Scythe stayed near the house but heard something moving, and the screams of goblins. “Hey Scythe” Zander whispered to Scythe, “Anything?”

“Yeah, something is killing those goblins, and I don’t know what it is.”

“That is never a good sign.”

“I know. I want to see what it is, but I can’t shake this feeling something is watching me.”

Zander tapped on Scythe’s shoulder, “look over there.”

In the bushes a pair of glowing green eyes glowed in the moonlight, they stayed still never blinking. “Watch my back,” Scythe stood up.

“Be careful, it might be a basilisk.”

“Do I try talking to it?”

“Who knows it might work.”

“HEY! Who goes there?” Scythe readied his blade

No response came. A serpentine body slithered forward, it’s fangs glowing white.

It lunged forward.

Scythe stepped to the side and struck downward. Almost severing the head, it coiled back spilling blood everywhere.

The light of dawn filled the clearing, showing all the blood in vivid detail. “Good job Scythe, you took down a class C monster alone.” Zander congratulated, “Hey you okay.”

Scythe held the blade and was shaking. “No, I don’t think so. I’m kinda freaking out.”

“Hey, listen to my voice,” Zander grabbed the blade, pushing it into the ground, “you are alive, what you did was right. Life is a precious thing, but protecting yourself is also important. Today, we will expand our search, one to see if there are more snakes like that, and two, track those goblins. Where there is one, there are ten more waiting.”

“Yeah,” Scythe spoke still tense.

“Let’s get food first, goblins rarely move during the day.”

“Yeah, Sure.”

“Hey, don’t forget to breathe. You head on in, I’ll go carve that snake.”

“Okay.”

A half-hour later Zander entered, tossing Scythe a crystal “Well Scythe, you made the kill, you earned this,”

“What is it?”

“Oh, it’s just a… wait you don’t know what a core is?”

“I’m sorry I don’t.”

“No need to apologize, Scythe, every adventurer learns sometimes,” Alicia said while cooking, “I remember the first time I cut into a monster, that was years back.”

“Not that long dear, only a couple years.” Zander added, “But put simply, a core is the heart of a monster if you know where the core is, you can destroy the entire body, but you don’t get anything from it. The body turns to ash if the core is destroyed. But if you kill the monster without destroying the core, like what you did, you can get its body parts. I’m thinking of turning the bones into fertilizer.”

“So it’s a cycle?”

“Yeah, in a way.”

After eating breakfast, Scythe and Zander went into the woods, after gearing up, with bows and plenty of arrows. Following the footsteps, they slowly found a cave, where two goblins were out front. “Looks like the guard, and they are too well equipped for a normal horde. They must have a leader or something is leading them.”

“Burn them!”

“Did you say something Zander?” Scythe asked

“What do you mean? The part about there being a leader or something else?”

“You didn’t say burn them.'' At that moment, Scythes fingers tingled with a sensation he hasn’t felt in years. “Hey Scythe look at your hand, are you doing that on purpose!?” Zander backed off

Scythe looked at his hand seeing a small flame starting to grow. Seeing that magic, sent Scythe back into his memories.

A cool summer day, “Mom when do I learn magic? Aura learned how to already. I want to do magic too.” A childish voice spoke.

“Little one, you almost hurt yourself last time you tried.” a woman spoke softly, her face blurred.

“But I’m wayyy stronger now.”

“If you really want too.” the woman tapped on her lap, “Come here, I’ll give a personal lesson, something Aurora has yet to learn.”

“Really!” the child squealed and sat on the lap.

“Yes.” the woman spoke, “Now, here you remember what I said, magic comes in many forms.”

“Yeah.” the child nodded

“That most effective, but also the hardest method to do spells isn’t controlling it within your body, but as an extension to your body. Like the sword lessons, Irgo gives you about a sword. If you can control magic itself, you can create things that are miracles. Like this.” the woman flicked out her wrist, and created a blue flame, “Normally you don’t touch fire, but this one time, you may touch it.”

The child touched the flames, and giggled, “It tickles, and it isn’t hot like normal fire.”

“Can you guess why?”

The child shook his head.

“Let me tell you…”

“...the, Scythe wake up.” Zander shook Scythe

“What? What happened?”

“You went into a daze, I’ve never seen this happen to you. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I know what to do.” Scythe stood up, and reached out with his left hand and chanted a single word, “Ignite!” a large steady flame rushed towards the cave, burning the goblins to ash. But Scythe’s hand locked up. “How long have you been able to use magic of that level?”

“What do you mean? That’s only basic magic. I can’t do any of the big explosive stuff, it hurts too much to use.”

“And what you did isn’t big explosive stuff? That was at least an intermediate level spell. Well, we might just go home, the cave collapsed, when I head into the city next. I’ll inform the guild.”

“Let me go too.” Scythe perked up.

“Well… let me think a couple of things through.”

On the return home, no other tracks were found. The silence between Scythe and Zander was almost unsettling. “Scythe wait out here, I’ll be back in just a moment.” Zander went inside. A few minutes passed, and Zander came out with Alicia and the twins. Zander gestured to Scythe to follow. Standing outside the main gate, Zander pulled out a key, placing it into the gate. Everything started to glow. And in a blink of an eye, the entire house, and all the sheds disappeared into a locket. “What is that?” Scythe asked

“It’s a magic item I got from a dungeon, Pandra’s Locket. I don’t really understand it, it was a popular item in the last Great Magic Age. but finding one is almost next to impossible. Almost all of them were destroyed, no one knows why. It’s just that the records all say different things.”

“But you have one.”

“It’s just a lucky find. Besides, it means I can move wherever I want, whenever I want.”

“So what's the plan then?” Scythe asked

“We are going to the city, this is no place to raise children. While we are at it, you could join the Guild. I’ll put in a good word to my friends.”