Temperance soared over the ruins of the city as the boundary of the city came into view, along with the towering medieval-themed metalic castle wall that seemed to surround the entirety of the ruined city. The sisters (surrounded by a single dark maroon coloured, dome-shaped magic shield) sat on Temperance's tails as if they were a magic carpet and were sorting through the materials they've collected: Lumoshrooms, darc-runes (black metalic herbal grass) and Kuzakuti (glowing bright purple flowers).
"Fifty lumoshrooms, seventy darc-runes and six kuzakuti. It seems we just barely got enough for the request," Kannachi muttered as she and her sisters recounted the various materials. Crystal glanced ahead of Temperance and saw they were close to the boundary wall; she sighed as she and her sisters started to pack the materials back into their backpacks.
The magic shield disappeared right as Temperance touched down on the top of the boundary wall. Temperance strolled across the top of the wall and peeked over the other side of it; the sisters also peaked their heads over the edge of the wall and peered down at the small town at the base of the wall directly below the group. Temperance placed a foot on the mini wall of the boundary wall and was about to jump off the boundary wall before being stopped by Merrybel waving her hand in front of his face. Temperance looked at Merrybel's hand and noticed the red metalic ring between her fingers.
"Fine we'll use your warp rings," Temperance said as he took his foot off the mini wall. Merrybel happily clapped her hands and tossed the red metal warp ring off the wall while dropping another red warp ring a few centimetres away from the group. After a few seconds, the warp ring floated into the air before rapidly expanding and depicting the town at the base of the boundary wall.
"You know, now that I think about it couldn't TemTem have just tossed one of Meri's warp rings across the city?" Kannachi mentioned with Merrybel disapprovingly shaking her head at her sister's question.
"But then we wouldn't have been able to check the stuff we found," Merrybel stated. Kannachi slowly scratched the back of her head and said that Merrybel's statement made sense, as the three sisters climbed off of Temperance's tails. Temperance retracted his tails into his body before the group walked through the warp ring portal.
Later that day as the sun began to set, Kannachi exited a large building fashioned with a sign that indicated it was part of the adventurers guild. Kannachi happily stared at the contents of her cyan-cat-head-themed coin purse before closing it and placing it in one of the many pockets of her hiking shorts. Kannachi hurried over to the others as Merrybel used her tail to hang upside down on Temperance's arm.
"Took you long enough," Crystal remarked unenthusiastically as Merrybel dropped from Temperance's arm and flipped onto her feet.
"Aren't you being a bit over the top; I wasn't gone for that long," Kannachi replied as she crossed her arms and slightly stuck her tongue out at Crystal, insighting Crystal to do the same back at Kannachi.
"So what took you so long, sis?" Merrybel asked as she peeked over at the adventurers guild building. Kannachi explained that there were a lot of people crowded around the bulletin board and were listening to a high-ranked adventurer talking about their upcoming expedition into a high-rank magic dungeon located in the ruined city.
"Is that really the reason; you didn't strike me as a person who'd be interested in dungeon raids," Temperance remarked as Merrybel agreed and seconded Temperance's remark.
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"Oh, is that what they were talking about, but no that wasn't the thing that caught my attention," Kannachi stated. Kannachi's sisters apprehensively thought of asking what had got Kannachi's attention but they were both convinced it was going to be something weird. Kannachi narrowed her vision, knowing what her sisters were probably thinking and pulled out a flyer from one of her pockets. The others stared at the flyer before Merrybel and Crystal relievedly exhaled at what the flyer presented; the flyer was an advertisement for an auction in Lumios City.
"That's cool and all, but we're saving money for the academy's entrance fee remember?" Crystal asked sternly and made Kannachi sombrely slump her head.
"I know... and speaking of money, with the additional funds we got from that collection request, we're only five hundred Valt short," Kannachi stated while also adding they'll probably need to do at least four C ranked, which was around the same amount of money as forty E ranked collection quests.
"That seems like a hassle," Temperance muttered in a slightly frustrated tone.
"And that's why you should also enter the academy too, so you can become a hunter and be able to take on hunter quests instead of fighting monsters just for the fun of it," Kannachi proposed, and Temperance simply shrugged in response.
"Wouldn't that mean we'd need to acquire yet another five hundred thousand Valt?" Crystal chimed; Kannachi paused for a second when she realised that Crystal was right and she defeatedly sighed.
"Maybe when we get there the people at the will see how strong big bro is and will give his a scola sip," Merrybel cheerfully said. Kannachi confidently nodded her head and said the examiners would have to be pretty blind to not see how strong Temperance is, making Crystal once again exhale in disbelief.
"And before you say I'm being biased again; because that's obvious, I was referring to the mana sense technique," Kannachi stated.
"I figured; but I did hear they have those power measuring devices all over Lumios City for anyone to use, although they do only go up to about C rank for safety concerns," Crystal replied. The sisters collectively yawned and the group agreed they should call it a day on their money-collection mission.
Later as the sun was halfway behind the horizon, the group found a small clearing in the middle of a forest.
"Sweet this place will do fine for our campsite," Kannachi happily said.
"I wouldn't class what we do as camping," Crystal remarked as she raised her hand and began to gather black mana in front of herself. The mana spiralled and condensed into the shape of a door; the mana became completely opaque before Merrybel opened the door and happily skipped into the pocket dimension the door led into. As Crystal and Kannachi were walking into the pocket dimension, Kannachi noticed that Temperance was walking over to a large rock.
"Aren't you coming in?" Kannachi asked.
"Nah, I think I'll do some chakra control training, for a change; besides someone (me) has to keep watch," Temperance replied before he rolled the rock over so that its flat side was facing upwards before kicking it until it had been slightly dug into the ground.
"Oh... ok," Kannachi said slightly disappointedly before she entered the pocket dimension and closed the door. Temperance quietly chuckled to himself before he slammed his fist together and closed his eyes. Temperance concentrated and focused his sparkly gold and silver chakra through his blood veins and bones; his muscles slightly bulked up for a second before they reverted back to their original lean state.
"Got it first try, this time, and he said it would take half a mon-" Temperance snarkily stated before cutting himself off when he tried to walk forward but he accelerated faster than he expected; his foot got caught on the large rock and he was sent flying when he tripped over it. Temperance spiralled through the air and slammed his back into a tree; he crashed into the ground and fell onto his side as he stopped channelling his chakra.
"Maybe my predecessor had a point...," Temperance uttered as he staggered to his feet and slowly limped back towards the large rock.