Year 1, Spring, First Month, Second Week.

“Are you sure they’ll show up?”

“Yes, Arthur. His contract terms are much harder than yours… I went too easy on you, I should have added something about food and your manners…”

“Hey, what’s wrong with my manners? Is this about the whole Boss thing?”

“Argh… Look, they’re finally here.”

Merek and Hazel arrived in a transport boat carrying only a small bag. Arthur thought they were being sensible about not bringing too much stuff on the trip, but Lana knew that it should be all they owned.

“Oh, she’s my boss, you can charge her for the transportation…”

Lana stared at him showing that he would suffer for it later, but Merek acted like he didn’t understand and moved to help his daughter out of the boat.

The morning sun had barely come out, but the magnificence of the Water Capital and the Crystal Palace was already visible. Lana looked back at the City and promised to come back.

.........

To continue their trip into the Serion Kingdom, the group had to cross the Northern Bridge that connected the Water Capital to the mainland.

“Why don’t we pay for a carriage? You said that time was money… Aren’t we losing both by walking endlessly... Boss?”

“Argh… Arthur, why do you insist on asking stupid questions? You know well that we don’t have a lot of money left… You’re doing it on purpose, don’t you?”

“Humph… Whom’s fault is that we don’t have more money?”

Although the path was very flat and easy to walk, they were already tired after walking half of the 20 km bridge. Even so, Lana was excited to get to their next destination, the Wind Capital.

The Serion Kingdom had four Elemental Capitals below its central governing city The Capital of Elements. However, only a few could enter their biggest and more important city, so most would only dream about seeing the four Elemental Capitals.

Each capital represented a group of Elemental Mages who had founded the Kingdom, covering the four primary elements, water, fire, wind and earth. After seeing the wonders of the Water Capital, Lana couldn’t wait to arrive at the Wind Capital.

Unfortunately, they would have to walk a little more than 500 km to get there. Arthur wasn’t pleased about it, while Lana would use this opportunity to learn more about the Kingdom and its citizens.

.........

After traveling for a week, the group was already tired of sleeping in the Path’s resting points. Even Lana was dying to sleep under a roof and eat something proper. To avoid delaying their trip, she had chosen not to enter any of the Path’s bifurcations to rest in other cities or villages. But that changed yesterday when the group made a detour to get to a post village and rest for a day.

“Few… I hope the village has a nice Inn with good food, just like Tania’s Inn…”

“Argh… What food? I want a nice bed… Some trading opportunities wouldn’t hurt too…”

Merek exchanged a look with his daughter and laughed at their antics, after staying under Lana’s employment for a week he had finally relaxed. Initially, he was afraid that his daughter would be mistreated and that he would have to do some dangerous tasks, but he couldn’t be more wrong.

The Boss treated Hazel with respect and even care, she only had to do some small tasks like helping set the camp or arrange the food. Also, every night Lana and Arthur would spend a couple of hours trying to teach his daughter how to read and write, even he was learning something from the side.

As for his tasks, for now, there weren’t a lot of things for him to do, but he didn’t really care as long as his daughter was happy and safe. The food wasn’t all that bad too, Arthur would always complain about it, but he was a glutton. Before the trip, the Boss made sure to buy enough bread and vegetables for them to eat on the way.

Another thing that kept Merek on guard was the Path. Many Merchants and citizens used it to travel around the Kingdom, but he couldn’t dismiss all the tales about beasts invading the Path to kill people. From time to time, he would look at the Kingdom’s construction with suspicion, how could something so simple and small keep the beasts at bay?

The Path was one of the things that allowed the Kingdom to prosper on top of land infested with beasts. It connected all cities and villages on the Kingdom and somehow it could repel the beasts, allowing for hundreds of villagers to focus on producing goods and Merchants to circulate freely inside the Kingdom.

.........

Lana and Hazel left their room after sleeping for almost 12 hours, they only got out of bed because they needed to eat. Lana wondered if the boys were okay, but once they entered the Inn’s tavern, her question was answered, Arthur was, of course, eating.

“How can you sleep so much? I already had two meals today and you just only showed up…”

Instead of bringing up the problem in his sentence, Lana decided to ignore it and order something to eat. Merek didn’t look happy, he didn’t try to hide his dissatisfaction of having to share a room with Arthur, who had pestered him to wake up and have breakfast early.

