Liz's face was a perfect mixture of tiredness and annoyance. She kept her eyes closed as she tried to focus on the mana sledged that she had created.

On top of it, several giant scales belonging to the sandtepede were piled up. She remembered having offered herself as a volunteer to carry the scales with her magic, but she had made a huge miscalculation.

Notice: Your food reservoirs are almost empty, nutrition is advised.

It was the tenth time this same notification echoed in her mind, but there wasn't much she could do to change her predicament.

Iso already told her that they were out of supplies, so she'd have to till they arrived at “The oasis”

She could have eaten the sandtepede when they harvested its scales, but Dere's words made her forget that idea.

Apparently, most monster meat is toxic for humans. Beastkin like Iso could eat a wider variety of monsters, but even they had their limitations.

She trusted her body's ability to consume monsters, she was far from human after all. But she didn't dare to give the group more reasons to be wary of her.

This left Liz with a half emptied mana reserve and no source of food, which wouldn’t have been a problem if she was able to fully control her skills. But while she was draining the mana residue out of her body, she instinctively activated “feed” to replenish her mana reservoir.

Why does it hurt so much!!! She screamed in her head. Back in her world, when she was still human, she had endured long famines and even died from hunger a couple of times.

Yet, this was even worse.

She felt not only her stomach, but her whole body craving for food, from the bottom of her feet to the tip of her hair, even the fibres in her muscles or the tendons attached to them.

It was almost like her body was struggling to keep itself together.

“Lise, we are about to reach the Oasis, please help Dere move the scales.” Iso said, stopping the sledge.

Liz and Dere stepped out of the sledge and started moving the scales to it. Even if Dere tried to start a conversation with the girl, it was obvious that she wasn’t in the mood.

She is probably just tired, She used a lot of mana in the last battle, and she is just level 15 after all. Dere thought, as she placed the last scale on the sledge.

Liz carefully climbed on top of the stack of scales while Dere began walking next to the sledge.

“Be careful Lise, I doubt the stack is stable right now.” Iso advised her, but she simply nodded with her head and attached one mana string to each corner of the sledge.

After less than an hour, a translucent dome of pure mana began poking out of the dunes before them.

Liz could feel the slow flow of mana within the dome, slowly swirling around creating what she thought to be an extremely weak barrier. Once they got closer, she finally understood its purpose.

The dome was a transparent sphere of about four kilometres of diameter. Inside it, Liz could see many two stories stone buildings as well as several tall towers overseeing the city.

As they got closer, she started distinguishing human figures on the edge of the dome. She felt the mana that leaked from their body, and managed to distinguish a sword on each of their belts.

They must be around level 50. She thought.

Once they reached the entrance of the city, the pair of soldiers approached them.

“Welcome to the Oasis.” One of the soldiers said. Before scanning their sledge. His eyes stopped for a moment as he stared at Liz’s hair and eyes. “I assume you are adventures.”

“Yes.” Iso said, as he handed an iron card to the guard. “It's our first time in the city, could you tell us the direction of the guild please?”

The soldier took a small iron rod out of his pocket, and placed its tip on the metal card Iso just gave him. After a few seconds, the tip of the rod glowed green as he nodded with his head.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Very well, the guild is next to the oasis, just follow the main street and you'll see a big building with some broken windows.” The soldiers said as he pointed down the street. “Don’t cause any trouble.”

He handed Iso back his card as they began moving again. Once they crossed the barrier, Liz stopped feeling the slow desert wind and the harsh sun became dimmer.

Her vision was rapidly filled with people of all ages moving all around the city. She saw children running around chasing each other, young adults wearing protective gear laughing as they walked out of the city…

But her head suddenly turned around as she smelt something she was craving for. Foooooood.

She saw a line of 3 street posts each serving a different type of food. The first one was filled with skewers of both meat and fish, the second one had several bowls of either cooked or raw vegetables, and the final one served both beer and wine.

“Just endure a bit more Lise, we’ll eat after we sell the sandtede’s scales.” Dere whispered in her ear.

“Eh!” Liz almost fell from the sledge, she was completely hypnotised from the sight of food.

“Ok…” She muttered as she covered her flustered face, ashamed.

Liz looked down towards the floor, trying to hide her face as stop thinking of food. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the mana surrounding her, but she quickly felt overwhelmed.

