Earlier in the day, on the outskirts of Tinte

Marcus looked back at the village of Tinte shrinking in the distance, then back to Amalia whose gaze was locked on something he couldn’t see.

The sounds of nature were accompanied by the elemental sounds coming from Celsius, Spark, Fahrenheit, and Servoir. The two formers were at the front of the team and the latter at the back.

Amalia let out a sigh as she looked over her hand crossbow, “So, we’re hunting rabbits, deer, and wolves?” she asked at the back of Marcus.

Marcus slowed down a bit to meet Amalia’s side, “Yeah, three easy-enough quests with our team setup. We’ll start you off with some prey, test that crossbow out and get you used to the sight of blood.”

“I’m fine with blood, my fists have seen a bit, and I’ve had some drawn from me too”, Amalia informed and she shook out her hand.

“Fight much before coming here?” Marcus inquired with a friendly smile.

“I did MMA as a hobby.”

“What’s that?”

“Mixed Martial Arts.”

“I ask again”, Marcus said with a chuckle.

“You don’t have that here, huh? I guess this place is a bit more… medieval?”

“Logan talked about something similar before.”

“Anyway, it’s a combat sport of sorts. Striking, grappling, and ground fighting. Since it’s ‘mixed’ you can use most styles of hand-to-hand combat.”

“So, is it training? You said sports. But a hobby?”

“It can be competitive, we had competitions for it back on Earth. I just did it because it was fun, not wanting to actually get into it too deeply. I like to be able to wake up without a puffed face.”

“I’d say we got something in common then. I do physical training with the guards at Gauntlet. They train me in weapon combat, alongside single and group encounters.”

“Anything unarmed?” Amalia asked, looking at Marcus a bit more.

“No, I rely on weapons”, Marcus replied as he put on a bigger smile as Amalia met his eye.

“Maybe we can spar sometime then”, Amalia laughed.

“When you get some ranks, yeah.”

“Oh right, you call them ranks. I’m… rank 1?”

“Right. Your body gets used to the output and input of spellforce as you fight opponents. When your body has become accustomed enough, it allows you to use denser spellforce. This equates to a person’s rank”, Marcus recited.

“We’re made up of spellforce too, right?”

“Correct. Your innate spellforce changes as you get stronger.”

“So, fight, alter your spellforce, and get stronger. What’s your rank?”

“Currently 11.”

“Is that much higher than mine then? What’s the limit?”

“Growth is a bit exponential. As for being high, comparatively, yeah. There are only a few thousand adventurers over rank 15. At least when the G-Hall is concerned”, Marcus remembered as he held up his palm, “punch my hand as hard as you can, and you might see the difference.”

Amalia blinked at the offer but accepted it. The team stood still for a bit as Amalia got into a fighting stance, her fists in front of her face. Wringing back a right hook she landed it solidly into Marcus’s palm. The Devout didn’t even flinch, Amalia’s attack being stopped as if she hit a brick wall.

“I’d do the same, but”, Marcus continued as he walked to a tree, “this is safer to demonstrate.”

Wringing back his arm, Marcus landed a solid blow into the trunk of the tree, his fist going straight through it and towards the centre as his arm fully extended. Pulling it out caused pieces of bark to come with his fist.

Amalia stared at the hole in the tree, “That’s… without your weapon?”

Marcus shook out his hand, wood falling off, “I can Enhance myself further too. You’re a melee class though, so you should outgrow what I can do. If you continue adventuring that is.”

Amalia looked at the hole for a while before continuing to walk with the team. “Enhance, is that another spell?”

“Yeah. I am a Devout. Most of my spells are for healing or aiding others. I do have a few attack spells though.”

Amalia looked at her open hand, “So if I am a ‘Knight’ that means I can’t use magic?”

Marcus looked at Amalia and patted her shoulder, “Not in the way that I do. Almost everyone can use spellforce, melee classes use it to enforce their bodies as well as their equipment. You could weave it into crafting too.”

“Logan mentioned something about higher-level weapons having denser spellforce in them.”

“Right. That resonates with your control over spellforce. Hence why it’s hard for me to use his weapons as they are stronger than my control.”

Amalia sighed a bit, “No sparks from my fingertips then.”

“There’s always spell rings.”

“Huh?”

“These, try it”, Marcus replied as he slipped a Gaia ring from his finger and gave it to Amalia, “point your hand at that tree and try to use the ring. It might help if you mentally command, Gaia Shot.”

Amalia put the ring on her index finger and aimed her hand at the tree. Squinting her eyes she tried to visualise a shard of rock form in her hand and fire, but that didn’t seem to work. Her mind was jumbled with other ideas, creating a fog of images instead of a pristine sight of what she wanted.

Breathing out, Amalia focused further as she commanded in her head, “Gaia shot”, forming a hunk of rock in her hand that shot quickly from her palm. Pelting the tree had several leaves and apples fall to the floor as Amalia felt a tingling sensation crawl across her hand and finger.

