Melissa woke up, checked to see how Cassandra was doing after yesterday, and then went to check on the others. When she opened the door she was confused to see the room empty. No one had woken up yet, and the house felt strangely empty without Edel kicking up a fuss in the kitchen in the morning.

Cassandra, of course found that moment to wake up. Opening the door, she saw Melissa staring at the empty room, "Good morning..." Cassandra said, "I- wanted to apologize for yesterday."

Melissa turned and hugged her, her arms digging into Cassandra's shoulder. "I'm sorry," she took a shaky breath, "I should be the one to apologize. I got carried away and left without saying anything to you. If something had happened to me yesterday- if it was you that'd gone with Kiel and Edel yesterday and I had to learn that something had happened to you from someone else, I-"

Cassandra cut her off with a light peck on her forehead. "I know, dummy. I didn't know what to say yesterday and closed myself in my room for the entire day," she said, "I don't think I handled that situation well either."

She separated from Melissa and looked behind her. "Where is the little devil, by the way?" she asked, not seeing Kiel either. Melissa on the other hand was busy blushing hard enough for her face to change color. Her ears bright red, she chuckled a little and answered. "He felt bad about what he did, and left yesterday to find you an apology gift."

Cassandra rested on the empty bed and smiled, "Guess he's not that bad after all." She and Melissa exchanged glances. "You're just jealous you can't speak to him like I can," she said, letting her tongue out.

Cassandra flicked her in the head and she fell back, clutching her forehead. "Not fair!" she jumped back trying to get back at her, but Cassandra had much higher attributes in body, with skills enhancing her agility as well. Catching her was impossible to begin with.

"Just sit still for a moment," she said as she chased Cassandra who was jumping from chair to wall and above her, all the while not touching the floor.

"Nope," was her only answer.

A few minutes later, Melissa was panting on the ground while Cassandra sat cross-legged on the bed above her. "I give up," Melissa said, and Cassandra booped her on the nose with a smile.

Unfortunately for her, however, Melissa was lying and she quickly grabbed Cassandra's hand, smiling devilishly. The tickling fight that ensued after left both of them out of breath.

"Ah, you win, you win!" Cassandra said with a laugh.

They both got up after a while and Melissa went to make breakfast for the two of them.

They were about to eat, when Melissa felt a second heart beating through her bond with Kiel. She felt such an intense emotion of fear and worry, that she couldn't recognize whose heart was beating in her chest.

She stood up, startled, looking from left to right.

"What's going on?" Cassandra asked worriedly, putting her fork down. She watched as Melissa rushed to the front door, barely remembering to put on her shoes and running as fast as she could.

Cassandra caught up to her quickly, but repeating the question got her nothing. Instead all she could see was her panicked eyes as she desperately ran towards the eastern gate.

Grabbing her arm, she helped her move faster and they soon reached the gate. They ignored the guards, rushing out in a hurry, and the guards looking at each other decided that they really should be getting paid more if they were expected to deal with this.

Ten minutes of running later, they found Edel standing protectively above Kiel, watching her surroundings for threats. Kiel was badly hurt, and Melissa could understand why Edel would not want to move him if she had the same bond as her.

Edel looked ready to tear anyone that came near Kiel to pieces, but Melissa didn't hesitate for a second as she approached and eventually stood next to her. She looked into Edel's eyes, seeing the worry and fear in her expressions, and after standing in front of her for a moment, Edel took a step back and allowed her to approach Kiel.

Melissa turned to Cassandra, "Do you have potions with you?" her eyes pleading for the right answer.

That shook Cassandra out of her daze and she nodded, "I didn't know what was going on, so before I followed you out I grabbed my gear." She removed a small vial from her belt, placing it gingerly on Melissa's hands.

She opened the vial carefully and gently poured it over Kiel's body. If he'd been awake right now to drink the potion its effect would have been much higher, but she didn't care about wasting a potion as she extended her arm and Cassandra gave her another and then another.

After pouring three healing potions over his body, she could see that he was breathing much easier now, and she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

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She didn't know what could have caused those kinds of wounds; most attacking monsters couldn't even touch him, let alone hit him. And this close to the city, she was afraid what that meant.

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Kiel woke up expecting pain, but instead he was tucked up with a warm, cozy blanket, resting on top of a bed. He couldn't see Edel anywhere, but before his mind could run wild, he felt her excitement through their bond.

He could rest easy knowing she was safe. Of course, if she hadn't made it out, he probably wouldn't have either.

Melissa burst into the room and she couldn't help but hug him tightly seeing he was awake. "You've been sleeping for almost an entire day now," she said. "What happened?"

That didn't surprise him, he'd slept a similar amount of time before when he was recovering from heavy injuries. He'd been so scared of losing Edel, that he didn't think about what kind of danger he was jumping into. Edel seemed to have that kind of effect on people.

He looked at Melissa and explained what happened yesterday. When he reached the end, he lamented that his gift had been destroyed in the unstable space, and she couldn't help but laugh.

