I sigh to myself and put on an amicable face. I look towards the group leader aka purple-haired violin guy. He was a bit older than me, had a slim build, fairly tall standing at a bit taller than me with a height of around 1.75m, textbook handsome face with his long hair made him look like a typical good looking noble. But he looks familiar to me, like even before I got jumped and his blue eyes look familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it at the moment. Tossing those thoughts to the back of my mind I greet him,

"Nice to meet you, err.."

"Marshall Jr but call me Mars, Marshall is my father." He sent me a winning smile while holding a hand out to me expectantly.

"Nice to meet you Junior and the names Samuel" I shook his hand a bit stiffly. I heard a small snort that came from the bubbly pixie cut blond with the wicked gauntlets. She had warm brown eyes, pretty face peppered with freckles may be a bit on the boyish side but nice to look at nonetheless, she was a bit shorter than me but I could see she was packing a lot of punch with her skin being defined with muscle. After Marshall first greeted me the rest of them joined in.

First pixie cut,

"My names Estelle but you can call me Stella or Estelle, I'm easy." She said with a more genuine smile in comparison to Marshalls. After she introduced herself I heard Marshall say under his breath,

"You definitely were acting easy with that flute loser," Which promptly got silence with a fist that sent Marshall flying into a tree.

Ignoring what just transpired I looked towards the dual eyepatch guy, he had dark green hair, sharp features and a lanky build where he towered over everyone in our group but his body is packed with muscle in comparison to Marshall. But obviously, the eyepatches were his defining feature which made me wonder what's behind them,

"And my names Mighty and I don't have a nickname, and before you ask," he then pulls open his eye patches and show his stark grey eyes, "I am in fact not blind, I just wear these as they are related to my innate ability."

I nodded at the answer as innate abilities are abilities that people gain when they awaken and they are imprinted onto your circle or core. So for me, I could summon weapons that I bind to. For others, it could be flight, abnormal fire mastery or something as mundane as seeing slightly better in the dark. But an innate ability in contrasts with skills which can be learned by anyone could be unique to a person when awakened or inherited from a strong bloodline in clans and families such as Cassies which has a strong lightning ability called Thunderclap which is a potent high-speed skill which allows the user to partially turn themselves into lightning. But even in clans innate abilities could mutate and become weaker or stronger, in Cassies case she gained a darkness element which could change her ability which in turn could lead to strengthening the clan's bloodline with her offspring. Anyway, the presence of innate ability is why you should never underestimate anyone as you never know what they could be hiding up their sleeves even people from clans with well-known abilities as you never know if a mutation or completely new ability has manifested.

But some abilities could have restrictions for them to work so when I heard Mighty's eyepatches affect his ability made me think about what it could be. With thoughts buzzing around my head I look towards the last person. She was a bit taller than me and look like she had a leaner build in comparison to Stella but I couldn't tell much else due to the cloak and hood obscuring the majority of her features, but I could still see her red lips due to me being shorter than her. But if I hazard a guess I would say she was a beauty but I could see why she would cover it up as beauty is both a blessing and a curse in this line of business. She said flatly,

"Helen" and promptly turned away from me and looked towards nowhere in particular. I was at a bit of a loss at her cold attitude but I felt a hand on my shoulder,

"Don't worry she was like that with us, the only person she said more than 5 words to was to Mighty but I have no idea why and Mighty won't spill the beans," Marshall said as he gave the finger to the self-imposed blind man who somehow knew and gave the finger back.

I shrug my shoulders at the situation as it's not my problem. No one else came after me and we all waited until the caravan came so we could set off. While waiting I did some mana exercises, I managed to compress my mana into a ball and roll it around my hand like a marble in slow motion. Although I'm well away from forming my next circle with my current control I reckon I could form my next circle with relative ease at the moment. This wait only lasted around ten minutes as the merchant's caravan finally came.

It was a fairly large caravan with 5 large carriages being dragged by River Bison magical beasts each carrying a different ware, damn this merchant must be a quite rich guy if he's using magical beasts to pull his caravan. Whistling I think that our group of 7 is a bit small to cover all 5 carriages so I look towards the merchant who arrived in front of us for answers. He was a portly man which was typical for merchants,

"Hello I'm the man who runs this caravan, I hired you all to protect this carriage from Dorwell towards the west to Hemelith which is our endpoint and we would make multiple stops on our way there, we will also add more adventurers to the caravan on some of the stops." The man spoke jovially with a big smile but his enthusiasm was met with deadpans all around other than Marshall and Stella.

After the Merchant briefed us he got his workers and his small group of guards to begin prepping the caravan. In this wait, I did a recount of everything on my person, I got all my equipment in my pack, my sleeping bag, spare clothes etc. The pack I was carrying is made from azure moleskin which has a weak space affinity which allows more things to be held in it than due to a small spatial expansion charm. This pack was a standard issue from the adventurers guild that everyone gets and is of the lowest grade but it works for me at the moment.

After all the prep for the caravan was done we set off. While walking I looked around me, it was mainly calm woodland with some meadows here and there. I then look behind me and saw Dorwell, I take it in the image as this is the first time I truly leave the city. Small bubbles of excitement could be felt in my stomach, it feels quite surreal to be finally leaving to be finally stepping out into the wide-open world. Spinning back around I focus on the path ahead and the adventure that lay before me.

