Looking back, she looked a bit lost. Beast was still in the city. However, Leo wasn't. This marked the first time Jessica had left on her own.

This left her nervous. She wasn't just traveling alone. Just moving about made her a bit nervous.

Laughing at herself, "When did I get so weak-minded."

Before Leo, she had always been moving alone. Once comfortable, it was truly amazing how quickly something could become the new normal.

Pushing her head down. Pulling her hood up higher. She departed with a shaky heart.

The area from Mercury City to forbidden zone was barren.

Every week or so, she found a group on the horizon. Having traveled with a lead, it became strange to now realize the rule of thumb was to avoid others.

As time passed, she realized her first journey had heavily colored her vision. Worse, it was in contrast to reality.

Only by moving alone was she able to realize that meeting people was rare. When you did, you moved at most parallel and would never meet.

Partially due to coming from the south. She attributed much of the banditry to being near the human territory. It created a junction that had to be passed. Thus creating an easy opportunity to find targets.

Now, that obviously didn't make sense. The first time, she had seen many things. Constant attacks and even a few people that appeared to be dangerous vagrants of high grades.

During the second trip. Azeban showed them similar scenes. However, they were the ones doing the attacking.

Mercury City was so dangerous because of the high frequency of high-grade adventures. This begged the question. How did they run into so much trouble the first trip?

The second trip, they were the trouble. Even then, they didn't meet as many random groups as the first.

Originally, she took this as the difference to an elder and Everblood. Azeban was strong. Jessica had no doubts. Nor did she know the difference between the two.

What the evidence showed in her mind. Azeban was either too lazy or didn't have the ability to remain unseen.

Traveling with Everblood showed her the pinnacle of power. She could move with stealth and given the right conditions. She could appear nearly invisible to the naked eye.

Everblood was not just invisible to the weak bandits. Saleh and her couldn't see him even if try tried. Neither could those strange vagrants. Not unless he wanted to be seen.

Feeling a bit of cold sweat on her forehead. When she knew Everblood was Saleh's teacher. She sort of looked down on him.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Nothing Saleh had shown so far outside the ability to make his mana physical truly showcased Everblood's teaching abilities.

Saleh had a natural instinct that couldn't be taught.

Now she realized he had been giving them opponent after opponent. Never anything completely out of their own abilities.

Once or twice, he would comment on her fighting. He never did anything outside of constructive criticism.

She originally thought he was just being secretive. Not wishing to teach with an outsider present. Now, Jessica realize how often they ran into trouble.

Clearly, he only said a few words because that is all they needed to work on. Knowing they would continually run into trouble. Allowing him to slowly pick apart mistakes to point out. Fixing them one at a time, without overwhelming them with all their mistakes at once.

Jessica felt slightly bored on their first request. There was this strangeness she only noticed thinking upon it now. Claire and Jack had always seemed too relaxed.

Saleh and her seemed to be ready to go, and activity did more. Only now did she realize that because of their trip. They were conditioned to finish a fight quickly and efficiently.

Their mentality was just different. Claire and Jack were reserved. They never had to push themselves. They were always ready for something to go wrong. Their way allowed them to always be ready in case of an emergency.

She wasn't sure which was better. Fight cautiously, methodically. Or fighting with overwhelming force. A deterrent for those currently fighting and those in the shadows. Though together, the two styles complimented each other when together.

Rubbing her legs, her thoughts were pulled back by the chill. Fall was currently making the nights fairly chilly. This also meant the days were getting shorter. At night, she was alone and not willing to light a fire to draw attention.

Opposed to stopping animals and beasts from approaching. She felt safer, not drawing intelligent life to her location. Not even giving them a chance to know she was there. So far the trip was going well, she didn’t want to push her luck.

With these thoughts she couldn’t help but pull at the dagger sheathed at her side. What was there was not just one dagger.

Completely unknown to her was that Beast hadn’t just made her a set of daggers when she was Grade F. It was possible these came after, though the style was exactly the same. The difference was a slight adjustment in quality.

Now that she was Grade E, the daggers she was given before were still superior to most weapons made by others. They just weren’t the best she had the qualification to own.

Since there was never a set standard, one could only go off the majority. This was not by her own observation skills. Nobody would allow another to see their weapons.

Jessica didn’t have the skill, maybe Leo could do it. He had a strange sense for weapons. However, with enough skill, it would be possible to tell a person's style by the wear and tear of the weapons. Even a bit about their personality by the state of maintenance that is done to keep the weapon in best condition possible.

The only person that gets to touch weapons of others to a massive degree are blacksmiths. From making them for others at requests. To touch up, maintenance by experts to repair damage outside the means of the owner.

Not everyone was as self-conscious of their weapon maintenance as her. Though she had seen Claire and Jack do the same, while Saleh never used a weapon to date.

Therefore, her opinion on the standard came from the mouth of other blacksmith. Her opinion was colored by the words of Beast. Both believing and slightly skeptical.

However small the upgrade felt, she was told that the daggers put her in the top tier of weapons in the hands of Grade E.

“Being far below those with a powerful backer who would handle all the dirty work. Though, if you met such a person, you will see the reason they get to hold these weapons is that someone is always protecting them. Only prodigies that have skill and luck of the heavens will have weapons better. At most, you will find people with weapons of equal quality to you. Unless you’re very unlucky and met when of those prodigies.”