Despite following the path downwards, Juno felt as if they hadn't made any progress at all.

 

After the encounter with the demon, the pair started following the trail to a city, and yet no matter how long they walked, it seemed like they were just going in circles.

 

"We might still be in that demon's trap," said Iliya. "Succubi have been known to use illusory magic."

Juno stopped in her tracks. While it was true that the two could have been trapped in some magic, she didn't believe the demon from before was a mere succubus. Based on Juno's prior experience, the demon should have been on par with at least a Master-level adventurer. In that case, breaking a spell would most likely be nearly impossible for a standard-level adventurer like Juno. 

 

"Ah, who cares. I'll give it a shot."

With enough buffing spells stacked together, anything was possible. After all, this wasn't a game world, so there wasn't a system in place to counter said tactics. The only limit to Juno's buffing was her own mana.

 

"Blah, blah, something about the gods, okay, enhance!" Juno cast a few enhancement spells on herself, then took out a small stone from her bag. Although Juno didn't learn any offensive spells on her own, she prepared herself by buying some spellstones, which contained single-use magic spells trapped in lumite rocks. By supplying the rock with mana, the user can use spells normally unobtainable by those in lower classes. That being said, the dangerous nature of these stones made them rare and expensive.

The stone Juno had bought contained a simple fire spell. If the demon's spell was trapping the two in a loop of space, the easiest way of breaking it would be breaking the boundaries of the spell with an overwhelming surge of energy.

Juno poured all of her remaining mana into the stone. Theoretically, the stone's power should multiply with Juno's buffs. Directing the stone towards the sky, Juno braced for impact.

 

BOOM!

The flare of fire shot upwards, blasting Iliya and Juno apart from each other. 

 

'Shit, it wasn't supposed to be this strong!'

Juno quickly turned towards the stunned Iliya, who was around five meters away. 

 

"Iliya, watch out! It's going to-"

 

BOOM!

Just as Juno turned away from the flare, it burst into pieces like a volcanic firework. Despite the intense heatwave and flying fireballs, the forest seemed to remain peaceful, thus confirming the suspicions of Iliya and Juno. Amidst the inferno, Juno noticed that there was what seemed to be a crack in the sky. Before she could grab Iliya, however, Juno was blown away by a third explosion.

 

 

Opening her eyes, Juno saw a perfectly normal forest. Luckily, it seemed that the explosion was contained in the illusion. Looking towards the ground, Juno noticed that rather than the dirt path she was just on, the floor seemed to match that of the ruined temple.

 

"So we didn't even teleport?!" Juno shouted in frustration.

"No, we did. The demon seemed to have interfered with this end of the path." Iliya stepped down from the platform. "Next time you do something that brazen, please notify me beforehand."

"Ah, sorry about that." 

 

Juno looked around her surroundings once more. Iliya was correct, their location was not in the ruined temple. This temple seemed to be cleaner and more modernized. Given the condition of the temple, Juno could at least know that she was in a city. 

 

"Alright, let's get out of this place and find an adventurer's guild." Grabbing Iliya by the wrist, Juno took off towards the exit of the temple.

 

This city was relatively large. Compared to the cities Juno had seen, it was a trivial size, but for a middle-aged kingdom constantly in battle, having a population over 50,000 was impressive. The cobblestone pavement seemed to be worn from horses and carriages, signifying a bustling community. Crossing a large bridge, the words "Welcome to Atska" could be seen on banners stationed around the entrance. Luckily, it seemed that the ruins had homed into the closest working temple. 

In a minor city such as Atska, finding the guild hall wouldn't be too difficult. After all, it was one of the most popular attractions of this place. As such, Juno soon found herself standing before a large building. Compared to the broken-down shack in the village before, this adventurers' guild seemed like a proper business. As soon as Juno entered the hall, she could see dozens of adventurers of all ages and levels. To Juno, this building was an all-you-can-eat buffet of exploitable talent. 

 

"Hello, welcome to the Adventurers' Guild! How may I help you?" The receptionist smiled warmly at Juno.

"First order of business, I'd like to register this woman as an adventurer." Juno pointed at Iliya, behind her. The receptionist motioned for Iliya to come forward, and explained the details of registration.

"All I need is to register your name and picture, then you'll be set!"

The diverse nature of adventurers made background checks a pain, so the adventurers' guild only asked for a name and picture for documentation purposes. Most adventurers were not limited by "class," as it was often valuable to be skilled in more than one method of combat. Even so, certain techniques were limited by one's innate talent, so mages were usually more difficult to find. Iliya just happened to have an insane innate talent for magic, but to Juno's dismay, her own magic was completely incompatible with the mage.

 

"Alright, anything else?" The receptionist returned to her position, and Iliya went behind Juno.

