After completing their quest, they retrieved their reward of 15 Felo and went to the market to sell the Sqat core.

They already asked the guild and were offered 15 Felo for it. Aliza figured they could get a higher price for it at a shop.

“Okay, we’ll go to a shop of valuables, they should sell it to us for higher.”

Ace nodded and they looked around for a stand selling mixed goods, magic items, or valuables.

---

They went asking around at multiple shops and the highest they came out with was 25 Felo, which was a good jump from the 15 that the guild was offering.

They sold the core, and it was now reaching 6 PM.

They still had two days before they departed towards the capital, so Aliza wasn’t in a rush for money. They were going at a good pace, so she decided to use the rest of the day for training.

“We’ll train for the rest of the day. With how we’re going, we should have enough saved up by the time we leave.”

“Oh, I guess we haven’t trained since the first night, that’ll be fun.”

“Yeah, it should be a nice breather instead of doing quests.”

• • •

*CLANK*

He was sweating as he stepped back, getting back into his stance.

“Get ready!”

He yelled, exerting a force of competition towards Aliza, who had been blocking all his attacks.

“Come! You’re all talk!”

His fierce smile stretched towards his ears as he started to run.

“Quick First Step!”

He dashed towards Aliza and swung his dagger; it being deflected almost immediately after.

“Haha! That all you got!”

“I’m not done! Falling Back!”

He reacted to the deflection and stepped back, putting more space between them.

The fall back changed back to an offensive charge after a second, Ace going in for a strike once again.

He brought his dagger in from his lower right side to strike at Aliza’s waist. The strike was parried, as expected--

“Hard Hitter!”

The parry was expected for Ace, so, he planned ahead.

His left palm let off a soft red glow as it swooped in towards Aliza’s stomach, being the blunt object that served as the catalyst for his skill.

“Got you!”

He was about to get his first hit on her.

“Oh...”

As his palm dove forward... he slowed it down subconsciously, not wanting to hurt her seriously.

But... it seemed he didn’t need to worry about that--

“Are you trying to go easy on me?”

His palm was grabbed, and his arm was twisted behind his back, forcing her victory.

After a second or two, Aliza let go of his arm and Ace turned around to face her.

“Ah--”

She brought her face close to his, with an expression that gave off a slightly cute anger.

“Don’t slow yourself down because you think you’re going to hit me. I know you did it.”

She figured him out.

“I’m not that weak you know. Don’t let the levels get to your head. You may be catching up to me, but I still have a lot more experience.”

“Sorry.”

After hearing his apology, Aliza sighed and smiled.

“Thank you though.”

He did slow down because he didn’t want to hurt her, and that left a warm feeling inside of her, resurfacing the emotions she kept hidden.

She quickly blushed and looked away.

“Let’s continue with the training.”

---

------

They continued until about 11:30 PM, then went to a nearby inn.

“How can I help you?”

Said the clerk, who was a female demihuman that resembled a dog.

“We’d like one room please.”

“That’ll be 10 Felo.”

Aliza handed her the money and received the keys to their room.

---

“Where should I sleep?”

Standing in the room that housed one bed, Ace asked the most important question.

“We’ll share the bed.”

His face burned up after hearing the words that he was thinking.

“No, no, that’ll be wrong. I’ll just sleep on the floor or something.”

“I can’t have you sleeping on the floor. We’ll just lay some stuff in between us.”

Words that would normally be embarrassing for Aliza, she said without hesitation, because she didn’t want Ace sleeping on the floor.

“No, it’s fine. The floor’s fine.”

He spoke fast with his hands shaking in front of him, thinking it wasn’t right to be sleeping in the same bed as her.

“Nope. You’ll listen to me for tonight.”

His thoughts already immersed in naughty thoughts, her last line gave off an erotic vibe, making him even more embarrassed.

“Are you sure...?”

He didn’t think he could shake her, so he continued on.

“Yes.”

“*sigh* I’ll try not to do anything dumb.”

They set up the bed, laid some stuff between them, and went to sleep.

• • •

Unable to sleep, her eyes were wide open, forgetting the situation she was in.

Aliza stared at the wall across the room as she heard soft snores coming from behind her back.

She only told him to share a bed because she genuinely didn’t want Ace sleeping on the floor.

Now that it’s actually happening, she couldn’t get herself to sleep.

Surprisingly, Ace was sleeping like a log. She wondered how he could, after looking so flustered.

It did make her happy that she could make him flustered though.

*RUSTLE*

She quickly shook her head, not wanting to feel good right now. She wanted to go to sleep.

