-Ria POV-

After flying pretty far away from zappy I landed at an open space far away from the forest. It was a grassy area with some normal animals littered around the place. As soon as I landed on my feet I immediately fell flat on my face. With the numbness from the shock gone I could feel the pain of having both leg bones fractured. I didn’t realize it but even my arm that blocked the blow had gotten dislocated since I didn’t fully shifted the arm there were some injuries on it. How did I punch someone with a dislocated shoulder. More importantly how long will it take for my injuries to heal. I don’t know if there were any shelter around this area.

I had already popped my dislocated shoulder back into place and had created a stick made out of earth to support myself as I walked to the place with buildings among it. Its what I assume to be zappy and his gang destination but for now it has shelter exactly what I needed. This new town was huge in comparison with the one I was in before. If this town was a tree the other one would be nothing more than a leaf among its branches. They shouldn’t be able to find me here if I’m careful I hope. If they do somehow find me I swore to not underestimate zappy again and go all out if we do fight again.

My first priority would be to obtain clothing that stand out less and a cloak to replace the one I had burnt to ash. I had however lost all my money as well from the fight with the knight so I needed a method to procure some. Maybe getting a few easy quest from the adventurer association would help. My iron bracelet survived the fight, but its shape is somewhat deformed due to being expose to extreme temperatures of my flames during the fight.

Actually upon closer inspection of the entrance its probably a city rather than a town. The whole place was surrounded by high walls that were possible for me to climb but it would attract unneeded attention if I do so. I waited until it was morning before I approached the entrance. There was only one entrance with multiple wagons and such with goods on it that had to inspected before being allowed in. I went towards the entrance to enter only to be stopped by the guards asking for my identity and reason for visit.

I told him I was a adventurer that wanted to visit the city. I showed him the proof I was a iron rank and my flawless childish act worked. As I thought it was zappy that was weird for not falling for it. Externally I didn’t look damaged and even the fractures were healing so I could pretend to be perfectly fine in front of the guard.

Once in I proceeded with my plan and went into the adventurer guild that took me about thirty minutes or so of wondering around before finding the emblem the adventurer guild in the other town had as well. I went to the board with various quest posted on it. The boards are separated by rank so I went to the board for iron ranks. Most of the quest are simple gathering quest and some E rank daema subjugation. There weren’t any quest for dungeons since there weren’t any easy ones around here. There are after all only nine in this entire country easy enough for a E rank to safely venture into. Well eight now since I had completely destroyed one of them.

I took the gathering ones without hesitation and went to the counter to register myself for the quest. Within the thirty minutes of wondering around town I had manage to get used to the various stares I was getting. It was no exception here either as people stared at me from all directions. The person behind the counter had to except my request since I had a proof I was a adventurer even though I was child like in appearance. She did look shock but that quickly faded back into her professional smile as she finalized my request. I quickly walked out of the building and out of the city to complete the quest. The quest reward depends on the amount I could gather. The more I gather the more I would earn. There was even an example picture on the quest which I recognize as I had seen it all over the forest countless number of times.

As a matter of fact rather than hunt for it I had a better idea. Once out of the city I ran to the forest with my legs being reinforced with mana to allow such a feat. It didn’t exactly got rid of the pain but it was bearable compared to the pain of over using partial form. As a matter of fact partial forming hurt more than the fracture currently did. Once in the forest I put my idea into action. I picked one of them that was needed and buried into the ground in front of me. I then poured my mana into the plant and tried to multiplied it as I had done to fruit trees when I was a dragon.

My plan for once actually worked and the plant continued to grow in huge bundles in front of me. I repeated the process a few times using my demibeast form mana which was inferior to my dragon one but good enough to create more than I could carry. Carrying my spoils gained by cheating I ran back to city with a huge bundle of them.

Going into the adventurer guild with a huge bundle of them I went to the counter to get my reward. This time she had a look of shock which lasted much longer than it did before.

“How did you gather so many of them in a mere hour.”

Oh……. A drawback to my plan I seemed to have overlooked. It seems my plans are fated to forever be flawed. I knew that everything was going to well for this to be true.

“I found a huge bunch of them in the forest.” I quickly lied to hopefully save myself. She looked at me suspiciously but said no more as she counted the amount of them I had gathered and awarded me accordingly. My spoils had given me about 50 silver coins. I took the reward I hurried out of the building before she could question me any further.

Using the reward I bought some cheap equipment from a armor store for adventurers. I bought equipment made of leather. It had a iron chest guard and leather shoes and gloves. Since I was so small the man had to adjust the size for a while around three hours or so in which I merely waited patiently. The total came to about 30 silver. I put the equipment on over my fur clothing, since the fur clothing had proven itself to be able survive if I go all out. The armor shop owner seemed to have gone to the trouble of making it a leather skirt rather than pants for me. Whenever he talked to me he had a weird smile but I thought nothing of it since I finally had normal clothing at least what the humans consider normal. It was similar to what the new female adventurer I saw in the other town wore, other than the fact it was smaller since I was after all the size of a kid.

I also proceeded to go into a clothing store next and bought a small cloak perfect for my size for 10 silver. I thought demibeast were discriminated against. People seemed to be treating me strangely well when I pretend to be a child. Well it doesn’t matter since I had managed to complete my objective. All there is to do left is find a inn to rest and allow my injuries to recover.

After a little more wondering around as I had done to find all the places I needed to go to, I found the inn. The price for a night was 1 silver which was much more expensive compared to the inn in the town. I didn’t hesitate to pay 3 silver for 3 nights and went to the room to rest. The room was much nicer than the other inn so I guess it was fair to charge more. I went for the bed and finally had a good rest for the first time in ages.

-Alex POV-

When mjolnir had come back form what we thought would be a easy win for him against the unknown entity he had detected, he was to our surprised injured. He limped back into our camp we had set up slowly resting his back against one of the tree.

“It was the dragon girl. She looked like a demibeast child.”

What a demibeast child? The one I saw looked like a teenager at the very least. She looked no way liked a demibeast as well.

“Alex did she have silver hair and golden eyes.”

“Yes sir” According to my memories she did indeed possess silver hair and golden eyes.

“Than she is truly hiding herself as a kid. She seemed to be able to freely change back into her real form on any part of her body. At least I now know her weakness. When she is disguising herself as a demibeast she is much weaker than a dragon. Even I could injure her when she is in that form. We must report my findings to the higher ups at once.”

After saying so he tried to stand up before collapsing onto his knees. All of us advised him to rest before heading back out. Rushing would after all get us nowhere since she had ran away.

“Very well. We will head out as soon as my injuries get better.”

After a while he finally listened to our persuasion. Thinking about it Clarisse the youngest A rank ever was friends with a demibeast back then when she was a kid. She was part of the trio which gave me a problem in the mock combat all the way back than. I still remembered it vividly since nearly getting serious on children was a huge blow to my pride back than. She didn’t have silver hair though I recall that demibeast having blonde hair with a streak of silver running through it.

(Author Note) : Hello its me again with a early release today :D . I really love reading all you're comments :) one of my favourite part of my day. About last chapter comments about getting captured and such will remain a mystery for now ;)