《Triiffic-Soul: Can I Be In Control?》 Chapter 1 – End Of Three Chapter 1 ¨C End Of Three A sight that was normally impossible to see. The soul. It wobbled, it jiggled. It was the core of a life. Kind of shaped like an egg, a disc, then a wide oval. In truth calling this a soul wouldn¡¯t be entirely correct. In actuality, it was the shell of a soul. That was ready to house a freshly cleansed or a newly created Soul. This shell in particular was also an ordinary shell. Supposed to welcome a common immature soul. But as they say, accidents happen and, anything that can go wrong will go wrong, eventually anyway. Nearly nothing is truly impossible after all. Then in the quiet whispers of the void, three wisps of light emerged within the shell¡¯s empty space. One bloody red, another an extremely light pink¨Cboarding on white¨Cand the last one a simple grey. The sparkling light of all three quickly faded. Becoming dim, as the three lights swirled around. Resting. Sleeping. Accidents can create the greatest of wonders. But for the time being this wonder will stay quiet until its¨Ctheir¨Cmoment to shine again. On a large open battlefield under the dry sun, two armies faced each other, each ready for the other to make the first move. One side wearing two styles of matching sophisticated silver or black knightly armour while the other¡­ ¡°Damn this isn¡¯t exactly how I planned my end to be,¡± said a tall woman with medium-length red hair and blood-red eyes to match. Wearing mostly normal but unrestrictive clothes with small bits of metal covering the vitals and hardened leather over other key points. Her bloody grin widened, ¡°But it could be worse.¡± Scars covered her large muscles and sharp face. Behind her stood an army of men and women who did wear noticeably more armour than her, but each individual¡¯s setup was still very personalised. No one expected that one minor noble hiring some mercenary for a scuffle would eventually end up with the entirety of two countries'' military force versus the small army of a couple of minor nobles and basically, every mercenary they could hire¨Cwhich accounted for 97.63% of mercenaries on the continent. For a group of small nobles, they sure were rich. ¡°Okay listen up!¡± She looked around to see the small combat force that remained. It had been over two years of constant combat which shaved down the mercenary unit numbers. But that hadn¡¯t been the biggest factor in the mercenary unit''s current lack of numbers. ¡°If you''re doing this for money, you better leave cause you won¡¯t be living much longer!¡± Thanks to multiple surprise attacks during the night and extremely immoral actions¨Cpoisoning large sections of farming, fishing, rivers and agricultural land along with all the people who lived upon them¨Cto name a few of many. Large chunks of the mercenary force had been annihilated. ¡°But to be honest... The ones who were doing this just for the money are long dead.¡± She laughed and so did the rest of the ragtag military force. Her two large long swords ignited in flames, ¡°Now! Let¡¯s dine on their blood in hell!¡± ¡°¡°¡°YAR!¡±¡±¡± The crops cheered. The final battle of the two-year conflict ended with no prisoners and a pile of corpses on the floor. The combined Keter-United Force was left with less than 50% of its initial force. The records made by the battlekeepers of the time stated¨C¡®We lost so many of our forces due to the fact our combined army simply wasn¡¯t used to working together¡¯. But the subsequent lack of capable personnel to defend the borders from monster invasions told a different story. Within the pristine main church of the Nevald Kingdom. A white-cloaked figure spoke to one of the current female saints. ¡°Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight, you have been given an appointed task.¡± The saint opened her light pale pink eyes and replied, ¡°Understood, may the light shine upon you.¡± Wearing a modified version of the ordinary white nun outfit of the church, with a connected cloak¨Cthat had a hole for her long white hair¨Cand golden symbols adorned on both, an indication of the status she hated. Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight was given the mission to help cure the sick and injured within the small town of Cobble¨Ca town placed near the demon¡¯s border. ¡°Lady saint.¡± A village woman walked up and welcomed her into the village. ¡°Thank you for coming to our lowly village.¡± She said with a fake smile plastered across her face, ¡°Tis fine. It¡¯s my duty.¡± Eliana went to each villager and used her moonlight healing magic. However, as the saint continued her work, a screech echoed throughout the village, ¡°Ereeeeeeeeee!¡± A creature made of black bones connected and stitched together by a dark red tar. A monster had emerged. The villagers panicked and screamed, ¡°Arghh!¡± With one adding ¡°Please save us, lady saint!¡± Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight mumbled, ¡°There are twenty more behind the tree line, walking forward now.¡± This many monsters should¡¯ve been easily tracked by the church long before they sent her here. Thinking about the situation, she knew she couldn¡¯t defeat two monsters let alone ten times that. ¡°Everyone, this is my one and only order.¡± A soft white light appeared in her hands. She thought it would be at least correct to keep doing her job until the end, ¡°Run to Nevalest. And never stop running.¡± ¡­ Five days later a causality report was finally written. Causality report¨C¡® Deaths: Saint Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight and sixteen cobble villages out of the nineteen who lived in the village. Details: The village was destroyed. May saint Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight rest in peace and guardian spirit protect us in our crusade against the evils that took her¡¯. ¡­ Impaled through the stomach and her body rapidly decaying, she sighed in a hopeful tone. ¡°I¡¯ll see the rest of thou in hell soon.¡± In an old rundown lab on the outside ring of the highly populated city of Aeverlast. ¡°Seventh failure¡­¡± Her vision faded in and out¨Cher grey eyes unknowingly flashed amber in frustration¨Cbut she still was plenty awake. Her potions made sure of that. But another failure meant more money had to be spent on materials. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Dirt, muck and stains covered every part of her body. Her brown hair and grey eyes had no semblance of life remaining¨Cneither did anything else in her tiny one-room house/lab. Ever since her talent was revealed her path in life was set¨Cwell it should¡¯ve been set. No one could have known her talent had few ¡®flaws¡¯. Too deep into her role now and scared to try anything else, she tried and tried, practised and practised, trying to increase her skills enough that she wouldn¡¯t be labelled an absolute failure¨Cjust a normal failure. She flopped back onto the single-seated chair¨Cwhich was also used as a bed¨Cin the corner of her room. She wondered, ¡°When was the last time I ate?¡± She gestured with her index finger and her cupboard door opened, revealing nothing inside. ¡°Ah¡­ that sucks.¡± She sighed, ¡°Maybe I can beg Lady Emily for another apple¡­¡± Eventually, she passed out. One month later. A group of collectors who came to pick up the batch of potions that hadn¡¯t been delivered arrived and found her dried-up corpse rotting away. ¡°George, look! It¡¯s a beautiful baby girl.¡± The wife lifted her newborn up to show her husband. ¡°Be careful!¡± Noticing his voice was a little too loud and terrified he might harm the baby with the noise, he proceeded to slap his mouth shut. ¡°Carefully¡­ with her¡­¡± he whispered. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± The wife laughed with tears of joy, ¡°Sweet child, may you grow up strong.¡± Two years later the child finally received its name¨CAnna. Chapter 2 – Who are you… two? Chapter 2 ¨C Who are you... two? ¡°George,¡± Jen spoke¨Ca woman in her thirties with her black hair tied in a bun. ¡°We need to talk.¡± George replied, ¡°There¡¯s nothing to talk about, everything will be fine.¡± He was a little shorter than his wife and had short spiky black hair¨Cnot as dark as Jen¡¯s though. Both were very tanned from working in the sun for long hours on the farm. ¡°George,¡± Jen demanded her razor-sharp glare from her green hazel eyes stabbed into George¡¯s soul and stepped back. ¡°Yes¡­?¡± His light brown eyes snapped shut. He was afraid, not of his wife but of admitting the realities of the situation. ¡°Anna barely talks outside grunts and groans. Barely moves without being pushed and can barely feed herself.¡± ¡°She¡¯s just a late bloomer.¡± ¡°George.¡± Jen sadly said. ¡°Maybe we should see someone¡­¡± ¡°NO fucking way!¡± George yelled, for the first time in their married life. ¡°We are not taking her anywhere near those quacks!¡± This wasn''t the first time they brought up this topic, but this one was far away the most heated. Jen cried, ¡°But George¨C¡± She didn¡¯t want to but she didn¡¯t know what else to do. Taking Anna to anyone would most likely lead to one of three outcomes. They tell them to remove her; She would be taken away; Or they will supply some sort of expensive medicine that wouldn¡¯t work. They had heard the horrors of what happened to those who didn¡¯t have any clear physical or mana problems but needed help in their poor country. And from their own experiences trying to get help as a farmer wasn¡¯t going to be useful at all. George stood his ground, ¡°No.¡± In his mind, he had to stay firm, but he was bloody terrified. ¡°She¡¯s five years old, all the other kids are running around.¡± He replied, ¡°What did our parents say, don¡¯t judge your kid on other children?¡± ¡°I know, I know¡­¡± Jen moved closer, ¡°I want our child to be happy, but she barely moves, only existing to breathe¡­¡± Jen looked straight into George¡¯s closed eyes, ¡°We need to do something.¡± The two parents were at their wits end both only wanting the best for their child, They were ready to do anything for Anna, but they didn¡¯t know where to start. However, today was the day the lucky roll of fate finally landed in their favour. Three individuals awoke in a strange white space, each possessing a semi-transparent figure. And within the centre of this weird unknown space was a pool that showed the image of a corner of an old wooden house. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Memories of five years of doing nothing had entered their minds, well mind. The more correct answer was that their souls were catching up on all the information that was contained in their mind. A tall mercenary woman with bright red hair and crimson eyes awoke first but decided to not do anything. Having no idea what was happening but decided to go along for it. Then the nun, with light pink eyes awoke in a sweat¨Cwithout the sweat part. She patted her chest and found that her hand had accidentally gone through it when she applied force to where the wound was. ¡°I¡¯m dead? Of course, I¡¯m dead imbecile, I was stabbed.¡± The mercenary laughed, ¡°You died too? Neat.¡± She wanted to walk over but stayed to examine this world first. It wasn¡¯t every day one could be a ghost and trapped in some unknown place. The nun asked, not as panicked as she felt she should be, ¡°Whose the other one?¡± ¡°No idea. Probably going through what we just went through.¡± The nun turned back to the mercenary, the mercenary was clearly older than her by at least ten years in the nun¡¯s mind. The nun sighed, ¡°What happened¡­?¡± The mercenary shrugged, ¡°Umm, we died and got a new body and roommates?¡± ¡°Souls don¡¯t work like that¡­¡± The nun sighed again. ¡°So how do they work, God¡¯s child?¡± The nun''s eyes flashed in anger, ¡°They get cleansed. New slate. Previous lives don¡¯t exist.¡± ¡°But here we are?¡± ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know¡­¡± The nun sighed. Conflicted in her feelings, she was happy to have died but now she was alive? Again? Worst of all, still wearing these disgusting clothes. Weirdly the mercenary could understand what the nun was feeling, nothing exact but a little smidge of something, ¡°How I see, we all died. And now we are here. Does that mean we are sisters or something? No idea! But it''s not every day one gets a second shot at life, not that I needed it, but I¡¯m not one to turn not such an opportunity.¡± The mercenary had a wide grin across her bright red lips. The Nun scratched her head, ¡°Sigh. Wherefore couldn¡¯t I just die and go to hell?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you just say souls get cleaned?¡± ¡°Yes ma''am. Tis so wrong to wish there was a place I could¡¯ve known those I hate went to suffer?¡± The mercenary laughed, ¡°You¡¯re my tenth favourite religious person.¡± ¡°Ex¡­¡± The Nun replied, "Death is a great reason to quit.¡± The two were calm. But they felt oddly comfortable with each other, probably due to the fact their souls were next to each other for five years but neither really understood what actually happened after their deaths, especially these last five years. The red-haired lady looked away from the nun and asked, ¡°So who are you, little girl?¡± Causing the nun to turn around to look at the third member as well. The brown-haired girl had awoken not long after the nun looked away from the mercenary. She had decided to stay quiet when she awoke, scared but understanding of the situation by listening to the ongoing conversation. ¡°Lilly¡¯s my name¡­¡± The short teen had crouched down making her look extra small. Normally she wouldn''t have replied to a stranger but this scary lady felt like a long-acquainted decent neighbour to her, so she asked. ¡°Yours?¡± Looking at the other two. The white-haired nun spoke first, ¡°I have no name.¡± And then looked towards the mercenary. ¡°Thou?¡± ¡°Yeah, my name ain¡¯t important! That me dead! New life new me¡± The red-headed woman laughed, ¡°Just call me Red. You, fine with White?¡± White grumbled, not too fond of the name but didn¡¯t want to use her old one so decided, ¡°For now, yes.¡± ¡­ After that, there was silence for a good few moments. White asked, ¡°So, how are we supposed to proceed?¡± Lilly didn¡¯t respond and just stayed seated. She was enjoying this place, it didn¡¯t feel cold. Red on the other hand, ¡°Well to start something, you got to at least try!¡± Red walked forward into the pool. ¡°Let¡¯s see if I can drive this body!¡± ¡°Erha, arh, murah.¡± [Man, it¡¯s hard to talk.] (Red) Anna flopped forward. [Oww!] (Lilly) [I didn¡¯t feel anything?] (White) Lilly was hurt by the fall, Red ignored the pain¨Cas it barely counted as pain to her¨Cwhile White who didn¡¯t feel anything, was left confused that Lilly felt anything at all if Red was supposedly controlling the body. ¡°Mu¨Cu.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Jen¨Cwho was still debating with Geroge¨Cturned after hearing a thud. ¡°Oh, Anny¡­¡± She quickly moved over to help her child, worried that she injured herself. ¡°Mar-u-. Murma!¡± Anna flopped back over. Red pointed at Jen, ¡°Murma!¡± ¡°George¡­¡± Without looking, her left hand went back looking for her husband to grab it, while she crouched to pick up their child. ¡°Murma! Murma! Mumra!¡± ¡°Jen¡­¡± George''s eyes flooded with tears and he ran to Jen¡¯s side. These were her first words and they were both so happy she was saying anything! The light of life filled Anna¡¯s eyes, something Jen had never seen from her before. A complicated set of feelings flowed through two of the three. While Red was excited. A new life, new opportunities and from what she had seen, she had some great new parents. A new experience from a now former orphan. ¡°¡°Anna!¡±¡± The two cried in joy, at their child¡¯s first everything. Actions, words, she was moving! ¡°Murma, Daba!¡± [Why is speaking so hard?] (Red) [I don¡¯t think this body has ever properly used its vocal cords.] (White) ¡°Mama, Dada!¡± Anna cried. [?] (Red) Red was confused. [How did, who?] (Red) She phased back into their own little world and saw White crying away. White, who in an act of curiosity entered the pool and was now knee-deep in it, became overwhelmed with the body¡¯s emotions. ¡°Muma, Dada, I¡¯ve missed you!¡± Red could feel an intoxication from White, as she stayed within the pool, strengthening the shared feeling they currently possessed. ¡°Well, this is going to be a weird life.¡± Red smiled and lay down in the shallow but deep pond. As her new sister and parents cried away. Chapter 3 – Introductions Again Chapter 3 ¨C Introductions Again After crying every last tear out of their body, Anna¡¯s body shut down and went to sleep. ¡°Well, that was an experience.¡± Red flung her upper body up and crossed her legs. She surveyed the area and saw Lilly still seated at the pool¡¯s edge, while White was slowly standing back up and was now only ankle-deep in water. Interestingly, the pool seemingly had no depth, as White was in the same spot but at a higher in elevation than before. ¡°What¡­ Did I do?¡± White¡¯s body shook, confused about what compelled her to undergo such actions. However, the other two could feel a deep longing flooding from White¡¯s figure. ¡°Walking into a weird white pool and basically getting high?¡± Red shrugged, ¡°Not what I expected, but that basically applies to everything currently happening.¡± The comment snapped White out of her trance and she snapped her head to glare at Red, before quickly sighing and walking out of the pool. While in the pool, the ¡®water¡¯ could splash but as White reached the side of it, all the ¡®water¡¯ pulled away. ¡°Weird¡­ I didn¡¯t feel wet, but I also don¡¯t feel dry when out of it.¡± White sighed yet again, ¡°None of this makes any sense.¡± White had exited on the opposite end of where Lilly was sitting. Red tried a little longer to see if she could get the body to open its eyes, but nothing she could do worked. All she felt was the warm comfort of the sheets and the occasional warm touch across Anna¡¯s face. ¡°We are really going to need a discussion on how we are supposed to live huh.¡± Red quietly mumbled. ¡°Pardon?¡± White asked. ¡°Topic for later!¡± Red replied, wanting to enjoy the current feeling for a moment longer. After a short time passed, ¡°Also, Lilly.¡± Red flung her head sideways, ¡°Why did you feel pain earlier, you weren¡¯t in the pool at the time were you?¡± Lilly paused before speaking, ¡°...I just thought maybe, if I could¡­ well see through the eyes¡­ and I thought deeply about it.¡± Lilly did a small quaint clap with her hands, ¡°Poof, it worked¡­ kind of.¡± Lilly still mumbled her speech a little bit, and Red and White could feel the nervousness oozing off her figure, but she still felt oddly comfortable around these two. A feeling she hadn¡¯t had with strangers for a long time. ¡°So we don¡¯t need to be in the pool?¡± Said Red. While White, confused, asked, ¡°Wherefore would thou even think to try that?¡± ¡°Cause why not?¡± Red clicked her tongue, ¡°She can do what she wants.¡± ¡°I¡­ just don¡¯t understand where the logic would begin to be used to reach such a conclusion.¡± Lilly spoke up, wanting to let her observation be known, ¡°I¡­ couldn¡¯t control anything¡­ but I could feel it¡­ all the sensation.¡± The three pondered the knowledge to different extents. Red stood up and got out of the pool. ¡°Let¡¯s start our introduction again, now that we have a slightly better understanding of the situation we are in.¡± She signalled White and Lilly to come over. The two agreed as there was literally nothing else to do. So the three ended up sitting across from each other in a circle. Red started as it was her idea, ¡°I¡¯m Red, a former top-rank mercenary and orphan, the former pretty obvious with my clothes. Also possessed the Blood and Fire attributes.¡± Lilly quietly mumbled, ¡°Wow¡­ two.¡± One was the average amount of attributes an individual was born with. Extremely rare however, some people could be born with none, but less rare but still very uncommon was those few born with two¨Cabout a one-in-one-thousand chance. White went next, ¡°I¡¯m White, a former nun. I had the Moonlight and Space attributes, can¡¯t say I was good about using either of them. Only learned healing magic for Moonlight and didn¡¯t get the chance to learn space. No family.¡± Finally, it was Lilly¡¯s turn. sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She breathed in and out before speaking, ¡°Lilly, teenager¡­ I had the Manipulation attribute¡­¡± Lilly suddenly stopped. So Red commented, ¡°One of the ¡®get rich ones¡¯.¡± Which caused Lilly to bite her lip, ¡°But I was wrong¡­ a failure, I couldn¡¯t use it properly.¡± Red now felt a bit shit but didn¡¯t say anything as she felt it wasn¡¯t the time. Lilly shook her head, ¡°That¡¯s it really.¡± ¡­ Silence drowned their personal void for a moment before Red summarised the situation. ¡°So we all died, in some way or another, and have woken up in the body of this five year old named Anna.¡± ¡°Well¡­ if we shared the same experience¡­¡± Lilly thought of the vague memories of the last five years, ¡°We were all here from the beginning.¡± Lilly added, ¡°Then we were all here from that start¡­ the birth¡­ the creation of ¡®Anna¡¯.¡± ¡°But why did it take so long for us to¡­ wake up? I guess that¡¯s the right world.¡± Lilly paused for a moment thinking of an example, ¡°Imagine this, this space is a balloon, and the only way the balloon is considered¡­ ummm done? Is when it flies slightly off the ground, but in this situation the balloon had three weights inside it which meant more time had to pass before it grew big enough to take off.¡± The explanation was far from perfect, and she was already thinking of better ones she could¡¯ve said. Red nodded at the explanation. ¡°I¡­ do get it.¡± White understood the logic even if the explanation was confusing, but just found the whole situation weird and unnatural. ¡°Only once the container was large enough could we all fit, I guess the ¡®sleeping¡¯ state we were in saved space?¡± Lilly responded, ¡°Probably¡­ but we don¡¯t know how much time has passed since our deaths and Anna¡¯s birth.¡± The three stared at each other, knowing from the unknown connection they had what to say next. ¡°1308.¡± ¡°1308 EC.¡± ¡°...1308 EC.¡± White said, ¡°So if no time has passed since death and rebirth, then it''s 1313 EC.¡± A mixture of emotions across all three individuals'' faces. Red asked, ¡°Everything else people want to add?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ but not at the moment.¡± White replied, ¡°We¡­ I need time to process everything.¡± ¡°Fair enough, Lilly?¡± ¡°I¡¯m¡­ good.¡± Now that the discussion was over, Red did have something to quickly ask, ¡°White?¡± ¡°Yes, thou.¡± ¡°You talk funny.¡± White¡¯s mouth opened widely before it very slowly closed and she became flush with embarrassment. The immense feelings of embarrassment bombed Red and Lilly but within the centre of it was a small piece of happiness. ¡°Quite indeed, I¡­ guess I should try and fix that, now that I have the chance to.¡± A small smile rested on White¡¯s face while Lilly and Red were on the ground dealing with the aftereffects of the emotional bomb. But at least the introductions went well. Chapter 4 – New Life New Me/Us Chapter 4 ¨C New Life New Me/Us It had been a week since the three had awoken, but they hadn¡¯t gotten much done in that time. Not that there was much to do. Apparently, a child without a soul controlling its first for five years meant that it wasn¡¯t the best developed. Red smiled, ¡°What to do today.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s already 5 PM¡­ The body is worn out.¡± White replied, dipping her toes in the pool. Interacting with the pool directly or connecting to the body by thought caused the body''s current state to be felt by them. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°We aren¡¯t that knackered.¡± The three had grown used to each other''s company, well they didn¡¯t really have a choice in the matter. But still, they didn¡¯t communicate much. Lilly stayed mostly quiet near the edge of the pool, while White plopped in and out of it, and Red spent most of her time waist-deep in the pool. However, during this week''s duration, they finally got an idea of where they were. They were inside Anna. Anna was a five-year-old child who inherited her father¡¯s characterises. Short, black hair, and lighter brown eyes. From a small farming town near some sort of border, but that was all they were able to find out from overhearing other people''s conversations. They tried to talk and move around a bit, but that hadn¡¯t gone well. So far there had been a lot of movement before quickly passing out. Mostly thanks to Red trying to explore. It wasn¡¯t all nothing though. Anna¡¯s mother had borrowed a bunch of books from the local town chief to read to Anna now that she was paying attention. Blue Hiding Hood. Rose & Flower. The Golden Moose Horns. Blue Hiding Hood and The Golden Moose Horns were just short stories, but Rose & Flower was a full-blown novel. So far they were only up to chapter 2. ¡°If only I could use my Blood gift, this tiredness would all go away.¡± Neither White nor Lilly could comment on the accuracy of her statement as they had no experience. However, White did want to comment based on her readings but decided to stay quiet. White replied, ¡°We talked about this, we aren¡¯t attempting anything regarding our attributes until we can properly hide our awakening.¡± ¡°I know, but I just want to run around like crazy again. Never realised how being stuck in place could be so boring.¡± Red splashed around in the pool before quickly stopping and leaning on the edge of it. No amount of movement in this world did anything to solve her issue. ¡°What¡¯s with this urge of thine to go wild.¡± ¡°It''s more of an itch.¡± Red laughed and clarified, ¡°I could go months without doing a job, but I made it a habit to always stay in good condition, and apparently not moving?... Not moving for five years has at least had a mental impact.¡± Lilly spoke, ¡°Well I hope we get Blood again for your sake¡­ being healthy sounds pretty nice.¡± She smiled, she had learned a little about certain attributes during school and Blood was a Body attribute that was great for living a healthy life. White decided to rain on hopeful moments, ¡°Attributes are based on a combination of chance and bloodline, so getting Blood attribute again would be an anomaly.¡± Red asked, ¡°What isn¡¯t abnormal about our situation?¡± White couldn¡¯t respond, so she sighed. Anna¡¯s body was snuggled in a blanket on a chair in the kitchen. Jen and George would be home soon, meaning it would be time to eat and then sleep. However a thought had been plaguing Lilly, and after a week she finally decided to ask, ¡°When we become able to move normally, how should we¡­ present ourselves?¡± ¡°What do thou mean?¡± ¡°... I mean¡­ we are all different people¡­¡± Lilly glanced at Red and White, still a little afraid of making direct eye contact, ¡°Even if we are in this body¡­ together.¡± White replied, ¡°That¡¯s a little complicated¡­¡± She was also unsure of how she was going to act once she could move around with her free will. However, Red¡¯s thoughts were much simpler, ¡°But we are Anna?¡± Red¡¯s comment caused Lilly to look down. ¡°I¡­ guess.¡± It was a topic that for some of them had some more bumps to flatten out, so they left it alone and continued their quiet rest. Before Red mentioned, ¡°We should try jogging again.¡± ¡°It¡¯s already late¡­¡± Lilly lay flat on the ground nearby, focused on the warm comfort of the blanket they were currently in. ¡°Just have Jen read us a book.¡± ¡°Good idea,¡± White enthusiastically nodded, ¡°Fiction entertainment has been a delightful experience.¡± So when the adults got home, Anna poorly asked for a ¡®book¡¯. And two of them enjoyed a nice story to end the day with while the other was left still wanting to scratch an itch. Chapter 5 – Can I Be In Control? Chapter 5 ¨C Can I Be In Control? It had now been a month since they had first awakened and now could move about before immediately falling asleep. ¡°Miy turrn!¡± Anna (Red) yelled and she started chasing after the other children. She still couldn¡¯t speak properly but was now allowed to interact with the other children. ¡°Run!¡± ¡°Escape!¡± ¡°Hide!¡± Anna was outside playing tag with a group of kids aged between 4~9, while the adults watched on. It was Friday, which was a rest day for the village, so the adults got to watch their children play. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Don¡¯t bully them please¡­] (Lilly) [Can¡¯t stop a beast now that it is free Lilly.] (White) They had some group discussions¨Cmostly between White and Lilly, with Red occasionally asking something¨Cabout their situation and trying to understand how their world worked. Soul Space was what they called the void that they rested in. Simply put, a space for their souls, keeping the naming simple was best after all. The pool was named the Heart Pool and Soul Pool¨Cthey couldn¡¯t decide on a name. The name was due to it being the main way of controlling the body and had the side effect of the people in it feeling each other''s emotions more easily. Besides that, their experimentation inside the Soul Space was mostly successful. They couldn¡¯t touch each other and just phased through when they tried. When they attempted to walk into the void within a minute they would appear on the opposite side. ¡°Go get them, Anna!¡± George yelled while Jen was extremely focused on Anna, worried that she would injure herself. The village gathering had been going on for over four hours by now, but the game of tag had only started recently, and it was only now Red¡¯s turn seeking. They played some other games with the kids, well Red did, but neither White nor Lilly was interested in it for different reasons. With bright energetic eyes, Red locked onto her next target. ¡°Gota ya!¡± Anna yelled. ¡°Seriously?¡± One boy tried to stay at a distance, but Red grabbed him the moment he tried to side-step away. Anna¡¯s body still didn¡¯t have much stamina, but Red¡¯s past combat and physical experience gave her an advantage that none of the other kids could even possess at their age. [This seems unfair.] (White) [I mean¡­] (Lilly) Lilly was about to say it was okay cause some of the kids were older and had much more stamina. ¡°Haha! Can¡¯t es-cape!¡± Red tag another two kids within quick succession. [Yeah, you¡¯re right¡­] (Lilly) Ten minutes had passed and Red was mostly done with this round but she was getting tired, but the last three kids had decided to hide instead of staying in the open. ¡°Anna!¡± Jen called out, which caused Red to turn around. ¡°It¡¯s time to go home.¡± Jen had crouched down and opened up her arms for a hug. Red was about to walk over when ¡°We aren¡¯t done yet!¡± A boy yelled out from the distance behind a tree, one the kids Red didn¡¯t catch. ¡°In aa momen¨C¡± As Anna¡¯s body was about to turn around to get the kid. [Why can¡¯t I move my body?!] (Red) [I don¡¯t know?] White replied while jumping with a smile into Jen¡¯s arms. [Don¡¯t leave Jen hanging like that.] White had taken control and ran up into Jen¡¯s happy embrace. [Mum would¡¯ve been fine for a moment.] (Red) Red sulked and struggled to move the body but all she could do was to get it to shake. While Red vain attempts to move were happening, White enjoyed the moment, being hugged by a mother figure. Then, Anna¡¯s eyes shut and she tightened her hug around Jen. Now it was White¡¯s turn to be left confused. [Huh?] (White) [Why are you confused?] (Red) They both phased back into the Soul Space to see Lilly in the pool. The first time she had actually entered. ¡°I¡­ just wanted a moment...¡± Lilly replied. And this was also the first time all three were in the pool together. The three figures hadn¡¯t changed much since they first awoke. Red had shrunk slightly over the last week but that was it. Lilly¡¯s longing for warmth caused the other two to not complain. White still found the experience pleasant as she still felt everything, even if sharing the body simultaneously was a little weird, while Red was happy with the situation. Even if she was a little peeved the game ended a little early. After a while the hug stopped, and Jen handed Anna over to George to hold. He carried her in his arms and her head rested on his shoulder. White smiled, feeling the kindness from the body''s parents. Red asked, ¡°So while Dad¡¯s carrying us back home, what exactly happened?¡± Looking at White and Lilly for answers. ¡°I wanted my turn?¡± White replied. ¡°You can¡¯t be in control all of the time.¡± ¡°That still doesn''t explain what happened?¡± Red sighed. Lilly tried to provide an answer, ¡°White hadn¡¯t been in control for a bit while you had been in the pool directly controlling the body the majority of the time.¡± Red lamented, ¡°Argh are we banking time or something¡­?¡± ¡°Not exactly¡­ It needs more testing, but not controlling the body for a while does make it easier to control it for a short while¡­. The opposite is probably also true¡­ which is why you can barely do anything right now Red.¡± ¡°Huh, I think I get it. Weird¡­¡± When they had reached their house, George had placed Anna on the ground to open the door, but he gave her a head pat before he did. He had his priorities. Lilly asked her soulmates, ¡°Sorry but can I stay in control for a bit?¡± Lilly could always feel everything, while it was usually Red who stayed in the pool most of the time. Lilly stayed connected to the body''s feelings through the connection she made, but she still had to be in the pool if she wanted to control the body. ¡°Argh, we all can,¡± Red replied. ¡°Huh?¡± Said White. ¡°Well this is our body, why can¡¯t we all be in control?¡± ¡°That sounds¡­ like it would be a problem¡­¡± Mumbled Lilly. ¡°Quite right, difficult as well, wouldn¡¯t it be a tug-of-war fest?¡± Said White. Red laughed, ¡°Well we got to find out!¡± Eventually, the day reached its end, and they spent the night listening to Jen read out another book she borrowed¨CThe Girl Who Cried Donkey. Chapter 6 – Magic Chapter 6 ¨C Magic White spoke to her two companions, ¡°I think we should discuss our magic attribute now?¡± An even shorter Red sighed, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s probably best.¡± Lilly asked, ¡°Do we have enough stamina to not pass out, or cause a scene?¡± Red, the most knowledgeable on the body''s condition, replied, ¡°For sure, I haven¡¯t been moving about every day for nothing!¡± It had now been three months since they had awoken in this body and life was slowly settling in. Jen and George gave them a lot of attention when they weren¡¯t managing the crops. Anna past the time by playing with the kids or drawing in the dirt to preoccupy themselves. Jen had added more books to the rotation of stories, which meant funny enough they haven¡¯t actually finished any of the longer novels yet. For control of the body, they still hadn¡¯t gotten used to having multiple people driving the body at the same time, but they did switch frequently enough. None of the adults questioned their behaviour which just led the three to realise independently, that they mustn¡¯t be a weird kid. White said, ¡°Well we need to just wait for everyone to leave first.¡± The awakening was an event where individuals gained the ability to use their mana and attributes. This usually happened naturally between the ages of ten to twenty but could be forced pretty easily, with the help of another or through a dire event. Either way, the awakening could be either really quiet¡­ or very loud. They were going to try and control it to make it as subtle as possible, but they didn¡¯t want to take any chances of people finding out for the time being. ¡°We might be the first people ever to awaken their attribute a second time,¡± Red remarked. ¡°Someone hasn¡¯t read through history,¡± White commented, ¡°There have been multiple records of people losing their attributes, usually by some sort of painful event. Tis usually a tale of tragedy before an eventual rise.¡± She coughed, ¡°But it has happened a few times.¡± Many different types of magic or gifts¨Cdepending on where one was from it was called different things¨Cexisted. However, using attributes outside of one¡¯s own was extremely difficult, if not impossible for many. Attributes varied from elements, Water, Lightning, Sound, Sunlight, etc. More physical attributes¨CBody, Bone, Blood, Sight, Hearing, etc. To more obscure, rare, or abstract attributes¨CMainplation, Mana, Cycles, etc. Upon awakening an individual''s appearance sometimes changes slightly, reflecting their attribute, if not then this change could happen for individuals who have mastered their attribute to a certain extent. Everyone besides Lilly was hoping the body would at least share a magic attribute they had in life. For Red, Blood and Fire magic were some of the cores she built her fighting style around. White, on the other hand, possessed Moonlight and Space attributes, but never got the chance to truly explore either of them deeply, especially Space which she had a deep curiosity to learn. The three had entered the Heart Pool together and waited for everyone to move far into the fields. [Man I¡¯m excited to use mana again.] (Red) [Same but I just hope we get a usable attribute, preferably a multi-purpose one so we can explore how each wants to utilise it] (White) [I¡¯m fine with just usable¡­] (Lilly) They could¡¯ve waited until they naturally awakened. But for the ex-mercenary and nun, the inability to use mana was frighteningly dangerous. They had lived near danger to varying extents, but both of them died while fighting. Which left a greater impression on either of them than they initially realised. White would be fine living a peaceful life, but knowing the dangers that existed in the world she at least wanted the strength to protect herself. [Everyone ready?] (Red) [Yes.] (White) [Yes.] (Lilly) The usual non-natural way of awakening with the help of another was by jumping starting one''s mana by sending in the mana of another. Of course that requires skill on the sender''s side, and Anna didn¡¯t even have a person to do that job so they had to do the next best thing. Pull mana from the atmosphere. Anna¡¯s body turned red and started sweating, then after the sweat started drenching their body, they started to hyperventilate. [Er¡­] White dealt with the pain the body was feeling. [Argh!] While Lilly was struggling, she didn¡¯t expect it to hurt this much. Utilising Mana from the atmosphere wasn¡¯t worth using for multiple reasons. Compared to the mana within the body, there wasn¡¯t a great degree of it around within most individual''s area of control. It was hard to control, even harder than using other people¡¯s mana. Finally, it tended to bite back when used. Most of the work was being handled by Red and White who knew how to manipulate mana best. Lilly tried but she was less skilled and the pain was overwhelming her. After dealing with the pain, they had finally achieved their result after five minutes of pulling mana. [Mana!] Red exclaimed, unfazed by the pain, but soon shock appeared on Anna¡¯s face. Red, White, and Lilly could feel the mana overflowing from their body, ready to explode outwards. [Crap it¡¯s going loud!] Noticing the massive surplus of mana wanting to be expelled, Red yelled. [I got it!] (White) White used the burst of mana she acquired to try and block the mana from escaping, but she couldn¡¯t stop the large amount from leaking out. [I¡­ hel¡­p¡­] Lilly in a daze, focused on the feeling she felt in her previous life and forcibly dragged the mana back in. After a minute, Anna collapsed onto the floor. She looked the same as she did before, but for a moment her eyes flashed pink, red, and amber which faded to grey. Another minute passed before the three finally were able to pull themselves up. The contained explosion affected even their soul forms which caused them all to awake back in their Soul Space home. However, after the awakening, they all recognised the feeling within the body and they said aloud. ¡°Yes, Fire and Blood again!¡± ¡°Space! And Moonlight.¡± ¡°Manipulation¡­¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Which quickly led to a moment of joint confusion. ¡°Can¡¯t you feel the Fire in the veins?¡± Red asked. ¡°No?¡± White wasn¡¯t sure, but it wasn¡¯t obvious from their current position. Lilly muttered, ¡°Four attributes¡­¡± ¡°Five Lilly, don¡¯t discount yours,¡± said Red. This caused Lilly to burst, ¡°But I couldn¡¯t even use it properly in my life, I basically died because of it!¡± Lilly cried before clasping her hands over her mouth. The three still hadn¡¯t really explained their past to each other. Lilly and White didn¡¯t want to, and Red couldn¡¯t care¨Cher life was pretty simple in her eyes. ¡°Let¡¯s¡­ just continue with the talk¡­ please¡­¡± Lilly asked. ¡°Fine¡­¡± White replied, understanding Lilly¡¯s position. They continued from where they left off. ¡°Five attributes¡­ Assuming what we are feeling is correct, it¡¯s amazing.¡± Red exclaimed, ¡°That will probably make us pretty famous.¡± Now it was White¡¯s turn to snap, ¡°Nope! We aren¡¯t letting anyone else know about this.¡± She crossed her arms into an X and flatly refused. ¡°Why? It will help us get work?¡± ¡°Being famous might work for being a mercenary, but more than two attributes just puts a target on one''s back. People from all over will keep an eye on you, and at the very least constantly try to rope them into their organisation.¡± Lilly added after the tears literally vanished from her eyes, ¡°...Plus¡­ those with more than three attributes usually have a connection between the three¡­ Earth, Fire, Water, Wind¡­ Blood, Bone, Body¡­ Light, Fire, Sunlight¡­ We don¡¯t have that at all¡­ make us even more of an oddball.¡± Red didn¡¯t argue back, she did understand the risk of being the centre of attention. ¡°I just don¡¯t understand why we keep our attributes from our previous life,¡± said White. ¡°You really need to stop thinking about it,¡± Red commented, ¡°None of us are researchers in this field, most of the theories we think of will probably be wrong.¡± Lilly quietly muttered out of range of the other two, ¡°The soul reflects the body¡­ and the body reflects the soul¡­¡± ¡°Crap, were there any physical changes?¡± Anna (Red) asked as she stood up to look in a mirror. [Please be no changes.] White prayed. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. They all had the feeling they didn¡¯t properly hold back the mana from causing any changes in their physical physique. Rushing to the tiny bathroom mirror that their family owned. All they saw was the same Anna, just extremely red and drenched. ¡°Ah thank the donkey,¡± said Red, ¡°No idea how we were supposed to explain physical changes.¡± [It would¡¯ve just been, lie and say we awoke mana¡­] White sighed, [But I¡¯m glad we didn¡¯t have to do that, it would¡¯ve been a mess.] [...but we do need to get cleaned up¡­] Lilly mentioned. [Yeah if Mum and Dad see us now.] (Red) Anna (Red) rubbed her hand between her hair. They moved over to a bucket full of water, tore off their clothes, washed themselves and started to put on new ones. If the parents asked, Red already had the perfect excuse¡­ She got them dirty while playing in the mud. She even was about to purposely add some dirt to the old clothes to make her alibi extra correct. During Red¡¯s clothes mudding operation White said, [Now that our attributes are awakened, we need to experiment with them as well.] Red replied, [Yeah, but we need to let our mana settle first before we start examining it¡­ I for one don¡¯t want it to go boom.] [Tis annoying not knowing how long to wait.] [Oh it should only be about a week.] (Red) [How do tho-you know about that?] (White) [It felt like a week¡¯s worth to settle type of explosion.] (Red) Anna¡¯s mouth opened flabbergasted, ¡°It felt like¡­?¡± [Trust me, I¡¯ve experienced worse mana explosions¡­] Red laughed, [They usually weren¡¯t internally though!] After doing the deed, they made their way back home. Red¡¯s plan was a success, any mess was chalked up to playing in the mud. Which also led to long lectures which replaced their story time. Much to the despair of White. Chapter 7 – Settled In Chapter 7 ¨C Settled In Three days had passed since their awakening, and the three made sure to not interact with their mana or attribute until their mana settled. ¡°Errr¡­. Bored¡­.¡± Freshly awoken mana was quite unstable and while it would normally be fine to let it flow as that would calm it down, they wanted to keep it hidden, so they would have to deal with this delay in progress. [You should¡¯ve come up with a better plan Red.] (White) [Not my fault no one else thought of one.] (Red) Anna¡¯s uninterested eyes stared at the ceiling, White was currently in control and the delay in their attribute experimentation wasn¡¯t the main reason they were bored. ¡°... I should just sleep¡­¡± The main cause of this boredom was Red¡¯s genius plan to divert Jen and George¡¯s attention. It worked. But they were punished by not being able to leave the house for three days and no story time. They were both very upset by the possibility of Anna playing in the mud. Due to superstition and events, a child playing completely unattended was a concern for the villages. [Then we¡¯ll just be too tired to sleep tonight.] (Red) [I doubt that this body sleeps too well.] (White) Nothing much changed, their physical body still looked the same. Dressed in a simple brown shirt that had been repeatedly sewn to repair damages. The only true change wasn¡¯t a directly visible one. Red¡¯s soul form had grown shorter again. This still had her muscly body, but her mercenary gear had changed slightly to fit her new form, and her facial features had grown softer. Initially, the changes weren¡¯t too obvious but slowly shrinking wasn¡¯t hard to notice when it was the originally tallest person in the group. ¡°Red, are you sure you feel fine?¡± Lilly asked. Red opened her eyes in the Soul Space to respond, ¡°Yeah, not sure what caused it?¡± Lilly stayed quiet, ¡°I¡­ have some ideas¡­ need to wait about though.¡± ¡°Cool.¡± Red just gave a thumbs up, ¡°Not that I care much about it.¡± After a while later of doing nothing. They heard the front door open and a familiar female voice called out, ¡°Anna! Where are ya?¡± ¡°Here Mum,¡± Red answered, calling out from their room. ¡°Good,¡± They heard a relieved sigh, ¡°Come here, let¡¯s prepare dinner.¡± ¡°O-kay!¡± Red hopped down from the bed and jogged into the kitchen. ¡°No running Anna.¡± ¡°Sorrry!¡± Anna, George who came a little later, and Jen work together preparing dinner. The two adults did the work, while Anna was asked to hold items while she watched¨Clike an unpeeled potato. It didn¡¯t take too long before dinner was ready to be eaten and the family had a nice hearty meal to end the day. Jen got off her seat, walked over and crouched down to Anna¡¯s height on the chair, ¡°Cause you¡¯ve been a good girl,¡± she said. Jen pulled out a book she had kept hidden in her bag¨CRose & Flower. ¡°Storytime is back on for tonight.¡± ¡°Yay!¡± Anna hopped off the chair and motioned to her room. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± ¡°Nope, you are going to help clean your plate first.¡± Anna frowned before replying fine, her uninterested eyes followed the three dishes on the table. Ever since she started moving Jen got her to ¡®help¡¯ with chores, She didn¡¯t actually help, but it was more of an excuse to spend time together. Rose & Flower was a story about a royal princess and a mysterious guard who helped survive the assassin-filled days around the castle. They never met and only exchanged through letters. It was a long book with fifty chapters, but Jen was only about to chapter twenty-five in their story time reading. White blamed the fact she kept adding more books to the rotation so it was pushed back to just once a week. ¡°Merma, t-book time!¡± White jumped into bed ready for Jen to read out the book. A part of her did just want to read it herself, but even she knew a kid who never learned to read suddenly knowing how to read would be a bit too suspicious if caught. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m getting to it.¡± Jen gently sat down just before saying goodbye to George who went to their room¨Cright next door¨Cto rest. They weren¡¯t really separate rooms, just a normal sized room separated by a piece of cloth. That was put up so the cool breeze wouldn¡¯t hit Anna during the night from the window, it also allowed parents to have some privacy. The trio quickly learned that the couple got extremely embarrassed by simple acts of kissing, even in front of their kid. ¡°Okay, time to start.¡± She opened the book to the chapter they were at. ¡°I opened my eyes to the morning sun¡¯s rise, but I didn¡¯t care for it. My hand reached under my pillow to pull out a letter. Quickly opening it, the familiar writing I was so used to had written another message. Pardon me my Flower, but troubles are still far from done. Death still awaits you, and your enemies are growing suspicious of their failures. Don¡¯t fret, they expect nothing to be from you, but my actions may be a bit harder from now on. But I best be quick. The oldest butler and youngest maid have been brought out, and the two guards before haven¡¯t been fired. I know you have been quite averse to fatal play, tis much unfortunate however, as it seems if you don¡¯t have much time before your entire audience of supporters is replaced with filthy rats. For today''s lunch, use that trick I wrote before and pretend to drink today¡¯s tea. It''s poisoned, of course. Also, watch for the guards, I¡¯m worried they might try something more drastic soon. And remember to lock doors with the magic key at night. Sincerely, Rose. I finished reading the letter just before the morning light from the window burnt the next away. Again no magic could be felt which just left me frustrated¡­¡± Thirty minutes had passed and Jen was reading extremely slowly, she still hadn¡¯t finished the chapter, but in only a small amount of fairness. They were quite long. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°I tried walking normally with a smile. The guards stood straight and the butlers and maids bowed as I walked past. I thought I would be used to this by now¡­ but knowing nearly every third person was out to get me threatened to crack my facade.¡± Jen noticed Anna¡¯s eyes looking sleepy. Noting the page, she started to close the book. ¡°I think that is enough for today.¡± Jen was about to place the book down to kiss Anna before bed, but Anna with tired eyes tugged on Jen¡¯s sleeve. Jen patted Anna¡¯s head, ¡°Sweety, you should sleep.¡± Anna¡¯s cheeks unintentionally puffed. Jen smiled and relented, ¡°Fine I¡¯ll finish the chapter.¡± She opened the book again and finished reading until the chapter''s completion, with Anna¡¯s slightly interested eyes focused on the book the entire time. Chapter 8 – Quick Neighbour Visit Chapter 8 ¨C Quick Neighbour Visit ¡°Morning George,¡± a long bearded fellow said. ¡°Good morning to you as well,¡± George replied. It was the morning after story time and after having a nice relaxing sleep they were forced to get up to go on a walk with George. [Red¡­ why do I have to do this¡­?] (White) [Weren¡¯t you the one who said we should make a good impression?] (Red) White could feel that Red was smiling, which just made her more annoyed. ¡°Anna, say hi.¡± George pushed Anna forward. ¡°Hello,¡± White replied, her uninterested eyes examining the world around her, not caring about their neighbour. They had met them before, but not directly, just in passing. [You should¡¯ve just let me sleep.] (White) [So you wanted Lilly to do it?] (Red) [...] (White) [Sorry¡­] Lilly felt the need to apologise, she also didn¡¯t sound good when she replied. [Nothing to feel sorry for.] White quickly tried to comfort Lilly. This walk and morning meeting should¡¯ve been fine. Red was a morning person, and she was normally up while White and Lilly could just disconnect from the body¨Cwhich Lilly didn¡¯t usually do¨Cand rest in Soul Space. Even if it wasn¡¯t really effective for resting, at least they wouldn¡¯t directly feel the body¡¯s exhaustion. So normally they left it to Red to deal with anything 5~6 AM early, but Red, upon hearing this walkabout involved a proper meeting with their neighbour, decided to shove the responsibility onto White. [She¡¯s right. Blame it on me.] Red added, [I hate dealing with annoyances, if I didn¡¯t have to deal with one personally, I always gave the trouble to lefty or righty.] ¡°...Morning¡­¡± The bearded man replied, ¡°Still a little tired I see.¡± He returned a light chuckle. [He seems a little freaked out, good job.] (Red) ¡°Not really, I¡¯m usually up this early,¡± White replied, during her previous life it was standard to wake up at 4 AM every day and sleep at 10 PM every day unless there was an emergency occurring. However, even with her newfound freedom which she took in great earnest to sleep in, she still was perfectly fine to be up early. Even though Anna¡¯s body wasn¡¯t perfectly adapted to trying to move while tired, White was used to that experience. White smiled with her plastered fake smile which seemed indistinguishable from a genuine one, ¡°You seem tired yourself, mister.¡± White¡¯s eyes, which were called the eyes of a saint¨Ca blank stare that seemed to register everyone and everything equally¨Cwere very unsettling when she wasn¡¯t in her position of power. Eyes that watched everything as unimportant¡­ ¡°I¡¯m¡­ good.¡± He looked back up at George, ¡°Not as lively as she was before.¡± ¡°When it¡¯s playtime her inner beast comes,¡± George laughed. ¡°I remember her catching your kid in a second Henry.¡± While the adults began their discussion. [Erhh¡­ I feel sick in the stomach] Lilly had a problem. [Blame the mana, it''s still spinning] (Red) [Tell it to stop¡­ or I might actually be sick] Lilly begged. White who was already in a bad mood dealing with this man, yelled [Stop connecting to the body then!] Noticing her tone, she quieted her internal voice, [The last thing we need is to vomit mid-conversation.] [...I understand] Lilly went quiet and sat in the void of the Soul Space. [...Dammit] (White) White stayed silent for a moment regretting her action. [Lilly you there?] (White) [Nope, she is laying down in the void.] (Red) The only situation where they wouldn¡¯t be able to hear each other was if someone was completely controlling the body, and another person in the void had moved a long distance away from the pool. [Argh what a delightful pain, for why can¡¯t I control my internal voice!] (White) I didn¡¯t want to upset her¡­ White thought. They were still able to keep their thoughts to themselves, even if their companions could feel the emotion of them. [From my experience, that tends to be the norm for people who perfectly control their outside voice.] (Red) White couldn¡¯t tell if Red was insulting or consoling her. The conversation between Henry and George had been continuing and led to Henry inviting them into his house for a quick snack over ¡°Unclean,¡± White commented, Her expectations were low because they were commoners, but compared to their home, the difference was night and day. Clothes, dust, and stains galore. ¡°Yeah¡­ My wife hasn¡¯t returned to clean yet.¡± Henry replied. White had overheard earlier that she was out for business for the last week. ¡°So you¡¯re a mess?¡± Henry doubled back and looked at Anna. ¡°Kids are brutally honest aren¡¯t they,¡± George laughed, finding the situation funny. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Their trip to the neighbour was thankfully quick for White¡¯s sanity. She just smiled brightly the entire time hoping the conversation would hurry up. However, once the talk was done and she tried to speak to Lilly, she found herself stopping herself¨Cscared. Argh¡­What is wrong with me¡­ White lamented, letting Red take over the body for the rest of the day. Chapter 9 – Future Plans? Who Needs Those Chapter 9 ¨C Future Plans? Who Needs Those ¡°Haha, it''s finally time!¡± Red yelled in the Soul Space. It had been a day over a week, and their internal mana had finally settled down. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Lilly looked over to the short Red, she was smaller than her and White, and looked extremely familiar to another figure they all knew¡­ ¡°Let¡¯s just get to it, everyone, let''s control the body.¡± The three of them hopped into the pool together and examined the body¡¯s condition together. After a couple seconds of silence, White declared amazed [Our mana¡­ is three times as big as the average person¡¯s.] The amount of mana an individual had only slightly varied between different individuals, so obviously having three times more than the average was a big advantage. [I mean, that kind of makes sense? People said mana regenerated because of the soul, so we got three of them?] (Red) [Technically it¡¯s a little over three people¡¯s worth¡­ by about another 18%.] (Lilly) Ideas quickly flashed through White¡¯s mind, [... Lilly, what are thy-your thoughts on the mana our mana supply?] White asked, [Any specifics? Red, don¡¯t do anything with our mana, I¡¯m going to use some of it]. [Understood.] (Red) They were home alone, so they didn¡¯t have to worry about being caught but White was still being careful. She created a non-obvious small moonlight haze along the ground, one of the few non-healing techniques she knew. ¡­Lilly¡¯s mind stayed on the flow and quality, as White used their mana. [The regeneration speed is also three times faster¡­ than a normal person¡­ The amount of mana we have also seems to be purely quantitative increase, so having multiple attributes or three souls hasn¡¯t changed the form of the mana.] (Lilly) Mana flowed evenly throughout the entire body at all times, without staying within any one location. However, certain people who could control their mana, could keep it in certain areas and concentrate all in one location if needed. [Thank you for the observation] Said White, before asking, [Lilly as well, do you know how to increase one¡¯s mana?] [Magic items?] Lilly answered, before her light grey eyes flashed, [Hypothetically¡­ with the right method, it is possible to increase one¡¯s mana supply, but I don¡¯t know how one could do that without bringing danger to oneself.] White nodded and then Red spoke, [Yeah, is possible.] Which caused Lilly¡¯s eyes to widen in excitement, [But it¡¯s attribute specific, so if your luck is rotten you won¡¯t be able to increase it physically]. [One of those private knowledge things] Anna (Lilly) frowned. [Kind of but not exactly Red, and yes Lilly, it¡¯s all kept private by one or another.] White spoke up, needing to clarify some information. For most people, increasing one¡¯s mana supply was done through magic items. Rings, swords, bracelets, whatever they could store mana in was a gem for any frequent user of mana. Due to the price, this method was mostly used by nobles, which was an issue when it was the most common and known method. [There are three main ways to modify one¡¯s body to store more mana. First, condensing one¡¯s mana. This is extremely difficult and should only really be tempted by those with high mana control. Then there is, dyeing one¡¯s mana with an attribute. Technically not increasing the supply, but it makes the cost of using one¡¯s mana less. However, this has the drawback of using that mana outside of anything that attribute related becomes nightmarishly hard.] White said firmly, [We won¡¯t ever be doing that.] [Fair enough, third?] (Red) [Third is by expanding the body''s natural storage. This can be done by slowly stress expanding the amount of mana inside the body, however, this tends to have a hard cap of about 15% and takes many years. Or a more efficient way, is by storing mana directly in parts of the body, it¡¯s why you hear about ¡°Mages¡± having a ¡°Core¡±] Anna (White) rolled her eyes, [There is another version of this, that is not exactly the same as making a core, but it is limited by certain attributes, the attributes that relate to the body are perfect for this, as they are basically already set up to store mana.] [Huh, I did something similar, I could store mana within my blood, but only temporarily and for about five hours tops.] (Red) [What¡­ is the exact difference between the first and third method?] (Lilly) White sighed, [Truthfully, I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m just going off what the books I read said, and they could be entirely wrong for all we know. But speaking to a few people who made a core, there is a difference between compressing and condensing¡­ Some sort of fundamental difference.] White looked to the floor, and the moonlight haze vanished, [I only used the dyeing method¡­ so I can¡¯t speak of the others. Besides the fact they are all much harder to accomplish.] Red smiled, [So technically, we could do all of those methods, besides dyeing anyway.] [......] (Lilly) ¡­ [Red, Lilly, how did it feel when I was using my Moonlight earlier?] (White) [Ermm, I could feel you using it? But I¡¯m pretty much doubtful I could do anything to influence it. However, I could still use Fire and Blood at any time.] (Red) [Same opinion.] (Lilly) They did a few more testing, Red using Blood and Fire, and White using Moonlight. [You want to test out Space as well? I haven¡¯t met a space gifted before.] (Red) [Maybe another time¡­ It¡¯s complicated to use.] (White) With their testing finalised, which Lilly opted out of. Red asked, [So what are the main points?] She wanted everything to be summarised. [That our mana is shared between us, but we only control our past attributes¡­. And our mana supply and regeneration are about three times faster.] (Lilly) [Neat.] Red jumped off the bed and began to walk through the kitchen to go stand outside, [So what are we supposed to do now?] [Wait for Jen and George to get home?] (White) [I mean future. Long term] Red opened the door and received a gust of fresh air. [Like what? Don¡¯t desire the farmer''s life?] (White) [Do you?] (Red) [...I wouldn¡¯t mind it, as long as I have my own free time.] (White) [I¡¯m fine¡­ just going along with whatever you two want¡­] (Lilly) [You need a bit more enthusiasm, Lilly.] Said Red, [But yeah, I¡¯m fine with it, but being strong enough to deal with any situation that happens would be nice. I¡¯m not sure where we live, but I do know it¡¯s on some kind of border, which means danger is possible a step away] [For that, I agree.] (White) S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [...So we have no overall plan?] (Lilly) [For it seems so] (White) [Yep] (Red) [...] (Lilly) ¡­ [I mean school is an option? I have never been to a proper one.] (White) [Neither have I, but can¡¯t say I¡¯m excited to go.] (Red) [Spent over half my previous life in schools¡­] Lilly muttered. [You¡­ were pretty young when you died, huh?] (Red) White asked surprised, [Asking about the past now?] [No, just making a comment. It¡¯s just sad after all, I hope it wasn¡¯t painful.] And that was all Red said about that topic and Lilly didn¡¯t respond. With their current goal completed, their past was still basically a secret from each other and no big set goals for the future. They guessed it was just time to relax and train and enjoy what their new weird life has offered them. Chapter 10 – Parents are Observant. Chapter 10 ¨C Parents are Observant. ¡°Do we give Anna a new name or¨C?¡± Jen asked. ¡°It¡¯s hard.¡± George shifted in his seat, ¡°We don¡¯t really know how many there are, or if it''s an equal share or if there¡¯s a primary personality?¡± It was late at night and Anna had fully gone to sleep hours ago, so it was time for the parents to chat. They were seated at the kitchen table with a small lamp used for light. They both had a crochet blanket over them made of simple dirty brown wool. ¡°Hrmm¡­¡± Jen brought the cup of hot water to her lips and took a sip. ¡°I still think it¡¯s the latter, so let¡¯s go off that assumption until proven otherwise. If otherwise, let¡¯s just stick with Anna.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fair.¡± Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Jen didn¡¯t know if the kids knew that they noticed, but they figured it out pretty fast. For some, Anna finally moving around would be enough to ignore any strange behaviours. But for Jen, a lover of weird things, she just noticed all the differences between the personalities more when they started to appear after some time of observing. At first, she did just assumed that they were mood swings, George thought the same, which they discussed during some of their previous occasional night talks. ¡°But are you sure there are only three?¡± George asked, ¡°If there are more, or more arrive¡­ I think they just might name themselves.¡± ¡°Well that would lead to more likely the latter possibility,¡± Jen replied, ¡°Which we are currently ignoring cause that¡¯s easier to deal with if that is the case.¡± These were Jen¡¯s observations. Personality One: Appeared the most frequently, which made Jen initially assume it was Anna¡¯s main personality. However, it only really appeared with priority in the mornings or when hanging out with other kids. With bright eyes, it loved to run around, and it was the only one that called her Mum properly after learning how to speak. Personality Two: Often appeared during story time, when it was time to talk about something important, or during lessons. They walked calmly and looked uninterested 99% of the time, but there was a sparkle that appeared during the drama novels in story time. Personality Three: Also known as the shy one by Jen. This one didn¡¯t appear very frequently and used few words and instead tended to use gestures. They mostly appeared during story time about 40% of the time with personality two taking up the other 60%. With tired eyes which initially made it hard to tell if they were a personality, or if Anna was just tired. However, after Jen realised there were two personalities, she started to notice Personality Three more. Outside of the specific times when they tended to be out, for matters like lunch, dinner and midday activities, there was a 40% 40% 20% split between the three of them. There were some other minor differences as well. Jen excitedly blushed, ¡°Ah this is so exciting.¡± Thinking about having three children in one, was something some parents might be concerned about, but it just made Jen happy. The process of uncovering their personalities was also extremely fun for Jen, who never got to experience this feeling outside of reading. Jen thought, I can¡¯t express the joy of this to them, George or our child¡­ no children. Argh! So embarrassing. George joked, ¡°Who would¡¯ve known your favourite type of book would influence our child.¡± Jen replied, ¡°Don¡¯t blame my reading habits, they don¡¯t deserve it.¡± Jen loved her books, even if she didn¡¯t own many. But she did borrow them very frequently, from the town chief who basically had the town¡¯s library, or from the town which was a two-hour walk away. However, her favourite types of books was what she labelled ¡°Mind Confuddlement¡±. Nothing crazy, just stories that confused her or involved the mind. Multiple personalities, multiple identities, hallucinations, delusion, illusions, mysteries, dreams, and multi-layered plots. Honestly, the self-made category was too big. George returned a light laugh, ¡°But I need to ask, when do you want to talk to her about it?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s just wait until they bring it up, I¡¯m sure it will happen soon¡­ unless it¡¯s one of those stories where each side doesn¡¯t know about the other¡­ Wait! Calm down Jen, you¡¯ve seen her talk to herself before, well what looked like talking to themself¡­ It should happen soon.¡± Jen managed to stop her ramble from spiralling out of control. Funny enough, they hadn¡¯t reached the point yet because of Jen adding books to the cycle, but Rose & Flower actually had a multiple personality concept in it. It was revealed in the final chapter that Rose and Flower were in fact the same person, but only Rose knew about it. George decided to add a little spark to the fire again, to mess with his wife, ¡°What if they think everyone has multiple¡­ themselves?¡± Jen stiffly smiled, ¡°I¡¯ll give it about two years¡­¡± As she hoped it would never reach that long. They should reveal it in about two months¡­ right? Chapter 11 – What are we? Chapter 11 ¨C What are we? Anna was a short child, a little below average for her age, but she had been growing taller recently. Her lighter brown eyes showed a wide variety of emotions. She definitely had her parent¡¯s features, but there were some people whose features she didn¡¯t share, her own souls. It had been a couple of months since they properly were able to control their mana. ¡°What is happening to us?¡± White muttered, staring at Red when she made her comment. ¡°What ya talking about?¡± ¡°Red, look at you!¡± White pointed at Red¡¯s soul figure. ¡°You look nothing like initially did when we first awoke.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say nothing.¡± Red rested her small head on her fist. There were a few topics the three of them didn¡¯t talk about. The biggest two were their pasts and Red¡¯s changing appearance. These weren¡¯t talked about for two different reasons. Most topics they didn¡¯t talk about did as well. These were either something they considered private or they were afraid of the answer, or the third option in Red¡¯s case, she considered it was unimportant. Red¡¯s current figure¨Cwhich hadn¡¯t changed in over a month¨Cnow looked extremely similar to their body¡¯s Anna appearance. Similar in stature, but a little taller, with some amount of muscles instead of skinny limbs, and bright red eyes and hair. Her hair as well was a bit more messy than Anna¡¯s, which stayed down relatively easily, Red¡¯s hair spiked up in random places. White replied, ¡°Okay, well then. You barely even look like your previous life.¡± ¡°Like I said before, I don¡¯t really care, past life is past.¡± Red shrugged her hands into the air. Her unconcerned nature caused White to snap, ¡°But why is this even happening?!¡± White declared¨Cfear was felt in her aura. Then an unexpected voice, Lilly spoke, entering the conversation, ¡°The soul reflects the body and the body reflects the soul.¡± ¡°What¡­?¡± Said Red, turning to face Lilly. Lilly looked down into the pool, breaking eye contact, ¡°The soul reflects the body¡­ and the body reflects the¡­ soul.¡± She tapped the side of the pool, ¡°As time progresses, the soul reflects the body, which is why we appeared as what we looked like in our previous life¡­ and why we still have our attributes¡­ they were imprinted onto our souls.¡± Lilly¡¯s eyes darkened and slithering gloom was felt between White and Red, it didn¡¯t last long however, as Lilly continued speaking, ¡°It¡¯s also the reason our current body can use our past life attributes, even if there is some restriction. During the time the body hadn¡¯t formed its own attribute, the souls imprinted theirs onto it. Maybe this has happened before, not multiple people in one body thing, but if a soul isn¡¯t 100% cleansed, influences of past attributes could affect the body¡­¡± Lilly who realised she was rambling quickly shut up, ¡°This is all my theory anyway¡­ based on¡­ everything we have experienced.¡± She dipped her finger into the pool and swirled it around, ¡°I¡¯m probably wrong on¡­ a few things though.¡± Lilly¡¯s monologue managed to calm down White a bit, ¡°...So is it confirmed that we will change¡­?¡± Lilly could only look down and shrug, White continued, ¡°Why has it only happened to Red? Please don¡¯t just because she was the oldest or something similar?¡± ¡°Does being in the pool cause our, what¡¯s it called? Soul figure, to look like our body?¡± Red suggested, ¡°I¡¯m in here a lot.¡± White looked into the pool, ¡°I am going to start changing as well then?¡± Lilly replied, ¡°Maybe¡­ you have shrunk slightly¡­¡± ¡°What¡­?¡± White mouth widened. ¡°You are shorter than when we first arrived¡­ not by much.¡± Red looked up and down White¡¯s figure upon Lilly¡¯s statement; she didn¡¯t notice originally, but parts of White¡¯s clothes had changed to be a bit more loose as well, and the symbols of her church had long since vanished¨Cthat was something Red did notice. ¡°I only noticed the holy markings disappearing off my uniform and my clothes changing¡­¡± Lilly said, ¡°I don¡¯t think it is because of the pool¡­even if you aren¡¯t in it as much as Red¡­ there isn¡¯t a wide gap¡­¡± ¡°So we don¡¯t know the reason I changed? Besides soul body mumbo jumbo.¡± S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Lilly answered, ¡°No¡­¡± ¡°No ideas at all?¡± ¡°Some¡­ but I don¡¯t¡­¡± Lilly stayed silent. Red waved, ¡°I get it, topic closed.¡± She spun around on her butt and dipped her legs into the pool. ¡°But hey Lilly. Because you mentioned the body and soul stuff, and our current attributes are because of our past life,¡± Red¡¯s eyes brightened. ¡°So does that mean we could potentially have one or two more gifts?¡± ¡°Maybe¡­?¡± Lilly replied, ¡°But I wouldn¡¯t count on it¡­ as I said, the soul reflects the body¡­ and the body reflects the soul¡­ but in our case, I think our souls are fully developed.¡± ¡°...What is that supposed to mean¡­?¡± Red asked, and White¡¯s eyes perked up hearing a new term. ¡°...Something I made up¡­ but think about it, if the body had its own attribute, it would have appeared already, remember attributes aren¡¯t just genetic, they do influence it, but that is all. So in our case, the five attributes we have should be it.¡± ¡°Huh, disappointing.¡± White who had been silent for a moment, looked to the void above them and asked, ¡°What are we¡­ Why are we even here?¡± ¡°Asking the big question now.¡± Mocked Red. ¡°Of course, tis not a problem for you not knowing how all this¨C¡± White waved her arms around even the void, ¡°¨CEven happened?¡± ¡°A mistake?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°What? It¡¯s clearly not human input, from the hints I got, the three of us lived in different parts of the world.¡± ¡°Then it must be something higher which caused it.¡± ¡°Are you really saying that?¡± Red looked shocked, ¡°You were the last person I thought who would talk about God''s big plan.¡± ¡°...¡± White stayed silent, her eyes widening. With White quiet, Red turned back to Lilly, ¡°Lilly, what do you think? God or accident.¡± ¡°...Mistake¡­¡± Lilly replied, ¡°............Nature is a creative thing, where nearly every possibility happens at least once¡­ We were probably caught in that one unlucky happening throughout time, which would create a situation like this.¡± ¡°More words than I needed.¡± Red shrugged, ¡°Two to one though, so let¡¯s not think about it anymore shall we?¡± They all silently agreed and got comfortable, it was only the morning after all. They still had a long day ahead of them. Chapter 12 – A Day Out. Chapter 12 ¨C A Day Out. The day started like any other, but until Jen and George decided to announce that the three of them were going on a trip into the nearby town that day. Anna asked, ¡°How far away is it?¡± ¡°Not too far?¡± Jen replied. [Do we know how far?] Red asked, watching the conversation happening but wasn¡¯t paying too close attention. [About two hours¡­] Lilly replied. She didn¡¯t know that exact time, but she had tangential evidence based on previous conversations and trips her parents had, and how long it took to return. George added, ¡°Don¡¯t worry sweaty, We are going to buy a few things and so we are going to bring the cart. You can sit in it on the way up and back.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Anna nodded. The family finished eating their breakfast and got prepared to move out. Jen helped Anna tie her shoes and George hid certain valuables under the flooring. After that, Jen and Anna stood out in the front of the house while the smacking echoes of wood could be heard. With a final, ¡°Got it!¡± To end the noise. Soon George walked out from behind the house with an old wooden cart. The cart was small, with two wheels and two handles to grab. Anna wasn¡¯t sure if you were supposed to push or pull this particular cart. The basket was big enough to fit one person, maybe two but with a tight fit. Anna hopped into the cart, while Jen and George each grabbed one of the handles. Then they started their long journey. Anna distracted herself by staring at the animals, mountains, and trees that came into view. Finally getting a different view of the area where they lived. [Do you know where we are going?] (Red) [No, why do you ask?] (White) [Cause you''re the one who is usually active during Mother¡¯s teaching time.] [Not my fault you refused to pay attention.] [Last time I checked, I still remembered how to spell, I¡¯m good. So are thou going to answer my question?] Anna (White) audibly sighed. Jen asked, ¡°Everything okay, dear?¡± ¡°Yeass.¡± Anna waved her arm in the back of the cart. [Fine¡­ no I don¡¯t.] White internally sighed, [Honestly when it comes to where we are living, we have nothing. Besides that, we are along a border and we are from a very small farming town.] [...None of the books¡­ that we had access to¡­ have anything either.] Lilly added. The only books that were in the house recently were storybooks, only learning materials were returned and left in the chief house, as they had to be returned the same day. [So do we have any idea where we are currently living?] (Red) [Nope, curious you are only asking now though.] (White) [We have talked about this a little before.] Red said. They had in fact, minimally talked about this topic, but it was mostly concluding they were in a place none of them had been before. Besides just saying this wasn¡¯t like their previous home. Red was from a clearly different country altogether, well they all were, but Red clearly didn¡¯t live near White or Lilly. Small aspects of her dialogue and terminology she used¨Cgifts instead of attributes. There were also cultural differences, with mercenaries being a massive industry and the standards that industry had. White and Lilly were more private with their past life¡¯s location, but Lilly stated, that if they lived in the place she grew up, even in a small farming town, their lives would be vastly different. [But it¡¯s nothing that special really, I just didn¡¯t care, but now that we are leaving town, I would like to know.] (Red) [... Yeah, we probably should.] (White) ¡°Where are we going, Mum?¡± Anna (Red) yelled out. ¡°No questions for dad?¡± George sulked. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not your fault that I¡¯m more approachable.¡± Jen smiled and poked George¡¯s right cheek. George placed his right hand over his heart, ¡°Your words truly hurt me dear¡­¡± ¡°As they should,¡± She laughed. Anna (White) asked, ¡°Are¡­ you going to answer the question?¡± ¡°Nope,¡± Jen replied, smiling. Anna turned to George, and Anna (Red) asked, ¡°Dad, answer the question, if you do, you will move up to first place!¡± ¡°In what?¡± He asked. Anna stayed silent for a long brief moment. [What do we say?] (Red) [I don¡¯t know, you asked the question.] (White) [Parent status?] (Lilly) [What, like a¨Cwho is the best parent competition?] (White) [Perfect.] (Red) ¡°Best parent?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the best already?¡± He looked back, with fake tears starting to form. ¡°You''re stuck tied!¡± ¡°With whom?¡± His comment got a harsher jab from Jen to his face. ¡°Sorry Anna¡­ I seem to be stuck¡­¡± Anna cried, ¡°Mother¡¯s a tyrant!¡± ¡°Ergh!¡± Jen exclaimed. Trying to cheer up their child and divert attention from his wife¡¯s emotional beating she was receiving from her child, he replied, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we are nearly there.¡± He whispered to Jen, ¡°Get on the cart. I¡¯m going to leg it.¡± ¡°You¡­ don¡¯t need to do that¡­¡± ¡°Just hurry up, it¡¯s going to be another hour at this pace.¡± Jen relented and jumped into their very small cart. George asked, ¡°Everyone ready? ¡°?¡± Anna had a vague idea of what was about to happen but kept quiet. ¡°Yes, dear.¡± Jen grabbed Anna close, ¡°Don¡¯t move much, okay?¡± ¡°Okay?¡± Anna replied. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± George grabbed both handles and started running. ¡°WEeeeee!¡± Anna yelled. The second hour of travel time was reduced by half, to a clean thirty minutes¨Cnearly exactly on the dot. ¡°Ha¡­¡­¡­ argh¡­¡­¡­.. Ha¡­¡­¡­.. Errgh¡­¡­.. Haa¡­¡­ We¡­¡­ Mad¡­¡­..¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay dear, please sit down¡­¡± Jen jumped off the cart. George was on his knees, in front of the town. His body was drenched in sweat and his face crimson red. ¡°We¡­. made it¡­. Pufffffffffffffff, arghhhh.¡± Jen concerned said, ¡°Let¡¯s walk¡­. Okay¡­¡± Anna also got off the cart and stood next to George, examining him for over a minute, checking his condition. ¡°Good job Dad.¡± Anna patted George on the back. ¡°Al¡­ll good.¡± He weakly raised his hand and returned a thumbs up. Then he collapsed and rolled on the grassy ground. ¡°...He¡­ will be okay?¡± Anna (Lilly) asked. ¡°....yes ... Hopefully,¡± Jen replied, whispering the last part. ¡°So what''s this place called?¡± Anna asked. Jen wore a pained smile. This wasn¡¯t exactly the scenario she planned in her head, but she was going to keep going with it. She stood up and tried to brightly smile and point at the massive old wooden sign, ¡°Ihere!¡± ¡­ [What¡­?] (White) ¡°Umm¡­. that¡¯s a stupid name,¡± Anna replied. ¡°Yes, yes it is.¡± Jen clapped her hands, ¡°That¡¯s the whole joke.¡± S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°That¡¯s why you didn¡¯t tell me earlier?¡± ¡°I thought it would be funny?¡± She raised her arms and shrugged. Then an arm was raised high, ¡°I told you!¡± A dying voice called out, ¡°She wouldn¡¯t have your awful, below average, basically non-existent sense of humour.¡± George groaned before his arm flopped back onto the grass. Jen yelled back, ¡°I had multiple chances at least!¡± [What¡¯s that supposed to mean?] (Red) [No idea] (White) [....] (Lilly) Jen clapped, ¡°Well anyway, let¡¯s go inside!¡± ¡°But you have to wait until Dad is back up.¡± Anna pointed at the dying man. It took another ten minutes before they finally entered the town. Chapter 13 – Discussing Abilities Chapter 13 ¨C Discussing Abilities ¡°What do you think Anna?¡± Jen asked as the family walked down the stone-paved road. ¡°It¡¯s a bigger town.¡± ¡°Yeah, it is, anything you find interesting?¡± ¡°Nah.¡± ¡°Nothing at all?¡± ¡°No?¡± George asked, ¡°Nothing interesting?¡± Anna replied again, ¡°It¡¯s a bigger town?¡± Ihere was indeed bigger than their home village. Their hometown, which didn''t have a proper name, was just a simple tiny farming town. Only after passing through the gate did Anna learn that their village was referred to as a number Four. One of the eight farming towns placed on the nearby border. Farming Town Four was made up of twenty normal houses plus one village chief house¨Cwhich was a bigger building and acted as a storage centre for supplies. Each standard house had a small farm attached, but there were also larger connected farms five minutes away from town which the whole town worked on. [The percentage of people with visible attributes is much higher here.] (White) [I think it was just that our hometown was just far below average.] (Red) Most of the people they walked by had browns, blonds, and black hair, but occasionally a few had brightly coloured hair, indicating their attribute. Unlike their home, where only one person had green hair. Ihere was a proper town with a small¨Cbut still there¨Cmain street, some side alleys and houses that could fit around four hundred people. Today the family was here to collect some new books and meat¨Ca once-a-month treat. They were also keeping an eye out for anything else interesting, specifically anything Anna found interesting. [Hmm¡­ I¡¯m glad it didn¡¯t happen¡­ but I wonder what would happen to our appearance¡­ if we didn¡¯t hold back the changes.] (Lilly) [Hrmm? Oh yeah, you only had one gift, ummm, yeah. Not sure, five gifts is a lot.] [Did it not mix together¡­ for you?] (Lilly) [Actually no, my hair was a bright red but my eyes were a slightly darker red¡­ a blood red. Ha! Get it!] Red laughed to herself, but quickly stopped knowing it wasn¡¯t funny to start with. [Not funny, you should have laughed at Jen¡¯s joke if you thought that was funny.] (White) [Even I know that Jen¡¯s wasn¡¯t funny.] Red replied, [Mine might not be great, but it¡¯s still better than that.] [Do awakened effects always¡­ appear separately?] Lilly asked, [The ratio of multi-attribute users was a lot lower in my home¡­ I didn¡¯t get to talk to anyone about the experience who actually went through it.] White slightly pained replied, [Rarely they can mix¡­ or it is just a different colour altogether¨Cusually for three plus multiple attribute individuals. Other¡­ effects can cause a mixing, but they usually happen after an awakening has occurred.] White¡¯s information caused Red to ponder, [What would it be if all our attribute¡¯s colours mixed together?] [Probably a pinkish colour? We have reds, white, pink and greys.] (White) [...Yeah¡­ I¡¯m going to hope it doesn''t affect our appearance.] (Red) [Fair enough.] (White) As they were having this internal talk, George yelled out, ¡°Billy, Mern, good to see you.¡± Jen pulled on Anna¡¯s arm so she wouldn¡¯t keep walking. The individuals who George called out to, turned around and waved. Then Mern walked towards them, with a small kid attached to his leg. ¡°Good to see you George, been here long?¡± ¡°Nah, but it seems like you have. You even brought little Billy with you today.¡± Billy was one of the town¡¯s kids that Red occasionally played with, and Mern was his dad¨Cthey lived on the opposite end of the village. ¡°Only a few hours, Billy was right pissed though, woke him early for this. I see you¡¯ve brought your own as well. Say hi Billy.¡± ¡°Hiello.¡± ¡°Morning,¡± Anna (White) replied. Billy gripped Mern¡¯s leg tighter and stayed quiet, ¡°Sorry about that, he has been nervous all day. First time in Ihere you know?¡± George replied, ¡°Wow what a brave boy, good job kiddo.¡± He crouched down to Billy¡¯s eye level and gave a thumbs up. ¡°I was an absolutely nervous wreck when I first entered a larger town, you¡¯re doing a way better job than me.¡± This comment caused Billy to smile slightly. Jen asked, ¡°You going to be here much longer Mern?¡± ¡°Nah, on our way out actually. You guys?¡± George replied, ¡°We¡¯ll still be another hour, I guess we¡¯ll see you at the village later then.¡± ¡°Yeah all, take care you three.¡± Jen said, ¡°You two as well.¡± Mern started to walk, and Billy turned and waved, ¡°Bye¡­¡± ¡°Bye.¡± Anna smiled and waved back. ¡°Always a pleasure talking to him,¡± Jen muttered. ¡°We should visit sometime,¡± Said George. ¡°Doubt that will happen, I think you¡¯ve been banned by Juilet after you and Mern got drunk.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t get why I was blamed for him breaking things, I had left by then.¡± ¡°Never question an angry wife.¡± George coughed, ¡°Yes ma''am.¡± Then they both laughed and continued their short shopping spree with Anna looking around. Home and laying in bed, while the night was out it wasn¡¯t sleeping time yet. Dinner still had to happen, but the three of them were passing the time by being in their Soul Space. Normally they would be up helping around at this time, but they (Red) decided to walk home with Jen and George instead of taking the cart. So the parents thought it would be best for Anna to rest. Red raised her uncovered foot from the pool, ¡°Talking about gifts earlier got me thinking, what are we supposed to do with all of them?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± White replied. ¡°I mean, as you said, we need to hide our gifts.¡± Red raised her five fingers on her left hand, ¡°But that also means we might not even properly use most of them, or maybe even any to their full extent.¡± ¡°Yes, because five is far too many,¡± Replied White, ¡°But we can get away with just having two.¡± ¡°True, but what two?¡± Red asked, ¡°Leaving my own bias aside, the best options are Fire and Blood.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you left your bias aside.¡± ¡°What? They are the two most effective gifts we have. Fire is useful for combat and utility, and it¡¯s not a mana drain like some gifts tend to be¨C¡± Red stared at White, ¡°¨CBlood, on the other hand, is amazing, it¡¯s self-healing, physical strengthening, and we can even make blood constructs if we really want to. Plus as you mentioned, we can use it to increase our mana. I¡¯m just going to need your guidance on that.¡± White closed her eyes, ¡°The only thing I will agree with you on is Fire.¡± Lilly just watched the situation unfold lying down on her side. She felt the mountain of fatigue gained thanks to Red¡¯s long walk. She only slightly regretted staying connected to the body during the entire walk. White continued, ¡°Furthermore, it¡¯s not like we can¡¯t use attributes that we don¡¯t announce, they just have to be hidden. Red, thoy¨C*cough*-You had to have hidden Blood before when you were a mercenary, there were many things you would have to have done to gain an advantage in combat, and hiding your own cards would be one of the easiest.¡± ¡°I mean yeah?¡± Red shrugged. ¡°I also did many other sneaky things when required, to a reasonable level.¡± A harsh glint flashed in her eyes and a ferocious smile unconsciously curved up for a second, ¡°But when I hid my Blood gift, I did it with full knowledge that it would be revealed.¡± ¡°Why was that?¡± Red¡¯s eyes gleamed with nostalgia for a moment, ¡°It depends.¡± She shrugged, and laid down with her hands behind her back, ¡°I¡¯ll admit, I didn¡¯t have the most flashy use of my Blood gift compared to some famous examples, but a body that was tougher to cut and stab, and eyes that were such a deep crimson, people had their suspicions but most could be shot down just by me saying I had greatly trained my body and my Fire gift¡¯s traits. Slightly worked until they saw my wounds stitch back together. That was just the visual reasoning of course. However, by the time I got famous, that and the other reasons didn¡¯t really matter because enough people had found out. Through their own deductions or me telling them.¡± White sighed, ¡°Word travels fast in some networks.¡± She thought back to the communication network the church had, and how overly massive she felt it was. ¡°For sure it does,¡± Red laughed. ¡°But as I said I had other reasons as well. Trust is a big thing for mercenaries, well at least it was from where I was from. We basically always worked in teams of at least ten, even the lowest number I went with was five, but I did tend to jump ahead into the fray, grabbing the enemy''s attention. But it was still a team-based endeavour. Whenever a hunter or even a mercenary from another country came to visit, the culture shock was always a good show.¡± White smiled, seeing it as kind of nice. Trust¡­, ¡°It is very different than what my, or even most countries I knew of did. That level of trust seems useful, and it would make working together easier¡­¡± White went quiet for a moment, understanding that it was something the three of them didn¡¯t do, ¡°...It does make sense to talk about it for that reason. And two attributes aren¡¯t that uncommon, so many would expect it of you if you were that strong.¡± Red laughed again but sadder this time, the aura of which was very contained though, indicating it wasn¡¯t something that affected her much. But for White or Lilly who saw and felt Red as 100% happy, excited, annoyed, or couldn¡¯t care, type of individual. It was a stark change, ¡°Yep it is. But sadly there are different types of trust and different emotions also exist. Jealousy was also a big one, honestly one of the biggest obstacles in the face of a working team. And weirdly enough, lots of people are less jealous once they learn the ¡®Secret¡¯ to someone¡¯s strength. Especially if it is out of their reach, some will still contain some envy but at a healthy level¡­ one where it won¡¯t hurt a team if it leaks.¡± Another wave of silence filled the room. White didn¡¯t want to respond to Red¡¯s reply and hoped she would say something else or Lilly would speak. Red leaned back up, interrupting the silence, ¡°But yeah¡­ We¡¯ll probably keep Blood hidden, but I will need to train with it more. To keep its effects less noticeable.¡± S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°That¡¯s fine, but I would like to have some time to train with Moonlight. While I would like to learn some more offensive spells for it, I understand this isn¡¯t the time or place. However, for the same reason as your Blood, I would like to train it a little bit to make the healing spells less noticeable.¡± ¡°Good idea, but what should we choose as the second gift? If you want to make Moonlight one of the hidden ones, then that means it¡¯s either between Manipulation or Space. And out of Space and Moonlight, it is probably easier to hide Space than Moonlight.¡± Red compared White¡¯s two attributes as she knew Lilly was a little iffy about using Manipulation. ¡°That¡¯s of course if we choose Fire as the first, which I would like, as I¡¯m probably the most experienced in combat here. I would feel safe for all of us if I could use it whenever.¡± ¡°Fair, but having any light-based attributes or even healing ones as our public attributes just puts a recruiting target on your back for certain churches.¡± ¡°Depends on the country, but I¡¯ll relent.¡± White and Red continued their discussion but then a quiet groan spoke up. ¡°Can we continue¡­ this tomorrow?¡± Lilly asked, ¡°I really want to sleep with the body¡­¡± Lilly didn¡¯t care about talking in the discussion, as she felt she would be useless for anything about their attributes, but she did feel she should be at least nearby¡­ in case wanted for her knowledge on a certain field. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s been a long day,¡± Red replied. ¡°Dinner, possible story, then sleep? Sounds good to me.¡± Said White. Chapter 14 – Mystery of Manipulation Chapter 14 ¨C Mystery of Manipulation ¡°Yawn, have fun you two!¡± Anna yelled out, as Jen and George slowly walked away from the house. It was a new day and Anna was very happy to be alone to experiment further. Jen replied, ¡°We will, but rest a bit if you''re still tired.¡± George yelled back as well, ¡°Exactly, you are still growing, you need all the rest that is required!¡± ¡°What¡­ your father said, now bye, we love you. See you later.¡± Jen waved goodbye and Anna was left home alone. Many kids went with their parents to help on the farms. They didn¡¯t do much besides carry a few things and maybe dig a hole or two, but Jen and George decided to wait a bit before forcing Anna to help. They wanted her to explore and play more before having to start to do any work. [Well, they¡¯re gone.] (Red) [Let¡¯s continue from where we left off last night.] (White) [Soul Space¡­ or Body?] (Lilly) [Soul Space is better for decision, we can switch to the body when we are actually testing.] (White) The conversation continued from last night and started from exactly where they left off. Debating what attributes to hide and what to show. Lilly started, ¡°I don¡¯t mind what we chose¡­ but it is probably best if it was one White¡¯s attributes¡­ Being controlled by her¡­ basically what I¡¯m saying is multitasking would be useful in combat if Fire is the other attribute.¡± Thanks to previous testing that they did after they had awakened and their mana finally calmed down, the three of them had learned they could use their own attributes simultaneously while in control of the body. This possibly made Red very excited, especially for combat uses. But she wasn¡¯t going to push for all in on that lifestyle. Besides Fire, which was guaranteed at this point. The rest of the options had their strengths and weaknesses for why they should be picked as number two. Some of these reasons were physical or knowledge-based, while others had more to do with the potential political and social landscape of the country they lived in. For the latter reasons, they would have to wait until they learned about this country The discussion didn¡¯t progress much more, as they decided to experiment at a later point with White¡¯s attributes to see what was better to use. Finally, they hopped into the body for some training. They could multitask the training to some extent, as Red stayed standing and focused on her Blood control while White decided to work on dimming the effects of her Moonlight. A large part of her wanted to try training Space, but it was a mana sink when not used properly, so it would require its own training time. [White what about storing mana in my-our Blood?] Red asked midway through the second hour of training. [I would recommend doing that when we are grown up, I¡¯ve only heard about people who stored mana in parts of their body doing the task during their late teens or adulthood. Blood might be an exception, but I¡¯m not sure about risking it. Stress testing our limits may work though but I am worried that, with us having roughly three times the amount of mana already, it might cause some issues.] (White) [Understood, same logic about making a core? Need to wait until we have grown.] (Red) [Yes, but I¡¯m not sure if we can do that and store mana in the blood. We need to talk to some professionals or find some quality reading material.] (White) [Do you know any places?] (Red) [Know of? Yes. Would we have access? No.] (White) [Fair enough.] (Red) After another hour of training their mana supplies were still high. ¡°Yo, Lilly,¡± Red called out, deciding to hop back into the Soul Space to speak to the quiet Lilly directly. ¡°Yes¡­?¡± ¡°Are you really not going to at least try to use your attribute?¡± Lilly looked down distraught, hiding her face from view. Only once had she tried during the initial period after their mana had calmed down. White and Red weren¡¯t paying much attention as they were focused on their own regained attributes, but they did notice the sadness leaking off Lilly that day¡­ and now. [Lilly you know¡­ hiding your emotions doesn¡¯t really work¡­] Said White, and then she jumped back into the Soul Space herself. In response, Lilly tried to remove her emotions and clear her mind, which had the opposite effect and just led to her amplifying those feelings instead. The emotion-feeling ability that the three shared had grown in strength, slowly over the first few months before finally stopping at its current level. At the current level, they had a passive understanding if one of the other two was happy, sad, etc. Stronger emotions caused this to have a stronger effect, and as well for extreme emotions caused gusts in their Soul Space. The only way to hide their feelings was to empty their mind, which was easier said than done. White was good at doing this when she wasn¡¯t already feeling emotional distress. Red could do it to a certain extent, while Lilly was completely awful. Manipulation, one of the abstract attributes. There were two main boons it was known to be used for, greater mana control, and the manipulation and reinforcement of physical objects. Most objects made for combat could have mana pumped into them, even when not made by a specialist. But Manipulation could make the process more efficient and worthwhile even for non-mana engraved artefacts. The combative capabilities of Manipulation involved, Controlling swords, metal wire, spears, etc. But in the end, the best part of Manipulation for most was the greater mana control. This allowed many people to do far more advanced techniques than what was normally possible, and for most, this led them to a quick lucrative position in the crafting industry. Lilly tried to convince them, ¡°There¡­ is no point. It makes¡­ no sense¡­ on a practical level. If we can only use two¡­ it only makes sense to use one of the¡­ usable attributes. And¡­ it should only be¡­ the¡­ people who are skilled at using them¡­ they should have access to the¡­ main two.¡± ¡°Look Lilly¡­¡± White spoke, hesitant to ask Lilly, ¡°...While Manipulation would be one of the easier ones to hide¡­ it is also one of the most useful¡­ if we had that and Fire as our main attributes¡­ there would be a lot of high paying jobs¡­ possible for us¡­¡± Lilly''s eyes shot up and glared at White and she couldn¡¯t do anything but accept it. ¡°You mean potion making?¡± Lilly asked, with a dark glint in her eyes. ¡°That¡­ is one of them¡­ Crafting and engraving could also be options.¡± Red added to lighten the mood, ¡°Crafting sounds fun, would be great to not have to pay for repairs on my own gear constantly.¡± ¡°Fine.¡± Lilly angrily stood up and walked into the pool, ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with.¡± The blunt anger could be felt by both Red and White. But within the anger was a large amount of hopelessness, distress, and despair. All three jump into the body. [Okay¡­ what would be the easiest way for you to use Manipulation.] (White) [Moving objects.] Lilly replied bluntly. [So can you move the book on the desk?] (Red) They turned their head to the small desk by their table, which contained a leather book with pages and one pencil. [Too big.] (Lilly) [...] [How about the pencil on the desk?] (White) Lilly replied, [Too far away.] Then walked over to the small table to pick up the pen. [My mana control has always been awful. So unless I¡¯m under certain conditions, I have to be basically near touching the object, which also does mean I can¡¯t move it far from the body.] Lilly used her mana to lift the pencil in her hand by a centimetre. She kept it like that for thirty seconds, to let White ¡®observe'' but occasionally the pencil violently shook. Lilly then tried to raise the pencil higher by a couple more centimetres. The pencil started to continually shake and Lilly lowered it back down to a centimetre above her hand, and stressed tears started to fall. [This¡­ is the best I can do. We are lucky the pencil hasn¡¯t shattered yet.] Lilly wanted this to end. However, White felt something was off. From years of using her own mana, and training it to the best she could with the limited resources she was allowed access to, she knew something was wrong. [Lilly, do you always use Manipulation like this?] (White) [Yes? This is the only way.] (Lilly) White examined the flow and it felt old, the Manipulation-infused mana seemed perfect. Like they were one, very different from White¡¯s, where you could see where mana became the attribute. But she figured that was because it was Manipulation. [Has anyone looked at your mana?] (White) [Yes¡­] Lilly¡¯s blunt aggressive tone started to fade, she couldn¡¯t keep it up anymore. White''s previous job involved healing a lot of people, and sometimes that involved helping people with mana issues. From that and her own personal training, she was extremely experienced in this field. [Due to my circumstances¡­ this never happened to me, but Red, did your Blood and Fire ever clash and slow down the other?] (White) [Once?] Red replied, initially unsure, [Yeah, I think once. Argh¡­ A memory from long ago. It was when I hadn¡¯t used Blood directly yet, and I had no idea how to. And then in a stressful moment, I tried to use Fire but Blood was also activated which caused both to fizzle out. Never had this issue afterwards though, I learned how to use Blood, and the body instinctively fixed the problem I guess.] Lilly understood what White was suggesting but couldn¡¯t believe it, [No, I only have Manipulation.] [To be honest, Lilly, if I met you¡­ Before all this happened¡­ I doubt I would notice anything¡­ but this is my mana as well.] (White) Anna started to tear up uncontrollably. White didn¡¯t know the best way to say this, she wasn¡¯t close to anyone before, but she knew this was going to hurt, [You have something mixed in which is causing a dissonance with your mana¡­ and it¡¯s likely another attribute¡­ It¡¯s very faint, but it is in the centre of it. Whenever you just use mana, it appears, so faint but at the same time due to its nature¡­ It¡¯s dragging the mana down¡­] [¡­¡­.Ha.Hu¨C] Lilly barely breathed. [¨CHuh¡­¡­.. A¡­.. wait¡­. What¡­ wait¡­ what¡­ why¡­. It¡­ all¡­. Noo. why.. Wait what¡­. EVERYTHING!¨CARGH!¡± Her internal dialogue broke out and she stood up and accidentally snapped the pencil. Anna stumbled around, Red took brief moments of control to balance the body but found it hard as Lilly''s sudden outburst was making it difficult to control. Lilly screamed, ¡°EVERYTHING I HAD TO DEAL WITH¡­. The failures, the disappointment¡­ the troubles¡­ the risks¡­ ALL OF IT WAS BECAUSE OF ME. I mean? It was already because of me! But now it is just doubly because of me! I had a second attribute?! And I was too inept to find it! OF COURSE I WAS. ONCE AGAIN¡­I¡­ I bloody well hell deserved my death! Now I get to act as a plague on life again! FUCKING HELL! Why HOW. EVERYTHING I DID WRONG!¡± Red gave a suggestion while trying to make sure the body did fall, [Ergh! It¡­ could be an Exotic attribute. From what I heard¡­ in certain cases, they have a high likelihood of causing issues.] Her suggestion got an unintentional response of disgust from White and a wave of confusion from Lilly. ¡°What¡­ NO!¡± Lilly declared, ¡°I CAN¡¯T DEAL WITH THIS!¡± Lilly vanished from the body. White and Red jumped back into the Soul Space to chase after Lilly who kept running, ¡°Lilly!¡± Waves of confusion, distress, fear, sorrow, anxiety, worry, hatred, loathing, sadness, desolation and other negative feelings flooded the Soul Space like a tidal wave. The two of them chased after Lilly together, they could¡¯ve turned around and intercepted her but they chose to keep going after her. It was hard to move because of the storm of emotion, but they continued to brave through. ¡°Lilly stop please!¡± White cried, tears fully forming in her eyes. ¡°Yeah! We can work through this!¡± Red yelled. She stood behind White, to keep pushing her forward and keep her stable as the cloudy waves kept crashing into them. Anna¡¯s body shook uncontrollably, reflecting the pain felt by all three. ¡°Lilly!¡± They cut forward moving ever closer until¡­ Lilly finally collapsed onto the ground¡­ sobbing. White and Red walked beside her and sat down. They looked fine but they were more exhausted than they had ever felt. Lilly continued to cry, before finally she begged, ¡°Please¡­ just please¡­ Can we stop discussing this¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­ EVERYTHING THAT I¡­ was¡­ I¡± Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Fine,¡± Red promised. ¡°Red¡­¡± White said, concerned. ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know if this is for the best but I also don¡¯t think we are close enough or even know how to give her the support she needs¡­¡± ¡­ White spoke, ¡°Lilly¡­¡± She didn¡¯t reply¡­ White continued, ¡°Please talk to us¡­ when¡­ are ready¡­¡± Lilly stayed there crying for a while longer. Before saying, ¡°Thank you¡­ Can you please leave me alone now¡­¡± Chapter 15 – Age 6 Chapter 15 ¨C Age 6 Nine months had passed since the incident and as usual, it just became another topic they didn¡¯t talk about. Lilly had overall become quieter and appeared in the pool to control their body less and less. There were also some other issues. Jen and George arrived home that day to find Anna on the floor, shaking. Which put them in full panic mode and made them keep a more watchful eye on Anna. They were scared something bad might happen again, the doctors said she was fine, but they didn¡¯t want to come home and find Anna dead cause they couldn¡¯t get her help in time. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. They might''ve been a bit over-worried. Especially in the three¡¯s minds, but there was nothing they could do, besides to stay healthy and not cause any more distress. Now, however, it was the second month of the new summer. This meant a few things. Mainly the year was nearly over and Anna was about to be one year older. They weren¡¯t told this explicitly by Anna¡¯s parents¨Cthey only knew that they were five. But their resident body expert Red, made an educated guess on how long the body had been alive for. [That¡¯s a weird talent.] (White) [Look I may not have gotten a proper education, but I¡¯ve spent enough time examining my own and other people¡¯s bodies to have a decent understanding of them.] (Red) They still found time for training, but it was harder than they would¡¯ve liked. Especially since two of them wanted to practise their healing abilities which required getting injured, which was basically impossible to do in their current situation. Red was getting a little itchy, with not being able to test out her abilities on something worthwhile, but she understood that being a normal kid had some restrictions. [That was a good training session.] Red stretched on the bed. ¡°Anna dinner time!¡± ¡°Coming!¡± Anna yelled back, and she slowly walked out of her room. Suddenly, the only sound was her own footsteps, then once she opened the door to the kitchen. ¡°Happy birthday!¡± ¡°Happy birthday!¡± Anna¡¯s eyes widened. [What¡­.] (White) [Huh¡­] (Red) [...] (Lilly) Jen and George were standing behind the table waving with a poorly made paper sign saying ¡®Happy Birthday Annas¡¯. The paper was slightly torn at the sides which made the ¡®H¡¯ and ¡®a¡¯ hard to read, but the message was clearly put across. ¡°Come over!¡± Jen gestured. And Anna unconsciously walked towards them and sat in the one chair laid out for her, on the opposite side of the table. Three large plates of meat and veggies were placed to the side. Jen brought a chair over for herself and placed a second one on the right side of Anna. George got up and pulled out from the kitchen cabinet a cloth item. ¡°We couldn¡¯t get you much.¡± Said Jen. George put the item in front of Anna and walked behind her to sit down. ¡°What do I do¡­?¡± Anna sat there still. Jen smiled, ¡°Go on, open it.¡± Anna unfolded the cloth, which was itself a brown jumper, and hidden within the fold was a small wooden pendant with a string. ¡°I made the jumper, you probably won¡¯t be using it much until next year though.¡± Jen scratched her head and gave a small embarrassed chuckle. George coughed, ¡°I made the pendant¡­ it¡¯s nothing special¡­ but I hope you like¡­¡± It didn¡¯t have any details engraved. It was a simple wooden circle with a small hole for a string to pass through. ¡°Thank you¡­¡± Anna replied. [Huh¡­. What do we do¡­] (Red) [I¡¯m not¡­ sure¡­] (White) White and Red were a little uncomfortable for different but slightly similar reasons. Lilly briefly spoke trying to not show much emotion, [On a birthday, hugging one¡¯s parents is a common sign of thanks.] [Yeah¡­] (White) Anna picked up the pendant and put it around her neck, then she turned to Jen and gave her a hug. A small tear dropped from Jen¡¯s eye, ¡°Thanks, dear.¡± As Anna was about to let go to hug George, he had come over instead to join them in for a group hug. ¡°Let me.¡± He embraced his wife and daughter warmly. Jen said, ¡°Thank you for being born Anna.¡± George added, ¡°We love you so very much.¡± ¡°...I¡­¡± Tears began to drip from Anna¡¯s eyes. She didn¡¯t finish her sentence and instead tightened her own hug on her parents. [...] (Lilly) ¡°Err¡­..¡± Jen groaned on the table. It was a lovely birthday, and it had made her year watching Anna¡¯s eyes light up but she realised she had a chance and she missed it. George asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you would give it two years?¡± Plopping a pillow in front of her. It was past twelve at night and they should¡¯ve been asleep, but they ended up staying up talking about their favourite Anna moments of the year¡­ and now they were too scared to wake Anna up by walking into their own room. ¡°I did¡­ but¡­.. IT''S TOO LONG!¡± Her scream was muffled by the pillow she yelled into. ¡°I possibly have three lovely kids to spoil, but I stayed quiet¡­¡± ¡°So do you want to wait until next year?¡± ¡°NO¡­. but argh¡­ what do I do¡­¡± Jen turned her head out of the pillow. ¡°The classic sin of waiting too long.¡± Jen praised, ¡°When did you get so philosophical?¡± ¡°After I married a wife who loved to read stories and describe their plots to others.¡± ¡°Aww, what a kind young man you are.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not that young.¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯re still as handsome as the day I met you.¡± ¡°So I look like a kid?¡± They both quietly laughed for a moment. Then George asked, ¡°Do you have any plans about the situation, cause I for sure don¡¯t.¡± Jen cringed, ¡°I¡­ was hoping they would come forward¡­ I mean¡­ we¡¯ve read three books now that had that somewhere in its plot.¡± ¡°Out of how many books?¡± ¡°...At least a hundred?¡± George congratulated Jen, ¡°Well at least she has inherited your love of books.¡± Jen sighed and groaned, ¡°...Thanks¡­¡± Chapter 16 – Learning Chapter 16 ¨C Learning Anna was lying down on the floor not wanting to move, she scribbled down random shapes. Mostly clouds, moons and stars. It was somewhere mid-to-late summer and it was boiling hot. So hot in fact that Jen and George only worked for a few hours today in the morning and just before night, so the family was often in the house together. [I really don¡¯t understand why you two have been complaining so much.] (Red) [...what¡¯s wrong with you¡­] (White) [Eregh¡­.] (Lilly) Jen yelled out, ¡°It¡¯s schooling time!¡± Pulling back the curtain between hers and Anna¡¯s side of the room. ¡°Okay¡­¡± Anna hopped off the ground and started making her way to the kitchen table, which was where they studied. Jen sighed, ¡°Why isn¡¯t she excited for it?¡± ¡°Well not everyone is a nerd like you.¡± Said George. ¡°Pardon?¡± ¡°Oh, nothing.¡± George waved and went back outside to continue his work. He was upgrading their food storage. Some animals had broken in and tore a hole in the wood. ¡°Okay, today we are going to learn about geography and dates.¡± [We might actually learn something interesting out of this.] (White) [Wake me up if we do, otherwise, I¡¯m clocking off.] (Red) [You can¡¯t even properly sleep if the body isn¡¯t as well.] (White) [No matter, my point still remains.] (Red) Jen asked, ¡°So do you remember what time of the year it is?¡± Anna replied, ¡°Summer, and near the end of the year.¡± ¡°Correct.¡± It was near the end of the year. However, not that many from this town or the nearby one knew the date. Everyone knew the general idea of when a new year began, but it wasn¡¯t an important event. People didn¡¯t do anything special for it, cause they really didn¡¯t care about it. Celebrating the new year was something only really big towns and cities did. The only two people in town who kept track of that were the town chief and Jen. Jen kept track of a lot of things, and she knew a lot, all of which she was always excited to teach to Anna. ¡°Okay we will continue with actual dates later, but for now let¡¯s start with geography lessons.¡± The lesson started small. Jen talked about their home, the farming town Four. It was two hours away from a larger proper town named Ihere. The other seven farming towns were a bit further away. The two closest were about two and a half hour walk, but then the rest were about thirty minutes spacing out between them. ¡°Why is our town built so much farther away?¡± ¡°Well sweeties, it''s because the land in between didn¡¯t have as good farming land and the areas that did require a lot of work chopping down the forest which no one wanted to do. So they just settled with having it a little further out. This is only for distance to each other though, all the eight farming towns are about two~three hours away from an actual proper town.¡± The big difference between these farming towns and the ¡®proper towns¡¯, were the paved roads, larger size, access to traders and the market, and a better standard of living. Many proper towns had farms as well. But the reason these farming towns existed was to slowly spread farmable territory. White laughed, [Yeah right, most of the time is just an excuse to say ¡®Look see, this is the border, I have people living here.¡¯ Argh, always annoying.] ¡°Understand everything so far?¡± ¡°Yeahes.¡± [Should¡­ we just ask what country we live in? To finally get that discussion out of the way.] (Lilly) [...Probably, but would it be weird to ask that?] (White) [We¡¯ve read enough books, Anna would know what a country is.] (Lilly) ¡°Okay, well now let¡¯s talk about the nearby area.¡± Jen pulled out a poorly drawn map. Signed by herself. Within the centre of the map was a house which represented the town. To the north was the border which Jen labelled as ¡®bad land¡¯, to the east was a large forest, slightly to the north and west was the farmland, and further west after the farmland was another forest. Jen added again, ¡°Don''t go into the forest, especially at night, alright?¡± ¡°Why would I anyway?¡± ¡°Well, curiosity for one. Not necessarily at night, but I can totally see you going into the forest to explore during the day, after playing with some of the other kids.¡± [...I wonder if there is any monster nearby] White worriedly wondered. Jen raised her finger, ¡°But as I said, don¡¯t, it has got some larger creatures in it. Like bears and wolves, both of which would tear you apart.¡± [At least I don¡¯t think that they are too common here. They definitely wouldn¡¯t build near the border otherwise.] (Red) [Was that how it worked in your homeland? Sensible, but where I was from and the nearby countries they really didn¡¯t care. They would always try to build closer and closer into Monster and Demon territories.] (White) [I¡¯m shocked, I knew people who did similar stuff to other countries or provinces territories, but never monster territories, people had enough bad experience to know to never build a town close to them.] (Red) [...So what do monsters even look like anyway¡­?] Lilly asked, interrupting their conversation. [...Have you never seen what one looked like before?] (Red) [Sketches, but they never look like a creature that actually exists.] (Lilly) [Cause they don¡¯t.] Red replied, [...Wrong wording, but yeah they don¡¯t look like something that should exist, but somehow they do, and they are bloody dangerous.] [For that on all accounts, I can agree.] Said White, with a slight anger visible to both of them. ¡°Okay!¡± White replied, and wanting to know the answer to what they discussed earlier, White finally asked, ¡°If that is the nearby area, what country do we live in?¡± Jen smiled ¡°I¡¯m glad you asked. We live in the country of Cancole. It¡¯s overall pretty small compared to some of our neighbours. The Nevald Kingdom is kind of North East-ish, we touch a little bit of the Jenate Republic, but only a small amount, which is mostly just uninhabitable land. Finally, the Arisea Station is to the far south. The smallest country by far, but it has the most diverse population of people. I¡¯ve always been curious to visit, but the trip would be expensive and we would have to basically uproot our lives. And of course, to the direct north of us is the border to the monster lands.¡± [Fuck¡­] (White) [What¡­?] Red asked concern, Lilly stayed quiet but she also felt the waves of emotion pulse from White for the moment. [I¡¯m just closer¡­ to where I lived then I realised¡­] (White) [I¡¯m going to guess, that¡¯s not a good thing¡­] (Red) [No, not really.] (White) Their geography and date lesson continued for another hour with the conclusion to it leading Jen to happily announce that they will be doing this daily until the weather cools a bit. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 17 – The Talk And… Chapter 17 ¨C The Talk And¡­ It was a week before the year ended, and Anna was roped into another study session. George hadn¡¯t left to go to work but instead sat on a chair that was pulled away from the table and was reading a book. The trio had gotten used to their new studying schedule, it was annoying for some. But at least the topic was different enough every time. Besides that, White had now commented on her own changing appearance. Red¡¯s appearance hadn¡¯t changed from its current form, same with Lilly who hadn¡¯t changed at all. While White herself was shorter, her features had softened like a child¡¯s, but compared to her original self, it wasn¡¯t much of a change. What she was most happy about was her clothes had changed into a simple white robe and black cloak, no longer having any resemblance to her previous work''s attire. Jen announced, ¡°So Anna, we have a special lesson today.¡± ¡°About what?¡± ¡°About Special and Amazing People.¡± She smiled. Jen pulled out a notebook, ¡°I¡¯ve written down today¡¯s lesson in here, cause there is no one book for this topic.¡± Jen began her lesson at the table, ¡°So Anna, there are a lot of interesting people in the world.¡± Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She talked about some famous authors, scientists, mages, weirdly enough people from folklore and fiction, and even some animals. Some had weird quirks, others did not. A bird that carried daggers, a mage that tricked a country into signing for peace, a doctor that carried numerous syringes, and her childhood favourite author who was framed for a crime she didn¡¯t commit and wrote books in her head for her entire prison sentence. Suddenly though, Jen¡¯s atmosphere changed. Switching from a bright teacher mode, her smile softened and a warm lovely look filled her eyes. ¡°You see, I wanted a child pretty early on¡­ just the idea sounded amazing to me. Wasn¡¯t sure how many I wanted, I was an only child you see.¡± George stood up, walked and pulled out the chair to sit next to Jen, putting his left arm over her back. ¡°The happiest day of my life was your birth¡­¡± Jen placed her notebook to the side, ¡°The third was when George proposed to me.¡± George reached out his other hand which Jen grabbed. ¡°The second¡­ was when I learned, I was blessed with three lovely darlings.¡± Anna¡¯s eyes widened. [...!] (Lilly) [Wha¡­] (Red) [How¡­] (White) ¡°I¡¯m going to ask, so as to ensure I¡¯m not making any mistakes. How many¡­ of you?¡± Lilly, still shocked, mumbled, ¡°Three¡­ girls¡­¡± ¡°Knew it.¡± Jen rested her head on her hand and smiled brightly, which George soon shared. ¡°How¡­ long¡­¡± Anna asked. ¡°A long while. I¡¯m pretty observant,¡± Jen proudly praised herself. ¡°You all are just so cute,¡± Jen blushed, ¡°You all have your quirks, interests, likes and dislikes, you act and react differently, but always adorable.¡± George said, ¡°We¡­ Jen especially wanted to tell you earlier, but she thought it was best for you to come forward yourself.¡± ¡°Then I changed my mind.¡± Jen added, ¡°I¡­ wanted to make sure my daughters knew they weren¡¯t alone, and that we will always be there for them.¡± At Jen¡¯s last comment, Anna became silent. ¡°Anna?¡± Said Jen. ¡­ ¡°Can¡­ we¡­ be left alone¡­¡± Anna asked. Jen and George turned to look at each other and spoke through their eyes for a moment. ¡°...Okay dear,¡± Jen turned back, ¡°But we will continue tomorrow morning¡­ we have something important to give you then.¡± Jen got up and tried to step closer for a hug, but Anna stepped off the chair herself¡­ ¡°Thank you¡­ I need to rest.¡± And the trio went back to their room, with the parents staying in the open part of the house. ¡­ The parents didn¡¯t follow and kept to their promise. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ [What do we do¡­] (White) [Nothing?] Red replied, [Them knowing there are three of us doesn¡¯t change much.] [It¡­changes everything¡­] Lilly corrected with dread. After a while darkness fell and the night was quiet. However, they were unable to sleep. For hours they just laid on their bed still, where they just stayed stationary in the Soul Pool. [Are we going to discuss that?] (Red) [...] (Lilly) [... I don¡¯t know where we would even begin?] (White) Jen and George didn¡¯t enter their half of the room, the trio assumed they probably did that to avoid distributing them. But at some point, they heard the door open and footsteps of them stepping outside the house. [Come on, we have to at least talk about it.] Red asked again, She was fine with having multiple topics drop dead, but this one was something they would have to deal with tomorrow. AwhooooooOO!!!!!!!!! [What was that?] (White) [It was a howl.] (Red) White got off the bed and started to walk into the lounge room, but before she even had a chance to leave her room. Jen yelled, ¡°Anna, stay hidden!¡± ¡°OVER HERE YOU BASTARDS!¡± Then they heard a loud yell from George a further distance away. [What¡­] (Lilly) [We are under attack.] (Red) [Come on, let¡¯s quickly hide.] (White) [Wait, I hear something¡­] (Red) Then a cracking sound was heard in their parent¡¯s side of the room. [Don¡¯t control the body you two!] (Red) Anna¡¯s body went to a combat stance, and her ears twitched at the sounds of movements. Tearing down the curtain that separated the two sides of the room with its jump, a wolf with a slobbering mouth and hungry red eyes stared at Anna. ¡°Fuck off!¡± Red kicked the beast in the face, knocking it back and surprising the beast. [Red! Let¡¯s get out of here!] (White) Red confidently replied, [Don¡¯t worry I can kill this beast with our bare hands.] [Maybe! But two more are coming in!] White yelled, seeing in the corner of her eye two more fuzzy creatures break through the front door. ¡°Fuck¡­¡± Red muttered she was confident about not dying, but she didn¡¯t think she could deal with three wolves in a child¡¯s body without burning the house down. The wolf that stood angrily in front of her attacked as part of its pack entered the building. Red slid under the paw swipe of the wolf and dived out of the recently destroyed window. She rolled off the ground and went back into a sprint. [We need to find cover!] Lilly warned. [Where? There is nothing around here besides flat land.] (White) [What are you talking about? The perfect spot to hide is right there.] (Red) Red began to run east, but as she did. They heard the breaking of wood from behind, as the wolf jumped back through the window damaging the frame again. [The forest?! Red, that is literally the most dangerous spot.] (White) [And by far the easiest to avoid creatures in, besides, look around, there is nowhere else to go.] (Red) She was right. Every other building has either been broken into or completely boarded up. Some of the adults were fighting outside, but adding a kid to that circle would just put them more in harm''s way. [..Fine¡­ but go quick. The wolf is still after you.] (White) [Of course!] Red boosted her strength with her Blood attribute and legged it into the forest. As she ran, her heavy footsteps left behind a muddy trail, which the beast sniffed and soon chased after. Chapter 18 – Trouble Chapter 18 ¨C Trouble Anna ran through the chaotic forest. The disturbance was felt throughout, birds were screeching, wolves were howling and everything in between was running about. [What is¡­ going on¡­] (Lilly) [Not sure, there are a myriad of possible reasons, but none of which we could realistically find out right now.] (Red) The cold dark forest was far from welcoming, but at least nothing additional was attacking Anna right now. For the most part, every creature was looking out of itself and trying to hide or run. [Whatever it was that caused this, it has managed to affect the entire forest¡­] (White) [It doesn''t matter, we should be able to escape with our skillset.] (Red) [...What about everyone else¡­?] (Lilly) [Don¡¯t worry about them.] (Red) [They should be safe Lilly¡­ Houses were boarded up and some of the adults were already fighting them off.] (White) Red sidestepped a snake that tried to take a cheap shot from a tree as she ran past. [The wolf is catching up.] (White) However, their friend from earlier still wasn¡¯t ready to give up its prey. Their head turned around for a brief moment, to find the crazed beast still after them and catching up. [Well, ain¡¯t that lovely.] (Red) Red stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the beast. [Red run!] (Lilly) ¡°Don¡¯t worry I got this!¡± Red smiled, ¡°I may not have a weapon, but there is more than one way to deal with a pathetic beast.¡± The beast pounced towards Red, but she simply sidestepped around it and laughed. The beast kept trying to swipe at Red¡¯s young flesh, but whenever it neared Red easily dodged out of the way. Red always moved away from the creature¡¯s sights into its blind spot, forcing it to fully turn around after each attack. Red stopped for a brief moment in front of a large sturdy tree. [Perfect spot.] (Red) S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The furious beast noticing this momentary pause, viciously leaped forward, overexerting itself for this one strike. Red pumped blood through her body and jumped up to dodge the attack, and when she did, Red rolled backwards before landing horizontally on a tree trunk. Then within an instant, she sprung off the tree diving for the wolf¡¯s back. [What are you¨C!] White cried out. But then Anna¡¯s tiny arms grabbed around the wolf¡¯s neck. ¡°Come on you bastard!¡± Woooooargh! The wolf tried to shake off Red, but it was to no avail, as she kept tightening her hold. Then, Anna¡¯s eyes went bloodshot as Red pushed her Blood gift to the maximum output she could muster. Crunch Anna¡¯s pulsing arms had fully clamped the beast¡¯s neck, snapping it. Red let go and stepped back. [You okay Red?!] (White) ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Red exhaled, [...I never used Blood to this extent before when I was this young before. Well never had it when I was this young, turns out¡­ hArghaaaa. It is not that effective even with using additional mana to compensate.] [It would¡¯ve been far worse without your training, I predict we may have just fainted.] (White) ¡°Damn, but I thought Blood was supposed to strengthen the body and keep it healthy and fit even past old age.¡± Red half jokingly sighed. [It does, I just think it is just because the body hasn¡¯t adapted to it yet] (White) [Yeah¡­ probably.] (Red) After taking a moment to breathe, Anna jumped and hid in a tree. [We should be safe, but I will be keeping a lookout for anything that tries to sneak up.] (Red) [All good¡­] (White) As they stared into the depths of the forest. Lilly asked from within the Soul Space, [What are we supposed to do about tomorrow?] Red switched to being half in their Soul Space, still controlling their body with her senses on full alert. Red replied, ¡°I don¡¯t know, it doesn¡¯t really matter. It is simply just do we want to make Mum and Dad happy or not by going along with their family plan.