The following day, Maria stood in front of both Rin and Xhez at the Meditation Center. Here, she explained to them a few things about the orcs they'd be taking on.

"The creatures you'll be fighting are similar in some ways to kobolds," she explained. "They are humanoids with their own primitive social hierarchy. As such, when you reach their fort, you can expect to find similar categories of warriors to what you would find in, for example, a group of adventurers. A knight, a healer, a combat mage, an archer, etc. Despite that, they are not intelligent enough to coordinate attacks or execute complex strategies. With that being the case, you'll want to focus on their ranged fighters first. The orcs will usually just allow you, too, because, again, they do not have the intelligence to understand that they should not let you do that."

Xhez had a thoughtful look as she heard these words. On Rin's end though, she was honing in on one specific detail there.

"So, like kobolds, do they use similar spellsigns to humans?"

"Yes," Maria quickly replied. "If you've been paying attention in Harriton's class, you'll notice a few familiar signs. It makes facing them easier, certainly, but don't get cocky. Orcs are significantly stronger than kobolds. One wrong move and you will die."

One misstep, one small lapse in judgment, and it would all be over. Rin knew that to be the truth. She'd seen it herself, after all.

"Will you be heading out today?" Maria asked then.

"Yeah... Still a little sore from training, but yeah."

"Head over to the cafeteria then and grab yourself some healing food. You'll want to be in good condition from the moment you walk out of the city to when you get back. Remember, it's a ruined world you're stepping into whenever you go outside these walls. Something bad could always be lurking nearby."

---

"Xhez, are you done?" Rin asked as she and the sprite put their clothes on in her room. Rin wore her armor, while Xhez put on something casual.

"Yes," the sprite replied and Rin turned to find her adjusting her sleeves. Her hair was black and her skin was beige, as she'd cast her illusion already. Rin's clothes were as baggy as ever on her, but, today, Rin felt like the sight was even cuter than usual. "Will you not read this?"

Rin blinked.

"Read what?"

"A letter came in a while ago," Xhez stated. "It seems you did not notice."

She handed it to Rin and the adventurer quickly opened it.

"It's from my mom..." Rin's eyes narrowed as she read the letter under her breath.

"Ah, I see. That is convenient. Maybe we should teach my mothers how to send letters."

"Um... Yeah."

Rin's tone softened as she took the written words in.

"Are you alright?" Xhez asked. "What did she say?"

"Her condition's gotten a little worse... out of nowhere, apparently. She's still working, though, but... yeah. I dunno," Rin said, folding the paper up and putting it away. "I should go visit her before the next semester starts."

Hearing from her mother reminded her of her main objective in coming here and trying to become an adventurer.

To provide for her family. What little of it she had left.

She hadn't made too much money so far, and doing her usual late-night activities was likely not going to work out for a while, at least until the Scorned forgot about Triss. So, she supposed that meant she'd be taking more missions in addition to this one.

"Come on," she said, picking her bag up. "Let's head out."

With that being said, the two of them exited the room.

The academy's halls were still empty, as students hadn't yet come back from their vacations. Rin hadn't seen Eve, Lisa, Sara, or any of her other classmates in a while. She wondered what they were doing these days. Had they kept their training up? If they had, would the gap between her and them be even wider?

Feeling herself getting slightly melancholic, Rin pushed that thought out of her mind. She'd put her time to good use so far, between going to see Xhez's parents and now this. If there was an unlimited amount of time in her day, maybe she could train more. Unfortunately, that was not the case. So, this was the best she could do for now.

She and Xhez left the city and quickly began making their way to the spot on the map. It wasn't too far.

On the way to the fort, there were broken-down cars, carriages, old pieces of strange machinery, and signs leading nowhere. Like Maria had reminded Rin before, this was a ruined world. She needed to keep her guard up.

As the two of them arrived at the spot on the map, they could see the fortress in the distance. It sat in the middle of some vibrant plains, with only a handful of trees surrounding it. If they had binoculars, the orcs would be able to see them.

Gathered together by a large boulder were some individuals dressed in armor. Rin guessed these were the adventurers who she and Xhez would be joining soon.

As she got closer to them, she was stunned, however.

There were familiar faces amongst them.

"Hm? Ah, thank the Divine. We might just be able to get this thing over with before the week's over." One of them stretched and yawned as Rin and her "sister" approached.

Rin looked over at one of her classmates and the two made eye contact.

To Rin's surprise, Varyn was here, along with Seth and Alea. The other four adventurers present were strangers, though.

"Do you two know each other?" The same man asked as he noticed the look Rin and Varyn shared.

"Uh, yeah, we're- well, we both studied at the academy."

Rin corrected the tense in the middle of that response. She didn't want to imply that they were currently studying there because that might lower the adventurers' confidence in them. Or, worse yet, that might make the adventurers here want to protect them.

As Maria had hammered home, this was meant to be a challenge. Rin didn't want that.

"Hi, uh, everyone. I'm Rin and this is Xhez. My sister," she explained, gesturing at the sprite who was, of course, in her disguise. Varyn did not look pleased to see her. "So, uhm, right, the raid," Rin said awkwardly. "What are we going to do?"