"Max?" Thomas asks as I land at the boulder. "What is that?"

Colt, Thomas, and Colt's friends are all here, with Colt's friends all looking pretty sweaty, Colt and Thomas looking cool as I feel. Since Colt isn't sweaty, I'm going to assume he finally sat still long enough to figure out how to do the "air armor" spell, as I've decided to call it, and how to make it cool him off and be invisible, too.

All of them are just lounging here, though I'd seen them walking to the boulder when I left the forest. They probably only just finished their hunts, too. I'm kind of curious on if Colt pushed back when he was told he couldn't fight something, or if my shove wasn't as forceful as I'd thought it would be.

"Shadetoads," I tell Thomas. "I wasn't sure if you meant a smaller one or a bigger one, so I got both."

I brought Er'Nabris for the bigger one, mostly because he was actually a struggle for me to kill. The other four were not as much of a threat as I'd expected thanks to my [Shimmering Air Barrier], my light magics in general, and their lack of physical magical attacks. A few well-timed [Air Bomb]s and some [Air Spear]s were all I really needed to take them out.

Even them trying to jump around or hit me with their tongues wasn't an issue. That whole fight was over in under a minute. I didn't even gain 5% Experience total from the fight, which was disappointing.

Though the only one of the bounty beast shadetoads I brought back was Er'Nabris, I did bring around two dozen normal shadetoads. A normal shadetoad is about the size of a normal frog, and while Thomas did say 'one', I figured that he wouldn't be making it for just me and each person might eat at least one, possibly more.

I'd never expected frogs to be edible.

"I was referring to a smaller one," Thomas informs me. "But this is fine. You can sell the larger one for quite a bit. They have a slow decay, so it'll still be good even after we eat."

"So we are?" Colt asks. "Ben's talked about how good they are the way you prepare them."

"Yes," Thomas answers. "That's why we returned a little bit earlier, remember?"

"Right," Colt nods then seems to grow excited, bouncing up and down a little. "Oh! Max! I gained seventeen Levels today!"

"You did?" I ask.

"Yeah!" Colt hops to his feet and approaches as I release the [Air Barrier] carrying the shadetoads. "After you left, I told Thomas I wanted to get strong enough to help you fight that monster you mentioned. If it's something you want someone to help you kill, then it's got to be pretty tough, yeah? Which means there aren't many people in the kingdom who can fight it, which means it will take awhile before someone kills it. If there's a bounty listed for it, then that means it's in an area where it may pose a threat to adventurers, hunters, and so on.

"Thomas was trying to insist," Colt continues as Thomas starts grabbing the smaller frogs. "That I take things more easy, like always. It was frustrating me because seriously? One of the most powerful mages in the valley doesn't want to fight that thing alone and he's telling the only person who you'd want to help you that he can't work on getting to that point? So we argued a lot and I told him I was going to go after stronger monsters regardless of what he said and if he had an issue with it, he'd have to tie me up.

"Long story short," Colt doesn't know what that means, does he? "I got a Title that increases my Experience gains by ten percent of what was earned when I kill something stronger than me! It's pretty interesting, and it's called [The Adventuring Prince]. Apparently, they were trying to get me to be adamant about hunting stronger things this whole time so that I'd get it, just like Ben and Elise and Dad all did. Though Thomas said that Ben got his when he snuck out to go hunting when he was younger than I was. I can believe it, Ben was pretty bold about going out on his own to hunt. I'll be hunting more stuff tomorrow. Hopefully, I can hit Level 70 by the end of tomorrow. If I do, then we can go hunt that thing on Tuesday, okay?"

Colt switched back really fast there.

"Okay," I respond. "I's going to watch Thomas cook, now."

"You can play with us, if you want," Colt says. "We're going to goof around. We're not really allowed to do that in the city and we're far enough away that Thomas says it's okay."

"Colton," Thomas says. "I'd told him to bring it back if he wished to see how to cook them. Playing with you while I cook would defeat the purpose of that."

"Right," Colt nods. "Okay! Maybe after dinner!"

Aaron, Cyrus, and Nicholas join Colt as he walks off, and I look over at Thomas. That wasn't him saying that I have to do this, that was him pointing out that we'd had an agreement. If I don't watch him cook and learn how to cook these, then I'd be going back on the agreement.

I wasn't planning on betraying the agreement we had. If Thomas hadn't said anything first, I would have brought it up to Colt.

