Looking at the distant city, Jessica had only a single thought in her head. That was cursing and berating Tasha. Worse, she had nobody but herself to blame.

It was incredibly strange, why did she go south?

The answer was extremely simple and logical. However, only after two weeks of traveling through the chilly route back to Mercury City, did she find out why.

As white crystallized pieces of water, frozen, fell from the sky. Jessica, thought of possibly moving south then. Unfortunately, she would be going around blind. She could follow the raising and falling of the sun to determine north, east, west, and south.

Jessica couldn’t determine what lay in those directions. While Mercury City was a gigantic city that could be seen from miles away, so long as she didn’t get hit on the head, ending up lost and completely off track. There wasn’t a margin of error large enough to miss it.

Unlike inside the forbidden zone, outside was not drastically different. Mana inside forbidden zone was at a noticeably higher density. Allowing for weather to be mismatched. To the point, the fluctuations inside were minimal.

Only saving grace, mana was not at the same level below or above. As if something about this small section that gave birth to the forbidden zone allowed a higher mana density. Mercury City and its surroundings had less destructive winters.

Unable to speak for the north. Southern region, at least between human civilization, cost too much to deal with snow all the time. General area around major cities were taken care of. Moving in that surroundings was possible.

Moving in winter there could be bad or impossible. Without care, roads were only possible to find by paths created by tree lines. Making moving off-road and in a random direction very easy without paying enough attention.

If a road wasn’t well taken care of, it was possible to not be able to find the road. As not all roads were given the same level of maintenance. Only major roads between large cities were constantly taken care of to ensure the road wasn’t swallowed back by nature after a certain amount of time.

Returning to Mercury City was a breath of relief. A mile out, snow was very minimal. Worst parts of her journey, she had to lower her traveling speed because of the cold and stamina. Moving through feet of snow with mana was easy, needing to move through for long periods of time without any long rest in between was hard.

Inside was even less colorful than before. White on gray didn’t add anything special to the northeast. Dark circles were under her eyes. Only lighting up when she saw the once familiar building. Opening the door, moving inside.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Joe was sitting at a stool behind the counter. He had a hot cup of coffee as he read a newspaper. Looking up, he saw an entirely past due Jessica. Letting out a chuckle and a sigh, he watched as she disappeared upstairs.

Jessica didn’t wake up for dinner. Nor did she wake up sometime at night. Because of the snow, being caught unaware, she failed to take proper measures. Not only did she fully enter deep sleep a few times, waking up groggy and stiff from the cold caused a lot of stress. Plowing through snow easily removed anything gained from unsafely sleeping. If she hadn’t lit fires, she might have died out there.

Only once noon came did Jessica get up. Without getting up, laying in bed thinking about her next move. It didn’t matter she didn’t complete the request alone. Both her and Tasha would receive the one gold coin.

Combined with her first request. She now reached three out of ten gold. Using up six days. Having taken time between requests. It was likely she was at seven or eight days out of her forty.

As she had heard. Generally, only after a year would an adventurer complete their first month in Mercury City. Even then, it was said that it could take up to ten to get used to the system used.

There was this invisible pressure pushing her. This invisible pressure allowed her to feel this need to improve. However, it also felt a bit suffocating. Keeping track of the money was easy. Keeping track of time was more difficult.

Part of her was ready to give up. If she abandoned Mercury City, she could keep her adventurer status. No longer would she need to keep up this insane pace.

On the other hand, she was already through initial Grade E, on her way to being halfway to middle stages. A large portion of this had to do with the trick she picked up from Saleh. Alongside the constant need to improve. Replacing as much sleep as she could, Jessica was constantly meditating.

There was an added bonus, outside that first attack. Jessica didn’t know if they hadn’t sent anyone else after her, or if she was simply constantly moving.

Laying in bed, many thoughts were going through her head. Depending on the situation, she felt that it might be better to work with Saleh.

However, having split up. Jessica would need to see if their schedules could even line up. It might already be too late. Depending on the request taken, Saleh might be gone for an unknown amount of time.

They both only had so much free time. Once split up, it was entirely possible, not to be able to meet up, let alone group up again.

Sighing, Jessica never thought she would see the day. Having spent the majority of her life alone. One person had come into her life and changed that, or maybe it was truly being alone. Not having a home, that caused her to be incomparably lonely.

Though, she would be lying if she said it had nothing to do with having someone there to watch your back. Most things were okay, even better alone. Without Leo, having nobody to keep watch. Having to sleep constantly on alert took a major toll on her.

Leo was the most ideal, however, it was unknown when he would be back. Not even know what he was doing. She only knew that the being held inside those strange symbols was gone. Jessica could still feel the symbols, without a soul, it was simply dark and somehow cold.

Saleh, possibly because of Everblood. They meshed well. Their time together while moving to Mercury City was a time they spent learning to work together. With advice constantly being given, their mistakes compensated by the other made it, very convenient.