Hambara and Somani had exited through the southern gates, catching the first rays of dusk; they were now silently gazing upon the horizon.

Somani was decked in leather armour, with a sword strapped to his belt and a metal helmet; he was carrying a celendrical bag half his size. Hambara wore the same attire as the one we had first seen him in—a simple green linen shirt beneath a fur-lined coat, tucked into worn leather pants, and a long sword strapped to his side.

I didn’t understand why Hambara had fully kitted Somani with armour, while he barely wore any. Still, the man was the most experienced among us, and probably knew what he was doing.

“Winter is on the doors,” commented Hambara. The plains had now turned fully barren, with the gathered harvest sold or transported somewhere else.

“So… what is the mission, Uncle?” Somani asked on my behalf.

“Let’s leave it as a surprise. Now, listen carefully. During this mission, my orders are obsolete, and you only have two roles. One, you’re the porter and only that, no fighting, and when I say no fighting, I mean it. Secondly, healing. Simple, eh, kid?”

Somani nodded.

“I didn’t hear ya.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

“Louder!”

“Yes, Uncle!”

“Excellent.”

This reminded me of Kamos’s military training and deployment. The man had no say in what he did, and he did what he was told without knowing why.

We took to the cobbled road, walking with a fast gait,

The road slowly began to pick up traffic. Merchants, farmers, adventurers and many more. Somani trained his Mana skill as he walked just behind Hambara.

Somani’s Mana core was now fully converted, which had required three tier-zero Mana crystals to achieve—Apparently a big number that showcased that Somani’s core was bigger than average. 

After the conversion, I noticed that the amount of Mana available inside his core had lessened by about a third. It probably had something to do with his strings getting thinner once they were converted—I theorised.

Somani created different shapes: snails, cats, and many more.

I trained, too. I focused on [Soul Manipulation], forming less complex creations than Somani.

We journeyed on the dirt road until midday, then we reached an intersection. To our right, the road remained cobbled. To our left, it turned into packed dirt and was narrower. We headed left.

The dirt road had less traffic, with mostly small groups of humans. We walked on it til sunset, and then past Somani’s usual sleeping time.

By now, Somani had completely drained his core, and although he was used to walking long distances, with a bag full of supplies, he was struggling.

“We’ll camp here for the day.” Hambara chose a random spot next to the road where a small tree was. It was all alone in the vast farmlands.

Somani released the bag before slumping on the ground with a sigh of relief.

“What are you doing, eh, kid? Go set the camp up!” Hambara shouted, making Somani fumble to fulfil his order.

As expected, the kid didn’t know how to set up the tents, so Hambara ended up setting them.

“Stand up, kid. Do you think that if we left the house, your training would stop? Well, let me break it to you, it won’t. One thousand oblique slashes, now!”

As always, Somani was obedient and didn’t complain. He got up and started doing the drill.

While Somani trained, Hambara ignited the fire. He had brought three different wood sizes. Starting with the smallest, the man lit it on fire using a similar technique to the one he had used to heat the water in his cup. When the twigs caught fire, Hambara added some tree branches, then logs.

This time, I managed to catch the way he used his Mana. He had shaped it into a complex form, and before releasing it into the wood, he changed its colour from green to orange. I conceptualised the shape, then tried to create it.

A Mana string shot out of my film, then it spiralled around another string. More strings came, and I was starting to find it difficult to hold the shape, so I synchronised with Somani’s brain and felt the strain immediately lessen.

I formed a pyramidal film with its tip at the top-most point of the spiral and its base at the opposite end.

I hit 3 BP when the almost identical imitation was finished.

Now, how to turn it red…

I willed, expressing my desire for the strings to turn red, but nothing happened. I tried another approach, while taking into account that my creation was way smaller than Hambara’s, so it shouldn’t be visible to his human eyes. I removed the creation from Somani’s body, then shoved it into the fire, and… nothing. The strings remained green.

I’ll have Somani ask him when he uses it again.

Somani quickly finished his training and sat beside Hambara by the campfire. Hambara handed Somani jerky, which I liked, but not as much as the fruits.

The fire crackled as Somani staired into the stars.

“What are stars, Uncle?” Somani asked of his own accord.

“They’re just like the Sun: Large fireballs a thousand times the size of our world—Gaia.”

I was awed. I had had my suspicions that the Sun was a fiery sphere, with it providing warmth and light, but it being a thousand times the size of this planet… absurd

“The Sun is far away, very far away, that is why you see it as a small ball. Stars are even further away,” Hambara added.

How did these creations come to be?

“Is the Sun dangerous?”

Hambara shook his head before taking a bite of his jerky.

I took control of Somani, wanting to ask a question, a wild one that had been popping into my head every while.

“Hambara, who created the world?”

Hambara stopped mid-bight. Looking at me with a tense expression, he answered my question with one of his own.

“Who do you think, Somani?”

I gave Hambara what I believed was the most valid guess.

“Is it the System?”

Hambara, for some reason, continued to stare at me with his stern gaze. I noticed how his hand reached for the hilt of his sword.

Is this question forbidden?

Hambara still answered, although he looked ready to attack me at any second. I kept my guard up.

I should be careful. Finding a host near here might be difficult.

I reached into my core and began forming the string needed to create bone needles. I knew that Hambara could sense Mana, so I put the strings behind Somani’s core in the hopes of them being obscured from his senses.

It seemed to work as Hambara didn’t attack me.

“Some say that it’s the system, others deny that, saying that the System is a large and complex spell created by the Giants. The empire’s official religion: worship the Noblesse. I think no one knows the truth, actually.”

