back after I took out some monster corpses and I was about to take out my stuff too. As I turned my head to see what was going on, I was greeted with an angry-looking Fiona who was glaring at me for some reason. ¡± What happened? ¡± I asked with a small voice. I wasn''t used to see angry-looking Fiona to often. Even less one angry because of me for some reason... probably. ¡± Lizza, sleep. ¡± ¡± Huh!? ¡± ¡± Lizza need to sleep. You promised. ¡± ¡± Yeah, but... ¡± ¡± You promised. ¡± That was not to good. I already break a promise back then and that didn''t turn to good. I had to handle this with care. ¡± I know. I said that I will sleep tonight but there''s still an hour before the blue moon to show up. Didn''t I tell you that? ¡± ¡± Mm, but... ¡± ¡± It''s fine... When the blue moon appears, I will go straight to sleep. You can work with those materials and we will switch when the red one appears. ¡± ¡± Mm, but... ¡± ¡± Fio, since I can''t do much while the red moon is up since I need to be more cautious in that period, you can sleep with your head on my lap. I''ll stroke your head until you fall asleep. ¡± I actually didn''t lie about that. We couldn''t be careless during that period after all so I had to be extra careful on my watch. Since that was the case I could bait her with it so I could finish the preparations right now. She wouldn''t be able to resist such a deal after all. ¡± Mmmm. Okay... ¡± ¡¯There you are. Victory! Muahaha...¡¯ I took out the arrows and the other materials and started to prepare them for tomorrow morning. ---------------------------------------- -Elliott, the C rank adventurer¡¯s POV- ¡¯Bullshit... So much bullshit...¡¯ *bang* I couldn''t help but smack my hand on the table in annoyance. Bad news one after another. ¡± Elliott, calm down. ¡± a feminine voice came from the other side of the table. She had long blonde hair pinned in a ponytail that was resting on her left shoulder. She had a well-proportioned face with a small nose and pink lips. Her eyes had a dark blue nuance that enchanted her beauty even further. Since we are pretty much together all the time and for some reason, our looks were completely different despite us being siblings she is often mistaken as my ¡¯undeserved¡¯ girlfriend. From the day our parents died in a monster attack seven years ago I was forced to become an adventurer to take care of us since she was just 12 years old at that time. It was her older brother''s responsibility to take care of her even though there was just three years difference between us. *sigh* I let out a sigh and shook my head as to forget about our sour past. But even though we are pretty good right now, there always must be something to spoil the mood like this. ¡± Elliott, that''s the situation... We could do nothing about it. ¡± ¡± Haaaaaa... I know, but it still pisses me out. These garbage knights. This city would be so much better without them. ¡± ¡± Elliott! ¡± ¡± Yeah, yeah... I know. Things will get bad if they heard me. ¡± ¡± No. You don''t seem to understand. Things wouldn''t just get bad... ¡± ¡± Yeah, yeah... I''ll shut up... Are you happy now, Silvia? ¡± ¡± Yes, thank you. ¡± she said with a firm voice and took another sip from her favorite fruit juice. At moments like these, I wonder who was the older sibling and who was the younger. Even though I bravely hit my chest in pride because I managed to protect her despite our misfortune, it was a fact that she was forced to grow up and mature from a young age. ¡± Shit. ¡± ¡± Elliott. ¡± ¡± I didn''t say anything wrong this time. ¡± ¡± Do you remember why we came here? You are spoiling my mood too. ¡± ¡± Yeah, yeah... Sorry. ¡± She was right. We came here to eat something and forget about all that shit. She brought me here since this place was serving her favorite juice though. I had to remind myself from time to time that even if she''s pretty much composed all the time, she had her limits as well. ¡¯She''s quite scary when angry...¡¯ Shaking my head again, I took another bite from my grilled meat. It was already half-cold but I forced myself to eat it since I didn''t want to admit that it was my fault since I complained too much and the dish turned like that. I had my pride too. Then again... Things would be so much better without that bunch of buffons and that damn city lord. The guys from the guild had to work their asses off to assemble the Queen subjugation party but that greedy lord... Not just that he wanted to place his knights around the nest for backup, security, and bullshit but they dare to drag us back to. We need to wait for them another two whole days since they weren''t even ready yet. ¡¯Goddamit! I''m pissed again...¡¯ ¡± Huuuuhh... ¡± I had to calm down since Silvia¡¯s expression was starting to change in something that wasn''t looking good for my health. It was obvious that she was pissed too... It was just that she didn''t show it on the outside but I know her from a lifetime... ¡¯Yeah, she''s pissed too...¡¯ ¡± Do you want another cup, Silvia? ¡± ¡± No, I''m fine. ¡± ¡¯Yup, she''s definitely upset... That''s not good.¡¯ ¡± How about we pay a visit to Rebecca after this? Since these bastards can''t move their asses faster we got some free time. ¡± ¡± Elliott... What did I say earlier? ¡± ¡± Yeah, yeah... I know... ¡± ¡± But that''s not a bad idea. ¡± ¡¯Success!¡¯ Since Rebecca was running some kind of clothes shop exclusively for women, it would be boring for me but I could leave them alone as always and take a stroll by myself. Rebecca''s shop wasn''t cheap by any mean but since we couldn''t afford a lot of stuff when we were children she got this strange satisfaction in buying whatever she missed or craved for back then. I didn''t mind either way since we weren''t poor anymore. I was quite successful and if the damn city lord and the jerks from the knight order wouldn''t steal too many achievements from us in this quest, she should be eligible to take a rank up after this. It would be much easier to take quests together if she would be promoted to rank C as well. Chapter 45: I am a fool! As the sun started to glance at us from the horizon, we already packed our stuff and took back the course towards the forest. We would have to adjust our sleep schedule since the red moon time was abnormally dangerous here. Despite the distance, we had to deal with two attacks last night. Some kind of black wolf monster and a group of three goblins. These guys were literally everywhere. ¡¯Thanks to the Holy Tree, they are pretty weak now that I gained some experience and levels.¡¯ It could not be helped. One might think about how they were able to grow like that. The answer was more shocking than one might expect. Basically, their fertility was so ridiculously potent to the point that they could breed with almost anything. They still prefer humanoid-shaped creatures but in the absence of that... Yeah, I didn''t even want to think about it. ¡¯Worthy of being called the cancer of fantasy worlds.¡¯ I took a deep breath of fresh air and checked my bow one more time. After I prepared the arrows last night, I wanted to test one out of curiosity to see if it really works. To ensure my success, I spent quite some money on cheap fabric and some kind of inflammable type of oil. The whole idea was similar to what I did with my spear back then. This time though, I took the idea and applied it for my arrows. The difference between a simple arrow and a flaming one wasn''t something trivial at all. This time, my goal wasn''t to kill them. I didn''t have to cause huge damage, the point was just to hit them. I was almost sure that my strategy would work at least to some extent. Thinking logically about it, if they were a huge version of a normal wasp, their biggest weakness was that fragile pair of wings. If I set them on fire, that would be end game for them. What I didn''t expect though was for it to work too well. The resulting flame was so out of my expectations that I almost fell on my butt from the startle. I could not even call it a flaming arrow anymore. A huge burst of flames the size of a grown man wasn''t something you usually shot with a bow... It had a lot of issues too... After the arrow was shot, I could do nothing to control or stop it. The flame would die relatively quickly after the initial burst, too, and the arrow could not be recovered either. But that was fine. I could not ask for more from an improvisation. I was basically cheating the normal way to go here so I couldn''t complain about the small details. *crack* My train of thought was suddenly disturbed by what I assumed to be a branch cracking sound not too far from us. ¡± Fio... ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± Fiona prepared her sword and nodded her head to me. We quicken our pace to see what was going on. Most probably, something was fighting there. As we were approaching we could hear some kind of roars and a high pitched buzz. At that moment I was almost sure that something was fighting with the monster we were here to hunt. ¡± Over there, Lizza. ¡± ¡± Yeah, I saw them too... ¡± I said and prepared my bow to be ready at any time. In front of us was a beast resembling a bear with horns and what I thought to be some kind of armor on his back and joints. It looked like a combination of an armadillo and a bear who managed to grow horns for some reason. ¡¯I doubt quite a bit that they were for an aesthetic purpose though...¡¯ I counted around three or four angry wasps buzzing around the horned-armored-bear-thing in an attempt to attack it. The wasps were around a meter in length. I could not help but shiver a little looking at them. What was even worse was the fact that due to their proportions, they looked really disturbing. Like really, really disturbing. Whoever had the chance to see photos of insects up close might understand what I mean. Just imagine that in a one-meter version. No good. Besides, these monsters had a row of sharp-looking teeth since they were supposed to be carnivores. On the front pair of legs, I could see some type of sharp-looking claws too. *shiver* ¡¯Hell no... Oh my Holy Tree, no. Please, spare me. I don''t want that thing around me.¡¯ A normal monster was scary, but at least it resembled in most of the cases with a wild animal. There was an exception here and there but nothing to this extent. I wasn''t scared of bugs and the likes of that in my past life but this thing was horrifying. I didn''t want to stay a second more in this place. ¡± Fio, how about we leav... ¡± I tried to suggest a strategic retreat but I was interrupted mid-sentence by her. ¡± The armored bear is wounded. Look, there''s a dead wasp too. ¡± she said and pointed her finger toward a wasp body. The body was severed in half and was lying on the ground not to far from the bear. Judging by her attitude towards the disturbing scene that was performed in front of us, I could fell that my ¡¯strategic-retreat¡¯ wasn''t something she even took into consideration. Looking at the unfazed younger girl in front of me, I felt like my pride as a former man was a little hurt. It was just a strategic-retreat. It totally wasn''t because I didn''t want to face these atrocities. ¡±Hm!? Did you say something, Lizza? ¡± ¡± Ehhh, no... Let''s see how the situation evolves first. The bear made a lot of noise and if it continues like this is possible to attract more wasps. That would be dangerous. ¡± ¡± Mm. That would be dangerous, but the bear was stung by that dead wasp. He''s not going to resist for too long. ¡± ¡¯Shit... Bear, you are so useless. Kill them already.¡¯ *Sigh* There was no way out of the situation. That would be just me evading the issue. Sooner or later I had to confront them anyway. We came here for that exact reason. I thought that since I already fought a respectable number of monsters, I could go on with this one too, as long as the victory odds would be by my side. And it might be true to some extent. If that monstrosity would have been the first monster I encountered in this world and not that goblin, things would have ended very differently. But that was all. At the end of the day, I was still a normal person. I wasn''t a battle-junkie madman fearlessly charging at my enemies. ¡¯Though, me being here right now proves that I''m not an entirely normal person either.¡¯ No normal person would willingly come to hunt monsters if they could choose to do something else. I was an enchanter to some extent. It shouldn''t be too hard to earn money working as one. But back in the city, I didn''t even spare a glance at that possibility when I heard about this quest. ¡± Maybe I''m not so normal in the head as I thought... ¡± ¡± Lizza? Are you ok? What are you saying there? ¡± ¡± Ah, sorry... My thoughts slipped out for a little. ¡± ¡± Slipped out? ¡± ¡± Nothing important anyway... The bear¡¯s movements seem to be considerably duller than before. ¡± ¡± Mm. The wasp poison is finally taking effect. He''s not going to last for much longer. ¡± ¡± Hmm... Listen, Fio... ¡± ¡± Mm. What it is? ¡± As I turned my eyes to look at the cute wolf-girl next to me, I felt like she looked a little different than the usual. Unlike me, she was calmly examining the fight in front of us, providing useful information. I was the only one distracted by useless thoughts in a critical moment. Thinking back at the night before to arrive in the city and how I foolishly deceived myself by thinking that I need to take care of Fiona from now on, it almost made me laugh at this moment. Yes, she had her issues here and there and became dependent on me in a not too healthy way but that didn''t change the fact that I was depending on her as much as she was on me. I was the only fool who broke our equality relationship by thinking that I should take care of her when in reality, it might be the other way around. ¡± What it is, Lizza? ¡± ¡± Nothing much... I just thought that I was a fool. ¡± ¡± Hmm? No. Lizza is not a Fool. Did something happen? ¡± ¡± Yes, I am. But that''s not something we should debate right now... How do you think we should deal with them? ¡± ¡± Wrong! Lizza is smart, not a fool. ¡± ¡± Ehh? Umm... yeah, you are right... Sorry. Anyway, about the situation in front of us? ¡± ¡±Mm. Better. ¡± she said with a smile and shifted her attention to the fight that was about to be concluded with a pondering expression on her face. I had to give up on my ¡¯fool¡¯ status since she started to deny it with an expression even more serious than the one she was looking at the fight in front of us. She was even a little scary. ¡± We should wait a little longer. Even with that big flame, it''s harder to hit them in the air, and after the first shoot, they''ll know about us too. ¡± ¡± Yeah, so... ¡± ¡± Mm. After the armored-bear is dead, they should come down to cut it in pieces to carry it back to their nest. Lizza needs to hit them at that moment so we could take down most of them in one hit. ¡± ¡± Oh... Yeah, thanks Fio. You are smart too. ¡± ¡± Mm, but Lizza is smarter. ¡± Smiling wryly at the girl who was beaming with happiness just because she was slightly praised I shook my head and prepared my bow once again. At least, I was right. I should take into account her opinion more from now on... After all, her experience at surviving in this world was far greater than mine. And when I said ¡¯surviving¡¯ I meant exactly that, since her life until now was everything but easy. Chapter 46: Starting the hunt. Looking at the poor horned-armored-bear-thing or armored bear how Fiona named it being slowly sliced by oversized wasps with their sharp-looking claws, I could not help but let out a small sigh. ¡¯At least now I know for what these claws were used. And apparently, knowing it doesn''t help me with anything.¡¯ I closed my eyes for a second and took in a good chunk of air before to let it out slowly in an attempt to calm myself a little. I didn''t know if that worked or not but I could not waste any more time. Due to my modifications, once the arrow is out I had no choice but to fire it. With a swish sound, the arrow darted from my bow and shortly afterward bloomed in a huge ball of fire. This time, I was sure to send my mana through the arrow with a little delay to not burn myself or something. It worked quite good. As the arrow hit the dead bear right between the unsuspecting wasps, the whole thing was engulfed in flames for several seconds after which four burning wasps attempted to take flight in random directions just to crash into the ground shortly afterward. Turning my head to look at Fiona, she already started to run toward the closest one with her sword in hand. No matter how many times I saw it, I was amazed at how fast she was every time. If I were to compare with something, I''d say somehow at a professional athlete level. Maybe that didn''t feel much at first sight but imagine that coming from a 14 years old girl who for some reasons looked younger than that... As she came closer to the struggling wasp, she quickly stepped on his side and smug her sword down. The wasp head was severed in one go after which she run to the next one. I was a little surprised at how easy she finished it. I didn''t expect her to lose, not even to have problems dealing with it but that was a little too easy. I expected for the wasp to at least try to fight back somehow. Seeing her doing pretty much the same thing to the next one I suddenly got an idea as to why the wasps weren''t fighting back so I stepped out of the cover and cautiously approach one of them. When I got around seven or eight meters to it, my hypothesis was basically confirmed. I didn''t know if the wasp could hear me or sense me somehow but it surely couldn''t see me anymore. ¡¯If your unprotected bowl-sized eyes were hit by a flame like that... Yeah, not much to comment here.¡¯ In fact, there was a bluish liquid dripping from them. Determining that it was dangerous to delay our stay here any further, I took one of my normal arrows and hit it right through his right eye to damage his brain. ¡¯If it even has something like that.¡¯ Luckily, the wasp frantically struggled for several seconds before slowing down and stopping to move soon afterward. [*Ding: You have killed level 18 Giant Wasp!] [*Ding: {Apprentice Bow Technique} reached level 4!] ¡¯At least his death wasn''t pointless.¡¯ Somehow, the tense situation from several minutes ago turned out in this one-sided slaughter... It was almost laughable. The sole detriment was that we couldn''t help but damage the eyes with this method. That bluish liquid was very useful in alchemy or so I heard from the receptionist at the guild. It wasn''t my case, but for someone with limited space, you had to know which parts were useful and which not. A pair of eyes were around 2 silver coins but with the huge amount from the quest, the price would surely drop a little. If I were to take into consideration that they were damaged too, I doubted we could take even 1 silver coin for a pair. [*Ding: You have reached level 27!] ¡± Huh? ¡± ¡¯What the hell... Ahh, no... Wait a moment.¡¯ ¡± Heeh... So, that was the case. ¡± I let out these words as I turned my head to Fiona who just killed the last wasp. I had a hunch about it but now I was sure. Even though I wasn''t the one who killed the wasp, I took some experience too for damaging it. Just that was harder to figure out since just the one who killed it received the announcement. ¡¯Status¡¯ ---------------------------- Racial skills: Normal skills: Passive skills: ---------------------------- Yup. My bow technique got another level up. I was quite proud of it actually. Unlike the whole level up system where you kill things and grow, to level up skills wasn''t that simple. It was called skill for a reason. You couldn''t magically gain knowledge, experience, and use better that particular skill out of nowhere. For example, I managed to increase my [Apprentice Bow Technique] to level 4 because my arrow wouldn''t have gone through its hard carapace so I aimed at his weak point. If I were to shot arrow after arrow until his carapace broke down, it was most likely to not gain any level up from it despite the end result being the same. It counted less that I killed the wasp but was more important the way I killed it. What mattered was that I gained something from it. I could instinctively tell that the new increase in level would help me to focus better on my enemy weakness from now since that was what I aimed for. The skill was more about guiding and helping to refine what you already achieved and less about giving you everything out of nowhere. It was somehow a testimony of your talent and hard work. ¡± Muffufufufu... ¡± ¡± Lizza! ¡± ¡± Ohh, yeah... Sorry, Fio. I''ll come right now. ¡± Storing away my prey, I quickly made a tour around the place and retrieved the rest of them, the mutilated bear included. ¡± Umu. Not bad. Not bad at all, Fio. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± You did great. I''m proud of you. ¡± ¡± M-Mm. ¡± She was so easy to guess. Her waging tail was so obvious that I almost let you a laugh. I couldn''t help but think that she looked adorable even though mere moments earlier she was severing giant wasp heads with a sword. If I were to think like this, maybe my definition of adorable was a bit strange... ¡¯But who minds small details like these, right?¡¯ ¡± If all is good we should get moving... Oh, you kept a pair of wasp claws? ¡± ¡± Mm. I''ll put them in the rucksack. Also, you should put your helmet, Lizza. ¡± ¡± Ohh, yeah... I forgot about it. ¡± Before to leave the city I made Sara make me an improvised leather helmet. Since we weren''t the only people taking this quest, there were chances of meeting other adventurers. It was plainly obvious that I couldn''t use my normal hat and the hood wasn''t a viable option either. Taking out the helmet and looking at it, I chuckled at what I saw. Since the time was limited she couldn''t help but improvise something at the last minute. There wasn''t enough time for a real helmet so we took something resembling a fez for the interior and placed the leather as a covering. She additionally made the leather run down on the sides and in the back, letting just the front uncovered to look more like a genuine one. ¡± How do I look? ¡± ¡± Mm. Lizza looks great. ¡± ¡± Yeah, it feels a little uncomfortable but I think I can manage somehow. ¡± I said and tried to adjust it somehow to be more comfortable. She got back to take our rucksack and put the pair of wasp claws in it. Outside of their utility as a material, we need to take them back as proof of subjugation. We could simply stock them in the ring but if we already decided to keep the rucksack for appearances, it was weird to not have at least several claws in it as well. ¡¯Then, I suppose we should get moving?