¡± Lilly snapped, her complicated bottled-up emotions erupted out in fierce anger. It wasn¡¯t one thing. Lilly tried burying so many things deep inside her while trying to ignore what was troubling her, but it was Red''s half-arse attitude to their relationship with Jen and George¨Cthat Lilly personally continued to struggle with¨Cwhich broke the camel''s back this time. ¡°You may be the only one to properly call them Mum and Dad, but don¡¯t act as if you care about them any more than either of us do.¡± ¡°Then how is one supposed to care about their parents?¡± Red sarcastically asked, knowing full well what Lilly was implying. ¡°You show them love!¡± Lilly replied, ¡°You hug them when they don¡¯t ask, you get embarrassed when they do literally anything, you show off whenever you do something that would make them proud, you ask how they are doing, and say that you care for them¡­¡± Red sighed, and rolled her eyes, ¡°Look, apparently, all I know is how to at least pretend to care for them. Cause at least, it makes this situation easier to navigate, and I know how it is a bad idea to get attached to anyone.¡± Lilly paused and muttered, ¡°That¡¯s¡­ just sad¡­¡± Red taunted, finding this topic stupid, ¡°Then why don¡¯t you connect with our parents then?¡± Lilly cried back, ¡°Cause I already have a pair!¡± Her nails cut into her transparent body not causing any wounds, but Anna¡¯s body copied the behaviour even while Lilly wasn¡¯t in the pool. ¡°I may have been a failure, a disappointment, cost them way too much money, a stain that could never be erased, but they deserved all the love, and they were mine¡­¡± ¡­ ¡°And I¡­ left them behind.¡± Red sighed, She couldn¡¯t believe how childish she was being right now, but she also knew her point was correct, ¡°Move on already! You literally died. If there was any reason to pack up your things and move on, it would be that.¡± Lilly yelled back, ¡°I can¡¯t!¡± Red snarked, ¡°Well, that is how life works. People die and there is nothing you can do about it, so just forget about them and get back to trudging through the thick muddy waters of life.¡± ¡°I said, I can¡¯t do something so cruel!¡± ¡°There is nothing cruel about it! It¡¯s just nature.¡± With Red¡¯s and Lilly''s argument increasing, White just watched. Initially, she didn¡¯t know what to do. What could she do? She only partly understood both sides¡­ Family¡­ But then White realised, and that caused a lock to finally snap free in White. And so, White screamed, [STOP IT!]. ¡­ She couldn¡¯t¡­ ¡­ Wouldn¡¯t let her family fall apart. Chapter 19 – Trouble But Make It Double Chapter 19 ¨C Trouble But Make It Double Still in the forest, and far from the safest place to be. Let alone having a three-way internal crisis. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. White finally snapped, but unlike other times, it was her own internal dam of uncertainties falling away and her mind had a clear goal. She had to stop this argument. [STOP IT!] White screamed, which silenced her two companions. ¡°Please you two¡­¡± Anna started to cry, ¡°We have to stop fighting.¡± Red and Lilly moved back into being fully in the body. [...White?] (Lilly) White began to talk, her emotions overflowing, she spilt out something she kept hidden. [I¡­ was abandoned by my family at a young age¡­] (White) [Well maybe abandoned isn¡¯t the correct term, but it was the term I settled on for a long time, and so I just remembered them along with hatred for Letting Me Go.] (White) [It happened when I was young¡­ the moment they learned I had Moonlight for an attribute¡­ The Aurora Church took me¡­ to be one of their ¡®Saints¡¯] White chuckled. [It¡¯s not uncommon for religious entities to recruit individuals with healing attributes¡­ or Light attributes. They do a great job of marketing that ¡®Holy¡¯ vibe and the ability to use them for advanced healing magics has already been long developed for that reason.] (White) White ominously mumbled, [It was lonely¡­] [Over twenty years I spent in that jail, learning things I wanted, things I didn¡¯t, and acting as their perfect puppet¡­ Well, that wasn¡¯t correct. I was plenty rebellious in the church''s eyes anyway. But during all that time¡­ Some tried to build a connection for personal gain, others wanted me to be a part of their family by accepting the church as my one true home, and twice people tried to reach out to me¡­ but only if I dropped my hatred.] Then White started to cry again, [When¡­ I awoke¡­ here¡­ and met them for the first time¡­ Everything felt perfect¡­] Anna¡¯s arms started messaging each other in a hug. Red added, [That doesn¡¯t mean it was though.] [I know, and it very much wasn¡¯t. But the warmth the body felt¡­ I felt¡­ the feelings I kept locked far away broke out at first contact¡­] (White) [Can you believe it? All it took was the first instance of genuine affection and love for me to break? I couldn¡¯t believe it myself! Fifteen years I kept my heart stone cold, acting as a perfect saint until my death¡­ Ha, but even my death served their purposes.] (White) Lilly asked, [How old¡­ were you when you died?] [Twenty-six¡­ I was sold when I was five.] Red asked, anger visible in her tone, formed just by thinking about what White experienced, [How did they know you had Moonlight when you were that young?] [It was a church-governed town, in the Nevald Kingdom basically everyone got checked by age five. Best get new recruits while they are young, but¡­ I was far from as impressionable than they hoped I would be.] White dryly laughed. [Stubborn in my own ways till the end¡­] Red and Lilly didn¡¯t know what to think. About White¡¯s treatment, and why was she bringing this up now? ¡°One sec behind us!¡± Red yelled. Her senses were on full alert. [Two now! Well more the merrier!] Red gritted their teeth. Two bears with mad eyes stampeded towards their tree. [Let¡¯s run!] (Lilly) One stepped up its hind legs and slammed into the tree. Snap ¡°Damn, these trees aren¡¯t that tough.¡± Red jumped off the tree to not fall with it. She landed on the ground and mad bears growled and rushed towards her. [I¡¯m going to light them up!] Said Red, as her arms were engulfed in fire that she was about to throw. However, ¡°Leave us alone!¡± White yelled, and a soft pale white light appeared around Anna, empowered by the moon above. As both bears neared, the wave of Moonlight blasted into one of the beasts mimicking the ocean storm. Repeatedly bombarding it until it was pushed into the ground. Red used this opportunity to torch the other bear, clapping her hands together, ¡°Fire Blaze.¡± The fire circled off her arms into a cannon blast devouring the furry creature. Roaargh! Erraragh! The two creatures screamed in pain as Anna felt her mana drop, it was nearly half already. Which was still more than a normal person¡¯s but it shouldn¡¯t have dropped that fast. [Why are we losing so much mana?] (Red) [I don¡¯t know¡­ it was never this bad during training¡­] (White) While having this discussion, the burning bear tried to chase after Anna, but it quickly tired out and collapsed. While the bear that was being smashed by the tides of moonlight went unconscious. [We should hide now¡­] (Lilly) [We will just be attacked again.] (Red) [No, not necessarily. But we also need to hide for another reason. We need to finish this discussion.] (White) [Seriously?] Red asked. [This is us we are talking about¡­ It¡¯s now or never.] (White) Then they felt it, White had jumped out of the body and returned to the Soul Space. ¡°Dammit¡­¡± Red muttered. She quickly hid again, further up a different tree where the leaves blocked her from view. Chapter 20 – …We are… Chapter 20 ¨C ¡­We are¡­ ¡°So what did you want to say?¡± Red asked as she opened her eyes in their Soul Space. Still half submerged in the pool. White hopped out of the pool and sat on its side, ¡°We¡­ have never really talked about what we are¡­ to each other. Our relationship is weird, mostly likely unique, but¡­ we have two parents that want to properly connect to us¡­¡± ¡°So what are we supposed to be anyway?¡± Lilly, unable to control her emotions, screamed, ¡°Some sort of forced family!¡± Tears dripped down her face. ¡°Is¡­ that so wrong¡­?¡± White asked, ¡°Aren''t all families forced in a way?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Red sighed, ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°Red.¡± White turned to her, ¡°Can you say you never wanted a family who loves you.¡± Red said, ¡°I don¡¯t see how that is important.¡± ¡°Red, I know you were the oldest out of the three of us, but as you said, ¡®new life new me¡¯. I know¡­ I¡¯m the last person who should say this¡­ because I haven''t managed to do this myself, but don¡¯t let the decision of your previous life hold you back.¡± ¡°So are you agreeing with me to forget our previous lives?¡± ¡°No¡­ I can¡¯t¡­ not for a long time, but don¡¯t let the trouble from it cross over. Again¡­ I haven¡¯t managed to do that¡­ but if I want to make this life my best one, then I have to at least try!¡± Red, trying to fight back, asked, ¡°...What even made you decide to bring this up?¡± White looked up and stared straight at the other two, ¡°Because I realised¡­ this was my one opportunity to have an attempt at a life I wanted.¡± This caused Red and Lilly to sit back in thought. They both knew the feeling to extremely opposite extents. Out of the three of them, White by far hated her previous life the most, but it was an experience that would never leave her. Lilly on the other hand, despised it because she was in it, but besides that, she held a deep fondness for many things within it. They both were still extremely tethered to their previous life. Red meanwhile thought very differently about her previous life. She was completely happy with how she lived and with how she died. ¡°You know¡­ we could run away,¡± Red mentioned off heartily. ¡°From the forest?¡± Lilly questioned. ¡°From this town, we aren¡¯t really Anna after all.¡± ¡°Red!¡± White exclaimed, while Lilly stayed silent and thought about it. ¡°What?¡± Red replied, ¡°There are three of us here, we can¡¯t just decide what we are going to do with our life based on one person''s opinion. At the very least it has to be a majority vote.¡± ¡°Ergh¡­¡± White couldn¡¯t argue because Red was completely right. But she was worried about what Lilly¡¯s opinion would be in this situation. Then from the distance, they all heard a desperate scream. ¡°ANNA!¡± A pained female voice and a desperately worried male one called out, inside the harsh dangerous forest. Red muttered, ¡°...What are they doing¡­ they are putting a target on their back¡­¡± Yelling out would only attract more beasts towards them, but they were still doing it. The three of them jumped back into the body and looked to where the sound was coming from. Lilly¡­ didn¡¯t know how to feel, [They won¡¯t¡­ abandon us.] Internally, she kind of hoped they would¡­ it meant she could leave without worry¡­without regret¡­ but deep down, she knew they wouldn¡¯t. [They are here for Anna¡­ ] (Red) [Well we are Anna.] (White) [While knowing that we are still separate¡­] Lilly replied, [And for some reason¡­ they¡­ care¡­ about us while knowing that¡­] They jumped out of the tree and stumbled closer. Soon before long, they found their parents with panicked expressions charging through the forest. ¡°Anna!¡± ¡°Anna!¡± S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Where are you!¡± ¡°Please yell out, only once!¡± A scared George screamed, ¡°Don¡¯t worry we will get you safely back home!¡± They stumbled forward. Tears began to drip from Anna¡¯s eyes. Anna wasn¡¯t completely sure what to do, but then an unwelcome guest decided to visit. A large wolf jumped towards George and Anna screamed at the top of her lungs using Blood Gift to enhance her vocals, ¡°Behind you!¡± The wolf was unnaturally larger than the ones before, but within a moment they could tell it was about to chomp George¡¯s head off. So they ran. To save their father. George¡¯s eyes widened in relief upon hearing her voice, before he quickly turned around and heard the panicked scream of his wife. As the wolf¡¯s sharp teeth neared, he saw a child with a flaming leg crash into the beast''s head. Both tumbled across the ground with the child landing mostly perfectly if not exhausted, while the wolf had a massive burn across its face. The wolf retaliated by swiping at the child. Red tried to dodge, but their body started to give out, which caused them to be sent flying. Then the beast lunged forward to finish off the smaller target. ¡°Don¡¯t touch my daughter!¡± But before it could, a fiery fist pelted in the beast''s face, and George grabbed the vermin and threw it to the ground. George¡¯s other fist alighted, and he started repeatedly beating the wolf until it stopped moving. ¡°It¡¯s okay George!¡± Jen ran up and hugged George from behind, ¡°Anna¡¯s okay, Anna¡¯s okay.¡± Jen then immediately let go and ran to Anna who she quickly checked a moment ago. ¡°Anna sweety, everything okay?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ just tired.¡± Red responded, perfectly masking the pain. While White and Lilly stayed away, knowing they would be completely unable to hide their expression. George said calmly, ¡°Let¡¯s go home.¡± He stayed back from embracing his two loved ones for fear of getting blood on them. ¡°Home?¡± Anna¡¯s tired eyes began to close, Red couldn¡¯t hold back the body¡¯s natural function anymore. ¡°Yes, our home,¡± Jen replied. Chapter 21 – Family Chapter 21 ¨C Family They woke up the next day comfortable and cozy in a bed surrounded by their mum and dad who recently woke up themselves. Anna also received a briefing on what happened last night. They didn¡¯t know what, but something happened in the forest which caused the creatures within it to go on rampage. They didn¡¯t have anything in place for this specific situation, but they did have procedures for general dangerous situations. Which was why they had a bunch of pre-made mountable barricades. Two adults were killed, but thankfully none of the kids were harmed. A group of adults work together to simultaneously distract the creatures and kill them. Jen and George already were near the forest when it happened so they stayed with the other adults to defend the town, but when they saw a wolf run back into the forest from what seemed to be their house it caused them to panic. They broke formation and ran back to find a trail of Anna¡¯s footsteps which they chased after. Once they reunited with her and after she collapsed they rushed her home, where most of the mayhem had been cleared up. Adults were regrouping and parents helping their crying kids. Once everything was safe, and the forest creatures had stopped coming for a while. Jen and George barricaded the windows and door and prepared to sleep, but for safety, took turns watching. That was everything else that happened that night. The three of them stayed in the room after Jen brought food in so they could eat breakfast in there. After they finished eating on the bed, discussing what happened last night, how cool George was then against how uncool he normally was, laughing at Jen¡¯s taste in books, and promising to take a break for studying and adding more story time to the schedule. ¡­ After all that. They placed Anna on the ground and Jen spoke, ¡°As we said yesterday, we have a gift for you¡­ We¡­ have some names for you.¡± ¡­ Momentarily stunned, ¡°So we will no longer be Anna?¡± White asked. ¡°Not exactly,¡± George smiled, ¡°We aren¡¯t going to get rid of our precious daughter¡¯s name, but we will be adding a little bit to it.¡± Jen said, ¡°Anlesa will be your new name, Anna for short still. Realistically, we¡¯ll call you Anna most of the time.¡± The three of them went along with it and nodded. ¡°Weird one. Sounds like something¡­ Mum¡­ made up.¡± Lilly noted. S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. George smiled, ¡°Well, that would be completely correct.¡± ¡°Hey¡­ It¡¯s not a bad name.¡± Jen replied. ¡°So we are just Anlesa now?¡± Red asked. ¡°Well, it is not just that name.¡± Jen fully sat down, at Anlesa¡¯s eye level. ¡°First, for the quiet one who loves to listen to my books, and has the cutest smile and eyes filled curiosity.¡± [Who¡­?] Lilly asked. [That¡¯s you.] (White) Lilly paused, She still wasn¡¯t completely comfortable with this, but she knew what she needed to do. ¡°...Yes¡­¡± Lilly answered. ¡°We decided your name to be Eva [Do you want us to keep calling you Lilly?] (White) [...Can I be extremely selfish as to ask one of you to call me Eva¡­ and the other Lilly?] Anna closed her eyes, and Lilly begged her two companions¡­ her technically nowkind of sisters¡­ [...Sure. I¡¯m taking Eva.] (Red) [Understood, Lilly.] (White) ¡°...Eva¡­ okay¡­¡± Jen patted her daughter on the head, ¡°It¡¯s okay, I love you, sweety.¡± George joined them on the ground, his expression had hints of pain as he bent his knees, ¡°Now second,¡± He held back a small laugh, ¡°For the one who is better at dealing with annoying adults than I am, stays calm whenever she can, and has a bright mind always ready to learn. We decided to name you Luna.¡± White paused as well, and in a flash in her mind, she remembered the day she received her previous name. The dreadful oppressing atmosphere within the white marble palace, the emotionless declaration of her new name. But when she opened her eyes again, she saw two smiling faces. And in this one moment provided more warmth than the last fifteen years of her previous life. ¡°...Thank you.¡± It was Jen¡¯s turn to speak again, ¡°Now for the energetic, lovely ball of energy who always has a smile on her face. We thought of Sara.¡± There was a final moment of pause, but then Red asked, ¡°What was your other option?¡± George asked, ¡°Other option?¡± ¡°I mean, like a parent likes to think of a boy and girl name before a child is born right? So what was the other name you thought of?¡± Jen replied, ¡°It was, Syrus?¡± ¡°I¡¯m taking that, it¡¯s a cooler name.¡± Syrus (Red) proudly smiled and crossed her arms. [It¡¯s even better than my previous two names.] Syrus (Red) laughed. Luna (White) asked, ¡°Why did you choose those names?¡± ¡°Cause we like the sound of them?¡± George smiled, which got a small flick to his cheek from Jen, ¡°Jen also wanted them to have a connection to each other, which is why all the female names ended with ¡®a¡¯ and the male ones ¡®s¡¯.¡± Jen added, ¡°There is also the theme to everything because you share a body like the objects that share the night sky, I thought it would be nice to get inspiration for your names from the celestial bodies and the time of day. Luna is of course representing the moon, Eva was originally Eve, but we wanted it to end with ¡®a¡¯ to match with the naming scheme, but, it worked out cause there is a star named Eva. Syrus is also the name of a star, one of the brightest ones, and is the name of the sun in a story I read.¡± ¡°Wow¡­ a lot more thought than I put in. We just called each other colours.¡± Said Red. ¡°Well, that was your idea,¡± White added. ¡°And didn¡¯t you agree with it?¡± ¡°...She very much did¡­¡± Lilly smiled. Jen tried to quietly whisper, but everyone heard her, ¡°Ah, they are talking to each other aloud, so¡­ cute¡­¡± This caused Anlesa to blush and try to change topics, ¡°Do we tell everyone else about this?¡± ¡°Do you want to?¡± George asked. The three of them looked at themselves in the Soul Space and just nodded at each other, ¡°No.¡± Jen smiled, ¡°Then we won¡¯t!¡± With the second naming ceremony done, it was time for Jen to do something she had been waiting to do since the start of this talk. She shuffled closer and wrapped her arms around Anlesa, ¡°Thank you for being born, my lovely daughters.¡± ¡°I think you mean, our lovely daughters.¡± George moved up and joined in for the hug. Tears began to fall from Anlesa¡¯s face. Her arms trembled up, embracing her two parents. ¡­ ¡°Thank you¡­ For being our Mum and Dad. Mum, Dad¡­ Mum¡­ Dad¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± Said George. Jen added, ¡°We are family after all.¡± Chapter 22 – Over a Year Chapter 22 ¨C Over a Year Some say time goes by fast when you''re having fun. Or in Anlesa¡¯s case¨Cwho still preferred being called Anna in most situations¨Cthe wild ride that was having a new life shared between three people made life feel simultaneously slow and fast. ¡°Syrus, can you pass me the basket?¡± ¡°Yeah, I got it¡± Syrus (Red) answered the call and ran up the field carrying a basket over her head. The weather cooled and so Jen and George felt it was time to finally let Anna help them on the farm She only had to help twice a week and she got to choose the days. Only George and Anna were handling this field at the current time of day, which was why George felt comfortable calling her individual names out loud. It wasn¡¯t always like this, but today it was, so George took the opportunity to communicate openly with Syrus. Where normally the only time he got to use that name was in the confines of their own home. Unsurprisingly Syrus (Red), was the one mainly helping their father. Luna (White) and Eva (Lilly) did help. Luna more so than Lilly, Lilly had a habit of getting distracted on the job. ¡°Thanks.¡± George placed a large deformed and greatly discoloured vegetable in the basket. Clearly, something was wrong with it. They were supposed to be a dark green but this one, and the rest that George had picked had large purple spots all over them. They continued for another hour, picking up a few more of these misshapen veggies before finally finishing checking every plant growing in this field. ¡°Argh that is everything.¡± George sighed, and he stretched his back and arms into the air, ¡°Thanks for the help sweetie.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome, Dad.¡± Normalcy had finally arrived, and it only took a bunch of beasts breaking into the village, a potentially near-death experience for someone, and an emotional argument to make it happen. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but comparing what was there before, they were now at least consistently happy with their new life. The months following the incident calmed down relatively quickly. Parents were on guard consistently for the month following, but after no change, they assumed everything had returned to normal. Besides the deaths, no one was seriously injured. However, many children were scared shitless and while understandable, it had been causing trouble for some parents. ¡°Anna is helping you again today? Mine still doesn¡¯t want to leave the house¡­¡± As the father-daughter walked home, they passed another farmer who looked up from his field when he heard footsteps walk by. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s such a great help.¡± George pulled Anna¡¯s arm, Syrus (Red), realising what he wanted to do, took a step back and swung her body forward when George tugged her strongly upwards a moment later. Together, George swung Anna into the air, and with a little midair adjustment, Anlesa landed on George¡¯s shoulder. Not without a small ¡®oomph¡¯ on George¡¯s part. ¡°But I¡¯m sure yours will come back around soon, it was a tough moment for them after all.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± The farmer scratched his head. There was a little bit of jealousy between some of the other parents with Anna. She was the only young kid to not be deathly afraid after the incident, even after being in the most danger. Anna was even more willing to help out her parents after it, even when they said she didn¡¯t have to. While some parents might¡¯ve only been slightly jealous, none were going to have any real negative feelings about their neighbours. Anlesa''s recent behaviour though was something that Jen was all too willing to be smug about. Any chance she got, it was about her daughter¡¯s bravery, cuteness, and adorableness¨Ckeeping it slightly censored to not reveal she had three. One big thing that happened during the incident was Anna¡¯s reveal of her Fire attribute. Jen and George both just assumed it awakened because of the stressful situation, which wasn¡¯t a crazy idea at all. The event was also what made the trio learn that George¡¯s attribute was also Fire, which in Lilly¡¯s words ¡®fit him¡¯, and Jen also told the trio after the event that her¡¯s was Earth. Both were commonly seen attributes. The duo finally reached the door of their home, where George crouched down to let Anna off his shoulder. George asked, ¡°When you see your mother, make sure to remind her to take a break, Dad will do the cooking tonight.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± A quiet Lilly nodded before Luna (White) waved goodbye and they entered their house alone. First, they got cleaned up and then they walked into their room. ¡°It¡¯s been a little over a year since everything began hasn¡¯t it¡­?¡± Luna mumbled and she walked to and rummaged through the pile of books that sat next to their bed. Books that were read to them over a year ago, well the only ones that remained from that long ago were the few their Mum actually owned. The rest were returned. ¡°What do you mean, ¡®A little over a year?¡¯¡± Lilly jokingly snarked, ¡°We awoke around the start of last year, and our birthday was at the end of it. Now it¡¯s already autumn, you''re a couple of months off.¡± Luna decided to reply back through the mind, [...That¡¯s basically a little bit over a year.] Lilly picked up a book and started flipping through it. [I guess you¡¯re right.] (Lilly) [Eva¡¯s just having fun Luna, but yeah you¡¯re a bit off with your dates.] (Syrus) [....] (Luna) [Why¡¯d you even bring it up?] (Syrus) [No need to analyse it, I¡¯m just reminiscing. A lot has changed over the year.] Luna internally sighed. [Definitely. You used to talk in weird people¡¯s speak, and now look at you, you only occasionally do it.] Syrus spoke as seriously as she could before adding, [But honestly, the most amazing thing in this last year was that in a one in three chance, Mother managed to name the person with the Moonlight attribute Luna.] [Hey! There was meaning to the names! She just thought it was a good fit for my personality.] (Luna) Then during their conversation. Jen slammed through the front door with an unnecessarily loud scream, ¡°I¡¯m HOME!¡± ¡°Yes, we can hear you,¡± Syrus (Red) replied. She placed down the book they were holding and turned to go to the door of their room. Anna walked out of their room to see their mum already in the kitchen area of the house after dumping her small basket on the table. Jen gleaned over her shoulder, ¡°What do you want for dinner?¡± ¡°Dad actually told me, to tell you, not to cook tonight. He was going to do it.¡±Jen¡¯s jaw dropped, and Anna heard a quiet, ¡°That bastard.¡± Which caused her to quietly laugh. Jen would always admit George was a better cook, but to her, every dinner was a challenge to improve and one day defeat the mountain that was in front of her. On the other hand, George¡¯s tastebuds were not good so everything he and Jen made and tasted the same to him. ¡°You¡¯ve been up since four Mum. Let Dad cook tonight.¡± ¡°I know¡­¡± Jen slumped down knowing she was completely in the wrong, ¡°But today was the day¡­¡± ¡°Nope. No, it wasn¡¯t Mum.¡± ¡°Syrus, Luna¡­.¡± She slumped further down, her head and body completely resting on the bench. In a desperate attempt, she asked once more, ¡°Eva¡­?¡± Lilly paused for a moment, and then looked away, ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ choose not to comment.¡± ¡­ It may only have been a year, but in the end, it only took one day for the family to truly form. ¡°Fine¡­ I¡¯ll give up today.¡± Jen slowly stood, ¡°But I¡¯m going to make the best breakfast ever tomorrow.¡± George eventually came home and made dinner. Where everyone scoffed down their entire plate and laughed the night away. Chapter 23 – Attribute Ceremony Chapter 23 ¨C Attribute Ceremony It wasn¡¯t hard for Anlesa to realise something unusual was happening soon in the town. People were trying to finish up their required work for the month faster, and Jen was being called out more regularly to help the town chief with reporting and checking documents just to ensure everything happened faster. ¡°Dad, what is happening?¡± Syrus (Red) asked as George shoved the boot onto his foot. ¡°Oh.¡± George paused in a moment of shock, realising he was a complete buffoon. Thankfully for him, his daughters don¡¯t know he had told himself every morning to inform them but got distracted every single time for the last week. He scratched his head, ¡°We have someone coming to the village¡­ well the other town to perform an attribute ceremony or something, it has a proper name and everyone aged six and above who hasn¡¯t been checked yet will have their attribute revealed.¡± ¡°Everyone? Even me?¡± ¡°Yeah, they only come every four years to do the deed. Well, we still need to go to Ihere where the whateverthethingiscalled will be performed. So sorry, you do have to do it as well even if your attribute has awakened.¡± ¡°Who is coming to perform it?¡± Anna asked. ¡°I don¡¯t really know, I think the Aurora Church? I¡¯m not really religious so I don¡¯t know much about churches and that sort of stuff, best ask your mother. But be careful when you do, if you sound too interested she won¡¯t tell you and will make it a full lesson instead.¡± He warned. ¡°Yeah¡­ I know¡­¡± Eva (Lilly) sighed, knowing their mother all too well. On the other hand, Luna (White) became deadly silent. They had some collective knowledge of what an attribute ceremony was. It was just something to check what attributes kids would have. Depending on the country the age when this took place varied. From Lilly¡¯s home, it was standard practice to have it performed during school at age ten during the school semester. Luna mentioned her¡¯s was checked at five, and Syrus only got it properly checked during her teens¨Cgoing out of her own way to do so¨Cafter she had already awakened then. George started to leave to go to work but he asked, ¡°Do you want to come today as well?¡± Luna quickly replied, ¡°Not today, we are just going to chat for a bit.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s fine, you know where to find me if there is any trouble.¡± He waved goodbye. ¡°All good, Dad, take care.¡± ¡°You too, love you.¡± ¡°Love you too, bye.¡± With George finally gone, Syrus asked aloud, ¡°Everything good?¡± Anna (Luna) turned around and walked towards their room, ¡°No, and we need to do some preparation and planning.¡± [Can we make sure only one of our attributes is visible for the ceremony?] Luna (White) questioned. [Don¡¯t we want to use two gifts?] Syrus (Red) asked. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Yes, but no reason to let the world know we can use two attributes as a child. We can reveal it when we are a teenager.] Luna (White) replied. [It¡¯s more that you don¡¯t want the church to know right?] (Syrus) [Yes¡­ Do you have a problem with that?] (Luna) Syrus laughed, [None whatsoever.] Lilly (Eva) said, [To answer your question, Luna, I believe so, but I have never tried it. I kind of understand the theory, but¡­] [Don¡¯t worry guys, I¡¯ve got the plan sorted.] (Syrus) [Oh, you know how to do it?] (Luna) [Yeah, I picked up a method. There were these annoying bastards who picked up people''s location by tracking gifts. So it was kind of an open secret taught to each other on how to hide one¡¯s attributes. I just need to do that, with an extra bit of fiery spice.] (Syrus) Syrus added a vital bit of information, [However, you two need to make sure you aren¡¯t in the body during the process. When any of us our in the body, our respective attribute I don¡¯t know ummm¨C] [Activates, turns on, awakens?] Lilly gave a quick few suggestions. [¨CYeah, wake up, that¡¯s a good one. Thanks, Eva.] Anna (Syrus) gave herself a thumbs for Eva. Eva was ever so slightly embarrassed by this action and didn¡¯t reply back and so Syrus continued, [So it¡¯s best if I¡¯m the only one around. I can also flood our system with Fire which should be a good extra layer of protection!] Luna only nodded and closed the window of their room to stop the breeze coming in. After that, they sat on the bed. Lilly asked, [By the way, why is everyone trying to finish up work if it is just an attribute ceremony for the children?] Luna scoffed, [Realistically it¡¯s a church demand, ¡®Ensure everything is done before we arrive, we don¡¯t want any distractions¡¯.] [Wow, dicks.] (Syrus) [Do churches make requests like that?] Lilly asked. [Were there not any where you lived?] (Luna) [Not particularly¡­] Syrus chimed in, [Anyway Eva, from my experience nah. I mean, I can¡¯t really say I knew any BIG churches or religious stuff. Most were small travelling groups that had a holy site somewhere. Nice enough but could be annoying at times. There was this one extra annoying small group that kept spouting end-of-the-world crap and tried to force that on people and maybe people would¡¯ve believed them if the date didn¡¯t keep changing each year after nothing happened.] Anna¡¯s (Luna) eyes widen in shock, [Were there really no central pillars of religion?] [Well, one of the nearby countries I actually visited and fought against did have one. But honestly, it was kind of weird compared to some of the other ones. Not for any bad reason, it was just based on the first king''s legacy and moral teaching. I guess because of that, they don¡¯t really try to spread outside the country and it mostly is used for public holidays. I might¡¯ve downplayed the size of the other religions by calling them ¡®small travelling groups¡¯, some did have churches all throughout the countries where I lived.] [Huh, well that¡¯s interesting¡­] Eva muttered. There wasn¡¯t much to do now, so Syrus jumped off the bed to do some simple exercises. Syrus asked, [So what are we supposed to do besides that plan?] [The best we can do is not cause any trouble and have the ceremony pass without any issues.] (Luna) [Fair enough.] Replied Syrus, in the middle of her first push-up. At the peak of the second, she asked, [Want me to accidentally burn the priest?] [...] (Luna) [Hello, Earth to the Moon?] Lilly sighed, [She needs to say no, but wants to say yes¡­] ¡°Hehe, I know.¡± Laughed Syrus. Chapter 24 – Invisible Hatred Chapter 24 ¨C Invisible Hatred [Everything prepared?] Luna (White) asked. [Yeah. Just make sure to disappear when the time comes, got it?] Syrus (Red) replied. [Hmhum] (Lilly) [Fine.] (Luna) ¡°Everything good Anna?¡± Jen squeezed Anna¡¯s hand to get her attention. They were walking alone together after arriving in Ihere. George was one of the few adults who stayed at the village, decided through some sort of drunken game. Some needed to stay behind in case an emergency did happen. Jen asked, concerned, ¡°Are you tired?¡± S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°I could say that. You were overworked like crazy. We need to tell Dad to give the town chief a smack on the head.¡± Anna gave a gentle smack to her own head to illustrate the point. ¡°Thank you dear¡­ but no one¡¯s head is being smack today. Including yours.¡± Jen danced around and grabbed Anna¡¯s other hand. ¡°That¡¯s rude mum, you¡¯ve chained me up¡­¡± ¡°No, I haven¡¯t, I¡¯m just hugging both my daughter''s hands with my own.¡± Syrus did a quick spin which caused Jen to let go of her left hand. ¡°But you are tired right Mum?¡± ¡°Busy¡­ but not tired.¡± Jen smiled. [How many nights complaining to George has it been?] (Lilly/Eva) [Too many.] Luna (White) sighed. [¡®Can you check this, check that. Argh that damn bastard!¡¯] Syrus made an impression of their mum¡¯s complaining sprees. [But it has been a lot, this stupid ceremony and the ever-increasing bad crops¡­] (Lilly) [Not much we can do besides supporting both of them when we can.] Said Luna, [Let¡¯s just hope this whole situation passes quickly.] [For sure.] (Syrus) As they were walking, Syrus got the urge to explore for a moment. ¡°Mum, can I walk around for a bit?¡± Jen paused before replying, ¡°No¡­ It is safer with me, someone could hurt you.¡± ¡°I can just burn them up if anyone tries to harm me!¡± Syrus proudly stated. ¡°...............I guess that¡¯s true¡­¡± Jen did trust her daughters, they were very mature and well behaved and it wasn¡¯t like there were any bad people around. ¡°Okay, but come back in thirty minutes alright. If you don¡¯t, I¡¯m going to cause a massive ruckus and you''re going to be so embarrassed!¡± Anna flatly stated, ¡°I feel like¡­ it''s supposed to be the other way around¡­¡± With conditional permission granted, they went out to explore. The town was bustling, all the small farming villages had gathered with their kids who were the right age to take part in the ceremony. There was a large lunch before the ceremony and a festive speech performed by the church''s priest afterwards. Food was being passed around, and everyone seemed happy but a good number of people were nervous while another group seemed a little too ecstatic. [So, what did you want to see Syrus?] (Lilly) [The church peeps, they should be here soon if everything is on schedule.] (Syrus) After a quick run around town, Syrus couldn''t find her target. ¡°Damn shit where are they?¡± ¡°Language kid!¡± A random passerby yelled out. ¡°Sorry!¡± Anna quickly replied, still running forward. [Well if they aren¡¯t in the town streets.] (Luna) [Then the two other options are either they are in a building or haven''t arrived yet.] (Lilly) [Well I ain¡¯t looking through each building, so let¡¯s just wait outside the entrance.] (Syrus) Syrus did some parkour and jumped up and rested on a rooftop near the entrances. [Syrus¡­ someone is going to yell at us.] (Lilly) [Nah, you won¡¯t believe how many people don¡¯t look up. Not to mention we are also lying down which makes it even harder for people to see us.] (Syrus) Syrus was right and no one bugged them. So they sat back, relaxed and waited for the priest to show up if they hadn''t already. Schedule-wise, apparently the priest should¡¯ve arrived twenty minutes ago when lunch started and after that, the ceremony was supposed to begin. But as they were nearing Jen¡¯s time limit. [Guys, I think they are about to arrive.] Syrus announced as she focused on a larger than standard cart for this place that rolled up to the town. A priest wearing the cloth of the Aurora Church stepped out of the large covered cart pulled by a single large stallion. As he stepped onto the ground, Luna (White) forcibly took control and stared at the priest. There was no emotion on her face but staring at that overly clean white outfit lit a furious fire in her. ¡°Ergh, damn what a long wasteful trip.¡± The priest quietly muttered, which Syrus picked up on. [Well there goes any chance the priest was going to be a nice person.] Syrus (Red) commented. [Yeah¡­] (Lilly) The most surprised though was Luna, [I¡¯m kind of shocked as well, when I was part of the church it was pretty much mandatory to send people with a good outer image. Didn¡¯t matter if it was a small town or a noble in the centre of the capital.] Syrus joked, [They lose one saint and the church goes to shit, sounds about right.] [Haa¡­. I would love to laugh but it was already an awful place to begin with.] (Luna) [Do you think they are acting this way just because it is a different country?] Lilly asked, knowing their base of operation was in the Nevald Kingdom. Cancole, the country they lived in, did have churches but their priest still came from the Nevald Kingdom. [No, if anything they should be more careful¡­] Luna closed her eyes and let go of controlling the body, not wanting to unnecessarily make any wrong actions. If this was her from the past, she wouldn¡¯t worry about the potential of breaking a facade but the new her now was a different story. [Well, six years is a lot of time for things to change.] Syrus replied, [¡®Death served their purpose¡¯ after all. Anyway, with a church like that, it''s probably a cycle, the bad apples get a bit too cocky but before enough damage is done they calm down, replace some heads and restart the process again.] [Huh¡­?] Lilly wasn¡¯t entirely sure what Syrus was implying. Only understanding the church was going through a period of bad management. [Maybe¡­ but it does sound weird hearing the twenty years I spent there supposedly being part of the good cycle.] Luna understood completely what was Syrus'' saying, importantly understanding that she realised the church had some involvement with Luna¡¯s death. She wasn¡¯t surprised Syrus picked up on that and equally so that Lilly didn¡¯t. The only reason Syrus was being vague about it was because of Lilly. Both of them knew she had gone through some hardships, but it still didn¡¯t feel right to ruin what was left of Lilly¡¯s innocence. [Well I could just be wrong as well.] (Syrus) The trio sneakily got off the building¡¯s roof and made their way back to Jen. Who was only mildly upset that they got back at 29:48 minutes after they left. Instead of watching the town''s clock tower for the time, she was counting in her head for the full duration so she could be exact. Jen responded with, ¡°You cheeky, that was on purpose wasn¡¯t it?¡± To which, Anna didn¡¯t provide an answer and just looked flabbergasted that Jen spent nearly the last thirty minutes just counting. It didn¡¯t take long before the priest entered the town and the late attribute ceremony finally got underway. It was a simple ceremony that took place in the centre square. The parents with their children waited outside the square in line while the curious crowd looked in. The priest was a large skinny man in height and a little pale for his age. One guard stood by his side, but they weren¡¯t paying much attention. The priest placed his gloved hand on each child''s head while in his other hand held a glass tablet. By chanting a phrase and waiting a minute the tablet would provide a response and the priest would yell out the attribute. Yelling out the attribute made it seem like more spectacle, but Syrus was betting he was just doing it so he wouldn¡¯t have to repeat what he said twice in case the kid didn¡¯t hear. [This seems slow¡­] (Syrus) [Yeah, at home we just touched an orb that told us directly.] (Lilly) [Luna, you''re the expert here. Is this really what the church usually used?] (Syrus) [Yeah¡­ they have other artefacts as well, but this tablet was, well I guess still cheaper to make. So I¡¯m not surprised it¡¯s being used for faraway towns.] (Luna) Earth, Fire, Wind, Hearing, and Plants were some of the attributes called out. Two people had dual attributes, one had Wind & Lightning while the other had Earth & Hard. The trio didn¡¯t recognise either of them, but they knew from their clothes they were from another one of the villages. [Okay someone has to be pulling my leg, how is Hard a gift? I mean I know the exotic gifts are also weird but at least those kind of have a reason.] (Syrus) Lilly was about to respond but quickly decided not to. Then soon it was Anna¡¯s turn. Jen pushed her forward, ¡°Okay good luck Anna.¡± Syrus just smiled, ¡°Hehe.¡± Luna and Eva disappeared into the Soul Space while Syrus confidently walked forward. ¡°Okay, stay still and don¡¯t move.¡± The priest requested. ¡°Okay!¡± ¡°A response wasn¡¯t necessary.¡± The priest did the deed and placed his hand on her and chanted ¡°Auro Window.¡± And waited for the process to be completed. Then three minutes had passed. Luna was concerned but was afraid to enter the body to question Syrus. The priest was confused and a little panicked, ¡°Hmuuumm¡­ Nothing Is appearing¡­ um... Can you focus?¡± ¡°Focus on what?¡± She tilted her head slightly and asked. The priest remarked, ¡°Just try to focus.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± Syrus squinted her eyes, clenched her fist and focused. The tablet activated and the priest began reading it out, ¡°Fire! Argh! Fire! Fire, fire!¡± His hand leapt off Anna¡¯s head as a burst of flame erupted from the top of it. The guard nearly stumbled over in a panic and the priest tore his glove off and threw it to the floor. After breathing in and out for a moment, he yelled ¡°What did you do!¡± ¡°Huh, I focused?¡± ¡°I¡¯m talking about making the Fire appear!¡± The priest yelled. ¡°Oh! It usually doesn¡¯t appear, fire is dangerous after all so I buried it deep down.¡± ¡°You had already awakened your attribute, why didn¡¯t you just say that!¡± ¡°What¡­¡± Luna jumped in and stepped back, acting scared at the big man, ¡°I was told I still had to do it because I could have two¡­¡± Some of the adults went forward quickly explaining that it was awakened by a traumatic experience. But Anna overheard some useful information. Apparently, the priest was supposed to know this, as the entire incident was reported to a higher layer of government and the church. The latter of which specifically asked for reports when environmental incidents happened in the towns and cities. [Interesting¡­] Syrus wondered why they would care about that. [It¡¯s realistically nothing good.] (Luna) With the task done and the priest quickly fixing his hand with his magic, Syrus went back to their mum. ¡°Hey, Mum!¡± ¡°Sweetie are you okay!¡± Jen crouched down and hugged Anna. ¡°Of course!¡± Jen and Anna walked out of the crowd towards the edge of town. The crowd didn¡¯t mind what happened, a few were upset about it but most just found it funny. A fun surprise for a slightly late event. No one was injured so why not laugh? Once they reached the end of town, Jen slowed down to a walk and then sat beside Anna. ¡°Syrus, are your sisters okay?¡± Lilly quietly spoke up, ¡°Yep, we are fine.¡± Jen smiled, ¡°Oh Eva, it was just that you and Luna weren¡¯t around until the end.¡± Luna chimed in, ¡°We didn¡¯t care about the event, and it was Syrus'' turn to deal with the annoying stuff.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± Jen quietly muttered, ¡°That¡¯s so handy¡­¡± Before raising her voice to a normal level, ¡°Well let¡¯s go home. I don¡¯t really care about the after party, my husband is still home alone and he needs his family to cheer him up! Who is with me!¡± Luna replied, ¡°We are.¡± Syrus added, ¡°We kind of can¡¯t not be with you¡­¡± ¡°You''re all supposed to join in all excited¡­¡± Lilly sorrowfully replied, ¡°Better luck next time Mum¡­.¡± Chapter 25 – Can’t Escape From The Wolf Chapter 25 ¨C Can¡¯t Escape From The Wolf ¡°Run!¡± ¡°Every man, child, and idiot for themselves!¡± ¡°Why are you telling yourself that?!¡± ¡°Quiet it, Billy!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t let her catch you!¡± Panic had ensued, friendships were abandoned and hope was quickly being lost. ¡°Argh! Don¡¯t stand near me!¡± ¡°No, you came next to me!¡± ¡°What are you idiots doing!¡± Yelled, a small girl from atop a tree as two boys struggled to climb the same tree to safety. ¡°Ella help me up!¡± Immediately the boys begun to argue. ¡°Screw off, I was here first!¡± ¡°No, I was you dimwit!¡± ¡°ArghhhhEREEEEIIIIHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR!¡± An unearthly shriek echoed across the orchard. Unable to see where the scream came from, the boys panicked and pulled on each other as they climbed the tree. ¡°Stop grabbing me!¡± ¡°I should be saying that to you!¡± ¡°Ow! My hair!¡± The girl reprimanded, ¡°Will you guys be quiet?! You are just going to drive the wolf here!¡± ¡°Not like you are being any less noisy!¡± One of the boys calmed down, ¡°Quiet¡­ She''s right.¡± ¡°You be quiet! It¡¯s not my fault you two can¡¯t control your voice.¡± The girl tightened her grip around a branch and stretched her other hand out, ¡°You know what, Elliot grab my hand.¡± ¡°Thank you¡­¡± The boy quickly took the opportunity and jumped for the hand before the other boy could stop him. ¡°Hey! You two cheaters, no climbing trees!¡± Failing to grab him before he was pulled up the boy decided to condemn the two in the tree. ¡°Ain¡¯t my fault you couldn¡¯t be bothered to learn how to climb a tree.¡± ¡°Elliot can¡¯t either!¡± ¡°And he is four years younger than you, he is a literal five-year-old, and I helped him because he was nice enough to be quiet when asked. What¡¯s your excuse?¡± ¡°I¡­ Haven¡¯t had my growth spurt yet!¡± The girl laughed, ¡°Anna is half your height and can make it by grabbing and climbing on a branch in a single good jump.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mention the beast''s name here¨C¡± As he spoke a cold claw grabbed his arm. ¡°FOUND YOU.¡± ¡°Argh!¡± The boy screamed and bumped into the tree. As he did, the black-haired beast¡¯s brown eyes focused on the next pair of sheep. It leapt off the ground, grabbed onto a branch and swung into the tree. ¡°Wanna jump down?¡± The wolf asked. And the two of the children panicked and immediately jumped down. But as they did, the wolf was right behind them and immediately caught them. ¡­So what was exactly happening? Basically, it was just a game of tag called Wolf & Sheep. Everyone caught had to go to walk to the den (the start area) afterwards. The chaser was the wolf, and everyone else was the sheep. It was a game they had played many times but for the last two weeks, the role of the wolf has been held by one individual, Anna. To stop being the wolf in the next round at least one of the sheep had to survive for ten minutes, but safe to say that hasn¡¯t happened yet. ¡°Arghh!¡± As the final collection of kids got jumped, the parents just sat in the distance watching on. ¡°I¡¯m impressed¡­ your child basically made it into a horror game.¡± sea??h th§× N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Jen tried to form a smile, ¡°Yeah¡­ I told her to have fun and be creative¡­ She sure did both.¡± Another parent spoke up, ¡°Yeah. I think I should be angry about Susan being scared, but she has finally stopped having nightmares about the end of year incident.¡± After a few more rounds the games finally stopped for the day. Parents went to their child and after a few more minutes of idle chit-chat, everyone began to return home. ¡°Did you have fun, Anna?¡± Jen scratched Syrus¡¯s head. ¡°Yeah, it was alright.¡± Syrus shrugged, ¡°I should make one of the other two play as a sheep next time though. I think that might be funny.¡± ¡°That would be a sight to see¡­¡± Jen placed her hand over her mouth and lightly chuckled. Jen and Anna walked back home and reunited with George who was still struggling to take his boots off in the house. Jen went over to George, ¡°Let me help.¡± George apologised, ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m sure what¡¯s wrong with me¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine dear, there is nothing wrong.¡± Jen pulled off the boot and released an exhausted sigh. She slowly stood up, pulled out a chair and plopped down. ¡°Ah¡­.¡± Jen groaned. Luna (White) asked, ¡°Mum is everything well?¡± ¡°Yes, sweetie.¡± Jen patted Anna¡¯s head and smiled. However, Anna just turned to George and asked, ¡°Dad, are you going to lie as well?¡± ¡°Well no, ''cause everything is fine. It will take a lot more trouble to happen before things will stop being well.¡± Lilly (Eva) muttered, ¡°Liar¡­¡± And walked away to her room. After shutting the door behind her, she leaned on the window. Luna sighed, ¡°If there was only something we could do.¡± Syrus reminded, [We have talked about this before, we are literally a child. There is nothing we can do to help with bad crops] Luna (White) sighed and remembered the state of the plants, [I¡¯m not sure what the problem could be. I haven¡¯t read about anything matching the state of these plants.] [From where I¡¯m from, we always say, if you cook it, feed it to a donkey and the donkey still doesn¡¯t want to eat then there is no hope for it.] (Syrus) [I think the village has already long decided the food is inedible.] (Luna) [Yeah I know that ain¡¯t hard to figure out.] Syrus (Red) replied, [It is always important that if you can, not to eat food that is bad for your health. From my experience, we didn¡¯t eat any food that had a discolouring that was outside the expected colours. We always had to be careful with what we ate, the last thing we needed was to get sick on the job. I know what type of moulds not to eat and what ones aren¡¯t bad, blah, blah, etc. The only thing I can really say from my practical experience of protecting farmers and eating food is that these crops don¡¯t look like plants that are just naturally sick.] [That still doesn¡¯t get us anywhere¨C] As Luna was replying, Lilly replied to Syrus as well. [Agreed.] Speaking over Luna. Luna momentarily paused and asked confused, [What¡¯s there to agree with Lilly?] Lilly quickly gave out the simple report of the situation, [Statistically speaking. The reason the plants haven¡¯t been growing properly would be one of the following reasons: Malnourished, Sick, Diseased, Poisoned, Animals, or Other Environmental factors like heat or overwatered. Technically there is some overlap, an animal could dig into the soil and chew a bit of a plant passing on a possible disease. And being diseased can make a plant sick, but that isn¡¯t the only reason why a plant can be sick.] Lilly went to their bed side table, pulled out a piece of paper and drew a table of options, where she began writing positive and negative points about each possibility. [While we haven''t been fully conscious for the previous years, comments from our parents and the other adults have made it clear nothing has been unusual about the weather or the environment this time. The animal attack was recent but the crops have no signs of bite marks or internal consumption from insects or parasites. Malnourishment¡­ seems unlikely, like the other possibilities I won¡¯t fully rule it out but these people have worked on the land and in the fields for years, it would be unusual if the plants were only malnourished now. That leaves only sickness, diseased or poisoned. I don¡¯t know the state of the river, but the plants probably could¡¯ve gotten sick if the upstream river was polluted. If it is a disease spreading around then we can only wait until a cure or the cause is found, we should probably ask if the same thing is happening in the other farming towns. They have different water sources and types of land if I remember the accounts of them Mum provided in her lessons.] Syrus looked over the quickly completed table and complimented, [Wow, impressed me again. You really do have a good head on your shoulders.] [I just had the opportunity¡­] Lilly quieted down while Luna stayed silent. Lilly folded up the paper and walked back to the window, ¡°Burn please.¡± [Sure?] Syrus did as asked and made the paper disappear with its ashes flying in the wind. Lilly continued, [Not much we can do, we don¡¯t have the equipment to even make a proper experiment.] [An experiment huh¡­] Syrus wondered, [What would we do if we could conduct one?] [Test the quality of the water and soil. Some artefacts let you compare material, compare normal water and river water for example. I would also like to test if the crops were diseased or poisoned. I can¡¯t test for the former, but the latter I may be able to test with an advanced restoration potion.] Hearing that Syrus asked, [Hey Luna, what exactly can your Moonlight healing do?] [Why?] (Luna) [Well, do you want to be a part of an experiment?] (Syrus) Chapter 26 – Nothing Bad Happening Here! Chapter 26 ¨C Nothing Bad Happening Here! [Is this going to work?] A concerned Luna asked, [I don¡¯t recall reading anything about this¡­] On the outside, it looked like a young girl having fun playing in the dirt but in reality, the situation was quite a bit different. [It¡¯s not about knowing whether it¡¯s going to work or not, it¡¯s about finding out if it will work. Then even if it succeeds or not, we need to examine what changes. Also, a result where nothing changed is still an important discovery.] (Eva) There were six small mounds of dirt moulded into six small bowls. ¡°Okay done,¡± Lilly quietly muttered as she slapped the final bowl into shape after spending ten minutes ensuring the mounds of dirt were stable. With the first set of preparations completed, Lilly moved on to the second. She pulled two small sacks out from under her brown jumper. Each contained a small number of zeki. Zeki was normally a long green vegetable that grew underground. They were one of the many foods they were growing here. She placed four deformed zeki into four bowls and placed two normal ones in the last two. Syrus had mentioned before that they looked similar to the cucumber from her past life¡¯s homeland. Eva replied they could be related or it could just be a coincidence. [Time to begin!] Lilly hummed excitedly. It had been a long time since she did something like this. Some negative memories did surface in her mind, but because she didn¡¯t have to do anything mana-related she was able to focus on the positive. Lilly took a small branch and began smashing half of the vegetables. After a solid two minutes of smashing, there were piles of goop for the remains. [Syrus can you burn the two on the far right?] (Lilly) [Got it.] (Syrus) Syrus blew some fire on the two ripe zeki. As the smoke began to rise, Luna asked, [...Did we need to burn two ripe vegetables?] None of the parents would¡¯ve cared about Anna burning some of the rotten vegetables, but they would have something to say about using the good food. [It''s just a measuring point to see how they are supposed to burn.] Lilly began to fiddle with her fingers, [...I shouldn¡¯t have taken them¡­ but that would mean an improper procedure¡­. Yeah, taking two was definitely too much¡­. Ah.. I¡¯m an idiot¡­. I only needed one¡­ No, I could¡¯ve just half of one¡­ such a waste¡­ arrgh¡­] As Lilly was about to spiral. [Eva, what do you want me to do next?] Syrus asked after the vegetables stopped burning. The normal whole and goop zeki burned as expected. [...Nothing at the immediate moment, Luna can you use a sickness and poison healing spell on the two middle zeki?] [I can¡­] Luna replied, quickly turning their head around to ensure no one was around. They were doing this experiment near the forest during the morning of the day as that was when most of the parents weren¡¯t around. [Moonlite Recovery.] (Luna) Luna learned many healing applications of Moonlight. Well, there were originally mostly light spells, but they shared enough similarities that it was possible to copy-paste the spells. Healing wounds and injuries wasn¡¯t hard, but disease and sickness were substantially harder. Not just on the effort required to use light in such a manner but the result also tended to be not as expected. Sometimes something was only cured for a month before it reared its head again a month later. Only someone with a proper healing attribute could fix those issues with ease. [I wouldn¡¯t expect much, compared to my peers I never could heal as many people.] (Luna) [Sure.] Syrus giggled, she and Luna worked together for their training and so knew how effective Luna¡¯s healing was. After ten seconds Luna finishes, [Done]. There was no visible difference between the two sets of rotten vegetables that were healed by Luna and the ones that weren¡¯t. [No difference, that¡¯s fine. Syrus, burn them all.] (Eva) [Understood.] (Syrus) The fire blew onto the vegetables and goop and they began to burn. A nauseous black thick smoke rose into the air. ¡°Cough¡± Anna coughed but didn¡¯t blow the smoke away. Lilly was in control of the body and she didn¡¯t want to move back. The smell of the fumes was awful to the extent Luna wanted to get away, Syrus was dealing with it, but it was unpleasant that Lilly was sniffing the smoke and making the smell stronger. Lilly spoke, [The batches that were ¡®healed¡¯ by moonlight smell quite a bit different. Less strong in the spicy pain smell and the rest are even weaker than that. Sickness or poison¡­ I¡¯m leaning towards the latter because of the smell difference.] Lilly paused for a long moment, scratched her head and debated something. [I.. have an idea. Either of you stop me if this is stupid, but if we eat some of the bad vegetables could we heal ourselves? And use that to determine what the issues were?] Syrus was shocked, [Now that is very dumb, but I can keep the body energised even if we become unwell.] [I mean, possible? Just expected to be sick either way.] Luna had made herself sick before when she learnt her healing, so she knew her way around the process and the danger it brought.] Before they could discuss potentially poisoning themselves in the future. They heard some footsteps headed towards them. Syrus spoke, [Guys, Mum is heading our way.] Jen called out, ¡°Anna, what¡¯s happening here?¡± Lilly half turned around, ¡°Nothing?¡± ¡°Really?¡± Jen leaned over to see six bowls of ashes, the burned dirt and vague remains of vegetable juice on the edge of some of the bowls. ¡°Yeah, nothing bad is happening here, I just want to see how the bad fruits would burn.¡± Jen asked, ¡°You didn¡¯t burn any good fruits?¡± Syrus answered instead, ¡°Of course not.¡± ¡°Okay good.¡± Jen nodded and kept standing in her spot behind Anna. ¡°So¡­ what are you doing?¡± Anna had now completely turned around to face their mum. ¡°Looking for you.¡± S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Luna asked, ¡°Why?¡± Jen proudly smiled, ¡°Secret.¡± Anna calmly stated, ¡°We are going to tell Dad.¡± Syrus stood up and ran to find their dad. Jen reached out, ¡°Wait, don''t!¡± With that, their first experiment ending successfully, no one got in trouble.... Besides Jen, who got an earful and a hug. Chapter 27 – What Makes A Bad Idea a Bad Idea? Chapter 27 ¨C What Makes A Bad Idea a Bad Idea? ¡°Ergh¡­..¡± Anna groaned as she flopped onto her back, her limbs were noodles that stretched over the small bed. ¡°You okay Anna?¡± Jen asked, after coming back into the room to pick up her bag, only to find Anna who stood up and stretched, only to lay back down in pale pain. Anna mumbled, ¡°Yeah¡­ slept wrong¡­. Arm dug into my stomach while I was sleeping, someone decided to flop around a bit too much before fully sleeping.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t blame your sisters.¡± Jen stroked their head, ¡°Now do you want me to bring in your late breakfast?¡± ¡°No thank you I¡¯m fine, I¡¯ll wait for dinner,¡± Luna replied. However, Jen only laughed, ¡°Silly girl, you can¡¯t do that, you need proper nutrients to grow!¡± She left the room to get her child a small bowl of food, and the moment Jen had left the room, Anna had time to think about her decision making. Cause she wasn¡¯t feeling awful because she slept wrong, no, that was a lie. The trio had decided to go ahead with the ¡®Eat the bad food and determine if it is poisonous or not with their abilities¡¯ plan, and ate one of the potentially poisonous zeki. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. They did this secretly during the night before they went to bed, but the original plan was to eat it during the day. However, that obviously didn¡¯t go exactly to plan¡­ [Couldn¡¯t you have burned it, chucked it, or something¡­] (Luna) [Nah, you were the one screaming to not let them see it.] (Syrus) [...I apologise¡­ for my stupid decision making¡­ I should never have suggested it¡­] (Eva) Due to a certain sequence of events which nearly led to George finding the purple zeki they were hiding to eat tomorrow. Anna had to get rid of the evidence, and so Syrus swallowed the whole thing whole. [No it is all good Lilly, I¡¯ll fix us up once our parents leave.] (Luna) [Exactly, until then we¡¯ll just be a bit woozy.] (Syrus) [Thanks guys¡­ but we wouldn¡¯t have to deal with this if I hadn¡¯t suggested it.] (Lilly) Syrus laughed, [I think you''re the one who is dealing with the feeling the worst, don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll get used to it, and besides we were able to prove your theory.] The good news about this whole situation was that they learned the zeki was poisonous. Syrus and Luna were familiar with the traits of being poisoned, and it helped that the poisonous zeki basically attacked their insides once it was inside¨Cthat made the poison traits more obvious. They were able to last through the night thanks to Syrus who used her blood attribute to keep the body energised and heal any damage the poison caused. Even if the damage was only small, because the source was still in the system and she didn¡¯t want to vomit it up so they could have Luna examine it when they had time, they had to deal with an icky feeling all night. Plus vomiting would give it away that they ate a purple zeki. The reason why they ate the zeki at night was because of a chain reaction that was caused by a rodent entering the house and George was trying to catch it. As George was about to search in the corner under Anna¡¯s pile of stuff while looking for the rodent, Lilly distracted him with a question and Luna had mentally screamed for Syrus to do something, and well that something led to this situation. They dealt with the now confirmed poisonous zeki that was within their system throughout the night. It was going to be Luna¡¯s job to help with the curing process when they ate the zeki, but she couldn¡¯t do that during the night as it would be extremely obvious and wake up their parents. So they just dealt with it. Luna asked the important question, [Okay now that we know it is poison, how do we figure out what is causing the poisoning?] [You know what, leave it to me.] Syrus replied confidently, [But Eva, I''m going to need your expertise for it.] [Okay?] (Eva) Greeeeaoooowwwww Then their stomach let out a sad growl. Luna said, ¡°Let¡¯s deal with this first¡­¡± Which they all agreed to. Chapter 28 – Polluted Plant Problem #1 Chapter 28 ¨C Polluted Plant Problem #1 After a long day of being poisoned, Anna recovered. Their parents were a little reluctant to leave the house but with a little push from Luna, they finally left. Which allowed Luna to cure themselves, so by the time their parents came back they were all up and ready. Now for their plan of action. Syrus wanted Eva¡¯s help to examine the river, because in Syrus''s mind and based on her past experiences, the only way for multiple crops on different fields to all be showing the same symptoms would be because something was wrong with either the soil or water. The former quite quickly seemed to not be the case, so she wanted to examine the river if there was anything strange. The issue was that she had no idea what to look out for, which was why she wanted Eva''s help to examine the plant life and river to help find what was causing the problem. Of course, this whole plan would be useless if the plants weren¡¯t being poisoned by the river. Lilly even hypothesised that it could be the rain if it wasn¡¯t the river. But that was hard to test because it hadn¡¯t rained recently, and potentially the poisoned rain may¡¯ve been a one-off event¨Cif that theory appeared to be true. [Still nothing¡­] (Lilly) [Sorry Eva, looks like my plan didn¡¯t work.] (Syrus) [Don¡¯t say that¡­ you know that¡¯s not true¡­ I just couldn¡¯t find anything¡­] (Lilly) It had now been a few days since the self-poisoning incident and the start of their current plan. Anna had sadly arrived home after another quick jog around the village, but that was only what it seemed to be. Instead, she was examining the river again, this was the third day now. [I wouldn¡¯t say that. Both of you did just fine.] Luna chimed in. [Lilly if there was nothing there, then simply there was nothing there. Plus Syrus you know we barely searched the full extent of the riverside.] [I know, but we got in trouble yesterday for it and today they were more ready and noticing of our movements.] (Syrus) It didn¡¯t help that the river went through the farms so getting caught going beyond where they were supposed to be was very easy. [What are we supposed to do then?] Said Luna, she jokingly sighed [Get our parents'' help?] But Syrus thought that was a good idea, ¡°Yeah, I think we are going to need our parents'' help.¡± And she jumped back up off the chair Anna was slumped on. Lilly questioned, [How are we supposed to do that?] Having no idea how they would breach the topic. [Ask them I guess?] (Syrus) Luna had paused since Syrus mentioned her off-handed idea back at her, and now with a couple of seconds of solid deep thinking complete, she had an idea. [Well, it would be as simple as asking them, under the right conditions of course. We need them to be in a position of wanting a solution, so realistically when they are tired. Also, we need to keep our reasoning simple, overcomplicating it may make them ask questions¡­ that we don¡¯t want to answer.] Syrus and Lilly silently understood what Luna was suggesting. [So where are our folks now? Just on the farm again?] (Syrus) [In a meeting.] (Lilly) [Another one?] Syrus let out an annoyed sigh. These meetings started by happening irregularly, but now they started happening every on average three days. They were all about the current problem the town was facing. Seeing an opportunity, Luna said [Let¡¯s just spy on the meeting.] [Why?] (Syrus) [Mostly just curious as to what the current state of the town¡¯s thought process is, and we might gain some information that could help us in the future talk with our parents.] (Luna) Syrus and Lilly agreed with Luna¡¯s idea, so they started their spy operation. The trio looked through the windows and the door of their house and noticed no one was around, so they stealthily made their way to the town chief¡¯s house¨Cwhere the meeting was taking place. They could hear the voices from inside¨Cthanks to Syrus being able to focus on them really well¨Cbut they still needed to hide. [Let¡¯s just hide in the wood storage. We should still be able to hear from there.] (Syrus) [Good idea.] (Eva) [Move quickly, I think I can hear some people walking closer.] (Luna) They jumped in the wood storage which was a box on the outside of the house and closed the door to it. It shouldn¡¯t be opened by anyone else unless they were trying to steal from the town chief. The conversation between some of the adults had already started but they recognised a few of the voices. The town¡¯s chief voice rang out, ¡°Okay yes I know that failed, but what about the horticulturist, were you able to get a response?¡± ¡°No,¡± said a quiet female. ¡°Adding on to that, we still haven¡¯t got a response from the church.¡± Said Mern, father of Billy. The chief replied, ¡°It wasn¡¯t your turn to speak. Now, Henry, what about your attempts to cook the failed crops? Have they been successful?¡± ¡°Of course not, the results have been vomit, vomit and days of sickness. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if I dropped dead soon at this rate. For my own health, I¡¯m going to stop trying to find a way to cook the purple crops.¡±. ¡°Useless,¡± the town chief angrily sighed. But in response to the chief''s bad behaviour, George reprimanded, ¡°How about coming up with an idea yourself then, instead of just barking orders, telling us to ¡®Solve the problem¡¯, and making us participate in these worthless meetings! We have scheduled get-togethers for a reason, adding more isn¡¯t going to magically solve the problem.¡± [Wow¡­ that¡¯s the loudness I¡¯ve heard him yell... Well in a normal conversation anyway.] (Lilly) [He does have some strong lungs.] (Syrus) The chief ordered, ¡°Jen! Control your husband!¡± The trio then heard a seriously terrifying Jen, her tone ice cold, ¡°Speak to me or my husband like that again and I will strangle you while you sleep. I get it you''re upset, but we all are. However, some of us are trying to solve the problem, unlike yourself.¡± ¡°You¡­!¡± Jen calmly commented, ¡°Would you like it if I stopped doing your papers?¡± Then a moment of silence occurred. [Wow¡­ impressive.] (Syrus) [...] (Luna) [...Mum and Dad are a lot scarier than I realised¡­] (Eva) [Wasn¡¯t the town chief supposed to be a nice guy?] (Luna) Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Who knows, maybe our parents were lying or it could be that he is really bad under stress.] (Syrus) The meeting continued for a while longer, but when it started to wrap up, Anna got out of her hiding spot and made her way home. [So did we learn anything useful?] (Syrus) [Mostly that, they are all very exhausted.] (Luna) [Didn¡¯t we already know that?] (Lilly) [We did, but now we know the extent. Honesty, I just thought they were tired from dealing with the crops, but it turns out that the town chief was adding unneeded stress.] (Luna) Anna sat at the table tapping away, and soon their parents entered through the door. Both were worn out because of the meeting. Luna concernedly mentioned, ¡°Mum, Dad, you two look exhausted again.¡± ¡°Thanks for the concern sweetie, but we are fine,¡± Jen replied, but Luna took this opportunity to start the assault. ¡°You haven¡¯t solved the issue with the poisoned crops yet?¡± Jen stopped and asked, ¡°What makes you say that?¡± Anna tapped the spots below her eyes, insinuating they had eye bags, ¡°You would look a lot happier.¡± ¡°How do you know they were poisoned anyway?¡± George asked, he knew what Jen was teaching her and ¡®what poison is¡¯ wasn¡¯t on that list. Even if it was, even the adults didn¡¯t know what the issue was. But honestly, he thought it was just his child¡¯s ramblings and he just wanted to start a conversation with her, as it seemed like it would be a good learning opportunity for her. Sick, pollution, purple, poisoned, and dying, were terms different adults in the village used. Luna turned and gave Jen a deadpan look, ¡°Do you know how many books she has read to me that have involved poison?¡± George did not expect that answer¡­ he just looked over at Jen, who couldn¡¯t look back and just shied away, embarrassed but happy, ¡°But.. she enjoyed them.¡± ¡°Jen¡­¡± George sighed. Jen quickly recovered herself and asked out of curiosity and more importantly to get the attention off herself, ¡°So! How did you figure out they were poisoned?¡± ¡°They smell bad, they burn funny, and if they were just rotten Mama and Papa would be smart enough to solve the issue!¡± Luna emphasised the last part. Both of them blushed slightly at Anna¡¯s words and awkwardly scratched their head and arms. Jen said, ¡°Thanks, dear for the wonderful words.¡± ¡°What wonderful words?¡± Anna tilted her head. ¡°Oh, you!¡± Jen dived down for a big hug. George paused for a moment thinking before he shrugged and asked, ¡°Hey Anna, do you have any idea what could be poisoning the plants?¡± He figured a kid¡¯s perspective might¡¯ve noticed something different. ¡°Um¡­ the water? ¡° Jen let go and Anna was free once again, ¡°What else is there?¡± Jen added, ¡°That makes sense if we are going off the idea that the plants were poisoned.¡± ¡°But what if they weren¡¯t?¡± Jen shrugged, ¡°Who cares? If we check the water and there is nothing wrong with it, then that¡¯s still a good thing.¡± George asked Jen, ¡°That¡¯s true, where should we go first?¡± Anna interjected, ¡°Up the river, the further the better! Maybe the problem was caused by the pollution of a mountaintop spring!¡± ¡°A what¡­?¡± George asked. Jen quickly replied, ¡°It¡¯s¡­ the sub-plot of one of the books¡­¡± ¡°I see¡­.¡± George muttered before he said, ¡°Well going up the river is the best idea we¡¯ve got. Cause waiting for another stupid professional to come down is going to take way too long.¡± Anna proudly stated, ¡°I''m coming too!¡± ¡°No Anlesa, you will be staying here,¡± said George, using her full name to make sure understood. Anna replied, ¡°No, I am going as well.¡± She understood, but that didn¡¯t mean she was going to listen. Jen jumped in, ¡°Listen to your dad and stay here.¡± Syrus added, ¡°Mum I will just sneak out and follow you.¡± This caused Jen to pause and look at George. The two of them spoke a thousand words in a quick ten-second look at each other. Their focus bounced back between each other and their daughter. Looks of hesitation, then thinking, hesitation, concern, resolution, concern, and then finally a reluctant acceptance. [¡­Wow, I¡¯ve seen someone actually have a full conversation through their eyes before.] Luna amazedly exclaimed. Lilly and Syrus ignored Luna¡¯s comment and just waited for a response from their parents. Jen and George replied, ¡°Fine¡­¡± ¡°You can come, Anna¡­¡± Anna just nodded triumphantly. The family spent the next half an hour preparing to leave, it was still midday so they had time before sunset. They got some food and water prepared just in case they got hungry or thirsty. They decided to do this now just to get it out of the way, both of the parents were a little hopeful that they could finally have a solution to their problems. Jen announced, ¡°Let¡¯s get ready,¡± before she moments later excitedly yelled, ¡°Time to solve this Polluted Plant Problem!¡± This caused Anna and George to just stare at her for a solid three seconds. ¡°What? I was going to say it''s a Corrosive Crop Conundrum, but we know the plants aren¡¯t corrosive so I can¡¯t say that.¡± George stuttered and sighed, ¡°I¡­ yes¡­ let¡¯s deal with this.¡± Anna added, ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s¡­ just start our investigation.¡± ¡°Why does it feel like no one is on my side?¡± George and Anna exclaimed, ¡°¡°We are.¡±¡± After they turned around, Jen smiled and quietly laughed, she knew what she was doing with her joke. With the mood that ever bit lighter, the family left the house and began their walk. Chapter 29 – Polluted Plant Problem #2 Chapter 29 ¨C Polluted Plant Problem #2 ¡°Family trip, family trip, a family trip for the three of us~!¡± Anna asked Jen, ¡°Why do you sound more excited than us?¡± After being convinced by Anna to take them along. The family had left the borders of the village and began their journey upstream to see if they could find anything. They planned to look for at most two hours, so they could get back before it got late. ¡°Cause it''s a combination of my favourite things, hanging with husband and daughters, solving a mystery, enjoying the open breeze, and potentially doing something good for my friends. They could be more open with how they spoke because they were away from the village and other people in general. George sighed but still wore a smile, ¡°Just be careful where you step¡­ I¡¯ve actually needed to catch you twice¡­¡± Luna commented, ¡°That is impressive Mum.¡± ¡°Thank you, Luna.¡± Syrus said, ¡°I don¡¯t think she was complimenting you.¡± Eva added, ¡°I¡­ have to agree.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± Jen acted hurt at her daughter''s rude remarks, while Syrus and George had a small chuckle. They continued up the river and while they were searching for anything wrong, they were also enjoying the view, pointing out landmarks and interesting land features, and talking about what kind of wildlife lived in these parts. The river was an important part of the village. All farming towns had to have some sort of nearby water source. The river travelled through the farms and small channels of water were dug out to spread the flow of water. Then Syrus noticed something upstream, ¡°What¡¯s that in the water?¡± It looked like something had mixed with the water, whatever it was it had faded away by the time it had reached where they were currently standing. The part of the water seemed darker, only a small segment but as it trailed further up the river where it mixed less the substance was darker. ¡°Ink maybe?¡± Said George. Jen replied, ¡°Ink, a chalk substance, or another type of black liquid, it could be any of those with equal likelihood.¡± Lilly muttered, ¡°Weird.¡± The family continued to walk, following the trail. However, it was taking much longer than they expected to find the source. They were still on the lookout for other problems but nothing had been noticed. The sun dropped further and now roughly over two hours had passed. Syrus said, ¡°It¡¯s quiet.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just getting late,¡± George replied, ¡°Maybe we should start heading back¡­¡± Lilly replied, ¡°No.¡± And gripped George¡¯s hand which she was holding. ¡°She¡¯s right, we can¡¯t let this mystery be half solved!¡± Jen said jovially, but she was honestly concerned about what his substance was. They had been following alongside this black trail¨Cwhich darkened in colour¨Cfor roughly thirty minutes, maybe closing in on an hour and they still didn¡¯t find the source. While it did mix with the water, it struggled, only after a long stretch of water did it finally do so. Luna asked, ¡°Why hadn¡¯t anyone checked up the river before?¡± Jen replied, ¡°I think some people have, but they might''ve not noticed anything.¡± George said¨Cbeginning a small back and forth¨C¡°They probably turned around before they even saw the trail or anything of note¡± ¡°The inky trail might not even have reached the location where we had seen it.¡± ¡°Not to mention this is technically more dangerous territory, and the only reason we felt comfortable being here with you, Anna, is because of the time and seasons.¡± George began to use this opportunity to teach Anna a little more about the area. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Jen always ready for a teaching lesson continued, ¡°Not that is usually dangerous, but there are times when activity is high and because of that it is deadly to be around here alone, and because we can¡¯t tell when that happens easily. It is just safer to stay away most of the time when alone.¡± George lightly squeezed Anna¡¯s hand, ¡°You got that Anna?¡± Luna answered, ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Good, now please don¡¯t try to come here without supervision.¡± Jen let out a worried sigh, ¡°You nearly gave us a heart attack when you said you would sneakily follow us¡­¡± As George and Jen finished their little back and forth. They came across something they didn¡¯t expect. George held Anna tight and pulled her back, shielding her. Jen stumbled back, ¡°George¡­!¡± With their extra bit of height, they noticed moments before Syrus. There was a dark puddle of goo in the river, and resting half-submerged in the river was a collection of black bones and a darkened reddish tar. George quickly assessed the situation, ¡°Wait! I think it¡¯s dead.¡± They didn¡¯t let up their guard and stayed vigilant. George let go of Anna and stood in front of her as he and Jen moved up. Lilly asked, ¡°Is¡­ that¡­?¡± Seeing something she only ever saw in books. The exact definition of what a monster was changed from place to place, mostly due to the power in charge, but in the eyes of many the mental image was the same. A large creature¨Csometimes humanoid, sometimes bestial¨Cmade up entirely of black bones stitched together by a thick sticky red tar-like substance. They were a direct hostile danger to all forms of life. As Jen and Geroge examined the situation, bouncing ideas back and forth. Syrus stared directly at the monster corpse half submerged in the water. [This was done on purpose¡­.] Syrus said resentfully, her hand clamped into a fist. Luna was confused and upset, [What makes you say that?] She didn¡¯t see any signs that indicated human involvement. Yeah, it was weird a monster corpse would be here, but you wouldn¡¯t declare that this was done with purposeful intent with just that. However, what made her upset was Syrus controlling the head and forcing her to stare at the monster. [Monsters hate being in the water.] (Syrus) [They¡­ do?] (Lilly) Syrus mentally coughed which calmed herself down in the process, [Argh, correction. They hate dying in water, not sure if the bastards know what emotions even are. But they have an instinctive desire of some kind to not die in water.] [...Fascinating¡­] Lilly wondered, due to the safety of the situation, the fear she held was being overrun by her curiosity [I wonder why this isn¡¯t more well known.] [I don¡¯t know.] Syrus shrugged, [It¡¯s not like water is a weakness, or that they will run away from it, but just when they know they are dying they try to remove themselves from water. So honestly, it just makes them more dangerous in their final moments.] ¡°Okay¡­¡± Jen walked over to the forest and picked up a branch, ¡°We agree that we need to get it out of the water?¡± ¡°Yes, and after that return home and report this,¡± George nodded, ¡°Anna, stay back please.¡± Anlesa stood back as her parents started to plan how to safely remove the corpse from the river. It would be a while before they returned home. Chapter 30 – Polluted Plant Problem #3 Chapter 30 ¨C Polluted Plant Problem #3 Anlesa watched intently as Jen and George carefully removed the corpse from the river. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Jen used her Earth attribute to create a curved slab of rock in her hands, her control of it was limited but she was able to put it in the water and from a distance push the corpse up. George helped by manoeuvring the corpse with two long branches he chopped off some nearby trees. Together they worked to remove the monster from the water and push it far enough away from the riverside that it wouldn¡¯t fall in. Monsters were toxic, touching the bones or the tar-like substance was enough to get a person sick, and if they were unlucky¨Ckill them outright. The best and easiest ways to avoid getting hurt¨CBesides just avoiding touching them all together¨Cwere to wear protective equipment, have a lot of mana¨Cmore mana inside a person made them more resistant to the monsters¡¯ poisons¨C, have good control of one''s mana¨Cto delay the spread and push it out. No option was perfect, but people had to learn to fight them. The black bones in the river contrasted greatly with the flowing crystal blue water, which made it easier to ensure everything was taken out of the river. Even once dead, a monster¡¯s body is extremely difficult to tear apart which meant they weren¡¯t worried about leaving leftover specs in the river. [So the crop poisoning was caused by a monster corpse¡­ go figure.] (Syrus) [Seems likely, if the problem persists then there might be another reason why the crops are getting sick, but at the bare minimum removing the corpse should solve one problem.] (Luna) [But if the poisoning was caused by the monster¡¯s¡­ corpse. Why didn¡¯t anyone recognise it beforehand?] (Lilly) Luna asked, [Syrus, do you want to do the honours?] [Nah, you probably know more than me.] (Syrus) [Okay, so Lilly, what''s your current understanding of the physiology of monsters?] (Luna) [Physiology wise? Mostly their bodies are made up of a toxic substance and the simple fact that they can move baffles many. I never took the opportunity to study more into them, mostly because I was focused on different topics.] (Eva) [Well, the toxins in monsters do vary slightly. The effects do still lead to pretty much the same thing, death. But there are enough variances that people develop different symptoms from each monster¡­ which is one of the main reasons it''s hard to cure those who can¡¯t internally defend against the toxins.] Luna mentally sighed, remembering too many lost lives [This also means monster corpses each affect the environment differently, well, normally if the corpse is left alone it will kill the life around it.] [If it kills everything, then how does this slow poisoning happen?] (Lilly) [...I can only guess because it has been diluted?] (Luna) [Right on the money, having the water flow over the corpse is an easy way to dilute the effect but also ensure it damages a wider area.] (Syrus) George puffs, ¡°Okay¡­ we need to go back and get a professional to clean up the body.¡± Jen replied, ¡°Yes¡­ let¡¯s get back quickly. Anna, are you ready?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± [Why isn¡¯t George not burning the body?] (Syrus) [Why would he?] (Lilly) [Well it¡¯s a way to decrease the degradation time and impact on the environment. Normally when hunting monsters there are a few steps involved to ensure they don¡¯t damage the environment much after they pass, but there are times when those procedures couldn¡¯t happen, so a quick and easy fix would be to burn the body. Burning isn¡¯t the only way, but it is the easiest.] (Syrus) [I see¡­] (Lilly) [Maybe they don¡¯t know the method? The¡­ church did something similar with light skills¡­] Luna paused. [Did they say something like ¡®Only we can get rid of the corpses?¡¯] Syrus mocked. [Sadly¡­ yes¡­] (Luna) [Wow, where I lived every power in charge and the churches would laugh if they heard someone say that.] (Syrus) [Your home had a lot of monsters didn¡¯t it?] (Luna) [What makes you say that?] (Syrus) [Just how you talk about it sometimes, I worked in a place that dealt with monsters but even when I was there I only faced monsters a couple of times a year.] (Luna) [...Well, you''re right. There were definitely a lot of monsters.] (Syrus) Lilly decided to speak and pointed at the monster, ¡°That body is bad right¡­? Why don¡¯t we burn it?¡± George asked, ¡°Pardon Eva?¡± ¡°When we have trash we can¡¯t reuse, we burn? Can¡¯t we do the same here?¡± ¡°Sadly no¡­ the thing with monsters you can¡¯t get rid of their bodies unless you use the right method. Otherwise, it will just cause more damage to the environment.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± Lilly looked away from the monster and walked closer to Jen. She asked, ¡°Time to go home then?¡± ¡°Yes, time to go home, are you three sleepy?¡± ¡°Eh, I could go without,¡± Syrus replied. The trio started walking home, Jen and George were both still nervous but happy nothing bad happened. Jen said, ¡°Thanks for the help today.¡± Anna replied, ¡°I didn¡¯t do much?¡± ¡°Depending on the perspective that could be true or false. Would someone have eventually gone up the river again? Yes, but your smart little brain helped us solve one problem sooner than later and that is always a good thing. So I say that it was very true.¡± George added, ¡°Exactly, so good in fact you will be getting some extra special dinner later this month.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Jen smiled, ¡°Yep, you can count on me to help as well.¡± The family returned home after an over an hour-long walk, where they jogged part of the way to get home before it got dark. Once they got back to the village Anna was sent home while the parents left to go talk to everyone else about the situation. ¡°Wow¡­¡± Lilly jumped onto the bed, [Can¡¯t say I expected that¡­] Syrus said, [Same, maybe I got too used to this monster-less environment.] Lilly asked, [We consumed the poisoned zeki, are we okay from eating that? Just asking now that we know it was caused by a monster.] Syrus laughed, [Don¡¯t worry. Diluted monster toxins are honestly not that bad, I mean they are bad, but in comparison to the real deal, they are just regular poisons. Not to mention we didn¡¯t consume much.] ¡°That doesn¡¯t inspire much confidence¡­¡± [But I¡¯m going to trust your word.] [As you should.] (Syrus) Anna rolled over a couple of times trying to get comfortable. Luna, who had been silent for a while, spoke again, [We were able to solve the mystery of what was causing the crop problems, but now we just have another one¡­] [You mean who was the one that set this up?] (Syrus) [Yes¡­] (Luna) [How do we figure out who did it¡­?] (Lilly) [I doubt we can even figure that out¡­] (Syrus) [Huh¡­?] (Lilly) [What? You thought I had an idea? Sorry to say I don¡¯t, we could smack our souls against each other for hours and come up with thousands of theories for thousands of people. But none of that matters because we have no idea why, who, or even 100% of the how.] Their success ended up leaving a sour taste in their mouth, knowing the core issue that started this problem was never solved. Still, Lilly wanted to think of the possibility, [But what if we ever did figure out who did this?] [Then I¡¯ll punch them in the face.] Replied Syrus who smiled as she thought of that possibility. Chapter 31 – [Story Time] Syrus’ious Anger Chapter 31 ¨C [Story Time] Syrus¡¯ious Anger It wasn¡¯t long after the family had returned home, a few days had passed and people were moving but nothing crazy had happened yet. [Syrus, you mentioned before about how you knew the monster was placed in the river on purpose.] Lilly asked, [Can you¡­ provide some more information about that?] [How?] (Syrus) [I guess when you first discovered a similar event in your previous life?] (Eva) [I would prefer to not talk about my past, it just feels weird to talk about it.] (Syrus) [For you, it might be weird, but it could be relevant information to our current predicament.] (Luna) Syrus relented and began to ramble about what she knew, [Sigh, Where do I even begin?] Where do I even begin? [At the beginning?] (Lilly) Then I will be rambling about too much necessary stuff. [Just keep it to the relevant parts.] (Luna) Don¡¯t worry I will, I do want to make this quick. So it was about when I was thirty-three, so I look pretty much like what you saw me initially when we awoke. The same red features I have now, but tall, muscular, mature and handsome. [....] (Luna) Now most of the information I got about the situation was obtained through the combination of friends, the crew, spies, researchers and our own gut feelings. [You ¡®got about the situation?¡¯ I thought you experienced it?] (Luna) Umm, we had to do a lot of examining to prove what we thought was happening was happening. If you catch my drift. It was a delicate subject, I mean, no one believed someone would willingly use monster corpses like that. It was so reckless, stupid, and insane, that people didn¡¯t think about trying it. Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. I understand why people where we are now from, not knowing certain aspects of hunting monsters, like the aversion to water. Because that was something my old home honestly only proved recently. Mercenaries had the idea they disliked water but that was about it. Only with the added research that was basically forced by my side, thanks to another force using the corpses as poison, did the knowledge become public. Now, not knowing the basics of how to remove a monster¡¯s corpse is still stupid though. [Anything else to add?] (Luna) Yeah, yeah. Now I¡¯ll get to when I and my team first encounter a similar type of situation. Me and my party were sent to investigate the nearby forest of a farming village that had gotten sick. Now when I say village, I don¡¯t mean a small one like ours but a much bigger one. The reason we were sent to the forest was because it was the one unsafe place for people to look. It was kind of wartime, and traps had been placed there before, so it was deemed unsafe for ordinary villages. [The sickness was also caused by a monster corpse?] (Lilly) Yep, like ours, but much, much worse. People were not looking good¡­ Faces pale green, vomiting, bleeding that wouldn¡¯t stop¡­ The same logic was applied, people didn¡¯t think a monster corpse caused the problem, cause why would they? If there was a monster corpse in the forest, then simply part of the forest would¡¯ve died and that be it. I called it a forest, and it was, but it was kind of swampy with a big lake in the middle. This lake was connected to the village''s water supply for drinking and watering the crops. My team of five walked through the whole forest for about five hours. Looking under trees and bushes for something that could¡¯ve caused the problem, and dismantling any traps we found along the way. The current theory at the time was there was a magic item in the forest, poisoning it, or that someone¡¯s gift was doing it. The hardest part to search was the lake. The water was dark, thick, and honestly just swampy, so it was hard to look inside, but after searching for hours and finding nothing else in the forest I had to at least look deeper into it. I focus in on the water, quickly using my fire to clear a part of it and my blood gift to focus my eyesight. It took a few attempts but then I saw a vague figure at the bottom of the lake¡­It was hard to make out even with my eyes¡­But I was able to recognise the shape¡­I saw it too often after all. Anger rapidly filled me, and I screamed and called my party to gather immediately. This began a long operation to remove the corpse from the bottom of the lake. Afterwards, as I mentioned we got researchers to learn more about why a monster would be down there. But as I mentioned, we all had a gut feeling it was purposely put there. The water diluted the poison so that it didn¡¯t kill everything, but due to its close proximity to other wildlife, it didn¡¯t matter much. Instead of everything dying, everything just got very sick¡­ which caused many things to eventually die, a slow painful death. The only good thing about monster poison is that it only affects a relatively small range, but water while simultaneously weakening it also extends its influence to affect so much more. [You said that the act was so stupid and reckless that people wouldn¡¯t even think about doing it.] Luna asked, [So what happened to the people that did it?] Depends on who you are talking about. If it was the people who placed the body at the bottom of the lake? Then they are dead. I made sure of that. Then if it was the people who ordered them, I¡¯m not as sure. They would be in bloody boiling hot water for many reasons at this point. I would be lying to say I wasn¡¯t curious at all to see how they ended up. [Do you have any more information?] (Luna) Nah, that¡¯s all I got. Chapter 32 – Age 9 Chapter 32 ¨C Age 9 A tired George called out, ¡°Anna, can you come over here!?¡± The child with her short black hair quickly shoved a notebook into a hole in her bed and jumped off it. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m coming.¡± It was the second month of the new year and Anna was now nine years old. She was still short for her age, but she had grown a good five cemeteries since she was seven. Syrus asked, ¡°Here, what¡¯s up?¡± As she entered the main living room she saw George was waiting outside the open front door. ¡°We need your help moving some wood, we need to deliver it to Elly¡¯s house.¡± He tapped on some wood outside her field of view. Anlesa walked outside to see a massive pile of wood of recently chopped trees reaching her height right outside the door. [Wow¡­ why is there so much¡­.] (Lilly) [Did they do this before we woke up?] (Luna) [Who cares, we got a job to do.] (Syrus) Luna calmly asked, ¡°That is the house on the far end of the village right?¡± ¡°Yep, and you better start quick.¡± George gave Anna a scratch on the head. Lilly asked, ¡°What will you be doing?¡± ¡°Helping you of course, then we can be done and lay on our arses again.¡± From a short distance in the forest, the duo heard, ¡°LANGUAGE!¡± ¡°Why do her ears work so well¡­¡± Said George. Syrus shrugged, ¡°No idea.¡± Luna suggested, ¡°She was probably waiting for it.¡± George sighed, ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re probably right¡­ She knows me too well.¡± Anna replied, ¡°Congrats on being happily married.¡± And she walked off to the pile of wood. Syrus had done a lot of work to improve the body. Through a healthy amount of exercise and enhancing the body with her Blood attribute they were stronger than average for their age. Not by a crazy degree, but enough that the other kids were impressed. [Well, this will be a nice exercise.] (Syrus) [Not again¡­] Lilly sighed, as she prepared for the pain after this workout. [Get used to it already, otherwise, you won¡¯t be able to properly think when we do real hard work.] (Syrus) The pain Anna¡¯s body felt was transmitted to all of them, Syrus and Luna had always been good at dealing with it, but Eva was still bad at dealing with any level of pain. During the third round trip of delivering logs, the pile next to their house was refilled by Jen and George got slightly distracted by a neighbour. ¡°Morning Albert.¡± ¡°Good morning George.¡± Anna ignored the conversation and continued hauling logs. No one would¡¯ve fault her for stopping and just watching the conversation, but it was a 2 vs 1 vote, and Syrus and Luna would rather keep working for the time being. George asked, ¡°You¡¯ve begun the prep work?¡± ¡°Haha, of course!¡± Albert laughed, ¡°It¡¯s been a long ten years since last time, and I¡¯ve been improving my recipe all this while.¡± ¡°Well good luck, you''re going to need it.¡± ¡°Haha, yeah I know, Henry is already bragging about cooking his prized cake again. If I want to compete, I need to somehow beat that.¡± ¡°Scared?¡± ¡°Of course! But I am also damn bloody excited!¡± Soon after an hour of lifting, they were finally finished with the job. Anna plopped down on the wooden seat dragged out from their house, ¡°Phew, that¡¯s done. Anything else that needs my help?¡± ¡°No sweeties, you¡¯ve done wonders today.¡± Complimented Jen. ¡°Good, I¡¯ll just stay inside for a bit then, is that alright?¡± ¡°Yes, of course, you need to get proper rest, you''re still growing.¡± Anna rolled her eyes, ¡°Okay.¡± Smiled and walked back inside and they went to their room. They were back in their room, which had changed slightly. Instead of the cloth that separated the rooms, there was a proper wooden wall for privacy. It was a project that the family worked on for a simple family bonding project. Jen and George felt Anna deserved a little bit of privacy to talk to herself, because of this it didn¡¯t have a window outside which was a little annoying for Luna but they made do¨Cthe other benefits were too good to pass up. [Back to writing.] (Lilly) S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Luna and Syrus felt Eva¡¯s joy as she jumped back on the bed, just so she could continue to plan out in their notebook. It was a gift they got for their 8th birthday and they were allowed to keep it private from their parents. Initially, they didn¡¯t trust that statement, but after a year and with a few traps they placed they realised Jen and George never looked into it. [Please don¡¯t fill another page, we are running out of space.] (Luna) [My writing is tiny, it takes me ages to fill a page.] (Lilly). The handwriting changed from page to page, with small notes, suggestions and comments written up the side in one of three different writing styles. The notebook contained a lot of things. Plans they had, random thoughts, and theories and suspects. The last two years had been fun but mostly uneventful. They tried to investigate what they could about the poisoning incident, and went on multiple trips with their parents to check nothing had poisoned the river again, but their leads were still mostly non-existent. [So the merchant Jenny, annoying name, too similar, seems to be the unlikely suspect. New evidence against their involvement¨Cfinding out they are Henry¡¯s cousin and through questioning, is an idiot¨C] With Lilly lost in her own thoughts again, Syrus asked, [Should we help her find a new hobby?] [We tried¡­] (Luna) [I think we should try again¡­. Soon.] (Syrus) Chapter 33 – Wait… What’s Happening At The End Of The Year? Chapter 33 ¨C Wait¡­ What¡¯s Happening At The End Of The Year? It had been a couple of hours now, Eva stayed determined and continued to scribble in their notebook. She made sure to only use one page by having extremely tiny handwriting. Out of the three of them, Eva was the most determined to find the culprit. Not that Syrus and Luna weren¡¯t active in the pursuit of the culprit, but both considered the limitation of their situation and left the topic on the back burner. However, they still let Eva explore this topic for as much as she wanted. Not only was she allowed to do whatever within reason with her time driving the body, but they were happy she found something to do, but so far this was one of the only things she did. She talked and chatted when prompted or felt the need to say something, and enjoyed reading and listening to stories. But this mystery devoured most of her time, and to Syrus and Luna, she needed to give up for the time being. This wasn¡¯t the whole problem, but it was the centrepiece of a larger issue they had noticed with Eva. [Lilly, do you want to read the new books Jen got from us?] (Luna) Lilly didn¡¯t respond and continued her newest mini-mindmap in the bottom left corner of a page. [I believe you need to take a break from this, just for the moment.] (Luna) [Luna, attempting to talk to someone who cares little for their own well-being to convince them to stop doing work is going to get us nowhere.] (Syrus) [It might, one day.] (Luna) [You know I can hear you?] (Eva) [Then are you going to do something different? I¡¯m all for this, but moderation is an important concept.] (Syrus) [...] (Eva) After a few moments of awkward silence that none of them could walk away from, they heard the creak of the wooden front door opening. Finally, George and Jen walked back into the house, Anna got off her bed and walked into the open area to meet them, where the two parents were still chatting away. George clapped his hands, ¡°Good, that should be enough wood for now.¡± Jen replied, ¡°I say give it a week, it will all be gone.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s good money, and do you really think Elly is going to be happy with her first hundred carves?¡± ¡°...That¡¯s¡­ fair enough.¡± ¡°Not to mention she is going to spend hundreds more just perfecting the ones she will be using around the village.¡± George paused before he laughed, ¡°Haha, yeah. I remember last time, there were so many wood scraps that we didn¡¯t know what to do with them all.¡± [What¡­ are they talking about?] (Eva) Syrus observed the situation and remembered all the small talk that happened when they were moving wood around and just shrugged, [Welp, looks like everyone¡¯s been busy, is there something big coming up that I didn¡¯t listen about?] [Nope, you¡¯ve listened to everything, so it¡¯s something that we haven¡¯t been told yet, but with all the prep work that¡¯s being done, I can only assume it is a big event.] (Luna) [It¡¯s 1318, if there was a big event, wouldn¡¯t they only happen on round years or maybe quinquennial?] (Eva) [...No¡­] Syrus replied, genuinely confused on multiple fronts. They had learned what year it was and the calendar from their mum during a lesson. Because of this, they were able to confirm that Anna was born in the year 1308 EC and that they were born about three months after their respective deaths. [Big events aren¡¯t exclusive to every rounded year or even five years.] Luna replied back, [Well at least here, in the surrounding countries and by Syrus''s reaction where she is from.] S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Oh¡­ I see. Fascinating.] (Eva) Syrus asked, [So, do you know what¡¯s being celebrated?] [I was thinking about that now.] Luna was going through the depths of memory, [Hmmm¡­ I believe it''s the Cancole celebration that happens every ten years. There are a few but the Alberest festival is the only one I know about that happens in the 8th year. But I thought it happens at the end of the year, not the start.] [Neat, big festival. Any context what it is about?] (Syrus) Luna finished going through the depths of her memory and began to list out what else she knew, [Four days of fun, drinks, dance, and food, so a pretty standard festival. From what I remember, it¡¯s the combination of celebrating a rebellion and the reclaiming of most of the land that got overrun by monsters during the same time period. The celebration takes place in the capital and the four major cities surrounding it, so people from everywhere in the country come to visit and mingle with everyone else.] [So we get to explore other parts of the country?] (Eva) As Lilly asked this question, Jen ran up and hugged Anna, ¡°Sorry for making you wait for the hug! I got lost rambling.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine¡­¡± Eva replied. Syrus said, ¡°So, you¡¯ve been busy.¡± Jen excitedly answered, ¡°Yep that¡¯s right! We are preparing for the end-of-year festival.¡± ¡°Then why are you preparing at the start of the year?¡± ¡°Because we got a lot of work ahead of us!¡± George, who was watching the situation, wondered, ¡°Jen¡­ did you remember to tell Anna about what is going to be happening, or anything about the situation?¡± Jen just let out a quiet, ¡°Oh¡­¡± She had forgotten to. George just face-palmed at his wife''s response. She loved to teach everything and anything, but sometimes she had the order of priority not exactly perfect. ¡°Did you mean to tell us during a lesson? Again?¡± Anna asked, this wasn¡¯t the first time Jen had done this. No one was mad, George and Anna just found it funny. It only happened sometimes and only for slightly important information. ¡°Maybe¡­¡± Jen closed her eyes and smiled. ¡°Just give us the rundown¡­¡± ¡°Absolutely!¡± Jen yelled and ran to her room where she pulled out papers she had made for the lesson she didn¡¯t run. She went over similar points to what Luna had mentioned, but she talked more about the history of the event. The important figures in history who were involved and the multiple events that led up to the big moment. Jen also spoke about some of the food they only grew this year for the festival, how Elly made small to large wood carvings for the town and to sell to larger places, and some of the games and events they would play. ¡°So we get to visit one of the big cities?¡± Eva asked excitedly, a quiet curiosity filled her eyes. ¡°Ah¡­ no,¡± Jen replied, becoming extremely sad at the realisation she would be upsetting her daughters. George sighed, ¡°We¡­ can¡¯t really. Not because we aren¡¯t allowed to, but because we can''t leave the town unoccupied for the one to two weeks we would be gone for. So as a village, we celebrate here.¡± Travel time alone would mean the town would be empty for weeks. Of course, someone could stay behind, but having one to three people stay behind¨Cwhen everyone wanted to go¨Cin a small town led to issues. Syrus asked, ¡°So the other farming villages and the people from Ihere will also stay behind?¡± Jen said, ¡°The villages yes, Ihere no¡­ some would of course, but plenty will go and visit¡­ It''s a bigger town with more people¡­¡± Syrus shrugged, ¡°Oh¡­ Well, guess we just gotta make it work.¡± Jen smiled, ¡°That¡¯s the spirit.¡± And hug Anna tight. The family stood and prepared food for later. They discussed some of the work they had to do over the year, and what everyone else would be doing, and then Jen ended the talk by announcing she would start teaching Anna how to use her attributes and mana. [Should we tell her that we already know how to do that?] (Syrus) At the very least, they all figured it would be an interesting year. Chapter 34 – A Magic Lesson #1 Chapter 34 ¨C A Magic Lesson #1 ¡°Okay, class.¡± Jen smiled widely as she placed down a mountain of books and papers on the table, ¡°Today we are learning about magic and attributes.¡± [...She is going to go over the full history of it, isn¡¯t she?] (Syrus) [Mostly likely.] (Luna) [Recaps are never too bad¡­] (Eva) If they were honest, none of them were particularly looking forward to this lesson. Now this didn¡¯t mean they all had perfect knowledge on the subject, Luna and Lilly were well versed on the topic, while Syrus only really knew the use, not the history. That didn¡¯t change the fact that this lesson¨Ceven with Jen¡¯s extra touches¨Cwould be just the basics. Jen excitedly asked, ¡°Where do you want to start?¡± Syrus replied, ¡°Wherever you feel like, teach.¡± With neither Luna nor Eva commenting, Jen decided to start where she originally planned. The lesson went over the topics they knew about. How attributes manifest and how family bloodlines could increase the probability of certain attributes appearing. How attributes could affect people physically with hair and eye colour, and the cultural impacts of certain attributes. This lesson went on for hours with minimum questions on Anna¡¯s part. Unlike some of their previous lessons on topics a child wouldn¡¯t normally understand. They didn¡¯t have to completely act like they didn¡¯t know anything, because they clearly knew how to use Anna¡¯s attribute. Syrus had been ¡®practising¡¯ it publicly for years at this point. Even when it came to some of the knowledge-based information, Anna acquired the information from the books they read. Plenty of the drama stories had bloodlines or attributes in them as a plot point. Anna asked, ¡°Mum, why are we going so in-depth into this when I know how to use my attribute?¡± ¡°Well the background knowledge is important, if pretty rudimentary, but tomorrow part two of this lesson will go over some extra fun stuff.¡± Jen smiled almost evilly, ¡°I acquired some books for you that will help with your usage and will allow you to learn some magic.¡± Then Jen recollected herself, ¡°But first, we have today¡¯s lesson to finish. Speaking of which, now we will get to the different types of attributes. There are three, elemental, physical, and special. Element is pretty standard, it¡¯s attributes like my Earth or yours and your father¡¯s Fire. Physical is any attribute that has to do with the body, and they are labelled as such, bones, hearing, blood, muscles, etc. Special is everything else, these ones are also a lot rarer, the most commonly known one of these would be Manipulation while the most special would be Mana.¡± As Jen wrapped up her ramble. Luna asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t the book label them ¡®rare¡¯?¡± In reference to what Jen called ¡®Special¡¯ attributes. ¡°Yes it did, I¡¯m happy you noticed. The reason for the change is because I didn¡¯t like the name.¡± Jen proudly shared, ¡°Seriously, why would they call it ¡®rare¡¯? It doesn¡¯t give any detail about the category. Now don¡¯t get me wrong, I know ¡®special¡¯ isn¡¯t the best either but it covers the ¡®other¡¯ attributes better.¡± Luna sighed, ¡°That seems like something a teacher shouldn¡¯t do.¡± ¡°Well good thing I¡¯m technically not one, otherwise I would petition for the change.¡± Said Jen, ¡°But back on the topic, there are some other attributes that do/don¡¯t fit into the other three groupings. To be honest, I¡¯m only bringing this up because it annoys me. I spent so long trying to find some information on these exotic attributes, but all I was able to find was that while they were rare they were more easily passed down bloodlines.¡± [Eh, I¡¯ll say she¡¯s half right, but props to her for finding any information on exotic attributes in this country] (Syrus) [...] (Eva) [...Yes, that information is hard to come by here and in Nevald.] (Luna) ¡°Now, as mentioned, attributes are powerful but as you know people can have more than one. It¡¯s uncommon, but you should expect in even a small city multiple people to have two. I think the current statistics is 1/1100 people. I couldn¡¯t check the source, the book was removed from the Ihere library a couple of years back.¡± Syrus asked, ¡°So, do you know anyone with two?¡± ¡°Yep, about five people, but I would love to meet more, however, I¡¯ve pretty much talked to everyone here and in the surrounding towns and villages.¡± Then Jen joked, ¡°But who knows, maybe you three even have two.¡± Luna raised her eyebrow, ¡°You think?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s unlikely, but having multiple daughters in one body is also unlikely.¡± ¡°I would say that¡¯s near impossible.¡± ¡°Well, I guess that just means I¡¯m a really lucky mum!¡± Jen clapped, ¡°I say give it until your fifteenth? Yeah about there, if you don¡¯t feel the feeling then you probably just have one.¡± However, before Jen had finished their talk. Lilly had retreated to their Soul Space. From the small feelings of distress they felt from her, Syrus and Luna were worried. Luna kept a straight face and continued to talk for a moment longer and Syrus stayed in the body as well to wait for Luna. From past experiences, she knew that she was bad at talking to Eva about her troubles alone. ¡°But yeah, back to what I was saying. I¡¯m bringing this up because some attributes can work together, this is a million times easier if those attributes are part of the same body but this can be done with multiple separate people as well. However, this also means some can work against each other¨C¡± The lesson continued for another twenty minutes before they were finally done. Jen asked, ¡°And for the time being that is everything, any questions?¡± Luna stated, ¡°Not at the moment.¡± Jen clapped, ¡°Well if that¡¯s the case, let¡¯s register this lesson as complete.¡± Luna said as she stood up, ¡°Okay then, I¡¯m going to rest up.¡± Jen said, ¡°Alrighty that¡¯s fine but don¡¯t go to sleep too early. You will just wake up during the night.¡± Syrus replied, ¡°Yeah we know, but you rambled a lot today so we need to clear our heads for a moment.¡± Jen blushed, seeing it as a compliment. ¡°Thanks, dears, just get some proper sleep, part two has some practical elements.¡± Syrus returned a thumbs up, ¡°All good.¡± It didn¡¯t take long for the two of them to get back to their room. Luna and Syrus relinquished control of the body once they sat down on their bed, and they entered the void that was their Soul Space. ¡°Eva?¡± Syrus quickly looked around the unchanging space to spot Lilly sitting down alone in the distance again. Luna quickly walked up to her, ¡°Lilly, can we talk?¡± It had been a long time since they all talked in the Soul Space. There was no particular reason for the lack of use of the space. It was just after a while they started to stay in partial control of the body¨Cthey were comfortable with it. Now and again, individually they would jump back into the Soul Space to have a moment of freedom, where no one else could control their movement. The Soul Space hadn¡¯t changed but their appearances within it had morphed over the last three years. Syrus still shared most of her looks with their shared body. The difference was that she was slightly taller, possessed more muscle, and had crimson-red hair and eyes. Luna was in a similar situation, looking similar to Anna but sharing enough resemblance to her original self that one might¡¯ve guessed they were half-sisters. Her white hair was cut short and her eyes were noticeably pinker than they were originally. Instead of pale pink, they were now a lighter pink. Luna was extremely happy when she first noticed the change after Syrus pointed it out a year ago. Then there was Lilly, who had changed slightly. She now looked like a nine-year-old but didn¡¯t share many features with Anna. Instead, it was just as if her original body had aged back down to nine. They all had clothes they were comfortable with¨CSyrus wore simple blue pants and a green shirt, Luna wore a simple one-piece black dress, and Lilly wore what Anna wore but with just extra pockets. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Lilly whispered a reply, ¡°I¡¯m fine, I just needed some alone time.¡± Luna sat down next to her, ¡°Lilly, we need to talk ¡± Lilly shuffled away slightly, ¡°It¡¯s just some bad memories, I will be fine in a moment.¡± Time can heal some wounds, but Lilly wasn¡¯t healing. Sometimes she would just go quiet, other times she would leave to be alone in their Soul Space, but whenever something triggered her memories she went unresponsive. Syrus and Luna hoped after the initial outburst Lilly had when they discussed her having two attributes years ago, that eventually she would be ready to open up and they would be able to fix any problems and move on. However, for the past three years, the chance of that happening seemed to be slipping away. They did have on-and-off talks about what Anna''s second attribute would be. Which Lilly only mildly participated in. Luna was adamant about it not being Moonlight, due to all the trouble it brought to her last life and the trouble it would bring to this one. Syrus was fine with it not being Blood. She would like it if it was, but the fact it was so easy to use and hide made it better suited to be a non-publicly shown one. So the options were either Space or Manipulation. Now taking Lilly¡¯s opinion into account would¡¯ve made it an easy choice¨Cif she didn¡¯t have her own obvious misgivings. Manipulation was the money maker, they all knew that but to be honest none of them cared about being rich. However, they all felt Jen and George deserved more. Syrus sighed, ¡°Sure Eva, you will be fine in a moment, but not tomorrow or even the day after that.¡± Lilly didn¡¯t reply, and Luna quickly turned around to reprimand Syrus, ¡°Syrus!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have infinite patience Luna, and I have allowed myself to go past my normal limits due to us sharing a body.¡± Lilly tried to shy away from Syrus'' gaze, but she couldn¡¯t even hide her conflicted feelings, because those emotions just flowed out of her to Syrus and Luna. Luna bit her lip and asked, ¡°Can we start this slowly?¡± She was worried. She didn¡¯t want any fights to happen between the three of them, so she kept her distance and didn¡¯t force this topic. ¡°Sure, how about we start talking about Exotic attributes? As that is what I believe Eva has.¡± Lilly, who was silent all this time while Luna and Syrus were discussing how she should handle her problems, finally spoke. A transparent tear fell down her face and her grey eyes flashed amber, ¡°...I¡­ don¡¯t want¡­ to¡­. But¡­ I will.¡± Syrus and Luna were taken aback by how easily Lilly agreed. However, for Lilly, these feelings made her feel like she was going insane and she wanted them to end¡­ It was only a brief moment of strength, that allowed her to make the decision and she was holding on to it tight. Luna paused, ¡°Oh¡­ do you have any questions?¡± Then smiled, happy that Lilly might find some recovery. ¡°Aren''t¡­ Exotic attributes bad?¡± Syrus asked, ¡°Was that taught to you?¡± ¡°No¡­ they were never mentioned in school¡­¡± Lilly¡¯s eyes darted back up and down to Syrus and Luna, and the ground. Luna sorrowfully sighed, ¡°It¡¯s because of my reaction to them¡­ isn¡¯t it?¡± Lilly nodded. Initially, whenever Exotic attributes were mentioned, Luna had to hold back a negative reaction to them, but those feelings were still felt by Lilly. ¡°They aren¡¯t¡­ Just blame my teaching for that, I¡¯m sorry if that caused you unnecessary additional pain.¡± Lilly just nodded. Syrus spoke again, ¡°Okay can I start talking about it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine to talk about it¡­¡± Lilly stood up and made sure to not look at either of her roommates, ¡°Just not today¡­¡± Syrus shrugged, ¡°Fine, but expect me to bring up the conversation within the week.¡± Lilly froze for a moment and closed her eyes, ¡°I¡­ understand.¡± S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Syrus returned to the body, Luna followed minutes after, and Lilly returned an hour later. They didn¡¯t do much for the rest of the day, just rested and prepared for tomorrow¡¯s lesson. Chapter 35 – A Magic Lesson #2 Chapter 35 ¨C A Magic Lesson #2 ¡°Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful sleep.¡± Said Jen enthusiastically. ¡°Morning Mum¡­¡± Said Anna, notably less enthusiastically. They were happy to start today¡¯s lesson, but it was hard to match Jen¡¯s constant excitement. After the talk the three of them had yesterday, they decided to go with the flow and actively participate in Jen¡¯s lesson to ensure there was no conflict. They were outside today, near the forest but close enough to easily be able to walk back to their house in a moment. Jen had a small table with some books and papers on it, and they had brought out two chairs from the house to sit on. ¡°You okay, you sound tired?¡± Syrus replied, ¡°I¡¯m fine, you¡¯ve just been making us wait.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fair,¡± Jen clapped, ¡°Well let¡¯s start class.¡± Today''s class was about magic, which was related to one''s use of mana and attributes. Jen started, ¡°So magic, in its simplest definition, is the act of using one''s mana and attribute in such a way to enhance and modify the effect.¡± Anna opened the book that Jen had provided and went over what she was saying. ¡°The first step is intent and controlling one¡¯s mana, the same as using one¡¯s attribute normally. Easy enough, the next step requires splitting one¡¯s attribute mana into parts, blocks, strings, multiple components, etc, and having them interact in the formation. This varies greatly between attributes and it''s hard to translate magic for one attribute to be used for another.¡± Jen then asked, ¡°So magic can be hard to perform, and it is very difficult to create in the first place, so why do we try?¡± Luna answered, ¡°Because it can enhance the effect of certain attributes.¡± [I can feel your smugness.] (Syrus) [I¡¯m just making her happy.] (Luna) ¡°Correct!¡± Jen proudly smiled, extra happy that Luna emphasised ¡®certain¡¯. ¡°It can be as simple as two splits of attribute mana that collide into each other to make a big boom or a complicated web of attribute mana that is designed to create a specific effect. However, complexity doesn¡¯t necessarily equal power.¡± Jen pulled out a big piece of paper and referencing yesterday''s lesson she said, ¡°Once again, this is me making stuff up because I haven¡¯t been able to acquire the right books on the subject. But I personally split magic into three tiers, based on their complexity¨CTiers 1 to 3! Don¡¯t ask about too many details, I haven¡¯t researched this so this is my own speculation.¡± Jen presented a graph to Anna, titled ¡®The Average Output of Spells ¨C Observed by Jen. On it were two scales, complexity and output. The line started in the bottom corner at complexity-0 output-1 and then went up in an exponential curve before it quickly flipped into a logarithmic growth plateauing at output-10. Eva was excited to look at the graph, [Wow, she put a lot of effort into this.] [Heh, right up your alley Eva.] (Syrus) [...] Eva paused, embarrassed. [Nothing to be embarrassed about.] (Syrus) Jen pointed at the graph, ¡°Now while basic magic is powerful, making it more complex doesn¡¯t necessarily make it much stronger¨CI should specify, this is in general¨Cthere are some crazy magics in the world after all.¡± Anna nodded along, ¡°Okay.¡± Jen continued explaining how magic was made. How different groups of researchers, churches, tribes and people spent ages dedicating themselves to specific groups of magic. [Did you two learn much magic?] (Eva) [Too much, but also not enough.] Luna sighed. [Ehh, not much. I kept it to what I needed, and that worked well enough. With enough experience you know what works best.] Syrus answered, then asked [How many did you learn, Eva?] Eva replied, [None..] But she still stayed in the body. While Luna really wanted to elbow Syrus if she could. Jen sighed as she really wished she had a drink of water right now, ¡°Now there are plenty of attributes which you don¡¯t need to use magic for, and that are just as strong without the use of magic.¡± Syrus chimed in this time, [Yep, don¡¯t really need to use any magic for a Blood gift.] [How about using Blood outside the body?] Eva asked, curious about the application. [That¡­ would require it, yeah. And honestly, a damn complicated magic to do so. It¡¯s why in those books the only people that use blood outside their body are those fancy bodies with too much time on their hands.] (Syrus) ¡°Okay, now the explanation is done!¡± Jen handed Anna a book, ¡°It is time for the practical component.¡± ¡°Finally,¡± Syrus rolled her eyes. Jen grabbed her heart, ¡°Anna¡­¡± Luna apologised, ¡°Sorry Mum, you did hype up today''s lesson by saying it had a practical element. And it took over an hour for us to reach it.¡± Eva added, ¡°It might be better to format the lesson to be more efficient¡­¡± Jen couldn¡¯t reply, all her children were against her! Anna started to open the book when Jen spoke again, ¡°But¡­ it was interesting right¡­?¡± Eva replied, ¡°Yes¡­ but different lessons work for different people¡­ but an hour-long lesson where you did go over points one too many times can get tedious.¡± S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Jen gracefully accepted defeat and Anna got to reading. In the book were the instructions for three simple Fire magic. One was an attack that launched a ball of fire at high velocity, while the other two were more for utility. The second was magic that created a wall of fire that lasted for about a minute and the third created a small ball of fire¨Cit didn¡¯t float but could be placed in a torch or something similar. [Yep, I have similar tricks already.] (Syrus) [So you don¡¯t need to learn them?] (Lilly) [I don¡¯t, but I will, just to show off anyway.] (Syrus) ¡°Neat,¡± Syrus said, ¡°Do I just begin trying to put these into practice?¡± Jen replied, ¡°Yes, start with the first one.¡± ¡°The offensive one first?¡± Luna asked. Syrus was also confused, usually, any offensive trick was learned last. ¡°Yes¡­ I don¡¯t want you to get hurt¡­ in a fight with anything dangerous¡± Jen sternly said, ¡°So you need to be able to defend yourself.¡± Syrus nodded, ¡°Well I¡¯m not complaining, time to set stuff on fire.¡± Jen paused, ¡°Do¡­ keep it somewhat constrained please.¡± They started to practise the magic in the book. It would take days for a normal person to even begin to understand magic, so Syrus faked it¨Cwith Luna¡¯s help¨Cto pretend to be learning from scratch. George later came over once he was done with his work, to provide tips and share his own experiences. A family activity, with a healthy amount of internal and external bantering. It made Anna excited for the next day to continue the practice, however, that excitement was extremely misplaced. Chapter 36 – The Responsible One Chapter 36 ¨C The Responsible One ¡°Why do we have to do this?¡± Syrus sighed. [I would like to volunteer to be the person who doesn¡¯t have to deal with this.] (Eva) [...That¡¯s not how this works.] (Luna) Anna could only sigh in pain as she was now realising the full scope of what she had to do. After learning the first fire magic, Syrus was ready to ¡®learn¡¯ the other two today. However, Jen and George had different plans. George apologised, ¡°Sorry to spring this on you, but as I said, we need you to take care of the kids.¡± Jen looked down distraught, ¡°I can¡¯t express how sorry I am¡­ I should¡¯ve told you earlier in the week.