Our party met up in the guild hall the day after my training with Assoziieren ended. Geistig informed me on the last day of training that it was time to join the party on a quest.

Geistig went over to the quest board and scrolled through. For obvious reasons, he skipped over everything in the “raid” section, and everything above D rank.

“Geistig look, It’s a dragon slaying quest! Let’s take it before anyone else does.” Tishina begged over our mental link.

“For the last time Tishina, this party is far too weak to go around fighting things like dragons. You’re E rank for Vorfahr’s sake, and we can’t just go around looking for fights that I need the collective to bail us out of.”

Tishina pouted at that.

Geistig ignored her taunting and continued looking through the quest board. Eventually, he settled for a D rank hunting quest for something called a “Caprae Nimbos”. He tore the posting off the board and handed it over to Roshanee. She handed back a quest acceptance form, which Geistig scowled at.

“We’re adventurers, Rosh. Why do I need to fill out all this paperwork every time we take a quest? It’s a waste of time.”

“We’ve been over this, Geistig. Signing a form once doesn’t exempt us from being responsible for your safety every time you head out on a quest. It’s the law.”

“It’s inefficient. IGAG is literally government run. You should just change that law to exempt this one tiny form so that we don’t have to spend so long filling out meaningless paperwork every time we go on a quest.”

“It doesn’t work like that. We’re run by an entirely different branch of government from the one that makes laws.”

“Yeah yeah. You know what I do whenever I hear you make these excuses?”

“Geist, I will smite you.” Roshanee warned.

“I GAG”

A brilliant streak of light tore through the ceiling, striking and engulfing Geistig in searing radiance.

---

After a quick trip to a healer to fix Geistig’s “mild sunburn” as he called it, we arrived at the stables just before the southern gate. Geistig handed over a form request for four Lapis Equus, and the stable worker led out four huge lumps of rock in horse shape outfitted with saddles, and bits and bridles.

The four of us hopped on the Lapis Equus, and rode out the south gate, quickly reaching a fork in the road. Three signs were posted on the side, one being an arrow that points north labeled “Aurelia”, one pointing east towards Kyhun, labeled “Naee Maatrbhoomi”, and two pointing west and south towards the various small towns that were built nearby Aurelia.

We turned west, heading in the direction of Sadovoye Pole, the town which initially reported the monsters. The Lapis Equus gradually built up speed and started a light trot as soon as we left the range of the mana well. The Lapis Equus looked to be conserving their energy for a long trip as they moved, but with their strong mana-powered legs, were able to match what any normal horse could do at a full speed gallop.

With nothing better to do for the trip ahead, the others started crystalizing their mana. I would do the same, but I’m not used to horseback, and don’t want to accidentally kill the horse in case I fail.

“Sylas, why don’t you scout ahead again. Make sure nothing ambushes us. I’ll make sure your horse follows us.” Geistig recommended.

Grateful for the opportunity to safely crystalize my own mana during the trip, I obliged, returning to carrier pigeon form. I flew up into the air and slightly ahead of the party, barely outpacing the Lapis Equus’ current speed.

A few minutes after transforming and flying up, I noticed we were being followed by a raven.

“Geistig, why is there a raven following us? Is that the same one I saw when I first met the party?” I asked over the mind bridge.

Geistig paused for a moment, as if he were considering his words. “Yes, it is. I sometimes keep animals around, in case I need to send a message back to IGAG or scout ahead of a dangerous area.”

“So you’re keeping up a mind bridge with it at all times? Doesn’t that get exhausting?”

“Er, not exactly…”

Before I could ask for clarification, I spotted a lizard in the distance lying in the middle of the road.

“Be advised, there is a drake ahead. About 1 minute from your position.”

“We need to know what rank it is to determine if it’s safe to engage, or should be avoided. Can you describe its features and size? How many horns?” Geistig asked.

“It’s a pale red, and a little larger than a horse. No horns that I can see.”

“Still a D rank hatchling, then. We can take it, but we need to make sure it doesn’t alert its mother if it’s nearby. Tishina will grab onto it and inhibit its movements. Kaz, you’re on kill duty. You two start when I cast my silence spell. Sylas, keep its attention off us until we get there.”

“Acknowledged.”

I began to alter the half-formed mana crystal I was making. The mana was in the liquid stage already, so I formed a shell of sorts around it like Geistig taught, turning it into a jerry-rigged space-bolt. As soon as I was directly above the drake, I dove downwards and let go of it, using my momentum and gravity to accelerate it towards the target.