With a wide smile across her face, Amalia said, “Wow. That’s amazing. You can do this all day?”

Marcus smirked as he took the ring back from Amalia’s outstretched hand, “Not ‘all’ day, but a fair few times, yes.”

The pair chatted for a few more minutes before they entered the forest proper. Marcus gave a few pointers to Stealth closer to the prey animals, which was rather easy for Amalia to follow, if not for her shuffling chainmail.

After scaring rabbit after rabbit, the pair were able to get a sightline on a lone hopping mass of fur and meat, its cuteness hiding the fact it held many parts useful for a town. The elementals were far back so that they didn’t impede the stealthy approach.

“As long as you land a solid hit, it’ll go down. Take your time”, Marcus instructed as he trained his eye on the rabbit.

Amalia began to sweat as she aimed her hand crossbow at the rabbit. She felt a weird steadiness to her sight and her hand, she couldn’t help but wonder if this was because of her transformation into a classed being, or the two points spent on her Agility.

Pressing the trigger, the crossbow slung the bolt through the air, singing towards its target, the bolt hit the rabbit's hide, pushing it to the floor on its side. Blood spluttered into the air as the rabbit let out a squeak.

“Nice shot”, Marcus praised as he stood and began to walk to the target.

Amalia breathed out heavily as she stood and followed.

Approaching the rabbit, the pair saw its feet kicking out as if it were trying to run away, its eyes darting around.

Marcus told Amalia to shoot it again, which she did quickly to put it out of its misery. Picking up the corpse, the Devout threw it to an approaching Fahrenheit who froze the body in his grasp.

“You alright?” Marcus asked.

“I guess? Hard to say what I feel about this”, Amalia replied with uncertainty.

“That’s fine. There’s several that feel the same way, even if it is a lack of emotion.”

“It was easy at least”, Amalia continued as she looked at her crossbow.

“Classed beings find it easier, classless typically need a bit of training to get it right. We’re lucky it was stationary.”

“How many more do we need?”

Marcus thought for a second before replying, “We need four more. Then two deer, and finally three wolves.”

“Let’s get to it.”

Amalia and Marcus continued to hunt their prey. With each target slain, Amalia got more used to using her crossbow. While she missed twice, it was all a learning experience. If her class was similar to that of a Knight, would she be using this crossbow for much longer? She wondered if she was even going to continue the adventuring side much longer.

Getting tutored by Marcus, Amalia sustained the feeling of a fish out of water. All this fantasy, all this magic, it was natural to him. Amalia’s weirdest experiences only came in the form of movies, something she had to equate Avanar to as a point of reference.

Moving on to hunting the two deers, Marcus lined up his shots with Amalia, firing after she did, since she wasn’t able to down them in one hit.

The last task on hand was to hunt down the wolves, thankfully the pair were able to find a lone wolf that had strayed from the pack, or been ousted by a new alpha.

“Alright, something that might fight back given the chance. Hold a moment, Amalia”, Marcus whispered as he placed a hand on her shoulder, “Enhance Agility, Sustained.”

Amalia started to glow grey as Marcus continued to increase her Strength and Constitution. For someone on Marcus’s level, this wasn’t as a massive boost as it was for her, spells that granted her the power of someone four levels above her.

“I’ll leave this one to you, Amalia. Even if the wolf hits you, you should be fine. Test out your shield and sword, as well as how you can move with this empowerment.”

Amalia breathed out with a shocked look on her face, “This, is amazing. I feel like I could run for miles and not get tired”, standing up she readied her gear, “I’ll call if I need help, but this little one should be easy now.”

Moving away from the shade of the trees, Amalia ran towards the lone wolf who quickly picked up on her noise. It let out a grizzly growl as it was trying to look intimidating, but when Amalia continue charging, the wolf retaliated with a leaping bite attack.

Amalia moved her shield upwards, bashing it into the face of the wolf. It quickly clambered its legs around the shield as it pulled itself upwards and tried to bite over it. Amalia took the opening she saw and pushed her shortsword through the “mouth” shaped hole on the corner of her bouche-styled shield.

The metal sang as it scraped onto the edges of the shield and a deep puncture sound emanated from a solid hit into the wolf's torso. It dealt an empowered 6 damage to the brown wolf, a third of its health in one blow.

Kicking off from the shield, the wolf fell into a slide on the grass as it reorientated itself into a sideways hop, circling the armoured fiend in front of it. Amalia was able to keep up with its speed thanks to her enhancements, though her mind had to keep up with the idea of fighting like this.

The wolf leapt again, its jaw getting slammed as Amalia blocked the attack. “Last Bastion”, Amalia called out, her body glowing blue, her shield vibrating, and her blade shining.