¡± George had casually commented to Anna, ¡®Good luck dealing with the kids today¡¯ before he left to meet up with the other parents. For the past week, he had been gone early and returned late so he hadn¡¯t spoken to Anna too much. He was able to make time yesterday because he knew Jen was going to start teaching Anna magic and he wanted to be there for that. However, by Anna¡¯s confused reaction to his statement, George could tell Jen had forgotten to tell them important information again. Even Anna was getting concerned at Jen¡¯s recent forgetfulness. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. So, George had a talk with Jen and Anna about what they needed Anna to do today. A specialist was coming down today to help with the villages¡¯ land, the church requested it and the adults had to go along with the specialist for a big meeting with the multiple farming villages. Then they would spend a long time walking outside the borders of the villages¡¯ territory examining the soil and water. However, they couldn¡¯t bring the kids along due to the potential issues, so the kids had to stay behind. Leaving the kids mostly unsupervised wasn¡¯t normally a problem, as there were enough adults in the area in case something happened. But with the majority of the village leaving for a few hours, they felt it would be better if all the kids stuck together. Now it wasn¡¯t like there were going to be no adults around, but there were only two staying back and they were going to still be doing their work on the farm so the adults wanted someone to manage the kids directly. George worriedly asked, ¡°Jen, dear¡­ you really need to start writing down what you need to do in a notebook or something.¡± Jen replied, resolute, ¡°I can¡¯t, that will waste paper, we are already at the limits of our budget.¡± That was the discussion they had, and now Anna was in the centre of the village with her parents and some other parents saying goodbye to their own kids. Anna asked again, ¡°I¡¯m not even the oldest person here, why am I in charge?¡± Jen patted Anna¡¯s head, ¡°Because sweetie, it was agreed on by the parents that you were the most responsible one.¡± The parents had faith in Anna¨Cmostly thanks to how Luna acted¨Cthat she was the most responsible one and was the best option to watch the kids while they were gone. ¡°Still, wouldn¡¯t it be best to have at least an adult watching?¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Jen frowned, ¡°But those are the rules, bloody annoying.¡± George whispered, ¡°Jen language.¡± Jen quietly replied, ¡°Whoops.¡± Anna decided to keep her question to herself for now. [When they come back, ask what the exact rules were about this meeting. I believe something fishy is going on.] (Luna) [That or just plain stupidity.] (Syrus) Soon all the parents left and it was just Anna and all the kids. There were fifteen total not including Anna, all aged between five and twelve. Any of the older ¡®kids¡¯ were considered old enough to go along with the adults for the meeting. The adults did give some rules to the kids before they left¨Clisten to Anna¡¯s instructions, don¡¯t go past the village¡¯s border, don¡¯t fight and hurt themselves, and don¡¯t go into each other''s houses without permission. Syrus looked over at all the kids, there was Billy, Ella, Elliot, Jerry, and Leah, and then she stopped caring to count the rest. [Well let¡¯s get started.] Syrus said, ¡°I¡¯m not going to be a stick up the butt, so as long as everyone follows the rules, just have fun.¡± Everyone nodded, and then just began to chat amongst themselves. However, it didn¡¯t even take ten minutes before one of the rules was about to be broken. In the corner of her eye, Syrus noticed Jerry walking towards the village border with the clear intent of not stopping. ¡°HEY! Don¡¯t go past the border or I¡¯m going to¨Cfor once¨Cactually burn your pants off your body.¡± But this just caused Jerry to run faster, which caused Syrus to sprint after him to catch him like a piece of prey. [...] (Eva) [This is going to be a long day¡­] (Luna) Chapter 37 – The… Problem Solver Chapter 37 ¨C The¡­ Problem Solver Syrus carried Jerry back on her shoulder, he was frozen stiff and his unmoving eyes were lost in the void. The audience of children watched on as Anna returned to the central gathering area. Syrus dropped his body in the centre of the village and asked, ¡°Now, does anyone else want to test breaking the simple rules?¡± There was a quiet shaking of heads. No one wanted to get on Anna¡¯s bad side when she was in this mood. Noticing the tension in the air, Luna examined everyone and had a feeling it wasn¡¯t caused just because of Syrus¡¯ actions. Luna sighed, ¡°What¡¯s got people so worked out?¡± Now that the calmer Anna was out, the kids were a bit more willing to speak. It wasn¡¯t that they didn¡¯t like the louder Anna, but still, she could be scary. The children understood Anna¡¯s personality shifts more than their parents. Anna did hide the fact that she was multiple individuals, but ¡°Anna¡¯s personality¡± did change drastically depending on what she was doing. The parents described it as mood swings to their children, but only the kids knew what settings caused Anna to ¡®flip¡¯. In some cities, Anna might''ve been unsuccessfully bullied for her behaviour, but up here near the northern border, no one cared, the town was already filled with plenty of weirdo parents. Someone who was obsessed with reading and learning, one who cooked until they passed out, and another who spent all their free time wood carving. After speaking with them, it turns out some of the kids were pretty restless because of the situation. Certain parents made promises that they couldn¡¯t keep because they forgot what they had to do today, while others had been uncharacteristically stern with their kids which had caused some mild shock within them. [Well¡­ at least Jen isn¡¯t the only forgetful one.] (Eva) [At least¡­] (Luna) The one good thing was even with the bits of restlessness and agitation shared between everyone. They still mostly listened to Anna. Mostly. Which had to be good enough. Luna spoke, ¡°Okay, now please everyone. I understand this is a lot, our parents are doing who knows what, and I¡¯m the one who has been put in charge of you. But all I ask is for you to follow the rules and help each other when there is trouble. I¡¯m also here if you need help. If you really want to break the rules, just please ask me first and we could reach some compromise.¡± Then Syrus warned, ¡°Or else, I will have to put you in your place.¡± Gulp Half the group shuffled millimetres back, the other half contained the people who had zero interest in breaking the rules or were less scared of Anna-Syrus. Once that was done, everyone went back to playing and everything went well for a few hours. The children were now slightly more well behaved, Anna did step in when things seemed like they would start to go out of line but she also joined in some of the games. Watching on, Luna asked [Have either of you had any experience in taking care of children?] [None.] (Eva) [I¡¯ve taken care of many kids before, doesn¡¯t mean I liked doing it. But what about yourself?] (Syrus) [I have¡­? Though¡­ those experiences were in a mostly controlled environment¡­ so I don¡¯t think I can call that experience, a proper learning experience.] (Luna) [Well, you are getting that experience now, so that is something.] (Syrus) They talked for a bit longer, where they planned some questions to ask their folks when they returned. Everything was going well until the troublemakers decided to not stay still. In the distance, a young girl tried to stealthily make her way to the woods. [Argh¡­ why is Leah heading for the woods¡­] Luna sighed. [You could blame the frequent troublemaker.] Syrus turned to look at Jerry who was hiding behind a house, watching Leah, but it looked like he was ready to book it after her once she reached the forest. [Brother and sister for sure, but Jerry mostly likely put her up to it.] [Why is Jerry doing this¡­ again? He should know better.] (Luna) Syrus shrugged and stood up, [Maybe he is a masochist?] [A what?] (Eva) [...] (Luna) [Ummm¡­ a talk for later. Let¡¯s bring her back first.] (Syrus) Anna stood up, not running this time and she slowly walked towards Leah to not cause a fuss. However, the sensitive Syrus noticed something. [Wait, I hear rustling in the bushes.] (Syrus) She quickly examined the bushy area in the tree line. Then they saw two bestial eyes between the gaps in the leaves and shrubs, and Syrus began to run. Luna yelled, ¡°Move Leah!¡± Leah alerted, stumbled back and looked towards Anna. Then with her back to it, the wolf pounced from the bushes with its maw open wide. Leah''s head swung back, then it froze as she saw the wolf and she screamed, but as the wolf¡¯s dripping teeth approached her, Anna¡¯s leg collided with the wolf¡¯s stomach. Owwargh! The wolf howled as it was kicked back flying into the dirt. [Why is there a wolf so close to the village?!] (Eva) S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Syrus focused on the wolf, followed up by using the fire magic Anna learned to keep up appearances. A ball of fire was created above her arm, and then in instance, it exploded into a bolt that was launched straight at the wolf. The wolf, still readjusting after its poor landing, was unable to survive as a bolt of fire cooked its mouth and head. It was a simple effective shot that decimated the creature. [It was alone¡­ I don''t sense any of its pack around.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s good. I don¡¯t want to risk the chance of the children getting hurt.] (Luna) Luna turned to Leah to comfort her. She must¡¯ve been frightened after all, and the rest of the children would need a talk after they nearly watched a friend die. ¡°THAT WAS SO COOL!¡± However, the fear of the event quickly washed away from the children''s minds as Anna¡¯s appearance of effectively dispatching the wolf was engraved in their minds. ¡°How did you do that?¡± ¡°Can you teach me!¡± ¡°Thank you, big SIS!¡± ¡°...She truly is the alpha wolf¡­¡± ¡°I will never disobey you again!¡± The kids were calling her weird names and saying strange things. Sigh¡­ Syrus let out an exhausted sigh. [Luna can you deal with them?] (Syrus) [If you can round them back up first.] (Luna) [Fine.] (Syrus) With their combined teamwork order was returned to the village children, but the kid¡¯s excitement levels didn¡¯t drop much. They were all ready to tell their parents what happened. [This¡­ is going to be a long day.] (Eva) [Quiet, you aren¡¯t even helping.] (Syrus) It continued to be a very long and tiring day, but at least Jen and George would be home soon. Chapter 38 – Visit From Afar Chapter 38 ¨C Visit From Afar ¡°We are so sorry you had to deal with so much today Anna¡­¡± An exhausted Jen crouched down and embraced Anlesa in a tight hug. Luna patted Jen¡¯s back, ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± George shook his head and hugged the two of them by the side, ¡°No it¡¯s not, you dealt with too much today.¡± It took ten hours for the parents to get back, and when they did, mouths started flapping. Every kid told their parents about their own version of events. Which led to some trouble for the parents trying to piece the whole story together. After a solid ten minutes of questioning the parents finally understood what had happened while they were gone. Some kids were rewarded while others got in trouble. No one blamed Anna for the potential accident that could have occurred as they were all reasonable and understood that she did her best, and her best was already something they were asking too much of a nine-year-old. The parents were a tired mess and Leah nearly getting mauled by a wolf just made them more exasperated at the specialist they had the misfortune of spending the last ten hours with. Jen and George explained they were basically constantly on the move without any break for the ten hours. No lunch or moment of rest to recover. It wasn¡¯t even a leisurely walk because they had to move fast to make it to all the destinations. When they were alone, Jen insulted the specialist to Anna, ¡°That worm bait bastard didn¡¯t have a single drop of sweat on him. He fucking enjoyed watching us suffer.¡± ¡°Language!¡± George replied. After they were done with the examinations, they as a group moved all the way back to Village Two¨Cwhich was the furthest from Anna¡¯s home village and began to say their goodbyes. Then the large multi-villager group had to stop by each village, dropping off the parents from each village one by one once the job was done. This was something else Anna found completely stupid, it was so purposely inefficient it had to be designed so. As they were alone, Syrus asked, ¡°Hey Mum, Dad, so what did you have to do exactly?¡± Jen answered, ¡°Nothing much, go around, navigate through the area, defend the perimeter, and yeah, annoying not much besides too much walking.¡± Eva asked, ¡°So¡­ what were the rules you had to follow?¡± Jen answered again without thinking whether she should answer the question, ¡°Nothing too complicated, besides the age requirements I mentioned earlier. We had to meet at the meeting point by a certain time, we weren¡¯t allowed to split up or leave when not asked, and some other smaller rules which could be summed up as¨Clisten to the one who is in charge.¡± Syrus bluntly commented, ¡°They sound so stupid, why did you have to follow them?¡± ¡°...¡± Jen stayed silent, she didn¡¯t know how to answer that. ¡°It¡¯s complicated, we will explain later.¡± George rested his warm hand on Jen¡¯s shoulder to comfort her. The family trio stayed together for a couple of moments longer before Jen and George had to do one final task. George said, ¡°We have to go, stay here, we will be right back.¡± Luna replied, ¡°Understood.¡± The parents had the annoying task of saying goodbye to the specialist, but some of the parents stayed back to ensure the kids wouldn¡¯t riot. [Welp, time to spy.] (Syrus) Away from the children, the parents and the specialist said their happy goodbyes. However, Anna got in earshot of the conversation and they watched as the adults talked to the specialist. The specialist¡¯s figure was short and unimposing, with a simple but clean brown uniform, he had a wide smile as he said his goodbyes. [Luna, do you think he is from the church?] They knew the church hired him, that was the story, but if it was from the church itself, then that brought up potential concerns. The man spoke, ¡°Thank you for all the help today, I¡¯m sorry to hear that accident nearly happened though. I never thought such a thing could happen in these parts.¡± [No¡­ the church would love to use their own staff for things like this, better self-promotion that way. They wouldn¡¯t keep that fact hidden.] (Luna) [But what about his behaviour?] (Syrus) [He¡­ is a standard overly kind gentleman. Plenty of people in the church who act like that, but also plenty of people who interact with the church also act like that.] (Luna) Luna was honestly unsure, but from her experience, she believed the church would care more about its self-promotion than some scheme on farmers. [Okay.] Syrus replied, she was still suspicious. The goodbye ended, and families reunited, but it didn¡¯t take long for Anna to say bye to her parents again. Anna left to go to her room, wanting some alone time after dealing with kids all day. Now that they were alone again, Syrus decided to speak her thoughts, [I¡¯ve been trying to think of the motivation behind the visit.] [Couldn¡¯t it possibly be just a standard check?] Eva rebutted, she didn¡¯t necessarily believe there was nothing afoot, but she felt it was important to consider both sides. [Maybe they were worried the land could still be damaged from the incident years ago.] [Nah, everything about this was too much.] (Syrus) [Reasonable¡­ then what do you think could be the reason?] (Eva) S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Thinking of the common reasons¨Cexploitation, control, spying, abducting¡­hmmm] Syrus paused, then asked Luna, [Luna what are the chances the church is abducting people?] [Abducting?] (Luna) [Yeah, do you believe they would abduct people? From villages and towns like ours for example?] (Syrus) Outside of exercising their control and spying on the villages, the most logical idea for this performance by the specialist was to gauge the villages before another operation down the line. Syrus knew she was probably overcomplicating it, she was using her knowledge of wars and conflicts and applying that to a small farming village that the other side really had no reason to mess with. [Depends¡­ how you would define it.] Luna felt sick, [I¡¯ve mentioned before how I wasn¡¯t let in on the darker sides of the church, but straight-up kidnapping wasn¡¯t something they did. Convincing people to let their kids go willingly was something they did¡­ and I would consider that kidnapping but that isn¡¯t the type of abduction we are talking about right now.] [But do you think they would?] (Syrus) [I¡­ don¡¯t believe so¡­ there would be too many holes, too many ways to be caught¡­ The church is just really good at taking advantage of opportunities.] (Luna) [Examples..?] (Eva) [...Villages being destroyed, officials being found corrupted, droughts, floods, demon attacks, monster sightings, etc] Luna listed common instances that the church used to grow their influences, [Honestly, simply anything that could be a good opportunity that wouldn¡¯t hurt themselves later, they took.] [But are you sure the church wouldn¡¯t get their hands dirty? There is more than one way to deal with a problem¨Cinside or out] Syrus pressured Luna for answers by stealthy bringing up the fact the church had a hand in Luna¡¯s death. Luna paused, as she remembered that day. [I¡­ don¡¯t believe so.] She was there for most of her life, even if they tried to hide everything from her, she would¡¯ve noticed something like that occurring. Luna always tried to be observant, it was her greatest ally in her early years there after all. [We could just be overcomplicating this, it might¡¯ve just been an abuse of power to satisfy the man¡¯s weak ego.] (Eva) [...?!] Luna and Syrus were shocked by what Eva said because it wasn¡¯t something either of them ever expected of her. Syrus replied, [If we have overthought this, so be it, but better than ignoring the potential issue.] [...Agreed.] Eva held back from gulping as a sudden wave of nerves filled her. The trio finished up their conversation and helped Jen and George with the final bit of prep for the day, so they could eat dinner as a family and get some well-deserved sleep. Chapter 39 – Just Chop Wood, an Exotic Talk, and a Disaster Chapter 39 ¨C Just Chopping Wood, an Exotic Talk, and a Disaster Syrus screamed, ¡°One, two, three! Do it!¡± ¡°Argehhhhhhhh!¡± A scream of determination turned into one of fear as the axe fell on the piece of log. Eva couldn¡¯t close her eyes as Syrus forced them open to ensure the wood was cut. Anna had been assigned wood-chopping duty today, it was nothing hard, but Syrus found a quiet spot to do it in and added a little bit of chaos to the work, by forcing Eva to do a part of it. It would make sense to some mathematically for the trio to do equal amounts of work, but when one of them enjoyed doing physical tasks way more than the other two, it usually meant only one ever did the actual hard work¨Cnot that Syrus would consider chopping wood hard. Syrus examined the cut closely, [That was an alright cut, but do better later, for now, we will switch back to me.] [Oh thank the stars¡­] Eva sighed in relief. [It wasn¡¯t that bad Lilly.] (Luna) Anna was strong, no doubt about that, but the only one who could use the full strength of their body was Syrus. Just because any muscle training Syrus affected their shared body, that didn¡¯t mean Luna and Eva knew how to use the muscles properly. Well, it was mostly Eva who had trouble, which was why Syrus wanted to start teaching Eva how to use her body properly. [So, how was the exercise Lilly?] (Luna) [Awful¡­] (Eva) It had only been two days since the daycare incident and in the morning Eva had felt the week couldn¡¯t get much worse, but she was wrong. Syrus¡¯s warning that she would start the conversation this week about her attribute was already a massive mental burden, and then the daycare incident happened. After that, she felt the week couldn¡¯t get worse, but she had a feeling Syrus read her emotions and decided today was the perfect day for her to start exercising. [Are you making fun of her, Luna?] (Syrus) [You know I¡¯m not, now hurry with your section, it''s been ages since I got to do some decent stretches and have the chance to exhaust myself.] (Luna) Syrus continued with the work. The order that Syrus decided on, was that Syrus would start, followed by a short session with Eva, then Syrus again, and Luna would end it with the final chunk of logs. [Anyway besides this, Eva, it is time.] Syrus slammed down the axe and cleanly chopped the wood in half. Syrus was a quarter through her stack when she suddenly spoke to Eva. [...] Eva paused, causing their body to freeze in place, she was expecting this conversation to happen. She never once doubted Syrus'' words after all, she had expected it but when it was asked it still shook her. [Do you wish for me to start anywhere specific?] (Syrus) [...No¡­ your choice.] (Eva) [Fair enough, so I will start with the simplest aspect of them. Exotic gifts/attributes are just really rare attributes that have a high concentration in bloodlines.] (Syrus) [Umm, what?] (Eva) [Confused?] (Syrus) [No, umm, don¡¯t worry I¡¯m just being stupid.] Eva shook their head and cleared her mind. [Exotic gifts are honestly just gifts like any other¡­ On a base level anyway.] Syrus started her explanation, [Examples of more common exotic gifts would be Ferocity, Instinct, Blitz, Berserk, Incarnate, Slumber, Morph.] Syrus paused before sighing, she had already concluded long ago that this was going to be a difficult discussion. The fact Eva had no semblance of an idea of what exotic attributes were, meant she didn¡¯t know about a very big aspect of many civilizations.[Going to make this slightly confusing for a second, there are some gifts that would be considered normal or rare can also be considered exotic, as their effect can change drastically in people with exotic bloodlines.] The topic started to interest Eva, she was still scared, but her natural curiosity wanted to know more, [But why?]. [Okay...Now, for the donkey in the room.] Syrus quietly groaned, [So simply put, people with exotic gifts tend to look like humans, human shape, mostly human proportions, but they tend to have a bit extra mixed in.] [That sounds like demons¡­] Eva worriedly thought. Luna quickly interrupted, [Some demons are known to be human-shaped, but not all of them.] Syrus added, [And there is still a big difference between demons and humans with exotic gifts¡­ Now back on topic, continuing the basics of exotic gifts. Normally a bloodline that contains an exotic gift will have those physical changes appear even in descendants who don¡¯t possess that gift. Most exotic bloodlines also contain more than one exotic gift, but most times only one manifests. However, it is quite common for a ¡®normal¡¯ gift to manifest along with an exotic for these people.] [But why does this happen?] Eva wanted to know the answer. But Syrus couldn¡¯t provide, [It''s one of those crow and egg things.] [You mean chicken and the egg?] (Eva) [Yeah that also works.] Syrus continued, [Did some humans one day gain exotic gifts and their bodies change? With those changes being passed down through family trees? Or are exotic gifts exclusive to those other ¡®species''? We have no idea, I believe the former though. It just makes sense with what I know about gifts, which to be fair, isn¡¯t that much.] [What are these people with exotic bloodlines called?] (Eva) Syrus shrugged, [Nothing? Some people have tried giving them names, but the best you are going to get is a family or tribe having specific names. They are still human after all.] Luna felt extreme shame as Syrus was giving her lecture. Her time in the church did influence some of her beliefs, even when she tried to resist. So she felt extremely apologetic for making Eva feel scared and worried when she had moments of disgust pour from her emotions when the topic was brought up¨Ceven after apologising. [But Eva, did you really not know about any humans who looked a bit different?] Syrus knew the answer, but she still had to ask. [No, never.] Eva could only reply with confusion. [Yeah¡­ that is very weird¡­] Luna added. She understood that in countries where people with exotic gifts were looked down upon, there was a high chance of the population of exotic gift wielders being low or even absent as they would move away. But the knowledge of them still spreads, even as just rumours or folktales. [Why¡­ haven¡¯t I heard about this before?] Eva understood it should be near impossible for her to not learn about this. Especially for her home country that prided itself on knowledge. Syrus said, [Where I was from, there wasn¡¯t any issue with having an exotic gift. I mean, sometimes if someone really wanted an excuse to punch someone, sure, but no one really cared. Even the majority of religious organisations. The ones that tried to make it a problem were laughed at.] Syrus sighed, [Though, from my guesses, I can¡¯t say the same about the churches in these parts] Luna asked, [Lilly, if you could tell us where you were from, maybe we could provide some answers?] [I¡­] It should¡¯ve been easy to say, it was just her home after all. Instead, she asked a different question first, [So¡­ I am¡­ was supposed to be one of those people?] [Probably, I don¡¯t know shit about the blood stuff or anything with how it works. Some people with exotic gifts I know looked extremely close to normal humans, while others¡­ yeah¡­ were a bit weird. But honestly, it could be possible to just be born with an exotic gift, I think so anyway.] (Syrus) [Your soul form didn¡¯t have any visual traits indicating you had an exotic gift, so I was surprised to hear you likely had one.] (Luna) [Okay.] Lilly sighed internally, she held a lot of trauma about the home she loved and while she didn¡¯t want to be apart from it, she understood she was being held back by it. She spent the last few days preparing for today, and she was going to have this conversation and her knowledge wasn¡¯t going to be left incomplete, [I¡¯m from Eletscoep¡­.] Luna gasped, ¡°...oh no¡­¡± [Yep never heard of it. Luna from your reaction I am going to assume Eletscoep didn¡¯t have a great perception of exotic gifts?] (Syrus) [Oh no no no, if anything they one of the most accepting of exotic attributes.] Luna quickly countered. [Were¡­?] Syrus raised an eyebrow, something with how Luna said that word gave her worry. [I mean¡­ argh¡­ there wasn¡¯t a sudden shift in power or anything, well there kind of was.] Luna began to ramble, the facts of the famous incident surfaced in her head, [It was a tragedy¡­] [What happened¡­] Eva felt lost¡­ How could she not, Luna was showing an extreme visceral reaction. She covered their mouth and Eva could feel a groan in their stomach as emotions of worry, concern, sadness, and dread spilled out of Luna. [...The extermination of a quarter of the population, the great disease, the death of the royal family.] Luna started listing everything trying to see if Lilly knew anything about what she was talking about. While Lilly was just shocked hearing it all, [Eletscoep had a royal family¡­?] [What the¡­] Luna couldn¡¯t understand why Lilly had no idea about this massive event, [It only happened twenty years ago, no, well twenty-nine years ago. But a major disaster hit the country, it was a disease of some kind and killed everyone with a visible exotic bloodline over the course of a year.] [What the hell happened¡­] (Syrus) [As I said¡­ it was something¡­ a disease that killed all those with exotic bloodlines. I mentioned how Eletscoep didn¡¯t mistreat those people right? Well, they saw exotic bloodlines, and bloodlines in general much differently than the cultures of other countries and to top it off, the royal family had a very powerful bloodline running through it. But that didn¡¯t stop them all from dying¡­] [Are you sure it wasn¡¯t an inside job, maybe the people of the country revolted or something?] Syrus tried asking stupid questions, she had faced disease and sickness before. But the idea that a quarter of the country¡¯s population would die from one disease in a year was insane to her. [No no no, hate in Eletscoep was at an all-time low¡­ Eletscoep is a bit closed off from their neighbours but their people were happy. I¡¯m not saying it was perfect¡­ If it was¡­] She wanted to say Lilly wouldn¡¯t have died, but she kept that quiet, [But the citizens'' needs were provided for, it was why any church found it so hard to spread their influence into it.] (Luna) [That¡¯s¡­ true¡­ we didn¡¯t have any churches from what I recall.] (Eva) [Eletscoep wasn¡¯t on friendly terms with the church, so getting into the country was hard. Trust me, the church tried to figure out the cause and not only that, they tried to spread it into other countries. But no matter what they did, nothing worked. The church tried so desperately hard, speaking to those who could have a motive, those who disliked the royal family, but none had an answer. The rotten bastard however said after it was all done, ¡®it must¡¯ve been an act of a god¡¯ after they couldn¡¯t find the reason.] (Luna) [But everyone died? How¡­ you said visible right? That has to mean some survived.] (Syrus) [The only reason I¡¯m even saying visible in the first place is because Lilly exists.] Luna was surprised to hear Lilly had an exotic attribute in the first place, but that couldn¡¯t compare to the news that she had that and lived in Eletscoep originally. [Syrus, Eletscoep is the most advanced country I know of, some countries might be better in one or two ways, but overall Eletscoep is the most advanced. And what they were the best at was technology, magic, and medicine¡­ and they tried their best.] [...] [...] [Why¡­ did I never know about this¡­] Eva didn¡¯t know whether to cry or not, she just felt so lost. She prepared to face some amount of her emotional trauma, but what she learned¡­ was so much not what she was expecting. A whole other dimension of her home she knew nothing about. [¡®To learn and discover¡¯ was a motto I latched onto in school¡­ I loved learning¡­ but I didn¡¯t even know about my own home¡¯s history¡­] (Lilly) [Luna¡­ how could this even happen¡­ How does a country¡¯s culture disappear in a few years¡­?] Syrus asked, terrified. [I¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ don¡¯t know¡­ it can¡¯t be one reason¡­] (Luna) [But how do you keep an entire population quiet?!] Syrus wasn¡¯t looking for an answer, she was getting the rage out of her system. This whole situation didn¡¯t sit right with her. [...] Luna stayed quiet¡­ and she thought and thought until she had an answer [I think shame¡­.] (Luna) [How, why, shame of all things?] (Syrus) [They loved their king¡­ and they loved their neighbours, the queen especially was known to be an extremely loved individual¡­ It was a famous point in history, the whole country joined hands to do one thing¡­ and they still failed.] (Luna) Lilly finally started to cry, [So many people¡­ why couldn¡¯t they tell us¡­ they deserved to be remembered, even by someone as worthless like me¡­] [I don¡¯t think this news was hidden from everyone Lilly, some parents properly told their kids about a friend or uncle that passed¡­ but it was still kept secret for a reason¡­] (Luna) [It¡¯s¡­ still so stupid.] (Syrus) [That it is¡­] Luna decided to leave theorising on why that happened for a later date. Luna stretched her arms out and hugged their body, [I know¡­ this conversation has been a lot for you today¡­ but if you take anything from it, even if it has caused you untold amounts of pain, your exotic attribute is something to be proud of. In my eyes, and your old home''s eyes.] S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Eva closed her eyes tight and promised, [Yes¡­ I will.] Then her tears continued to fall. It was a long time before they finished chopping all the wood. Chapter 40 – Present Planning Chapter 40 ¨C Present Planning Weeks had passed since the revelation about Lilly¡¯s past and life had continued on mostly fine. People were busy preparing for the end-of-the-year Alberest festival while also doing their required amount of work to keep the village alive. On an individual level, Lilly had been hard at work trying to separate her tangled unknown exotic attribute and Manipulation. Syrus and Luna had tried to help by giving their own thoughts on the situation but the only one who could do the real work to fix it was Lilly. On a fundamental level when Lilly used her Manipulation attribute, her mana was actually becoming a mix of both her attributes. Even when she just tried to use her mana without an attribute the negative influence remained, due to the nature of her attribute it was always passively involved with her mana. This was a common occurrence with any attribute but the effect was heightened due to Manipulation being in a way a natural enhancement of normal mana control. To solve the issue she had to stop the dissonance between the two attributes which caused the pain and struggle she had to deal with when using her mana. To that she needed to properly awaken her exotic attribute, but to do that she needed to separate it from the fused mess that it was. This did cause her pain¡­ which held her back multiple times, but with Syrus and Luna¡¯s encouragement, she continued trying. Lilly wanted to at least take one step forward in this new life. She still had some hesitation about using Manipulation as one of Anna¡¯s main two attributes, but at least now she was more willing to accept the idea. ¡°Argh my back¡­¡± George caressed his back as his butt was firmly planted on the dirt in front of his house. Jen kneeled on the ground next to him and placed a cup of water in his hand, ¡°Please take care of yourself better George.¡± George smashed down the whole drink before gasping for air with a laugh, ¡°Ha, I could say that to you.¡± Jen lightly poked George¡¯s back, which still got a ¡°Yelp!¡± out of him. She smugly said, ¡°Say that to me when you''re not in physical pain please.¡± ¡°Sure, you know what I will do one better and wait for you to be in equal pain. Then we will see who is laughing, and I bet it won¡¯t be me.¡± ¡°Perfect.¡± Jen smiled. Then the two of them laughed. [Sigh¡­] Luna shook her head, as Anna stood in the front entrance watching her parents. [Everything okay?] (Eva) [Yes.] (Luna) [Nah it ain¡¯t, I¡¯m betting Luna wants to use her healing ability while they are sleeping.] (Syrus) [How did you¨CNever mind. Anyway, I¡¯m just frustrated that Jen and George are still being their goofy selves.] (Luna) [How is that a problem?] (Syrus) [...It¡¯s not¡­] (Luna) [I understand¡­ you just want them to get some help.] (Eva) [...] Luna turned her head and focused on her two parents. They had given her what she had missed in her first life, so all she wished for now was for them to take better care of themselves. [...If only I could do more¡­] [...Just let it rest Luna, they are already doing the best they can.] It was hard for Syrus to put Luna¡¯s desire down because Luna could do more, but Syrus knew best that Luna wasn¡¯t feeling up to it. The intense feelings of worry and fear about using Moonlight and being caught with it flowed out of her in these quiet moments. Syrus was right though, Jen and George did the best they could to take care of their health. Mostly thanks to Jen who did an unnecessary amount of research into the topic. They stretched, ate well, relaxed, and tried to pace themselves¨Cthe plan did have limits due to their financial situation but they did their best. However, simply because a plan was good didn¡¯t mean it would have a perfect outcome. They were both busy, worked long hours, and always helped others when asked. Anna did her best to help the burden but it wasn¡¯t enough. Jen and George were the type of people who wouldn¡¯t stop until a job was done, even when that job was too big for the two of them. Eva hummed, [Hmm¡­] She had decided to stay out of the topic because she didn¡¯t believe it was her place to tell Luna what she could and couldn¡¯t do, but she wasn¡¯t against giving suggestions about other things they could do, [If we can¡¯t help them¡­ then shouldn¡¯t we at least do something nice for them?] [Like what?] Syrus asked while staring at the parents who were finally getting off the ground. George said to himself, ¡°Come on stand up, you old goat.¡± Jen reprimanded him, ¡°Quiet you, if you''re old, then that makes me old.¡± [I¡¯m not sure¡­ but it would be nice if we could get something for their special day.] (Eva) [What special day? Their birthdays have already passed?] (Syrus) [Their anniversary¡­] (Eva) [Ohhhhh!] (Syrus) [That¡¯s!] (Luna) Jen and George''s anniversary was something told to Anna offhandedly over two years ago and Eva remembered it all this time, and this year would be an extra special anniversary as it would be their twentieth. Anna walked to George and helped him stand up, ¡°Come on, let¡¯s take you inside.¡± George tried to wave her away, ¡°I¡¯m fine Anna, I still got some more work to do.¡± ¡°Dad you have two options, go inside and rest, or I will knock you out and force you to sleep.¡± George quietly sighed, ¡°I blame your mother.¡± Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Syrus replied, ¡°I say it¡¯s your fault.¡± They were able to convince their father to be taken inside to rest for the rest of the afternoon. Jen and George were thirty-four and thirty-five respectively. It had been nearly twenty years since Jen and George married. They got together in their late teens and had Anna in their mid to late twenties. [So what should we get them?] Syrus asked. [...] (Luna) [...] (Eva) [...] (Syrus) An issue emerged. The three of them had no idea what to get them for such an occasion. [...I¡¯m sure we can think of something soon. There are plenty of books around if we need ideas.] (Syrus) [Yeah¡­ I think you¡¯re right.] Luna''s heart glowed with excitement, it didn¡¯t matter if they didn¡¯t have the perfect idea right now. They would surely think of something before the due date. [Totally¡­] Conversely, Eva didn¡¯t think they would have much success. She wanted to believe, but she had little hope. All they could do was their best. Chapter 41 – Present Gathering Chapter 41 ¨C Present Gathering [This is a terrible idea.] (Luna) [Nonsense, this is a great idea.] (Syrus) [Yep¡­ it''s an idea alright¡­] (Eva) It had been months since Lilly''s attribute discussion and the decision to start finding something for Jen and George''s twentieth anniversary. Now it was midway through the seventh month of the year and a lot had been done, but at the same time, there was an important task they hadn¡¯t completed. Eva had some improvement in using her Manipulation attribute, but her two attributes were still far from separating. Besides that, the end-of-the-year festival preparation progressed really smoothly, to the point where the village could finally relax a bit and work at a normal pace. [Please tell me we aren¡¯t lost¡­] (Eva) [Then, we aren¡¯t lost.] (Syrus) [...] (Eva) [It¡¯s fine Lilly, we are going on the right path.] (Luna) Now the big issue for the trio was that Jen and Geroge¡¯s twentieth anniversary was about to happen in one week. And after multiple months, they still hadn¡¯t decided on a gift. Not that they didn¡¯t try. Many debates were held between them to decide on a gift, but they had an issue about what would be a good gift. Many ideas were scrapped because they didn¡¯t believe the gift in question was good enough for such a big event. Now if Jen and George knew what Anna was planning, they would tell her to stop worrying so much. They would be fine with any gift, and just knowing Anna put thought into it would''ve been enough. But the trio wanted to get something amazing. Which was difficult when they couldn¡¯t afford to buy anything and the village didn¡¯t have anything they really wanted to give to their parents. Which led to their current predicament. [Let¡¯s hurry up, we are going to have to run home at this rate.] (Syrus) [I know, I¡¯m keeping an eye out for it.] (Luna) They were exploring far into the northern forest in an area they were very much not allowed to be in. This was because after exploring all possible gifts they found out about the existence of a certain flower that grew in the area. It only grew during winter and it was rare, but they thought it would be a perfect gift. [A Elerliss flower has to be around here, somewhere¡­] (Syrus) [You¡¯ve said you saw one before Luna, but are you sure we can dye it?] (Eva) [Yes.] Luna replied confidently, remembering the days the church would lavishly bring in boxes of them. An Elerliss flower was a rare flower whose petals changed colour when injected with mana, this colour would change with different attributes. These plants were often grown in cities due to their high demand among the high class and places like the church. Once they absorb some mana and before they would lose the colour they would be cut and stored, because if they were unearthed they wouldn¡¯t rot or lose their colour for a hundred years. This length of time could be increased with proper storing methods and magic. The problem was that where this flower grew happened to be near monster territory, which was why this area was designated off-limits. However, Eva researched the area and found that the monster sightings were so rare that the chance they would actually come across a monster was unlikely. So they decided to take the risk¨Cworst case they could run. Another hour passed. They had sneaked out during the night so they needed to be back before their parents woke up. That was the goal but they were prepared to say they just went for a morning walk as an excuse if they were a bit late. As they were walking and as someone began to turn in a different direction, Syrus commanded, [Wait!]. [What is it?] (Luna) [I think I¡¯ve found it.] Syrus confidently replied. She saw what seemed to be a shining white flower¨Cthe natural state of the plant¨Cin the distance. They walked over to it to confirm that it was the flower. [Yep that is it, good job Syrus.] (Luna) [Wow¡­ it''s pretty.] Eva excitedly muttered, [Now let''s dye it, I want to see it become red.] [Hold your apples, we have something else to do first.] (Syrus) [What?] (Eva) Before they could start the process of picking the flower, a pack of wolves dug themselves out of the ground in a radius around Anna. ¡°Well damn, look at that, we have a party on our hands.¡± Syrus laughed. They were ever so slightly larger than normal wolves with claws designed to dig, they also looked more deranged and had grassy and brown camouflaging fur on the top half of their bodies. [Oh no¡­ what are we going to do!] Eva started to panic. These were once normal animals but they had mutated due to mana, a rare occurrence, producing results that weren¡¯t necessarily always stronger than normal creatures but certainly more resourceful. [Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve got this.] (Syrus) Fire covered Anna¡¯s fist, and she settled into a combat stance. [You already knew about them didn¡¯t you?] (Luna) S~ea??h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Yeah, but I know they won¡¯t be much trouble.] (Syrus) The fight began with the wolves all pouncing at Anna. This just caused Syrus to smile. She manoeuvred out of the way, punched one of them in the throat, and spewed fire from her hands to create a barrier between her and some of the wolves. Syrus hearing more animals approaching called out, [Two more behind us.] To warn her soul roommates so they wouldn¡¯t be surprised. But Luna said, [I¡¯ll handle it!] so Syrus decided to ignore them and focus on the other wolves. Then once those two wolves leaped forward, a Moonlight blast shot from around their body, knocking back the two sneak attackers. [...Please can¡¯t we run away¡­?!] Eva screamed but no one was listening. This fight was still far from over. Chapter 42 – Present Acquired! Chapter 42 ¨C Present Acquired! Syrus began to feel the mana drain of her fire magic increase. This wasn¡¯t the first time it happened, which was why she didn¡¯t panic, but it was still concerning. It had drained at faster rates before but not knowing what caused it was an issue. Another wolf jumped towards Anna, but Syrus dipped to the side and crouched down before launching a strengthened kick into the beast''s stomach. Syrus handled the physical combat while Luna knocked back the beast when she felt they were getting too close. They weren¡¯t great at working together, but they both wanted to contribute to defending themselves and the situation wasn¡¯t dangerous enough where their non-perfect teamwork would get them hurt. Eva on the other hand didn¡¯t know what she could help with, so she did the only thing she knew, stay back and not get involved in any of the fighting. The situation was scary for her and every time they got into any danger she partially mentally froze. The rest of the fight was no trouble as Syrus carefully executed the remaining wolves with the help of Luna. Eva made sure to look away when the kills happened by disconnecting from the body in short bursts. She wasn¡¯t scared of the blood, but the situation was too intense for her so these quick dips helped her calm down. Once the area was cleared again, it was time to finish what they came here to do. ¡°Okay little plant, time to glow red.¡± Syrus crouched down next to the flower and placed her fingers around the head. She began to pour Fire attribute mana into the flower while Eva and Luna watched. As the flower began to shine red, Syrus pulled and cut the flower out of the ground. But then the red light cracked and flashed a grey and white before the light vanished leaving the flower permanently changed. [Sorry!] Eva wanted to cry, [I think some of my attribute mana went in!] [No, no, no, it''s alright¡­] Luna, [It¡¯s pretty this way, and I believe some of my own went into it as well.] The reason they wanted to make the flower red was because that was ¡®Anna¡¯s attribute¡¯ and it would¡¯ve been a pretty colour. But what they got instead, while technically potentially alerting to what their attributes were, felt correct to Luna. The flower had six petals with no gaps between them, the flower''s colour was a deep red with a cracked pattern over it and it shone a white reflective shine. [Your Manipulation may¡¯ve added the cracks, but my Moonlight added the shine.] (Luna) [Yeah, as Luna said before. It¡¯s better this way.] (Syrus) Luna carefully placed the flower in a cloth and began to wrap it up. Before the flower was covered by the cloth, Eva looked at it one final time and mumbled, [Yeah¡­ you''re right¡­] The flower now safely acquired Luna asked, [Do we just want to say the flower was damaged before we found it? That¡¯s if they start asking questions.] [That works for me.] (Syrus) [Hmhrm.] Eva hummed in confirmation. With that done, the only thing left to do was go home. Sadly due to how far out they went, it was going to be a multi-hour walk back. [Let¡¯s find our way home¡­] Eva was tired and wanted this to be over. This was already too much excitement for one day. [Don¡¯t worry, I remembered the way. It won¡¯t be too long.] (Syrus) [Wait, I have a suggestion why don¡¯t we take a slight detour to reach the river? The ground is flat near it so you should be able to sprint more easily.] (Luna) [Nah, don¡¯t worry, I can still reach high speed through the forest.] (Syrus) [If you say so, I¡¯ll take your word for it.] (Luna) Syrus nodded, first placing the flower in her front shirt pocket, she then began to run. Using her Blood attribute to keep her body energised, Syrus ran through the forest. Jumping over logs and ducking under branches. After an hour of running Luna was getting worried, this feeling was amplified when Syrus who was in control looked up and saw the sun''s position. [Crap it¡¯s getting bright!] (Luna) [That¡¯s bad¡­ What time is it?] (Eva) [From the position of the sun, it''s five or something near that. Honestly, it could be between four and six, I¡¯m not exactly sure.] Syrus apologised, [Sorry, I should¡¯ve kept track.] [No you shouldn¡¯t have, you were busy, it would¡¯ve been better if I learned how to keep track of time.] (Eva) [Nah, it''s alright.] (Syrus) Soon Anna finally reached their village. Emerging from the forest she quickly made her way to their house. Making their way to the front door, once they reached it they were careful to open the door quietly. ¡°Nice to meet you, young lady.¡± However, their plan to stealthily sneak back home ended with immediate failure when they found themselves face to face with their mum. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Jen asked sternly, ¡°Anna, where were you?¡± ¡°I was out for a morning walk, I walked along the village border, then sat in the grass for a while.¡± Luna calmly explained what they had done, ¡°Once I felt refreshed I came home.¡± Syrus chimed in, ¡°Laying down would be more precise.¡± In an effort to add more to their alibi. ¡°How early in the morning?¡± Jen asked. Luna replied, ¡°I¡¯m not sure, the sun was barely though.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you ask to go outside?¡± ¡°You were asleep, none of us wanted to wake either of you up.¡± A small back and forth continued for three minutes with Anna not allowed to leave the doorway. Then a tired saviour finally left his room, ¡°Jen you finally done drilling into Anna yet?¡± Jen and George had a talk when they awoke and found out Anna was gone, so George knew Jen was going to admonish Anlesa in some way. ¡°No..! Well¡­¡± Jen looked down at Anna who was dirty from lying down in the grass¨Crunning through the forest¨Cand thought maybe she should finish this talk. ¡°Fine, yes I¡¯m mostly done.¡± George then asked, ¡°Good, do you want anything special for breakfast then?¡± ¡°No, just the usual please.¡± ¡°All good.¡± George turned around to get some bowls out of the cupboard. ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯ve said some of what I wanted to say, but¡­ that will be it for now.¡± Anna nodded, ¡°Yay, can we go inside now?¡± ¡°Oh¡­ yeah¡­ sorry about making you stand there¡­ I was kind of in a moment.¡± ¡°That¡¯s all good.¡± Anna smiled and walked inside. Jen had stepped out of the way, but as Anna walked past her, she grabbed her shoulder, ¡°Wait, first, we are taking you to the bath. It''s morning and you are already filthy.¡± Luna asked confused, ¡°We?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m going with you, I''m making sure you will be spotless.¡± Luna asked, ¡°Can I go alone?¡± ¡°No not this, think of this as part of your punishment,¡± Jen replied. ¡°....¡± A quick moment of worry was felt between the three of them. Because they worried either that Jen would find the flower or it would be damaged in the wash if they were unable to get it out secretly. However, this brief moment of worry was noticed by the family detective. ¡°Are you hiding something, sweetie?¡± Jen¡¯s eyes glinted with curiosity as she noticed the pause within Anna. Mostly thanks to Eva¡¯s sudden twitch that Luna wasn¡¯t able to suppress. [What do we do!] (Eva) [We could try hiding it in our shoes?] (Syrus) [Guys it''s just our parents¡­] Luna sighed, [It¡¯s only our parents, let''s just give it to them now.] [But¡­] (Eva) [It¡¯s only a week away, I¡¯m sure they aren¡¯t going to care about receiving a present a week early.] (Luna) Jen just continued to smile, ¡°Do I need to take you to the bath to find out?¡± She assumed that Anna had hurt herself and didn¡¯t want to make a fuss about it. ¡°Before that,¡± Luna announced, Eva continued, ¡°We¡­ have a present for you two.¡± George looked over his shoulder, ¡°Both of us?¡± Sryus called out, ¡°Yeah, so stop being distracted.¡± They moved further inside, and Jen and George stood next to each other as Anna pulled out a small cloth from her front pocket which she placed in her hands. Anna lifted the cloth off the flower and said, ¡°Happy anniversary, Mum, Dad.¡± The crimson-red flower with a crack pattern shone as it entered the eyes of Jen and George. ¡°Wow¡­¡± George not knowing what the flower was just marvelled at its colours. Jen asked shocked, ¡°It¡¯s¡­ that an Elerliss flower?¡± Anna placed the flower in Jen¡¯s hands, ¡°It was damaged when we found it¡­ but we were still able to dye it red.¡± George''s eyes widened, ¡°How¡­¡± ¡°We read about them in our plant life book¡­ and found out they grew occasionally in the area.¡± ¡°Wait you didn¡¯t go far out did you?!¡± Jen frantically asked, concerned. ¡°No,¡± Luna calmly replied, ¡°The thought was brought up, but we decided being safe and sound for the anniversary would be better.¡± ¡°We explored around the outskirts a few times looking for one¡­ but only today did we have any luck¡­¡± Eva apologised, ¡°Sorry we could only get a damaged one.¡± She was still feeling down about what she did to the flower. ¡°Nothing to be sorry about,¡± George patted her on the head, ¡°It''s better this way.¡± The cracks in the flower appealed to George¡¯s sense of aesthetics. George kneeled down to be at Anna¡¯s eye level and Jen followed suit moments later. George hugged Anlesa tightly, ¡°This is the best anniversary present we have ever received.¡± Syrus made a joke ¡°Is it the only one?¡± Jen commented, ¡°Well if it was, that would still make it the best.¡± Luna said, ¡°But technically also the worst.¡± George sighed with a laugh, ¡°Sometimes I think your mother is a bad influence.¡± His family and their sense of humour never changed. Jen asked, ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± ¡°Just that one needs to take the good with the bad.¡± ¡°You little¡­¡± Despite not being the situation Anna expected to give their gift in. Their parents were still completely delighted by it. After their family¡¯s playful bickering. The family embraced once more in a family hug with happy tears shed by two joyful parents. ¡°¡°Thank you for being born Anna.¡±¡± Truthfully they had already received the gift they wanted, but that gift just kept on wanting to give more every single day. Chapter 43 – Aiding a Craftsman Chapter 43 ¨C Aiding a Craftsman ¡°Just here..?¡± Eva asked, concerned she cut too deep into the block of wood with the chisel. ¡°Absolutely perfect!¡± A short ginger woman returned a thumbs up congratulating Anna on the precise carve. The year began to warm again as it reached its end and the festival neared. Today Anna had been assigned a special task, to help Elly. More specifically to be taught by her. Elly was one of the adults in the village, and she was in charge of and solely ran the wood carvings business in the village. Even though she was very busy this year creating carvings for the town and for other cities¨Cmaking a good profit in the process¨Cshe found time to teach Anna a few tricks. This was something a lot of the kids did at least once or twice, more if they were interested in improving their skills in wood carving. Because multiple people in the village were good at their craft, parents would pass their children around to see if they found any activity they particularly enjoyed. Henry and Albert taught cooking, while Henry focused more on baking, Albert taught proper seasoning and roasting. Jen was also one of the parents involved in this rotation, all parents tried teaching their kids the basics of basic when it came to written communication and maths, but they sent them to Jen when they wanted to see if their kids wanted to learn more. Sadly for Jen, most of the kids didn¡¯t want to learn more. Anna chalked it up to Jen being a bit too enthusiastic and intense in her lessons. ¡°Okay then¡­ should I just keep continuing?¡± Eva asked. She was currently working on an apple carving, it was the standard craft that Elly taught new pupils. Eva was doing this because she was the most interested in the craft out of the three of them. She had never done it before, but with her steady hand and her cautious but excited enthusiasm, she was ready to learn the basics. ¡°Yep, just take your time if you''re worried you¡¯ll make a mistake remember I¡¯m always here to help.¡± Elly picked up the bucket of her specially made glue, and she slapped it between two pieces of wood, a darker oak and a lighter wood that Anna didn¡¯t know where it was from. Time passed and even though the progress was slow, Eva was having a fun time. Luna and Syrus were keeping quiet as well, it was nice that Eva was doing something else other than mystery-solving or trying to separate her attributes. She needed something fun to do, they both believed. Elly asked, ¡°Anna, can you get me another log? Fourth from the left box.¡± Anna stood up, ¡°Sure, I will be back in a moment.¡± As Anna was moving another log to the workstation, she noticed a still-in-progress piece on a newly repaired bench. It looked old, it had some damage due to the rain, and different pieces of wood clearly had been glued together over time, realistically to redo a section that the crafter didn¡¯t like. It was a short human about the size of an adult''s forearm. However, upon seeing the figure, Anna recognised who it was supposed to be. ¡°Umm..¡± Eva paused. [Quiet Lilly, we don¡¯t want to be rude.] (Luna) Luna¡¯s warning was to no avail as Elly already noticed Anna¡¯s pause at seeing the figure. Elly just looked away and smiled, ¡°Nothing to be worried about kiddo,¡± She saw the piece of wood. ¡°My bro is well rested, thanks for remembering his face though.¡± It wasn¡¯t like Anna knew Elly''s brother well, Kelly was one of the adults who died in the creature attack when Anna was six. She still was able to remember his face due to the fact only a small number of people lived here in the first place. Syrus and Luna were unaffected by seeing this sculpture, but Eva was lost in its craftsmanship. Clearly, it had been worked on over and over again, but never seemingly ever closer to completion. Eva asked, ¡°...Don¡¯t you miss him.¡± She began to reminisce about her original parents, and the pain of missing them rose again. She absolutely loved Jen and George, but she couldn¡¯t let go of her past. Elly sighed, ¡°Very, but the fact that none of the children died meant he would¡¯ve died happy.¡± Only two adults died in that tragedy, fending off the overwhelming number of creatures that attacked from the forest. ¡°He was very brave¡­¡± Eva mumbled, it was hard for her to imagine doing something like that. She could see Luna and Syrus easily attempting it, but trying to picture herself in that position felt so alien. ¡°That he was.¡± Luna, wanting this conversation to move on so the sombre feelings didn¡¯t swell in Lilly, asked, ¡°Why do you still live here Elly?¡± Elly paused¨C¡°Trying to jump topic?¡±¨Cthen looked up and laughed, ¡°Fair enough but why do you ask that?¡± Eva continued, ¡°Cause¡­ curious?¡± She was also interested in the reason. ¡°Fair enough, it''s not a question I get asked a lot. Well at all anymore, especially by children, they don''t really know why I wouldn¡¯t be here.¡± ¡°My Mum is Jen, she teaches me a lot.¡± ¡°Probably too much,¡± Elly laughed, ¡°Well as long as you''re having fun with it.¡± sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It wasn¡¯t a secret that Elly made good money. Outside of the farm work she got paid for, her personal business raked her in a fair bit of cash. Not enough to make her crazy rich but because where she chose to live she had quite a massive wallet. In Cancole the amount you had to pay in tax depended on how much you got paid and where you lived. So in cities, people were taxed more and in smaller and smaller towns one would be taxed less. However, Cancole cities had restrictions on what and how many amenities a city could have. This affected a place¡¯s entertainment, food, and knowledge accessibility, so if you wanted to live somewhere where you didn¡¯t have to worry about not living comfortably. One had to pay the price. Jobs in cities did pay well, and they were calculated to pay enough that people could live in said cities. Of course, to add a layer of protection so some civilians couldn¡¯t game the system, a lot of jobs required the individual to be a resident in the city. Elly answered, ¡°Two reasons mostly, actually it was three. Of course, it''s cheap to live here, yeah I have to pay to send my goods to larger cities but it''s not much off my profit margins. Sometimes even my business partners will even cover that cost. Two, it''s much easier to make shit when you have your material all around you. And three¡­ well I was never good being in the big cities, and honestly it was my brother that convinced me to come down here as he was already living here at the time cause he also hated the cities.¡± Moving to save money or to get away from the busyness of the city was a common occurrence. But most returned quickly unsatisfied with their new life. Jen and George as well moved to the village soon after they got married, due to both being low on cash and a short-term economic recession caused by droughts and other factors. ¡°That makes sense.¡± Elly laughed, ¡°That¡¯s good. If the child of the smartest mum thinks I¡¯ve made some sense, then I must¡¯ve done something right.¡± ¡°No regrets?¡± Elly shrugged, ¡°Regrets are hard to quantify, but I¡¯m guessing no, ask me in five years and I might have a different answer but I have to wait and see.¡± Their one-on-one session didn¡¯t last for much longer as it began to get late. Elly wished Anna well and the two parted ways. They passed by the decorations placed around the village for the festival coming up in only a few days. During the walk home, Syrus asked, [You thinking about something again Eva?] Eva had been quiet and Syrus could feel some unease sprinkle out of her. [Yes¡­ I¡¯m mentally reviewing my notes¡­] Eva replied, [Just after that talk and the short discussion on Kelly made me think about the disasters the town has faced.] [But haven¡¯t you already thought about them well, a lot?] (Syrus) [Even that could be an understatement.] (Luna) [That¡­ is true.] Eva sighed, it was nice and weird to have nice people comment on her behaviour, [I¡¯ve read through the public records in IHere and the village¡¯s diaries, and there were multiple inconsistencies.] Eva got the opportunity to spend time at IHere¡¯s library multiple times and she was able to read the village¡¯s records by helping out her mum in the town chief''s house. The farming villages including the one Anna and her family lived in weren¡¯t that old, only reaching just over forty years since their inception. Long enough for plenty of the adults to have been born here, but in the grand scheme of things it was a short time. However, during that time the village chief or their assistant would write about current events in a journal. The information given was small and occasionally written in code to simplify statements to save as much space as possible. [You mentioned this before, the public records had more monster attacks and incidents reported in them.] (Syrus) [Yes¡­] Anna¡¯s eyes darkened as Eva remembered the facts.[I had initially wondered if the village''s diaries just simplified their information too much and certain moments were lost to time. After all, a lot of the inconsistencies could be considered smaller attacks but the diaries still accounted for some of them.] [...I have had a feeling about where your research has been going Lilly.] Said Luna, [But are you sure about it?] Luna remembered everything that Lilly collected and looked into. All the prior monster and beast attacks, incidents that occurred, and most importantly the river poisoning incident years ago. [Yes¡­ the only thing I need to do is somehow read the personal diaries of at least one of the other farming villages¨Cif they have any¨Cto add more evidence to my theory. If they show as many inconsistencies then it should be what I fear¡­ someone is adding fake events to the public history of our home.] (Eva) [Why would anyone do that? To a town like this?] (Syrus) [...It''s unlikely that it¡¯s just our small town.] (Luna) [That¡¯s right and it can only happen because it is a small town.] (Eva) [Still, but why?] [...That¡¯s the one thing I can¡¯t answer.] Eva for the first time in this life gripped her fist in anger. Something was going on, someone wanted something, but she had no clue when, what, or who it could be and it frustrated her to her core. [I see¡­] Syrus sighed and calmed her emotions. They could create theories all they wanted but theories only did so much with little proof. [I¡¯ve wondered if we should tell our parents about this?] (Luna) [That¡­ is something I¡¯m unsure about¡­] (Eva) [What¡¯s the worst that could happen?] (Syrus) [The one who faked the information catches on and does something to remove the leak.] (Luna) [Yeah that could be the worst case but keeping the information to ourselves can create its own problems] (Syrus) Eva sighed, [Yeah¡­ maybe it''s time to get help] [Let¡¯s wait until they aren¡¯t on the brink of exhaustion.] (Luna) [And when is that supposed to be?] (Syrus) [Soon?] Luna hoped. With the festival right around the corner, their parents were constantly busy. Every day they left early and returned late. Only having breakfast and dinner before leaving and going off to sleep. [We¡­ should ask for a day to talk to them.] Eva suggested, [That way we can have a proper open conversation.] With a quiet agreement, they went home to talk to their parents. After some slight stubbornness on Anna¡¯s part saying both parents had to be in their right minds for the talk, a date was settled on for a lengthy talk. Five days from now, two days before the festival began. Chapter 44 – Final Festival Preparation #1 Chapter 44 ¨C Final Festival Preparation #1 Large wooden statues of different animals were placed mostly randomly throughout the village with the only restriction being the large open areas where people would gather. Multiple larger pillars stood around the village with a rope at the top of them connecting them. Dangling from the ropes were a collection of leather, and woollen knitted figures clearly created by different people. Jen and George kept the work simple today for their daughter. They stood side by side painting the pillars greens and blues. Most of the adults began to take it easier so they would be able to fully enjoy the festival that was only two sleeps away. The only exceptions¨CHenry and Albert¨Cwere both busy preparing the food for the event. They weren¡¯t the only ones cooking, but together they handled roughly 60% of the event, everything was split between the rest of the village. George was going to bring a salad and dipping sauce. They finished up the job earlier and began to walk home hand in hand. Upon returning home Jen opened the door and looked around, ¡°Looks like Anna isn¡¯t home.¡± George said, ¡°I expect she will be back soon; she was probably nervous and wanted to move around first.¡± They were shocked when Anna told them she had something to speak to them about. They asked to just talk to them now about it but with how fiercely Eva demanded no, they postponed the talk to today. George asked, worried ¡°I wonder what they want to tell us?¡± ¡°Maybe she is finally ready to reveal another attribute?¡± Jen smiled, she was hoping that guess would be correct. They had been talking about this for the last few nights before sleep. Anna had mostly always talked to them when she had something to ask, sometimes she waited a while but she asked. Jen had been expecting a new attribute to be revealed eventually. Her logic for this was that characters in books with multiple personalities usually had different attributes¨Cit acted as another way to differentiate the characters. Jen knew her reasoning was at the very least completely childish. After Anna awoke her Fire attribute due to stress she asked to confirm if they had any other attributes awakened with it. They denied it so Jen¡¯s only chance before one just suddenly appeared was the attribute ceremony. That, however, didn¡¯t go exactly to plan as Anna burned the priest¡¯s hand. Which Jen was sure interrupted something. Jen had to admit the dude was kind of a dick, and wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Syrus did that because he did something rude. She didn¡¯t believe her action was on purpose to stop anything from being revealed because the priest should¡¯ve just checked again. But looking back Jen realised he didn¡¯t, most likely out of laziness. To preface she didn¡¯t have an issue with Anna only having one attribute, she wouldn¡¯t even be disappointed. This was just a childish fantasy that she entertained in moderation. After a moment of silence, George said ¡°I¡¯m a little worried¡­¡± ¡°...¡± Jen closed her eyes for a moment, ¡°Same¡­¡± The fact that night Eva was the one who spoke to them with such determination worried them both. They were happy she was becoming more confident, but it felt like she was doing it cause she had to, not cause she wanted to. Eva was always the quiet one, that could be because her two sisters were very much comfortable with their voices being heard, but the determined look she gave made them worry she found out something she didn''t know and couldn¡¯t deal with it. They had no idea if that theory was even remotely correct, but still, they were worried. Deep down Jen was hoping it wasn¡¯t anything bad and just something embarrassing like how the birds and the bees worked. Their conversation died down as they waited for Anlesa to come home. Minutes later. Anna walked through the door, Eva was in control with the most dire look on her face. Minutes before Anna returned home she was pacing around the edge of the forest. [...] (Eva) [You good Eva?] (Syrus) Anna continued to pace around, Eva was in complete control. She was going to be the one to talk to their parents about the facts she learned. She researched it, so she knew the answer to give best. But the nerves were getting to her. She was never good at important talks. [...] (Eva) [Lilly, they are probably already home by now.] (Luna) [...] (Eva) [Are you sure you don¡¯t want us to start the discussion?] Syrus took control of the body and stopped the pacing. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [...No¡­] (Eva) [I will be the one to do it.] (Eva) [Lilly you don¡¯t have to force yourself to do anything.] (Luna) [It¡¯s fine¡­ I may have¡­ never had such a¡­ serious conversation with my parents before¡­ but I¡¯ll manage.] Eva was scared this whole thing was going to go horribly. [Well if you''re worried the meeting will just be rain and clouds, just add a bit of good news.] (Syrus) [What good news do we even have?] (Luna) Eva thought for a moment, [I might have something.] [See that¡¯s good, think about the positives, like how Jen and George will be able to help now knowing what you know.] (Syrus) [...] (Luna) [Help¡­?] Eva and Luna were sceptical that Jen and George would be able to do anything. They wanted to believe their parents could help, but realistically the most that could be done was to improve the village¡¯s defences. Yes, they could help confirm Eva¡¯s theory that it wasn¡¯t only their village¡¯s history that was changed, but could they help stop or find out who was behind this? They thought no. The possible suspects basically included anyone powerful enough or be in a position to edit public records. Motivation was also off the table because the motive could literally be anything, from a noble trying to drive them off their land to a bet between insane friends. Eva had many sleepless nights over this and even if she desperately dreamed that her parents would have a solution, she just couldn¡¯t believe they could. The trio''s conversation ended and they finally made their journey back home. Once they reached the door, Eva took control, she knew this was something she had to talk about. It was her fear that led her down this path. She shook for a moment, but with Syrus and Luna¡¯s support, she grabbed the door handle and walked inside. Chapter 45 – Final Festival Preparation #2 Chapter 45 ¨C Final Festival Preparation #2 [Oh the stars I actually did it¡­¡­..] Eva took control once Syrus left the house and found a quiet corner, and she immediately collapsed to the ground. [Congrats you were able to get everything you wanted across!] Luna celebrated her success. [Take a break, you¡¯ve earned it.] (Syrus) Syrus found the corner for Eva, it was near the forest and no one was around nearby. Everyone was either in the centre of the village or at the farms. Their room was also a private spot but Syrus felt being outside would be better for Eva. It was a pile of wooden scraps next to a tree but it was perfect for Eva. She had her eyes closed and simply breathed in and out. Eva felt good. Syrus and Luna stayed quiet for a long while, letting Eva have a moment for herself. [Was it alright to tell them about Manipulation?] Luna asked, it was an obvious question to ask since Eva¡¯s massive hesitation about it. [Yes, I¡¯ve finally reached the end¡­ my mana control feels good.] Eva smiled and began to tear up, in truth she was keeping the recent progress of her attribute splitting a secret. Syrus and Luna could feel her attempting it but they couldn¡¯t watch the progress¨Cwithout taking additional steps¨Cunfold so they had no idea how much progress she made. If they wanted to, they could expand the effort to examine Eva¡¯s mana when she was in control but neither wanted to interrupt her without permission. [That¡¯s great.] A small soft smile appeared on Anna¡¯s face as Syrus congratulated Eva. [Seconded.] (Luna) Eva blushed for a moment, embarrassed by the praise and congratulations. [Do you have any idea now what your second attribute is?] (Syrus) [Honestly¡­ no idea.] Eva shook her head confused. [I hoped figuring out some sort of inkling of what it is would make the splitting process easier, but no matter what I did I couldn¡¯t get a good feel for it.] [Weird, I can¡¯t really comment too much, but from what I know, you should have some idea of it, kind of like an instinctual thing; even without learning the name, some of the properties should be known.] Syrus was referring to the knowledge gained from her own acquaintances on the matter, but it still didn¡¯t change the fact that she mostly knew nothing. [I will just have to wait and see¡­] (Eva) [Don¡¯t rush it; collapsing at the end is never fun.] (Luna) [Sentiment has been understood.] (Eva) ¡­ More time passed, and after Eva partially recovered herself. ¡­ [...Do you think our parents are okay?] (Eva) [Yeah, Jen will already be planning her next move.] Syrus was confident in her guess. [...] (Luna) [Luna?] (Syrus) [I¡­ think we should go back now.] [I do think you¡¯re right, Syrus, but at the same time¡­ Jen and George are realistically hating themselves right now¡­] Luna didn¡¯t think about it initially¨Cwhich she was now regretting¨Cas she only focused on Lilly and not their parents'' reactions. Jen and George were both emotional and observant people, and the hurt that Eva was feeling during the talk was definitely noticed by both. [...] (Syrus) [She¡¯s right¡­] Eva stood up. This was her mess, so she was determined to finish what she started this time. [Understood, I¡¯ll get us back in a second.] Syrus took control, clapped her hands together, [We will do this together!] and sprinted home. Minutes earlier, towards the end of Anna¡¯s talk with Jen and George. ¡°Yes that is everything¡­¡± The tension in Eva¡¯s body was finally released as the massive burden was taken off her chest. Jen was shocked in more ways than one, but she asked, ¡°Is there anything else?¡± Eva began to fidget, ¡°Well¡­ there is one good thing¡­ I think?¡± George asked, ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°I think we are awakening another attribute? That¡¯s what it kind of feels like, I don¡¯t remember well how the first one felt.¡± Jen¡¯s eyes dazzled for a moment, ¡°What is it?!¡± She decided to calm the air by overplaying the excitement, hoping that would remove the tension in the air. ¡°If I had to choose, I¡¯d say manipulation¡­ my mana control has started to increase¡­ it''s been fun¡­¡± Eva smiled a wide childish genuine smile. Jen dove in for a hug, ¡°I¡¯m so happy you''re happy.¡± The hug dispersed a few moments later. Luna spoke up, ¡°We are going to leave.¡± Jen asked, ¡°Everything okay?¡± ¡°Yes, it''s just that Eva needs some space to breathe¡­ this took a lot out of her.¡± Jen and George nodded, it was clear to see as they talked that the topic was hard for Eva. ¡°All good, but be back before it gets dark.¡± Syrus chimed in, ¡°All good, as long as dinner is prepared.¡± The family had a chuckle but Syrus quickly left to find a quiet place for Eva. After Anlesa was gone for a minute. ¡°What the fuck¡­¡± George let out a long exhausted sigh. Jen wanted to do the same, but she was a little overwhelmed. What Anna told them¡­ what Eva discovered was certainly enough to shake her. She knew her kids were a bit mature for their age, but they were still very childish. Syrus was responsible but as well the wildest¨Cwanting to play with the other children and fire when she had free time. Luna was very intelligent and able to speak to anyone but had difficulties forming meaningful bonds outside her family. Still, she loved to read and spend time with the family. Finally, Eva was the most childlike. She was shy and hid behind her sisters, but she loved to read and was filled with an instinctual curiosity and wonder about everything. ¡°I think I finally understood what my parents and elders used to say, ¡®too much curiosity can be bad for you¡­¡¯¡± Jen lamented a lesson she never really understood. George, in a failing attempt to cheer up the mood, said, ¡°Well, looks like she was the one to inherit your curiosity to the max.¡± ¡°I was proud of that¡­ but I didn¡¯t know it would hurt this much.¡± Jen always loved to learn and study, but it would be a lie to say she had kept that passion up all these years. She became busy with work and starting a family, so gave up her curiosity and focused her spare time on novels. She always loved reading fiction and non-fiction, but the former was much easier to consume, so she focused on that. ¡°I am proud of what she did¡­ she is so smart.¡± Jen began to tear up. She was happy Anna wasn¡¯t here right now, otherwise her currently barely existing control of herself might shatter. She fell to the ground, and George caught her. George was holding back his tears for the sake of his wife, but they softly leaked out as he held her tight. Jen muttered, ¡°She went through so much¡­ while I didn¡¯t care¡­¡± S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. George pulled her closer to him, cradling her head, ¡°Don¡¯t lie to yourself, Jen, you always cared.¡± ¡°No, no¡­ I saw her write, chart, and all that, and I just smiled happy she was having fun! If I asked¡­ once, if I only asked once they wouldn¡¯t have to have felt so burdened.¡± Within a moment in her own mind, Jen went from a decent parent to a horrible one. ¡°Jen, you did nothing wrong.¡± ¡°But I¡­!¡± George interrupted her, ¡°I know you are lost within your own thoughts right now, but you did everything right, you provided her what she needed¨Clove, material, and support. And the first person alive that would tell you that is Anna, then me in an extremely close second, or is it fourth?¡± The tears stopped for a moment, ¡°Trying to make me laugh in this situation¡­?¡± ¡°I mean, you would do the same?¡± George smiled. A messy, teary smile appeared on Jen¡¯s face as she closed her eyes and caressed his hand on her. ¡°You bloody goof.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m your bloody goof.¡± Jen¡¯s hand interlocked with his, ¡°That you are, and my fourth favourite person.¡± ¡°Not even zeroth?¡± George asked. ¡°That¡¯s Anlesa, then the three bounce around positions one through three claiming all spots, so you can¡¯t go there either.¡± ¡°Wow, should I feel heartbroken?¡± ¡°No¨C¡± Jen tapped her heart ¡°¨Ccause you¡¯re first for fifty percent of my heart.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine with that.¡± George warmly cuddled Jen. It took a few minutes for everything to calm down, but when it did, George asked, ¡°What are we supposed to do with that information?¡± ¡°...I have a plan.¡± A determined glint flashed in her eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll go to village two, I know their chief and I know for certain they also keep a record. I will cross-reference that myself, and I will also make plans with the chief to add extra security.¡± ¡°How will the chief and you be able to do that?¡± ¡°...There isn¡¯t much we can do in the short term¡­ or even the long term, but there are some things we can do to at least keep the kids safer.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the best we can hope for.¡± Jen and George stayed locked in their positions for a while longer. Suddenly, their door slammed open. ¡°What are you two idiots doing!?¡± A ball of emotion rocketed towards them. Before Jen or George could even react, the living ball crashed into them, breaking them apart, only for two hands to bring the three together. ¡°...We are here now¡­ don¡¯t cry.¡± Eva pulled ¡°Exactly,¡± Luna added. ¡°What demanding children, who raised you?¡± Jen only sobbed more as she pulled Anna and George closer. They all slept in the same bed that night. Chapter 46 – Anna’s First Festival #1 Chapter 46 ¨C Anna¡¯s First Festival #1 ¡°MORNING ANNA!¡± Jen and George jumped into Anlesa¡¯s room. [WOAH!] Eva was jumped by the sudden entrance. ¡°Morning Mother and Father.¡± Luna stood up out of their bed and replied in the most formal way possible to contrast their parents. George quietly chuckled at Luna¡¯s actions. Jen asked, ¡°Where is the excitement Luna, today is the day the festival starts.¡± Luna continued with the bit, ¡°Well dearest Mother, you have clearly managed to purloin it from us during our nightly slumber.¡± Then the family laughed for a few seconds. ¡°Yep I did, I¡¯m a fantastic thief.¡± George added, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call someone who would steal from their daughter a ¡®fantastic thief¡¯, that¡¯s my opinion anyway.¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s all sunshine and rainbows if I give something in return.¡± George quietly muttered, ¡°Stealing is still stealing.¡± Anna whispered back, ¡°He¡¯s right.¡± As Jen shook her head defeated and pulled out a small gift. Jen handed Anna a small book, ¡°Here is a congratulatory present for your second attribute.¡± The book''s title was ¡®Jen¡¯s Super Cool Notes on Manipulation *Attribute¡¯. Eva opened the first page and smiled, [What a very Jen thing to do.] The gift itself warmed their heart. It was a short notebook of a few pages, recounting information about the Manipulation attribute. It was clearly written and made by Jen over the last two days, not only that, she put references where she got the information from. ¡°Thank you, Mum.¡± Anna closed the book, put it under her arm, walked over to Jen and hugged her. Jen gladly returned the favour. Once the mother-daughter duo was done, George asked, ¡°Can I have one too?¡± ¡°Sureeeeeee¨C¡± Syrus jokingly replied. ¡°¨CYep!¡± Eva decided to add more enthusiasm to the response and gave George a large hug. The parents and Anna split a little bit later. So Anlesa had time to get changed and prepare for the festival. Anna put on some tie-on shoes that she could run in¨Cthere was going to be at least a little bit of playing with the other children. She put on some nicer clothes gotten for her on a previous birthday, a short-sleeved red shirt and long baggy brown pants¨Cnot the brightest colour, but they were comfortable. To add the final touches Anna put on the pendant she received for her 6th birthday, she had to replace the string a couple of times, but the pendant itself was well taken care of. Having a few more spare minutes of time, Anna chose to further read her gift. Page one went over the basic uses of Manipulation. How it increased mana control and allowed people to manipulate mana outside their body and within other objects much easier¨Cthis being great for certain artisan professions which was why Manipulation was high in demand. Jen even listed some of the professions¨Csmiths, jewellers, enchanters, weavers, potion makers, engravers. She even added a note that said, ¡®There¡¯s a lot of crossover!¡¯ Page two went over some other benefits of Manipulation. How the natural effect of the attribute boosted mana flow and control even without using the attribute directly. It also went over how it can improve reaction time and the efficiency of strengthening the body with mana. [Huh, I didn¡¯t know about the physical aspect of Manipulation.] (Syrus) [I doubt most people did, it would be written in the books but the general public opinion is that its use lies predominantly in creation. Which isn¡¯t wrong. You can use a large kitchen bowl as a hat in the rain, but the bowl¡¯s primary usage is still to eat from.] (Luna) [...I did know of it, but as Luna said, it¡¯s not the aspect people care about. And it is something you have to train for it to be truly effective, from what I heard it''s only an insignificant boost without the effort put in, and most would rather spend the effort improving their craft instead¡­ Not that I really noticed, due to my¡­ condition, I doubt any of the physical improvements even manifested.] (Eva) Page three spoke about more wild uses of Manipulation. From the different weapons some of the extremely rare combat users of Manipulation¨Cflying knives, rope and wires, puppets, and traps. It talked about how they were used and the difficulties in learning each. The last section of this page referenced how Manipulation worked with certain other attributes, for combat or craft purposes, there was another note from Jen, ¡®A very unknown field!¡¯ Then there was page four. All that was on it was one message, written in large fancy letters, ¡®Remember to have fun, explore and enjoy yourself, don¡¯t worry about maximising your effort to achieve something (Money, power, etc)¨Cunless you Genuinely enjoy doing that. We love you, Anlesa. Take care of each other, Luna, Eva, Syrus.¡¯ ¡°Thank you¡­¡± Anna smiled and closed the book. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She left her room to reunite with her folks. George and Jen were still making breakfast so Eva announced, ¡°Let me join in.¡± ¡°Sure dear, can you grab the bowl from the table then?¡± ¡°Understood,¡± Luna replied, picking up the bowl as she passed and walked over to her parents. The family worked hand in hand to create a fitting breakfast for a busy day of mostly fun¨Cwith a tiny bit of work. Once they were done, they had bowls of grain, meat, and a couple of different sauces for them to enjoy. They all dug in, and the family had a large fulfilling meal together. With that, Jen and George only had to check up on a few things and then all that was left to do was to enjoy the rest of the day. Chapter 47 – Anna’s First Festival #2 Chapter 47 ¨C Anna¡¯s First Festival #2 The dull village had changed into a colourful event. Wooden decorative statues were splattered across the village, the majority of which were animals. Most were made by Elly, but there were still plenty made by other families. These ones were of a worse quality but had a personal touch of the family¨Cmarks, names, odd spots, etc. There were also small artworks placed around the town, these were mostly made by the children and had an odd charm about them. Tables and chairs were set up in the middle of the village around a large fire, but there was also an area between five of the large pillars, where at the top of them was a stitched-together tarp of leather that covered the area between them¨Cjust in case it rained. There were already a few chairs and tables there, so people didn¡¯t have to be in the sun. The pillars themselves were each roughly two and a half metres tall, made of shorter shaved-back trees. The woollen-knitted figures and wooden signs dangled between the rope connecting them. Jen and George went to check on the crops. They would be doing this for half an hour, and once that was done, they would come back to celebrate. Different groups of parents would head over at different times until the afternoon. [Now, what are we going to do?] (Luna) [I don¡¯t know, the food doesn¡¯t come out until later, right?] (Syrus) The morning was slow, and the adults remaining in the village¨Cwho weren¡¯t cooking¨Cwere just standing around happily talking to each other. [Let¡¯s just go hang with the kids.] (Eva) [Seriously?] (Syrus) [Is that a problem?] (Eva) Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Nah, just you''re never one to bring that up.] (Syrus) [It¡¯s a festival¡­ Let¡¯s just make sure everyone is having fun.] (Eva) With an idea set, Anna decided to find some people to hang out with. Anna wasn¡¯t that social with the other kids. When Syrus was in control, she kind of was, but only when playing games, outside of that, they didn¡¯t really have much interest in hanging out with other kids. Usually, it was the youngest, Lilly, who found it the most awkward to be around them. Luna didn¡¯t mind, she had been around many kids visiting the church orphanages and public displays of the church. Syrus just enjoyed moving around and didn¡¯t have a problem being around kids. Anna walked over to where a small group of kids were hanging out¨CBilly, Elliot, Tom, Jerry, Leah, and Ella. The usual suspects. There weren''t that many kids in the village, depending on where one set the age limit, there were about fifteen, but that still made up a decent percentage of the town¡¯s population. The youngest was five and the oldest was fourteen; after that, parents in these parts would stop considering them children. That was a mindset that changed where people lived, but here on the outskirts, every extra pair of capable hands was needed. No new kids had been born for a while. Most parents had a few children, the ones that didn¡¯t have any or only one were happy with the amount they had. People weren¡¯t interested in having any more children either, due to the multiple recent issues the town had been having in the last few years. Anna remembered hearing this information a couple of times when some of the older members of the village rambled about their parents asking about when they would have another kid. Billy, was the youngest, at seven years old now, shiest, son of Mern, and the first one Anna properly met after her awakening. He hung around Ella a lot, who was twelve this year, and Elliot, who was also his age. Ella had a bit of a mouth but was kind and a bit competitive. She also took care of Billy when he needed help, mostly because he asked nicely. Tom was Ella¡¯s younger brother by a year and was considered by most to be the most annoying. He had refused to give up in games multiple times even after being caught; it took a combination of Syrus and Ella to stop that behaviour, mostly by just ignoring him when games were played. Jerry and Leah were siblings aged nine and eight, respectively. Both were frequent troublemakers in the village. Elliot was Ella¡¯s cousin and stayed around his family a lot. ¡°What are you all doing?¡± Syrus walked up from behind the group. This caused Tom and Jerry to jump, but everyone just said hi. Jerry coughed first and asked, ¡°Did you hear? We get to have a group sleepover!¡± Syrus replied, "Yeah, I heard, Elly¡¯s place.¡± Jen told them in the morning that all the children under fourteen would have a sleepover at Elly¡¯s place. Elly¡¯s place actually had a large basement, which she used as storage, but she was forced to move stuff around for the children tonight. The basement was something the previous owner made. ¡°Yeah, ain¡¯t that so far away?¡± ¡°It¡¯s barely a three-minute walk¡­¡± Syrus just stared blankly at the child. Elly¡¯s house was a little bit further away, and it was next to the forest, but there were still houses in between. Not to mention, it was a much longer walk to the farms. [I wonder why?] Eva thought. They didn¡¯t really talk about this morning because there were other things to do. [Maybe security? There is a high chance that kids will be running around, so if they are all supposed to return to a single place to sleep, it makes it easy to count. [Especially if the adults will stay up late partying.] (Syrus) [That sounds right.] (Luna) Ella commented, ¡°Stop complaining, Jerry, you were the first one excited to explore Elly¡¯s basement.¡± Leah added, ¡°Yeah! Don''t be annoying in front of Anna.¡± ¡°Why are you against me, Sis¡­¡± The crew chatted for a little longer about mostly random topics. Syrus didn¡¯t talk much, and she only really spoke when questions were asked. Billy then asked, ¡°You guys want to play something?¡± Syrus said, ¡°I¡¯m fine for anything.¡± Tom replied, ¡°Tag?¡± Ella said, ¡°Nah, it¡¯s the start of the day. I don¡¯t want to be dead tired already.¡± ¡°You could just not play seriously? ¡°Yeah, no to that.¡± Billy said, ¡°If not that, do you have any other suggestions?¡± Ella shrugged. ¡°Ergh, I don¡¯t know.¡± Then Elliot finally suggested something everyone was happy with, ¡°How about bowling? The parents would¡¯ve already gotten it out.¡± ¡°That works.¡± It didn¡¯t take any convincing for the group to agree. Someone long ago made a small set of totems and a solid wooden ball to play games with. So everyone moved as a group to the open area to find where the bowling set had been placed. Chapter 48 – Anna’s First Festival #3 Chapter 48 ¨C Anna¡¯s First Festival #3 ¡°Destroy her!¡± ¡°Come on, Jerry!¡± ¡°Lose brother!¡± ¡°AREN¡¯T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE ON MY SIDE SIS?!¡± Jerry yelled back behind him, then he turned back around. His hands were trembling, and his face was sweating in nervous suspense about his upcoming turn. The game of bowling had switched from a relaxed game between the children¨Cwith more who joined in after Anna and the others started to play¨Cto an intense game with real stakes. The winner got to choose where they would sleep first~! The points were scored in the dirt, with only two names remaining¨CAnna and Jerry¨Cboth having 100 points. The game started pretty standardly. A long stretch of mostly flat dirt was found, then the ten pins were placed at one end, and the children chucked the ball towards the pins. The pins were a set of ten totems, each with a slightly different design, and sometimes they made up games where they had to knock down specific ones. One of the adults, Mern, offered to sit near the pins and place them back up each time they fell down after someone¡¯s turn. This was the third round of play. The first round was pretty simple; everyone took turns, and whatever number of pins were knocked down would be added to their score. However, after the first round, that was when someone made the suggestion to make the game more interesting with a prize. Not everyone was on board with the idea, mostly due to some knowing that they would just lose, but enough people said yes to it, and with the adult¡¯s approval¨Cand their declaration that they would ensure whoever won would get their prize¨Cthey started the super serious round two. Anna planned to throw the second round of the game. Luna, Eva, and Syrus had taken turns in the first game of bowling, but as usual, Syrus was the best out of the three even regarding light physical activities. That didn¡¯t matter though as they were all there to just have fun. However, their plan to throw the game failed at the first step as Ella walked up to her and told her she better play seriously this time. This wouldn¡¯t have been the first instance Syrus ¡®lost¡¯ a game with stakes; she enjoyed playing and running around, but when it came to games with stakes, she felt it was best to let the children enjoy winning the prizes. Of course, this went out of the window when the stakes involved something to do with her, then instead she applied her full effort. Yet, with Ella¡¯s demand and due to the special occasion it was, Syrus decided to take control and win this game. So the second round began, and the results were close initially, but as the rounds counted up to ten, they began to spread out. The only real rule of the game was that the ball had to be thrown down the lane. That meant some people tried bowling the solid wooden ball while others tried throwing it. The ball was decently heavy for some of the children as it was made out of a dense wood. Because of the very rules that didn¡¯t limit how someone could bowl, Syrus¡¯s method of bowling was a bit unorthodox compared to the other children¡¯s. It was like some of the other kids'' attempts¡ªa full-on throw¡ªbut because of her strength, she was able to lob over most of the lane and have it hit the pins directly. Other kids tried mimicking her style with disastrous results. Not that the balls didn¡¯t fly far, the older ones who had been helping their parents with farm work could throw the ball the distance, but their aim was completely off, and so they just lost points they would¡¯ve gained if they kept up the style they initially went with. But the biggest shock was with how the second round ended. A tie between Anna and Jerry. A hundred points each. There were a few people close in the nineties, but only two people got a perfect score. Jerry was initially bragging about how skilled he was at the game, however, his confident exterior slowly shattered after he kept doing well. Bragging for a bit, then losing, was his stick. Not that he ever tried to lose, but he knew his abilities, and the strengths of everyone else well, he was quite observant in that regard. He wasn¡¯t the fastest, smartest, or had the best reflexes or skills in any area. [How is he still in this¡­?] (Eva) [To answer that question, I have no idea.] (Luna) [The ball flies in different directions each time, but it always bounces when it lands and heads straight for the totems.] (Syrus) With two people tying the second round, the children decided to have a third one¨Cwithout the two winners'' opinion¨Cwhere they would go head to head and wouldn¡¯t stop until one of them got ahead. That led right back to the same situation, where they were both at a hundred points again. Anna asked, ¡°You okay, Jerry?¡± ¡°Of course! I should be asking thatt too youu~!¡± Jerry tried smiling wide, but he just looked to be in pain. He felt exhausted by everything at the moment, and he was ready to collapse. ¡°You can do it, Jerry!¡± ¡°Come on Anna!¡± The children had divided themselves into two camps, those who were cheering for Jerry, and those cheering for Anna. However, the size gap between the two groups was quite large. Even though Jerry could be annoying, in this situation, he was the underdog against the mighty and terrifying Anna. The few children who were cheering for Anna included Billy, Ella, and Jerry¡¯s own sister, Leah. After two more turns between them, they were still tied, and it was Anna¡¯s turn again. Anna ran up to the line and launched the ball. The ball flew through the air and crashed into the pins, but as they tumbled down, two in the corners stayed standing. [Crap.] (Syrus) [I¡¯m impressed you managed to do perfect shots for so long.] (Luna) [Most games in the mercenary unit were throwing based, so I had a lot of practice.] (Syrus) [Still, that is impressive.] (Eva) With Anna¡¯s miss, the cheering for Jerry became even louder. ¡°You got this!¡± ¡°Come on, beat her!¡± [I think¡­ most people forgot about the original intent of the game.] (Eva) With everything reset and the ball passed back to him, Jerry had his turn, he just had to knock down at least one more pin than Anna. His eyes were focused on the dirt and rocks all the way down the lay, and then he chucked the ball down the lane. It flew for a moment before landing and immediately bouncing to the left. ¡°No!¡± Some children screamed. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Then, once it touched the ground, it bounced again and slammed right into all ten pins. Mern stood up. ¡°The winner is Jerry.¡± ¡°Oh my¡­ I actually did it.¡± Jerry fell to his knees, and the children surrounded him. Anna laughed and said, ¡°Good job.¡± Leah walked up to her and said, ¡°You should¡¯ve won that! Brother¡­ just got lucky somehow.¡± ¡°Haha, it¡¯s fine, just go celebrate with him. He looks exhausted.¡± Syrus patted Leah on the head and pointed at the exhausted Jerry. ¡°Good job, Anna!!!¡± Jen yelled out from the sidelines, ¡°You did amazing!¡± Eva spun around, shocked. ¡°Oh, Mum, Dad. When did you get back?¡± Both their parents were sitting down on a bench with a bunch of the other parents. [They have been watching us for over forty minutes, Eva.] (Syrus) [Huh?! When did you notice!] (Eva) [Immediately? Syrus focused on them for a second during the early rounds.] (Luna) [Ah¡­.a] (Eva) George answered, ¡°A little bit ago, but we didn¡¯t want to interrupt.¡± Jen added, ¡°Exactly, you were great out there!¡± Syrus laughed, ¡°Haha, thanks.¡± More games had been played by the children after that. Jerry¡¯s award was saved for later, with Elly promising to ensure it happened since it was her place they were sleeping in. Between snack breaks, the children played tag and hide & seek. Before long, the excitement increased as the sky darkened and everyone got together to enjoy the festival around the fire. Anna had sat down on a bench a little further away from the fire and was eating a small muffin she had collected from one of the tables. Next to her was Jen, who was enjoying the show. Jen asked, ¡°How was your day, sweetie?¡± While looking directly at the fire and the villages dancing around it. Luna answered, ¡°It was fine.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Jen smiled at the positive answer. The two sat there quietly, just enjoying the atmosphere. After a while, and her dad not being back yet, Eva decided to ask, ¡°Why did you decide to live here, Mum?¡± ¡°Hmm, why are you asking now?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know; just with everything happening, I guess the thought came up.¡± ¡°Well¡­ money mostly.¡± ¡°I know that, but why this village?¡± Eva "Oh, this village, huh?¡± Jen looked up again and watched everyone gather around happily. She chuckled, looking at the slight. ¡°By chance, honestly, nothing really else; we were looking for a place to make a home; it needed to be cheap thanks to my truthfully poor spending habits.¡± Luna asked, ¡°Do you regret it?¡± ¡°Being stuck here? No. Yes, there would be better opportunities for you and me if we moved to a large city before you were born, but I¡¯ve been happy here, and honestly, I can¡¯t imagine my life without the wonderful moments that I gained from being here.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Eva nodded, contemplating Jen¡¯s answer. ¡°Are you having trouble understanding my decision?¡± Eva laughed and said, ¡°No, I¡¯m not. I understand completely.¡± She grabbed her mother''s hand, leant into her, and stared into the village centre. Lilly remembered doing this a long time ago in her past life, and it would always bring a smile to her mum¡¯s face. Minutes later, from across the village, a voice yelled out from inside a building, ¡°Okay, everyone! Time for the cake!¡± With the door being slammed open, Henry walked, holding two points of a large wooden board with a large blanket-covered item on it. ¡°Woohoo!¡± Cheers from some of the old folks we let out. Henry and George left the building and carried over the cake to the main table. Once it was placed down, Henry grabbed the cloth and threw it off the cake. The cake was massive, with two layers¨Cit was dyed a light aqua made from locally sourced ingredients. If a person from a city saw the cake, they would say it was nothing special, but to the villagers, it was a massive masterpiece. However, tastewise, the cake would even shock professional tasters from cities. Henry was a master of his craft, and he was always happy to flex his muscles during these festive occasions. People had already begun swarming the cake, Eva was about to stand up, but Jen tapped her shoulder and told her to not worry. Moments later, George walked over with three wooden bowls of cake. "Sorry, I took so long.¡± Jen laughed and accepted the bowl, ¡°It¡¯s fine, it just means we get to eat the cake sooner.¡± George sat down on the other side of Anna. Syrus took the bowl, looked down at it, and asked, [Who wants the first bite?] [We will all taste it anyway¡­] (Luna) [True, but it is about the experience.] (Syrus) [You just take the first bite then¡­] (Eva) Syrus shrugged and took a bite of the front of the cake. ¡°Wow¡­ this is amazing.¡± Luna let out a small gasp of amazement as the flavour entered their mouth. She had eaten many cakes before in ceremonies and events, but still, this one certainly topped them all in taste. [Wow, this shit is really good.] (Syrus) [Very light¡­] (Eva) As they began to enjoy the cake. ¡°Dammit! I still haven¡¯t surpassed it yet!¡± Albert complained while standing next to the table chewing on a small slice of cake. Henry rubbed his moustache and shot back, ¡°Haha, I love to take your compliment, but I have to disagree, the beef you made was simply delectable.¡± ¡°Talk about cooking shit once you move away from the table, please!¡± Elly called out, ¡°Some of us still haven¡¯t tried the thing yet.¡± ¡°What a crazy bunch,¡± George mumbled. Jen poked George¡¯s cheek repeatedly and said, ¡°Don¡¯t say that about your friends.¡± George jokingly sighed, ¡°Have you drunk any alcohol? I swear we made sure to keep it away until the kids went to sleep.¡± ¡°Of course not, I¡¯m a respectable woman.¡± ¡°Debatable, but I think so at least.¡± ¡°What¡¯s¡­ that supposed to even mean.¡± ¡°Probably a flirt of some kind, a bad one.¡± Said Syrus, who was still sitting between her parents. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m not one to flirt in public.¡± Syrus matter-of-factly said before taking another bite of cake, "Yes, you are Dad.¡± Jen laughed. ¡°She¡¯s got you there.¡± Luna stated, ¡°Mum, you do as well.¡± After whipping her lips clean of cake. George¡¯s jabbed back, ¡°She¡¯s got you there.¡± The family of three or five stayed sitting on the bench for over an hour chatting the night away. But before it got too late, George asked, ¡°Want to dance?¡± Jen covered her mouth and chuckled. She turned to Anlesa and said, ¡°That¡¯s up to Annas.¡± ¡°...¡± Anna paused. Jen whispered, ¡°Come on, can we do it with each of you?¡± Eva whispered back, ¡°But¡­ we¡¯ve never danced before.¡± [It will be fine.] Syrus laughed. [Yes¡­] Luna agreed, but she was also quite embarrassed for some reason. She had danced before, but that was for ceremonies, and she had never done it with family before. ¡°And that had never stopped you before, Eva.¡± Eva nodded. ¡°Hmhmp!¡± And gained a new level of confidence. That¡¯s right she wasn¡¯t going to just give cause it would be embarrassing! She was a new, stronger Eva. That was what she was telling herself anyway. The family stood up together and moved over to the bonfire. The musicians of the village¨Ca few people trying to smack drums and swing maracas together in rhythm¨Cincreased their effort when they saw the family come over. Within Anna, who was in control, swapped without even a moment''s notice throughout the dance. It nearly looked like a fight was occurring with how often changes happened. Syrus spun her parents around, Luna eased them into a fast waltz, and Eva just went along with the motions of her parents. They kept going long after some others stopped dancing, unable to stop the smile on their faces. It was a night to remember. Chapter 49 – A Night To Remember #1 Chapter 49 ¨C A Night To Remember #1 S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Thanks for the help, Anna.¡± Elly, thanked Anna as she helped her organise all the children. Luna replied, ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Elly had set up the basement in such a way that there were beds for all the children, however, expecting everyone to behave properly was a pipe dream. The basement was large enough to fit everyone, but to that, Elly had to move everything out of it. She had kept some of her excess materials and long-term in-progress works down there. Elly moved those items upstairs, outside, and a few in the corner of the room. The basement was connected to the ground floor by a trapdoor and ladder. Simple cloth beds were laid out across the floor¨Cone for each child. The basement did have one more door that led down a long, cramped hallway. Apparently, a work-in-progress construction that was left uncompleted by the previous house owner¨Cthat¡¯s what Elly told the kids anyway. The previous owner had the Earth attribute and apparently was extremely skilled with it. Each of the children got the turn to pick their bed. With Jerry being the first one to pick a bed, he chose one in the corner of the room. Then after that, it became a mess, of kids moving their beds, and then the children decided to sleep together. Anna had seen the pile of them and wanted to laugh, but didn''t due to not wanting to wake them up. It was 11 p.m. 10 p.m. was when the kids went to the basement to sleep, and over the last hour, all their remaining energy completely drained away, and they passed out. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re not tired, Anna?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m fine.¡± "Well, consider yourself tough; some of the adults are completely gone, and the rest are slowly dropping off.¡± The average time to sleep for most people was 8-9 p.m. They were from a farming village, so they went to bed early and got up early. Staying up late and partying all day was going to exhaust these people, and their internal clocks would be yelling at them to sleep. Anna asked, ¡°Can I stay up here to sleep?¡± ¡°Eh, I would prefer it if you stayed downstairs, but why, though?¡± Luna answered, ¡°Honestly, that was always my plan.¡± Elly thought about it for a few moments before easily relenting to the demands. ¡°Okay¡­ but as long as you don¡¯t leave the house.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± Elly brought up a cloth bed for Anna, and once she did that, she went to her own bed to lay down. [...This was fun¡­] (Eva) [For sure, I haven''t been part of many small village festivals, but they sure knew how to hold one.] (Syrus) [Talented people can do wonders even with little resources.] (Luna) [For sure.] (Syrus) [Did either of you experience any similar festivals before?] (Eva) [Kind of Lilly, I had visited many small villages in my travels, and some liked to celebrate a successful job with us. But in this case, the festival is a country-wide transition, and I have been part of many of those, but it feels different in a small town compared to a city.] (Syrus) [Exclusively from private venues in cities, sadly, but I doubt I missed much even if I was able to freely move around. The funnest part about tonight''s event was celebrating it with people I enjoyed being around.] (Luna) [Truer words.] (Syrus) [Hm-hmph!] Eva hummed in agreement. They relaxed for a few more minutes. [Time to sleep?] Syrus asked, in case there was anything else they wanted to do. [Let¡¯s go say goodnight to our parents first.] (Eva) [Let¡¯s.] (Luna) They left the building and went looking for their parents. Thankfully, they weren¡¯t hard to find. Jen and George were still just outside, helping clean up a few things before bed. George noticed her first. ¡°Anna, what are you doing back?¡± ¡°Just came to say goodnight.¡± George smiled and crouched down for a hug. "Well, goodnight, sweetie.¡± Truthfully, they had already said goodnight when all the children left for Elly¡¯s house, but once more didn¡¯t hurt. Jen added, "Goodnight, Anlesa. See you tomorrow.¡± ¡°I love you guys.¡± The hug was short and sweet, and they said goodbye one last time and split ways. Anna went back to Elly¡¯s house to rest. Hours passed, and compared to the atmosphere from earlier, the night was quiet, the animals silent, and the peaceful sound of snores was all that was heard. Click. Then a small fire was made in the tree line. 1 a.m Everyone was sound asleep. Then suddenly, Anna got up. [Syrus, is everything good?] (Luna) [Probably, I just thought I heard something. Sounded like a footstep, so someone probably fell asleep in the wrong spot and just got up.] Syrus was the one who woke up. This wasn¡¯t the first time that a quiet noise woke her up in the middle of the night, she was a very sensitive sleeper. Syrus walked to the window to see if she could see anything. After she didn¡¯t notice anything for a few seconds. Teeeeoom! An explosion of wind burst into the village, waking everyone up. Elly flew out of her bed. ¡°What?!¡± Syrus yelled back, ¡°Mern¡¯s house just exploded!¡± [Mern¡¯s gift is wind. Probably his doing.] (Syrus) [That doesn¡¯t explain why he did it, and he was only okay at using it.] (Luna) [!...] (Eva) Villagers began to suddenly awaken in a panic, and Eva entered a state of shock. A figure emerged from Mern¡¯s house limping; however, it wasn¡¯t Mern. It was a man in layers of grey and dark green clothes with his face covered. A longsword was gripped in his right hand, which he used as a crutch, and a dagger was held in his other hand. ¡°Elly, hostiles are outside.¡± Syrus immediately ran to the door, taking a quick look around the house and picking up a plank of wood. Elly let out a loud whisper as she tried to grab Anna and missed, ¡°Anna~! Get back here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to my parents,¡± Syrus replied back. ¡°That¡¯s great! But get back here; I¡¯m going to block the hatch.¡± ¡°Great, please¨C¡± Luna turned back and stared directly at Elly¨C¡°Don¡¯t wait for me.¡± With that, Syrus ran into the village, aiming to get cover behind a building. ¡°You crazy girl¡­¡± Elly clenched her fist and it bled. She wanted to go after her, but she made a promise, and she had to keep it. So she went back inside to block the hatch. Once outside, Syrus pinpointed the location of multiple armed figures within the village. They were coming in every direction, and she could see at least nine of them. The group wore non-identifying clothes and cloaks. [What¡¯s happening?!] Eva exited her shock state and entered full-blown panic, but she was able to keep barely enough control to ensure she wouldn¡¯t accidentally take control of the body away from Syrus. [Lunatics attacking the village! We need to get to the battle position quickly!] Syrus said, and she quickly ran out from behind a building and slammed the plank into a thug''s face. The man caught off guard fell back, and Syrus followed up by sucker punching his face right into the dirt. She grabbed the sword in her left hand, using her Blood attribute to strengthen her body more than she already was in preparation to wield it properly. [We need to find Mum and Dad.] (Luna) [I know.] (Syrus) They were trying to make a path to their home that wouldn¡¯t leave them out in the open. Another masked individual set fire to one of the houses, but Syrus couldn¡¯t focus on them for now. They finally neared their house when another individual stood out in front of them, prepared to intercept. The individual was a little shocked. ¡°A kid with our sword?¡± He only noticed a short figure with a sword running in this direction. Upon closer inspection, he noticed it was not only a child; they had one of his companions'' swords. Confused, he still entered the proper combat stance, ready. He two-handed his sword, and the blade was held forward in a defensive stance. [That sword style?] Luna recognised it; it was one of the common ones taught in the Nevald Kingdom, but one still needed to be in a position where they could be taught it. Syrus watched the man¡¯s eyes closely. He watched her motion carefully, with a bit of confusion and hesitation. Without a moment''s notice, Syrus flung the plank like a spear into the man¡¯s face. In a panic at the unexpected attack, he quickly raised his sword to block, but he was too late. The wood smacked him in the face. No longer looking at her anymore, Syrus stepped forward and swung her sword into the individual¡¯s stomach. But instead of cleanly passing through, the man¡¯s skin hardened like metal, and he panicked and swung his sword down towards Anna, who was in range. Syrus quickly pumped her blood, increasing her strength, summoned small flames on the sword, and penetrated horizontally into the man¡¯s stomach before she let go of the blade and ducked back. She picked up the plank that had landed back on the ground. [Why didn¡¯t you take the sword!] (Luna) [We would¡¯ve been cut down. It was a lodge, but at least he should be hurting.] (Syrus) The man grabbed the sword¡¯s handle and, with a bit of effort, removed the blade from his stomach. In the process, a large amount of blood fell out. [...Huu..haa¡­huaa¡­.] Eva was finding it harder to control herself. She wanted to jump back to Soul Space, but the extreme desire to know her parents'' condition kept her locked in the body. The man fell over as he tried to hold his wound together. [I¡¯m going to finish him.] Syrus explained, her eyes locked on the sword he carelessly threw through the ground. As she was about to, another individual accelerated between them. Covered in the same clothes, Mana surrounded his figure as he crossed the village in a matter of seconds. With a tone of authority, he said, ¡°What are you doing? Losing to a kid. Prepare to be reprimanded when we are back¨C¡± The man looked down at the sword on the ground, his subordinate clearly taken out¨C¡°Wait for a healer before taking items out of your stomach; otherwise, you will bleed out.¡± ¡°ErYes. Sorry sir.¡± The man said back hypocritically, speaking in the same formal language, ¡°None of the language when we are out of the job.¡± [That voice¡­~!] Luna mentally froze as she recognised that voice. [Luna! Do you fucking know these bastards!] Syrus yelled. To make the situation worse, two villagers ran back while trying to avoid a flurry of attacks from one of the attackers. They finally found their parents. [Dad!] (Eva) George¡¯s hands were alight in flames, and Jen was holding rocks in her hand, but neither was looking good. Both were exhausted, and going up against individuals with weapons and nothing but one¡¯s limbs as non-combatants wasn¡¯t going to end well. Bam! The man sped towards Anna with a dagger aimed at the gut. [Bullshit speed gifts!] (Syrus) But Syrus was able to block it with the plank¨Ccausing the plank to snap in the process. ¡°Anna!¡± George screamed, noticing what was happening. Shock and confusion that his daughter was outside, and she nearly lost her life. The man, taking advantage of the opportunity, called out, ¡°If you want your daughter to live, surrender quietly.¡± The man gave a hand sign to the individual fighting them. Luna, in a cold, emotionless yell, said, ¡°Don¡¯t believe them!¡± She ran up towards the man with the intent to grab the sword behind him. The man, noticing the location, just stepped to the side and tried to kick Anna away. However, Luna blocked the blow with a small layer of Moonlight under her shirt, and Sryus used her left to swing herself across the ground, rolling towards the sword. However, George couldn¡¯t keep defending and was kicked to the ground, and the combatant raised his sword to slice him down. Jen instinctively grabbed George and tried to pull him out of the way. Anna looked up and watched the blade fall down. For a moment that felt like an eternity. Everything was falling apart again. Losing what one never had. Losing what one regained. Losing what one accepted. ¡°¡°¡°!!MUMDAD!!¡±¡±¡± Three screamed in union as a burst of flames shot out and a large dome of cracked purple light flooded the area. Chapter 50 – A Night To Remember #2 Chapter 50 ¨C A Night To Remember #2 Everything was blown back, and Anlesa collapsed onto the ground. Her mana supplies seemed dangerously low, but a small portion stayed stored within her blood, which began spreading throughout her body to maintain herself. None of the attackers died from the outburst; however, houses were flipped and people knocked over, with some parts of buildings now completely out of place. ¡°Sigh, why wasn¡¯t a child with multiple attributes reported? I felt at least three within that outburst. We send people to do a job they can¡¯t even do right.¡± The man dodged the burst and watched as Anlesa collapsed to the ground. ¡°Four, kill her once Six patches your wounds, this is your mess. She has had an attribute outburst, so I doubt you will screw this up again.¡± Sounds of screams and bloody murder echoed throughout the night. The music of the sparks and flames began to overtake everything though, as the fires were started on every house. ¡°Once we are back at camp, I want a detailed report on why this operation wasn¡¯t kept silent.¡± The figures nodded in understanding. Anna¡¯s eyes tried to stay open as they looked towards where their parents should¡¯ve been. They found nothing. [Are they alive¡­?] (Eva) [...] (Luna) [...] (Syrus) [Are they alive¡­?!?!] (Eva) [Argh!] (Eva) They didn¡¯t know what happened. They could be dead, missing, or whatever. The only thing that they were sure of was that they were gone. Which was something none of them wanted to experience. Her eyes kept frantically searching, but she still couldn¡¯t find anything, and before long, the individual that Syrus stabbed in the gut came walking over with his sword. [Luna¡­ they are from the church, aren¡¯t they?] A seething anger was exploding within Syrus. A cold ferocity responded, [Yes¡­ I¡¯m sure of it.] Luna was unsure, scared, angry, and shocked while she faced the clues she received from the group''s actions and motions. Confusion was first. She hated the Aurora Church, but even during her time there, she never expected they would do something like this. While she understood she wasn¡¯t told anything, she understood they were pieces of shit that would murder their own saints, directly harming innocent civilians. She believed the church would always take advantage of any situation that came their way, but getting their own hands dirty? Attacking villagers? Innocent people? Why? What for? She was internally screaming, What goddamn forsaken purpose were they attacking her family for?! None of it mattered. The only thing that did matter was that they took her family away from her again. Anna watched as everything went up in flames. [Good¡­] Syrus said with anger filling her mind, [We know who our enemy is once this is over.] There was a saying among mercenaries where Syrus was from, that yesterday¡¯s enemy was tomorrow¡¯s friend. A popular saying that lasted over two hundred years and helped foster a positive working environment. But with the war that took her life, she learned that sometimes you couldn¡¯t let bygones be bygones The man silently prayed before he readied himself to swing his sword down. Syrus quickly crushed the man¡¯s throat, and he couldn¡¯t talk. He was still sadly alive, but Syrus couldn¡¯t waste another millisecond on him. She had grabbed the sword and was already after her main target, who wasn¡¯t looking in this direction¨Ctheir attackers'' leader. With a sword in hand, she leapt through the air. The child¡¯s eyes flashed a hostile amber, red, and grey. The man in charge quickly turned around, noticing a disturbance, but wasn¡¯t fast enough as a surprise sword was lodged into his chest. In retaliation, he sent a speedy kick right into Anna¡¯s gut, causing her to be sent flying. Poof, poof, boom. Anlesa¡¯s body bounced across the ground, with Syrus having enough wheel power to roll with the impact to mitigate damage. ¡°Damn, persistent kid.¡± The man didn¡¯t pay attention to the child¡¯s roll, and instead was infuriated at his men. ¡°How did you manage to screw that up?¡± He turned to Four, who was still on the ground, clenching his neck, ¡°Get over here, Six, and Four, you return to camp. I don¡¯t want to see you mess up one more thing.¡± Four nodded, and he got up and began quickly walking out of the village back to camp to get himself properly healed before the damage lasted. The man set a hand signal for Six, which ordered him to run towards the child. Then, when he neared the child, the leader, cloaked in spiralling mana, flashed and appeared next to the child, and Six started healing him with a green-coated mana. With one hand gripped on the sword in his chest¨Cready to pull it out once he felt the healing process had done enough¨Chis second hand held his dagger. He kicked the child over, which Syrus allowed, to lower his guard. Looking over the kid, he only saw one emotion in their eyes¨C. [Hate] ¨CAnd Lilly recognised the emotions in his eyes. Pity, disdain, and scorn. She had seen those emotions so many times. By teachers, classmates, and friends. Those emotions appeared at different times, sometimes for different reasons at differing levels, but they always appeared. The only eyes that never showed those colours to her were those of her parents. No matter what life, no matter what mistakes or failings she made, they never looked at her that way. She thought she didn¡¯t deserve parents like these, but she finally understood that nothing was deserving or undeserving about it. They were simply parents, and they just happened to be parents who loved her. They deserved to live a long, happy life, but now¡­ they could be gone forever. [[[HATE]]] A single emotion resonated between them in rhythm, pushing them past the limit, and into a single beat. The man readied his knife hand for a quick clean blow, just like how he liked it. Like a feral animal, Anna just leapt off the ground and spun through the air. Six and the leader were shocked that she somehow still had energy. Six hurriedly tried to grab the sword on his hip, and the leader flipped the dagger in his hand and made a jab towards the child. But the knife hit a solid white light protection. Simultaneously with his failed attempt, the child sent a full-powered kick with her bloody and longer right leg into the sword in his stomach. ¡°Ergh!¡± The man groaned, and he dropped his knife, but the pain wasn¡¯t enough to stop his speed. Mana swirled around his arms, and he caught the child by the neck. He lifted the child up, applying enough pressure that it would be hard for her to breathe. "Oh, I wish the reports were correct, you would¡¯ve been useful, much more backbone than my current subordinates.¡± Anlesa couldn¡¯t tell whether he was being serious or was just using the opportunity to vent. "But, oh well, poor management leads to great losses. They really should have learned that by now. They lost some who not only had a Fire attribute but even a light-based one. They could¡¯ve easily marketed you as blessed by a divine phoenix serving god.¡± During his rant, he felt a tingle of the skin in his grip, and blood began to fall out from the child¡¯s neck and eyes. While she still continued to stare into his soul. In an unintended action fuelled by disgust, he lobbed the child hard, and she smashed into the ground. He took the sword out of his stomach and ordered Six to heal him faster. Six agreed, but there was a limit to his abilities. The child¡¯s eye shone a bloody amber. ¡°What the fuck..?¡± The man couldn¡¯t help but swear at what he was looking at. The child¡¯s body cracked and tore, and blood poured out of the wounds. The blood hardened like armour and spread in patches. Finally, the child screamed, ¡°ARGHH!¡± The man wanted to swoop in and end her, but he was afraid. Even facing demons and monsters didn¡¯t give him this dread. Mana poured off the girl, as in perfect rhyme with her heartbeat, she somehow was recovering it rapidly. Which should¡¯ve been impossible. The only time one would gain mana was when an attribute properly awakened, and even then, that was only because the body had sealed off a portion of the user''s mana with each attribute. But the leader had felt the child¡¯s mana and saw her attributes. She had more of both than the average person. So it was ludicrous to think that she would have another attribute on top of the three she showed. The answer wasn¡¯t simple. It was the combination of multiple factors and a stupid decision that could tear down their body. One of the grunts ran towards her, ready to end this creature. However, once he got close, Anlesa snapped towards him; her elongated arm grabbed him and threw him to the ground. Her hair rapidly grew, darkened, and lightened with reds and whites. The man started to struggle, but then her hand grew while it gripped his face, and he became terrified. The leader finally ordered, ¡°Stop everything; focus fire on the girl.¡± The individuals who were still pillaging and those who were sorting through the loot they stole stood up and ran to the commander. Those who weren¡¯t paying attention earlier were shocked at what they saw. Three started casting magic. Two users of Fire and one user of Water began to summon one to three spears of their element around them. However, before they could do anything. Fire erupted around Anlesa and the grunt; blocking the two from view. One down. The fire vanished, and the girl was no longer in sight. They panically looked around but they couldn¡¯t see her. ¡°She¡¯s up there!¡± However, one of the leader''s subordinates looked up and noticed the girl. Anlesa was standing on top of one of the large totems, untying two sets of rope. The leader was shocked to see her up there, as it would¡¯ve taken a great leap of strength to do that. He had speed with his moments, and with that, he could create additional power. However, the rare strength that this girl showed could potentially outmatch him, so he understood that this power required a physical-based attribute of her own. Then there was the issue with her appearance; before, she looked like a child somewhere between the ages of seven to ten. Now she had the appearance of a girl in her early teens. Her clothes had torn in some areas, but layers of solid blood covered her body. ¡°Fire, a Light, Blood, and another unknown one¡­¡± The man shook his head as the healing process was finally getting rid of the pain in his stomach, ¡°What a crazy night.