With the dawning sun in the background, dying the sky a light orange, Loganel, Azura, and Juliana had already returned to the safety of the Capital city, Astalan. Loganel had brought the drops that they had collected from the day's hunt and was accompanied by Juliana and Azura when he went to the market to see if he could sell the drops for money.

"So all in all, we made about One silver and twenty Copper today," Azura concluded. "So split that among three people and that's fourty Copper each." Azura then reached into the pouch on her belt and took out eighty Copper coins. "Here you go...What're you looking at me like that for?"

"No," Loganel explained, "just thought that you're actually not that bad of a person and everything."

"Do I look like that I'm a bad person?" She looked at Loganel with a doubtful stare.

"No no no," Loganel denied, "just that um..."

Azura sighed and brought her left hand to her left hand to her head as if trying to soothe a headache of some sort.

"What's wrong?" Juliana asked.

"Nothing," Azura shook her head as she answered her. She then looked at the sky, and from the color of it was able to decipher the time of day. "I'll be heading back to the dorms now. Good night."

She then turned around and began walking towards the Academy but was halted by Juliana.

"We're heading back too," Juliana said, "so let's go together."

Azura, appearing somewhat troubled, considered Juliana's proposal for a second before sighing once again. "I can't stop you so sure." She appeared extremely fatigued.

"Are you sure you're fine?" Loganel asked, showing little emotion in his question.

"Are you concerned about me?" Azura smiled. "Don't worry. I'm not that fragile."

Loganel sighed at Azura's comments, and reluctantly started following her and Juliana as they started for the Academy.

When the three had arrived at the Academy, the sun was at the horizon, leaving behind little light. However, the streetlights, fueled by Mana, that had just turned on provided light.

"Where are you going?" Loganel asked as Azura started towards the dorms for the normal students. "Our dorms are that way isn't it?"

"No," Azusa said, looking away from him, "I stay in these dorms."

"Is that so?" Juliana nodded as of discovering something about Azura. "Would you like to head to our place for dinner, Azura?"

"Please excuse me," Azura politely declined, "but I think I shall decline that offer." She nodded at the two of them, and then started walking towards the girl"s dorms, and Loganel and Juliana merely watched her as she went off.

When the two of them started for their special dorms that was located elsewhere in the Academy, they walked in silence. With the setting sun in the background and the occasional students passing by them, they walked. However, the silence was only broken when Juliana spoke once again.

"She's quite brave," the girl remarked.

"Yeah?" Loganel merely answered to demonstrate that he's listening.

Juliana chuckled and smiled. "What do you think about her?" she asked. "I think she's a nice person even though her words might be harsh."

"Harsh?" Loganel repeated. "That's not harsh at all," he said sarcastically.

That night, the two of them ate dinner in peace. Redgilus and Laurina were both in their own respective dorm suites, tired from their own day of hunting. In Loganel's suite, the two merely sat eating a meal that consisted of simple bread and vegetable soup next to the dinning table.

"Man I'm tired of eating this," Loganel complained after taking a bite from the bread.

Juliana sighed. "Maybe once we make more money, we can start eating better food." She then stood up and brought her empty bowl of soup over to the sink and began washing them. "As for now," she continued, "please bear with it."

"I know," Loganel answered and finished the last bite of his bread. He yawned as he brought his empty bowl over to the sink, and Juliana accepted the bowl and started cleaning it as well.

"You should head to bed now," Juliana suggested, "you look pretty tired."

"I'll wait for you to finish as well," Loganel said, sitting back down at the dinner table and rested his face on his hand.

Juliana chuckled as she was humored by his suggestion. "If you wish."

Early next morning, when the sun had just rose, the Loganel, Azura, and Juliana gathered at the entrance of the Academy. They were ready to head out of the city walls and commence their hunt for the day. However, they weren't the only one. There were numerous other student parties gathering and readying to leave for their hunts as well.

"So where're we going today?" Juliana asked.

"I was thinking the same thing as yesterday," Azura suggested. "This is only our second day. I don't think it'll be safe for us to challenge the more challenging areas."

"But we hunted for a whole day and only made about forty Copper each," Loganel complained. "At this rate, we'll never be able to upgrade our gear and earn more."

"Would you rather die then?" Azura looked at him with a faint, amused smile.

"I'd rather not," Loganel sighed. "Let's go then."

The forest was calm when they had arrived, with only the chirping of the birds in the canopy. However, the three of them were all on alert. They know that if they were hunting monsters, the monsters are also hunting them.

"One goblin by the riverbed," Loganel said to the others as he peeked over the bushes and at a tiny green creature that was filling a waterskin with river water. "Doesn't suspect a thing."

"Should we do it?" Juliana asked, kneeling behind Azura.

"Yes," Azura nodded with the same cold and expressionless face she always had.

"Let's go then," Loganel said, carefully emerging from the bushes so as to not make a noise in order to sneak up on the goblin.

He brought a finger to his pursed lips so as to signal for the other two to not make any noises and carefully walked over to the goblin. He wasn't very adapt at sneaking since he wasn't part of the Assassin or Thief School. However, due to the fact that he was wearing light armor, he could still manage to do so.

When he got to a few meters from the unsuspecting creature, he began dashing at it with his naked blade by his side, tip pointed at the area beneath the skinny goblin's rib cage.

The goblin let out a cry as the cold metal pierced its skin. The sword penetrated the muscles underneath, and past the organs before the tip of the blade, now red with blood, came out the other side of the goblin. In pain, the goblin turned its head so that it looked at Loganel from over its shoulders. It then tried to reach for its dagger that rested on the ground near it, but Loganel, twisting and turning his sword, prevented it from doing so by bringing upon it even more pain and suffering. However, the goblin still struggled. It still yearned for survival. That's why it continued to reach for the dagger.

