After some time I get up from the branch and touch my belly. Smooth, with some muscle underneath and not even a scar remaining from my previous injury. But well, this injury wasn’t so bad because it was essentially a simple crack, so there was no flesh or organs missing, merely it all needed to be connected.

‘Thanks, and sorry about that.’ – I say to Natria.

{Don’t bother, you could have survived that easily and I healed you up on my own volition.} – She answers in a gentle, but also strained tone. – {On a side note, I can make you the Mana Core now. Would you like that or should we do that later?}

‘Um.’ – I think for a moment. – ‘How long would it take?’

{Four days or so. I have enough mana, but it’s a long and slightly troublesome process.}

‘I see. Then I would like to do this sooner rather than later since I will need to eat a lot of souls for the Mana Core to grow. Um, what about your aura?’

{It… shouldn’t be a problem.} – She says with a hint of hesitation. – {I mean, my aura is extremely powerful, but stretches over a small distance since I am very weak now. As long as no human comes within around… three hundred meters, there will be no problem at all, and monsters will be scared off by that aura. If anything, it will create a bit of a mana disturbance, but it shouldn’t be a large problem.}

‘Okay. In that case, I will move a bit further into the forest. The road is far away so there should be no problems with that.’

That road, by the way, leads to another cities on the edges of the island along its border. It’s long and twisted, but incomparably cheaper than using a magic ship and additionally there is no risk of being attacked by a Beholder. All the dangers out there can be repelled by moderately strong hunters. As a side note, that’s what a large part of free hunters do – protecting people going from one city to another.

{Sure.}

I get up and dress myself properly, though my vest and shirt have large holes that expose my left breast. I can’t do anything about it now so I leave it as is, but I will need some cover when I come back.

I walk carefully on the branches from one tree to another, straight into the forest. The branches are quite scarce and I sometimes have trouble finding suitable foothold, but all the vines and other things growing up here make it a quite easy trip.

There were some dangerous plants here, mainly poisonous ones, but it was easy enough to avoid them for me since they are not particularly well concealed and even with very small amount of light shining through the leaves I could spot them.

‘Master, can plants have souls?’ – I ask at a sudden thought.

{Yeah, obviously. The easiest example are dryads, treants or living trees. That said though a plant needs to be immensely massive or have some sort of intelligence to have a soul. If it’s like these poisonous or carnivorous plants here then obviously they won’t have souls, save for exceptions.}

‘Um, what exceptions?’

{It’s quite possible for a wandering spirit or ghost to inhabit a plant from the most common things, effectively creating a plant with a soul. It is also not so rare for a new soul to be created in a plant or something different if there is high enough concentration of mana, though in here it is far from that.}

‘I see. So unless it is a monster like Vineure there will be no souls within the plants to eat.’ – I conclude.

{Hm? Vineure?} – Natria asks curiously.

‘Uh, I heard about them from Laura, they are usually D Rank and don’t appear this close to capital. They are usually like a ball of thorny vines with a mouth in the center and they can be extremely dangerous if they take by surprise. Usually they pose as vines hanging between trees, but they can be recognized by the thorns on them normal vines lack.’

{Oh, yeah, that should have a soul.} – I get an impression of Natria nodding her head.

We cut our conversation for now and I find a nice place to lie in.

I take my cloak off and place it under my butt, sitting in more or less comfortable position, comparatively to the wrinkled and cracked bark of the tree.

I take out the meat from my backpack and bite my lips. – ‘Master, you said that what causes problems while eating is mana? What about slimes? I mean, they have no problems with eating things with mana, right? What about me with all that you did in my stomach?’

{You can try, though start with the liver if you want to eat it without cleaning off mana. There shouldn’t be any particular problems, though you might get a stomach ache or something.}

‘Okay. Any advice before turning me off for implementing the Mana Core?’

{Hm, nothing in particular. You will be starving after I finish though, but just leave some food with you and it will be fine. I’ll cast a spell to prevent rotting since I will have some excess mana.}

‘Alright. Begin after I eat then, okay?’

{Sure.}

I bite into the liver, feeling a bit bad, slightly sweet taste, but I bear with it and eat whole thing. I then take off my clothes and put them under myself in the same manner as before, lying on the large branch.

