It had been a while since Mia stopped going to school in person and she was finally get used to going to school online.

 

She had come clean about everything to her parents, and they were quick to both tell the school what was going on with Noah, but that never went anywhere.

 

Obviously, he would deny being an abuser towards Mia, but the school did agree to pull her out of class, leading to her easy transfer to online school. And thanks to that as well, she also cut contact with her so-called friends at that school.

 

She had even received a few texts asking her what she was doing spreading these kind of lies about him.

 

To her, there was no reason to talk to any of them ever again.

 

BUt that did leave her with a problem. She has a path back to Zenith, and that was hunting. But she didn’t think she could do that alone. She wasn’t built for combat, but instead for a support role.

 

She was a healer.

 

Thankfully, there were ways she could still be part of the hunting world, and that was through the hunters association or guilds.

 

They would pay for a healer to go with parties into dungeons. She was a weak healer, but she could still be placed in a party where she could be of help, and also grow as a hunter.

 

So, today, she went to volunteer at the hunters association.

 

She was nervous about going there, but she was given a business card when she first became a hunter, and they told her they would love to have her as a volunteer.

 

When she got there, she saw how bussy the association was during a normal business day. The number of hunters in hunting gear walking around the, what seems to be, normal office building will always be kind of garring to people, even if they are young and don’t remember the world before the first outbreak.

 

She was nervous doing this, but she was determined.

 

Walking up to the counter, she started to talk to one of the receptionists.

 

“Hello and welcome to the hunters association. How may I help you today?” the women asked Mia.

 

“Um, yes. I am an E rank hunter, but I got healing magic as an intrinsic skill. So after my registration, I was given this business card and told that if I ever wanted to volunteer for the association, I would be allowed to” Mia explained, nervously going through her circumstances.

 

“ANd you have come to volunteer?” the receptionist asks.

 

“Yes” Mia siad, gathering some determination.

 

“ALlright, you are looking for the association’s raid groups. They are going to be on the 35th floor. The receptionist will be able to help you when you get up there” the receptionist tells Mia.

 

“Thank you” she says, and leaves for the elevator. She was a little intimidated by the amount of hunters in the building, thinking about how she could end up being like them in the future. Pressing the button for the 35th floor, the door closes and she heads towards where she wants to go.

 

The doors open a little later and she steps out into a somewhat ordinary office building. In comparison to the lobby where there were so many hunters in full gear, the few hunters here could be overlooked if you glanced by quickly.

 

Mia walked over to the receptionist on this floor and started explaining again.

 

“HI, I am here to volunteer as a hunter?” she said, starting with some determination, then falling a little since she wasn’t sure how she should say it.

 

“Oh, yes. We are happy to have you. First, can you please show me your status so we can determine where you can work?” the receptionist said, picking up what Mia wanted to say.

 

“Yes” she said, pulling up her status.

 

Name:Mia

Gender:Female

HP:1200/1200

MP:120/120

Level:12

Title:[none]

Strength:12(1)

Defense:12(1)

Speed:12(1)

Intelligence:15(2)

Luck:12(1)

SP: 375

Intrinsic Skill:

Healing Magic Lv.3 - 36/3000

Skill:

[None]

 

She hadn’t been hunting in a while, so she was pretty low level. But her one skill is pretty decent right now, in comparison to her level.

 

“Allright, so there isn’t much of a place to put you in specific, but a healer is always helpful.” The receptionist said. “Now that we have this in file currently, I am going to call over a person to have a meeting with you about what the next steps are going to be”.

 

With that, they gestured to a chair for Mia to wait in.

 

✾

 

“OK, so we figured out that your summons can’t use magic” I said to Nyx.

 

“Yep”

 

“And we can’t upgrade there items”

 

“Yep”

 

“And they don’t have skills”

 

“Yep”

 

“And there is a only small amount of them”

 

“That's not to bad, the amount keeps increasing”

 

“BUt you have to kill them yourself or with a summon”

 

“You know, your skill is pretty limited as well”

 

“Mean, we aren’t talking about that right now”

 

“Haaa” we exhaled in unison. We were currently in the boss chamber of the dungeon after our third completion of the day. We had spent this most recent one testing out more things with her summons.

 

First was the support test that Anthem ran. We learned that if Nyx had the right skills she could very much enhance her summons.

 

But then there was the magic test. Nyx had made the boss of the dungeon into a summon, hoping he could then use his magic, but he couldn’t.

 

Pushing from there, I used my skill to make a sword and gave it to one of the summons, only for him to be unable to use it.