¡¯ . . . As the day passed, we had quite a few encounters with the wasps. To call it an emergency wasn''t incorrect, they were pretty much everywhere. And the frequency at which we encountered them and the number of individuals in a group was growing as we approached their nest. It was pretty easy to figure out the nest. While the free ones didn''t have a special pattern and seemed to simply wander around searching for food, the ones who were loaded with prey headed always in the same direction. As night arrived, we stumbled upon another problem. These guys didn''t seem to have an off button. They were active at night the same way as on daylight. I should have figured at least that much because in their nest was mostly dark all the time. They probably had some kind of night vision as well. We solved the problem surprisingly easy though. If we stay hidden and keep quiet, we were pretty much safe. Because we approached their base, the other monsters weren''t a problem either. They had been wiped out by the wasps already. In the next two days, we started to especially target the loaded groups since these were easy targets. If I were to make a rough estimation, we managed to kill around a hundred wasps in total. Fiona gained another two levels since she was the one who gave the decisive blow. She reached level 32 already. I managed to gain just another level but that didn''t bother me. I was more excited because my [Mana Manipulation] and [Fire Manipulation] gained two levels each and on top of that, another one for [Apprentice Bow Technique]. Even Fiona seemed to be visible more skilled with her sword. I assumed that she managed to get some levels in that too. The situation was looking very good. And maybe that was the cause I got injured on the fourth day. When all went smoothly, you tend to let your guard down. A basic rule. But it was at the moment I experienced it on my own skin that I truly understand how true that was. I managed to make it out pretty cheap, some superficial bruises and scratches and a slight wound on my left arm, but that was because I was lucky and managed to react in time. After I shot a group of three wasps who were returning to the nest, I was too preoccupied with the outcome to notice that a stray wasp was attracted by the noise approaching from my back. When I noticed it, the wasp was already too close to shot an arrow at it so I let go of the bow and took out my spear in an attempt to fend off the charging wasp. Since the spear basically came out of tin air, the wasp didn''t manage to avoid it and ended pierced by it through his mouth. The problem was that I couldn''t do much about the high speed with which the wasp came at me so it ended up crashing into me and sending me several meters rolling through the ground. ¡± Ouch, is that really necessary, Fio? ¡± ¡± It is. Don''t struggle anymore and let me change the bandage one more time. ¡± ¡± But it''s almost closed. Isn''t that enough? ¡± ¡± It''s not. Even in the raw form, applying this on the wound will raise your natural regeneration by several times. As the wound looks like, we need to apply it at least one more time to be healed completely. ¡± ¡± Ugh... Fine, fine... It couldn''t be helped. I need to be in good shape if we were to encounter another group while I''m still wounded. Go ahead and... Ouch... What... No, ouch... at least let me finish my self-encouraging speech. ¡± I tried to protest against the unfair treatment but she wasn''t moved at all by it. I wonder from where popped this unyielding demon and where disappeared my adorable and friendly fluff... Moving my sight around the place in an attempt to forget about the pain, it landed on the discarded bandages who got removed from my hand. I couldn''t help but look with hatred at the mixture of green and red that was lingering on them. I would be extremely thankful that we had such a great thing with us if not for the intense pain it causes. ¡± It will help you, Lizza. You don''t have my vitality so we have to use more on you. ¡± ¡± I know, I know... I''m actually quite amazed at how effective it is. ¡± ¡± Mm. I used the best ones we have right now. ¡± *sigh* Looking at her, it seemed that the unyielding demon disappeared with the last change of bandages and was replaced with a teary fluff once again. ¡± Thank you, Fio. ¡± I said and moved my other hand to pat her head slowly. ¡± Mm. ¡± There was a saying about the fact that friends, family or other types of people that share a close relationship didn''t need to thanks each other, but I didn''t think so. ¡¯Isn¡¯t that weird to not show your appreciation to the closest people to you?¡¯ Even though you wouldn''t thank them for every small thing, I believed that it was just right to do so when you truly feel like doing it. ¡± By the way Fio, you didn''t tell me that these herbs were that effective... ¡± ¡± Hm!? Didn''t I say that these were medicinal herbs? ¡± ¡± Yeah, you did, but you didn''t tell me that these were that potent. ¡± I said and took another glance at the bandages. After we started our journey to this place she would come to me with different plants claiming that they were medicinal plants. We kept them since space wasn''t a problem for us but with all the rush in the city, I completely forget about them. ¡± Now that I think about it, you collected several herbs these days as well. ¡± ¡± Mm. I got one rare too. The blue one... Didn''t I show it to you too? ¡± ¡± A rare one, huh? Ehm... You said you used the best ones for my arm. Just to be sure, how valuable was that one? ¡± ¡± Around 2-3 silver each. But the quality and freshness count as well. ¡± ¡± And we used both of them for a small wound... It should be much effective used correctly, no? ¡± ¡± Umm, sorry, Lizza... I used to collect herbs in the past so I know which one is good but I don''t know much about alchemy... I just know this one works even raw, but... ¡± ¡± Oh, don''t worry, Fio... You saved me by just knowing that so it''s good enough. ¡± ¡± Mm. But... Shouldn''t you know about alchemy Lizza? Isn''t alchemy... umm, your race thing? ¡± ¡± Ugh... Yeah, I suppose it is... But outside of enchanting, I don''t know much... ¡± ¡± Mm. I''m sorry. ¡± ¡± Huh? For what? ¡± ¡± Lizza said she didn''t grow in the elven forest... I''m sorry. ¡± ¡± Ah, no, no, no, no. It''s fine, that doesn''t matter anymore. I already said that... Actually, no. ¡± ¡¯At this rate, I''ll end up throwing at her even more lies. I can''t tell her everything since that will just unnecessary complete the situation, but at least I should trust her a little more.¡¯ ¡± Are you upset, Lizza? ¡± ¡± No. Actually, I should be the one to apologize to you, Fio. ¡± ¡± Huh? Why? No. Lizza didn''t do anything wrong. ¡± ¡± I... ¡± I tried to figure a way to say it, but I couldn''t tell her that I lied to her either. With her emotional instability that was out of the question. ¡± Fio, remember when we first met and I said that I didn''t grow up in the elven forest? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± Umm, yeah... Obviously, you know... You just said that a few moments earlier... ¡± ¡± Lizza? ¡± ¡± Anyway... What I didn''t tell you is that I didn''t interact with other people either... And I don''t know that much about a lot of stuff. ¡± ¡± Mm. I saw that sometimes Lizza acts weird. ¡± ¡¯How blunt... She has no tact at all.¡¯ *cough* *cough* ¡± It''s more than that, Fio. When I said that I didn''t interact with other people, I mean I didn''t do it at all. And the truth is that I met you not so long after I left ¡¯my home¡¯. You are the first person I met after that. I''m sorry I didn''t tell you. ¡± ¡± T-The first? ¡± ¡± Umm... Fio? ¡± ¡± I-I was the first? ¡± ¡± Y-Yeah, so my knowledge about everything is probably even worse than you imagine. ¡± ¡± Fiona was the first person Lizza met? ¡± ¡± Yes, I''m sorry I didn''t tell you till now. But that''s not what is important. What is important is that I don''t know a lot of stuff so I want you to teach me... If you want to... ¡± ¡± Yes! Fiona was the first! ¡± ¡± Whaaa... Ouch, my hand still hurt. What are you doing? Get down... Sto... stop. ¡± ¡± Ehehehe... I was the first. ¡± ¡±Fio? Fio... Are you listening? ¡± ¡± Fiona was first. ¡± ¡¯Oh no! I think I broke her...¡¯ FDSIO Hi! Longest chapter till now. This one is a little longer than the previous longest. #MeLookingProudBecauseOfIt. Hope you enjoy reading the chapter! Chapter 47: We got another magic archer. ---------------------------------------- -The Queen Subjugation Party - ¡¯Four whole days, goddamit...¡¯ Looking around the temporary camp, I didn''t even care that much anymore. They could do whatever the hell they want, I simply didn''t care anymore. ¡± What''s with that face? ¡± ¡± I don''t care anymore. ¡± ¡± Is that so? But we are the ones who should get the job done so you should care... ¡± ¡± You are not helping, Frank. ¡± I spat out in annoyance at the older man. No matter how much time passed, he was still treating me like a kid. He was one of the few who gave a helping hand back then to me and my sister. He was a person I actually trusted. If you ask him why he did that on the other hand, he would always claim that he knew how it was to be left alone. He didn''t tell us more about it but you didn''t need to be a genius to figure out since he was part of the beastkin race. From the DogKin sub-race to be more accurate. And we all know how the majority of them end up in this place. Except for the few natives, of course. ¡± You should get used to overlook the small details and focus on what''s important. ¡± the old beastkin said bringing me back from my trance. Even though he was one of the few people I respected, that didn''t mean that he was less annoying. In fact, he wouldn''t miss even a single occasion to mess with me. ¡± Enlighten me, Frank. I''m just ears. On what should I focus right now? ¡± ¡± Well, we got delayed quite a bit. ¡± ¡± Fantastic, Frank. But I was focusing exactly on that right now. ¡± ¡± Let me finish. I know that you are an idiot just when you want to be one. ¡± ¡± Yeah, yeah... I''m an idiot, so tell me how should we solve the problem? As things were going right now, most probably they''ll slow us down even more. ¡± ¡± Very simple. ¡± ¡± I''m listening. ¡± ¡± We don''t. ¡± ¡± ... ¡± ¡± Listen there, kid. You''re young, unlike me, you actually have some talent with that sword of yours... ¡± ¡± Get to the point. ¡± ¡± The point is that you can act like an idiot, rambling without a care in front of me... But it would be a shame to get ahead of yourself and do it in front of who you should not. Didn''t you say to me back then that you don''t want to lose anything anymore? If that is so, then don''t make her lose anything anymore either. ¡± ¡± Yeah... ¡± ¡± Good. If that is clear, let''s get back to the main point. ¡± ¡± I don''t think I''m in the mood anymore. ¡± ¡± Nope. That''s exactly the mood, kid. When you are not acting like a kid is the best time to discuss these things. ¡± ¡± Frank, did something happen? ¡± ¡± Yes and no. Just listen for the moment. ¡± *sigh* ¡± Whatever. ¡± It seemed that my intuition wasn''t wrong. Even though he would mess with me whenever he had the chance, he would quickly drop the matter after a little bit. It seemed that this time something actually happened. ¡± That''s the spirit. We don''t need to deal with all the troublesome stuff. We have Hector to rack his head with all that. To deal with the knights, to make decisions and stuff. All we need to do is to follow the plan he racked his head to come up with and deal with whatever might happen along the way. ¡± ¡± And the point is? ¡± ¡± The point is that ¡¯whatever might come along the way¡¯ already happened. And we need to deal with that. ¡± ¡± Don''t tell me that we got delayed too much and something happened at the nest. ¡± ¡± Not that bad. But that might not be that far from the truth if we keep delaying like this... Anyway, the plan for our team changed. ¡± ¡± Ha? Changed how? ¡± ¡± We are no longer a support team. We''ll have to deal with one of the entrances. ¡± ¡± Are they mad? How the fuck we should deal with that? ¡± ¡± Calm down. The situation isn''t that bad... We got another magic archer. ¡± ¡± We already have Silvia. ¡± ¡± Yes, but this one is a fire one. It works better in this situation. Also... ¡± ¡± Also... ¡± ¡± I heard that she''s pretty too. ¡± ¡± Fuck you. ¡± --------------------------------------- -Earlier that day- ¡± I already said that it''s fine, Fio. ¡± Her words came out as if she was already aware of what I was thinking about. Even though my conscience was saying that it wasn''t fine, the warmth from my chest didn''t want to listen to it. ¡¯I hurt Lizza... It''s not fine. It''s not fine at all.¡¯ *sigh* ¡± What should I do with her... Considering her fragile mentality... Maybe I exaggerated a little too? Was that too much in one go? Huuaah... ¡± Peeking up at her as she started yet again to enter in the ¡¯talking to herself¡¯ mode, in which I didn''t understand almost anything most of the time, I guessed that this time I was the cause. Sometimes, she would stumble in that state for no reason, looking at completely random things with a shocked expression but most of the time that would happen when she was pressed by an issue. Most of the time, I won''t be able to help her but this time I was the cause so I need to do something. ¡± Lizza, I''m sor... ¡± ¡± Nope. You don''t need to say that again. I already said that it''s fine, didn''t I? ¡± ¡± But... ¡± ¡± No buts. ¡± ¡± Lizza, this time I hurt you. I... I was... ¡± ¡± Haaaa... Answer me, Fio. Did you want to hurt me? ¡± ¡± No. Of course, no! ¡± ¡± Then, that''s it. You didn''t hurt me, it was just an accident. It didn''t even hurt that much anymore. The wound was almost healed. ¡± I just simply nodded as I was unable to say anything else. Her logic was something I had trouble comprehending from the first day we met. At first, I thought that she wanted something from me but quickly dismissed the possibility since I didn''t have anything of value, even less since she was an elf. After some thoughts, I decided that her offer seemed to be the only option to survive. I had to accept her help and figure out her true aim along the way. ¡¯Thinking back at it, I was the first person she met back then... Eheheh... I was so lucky to meet her as well.¡¯ She continued to save me again and again and even when I thought that all was lost she accepted me... ¡¯And even after I promised myself that I will repay her kindness and be helpful to her... I ended... I ended up like this.¡¯ *pat* *pat* Looking up at her again as she started to caress my head again while grinning, I got an ominous premonition from it. ¡± I just thought, Fio... Since you are so depressed about it, I got a nice idea as to how to be even. ¡± ¡± Eh, Lizza... This is... ¡± I had seen that grin before. That was the sight that she was thinking again at something strange. I experienced it several times but most of the time it wouldn''t end well. ¡± Eeehhh!? But weren''t you the one depressed about such a small thing? If you say that you hurt me, then you just need to make me feel better. Mufufufufu... ¡± ¡± Umm... Lizza? ¡± ¡± Mufufufuf... ¡± ¡± L-Lizza!? ¡± ¡± Not listening, Fio... Like a certain fluff did earlier... Mehehee... ¡± ¡± F-Fluff? ¡± ¡± You don''t need to know... Or maybe I should tell you later. Anyway, my reward will be... ¡± ¡± W-Will be? ¡± ¡± Tail. ¡± ¡± Tail? ¡± ¡± Mufufufufu... ¡± ¡± Oh... ohhh, no! Lizza... Please! I... I can''t. It''s too embarrassing. ¡± ¡± I won''t back down this time. It''s your punishment. I''ll wait till we camp somewhere since I want to enjoy it to the fullest. Be prepared. Mufufufu... ¡± ¡± P-Prepared? ¡± ¡± Yup. You won''t escape this time. Your tail will be stroked and hugged until I''m satisfied. ¡± ¡± M-Mm. I-If Lizza wants it that much... T-Then... ¡± ¡± Deal! I won''t bulge this time. Not even to the teary-eyed fluff attack. ¡± ¡±...¡± I... I had to give up. Somehow her weird side took control again. And since she wanted to play with my tail for some time now, she seemed to not want to give up no matter what... But I didn''t understand what was so great about it. Mama once said that it was a symbol of pride back in her tribe but as a slave... As a slave, it was a symbol of inferiority. Since we may lose some of our hearing sense if damaged, our ears were somewhat safe but sometimes, as a form of punishment or just for amusement some masters would cut our tails. I wished I could hide it somehow back then... It was clear that other races didn''t like our additions... And Lizza didn''t count as a representative for elves anymore. I had doubted it at first but now something was telling me that she might be considered weird even among her race... ¡± Lizza, I... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± Lizza. ¡± ¡± Yeah, it seems that we have company. ¡± she said and took out her bow to be prepared for the group of wasps. I didn''t want to repeat the mistake from earlier so I checked in all directions while Lizza was concentrating on the place from where the buzzing sound came. ¡± Strange... It''s just one? I thought I head multiple buzzes as they approached. ¡± ¡± Be careful, Lizza. ¡± ¡± Okay. I''ll shut down this one for now. ¡± As the wasp was engulfed by flames and crashed down to the ground, we didn''t move from the spot for a time to see if there weren''t others coming. After a minute or two of no sight of activity, we decided to end the wasp when we heard a sound coming from where the wasp came. The sound came from the nearby bush so we assumed that another monster was attracted but before we could make a move, a man''s voice came out from the same direction. ¡± Don''t shot. ¡± As the man came out for us to see him, he was accompanied by two more men and a woman. A group of four people. ¡± Was that your prey? I''m sorry, we didn''t know... I shot it down since it came in our direction but you can take the materials. We won''t interfere anymore. ¡± Lizza said and signaled me to slowly take our leave from there. I didn''t like that we were outnumbered either and the one who had spoken keep starring at Lizza for some reason. ¡± Oh, don''t need to worry about it. We are all here to exterminate them after all. Though I''m a bit startled at how you bring it down with such ease. You must be a talented magic archer at such a young age. ¡± ¡± L-Lizza... ¡± ¡± I don''t like where it is going either, Fio. Prepare to run if the worst came to us. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± Oh, I''m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I''m Hector. ¡± he said and took out his tag from his breastplate. My sense of dread increased exponentially after I saw it. The tag was indicating him as a B-class adventurer. Before we could do anything else the man spoke again. ¡± This may seem a little rushed but do you know about the Queen Subjugation Party? ¡± And with this question, my ominous feeling just increased even more. FDSIO Hope you enjoy Fiona''s POV. It was requested for some time now so here we go! :) Chapter 48: We got new party members! ¡¯I''m dead.¡¯ Though just on the inside... But I had a feeling that it would come true soon. I started to think that maybe there was someone who liked to punish me for every lie I say. ¡¯That was you, Holy Tree? I''m sorry, I had no choice. Please forgive me.¡¯ I mean, I had no choice. I had to agree with whatever the hell he named me. Somehow, I became a magic archer without even knowing it. Of course, it would be strange for someone who wasn''t one to shot giant lumps of fire like it was the obvious thing to do. I was aware of at least that much on my own. The next thing to do on the list was to figure out what was a magic archer. ¡¯Ha ha ha! Stop... This is not funny. Why are you laughing, me? Are you mad? Apparently, you are... To agree to such a request.¡¯ For all that was green in this world, why had to be seen firing lumps of fire by the guy who was leading the Queen Subjugation Party? And why was he so insisted on me joining them? I didn''t want to die yet. I had thought that I made it plainly obvious that I didn''t want to join. ¡¯Hector, you insistent bastard. If I were to die, I''ll be sure to shot my last arrow in your direction.¡¯ Moving my line of sight from the direction where the wasp nest was located to the guy who was accompanying us at the moment. He seemed to want to say something so I just nodded my head to signal that he could say whatever he wanted to say. ¡± They should be there in an hour or so. Please, prepare yourself. ¡± I just nodded again with a clouded expression but he didn''t seem to mind it and got back to whatever he and his group were doing while observing the nest. We crossed paths with Hector pretty close to the nest. I didn''t even know that we got so close to it in the first place. It was a miracle that we didn''t encounter anyone from the scout team these days. We got into each other just because he came to see the situation and meet with the scout team. ¡¯Talking about bad luck.¡¯ Anyway, since we were already here, he said that we should wait with the scouts, take a look at the nest and rest a little. It wasn''t necessary to return with him at the camp just to came back again. Glancing at my right side, Fiona was standing on a rock looking at me with a worried face. I couldn''t make her worry so I approach her and sit down next to her. ¡± Haaaa... Don''t worry, Fio. The situation isn''t that bad. We¡¯ll manage somehow. ¡± ¡± Mm. I believe Lizza. ¡± ¡± Yup, from what he said, we just need to take care of one of the entrances and we won''t be alone either. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± *cough* *cough* ¡± Soooo... What do you think, Fio? ¡± ¡± Lizza is right. I''ll stay close to you and protect you. ¡± ¡± Oh, t-thanks... I''m counting on you. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± It wasn''t exactly the answer I hoped for, but I appreciate it nonetheless. It wasn''t a bad idea either... Better to stay close to each other. ¡± The two over there. ¡± ¡± What!? Is that a joke? Weren''t they just kids? ¡± Looking back at the place from where the voices came, I could see the scout accompanied by another two men and a woman. The rude one who just talked right now was a young man in his twenties with short brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing a combination of leather armor with pieces of metal mixed with it. Judging by the sword from his belt, he was some kind of close combat fighter. That kind of armor made sense for that kind of fight stile. Light and relatively easy to move in, but with some degree of protection as well. The woman had long blonde hair pinned in a ponytail. She had a pretty face with a small nose, pink lips and dark blue eyes. I didn''t even understand what was doing such a girl in a place like this... She was wearing a complete set of dark red leather armor with several knives pined on her thighs and a bow on her back. ¡¯At least we got another archer if I screw up or something...¡¯ Looking at the last one, who was obviously older than the other two I was surprised to see that he wasn''t human. He was wearing a not so light set of armor and unlike his teammates, he had a helmet on his head too. I couldn''t see what kind of ears he had but judging by his tail it was quite clear that he was from the same race as Fiona. Outside of that, he had a sword on his belt and a shield on his back. On the other hand, we didn''t have any kind of armor... Oh, actually, I had an improvised helmet but in this situation, it was better if I didn''t. I looked utterly ridiculous with just the helmet and nothing more. ¡¯Hector, you bastard! What was in your head?¡¯ *smack* ¡± Ouch... Silvia? ¡± ¡± Don''t be a dumbass. ¡± the blonde girl said to the rude guy with a disappointed look in her eyes shortly after which she directed her attention on us. ¡± I''m sorry about my brother. He''s a little rough and short-tempered but he''s not a bad guy. My name is Silvia. ¡± she said and looked back at her brother to do the same. ¡¯Wait, rude guy? You are her brother. How is that even possible?