"See? This is pretty nice, ain't it?"

Aurum spoke proudly, turning to her side to look at both Pearl and I.

The three of us were seated near Aurum's cave. Well, close to it. To be more specific...

"H-How can you be so relaxed, A-Aur? We're on top of a...a-a! Oh no, no, no..."

"Oh come on, Pearlie, don't be so spooked! We're on top of a mountain, a mountain! I bet lots of people don't get to do something this cool! You won't get to enjoy it if you're scared the whole time!"

Aurum looked at Pearl and grinned fearlessly. In comparison, Pearl was shaking like a leaf, gulping while she looked down and over the edge of the small piece of land where we were sitting.

It was a long drop down, enough that I was sure we'd be done for if we dropped off. None of us were really at the level where we could survive a 300-meter drop. 

Aurum had taken us to the top of the mountain that housed the cave she lived in. Or her mountain, as she deigned it. 

"So you wanted to show off 'your' mountain to us, Aur...? You really are a dragon, huh?" 

I stared blankly at her, and Aurum flushed red with some mix of anger and embarrassment, pointing a finger at me.

"That bad?! I just wanna show off to you guys 'cause you're my friends! You can bet I wouldn't show any of those losers down there this kind of view." 

I just replied with a chuckle, while looking out beyond the sheer drop off near us. We sat near the edge, not just giving us a view of the village, but the entire valley that contained it. 

We were so high up that clouds were visible below us, and it made the whole scene look sort of...

Well...it was nice.

"It really is beautiful, Aur."

Aurum blinked in surprise at my sudden gratefulness, before putting a proud smile on her face, her hands on her waist.

"Told ya! I wouldn't have flied you guys up here if it wasn't!"

Pearl, who seemed to have calmed down a little after seeing the usual antics between Aurum and I, slowly nodded in agreement. She slowed her breathing with a long exhale, and turned her gaze out, further than the cliff directly in front of us.

"It's...still scary to me, but I've really never seen anything like it." 

It seems she had managed to tuck away most of her fear and transform the rest into awe, her gaze shimmering with emotions neither Aurum nor I could understand yet.

We sat there like that for a few minutes, just enjoying the mountain breeze, and watching the orange sun slowly descend beyond the horizon.

I turned to look at Aurum. Her golden eyes were filled with conflict about something. She almost immediately noticed my gaze, but didn't say anything.

I was going to say something myself, but I stopped. The emotions on her face had immediately changed from anxiety, to some sort of resolution. Just looking into my eyes seemed to have calmed her down.

There was that hard to explain, unshakable faith she had in me, clearly showing itself again.

She took a deep breath, and her gaze slowly moved from me to settle on Pearl, who was sitting with her legs tucked into her chest, her eyes peeking out from above her knees.

"Hey, Pearlie - um...Pearl." Aurum started, scratching the back of her neck with her hand. "You...said that you didn't get to go out a lot, right?"

Pearl tensed up, just as uncomfortable talking about her past as she always was. She stared at us for a while, thoughts racing in her head...before she finally decided to speak.

"Yes. I...where I live, I don't get to go out a lot. I usually just stay inside of my room." She murmured, her gaze turning to the valley below us. "When I go out, it's usually just because someone wants to use my abilities...and once that's done, I'm made to stay in my room again."

Her voice trembled, imperceptibly, yet I could easily tell it apart from her usual timid tone. Neither of us interrupted. 

Childish as Aurum could be, I knew she wouldn't have just started this conversation for nothing. Otherwise, she wouldn't have looked so conflicted about it before.

I listened intently. Pearl was speaking from somewhere deep within right now - she wanted us to hear, more than anything else.

"So, you know...I wasn't all that surprised when I got attacked by those goblins." She interlaced her fingers, fidgeting with her hands. "Usually everyone just ignores me, but a lot of people find me annoying to have around, too."

She shut her eyes.

"In my own home, I'm just reduced down to my unwanted abilities...and beyond that, I'm just a nuisance. I'm nothing compared to the other people in my family, and a lot of people target me because of that. To...get rid of me, you know? Because I'm the weak link."

Pearl was now shaking, her voice cracking. Aurum immediately got up, scrambling to rush to Pearl's side, sitting down next to her and placing a comforting hand on her back.

