I stared down at the pile of ash on the floor. I cursed myself for not asking someone first before I did my experiment. I looked at my Mana and saw It was only half gone. I thought back to Lastaf saying if I used two different elements in a spell, it would cost double the mana. Had trying to create five different Void storages compounded the mana required?

I stood up and groaned. I was exhausted. Looking out the window, I watched the night sky for a moment before getting undressed and putting on my sleeping clothes. If anything, I could sleep in tomorrow, with Hiroaki away on Guild business.

I was about to shut my eyes when a loud knock rattled my door. I picked my head off the pillow and stared at the door. Maybe I had misheard? Then a pounding did more than rattle the door. Luin jumped up and began to growl.

“I’m coming!” I shouted.

I opened up the door to find, Vylria and one of her students, Khis, the blonde one with her. “Hunters, and they have your description. They have been asking about you at the docks. We need to get you out of here now,” said Vylria.

“How? It’s been a bit over a week since I’ve been here.” I said as I ducked back into my room, getting back into my armor.

“Hunters pay well for any information pertaining to Heroes, Zeal. Hiroaki had a few of the higher-ranking members keep our ears to the ground and alert himself or me if they showed up. As soon as they departed their vessel, someone informed us instantly. We will get you out of the city under cover of darkness, and you may go where you must.”

Back in my armor, I began to toss my leatherworking tools into my backpack. Making sure I had everything. I pointed to Luin. “Do you have a cloak or something to cover her with? She’s pretty easy to spot.”

“Khis, can you go fetch something for her?”

The blonde nodded, but I stopped her. “Wait, I’m an idiot. I got something.”

I took out the Shimmer Cape from the dead Kobold. Wrapping it around Luin, I had her climb on my back and handed my backpack to Vylria.

“A Shimmer Cape? The wonders, Zeal. Let’s go. I will inform Obbah of your departure tomorrow.”

The common room was pretty packed when we went downstairs. There were lots of drinks and laughter. I doubt anyone had noticed us. Vylria led us through back alleys towards the north gate outside. An hour later, she spoke with one of the guards on duty, and I caught the glint of gold passing between hands before the guard unlocked the gate and allowed me to slip through. I turned around and smiled at Vylria but couldn’t think of anything to say to the woman before she handed me my backpack.

“We’ll meet again, Zeal. Hiroaki will try and track you down, but it's best if you don't tell us where you’re headed. The Hunters have some ability to track the truth. Best not tempt it.”

“Thank you, Vylria. Can you leave a message at The Guild? It’s for my friend Lastaf. Tell him I went to meet his friend.”

“It will be done. Safe travels,” she said before nodding to the guard.

The guard closed the small gate, and we were left under the light of a torch. I needed to head southwest towards Meckingmoor, the city with Lastaf’s friend, Jarrax. Not wanting them to follow us, we followed the road north for an hour then cut west across the field of grass.

We stopped when Luin began falling asleep on her feet. I lowered us down to the ground and made a small room to sleep inside. Putting a dim globe on the ceiling, I raised the ground outside back up and made three small holes in the surface for air.

As soon as the bedding was on the ground, Luin got inside and fell asleep. I was exhausted as well, but so many emotions played across my mind. Who had sold my information to the Hunters? They have my description? So someone had to. It wasn’t a fluke. How long has it been since I arrived in Mythtide? I really hadn’t been keeping track. It had to be just over a week, right?

Let’s say a week. The hunters had somehow tracked me to the southern port at that time and followed me to Mythtide. Lastaf had said it would take him at least a couple of weeks to rejoin me. This was all very frustrating. I wish I had the experience to fight these Hunters.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when Luin’s head pushed itself under my arm and onto my lap before falling back asleep. She must have been feeling my frustration. I stroked her head as I continued to dwell on things I couldn’t control.

With my back on the wall, I awoke, where I had sat the night before. Luin’s head was still in my lap, my hand on her back. With my other hand, I reached over and pulled a bag of jerky from my magic bag. The scent must have reached Luin’s nose as she looked up and looked towards the bag.

I laughed and gave her two strips before I began chewing on my own. I put our gear back into the backpack and lowered the ground to take us up. I raised it slowly so I could look around. Not seeing anyone or anything, I raised us the rest of the way.

We began our trek to the west. Looking at my magical map, I tried to decide how we would make it to the southwest. I hadn’t asked anyone where Meckingmoor was. I only knew it was southwest of Mythtide. I mentally poked the map where I thought it might be, and a small circle appeared where I had tapped the map. Then as I turned my head, the same colored circle was showing at the top of my peripheral vision.

“That’s handy.”

I planned to walk west till we came to the great plains with the Mongacuda. From there, we would follow the plains south towards my marker. Hopefully, the city would be easy to see from a distance.

After hours of walking up and down the small rolling hills, we came to the plains sometime around midday. We could see a couple of the larger packs of Mongacuda’s from where we stood, and we made our way south, far away from the groups.

When we came across the larger males, I made short work of them with an Ice Lance or two. I would pocket each of the cores and was surprised to find a rolled-up hide next to the fifth kill. Had The System added that to the loot because I had gotten the Leatherworking Stigmata? It would save me so much time, not needing to skin them.

