Megumi slept better than she had in a long time. When she awoke, she carefully tucked away her treasure once more and stretched before climing out of bed. There was much to be done, and she was more than a little eager to get on the road. She spent a few moments picking out some sturdy traveling clothes and put on her warmest cloak after brushing her hair and washing her face. She glanced around the room to make sure she hadn't forgot to pack anything; she didn't plan on doing anything to end up wanted again, but it was hard to say how things would go. Better to be on the safe side. She stepped out into the dormitory hallway a moment later and locked the door. 

Megu could get used to sleeping in a nice bed like that. Most inns don't even have nearly the same accommodations as this place.

She headed down the stairs and to the main area of the guild hall. Her stomach grumbled and she intended to stuff herself full of good food before going back on the road. When she reached the common area, she noted that Kieren and Poro-tan were already there. They were sitting together eating breakfast. After placing her order, she headed over and sat down next to Poro-tan. 

"Good morning, Megumi." Kieren said with a chipper voice. "You sure put Taris in a foul mood last night. She was cursing up a storm after you left, and eventually forced some of the Rank F members to clean up the mess. It was pretty hilarious." Kieren grinned happily.

Megumi could tell that the man had no love for the local guild leader. She simply shrugged at the comment. Getting blood all over the guild hall floor was the least of her concerns. She didn't care at all about what Taris thought of her; besides, she had done the city a service in exterminating some vermin. 

Kieren finished chewing his latest bite of bacon and continued, "She's going to really have it out for you now, you know? She is the type that can really hold a grudge. Anyway, it was great to see her knocked down a peg or two."

"Megu isn't worried about that one. Taris wanted Megu to join this guild, so she shouldn't be so bitchy for no good reason. If she doesn't want blood on the floor, then she should've hung up a sign or something."

Kieren burst into laughter again. "Disclaimer: No blood on the floors!"

"It's pretty common knowledge that tracking blood into anywhere is a pretty rude thing to do. Couldn't you have changed your boots?" Poro-tan chimed in. "I would've preferred to not have Taris up our asses all the time, but you just bring out the best in people sometimes, you know?" He sighed audibly and took another bite of food.

Megumi shrugged again, he was starting to irritate her again. "Megu had other things on her mind than worrying about the cleanliness of the floors in here. We're leaving today anyway. We won't have to see her for a while."

A few minutes of small talk later, her food finally arrived and she dug into it. She had ordered pancakes again and ate quickly. Today, they were covered in blueberries and were quite delicious. The sooner she finished her food, the sooner they could be on their way. She could hardly wait to get her hands on those people who were, probably at this very moment, performing awful experiments on those helpless children. She was itching to bleed them slowly. 

Once she was done with her food, the three of them grabbed their belongings off the benches next to them and headed outside. It was very early and the sun was only just barely coming up; not that they could see it very good as the streets were blanketed by a thick fog. It was definitely not the most pleasant time of day to be outside, but she would make the best of it. Megumi couldn't help but feel a little guilty that the party hadn't left yesterday. 

Kieren led the others through the fog and down the various streets. He seemed to know his way around the city far better than they did, and she wasn't too surprised about that. After a while they arrived before some stables that stood near one of the gates leading out of the city.

"We can cover a lot more ground if we have mounts, but do you two know how to ride? The stables here rent them out to adventurers and I have used them from time to time when I need to get somewhere more quickly."

Poro-tan shook his head slowly. "I've never ridden a horse before. They're expensive and my own two feet have always served me well enough. Is it hard to do?"

"Megu knows how to ride, but how much is it to rent a horse here? We don't actually have a ton of money." Megumi interjected.

"Don't worry about it. It's on me, I really appreciate your help in taking on this request. I couldn't have attempted this alone I think."

Megumi was definitely not going to turn down a free mount. It felt like ages since she last had a horse to ride. It would feel good to be atop one of the gentle creatures once more. The three of them entered the stables and a tall woman with long auburn hair that was tied into a braid that reached down past her waist ran over to greet them. 

"Hello again, Lord Kieren. Do you need to rent a mount today? I can have your usual horse ready in just a few minutes."

Megumi gave him a flat lord at hearing the title. He didn't seem to notice, and answered the woman.