{Okay, you ready?} – Natria asks.

‘Yeah.’ – I nod my head resolutely with some tension in my chest.

{Okay, I’ll begin it shortly. You will be unconscious for this period of time and when you wake up, unless there are any complications I very much doubt will be, you will have a brand new Mana Core. I will also do a few things with your bloodline along the way. If there is nothing else, see you soon, and good night.} – Natria says in a gentle voice and I black out.

…

<Laura’s POV>

It is early morning the day after Nea went to the forest and I walk through the streets of Bluesky a bit dizzily.

I walk into the Hunter’s Guild as I have received a notice that they have a designated mission for our team and head to the assembly hall where teams heading off for various tasks gather.

The hall is built in the same manner as the headquarters, from red brick and gray stone, but is even cruder. It is a very spacious room in the shape of a rectangle, at least twenty to forty meters large with a few pillars supporting the ceiling handing four meters above the ground. There are tables with chairs on one side and free space on the other with both occupied by fair amount of hunters talking about their missions, preparing things, sharpening their weapons and checking equipment.

I look around and soon notice two people of my team standing to the side by one of the pillars and talking quietly while one of them is holding a piece of paper and pointing at it. They don’t seem to notice me and I approach them quickly.

“Hello, Ben, Maa. What’s up?” – I ask when I walk up to them.

“Oh, hello, Laura, that’s the mission they gave us. Read up, then we will talk.”

The short man passes me the paper in his hand after greeting me back.

He wears light outfit similar to mine and is even shorter than my 167 centimeters. He is a half-human half-dwarf, since his unimpressive height, and is quite muscular, though he can’t be called burly or bulgy like typical dwarves. His brown hair and beard round a plain face with square jaw, blue eyes and a scar going from his mouth to left ear.

He is, surprisingly, the main fighter of our team, but that’s because of his talent in close combat. He usually uses two short swords and he got assigned to our team because of its nature. We are a light, quick and versatile team, and while Ben isn’t particularly light, he is one of the best fighters in his size, considering most people like him would stay in the city in a workshop or manual work, and rarely learn to fight, even then mostly choosing heavy weapons.

“Ya, be quick, Murky just went to get Xara and wants to leave within five minutes.” – The girl besides Ben says.

Then there is Maa, or Maala, a human, though not any taller than Ben, with slim, frail body with very modest assets. She has barely one and a half meter in height. Also in scout’s outfit like me, with a bit childish face, she is a very young, strong hunter. Her short, messy black hair and large almond eyes only add to her innocent looks, but her blunt speech and often impolite behavior along with constantly tense face completely shatter this impression.

Maa acts as a scout alongside me, but she uses a bow, and is very good with it with her aeromancy talent aiding her greatly. She focuses more on tracking, trapping and scouting while I have my talent to sense souls so we work well together and don’t get in each other’s way.

I look at the sheet Ben gave me and read it quickly in the silence that ensued.

To put it short, there is a strange mana movement in the forest to the north close to the city, spanning a quite large distance. We are to go there and investigate the area, report anything unusual and come back within a day.

‘Nea.’ – I think worriedly. – ‘It’s very likely she is caught up in it, whatever it is. Assuming she or Natria are not the source of course, but the disturbance seems very large, so I doubt they have the power to do that. Natria might though, but I have no idea.’

“Why did they assign this mission to us though?” – I ask when I finish with a frown. – “Wouldn’t it be better if a Gold Hunter went there and checked? They would be finished within a few hours at most, and we will have trouble even avoiding all the monsters.”

“No idea.” – Ben shrugged. – “Murky thinks it should be because of your and his senses, but he also complained about it and the person who brought the notice didn’t know. I you ask me, they just want to send us to see if it’s dangerous. We have no idea what these movements are, but with how far away from the mountain it is it shouldn’t be anything a random Gold Hunter wouldn’t manage.”

“And I guess we fit the role the best since we are versatile.” – Maa adds, scowling for some reason. – “I don’t think there is any other team with presence detection, spirit eye and mana sense that’s not in gold or top silver.” – ‘Oh, yeah, they still think it is presence detection.’

