“It feels good to be back,” Sahra said as the walls of Lermen came into view.

“Let’s not go on any big expeditions like these for the next few months,” Rufus said, “What’s the point of being an Outskirter if you can’t enjoy a few drinks with your team at the end of the day.”

“I actually agree,” Sahra said, “I miss sleeping in a bed.”

I guess staying in Lermen isn’t bad. But I’m glad we went on the expedition. It feels like it was an excellent experience to temper my Will. Adion thought to himself.

It had been almost a week since they started their journey back to Lermen, and Adion had enjoyed the trip. They walked and talked all day, fighting beasts from time to time. Every night, he and Sell would go off to train together. It was nice.

But he didn’t think it would be any less fun to stay in Lermen again.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Adion, Sell?” Benji asked and looked at the two.

“It’s fine,” Adion said.

“Mm,” Sell nodded.

“Are you really confident? There is no need for any risks here. We are plenty strong without those peaches,” Benji said.

“Don’t worry, Benji,” Adion said. “If I feel like I won’t be able to take them without taking a risk, we will forget about it.”

“Mm, make sure that you do,” Benji said in a grave voice.

The team made their way to the gate of the outpost along with the rest of the Outskirters. Everyone would surely be up late drinking and celebrating. Adion almost wanted to stay behind and join everyone, but he had other priorities.

We might be able to make it back in time for a few drinks. It will work well as an alibi as well.

The group of mages from the Derolm family had already paid the Outskirters and continued on their way directly to Dorbarta. Adion and Sell would follow them, but it was important to be seen walking with their team to Lermen in case of an investigation.

“You sure we shouldn’t all go? You might need help,” Rufus said in a low voice, even if they were quite far from anyone who might be listening.

“No, it’s good if you are here and get seen by people. Sell and I can manage by ourselves. I have my space powers and Sell can probably talk our way out of trouble if we are discovered. It’s also a believable excuse that we are off training together.” Adion said.

“Yeah…that’s not a believable excuse,” Rufus said, “No one would think you went to train immediately after almost a three-week-long expedition.”

“Really? I’m sure it won’t be that hard to believe,” Adion questioned.

“Haah,” Rufus sighed, “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll be able to think of an excuse.”

Adion saw how Rufus and Sahra exchanged a glance and didn’t like their smiles. But he ignored it and focused on what mattered.

“Good,” Adion nodded.

Everyone headed back to the inn, where they made a small stop before heading to the Outskirts Guild for the celebration of the completed mission. Adion and Sell didn’t enter with their teammates, however, but continued walking.

They made their way to the wall surrounding the outpost. Adion planned on leaving through teleportation. He didn’t think there would be much suspicion of them even if they were seen exiting the outpost, but there was no need to take any unnecessary risks.

Adion stopped next to the wall, at a spot away from any eyes. Sell stopped beside him, seemingly excited to teleport again. Adion grabbed her around her waist, something that he hadn’t managed to do without a furiously beating heart despite the many times they had done it now. Sell seemed to be too excited about teleporting to think much about it, though.

Even maintaining focus while fighting beasts while teleporting isn’t as hard as this.

Adion grabbed hold of space on the other side of the walls, and after almost a full minute, he managed to switch places between the two spaces.

They started walking at a fast pace as soon as they were out of sight from the outpost. They weren’t in a big hurry, but they would need to catch up to the mages from the Derolm family by nightfall.

Even if it’s dark, getting close enough for me to use teleportation without being spotted will be tough. It’s times like these that I wish I had practiced with my shadow affinity more.

“Do you know anything about the shadow element?” Adion decided to ask Sell.

“Shadow? That’s rare. Do you have an affinity to it?” Sell asked.

“So you’ve heard of shadow? It’s different from darkness?” Adion asked, “I have an affinity to shadow, but have no practice in it. I thought it would come in handy now, though.”