¡± He decided he might not even reprimand Four once this was done. Anlesa yanked and tore the rope off the connecting totems. Then she tied a rope to the handle of the sword and the other to the dagger she stole from the first corpse. ¡°Now¡­ What are you doing?! Hurry up and fire!¡± The man ordered. They finally did, and elemental magic spears fired towards Anlesa. However, she jumped off the totem onto a burning house. The collapsing roof could barely support her, and she leapt down and immediately threw the sword and the dagger at two of the attackers. The targets were able to dodge, and the leader turned to make an attempt to grab the rope. Expecting that she would attempt to yank them back. However, the blades turned around midair and flew into two of his subordinates'' backs who didn¡¯t look behind them. Three down. The man cried, ¡°Manipulation!¡± Combat Manipulation was rare, but due to how famous the non-combat use was, people in his position were taught to be careful not to be caught off guard. With this new revelation, he had an ominous thought. He paused and focused his other power on the surrounding mana¡­ and he noticed it all flowed into one place. ¡°.....You''re insane¡­¡± He could only mutter, ¡°God will never forgive you for such actions.¡± He felt it. The mana in the surrounding area was being dragged into her. Not only would that be painful and normally not even worth that effort. However, she was also dragging in the mana that was slowly being converted into environmental mana¡­ from all the corpses. Such an action was considered not only heretical but also fictional. Cause how could one just take mana from a fresh corpse? After a day, the mana would be gone, but while it was there, it still possessed the same properties the individual had when they were alive. Yes, a barrier that was the soul gone; that made the action theoretically possible. But the mana would be fully dyed in that person''s attribute, so theoretically only a person with the exact same attribute could even pull the technique off. The issue kept going; you couldn¡¯t surpass your normal limit, the pain was greatly increased, and willingly bringing in mana of the wrong attribute could destroy one¡¯s body that not even healing magic could help¨Cthey were only the surface issues. There were so many problems with using it with any remote success that it was considered fictional, and that only fairytale demons or necromancers could do it. It hadn''t been filtered; if that was even possible, no, it was just all going into her. Her bloody amber eyes glowed as one brightened and the other darkened. The leader even had the thought that even if they just ran; she would be dead by tomorrow. He did know there might¡¯ve been one attribute that could make the act possible, but this girl clearly didn¡¯t have it. However, wasting time on hypotheticals was costing lives. The leader speedily grabbed the ropes and pulled the swords off them. Anlesa let go of the ropes to not be pulled along. Anlesa grabbed a sword off the ground from another corpse, and flames engulfed it. She took up Syrus''s combat stance, where the blade was ready to slice horizontally, and dashed towards the Water attribute attacker¨C Four down. ¨Cwhere he was unable to defend himself as she sliced him in half. The leader watched as his men were overwhelmed. In his mind, his hesitation to not use his attribute to its full potential was costing his men''s lives. Anlesa slid by, grabbed one of the ropes, and poured her Manipulation mana into it. The rope filled with her mana as it whacked the leader. An individual who carried two swords covered in lightning jumped in Anlesa''s path, and his two blades fell towards her. Stab. Tuff. But his two blades only landed in the dirt, and above in purple light was a woman with a flaming sword aimed at his head. Five down. The leader could only question, ¡°What are you?¡± She vanished once more and appeared next to two more of his men. They were able to feel the mana pulse beforehand and were able to react. The two sides clashed swords, parrying blows, and going in for killing strikes. However, sometimes this child was much better experienced at fighting human enemies than the leader¡¯s men. Seven down. Suddenly, a sword fell towards Anlesa. ¡°You must be stopped.¡± Mana had fully swirled around the leader, but his wound from earlier hadn¡¯t fully healed. It was a mistake on his part that was costing him greatly. His main attribute, while powerful, greatly worsened any physical injuries his body was dealing with. Being up close with the girl again, he noticed she had grown slightly taller. Anlesa''s body had kept growing throughout the fight; just now it was at a more steady, even pace. However, now the blood flow had finally stopped, and she seemed to have stopped physically growing. But a small horn on the left side of her head started growing. ¡°How many attributes do you bloody have, you inhuman vermin?¡± The two exchanged blows, with Anlesa¡¯s attempt to run away proving futile. The team leader would appear at any angle at any time. Anlesa¡¯s great reaction speed allowed her to counter, but the assault was still overwhelming. Slice. Skin was torn off Anlesa¡¯s arms and shoulders, as the blocks and deflections were starting to lead to opportunities for the leader to attack. The leader was pushing himself, even past his normal limits, just to put an end to this girl. Anlesa was being worn out, the mana in the surrounding area had been drained of useful mana, and it got progressively harder for her to absorb mana from the corpses. Her mana supplies had dropped considerably low again, and the full-powered assault on her part, especially with the teleportions, drained her tank. However, there was enough. Anlesa pushed back with an explosion of fire, threw her sword, and then went to pummel the leader right in the face. The attack caught him off guard, but he was able to defend himself; however, the attack was only meant to be a distraction. The man named Six, who had tried to stay by the commander''s side to heal, was taken down. Eight down. ¡°No¡­!¡± The leader growled at the monster in front of him, ¡°You think you can get away with this?¡± He used his second attribute to feel the mana remaining in her. The man taunted her, ¡°You don¡¯t even have your weapon anymore!¡± Keeping the fact that he knew her mana reserves a secret to himself. Anlesa turned to face him, and he appeared behind her with his sword raised, his swirling mana flowing at full ferocity, but Anlesa expected that. She always expected that. Then Anlesa faced him and spoke for the first time in exactly Luna¡¯s first life¡¯s old, cold, refined voice. ¡°Well, Sir Septurna. I did say I wouldn¡¯t forgive anyone who tried taking from me again.¡± The man completely froze. Hearing a voice that should be dead. And with a combination of Manipulation and Moonlight, a diamond prism of light stabbed through Septurna¡¯s stomach. The spiralling mana stopped. ¡°How¡­ what¡­ taboos did you touch?¡± He fell to his knees, with his eyes looking up, terrified. Anlesa spoke in her normal voice. An in-between Jen¡¯s and George¡¯s voice in tone, but deeper than both. ¡°None. I was just born this way.¡± Septurna couldn¡¯t comprehend what he was seeing, and with that, the wounds on his body, and the strain he put it through finally caught up to him, and he passed away. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nine killed. Flames had engulfed the forest and the village, but there was no one around to celebrate the vanquishment of their foes. With Septurna dead, all that was left within the village was Anna. As her mind began to split. Chapter 51 – The Aftermath Chapter 51 - The Aftermath ¡°Arghhh!!¡± The child screamed into the night like a crazed beast and fell to the ground. As the three finally returned to who they were. The fight had only lasted for a few moments. A slaughter of everything that stood in her way, and that denied their happiness. The child was no longer the short nine-year-old; instead, her body was permanently changed. Anna gripped her head as it ached. Cough! She coughed a portion of sickly black blood filled with unstable mana. In the grand scheme of things, it was only for a moment. Their hearts and souls resonated beyond simple trust, bending and morphing around one single desire. The elimination of one of the ones they hated. Now that was over, they have split again. [Errgh¡­ We need to¡­] (Syrus) [Argh¡­] (Luna) [Aerrraa¡­.] (Eva) And they absolutely despised the experience that occurred within them during the brief encounter. Syrus tried to stand up, but her knees wobbled as she was unable to put her strength into them. Their body had taken substantial damage throughout the small encounter. Not only from enemy attacks but also through the actions caused by a combination of instinct and intelligence. ¡°W-h..ere¡¯s Dad¡­ Wher-s Mum?!" Eva cried as her hands grabbed the dirt as she tried to drag herself forward. Luna also tried to move forward along with Eva, while Syrus tried to circulate blood through their body and sort out the damage. There was no time to talk; they just had to find their parents. Their mana supply was already near empty when the fight was over, but now that the fight was over, it had dropped even further. Luna already knew she didn¡¯t have enough mana to use her Moonlight to heal themselves. Syrus, on the other hand, could still use her Blood attribute to administer minor healing, but not only that, she needed to expel blood from their body that contained traces of other attribute mana as it was damaging them. The bloody Anna, after a long and hard crawl, made it back to their house¡­ They examined the area where her parents were last seen, but there was nothing but junk and parts of houses scattered around. She then made it to the doorless entrance of their home. The fire that had attacked it had stopped before it finished destroying everything. Perhaps it was the cool breeze or the fire-resistant wood used, either way, all it meant was that Syrus didn''t have to stop it. It was partly burned down, and parts of it had been thrown around. Eva coughed more blood and screamed, ¡°MUM!¡± "DAD!¡± ¡°Where are you!?¡± Luna as well, ¡°Please! Where are you!?¡± Syrus held back from yelling anything as the sight of their burned home shook her. They crawled around their broken home for minutes and found nothing. They went back outside to where they were before. Then back inside, then out again. Luna finally gave up and said, [Let¡¯s rest¡­ We need to heal ourselves.] Eva nodded with their body and just went silent. She didn¡¯t enter their Soul Space, and instead just sat there quietly. None of them talked to each other. Each could feel that the others were hurting. Syrus continued to repair the body by circulating the blood and improper mana out. It took a while for Eva¨Cwho was lost in their own thoughts¨Cto realise what Syrus was doing, but when she did, she helped by using Manipulation to drag out the leftover mana they absorbed out of the body. Once they had recovered enough mana, Luna used Moonlight to properly start the healing process. Whatever happened when Anna fought in that state, they wouldn¡¯t be able to replicate it now. The process of using external mana from other sources made only basic theoretical sense to Eva, but any practical practice of it was insane¨Cignoring the fact that their body with instinct and theoretical knowledge alone somehow made an impossible feat possible. While they kind of knew what they did while in that state, the issue was that, at best, the sequence of events was a vague recollection. As such, the leftover mana that the body took in but wasn''t able to absorb properly was still lying in the body, causing damage. The body also started feeling the aftereffects of the stress from the rapid growth. During the fight, a large amount of mana was used with Syrus¡¯s Blood attribute to keep the body moving properly despite the rapid changes. After some time, they were finally able to stand up again. Syrus spoke, ¡°Now¡­ let¡¯s search again.¡± They went through every room of the house. The kitchen was empty, their room was empty, but their notebook was still intact, if not a little singed under their bed. Then they entered their parents'' room through the curtain that separated them. Syrus gripped the wooden pendant crafted by George on their sixth birthday. The room was devastated by the fire. The large pile of papers for classes was simply a pile of ashes. The desk George used to carve items before bed collapsed. The bed had broken under the burned wooden planks of the roof, and the wall had fallen apart, revealing the burning forest. ¡°...They¡­ can¡¯t¡­¡± Eva cried tears of grief and longing. ¡°WHY!¡± ¡°I¡­I..¡± Luna''s throat shook as she tried to find the courage to say the words she felt she needed to say. However, Syrus would have none of that. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare blame yourself, Luna.¡± Eva added, ¡°If you do¡­ I¡¯ll do anything in my power to punch you in the face.¡± Anna moved through the last remaining room. The bathroom. At this point, Anna had no idea she was even trying to find¡­ She just wanted to find one trace of where their parents could be. Like every other room, it was a mess. Then Anna stopped as she noticed her reflection in the broken bathroom on the floor. Eva instantly felt despair when she looked into the mirror and said, ¡°What¡­ No¡­¡± There were still a lot of things that had happened in the last hour that they hadn¡¯t processed yet. For Eva, their appearance change was one of them. But now that it was facing her directly, she was finally able to process it. ¡°Our hair, our hair.¡± Eva manically grabbed the strains of it as it flipped down in front of her face as she stared at the reflection in the broken mirror. ¡°Go back, go back, go back, go back, it¡¯s supposed to be black!¡± If someone saw Anna now, they would assume she would be around fifteen to sixteen years old, perhaps older. Her eyes had settled into their previous transformation. Both her eyes were a bloody amber, but her left was slightly brighter. Anna¡¯s hair had grown rapidly and, by the end, had stretched down to her knees. It was an uneven mess of crimson red and white, with the tips shifting to brown. Her clothes were torn thanks to the sword slashes and beatings into the ground she received and the stretching caused by her growth. However, not a speck of her skin was showing, as, besides her face, blood had hardened all over her body as a protective shell. Black hair and brown eyes were the gifts she received from her parents, and they were both taken from her. For the most part, no matter where one was from, people didn¡¯t care much about their hair and eye colour, even among families, as why would they? Those physical aspects could easily change with attributes. However, for Eva, losing that connection hurt deeply. Eva continued to cry and pull at her hair. Their physical appearance did look mostly like a grown-up version of her nine-year-old self. However, her face was sharper than either of her parents, and the obvious small horn that was on the left side of her forehead was a noticeable difference. [We need to look around.] (Syrus) [...] (Eva) [We need to see if there is anyone else around.] (Syrus) With their parents not in sight, they needed to make sure that everyone else was okay. [...That¡¯s right¡­] Luna took control, [If there is anyone left, we need to find them and help them.] Luna realised she was too lost in her own depression; her help would be necessary if there were any survivors. Eva was mentally worn out and could no longer concentrate on anything, so as Luna began moving, she left the body to rest in the Soul Space. Syrus and Luna wanted to go and comfort her, but both knew neither was in the right mindset to do that. None of them knew the exact time when the village was attacked, but they expected it wouldn''t be long before they were startled awake, and when Syrus woke up, it was probably due to some of the movements of the attackers. Syrus guessed that the attack was supposed to be a stealthy operation. Due to the evidence in play and the words that were spoken between the attackers. She didn¡¯t know how many people were assassinated in their homes before Mern¡¯s counterattack blew up his own house and alerted everyone, but there was a good chance many had already died. When that happened, the whole village was alerted, but there wasn¡¯t much that simple villages could do against trained soldiers. House after house was littered with corpses, somewhere clearing, thrown back inside a house if they died outside. Syrus surmised that this was done so the corpses could be burned with the houses. People they knew and cared about... Mern, Henry, Albert, and so many others were just dead now. They returned to Elly¡¯s house, which was also destroyed, but they turned to where the trapdoor would be and removed the large cupboard that was lying on top of it. The door was still locked, so Syrus yanked it up, breaking the locks. ¡°They aren¡¯t here.¡± Luna worriedly looked down, not noticing any of the children. However, Syrus smiled. She jumped down the hole and walked to the small door that led nowhere in the basement. [I had a peek earlier, but it does go on for ages.] She had opened the door, and there were signs of tiny footprints in the dirt. [So, this was what they meant by adding extra security.] It didn¡¯t take long for them to realise that having the children stay here wasn¡¯t just for the ease of it, but so that they would have an escape. It also explained Elly¡¯s attitude when Anna didn¡¯t want to stay. [So Elly and the children could be alive.] Luna was so thankful for Eva¡¯s decision to warn their parents; it meant some lives, and the innocent lives were at least left alive. [Potentially, depends where the exit ends up.] The tunnel wasn¡¯t lit, so they had no idea how long it went on. They stared into the long, dark tunnel for a long time. [We should follow¡­] (Luna) [Yes, but our body is likely to collapse from exhaustion soon.] Syrus warned, [And I¡¯m not sure if we can catch up to them if they were running this whole time.] Syrus, who was keeping constant track of the body, realised they wouldn¡¯t be able to stay conscious for long. The adrenaline was wearing off, and using her Blood attribute to keep the body moving couldn¡¯t last forever, especially after the body still needed to rest after all the pain and stress it underwent. Syrus scratched their head and thought for a few seconds, [Let¡¯s look for some proper clothes and see if we can find anything before we head out¡­ I doubt we will be back.] [...] Luna sorrowfully agreed. Syrus and Luna return to their house and rummage through their parents'' belongings, looking for clothes. They could¡¯ve chosen any house to find clothes that would fit their size, and there were certainly better options for that, but they wanted something from their parents. [A journal, is it Mums?] (Luna) Syrus opened it, [No, it looks like Dad¡¯s.] She immediately closed it again; it wasn¡¯t the time to look through it. S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [That seems to be everything.] (Syrus) [Besides clothes, nothing of mother''s¡­] (Luna) [Don¡¯t say that. We still have her most recent gift.] (Syrus) Luna nodded, Syrus was right, there was the manipulation book Jen made, and it was still safe along with her notebook. [Okay, now at least we need to get out of here¡­ We need to find a place to stay that¡¯s outside the village in case any more attackers come back.] (Syrus) [Once we do¡­ we need to talk with Lilly.] Luna''s concern for Lilly was huge; she didn¡¯t want her to fall back into a depressive state again. And maybe, in the process, she would stop herself from falling. [.............Yes¡­] Syrus agreed, but for the first time in her life, she was afraid of having a conversation. Before leaving the village, Syrus closed the basement door and blocked the path to it again when she hopped back down. Just in case anyone came back looking. After a quick debate, they decided to try and travel through the tunnel. However, as Syrus feared, after a few minutes of travelling, they began to collapse from exhaustion. Chapter 52 – Identity & Understanding Chapter 52 ¨C Identity & Understanding ¡°Ergh¡­.¡± Syrus slowly stood up off the white ground. ¡°Never felt sick in the Soul Space before¡­¡± ¡°How¡­ long were we out¡­?¡± Luna rolled over and sat up. The plan was to talk to Eva once they finished moving as far as they could in the real world. But once they collapsed into the cave, Syrus and Luna also passed out when they entered the Soul Space. A wave of exhaustion had smashed into both of them when they entered, causing them to collapse for a while. This was weird as they normally couldn¡¯t sleep while in the Soul Space; the only time they ever truly slept in this space was before the three of them awoke in the body. Once Luna finally regained her bearings, she noticed her form had changed. ¡°We grew up here as well?¡± Luna panicked for a moment. ¡°Syrus, how do I look?!¡± ¡°A grown-up version of your previous soul form?¡± Syrus squinted and looked up and down Luna¡¯s new form. ¡°How about me?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ good.¡± Luna sighed in relief, ¡°About the same yourself¡­ but you are definitely bigger¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t say¡­¡± Syrus grabbed Luna and helped her up. Syrus'' appearance looked to be that of a tall, eighteen-year-old woman, but she could easily be guessed to be in her twenties. Her now bright crimson hair went only down to her neck, short, how she liked it. Her facial features were noticeably sharper compared to Luna¡¯s, and she still was very muscular. Another chance was her clothes, she was now adorned in what seemed to be light leather combat gear, dyed brown and plated in certain areas with dark, bloody red armour. Luna, in contrast to Syrus, only wore a black cloth with holes for arms and legs. She was about their current body¡¯s height, which was about a head shorter than Syrus. She had a very soft face, and long white hair went down to her back, but her bright pink eyes now had a sharp glint to them. ¡°Let¡¯s go¡­¡± Luna sombrely spoke as they made their way to Eva, but when they looked to where her emotions were flowing from, they saw a brown and black-haired girl crouched over, holding herself together. Luna ran and then slid to Eva, embracing her in a hug. ¡°Lilly! Are you okay?!¡± Luna didn¡¯t even compute that she was able to properly touch Eva, in normal situations, they would just pass through each other when their soul forms touched. Sounding exhausted and hurt, Eva said, ¡°I¡¯m¡­ alive¡­¡± Unlike Luna or Syrus, Eva¡¯s appearance looked far more ragged. Her hair split down the middle, between the black of Anna¡¯s and Jen¡¯s, and the left half was the brown half of her past life. The hairs on the fringe of her forehead overlapped, but a few strains were caught on the greyish-black horn on the left side of her forehead. Her previously grey eyes were now a bright amber. She had also grown to about sixteen, and her clothes were sized-up versions of the clothes they were wearing the day of the festival. Syrus sat down and didn¡¯t join in on the hugging. She was afraid that her own feelings and emotions would spiral if she didn¡¯t control herself. After a few minutes passed, Syrus tried to take control of the situation, ¡°Okay, there has been a lot that has happened in a too short period of time¡­ So let¡¯s just try talking about all the topics one by one, shall we? ¡°There is only one thing that matters¡­¡± Eva gripped her soul form¡¯s arms. Syrus agreed, ¡°Yes¡­¡± Everyone¡¯s emotions were especially tense, ¡°But let¡¯s save that topic for last¡­ Just to give us a few minutes for our emotions to calm down.¡± Because everyone could feel everyone¡¯s negative emotions, even if they didn¡¯t want to, they knew it was best to save that topic for last. Luna released one of her arms off Eva and turned to Syrus. ¡°Okay. How about what happened to us for that minute, our changes here, the physical changes, then we will talk about Jen and George.¡± Syrus nodded. ¡°Works for me.¡± Eva finally pulled herself up. ¡°Agreed.¡± With them all in agreement, Syrus started, ¡°I can¡¯t comment on the technical details of what happened. But my best guess is that we fused? That¡¯s what it felt like. Please comment if you know anything else, but my memories of that time are completely blurry. I know what we did on a base level, like I know what actions we took, but I have no idea how we did those actions.¡± Going in a circle, Luna was next. ¡°For the most part, that¡¯s all I know as well. I¡¯m unsure if it was the stress, our overlapping desires, or something else that caused it, but it can¡¯t be one simple thing.¡± Eva added, ¡°¡®We¡¯ knew how to use our attributes better than we did ourselves. Well, I can¡¯t comment for Syrus, but I obviously am lacking in experience for any of my attributes, and Luna is unable to use Space to teleport people yet.¡± ¡°All uses of Fire and Blood seem to have been within the range of what I could do. But Blood was also used in tandem with your attributes as well.¡± Luna sighed. ¡°So, somehow our combined knowledge, instincts, talents, and memories blended together to create a super Anna?¡± Syrus, who now kind of understood, said, ¡°Basically? But if we can, let¡¯s never let that happen again.¡± ¡°Agreed.¡± ¡°Seconded.¡± Luna and Eva quickly concurred. Luna began the second topic. ¡°From what we know, our soul form is a mimic of Anna, our mental state, our past lives, and our personal attributes. The ratio of what is more important is unknown. ¡± Eva spoke next, ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem to have changed. However, that form we took might¡¯ve affected our souls, which could¡¯ve accelerated or caused the change. Syrus said, ¡°That¡­ I guess that makes sense, but I do know none of us actually know what we are talking about when it comes to souls.¡± ¡°True, but with the rapid change to our body, Lilly¡¯s awakening to her attributes¡­ everything seems to be what we expect, but just that the process was rapidly accelerated.¡± Luna already knew the answer but asked anyway. ¡°Syrus, what would you say if we encountered those guys again?¡± Syrus¡¯s eyes darkened. ¡°Give the word, and I¡¯m ready to kill those who caused this.¡± ¡°I see¡­ Well, I would help you with that.¡± However, Luna was also extremely lost and, besides that goal, had no idea what to do anymore. Now it was time for the second to last topic. Eva gave her opinion first, ¡°The physical changes were obviously caused by that fusion state, but what caused the changes seems to have been an advanced combination of Syrus¡¯s Blood attribute and my second attribute. Manipulation and Moonlight were also used, but I¡¯m not sure to what extent.¡± Syrus suggested an answer. ¡°...My only guess for why it happened is because it¡¯s better for combat this way?¡± ¡°That could be it¡­ You were also the one with the most combat experience, and the body definitely leant in your direction to grow. But¡­ I don¡¯t think what we did could happen again to that level¡­ just looking over the body after the fact, it was a mess.¡± Eva worriedly asked, ¡°It¡¯s going to take a while to heal?¡± ¡°Honesty, yeah¡­ For us to be back at 100%, it is going to take a long time.¡± Luna then turned to Syrus. ¡°Do you have any ideas?¡± ¡°...From a first impression, I know it lets me change my physical form to a very limited extent? Maybe only change the colour of my hair¡­¡± Eva began to smile. She had enough time alone in the Soul Space to feel her new attribute, which caused a part of her earlier worry to vanish. Syrus replied, ¡°My best guess is Morph? Morph was a common exotic attribute that allowed the user to change their body. However, it let them change to be similar to whatever bestial form they seemed to mimic. Incarnate did something similar to a much greater extent.¡± Syrus was a little lost, none of the exotic attributes she knew could allow for such a great transformation. At most, it was limited to claws or appendages. Nonetheless, she tried to guess with what she knew, ¡°But it could be a different application if it? Like how Blood is either used for physical enhancement or to create constructs?¡± Eva answered, ¡°I¡¯ll stick with Morph then. The name isn¡¯t really important, but it is best if we call it something.¡± Luna continued, ¡°I do think Syrus is right, though; it could be different applications of the attribute.¡± Syrus asked because it was on topic, ¡°What about taking in foreign attribute mana? Even I know that is something a human body without the same attribute shouldn''t be able to do.¡± Eva shook her head and said, ¡°Let¡¯s save that for later¡­. That¡¯s going to be a topic I need to think about for a long time.¡± Syrus understood. ¡°Fair enough.¡± Now the three topics that related to their physical and soul states were over. It was time for one topic they were expecting, dreading, and anticipating. No one knew who would start. Their rampant emotions did get the chance to calm down a few levels. But it would be a lie to say there were anywhere near a truly stable calm level. Sadness, disappointment, anger, loathing, hatred, disgust, and despair. All these feelings flow from them. Eva decided to start, ¡°Do we know if they are alive?¡± She was the first one to hop in the Soul Space due to her mental exhaustion, so she knew the least about what they found. Eva was hoping that by the time they arrived, they might¡¯ve found something. Syrus answered, ¡°No, we found absolutely nothing, and out of the options, that is the best thing we can hope for.¡± They all knew what Syrus meant by that. By finding nothing, that meant there was also no evidence that they died. Especially since it hadn''t been that long since things went down, the chance there was not a single trace of evidence in their favour was actually a positive outcome. Of course, the only true positive outcome would''ve been finding Jen and George alive. ¡°They could¡¯ve run away¨C¡± Luna shook her head¨C¡°But we all know they wouldn¡¯t leave us behind, so that leaves one other option. What exactly happened when we accidentally performed a mana outburst?¡± A mana outburst was a phenomenon that was known to happen extremely rarely when some untrained people stressed their mana to the limit when under intense mental pressure. It caused an unstable blast of the user attribute to occur. The massive issue this brought was that, while very powerful, it could create effects potentially greater than the user could do with the amount of mana used, but it would always drain the user of all their mana and even leave them near dead if not careful. Syrus asked, ¡°Could the outburst even lead to any possible effects for us?¡± Eva agreed, ¡°The only thing it did was throw around a few objects and drain us of all mana.¡± ¡°No, it could actually lead to something positive. Outburst effects aren¡¯t exactly random, they are based on the user¡¯s will and attributes, with the mana as the fuel. Remember the scene after the outburst?¡± Outbursts having a potentially controlled effect was kept quiet due to its potential abuse. The outburst having a greater than normal effect was extremely tempting to some, and so certain groups in the church tried to train the technique even if it was more of a last resort. Syrus remembered, ¡°Yeah¡­ things were pushed back, but even accounting for that, a bunch of objects were not where they were meant to or could be¡­ meaning they would¡¯ve been teleported.¡± Eva calculated, ¡°And with our near full mana at the time, which is already basically three times a normal person¡¯s amount, a lot more should¡¯ve happened¡­ but if it was mostly contained to one major task and everything else was the leftovers¡­¡± Luna''s eyes began to shake, so she closed them to control herself. ¡°Yes¡­ but I have no idea if the teleportation of Jen and George was successful, where they ended up, or if they just died, and the only thing I moved was their corpses. The excitement in Syrus''s eyes faded. The trio were just back to where they started, having no idea. Eva froze. ¡°So¡­ the only hope that our family is alive is a simple chance?¡± S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. No one spoke, but the answer was conveyed¡­ yes. ¡°God fucking dammit¡­!¡± Eva teared up with ghastly tears as she bellowed and slammed her fist into the ground. ¡°Why¡­ why¡­. Did it have to be my family?!¡± The question all but one of them was thinking. Syrus stood up and walked over to Eva. ¡°Don¡¯t think about the reason, Eva.¡± And hug her tight. ¡°Sorry for not doing this earlier.¡± It was time for her to be an adult again; she was all grown up again after all. ¡°But why?! None of them deserved it!¡± ¡°Exactly, but if you try to think of a reason,. You will be disappointed, angry, and drowning in your own hate more than necessary when the time you need not to comes around. Because whatever the answer will be, it is going to be the most bullshit reason under the sky.¡± Syrus singaled Luna with her other hand, ¡°Luna, come over here, and stop blaming yourself, please. We can all feel it.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± Luna paused. ¡°No buts, you aren¡¯t a part of that filth, you never truly were. So never blame yourself, otherwise, Jen and George won¡¯t forgive themselves.¡± Luna pulled herself back into the hug. This was the first time the trio could properly touch, so why did it have to be like this? She cried, ¡°...Mum¡­ Dad¡­ why did you have to go?!¡± Syrus added, ¡°It¡¯s fine to let it out.¡± Eva then ordered. ¡°Then don¡¯t hold yourself back, Syrus!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not.¡± Eva quickly bit Syrus¡¯s finger. ¡°Ouch!¡± Syrus flinched but still held onto Eva. ¡°Why did you¡­?¡± Syrus''s eyes began to water¡­ A little prick broke the seal. She tried to look up so the others wouldn¡¯t see her tears, but they fell to the ground all the same. ¡°Out of everyone I ever knew, Mum and Dad truly deserve the best life.¡± It was going to be a long time before the trio would exit out of their hug. Chapter 53 – Destination Chapter 53 ¨C Destination Anna didn¡¯t know how long she had been unconscious, but they knew it had been a long time. [Our body feels weird¡­] (Syrus) [I¡¯ll take your word for it.] (Luna) They finally woke up but they all felt groggy. However, that was no excuse to stop because they needed to get out of that cave. Syrus examined the body the moment she awoke to check if everything was okay. Everything had to have stopped changing; she didn¡¯t have to thoroughly check the body to see if there were any major differences, but it seemed to be just a standard physique. On a concerning note, the body was still far from optimal conditions. Luna and Eva could tell they felt exhausted, but Syrus could tell that the body was absolutely wrecked still and that any strenuous activity could be dangerous. Every muscle was overstressed and worn out to the extreme; they could be healed, but it would just take time. Syrus had a slow Blood technique which was perfect for healing, which she was using right away to continue the proper healing process; however, she didn¡¯t know how long this would take. She had been more seriously injured in the past but never encountered a situation where the entire body was damaged like this. The issue was that, with this damage, it would be hard to exert their body to do anything. Syrus figured she would need to use Blood attribute if they even wanted to run, but she couldn¡¯t do that, because using the physical strengthening side of her attribute would just cause more damage. So Anna slowly walked through the tunnel, using the wall for support and a guide. But soon they realised the craziness of the previous owner of the house. [We didn¡¯t even reach halfway.] (Luna) The walk had gone on for ages and they didn¡¯t even see a speck of light or an exit. [We will be out of here soon; it can¡¯t go on for that long.] (Eva) [Yeah¡­] Luna worriedly agreed. True, the exit may be nearby, but she began to wonder if there was a secret out they had missed cause they simply didn¡¯t know about it. [Whoever this guy was, he was motivated to dig, I¡¯ll give him that.] (Syrus) However, finally, they did reach a dead end. [Well, the only way is up.] Syrus looked up from the crouched position they were forced to walk in due to the tightness of the cave. Anna pushed against the ceiling of the end of the tunnel, which was dipped up. She felt a budge but required a bit more of a push. ¡°Ergh¡­¡± Anna groaned. Pop But the stone was able to push up and it fell to the side. They pulled themselves out of the hole and looked at the late afternoon sky. ¡°Stupid trapdoor.¡± [Would you even call the stone plate a trapdoor?] (Luna) [It¡¯s doing the same bloody thing as one.] (Syrus) sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The trapdoor was a simple, small square of stone that had been overgrown with grass. However, just by looking at the slab, it was clear they weren¡¯t the first ones to open it. Grass and dirt had already been torn away from someone pushing it up out of the ground earlier. And the fact it was placed back over the hole meant some had opened and closed it recently. [Where could they have gone?] (Luna) [From the direction we went, Ihere would be about three hours? Maybe more.] (Syrus) [But how likely is that?] (Eva) [No idea. That depends if Elly even knew what direction Ihere was in. And by the location of the sun, they have at least sixteen hours headstart over us.] (Syrus) ¡°Sigh¡­¡± Anna looked up at the sky, exhausted. They knew she would have to find someplace to sleep again soon; their body were still tired even after that rest. [Well, Ihere is probably a good place to look?] (Syrus) [Yes, if there are no tracks.] (Luna) [I will look around for a bit more, but it''s mostly just a small collection of small footprints in all directions, then they fade away as the ground gets harder.] (Syrus) [If we can at least find something, that will be good.] (Eva) [That is the hope¡­] (Luna) Eva had a thought, [How close are the other farming villages?] [Umm¡­ no idea? Based on the direction of the tunnel, we might be near Village Three. But that will still be over an hour, and the tunnel did turn, so could be close to two?] (Syrus) Syrus was doing her best, but she had never been in this part of the forest and knowing the general layout of the map did nothing when they were in a pitch-black tunnel for over an hour. [Yeah, let¡¯s go to Ihere first¡­¡­] There was also the potential that other farming villages were attacked, and that going to one would be a danger to themselves. Then Eva realised another problem, [Wait our appearance¡­] [It¡¯s fine.] (Syrus) [...] (Luna) [I should be able to change it, right?] (Eva) The last time Eva saw herself, they looked like a mess and would stick out easily. The crazy hair and eyes could be chalked up to attributes, but the horn could be concerning. Especially for small towns or most places in Cancole due to exotic attributes being extremely rare. Luna offered a suggestion. [Let¡¯s go to the water and see if you can.] [Good idea.] (Eva) Anna moved to the river that she knew existed nearby. It was also likely that Elly and children followed the river, so it was a good bet to go towards it either way. However, before Eva even had the chance to try and see if she could use Morph correctly,. They already noticed a difference. [And our appearance has changed again.] (Luna) [It¡¯s better this way¡­] Eva was happier looking at this version of their reflection, but still greatly preferred it back to the way it truly was. Her physical body was the same and the horn was still there. However, the eyes and hair had changed. Anna¡¯s hair was still as long, but now its primary colour was black again, however, the strands faded to white towards the ends, except for her bangs, which stayed crimson. Anna¡¯s eyes also had dulled into a light reddish-brown. [It does look much better this way.] Syrus preferred this over the patchwork of colours, [We need to cut our hair badly, though.] [Agreed.] Luna also had her own thoughts about their new look. [Lilly, maybe your subconscious thoughts already used Morph to adjust the body?] [Potentially.] (Eva) [Well, try to see if you can change it slightly again.] (Syrus) [I will.] Eva was going to start small, but her main goal was to somehow remove the horn¡­ she didn¡¯t actually mind it, she thought she would, but she knew it had to go if they wanted to cause less of a fuss than they already would. Eva stepped back for a moment to think and focus on controlling her Morph attribute. She had a basic idea of its feeling, but she had never willingly used it before. ¡°Good luck,¡± Syrus said while looking at their reflection. After a couple of moments, Luna went quiet to let Eva focus. But before Eva could try anything, suddenly, their body shifted into something similar but different. [Ergh¡­ what¡¯s happening now? Eva?] (Syus) Syrus quickly became concerned as the body worked more than she would¡¯ve liked. They grew a few centimetres taller, and her hair and eyes were dyed crimson. She looked like her soul form, if not still shorter than it. [I don¡¯t know! I can¡¯t use Morph at all?!] Eva panicked and tried to control the body more directly. In doing so, Anna shifted back to her default appearance. [What is even up with our body?] Syrus didn¡¯t blame Eva for this change, she could tell the body was working automatically on some level to cause these rapid changes. Soon the body shrank back to regular size and looked the same as the initial reflection. After a few moments of silence, as the three waited for something else to happen, nothing changed. Luna pondered. [I wonder what is causing this?] [Yeah¡­] Eva and Luna¡¯s curiosity was piqued, which helped distract them from their other, more negative emotions. Syrus sadly had to stop it. [Look, I know you two would like to do some tests, which are very much required, but not now.] [Okay.] (Eva) [What do we do then?] (Luna) Eva and Luna trusted Syrus on this, so they stopped those thoughts and moved back onto the topic of where to go. [...We¡¯ll keep going to Ihere but we will rest up outside of town near the forest. Maybe with a night of rest, our body will be okay enough to do whatever quick test you want.] (Syrus) [I¡¯m fine with that.] (Eva) [Seconded.] (Luna) They both readily agreed. So, after choosing their direction, they made a move on and eventually found a cave near Ihere to rest for the night. Chapter 54 – [Story Time] A Lunar Dream Remembrance Chapter 54 ¨C [Story Time] A Lunar Dream Remembrance Anna tried to rest the night away in a cave near Ihere. The hope was that with another night of sleep, their body would have recovered enough for some uses of Morph. Syrus thought back at the strain felt by the body during the afternoon when the sudden shift occurred, and it wasn¡¯t too rough. So, she felt it might be fine by tomorrow to do minor changes, which meant hopefully no massive growth or shrinking in size. [Luna¡­ you recognised the man who attacked the village before, right?] Syrus asked. She understood it might not be the best to ask; however, she believed it was best to get the topic out of the way. There was a lot they needed to do, after all. Before Luna could say anything, Eva interrupted, [You don¡¯t have to say anything you don¡¯t want to.] [That is true.] Syrus agreed, even if she did hope Luna was able to provide something useful. [No, any information is good information. We don¡¯t know who we will face in the future, but it¡¯s best if I start to explain some more about my past.] (Luna) What they would do in the future was still uncertain. It was still too soon to decide anything concrete, so all they could do was to make sure everyone else was safe. However, the feelings of anger and hate were felt by and swirled between all of them, so at some point, they knew they were going to let those emotions loose on the ones who helped create them. (Switched Perspective ¨C Luna) I¡¯m not sure where to begin¡­ but because you ask about Septurna, I guess my first proper meeting with him will work. [Proper?] (Eva) I had met him at official events before this occasion, but they were kept to simple, proper greetings. But my first proper meeting was in the church garden after an ordinary day of work. So, it was a summer afternoon, and I was fourteen years old. I had become an official saint at the start of that year. [Official saint?] (Eva) I had been in training for the position since I entered the church. Once I completed the public interaction training and I was deemed appropriate for the position, they made me one to strengthen their status. Not everyone was too keen on the promotion; I wasn¡¯t the most receptive to teachings, but because I did everything I was told, the doubters'' voices were suppressed. [If there was the chance you wouldn¡¯t become a saint if you were a bit more disobedient, would you have taken it?] (Syrus) ¡­Realistically no. [Okay.] (Syrus) To continue on, I walked through the church after completing a church event along with two other saints. ¡°Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight will thou be accompanying us for the nightly supper?¡± ¡°I¡¯m regretful, Joseph Sunrise Dawn Starcaller, but I shall be unable to attend.¡± ¡°I understand; tis truly a shame, but is thy time truly impossible to rearrange?¡± ¡°Sorry, Tilonia Shine Crownia Starcaller, but I do have other plans that I must attend.¡± ¡°That is upsetting to hear, though we understand thy plight.¡± ¡°Yes, we wish thou a pleasant evening.¡± I finished the conversation, ¡°Likewise as well.¡± [So, who are these two?] (Syrus) Two people I¡¯m bringing up because they could be important later on. They are a sister-brother duo¨Cthe church loved that¨Cwho were one year and two years older than me, respectively. Both possessed just the light attribute, both had white hair, with Tilonia¡¯s hair being purposely kept long while Joseph was kept short to create a greater emphasis on their genders. During this time, I wasn¡¯t actually busy, I just wanted some time alone, church work gets trying. [Are you all required to say each other''s full name every single time?] (Eva) Sadly yes. I could never risk it, the chance I could be caught messing it up was too worrying to attempt fate. [Does everyone at the church have long names?] (Syrus) Not everyone, but all saints and high-ranking priests have long names. There aren¡¯t many rules when it comes to the names they give. If they can be changed¨Clike mine¨Cthe first names of priests and saints are usually taken from former saints. However, there are certain middle names they give to church knights, Glory was a common one given to any knight who reached the rank of captain. They also gave additional names if one achieved a great feat, Avaberg was given to Septurna after a demon subjugation of the same name. I was never given any additional names; thankfully, four was enough for me. [I¡¯ll ask this now before you continue; how many saints did the church have?] (Syrus) At the time of my passing; there were twenty. Only six lived in the Nevald Kingdom, so I only regularly interacted with a few of the saints. There wasn¡¯t any level of strength required to become a saint, but the ones chosen by the Nevald Kingdom were considered lower quality. In the end, it never mattered how many saints there were, because there was always more in training. I even heard they had a few candidates with great potential at the central church; even a few with rarer attributes. Anyway, after I left the two other saints, I went to the garden to relax; it was mostly empty in the evenings. However, once I got there I began to stare at the free moon rising in the sky. I was interrupted by that man. ¡°Afternoon, saint, Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight.¡± Sir Septurna. Full name, Septurna Glory Avaberg. He possessed [Acceleration] and [Sight], both of which had trained to a degree that outclassed his peers. I asked, ¡°Is anything troubling one''s fate, Sir Septurna Glory Avaberg?¡± ¡°No, Eliana, and please, you can just call me Septurna.¡± ¡°Nay, such action is a stairway to disaster.¡± ¡°But you also deserve to have moments of rest, that is what God teaches us after all.¡± Afterwards, we simply talked. ¡°Have you adapted to your position as a saint yet?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve trained for it, so it¡¯s only natural.¡± ¡°But a child is still allowed to make mistakes.¡± ¡°Do you enjoy practising Moonlight?¡± ¡°It is quite a pleasant experience.¡± ¡°Haha, I can agree to that. Nothing beats pushing one¡¯s limits.¡± ¡°Thou should know that is impossible for my position.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they will release the restriction on your learning when you are older.¡± ¡°We shall watch.¡± ¡°Do you have any favourite food?¡± ¡°All food tastes the same, no reason to have favourites.¡± ¡°Spoken like someone who has a favourite, mine¡¯s gotta be the cookies.¡± ¡°What a childish answer.¡± ¡°I¡¯m only thirty, I still have plenty of childishness in me.¡± ¡°Do thou have anywhere they wish to visit?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure, Eliana; I have been to many places already.¡± ¡°Then why doesn¡¯t thy majestic knight suggest one.¡± ¡°... Well if you enjoy nightly views, I have a place that works.¡± [So, we¡­ killed a friend of yours?] (Eva) No, he was no friend. I had plenty of people show me kindness. That didn¡¯t mean I considered them friends. They all wanted me to conform, wanted me to accept the status quo, and wanted me to forget about my hatred so I could be happy. Still¡­ he was someone who I thought was at least good-hearted. But I now know, he dipped his bloody hand into the homes of the innocent and destroyed them. So¡­ this story is more for me¡­ to realise that I really knew nothing about my prison home. If I paid more attention¡­ Maybe I could¡¯ve stopped something. [If you did, maybe you wouldn¡¯t be here today. So, in the end, it doesn¡¯t matter. ] (Syrus) ¡­ I¡¯m not sure how likely that is, but for my sanity, I¡¯ll believe it for the time being. [Good.] (Eva) [Will it be publicly obvious that Septurna died? I mean, more than normal.] (Syrus) I¡¯m unsure¡­ Unless it changed, he was only a captain, and there were no specific groups of knights in the church. There were simply the church knights, and when an operation had to be carried out, a group of them would be assigned to a captain, but who knows, maybe there were hidden divisions within the order. But for the public and, I guess, less informed members of the church, it might take a while to learn he died. If he were Commander Knight, then the whole Nevald Kingdom Aurora Church would know. [That¡¯s a higher ranking?] (Eva) Yes. Knight, Captain, and Commander. There isn¡¯t much of a strength difference between a Captain and a Commander, besides the fact that a Commander usually spends several years training and acting as a priest. However, the rank was one of authority and, unlike others, was given out for free. Most ranks within the church had a massive divide between who actually had power within their position. Some saints were just pawns like me, but others were central to decision-making. Same with priests, high priests, and knights; the only exceptions were the Commander Knights and the Pope. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Thanks, Luna; that¡¯s all I need to know for now.] (Syrus) You sure? [Yep. If I need to ask anything, it will be about some arsehole''s abilities or how to sneak around a church.] (Syrus) Thank you. Chapter 55 – Creating an Identity Chapter 55 ¨C Creating an Identity [Okay, is everything ready?] (Syrus) [Yes.] (Eva) [Good, I¡¯ll be taking the lead then.] (Syrus) It had been two days since Anna took refuge in the cave. They would¡¯ve liked to have gone to Ihere already, but it took longer for Eva to control her Morph attribute than she predicted. However, looking at the reflection in the water, Eva was happy with their appearance. It was still the same as before, but the horn was finally gone. Over the training, Eva was able to learn that she could: Increase and decrease her size by about 2%, grow out her hair, change the colour of her eyes and hair, and elongate parts of her body¨Ceasiest being fingers and nails, and remove her horn. Luna preferred if there was no indication of her Moonlight attribute on the body. Cutting that segment of hair didn¡¯t work, as the colour just faded to white as mana flowed through their body. [I do think Morph has something to do with the permanent shift from our initial transformation and the one that happened after we awoke.] (Luna) [Agreed, but I¡¯m unsure of what that difference is.] (Eva) Even though Eva now had control over her attribute, it was far from perfect and she still didn¡¯t understand everything about it. On the control side, Eva couldn¡¯t maintain multiple changes at once for long, with more changes increasing the difficulty of it. However, she found she could maintain one small change without a drain, so she chose the horn, which solved the issue of causing a ruckus if she entered towns. But there was still way too much she didn¡¯t know. Then there was the sudden change into Syrus that occurred. They were able to learn at least why that happened, but not why this change occurred within them, besides just saying it appeared because of all the other changes. When one person was in control of the body, the body would change into that person¡¯s form. This didn¡¯t mean that only one person was in the body, but more if they were the only one in the front seat. Luna and Eva decided on the terms front seat, back seat, and soul seat, to describe the positions. If there were more than two people in the front seat, then the body would change back to normal, and from their testing, they found it harder to stay in the back seat, as they would often accidentally enter the front seat position. The soul seat just referred to being in their Soul Space. When the body changed, their physical appearance looked similar to their soul forms, but not exactly. Hair didn¡¯t change length unless Eva changed it beforehand, and they didn¡¯t grow to the height of Syrus¡¯s soul form. [Morph¡­ Is definitely being activated when the changes occur.] (Syrus) [But it doesn¡¯t feel like I¡¯m doing anything?] (Eva) [Hmm¡­ I think it¡¯s an automatic function of the body at this point, as I felt the attribute come out of the muscles of the body.] (Syrus) [I understand the concept of that¡­ people have found ways to store their raw attributes within the body for use; I guess this must be a variant of that?] Luna hypothesised, but she was still unsure. [It does use mana to change between forms, but I¡¯m curious what will happen if we run out. If we will either stay in the current form or revert back to ¡®Anna¡¯.] (Eva) [That could be dangerous to test.] (Luna) [Agreed, the result shouldn¡¯t matter anyway. But we should test what happens if we suddenly pass out.] (Eva) [How are we supposed to do that¡ªsmack our head against a rock?] (Syrus) [We¡¯ll figure something not that dangerous out.] (Eva) They found they could still use their attributes when in the backseat, but moving any part of the body was a no-go. Which was something they took note of for later. After all the changes and practising were complete, they were finally ready to leave the forest and search for the children and Elly of the village. They did keep an eye out for them, but they found nothing in the nearby area. That led to their current plan to enter Ihere. Anna still looked like Anna, which was good for them, but they didn¡¯t want anyone else to see them like that for the moment. They doubted people in Ihere would actually realise they were Anna, but they were risking nothing. So Syrus was going to be in control. The tall, crimson-haired women walked into town wearing everyday clothing. Syrus had also chopped her hair before to keep it short, only to her shoulders. While they could grow out their hair when needed, she felt it was better to keep it at a standard length for the three of them while their body was recovering. [I still can use Manipulation to a good extent.] (Eva) [Meaning?] (Syrus) [That we can still say your attributes are Fire and Manipulation. Until I become better at using Morph, I¡¯m not sure if I can hide all our attributes in our main form.] (Eva) [Hmmm¡­] Syrus thought about it for a moment, [Yeah, that could work. We can hide our attributes between the three of us.] [That would mean I¡¯m still stuck with Moonlight because of my appearance.] (Luna) [Yes¡­] (Eva) [Don¡¯t be sad for me; there is nothing we can do about it.] (Luna) Luna''s white hair was the biggest indicator of her attributes and led anyone to suspect she had one of the Light attributes. That wasn¡¯t something they wanted to deal with while near church territories. Syrus walked into the town of Ihere, looking normal but feeling melancholic. There were still a lot of props from the festival hanging up. Seeing them made Eva feel sick in the stomach. She was glad to be in the Soul Space to watch this happen; otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t be able to control herself. Luna and her were in the Soul Space to ensure they wouldn¡¯t make any mistakes. She walked to someone she knew wouldn¡¯t be able to keep their mouth shut. David, one of the morning guards but also who ran a fruit stand at lunch, said, "Welcome, Miss, haven¡¯t seen you around here.¡± David thought Syrus looked a little young, but her physique and attitude made him think she just got a lucky roll. ¡°Yep, I¡¯m just passing.¡± Syrus started the small talk. ¡°I had something to deliver to Elly, work materials, you know.¡± Elly was famous in the nearby area, and so Syrus was using that to her advantage. ¡°Oh¡­¡± The man''s eyes darkened. ¡°You haven¡¯t heard yet?¡± ¡°What, I just got here?¡± ¡°A wildfire tore the place to the ground.¡± ¡°Yikes¡­ I hope most of the villages are okay.¡± The line made Syrus sick. People should be able to escape from a wildfire but that was not what happened. ¡°No, no one survived.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m going to need a moment.¡± Syrus bought a bag of fruit. They took money from their house and from the attacker''s body¨Cwhich was stolen in the first place. [...Do you want to try and push for more?] (Luna) [Yes, but not from him.] (Syrus) [Elly¡¯s friend?] (Luna) [Yep.] (Syrus) Elly had a business partner she trusted who sent out the goods from Ihere and collected any of the bigger orders sent Elly¡¯s way. It was too difficult to send everything to Elly¡¯s house after all. Syrus turned down a quiet street and found the house she was looking for. It was small and cramped between two others. Knock, Knock. Syrus tapped lightly. ¡°I have a question.¡± ¡°What?¡± The woman opened the door slightly. A dark-skinned woman with greying brown hair and orange eyes appeared through the gap. ¡°I¡¯m looking for Elly, Mrs Bree.¡± The woman''s eyes panicked and looked around to see if there was anyone behind Syrus. ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear they all bloody died!¡± She tried to slam the door, but Syrus caught it. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She leaned forward and said, ¡°I know she¡¯s alive; don¡¯t worry, I just want to make sure she is safe with the kids.¡± ¡°Who¡­ are you¡­¡± The women began to sweat. [Looks like we caught our golden goose.] (Syrus) [Don¡¯t call her that, you have frightened her.] (Luna) ¡°Someone she tried to save, but still somehow made it out after staying behind.¡± Said Syrus, ¡°Now can I come in, I don¡¯t want to cause a commotion.¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± The woman quickly weighed her options and decided this was the only course that increased her safety. Chapter 56 – Leads Chapter 56 ¨C Leads Syrus entered the woman''s house and closed the door behind her. ¡°I should introduce myself; my name is Syrus.¡± ¡°Yes¡­ mine¡¯s Bree.¡± Bree was extremely nervous. The trio had a feeling why she could be feeling this way. [She knows.] (Luna) [Yes, she made the obvious with her first reaction. She was way too nervous about us asking Elly.] (Syrus) [It might not be about the incident, she could have some trouble, even a debt with Elly that she is nervous about.] (Eva) [True, which is why we will ask.] (Syrus) ¡°I don¡¯t know what Elly has said before, but I need you to be honest with me. When was the last time you communicated with Elly?¡± Bree twiddled her thumbs and said, ¡°A while ago.¡± ¡°I need you to be specific, specifically in the last seventy-two hours.¡± She reaffirmed, ¡°I haven¡¯t recently.¡± Syrus tried a more direct approach, "Okay, look. I¡¯m trying to find my friend. No one hostile knows she is alive; no one even knows she was there in the village that night anymore.¡± She moved closer, ¡°I need to know if they managed to survive, please.¡± ¡°Uah¡­ uhh¡­ Yes¡­¡± Bree relented. ¡°Are you really trustworthy?¡± Syrus crossed her arms and said, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t say that after answering, but yes.¡± ¡°...¡± Bree fell back into a chair, her hand flopping onto her face, and mumbled to herself. ¡°Please god, tell me I didn¡¯t just fuck over my friend.¡± ¡°No, you haven¡¯t.¡± Syrus grabbed a seat and sat down, ¡°But don¡¯t answer anyone else. There is no one else alive who should be directly asking about Elly. If they do, just say you don¡¯t know. If she contacts you later with new instructions, then you can follow them, but for the time being, do not answer anyone else.¡± [You are good at this.] (Luna) [Hmhmm.] Eva hummed in agreement. [I have had a lot of experience.] (Syrus) Syrus grabbed a dull red apple from the bag and took a bite. With her mouth slightly full, she asked, ¡°Want a fruit?¡± Bree shook her head. "No, thank you.¡± Syrus quickly consumed the apple. Their diet had been just edible grass recently, so an actual piece of food did wonders. Then it was time to ask the next important question. ¡°Do you know where she was headed?¡± Bree sighed. She realised she had already dug herself a hole. If these people were trying to help Elly, then misleading them now would only hurt her friend, but if they lied and they were the people who tried to hurt her¡­ well, she figured she would be dead either way. ¡°She said she was going further south, to Greenvale. She took a horse and cart in the middle of the night. I never expected her to steal something, but I also never saw her so scared before.¡± Bree made the mental note to never be involved in a situation like this ever again. [Greenvale, that¡¯s a large city.] (Eva) [Near the capital as well.] (Luna) [Why would she be going there? If Elly took a cart, she probably brought all the kids with her as well.] (Syrus) [To be safe?] Luna wondered, [But she could¡¯ve gone anywher¨Cwait, I guess we should think how much she was informed of.] [Pardon?] (Syrus) [Well, the plan to keep the kids in her house that contained the hatch was due to a safety concern.] (Luna) [Oh, I get it. If¡­ Mum and Dad¡­ told her the speculation about someone targeting the village, she wouldn¡¯t want to advertise herself as being a survivor from it.] (Eva) [...I understand.] (Syrus) ¡°Thanks for the information.¡± Syrus stood up. ¡°It¡¯s time to make sure they made it.¡± ¡°You are going already?!¡± Bree was shocked. Syrus nodded. ¡°I need to make sure they are alive and safe¡­ they have been through too much.¡± She reached for the door handle. ¡°Thank you for everything today.¡± And left before Bree said anything else. They walked into the main street and planned their next move. [Do we want to grab a cart?] (Luna) [Yes, the body can rest while we ride.] (Syrus) Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Syrus still didn¡¯t want the body to be under any unnecessary stress. The major stress damage caused by the growth spurt and abilities used that night still hadn¡¯t healed. They were healing, but they were far off from being back to normal condition. They walked around town to check merchant cart schedules, and eventually, they found one that would head towards Greenvale. It wasn¡¯t direct and it would take over a day of travel, but it was the best they were going to get. [Sorry, I should¡¯ve at least suggested testing if we would change when sleeping.] (Eva) [Don¡¯t, we were far too mentally busy anyway.] (Syrus) Syrus would travel with the merchant part of the way, then hop off before reaching Foresthill¨Ca small town near Greenvale. They would spend the night somewhere hidden, just in case Syrus''s body changed back to Anna during their sleep. Two hours passed and the trio finally left Ihere on the search for Elly and the kids. This was their mission, their duty, to make sure they were able to make it out safely. While this was their immediate goal, it was painful to admit that, while it was an extremely important task for them, it was also a distraction for another problem. [...] (Luna) [...] (Eva) [...] (Syrus) They were silent as their own emotions stirred. Syrus was the first one to speak after an hour of travel. [What are we going to do afterwards?] [Become rich.] Eva provided a non-specific answer to dodge the question. [That would be nice¡­ but we need something specific.] (Syrus) They didn¡¯t need to say the answer. Anna wanted revenge, they were not sure when, or how, but they wanted retribution. [I¡­ don¡¯t think we should stay with Elly and the children.] (Luna) [...] (Eva) [Yeah¡­ that is probably for the best.] (Syrus) If they went down the path of revenge, being close to them would only get them caught in the crossfire of a plot that didn¡¯t involve them. And they couldn¡¯t allow that to happen a second time. [As a person with a long history of being on the move, I think we should find a place to work, and gather our strength. Somewhere not in Cancole or Nevald Kingdom to be out of the church¡¯s radar.] (Syrus) [Where we would even choose¡­] (Luna) [I got an idea¡­] Said Eva, [But can we finish this after we see the children.] [...] Luna didn¡¯t want to. She was scared she wouldn¡¯t be able to separate from them again. [I understand. We will do that.] Syrus though, had no concerns about that decision. They would leave those kids behind, as long as they were in a safe place. Many hours later, they said goodbye to the merchant, whom they did have to pay for the trip, with their limited funds for the ride. The sky darkened as the girl walked along the lonely road. It would be too long before they reached the forest, where they could lie low for the night. The forests more central to the capital were far safer than the ones near the borders, especially the monster territory borders¨Clike where their village was located. On the way to the forest near Greenvale on foot, Eva had an important question to ask. [Syrus.] A nervous ball was lodged in Eva¡¯s throat. [Yes, Eva?] (Syrus) [I¡­] Eva paused, finding it hard to manage the words. A deep fear was eating at her. [Everything okay?] (Syrus) Screaming her soul out, Eva yelled, [CAN YOU TEACH ME HOW TO FIGHT!] [I¡­ can¡¯t let this happen again.] Eva was in despair. She couldn¡¯t forget a single moment of what happened that night. The memory clawed its way at all her happy memories with her family. She had never been a fighter, and Eva had never ever gotten into a physical scuffle in her last life. And as Anna, Syrus and Luna did all the fighting. ¡°I¡­¡± Syrus never expected that the decision to agree or disagree about teaching someone how to fight would be the hardest decision she would have to make in a long time. Chapter 57 – Found… Chapter 57 ¨C Found¡­ From a logical point of view, there was no reason to deny Eva¡¯s request. She would be able to wield Manipulation in a combative style and would be more alert when a crisis occurred. It wouldn¡¯t be an unusual situation, either. Syrus, in her past life as a mercenary, trained hundreds of people. Yeah, training someone whom she shared a body with might be tricky, but who knows, she figured it potentially might be easier. She had even thought about teaching Eva the basics of fighting for a long time now. However, a feeling had emerged inside her. That out of everyone, Eva shouldn¡¯t have to fight. She wasn¡¯t a warrior, and Syrus didn¡¯t believe Eva had the heart to become one. Syrus had seen villagers rise up in times of strife, but not everyone should hold a sword. It took a while for Syrus to think this way, she understood the idea of fighting for yourself, however, she saw too many people hurt from being caught in the crossfire and trying to fight when they couldn''t. ¡°I will think about it.¡± Said Syrus, she paused and then added. ¡°We need to wait until the body has recovered. [Okay, thank you.] (Eva) Eva could feel Syrus¡¯s unease. She didn¡¯t exactly understand why but hypothesised it might just be the stress of everything that was going on. Anna was able to move into the forest to sleep the night away. They got comfortable in a tree and tried another experiment while they slept. Then the morning came around again. [We didn¡¯t shift back to normal while asleep.] (Eva) [Good morning to you as well.] (Syrus) Syrus had stayed in the body while they slept, so she was only just waking up while Luna and Eva stayed in the Soul Space. [Feeling okay?] (Luna) ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Syrus scratched her head and slid down the tree. She felt okay ignoring a few problems she was beginning to feel. ¡°Let¡¯s get into town, Syrus ate the remaining fruit in her bag and continued forward to Greenvale. After an hour-long walk, they had reached Greenvale. Then they went through the front entrance, where the single guard there stopped her. Dirt had stained their clothes, and her face was kind of pale. The guard ¡°Stop, who are you?¡± ¡°Syrus, I¡¯ve just been out for a walk.¡± The guard asked out of concern, ¡°Why do you look like that?¡± ¡°Fell over into the dirt,¡± replied Syrus. ¡°Okay,¡± said the guard. He decided to stop bugging the woman and let her into the city. [Well, it is definitely bigger.] (Eva) [It¡¯s not that big.] (Syrus) [Agreed, but it¡¯s still bigger than anything I saw in this life.] (Eva) The city was many times larger than a small town like Ihere. The streets were bustling; a few people turned their heads when they saw Syrus, curious about this dirty girl, but no one stopped or said anything. The trio walked around the city with one main goal in mind. To find Elly and the children, along with that, they would take note of anything that could be of use that they saw. [Do we have enough money for new clothes?] (Luna) [Based on the prices, maybe, but we need to choose something that will work for any size changes.] (Eva) [That¡¯s going to be a pain to consider for future occasions.] (Syrus) They were¡­ hesitant to get rid of some of their clothes. Because it belonged to their parents and villages, but that didn¡¯t change the fact that they didn¡¯t exactly fit them¨Cno matter what form they took. Besides the clothes, all Anna managed to take from the village was some money, Anna¡¯s notebook, the Manipulation Guidebook, and George¡¯s diary. The latter of which they hadn¡¯t read yet. ¡°Where would they have gone?¡± Syrus mumbled to herself. They didn¡¯t want to ask around, as if Elly wanted to move secretly, then trying to publicly dig up her trail would only be negative for her. But they had now spent hours walking around. They did stop quite a few times to rest as it was required with their body¡¯s current state, but no matter where they looked, they couldn¡¯t find a trace of Elly or the children. The dizzy spells Syrus was facing weren¡¯t helping the process either. [Maybe we are looking in the wrong area?] (Eva) [That could be the case, but we have done multiple laps around the city.] (Luna) [I think we understand they are hiding somewhere, I¡¯ve been peeking through the buildings, but I haven¡¯t seen them in any.] (Syrus) It was already getting late and they had found nothing. [We need to get into Elly¡¯s head. Where would she set up shop.] (Syrus) [Shop?] (Eva) [That means where she would bunker down, where she would hide.] (Syrus) [Okay, I think a good place to start is how much money she has access to?] (Luna) [Wouldn¡¯t that be determined by how much she was able to carry?] (Eva) [No, Elly was far richer than anyone else in the village. To the extent she had money stored separately, in the banks. So, all she would need to do is withdraw the amount required.] (Syrus) [I see, then would it be more likely that she rented a hotel, or bought or rented a building.] (Eva) [That¡¯s¡­ a good question.] (Luna) [If she wanted privacy, then renting or buying a building would be better.] (Syrus) [Can she withdraw that much from the bank?] (Eva) [She doesn¡¯t need to. If the person she is getting the building from is a part of the town¡¯s bank, which they would be if they lived here, they just do a direct transfer.] (Luna) [Then the next question would be, is Elly signed with the bank in this town?] (Eva) [It¡¯s likely, after all, that the banks are only in the capital city and other large cities. And this is technically the closest one to home, so if she wanted to transfer money from a place, here or the capital would be it. Not to mention she could have money stored in both banks for safety.] (Luna) [I think we should explore this line of thought. Let¡¯s check the buildings that may¡¯ve been up for rent, looking towards the edges of the city might be better.] (Syrus) They started to move back out to the edge of the city. However, their search reached a sudden halt. After two full days of Syrus being in control, something went wrong. ¡°Argh¡­¡± She kneeled to the ground, sick, but pulled herself along the wall into an alley to sit down. [Syrus!] (Eva) ¡°Umghaaaaa, I¡¯m fine.¡± A wave of dizziness attacked Syrus and brought her to the ground. This wasn¡¯t a new sudden phenomenon; for the last five hours, she felt a headache forming and the body going wheezy. ¡°Just let me sit down for a moment.¡± Syrus stayed on the ground and leant against the wall. However, minutes passed and she wasn¡¯t feeling better; if anything, it was just getting worse. During this period, a drunk woman walked into the alley; her eyes wandered around before they settled on Syrus with hostile intent. ¡°Ah, poor child, let me help you.¡± The woman smiled as she walked towards Syrus, ¡°I know a place that can help you.¡± Syrus looked and saw the woman¡¯s evil smirk unhidden due to the effects of alcohol. The woman wearing a long blue dress reached down to grab Syrus by the arm. [I¡¯m jumping in to help!] (Luna) sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Argh fuck off.¡± Syrus pushed herself off the wall and, in a single motion, grabbed the woman''s head and slammed into the junk-filled alley. [Is she¡­?] (Eva) [Don¡¯t worry, she is alive.] Luna quickly checked the woman, and even healed her a little bit, but still left her unconscious. [We need to move!] Syrus said, but as she walked towards the exit, she noticed a burst of energy following through her system. With Luna entering the body, they were changing back to Anna. [Ah! Wait, before we go out, I have to hide our horn.] (Eva) They rapidly moved towards the outer edges of town without attracting any unnecessary attention. This was made easier by the fact that there were fewer people out during this time of day. Once they were alone and safe, Luna asked, [What happened?] [We were about to be grabbed and taken somewhere we wouldn¡¯t like to be.] (Syrus) [No, why did we collapse.] (Luna) [Oh, no idea.] (Syrus) Eva considered the facts and came to a conclusion. [Simply because we are able to move fine now, I think it was because Syrus was in control for too long. Well specifically, we were in Syrus¡¯s form for too long.] (Eva) [It was only nearly two days?] (Syrus) [And that seemed to be long enough.] (Eva) [Sigh¡­ I guess we just have to walk around as Anna now.] (Luna) [Do we want to use a code name?] (Syrus) [Anlesa is fine, it works for our current form.] (Luna) With that, Anlesa started another walk around the outskirts, looking for places that had recently been purchased or rented. They knew this line of thinking might be wrong, but it was their best guess for the time being. They were hopeful but were fully aware this might end in failure. But, after another hour of searching, they finally found their target¡­ ¡°They made it¡­¡± Eva said; happy that they were all able to escape alive. Inside a small two-story house, the curtains were closed but there was enough of a gap to see through. A bunch of children with sad faces were asleep on the ground in makeshift beds, and one tired woman who looked like she hadn¡¯t slept in days sat on a table. [Should we go inside?] (Luna) [...Maybe not. But we are going inside.] (Syrus) Knock Knock Knock Syrus knocked three times. Some of the children awoke from the noise, but Elly quickly shushed, and she worriedly walked to the door. Before she opened, she asked, ¡°Who is it?¡± Luna said, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m a cousin of Anna. I wanted to know if she was able to make it.¡± Elly faced a sudden, blunt force of confusion to the head, nearly enough to wake her up. The voice sounded so similar to that of the child who stayed behind. Only slightly similar in tone, but nearly exactly in the occasional coldness & pronunciation. She opened the door to see a face she didn¡¯t recognise¡ªa girl much older than she expected. She knew it wouldn¡¯t be the girl, but deep inside, she hoped it was. ¡°Can we talk privately? I can¡¯t be in the area for long.¡± Luna''s eyes darted to the kids. Thousands of thoughts ran through Elly¡¯s head, and she quickly decided that even if this person was suspicious, she had to let them in to talk. The worst case would lead to the same result, whether she let them in or not. So, Elly told the children to keep sleeping and that she was organising food and clothes for tomorrow. Elly took Anlesa upstairs, into a side room, where she sat down at the small table to talk. Chapter 58 – Where to next? Chapter 58 ¨C Where to next? The room Elly took Anlesa to was a small room, with a window that let light in, and the only piece of furniture was the small table with two chairs. From Syrus¡¯s guess, this was a private writing room. Anlesa sat on the opposite side of where Elly was going to sit. However, once Elly sat down, she sighed, got up, and said, ¡°Give me a moment.¡± Elly walked back to the door in the side room and opened it slightly. ¡°Please, can you lay down and get some sleep? You guys need it, I¡¯ll join you once I¡¯m done organising things for tomorrow.¡± Three children had huddled towards the door, and a few more were further back. Anna saw Leah among the children who were huddled against the door. Like the rest, she did not look good. Life had been stolen from her eyes. From what Anna knew, they shouldn¡¯t have seen anything, but they probably heard the screams and pieced events together. [Was there a way to save everyone¡­?] (Eva) [No. There never is.] (Luna) Luna regretted being unable to help people many times. In her case, it was usually orders that prevented her, but she still felt guilty. Which led to her blaming herself or the church, depending on her mood. [In that instance no.] Syrus, who had a long history of being involved in conflicts, had a more reasonable stance on the subject. [Maybe, in a different situation, but with the tools and knowledge we had, or even realistically could possibly have gained, there was no way to save everyone in the village.] While Elly dealt with the children, Anna made sure not to react and just let Elly deal with the situation. Eva wanted to say something to them, even though she barely ever talked to the children. She wanted to say something that could make them happy, but she believed there was nothing she could say that would do that. The kids went away, some were still curious, but they left without complaint. As if they were all too worn out in any way to stay around and try to sneakily listen to the conversation. Elly sighed and plopped back down in the chair, dark bags hung below her eyes and she looked up towards the girl in front of her. She didn¡¯t know what to think. Who is this? What do they want? Are they telling the truth? How did they know where I was? How did they know about Anna? Are they Anna, no, how could that be? Did Jen or George do something to get this person to me? Did anyone make it out of the village before we visited it? Elly was already dealing with a lot of stress which wasn¡¯t helped by the lack of sleep. Anna looked at Elly worried, she was missing her usual confidence, hard demeanour, and energy. Syrus kept her ears open, ¡°They are gone.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Said Elly. ¡°The children, they have walked away.¡± ¡°I¡­ see¡­¡± Elly gripped the table to maintain her thought process. ¡°How¡­ and who¡­¡± Luna was the one who talked. ¡°The name is Anlesa, that¡¯s my full name given by my parents.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°But I normally go by Anna¡­ but while I¡¯m now like this, besides this moment, I prefer to go by Anlesa.¡± The insane theory that Elly created was aligning itself. Due to the similarities, she felt like they were Anna, but that could just be the tiredness tricking her. They were of completely different age and appearance. Anna was a short child, but the person in front of her could pass for a hard-working adult if she styled her appearance correctly. ¡°Please keep quiet, but yes¡­ I am Anna.¡± She stood up and walked next to Elly. ¡°Sorry for worrying you.¡± ¡°You¡­ you¡­ Anna¡­ you made it¡­¡± The revelation only added more confusion, but it did manage to knock some of the tiredness out of her. Tears began to fall, ¡°I¡¯m so glad.¡± She shakily raised her arms, ¡°I¡¯m¡­ so glad.¡± Anna knelt down and embraced Elly in a hug. Eva whispered, ¡°Thank you.¡± They stayed hugging for a while longer before Elly finally signalled for Anna to let her go. Once she did, Anna walked back to her seat to sit. ¡°Did anyone else¡­ no you don¡¯t have to answer that, I know no one else did.¡± Luna asked, ¡°How?¡± ¡°We did have a close call on the way out.¡± Elly¡¯s hands trembled remembering the moment. ¡°After we left the cave¡­ the kids were a mess, they heard the blood-curdling screams of their families and the sound of fire burning. So, after we left the tunnel some kids were still in a state of panic, and after we tried walking further away, some ran back towards the village.¡± She continued, ¡°I was terrified they were just going to die, but¡­ I couldn¡¯t leave them. So, I left the kids who were willing to stay behind in a safe space and I ran after the ones that went back. I told the kids, that if I¡¯m not back by sunrise, leave and follow the direction I gave them to Ihere. Elly''s expression darkened, ¡°I wish I did a better job stopping them. They got back and found the village up in smoke with blood littered everywhere. Some even saw their parents'' corpses.¡± ¡°...I assume most of them aren¡¯t okay.¡± ¡°That¡¯s putting it mildly, but most are keeping it quiet. The ones who saw the village no longer wanted to rebel and followed instructions to a tee out of fear. They had all experienced loss to some extent before, with the beast attacks, and understood the possibility of danger thanks to where they grew up. Those factors have helped them not completely break down, which was good for the situation we were in. We needed to move fast, but as time progressed, the adrenaline wore off¡­¡± Elly didn¡¯t have to finish what she was saying for Anna to understand. The kids were not in good shape. That was evident by their appearance which ranged from deeply sad to nearly dead inside. Those hollow eyes saw things no kid should¡¯ve had to see. Anger built up in Syrus, [Bloody bastards¡­] A determined resolve flared in Luna, [They won¡¯t get away with this¡­!] [...] (Eva) Elly then explained how they reached Greenvale. As explained by Bree before, she did reach Ihere first where she asked Bree for help and explained part of the situation. Then she stole a cart because there was no one to buy one from and she was scared that buying one would cause trouble. ¡°To be honest, that was the first time I had publicly stolen something, and I was worried about being caught and dragged by whoever attacked the village. I know that was a wild thought because I was just in Ihere, but at the time I was worried about everything.¡± ¡°That¡¯s completely fair, as I chased after you, I felt the same. Worried something happened at every step of the journey.¡± Elly knew Anna kind of acted mature for her age, but having that mature attribute with her new form felt weird. Like that something had gone horribly wrong. ¡°Did you find out I was here from Bree?¡± ¡°Yes, I would recommend leaving her alone after just confirming your safety, looks like she doesn¡¯t want to worry about the stressful situation any longer.¡± Syrus then sarcastically huffed. ¡°Oh, the guards also said it was a fire.¡± ¡°...¡± Elly nodded and then bit her lip, ¡°I¡¯m sure that¡¯s not going to be the actual story once they investigate the situation.¡± ¡°Not that the actual story will be any closer to the truth of events.¡± Luna switched the topic back to travelling. ¡°How were you able to get a whole building so fast?¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty trusted, I made a bunch of the props used here in this city, so I was well known enough by the businesses who have asked for ornaments for their shops. I got money stored here as well, so I was able to buy one of the older properties. Thankfully there were a few to choose from so the process was easy, if not costly.¡± Now it was Elly¡¯s turn to ask some additional questions, ¡°What¡­ happened to you?¡± The vast physical difference was hard to ignore. ¡°Attribute awakening¡­ a painful one. I wasn¡¯t lying about the name either, Anlesa, it is my actual name¡­ and now that I look like this¡­ I would prefer to be called that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine Anna, but are you sure you aren¡¯t forcing yourself to separate the names?¡± ¡°No, Anlesa is¡­ personal in a way only Jen could make it.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Elly looked out the window at the sky. ¡°That sounds like Jen.¡± After a few moments of pondering, Luna asked, ¡°What is your plan now?¡± ¡°Take care of the children.¡± Elly looked behind her at the door. ¡°I can¡¯t just leave them to the orphanages, not now, not like this¡­. I never thought I would do something like this.¡± Elly turned back to Anna. ¡°Those children deserve better¡­¡± Eva spoke, ¡°Agreed, I hope the children will be able to recover.¡± She didn¡¯t want them to drown like she had done. The only thing that could help them was that they had each other who experienced the same thing. She was begging that they wouldn''t be stuck in the muddy dark ocean of their emotions. That didn¡¯t mean they would fully recover, but she hoped they wouldn¡¯t be stuck. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Elly added, ¡°Yeah, now with you around, maybe the children will be a little more happy.¡± [Yep, I knew she was going to say that.] (Syrus) [...] (Eva) [It has to be done, Eva.] (Syrus) [I know, that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m any less pained by it.] (Eva) [Lilly¡­] (Luna) Syrus replied, ¡°No, I¡¯m not planning on staying here.¡± ¡°What¡­¡± Elly paused, her voice nearly raised in shock. ¡°If it¡¯s just because your appearance has changed, then don¡¯t worry, we can explain it to the children.¡± ¡°No¡­ there are a few things I need to do.¡± ¡°But..¡± Elly wanted to yell, but held herself back. Luna quietly said, ¡°I know who caused this.¡± ¡°How¡­¡± Anlesa answered, ¡°I didn¡¯t leave the village by hiding away, I removed them all, and what you see now is a part of the price I had to pay.¡± Elly didn¡¯t know what to say and just mumbled something out. ¡°Where do you plan to go¡­?¡± ¡°Far away, I may have a target on my back after all. I already know what job to do, and if you don¡¯t plan on moving out of Cancole, I can send money to you.¡± ¡°Anna¡­¡± ¡°The preparations have been made, I just need to make it there.¡± Anna didn¡¯t actually have a place they wanted to go, but they did have some ideas. Eva had one idea in specifics where she felt like it would be best. [Arisea Station.] (Eva) [Lilly?] (Luna) [Remember when I said I had an idea? That is where we should go.] (Eva) [It¡¯s far away, but close enough, but will it do for our business?] (Syrus) [Yes, it involves a lot of hunter work, and it¡¯s a trade point between countries. It also doesn¡¯t have any big involvement with Aurora Church, and it¡¯s farther away from Nevald Kingdom. From what I read in geography it has a mixed culture which means we would be able to disguise our forms better.] (Eva) Arisea Station was an independent city nation, formed south of Cancole, the area surrounding it was unclaimed by any one country due to dangers. Elly begged, ¡°Anna, you don¡¯t have to do this.¡± [...] (Luna) ¡°You can just stay here.¡± [...] (Eva) ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with that.¡± [...] (Syrus) ¡°It will help the kids.¡± ¡°Please, don¡¯t harm yourself, you''re just a child.¡± Eva spoke, ¡°I appreciate your kindness, but nothing will stop me anymore.¡± Elly continued to cry, but there was nothing that could be done. She wanted to stop her, but she was exhausted and her heart and mind were telling it would be impossible¨Ceverything was already too much to take care of. Anna was allowed to sleep in the side room for the night, but tomorrow, she planned to be gone again. Chapter 59 – Gone Again Chapter 59 ¨C Gone Again The morning sun rose to welcome the new day, and it was genuinely hard for Anna to believe that it was now nearing five days since everything happened. That simple thought was scary for Eva, as it just emphasised her feelings that everything was slipping away. Anlesa had got up early for the sole purpose of leaving without issue. [Let¡¯s go quickly.] (Eva) [We are, we just got to be quiet about it.] (Syrus) They slept against the door so no one would sneak a peek while they were sleeping. They found out that they would stay in different forms while asleep, but Eva believed she didn¡¯t have enough control to keep their horn gone throughout the night while unconscious. She dashed into an alley and planned the rest of the day. [We need to get some food then find a caravan heading towards Arisea Station.] (Syrus) [We are in agreement with that option?] (Eva) [Yeah, we didn¡¯t talk about it much last night, but it ticks all the boxes.] (Syrus) [I have no problem with it; the only issue is the fact that it is in no-man''s land and that has its own dangers. One of the borders of that no-man¡¯s land is the Nevald Kingdom, but to counter my own point, there is a mountain range in the way. So, the Nevald Kingdom shouldn¡¯t be a big influence.] (Luna) The no-man¡¯s land was technically considered to belong to Arisea Station, but due to the dangers, political issues, and other surrounding borders, only the roads to and the surrounding area around the city of Arisea Station were considered official territory. As they walked away, Syrus heard a stomp of footsteps heading towards them from behind. Elly yelled, ¡°Wait one moment!¡± Huffing and puffing all the way until centimetres away from Anna. Anlesa turned around, ¡°Elly?¡± Elly snarked back, ¡°Yes that¡¯s my name, and now wait here, kid.¡± Elly had been looking ever so slightly better. She had her first proper full night''s sleep in days and learning that Anna was alive¨Ceven if she was determined to thrust herself into more danger¨Clightened her heart. Luna asked, ¡°Are you here to try and stop me?¡± ¡°Quiet brat.¡± Elly groaned, ¡°I don¡¯t want to admit it, but I got a feeling you will be able to destroy any attempt I make at trying to stop you.¡± Elly continued, ¡°...I would like you to stay though¡­¡± Luna sighed, ¡°I understand, but that¡¯s not going to happen.¡± ¡°It was worth one final shot¡­¡± Elly felt horrible about letting Anna go. She understood whatever happened that night after she and the children left was horrible, and the only one who saw it happen directly was Anna. She was forced to grow physically and mentally, and Elly didn¡¯t want any more burden on Anna. But like her parents, she was determined to follow her own path without outsiders¡¯ input. ¡°...¡± Eva felt Elly¡¯s genuine concern for them. ¡°Thank you Elly for everything.¡± She gripped the wooden pendant around her neck, ¡°And for teaching Dad how to carve.¡± ¡°!¡± Elly looked shocked as she only just realised what was around Anna¡¯s neck. ¡°Heh. After numerous attempts, he suddenly said he had a revelation and that was his final attempt.¡± The pedant was as always, a simple wooden circle with a small hole for a string to pass through. It was slightly stained from the fires but wasn¡¯t damaged due to the material. Anna turned back and continued to walk through the alley. Elly raised her hand to grab Anna, ¡°Wait before you go.¡± Anna turned around again, ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°I have something to give you. Elly pulled out a small pouch. ¡°You are going to need some money.¡± ¡°Why¡­ you don¡¯t have to do this.¡± ¡°People don¡¯t have to do anything. And because it¡¯s my money, I can do what I want with it.¡± Syrus scoffed, ¡°Save it for the kids.¡± ¡°You are one of those kids.¡± Elly shook her head, ¡°If you are THAT upset then pay me back.¡± ¡°Okay¨C¡± Elly interrupted, ¡°In person. So, I know you are still alive and well¡­¡± Syrus sighed. ¡°Well played¡­¡± Syrus took the bag, and Elly added, ¡°That should be enough to buy a few sets of clothes, food, and equipment to take you anywhere.¡± Luna counted the coins, ¡°You know your stuff.¡± A pained smile appeared on her face, ¡°Thanks, I had someone teach me efficient travel costs.¡± Anna turned around to leave for one final time. ¡°When the money starts coming in, I¡¯ll send some in to help out. That¡¯s not for repayment, but it¡¯s what I want to do.¡± Elly said, ¡°Fine, but are you going to say goodbye to the other children before you leave?¡± ¡°No, they don¡¯t know Anlesa, and it¡¯s better that way.¡± ¡°Is it really?¡± ¡°Please, I don¡¯t want to give them hope that Anna lived.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t stop kids from dreaming that their friend is alive, you know.¡± ¡°I know¡­¡± Anna walked away and Elly didn¡¯t chase any further. Finally, Elly was no longer in sight and it was time to prepare to leave. [What should we do first?] (Eva) [Food then clothes.] (Luna) S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Nah, let¡¯s check the caravan schedules first, that lets us plan around when we have to leave.] (Syrus) They ended up following Syrus¡¯s plan. First, they checked any caravans headed for Arisea Station. Thankfully because Arisea Station was a big trade hub, there were at least frequent merchant paths that went through it. Not every day, but it was enough that there was a good chance that a caravan going to it would come by soon. If there wasn¡¯t one today, Syrus was going to rent a hotel room until the day came when one would arrive. In a stroke of good fortune for Anna, there was one caravan leaving after midday. It would take numerous stops before reaching Arisea Station as they would have to go through the other half of Cancole. Their village was in the far north, and Greenvale was still in the top northern half. After organising that and paying ahead of time. They got some breakfast and then went shopping. First, they bought a large backpack to properly store their items, and afterwards bought four sets of basic clothes. Dull brown shirts and long pants. They weren¡¯t shopping for fashion, but just practicality. Syrus also wanted to buy some armour but that was hard considering there was no place in this city that sold good adjustable pieces¨Caccording to Syrus. With all that done, it was nearing lunchtime. [Do we just want to wait by the caravans?] (Syrus) [Yes.] (Luna) [...] (Eva) [Lilly?] (Luna) [...I think we should see the kids one final time.] (Eva) [Seriously? That¡¯s a terrible idea.] (Syrus) [I know, I want to be the one to say goodbye, even if it¡¯s from a distance.] (Eva) [...] (Luna) [...Fine. But don¡¯t go inside.] (Syrus) [Understood.] (Eva) Eva was in control as Anna as she made one final pass by the house Elly bought. She peaked through the window from across the street. The children were huddled together. Some were looking better than yesterday while others still looked just as bad. They were quiet, but they were sharing food between them. Ella was the one who went into the kitchen to bring out more food. While Jerry stared off into the distance, Billy and Elliot were under a blanket together, and Tom was helping his sister. [Goodbye everyone. May you be safe here.] (Eva) As Eva turned to leave. ¡°Do you know where Anna is?¡± ¡°Pardon?¡± Anna turned around to see one small child with light brown hair, and mucky blue eyes looking up at her. ¡°Do you know where Anna is?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know who she is?¡± Eva replied, but it pained her, as the one who was asking was Leah. ¡°Lair, I heard you and Elly mention Anna.¡± Leah only heard the name mentioned once when she was in listening range, but just hearing it once made her want to talk to this stranger. Eva sighed, she didn¡¯t want Syrus or Luna to start talking as that weird speaking habit would be easily identified as Anna¡¯s. ¡°Sigh¡­ sorry kid, I don¡¯t know where she is.¡± ¡°Then why do you know of her?¡± Eva crouched down, ¡°How do I look like to you?¡± ¡°Like Anna.¡± ¡°Well, she is my cousin.¡± Eva continued with the reason they gave Elly. ¡°I see¡­ Do you know if she will be coming back?¡± Eva asked, ¡°Why do you want to know?¡± Leah paused. ¡°Cause¡­ she could do anything¡­ so she can come back.¡± It was Eva¡¯s turn to pause. She swallowed and continued, ¡°Sorry, but I don¡¯t know, I don¡¯t know if she will ever come back.¡± Leah begged, ¡°...but she has to¡­¡± Eva sorrowfully sighed. ¡°Is there anything else you want to ask?¡± Leah shook her head. ¡°No¡­ not anymore.¡± ¡°Then, goodbye kid, it will be a long time until I visit again, and don¡¯t go out by yourself.¡± ¡°Why are you going?¡± Eva paused, and made a verbal promise, ¡°Cause I¡¯m going to get money and revenge.¡± [What are you doing?] (Luna) ¡°Revenge?¡± Leah¡¯s eyes sparkled. ¡°Yep, so you don¡¯t have to worry about anything¡­ just enjoy your life.¡± ¡°But can I¡­?¡± ¡°Yes, your family will be cheering you on all the way. So focus on you and your friends being happy, and I will focus on beating the crap out of those bad monsters.¡± Leah nodded and walked back to the house, and with that Eva quickly walked away. [That was risky, and I also can¡¯t believe that¨C] (Syrus) Eva¡¯s brain finally caught up to itself, [Oh the stars that worked¡­] [And apparently, I wasn¡¯t the only one.] (Syrus) [You shouldn''t have done that.] (Luna) [Maybe, but it has been done now. So, let''s move on. We got a cart to catch.] (Syrus) With their goal in Greenvale achieved it was time to move on to the next one. Reach Arisea Station. Chapter 60 – Tormented Emotion Chapter 60 ¨C Tormented Emotion Anlesa had settled in a corner of the cart and made herself comfortable. Which was good for her, because Anna was very tired. Even though she had gotten a long sleep over the last few days, she was still absolutely exhausted. This was partly due to the physical strain the body was still recovering from, but the mental burden could no longer be pushed down with simple adrenaline. ¡°Lassy, you need¡¯a anything?¡± Luna responded, ¡°No I¡¯m alright, thank you.¡± ¡°All¡¯a good¡¯a.¡± The merchant''s son came to check on Anna as night was falling. The caravan was parked outside a city, and the people who owned it were sleeping inside the carts to save money. This merchant caravan she paid to hitch a ride in had two large carts, both covered and had multiple shelves to store goods on multiple levels. Max was the merchant who owned these two carts, and he and his son Jack each drove one of the horse-pulled carts. She hadn¡¯t talked to either much besides paying for a ride. The son had tried, as she was travelling in his cart which had fewer items within it. But Luna silenced any attempt but simply saying she was too tired and not in the mood. Anna had a blanket, and she slept in a position looking away from the entrance. This was done if their horn came back out while asleep. They weren¡¯t too worried about being sneaked on while sleeping. Besides the fact, Syrus would be able to wake up at the slightest worrisome noise. If one of them was in the Soul Space, with a half-strength connection to the body, they wouldn¡¯t fall asleep as they were still in the Soul Space, but they would be connected to the body¡¯s senses. Normally they wouldn¡¯t do this, but the situation had very much changed, and now for extra security, there was always someone listening throughout the night. Jack and Max stayed together in the more important cart; the one Anna was not in. The cart Anna was in had been split into sections by planks of wood. She was in the back left corner where there were no other items. The other sections were covered by large tarps. The moonlight shone through the cart¡¯s entrance, shining its dull white light on the sleeping girl. Anna slept there all alone, and tears were falling from her eyes. It wasn¡¯t clear who was causing these tears to fall, but they began soon after the night went quiet. A quiet pain filled their soul, as their dark, dreary, miserable, sorrowful emotions mixed inside. And for hours none of them did anything about them, they were all simply too exhausted to do so. Day and day of just moving forward after everything. Solving mysteries; ensuring those who were known to be left were safe; figuring out what the future would hold; and learning more about their powers. All things that were done for an important purpose, but at the same time, were a distraction from the hollow void created. sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Hours passed and a simple near silent pain cry was let out. ¡°I¨C¡± [..¨CI want to see them.] (Eva) To go home and be welcomed. To be invested or ignoring the study. To help with the farm work and cooking. To play a dumb game or to make a stupid comment. There were one hundred thousand things they wanted to do, but they couldn¡¯t, as those simple moments had now become a dream. The only leftovers were the memories after the centre of their life was stolen. [...] (Eva) [...] (Luna) [...] (Syrus) There was the hope that they could be alive, but in reality, that didn¡¯t matter, they were gone either way. Even ignoring the fact that Jen and George could be dead¨Cthe teleportation theory could be wrong in the first place or they wound up in some location that was just as dangerous that would cost them their lives. Instinctively, the coloured strands of hair faded to black and their light reddish-brown in a vain attempt to recall the happy times. Anna¡¯s hand pinched the blanket and pulled it up tighter. Each girl remembered different moments in this life, and through their connection and swirling emotions, they were each able to see each of them. Many happy memories were following in her mind, but it was hard to enjoy them knowing the ending. Every moment felt stained. They knew that was a dumb, stupid, idiotic, pervasive thought. Those good times weren¡¯t ruined, they happened and they were great! But the unjust conclusion to this part of their life denied them that shine. They knew thinking this way was horrible, it did a disservice to the years their parents spent raising them, and it would be letting the bastards who torched their home win more but allowing them to stamp all over their merry memories. But why¡­ Why was it so hard!? The night continued, peaceful on the outside but hidden by the shadows and moonlight the child was still suffering. Why couldn¡¯t the adrenaline keep thoughts away? The fault lay in not one of the three and the solution couldn¡¯t be created by just one of them. But at this moment, they prayed, not to anyone or anything, but simply prayed that no one would come and visit while they grieved. It was unsure what they needed. Syrus had grown numb to tragedy, but still felt this one. Lilly had experienced the depths of this hollow void the longest, but time was never enough. Luna had been a part of many believers'' grieving processes, but none of the advice helped her. So, for the time being, they just simply grieved the night away. Not because they wanted to, but because the feelings needed to be poured out. ¡°Dad¡­ Mum¡­¡± Chapter 61 – A Diary Chapter 61 ¨C A Diary After the long gruelling night, the morning had finally arrived. It took some serious effort, but Anna was able to stand up and get cleaned up before people started to leave their houses. All three of them still felt groggy from the previous night''s spillage of emotions, but there was nothing they could do, but keep moving on, they had a destination to reach after all. Jack asked, ¡°Howdy do this fine morning.¡± Luna replied, ¡°I¡¯m okay, what time does the caravan plan on leaving?¡± ¡°Midday, give or take¡¯a few bobs.¡± The journey to Arisea Station from Greenvale would take about a week to complete. Greenvale being in the northern half and Arisea Station being south of the southern border meant they would have to travel through most of Cancole before they even got close to Arisea Station. Being a merchant cavern, they made stops at multiple cities and towns to sell their goods which ate up the travel time. The one good thing though was that once they reached the border, it would be a one-day trip through the no-man''s land around Arisea Station to reach Arisea Station itself. Anna did make herself useful by helping the merchant duo out. She did this by helping unpack goods and moving the light cargo around when needed. They didn¡¯t spend all day around the cart, if they wouldn¡¯t be moving for the rest of the day, one of them would walk around the town for a bit for no particular reason¨Cif there was one, then it would probably simply be to breathe. While travelling thankfully for them, not much did happen. They did think about the past few days'' events a couple of times, some of them wondering if what they did was correct or not. However, there was one thing that they all agreed on, which was Bree seeing Syrus and Elly seeing Anlesa. If they were in the right state of mind, were able to control their body better, and planned better they would¡¯ve used the same form to meet both of them. It was a bad mistake, but with both parties most likely going to be distant from each other now, it was likely nothing bad would come from it, but that didn¡¯t mean they were happy with said mistake. Travelling through the new towns and cities was also a lovely experience for anyone from a small town who had never left their home. It was something Jen herself did before getting married¨Cwhich ended up costing her most of her money, but nonetheless, an experience she enjoyed greatly. But honestly, for Anna, it was just a blur. Not because Syrus had seen a hundred towns, or because Luna had visited a few of the cities before. No, it was just a simple uninterest in everything that was around them, which made Eva sad. Then on the second last day of their trip, they were approaching the southern border of Cancole. [I want to read George¡¯s diary.] Eva stated, and without listening for any possible opposition from Syrus or Luna, her hands dived into their backpack to pull it out. The book had a simple leather cover, stained in ash that Eva tried to carefully push with her hand and Manipulation attribute. [...Go ahead.] (Luna) Eva didn¡¯t reply and their head nodded for a moment. Out of everything to find in the burning house, they never expected to find a journal written by George. They didn¡¯t even know their father even wrote in one; Jen was known to write in multiple and create notebooks for all sorts of things, but George never seemed to be interested in creating one himself. Before Eva turned the first page, Eva pondered, [Do you think Mum made him do it?] [I could see her pushing him to try it at least twice.] (Syrus) They opened the first page. The structure was written very simply. Date, followed by one, rarely two sentences. There wasn¡¯t one for every day or even every month, but there was enough that half the book was filled. 03/10/1308, I am nervous. His first message was as simple as it could possibly be. Before opening they were curious what this journal would be about. Would it contain facts before their parents were married, hidden secrets and worries he faced in his day-to-day life, or the just release of emotion onto a page? Nonetheless, the date said a thousand words. [That¡¯s just before¡­] (Luna) 04/10/1308, Jen said she felt the first kick. George had started the diary late into Jen¡¯s pregnancy, two months before Anna was born. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The following entries were what one would expect from George. Small comments about the joyful times, a few embarrassing and lovely moments with Jen and baby Anna, and sometimes a line about a major event in the village. Then they reached the time when their parents were worried about her development before their souls awoke. 16/05/1313, I¡¯m scared. I don¡¯t want anyone to harm her. 30/11/1313, the year is about to be over, Anna is going to be five years old and is still barely moving¡­ Those pages were simply filled with worries and prayers that nothing bad would befall Anna, but that changed to words of excitement and joy once she started moving and talking. 01/01/1314, she has the cutest smile. [He really knows how to make us embarrassed.] (Luna) [Make you embarrassed, nothing embarrassing about a dad calling his daughter cute.] (Syrus) [Why do you both have to be right¡­] (Eva) George didn¡¯t talk about his emotions or feelings besides any that involved Anna. 04/03/1314, Anna was amazing today. ¡­ 07/07/1314, Anna won today¡¯s game. 08/07/1314, I got to read to Anna tonight. Jen was right, how Eva¡¯s eyes light up like stars during story time is beautiful and cute. ¡­ 30/12/1314, Anna is such a brave child, I hope she is okay. ¡­ 02/01/1315, Luna helped me today with the merchant, she certainly got her mum¡¯s wit. ¡­ 04/03/1315, sigh, I need to make sure to not only not get on the bad side of Jen, but Anna too! They must never know I stole the cookies because I needed to empty the bowl. 05/03/1315, they found out. I have been ordered to make a new batch. Jokes on them, I was already preparing them. 02/04/1316, Syrus is always so eager to help out, but I¡¯m worried she will hurt herself. I know me and Jen are partly to blame, kids copy their parents, but I hope I can manage to teach them to pace herself properly. ¡­ 01/02/1316, they have the cutest smile. ¡­ 29/11/1318, Anna must be so worried about everything she kept in. I need to make sure she knows she did everything right and nothing about this is her fault, they truly are amazing girls. 1/12/1318, what a lovely night. Reading through the book brought a small joy to the three of them. Throughout the notes towards the end, there was one more thing George brought up, that he was secretly preparing for. [Our birthday is about to come up¡­] (Eva) Alberest festival was held at the start of the last month of the year, which was roughly also a week and a half before Anna¡¯s birthday, 12/12/1308. They all knew their birthday was coming up. They didn¡¯t forget the date of it, but it was something that was just squashed in the back of their mind under the weight of everything. [And it¡¯s going to be celebrated all alone in an old cart¡­] (Syrus) While they ponder the happy moments gained and despairing realisation of the first birthday that they couldn¡¯t celebrate with Jen or George. The cart suddenly came to a stop. Neigh! The horse yelled and Anna could hear its hooves stamp in the ground. ¡°HA HA, we got you surrounded!¡± A new gravelly voice yelled from in front of where the cart was heading. [Who is this bastard?!] Syrus roared out, furious at whomever was interrupting their reading of George¡¯s diary. The caravan had met some robbers. Chapter 62 – A Weakened Scuffle Chapter 62 ¨C A Weakened Scuffle The gravelly voice yelled out, ¡°HA HA, we got you surrounded!¡± This was followed up with someone else yelling, ¡°Don¡¯t try any funny business heh, heh!¡± Both their annoying voices were causing Syrus¡¯s anger dial to turn up. With everything going on in their head, her emotions were slightly unstable. So, the big derailment on what was supposed to be a peaceful journey to Arisea Station was enough for her to get straight to the point and knock both of them out. However, there were many issues. Anna heard Jack quietly swear, ¡°What¡¯a shits is going on, bandits, we''re not even out¡¯a the border.¡± The sound of a crack of a bat against the wooden carven rang along with the first bandit who said, ¡°Quiet, just be prepared to offload your trinkets and goodies.¡± Jack gave up, ¡°Fine, let me grab them.¡± He stood up and turned to move into the back of his cart. Jack whispered, ¡°Stay hidden, and when you get the chance, move under the left board, it¡¯s tight but you should be able to squeeze in.¡± Anna was under blankets anyway, so the dark corner they were in kept them well hidden. One of the bandits climbed on the side of the cart, ¡°Hurry up!¡± ¡°It¡¯s been two seconds!¡± His dad said back, ¡°Jack, no yelling back.¡± Jack sighed, grabbed a couple of bags of money in his cart and returned to the front. [What do we do¡­?] (Eva) [Following Jack¡¯s advice would be for the best, there are too many unknown factors in play.] (Luna) [Agreed to a point, but we have to bite back, there is no telling what these people want. They could easily burn the carts or stab the owners but there¡¯s an opportunity when they wouldn¡¯t be hurt.] (Syrus) [We don¡¯t know their numbers, all we do know is that there are at least two and we can¡¯t forget the simple fact we are in no state to fight.] (Luna) The main crucial issues were that they had no idea how many enemies there were and they were still extremely from the aftermath of their transformation. After days of healing, they were nowhere near peak condition. Their body was improving, but very slowly. The man dragged Jack off the cart, ¡°Now come on, you gotta have more than this.¡± He complained loudly, ¡°What¡¯a do you want from me, I¡¯m on the secondary cart.¡± Anna made an educated guess this was done for them as an opportunity to hide. The fact that neither Max nor Jack had stood up could mean a few things, a few of the easiest guesses were; one they knew they wouldn¡¯t be harmed in the complied, two the costs of trying to fight back were higher than just giving into the demands, or three [So what if our physical strength is in a poor state, the deficiency can be made up with clever moves and the right strikes.] (Syrus) [It¡¯s not just our physical strength Syrus, you know this, mana is flowing slower throughout the body as well, so we will be barely able to reach our standard output.] (Luna) [Syrus, I¡¯m not sure, I won¡¯t even be able to help, I have no idea how to use Manipulation in combat.] (Eva) Eva understood that out of three viable ways to fight right now they had Fire, Moonlight, and Manipulation. Space wasn¡¯t an option, the cost was too high and mana output was too much for the body to handle in a short burst. Mana had to flow from the body to be used, and for many, there was a soft limit on how much they could expel at any one time. For most people as long as they weren¡¯t draining all their mana this was just a mental obstacle, but it could be a physical block if there was something wrong with the body. That didn¡¯t mean using an attribute like Space in these conditions was impossible, but the time to cast any technique or spell greatly increased, and one wrong move could stop the process [Don¡¯t worry Eva, you don¡¯t have to involve yourself in the combat. Me and if Luna wants to, are enough.] (Syrus) [I still haven''t agreed.] (Luna) [Well, if this makes you feel better, I have been focusing my ears on the outside.] (Syrus) [I can tell, it has been sounding like footsteps.] Luna replied. When Syrus used her attribute and mana to improve her senses, of course being in the same body, Eva and Luna could feel the changes as well. [Well you aren¡¯t able to differentiate them yet, two people with thick leather probably damaged boots, and one wearing sandals who we know is Jack, Max hasn¡¯t jumped off the cart yet. So yes, there may be more bandits, but they would have to not move this whole talk.] (Syrus) [The talk hasn¡¯t even gone on long.] (Luna) [Yes, but you are underestimating how hard it is to be truly silent. Simple moving, twisting one''s foot in the dirt, breathing deeply, or the groans of a hungry stomach are hide to ignore.] (Syrus) [Speaking like that, you sound like a tracker, rather than a mercenary.] (Luna) [What can I say, the more skills one has the better, but anyway, are you in?] (Syrus) [You know if I don¡¯t agree we are going to hide.] Luna replied, in most normal situations one of the trio couldn¡¯t overpower the others for control of the body, so if Luna and Eva agreed to hide, Syrus would be risking by most likely only making some noise while trying to enact her plan. [I agree.] (Eva) [Pardon?] But unexpectedly for Luna, Eva wanted to go ahead with Syrus¡¯s plan. [I trust you.] (Eva) [Well alright, I got to live up to the expectations.] (Syrus) [Wait! Think about this.] (Luna) [I have.] (Eva) [Calm down and join the ride, we still have time before our true stop.] (Syrus) Syrus began to enact her plan. The robbery proceeded like normal. For the safety of all involved, the owners gave in to the demands, but as Syrus expected the first bandit still wasn¡¯t happy and went to search the carts himself. After scrubbing through the first cart he jumped into Jack¡¯s cart. He quickly scurried right to the back corner looking for something good. Then right as he did, Syrus jumped up from behind out of a box she hopped into and her hand darted in front of the man¡¯s face. The man barely had time to react, ¡°Hmm!¡± A flash of fire burst into life blinding the man and grabbing onto his face. ¡°Argh!¡± He tumbled back scratched at his face to remove the flames. Anna sidestepped and then pushed forward, [Luna! Prim to the face.] (Syrus) A small cube of Moonlight was generated in their palm. Before the man could even see what was coming, the cube flew and smashed into his face dealing concussive damage. He fell back further into the cart, but to make sure the job was done. Syrus added an extra kick to be sure. There was no sneaking up on the other individual, he was too far away, so they simply jumped out of the cart. Making sure to take the sword the bandit was carrying with him. The weight was a bit too much for their exhausted muscles so it was more of a bluff than anything. Luna sighed, ¡°Well, it¡¯s a three-verse one, but dealing with unknown variables can be difficult.¡± [I¡¯m not using Moonlight anymore Syrus, the first attack was hidden in the cart but I¡¯m not using another outside publicly] (Luna) [That¡¯s fine.] (Syrus) S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Syrus looked at her last opponent and thought she wouldn¡¯t need Luna¡¯s help for this. The second bandit was a few years younger than the first, but clearly aged in their late twenties or early thirties. He held a long beaten-up sword that was still sharp but had a couple of indents and scratches over it. Jack called out, ¡°Wait¡¯a minute, what¡¯a ya doing?!¡± Syrus ignored him and continued strutting forward to the second bandit. The bandit wasn¡¯t sure what this girl was planning, she wasn¡¯t holding the sword correctly, and her attitude just oozed cockyness. After a moment, he charged at her, no reason to be on the receiving end of an overconfident child who got lucky. He needed to seriously injure and/or capture her, with his companion down, he needed to ensure the other two wouldn¡¯t try anything. Seconds later they were in striking distance. He swung down and Syrus raised the blade up to defend. Watching this, the bandit swung even harder, ready to knock back the poor guard. However, Syrus didn¡¯t even try to push back and simply let go of the blade the moment before they clashed. With the extra moment the man came tumbling forward, he was about to adjust his footing and stay standing, but Syus slipped her foot under his and then pushed his back down and burnt his butt. Dirt flew up and his face made friends with the earth. Syrus grabbed his sword and walked to the cart. Syrus turned back to Max and Jack. ¡°Now, can we go?" Chapter 63 – Happy Birthday to Me Chapter 63 ¨C Happy Birthday to Me Thankfully for Anna, the wrap-up with the bandits went by quickly. None of them really wanted to deal with two unconscious bodies for any length of time. There was a little debate about what to do to deal with the duo. Handing over both to the nearest patrol would be the correct course of action. Luna and the caravan owners knew this, but it couldn¡¯t be said that any party wanted to drag the two along. So, the option of just leaving both of them outside and either letting nature take its course or allowing them to get away when they awoke, but for the safety of others, they were tied up and dragged along. The border between Cancole and the Arisea Station territory had a guard station and basically a small village rest spot for travellers there which was where they decided to take them. Thanks to Syrus¡¯s well-powered blows, both were still very unconscious, Luna did secretly heal them a tiny bit so there would be less chance there was serious permanent damage. The caravan made good time after the tiny delay caused by the bandits and before long they reached the border before it got late. The guards took the duo who they planned to question when they woke up. Anna was happy they didn¡¯t have to stay before to correlate stories, if anything the guards deeply sighed when they saw the two, mostly likely repeat offenders, but apparently never did anything extreme enough to be locked away for a long time. The trio rested at the border station with the caravan crew for one final time before leaving for Arisea Station. The journey from the border on the large dirt road leading to the true Arisea Station would take half a day. Along the way, Anlesa saw other merchants and security go down the road. The city made sure that travellers would be safe within the main road of their territory. By early afternoon, they had arrived at Arisea Station. Immediately upon entry, the first landmark they noticed was the massive centre main road that went right straight through the entire city. Along the main road, a massive line of two-story buildings made out of the local dark orange and brown woods stood. Just beyond them, smaller one-story buildings littered the city. Shops, hotels, bars, houses, restaurants, workshops, and guilds were all built next to each other. Anna got a good look at the city as the merchant caravan drove about three-quarters down the main road. Outside of the large main road, eight main streets split down the long road and spread out. Of course, there were a lot of smaller streets and alleys that connected everything. The small streets were only big enough for two carts, while the main streets could easily fit four to six, while the main centre street could easily fit twelve. The two caravans turned left on the fourth junction and rode down for a little longer to find a large sector for travelling caravans. They paused outside the yard and waited to get permission to enter. Knowing this would be a long process due to the fact the officer in charge wasn¡¯t here yet. Anna got up and was ready to leave. She opened her bag and pulled out a large coat with a hood. They donned the coat and made sure the back of their hair was within it. Syrus may have cut their hair short, but it was long enough still that the white parts could be hidden. Any shorter and white strains on the back end would be too obvious for Luna¡¯s preference. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Anna walked to the front of the cart and said goodbye to the caravan owner¡¯s son. ¡°Thank you for all your help.¡± Luna tilted her head forward as thanks. Jack shook his head. ¡°We should¡¯a be saying that. You are a paying customer but had to deal with the bandits.¡± ¡°If that is the case, can I get a return on my travel fare?¡± ¡°Argh, ha, ha.¡± Jack let out a quiet painful dry laugh, ¡°Sorry, but no refunds¡­ I even asked the old man, wouldn¡¯t¡¯a let me do that.¡± Luna replied, ¡°Let me guess. No refunds allowed period, she endangered us and the cargo with her stunt, something could¡¯ve been stolen and we have to prepare for that scenario, and I think I will stop there.¡± He reeled back, shocked at what he just heard. ¡°Damn, you overheard?¡± ¡°No, he is just unoriginal.¡± Luna stepped down from the cart, and then waved goodbye to the both of them ¡°Take care now.¡± Jack waved back while Max just nodded and waited for the office to let their cart into the yard. Walking away from the yard, they could feel the largeness of the city wherever they walked. People were always moving from place to place, going in and out of buildings, carrying things from one location to another, or simply standing around off the road making small talk. Compared to everywhere they had been, this was certainly the largest city. Maybe not the most fancy, even Greevale and paved roads contained a vibe that spoke of quality. While for sure, the smaller streets might contain some pavement, nearly everything was made out of wood, and the centre road still being a dirt road made the city sing a different tune to places in Cancole. There was a lot they needed to do to become set up here, but all that¡­ had to wait. They simply didn¡¯t have the energy to start anything and everything. Instead, they just wondered. Looking. They weren¡¯t taking in and enjoying the sights and instead were just moving to pass the time. After a while though they looked for a place to settle down. There were multiple hotels and inns that could provide lodging but most of them were full. This wasn¡¯t helped by the fact that most people who lived in the city didn¡¯t have their own house. For the average quality place, the rent was cheap, and security was safer than owning a house that would be empty half the day. The people walked past them in a blur, and the only thing they focused on was the celestial bodies in the sky. After a while they did find a place, it wasn¡¯t anything special, but the most important part was that it had a window to see the sky. They ate and then entered the room to stay the rest of the day. The moon began to rise and the sun started to fall, but both were clearly visible in their paths. They didn¡¯t know what time Anna was born, their parents refused to say. Their reasoning was ¡®The whole day is meant to be your special day, don¡¯t try limiting it to one moment¡¯, although eventually one day George gave them a partial answer. ¡®It was around the time the sun was clearly setting and the moon was visible in the sky. I remember the day because everything that happened the moments after you were born seemed eternally beautiful in my eyes.¡¯ That time was still vague, but there was nothing they could do about it. Today was the 12/12/1318. It had been ten years since they were born on 12/12/1308. Even for souls who had already lived a life, the idea of reaching ten years of age was crazy. Maybe even more so since they had experienced it before. Although the four to five years they spent together seemed brighter than many of their old memories. This varied between the trio, but it was a simple factual truth to say these years were wonderful. Anna held the homemade wooden pendant tightly. One of the gifts they managed to keep safe, even despite how close it came to danger during everything, it wasn¡¯t cut, and it hadn¡¯t burned thanks to its material. ¡°Happy birthday¨C¡± It hurt. ¡°Happy birthday!¡± ¡°Happy birthday!¡± They could hear the voices of Jen and George saying it. Their memories of those moments overlapped, wishing them well. [One day¨C] [I swear¨C] [I¨C] One birthday wish. A simple obvious wish. There were many things they wanted to do, but there was only one they wanted the most. ¡°¨Cto me.