"No need for formalities, Malon. I'd be more than happy if you could give me the horse that I usually ride." He smiled and gestured to the two of them. "Malon, these two are my new companions, Hideki and Megumi, and I need to rent them some horses for a request we're doing for the Adventurers Guild. Can you make sure that one of them is extra docile? Hideki hasn't ever rode one before."

 "Nice to meet you," Megumi said. Poro-tan said the same.

"You as well. I'll go see about finding the perfect horses for you two to ride. Give me just a moment."

Malon retreated back inside the stables and left the three of them standing there.

"Lord Kieren?" Poro-tan asked.

"It's not that I was keeping it a secret or anything. I come from a minor noble house in the southern part of the country. My father didn't agree with my desire to become an adventurer and I left anyway. We never really got along that well, and I wouldn't be surprised if he disenherited me by now."

Megumi dropped her glare and decided that maybe this man wasn't like most of the other nobles she had been around. They weren't all rotten to the core, she knew that, but she didn't like to admit it. Malon and a boy who had to be no more than ten years old came out of the stables a moment later with three horses. The boy led the horse he had by the reigns over to Kieren and handed over the reigns. 

Malon had the other two and handed the reigns over to each of them. "This one should be good for a beginner. You'll be fine."

Poro-tan nervously went around to the side of the horse and Malon walked him through the process of mounting and dismounting. Once he was atop the horse, she took him over to a small circular pen and spent a few minutes walking him through the basics of riding while Kieren and Megumi watched from atop their respective horses. Her pet sat nervously atop his horse and his posture was all wrong, but Megumi sent him some mental commands and corrected that problem for him. He turned his gaze towards her as he continued going around in circles and gave her a grateful look. 

Once the short tutorial was done and over with, the three of them rode to the gates of the city and left. Megumi prodded her horse into a gallop to see how fast it could go. She wasn't disappointed and couldn't stop herself from smiling in delight as the horse sped along the dirt road. She pulled on the reigns and brough the mount to a stop before turning back to the others who had continued going at a more normal pace. A few moments later, they caught up and the three of them continued along their way.

"So where did you learn to ride, Megumi? You seem at home in the saddle." Kieren said. 

"Megu will pass on the subject."

"I bet she was some rich person's daughter," Poro-tan joked. "Sorry, but I just can't picture you as a farmer's daughter, out working the fields with a plow horse."

Kieren nodded silently but didn't say anything more. She was grateful that he could at least take a hint. She didn't want to talk about her past with these two. 

Kieren turned to Poro-tan. "You seem to be picking it up rather well. You have good form. We will continue at a steady pace, so you don't have to worry too much. Just keep it behind us and it should follow along. So long as we keep a steady pace, it should take us about a day and a half to get to the mining village where the orphanage is."

"All right. I'll do my best."

"I'll take the lead. Keep an eye on him, okay, Megumi?"

"Sure."

The morning seemed to drag on and was more-or-less uneventful. They managed to cover a lot of ground, however, so she was pretty happy with the decision to use horses. Most commoners, other than those who owned farms, didn't tend to have horses as far as she knew. That's why she hadn't been too surprised when Poro-tan had said that he hadn't ever rode before. She could definitely get used to this mode of travel. 

We don't have a lot of money, but maybe we can get our own horses sometime down the road. It would definitely make things easier. 

It was a minor goal and she patted her stallion on its neck as they continued to trot along the road. The late morning sun felt good on her back, and it was nice that the fog had finally be burned off. They were fortunate that there hadn't been any monster attacks so far and when she asked Kieren about it, he told her that the king's soldiers patrolled the main road leading from Rivean to the capital city. It was a safe route for people and there were rarely incidents.

By midday they arrived at the fork in the road that would lead them to their destination. The road leading up the mountains was far more narrow than the one they had travelled on thus far, and it wound its way back and forth up the steep mountains that lined the valley. As they climbed in elevation Megumi took in the view of the large valley below. In the distance, she could see Rivean. They were so high up now that she felt as though she was on top of the world.

The air grew colder and colder as they went and snow that she believed probably never melted covered the ground. It wasn't very deep, but it was a sign of where they were headed. She estimated that they were only about halfway up the mountain and Kieren had told them that the mining village was at the very top. 

