Was it a good idea to bring me...? I wondered whilst staring at the guys to my right. They all seem to be pretty stressed. heck... James is rubbing his hands together, whilst a frown was on his face. "U-Um... Did you want me to stay home?"
"Ah- Haha.. No, no." James waved with his left hand, then scratched his chin with the other. He's been like this for the past few days whilst we were in the carriage. Shaun and Verd were talking everyone's ears off, per usual. Some of their topics... Were rather inappropriate for a young teenager to hear. Not like I care to hear it, it's none of my business.
"Lighten yourself up man! It won't be that squirrel incident again!" Shaun reassured him, even patting him on the shoulder. Which was promptly, slapped away then James rubbed the spot where he was patted on.
"I'm not nervous about that. And you need to lighten up on patting people's shoulders."
"T- Then, what, what are you nervous about?" Trying to put pressure on him, I tilted my head whilst giving a curious frown. It seemed super effective! He raised his shoulders, and started to scratch his hair more.
"Well… Mainly how you'll do Yukina. The past few killing missions have taken a toll on you. And they were just a quick kill, then leave. This one's going to take a few more days to gather then head back home." WIthout even a breath in the middle, he quickly confessed. I guess it did bother him a bit more than I thought it would. But my thoughts were quickly interrupted when he continued. "And how your foot will do on the journey in. I know you dislike being carried– Especially that princess carry, but…"
"Don't fret the small things! I think Yukina will be justtt fine, despite the gruesome scenes in the first two, she seems to be unaffected!" Verd exclaimed, giving me a shiny and toothy grin; with a thumbs up. He wasn't wrong, I feel like I acclimated to seeing these gory scenes fast. Sure, at first I was pretty disturbed… With how the goblins were killed. That changed quickly after the bear, it didn't affect me, in fact, in some way. It had my blood boiling, in anger? I don't know, but the leveling seemed to be making me excited.
"That's a big word coming from your mouth." James quickly retorted before turning back to me. "If you want, Yukina… You can just stay in this ca-"
"I-I'll be fine!" I accidentally cut him off, waving my hands. I tried to reassure him with a nervous smile, although that was the polar opposite of how I feel. "I-I can do it, it…"
"A-... Agh! Who am I to stop you… Um, alright… No using fire magic, okay? We'll be in the forest." James used his finger as a disciplinary and lecturing tool, he said to me. He fumbled with one of the bags nearby, before bringing out a compass-like tool. He patted the seat next to him, beckoning for me to sit next to him.
The compass-like tool was apparently called a life monitor. He showed me how to use it– First, you pour mana into it, and the dim surface would light up. Like an actual compass, it had North, West, South and East. With arrows of course, directing to those directions. He moved it around, showing the needle pointing to those places.
Subconsciously, his explanation engorged my interests. Magical devices! Or tools, whatever you want to call them! Whilst he kept on yammering about how useful it was, I used [Identify] on it!
[Life detector: A magical tool, needs mana to function.
Allows the user to use it like a compass, and a life perceiver. Say detect in its vicinity to view the life around you.]
Pretty simple to understand. I thought whilst staring at it. James, thinking I was listening to his rants, did exactly what the description had said. The little map it had on its screen, changed ever so slightly. It "zoomed" in, and there were five green dots on it. Those green dots coincided with the spots we all sat in. The two close dots were James and i, pretty much interlinking. The two slightly, yet close dots were Verd and Shaun.
At last, the small dot by itself was Jin. Oh! Speaking of the little map, it was an overhead picture, roughly around fifty-one-hundred meters in a circle. It showed us traversing a dirt path, the carriage's canopy blocking its view.
"Hahaha… That's pretty much it, my dear. Did you get that?" James asked me, his laugh sounded endearing. There was a weird weight on top of my head, did he lay his hand there when I wasn't looking…? I turned my head slightly up, seeing that his arm was obscuring my vision… He FUCKING PATTED ME! I squirmed out of his grip and slid against the seats.
