“I really have a way with words.”
Anya only responded with a smile and a head shake.
Still smiling and feeling quite pleased with himself, Jay gave the other two bone daggers to Red as he sent them both off down the ravine, sending them on a search and destroy mission. Now the only skeletons with them were Blue and Sweeper.
“Alright, let’s go.”
They began walking back up the ravine towards the vine-covered boulders. By this point, the trail of light was no longer in the middle of the ravine but had moved onto the wall, quickly ascending as it was getting dark.
Anya took out the luminous orb once more, “Can you add some mana?”
“Yeah sure, pass” she gave Jay the orb as he charged it with mana, causing it to glow brightly again.
“Want me to carry it for a while?” he asked, still holding it.
“That’s nice of you, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Jay took credit for being nice instantly, as he gave the orb to Blue.
“Man, I really enjoy messing with Anya.” he thought to himself with a smug grin.
He willed the skeleton to hold it above its head. It was much better now because the light was higher and they wouldn’t get tired carrying it, but Anya still gave Jay a head shake anyway.
“What? This is better.” he said, knowing she wouldn’t admit it.
Anya decided not to say anything, only slightly smiling as they walked back through the dark ravine.
Jay was confused by her smile, but he let it slide. Thinking about it wasn’t worth the effort to him, as he tried not to feel silly for whatever the head shake was about.
They continued to walk until they came to the boulders.
[15 Exp][15 Exp]
“Good thing you sent them huh” Anya said, getting experience point notifications since they were still in a party together.
Jay had already begun to get notifications and was happy with his decision to send Red and Lamp away into the darkness.
“Yeah.. they’re professionals.” Jay joked, sitting next to the boulder. “They had a lot of practice in our own forest afterall”
Anya sat down, leaning against a thick vine coming off the boulder.
Jay noticed Anya was tired, so he made a suggestion. “How about we wait thirty minutes and then climb up and walk back? You can rest more in town after.”
“Sure. Let me try to contact Mark.” Anya said as she pulled out the communication crystal.
“Hello? Mark?”
… it took a moment before Mark responded.
“...If I can get this thing working - oh.”
“I can hear you Mark”
“Anya? Hey! Good to hear ya, we were starting to get a little worried. We haven’t heard from you for ages.”
“Sorry. We were in a ravine and had to walk along it for ages until we found this nest of monsters.”
Anya left out the part about Rosa.
“We culled all of the ones we could find, so we’re heading back now. How are you two and Naria doing?”
“Yeah, we’re ok. By monsters, do you mean the leech imps?”
Anya and Jay looked at each other silently, right before she replied.
“Yeah… did some attack you? We didn’t see any outside of the ravine.”
“Yeah, we searched the rest of the houses and two of them attacked, but I took care of them, so it’s all good.”
Jay gestured to Anya to pass the crystal.
“Mark? It’s Jay. Did they attack from the forest or did you find them in the houses?”
“Uh.. I think it was probably the forest. We were outside when it happened.”
“Damn..” Jay said, handing the crystal back to Anya.
“Everything alright there?” Mark asked, hesitantly.
“Yeah… uh. We’re just taking a rest because I’m low energy. We should be back in about an hour.”
“Okay, we’ll see you then.”
Anya returned the crystal to her inventory. She was silent as she worriedly looked at Jay, stressing about what to do. If there were still leeches out there, they could only grow in number.
“I think we should stick to the plan: Head back. Rest… I’ll have Blue and Sweeper ‘sweep’ the forest clean” Jay let out a mischievous smile as he calmed Anya down a bit.
“Besides, their passive skill only works in humid environments. Without it, they would die to a single sword slash. We don’t really have a very humid environment in Losla.”
Jay continued “Even if they did create a horde of leeches, we could easily cull them on a dry day. Not everywhere has a ravine to hide in after all. Besides, we’ll be much stronger if that was to happen.”
“Mm… I suppose you’re right. Let’s just hope your skeletons are thorough anyway.”
“Trust me, they’ll be much more thorough than us. They’re much faster and don’t even need sleep.”
Matheson ran up the hill towards the adventurer guild. It was late in the day, and he almost didn’t notice it, but as he approached the association, a dark-orange orb flew out of the building, heading into the sky and disappearing.
Matheson felt an emotional nerve of inadequacy being pinched “Dammit, I will learn magic too. I’ll make people beg me to help them, to save them from monsters and natural disasters.” he thought as he entered the building to find the dungeon map.
Matheson was by himself, and have to make a decision about which dungeon he would go into. Since his past experience in the bayring dungeon, he decided to play it safe.
He knew he would be fully reliant on himself this time, and because of all the nurturing afforded to a noble, he himself didn’t even know how strong he was, this realisation had put a large dent in his pride - but not large enough for him to stop looking down on others and treating people like garbage.
“Stink-rat marsh. Located south west of Losla.” Matheson squinted at the board in the adventurer association, planning his night training trip as he added its location to his map.
“I’ve always hated rats, shitting everywhere in my mansion. This will be so easy.”
With a smug grin, and one final check of his equipment, he left the adventurer association, jumping down the steps and running across the courtyard.
Now that he decided to become independent, he tried to do everything himself - he didn’t even use his obnoxious oversized carriage anymore, instead he simply ran everywhere. This was another form of training in his mind.
Like a mad dog, Matheson just ran up the hill to the guild, and now he was running back down it again. He didn’t even acknowledge Margaret at the reception or the gate guards as he breezed past them; he was a man on a mission, wholly focused on his task.
“There he goes again.” said a guard at the gate, shaking his head.
“Do you think he’s gone crazy - with all the running? He seems like a psycho.” another said.
“Heh, who cares? It’s funny seeing a noble act like that. I never knew those frilly stupid clothes they wore were that durable, I’m surprised they’re still attached - but yes, he looks crazy.”
“He looks like a rampaging flower! Haha! Those frilly little clothes aren't scaring anybody, you would think he’s a madman rauther than a noble.” another guard laughed.
The guards laughed together as they watched a trail of dust make its way down the hill, though they made sure the young noble was far enough away before mocking him of course. Even though they were in a small country town, they would still be punished for mocking a noble.
Matheson sped through Losla, he would have become the talk of the Snakeraven inn if more people saw him - a dishevelled sweaty noble. Thankfully he didn’t stop once, not many people saw him speeding through the town.
He exited the south side of town and ran along the road before heading into the bushes; there was hints of a path made towards the dungeon as there were broken twigs and squashed bushes, telling him that other people had been here recently too.
As the sun went down, Matheson reached the dungeon entrance.
He took a moment to stretch before going in.
“I’ll try to meditate for a while to get my energy back. It’s too bad I can’t train this the same way as my body… but I’ll sense the mana soon. All I need is time and willpower.”
Matheson was still having a hard time trying to understand mana. His class had a higher mana amount than most other melee classes.
Since he couldn’t sense it, he could only channel his efforts and anger into his workouts; but this wouldn't work for sensing mana. It required a quiet and calm mind - something he hardly ever had, and something he was yet to learn.
Three hours passed before his energy was full again, waking up to complete darkness as the sun went down ages ago.
“Finally,” he said, with a hint of anger.
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