I wasn't nearly as touchy as Aurum. The best comfort I could give was to keep listening, giving Pearl my full emotional attention.

"I was scared...s-so scared...but I sort of understood and agreed with it, too. I'm so useless and pathetic...especially compared to my sisters..." She shivered, her breath hitching in her throat. "But...when I realized that Thomas was putting in so much effort to help me...how could I not help him? When I knew he needed my help, none of that seemed to matter anymore. I just...did it."

She stopped shaking, her gaze looking up.

"Fighting alongside Thomas...getting to know you, Aurum...all this hunting we've been doing over this last week and a half. Spending time together...you two have showed me that maybe it's all not that bad. Maybe, even if a lot of people don't find me useful...just doing what makes me happy could be...right."

Pearl looked between Aurum and I, tears in her eyes.

"You two are the first friends I've had. The first people to really make me feel like I'm not just a useless nobody that doesn't even deserve to exist. Like I'm...my own person, with my own worth. So...thank you. Thank you, so much...!"

With her face now showing, as she relaxed, I saw the brightest, most beautiful smile I had ever seen on her face. Aurum smiled too, quietly hugging Pearl deeply while rubbing her back.

Staring at those two girls comforting each other, and after receiving Pearl's heartfelt words of gratitude, I felt a warm sensation in my chest. I'd never felt it before, but I sort of instinctually understood.

I didn't just want to become strong for the sake of allowing myself to selfishly do whatever I wanted. I wanted to become strong enough to be there for them when it was necessary.

I didn't have to be some sort of hero, but helping those who I wanted to help? That wouldn't be too bad.

'Why am I thinking about something like that now?'

"Hff." 

I jumped out of my bedroom window, sighing deeply as I hit the ground. It may seem silly, but it was necessary. Whenever Aria woke up, she'd do a thorough inspection of our home. If I walked through the front door to leave the house, late at night, she'd know.

And if she knew I had snuck out of the house with no valid reason, her awkward, monotone morning-talk would get longer and a little more aggresive. Her plain food would also start to taste a little overseasoned.

If she got particularly mad and worried? Well...

Tell me, have you ever eaten a pure ball of salt before?

The only saving grace I had was that, for whatever reason, she never intruded on my room. I don't know why, but I guess it had something to do with the weird sense of distance her and the 'old Thomas' used to have.

Obviously, I didn't hold any grudge against her. But I'd gladly take advantage of their strained relationship.

I looked around.

It was nighttime, and nobody in the village was moving around, except for the guards, whose torches I could see held up as they moved about the place. In a place where hordes of monsters were known to occasionally attack, there was no such thing as "night activities".

And yes, that included those 'other' nightly activities. This place didn't really have the spot for those kinds of professions, as far as I knew.

I'd have until early morning, when Aria woke up and started making breakfast, to get back from this self-assigned task.

I had spent half a week preparing. Not only did I push our group to kill extra monsters, but I had been continuing my hellish training in the background, though it provided barely any results now.

My growth had seriously slowed down. I had a feeling that no matter how much training, or how many more monsters I hunted around here, it wouldn't raise too high again. But my stats were still more than enough for this expedition. 

After all, I just planned on quickly checking out my suspicions, and then leaving. If it was fighting, the monsters around here could be easily dealt with, using my current stats.

It was time to either confirm or deny my suspicions about the increasing rate of demon-transformed monsters within the forest surrounding the village.

Sneaking out was easy. While Arianwen's guards were elites, there were still certain things even they couldn't expect. They were really looking out for things trying to get into the village, not a villager attempting to leave, and especially not into the forest.

That was why it was so easy for me to move from alleyway to alleyway, making out a path towards the outer boundaries of Aureal.

After a few tense minutes, I found my way to the outskirts of the village. Sneaking past the guards outside was a little trickier, but Aurum and I had long since found multiple ways to get past them in our trips in and out of the village.

I guess hanging out with her had come in handy, in more ways than one.

'Where is it...?'

Once I was in the forest, I started searching. I walked around from place to place, keeping my eyes peeled and ears open. Further, and further away from the village, I combed every inch of forest that I could.

I was looking for a certain location, but I couldn't exactly remember where it was.

Out of all my rising stats, Intelligence was what really came in handy.

In Treasure Quest's lore, it's mentioned that all mana in this world can be traced.