“A space mage who can do shadow magic, no treasure in the world would be safe,” Sell said jokingly, “I have an affinity to shadow too actually, but like most of my affinities besides fire, it’s nothing I’ve spent any time on.”

“Oh? Why not?” Adion asked.

“It would make me weaker,” Sell said, “I have a fire core, so every moment spent on increasing that power is worth so much more. Perhaps it can do me good in the future to widen my abilities a little. I’m sure I’ll give it a try at Cyalis, but for now, I’m all about fire.”

“I guess I’m the same,” Adion said, “Except I focus on both space and fire. Anyway, what do you know about the shadow element then?”

“I know that it’s very rare, especially among the sapi, just like darkness and light are. I’m not sure why there is a distinction between darkness and shadow, though. They seem pretty similar to me. Anyway,” Sell continued, “There are shadow mages, even if they are rare. I know of a Noble family in Evalia on Quemer where they practice shadow magic. And I know that it is very difficult to use in the earlier stages, not because of lack of Will, but because it takes a long time to grasp enough concepts to make it useful.”

“Oh, what concepts?” Adion asked.

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“I’m not sure, but ‘concealment’ is something I’ve heard about. Apparently, the greatest mages can even hide their aura with shadow magic. No need for aura control.” Sell said.

“How is that possible?” Adion asked.

“No idea,” Sell shrugged.

“Do you think there will be any shadow mages at the Academy? I would love to learn some of these things,” Adion said.

“I doubt it,” Sell said, “Shadow is just too rare on Shiora. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they had someone teaching darkness magic. That might be just as useful.”

“Hm, I will definitely check it out. I don’t want my shadow affinity to be useless forever.” Adion said.

“Just don’t spread yourself too thin,” Sell said, “It would be a shame to waste your space powers. They are already so powerful, I can only imagine what you’ll be able to do in the future.”

“I won’t,” Adion said. He hadn’t told Sell anything about Authority, so she didn’t know that a lot of Adion’s powers in space came from that. She only knew he could control fire longer because of a treasure, but nothing about the pills and what they actually did.

But Adion had to agree, once he was able to conjure more space, and once he had grasped some more concepts, he felt he would be immensely more powerful than anyone else at his stage.

Adion and Sell soon took off running as it would be getting dark soon, and they wanted to catch up before then. And it didn’t take long before they had the Derolm family mages in their vision.

“I hope they won’t keep going through the night,” Adion said.

“If they do, we will probably have to head back, right?” Sell said.

“Hmm,” Adion wasn’t sure he liked that idea, “Let’s keep following from a distance. Hopefully, they’ll make camp soon.”

“Are they still keeping the peaches in the chest?” Sell asked.

Adion had done some scouting during the past couple of days, and he had concluded that the Merillian Soul Peaches were in a large chest carried by two of the Silver mages. He could feel a slight aura coming from the chest that he was willing to bet was coming from the peaches.

“I can’t feel it from here, but they should be,” Adion said.

They continued following from a distance as it got darker and darker, and just as Adion was about to give up hope, the Derolm family stopped and cleared the small road to make camp for the night.

“Nice, they’re making camp,” Sell said in a low voice from beside him.

“Mm,” Adion nodded, “Let’s wait until they go to sleep and see where they post the guards. There should be space enough to sneak past them without being noticed.”

Both Adion and Sell were confident enough in their aura control to escape notice from Silver mages. So they would only need to worry about being seen.

After a little more than an hour had passed, Adion decided that it was a good opportunity to make a move. He had his sphere of space mana pushed to the max and started walking toward the camp.

“Wait, here,” Adion whispered to Sell, “I’ll bring the chest.”

Sell gave a nod, and Adion continued sneaking forward alone. He felt the shapes of a person to his left, one of the mages standing guard. Thankfully, the mage didn’t notice Adion, and he managed to get close enough to feel most of the camp through his space mana.

Where is the chest? It should be in the tent with Harran, I would guess.

