"Hmm..." Lone stroked his chin in thought as he and Sophie looked over one of the quest boards at The Adventurer's Guild. "None of those monsters are very magical in nature... Anything on your side of the board?"
Sophie unpinned two requests and showed them to Lone. "This one is to kill a Lesser Hydra, but only S-rankers or above can take the quest on, while this one is to wipe out a colony of Manasilk Spiders. There're no requirements on the latter since it's urgent, but the notice does say that the recommended adventurer should be a silver plate or an A-ranker."
"Perfect. Put the Lesser Hydra one back since we can't even legally claim it, but we'll do that spider one," Lone said excitedly.
He made a mental note of the Lesser Hyrda's reported location before he and Sophie headed to the kind receptionist from two days ago since he was actually on duty today.
There was a bit of a line unlike yesterday, so after twenty minutes of waiting, the two of them were finally seen to.
"Ah, Mr Immortus and Miss Vladimirovich. It's good to see you both again. How can I help you?" the man politely asked with a lovely smile spread across his lips.
"Hi," Lone replied in a friendly manner as he passed the spider quest notice to the receptionist. "We'd like to take on this quest."
"Of course. Let's see here..." the employee adjusted his glasses and then frowned after reading the parchment. "Are you sure you wish to take on this quest? I can't rightly stop you since it is a quest with no acceptance requirements, but I feel it would certainly be unwise to attempt exterminating a colony of Manasilk Spiders at your personal ranks."
A few other adventurers heard what the staff member had said, and they all chuckled or outright mocked Lone and Sophie for being stupid.
Trying not to mind the ridicule, Lone shook his head. "No, we'll be taking on this quest. If we're confident in anything, it's our ability to run away."
Still frowning, the employee pulled open a drawer from behind him and then placed two sheets of paper on the desk. After doing that, he opened a second drawer and took out a list of sorts. He wrote down Lone and Sophie's names then passed his quill over to Lone. "Please sign these waivers which state that The Adventurer's Guild holds no responsibility should you die on this quest, as you have been adequately warned by a member of staff."
Lone was a bit shocked at how advanced the paperwork was here. 'First the agreement of no responsibility during a duel, now a far more formal one here for a pretty dangerous quest? Well, at least it's a serious organisation.'
He nodded and signed one form before he said, "My companion is blind. Is it okay for me to sign in her place?"
"So that's why she never opens her eyes... But then how-, no, it doesn't matter. Of course, Sir. So long as she consents, I have no issue with you signing on her behalf," the employee politely replied.
"We do not mind," Sophie said as she thought, 'If only you could keep your eyes closed more often as well, perhaps situations like the one from yesterday would not happen... I-I'm sorry... We do not blame you, Soph, we are merely making a suggestion... It just feels more natural to keep them open since Mana Sensing lets me see... We know...'
Unaware of the internal conversation between the girl's two personalities, the receptionist gave Lone a bit of information that he felt would be very helpful. "The forest that the Manasilk Spiders can be found in is seventeen-miles due north of here, close to the country's northern border. They are rather weak to fire, but burning down the entire forest is not an option since the lumber is a valuable resource for the county in which the forest belongs. Also, whatever you do, please do not directly engage should you run into the colony's queen. If you insist on fighting her, only do so when she is asleep and make sure to employ any possible tricks."
The employee then picked up the quest notice and handed it back to Lone. "Please return the notice to the board as it is not an exclusive quest, so more than one person or a single team can accept it. Also, please be careful. Run the moment you think that you are in danger. The guild loses enough hopeful youths as it is, I don't want to be inadvertently responsible for the deaths of two more."
'He feels responsible? Even if the quest is open to all? This guy really is a kind person, isn't he?' Lone smiled faintly. "Thanks. I promise. We'll be back when we're done."
"I look forward to your return," the man replied as he mirrored Lone's smile with his own.
----------------------------------------
Lone felt the control on his thoughts return as he finished his chanting. Pointing his palm to the sky, he said the words, "Crude Fireball."
A small collection of flames no bigger than a person's head flew out of his hand and soared up into the sky, smacking and killing a bird instantly.
Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.
Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.
Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.
"Well, three level ups on a bird isn't bad, but boy is using magic other than Lightning Bolt a big fucking waste of MP," Lone grumbled as he continued walking with Sophie who wasn't far from him.
The girl cocked her head to the side and cast a questioning look his way with that cold expression of hers. "Why did you not use it on yourself? Would that not have been more efficient than killing some helpless poultry?"
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Lone rolled his eyes. "Firstly, that was a wild bird, not poultry, secondly, it's fucking expensive. It costs five-thousand mana per use. I only have a little over twelve-k total, and it takes, like, half a day to refill my mana. There's also the fact that it's really boring waiting for the hundred lines of text to automatically read in my head. As for using it on my self, I'd rather not ruin a perfectly good set of clothes and give myself third-degree burns, thanks."
Sophie shrugged. "We do not mind seeing you naked, and besides, you would heal in no time."
Lone gave her a look that was begging for an explanation as to why she could be so heartless. "Even if I have Physical Pain Resistance and Fire Magic Resistance, all they do is make the pain easier to tolerate, they don't actually lessen the pain."
