It seemed like only seconds before the sun rose, the change in surrounding lighting that awoke me from my dazed state. I still had the symbols circling around in my head, and moved without thinking--writing them onto the ground, clearing the leaves and digging them into the dirt with my finger.

“What’s that? What are you writing?” Resh had left her tent sometime.

I hadn’t noticed her movement, having been absorbed into the strange mental state.

She walked over to me and knelt on the ground, tracing the symbols with a small finger.

“I saw them--dancing deep in the fire last night,” I spoke, my gaze was drawn to Resh’s slim finger, for some reason, as she traced one of the more advanced symbols.

She suddenly twitched and then looked up with shock in her blue eyes, “These symbols seem similar to Magic, but they look so Primeval, maybe even Primordial…or the origin?” She muttered to herself, I got slightly lost with her obtuse words.

“What do you mean?”

Her fascination with these symbols roused my curiousity.

“It means that they seem to come from the origin of Magic itself, the base building-blocks of the Universe. I will note them down, but we need to erase them; if someone, another Mage, saw them--they would lock you up and study you.” Resh was frantically writing the symbols into a notebook that she had taken her bag--before erasing the symbols from the dirt.

“From the very little I can identify, these symbols are associated with Fyre, the Elemental Goddess and origin of fire itself. It’s almost like the campfire accepted you and revealed the symbols; you would make an ultimate Fire Mage.”

“Could you teach me Magic?” I was interested in learning--and I now know what the strange symbols are, a Primordial Magic system.

“Well, I never actually learned at an official Mage Guild or Academy--so I can try. But after this request, which will have the Guild rank me as a Low-Grade B…the same power as Lyus.”

For some reason, she reached out and ruffled my hair, before looking embarrassed and getting up, quickly beginning to pack the tent--It felt really good, her warm hand on my head.

“You gave me the drive to improve…you showed me a form of power that is beyond what I have ever seen. Maybe we should go to a real Mage Academy so you can learn, and I can get an official license.” Resh spoke, facing away from me.

“Well, I am glad that you want to improve…and that I helped motivate you; but don’t get downcast if you can’t reach the same level of strength as me.” I looked at her, and she turned, her eyes meeting mine; and I continued, “I was trapped in a labyrinth with Monsters that you said are at a minimum of Cataclysm grade. I had to fight huge numbers of them until they no longer helped make me stronger, I had to even eat their meat and drink their blood.”

She looked at me for a second, before nodding with a smile, “Thank you.”

Resh and I began walking, and time passed.

After maybe an hour or two, she turned her head towards me, “How can you go for so long without talking?”

I smiled to her, “I had to be quiet to, at first, hide from Monsters--and then to hunt them. The silence signified safety, mainly because it allowed me to hear enemies coming, and not alert them.”

“Wow…Well, you aren’t alone now, and you don’t have to hide from insanely powerful Monsters!” She stopped and turned, causing me to stop as well. She blushed and tensed for a second, before taking a few steps forwards and hugged me; her soft body pressed against me, the feeling was incredible.

Being hugged, it was a strange feeling, but I didn’t hate it.

I returned the embrace, wrapping my arms around her as well--she was small, and fit in my arms surprisingly well.

My heartbeat rapidly increased, and I felt strange reactions from my body--mainly odd feelings, and warmth in my chest.

Resh coughed, and finally pushed back…I released her as soon as she moved, “Uhh…W-We need to continue!” She quickly started walking again.

It took me a second to follow along--it was good to have new experiences.

We left the small dirt road and entered the forest which surrounded us, I sometimes heard animals that ran from Resh and I; the trees still intrigued me, their thick brown bark and deep green leaves, the scent of nature…I liked it.

We suddenly stepped onto a large and paved stone road, and a distance in front of us, I saw a cave which had wooden posts supporting it.

“Ahh, the mine!” Resh sounded happy, as she walked towards the entrance.

From what I could see, there was a well maintained road which lead to and from the mine, but Resh had taken us through the forest--not that I really minded, since I really enjoyed the time with Resh.

When we got to the entrance to the mine, I saw a rail leading into the mine, and mine carts. There were warning signs which said that there were Monsters inside, and I could feel presences in the mine.

Resh didn’t pause and just entered, of course, I followed along behind her; she muttered something and cast a light spell--which made a small ball of light that floated around her. It was very different from my light, I had the very strange urge to generate my own light just to compare it, an oddly competitive feeling.

