“Good morning, master.” Alexa stood beside the bed as she woke me.

Seems I overslept since everyone was ready to go an hour ago. Eris was the one to finally have her wake me so we could still meet Veera on time. I rushed my morning routine as Tessa sent us off. She remained behind to help the movers and workers that would be fixing up the place while using the rings to communicate with Eris if anything came up.

Our home was close to the outpost, it didn’t take long traveling by foot to see it in the distance. Today felt livelier than normal as everyone gathered around a group of Hunter Corp soldiers. Seemed like they were recruiting or giving a mandate, or possibly both.

“New danger zones include the northwestern mountain range. Increased activity of various magical beasts and packs sighted. Enter at your own risk, aside from that we will hold trial-based recruitment. Come forward if interested, that is all.” A military guy shouted aloud and waited as several stepped forward and the others dispersed.

We saw Veera approaching us in the distance. “What took you so long?”

“My fault, I overslept. Do you know exactly where the military was telling everyone to avoid?” I changed the subject, not wanting Veera to possibly tease me and find out about my sleeping arrangements.

“I do. Let me guess, you want to hunt there?” Veera displayed her unease but knew I’d be interested.

“I think that’d be best. Maybe we can make more money.” No point to beat around the bush with Veera so I stated my intention outright.

“No point in trying to convince you otherwise. Meet me at the gate, I'll bring the carts around.” Veera went off to gather the carts.

I took one final glance at the military people and noticed a familiar face. Dorian spoke to some soldiers as if all of them were buddies. I didn’t care much about his connections or anything and wanted to avoid being spotted, so we left while still possible.

Something very strange caught my attention on this hot sunny day. Alexa covered herself from head to toe putting on a robe. How in the world was she not pouring sweat? Part of me worried about getting heat exhaustion just from looking at her.

“Alexa, aren’t you hot? What’s with the robe?” Eris and Tessa faced her, maybe wondering why as well.

“I’m covering up. You said how attention was bad for us.” She bowed with a smile.

“Don’t force yourself though. What I said before shouldn’t be taken too seriously.” The heat worried me as I placed the palm of my hand on her face, only to be left surprised.

Instead of burning up, she didn’t have a speck of sweat forming on her face. Not only that, her face was nice and cool as if she had an air conditioning unit hidden inside the cloak.

“Thanks for your concern, master. I’ve enchanted the cloak with my magic to prevent light and heat from entering. Wearing this turns the sunny day into a relaxing walk.” A warm smile appeared on her face as she explained everything. It almost made me want to get in the cloak with her to avoid this sweltering heat. I didn’t want to say that though since knowing her, she’d probably agree without hesitation.

“Whoa, that’s neat. Could you do that for our clothes too?” I asked for the next best thing!

“I can, but it’s more effective with something that covers most of your body.” She enchanted mine causing a considerable difference, though also saw what she meant, as the sun’s heat pounded on my face and other uncovered spots. It felt weird, but it was still better than nothing. We haven’t even started hunting monsters and she was already proving to be extremely useful. Alexa did the same for Eris and might do so for Veera later on.

“Are you sure about this?” Veera faltered after we were nearly halfway to the danger zone.

“Eris will keep you safe, don’t worry.” I stared at the large snow-covered mountain peaks in the distance.

This region was northwest of the outpost and had snow year-round not just on its peaks but even along the way up. As we got closer, the air turned chilly, and the temperature dropped several degrees. The weird thing was it wasn’t as cold as it should have felt. Alexa informed us that her magic would also provide automatic temperature control. My appreciation for her grew with every passing second.