Zalia and her team were travelling along the path she now knew would lead back to the small walled town of Ostoss. It had taken her about a week and two days to travel from that town to Endelbyrn but she suspected it might take slightly longer than that to travel back the other way. Above all else, Indis and Zen were just… slow, both of them wouldn't be called slow by a normal person's standards but by the standards of the Morning’s shade they definitely were. They had only been travelling for two days, leaving around a week to a week and two days left of travel. She had started integrating the air step upgrade from the Mobility rank up into her sparring, trying to get it to fit into different strikes and positioning maneuvers. She had not yet had much luck but knew with time and practice she would make it work and hopefully, make it do much more than just work.

Zalia sighed as she had to slow her walking speed down once more as Zen and Indis fell behind again,

“Do either of you have the Mobility passive?” Zalia asked.

“The what?” Zen asked.

“No,” Lady Indis replied.

“That explains it,” Zalia muttered.

“Explains what?” Zen asked.

“Why we are so slow, Zen,” Indis said.

“You two should both join my training every morning,” Zalia suggested.

“What for?” Zen asked.

“So I don't have to consciously slow myself down when I’m travelling with you anymore,” Zalia replied.

Zen paused for a moment,

“Alright fair, how bad could it be?” he asked.

The next morning, Zalia woke everyone up as the sun rose. This elicited complaints from Zen and Indis were expected but she also received some from Ember, who had not agreed to do the training.

“You’re slow too,” Zalia said to the stormy faced, grumbling woman.

They all stood now with the small camp still set up around them. The other three tended to use tents and bedrolls rather than sleeping in trees like Zalia.

“Who are you calling slow,” Ember growled at her.

“You,” Zalia replied.

“Bullshit,” Ember said.

“Keep up then,” Zalia replied, before taking off into the forest.

The other three quickly followed but not one of the three could keep up with Zalia’s speed. She eventually slowed down, Ember catching up as Zalia matched Zen and Indis’ relatively slow paces.

They ran for a time, Zalia leading them in a loop back around to the camp once more. She led them a route that took most of a half hour, returning with all three of her teammates gasping for air as she gently came to a rest from the light stroll. They had been at what would be considered a sprint for them while it was barely a run, more of a jog, for her,

"Seem a little out of breath Ember," Zalia said.

Ember didn't respond, simply touching her thumb to the centre section of her middle finger and angling her hand palm out towards Zalia,

"What does that mean?" Zalia asked.

"It means… shut up… or I'll.. hit you," Ember got out between breaths.

Zalia smiled. Getting words out of Ember was hard at the best of times, getting visibly strong emotions was all the more of a task. She was proud of her accomplishment, even if it was just annoyance or anger the woman displayed.

Zalia waited for the others to recover while she practiced her sword work once more. It wasn't long before they all were breathing normally once more, their Iron rank bodies working on a different level to normal people's. At least, what she used to consider normal.

During the run she had managed to acquire two levels in her teaching skill and one in mobility. With the raising of a few abilities above Iron one, it occurred to her she could begin raising her other abilities once more. Poison training was now on the list of activities she could introduce to her daily routine. She grimaced at the thought but knew it was probably wise to do, getting the resistance to Bronze quickly might provide a useful tool. She also knew it would take a while to manage with her current poison and she most definitely was not going to use the Silver rank poison as it would probably kill her. She was ok with having to wait some time to get to Bronze though, and would have to unless she found a poison between the two in strength.

The next week and a day were spent in a very similar fashion. Zalia woke up the rest of the team much to their annoyance, they trained Mobility, close quarters combat, tracking and additionally, archery. It turned out, the others had actually bought bows after Zalia’s training in tracking and wanted to learn how to shoot as well. So, she showed them all the tips and tricks it had taken her a long time to figure out. They benefited greatly from her expertise, learning very quickly over the week due to their increased mental attributes, Zen learning slower due to him not having them linked. The bows they had were only smaller hunting bows, more for small game and probably much less effective in a fight than Zalia’s bow would be. She doubted the small bows would even be able to penetrate through some thicker leather armours. They were quite good for small game however and she showed them how to use the weapons, each finding some small success during small hunts they undertook during the short journey.

Towards the end of the last day, Zalia finally saw the walled town Ostoss on the horizon and decided that they could probably make it before nightfall. They arrived just as the sun set on the horizon, walking through the small checkpoint with no issue as Zalia recognised the guard. She simply gave a nod to the man, recognising him as one of the guards who had come with her and Tristan to stop the deserters. The image of the man she had killed, his body wracked with pain as she muffled his screams, his body rotting around him as he died an excruciating death flashed through her mind as she remembered the events that had taken hold in this town not so long ago. She shuddered.