¡¯ I didn''t know how but he guessed from my perplexed expression that I wasn''t thinking something nice about him at the moment and seemed to be a little annoyed about it. Not that I cared too much. He was the rude one first. ¡± Whatever... I''m Elliott. And stop looking at me like that... She really is my sister. ¡± he basically spat it at us without even hiding his annoyance. ''H-How... how did he know?'' ¡± Don''t worry about that. He''s upset that nobody would believe at first that they are siblings. I''m Frank. I hope that we''ll be able to work well together. ¡± the older beastkin said and prompted us to introduce ourselves with his glance. ¡± Oh, Yeah. Nice to met you. I''m Elizabeth. ¡± I said and looked at Fiona to do the same but when I saw her, she had a dangerous look on her face while staring at the rude guy. Or should I call him Elliott from now on? Probably... ¡± Fiona. ¡± she said with a gloomy voice and continued to stare at Elliott... Actually, she was right. In my head, I was going to name him a rude guy. Who could stop me from doing so? ¡± In this case, I think I''ll take my leave. Hector will come to check each group before we''ll be moving with the subjugation. ¡± the scout said and nodded at us after which he took his leave. While we were staring at each other in an awkward way, the rude one seemed to get bored with it and directed his gaze to his two companions. ¡± Soooo... Frank, do you think that Hector went mad from racking his head too much with all the complicated stuff? ¡± *smack* ¡± Ouch... What the hell did I do this time? ¡± ¡¯No, no... While he was a rude guy, he wasn''t entirely wrong either. I too think that Hector might be mad...¡¯ ¡± Soooo... Who went mad doing what, Elliott? ¡± as we were busy staring at the poor rude guy who was smacked a second time, we didn''t notice that a certain someone came closer to us. That guy was seriously a sneaky one. ¡± Ugh... Hector. ¡± ¡± Yes, that''s me. Soooo... Tell me, what''s the problem, Elliott? ¡± While stared at by Hector, the rude guy decided to drop the issue and stay quiet instead. ¡± Hector... ¡± ¡± I know, Frank... It''s partially my fault since we got this arrangement at the last second. That''s why I rushed here first. ¡± he said and looked at each of us before to speak again. ¡± However, I can assure you that despite the appearance, I''m almost certain that the young lady¡¯s skills with the fire element must be pretty close to the third stage. Do you understand now why i made this change? ¡± As he finished with his explanation which I didn''t understand anything at all, the others seemed to shift their stares at me with a grave expression on their faces. Even the rude one wasn''t an exception. On the other hand, I just wanted to find a hole and hide here for the rest of the day. ¡¯Seriously, Hector? What the hell did you just say again? Just look at how they are staring at me now... You bastard.¡¯ ¡± If that is the case, then I suppose we''ll manage this entrance somehow. ¡± said Frank visibly tired after all of this. ¡± Then... I suppose I''ll leave this to you, Frank. I had to rush to the others as well. I managed to convince the knights to do something useful as well so the situation isn''t that black. We¡¯ll deal with this and go back shortly afterward. ¡± ¡± I hope so too. Good luck. ¡± ¡± Same, Frank. Miss Elizabeth. ¡± I nodded at him since he decided to salute me as well before to leave and now, the situation reversed at staring at each other once again. ¡¯Ahhh... Holy Tree... Just kill me already.¡¯ FDSIO The fourth consecutive chapter. #BeingProudOfMyself. Anyway, we''ll get some action in the next ones... Though, I hope that you enjoyed this one as well. These guys got quite the misunderstanding here after all... Mufufufu :) Chapter 49: The subjugation begins. ¡± Well then, if Hector confirmed it himself, I don''t think that we have any reason to doubt it. ¡± Frank took the initiative to speak first. The sad thing was that both of them were wrong. Extremely wrong. ¡± If that is clear for all of us, let''s see how should we deal with it. Miss Elizabeth, if what I heard is true, Hector invited you to help with the subjugation just recently. Could you tell me how much you know about the plan? ¡± ¡± To be honest, not much. Outside of some information about the nest and that we''ll have to deal with one of the entrances, nothing else. ¡± ¡± I see. Then, I''ll explain it shortly to you two after which we could proceed with the plan for dealing with our task. ¡± ¡± Okay. ¡± . . . *sigh* Another sigh escaped from my mouth as I was looking at the ominous picture in from of me. The nest was carved directly into a hill and had several entrances. As Frank explained earlier, the plan was to stir them up while several teams would pick them off as soon as they emerged. After some time, the main team lead by Hector would pick an entrance and dive in to personally kill the Queen. Our job was to kill as many as we could to make it easier for them to dive in. A pretty simple but efficient plan. Stepping closer to it, we already could hear the buzzing sound that was getting stronger and stronger. We tried to get as close to it as we could but it wouldn''t take much to get spotted. Looking back, Frank signaled to us to take our positions as we previously discussed. In the front was him, acting as the main bait and distract their attention from us, followed by Elliott as support. My job was to stay behind them and shot them down as soon as they emerged from the nest. Fiona was standing next to me to protect me and deal with whatever approached too much. I made sure to make it clear that her combat power wasn''t that high. It was already bad enough that they misunderstood me but I could deal with it just fine if I were to be protected by the rest. But to aggravate the situation even more than this was just stupid. Silvia¡¯s role was to shot down the ones that would escape from me and offer support to us all when we need it. Additionally, she had to take the role of support for me. Unless there was a big group, it wasn''t wise to waste my mana on one or two. I was more than happy about it even though my mana wasn''t the main problem. I had enough of it and unlike the normal way, my method was using even less of it. The real issue was that, unlike my relatively big amount of mana, I had a limited amount of arrows left. I couldn''t waste them for small groups. Considering that we got close enough and they didn''t notice us yet, I readied my bow for the first shot. There were a lot of them acting as guards at the entrance so it was best to take down as many as I could. After I took the first arrow and shot it, I quickly take out another one to be sure. I had less than half of the arrows left but the last thing I wanted to happen was to mess up from the start. The morale was important too. To my relief, the two chunks of flames hit the entrance in succession and engulfed the whole place in flames. A single wasp managed to escape it but was instantly pierced by several of Silvia¡¯s arrows and most likely killed before it even crashed to the ground. She had an affinity for the wind element which was said to be extremely effective for an archer but now I understood why... The arrow wasn''t just faster but it was like the piercing power was enchanted as well. I nodded at her and turned my attention back. Frank and Elliott already killed the ones who managed to come closer to us and stepped back to his position. The damage my fire arrows would cause to them wasn''t always the same. Sometimes, they wouldn''t be completely blinded so we had to take care of the enraged ones who would come to us even on the ground. We didn''t have to kill all of them, more so the ones who weren''t even capable to fly anymore. The ones who slip from us would be dealt with by the support teams. Additionally, their job was to deal with the wasps who came back to the nest as well. It wouldn''t be funny for us to get attacked from behind. *boom* *booom* ¡± Be ready. They''ll surge from inside soon. ¡± Frank said to us and readied himself for it. ¡¯Thanks, Frank. But with that kind of explosion, it was obvious...¡¯ ¡± Are you ready, Fio? ¡± ¡± Mm. I''ll take care of the ones who will come close to us, Lizza just needs to focus on the entrance. ¡± It didn''t even take a minute after that explosion and we already could hear how the buzzing sound was intensifying while the enraged wasps started to crawl out of the nest. ¡± Now. ¡± Frank said as he readied his shield and sword. Even though I wasn''t used to taking orders from others, that wasn''t the time to be picky. I quickly took another arrow and shoot it at the entrance engulfing it completely in flames for the second time. *rumble* *rumble* *Bzzzz* ¡± Good job. Silvia, take care of the ones who could still fly. ¡± It didn''t even take several seconds and enraged and confused wasps started to emerge from the flames. Frank and Elliott already moved to intercept the ones who came in our direction and I shot another arrow to maintain the whole entrance clad in flames. Apparently, that didn''t stop them to push forward through it. I didn''t know if that was because these wasps were simply stupid or they simply didn''t care since the nest''s safety was as stake but they didn''t hesitate or back down at all. ¡¯Or maybe they were pushed by the ones from the back? That''s a possibility too...¡¯ When I was about to shot another arrow, Silvia moved her head towards us for a moment before to turn back to the front. ¡± I''m busy here, take care of that one. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± After the short exchange between Silvia and surprisingly, Fiona, the later sprinted at a wasp that wandered around our first line of defense and emerged from the right side. ¡¯Holy crap... I didn''t even see that one. There''s too much noise around.¡¯ Since Fiona was already taking care of it, I focused back on my job and left the rest to her. Followed by that one even more started to appear as the time passed and the place started to get filled by even more wingless wasps. They were quickly taken care of by Fiona and when she was outnumbered, Silvia would give her a helping hand since they couldn''t afford to distract me from my job. As such we kept for mostly half an hour and maybe just half of the ammo I started with, but the surging wave seemed to die down in intensity. We had more trouble with the ones who wandered around. ¡± It looks likes the storm wouldn''t keep much longer but do not let your guard down. We don''t know what might happen. ¡± Frank reminded us as we shortened the distance between us to take care of the wandering wasp easier. ¡± Are you alright? You used quite a lot of mana... ¡± ¡± Yeah, I''m fine. Thanks, Frank. ¡± I said and shifted my attention back to the entrance. It was true that they weren''t surging like before but that didn''t mean that they stopped either. There were wasps still appearing from time to time. ¡± Mm!? ¡± as I was observing the nest, Silvia came closer to be and put a hand on my shoulder. I was a little startled by her move and Fiona was glaring at her with a dangerous look the moment she touched me. I just signaled her that all was okay and looked back to Silvia. ¡± You weren''t supposed to take part in this at all so you probably didn''t bring any elixirs. Take this and rest a little. ¡± she said and handed me two little bottles with something white-purplish liquid in them. ¡± Thanks but... ¡± I tried to say something but she stopped me before I could say anything. ¡± Unlike my wind arrows, your fire ones probably take quite the toll on you, not to mention that you keep the same intensity for this much... Just take it and rest a little. I''ll take care of the ones who were still there. And for these, we could meet in town after this to give them back to me. ¡± ¡± She''s right. Take them. It would be bad if you were to faint because of this after all. ¡± said Elliott as I was unsure of what to do. I didn''t even know when he stopped being a rude guy but being tired might be part of it as well. I wouldn''t change my attitude towards him so easy. ¡± Oh... Yeah, I suppose you are right. I''ll take them. Thanks. ¡± She nodded to me and patted my shoulder one more time before taking her leave. Looking at the little bottles in my hand, I was almost sure about their purpose. I had to be an idiot to not figure out at least that much... ¡¯Mana potions. These are real mana potions... Don''t mind the strange color, this is the real deal. ¡± I already know about them to some extent. Not about the details or such but I had a general knowledge about them from one of the books. As you could expect, they weren''t magic potions who could replenish you mana in an instant. ¡¯Well, they are but not in an instant.¡¯ As these were described, the mana elixirs were made from plants with a high concentration of mana in a special way by alchemists. Drinking it, you basically drink a high concentration of mana which your body would assimilate in a period of time. Of course, these couldn''t be used by anybody. If your natural mana poll was too little it was risky. Your spirit status was a factor too but I was confident that it wasn''t a problem for me. Taken into consideration my race, it was unlikely for me to have such a problem. ¡¯For safety, I will drink just one.¡¯ It wasn''t needed though... I felt like I didn''t even use half of my mana but I couldn''t ignore their request after all. ¡± Here you go. ¡± I murmured as I made my mind. Gulping it down in one go, I jerked at the strange taste. It felt like I drank olive oil. From all the tastes I imagined it to have, that was the last one. ¡¯At least it wasn''t bitter or something.¡¯ ¡± Lizza. ¡± ¡± Oh, yeah... What is it? Something happen... Oh... ¡± my eyes widened at the realization. ¡± So you noticed too. It seems that we could not rest yet... Can you still go? ¡± Frank turned his head toward us with a tired expression. ¡± Yeah, my mana should slowly recover thanks to the elixir. ¡± ¡± Good. Tell us if you hit your limit. ¡± ¡± Okey. ¡± ¡± Elliott. Let''s take our position as well. ¡± ¡± Goddamit. This is the knight''s fault. There wouldn''t be that many if we arrived here earlier. ¡± ¡± That''s already in the past. Focus there... Let''s go. ¡± ¡± Yeah, yeah... ¡± It seemed like it wasn''t over yet. ¡¯Maybe this is just a quick wave... or maybe remnants? Let''s hope so.¡¯ Chapter 50: Dealing with the unexpected. As the second wave started to burst out in a frenzy even bigger than the first one, I didn''t hesitate to shoot them as I did earlier. I was already used to it. Even if they appeared to be extra-zealous for some unknown reason, we managed to deal with them somehow. But... What came afterward... Eh... ¡±...¡± ¡¯What in the name of Holy Tree is that... that... whatever the hell it might be...¡¯ ¡±...¡± My mind seemed to blank for a second looking at the just half-outside giant wasp who got stuck and blocked the whole entrance. ¡¯Oh... Yeah. I should use [Appraisal] on it... Let''s see how bad my luck really is...¡¯ ¡¯Yo... Holy Tree, dude... Are you laughing at me right now? Is this funny to you?¡¯ *sigh* Even without the [Appraisal] skill, it wasn''t that hard to guess what happened... I mean, there was a giant one so big that couldn''t even property make it out of the nest which was surrounded by restless normal ones. ¡¯Wait a moment, there are some wasps a little bigger than the normal ones too...¡¯ It seemed that my intuition was correct... Even my friend [Appraisal] confirmed it... A goddammit 4/5 three-digit status Queen guarded by 3/5 three-digit status Royal Guards and normal ones on top of that... I hadn''t seen a single thing with the spirit status in three digits... Not even I had that status so high even with my race and ring and anything... Outside of some very rare and dangerous monsters who could actually use elemental magic, these monsters had pitifully low spirit stats... Usually, the monsters who could use magic had the rest of the statuses lowered but since this one was a freaking 4/5 three-digits one, it shouldn''t be able to... ¡¯Oh, for fuck sake...¡¯ I didn''t even finish what I wanted to say and the earth and rocks around the entrance started to vibrate and slowly split apart. ¡±...¡± Not wasting any more time, I quickly shot several arrows in succession. I was aware that just that much wouldn''t be enough to kill the queen, but at least it would buy some time for us. It should cause some damage at least. ¡± That''s the queen... Something must have happened down there. ¡± Frank said to me the moment he approached. ¡± No shit, Frank. She wouldn''t have guessed that something happened... Silvia, are you ok? ¡± ¡± I''m fine. Frank, you saw as well? ¡± ¡± Yes, the queen is injured. Most probably she''s trying to escape. We don''t have much time. Silvia, you are the fastest among us, go and announce the others to come here. ¡± ¡± Okay. ¡± she said and I noticed that the air around her legs started to change. With every step she took, a little wave of wind was left behind as she moved with ridiculous speed. I didn''t know how exactly she was doing it, but I might as well raise my [Wind Manipulation] skill. Fiona was already fast enough. I was the one who would drag us back in a dangerous situation but since this wasn''t the moment to be lost in my thoughts again, I shoved it in a corner of my mind for the moment and turned my head toward Frank. ¡± And us? Slow her down or something? ¡± Since he already sent Silvia for back up, I wasn''t stupid enough to think that we could beat that thing. If not even the guy who was able to block and even push back charging wasps with his shield didn''t have the confidence to fight the queen was enough of a reason for me to not even think about it. Heck, I was sent flying several meters after a single normal wasp crashed in me. That thing was a big no. ¡± Can you do that? ¡± ¡± Well, don''t expect too much. Outside of my arrows, I don''t have anything else to slow it down. I''ll be dead if that thing came closer to me. ¡± I said honestly. Whatever he may think about me, I didn''t care anymore. I still planned to do a lot of things with this long life which for some reason was given to me here. Surprisingly, he didn''t seem to be bothered by it. Was he already expecting it? I raised an eyebrow as to question his lack of reaction but the ground was shaken again as the queen did something to enlarge the entrance. Using the disturbance which distracted their attention from me, I took out another special arrow and shot it at the queen. It was still fine as they weren''t near but now I couldn''t take them out of thin air. I had several normal ones in my improvised quiver so they wouldn''t question me, but this was starting to become a pain. ¡± Frank, let''s switch. You stay with the two of them in the back and just help me from time to time. ¡± ¡± Alright. ¡± ¡± Lizza... ¡± Turning back my head, I saw a worried Fiona who was unsure of what to do. Outside of taking care of the ones who managed to get past the front line, she wasn''t of much help here. I didn''t blame her though... If it wasn''t for my synergy between the ring and my arrows, I would be even worse than her. ¡± Don''t worry. Just be prepared to defend your friend in case of me not being able to, or if something unexpected will happen. ¡± as I was about to say something to her, I was surprised to see that Frank did it before I could. He even had a little smile as he said that. Was it because she was from the same race as him? That was my fluff, you know? Stop reassuring my fluff, that was my job. To my delight, she just nodded to him in the same cold manner she was doing to everyone. It seemed that she didn''t care too much about things like being the same race and stuff. ¡± The situation seems bad but it''s not. The fact that the queen is trying to run that desperately means that Hector didn''t fail yet. Usually, she shouldn''t be able to use earth magic at all, so I''m almost certain that that''s the only reason she managed to escape till here. Hector should be there soon. We''ll do what we can to buy some time. ¡± ¡± Okay. ¡± ¡± Good. Then, if that''s all... Oh, here we go... ¡± he seemed to want to say another thing but was distracted by a wasp flying in our direction. ¡± Just focus on the queen. We will take care of these. ¡± he said and smashed his shield into it, sending the poor wasp on the ground like it was nothing. It didn''t even manage to get back on its feet before to be split in half by his sword. Looking at Elliott, he was already surrounded by several of them since he was in the front. He wasn''t like Frank, smashing them with pure brute strength. Elliott preferred to evade them with quick movements and contra attack them after. The ones on the ground didn''t even have a chance, being cut the moment they approach him. At the moment I was glad I didn''t say that he was a rude guy out loud. I didn''t even know who was the real monsters anymore. Shaking my head, I continued to pour flaming arrows at the queen and the other wasps around her. Things got even more troublesome as the entrance enlarged enough for more and more wasps to make their way out besides the queen. Frank already stopped to deal with the wasps coming at us on the ground and instead focused on protecting me from the flying ones. Fiona had a hard time dealing with them instead. I even reached level 29 from how many we killed already. At the moment the queen finally managed to make it out, the situation worsened even more. The Royal Guards who were helping her out till now took the initiative and headed in our direction. The queen was already injured the moment she emerged out, cuts all over the body, some missing legs and so on, but right now, she had her eyes destroyed and most importantly, her wings we''re completely burnt. ¡± Frank, there''s too many. And the guards were coming here as well. ¡± ¡± Alright, we did what we could. You two retreat first, I''ll go and help Elliott and follow you afterward. ¡± Frank said and moved toward Elliott. He didn''t have to say it a second time. I shot another flurry of arrows at the incoming wasps and flew in the opposite direction. I just wanted to finish with this and get back to our temporary home already. I didn''t even care if they slew the queen or not. We shouldn''t even be here in the first place. After we took some distance and killed some wandering wasps along the way, we started to hear voices in the opposite direction. A group of people I didn''t know came along with Silvia in our direction. I assumed they were the other adventurers. ¡± Elizabeth, Fiona... What happened? ¡± she said and sprinted at us the moment she saw us. ¡± We delayed the queen how much we could. She should be blind and unable to fly as well. We retreated first, Frank and Elliott should come after us. ¡± ¡± Good job. We¡¯ll be going to help them retreat. You did enough. Go back and leave the rest to us. ¡± ¡± Okay. ¡± I just nodded at her and parted immediately. They were in a hurry to help the others after all... I wasn''t stupid enough to return with her. I barely had some arrows left and even though I still had some mana, that didn''t change the fact that I was physically exhausted as well. The moment I considered we got a good enough distance from the nest, I crashed near a tree and finally managed to get a break. Though my break was interrupted by two announcements... [*Ding: You have reached level 30!] [*Ding: You have reached level 31!] To get two levels just from assistance, I already had a clue as to what was slain already. ¡¯Goddamit, it''s finally over.¡¯ Chapter 51: I was found out… *tap* *tap* ¡±...¡± *tap* *tap* *pinch* *tap* ¡± Mmmmm... Fio, noooo... ¡± *poke* *poke* ¡± Noooo... Just five minutes... ¡± *poke* ¡± Noooo... I''m sooooo tired... Another five minutes, please... ¡± I pleaded and squished even harder in her embrace while covering my face to protect myself from her poking. ¡± Lizza, wake up. Silvia is staring at you... ¡± ¡± Hmmm!? Silvia... Silvia... What Silvia? ¡± ¡¯What nonsense is she talking about while the poor me just want to sleep a little mor... Oh... Ohhhhh... Shiiiiit...¡¯ ¡± Did you sleep well? ¡± ¡±...