She tried to think of a cure.

“Oh--!”

She turned her body to face Ace and brought her face closer.

She supported her head with her arm and stared at the origin of her problem.

Her gaze was soft as she watched him sleep.

“Home...”

“---!”

He only let out one word as he sleep-talked, but it seemed that word held an extreme importance to him.

“Heehee...”

She couldn’t stop herself from giggling. Not at his determination, but at him sleep talking.

After laughing softly, she gazed once more and thought back to the word he spoke.

“Don’t leave me so quick, okay?”

She knew it was wrong of herself to think, but she couldn’t help herself. After realizing her feelings, she wanted to be seen and focused on, even if he has bigger dreams. But she knew her desires were selfish, so she promised herself to only let them out when he couldn’t see.

After admiring his face for a little longer, she felt satisfied and turned around to try her chance once again at sleeping.

And... it seemed... to work...

As she fell into a deep sleep.

---

------

Red... black...

Blood splatters, mouse figure.

Carriage in flames, animal sufffering.

In the distance stood Ace, watching the whole thing.

He ran and ran... not away from, but towards the flames, wanting to save the one who was helping him.

But he ran to no avail, staying in the same spot the whole time.

His dagger was in his hand, ready to use, but it wouldn’t be given the chance, as he couldn’t reach his target.

How many more impossible tasks would he be given before the gods would be satisfied?

Hand sticking out from the flames, gray fur now stained red.

Ace dropped to his knees, unable to cry, unable to fight, unable to look away.

Demihumans standing around the body, spitting and staring at one of their own.

Walking away as one of their own perished, at the hands of themselves.

No water being thrown at the fire, no fights breaking out after his death.

The gray fur now turned to ashes, along with the carriage and the one who pulled it.

Ace could only sit, stare, and wonder why all this was happenin--

“---!”

A flash of blue ran past the despaired teen, dashing towards the open fire.

“No! Not you too!”

He screamed, but his voice wouldn’t reach her.

She ran into the fire and at the demihumans, who held pitchforks and swords.

Too many to fight off, her blue hair was slashed, along with her back, making her fall to the ground...

“AHH--!!!”

---

“AHHH!!”

He shot up and brought his hand to his head, wiping sweat off his head as he breathed heavily.

“What’s wrong?!”

Aliza also shot up hearing his screams.

“Oh... sorry... just a nightmare.”

He looked away from her and stared out the window, forgetting about her demise at the end of his dream.

“Mr. Legot...”

He pictured the mouse demihuman he recently became acquainted with, his eyebrows tightening, fearful of the dream he saw.

• • •

They went into the guild to go get another quest as they waited for the final day to pass.

“We’ll do this one. It pays good and will get you some more experience in different settings.”

Ace nodded, continuing to trust Aliza’s intuition of what was a good quest to take.

The quest was a C-rank quest, one level higher than the barrier quest. They had to go to a nearby cave and clear out monsters that had been causing troubles.

They grabbed the paper and brought it up to Mila, the clerk that they have become friends with.

“Mila, we’ll take this one.”

Mila, with her cheery attitude and bright smile, marked down the quest and saw them off as she always did.

“Okay! I got it down. Good luck!”

“Thank you. We will be leaving now.”

Aliza gave her a wave, Ace doing the same then following behind.

• • •

Carefully scanning the surroundings from behind a tree was Aliza, with Ace nearby behind a different tree.

“It looks good. Let’s move in.”

“Got it.”

They treaded carefully, but quickly towards the entrance to the cave. Aliza gave a wave of her hand to signal to move in.

They moved into the cave and Aliza lit a fire in her hand to be able to see their surroundings.

“---!”

As they moved farther in, Aliza shot her hand in front of Ace to stop him from moving further.

“I can hear them. Stay alert.”

Ace wondered how she had such good senses. He couldn’t hear anything that she was hearing, sense anything that she was sensing, but he trusted in her and stayed focused.

He gripped his dagger harder and tried to use his ears just like she had been using hers.

“Okay, they’re up ahead.”

Ace looked back on the walk towards the cave. Aliza chose not to give him any information about the monsters this time so he had a chance to fight them on his own. The one thing she did give him though, was what type of magic they could use.

--Camouflage magic. It’s already hard enough to see them in a cave, but with that magic, it’ll be even harder.

He tried to think of what a monster that lived in a cave would be like, and the first thing that came to mind were bats.

“Hey, Aliza. Can the monster fly?”

“No, but they can crawl on walls.”

“Ugh.”

