Merglobth welcomed us back into their study, asked us how we were doing on this fine morning, and then got to the point.

“I see that you seem to be still in a conciliatory mood, so I’d like to know if you were ready to take on your first [Quest] in the [Wild].”

I looked at Sheeno with a raised eyebrow, and after a sigh and a nod, I gave the confirmation for the both of us.

“Splendid! Don’t worry, it won’t be anything too taxing; you’ll just be tasked with clearing one of the nearby territories of [Monsters], and inform the [Guild] if the area has sprouted any new [Dungeons] not marked on our maps.”

As they finished saying, a screen popped up:

You have received a new [Quest]:

Common routine:

0/?

Patrol the designated area and clear it of threats. Finding any new [Dungeons] that may have been birthed recently will result in increased rewards, depending on reported numbers and types.

“That’s great, but I think we’ll depart only after breakfast: No point in going now if we’ll have immediately to camp so to sate our hunger. So, see you later Merglobth!” I said, and by my companion’s pleased expression it was the right thing to say.

* * *

The cafeteria of the [Rainbow Guild] was absolutely massive. But with the impressive number of people already in it, considering it was only for breakfast, there might be times when it would result not big enough to seat everybody.

Not that I really cared about that, the dull room (or as ‘dull’ a room can be when made of colorful bricks) was just a place with rows of stone tables where to eat, and one wall replaced with tens of cubicles from where [Maids] sold the food.

Honestly, I was more interested as to why there were [Maids] at all: With the utility of Magic one would think the more menial jobs would be trivially achievable by everybody with a mere thought. And yet it didn’t seem so.

I was eating a few scrambled eggs, blue scrambled eggs, with a glass that looked and smelled like tomato juice, but was infinitely sweeter, to wash it all down; also, the more I tasted it, the more I was convinced that the blue eggs were related to the blue chicken I found myself often ordering, which I probably noticed only because it was the first thing ever I ate in this world, and kept holding a special place in my stomach, or something along those lines.

It only took a short while after watching Sheeno pile up her plate tall with bacon and sausages, to recognize that I had mistakenly thought that some of that absurd quantity of meat was meant to be shared. She quickly proved me wrong by shoveling half of her plate into her mouth in less than 5 minutes.

Not that she didn’t share, but the pout adorning her face, when handing out a couple of strips of bacon, made it clear that she did so reluctantly.

“I didn’t fail to notice that you still haven't gotten a secondary support [Spell], contrary to one of the faults that we pointed out after our spar and that you so vehemently wanted to correct as soon as possible”, Sheeno stated between bites.

“I already have a pretty clear idea about what I want, and just for your information, it will be an [Enhance Skill]. I’m just waiting to try and make it when it’s needed, to see whether I can successfully [Spell-Weave] during combat, just like you previously proposed”, I responded, once I was done with my own bite.

“That’s not a bad idea, the area we’re getting sent to is pretty [low level], so there shouldn’t be any problem with you attempting to do so. It’s definitely better that you’re being proactive about it and testing it in a semi-controlled real situation, instead of in the midst of life and death combat. If anything, I’m kinda impressed that you’re not pushing for another mock fight to test it even more safely.”

She did have a point, but the response came naturally to me.

“I already promised that I’ll fight you again once I got my kit to the proper level, and I feel that anything before that would cheapen the deal.”

She paused her eating to stare at me for a few long seconds, before pointing her fork at me.

“You can get weirdly serious about the strangest things.”

“I know.”

WE know.

* * *

One last stop at our favorite ‘nightmare from the beyond’ ‘s den, and we were given a map. An unnecessarily detailed map, somewhere in between a photo from a satellite and one you would get in an open world game, with stylized symbols to mark everything.

It was actually pretty cool to look at, since it shifted its hues to make it so it always had the best visibility for its user, which meant that it would probably glow in the dark, and a glow in the dark map, for some weird reason, made me immediately feel like a teen in a horror movie for children: One of those where everybody was camping and they get picked off one by one by the bad guy, but, in the end, it’s revealed that no-one actually died, and they were only kidnapped.

And this morbid thought is supposed to help us how!?

“It isn’t, and I’m not too sure why I had it myself.”

Maybe a reference to future happenings, but I hoped not.

“Now, on the eastern side, the castle represents the [Guild], while the towers dotting the map represent the various outposts manned by [Guards], [Adventurers], and medic teams, there to give help whenever necessary. On the rest of the map you can see claw marks, which represent the marked territories of strong [Monsters], what look like cave entrances, which are the known locations to entrances of [Dungeons], and lastly, skulls, which are the last known locations of missing people, now presumed dead” Informed us Merglobth.

On that somber note, and after some pointed questions from both me and Shenno for the color coding, we went to the common room to say our goodbyes.

While the madness-inducing mass of tentacles was teasing the…

“You know, maybe Sheeno doesn’t deserve the nicknames I usually name people with, even in my head. The last thing I’d need would be to say any of them out loud.”

Oh, she gets preferential treatment now?

“With you it’s different, you know through my emotions, that you can still read, that I don’t mean anything with it… most of the time.”

Fine.

What about other people?

“Other people will deserve it until they prove otherwise.”

I do not like that line of thought, but it is a step in the right direction.