As they wound their way ever upward, she began to wish that she had dressed even warmer. She pulled her heavy cloak around herself and pulled the hood down over her face. Megumi's fingers felt like ice even though she wore some fuzzy mittens. As they were rounding a curve in the road her horses suddenly whinneyed and she had to pull the reigns hard to keep the beast from bolting.

Just as she regained control of her horse, she saw what the problem was; just ahead of them in the middle of the road there was a gigantic mountain troll. It appeared to be tear apart a goat and was chomping away a the goat's limbs before tossing the bloody pieces to the side.

"This is going to be bad," Poro-tan whispered.

Kieren nodded grimly. "Those things have skin like stone and can regenerate wounds insanely fast. There's no way around it though. We need to fight. It hasn't noticed us yet at least."

The three of them dismounted and Kieren unhooked his halberd from his back once he was down on the ground. Her horse, as well as Poro-tan's were stamping their feet and rolling their eyes, but Kieren's mount appeared to have better training. It simply stood there, but it kept an eye on the troll in front of them.

"What's the plan?" Megumi asked.

"Let's attack it while it's distracted. Do you have any magic that can hit it from here?"

She nodded and held her staff up as she prepared to fire off an Eldritch Blast, but the troll suddenly turned around and let out a deafening roar. Megumi and Poro-tan's horses bolted and she cursed aloud. The troll moved with lightning speed and grabbed what looked like a gigantic tree branch in its huge hands and threw it straight at them with tremendous force.

The three of them fell to the ground just in time as the limb flew over their heads with a whoosh and she heard it slam into one of the horses behind her. There was a sound of pain and a loud thud behind them. Megumi pulled herself to her feet half a second later and stared in slight horror as the thing had grabbed a large club off of the ground and was charging straight in their direction.

"Keep it busy! Megu will blast it!" she yelled.

Poro-tan was already in front of her and had is sword out. Kieren joined him and the two warriors charged into battle. The troll swung its branch in a downward strike that would have squashed Kieren flat had he not dodged and Poro-tan did his best to circle around behind the thing. Megumi took aim and waited for an opening as Kieren stabbed at the troll with his halberd. 

Its skin was so thick that the blade of the weapon slid off the skin leaving only shallow wounds, which healed as fast as he was inflicting them. The troll became enraged at the irritating moves and slapped Kieren with its hand and sent him crashing to the ground several feet away. Megumi attacked when the thing turned to focus on Poro-tan. She cast Decay upon the beast and watched the monster crumple a little as the spell took hold. Poro-tan released one of his Shockwave attacks and sent the Troll stumbling backwards a few feet. It didn't fall, however.

Megumi fired off a barage of Eldritch Blasts at the back of the roll and once again threw it off balance. The beast fell flat on its face with a loud crash. For the first time in the fight, it let out screams of pain as the green flames burned into its body. There were now gaping holes in its skin that bled a dark green liquid.

Kieren was back on his feet and charging back towards the monster. He leapt into the air and slammed his halbard down onto the prone creature just as it rolled over onto its back. The halberd did some damage, but not nearly as much as it would have if he had hit one of the wounds Megumi had opened up. The troll grabbed her new companion by the leg and slammed him down onto the ground next to it. The troll yelled once more and jumped to its feet. Instead of trying to go after either of the fighters next to it, it charged at Megumi's location at full speed.

Poro-tan chased from behind, but what could he do? It was going to get to her, and she was definitely not one to be able to endure a phsyical blow from something as monsterous as the troll. She cast Magic Skin and fired Eldritch blasts at the thing. The balls of green energy connected, but she was unable to bring it down. It closed the gap between them in seconds and punched her right in the chest.

The world spun as she went flying backwards and smashed into a rock. The air went out of her and she struggled to get back to her feet. Her mana reserves were nearly all gone after just one blow. Magic Skin had just saved her life, but she wouldn't be able to shrug off another blow like that.

The monster stared at her incredulously for a moment as it realized that she hadn't even really taken any damage. Surely, it must have thought that she would have been little more than something it could scrape off its foot after hitting the rock with that much force.