The only other monster that came to mind were spiders, an animal that Ace wasn’t too fond of.

He tried to brainstorm once again how to fight them.

--I probably can’t see them, they might move fast, and I have a small fear of them... great...

He shook it off and kept moving alongside Aliza.

“There’s your first one.”

Aliza pointed ahead and tried to move her fire closer.

Ace squinted his eyes but couldn’t make out anything in front of them.

“Okay, this will be tough since it’s dark. I’ll move up with you to give you a light source. If any of them attack me, I’ll hit them away, but won’t kill them. That’s your job.”

Ace nodded and they moved forward slowly.

They stopped after a few steps, then Aliza pointed towards the wall that Ace was standing nearby.

“Focus and try to make out the body shape of a monster. It’s there, trust me, it just hasn’t attacked because it has a fear of fire, so it won’t attack unless we attack.”

Ace looked directly at the wall next to him and focused. His mental image of the monster was a spider, so that’s what he tried to make out on the wall.

For a few seconds, he could see nothing, but--

“---!”

It was there. The shape was coming to him. He moved closer to the wall, now feeling a strong sense of security after hearing Aliza say it was scared of fire.

He moved closer and focused harder, seeing the shape more and more.

He was only a few centimeters away from the wall now, and--

“Ah!”

The whole shape revealed itself to him. It wasn’t a spider, but a--

“Lizard... I think...”

It was about the size of a football, but Ace couldn’t see any eyes or anything that resembled a mouth. He moved closer, thinking that it wasn’t going to make any sudden movements because of its fear--

“---!”

Two eyes shot open and stared into his own. The lizard hadn’t moved a bit, but it seemed to stare into his soul.

Ace stepped back and gripped his dagger tight, keeping his focus on the monster in front of him.

“Don’t think there’s only one.”

“---!”

He didn’t have time to think as Aliza dropped a warning on him.

Ace scanned around himself, leaving the lizard in front of him alone for now.

“Ah... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5, including the one in front of me.”

Five sets of eyes stared at the two travelers who entered their den.

“Wait... why did I notice them so quick? What happened to their camouflage?”

“Think. What do they all have in common?”

Was all Aliza said, as advice to Ace.

“Oh... their eyes... I couldn’t see the first one properly until it opened its eyes.”

He quickly figured it out and decided to act quick before they closed them.

He dashed towards the first lizard he came into contact with and tried to plunge his dagger into its back.

“Shoot--!”

It scurried away on the walls, now beside one of its buddies.

“It’s fast... how am I going to get them all?”

He thought to himself but couldn’t think of anything right away.

“One more thing. They have a strong sense of comradery.”

An idea popped into Ace’s head, as if Aliza knew the exact words to say.

“A hostage...”

Was what Ace thought up as he stared the lizard down.

--I only need one. The rest should come running. But... how do I get one?

Ace stared once more at the monster, who was now on the roof above him.

“---!”

The same two balls of vision that stared him down earlier were what caught his eye one again.

--They have a glow to them...

He focused on one set of eyes and saw a faint red glow that blended in with the light of the fire.

--If I cut the fire, they won’t be scared to attack, and I’ll still be able to see the glow in their eyes...

“Aliza. Cut the fire.”

Aliza put on a tender smile after seeing Ace’s growth, but he was too focused to notice. She cut the fire and let Ace continue with what he had been planning.

“Yeah, the glow is clearer. Okay, Aliza, when I give the signal, put the fire back up.”

Ace focused his whole self onto the two small red lights on the roof above him.

*CRAWL*

He could hear the crawling and the slivering of the lizards, which matched up because the eyes were also traveling around the walls of the cave.

The monster Ace was focused on started to move from the roof towards his right side.

--Perfect...

If it moved there, it would be in arm’s reach.

It crawled until the two red glimmers were directly to Ace’s right.

--Now!

He struck at the wall at his right as fast as he could, knowing that any hesitation would cause a failure.

“Shoot!”

The red lights averted his strike and retreated back up to the roof--

“What is this?!”

Before pulling his dagger away, he felt a dry, scaly feeling, touching his right hand.

Before he could react, it continued to sliver up his arm, until it reached his forearm.

“AH!”

He shook it off, his arm spasming from the extremely vile feeling of the lizard crawling up his arm.

The touch of the lizard’s feet had disappeared, Ace glanced down to see where it went.

He could already see its eyes retreating just as its friend had a few moments ago.

Now that he was in the clear, Ace only thought one thing--

“Disgusting.”

