The last two weeks had been a horror, as Mary had been waiting for the to pass. She had, once again taken up to further evolve her plants, trying to find an upper limit of the evolutions she could still influence. As of yet, she didn't, though she wasn't in it with as much enthusiasm as before, and didn't use as much mana for it as possible, instead saving it up for the upcoming fight.

She let them grow in the boxes where she previously kept the lizards, a spell taking care of them.

She could already see the dwarven city in the distance. While the walls were as high as in any other city, most of the buildings apart from the castle, the guild, some inns and some odd houses that were for larger residents.

As they were using some of the larger roads, they managed to cover fifty five kilometers a day, so after only a day and a half of travelling they already arrived at the city.

Their first stop was, naturally the adventurers guild.

Confidently, Mary strode to the counter and started talking to the attending clerk.

“Hey there!”

“Hello young miss, what can I do for you? Do you want to post a quest?”

“We are here for our advancement quest!”

“Don't you think you are too young to be part of the guild?” She showed her card to the man.

“I am a member of the adventurers guild, and we travelled all the way here to kill that Hugbear that had been bothering you in the last weeks!”

“My apologies, but that monster is reserved for a group already, they should arrive any time now, they even came here from the empire!”

“That's us, we are from the Empire and were told we would be allowed to kill it for our advancement!”

“And how come someone as young as you can speak dwarven as good as you do?”

“Obviously I learnt it from a young age!”

“And why would you learn that? There aren't all that many of the empire’s citizens bothering to learn other languages than their own!”

“Some of us are required to do so!” She gave an angry and very pointed look, finally taking out the permit that had been given to her.”

The dwarf grinned at her.

“You certainly have your way with words young noble of the Empire. What do you want to know?”

“I’d like to know everything you have on that particular beast, its hunting spots, its lair and any habits you know about!”

“Oh you are one of those. Very well, we don't really know where its lair is located, but if you have a map of the local area I can show you where our people were attacked.”

“That would be helpful, just a moment.” The clerk marked several spots just east of the city.

“There you go. I assume you know how they do their hunts?”

“Yes!”

“There isn't much of a habit, though it always hunts at roughly the same time every two days. The only other significant habit a heard about is quite strange, it seems it likes hugging people way more than most of his other species, while they normally only do so without other enemies around, it likes to charge in, take one of the group and give them a quick hug and retreating back before most groups have really noticed it’s there.”

“That's a really nasty thing to do!”

“There is another thing, quite interesting as well, there are several poisonous berries it rubs on his quills!”

“That's really nasty, so it has way more cunning than most of his brethren, anyways, when is its next hunt?”

“Last time I heard it attack someone yesterday, so tomorrow!”

“Thanks a bunch mister, good day to you!”

“Good day to you too!”

She went over to her waiting group.

“We have a day to prepare, this specimen is quite intelligent, don't let it hit you or you will get poisoned by its quills! Furthermore it starts its fights with a quick ‘hug’ incapacitating one person right at the start, so make sure you stay in a group. I presume it will roar directly at the start, hoping to stop any retaliation before it gets one of us!

I did some digging while we were still in the academy, and the roar seems to be air magic, something I should be able to counter. When you hear a roar, stay still and don't move, we don't want to scare it away after all, when the Hugbear is committed, start attacking it! Any questions?”

There were none, so they went in one of the inns, agreeing to meet early next morning, while Mary started observing the hunting grounds looking for the best place for their fight.”

Considering it was still early afternoon, after finding a perfect spot, she decided to go explore the city.

Strapping on her sword and armor, she went to Taimanu’s room and asked her to accompany her.

The city was certainly exotic, while most building had three to four stories, they still looked small even compared to the small town around the academy. At least in height as the area the city covered was way bigger than that of the town.

most of the cities residents were dwarfs, and the few houses meant for elves humans and the lizardfolk were all located in the shadow of the walls, presumably as to not destroy the artistic look of the city.

She had to admit the city was a marvel, not as exotic as the capital, but they only were in a city near the border. She was sure the capital look way more impressive.

The dwarves showed their skills as craftsmen and enchanters, as most of the houses ad some kind of enchantment lying within their foundations. Just by looking around she learnt a few new runes that she would make sure to test out once back at the academy.

“So many small people, I didn't know there were as many of them as that!”

“You shouldn't call them small people Tai, they don't like being called that! Call them Dwarves!”

“Why is that so, I wouldn't be offended if someone called me a cat, well I would because I am a lynx but you get what I mean!”

“Yes I do, but dwarves are a proud folk, and they think anyone calling them small is trying to belittle them!”

“But nobody does that!”

“That not the point Tai! Just don't do it and your life will be easier. I will have to teach you how to handle different cultures one day, learning that in the third year is way too late!”

“Aww do I have to, we learn so much anyways!”

“Yes you do, you don't want to fail a quest because of accidentally insulting the client now won't you?”

“Ok.” Taimanu’s ears and tail dropped adorably, and once again Mary had to fight the urge to pet her, the only thing that would enrage a beastkin.

“Luckily they couldn't understand you!”

While beautiful to look at, the dwarven city soon lost its charm. At dusk, they returned to the inn, having a hearty dinner with their group and the teacher before going to bed for the night.

Mary was up early, so she set out an woke her team, making sure they were sufficiently prepared for the hunt.

After breakfast, she took out the map and started explaining the plan.

