The tongue of blue plasma was rushing through the darkness of space. An outcast, its aspiration was to burn down worlds, destroy civilizations, melt cosmic fleets yet its freedom wasn't long-lasted. Treacherous gravity well of a little white star had arranged nets, pulled the runaway into the deadly embrace of an accretion disk. Its fate was to cast light onto the galaxy once as a nova.

Alice walked down the mountain with the head strung up as by an invisible rope. The sight of hundreds of suns passing by their little sphere of air and life was fascinating, it was awakening all the weak and unused poetic strings her soul had.

"There are three things you can watch forever: burning fire, flowing water and..."

An uncertain voice died out when the girl's black hair twitched into his direction.

I don't know why did Teach allow him to follow me, she sighed.

The castle was built on top of a mountain peak. The back was covered by the steepest cliff Alice had ever seen in her life and the gate was facing a descent that wasn't as hard as it was long. All the longer the more she had to slow down her pace for the companion.

The girl had gone out in full armor, with the glaive and bow: there was no point to not play it safe. Behind, Dunkan was panting but never complained. His training left him with a boar spear and a short bow of his own. "Forest is my element", Alice had watched him speaking up in the throne room with her mouth open.

Memories vaguely hinted at the chat and his nickname telling Sage really had had training in a giant forest.

The problem was, Alice's imagination was slipping at placing Dunkan anywhere but his tightly closed room. She turned her neck slightly and squinted back. Brown hair with an excessive amount of curves, the nose that was too big for the face, little dark eyes hiding behind stupidly round glasses and flicking between looking straight and looking at the ground. The guy was thin, he was hunching when walking. 

In short, it was hard for any boy to look less masculine than Dunkan, well if not counting special courses. The hunter outfit and soft leather boots only added contrast.

"What the Sage class even does?" despite her attempt to do otherwise, the question sounded harsh.

"...I have 'Analyze' and 'Sage's Wisdom' skills. The former allows me to study the general properties of an object without tools. Like, is this fruit edible, how strong this spider's poison is, and so on. The system shows me a few lines more for any descriptions."

"Useful," Alice admitted and hopped over a pointy rock.

"Wisdom gives me access to two common skills of a basic class per level. It also allows the transfer of one skill point between any of them daily," Dunkan continued more confidently. "Oh, and I can swap to a completely different skill once per week as long as I don't go over the limit."

"Isn't this a cheat?" the girl frowned. She was well aware of how useful 'Observation' and 'Stealth' were in the dungeon.

"The system blocks my memories. If I turn off 'Basic spear' skill, I will have to train it from zero even if had known a little before acquiring the skill with 'Wisdom'..."

"So it's a double-edged sword," Alice nodded while Dunkan, being interrupted, puffed his cheeks and stopped talking.

 

Here it was. The forest at the mountain's foot. Warmer than the mountain's top and significantly less windy.

Alice had no problem with such lush vegetation neighboring the desert she had seen from her room. At that point in time, she was simply enjoying something other than rocks, stones, and stalagmites around.

"Anything familiar?"

Dunkan shook his head with the bow in his hands already.

"What are your active skills?"

"Basic spear, basic archery, stealth, observation, simple trap making..."

"It's... close to my kit. Hunter, basic class, yes."

Scarlet: Teach, we've reached the forest, no danger in sight.
MagentaFey: Roger.
PR3DAT0R: be careful ٩(̾●̮̮̃̾•̃̾)۶

Alice waved her hand at little dots on the castle's wall and gave silent thanks to the system for this function was still working. Very conservative thanks.

"I didn't have free points for the voice chat."

"They want us to be careful," Alice glanced at Dunkan. Something in his tone annoyed her, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. "Don't shoot at my side."

She walked two steps, then stopped, sighed and turned to the guy:

"I don't doubt your skill, no more than my own, they are from the same system. Really, don't shoot at my side."

"Oh."

Dunkan nodded and they entered the forest.

The grass was green, the bushes were dense, the birds screamed rarely. Alice seemed to travel into mixed woods. It was nostalgic. Quiet steps of Dunkan behind... she wanted them to be her brother Dan's. And if she could somehow switch illumination to that of a single sun...

It didn't take long for them to discover animal tracks.

Well, Dunkan did since the girl was daydreaming a bit too much.

"Deer tracks," agitatedly pointed the guy at his findings.

