Necro turned around midway through the casting. She heard a weird sound and was surprised to see Ace kneeling on the floor. It seemed kind of strange but she decided it was wiser to just ignore it until finishing the casting. 

When she was done, a clean skeleton of the creature lied in front of her... And a weirdly panting Ace behind.

 

'Should I use it now...? It could be useful but there's the others...'

 

After a couple of moments thinking this through, she made her decision and pulled the whole skeleton back into the storage ring.

 

"Are you okay?" She asked, looking back at Ace once more.

 

"Yes... Sorry... It was a little too much."

 

"Yeah... The smell is a bit overbearing."

 

"I wasn't talking about the smell though..." Ace grabbed her hand and stood up, mumbling something almost incomprehensible. 

 

Without saying much more, the pair set foot to go back to where the others were. Ace was still a little embarrassed but her resolve about the whole thing with Necro was renewed. 

Necro however, was quite a bit worried about having shown her magic to someone. While it was not strictly necessary, she felt incredibly vulnerable.

 

"I thought you were gonna bring it back instead." Commented Ace. "Why would you do that?"

 

"Zombies are a lot more difficult and unreliable than Skeletons... While also having many more weakness and smelling awful..."

 

"Oh so you are gonna do it later?" Ace's eyes glistened. Necro was surprised that she was that interested. Maybe she could even have some affinity towards it in the end.

 

"Yeah, if we need it."

 

Ace became more clingy after the fact, holding onto Necro's arm until they arrived at the camp.

"Finally!" Yelled Mary from afar as soon as she saw the couple coming back.

 

"You two took too long, we were about to leave and go after you girls..."Hal waited until they were a little closer before actually speaking to them.

 

"Ah, Sorry... I was searching for somewhere appropriate..." (Necro)

 

"Nah, it's fine, we were just starting to get worried... Next time try coming back sooner. We're all ready to go."

 

"Thank you."(Ace)

 

"Don't mind. Let's get going then." Hal picked up a large rucksack. Necro hadn't even noticed its existence before. During the fight, they had left it behind. And afterwards, she was too busy with Ace to notice that someone in the distance was carrying such an inconspicuous thing.

 

The group set foot through the ample grove. The scenery barely changed at all, but the further they got from the Death Valley, the more animals they began spotting. Deer, birds, small rodents. There were all kinds of different ones. And Bid was extremely excited for the ample hunt. Even more so because they could store the dismantled meat into Necro's ring, which now had much more space after getting rid of the useless flesh of the giant wolf.

 

*ROOOOAR*

 

"Shit, that's a bear!" Hal yelled. 

 

 *Pssssehw* *splup* *thump*

 

For Necro, that was an impressive sight. In less than a second from hearing Hal's alert, a single arrow flew through the air, embedding itself into the temple of the creature that fell with a thud. 

Bid was clearly a very skilled individual. She herself hadn't even seen the bear until it came crashing onto the ground dead.

 

Ace shrugged upon seeing the impressed Necro. For her this was pretty commonplace already.

 

Necro continued watching in amazement as Bid quickly skinned the whole thing with Hal's help.

She slowly walked closer in order to get a better view, followed by Ace.

 

"Excuse me... Why aren't you taking the liver?" Necro asked as soon as she saw them standing up after rolling the fur.

 

"Because it would... Oh, right, you have a ring... Yeah, we can take it too." Bid started talking as if certain of something, only to change midway upon realizing what was going on. He turned back, stabbing the dagger into the belly of the animal that was lying sideways.

 

"Why did you ask that?" Ace stood by her side, having finally caught up. 

 

"See... A bear liver is a great catalyst for alchemy... It will net us a fair bit of money."

 

"Then... Why wasn't he taking it?"

 

"Probably because it would go bad before reaching the city. But storage rings also slow down food and meat degradation by quite a bit, so it should still sell rather well even if it takes us a couple of days to reach there."

 

"Ah... Got it..."

 

"I didn't know you were also versed in hunting." Hal, being done with helping Bid, who was still elbow deep into the bear, approached the pair.

 

"I'm not... I just know some alchemy."

 

"That..." Ace was very surprised. 

 

"That's even more of a surprise...!" Said Hal.

 

"Why so?"

 

"Alchemy is not that common knowledge and since it takes a lot of practice and effort most alchemists are poor magicians..." Answered Ace.

 

"And that's not something we would expect from your firepower." Completed Hal.

 

"Ah... so that's it... Good to know. Thanks.."

 

The two were rather confused by Necro's answer but decided not to pry any further. That is... For now, at least in Ace's case. She got curious since many Catalysts are used in some advanced magic. Especially Holy and Dark magic. 

 

After Bid delivered the liver to Necro, who stored it in the ring, the group got back moving. Mary was stupidly excited since the Fur would mean more drinking money. After noon, the group spotted a small dirt road that cut through the forest.

 

"Finally!" Yelled Mary upon reaching it. 

 

This road meant they were slightly over a day and a half away from the town they were heading to. 

 

'Ah... I forgot to check the contents of the ring...'

Upon finally leaving the forest, Necro's brain started going back to usual from panic mode. After this sudden wave of reasoning and logic overcame her, she realized one of the many oversights she committed since yesterday.

 

As she thought about it, a tiny amount of mana concentrated in her eyes. It was impossible for everyone to notice, but Ace.

On her eyes, a relatively long list of items slowly formed. 

 

Besides what she thought there would be, as in: the money, the clothes and the wolf's skeleton. There was also a large amount of everyday items, foods, drinks, weapons and armor. Heck! There was even a whole ass tent in there.

 

"Ah... I have one..."

 

"What are you doing?" Ace asked upon noticing the mana disappear from her eyes.

 

"Kya~!" And Necro, let off a small kitten-like scream, like a child being caught up doing something wrong.