Thirty minutes before dinner time, Metello was thinking again about the hunt of the cycle. He didn't use baits as he thought he could attract only one monster at a time, but he would have to use them again. Slower is safer, as Brorne told him a lot of times.

He had found another problem in the afternoon. As he had not been fully healed, he hadn't been able to practice the rapier at the House, and as he had no divine energy to spare, he had not played with Lucco. He had nothing much to keep himself entertained in his home as he had in the orphanage: no book to read, nothing to draw, nobody to talk to. Even tidying and cleaning the room was not enough. Thus, he was bored when he went to cook his bean meal.

He had barely started to make dinner when someone knocked at the door, and a known voice boomed through it.

“Metello ?”

The orphan's lips curled upward. It was Maria's voice. But then, he thought about why and how she came here. He frowned and asked through the door before opening it.

“Did you come here alone? Does Mrs Richardson know you're here ?”

She waited to be able to see his face before answering while passing by him.

“No, I'm here with Jeffrey, and Mrs Richardson asked me to come here, so everything is OK.”

A bit away from the doorstep, his two feet on the small platform outside, stood Jeffrey, with an uncomfortable face.

“She spoke true. Sorry for this. I'll bring her back when we'll leave.”

“Why are you here ?”

“Let Jeffrey in the house sissy! He won't stab you!”

Metello looked in his room to see Maria was sitting in his bed as if she owned the place. After releasing a deep breath, he let Jeffrey in before shutting the door.

“Sorry, I don't have any chair. You'll have to sit on the ground or stay up.”

After everyone made themself as comfortable as they could, Jeffrey talked.

“So, as I said to you the last cycle, I can't keep working with the Guild. I went back to the orphanage after lunch this cycle, and I spoke to Mrs Richardson to...”

“Boring! Speed up, you slug! Metello, he wants you to help him become a monster hunter too.”

“Maria! Shut your fucking mouth!”

It earned him a noisy tongue draw from the girl. Looking back to Metello, Jeffrey admitted.

“Well, sorry. That's pretty much that, but I wanted to explain why I came here myself. Thanks, Maria.”

With a bright smile, she answered. “No problemo buddy.”

Metello was surprised, but he found something to say.

“You know, I'm just a new monster hunter, I don't know much about it. If I were you, I would ask Brorne or Mr. Morton at the House as you already asked Mrs. Richardson." Then, realizing, he asked with wide-opened eyes. "Wait, why did she tell you to ask me ?”

“Well, she told me you were hunting by yourself, that you needed some people to form a squad, so she thought we could hunt monsters together ?”

Metello couldn't repress a wince. He mumbled.

“She can be so annoying when she wants to.” Then, louder, he added. “I don't know if I'm OK with that. We are not really friends you know. Even if you apologized, you've not been nice to me when you were in the orphanage. I don't know if I can trust you now.”

“Ho, stop sobbing. Do you see how uncomfortable he is here and how he was acting the last cycle? I even heard that he cried in Mrs. Richardson's office."

"Maria!"

"Shush! He's not an actor. He can't fool me or Mrs. Richardson. He needs your help, and you need his help. Just go with it, or at least try it.”

Metello thought back to his last hunt. Would he have to run back if they were two of them? After some more silent thinking, Metello admitted. “Well, if Mrs. Richardson trusts you, we could try it.” Reluctantly, he added. “We can meet next cycle at the House to train a bit and see what Brorne says about it. You'll have to register as a monster hunter too.”

“Yay! Happy ever after!”

“Maria... You, child, should go back to the orphanage."

"Nox bollocks. Don't call me child you geezer. But you're right, I should go back before dinner. What is burning in your pan doesn't seem much edible."

"Zombie balls!"

After saving what he could of his food, he went back to Maria and Jeffrey.

"So, we see each other next cycle?"

Seeing Jeffrey was not replying as looking at his leather boots seemed too good of an activity, Maria asked.

“When will you ask him if you can live here ?”

Jeffrey hid in his arms, and Metello's eyes bulged.

“Whaaaaaaaat ?”