"Yes."

"If we follow them to a water source I might recognize it. It will prove it's the forest from my dream!"

"Oh."

The magic of the wild was pacifying her so well Alice didn't have a word against. She easily let Dunkan, who started to act surprisingly dependable (aside from not meeting her eyes straight), to lead the way.

How big was the girl's surprise when they actually found a pond in a grove of pine-trees.

This is blind luck.

"Well?"

"...I don't know," he admitted and scratched behind the ear.

Alice bent over and touched the cool water. The guy near did the same, frowned thoughtfully and then said with barely noticeable complacency,

"You can drink it. Not poisoned or anything."

"Good to know."

Remarkable, Alice indeed had been thirsty a moment ago. Not anymore.

"Dunkan," she blinked and declared, not asked: "Your forest had only regular animals?"

"Yes, why?"

Behind, the girl wanted to say, but cards lined up differently. Sneakily, she pointed at a certain something on the other side of the pond.

"Then what this goblin is doing here?"

[Goblin Lvl. 5], speaking in almost scientific terms. Funny thing was, the system only did its work and marked the lying creature after Alice had distinguished it in glass and leaves with her own eyes and mind.

"Please don't look straight at her," she added with a polite smile.

Dunkan gulped, too loud if one asked the girl.

"Her?"

"Really?" she bent down again and calmly washed her hands to make a quick glance. "She wears too many shells and too little teeth on her necklace."

The boy clearly didn't know what to do with the bow and arrow and now he was gaping at her. The girl rolled her eyes.

"Now we smile and go our way. At a regular pace. Don't look."

Then they retreated. At a regular pace.

When the pond disappeared from their view, Dunkan couldn't endure anymore,

"Hey! Shouldn't we have killed her?"

"Why?"

The boy was looking around frantically and at the same time tried to act naturally. He failed at both. Adrenalin does it to people.

"Why? She... it's a monster!"

"Look... Sage.  Did a goblin kill your family?"

By the looks of it, the thought didn't quite reach his consciousness, and therefore Alice had no other choice but stop at a nameless glade and spell it out:

"Why are you advocating an unprovoked murder of a sentient being? Because computer games say so?"

For a minute, Dunkan had the face of a man who is constantly thinking up reasons and arguments based on nothing but fiction yet smart enough to reject them on his own. Finally, he reached the point where Alice was only three steps ahead:

"She can notify other goblins! If they are aggressive, we are fucked!"

Oh. He used 'fuck'. Must be really hard on him. Alice shook her head,

"You are assuming too much. If they are aggressive, if it's the first scout we stumbled across or would stumble across without missing a single one, if she is alone and no mate of hers hides behind, if they are not capable of tracing our tracks after we've killed one of them, if they cannot see a freaking castle on the mountain..."

"At least ask professor Lauster! It's just your opinion!"

Alice sighed, rolled her eyes again and finally revealed her tired, only-for-idiots stare:

"Would they have any new information? It's not about opinions, only I can make the decision for me, Dunkan, not them, me! You don't think straight. Breath, damn it. Count to ten or something!"

"How can you be so calm!?"

"Because she is not a threat! Now shut up and breath!"

Dunkan shrank back, covering his head and eyes.

What? 

She noticed then. Heavy breathing, clenching teeth, standing with an angry raised fist, that was she, right now.

Damn it, damn it! She had seen those frightened eyes, this awkward protective stand before. A new and completely fresh portion of unpleasant memories surged from the dark corners of her mind. Fighting back, Alice slowly, very slowly made herself relax and lower her hand. Dunkan stood still, his back touching a tree and his shoulders collapsed. Like a small fragile animal that can be hurt by anyone. Had been hurt by many, certainly.

Was I wrong? No, my decision is right. The reasons are solid. I cannot afford to start a fucking war blindly. Yet...

The girl opened her mouth, but then pride or even worse, arrogance, kept the words that should have been said inside. Her throat contracted and the girl felt dizzy.

"I... was always... violent. I always wanted... punch stupidity, weakness, anything I don't like. I would never... hit a person weaker than me. I am better... than that."

Alice squeezed out dryly what was the closest thing to an apology she could muster up. She felt powerless as if the words went against her very nature so far they literally drained her of all strength.

"Let's go... We need to forage some food. Isn't forest your element?"