“We’re going to go find a place a friend of mine owns,” Zalia said.

“You have friends?” Zen asked.

“Of course I have friends, not everyone talks as much as you,” Zalia retorted.

Indis actually slapped Zen upside the head, shocking him and Zalia.

“Lead on,” Lady Indis said.

Zalia found the small bakery that Tristan ran and went inside, finding the man closing up shop,

“Tristan!” she called out.

“Zalia! Welcome back to town, it's good to see you,” Tristan said as he turned, a grin spreading across his face.

“And you have some friends as well, I’m surprised,” Tristan added, with only a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Why do people keep saying that,” Zalia muttered.

“Lady Indis, a pleasure,” Indis said to Tristan.

“I’m Zen and this is Ember,” Zen added, poking Ember and getting a glare from her.

“Pleasure's mine, Tristan's the name as Zalia so thoughtfully yelled earlier,” Tristan replied, actually bowing to Indis.

“Why are you bowing?” Zalia asked.

“That's a lady of a great house behind you there,” Tristan pointed out.

“So?” Zalia asked.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Sooo, you bow to ladies of great houses,” he replied.

“Finally someone with some common courtesy and respect,” Indis said haughtily.

“Must not be as common as you think,” Ember muttered.

They spoke for some more time, mostly idle conversation, before at Zalia’s request they were directed to a nearby inn that had the best rooms in town according to Tristan. They organised to meet the next day, Zalia more than eager to test herself against Tristan now that she had made so much progress with her sword fighting. He was still a Bronze ranker with a good bit of actual battle experience from the army so she didn't expect to beat him in even a single bout but she thought she might be able to hold her own for a little bit at least.

The next morning Zalia, her team and Tristan all stood outside the walls as Tristan smashed Zalia’s blade from her hand once more, ending the fight.

“Damn it, you’re just so fast,” Zalia said.

“And significantly more experienced, trained, higher rank. Not to mention handsome,” Tristan added.

Indis let out a half snort, half laugh.

“Your face being aesthetically pleasing by the subjective standards of society has nothing to do with how good you are at hitting people with an axe,” Zalia retorted.

Everyone looked at Zalia weirdly,

“What language was that?” Indis asked.

“What do you mean what language?” Zalia asked.

“It sounded like gibberish,” Zen said.

“Only because you don't know what any of those words mean,” Zalia said.

“I didn't either,” Indis said.

“Whatever, I’m here to spar, not talk. The rest of you should spar Tristan as well,” Zalia said, ending the conversation

⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻

They all sat together in the inn, Tristan as well, having a light beer each. Zalia was the exception just drinking water, finding no point in drinking alcohol that could no longer affect her and would cost more.

“How did you two meet anyways?” Zen asked.

“You wanna tell the story or shall I?” Zalia asked Tristan.

“No, no, I’ll do it,” Tristan said.

He launched into a dramatised version of what had happened, the deserters, the villagers gathering and going after them, the betrayal by the guard and then the final battle in which he overplayed Zalia’s part within it while severely underplaying his own. He finished up with the final battle between himself and the deserter captain explaining how without Zalia’s intervention he would have died that day to the man.

Zalia carefully watched the man's face the whole time he spoke, knowing the topic was a touchy one for him but he seemed alright and in good company so she wasn't too worried. As he finished, Zalia remembered a detail about the fight he hadn’t included,

“The man had a tag after his name with aura observation. It said ‘corrupted’, have any of you heard of anything like that?” Zalia asked.

Ember and Indis shook their heads but Zen looked thoughtful.

“Zen?” Zalia asked.

“I have heard of such things before actually, yes. I heard of someone who tried to contact a dead family member after their passing and ended up being corrupted. The man had to be put down as he went insane, lost his mind,” he answered.

“Strange,” Zalia replied, “ever know the man to try and raise the dead or talk to any dead family members Tristan?”

“No, never but… well I didn't know the man well in recent years I suppose. He could well have done after I left the army, it would explain why he ended up deserting if he got caught up in stuff like that,” Tristan said, looking thoughtful.

“I wonder if it has something to do with Cormaine, Hidey did say that the place is known to some as where those who did evil in life go when they die,” Zalia thought.

As she had the thought, a realisation came to her. The strange portal or rip in space that they had seen within the mine might have been one that went to Cormaine. Maybe it even had something to do with Tristan's old captain specifically,

“Tristan, did your captain ever have any reason to go to the old mine? The one that is now abandoned,” Zalia asked.

“I don't recall him ever going there, why?” Tristan responded.

“Just a thought around something we found on a contract there not so long ago, might be unrelated,” Zalia told him.