The next cycle, Metello and Jeffrey were at the mine's entrance. They had listened to Brorne for some time before lunch to decide how they could fight together more safely, especially for the undead mine.

They opted for a simple side-to-side fight style. Metello's doings would not change much, dealing damages as quickly as he could while defending. Jeffrey's role would be to stall the other monsters when there are several. If there was only one monster, he would look for an opening and hit then. It was a simple strategy using their strong points while letting some time for Jeffrey to adapt.

Metello opened the gate and entered with a watchful gaze but confidently. On his side, Jeffrey dragged his feet as he stared at the darkness, hands trembling on his daggers.

“That's so dark. Very Everlasting Nighty.”

“Don't remind me about it. I was so frightened the first time I went into a mine that I had to get back to the entrance before even seeing a real monster. I imagined monsters in every shadow. It gets better with time.”

After they locked back the gate, they set themselves into formation, side by side and weapons held tight, and Lucco above Metello's hat. Then, they walked forward into the retreating darkness.

As they came by the first monster bodies, not far from the gates, they stopped. Jeffrey hadn't seen any monster yet.

"That's so ugly! And smelly too. Even smellier than Big Mike.”

"I don't know who Big Mike is, but I agree."

A smile went to Metello's face with Jeffrey's reaction. He almost had the same some month ago, if in a less vocal way. However, he managed to keep his focus on the front.

After some time, they went forward, slowly. From time to time, Metello took a peek at his side, seeing the mildly shivering body of the [Rogue] half a step behind him. They passed on more unmoving undead bodies before they heard the first shriek. They went back three meters as planned, and Metello took his one knee down defensive stance with Lucco in the front. He heard more than he saw Jeffrey taking more steps back when the monster came into view, charging the [Acolyte]'s buckler.

He absorbed the shock with all his body and followed the zombie-rat position with his shield. All went well, and 12 seconds later, the fight finished.

“Come and see this little rat. He won't move now.”

Metello let Jeffrey look at it a bit before asking him.

“Do you want to get the core ?”

He saw the young [Rogue] taking a step back but didn't notice his hesitating face.

“Not this one, perhaps the next ?”

After nodding, Metello went to work, cutting the thing's head and retrieving the core, under the disgusted look of his squadmate. Once finished, he looked back at Jeffrey who spoke.

"Wow. You know how to do it."

"That's not too difficult. It's way harder to properly butcher a ratman. I don't know how to do it yet. Are you ready to continue ?”

“Yes.”

It was not said in a confident way, but Metello nodded and they went forward again, slowly. They managed to come by the big room entrance after Metello killed one more zombie rat under the gaze of Jeffrey.

Unlike the last time, Metello opted for a bait-and-wait slow tactic. The [Rogue] was staying a bit inside the tunnel, watching things unfold.

The first scratching noises came into Metello's ears a few minutes later. Two zombie rats had come closer roughly at the same time, attracted first by sound and now by the smell of the bait. The [Acolyte] was back with Jeffrey when the first came into the dim light. A pained cry resounded immediately, and the monster rushed toward the light source. The second followed quickly behind.

As usual, Metello received the charge with his wooden buckler, and before the second came in, he pushed back the first monster toward the second zombie-rat. Unfortunately, the second one dodged and could charge Metello before he got back to his defensive stance. It hit strongly onto the shield, and Metello had to take two steps back while the first monster was ready to charge again.

It was then that Jeffrey threw a dagger at the first rat, getting his focus and stopping his second charge. With that, Metello could steady himself, busy only with the claw attacks on his shield for some more time, but the rat still came to him. They retreated step by step, Jeffrey punching his remaining dagger into the rat who tried to get around Metello. In 15 more seconds, they were deader than undead.

“Good job stopping its charge and helping keep them in the front.”

“Thanks.”

Jeffrey went to retrieve his dagger from the corpse while asking.

“How did you do it alone ?”

“Pretty much the same. Perhaps I was retreating faster.”

“And to avoid being put in your back ?”

“Well, they came to me with more time in between. I could regain my stance before the second hit me the last time.”

“OK. I..." Jeffrey gulped. "I will try to get the cores ?”

“Go on.”

