We were on the road for a couple of hours now with Crescent Blue in front, Restless Claws behind them and me in the back. The two parties were talking amongst their respective groups leaving me as the odd one out.

Brell, the one leading us eventually came to a stop which caused everyone else to come to a stop as well. Afterwards he turned his horse towards us while saying “This will be suitable camping grounds for later.”. I was confused why we were finding camping grounds since the sun was still above and wondered if he wanted to get an early day in. After a short pause he continued on, which cleared up the air for me. “Now, let's separate into groups of two and check around the surrounding areas for places where bandits are setting up or monsters are lurking.”. He looks towards the others “For today, the groups will be Krello and Howari who will go check east of us while Lin and Suta will check out the west side.”. Brell’s eyes make their way to me “Crim and I will survey close to the road north of us, where we came from.”. He then adds one more thing before everyone breaks off into their groups “Let’s meet back here an hour after sunset.”.

Once everything was figured out, everyone started breaking off into the respective groups and directions. Brell seemed to wait until everyone else was gone before coming up to me “You know, I hope we run into some monsters so I can see how a solo rank B adventurer fights.”. After which he rode past me “Come on, let’s see if we can find any.” he shouted to me from over his shoulder.

While turning the horse around I started thinking that over the little bit of time I’ve rode this horse, I began understanding how to manoeuvre her around from watching how the others do. Following behind Brell, I looked to my left to see the sun starting to set.

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We rode mainly in silence with only a few words of “Let’s go over there now.”. After several hours when the sun was already fully set he Brell turned to me “Well it’s disappointing in a way that we didn’t run into anything but let’s head back now.”.I agreed with his decision and we started to make our way back.

By the time we made it back to the designated camping spot, there was already one group back, Krello and Howari. When they noticed us, Howari waved to Brell with a smile. We got off our horses and began to help set up campgrounds which were just mainly having a big campfire and everyone who was here except me unrolled their sleeping rolls. Brelled noticed that I didn’t and questioned me “Not setting up your bed? Are you expecting us to make you watch first?”.

I shook my head to his words “I’d prefer if I watch over the campsite at night so there's no need to set up a place for me to sleep.”.

Brell raised an eyebrow to me “I know you’re a solo adventurer but these are what parties are for, as a team we take turns watching over the campsite so others can get rest.”.

I shook my head once again “No, it’s fine. I don’t sleep at all for personal reasons.”.

Brell’s expression then turned to confusion “I don’t understand what you mean, how do you rest your body then?”.

At the mention of how I rest, I think about how meditation lets me rest my body. “It’s okay, I have my ways.” I told him.

Before the conversation continued for much longer, Suta and Lin came strolling into the campsite. “Sorry we’re a tad late.” Suta called out to us. “On the way back, we ran into a demon tiger.” He continued on with.

Lin then had a mischievous smile while she flexed her right arm while looking towards me. “We had to show him who’s claws were better.” She said, triumphantly.

“Lin… You know your claws would be on your hand, not your arm.” Suta tells her after letting out a sigh.

Lin then turned to him, upset “Hey, what's that supposed to mean? I was showing off my muscles to someone who thinks his muscles are bigger!”.

Suta looked towards me and saw my face full of confusion. “What do you mean? Even the person you are talking about doesn’t look like he knows what you mean by that.” He voiced to her.

Lin then glares towards me “He carries around that big sword on his back so it’s very clear he's trying to show me up!”. She then smirks as she looks to her arm and flexes again “So in response, I have to show him that my muscles are bigger!”.

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To that answer, I didn’t know how to respond myself. Even Suta looked lost for words as his head rested in his hands as he sighed, shaking his head.

Before the conversation would continue, Brell interrupted, changing the topic “So you guys ran into a demon tiger, Suta?”.

Suta then nodded his head “On the way back we found it prowling around the area.”. After a short pause he added, “It wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t attuned to magic or anything.”.

Lin then abruptly interrupted “I dealt with him myself! Suta tried helping but I just put him in a box.” she said with a big smile.

Suta then lets out another sigh “Yeah… she kind of imprisoned me into a box so I couldn’t help at all…”. His head was resting in hand once again.

I was confused on how she did it but everyone else looked at her peculiarly. To their looks, Lin blurted out “Hey, don’t look at me that way! I at least gave him a slit to watch the fight!”.

Suta just lets out another sigh as he gets off his horse “Anyways, come on, Lin. The others already have their beds set up.”. After which they both began setting up their own beds.

Once everyone had their bed setup except for me,we were all around the fire. We all began eating the provisions provided to us which was something I’ve become very familiar with, dried meat. While finishing up, Suta asked a question to break the silence “So do we have an order for lookout?”.

Brell looked towards Suta “Actually Crim here is saying he’ll be on watch every night. He said something about personal reasons that he doesn’t sleep.”.