¡± Chapter 64 – New Life Chapter 64 ¨C New Life [Okay, time to get to work.] (Syrus) Anlesa stood up out of bed, got changed in clothes that blocked their facial features and prepared to leave. Today was going to be a long day; there were already some of the processes worked out, but there were a few more details they needed to figure out. The now ten-year-old, who looked nothing like a ten-year-old, ate breakfast and checked out of the inn. With yesterday''s events completed, they were filled with resolve to begin the next step. Even if they wanted to, there was no time to keep wallowing in the pain, time was limited and they needed to mark out their place. [Any preference on what we will do first?] (Syrus) The two basic tasks they needed to complete were finding a place to work and finding a home. For the former, they had many options, but they did range in difficulty to acquire. However, finding a home would be much harder. Well, just finding a place to stay wouldn¡¯t be too bad, they did that the day before, but now they had new requirements. [A new residence first is my option.] (Eva) [Sounds about right. Luna?] (Syrus) [I am in agreement; we just need to find a place that is private and has at least some wiggle room if people want to break in.] (Luna) [A room on a second floor would meet those requirements, but they would likely cost too much money.] (Eva) [Maybe a basement room could work?] (Luna) [A place or room with a basement could work but living in a basement might be too much.] (Syrus) [Why?] (Eva) [It¡¯s just about movement; if something happens, it¡¯s harder to leave quickly. I suppose breathability would also be a factor; some basements I found are really stuffy to be in. So sleeping in one every night will not be the best.] (Syrus) [Fair enough¡­ So what is your preference, then?] (Luna) [On homes or what should we do?] (Syrus) [Both are fine.] (Luna) [I got no more comments about housing, and I do think it is reasonable to start figuring that out first because we will need a place where we can hide during cooldown times. Although, now that I think about it, we should look around the jobs first, because it will cause trouble if we live close to where we would work.] (Syrus) [Agreed, I could see that happening.] (Luna) [So we want to peek into a few places first?] (Eva) [If we can, Eva can you handle the look?] (Syrus) They had to create a new disguise and identity for themselves. With each girl having their own form they could take, they did solve some of their problems, but that had its limits. Besides the simple time limit that was found by staying in one form for too long, there was also the big issue of attribute usage. While one was in control, the other two couldn¡¯t use their attributes. Maybe after their body recovered and they trained in it, they might be able to, but for the time being, they were locked in only ever using two attributes. Of course, having two attributes was amazing, but for the purpose of disguise, being locked wasn¡¯t ideal. The other option was to have Eva transform the body in disguise so they could do their business. The weak point in that plan was that Eva¡¯s skills in using Morph were far from enough. [I¡¯ll make it work.] (Eva) However, they still had to proceed with it. Eva could maintain one change¨Ckeeping her horn hidden¨Cbut multiple demands started to stress her out and could only be maintained for a limited time. So, she kept it simple. She kept Anlesa¡¯s reddish-brown eyes but dyed their hair a crimson red to match Syrus¡¯s. With this, there were only two changes to maintain, but that still couldn¡¯t be maintained forever; however, it could last for a while longer. Ideally, they would switch between Syrus¡¯s form and a Morph disguise that would look similar to Syrus''s. The big issue with that was the size difference between Anlesa and Syrus, it was enough that people would clearly notice if they claimed to be the same person. [Looking good; now let¡¯s start looking.] (Syrus) There were a few jobs they could acquire, but the main two were being a potion maker or a hunter. Technically, both were also an option. A potion maker was going to be well-paying, but if they didn¡¯t know if there was any place here that would be a good place to do that,. If there was any contract they had to sign that required them to work for a set period of time, then those places were out. Anlesa understood that their mindset was extremely restrictive on their options, but they wanted zero risks, and being bound to a company was too much at the moment for their current self, who wanted to stay out of the limelight and away from people. They could always buy and scavenge the materials themselves and sell homemade potion, which would still be worth something. Eva, outside of being a little fearful, was even curious to see what she could do now that her mana control issues had been healed. Then there was being a hunter. Compared to being a mercenary in Syrus¡¯s home, there was far less bureaucracy involved, for better and worse. If there were some other well-paying jobs they could find, they for sure would have tried to claim them if they met their criteria. As they were walking through the city, Eva noticed something. [There¡­ are a lot more people with exotic attributes than I was expecting.] (Eva) [Being a trade centre and a little further away from the Nevald Kingdom allows that, but there is even more than I was expecting.] (Luna) [Arisea Station being a single important trade city allows for people to mingle a lot more, with what you said, and the links to the territories where they are more common allows for them to be treated relatively normally. Though I presume there are plenty of people who look down upon them within the city, especially with merchants from the Nevald Kingdom.] (Syrus) While Cancole was bordered by Arisea Station and had a clear road to it, the Nevald Kingdom was in a different situation. It did have a border with Arisea Station, but that border was made up of a treacherous mountain range. Eva was in wonder seeing all these people. The actual percentage was less than five percent, but that was still so many more people than she expected. A long time had passed since she found out she had an exotic attribute and an apparent culture hidden in her home. After overcoming the hurdles around it, she had long been curious about exotic attributes because she had never seen any before. There were a range of differences, but the most common were animal ears or horns with some face and arm markings, and sometimes claws. After that, there were a few who leaned more on the animal side, with fur or scales covering their faces. There were also a few other weirder traits; there was one person whose arms reached his legs, one who had light blue skin, and another who possessed a bony exoskeleton¨Csome people tended to stay further away from him. However, the difference between their and her changes was a little weird for her. The only aspect that changed about her was that she grew one horn, and that was it. The horn only grew on the left side and made her forehead asymmetric. She even wondered if something had gone wrong with how little had changed. Syrus mentioned people with smaller changes were common, but it was still concerning for her not to see any like that in her mind. [But it is always a crazy sight¡­ to see how things can change in just a short travel distance.] (Syrus) [Were exotic attributes looked down upon?] Eva asked because she remembered Syrus saying the opposite of what she was asking, so she was slightly confused. [I mean, no, exotic gifts weren¡¯t looked down upon. I believe I mentioned people who even laughed at those who made them a problem. I¡¯m just referring to general things, you know?] (Syrus) [Okay.] (Eva) They mapped out the city and located where the appropriate places for hunting and potion-making were. They also wrote down in their notebook a few spots of interest and places they would look at later. [There are three alchemy workshops mapped out; I don¡¯t think there are any more around.] (Syrus) [All three seemed to be owned by some big-name companies; I don¡¯t think doing individual orders for them is going to work well.] (Luna) [Would the hunting guild have a potion request?] (Eva) [No, here hunting guilds just have requests for animal parts, monster exterminations, and material gathering.] (Luna) [If we want to do guard work, we need to sign up with the local mercenary union, right?] (Syrus) [No, there is nothing like that around. When it comes to guard work, you either have to be a guard or a well-known person within the hunting guilds and they will request you directly.] (Luna) [So inefficient.] (Syrus) [Different cultures prioritise different aspects.] (Luna) [True; I should just be happy that the requirements for the hunting guild are so low that we don¡¯t need to sign up.] (Syrus) The hunting guilds worked by accepting quests from businesses and people and publicly posting them without indication of who the original party was. The reason there were multiple locations in the city was simply so that one location wouldn¡¯t be too crowded¨Call locations were owned by the city. Then all someone had to do was go in, grab a quest, and book it, that was it. If they completed, they got rewarded, and if they failed, depending on the failure, nothing would happen or they would be fined. Of course, by working consistently, people would come to know you, but there was no direct reward for continually hunting besides the financial reward for each quest completed. Technically, a person could sell directly to a client, but that was considered bad practice, not illegal, but simply bad practice¨Cas specific higher-wage requests could be monopolised. The problem at the moment was their body; it still was healing, so any animal hunting quest would be difficult to complete solo. Anna walked past the two-story hunter guild. It was a well-maintained building, made of dark wooden planks with large matching logs used at the corners. [Let¡¯s not go in today.] (Syrus) [Why?] (Luna) [Our body¡¯s current state is too weak; I don¡¯t want to risk being taken advantage of and being forced to use multiple attributes.] (Syrus) Luna didn¡¯t think anything bad would happen. She could see multiple children and young adults walk in and out, but she decided to respect Syrus'' opinion and wait for her body to heal. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [So, do we want to check out the alchemy workshops?] (Eva) [I would rather not; dealing with them never goes well.] (Luna) [I think I saw smaller shops, apothecaries¨Cwell, maybe only two but they could use our services.] (Syrus) [...Instead of working for the manufacturer, we will sell to a consumer, huh?] (Eva) [Pretty much, are you nervous?] (Syrus) [Yeah¡­ I think I have nearly burned through my social energy for next year already.] (Eva) [You will be fine, Lilly, you have nothing to worry about.] (Luna) [Thanks¡­] (Eva) Anna moved towards the apothecary that Syrus noticed earlier. They were hopeful because they needed something to go right. ¡°Here is your delivery of potions, Ms Evelen.¡± When they arrived, they found a delivery man at the front door and a woman in her thirties with long, messy brown hair and golden eyes. ¡°Thanks¡­ Why are there ten more potions than what I ordered!¡± ¡°Just a bonus, Miss; please don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, my arse, you fuckers are going to charge me excess fees later!¡± ¡°If you have any problems with our services, you are welcome to go to other companies for deliveries.¡± The woman growled, ¡°You cheapskate bastards.¡± She took the bottles she ordered out of the basket, gave the rest back to the delivery man and told him to shoo off. [...] (Eva) [This is going to go well.] Syrus smiled. [You think?] (Luna) Anna walked into an apothecary, ready to make a fantastic first impression. Chapter 65 – Wannabe Alchemist? Chapter 65 ¨C Wannabe Alchemist? Anlesa watched as the delivery man walked off with the remaining potions and the apothecary¡¯s owner grumbled as she walked back inside her shop. Before they walked in, they had to make a quick decision. This was something they had thought about before but Luna wanted to confirm their decision. [How should we do the talking? Our¡­ usual style is not going to work anymore] (Luna) [Me and Eva will handle the talking.] (Syrus) [...Okay¡­ I am ready.] (Eva) [You okay, Eva?] (Syrus) [Yep! I have been preparing for this.] (Eva) [Okay, but after this, I want to step up my ¡®identity¡¯.] (Luna) [Sure, do you have any ideas for that?] (Eva) [Yes.] (Luna) Their current look, which was meant to be an in-between of Anlesa and Syrus, was going to be controlled primarily by Syrus, backed up by Eva. The hope was that once Eva trained Morph further, she would close the gap between Syrus¡¯s looks. Which was why they were using Syrus¡¯s name at the moment. Of course, they could create new names, and maybe one day, when they were properly disguising themselves, they would, but for the time being, they still wanted to be called by their proper names. However, the obvious issue here was that Luna had no part in this identity. She could use her attribute in case of an emergency, but by all accounts, she would be left quietly in the body, and that wasn¡¯t something that was going to be allowed to happen. Eva especially wanted Luna to have time to breathe, and Luna herself had activities she wanted to do around town. It would be the first time she would be free to do so, after all. Anna entered the shop, and the apothecary placed the potions behind the counter. The shop was small; only a quarter of it was for customers. The large counter blocked people from getting past, and on the other side was the apothecary workshop. Also a small bed for injured people. Syrus spoke more calmly to match Eva¡¯s. ¡°Hello,¡± Syrus wasn¡¯t really close to matching Eva¡¯s tone at all, but keeping their voices toned to a default setting was going to help with the disguise. ¡°Ergh, welcome to mine, Ash Evelen¡¯s store. What do you want to buy?¡± She replied in a monotone voice with a clearly rehearsed line. ¡°Nah, here to ask if it is possible to sell you potions and medical supplies?¡± Ash spat. ¡°Another bloody wannabe alchemist?¡± sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [...] (Eva) ¡°Wannabe huh?¡± Syrus said. Eva spoke; she tried to copy Syrus'' tone, ¡°Amberline flower, Cleraliaty Corn, and Salt.¡± She wasn¡¯t perfect, but from the perspective of copying each other''s voices, she did a better job than Syrus. Of course, their actual voices were the same¨Csame body and all that¨Cbut due to the nature of how they articulated words, even small differences with how they moved their mouth to say the same thing it made possible to tell a difference, and that difference was what they were trying to reduce. Ash recognised the ingredients for a simple painkiller, but it took more than ingredients to make it. ¡°So you know recipes, big deal¨C¡± Ash paused, as the beakers and supplies behind the counter floated around for a moment. Ash had been around a few people with that attribute, and she knew the feeling of it was Manipulation. ¡°Why the fuck are you even here and not looking for a job anywhere else.¡± Syrus shrugged and pointed her thumb over her shoulder to the door behind her. ¡°Why the hell would I want to work with those bastards?¡± Ash figured she was referring to the previous guests with that comment. ¡°There are multiple different companies!¡± Syrus raised her hands in front of her, like she was surrendering. ¡°What can I say? I don¡¯t feel like it. I do things at my own pace.¡± It was Ash¡®s turn to give up ¡°...So if you did make me potions, it would just be whenever you felt like it?¡± ¡°Pretty much.¡± ¡°Argh.¡± Ash groaned, her head staring at the cracks in the ceiling. ¡°Show me you aren¡¯t just bluffing first.¡± Ash opened the latch to allow Anna be on her side of the counter. ¡°Do you have any goods or do you want to make something here?¡± ¡°You got Elart Weeds and Hormones Nectar on the bench, I¡¯ll make something here.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you a little too young to drink?¡± Eva didn¡¯t respond; she walked to a large bowl lifted up on a metal frame. It wasn¡¯t perfect for the job but it was fine. [Will you be okay, Lilly?] (Luna) [Yes¡­ It¡¯s just been a long time.] (Eva) ¡°Well, if you are really going to go ahead with it, do you want me to get the candle out?¡± Eva replied, ¡°No, everything will be fine.¡± [Syrus.] (Eva) [Yes?] (Syrus) [Can you feel the mana flowing in my hand?] (Eva) [Course?] (Syrus) [Okay, on the tips of my fingers, create fire.] Eva began to explain. [Just start off weak and pull more mana there if I want you to increase it.] (Eva) [Gotcha.] (Syrus) The brewing process began. On the scale of difficulty, this was by far one of the easiest potions Eva had to make, but like all of them, it was one she had failed many times. She used Manipulation to mix the ingredients, carefully mixing different amounts of them and filling them with sets of mana in rhythm with the pulsing flame. After fifteen minutes Eva was finally done. [...I did it¡­] (Eva) The golden bowl shone, reflecting the wall¡¯s candle lights. ¡°Fuck that shit is strong.¡± Ash leaned over for a sniff, very impressed with the outcome. Eva asked, ¡°Is it fine if I come here to make things?¡± Ash nodded, ¡°Sure, if you are selling them; I got a tiny room in the back if you want privacy. Can¡¯t help you with the ingredients though.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± They spent some time discussing the terms of the deal, and Ash paid Eva for example. After that successful venture, Anna left the building and left to go find a house. While walking down the street, Syrus had to ask, [Anway Eva, how do you know how to make that alcoholic potion? Doesn¡¯t seem like something they would teach in school.] [Oh they did in fact. I mean, it is technically not alcohol, but it is related. Also, it was popular to sell¡­] Eva remembered the times when it was only thanks to that potion she paid rent for the month. [Okay, does it taste any good?] (Syrus) [How should I know?] (Eva) [You made it before?] (Syrus) [And?] (Eva) [You had the ability to make your own alcohol, and you never drank it?] (Syrus) [Yes? I don¡¯t see what the problem is.] (Eva) [Luna, back me up.] (Syrus) [Eh, alcohol is overrated. The amount I was forced to drink for events was ludicrous.] (Luna) [What the hell is wrong with you two?] (Syrus) Chapter 66 – Healed Enough Chapter 66 ¨C Healed Enough Anna spent the rest of the day looking for a home, and eventually, they did find one. It was a single room in a house near the western edge of the city. There were four other rooms in the house, and two of them were being rented as well. It was far enough from the apothecary and hunting guild for Syrus¡¯ liking. While they were renting, buying a house outright wasn¡¯t out of the realm of possibilities. Well, they didn¡¯t have the money to do that currently, but after saving for a little while, it would be an achievable goal. The question [Do you think continually renting different rooms might be better?] (Luna) They only just made themselves comfortable, but Luna brought up the topic immediately; not that the others had an issue with that. [Eh, maybe.] (Syrus) [I see the appeal¡­] (Eva) They discussed it earlier and gave ideas, but they never really confidently settled on one idea. Buying a house met more of their requirements, but saving the money for that was a concern for them, as it would be better to send that money to Elly and the children. [It really depends on how many things we collect.] (Syrus) [Things?] (Eva) [Yeah, just things. If we have a lot of shit, then it¡¯s going to be a pain to move constantly, and if someone see a person, even if they look different but they are carrying the same three bags or whatever, it will also draw eyes to us.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s reasonable, but we could do a mix, especially if we are out in disguise. We can simply rent a room somewhere else instead of returning to our current main residents.] (Luna) [Yeah, something we should discuss more later when the situation comes up for it.] (Syrus) They explored the town a little bit more but chose to rest the night away. Tomorrow they were going to pursue the shops for potion supplies and start making trades with Ash. Eventually, eight days passed, and it took a while longer to get all the ingredients Eva wanted for potion making. Big companies had a lock on the main commercial supplies, so it took more time to find those who were willing to sell them. Posting requests for the local ingredients at the hunter guild was also redundant, as they could do the work themselves later. Eva did sell a few potions to Ash during the week, all easy-to-craft ones, with promises of some more advanced potions for healing when the funds came in. ¡°Argh, I think the body is finally healed¡­ enough.¡± Syrus groaned, happy, but annoyed about the progress of their recovery. She ignored the pain and grabbed a pair of clothes to wear. [Can we get some statistics for your report?] (Luna) [40%?] (Syrus) [That doesn¡¯t sound good¡­] (Eva) [¡®Cause it¡¯s not.] (Syrus) [So are you sure we are healed enough?] (Luna) Even though Luna possessed Moonlight and had extensive knowledge about healing people, she was out of her depth when it came to their body¡¯s current state. Some parts she could tell were injured, others she saw nothing wrong but Syrus could show her the problems with them. [There are a lot of ups and downs.] Syrus began to explain. [So we are a lot stronger compared to our child body, and we have healed to the point that physically we are as strong as the normal farmer girl in their late teens. But there is still plenty of damage that has to be recovered.] [40% recovery means average farm girl?] (Eva) [The complete body rework did a lot, but I still can¡¯t use Blood for any physical enhancements.] (Syrus) [Question, does the strength you are referring to consider any use of Blood attribute enchantments?] [No.] (Syrus) [...I see.] (Luna) S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Eva, listening in, asked, [Should I make something for us?] [...I would rather not pour more mana into the body, so if you know any non-mana-rich healing potions, then sure.] (Syurs) [I see¡­] Eva went quiet and thought to herself. According to Syrus, mana damage was a real danger to their current physical health. So even blasting multiple large attacks could be an issue, not that they would need to do that. [...Going over all the points, you are making it seem it is not advisable to start doing quests?] (Luna) Syrus finished getting ready, they were still wearing ordinary clothes, but she had some hard reinforced wooden plates over her vitals and forearms. [Maybe, and kind of, but looking at it objectively, I do believe we should be fine.] (Syrus) Syrus didn¡¯t want to go out now, but she didn¡¯t know how long the healing would take for it to reach a point she was happy with. Syrus was fine to fight the injured, but the damage they were currently facing wasn¡¯t something she wanted to worsen. However, objectively, they would be fine, and wasting more time strolling the city was the nudge that pushed Syrus over the edge to make this decision. [Okay then, I¡¯ll trust you.] (Luna) [Same here.] (Eva) Syrus made her way to the farthest hunting guild, it was simply named Brown Oak Guild, and from the chatter gathered from their outings, it seemed to be the calmest. They hoped nothing would go wrong. Chapter 67 – First Gathering Quest Chapter 67 ¨C First Gathering Quest ¡°Welcome, would you like to see a list of available quests?¡± Syrus walked up to the counter, where an elderly man in simple clothes asked her the usual routine. Syrus answered, "Yes, please.¡± Compared to their current home, which was on the western edge, the Brown Oak Guild was on the southeastern side, on the last main road splitting from the central one. The journey was a little long, but that was what Anlesa wanted. There were a number of visual quests on the board, but that wasn¡¯t all of them. If a person wanted to see the rest of them, they had to ask one of the staff at the counter. [This was definitely the correct place to choose.] (Syrus) [Yes, a lot quieter than expected.] (Luna) A few different hunting guilds existed in the city, and they were all owned by the city but there were a few differences between them. The biggest one for this place was the atmosphere, compared to the other guilds Anna took a peek at, this one had a less professional feel. That didn¡¯t mean the quality of service was necessarily lower. The main differences were the casual clothes of the staff and their lesser numbers, the smaller space, and fewer quests appearing on the board. Syrus asked, ¡°Can I see the gathering quest?¡± The man shuffled through the sheets of paper on the bookshelf behind him. ¡°Sure, would you like to exclude the ones with tight deadlines?¡± ¡°No thanks.¡± Failing a quest was only really bad if there was a deadline for it, as accepting a quest, for the most part, meant no one was trying to complete it, and so the idea was if a quest failed near the deadline, then it was the failing hunters'' fault for accepting a quest they were incapable of doing and blocking the opportunity for other hunters to do the request. ¡°Anything here that interests you?¡± The man laid a series of requests along the table. Syrus read over them, but besides the reward, nothing was intriguing about the request. She knew a little about plants, mostly about what could be used for first aid and survival, but the plants here were different to the small few she knew. [Evelean Flower.] Eva suggested. ¡°I¡¯ll take the Evelean Flower quest.¡± ¡°Alright, give me a moment.¡± [Any reason for that one?] (Luna) [It grows in the small forest towards the ocean. Fewer dangers in that direction and from my research, there are a few medical ingredients we can pick up there.] (Eva) The man asked, ¡°What do you want to be marked under?¡± ¡°Syrus is fine.¡± ¡°All good.¡± The process went smoothly and they were out of the building before long. [Twenty flowers, huh¡­ That seems like a lot.] Syrus was unsure, as she expected that they would either be extremely common or uncommon. [Evelean Flowers grow under tree roots but have a small flower that peeks out during the day and retracts at night. They are a rarer flower, and from my understanding, they are hard to grow purposefully.] (Eva) [Trying to recreate the natural process has been unsuccessful; people aren¡¯t sure why exactly.] Luna knew a bit about it. It was in one of the many books she had read in the past. [What is it even used for anyway?] (Syrus) [Sleep medication.] (Eva) [People need that?] (Syrus) [Plenty of people do, have you ever met anyone who had trouble sleeping?] (Luna) [Nothing that a good night of sleep didn¡¯t fix.] (Syrus) [...] (Eva) [...] (Luna) [I can feel you two judging me.] (Syrus) [It¡¯s just¡­ I feel like it would be more common to see in your line of work.] (Luna) [...] Syrus went quiet in thought. [Maybe¡­ During the war, I saw people like that, it wasn¡¯t immediate, but after the quality of food and water dropped, people started feeling that way.] Luna and Eva understood that what Syrus was referring to was the poisoning of food supplies. A rampant, pervasive plague on survival of the common folk was caused by whoever Syrus was fighting. Syrus wasn¡¯t one to talk about her past, but she didn''t deny any questions about it when asked, even if details-wise she didn¡¯t supply much. Syrus left from the city¡¯s main exit and followed down the road for as long as possible before turning off to enter the forest. She brought their bags and a couple of objects to support the job. A shovel, small buckets, and, importantly, a few different-sized knives¨Cone for self-defence and the rest for cutting. They walked past a few people, and everyone was friendly enough. Some even asked if they needed directions as they weren¡¯t recognised. Eventually, they entered the small forest. The trees were tall with dark orange leaves and dark brown bark, but underneath the wood was clearly a lighter orange. The area around Arisea Station was very fertile, and if it weren¡¯t for the dangers of its location, it would¡¯ve made a good farming area for any kingdom. The side facing the sea was relatively safe, and besides the local wildlife, there wasn¡¯t much to worry about. Eva was their main eye for the flowers and other plants she wanted to collect. Luna was also on the lookout, as she knew common poisonous flora. Syrus was also trying to look around, but the plants mostly looked the same to her, nearly every single one was different from the ones in her previous life¡¯s homeland. She did try learning, but compared to the others, she had far from memorised everything. The trip started off successfully for Eva, she already picked up multiple ingredients she wanted for potions. [This place is a goldmine.] She giggled. She got a bunch of stuff she was aiming for, and even a few she hadn¡¯t read grew around here¨CAble Roots; Bromk Sap; Wef flowers; Acorns; Simon Grass. The main thing preventing from going completely crazy with the collecting was the limited storage space and the fact she didn¡¯t have the proper storage for a few of the plants. Syrus was confused, though, about how some of those ingredients were supposed to be used to make potions. [You are enjoying this; did you do this often?] (Luna) Eva replied, not even pausing her motion. [No. Most plants were grown on farms or in one¡¯s own greenhouse. I¡­ never did anything like this before.] She used Manipulation and the shovel to dig the plant out of the ground without issue. As Eva dug up Evelean Flower, Syrus paused as she saw the small grass growing behind the tree. ¡°Barbook weed?¡± [Northroot grass? What about it?] Luna questioned, looking at the same piece of weed. It was an uncommon variety, but a weed was still a weed. [Oh, this stuff is great.] (Syrus) [Really? It doesn¡¯t have any medical properties, from what I know. It¡¯s just very sour.] (Eva) [Medical crap ain¡¯t always important, this stuff makes great glue when heated and stirred, and that sourness is great, many dishes used it for the flavour.] (Syrus) Neither Eva nor Luna could exactly agree on enjoying something for its sourness, but they weren¡¯t going to judge. [Glue is normally made from animal parts here.] (Luna) [I can¡¯t comment on how it worked back where I was, but for making or fixing storage, it was great stuff.] (Syrus) Listening to Syrus'' comment, they did pick up a few handfuls of the stuff and Eva was curious to experiment with their applications. After collecting the last Evelean Flower, they immediately headed back to the town, as they were already full of supplies. Overall, the first day of gathering work was a success. They were a little exhausted, especially Eva who kept up the disguise longer than she had planned to, but her motivation managed to keep her mind focused on it. They brought back the flowers and got a small amount of coins for their troubles. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 68 – Luna’s Outing Chapter 68 ¨C Luna¡¯s Outing [Can you do the finishing touches in a moment, Lilly?] (Luna) [Certainly.] (Eva) It was the afternoon and it was Luna¡¯s turn to walk about the town. Of course, she was doing that together with Eva and Syrus, but with the extra effort of speaking in one particular character, Luna had been forced to sit back. Not that she was particularly upset about doing that, but it was for the best that they all had an equal chance to move. Before Eva started with the physical changes, Luna had a few more items of clothing to put on. They bought new clothes specifically for Luna. She wore an oversized brown dress that went down to her legs and whose sleeves covered her hands. Along with the new shirt, she had a new backpack, a much smaller one compared to their large one, but that was fine as they would only be using it for short trips. For pants, she had a pair of cheap grey leather ones and a rope belt to keep them up, they were also a bit long so she had to curl up the bottom¨Cthat was to be expected for most pants as they didn¡¯t have many sizes. None of them were really ready to splurge on clothes. So cheaper options and alternatives were what they looked for. There was a bit of laziness to the disguise, with them wearing their normal city shoes. They had two pairs, one for going outside the city for gathering¨Cmore boot-like but not exactly proper boots¨Cand another pair more appropriate for going in and out of buildings. Luna¡¯s disguise was a greater departure than Syrus¡¯ disguise was. They wanted the identity known as ¡®Syrus¡¯ to be close to what Syrus actually looked like when she was in control. This would allow, when they got older, Syrus to be in complete control without issue; this meant Eva wouldn¡¯t have to dictate and maintain Morph at all times, which would be useful. [Okay, weapons ready.] Luna placed a band with string wrapped around them on her arms under her long sleeves. [Are you sure you want me to help?] (Eva) [Yes, I wouldn¡¯t have it any other way.] (Luna) Luna''s public attributes were going to be Space and Manipulation. She thought about the other options¨CSpace was always going to be one of them and Moonlight was never going to be¨Cbut she felt Manipulation worked best. Fire could¡¯ve worked and Blood would¡¯ve been interesting, but Blood had issues for the time being with the body¡¯s recovery and there was no real problem with Fire; Luna just preferred Manipulation in this instance. Eva started the process; first, she grew out the hair a little bit and then began the physical changes. Anna¡¯s hair turned from their multi-coloured arrangement to a solid dark grey, and their eyes switched to Luna¡¯s pink eyes. However, she didn¡¯t remove the horn at Luna¡¯s request. Like Syrus'' disguise, there were only two changes, just different changes this time. Luna initially planned to go with simply black hair, but after deciding to keep the horn for her disguise, she felt it would be fitting to keep her hair partially white, which led to her selecting grey hair, which contrasted well with their horn. There was no one reason why she decided to keep the horn, just a collection of small ones, even though she didn¡¯t have any particular feelings for it like what Eva was currently experiencing. It made a good disguise, differentiated their looks strongly, and was a small laugh towards the church. They weren¡¯t worried about being identified. Hair and eye colour were a big deal, and then there was the way Luna moved and talked, which was a lot more professional than Syrus¡¯ seemingly casual attitude. Clothes were different, and then there was the fact that ¡®Luna¡¯ clearly had an exotic gift lineage. The afternoon walk started pleasant enough. The cool breeze felt nice dancing across her face, and the city was quieter tonight due to being in the middle of the week. Luna didn¡¯t know if attributes had an impact on preferences, there were studies for and against it, but she did enjoy being out at night. Unlike in other towns, if Anlesa went out like this, no one was really staring. The fact that Eva¡¯s physical difference was only minor definitely helped. Luna was prepared for the worst to happen; besides reading some unkind works, she had unfortunately seen some of the church¡¯s wrath on those with exotic gifts. Knowing that in most places they were treated normally did ease her heart in a way and was just another reason to hate the Aurora Church, and she can¡¯t go wrong having more of those. Moonlight reflected off their dark greyish horn, and birds started to quietly sing before sleeping. Eva¡¯s horn parted the long fringe loosely covering it, not hiding it anyway, if anything making it more visible. [Any plans for tonight?] (Syrus) [No, just out to breathe, mostly.] (Luna) The first thing Luna did besides walking was get something to eat. They often ate out at inns, not because they particularly wanted to¨Cthe food was good but money was still money¨Cbut they had nowhere to cook or store food properly. ¡°Anything missy?¡± The waiter at the inn asked. ¡°Standard course, please.¡± ¡°Coming right up.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Carlman Tavern was located on the 4th Street east side. It was a smaller place compared to the taverns on the main street, but the dinner area was open to the elements, which meant it had a great view of the sky. It was also near the library, which, sadly for Eva, was currently closed at the moment. [This fish is alright.] (Luna) [You haven¡¯t had good fish.] (Syrus) [Fish is weird¡­] (Eva) [The country of Eletscoep has rivers but isn¡¯t near any major fishing spots, so I assume you never ate much before?] (Luna) [Yeah¡­] (Eva) They did fish at their home, but Eva never really enjoyed them, which George noticed and made it less a part of their diet. As long as Eva still ate the fish, he wasn¡¯t going to force her to fall in love with the dishes. The trio never talked about fish before; the topic never came up. [I think you would like it better with sauces and seasoning.] (Syrus) [Are you a professional chef now?] (Luna) [No, but I knew a few.] Syrus, with confidence, declared, [If one is going to celebrate after a successful mission, you better be eating at the tastiest places; one gets given a paycheck for a reason. Had a friend who spent their cash on making their own fruit garden¡­ their oranges were amazing.] [Sure.] Luna wasn¡¯t going to debate with Syrus. Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Anything else I can offer you?¡± The same waiter came back¨Ca young boy about fourteen years old. Dressed better than Luna, the simple uniform of black pants and shirt that spoke of at least a little bit of money was used to make the staff appear presentable. Luna answered. ¡°Nothing else at the moment.¡± After a while of enjoying their meal and nearly finishing it. [I think someone is staring.] (Syrus) [Where?!] (Eva) [East side, but I see nothing there at the moment.] Syrus relayed. Nothing happened but they were on alert. Luna finished eating and, having already paid for her food, left without issue. Luna walked down the streets, going in the opposite direction of their home. [I think our looker is back.] Syrus warned. Then, as Luna turned down an ally, a voice called out behind her. ¡°You''re new around here.¡± She turned around to face her new acquaintance. A few metres from the entrance of the alley was a tall man whose figure was shrouded by the night, but his light blueish bony-like exoskeleton shone, reflecting the light. The large bones covered all over his upper body and arms; he wore no shirt, and the skin was clearly stuck into the bones. His face even had a few plates, and his dark blue spiked out from his bony helmet. Luna replied, ¡°Correct, nice to meet you too.¡± [Lilly, prepare your Manipulation around the rope.] (Luna) [What do you exactly want me to do?] (Eva) [I¡¯ll trust you to make that decision, but I¡¯ll flick my wrist up to allow you to release the string if there¡¯s trouble.] (Luna) [!] (Eva) Eva¡¯s self-imposed training to increase her combative use of Manipulation hadn¡¯t gone particularly well. She had no idea where to start, so she focused on becoming better at controlling longer objects. Out of the options of controlling a flying object or a rope-like one that was attached to her body, she found the latter much easier. So, the fact that Luna genuinely trusted her made her scared but happy. Syrus eyed for a moment the sharp claws on the man¡¯s hand. She was confident about getting away, but any injury would be devastating to their current body. She expected his legs might be similar, but they were covered in baggy pants so she didn¡¯t know if they had a dangerous pair of sharp pointers down there as well. The man walked closer and raised his hand¡­ in the opposite direction of Luna. ¡°If you have any trouble, I live at 8th Street, Able House.¡± Luna replied without a hint of being scared or worried, ¡°Thank you for the information.¡± The man¡¯s eyebrow raised for a moment, slightly surprised the interaction went so well. ¡°Good, don¡¯t stay out too late. There are lots of people, but also not enough people moving around.¡± The man turned around and left the alley. It took a moment, but Luna turned and walked towards their home. [.........What was that¡­] Eva''s adrenaline shot up before, but now all that energy felt like it was dumped in an icy lake. [We didn¡¯t even get his name.] [That¡¯s what you''re most concerned about?] (Luna) [Someone who might be socially awkward or just has a really bad awareness of their actions.] (Syrus) Because the actual answer would be unknown to them no matter how much they guessed, they left that topic alone for the night. Chapter 69 – Paycheck Chapter 69 ¨C Paycheck The new year began with celebrations galore. Why wouldn¡¯t the people celebrate? A new year meant new opportunities, promises, and a chance to try something new. Depending on where they lived, kids had another year of school headed for them, or maybe this was the year they were going to help out their parents. [Did we forget anything..?] (Eva) [Nah.] (Syrus) [Everything that should be done, has been completed.] (Luna) Anlesa hadn¡¯t been enjoying the last few days of celebration, but she wasn''t drowning in sadness either. They had already done a lot of that, and it was physically painful to keep being in that state, so they just kept working on the day of the year they used to enjoy so much. They tried not to be too sad and depressed. Enough of that had been done and there was a lot of work that needed to be done. However, knowing there was at least a slim chance their parents were alive gave them the fire to at least try and be happy with each day. Because drowning in sadness was the last thing their parents would¡¯ve wanted, and they knew that. Sitting in their small room on their bed was a small gift¨Ca box wrapped in cheap paper with an envelope glued to the side. [Hopefully, this should be enough to improve the situation a little bit.] (Syrus) [...yeah¡­] (Eva) [I doubt it, but it might mean their current standards of living can last for a little bit longer.] Luna spoke about the situation logically, thinking about Elly¡¯s bank account and behaviour What they had in front of them was the first promised gift of money they would send to Elly and the children. Anna hadn¡¯t managed to save a large amount, but she hoped these monetary gifts would increase in size with harder jobs and Eva¡¯s potion-making They could send their parcel on any cart headed for the city or town they wanted it delivered to, but that had its own risk. So instead, they were sending it through the Cancole mail cart. Mail between countries was a little bit more difficult; after all, every country had their own method, but with Arisea Station and Cancole being so close, the Cancole mail service had an office in it. Cancole¡¯s mail service had its own very prominent issues. The fact that the mail was only transported thrice a month meant that, depending on the location, mail deliveries could be extremely slow. Which was why some people just used merchants to deliver mail. The mail service cart''s next time of leave was this afternoon. In some ways, it was a really bad day to send mail, as people were mostly celebrating, but for the last forty years since the mail service was created, it has always left Arisea Station on the first day of the year. Syrus walked out of their room with the package in hand, and as she did, she noticed a familiar face in the open area that connected the four rented spaces of the house. Standing there, examining the place, was Mrs Gabby, the owner of the building. Mrs Gabby let out a surprised gasp. ¡°You''re up early.¡± She looked down on the cheaply wrapped gift. ¡°Sending something to the family?¡± They gave Gabby no information about their home life or family, but she loved making her guesses. So, Syrus liked to return bullshit. ¡°Yeah, just sending some gifts to some friends.¡± Gabby clicked her tongue. ¡°Okay, I just wanted to remind you, that you need to pay this month''s rent or otherwise I will be replacing you with another tenant.¡± [Heh, she can¡¯t even get anyone to fill the two empty rooms and she expects to replace us.] (Syrus) [Maybe she¡¯ll try to convince her family members to rent the room to prove the point.] (Eva) [Haha, that¡¯s a good one, Eva.] (Syrus) Syrus answered, ¡°I¡¯ve already paid rent for the month.¡± Gabby nodded, ¡°That you did.¡± She knew full well that they did, but she had the unrealistic hope that they had forgotten, which was too bad for her. Syrus also realised that was what she wanted. [To punch or not to punch, that is the question.] (Syrus) [Would¡­ you actually?] (Eva) [Nah, but I will continue to be annoying in other ways.] (Syrus) [Good because it would be a criminal act to attack someone on their property.] (Luna) Syrus joked, [Haha, and it wouldn¡¯t be if we were outside.]. [Actually yes.] (Luna) Luna knew a fair amount about the laws of the surrounding counties. [That¡­ is interesting.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s so wrong¡­] (Eva) [Arisea Station doesn¡¯t have too many laws in comparison to Cancole or especially the Nevald Kingdom, but the ones it does have cover most situations, though most major problems are dealt with by a department in the city.] (Luna) Eva was shocked, [I didn¡¯t expect Arisea Station to, ummm¡­.] She didn¡¯t know what to say, but from everything she had heard about Arisea Station before coming here and living here from a situation, she didn¡¯t expect a law to be worded in such a way that it wasn¡¯t a problem to attack someone. [As with most things, the situation is a little more complex than my simple explanation. When issues do occur, they try to make sure that any situation is resolved correctly. If anything, they have an incentive to make sure any problem is resolved correctly, which satisfies the populace.] (Luna) [I see¡­ Can you walk me through the Arisea Station laws at some point.] (Eva) [Of course, I can, Lilly.] (Luna) While they were having the small talk inside their head, Gabby had been rambling about her amazing family and all the things they did over the last two days. To which she just received a wide collection of responses from Syrus¨C¡®Yeah and Yep.¡¯ Gabby looked at the broken clock on the wall. "Oh, look at the time, I have to get going now, so many important things I have to do.¡± Syrus waved goodbye. ¡°All good. Thank you for your absolutely wonderful hospitality. I¡¯m sure it runs in the family. I can really only pray for your family¡¯s future fortune. Before turning away to leave, Gabby smiled. ¡°Aww, thank you!¡± She did not realise Syrus was insulting her and her family. [With an attitude like that, I''m surprised she hasn¡¯t gone broke yet. No tenants stay around for long and the word has spread.] (Luna) After they moved in, people warned Syrus about Gabby¡¯s attitude. Syrus shrugged, [Give it a few years and a bad financial move or two.] Syrus also left the house after locking her room. The city was a little quiet in some areas, but other people were out and about enjoying a morning drink. It really depended on how smashed they got the night before. [I do think we should move, though.] (Syrus) [...But this place was one of the only affordable options.] (Eva) [That was before we started working.] (Syrus) [Syrus is right; the likelihood of Gabby nosing through our room is high if she hasn¡¯t already. For everything in the future, we need a place more secure.] (Luna) [But it is something we can¡¯t avoid with the rental properties and the inn rooms.] (Eva) S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Good to see you have been paying attention.] Luna replied happily. Their delivery went smoothly and the package was ready to be sent along with the cart. The Cancole delivery service was more heavily guarded and most people only sent mail so the majority of people had no interest in attacking it. Not that many people attack carts and caravans anyway, especially in Cancole¡¯s borders. Anna¡¯s trip here happened to be one of the unlucky ones. With that done, Syrus and Eva went to the guild to do more gathering quests. It was time to make some more money. Chapter 70 – Kid & Wolf Chapter 70 ¨C Kid & Wolf In the immediate area of Arisea Station, there weren''t many areas where people could safely go to explore, which was even an issue for some hunters who just wanted to do gathering and collection work. Compared to the nearby countries, carts and caravans headed to and from Arisea Station had a much higher chance of being attacked. This was a well-known issue and something that Arisea Station spent a lot of money to prevent. But there wasn¡¯t much that could be done; the wide unmanned scrapes of territory were the perfect spot for bandits to hide. Thankfully, there was a close area marked out by the city that was safer to explore. The Western Forest, also known as the Sea Side Forest, was the safest of the bunch. Due to being near the sea and being a low, dense forest on flat terrain, visibility was high and there weren''t many places for people to hide around. Being close to the city and the ocean meant bandits couldn¡¯t do much to get away if caught. The creatures that inhabited the area were also mostly on the peaceful side; the ones that were deadly were venomous snakes and bats, but it was just a process to learn how to avoid and deal with them. The closest location to the east of the city was Amber Hollow, colloquially referred to as the Eastern Forest. Out of all the places one could visit going eastward, it was by far the safest because it was the closest to the city, and that peace of knowledge was the beginning of a mistake that many people made. [Ashened oak. Known for their fire resistance and uniform brown wood.] (Luna) [Why is like half the trees on this continent bloody resistant to fire?] (Syrus) [Resistant, doesn¡¯t mean they won¡¯t burn.] (Luna) [I know, but it¡¯s so weird. They are bloody trees.] (Syrus) [S-stay on alert! I don¡¯t want anything bad to happen.] (Eva) [Yeah, we know, visibility is piss poor.] (Syrus) [It¡¯s not just that!] (Eva) Amber Hollow was filled with thick foliage and coastal fog. It was the perfect combination to limit a person¡¯s senses, but that was only the tip of the danger. Today they were looking for some Amber Thorns, not only for a quest but also for Eva¡¯s brewing. Though Eva wasn¡¯t looking out for extra plants today, for this first trip into this forest, she would be rather careful than distracting herself. Their exploration effort went forward without a hitch. Amber Thorns was a thorny orange vine that wrapped around the roots of trees. While deadly sharp, they made for great painkillers due to the numbing substance they leaked. [A toe destroyer that comes with painkillers? Wow, nature is such a fantastical place.] (Syrus) [Certainly a weird combination. There are some theories as to why, but no one is sure. I find the idea that it is a leftover trait of an ancestor to be the most realistic.] (Luna) [But more importantly! It¡¯s the ingredient in an energy potion.] (Eva) [Aren¡¯t those things cheap tricks? I¡¯ve found a drink full of sugar does the job just as well.] (Syrus) [No, there is a fundamental difference between the two.] (Luna) [Sorry Luna, Syrus is right. Energy potions are just overpriced drinks.] (Eva) [...] (Luna) [But! An energy potion is an important ingredient for some other types of potions. Actual important ones.] (Eva) [Potions to make potions?] (Syrus) [Yep, and from my research, Amber Thorns are the best option for material in this area.] (Eva) [...I haven¡¯t read about that.] (Luna) [Unsurprisingly, the technique required is hard. So, it¡¯s only in books you can get if you are already in the field.] (Eva) [I don¡¯t know¡­ Just from watching you make potions, they don¡¯t seem that complicated.] Syrus was purposely shooting herself in the foot. [Well, you haven¡¯t seen me make anything besides basic potions. Anyone can make those to a basic level of quality.] (Eva) The potion talk drew to a close, to be continued for another day. After a while longer of gathering; off in the distance, a nearly inaudible cry was released. [!] (Syrus) Syrus perked up and looked deep into the fog. [What¡¯s wrong, Syrus?] (Luna) They shared senses, but neither Luna nor Eva could make sense of everything Syrus picked up. From the smallest crack to the pitch of a scream told Syrus so much that neither could understand. They couldn¡¯t even tell that that small sound far in the distance was a cry. [I heard something yell in pain.] Syrus pulled out their combat dagger and she pointed where she heard it. [...we should go help.] (Eva) [Agreed, but we are in no state to do so.] (Luna) Luna and Eva were both in agreement to help out, but neither were confident in the decision. [We are only going as close as we need.] Syrus commanded. [I¡¯m not risking shit.] It was a cruel demand, but Syrus was firm. She was fine risking her own life, but her current actions would never only risk hers anymore. They moved quickly but cautiously, through the forest until they finally found the source of the sound. There was a young boy, only about thirteen, carrying an aqua-blue pup in his arms. Following him was a pack of brown wolves, who had clearly done some damage to the boy as his clothes were torn and he was heavily bleeding. [That wolf¡­] (Syrus) [What¡¯s wrong with it?] (Eva) [There is nothing wrong with it¡­] (Luna) When it came to creatures, there were only a few ways people classified the extreme difference when they differed from the standard pack. There were normal animals, then there were animals mutated by mana. Mutated animals were a rare occurrence and not one that was understood. Animals had mana in them, only a small amount, but it was there, but somehow certain animals mutated. These mutations were usually centred on a type of mana and left the creature more unstable. [...It¡¯s a blessed creature.] (Luna) [I prefer mythic. Sounds cooler.] (Syrus) Pretty much every culture called them something different. Unlike mutated animals, mythic creatures tended to be born with power, and that power was much greater than what a mutated animal would normally possess. With higher intelligence and the ability to manipulate their own mana in a variety of ways unique to each, they were the rarest creatures on the planet. All these were completely separate from Monsters. Monsters were their own category altogether, as they were an existence that seemed antithetical to life itself. [Why is he here, Why is he being chased?!] (Eva) [Questions for another time.] Luna replied. Syrus examined the situation. There were only three wolves, excluding the pup. [...Does it seem manageable?] (Eva) [Sticking with only Fire and Manipulation? It should be manageable.] Syrus looked at the situation from behind a tree. A longsword would¡¯ve been preferable, but it seemed doable even with their non-fully healed body. The wolves even seemed slightly injured, which was the reason Syrus assumed they hadn¡¯t mangled the boy yet. He or the pup might¡¯ve done something earlier, so they were being cautious. The wolves were locked onto the kid and the pup, ready to pounce, and didn¡¯t notice Syrus move around the trees behind them. One of the wolves, which had blood flowing from its eye, lunged forward with its jaw wide open. Syrus jumped in and plunged the dagger into the wolf¡¯s neck, circling it down and cutting it open. Before the others could do anything, Syrus had already fired two bolts of fire at both as she jumped. Neither moved out of the way in time and started burning alive. Their fur rapidly blackened, and Syrus kept both moves at a distance. Using a tree branch she picked up, she whacked them away. One tried running away while the other spun around on the ground, Syrus didn¡¯t want to be cut by a sudden motion so stayed back while the beast exhausted itself. Once that was done, she put it out of its misery. The boy¡¯s shaky legs finally dropped to the ground now that the danger was over, and the pup leapt out of his arms and snuggled next to him, a little afraid. Syrus asked, ¡°You okay, kid?¡± He tried to reply strongly, ¡°...Yes¡­¡± ¡°Tip for the future, lying in a situation like this is bad.¡± Syrus applied medical aid using the supplies and small potions Eva packed. These were nothing fantastic and couldn¡¯t even be used by Anna at the moment, but Eva felt it was better to be safe than sorry. After she was done with the boy, she looked at the dog. ¡°Is he your dog, kid?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± ¡°Well, you can¡¯t keep him around town like that.¡± ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll find a way.¡± Syrus sighed, and she tapped the pup who was next to the boy. ¡°Dog, can you change your fur?¡± The pup just turned his head, confused. The boy cried back, ¡°What?¡± Syrus pulled a snip of the boy¡¯s brown hair out¨Cthe boy was already numb from all the pain¨Cand placed it near the pup. ¡°This.¡± She rubbed it on the pup¡¯s front leg, where he could see it. The pup slowly turned brown, a similar shade to the large wolves. [Wow¡­ I wonder if it can do other colour changes.] (Eva) S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [I doubt it; it¡¯s not like your Morph.] (Syrus) The boy asked, ¡°How¡­¡± ¡°Make sure he is always brown, got it? Good.¡± Syrus continued without letting the boy answer. ¡°Now let¡¯s get out of here.¡± The boy said, ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know the way out¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why you are going to follow me. Got it? Good.¡± They had already picked up all the thorns required for the quest and extra; Eva wanted some for personal use. Thankfully, they didn¡¯t run into any issues on the way back into town, and the day was complete with no more trouble. They handed in the quest and led the boy back to the western side, where he lived. [With that done, can we go to Ash Evelen¡¯s store? I want to start brewing.] (Eva) [Yeah, sure, babysitting always drains the energy from me.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s a lie.] (Luna) Syrus didn¡¯t try to refute and instead, they moved towards Ash¡¯s store. Chapter 71 – Potion Making Chapter 71 ¨C Potion Making ¡°Thank you for allowing the use of your space again, Ms Evelen.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, just stick with the casual stuff.¡± Syrus replied, ¡°Fine then.¡± Eva was going to work in Ash''s backroom today; she wanted privacy. ¡°Do you need me to get anything for ya?¡± Eva replied, ¡°No thanks.¡± ¡°Fine then, will you be selling what ya making today?¡± ¡°If you want to buy them at a reasonable price.¡± ¡°Fair enough, you do you.¡± Ash shrugged, so far, a reasonable price actually meant reasonable. ¡°Call if you need anything.¡± ¡°Will do.¡± Eva spent a few minutes setting up the backroom with the equipment and laying out the ingredients she was going to be using. She brought her own ingredients and a couple of pieces own equipment that were better suited for the work. [If I may ask, what are you making today, Lilly?] (Luna) [Titain¡¯Elo, commonly referred to as a strength increase potion, and Bristle Titch Dew, a healing potion.] (Eva) [Fascinating names¡­] (Luna) [Everything everywhere has weird names.] (Syrus) [For the average consumer, they don¡¯t really care about the specifics of the potion. After all, there are plenty of different ways to make a healing and strengthening potion. But each type of potion does have its own unique traits.] (Eva) [Fair enough, I would be one of those ignorant consumers in this case.] (Syrus) [A position not uncommon even among people who many would stereotypically think of as in the know.] (Luna) Eva immediately started by chopping up five Amber Thorns and then smashing them in mortar. Once that was done, she set up two heating pots and placed half of the Amber Thorn paste in each. She added a pinch of salt and sugar and finally filled each with the distilled water she prepared the previous day. Each pot had its lid closed and the boiling process started under a weak fire. In professional use, potions of certain recipes were far more sought after. Even when buying potions for general use, having insight about potions would be a good thing, but most people simply didn¡¯t know anything about the different brands. Eva continued their conversation, [True, but I¡¯m not making these potions one-to-one with the recipes I know of, but I know how and what to substitute.] Luna asked, [Is that why you added salt to the energy potion?] [Yes, the original ingredient for the variant I wanted to make was a Tandle Weed. A very salty plant that you usually have to drain the salt from first, but in this case I needed to add some on.] (Eva) [Did you test this beforehand?] (Syrus) [...Yes and no¡­] Eva paused. [I experimented a lot with recipes and ingredients that didn¡¯t require mana¡­ I wanted to at least not screw up those portions of the recipes.] The ingredients Eva was going to use for today¡¯s brewing session were Amber Tree Crystalized Mana Sap and Labma Beans, two items she had to buy, Able Roots, Simon Grass, and a tiny bottle of Bromk Sap. She crushed the beans; chopped up the grass and roots mixed them together; and pressed the sap into sixteen chunks. Once she was done with those tasks, she poured three-quarters of the first orange energy potion she made into the large bowl as the base, filling it halfway. Syrus watched on and asked, [Okay, so I¡¯m curious, why is Manipulation so important for potion making?] Luna answered, wanting to let Eva continue focusing on her task. [Manipulation mostly comes from ingredients that have mana in them.] [That but it is also a very important step when it comes to mixing ingredients for maximum efficiency.] (Eva) Eva placed the crushed Labma Beans and the chopped-up duo into the pot and had Syrus turn the fire up to high. She was going to directly control the heat for this one. Eva placed half of the chunks of sap into the pot, and her Manipulation surrounded each. [There is a saying that with the same amount of ingredients, an expert potion maker can make ten potions, while an ordinary one could only make five.] (Eva) [Oh, I¡¯ve heard of that. Just worded a little differently.] (Syrus) [Do you know what is sometimes added to it?] (Eva) [I¡¯m assuming nothing glamorous.] (Syrus) [That a piss poor, below-average potion can make fifteen.] (Eva) [Diluting?] (Luna) [It can be, but diluting isn¡¯t actually looked down upon. Potions are made for a reason, and sometimes you simply don¡¯t need a full-strength one to get the job you want completely done. It varies from potion to potion, but the maximum dilution percentage is two-thirds for a standard potion.] (Eva) A standard potion was the standard size for potion, each being about fifty millilitres. [Syrus, to answer your question about Manipulation.] Eva started toggling the fire. [The Crystalized Mana Sap is a very important ingredient in the recipe for Titain'' Elo, but you can¡¯t mix it with the base ingredients until they start to dissolve. When you mix in the sap, it must be at the same temperature as the mix. Otherwise, the sap will cause the liquid to rapidly harden and lose half the nutrients immediately.] Eva poured the Bromk Sap into the mix. Quickly, the orange sap disappeared and the liquid of the pot dyed green. [The simple solution many practice is to boil it in a separate pot, but you lose out on the effect of the saturated mana sap, greatly weakening the effect along with other issues. Ideally, the best way would be to boil the two halves together, but you can¡¯t mix them until the Labma Beans have halfway dissolved.] (Eva) [And that issue can be solved with Manipulation?] (Syrus) [Yes, and it¡¯s not the only use of it.] Eva added. Eva¡¯s mana had warped around each and every chunk of sap, but that wasn¡¯t stopping heat from reaching them. But when the time was right, she popped the bubble. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She used her manipulation to mix the pot so their other hand could focus on the heat that had to be shifted. Eva also used her Manipulation to force the ingredients to evenly mix out, as there was a strong urge for them to group up and coagulate if they mixed too fast. She was also able to use Manipulation to move the liquid around to ensure everything was appropriately heated. [Thanks for the lesson.] Syrus felt Eva¡¯s mana move around in different directions and multitask, and that was ignoring the commands she was being given about the fire¡¯s temperature. [All good, I still have another potion to go.] (Eva) [How many potions could you make with this batch?] (Luna) [No dilutions? About sixteen, but these are far too strong; it would be hard to sell them at full strength version¡¯s price. So, with fifty percent dilution with the energy potion, that would be thirty-two¡­ I think I will have to make a few more batches of the energy liquid.] (Eva) [Can you store it for later use?] Luna understood it could be sold as a potion on its own anyway, but she was unsure if it had to be fresh to be used as an ingredient. [Yes, as long as it¡¯s bottled, it will be fine. I¡¯ll ask Ash if we can store them here; maybe even give her another discount in the process.] Eva smiled. [You love giving discounts¡­] (Luna) [Only when they are deserved!] Eva flushed with embarrassment. [It¡¯s nice to sell them at an affordable price without the reason being their quality.] Eva started the cleanup process, once she was nearly done. Syrus asked, [On the difficulty scale, how hard were those potions?] Eva paused and smiled, [Standard metrics¡­ only about the medium difficulty.] Eva¡¯s heart was jumping in her chest. [But that was my first time completing them, and it went great.] Eva, for the longest time, didn¡¯t even know if she enjoyed potion-making. Maybe initially she could¡¯ve? But it was only now that she could say she enjoyed making them. Ash heard the noise and walked into the room. ¡°You done?¡± Eva nodded. ¡°Yes, thank you for allowing use of the space.¡± ¡°All good, as long as I get first dibs.¡± ¡°¡®Course.¡± Ash walked over to the table, seeing the batches of blue and red potions. ¡°Wow, you made a lot.¡± ¡°Do you want to discuss business now?¡± ¡°Certainly.¡± They spent the next twenty minutes discussing business. Eva gave a detailed written description of both types, the dilution percentage, and storage life. Ash bought three-quarters of everything and agreed to store the extra ingredients and energy potions for a further discount. She felt the discount was a bit much, but Eva insisted. They all discussed some ingredients that Ash could buy for Eva, as they were a bit hard for her to get her hands on. Once they were walking home, Eva had an important question to ask Syrus. [Syrus, now that we have set up everything, can you spend some time training me?] Syrus was hoping, with all the added interest in potion making, Eva would stop worrying about that, but because she hadn¡¯t, there wasn¡¯t much she could do. [Sure, but let¡¯s wait till tomorrow.] (Syrus) [Fine by me.] (Eva) The day ended without any more tasks to do, but now Syrus had decided what the hell she was supposed to teach tomorrow. Chapter 72 – Training Session Chapter 72 ¨C Training Session ¡°Hey, kid.¡± ¡°Yes, Miss.¡± ¡°Why are you here?¡± ¡°To help out.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a good reason.¡± ¡°I¡­ think it is.¡± Syrus had a lot to think about because of yesterday. What she did not plan to deal with was the boy from yesterday. The boy had found her when she went to the outskirts to train Eva. Together with the small brown pup by his leg, he walked up to them during their exploration to find a good training area. [I guess this isn¡¯t too bad.] Syrus didn¡¯t mind the predicament, as it meant a possible delay in training Eva. [It shouldn¡¯t be a problem if he watches us train, right? Especially, if we just focus on Manipulation.] (Eva) [Yeah, I guess.] (Syrus) Eva could feel the strands of unease and hesitation from Syrus; Eva had been feeling those emotions from her for a while, but she wasn¡¯t sure why. Syrus sighed. ¡°Well, I¡¯m just going to do some stretches and exercise, so I don¡¯t really need your help.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± The boy nodded. [Sigh¡­ okay. Before we do any actual training,. I¡¯m going to do a series of stretches, and once I am done, I want you to do them all on your own.] (Syrus) [Why will that help me?] Eva asked. If Syrus limbered them up, they would already be ready to train. [It¡¯s a mental, or, I guess, soul thing? I just want you to be aware of your range of motion.] (Syrus) [Okay.] Eva understood that logic. Even if you know the theoretics, you still need to practise if you want to do the practical. Syrus began with a bunch of wide and deep stretches, definitely not something a beginner should do, but Eva did share the same body so the only restraint would be her mind. Syrus wasn¡¯t going to make this easy and continued for a solid ten minutes. [I¡¯ll remind you what stretches you need if you forget.] (Syrus) [Glup¡­ yeah¡­ I got it.] Eva realised this was going to be more difficult than expected. She nodded, [Let¡¯s do it.] Eva began her thirty-minute stretching exercise session. Syrus had completely backed off, letting Eva handle all the motions. Which led to Eva learning how much more difficult it was. Her legs were unstable; she was internally worried about hurting herself and the tinges of pain were way scarier when she caused them rather than when Syrus did. [Huu¡­ haa¡­ I did it.] Eva celebrated internally. Physically, she felt fine, but the process was still a bit much. [Good, you will be doing this again in the future. And next time, I won¡¯t be starting it.] (Syrus) [You¡­ want me to do the daily exercises?] (Eva) Syrus always exercised every day, it helped her feel good, but now she wanted Eva to do it. [Yes, but not every day, just thrice a week. Luna can do it once.] (Syrus) [Thanks.] Luna did enjoy doing the exercise, not as much as Syrus, but she did take the initiative on certain days. Now that was done, the important part was to come. [...Okay. There is a lot to go over if you want to learn how to fight. Judging distance, motion, physical condition, and reach. However, we ain¡¯t going over any of those today in great detail. Because step one will be learning how to use your weapon, and you¡¯ll learn about those as we progress.] (Syrus) [Okay¡­] Eva touched the two bands with string wrapped around them on her arms. This was Eva¡¯s weapon. Chosen by her to make full use of her Manipulation. There were multiple options, but stuff like puppets and trap-making didn¡¯t fit when working with the three of them. Flying weapons would be a very good choice as they wouldn¡¯t interfere with whatever Syrus or Luna did, but it was much easier for Eva to manipulate something she was touching. [Ideally for combat, metal wire will be better, but it is safer to practise and train with string.] (Syrus) Of course, Syrus didn¡¯t know how to use string or wire in combat, but she understood the benefits of using a long-range whip-like weapon and being able to tie up someone from a distance. [We will do a few motions, then you¡¯ll return them back to holders, then we will repeat.] (Syrus) [I¡¯ll return them?] (Eva) [Yes, it would always be best to retract the weapon. Leaving it out could mean someone could grab or tangle it. Of course, using it as a constant threat is a good idea but I¡¯d rather you do that after you get the basics down.] (Syrus) They went over how to use the motions of their arms, and then body, to support the motion of the string. She adjusted how much control she had over the string, allowing her to control the whole thing or just keep it stiff and floating. Eva, at Syrus¡¯ command, launched both strings and tried many different motions with them. Day one was going over a lot of motions Syrus figured would be good, but anything they tried and Syrus deemed not a good idea, she would let that be known and she would suggest a new method. During one of the breathers. ¡°If you are going to keep staring, you better start explaining why you are actually here. Better yet, start with your name.¡± Syrus gave a side-eye glare to the boy while Eva retracted the string. The boy walked closer with the pup in tow, and he finally spilled the beans. ¡°My¡­ name is Ethan.¡± Apparently, the pup was the child of the family dog and a local wolf. The mother died soon after birth, and the kid had been trying to take care of the pup all this time. His family couldn¡¯t do much to help as they were strapped for cash, but they let Ethan try. After weeks of keeping the pup a secret, because the blue fur was a massive concern for the family, the pup went into the woods looking for family, and the kid went along as well to keep the dog safe, but that was a decision made from delusion and overconfidence. They weren¡¯t even sure if they found the pup¡¯s dad, but the pack of wolves that clearly resembled the pup attacked them. Syrus asked, ¡°Backstory aside, why were you looking for me?¡± ¡°I¡­ wanted to thank you.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Syrus still felt something was up. ¡°Anything else?¡± ¡°...Can you train me how to fight?¡± He looked around him. ¡°And¡­ Can you help me hide Cobalt..?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lot, and I¡¯m quite busy.¡± ¡°...My family was really worried about someone stealing Cobalt, and you didn¡¯t do anything¡­¡± ¡°Your barrier to trust is very low.¡± Syrus didn¡¯t hear or see anyone else around. ¡°Why do you need me to help hide him?¡± ¡°I¡­ want to be strong enough to protect him¡­ you were strong and helpful, and... my family is worried someone ratted about Cobalt¡¯s rare colours..." [It appears they don¡¯t know the significance of Cobalt¡¯s colours besides the fact that it¡¯s rare.] (Luna) [In a way, not knowing is an even bigger danger.] (Syrus) ¡°Why do you care so much about the pup?¡± Ethan said confidently, ¡°He¡¯s family.¡± [Fuck.] Syrus groaned. ¡°Sigh.. fine. I¡¯ll help you hide the dog for a little bit, on the one condition that you help me sometime in the future.¡± His eyes brightened, ¡°Sweet.¡± Syrus asked, ¡°How long?¡± The boy looked up for a moment, trying to remember. ¡°...Umm¡­ five days.¡± [Is that alright with you two?] (Syrus) [Yes.] (Luna) [I¡¯ve never seen a mythic creature before¡­ It will be a good learning experience!] (Eva) ¡°As for training; I¡¯ll throw something together, but do you know your attribute?¡± Ethan nodded. ¡°Wind.¡± ¡°Good enough.¡± Then Syrus asked again, ¡°Okay, as I said earlier, do you agree to my terms?¡± There was no point asking for money from a family that found it difficult to pay for a pup''s food, so a favour was their best bet. He vigorously nodded. ¡°You got a deal, boy.¡± [Now we have to see if we gave ourselves more trouble than it was worth.] (Luna) [...] (Eva) sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [We can always blame Syrus if it does?] (Eva) [Hey! It was a unanimous agreement.] (Syrus) Chapter 73 – Church Travellers Chapter 73 ¨C Church Travellers [Luna, you may¡¯ve been right.] (Syrus) [...] (Luna) [Syrus¡­] (Eva) [I¡¯m adding humour. Otherwise, one of us will explode.] (Syrus) ¡°Woo¡­¡± Syrus petted the small pup in her arms. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Cobalt.¡± Anlesa was currently looking out of an alley at the unwelcome sight that had entered Arisea Station. A pilgrim of priests for the Aurora Church was walking down the street. Apparently, they had been moving around different countries and cities; their journey began at the central church and was going to end at the main church in the Nevald Kingdom. [Do¡­ you think they came because of Cobalt?] (Eva) [No.] (Syrus) [No.] (Luna) Syrus and Luna answered at the same time. The pilgrim had two small splits from the main group, one of which went suspiciously near the area where Ethan lived. Luna explained, [Based on the known facts, Arisea Station is simply another spot on their journey. Even a report from a commoner about a potentially suspicious or rare animal wouldn¡¯t get them to send a whole pilgrim group out; at most, if it seemed credible, a priest would come. A blessed creature is important to the Aurora Church; it''s great for faith marketing, but there is a process for it. Though Cobalt would be a good target for them, he is very marketable and friendly-looking, and when he is older, he would likely grow into a proud wolf look.] [That¡¯s¡­ good at least¡­] (Eva) [They were likely informed, however, so they are just doing a quick check.] (Luna) [...I¡¯m going to strengthen the barrier.] (Eva) [Unneeded, but if you must, only by a little bit.] (Luna) Eva did just that and increased the invisible bubble around Cobalt. This shield did not protect anything but blocked the ambit mana being emitted from Cobalt. It was faint, and normally no one would notice it, but in comparison, no normal creature would release that amount. Humans had to train to release that much mana from their bodies, but this small pup was doing it perfectly. Instinctually, Cobalt knew this barrier was supposed to protect him. Through the trust he felt in Ethan about her, he stayed quiet and behaved while being carried around, but he really wanted to see Ethan badly. But the good boy stayed. Syrus moved into a new spot. It was lunch time, so they went to get something to eat. They went to a popular place on 3rd Street west side, Gery¡¯s Well Grill, a place that specialised in quality meat. Due to that, it was a little pricey, as getting a constant supply of meat was hard, but for people, it was nice to treat themselves. Syrus was going to enjoy the meat, but she also came here to get leftovers for the pup. The meat here was of good quality, and being a mythic creature meant it would need more energy to grow. They calmly ordered from the main chef, while asking for a portion of leftovers for the pup to take home. ¡°Haha, of course.¡± The owner, Garry, was happy to oblige for a small price. He often sold any scrap meat for cheap after all, it was better than letting it rot. The pup¡¯s eyes sparkled at the heat and smoke of the meat grilling. ¡°WOwwww Ooo.¡± Syrus massaged the pup behind the ear. ¡°Don¡¯t get used to it.¡± They sat down to eat, the plan was to be in and out in a reasonable timeframe. Anna was going to keep Cobalt safe, but their plan wasn¡¯t going to just be hiding in a corner until the trouble passed. Besides the fact they didn¡¯t have a good corner to hide in¨Ctheir home being especially off-limits; if Gabby visited and they had Cobalt with them, a hurricane would spawn. Anlesa simply had things she needed to do today. She wasn¡¯t rich enough where she could do nothing productive all day. Of course, they would stay out of the church¡¯s way regardless. There was no reason to poke the nest with a flaming fork. While Eva was eating, a drunk man was rambling at one of the nearby tables. ¡°I heard they even successfully spread the church¡¯s influence to the Magnusterras continent twenty years ago.¡± He seemed to be a believer, a trait not shared by most here. People who settled in Arisea Station came here for one reason: money. And to make the most money, one had to be flexible. Competition was tight, a customer had multiple options for everything in this city. So an owner who¡¯d turn away customers for malicious reasons was simply asking for a loss in profits. Not to mention rumours of bad attitudes spread, and people who would even pass a bad owner¡¯s criteria might not come due to not wanting to deal with any problems. In this city, monetary selfishness was also high. There were plenty of people willing to support one another physically and mentally, but financially, it was a different story. So, a service that required donations and didn¡¯t offer anything substantial in the eyes of these people wasn¡¯t going to do well. Finally, being a trading post between a lot of different cultures, people were mostly friendly to different ideas but also more hesitant about ideologies that denied others. [Laughable.] (Syrus) [Syrus?] (Eva) S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Don¡¯t worry, I just heard something funny.] (Syrus) A heavily armoured hunter at the table across from the first man blabbed, ¡°What are you on about?¡± ¡°I could say the same to you? What¡¯s wrong with what I said?!¡± ¡°Well, I can say you have never been to the Magnusterras continent.¡± ¡°Huh?!¡± ¡°Crown Legacy has been the main church for Zoya for centuries, one the biggest countries on that damn continent, and that hasn¡¯t changed.¡± ¡°How would you know that?!¡± The man laughed, ¡°Because I actually go places, money flows after all. Not to mention every other place has numerous small cliques that would never allow an organisation like Aurora Church to be set up¡­¡± The man paused, ¡°Actually I might be wrong about that; they would allow them to set up, just so they could sit back and watch them fall apart.¡± ¡°You!¡± Before the drunkard said anything else, he noticed he was being glared at by everyone. People in Arisea Station didn¡¯t like it when someone caused a ruckus. ¡°...Tich¡­¡± [Food and entertainment, let¡¯s come here again.] (Syrus) [Only if Cobalt is with us.] (Eva) [¡®Course.] (Syrus) ¡°Thanks for the food.¡± Said Eva. The chief replied, ¡°Paying customers are always appreciated.¡± Before Syrus went to the forest to do some gathering, she had a final peek at the band of priests. In most places, there would be more celebrations, but here there were just a lot of awkward stares considering the fact they decided to slowly walk down the central street. Being a pain for all types of traffic. She even saw one of the paladins wanting to have a go at Mr Bony Boy but was stopped by one of the priests, who was smart enough to know that causing a fuss here would be a bad idea. Arisea Station was closer to the collective group of countries that the Aurora Church dominated than the ones it didn¡¯t, so the influence was still noticeable, but there was a night and day difference in comparison to countries like Cancole or especially the Nevald Kingdom. [Let¡¯s hope they are gone soon.] Eva did not want to keep looking at them. [They are probably wishing the same.] (Syrus) Chapter 74 – Gang up? Against Syrus? Good Luck. Chapter 74 ¨C Gang up? Against Syrus? Good Luck. ¡°Thank you for everything!¡± ¡°Ro Woo!¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. As long as you don¡¯t forget your promise.¡± Ethan saluted. ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Four days had passed since the church passersby had entered the town and thankfully they had already left. Keeping Cobalt with them at all times was a little difficult, but they managed. It did require them to rent a new spot to sleep for a few nights that allowed animals. Today was the day Cobalt and Ethan had reunited. They played around in the dirt near the edge of the city, where Eva trained last time. Anna stood by, cooking some dry meat over a fire. Syrus asked as she placed a new stick with cooked meat into the ground, ¡°Were you not worried something had happened to him?¡± Ethan shook his head, ¡°No¡­ I had a feeling he was safe.¡± Originally, it was going to be a drop-off and go, but they decided to stay to make some simple food for themselves and the dog, with a couple extra for the kid. However, the kid had a question. ¡°...Can you teach me something?¡± He wanted the fighting lessons to start today. Which, honestly, Anna hadn¡¯t planned to do yet. [How are we supposed to teach this kid?] (Syrus) [I possess a few ideas.] (Luna) [You taught kids before?] (Eva) [I know how I wouldn¡¯t want to be taught.] (Luna) [Bad teachers.] (Syrus) [Plenty.] Decades of resting resentment leaked out and she spoke with pure venom. [Ms Morrison, she was a real bitch.] (Luna) [!] Eva was shocked at Luna¡¯s language. [Must¡¯ve done quite a number to get that reaction from you.] (Syrus) [She was the main one and was certainly my least favourite. Morrison loved Joseph and Tilonia, who listened and learned, but you can figure out why I was no one¡¯s favourite.] (Luna) [Were you able to get some payback at least?] (Syrus) [No, but becoming a Saint made her rightly pissed. She was the main vocal opposition to my elevation, but it was funny watching her face on the coronation day. Her disgusting smirk had shrivelled up and golden eyes lost their lustre] (Luna) They ended the depressive talk about Luna¡¯s passing and switched back to what they were supposed to even teach Ethan. [Well today, I think basic exercises would be best to start with.] (Syrus) [Agreed, he seems a little fit, but different muscles are used for fighting.] (Luna) [What about his attribute?] (Eva) [I know plenty of people who had the Wind gift, I can teach him a thing or three, just depends on what fighting style he wants to stick with.] (Syrus) ¡°Sure kid, but we aren''t going anywhere fast.¡± For an outsider, it was a little weird seeing a potentially mid-to-late teenager teaching a young kid how to exercise, but there was no one around to comment on that. ¡°I understand! Slow and steady wins the rest.¡± The boy nodded. ¡°Woo Roo!¡± And Cobalt barked. ¡°Good then, we will start by copying me.¡± Ethan got to work copying Syrus¡¯ exercises. She kept them simple for the kid but observed where his strengths and weaknesses lay. Cobalt also decided to join, doing push-ups and planks but was unable to balance itself on one leg. After watching him for three full sets, Syrus judged Ethan had a strong and flexible back, his grip was a little weak, and his arms had some trouble supporting his weight. She had no negative or positive comments about his legs. ¡°Okay, when you aren¡¯t sore in the morning, I want you to do these stretches.¡± Syrus went through four different simple stretches. ¡°Push-ups and a short plank.¡± ¡°Got it!¡± ¡°Good, now give me another set!¡± ¡°Yes ma''am!¡± Ethan was determined to keep going, but Cobalt was already dead exhausted. So, Syrus gave him one of the sticks of meat that finished cooking under the weak fire. ¡°Roo!¡± Cobalt loved it. [We might need to teach Ethan how to cook.] (Syrus) [It would be good Wind practice as well.] (Luna) ¡°You brat!¡± A large man with an open button shirt ran towards Ethan. ¡°You ruined my payday!¡± Ethan scuttled off the ground and Cobalt jumped up and stood behind Anna. The man was a little red in the face and he came with three friends. [The snitcher.] (Syrus) [Likely. It¡¯s another reason why they left without much trouble, I doubt they believed him after coming face to face.] (Luna) Syrus said, ¡°So? You decided to harass a kid at the edge of town?¡± ¡°Heh, found yourself a big sister to take care of you?¡± The man laughed. ¡°Eh¡­¡± Ethan stood idly worried. He was exhausted, so he had no idea how tired Syrus must¡¯ve been as well. Syrus bit the cooked meat off the wooden stick. ¡°That de dog?! You fuckers dyed it?¡± S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Syrus laughed. ¡°Dyed it? Were you that drunk? You saw the dog in different colours?¡± ¡°You bitch.¡± ¡°Looks like your mama raised no gentleman.¡± ¡°Boys¡­!¡± His two male and one female friends spread out around him. ¡°You should¡¯ve learned to watch your mouth.¡± ¡°A bunch of sad people wanting to attack a duo at least twenty years younger than them.¡± The four drunk losers cracked their knuckles and folded their arms, trying to act intimidating, but when their faces were redder than their natural colour, it was simply laughable. Anlesa patted Ethan on the head and pushed Cobalt with her foot towards Ethan. Syrus added, ¡°Another tip, free of charge, attempting to fight while drunk is never a good idea.¡± Before they got the chance to do anything, Syrus made the first move. She flung the stick with some mana, and it pierced right through the folded arm of the man on the left. The stick went into the soft bit of flesh and dug into his beer belly. The woman and the loud idiot rushed her, but Syrus pulled out two knives¨Cone combat and another that was supposed to be for simple cutting¨Cand slipped between them, tripping both and stabbing both in the shoulders for extra measure. ¡°Trip hazards everywhere.¡± Neither cushioned their fall, and both had the great experience of smacking their heads. The last man and the one who was panicking about having a stick in his hand were left. The uninjured man sprinted. Syrus sighed, ¡°Going for the kid?¡± Right towards Ethan. Syrus sidestepped into his motion, tripping and using the momentum that he gladly donated for her to spin him, and she used her arms, momentum, and shoulder to throw him towards his friend. That friend managed to remove the stick, but it was once lodged again with the two slabs of meat smashed into each other. With four idiots down and out, Syrus signalled it was time to leave. She also needed to inform someone about this. ¡°Bye miss!¡± Ethan bowed with Cobalt in his arms. ¡°Roo!¡± Ready to go home and rest. ¡°Take care, Ethan. Don¡¯t come back around tomorrow, I''ll be busy for a bit.¡± They watched as the boy ran back into town, and they started walking around the outskirts. Moving towards the eastern forest to do some gathering. [I just realised we never told the kid our name¡­] (Syrus) [...] (Eva) [No issue. We can do it next time.] (Luna) Chapter 75 – Another New Home Chapter 75 ¨C Another New Home [I¡¯m glad to be out of that shithole.] (Syrus) [It wasn¡¯t that bad¡­] (Eva) [Don¡¯t blame the building. Blame the person.] (Luna) Anlesa had finally moved out of their building. Gabby was genuinely shocked by their decision. Syrus could tell by her reaction that she was ready to give a full song and dance about allowing her to rent the single room for another month as the deadline drew near. During that time they had started searching for a new place to live, and if they could find something affordable, they were likely going to move. Outside of training Ethan¨Cwhich they only had a few more sessions with, the most recent had Syrus making Ethan try out different wooden weapons to see what he liked carrying¨Cthey continued to work, trying to make as much money as possible. [No more dealing with that walking human disaster.] (Syrus) Eva placed down her potion pots, stands, and glasses on a nice curved bench in the room. Eva turned around and said, ¡°Thank you Ash, for the recommendation.¡± Ash waved the compliment away. ¡°No problem; my customers have been loving the new supplies. Not to mention I¡¯ve been loving being able to stock up cy-healing potions and mana recovery potions for cheap.¡± Ash was a good apothecary; she could make basic potions, and, more importantly, was able to mix powders and medicine to cure sickness and injuries. She knew how to realign bones and disinfect infections. Proper potions were an important part of the process. Apothecaries didn¡¯t believe potions were the final step to helping someone, but simply one of the ingredients for the soup of recovery. But proper healing and mana potions¨Ctwo potions that were vital for her job¨Crequired a certain touch she didn¡¯t have, not to mention she had to prepare many types of medicines and supplies for so many different kinds of people that she gave up the time-wasting endeavour that was learning how to make those potions. They required a certain skill in manipulating mana to create, one that could be learned, but her talent and motivation lay in other areas. ¡°Speaking of which, do you need any more of the cy-healers?¡± Cy-healing potions were the standard brand of healing potions made in Arisea Station; created from local ingredients, their quality and effectiveness were easy to judge. ¡°Maybe. Supply is getting a little low.¡± ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll drop by tomorrow with a thank you present.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll give you a welcome gift of a few coins.¡± Eva and Ash had some small talk during one of the potion brewing sessions where the topic of moving was brought up. Anna wasn¡¯t going to originally talk about where they lived to anyone, but they decided they needed to loosen up a bit. So, the topic was brought up to Ash in case she could help, and she was. She recommended Syrus as an occupant of the building to the building owner. It was a small three-room building on the 4th Street west side, on a side road, where she had separate space to sleep, cook, and create. She didn¡¯t plan to move her entire potion-making endeavour here; Ash¡¯s room had better storage and space, but having her own room meant she could make potions during other times of the day. ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a bit.¡± Said Ash. With Ash gone, the trio spoke to each other. [With the next packages of cash sent, we are broke again.] (Syrus) [I do apologise for that¡­] (Eva) [Don¡¯t be, it¡¯s an investment.] (Syrus) [Correct, you have already proven the profits before.] Luna added, [Though I can¡¯t help being curious about what you plan on making with what you bought. You gave Ash a lot of money.] [Sadly, it couldn''t be helped, no one would sell any of the ingredients I needed.] (Eva) [Needed is a strong word.] (Syrus) [In this case, it is correct.] (Eva) Syrus was a bit hesitant in spending most of their savings¨Cexcluding the portion required to rent this house¨Con potion supplies. But Eva and Luna were for it, so they went ahead. Eva was open about the fact she wanted to make some powerful healing and energy potions, but the technical words she used went over Syrus¡¯ head. [Besides that, we could start hunting soon.] (Syrus) [Animals?] (Eva) [Yeah, you''re skilled enough with Manipulation that we could make traps and tie animals up. That will leave that in a much more valuable state than me burning or chopping their head off.] (Syrus) [If we did, you would like it if we purchased a longsword first.] (Luna) [I mean, a sword short would be fine.] (Syrus) [I see why you were upset about the money now.] (Luna) [Hey, it¡¯s not that much.] (Syrus) [I also saw the prices, Syrus.] (Luna) [Damn.] (Syrus) Ash came back with a box of supplies. ¡°Here you go, Syrus, your order.¡± Eva replied. ¡°Thank you, I''ve been looking for these for ages.¡± ¡°I could see the issue, I had to use my apothecary licences to get some of these, and even then there were so many damn questions.¡± ¡°Sorry about that.¡± ¡°No problem, that''s why you asked me to do it.¡± Eva looked into the box and saw a large jar of a thick goo-like liquid, a red crystal the size of her hand, a small box of six black pears, and an orange. ¡°Sapphire Jam, Zyx Crystal, Black Pearls, and an orange. Thank you, Ash.¡± [Sapphire Jam?] (Syrus) [I would assume that is the shorthand?] (Luna) [Yes, Sapphic Amber Moss Mixed Standard Evos Delanar Formula.] (Eva) [Sapphire Jam it is.] (Luna) Ash and Eva talked for a little longer, but before long, Ash left to continue working and Eva went to start preparing some potions. Looking over the ingredients, there was only one that truly confused Syrus. [Why the orange?] When Syrus first heard Eva mention it, she thought it was a shorthand for some special ingredient, but no, it was just an orange. [You mentioned you liked it.] Eva said nothing further as she watched Syrus pick up the fruit and place it on the table. Oranges didn¡¯t grow anywhere around here, so it wasn¡¯t something Anlesa had tried in this life. Syrus pearled the orange and took a bite. ¡°It¡¯s a little off.¡± She said nothing else as she slowly consumed the rest of it. [Thanks.] (Syrus) Eva started preparing the main potion she wanted to make today. One of the recent items she bought was a large cylindrical container. Within that container, she placed a specially made glass stand on which she placed the Zyx Crystal. Once that was done, she poured the Sapphire Jam into the cylinder until it was a few centimetres taller than crystal. She placed her hands on the cylinder. Eva had to pull that mana out of the crystal into the sticky liquid, this caused thick bubbles within the sapphire jam. She then pulled and stretched the jam with mana before raising it and letting it pour into the crystal again. [Are you making dough?] (Syrus) [Not a wrong way to think about it.] (Eva) She continued this process for over an hour, and throughout she slowly poured a little bit of an energy potion in. She removed the crystal with a pair of pliers and wiped it down with a clean cloth. She then placed it over an empty jar, with a flame below it. Soon the crystal started dripping golden red drops. Eva grabbed one of the pearls and crushed it in a mortar until it was fine dust. [Lilly, what are you making?] (Luna) [A special type of potion.] (Eva) [Specifics.] (Syrus) She poured that dust into a beaker with 5ml water and had them mixed until black. [Similar to energy potions, but are referred to as vitalizers. Same tree but different branches.] Eva poured the black mix into the glass that the drops were dripping into. The black colour faded away, and the liquid was simply red. [Vitalizers have a slow effect that lasts over a long time, but they are very mana-light, well, this one is. Sometimes people like to try and mix the benefits of a standard energy potion and a vitalizer together. But they are meant to give the body energy over a long period of time. So, they are great for surgeries and hikes without much food or water.] (Eva) After a long while, she was able to pour the liquid into three empty standard potions. [Only three¡­] Eva was disappointed. [Going to dilute these?] (Syrus) [No, that would destroy the efficiency.] (Eva) Eva fumbled around with one of the open potions. [Well¡­] Eva took one of the potions and downed it. [Lilly!] (Luna) [Eva, what are you doing!] (Syrus) Before Syrus could stop anything bad from happening, she could only feel a brimming sensation throughout her body. Like sparks of happiness were emerging from their veins. ¡°Been so long¡­¡± Eva was enjoying the warmth. This was one of the potions she bought to keep her going through very long, rough patches. ¡°You mentioned conventional methods of healing wouldn¡¯t work, and mana-rich potions were a no-game. So, the vitalizer meets those requirements.¡± [Why didn¡¯t you say anything¡­] Luna asked. [I¡­ wanted to do something useful¡­] Eva mumbled her thoughts. [I¡­ figured this would be my only chance¡­ so if I told you guys and you said no¡­] [Lilly¡­] (Luna) Syrus needed to ask, [Did you have any worry that something would go wrong?] [No, I¡¯ve studied your expansion over and over again. I was positive nothing bad would happen.] (Eva) [...if that¡¯s the case¡­ good.] (Syrus) Syrus flicked her own head, hard. ¡°Awo!¡± [Don¡¯t think like that, you have always been useful.] (Syrus) Eva¡¯s self-doubt and negatives had lessened over the years, but Syrus was now looking back, realising she should¡¯ve been prepared for this. Out of the three of them, Eva had the most motivation after what happened at the village, but that motivation didn¡¯t stem from only positive emotions. [Just tell us next time¡­] Syrus asked, concerned not about their body, but for Eva. [Okay.] Eva nodded. It took a moment of silence for everything to calm down. [Should we go out to eat?] (Luna) [But I got to make the potions for Ash.] (Eva) [You can do that afterwards, I¡¯m starving for food.] (Syrus) [No, we¡¯re not.] (Eva) [In the sense I want to chew on something.] (Syrus) [Oh! That¡¯s fair.] Eva understood. [Yeah, I can feel that.] S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Good, any preferences?] (Syrus) [None really.] (Eva) [I wouldn¡¯t mind going to the Carlman Tavern again.] (Luna) [That does sound good.] (Syrus) Chapter 76 – Competition Chapter 76 ¨C Competition [Let¡¯s go!] Syrus cheered. [Calm down¡­] (Luna) [No, after we do this delivery, I want to go for a full-on sprint around the western forest.] (Syrus) [.......] (Eva) [Don¡¯t stay silent about this, Lilly, you are partly responsible for this.] (Luna) [Eh¡­ Eva did not calculate the sheer¡­ everything of Syrus.] (Eva) S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Chatting will get you two nowhere, come on, I haven¡¯t felt this good in ages.] (Syrus) They left their house in a good mood. Well, Syrus was in a fantastic mood. The vitalizer Eva made did its job extremely well. Due to their house being on the same segment, which led to the same street Ash Evelen¡¯s store was on. It was easy to stop by the shop before immediately booking to run like Syrus wanted. When they got up in the morning, Syrus was pumped to do everything and anything. Even last night she could barely sleep, not because the extra energy was keeping her up, but because she could feel the body healing. It would still take a while, but it felt like they had finally broken through a wall in the recovery process. In the morning, as they were getting ready, Syrus asked why Eva didn¡¯t just buy one when she looked around shopping, or if there was simply none around. [There were a few¡­ but like we kind of discussed, a lot were mana rich, which is normally a good thing¡­ our conditions, you know.] (Eva) [Fair enough. How were the prices, were they affordable?] Syrus was curious, they were something she considered buying for the future after their body recovered. Eva could make them herself sure, but it took ages for the ingredients to come in, they were expensive anyway, and only three potions were able to be made. This train of thought was immediately countered. [Oh no, they were very pricey.] Eva shook her head. [I¡¯m half expecting it to be a marketing ploy¡­] [Make the useful vitalizer expensive so people buy the massively less useful energy potions.] Said Luna, she had thought back to the shopping Eva had done after she had learned the truth behind everything. [Yeah¡­] (Eva) Though Eva was surprised Syrus didn¡¯t know too much about vitalizers, as a seasoned warrior, she figured she knew about the basic types of potions for long and short-term use. Not necessarily the names or extract function, but what was useful. To which Syrus simply said that it wasn¡¯t as developed over there as it was here. A fair statement to make: there were some big players on the continent and nearby that had heavily developed that industry, Lilly¡¯s home of Eletscoep was a pillar of such advancements. From the explanations Syrus¡¯ gave, it wasn¡¯t like her former home had no forms of healing, it was just a different industry. Medicine-based healthcare and magic were more common, to the point where most people knew how to do basic first aid. ¡°Feeling too good for our products now?¡± As they neared Ash¡¯s shop, they heard some voices coming out of the front door. Ash demanded, ¡°For the last time, fuck off, I bought what I wanted so bloody leave.¡± A clearly angry and pissed-off Ash, and a delivery man with a mostly full crate exited the shop. The man had a somewhat tidy uniform of three layers of brown, then blue, then dark brown. They recognised him as a worker of the Dapple Sparkling company, one of the potion suppliers in the area. There weren¡¯t too many that had set up shop and manufactured locally. Out of the big three companies, Dapple Sparkling, Hialaha, and Glorious Potions, only Dapple Sparkling and Hialaha created their supply within the city. They weren¡¯t the only places that sold potions in the city, but they were the ones that made it their main job. As they got closer, the man turned to his side and looked over at the person who was walking closer with a glint in his eye. [Don¡¯t say you are working together.] (Luna) [Why?] (Eva) [Eva, just let me handle this.] (Syrus) [Fine¡­] (Eva) Only Eva and Syrus were supposed to talk while they were in ¡®Syrus¡¯ disguise. Between Luna and Syrus, it was arguable who was better at dealing with particular social encounters, but in this instance, Luna had to stay on the backline. ¡°This is your new business partner?¡± The man looked up and down at Syrus. ¡°Nah, just a friendly acquaintance, hey Ash.¡± Syrus Ash understood the situation quickly. ¡°Morning, didn¡¯t expect you to get up and about so early, thought you would rest well in your home.¡± Syrus shrugged, ¡°Work gotta be done still.¡± Syrus and Ash began the ¡®ignore the stinky shit on the floor¡¯ form of communication. ¡°Though it¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen you selling,¡± Ash asked, putting Syrus on the spot a bit, but it helped bring the conversation together. ¡°Yeah, what can I really say?¡± ¡°That you don¡¯t like making money?¡± ¡°No, but a fair guess based on my behaviour.¡± The man was confused at first, but his irritation grew drastically, dealing with the two women. Being yelled out was fine, but ignored? How dare they! Syrus continued, ¡°But yeah, I got some new supplies, and with the stuff I purchased off you, the motivation was running high.¡± The act continued, ¡°You''re welcome, thanks for the help.¡± ¡°I could say the same, thanks for the recommendation and patching me up.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to keep saying that.¡± ¡°Now now ladies, it¡¯s rude to ignore the customer.¡± The man took a large step forward, breaking the line of sight between the two. [How is a delivery boy a customer?] (Eva) [Salesman is more appropriate, but I do wonder how offended he would get if I called him boy.] (Syrus) "Now, Miss, nice to meet you too. Are you a new alchemist to the area?¡± He asked and received a silent disinterest in Syrus as a response. He continued, ¡°If you are ever looking for actual work, Dapple Sparkling on the main street would be glad to accept you.¡± After that interruption. ¡°Want to buy some Ash?¡± Syrus lightly shook the box. ¡°I¡¯ll even sell them at a discount.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Ash paused, ¡°What about your normal customers?¡± They went immediately back to ignore the man. ¡°Yeah, they¡¯ll manage, so consider this opportunity a test out my supply. Because there might be no next time.¡± ¡°You were always bragging about them¡­¡± Ash sighed, ¡°You should just make more, you know.¡± ¡°Eh, I have better things to do.¡± [Wow¡­ you all are so good at acting.] (Eva) [Syrus is barely even acting; she¡¯s just her usual self.] (Luna) Ash thanked. ¡°I do appreciate it, let¡¯s examine them inside, it must get annoying carrying them.¡± ¡°With my muscles? Hardly.¡± Syrus walked inside first, slipping by the turd wall standing in her way. Ash followed and gently closed, then locked the door. Once inside, Syrus, Eva, and Ash went to have a nice chat about the potions they were giving Ash, and about the turd. After a moment, there was a little shake on the door before the man walked away. [I feel like a lot of the dickheads around the city have been showing up more frequently.] (Syrus) [You are just saying that because they were the more memorable encounters.] (Luna) [Maybe.] (Syrus) ¡°He been causing you trouble?¡± Syrus asked. Ash let out a deep sigh. ¡°Since forever; those the fucker been making me more stressed because of their stupid sales or whatnot.¡± ¡°I¡¯m assuming switching to one of the other brands of stores won¡¯t help.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ They are by far the cheapest. Even the ¡®low cost¡¯ places aren¡¯t low enough for me to do my job with them. Maybe if I jacked up my prices, but nah, I¡¯ll lose an 8th of my customers that way.¡± Ash took a sip of a diluted golden bottle that Eva had made for Ash as an order. ¡°Ah! They aren¡¯t all bad though; I¡¯ve met a few of their employees and crafters even recently, and most are nice folk. That brat, on the other hand, and his boss I wouldn¡¯t mind seeing disappear for a few months.¡± Syrus jokingly pretended to write on her hand. ¡°I¡¯ll take note of that.¡± ¡°Heh, don¡¯t even waste your time. By the way, brilliant job out there.¡± The talk between Ash and Syrus didn¡¯t last too long, both people had to work. Eva gave most of what she intended to Ash, which she was mighty grateful for, but she did make sure to ¡®pay¡¯ Syrus for the sale. Because Eva made extra potions anyway, they decided to keep some to ¡®sell¡¯ later at the hunting guild. Eva was all too ready to sell them for cheap as a part of a generous gift for her coworkers. They weren¡¯t going to sell them individually, but to the guild itself to give out. [Eva, will having another one of the vitalizers help?] (Syrus) Syrus asked after their quick and successful drop-off at the Brown Oak Guild. [No, at most, it will prolong the effect, but it would be much more efficient to simply take a new one after the effect has dissipated.] (Eva) The pure vitalizer Eva made, besides packing a lot of nutrients, left behind a ball of energy within the user''s body. This energy was created by extracting rich, pure natural mana from sources that were mostly free of other types of mana pollution. The potion in question ended up being a source of heavy life energy, it was still technically a type of mana, but no one called it that as its default state behaved differently enough. Eva had explained the process to Syrus, and she kind of got it. [So, it¡¯s kind of like, if it were possible, extracting the heat from a fire and storing it for later, it¡¯s not fire anymore by the byproduct of it.] (Syrus) [Weirdly enough, that is an apt description.] (Eva) [Impressive.] (Luna) [Well, back to my original point, if there is no need to take another one at the moment, then there is nothing holding me back from starting my sprint.] (Syrus) There was nothing Luna or Eva could do to change Syrus¡¯ mind. The energy being released made it feel like for the first time in ages her blood and muscles could finally breathe. After over a month of what felt like chains dragging her down with needles hampering her movements, for a moment, Syrus knew she could feel free moving. So, there she went. Sprinting until the sun started to set. Chapter 77 – First Hunting Quest Chapter 77 ¨C First Hunting Quest ¡°Ah yes, that feels good,¡± Syrus exclaimed after finishing her pushups and starting her wrap-up stretches. [Hmmmm¡­] Eva was enjoying the motions as well, the ease of movement, and warmth as everything stretched freely. Thanks to the vitaliser and then allowing it to rest within their system for a few days, along with all the healing they had done over the months, Anlesa was finally near the completion of the refcovery process. The vitaliser did a lot, but if they had acquired it earlier, the healing process wouldn¡¯t have sped up by a great deal. It would¡¯ve definitely been faster, and they may have acquired some strength back faster, but a lot of time was needed to smooth out the kinks in the body. [Well, if you are done examining yourself. Put a different shirt on and get ready to go out; today has the potential to be a long day after all.] (Luna) sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Compared to the 40% recovery Syrus estimated a while ago, they were now about 80% recovered. That didn¡¯t mean they were twice as strong as they were before, but they were nearing it. Syrus estimated they wouldn¡¯t become much more physically capable even after the last 20%, but their current body had already surpassed her past life¡¯s base level of physical fitness and strength. Which was a little weird for her to think about. One of the biggest improvements was the small pains they often felt finally died down to nearly nothing. They tried to not make a fuss about them, as thinking about it only made it worse, but they were glad that it was a nuisance they could finally avoid. After their body was rebuilt, they had become absurdly strong, that was for sure. [I don¡¯t know what I would even say in my past life if I found a child had surpassed my level of strength in just a few months.] Syrus paused, and genuinely thought about it for a moment. [Actually, I would probably just laugh it off and be impressed that something like that could even happen.] [Do you think we can get much stronger with exercise, strength training, and muscle building?] Luna asked, it was a question she had been curious about for a while, but it was hard to ask when they were still far from healed. [That¡­ I don¡¯t know.] Syrus shook her head. It was something she could only know by trying after their body had completely healed. [Our body has changed on a fundamental level to become more¡­ I don¡¯t know, fit? Active? Built to move?] Overall, their body was in good condition, and it appeared normal from an outside view. They weren¡¯t emaciated, and they had a healthy amount of fat and a decent amount of muscles. Still, if one compared Syrus¡¯ soul form or her past life¡¯s body, then those would still have more muscle than their current form. However, they were simply a lot stronger than what someone of their appearance would normally be. Syrus was used to that, even with her physically imposing body, but that was because she used her Blood attribute on top of her strong physique. [I guess¡­ we just have to wait.] (Eva) [Basically.] (Syrus) Syrus finished getting ready and made her way to the Brown Oak Guild on the southeastern side to pick up a new type of quest to do. With their body finally in a good state, they were going to select a hunting quest. When it came to hunting live creatures, there were multiple ways the quest had to go depending on what the request was. Syrus still didn¡¯t feel comfortable about using her Blood attribute to strengthen herself, but that was fine. They wouldn¡¯t need that for a simple deer hunt. On the way, they checked the local news corner. A place that gathered the major events and updates in the surrounding area and countries. The section about Arisea Station was kept up to date, but the surrounding country information, unless truly extreme, was a few months behind. Upon entering the guild, Syrus immediately went to the quest board. As usual, there weren''t too many. The top left corner of the board was sectioned off quests with a nearing deadline, the top right was also sectioned off, it had a small amount of clearly more challenging quests, if anything, they were quests designed to scare people away from choosing them so they wouldn¡¯t stupidly risk their lives, the rest of the board were the commonly requested quests, these were just left up without much thought because someone always needed one, and they were pinned to the wall in a stack so people could just pull the top one off. For the more difficult quest, like the ones in the top right corner, you had to ask the people at the counter for more like them. Anlesa didn¡¯t know if that was standard across all the hunting guilds because they never looked deeply inside the other two options. She took it to the counter to have it be known it was being attempted. The old man, who was a little sleepy, woke up as Syrus walked to the counter. ¡°Young Miss, good to see you again.¡± He welcomed her with a large smile. The potions that Eva had provided¨Cas she sold them for basically nothing¨Chad been greatly appreciated. Syrus replied, ¡°No problem.¡± The man shook his head. ¡°Still, we are very grateful for the support.¡± ¡°Grateful is an understatement.¡± A young man whacked open a side door on the opposite side of the counter, carrying boxes on boxes of papers and junk. ¡°George!¡± The old man¡¯s tired voice exclaimed, ¡°What did I say about causing a ruckus!?¡± ¡°I work here more often than you do at this point and ruckus? Have you seen the other guilds? The amount of noise I make can¡¯t even scratch theirs.¡± He dropped the boxes, then picked up the top one to start sorting through them and placed the new quests into the bookshelf. ¡°Stop talking in metaphors or what have you.¡± The young boy with blond hair, George replied, ¡°Anyway, ignoring the old fart, we do thank you dearly for them, it is always nice to have some around the building in case of an emergency. Which one did happen to occur¨CNot sure if they would¡¯ve kept their arm if it wasn¡¯t for it.¡± The guild kept some potions on hand and gave a few out to parties who had to deal with potentially risky quests. They didn¡¯t always give the potions out, and if they weren¡¯t used, they asked for them to be returned, but it was something nice that made the people here loyal and friendly. Syrus replied, ¡°...Glad they were of help.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± The man paused as he only now looked at the quest Syrus had slid to him, worried if he asked, ¡°Are you sure you want to pick this one?¡± It was a fair question, Syrus had never picked a hunter quest before. Though it wasn¡¯t like the one she had acquired was of any difficulty, she had even made frequent trips to the Amber Hollow, which at least proved she was competent. ¡°Yes.¡± The man nodded. ¡°Well, if you come back with a bloody corpse, please come through the back door.¡± With that done, Syrus did not have much else to do before starting the hunt. Deer were a common creature that strolled the plains and forests. The request asked for minimum damage, so usually, arrows and spears were a common method. Before she left the city, Syrus did a double check of everything to ensure they brought everything they needed and might potentially need. Along with the checks, Syrus made sure there were no problems with their new backpack. Anlesa got a new backpack with a wooden frame and support, so they could tie and place heavier loads on it. They still owned their old ones, but each was for a different purpose. There was the option of getting a small one-person pull cart, but this was cheaper. [Off we go!] (Syrus) [I don¡¯t understand all the excitement about hunting.] (Eva) [Just, don¡¯t worry about it.] (Luna) Chapter 78 – A Good Punch In The Face Chapter 78 ¨C A Good Punch In The Face [Was it supposed to be that easy?] (Eva) [Yeah?] (Syrus) The deer hunt was completed successfully. They didn¡¯t have the spare funds to buy a bow just for the single hunt, so they made do with the equipment they had, which ended up working just as well anyway. It was requested to have as minimal damage as possible, which still allowed for some wounds and damage, as expecting perfection was asking for the job to never be done. They chose to set up a trap using Eva¡¯s Manipulation and string. Syrus justified this as training for Eva¨Cwhich it was¨Cbut it was also true she was curious to test the usefulness of her ability while hunting. They targeted the deer that wandered around the forests and used Eva¡¯s string to catch them before Syrus put the creature to rest. They managed to keep the outer wounds low, which would help with the reward money. A long gathering trip of multiple hard-to-find plants might grant them more money in the future than a simple animal hunt, but doing it occasionally was something Syrus wanted to do. When it came to the hunting quest, most were simply hunting animals for food. There were a few that appeared to be for clearing up dangerous animals that had been roaming around. This happened frequently whenever there was a spike in the wolf population, and they increased their prowling range closer to the city¨Cin the past people have died or gotten injured because of that. If a mutated animal appeared, a quest to hunt them popped up relatively fast, they were always dangerous and the majority of the time very hostile. On the other hand, if a monster appeared, the process was much different. Syrus tied the deer with some rope and strapped it onto the top of the wooden frame of the backpack. Once that was done, it was time to return to the city and drop off the prize. They were happy with her work, and she collected her pay without issue. Eva spent the rest of the day making simple potions. The following day continued on without any issue. Anlesa spent the first half of the day strolling throughout the city shopping with all the money she had saved, which wasn¡¯t a lot, but it was something. The goal wasn¡¯t just to buy items, but to also find good places to buy products in the future. Syrus especially wanted to find a good place to get a sword now that they could wield one. She knew of the shops in the area, but she had to take a peek at all of them to find the best bang for her buck. [Did any of the Smithies suit your preference?] (Luna) They completed their lap of the shops, and Syrus had been mostly silent as she observed the places that were offering weapons. [Is buying one from the supply market really that bad?] Eva asked. They could either order a weapon from a weapon forger directly or buy one from the general wares stores. [Yes.] (Syrus) The big difference was the price¨Cwith the non-smithies being cheaper¨Cbut it was something Syrus wasn¡¯t going to budge on completely. Buying weapons for cheap was a good idea, and it was useful for their disguises to use different weapons¨CSyrus did have decent proficiency in most. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Don¡¯t you require specific-sized tools for your work?] (Syrus) [A beaker is a beaker, and a bowl is still a bowl. The only thing for my current work that I need to be exactly the correct size are my potion containers. Yeah, I do need correct-sized measuring tools, but that comparison still isn¡¯t great.] It wasn¡¯t that Eva didn¡¯t understand where Syrus was coming from, but she wouldn¡¯t allow an incorrect comparison of her work to be made. Syrus gave up and rambled. [I want a sword that is the correct length for our body, the right balance in material, and made by someone who I know, so I can come back and punch them if they purposefully make a shit product.] [Speaking of which, what type of sword do you use?] (Luna) [Eh?] Syrus halted in slight confusion; she thought the answer was known already. She had mentioned many times about wanting a longsword after all. [From experience, we¡¯ve seen you fight, but I have not seen you fight in your optimal form. Whatever fighting style you used, I assumed it was very aggressive, and I knew your preference is longswords, but that is about it.] (Luna) [Ohhh, that¡¯s what you mean. I mean, yeah, it was aggressive for human fights, but I can¡¯t say I did the exact same for monsters. It was a self-developed style, you know, I threw what I learned, felt right, and what I found effective together.] Syrus thought for a moment. [My swords were a bit longer than the average longsword, and oh yeah, I did use two.] [Two?!] Eva shouted, confused and concerned, because two full-priced custom swords would be a lot of money. [Yep.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s a bit more of a financial burden.] Said Luna. It wasn¡¯t that they couldn¡¯t afford that, but they wanted to increase the amount they were sending to the kids. [Yeah, I know, which is why I¡¯m not getting two.] (Syrus) [Do you want to?] (Eva) [I¡¯m not really sure, probably. But at the same time, I¡¯m not sure how well using two swords will work with a joint combat style.] (Syrus) [Fair point to make, and likely is correct. Blocking the use of both hands would be very limiting for us when we are working together.] (Luna) [I see.] (Eva) Along their walk, they stopped by one of the travelling merchants and their waggon. Most merchants dealt directly with businesses in this city, it was just easier to do business that way, but a few stopped on the side streets and sold directly from their carts. Eva liked checking out these carts, it was fun to find something rare, even though she could never afford them. [Looks like there is some interesting stuff in this one.] Eva mused. Unique jewellery, pottery she had never seen before, and a bunch of other items she could tell were junk or treasure. [He¡¯s at least been around the block a few times.] (Syrus) The owner of the waggon, who was sitting on the elevated seat, said quietly, ¡°Wow, a trio of attributes. They even worked well together, you¡¯re lucky to have them, considering that they aren¡¯t an aligned arrangement.¡± It was a simple comment, but one that made them feel like a bomb just went off in front of them. [Luna! Don¡¯t use Space or Moonlight at all.] Syrus immediately commanded, she wanted to ensure their whole disguise and cover system didn¡¯t get blown up in a moment. [Okay.] Luna [What¡¯s happening?] (Eva) [A bull and tomas tomato.] Syrus¡¯ previous life colloquialism went right over both Luna¡¯s and Eva¡¯s heads. To prevent further risk, she had to reveal one more thing. Syrus flicked up her finger, and a small flame appeared at the time. ¡°Four, though I can¡¯t help but be concerned that you knew that.¡± The man quietly laughed back, ensuring that he wasn¡¯t causing a scene. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I just have special eyes for this sort of thing.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Said Syrus, she made her annoyance evident. There was no reason to hide those feelings. The man with fuzzy blond hair tipped his newsboy hat. ¡°I apologised, I¡­ thought I saw a weird mix, so I had to look deeper.¡± He opened his eyes wider. They were mostly closed before, but now, the nearly completely clear irises were visible. ¡°Please look around, I won¡¯t bother you anymore.¡± Syrus looked over the waggon of goods and trinkets. It was a fat lie to say nothing seemed interesting, but justifying buying any of it was impossible. ¡°Nothing I¡¯m interested in, or even afford, sorry for taking up your time.¡± The man nodded. ¡°Too bad, pleasure to do business next time.¡± Syrus split ways and moved far out of the way down a different street. [What was that?] Syrus asked, looking for Luna¡¯s and Eva¡¯s expertise. [That¡¯s what I would like to know.] (Luna) [Sorry, everything happened too fast for me¡­] (Eva) Syrus noted their reaction and gave a quick recap for Eva. [Someone could see our attributes, well, basing it off their words, they only saw three, which meant they only saw the attributes that had a passive effect on our body or what we were using, so Morph, Manipulation, and Blood.] Manipulation had a passive effect on the mana within the body, well, it only really showed itself when Eva was in control, but it was still there; Morph was always active anyway; and Blood could fall into both categories, as Syrus was using the slow healing effects of it to repair the body, and the Attribute allowed mana to be stored in their blood. In Syrus'' past life, she could only do this temporarily, but after the body reconstruction and the healing progress, small bits of mana started being stored there. [Why did you show off Fire then?] Eva¡¯s brain hadn¡¯t caught up yet, the situation had rattled her for a moment. [Because that¡¯s a publicly known ability of Syrus.] (Syrus) Eva paused. [Yeah¡­ that¡¯s fair.] Silence formed between the three of them for a moment, as Eva and Luna processed the information and event that transpired. Eva continued, [We need to narrow down the possible reasons.] [Sight is technically an option, if we take his words literally, but from my and our experiences with Septurna, Sight isn¡¯t that powerful to tell specific attributes, or maybe it was, but that path was not found by him.] (Luna) [Could be a similar attribute with an overlapping function, those are common.] (Eva) Luna replied, [True, but if an attribute had that power and its use wasn¡¯t well known, that would mean it''s a very high-level application of that attribute. On the other hand, it could also mean he simply has an extremely rare attribute, which it¡¯s understandable for him to not give us, a stranger, a name for it.] Eva and Luna went back and forth over a few possibilities. It could be one of the reasons they managed, or maybe it was an ability created from the combination of different attributes. Syrus paused and deeply sighed. [Sigh, we are just overcomplicating this, aren¡¯t we?] Luna paused, [That¡­ we are. I guess we are still very on edge, huh¡­] They collectively sighed as they all agreed, they had been too tense recently. [Want to go get something to eat?] (Eva) [Yeah. Cheap or expensive?] (Syrus) [The medium price is an option.] (Luna) After discussing it for a moment, they turned down an alley, taking a shortcut to Jan¡¯s Pan¡¯s, a restaurant on 5th Street''s east side. It was a place they hadn¡¯t been to yet. Once they were down the alley a fair bit, an annoying voice called out. ¡°Where do you think you''re going?¡± [That¡¯s him right¡­?] (Eva) [Oh yeah; this city is a small place.] (Syrus) The delivery boy, whose name they never got, had apparently noticed them and decided to follow. ¡°I heard about your exploits. Given potions out, huh? Trying to make a fool of the business. I even heard some people start to complain about our potions after trying yours.¡± [Wow, this dude has some issues.] (Syrus) He moved closer. ¡°How are you going to make this up to the company? Joining will work; that way you even be able to do official business¨C¡± Syrus stayed still, and she heard the man walk towards her. ¡°It¡¯s a great deal for you, honestly.¡± Dirt kicked up, and Syrus swung around. ¡°What are¨C!¡± And punched the man straight in the face. The delivery boy went flying into the dirty side street. His bright, tidy uniform was covered in dust. Clap, clap, clap. Syrus clapped her hands together three times and said, "Ah, yep, that was the relief I needed.¡± [Let¡¯s go get some food.] (Syrus) [...Did we just cause an issue?] (Eva) [Realistically? No, he seemed to be acting on his own. Just a whiny bastard who''s got a stick up the rear.] (Syrus) [But what he was saying¡­ about the potions.] (Eva) [It¡¯s only a few days, at most he is purposely asking for comparisons and getting annoyed.] (Luna) [Dude¡¯s ego is really that low, I see why Ash finds him annoying.] (Syrus) Anlesa left him on the ground and went to go get some food. Chapter 79 – Training & Eating Chapter 79 ¨C Training & Eating ¡°Ah¡­ Thanks for this¡­¡± Ethan bowed his head nervously as he stared at the warm, recently cooked food in front of him. ¡°Roo Woof!¡± Cobalt had no such reservations and immediately dove its snout into the bowl of finely chopped deer. Syrus chuckled, ¡°It is fine. Just enough for the meal, we¡¯ll be doing some training after this.¡± Ethan gulped, ¡°O-Okay!¡± He was excited and nervous. Training with Syrus was definitely a little tough, but he did feel like he was making progress. With Syrus¡¯ suggested exercises he was doing most days, Ethan was just feeling better in his day-to-day life. So he was cautiously curious about what was next on the training regiment. But for the moment, Ethan and Cobalt were simply sitting at Gery¡¯s Well Grill and being shouted food by Anlesa. ¡°Good to see you''re doing well again!¡± Garry, the owner, let out a hearty laugh as he watched the duo scoff down the food, and Syrus calmly began her meal. ¡°Thanks. Surprised you recognised us.¡± ¡°Not too many people bring animals here directly, some can be wild and go after other people¡¯s food, and not one wants to deal with the consequences of that. Though, I love seeing cute ones like this one around.¡± He dropped a little bit of extra meat into Cobalt¡¯s bowl. Cobalt looked up with his eyes shining. ¡°Owroooo.¡± ¡°Haha, what a cutie. Well, you three enjoy your meal.¡± Garry walked off to continue his job. Syrus waved the man goodbye. ¡°Will do, boss.¡± They started eating, but eating wasn¡¯t the only thing Syrus had planned for this outing. She wasn¡¯t just going to waste a good learning opportunity for Ethan. ¡°We¡¯ll do the theory part of the lesson while we eat.¡± ¡°Ok-ay.¡± He nodded while chewing on his food. ¡°Good, first, out of the wooden weapons I gave you, which one did you find the most comfortable to use?¡± Syrus grabbed a bunch of different wooden weapons¨Csome bought, and some she carved¨Cthat she gave Ethan a while ago. She taught him the bare basics of each and how to use them properly, but nothing strict. The important part was for Ethan to find what he felt comfortable using. ¡°Ehh¡­¡± Ethan mumbled for a moment. He had been worried about this for a while. What if he chose the wrong option? ¡°I liked the bow¡­ and the axe¡­¡± S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Big one or small one?¡± ¡°Small one.¡± ¡°The hatchet then, good choice.¡± Syrus thought it was a good option. One-handed axes had a lot of utility even outside of combat, and in combat, depending on the design, they were good chopping and hacking weapons, could catch other weapons, and could be thrown. ¡°Is that fine..?¡± ¡°¡®Course, I¡¯ll figure out some good training plans.