“Actually there is.” – I turn around to see Murky and Xara walking towards us, former speaking without any expression and latter walking with sour face. – “They just got promoted to mid silver, but they went on a mission yesterday, so they are not available now.”

I wrinkle my eyebrows in deeply concealed anger and nod in acknowledgement.

Murky is a quite tall, slim man in simple, dark bluish clothes. He has slender, moderately handsome face, short, dark hair and carries himself with pride. Some people say he is not fully human, but I have no idea about that and he looks completely humane.

He can be said to be an oddball in our team, but he is a spirit mage, meaning he affect and command spirits to some extent. He also is very good with channeling and knows a wide range of spells from body enhancing or silencing to illusions and attacks.

Xara meanwhile is woman of same height as me, seductive curves and generous womanly charms. With beautiful face, red lips and violet eyes she looks exactly like the nobility she belongs to. She is wearing a light, simple knee-length dress suited for travelling, but she doesn’t fight at all so she doesn’t need any protective equipment or anything, especially with her magic.

She is also a mage like Murky, but she is recognized rather as a biomancer. They are generally a bunch that can use mana to heal, rot and do other things to organic matter, create poisons, heal illnesses and do other things. As a side note, she is the only member of our group in mid bronze, but she is invaluable to us since she can heal any small injury within seconds and as long as the target doesn’t die she can practically rebuild your body from scratch.

Though I believe that she isn’t ranking up only because she doesn’t want to, since she is one of the better biomancers below the golden hunter threshold and probably the best among bronze hunters.

“Anyway, do you all know what we have to do?” – Murky asks.

We all nod in acknowledgement.

“Good, if you are ready, we will be going now.” – No one says anything, so he turns around and we all walk in silence to the canteen to get food for the mission.

The silence between us is normal and not uncomfortable, since we have been in the same team for almost three years now. We can’t exactly be said to be a harmonious team, especially after Natria removed the scar on my spirit I am extremely grateful for, but we know each other well and we can cooperate well.

After taking a day’s worth we walk towards the northern gate quickly. We pass the wealthier part of the commoner’s district, then the poor where buildings stick to each other like kids in a cold night, and enter the fields where vegetables and wheat grow. We reach the fifteen meters tall stone wall and go out of the city to see the Forest stretching before us.

 “We will enter the forest straight to the north and proceed more or less along its border to the right.” – Murky starts explaining. – “I was told by Dasil it is more or less one-kilometer in radius circle with the center in the north close to the border of the forest, so we will go along the edge until we find the disturbance and then we will head to its center. If there is nothing in the center, we will go around the place in later arrangements. Any questions?”

“Just to make sure.” – Xana turns to Murky with a frown. – “Will you be able to detect the center of the disturbance?”

He scowls at that with evident displeasure, though not directed at the woman. – “They didn’t tell me what kind of disturbance it is, so I have no idea yet, but if it has singular cause, then I see no reason not to.”

“Hm, they did point out its position, didn’t they?” – Ben asks.

“Only approximate, but that’s good enough. Assuming it’s not moving it should be more or less at one o’clock, so its border should be…” – He stops for a while to get a good view of the tree line. – “Slightly to the right of the gate.”

…

Half an hour later we were walking along the forest carefully with surprisingly no monsters in my range. The forest for some reason seemed much more ominous today and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

“Hey, don’t you feel this forest is scarier today?” – Ben suddenly asked.

““Yeah.”” – I answered at the same time as Xana.

“There’s that feeling as if you were walking in the dark and thought you have a spiked wall in front of you.” – Maa comments. – “You feel there is something but you can’t say if that’s your imagination or if it’s real, and you hesitate to check because you don’t want to fuck up.”

Murky suddenly stopped and raised his hand.

“The disturbance begins around fifty meters to the front. I am not sure what could have caused it, but I am almost certain it has one source. Let’s proceed forward and we’ll see how it is when we go nearer.” – He narrows his eyes and glances at other team members. – “As for that feeling… I have no idea what it could be, but be prepared to get the hell away from here. I had similar feeling in that crypt we visited half a year ago. I doubt we will get a B class here, but just in case.”