As I materialized the spell, the drake turned up to look at me. It opened its mouth wide and let out a single ball of fire. The two projectiles collided mid-air, and the drake’s firebolt expanded and deflected harmlessly into the air.

That one spell, which took me half an hour and effectively 50 gold to form, amounted to nothing more than a momentary distraction. I won’t be able to cast another without taking another half hour. On the other hand, the drake wasn’t using a spell to produce its fire, and was perfectly fine slinging another three firebolts up at me moments later.

I angled upwards and extended my wings, transfering my downward momentum to forward momentum and narrowly dodging its attack. It shot another at me, right in my path of travel, and I tilted left to avoid that one too. I flapped my wings and ascended above the last.

Geistig got in range at that moment, and the drake turned its attention to them. It tried to let out a shout once it realized it was outnumbered, but Geistig already cast his silence spell. The drake took another breath and filled its mouth with its dragonfire. Tishina manifested her shadows and slammed its mouth shut with them before it could let out its breath again, then bit into each of its legs with her shadow mouths. It rolled itself along the ground, and Tishina dug her heels into the ground, yet was dragged along with it. Kaz took the opportunity to get in close to the drake and wrapped his tentacles around the drake, two on its head, and two on its body, restraining its movement and pinning it to the ground. Kaz raised one of his wings, and in a single motion, cut effortlessly through the drake’s neck, decapitating it.

“Good teamwork, all.” Geistig complemented. “And Tishina, that’s the closest thing to a dragon you can expect us to fight.”

Tishina put her hands on her hips and stuck her tongue out at him.

“I’ll keep the loot in my inventory, since Sylas can’t take monsters out of his subspace. Unless you want to claim it?”

“No, not this one.” I considered the offer, but ultimately had to turn it down. What I need right now is a fight capable form of my rank. Something I can travel with. The spiderilla is a good form for fights I can prepare for, but it’s rather slow, and staying in its form requires me to hold back its mana when not using it. Holding back mana for forms of my rank is doable, but the stronger D rank mana is mentally exhausting to do for too long. The drake would be no different. Additionally, draconic monsters' diets usually consist primarily of other monsters, which would be difficult for me to afford at the moment.

“Suit yourself” Geistig said, taking off his enchanted brown backpack, which he dragged the drake’s corpse into. “We’ll sell it to IGAG for processing and split the profits as usual.”

Geistig lifted his backpack and made a loud whistle. A few seconds after he did, the ground shook slightly, and the Lapis Equus burrowed up from beneath the ground. They shook off the excess mud, though Tishina complained that the saddle was still dirty.

“Get over it, princess.” Geistig mocked her.

We continued on in roughly the same formation for the rest of the 6 hour trip, and encountered no other monsters on the way to Sadovoye Pole. Surprisingly, we entered a mana well about a quarter mile from the village edge.

“Geistig, how can a village this small have their own mana well? I thought small ones didn’t exist.”

“This is about as small as they come, and it’s not even all that effective. Though most monsters won’t come close due to the lack of neutral mana around the village, they can still easily see the village from the wells edge, and may approach if they’re aggressive enough. Only reason villages like this one can even exist is because they can still call for emergency assistance from nearby cities if anything too big approaches, though long distance teleportation without a gate on both ends is difficult and prohibitively expensive.”

“And how much would a mana well of this size cost?”

“Well, the cheapest ones I know of off the top of my head are the ones made with neutral aligned enchantments, and they go for about fifty million gold.”

“Oh. So not something a person could normally afford.”

“No, no it isn’t. Not without thousands of people petitioning for it, decades to gather the money, deals with the government to take a large portion of the mana crystals the well generates, etc. I know you’re expecting news about something from the collective, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up for an actual mana well if I were you.”

“Actually, I think I found a solution to that. Mana wells seem like a lost cause, but Grisialwall in Husaram had an elegant solution of keeping pet slimes inside of a wall of mana crystal. I doubt I could afford a crystal wall of any real size, but the slimes seem to work for removing some of the excess mana. Perhaps I could use a labyrinth stone wal, but that has its own difficulties in procurement and effectiveness.”

“Grisialwall, eh? I haven’t heard of it. But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at the fact that you were able to find something before the collective did. They’re not exactly timely.”

When we arrived at the village, we were met with a peculiar sight. Sadovoye Pole could hardly be called a village at all. It was just four farm houses, and the farmland around them. More of a few family farms in close proximity than a village. The field was entirely made of crops, divided into sections featuring potatoes, lettuce, carrots, and various flowers.

If the village was this small, then someone important must have lived here at some point to gather that much money. As for who currently owned the farmland… There were ten people I could see, and every single one of them was an elf.