When magicians cast spells, they leave behind a mana trace corresponding to their elements.

The thing is: traces are very brief and faint. They can also be easily mixed in with all other kinds of energy, or hidden if one is thorough enough.

Even the few magical grandmasters in this world wouldn't trust information provided by mana traces alone.

Intelligence assists in many things, and chief among them was mana sensitivity. At 7, my intelligence was finally at a point where mana and mana-related phenomena were becoming clearer and clearer to me, where before I couldn't tell it existed at all. I was gaining something of a 'sixth sense', bit by bit.

Honestly, even being able to raise intelligence was enough of a feat on its' own.

For the most part, Intelligence was decided at birth. If it could be raised or not depending on both your Traits and your Treasure. That is why mages, within this world, were considered complete packages full of talent, potential, and luck.

It's also why mages who don't meet the standard that most mages arbitrarily set, like Pearl, are so viciously mocked. People already enjoy looking down on those they consider failures, but imagine how someone who should have both talent and potential still being labeled a failure?

Well, the result was pretty obvious.

Putting aside my thoughts about magic, earlier today, I had felt the confirmation I was looking for. After days of trying to sense anything at all  not even knowing what I should be trying to feel, I finally latched onto it.

It happened  directly after killing another Lesser Oni - I felt a Trace on it. It was incredibly brief, and even Pearl hadn't caught it, because it vanished in the moment between the creature's death.

But I was looking for it, focused on that one specific moment, and I knew it as soon as I felt it. It was vile, like I was sniffing sulfur and ashes mixed together, magnified 10 times over.

The trace of demonic magic. And a strong one, at that.

That could only mean one of two things - either someone or something had used particularly powerful demonic magic on this specific monster, or that the demonification of the nearby monsters was, indeed, being done artificially.

My footsteps were light, and I found myself continually looking around. Since a while ago, I had noticed the forest beginning to take a gradual, but obviously noticeable shift in appearance and atmosphere.

Less moonlight was illuminating the area, making it incredibly hard to see. The trees were growing unnaturally close together, leaves and branches smothering the night sky.

The air was stale, and not a single hint of wind blew past me. It was completely silent - with not a single noise to be heard besides my footsteps, and breathing.

Where I had been walking aimlessly, looking around here and there, a path suddenly appeared in the ground, as if leading me somewhere...and I followed. 

I instinctively recognized this path. It was the area near which we had killed that Lesser Oni. The strong remnants of that Trace probably meant that the source of the magic was nearby.

Winding, winding, the snakelike dirt trail eventually led me to it. The place I had been looking for, but hoping against all evidence I wouldn't find.

In front of me was a large, rusted, steel door. It had many cracks, blemishes, and overall looked extremely brittle. 

It stood in the middle of this corrupted, unwelcoming section of forest, as if all of the wrongness had concentrated into one spot. Just seeing it here all but confirmed my theory.

The System message that appeared in front of my eyes was just a grim reminder of what I had found.

"Damn it."

This was both the source of the Imps attacking the village, and the reason that monsters around the area were suddenly being turned into demonic versions of themselves.

The real problem wasn't that the dungeon had appeared extremely ahead of time. It wasn't even that its' presence was causing demonic creatures to spawn, who'd inevitably horde together and attack the village.

The real issue was, well...

"Why is she already about to emerge?!"

The problem that the protagonist was supposed to take care of 5 years from now had suddenly appeared, for no reason I could discern. This was definitely a part of the 'Savior of Aureal' questline that the protagonist would usually receive, one of the many tests that they could be given to prove their worthiness

So why was I, an extra, receiving an even harder, more difficult version of one of the randomized starter missions?! At 12 years old, just barely starting to reach the feet of the more talented ones at my age?!

The birth of one of many Tutorial bosses, the demon, Echidna, would be done in a single day, and there was nothing I could do to change that.

And, as if to add onto my suffering, the unfinished Tutorial Quest finally updated.

'...why does it have to be this hard to play as an extra?'

overclockedw

Hey guys. Sorry for no update yesterday, I've just been having trouble coming to the time and energy to update these past three days. College and work is bearing down on my head with no breaks at all. I'm even working and going to school on Saturdays and Sundays. See you guys next chapter, and I hope you enjoy!