"How did that idiom of yours that you were always saying when you were tossing Lightning Bolts into the ocean that you were also in go? 'No pain no gain', we believe it was?" Soph asked with a smirk.
Lone sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I do need to stop being a bitch and just grind out the other magic skills I got from the gobs on myself, but the mana cost is gonna make it take a few days since, at a bare minimum, I need to get them all to at least intermediate-rank."
"To decrease the costs?" Soph asked somewhat disinterestedly. Her attempts to provoke Lone and poke fun at him hadn't worked, which upset her a little bit.
"That, and reduce the magic lines that need to be chanted," Lone said as he took a quick moment to reference his map of Milindo that he'd bought from a bookstore as they had left the city. "Yup, we turn left here at this T-junction."
He put the map back into his Dimensional Storage then continued from where he had left off. "The mana cost got quartered and so did the needed lines. So five-k MP became three-point-seven-five-k, and one-hundred lines became seventy-five. I'm hopeful and expectant that the other magics will follow that same improvement scheme as they rank up."
"Why stop there? You should evolve all of them like you did with Lightning Bolt. Or, at the very least, reach master-rank with the crude versions so the cost is negligible," Sophie suggested.
"I could, yeah, but if I focused on that, then I'd have no room to tinker and experiment with my Creation Magic. That's hardly free," Lone replied.
"Hmm..." Sophie held her chin as she thought. "Why don't you focus on training offensive magic when we're out on excursions like this, and when we are within the relative safety of Ranton's city walls, you can practice your Creation Magic and any other less battle-oriented magic skills that you learn?"
Lone wore a ponderous expression for a few seconds before he nodded slowly. "Okay. I can agree to that." After saying so, he cracked his neck and grinned at the surprisingly helpful Sophie. "We should hurry up a bit. I only told Grimsley that we'd be gone for three to four days tops, so we can't be wasting so much time walking."
He'd booked their inn room for a full week, so they were safe on that front, at least.
Sophie was the one to sigh this time. "Yes, yes, and we cannot abuse my Teleportation since we may need it to escape a precarious situation. I have delicate feet, so I expect a foot massage if you're going to make me walk faster than this in full-plate."
"Consider it done," Lone replied as he maintained his grin.
----------------------------------------
A fireball whizzed past several trees before it slammed onto the head of a blue-striped spider that was easily the same size as Lone's mini-fridge which was sat in the corner of his apartment back in Scotland. Or, that was where he'd last left it, but that was almost a year ago now, so it could rightly be anywhere for all he knew.
Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 6.
Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 7.
Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 8.
Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 9.
Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 10.
Congratulations! the host's active fire magic skill [Crude Fireball] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 1.
Lone quickly stored the now-dead spider's corpse and rushed to Sophie's side. "How many?"
"Sixteen are rushing over here," she very calmly replied, but she failed to hide the slight hints of anxiety and fear that were leaking out from her expression.
"Okay. We're done for today. Teleport us out of this forest and into a place big and stable enough for our fort and an Illusionary Dome," Lone ordered.
Sophie gave him no sass and immediately did as she was told. Fourteen teleports later, the two of them were standing in some nearby abandoned farmlands.
Not minding the state of the untilled soil, and trusting Sophie's judgement, Lone brought their personal fort out from his Dimensional Storage. "I wonder if I can store something massive like that colosseum? Heh. It'd be funny to see the reactions of those racists if the entire fucking building disappeared mid-fight."
Lone entertained himself with such thoughts as he used what was left of his MP to create an Illusionary Dome.
Congratulations! the host's active illusion magic skill [Illusionary Dome] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.
"Oh, a level-up. That's rare for this skill," Lone noted. A moment passed in silence, which confused him, so he spun around to look at Sophie. "Why're you not telling me to stop talking to my-... Are you shaking?"
Trembling lightly in her armour, Sophie didn't answer and she just walked into the Illusionary Dome. Naturally, Lone followed her.
"Wait, are you scared of spiders or something?" Lone asked as he caught up to her.
A big frown covered the girl's face. "Yes, we are. Most insects do not bother us, but spiders... During our time when we were imprisoned by The Templars, in our cave, many spiders crawled all over our body, bit us, made nests out of our hair, covered us in webs... So yes, we are scared of spiders. Laugh all you wish, but first, help us out of our armour. Forget the foot massage. We wish to swap with Soph and sleep," she said as she took her helmet off and roughly shoved it into Lone's hands.
Storing the helmet, he didn't make fun of her, instead, Lone smiled warmly. "That might be the girliest thing you've ever said, well, ignoring the whole imprisonment and nest thing, but scared of spiders, huh? That's really cute."
"I-Is that so?" Sophie's expression brightened up slightly. "R-Regardless, please help us out of our armour."
"Sure," Lone replied instantly and got to work. "Still don't want that massage? I'm perfectly happy to try my hand at giving you one."
Sophie's cheeks turned red. "W-We want it. We did not expect you to understand, so our mood is a bit better now."
'I guess I'll leave checking my skills and status until later.' Lone smirked. "Great, maybe I'll get a new skill out of it?" he teased. "That, or just level up Massage Mastery."