Luz gulped down a few pieces of meat before going out to try short-range teleportation. Outside, the afternoon sun was shining, and it was pleasantly warm with a cool wind blowing every now and then. 

Less than 15 meters away from Master Simon's tower was an apple tree, and Luz snapped off pieces of its twigs. With a pile of twigs, he now stood in the shade of the apple tree, attempting to teleport them 3 meters away from him.

One could merely hear the words,"[Teleport 3:0:0]." and instead of a twig, a pile of splinters came out.

"Ok, I'm not going to try that spell on myself," Luz commented before continuing to experiment.

'A teleportation spell of 3m consumes around 6% in mana. That's quite a bit. But I think the mana consumption depends on the weight of what is teleported and the distance to where it gets teleported.'

Luz tried the spell 12 times, testing his different hypotheses, but his experiments were in vain since the twigs mostly came out as sawdust.

It ended with Luz taking a break on the ground after his mana level dropped to 27% in an attempt to replenish his mana reserves by meditating.

Slowly Luz sat down in front of the apple tree and closed his eyes to focus on mana absorption. Mana can also be absorbed passively, but it is quicker to absorb it actively.

What he noticed was that he refilled his reserves much faster than expected.

"It's probably because of those parasites. I think their mana cores seem to be getting useful now," Luz muttered with his eyes closed.

Just as his mana reserves approached 85%, a familiar voice woke him up.

Slowly blinking at the blinding rays of the sun, he saw three people talking in confusion in front of him. The following sentences were uttered:

"Eyyy."

"Can you hear me?"

"Are you asleep?"

"Yes, I'm awake," Luz replied while grasping Francis' extended hand.

"Thanks for that," Luz stated as he noticed the other two familiar people.

"Don't mention it," Francis gave, and Luz asked one of the two girls who had brown hair, "and you're... ehm Alice, right?"

The two girls giggled at Luz's question. The girl pointed her finger at the black-haired girl before saying, "She's Alice. My name, on the other hand, is Anne."

"Oh, I'm sorry, our contact was minimal," Luz admitted as he scratched the back of his head.

"Yo, as soon as I bring girls, you forget the existence of your best buddy," Francis remarked as he squeezed Luz's shoulder tightly.

"Arg, I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Luz gave out before asking, "And what are we going to do today?"

Everyone except Luz was inside in leather armor and looked puzzled at Luz.

"We planned on going hunting, or did you forget it already? Get changed as soon as possible because we won't wait long for you." Francis said, and Luz just nodded before running into the tower to change his uniform.

Upon reaching his room upstairs, he changed his clothes and wore thin linen clothing underneath the leather armor. He tightened the straps and popped another small piece of meat into his mouth.

''Let's see how long this meat will last me,'' Luz said as he reached for his weapons which were an iron shortsword and a shield.

'Why did Simon give me such equipment anyway?' I'm not a gladiator, am I?" Luz mused before sighing as he took them downstairs.

"My experience with such weapons is somewhat limited. I may have trained with Francis a few times but have yet to be in a serious situation with such weapons," Luz muttered as he arrived downstairs.

Downstairs the three were waiting for him, and Francis stood there smiling with his arms crossed. All of them wore a mix of leather armor and steel helmets. But their weapons and armor seemed to be of a higher quality. What Luz immediately noticed was that each of them carried melee weapons, but also a quiver of arrows and crossbows.

"Don't worry. We brought a quiver of arrows, as well as a crossbow for you too. Oh yeah, take this too," Francis said while handing him a small dagger in a scabbard.

"Thank you," Luz replied as he puzzledly searched for a place to stow it.

Anna leaned over to him to whisper, "You're supposed to attach this to your belt, not stow it away."

"Thank you," Luz whispered, attaching it to his belt.

The group then began to march into the forest, following a dirt path. Around the trail, however, were tall trees, and the deeper they went, the denser the trees became. As time passed, the sunlight that landed on the group of youths also diminished. Although they could still see in the gloom, their sight was limited to 100 Meters. The chirping of insects and occasional loud animal noises could be heard throughout the forest.

The youths chatted with each other while carrying loaded crossbows. Naturally, one wants to be ready for anything.

"Where are we going, and what are we going to hunt?" asked Luz curiously, who was still not briefed.

"Well, I heard that you need a lot of money, which is why we chose a mission that should be easy for us and bring us a lot of money," Francis said, and Anna added: "We are planning on hunting some magical deer. Rumor has it that a parasite has infected some specimens, and we are looking for sick ones. The medical institute pays well for such specimens."

"I see, and how do they differ from healthy ones? "Luz asked curiously.

"You will definitely recognize them by their appearance," Anne said with a smile.

"All well and good, but give me some useful information? Do we have to watch out for certain things? Can they transmit their disease to us and such?" interjected Luz, annoyed.

"Anne, let me take care of it." said Alice, pushing Anne aside before stating: "These deer have mutations all over their bodies, and they are very aggressive. Some of them resemble zombies, but these are examples of the advanced stages. The newly infected ones are characterized by being very aggressive and having no control over their saliva."

A shiver went down Luz's spine, and this time he asked Alice about the chance that these diseases could also be transmitted to them.

"I can't answer that," Alice said, before quickly adding, "But surely the local medical institute will have a solution soon. Trust me."

Luz had a queasy feeling from that moment on, and it was clear to him why the mission paid well.

A mission where you have to deal with infected beings while not knowing if and how the parasite can be transmitted carries a high risk. It's best to always wear a light mana membrane when you encounter them. I don't even know how dangerous and aggressive they are,' went through Luz's head.

Before he could ponder further, he walked into Francis, who suddenly stood still with one hand raised lightly.

Francis just nodded, and about 100 meters away, one could see a deer standing in the falling sunlight.

It was the size of an average deer but emaciated with large wounds. Its body was covered with big flesh wounds from which no blood dripped, and some of its bones were visible. It was plodding along, and its once magnificent antlers were covered with mutations. They were broken off on some sides and had no symmetry. On the other hand, its eyes glowed slightly yellow, and its pawing was heard loudly.