"Hey." Just as Lira was about to leave, Zel grabbed her wrist. "You think you can leave me here and force me to pay for the food?"
"I simply forgot, I didn't mean to."
"Even though you were using Feather Step? An ability that allows you not to make noise for a minute?" He asked, knowing well he had caught her in the act.
"Fine…" She gave up and paid for both plates since she was the one who invited him to dinner. "Two soul shards, can you believe that? Those dishes were so expensive!" Thirty minutes later, she complained about the price. A Soul Shard was the currency of this world, it was a product of the soul, which starts producing them only after hitting puberty. Most First Level Cores could only produce thirty to forty every month, which was roughly one Soul Shard per day. Her disappointment in the price was reasonable and justified. "I have only six hundred and three Soul Shards left now, what a robbery."
"That many? Not a bad number." Zel commented, knowing that she still had to learn how to control her spending.
"You already told me you have over two thousand of them, no need to rub it in, you know. Actually, why don't you buy an Ability Orb? They cost two thousand Soul Shards."
"I told you I would wait to get a Core Ability first, are you deaf?"
"I'm not! You've already gotten your skill, so what are you waiting for?" She asked, puzzled. If he could become stronger, why did he not do it?
At that, Zel fell into deep thought, "She is not wrong, I have enough to buy a random Ability Orb for two thousand Soul Shards, but that's basically gambling. It would be much wiser to wait and reach four thousand Soul Shards and buy a skill that has already been discovered." In this world, people could take their abilities out of their Core and pull them into the real world. This was very similar to using them, but the difference was that instead of conjuring the effect, you summoned the cause. For example, if Zel wanted to sell his Bone Dagger, which he would never do since it's his only weapon, he would have to go inside his Core, grab the light that represented the Bone Dagger, and take it with him to the real world. This way, he could put it on sale and everyone was able to see what it was.
"I'll just wait to reach four thousand Soul Shards and buy an ability I find suitable for my Core Ability."
"You might as well save up five thousand. Not only do prices vary, but they also depend on the skill type. But I can see why you would want to do that. You can earn hundreds of Soul Shards if you are lucky and kill an old monster." Monsters also produced Soul Shards, but in very small quantities. By absorbing their Core, their soul would shatter and that's when humans feel an actual gain.
"That's inevitable." He shrugged, knowing it well. "Did you get rid of your parents?"
"Of course. I told them I'd be at your house for a sleepover."
"Oh? We actually used the same excuse. Maybe you aren't too bad after all."
"Hey! Don't say it as if I'm inferior to you!"
"You've whined enough tonight, can we just hurry up? I want to kill a few wolves tonight, not hear someone like you talk all the time."
Lira's pouty face and her joking face quietly disappeared into a small smile, her eyes closing slightly as she grinned. "Finally, my favorite part, killing…" If any of her friends were to see her now, they'd doubt it was her. The change in behavior was astonishing, second only to Zel of course, who was the one who taught her.
"Your smile and your eyes are off." He pointed out. "You look like a dog with rabies"
She quickly heaved a deep breath and quickly changed her smile, eager to take lives, and her eyes, making her look like the Lira everyone else knew.
As the two headed towards one of the exits to exit the crater and enter the outskirts of the village, a place where monsters rule over humans, they were spotted by a small group of three girls who were having some drinks at a party.
"Well, well, if it isn't Lira and… who were you again? I don't remember guys I don't find attractive, sorry." One of them laughed with a smug face.
"We probably have never met before. I'm sure I'd remember someone as ugly as you."
"You… what did you just say? Huh? Say that again if you have the balls!"
"Let's get out of here," Zel told Lira. "Fools getting angry over mere words. They should just die and shut up." Lira nodded in agreement, keeping her friendly face on, following him as they headed for the exit.
Having reached their destination, the two were confronted by a guard wearing light armor and holding a high quality sword. "Do you have a permit?" He asked.
Knowing the rules, both Lira and Zel had prepared for this and showed the guard their green test results from this afternoon. "I must verify their legitimacy, may I?" He extended his hand and grabbed the papers. Both Zel and Lira obviously let him do his job and just had to wait a few seconds.
The guard took out a tool that looked like a clamp but was made of stone with a green gem inside and gently placed one of the sheets inside. After a moment, it beeped once. He repeated the process for the other one, and just as expected it beeped once as well. "Alright, they were both real. Great job on the test, make sure to return alive. Don't underestimate the outskirts, they are more dangerous than they seem." The guard warned, not knowing that the two had been out there multiple times already thanks to previous challenges hosted by the school and temporary permits offered by the elders to those with high prospects for the future.
The couple entered a dark horizontal tunnel with no light whatsoever to prevent catching the attention of monsters. As they were midway in, the door behind them closed off and the sound of the bustling city was cut off. Once outside, the scenery presented before them was breathtaking to say the least.
In the distance, enormous mountains piercing the clouds put an end to the vast horizon, large hills with giant trees were everywhere, and the forest in the flat areas was so thick that one could not see what was in there. At roughly twenty kilometers from the crater, there was an imaginary line known as "Death Line". Every year, it would get closer to the village as the forest slowly took back what it lost after losing many kilometers of vegetation because of the same reason as why the crater was there. The closer one is to the Death Line, the more likely it is for them not to return home alive. This was much more common than some would think, every time students go into the outskirts to hunt, five percent never come back. It was the sad truth, but such is the world they live in.
"Lift me up," Lira said without feeling embarrassed. Zel did as she said, since it was close to standard procedure for them, and lifted her so that she could balance herself on his shoulders. She quickly used a skill called Eagle's Eyes, which granted her incredible sight and attention to detail, and scouted the area like a hawk. "One wolf a kilometer from us to our right, two wolves the same distance to our left." She reported, jumping off his shoulders.
"Since we are going to kill all three of them, let's hunt down the lonely one first. Some warm-up wouldn't be bad."
"Oh, wait." She said, since her vision-enhancing skill was still active. "I see a small group of goblins five hundred meters from here to our right, same direction as the wolf."
"Is that so? More money for us, I guess…" He said, "And more discoveries for me…" He thought.