Ezra didn’t fancy his chances of fighting her and lowered Filamenta.
“You’re from the Ravenwing guild?” Ezra said.
She chuckled.
“Yup. So you’re the kid who’s stirred up so much trouble for the higher ups, hm?” She looked him up and down. “You don’t look like much.”
Oh, wow. Ezra could already tell he was going to hate this woman.
“Let’s get to the point. What’s the guild looking for?” Dumrivil stepped in front of Ezra, blocking the woman from looking at him. “What do we need to get their help?”
Alanya smirked. “I think you know damn well the type of task we’re going to ask you to do. The Ravenwing guild is primarily an intelligence agency—we don’t have very many physical fighters. That leaves us at a bit of a… disadvantage, when it comes to certain tasks, you know?”
She wanted them to kill something, didn’t she?
“Just name the target,” Ezra said. “I’d rather not waste any more time.”
“Impatience will not help you in your love life,” Alanya said. “But fine.”
Ezra was tempted to try attacking this woman, consequences be damned.
Alanya strode forward and pulled out a sheet of paper with a picture and some information written on it. The picture was of a Chimera, a monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. Below the picture was the last known location of the creature—only a day’s travel from Toria, if Ezra had his geography right.
Chimera - Lv. 51
Dumrivil paled when he saw the image.
“You’re kidding me,” he said. “What the hell does your guild even want with a Chimera?”
“Some of the ingredients can be used for potions with intriguing effects,” Alanya said. “We’ve wanted access to it for a long time.”
Ezra narrowed his eyes. There’d been something bugging him about this whole request.
“Why don’t you just take care of this yourself?” Ezra said.
Alanya’s smirk slipped off her face and she grimaced. “Well, I suppose you were bound to ask. In short, the Chimera is currently at the ruins of an abandoned church, and I’m not allowed there.”
“Not allowed?” Ezra said.
Dumrivil’s eyes narrowed slowly until they opened wide and he jumped away from the woman. He pulled out his sword and pointed it at Alanya. Ezra tensed.
“What’s going on, Dumrivil?” he said.
“Her head! Tell her to take off her hood!”
Ezra stared at the woman. She still had the odd ridges at the top of her head, implying the presence of something atop it. But what could be there?
She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, why does everyone panic so much? Is it really that terrifying?”
She slipped off her hood, revealing two onyx goat horns poking out of her head. Dumrivil sneered, and a burst of mana came from him as he activated some kind of skill.
Alanya groaned. “What a pain. I’m not a demon, for goodness’s sake. At least, not the type you’re thinking of.”
“A demon is a direct servant to the Demon Lord, “ Dumrivil said. “You’re not going to trap me with your honeyed words!”
Ezra raised Filamenta slowly. She glowed.
“Wait, Ezra,” she said.
Ezra glanced down at her. “Filamenta?”
“I think she’s telling the truth.”
The truth? “How do you know?”
She was silent for a few seconds.
“She’s like me,” Filamenta said. “Her form doesn’t fit her spirit. Turn on [Mana Perception], you’ll see it too.”
Ezra complied and flipped on the skill. Immediately, he was nearly blinded by the massive amounts of light—luckily, it looked like his higher level of skill had paid off because his eyes quickly adjusted and he could observe her more closely.
The amount of mana pumping through her body was insane. It was rushing through her arms and legs like a raging river, nothing at all like Ezra’s languid streams. What was most notable was the core at the center of her being: it was shining brilliantly, but it was a different color—a deep blue, not like the red going in and out of her limbs. Not only that, but Ezra could tell that the connection between the core and the body was frayed. The threads linking the core and the body seemed almost taped together, for lack of a better term.
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Ezra turned off [Mana Perception]. “Dumrivil, she’s not a demon. At least, not in the traditional sense.”
Dumrivil cast him a glance. “What do you mean?”
“Somebody cursed her with those features or transplanted her soul into another body—something like that, I think.”
The other two members of the conversation cast a startled glance at Ezra. Alanya took a step back. “How did you know that…?”
Dumrivil had his jaw clenched. After a few seconds, Dumrivil slipped his weapon onto his back and went to a normal stance.
“Well, I’ll trust Ezra. Hopefully, he knows what he’s talking about,” he said.
Alanya continued to stare at Ezra.
“It’s got to be some sort of skill,” she muttered. “But it needs to be something rare, there’s no other way I wouldn’t know about it.”
She stopped and shook her head.
“Right, so do you accept the terms of the detail?”
Ezra and Dumrivil shared a glance, then nodded at each other.
“We accept,” Dumrivil said. “Where do we deliver to?”
“I’ll contact you,” Alanya said. “Trust me, I’ll know when the job is done.”
Ezra blinked, and she disappeared in front of him. “What the hell?”
Dumrivil twisted his body from side to side.
“She just disappeared. I guess that’s a master rogue for you,” Dumrivil said. He looked over the information and nodded to himself.
“Okay, then let’s get going,” Dumrivil said. “I already packed some supplies. You did the same, I assume?”
Ezra always had some supplies, but this time he’d decided to bring along a small knapsack. He walked over to the alley where he’d dropped it off and heaved it onto his back.
Dumrivil nodded and the two set off.
