The forest was intimidating and not in the grand scheme of things kind of way. There was a constant presence around us. At first, it was barely noticeable, but the further we went in, the more powerful it felt.

I glanced at Valeriana to see if she was having similar doubts; however, nothing of the sort was present. She was still angry at the guard from earlier. And she noticed me looking her way.

“Did you see that- that insolent nobody.” She asked, frustration dripping from her tongue.

“Yes, I can’t believe it either.” I answered.

She halted. “How are you not angry?” Narrowing her eyes. “He insulted me. He insulted you.”

“There is no point since I can’t do much about it.” She didn’t like that. “He’s a nobody, just like you said. I would bet he’s even being punished for something if he’s stationed all the way here.” Shrugging, I continued. “You could tell the Guildmaster. I’m sure he would be happy to help.”

Some anger was fortunately defused, but a grimace soon formed, as I mentioned Argus.

“No, I don’t want to owe him anything.” She paused. “And I’m not sure if even he would want to deal with them.”

That piqued my curiosity. “Them?”

“The Sabortooths.” She spat out the word.

My welcoming party, if I recall correctly.

“How did you figure that out?” I asked.

“The ring on his finger. They all wear one. Always.”

Now that she mentioned it, I remember seeing something on his finger; a blue ring with a lion head design. I wanted to ask more, but her expression told me otherwise. She was lost in thought, reminiscing about something, and by the looks of it, it wasn’t a good memory.

I called out, waking her from her daydreaming. “Hey.” Changing the subject. “Shouldn’t we start looking for burrows?”

She seemed confused for a moment before replying. “No, they live above ground. We should be able to find them once we reach tall grass.”

My brows raised; I was pleasantly surprised. I had set zero expectations, but still, this was not bad in the slightest.

“That’s a nice start. Did you find anything else?”

“What do you mean?”

“Anything could help; how much do they weigh? How fast can they run? Are they solitary? Anything really.”

She seemed taken aback by my response as she mumbled. “Uh, no. I only know where to find them.”

“I guess we will find out when we get there.” I replied in mild disappointment. It was too good to be true.

With the conversation at a halt, I accessed my storage and brought out my first fully functioning engraved item, the mana-seeing glass piece. I managed to make it into a more circular shape with the engraved words circling around the outer edge.

It hadn’t been exceedingly beneficial since I already have a scouting ability, and I can’t practically use both together, but that was fine. It’ll have its uses at some point.

“What’s that?” Valeriana commented to my side.

I activated the lens and handed it over to her. Holding it closely, she looked through it and asked. “What’s all this?” Awe clear in her voice.

“It’s the mana around us. The lens allows you to visualize it.”

“Amazing.” Looking more intently, she asked. “But why is it like… this?”

I got closer to her to see through the lens. It did look different than usual. The ambient mana here was more potent than in the city, increasing the further we went in.

“It's the ambient mana around us. The higher it is, the brighter it looks.”

She turned, facing me, looking at me through the glass lens. Slowly descending until she reached the manapool at my abdomen.

“That’s my manapool.” I stated.

She observed it for a few seconds and looked down at herself, touching the spot where her manapool is located. The cogs in her head turning as she looked at me and at herself again.

However, as a mischievous smile started forming, I spoke. “Don’t.”

Grinning, she said. “Mine is bigger.”

Goddammit.

A sigh escaped me as she erupted in giggles.

“Ah, I’m sure you’ll grow big someday.”

I continued my steps, ignoring the inane laugher behind me.

“Come on. I’m just kidding.” Catching up to me. “How did you get this anyway?”

“I made it.” I replied, and just like that, the joyful atmosphere faded away.

“Another guild?” And at her solemn nod, I took my turn to laugh. “Well, we’ll just add it to the list.”

She was still holding onto the engraved glass piece, and picking up my intention, she hesitated.

“You can keep it, if you want.” Oddly enough, she hasn’t asked nor taken anything from me thus far.

“Really?”

“Yeah, sure. I can make another.”

“Thank you.” She beamed at me as she fumbled with the glass piece.

Not long after, the road ahead started getting walled in. The grass gradually grew taller, ultimately reaching my waist as we walked further in.

“So, how do you want to do this?” I asked.

“I’m faster than they are. We find one, and I’ll kill it.” She replied in resolve.

“Alright, let’s head a bit away from the road and start searching.” I haven’t seen a single animal/monster the whole walk here, most likely avoiding the main road.

Reaching a boulder further away, I sat on top and folded my legs. I wanted to do one major sweep first. Get a feel of the area around me. Breathing slowly, I closed my eyes in preparation; however, I was abruptly interrupted.