¡± Syrus tore a chunk of meat off the bone after she answered. ¡°I see¡­¡± Ethan continued to eat, before stopping again. ¡°...Is it really okay? Aren¡¯t there better options? Shouldn¡¯t I be using one of those?¡± ¡°No, what you chose is a really good combo for hunting, not to mention you have Cobalt by your side. And choosing something you like to use really helps, and if your preference or needs change later, then you can learn more skills, nothing wrong with that.¡± Syrus comforted Ethan¡¯s choice. They paused the talk for a moment so they could enjoy the meal for a bit longer. Syrus didn¡¯t want it to go cold before most of it was eaten. ¡°Argh, that was some good stuff.¡± Syrus patted her belly after finishing the grub. ¡°That was amazing¡­¡± Ethan laid back. ¡°Roooooo.¡± Cobalt had also enjoyed the meal; after he finished, the small brown pup jumped onto Ethan¡¯s lap and curled into a ball. ¡°It is not busy at the moment, so we will keep chatting here for a bit.¡± ¡°As long as we aren¡¯t causing trouble.¡± Ethan massaged Cobalt''s ears. ¡°If you are worried, I¡¯ll just ask.¡± Syrus looked over her shoulder. ¡°Garry. Cool if we stay here and chat for a bit while it¡¯s not busy?¡± ¡°Of course! Just if people are coming in, either order more food or leave.¡± ¡°Understood, doubt we¡¯ll be that long though.¡± She spun back around. ¡°You heard the man, let¡¯s get to talking.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± He nodded. ¡°What¡¯s next?¡± ¡°Wind talk. I will be going over what you will be learning with that, and going to inject you with some knowledge on the subject.¡± Ethan replied, ¡°Understood.¡± Ethan didn¡¯t say anything else, so Syrus began the explanation. ¡°Your Wind and my Fire are what would be considered elemental g-attributes.¡± Syrus had to momentarily stop herself from saying gifts like she normally would. ¡°You have probably tested it a bit, right? Pretty simple with their application, but you can do a lot of fun things with them. ¡°Hmhmm.¡± He nodded. ¡°Now, you can do a lot with elemental attributes. What a person can actually do, does depend on what element they have, but some attributes have their scope greatly expanded with magic.¡± Moonlight and other light-based attributes fell heavily into that category of attributes that were heavily based on the magic created around them. The centuries of development with those attributes have created a large category of healing spells. ¡°Is Wind like that?¡± ¡°Umm, yeahnah.¡± Syrus shrugged. ¡°¡®Some¡¯ attributes was probably the wrong word. Wind can do a lot, and magic can make it do a lot more. But the uses with and without magic spells for Wind are pretty different.¡± Syrus looked out to the sky. ¡°Wind and basic complexity spells are very much about movement, speed, and slashes. Oh, before I continue, basic spells are something most people can learn, or even make up themselves if they know what they are slightly doing. Then the higher complexity spells¡­ well, they are kind of crazy from what I know. I heard someone pushed a storm away from a city, and another catapulted themselves across a county.¡± The examples were based on rumours and non-confirmed information in books they read. In the books Jen owned, most didn¡¯t have any details on high-powered magic. Ethan¡¯s mouth widened, amazed, ¡°Wow¡­¡± ¡°Any questions before we continue?¡± Ethan shyly asked, ¡°Ummm¡­ yeah, is it possible for me to awaken another attribute?¡± ¡°Do you want another?¡± ¡°It would be cool?¡± Syrus sighed, ¡°Potentially, but unlikely. Most cases of unawakened attributes are due to a physical condition, trauma, attributes clashing against each other, or early awakening of one. In your case, you seem to be fine, so it¡¯s unlikely you will get another.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ okay then. Why do people get multiples then?¡± ¡°Asking the big questions, kid.¡± Syrus chuckled. ¡°We don¡¯t exactly know, simple as that. There are some common factors. If someone is born with two, those two can pretty much be anything, but more than two usually¨Cnot always¨Coccurs in patterns that people call an aligned arrangement of attributes. These are attributes just based on nature, concept, and all that shit, you can see they are related to each other, and make some sort of weird balance. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind; Light, Sun, Fire; Wind, Water, Lightning. There is a list of these common occurrences of two plus attributes, now having three or more is still rare, so yeah, and having three or more attributes that seemingly have no relation is even crazier.¡± [I need to stop this¡­ I¡¯m becoming like you guys.] (Syrus) [What¡¯s that supposed to mean?] (Luna) [I am confused as well.] (Eva) Syrus snapped her fingers, "Okay, enough of that, now I am going to explain what I am going to teach you.¡± Syrus wrapped up the conversation. She talked about how now that Ethan has chosen his weapons, she was going to teach him how to use them, and how to use Wind for movement first, then how to use it to enhance his attacks. Before all that though, it was going to be one more day of intense physical training. With an adjusted list of exercises for the two weapons, he was going to use. Cobalt got to sit this one out, as he was too sleepy. Chapter 80 – Law & Mail Chapter 80 ¨C Law & Mail [Okay, now Article 5: Security, Protection, & Defence.] (Luna) [The important one¡­] (Eva) [I still think this was a waste of money.] (Syrus) [Be quiet, Syrus, you¡¯ll get your sword eventually.] (Luna) Today was a day of studying, specifically the laws of Arisea Station. This topic was long overdue, but it was something Eva always wanted to get to when they had the opportunity. The reason for the delay settled on two main points. One, they were busy. From training, eating, studying, and most importantly, making money, everything held greater importance. And simply following the signs and what people said was nearly guaranteed to make sure one didn¡¯t get in trouble. The second reason was a bit more impactful. They couldn¡¯t access the book that contained the laws. The book with them was a little expensive, now if they could enter the public library, that wouldn¡¯t be a problem, as it was said there were multiple copies there for people to read. However, the public library had been closed for four months and the empty building had sat at the beginning of the east side of 5th Street. It was supposed to undergo an expansion upwards and sideways and be made more accessible, but there was an issue when the owner of one the buildings that were going to be bought died and the successor didn¡¯t go through with the deal, and to make it worse, sold the property to a very enthusiastic merchant who didn¡¯t want to sell it again. Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The situation was the biggest drama around the town at the time, so everyone had a story to tell when Anlesa asked about it. Eva was quite saddened by the news, initially they just found the library closed, and she assumed it would be reopened soon, but after a bit, she asked around and learned the hard truth. [This is somehow more, and smaller than I thought it would be.] (Eva) [This segment, thankfully, only has one new addition since I last saw it.] (Luna) In the end, they did buy the book. They asked around town about the laws, but nowhere had any clear knowledge of them. Everyone had a general correct idea, but Luna wanted to be exactly sure. The book, Arisea Station Book Of Laws, had six articles. Article 1: Business & Trade Article 2: Agriculture & Supply Article 3: Transport & Roads Article 4: Property & Real Estate Article 5: Security & Defence Article 6: Culture & City Eva read through each article, and Luna added details based on the history she knew. Each only contained a few dot points, totalling twenty-nine distinct points. This was a light read compared to the dictionary of laws in the Nevald Kingdom. The current version of the book was, Arisea Station Book Of Laws A9¨Camended for the ninth time. Luna had only read the seventh version, so her knowledge was a little outdated, but not by much. The only changes since then were a new point in Article 5: Security & Defence, two in Culture and City, and a rewording in Article 1: Business & Trade, which was the oldest one and had some redundant sentences used. [Hmm¡­] Eva finished reading over the article. [What is written does make sense, but there is a lot of vagueness and interpretation.] |Article 5: Security & Defence The following points are subject to certain levels of interpretation. When needed assistance outside these scopes, or within, the city¡¯s services will be set out to dispute the problem. 5.1: Protection of personal property: Any purposeful action to harm, steal, or disfigure an individual or their property is denied by law. Therefore, any reasonable action by the owner is permitted. 5.2: Protection of trade and transit: Any purposeful action to damage, steal, or disrupt the movement of goods within or outside the city is denied by law. Therefore, any action may be taken by the owner of the transport, guards, passengers, and citizens to prevent the declared actions.5.3: Protection of the city and people: In a situation where the city and its people are at risk. Action taken to further harm the people is forbidden by law. Furthermore, following the commands of guardian officials will be the highest priority among any requests or orders given out during a crisis. | [Huh, it really is purely focused on the commercial side.] (Syrus) [5.1 was a part of the original version of the Arisea Station Book Of Laws. 5.2 was added in the second version, and 5.3 was added in either amendment eight or nine.] (Luna) [Hmm¡­ wouldn¡¯t there be more conflict if there is nothing preventing or dissuading conflict in the streets?] (Eva) [The preamble is the main reason why there isn¡¯t much issue. Enough precedent has been set that the city guards will intervene, and so, while there are no set punishments, a person can still be punished.] (Luna) [There are plenty of issues with a system like this, but at the same time it does have its positives.] Syrus pondered. [I do think I would prefer a set of laws with a bit more meat on the bone; though keeping the excess fat off is appreciated.] Eva and Luna spent a few minutes talking about the history of the laws. [What do you think the reason was for adding the third point?] (Eva) Syrus quickly answered, [Something could¡¯ve happened to the city, or maybe a nearby one, and they wanted to update the book to ensure they could at least control and direct everyone in a panic.] [Hmhmm!] Eva nodded, [Makes sense. You figure out the answer fast.] [Quite common, for after a disaster, methods for future occurrences are implanted.] (Syrus) [I don¡¯t know of any situations in recent memory. We can¡¯t enter the library to access that information anyway.] (Luna) [We could ask people around town again?] (Eva) [Correct, but the margin for error is much wider. To the point where simply waiting for the official record to open might be for best.] (Luna) [But¡­ Haven¡¯t we read about public records being messed with before?] (Eva) [....] (Luna) [That situation involved adding incidents, but I can¡¯t comment on the possibility of records being modified here.] (Syrus) They had no real answer to that problem, and thinking for too long at the moment would just be a time waster. Soon they did finish reading through the whole and Syrus was ready to resell for at least half the purchase cost to make some of their money back. A little while later, they went down to the post office to send another parcel to Elly. Eva packaged up everything and paid the cost to send the money. ¡°Hey, Miss.¡± The man manning the office asked before they left, ¡°Are you expecting any mail from Cancole?¡± Syrus paused, ¡°No, I am not.¡± [What is this about?] (Eva) ¡°Okay, we¡¯ve got mail sent from there sitting in waiting stock, so I¡¯m just checking with those who sent mail into the country.¡± Syrus replied, ¡°I understand.¡± Replying to letters could be hard. When the destination and sometimes the individual were uncertain, people had to implement methods to ensure the correct people received their mail. Of course, there was a high chance of these mails being lost or stolen anyway, but people still did try. ¡°Can we just confirm to ensure delivery?¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± One of those methods was the use of a passcode, that only the post office employees were allowed to check. ¡°Age of the Jennifer flowers seed on the new year''s dawn.¡± ¡°...¡± Anlesa waited a moment. ¡°Ten¡­¡± The man passed the letter. ¡°Here you go, please have a look and return back if you think it doesn¡¯t belong to you.¡± Syrus looked at the letter in her, knowing who it was sent from. [How did she send the mail back?] Eva question. From her knowledge, there was no indication of where the mail was sent in the letters and money they had sent. [The cart mostly likely has some sort of sorting for where the mail was sent from, though it would be more appropriate to sort them from where they were being sent to.] (Syrus) [Or it could be either the postman simply knowing where it came from. However¡­ Another likely scenario is Elly working out where we were, it¡¯s far from impossible.] (Luna) There was one mail for her, labelled, To Ann. Hello, everything is okay on our end. Thank you for the money, but make sure to keep some for yourself. Wishing you the best. Love, all. The password method had plenty of issues itself, which was why these letters tended to be light on content. [Why did you do that¡­ Such a waste of money.] Luna mumbled her thoughts. At the same time, she was happy to know that everything was at least okay and they were receiving the money. Anlesa placed the letter in her pocket and prepared to burn it when she got home. Chapter 81 – Church Hoodlum Chapter 81 ¨C Church Hoodlum Time passed without anything eventful really happening. It was near the end of the third month of the year, and Anlesa paused her work to enjoy lunch. However, as she went to grab the wooden fork provided with the plate, there was a momentary pause as she realised this wasn¡¯t what she ordered. Eva called to the waiter who was walking off, ¡°Sorry, this isn¡¯t what I ordered.¡± What she received was close enough to what she paid for¨Ca hefty portion of venison with a small side of local potatoes. The difference was the extra side of the carrot and the two pieces of toasted bread seasoned with garlic. The latter was getting expensive due to a poor harvest. The young body in his mid-teens paused and turned around. "Oh, sorry Miss.¡± Before the body could take a step towards the table, an elderly gentleman stopped him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there is no problem here.¡± John Carlman, the owner of the Carlman Tavern they were currently eating at. He was an elderly man whose age wasn¡¯t exactly known, but he had been running the business for at least forty years and possessed a well-kept grey beard and hair to match the tidy aesthetic his restaurant had. Anlesa asked, ¡°You sure?¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve been getting quality deer carcasses for a little while now. I knew they were coming from the Brown Oak Guild, so I just asked around.¡± The man twirled his beard. ¡°Got to reward those customers that help the business thrive.¡± Syrus returned a small chuckle. ¡°Thank you, but are you sure you are not just doing this, so I buy these extras next time?¡± The elderly gentleman laughed. ¡°Haha, maybe. Well, I¡¯ll stop bothering you. Enjoy your meal.¡± Syrus nodded. ¡°I will, thank you.¡± [This garlic bread is good¡­] (Eva) [Don¡¯t fall too in love with it.] (Syrus) [I mean, I could probably make it with your help for cheaper if I really wanted to eat it again.] (Eva) [It tastes better with cheese added.] (Luna) sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Oh really?] (Eva) [Don¡¯t give Eva ideas¡­ Cheese is expensive at the moment.] (Syrus) Once they were done eating, they began walking down the street. They didn¡¯t have an exact plan, but for the time being, Syrus was just going to head to the guild to see if there was any quick or easy request available. If there was one available, they would quickly do it and pick some personal ingredients from the forest, and then Eva would go back to potion making. If there were no worthwhile requests, then they would likely just go back home immediately. They did have a quick look at the local news board on their way. [Nothing chaotic around town.] (Eva) [But wow, stealing from a museum¡ªhuh, someone¡¯s got balls.] (Syrus) [What wait, where¡¯s that?] (Eva) [I¡¯ll just focus on it now.] (Syrus) [Oh, in the Jenate Republic¡­] (Eva) [Northwest of Cancole. It would¡¯ve been two months ago based on the information spreading. Albaalturn Museum¡­ The criminal who did it was the Blinker¡­] (Luna) [Oh, it just said a ¡®Blinker¡¯, so I assumed that was just what they called thieves.] (Syrus) [When I was active, there was someone called the Blinker who was a known thief. Not sure if they have decided if they''re multiple or not, or just didn¡¯t want to pin it on the same person, either way, it would be something interesting for the chatterboxes to gossip about for a few days.] (Eva) [Blinker¡­ So could they be a Space attribute user like you?] (Eva) [Unlikely, apparently they could vanish and reappear multiple times without issue. Even teleporting a few times drains my mana supply, so there is a higher chance they just have an attribute that allows them to go invisible.] (Luna) After the tangent aside, they continued their journey. On the walk to the guild, they noticed an unfamiliar person uncomfortably strolling through the street. [Is that another Aurora Church priest?] (Eva) The young man in his late teens or early twenties was wearing a standard white cloak with the church¡¯s golden stars symbol stitched into the collar. Underneath were ordinary travel clothes, it was a common get-up for priests travelling alone. [Appears so¡­] (Luna) [Not sure why they are here on their own. They don¡¯t look particularly comfortable here.] (Syrus) Syrus'' observation was based on the fact that the young man''s clear dislike of a certain part of the populace was clearly noticeable. As he kept glaring at multiple different groups of them, his eyes darted around every person who had an exotic attribute, to the extent that he wasn¡¯t even paying attention to anything else. [...] Luna quieted herself to calm down. [Should we be worried?] (Eva) [About what?] (Syrus) [About the priest doing something bad¡­] (Eva) [Even if they were stupid, they were probably told numerous times to not cause a scene in this city.] (Syrus) However, Syrus was quickly proven wrong. The priest cornered a small girl with bright blue hands and sparkling scales covering her cheeks who happened to be near. He jumped towards her in a moment and blocked her escape with the wall of a building. Anlesa didn''t even listen to the verbal abuse he started spewing, Luna and Eva wanted to act immediately. [Stop.] Before either could do anything, Syrus asked them to stop. [We need to go help!] Eva cried internally, worried for the girl¡¯s safety. [Don¡¯t worry.] Syrus, who had already noticed someone approaching early, made sure not to move. [Maca is here.] Before the priest could do anything. An individual suddenly appeared behind him, and their bony hands tightly grabbed the priest¡¯s raised hand. The priest screeched, ¡°What do you think you are doing?!¡± Maca calmly stated. ¡°Taking you off the street.¡± Maca Appel was the exotic attribute person who had met with Luna a while ago. He was a tall man with a blueish, bony-like exoskeleton that covered a large amount of his upper body and arms. Anlesa found out about his name after asking around. The priest continued to complain, ¡°Do you think you can get away with this?!¡± The priest''s eyes dashed around the street, finally looking at everyone else, looking for people to help him out. But he found no sympathy in anyone¡¯s eyes. Attacking a child got him a look of disgust from most people. Even those who had no care in the treatment of those with exotic attributes, wanted this bug removed, anyone causing a scene in the business street needed to be removed after all. Before long, they couldn¡¯t even hear the priest¡¯s screams. [Looks like it was appropriately dealt with.] (Syrus) [Do you think he will be back to cause more trouble?] (Eva) [Maybe? But Maca probably broke a few of his bones at the very least.] (Syrus) The town continued to be peaceful for another day. Chapter 82 – Syrus Orders Her Sword Chapter 82 ¨C Syrus Orders Her Sword [Finally, the day has come.] (Syrus) A week had passed since the small incident in the street, and it passed without an impact. There was some chatter, as it wasn¡¯t something that happened often, but people started talking about the closing of John''s Temporary Home and Meals, one of the main street inns, after fifty years of service. In response to Syrus, Luna replied very sarcastically, [Impossible, how could this ever happen.] [Yay! I¡¯m excited to see you use it.] (Eva) Today was the day Syrus would finally get to complete the task she created for herself a long while ago¨Cordering a custom sword for herself. Anlesa did have the opportunity to buy a ¡®temporary sword¡¯, but every time the decision came close to it, Syrus changed her mind. Either she wanted to save money for a professionally ordered sword and save in general, or she felt unhappy with the quality and specification of the swords available for sale. [Kevin¡¯s place is on the east side, right?] (Eva) [Yeah, at the end of the street.] (Syrus) The few blacksmiths of the city usually had their shops at the end of the branching streets. Some places sold and did maintenance on weapons in the main street, but the places that smelt their own goods had their shops at the ends of the roads. This did put them further away from the market, but it was done for safety, as most of the buildings were made out of wood, resistant to firewood, but still very much flammable. They were also the buildings that had prominently stone material used for their construction. [I hope your choice is correct, I¡¯d rather not deal with a future mess.] (Luna) [There won¡¯t be one. There is a reason why it took me so long before requesting an order.] Syrus was adamant that the long wait for her to buy a sword was worth it. [Really..?] Eva was not convinced by Syrus¡¯ reasoning. Eva was very excited, but it had been a long song and dance to reach this point. They reached the store, Kevin¡¯s workshop. It was a small stone building with boxes of metal parts and a few weapons. None of the blacksmiths in the city specialised in weapons, doing so would be bad for business, and they made most of their profit through crafting parts for vehicles, houses, kitchens, belts, anything and everything that required metal to be bent into shape. Weapons were a nice bonus to sell, because of how much metal was required for something like a sword, it could be sold a fair bit. Syrus walked in and announced her request, ¡°Hello Kevin, I¡¯m looking to order a sword.¡± Kevin was a middle-aged individual with brown, reddish hair and a clean-shaven beard. He wore a classic blacksmith apron over a dull red shirt. The smith in question was already over at his smithy, moving a complete order of nails out of the working area and into storage. Kevin turned around after placing down the box. ¡°Would you like to browse my wares then?¡± He began to walk towards the counter where the box of sheathed swords was behind. ¡°I¡¯m fine, thank you, I already have the specifications I want.¡± Syrus handed over a small paper of measurements to the smith. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Kevin snatched the folded paper and opened it up to read over the details. He raised his eyebrow, looking at the details. It was about 10% longer than the standard maximum longsword length he crafted, which was usually in the range of 100-120 cm with a 90-92 cm blade. Syrus¡¯ blades in her last life were even longer than what she was requesting now, but she didn¡¯t feel like she needed to go that long again for this life. Her body was still in fact smaller now, and with Luna and potentially Eva participating in combat, she wanted to make some adjustments to her previous fighting style besides just using one weapon mainly. Syrus did have some misgivings about the decision, a part of her even wanted the blade longer now that their body could be stronger than her previous life. Her Blood attribute¡¯s physical enhancement reduces most of the major downsides anyway, and the extended reach it provided was something Syrus often exploited. There was another reason she preferred longer weapons, mostly due to her repeated fights with monsters. A type of fight she rather not lose any advantage in, but it was also something that was far less likely to happen now than it was in her previous life. ¡°This will make the weight of the blade be further up the blade than normal for this type of sword, are you fine with that?¡± Syrus eyed the smith, ¡°Correct, any other questions?¡± ¡°Two. You fine waiting a week? I need to wait for my shipment of materials to come.¡± ¡°Yes, that is fine. Second?¡± ¡°Would you like to buy a scabbard with the sword?¡± ¡°No.¡± Kevin did a disappointed shrug. ¡°Okay then.¡± [Why not?] (Eva) [Because making one is funner, and it is easier than dismantling a bought one to do the modifications I want to make.] (Syrus) [Any other reasons?] (Eva) [It¡¯s a lot cheaper.] (Syrus) [Oh.] (Eva) [Not too surprising, it¡¯s not a standard-size sword, longswords are already less common here, and now we are asking for a custom-sized one that is longer than normal. So, there will be a whole process to cut and sew a new sheath. This is a very good opportunity to sell it at a much higher rate, so Syrus is correct, if she can, making one herself is by far the best option.] (Luna) [I get it. I¡¯m curious to watch you doing that, Syrus.] (Eva) [Sure, we even have time thanks to the delay so I can do the process ahead of time.] (Syrus) Syrus paid for the blade upfront and left without issue. Afterwards, she went on a small shopping spree to get the materials for the sheath, with an excited Eva who was ready to watch the manufacturing process. Chapter 83 – Apprenticeship Chapter 83 ¨C Apprenticeship ¡°You can do it, Ethan.¡± ¡°Yes Sir!¡± ¡°Woof!¡± ¡°I believe you can do it as well, Cobalt.¡± ¡°Woo Roo!¡± [They are doing well.] (Eva) [They are doing okay.] (Syrus) Less than a week had passed since Syrus had ordered her sword, so it still hadn¡¯t been crafted yet. Syrus didn¡¯t mind waiting as long as she knew the results were to come. For today, it was another training session with Ethan and a tagalong Cobalt. They had made substantial progress in their training, well mostly Ethan as he was the one aiming to become stronger. Cobalt made some improvements as well, for one, Cobalt was bigger! Not much bigger; he still fit in Anlesa and Ethan¡¯s lap, but the small animal had grown a couple of centimetres. With those centimetres, it did gain quite a bit of strength, Syrus chalked it up to it being a mythic creature. This made Eva curious about why, but there was no way to learn further about that. Even Luna only had minimal knowledge of blessed creatures. Training Ethan on the outskirts of the town wasn¡¯t the only plan they had for the day. It was only the first step, though, the second step also involved him. The training at the moment was simply an evaluation of his progress. Syrus didn¡¯t want to push him to his limits at the moment; she just wanted to see how good his form and execution were. While Syrus was watching Ethan, she also had her mind split on another task, crafting her sheath. Syrus first carved a simple sword of wood to act as the base, so she could sew the leather to the correct size. She got her cutting knife and began to cut the leather into shapes and multiple pieces that she was going to glue together later. Syrus asked Eva to create glue later using Barbook weed/Northroot grass, she thought Eva might be able to make it stronger with her skills in mixing. [You¡¯re quite good at this.] (Luna) [Not really, just picked up the skills over time.] (Syrus) [Did you craft with leather a lot?] (Eva) [Hmm, no, but I enjoyed making and modifying my sheaths in my spare time.] Syrus had a small internal chuckle. [Though in most combat situations I didn¡¯t bring any of my full cover sheaths, they were mostly for travel and in-city use.] ¡°Hah, hah.¡± Ethan puffed, as he got a little tired. It was early in the morning, so he got tired faster. Apparently, he had stayed up a little late the night before. ¡°Good, now step back,¡± Syrus ordered, and Ethan jumped back and sat down to rest. Cobalt rushed over to him and started licking his face. Syrus quickly drew three lines in the ground and examined the wooden target she made for Ethan to shoot at. The three lines were spaced out, each slightly further than the other moving away from the target. They weren¡¯t perfectly aligned either, the first was aligned with the target, the second was a few paces to the left, while the third and last one was off to the right of the target. [Everything is ready.] Syrus turned around and said, ¡°Now I want you to run from the first line to the second, once you reach the second, I want you to fire an arrow, then move to the third to fire another arrow; finally, I want you to switch to your axe and run towards the target. During this whole process, I don¡¯t want you to stop using your attribute. I¡¯m not asking you to be perfectly efficient with it; I just want to see that you are able to maintain it for the whole process. Besides that one rule, you can do whatever you want.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± Ethan jumped up and ran into position and stood at the first line. Cobalt followed him, its little paws bounced across the ground. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ethan now paused at the line, waiting for Syrus to give a signal. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, this isn¡¯t timed, go whenever you feel like.¡± ¡°Right!¡± ¡°Woof!¡± A breeze began to build up around Ethan as he started to focus. Wind was famous for its movement enhancement abilities. It did have combat options, nearly everything did, but Wind¡¯s movement functions overshadowed its other features. Unlike Light, where years of research built a very strong healing magic around it. Wind by itself was suited for supporting the movement of oneself or projectiles to the point where multiple people have thought up and learned the skill without proper training. It was still a skill that a Wind user had to learn and not something given by nature by just having the attribute, but the barrier for entry was low. Was it as good as an attribute like [Acceleration] when it came to movement speed? No, but that was okay. Technically, Wind didn¡¯t have any movement-enhancing properties, it was simply the easiest to use to create an external effect to enhance movement. When someone used their magic, there wasn¡¯t a pushback on the body. A strain? Sometimes, it depended on what the individual was doing with their mana. Certain complicated spells were known to harm the body if used incorrectly, but simply using an elemental attribute spell didn¡¯t move the user back or anything. Syrus wasn¡¯t pushed back when she fired a beam of fire from her hand, but if she made it explode in front of her, then that would push her back. This was kind of the logic when it came to using Wind to enhance movement. The user would use their Wind to push their body forward in the direction they wanted to go. Theoretically, it was possible to do this with attributes other than Wind, but most had their major problems with this approach. Most couldn¡¯t apply enough consistent force while doing it, another chunk of attributes it was simply too mana taxing to even try the concept, others the process was too difficult, and another major issue was that it could actually hurt you¨Ctrying to push yourself with an explosion of fire was understandably not a great idea. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Ethan yelled as he jumped off the line. ¡°Woo Woof!¡± Cobalt dashed after him. Wind was constantly being summoned and pushed against his body. He had trained enough to not stumble with the extra force being applied to him. [Wow, he is doing a good job.] (Eva) He sprinted from the first line and moments before he touched the second line he grabbed the bow off his back, and lodged an arrow. [He is doing an okay job.] (Syrus) He tapped the second line and launched the arrow at the target. He tried to apply Wind to the arrow to help adjust its flight. That was successful, but from the beginning, his shot was off and he missed the target. Visibly frustrated, he didn''t stop moving. The skill expression in this technique was quite large. On the base level, the user would summon some wind to push them. After that, there were a lot of ways to develop it. Using Wind to only push certain parts of the body, whether that be certain points on the back or with the motion of the legs; or recycling wind by allowing it to flow off the body and back around, saving mana. At the third line, he paused and fired the arrow from a standing position. The storm of wind was still being created behind him and he started to sweat from the mana usage. He wasn¡¯t still for long as he fired the arrow and managed to hit the target. He fumbled the bow back onto his back and, just before reaching the target, managed to pull the axe off the latch on his side and hack it into the target. ¡°Huff, huff.¡± He stopped by the target, using it as support. Syrus walked up to the boy. ¡°Good job.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± He nodded. ¡°What could I have done better?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll let you rest on it for a moment; most things don¡¯t have one solution, but we will talk about it later.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± Ethan turned around, ¡°Anything else to do next?¡± ¡°There will be something, I figure for the actual training today I will take you on a quest with me.¡± ¡°Really?¡± His eyes sparkled. ¡°Yes, unless you are too tired, of course.¡± Ethan violently shook his head and spat on the ground. ¡°Of course not!¡± Cobalt barked in agreement, ¡°I¡¯ll be ready in a moment.¡± He stood up straight, ready to move. Syrus raised her hand and flicked him on the head. ¡°We will leave in two hours. Rest is important, so make sure you get it.¡± ¡°Understood¡­¡± Ethan fell back to the ground as Cobalt jumped to lick his face. Chapter 84 – Forestry Troubles Chapter 84 ¨C Forestry Troubles ¡°Now, I know you have been here before, but you will listen to me, the forest is a dangerous place.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± ¡°Wroo.¡± As promised, Anlesa took Ethan and Cobalt, ¡°Do you remember what today¡¯s request is?¡± ¡°Medical root gathering.¡± ¡°Do you remember the name of the plant?¡± ¡°...¡± Ethan bit his lip. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Bobal roots are a small grass plant nearly indistinguishable from normal forest grass, but their roots are a lot larger, which is why they are called that. The roots are used for a number of medical treatments.¡± Ethan just nodded, and Cobalt tilted his head, having no idea what the two humans were doing. Syrus walked a little further, but they made repeated stops as Eva and Luna explained plant and animal life, respectively, they encountered in the forest. ¡°This is an itchback leaf, nothing harmful, but if it touches your bare skin, it will sting and itch for at least twenty-four hours, and expect the area to be irritable for around a week.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°That is the Carrelbell spider, be careful not to walk into their web, they move quite fast and are known to bite, and yes, they are poisonous. Thankfully, they aren¡¯t on their own life-threatening, however, their strong paralysing venom will knock you out, and being knocked out in a place such as this, you might never wake up again.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Ethan slowly nodded again and again at their facts. Maybe he was interested in the first couple, but afterwards, his replies didn¡¯t contain any enthusiasm. He was more on alert about creatures like boars, deer, and especially wolves. Especially for wolves, they weren¡¯t something he wanted to hunt when he was allowed to start hunting solo, wolves were just something he placed a careful eye on due to his bad history with them. Anlesa paused and crouched down next to a tree. Ethan watched her scavenge through the seemingly ordinary grass around the tree. Syrus asked, ¡°Ethan, any guesses why I have taken you to the Western Forest?¡± ¡°Because that is where you needed to go today?¡± Ethan guessed it was the side they trained at today. Eva dug out a small bobal root, then proceeded to get out a knife to cut an amber-thorn vine warped around the overground root. ¡°No. I actually need a lot of ingredients from the eastern forest, and it is a lot safer, so it would¡¯ve been a much better idea for me to take you there for practical training.¡± The decision to take Ethan to the western forest was one made purely for his benefit, with Syrus taking advantage of Luna¡¯s and Eva¡¯s existing knowledge of the wildlife. Syrus knew a fair bit by this point, she always made an effort to know about life in the areas she worked in, but it was a simple fact that they knew a lot more and were much more willing to explain that information to the kid. Syrus followed, ¡°Do you remember your previous experiences in this forest?¡± Ethan paused before answering. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ hard not to.¡± ¡°Woooo¡­¡± Syrus asked this before, how often had Ethan been in the western forest, and while it had been in the outer edge many times, it had only truly entered it twice. The second time was when he met Anlesa and nearly got mauled by wolves, and the first time didn¡¯t go fantastically either. Syrus comforted him, ¡°There is nothing wrong with what you are feeling. Though, if you want to learn how to hunt, you need to learn how to gather, and to do that, you need to learn how to pay attention.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve pointed out nine plants that can either kill or interrupt an expedition into the forest, and five animals.¡± They had also pointed out multiple useful flora and fauna, but they were making a point. Ethan replied, ¡°I understand they are important to know about.¡± ¡°And did you notice any of these in your previous visits?¡± That comment finally got Ethan to pause and think. ¡°!¡± ¡°You walked and ran through here before, and you luckily didn¡¯t get snagged or stuck by anything, but what if before I met you you stepped in a tabber wash brush and broke up skin bumpiness, or tried to hide behind a tree that had a hanging gliffer viper hiding on the lower branches. Encountering those or many other dangers could mean you never made it home.¡± ¡°I¡­¡± Ethan couldn¡¯t reply, he required time to think. ¡°Wrooo,¡± Cobalt whined and brushed up next to Ethan¡¯s leg. Syrus didn¡¯t immediately continue, and they continued to walk as she picked up more bobal roots. However, they weren¡¯t alone in the forest. Syrus put her hand out to stop Ethan¡¯s movements and pulled him back behind a tree as four individuals made their way closer. The clothes they wore were a mix of leather armour with stitches indicating many repairs and animal hide around certain parts of the body as an additional layer of protection. Ethan held back a yell. ¡°Bandits¡­¡± And Syrus put a finger on Cobalt''s snoot for it to stay quiet. By being just out of sight, Anlesa and Ethan hadn¡¯t been noticed. Syrus continued the talk from earlier. ¡°Fighting skills are important, especially when being jumped by an animal, a mutant, a bandit, or a monster, but it isn¡¯t everything. Though a closely related skill is knowing when to run, you have been born with a good talent in that field.¡± ¡°...When do we book it?¡± Ethan asked, ready, and understanding the danger. Syrus released a wide grin, ¡°Great question, and if you were here by yourself, I hope my little voice in your head would be screaming the same thing. However, today, you are here with the actual me.¡± Anlesa placed her bag next to the tree. [We will capture them alive.] (Syrus) [Isn¡¯t that too much trouble?] (Luna) [If they die before a proper escort shows up, well, their empty funeral.] (Syrus) [Oh, we are leaving them tied here. I am fine with that.] (Luna) These were the first group of bandits Anlesa had met in Arisea Station borders, whether this was luck or the number of bandits in the area was greatly less than what they figured. [Eva, don¡¯t do anything; I¡¯ve got this.] (Syrus) The four bandits were moving through the forest quietly, it was unknown if they were looking for animal or human prey, but that didn¡¯t matter. Syrus had heard plenty of times the danger and issues caused by these trespassers, so it was best to at least remove them. Energy bellowed in her body as Blood mana ignited in her muscles, granting her strength. [Ah, this feels good.] Syrus for the first time in a long time, was feeling alive. Anlesa wasn¡¯t at 100% yet, but Syrus finally felt comfortable at least using her Blood attribute a little bit. She wasn¡¯t strengthening the body by much, but it was far and away enough. Manoeuvring around the trees stealthy at first, she struck when she was in position. The first bandit didn¡¯t know what got him as Syrus jumped out and slammed his face into the hard tree trunk. The loud noise that was slamming a man¡¯s face into a tree was noticed by the other bandits, but with a massive burst of speed, Syrus was already in front of another bandit. The man had an axe in hand, which he reacted to in time to swing at his aggressor, but Syrus summoned flames that erupted around her. These flames caused the man to flinch back as he continued straight kicking the man right in the stomach. He crunched over, winded, but he tried to get up, not ready to give up. Syrus plummeted her fist into the back of his head, punching him to the ground. The two other bandits gave quick glances at each other and immediately turned around and ran, leaving their comrades behind. Running away from a single girl who appeared to be somewhere in her teens might''ve been considered a cowardly act by certain street thugs, but anyone who could take down two people quickly wasn¡¯t worth the risk. Either one of them being killed or knocked out would mean they would lose the one versus two advantage. sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With two people on the ground, it would¡¯ve been smart to ensure both were incapacitated first, knowing that the bandits were hoping for their escape. However, Syrus was a lot faster than they would¡¯ve guessed. With the gear weighing them down a little bit, and Syrus'' speed, they weren¡¯t getting away. Giving one of the bandits a concussion with a running violent love tap to the back of the head, stealing their sword to threaten the last one before knocking them out as well. Syrus had gotten the thrill of a long-missed beatdown of her foes. Syrus used a metal wire in their bag to tie up the knocked bandits to the trees. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go!¡± Syrus began walking back to the city with the unconscious bandit on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Chapter 85 – Weapon & Hunter Chapter 85 ¨C Weapon & Hunter ¡°Can I have a list of your most competent hunters?¡± ¡°You know we have no such thing.¡± ¡°But you can throw together something real quick, or would you rather I come back at a later point so you can make one?¡± ¡°As I said, no.¡± [What did we walk into¡­] (Eva) [It may be best if we walk away from this one.] (Luna) S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Eh, if you want.] (Syrus) It had been a few days since Anlesa¡¯s trip into the western forest with Ethan and their encounter with bandits. [Do you think this is because of the incident the other day?] (Eva) [No.] (Luna) The process of dumping the bandit off and escorting a larger group to where the rest were tied up went fine. Syrus didn¡¯t bring Ethan along for the second trip, she didn¡¯t want him to get caught up in the mess. When they returned to the remaining bandits, they weren¡¯t in a good state, a creature had taken bites of some of the bandits. Maybe even tried to take one away, but they were too tightly tied to the trees. Eva wasn¡¯t happy with the state the bandits were in but just swallowed the feeling. That situation was quickly sorted out, and Anlesa moved on with her life. Syrus gave Ethan more tips and warnings, and Eva afterwards went back to potion making once they gathered more materials from the eastern forest. Now today, Anlesa had a few different goals she wanted to accomplish, and they were going to start the day by getting a request that overlapped where they wanted to go, but it seemed like the guild was busy. [For the time being, let¡¯s just leave and let this situation clean itself up.] Syrus had no interest in getting involved with this mess. [I am fine with that decision.] (Luna) The dark-skinned woman at the counter wasn¡¯t someone they quickly recognised. Anlesa made the assumption they were a hunter from the city, but worked and operated from a different hunting guild¨Cone of the more serious ones. The hunting guild that Anlesa worked out of, Brown Oak Guild, was by far the calmest one of the bunch in the city. It was at the edge of the city, unlike the rest, which were either on the main street or close to it. All the guilds were owned by the city, but the people who ran them had different preferences and ideas of how they should be run. Whoever was in charge of Brown Oak used the fact they were in a further location to their advantage to create a more relaxed atmosphere, which allowed people who didn¡¯t want to deal with any rush to come in without worry. The other locations were by far a lot busier and a lot more tense, and protection and hunting quests were more popular and advertised in those locations. The information she was asking for wasn¡¯t something that was recorded. Of course, the people working knew who was good at what, but that information wasn¡¯t something they would willingly give. With the plan to start a request temporarily paused, they took a quick detour by visiting Kevin to acquire the sword Syrus had commissioned. This was something they already planned to do, but the order of events was going to be different. ¡°Beautiful, thanks for the work.¡± Syrus examined the blade for a solid minute, holding it at different angles and examining its sharpness. ¡°Glad you are happy with it.¡± Said Kevin. Syrus placed the sword in her recently finished sheath. The sheath appeared to be nothing special, just a long sheath for a long blade, but one side of the sheath appeared to be folded over and buttoned down. The small hardened leather ring around the top had a small gap on that side. [How¡­ difficult is it to move while carrying a sword?] (Eva) [Not difficult, it does depend on where you place it and the angle of the weapon. Just imagine carrying a long sword on your side and having the weapon parallel to the ground, would be an absolute nightmare around crowds.] (Syrus) Syrus had made straps so she could hang it from her side or back¨Cthe latter was the normal position due to the length of the blade. The modification she made to the sheath allowed her to pull the sword out from the side. In a normal situation, if she wanted to do that, all it would require was for her to unbutton the side and swing, but purposely, it was made when enough force was applied and the buttons would just snap. It wasn¡¯t normally useful, but it was a design Syrus liked from her past life, and messing with her sheaths was always enjoyable for her. Kevin scratched his itchy red stubs growing on his face. ¡°Do you want anything else?¡± ¡°No thank you, but I may come around for sharpening.¡± ¡°Would be a pleasure if you do.¡± Kevin chuckled. ¡°¡®Course it would.¡± Syrus jokingly scoffed. ¡°You better not charge me more for the extra length.¡± ¡°Ha, of course not.¡± Syrus walked away happy with a new bag hanging from her back behind her bag. Holstered from the right shoulder, angled diagonally. After wasting a bit more time doing other small shopping, Anlesa finally went back to the guild to pick up a quest. Unfortunately for her, the guest at the club was still there. This time she noticed Syrus entering, and Syrus, figuring there was no way to get out of trouble, just continued inside. The lady had a spear and a rounded shield hoisted her back. She was around the same height as Anlesa, which was decently tall. Whether it was from Syrus''s influence or not, their height was certainly taller than the average girl. Not by too much, but it was certainly a factor to be noted. They would have to wait and see if they would grow anymore or be stuck like this. The lady questioned, ¡°Didn¡¯t the place you ordered that weapon say the measurements were too long?¡± She had enough understanding of weapons to notice by the sheath that Syrus¡¯ blade had to be custom-ordered. Syrus looked past the lady and saw the young blond boy, George, who appeared to be exhausted and exasperated. She turned back to the lady and said, ¡°Yes, but it is the correct size for me.¡± ¡°Hrmm.¡± The lady walked away from the counter. ¡°Lavender is the name, yours?¡± ¡°Syrus.¡± Lavender nodded. ¡°Next week there will be a multi-unit investigation request being done to far western mountain ranges, it will be a few days trip, and we are looking for people to join.¡± Before Syrus replied, ¡°YOU COULD¡¯VE JUST SAID THERE WAS AN INVESTIGATION REQUEST!!!¡± George had something to say. Lavender shrugged. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t give me the names either way.¡± ¡°¡®COURSE I WOULDN¡¯T!!!¡± ¡°Anyway, are you up for it?¡± Her purple eyes locked on Anlesa, waiting for a response. Syrus shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know, it depends if I¡¯m busy. Pay good? Meeting location?¡± ¡°Clarzxa Hunting Guild¡¯s training area, end of 6th Street, east side. Pay will be split equally, taking only sixteen people maximum, so for the people who don¡¯t sign up, it is first come, first serve.¡± [Feels like they could¡¯ve done a better job preparing everything.] (Syrus) [Maybe. I don¡¯t think we should give a definite answer, I wouldn¡¯t mind looking at this further once we split.] (Luna) [Sure.] (Syrus) ¡°Okay then, I¡¯ll be there if I don¡¯t have crap to do.¡± ¡°Fair enough, have a pleasant day.¡± As she finally decided to leave the guild, figuring it was no longer worth her time asking for more information. Syrus overheard George whisper, ¡°Pleasant day my arse.¡± With that encounter passing, something else was added to the large list of things to do and think about. Syrus grabbed a quest that would overlap with their trek to the Western Forest and, as usual, made minimal conversation with the kid at the counter. Chapter 86 – Luna’s Concerns Chapter 86 ¨C Luna¡¯s Concerns The girl with the single dark grey horn said, ¡°Thank you for your time.¡± The middle-aged hunter warned, ¡°All good missy¡­ be careful.¡± Luna smiled. ¡°I appreciate the concern. May nothing befall you as well.¡± Luna turned around wearing her standard disguise of an oversized brown dress with long sleeves that covered her hands. Syrus¡¯ bags and weapons were left at home, and she simply wore her small shopping backpack. Luna had to clean off the dust of the bag considering its lack of use recently. Luna was rarely ever in control, as while they were in town, she left more and more of the moment and discussions to Syrus and Eva. [Who is your next target?] (Syrus) [The term target is incorrect; it is simply a friendly conversation.] (Luna) [I didn¡¯t expect so many people to treat you like a child though¡­] (Eva) [It¡­ is interesting but any further separation between this form and standard disguise, the better.] (Luna) sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When someone tried to guess Anlesa¡¯s age, they would usually shoot between sixteen and eighteen years old. A few people guessed over twenty, but something about her ¡®youthful glow¡¯ made people assume she was still in her late teens. Of course, no one could guess their actual age was quite a bit younger or older depending on the metric of soul or body used. Unlike Syrus, people tended to guess Luna¡¯s age to be around thirteen to fifteen. Considering Luna showed up rarely, the people who did recognise her due to her unique appearance assumed she was some sort of merchant''s daughter. Along with that, the general assumption was that she was from a below-average merchant family but received a fierce education. Of course, it wasn¡¯t like this information was spread around or anything, but it was the total collection of all the small guesses and assumptions people had made. Her height was certainly a sign of her being older, but her attitude and other aspects of appearance made it lean back in the other direction. Her slightly worn oversized clothes helped give the sense of a family who couldn¡¯t keep up with the cost of buying clothes for a growing child. Thoughts about her height were usually met with countering thoughts of being an early grower or a factor caused by her bloodline. For better or worse, people here quite commonly chalked up major physical differences to an exotic bloodline, and considering ¡®Luna¡¯ had one clearly visible, people very easily ignored aspects of appearance when judging age. Especially considering rapid growth during the early teens was common for certain groups of exotic attribute families. After talking to a few more people, Luna finally felt there was nothing more that she could find and headed home a very roundabout way. She made small changes to disguise along the way to be extra safe. [...] For the last few minutes while walking home, Luna was silent. [Luna?] (Eva) [Yes Lilly?] (Luna) [Everything good?] (Eva) [...] Luna didn¡¯t immediately answer. [I am just worried.] [About the investigation?] (Eva) [Honestly, a little, but not much; that situation just seems to be standard, maybe a little rushed and what they are looking for appears to be vague. But the purpose of it seems to really be an investigation.] (Luna) [Seems to be, but the purpose could be anything from bandits, mutants, demons or monsters.] (Syrus) Syrus and Luna made their own attempts to gather information. Each was different due to their personalities. Syrus was quite friendly, while Luna was polite but a little blunt at times. Her bluntness and the near-emotionless way she expressed her opinions to strangers led to interesting interactions in their childhood. Syrus thought back to Luna¡¯s conversation to lighten the mood. [Sometimes I can¡¯t believe you were a saint with how you treat people.] (Syrus) [I am polite with my behaviour.] (Luna) [In certain aspects, yeah.] (Syrus) From everything they were able to scavenge, it was simply an investigation, a large one to confirm troubling reports from scouts. It appeared that the authorities were quite sure what could be moving around, but the city was going to do this right and send out a large team to survey the area. The only major issue was that this process was such short notice and plenty of people weren¡¯t prepared to go on a multi-day trip. [So, if it is not the investigation you are worried about, what is it?] Syrus asked, but really she already knew. There was only one thing that made the dark and troubling emotions swirl in Luna this much. [Church again¡­] (Eva) [I feel like I¡¯ve noticed more around town.] (Luna) [In disguise?] (Syrus) [Yes¡­] said Luna. While Syrus was better at noticing suspicious people and everything really. Luna knew what the church tended to be like while undercover as civilians. [I¡¯m surprised you didn¡¯t mention anything earlier.] (Syrus) [...I was observing.] Luna had noticed people before, but it wasn¡¯t worth mentioning, if she did, it would just make her more angry, but now they were already investigating the investigation and the number of Aurora Church priests seemed to have increased, it appeared vital to mention it. [Few days, the number seems to have gotten bigger.] (Luna) [Do you think they will cause trouble during the investigation?] (Syrus) [No, but the fact that there are a few here is concerning enough for me.] (Luna) Chapter 87 – Joint Investigation Request Chapter 87 ¨C Joint Investigation Request It was a slightly chilling morning when Anlesa made her way to the Clarzxa Hunting Guild¡¯s training area. It was at the end of 6th Street''s east side, not a location she had visited often during her stay in the city. They had packed extra supplies and potions in their backpack, enough that they would be fine for a week even without foraging. She entered the area, and ten people were already stationed there. A few were sitting back and relaxing, a couple were warming up, and one was talking to guild staff with documents in hand. Syrus walked into the zone where their acquaintance from the other day immediately noticed her. Lavender walked over to Syrus. ¡°Nice to see you showed up, we needed a few more people.¡± She reached out for a handshake. Syrus accepted it, saying, ¡°It¡¯s fine. I am available today, and I could use the extra cash.¡± Lavender chuckled, ¡°Well good you came now. We were nearly full, only two open spots were available.¡± ¡°Oh, so you were able to get enough people.¡± ¡°Barely, cutting it closer than a bird in a pig¡¯s pen.¡± [What..?] (Eva) [Don¡¯t worry about it.] (Syrus) Lavender groaned, then scoffed. ¡°We had eleven open spots this morning, one team decided to show and managed to make it, and a few extras also arrived, so at least we will start without low numbers. God, that would be annoying, fuck, Daniel¡¯s rambles will be the death of me, I swear.¡± [I would advise we just let her rant.] (Luna) [Seconded.] (Syrus) [I still want to understand what ¡®cutting it closer than a bird in a pig¡¯s pen¡¯ is supposed to mean?] (Eva) No answer was given to Eva because no one was going to ask Lavender about the context. The obvious assumptions were made, but it was hard to know without the proper context. It didn¡¯t take much more waiting for a group of four to arrive and another straggler, which Anlesa actually knew. One who she was partly optimistic and cautious about working with. [Maca is here¡­] (Eva) The exotic attribute holder, Maca Appel, hadn¡¯t changed much from their previous encounters with the man. The blue-ish bone exoskeleton still covered his body, but he was wearing a short-sleeved cloak over his upper body this time. The purpose of the cloak didn¡¯t seem to be to hide his body, because that was something it appeared purposely didn¡¯t do, but the inside was lined with dozens of small pockets carrying a large amount of small supplies. He spoke to the organiser and then moved to the corner, waiting for the preparation to be complete. The one organising the groups was Daniel Harggot. Unlike the staff in the Brown Oak Guild, who were all civilians or retired hunters. The Clarzxa Hunting Guild had a few active-duty staff. Daniel Harggot was one such staff; he was leading this expedition and was in charge of group one. Group one consisted of Daniel and three others who were joined before today. Group two was another group of three we joined previously and an extra who seemed to be friends with the group. Group three was a full team of four that showed up today. Then there was group four. [Well, this was to be expected.] (Syrus) [Sigh, don¡¯t make Maca too suspicious of us, please.] (Luna) [Sorry if only I could¡¯ve controlled more physical changes at the time.] (Eva) [Don¡¯t be. Asking someone to be a master with their attribute the moment they discover it is ridiculous. Twice over when that attribute is physical-based and the person is suffering from physical injuries.] (Luna) [...Right¡­ sorry for getting worked up.] (Eva) [Relax. Not everything needs to be different to appear like a different person. At worst, he might just think we are related.] (Syrus) Group four was made up of the new arrivals who didn¡¯t know the other teams and Lavender. There was only a minor fear of being spotted by Maca. The physical differences were enough, at least, so people shouldn''t think that Syrus and Luna were the same person, but there was the chance someone could assume they were related. Lavender was the first to speak in her small group. ¡°Lavender here, and well, nice to meet everyone; I hope we can get along for the next four days.¡± Maca nodded. ¡°Hmm, hmm, agreed. Everything will go well.¡± Nearly in a rude way, he didn¡¯t introduce himself, but everyone knew who he was in the city, and Anlesa didn¡¯t believe there was any hostile reason why he didn¡¯t. His eyes did flash over Syrus, but she didn¡¯t care. The third member introduced himself. ¡°Callum, here, worked in this city for a long time. I¡¯m quite skilled at these long-duration missions. Now, Lavender, is this person to my right even capable of being here? I¡¯d rather get a replacement if not.¡± Callum was a little shorter than Lavender and a lot shorter than Maca, who was the tallest in the group. Callum wore a yellowish woollen and leather mix and had a two-handed pike resting on his shoulder. Wrapped around his waist were two small bags filled with something. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Lavender was about to say something, but Syrus provoked him. ¡°Be my guest if you want to try anything; just do it now or after the mission.¡± [Luna, should we do something..?] (Eva) [No, he stabbed himself in the foot enough times.] (Luna) Callum growled and leant forward. Maca was ready to intervene, but Syrus kicked the bottom of the pike, pushing his balance off before throwing him to the ground. Syrus clapped her hands, ¡°I am happy you chose now rather than later.¡± [Syrus, is he skilled or not..?] Eva asked. She trusted Syrus to know. She was just worried if they actually got into any trouble. [He probably has skill with his weapon, but he is probably bullshitting about the long-duration shit. His bags are way too tiny, at best just good for carrying snacks for a hunt. He is carrying no knife in reach, which would be essential considering his main weapon is two-handed. Don¡¯t worry, he is just tooting his own ego.] (Syrus) Daniel Harggot afterwards got everyone together to discuss the plan of attack and what they were looking for. The four groups would split to travel around past the eastern forest and explore the plains and forests near the mountains. The massive mountain range was also what blocked a route from the Nevald Kingdom and Arisea Station to ever be formed. The mountain range was simply too long and treacherous. Further east was the Demon territory. Unlike the Nevald Kingdom, there wasn¡¯t much of a natural defence between them, however, there was a wide distance between the city and the border, which was the best they could do. Demons never really left their territory, but according to reports, they had appeared in the area surrounding Arisea Station in the past. To Syrus¡¯ great annoyance, there was no specific target they were looking for. This wasn¡¯t an uncommon occurrence in investigations, but always was a needle in the thumb for her. Usually, there was at least a reasonable range of what she had to look for when she was a mercenary, but this time, everything was on the table¨Can earthquake, bandits, mutants, herds, demons, animals, nomads, monsters, etc. Afterwards, the groups finally left the city to go on the expedition. Each group was to head in a different direction, and Anlesa¡¯s group was sent furthest east in the searchable area. Chapter 88 – Nighttime Search Chapter 88 ¨C Nighttime Search With additional sticks added to the fire, everything seemed calm as the night progressed ever so slowly. It was the end of day two of the investigation, and nothing out of the ordinary happened, which in a way was bad considering this was an investigation. The far eastern plains of the unowned region curved around the mountain range and intersected the Brillet Woods, this was where group four was tasked to search. Now they didn¡¯t have to search the whole area. The area where the vague border to the Demon territory was a bit further, and any trouble there wasn¡¯t likely to head towards the city. They also weren¡¯t going into the mountain range. The mountains could hide a lot of things, but they were marked as off-limits for the groups as it was considered dangerous. Though Eva did some asking, and apparently another specialised group was going to do a bi-yearly check. No chaos happened between the group either; they were professional, and Callum learned his lesson. That was helped by the fact that Syrus offered to carry him when he got tired on the second day. He couldn¡¯t muster a comeback after that. ¡°You moving?¡± Maca stood up as Syrus finished preparing her gear and torch. Callum and Lavender were asleep, the latter just finished guard duty. ¡°Yeah, we found nothing during the day, so we might as well give a peek during the night.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll come with you.¡± He began to stand up, ready to wake up the other two. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Syrus said, ¡°Don¡¯t. You are on guard duty for a reason. I am fine at working longer hours, and during this time of night, I prefer to go alone.¡± Usually, going with multiple people this late was the smart thing to do, which it still was, but Syrus wanted to complete a large amount of coverage very quickly, and that was easier to do solo. Maca grumbled and sat back down. He wasn¡¯t happy with the decision but also recognised what Syrus was suggesting. His option now was either choosing to believe in her abilities or wake up everyone to split into two teams of two¨Cone keeping camp guarded for an hour while the other moved around. He was going to spend the moments he had debating his options before Syrus walked away, but then Syrus said, "Also, Maca, thanks for looking out for my cousin.¡± Maca looked back up from the fire at Syrus, then nodded in confirmation. ¡°So are you¨C¡± Syrus lied, ¡°Different roots, I only met her after I started travelling, and we found out there was a family connection.¡± This was a story that Anlesa had decided on. Keeping everything under wraps had its usages, but a false story was also viable, and in this situation, a lightly detailed story was going to be best. ¡°Later on, when we met up, she told me about you, and damn man, you need to get better at talking, she was afraid you were going to attack her.¡± Maca sighed. ¡°I know. My looks can be¨C¡± Syrus quickly interrupted, ¡°No, no, no, talking. Staying silent isn¡¯t something to toss over to your looks; you could do a lot about being more detailed when you are talking. Even from my short interactions with you in the last two days, if you just said a few more words, that removed a lot of guesswork from other people''s parts. Another tip that honestly might not work is don''t be afraid to be a little chipper in your voice. You are naturally very dry, and it sounds like everything is a bore to you, but from what I have heard and your actions around town, that is very much not the case. You care a lot, so don¡¯t be afraid to show it.¡± Syrus¡¯ long rant was something she had done many times. New recruits often had trouble fitting in, but she never expected to say something like this to a person who was older than their current body. ¡°Hmmm¡­ thanks for the advice.¡± Maca smiled. ¡°Sure.¡± Syrus threw her smaller bag around her back, she kept it in her bigger backpack and had items in it anyway. It was better to use this for a quick scout than lumbering around with her massive one. ¡°I¡¯m off then. I should be back within two hours.¡± ¡°Okay¡­ I will wake everyone up if you aren''t back in two and a half.¡± ¡°Fine by me.¡± Syrus waved behind her head as her torch lit up the darkness, and she walked into the empty fields. The quiet darkness of night was lonely. Luna knew that quite a large percentage of animals were nocturnal. However, the area around Arisea Station was a bit outlier in that regard. Many were still active during the early portions of the night but slept through the rest of it. Luna found this fascinating, but it was never something she was able to learn about further. The half-moon was bright enough that Syrus chose to extinguish the torch. With the light and a little bit of enchantment to her eyes with her Blood attribute, she had no trouble seeing. [What do you think happened out here..?] Eva asked. With Luna¡¯s knowledge and Syrus¡¯ experiences, she figured they would have a better idea. [Good questions.] Syrus examined a large section of dirt that had been tossed up. [I¡¯d say monsters are off the table. If one was around there would be a lot more disturbance in the natural wildlife.] [I believe an earthquake is still on the table, but leaning towards that being unlikely. I would expect more rocks to have fallen from the mountains.] Luna added. This wasn¡¯t for no reason, a few boulders on the mountains by their side appeared to be loose, so she expected that if an earthquake did happen, they would¡¯ve fallen. The actual report they got for the purpose of this investigation was that there was a recent disturbance in the natural ecosystem. Multiple groups of animals move out of their natural roaming areas. Still may not sound like much but when danger could just be over the hill, it was important to find and investigate early signs. Now the reaction of sending a sixteen-man team might¡¯ve been much, but Syrus believed a small group of scouts would¡¯ve done the same job just as well. [I see¡­ Well at least you deduced that it is not a monster.] Eva sighed in relief. The only monster she had ever seen was the dead one in the river and that on its own was enough for her. There was something about the unnatural creature that made her skin crawl. [Eh, one monster would be fine. Better than dealing with some creatures.] (Syrus) [Most people wouldn¡¯t agree with your statement.] (Luna) [Their funeral.] (Syrus) [Yes, if they faced a monster.] (Luna) [You faced them before, they aren¡¯t that bad.] (Syrus) [I died from a monster before. If I encountered only one, I could survive by running, but I never had the capability to fight them individually.] Luna countered. She never understood Syrus¡¯ attitude towards monsters. There were instances when Syrus was the most serious out of the three, other times she was too lax, and that irritated Luna. Later, after they were done talking, Syrus froze to refocus and adjusted her gaze as she noticed the slight movement of a trunk in the far distance. [I think we found our target.] Syrus focused on the massive creature hiding within the trees. When it stood still, its limbs nearly blended in with the surrounding trees. Its four legs were the length of the trunks up to the leaf line. [Looks like a mutated beast.] (Syrus) [It is so much bigger than the others¡­] Eva was a little frightful. The other ones she had seen before were only a bit larger than normal wolves, but this creature was massive. Syrus focused her eyes on the creature, it appeared to be a deer, a gigantic deer with long, thick legs, each leg more closely resembling elephant legs than a deer¡¯s. It was hard to tell but it had a large, twisting crown of antlers that blended with the branches of the trees. [How has no one noticed it¡­] Eva understood that in the dark it was nearly impossible to see and that Syrus'' finding it had more to do with her searching ability than the deer¡¯s hiding, but what about during the day? [Questions for another day, for the time being, going back to regroup will be for the best.] (Syrus) When it came to the chance of winning, Syrus felt that if she tried solo killing the beast now, it would likely be a success, but she was here on a job, so going back to report it was the correct decision to make. ¡°My my, what do we do, have we here.¡± A voice that was solemn but cheeky spoke out from above. Chapter 89 – Clashing Chapter 89 ¨C Clashing [Demon¡­] Luna internally muttered as she stared at the creature. Deep forgotten experiences yelling at her to kill it. The situation jumped from simple and manageable to immediate danger and concern. Demons and monsters¡ªa child who heard scary stories about both without seeing either might think of them as the same thing, but they were so very different. The demon appeared to be a long snake with over twenty long insectoid legs that dug into the mountainside, allowing it to ¡®float¡¯ above Anlesa. Its face was a squashed snake¡¯s head with two large horns growing out the side. Syrus¡¯ experiences with demons were few and far between. Demons tended to live in their territories and rarely left them. So, because of that and there not being a territory close to where she lived in her past life, she never encountered them often. Her opinions on them were basically nonexistent; they were a living creature, and that was about it. Eva¡¯s understanding was even less. Then there was Luna¡¯s. She knew a lot from readings and practical experiences she chose not to speak about. Had her opinions of demons changed from passing over into a new life? That was a question she had been asking herself for a long time. Syrus¡¯ neutral stance towards them was because she considered them a natural part of life. Luna understood that mindset because they were nothing like monsters that had affected her¡­ but it wasn¡¯t like the situation with Eva and her exotic attributes, that was something she always knew that treatment was wrong, they were still humans after all and her new life removed those negative feelings after a few road bumps. ¡°A little frightened, shaken by me, unable to process the sight of the me.¡± The demon¡¯s neck slithered and turned ninety degrees. There was a gap between where the legs grew from and where the neck and tail started. The tail especially had quite the length to it. The demon¡¯s potential taunts were met with Syrus brandishing her sword as a crimson fire erupted from it. She swung her blade upwards, and the fire climbed high with the motion. ¡°Danger ah danger, oh oh do we do.¡± The demon scuttled up the mountain just out of range. Its calm voice sounded like there was no danger, but the speed of its motion, the twitches of its eye, and the immediate small adjustments it made to stay balanced and out of range were all noticed by Syrus. Syrus loudly declared, ¡°Maybe it will do you better to sneak up on someone!¡± ¡°I see, I see, humans are always so difficult, troubling, complicated in a way that is not me.¡± The kind of snakelike demon sang and hissed. [That¡¯s¡­ a demon¡­¡­] (Eva) [A demon. Don¡¯t expect the next one to look anything like it.] (Syrus) [I¡­ see¡­ are we going to¡­ fight it?] (Eva) [Maybe.] Syrus returned a non-answer. But she did adjust her sword to angle towards the demon. Her eyes twitched as listened for any sound it made. [Is¡­ it normal for demons to sneak up on us like¡­ that¡­] Eva asked. The sudden appearance of the demon and the appearance of it frightened her, but the fact it managed to get past Syrus¡¯ senses, which were already on high alert to navigate through the darkness of night, was the most terrifying. [If it does not have a stealth ability, I will sell my sword.] (Syrus) ¡°Oh do we have, have we here, looks like the pesky is coming.¡± The demon called out, and Syrus noticed as well. The massive mutated deer tore through the trees and came running towards them. [Hmm¡­] Syrus judged the situation and jumped towards the charging animal. [Syrus! When do you want me to deploy the wire?] (Eva) [When I give the command.] (Syrus) Eva pulled from their experiences hunting normal deer to suggest a solution. It was what Syrus had been trying Eva with, this was just that, but much, much bigger. The deer¡¯s elephant-like legs stomped across the grass between the forest and the mountainside, pounding the ground like a drum. Syrus examined the creature; her sword was long enough to clean through the whole leg, but she just needed the right angle. She angled the blade upwards, ready to poke the beast if it got near, but angled it in the right enough direction that she could bring it down in a chopping swing. Sprinting at each other, the deer lunged at the Anlesa. Utilising its massive body to squash the bug. Syrus pivoted around the legs, stabbing and dragging the tip of the blade like a knife on the edge of the beast''s skin. The deer barked in pain, and its eyes glowed red in frustration. With its momentum, it had already passed Anlesa and so the deer turned and lowered its head to skewer the human attacking it. Making no note of the large demon watching above on the mountainside. Syrus dropped the angle of her blade and gripped with two hands, ready to make a wide swing upwards. The monstrous deer had veins emerge all over its body as its skin darkened and hardened. [It doesn¡¯t want to give me an easy cut, huh.] (Syrus) [Syrus, I am ready.] (Eva) The deer rammed towards them, its horns expanding further and rapidly growing in length, and additional thorny spikes emerged all over them. Just before contact. Syrus said, ¡°Burst.¡± And a torrent of fire exploded around her, and she jumped with her Blood attribute, boosting her strength. The flames were as nasty as normal fire, but nothing crazy, but it caused the deer to flinch. The deer lunged its head upwards, but Syrus had the lead. Her blade swung with motions, and its length easily cleaned through the mutated creature''s neck. Drop Bump sea??h th§× N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The tower body crumbled over onto the ground, and the head flew for a moment and plopped onto the ground a little bit away. Syrus landed back on the ground with a loud thump, wiping off the flames that stuck to her shirt. With the head cleanly separated from the corpse, Syrus turned towards the demon, who hadn¡¯t made a sound to indicate it had moved. ¡°Now, now, I do greatly appreciate, the effort, the struggle, the taking of my position on this task.¡± The demon sang as its large body appeared next to the corpse of the mutated creature. [Fuck, I missed it again.] (Syrus) [How is it doing that! It¡¯s giant?!] (Eva) The demon wrapped its tail around the body of the mutated creature. ¡°To home I shall go, to return I will go.¡± Syrus swore, ¡°Just fucking talk normally, you damn weird demon.¡± ¡°Rude and to me, how mean and not nice, may again the sides meet.¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t a sign to talk even worse.¡± Syrus in control showed no fear, not that she had any to show to begin with. ¡°Ah fuck.¡± Syrus sighed, ¡°Let¡¯s just go back with the head.¡± Chapter 90 – Home & Already Busy Chapter 90 ¨C Home & Already Busy ¡°Here¡¯s your funds, your funds, your funds¨C¡± They had returned to the city after two more days of investigating. Syrus¡¯ prize did invite a whole lot of questions from everyone involved, and she didn¡¯t hide anything about what happened. They were concerned if she was injured, as she replied that she was fine. The only thing she was currently suffering from was her weakened body and the mana strain it constantly experienced. For better and worse, they were told to continue the investigation for the full allotted time, but once it was done, it was decided there were no other issues to pursue for the time being. Afterwards, everyone regrouped again and returned to down, then twelve hours later regrouped again to get their payments. ¡°And here is yours.¡± A clearly bigger bag was dropped in Anlesa¡¯s hands. The coins bounced for the clings of metal were much louder than the rest. ¡°Damn, jealous.¡± Lavender, having a bit of fun, poked Syrus¡¯ shoulder. None of the crew minded Syrus''s extra pay; that was the arrangement, and they all got a reasonable amount. ¡°I didn¡¯t have much choice in the matter.¡± Syrus snapped back. Lavender laughed, ¡°Ah boy, do I wish I was there for that! Would¡¯ve been a lot of fun.¡± Maca ominously warned, ¡°It would''ve been better if you regrouped.¡± S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Lavender threw an arm on his shoulder as she pointed to the still-fresh head of the mutated deer. ¡°Did you see that cut neck, Maca?! Look how bloody clean that shit is.¡± Maca shook when she did, uncomfortable. Not from the action, but clearly not used to large displays of physical contact. Lavender moved closer to Anlesa, ¡°Soooo, what are you going to buy?¡± ¡°Supplies, food, rent, standard stuff.¡± ¡°Boring, come on, get yourself some custom armour; you must¡¯ve gone crazy out there. You have to start getting that brand recognition, and what better way to do that than with your own sense of style? Come on, I know a few people.¡± ¡°Cease it.¡± Said Maca. ¡°I have no plans, Lavender.¡± Syrus tossed the coins into her bag. ¡°I¡¯m not interested.¡± [The extra cash will certainly be nice for Elly and the children.] (Syrus) [Yeah¡­. I¡¯m worried they are getting low; that is a lot of mouths to feed.] (Eva) ¡°Fineeee.¡± Lavender raised her hands, surrendering to both of them. ¡°But you should hang around the Clarzxa Guild, or at least the Leaf Leave Hunting Guild. You shouldn¡¯t waste your time in the plant collector den.¡± "No,¡± said Syrus. Maca added, ¡°You¡¯ll be recommended for escort quests¡­ if desired.¡± He wasn¡¯t trying to agree with Lavender, but he did want to let Syrus know of the possibilities. The fact that she successfully had proof of tough kill proved her combat prowess, and the job they just completed was a multiple-day request, which was what was required for escorts towards the borders. ¡°I know, but thanks.¡± The group didn¡¯t stay together for long; they had things they wanted to do. Maca went somewhere, Lavender went to have a nice long bath, and Anlesa went home to unpack and prepare for later. On the walk home. [There are more around.] Luna declared that there was no clarification required. [...That¡­ can¡¯t be good¡­] (Eva) [I see.] With even more around, Syrus was starting to pick up on the similarities between the disguised priests. There was nothing they could do at the moment, but they each kept that information in the back of their minds. Finally, home, Eva took control and looked around at her mostly clean table of potion supplies and empty bottles ready to be filled. [I have so many potions I need to make¡­] (Eva) [Come on, don¡¯t you enjoy making them?] (Syrus) [I do, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that there are a lot of them I need to make.] (Eva) [You know, you are the one deciding how many to make; you are your own boss in this house.] (Syrus) [Which is exactly why we need to go out and collect and buy a lot more material¡­ and bottles, a lot more bottles.] (Eva) Eva had a set amount of potions she wanted to make for the week, but she had changed her plans, and that amount had quintupled. [Do you want to go out now?] (Syrus) [That would be good. Let¡¯s go buy the supplies first before stock runs out for the week.] (Eva) [We got the cash, so sure.] (Syrus) [Afterwards, there is something I want to do.] (Luna) [That¡¯s fine.] (Eva) [Sure, what is it?] (Syrus) [Here is what I want to do¡­] (Luna) Chapter 91 – Luna’s Investigation Chapter 91 ¨C Luna¡¯s Investigation Out on the town was a simple hunter minding their own business, simply shopping, window shopping, and more shopping¡ªnothing out of the ordinary. [Go down 3rd street.] (Luna) Anlesa turned down the east side of the street and walked past a few of the smaller inns and restaurants. Making clear looks at them as if judging where to go to eat. It was the day immediately following Anlesa¡¯s return home from the multiple-day investigation. They spent the afternoon readily gathering and buying all the material Eva needed for her big potion crafting session, but now that a new day had begun, Luna had something she wanted to pursue. One, maybe three Aurora Church priests wasn¡¯t a cause for concern. She would be uncomfortable, but it was something to make a scene about. She knew they liked to be everywhere and to know everything they could. Did they always succeed at that? Absolutely not, but they tried. Luna was aware of this, so the occasional disguise group of priests in a city like this wasn¡¯t unusual; there were probably some who were permanently stationed in the city and were better at hiding those traits. The actual problem was that there were far too many priests in the city for Luna to sleep comfortably. When it came to finding a priest hiding, the process started quite simple; a person just had to observe. A potential tell was those who were overly cautious; this applied to many people trying to hide something, but it was a good characteristic to take notice of. The other traits to look for were the looks of disdain and disgust when staring at those who didn¡¯t match the church¡¯s beliefs or hearing the money-centric people shittalk them. Another method was to find symbols of the church on their person, usually hidden under clothes. Luna was aware that, as an unconscious action, priests would often grab these. The final action on an individual level Luna was aware of was the way priests of the Aurora Church walked. It was something taught but went unnoticed when out in public, like now, unless people were aware of it. The fact remained true that the priests walked with a very heavy foot. Syrus noticed it after a bit, but she figured it was just how those individuals walked, not a whole style of walking, before Luna explained it to her. [You know, it must be a pain; well, a long-term pain.] (Syrus) [What are they supposed to do? Not let the room know about their presence?] Luna responded sarcastically. None of these signs and methods guaranteed that someone was a priest, but they were what Luna took a careful time to look for. [They are moving towards the house by the side street.] (Syrus) [The priest from across the street has noticed them as well] (Luna) Luna wasn¡¯t in direct control of her own investigation. She was merely in the backseat, providing directions and observing. She could¡¯ve but chose not to involve herself with the ¡®Syrus¡¯ disguise that Eva and Syrus piloted. Another trait that Syrus and Luna noticed now that there was an abundance of priests was that the priests were aware of each other. A glance over a crowd with eyes lingering or connecting with those one knows. [What are they even doing..?] Eva asked. She had been mostly quiet, not wanting to get in the way of the two professionals. [Nothing good.] (Luna) Anlesa had spent all day so far investigating and trying to track the priests¡¯ movements. Of course, only spending one day on the task may not reveal many positive results, but Luna wanted to at least find something. As the individuals entered the building, Syrus found a nearby restaurant with a window view to eat and stare from. [Sryus, can you do anything?] (Luna) [Look, even I can¡¯t boost my hearing enough to hear inside a building on the opposite side of the street. The best I can do is if I am next to the building.] (Syrus) And being next to the building would put them in the prime suspicious position. [...] Luna wanted to groan but there was nothing to be done. She was the one who explicitly stated that getting caught was the one thing they could not allow to happen. The result of today''s tracking pretty much had only concluded so far that this house was at least a temporary residence. [Hmmm¡­] Eva debated if there was anything she could do. A horse-drawn caravan with windowless walls and a roof that blocked the insides from outsiders'' eyes was parked outside the building. However, all pulled forms of transport couldn¡¯t stay stopped on any street for an extended period of time without permission. A group of three disguised priests left the building and entered on the covered waggon that was stationed outside for pickup. The brief movement of the three was caught by Syrus¡¯ gaze. They were dressed fancier than the usual disguise; if everyone else was dressing as commoners, these people were at least pretending to be merchants. [Is that..?] Luna''s thoughts paused as she stared at the wrinkled lady. She appeared familiar, but it had only been a little over a decade since her death and she didn¡¯t know of anyone in that age bracket. Not that people in the church ever revealed their age; the best answer someone would get was how many years a person was in a position of power. Anti-ageing appearance techniques were popular everywhere, but especially in the Aurora Church, which liked to have a pristine exterior¨Ctheir extensive development also supported this endeavour. [Someone you knew?] (Syrus) [Maybe? It was hard to know people¡¯s ages, but no one appeared to be climbing up in the age bracket. Except for the pope, I don¡¯t know. They liked having old-looking popes.] (Luna) Luna barely saw the side of the person''s face, but something about it disgusted her. She wished she got a better look. The investigation didn¡¯t end there, and Anlesa did explore more of the town, tracking the church¡¯s movements in a notebook. They weren¡¯t able to uncover anything useful, but Luna was ready to continue to search for anything. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 92 – Stack of Potions Chapter 92 ¨C Stack of Potions ¡°Finally, done¡­¡± Eva released a long sigh of relief. Besides her were three boxes of potions, totalling sixty potions. She leaned back in her chair; her transformation had faded away, revealing the true Anlesa appearance. Eva did her best to keep the effects of Morph up at all times, but she, as with everyone, got tired, and using a lot of mana to accelerate the mixing of the potions and enhancing their effects with her personal mixes took a lot out of her. Compared to their normal ¡®Syrus¡¯ disguise, which was meant to be a bit of an in-between Syrus¡¯ in full control form and their normal look. There wasn¡¯t too much of a difference, as Eva could only manage minimal alterations with Morph at the time. However, a change was that their main disguise was now a little bit taller than their normal form thanks to Eva¡¯s improved control with Morph¨Cnot by much taller, but it was a noticeable difference. Anlesa turned her head in her chair to look at the pile of materials now missing from the counter, all used up. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She snapped a few of the crimson strands of hair from her bangs that warped themselves around the dark greyish horn of the left side of her forehead. Eva¡¯s eyes paused on a glass bottle, which showed their reflection. She¡­ liked this form. After a long period of time of basically never using their true appearance, she longed to see herself in the mirror like this. It wasn¡¯t perfect; she would rather see an appearance that matched her age of ten years old, but this would make do. Black hair with front crimson bangs, the black hair faded into white strands towards the rest of her ends, and finally light reddish-brown eyes. This was a look that would catch too much attention from the people she didn¡¯t wish it from. [One day¡­] (Eva) Eva yawned and deeply blinked, starting the transformation with Morph. Her hair dyed a deep crimson, the horn disappeared, and she grew a little bit taller. ¡°Well¡­ time to make some deliveries.¡± [You haven¡¯t mentioned where you are selling the potions today.] (Syrus) [Oh, I am not selling them.] (Eva) [Huh¡­] Syrus remembered the bill for all the extra bottles. She wanted to rub her fist into Eva¡¯s head. [What do you mean not selling them?! You can¡¯t be planning to give all of them away for free.] Syrus knew Eva was overall kind-hearted, and giving away some wasn¡¯t uncommon for her. [I am.] Eva knew the importance of selling her goods; that was how she barely scraped by in her past life. Now, living a life of comparative luxury, she did give away a few potions, but this behaviour was out of left field even for her. Syrus calmed down, [Then why?] [Insurance¡­ best case people will remember it as a favour.] (Eva) [Fine.] (Syrus) They didn¡¯t discuss the topic further, and Syrus went outside with the boxes off to the first point of delivery. Anlesa knocked on Ash¡¯s shop¡¯s front door. The door opened slightly. With her head peeking out from the box, Syrus said, ¡°Morning Ash, I got a few potions to give you.¡± Ash opened up the door wider. ¡°Hello, Syrus. Do you need help carrying that?¡± ¡°Nah, just give me some space.¡± Anlesa and Ash walked inside, and now, with a better look, Ash saw how many potions Syrus brought with her. Ash said, ¡°That¡¯s a lot; how many are you going to sell?¡± ¡°None, I¡¯m giving you the top box minus two. Giving the other two boxes elsewhere, but I would appreciate it if you could give me the bottles back. They cost a bit.¡± ¡°Fair¡­ but I am questioning your decision.¡± Ash turned away and went to grab something from her overhead cupboard. Syrus placed down the boxes for a moment and turned around to check out the store. ¡°Place is looking like a mess, what happened?¡± ¡°A bad breeze, my fault for leaving the window open,¡± Ash replied. She shuffled through the bottles on the cupboard, and realising the order was incorrect, she quickly sought to fix that. Then she asked, ¡°How old are you anyway?¡± Anlesa clicked her tongue. ¡°What girl reveals their age so lightly?¡± Ash looked over her shoulder and said, ¡°Come on, you grew a smidge taller in the span of a month.¡± Syrus shrugged, ¡°A late extra growth spurt, not exactly uncommon in my family tree.¡± Ash turned around, grabbing a small bottle of green powder. She walked to the boxes on the table and asked, ¡°You said minus two from the box, right? Where do you want me to place them?¡± Expecting to play them somewhere in the other two boxes. Eva replied, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that; I¡¯ll have someone pick them up.¡± Ash paused and raised her eyebrow. ¡°What? Meant to be a gift for someone?¡± ¡°Yeah? And?¡± ¡°Nothing, just getting the facts sorted.¡± Anlesa shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m busy at the moment, so it''s easier this way, and I trust you not to use them.¡± ¡°Just a boy named Ethan; he may have a pup with him. He tends to carry a small axe on his side, and his attribute is Wind.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Ash rolled her eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll keep an eye out for him.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Their conversation wrapped up quickly as Anlesa moved on to the next location. Syrus kicked open the closed double doors of the Brown Oak Guild. ¡°Morning¨CWoah, are you okay, little lady?¡± The old man¡¯s welcome was switched to one of concern as Anlesa walked through the door carrying boxes. [Little lady?] (Eva) [Don¡¯t mind the old goat.] (Syrus) [I know¡­ it¡¯s just, he is half our height?] (Eva) "Yeah, I am fine, if anything, I am wondering how your back is.¡± Syrus walked to the counter and dropped the two boxes of potions. ¡°I got a delivery of potions.¡± ¡°Now, I do appreciate the sentiment, but we can¡¯t afford to buy many potions from you at the moment.¡± ¡°Payment has already been received, which is nothing; things have seemed more troubling recently, and the people that frequent here don¡¯t often have the money to splurge on potions.¡± ¡°Troubling recently? Not sure where you would get that idea from.¡± The old man appeared confused; if there was trouble, he would¡¯ve heard of it, and the only potential for trouble was cleaned up. ¡°Sigh¡­ thank you, this is appreciated.¡± Compared to the other two guilds, which were large and had a more consistent stream of money following, those other guilds did focus on more dangerous requests as well. These two factors allowed the guild to purchase potions for the hunters, which they sold at a discount. Now, people of the Brown Oak Guild still bought along potions, but they were usually the less effective ones, which was reasonable. The right tool for the job. But Eva wanted them to have some stronger ones in stock for the time being. ¡°Do you need my help to stack them?¡± The old man waved his hand. ¡°No, the troublesome George will be back in a moment.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll leave you to your papers and potions then. Take care.¡± The man¡¯s eyes swayed to the papers next to him of gathering quests. ¡°Not wanting to stay and pick out a quest?¡± ¡°Nah, my to-do list is massive at the moment.¡± Anlesa left as quickly as she entered and with those deliveries done. It was time to spy for a while longer. Chapter 93 – Wind Magic & Warning Chapter 93 ¨C Wind Magic & Warning ¡°Boss! Good to see you! I am ready to learn!¡± ¡°Roo Woof!¡± ¡°Calm down, you two; it has only been a week.¡± Syrus scratched the back of her head. It had been a little over a week since their last training session; it wasn¡¯t the long time they had in between training sessions, but it was the first time Anlesa was completely unreachable for the entire gap. They were at the edge of town to train again, but a little closer towards the forest this time. ¡°I understand.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t even make sense as a response¡­¡± Syrus sighed, and Eva followed up, ¡°Anyway, before we start, I have something I want to tell you.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Eva explained that on the 4th Street Westside was a store on a side street run by Ash Evelen. She gave a description of the store and its location. Afterwards, she explained she had left a present for him in her care that he should pick up soon. Ethan was confused at why Syrus just didn¡¯t give him the gift now, but Eva explained that she didn¡¯t know when they would meet next and it was easier to keep where she mentioned. There was also a separate reason Eva did this. By making Ethan go to the location himself, it would make him remember the location better. She wanted him to be aware of a place to go if he was ever injured. It was likely he knew places already, but Ash¡¯s place was somewhere Anlesa trusted. Much to Ethan¡¯s excitement, it didn¡¯t take much longer for training to begin. [When do you want to warn him?] (Luna) [Doing it now could disrupt his training.] (Syrus) [Doing it later can be dangerous; telling them can prevent any negative reactions.] (Luna) With the church''s presence confirmed, that put an unintended target on Ethan¡¯s back. Cobalt had gotten back at masking its presence and signature from all means to the point it greatly impressed Luna and Eva, but the nature of its existence was a danger to Ethan. However, Ethan would never abandon his friend. [...We will do it after the magic talk.] Eva suggested. [Fine.] (Luna) They couldn¡¯t teach Ethan wind magic, but they at least could explain what magic was better for him to experiment on his own. This would help him if they ever left for an extended period of time again. Thirty minutes later, Ethan continued to train himself under Syrus''s watchful gaze. Under Anlesa''s guidance, he could push himself further, as Syrus was able to stop him if he was about to seriously injure himself. She was also able to correct his form and provide motivation. Syrus found a log to sit on, and then she called Ethan over. ¡°Ethan, time for your theoretical lesson of the day.¡± Ethan held back a groan. Sometimes the theoretical lessons were very interesting and, other times, extremely boring. He physically couldn¡¯t forget the time he was forced to learn math. It was actually Syrus who led that lesson; she believed basic math skills were very important. Her reasoning was that it was better to know how many enemies there were and how much that number decreased compared to how many were killed. Ethan sat cross-legged on the ground in front of him. Cobalt tried to copy Ethan¡¯s position, unsuccessfully. Eva used Jen¡¯s system to further explain magic to Ethan. ¡°Now look, when people are referring to magic, they are usually referring to the more powerful stuff. If we split magic into three tiers, tiers two~three are what people hear when they hear magic and not just someone using their attribute.¡± Ethan asked, ¡°What about tier one?¡± Eva explained, ¡°The dividing line between tier one magic and simply attribute use is thin; you could even call attribute use tier zero magic.¡± The majority of the terms Eva used were ones that Jen had used, besides tier zero magic, which she made up on the spot and felt quite proud of herself because of it. ¡°Now I need you to understand that magic is not something that has been greatly developed.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Ethan¨Cand Cobalt copying him¨Ctiled their heads ever so slightly in confusion. ¡°I know, confusing, right?¡± Eva returned a light, joyful smile. ¡°The magic masters only really are the masters of their own field, and even that field is limited. You hear about the great healing properties of light magic and its related attributes, but that is because of centuries of developing those magics. Why can those lessons be transferred over from one attribute to another?¡± Eva¡¯s rambling increased as excitement rose. ¡°Is it because their appearance is similar or something else? The light magics aren¡¯t the only ones that can heal; you could find in stories that people have been healed via songs, magical flames, or divine springs? But why can¡¯t I heal people with my fire? Why has a spell not been made? Is it actually a simple spell with a crucial element of understanding missing? Or a complicated one that we haven¡¯t built the road for yet. And that is just for fire, a common attribute; what about the more fantastical ones?¡± Ethan apologised, ¡°Sorry Syrus¡­ this is getting a little over my head¡­¡± Eva closed her eyes and coughed in her closed hand. "No, I¡¯m sorry, I got too excited.¡± She opened her eyes and refocused the conversation. ¡°Let¡¯s talk about your attribute and tier-one magic.¡± Eva moved the wire up from her right wrist and had a little bit of it float in the air. ¡°What separates magic and standard attribute use? Well, it is the split of one''s attribute into multiple parts. What are those parts? Who is to say, for certain attributes or people, is it blocks, pieces, or string?" Eva had the wire wiggle around. ¡°After that, the user moulds it in such a way to enhance the effect. Whether that is increasing flame strength for decreased mana cost or creating a stronger breeze of wind.¡± Ethan asked, ¡°So magic is just better than using attributes normally?¡± ¡°Not necessarily. Just read a list of attributes, and you will see many that don¡¯t sound like more can be done with them outside their basic use.¡± Eva summoned her second wire. ¡°My Manipulation, for instance; advanced uses of it don¡¯t really fall under the definition of magic. I am splitting my control of it, but I am not making a spell or anything.¡± Eva¡¯s ramble started again, but she did manage to stop herself. ¡°Now, you can try and make some simple magic yourself; as I said, the dividing line between tier zero and one isn¡¯t too big, but don¡¯t feel bad about not getting it or making anything, ever honestly. Magic is taught for a reason, and most people with zero understanding don¡¯t become mages just because they want to. If anything, this is more to inform you of the possibilities than anything else.¡± Then Syrus said, ¡°Now go. Practice for a bit before we continue talking. You may try stuff with your attributes. But be warned w-cough, argh, something in my throat, I can¡¯t help you with it much.'''' [Syrus?] (Luna) [Let the boy have fun first.] (Syrus) [He can have fun after he knows about the danger.] (Luna) [Then he wouldn¡¯t be able to have fun.] (Syrus) Luna didn¡¯t try to stop Ethan¡¯s training and let it continue until he began to tire again. ¡°Okay, now Ethan. I have something important to tell you. And no, it is not about training or improvement.¡± That last comment immediately strangled Ethan¡¯s attention, and he walked over to close proximity to Anlesa, who was sitting on a log. Once he was close, Syrus put a finger over her mouth to signal to be quiet. ¡°There are more people from the church back in the city again, and I mean a lot more than last time.¡± Ethan¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°Are they¨C¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t think they are here for Cobalt, but still you can¡¯t let them find him.¡± Ethan turned to Cobalt, and he looked back, feeling Ethan¡¯s worry. Ethan asked, ¡°Can you keep Cobalt safe again?¡± Eva opened their mouth, ¡°I¡­¡± Syrus took control back, ¡°I don''t think I can; there is a lot going on and I will be closer in proximity.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Syrus put her hand on Ethan¡¯s shoulder. ¡°It will be alright. Remember, you can always run, and if you can¡¯t find me, keep running.¡± Ethan asked, ¡°...And if I find you?¡± He was scared of something happening to Cobalt, but he knew the church would be a lot of trouble, and if he was caught and ran to Syrus, what trouble would he be getting her into after she already did so much for him? ¡°I¡¯ll protect you two, idiot.¡± Anlesa flicked his forehead. ¡°They won¡¯t take your family from you under my watch.¡± Chapter 94 – Aged Chapter 94 ¨C Aged It hadn¡¯t even been twenty-four hours since Anlesa made that promise to Ethan, and the situation had already worsened. ¡°Huuuu¡­.¡± Anlesa held back a painful deep heave. [Her¡­.] A violent anger emerged from Luna. It was a storm of emotion was pulling on Eva and Syrus. [Calm down or leave the body!] Syrus exclaimed. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Luna¡­¡­] Eva cried, worried. After Anlesa and Ethan split, they continued with Luna¡¯s mission of scoping out the area for church activity. They weren¡¯t stopping early today either; they planned to keep going until at least partially late at night. In the beginning, they didn¡¯t learn anything new, but a few tidbits of information were confirmed. The house they initially found the church gathered in was a rental property, and there was currently no one in the building. The owner owned five buildings in town¨Cthe max he was allowed to own¨Cand rented them out to businesses and people who only wanted to set up shop in the city for a temporary amount of time¨Cusually a month to six months. Anlesa couldn¡¯t learn the exact details of that deal as there was no way to get ahold of that information, and the original owner was out of town visiting relatives and wasn¡¯t going to be around for another two months. So before he left, he organised some deals to ensure all the houses were supposed to be full from what they were able to learn. The man in question was relatively popular, a greedy¨Cwhich most people here were¨Cbut kind-hearted folk. His popularity and well-known status were what allowed Anlesa to learn about the housing arrangement of that building. Now Syrus was able to learn no one was in the building by basically breaking in. There was a window on the side street, which she happily chose to dislodge it and enter after spending a few minutes not hearing a single sound from within the building. This occurred during the later parts of the night of the same day Syrus trained Ethan. Upon entering, she found nothing besides basic furniture. The place was empty. Which could seem like good news, but it was truly nothing but bad. It meant they wanted to keep their presence quiet and minimal to the point of absurdity. Besides that, there was some good news. None of the church grunts had been seen investigating Ethan¡¯s area. Ethan lived in a relatively poorer part of town, and there wasn¡¯t much besides housing. That didn¡¯t mean he was safe, but it was a moment of relief for Anlesa to know there was no target on the boy¡¯s back. After all that and when their investigation was seemingly not picking up any more traction. During the night, the caravan they saw pick up the fellows from the church came back. It was a bog standard caravan with nothing seemingly special about it; however, everything in this world gains its own marks and scratches over time, even if ever so tiny. The cart appeared familiar enough, and added to the fact that not many people arrive late, it was worth the peek. Arriving into the city late wasn¡¯t a cause for suspicion by any means. People can be delayed from entering the city for many reasons, from a delayed journey start to not wanting to stop at a midpoint to the time required to repair a damaged wheel. So, they followed the caravan to see where it would stop. Syrus was out in simple disguise. Wearing different clothes than normal and a new coat, they had to deal with the cold weather that was rapidly cooling. However, with Syrus¡¯ Fire attribute, she could use it to keep herself warm, so the coat¡¯s actual purpose was to cover their body and face during the night without being suspicious, if needed. For weapons, Syrus only brought knives; her sword was an obvious no-go, and while she did wear the bracelets with wire, she didn¡¯t want Eva to use them. Eva was doing her part for the disguise by using Morph for a more drastic change. She made them as short as she could, which was about 10% smaller, dyed their eyes and hair brown, removed their horn, and adjusted their skin tone to be more tanned. This was a lot for Eva to maintain, and she could only keep up all these changes for a short period of time. To compromise, the hair and eyes were left under the hood, and she only switched colours when people got close, some logic for the skin, and even the horn as she shrunk it just a little bit to hide under the hood. Being out in the dark helped make these barely maintainable physical changes work, along with Syrus¡¯ quick commands on when to cause the changes to happen if a person got close. They watched as the cart started to slow down, and Syrus moved around to be able to see people leaving the cart before they exited it. The driver of the cart looked ready to move at a moment''s notice, and five individuals exited the caravan and walked to a nearby building where the first large male figure unlocked the door. The first man entered, followed by a female, then another taller man. And then Luna got her wish. She saw the aged woman''s face clearly and her sickening golden eyes. It brought nothing but anger. [Mor-ri-son.] Luna''s vision dyed red. Syrus immediately walked away and moved into an alleyway. [I¡¯m going to guess she was more than just a bitch?] Spoken as half a joke and a serious question. [No, she was just a bitch.] Luna bit her lip. [People don¡¯t want to murder someone just because they are a bitch.] (Syrus) Luna returned to her facade of calmness. [I want to murder every single one of them, Syrus. They stole Mum and Dad from us.] [An impossible and unfruitful task, Luna.] Syrus replied. What Luna was saying was a little too unhinged for Luna, so Syrus was trying to douse it with reality. [I know, but I don¡¯t want to hear that from you.] (Luna) [Guys¡­] They worried Eva''s trembling voice was able to douse the situation unintentionally. [What are we going to do now..?] Syrus took a moment to think and asked a useless question to waste time. [How much longer can you keep up this Morph?] [Not much longer¡­] Parts of fully Morph were already fading back due to Eva¡¯s loosening control. [I¡¯m reaching my limit.] She had already passed her limit and was only holding on by focusing on Luna and Syrus'' determination felt through their connection... [Disable it; we are going home.] (Syrus) Eva sighed in relief, and her mind faded to nearly the point of unconsciousness, which ended up affecting Luna and Syrus by supplying them with a massive headache. [Syrus, we can at least continue to spy for a little longer.] (Luna) [No, they are moving over to us so we are going to walk through the pubs for a bit, then go home.] (Syrus) [You and your hearing.] Luna could also hear the footsteps this time considering it was late at night and no one was around, but a nagging voice in the back of her mind said that could¡¯ve just been someone walking around to the back of the cart. But her logic was able to push through and her desire to keep themselves safe made sure she didn¡¯t fight Syrus on this. Eventually, they returned home safe and sound. Chapter 95 – Hunting & Exploring Chapter 95 ¨C Hunting & Exploring ¡°Nothing here.¡± S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [There is a deer right over left behind the tree.] (Luna) [Too small, aiming for something juicier and tender today.] (Syrus) [That deer was bigger than average.] (Luna) [Still smaller than the larger ones we saw during the investigation.] (Syrus) [You should aim for something realistic.] (Luna) [I am.] (Syrus) Anlesa had gone far into the plains west of Arisea Station for an individual hunt. Not for a request or anything like that, just a hunt for some game for herself. The one who suggested this and basically forced it to happen was, unsurprisingly, Syrus. She kept using the excuse of looking for bigger deer to not stop this trip, which was true even excluding the mutated outlier that the deer were on average larger than the ones closer to the city. They weren¡¯t looking to have another multi-day trip away from the city again; instead, they were only here for one prize, and then they would leave. Also, because they were going in alone this time, there was no need to slowly walk to their location; instead, Syrus could use her Blood attribute and their body¡¯s absurd stamina to run the distance. [The countryside is quite pretty¡­] (Eva) [It¡¯s more wilderness than countryside.] (Luna) [But it is, outside, the country?] (Eva) [What..?] Luna paused in confusion. Eva released a small chuckle, extremely proud of herself for that joke. [It is very nice, this large stretch of mostly untouched nature.] Syrus hummed as she thought of her old home, where every forest was a dangerous spot, with it being a constant unknown if a monster had snuck in and hibernated beneath the forest floor. Being so close to multiple large and vicious monster territories and every bit of land claimed by a country with borders between to protect in case of a monster invasion. In contrast, this ¡°unowned¡± territory was a strange and welcomed sight. [I guess¡­] Luna sighed. Her internal tension had already been lessened by Eva¡¯s weird joke. Eva was still giddy and also more relieved now that Luna had calmed down a bit. She had realised Syrus¡¯ purpose of making them go on this trip practically immediately. It was to calm Luna down and give her space to breathe. Syrus'' method of dealing with stress had always been very straightforward; it was to be active. Exercise, hunt, etc. Whatever physical activity she enjoyed doing. So, that was the plan today, along with a stroll through the peaceful lands between the borders. Of course, they all hated the Aurora Church, but Luna¡¯s years of resentment had been boiling over with the people showing up in town. Syrus could deal with or channel her anger just fine and focus even when their enemy was next door. Eva¡­ was in a different situation¡­ She just buried her negative feelings like before, but unlike in the past, it wasn¡¯t in an effort to ignore or attempt to distance herself from them; she just wanted to be considerate of Luna, who with each passing emotion she was feeling from her, it felt as if she was cracking at the seams. And with how their emotions were connected, if Eva chose to fall with Luna¡¯s anger, it would just act as an uncontrolled spiral of negative emotions that would only get worse. However, Eva wasn¡¯t exactly sure if Syrus¡¯ plan was going to work. Luna was mostly polite and calm. Maybe that had changed over the course of this life as the freedom loosened a lot of her restraints, but in Eva¡¯s eyes, she was still someone who had a lot of control over herself. But that control was waning, and Eva didn¡¯t think a simple walk in the wild was going to help it¡­ but she had no idea what she could truly do to help. Her best method was to bury her emotions, and she was smart enough to at least know that it was a bad idea. Syrus left the forest side and walked into the open plain. She could see the mountains and a few animals in the distance. [Do you wish to chase them down or snipe them?] (Luna) [Neither at the moment. I will be getting closer first.] (Syrus) To save time, Syrus only brought a bow and a few arrows as her main weapon instead of her sword. It did hurt a little bit doing that, but she felt it was the correct decision. After a bit more walking and taking her time, Syrus finally got into position and hunted a deer. [Got it.] (Syrus) With a perfectly shot arrow, the creature was put down quickly. Now it was just time to collect the body, tie it to her back, and go back home. Maybe even getting one of the chefs to cook it up for her. Before Anlesa reached the body. ¡°Found you.¡± An alluring voice echoed in the open plain. [What is happening now?] (Luna) [Focus.] (Syrus) Syrus listened to their guest¡¯s location. ¡°It¡¯s rude to not introduce yourself. You know that, right?¡± A small laugh intensified and came out from every direction. Whoever it was, it sounded mature and feminine. [Eva, can you sense them with Manipulation?] Syrus asked. The voice was somehow coming from everywhere at once. [No, I hadn¡¯t set up a web beforehand.] (Eva) [Drat.] (Syrus) ¡°Why are we finding trouble everywhere?¡± Syrus mumbled. She analysed the situation. They weren¡¯t close to the forest, but it was potentially possible for this voice to have been emitted from a long range. Syrus figured that would likely indicate the person was on the cautious or cowardly side. [That¡¯s plenty possible¡­] Syrus decided to make a bet and provoke the voice. ¡°So, is hiding out of vision all you are good at?¡± [What are you planning?] (Luna) [Trying to figure out what our mysterious guest is.] (Syrus) ¡°Eehheehehe.¡± The voice cackled, and then the split sound focused from one direction. Above them. Their appearance was slowly revealed as golden light revealed a figure with a golden pendant around her neck whose light faded. Appearing humanoid, with amber-orange skin that shifted to purple along her extremities. Large purple horns grew from the side of her head, along with two feather-like wings that matched her skin from her back and a long spike tail that curled around her floating body twice. Syrus sighed, ¡°Another demon?¡± Chapter 96 – Demon Encounter Chapter 96 ¨C Demon Encounter ¡°Ehehe, Marazada was right; there was an interesting human hanging around.¡± The demon floated in the air, ignoring gravity; the wings on their back were only moving to exaggerate their body motions and not to support their flight. Syrus ignored their comment and asked one simple question: ¡°Are you going to fly down? My neck can handle it, but damn is it annoying.¡± ¡°Ehehe.¡± The demon spun in the air. ¡°Much better than annoying ones.¡± She did obey and flew down a few metres in front of Anlesa, but still floated in the air. In this position, it was much easier to see who they were facing. On a base level, she appeared humanoid. The amber and purple skin seemed to pulse with energy as the demon smiled in excitement. Its hair also floated around unbothered by her motions. The demon¡¯s figure was also quite well endowed in the front and back, but she also had very visible muscles lining her body, along with a strong six-pack. The demon was covered in what Anlesa could only assume was clothes. It was hard to exactly tell; they were definitely clothes in the traditional sense that they covered the body. Starting from a little above the waist to the knees for pants. Her upper body was covered, which stretched along her arms up to her elbows. There was a gap between the halves, leaving its midriff visible. The confusing part was the clothes looked like hard rock, but it was folding and stretching easily. [I don¡¯t know much about demons, but I do now understand what my colleague used to say about attractive demons.] (Syrus) [You serious¡­] Luna didn¡¯t know whether to be shocked or disgusted. Who in their right mind would be attracted to a demon? [That¡¯s¡­ a demon¡­ It looks nothing like the other one!] Eva was shocked for completely different reasons. The three had very different reactions. [I mean, yeah, but it is a demon.] (Syrus) Eva¡¯s rambling ranting intensified. [What are the types? Are there subspecies? Wait, no, how can anyone even classify her as even being in the same grouping as the snake-insect creature thing?!] Eva had many questions and concerns about the biology of demons. Syrus had no answers for Eva, so instead she asked one herself. [Do you think the patterns of the rock¡­ clothes? Was it intentional, or just a byproduct of the material?] The rock-like patterns did look cool in the eye of Syrus. It also appeared tough but also stretchable, which would work great for armour. [That¨C!] Eva paused for a second. [I don¡¯t know. Why do you ask?] [Because it will speak a lot for either this demon or their culture.] (Syrus) [Is that¡­ really relevant right now?] (Eva) [Not really? But it could be useful in the future. The only thing I¡¯ve heard about culture-wise is that they like fighting, but I¡¯ve never seen them fight a human before.] (Syrus) Syrus¡¯ worry had been completely extinguished by this point. The demon¡¯s attitude appeared to be on the more playful side¨Cwhich could cause issues on its own, but not to the point that Syrus was worried about accidentally dying¨Cand Syrus was confident that she was stronger than the demon. Outside of the barely counting scuffle, she had with the snake demon, she had never fought one before, but she considered herself good enough at judging creature strength to assume they would be fine. Syrus responded to the demon, "Thanks, I guess? The demon spun, turning upside down in the air. ¡°Looking for you silly took a few days, but I knew you would be around.¡± ¡°You were looking for a few days?¡± Said Syrus. That would¡¯ve meant she would¡¯ve been looking for them pretty much their whole trip back and their current stay in the city before returning to the forest. S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you have better things to do?¡± ¡°It was only a few days.¡± Said a demon. [And yep¡­ I don¡¯t understand how demons think.] (Syrus) Spending a few days seemingly casually looking around a large open area for one person just because they were said to be ¡®interesting¡¯, didn¡¯t make sense to Anlesa. [Ask, who are these ¡®annoying ones¡¯.] Said Luna as she thought back on the demon¡¯s dialogue. [You can speak now. No one is around.] (Syrus) [I¡¯d rather not at the moment.] (Luna) Syrus internally sighed and asked the demon. ¡°So, you had to keep dealing with annoying people, huh?¡± The demon spun the right way up. ¡°Yep, the annoying ones kept causing a storm and made all the maddies run off.¡± The demon said, very annoyed. ¡°Argh, it pushed back the next mash pit for another cycle!¡± ¡°No idea what that means, but I get it. Were you able to kick them off your turf?¡± The demon let out a long sigh. ¡°No, we weren¡¯t. They evaded our patrol once we started looking; who knows, they might be gone now, but they were like Ertealsualuses, vanishing away into the distance.¡± [Maddies?] (Eva) [I think mutated monsters would be a good guess.] (Syrus) [That is concerning if a bunch ran off.] (Luna) [I guess that makes sense why that original demon was outside their territory.] (Syrus) [Why don¡¯t demons leave their home territory often?] (Eva) [I don¡¯t know Eva. Luna, anything else you want to know?] (Syrus) [No further follow-up. I am confident in my assumption of who these annoying ones are.] (Luna) With Luna¡¯s question complete, there was only one thing left to do. ¡°Anyway, what did you want to do?¡± Asked Syrus. ¡°Me?¡± The demon grinned. ¡°Not going to lie, not sure how or why I am considered interesting.¡± ¡°Ehehehe, well, your attitude is amazing, refreshing. Marazada was also right, you look a little skinny, but you contain a lot of strength and know how to use it. Untr¨CHumans are mostly boring, either scared or weak and bloodthirsty.¡± ¡°Well, you don¡¯t travel much.¡± The demon paused, then laughed. ¡°Haha, that¡¯s true. Most places are pretty boring though; nothing that gets the blood pumping.¡± Syrus asked, ¡°So, have you got what you came for?¡± This back-and-forth was fun and all, but Syrus knew she needed to wrap it up before anything got out of hand. While she was happy to spend more time away from the city with Luna, she knew she needed to get back. The demon licked her lips and smiled. ¡°Yes, but now I am wanting more.¡± She flew further off the ground. ¡°But I know my manners; come to the demon home; we always have a party on.¡± Chapter 97 – Distressed Chapter 97 ¨C Distressed ¡°Thanks for the offer, but I have other plans.¡± Said Syrus and denied the demon¡¯s offer. Suddenly a violent tension filled the space. Then the demon sighed and shrugged, ¡°Sadly fair, humans are always so busy.¡± ¡°And demons not?¡± The demon smirked, ¡°You should look at yourselves, running around aimless like ants all the time.¡± ¡°Pretty sure that is just a difference in culture.¡± The demon smiled provocatively, ¡°I see, still, what a great loss; you could be a lot happier if you followed me. You can join in the brawls of a lifetime.¡± Syrus paused, greatly confused at what signals the demon was sending. From everything she knew, demons weren¡¯t attracted to humans of any kind. That still seemed to be the case, but based on the words it said and the very little knowledge she knew about demons, maybe they enjoyed fighting a lot more than she realised. After a moment of quiet, she answered, ¡°...maybe, but I wouldn¡¯t get the happiness I want most from you.¡± The demon¡¯s expression saddened, knowing nothing it would say would convince the human otherwise. In demons¡¯ eyes, humans were the most stubborn creatures. The demon twirled in the air, ready to fly away, but before she did she turned her back to Anlesa. ¡°But if you ever change your mind, the demon home is always more than welcoming to fun faces.¡± ¡°Thanks for the offer. If we meet again, may it be a blast.¡± Syrus decided to end the sudden encounter on a positive note. The demon vanished and flew off. As it did, Syrus went to grab the prey she sniped early. [...Could we have done something better?] (Eva) Syrus tied the deer¡¯s legs together before tying it to her backpack''s wooden support. [What do you mean?] (Syrus) [I¡­] Eva paused, trying to figure out how to word it. [That was our chance to learn anything from an unknown culture¡­] [If you want to, and if we have the free time, we can go visit.] (Syrus) [That..!] Eva was deeply fascinated. [No, it would be for the best if we didn¡¯t.] There was no further follow-up, and the trio got ready to go home. It was a long journey, and it was getting close to the afternoon. They ran the distance, and Syrus was ready to cut up the deer for dinner. Syrus was debating doing it herself or getting a butcher to do it for her. Before they reached the city itself, but within the small area around it that would be considered its borders. A speedy puppy ran towards Syrus. [Is that..?] (Eva) [Fuck.] (Syrus) S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Cobalt ran up to Syrus whimpering. Anlesas hugged the pup. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Ethan is going to be safe, but first hide in my backpack.¡± Syrus quickly understood the possible situation and chose [W-what are we going to do?!] (Eva) [Move. I already hear people coming.] (Syrus) They understood the situation was bad. There were a few different possibilities that could¡¯ve happened, none of them good. [Where¡­ do you think Ethan would be?] (Eva) [Ideally, Ash¡¯s place, but that is a mystery.] (Syrus) [I¡­ should we go there first?] (Eva) [...no, we will run around the back of town and head for the Brown Oak Guild first; I can peek down all the main streets on the way to it and see if there is anyone moving about. Ethan also knows about that place, considering it is the location where I talk about doing our hunting activities.] (Syrus) Anlesa got up and moved quickly. Along the way, she did notice those familiar faces she discovered before frantically searching around. After going the long way around, she made it to the guild, and they went through the backdoor entrance and dropped off the deer in the holding bay. The old man who ran the building paused as he saw Syrus through the open doorway from the area behind the front desk. ¡°Oh, Syrus, what are you doing around here?¡± He appeared a little tired. ¡°Dropping off dinner for myself; you can have a slice if you want, but don¡¯t cut off the best parts.¡± She walked out of the hallway to where he was standing. Then, Ethan saw Syrus on the opposite side of the counter. ¡°Syrus!¡± And he leapt over the counter.¡± The old man panicked, ¡°Wait, boy!¡± ¡°I got this old man. We are going out the back, just keeping managing the front.¡± Syrus didn¡¯t give the owner time to respond and picked up Ethan and ran into the back room. Ethan cried, ¡°Syrus¨C¡± as she placed him back on the ground. ¡°¨CAll my fault.¡± Chapter 98 – An Offer Chapter 98 ¨C An Offer The boy continued to cry and ramble, ¡°Syrus¨CI.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. Let me handle this.¡± ¡°No¨CI messed up; it¡¯s all my fault..¡± Tears rained down from the boy''s face, believing his own action caused the worst for his best friend. Cobalt pushed his head out of Anlesa¡¯s bag and jumped onto Ethan¡¯s face, licking the tears away. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Ethan; remember, I¡¯m going to make sure everything will be okay.¡± Syrus felt there was no reason to push the boy for answers. It would just be giving him more emotional stress. [Eva, is there any lingering magic on Cobalt or Ethan?