The caravan slowly came to a stop as the drivers pulled on their reins to stop the horses. All the guards that hadn't already been walking leaped off the wagons they were riding and quickly formed a perimeter around their charges. Snowlily, Selena, and Lexiana weren't exceptions to this. Thomas, on the other hand, stayed sitting next to the driver of their cart. He raised his hand and let the metal ball hover above his palm. From what he could feel the monsters coming towards them weren't very big so it should be enough.

A few minutes later roars began to emanate from the sparse woods surrounding the road. Just a few seconds later the bodies of the charging monsters could be seen. They were bipedal lizard-looking creatures that looked similar to lizardmen but about half their size. All of them were covered with pitch-black scales from their snouts to the tips of their tails. Their small eyes glowed bright red while horns sprouted from their small skulls.

Selena took one look at them and sighed before shouting loud enough for the caravan to hear, "Demonized Slinkers! Be careful! Their bite is highly venomous!"

Thomas glanced at Selena for a moment, surprised at her knowledge of monsters. He might have a book on them somewhere in the pile stored inside of his inventory. He was too lazy to look at the moment and instead smiled. The metal ball in his hand suddenly shot out like a bolt from a railgun and slammed into the skull of one of the little monsters. Its head exploded into fragments of skull bone and brain matter. It slid forward a few meters as its momentum continued to carry its dead body. The slightly more battered and blood-covered metal ball flew back to Thomas and hovered in front of him.

Selena and Lexiana were appropriately shocked at the display. They really shouldn't have been given their experiences with magic. What was the big deal about what he'd just done? Others could do the same with a simple Earth spell to lob rocks at the monsters. They snapped out of it quickly as the Slinkers got closer to the caravan. Snowlily, Selena, and the other spellcasters along with the ranged weapon users began their assault. Spells and arrows flew through the air and damaged, decimated, or destroyed the charging creatures.

Thomas just stayed seated where he was and lobbed the metal ball at anything that came within range. Even if the Slinkers managed to see the ball coming and tried to dodge, he simply changed the trajectory while it was in flight and killed them. There was nothing the little demonic monsters could do to stop the metal ball of death from reaping their lives.

The battle was brief but intense, it only lasted a few minutes before the ground was littered with the corpses of Demonized Slinkers. Thomas glanced at Selena while pointing at the nearest, mostly undamaged, corpse, "Are they edible?"

Selena glanced at Thomas with a slight look of disgust on her face. She still couldn't understand the immortals like for monster meat. Still, she answered Thomas honestly, "Not unless you want to have a mind-altering bout of vomiting."

Thomas just nodded and dismissed the idea of getting some fresh meat. As he was looking away Selena added, "You should never eat the flesh of demonized creatures. It's always poisonous due to the high amounts of miasma contained in their bodies. Even their mana crystals are useless." She gestured to the adventurers around them. Normally they would be carving the mana crystals out of the beasts by now. Instead, they were just cutting off their horns as proof of their kills for the guild. Even Lexiana was doing so.

Curious about the little creatures, Thomas finally hopped off of the cart and made his way to a nearby corpse. It took little effort for him to carve the horns off of one of the Slinkers. His eyes began to glow as he examined the trophy.

Item Type: Demonized Slinker Horn Rarity: Common Quality: Average Description: A horn from a Demonized Slinker. Pairs of horns can be turned in for a reward at the Adventurers Guild.

Not super informative but it supported what Selena had said. He glanced at the corpse and retrieved a knife from his inventory. He slowly and carefully began to skin the beast. He was curious about its dark scaly hide and wondered if it could be used as a crafting material. His Dismantling skill was skill rather low and he had zero experience skinning these monsters so mistakes were made. After a few minutes of work, he had a, mostly intact, hide from the Slinker and examined it.

Item Type: Demonized Slinker Hide Rarity: Uncommon Quality: Average Description: The skin of a Demonized Slinker. Thin, flexible, and filled to the brim with miasma. With proper work to purify the skin, it would still be deadly for a human to wear for extended periods of time.

Thomas immediately tossed the skin away and sighed. It might have potential for non-humans but he didn't feel like putting in that much work. There were similar materials he could purchase and put zero work into. Besides, he didn't feel like having to skin most of the Slinkers to get enough material to work with. The hide he'd pulled off of the first slinker provided enough material for a pair of short shorts, if he was lucky. It would take several hides to make a vest and even more to make anything bigger.

He returned to the cart and handed the horns he retrieved to Lexiana. He didn't want the reward for them. He already had a plan to get a large amount of money in the city so the spare change for the horns didn't appeal to him. After she took them, he got back in his seat and relaxed while playing with the blood-covered metal ball. It took almost half an hour for the rest of the caravan to finish claiming their spoils from the defeated monsters. This whole incident hardly even counted as an interlude and did little to lift the boredom. It seemed like he might be right about the trip.

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Once everyone was all set, the caravan began moving once again. It maintained a steady pace that wouldn't tire out the horses while getting the group as far along the road as possible. The caravan moved at ease until the sun started to move toward the horizon. The leader of the caravan called a halt for the night so the whole group moved to the side of the road and started to prepare for the evening. Thomas and his cadre did the same, all of them setting up their own tents near each other. The other parties did the same while solo adventurers picked a spot nearby but still giving them some space from the others.

Once his tent was set up, Thomas began cooking dinner for himself and all three of his companions. He cooked fresh vegetables and Cockatrice meat. The Cockatrice was similar to chicken but with a richer and slightly gamier flavor. He didn't explain what the meat was to Selena. He could see how she turned her nose up at monster meat and didn't feel like having her question his cooking. For her, it was wild chicken.