After the initial excitement of leaving Dorwell, the journey quickly become monotonous, man I didn't realise that walking could be so boring. The scenery quickly became tiresome and there was only silence other than the clanking of the wooden wheels of the carriages on the dirt path. Sighing to myself I put myself onto autopilot and go back to my mana mastery exercises. I summon a pale ball of mana and try to increase it's size from a marble to an apple and surprisingly the ball swelled in size without any complications. Huh, I must've improved more than I thought, let's get a bit ambitious shall we, I started to manipulate it's shape but as soon as it turned oval shaped it burst with a loud pop.

Licking my lips I go back to trying to manipulate the shape of the orb but it always seemed to pop before I could make any major changes which gradually pissed me off more and more. I kept at it for about an hour and my frustration must've been comical as I looked to my right and I saw Marshall and Stella holding back their laughter whereas Mighty looked at me with pity I think, it's a bit hard to tell with the eyepatches. Narrowing my eyes I ask,

"Alright, spill what's so funny?"

"Nothing," Marshall and Stella say together and then promptly go back to snickering amongst themselves. Shrugging them off I tune out their giggles and go back to the old grindstone. Tens of tries and multiple pops later I see coming at me from my peripheral, I try to duck but it was too late and I get drenched by a large water ball and knocked down to the ground due to the force. Flicking my hair out of my eyes I looked aggrieved at the perpetrator, what I saw was Helen with her hood pulled up so I could see her rage-filled face, but my god was she beautiful. However, that didn't matter at the minute as she began to berate me,

"My god stop that you imbecile, your mana is unstable couldn't you fucking tell after the umphteenth time doing the easiest mana exercise?" Before I could hit her back with a witty reply she stomped off to the back of the caravan.

Feeling wronged I look towards the trio and they all were bent over laughing at my scolding. Slightly hurt I ask,

"Okay haha, why didn't you warn me she was pissed,"

"It would've been funnier to see how she'll react" Stella stated with a smile which Marshall emphasised by nodding his head along. Shaking my head I look towards to Marshall,

"Yo Junior what did she mean that my mana was unstable?" He put on a thoughtful face for a couple moments before answering,

"I think it's that you don't have granular control over your mana and that you're doing too much at once. If you want my advice focus on controlling smaller amounts and focusing on controlling a small part perfectly then increase the amount of mana." Woah he gave me actual advice and by the looks of it, Stella and mighty were equally astonished they didn't expect such a comprehensive answer from him.

Annoyed by the looks of awe Marshall burst out,

"Don't look at me like that, I can give actual advice when I want to."

"Of course Junior we all knew you had it in you," Mighty replied by patting Marshall on the shoulder but looking in the completely wrong direction.

"It's Mars, not Junior, get it right," Marshall shouted feeling more wronged than before, but everyone ignored his small outburst. I went back to concentrating on my mana exercises. However this time I summoned a small sliver of mana and analysed it and I noticed something, it wasn't completely blue there was a mix of a pale light blue and electric blue but the pale blue mana seems to be overwhelmed by the electric blue mana which causes the collapse of the mana altogether.

Scratching my head I brainstorm for a couple of moments about the reason for this. I deduce that it could be due to my circle so focus on my inner space and see my two circles, my normal null magic circle and the larger electric blue circle. I rotate them and release a small sliver of mana and see that my null magic circle not working properly and that's there some stuttering which leads to the null magic being unstable and being overwhelmed by this different mana from my second circle whose element I still can't figure out. This has me stumped, what could be the reason for this, could it be the difference in size, is my circle incomplete I haven't the foggiest.

My inner-thinking was interrupted as I accidentally walked into the back of one of the scary-looking adventurers that the rest of us avoided.

"Sorry, I wasn't looking wher..." I was silenced with his fist that connected with my cheek. I then crashed heavily against the ground, he then grabbed me by the scruff and picked me up,

"Fucking pay attention, this isn't a playground greenhorn. Never let your guard down unless you want to die early." With that, he threw me away and went back to his friend. Fuck that hurt like a bitch, as I massaged my cheek Marshall and the others came to me,

"Are you alright, he went a bit too far there?" Marshall asked concerned.

"Should I get him back for you?" Stella asked but from the look in her eyes, I think she just wanted to punch something.

"No he was right I let my guard down, this is a mission I need to take it seriously," I said resignedly. It was my mistake, I shouldn't lose focus like that especially in unknown territory.” The three of them gave sympathetic smiles as they agreed with the sentiment.

We went back to walking, while I was rubbing my cheek Helen came to my side. I was about to ask if she needed anything but I got shut down by her splashing more water in my face. Before I could admonish her for splashing me for seemingly no reason I noticed that my cheek stopped hurting. Slightly dumbstruck I look at her,

"Don't mention it, take it as an apology for splashing you earlier." She said as she gave me a small smile, huh maybe she's not that bad. I watch as she goes back to her position. With renewed vigour, I go back to inspecting my circle while remaining vigilant of my surroundings.