“I get it, I get it! We’ll be safe, and not explore any of the dangerous zones. Only limiting ourselves to the assigned one”, exclaimed an exasperated Sheeno.

“Good. Then off you go! And remember to keep an eye out for any discrepancies, or weirdness you may encounter!”

“Yeah, yeah. Gosh, he’s almost as bad as when my mother was helping me elope the kingdom”, she muttered, once out of their earshot.

…

Not that they had ears.

“Where’s your bag?” I asked once she walked right past me, intent on exiting the building.

As a response, she just pulled up one of her hands, with the only thing of note on it being a ring with a medium-sized ruby adorning it.

“Is that your [Spatial Pouch]!?”

In hindsight, she already told me about having one, but never would I have guessed that it would have been so small, nor that it would have been so uncumbersome.

She gave me a grin as a reply, and the only thing I could do in return was angrily fix the straps of my leather bag.

“You know, I could just buy one-“, she started saying with a sickeningly sweet voice.

“Let’s just get moving. I don’t need that much mobility as a back-liner anyway”, I interrupted her.

Laughing, and slapping my shoulder on the way, she got back in front, and led the way through the sea of people present, giving me something inviting to look at the entire time.

And with that I found myself thinking about since when was I that big of a pervert and speculating on the reason why Sheeno had yet to call me out on it, even though she caught me staring at her butt a couple of times, with a backward glance.

Stepping out of the [Rainbow Guild] I started immediately feeling better, noting that the [polluted ambient Mana] had been exerting an almost undetectable amount of pressure over me the entire time I was subject to it in high quantities, without me really noticing.

“How can Merglobth can even resist living there!?”

Maybe his senses are not as powerful as yours, or maybe he developed some kind of resistance to the ill effects.

“That’s a lot of ‘maybes’, and the first one sounds unlikely.”

My back and forth with [Buddy] was interrupted by a question from Sheeno.

“Do you want to get there at a moderate pace, walking towards our objective, or do you want to get there as fast as possible?”

After a few seconds of deliberation, I carefully responded to her, wary of the smirk she was failing to hide in its entirety.

“The faster we get there, the least amount of time we would waste. And since the area of our investigation is right at the border of the [Wild Area] we won’t even have to bother with random mobs until we reach it.”

I was saying that I was looking around and unfortunately noticed too late the Dwyrm carrying two of their teammates by hand in flight.

“You’re not going to carry-WOAH!” My protest fell on deaf ears, especially since the intended recipient didn’t let me finish them, and instead opted to grab me and put me in a princess carry faster than I could react, and since the actions had no evil intentions behind it even [Precognitive Aura] failed to warn me.

“[Quest], here we come!” And with that said she started leaping in the air, leaving frosted patches on the ground whenever she would land, with the first leap landing us far away from the others present to be safe to continue doing so.

“PUT ME DOWN, OR [LUCK] HELP ME I’LL_”

Nah, this is too funny to watch.

Enjoy the ride! ;)

“[Buddy]?”

;)

“FUUUUUUUUUCK!!!”

My impotent rage made me steam, but the emotion quickly morphed into shame at the sight of the people behind us pointing and laughing.

“Once this is done. I’ll make you. Pay for this!” I shouted at my captor, interrupting my speech every time we landed, causing me to jolt against her breastplate.

“And I didn't even get the first class treatment with extra cushions… fuck!”

Jokes asides, I wasn’t pleased with my treatment, and my complaints would be heard… when the one that was supposed to hear them couldn’t simply throw me like a football, though.

The further away we got from the [Guild], the more greenery we saw, and, in the distance, we could see a veritable wall of trees, delimitating the beginning of the [Wilds]. Also, once in view of the immense forest, I took the occasion to lower my goggles to my neck, almost poking an eye out in the process.

While not polluted, the ambiance of the [Wilds] was chock full of both [Aether] and [Mana], which I already knew was the reason why it was filled with [Monsters], but actually seeing the phenomenon was another thing altogether.

In the distance I could actually see fragments of [Matrixes] forming on their own, confirming my hypothesis that they indeed were also a natural occurrence, with [Spells] and [Skill] being a more controlled version of their natural counterpart, which could be twisted to the user’s intent.

Once at the line of trees Sheeno gently deposited me on my feet, and then made everything in her power to not look at me.

“I know that you heard me while we traveled, and you know what I’m going to say, right?” I asked with barely controlled anger.

“I’ll find a way to make it up to you, don’t worry. I just had a sudden bout of inspiration and I couldn’t miss the occasion”, she replied, giving me an intense look for a few seconds, before switching back to not looking at me.

My rage abated a bit, but I would not be so easily tamed.

“ ’Sudden bout of inspiration’ my ass! You just saw someone else doing something similar, and decided to annoy me with it!” I shouted at her.

“Well, if you had let me buy a means of transportation I wouldn’t have had the occasion to do so!” She shouted back.

“Oh my- Is this still about the thing about you spending for the both of us!? I thought I was being a bit pedantic about it, but you’re just as bad in the opposite way!” I made my realization loud and clear.

“Yes, and you’ll learn to deal with it!” She stated, folding two of her arms.

“Or what!?” I slowly asked.

Instead of responding to me, I saw her folded arms twitch, and with a timely warning from my [Aura], I sprinted towards the forest, in a direction clear of enemies.

Sheeno could clearly be heard hot on my tail.