Jin's hand reached for the blade, but Kaili stopped him. The demon's eye darted back and forth between the two youngsters.

"What the hell do you want to do with him?" she asked. "Don't think I've forgotten about what happened back there. You were using his power left and right."

"And I saved you with it," he argued back.

"That doesn't matter! How long have you been in cahoots with Rudy?"

"Not in cahoots. He taught me some basic ways to use him should we ever get into trouble. I've been practising those, nothing more."

Kaili's eyes widened. "Nothing more? You have no idea if he isn't fooling you! You know far too well what demons can do!"

"Actually, that is incredibly racist," Rudy interrupted her.

"I'm sorry, but you got sealed in the blade for your past crimes. You can't claim to be innocent!" Her words were quick to silence him once more.

"Kaili, slow down, okay? Jin helped us out. That bug would get both of us if it wasn't for him," Cia tried to take his side.

"Look, I'm well aware of the risks, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Besides, I had been training near the tower. Should something happen, Manuel would resolve it. I've been careful, trust me."

The young dryad sighed and looked at the broken sword once more. "You have anything to say?"

"Oh, so you won't tell me to shut up anymore? Great. I do, actually. Listen, I have nothing to gain by betraying you. Manuel would come after me if he found out I did something to you, and trust me, you don't want him hunting you down. Besides, he is the one who gave me to Jin. Don't you think he'd be more careful if I was that dangerous?"

Kaili just kept staring him down. Two thoughts were playing a tug of war in her mind.

"Besides, I actually saved you from the bug! Or I helped out at least. Don't I deserve at least some benefit of the doubt for that?"

"I suppose you do," she replied while rolling her eyes. "Okay, apologies, I do agree that you helped us out and I'm grateful you saved us."

"Thank you."

Finally, she stepped away from the sword, allowing Jin to grab it.

"Listen, I think I have a plan," the boy said and grabbed everyone's attention. "Rudy, that armour you created around me. Could you do that around all of us?"

"Oh, no no no, he's not conjuring anything around me!" the dryad protested.

"Hold on, what are you suggesting?" Airo frowned at the idea.

"When I wore that aura, it was like... I don't know. Like the effects of this place disappeared."

"Yeah, I can protect you from the high density of magic in the mines, but I'd really be stretching myself thin. Four people? That's a lot. If I do that, the armour will not be very sturdy, but it will do the trick."

"Hang on, you don't want to go back?" Kaili could not believe her own ears. "Are you planning on actually delivering the package, Jin? Why? It's not that important!"

"It is to me!" the boy replied, his voice rising ever so slightly. "If we go back now, it would mean we've failed. I don't want to disappoint Manuel."

"You care so much about his opinion? Why? What's so special about him?"

"He can teach me magic! You think he'll want to teach me anything if I back away from this challenge? Even though he explicitly gave us a tool to help us with this?"

"I'm not a tool!" Rudy frowned, but the two bickering teenagers seemed to ignore him.

"Is it really that important to you? Can't you just be happy with the life you have? Why do you have to become a wizard?"

"Because it's my dream! What else is here for me? Farming stinking clouds until the end of my days? In the past few weeks that we've been doing this job, I've had more fun than ever before in my life! I want to travel the world, study spells, and help people! Is it wrong to be ambitious?"

Kaili took a breath to say a word, but Airo was faster. "I agree with him, Kaili."

"Huh? I thought you didn't care much about magic," she replied, confused by his sudden stance on the matter.

"My future is to live in the village and guide clouds towards the farmers all day. It's a nice future, but I have to admit, the deliveries did make me happier. The places we've seen and adventures we had were a million times better. I'd like to travel. To see the world. But I don't want to abandon my duties. Without a Cloudfolk to help back home, the place wouldn't have what to export and get money from. So I want to find a way to do both, and I believe that learning magic can help me with that."

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"I... Well, maybe there could be another way," Kaili tried to persuade him, but it was to no avail. Her arguments were running out like water escaping from a leaky bucket.

"I'd also like to learn magic," Cia chimed in.

"You too?"

"Of course! Inventing machines is nice, but just remember all those stories from history when magical artefacts helped save people. Can you imagine what I could achieve when combining magic with technology? I could actually create something revolutionary! Something that would improve life for generations to come! Isn't that exciting?"

"Well..." Kaili didn't know what else to add. She was overpowered by the opinions of her friends. Their dreams would indeed become much easier to achieve if they could peek into the secrets of the arcane arts.

"May I add something?" Rudy spoke, getting the attention of everyone. "I don't like seeing you bicker, so I will just speak facts and experiences and hopefully that will help you find some common ground. That woman was right. Manuel is a shitty teacher and he never wanted to be one in the first place. Back when I knew him, there were a few disciples of his that he eventually kicked out for the most mundane errors. He had little patience for those who weren't as talented as him. And nobody is like that. He's a genius born once a few centuries. He sent you here to learn something and to face hardship. If you return without learning a thing from the Elsie lady and without a package delivered on top of that, I think he might actually consider you unable to learn magic and will not give you another chance." Everyone's eyes turned to the floor as they contemplated the truthfulness of such a statement. Manuel did always seem like someone who wouldn't waste time. It was hard to tell how much he'd tolerate a complete failure.