"I-I got it…" I mumbled, and avoided his gaze. I didn't feel my heart race in anger from that. It still was elevated, and my face was a little hot– It was embarrassing… Hold up, am I past the anger phase…? My embarrassment quickly flushed away, as I questioned my own mind.
"Hahaha! Good, I knew you were a smart girl. Anyways, Jin! We should be… Here now. Stop the carriage!"
"Hm? Got it."
Like clockwork, every one of the guys unloaded their equipment– Tents, bedding materials, bags full of food, water and sweets. I grabbed my bags, they were just full of my spare clothes… And some other things I would rather not talk about. They're… Lady things that Melinda bought… Okay?It's a long journey and she didn't know what to expect.
Maybe it was due to my STR stat increasing, but these felt decently heavy. Heck, I didn't need as much help getting inside. I was almost able to pull myself up! But, getting down was another issue. This body's height. By a rough estimation, I was barely one hundred forty centimeters, yes I was extremely short. I'm not happy about it…
James helped me down, letting me use his back as a step stool onto the ground. Once my feet were set on the ground, I turned to my left. Back at it again with forests, huh? I never saw the exit of the forest I awoke in, but I'm sure it looked like this, but denser. There was no path that led to it, just a few scarcely sitting trees.
"You all, I'll go over this once again." James proclaimed as he walked towards the front of everyone. "Yukina and I will be in the back, Shaun you will be the vanguard– Per usual, whilst Verd, and Jin you take your respective places to guard us." With each name he pointed towards the corresponding people.
I nodded my head in unison with the rest of the guys, James let out a "good". We took our places– With what he said, we set forth. Verd stood in front of James and I, Jin took the rear. I felt my heart race– I was scared, the flashbacks from my awakening of this world appeared in my mind.
Someone squeezed my shoulder, I couldn't tell who. They removed it as we moved past the first three trees. I held my hands together as we went inside… It won't happen again… Calm down… It won't-
Soon the light from the sky started to fade. It was so dark, so much darker than the last forest. Will we be okay? I kept thinking, I don't know if James realized how scared I was. I wanted to leave, the trees began to blend in front of me.
"Yukina, it will be alright. We're not pushovers to let a group of monsters slaughter us." Jin's voice resounded from behind me. He slowly slid a knife out from the belt around his waist. His hand moved faster than I could see– But a horned squirrel became skewered in its blade. "See? Small critters like this won't be an issue."
He-He's so fast… That's a high leveled adventurer for you! I watched in amazement. His demonstration quickly calmed my nerves. I'll be okay.I will be okay!It isn't like what it was when I woke up…
I heard a chuckle from my right, but I ignored it. We walked along a branch-filled path; I couldn't say much about this entire path, there wasn't much to look at– Well there was a lot! Mainly just trees. Even with the life detector I kept in my sights.
"Hm-?" I looked down at it, there were three red dots– "There– There's three- three monsters to our right…" I called out, and as the compass said. There were three ugly looking goblins; they were much larger than the ones I saw before. They were hiding behind trees, not well enough as their bald heads stuck out.
As I prepared a fireball, James pushed my hand down. There was a flash behind them, they couldn't react as two of their heads fell off their shoulders. The last… Fell.
"AAAGRA!" It reeled in agony, from my position, it just fell over. Jin was standing above it with a longsword in his hand. Blood dripped off the shiny surface. There was a frightening frown on his face as he grabbed its skull.
He beckoned me over, the hobgoblin in his hands flailed around. I followed his orders, and as I was right next to him, he handed me the first knife he used. Didn- It's now clean…
He had me stab the hobgoblin, I did so… As the knife dug into its thick skin, it started screaming. It sent a jolt down my spine, but I pushed in further till it quieted down and went limp. After I brought the knife out, he tossed it to the side.
We had this routine going, with every group of monsters we found, he or Verd took out the majority and left a few of them out. It was a good chance for me to level up, and steel my nerves for further battles.
We walked for hours, and hours. Half way through, someone had to carry me. My foot was hurting, and this damn bra was causing the muscles on my back to tighten and writhe in agony. James realized this as he held me on his back. Maybe it was the wrong size…
I really hate this… I could feel my face turn beet red, James used some pain numbing skill. My body felt lighter, and the agony of my back and foot disappeared. Aside from everything, things were going smoothly.
