Astrid reread the new quest multiple times, hoping that it would somehow change by doing so. Yet the quest stayed the same.

New quest from the god of deception

Your identity is at risk of being compromised, and you need to get away

Objective: travel to the capital

Time left: 30 days

Reward: a large copper

Was it even possible to get there in the time she had been given when travelling on foot? In class, Astrid had learned that the capital lay at the other end of the country, many miles from here. And why would the god of deception want her to leave Largon now that she was just starting to feel at home here? She had moved into an apartment. She went to school and worked with a team to defend the city. She couldn’t leave all that behind. She didn’t want to leave. The thought of losing everything she had worked so hard to gain was unbearable.

There was no way she would let anyone take away the life she had established. Not even a god. She would just ignore the quest and continue her life as if nothing had happened. Besides, there was no reason for her to leave to begin with. No one had believed a word Gorm said about her, so her secrets were still safe. With her mind made up, she fell asleep surprisingly easily.

The next morning, Astrid went to the academy for her first day back after the harvest festival. It felt like an eternity since she had last attended class, even though it had only been five days. So much had happened in those few days.

As she entered the classroom, she spotted Filip sitting in the back by himself. She wanted to see how he was holding up after the monster breach, so she went over and sat down at the desk next to his.

“How are you?” she asked

“I’m fine. How about you?”

“All good.”

“Look, Sigrid, I’m so sorry about the other day.”

“What do you mean?”

“After I cut people free of the spiderwebs, I just ran off, leaving you to fend for yourself.”

“You don’t have to be sorry for that. You got the citizens to safety, and that’s what’s important. Walter showed up shortly after and took over the fight.”

“Still, I wanted to help you, but I just couldn’t get myself to do it. I’m so pathetic.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. No one expected us to defend against monsters during our shift.”

“But you did, and I just ran. If I’m ever going to make it as a combat magician, I have to stop being such a coward.”

“It’ll come with practice, I guess,” Astrid tried to reassure although she couldn’t tell how effective it was. “If you want, you can train with me, Brigitta, and Villads after class.”

“Do you really want me to practice with you? I’m not any good compared to you three.”

“Of course you are. I have seen you in class. You're better than I am, and you know far more spells too.

“Well, if you’re sure it's alright, I would like to practice with you guys.”

Shortly after the teacher entered, the first class of the day began.

The Otimranian studies class went by in a blur, and Astrid busied herself writing notes. Due to last night’s reading, she even managed to answer some of the questions the teacher asked her.

The combat magician class, on the other hand, dragged on forever. Astrid was still stuck practicing the basic blast and basic shield as her mana was too low to start on the other spells. Most of the time she spent watching the others practice, only participating for the few minutes it took to drain her mana.

After class, Astrid brought Filip over to Brigitta and Villads. They accepted him into the group easily, but they didn’t do much training that day. Since Brigitta and Villads hadn’t been present during the monster breach, they were more interested in asking questions. Astid didn’t mind the missed training too much, as she had to train with Walter’s team in a few hours. Although Filip tried to downplay the role he had played, Astrid didn’t let him. She made sure to highlight how he had freed people trapped in spiderwebs and helped them get out of harm's way.

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Villads complained that his brother Walter hadn’t wanted to tell him about it, and his parent had forbidden him from leaving the house for the past few days. Brigitta thought it was awful that none of the guards had stopped the monsters before they made it inside the city walls.

*

Astrid stood at the edge of the forest with the other team members. They had practiced together for a few weeks, and Walter had decided they were ready to put their skills to the test against monsters.

“Alright everyone,” Walter said. “We’ll play it safe today, but monster encounters are always risky, so remember our training. We’ll retreat if things get out of hand. Now get in formation and let’s go.”

They got in formation and entered the forest. The mood was tense as they made their way deeper into the forest.

“It’s not fair we have to be in front,” Jerrik joked with a nervous laugh. “If a monster shows up, we’ll be attacked first.”

“A monster would be more likely to attack from behind,” Astrid said matter-of-factly, causing everyone to turn their heads to watch behind them. “Or from the sided,” She elaborated, causing more nervous glances around.

“Stay calm,” Walter said. “We have contingency plans for all of those instances. Just follow my orders and you’ll be fine.”