¡± . . . Something was strange. Something was definitely not right here... Taking another quick glance at the intruder, it wasn''t necessary to be a genius to see that something wasn''t right. ¡¯Goddammit, she''s still staring at me with that strange smile...¡¯ ¡± Mmm... Oh, is something wrong? ¡± ¡¯Oh, no... She saw me...¡¯ ¡± No. It''s nothing... ¡± ¡± Are you sure? You can tell me if something is wrong... We are just the three of us here. ¡± she said and approached even so slightly to me. Of course, that movement wasn''t unnoticed by the person from my other side who for some reason was holding my hand while glaring at the intruder. Unfortunately, the glare made her smile widen even more and I had no clue why that was... The whole strange situation started from the moment I woke up... It was already bad enough that I actually fell asleep and they saw me like that. Not to mention that if Fiona wouldn''t have been with me, the whole situation could have been turning into a tragedy. I didn''t even know how that happened. I just closed my eyes for a moment to rest a little bit and the next thing I saw when I woke up was Silvia staring at me with a strange smile on her face. At that moment I was just embarrassed by my carelessness and didn''t give much thought to that but strange occurrences continued to happen one after another. Normally, our team should have been helping collect the monster corpses before heading back to their temporary camp but since things turned that way and we had to deal with the queen and stuff, we didn''t have to anymore. Not like i was against it or something... We decided to head back to the camp and rest first, moment at which, Silvia proposed for us to go together without the other two. Frank and Elliott seemed to be surprised as well but looked too tired to even ask why. And thus, we were here in this strange situation. I was sure that something wasn''t right here. It couldn''t be just my imagination. I had to find out what was going on. ¡± Actually, is there something that you want to talk to us about, Silvia? ¡± I said and stopped walking to listen to whatever she wanted to say. ¡± Hmmm, nothing much. I was just curious about how you two looked so close to each other. Like two sisters even though you were from different races. It''s very fun to watch. ¡± she said and turned around to look at us with the same wide smile. I had some chills running through my spine seeing that for some reason. ¡¯Is she messing with me? She is, isn''t she?¡¯ I started to get a little annoyed... Whatever she wanted, I didn''t even care anymore. ¡± Ah, don''t get me wrong. I wasn''t making fun of you two or something, on the contrary. I was so surprised seeing you two like that... I couldn''t help it... ¡± I unintentionally raised an eyebrow at her statement. Somehow, I had a feeling that the situation wasn''t that simple. Fiona seemed oddly happy with what she said for some reason though... ¡¯Are you serious, Fio? Don''t get fooled by her. Wait... What''s with that happy face?¡¯ It seemed that I was left alone here. My trusted companion was defeated already with some underhanded methods. How despicable. ¡± Is this that strange? We are just... ¡± ¡± It is. I mean, for normal people it might not be, but for you two it is... I was so surprised when I saw you that I barely restrained myself. ¡± ¡± I still don''t get what do you mean... And also, I''m not an idiot. If you just wanted to talk about our good relationship, no matter how strange it is, you could have done it without casting away Frank and Elliott. Whatever you want to say, I''m listening. ¡± I bluntly said, already tired of waiting for her to actually speak. Fiona had let go of my hand. At this point, she sensed that something wasn''t right as well and took a step further positioning herself between us. ¡± Fio, it''s fine. ¡± I said and grab her hand back to lessen her worries. That didn''t seem to work too well though. Her full attention was still on Silvia, prepared to act at any moment. Partially, that was my fault. Maybe I exaggerated a little bit and made the whole situation to tense like that. *sigh* I tried to gently squeeze her hand to grab her attention again. ¡± Lizza... ¡± ¡± If she wanted to do something to us, it would be stupid to cast the others away... I''m quite tired so whatever she wants to speak with us about, let''s just listen for the moment. Okay, Fio? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± Managing to calm Fiona for the moment, I fixed my attention back to Silvia. For some reason, she didn''t say anything and just watched us the whole time. I might have been exaggerated a little bit but she was at fault as well. At least, she seemed more serious this time. ¡± Haaaa... I really didn''t want to scare you or something. Sorry about that. I got carried away a little bit... though, you were right. I wanted to talk to you about something. ¡± ¡± I was quite blunt as well so it''s not just your fault. I had my part in it. Then, why did you want to talk to us? ¡± She shook her head and sighed after which looked straight at me with curious eyes. After a whole minute of agonizing silence, she decided to finally speak. ¡± First, I want to say that I didn''t want to hurt you or something. It''s just that, looking at you two... You don''t seem to get how unreal is what I see in front of me. ¡± I just nodded and waited for her to continue. At this point, I already had a clue as to what was going on but maybe that wasn''t the case. Better to just listen for the moment. ¡± You''re not human, right? ¡± she said and narrowed her eyes, watching my reaction. I already guessed that it might be the case but Fiona tensed a bit and looked at me with a worried face. *sigh* ¡± Yeah, but how did you found out? ¡± ¡± When you ran away from the nest, probably from all that mess, some strands of hair were out of your helmet. When I came closer, I actually saw something else peeking out of there... I didn''t want the others to notice so we parted immediately. ¡± ¡± Ugh, thanks... I think... ¡± Thinking back at it, my helmet got a cut on the right side when that wasp crashed in me. From all the movement, it wouldn''t be strange for something to peek out at that time. Anyway, that didn''t change the fact that my luck was shit... ¡± I didn''t tell the others either. I wanted to speak with you first. ¡± ¡± I see. Thanks again... Though, I don''t think that it is that big of a deal... I mean, for you to... Oh... ¡± my eyes widened as the realization hit me. ¡± Mm. I think you got it now... ¡± she said and waited for me to say something. Though, I didn''t know what to say... ¡± Lizza... ¡± Fiona seemed to get impatient since she didn''t get what we were talking about. As I was looking at her unsure of what to say, Silvia decided to save me from the awkward situation but that dropped another bomb on my head. ¡± I didn''t meet an elf till now but Frank did in the past. ¡± ¡± Ugh... So? ¡± ¡± Well, there''s a lot of rumors around your race, some might be exaggerations or even made up completely. What Frank managed to confirm at that time was that your race isn''t that fond of the rest of us... Sure, that was just one, and there might be exceptions but I didn''t hear of anything even remotely close to what I see at you two... ¡± she said and resumed her stare on us again. It felt like I got caught doing something wrong even though I didn''t. ¡¯Actually, why the hell I''m even worried? The rest of them could just go to hell. I already said that I''ll live how I want.¡¯ ¡± So... What''s about it? ¡± I said back to her. So what if she didn''t hear of anyone like me until now? That wasn''t her business to being with... ¡± What''s about it? ¡± ¡± Y-Yeah... ¡± For some reason, her strange smile bloomed back on her face even wider than before. My bravery from a moment ago crumbled in an instant. Maybe it wasn''t too good of an idea to answer like that. Thinking back at it, in the end, I didn''t know what she wanted to accomplish with all of this... ¡¯Eh, why are you approaching? Nope... Stay right there... Don''t come closer...¡¯ ¡± Just wait for Rebecca to see you... Mufufu... ¡± ¡¯Wait... What? Who''s Rebecca? What the hell is going on here...¡¯ Chapter 52: How in the name of Holy Tree did I end up like this? ¡± Let go. ¡± ¡± I won''t. ¡± ¡± Lizza... ¡± ¡± Ugh... Well, Fio... it''s not that bad, isn''t it? ¡± ¡± It is... Tell her to let go. ¡± ¡± Ugh... ¡± ¡¯How... How did I end up like this?¡¯ ¡± It''s not your fault, Lizza... ¡± ¡¯Are you reading my mind or something?¡¯ ¡± Don''t call her like that. And let go of her hand. ¡± ¡± F-Fio... It''s alright. You are still the most important to me. ¡± ¡± I''m still here, you know? I can hear you... ¡± ¡¯You shut up. This is all your fault.¡¯ ¡± T-The most important... Ehehe... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡±...¡± ¡¯Oh Holy Tree... Not that again... Change of topics, change of topics...¡¯ ¡± Ehem... Silvia, I agreed with this, but... ¡± I said and pointed at my right hand. The situation was so ridiculous to the point that I almost wanted to laugh out loud... On my left side was an angry fluff, glaring and complaining about the weird-smiling intruder from my right side. All of us were walking through the dangerous, monster-filled forest while holding hands like that was the most natural thing to do. I didn''t even quite understand how exactly we ended up like that... ¡¯It was like... How to say it... She said that... that... What was it again? Oh, and something about... Ehmm... I think she mentioned a Rebecca person... W-Wait... Who was that again?¡¯ ¡± Hmm... Is something wrong, Lizza? ¡± Silvia said and looked at me with a puzzled expression. ¡¯Of course that there''s something wrong! Better to ask what isn''t wrong with this situation. I feel like I was cheated and I don''t even know how exactly...¡¯ That was more or less what I wanted to say seeing that failed attempt of innocent-looking face she was displaying for me... Unfortunately, I had other questions to ask her. I wasn''t in the mood to play along with her little game. ¡± Actually, it is... As I said, I agreed with your strange demands but you didn''t explain what should we do after we reach the camp. ¡± ¡± Strange demands, huh? You are quite cold, Lizza... Even Fio seems to accept the situation... ¡± ¡¯No, she''s not... She didn''t snap from her weird trance-like state just yet to actually hear what you said... Wait... Did you call her Fio just now!?¡¯ Turning my head to the left, Fiona was happily wagging her tail and murmuring random stuff like ¡¯most important...¡¯ or ¡¯my Lizza¡¯ or imperceptible sounds like ¡¯ehehe¡¯. The situation wasn''t looking too good... Better to let her be for the moment. Whatever she was doing, it wasn''t my fault. Definitely not my fault. Turning my head to the right, Silvia seemed to be amused by the whole situation. Was she enjoying seeing me troubled like that? Was she a sadistic person? ¡± Do you know what I thought about you two before finding out what you are? It''s quite interesting... ¡± she asked me something unrelated yet again. ¡±...¡± ¡± I don''t know about my brother, but Frank should be assuming the same thing as me... Do you want to know? ¡± she asked me again. Me not responding to the first question wasn''t a problem for her in the slightest. I had no choice but to give up... ¡± Well, I¡¯m a little bit interest now that you mentioned it... Though, isn''t that quite mean to say that about the rude guy... Ugh... I mean, your brother... ¡± ¡± Don''t worry... It''s his fault in the first place. He''s not a bad person if you ignore his short temper and blunt attitude. ¡± ¡± Waaaa... Merciless... ¡± ¡± It''s the truth. We grew up together so I''m already used to it. Anyway, that''s not what we were talking about. ¡± ¡± Yeah, we were talking about what you thought about us... ¡± ¡± Yes, I thought that you might be a runaway noble girl from a small noble family or something like that. Now that I think about it, maybe Hector was thinking the same thing back then... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± Lizza... Are you a noble? ¡± while I was dealing with her ridiculous assumption which for some reason seemed the most plausible for her, Fiona snapped from her trance to ask me another ridiculous question... ¡± No, Fio... I''m not. ¡± I said and show her a gentle smile. It may not be too obvious for Silvia or anybody else but I remarked that she wasn''t that fond of the idea of me being a noble. ¡¯Bad memories with nobles... I wouldn''t be surprised taking into consideration her past...¡¯ ¡± Mm. I believe you. ¡± she said and started to wage her tail again. That didn''t last too much though since she remembered about the intruder from my right side. ¡± Fio, please... Remember what I said earlier? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± That wouldn''t change no matter what. ¡± ¡± M-Mm. ¡± she said while still glaring at her but in the end, she managed to accept it. Goddammit, she had some serious issues... I didn''t mind much, on the contrary, I was oddly happy about that to some extent even though I didn''t want to admit it. Not to mention that I had my issues as well after all... *sigh* After finishing with Fiona, I shifted my attention back to Silvia. At least she stayed quiet and had the benevolence to not aggravate the situation even further... ¡± Finished? ¡± ¡± Yeah... ¡± ¡± Good. Then, I assume that you have no idea why I thought that way, am I right? ¡± ¡± More or less. ¡± ¡± I thought so too... You see, there''s a lot of inconsistencies about you two. First, your equipment... You do have an enchanted bag and that bow and even Fiona have an enchanted sword but not a single piece of armor, most probably what you managed to grab before to run away. Your proficiency with the fire element is definitely high but anybody can tell that you aren''t used to fighting too much. You look quite young too. Usually, you won''t be able to advance that fast in magic without a proper teacher. A good and pricy one at that... Even with talent and luck, that not too likely to happen. ¡± ¡± Ugh... Is... Is that so? Oh... usually won''t happen... but that''s not impossible, right? ¡± ¡± Also... Maybe they didn''t manage to catch it but I did. Your skill with the bow isn''t that high either... ¡± ¡¯A-As expected from a true archer...¡¯ ¡± Actually, that''s quite odd. Aren''t you an elf? ¡± ¡± Well... Things happened and I started to use the bow just recently. Haaaa... But seriously, I didn''t think that we looked so strange to you... ¡± ¡± You do. Even now, but not in the same way... Now that I found the truth, you look even stranger... And I didn''t finish yet, there''s more. ¡± ¡± There''s more? ¡± ¡± Yes. If we were to link what I said earlier with the way Fiona is following you around and her quiet and reserved attitude, she is fitting just right as a servant who is following her ¡¯little lady¡¯ in her quest to... I don''t know, maybe escape from some arranged marriage you didn''t like or something... I don''t know much about the noble stuff either... ¡± ¡¯True... I don''t want to admit it, but that made some sense...¡¯ ¡± Hmm... Oh, we arrived. That is the camp. ¡± she suddenly said while I was taken aback by it. I didn''t even know how we arrived that fast. They said that the camp was close to the forest''s periphery. Prompted by her statement, I took a look at the camp. It wasn''t much... Just some tents and camping stuff around them, a campfire here and there and that was pretty much all of it. I assumed that they were depositing and carrying all the other stuff in enchanted rucksacks or something similar. What could I say... Hail for the magic development! It had a lot of strong points. ¡± W-Wait... Isn''t that bad, Silvia? I''m basically a runaway noble girl to the rest of them. Also, how did we arrive here so fast? Didn''t you say that the camp is close to the forest''s border? I and Fio wandered a lot to arrive close to the nest... ¡± ¡± Well... You managed to answer your question by yourself... You said ¡¯wandered¡¯ after all. And so you know, this place is close to the forest border but not so close to the main road... We''ll have to walk some more from here to see the road that leads back to the city... As for the first question... hmmm, it should be fine. ¡± ¡± Are you serious right now? ¡± ¡± Yes, I am... I think it''s fine to let it be for the moment. ¡± ¡¯No, it''s not fine at all... Are you messing with me again?¡¯ I stopped walking and looked at her with my serious expression again, though I didn''t know how serious my serious expression was... I didn''t actually saw my face pretty much. ¡¯Small reminder. Need to buy a mirror after we arrive in the city again.. If they sell any to a... How did she call me again? Oh, yes... runaway noble girl, goddammit...¡¯ More likely, I would be captured by ¡¯kind¡¯ hoodlums and returned to my supposed noble family for a small competition if rumors like that were to spread around... ¡¯No, thank you. I don''t want that to happen.¡¯ ¡± Silvia, I don''t want to see people searching around after a supposed noble girl... not when I''m that noble girl if you get what I mean. ¡± Or maybe I was wrong and my concept about nobles was different from the actual nobles from this world. From what she said and the little bit I caught in my short stay in the city, it didn''t seem to be entirely the case. I heard about some questionable customs and stuff about them. But they shared a lot of similarities with the ones I was aware of. I doubted that any noble family would do nothing to pursue their runaway daughter... ¡± Oh, that... Don''t worry. Outside of me, Frank and maybe my brother if Frank told him about it, I doubt that anyone else suspects anything. And that was just a suspicion after we interact with you two for a while. By the way, did you register as an elf at the guild? ¡± ¡± Yes, why do you ask? ¡± ¡± Then all is good. I was more worried about what Hector will report back to the guild. If he somehow got that suspicion too. ¡± ¡± What do you mean? ¡± ¡± Well... To be honest with you, he''s quite the asshole when it comes to things like this. ¡± she said and gave me a wry smile instead of the usual wide one for the first time. I was taken aback a little bit from what she said. He was indeed an insistent one but letting that alone, he didn''t seem to be a bad guy to me. Was I wrong about him? ¡± What do you mean? ¡± ¡± I mean that you can rely on him but that''s just when the situation is favorable for him too. In your case, he made sure to put you two in our group, he probably took into account Frank and Fiona being beastkins as well and so on... If you look at it like that, he seems a good guy, doesn''t he? ¡± ¡± Well, yeah... ¡± ¡± But that''s because that was in his advantage. That should look nice in his report since he managed to recruit you at the last moment and you did a great job. Maybe he''ll even boast about what you did a little bit... To look even better... But then again, I''m sure that he''s going to check your identity as well... If you actually were to be a noble, he wouldn''t hesitate to report you to them for more achievements... Maybe some connections too. ¡± ¡¯Woaaaa... W-What an asshole... And I thought that he was a nice guy...¡¯ ¡± You can''t trust people randomly. ¡± she said, showing me her wide smile again. Seeing that, the chills came back to me in an instant. Actually, wasn''t she in the same category as him? We barely knew each other for less than a day. ¡¯Well, whatever... My actual identity was already discovered by her... She kept it a secret too. It should be fine for the moment... I hope...¡¯ ¡± If that is all, let''s hurry to the camp. Frank and my brother should be there already. I want to rest a bit too... ¡± ¡± Oh, yeah... Let''s go. ¡± FDSIO Hi there! Hmmm... Don''t know what to say about this chapter... Not much happening in it despite being quite lengthy compared with my average... Most probably because there''s a lot of dialogue... Not easy to write either... I got back and rewrite some parts until I was somehow satisfied with it. Anyway... Hope you enjoy the chapter nonetheless! :) PS : Happy Christmas... was what I wanted to say since I wanted to write a ''special chapter with Christmas theme'' but I got no time... Sad story. But meh... at least this one came up now... better than nothing =)) Chapter 53: The end of the emergency quest and back to the city. Not long after we arrived at the temporary camp, we saw the first batch of adventures fully loaded with bags and rucksacks. Shortly afterward, some of the ones that were guarding and managing the camp helped them to unpack and switch the materials in other rucksacks... I wasn''t sure for what reason they did that, but I assumed that the reason must be the better quality or capacity. At least the new rucksacks looked to be of better quality with complex enchantments on them. After that, the ones who just arrived at the camp stayed here to rest switching the roles with the others. Thinking back at it for a second, it was reasonable for an extermination team like this to contain personnel for these jobs as well. Though... There was something that wasn''t fitting too well in the scenery. Outside of the obvious adventurer-like group of people, in a separate corner of the camp, there was a different group that caught my attention. They were wearing the same kind of armor with small adjustments to suit the wearer''s needs better, which was obvious-as-day of better quality compared with the previous group. They didn''t seem to be bothered to help the guys who were carrying the stuff around despite not doing anything else... Seeing that I was starting at them, Frank told me that I was better to let them be. They were part of the knight order that was supposed to help us with the extermination, but they were more like a bother than actually help. I was a little disappointed at the discovery. In the end, I did as he said and did not investigate further. The last thing I wanted right now was to be remarked by a troublesome group like that. As the reed moon started to appear, the last batch of adventures came back to the camp together with Hector and some more knights... I was quite happy that he was too busy to care about me at that moment. My opinion on him dropped a lot after my discussion with Silvia. In the morning, we packed and headed toward the road. We spent quite some time to get there since we had to carry a lot of cargo with us. At least I managed to confirm yet again that my ring''s weigh nullification wasn''t normal. The enchanted rucksacks had some weight reduction but that was all. And even that was depending on the item¡¯s grade and quality, the reason which they moved the materials from one into another back in the camp. They had carriages waiting for them at the road so the poor guys weren''t forced to carry them to the city on their backs. Sadly, there was no space for us as well so we had to walk on foot. ¡± Well... I think that here we part ways. It was a good experience to work with you two. ¡± Frank said to us shortly after we entered the city. ¡± Thanks, Frank. Even though the whole situation was unexpected, working with you wasn''t a bad experience for us either. Hope we''ll see each other in the futur... ¡± ¡± Hmmm... What do you mean with that? Didn''t we agree to meet tomorrow and do something together? You forget already? ¡± I couldn''t even finish my sentence before to be interrupted by a question coming from Silvia. She was glaring at me with narrowed eyes so I didn''t know what to say. ¡± Well... I think that she was referring solely to me and Elliott... I don''t remember you mentioning something like that and judging by the face Elliott is making right now, he seems to not either... ¡± Fortunately, Frank came to my rescue and save me from the awkward situation. ¡¯Thank you very much. You saved me.