At the mention of me doing so, Lin called out “If he's watching over camp all night every night, then I am too!”.

Suta then raised an eyebrow to her “Do you really think you can go on without sleep?”.

Lin then shrunk down “N-no… Sleep is like one of my favorite things in life!”.

“Yeah, I thought so.” Suta said with a small smirk. He then lets out a sigh “Just please stop trying to compete with him.”.

Lin, with an upset face, looked off to the side “I will once I prove to him I’m stronger.”.

Suta sounding like he's fully giving up “I-... Yeah alright, whatever.”. He then looked towards me. “I don’t know why you don’t sleep or how you rest your body but don’t strain yourself, this is what parties are for.”. Afterwards he began crawling into his bedroll “I’m going to go to sleep now.”. Everyone else began following suit as they all crawled into their bedrolls.

I watched over the fire for a bit while letting everyone fall asleep. Once it seemed like everyone passed out, I got up and moved a bit away from the campsite while still keeping it in sight and hearing range.

Once I felt like I was in a good spot, I took off my cloak and hung it on a tree nearby. Something I noticed overtime is that the heat has begun getting more intense over the past couple of weeks. After I situated myself, I felt like only training my sword swing tonight and began swinging with no goal in mind.

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It was a bit before sunrise when I stopped because I felt a presence watching me. After rousing myself out of focus, I turned to see Lin staring at me or more importantly staring at my arms.

“I woke up to go to the bathroom and didn’t expect to see this is how you stay awake.”. She then looks up to my eyes “You might have some nice muscles but I’m confident that I’m stronger!”.

Upon hearing this, I wished Suta was awake to quell her down. Not wanting to make things too difficult, I tell her “I can tell just by looking at your muscles you’re probably right.”.

Lin then calls out, upset “Are you making fun of me!?!”.

All I did in response was shake my head to her while I wiped the sweat off my forehead. “Fine if that’s how you feel, let’s spar right here, right now!” As Lin shouts that to me, she gets ready to fight by lowering herself and having one fist up front and one close to her side.

I was curious about how she fights since she mentioned putting Suta in a box and now it looked like she was going to fight me with her fists. I watched her for a few moments, trying to figure out if I should or not. After several more moments, I made my decision “Okay, fine. Let’s spar.”.

“Good! And don't think once about putting your sword down. I want to fight you at full strength!” She yells at me. It felt weird to be holding a sword towards someone that doesn’t fight with one in a sparring match but it’s what she wanted.

We both studied each other briefly before I broke ground rushing towards her. In response she charged towards me. As we got closer, I saw ahead of me, a blue ball that was forming in front of me, getting bigger and bigger. Thinking that this is the kind of stuff Lin could do, I stop and swing at it, cutting the blue bubble in half, causing it to drop to both sides and pouring all over the ground. After it hit the ground, I realized it was water and quickly looked forwards, prepared for Lin’s attack.

To my surprise, I saw Lin struggling in a bubble of water, similar to the one I just cut down. I was confused about how she got caught in her own magic until I heard shouting from the side “That's enough you two!”.

When I looked at the source, I saw Brell with Howari standing a bit behind him, holding her staff. After a couple of seconds of silence, Brell looked towards Howari who then tapped her staff on the ground. With the rattle of her staff, the ball of water that Lin was inside, dispersed. Lin then hit the ground, coughing up water.

Once she caught her breath, she turned towards Brell and Howari “What was that for? I could have drowned!”.

I then saw Suta walking up behind the two “I highly doubt that you would have drowned, Lin. Also this is probably the only way to stop you from fighting with Crim.”.

“Suta!” Lin shouted out. “He agreed to spar with me so there's no reason to stop us!” Lin exclaimed with an upset expression.

“Sure he may have agreed but we need to keep moving.” Brell told her.

All Lin did was glare at Brell for a moment before turning away with a snarl.

Seeing this happen, Suta then told her “Lin, we need to keep moving with daylight. You can spar with him before you go to sleep tonight, okay?”.

Upon hearing his words, Lin relaxed her face with a sigh. “Okay, fine Suta.” she said in a defeated tone and began walking back towards the campsite.

I followed suit and walked back to the campsite as well. When I passed by the three, Suta spoke up “That's quite impressive, Crim. You managed to understand what was going to happen to you and countered it by cutting through it.”.

Brell then spoke afterwards “Yeah, Howari is quite talented with water magic, I wouldn’t have expected you to effortlessly deal with something you’ve never seen before.”.

Suta then looked behind him towards Lin “Unlike someone who's seen her magic before and still ran straight into it.”. He then let out a sigh “Sorry you have to deal with her like this.”. Suta then shakes his head before looking towards us again “Anyways, let's get back on the road. I’d like to get to Nishilon as soon as possible.”. With none of us disagreeing with him, we all went back to the campsite to get ready to get back on the road.