Looking next to her, Cassandra was standing quietly by Melissa's side. He'd been so absorbed in retelling the story, that he hadn't even noticed Cassandra entering the room.

Hearing Melissa's translation, Cassandra laughed shakily.

She got up and approached Kiel. She extended her arm to pet him, but hesitated a bit before touching him. He didn't care about that though, and he closed the last few centimeters.

She said something he didn't need Melissa's help in understanding. Her eyes were red, and she could see tears forming before she spoke. "I'm sorry..."

He rested for the entirety of this day as well, Edel not moving from her spot in the corner of the room.

That said, if he had to rest in bed while eating Melissa's cooking for another day longer, he would start getting worried about his weight. Seeing how everyone and everything had calmed down, he checked the system notifications that waited for him.

The first was of course, more levels for his Unbound Adaptation. The skill reached level 15 and was still not maxed, though considering how many levels he got in one day, he shouldn't be complaining.

You have broken through the skill barrier without the use of a skill point! Title gained; Scholar.

He stared at the message again and again, his mouth moving up and down but unable to form words. The scholar title would help him break through the skill barrier with a little more ease the next time he tried. How useful this title was going to be was debatable, but the implications of it were not.

Checking his status screen to see which skill the system was talking about, he saw that the skill in question was Affinity Sense, which he barely even understood how it broke through without a skill point.

Affinity Sense had become Spatial Sense, and the difference was indescribable. He closed his eyes and instead perceived the world through the space around him solely.

He could see everywhere his Spatial Sense reached in a sphere around him. It felt like he had eyes on the back of his head, although it was somewhat more difficult to focus on it with his eyes open.

Edel sensed his excitement and jumped on the bed, bark-howling and licking his face. He teleported away a second later, much to her chagrin.

Opening his status screen, he couldn't help but feel excited for what the future had to offer,

Name - Kiel

Level - 16

Titles - Traveler, Unyielding, Ritualist, Scholar

Body - 24

Mind - 24

Spirit - 33

Skills - Unbound Adaptation (Lvl 15), Climbing (Lvl 7), Ether Sense (Lvl 10) [Max], Spatial Sense (Lvl 1), Spatial Manipulation (Lvl 10) [Max], Spatial Rend (Lvl 3), Spatial Shift (Lvl 10) [Max], Ether Manipulation (Lvl 9)

He enjoyed the rest of his day with Edel, Melissa and Cassandra, who wasn't too bad once he got to know her. She was more straightforward than Melissa but he could in no way call her inconsiderate.

Early morning of the next day, all four of them stood outside the adventurer's guild.

"Well, despite hanging around this place more often than not, I'm starting to believe it's a bad omen when we're all together here," Cassandra said, "Remind me why we didn't just write a letter?"

Melissa sighed in response, "We need to make sure the guild master hears about this. If we rely on a message to inform him, it may take weeks for it to arrive in his hands." Saying that, she pushed everyone through the door, walking up to the receptionist.

Unfortunately it wasn't the receptionist they'd spoken to last time they met with the guild master, so they had to endure a whole spiel about how his time was valuable and he couldn't meet with just anybody who asked for him.

In the end Melissa had to retrieve the request mission he'd given them, which she then gave to Cassandra to shove at the man's face.

The man froze in his spot with indecision, "Just go up and inform him. This is genuinely important," Melissa said, giving a way out to the poor receptionist.

Garel the guild master, on the other hand, couldn't help but bang his head on the wooden desk. "I thought I was done with them..." he murmured under his breath, "yeah, send them up."

The receptionist bowed and left his office. A minute later, he opened the door, leading the two adventurers, their cat and their wolf inside the room. The fact the monsters were still not wearing collars while roaming inside the city with the two adventurers was something that he knew was going to end up back in his office. Until then, he couldn't care less.

"To what do I owe the pleasure this time?" he asked, staring at the four of them.

It was Melissa that spoke up first, "Two days ago, my friend was greatly injured by one of those quiet zones." She looked at Kiel for a moment before continuing, "He didn't accidentally wander inside one of those zones, no. Instead a quiet zone formed on top of him just half an hour away from the city."

She was about to add more details to the story, but she didn't get the chance.

The guild master's expression changed at that information. He put his hand up, cutting her off, and activated a sigil on the side of his desk. Tired from a long day at work, he closed his eyes. "Call for an emergency meeting," was all that he said before the sigil deactivated.

"Is this all you had for me?" he asked in a tired tone.

Melissa and Kiel nodded their heads while Edel and Cassandra remained impassive in the back.

The man didn't hold them any longer, and instead buried himself in more work. If he hadn't given them such a bad first impression, Kiel might have even felt bad about him.

As for himself, he was planning on running the rest of the dungeons with Edel, Melissa and Cassandra while the city still stood. He was stuck at the beginning level of silver rank for too long, and the world seemed to only become more dangerous.

Next time he would be strong enough that a mere inanimate space wouldn't be a threat to anyone's life, that he could promise.