The stale, scaly feeling of it crawling up his arm, potentially able to get near his chest or face disgusted him. Not only the physical feeling, but he didn’t know what else the lizard was capable of. He didn’t know how it attacked and did damage, and that scared him.

The feeling of disgust overpowered everything else when the lizard climbed, that Ace didn’t notice until now that there were small cuts on his hand.

“It must have claws. That’s probably how it attacks.”

He looked at the ceiling once again. There were three sets of eyes sitting atop the roof, staring down at him. He glanced around to see one to his right and one more to his upper left.

Ace’s uncomfortable experience let him think up one more plan.

*GULP*

It was a plan with a high chance of success, at the cost of his mental well-being for a second or two.

He decided to go with it and drew his eyes to the lizard on his right.

Its eyes pierced his own and made him gulp once again after deciding to put his plan into play.

He tightened the grip on his dagger and made his move before the others could start coming after him.

He plunged his dagger into the wall, a few centimeters in front of the lizard’s eyes.

He could hear scurrying as soon as the dagger made contact, not away, but towards his dagger.

“EEK!”

The dry, rough feel of its feet returned, and Ace retracted his arm from the wall. He started spasming once again, but this time with a direction in mind. He shook his hand directly to the floor near his feet until he felt the monster’s grasp disappear from his hand.

After escaping its grips, he started stomping the floor near his feet, trying to finish it off before it could escape.

“---! I got it!”

Feeling contact at his feet, he didn’t hesitate giving the order.

“Get the fire running!”

Aliza, already prepared, got the fire back in a second.

“Thank you.”

With the lights back on, it left Ace more composed. He considered his sense of sight to be the most important and left him with the highest sense of security.

He glanced at the ground immediately to confirm his kill.

“Yes, I got it.”

The lizard lay flat on the ground after being stomped on, not moving. Ace didn’t think he finished it off, so he quickly brought his dagger to the ground and plunged it into the monster.

After completing his kill, he grabbed the lizard with his dagger and held it up as if it was a piece of steak.

“They’re going to start getting serious.”

Said the one who had been sitting by idly, Aliza.

“What do you mean by tha--”

Keeping his gaze on the monsters, he responded, but couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

“Damn... this is too hard.”

All the monsters had now closed their eyes and vanished from Ace’s sight.

--What do I do now? I know I needed one of them to get them to come at me, but this just made it a lot harder...

Before he could finish that thought, he heard scurrying around the walls.

“They’re already on the move...”

--Oh! How about I try this...

He dropped the lizard to the ground in front of him and waited for a second.

--Yes!

The lizard was grabbed and was being transported. Now that he knew the shape and where it was, it wasn’t too hard to make out where the one carrying it was.

He dove at the lizard and drove his dagger into it, the monster now being considerably slower than before because of the extra baggage.

Ace thought that since they closed their eyes, they had to be using some other sense to find him. Also, if their main priority was their comrade, all he had to do was use it as bait.

One at a time, he grabbed each monster with his dagger and dropped them in front of him, waiting for the next lizard to take its shot at being a savior.

“---!”

Once again, one of the dead lizards started to move, trying to retreat from the battlefield.

Ace didn’t give it the chance, instead taking the chance for himself, striking with his dagger stained with blood.

“That’s three. Two to go.”

He stood up while keeping his gaze on the three dead bodies in front of him.

Ace focused with all his might, not wanting to miss a single movement.

But the thing to disturb his focus wasn’t the lizards---

“Don’t underestimate them just because they’re monsters.”

It was Aliza. She shot another warning at Ace, who was standing there, waiting to strike.

He didn’t want to lose his focus, so he took her warning and responded with a cautious nod.

--What did she mean by that? What else can they do?

Ace thought to himself as he stared at the monsters in front of him.

--Do they have some secret power she didn’t tell me about? No... she said monsters can only use one type of magic.

He shook off her warning and continued to fight how he has been.

*SCURRY*

They started to make their move, and Ace could hear it.

He got in a stance that was ready to pounce at any sudden movements in front of him.

“Show yourselves...”

His eyes were set, and his patience was locked as he waited for the monsters to appear. He tightened the grip of his dagger in his right palm.

*SCURRY*

“Hurry up... I’m done waiting...”

A few more seconds...

*SCURRY*

He heard the steps get closer, and fast.

The steps came closer... until---

“Wha--!”

Two sets of feet made his way up both of his legs, crawling, with their dry, scaly skin.

“Why?!”

--Weren’t they supposed to grab their friends?!

Ace swung his left fist at one of the monsters, scared that he would cut himself with the dagger.

“Nothing-!”

