I woke up and lazily sat on the bed. The morning sun shone brightly through the clear window. Everything was silent for a moment. Then I heard a loud snore that startled me. I looked around only to find that everyone was asleep.

They probably got drunk last night and came to the inn late at night. I wonder if we're going to Canavar later today?Well, I don't want to wait here. I'm going out.

I thought to myself as I put on the rest of my clothes. Before I went out I left a letter for Leon in case he woke up.

'Got bored. Went out. Be back in a bit.' I wrote. Nice and simple.

I tiptoed out of the room to not disturb the others and quietly closed the door behind me. I made my way through the hallway down the stairs and then exited the building.

I wanted to go out, But. . . I don't know what I should do. Maybe I'll go practice my gravity magic back in the river.

Once I decided I began walking down the street to the river. As I was walking I saw people opening their stores for the day. The ones who noticed me waved so I returned the gesture.

I got to the river and started lifting pieces of the water. It's a lot easier to use gravity now than it was yesterday. Maybe it's because I just woke up, but I have better control now. I can use it almost immediately.

I spent about an hour training before I started to head back. On the way I saw a little girl, it was one of the kid slaves that were cleaning last night. As she was walking she dropped something. I went to pick it up. It was a small silver ring.

With nothing better to do, I followed her to return the ring. After a while of following her, I was led to a barn on the outskirts of the city. She walked inside while I levitated onto an open hole in the ceiling. Since it was quiet and the barn echoed I could hear every word they were saying.

"Hey, your back. Where did you go?" An older voice said.

"The master asked me to deliver a letter." she said.

"Okay. well, come and rest. We still have some time before we're put to work again."

"Hmm have you seen my ring?" she asked concerned.

"No, you're the one who takes it everywhere."

"Ohh no I hope I didn't drop it in the city. It's the last gift that nash gave me before they took him away. I need to go look for it" she started walking off.

"Wait you can't go out without the master's permission."

"I'm sorry but I need to go look for it." she sounded desperate.

"If he finds out you'll be punished and I can't just sit here while that happens." the older woman then fell over with a groan.

"Mom are you okay?" The girl rushed to her side.

"Don't worry it's just my back. It's been hurting a lot lately." she paused. "Look for the ring when we go to work in the city."

"Okay." the girl said.

"Now come let's go rest together."

Everything went silent.

I then went back outside and walked in through the front door of the barn. Once inside I found that there were more people that I didn't see. Including the group of kids I saw yesterday along with either a family member or a companion. They were all looking at me curiously. Until I found the girl I was looking for.

"Hey, you there." I called out to her.

"M-me?" She said confused and a bit frightened.

"Yes, you. I saw you walking earlier and you dropped this." I said taking out the ring.

She looked surprised but still didn't move.

"Are you just going to stand there, I came all this way to return it. So take it."

She walked up to me and slowly reached for it. I got a little impatient.

"BOO." I jerked my body to scare her.

"GAAHH." she fell backward and started crawling away from me.

"Haha- uhh." I started laughing but then immediately stopped because she looked back at me with tears running down her face.

I wanted to lighten up her mood, but this did the opposite.

"Hey, don't cry. It was just a joke." I said going up to her and wiping the tears away with my shirt. "Here you go." I reached for her hand and put the ring on her finger. Then I helped her up. "I'm sorry about that, are you okay?" I patted her head.

She nodded but didn't say anything.

"Okay, I'll be going now." I said then walked away.

Well, I screwed that one up.

"W-wait." she said. I turned around. She walked up to me and bowed. "Thank you."

I grabbed her shoulder and straightened her. "It's okay, please don't bow."

She made a pained expression when I grabbed her shoulder.

"Are you hurt?" I asked. "let me see?" She pulled her shirt exposing her shoulder.

she's very cooperative, maybe because she's a slave.

There was a dark reddish bruise on it. I touched it lightly, and a small sound escaped from her mouth along with a discomforting face. I started healing.

"Feel better." I asked once I had finished.

She massaged her shoulder and then nodded, but she still looked sad.

"What's wrong? Want me to return the bruise." I said as a joke, but she gave me a frightened look. "I'm just kidding." I added quickly.

"It's just. . . I wish I could do that." she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"My mother has been complaining that her back is hurting, and I want to help her." she said.

"Where is your mother? I can help her." I said.

"Really!?!" she lit up immediately.

"Yeah, it's not a big deal. So where is she?"

"This way." she took me to a woman that was close by watching us.

"Hello, your daughter told me that you have back problems. Can I take a look?" I asked her.

"Sure." she said sounding perplexed. She lifted her shirt to show me her back.

I massaged it for a bit then started healing.

"There we go. is it better?" I asked.

She got up and started stretching it and moving it side to side. Then looked back at me and smiled.

"Thank you, child." she bowed. "Is there any way I can pay you back?"

"You don't have to pay me back. I did this because I wanted to." I said.

"The master is coming." someone said at a distance.

"I should get going." I said.

"Wait, before you go. . . Umm." The little girl grabbed my sleeve. It seemed that she wanted to say something.

I held on to her hand. "It's okay. You don't have to thank me. Now I need to go."

She nodded "bye."

"Bye." I said.

I didn't know how close this 'master' was so I levitated and exited through the hole on the roof. The girl was still looking at me, so I waved goodbye one last time.