Apparently this forest was called Forest of Beasts. A pretty bare bones name. But it held up, every five minutes or so since we entered there were monsters. Consisting of only horned squirrels, and hobgoblins. Really rubbing it in for me and James huh. The explanation, long and winded from James was that; they only appear as we delve deeper into the forest. Ah, and the thing we're searching for are regular medicinal herbs. The leader of Untergrant requested them personally.
That was sort of a shocker… Despite the low pay. For this, they were only given 15 silvers, in the end it didn't seem like much. It was split between them all; James offered to pay me a part of it, essentially making it a five way payment. When he did offer that, I shook my head and denied it… They're basically carrying me, literally and metaphorically.
"Are you comfortable, Yukina?" James's voice broke me out of my thoughts. E-Eh? When did- Before I even realized it, my head was resting on his shoulder. I jolted my body straight before asking him to let me down. When the heck did I do that?! After my feet touched the floor, he followed up his question. "If you were, I didn't mind it…" He scratched the back of his head with a pretty crap eating grin.
"I-I'm fine… I- I can, can walk." I responded to him, my heart was racing beyond belief. Am I slowly tu- I don't want to! This isn't my body, and I'd better keep my dignity! Ugh… I gotta push through the pain…. From then on, I vowed in my soul. I'll push through the pain. I did so, for the next couple hours.
Roughly five or so hours later, we found a clearing in this forest. There was a lake in the middle of this, a perfect chance to rest. Like the first forest I was in, there were a bunch a trees around, that was all we could see. However, above the lake there were no leaves, no greenery. A perfect, yet imperfect encirclement. The quality of the air refreshed my spent energy as I took in the sight.
Shaun, Verd and James all flopped onto their backs, whilst looking towards the sky. They were awfully relaxed apparently. Surprisingly, at least for me, they just stayed silent. Jin sat just a bit away from us, he was in a weird position you only see in eastern movies.
Out of boredom, I dug into my bag. I stashed a book in there, it was called the history of magic; James had bought me it with the hopes I could learn something proper there. Hm? There it is! Man… This is a heavy book. I brought out a thick, leathery book, which was what I just talked about.
I left a bookmark, a torn piece of paper. I was barely into it, my linguistics skill of the current language wasn't advanced. I believe… I was just past middle school level in terms of reading.
The beginnings
Ever since the beginning of times the gods blessed humanity with magic. No one knows who discovered this supernatural energy– It was speculated a demi-god taught this miracle to regular beings. It boosted the advancements of every nation, village and communities.
The first kingdom of the world was built on this energy; they first discovered the four elements, fire, wind, earth, and water. They learned the basic uses, support, offensive and defensive. This unnamed Kingdom was later destroyed through inner strife… It became uncontrollable; the civil war caused a split and quickening of counteractions of magic.
In the midst of conflicts, a god walked among civilization, the goddess of war and magic. She bestowed the knowledge to the many nations the spell of ***
"Hey Yukina, get up. We're going to continue our journey." Jin interrupted my study. He tilted his head when I accidentally showed my irritation. "James, teach your daughter some manners."
"I think she's pretty tame, I don't know what you're talking about." James called out as he stretched his body. He brought his left arm over to his right before continuing his speech. "Ahh… Yukina, you can read that later tonight. We're planning on getting to the halfway mark before taking a proper rest."
"O-Okay…"
Watch what you're doing, jerk… I balled my hands whilst glaring at the back of Jin. His back visibly shook, then he turned his head to stare at me. Just by his shaking, I turned to my bag and I shoved the book in there. After a short stretch, we continued our little venture.
The forest started to darken, Shaun brought out a torch and had me light it up with my spell. The certified lighter strikes! I disheartenedly thought as the warmth permeated my hands.
Soon after, we continued pressing forward.
"Void wolves should be coming to us… Yukina, check the life detector, now."
