“Remember what I said. I don’t expect you to be able to do it right away. All I ask is you think about it after you do things.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it, stop nagging. I will do it…”

“Or so I said. But, it really isn’t easy.” Letting out a sigh, Jessica could only lift her head to watch the surroundings.

Thinking back to what Leo said just as he left. She had nothing but time. At least for the time being. At the moment, she was sitting in a tree. Or to be more precise she was under it.

She had found a large bushwillow tree that had incredibly large roots. Because of the increased mana in the forbidden zones, there were a number of crazy things that couldn’t be seen outside. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, considering the creatures found in the forbidden zone.

Animals weren’t the only living creatures. Plants were also living, this bushwillow was half above ground and half under. It wasn’t just the trunk, at some point, likely due to a fight or possibly something else. The tree roots had been dug up and caused it to create a small opening big enough for her to use as a place to hide.

Having successfully found the savanna, she was currently doing recon. After a week of traveling, a little over a month looking around, she found the minotaur. Having taken on an incredibly good first request.

There were some consequences for forfeiting a request. Though, with reason, this penalty would be exempt. So while there would be some harm for giving up, if she could find conclusive evidence, it was possible to take a small hit to give up the request.

Subjugation request saw the largest exempts, Mercury City was no exception. In fact, for a request like this, the estimated time of recovery had far too many possibilities of changing. With solid evidence to prove the minotaur had already recovered, the request would be canceled while she would receive the reward.

Having caught sight of the minotaur already, at the moment she was observing its habits. Looking for weakness, looking for validity of the Adventurer’s Guild claims. Normal subjugation request was straight forward, generally you kill a number to protect an entire ecosystem.

Rather that be intelligent life ecosystem, or an actual ecosystem in nature.

These requests that were singular in nature were different. Variables were constantly at play. Unless she had absolute confidence, never would she go head-to-head without doing a full work up on the target.

Even more so now, Leo had talked about it. Not once or twice, multiple times. She was lucky, a bit too lucky. When she tried to argue, Leo pointed out time and time again where one wrong move she would have died or been left with a fate worse than death.

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Having always been living a dangerous life, she didn’t really take his words to heart. Still, he was speaking with concern for her. With the old man gone, it now became all that more precious. Add in the fact that she could only call her adventure in the river, a lucky brush with death.

Thinking back, she started to realize that she was depending a lot on luck. It was fine, since she was breathing to this day. The problem was, just as Leo said, luck was not just good, it was life altering. Only what happens if, even just once, luck doesn’t come through.

If the definition of insanity was to do the same thing expecting different results. Was the definition of suicidal, doing something dangerous a hundred times expecting it to work out like the first time?

As her thoughts became more depressing, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Every three days, the minotaur showed up in this part of the savanna. She was unsure of what exactly it came here for.

There wasn’t enough information, therefore she didn’t dare check the area out in case she gave herself away or spooked it. In terms of personal data, she only knew that the minotaur was a monster with great strength. Having witnessed a fight, she could contribute to this information being true.

In terms of senses, she was unsure of its abilities. Though at this moment something crossed her mind, the minotaur was coming from a different direction. It was somewhat subtle, only she felt unsure of the cause.

For the last week the creature came from the exact same direction like a ritual. So why than was the direction slightly off for the first time? Was it for a reason, or was it simply just a variable in the data?

As the small dot on the horizon grew larger, she finally noticed a problem. At first because of the distance she wasn’t able to notice. Only once it came close was she able to realize that it wasn’t just the minotaur.

Sighing with relieve, it seemed that her data wasn’t wrong. If it was, she would need to adjust everything she knew. It was one thing if things changed from the beginning, only when something changed abruptly would that mean that everything she believed to be true might not be completely right. Anything she learned later also would have unforeseeable variables then.

Having witnessed a fight, the fight against the minotaur would be difficult. Requiring her to not just think on her feet. Jessica needed to come up with a number of contingencies and traps. Since the beginning, even if the minotaur had a wound across its entire torso, it was still Grade D.

Having shown to currently only have the ability of a Grade E. This was still on the upper part of Grade E, even injured, Grade D mana was still a step above Grade E. In reality, having seen it hunt was partially the problem.

After killing a lion with crushing force, the minotaur slowly devoured the lion. Not even leaving the mane or skin. Everything, outside the blood that mixed into the dirt, was eaten. Such a sight gave her goosebumps just thinking about it.

With a frown, now that it was chasing another creature, it likely meant she would need to watch that sight again. Though that also meant, she might be able to find an opening…

It was then she realized another problem. As the two got closer, she was able to make out the large upper body of the minotaur. This also meant that the creature in front of the minotaur became visible. That was truly a problem. It was a person…

“Fuck…” As she noticed it was a person, they too seemed to sense her gaze. It was a bit too soon to be certain, however, they changed their direction slightly. Now, the person seemed to be running towards her.