----------------------------------------
The first part of the journey was almost enjoyable. The light from the stars was strong enough to give them a small amount of illumination… though Ezra was using [Mana Perception] to see where he was going. He’d noticed that behind Alanya, his skill had gotten good enough to allow him to see the clumps of mana that sat on rocks and dirt. Ergo, he could use the ability to navigate in the dark.
He’d noted, though, that his nighttime vision had improved in general. Perhaps a side-effect of Constitution? He wasn’t sure.
Then Dumrivil had to open his big mouth.
“So, you’ve got a Spirit Weapon, huh?” he said. “That was actually on my list of theories, I just didn’t think it was very likely, truth be told.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ezra said.
“Oh, come on. Does Prise know? She has to know.”
“I don’t have a spirit Weapon.
Dumrivil groaned and rolled his eyes. “Sure. So does that make you an Otherworlder? Were you involved in that whole fiasco with the boss monster? The gossip is that someone managed to escape from the Knight Corps.”
Huh. That info had already gotten this far?
“Still no clue what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Fine. Can you at least tell me how you knew that the woman wasn’t a real demon? Was it some kind of sign on her body, or maybe a skill?”
Ezra was silent for a few seconds. “A skill was what confirmed it, but Filamenta was who tipped me off.
Dumrivil stared at Ezra’s shoulder. “The totally-not-a-Spirit-Weapon Filamenta?”
“Yes, her.”
“Uh-huh. So what was the skill?”
Yeah, he wasn’t letting him know that he had an SSS rank skill.
“None of your business,” he said.
Dumrivil turned away with a huff.
“You know, you can’t keep hiding forever,” he said. “It’s just not possible. You’ll let something slip, or someone’s going to put the pieces together—or you’ll just crack because you have absolutely no one to rely on.”
“Doubtful. To all three.” Ezra’s tone turned sharper. “Everyone in this town seems to be brain-dead—you included—so I doubt I’ll have a problem with someone putting the pieces together, and I don’t need friends or support, despite what everyone keeps telling me.”
Dumrivil gave a half-smile.
“I swear, it’s like talking to an angry teenager sometimes,” he said.
Ezra was quiet.
“Wait a second…” Dumrivil stared at Ezra. “No way. You can’t be… but that makes no sense! Plus, it would really hurt my self-esteem if it turned out that you were younger than me and almost at my level of strength.”
Ezra crossed his arms. “If you say anything else, forget our alliance, I’m going to break your neck.”
“Touchy, touchy.” Dumrivil clicked his tongue. “Fine then, we’ll leave it at that.”
For the rest of the trip, Dumrivil would stare at Ezra intermittently, his mind clearly working to try to figure things out. Ezra had never been more irritated. What part of privacy did these people not understand?
“I’m unaware of the rules regarding children in this time,” Filamenta said. “But if you’re still a minor, then I can see Dumrivil’s fear. He’s essentially putting a child at risk.”
Ezra’s face twisted up. He wasn’t a child.
“I’m aware—even though you act like a child, at times,” Filamenta said. “I was only 15 myself when I fought my first battle. In my time, a 13-year-old was considered an adult in the eyes of the law. But I’m not sure what the age of majority is in the current time.”
Whether Ezra could be considered an adult or not mattered absolutely nothing to him. After all, he’d been planning to run away and live on his own even before this damn isekai shitshow.
“There’s a story there,” Filamenta said.
And it wasn’t a story Ezra was planning on telling Filamenta. Also, could she please get out of his head?
“It doesn’t work like that,” she said.
Of course not.
Thankfully, his two companions had elected to stop being pains in Ezra’s ass and shut up for the rest of the trip. Eventually, they decided to set up camp and get a good night’s sleep before their big encounter tomorrow.
----------------------------------------
The next morning, Ezra woke up feeling refreshed. It was genuinely more comfortable to sleep outside than it was to sleep in Prise’s inn. She probably needed to fix that.
They packed up the camp and resumed their travels. Along the way, Ezra twirled his needle in hand to continue leveling up [Needle Mastery]. Unfortunately, his gains had started to slow down, and he’d only gotten a single level, putting it at level 41.
[Needle Mastery has leveled up!]
At least he got [Bind] up further.
[Bind has leveled up!]
[Bind has leveled up!]
[Bind has leveled up!]
They eventually came upon the remnants of an old, forgotten town. The windows had been smashed to pieces and half the buildings had already broken down, destroyed by time and nature. Vines stretched up and around the stone foundations that continued to remain. In the distance, the remnants of a church stood out to them.
They approached it slowly. Out of the corner of Ezra’s eye, a shadow passed between some rubble.
“Be on guard,” Ezra said. “I think it knows we’re here.”
Dumrivil pulled out his massive sword and looked from left to right, searching for the Chimera. They crept toward the church one step at a time, their footsteps tapping against the stone road.
Ezra felt a cold chill go down his spine and jumped out of the way. A second later, he saw massive jaws clamp down on the spot where he’d just been. The head of a lion gave him a hateful glare as it passed by.
The chimera came to a stop and turned around to face them. It roared loudly, fire blasting into the sky from its mouth.
Chimera - Lv. 56
Oh, and it’d gained 5 more levels than the bounty said. Of course.