It let loose another enraged howl and started running at her again, but that was when her pet had finally caught up to it. A purple blade bloomed into existance out of the monster's chest and it stared down at it with shock. Black tendrils spread out from the wound rapidly as the cursed blade went to work. The troll fell to its knees and Kieren, who had gotten back up again, came in from the side and with a heavy two handed strike slashed deeply into the troll's throat.

Megumi stumbled to her feet and watched the troll warily as it let out more wails of pain. Poro-tan's blade exited the chest of the troll and popped out again in another spot. The troll's regenerative abilities couldn't hold up to the cursed blade, apparently, and the monster didn't have the strength to fight back anymore. It fell forward onto its face and its eyes stared at her, now like glass.

She shuddered at how close she had just been to dying and made her way over to the others. She sat down into the dirt with a sigh of relief. *Ding*

Congratulations! You have reached level 24! +1 TP

"We did it! I can't believe it, but we took it out! Your magic really saved the day, Megumi! I feel ashamed that I once looked down on you for being a necromancer. You've not only got a good heart, but you are so powerful! That was amazing!" Kieren sat down in the dirt next to her, offering her a flask of water.

She grabbed the flask and took a long drink of the cool water before handing it back to him. It felt good to have someone finally recognize her for being as amazing as she was. She gave him a genuine smile at the compliment. They had lost one of their horses in the troll's initial attack, and the other two had bolted during the fight. "We lost all of our horses, though. Think we can get the other two back, or are we on foot from here on out?"

"They probably won't have gone far. I'll go look for them. You doing okay, Hideki?"

"I'm fine. I can't believe how fucking resilient that thing was. It's too bad about my horse. Poor thing. I bet that thing cost a fortune too..." Poro-tan was busy cleaning the green troll blood off of his sword.

"You're telling me. That thing hit so hard too. Don't worry about the horse, though. Malon will be reimbursed by the adventurers guild. They have a contract with the guild that covers horses that are lost during a job. It'll be okay, my friend."

Poro-tan looked relieved and took a seat on a nearby rock next to them..

"It's pretty surprising to see a mountain troll around here. We did the area a service by taking it out. We'll take one of its ears back with us as proof, there's a standing bounty on these things and we can collect it later on. There are adventurer teams that hunt these things down just for the rewards.  I'll go find the horses now. Hopefully I won't be too long. Wait here." Kieren got back onto his feet and then headed off down narrow road.

They watched the man until he rounded the corner and was out of sight. "He seems pretty reliable. I like him. He didn't hesitate at all to attack that thing head on."

"Neither did you."

"You ordered me to hold it off, what else could I do?"

"I guess that's true, but Megu didn't force you," she smiled.

It felt good to be out in the world again. Nearly dying was a great way to feel alive. She thanked her lucky stars that she had invested into Magic Skin. It almost hadn't been enough to block the heavy blow. She made a mental note to upgrade the skill further at some point. 

"Any plans on how we fight a possible army of chimeras? We can't exactly raise an army of undead like we did with the bandits."

"We'll have to see what the situation looks like when we get there. Besides, even a town that just exists for mining is sure to have a graveyard."

The two of them went over to the dead horse and Poro-tan retrieved his pack off the side of it. It was magical, so none of the items inside would have been harmed, thankfully.

"Since we don't have three horses anymore, you can ride behind Megu."

He frowned at that. "Can't you just raise it from the dead or something?"

She shook her head, "Megu can't raise creatures other than humans with her current skillset. Besides, even if Megu could bring that horse back to life, its body is in really bad shape. The horse wouldn't be able to move properly and it would be slow."

"I see... I always just assumed necromancers could bring any creature back from the dead."

Megumi just shook her head. "As you know, not everyone is gifted with the same skills from the gods governing our world. Megu doesn't have access to a skill that can raise anything like that, but there are some necromancers that do have that ability. Maybe it will be possible once Megu is stronger. Hard to say for sure."

She decided that right now might be a good time to rest up a bit. It could take Kieren some time to find the missing horses; that's assuming that it was even possible to track them down. "Megu is going to go catch a nap by that tree over there. Keep watch and wake Megu when Kieren gets back, Poro-tan."