I suddenly saw movement, and was about to point it out--but Resh had obviously seen it, and already fired a fire spear at it and incinerated it. She shudder slightly with a gasp…which seemed to be her reaction to the warmth of killing a Monster more powerful than you.

“Your eyesight seems quite good,” I said to Resh, who turned back to me with a grin.

“I am and Elf; I can see very well in the darkness--what about you?”

“I can see at night as well as I can see during the day, from the light of the moons ans stars.”

When I said that, Resh flinched and looked back at me with a blush, “Uhh, you didn’t see anything last night, did you?”

“I did see a few Low-Grade Normal Monsters.”

“That’s not what I meant…” Resh muttered quietly and turned away, “Never mind.”, she continued walking.

I felt the strange urge to tease her, “Well, I did see someone strip and jump into the lake,” I couldn’t help but grin.

Resh stiffened and turned around slowly, looking at me, her face and ears were deep crimson, “Did you watch?” Her voice went up a little, and she looked at the ground.

“I heard your noise when the water was cold, and I accidentally looked over. You openly watched me” I poked my tongue out at her.

“Uhh, um…let’s continue on,” Resh flushed even more and spun around, starting to walk forwards rather quickly.

I laughed and followed along.

***

She hunted the small silver metallic slimes for hours, and she finally got tired; she gathered light on one of her fingertips and drew a set of symbols with us in the center. We laid back against the wall, and Resh lent her head against my shoulder and fell asleep.

I looked at the symbols, staring into them--I felt an odd pressure in my head, which I hadn’t felt for quite a while, and saw a blue version of the symbols that Resh had drawn, which were a lot more complex. I really wanted to learn Magic, it looked like it had incredible potential--like my refrigeration bag…that Jess had incinerated.

Resh moved in her sleep, sliding down me and ending up with her head in my lap. I found her sleeping form strangely fascinating, her hair partially covered her beautiful face--I swept it out of her face, my fingers trailed over her soft, warm skin. Again I felt the weird feelings, and warmth--I quickly removed my hand from her hair and looked away from her.

I stared at the wall in front of me, allowing my mind to drift--without trying, I had unconsciously started playing with her smooth and silky blue hair again.

She suddenly woke up, moaning quietly as she rose to consciousness--she slowly opened her eyes and looked up at me, and let out a squeak and rapidly sat up, “Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” I was curious why she would want to apologize, she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“No reason…” Resh hurried got up and straightened her clothing, before we started moving again--looking for more enemies to kill. Resh was rather energetic this morning, and I found it fun watching her kill the slimes; every time she did, she would bend over and pick something up.

I walked along behind Resh calmly.

When she killed some of the metallic slimes, I had looked at their remains, and they didn’t seem to have a core--which I found rather strange. I asked Resh about this, and she said that they did have a core--and showed me a black speck that was a little larger than a pebble. I took out one of the cores of the slimes I killed, which was around the size of a human eyeball.

It struck me that maybe the cores got larger the higher the grade of the Slime.

***

It was around the third time that Resh slept that when she laid down the symbols, her hand slipped slightly, luckily not enough to effect the spell, but enough that I could see it. She sat down against me, her temperature was really high, and she began shivering; I wrapped my arm around her, holding her--at first, she was surprised, but then she seemed to collapse against me.

“What’s wrong” I felt a little worried.

“Grade-Up sickness,” Resh spoke quietly.

I was stroking her hair, but she reached up and grabbed my hand, holding it tightly between her two small hands…which were trembling, “Don’t worry about me, I will be okay in a few hours,” Resh managed a shaky smile at me.

“I can’t help but worry about you,” When I said  this, Resh smiled wider, though with her incredibly pale skin and the bags under her eyes, she didn’t look very happy.

“I will be sleeping now,” Resh spoke quietly, shutting her eyes and tightly gripping my hand, her head lay on my lap; this time she didn’t seem embarrassed this time, probably because she was too sick.

I sighed, placing my hand on her head.

Activating my light, I coated my hand with it, and placed it on the top of her head, pushing the light into her--a symbol appeared on her forehead. Her skin colour was returning to normal, and she started to moan and twitch…it didn’t seem like pain.