“What are you doing?”

“Searching.” I replied dismissively, without opening my eyes.

Inhaling, I made the link with the earth beneath me, stretching an area large enough to be a football field; however, I regretted it, almost instantly.

Exhaling, I opened my eyes and found myself completely covered in sweat. I noted a few hundred unidentified masses, but working on something this vast was not in any way feasible yet.

Valeriana was befuddled, staring at me, awaiting an explanation. I chuckled, imagining her point of view; one moment, I was fine, another, I was drenched in sweat.

“I got a rough idea of where to start.” The confused stare didn’t lessen. “I scouted most of the area around us.”

“How?”

“Magic?” She didn’t look convinced. “I’m an earth mage. It’s just something I can do.” She still seemed skeptical.

“How about we try my way first and see how it goes.”

She narrowed her eyes at me and replied. “Fine, but if this doesn’t work, you’re coming down here with me.”

“That’s fair. Could you pick a few small stones, please? ”

Closing my eyes again, I re-established the link again; however, this time on a much smaller scale. Confirming the spot and memorizing the currently occupied locations, I asked Valeriana to throw one of the rocks inside the designated area.

“Alright, go ahead.”

I felt the stone touching the ground, creating a ripple of movement. Some of the weights, some didn’t, and a few slithered. A quick elimination process presented a few possible candidates.

“Again.”

I repeated the same procedure again, though mostly focusing on the isolated prospects. “Throw the rest, one at a time, please.” A groan from my pitcher, followed by the raining rocks, marked the ending of this overcomplicated experiment.

I had a possible target. It moved, unlike the others, almost seemed like it was teleporting. Disappearing from one place and reappearing somewhere else, most likely hopping. Letting out a tired breath, I smiled in satisfaction. “Found one.”

The rabbit’s location wasn’t hard to describe. I also noted the other entities present whether it was moving or not. I brought out a piece of candy from my store and waited for my mana to regenerate.

“You’re not coming?” Valeriana asked, her ears twitching.

“I need a minute to catch my breath.” I doubt I would have been able to catch up to it anyhow.

“It’s fine. I’ll wait.” She replied, staying still.

A couple of minutes later, I was leading the hunt for our prey as stealthily as I could, avoiding whatever obstacles along the way. The closer we got, the worse my sneaking got. To be honest, I was dreading not reacting fast enough and ending up with a horn through my skull.

My fears were not unfounded as not a moment later, the rabbit darted forward, thankfully away from us. The grass trembled as the frightened animal passed through. It was very subtle, but not a second after, a much larger disturbance was felt. Valeriana dashed after the animal at a speed I could barely register.

Following their tracks at my own pace, I arrived at a rather peculiar scene; Valeriana standing with her sword drawn a foot away from a hollow tree with the rabbit trapped inside. Its eyes were darting everywhere as its horn was raised defensively.

This might be the worst situation possible. I have no idea how to deal with a cornered animal. Glancing at Valeriana, I quietly called out her name.

Her head whipped in my direction. She was just as tense, if not more than the rabbit inside. Keeping the tree in the corner of my eye, I gestured for her to back off. Thankfully, she obliged.

With some distance between them, she started regaining her composure. “Are you okay now?” I saw her nodding in response.

Holding my spear, I took a step forward, intending to finish the job; however, I was interrupted.

“I’ll do it.” She stated.

Passing over the spear, I stepped aside as she approached the tree with my weapon in hand. The following sequence of events was too fast for me to interpret. The spear landed, blood was drawn; however, the tree trunk was empty.

A red trail led back to the fields, dying the grass crimson. Valeriana was halfway between crouching and standing, unmoving, eyes fixated at the spear tip. Calling out to her was pointless; she was unresponsive. Fearing the worst, I approached her slowly. She was unharmed, though her eyes were blank.

Placing one hand on her shoulder, I lowered her until she was fully seated on the ground. I gently freed the spear out of her grip and sat it beside me. Running a quick scan of the area around us, I sat down beside her.

Not long after, she regained focus; however, her eyes were starting to water.

Was that a panic attack? Am I supposed to help somehow?

Doing my best at understanding the situation, I tried consolidating her. “It’s fine if you missed.”

“I didn’t.” She paused. “I didn’t miss. I couldn’t do it. I could have killed it before it even got here. But I did not.” burying her head in her knees. “I couldn’t.”

I was wholeheartedly confused. “Haven’t you been doing this for the last week?”

