Six days had passed. During that time, I did a few herb-collecting quests—constantly gathering more than enough—always told only to give the amount the quest requested. Nevertheless, I had a decent savings of twenty silver coins built up. I arrived at the southeast entrance—seeing both Mary and Wood. But there were two new faces I had not seen before.

One of them was a girl that looked to be around my age. Wait, that wasn’t quite right. She looked to be in her early twenties. She must have been a witch, too, as she had a staff and some cool-looking green magic robes. If she could be a witch actor, that would make my future even more secure!

The other was a boy similar to Wood Beach, but he had plate armor instead of leather armor. 

“Eerie!” Mary said as I got closer. “You are a bit late. Did you get lost?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Wood Beach said. “Now that she is here, we can begin introductions before setting off.” He then gestured to the two people I was meeting for the first time. “These are both members of my party. The girl in the green is Hela, and she is our Healer. This guy—” He put his hand on the plate of the other man’s shoulder. “He is our tank, but he doesn’t say much.”

The guy, whose name was ‘Tank’: tentative, responded with a grunt. 

Hela stepped forward and offered her hand, which I shook. “These two told me a lot about you, Eerie. I wish to learn from you if possible,” she said. 

“Likewise, I am not used to acting.”

“Acting?” Hela asked. 

Mary cut between us. “Don’t worry about it, Hela. Now that we got that out of the way, can you take our luggage, Eerie? They will fit in the carriage, but it will only slow us down.” 

A carriage was behind them, but the creatures at the front weren’t horses. Instead, they looked like large velociraptors. Their luggage had already been laid out beside them. It would be my first day as a bag carrier, so I had to take it seriously. I nodded at her request and sucked all of their baggage into my inventory.

“It really is just as you said, Marcy,” Hela said. She smiled before climbing onto the carriage. 

Mary followed her up into the back. “I told you. She is definitely not normal.”

Tank moved towards the front of the carriage with a grunt, and Wood Beach followed him. The two men on the ride would be the first ones to drive. It felt a little lonely. I always wanted to pilot a stagecoach with velociraptors. It was one of my top ten dreams of all time.  Nonetheless, I climbed into the back after the girls. I sat across from Mary and Hela in the back of the covered wagon. 

“Try not to do anything crazy on this trip, Eerie,” Mary said with a smile.

“You know me, I’d never dream of it!” It was true. I never thought of doing crazy things, but the situations always seemed to find me. The only one I could blame it on was whatever god ruled this world. 

The carriage started rolling forward when the velociraptors made a strange noise. “Mary, what are those things?” I asked and pointed at them.

“Actually, it’s Marcy, and those are magiraptors. They are domesticated.” 

I shook my head. The naming sense of this world just kept getting more and more absurd. Obviously, this group was trying to test me. Next, she’d tell me that there is some cat kingdom called Snuffle Empire. I looked over at Hela, realizing that her ears had been different. They were longer and pointed.

“What’s the matter?” Hela asked.

“Are you an elf?” 

“Did the ears give it away?” She grinned, but then she shook her head. “I am not strictly an elf. I am a half-elf. Most elves don’t choose to leave the forest.”

“I can understand that. Leaving the forest was quite scary,” I said.

“Oh? Did you come from a forest, also?”

“I did. Everywhere around me were always red blips. I had to leave to get stronger, and then this acting troupe.”

“Acting troupe? What do you mean about red blips?”

“You know,” I said, and to give her a visual representation, I made a green hologram with blinking red dots. “Like these.”

“What kind of magic is this!?” She jumped up from her seat and got loud before hitting her head on the top after a bump. 

“It’s some magic that I hope will be useful with setting up stages. After all, every acting troupe needs a nice stage, wouldn’t you say?” I paused as we hit another bump, and it was starting to feel rough on my butt. Due to this, I produced a cushion from one of the couches in my inventory. I placed the nice and soft cushion under me before continuing. “I don’t really have much helpful magic. It’s why I have pretty much given up on leveling up.”

“I-I see—” The half-elf said. “By the way, do you have another one of those cushions?”

“I do!” I presented her with one. She followed my lead and placed it under herself.

“Ooh, me too, Miss Witchhat!” I also gave one to Mary, and she did the same. “Don’t worry about Eerie,” Mary said, putting her hand on Hela’s shoulder. “The more you think about it, the less you will understand. I have dealt with her type.”

“But how is she able to do all of that, even the court wiz—”

“Like I said, don’t even think about it.”

“But surely we should at least repo—”

“Don’t even think about it.”

At some point, their conversation had become too impossible to follow. I could only stare at the two of them in awe. This must have been why they were both successful actors. I grinned. This witch would try her best on the journey and become more than a baggage carrier!