 

Nyx was pretty upset about this, but I had an idea to cheer her up.

 

“Hey, just because they can’t do this now, don't me they can’t when your skill levels up” I said, trying to find a positive spin on this.

 

“Yeah, maybe” she said, brightening up a little.

 

“And who knows what they could do then. We have to remember our skills are only level 1 right now”

 

“Yeah”

 

“So all we have to do is level our skills up”

 

“Yeah”

 

This got our excitement up. BUt a few seconds later we went back to normal.

 

“So, do you want to do another run today?” I asked Nyx, trying to plan for the rest of the day. I was good to continue, since I wanted to make more progress towards magic sense.

 

Also I am only a few hours away from getting to the point where I can make the last tier of items I can make currently.

 

“Maybe one more, but I am already pretty tired” Nyx said. “As much as I am not using mp that much, but keeping my summons out this much drains my endurance a lot”

 

“Cool, so lets go through one more” I say with determination.

 

✾

 

Mia was pretty nervous during her conversation with the people from the hunters association.

 

THis is because the person who came over to talk to her was Zeniths mom, Andrea Black. She didn’t know Mia that well, since Zeniths parents travel a lot for work, but they have met before.

 

“So, you are looking to volunteer for the hunters association?” Andrea asked her.

 

“Um, yes”

 

“And you are a pretty low level, and quite young. What about your schedule?”

 

“I go to school online now, so I am always available for the most part” Mia explained.

 

“Great. So for the most part, you won’t get too much of a notice before we will need you. And until you gain more levels, you will mostly be helping out lower level parties that are associated with the association, either just exploring dungeons, or potentially going to new dungeons that appear.” Andrea explained.

 

“Allright”

 

“Great, then we will add you to the database for assation hunters” Andrea said. “On top of that, you will be given access to the items the association has, for weapons or armor”

 

“Oh, I didn’t know about that”

 

“Yep, we want to give our hunters the best foot forward.”

 

“Thank you”

 

✾

 

Nyx and I finished our next run and finished up for the day. I was still wanting to hunt more, but Nyx was too tired. 

 

Not trying to be mean, I offered to walk her home.

 

And now, while we were getting close, I realized I was completely stupid when offering that.

 

I was in no way prepared to know where Nyx lived.

 

I think noticing this, Nyx spoke up.

 

“Hey, it was nice that you offered to walk me home, but you don’t need to go any further.”

 

Trying to hide my embarrassment, I lie.

 

“No, it's totally fine. Not weird that I am going to know where my favorite artist lives”

 

“Hmm, well, I was going to say that it would be fine for me to go the rest of the way”

 

“Oh cool. Well good thing that no one here has any issues where they would be important”

 

“Ha, well…” Nyx starts. “I do have a question before we part for the day”

 

“Hmm, what's up?” I ask.

 

“Outside of me being your so-called ‘favorite artist’, is there any other reason why you are nervous to walk me home?” she asks.

 

This confuses me. I had no real issue being at someone else's home, or walking them home. I had done it to Mia a lot in school, though mostly with Noah.

 

“What other reason would I be nervous?” I ask, mostly myself.

 

“Hmm, who knows?” Nyx says with a smile. “Well, goodbye for today. I'll text you next time so we can hunt together again” she says.

 

“Yeah, good night” I say back, really confused by the end of our conversation.

 

I wasn’t super sure what I should make of it. Deciding to clear my head a little, I start heading back to the dungeon for a few more runs.

 

I needed a little more data for planning, and it's a good place to think about things.

 

BUt before I get back to it, I receive a phone call from my mom.

 

Picking up quickly, our conversation starts.

 

“Hey sweety” my mom said.

 

“HI mom, what's up?”

 

“So, I have a favor to ask you. A new dungeon just appeared in the city, and I was wondering if you were open to helping the exploration team explore the dungeon for the first time?”

 

“Hmm, I am not a member of the association, and don’t you have people for that?”

 

“Not really at your level. We need a lower level person to help gauge the strength of the dungeon, and since younger people aren’t super interested in joining the association, we need all the help we can get. And the dungeon is low ranked so you should be fine” mom explained.

 

“Oh, well sure. Yeah I can help” I tell her.

 

Mom was not normally involved in this part of the association, but since mom and dad were staying in the city to help me, she was jumping around the association helping out wherever she can.

 

“Great, I'll send you the location and tell the people guarding the dungeon that you are coming.” Mom said.

 

And with that, I headed towards the new dungeon.