With some advice from Metello and a smile of disgust, the rogue went to work on the two corpses.

They killed three more zombie rats, baiting and waiting in the tunnel. They would have hunted longer if the last charge in Metello's shield hadn't made it crack, throwing the [Acolyte] into a panic. They managed to finish the job anyway, but their main defensive gear being nearly broken, they had to go back to the city with their seven level 3 cores.

If they wanted to stick to the same tactic, Metello had to get a more durable shield. So, as they walked back to town, they went to talk to Brorne a few moments. Metello started to feel he depended a bit too much on him and Mrs Richardson.

Brorne accepted to help the [Acolyte] get a new buckler, but as he had to teach for two more hours, Jeffrey and Metello went their way. The [Rogue] decided to practice his dagger skills on the dummies while Metello went to the prayer training room to work on Lucco for the time remaining.

He had several ways in his mind on which to make progress on his main blessing.

He had the color and the shape way. He had already been rewarded with the Light artist blessing. It was much easier for Metello to shape and color his light prayer even with the same Faith Control than before. He went to his favorite exercises he named “Lucco the bird”. The old gray sausage had evolved a lot as it now had roughly recognizable wings, feet, head, beak, and all that a bird needs. Even without minding the plain gray color, it was not difficult to see it was not a real one, but nobody could take it for a sausage now. He could even make bird-Lucco fly slowly. The [Lux Acolyte] hadn't yet shown it to Maria, but he had no doubt she would be jealous. It was the cheaper energy-wise, and funniest way to practice for him. He stuck himself to it while he was in the House room.

But he had another way of progress that Mrs. Richardson suggested as he told about his gagged chant. She told him about the no chant prayers he knew thanks to the books he read, and that it was perhaps a way to go toward it. It was a lot less fun and cheap to train as he had to chant a lot. It was not a capability he wanted others to know either, as it could be some ace if he was to be kidnapped and gagged again.

The last way he thought to progress was to further his pancake form. It had a defect and an opportunity for improvement. The flaw was that when he used it, he had to look above it to see what he was illuminating. If he were to make a tunnel-wide pancake, he wouldn't see what would be on the other side. The possible improvement was that he had yet to test how the light colors affect the damages Lucco does to zombie rats. Either it was a silly idea or it was a genius one, but he noticed that blue lights seemed to require more energy than red lights. It was not so stupid to think it could influence the damages.

Thus, he played with Lucco's bird form while thinking a bit of his pancake form problem until Brorne had finished his work. With the old [Warrior]'s help, Metello easily purchased a new iron shield at the “Young hunter shop” for most of his remaining coins. He had only three cycles worth of food left. As Jeffrey proposed to buy some for the next cycles, it was not that bad. But they would have to hunt in regular mines next to get money selling ratmen skins and meat like all the other new hunters.

Once back home, the two squad members shared the seven cores and absorbed them. They could have sold some to get money, but they needed it to become stronger, and a level 3 core was just about the same price as one ratman skin and meat. It wasn't worth it for now.

After dinner, Metello trained with Lucco again. This time, he focused on the gagged chant. Meanwhile, Jeffrey practiced his Agility Hand by throwing his dagger in the air and catching it back.

Before going to bed, the Lux follower chanted a partial Prayer of Status to check his progress.

Status : Metello Level : 1,69 (↑0.11) Ether : 75 Class : Lux Acolyte (basic) Stamina 47,6/ 47,6 3,1/h (regeneration) Divine energy 34,4/ 67,1 4,4/h (regeneration) Statistics Base Effective Class bonus Strength Upper 7,8 8,3 4% Lower 8 8,5 4% Agility Body 8,9 9,5 4% Hand 10,5 11,6 4% Resilience Body 8,2 8,8 4% Mind 11 12,9 10% Mind Intelligence 8,7 9,3 4% Imagination 12,7 14,8 10% Faith Power 10,5 12,8 10% Control 11,5 14 (Lux : 14.7) 10% Perception Sense 10,1 11,1 4% Memory 10,6 11,3 4% Social Comprehension 8,7 9,3 4% Expression 8,5 9,1 4%