They continued walking in silence, and soon they came across their first monster. It was an earth slug. Slugs were generally good monsters for beginners to fight as long as they weren’t the toxic kind. They were slow, and other than biting, their only attack was spitting slime, or in the case of earth slugs, mud.

“Let’s fight,” Walter said, and Astrid initiated the fight with her basic blast. Before the monster had a chance to react, Jerrik jumped into action and cut a large gab in the slug. A sludge-like substance oozed from the wound, spilling onto the ground. The slug spat mud, but Einar used a windshield to blow the mud away from the team. As soon as the shield dissipated, Ina ran forward only to slip in the sludge. Even if the monster had been faster, it wouldn’t have had a chance to get close to the fallen swordfighter as Walter sent his attack right at it, and it collapsed to the ground.

“Nice work, guys. Now let’s move on.”

They all followed Walter’s order and continued walking through the forest. It only took them a couple of minutes to find the next monster. Or rather it found them. A large rodent sprang from a bush beside them, aiming its sharp claws at Einar. He was quick to raise a shield strong enough to send the monster flying backwards.

Astrid identified it as a rabid rodent before firing a basic blast at the monster before it could get a chance to recover.

They kept taking turns attacking the beast, never giving it the chance to land an attack of its own. Despite their efforts, the monster didn’t seem fazed by their attacks. But then again, monsters rarely did at first. It kept trying to slash at them with its claws, but since attacks kept coming at it, it wasn’t able to decide who to fight first, leaving it to run forth and back between the team members. A high-pitched screech sounded through the forest, and from the bush sprang another rodent just like the first.

“There's more of them!” Einar said. “What do we do?”

Jerrik got struck by the first monster’s claws as no one followed up his attack, too busy dealing with the new arrival. Kelan was quick to cast a healing spell, closing Jerrik’s wounds and clearing his body of the disease the rodents spread.

“Second formation,” Walter ordered. Everyone scrambled to follow the instructions. This maneuver had been easy to execute during practice but doing it on uneven forest terrain while monsters attacked from multiple directions proved difficult. Eventually all managed to find their place in the formation forming a circle with their bags against each other. Kelan stood in the middle of the circle as he was the healer and not an active combatant.

For a while they slowly chipped away at the two rodents’ health, but then a third arrived. The team tried to keep up with the fight, but they were quickly getting tired. Kelan was busy healing everyone whenever they took damage, and it was only because he was in level five that they were all still alive.

Astrid wanted Walter to order them to retreat but quickly noticed it wouldn’t be an option. Walter must have seen it too since he didn’t initiate their escape. Every path not blocked by dense forest or thick bushes was blocked by a rabid rodent.

Maybe if they made a run for it, they could get away. All the fighters were level two runners, and with the exception of Astrid, had good stamina. However, they weren’t all fighters, and they couldn’t leave Kelan behind.

“Astrid, can you fight one of them on your own?” Walter asked.

“Yes,” Astrid answered without hesitation.

“That’s too dangerous,” one of the team members argued. Astrid didn’t know who.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m used to fighting on my own. This might be our best chance.”

Walter gave Astrid the signal to move, and she wasted no time before doing so. She sent a basic blast after the nearest rodent, taunting it to go after her while she moved away from the other team members.

The monster was level one, so it shouldn’t take too long to deal with it. Once she had gotten the monster and herself out of view of the others, she initiated her strongest attack. Using her staff as a club. The impact with the rodent’s head made a sickening crack, and blood sprayed out from the wound.

It reared back out of range of her staff, which didn’t bother Astrid as she still had magic while the rodent only had claws. She sent another basic blast after it before it could get its bearings again. However, she couldn’t keep sending spells after it as her mana was still limited, and she didn’t know how much more life the rodent had. She didn’t want to run out of mana during this fight, as she also had to make it back out of the forest with the rest of the team.

The rodent ran at her again with all its speed. It was fast for a level one monster, but it was nothing compared to Astrid's own speed. She stepped aside at the last moment, and the rodent raced past her. It turned around towards her again just in time for her staff to club it in the face. It fell to the ground and didn’t get up again.

She was about to go back to the others when she got a notification. She couldn’t help smiling as she saw what it said.