After seeing Ned’s party off, for the next month, I continued reading books that taught me or would be helpful to me on how to make magical tools, with Mila occasionally giving me lessons.

When I was running low on money, I went dungeon diving, each time going slightly further into the second stratum.

Of course, I fought the 10th-floor boss each time instead of using the bypass ring I had. I wonder what the 20th-floor boss would be like; it would be way more fun than the 10th-floor boss because the 20th-floor boss is a B-rank monster.

The reason I didn’t just fight the 20th-floor boss is because I would run out of room to store more shards. Plus, by the time I ran out of room for magic shards, I would go back up to the surface; it would already be 4 to 5 in the morning. It’s convenient since there wouldn’t be a lot of people at the adventurer guild.

Right now, I am walking to Mila’s bookstore because I have been drawing up a prototype for the last week or so.

At the bookstore, I knocked on the door, and Mila greeted me.

“How are you doing?”

Mila said it with much enthusiasm, as usual.

“Good.”

She let me inside and went straight to her workshop. Then she asks me to give her the design I have drawn up.

I gave her a folded-up sheet of paper in my pocket for her to look at.

She examined it and said it was quite an interesting design.”

The design was for one of my throwing knives that uses the electricity attribute.

When I was making the design, I eventually came to the problem with the runes that Mila made for the adventurer card; they did not have enough output to do much of anything.

To solve that problem, I brute-forced my way through it by adding more than one magic circle engraved onto the knife. However, when I told Mila about it, she told me that it would not fit into the throwing knife because there is a limit to how small she could make them, so I came up with another solution to the problem after a bit of thinking.

It was to make multiple magic circles specifically to absorb mana in the surroundings, then link them up to the actual magic circle that produces the electricity.

Additionally, the reason I chose the magic circle that uses the electricity attribute is because it would be the most cost-effective with mana to use in a fight. With the limited amount of mana being generated, other elements like fire or ice would mildly burn or freeze them, but they don’t do much compared to giving them a shock of electricity, which would better fit my fighting style of using projectiles to make openings and disrupt attacks.

“Do you see any problems with it?”

“One actually, the six magic circles that would power the knife would burn out the magic circle that produces the electricity.”

“I figure as much, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“Okay, I’ll start working on the prototype.”

“Thank you for all your help.”

“No problem.”

Leaving Mila’s store, I wonder what I am going to do today. I spent most of the morning finishing up my design for my throwing knife, so it’s the afternoon right now.

Maybe I should go to the adventurer guild to see if there are any interesting quests on the quest board today—something that is different from the magic shard gathering quests I have been doing for the last month or so.

As I was walking, I was beginning to think about my life right now because, strangely enough, this was the only time I had free time to think about such things.

I remember how I was born into this world of fantasy, then how I was raised to be a noble, only to find out that I have no magic powers, which made me depressed for a while until I decided to become an adventurer.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I wonder how the situation with my family is right now, but frankly, I don’t really care too much about it. However, I wonder about Clare, my personal maid. I hope she is doing well.

Then I remember Farsbarow, which was a massive pain to get to by walking, and the people I met there.

I wonder when Alex’s party will arrive at Acton because it has already been over a month—close to two months already. I wonder how much Alex and Wendy would improve because he is the main protagonist after all. They must be stronger than before, which would make them even better sparring partners. Also, I wonder if Lucia would still want to fight me because I really want to fight a mage.

Thinking about Alex’s party, I had a slight grin. Then I began listing the names of the other people I met: Emma, Cade, Hutch, Kinwall, Mable, and … Rain.

Why does it feel like I’m forgetting something?

After a minute or two of thought, I remembered what I had promised Rain.

Oops, I completely forgot to write a letter to Rain. That completely flew through my mind.

I should do it now rather than later since I’m going to the adventurer guild right now.

At the adventurer guild, I waited in line at the counter and asked them if they could give me a feather pen, paper, and envelope. Then I took it to an empty table and began writing on the paper. I wrote about the journey here with Ned’s party, my time dungeon diving, Mables’ sister, and other smaller things.

When I was done, I folded the paper, put it in the envelope, sealed it up, and wrote where and to whom I wanted the letter to be sent.

I waited in line again and gave it to a receptionist for her to mail.

After that, I went to the quest board. The reason I had come here was to look at the quest board. Most of the quests are related to the dungeon, and not a lot are outside the dungeon.

Eventually, my eyes landed on a gathering quest for a rare herb at a stream near the road I traveled to get here. I remember the hair dye Hutch gave me.

The makeshift way I have been masking my hair color from a silver color to an ashy black gets really inconvenient, having to do it every day.

I should go there at night so nobody can see me when I am unclothed and washing off my makeshift charcoal hair dye.

Waiting at my inn until it was late into the afternoon, I took my backpack to pack it with a new set of clothes, a towel, and the hair dye Hutch gave me.

At the south side gate, the guards were wary that I was leaving when it was about to get dark, but they let me through either way.

I walked for an hour to get to the stream, and it got dark, but fortunately enough, there was a full moon out tonight.

The stream was around waist-deep, with the bed made up of rocks and pebbles.

I found a spot that was mostly covered with forest foliage, and I set my backpack down by the edge of the stream and began taking off my clothes.

I dipped my toe in the stream, and it was really cold, which made me not want to get in.

I sigh and force myself to jump in.

"God, that is cold!.”

I shouted to myself that it was really cold, but after a bit, I eventually got used to the cold water.

Then I began washing off the charcoal in my hair to reveal my almost shining silver hair.

I look at my reflection in the water, which I have not seen for a while now. I notice my facial features have changed somewhat, and my face is starting to look more mature instead of childlike. It was not just my face but my body as well, especially my chest area. I think I am in my growth spurt, but this is going to be inconvenient.

Looking back at my reflection again, I think I should cut my hair because it was getting to shoulder length and people would see I am a girl.

As I was thinking about cutting my hair, I grabbed one of my throwing knives to cut my hair, but I heard a stick snap.

I threw the throwing knife I was holding in the direction of the noise because there was no way a person would be out here at night, so it had to be a monster.

However, as I ran to try and get my weapons, I saw someone that I did not expect to see.

The knife I threw at the person grazed their cheek and hit a tree directly behind them. It was Alex, here for some reason, face all red.

Why is he here of all places? Did he find out that I’m a girl?

I tried to cover myself as he attempted to apologize profusely and look away.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to peak—”

Before he could finish speaking, I grabbed my throwing knives at Alex, grazing his left cheek with some blood bleeding out. Then I throw another one at Alex, followed by another and another, trying to scare him away.

He screamed and began to run away, all the while profusely apologizing and begging not to hurt him.

After a good bit of time, I looked around the surrounding area to see if he had come back. I sighed in relief that he had not come back and that he didn’t say my name when he was running away, which meant he didn’t recognize me.

Not wanting to have another situation like that, I hurried up and cut my hair short, then began using the hair dye Hutch gave me.

He told me to just use enough to cover all my hair. I rubbed it onto my hair that was soaked in water, wiped off the excess that got onto my skin, waited for a couple of minutes, and rinsed off the excess hair dye in my hair.

When I was done, I looked at my reflection again in the water and saw that my hair was much darker than the greyish-black charcoal dye I made, almost as dark as the night sky.

I took a towel to wipe myself dry and put on a new set of clothes.

Then I walked back to my inn, wondering why the heck Alex was there to begin with and what was going on.