“You’re thinking about the weird anomaly we found in the mine?” Ember asked.

Zalia nodded.

“I don't think it is related, though it might be. It’s probably what caused all the elementals to gather there though,” Ember said.

Zalia perked up,

“What makes you say that?” she asked.

“Elementals tend to gather where there is imbalance in the strength between nature and… other forces. They’re like nature's own defense, or so I have been told,” Ember explained.

“Who told you that?” Zen asked.

“None of your business,” Ember told him.

“Well that would certainly explain how such a high rank elemental appeared there but do you have any idea what the weird anomaly was?” Zalia asked Ember, interrupting Zen.

“Not really, though Larel said she might know and I would guess the leadership of the Morning’s shade will tell us at some point,” Ember replied.

“So that's where you found all these nice people,” Tristan said.

“Yep, I was accepted into the shade,” Zalia said mysteriously.

“Spooky, congratulations are in order then. Most likely the lowest rank person to ever be brought into the group from what I hear,” Tristan said, raising his mug.

“That she is,” Indis said.

“And while we are at it, congratulations on Iron rank!” Tristan added.

“Doesn't feel like that much of an achievement. Only took me what… four weeks?” Zalia said, trying to recall how long she had been here.

“That itself is quite an achievement, not many make it to ancient without getting any magic,” Zen said.

Zalia narrowed her eyes at the man, hand going towards her dagger,

“Who are you calling ancient, youngling,” Zalia growled at him.

“Youngling! I’m almost in my mid twenties!” Zen retorted.

“Yet you still act like you’re twelve” Zalia pointed out.

The rest of the table laughed and they chatted away through the rest of the morning until about half past midday.

They left the city that day, Zalia bidding a fond farewell to Tristan, the man unwilling to come along with them. According to him, his fighting days were over long ago but Zalia didn't begrudge him the decision. They made their way, led by Zalia, in the direction she remembered the farmhouse of Juniper and Darren to be. She was looking forward to seeing the two farmers again and wanted to thank them for the weapon they had given her. Already it had helped her in many ways from being a good weapon for hunting to allowing her to defend her friends to helping her with entry to the Morning’s shade. She also wanted to ask them about the last husband of Juniper’s, Zayes. He had been the one to help Hidey gain sentience and form the whole organisation that she was now a part of. She was unsure if any of her team knew about it but she wasn't really one for keeping secrets for the sake of secrecy.

She knew it to be three days travel, likely four with her team, to the farmhouse. They set off travelling once more, soon to see another of her new friends in this world.

They continued on as they had been before entering Ostoss, a routine of training and travelling, hunting for themselves and repeating again the next day. Before long they arrived in the small farmhouse Zalia remembered so well. The small house surrounded by a lovely garden tended to by Juniper and Darren. She remembered the herb that she had gotten some of to help enrage the beasts she had killed here. It hadn’t turned out to be anything special, mostly good for cooking, other than having an enraging effect on that one particular creature. She decided it might be good to get some while she was here and put it into stasis, just in case. She checked her messages from the past almost two weeks of training,

Congratulations! Kill shot has reached Iron 2.

Congratulations! Hunter’s mark has reached Iron 2.

Congratulations! Fight or Flight has gained two levels reaching Iron 3.

Congratulations! Hunter’s sight has reached Iron 2.

Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have gained two levels reaching Iron 3.

Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Iron 2.

Congratulations! Stasis has reached Iron 2.

Congratulations! Herbal magic has reached Iron 2.

Congratulations! Healing presence has reached Iron 2.

Congratulations! Aura observation has gained three levels reaching Tin 9.

Congratulations! Low light vision has gained three levels reaching Tin 8.

Congratulations! Mobility has gained two levels reaching Iron 4.

Congratulations! Teaching has gained six levels reaching Tin 11.

Congratulations! Bow - Weapon proficiency has reached Iron 10.

Congratulations! Sword - Weapon proficiency has reached Iron 2.

It was good solid progress across the board. She couldn't help but notice that now she was Iron rank herself, her Tin rank abilities were levelling significantly quicker. Some sort of catchup experience went to them from everything she did, maybe.

She saw Juniper kneeling down in a patch of garden and rushed over in her direction, yelling and waving,

“Juniper! Juniper!” Zalia called out.

The woman stood, shading her eyes as she looked in Zalia’s direction.

“Zalia dear, how are you?” Juniper asked.

“I'm quite well, thank you. Is Darren around?” Zalia asked.

She watched as Juniper's face darkened a little, before taking its usual look as the woman noticed Zalia’s companions. Zalia made introductions before giving the woman a questioning look, wondering what the earlier expression had been,

“You had better come inside my dear, I’ve news you should hear,” Juniper said.