"We'll be making twelve of them," Thomas tells me. "Since there are six of us. Two of the shadetoads per person, though some of us might only eat one. I also caught a few rabbits so that we can have more than just the shadetoads. Five growing boys need more than the small amount of sustenance the shadetoads will provide. Can you spell 'sustenance', Max?"

"S-U-S-T-E-N-A-N-C-E."

"Good job," Thomas nods. "Prompt answer, too. You didn't need to think about it."

Thomas quizzes me on a few words while I watch him cook every day, so I'm not surprised that he's doing it now. He quizzes me on a few words as he sets out the materials and ingredients gathered, then he begins cutting the shadetoads.

After watching him cut a couple of the shadetoads how he wants them, I grab some and try to help. There are plenty extra for me to do this, so if I mess up, Thomas hopefully won't be too annoyed that I tried assisting. Fortunately, I seem to manage to do it right because he accepts the three I succeeded with in addition to his nine.

In fact, Thomas hands me the rabbits to deal with as he starts preparing other ingredients and gets the fire going.

"Max," Thomas says as we work. "Thanks for helping me with Colton. All of the argument was in his head, too. After you left, he turned and looked at me and said 'If you want to stop me from killing strong monsters so that I can help Max with that kill, you're going to have to tie me up'. That was all he needed to gain the Title, then I suffered a ten-minute-long rant after telling him that we were trying to get him to earn that Title."

"You're welcome," I tell Thomas, not really knowing how to react to this news.

"Colton is insistent," Thomas tells me. "On the two of you going after it either Tuesday or Wednesday, whichever one is the day after he reaches Level 70. Since we know you're around there as you told me that you reached Level 70 because of my statement regarding your assistance with the goblin kingdom battles, he believes that's about the Level he'll need to be for it. You should probably look into bounty beasts today to find one that fits that level of power that can be reasonably expected to be something you'd not want to fight alone."

"I wasn't lying earlier," I tell Thomas. "At all. Its name is Ko'Nabrul, and I passed over seeking it out and killing it because something in its information made me feel it's not a good idea to fight it alone."

"Oh," Thomas says, then looks as if he's listening to something. There's a wind spell that lets you send your voice to another, so it's possible he's being alerted to an issue. "Alphonse is laughing as he tells me that your reason for wanting a second person to help you is no doubt amusing. I take it that he knows about Ko'Nabrul, but he's not saying anything else. What is Ko'Nabrul, and why do you want a second person assisting you in the fight?"

Alphonse is laughing at my reason? What does he think it is, and why does he find that reason amusing? This is a very serious issue – Ko'Nabrul has been blocking an area for a few months now and everyone has to take a pretty long route around to avoid her. She's also laid a cluster of eggs, which means that once they hatch, there will be an entire host of her type of monster.

"Ko'Nabrul is a metal snake approximately three hundred feet long," I answer. "She's laid around three hundred eggs in the nest she made, and they're estimated to hatch about a month from now. Her scales are partially metal – iron as far as they can tell – and can deflect a lot of normal weapons. Air magics are a necessity, though there aren't that many people who can actually hurt her in the kingdom. She's known to generate and shoot pointed metal projectiles, and as with all snakes with metal in their scales, she has a venomous bite.

"The part that makes her really dangerous, however," I tell Thomas. "Is that she has two heads, one on each end instead of a head and a tail. I's be okay fighting multiple monsters attackin' from diff'rent directions, but I ain't too sure 'bout fightin' a single monster which can do that. The only positive is that she's not a crystal variant."

I'm not talking about a Crystal Beast. Much like trolls, there can be variants of this type of snake monster that has crystals between their eyes. According to that section of the book on snake monsters, they aren't born with them. Troll mages are.

The crystal-eye variant, as they're called, can 'develop' the crystal over time. It starts off as just a colored spot, then the crystal appears there. Once the crystal appears there, they acquire a few additional powers. Unlike a Crystal Beast, the crystal doesn't spread through their body, transforming and heightening them.

It just gives them some additional powers.

"Max," Thomas says. "A beast with two heads isn't much different from fighting a group of enemies. You can do that just fine, so Ko'Nabrul will likely not be an issue."

"I ain't too sure about that," I say. "And now I's certain I need someone to watch my back while fighting her."

"Okay," Thomas says.

We cook for awhile longer, then I decide there's something I want to know.

"Can I ask ya something?"