Seeing as she didn’t respond, I started hypothesizing. She had to have finished the preparatory quests to get me registered unless she asked Argus to skip them, but that wouldn’t make much sense. I have seen her with clear evidence of a fight and trophies.

“Have you only been doing slime quests?” She dug her head deeper at my question.

I hummed in thought. “I think you’re overreacting a bit.” She glared at me. Raising my hands up, I continued. “I mean, it’s just experience. You get used to it in time.”

She shot me an accusatory look. “Hey, I’m a bit weird, but answer me this. Have you ever killed anything before? Well, besides slimes.” she shook her head. “Slaughtered an animal?” Another head shake. “Well, this makes sense then. You’re halfway there anyway.” Gesturing to the crimson grass. “All you have to do is finish the job, but sitting on your ass here crying won’t help much.”

She huffed in displeasure, but I saw her lips moving up slightly. Standing up, she took the spear beside me and stood waiting for me to get up. I rose from the ground and immediately winced as a sharp pain assaulted my side.

There was a small red puddle where I sat. Inspecting myself, I found a tear in the armor at my side. The rabbit must have hit me while it was running. The wound wasn’t life-threatening, barely skin deep. I unlocked the straps on the front side of the leather and gestured for now frozen girl to help. She reluctantly obliged, genuinely impressing me at how skillful she was. It took me close to an hour to put it on. Since I didn’t bring any first-aid kits, I settled for a torn sleeve as a bandage, tying it around my waist.

Picking up the leather armor, I heard Valeriana saying. “It’s too tight. You’ll agitate the wound. You won’t need it anyway.” I frowned. I would rather not be out there unarmored. She must have read my face as she followed with. “We’re going back.”

After all the pep talk, that’s it?

No, I don’t want another repetition of today. “I’m fine. It stopped bleeding already. How about we get the wounded animal first? It probably bled out already.”

“No. We’re going back.” She gestured for me to hand over the armor, but disregarding her, I stored it. Not commenting, she waited until I headed for the road and walked beside me.

The trip back was silent, except for clansman’s mocking laughter as we passed by. Interestingly enough, my easily-agitated companion made no move to register it. As we got closer to the city, I asked her for the bag she had, to which she calmly did so.

The first quest’s reward was disappointing, to say the least, only amounting to ten silver coins. The leather armor alone was nearly a gold coin; this probably wouldn’t even cover the repairs. I did, however, get the entire reward myself.

She handed it over to me without saying a word. It might have been too little for her to care, or she simply didn’t feel deserving. Either way, I didn’t bother asking why.

She did accompany me to the medical section of the guild. I could have just bought a common health potion from the shop, but I don’t specifically know its effects, and it was fifty silver worth of points.

We waited for a little while, eventually entering a white room with a wooden table in the middle. There were two people present, a young girl in her teens and a gentle-looking lady seemingly in her fifties, though, whatever good-nature disappeared as she saw me.

“Hello.” I greeted. Only the younger one returned my greeting.

I took a seat as Valeriana stood behind me. An awkward silence filled the room, the girl looking confusingly at her senior.

A minute later, the older woman finally spoke. “Take off your shirt.”

I complied and was surprised at how my upper body looked. There were a lot more blue and red patches than I thought. The woman’s expression didn’t change as she stood up and reached into a few cabinets.

“You know, there hasn’t been a human here in a very long time.” She glanced back at us. “The last one I treated was before the great war.” She studied us for a moment before turning again.

Setting down a few sealed containers, she continued. “Normally, your injuries would be easy to heal, but as I said, I don’t know if they’ll work on a human.” The younger girl was going to interject, but a raised hand stopped her. “I’ll have to use these, which are considerably more expensive.”

“How expensive are we talking?” I asked, knowing how fruitless this question was.

Rubbing her chin, she answered. “I don’t know which one will work, so considering I’ll be wasting a lot for experimentation, I would say around a gold coin or so.”

The ridiculous number brought a smile to my face. The girl was gawking open-mouthed at the older woman. Shaking my head, I replied. “That is unfortunate.”

Releasing a sigh, she responded. “Indeed.”

Putting my shirt back on, Valeriana offered. “I can pay for it.”

The woman gave her a poisonous look, but before she retorted, I said. “That won’t be necessary. There is no guarantee that any of them would work on me, is there?”

“I’m afraid not. I can only try.”

“I see. Thank you for your time.” I waved at the dumbstruck assistant as I headed for the door.

Before leaving, we heard her say. “I’ll make sure the rest of the ward knows. I wouldn’t want them accidentally harming you.”

Nothing more could be done. We both left the guild, heading for the inn. The day’s exhaustion was catching up to me.