I didn't need to use it, I could hear heavy panting. It was breathing down my neck, it was to our right. Sweat rolled down my neck as I poured my mana into the device in my hands. It was dark, but I could see a light, it was near us. "To our right… There-" There was a howl, and more lights appeared on the device. They were running to us at an insane speed.
"Shaun!" James yelled his name, the light from his torch flickered and everything got dark again. I could see a glint shine in front of me, then more than five pairs of eyes turned red past that. "Yukina, use your fireball spell just in case of an emergency. Or if you see an opening. For now, take a few steps back."
"O-Okay…" This is the first time… Are void wolves that dangerous?Yup… Each one rivaled a copper ranked adventurer in prowess. There were five of them, those pairs of red eyes trudged forward past the lines of trees. Black fur, with slivers of purple. Big beady red eyes, and mouths full of slobber dripped to the ground. They were just as tall as me, their bodies were hefty, and lined with muscles. An itch assaulted the back of my head, my body started to vibrate.
"Don't get scared, we're gonna be able to do this."
Just as those words entered the air, a light floated above James's hand. It was just the size of his palm, then grew. It flew in the air, and illuminated the area.
As it reached its peak, Shaun dashed in. He pulled in his shield, and just as he got in range of the wolf, he bashed it against its skull.
I heard a sickening crack enter in my ears; the wolf let out a long angry growl, and clawed at Shaun's shield.
I couldn't see much else, but Shaun kneeled as the void wolf used his shield as leverage. It stood high above him, with slobber dripping. Then a blinding light cut through its neck, all noises that left its mouth silenced as its head slid down.
There was no room to breathe; the next four wolves ran at us. Their eyes were completely locked onto James. I could only see the side of his face, there was no smile, there was a look of complete focus.
A bright glow took over his body, he pulled back his sword arm. Releasing it as two wolves lunged towards him. Blood spurted everywhere as one wolf's front paws were completely sliced off.
Limbs kept flying as each wolf collided with the unstoppable wall known as Shaun. Before I knew it, they were all sprawled on the ground. Two had already passed away, one with its head completely cleanly sliced off. The other died of blood loss, a puddle of blood pooling on the ground.
These guys are complete monsters… I couldn't react much. All I could hear was the sound of flesh being cut into two, and the whimpers of the wolves as they fell on the ground. They looked at me expecting something… Do I have to do it…? My heart ached watching these poor animals trying to stand, only to fall on their limbs.
I have to do it… I closed my eyes, and extended my arms. I sent one, smoke entered my nostrils, but I sent another. Three fireballs exploded in my ears, and the whimpering of one had stopped.
After six fireballs were sent out, two had perished and my mana reservoirs had nearly drained. I dropped my hands to my side as sweat dripped down my face. With my eyes open, I watched as the last wolf dragged its body to me. Its beady red eyes begged for mercy. They-
"That's the last of them." Verd muttered whilst gutting its head off.
There wasn't much to think, or say. My head had completely gone blank, I'm still not used to this world. Monsters seemed much more intelligent, that wolf had begged for me to end it. James guided me away from this area, with a simple touch of his hand around my shoulder.
"It'll get easier as you do more missions." He reassured me whilst having me sit down next to a tree. "That fireball spell seems pretty strong, have you been practicing?"
"N-No."
"Ah~ I see, are you trying to hide something from me?"
"N-N-No I'm not…"
"Ah, I won't tease you for it… Let's check your status, killing those beasts might've leveled you up!"
"P-Probably…"
I did as he said, and he wasn't kidding. I leveled up twice more, I was hoping it would've been more; but, I'm level seven now. My stats went up the same, aside from agility. I did gain a new skill, it was a passive one.
[Fire manipulation: Allows the user to control flames to their whim. User's fire spells have increased accuracy and speed depending on the amount of mana spent.]
Finally… Something useful. Maybe tomorrow, I'll be able to use it. Although it's-
"Seems like you gained something new. Hehe… Those cute ears adorned on your head are wiggling in excitement." James's doting voice interrupted my thoughts again. He was crouching whilst staring at the top of my head.
"Looks like I'll get to test it out now…"
"U-Um… I'm sorry what did you say- Oh…"