Adion focused his attention on the big tent and felt the shape of Harran lying in bed. Next to him was the big chest that had been carried along with the group for the past week.

That’s it! Let’s just hope he doesn’t wake up from it disappearing.

Adion decided to wait a little longer, observing Harran to make sure he was really asleep. Once he was certain, he grabbed hold of the space that the chest occupied, as well as the space right next to him. After a few seconds of intense focus, the two spaces changed places, and the chest appeared next to Adion.

He didn’t wake up! Let’s hope they won’t discover anything until morning.

Adion grabbed the chest with his Authority and made it follow him as he made his way back to Sell.

“You did it?” Sell asked in a hushed voice as Adion returned.

“Yes, let’s go,” Adion said, and they ran off in the direction of Dorbarta. They would need to leave the chest behind, and it would be stupid to do so on the road to Lermen. No reason to lead anyone back there.

Adion and Sell ran for about 20 minutes before Adion stopped.

“This should be fine. Let’s take a look,” Adion said and put the chest down on the ground. Sell walked up and stared down at the chest with an excited expression.

Adion opened the chest, and a satisfied grin appeared on his face.

“That’s a lot of peaches,” Adion said, staring down at the 14 peaches delicately placed inside.

“Ganta, do you have any idea how much this is worth?” Sell said.

“This is enough to even impress a princess?” Adion asked with a smile.

Sell nodded her head vigorously.

“Well, we’re not selling,” Adion said, “Three each for the two of us and two each for the rest of the team seems fair, no?”

“Fair!” Sell said with a big smile.

“Let’s put them in my backpack and hurry back then,” Adion said and started moving over the fruit.

Once they were all moved, Adion and Sell left the mostly empty chest behind and started running in the opposite direction, toward Lermen.

“Won’t someone feel their aura if we return with them like this?” Sell asked after a while of running.

“It’d be pretty weak, and I can hide it with my aura to a degree,” Adion answered, “As long as no experienced Diamond mage shows up, we should be fine.”

“Good,” Sell smiled.

“But it might still be a little risky to carry this many with us,” Adion said, “Maybe we should eat one to lessen the impact their aura will have?”

“That’s probably for the best,” Sell nodded.

They jumped off the small road so as not to be discovered by any Outskirters out in the night and opened up Adion’s backpack a distance away.

“Do you know what we should expect?” Adion asked as he handed Sell one of the peaches.

“Just that you will feel your aura extremely clearly. If you’re lucky, you might even feel your soul. You should just focus on the sensations and experiment with controlling your aura. Hiding your strength deeper might be a good idea. Push it to the limit, so to speak.” Sell said.

“Alright,” Adion nodded and took a seat opposite Sell, “All at once?”

“All at once,” Sell said.

Adion didn’t hold off any longer and bit down on the juicy peach. He greedily chewed and swallowed it all in a few seconds, and not long after, he felt a fantastic sensation. It was like he could feel every small part of his body, and he felt that he had perfect control over every last bit of it.

Is this the soul? Covering my body perfectly, giving my Will complete Authority?

Adion then focused on his aura and felt it much clearer than he ever had. Every tiny little part was before him, easily grasped with a thought.

Adion didn’t know why, but he decided to try to grasp everything he could feel and bring it as close to his body as possible, hiding his aura as much as he could. He felt that as he was now, he could hide his aura far more completely than just before.

The sensation lasted for almost half an hour. When Adion noticed the effects of the peach running out, he was almost a little bummed that he hadn’t focused on something else during the entire experience.

But this should still be incredibly useful, and I still have two more to use.

“How was it?” Adion asked Sell after a few more minutes had passed.

“Incredible,” Sell said in a low voice, “I have never felt like aura was such an obvious thing before. I think I’m beginning to understand what Sahra meant.”

“What do you mean?” Adion asked.

“I want to steal more stuff!” Sell said with a brilliant smile.