I guess I'll go back now.

I was walking on the street which was now full of people and spotted the inn up ahead. I entered and went to the room we had bought for the night. Once there I found a note on my bed.

'Eating breakfast. Go to tavern.' it said.

Now I have to go to the tavern. Actually, I haven't eaten anything since I woke up. Hope I get there in time. I should hurry.

I made it to the tavern and saw the whole party sitting at a round table in the corner. They were in the middle of eating, so they didn't notice me.

"I'm here." I said getting their attention.

"Ohh Ahrtah." I heard Leon say with his mouth full of food.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." I said.

He swallowed "hurry grab something to eat we're leaving after this."

I nodded. I ordered some food and began eating. After that, we went back to the inn to grab our things, and now we're going to the adventurers guild to get permission to pass to Canavar.

There is a big walled area in between a mountain pass. That's the only way to get through, either that, or you could climb the mountain ranges.

We showed our licenses to the guards and they let us pass. As we went through I could feel the change in the air, and just like that, we were on the other side.

"Everyone now that we're on the other side don't drop your guard." Diana the cat woman said. "I'm going scouting up ahead. I'll report back if I see something." She told the group and ran off.

"Well, let's get going." Leon said.

We walked for about half an hour. Then Diana came back.

"There's a group of goblins camping up ahead." she said.

"That's perfect for the kids." Julian said.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go there first." Leon agreed.

We followed Diana to the goblin camp. When we were close Leon told me to watch my step, and not make any necessary noise. The group spread around the encampment ready for Diana's signal. I stayed with Leon and Felix with Julian.

I'm kind of nervous, I've never seen a goblin or any monster. . . Am I shaking?

Without realizing I had grabbed on to Leon's shirt.

"Hey listen." Leon whispered to me. "What Charles said was right there's a hesitation in you just before you attack. Don't hesitate to kill the goblins. If you do it can cause trouble. They'll strike to kill so do the same. I trust that you can handle it."

Just then we heard loud screaming of goblins.

"That's the signal. Let's go. Stay close to me" He quickly ran towards the goblins and I follow behind him.

Even if it is a goblin it still has a life, and I'm sure it doesn't want to be robbed of that life. So it will do whatever it takes to survive. Leon is right, I can't hesitate to kill a monster. I need to do this. This won't be the first time and certainly not last. This is a step I need to take.

At that moment we got to the camp. Leon immediately got to work and started slicing through the goblins easily. I sensed several hostile presences next to me. I turned to look and saw three goblins running toward me.

This is it. No hesitation and no holding back.

I unsheathed my sword and dashed forward at full speed. One of the goblins swung its sword down at me. It was too slow so I swung upward and chopped off the arm that was holding the weapon.

The two other goblins swung at me while I was still occupied with the first one. I let out a repelling gravitational force around me that blew them away.

I made the injured one my priority and charged. Once it was within my range I chopped off its head. Without wasting a second I made my way to the next target. I threw a lightning slash that sliced the goblin in half. Then with gravity magic, I crushed the last one to the ground.

I regrouped with the rest of the party. Once I was there, there was a group of goblins shooting arrows simultaneously. Everyone was getting to defend against them. Then I raised my hand and the arrows stopped midair, then I lowered my hand and the arrows fell to the ground.

At that moment everyone turned around to look at me. I made the archers levitate off the ground, brought them closer to me, and crushed them together until they died. Then dropped the corpses.

I have a longer reach with gravity now thanks to my training.

Now that the archers were gone the group was able to finish off the remaining goblins. After they were defeated. Everyone looked at me expecting me to say something.

"What?" I asked confused.

"Since when are you able to do that?" asked Leon.

"Ever since my duel with Felix, I learned how to manipulate gravity." I said.

"Ohh so that's it. okay, let's go." Leon said.

"Hey wait a minute, what do you mean you learned? You can't just learn something like that. Can you?" Luna, the spear woman said.

"Well, that's what I did." I said.

Felix looked surprised as well.

"All right let's keep going." Leon said.

Everyone looked confused, but we couldn't just stand there. So we kept going north. We kept fighting goblins until it turned dark. We set up our tents in a cave made by Monty, our mage.

Diana said that there's a point further ahead where we will encounter more powerful monsters, and that in this area there are only small beasts because it's close to the human region.

"Father, how far north are we going to travel?" I asked.

"Until we reach the point where the rivers intersect" he said.

"how long will that take?"

"About 3 months."

"Hey, Arata or whatever your name is. Can I ask you something?" I heard Felix's voice.

I turned back to look at him. "What is it?"

"How can you reach so far with gravity?" He asked a little embarrassed.

"What was that?" I said mockingly.

"Ohh shut up. You heard what I said. Ahh, forget it" He started walking away.

"Hold on." I said. "What I did was create a stone boulder and pushed it out as far as I could with gravity, without losing concentration. Do that repeatedly for some time until it feels natural." He stayed silent "Or do you need me to help you step by step." I said as a joke.

"Ohh screw off. I don't need you to do a damn thing!" He paused and turned around. "that was. . . helpful." He then walked away.

I saw Julian with a faint smile looking at Felix.

After a while of talking and laughing, everyone eventually fell asleep.