Poro-tan nodded and wandered over to the corpse of the giant troll to look at it while she settled in on the ground near the tree. There was a clear spot around it where the tree had melted the snow and she curled up in her oversized cloak to try to get some sleep. She rolled around a few times and found that it was impossibly hard to get comfortable like this, so she decided it was time to examine her available skills. Maybe something new unlocked after leveling. She could never really be sure when a new skill would pop up. Unfortunately there was little to go on as people seemed to gain skills randomly. Her class had even less research on its available skills than most others as necromancers were not only taboo, but they were exceedingly rare. She mentally opened up the interface that held her skill tree and had a look.

Passive	Necromancy
	Offensive Spells	Summoning	Defensive Spells	Curses
Mage's Essence	Sanguine Infusion	Raise Undead	Spirit Barrier	Decay
Fortify MP	Corpse Explosion	Soul Trap	Magic Skin	Siphon
????	Eldritch Blast	Undead Mastery	????	????
????	Corpse Absorption	Soul Trap Mastery	????	????
????	????	Summon Blood Golem	????	????

It looked like there were two new skills that she could get. Both of them were potentially interesting, but she needed to learn more of the details before deciding on what she wanted. Eventually, she intended to unlock all of her skills. Sanguine Infusion made it possible for her to do so much more than the average person in that regard. So long as she was willing to kill her enemies, she had potential for limitless TPs. She focused on Summon Blood Golem and then read the description.

Summon Blood Golem

Utilize the blood of fallen enemies or allies to summon a crystallized creature of blood and sinew. The more blood that the creature absorbs, the more powerful it will become when summoned. The creature will continue to absorb blood as it fights and will gain strength as it does so. Note: Blood used must be from recent kills and does not have to be human blood. Summon Duration: 5 minutes.

That one could definitely come in handy. A monster like that would surely strike fear into the hearts of her enemies and she could use it when fighting non-human foes, unlike her Raise Undead skill which was worthless when fighting monsters. She moved on to the next spell, Siphon.

Siphon

Curse your enemy and drain their vitality, regenerating your own health at their expense.

As she didn't have a good way to heal herself in combat, this would be potentially life saving. However, curses didn't have a high success rate, especially at level 1, so this might not be more useful than the golem. She also considered upgrading one of her current skills, but no matter how she looked at it, the idea of having a summoned construct to fight for her was too appealing to turn down. She unlocked the skill.

She also needed to spend Poro-kun's newly acquired TPs. It wouldn't be good to make the potentially fatal mistake of forgetting to do it again. She called over to her companion and asked where he thought the points should go. He requested that she put the points into Warrior's Essence and Fortify Health. She didn't see any reason to deny the request and complied.

There. That should make him a bit more resilient. Chimeras come in many types and this is sure to be a hard battle ahead.

It was clear that she wouldn't be able to sleep like this, so she got up went to see the troll corpse up close as well. Its skin was gray like stone and when she poked it, she saw why the weapons had glanced off it more often than not. Without her magic, they would not have been able to even wound this thing enough to slow it down. She wished that she could raise the thing and use it as a minion. The thought of sending a giant troll into that orphanage to crush her enemies sounded like it would have been a blast. It was a shame.

After what felt like forever, Kieren returned, and remarkably, he had found both horses. She got up off of the rock she had been sitting on and headed over to meet the man.

"Took you long enough," Megumi complained.

"Come on. I've been running all over the place tracking these guys down. It wasn't easy, you know? Anyway, do you want to ride with me, or with Hideki?"

"Megu will ride with Poro-tan."

Kieren nodded and then looked over at Poro-tan with a goofy grin on his face. 

"Sometime, you're going to have to tell me the story behind that cute name she has for you, Hideki." He laughed as he handed her the reigns of her horse. "We still hae a few hours of daylight ahead of us. Let's get as far as we can before we camp for the night."

"Sounds good to me. Let's get away from this troll corpse already, who knows what kind of monsters will come out of the woodwork to eat that corpse."

"Megu agrees. We should be on our way already. We've delayed enough as it is."

With that, the three of them mounted up and continued their slow journey up the windy roads. Feng and the vile orphanage that lie there awaited them and Megumi couldn't wait to try out her new blood golem spell.