¡¯ ¡± Hmm... Maybe you are right. We wanted to pay a visit to Rebecca and do some ''girls'' stuff after we submit the quest and take our rewards. She should be able to get hers by then, right? ¡± ¡± I think so... Hector will submit the quest report right away. Her situation and rewards should be decided by then... Though, it''s better to not go there right in the morning. Just to be sure. ¡± ¡± Yeah... thanks again, Frank. Then, I think we''ll part here and meet tomorrow afternoon at the guild... right, Silvia? ¡± ¡± Yes. I will wait for you two there. ¡± ¡± Thanks. ¡± We said our farewells and parted shortly afterward. Fiona just nodded to them and didn''t say anything. Even so, it was still some progress nonetheless... No matter how little, interacting normally with other people was good for her. Meeting tomorrow for the quest submission wasn''t a bad deal either. The situation was quite complicated and getting some help from Silvia wasn''t a bad choice. I still didn''t know who Rebecca was though... We decided to not go back to Erin and the others right away. They did not know when we were supposed to arrive so it wasn''t a bad idea to take a detour and get something from the commercial district. We still had around two or three silver coins and since we should get our payment tomorrow, it wasn''t a problem. Fiona supported my decision the moment she heard about it. ¡¯Is this because of that kebab thing? Well, whatever... I think I promised to take some for Erin as well when we departed for the quest.¡¯ That was a good idea. Additionally to that, we managed to find an older lady selling some kind of bread with jam inside. Even though it was quite pricey we took two of them for me and Fiona. That was the puffiest and sweetest thing I ever ate in this word so it was worth it. Looking at Fiona, she seemed to share my opinion. She was munching on it with so much gusto that I couldn''t help but give her half of mine as well. She tried to refuse in the beginning but the puffy bread-like thing managed to win in the end. It was so funny seeing her fighting an impossible battle against such an overpowered opponent. She had no chance at all. ¡± Thank you, Lizza. ¡± ¡± Mm. Do not worry, Fio. You worked hard these days... It''s fine to reward ourselves with something from time to time. ¡± ¡± Mm. Lizza worked hard too. ¡± she said and smiled to me while some jam was still lingering on the corner of her mouth. ¡±...¡± ¡¯Oh my Tree... T-This... This is the sweetest smile I ever saw in my life. Is she an angel? Well... Nope, she''s not... She''s a wolf after all...¡¯ While chuckling at my bad joke, I failed to see a group of people coming in our direction. ¡± Seriously, just give up. You''ll just bother her again... ¡± ¡± Is that the one he told us about? The one you messed his chances with, Arnold? She''s quite young. ¡± ¡± I didn''t do anything. He''s the one who is insisting that he had a chance in the first place when she was clearly not interested. ¡± ¡± Shut the fuck up, Arnold. Just shut up and let me speak this time. Actually, shut up right now... She''ll hear you. ¡± Catching the strange conversation, I turned around to see four men approaching us. I was so confused because I didn''t know how was it possible for them to know me. At least, I didn''t recognize any of them. ¡¯Maybe they got the wrong person?¡¯ A plausible assumption. ¡± Hello, we met again. ¡± ¡± Ah... Hello, I think... but I''m not so sure we meet befor... Wait... Fio? W-What are you doing? ¡± I tried to politely refuse whatever he wanted to say since I was quite sure that he should have been mistaking me for someone else when Fiona suddenly jumped in from of me. She tried her best to hide me behind her while glaring dangerously at the group of men in from of us, especially at the one who just tried to talk to us. ¡± Ehh... Fi... Fio? What are you doing? ¡± ¡± Lizza, this is the perverted guard that tried to hit you when we left the city back then. ¡± ¡¯Huh... Who? I don''t get it... He tried to do what? To... hit me? Was there someone who tried to hit m...¡¯ ¡±...¡± ¡¯Wait... Wait a moment... Pervert... pervert... Huh? Pervert guard... Oh, ohhh nooo... Oh, no, no, no, no...¡¯ Looking back at the person in question, he had an expression akin to someone who just received the news that he had cancer or something like that. The others around him were just looking funny at him while not saying anything. Actually, that was the best reaction possible. Better to be stunned by her reply than actually doing something bad to us. I quickly grabbed Fiona¡¯s hand to get the hell out of there before he managed to snap from the shock. ¡± Lizza? ¡± ¡± We are leaving, Fio... Ahh, sorry about that. She didn''t want to say that... We''re leaving, goodbye. ¡± While I was busy dragging my fluff out of there, I could hear the other three men bursting in uncontrollable laughter at the poor guard''s bad luck. I was just happy they didn''t decide to follow us at least. ¡¯Goddamit, Fio... Though, I have my part of the blame here...¡¯ Looking back at her, she had a dejected expression on her face. She just wanted to protect me so I couldn''t be mad at her. Since they seemed to not follow us we stopped and I gave her a heartwarming hug. There was no problem that couldn''t be resolved with such a technique. And I was right. She seemed to regain her smile and started to giggle like nothing happened moments earlier. At how effective it was I couldn''t help but think that that was the moment for an announcement to suddenly pop up and say that my hug technique gained another level or something. ¡¯Hehe... That should be hilarious...¡¯ [*Ding: You have gained the passive skill {Spirit Enlargement (small)}!] ¡±...¡± FDSIO Perverts: 0 / Fiona: 1 The day was saved by Fiona yet again! =)) Let''s cheer for her! Chapter 54: I managed to disappoint my fluff. *thud* ¡± Finally... bed. Tired. ¡± while I was sinking in our bedsheets, words that could be hardly understood made their way out of my mouth. ¡¯Ahh... My head hurts... Dealing with giant wasps, dealing with a giant wasp nest, dealing with freaking giant wasp Queen, dealing with Silvia, dealing with a perverted guard and now this...¡¯ I just wanted a little bit of... of... I didn''t even know myself, maybe... a little bit of quiet and peace. Yes, that was it. Unfortunately, the rest of the world was not sharing my opinion. It was like ¡¯What? Wanna rest? Nope. Take this random thing and figure out where the hell did it pop up and why...¡¯ *sigh* ¡¯status¡¯ ---------------------------- ---------------------------- ¡¯Three digits, huh? Why am I not even surprised anymore?¡¯ The answer to this question was laying in the new skill I just received. [Spirit Enlargement (small): Small increase for the Spirit status.] At least it was simple and easy to understand. Good job on that. It was not like I wasn''t happy about the sudden boost. On the contrary, the skill was exactly what was needed for me to learn magic faster and easier. I even had a guess from where it popped up. And the culprit was situated right on my finger. It was most probably one of the hidden effects I couldn''t see yet. The ring was boosting the spirit status. Gaining a skill related to the same status after wearing the ring for some time... It was pretty obvious that there was a connection between the two. But if my theory was true, that meant that I just added another odd thing to the long list of irregularities about my person. Shallow as it was, I had at least some knowledge about the skills and how they worked but when it was coming to the passive ones... Outside of the few I got from the start, the one regarding my link with the ring and now this, I didn''t know anything about them. ¡± Fio... Fio... are you there? I need... help. ¡± racking my head alone didn''t seem to be that effective so I decided to call for reinforcements. I said that but the truth was that I was so lazy and tired at the moment that I didn''t even want to turn my head around and check where she was. ¡± Mm. I''m here. What is it? ¡± she said and sit down next to me on the bed. Now that she was right next to me, I made an effort and took my head out of the blanket to be able to make visual contact with her. However, that was all I was able to do. The rest of me was still sinking in the overwhelming warmth of the blanket. ¡± Tell me, Fio... How to... hmm... how to say it? I just got a passive skill just now... Do you know about them? ¡± ¡± A passive skill? ¡± ¡± Yeah... Spirit enlargement or something. It says that it increases your spirit stat... Well, my spirit status got a nice bonus from it so I''m quite sure that that''s what it is doing. But I don''t know much about them actually...¡± And the silence descended upon us. ¡± Are these passive skills rare? ¡± While I was waiting for an answer, she seemed to struggle thinking about what to say. ¡± I don''t know. There are several for elemental affinities. I didn''t hear about the one for the spirit status but the one for power is pretty common to have. But back then... back then, I wasn''t allowed to know much about these things... Maybe this one is more common for mages? ¡± ¡± Ugh... Yeah, I forgot about it. Sorry. ¡± ¡± Mmmm... Maybe it''s because Lizza is amazing? Or maybe it''s because Lizza is an elf? ¡± ¡±...¡± Well... I very much doubted about her first assumption. Even though it made me a little happy... And regarding the second one... I couldn''t deny it for sure, but I was still inclined to believe the ring theory more... It was more plausible like that. ¡¯Whatever... Another thing I¡¯ll have to hide. At least for the moment. Thinking about it again, nothing coming from wearing a ridiculously high-grade ring could be something common. It is no wonder she doesn''t know anything about it.¡¯ . . . In the morning, or to be exact, with roughly two or three hours before the sunrise, I was already on my feet. My sleeping schedule was messed up from the time spent in the forest. It was also true that I got to bed earlier than I should last night... ¡¯Whatever... I''ll just do something until the others wake up.¡¯ I didn''t want to wake up Fiona either. She got to bed later than me since she insisted that she wanted to check all the herbs she collected. She wanted to prepare the wasp claws we need to show to the guild as proof too. The claws were all severed and stocked in my ring but she wanted to check them and put all of them in the rucksack for tomorrow. Looking at the piles of different herbs and the rucksack in the corner of the room and then at her sleeping face, a smile bloomed on my face. ¡¯She is doing her best...¡¯ Compared to her, I felt like I complained way too much about way too many things these days. It was better to look at her example and do what I could instead of worrying while doing nothing to resolve the problem. Thinking about that, something I wanted to test for quite some time came back to my mind so I removed the ring from my finger. ¡¯status¡¯ ----------------------- ------------------------ ¡¯Aaaaand it dropped from 101 to 83.Yup... As I thought... I don''t remember how much my spirit status was boosted by the ring, but I''m sure that it was less than right now...¡¯ This confirmed the fact that the ring didn''t possess a fixed bonus like all the enchantings I did until now on our weapons. It was more like: the stronger the owner, the bigger the bonus. As expected from a mythical-grade item... Maybe my discovery didn''t amount to much but compared with knowing almost nothing, it was still a step forward. ¡± Good. Let''s do it. ¡± I muttered to myself and took out several of the books I found in the ruins. Back then, I mostly skimmed through them searching for whatever I could learn about this world, about magic and enchanting. Some of them were too advanced for me at that time, not like I was much better now but since I hat time, it wasn''t a bad idea to take a look through them again. At that time I didn''t even bother to look at the few ones about alchemy since it was useless without proper materials to work with. ¡¯I should take a look at them...¡¯ Well, I most likely wouldn''t be able to do much with them now either without proper equipment, formulas and so on. I was pretty sure that the herb names had been changed in the course of years too. Other than the baseline I didn''t expect to learn much from it but that was a start. The time fled in an instant while I emerged in my research. Fiona had woke up and we walked downstairs shortly afterward for breakfast. The meal was not finished yet but we didn''t mind waiting for a little. They waited for the lazy me to wake up every morning until now after all. After a little bit, the two children, Erin and Arron joined and we started to eat. I wasn''t really sure what it was but it was quite good. It looked like a kind of stew with pieces of meat and some vegetables. After we finished the meal, Sara came to speak with me about the meat deal we did before we left the city. She managed to sell most of it. She explained to me what kind of meat and for how much and so on but then again, I wasn''t an expert when it was coming to this area so I just nodded at what she said and just accepted it as it was. After she took her part from it, we received around 8 silver and 3 lesser ones. It was more than enough for us to pay another week worth of rent which I just did. Well, that was the initial plan but when I asked her about it, I just got another interesting information. Apparently, the last week of each month had an additional two days making it a total of nine days. I was stunned by the discovery but I kept my calm on the outside and chose to just pay for an additional five days since that many remained before this month was gone. I had Fiona explaining to me how that was working after we left the house. I wanted to pay a visit to Albert too before our meeting with Silvia at the guild. The reason was as simple as to why there was a nine-day week at the end of each month. After a long and shocked glare from Fiona, she finally explained to me that in this world there was a phenomenon called mana saturation. It was happening for around two days, twelve times in a year at an interval of thirty days. Not coincidentally there were twelve months as well. She didn''t know how or why that was happening but in a few words, the natural mana level in the atmosphere would be higher at that time. They took this irregularity and created a calendar around it. The month was split in three weeks with seven days each and another one with the addition of two irregular days. It was also called ¡¯the big week¡¯ for obvious reasons. ¡± Lizza... ¡± as I was contemplating the new information while we were walking to Albert¡¯s shop, a concerned voice got me back to reality. Turning my head to look at her, she was looking at me with an expression that could be described as confusion, concern and maybe a little bit of pity. ¡± W-What? Didn''t I tell you that I didn''t know a lot of stuff back then... ¡± ¡± Mm. But this is a little too much... even for you... ¡± ¡¯Oh... ho... ho... Wait a second. Even for me? She has a Lizza standard when it comes to lack of information or something? Even worse... I somehow managed to drop below my own standard... ¡± ¡± Lizza... ¡± ¡± W-What is it? Ehhh... What are you doing? ¡± She didn''t say anything and just approached me while staring right into my eyes. After some time of staring and contemplating about something, she decided to ask me something. ¡± Lizza, how many hours has a day? ¡± ¡± Huh? That''s simple... A day has... ¡± ¡¯Ohhh... Ohhh fuck... I actually don''t know...¡¯ ¡± Lizza... ¡± ¡± Well... ¡± A drop of sweat started to form on my forehead as she was starting with a serious expression at me. After this much time in this world, I arrived at the conclusion that a day was certainly longer that one in my previous world, but... ¡¯How the hell am I supposed to know how these guys split a day in hours here.¡¯ Being longer or shorter did not help with much after all... ¡± Lizza... ¡± ¡± I-I¡¯m thinking... Let me just a little bi... ¡± ¡± Lizza... You need to think about it? ¡± ¡± Wha... Pfoa... N-No, of course not... ¡± ¡± Then... How many hours? ¡± she asked me again while narrowing her eyes. ¡¯Oh my Holy Tree... She''s merciless. Well, whatever...¡¯ The number of days in a year and even in a month was close with what I know of with small differences so maybe... ¡± Umm... It has 24? ¡± ¡±...¡± *sigh* ¡± That''s not the answer, isn''t it? ¡± She just nodded at me. FDSIO I had a lot to do these days but here''s the chapter :) Sry for the delay... Ps- the next chapter in several hours... I need to edit it and fix some things... well, it still counts as a double release, right? Chapter 55: Another deal with Albert. ¡± Lizza, what is that? ¡± ¡± That''s a dog, Fio... I know that much. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡¯Goddammit... How low did I drop in her eyes... Am I some kind of idiot for her right now?¡¯ ¡± And that? ¡± ¡¯Please stop, seriously... You''re hurting the already little and pitiful pride I still have... You¡¯re hurting it way too much... My little pride is on the verge of dying here...¡¯ *sigh* ¡± I''m not that stupid, Fio... That''s a... Wait!? Why is that cat purple? ¡± ¡¯The hell is wrong with that cat? Someone painted it or something?¡¯ ¡± Lizza... ¡± while I was concerned with the strange cat in front of me, a serious-sounding voice came from my back. ¡¯Oh, shit...¡¯ ¡± W-Wait... Fio, it''s not as it looks like... I know what a cat is. ¡± I tried to defend myself but she wasn''t even trying to hide her doubts anymore. She was straight-up looking at me like I was a little kid trying to hide whatever he did wrong. ¡± Lizza... What colors do cats usually have? ¡± ¡¯Oh nooo... Why do I have a bad premonition regarding this question? Well... I know why...¡¯ I know why... But maybe... Maybe, the great Holy Tree would help me this time. Yes. That was the right choice. Pray to the Holy Tree. ¡¯Please help me, Holy Tree. Let it be like I remember them to be.¡¯ ¡± Well, Fio... Of course, the cats usually are black, gray, brown and purple. Sometimes they are a combination of these as well. ¡± I said with confidence, adding the purple color as well since I guessed that for some reason, the color was common for cats here. ¡± Mm. Purple, green, blue or yellow. Combinations of these are considered very rare as well... You got one. ¡± And so, my confidence from earlier dropped to the ground. Her opinion on me most probably dropped even lower... Somewhere underground maybe... I didn''t know if it was my shattered self-esteem playing tricks on me but I think I heard her muttered to herself something like ¡¯we should start with something easier¡¯... I wanted to cry. . . . As we finally arrived at our destination, we opened the door and stepped inside the shop. This time, there were not that many customers as the last time and we found Albert speaking with one of them. After he finished, he turned our way and greeted us. ¡± You finally arrived. Thanks for coming. ¡± ¡± Yeah... Sara told me that you wanted to discuss something with me after we came back. The sooner, the better. I actually wanted to discuss something with you as well, so I came as early as I could. ¡± ¡± Then, that means both of us will benefit from this discussion. Just wait a little bit. ¡± he said and quickly looked around the shop after something. Not finding what he was searching for he went in the back and opened the door leading to another room. ¡± Carol, are you here? ¡± ¡± Yeah... ¡± ¡± Come here a little. I have something to discuss with a customer. ¡± ¡± Ok. Wait for just a little bit to finish this. ¡± The other guy, Carol, came shortly afterward and Albert took us to the same room we unloaded the materials last time. It was more like a deposit room than a place where you ¡¯speak privately¡¯ with a customer but I didn''t mind that. After looking around the room for several moments, I moved my attention back to Albert. ¡± So, Albert... What did you want to speak with us? ¡± I said and waited for him to give us a reply. It should be something important if he wanted us to speak the moment we returned so I didn''t want to waste more time. ¡± Ah, yes. Even though we don''t know each other for long, we got some nice deals already. I''ll be direct with you, I want to buy the materials you got from this quest. Knowing your situation, I know that it wouldn''t be easy to sell them yourself. So I wanted to suggest another deal with me if you are interested... ¡± ¡± Well... yes. We didn''t even finish the last deal anyway. We didn''t plan to switch to another buyer if that''s what you are concerned with... ¡± ¡± So you still have materials from before... How many? ¡± ¡± Hmmm... If I were to make an estimation... We sold to you about half of them. ¡± ¡± I see. ¡± he said and started to laugh for a little bit. ¡± I had known that something wasn''t right with the amount but you don''t fail to surprise me every time. Whatever... Not my business. I want to keep that deal too, but what I want this time is something else. How many wasps did you manage to hunt this time? ¡± ¡± Hmm... Don''t know exactly, but I think we got at least a hundred. Ohh, Fio... You counted the claws, don''t you? ¡± ¡± Mm. 137 pairs. ¡± ¡± Heh... Better than I expected. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± And we got several materials from other monsters as well, Alber... Ehh, what''s with that face, Albert? ¡± ¡± I see... 137... I see. I had a guess that you''ll give me a good number but still... ¡± he said and shook his head two or three times be to look back at me. ¡± Well, the more the better. Listen to what I want to propose to you. I got a deal that will be in both of our interests. In three days a ship will come here to purchase materials and I know a guy who will help me to get first on that list. ¡± ¡± That''s good. ¡± ¡± It is. So that''s why I wanted to speak to you as fast as I could. Right now, the price is relatively good, but in a week or two... I don''t know if you''ll be able to sell them at two-thirds of this price... Maybe the price will drop to half of what it is right now... ¡± I just nodded at him. Well, I was expecting this. When there was a lot of something, the price would surely drop. It was natural to happen. ¡± So here is the deal. If you drop the price a bit lower than the current one on the market, I will buy everything you have on the spot. You don''t need to deal with anything else and the rest is on me. You win, I win and both parties are happy. What do you think? ¡± ¡± I see... ¡± Well, that was a good offer. Even more so for someone like me who didn''t even know what the current price was... But there was a problem. ¡± I''d like to accept the deal, Albert... but there''s another problem. ¡± ¡± Hmm, what is it? ¡± ¡± Ehhh... The materials weren''t processed... yet. So... Three days is a little... ¡± ¡± The materials weren''t processed... like... not fully processed, right? Three days is enough to resolve that... ¡± ¡± Ehm... No. I mean, most of them were still bodies... We got done just a few of them... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± And you carried the full bodies to the city... ¡± ¡± It''s a long story. ¡± ¡± I don''t even want to ask how or why... You got help from someone? ¡± ¡± You can say that... We returned together with the party that exterminated the Queen. ¡± ¡± I see. Anyway, I assume you don''t have a place where to work with them, right? ¡± ¡± Yeah, that''s a problem too... ¡± ¡± Then, I''ll help you with that. I''ll let you work here in the back. What do you say? ¡± ¡± Okay. But today I had to do something else... I had to go to the guild too... But we''ll get them done in two days... probably... ¡± ¡± Good. We have a deal, Miss Elizabeth. ¡± ¡± Yeah... Thanks for helping us, Albert. ¡± ¡± No problem. ¡± he said and started to laugh again. ¡± Lizza... ¡± as I was about to tell him that we''ll take our leave, Fiona tapped on my shoulder. ¡± Hmm, what is it, Fio? ¡± ¡± The books... Remember? ¡± ¡± Ohh... I almost forget. Albert... I still have something to speak with you... ¡± ¡± Ah... Yes. I almost forget about it too. So, what was it? ¡± ¡± Well, you see... ¡± . . . After we finished the deal with Albert, we started to wander a bit through the city. It was still not the time to go to the guild. We did not have much money at the moment but I just wanted to look around for a bit. To see the prices and so on... I wanted to buy or maybe find someone to make a set of armor for both of us after all. It was also because of my casual conversation with Silvia from the other day made me realize something. It was not much. From one thing to another, she told me that it was most probably to be able to take the test for the C rank after completing that quest. It was an interesting subject so I asked for more details. What got my interest, in particular, was one interesting requirement. To be able to make it to the C rank wasn''t enough just to be good in your own domain. Outside of your main weapon of choice, you had to be at least capable of using other types to a basic degree. From short-ranged weapons like daggers to the normal types like swords and most blade-type weapons, to the mid-range weapons like spears and stuff and finally to the long-range types like bows. You had to have a degree of proficiency in at least three of these categories. Even for mages, they had to at least be able to wield a sword or any other short-ranged weapon. It was for them to be able to protect themselves in case of close combat. Back then, when I was attacked by that wasp, it would have been the end for me if I wasn''t able to use my spear. It was a good idea to at least know how to wield a sword too, and since I could store them in my ring some throwing dangers weren''t a bad choice either. As for Fiona, I got another interesting idea. I wanted to buy her a bow too. Maybe it didn''t seem a good decision at first but there was a reason. While it might not be seen like that, a bow wasn''t an easy weapon to use, even when we take out of the equation the whole target hitting problem. Depending on which materials the bow was made of, it could be quite heavy and the higher quality it was the harder it was for you to pull the string. Firing arrow after arrow for a long time or firing several of them in a short amount of time was not an easy feat. Taking advantage of her high power status I wanted to make her use a hard-to-pull bow, focused on raw strength rather than dexterity. It was better against armored targets. I didn''t know if I could find something like that at a decent price though... Anyway, since this time we had time to spend, we wandered around the city from shop to shop, comparing the products and prices. I asked a man who was selling mainly weapons why there were so few enchanted weapons on sale. The last time when I got my bow, I didn''t saw a single enchanted weapon in that shop. The reason was that few people would risk buying a weapon enchanted by a stranger. They usually buy the sword or piece of armor or what they need and pay an enchanter with a good reputation to do the job. Most of the people buying this stuff were adventurers and could appraise a sword even without the [Appraisal] skill but the enchantment was a gamble. That means that even if you were a good enchanter, it was still hard to work without a good reputation... And even with the [Appraisal] skill, the skill had to be quite a high level for the person to see the enchantment. Just now I found out that with Fiona¡¯s [Appraisal] level 2, she wasn''t able to see the enchantment on her sword. Just the name, description, and grade. And she was a happy case, having that skill. It was quite rare to have. The skill was the reason she was taught about herbs when she was young. Well, it was not good that she was used by them because of it, but she said that they gave her more food when she managed to find more herbs. My heart was pained hearing that but I didn''t say anything and decided that it was the time to head to the guild. Chapter 56: We almost got harassed. Also, I’m bad at dismembering… ¡± There we are! ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± Quite the crowd... ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± There was it. The same giant three-stored building. The same ¡¯Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡¯. ¡¯But why were so many people here?¡¯ The people were practically flooding the place. Not just adventurer-like people, but normal-looking ones as well. Looking at the training ground, strangely, the situation wasn''t that different from the last time we came here. Considering how crowded the place was, I expected the training ground to be the same but that wasn''t the case. It seemed that the whole surge of people was the consequence of the emergency quest witch was just completed. ¡± Lizza? ¡± With a sigh of relief, I grabbed Fiona¡¯s hand as to not lose her in the flood and we literally dived through the crowd. Just imagining a young girl with a large summer-hat on her head dragging after her another young beastkin girl through that mess made me giggle. It was an odd sight. The problem was that the interior was as crowded as the flood of people from outside suggested. All the tables were full of people to the point that some of them were sitting on the floor just to cheat with the others. ¡¯What the hell are they doing here... If you want to sit and chat, do it outside.¡¯ ¡± Do you see her, Fio? ¡± ¡± No... Too many people. ¡± she said while looking around the place. Unfortunately, she wasn''t lucky either. ¡± Hey, brat... ¡± ¡¯Hmm!?¡¯ Looking on my right, there was a bulky-looking guy in his mid-twenties gazing at us. He was also shirtless for some reason. Even after I looked around the place for quite some time, he was the only one like that so I had a bad premonition regardless of whether he actually wanted from us. ¡± Yeah... Ya brat, get the hell out of here. Now''s not the time for ya to fool around. ¡± he said and came closer to us. The other two who seemed to be his companions tried to say something to him but he dismissed them with a wave of his hand. I couldn''t understand what they said due to the noises around us but it seemed that they wanted to stop him. ¡¯He can''t be, can he? Don''t tell me... this guy...¡¯ I was aware that appearance-wise we looked quite out of place but still... No, no. For him to mess with us just for that, I didn''t want to belive someone like that existed in reality. This was reality after all. There must be another reason. ¡± Do you need anything? ¡± ¡± Don''t ya see how crowded the place is, ya brats... This is not the time for ya to fool around... ¡± ¡± Ugh... ¡± I turned my head on the side and take out my tag from the inside of my shirt for him to see. I didn''t even want to speak with him face to face since he was reeking alcohol from his whole being. Turned out that I was wrong. Well, half-wrong but that wasn''t the point. " We are adventurers too. " ¡± Tsk... So what... I bet ya just wanna sell some herbs or¡ª ¡± You damn drunkard, stop messing with them and come back. ¡± " Hey... What the fuck... Let go of me. " Fortunately for us, he couldn''t even finish whatever he wanted to say before to be dragged back by one of his companions. ¡± Sorry, missy... He''s got money this morning and is dead-drunk right now... ¡± ¡± Y-Yeah... ¡± I said unsure as to how to react to just what happened. Turned out that the alcohol could bring to life even guys like ''that''. ¡¯Wait... Fio?¡¯ Turning my head around again, Fiona was glaring dangerously at the drunk man being dragged by his colleague... I was so surprised by him that I completely forgot about Fiona. I was fortunate that his friend stopped him before Fiona was able to say or do something. Messing with drunk people was never a good idea so I was happy never actually happened. Well... At least, after this, I could mark as checked another cliche on my list of things to experiment in another world. ¡¯Heck... What else can happen anymore? Surprise me worl¡ª ¡± Catch you! ¡± ¡± Kyaa! ¡± ¡± Ohh, my... What a cute scream. Though, you''ll bother the others around if you do it here... ¡± ¡± Wha... S-Silvia? ¡± ¡± Yep, it''s me. ¡± ¡±...¡± " Umm... Lizza... Fiona is glaring at me again. And we just met... ¡± ¡± Don''t call her like that. ¡± ¡± Lizza, help me... She''s glaring even more now. ¡± ¡± Mmmmm... Lizza... ¡± ¡±...¡± I was left speechless looking at the mischievous intruder who for some reason liked to tease me and my fluff... On the other hand, Fiona was shacking, looking at me with teary eyes as if she was pleading me to do something about her. She was adorable but that wasn''t the point here... ¡± Silvia... ¡± ¡± Yes. What is it, Lizza? ¡± ¡± Are you perhaps... a kid? ¡± ¡± Hmmm, how rude of you... And I wanted to tell you the good news... I''m hurt. ¡± *sigh* ¡± Fio, just bear with her a little bit more... We still need her for a while. We¡¯ll ditch her somehow after we finish here. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡± Wha... wha... wha... That''s really cruel of you, you know? I''m right here. ¡± *sigh* I sighed and shook my head in defeat. Drunkards and now Silvia... She had a talent for making me lose my rational thinking. I actually made a joke there as if we were close friends without realizing it. And the worst thing was that I could not read this person one bit. The first time I met her, she didn''t strike me as an easygoing person and ever now, I was sure that she was not. But i could not guess why she was acting like that with us... ¡± You are a meanie, Lizza! ¡± ¡± Yeah, yeah, I know... But Silvia, you started this. Anyway, where you have been? ¡± ¡± Outside. Here''s too crowded after all. I waved at you two but you didn''t saw me. ¡± ¡± Oh... I see. And the good news? ¡± ¡± In the morning wasn''t as crowded as now. I asked about your situation and it''s alright. Hector included you two in our group so your pay should be quite good as well. ¡± ¡± Oh, that''s good. I was a little worried about it. ¡± After that, we made our way to one of the three long lines of people waiting for our turn to speak with the receptionists. We chatted a little while waiting but while doing so, I caught another thing that made me to not submit the claws we had in the ruckus this time. I was feeling a little bad since I made Fiona carry them here but it was better that way. All the people in front of us who came with claws got around 5-10 each. There was a group of four taking out around 40 of them but that was all... It wasn''t a good idea to look even more suspicious than we were looking already. I thought that it was odd for us to take out over a hundred of them when there were so many people around. Since we could always come back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, there was no problem. On the other hand, the rest went smoothly. The receptionist and Silvia turned out to be acquaintances so there wasn''t any problem. I got 6 gold coins and 6 silver ones since I was treated as the main force who took care of one of the entrances. Fiona got just 2 gold and 6 silver since she was considered as a support for us. Outside of that, we both got a bonus of another 2 gold coins since we stopped the Queen. In total, we managed to earn a solid 13 gold coins. It was not bad but considered as to how much we spend on a single bow, arrows, and casual stuff last time, It was barely enough for us to pay for some decent sets of armor for us. For the rest, we would have to bring back the claws or finish the deal with Albert. ¡¯This is gold, freaking gold goddamit... How can it be so cheap?¡¯ Well, theoretically it wasn''t. With just one gold coin we could stay at Sara¡¯s place for 12 days. Both of us at that. It was not bad, but it wasn''t at the level I remembered the gold to be. ¡¯Whatever... These guys were digging a lot of gold. I got it. If gold is so cheap, I''ll make a statue for myself out of it in the future.¡¯ After we stepped out of the guild, Silvia took us to a place to eat something. She wanted us all to go and stroll the shops but something came up and her plans were destroyed. I didn''t mind much. We too had a tin schedule due to the deal with Albert so in the end we promised so see each other again another time. . . . [*Ding: You have gained the skill {Crude Dagger Technique 1}!] ¡±...¡± ¡± Fio, I can''t. I give up. ¡± ¡± No, Lizza. It''s not that bad. You¡¯ll learn how to do it in the end. ¡± ¡± But I can''t. I destroyed another one. I got the skill for daggers, by the way. ¡± ¡± Look at how I do it one more time. You''ll get better at it as the skill go up. ¡± *sigh* Letting down my new dagger, I got up and sit down next to Fiona, watching her as she skillfully butchered the poor wasp. I was a total mess by the way. I wasn''t able to do anything right. Somehow, I even managed to stab one of the venom sacs, let alone to dismember the carapace correctly... I started to think that I was lucky to not stab myself yet. After we parted with Silvia, we decided to not waste the rest of the day and get started with the materials work. We stopped to buy two new daggers, one for me and another one for Fiona since she said that hers started to get duller. I also discovered a smith not too far from us but we couldn''t bother him for a single dagger. In the end, we took two daggers at 7 silver coins each. I wanted something better if we bothered to purchase it. I used another 3 silver coins to enchant both of them, which to be honest, ended quite well. [Superior Iron Dagger] [Superior Iron Dagger] I was a little disappointed after I finished the second one. In the beginning, everything went so well I thought it might be able to make it to the next grade but unfortunately, that wasn''t the case. Maybe my skill wasn''t high enough for it but I had a feeling that if I were to get several of them at that stage again, I might be able to make at least one work. *tap* *tap* ¡¯Maybe I should buy a lot of crap weapons and stuff and experiment with copper on them to get my skill higher?¡¯ *tap* * tap* *tap* ¡± Lizza... ¡± ¡± Hmm!? ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± Oh... Did I spaced-out again? ¡± ¡± Mm. You did. You should look here at how I dismember the wasp, Lizza... ¡± ¡± Yeah, sorry... I got some ideas for a new enchan¡ª ¡± No, Lizza. Pay attention here... You said that you want to help me with it. I''ll help you but you need to pay attention to it. ¡± ¡± Okay... ¡± ¡¯I... I got scolded by Fiona!?¡¯ ¡± Mm. Now... Give me another body and put this one back. ¡± ¡± Got it. ¡± ¡± And make sure to look carefully this... No, we''ll do it together this time. ¡± ¡± I understand. We''ll do it together... wait, what? ¡± ¡± Mm. Take your dagger back. Let''s continue with the one you worked on. ¡± Taking into account how horrible I was at dismembering, what I did to that wasp could have been called in many ways except ¡¯work¡¯. I didn''t say that out loud though. She was genuinely trying to teach me how to do it so I should at least put a little bit more effort into it. ¡± Ok, Fio. Let''s try again. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± Chapter 57: Something unexpected happened but Fiona took care of me. ¡¯Gyeeaahh... Never again. I won''t do it in my whole life.¡¯ *clang* ¡± Muhahaah... Finally... We finall¡ª ¡± Lizza, are you... umm, alright? ¡± ¡± Ugh... Y-Yeah... Why should I not be? ¡± ¡± Ummm... You throw your danger and started to do like that... ¡± ¡¯To do... To do like that... To do like what?¡¯ ¡±...¡± ¡±...¡± ¡¯Oh, man... How low did I manager do drop in her eyes again... Wait, no... Don''t look at me with pity...¡¯ *sniff* *sniff* ¡± Lizza, are you really ok? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± *sniff* *pat* *pat* While I was sniffing and curling in a ball of depression, I felt a hand gently stroking my head. I wasn''t actually that depressed but seeing that she came to my rescue filled me with a bit of warmth. It was nice. ¡¯I might as well pretend to be depressed for a little bit more...¡¯ ¡± Are you feeling better, Lizza? ¡± ¡± No. I demand more! ¡± ¡± Mm. But shouldn''t we head back first? It''s already pretty late. ¡± ¡± Yeah... I suppose you''re right. ¡± I sighed in defeat and stand up. Two days passed since we started to dismember the wasps. Tomorrow was the day the ship would arrive. Not that it mattered for us to much, that was Albert¡¯s problem. Now that we finished the last part of them, we could get our money and from there was his responsibility entirely. Stepping out of the side room, we were greeted by the other man which, by now, was already accustomed with us working here. ¡± Already finished, Miss Elizabeth? ¡± ¡± Oh, Carol... Eh, Yes. We barely made it in time. ¡± ¡± There was no need to push yourself that hard. Albert would have been happy even if you didn''t manage to finish them all. ¡± ¡± Well, yeah. But I wanted to finish and get done with it. Anyway, where''s Albert? ¡± ¡± Unfortunately, he''s already upstairs. He had a hard day and tomorrow will be the same so he got to bed earlier today. But he told me to give you the money for how many you manage to finish today so do not worry. ¡± ¡± I see. Thank you. ¡± ¡± No need to thank me. I''m just helping him with his deal. Now, let me see the materials. ¡± After he looked through them, checked their quality and so on, he handed us the money and we left the shop. I actually had another reason for why I wanted to finish them that badly. It was extremely profitable. Compared with other monsters, these things were extremely valuable. The wasp had a lot of useful parts like the eyes, the venom gland the exoskeleton... Ruling out the parts I destroyed in the dismembering process and the several pieces I decided to keep for us, we still got 41 gold coins and 7 silver ones. It was so much to the point where I started to question myself for being an idiot helping with the nest extermination. That was not worth the risk. And we still had the claws. Since the quest reward was still open to be claimed the whole week, we decided to focus on the deal with Albert instead. We could do that tomorrow maybe. *grab* ¡± Hm!? ¡± While I was merged in my thoughts as we were heading back to our ¡¯temporary house¡¯, Fiona came closer to me, matching my pace and grabbed my hand. ¡± What is it, Fio? ¡± ¡± Lizza seems happy. ¡± ¡± Is that so? ¡± ¡± Mm. You were smiling. ¡± ¡± Is that... so? Hmm, maybe you are right. Things worked pretty good these days and we got a lot of money... ¡± But maybe that might not be the only reason. It was true that I enjoyed having money. Who wouldn''t? You could buy stuff and do a lot of things with money, but I doubted that that was the only reason. ¡± What about you, Fio? Are you happy? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she nodded at me while gripping my hand even harder with a smile on her face. Instant answer. Not a single trace of doubt on her face. Also, her smile was cute. It made me smile as well. Now that I thought about it, she was smiling a lot more these days. Maybe that was the answer. Seeing her happy made me happy as well. It might sound like a cliche, but I felt like I found something I always longed for. ¡¯Something close to... hmmm, a family.¡¯ Yes. That was it. That realization filled me with an intoxicating warmth. Even more so remembering how random and stupid was the reason for which I decided to save and befriend her. ¡± Lizza!? ¡± I might dodged the subject these days, trying to deny the facts lying right in front of me. I was so stupid. Trying to deny it. ¡± Liz... za!? ¡± How could I even forget about something I yearned for so much? Even in my past... life? ¡± ...za!? ...you alrigh... ¡± ¡¯In my past life? I swear I had a family in my past life... I think? Hmmm!? It was... It was...¡¯ How strange? I couldn''t bring myself to remember about it. I was sure I had one, probably. No. I had one. And I could not remember longing for such a thing either. But something was strange. Why was I unable to remember anything about it? ¡± ...za!? ¡± Suddenly, a sense of animosity and emptiness encompassed me. I felt like I forgot something. Something very important. It was right there. It felt like if I were to extend my hand I could grab it easily... but somehow, I couldn''t do that. In the end, everything went black. . . . ¡± ...za. ¡± *sob* ¡¯Ugh... My head hurts... Like... very, very bad. For some reason...¡¯ *sob* ¡¯Hmm!? Is that Fio? Is she... crying?¡¯ My head was really hurting. It felt like it would explode in the next second. And even worse. I didn''t know why. Gradually opening my eyes, I was greeted by the familiar ceiling from our room. But I was sure that something was not right there. I could swear that we just barely left Albert¡¯s shop. *sob* ¡± Lizza, wake up. ¡± *sob* ¡¯Hmm!? Is that... Fio? Ow... Oww... Ow... Ow... My head really hurts... Wait, no... Why is she crying?¡¯ Turning my head, there she was. Seated on the edge of the bed with her hands wrapped around my left hand and her head pressed on top of it. She was quietly sobbing and saying something I didn''t quite understand. ¡± Fi... Fio? Are you alright? ¡± I asked with concern. By this point, I was sure something happened. Something bad. *sob* ¡± Hmm!? Lizza... Are you awake? ¡± she suddenly darted up as if someone electrocuted her. ¡± Yeah... But what happened? Are you alright? ¡± ¡± L-Lizza... ¡± *sob* ¡± Fio... What happened? Why are you crying? ¡± ¡± Lizza... Lizza... You woke up... Lizza... ¡± she continued to blabber things I couldn''t quite understand while embracing me out of nowhere. She said something about waking up, but without a context, that didn''t help much. ¡± Lizza finally woke up. ¡± *sob* ¡± Y-Yes... But are you alright? ¡± ¡± Mm. You finally woke up. ¡± ¡± I-I see... ¡± Without anything else I could do at the moment, I ignored the headache and wrapped my hands around her as well. She jolted for a moment but after that started to hug me even harder and continued to sob there like that for a long time. I couldn''t do anything else until she would calm down a little bit. After she seemed to finally calm down, I asked her what happened. I really had no clue as to how we ended up like that. She started to recall everything that happened before I lost consciousness and fainted in the middle of the city, that, while still embracing me harder and harder as the story was progressing. As we were returning from Albert and chatted about random things I suddenly stopped and spaced-out. No matter how much she tried to call my name or shake me, I didn''t woke up. At some point, tears started to pour from my eyes and fainted shortly afterward. ¡± And then... and then, I took you and bring you here... and... and... ¡± *sigh* ¡± It''s alright, it''s alright now... Calm down, Fio. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± *sob* ¡± Hey, come here. Don''t start to cry again. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± *sob* ¡± I''m here. Nothing happened. I''m here. ¡± I said and wrapped my hands around her again. I could not imagine how scared she was. *sob* ¡± Shhh... I''m here. Don''t cry. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± It was good that nothing really bad happened. But it was also bad since I didn''t know what actually happened. ¡¯Was I that exhausted? I didn''t feel like that at all¡¯ It was true that we worked quite hard to finish with the materials but I didn''t felt like I was on the verge of collapsing at all. Was all the exhaustion that piled up from the moment I arrived in this world suddenly striking me back out of nowhere? I pretty much doubted that. It wasn''t working like that, or that wanted to believe at least. I couldn''t be sure that my new race worked in the same way as a human was working after all... ¡¯Well... I should not push myself for the time being at least. Don''t want to aggravate it or something.¡¯ Looking around the room, the sunlight was coming in through the only window the room had. It seemed that it was already morning. On the side of the bed, there was also a bucket with water on a chair and... several pieces of cloth? Why so? ¡¯Now that I think about it, it''s quite chilly here... Hmm!?¡¯ No way. As the realization came to my mind, I shoved it away pretending to be oblivious of the cruel truth. I definitely wasn''t naked. Nope. I didn''t realize it until now and continued to speak and embrace Fiona because I definitely wasn''t naked. I was perfectly dressed up. Yes. How could I not notice something like that? Though, the moment I looked down at myself, the cruel truth was there. Laughing at me and my childish denial. ¡¯Fuck.¡¯ ¡± Ehem... ehehemm... F-Fio... Fio... Why am I naked? ¡± ¡± I took care of you. ¡± she said and smiled at me with confidence. Oh, not. That didn''t look like something good. ¡± H-How did you take care of me? ¡± ¡± I wiped you clean and put a cold compress on your held and changed it regularly and... and... and watched over you the whole night. ¡± she said while her smile brightened even more. Even her tail started to jolt a little but seemed to be waiting for my praises to do so. ¡± Y-You did well. Thank you, Fio. ¡± in the end, I couldn''t bring myself to tell her that that was working just when you had a fever or something. I just couldn''t. ¡± Sara said it wouldn''t help but I still did it and it worked. I''m so glad you woke up, Lizza. ¡± ¡± Ugh... Yeah... It seems that it worked. Thank you. ¡± ¡± Ehehehe... ¡± ¡¯I''m sorry, Sara... I think I pushed the bad person role to you just now. I''m really sorry... But I couldn''t tell her.¡¯ FDSIO What just happened, I wonder... Chapter 58: Taking it easy and… shopping? ¡¯She saw me.¡¯ Well, she saw me in the past as well but this time was a little bit different. This time she saw me in detail. My body was a girl¡¯s body but even so... I was still anxious knowing that she ¡¯took care of me¡¯ while I was unconscious... and naked. And she seemed to be unfazed by it as if that was nothing. From her perspective, she probably wasn''t even aware of it, even more so as she was concerned about my situation. No time to be bothered by such a thing. I didn''t even know if I should be happy about it, or sad since I was a full-fledged girl in her eyes. It had been a while since I accepted the situation but maybe a part of me was still trying to deny the truth. It was easier until now since I couldn''t be bothered by stuff like that. I was too busy trying to survive after all. But since the situation calmed down these thoughts started bugging me from time to time. Maybe that was the natural process of accepting it? To accept something you need to be aware of it first. Pushing the problem aside wasn''t the answer. I was fully aware of that, at least in theory. Or was I just overthinking again? It wasn''t like I wanted to become a real girl anyway... I liked to think that I did a great job adapting to the new circumstances. Being seen naked would be embarrassing for most people regardless of gender. Nobody should be able to accept something like that overnight. Or, to be more precise, nobody should be able to be comfortable with such a change even after accepting the situation. It was just a matter of time. Yes, that was it. ¡¯I need more time... probably...¡¯ While I was engrossed in my philosophical debate with myself, the day went by without any other occurrences. We decided to take it easy and rest. Sara was also reassured that nothing actually happened. I was surprised as to how worried she was. We got along quite well, but in the end, we were just customers. Well, a little more than normal customers but that wasn''t the point. Maybe that was the way she was. After a day of rest, I decided that it was enough. I was more bored than tired anyway. We decided to stroll through the city in the morning, looking around at random stuff. Moreover, we managed to come across an interesting place near the north gate. It was a workshop focused on mainly wood products. They were making everything from chairs, tables, doors and other pieces of furniture to almost everything that included wood. I wasn''t sure if I could call it a shop. It had a large room with simple wood products and various models for custom-made requests. They also took special requests even though I didn''t know exactly what that was supposed to mean. It was written on a plaque at the entrance so it should mean something. In the back was probably the deposit and judging by the noises coming from there, the place where they were working as well. At first, I was only interested in maybe buying two or three chairs and a small table. Since I could conveniently store them in the ring, it was a good idea for when we were traveling. With them, we could eat and rest as normal people should do. No more eating on a blanket. As always it was doing, my mind started to wander from the main subject to other stuff like: ¡¯Why not buying a bed too?¡¯ No matter how ridiculous that appeared to be at first, it was one of the best ideas I had. Just imagining sleeping in a bed and not just on a blanket made me excited. Actually, I had to endure even worse... I slept on a bed of leaves so sleeping on an actual bed outside of the city sounded like a luxury right now. Not that I had anything against that. As long as it was requiring little to no money or effort, any luxury I could get had my seal of approval. Making up my mind, I approached one of the men that looked like the guy in charge. There was no counter or an individual that was in charge of just selling the products but it wasn''t that hard to figure out anyway. From all the people from there, he was the only one who had leftovers of sawdust on his clothes. ¡± Excuse me, can you help me with something. ¡± ¡± Hmm!? Oh, yeah... Just wait a moment. I need to find a¡ª ¡± Gerry! My hammer. I need it now... ¡± he wasn''t able to finish what he wanted to say and another loud voice was heard coming from the back. He was looking like he was searching for something but yeah... Probably I popped at the wrong time. He had a frown on his face now. ¡± I know, I know... But I can''t find it... Are you sure you let the hammer here¡ª ¡± Nevermind. I found it. Come back. ¡± the loud voice interrupted him again. Also, the frown from its face changed in pure annoyance. ¡± Well, I need to deal with something else now. Just wait. Goddamit... ¡± ¡±...¡± I didn''t know what to say to that. I just hoped he wasn''t in a bad mood now. His colleague seemed to be quite a difficult person. ¡± Anyway, wanna buy something, missy? ¡± Lucky. He wasn''t. Maybe he was already used to him. Better for me. ¡± I wanted to buy some chairs and a small table. I don''t see any beds here but maybe you know where I can buy one? ¡± I asked him while pointing at some of the more delicate chairs from there. Fiona said that she liked them as well but something was telling me that she would like whatever I liked. I wanted her to have an opinion on things but maybe I was asking for too much for now. ¡¯Maybe she''ll change in time... maybe... hope she''ll do...¡¯ The chairs weren''t too big and had a backrest as well. The surface was polished, adding a nice luster to it. I just needed a table to go with them and that was it. ¡± Hmm, I see... How many? ¡± ¡± Maybe two or three... I think three. And a table... ¡± ¡± One to go with them, right? ¡± ¡± Yeah... ¡± ¡± I see. Come with me. ¡± he said and lead us to look at some tables in the other corner on the room. ¡± These are a little too big. ¡± I said while looking at them. ¡± Yeah... Do you need them right now? ¡± he asked me while scratching the back of his head and probably thinking about something. ¡± Umm, not really... ¡± ¡± Then... We''ll do like this. Chose which model do you like from these and we will make a smaller one to fit for you. Half the payment upfront, just so you know from now. ¡± ¡± How much? Ahh, I want to know the chair''s price as well... ¡± ¡± There was a small plaque with the price... Didn''t look at it? ¡± ¡± Umm, no. Sorry. ¡± ¡± Well, whatever. It''ll be 6 silver coins for three chairs. Usually, we take 1 silver and half for a chair like that but these weeks we got a shortage of wood. You know, with that goddamn emergency quest... Harder to go and get the wood... We had to hire more guards and soo on... ¡± ¡± I see. And the table... Something like that one, I think... But smaller. ¡± I said and pointed at a round-shaped table. I always liked those. It felt like the right one for when you were on a trip. Not having pointy corners was another plus. These damn corners were always targeting me. ¡± A custom-made table. Also smaller... Hmm, around 5 silver and... No, if you buy the chairs too, we''ll let the table at 5 silver. ¡± ¡± So, 11 silver for all of them? ¡± ¡± That''s correct, missy. You said something about a bed too... If I''m not wrong. ¡± ¡± Yes. But I can''t see any here... ¡± ¡± We make just frames and the wood parts. But I don''t think you want to search for a mattress and the rest afterward... I can give you the address of one of our partners. You can get the whole piece from there. ¡± ¡± Yeah. That will help. Thank you. ¡± I should have expected that. They were making and selling the wood pieces to their partner. Well, that was better for me. I didn''t want to play puzzles while assembling a bed from pieces. ¡¯Playing puzzle... pieces... Hmm... Hm!?¡¯ ¡± Ehm, one more thing... If I want you to make me... umm... something like... It''s a little unusual. But made just from wood. ¡± I said while trying to shape a form with my hands. Though, judging from his troubled expression, I was not doing a good job. ¡± If you can describe what you want and we can do it, then it''s alright. It will cost more since that comes as a special request. Half the payment upfront as well. ¡± ¡± Perfect! Then, what I want is... ¡± . . . In the afternoon, we decided to pay a visit to the Adventurers Guild. We already postponed the claws delivery long enough and since we didn''t have anything else to do, it was good to get done with it. I was very satisfied with the deal from earlier. The guy, I think Gerry was called, looked at me with an inquiring expression after I finished to explain what I wanted but in the end, he accepted the deal. Work was work and since I paid, there was no problem. At least that was what he said in the end. Another reason to hurry up and get done with the claws. Money was good. ¡¯Is it just me or am I starting to be quite greedy?¡¯ I didn''t really know... Who didn''t like to have money? I think I was still on the safe side, at least for the moment. ¡¯Yeah... I should be fine... probably.¡¯ Shaking my head from the whole money-centered subject, I remembered the last part of the conversation with Gerry. In a few words, I asked him why were they bothering to accept requests like mine. From the perspective of efficiency, it wasn''t worth it. It was true that they got more work but that wasn''t the point. Making something that you weren''t used to make wasn''t exactly the easiest thing to do. Pieces like what I asked for requested to be designed from scratch after all. It was better to focus on what you had experience in making. Even charged extra, it was still not worth it. The answer was rather unexpected. They accepted such requests to train their crafting-related skills. While it was better and more efficient in the short run to focus on what they were used to do, that was detrimental to their growth in the long run. After listening to his explanation, I thought that it made sense, somehow. It was a good reminder to me that these skills and statuses were affecting the day to day lifestyle of this world¡¯s inhabitants even more than it seemed at a first glance. FDSIO Hi everyone! Sorry for the wait. That, assuming that you guys missed me... To atone myself, I''ll try to release another chapter by tomorrow or if I can finish it today even better( though, that not likely to happen). Anyway, hope you enjoy this one! Chapter 59: Training, but not really… ¡± Hello! ¡± ¡± Hello! How may I help you? ¡± ¡± I want to complete the wasp hunting quest. We have the claws with us. ¡± ¡± Yes. Please give me your tags first. ¡± the receptionist girl said and opened an agenda-looking book. I nodded and handed her my tag while gesturing to Fiona to do the same. From the two men and one woman working at the counter, it was obvious that I chose the woman. Thinking about it, the whole situation was a little strange. Or at least, that was the case from my perspective. I mean, why would you hire men to work as receptionists at all? Who wanted to be received by a man in the first place? ¡¯What if there¡¯ll be a day with just men at the count¡ª ¡± All right. How many pairs do you have? ¡± ¡± Hmm!? Oh, yeah... We have... Ehm... How many we have, Fio? I forgot again... ¡± ¡± 137. ¡± ¡± Ah, yeah... 137. ¡± I said while turning back to the receptionist. ¡± ... ¡± ¡± Ehm... Miss receptionist? ¡± ¡± Oh, yes... I''m sorry. It was just unexpected coming from two young girls. Can you take them out? ¡± ¡± Yes. ¡± I said and Fiona took off the rucksack from her back. We started to unload the claws from it and put them on the counter under the receptionist¡¯s curious look. As the pile started to get bigger, I could feel the bystanders gazing at us. Some of them were whispering between themselves something I couldn''t catch even with my enchanted hearing. The ambient noises were getting in the way. ¡¯I-I know it.¡¯ It was a good decision to not take them out last time. At least, this time there were fewer people. Not feeling too good being in the center of attention, I fastened my pace as to finish with it quicker. ¡± I think these are all of them. ¡± ¡± I see... There are indeed 137 pairs. ¡± she said after glancing at us and the small pile of claws for several seconds. ¡± Are you two really just F rank? ¡± ¡± Yes... We just registered here a few days ago. ¡± ¡± I see. So that''s how it is... ¡± she nodded at herself and wrote something in that book from earlier after which she signaled to one of the two men to come and help her with the claws. At least, my question from earlier was answered... somehow. Since the guild was regularly buying and dealing with monster parts, it was obvious that someone had to carry the stuff around and do the heavy lifting too. It made at least a little sense. ¡± Here is the reward. You can count it. ¡± she said and handed us the money along with our tags. A pair of claws was already worth around two silver coins but since this was a quest, they gave two and half for each pair. We got exactly 28 gold, 6 silver and 2 lesser silvers for it. ¡± With this, the quest is officially completed. Thank you for the good work. ¡± ¡± Yes, thank you too. ¡± . . . After we completed the quest and received the money, we hurried and left the guild building. I just wasn''t comfortable being stared by people. It wasn''t as bad as I thought it would be. The people were probably just curious since I had to admit, we were an unusual sight taking out so many claws. But it was safer to leave since they saw the pile of money as well. They wouldn''t try anything at the guild but you never know. Better safe than sorry. ¡¯Alright.¡¯ nodding to myself after confirming that nobody was following us, we moved to the second reason we came to the guild today. Training. Well, not really training. While my goal was the training ground next to the guild, I didn''t plan to go there and do the stuff myself. I just wanted to watch. Since I decided a few days ago that it would be good to learn how to wield a larger variety of weapons, watching someone training or sparing was a good starting point. Better than figuring out everything from scratch. *cling* ¡± Haaa! ¡± *swoosh* *clang* ¡± Huaaaa! ¡± *bang* After we arrived and seated ourselves on one of the benches from the sides, I looked around the place. It was quite loud with all the people doing their stuff but I had to deal with it, somehow. The ground itself was split into several areas. I wasn''t sure how to classify them but there was a special place for the ones who wanted to simply train their bodies. There was some strange equipment for them to work with, lifting weights and all that. I wasn''t interested in that so I moved my sight further back. There was a place with some wood dummies and also targets for archers to shoot at. I was sure of that since there was a guy and a girl that seemed to compete with each other. The guy was losing. Poor guy. The biggest part of the training ground was mostly open field for people to spar. Of course, there were people just idling around, chatting between themselves but there were some sparing as well. My eyes landed on a particular guy wielding a spear. I was interested in it because I was using one too. I wanted to see how would it be when wielded by someone who was knowing his stuff. Initially, I had no choice but to use it. It was easy to make, it gave me a comfortable range between me and my target and all I had to do was to poke my enemy with it. I could even throw it at the enemy if the situation was asking for it. There was no fancy moves or so I had thought. I assumed that after you learned how to poke your enemy with it, there was little you could learn further. Seeing this guy changed my opinion. He was facing three enemies with swords. No... It was more accurate to say that he was destroying three enemies. Attacking, dodging, deflecting... Just by looking you could tell that his skills and experience was clearly superior to his enemies but that wasn''t the point. The point was the way he was using his weapon strong points. Just the fact that he had the range advantage made it hard to approach him. Even when that was happening, he used the shaft to parry or just spin it around a little to make them back down. Observing them for a while, I got another surprise. After finished with their spar, the three guys paid the spear-wielding guy. The possibility crossed my mind before to come here but it confirmed my theory. With all the adventuring stuff, these guys had to learn to fight from somewhere. It was obvious that some were acting as some kind of teachers. I didn''t know if you could make a request to the guild for something like that but the possibility couldn''t be ruled out. A high ranked adventurer was bound to have everything you wanted from experience to the skills. Even better, they were selling their skills for money. Why not pay them to teach you instead? We continued to spectate for a while but nothing cached my attention again, like the spear-wielding guy did. Well, there was something or to be more exact, there wasn''t. There were no mages. I didn''t know if they were just rare or using magic wasn''t fitting for a friendly spar. Or maybe we were just unlucky and there wasn''t any at the moment... Maybe a little from all of them. ¡± Say, Fio... ¡± shifting my attention from the sparing people to the fluff standing next to me, an idea popped up in my mind. ¡± Mm!? What it is? ¡± ¡± You use a sword... How hight is your skill with it? ¡± ¡± Apprentice grade, level 4. Why do you ask, Lizza? ¡± she said to me with a little hesitation. ¡± I see. Don''t worry, Fio. We''ll get better together. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± Even I could tell that that wasn''t that high. After all, I had my spear one at the apprentice grade, level 2. And I had a late start. Well, she had her circumstances too so I wasn''t blaming her. What really mattered was what we would do from now on. *sigh* ¡± Let''s go back. Hmm... Actually, how about we buy something sweet on the way back? ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡¯Yup. My fluff is the cutest when she''s smiling.¡¯ As I instinctively took her hand and was about to make my way out of the training ground, something else cached my eyes. On the side opposite to us was an old man looking like he was in his fifties. He was quite far from us so I wasn''t sure. Not wanting to travel between all the sweat and noisy guys, I took my time and went around, circling the whole training ground. The old man was seated on a chair. Every time he saw people that looked like possible customers, he would try to get their attention to look at his goods. Well, I didn''t know if the word goods was fitting but I had to give him credit for the ingenuity. ¡¯At least now I know from where comes all the wooden weapons these guys are using.¡¯ I didn''t pay much attention to it before but now that I noticed, there was barely any person using a real weapon to spare with. Most of them were using wooden ones and these had to come from somewhere. Getting closer to the old man and his goods, I picked up a wooden sword. [Wooden Sword] ¡¯Well... Better than my poor clubs and spears...¡¯ My lips started to curve upwards as I thought about the great weapons I had to use to fend myself against the little green ones. On the other hand, when I was facing the goblins, the situation wasn''t as funny as it looked right now. [Wooden Spear] The spear was actually higher grade... Well, it was normal. Compared with the wooden blade, the sper had an authentic and pointy spearhead even though it was made from wood. ¡± If you ain''t gonna buy it, then scam. ¡± the old man said not even bothering to give us a second glance. ¡± How much the spear and sword? ¡± ¡± Hooo... Wanna buy it, lass? ¡± ¡± Yes. ¡± ¡± Don''t mess with me. I knew the difference between a fighter and just a kid. Ya look like a kid. Go play somewhere else... ¡± the old man said and lazily dismissed us with his hand. ¡¯What the hell is wrong with this guy...¡¯ I was well aware that we looked like anything but a fighter or whatever he said there but that didn''t mean we couldn''t buy a damn wooden sword. This old man was an ass. *shiver* ¡± He, he... What¡¯s the matter, wolf-girl? Are ya angry? ¡± ¡± You... You... ¡± *shiver* *shiver* As I turned to the side to look at Fiona, she was trembling with a very angry look on her face while starting to mumble incorrigible things. I quickly grabbed her hand so she won''t do something stupid and glared back at the ass-guy. ¡± Hey, what''s your problem. We just wanted to buy some of these. ¡± I said and pointed at the pile of weapons. *tsk* ¡¯I-Is this guy serious? What the hell...¡¯ ¡± Whatever... 15 copers the spear, one lesser silver the sword. Buy or leave. ¡± I angrily took out a silver coin and throw it right in his face. ¡± Two swords and two spears! And fuck you! ¡± I almost yelled at him and grabbed the items. I wanted to leave already. ¡± Let''s go, Fio. ¡± ¡± ... ¡± Immersed in my anger outburst, I tried to drag her after me but I could not. I wasn''t like I didn''t try, it was more like I wasn''t capable to do so. She wasn''t budging an inch. ¡¯H-How is this even possible?¡¯ Looking back at her, she was still glaring at the old man that, by now, was already on his feet glaring back at her with a frown on his face. They were glaring at each other. ¡± F-Fio, let''s go... ¡± I said and tugged at her hand to grab her attention. ¡± ... ¡± ¡± Tsk... Get lost already. Damn brats... ¡± ¡± Fio, please... ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± In the end, she reluctantly nodded at me and we left the place before she or the old guy would do something stupid. This shit-old man spoiled my mood. Chapter 60: I found Fiona’s secret! ¡± Soooo... What was that, Fio? ¡± After we stormed out of the training ground, neither of us said anything as we returned back. Even Sara looked like she figured that something wasn''t right but in the end, she just smiled and waved at us as we walked to our room. And the awkwardness got to a whole new level. ¡¯Why isn''t she responding???¡¯ ¡± That old man was a jerk... Just don''t think about it anymore. Okay, Fio? ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡¯At least say something... Don''t just peek at me like tha¡ª ¡± I''m sorry. ¡± ¡¯Hmm!? Wait... What!?¡¯ ¡± That wasn''t your fault. He was a jerk even before the situation to escalat¡ª ¡± It was. I could tell it. He was looking at me how they used to look at me in the past. ¡± ¡± Was looking at you? What do you mean... Oh... oh... yeah, I see... ¡± ¡± Mm. I''m sorry. It was my faul¡ª ¡± It was not. Fio, look at me! ¡± I said and got closer to her to the point that we stod face to face. She tried to avoid my gaze but I grabbed her face and looked right in her eyes. And I froze in place. ¡¯What the hell should I do now?¡¯ That was the moment where the hero was supposed to spout some self-righteous crap about goodness and resolve the situation with the power of friendship. Well, too bad... I was no hero and didn''t know what to say. And her big and yellow eyes with which she was staring back at me didn''t help in the slightest. ¡¯Calm down me... Calm down me... Just a fluff... This is just your cute fluff...¡¯ ¡± Ehem... Why do you think that it was your fault, Fio? Hmm... no, forget about it. I think I know already why... ¡± I was careless. Just because in this country was a law against slavery and other races were somehow accepted, that didn''t mean that everyone was happy with it. History taught us well about how petty the reasons for discrimination could be, such as a mere skin color difference. Taking that a step further and applying it to entirely different races... I could already see where the problem was... I could see it... But that didn''t mean I was agreeing with it. ¡± Listen, Fio. That old man was not the first one to treat you like that and probably would not be the last. And we could do little to change that but so you know that something like this will never change anything between us. ¡± I said and took her into a hug. I already abandoned the thought of formulating an elaborate explanation and such, I just spout out whatever I thought at the moment. ¡± You don''t need to apologize. It''s not your fault. He was a jerk for no reason. If someone dislikes you for such reason, that means they don''t deserve our attention. Don''t even bother with them from now on... ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡¯Also, how did you even know the difference???¡¯ Was that a racial-fluff stuff? Like a 6th sense? Maybe these fluffy ears worked as some kind of fantasy-magic-radio-antennas... ¡¯Can she detect lies with them? Probably not... I wasn''t caught yet... I''m still safe, I hope...¡¯ ¡± Umm, Lizza... what are you... doing? ¡± she said and averaged her gaze again. Her fluffy ears flattened a bit too. ¡¯Hmm!?¡¯ Was I right? Was she closing her ear-receptors to not be caught by me? Yes. That must be it. Though, she looked quite cute while being caught. ¡¯Mufufuf¡¯ ¡± D-Don¡¯t stare... that much... ¡± ¡¯Ohh... Ohhhh!?¡¯ Her ears flattened even more... *pat* *pat* ¡± Li-Li-Li-zza... w-w-w-wha¡ª ¡± There, there... Do not worry, Fio. I won''t tell anyone... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± How about we go down and eat something? I think I saw Sara making something earlier... ¡± ¡± M-Mm. ¡± *pat* *pat* ¡¯Yup, my fluff is the cutest! How dare that old jerk to... to... Shit.¡¯ ¡± L-Lizza!? ¡± I faceslapped myself. ¡± Fio, how much did he asked for two swords and two spears? ¡± I asked her after contemplating for a while. It was possible to have done a grave mistake. ¡± One lesser silver for a sword and 15 coppers the spear... Why do you ask? ¡± ¡± Yeah... That''s like 3 lesser silver and 10 coppers... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡±...¡± ¡¯Fuck... I gave him extra money!¡¯ . . . Speaking of how the situation could get even worse... No wonder he didn''t say anything when I tossed the silver coin at him... We got treated poorly and scammed at the same time. It was just around 10 coppers but the worst was that I gave it to that jerk. *sigh* ¡± Something happened, Miss Elizabeth? ¡± ¡± Hmm!? Oh, don''t worry, Sara. Nothing important. ¡± ¡± If you say so... I''m almost finished so just wait a little bit more. ¡± ¡± Okay. ¡± I didn''t mind waiting for a little bit more. I felt like skipping the meal actually but since we came down and told them that we would dine together, I couldn''t say no afterward. The reason was because Albert came earlier when we weren''t here and left what I asked from him a while ago. Books. Maybe one of the biggest differences from a normal medieval setting. Excluding the whole status thing, the monsters, the different races and magic, that was it. In this world the whole population was literate. Taking that into consideration, it wasn''t as hard to get information as one might expect at first sight. ¡¯Mufufuf... This... and this... good, good...¡¯ *spark* *spark* ¡± M-Mother, I made it! ¡± ¡± Ohh, you got the notification? ¡± ¡± Mmm, not yet. ¡± ¡± Then, keep going. You''ll get it in the end, sweety... ¡± ¡¯Hmm!? Notification... what notification?¡¯ ¡± Miss Elizabeth, are you interested in it? I saw you looking... ¡± ¡± Ahh... I was? Although, I''m a little interested... ¡± The younger sibling, Arron, was sitting in a corner and was playing with something. Or so I thought but it seemed that he wasn''t. At least, from his conversation with his mother, he seemed to actually do something useful by playing with... ¡¯Isn''t that the thing with which Sara light the fire?¡¯ ¡± What is he doing? ¡± ¡± Arron tries to get the [Mana Manipulation] skill. ¡± ¡¯What!? Well, that is something interesting.¡¯ ¡± No, no, no. It''s not what you think... He''s not going to learn magic or something. ¡± ¡± No!? ¡± ¡± No. I''m sorry, I don''t know about your kind but our ability for magic isn''t much. But even so, learning something basic like [Mana Manipulation] is still useful for everyday life. ¡± ¡± Is that so? ¡± ¡± Yes. It''s useful when we use the sparker for example... ¡± ¡¯The what!?¡¯ ¡± Arron, give it to Miss Elizabeth to see it. ¡± ¡± M-Mm. ¡± the little boy nodded his head and gave me the small device. It had a cylindrical shape with some bumps at one side and an opening to the other. At a closer look, I could see some small patterns made with copper on one side. I tried to guide some of my mana through them and... *SPARK* ¡± Ohh... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± Lizza, are you ok? ¡± ¡± Yeah... don''t worry, Fio. ¡± I almost burnt my hair... I actually saw the thing in Sara¡¯s hands. Albeit better than the flint, it was still just throwing some sparks. On the other hand, in my case was more like a little firework... ¡± Sara, I think it''s not made for me... ¡± ¡± I see... I''m sorry, I didn''t know. ¡± ¡± Don''t worry. I just hope I didn''t break it or something. Here... ¡± I gave it back to her to see if the thing was broken. Fortunately, the sparker was still working. She gave it back to Arron and we continued as if nothing had happened, even though the overall mood was a little awkward. We ate with them and got back to our room shortly after that. I was still excited since the books finally came. ¡± Here, Fio. ¡± I said a gave two of them to Fiona. It wasn''t right to search just for what I needed. I saw that she already know a lot about herbs and liked to collect them so I brought her a book about it. Additionally, I asked for another one with recipes and stuff. I didn''t expect her to become an alchemist and make potions but there was another thing called herbalist. Even though it wasn''t as effective as a potion, this profession had its strong points. It was also easier and cheaper to learn... Perfect for a beginner. ¡± Mm. ¡± she nodded happily and took the books. I didn''t saw her so excited in a while. It made me glad that I thought about it. Next, my stuff. It was quite a lot. The reason was that I couldn''t tell him that I lacked common knowledge so I started by asking about a book about Brigandia. It wasn''t weird wanting to know about the country since I just arrived here. I should get some information from that. After that, I asked about something about enchanting. That proved quite tricky. While it was true that the books were quite common here, that didn''t mean that everything was for everyone. Books regarding magic knowledge, about rare skills, alchemy and enchanting weren''t easy to get. I had limited myself at whatever Albert could find but even something basic could be of use to me. I doubted that I learned the stuff in the normal way anyway. I asked about skills and magic but the problem from above was applied there as well... Finally, the last one was about monsters. As an adventurer... *shivers* ¡¯Adventurer, huh...¡¯ Anyway, as an adventurer, I couldn''t ignore such a thing. It was always good to know what you could meet when you were there, adventuring... Just a fool would ignore such a thing... ¡± Haaaa... Much to read... Let''s do our best, Fio. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± FDSIO Aaaand there''s the chapter. I took me a while but here it is. As a side note, I started to rewrite... No, rewrite is a strong word... to revise the first few chapters. Better. I made a lot of mistakes there and wanted to repair some of them. Reason? Yeah, I have one. The first chapters were quite important. That what a new reader gets and judges the story at first after all. I already finished the first one :) Ps- the plot won''t change. Maybe a better description there, a better word here and so on. The story won''t change but I want to flesh them out a bit more and make it flow better. For whoever wants to reread them, is free to do so but I wanted to let you know that for whoever does not want to do it, wouldn''t lose anything(plot and story-wise). Regarding the new chapter release thing, I will not stop writing new chapters. Expect one, maybe two chapters/week depending on how free I am. The rewriting thing is a side project after all. Also, hope you enjoy my story! :) Chapter 61: Hunting wolves again and a house!? *grrr* ¡¯Still not giving up, huh?¡¯ *grrr* The poor wolf growled at me again while surveying the area for a possible escape path. The more I observed their behavior, the more impressed I became. ¡¯Appraisal¡¯ Their status wasn''t much. It was actually on the lower end compared with what I fought until now. What made this species impressive was their intelligence. It was also one of the rare species of low-level monsters that could use magic. It was true that it wasn''t much but magic was still magic. Still impressive. The Night Wolf was smaller than the normal ones with pitch-black fur. Due to their high intelligence and the ability to sense mana and use it to blend with the shadows, they proved to be quite lethal despite their low status. But that made them the perfect targets for us. The fact that they were usually active at night would prove ineffective against someone with good senses and the [Night Vision] skill like Fiona. I also had a good hearing and my senses were boosted from the forest environment. It was a strange feeling. It felt like my mind was at ease; that I could concentrate on things with a clearer mind... *growl* The wolf growled again seeing that he had no path for escaping. His two teammates were already dead and he was trapped between me and Fiona. We could kill it with ease but that wasn''t our aim. We wanted him alive, but that was harder than it sounded. ¡± Fio. ¡± ¡± I''m here. ¡± she said and started to circle behind the wolf while I was right in front of it, serving as the main distraction. *RAWR* Growing impatient, the wolf jumped at me sensing that his end would come if he didn''t act. ¡± Shit! ¡± I jumped to the left and used my spear shaft to hit and deflect the wolf without stabbing it. My proficiency with the spear had grown quite a bit while sparing and hunting with Fiona in the forest. *Awooo¡ª *BANG* Unfortunately for the wolf, he hadn''t even been able to properly rise to its feet after he got thrown to the ground. Fiona darted at it in an instant and smashed her wooden training sword right on his head. ¡± Pfiuuu... Good job, Fio! It''s still alive, right? You didn''t hit it too hard, right? ¡± I asked with concern while approaching. Even with a wooden sword, a hit on the head wasn''t to be treated lightly. Not when that hit came from Fiona. Fluffy and innocent as her image may suggest, she had some ridiculous strength in her tiny hands. I was already aware of that but it was at the moment we started our training/sparring sessions that I realized just how badly I underestimated her. Even when she was holding back, her swings were so powerful that my sword would vibrate at every clash. It got me two whole days to somehow get used to it and ignore the pain to some extent. ¡± Mm, still breathing, the head is not bleeding either. ¡± ¡± Good... This is the last one. No more! ¡± I said and dramatically dropped on my back. I wasn''t that tired or hurt anywhere, but the continuous hunt started to bore me. We left the city and lived in the forest for two weeks already. ¡± Lizza, I finished. Let''s go. ¡± ¡± Huh... already? Ehm, just... just a little bit... ¡± ¡± We need to put it in its cage before it wakes up. Remember that one? ¡± ¡± Yeah, I know but¡ª ¡± No buts, Lizza. ¡± ¡± O-Okay... I get up, I get up... You bully. ¡± I said and peeked at her with the cutest expression I could muster but what I found was her staring at me with her poker face. ¡± Not working? ¡± ¡± No. ¡± ¡¯Why!? Whyyyy!? Give me my small and gullible fluff back!¡¯ *sigh* I reluctantly got up and stored the other two wolves in my ring while Fiona tied the unconscious wolf and put it in our little hand cart. After our request at the woodwork shop was finished, we started to prepare ourselves for the two weeks expedition of hunting/training. I was more than pleased with what they managed to make considering my poor instructions. We continued with the preparations. From stocking food and drinks to resupplying my special hand-made fire arrows, we spend quite a bit of money. Adding the price for the books we got from Albert at the beginning and the request for custom-made sets of armor which we would have to pay when we return to the city, our spending got through the roof. We were left with around 38 gold coins but spending more than 15 gold coins in the spawn of a single week was still a scary thought. Unfortunately, the armors weren''t finished before we left... . . . ¡± Hiiiiaaaaahh! Beeeed! Finally! Bliss! ¡± Or that would be the case if not for the continuous growls and noises from outside of our portable house. Maybe the term portable house was a bit much since the whole structure was a cube around three meters in length and width, with a height of around two meters and a half. Almost a cube. It still had a decent amount of space and since the structure was made out of emberwood, the lightest type of wood they had at stock, it wasn''t too hard to move it around, even for us. That was because the house was designed to be disassembled in five pieces, and we could easily do it and store the pieces in my ring. The dark red shades and nuances of the wood were a plus, which gave our little house a special charm. It had no floor though, but that wasn''t too bad for the first attempt. ¡± Fio, close the door. I don''t want to hear the howls anymore. Can''t we just drug them with that thing of yours again? ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± I know, I know... I was just joking... Just close the door. ¡± I said and buried my face in the soft bedsheets. ¡± Lizza... No good. ¡± Fiona said and shook her head. ¡± Why? We worked quite hard these weeks. We deserve some rest. ¡± I said and buried myself further in the bedsheets. As to empathize with my point, I took another blanket and some pillows and patted the bed beside me for her to sit. She sat down, albeit with some reluctance but I didn''t mind. With great speed and precision, I moved my head on her lap and took out the greatest invention ever made; the hairbrush. I didn''t even know how I lived until that moment without long hair and another person to brush it. A complete mystery. ¡±...¡± ¡± Please. ¡± I said while making the cute face again. Persistence was the key to success. ¡± Mm. ¡± ¡¯Yes! Mufufufu...¡¯ It was so good. If up there was a heaven, I was sure that the hairbrush was their default tool for relaxation. Nothing could compete with it after all. ¡± But Lizza... umm... ¡± ¡± Hmm!? What is it? Ahh... keep going, keep going... with the brushing... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡± Please? ¡± ¡± Mm. How to say it... I don''t think this is how adventuring works... ¡± she said and pointed at the portable house walls and all the stuff around us. ¡± Hmmm, but isn''t it nice that we don''t need for one to keep on watch while the other is sleeping? ¡± I said and pointed at the same walls she had pointed earlier. The second greatest invention for us, after the hairbrush. Our house was not at the famous bear-shaped-house level but there was still room for improvement. It didn''t have windows or other finer details but there was a simple door placed on one of the walls. Each one of the walls ends was ingeniously crafted as to easily join with the others like some sort of big pieces of lego. We barely need ten minutes to assemble the house. Since we had the opportunity to carry and use a portable home as easily as others do with a tent, why not? ¡± It is, but... ¡± she averaged her eyes and pointed at the rest of the stuff. ¡± What about it? It is true that it might feel odd to have all this stuff in the middle of the forest but this is just basic living necessities. We need a bed, a table, good food and so on... Don''t see the problem. ¡± ¡± Lizza... ¡± ¡± Hmm? ¡± ¡± Just yesterday, we had a warm bath in THAT. ¡± ¡± Ahhh, yeah... As I said. Basic living necessities. ¡± ¡±...¡± She was speaking about our new bathtub. It wasn''t much. A one-meter and a half in length, a meter width and around half a meter in height bathtub. I didn''t know exactly from what material was made though. It wasn''t any kind of metal. The material looked more like some kind of a strange combination between glass and plastic while not being any of them. I had to pay two gold coins for it so I assumed that the material wasn''t that common. Still worth it. Was necessary for my fluff to be kept nice and clean. ¡± I actually plan to store a barrel or two of hot water too, for emergencies. ¡± ¡± Emergencies? ¡± ¡± Yup. Like if we want to take a quick bath. We waited for the weather to warm up half an hour after all. Unacceptable. ¡± ¡±...¡± Fiona was starting to get accustomed to our new way of living, albeit with some difficulties here and there. I could not blame her. She was slowly getting used to it but that brought another unexpected problem. She became stricter with me. My cute fluff that would just follow me around and agree with whatever I wanted to do started to no longer let me laze around... No, I wanted to say, to take well-deserved breaks. That was the right word. It was definitely not my previous complacent personality taking me over again. Definitely not. ¡¯Yes! Bad fluff... bullying me.¡¯ Well, it wasn''t that bad actually. The way things were right now felt more like what should have been. It felt like we were on equal grounds rather than me always taking the lead. ¡± Me too. ¡± ¡± Hmm!? Oh, sure. Let''s switch. ¡± ¡± Mm. ¡± she nodded her head and we switched the places. I slowly started to brush her hair, which wasn''t as easy as one might expect. As cute as the fluffy ears might be, they were still somehow in the way of brushing. Mine weren''t that small either. Maybe she had the same problem as me... Well, since she didn''t complain about it, I would not do it either. And I could play with them while brushing her hair too. A win-win situation. ¡¯Status¡¯ ---------------------------- Racial skills: Normal skills: Passive skills: ---------------------------- I decided to take a quick look at my status while brushing her hair. Even though we were in there for so long I barely leveled once. Hunting lower level monsters had shown its effects. I half expected something like that but what truly surprised me was that I somehow aged by a year. The status showed 18 years old. And I randomly noticed that the status had grown out of nowhere while I was checking a skill. I didn''t even know when that happened. I somehow managed to miss my birthday. As a result, I made a mental note to check my status every day approximately a year from now and find out when my birthday was. ¡¯But wasn''t my birthday supposed to be on the day I got myself in this world?¡¯ On second thought, that might not be the case. If that was true, then my age shouldn''t have been seventeen. But that realization brought a lot of new questions as well. Questions for which I had no answers, at least not yet. Shaking my head and stopping thinking about the things I had no answer for, I focused instead on the second part of the status screen. The skills. This training camp was a big success. Everything except [Appraisal] and the blacksmith skill got at least one level up. I also got the skill for swords and trained it to a decent level. Even the damn [Water Manipulation] had to submit to my mighty genius, albeit it was still the lowest leveled one of all my magic skills. I didn''t know why... I had no phobias regarding water. I was good at swimming too. Maybe I simply had a bad affinity with water... As for skill advancements, there had been some of these as well. The [Apprentice Bow Technique] evolved to [Advanced Bow Technique] and the [Apprentice Enchanter] lost the apprentice condition and became simply [Enchanter]. Both at the level cap of five. Since Albert couldn''t find me a book about skills I had to experiment and find these things myself. I still wanted some information about the magic skills though. While the rest of them evolved two times already from [Crude (x) Technique] to [Apprentice (x) Technique] and finally the [Advanced (x) Technique], the magic ones didn''t evolve even once. The [Mana Manipulation] and [Fire Manipulation] managed to level up to nine and didn''t seem to hit their level cap yet. ¡± Mmmmm... Lizza... nooo... ¡± ¡± Hmmm!? What is it, Fio? Ohh... ¡± ¡¯She''s asleep... again...¡¯ I wasn''t surprised anymore since that wasn''t the first time. She had the habit to fall asleep whenever I caressed her hair for too long. I didn''t mind since that was one of her cute sides. She even had the habit of sleep-talking... ¡± Nooo... Lizza, not the tail... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡¯But what the hell are you dreaming about...¡¯ Was she so unwilling to let me touch it to the point of protecting it even in her dreams? ¡± Mmmm... j-just a little bit... ¡± ¡±...¡± ¡¯Now I really want to touch it, goddamit...¡¯ Fortunately, she gave me the approval. It didn''t matter that it was a sleep-talking approval. Approval was approval. ¡¯Revenge time! Heheheeh...¡¯ FDSIO Hiatus! :( I''ll be back somewhere at the beginning of July... Sry... :(