"I need to find some allies. Are there any adventurers that are free?"

The receptionist sifted through a folder of files.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like any adventurers your level are available." 

"Ah. Then we'll be going."

 

Juno internally cried a little again. In her self-indulgent plans, she had completely forgotten the level prerequisite for finding allies. Adventurers are usually paired with those at their own level or below, for safety reasons. The first two levels usually consisted of busy laypeople who registered for no reason. It was only once one reached the advanced level that people started taking adventuring seriously. Being the second out of six levels, the pool of useful allies Juno could actually choose from was extremely tiny! Juno headed towards the exit of the hall, tailed by Iliya. Suddenly, the two heard a loud shout.

 

"What do you mean, the pay's too low?! Come on, don't be like that! We gotta help people, right?"

"Help them yourself."

"Where's your pride as an adventurer? Let's go!"

"Shut up."

 

On the other side of the hall, two adventurers were having a heated argument. Seated at a table was a young man with dark blue hair, and across from him was another man with bright red hair tied into a ponytail. Actually, the more Juno looked at the man's tomato-red hair, the more it reminded her of another annoyingly loud person. First, the demon that looked like Haruki, now this person that looked like Alice, it was almost as if the world wanted to rub in Juno's pain!

Juno turned around once again and prepared to leave, when the red-haired man ran past her into the distance, knocking her over in the process.  The entire hall was then silenced by the sound of bottles shattering on the ground.

Juno stood up, drenched in Vie's high-potency mana potions.

 

"HEY, TOMATO BITCH! GET YOUR KETCHUP-STAINED ASS BACK HERE BEFORE I DRAG IT FROM THE GRAVE!" Juno began sprinting at the tomato before someone pulled her by her collar. When she looked back, she saw it was the other man.

 

"Hey, let me go or it'll be both you and your friend on the menu tonight." In response to Juno's threat, the man lifted her off the ground.

"Uh, sorry about him. I can replace the potions." The man tried to placate Juno's fury. Little did he know, he had struck a minefield.

"OHOHO, replace them, you say?" Juno laughed and grabbed onto the man's arms. "Thesepotionswerespeciallybrewedbythehero'sarcher elfVie. You think you can replace them? Just because I'm low-level doesn't mean I can't beat your ass, bitch." Juno's words seemed to stab the man a little. 

"I truly am sorry for his actions. I know where he's headed. If you want, I can take you to his destination. I, too, would like to teach him a lesson." The man lowered Juno to the ground. "But first, please get a change of clothes."

Juno considered punching this guy in the gut a few times to release some anger. After a moment of silence, a thought finally crossed the man's mind. 

 

"Wait, it couldn't be... Are those... your only clothes?!"

 

---

 

"Okay, so your total will be fifty gold." 

The man took out a pouch and threw it at the vendor. Behind him, two girls were carrying a few bags of items.

 

Actually, Juno had brought a second set of clothes to use as sleepwear. Unfortunately, those clothes were in her bag, meaning they were covered in both mana juice and glass shards. As compensation, the man agreed to buy Juno whatever clothes she wanted.

Normally, Juno would have been mindful of spending others' money, but since this guy was partially responsible for the loss of her potions, Juno decided to be a bit spiteful. In addition to picking out some of her own clothes, she also picked some things out for Iliya. As for the patron, it wasn't as if he could just refuse to pay.

 

"By the way, we never got to introduce ourselves. I'm Juno, the holy priestess. And this is Iliya." Given that the three were temporary allies until they found tomato-head, Juno took the liberty to exchange names.

"Ah... I'm the Slayer Lei. And the other one is Master Alfred." Lei stopped in front of a building. "I'm currently staying at this inn, so we can put your things here for the time being."

"So you aren't going to question the holy priestess part?" 

"You also didn’t question why a high-level like me is stuck with that idiot. Anyways, what matters now is getting to him ." Lei shoved the two girls into a room. "I'll be outside the inn. Please feel free to get changed."

"Well, alright then.”

 

Juno had bought some relatively standard clothing for herself. Compared to the white and yellow dress she had to wear next to the hero, she felt that the purple-themed clothes suited herself much more. As for Iliya, Juno got a simple white dress, like the one she was wearing before, only cleaner. Once the two finished changing, they reconvened with Lei. 

“So, care to explain what happened with Mr. Tomato?”

Lei handed Juno a piece of paper. “There’s apparently some illegal lumite mining going on in a cave nearby, and he wanted to investigate it. I told him I wouldn’t go so he stormed out in tears. So if we head out towards the cave, we’ll find him.”

 

“It’s in this direction.” Lei started to head into the forest.

 

 

‘Alfred, when I see you, you’re dead!’