We headed south for the rest of the day, keeping the great plains to our right and the massive forest home to the Fyrbees to our left. The drop rate of the hide was pretty low. I would get one every five to ten kills. Still, I had five new hides by the end of the day. I still had no way to cure them into leather, and the hides at Mythtide were a bust. Maybe I could just trade them for already cured leather rolls.

As the sun began to head towards the horizon, we stopped on a small hill overlooking the plains. A bright pink moth, or maybe a butterfly, flew out from a small bush, and Luin began to chase it. I chuckled at her antics and began to create our campsite. I lowered the earth, making steps going down in a curved stairwell into the ground. At the bottom, I made another cave-like room. To the side, I got creative and created a fireplace, with the chimney going up to the surface.

I was about to make two raised platforms for the beds when I heard a roar outside. Dropping my backpack, I ran up the steps and looked around for Luin. I found her a moment later running towards me, behind her, the largest Mongacuda I had ever seen. Then when I noticed it didn’t have horns, I paled. I looked further behind the large female and could see a handful of others charging this way.

“Get inside the cave. The stairs are right behind me!” I shouted at Luin and began to pull up wide pillars of earth on either side of Luin. I continued to raise the five-meter-wide pillars all away around our camp.

Before I could raise the last wall of earth, I heard a crack from behind. I spun around and looked at the wall facing the herd of Mongacuda. It had a multitude of cracks at its center, and a moment later, something hit the wall again. The left corner crumbled, and I could see the serrated teeth of the prominent female over the wall.

I didn’t know what to do. I could fight, but five or six at the same time? They seemed to be a bit faster than the male versions. The choice was made for me when a multitude of cracks could be heard coming from the other side of the wall.

The largest one got a regular Fireball to the face and seemed to brush it off. Like a ram from back home, it reared back, aimed the top of its head at the crumbling wall, and smashed it to pieces. I yelped back in surprise and pulled out two blue Fireballs, tossing them at the large matriarch.

Those worked, and her front legs were blown off her body. Her cry rang out, and two more showed at either side of the now destroyed wall. I tried to raise another, but the left one charged me. I dove to the side and rolled up against one of the stone walls. I summoned another blue Fireball and threw it towards the one that was now inside the walls.

That proved to be an error on my part. The Mongacuda exploded, but the force of the explosion was close by, and my head slammed back into the stone wall knocking me out.

I came too, disoriented, and looked around inside the stone walls. Four Mongacuda bodies lay around our campsite. It took a moment for everything to come back to me, and I was surprised to see the other bodies. A movement to my right drew my attention, and I could see Luin peeking around the wall to my right, looking out of our camp.

Shaking my head, I pushed myself to my feet and walked over to where she was. Looking outside, I could see three more of the large Mongacuda females surrounded by a couple of dozen of their young.

I summoned and tossed a regular Fireball over their heads, startling both the Mongacuda and Luin, who turned around and slapped my leg. The herd of Mongacuda began to run away, and the larger body of the matriarch began to glow a vivid blue before turning into the sand-like material.

When the core dropped to the ground, I stared at it for a moment. Above the core was ‘SS.’ Luin moved towards the core, but I stopped her before reaching it. ‘Can you see the letters above the core, Luin? ‘SS’ is incredibly rare and can fetch us lots of coins to buy food. So if you ever see those letters on a core, bring them to me right away, don’t eat them, ok?”

“Okay. ‘S’ means lots of food. Luin, bring.”

I collected the four cores, giving two normal ones to Luin. I hadn’t seen how she had killed them, but I'm sure she did somehow. Maybe hitting Rank 5 Evolution gave her more Mana. I raised another wall to replace the one that had been destroyed and one in the back to finish the circle of walls. I had no idea if they would be back or not.

Inside our underground campsite, I made a fire, raised two platforms to put our bags on, and sat down on mine. I began removing the cores for the day. I had just over seventy of the Azure Cores. I placed the Rank SS core back into my bag.

“Luin, what does the number say in your vision?”

I watched as she scrunched up her face. Her eyes almost rolled to the back of her head as she tried to loop up and right.

“One, Four.”

“Here, take this core and tell me what it changes too,” I said as I handed her a Rank B Azure Core.

She popped it into her mouth and swayed a bit back and forth. I could barely see her blue fur glow just a tiny bit before it vanished.

“Two, Nine.”

If I remember correctly, a Rank B Azure Core gave 48 Energy. She went up to twelve points. So she probably needed six hundred Energy to reach Rank 6. I looked through the cores on my bed, grabbed the last eight Rank B’s and five of the Rank C’s, and placed them on her bed.

“Ok, Luin. Those should be enough for you to evolve again. You’ll grow once more and hopefully become stronger so you can help me fight more in the future.”

“Yep, yep. Luin becomes stronger than Papa. Luin protect Papa.

The Kobold began to lick her lips before she tossed the first core into her mouth. She seemed to do a little jig as she sat at the edge of her bed and slowly ate the cores. As Luin ate them, the slight glow I had seen before became increasingly bright and lasted longer. I guessed that was an indication of how close she was to evolving.