¡±] (Syrus) [Wait-um, what-let me check.] Eva quickly went to work, though she wasn¡¯t sure what exactly she was looking for. Her Manipulation mana spread out and covered the two. [Yes¡­ I¡¯ve found something strange on Cobalt. Nothing on Ethan.] (Eva) S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Okay, don¡¯t remove it. It¡¯s likely a tracker.] (Syrus) [...how would I remove it¡­] Eva had never seen anything like this before. This, tracking magic, wasn¡¯t something she had seen or read about. [Crushing it with mana or having Cobalt push at it with its own mana should work. It should also go away after a short while.] (Syrus) [Why... aren¡¯t we going to remove it?] Eva asked; this magic seemed dangerous and would keep Cobalt and Ethan in danger. Her mind was chaotic, barely able to focus, completely worried about every possibility that could happen to the two children. [It is the best way for Ethan to be safe.] (Syrus) Syrus tapped Ethan¡¯s shoulder to ensure she had his full attention. ¡°Ethan, you are going to hide at the location I told you about before, where you got the potion, okay?¡± He nodded. ¡°Okay, good, Cobalt. For the time being, you will come with me.¡± ¡°Roo¡­.¡± Anlesa couldn¡¯t understand the pup but still rubbed its ear. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Ethan will be safe, I promise.¡± ¡°...When do I go?¡± The boy asked. ¡°Immediately, and take this.¡± Syrus pulled out a cloak from her bag. ¡°Wear it and stay out of trouble; go to your destination and don¡¯t get distracted.¡± Ethan grabbed the large coat and put it on. Syrus quickly helped tie the long coat up so he could properly walk. Then she pulled down the hood. ¡°If you are nervous, then just pretend to be cold.¡± The weather was already cold, so there was nothing wrong with Ethan wearing something large and warm. ¡°Besides that, you can pretend to be sick, but don¡¯t overdo it; don¡¯t try to cough or anything like that. Property one is to make it to the destination, got it?¡± Ethan nodded again. ¡°Good, now, let¡¯s book it.¡± Syrus had Ethan leave first, and she kept an eye on him for a while before disappearing into the streets. Brown Oak Guild and Ash¡¯s shop was a small journey. The guild was on the southeastern side, while the apothecary was on the western side on the fourth street. Anlesa trusted Ethan wouldn¡¯t be in too much trouble, as the tracker was still with her. Syrus, with Cobalt in her backpack, left town and headed to the forest. They weren¡¯t able to afford to take a detour home for their weapons, so what they had on hand would have to do. On the way to the Eastern Forest, Syrus asked Eva if she could keep an eye on the near-invisible tracker on Cobalt. Finally, she found a spot, in the forest, but very close to the outside, where she set a fire, sat down, and grilled dried rations that had been stored in the backpack. The fire could be seen from the opening, and to anyone, it simply looked like someone had chosen to come out at night. It was getting late, but the afternoon sun with its orange light was still visible. [...n..n...n...n...n..n...n.n...] (Eva) [Eva, calm yourself.] (Syrus) Syrus could feel Eva¡¯s emotions starting to stir¨Cguilt, worry, concern, distress¨Ceverything was mixing. [How can I?! What if they grabbed Ethan? What if they harmed Ash? Ethan is just a boy, and Ash¡­] (Eva) [She is a grown adult; she will be fine.] (Syrus) [That means nothing! Not right now nor... back then.] (Eva) Syrus continued to calm Eva, as she was the only one who at least could. [It does mean something now, we are in a city, a big one, and if there is noise to be made, Ash can do it, you know better than I what toys exist in her workshop.] [You shouldn¡¯t call those chemicals toys.] (Eva) [That¡¯s the spirit.] (Syrus) After a while longer of silence. As expected, people arrived. ¡°Hello, are you the one now in possession of the pup? I would like to make a deal.¡± Asked the visitor. A woman with greyish hair and a slightly wrinkled face walked into the forest. She wore clothes that bore a resemblance to what a well-off merchant would normally wear. Multiple layers of fabric and leather, warm reds and browns, and unusually clean white accents. Her golden eyes, which shone a cold light, examined the girl in the woods. Followed behind, near the entrance, were three guards, standard escorts for a merchant. But there was nothing standard and normal about this encounter. Chapter 99 – The– Chapter 99 ¨C The¨C ¡°Hello, are you the one now in possession of the pup? I would like to make a deal.¡± The situation could always be worse, but at the moment, it was getting as bad as it realistically could get. Syrus didn¡¯t respond and eyed the guest with clear distrust, as that was what the visitors would expect of her. This wasn¡¯t her first talk, and she was going to make sure that they were going to get out of this problem at least okay. The guest closed her eyes and nodded. ¡°I apologise for the actions of my guards in our caravan.¡± She bowed her head slightly, appearing deeply ashamed of what transpired. [Looks like they are sticking with a merchant story.] (Syrus) [How are we going to get out of this¡­] (Eva) [You don¡¯t have to worry about that; I will handle everything.] (Syrus) ¡°That you should; I¡¯ve never seen a boy so fearful of his own life in this city.¡± Syrus turned over the meat that was cooking slowly. With every action, Syrus made sure she was in complete control of the body. The woman showed a look of great remorse. She appeared either young for her age or old for it; it was impossible to tell without knowing what year she was born. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She placed her hand over her heart and bowed deeply. ¡°I¡¯m Dame Le¡¯orrison, and once again, I apologise for the trouble my escorts have caused this evening.¡± Syrus¡¯ face didn¡¯t change, and she looked down at the food. She asked, ¡°Is that all you have to say?¡± Finally, the lady asked. ¡°Do¡­ you know where the wolf and the child are?¡± Syrus flipped the sticks of meat; she didn¡¯t look up. ¡°I don¡¯t know where either is at the moment.¡± The woman replied, ¡°Is that the truth?¡± Pushing for an answer that she already knew. There was no reason to lie. ¡°Likely not, but if I did, I¡¯m not saying anything until both are going to be safe.¡± This was a game with stakes on the table, and both parties were going to keep information from each other. That was a given in any meeting like this with two unknown people. However, unbeknownst to the woman and her guards, the information war had already been won. The lady pleaded, ¡°We¨CI would like to apologise personally for my rude actions.¡± The setting was prebuilt: a wealthy merchant who got ahead of themselves and a rough and tough individual who got roped into trouble. It was a tale told in one of many books owned by Jen; variants of that story had been told to them many times as a child. The realistic version of that tale, if no one got harmed, was likely the merchant would pay some sort of compensation if the situation was even a little public or if they wanted to ensure they got what in the end. However, no amount of good acting could make up for the error that the performance was known beforehand by the one party they would never expect. [Syrus, please, can you tell me what the plan is? I¡­ need to know.] Eva begged. She had no idea how to handle these types of situations. [For the time being, we will get them to promise the duo''s safety.] (Syrus) [Is that really going to work¡­?] (Eva) [...I can¡¯t say. The main purpose is to stall for time.] (Syrus) [What about Ethan..? What is going to happen to him?] (Eva) [We might need to help him or Cobalt disappear for a while... Either way, neither is going to be sacrificed.] (Syrus) Syrus knew who the other party was and what they wanted. At best, the lady and her gang would only think Syrus would know that their true objective was the dog, and that might even be a stretch in logic. There were so many ifs and buts. Syrus understood what information they could know about her. Where she was and that she had Cobalt with her. Then there was personal information, which if they were able to, they could gather a little bit of the public information that she had made available, but that would be all, and that was unlikely as realistically they didn¡¯t know who had taken the dog or if it had run off on its own. After another round of silence on Syrus'' part, the lady continued her spiel. ¡°It has been discussed, and willing to offer compensation for the distress we have caused. As well, I would like to apologise in person to the family in question.¡± [So they want to swindle Cobalt from Ethan¡¯s family.] (Syrus) [Ethan would never let him go.] (Eva) [Just because Ethan would never, doesn¡¯t mean his parents are the same.] (Syrus) [How could they¡­] (Eva) [Easily, the external pressure a wealthy merchant can subject a poor family to is not to be underestimated. Giving up a dog for a trade of wealth is easy if it means the safety of the family.] Syrus''s assumption was based on experiences, but every individual and case was unique, and if Ethan¡¯s parents were anything like him, then they might hold their ground for a while. ¡°Do you swear to not harm the boy, the pup, or his family, nor in the future?¡± There were no papers to sign, no contracts that could be made that were binding, and only a simple promise and oath could be made. The lady effortlessly declared. ¡°Yes, and if it would please you, you may be a part of the proceedings along with someone you trust.¡± [There has to be more we can¨C] Eva worriedly rambled. There had to be more they could do. A simple promise wasn¡¯t enough, but before she could say anything else, her train of thought was interrupted. ¡°Do we have ourselves a deal?¡± Asked Morrison, who raised out her gloved hand. With a fake sigh and in complete calm, Syrus got up and walked towards the gesture, her opposite hand ready to make a handshake. Stab ¡°Egh¨C¡± A sharp prism of moonlight had encased Anlesa¡¯s hand that was now deep in Morrison''s chest, and as her hair faded to white and her eyes dyed pink, she starred her sharpened mad eyes directly into Morrison''s pupils. Chapter 100 ––Dame Murdered Chapter 100 ¨C¨CDame Murdered ¡°What¨C¡± The guards stumbled forward, more shocked than they were massively enraged. It was a predictable outcome. Luna''s mental state was being torn at the seams. It was a spiral that she had been falling into. Syrus and Eva recognised Luna was unwell and so didn¡¯t directly ask anything from Luna in recent times. But that was never going to be enough. Luna¡¯s silence was deafening. With Luna''s extremely near minimum time controlling the body and current desire, the outcome was decided before Syrus could do anything to stop it. An ominous voice that spoke in pain. ¡°I¡¯ve been wanting to do this for a long time.¡± Morrison couldn¡¯t do anything. It happened too fast; there was no sign, there was no reason; this never should''ve happen. She looked at the girl in front of her. The fear and confusion she was feeling were only amplified as the person in front of her changed form in a moment. But it took a few moments of her eyes lingering on the girl for her soul to shake. Impossible! Those eyes, those disgusting eyes. Morrison couldn¡¯t even voice her complaints. The dead bitch was in front of her. Eliana looked different; her face was different, but the hair, the moonlight, and those disgusting pink eyes that looked at her as if she were filth! ¡°¨CI¡± Morrison couldn¡¯t control her mana and her attributes were useless as her consciousness faded, and likely her life was to follow soon after. As she fell unconscious, the three guards rushed Syrus, screaming righteous fury. Luna pulled out her hand and brutally kicked Morrison¡¯s body to the ground. Fractaling blades of Moonlight appeared around her and stabbed into the body in the ground. She was never taught offensive light techniques, but now she had time to learn and create her own, and a madness to give those images form. Luna raised her head at the guards¨Cno, the Paladins¨Cand her rage drowned her. She was burning through her mana without concern as disjointed stars of moonlight appeared around her. [Luna! LUNA!] (Syrus) But she was unresponsive. Ever since the metamorphosis into their new form, the connection and intensity of their emotions were much stronger. They understood the dangers of being dragged into each other¡¯s strong emotions, but they didn¡¯t have a full grasp on how much easier it was now for them individually to fall over the edge. Her hands raised as the contracts spun around her, ready to counter. Luna¡¯s fall into rage and madness was affecting the others, but they were able to keep their thoughts straight. The strongest emotion in the pit that swallowed Luna was rage, and Eva¡¯s emotion of deep concern actually managed to push against the pull. Syrus'' approach was brute forcing it. She knew anger; she knew how to use it, so she endured. The guards who brought no large weapons pulled out two sizable knives, and a stream of water was summoned and flowed between them. It joined and linked, and the river that floated in the air protected each of them as they rushed towards Anlesa. Luna was ready to charge forward. However, Luna¡¯s step stumbled for a moment as Syrus was able to rejoin the passenger seat. [Eva! Try to calm down Luna!] (Syrus) [How?!] (Eva) [I don¡¯t know, try to focus on happy thoughts.] (Syrus) [What are you going to do?!] (Eva) S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [...There can be no witnesses.] (Syrus) Their body changed once again, back to their true appearance. Their hair changed back to black with its highlights, and the hidden aspects of their appearance emerged as Eva was fully focused on dragging Luna out of the mess. ¡°Tch!¡± Syrus groaned. Being partly in control meant stepping closer into the sickly pit of emotions Luna had been dragged into. Her memories of being angry and moments in her life that enraged her were rising from the depths of her mind. Syrus let out a dry laugh, ¡°Ha ha haa. I know people can never completely control their emotions, but this is a little ridiculous. I gotta apologise¡­ Sis didn¡¯t notice how bad it actually was.¡± Anlesa lept forward with a feral laugh. The constructs of Moonlight flew forward and violently exploded on impact, causing massive damage to the surrounding area, completely breaking the water wall, and sending the guards back in a shockwave. Syrus tried to joke, ¡°Hey, that was so much mana, you could have left some for-argh.¡± The pain was getting worse. Syrus leapt and pulled out her knife and stabbed a guard in the neck. [Luna¡­ Please¡­ I need you¡­] Eva begged for Luna to hear her. Her mind was filled with every happy thought she could think of. She regretted not exploring what could happen with their emotions further. They understood the basics and left it at that because it was risky, but she knew they should¡¯ve. They should have been prepared to deal with a worst-case scenario that could happen. This wasn¡¯t like a normal person being stuck in a blind rage, no, their emotions had dragged Luna¡¯s mind into complete chaos. She didn¡¯t understand the reason or cause that made their emotions so powerful, Eva could assume, but she still didn¡¯t know, and not looking at it made them ignore an internal danger. Anlesa groaned, ¡°Hraaa, hraaaa, arghh¡­¡± And the second guard fell. It was a swift and clean kill, as Syrus had pushed their body further to take advantage of the shock the guards were facing due to Luna¡¯s explosion. The killing did provide some relief to the anger, but it would never be enough to satisfy it. The final paladin standing wasn¡¯t going to go down as easily. Standing strong, a torrent of water was summoned and morphed into large pillars that spread around and that he threw towards Anlesa like whips. Syrus jumped and dodged and looked for an opportunity to jump in for the finishing blow. The construct was clearly draining his mana, but with how quickly everyone else died, it was his desperate struggle. The water pillar crashed down, and Syrus leapt past it and flicked her hand to summon a blaze of fire to push against another pillar that fell towards her. Then during the combat, for a moment, [Lill¨C] Luna faded back in for a sliver of a moment. [LUNA!] Eva cheered, and with all her courage, she made use of the opportunity. With every speck of her memory and imagination, she remembered a warm group hug between them and their parents on their bed while reading a book. [Hmmm¡­] Luna smiled and was free from the spiral for a moment, and instantly she passed out. This left their head and body feeling really heavy, but Syrus held on and stabbed the last Paladin to death. She had made it close enough to stab the bastard. The fight was nothing difficult. The aftermath, on the other hand, they all understood was going to be a challenge. Chapter 101 – Consequences Chapter 101 ¨C Consequences [Ergh¡­] Luna woke up feeling extremely dizzy. The past, however long it was before she collapsed, was slowly coming back to her, but the experience itself was foggy. In a way she felt refreshed; warm memories of her family had been constantly filling her mind. Luna knew she had a lot of catching up to do on what transpired. It wasn¡¯t easy for only one of the trio to pass out; it was normally an all-or-nothing phenomenon. Previously the closest they normally got¨Cwhen one person could be in the body without their form suddenly changing¨Cthe other two could rest in the Soul Space. But that wasn¡¯t being unconscious; it only allowed them to not feel the body¡¯s tiredness and other physical afflictions, it was just a method of relaxing and not wanting to move. Hoping the consequences didn¡¯t leave Syrus and Eva in a precarious situation; her mind finally began to fade back into reality. Instantly she connected to the body and saw a burnt pile of ash and a mound of freshly smoothed-out dirt, indicating that digging had occurred. Fire burned across the ground as logs and leaves burned, leaving the whole area unrecognisable and burnt. [LUNA!] Eva cried, thankful that Luna had finally woken up. [...How¡­ long was I out¡­] (Luna) The sky was black. At this moment it would be either closer to midnight or morning. Luna could look up to the sky to estimate the time, but she was too afraid to do that. She understood what happened was her fault, but she was unable to feel guilty about it. And knowing that also sickened her, she might¡¯ve fucked everything for Eva and Syrus, but her soul didn¡¯t have a sliver of guilt for her needless murder. Syrus answered, [Nearly morning.] [I see¡­] (Luna) Luna saw all the work Syrus did to cover up the scene. The additional burning was to remove the traces that the soil that had been moved. [Covering for my mistakes¡­ I¡¯m sor¨C] (Luna) [Don¡¯t blame yourself¡­ you¡­ couldn¡¯t control it¡­] Eva was quick to interrupt. [I felt it¡­ that anger wasn¡¯t natural¡­ it was literally consuming¡­ no emotions can be given life to that point.] [Please¡­ don¡¯t blame yourself¡­ there was no good way out¡­] (Eva) [...Syrus¡­?] Said Luna, looking for another repose, looking for someone to criticise her. [Eva is correct. There was no way we were getting out this mess cleanly, so enjoy the fact you got to kill someone you despise.] (Syrus) Luna had been angry, but no matter what she did, she wasn¡¯t able to let it fade before this incident occurred. Eva¡¯s reasoning might have sounded nice, might¡¯ve been a way to shift the blame off Luna, but Luna didn¡¯t see it that way. It was still her wrath that caused this mess. It was impossible to deny the years of hatred that had built up inside her for the Aurora Church. She spent her whole first life in the place, that tortured her for what she was worth, betrayed her, then came back to steal from her again. That last part hurt her more than any of their previous actions did, because before she had nothing. There was a lot of emotion swirling in the three of them, but Luna could feel a strong warmth and relief from Eva and Syrus¡­ there was also a massive deal of worry, and concernedly, it mostly wasn¡¯t directed at her. [Is Cobalt safe?] (Luna) [Yeah¡­ he is currently eating a deer.] Syrus pointed to the wolf, who sat by a small river of water left behind eating. It stayed away from Anlesa while she did her thing. [He¡­ is a very smart dog¡­] (Eva) If that wasn¡¯t the problem, then something far worse must¡¯ve happened. [...What happened when I was out..?] (Luna) [We¡­ learned something¡­ not good¡­] (Eva) Syrus clarified. [They had small trading books on their persons. Their contents spell trouble.] [Wouldn¡¯t the books be coded?] Luna asked. Anything important would¡¯ve been coded. She did know a version of the cypher but didn¡¯t know if that knowledge would be useful. It had been over ten years, maybe it changed, there could also be a more secretive version. [Yeah, but we cracked it.] (Syrus) Luna¡¯s concerns were unneeded, as Syrus and Eva managed to solve it and gain access to the information inside. [Syrus understood how to translate the symbols.] (Eva) [Eva was the one to actually solve it once we found part of the key hidden in a separate book.] (Syrus) [It was mostly Syrus¡­] (Eva) S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Syrus scoffed, [All I did was basically the equivalent of explaining how a crossword worked.] The lack of immediate answer gave and instead going back and forth frightened Luna. [What¡­ is going to happen?] [The church is going to launch an attack on Arisea Station.] (Syrus) [But doing that would expo¨C] (Luna) [No it won¡¯t be their human forces, remember what that demon said and what you pointed out about the annoying ones?] (Syrus) [They are going to send a swarm of mutated animals towards the city¡­] The thought of that was awful. Depending on the amount that reached the city, the city could still survive and maybe that was the plan, but so many innocent people would die. [It would be good if it was just that.] Syrus sighed. [But they are bringing out all the stocks, looks like the bandits have been paid off to cause trouble during or after the conflict, hard to tell with what was written when.] [Mutated creatures and bandits¡­ What else?] (Luna) [We¡­ don¡¯t know¡­] (Eva) [Even after translating, the contents was still vague about what was actually coming. We were able to decipher bandits based on the fact it mentioned transactions with those in the mountains. It mentioned that Force B was coming from the north-west, so Demon Territory, and there was uncertainty about the amount of numbers, and based on what we knew, we guessed that meant mutated monsters. However, the further issue stemmed from the number of Forces they have labelled, Force A, B, C and D. Now, Force A, C, and D, could all be bandits but that is something we can¡¯t be sure of.] (Syrus) [Does it mention the direction or location of the other groups?] (Luna) [No, only Force B. Force A being bandits is just a conjecture based on mentioning the mountains, it does give some landmarks for what I can assume in bandits groups that agreed, but there is nothing about C or D in the two books.] (Syrus) [Is it possible to inform the city..?] Luna asked, not that she even knew the best way to go about that. [Yes, the issue will then fall if they believe the information found in a book. Of course there are no signifiers in the books about who they belong to.] (Syrus) [Bringing the bodies along is a no-go, huh?] (Luna) [That could get us into real trouble. It is safer for us to drop off the book without stirring up the pot.] Said Syrus. [There also could be people waiting, so instead we are going to take a long way back to the city and enter during peak time.] [I see¡­] (Luna) It was a lot of information Luna had to deal with all at once. Along with these new revelations, there was also all the trouble they now had to face about killing Morrison and her guards¡­ even if people didn¡¯t immediately know¡­ if something went wrong, they could be found out. Then it could spiral out of control for them. [...Then what?] Luna asked. Syrus had a simple answer as she had a long time to think about it. ¡°They have made a move against us, so now they shall face the consequences of their actions. So, first, it is time to clean up shop.¡± Chapter 102 – Upcoming Conflict Chapter 102 ¨C Upcoming Conflict [Morrsion already gone, right?] (Luna) [Yeah, sorry, did you want to kick it one more time?] (Syrus) [No¡­ it is for the best that she no longer exists.] (Luna) [Do¡­ you need to talk about it.] (Eva) [No thank you, Lilly. No point in further hating the dead¡­] (Luna) Luna didn¡¯t know if she truly believed her own words. There was a lot they needed to do. They snuck back into town without issue and began their quick preparation. [What shall we do first?] (Luna) [Home, I want to restock and grab our weapons.] (Syrus) They felt movement within their backpack as they started moving around the city. Syrus¡¯ whispered. ¡°Behave Cobalt, you will be back with Ethan soon.¡± The movement stopped, and they felt a soft head massaging against their back. Once home, Syrus grabbed her sword and restocked her backup. Then they left to restock a final few items that they could get from Ash¡¯s store. [Eva, what mixes well to create a large amount of smoke, better yet if it is something Ash has.] (Syrus) Eva knew something that would be perfect for what Syrus wanted. [Kumbler nuts, they have medicinal use but create a nasty cloud of smoke when burnt, it will take a few minutes though.] [Perfect.] (Syrus) Within moments, they were at Ash¡¯s store. Ash began a generic welcome as she heard the door opening. ¡°Morning¨C¡± ¡°I need some bandages, pain-numbing medicine, and Kumbler n¨C¡± ¡°Hold a minute, you can¡¯t just come in with an order without explaining your situation.¡± ¡°¨Cnuts.¡± Syrus finished, ¡°That will be it.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t just ignore me?!¡± Ash slammed her foot. ¡°I¡¯m-a needs some answers.¡± ¡°I¡¯m in a rush.¡± ¡°Not a good enough answer.¡± Ash tapped her foot again. Syrus sighed. It would be a lie to say she didn¡¯t expect this. ¡°What do you want to know?¡± ¡°Where should I start?¡± ¡°I guess the boy?¡± ¡°Then I will start there, why did that teary-eyed child come running into this place asking to be hidden?" Ash Evelen knew about the kid ever since Syrus made him pick up a potion from her store. ¡°People were after his dog.¡± ¡°The little pup?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°They were creeps.¡± Ash glared. ¡°Syrus.¡± ¡°I was, fucking creepy bastards.¡± ¡°Syrus¡­¡± Ash couldn¡¯t keep up the anger. She remembered the kid from yesterday being absolutely terrified. She sighed and began to gather the materials. ¡°I¡¯ll go grab what you want, but go to Albert¡¯s if you want bandages next time.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Ash silently gathered the materials. As she started to place the items on the table, Ash asked, ¡°Will everything be fine with the kid now?¡± ¡°It should be. I doubt they will be coming back.¡± ¡°I see.¡± A few more moments of silence, and Ash placed the last item on the table, the bandages. She took out a couple from her own stash; she never sold bandages, but she was making an exception today. Syrus paid for the items and placed them in her bag. Ash dropped her head onto her hand, whose elbow rested on the table. ¡°You are going to need to buy me a drink and actually explain the situation. It doesn¡¯t even take an idiot to know you left a lot out.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t drink.¡± ¡°Surprising, but besides the point.¡± Syrus didn¡¯t respond until she strapped up her bag again. ¡°I¡¯ll surprise you with something.¡± ¡°It better be good.¡± ¡°No promises.¡± Ash let Syrus leave without issue. Was there a lot more she wanted to ask? Yes. However, she did understand by Syrus'' actions that she was in a rush and chose to put down the topic for a moment, but she was going to get some answers. Finally, it was time to reunite Ethan and Cobalt. There were a few places they could be. Ethan¡¯s house, the training area, or just wandering around the city somewhere. So, to find him, Anlesa had to check each location. Eventually, they did find Ethan. They found the boy on the stump in the training area. Looking down at the ground despondent. Syrus walked up to him, but he didn¡¯t notice until. ¡°Hey there, kid,¡± Syrus spoke. ¡°Syrus¡­¡± Ethan¡¯s still watery eyes looked up at her before falling to the ground. Syrus crouched down and patted the boy on the head. ¡°It¡¯s okay; it¡¯s okay now.¡± Cobalt pushed his head out of the bag and slowly moved up to snuggle with Ethan. There was no big reaction. Ethan¡¯s eyes pulsed in shock as his hands shook. He expected the worst. His trembling hands brought the pup to his chest, and he hugged Cobalt tightly. Ethan¡¯s voice trembled. ¡°It¡¯s¨C¡± ¡°Quiet. Don¡¯t blame yourself for anything.¡± Ethan paused. ¡°Then¡­ Will everything be alright?¡± Luna asked. ¡°How many people initially chased you?¡± ¡°One¡­¡± ¡°Were they an old lady?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± Luna answered. ¡°Then yes, you will be fine for a little while.¡± [Will it..?] (Eva) [It will be enough time to clean up, so yes.] (Syrus) [If no one else has gone after him we can assume he is safe. If there is any cause for alarm, it would be the fact that three people died.] (Luna) [I see¡­] (Eva) They removed the tracker ages ago so there should be no immediate problem with that. Then there was the question of how many people actually knew about Cobalt being a blessed/mythic creature. If only Morrison saw him that helped, but she likely at least told everyone else from the church who was in town about him. The question was then how many people there were. [Should we just take Cobalt with us?] (Eva) [Not a bad idea, but he would likely just be locked in the bag for a long while. Not to mention issue two.] (Syrus) [Issue two?] (Eva) [Cobalt is too worried about Ethan.] (Syrus) [That makes sense but¨C] (Eva) [No, it¡¯s worse than you think. Every hour the pup¡¯s heart rate was increasing; he would likely have a panic attack if didn¡¯t see him by the end of the day, and I have no idea what would happen if we kept them separated.] (Syrus) [...but.] (Eva) [If you want, you can ask Ethan.] (Syrus) Eva immediately asked, ¡°Are you fine to be separated from Cobalt for a while longer?¡± Ethan¡¯s answer was quiet but immediate. ¡°No¡­¡± [See¡­] Syrus replied. She also wasn¡¯t happy about the situation. Whether it was because of the bond they shared or some supernatural connection they shared that Anlesa didn''t know about, the two refused to split for a long while at least. Anlesa''s conversation with Ethan ended quickly after, with some resistance on Ethan¡¯s part. Syrus told him to be careful and, if need be, stay home for a while. With all that done, all they had to do was drop off the information before they would begin their hunt. [Where are we delivering the book to?] (Eva) There was a benefit to being truthful about the situation, where the information came from, and whatnot. However, for their own safety, they chose not to do that. Instead, even though it brought risk to the city, they already planned to submit the information via a detour; however, what that option would be hadn''t been jointly decided yet. [Maca.] (Syrus) Eva paused. [...Do you think he would agree..?] She wasn¡¯t happy with that option; it was simply passing off the trouble from them to someone innocent. [Yes.] (Syrus) They reached his house and knocked on his front door. Maca answered, ¡°Who? Oh. Syrus. Didn¡¯t know you knew my address.¡± ¡°And I did. I need your help with something.¡± ¡°My help?¡± Syrus handed him the books. They had written translated notes to what the pages said and guides for further translating if anyone wanted to do the work themselves. Maca slowly opened a book, then walked back to let Syrus inside and then closed the door. The inside of his house was quite simple, only the bare essentials, with the exception of two extra beds. His expression darkened. ¡°What is this?¡± ¡°An upcoming planned attack on the town.¡± ¡°Where are the owners of these books?¡± ¡°In the ground.¡± His eyes flashed a dangerous glint for a moment. Quiet filled the air. Both understood the connotations and burden of having Maca deliver the book. He spoke. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be the first time someone has done something like this. I¡¯m assuming that¡¯s why you are giving this to me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not the reason; I just knew you were nice enough to shoulder it.¡± S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°It depends... who did these books belong to.¡± ¡°The church.¡± ¡°Fine.¡± He closed the book. ¡°I¡¯ll be your scapegoat, but you will owe me a large favour.¡± Syrus answered. ¡°I¡¯m fine with that.¡± [Why did he agree so easily¡­ I don¡¯t understand.] (Eva) [He has his reasons¡­] (Luna) [But¡­] Eva couldn¡¯t understand and didn¡¯t get why Syrus knew he would. It was stupid, bad, idiotic, and sad. Maca then asked. ¡°Now, do you need my help?¡± ¡°Besides the book.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Syrus shook her head. ¡°No, I can handle the rest myself. I¡¯ll be back in town after a few days.¡± ¡°How old are you?¡± Said Maca. Anlesa paused. ¡°...weird question.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Nevermind. Don¡¯t forget to return to your family.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll tell her you said hi.¡± Anlesa left. They had to visit their next location. Chapter 103 – Clean-up Crew Chapter 103 ¨C Clean-up Crew ¡°Hey, so what are we grabbing for lunch today?¡± ¡°We still got deer.¡± ¡°Arghhhh man, I don¡¯t want to eat salted deer meat any more.¡± ¡°What the fuck, are you a child? Get over yourself.¡± ¡°Come, let¡¯s disguise ourselves and chow down on city grub.¡± Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°You¡­¡± The man grunted. He bloody hated this conversation that happened every goddamn week! There was nothing he could do, though. If he beat up the other guy, he was in for a beating. If he did nothing, his ears were going to fall off. He threw his head into the ground, trying to ignore everything. After a minute of rambling, the man shouted, ¡°Argh¡­ Come on, someone¡¯s burning the meat!¡± ¡°What are you on about now?¡± "Man, look up. There is literally smoke on the ceiling.¡± He did, and his day instantly got worse. ¡°What idiot did that? It takes forever to get the smell of smoke out of the cave.¡± Both men stood up to check the problem in the kitchen. They walked out of the section of the cave they rested in and then knocked open the door to the storeroom they were sitting in. ¡°Mutt head, what the hell is this?!¡± A brownish smoke had completely filled the halls. ¡°How am I supposed to know!?¡± Then a sword came cleaving down. Thud. And the first man fell. ¡°Wha¨C¡± A vague figure emerged from the smoke, with a flaming hand holding a bundle of nuts. The fear grabbed him. What was he supposed to do¨C ¨CHis thoughts were too slow as the sword rose from the body of the corpse to claim his life. Syrus knew best any life was easily taken, including her current one. [Twelve.] (Syrus) [We have to be reaching the end.] (Luna) [...] (Eva) [At least in this camp.] (Syrus) With the information they grabbed from the books, they knew the rough location of at least three different bandit groups that agreed to join in on the attack. These weren¡¯t the only locations of bandits in the territory. There were many small and big groups who abused the very public fact of Arisea Station''s lack of surveillance in the wider area around the city to hide. These people attack traders leaving the city or even use the area as a base to harass and raid the lands in other countries. There were likely a number of criminal nomads who just lived off the land, but for some, when there were targets nearby, it was hard to not attempt an attack on such a tasty treat. This was the second location they hit. A natural cave formation that had been expanded and resonated into a hideout. The entrance was hidden and hard to find, as it was a concealed ladder entry on top of a cliff face. Syrus determined there was another large entrance somewhere that was likely covered by boulders, but they weren¡¯t going to give up the surprise attack by searching. Messy brown hair covered their head, paired with purple eyes. Brown-greyish rags covered their clothes, and a cloth was wrapped around the lower half of their face to deal with the smoke. The hallway opened up, and a small crowd of bandits came rushing out, finally alerted by all the commotion. For most, the idea to raid a bandit camp alone was suicidal. Let alone attack a second one after destroying one. However, most people weren¡¯t Syrus, who had far more human combat experiences than most people and a greater deal of strength. It wasn¡¯t like there was no risk. There was plenty, which was why they chose the method of a surprise attack. Would a proper assault be better? Yes. The town would¡¯ve loved to know where a couple of camps were settled. However, they were afraid of what could happen. What if the attack mentioned was going to happen in a day''s time? Maybe it was months away, but what if it was tomorrow or the day after? It was that fear that drove them to this decision. Syrus was quick to suggest this idea. A quick bloody solution to their problems that could protect the city¡¯s folk. Luna agreed. She had her misgivings, but she believed she had no room to argue and held the same fear. The people of the town were kind people, and so she made her choice. Eva reluctantly agreed. [...] (Eva) The wires released from her wrist and whipped towards the legs of the guards. Eva was disgusted. She knew what Syrus would say, was going to say, wanted to say. I¡¯ll handle this, don¡¯t worry, rest in the soul space, etc. Eva would be lying if those words didn¡¯t sound so sweet. The sharp wires wrapped around and dug into their skin, and Syrus, along with a pull from Eva, tripped two of them. The first time Anlesa killed some, it was a desperate struggle to survive and protect their family. The second time was Luna¡¯s madness-filled rage. Outside those two moments, every time they had fought someone, including previous bandits, it had ended non-lethally. Syrus was a hardened mercenary who, while the main job was monster killing, they knew she experienced war. Luna had long sealed off feelings of empathy outside selected people and was used to awful sights from her experiences of visiting harsh areas as a propaganda piece where she saw the aftermath of horrendous events. Eva was a simple girl. Poor, tired, but she never did anything that bad. But she wanted revenge. Desperately. And she wasn¡¯t blind to what that was going to entail, and it won¡¯t be a desperate struggle. Eva didn¡¯t want to lock herself away. She promised herself that. Still, that didn¡¯t mean she had to like every part of it. Syrus rushed in with her sword ready for counterswing, and her sword erupted in a blaze. [Do we want to capture any of these ones?] (Eva) [The one in the back right.] (Syrus) [On it.] (Eva) They would be finished with this place soon. Chapter 104 – Hunter & Prey Chapter 104 ¨C Hunter & Prey It didn¡¯t take too much longer for Anlesa to finish the raid on the bandit hideout. However, Eva wished she could forget about some of the gross sights she saw in the backrooms. ¡°Argh.¡± Syrus tied a bandage around her shoulder and tightened it. Red blood had stained their clothes where the injury had occurred. The wound itself looked fine; it wasn¡¯t bleeding, and the cut didn¡¯t look deep. [Stop, let me heal it.] (Luna) [You did a fine enough job when it happened. The rest can be left to natural recovery. We still have one more place to jump.] (Syrus) A long blade in a tight space wasn¡¯t easy to use, and not knowing the playing field was a big disadvantage. The injury was caused by a small cave-in done by an Earth attribute user and a sneak attack by someone on the opposite side of a stone wall. Syrus did manage to grab the person by the neck as they came through but they got the stab in. Once the wound was properly wrapped up, she re-sleeved her arm and got up off the rock she was sitting on. They were outside and ready to move to their next location. They had enough energy and a good enough amount of mana, around 40%, which was still more than average persons. They had used a fair bit over the last two days. The fight where Luna went crazy with anger drained a lot; her attacks were over expensive, huge dumps of mana. She was even close to creating an outburst, but Syrus and Eva¡¯s contrasting wills prevented that. The attacks themselves were something Luna was theory crafting, but the version that she made that fight was a lesser version of what she aimed for¨Cthe incompleteness in the magic spell theory with large quantities of mana. Even though she didn¡¯t exactly remember the fight well, she was happy to know that her magic spell crafting wasn¡¯t completely worthless as there was something of a result. Due to Luna¡¯s unwillingness to pilot the body for a long while, she never had the chance to test or innovate on her creations. Then the bandit clearing, where they used a decent amount, Syrus had no qualms about using mana to ensure they completed the job with minimal injury. She was good at managing it, she knew what muscles to strengthen to get the exact effect she wanted, but cleaning two bases out and running between them did cost something. They did have a higher mana regeneration rate than the average person, but they also had a large tank to fill. [One more.] (Syrus) [The last one is further into the mountains¡­] (Eva) [Higher up as well, the surprise attack will be a little more tricky.] (Syrus) From the brief description, the last camp was the furthest away, and it was somewhere on the western side of the mountains. There were a few landmarks mentioned, but they knew this last one was going to take a while longer to find. [Do we wish to try and capture another person?] (Luna) [...Likely not.] (Syrus) During both raids, they had tried to gather information from the bandits, but it was only slightly successful. They were able to learn that bandits were waiting for a signal, which Anlesa guessed was likely the mutated monster moving towards the city, but they didn¡¯t have a date. They were able to learn that the deal was made recently, leading credence to the idea the attack was going to be soon. It meant if bandits did decide to snitch¨Cwhich they didn¡¯t know who their employer was¨Cthere wasn¡¯t much time for that to happen. Syrus scaled the mountainside, going higher and higher until she found a vantage point to look from, and once she did, she looked to find the camp. Now if the camp wasn¡¯t in view, it was time to keep climbing. Night did fall during their travel, so Anlesa went to have a quick sleep on a small rock on a cliffside. During this silence, Eva asked a question she hadn¡¯t understood the answer to. [Why..?] (Eva) [Why has the church chosen to plan this attack?] Luna had a feeling Eva had been wondering about this since the first reveal. Luna was now quite cynical about the church. For a long while in this life she believed there were depths they wouldn¡¯t sink to, but having that remaining belief shattered ever since that day, her mind completely flipped to the complete opposite thoughts and didn¡¯t even question the church planning an attack on Arisea Station. [Yeah¡­] Eva found the whole plan awful. Why would anyone plan such a thing? [People can do anything, Eva.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s not a reason¡­] Eva bit her lip. [Just because people can doesn¡¯t mean they will just do anything.] [You''re speaking too broadly. ] (Syrus) [But¡­] (Eva) [There are no justifiable answers in bringing innocents into war, Eva.] (Syrus) They got up early in the morning while it was still dark and continued to look. Eventually, they found it. The base was as expected, far into the mountains on a flat-ish plane of land between large cliffsides. It appeared slightly hazardous if a rocky avalanche occurred, but considering it didn¡¯t seem that damaged even though the earthquake was recent, maybe it was safer than what Anlesa thought. [Raid from the back?] (Luna) [No, above.] (Syrus) [Pardon?] (Luna) S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [The cliffside to the back of the base, if we can get on top of that, we can drop some of those large rocks, which I can see on it. Plus, it means if they do have some small camp station up there, we can deal with them first.] (Syrus) [Would they have some station behind?] (Eva) [It¡¯s more of a bonus for us, but maybe it is a good vantage point.] (Syrus) Syrus instantly got to moving as she planned her attack. [Ah, yes, perfect.] Syrus looked around, and there were multiple large rocks that were in the ground, but with a little bit of effort, they could be removed and used as weapons. It took around an hour to get into a position where Syrus wanted to be. Mostly due to the fact it required a long detour and avoiding a small group of bandits who seemed to be returning to camp. Syrus debated attacking them but didn¡¯t know if the bandits had a strict schedule; if they did, then this strike would¡¯ve made the bandits alert to something sooner than she would¡¯ve liked. They began by moving some of the large boulders into place, which took around thirty minutes. Once everything was ready, she started the timer. She burned a few of the remaining Kumbler nuts and let them start to smoke. It would take a few minutes before a full fog of smoke would appear from them. The sun was still rising, but the camp was still dark thanks to the mountains that would keep blocking the light for a while longer. Chapter 105 – The Fiend Chapter 105 ¨C The Fiend It was early in the morning in the mountain hideaway. The nightly patrols came in and out of the camp throughout the night. Whether this was necessary was a debate between a lot of members. Was it really necessary? No one came this deep into the mountains besides that, especially not at night. The patrols weren¡¯t only for looking at intruders; if anything, that was the least important aspect of the patrols. Keeping an eye out for animals for predators or a new meal, checking the tunnels and rock formations had not collapsed¨Cespecially important after the recent quakes¨Camong other safety and opportunity encounters that may appear. But the people wanted something to complain about. No one at the camp liked walking around the mountains late at night. Besides those who were out on patrol, most were still in the old wooden, thatched-roofed buildings resting. A few were sitting outside, slowly waking up, even though it was very dark thanks to the mountains. ¡°Argh, fuck, I need to make a new bed.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t we get some new bedding recently?¡± ¡°Yeah, but the lot was used for the back end blocks, they were the oldest, but fuuuuuuuck, I needed an upgrade to mine.¡± Thump The quiet sound of a small object falling wasn¡¯t noticed by anyone. Small pebbles and made echoing sounds all the time. ¡°Look, just get some grass and pack it in at this point.¡± ¡°No, that shit will just make me itchy.¡± Thump ¡°You need to stop complaining.¡± Thud, Thud, Thump Maybe it was the darkness, but they didn¡¯t notice the smoke that had been rising from the small objects long before they landed, if one of them even noticed the objects that landed. ¡°Says you.¡± ¡°Me? I only complain about the quality of the clothes as the seasons change.¡± ¡°And? You are so noisy about it.¡± A third member walked out of one of the buildings and asked, ¡°Can the two of you shut up? You have this conversation every week.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that often.¡± ¡°He¡¯s right about it.¡± ¡°Fucking hell, mate, why is that¨C¡± The lady paused. ¡°What¡¯s that smell?¡± It wasn¡¯t sure, but it was unpleasant, and it smelt like a type of smoke. She spun around and saw clouds of smoke that had risen from the side and behind their buildings. The smoke also closed in on their area. ¡°What the fuck were you guys doing!¡± The lady yelled to alert everyone, as for the worst case, if a fire had started. ¡°Answers please!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t bloody know¨C¡± BOOOM Their conversation was interrupted. A large boulder fell from the mountaintops into one of the houses. ¡°Fuck! That better not have hit someone.¡± They went to check the safety of the residents. Then in quick succession, more came tumbling down. Thud, Thud, Thud, Thud¨C BOOOM Thud, Thud¨C BOOOM Larger boulders rolled down the mountain and flung off the cliffside, smashing through buildings and rolling into the open area. In the darkness of the shadow, a figure slid down the mountainside. The smoke made everything worse as people were frantically trying to find the injured and get people out of the buildings. ¡°I need a report of what is happening?!¡± The de facto leader of the camp, one of its founding members, emerged demanding an explanation. He had a massive frame, larger than the tallest people by a margin, and he brought out his sword as a threatening tool even though his physique was enough. One person with the Water attribute tried to put out the fire they assumed was happening, while another person with Wind tried to blow away the smoke. ¡°Boss, we are trying to figure that out.¡± It was a large camp, one of, if not the largest camp; no one messed with them, so no one even thought what was happening was intentional. Cleave Unbeknownst to anyone, four people had already died. As people were searching for others, more had died. ¡°Who¡¯s there!¡± One person yelled as they thought they heard someone. The figure had no discernible characteristics; as they were covered in cloth, the only thing noticeable was the dark brown or black hair they had. Fire erupted, and one of the buildings was lit on fire. ¡°Someone is killing! Everyone, regroup at the centre!¡± At this point, some had noticed a colleague die before their eyes. The smoke was getting worse. It was clearly coming from multiple sources and directions. At least six points in the camp it was growing from. Suddenly the boss leapt forward. The figure covered in cloth clashed with the boss. The people who could barely see were relieved that the boss was about to handle the situation. There were people who were ready to jump in and stab the person, but it was hard when smoke was irritating their eyes. However, what no one expected was that someone half his height began to overpower him. With a mighty push, the boss was pushed back. He tried to adjust his blade, but it was too late. Syrus¡¯ long blade carved its way into his neck. One man gulped as his foot stumbled back. He was one of the people just sitting out complaining, and as with every step of chaos, he took a further step back. At times like this, he always took the motto of staying calm and evaluating the situation. However, staying calm was particularly hard for him at the moment. The poor bandit regretted so many of his life decisions. Maybe if he killed a few fewer people he wouldn¡¯t have ended up in this position. But that was a question no one could answer. So he decided to make one he wouldn¡¯t regret. He ran. As fast as he could. Jumping off the side of the mountain, hoping to escape the monster attacking them. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 106 – Returning Chapter 106 ¨C Returning [...Are we done¡­?] (Eva) Blood soaked the rags that covered their clothes. The fight wasn¡¯t a clean one. After the initial wave of surprising killings, everything became far more chaotic. No one wanted to go down easily. Once the fact that simply stabbing the invader wasn¡¯t going to work, everyone started firing their elemental attribute in every possible direction. [Yes, we are done.] (Syrus) Syrus was seated on a chair that they had dragged out of a building into an area without smoke as she wiped the blood off her sword. The corpses would make a good meal for the local wildlife, and it would be the last free meal they would be getting. The deep carven next to the camp had an eerie sight of bones that had piled over an unknown amount of time. That wasn¡¯t the only sight Eva found deeply sickening, but she wasn¡¯t doing her best to keep her mind off them. The whole assault on their part wasn¡¯t something she wholeheartedly agreed with and had many mixed feelings about. Though she didn¡¯t know if the sights made those feelings better or worse. Once the clean-up was done, they got up, ready to leave. Syrus did a quick look around for anyone else in a secret room or passage, but they didn¡¯t find anyone else. Maybe some people had gotten away or weren¡¯t here when they attacked, but that didn¡¯t matter; the large bandit camp was no more. There were no more threats of them attacking a weakened city or continuing with their usual endeavours of pillaging and looting. Finally, it was the early morning again, and Anlesa had already ditched the bloody cloth they used to protect and disguise themselves. It had taken another day of travel to reach the town again, but it was finally within their sights. [Everything is still together.] (Syrus) [Not the time for jokes, Syrus.] (Luna) [Only if you make it so.] (Syrus) It was a simple act of entering town among all the hustle and bustle of moving carts and people in the morning. Everything seemed normal. People were moving to work. Eating food at the diners. Chatting on the streets. And Anlesa was simply headed home. But they did have their eyes out for the changes in the city. After a slow walk, they finally reached home. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± Eva groaned. They were home, and she slowly turned and sat on the bed. Syrus took control and began taking their boots off. [Syrus, city report?] (Luna) [There is practically no church vermin around.] (Syrus) [Practically?] (Luna) [I didn¡¯t see any obvious ones around, but there could be some around.] (Syrus) With the boots off, then their remaining supplies unpacked, Eva took control and moved to her work table. She pulled out her stool and rummaged through her supplies, taking notes of what she had remaining. There was a rack of potions they had left behind on the table and minimal ingredients remaining. She wanted to begin restocking as soon as possible, but leaving the city in these potentially troubling times brought forth a fear inside her. [...So, either we have missed them because they are hiding away or just out of our sight, or their numbers have actually decreased.] (Luna) [What does that mean¡­] (Eva) [The good option is that they have retreated and we are all good, the bad option is that they have simply removed themselves in preparation for the attack.] (Syrus) [I see¡­] (Eva) Eva fiddled with the items on the desk. [I don¡¯t think I can understand why¡­] Eva sadly mumbled in a despondent tone. [The church?] (Luna) [Hmhmm.] Eva confirmed. [That¡¯s good. Don¡¯t try to understand those bastards.] (Syrus) [But learning and understanding the unknown is how people grow¡­] Eva was a scientist at heart. Learning, understanding, and creating were what she found joy in. [I don¡¯t think that also relates to people.] (Syrus) [...] Eva already had trouble understanding why the Aurora Church had even conceptualised the idea of attacking an innocent city. She understood, in simple terms, people could be bad; she had met plenty who made her starving stomach crawl. She even understood countries could even declare war on each other for stupid reasons. But seeing these events up close was a different experience. The Aurora Church attacking a small village for likely no good reason was a permanent shock to her system, one that she would never recover from. And now, seeing the plan to attack the city and the unpleasant disgusting sights in those bandits'' dens, she had unwantedly learned how far a person could stoop, and her brain wanted there to be a justifiable reason. But as Syrus kept telling her. There would never be any. Chapter 107 – X Days of Peace Chapter 107 ¨C X Days of Peace Outside their house, the city was moving along ever so peacefully. After Eva organised her supplies again and restocked the bag of the items that had been used up during their multi-day trip. They laid down on their bed for a while to recover from their mental exhaustion. The trip was very taxing for Eva, which did have a strong impact on their body¡¯s wellbeing, so a rest was needed. While resting, Eva asked a question. [Do you think we were wrong about the information in the book?] (Eva) [Eva¡­] Syrus sighed. Oh, how she wished Eva would just hide away for a few days but come back when it was safe or when they needed to sleep so there would be no negative repercussions to their body¡¯s functioning. Eva didn¡¯t need to experience all that was occurring around them at the moment, Syrus believed, but she knew directly telling Eva that was going to get the opposite result she wanted. [Let¡¯s go with the assumption that they haven¡¯t and we didn¡¯t misunderstand what was written.] [Understood.] (Eva) Eva just had a simple wish. She didn¡¯t want to see anyone from the city die. After being rested, they got their gear ready, clothes tightened and padded leather hidden under the clothes, and with their longsword and bag on their back, they left the house again. [Do we meet Ash first?] (Luna) Their last meeting ended rather quickly, and Ash Evelen likely had many questions for Anlesa. [Let¡¯s go find Maca first¡­] (Eva) [Agreed, we need an update on the situation.] (Syrus) [Should we just go knocking on his house?] (Luna) [Let¡¯s see if we can find him in the city first.] (Syrus) They exited the house and their first stop¨Cfood! After smelling the scent of the food being cooked on the fire flying in the air and only eating rations and berries for a few days, Anlesa wanted a hearty meal. Soon after they finished eating, Syrus finally found their target. Their eyes met from across the street, and Syrus gave a small flick towards the end of the side street. With a small nod, they both began to move. Eventually, the two made it towards the outer edges of the town, where they could talk without disturbance. ¡°Few days have passed,¡± said Maca. Syrus replied, ¡°I was busy; I only returned today. Good to see fewer flies in the city.¡± ¡°Was successful?¡± ¡°There are no remaining witnesses.¡± Maca paused; his stoic face released a small, pained look. ¡°How old are you?¡± ¡°You asked that before. Why?¡± ¡°Bloody, it must¡¯ve been bloody.¡± ¡°And?¡± Syrus did understand Maca¡¯s point, but she wasn¡¯t going to give him any clear answers. Anlesa''s age, especially in her current disguise, could be anywhere between fifteen and her early twenties. However, no matter what end of the spectrum the answer lay, there would be no reason a person of that age would be confident and composed murdering multiple bandit camps single handley. ¡°I chose the option.¡± Maca had seen many things in his life. He was in his thirties, but due to his body, he appeared as a young, healthy man in his prime twenties. However, he knew that taking a life wasn¡¯t easy. Even when defending from bandits and a fatal blow being made, he had seen time and again, hunters not in the best state after taking the life of a human, even the ones that had been in the business for a long time. The people who could deal with it, from his experience, were those who had been forced to become numb to it, were crazies, held strong beliefs, or were instinctively able to push those thoughts away. Syrus switched to a more important topic. ¡°Now I have to ask, was there any issue in delivering the information?¡± Maca answered. ¡°No. Hmm. Fight, with the prize, being delivered through the chain to me.¡± S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°They don¡¯t believe you were the one who acquired the book, but that someone under your protection did, and they handed it to you.¡± ¡°Correct.¡± Maca nodded. Syrus followed up, ¡°Have they done anything with the information?¡± Maca paused. ¡°Yes.¡± Syrus pushed further. ¡°Do you think what they are doing is enough?¡± ¡°If true, no. I also don¡¯t know everything.¡± Syrus nodded. After their very quick walk, it did seem there were more people patrolling the town at least, but she had no idea what else the city was doing. She asked, ¡°How long do you think we have until shit falls apart?¡± ¡°A week or never. You?¡± ¡°A day, to a fortnight.¡± ¡°Cheating answer.¡± Syrus let out a small answer. ¡°Ha. I suppose it is.¡± Chapter 108 – First Sign of Trouble Chapter 108 ¨C First Sign of Trouble The conversation with Maca didn¡¯t last much longer. A bit more back-and-forth questioning on both sides. Maca knew what Syrus did and tried to learn a little more, but Syrus didn¡¯t give him any clear answers. She didn¡¯t want to bring up any details for Eva¡¯s sake. There were things they saw she didn¡¯t want Eva to remember. On the opposite end, Syrus tried to learn more about what the government was doing, but Maca didn¡¯t have many answers. He knew security had increased, but besides that, he wasn¡¯t informed of any of the plans that they were going to implement. Along with that, the decrease in church tourists around had been noticed by Maca, but that seemed to be more a result of Morrison and her guards'' deaths than anything else. Once they were done, they split up again. Anlesa had people she needed to visit, and Maca had his own worries to deal with. [Who do we wish to visit first?] (Luna) [The kid or Ash huh¡­] (Syrus) [Ethan is likely needing some comfort¡­] (Eva) [Out of the two of them, we are likely just to have a long conversation with Ash, so checking on the boy will likely be quicker.] (Syrus) [Syrus¡­] (Eva) Eva wasn¡¯t happy with Syrus¡¯ attitude when it came to their acquaintances. However, she didn¡¯t make a comment. Eva understood that after everything that happened, she herself was a little worked up and so chalked up her current frustration as a symptom of those feelings. There were no verbal complaints, so they went looking for Ethan, but it took a while to find him. Likely due to the warnings before, he certainly was keeping himself out of sight. Eventually, they found the kid in the corner of the one on the south end backstreets. He hadn¡¯t noticed them. Syrus called out first, ¡°Morning Kid, has anyone been bullying you recently?¡± ¡°Sir Teacher!¡± Ethan ran up to Syrus, with Cobalt following close behind. [Ethan¡­] (Eva) Luna crouched down to the boy¡¯s height. ¡°There, there. Has everything been good?¡± Ethan held back something and just nodded. ¡°Hrm!¡± Cobalt rubbed its little head against Anlesa¡¯s leg. ¡°Wrmm¡­¡± ¡°Ha ha, well, good to see you two kids being all well.¡± Said Syrus. ¡°Has anyone come looking for you?¡± Ethan was about to shake his head but paused. ¡°I¡¯m¡­ not sure. I kept hidden and out of sight when I had to be out of the house while you were going.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Syrus patted the kid''s head. ¡°Knowing that you are safe means my job here is done.¡± ¡°You are going already?¡± Ethan asked, shocked. ¡°Yeah, there is a lot I have to do.¡± ¡°I understand¡­¡± Ethan''s head dripped; there was a lot he wanted to ask, but Syrus was an important person in his eyes, and there must be a lot of important stuff she needed to do! If it wasn¡¯t for her¡­ Ethan didn¡¯t want to imagine what could¡¯ve happened to Cobalt. ¡°Look, all that matters is that you and Cobalt are alive and healthy, you understand? Now following that, I want you to go home and tell your parents this. If you hear any loud noises, run.¡± ¡°W-what?¡± Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°There is the chance some creatures will be attacking the town, and I know you live near the western edge, so it is really important if you hear anything, get up and move.¡± ¡°I-understand!¡± Ethan¡¯s body shook, understanding the dangers. ¡°Good, I¡¯m not sure when this might happen. Could be today or a week from now, but I want you and your family to be safe, please.¡± ¡°Woo!¡± ¡°Yes, of course, that includes you to Cobalt.¡± As they said they would. Anlesa got up and left, while Ethan went home to inform his family of the possible danger. Luna hoped his family would listen to him. [Ash?] (Eva) [Yeah, we will go visit her now.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s likely going to be a fun conversation.] (Luna) They made their way to Ash Evelen¡¯s store. There was a warm welcome as Anlesa closed the door behind them as they entered. ¡°Took you fucking long enough.¡± ¡°Language.¡± Ash¡¯s elbow dropped onto the bench she sat at and angrily pointed at Syrus. ¡°That should be the least of your damn concerns.¡± She stopped and leaned back on her stool. ¡°I was nearly ready to file you off as dead.¡± ¡°Thanks, but I know that is too much work.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t try me. It could¡¯ve gotten me some bloody answers.¡± Syrus dropped her bag at the door and closed the latch. She answered. ¡°You are right, but hold yourself, it¡¯s going to be a long story.¡± This time, Anlesa was ready to give some answers. This was a decision made by the three of them. Whether it was because of the small trust they had in Ash or just the necessaries of the situation, they still chose to tell her a portion of what had happened and what was about to occur. Syrus started by explaining the events, starting with the attack on Ethan. They chose to explain it was the Aurora Church that was behind the events. Lying about that would get them nowhere, and while it made no moral or logical sense for normal people for the church to do these acts, who else could Syrus be able to name? They told her how they saved the pup, and that the reason why was that Cobalt was able to store mana. Ash understood that meant the puppy was a rare specimen, and she had heard of such creatures being used as legendary companions before. They also said that they permanently dealt with the individuals involved. Ash¡¯s expression darkened in shock upon hearing the news. However, she didn¡¯t have time to question Syrus as what shocked Ash even more was the planned attack on the city, which she couldn¡¯t completely accept was going to happen. Syrus explained that she had left to do some clean-up on the areas mentioned in the plan. ¡°I¡­ what the fuck, Syrus.¡± Ash was glad she stayed sitting down for that discussion. Her head rested in her hands as her arms stood perpendicular to the desk. ¡°That can¡¯t be about to happen, right?¡± ¡°Well, there were people in the places the book said they would, and the city believed it enough to start something.¡± Ash was having trouble processing all of the information. ¡°How¡­ much blood did you get on your hands? No. I shouldn¡¯t ask.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the business, I thought you would understand that.¡± ¡°But¡­ it¡¯s still a painful act, are you okay?¡± She looked up towards Syrus, worried. Syrus wasn¡¯t able to maintain eye contact. She didn¡¯t expect the response, if anything, she was ready for Ash to be neutral or disgusted by her actions, not concerned for her. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Glimpses of Luna¡¯s and Eva¡¯s thoughts flashed through her eyes. Gratitude and the worry that was being carried. After a long conversation, Anlesa left the shop. Ash wanted her to stay around, but Syrus basically ordered her to start preparing for an attack. They didn¡¯t want anything bad to happen to her. There were so many things they wanted and needed to do, but they weren¡¯t sure how much time they had left. [Do you think it is possible if we first collect more ingredients?] (Eva) [Depends, how were our finances looking? I want to buy better plating and padding.] (Syrus) [We have enough to cover those expenses, but doing a pass over the city might be required. There is always the chance there are still more Aurora Church spies in the city.] (Luna) Suddenly, Syrus stopped moving, and her eyes darted to the sky. ¡°The birds are troubled.¡± Syrus looked towards a flock of different birds squawking and flying from the forest, appearing disturbed. [Maybe it¡¯s nothing?] (Eva) [Stop being hopeful, Eva. It¡¯s time to get into position.] (Syrus) Chapter 109 – Disaster Closing In Chapter 109 ¨C Disaster Closing In Whether the disturbance was the worst-case scenario was something to be determined, but for the moment, Anlesa was moving towards the edge of town, assuming the worst. The large brigade of birds and, eventually, other animal howls grabbed the attention of a few people, but most chose to ignore it. Maybe a fire broke out in the forest, or a gathering party did something stupid¨Cnot the first time that had happened. Syrus used her Blood attribute to enhance her hearing, and she tried to make sense of all the noises. [Syrus, have you noticed anything?] (Luna) Luna and Eva could hear all the additional sounds coming into their head, but like usual, neither were able to make sense of what they were hearing. [I¡¯m hearing something stomping¡­ well multiple creatures, but there are a few loud steps of stomps which are the most audible.] (Syrus) Some people called out to her, asking where she was going, but Syrus ignored them and continued to sprint until she reached the western edge of town. Luna and Eva couldn¡¯t even properly understand what the people around them were saying. Syrus'' hearing made all the voices around them connect into a blurry cloud. [So¡­ we can expect another large mutated beast, and likely some small ones as well.] (Luna) Luna figured there would be another creature the same size as the deer they faced and likely a hoard of slightly bigger than normal mutated animals. [I wish that is the case, but there is the possibility there is one extra large mutated animal dampening the sounds of the rest.] (Syrus) Syrus knew the larger mutated animals were a rare breed, as even normal mutated animals were not commonly seen. However, these were beasts from a demon territory, and that wasn¡¯t a land she knew much about, but she was fearful based on rumours that whatever environment it was, it made larger mutated creatures more common. [How¡­ likely do you think that is the case?] (Eva) [Not sure. You are good at probability, right? Based on what we know and what we heard from the demon, what do you think?] (Syrus) [...] Eva didn¡¯t want to answer. Not that it was an easy question; whatever she said was likely some amount of bullshit anyway, but Syrus was asking, so she wanted to answer. On the other side, Syrus was hoping this might push Eva away to rest; she needed it the most out of the three of them. [Around¡­ 90% of multiple creatures the size of that mutated deer.] [Sounds right.] (Syrus) Finally, they made it towards the edge of town. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [I can¡¯t see anything yet.] (Syrus) [Syrus, can you stop the hearing or tone it down? It¡¯s bringing along a headache.] (Luna) [Sure, not much of a point to keep it up.] Syrus released the enhancement on her hearing, which caused her eyes to sting as they lightly healed. They stood staring towards the forest as they moved to see past it. There were no creatures in the plains, and even without the strengthened hearing, they could hear the sound of trees falling. [What is the plan?] (Luna) [Fighting however many that show up while possible is not going to be the best idea.] (Syrus) [You''re confident.] (Luna) [Maybe, but there is still the chance that any of the creatures can get past us and attack the city.] (Syrus) Even with no mutated monsters in sight, they were sticking firm with their decision. Syrus pulled out her longsword from its sheath, and a light flame emerged from it. Mana from their body flowed out and concentrated on the sword, and a violent heat slowly emerged as she began to cast a magic spell. [You''re using the sword as a medium for your magic..?] Eva felt what Syrus was doing and was amazed. She had seen her use the sword to launch for Fire before, but this time the sword itself was storing the energy as the magic was being cast with the blade. She had heard stories that magicians would use a staff to manifest their attributes and wondered if this was similar. Her curiosity was heightened, which made her negative emotions calm down. [With an ordinary sword?] Luna understood the theory behind what Syrus was doing a lot more but was still amazed. She had seen artefacts made by artificers designed to amplify certain spells, and a couple of the holy artefacts to strengthen all magic, but those were still specialised items. This was just a simple sword, and its body was being used as a chamber that forged the spell. [Haha. Honestly, I didn''t expect such a reaction from either of you, should¡¯ve shown it off sooner and thought it was common-ish knowledge, but I guess my country bumpkin arse was wrong again.] (Syrus) Graghoooooooooooooooowl! The creatures howled from within the Amber Forest, this time grabbing their attention with a bloodcurdling scream. Syrus could see the beast through the cracks as they charged at the town. [Can the sword handle it?] Luna asked. She was deeply worried what Syrus was doing would destroy the sword beyond a usable condition. [Trust me, I¡¯ve done this enough times. The sword should be fine if I¡¯m only doing this once. Though, Eva I would like it if you got your wire ready.] Replied Syrus. While she said the sword would be fine, she would rather let it rest for a moment before swinging it into hard monster flesh. She also had a small regret about not talking about this technique sooner, thinking back on it, if she did, she could have Eva work with her to either strengthen the effect or lower the damage on the sword. But a combination of just forgetting about the importance and difficulty of the technique and the constant want to keep Eva away from danger made sure the thought never came to her head. A large blob crumbled the woods in front of it as it charged. [What the hell is that?] (Syrus) It broke through the outer forest wall, along with an army of other mutated creatures that ran besides it and behind it. There were many large mutated animals and even a few the same size as the deer. A large mutated wolf and snake were standouts in that size group. However, the truest standout was a creature that stood over even them. With a large grey body, four legs that were the size of tree trunks, a long nose, and horns growing out of everywhere. [I don¡¯t know?!] (Eva) [It¡¯s a mutated elephant. Now, Syrus, proceed with your attack!] (Luna) Syrus''s grip on her sword tightened as she swung her blade in an arc. ¡°Release!¡± Syrus yelled. The sword erupted red, and a torrent of flames vomited out in a glorious wall of crimson flames that stole the breath of everyone outside as it soared high into the sky. Chapter 110 – Trouble at All Fronts! Chapter 110 ¨C Trouble at All Fronts! A wave of flames scorched the air and alerted everyone in the city, as, of course, it would. The flames towered over the buildings and would¡¯ve covered the outer western edge of the city in the shade if it wasn¡¯t a source of light. The stretch of flames wasn¡¯t short in height or width, but certainly, horizontal length was more impressive as it covered four of the side street entrances. Anlesa''s marvelling at their own creation was short-lived, as there was still work to be done. The mutated creatures weren¡¯t all going to be done in with one attack. With a quick flick, Syrus stored her sword back into the sheath, and they could feel the heat still radiating off it onto their back. The mutated elephant stumbled back into the forest, its body swinging left and right to dampen the flames. Eventually, the flames along its body turned to smoke without a continued fight. That beast was one of the lucky ones; its tough hide let it survive the direct blow of the attack. Syrus'' intent was to create a wall that would drive off the creatures, not necessarily kill them, but it contained enough power to do a decent job at that. While the city was wondering what skilled mage had appeared in the city and moving to confront the issue, Syrus had already begun moving. Metal wire floated around their wrists as she ran towards the creatures that still thought about moving towards the city around the fire. She waved her arm, and Eva followed the motion, whipping through the fire with a sharp, deadly snap. While Syrus was rushing to drive back the fowl beast. An overly excited Eva couldn''t help herself. [Syrus, do you think I could do something like that?] (Eva) In truth, Eva wasn¡¯t asking for confirmation but affirmation. Syrus'' technique brought about a wave of inspiration within Eva. Manipulation already had the advantage when it came to using mana within objects, and while creating an attack like what Syrus did seemed unlikely as Manipulation had no real worldly impact with its mana, Eva was already looking into ways to utilise Manipulation''s own unique traits to create something magical. [Yeah, sure you can. Just focus, okay?] (Syrus) [Understood!] Eva was locked in. Her dark emotions were completely suppressed by her excitement and curiosity. While certainly not intended by Syrus, she was happy with the outcome to an extent. Eva and Luna¡¯s lack of understanding of her technique had also saved Syrus a potential long head full of complaints. The information was never conveyed in any book they had read, and Sryus¡¯ mostly disinterest in their learning days never really considered bringing up the fact it wasn¡¯t there. Because the technique was quite difficult to pull off and really easily could¡¯ve blown up in their face. She practically made a bomb and held onto it while it was in the process of exploding. [How long do you believe that fire will keep those creatures held back?] (Luna) [Hopefully, until everything is done. Mutated animals are still just animals, while a lot more aggressive and definitely more likely to not run away from fights that are going to get them killed will still run under the right situation.] (Syrus) [So, the fire was to drive them off.] (Eva) [Yeah¡­ but not as many are retreating as I would like.] (Syrus) Syrus looked through the flame, and while there were many that began running off in the opposite direction. A few stood around, moving left and right, trying to figure out what to do. [Still¡­ There are quite a few mutated creatures here.] (Luna) The number was certainly enough to terrify Luna. She wasn¡¯t confident of escaping with their life intact if they all came charging towards her at once. [The only way they could¡¯ve gotten so many creatures to go towards the city is by control or fear. I don¡¯t think the former because that seems like fantasy bedtime stuff, and the closest to that I have heard of was feeling the emotions of one creature. Fear is by far easier and more likely and might explain why some aren¡¯t running off. They are more afraid of the threat that is behind them than the fire in front of them.] (Syrus) [A few holes, a few creatures have run off, and what could scare something like the elephant? The fire appears to have done minimal damage to it.] (Luna) From what they could see of the elephant, it barely looked hurt, and its bloodshot madness-filled eyes tracked Syrus through the flames with hunger and rage. [Not all creatures are all that smart, and a fire exploding in something''s face is going to make one shit themselves.] Boom! ¡°Fuck!¡± Syrus swore, and she turned around. A large explosion was heard from the opposite side of the city. [What¡¯s happening?!] (Eva) [I don¡¯t know. Best case, a single round of explosions. Worst case another wave of creatures attacking from the opposite end.] (Syrus) [How would they even get mutated animals to that side of the city?!] (Luna) The east side of the city was closer to the ocean, and the only thing of note on that side was the eastern SeaSide Forest, which, apart from a few poisonous creatures, wasn¡¯t too dangerous, and it certainly didn¡¯t house any mutated animals. [Questions for later.] (Syrus) Syrus began to get ready to run towards the opposite side of the city. [Wait! Syrus, what about the creatures here?] (Luna) [Don¡¯t worry.] Syrus explained. [Back up is here.] She had been listening for footsteps, and finally, a brigade of hunters and the city security had shown up. Ready to investigate the fire and fight off any beast they knew was there thanks to all the howls and screeches. Syrus dipped out of the way before they noticed her. She ran through the panicked city. But while panicking, most people seemed to know where they were going. While running, Syrus swiped an average-looking blade off a vendor''s store. [Syrus!] (Eva) [I ain¡¯t going into combat without a functioning weapon.] (Syrus) S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. No one continued the complaints as they saw a large-scale creature on the other side of the city breaking buildings. [I¡¯m speeding up.] (Syrus) Blood attribute mana filled her body as it strengthened and she accelerated towards their target. Chapter 111 – Tag Team Chapter 111 ¨C Tag Team Anlesa ran past the panicked civilians with their new sword brandished, ready with a light flame covering it. Graaaaaagh! Anlesa got a good look at the creature. It was a giant white-scaled lizard; there was nothing strange about it besides its massive size. Its legs alone made its body stand above the doors of nearby houses. [It doesn¡¯t look out of the ordinary, despite being massive.] (Eva) [That isn''t necessarily a good sign. It could mean the beast is more stable, meaning more intelligent. On the opposite end, it might mean it could have some hidden surprise.] (Luna) Once they got closer to the beast, a familiar voice yelled out. ¡°Syrus!¡± With flowing black hair behind her back. Lavender''s head had turned to look at Syrus before jumping back to the creature. ¡°Good to see you here!¡± Ding! The beast''s large tail slammed into Lavender''s shield as she went flying up. Maintaining her balance, she grabbed the roof of the building and ran on top of it. ¡°I could use the help!¡± Her body glowed purple, and toxic reddish purple covered the tip of the spear she held in her right hand. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Where the fuck are your reinforcements?!¡± ¡°Busy apparently!¡± Lavender leapt off the building onto the beast¡¯s back. Her long spear barely penetrated the reptile''s back. In reflex, the long tail whipped towards her. ¡°Shit.¡± Lavender barely dodged the attack and made an immediate jump off the creature back towards the roofs. [Plan of attack?] (Eva) [Judging by how far that spear went in, its scales are sure tough.] (Syrus) [That shouldn¡¯t prevent our success. The creature¡¯s mouth looks as soft as ever. Not to mention I can smell the toxic fumes coming from the creature''s back.] (Luna) [A something poison-y gift? Deadly for sure, probably. I can¡¯t say I knew anyone with an attribute that applied poison.] (Syrus) [Well, there is more than one that fits that criteria.] (Luna) [Lovely.] (Syrus) [I hope she keeps antidotes on her.] (Eva) [Worried we will get hit?] (Syrus) [No, just if it affects anyone else.] (Eva) Lavender retreated from the lizard. It screeched in pain, and its tail demolished the surrounding buildings. Lavender landed next to Syrus. ¡°How¡¯s your mana looking?¡± ¡°Good, still over eighty-percent.¡± Syrus used around ten-percent of their extra large mana pool for her attack. In her past life, an attack of that scale would¡¯ve eaten a third of her mana supply. ¡°Great!¡± Lavender let out a small sigh after her cheer. ¡°Half my usual squad were already at less than half their tank. It was infuriating to learn most of them didn¡¯t even go out on a mission to be in that state.¡± Lavender¡¯s complaining came to an end, and the lizard finding its target stared directly at the two of them. Its eyes filled with hunger and rage, fully aware of the two humans looking back at it. Syrus plopped her sword on her shoulder. ¡°I do have to ask, why did you have to land next to me?¡± ¡°Reconvene, chat, make a plan?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the plan then?¡± Lavender suggested. ¡°Tag team and rush down?¡± ¡°Any specifics?¡± Syrus asked. ¡°I would love to say disable those legs, but with how fat they are looking, I doubt that will be easy.¡± Lavender adjusted the grip of her spear. ¡°Even its back and belly are covered in tough skin.¡± Syrus commanded. ¡°We will do in and out, quick attacks to wear it down. If you see a fatal opportunity that doesn¡¯t compromise your safety, go for it. Don¡¯t flinch when your attacks bounce off, and if you get the chance, keep trying to fill its vein with poison.¡± Graaagh! The lizard ran towards them. ¡°Simple, I like it.¡± Lavender immediately ran off¡ªshield in one hand, spear in the other. Syrus chucked her bag over towards a building and soon followed behind but allowed a gap between them to form, ensuring they would strike at separate points on the body. The two of them navigate through the rubble and debris. Stabbing and slicing at the beast at every opportunity they had. Never staying still as that would only give the lizard a chance to grab them with its jaw. For its size, the beast was quite fast. Every turn, every swipe of his tail came at blistering speed. [Look out!] (Luna) [I know.] (Syrus) [Can I act as support?!] (Eva) [No thanks. I¡¯m worried your wire will just get us tangled up.] (Syrus) Turning up the dirt as it spun, its sharp claws flew towards Syrus. With a burst of speed thanks to her Blood attribute, she managed to dodge, but as the fight dragged on, the beast only seemed to get faster. Syrus asked, ¡°Hey Lavender! How effective is that poison of yours!?¡± ¡°Decently effective!¡± Lavender yelled back from the opposite side of the creature; with all the dust flying in the air, it was hard to see her figure. ¡°But it is exponentially worse on larger creatures.¡± Anlesa heard the sound of it slamming into Lavender¡¯s shield. Syrus yelled again, ¡°Does it at least slow it down?!¡± There was no reply. [Well, shit.] (Syrus) [Is she alive!?] (Eva) [Probably. She is a very stubborn person, from what I¡¯ve seen.] (Syrus) [A person¡¯s character does not indicate their chances of surviving an attack.] (Luna) Syrus raised her sword. [Then we will just make sure to celebrate the funeral.] The flames on the sword only intensified slightly. There was no requirement to destroy their mana supply again at the moment, especially when they didn¡¯t know how long this attack was going to last for. She jumped through the legs, slashing along the way. The temporary sword had already lost its sharpness against the lizard''s scales but it just meant it was an opportunity to rethink their strategy. There was no running around the lizard anymore. Syrus stayed below it, striking its legs and belly. It tried to run and swipe to get the human out from under it, but Syrus wasn¡¯t leaving that easily. Small burns marked the beast''s body, and to attack the pest underneath it, it slammed its belly into the ground. Graaaaaagh! The smell of burning toxic flesh and blood was quick to notice. ¡°Fool.¡± The beast howled in pain as Syrus successfully rolled out of the way. [...that was too close¡­] (Eva) Syrus used the sword as a needle, positioned the blade upwards, and let the lizard plant itself onto it. The flames were due to her charging up the blade with her Fire attribute again and letting it run loose a few moments after she let go. ¡°Haaa!¡± ¡° Stab! The sound of squishy flesh popping was heard as a bruised and dusty Lavender jumped out and slammed her purple mana-coated spear into one lizard''s eyes. Chapter 112 – Construct Chapter 112 ¨C Construct ¡°Haa, haaa.¡± Lavender gasped for a few moments. Her shield was a wrinkled mess, and the attack the lizard had inflicted upon her was not light, but it could be worse. ¡°May we not have to deal with another vermin with such thick defence.¡± Lavender spear went through the beast¡¯s eye, and its poisonous properties injected itself right into the creature''s head. ¡°You alright?¡± Lavender asked. ¡°Look in the bloody mirror; that is a question you need to ask yourself.¡± Syrus was off the ground, a little dusty but looking good. Lavender was also dusty, but with her damaged shield, the bursies, and the way she was using her spear to help her stand up, it was clear she was not in a good condition. [Do we want to get a healing potion out of the backpack?] (Eva) Eva knew that Luna healing Lavender was out of the question, but using one of their potions should be good. [They are yours, up to you.] (Syrus) [They are ours.] (Eva) [...I am all for it, however, she will only begin to recover, it is likely she won¡¯t be fit for combat for a while longer.] (Luna) [I know that, but better than her dying from her injuries.] (Syrus) Syrus observed Lavender¡¯s condition, but it was hard to understand the scope of the internal damage she took. Ruptures inside the body were always a sad way to lose an ally. In Syrus'' experience, too many people hid the pain when there was no clear wound. [Though, injuries, even life-threatening ones, don¡¯t always keep a warrior down until a fight is done.] (Syrus) Lavender ignored Syrus¡¯s complaint and looked at the large beast in wonder. She wasn¡¯t the only one to do so either. Many civilians who were nearby couldn¡¯t help themselves to peek now that this creature was dead, amazed at the size and ferocity of such a creature and the fact that people had been able to kill it. Mutated creatures weren¡¯t commonplace, especially for the normal civilians who didn¡¯t traverse the dangerous plains and forests to hunt them once one was spotted. If they did get the chance to see one, it was when its corpse was delivered to the Hunting Guilds and processed afterwards. Even in those cases, mutated animals were only ever around ten to twenty-percent larger than their normal variants, and sometimes they had a few additional traits like longer teeth or spikes. However, the beast that appeared on this side of town was something they could only imagine in stories. The fear they would have felt if they knew there was more of the same size at the opposite end of the city was¡­ something that would be coming for them soon. Lavender tapped the lizard''s face with her foot. ¡°These scales should make for good armour at least.¡± Syrus said, ¡°If your poison didn¡¯t ruin its integrity.¡± ¡°It shouldn¡¯t have. It is a mutated creature; look how crazy it is! My little poison shouldn¡¯t change the fact that its scales should be a wonderful material to make armour out of.¡± Lavender had no evidence to back her claims. While Lavender was chatting away, Syrus had jogged over to her bag and got out a potion for Lavender. ¡°Here you go.¡± ¡°What¡¯s¨Coh thank you.¡± Lavender¡¯s wobbly arm grabbed the potion. Syrus had already opened the lid for her, and she downed the whole thing. ¡°Better tasting than expected.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t thanking you¨C¡± Lavender paused. Thud! A large thud was heard again. ¡°What is it this time?¡± Syrus complained. The sound was coming from the southern entrance to the city. A different spot again. ¡°I will go on ahead; you get some proper help.¡± ¡°Will do!¡± Lavender waved goodbye. Syrus wasn¡¯t sure if she was going to listen. Anlesa ran off to the main street. [How is it that there are more mutated creatures coming from different directions?] (Eva) [Well, the ones that come from the north or south could easily be ones that diverted off earlier from the pack attacking from the west.] (Syrus) They were discussing the possibilities, already assuming whatever was causing the sound was more mutated animals. When they reached the main street. There was a single large thing that stood tall on two legs above the city''s smaller buildings. Even with no head, the size was equal to the largest two-story buildings the city had to offer. [Um¡­ what is that?] (Eva) Anlesa could only question what manner of thing stood before them. Its body was made of rock and stone that seemingly didn¡¯t connect via bones or muscles. They weren¡¯t sure how a creature would even adapt to having rocks as an outer shell, but looking at that thing, it was certain that wasn¡¯t the case. [It¡¯s similar to a monster¡­ no¡­ that is going too far.] (Syrus) Syrus'' assertion was made because of the common trait that monsters had. They made no logical sense; they weren¡¯t something that followed nature''s rules. However, observing this rock thing, assumptions could be made. [I¡­ believe I have read something on such a cre¨Cno, construct before.] (Luna) [Construct?] (Eva) [Yes, a being created through magic and attributes. Their size, appearance, and shape differ greatly between the style and method, but the purpose is the same. A guardian made of material, to be controlled or ordered.] (Luna) [Okay, so some Earth attribute mage has made, a what? A rock construct? How in all things living is that thing even functioning?!] (Syrus) Syrus was looking at the construct as if it were simply a pile of rocks being manipulated by a mage to appear in that shape and not some uniform design whose purpose was to be puppeteered or ordered. Her reasoning for this was sound; it didn¡¯t even have joints, and it genuinely appeared to be just rocks floating together. [They are¡­ mostly hypothetical creations. Some have been built in the past, but many issues occur, and you are right. Mana supply is an issue that only gets worse with the size of the creation, but all the ways people have created to store mana now, maybe someone worked out a solution. Outside of that, it could be powered by multiple people supplying mana to it.] (Luna) [If it is the second option, could we disrupt the connection?] (Syrus) Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [No idea.] (Luna) Luna was also in agreement that the second option was more likely. It was simply too large to have mana stored within it. If it did, it wouldn''t last long. ¡°Well, time to try our best.¡± Chapter 113 – Switch Up Chapter 113 ¨C Switch Up Anlesa ran down the main street. The panic had spread everywhere, but people were trying to move to evacuation points and be escorted by guards for safety. Thankfully, there appeared to be no creatures, monsters, or bandits attacking from the north side of the city. [I will need another weapon.] (Syrus) [Your longsword still not fine to use?] (Eva) [No, it should be okay to use it, but I would rather not use it against a pile of rocks. That is just going to destroy its sharpness.] (Syrus) Her previous borrowed weapon was currently underneath a very large lizard, so it was time to borrow a few more. Once her target was spotted, Syrus manoeuvred to the left and took two swords from a barrel of weapons. [More thieving?] (Luna) [I¡¯m surprised that you are the one making jokes in this situation.] (Syrus) [Half joke anyway.] Said Luna, she took particular notice of the poor quality of the swords. [But I have learnt it is best we keep the mood in here light, no matter the situation.] [That¡¯s fair, alright.] (Syrus) [Now I must ask, why didn¡¯t you pick up the spear? I have no doubt that you would be able to use one properly.] (Luna) In the barrel were a few spears and swords of various shapes and sizes. [Honestly, I wish there was a war hammer or polearm with a good brick on one side. I picked the swords because those spears¡¯ poles were rotted. These blades might be no good but they should at least stay together until the job is down.] (Syrus) Finally, they reached their target, and they weren¡¯t the only people who chose to face it. ¡°Get the rope! Contain its movements!¡± ¡°Aye Aye!¡± ¡°Watch out for that arm, Luke!¡± ¡°ARGH! Righty oh!¡± The large rock construct swung its body around violently, destroying the buildings in its wake, nearly crushing the hunters and guards who chose to fight it. The construct appeared humanoid with two massive legs and arms connected by a torso, but it had no head. Syrus judged the situation. It appeared that the plan was to prevent the thing¡¯s mobility. Which successes very much depended on how the creature moved. If it could be made to float, then their plan could be useless, but now that Syrus had a closer look at the construct, it did appear that its weight was impacting the ground and that its legs were doing the job of legs. Syrus jumped in for a quick testing strike. Her blades skidded off the rocky legs of the creature, and she continued her momentum to retreat. [Yep, bloody hard-arse rock.] (Syrus) [Were you hoping for soft rock?] (Luna) [Not going to lie, yeah.] (Syrus) Anlesa chose to work with the surrounding hunters. Going on with the attacks of the acting leader commander. Based on how everyone was listening, Syrus assumed he was someone important in one of the guilds. [Eva, try to use Manipulation to see if there is a connection to break.] (Syrus) [I will.] (Eva) Eva focused all her might on the mana in the surrounding area, but she was worried that without at least touching the construct she wouldn¡¯t even have a chance of succeeding. [Syrus, what is the likelihood that we are able to stay in contact with the rock construct?] (Eva) [That has to be judged.] (Syrus) The sheer weight and size of each of those rocks was enough to crush a person; Syrus didn¡¯t want to risk more than needed in this fight. To give them an answer, one of the hunters ran up to the creature''s leg with a hammer and began trying to smash it. It didn¡¯t even swing its arm at the hunter as one of the three boulders that made up its left leg started rotating. The spinning rock smashed into the hunter, sending him flying. [That doesn¡¯t look like a nice way to go.] (Syrus) The person was still alive. The ropes they tried to use to contain the construct snapped due to the spinning rocks. ¡°Dammit!¡± The commander yelled. ¡°Where is the backup I requested?!¡± Multiple people were firing their attribute attacks at the construct, but it wasn¡¯t the most effective. It was being chipped away at, but no one currently here knew magic powerfully enough to amplify their attack to do serious damage. Syrus believed it would be possible for her to destroy the rock construct in front of her, but all her plans required setup or were mana-costly. Neither of which she was exactly excited to waste at the moment. The constant surge of attacks was doing something¡ªthe fire, water, wind, and lightning explosion when eating at the rocks¡ªbut like Syrus, no one was ready to pour copious amounts of mana into their attacks. They could all hear the trouble in other parts of the city and they couldn¡¯t afford to waste all their energy here. [Syrus, can we please try touching the rocks?] (Eva) Syrus was silent as she observed the situation. [I will give you one shot. Just tell me when you are ready.] [I am ready now.] (Eva) [Fine.] (Syrus) Anlesa leapt into action again. Sliding past the construct swing, and from a running position, she leapt onto the construct¡¯s rocky back with her sword piercing down. Syrus'' sword stabbed into the construct, and Eva played her hand onto the rocky surface. The only thought in Eva¡¯s head was to succeed. However, it didn¡¯t take long for the rock construct to swing its whole body to swat the fly. Its rocks began to spin. [We need to get off¨C] (Syrus) [Just one moment!] (Eva) Thud. The construct paused for a moment. Before it started spinning again. Alerted Syrus jumped off to avoid the attack, leaving the sword in the rock''s body which quickly got bent out of shape as the spinning rocks crushed it. [Were you successful?] (Luna) [I¡­ felt I was able to disturb something¡­] (Eva) Syrus noticed the pause as well, but it was only for a moment, and she had no idea how long they would have to be touching the rocks before a true impact was made. [I believe it¡¯s time for us to switch our approach.] (Luna) [Pardon?] (Syrus) [Well, if your fire and brute force aren¡¯t enough. Maybe we need to remove it from our sight.] (Luna) [Are you thinking of teleporting the construct away?] (Syrus) [Is that possible?] (Eva) Syrus and Eva¡¯s questions came from different concerns. Eva didn¡¯t know the scope of Luna¡¯s Space attribute abilities as she kept her training light and always prioritised time for Eva and Syrus to train. Syrus¡¯ issue was the mana cost; her hesitation in her plans was the steep cost. [Teleporting non-living creatures is always easier than living¡­ the fact that it has mana within it would cause difficulty. However, my plan is to only teleport a part of it.] (Luna) [Now is that even possible?] (Syrus) [If it was an actual living creature, no¡­] Luna paused. [It might be impossible still. When teleporting items it would always just teleport the whole thing.] [So how would this situation change anything?] (Syrus) [Well, as you said. It appears to be a bunch of rocks that are only touching each other.] (Luna) [...And if I disconnect the connection for a moment again¡­] (Eva) Eva was understanding Luna¡¯s plan. ¡°Sigh.¡± [Sure, just make sure we stay above fifty-percent.] (Syrus) [I¡¯ll do better than that.] (Luna) sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 114 – The Rock Construct Vs Teamwork Chapter 114 ¨C The Rock Construct Vs Teamwork Anlesa left without fanfare. No one really had the opportunity to say anything if they even noticed. There were already over twenty people trying to contain the boulder man, and people were coming in and out as they pleased. Whether that was because of exhaustion or requiring medical attention. Anyone who wanted to complain had nothing to whine about in Syrus¡¯ mind as he decided to leave with a small bang. She raised her second shoddy sword and charged it with a small amount of fire mana to make it a small bomb. With a full force Blood charged jump she slammed the blade into the thing¡¯s leg. Syrus already jumped away before the construct could counterattack, and the sword exploded, leaving a small hole around where the sword was embedded. Once the getaway was completed, it was time to change their physical form. [Luna, did you want your standard disguise?] (Eva) [Yes, Lilly.] (Luna) Luna had debated creating a whole new disguise for themselves, but in the end chose to stay with her standard disguise look, which was ¡®Syrus¡¯ relative¡¯. The ¡®Luna disguise¡¯ had made her Manipulation attribute known¨Cmostly due to the times she had to deal with annoying individuals¨Cbut any other attributes were kept secret. Which meant using Space was perfectly acceptable. It was already the one she had planned to use for this disguise but had never used. Initially, they were just going to get change in an alley somewhere, but they were close enough to their house that it was worth the extra hassle to return there. The moment Anlesa entered their home, it was a rush to grab the cloak and dress they normally wore when Luna went out. Eva was already causing the body to shift. Allowing the horn to grow back and their hair to grow slightly longer and shift to a solid dark grey, and her eyes sparkled into her shade of pink. During the process, an idea came up in their head. [Eva, I¡¯m not too keen on having us try to touch the construct again, but can you use your wires as a bridge?] (Syrus) [I... would need to test that.] (Eva) [That...] The cogs in Luna¡¯s mind also began to turn. [If that works. It might be possible to activate my teleportation effect remotely as well.] [Now that is nasty.] Syrus couldn¡¯t hold back a smile. She had fought a few Space attribute individuals in the past, so she knew their weaknesses well. All their attacks were mana-intensive and required to be in close proximity. Then there were the problems: most of their attacks weren''t deadly and the best the experts could do was teleport others. There was one person Syrus had fought with who seemed to get around most of these issues, but they were long gone before Syrus could have a one-on-one with them. With the oversized brown dress and cloak on top of it, pretty much all her underneath equipment was hidden. They returned to the hunters'' continued effort of attempting to slay the construct, and to their credit, it did look more worn down than before. No matter how tough the construct was, in the end, it was still made from rock. Some hunters had even brought pickaxes instead of their usual weapons. Its lower legs had taken the most damage, as that was what the hunters were able to reach. Large portions of the legs had fallen off, and as the construct moved forward, it was clearly much more unstable. [We¡­ might not need to do anything?] (Eva) Rumble! [I wouldn¡¯t be too sure.] (Syrus) The commander yelled as the construct leant forward. ¡°Everyone! Get back!¡± People did as they were ordered, and the rock construct fell over forward. ¡°Yeah, we did it!¡± One person started celebrating early. Thud, Rumble. The construct''s two thick arms slammed into the ground, and its whole body rotated into the air. Within a moment, the construct had flipped itself upside down, but its arms were now the legs, and the heavily damaged legs were the arms. ¡°Lord, you have got to be kidding me.¡± In a matter of moments, the hunters'' hard work had been lessened. It certainly had not been for nothing, as the construct''s new arms were a shell of the previous, but it still was disheartening. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [I¡¯ll leave this to you two, as long as you guys don¡¯t get close I won¡¯t intervene.] (Syrus) [Okay, Eva ready when you are.] (Luna) Eva nodded, and with their body she moved closer into position. The hunters hadn¡¯t given up, and they had a plan. Two men with war hammers ran in and slammed the constructs'' legs. While spotters would yell out the moment the golem tried anything, and on the instant either one said anything, both would jump back. The ranged hunters retreated to support the other sides of the city, and while the squad around the construct decreased, they were working together as a well-oiled machine. Suddenly a metal wire flew towards the construct and stabbed itself into its rocky chest. Whether it was because it was too small or something else, the rock construct didn¡¯t do anything to the wire. [Luna, how¡¯s the flow?] (Eva) [I¡¯m facing resistance.] (Luna) Suddenly, Eva shot out the second wire. [I don¡¯t think I can try to interrupt it while making it so that your Space mana flows through simultaneously at the moment, so if you use the left wire, I will use the right.] (Eva) Maybe with practice, she could, but currently there was no way. Luna slowly flowed her Space attribute mana down the wire. Eva was multitasking so that there was a tunnel that the Space mana could be sent down. Only Eva could properly send mana down her wires; Syrus was a close second due to her experience of imbuing her mana into weapons, but a wire was much more delicate in comparison. The construct froze for less than a second randomly as it fought the hunters. The hunters assumed the lady with the wires was doing something to try and stop it, so they chose to take full advantage of the situation. [I¡¯m¡­ nearly there.] (Eva) The rock construct froze, then shook and suddenly started to spin, even though there was no one immediately around it at that given moment. Then it paused again. [NOW!] (Eva) With her full focus, Luna fired her Space attribute with her intent. It was rudimentary, and no spell was used, only pure Space mana and her will. The construct¡¯s torso glowed in a purple light and disappeared and reappeared a few metres away. Thud, Thud, Boom! The rock construct completely fell apart, and Eva felt no mana radiating from the rocks anymore. [I¡­ did it.] (Luna) [We did it!] (Eva) Out of the two of them, Luna was so worried about failing, so a massive wave of relief flooded her, knowing that she succeeded. And due to Eva breaking the connection for long enough, the mana cost was kept low enough. She only used ten percent! Which combined with all their other costs for the day so far, they had seventy-six percent still remaining. [There would have been a lot less trouble if someone dumped all their mana into trying to destroy this creature.] (Syrus) [We of all people cannot say that when we have more than three times the average person''s amount.] (Luna) [I say we used more than enough.] (Syrus) Eva looked around as she retracted their wires. [...Though, I wonder if we were needed, by the end it looked like they had a method formed.] [Eva.] Syrus said earnestly. [This is a conflict, an action that saves time; no matter how small, it is appreciated.] ¡°Thanks, missy! That was amazing!¡± The commander who turned to look at Anlesa congratulated. He looked back at the remaining hunters. ¡°Now everyone! Search the area for any more threats here; if you don¡¯t find anything, support the perimeter, help civilians, or support the western edge!¡± ¡°Aye!¡± Chapter 115 – Choice Chapter 115 ¨C Choice The commander wasn¡¯t the only one to say their thanks; a few more hunters who participated in the attack thanked Anlesa before they moved off elsewhere. Some offered to take or direct Anlesa to an emergency point, but Luna denied it and told them that she knew where it was¨Cwhich was a lie¨Cthat she was fine, and that they should go where they were immediately needed. Even though she said she knew, people still told her about evacuation points; the eastern side of Third & Seventh Street, the north side end of the main street, the Leaf Leave hunting guild which had a bunker and tunnel, and the government hall which had reinforced building and fence around it. They were asking out of concern, currently she looked like a civilian who just tried to help out, one that they all believed would be exhausted after what happened and how much mana they were forced to use. Even if she had some spare, if you weren¡¯t used to using large amounts it didn¡¯t matter if a person had some remaining in the tank, they would still be exhausted. The widespread preconception was that any Space magic was expensive, and the knowledge of the extra details about what makes teleportation more or less costly was not known, so everyone just assumed that the helpful civilian was spent. To be fair, it still cost Luna ten-percent of their combined mana, which for an ordinary person would be a lot. [Okay, now it''s time for the next location.] (Syrus) Syrus, like everyone else, had moved on, and at the moment they had moved into another for quiet and potentially to change clothes. [Where to next?] (Luna) [Reinforcing the western edge is likely the best option.] (Eva) Anlesa looked over towards the western side of the city. [Let¡¯s go¨C] Syrus stumbled forward as she then stamped the ground, threw her hand to her hand, and pushed herself up onto the wall she stood beside. ¡°Arrghh¡­¡± Anlesa groaned. [What¡­] (Luna) [I feel sick¡­] (Eva) It was sudden, but an intense dizziness flooded Anlesa¡¯s mind. Tingles within their muscles and a bit of pain in their mana flow. [Give me a moment.] Syrus withstood the main fog and began to diagnose their body. Anlesa¡¯s body was not at 100%, Syrus had made that known many times, but all the improvements they made, the time they rested, the potions Eva made, and just how good their body felt, it was easy for the mind to wander away from the fact. [I¡­ think I¡¯ve found the issue.] (Syrus) The simple truth was that even if they still had most of their mana tank remaining, their body was exhausted. They fought that advance party from the church, then immediately went on for bandits, only to come back to the city and within the same day have it attacked on all sides. The one good thing was there was enough time to regenerate their mana back to full thanks to their efficient usage over the bandits'' fights and the time required to return home. Maybe their body would have handled it when it was fully recovered. But today was not that day. [Bloody shit-stirring donkey.] (Syrus) Syrus explained their body wasn¡¯t keeping up, and she was mostly blaming herself for it. Strengthening herself with Blood attribute was within what seemed deemed safe behaviour, for the short term, but it has been a constant requirement. [No¡­ don¡¯t blame yourself we have done multiple high-cost mana-requiring actions. Mine would¡¯ve taken its toll the most.] (Luna) Luna couldn¡¯t comment on the strain Syrus did on the body with what in her mind was necessary use of Syrus¡¯ Blood attribute, but the other burdens, all the mana intense spells they cast, Luna believed she could carry the blame for that. Syrus might¡¯ve done the firewall, but her teleportation, and, more importantly, the massive mana drain that was her Moonlight ramage for sure caused issues within their body. [No¡­ my constant strain was for sure worse.] (Syrus) Luna had an understanding of the human body, but only Syrus had the knowledge and ability to understand the current inner workings thanks to her Blood attribute. Luna and Eva could feel what she was doing, but they weren¡¯t able to understand what it was supposed to feel like. [So, all our faults?] Eva suggested, and then she asked a question in a childish and cuteish tone. [Can we blow up more mutated creatures now?] [Poof! Haha. What is with that?] (Syrus) [I¡­ didn¡¯t expect that.] (Luna) [Well..! I was learning from you!] (Eva) ¡°Haha.¡± Anlesa let out a small, quiet laugh, which made them a little lightheaded. ¡°Yeah, feeling better now.¡± Syrus pulled themselves up the wall. [I¡¯ll keep the Blood use to a minimum now.] (Syrus) [So time for fireball chuck time?] (Eva) [Haha, maybe.] (Syrus) With their bag and weapon not on them, they dropped the dress onto the ground and lit it ablaze. Syrus created a strong fire to remove a large trace of the shirt in a moment before she started stamping out the remaining flames, which she then threw the corpse of a shirt in a nearby bin. With the outer layer removed, Eva had already switched them back to the Syrus disguise. The horn retracted, but the reddish-brown eyes and crimson-red hair emerged. [Where shall we go first?] (Luna) [Let¡¯s observe, but realistically probably back to the west side.] (Syrus) [That would be for the best.] (Eva) [For the best?] (Luna) [Oh just referring to if the only place we need to go to is the west side. That means no more creatures attacking from anywhere else.] (Eva) [Yeah¡­ that would be good.] (Luna) She walked back towards the main street, and standing by the corner edge she examined the noise and commotion around the city. ¡°Haha¡­¡± [Of course, they must¡¯ve been close.] (Syrus) Anlesa had been looking down the street where a small group of civilians had exited a house on the main street near the southern side. A fair and reasonable action to take, escape from the danger and head towards safety. However, they chose to leave now, after most of the hunters moved out, after the construct was destroyed, and not before when it was actively destroying houses and moved towards the south exit, which wasn¡¯t listed as one of the main escape points. Of course, it was literally the closest exit, but the complete lack of civilian panic and professionalism this group maintained was ridiculous. They all appeared to be adults, and they left with a quick wind in their step. [Are you sure..?] (Luna) [What I am sure of... is that I can kill humans easier in our current state than those mutated beasts on the western edge.] (Syrus) [But what if they are just civilians?] (Eva) [Then we can lend a hand by ensuring that a number of civilians have made it out of the city unharmed.] (Syrus) sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Ummm¡­] (Eva) [...] Syrus paused. [Actually, you know what, let¡¯s go help defend against the mutated creatures.] Immediately, Syrus began to turn away. [Please, don¡¯t worry about me.] Eva nervously said. [We¡­ should stop the people who caused this mess.] Chapter 116 – Waiting Before Weeding Chapter 116 ¨C Waiting Before Weeding Whether it was the correct decision or not, Anlesa had chosen to go after the individuals who had chosen to escape when the coast was clear. There was the chance these people were actually just civilians who were too afraid to leave earlier, and if that was the case, that was fine. Anlesa would be happy to ensure that people could escape without injury. [They¡¯ve swapped to the other side of the street.] (Syrus) They watched as the group went from the east side of the street to the west side. [It makes appropriate sense for them to be hiding on the east side if they knew the west side was going to be attacked.] (Luna) [Likely didn¡¯t expect that assault to be halted.] (Syrus) [Hmm!] (Eva) The firewall''s main purpose was to hold back and delay. The mutated animals were still attacking, but importantly, the stampede itself was stopped. Otherwise, houses would¡¯ve been destroyed, people crushed within, and these creatures would be causing havoc all over town. Eva knew little about combat tactics. She had learned about trapping animals and humans from Syrus. From Luna and Syrus, she learned where the best places to strike with her wire to trip up and disable foes were, but her overall knowledge in fighting was still lacking. It was extremely unintended, but the attack had a gold mine of practical experiences and a great learning lesson that Eva was gobbling up. Thanks to the cheering up and small jokes they were making, her mind was open to learning, unlike when her mind was clouded with dark thoughts, which kept it closed off from learning outside her passions. Right now, Eva was in the perfect state to learn, and all of Syrus¡¯ actions, from the big displays to the small second decisions, were wonderful learning experiences. The actions of a veteran using their shared body, there was no better training. It wasn¡¯t just Syrus though, watching all the hunters around them who were doing their best and working together to deal with threats, every bit of it she was devouring into her mind. Anlesa¡¯s weakened body was something that she had to be careful about, but it wasn¡¯t as bad as it could be. Syrus judged everything should be fine as long as she didn¡¯t use her Blood attribute. On the way, Syrus picked up another weapon from an empty storefront. An axe this time, that Luna purposely didn¡¯t say anything about but sent judging thoughts. [What? It is an axe this time?] (Syrus) [Nothing.] (Luna) S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [She is just axeing you a question.] (Eva) [Poo-f haha. So stupid, ha.] (Syrus) Anlesa followed the group out of the south entrance. Syrus let them create a gap so her approach would be less noticeable. While they did so, the noise around the west side of the city intensified. [...Let¡¯s continue the chase.] (Eva) Eva, who felt the most disgust with human combat, still was the first to say to continue their pursuit. Eva held trust in the city¡¯s guards and hunters to defend the city and didn¡¯t see their presence online making a huge difference. [I understand your reasoning, but every person helps.] (Luna) [What if they are going to bring over another construct? Or dig up more mutated animals? Those are risks the people of the city can¡¯t afford.] (Eva) [...Fair enough.] (Luna) The stalking lasted for three minutes as they slowly followed the small group out of the city. They moved away from the Amber Hollow and eventually made their way to a small grove of trees. Syrus stayed low and quiet. When the group made it to the grove, they began discussing injuries and supplies. The individuals that Anlesa followed were a group of five, while there were two people who had been in the grove before they arrived. [...] (Luna) They stood behind a large, protruding rock surrounded by trees as they stared at the group. The people who returned from the town were all in civilian clothes, but the two were in the forest but bravely wearing the Aurora Church clothes. [Luna?] (Syrus) [People you know?] (Eva) Luna¡¯s emotions went a little haywire, not to the point of a breakdown, but just concussive force for confusion. It was a large mix of emotions that Eva and Syrus tried to digest. The most prevalent was a concern, a concern that was directed towards many people. [One of them...] (Luna) Luna¡¯s emotions weren¡¯t filled with pure hatred like last time when she met her instructor. She was conflicted, with feelings of empathy, guilt, anger, worry, and disappointment. [I... think it is time for a ghost to appear.] (Luna) [Huh?] (Eva) [Another, ¡®here is a face from the past surprise¡¯ tactic.] (Syrus) Like before when they jumped the knight Septurna and caused him to freeze from the shock mid-combat. Last time it was only her voice, so what effect could seeing a literal ghost from the past? [Are you sure?] (Eva) [My pure old face looks different from our current appearance, and if we do just some other minor adjustments to our height, then it will be the perfect disguise.] (Luna) [I see...] (Eva) [If it is not feasible or too hard, then I would prepare if we ignored my suggestion; that would be for the best.] (Luna) [No! It will be fine, especially if we keep it short.] (Eva) [Thanks, Lilly.] (Luna) Eva was being genuine with her thoughts. She believed as long as they kept it short, then everything would be fine. The fact that Syrus hadn¡¯t been against the plan helped her confidence. [Are you afraid of anything specific?] (Syrus) Syrus was all for unconventional and effective tactics, but from the emotions she was feeling from Luna, it appeared there was something deeper about her thought process than simply scaring people. [Yes¡­ a few things.] (Luna) [Okay, specifics. Who is the person you recognise? Is it the one with white hair?] (Syrus) There was one individual, who Syrus found suspicious the moment she saw him. One of the two priests who had been waiting in the forest. One only wore a stainless black cloth with white layers on top. The other wore a white base uniform with patterns of gold stitched into it; above it was a cloak adorned with golden ornaments. The clear difference in status was evident in just the clothes, but the most damning aspect was the hair. [Yes.] Luna nodded. [I¡¯m afraid of being caught in any way so I¡¯d rather we use my face, and second, that person is someone I know. Joseph Sunrise Dawn Starcaller. I¡¯ve mentioned him before.] [Oh, the siblings with Light attribute.] (Eva) [Yeah, he has surely aged well.] (Luna) Joseph was twenty-eight when Eliana died, meaning he was in his late thirties now. [I¡¯ve got to say, that old hag aged better. He definitely looks in his thirties while she¡­ well I would¡¯ve guessed any age if I didn¡¯t have insider knowledge.] (Syrus) [Who knows, women''s secret anti-aging cream?] (Luna) [That stuff is real? I always assumed that it was a chemistry myth.] (Eva) Anlesa planned her next move carefully. First Eva transformed their body into Luna''s past life¡¯s appearance. Her facial features shifted and became softer, but her eyes were a little sharper. Her hair grew in length and faded to a white, and her eyes shifted into the lightest pale pink nearing white. Afterwards, a Moonlight covered their body and armour, blocking its features and turning it into her personalised styled armour and cloak. The cloak bore some similarity to what she wore in her past life minus the ornaments¨Cbut the armour was just a hard construction that she thought looked cool to hide what hey were actually wearing. [Let¡¯s show them what I¡¯ve learned.] (Luna) Luna created a star prism of Moonlight in her hand, and it shone with murderous intent. Chapter 117 – Encounter From The Past Chapter 117 ¨C Encounter From The Past The group of priests, unaware of the one stalking them, continued their conversation without concern. The priest who had been in the grove with Joseph spoke first. ¡°Everyone recovering well?¡± "No, sir, preparations have been thwarted.¡± ¡°Movement of the beast being misaligned was part of the potential risk. ¡°No, they never made it to the expected point, and the soldier was forcefully decommissioned ahead of when expected and caused unexpected injuries in our banded devotees.¡± ¡°That is distributing.¡± The priest¡¯s eyes darkened. He nodded in understanding and asked. ¡°Saint Joseph Sunrise Dawn Starcaller, can you please heal our recovering followers who have acted in service?¡± ¡°Glady.¡± Joseph appeared in his thirties with a slightly aged look. His eyes and hair were both pure white, and he possessed a very rectangular face that contained no blemishes. The warmth of Light flowed over the company of priests, as their physical injuries were slowly taken care of, but the mana depletion had to wait until they reconvened with their supplies in a more secure location. [It¡¯s impressive how much one is willing to expatiate when they believe they are alone.] (Luna) A star of moonlight appeared from above and shattered into a thousand pieces. ¡°Argh!¡± ¡°Nigh!¡± ¡°U¨C¡± ¡°Saint!¡± ¡°Lord!¡± It was sudden, unexpected, and deadly. The exploded star let out a powerful impact in the surrounding area and its shards flew into the bodies of priests cutting them. Those shards faded away quickly after the spell ended. The condensed star of Moonlight was a more stable version of what the madden Luna had created before to wipe out the last group of priests, but it was still far from what she would consider perfect. That experience had left a lasting impact on her for many reasons. One of those impacts was the desire to properly craft and learn a new set of spells for Moonlight. She had always been working on some in the background since they were children, but it always happened in between events when Syrus or Eva didn¡¯t have something they wanted to do, and Luna didn¡¯t have something else important to accomplish in her minimal time. Soon a second one formed. [Luna, are you okay?] (Syrus) [Yes¡­ these constructs are just hard to control¡­] (Luna) [I¡¯ll help stabilise.] (Eva) [No, you keep tabs on our appearance. I will be making my entrance in a moment.] (Luna) Compared to the Moonlight stars from before that were uneven, this one was a mostly even star polyhedron. Its surface did wave slightly as she tried to ensure only the necessary amount of mana was poured into it. Based on Jen¡¯s research, Luna was unsure if this would count as tier two or three in complexity. From experience at the church, they didn¡¯t use such systems and just gave her the list of spells she had to perfect. If Luna wasn¡¯t careful, the spell could easily enter a self-destruct phase; there was a simple counter to that, which was using large amounts of mana to forcefully contain it. This was what she did during her rampage. Luna sent out the second star and began forming Moonlight spears behind and above her. These were simple solid structures of Moonlight, nothing special under their hood. The gathering of priests could only do so much as the second Moonlight star, a more unstable one, dropped onto the group. The group of five were exhausted mentally and drained of mana from when they controlled the construct. Anlesa didn¡¯t exactly know that, so she did go into this fight with the assumption that they still had the energy to fight with to be careful. This is why she chose to deal with them first. With soothing white light, the second star fell and shattered, where the five individuals smashed into the ground. ¡°ARGH!¡± A shrapnel-filled explosion snuffed the light out of the exhausted individuals. ¡°What manner of demonry is this?¡± The man next to Joseph exclaimed. ¡°How could one use light against the church!?¡± ¡°I wonder indeed.¡± A cold voice echoed around them. It was strangely familiar to Joseph and his companion. [Do you recognise his companion?] (Syrus) [No.] (Luna) ¡°E-enough of this!¡± Joseph tapped his foot on the ground, and a blinding light barrier appeared around them. ¡°Even now?¡± The voice mocked them. ¡°Is that all you can do? Pathetic.¡± ¡°Disgusting.¡± ¡°Filthy.¡± ¡°Weak.¡± [Honestly, you are doing a really good job at throwing your voice.] (Syrus) [Hmhmm! Very amazing!] (Eva) [Thank you.] (Luna) The man beside Joseph raised his hand, and a wind and flames circled around him. ¡°Whomever you are, you shall not be free of the church¡¯s wrath!¡± The flames latched onto the wind and circled around him in a figure-eight shape. ¡°For all angels and saints above, under the lord''s watchful gaze, you shall be punished until your days end.¡± He tried to put fear into whoever their opponent was. If they were humans, his threats were effective. He knew that best, even the most deranged of beastly humans who resort to banditry, knew to be afraid of the power of the church. ¡°Maybe such a play would work if thou knew thy enemy.¡± Moonlight spears penetrated through the barrier as if it were nothing and stabbed into the elderly companion priest. He crumbled over, angered at his attack and the saint''s failure of a shield that led him to such a state. Joseph turned around to see where the attack had come from. Crunch. The sound of a small branch and leaves being crushed under one''s foot was clearly heard, right in front of them. Joseph turned back around, and the old man looked up, a fire exploding in his hand that he was ready to throw at a moment''s notice. ¡°Hello, I hope you haven¡¯t forgotten me?¡± The face of the dead, one that had been made of marble and was painted in memorial. She stood there. In front of them. ¡°You can rest now.¡± Luna clicked her fingers, and the spears of Moonlight fell from above, breaking through the shield and stabbing through the man¡¯s body, killing him. [Thank you for the assist.] (Luna) [Glad I was able to help.] (Eva) [Nothing to be proud of.] (Syrus) The moment they realised the man¡¯s attribute was Fire, Syrus held no fear of him and suggested appearing out now. Eva helped maintain and move Luna¡¯s spears floating above the barrier. Joseph¡¯s mouth dropped. He saw a face that hadn¡¯t aged in years¡­ a face he had seen the skull of. ¡°Long time, no see, Joseph,¡± Luna said. Eva managed to adjust their voice so Luna sounded just like she did when they first met. Her cold, practically unfeeling voice no longer carried the mask of a saint, and neither did her smile. It was cruel. ¡°How¡­¡± He looked back and forth between the bodies of his companions and Luna. ¡°How? How about what? How that I am here? How did I kill your friends? How did I break through your puny barrier? How did I get into your barrier? How am I alive? Or am I alive? Am I just a ghost, a vengeful spirit, one of retribution and all those other fun emotions?¡± Luna let out a small mocking laugh. ¡°Or what? All of them? Wow, you are quite greedy!¡± ¡°You¡­u.¡± He was afraid, and he was praying to the Lord that this was some demon¡¯s illusion. ¡°Are dead.¡± ¡°What about the markings? Did you see them?¡± Luna took a step and leant forward. His body relatively nodded, remembering the sight as he was one of the required twelve individuals who had to confirm the corpse. Luna stroked her chin, ¡°Oh, so you did see my body? I was wondering if it was even brought back, but I assumed that would have someone around; after all, the body of the saint would¡¯ve made a great art piece.