Once dinner was finished, Thomas led Selena and Snowlily deeper into the woods for a little privacy. When they were alone he erected a dome of vibrating soundwaves around them to prevent any eavesdropping. Selena looked nervous when Thomas focused on her. He let her stew for a moment before saying, "So. A tracking spell or enchantment on my ring huh?"

Selena at least had the decency to blush in embarrassment and not deny what he said. She slowly nodded, "Yeah." She bit her lip for a moment then sighed, "When you first... changed, I knew you would be important and couldn't risk losing you. I knew you would need something to hide... that, so I had the ring commissioned and had a tracking enchantment added to it. I didn't plan on using it, it was supposed to be a 'just in case' kind of thing. But after some things, my father sent me to join you."

Thomas sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "You know, this is a big violation of my trust. At the same time... I am somewhat grateful. It allowed you to help Snowlily find me. I want to know how it was made and how you track it. I want to make a set for myself and Snowlily."

Selena looked relieved at the second part of what he said but as he continued she looked a little down, "I can't explain the enchantment. It was made by one of my father's men. However, tracking the enchantment is pretty easy. The enchantment emits a weak signal. All you have to do is use Mana Sense for that signal and you can get a direction and general distance."

"Mana Sense?"

Selena gave him a somewhat snarky look, "If you'd stayed in school you would have learned that. It isn't that difficult. Just close your eyes and try to feel the mana inside of myself or Snowlily. Everything has a unique feel to it, people especially."

Thomas nodded at the explanation and closed his eyes to focus on trying to feel the mana within Snowlily. To help himself out he remembered the mana particles he could see when using his 'All Seeing Eyes'. There were a few minutes of silence before he could suddenly 'see' a small quadruped in front of him. Snowlily. Through his 'vision' he could see a thick cloud of bright blue swirling around in the rough shape of Snowlily standing near to him. Slowly he opened his eyes and the 'vision' vanished but he could still feel the uniquely cold mana within Snowlily.

He turned his focus to Selena and was nearly blown away by what he felt. She was like a surging inferno of dense mana. He instantly knew that she had far more mana than he did. He quickly closed his eyes and could 'see' that she emitted a bright red light. She was like a miniature sun standing before him. If she was this strong at only King class, how powerful would the feeling from a higher class be? The only thing that confused him is that her mana felt like fire. He'd expected it to be dark or black for her Unholy power.

When he opened his eyes he could see Selena smiling while she lifted her hand and showed him a ring similar to his own. Of course, she would have a ring to hide her Unholy magic. With this new sense, he was even more grateful to her for the ring he wore. He had no doubt that without it his affinity with Unholy magic would have quickly been discovered.

He let his new sense expand but felt it didn't go very far. No more than a few meters at best. It was hard to judge without something standing further away from him. Given that it was a new skill, he expected it to increase in range and accuracy as he increased its rank. Thomas gave Selena a smile, "Thanks. I can use this in the future to keep track of Snowlily. But, it doesn't seem to reach very far."

Selena laughed lightly, "That's true when just sensing your surroundings. When you focus on something specifically designed to be found then distance has little meaning."

Thomas stopped using his Mana Sense and addressed the next issue on his agenda, "The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is your heritage."

When she heard those words, Selena immediately paled. She was on the verge of a panic attack. Seeing that, Thomas quickly spoke up, "For the record, I don't care. I'm not even human myself so who am I to judge anyone else for their race?"

Selena calmed down slightly at his words but she was still deeply shaken. Her heritage was a top-secret matter in the kingdom and only known to two other people, her parents. She wrapped her arms around her body to hug and comfort herself as she asked, "How did you know?"

Thomas gave her a gentle and comforting smile while tapping himself next to one of his eyes, "When I gained the appraisal skill, it combined with a special skill I already had. I can appraise anything with just a look."

Selena suddenly remembered the strange feeling she got when Thomas looked at her and understood. His eyes could see right through her, that's why she felt so exposed when he looked at her back then. She still felt uncomfortable when she thought back on the moment. Slowly her face turned stern, "You shouldn't use that ability on people. It's very impolite! Also, it just feels creepy. Like my privacy was violated."

Thomas just laughed at her words, "Tough cookies princess. Consider it the price for violating my own privacy. I consider us even now."

Selena mumbled something to herself before huffing and spinning around. She stomped off back to the camp without looking back at him. She knew he was right and had nothing to say about it so she threw a small tantrum. He didn't mind it and canceled his Sound spell before following her back to the camp. On the way back he briefly thought about changing out the ring for one without a tracker on it. He decided not to. Knowing that a powerful half-demon princess could find him anywhere was actually kind of comforting. If something ever happened again and he was captured for real by a group of players or NPCs, she could come to rescue him.

When he arrived back at the camp he saw a slightly annoyed Lexiana rubbing the top of her head where her wolf ears were hidden. He smirked at the sight and couldn't help asking, "Something wrong?"

Lexiana just gave him an accusatory and angry look that made him laugh. He guessed that she tried to listen in and found the odd sounds emitted by his spell to be annoying or maybe even painful. Served her right for trying to listen in on a private conversation. He shook his head at her when he was done laughing and headed into his tent to get some sleep for the night. He dumped all of his mana into his Inventory magic before curling up with Snowlily to get some sleep until his shift on guard duty.