"Go ahead," Thomas responds.

"Ain't it a bad idea for ya to not go back to the castle?" I ask. "Ain't they expecting Colt for dinner and stuff?"

"They know that we sometimes eat dinner out here," Thomas tells me. "So there's no issue. If Colton is back before dinner, then they prepare food for him as well. If he's not, then they don't, though they do expect that he might need something to eat upon his return and so are ready to prepare something in case of that. Colton does not have as many duties as his siblings do due to being an illegitimate child, so he's able to go out and stay out for longer."

"Ain't Lady Elise and Lord Benjamin going out for days?" I ask.

"Sometimes," Thomas nods. "But only when it does not interfere with their other duties. Colton needs to make appearances at events, but that consists of most of his duties. What we're doing before we come out here is usually lessons, sometimes an appearance for something small. Max, topic change, is that the priest you mentioned the other day?"

I look in the direction Thomas is indicating to find a priest standing around two hundred yards away, looking in this direction.

"The one who kept followin' me around after I made the Blessed Statement to Lord Benjamin?" I ask. "Uh… I think. He's a bit too far away to make out clearly, but he looks like he could be that priest. I told him that I ain't gonna answer his questions. He's sought me out a few times and I threw some water at him yesterday, when he came to my guild to ask my minions questions about me."

It was freezing water. Which I then froze. I probably shouldn't mention that to Thomas, though. Acting like that was extremely childish and probably inappropriate, even if I am a child.

"Alphonse says it's the same one you pointed out to us before," Thomas tells me. "He said he's going to deal with him."

A few moments later, Alphonse becomes visible directly in front of the priest. He seems to say something to the man, then the man beats a hasty retreat. Alphonse vanishes from sight again, his [Light Cloak] concealing himself once more.

"He says," Thomas says. "That he informed the priest that if he were truly faithful to the gods, he would leave those they grant acknowledgment to alone. Also that since you are friends with Prince Colton of Kedridal, it could be seen as an attempt at getting close to the prince and will lead to scrutiny of both his and his church's actions."

That last part is probably what caused the priest to scram. I don't like royals and nobles flaunting their power to get their way for trivial things, but I think this one is an okay time. The reason I didn't do anything more severe to the priest is because he hasn't done anything requiring it. He usually keeps his distance after I tell him to fuck off.

If he tried grabbing me or hurting one of my minions to get me to answer his questions, then I'd start cutting into him and burning him and removing bones from him.

"Okay," I say. "Thank you, Alphonse."

"You're welcome," Alphonse's voice reaches me on a small wind.

Thomas and I finish cooking dinner, then he asks if I can get Colt and his friends to come over to eat. I nod and stand and start to approach them when I get an idea. They keep trying to convince me that I can play around with them without worrying. I do still worry, though, because what if I'm too rough, or they don't want me to and are just trying to get me to think I can? They could even just be trying to be courteous, despite my lower station.

Even though I'm worried about what future punishments they'll give me for this, I'm going to do something that they won't have a problem with if they are serious about letting me goof around with them.

I stop walking after just a few steps and create a [Water Bomb], then launch it into the air. My aim with throwing bomb spells has gotten really good. The rippling orb of water soars in an arc, crossing the distance to where Colt and his friends are playing. When it's above them and beginning its descent, I send a thicker [Air Bolt] at the orb, this spell flying even faster.

Because it's fairly high above them, the group doesn't notice either spell. When my [Air Bolt] meets the [Water Bomb], it triggers the latter. My [Water Bomb] bursts, spraying water in all directions before the water falls to the ground. Some of it mists, causing a rainbow in the air as Colt and his friends get soaked by the unexpected shower.

All four of them stop goofing around and look up, clearly confused by the sudden shower and where the water is coming from on this cloudless day.

Thomas's reaction isn't anything like what I'd thought it would be. I expected him to scold me, or just snort or chuckle. He's silent for a few moments, just like Colt and the others, then he starts laughing. Thomas laughs so hard that he doubles over while clutching his stomach. Then he actually goes to the ground, still laughing.

Colt and his friends run over to us, still looking confused.

"Why's Thomas laughing?" Colt asks. "Hey! You guys are dry! We got hit with a sudden shower! It's so weird, too, because there isn't a cloud in sight! The shower went everywhere, too! It was still wet, like, thirty feet from here!"

I'm not going to say anything.

"Dinner's ready," I tell him.