¡± [...What?] (Eva) There were multiple parts that confused Eva. What did Luna mean by markings? What did she mean about the body? [Eva, monsters¡­ don¡¯t leave the human body in¡­ let¡¯s just say a humane condition if they are killed by one. So, if they managed to retrieve the body, then that means they had people watching nearby to assume Luna died. The marking likely was some tattoo.] (Syrus) [Syrus is correct, Lilly. Though the tattoo is accurate. However, you are definitely thinking of the wrong picture.] (Luna) [Hmm?] (Syrus) [They dyed my bones.] Luna announced. [Some of them at least, what better way to prove a corpse than bones that could only belong to a holy person!] Eva¡¯s heart shock¡­ Syrus couldn¡¯t understand how that was possible. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [You¡­ never had any scares¡­] (Eva) [No. No, I did not. Many needles and many injections, but all the best healing in the world. Though I wasn¡¯t sure what colour they made them, that was a surprise for death after all.] (Luna) ¡°Eliana¡­ Alinastar¡­ Bright Shinelight¡­ you should return to the dead¡­¡± The fact that her face looked that exact same and the spectral glow¨Cwhich was just Luna¡¯s Moonlight glow from the armour and cloak¨Che perceived as a ghost. He had never seen one before, but what else could this thing be, outside of the trick on his mind? ¡°Oh, so you are recognising me as such?¡± To mock him, she created a spear outside the shield and launched it at his leg. ¡°ARgh!¡± He crouched over in pain. ¡°Come on, can you heal yourself? Or did you forget how to do that?¡± As the first spear faded away, a second stabbed his other leg. ¡°And don¡¯t call me that... I guess you can refer to me as Elianna, but, any, other, words after that and the next spear will be lodged in your throat.¡± He gulped, and he slowly healed himself. Once his legs were no longer scared, he stood up, but his posture was lower as he was afraid to look down on Luna. Eva managed to shrink their body a bit along with everything, but she wasn¡¯t sure that after this she would be able to have the Syrus¡¯ disguise active. ¡°Why¡­ why are you here¡­ you would never do something like this¡­¡± Joseph tried to play on her moral compass. Luna scoffed, ¡°What have you been smoking since I was gone? What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Do you believe I am unaware of what you are doing here?¡± He confidently said. ¡°We¡¯re innocent beings. Tis not our actions that have caused fated events.¡± ¡°And?¡± Luna didn¡¯t believe him for even a moment, but she decided to humour him. ¡°What differences does that make?¡± ¡°...Huh..?¡± ¡°What, difference, does that make? Is that hard to understand?¡± She stomped forward. ¡°I enjoy it, snuffing each life that stole mine from me.¡± ¡°How-w-w-w can you say something like that?!¡± Joseph fell onto his butt. Luna laughed. ¡°Well, are you sure you weren¡¯t sent to die here?¡± Chapter 118 – Return? Chapter 118 ¨C Return? Well, are you sure you weren¡¯t sent to die here? ¡°Pardon..?¡± A small murmur emerged from Joseph''s mouth. Somehow that was the most shocking thing for him today. ¡°What?¡± Luna continued to berate him. ¡°Do you think your life is worth keeping around for another ten, twenty years?¡± ¡°But¨CI¡¯m not like yo¨C¡± ¡°Not like me?¡± Said Luna in a cold rage. ¡°Yes, that is correct. You are definitely not like me. You never have been.¡± He began to smile nervously. Was this ghost forgiving him? Sparing him? ¡°Even at your best, the only thing you were better at was sucking up to those who stood above us¨C¡± ¡°¨CBut.¡± Her head looked around their surroundings, looking at each of the bodies that were dead or unconscious and dying. ¡°Is that really enough to keep you around?¡± Luna took another step forward, intensifying her Moonlight. ¡°With today¡¯s failures, the city is safe; what is the church supposed to do? Besides, letting go of a shiny pawn. I mean, what will they lose out on? They still have your sister.¡± [Did Joseph do something to you?] (Syrus) S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [No, but he is someone I knew, someone who was at least in a similar situation to me and has chosen to participate in the atrocities today.] (Luna) [Why are you so sure he has chosen to do so?] Syrus asked. She wasn¡¯t defending the grown man; if anything, she was enjoying the beatdown, but she was trying to pick at Luna¡¯s past a bit. Because the conflict was inevitable, any information was valuable. [I¡¯m not completely sure, and probably wrong. In the past he never would¡¯ve accepted a forced request without his sister, that was the one thing he was stubborn about, but it''s been ten years¡­] (Luna) Luna wasn¡¯t sure. How could she? Ten years was a long time. ¡°You¨C!¡± For the first time, he spoke with rage. His injured body tried to stand up, and Luna allowed it. He flung his arm up and fired a beam of light at Luna, and it faded away as it collided with Luna¡¯s Moonlight armour. ¡°That was your best shot?¡± ¡°ARGH!¡± Luna summoned more spears and stabbed them into all his limbs. [What is exactly happening with the two of your attacks?] (Syrus) [The biggest weakness of basic combative light magic for defensive and offensive purposes isactually other forms of light magic, including similar variants.] (Luna) Luna explained the basic light spell would pass through another basic light spell without resistance. There were ways around this, by making the spells more complex and not just simple light constructs. This meant that Luna¡¯s star bomb wouldn¡¯t be able to pass through the shield because it had too much normal mana and Moonlight mana following in different directions inside it. The moment Joseph created his barrier, Luna was met with shock and disappointment. From the training at the church, while they would not be expected to fight other light attribute users, they were made aware of the dangers, and there was also the fact that more advanced barriers were able to naturally counter the main weaknesses. But all Joseph managed to do was just a large version of the basic light barrier spell. [I understand¡­ So, he is just a lazy bastard?] (Syrus) [Well..! Luna has mentioned before about being blocked from reading. Maybe he was the same?] (Eva) Eva¡¯s concerns were mostly because she couldn¡¯t believe someone who reached the status of a saint could be so lazy they couldn¡¯t learn slightly advanced spells. Her perspective was seriously blinded by Luna, the only person she knew who had held that title, and she was a very smart and wise person in her eyes. [Thanks¡­] Luna ended up feeling a bomb of praise accidentally sent from Eva. [But, in his case, it was disinterest or laziness. I guess it depends on your perspective.] Luna taunted Joseph again. ¡°Maybe if it was your sister that attack could¡¯ve done something¨C¡± [...Luna, I don¡¯t have much more time.] (Eva) [Thank you, Lilly, for everything. I will finish this up quickly.] (Luna) ¡°¨CBut you were never her.¡± ¡°Ergh!¡± He cried in pain. ¡°Well, don¡¯t worry.¡± Luna crouched down to his eye level. ¡°I won¡¯t be killing you.¡± ¡°Then¡­ what else are you going to do?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± Luna stood up and clapped her hands without making a sound. She turned around and slowly walked away. ¡°WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO!¡± ¡°As I said¡­ nothing.¡± With a flash of Moonlight, Eliana vanished. Joseph lay there for a moment, surrounded by corpses. It took him a while to get up and heal himself. Far away a little later after their vanishing act. Eva¡¯s transformation ended. Black hair that faded into white, but with front crimson bangs. Her hair was currently long, so they had to cut it after growing it. Her light reddish-brown eyes refocused as they slowly recovered. Eva did push herself to keep up the complete transformation for as long as she did. Luna realised Eva¡¯s plea was one made at the end of her ropes, so she chose to end it quickly. [...Are you sure it was the right decision to let him go?] (Syrus) [No.] (Luna) She was conflicted about the decision from the start; each option had its positives and negatives. Luna''s reasoning for letting Joseph go was a simple one; it was the threat she even brought up: what would happen if Joseph died here? If he went missing and died around the city? Whether it be blaming Arisea Station or announcing that demons had invaded and killed him there, they would use whatever pretence they had to corner the city. They could do this without his death, but from what Luna knew of the upper echelons of the church, they liked to have indisputable evidence of their claim, so nothing besides the best would do. [...How about¡­ letting them know you are alive?] (Eva) [Or a ghost, pretty sure Joseph believed you to be a ghost.] (Syrus) [I am fine with that.] (Luna) That was one choice Luna was happy with. [If they even choose to believe Joseph. Then they will simply believe I¡¯ve come back from the dead alive or as a ghost, or a demon was manipulating Joseph¡¯s mind. All fine options. The important fact is that our true appearance, or a similar one, wasn¡¯t used.] (Luna) Chapter 119 – Everything Resolved? Chapter 119 ¨C Everything Resolved? After the removal of the church¡¯s advance force, Anlesa rested as their body recovered from the mana use and the large-scale transformation done by Eva. With the exhaustion they were suffering from early, they needed to rest for a bit before they could go back into action. However, that didn¡¯t take too long. [What¡­ are we supposed to do now?] (Eva) They were ready and able to fight again, However, Eva couldn¡¯t use her Morph at the moment. So, they were stuck in their true appearance. [We could go back and just try to move within the crowd.] (Syrus) [We should go back and help¡­] (Eva) [I understand your concern, Lilly. There is nothing to worry about.] (Luna) Luna knew Eva was feeling conflicted emotions. She wanted to go back and help, but they had tried for so long to keep their appearance under wraps, and going back now could risk all that, Eva was partially blaming herself because it was she who handled the transformations. [Well, instead of going to the city, we can go into the forest instead?] (Syrus) [...Oh?] (Eva) [That¡­ could work, but would be equally as dangerous as it is low risk for identity.] (Luna) [Capcium and the peanut.] (Syrus) [What..?] (Luna) [Every decision has its ups and downs. But another point about going into the forest is that the terrain will make it easier for us to escape.] (Syrus) Syrus was right, especially with how chaotic the mutated animals were, a nimble opponent or one that could attack at range would be the worst opponent, which also happened to be a fighting style they could implement. [...Let¡¯s go to the forest.] (Eva) Eva didn¡¯t want to let their hard work go to waste and didn¡¯t want not to help the city, so this seemed like the appropriate compromise. Syrus and Luna allowed Eva¡¯s decision to be the decider, and they walked into the foggy western forest, the Amber Hollow. With an axe in hand¨Cthat they kept out of sight in the Joseph encounter¨CAnlesa switched into a combat stance. Her left wire released itself from the bracelet and Eva controlled at the ready. Syrus adjusted her grip on the axe and was ready to create emergency Moonlight shields at a moment¡¯s notice. Without warning, a six-legged mutated wolf came charging them. Syrus took evasive action and let Eva handle the attack. Eva¡¯s whips were extremely mana-efficient and deadly. Since their body was tired, letting their attacks be through Eva, then Syrus was for the best. Eva followed Syrus¡¯ advice and managed to trip and maim the creature. [Okay, now finish it.] (Syrus) [Al-right!] (Eva) With a clean slash, the metal wire sliced through the creature¡¯s neck. After a few hours. [Okay¡­ I think I can finally revert ourselves back to the Syrus¡¯ disguise.] (Eva) [All good, but we can wait a while longer if needed.] (Syrus) [No, I made sure I am well rested¡­ I guess I should be the one asking that question though, Syrus is there any problem if we use the disguise?] (Eva) [If we keep it to around two-to-three hours, we will be fine.] (Syrus) [Plenty of time.] (Luna) They hunted quite a few mutated animals within that time, and with Syrus¡¯s guidance, Eva was able to handle most of them besides the most dangerous ones. Along with that, they still had around thirty-percent of their mana left. Which was an achievement worth celebrating. Syrus was genuinely impressed with Eva¡¯s minimal waste of mana and her efficient use of it. Thanks to that, and natural regeneration, they had thirty-percent of their total mana to use as they saw fit. Covered in mutated animal blood, Syrus walked back into the city. Now appearing as Syrus, any questions should be easily answered. A random guard at the city¡¯s entrance blocked Syrus¡¯ entry. ¡°Oh, lady, what has caused you to appear like that?¡± [...What?] (Luna) (Eva) Syrus answered without issue. ¡°I was killing the mutated animals further in the forest.¡± If there was a guard at the city¡¯s entrances, that would mean the situation had been mostly resolved by now, and likely patrols were stationed at every entry/exit point in the city. ¡°Oh! There were mutated animals about!¡± The guard exclaimed, ¡°By the tip of my spear''s sharpness, you should inform the guild. Who knows how many¨C¡± PUNCH [Syrus!] (Eva) Syrus punched the guard right in the face, knocking him out. [Is he alive, Luna?] (Syrus) [Yes¡­] (Luna) [Good.] (Syrus) Syrus did another act of thievery and stole the man¡¯s sword and took one more from a nearby pile. The axe¡¯s sharpness had been dulled, and the blood ruined its edge. ¡­ [I¡­] Eva paused. [Am so confused.] [That is fine, but at times like this¡­] Syrus looked down the empty streets. [Assume anyone is your enemy.] A familiar voice yelled out her name. ¡°Syrus!¡± Ash came running up the side street. ¡°Ash.¡± Syrus turned to her. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 120 – A Peaceful City Chapter 120 ¨C A Peaceful City The list of issues that Anlesa was currently dealing with would be long, and the portion of those that related to Arisea Station would make up a good portion of the list, a chunk of those added within the last ten minutes. ¡°Ash.¡± Syrus simply said Ash¡¯s name. ¡°Syrus! It is an emergency.¡± ¡°Oh really?¡± Syrus said very sarcastically. [What are you¨C] (Eva) [Everyone is an enemy unless proven otherwise.] (Syrus) ¡°Yes, we need your help on the north side of the city,¡± Ash explained. ¡°Another beast has appeared; the hunters are holding it off; it¡¯s the last one left.¡± Syrus nodded. ¡°I understand. Everything must¡¯ve been difficult. Okay, show me where you are injured. I have some potions.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Ash smiled and moved closer, one hand pulling up her shirt while the other moved closer to Syrus. ¡°Ugh!¡± Syrus punched Ash right in the stomach and grabbed her outstretched arm as she fell to the ground. [...This disgusting feeling.] (Syrus) [Syrus¡­ please tell me what is going on?!] Eva was beginning to panic. It was obvious something was wrong with the city. How does a city under attack switch to one of dead silence with no one around in less than three hours? The unknowns of the situation caused Eva to worry immensely. [I¡­ have never read anything like this¡­] (Luna) Before Syrus answered anything. ¡°Argh¡­¡± Ash groaned. ¡°You up?¡± ¡°Syrus?¡± Ash grumbled as if Syrus was the last person she wanted to see right now. ¡°You feeling better?¡± ¡°Better? Do you know how much of a rush I¡¯ve been trying to organise myself, get supplies, and¨C¡± Ash paused, noticing where she was and the quietness of the streets. ¡°Oh god¡­ what¡­¡± She slowly stood up and looked around at the peaceful city. Syrus asked. ¡°Ash, do you know where everyone is?¡± [Syrus, can you go easier on her?] (Eva) S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [No.] (Syrus) ¡°I¡­¡± Luna amended. ¡°The last thing you remember would also suffice.¡± Ash chose to pick the latter option. ¡°It¡­ was when the celebration started.¡± Ash began to explain that after intense battles, the hunters and guards managed to slay and/or drive off the remaining mutated beasts. The elephant¡¯s corpse was supposedly still near the western edge. Then after that¡­ Ash wasn¡¯t exactly sure what happened. Civilians were still being kept in the evacuation areas for safety, and the hunters were trying to quickly move all the animal bodies into an area for dismantlement and move the human ones elsewhere so they would be properly buried. Then a quiet song occurred across the city, and everything kind of faded. Ash remembered moving towards somewhere. ¡°I¡­ think I was near a bunch of other people¡­ doing nothing?¡± Ash grabbed her head. ¡°I was midway through providing treatment to someone when it happened.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Syrus nodded. [Luna, do you think the church could have sent all those mutated animals to the city without some sort of support?] (Syrus) [Umm, I mean, it is possible¡­ Though even from my lack of knowledge of the church¡¯s full capabilities, I still think sending a whole herd of mutated beasts seems nearly impossible¡­ So let me rephrase, I am unsure if the church could do this.] (Luna) [...How so?] Eva wanted to know how Syrus¡¯ question related to their current predicament. She had ideas, but she didn¡¯t want to guess right now; she needed answers. [In simple terms, there is no way you can send a whole horde of mutated animals in a direction without having them fight and kill each other first.] Syrus explained. [Those beast¡¯s eyes were filled with hunger and rage, common emotions for a mutated animal to be stuck in, but every single one we saw held the same eyes. Mutated animals have many things wrong with them, that is for sure, and attacking others'' onsight is to be expected, but the instinctual reason why they attack varies. It could be that they see you in their territory, which is everything, they could see you as a threat, which is everything, they could see you as food, but even with all those similarities, there are some differences.] (Syrus) [Okay..?] (Eva) [Someone controlled them. Likely they had a person put them all asleep, then woke them up with the express person to attack the city. Could be a few different people or the same one, I don¡¯t know.] (Syrus) [But how..?] (Eva) That was still the big question. Eva didn¡¯t know if it was some magic or attribute she never heard about, and if it was, how could it affect people along with the monsters? If so, why not start with that? [Well, Luna, did you know any attributes that can influence people or creatures?] (Syrus) [Nothing on this level¡­] Luna said. When it came to affecting humans to a result like the guard or Ash, nothing came to mind, but there were a number that did have some mental effect. [When it comes to specific effects. There are the emotional and feeling attributes, that can cause said feelings to be intensified or weakened in the user or others¨CJoy, Hunger, Ferocity, Joy, Lust, Sadness. The exact details are uncertain, as nearly every written record has some differences. Manipulation has also been described as being able to influence emotions, but considering that attribute is more common compared to the others I¡¯ve mentioned, it has been tested and that theory has not been proven.] The emotional attributes were on the much rarer side of attributes. They were in the same special tier as Manipulation and Space. While these attributes were all labelled as rare, there was no similarity in the frequency of when these attributes appeared. [Did you expect this from the start, Syrus?] (Luna) [No, I did not.] Syrus honestly wished she had, as maybe staying within the city would¡¯ve been the better choice. [Only now, seeing the city like this, am I trying to connect the dots with what I remember from earlier.] Syrus patted Ash¡¯s shoulder and helped her up. ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡± Anlesa looked around the city; it was quiet¡ªnot a single argument, not a single scream, not a single cheer over a beer. It wasn¡¯t anything but peaceful. ¡°W¨Cwhat do I do now?¡± Ash asked. The fact she couldn¡¯t remember the last hour was stressing her out. ¡°You can either stay by my side or hide in your shop.¡± Ash didn¡¯t know what sounded safer. Knowing the little she knew about Syrus, she understood that Syrus was about to head straight first into trouble, but what if something tried to control her again while separated? ¡°Let¡¯s just head towards your shop; I need to pick up something from my house anyway.¡± Syrus let Ash use her shoulder as support as they walked. [Syrus¡­] Luna asked, [I need to ask. What do you mean you recognised the feeling?] [I once met someone who possessed a similar feeling mana.] (Syrus) Chapter 121 – Forbidden Arts Chapter 121 ¨C Forbidden Arts [I once met someone who possessed a similar feeling mana.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s it?] (Luna) [Yes.] (Syrus) Out of the trio¡¯s past, Syrus had been nearly mute on hers, only bringing up information when she believed it was relevant to the current situation. Outside of the knowledge she gained, Luna didn¡¯t talk much about her past as well, but for a different reason. However, Luna had been making small chatter every now and again about events, people, and the organisations of her past. Eva, on the other hand, after she opened up, talked about the city, her classes, her job, and everything else besides her first family. But Syrus was still the only one to not mention anything without something else pulling it out of her; the other two had reached the point where they could, on their own, bring up those topics. Still, it wasn¡¯t as if Syrus had some strong reason not to, she simply believed that it was just the past. [Can... you give us any more details?] (Eva) [I¡¯m not sure what to give. I met someone with a similar feeling of mana, who did, similar but not as strong magic.] (Syrus) [Have... you suspected that person from the beginning?] (Eva) [No.] Syrus held back a shrug. [They were on a separate continent and likely dead by now, so I didn¡¯t suspect them.] [Was it their attribute that allowed them to have... a similar power?] (Luna) Eva wished Syrus would give them clearer details, but she also knew that Syrus might not have any more details to give. Depending on if the person was an enemy or a stranger, Syrus¡¯ information would be limited, and only knowing the results rather than the method was to be expected. [I...] Syrus paused. [Don¡¯t believe it was their attribute.] Anlesa continued to walk down the streets to Ash¡¯s store, going down the side streets even though there was no one to see them from any angle anyway. [I¡­ don¡¯t understand¡­] Eva was completely lost. The more she looked around the city, the more it hurt her. [Why here, why now?] [Likely the person got hired to do the job for the skills, and once everything was over, simply chose to take advantage of the situation.] (Syrus) [But¡­] Eva felt it was unfair to everyone. Why did the people of the city have to deal with someone tormenting them just after victory was in sight? Why was there more trouble for them to deal with? Why were there no warning signs to pick up on earlier? [We can figure out the buts later.] (Syrus) On the way to the shop, Syrus started some small talk. ¡°You are looking worse than usual. Did you get attacked by one of the mutated animals earlier?¡± ¡°Maybe? Would you consider yourself mutated?¡± ¡°No, I''m the peak of human physique.¡± Syrus joked as she flexed the arm, not shouldering Ash. ¡°Well, my answer is then no.¡± ¡°If that is the case, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to patch you up. I know a place, but it can be a bit pricey.¡± Ash asked, "Oh, where?¡± ¡°Down this road, then turn and walk for about twenty seconds.¡± ¡°You fucker, my fees are not bloody pricy.¡± ¡°Well, you walked right into that one like a headless dog. I couldn¡¯t help it.¡± ¡°Helpless dog? Are you sure you didn¡¯t smoke anything?¡± ¡°You are my main supplier, so you should interrogate your ingredients, not me.¡± Said Syrus. Soon they made it to Ash¡¯s shop. ¡°Thanks for this¡­¡± Said Ash. ¡°What? Did you expect me to just leave you on the road?¡± ¡°You know what? Can you not say anything?¡± ¡°No.¡± Syrus pushed open the door and walked the two of them into the building. ¡°You''re lucky this place wasn¡¯t destroyed.¡± ¡°I will count my blessings after the day is over.¡± Said Ash. As they were walking in, Syrus saw two peeking hazel green eyes with a pinch of brown hair. Syrus asked, ¡°Ethan?¡± The door slammed open. ¡°You''re here!¡± Ethan exclaimed, happy and relieved; he rushed forward towards them. Syrus kneeled and hugged him, ¡°What... are you doing here?¡± Ash added, ¡°In my shop of all places.¡± ¡°Wel¡­ when I was looking for a safe place, this was the first place I thought of,¡± Ethan explained. After noises erupted, he was able to convince his family to run towards this side of the city. They were going to head for an extraction point, but they got jumped by a mutated animal, and this building was closer. Afterwards, he explained they didn¡¯t leave as they could still hear noises, and Ethan¡¯s dad judged this building was made out of stronger materials, so they decided they would be safe here. When the trio entered the backroom, they found Ethan¡¯s parents on the ground with small puppy-sized bite marks on their legs. ¡°...I¡­¡± Ethan found it difficult to explain what happened next. Syruss reassured him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I have some ideas. Just explain what you saw.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Ethan took a deep breath. ¡°When the noise finally died down and we were thinking of leaving the building. I started to get a headache, and my mind faded, but after a bark from Cobalt.¡± Cobalt rubbed its head against Ethan¡¯s leg. Ethan reached down to scratch Cobalt¡¯s ear. ¡°But my parents went weird¡­ they ignored me and just started moving¡­ wobbling they were moving towards the door and then¡­ Cobalt attacked them, and they fell to the ground. Ethan''s hand grabbed his chest. Ash was already on the ground examining them. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they aren¡¯t currently poisoned; it does seem like they were simply knocked out. Somehow.¡± [Cobalt did something?] (Luna) [He¡­ is a mythic creature, and he has that connection with Ethan.] Said Eva. They have noticed Cobalt and Ethan¡¯s near-supernatural connection with each other. [That could be why he was safe, but that doesn¡¯t apply to his parents.] [I¡¯m not sure Cobalt knew what it was doing either, I think it just followed its instincts.] (Syrus) ¡°Did you do anything else, Ethan?¡± He paused. ¡°I¡­ went outside to see what was happening, and I saw a crowd of people walking down the road towards the government hall¡­ they all looked despondent like mum and dad. But then I saw someone standing on the buildings yelling at them¡­ I stayed for a few minutes but came back after I got scared¡­¡± Ethan bit his lip. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have gotten scared. I would bring shame to hunters¡­ I could¡¯ve done someth¨C¡± Syrus stopped him. ¡°There is no mistake in being scared, fear is an important emotion for survival. That fear protected you, as I don¡¯t believe you would be here unharmed otherwise.¡± [How can someone do that? Is it like puppetry?] (Eva) [I¡¯d say necromancy is a better fit.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s forbidden.] (Luna) [It¡¯s forbidden because no one knows how to do it.] (Syrus) [Wait, I thought people could control the dead with Manipulation?] (Eva) [They can, but while that is also forbidden and can be called necromancy, it is not the same. What you are describing is basically the puppetry techniques, but necromancy¡­] (Luna) [Is literally about raising armies and sending them headfirst into other people. I thought you guys would know this from the stories?] (Syrus) [Stories. Simple stories.] (Luna) [But many can contain truth within them; I learnt that from you three.] (Syrus) Luna paused. [So, is what we are seeing here an application of the puppetry arts?] (Eva) [No, the soul makes manipulating unwilling people¡¯s bodies with mana incredibly difficult. Even if they are unconscious.] (Luna) ¡°I¡¯m going to ask a tough question.¡± Syrus readied Ethan, and he nodded. ¡°Did they kill anyone?¡± He shook his head. ¡°No¡­¡± He tried to remember what he saw. ¡°I¡­ think they were trying to make sure people didn¡¯t die as they were being moved¡­ She was yelling loudly, angrily, whenever people were about to fall over¡­ She was extra loud when someone tripped, landing on someone''s sword. [So the person has some conscience?] (Eva) [I doubt it.] (Luna) [Why then?] (Eva) [If not morally, then it must be because it will negatively affect them.] (Syrus) ¡°Whatever ability this person has¡­ it is likely treading on forbidden areas.¡± ¡°Forbidden?¡± Ethan questioned. Syrus shrugged. ¡°Well, it is not like there is an exact list of what is forbidden. But what kind of thing gets slapped on it are the acts that you see big bad guys do in children''s stories?¡± [Syrus.] (Luna) [What?] (Syrus) [Don¡¯t teach Ethan anything inappropriate.] (Luna) [I¡­] Syrus didn¡¯t know if Luna understood the correct meaning of what she said to Ethan. Ethan nodded, not understanding. ¡°Okay?¡± ¡°Think of actions that involve the dead¨Ctheir body or mana; souls; stealing attributes; and controlling people. Like Syrus said, children story villain abilities,¡± said Ash. These were abilities that some writers loved to use, as it was a great way to scare the audience with something unknown, but these were still supposed to be fantasy, as none of the abilities had ever been seen in historic records. However, the trio had seen that at least some of such actions were possible. ¡°So, people who do those things are all villains?¡± Ethan only slightly understood what they were going on about. He understood it conceptually, but he never read these stories, so it was hard for him to picture everything. ¡°No.¡± [Syrus?] (Luna) [What? I¡¯m making sure he knows the truth. Neither of you are bad people after all.] (Syrus) ¡°What about the person outside?¡± ¡°Them? A complete piece of shit that I will be trying to kill.¡± Syrus ruffled up Ethan¡¯s hair. ¡°Speaking of which, now that you two are here safe, I will be leaving.¡± Ash stopped her. ¡°Wait. Syrus, I¡¯ve got some recovery potions in the back. Let me give some to you.¡± A wonderful gift for Anlesa, if it could be used. ¡°Thanks for the offer, but I can¡¯t take it; my body won¡¯t be able to handle it.¡± ¡°You''re injured.¡± Ash assumed. ¡°No, just a medical condition.¡± Syrus lied. ¡°I just get extra bad effects when I consume additional mana recovery potions in a period of time.¡± ¡°...Is there anything else I can get you?¡± Ash asked. She didn¡¯t want to do nothing for Syrus. ¡°Well, do you have any rope?¡± Anlesa received a small number of supplies from Ash¨Csome rope and bandages. Afterwards, she went to leave the building. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best, and if you start hearing proper city noise, that probably means it is safe again. However¨C¡± Syrus pointed at the lock on the door. ¡°¨CDon¡¯t let anyone inside.¡± Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 122 – The Taker Chapter 122 ¨C The Taker After leaving, it was a quick rush to their home to grab their sword. ¡°It looks fine.¡± Syrus placed the blade and stealth on her back and kept the two borrowed swords from earlier. Eva grabbed a small belt with additional pouches, and Syrus tied it around their waist. It contained some basic potions and medicine supplies. She placed the bandages she received from Ash in one of the empty pouches, and she attached the tied-up rope around her belt. [Can we think of anything else?] (Luna) [We might be able to consume a vitaliser? I would need Syrus¡¯ expertise before making that decision.] (Eva) [That is a good question. Let me give the body a once-over, I remember the effects and flow of energy so I examine if those areas of the body can handle that.] (Syrus) The reason they could take the vitalisers in the first place was because of the minimal mana within them, which ensured no negative impact on their body when it couldn¡¯t handle intake mana. Now the situation was a little different; they could take weak healing and mana potions¨Cnothing strong¨Cbut the issue they weren¡¯t currently facing was simply that their body was exhausted. The exhaustion was due to not being fully recovered. It was a genuine fear sometimes for Eva that they might never be fully healed. Their muscles were strained and were suffering from mana strain¨Can issue caused when too much mana is active within the body. Active means actively using their attributes and casting magic. Normally this was only an issue for people who didn¡¯t let the body rest from using mana by bypassing the body¡¯s natural cooldown time by drinking mana potions. However, the body could be trained to handle this, as it could also be caused using large mana spells, and collapsing after one attack was not wanted by anyone. Anlesa¡¯s body''s main issue, what kept her from being fully recovered was this mana strain. From the beginning of their new transformation, their body had always been suffering a version of it. Which made using mana for large actions or extended periods of time difficult. Now that they were mostly healed, the effects of the full-body mana strain lessened but there was a massive difference between a body inflicted with a weakened case of mana strain and a healthy body. The vitaliser helped by providing energy with minimal mana and accelerated the body¡¯s natural healing process. [I¡­ think we should take one, but we will only drink in case of emergency.] Syrus warned. However, the vitaliser would grant them a burst of energy in this situation, but their body was already injured due to fighting under the effects of the mana strain. A vitaliser in this situation might cause more problems as it could overwork the muscles that need physical rest. [Understood¡­] (Eva) Was it the right decision to stroll in the potentially dangerous combat? Syrus would say no. In her last life, she would do it anyway, but in this one, in concern for the safety of Luna and Eva, she was willing to retreat. Her problem was that both her sisters were willing to face whatever enemy had taken hold of the city. Annoyingly, they were good people, and she believed that they were definitely better people than her. They left their home fully equipped. [I¡¯ll focus on combat, Eva will play support, Luna will be on alert and full permission to do whatever is necessary to keep the body alive.] (Syrus) [Hmhmm!] (Eva) [I¡¯m fine with that.] (Luna) Anlesa navigated through the city, and now there were a few people walking around. Wobbling, they seemed to be moving in a path. [Do you think they are on patrol?] (Luna) [Absolutely.] (Syrus) [General or looking for us?] (Luna) S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Likely looking for us, based on the fact that Ash was the one who jumped us initially.] (Syrus) [Could that be a coincidence?] (Luna) [We have no idea on the scope of our enemies'' controlling abilities, but if we assume that they can give basic orders and the¨Clet¡¯s just call them drones¨Cdrones can reply. Then all she would need to do was ask if anyone knew a person who matched our description. Plus some follow-up for someone actually close.] (Syrus) [That¡¯s a good theory.] (Eva) They were able to sneak through without trouble until finally where the city¡¯s residents had gathered, around the city hall. The wall that was supposed to be used as a form of security now was a jail to keep people in. The city hall, also known as the government hall, was a large two-story building with a massive area out the back that was fenced off. This area was used for events, storage, evacuations, or anything else that was required. It was a flexible space that¡¯s purpose was to be flexible so the city could do whatever it wanted without going through permissions elsewhere. ¡°No. No. No. No.¡± With an annoyed tone, they heard the woman¡¯s voice as she crossed items on a list. Though, Luna couldn¡¯t tell what exactly she was saying no towards. Eva assumed it had something to do with the people but couldn¡¯t identify what. Syrus got a good look at the women. She knew the woman was in her late thirties, but it wouldn¡¯t be a crazy guess to say she was in her late forties and that she had aged wrong. Floating above, standing on a door made of stone the woman wore a long black robe with two long sleeves. The left one follows in the wind curling around her neck like a scarf. Her right held a staff with an orb that stole all light. She moved around as the orb shined its light on one individual after another. As she turned, the trio got a clear look on her face; a large black hat made it hard to see, but her eyes were void of any colour, and her smile was pale. The concerning part was her face, as the right half of it was covered with aged wrinkles. [What¡­ is she doing¡­] (Eva) [I¡­ don¡¯t know.] (Syrus) [Whatever it is, it can¡¯t be good.] (Luna) Syrus moved around. She wanted to get a jump on and attack without being noticed. Due to the woman floating in the air above the civilians, any form of attack would be difficult. ¡°Found one.¡± The woman raised her staff. Burst. And plunge the pointed bottom into the civilian''s heart. [...W-w-h-ha-t.] (Eva) A thick, transparent energy immediately erupted from the orb without any input from the user and pulled a mix of blood and mana from the body, which spun around the orb as it slowly absorbed it. [Syrus, we need to kill this person.] (Luna) [I know.] (Syrus) Chapter 123 – The Forbidden Witch Chapter 123 ¨C The Forbidden Witch The energy slowly poured into the orb while the lady giddy laughed. ¡±Getting one makes this trip worthwhile; now, let¡¯s see if I can get double the prizes today.¡± She began to turn around to the next person in the crowd. Stab Flying cleanly through the air, a sword aimed directly at the lady¡¯s heart. Within moments of being hit, her body shifted to the side, and the sword pierced a non-vital area of the body. Immediately the lady flew up higher and removed the sword from her body. [The explosion didn¡¯t activate.] (Syrus) [Oh no¡­] (Eva) [That¡¯s fine, we just have to do this the hard way.] (Luna) Syrus waved her now-free hand in the air. ¡°Sup, villain.¡± Taunting her adversary. She stood on the nearby building across from the city hall¡¯s fenced-off area. The lady turned around on her floating platform. She looked down on Syrus, ¡°I prefer Witch. it has a nice ring to it.¡± She removed the blade that had pierced her cloak and body and did something out of Syrus¡¯s sight to the wound. ¡°Considering what you are currently doing, I guess that fits.¡± Syrus¡¯ sword tip ignited with a little flame. ¡°Oh, I thought you were a coward who stayed away from the fighting, but it appears you had some skill.¡± That fact that Syrus¡¯ was able to keep a small flame attached to the furthest point on her blade was a sign of her fire control. ¡°I guess you weren¡¯t paying much attention as I came into town.¡± ¡°No, I was not.¡± The lady shrugged. [Are we sure we should be chatting with the enemy?] (Eva) [It¡¯s just a form of distraction.] (Syrus) [I am here to deal with surprises, Lilly, don¡¯t worry.] (Luna) ¡°Well, do you have any friends in the audience?¡± The lady chuckled. ¡°Come on, raise your hand if you are friends with the girl I mentioned earlier.¡± In the multiple crowds of people that she had sorted into groups, not a single one raised their hand. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Eva, do you think you will be able to grab her hand or ankle with your wire?] (Syrus) [Forty-percent chance if we got within ten metres.] (Eva) [Good enough odds. I¡¯ll give the signal to try.] (Syrus) Syrus asked, ¡°Wouldn''t you have gotten the answer earlier?¡± ¡°No, I only asked the people who were useless to me last time.¡± The lady shook her head. ¡°Can¡¯t say I expected to deal with a loner. Sigh, just my luck.¡± ¡°What? Did you want to try and kill a friend of mine?¡± ¡°Of course, maybe I would bring their consciousness back first so you can hear them scream.¡± ¡°I see. Well, if that¡¯s the case, do you mind if I torch our surroundings? So difficult to fight when there are crowds below you.¡± [What?!] Eva knew Syrus wouldn¡¯t actually murder these people, but it still felt like it came out of nowhere. The witch gripped her staff, ¡°If you want to, be my guest.¡± Syrus¡¯ whispered, ¡°Gladly.¡± The flame intensified, and she shot a blast of fire at one of the ¡®useless¡¯ crowds. It looked deadly, but it was basically an illusion: the fire had no heat and wouldn¡¯t burn anything. Upon impact, it would dissolve into nothing. The witch flew into the path of the attack, and her door surfboard turned to block the attack; in the process, she realised the flames were ineffective. Syrus smiled. ¡°Thanks for confirming that theory, but I am curious. What would happen if I killed a few?¡± ¡°Well, you seem smarter than how you look¨C¡± ¡°I¡¯d say I look pretty smart.¡± The witch¡¯s grip tightened as the ominous light around the orb intensified. ¡°How about you go to sleep, then you answer my question?¡± [I¡­ don¡¯t like the feeling that the orb is emitting¡­] (Luna) Luna didn¡¯t know what about it made her feel off, but something about it her soul rejected. This feeling was shared between the three of them; Syrus and Eva ignored it to focus on the fight. Anlesa didn¡¯t feel anything immediately, but once the witch killed the first person, their soul felt repulsive and attracted force from the orb. At her command, a wave of energy collided with Anlesa. [I got this!] (Syrus) Syrus'' presence forced Luna and Eva out of the body for a moment as she became the single focus target of the onslaught. A wave of fog blanketed her mind, and her thoughts weakened and quieted down; then they slowly grew weaker, and weaker, and weaker, as even the voices around, the wind¡¯s breeze, and even the sound of breathing faded away as her mind became disinterested in everything. ¡°Now there little sheep, behave¨C¡± Flames raged out into the sky, hungry for flesh to burn. ¡°Ah!¡± The witch¡¯s board turned upward to block the flame; she hung on by holding the top as her feet rested in a hole made for this angle. The tips of her fingers were caught in the flames, causing her pain. [So that was her control¡­] (Eva) Eva and Luna jumped back in immediately. Syrus couldn¡¯t ever keep them out, and the one reason she was able to push them out in the first place was because they weren¡¯t ready for it. [How did you do that, Syrus?] (Luna) The flames stopped, and she spun the door back into a surfing position. She yelled from above, furious, ¡°How dare you! How did you resist it!?¡± ¡°I¡¯m far too angry to have my emotions doused out like that.¡± ¡°Anger? Bullshit! It¡¯s not perfect, but it has far advanced to the point that mere emotions can stop my spell!¡± [She is just... revealing information now?] (Eva) [Cockyness, pride, all that. Don¡¯t worry.] (Syrus) Click The witch clicked her fingers, and the crowd of people fainted beside two that walked out of the building. Two large figures covered head to toe in armour and wielding two swords each. Unlike the others, they weren¡¯t wobbling with their walk but something about them didn¡¯t seem human. [Puppets?] (Eva) [No¡­] Syrus focused on the movement, breathing, everything. ¡°They are alive, that¡¯s for sure.¡± ¡°After I cut your limbs off, maybe then you will feel like listening.¡± The witch commanded her two subjects. ¡°Go, capture that woman.¡± The two individuals had their weapons out, ready to kill. [Two people to dodge; that shouldn¡¯t be too hard.] (Syrus) [And attacking someone in the sky..?] (Eva) [Don¡¯t worry, still the same plan; I will give the signal.] (Syrus) [Do you think brute force will wake those two up?] (Luna) Syrus looked down on the two people; she didn¡¯t recognise either of them, but she felt disgust at what she was looking at. [No.] (Syrus) The guards ran forward from the guard and jumped. In strength that was not possible for the average man, they leapt over the fence and onto the building''s roof in a single jump. Once the first man landed, he immediately rushed at Anlesa. Syrus swung the sword off her back, breaking free of the sheath in a blaze of fire. The swing cancelled the attack, but she was being overpowered even when she pressed the second blade onto the first. [This might get messy.] (Syrus) Chapter 124 – Crimson Lion Chapter 124 ¨C Crimson Lion ¡°Haha, you know maybe this won¡¯t be all bad! My black lions haven¡¯t had a chance to fight humans for a while.¡± The witch laughed from above, and she moved further away to ensure she wasn¡¯t in the blast zone in case something happened again. While Syrus was stuck in a duel with the first black knight, the second raised its two swords and barrelled towards her. [We¡¯re going down!] (Syrus) A bright red light emerged from her foot, and within a moment an explosion of fire was brought forth. The roof crumbled, and everyone went falling. Syrus used this opportunity and flung the small at the knight behind her. The blade pierced between the joints on the left leg and Eva¡¯s wire pulled Syrus¡¯ body away from the knight mid-fall. Crash! The sound of rumble falling and wood burning echoed across the ghostly, quiet city. Syrus rolled with her landing, jumping off the ground with her motion. The first enemy landed without issue, but the second crashed down due to being unable to bend his leg. The knight removed the sword from his leg and got back up. ¡°Ehehehe.¡± Anlesa could hear the witch cackling behind them. [Maybe we should kill someone. That could disrupt whatever the witch is doing.] (Syrus) [Syrus, do you know what is going on?] (Luna) [No idea.] She answered truthfully. [I know the same as you two, that she is hesitant to kill people and that Orb is doing something funky.] [Based on the phenomenon we are seeing, it appears that the orb has taken¡­ something from the person she killed. The reason she could be hesitant likely means that more killing means some sort of problem with that process. To what end, and what result I don¡¯t know... but killing someone¡­] (Eva) [Well, we have two living targets in front of us to test a theory.] (Syrus) Syrus adjusted to a two-handed grip. With strength lacking at the moment, duel wielding was a little bit out of reach. [But¡­ they seemed controlled as well.] (Eva) [Considering they are the witch¡¯s personal weapons, we might be doing them a favour by killing them.] (Syrus) The trio engaged in combat. The first knight slammed their body forward towards them. Syrus evaded and immediately countered, but the knight''s reaction time was too fast and immediately parried the blow. The second knight joined in and Syrus leapt towards the building¡¯s exit back onto the street. Within less than a second, the second knight was besides Anlesa, and it swung its blade down at Syrus. She used a burst of Blood mana to avoid the attack, but the blade increased in length as a black shine formed on the tip. The lengthened blade went down the side of her torso and the top of her left leg. ¡°Argh.¡± Syrus clenched her teeth as he continued to move as she slammed through the wooden wall and reached the street. She grabbed the vitaliser from her bag and scoffed it down. She chucked the bottle at the knight, who stabbed her as it was still running towards her. [I¡¯ll handle the injury.] (Luna) Syrus created flames over the wound, which hid Luna¡¯s healing Moonlight magic. The flames were searing the injury shut. Syrus took the drink to help with healing, but more importantly, she needed more energy. The vitaliser acted fast; as the liquid poured down her throat, all her muscles along it lit up like fireworks. Anlesa parried the strike and gave a powerful, strengthened kick to the knight¡¯s leg, tripping them up. The other knight came for the follow-up; its twin blades fell down, and Syrus kept trying to move. Once in position, Syrus jumped up, right in the range of her target. She leapt off the ground and, with a second jump, jumped off the pillar of the fence she landed on. [Now!] (Syrus) Two metal wires emerged, targeting the limbs of the witch. The witch turned back around from her orb, and she tapped the door. ¡°Uh, uh, uh, your fight is with my knights.¡± And within a moment, Eva¡¯s Manipulation was cancelled, which caused the wire to fall. A moment later she could move them again but they were already too far away. [I¡¯m sorry.] (Eva) [Don¡¯t be, just support me in combat now.] (Syrus) The wire, now active again, pulled Anlesa¡¯s body back to the pillars. The moment she landed, Syrus immediately jumped off as the wall crumbled and the earth opened up. With a hard landing, Syrus continued the fight on the streets. Metal wires flung around, stabbing into debris and chucking at the knights. Both simply ignored the rubble even as a small boulder of rock slammed into one of the knight¡¯s helmets. [No pain I see.] (Syrus) [They¡­ are truly like puppets¡­] (Eva) [Soldiers that don¡¯t feel any form of pain, guess that¡¯s why they can do these overly strenuous feats.] (Syrus) [What could be creating such a state?] (Luna) [Apathy.] Syrus answered. [Is¡­ that what you felt before?] (Eva) [Yes, though, it would take more than that to make them move like they do. When everyone else was affected, I bet none of them could do actions like what these two can do.] (Syrus) Rubble was carved up out of the ground, and the knight with its sword shredded the earth behind it. The other knight vanished from view. [Is this the person you met... back then?] (Luna) [Maybe. Last time I checked, they had two arms, but I¡¯d say more likely than not.] (Syrus) [The stranger that had a similar feeling mana was in fact the same person?] (Eva) [Umm, yeah, that¡¯s a way to put it.] (Syrus) Spears of rocks began launching themselves from the ground. Syrus weaved between the spears with precision. She angled the blade behind her as she prepared to make a wide swing. With each passing moment, flames concreted on the sword, making the blade appear to be turning red. The second knight jumped from inside a new building, breaking through the wall. Its blade pointed out, ready to skewer Syrus. Syrus leant back and fell below the blade as it passed over her body. ¡°You won¡¯t get the chance to be quieter next time!¡± Her knees cracked as her whole swung up off the unbalanced position, and her blade dyed red followed the path to victory. The scorching flames cut into the knight''s armour, and within a second of making contact with the flesh, the sky turned red as flames shot up towards the sky, engulfing the knight and sending them hurting back through the building. Bang! The explosion of flames deafened the city. ¡°A-errr.¡± Syrus groaned as her body was not happy with her. [Is it dead?] (Eva) [I doubt it, the witch would be cursing up a storm if it was. Though it is likely dying.] (Syrus) The witch didn¡¯t react to the strike; instead, she simply stared at Syrus. The witch whispered as she tried to organise her thoughts. ¡°Fuck, did that bitch have a daughter? No, impossible.¡± The lady shook her head. ¡°Timing doesn¡¯t match anyway.¡± Syrus heard and ignored it. She then ordered, ¡°Retreat!¡± She then shrugged. ¡°I know my luck; I doubt there was anyone else here.¡± The witch stared down at Syrus, and her smile slowly widened. ¡°If we meet again, then you will have to replace my doll.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather not.¡± Said Syrus. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The remaining black lion knight turned around, sheathed its blades, and in a superhuman dash ran towards the outer perimeter of the city. [I¡­ can¡¯t keep up with that right now.] (Syrus) [But why is she retreating..?] Eva asked. Sure they still had options, and maybe trump cards? But Eva would not consider them to be in the best of positions. [If the knight is dying, then perhaps the impact of others dying around her is more detrimental than we first thought.] (Luna) [There could be another reason.] Syrus said as they watched as people started groaning as a few began to wake up. Her plan to make as much noise as possible was a success. ¡°That¡¯s not your choice to make.¡± The witch¡¯s door rotated forty-five degrees and began to move away from the city. ¡°As I said, I¡¯d rather not be one of your black lions.¡± Her head turned around. ¡°No, that wouldn¡¯t suit you.¡± The witch smiled. ¡°With your endurance, power, and speed, even while limited by human weakness, you still put up a decent fight. You might be worthy to be my first Crimson Lion.¡± Chapter 125 – Saviour Chapter 125 ¨C Saviour ¡°Such up, you psycho bitch.¡± ¡°Witch.¡± Immediately afterwards, the lady flew off fast towards the west. [She¡¯s¡­ gone?] (Eva) [Yes, she is.] Syrus watched as the witch flew far away. They were in no condition to chase and if anything, there was a high chance they might crash sometime soon. Syrus turned away from the city hall, ¡°Argh.¡± She wobbled forward, and her head fell onto her hand. [Let¡¯s go home, quickly.] (Luna) [First, we need to check the body.] (Syrus) Anlesa wobbled towards the knight¡¯s body. It lay on the ground with a gaping wound across its body, and its armour had disconnected and fallen apart. [He is definitely dying.] (Luna) [Not even making a sound.] (Syrus) [Even now..?] Eva remembered how everyone else woke with brute force. Syrus raised her sword. Stab And she plunged it through the knight¡¯s heart. ¡°We are done here.¡± Syrus sheathed her weapon and began her slow work to their place. It should only take a few minutes to reach their house, but as they move, with the adrenaline of the fight no longer active, their body slowly slowed down. [Hehe, argh, dammit, we might actually pass out on the dirt.] (Syrus) [Is the vitaliser doing anything?] (Luna) [If we didn¡¯t take that, we would¡¯ve passed out when I did that strike.] (Syrus) Everything had been too much, and their body needed to rest. The problem was if they would make it home because passing out anywhere else could spell doom. [But¡­ we did a good job, didn¡¯t we?] (Eva) A small grin appeared on Syrus¡¯ face. [Yeah, we sure did. Couldn¡¯t have done it without you, Eva.] [Our work was sublime in every way that was important.] (Luna) [Sublime?] (Syrus) [Very good.] (Luna) [Understood, we did indeed do a very sublime job.] (Syrus) [Hmhmm!] Eva agreed, the group''s self-praise really helped raise her mood. They turned another corner, and Syrus was nearly tempted to use the sword as a crutch. As she moved, they also saw some of the guards that were patrolling the city begin to wake up. [Apathy huh¡­] (Luna) [An emotional attribute¡­ though I guess it could be considered the opposite of them since it is about not feeling.] (Eva) [The emotion attributes can amplify or reduce emotional responses, so I would assume it still qualifies.] (Luna) [Did you read about it before, Luna?] (Eva) [No, the list of attributes in that field was far from complete, and Apathy was never registered.] (Luna) [I wonder if it got confused with another attribute if it ever appeared.] (Eva) [Not impossible. Once you reach the special group of attributes, it can be hard to figure out what they are.] (Luna) The library Luna read from was far from complete, and it wasn¡¯t a place that was dedicated to research either. [How about you, Syrus? What do you know about it?] Luna asked. [Pretty standard stuff. It can lower the affected individuals'' emotional response.] Syrus groaned as she turned another corner and felt her muscles fall asleep. [It can be used to make a crowd less excited, and be focused on a single person to basically shut them down for a moment.] [So that¡­ Witch¡­ had a much more powerful version of that?] (Eva) [Pretty much.] (Syrus) [Was it that strong when you felt it before?] (Luna) [...No, it was not that strong, but compared the last time I felt it, it still has a similar feeling attached to it.] (Syrus) [Did¡­ The feeling of it changed at some point?] Luna asked. Maybe Syrus had been affected by the attribute multiple times and the disgusting feeling was only related to the current user¨Cshe didn¡¯t know, so she asked. [Likely, but I can¡¯t say much because I don¡¯t know what happened. The last time I saw her, she was quickly gone.] (Syrus) ¡°Syrus!¡± ¡°Woof!¡± Two familiar faces ran down the roads towards Anlesa. ¡°Oh, hey kid¡­¡± Said Syrus, ¡°What are you doing here?¡± ¡°I¡¯m¡­ here to help you.¡± Ethan looked up at her. ¡°That sounds like the opposite of what I asked you.¡± Syrus poked the boy¡¯s head. ¡°Um¡­ maybe¡­¡± Huffing and puffing, the third familiar voice called out. ¡°Don¡¯t¡ª put too much stress on the kid.¡± Ash, who was running after the two came following shortly behind. ¡°Looks like you need to exercise more.¡± Ash swore, ¡°This may surprise you, but being punched in the gut fucking hurts.¡± She jogged up to Syrus¡¯ side and lent her shoulder. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get you back.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± The trio continued to wobble forward as they approached Anlesa¡¯s home, and Ash¡¯s shop. ¡°Did you do it?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°The explosion, you?¡± ¡°Also yeah.¡± ¡°Wow¡­¡± Ethan opened his mouth in shock. ¡°Damn, you are crazy.¡± Said Ash. ¡°Heh, it worked out. People started waking up.¡± ¡°And you are likely suffering from mana strain from doing that.¡± ¡°Among other things.¡± ¡°Fuck, once we get you back to my store I will patch you u¨C¡± ¡°No.¡± Ash pinched Anlesa¡¯s ear, ¡°What do you mean, no?!¡± ¡°Ah!¡± Eva squealed. ¡°As if I let a patient go where they are still bloody injured!¡± ¡°No¡­ I need alone time.¡± Ash sighed. ¡°Sure, I will take you to your place.¡± ¡°Miss?¡± Ethan said. Ash replied. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Brat, I know what I am doing.¡± Ash unclipped Syrus¡¯ sword and gave it to Ethan. ¡°Kid, carry that, we are rushing to Syrus¡¯s place.¡± Ash ducked down and threw Syrus on her back. Ash¡¯s teeth clenched, and she began running. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was a simple dash, but she went as fast as she could to the building. Upon reaching it Ash knocked open the door and placed ¡°Thanks, Ash; you''re my life saviour.¡± ¡°Says the idiot who might¡¯ve just saved the town.¡± "Well, thanks; if that¡¯s the case, can you do me a favour?¡± Ash closed her eyes, expecting the answer. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I need to be left alone.¡± Anlesa could feel her body wanting to fall asleep. They definitely pushed themselves too much over the last few days. But Syrus was doing everything in her power to stay awake until the duo left. ¡°But¡­¡± Said Ethan. ¡°Trust me, kid.¡± Ethan placed the blade on the table, and Ash dragged everyone out. Anlesa¡¯s mind left the body and returned to the commune of souls, and the body''s senses completely died down. [Damn, usually we normally feel at least something if we stay in here while sleeping, but no, all our senses are quiet.] (Syrus) [Back to the conversation from before, what was the Witch¡¯s name?] Luna asked; she wanted to try and investigate the person, but to do that, a name would be helpful. Syrus paused. [I don¡¯t know if she is still using the same name, but it was Levi.] Chapter 126 – This isn’t what I asked? Chapter 126 ¨C This isn¡¯t what I asked? [Levi huh¡­] Luna pondered the name but didn¡¯t recognise it being attached to any prevalent figures she knew about. [It¡¯s a nice name?] Eva was in the same boat. Syrus spoke first before they asked any more questions. [I really don¡¯t know much more about her, everything I did know about her as a person was wrong and everything about her abilities I¡¯ve already mentioned.] [Hmm¡­ no other information about her abilities or personality.] (Luna) [She is just a stranger to me.] (Syrus) Luna didn¡¯t press anymore, she believed Syrus had no more information to give on that topic, but there were a few more that needed to be discussed. [Okay, how about the body?] (Luna) [Well, you can kind of feel it right now, it¡¯s dead exhausted.] (Syrus) Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Since their transformation, they had been more attached to their body and they could feel the effects and physical ailments of the body to milder effect while in the soul space. There was some weirdness to this, for instance, the Apathy attack, as with that Eva and Luna could feel something happening but neither was affected in any way for the short duration. [Nothing can be done?] Eva wondered. [Sleep.] (Syrus) [I see¡­] (Eva) [Remember what I said, your drink did not cause this.] The drink in fact did worsen the effect of the knockout, but at the same time it was coming either way, and they might¡¯ve crashed mid-combat which would¡¯ve been fundamentally worse. [I¡­ know.] (Eva) [Then, do we know how long the body is going to be knocked for?] (Luna) [Based on the crash?] Syrus pondered for a moment. Trying to remember the feelings and condition of the body before they escaped into the Soul Space. A part of her was curious about jumping into the body to check the condition but there was a high chance she would just get caught up and fall asleep. [At least six hours?] [That¡¯s¡­ not too long.] (Luna) [That¡¯s because I will be trying to force ourselves to wake up at that point; if I fail, well, I may be out of contact for some time longer.] (Syrus) [What¡¯s the most?] (Eva) [Likely twenty-three to twenty-seven? There is a lot of sleep our body wants to catch up on.] (Syrus) [Hmm¡­] (Eva) That conversation ended there. While their body was exhausted, that didn¡¯t mean their minds were also free from their own tiredness. Eva was ready to crash herself; the last few days have been a huge weight on her, and jumping back into the body to sleep didn¡¯t sound like a horrible idea. Luna was still dealing with a little bit of self-blame for the rampage and actions of the church, but it was hard to deny the absolutely dazzling feeling of knowing Morrison was dead. Syrus was fine; she was always fine. Knowing that an enemy was alive was frustrating. She hadn¡¯t thought about Levi at all, but the moment she felt that mana, she wished she had another chance at killing her those years ago. [Any big important topics we want to spill? Or just relax while we wait it out?] (Syrus) [I¡­ can¡¯t think of anything in particular¡­] Eva mumbled. [There are a few things I want to know, but that requires research not a discussion here.] [Fair enough. Luna?] (Syrus) [I¡­ wouldn¡¯t mind discussing what our next plan is.] (Luna) [Next plan?] (Eva) [Revenge, going on the offensive, hunting down the witch, making more money, etc.] (Syrus) [Oh, overall plan.] (Eva) [Yes¡­ Do you two have any preference?] (Luna) Silence filled the void for a moment. Eva raised her hand, nervous. [I¡­ have a selfish request.] Syrus gestured to go on. Luna nodded. [I¡­ want to go to Eletscoep.] (Eva) This caused the other two to pause. [I-can¡¯t say I expected that.] Luna replied, [But, I want to be clear I am not necessarily against the idea.] [That was the most ¡®I am not so sure about this¡¯ yelp I¡¯ve heard from you.] (Syrus) [Shut it.] (Luna) [¨CAnyway, Eva, I am against the idea unless there are good reasons. My current priorities are getting revenge and making money to support the kids. And before doing anything more dangerous, I want us to get healed up first.] (Syrus) [I¡­] Eva¡¯s gulped. [There¡­ are a few reasons. The non-selfish ones first, Eletscoep has a large library of information, which could have information on that orb, and some information about the church, and potential information about attributes¡­ I am hoping it could have something about¡­ teleportation.] Syrus nodded. [The selfish ones now¡­] Eva continued. [I want to know about my past.] She began to ramble fast. [I want to know if my first parents are okay, I want to learn about my city, I want to learn more potions, I want to be proud walking in that city, I want to learn more about Manipulation, I want to¨C] [That¡¯s enough.] Syrus stopped her. [I understand.] She walked up and gave Eva a hug. [Hu¡­ hu¡­] It took a few moments for Eva to calm down. [I¡¯m¡­ less against the idea.] Luna found it hard to say no after such an honest performance, and she wouldn¡¯t be lying that some of those reasons across both lines of reasoning were appealing to her. [My thoughts are more simple. I don¡¯t want us going anywhere far until we are fully healed. This incident has cemented that fact for me.] [I am fine with that.] Eva nodded with a brief sigh. Getting the others to least think about the idea was good enough in her book. [How about you Luna, what did you want to do?] (Syrus) [Huh?] Luna was a bit too invested in Eva at the moment, so it took her a moment to process what Syrus said. [Well, I¡¯ve already mentioned my current plans. Non-specific ones, but outside of those, my priority is getting healthy first before we do anything major.] (Syrus) [I¡­] (Luna) After the long rest and Syrus successfully forcing the body awake, moonlight finally shined into their open eyes again. ¡°Oh, good to see that you''re awake.¡± And a familiar apothecary¡¯s voice was heard, which greatly displeased Anlesa. It took a moment for her eyes to fully open, but they didn¡¯t need to see to know the changes as their body had reverted back to their true appearance. ¡°Why are you here?¡± Syrus groaned with clear hostile intent. ¡°Don''t worry,¡± Ash said calmly as she was mixing herbs at their desk. ¡°I already figured it out.¡± ¡°Huh..?¡± Syrus supported her head as she pulled herself up the wall next to her bed. ¡°What are you on about?¡± Ash said with pride. ¡°You might not know this, but medical conditions relating to potion consumption are seventy percent higher in those with exotic attributes, and mana potion-related conditions are ninety percent higher. That, along with your wish to be left alone or leave, has led me to deduce your condition myself.¡± She turned around with a greenish soup in her hands. [What¡­] (Syrus) [I¡¯ve never had an excuse backfire so much.] (Luna) [Wow¡­] (Eva) ¡°Now then." She pushed the soup with a wooden spoon into Anlesa¡¯s hands. ¡°Time to eat up.¡± Chapter 127 – Green Soup Chapter 127 ¨C Green Soup ¡°This might be one of the worst things I have ever eaten.¡± Said Syrus. [I¡­ think I¡¯m going to be sick¡­] (Eva) [There is nothing wrong with my stomach. There is nothing wrong with my stomach. There is nothing wrong with my stomach, there is nothing wrong with my stomach¨C] (Luna) Anlesa was slowly eating the medical meal that Ash had prepared. ¡°It¡¯s not that bad.¡± Replied Ash. ¡°Now I am sure you burned off your taste buds at some point in your life.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t like it, you don¡¯t have to eat it.¡± Said Ash, who wasn¡¯t looking at Anlesa anymore and instead cleaning off some towels and bandages. ¡°Fine.¡± Syrus leaned forward and scoffed the rest of the bowl down. ¡°Ergh.¡± Eva groaned. [Just leave the body, you idiots!] (Syrus) [Can¡¯t¡­ spent too long in Soul Space¡­ now it''s hard to return¡­] (Eva) [I swear I have no fucking idea how that works.] (Syrus) She wiped away the leftovers on her lips with their shirt and sat in silence for a moment while she regretted her choices. Eva checked the ingredients first, and it wasn¡¯t something that would negatively affect the body. They had a lot of energy and many different treats that the body needed. It was simply a health soup, but the taste was so awful. Syrus had grown up eating leftovers and scraps, and she was shocked that she found something that was worse than what she ate in those days. They figured Ash being an apothecary would be an okay cook, but they were doubting everything they knew at the moment. While they were unconscious, Ash did apply treatment to their body. She washed off the blood from their wounds, tied on bandages, and applied painkillers to the bruised and bleeding body parts. ¡°I feel sorry for anyone else you ever have to cook for.¡± ¡°Hey! I¡¯m a fine cook. Just sometimes the taste isn¡¯t the first priority.¡± ¡°There are a hundred different seasonings you could¡¯ve drowned this in; some might not create tasty concoctions, but it would be better than this.¡± Ash was about to get angry but pinched herself and calmed down. ¡°Well if you can talk so much, I guess you are getting better.¡± ¡°Better than I was six hours ago, so yeah.¡± Ash sat down next to Anlesa, pulled up Anlesa¡¯s shirt, and began replacing the bandages. Syrus allowed and continued talking. ¡°How¡¯s Ethan doing?¡± Ash wiped down the wound. She was concerned with how much blood was still coming out, but that was because of Syrus¡¯ Blood attribute, which was doing its only healing process. She wasn¡¯t going to tell Ash about that, just because she found out about their true form didn¡¯t mean Anlesa was getting to let Ash learn more than she needed to. Ash answered, ¡°He is doing alright. He and his parents are doing okay; when I checked with them, they were looking through their house. It got rough up during the conflict.¡± ¡°Unsurprising there.¡± Ethan along the western side of the city, which was the major point of damage throughout the city. ¡°I also asked him to keep your involvement with the latter half of the incident quiet.¡± ¡°Do his parents know?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Anlesa really didn¡¯t know Ethan¡¯s parents, so I didn¡¯t want them talking about me with other people. They trusted Ethan not to spill any information about today¡¯s events¡ªnot that he even knew much, but just not telling that she was involved in resolving today¡¯s second incident was good. ¡°I¡¯ve given them permission to rest in the backroom of my shop for the night as well; I haven¡¯t been back to check on them though, as I¡¯ve stayed here with you for most of the time. Speaking of which, I really do like your setup here; you did wonders with the place.¡± ¡°Thanks for the compliment and for helping out the kid.¡± ¡°I¡¯m only doing this as a favour for you.¡± ¡°Shut up, don¡¯t act like you''re not a kind person.¡± ¡°It¡¯s still a favour nonetheless.¡± Once Ash was done tending to the wounds, she got up and sat back on the workstation. She said, ¡°You can lay down now if you wish.¡± ¡°I¡¯m good, resting on the wall is good enough. I kind of prefer to be sitting up right now.¡± ¡°Your loss.¡± Anlesa looked out of the window after she peeled back the tiny inside wooden curtain, she could see people moving around the city in the dead of night, cleaning up, fixing buildings, and supplying food and aid around the city. ¡°People got back on their feet fast.¡± ¡°Thankfully¡­¡± Ash sighed. ¡°There was a lot of panic after the second incident was resolved, especially since a large group of people woke up in a crowd with a dead body in the centre.¡± ¡°That did happen¡­¡± Ash looked over at Syrus for that comment. ¡°I can¡¯t comment on what happened out there while you were fighting, but by the sounds, it didn¡¯t sound good.¡± ¡°A good way to put it.¡± Syrus nodded. ¡°So, what else happened afterwards?¡± ¡°Well¡­ people got to work. It was pretty much a continuation of what was happening before the second incident, minus the cheer in the air, which was replaced with tension.¡± ¡°Again, can¡¯t say I¡¯m shocked about that.¡± Syrus cracked her neck. Ash reprimanded, ¡°Can you not try and injure your body?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not¨Cnow did any more trouble happen afterwards?¡± ¡°Without any successful trouble, the guards did a mass search of the area and found some bandits nearby who we guess were waiting for night. They were rounded up, and most of them were executed. People were too worried about what happened before to leave a whole group like that in the destroyed prisons at the time. Outside of that, I¡¯m not too sure about what has happened, as I¡¯ve been here with you for most of it.¡± Anlesa nodded again. They did appreciate the update from Ash even if they still weren¡¯t too happy about the invasion of privacy, but it was hard for them to get upset at a doctor for waiting to treat an injured party just because they said no. Anlesa could see different ideas that Ash might¡¯ve thought of¨CAnlesa could¡¯ve been delirious or under the effects of a similar spell and could¡¯ve bled to death in their room¨Cwere two easy guesses. The fact that Ash guessed their different appearance through the wrong means was also annoying, but there was nothing that could be done about that. Ash looked down at Syrus¡¯ sombre face. She did feel slightly bad about breaking the promise and coming in, but she wasn¡¯t going to risk the potential death of her saviour. ¡°I can¡¯t say I¡¯m not surprised you hide yourself; from my understanding, pretty much every person with a transformation ability does that.¡± ¡°Then what does surprise you about my look?¡± Anlesa was guessing one of many things, from the colours, the horn, etc. "Well, some people with exotic attributes grow up quickly, but I have no idea if you are one of those cases.¡± Ash sighed. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying so long to guess your age and when I saw your form change, I figured it would be my opportunity to find out, but no, you look around the same age still.¡± ¡°I¡­ see¡­¡± Said Eva. ¡°I guess I do have some questions, well, mostly about who knows. Does the boy or some of the others in town?¡± ¡°No one besides you knows.¡± ¡°You kept that hidden huh¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, I did.¡± sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°My bad.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll forgive you if you don¡¯t make me pay for any of this shit.¡± Ash replied back, shocked! ¡°What kind of doctor do you think I am?¡± ¡°One that breaks into people''s houses.¡± Ash couldn¡¯t reply to that. Their back and forth continued for a little longer, and Ash didn¡¯t ask any really important questions to Syrus. Until the end. ¡°Do you plan to leave town after this?¡± ¡°Leave the city?¡± ¡°Correct. I heard some people playing to leave. Some forever, some just until the repairs are done.¡± [Any major suggestion?] (Syrus) [We¡¯ve already spoken about this.] (Luna) [I know, just confirming.] (Syrus) [A short trip would be good¡­] (Eva) [Exactly what I was thinking. I think we should visit Elly and the children again and deliver the next paycheck in person.] (Syrus) It matched what Syrus wanted to do. Not going far and the priority was still healing [I¡¯m¡­ fine with that¡­ I would like to see them again.] (Eva) [Luna?] (Syrus) [I¡¯m in agreement.] (Luna) Syrus answered. ¡°Well, I think I will visit some family.¡± Chapter 128 – Wounds & Wear Chapter 128 ¨C Wounds & Wear Ash stayed by Anlesa¡¯s side throughout most of the night, only leaving twice to check up on her store and people sleeping inside it. Once the morning came around, Anlesa got up and was ready to see the town for herself. ¡°Are you sure you want to be up moving?¡± ¡°Definitely, I want to see what has happened to the city.¡± Eva had already given the go-ahead for a short-term transformation, three hours, which was plenty for their trip around Arisea Station. Once Eva completed the transformation to the Syrus¡¯ disguise. ¡°Impressive and weird.¡± Said Ash. ¡°Just throw me the knife.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pass you the knife.¡± Replied Ash. Syrus tidied up her hair, which was a mess from their quick cut earlier. ¡°Your hair stays dyed even after you cut it?¡± ¡°What did you expect to switch colour?¡± ¡°Honestly, I''m not sure what I was expecting. Maybe something special? It could turn grey or something after being detached.¡± Ash picked up a piece of the hair and fiddled with it and confirmed it was indeed red. ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad your mind is still in working order,¡± Syrus said as she stood up off the chair. ¡°Do you want some dry bread from my cupboard, or something else?¡± ¡°I went outside a moment earlier; they were passing out fruit and water.¡± ¡°That does sound better.¡± Syrus still took the small amount of bread from the cupboard; she needed to eat it soon anyway. With the morning light shining down, the duo left Anlesa¡¯s house. Outside of a knife, Syrus didn¡¯t bring any weapons or her bag. Her body was sore, and carrying any extra weight wasn¡¯t wanted. They stopped by Ash¡¯s store on the way out of the street. Syrus said, ¡°Looks like the family is gone.¡± Ash added. ¡°Probably returned to rummage through their house.¡± Ash cleared up her shop and locked some important drawers. Once that was done, they left for the main street. ¡°Busy,¡± said Ash. ¡°That¡¯s a way to describe it.¡± From the main street, Anlesa could see the damage and destruction that the city had faced. The western side had faced the most damage; the south received a little bit of damage from the rock construct mostly on the main street; the east side also received a little bit of damage, but the north was mostly well off. People were moving around quickly, doing one of many things. Some were packing up their things and preparing to leave; others were standing guard while supporting the construction effort; some people were fully focused on rebuilding; some were supplying food to others for free; and some people were trying to get a good deal during the disaster. A few of the shops they frequented were severely damaged, including Gery¡¯s Well Grill, the place where they treated Ethan and Cobalt before. But despite the damages, people could still smell the smoke of grilling meat on the barbeque. [Good to see Garry is still kicking¡­] Eva smiled once she smelt the meat. [People are hardy.] (Syrus) The death toll wasn¡¯t insignificant, but it wasn¡¯t to the point that bodies were being hurled around everywhere. The biggest loss of lives was on the south and east sides with the surprise attacks; the western side, with the most damage, was able to avoid the potential large loss of civilian life. The major amount of death came in the form of hunters who stood to defend. The mourning had already begun for everyone who died, but it was no secret that a large service would be prepared once the city had sorted out the destruction. [I¡¯ve found Lavender.] (Syrus) [Oh.] (Luna) Syrus turned to face Lavender, who clearly hadn¡¯t spotted her yet. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Really-oh no...] (Eva) Lavender''s eyes widened. ¡°Ah, look who is still alive.¡± Lavender wobbled, looking worse for wear. Her armour had been replaced with a loose-fitting shirt, and she had kept her long pants on, which were of higher quality than her current shirt and were what she wore while working, but because of that, they had plenty of scratches and torn spots within them. In her hand was a simple wooden cane she was putting her weight on. ¡°Says the person looking half dead.¡± ¡°With the amount of bandages on you, I can¡¯t let you say you got off scot-free either.¡± Ash, who was by Anlesa¡¯s side, asked. ¡°Friend of yours?¡± ¡°Coworker,¡± Syrus answered. ¡°Rude, we work together through the bowels of life and death.¡± Lavender waved the hand not holding the cane in a dramatic display. Ash sighed, ¡°Coworker indeed.¡± Lavender continued, ¡°Speaking of a friend, I didn¡¯t know you had any Syrus.¡± ¡°Everyone in this line of work should at least know a doctor.¡± ¡°Cough, true.¡± Lavender coughed and adjusted her standing position. Syrus asked. ¡°On a serious note, are you okay?¡± Ash added, ¡°I got some supplies in my bag if you want me to have a look.¡± Lavender continued to cough before waving away the suggestion. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m good. I¡¯m patched up now, just not in working condition for a while.¡± The trio moved off the main part of the road and talked for a while longer. Their conversation stayed away from the conflict and instead was small talk about food and the weather. Syrus asked, ¡°By the way, where¡¯s Maca?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I haven¡¯t seen him.¡± Said Lavender. She tapped her lip, ¡°Do you think one of the creatures got him?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t seen any with broken teeth nor a destroyed throat.¡± With the hard bones covering Maca¡¯s body, Anlesa doubted any of the mutated creatures would¡¯ve had an easy time swallowing him. ¡°Heh, true.¡± Lavender laughed. After getting the laugh out of her system, she asked, ¡°You plan on staying around?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got some family I want to visit. I¡¯d rather not have them hear the news of the city being attacked than wait a number of weeks for a letter that I am okay.¡± ¡°I get it.¡± Lavender raised her hand. ¡°I thought about doing something similar, but it''s a bit too far away, and I¡¯m too exhausted to go on the journey. So, I already got my letter written.¡± ¡°Good on you. It''s about ten days for the post to come around, right?¡± ¡°If there are no delays, which, fingers crossed not.¡± Lavender began chewing on some hard jerky. ¡°If you are planning to leave, when are you going?¡± Anlesa answered, ¡°Two days time.¡± Chapter 129 – Return to home of unfortunate Children. Chapter 129 ¨C Return to Home of Unfortunate Children. ¡°Syrus! It¡¯s great to see that you are okay!¡± ¡°Woo!¡± The meeting with Lavender didn¡¯t last long, and everyone split up again. Ash separated from Syrus to help with the medical treatment of the injured, and Syrus was ready to return to their home. However, on the way they spotted the familiar boy and his dog wearing every bit of gear he owned. ¡°Thanks, kid.¡± Syrus awkwardly accepted his words. Sometimes it felt weird having a little kid worry about her safety and well-being. Syrus moved them off the main street to continue their talk, eventually making their way to where they trained on the western side. The area was flat like always, but a large trail of burn marks could be seen nearby. ¡°Why are we here?¡± ¡°Because I haven¡¯t had a look at the area since I¡¯ve gotten out of bed.¡± ¡°What about more creatures attacking?¡± ¡°They would¡¯ve already, plus see all the guards around?¡± Syrus pointed. The area that was normally empty of people had patrols of guards and hunters moving around. ¡°There are likely just as many people in the forest ensuring everything is safe.¡± There were a few decent squads of people clearing through the forest to ensure everything was safe, though they had a very confusing report to write as they found multiple mutated and normal animal corpses not killed by other animals but visible by human-inflicted wounds. ¡°Woof!¡± Cobalt barked to cheer Ethan up and to confirm that everything was safe. ¡°Thanks, buddy.¡± Ethan returned the favour by patting Cobalt on the head. ¡°Your bond is as strong as ever.¡± Eva smiled. Once the patting session was completed, Ethan asked, ¡°Teacher, what do you plan to do now?¡± ¡°My plans? Well, I will be leaving the country soon.¡± Syrus crouched down to Ethan¡¯s height. ¡°I¡¯ve got some family I want to check up on.¡± ¡°I see...¡± Ethan nodded. ¡°So, you won¡¯t be able to train me again?¡± ¡°Maybe, maybe not,¡± Syrus answered. ¡°I won¡¯t be gone forever, even when I am back. Do you want me to keep teaching you?¡± sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Huh?¡± Ethan was thirteen years old; while young, plenty of people had started working even younger than him, and he did work to support his parents'' job but hadn¡¯t started working as a proper hunter yet. Syrus continued, ¡°You¡¯ve learned a lot, and I am sure many people would be eager to have someone as skilled as you on their team. What you need now is practical experience; of course, you better start from the beginning and work your way up, don¡¯t jump into danger immediately.¡± Syrus patted the two heads. ¡°But I am sure you two are smart enough for me to not need to warn you anymore.¡± ¡°But...¡± Ethan mumbled his words. ¡°Can you still teach me more when you return?¡± ¡°Roo woof!¡± Syrus sighed, ¡°Sure, kid. You too Cobalt.¡± ¡°Yay!¡± He celebrated. ¡°Woof!¡± [He appears more like a kid now than he was before.] (Luna) [He has nearly lost so much. He just got lucky he didn¡¯t, so it¡¯s not surprising his emotions are spilling out more.] (Syrus) [I thought people did the opposite?] (Eva) [Eh, reactions vary; everyone is unique.] (Syrus) Time was running out, so Anlesa returned home to continue their recovery. Days later, the trio left the city of Arisea Station behind them, hitching a ride on one of the many carts leaving the city. During that time, they weren¡¯t able to find Maca no matter where they looked or who they asked; people at least remembered seeing him during the fighting, but after that, nothing. Endless theories could be created about what happened to him, ranging from good to very bad, but Anlesa chose to, at least in group discussion form, not theorise it¨Cindividually they had wildly different opinions. Anlesa brought their largest backpack, plenty of clothes, some herbs, Syrus¡¯ sword, and other small items they needed. They were still paying for the house in Arisea Station but only for three months; otherwise, it would go back on the market, though Ash was willing to make some arrangements. In said house, everything else they couldn¡¯t bring was kept there, including all of Eva¡¯s potion supplies, which she didn¡¯t want to re-buy. Before long they had reached the country of Cancole. Even though it was their home country, there wasn¡¯t any feeling of familiarity. They had only lived in one place, and now it was gone. [To be honest, I didn¡¯t expect to return so soon...] (Eva) [I have a feeling, no matter when we return, it will feel too soon.] (Syrus) Eva sighed. [You are probably right.] And once they entered the city of Greenvale. [So ordinary...] Eva observed. The town was peaceful; they entered during the middle of the day. [If the towns before this showed no reaction, then this one wouldn¡¯t be any different.] (Syrus) The news of the major city attack had likely spread to a few places, but information travelled slowly and only by letters and word of mouth. Some people in the towns and cities had been informed by the previous merchants who left Arisea Station immediately following the attack. Some people were concerned, but for others, it was simply an incident that happened in another country that wasn¡¯t going to happen here. [If anything, you would likely only see extreme reactions in places near potential hot spots or the capital; that place is large enough that it would make it to the city-wide gossip level.] (Luna) Anlesa exited the merchant waggon and made their way around the city. They had one destination in mind. It was a small two-story house; the curtains were closed, but there was enough of a gap to see through. Compared to last time, the walls had been cleaned up more, but the curtains were still closed with no gap to see through this time. Anlesa didn¡¯t immediately go inside and instead waited for someone to return home. ¡°Hello again.¡± Anlesa walked up to the tired woman. ¡°It¡¯s Syrus.¡± Her brownish blonde hair had greyed slightly, and her orange eyes refocused as she turned to the voice. ¡°Ann¨C¡± Elly mumbled her words due to the surprise guest. Still, it was good seeing her again. Chapter 130 – How Have You Been? Chapter 130 ¨C How Have You Been? Compared to before, Elly seemed better, while still tired like when they left the first time. She was noticeably less exhausted, and her face at least looked like she tried to take it. They didn¡¯t stay in the streets and instead went inside the house. The place appeared messier, but everything was in organised piles. There were also more proper beddings placed out evenly, but some had clearly been moved closer to each other. Luna asked, ¡°Has anyone been troubling you?¡± This time they were talking at the downstairs table; the room they had used last time had been completely converted into a storage room. ¡°No small talk first?¡± Elly said, acting offended. ¡°You are looking a little different this time.¡± ¡°My attribute has stabilised.¡± Luna smiled, ¡°And, it does look like you are in better health.¡± Elly groaned, ¡°Not much choice in the matter, but your support has for sure helped.¡± S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°It¡¯s not much." ¡°Heh, nothing much, she says. Anything helps, and some months I was getting worried if you were even eating.¡± ¡°I can hunt my own food just fine if I did ever get that low.¡± ¡°With a sword that large, you better be able to do it. I don¡¯t want someone I know to be overcompensating for something.¡± Anlesa chuckled, ¡°Heh, sure.¡± Syrus opened up their bag and pulled out another small sack of coins. ¡°The newest payment, hand-delivered.¡± Elly smiled. ¡°Thank you.¡± She accepted the offering. ¡°I¡¯m happy you came personally¡­ It¡¯s been so long.¡± ¡°That¡­ it has¡­¡± Said Eva, reminiscing on that time. It had been a few months at this point since they had last seen each other, which occurred at the end of the previous year. It was already well into mid-to-late autumn after the new year''s summer ended. For many people this wasn¡¯t that long of a time; many people like Lavender would stay working in a place for years at a time before visiting family. Though Lavender only gave a small portion of her paycheck to her family as a thanks, she was purely working and living her life away from her starting home. But for Elly and Anlesa, who last saw each other after that major incident, this short time apart felt like forever. ¡°So any issues?¡± ¡°Still poking around, are we?¡± ¡°Well, are there any problems?¡± Elly shook her head. ¡°Nothing major, just the everyday life troubles.¡± Elly took a sip of the drink she brought with her. ¡°You know, I never thought about being a mother or caregiver, but here I am¡­ And it''s been hard, a physical and mental burden that has even haunted my sleep on a few occasions.¡± Luna asked, ¡°Are you fine saying that aloud?¡± ¡°Yeah...¡± Elly smiled and turned her head to a child who was peeking through the upstairs'' door. ¡°Peeking is bad behaviour.¡± The kid poked out their tongue and closed the door behind them. Elly continued, ¡°I needed to be honest¨C¡± Elly saw the glint in Anlesa¡¯s eye, ¡°¨Cwith my personal feelings and the situation.¡± Anlesa didn¡¯t necessarily doubt Elly¡¯s ability to keep Anlesa¡¯s identity as Anna a secret, but the reassurance was appreciated. ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± Eva¡¯s words mumbled out of her mouth. Luna continued, ¡°A brave thing to do.¡± ¡°Ha.. ha¡­ mayhaps. It was hard, but¡­ I think it was the right decision,¡± Elly affirmed. She was very open with the kids about their current predicament and her own thoughts on nearly everything. Luna asked, ¡°So¡­ how is everyone?¡± ¡°As a group..? They are okay; they try to find ways to help me and each other; they also try to have fun whenever they can.¡± Elly smiled. ¡°A few of the kids got together to ensure that they would get together to play some games every now and again.¡± ¡°Individually?¡± ¡°Complicated¡­ Everyone has their issues and burdens, but they are trying, some worse than others, but I am here for each one of them.¡± Luna replied, ¡°That¡¯s all as people we can really do.¡± ¡°Maybe¡­¡± Elly explained more about their current living condition. Everyone got used to the house, even if there were times being in the same room caused stress. However, they were able to set up some small rooms if people needed time alone or just not to interact with everyone all at once. The children did try to help with the finances. Some even went directly to learn under Elly about wood carving while others tried to look in other directions. The fourteen children were all trying their best. Elly made it known for the time being they didn¡¯t have to help with the finances and would be allowed to learn whatever they wanted, but these kids were stubborn; many had already spent many years working under their parents on the farms so they had skills and were used to working. Elly did let it slip that there were some more pressing concerns; some of the children had been harassed, but they always stuck in groups, which saved them. Ella, who was now thirteen, took command of ¡®security¡¯ and wrote down everyone who negatively interacted with the children and talked with everyone to check if anything bad ever happened. Once their conversation was nearing the end, a few of the children wobbled out. Their eyes were on the prize that could grant them more money. Billy, the shy son of Mern and still seven years old, said, ¡°Ms. Hunter.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± Anlesa turned to the child, who was the first other kid she had ever met in the village all those years ago. Seeing him stand massively below her in height was a complicated feeling, as she was only slightly taller than him in recent memories. ¡°Can... you take me on as your apprentice?¡± ¡°No, me!¡± ¡°No! Me!¡± Immediately following was a large assortment of children who wanted that role instead. ¡°Why, and I already have one?¡± ¡°You''re rich!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve seen the bags of money in the mail! They are from you?! They are always so full; please teach us.¡± ¡°I want to be able to protect everyone¡­¡± Syrus awkwardly smiled, ¡°All valid reasons¡­ but no.¡± ¡°Come on¡­¡± Syrus¡¯ heart couldn¡¯t handle the pleading eyes. ¡°I will teach you some self-defence and give you tips about your attributes, but fighting is dangerous, okay?¡± ¡°Yay!¡± ¡°But, please!¡± The kids were now split on Syrus¡¯ answer. ¡°No kids, she is right; it is dangerous, and sometimes luck is the only reason people survive.¡± Syrus added, darkening the mood, ¡°True, too many people died recently because they were simply unlucky.¡± This grabbed the kids'' attention. ¡°I¡¯m sure some of you heard the recent rumours about Arisea Station?¡± ¡°The country next door?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Elly replied. Initially, she was surprised to see Anlesa, but came to the realisation of what happened recently and where Anlesa worked. She understood her coming here was just for their comfort. ¡°It got attacked; many died.¡± ¡°Did everyone¨C¡± ¡°No, we won, but that still came at a cost.¡± The children were silent; Syrus didn¡¯t want to hold back on the bad that happened. She didn¡¯t want any of these people to run off into danger. The familiar voice of Tom was heard. ¡°I understand¡­¡± Elly said, ¡°Anlesa, can we talk privately again later?¡± One of the youngest children asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t you two already have a private talk?¡± ¡°No, considering I was spied on.¡± Another child muttered, ¡°Wow¡­ who could do such a thing?¡± The children''s mood shifted back to a positive one. Syrus giggled, ¡°Sure we can.¡± Elly asked. ¡°Do you need lodging?¡± ¡°No, I already have a place sorted; speaking of which, I have a couple of tasks on my to-do list to complete.¡± Their transformation would be running out of time within the next few hours, and trying to keep their true form a secret from a whole house didn¡¯t seem possible. ¡°You will be back later?¡± ¡°Of course, I will be around for at least a few days.¡± Ella asked, her eyes serious as she stared at Anlesa, ¡°Do you really have to go now?¡± ¡°Yes, be safe, everyone. You can all introduce yourself to me when I am back.¡± Anlesa left the building, and Elly made sure no one tried to follow her. [It¡­ was good to see them.] (Eva) [Yes.] (Syrus) [There was a lot of pain in their eyes¡­ but there was a light that wasn¡¯t there before.] (Luna) When they had left and were ready to find a place to stay. ¡°Hey¡­¡± Leah walked up to Anlesa alone; she had managed to sneak out. ¡°Yes..?¡± Syrus talked around to look at the child. She was still just as small as before, but her light ginger hair had a small shine of blue now, and her blue eyes were no longer mucky. Leah asked, remembering the conversation they had long ago. ¡°Have¡­ you been able to get revenge?¡± Eva answered, ¡°Have you been trying to enjoy your life?¡± ¡°I¡¯m¡­ trying.¡± Leah nodded. Eva continued, ¡°It has begun, and it won¡¯t be stopping. So, don¡¯t worry.¡± Chapter 131 – Decision Made Chapter 131 ¨C Decision Made [Was it really a smart idea to agree to teach the children?] (Luna) [Maybe not, but learning to beat people up is never a bad thing.] (Syrus) [I would say it very much can be...] (Eva) Anlesa sped around the town looking for a place to rent for a short period of time. They found a local inn that met their needs and got a room without issue. Teaching the kids anything would be hard, considering that they didn¡¯t plan on staying long in Greenvale. When it came to teaching itself, there was also the issue that they wouldn¡¯t be able to go into any personalised teaching with fourteen people to teach. In the end, they were all in agreement that some form of self-defence and mana training for those whose attributes had been awakened would be for the best. [Hmm¡­ with Leah¡¯s hair changing slightly, I would assume her attribute has awakened.] (Eva) [She has awakened it early, then; she is still only eight.] (Syrus) Leah didn¡¯t have her attribute revealed in the same ceremony that Anna was a part of. At the time, Leah was only five, so she would¡¯ve been a part of the next batch, which would¡¯ve occurred when she had turned nine. Having it revealed just meant a person knew what to expect when their attribute awakened. [It was a blue shine¡­ so that narrows down the options.] (Luna) [Unless she has something completely out of left field. We can just ask her during the training.] (Syurs) [That would be for the best.] (Luna) The trio rested for most of the day, as Eva didn¡¯t want to keep the transformation up; any extra time was simply impacting the body¡¯s recovery, which she didn¡¯t want. Their body¡¯s condition was still awful, but it wasn¡¯t all bad news. According to Syrus, their overall body condition hadn¡¯t dramatically worsened; their short-term condition certainly had, but that was fixable as long as they rested well. The main point was that Syrus didn¡¯t believe that as long as they didn¡¯t continue to stress the body, the time before their full recovery wouldn¡¯t decrease. This meant that Syrus wasn¡¯t using her Blood attribute in any way to improve her senses, which was irritating, as for the past few days their hearing had been nearly blocked by how bad it had been. The next day, Anlesa left the inn without any problems. The plan was to meet back up with Elly and the children and figure out some sort of plan to do while Syrus was in town. Anlesa also wanted a moment to do some self-training before they returned to Arisea Station. Before they even reached Elly¡¯s house. They had already found an unpleasant sight. ¡°Hello, child.¡± A smiling female priest walked up to a kid on the street. It wasn¡¯t one of the children, but Syrus did notice some of them around. Specifically, it was Ella ordering a small group of children, which included Jerry and Billy, to stay back. ¡°Lady, I have¡­ Go pick up vegetables.¡± The small child replied. ¡°It¡¯s alright, I have your parents'' permission.¡± The priest answered, and she pulled out a small glass tablet from her uniform. [I really miss those travelling church bands, so much nicer to deal with than these bastards.] (Syrus) From a quick observation, it appeared that the priest wanted to see what the child¡¯s attribute was. Based on the familiar tablet in the priest''s hand. [Why would she even try this?] (Eva) [Impatient, possibly greedy; we won¡¯t know the exact reason.] (Luna) Anlesa called out, ¡°Hey.¡± ¡°Yes¨C¡± The priest turned her head, only for her body to flinch back as a knife embedded itself into the wall next to the head. ¡°Ah! W-wha-t are you doing?!¡± The priest screamed. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Me? I could be asking the same thing.¡± Syrus walked towards the priest. Her longsword was on her back, and her body cast a shadow onto the priest. Syrus decided it would be best to create a grave for the priest. ¡°You know, who knows what you could possibly be doing to those children?¡± Syrus pushed; her voice darkened, leaving her question up to one''s imagination. She was loud enough for a few people to turn in their direction. ¡°I am a woman of the church! I would never commit such heinous acts.¡± The priest in ¡°I wasn¡¯t suggesting anything heinous, but if you are going to admit it, well¨C¡± Luna stepped closer, her figure standing over the priest. ¡°It would be best if such actions never happened again.¡± The noise had grabbed most people¡¯s attention. Some people were looking at Syrus with concern, but most seemed to understand that the priest was overstepping their bounds, though they wouldn¡¯t have done anything about it. ¡°Now scram.¡± Syrus'' eyes shone with bloodlust. ¡°Before I take your head as a trophy.¡± The priest was pissing herself scared; she rapidly nodded before running off. Syrus noticed the nearby children had bright eyes staring at her. This brought in part an awkward pride and concern. The fact that the children had seemed so worried about the priest in the first place was a worry. [Luna... do priests.] Eva asked, disgusted and terrified. Any actions towards children were absolutely horrifying to her. Luna immediately answered, [Just as I mentioned before, only physical and emotional abuse. Other types of more horrendous actions were completely outlawed.] [Colour me surprised.] (Syrus) [The Nevald Kingdom church is only a branch of the main Aurora Church, so even among the corruption that worsened every year, they could never change any rules and stipulations of the church. Otherwise, strict punishment would follow the whole branch.] (Luna) The children weren¡¯t the only ones to watch the incident. Elly went up to Anlesa. ¡°I want to have that private talk now.¡± Syrus'' eyes sighed, and she followed Elly. They quickly moved to a very quiet edge of town with no one around. [This isn¡¯t going to be fun.] (Syrus) Elly spoke first. ¡°A-¡± Syrus interrupted, ¡°Syrus.¡± Elly sighed, ¡°Syrus... was it the church?¡± Elly¡¯s question caused Anlesa to pause. The question could be about many things, but in all likelihood, Elly was referring to the tragedy. Originally, they purposely never told Elly who was responsible so as not to drag her and the children into any trouble. Luna asked, ¡°What would make you assume that?¡± ¡°Your attitude, for one. I¡¯ve never seen you with so much hate in your eyes.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t seen me angry often.¡± ¡°True.¡± Elly agreed. ¡°But are you not denying it?¡± ¡°Deny... What exactly?¡± Elly looked up. ¡°How about that revenge? That has already started?¡± ¡°You saw that?¡± Syrus just shrugged. ¡°I was just trying to keep the child happy.¡± Syrus inwardly complained about her senses being worse than normal; she should¡¯ve noticed Elly listening in before. ¡°Again, your smile at that moment said otherwise...¡± Elly¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°A-Syrus, how about you stop this?¡± ¡°Stop what?¡± ¡°The revenge... I understand it, I really do.¡± Elly pleaded, ¡°But your support is more important than losing your life while trying to get revenge on some nameless people.¡± Elly prayed, ¡°You''re an innocent soul; I don¡¯t want you to have your hands stained...¡± Luna smiled, ¡°Elly, I appreciate your words.¡± She hugged the lady. ¡°We can talk about the self-defence training when we return to your house.¡± ¡°But¨C¡± ¡°Elly, I¡¯m already far from an innocent soul.¡± Elly simply teared up, and neither noticed the small retreat of footsteps. Chapter 132 – Training Chapter 132 ¨C Training Anlesa vanished from the city in the late afternoon. They visited the children and promised to teach a self-defence course tomorrow morning. Elly was slightly uncomfortable during the whole exchange, but neither brought up anything mentioned during their one-on-one. For the time being, they were using the remainder of the day to start training themselves. Their training session began in the quiet forest near the city but far enough away that they wouldn¡¯t be bothered. This could also be considered their first proper magic training session. Of course, they had trained individually to varying degrees. Syrus, in the past, had just made sure she could use her techniques but never went further than that. She had spent her whole last life mastering her abilities, and so she never tried learning any new ones with her new body, as in her mind she had already reached those limits and, more importantly, wanted to let that time be used by the others. Luna had done a lot of theory crafting and mental picturing of possible new spells, which led to the creation of her Moonlight star bomb. Eva had the most practical magical training in this life, as she had to learn magic from scratch. Morph was a completely new ability for her, and Manipulation became properly usable. However, as a group, they only tried learning together on a very basic level. But with the recent dangers and desire for strength, the individual learnings weren¡¯t going to cut it for their wish. Anlesa started by having everyone go over their abilities and preferred magic. Of course, they knew what each other liked to use, but they were trying to start from a blank slate. Eva and Luna learned the dangers of the technique Syrus had first used to ward off the wave of mutated creatures. Which led to a massive earful, as they both gave their well-justified concerns. Once they had calmed down. [Calm down, nothing bad happened, and next time Eva can support me, which will minimise the risk.] (Syrus) [You really need to feel some guilt about the situation. We nearly had a bomb explode next to us if anything went wrong.] (Luna) [But I am feeling guilty, can¡¯t you tell?] (Syrus) [I can, but do it with your words and not just your emotions.] (Luna) They would be demonstrating their main abilities for a certain attribute, and then they would discuss. It was a learning experience; they would try to implement what the others did into their own abilities, but more importantly, learn how to use their abilities together. As Anlesa had experienced, they were the strongest when they worked together. The showcase went into the order of Fire, Moonlight, Manipulation, Space, Blood, and Morph. Syrus¡¯ main method of Fire usage was coating her body or weapons with it. This made either option a nasty object to get hit by, as the flames would burn her opponents. She had ranged options; she could create standard firebolts and such, even powerful ones. However, her abilities that extended from her fire coating were her strongest ones. Her fire coating could be converted to range attacks, and while this seemed similar to just creating a ranged attack, in Syrus'' case, she already had most of the requirements for the spells already created, meaning the casting time was greatly reduced. She could also increase the power by pouring the flames into an object or condensing the coating further. Syrus could still use the standard methods of creating strong flame attacks as if she were casting magic, but that did slow down her quick cast. [The mana drain from my base fire coating is basically nothing.] Syrus explained, and she continually demoed the process for Eva and Luna to study. Syrus¡¯s control of her flame mana wastage was perfected to a near insane degree, which allowed her to maintain her base fire coating for extended combat without issue. [I¡¯m still not sure how you managed to do this with fire of all attributes.] (Luna) Luna¡¯s comment was valid, as different attributes behaved differently, and the Fire attribute, unsurprisingly, tended to burn away quickly. [Stubbornness.] Syrus answered. [Though, don¡¯t be confused, this doesn¡¯t mean that my control is perfect.] The fire coating around the blade intensified and condensed, appearing less like flames and instead a glowing red blade of heat. [I¡¯ve just mastered one spell to perfection, but other usages still have wastage.] The red blade was a more direct advancement of Syrus'' flame coat. Unlike when she had the fire within the blade, which was something she learned after branching from the flame coat once her control improved, the red blade was designed to be in every way a strict improvement. Being hit by it was way more deadly, and it allowed Syrus to cast more powerful spells quickly, but it had its downside; the heat was so intense that Syrus shouldn¡¯t use it on her body, and the one part that didn¡¯t even match Syrus'' original technique was the mana drain. It was taxing, and something she could only maintain in short bursts of combat. [You should give them proper names.] (Eva) [Why, it¡¯s not like I am going to yell at them out?] (Syrus) Some mages would yell out their magic, even child Anlesa did that, as it was a way to memorise the flow of mana to create the magic. There were other reasons; it signalling to teammates what you were doing, an intimidation tactic, or a way to fool the opponent. [Mum would¡¯ve liked it.] (Eva) [Sigh...the basic ability will be called, flame coat, the bomb as you two liked to call it, furnace flame, and finally, the red blade will be called, flame coat¨Cred blade, red blade for short.] (Syrus) [You had those names prepared.] Luna smiled. [Nah, I just picked the obvious.] (Syrus) Luna¡¯s turn was next. She demonstrated her barriers, healing, and her new offensive attack. The structure of the magic was quite different from Syrus''s. Everything was in hard lines that flowed with Moonlight. The barrier was very simple, but the healing magic was a different beast. Overlapping Moonlight mana arranged in a complicated form, but Luna slowly took the spell apart, and it still worked, as she showed what was necessary to heal and what was added to strengthen the effect. [It¡¯s¡­ kind of like music¡­] (Eva) [That isn¡¯t an incorrect assumption.] (Luna) Unlike Syrus¡¯s spells, which were a lot of controlled fire mana in chambers designed to enhance the effect with firing pins attached. Luna''s healing magic pulsed in a perfect rhythm along the lines of mana Luna used to create it. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Finally, there was the Moonlight star prism. [Well, do you have a name for it?] (Syrus) [Don¡¯t rush me¡­ I¡¯ll figure out one eventually.] (Luna) [Moonlight bomb would be good.] (Syrus) [I cannot give it such a crass name.] (Luna) The Moonlight used Luna¡¯s advanced knowledge of her barrier magic to create a cage that would also become a weapon and whose shape would amplify the destructive effect. The inside of the star was a complicated spell that used a similar methodology to healing spells and pulsed in rhythm, but the rhythm of this spell was very different and was completely designed by Luna alone. [It¡¯s amazing¡­] Eva looked over the star, completely amazed. Now that Luna had stabilised it, it was truly a sight to behold. Everything about it was such a masterpiece that she was so excited that someone she knew had made something like this. Syrus was deeply impressed too, and she could see Luna was still improving the design and her control over it, two factors that would improve the mana compensation and power of the spell. Eva¡¯s Manipulation didn¡¯t show off anything new, but after they used Eva¡¯s Manipulation as a tunnel, they wanted to explore more of what they could do. There was some resistance as Eva didn¡¯t have control of the mana when it transformed into another attribute that wasn¡¯t hers. When it came to supporting Luna or Syrus, she used her Manipulation to control the mana before it was converted into attribute mana or used her mana as a guide¨Cfor the latter, Manipulation allowed for the flow to be smooth as if it was just a person¡¯s normal mana; there would be great resistance if they tried to direct someone¡¯s mana. Next was Luna going over her Space attribute, which she was cautiously optimistic about showing off. There were a lot of problems she had, so maybe this group discussion could solve some of them. Space attribute was a complicated attribute for Luna to utilise. Any short-range teleportation would consume around a 1/9th of their large total mana. It became nearly impossible to use if they were touching another person, as the magic would always try to teleport everything. Outside of simply using the spell, there were some other quirks. The magic itself was slow from when it was started, its activation; when a person did teleport, momentum wasn¡¯t carried over, and teleport couldn¡¯t be used if someone else tried to teleport the same target. However, teleporting wasn¡¯t the only thing Luna could do with Space. She dragged her finger down in front of a tree, and a purple light shot out, deleting a line through the bark. [That¡­ it is deadly¡­] (Syrus) [On non-living creatures¨C] Luna paused as she remembered the stone construct, [¨Cor more accurately, anything without mana.] This attack seemed to follow the same rules of teleporting when it came to its issues, and anything with mana, it basically did nothing to. Other issues were that Luna couldn¡¯t make the attack any bigger than a small line; it only travelled ten centimetres before disappearing, and if she was touching the object when she used it, it wouldn¡¯t work. Syrus¡¯s Blood attribute allowed mana to be stored and manipulated in their own blood. On a base level, Syrus could use it to strengthen the body, but after a long time of using it to study how the body¡¯s muscles work, she found the most efficient way to strengthen any part of the body to absurd degrees. It was theoretically possible for a person with the Blood attribute to control blood outside of their body, but Syrus never found any success with that method and held no interest in diving further into that side. However, due to this, Syrus didn¡¯t really have any magic for Blood. It was standard control. Morph was, of course, the weirdest one. Like Manipulation, it was less defined in its scope and definition. Though in Manipulation¡¯s case, Eva still had Manipulation mana, which was just her default mana, but it felt and interacted differently from when Luna or Syrus utilised their mana. Morph didn''t have Morph mana; their body was simply permanently changed, and it was capable of transforming. Though it was true that Anlesa knew practically nothing about the attribute and everything was based on Eva¡¯s experience. In the past, they had tried transforming into a bigger body to see if that would increase their strength, but it never did. [It¡¯s so strange¡­] Syrus had helped Eva along many times in the past, as Syrus was proficient in using Blood to explore the body, which helped Eva¡¯s training. Once the main meeting was over, night nearly fell. There was one question that Eva had been wanting but dreading to ask. [Do... you think we should try and recreate the mana absorption ability...] (Eva) [Let¡¯s not be shy about the name, the Corpse Collection ability.] (Syrus) [We can at least not dump into the hells that is grave robbing; we can at least call it something like ¡®mana recycling¡¯.] (Eva) [Main drain would be more appropriate.] (Syrus) [We weren¡¯t able to take mana from the living, so it would not be appropriate, as you would say it.] (Luna) [Who knows, maybe we just couldn¡¯t because it was our first time.] (Syrus) The jovial exchange continued for a few moments. Luna¡¯s and Syrus'' feelings on the matter were paused just so they could lighten the mood before moving to such a topic. [I am unsure.] Syrus scratched their neck. [I won¡¯t say every ability is a good one, but for me, it falls into an acceptable range. However, I believe most of the work would be reliant on you, Eva.] [Syrus is correct, Lilly.] Said Luna. [I am more hesitant to use such abilities again, as outside the moral question of using dead people¡¯s mana as a resource, our body did suffer damage from ingesting foreign mana.] [Counter, we could always just take in the environmental mana.] (Syrus) [Would it even stop there? And my main concern is the internal damage. Environmental mana may solve that issue, but we have no idea how that technique was performed.] (Luna) Especially when it came to the magic of that night, how much of what they accomplished could not be remembered properly. [...If I had to make a hypothesis¡­] said Eva. [It would be that Manipulation was used to drag the mana into the body, and Morph was used to adjust the body to take in the different attributed mana¡­ but there had to be another factor.] [Another one?] (Syrus) [I would assume not another attribute.] (Luna) [Correct, not another attribute, but there had to be something else. Because even using all my mana, I can¡¯t drag the environmental mana, let alone corpse mana, into our body¡­] (Eva) There was silence for a moment. [Well, I am for you trying to learn it.] (Syrus) Objectively, it was power whose potential was unknown, but at the bare minimum, great. The biggest issue for any mage was mana, even for Anlesa with their extremely large mana pool. So, as always, any method to increase the tank was good. [I would prefer you spend your time on other skills; however, if you wish to work on that, I won¡¯t force you not to.] (Luna) Luna¡¯s words were cold, but through her emotions, Eva could feel her acceptance. [Thank you.] (Eva) Whether this would be a fruitless effort or a mighty treasure had to wait to be seen. Chapter 133 – Boss Lady Chapter 133 ¨C Boss Lady ¡°Okay, is this everyone?¡± Anlesa asked; they knew it was, but it felt right for a stranger to ask. Ella saluted, ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°This is not a military drill.¡± Syrus waved to signal for Ella to put down her arm. Today was the promised training session, which the children were very excited for. They didn¡¯t know too much about Syrus, as they only knew she was the benefactor who had helped them out and was a cool hunter. There was also the rumour that she was related to Anna¡­ Saying it was a rumour might be a bit much, but for the children, even though Elly had mentioned she was related to Anna and they had heard some conversations, it was still hard to comprehend. If a relative of Anna could be here, why couldn¡¯t Anna be here instead? It was the thought of many of them. ¡°Okay¡­¡± Syrus looked over all fourteen children; it was funny that some were technically older than her. These were people Anlesa grew up with, and now their positions in life had shifted dramatically. ¡°Today we will be going over a few things, basically a super crash course on a lot of basics, but I will give extra tips to anyone who has their attribute and some generic attribute tips for everyone who hasn¡¯t awakened theirs.¡± Anlesa had thought about not doing any individual stuff, but based on their experiences, they felt confident enough to at least give some worthwhile advice to the kids on how to use their attributes. ¡°But the basics will be first. I will be teaching you simple exercises you can do, what to do when you''re in a fight with people your size or bigger, and most importantly, how to run away.¡± Billy asked, ¡°Run away?¡± ¡°Yes, if you are alive and free, you can do anything; if you''re dead and captured, well, your choices on what you can do dramatically decrease.¡± There was a quiet mutter; it wasn¡¯t that the kids weren¡¯t convinced. They knew running away was important, but was it the most important? [Sigh¡­ the only people who should stay on a battlefield are the ones who had the choice to leave.] (Syrus) [Wise words.] (Luna) [Thanks, credit goes to my coworker.] (Syrus) Syrus stuck to her words and began the training. She taught them exercises to do and when to stop, what it could mean when certain muscles were hurting, and when not to push them to prevent more injuries. It was definitely a bit much for the kids, but with fourteen of them, they could help fill in each other''s gaps over time. She then taught them to play dirty, which the kids knew all too well how to do, but Syrus had more surprises on how to fight extra nastily. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The stops to hit to immobilise the opponent, to create openings, and what they could grab off the street and mix together to create painful powders to throw at people¡¯s faces. This took nearly half the day, and everyone was tired but still had energy to keep going. Now it was time for the part that the children were most excited about. ¡°Now, I''ll let you guys decide this.¡± It was time to discuss attributes. ¡°Would you prefer I take one of you off to speak with you individually, or rather have the whole group hear everything?¡± The children turned and began mumbling. ¡°You have plenty of time to decide; this is also your break from the exercise.¡± Ella got the children and formed a group discussion to begin some voting. Learning how to use one¡¯s attributes was something most people found exciting. It was a power that most couldn¡¯t explain, and for the kids, it was something cool. When someone awakened theirs, it was always a celebration, and everyone was excited to see what it could do. When Anna had ¡®unlocked¡¯ her Fire, all the kids wanted to see her use it. Anlesa had asked a few questions during the training and found that Leah wasn¡¯t the only one to have awakened their attribute during the time apart. That wasn¡¯t too surprising considering the age range and trauma involved, but it was disheartening to think about. The kids had finished deciding, and it was unanimous that everyone would listen together. ¡°We will do this from oldest to youngest, and once they are done, I will give some generic tips about the most common attributes and a few of the particularly important ones.¡± Syrus clapped. ¡°That will not just be important for those who haven¡¯t awakened their attributes but also for everyone else, as I will try to go over how to counter those attributes.¡± Billy raised his hand. ¡°You may speak.¡± ¡°Can you go over the explanation for each attribute when a corresponding person comes up?¡± Billy was asking if Syrus could give the explanations along with the personal teachings when a person came up, instead of giving the generic tips at the end. Syrus paused. ¡°Sure, and if anyone has a matching attribute with the current example, come forward so I can give you personal tips together.¡± It seemed like it could save time, and after a quick internal talk, they agreed. If there were any common attributes that were missed, Anlesa decided to discuss them at the end. Starting from the oldest, Ella. Ella had already awakened hers as Earth, and she had no physical changes; her eyes and hair had stayed brown. Another child on the younger end of the spectrum also walked forward ¡°Earth can be a tricky one.¡± Syrus started the discussion. She grabbed two rocks she had dug up earlier and gave one to each of them. ¡°I assume you have tried to experiment with it on your own time without much success?¡± The little child, Samantha, nodded, and Ella spoke. ¡°That is right¡­¡± She closed her eyes solemnly. Ella had her attribute awakened for a long time but had never found a proper way to use it. There weren''t many people with an Earth attribute in the village either, and the ones that did couldn¡¯t break past their initial roadblocks. The one who had the best understanding was Jen, but she wasn¡¯t keen on teaching a child about the combative elements of the attribute. Even then, Jen¡¯s knowledge was mostly in the theoretical, as that was what she found interesting. Ella, who looked back on it regretfully, gave up on asking Jeny after not getting instant results. ¡°Unlike Wind or Fire, where you can generate the element without much issue. Creating Earth is substantially more difficult.¡± ¡°So we have to control stones, rocks, and the mud around us,¡± Ella answered. She heard something similar many times when she looked for help, but even that was difficult. Her response got Syrus to smile. ¡°Yes, but also no.¡± She picked up a third rock. ¡°People didn¡¯t just kill beasts with stones; they found the sharpest ones and made traps, spears, and weapons.¡± Syrus pointed to the two stones the children were holding. ¡°Start pouring your mana into the stones.¡± They did as told. ¡°Now, something you will learn, and that will be made easier with more practice. Is that the more you pour your mana into a stone, the easier it will be to control.¡± Syrus explained. ¡°You would see that the more common proper combat usage of Earth is to make weapons. These can be things like swords, but more commonly they are arrows, knives, and other small weapons. With training and time, you make yourself very sharp, dense, and/or durable. Starting with soft dirt or clay, you can shape these weapons however you wish and harden them, and then, with time, you will be able to modify hard stone immediately.¡± Syrus¡¯ explanation was a lot different from every other lesson Ella had received, but it was working. Something about it just made sense, and Syrus pointed out how it might feel to the best of her abilities. There was the obvious issue of Syrus not having the attribute, so she could never give perfect details, but she had worked with many people who had used Earth attributes. There were some who had managed to do the more ¡®magical¡¯ application of the attribute, like moving large pieces of ground, but Syrus had no idea where to start with that, so she taught them what was realistic. Syrus spent a few minutes teaching them, giving pointers, and answering questions they and the other children asked. Everyone was excited as Ella morphed the soft stone into a crude knife. After that was done, they continued with the next group of children. Syrus discussed Water, Wind, Fire, Sharpness, Lightning, and Sound. [Some rare ones here.] (Syrus) [Sharpness still eludes me¡­] (Eva) [Technically speaking, the names of attributes are human creations.] (Luna) [I¡¯m not referring to that name¡­ but that is also confusing¡­] (Eva) Thanks to a combination of Eva and Syrus, they were able to answer the questions about those two rarer attributes. The child, Susan, was the one with Sound; it was her second attribute, along with Wind, which was a good combination. Sound had two areas of exploration based on Luna¡¯s understanding. The creation of sounds and the hearing of sounds. Syrus ended up writing a list of tricks on how to differentiate sound for Susan to read based on her own experiences. Sharpness was the attribute that was annoying Eva. The simplest way to describe it was that it made the flow of mana sharp. This intrigued Eva as she wondered if she could replicate the effect with Manipulation, but Syrus put an immediate stop to that. Syrus had a bad memory of someone with said attribute creating too much Sharp Mana inside the body, which cut them from the inside. Of course, Syrus gave the child a lot of warnings about utilising it on the outside of the body or on weapons. It was similar to Manipulation in a way that it was easier to control and spread over weapons. The Lightning attribute was held by Jerry, who had another attribute as well. They just weren¡¯t sure what it was. He was able to explain that it made him aim better, but that was about it. [Could it be Sight? Nah, there would be other obvious signs.] (Syrus) [I believe we should just leave that one alone, its effect is only beneficial at the moment.] (Luna) [I think we should investigate it thoroughly.] (Eva) [We don¡¯t have the time for that.] (Syrus) ¡°Okay, next up.¡± Finally, there was one of the youngest children. ¡°My turn.¡± Leah walked forward, alone. ¡°Ice, huh¡­¡± Leah¡¯s attribute was Ice; it was an interesting attribute. It was on the rarer end of the elemental catalogue but decently more common than Sunlight and Moonlight. ¡°I was told by Elly it was rare, but I haven¡¯t been able to make much use of it.¡± ¡°Let me guess, you¡¯ve been able to make things colder and not much else?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Leah nodded, with a little bit of hope appearing in her eyes. If Syrus understood her problem, then maybe she also had a solution? ¡°Okay, well, good thing we started with Earth. Because, like Earth, the best use of Ice is to utilise existing material, in this case, water.¡± Syrus began her explanation. ¡°This will require a while to train, but pour your mana into bowls of water to figure out how to properly freeze it. Once you do that, you will quickly understand how to rapidly freeze it.¡± Leah nodded. ¡°Look, this will be difficult. Ice is an attribute where it can be easy to use more water or mana to solve problems. With more mana, you don¡¯t have to try hard to rapidly freeze something, and with more water, you might not want to learn how to freeze effectively.¡± Ice got exponentially better if the person had Water and Ice attributes, but Syrus had seen many times that people who had both were never that efficient with Ice. Syrus looked deep into Leah¡¯s eyes. ¡°But Ice is a powerful attribute; with enough practice, you can create ice structures many times bigger than the water used. That might sound crazy, but it can be done. Only a few drops of water are needed to create shards of ice that can be shot or only require a water sack to freeze someone in place. Those are the end goals, so remember to build up towards them.¡± There was, of course, the other use of Ice, directly freezing things the user touched. There was no way around the physical restriction of that ability, but it was also an advanced ability that required the training Syrus had previously mentioned and even more training. Syrus only knew one person who reached the level of freezing people where they stood. They were a nasty opponent. Syrus did explain that as well but also stated that it was extremely hard and required a firm understanding of the basics. After more time of training. Syrus clapped. ¡°Okay, I think that is everything.¡± It had gotten pretty late after all the discussions and examples. ¡°Any questions?¡± Billy replied, ¡°None, Boss Lady.¡± Eva paused. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Thank you, Boss Lady!¡± The children yelled in sequence Syrus scratched the back of her head. ¡°You buggers planned that¡­¡±