"Listen, I don't want to pressure you into anything. In fact, I would prefer to return to the tower, because I really don't want to exert myself and protect all four of you all the way to the bottom of this abyss. However, if you want to impress Manuel, that's the way."

"Can't we just learn magic from someone else? Maybe try persuading this Elsie lady?" Kaili considered their options.

"Sure, but that's not ideal. You see, most wizards only focus on specific types of magic to master. Jacks of all trades but masters of none can hardly be as powerful as a specialized wizard. The one we met today clearly focuses on summoning, and while that is admirable, I doubt she'd be able to teach you much else. But Manuel is an exception among exceptions. As far as I know, there isn't a type of magic he can't do. Learning from him could lead you onto whatever path you desire, no matter how niche it would be. Becoming his student would certainly have countless benefits."

Kaili sighed. She had to admit that learning to summon creatures was not something that would sound appealing to her, not to mention that Manuel's tower seemed to be an endless repository of knowledge. Compared to the tiny shack that Elsie lived in, it was like the home of a god.

"Okay, fine. Let's do this. We sneak out before Elsie comes back to stop us and use Rudy to protect us on the way down. But Jin, I swear to god, if something goes wrong–"

"If something goes wrong, you can be angry with me however you want."

A tiny imp head peeked out of the main door. It seemed that the wizard was indeed gone, at least for the time being.

"Clear. Let's move out!" Cia said and with her words, the quartet of couriers hurried out of the house and down the walkway. Crimson red auras were coating their bodies. No longer did they feel like something would be pushing against their every move. Even running suddenly became possible, so they didn't waste a single moment and sprinted away from the house as fast as they could.

"You okay, Rudy?" Jin asked.

"Yeah, more or less. I can keep this up for a while, but it's not really comfortable, so I honestly hope you'll hurry."

"What happens if your aura fails?" Kaili couldn't help but voice her worries.

"Then you'll most likely be stuck, unable to move, and surrounded by a very uncomfortable feeling of constant pressure."

"Well, that's just lovely." Cia rolled her eyes. She certainly didn't miss those types of deliveries that would carry a sense of danger. Her mind briefly returned to the creature in the swamp that tried to eat her. "No, this is different," she tried to convince herself. Here, they were at least not in any mortal danger.

They were all surprised at how much ground they managed to cross in such a short time. With nothing holding them back and their youth still pushing energy into their every step, descending deeper was not nearly as difficult as they first imagined. However, it was only natural that they would sooner or later run into some obstacles.

There was another outpost ahead of them. The lights around it were much brighter, and the clinking of pickaxes was getting louder and louder. Soon, the children noticed the source of that noise. Miners were chipping glistening rocks out of the wall while their coworkers loaded them onto carts and pushed them into the massive building nearby. Whatever happened to the resources there was hard to guess.

The sounds slowly disappeared. The miners stepped away from the rocks as their attention turned to the four swirling red auras approaching down the walkway. A crowd began to gather. Almost every person there had an aura of their own to keep the dense magic away. For the kids, it was like approaching a spilt rainbow.

"I think we've got an audience," Pecker remarked and quickly disappeared back into Airo's back. From his experience, most people didn't react well to seeing a giant serpent sticking out of one's body.

The sounds of mining stopped. The workers stood there in a single line, their tools ready in calloused hands. From time to time, Elsie's guard would fail and an unwanted invader would pass through the checkpoint. In those cases, the miners were ready to defend themselves.

"We come in peace, we come in peace!" Jin yelled at the crowd and lifted the package above his head. "We're couriers! Delivery service!"

Those words were enough to calm the workers down ever so slightly, but not enough to cause them to make way.

"Excuse us, but we're looking for a certain... Ultard Kalien, outpost 37?" the young farmer read the listed recipient. "Can you point us in that direction, please?"

The miners looked at each other, wondering if perhaps this was a really bad practical joke.

"Whack, they send kids now," one of the men spoke. "37 is almost at a bottom, whack. Can you handle it?"

Jin glanced over the blade sitting in his hand. Although Rudy kept his eyes closed to hide his identity, he shook ever so slightly, signalling them that he was ready for the path ahead.

"Sure we can!" the boy exclaimed with confidence.

"Then take the cage." The man raised his pickaxe and pointed to an elevator sitting at the very edge of the walkway. The sight of it sowed fear into the kids' heads. Even Cia would most likely be able to construct something more stable. What the miner called a "cage" was quite fitting. A tiny metal cage with a solid floor that was hanging on a simple pulley.

"So, you going, whack?"

Jin carefully nodded. "Y-Yeah, we're going."