***

Hambara had stayed up all night, keeping watch. The next day, Somani awoke with the rise of the Sun. He felt parched, so he emptied his water skin. Hambara admonished him for not preserving his water, saying he wouldn’t get a sip until they reached their destination, which, after some begging, turned out to be about half a day off.

Somani continued to train his Mana control, while I focused on [Soul Manipulation]. Having trained the skill throughout the night, I was starting to feel some soul pain from tearing soul pieces. Thankfully, a small soul piece lasted for about a quarter of a day, so I could still get some more training in before reaching our destination.

We marched and marched, and finally, we reached the village—our destination.

It was a bit late, and we had pushed ourselves to reach here. Hambara had said he wanted to sleep in a safe and comfortable place.

The village had a black stone wall, but this one was way less imposing than the one in Cervita. Although the guards at first refused to open the gates for us, upon showing them the adventuring card, we were allowed entry.

The streets had no one walking on them, and as we moved through them, I noticed how similar this place looked to Kamos’s village: wooden homes with slanted roofs, dirt roads, and some torches barely illuminating the central plaza. This central plaza also had statues, a statue of Bacalora.

The door to the Dungeon’s Conquest Inn opened with a loud creak. Every face inside turned towards us before returning to minding their business.

Sitting at a random table, we ordered our first meal for the day, and Hambara finally allowed Somani to drink water.

I quickly scanned the customers of this inn and found no possible threats among them. I used [Identify] on each one, wanting to level the skill.

Farmer, Lv. 23

Blacksmith, Lv. 45

Inn master, Lv. 49

Hmm… a new class. What could it possibly help with?

It ended up costing Hambara 35 silver coins for the two rooms and food. I didn’t understand the need for two rooms, but didn’t comment on it. Hambara told Somani to head to his room and get a shower; he said he wanted to speak to the locals alone. Somani obliged like always, and as soon as his head hit the bed, he fell asleep; he didn’t take off his armour, nor did he clean himself. I disliked that.

I was debating whether to tear a piece of my soul to train [Soul Manipulation] when I saw Hambara hand the bartender a piece of parchment. Weirdly, the man took it without looking at its contents.

“I hope our food was good, sir. If you need anything else, just say it. Oh, I’m Barron, by the way.”

Hambara nodded without introducing himself, which, with my growing experience in human interaction, was disrespectful.

I zoomed in on the paper, but found the language used inside unintelligible.

What was that?

After handing the parchment, Hambara didn’t speak to any locals; instead, he headed to his room and meditated.

This might be nothing important, or… Anyway, I should be more careful around Hambara; he’s acting weird.

***

The next day, we headed to the village head’s home/office. Unlike the other homes, this one was made of stone and had two red-armoured men standing guard at the door.

I was about to use [Identify] on them, when…

“Don’t. These guards are legionnaires with at least tier zero classes, maybe even one. They’ll be able to sense your scurrying,” Hambara said without looking at me as he confidently approached the house.

The legionnaires acted as if we didn’t exist, with their stern faces continuing to glare at the horizon. They didn’t stop us from knocking on the door.

A heartbeat later, the door creaked open.

“Welcome, gentlemen, to the Secretary of the Interior’s office, Orombo branch. The head has been anticipating you. Follow me.”

The inside was made of dark wood that had a certain smell I liked. We followed the butler into a corridor with paintings hung on both sides: Humans fighting hordes of monsters. At the end, there was an open door, which the butler knocked on before announcing us.

Knocking on an open door… humans really have so many weird customs.

“Your guests have arrived, sir.”

“Oh, let them in. Let them in.”

The village head was an old man with a bold head and a grey beard. His office was lavish, with red sofas, a fireplace, and things I didn’t know the names of. The man was sitting behind a table; his seat looked too large for him.

“Have a seat, gentlemen,” the head said, pointing at two opposite sofas with his palms.

“Hann, make us some tea if you don’t mind.”

The butler, Hann, nodded before exiting the room.

“That won’t be necessary, sir. We’re in a hurry to do the mission and return home as quickly as possible.”

The head nodded with a small smile.

“I understand, but unfortunately, there’s been a change. We no longer want you to kill the Siziki… We want you to restrain it.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Restrain is way different from kill. I’m here to kill, not to restrain. I hope that you know you can’t change your request without paying the revaluation team and reimbursing us first. The guild won’t be happy if you did,” Hambara said, dropping the nice act.

The old man dropped it, too. His gentle gaze quickly disappeared, replaced by a more stern face.

“I know, mercenary. But there have been complications. A high -level hunter from the village spotted a collar around the Siziki’s neck. We… we think it may be an escaped pet from one of their highnesses, the Noblesse.”

At the mention of the Noblesse, the room’s atmosphere got tenser: Jaws clenched, hands started sweating, eyebrows knitted. Even Somani noticed the change; he gulped.

“This is no silver-tiered mission. Come on, Somani. We’re going home.”

Hambara stood up and headed towards the exit door. Somani followed behind him.

“I’m sorry for wasting your time, gentlemen. I’ll be sending your reimbursement to the inn!” The old man shouted behind us.

***

We immediately packed our belongings and took our leave, but for some reason, we circled the city’s walls, heading for the opposite side from where we entered.

“Where are we going, Uncle?” I made Somani ask Hambara.

Hambara stopped walking. He turned to face me… with his sadistic smile.

“Kid, I didn’t take this mission just for the monetary rewards. This village is one of the few places outside the big towns and cities where… this is secret, so don’t go sharing it. A class stone is located here. We’re going to get you a class.”