Her eyes suddenly snapped open as she continued writhing, I stopped my light before she could see it, but strangely her odd noises didn’t stop. I looked down into her slightly glazed eyes, she stared back into mine; she squeezed my hand, hard.

After a few seconds Resh stopped squirming, still staring into my eyes, she slowly released my hand and sat up.

“Are you okay?” I asked her worriedly.

“Yeah, I’m good…I’m better than good.” She was blushed and quickly got to her feet.

“So, now you have increased your grade, what do you want to do now?” I spoke as I followed her, and couldn’t help but take a glance at her butt, the way her hips swung was fascinating--I quickly looked away.

“I think we should hand in the request,” Resh paused and then grinned, “And you need to have dinner with Mia--after this, I want to try the Dungeon again; I really want to see how much more powerful I have gotten, now that I am Low-Grade B.”

Resh lead us back out of the mine, which took a lot less time than when we entered--because there was nothing to kill.

***

We left the large paved road, and we made it back to the same lake when it was time to camp again--Resh’s timing was really good, and it seemed that she had studied the route in advance.

When we got there, Resh got me to collect sticks again--and took this chance to have her bath…she didn’t want me to accidentally peek on her this time, which makes sense.

However, she still unashamedly watched me while I bathed, she didn’t try to hide it this time…even giving a little wave and giggle when I looked at her; though she was blushing brilliantly crimson when I got back to the campsite.

We had dinner, with very little conversation.

“Did I do something wrong?” I had to ask her, she seemed a little distant this time.

“Huh? No--no you didn’t do anything wrong; I need to think…” She looked at me and smiled, and patted me on the shoulder.

With these words, she went into the tent, and I started gazing into the fire again; I wanted to see if I could see more symbols--Resh was really happy last time, and I wanted to make her happy.

Unfortunately, I saw the same symbols, with no different ones.

When Resh woke in the morning, she walked over to me and sat down and leaned on my shoulder, her hair tickled my neck. She looked into the fire from beside me, silent, her hands crossed in her lap.

“Sorry, I didn’t see anything different this time.” I looked over at her, apologizing.

“Huh? Oh, it’s fine. What you showed me before was more than enough.” Resh sounded a little unfocused.

“What’s wrong?” I looked into her eyes, and she blushed a little.

“Nothing, I am just thinking.” She smiled and grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently, before releasing my hand with an embarrassed cough; clasping her hands in her lap again and looking at the fire.

“I wish I could help you--you helped me more than you could imagine.” I smiled and stroked her head unconsciously, before quickly moving my hand back.

Resh blushed even more, twitching, and stood up, “We should start back to Beleran.”

She quickly packed the tent, and we walked back; Resh seemed happier, she talked to me about random things on the way back--she told stories about the gang, random days where fun things happened, when running from guards, or training by the gang master.

The journey didn’t seem to take very long because of Resh’s stories, and by the time we got back to the city, she seemed to have recovered and was smiling as we spoke.

We had no problems getting back into the city, the guards who saw our Hunter cards were actually surprisingly respectful.

***

We entered the Hunter’s Guild.

The same woman as before was working at reception, and Resh happily walked over towards her, giving her the proof that we had killed all of the Metallic Slimes in the iron mines--that it was now safe to resume mining.

“Thank you very much!” She sounded happy as she wrote down that the request was completed.

“Let’s go back to the inn.” Resh said with a smile, and reached out and grabbed my hand; then she walked out the door of the Hunter’s Guild, and I followed along behind her.

When we entered the Inn, Resh lead us over to one of  the empty tables and sat down opposite me; when she raised one of her hands, a waitress walked over, “Can I take your order?”

“I’ll have some triple strength Ale!” Resh spoke with a strange tone, she sounded slightly happy too.

The waitress looked at me.

“Uhh, I’ll have what she’s having.” I looked at Resh.

The waitress nodded, jotting it down onto her notepad, before walking off to the counter which served food, and alcohol.

Resh didn’t say anything, looking at the table--if she didn’t cheer up soon, I would have to think of something to cheer her up.

It didn’t take long for the waitress to come back, she was holding a tray with two large mugs on it; the smell was strangely familiar; as soon as the mug was placed on the table in front of Resh, she picked it up and chugged it down incredibly quickly, before the waitress had even moved away.

“Another, please?” She smiled.

The waitress nodded and wandered off again.

