The woman's face blanched at the sight of the bare room. She stormed in, stomping around in disbelief as she stared at the bare walls of an apartment devoid of any possessions.

Lydia had given Aya an empty room, without even a mattress to rest her head her first night there. Aya had only restored the room to it's initial state, save for very few pieces of furniture she would move when the time came.

Now the apartment was stripped of anything that indicated someone had lived there for two plus years.

"B-But," Lydia stammered, she gripped her greying hair as stress overtook her, almost sinking to her knees in despair. She turned sunken eyes to Aya who stood in the door way in silence.

Lydia's eyes brimmed with hatred as she stormed back to the entry way to confront her niece.

"Where is it? All of it?" Lydia barked.

"By 'it' do you mean my possessions? The same possessions not covered by the tenancy agreement?" Aya laughed. "I don't have to tell you shit!"

The tables had turned and Lydia had long since lost the attitude she started with. The older woman blinked slowly, glancing between the empty apartment, then at Aya who watched with a cold expression on her face.

The girl stooped down to pick up her pair of locks from the floor where they laid beside the door. Luckily the drilling hadn't damaged them.

"Y-You can't do this to me!" Lydia shouted suddenly.

"Do what to you?" Aya asked keeping her eyes on her nails, she flicked her eyes towards Lydia's panicked face.

"I'm your aunt, we're family." Lydia said, oozing false sweetness. She flashed Aya a shaky smile and suddenly the girl was reminded of what Fido had tried to do.

Aya sneered in disgust.

"I have more fondness for these locks than I do for you, you don't matter to me and never have," Aya said coldly.

Lydia quivered from the sharpness of Aya's words, her expression was one of someone defeated. Aya knew leaving Lydia meant she and Fido lost whatever prospects they had by keeping her close.

"Let's go," Mars said wearing a pleased smile at the way Aya handled herself against her aunt.

"You have no where you go! You can keep playing these games but you're nothing but a dirty rat!" Lydia yelled stomping her foot.

"No where to go?" Aya smirked. "I wouldn't be so sure about that," She doesn't bother to see Lydia's expression as she disappeared up the stairs back to Mars' apartment.

----------

Once they're back inside Aya closes the door behind her and pressed her door against the door to sigh in relief. Facing Lydia off was easier knowing the woman didn't have any power over her accommodations.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Previously, Aya would have feared being kicked out, essentially rendered homeless by her aunt even though she paid her rent.

"That was one of the most intense things I've ever done,"

"Good job, that was pretty impressive," Mars said with a smirk. "You're all grown up now,"

Aya felt her face grow hot at Mars' impressed expression. Her eyes darted about as she grew more flustered by the smirk.

"Uh thanks," Aya said with a silly giggle. Mars nodded.

"So I'm going to be up playing, grinding to level up. Are you heading to bed now?"

Aya shook her head, pushing off the door and making a slow stride towards her room. She still had Bavga's second quest to complete and the spiders were waiting for her.

"No, I'm in the middle of a quest so I have to work on a potion," She said.

"Oh, well those sell really well on the auction house, are you good at brewing them you could take requests,"

"Not as good as I'd like, I hear only A to C grade potions do well on the auction house," Aya replied rubbing her neck.

"Not necessarily, people also buy lower grade ones because they're cheaper," Mars said. "But they'd have to be a rare recipe at least. The higher the recipe category the less people care that deeply about the grade,"

"Oh," Aya said pleasantly surprised.

"Checked the auction house lately?" Mars asked.

"My ring!" Aya said, remembering the Ancient Ring she had put up for sale.

She pulled out her phone to open the Moon Valley companion app and check if she had made a sale.

"120 Gold," she gasped. She read the note the purchaser had left again, this time admonishing her for putting an Epic item at such a low price.

"Alright, alright I get it now," Aya pouted, she noticed it was the same person that had previously bought her High Grade magic stone. "Looks like I have a returning customer!"

"What did you sell?" Mars asked.

"Just this Epic Garde item I got from beating Viseli," Aya said stuffing her phone back into her pocket. Hopefully she would get something just as good from the next titan she fought, or even list the Water Resistant Elixirs for sale.

"Nice! How much did you start the bid?" Mars asked curiously. Epic and higher graded Items were rare in Moon Valley, their prices were usually through the roof, at that point Aya could have listed any price for it and someone would have bought it.

"5 Gold?" Aya said nervously.

Mars paused, fixing Aya with a disappointed expression, she lunged at the girl grabbing her ears and pulling until Aya yelped from each tug.

"What do you mean you started the bid for an Epic item at 5 gold?!"

"Waaaaah I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Aya said rubbing her stinging ears as she ran to her room.

----------

"I still feel where she pinched me!" Yvlena whined from where she sat on the docks back in the Avaresh swap.

"Okay, spiders," She said with a heavy sigh, she stood up and walked toward the path to the Verdant Lake with the intention to summon and explore the other path at the fork in the road.

Sprite and Rabbit Knight leaped out in a bright flash of light, with full HP and MP ready to take on whatever would come at them next.

"Let's go find some spiders," she said to them. They followed loyally behind her as she led them.

Yvlena made sure to keep her focus of the Verdant Lake, lest she see something she wasn't ready to deal with.

The creature would keep to the bottom of the lake after all she wouldn't disturb it until she was ready to face its wrath.

----------

Yvlena and her party were back at the faded sign that marked the fork in the road. They had followed the straight path hoping it would lead them to the Miasma's barrier but to no avail.

"That means there's a good chance the path to the next town is here isn't it?" Yvlena said to herself.

She walked forward, her foot crunching on the beaten grass and dead sticks, her vision darkened as she continued on.

Large dead trees grew to block the sky, oozing with the oily black of Miasmic Sap.

"At least it's not dark enough to need a fairy lit torch," she said cutting through some trees with her sword.

[Yvlena Acquired

***

Wood x5]

"I'm surprised it's not poisoned then again, it wasn't stained with the black stuff," she raised her hand to sweep away more wood when she brushed something with an odd texture.

"Hm?" Yvlena paused, retracting her hand to see the remnants of fine gossamer strands of a web clinging to her fingers.

Behind her something slowly lowered itself from the trees clicking it's mandibles in delight at new prey.

As Yvlena shook her hand to rid herself of the web Sprite went on guard behind her.

[Sprite Cast Sting (01MP)]