For a moment, everyone was unsure what to do or say as Snow turned around, ready to leave. She had a few things to scout out and figure out. She exited the tent, leaving the rest of the group hypnotized in their spot.
In the next few days, Snow busily scouted around the camp, working with the Players who knew about the area. She quickly got to know the danger zones and the inhibited monsters that roamed around the area. Any other free time she had, she took the time to practice her forms. Going over her basics to get to understand what was missing in her form. She carved out a small space for herself, working with the others, who decided to join into a spar with her at times.
There was a particular workout that she had been practicing a bit more slowly than she liked. Sharpening on her form to get the flow of her balance in the correct position allowed herself to move more fluidly than before. Her stamina was always an issue, making running in the morning a daily ritual, followed by a meditation that would get her ready for the day as it was not easy to wake up and get ready to tackle on the day.
Snow’s form was unusually all over the place today, her feet kept stepping out of place, upsetting her a few times. There was this one form that she was trying to get right, but her own sense of balance wasn’t listening to her.
Her wooden sword swung around her in a choppy motion, and her balance was thrown off again as she tripped. With an ugly swing, she stabbed her wooden sword onto the ground. Sweat glistened on her skin, giving her a slight golden hue. She breathed in deeply, trying her best to calm her unusual raging emotions of frustration.
The sunlight was peeking through the trees, which came slightly late because of the thick forest.
Light footsteps walked through the forest floor as leaves crunched, sounding off someone’s arrival. Snow glanced over her shoulder, wondering who was coming from behind.
It was Dairen in his usual black armor. He nodded when he caught Snow’s attention and came over.
“Dairen, I’m guessing you came during the night?”
“Yes. Around four a.m.”
“So late?”
Dairen stopped in front of her. “There were a few complications, and people took a bit too long to arrive. Most of the high-level guild members came with us, while those who couldn’t handle this were left behind to train with a few of our trainers. Plus, Audrey needed some time to get his guild members ready in the short amount of time.”
“I see. I thought it would have taken a bit longer.”
With a shake of his head, he replied, “No. Though Heather said, Dragon Express and the others will take about another five days before they are ready. The sudden date being moved up is troublesome for them as they were waiting for some kind of package to arrive that would assist them in the dungeon raid.”
Snow didn’t know what package the Dragon Express had in mind, but if it took such a long time, she couldn’t help but think it was a powerful item or items like the black box that she was given. Such a thing wasn’t easily obtained without a thorough consent form.
Both of them walked back to the large tent, where most of the leaders from different groups were present. Quickly, one of them came over and handed her a list of jobs to do as they were all getting ready for something.
“This is?” Snow asked as she was given a list of items.
“We need to get packing to start our next scouting mission,” the girl who handed her the list replied.
“That was today?” Snow had forgotten that the scouting mission was today. Usually, she was on top of things, remembering everything that was planned out. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her today as her mind was scattered meaning it was a bit troubling to hold her thoughts together.
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“Yes.” The girl looked at her, a bit confused by Snow’s sudden question.
“I’ll get to it.” Snow turned around, heading straight towards the boxes of items that needed to be handed out. Dairen split ways as he too was ferried away by his guildmate in getting ready for the people who were prepared to go out and scout.
The number of people had already passed five thousand Hunters and Players that arrived at the camp, making the morning a lot busier than before. A large group of people were all waiting in front of the gate, wearing armor.
The Heavenly guild and the Gold Phoenix guild had devoured the majority of the smaller and mid-level guilds, bolstering their numbers by leaps and bounds. As both teams' group of twenty people were getting ready to take on a large scouting mission that needed them.
They have already made up a good four-fifth of the people present, waiting for everyone else to arrive.
Snow was tasked to hand out a few essential items that the guild members needed from food to water, first aid, and even a few blessings that she had personally prayed for. It quickly became a hit as many Players came over to get a small blessing from her.
“How is everything?” Dairen had come over to help. He was done with his side with the guild.
Snow gratefully took him in as an assistant, handing him packages of water to store in his storage box. She wasn’t as quick as she was normally in her good days. Instead, she was dragging her feet a bit as she slowed down.
“Not too bad.” Snow bent down, she grabbed another package of bottles and handed them to the next person in line. “This is about everyone.” She motioned at the line, which she meticulously counted.
“That’s pretty quick. I assumed it would have taken a bit longer.”
Snow felt her back slightly ache from picking up and putting things down. She wanted a massage, but that was out of the question as in the next few hours, they were bound to head inside.
“Is there anything else that needs to be handed out?”
“Nope.”
Snow was relieved that she had finished the majority of the work. She pulled out a foldable chair and sat down to rest her body. Reaching over, she grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it down.
Glad that it was over, she headed towards the gate to see both groups off. When she arrived, they huddled around Snow, looking in her direction for a possible blessing. It had become a norm around the camp, every time Players and Hunters went out, almost a secret religion amongst the people to get a blessing before they left.
Everyone swore that they barely got into trouble or weren’t injured too harshly from their journey with the blessing in hand. Eventually, it quickly caught on with the trend as the players' swarm increased every day, asking for a small blessing when they left out on a journey.
Snow did a small prayer, boosting their powers by a bit. She never felt that there was some kind of luck involved, as the magical power that came through her didn’t seem to have anything to do with it. Even still, she didn’t tell the people and let them believe whatever they wanted.
With a quick blessing, she waved them goodbye and good luck. The group left, leaving only Dairen and Snow, standing outside the gate.
Snow watched until she couldn’t see them anymore and turned to head back to her usual training.
All of a sudden, her leg wobbled. Throwing her off, making her knees buckle under her. She fell onto the ground in surprise. Sweat started to pour heavily down her face and body, her cheeks turned red and hot.
Dairen snapped around, hearing the clatter of her armors hitting the ground.
“Snow?!” Dairen ran over in alarm. It had been a long time since he had seen her looking ill as most of the time, she hid it very well.
Snow shakily pushed herself up from the ground, but her legs would not listen to her. Instead, she felt her vision become a blur, and her thudding headache appeared.
Dairen caught her before she fell back onto the ground. He hoisted her arm around his neck, helping her waddle in through the gates. Which brought a lot of attention. Many of the players came over concerned, wondering if there was an attack that had depilated Snow as it wasn’t often to see her so ill.
He shook his head. “I need a healer!” Shouting in a hurry, he took her to the nearest tenth, where he helped her sit down.
Snow stumbled as everything seemed to spin, even more, her throat was dry, making swallowing more difficult. Her hand tapped around just to find the bed, which Dairen had to direct her.
“Snow, did you get hit by something?” Dairen was searching around her extensively, making sure she wasn’t hit by some magical force that he didn’t know about.
Snow shook her head, unable to answer. She felt even more tired, just sitting as she was put on her back to lay down.
A healer burst in through the flaps, bringing with her a few more high-level clerics. They surrounded her and started checking on Snow.
“Is she going to be alright?”
No answer was given as they meticulously worked.
“Anything?” Dairen asked again, this time a bit more forcefully as he was getting irritated that nobody was answering.
A couple of spells were chanted, but none of them worked on Snow as their voice continued to grow with concern.
“She has mana exhaustion, and she overworked herself.” The leader of the clerics spoke with a frown. “A mana potion should help, but we would need a high-grade level potion to ease her pain. The low-level potion only hinders her recovery and is pointless to make her drink it without making her more ill.”
“Then what do you suggest? Do you know anyone who has some mana potion?”
“None as of right now. Something like that, only the high priest has it.”
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