The air swooshed as his fist connected with nothingness.

The legs continued up, reaching his torso, then his chest, then they diverged.

One went towards his left arm, and the other towards his head.

Ace prioritized the one going towards his head, believing that it could cause much more damage if it got to his eyes or mouth.

He waited to feel where the feet where headed--

*SWING*

He punched the lizard off himself, leaving one left on his arm.

“Shoot-!”

He already felt it reach his arm. Ace tightened the grip around his dagger in his right hand so he could punch the lizard off.

“AHH-!”

But the lizard attacked first now that Ace’s time was sacrificed on the first lizard. It bit into Ace’s arm, then started clawing its way into his skin.

The monster’s claws stung immensely, Ace dropping to the floor at its slashes.

“AH-!”

It hurt, but Ace knew he couldn’t let it continue.

He could feel its mouth in his skin, so he had a good idea of where it was. Instead of going for a punch, he readied his blade to slash the monster off himself.

“GET OFF!”

He raised his arm so it hung vertical, then swung his dagger down at the monster.

He felt his attack connect with the lizard, and as his blade swung down, Ace bit down on his lip. The monster took some of his flesh with it as it went down.

Ace didn’t have time to stop though. He dropped his dagger to the floor immediately and finished off the monster.

Finally confirming the kill...

“*sigh* How many more times am I going to go through this...?”

He hated all of it, but the battle wasn’t done, and he knew that.

He stood up and got ready for the final monster to attack, fighting through the pain.

*SCURRY*

It was already moving, not letting Ace catch a break.

“Already--!”

The monster’s legs returned to his own, darting up his body.

Ace didn’t want to get hurt again, so he played the patient game to get a guaranteed hit.

It moved up, to his torso, his stomach, his chest, then...

It darted right, going towards his arm with the dagger.

Now that it set its target, Ace could strike.

He waited for it to move a little farther up his arm, then raised his arm vertical once again.

Ace dropped to his knees so he wouldn’t lose sight of it when it fell, then punched at the monster.

He felt its grips disappear, then he swung his dagger at the ground where he dropped.

“Finally...”

Once again, his attack connected, finishing off the final lizard.

Ace completed his quest and grabbed his arm as he sat, still in pain.

“Aliza... I’m done... Can you heal me...?”

Hearing his confirmation, Aliza rushed over and spoke fast, dropping her serious instructor act.

“Yeah, I’ll heal it right away, are you okay...?”

She dropped to her knees beside him, put out the fire, and let off a small blue light in its place.

--She sounds worried...

“Yeah, it just hurts a little... not as bad as my other fights.”

Ace looked over at her and saw a worried expression painted over her face.

“I’m sorry for not helping... I was holding myself back from stepping in...”

“No, it’s fine, it was for my benefit, right?”

Ace didn’t like seeing her so worried. He caught her eyes and gave her a smile, wanting to reassure her.

“Mm, yeah... that’s right...”

She smiled back, her doubts about doing the right thing being reduced.

They sat there for a few more minutes, Aliza continuing to heal Ace’s wounds.

---

------

“Okay, all done.”

Ace stood up, still holding his arm from the light amount of pain left. It still hurt, although not as bad as before. The wound was closed fully though.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Aliza collected their cores, then they left the cave, back towards Furio Village.

• • •

“Smoke...?”

Aliza gazed off into the distance, seeing smoke come from Furio Village.

“I don’t have a good feeling...”

Once again, a worried expression painted her face.

“Ace, let’s hurry.”

She sped up into a run towards the smoke.

“Hey! Wait up!”

He dashed up behind her.

• • •

“Wha-!”

Aliza stood there, shocked at the scene in front of her.

“What is this?!”

Ace caught up behind her and witnessed the same scene as Aliza.

Both of them stared at bright red flames, which covered objects that couldn’t be identified because of the blanket of flames.

Aliza glanced around to see demihumans staring, not doing anything about the situation in front of them.

She ran up closer to the scene, Ace following behind.

“WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING?! PUT IT OUT!”

She yelled at everyone surrounding the flames, wondering what they were standing around for.

“YEAH RIGHT! THAT MAN DESERVES TO BURN IN HELL!”

One demihuman yelled back, not with an alertness to put out the fire, but with a retort, saying it should continue.

“Man...? WHA-!”

Aliza glanced back at the flames, to see someone laying in front, just barely missing the scorch.

She immediately ran up to the man, went to pull him away, but stopped...

“No way...”

A familiar face appeared in Aliza’s vision.

“Mr. Legot...?”