Swiping her blade, she cut into the wolf again as the blade hit the hole of her shield, maintaining a defence stance whilst attacking in the same motion. With her skill activating, she dealt 10 damage, a mighty blow that caused the wolf to fall to the floor on its side, blood colouring Amalia’s shield and sword as well as the grassy floor.

Whining aloud, the wolf stumbled to its feet and began to retreat into the forest, but Amalia had a better standing posture than the monster. Leaping after it, Amalia swung her blade down and cut through the wolf’s rear, forcing it to the floor in a convulsing manner before its movements stopped.

Amalia let out several hard breaths, not entirely from the exhaustion of her body, but from her mental state adjusting to the event alongside the rush of adrenaline leaving her.

Marcus and the elementals came out from hiding and approached her, “Well done, no hits to you, and you finished it off quickly”, Marcus applauded.

“I got 297 experience from that wolf. It should be… 330? I guess the Enhance from Marcus put him into the XP reduction”, Amalia thought to herself before replying, “As I said, easy with your aid. The elementals didn’t impede my progress either, so the party system works like Logan explained.”

“Good, we’ll get you to five, then after that, it’s down to your decisions”, Marcus replied with a smile before looking over her shield, “Looks like that is a fine piece of protection. Should survive whatever we face today.”

“Two hits brought it down 6%. So just over thirty wolf bites”, Amalia calculated.

“I am not sure of the specifics, but that sounds about right. Your shield will get beat up the more damage it takes. Shields for higher ranks can take more, of course.”

“Sounds like a money sink”, Amalia replied as she cleaned her blade and shield on the floor.

“All classes have some form of it. Mine comes down to bolts, most spellcasters put it into potions, same for Knights and Fighters but of a different variant. We all have to pay for new weapons and armour too. If you get an inventory you’ll be filling it with spare shields I wager.”

“I guess nothing lasts forever”, Amalia said off handily as she readied herself to move on.

The group Stealthed through the forest for a few more minutes, finding packs of monsters being attacked by other adventurers, or Marcus running to injured ones left behind to use Healer’s Caress on them. It seemed in his absence not much had changed, and he had a personal grudge against those who left allies to die.

With the elementals keeping back, and out of the party menu for Amalia, she was able to keep almost all experience for herself. It wasn’t time just yet to impede her progress, and the level five reward for her quest was too tempting to give up.

Eventually, the group was able to find a pack of three more wolves, just enough for the elementals to ferry back to the village with what hands they had free.

Amalia’s buffs were still active, Marcus’s focus on them allowing them to persist for half an hour. She had a few minutes to spare against these wolves, and Marcus had little worry she would lose.

Using Stealth, Amalia was able to circle the exterior of the clearing the wolves feasted within. Charging outwards, she landed a swift slash into the back of one of the wolves. With a following cross-cut into the ambushed wolf, it fell to the floor

The two remaining wolves leapt at Amalia, she counterattacked with a bash of her shield sideways and sent the left wolf flying, and stabbed her sword into the right, skewering it in the air before swiping to the side to smash it to the floor.

Twisting her arm, Amalia stabbed downwards into the fallen wolf and dragged it through the wolf’s torso, ripping it open in a disgusting display.

The final wolf was able to stand back up and charge at Amalia again, though they weren’t too intelligent in their fighting, it did try to dart to her side to avoid another shield slam.

Jumping at the Guardian, the wolf was met by a blocking shield just like all the others. However, the wolf was able to climb upwards a bit more than the previous ones and landed two swipes of its claws on Amalia’s shoulders.

“Fuck!” Amalia cursed out in pain.

Sliding her sword through the gap in the side of her shield and penetrated the wolf's side over and over, until it finally fell from her shield to the floor.

Stabbing her blade into the dirt floor, Amalia gripped her left shoulder as she winced in pain as blood dripped down and soaked her armour.

Marcus came running over and patted her on the shoulder, using Healer’s Caress twice to bring her back to full health. Amalia’s wounds closed up fast, the pain dissipating just as quickly.

“Good fight, Amalia. Taking on three wolves at a time is a challenge and a half for starting adventurers”, Marcus praised.

Amalia sat down and placed her shield on the ground next to her, “There’s no question in my mind that without your enhancements, I’d be dead or close to.”

“And that’s why we’re doing this together”, Marcus replied as he sat by her side.

The elementals eventually worked their way into the clearing to shuffle around the corpses so that they could all be carried.

“That fight pushed me into level 2”, Amalia announced.

“That was certainly quick, though to be expected from rank 3 monsters against an oracle.”

“Trolls will shoot me even higher and faster.”

“No doubt, one would boost you to rank 3.”

“This seven-day intro quest really wasn’t made with a group in mind”, Amalia sighed in relief.

“That it wasn’t, the royals survive it much better than us, with all their money going to hiring adventurers and buying top-end gear”, Marcus began before looking over the party, “we’ll head back after a short rest.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to deal with your previous party members again.”

--- *** ---