Die already, Loganel thought. This feeling...it's so disgusting. I can't keep this up forever.

Loganel was disgusted by the feel of blade slicing flesh that the handle of his sword brought to him. He was sick from this. However, he insisted that he keep his eyes open and maintain alertness so as to not risk the monster pouncing on him and causing him harm.

Loganel sighed a sigh of relief as the monster finally stopped moving, resting limp on his sword before finally sliding off of the metal. In response, Loganel pulled his sword out of the carcass of the dead goblin, and swung the sword to his side so as to free it of the goblin's blood before sheathing his sword.

"Seems pretty tough," Azura commented in the still cold mask that she wore.

"How bout you try and do this?" Loganel said, holding out his hands before him. Those two hands of him, partly covered in blood, was trembling. "I just can't get used to this."

Azura walked over to the river and took out her handkerchief with Loganel's eyes fixed on her every graceful movement. She knelt we down and wetted it with the fresh water from the river. She then proceeded to stand back up and walk over to him and started wiping his hands for him.

"It's normal to not get used to killing," she whispered with a sad face as she stared at his hands.

"Azura..." Loganel stared at her in shock. She appeared so focused as she looked down at his two hands, which she had in hers, and carefully cleaned the blood off of it.

"Yes?" she looked up at Loganel's eyes.

They were close in proximity to each other, leading to a faint blush on Loganel's face. "Thanks..." he answered.

"Let us continue now," Azura said, carefully putting away the still wet handkerchief after washing it in the river. She then started walking back towards the trees.

As Loganel started walking after her, he caught Juliana staring at him with a weird smile on her face. "What're you looking at?"

"Nothing," she smiled as she walked off. "Just think that you've grown up."

"Isn't that obvious?" Loganel whispered, still confused as to what Juliana had meant.

As the sun had made its path across the blue sky and appeared on the western half of the sky, the day's hunt has gone on quite successfully. They had chosen to only take on monsters that they know that they could defeat, not pushing themselves and playing it safe in order to minimize the chances at injury.

Through the day's hunt, Loganel slowly felt more and more at ease in combat. Even though his job of attracting the attention of the monsters, mainly goblins, that they went up against was quite tough and daunting, he was always able to accomplish it with difficult maneuvers of his feet. The process of constantly retreating, but also side stepping so that he could draw the enemy creature away from the healer Juliana gradually trained him in his footwork. Other than the constant dodging and blocking, Loganel doesn't have to do much other than that. With the attention all attracted to him, Azura could easily attack from the behind of the goblins, getting an easy kill in the process.

Just like that, their day ended. The next morning, it repeated again. The day after that, it repeated once again. Day after day, they repeated their routine of heading to the forest, defeating monsters, and returning to Astalan by nightfall with the setting sun still somewhat in the sky. However, even with the routine, each day wasn't easy. Every single encounter, there was always the threat of getting injured, or even killed. Every single encounter, they were always forced to be on high alert, forcing themselves to not make a single mistake.

But with these rigorous battles came a transformed trio. The three of them had become more and more adapt at battles, and had developed an unique chemistry that resulted in them able to predict each other's moves in battle. This had allowed them to fight with even more efficiency, thus increasing the daily amount that they earned.

One day, when returning home from the market after selling off the day's spoils, they headed back to their dorms as usual. However, due to the fact that it has been two weeks since the start of their hunts in the forests, the distance between them, or at least between Juliana and Azura had decreased, resulting in them occasionally engage in chit chats on the way back to the dorms.

"Azura," Juliana asked one day, "you live alone right? Wanna head to our place and have dinner tonight?"

"..." Azura paused and considered for a second. "Sorry but please allow me to decline."

"Why?" Juliana inquired.

"I don't feel safe being in a same room as him," she said, glancing over at me.

"Me?!" I exclaimed. "What the hell?! No one would even consider you!"

"Are you sure about that?" Azura said with a mysterious look on her face.

"Azura is pretty even to me," Juliana commented with a small chuckle. Retaining that smile on her face, she redirected the conversation back to the topic that she had brought up. "It's fine," she assured her, "he doesn't have the bravery to do such things."

"What?" Loganel, felt a stab at his chest from Juliana's words, leading him to feel somewhat depressed as he walked.

"Hmm...I'll think about it," Azura finally said.

Suddenly Loganel stopped in his tracks. "You to go ahead," he said, "I still need to go buy Mazriel's food."

"Mazriel?" Azura looked at him with a confused look.

"I never told you before?" Loganel said, "I have a cat named Mazriel."

"We had him for about three years now," Juliana explained. "Loganel found him three years ago abandoned as a kitten. We've been taking care of him since."

"I'll go tonight," Azura suddenly said.

"What?" Loganel looked at her somewhat confused. "Go where?"

"You know..." Azura blushed a bit and avoided making eye contact with Loganel and Juliana. "To your place for dinner..." Her voice became increasingly quieter near the end, leading to it being completely inaudible to Loganel and Juliana.

"What's that?" Loganel asked, wanting her to repeat once again.

"I said I'll go to your place for dinner tonight..." she said, slightly louder this time, but still on the quieter side. However, Juliana, being closer to her than Loganel, was able to hear what she had said this time.

"What?" Loganel asked once again, unable to hear what she had said.

"I said--"

"Just go and buy the cat food," Juliana stepped in and interrupted her. "Let's go," she said to Azura before walking off with her.

"What the hell was that all about?" Loganel said to himself as he watched the two girls walk off.

"Kitty," Azura quietly whispered with a happy expression on her face as she walked away.