Instead of paying attention to her employees’ complaints, Lana tried to hear the conversation happening over the counter while she ate. The Inn owner seemed desperate while talking to a man who also looked stressed.

“They think there’s a beast inside, something poisonous, maybe a snake…”

“We need to fix this! We only have two wells… My guests need clean water and…”

After hearing the village problem, Lana got an idea…

.........

“Are you sure about this, Miss?”

“Yes, leave it in our hands!”

The villagers still looked uncertain but decided to see what the group could do. After a week of trying to solve the problem they had given up on solving it themselves, if this didn’t work they would have no choice but to send a message to the nearest city. Unfortunately, if word got out about a possible beast in the city, they would suffer from the lack of visitors.

When they arrived at the water well, the village Chief ordered a villager to draw the water. Once the bucket was brought up, he showed it to the group, the water had a strange purplish tone and when the villager poured it, the weeds that got drenched by the water started to wilt.

The Chief also explained that someone claimed to have seen something moving inside the well but they wouldn’t dare to confirm it. Lana asked the villagers to move away and give them some space to work.

“If it’s a beast, can you kill it, Arthur?”

“What… How many times I have to tell you that I don’t have any combative spells? It’s your crazy idea, don’t push it on me…”

“For the Origin, you don’t need to be so touchy, I’m just confirming… Can you do that thing to see it?”

Arthur opened his eyes wide and looked at the father-daughter pair, insinuating she should keep it a secret. Lana could only roll her eyes and urge him to do it. She was referring to the charm Arthur cast when they were on the ship to help him see the Water Capital better.

After complaining a little more, Arthur started casting the charm. First, he used his spiritual energy to control the magic energy around him, moving it towards his eyes to form an energy lense before chanting:

“Magna Oculus.”

The energy glowed and his sight changed, the light passed through the magic lenses getting amplified and altered, making him see further and clear than before. Arthur looked inside the well trying to find the source of the problem. When he saw the purple and yellow snake, he couldn’t avoid stepping back in fear.

“It’s a snake… I saw some pictures in a book and it looks just like it…”

“Hmm… We could throw stones on it… I don’t think knives would do… Arthur, do you think that we could use the Luck Charm on it?”

“Ehh… The charm doesn’t work in this way… But I know something that could work…”

Lana smiled satisfied to have successfully baited him into thinking of something. After working with him for a month, she already understood how to go around his lazy attitude. That’s why she would constantly call him stupid, to make him want to prove her wrong. When she needed him to think of something useful, she only had to throw in a random idea and wait for him to prove he was smarter than she was.

.........

A dense amount of magic energy circled the knife as Arthur chanted:

“Ductus.”

The knife shined and he finally released it to Lana’s care. However, the Mage didn’t open his eyes, for the charm to work he had to keep visualizing the target, in this case, the snake’s head.

Even though he had broken direct contact with the enchanted knife, part of his spiritual energy was mixed with the magic energy coating the weapon. The energy was connected to his will that would correct the knife’s trajectory to the target.

Lana didn’t waste time and launched it towards the bottom of the well if all her strength. The enchanted knife flew drawing a curve line to carve the beast’s head.

The group ended up having more difficulty dragging the beast out of the well than killing it, but they were set on doing it themselves to guarantee that nobody would try to take credit for their work.

Finally, the snake’s body was out of the well and they called everyone back. The surprised villagers couldn’t take their eyes out of the beast.

Lana pointed to the snake and said they could take it. Actually, she wasn’t willing to give up on the crystal inside the beast, but she was ready to bet it on the Chief’s gratitude. Fortunately, her bet paid off and he asked her to take what she wanted before they buried the rest.

Because of the beast’s affinity to poison, the meat couldn’t be eaten. The other materials weren’t very valuable, since it was only a low tier (LT) beast. The only part that would be worth something was the beast’s core, a LQ poison crystal could sell for a couple of gold coins.

.........

After they defeated the snake and helped the villagers clean the well, the Inn owner waved over their fees and even promise to give them food to eat on their journey. The free lodging and food made the group stay another day in the village, but the next morning they were ready to continue their trip.

When they were passing the entrance, they heard some calling them. Apparently, the village Chief had asked a local Merchant that was going to the Wind Capital to give them a ride.

Soon, the group left for their next destination.