“Alright, listen up, as you can see the Hugbear always hunts in the same area, it seems to have developed a taste for dwarves and will take them over other things, even easier prey!

As you can see its mostly seen in these areas, so well try to comb at least two of them and hope it will find us, if it doesn't, Tai and me will try to track it down to its lair while you settle down and wait for us!

Like I said yesterday, stay as a group as much as possible and if you spot something tell me immediately! I will make sure you aren't affected by its roar but stay still anyways.

As you know this will be the last mission we are allowed to take together, so let's continue our trend.

I don't want to lose our last quest!”

They were the first to leave the eastern gates that day, and the guards told them in no uncertain words that only fools and idiots left the town to the east.

After thirty minutes of following the road, they arrived at the first spot on their map, their prey nowhere to be seen. Of course, Starshadow was already searching for the beast, ever since his evolution he had been even more useful for her as she could ask him to do way more complicated things than before, just as she was about to turn to one of the other sites, he told her he found it, it was on its way to one of the other hunting grounds, a logging site the dwarves used.

If they hurried, they would manage to arrive just before it. Even better was the fact that said site was the optimal thing for the encounter as all the logs that were abandoned there would help limit the impact of the beasts charge by quite a margin.

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the site of the fight. as luck would have it, the wind came out of the direction of the beast, so Tai told them to expect it.

“Alright, let's go in the circle of logs there, that should be able to stop it, Dehla if you think your weapon can stop it you can try to do quite some damage. Don't use fire or it will go on a rampage and make sure to net let it get anywhere near you! Otherwise, try piercing attacks if possible, I will use my lighting to slow its reactions!”

Seconds after she finished, she could feel a buildup of mana in the direction of the beast, so she quickly raised the spell that should counteract the attack.

The moment she raised the shield, they all heard a powerful roar from the far side of the clearing. Her spell didn't work just like intended, she could feel the effect was greatly weakened, but it had another component than the air she blocked, so parts of it still took effect.

After the roar, they could see it charging out of the treeline. She could still move, and it seemed as Starshadow hadn't been affected she was able to snap out of it almost instantly, though the fear she had felt had been quite unpleasant.

“Snap out of it! Prepare! Turn on it in 3, 2, 1, GO! She hissed at them, turned and shot a bolt of lightning at the monsters snout.

It let out another powerful roar, this time without the magic and increased its pace in anger.

With that mass charging at them, she really wanted something other than a few logs between her and that monster.

That didn't matter, they were committed now, and she started focusing her spells on one of its feet, hoping it would lose control for a short while.

After it crossed two thirds of the clearing and only needed to cross another ten meters, her gamble paid off and it stumbled, leaving behind a bearsized track and finally being stopped dead by the logs and Dehlas halberd piercing its back.

The others had snapped out of their magic induced stupor and started hitting it with spells as fast as they could manage.

Of course the monster wasn't nice enough to sit there and let them kill it.

The hugbear was on its feet only seconds after coming to a stop, destroyed the little cover they had.

Dehla landed a good hit above the monsters eyes, causing it to roar in rage again, but obstructing its sight as the blood started flowing out of the wound. Their other melee fighter had, by now, crept around the monster and attacked the tendons of its hindlegs.

He was successful and the bear turned around to attack him instead, giving them time to attack again. It stood up, trying to plow down their friend, when Taimanu landed a perfect icicle in its neck, causing it to fall down in rage. Without the ability to move, they were able to easily take care of it, killing it in minutes.

Taking the proof of their kill, they returned to the city, none of their usual chatter present. That monster had been way more powerful than she had thought possible, and she would have never forgiven herself if one of her team had died. She would have to make sure to be better prepared the next time, and not rush it like she did today, without the terrain they would have lost at least two of their own!

While she had some accusation against herself, her team had no reason to be so down, they solved the situation expertly after all.

“Stop the sad faces, we are Bronze adventurers now! You did extremely well today, of course what happened shouldn't have happened if I planned properly. You all did good, Douho, good thinking, I'm sure you saved Dehla some quite severe injuries! And nice shot Tai, hitting its spinal cord like that!”

At her words, her team perked up, walking a little more straight, and their faces lost the scowl and started smiling. Taimanu looked at her.

“You did nothing wrong, your planning is the reason we are where we are, and we had no idea that thing would be as powerful as it was, none of us think it’s your fault!” She said that with such conviction and emotions that Mary couldn't doubt her words, and she even started to smile after the rest agreed with the lnyxkin.

They returned to the city half an hour later. Without any pause, they went to the guild to get their rank updated. Mary went to the same clerk as yesterday.

“I'm back!”

“Welcome, you need more info?”

“No, we killed it!”

“Well that was quick! You know what I need?”

“Of course, here is the proof!” He looked at them.

“You are better than you look, taking out something like a hugbear without serious injury is nothing to scoff at, congratulation on reaching the Bronze rank, if you would give your cards to me so i can update them? ”

He did just that, as well as giving out the rewards, as they turned to leave, he shouted into the room.

“THE EAST IS SAFE AGAIN, THIS GROUP KILLED THE BEAST THAT PLAGUED OUR TOWN FOR THE PAST WEEKS!”

Everyone already there started cheering, though as it was still morning quite a few of the tables were still empty. Some even wanted to drink with them, but were rebutted by the teacher, something about being too young to be allowed to do that.