There was too much mana, in every direction, anywhere she looked, it was too much for her to distinguish it. There were so many people, most of them higher level than her, and they weren’t even trying to disguise their mana.

For the first time in months, she was forced to deactivate her mana sense, afraid that her small headache could become a bigger problem.

She felt naked, unprotected, as if a blindfold was placed over her eyes. Her eyes opened again as she frantically scanned the surroundings out of pure paranoia.

She could feel like everyone was staring at her, whispering to each other, some even pointing at her with their finger. She could feel her eyes drifting through her hair…

“Is it really this easy, all it takes is for you to lose your mana sense and you become a terrified kid?” A voice whispered in her ear.

----------------------------------------

The orange sky was starting to darken when they finally arrived at the guild. A big robust three-story building made from stone bricks and large wooden pillars.

Liz stared at the building’s exterior for several moments, unsure of how to react. It was old, dirty, most of its windows were broken, covered with simple wooden planks.

That soldier pranked us… Liz thought, before a muscular man stepped out of the door.

“Wellcome, I assume you want to sell all that loot.” He asked when he saw all the scales in the sledge, straight to the point.

The man guided them to the back entrance to the building, where he used some strange apparatus to estimate the value of the scales.

“The best I can do is two golds, taking into account the city’s tax, you’ll get one gold and five silvers.” He finally stated.

To think that I’d be working for a mere gold coin… Liz wanted to say, but the excited voice of Dere interrupted her thoughts.

“A whole gold coin!?” She exclaimed, her eyes shining in excitement.

Is a gold coin worth that much? Liz was still unfamiliar with this world’s currency, but even so, she found that hard to believe. Aren’t there rarer and more useful metals than simple gold?

“I assume I can’t try to haggle now, can't I?” Iso chuckled and looked at Dere’s excitement.

“Oh…” Dere muttered.

----------------------------------------

Liz started devouring the bowl of meat stew in front of her as Izo and Dere simply stared at her, unsure of what to do.

“You were hungry weren’t you?” Dere joked as she ate some of her own dinner. “Don’t worry, we can afford some extra food today, think of it as a celebratory banquet.”

Iso rolled his eyes hearing this. Even If we have some extra money, we shouldn’t spend it so happily… But before he could voice his thoughts, Dere had already asked for two more stew rations.

Iso began eating his dinner in silence, not exactly sure about what to do next.

They have found us, even if we killed the ones at the village, those were only their scouts, if only. He tried to think of a plan, but he was unable to think of anything other than just running away, like they always did.

If only mister Frank was still here… A tear began slipping down his cheek, but he quickly brushed it off with his hand, before Dere could notice it.

He looked at Dere for a moment, happily enjoying her meal as she played with Liz’s hair. A mixture of feelings started to overwhelm him, and before he could notice, a tear of frustration began flowing down his face again.

If only… If only I was strong enough.

----------------------------------------

The night had fallen just before they arrived at a local inn that the guild had recommended. It wasn’t as cosy as the one in the desert’s village, and they would be much more cramped than before, but at least it was cheap.

At first, Dere was reluctant to stay here, she said that now that they had the money, they could strive for a better place to sleep, at least one with a bathtub. But Iso reminded her that they shouldn't spend money just because they have it.

He also gave each one two silver coins for them to spend on whatever they wanted, and he kept the remaining nine to pay for their living and travelling expenses.

I’m still quite hungry. I'll try to wander around this night, who knows, maybe I will find something interesting.

“Lise, can we talk for a moment?” Dere asked her, with a serious tone.

“Huh? … why?” Liz asked, confused.

“I’ve been wondering…” She bit her lower lips as she sat on the edge of the bed, signalling her to sit besides her. “Have you… have you killed someone before meeting us?”

Liz’s eyes opened wide as she heard the question. She knew she wasn’t exactly hiding her magic skills, and that her performance during the battles wasn’t something a little girl should be able to do.

Not to mention how she showed little to no remorse after killing the assassins at the village, only her taciturn demeanour.

“I-I… Before I met you…” She started, trying to fabricate a convincing lie to escape the situation. “I was alone… And they tried…”

Dere listened carefully as she began stroking her hair. Slowly, Liz’s story began taking shape.

Liz wasn’t exactly sure of when she started crying, she didn’t remember the words that left her mouth, but she knew she had succeeded.

At some moment, Dere began comforting her, telling her that it was alright, that she did what she had to do, but only a single thought filled her mind.

Why was it so easy?