Oh, yeah, there was that one. We were sent to an old crypt to the northwest of Bluesky, close to the road because some merchants reported strange noises coming from there. A day after we returned with nothing the crypt was blown up when a B+ Rank undead emerged for some unknown reason and they needed to mobilize quite a few Gold Hunters; even Stars were moved.

We resume walking along the edge of the forest, now even more cautious.

After a few minutes Murky stops once again.

“The center of the disturbance should be perpendicular to the tree line. I say we are going straight for it and decide later. Any objections?” – He asks in tense voice.

There is momentary silence until Xana asks a question. – “How far away it is?”

“Should be around… eight hundred meters or so. I can’t say for certain.”

“Let’s go then. We should be able to retreat quickly if something bad happens.”

“Yeah, we are going.” – Murky confirms and starts walking inside the forest. – “Laura, Maa, be extra vigilant now.”

Half a minute later, after we have crossed barely one hundred meters, I speak up. – “I’m not sure if it’s good or bad news, but there are no monsters within one hundred and fifty meters. I think it’s safe to assume there is nothing within this disturbance, and probably within fair distance around it.”

Murky and Maa both nod their heads.

“So it might be something very dangerous inside.” – Ben says. – “If it’s up to D+, then we can cope, but I don’t think everything here would run away from D+ Rank.”

“I know.” – Murky says in solemn voice. – “But we need to check it out, we can’t go back empty-handed.”

We continue through the eerily quiet forest. The only noise that can be heard is faint rustling of leaves from above, but down here even air doesn’t move.

“Five hundred or so.” – Murky says.

“Hey, there is something in front of us.” – Maa says. – “’Round hundred meters. Laura?”

“Nothing. Whatever it is, it is not alive.”

We walk up and look around with surprise.

There is one Atone Aberration lying with its back to us. It’s quite neat one, with very large head, thin body, long tail and with dark purple fluid flowing down where stones don’t cover its skin. Legs are not visible from our position. On one side there are also a few wolf corpses sprawled around, majority mostly intact, but all with hearts dug out and one with open stomach and missing leg. There are some dried bloodstains on the battlefield, but it can’t be said to be bloody sight.

There is a faint rotting smell in the air, but the bodies are still in relatively good shape, so it can’t be much older than half a day.

‘Could this be Nea?’ – I think to myself with my chest tightening. – ‘It certainly could be. But what is this mana disruption then? Is she alright?’

“That’s definitely a battlefield.” – Murky says with a frown. – “And it doesn’t seem to be fight between monsters.”

“Why? There is one Stone Beast and wolves around.” – Ben asks.

“Look at their wounds.” – Maa says impatiently. – “There are no bite marks on either and they have holes and other blunt wounds. Look at this one.” – She points at a wolf closest to us. – “Its skull is caved in on the side. Or this one, with its lower jaw crushed. They are not claw wounds. More like… from a bat? A mace? Or leg? It seems too small though. Hmm…”

‘It’s not necessarily too small.’ – I comment in my head, approaching the wolf with caved in skull and inspecting the wound. – ‘Size-wise it matches her leg more or less. And considering her ability, this wound is just perfect.’

“Yeah.” – Xana says while channeling mana, then releases a small spell. – “They died around… thirteen hours ago.”

“Fuck, what the hell is that?” – Maa suddenly exclaims, coming round the Stone Aberration corpse. – “Come ‘ere for a moment.”

“Hm?” – I walk quickly and look at the sight with surprise.

“Oh, damn, that was human alright.” – Ben comments.

The sight before us is the downside of the beast. Its stomach is intact, but its chest, the left side specifically, is shattered into small pieces and its heart along with mana stone dug out, making a gruesome sight. Its throat is caved in visibly, and its legs are in… miserable state. Two front are mostly intact, but middle left is almost ripped off, hanging limply, and three remaining are broken at the knees, one even practically ripped off.

“Yeah, that’s definitely a work of a human. Alternatively an intelligent monster, but I doubt anything more intelligent that goblins showed up here.” – Murky comments, nodding his head. – “Laura, any monsters?”

“Nope, not even one.”

“Alright. Let’s search this place thoroughly and note down all important details. Considering the distance, it might have something to do with that abnormality.”