Looking down at the mug, I smelt it--it was oddly familiar; with a shrug, I took a drink…it made my throat burn.

When Resh finished her third drink, she looked up and a smile appeared on her, now flushed face; she swayed a little in her seat and suddenly giggled--before taking a large mouthful of her drink, there were four mugs on the table around her; I was on the second.

“Heh, Tek.” She looked deeply into my eyes, setting her mug down on the table with a ‘thud’, keeping one hand wrapped around the handle. I heard the liquid swishing around a little, her hand was trembling a little.

“You won’t throw me away because I am too weak right?” She sounded scared.

“Of course I won’t; it doesn’t matter if you are strong or weak, I like being around you.”

Maybe because of the mug and a half of alcohol was getting to me, I spoke what I felt, and reached out, grabbing one of her hands--which she twisted in my grip and entwined her fingers with mine.

She smiled warmly, “You mean that?”

“Yeah, I do.” I returned her smile.

“Good!” Resh finished off the last of the drink in her mug and placed it down, she signaled to the waitress, who came over surprisingly quickly; Resh gave her a few silver coins.

Standing up slowly and carefully, she started towards the staircase; but swayed and almost fell over--I quickly reached out and supported her, wrapping an arm around her slim shoulders, which trembled slightly at my touch.

I helped her up the steps, she walked in front of me and partially lent back into my chest as we walked, she giggled a few times and grabbed my hand--and began playing with my fingers, tracing circles on my palm.

When she lent forwards to open the door, she pressed her butt against me accidentally, at least I think it was an accident; then with a ‘clink’ noise, she dropped the key and accidentally smacked her forehead against the wooden door, leaving a red mark on her pale skin, beginning to giggle.

I helped her stand up straight, leaning her against the wall, and then picked up the key and opened the door.

Grabbing her hand, I led her over to the bed.

She flopped onto her back on the mattress with a smile on her face and glazed eyes, I returned the smile and helped her take off her shoes; carefully rearranging her position and was about to pull the blanket up and cover her--she spoke, “Please, lay next to me?”

Struggling to lift her arm, she patted the mattress next to her.

I had noticed that she was acting strangely, she seemed worried and sad while we cleared the mine, needing to think about something--and now getting drunk; I was worried for her.

“Okay,” I spoke, taking off my shoes and laying down next to her.

She turned over and faced me, draping an arm over my chest and wrapping both her legs around one of mine, like she was trying to keep me from running away, “Don’t leave me…”

“I won’t, I won’t leave you,” I tried to reassure her.

She stared deeply into my eyes, then she slowly began to move her face closer and closer to mine, then our lips touched.

Her lips were soft, and she took the initiative as she kissed me, and used her tongue--she tasted really nice; she seems to have had experience. I followed my instincts and responded to her, during which, she rubbed my chest with one of her small hands, her legs tightening around mine.

After quite a while, she moved back and kept staring at me for a bit before her eyelids lowered and her breathing slowed down.

Resh had fallen asleep, and I had to work very hard to zone out, to have time pass more quickly--and to make sure I didn’t do anything that we would regret.

***

“Mmm…” Resh made a quiet noise and squirmed a little--she was wrapped around me like a slime restraining its prey; her face was buried in my chest, and while she was still mostly asleep she began to rub her face on me, sniffing a few times.

Then her eyes flickered open and she woke up completely.

“Huh?” She let out a confused noise, and then twitched, slowly raising her face and looking into mine. A blush spread quickly over her skin, “Uuu, sorry…I drank yesterday because I was worried that my lack of power would make you abandon me…”

“I don’t mind--it was fun,” I smiled at her, stroking her hair.

She pushed her head into my hand for a while, before slowly releasing me and pushing back, before sitting up.

“Let’s go to the Dungeon today!” She spoke enthusiastically.

She didn’t mention the kiss last night, so I didn’t bring it up either, I felt like it may be bad to mention it. I was also willing to give her enough time to think about what happened, I didn’t want to scare her off--or make her mad.

Quickly getting ready, she lead us out of the inn and towards the Dungeon--the guards let us through, though they seemed a little worried when they saw that I was only High-Grade C; but they relaxed when they saw Resh’s Low-Grade B rank.

We easily made it through and entered the dungeon; Resh took the lead and I was walking behind her, though I was ready to protect her if she needed it. She suggested this, because she wanted to try out her abilities.