I raised an eyebrow as Moonwash clambered out of the Harvester Home. She was clad in full plate armor, with thick gauntlets and guards around the limbs. She didn’t leave herself nearly as exposed as humans typically were, sacrificing some of the benefits of our sweat for more protection.

“I will collect materials. You still suck.”

I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t that bad! I’d been getting better at skinning and dismantling my kills…

“Let’s go!” I cheered, ultimately happy to have someone else do the chores. Me, Moonwash, and my parents went running towards the wilderness beyond!

~~~

We found ourselves at a lake weeks later, stalking a crocodile lying in ambush. The animals started off at level 10, which meant they were already far stronger than the crocodiles of my planet.

Moonwash prepared her spell, and then loosed an absolutely dense fireball towards our prey. The swamp water steamed as I immediately rushed into battle. The animal’s hide was badly burnt, and I capitalized on the distraction to bash it on the head with my sword. Scales cracked, and I made another follow-up. The creature’s head bounced from the impact, before it was finally able to jump and try to get a bite out of me. I dodged to the side and kept it away with the length of my sword. Its head was already profusely bleeding when Moonwash appeared from the side and sent an inelegant spray of fire in the crocodile’s general direction.

The beast was damaged by the heat, and it immediately sought retaliation. The crocodile clashed against her large tower shield, and I immediately slashed from the side to draw the wild animal's attention back to myself. I and Moonwash kept up our assault in this fashion, making the crocodile unsure of who to even attack.

It did not take long for the crocodile to beat a hasty retreat, but it was already way too damaged by that point, and Moonwash was ready to erect uneven pillars of earth to bar its path.

I pierced through its already fractured skull a moment after.

Moonwash eagerly pulled the carcass away to harvest for materials once the battle was over. She didn’t even bother to take a break or even celebrate for a job well done.

Her display earlier was essentially how she was in battle. Able to wield magic even more devastating than my own if she’s allowed to take her time, but clumsy and a two-bit mage if thrust into a confrontation. Most of her recent training was about how to keep herself alive and separate from her opponents. It would be up to her teammate to take care of the rest.

~~~

I laid down on the soft grass of our hill, happy to have a day to rest. I’d done some light practice with the sword earlier, but I didn’t intend to tire myself out like that today. Both Moonwash and Angerly would be joining me again out into the rainforests tomorrow, and I’d been enjoying fighting as a party of three quite a fair bit. Angerly and I would take point, freeing Moonwash up to constitute big spells. Like how just the other week, we managed to take down a young armozard, something that started out with Level 20 Mutations. Moonwash made a deep mud pit, and I lured our target towards it. I had to swing across a vine my friend prepared beforehand with nature magic in order to escape out of the monster’s grasp and not get thrown into the concealed mud pit myself.

The earth cracked and gave way, the beast sunk underneath, and then Angerly and I slammed it with our weapons whenever it tried to claw itself free. My ogre friend’s strikes were very noticeably more effective. Meanwhile Moonwash loosed earth magic every so often to bury the monster further and further.

The fight ended with the lizard being suffocated, and then we had to do the grunt work of digging it out to get to its shell.

At least we had magic to help, though it was only Moonwash since while I could use most common elements, I wasn’t any good at any of them except for fire and nature.

We did get some prime materials out of that hunt at least, since the shell was relatively undamaged. Mine and Angerly’s attacks were mostly focused on limbs and the head.

“Haell.”

Granuel’s voice brought me out of my musing. He came to hang out, it seemed, and we both laid down on the grass for a precious little while as we talked about pointless things like the weather or how New Grandera was gathering more success. They certainly had my blessing in whatever it was they wanted to do.

Granuel stood up at some point, finally ready to talk about what he came here for to begin with. He took out a wand, and I felt the presence of mana around him, solid and sturdy. It was his typical earth magic, but instead of pebbles that could just be thrown normally anyway, he lifted out larger pieces of rock and sent them flying away toward a nearby dummy. The dummy wasn’t me. It was a wooden person-shaped thing meant for target practice. Granuel’s attacks visibly dented it and tore away some chunks. Not a single one missed.

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“I’ve been practicing magic. It’s great, and I do like it. We could adventure soon! Although well, what I truly want is different… but this is fine too!”

“I know, Granuel. Maybe someday.” I smiled sadly. “Welcome aboard!”

“If I can’t be my own merchant then I’ll just do a damn good job of adventuring! Let’s gooo!!!”

“Gooo!!! Wooo!” I cheered, before a sad smile came to my face. “I’d offer to do the same thing my parents do for your parents. Any of us who are able would do the same. Just have it in their name, but everything, the money and the land, it’d functionally be yours…”

Granuel shook his head. “No. I… Maybe? But I just… I don’t like it! And you’re going to change things right? Kill all the shepherds and replace them with demons!”

I barked out a laugh. “That’s certainly a fucking picture. But, maybe? The killing them part, though certainly not all. That would be genocide. And that’s bad. I don’t like their mind magic, and it’s also passively active, in a way that maybe they can’t turn off… but I’m not about to hunt them all down. No. Too far. Step too far.”

Granuel creased his brows. “So when you’re as strong as God, you’ll just… let them go?”

“I don’t know Granuel. That’s a long way off.” I glanced at my status sheet, with most of the levels the high single digits. My heart and skin had reached level 10 in the few years I’d been going out to adventure. “Also, don’t go blabbing about any of this. The demon stuff included.”

“I know Haell. They’d kill and torture me.”

I didn't know whether to groan or laugh, so I settled for both. “Jesus. That’s fucking disturbing.”

“Jesus?”

“No one you need to know.” I waved him off.

“Well, okay… so when are we going to go to war with the empire.”

I sighed amusedly, explaining once again how none of these plans would come to fruition for decades more.

~~~

Another one of us was finally to join in the adventures, but it was not Granuel. The boy was still being trained in a variety of things necessary for survival. Instead it was Therick, and he was the one walking in the lead today, holding his sword out, and twitching at every noise.

A small insect buzzed nearby, and he quickly rounded on the creature, taking a defensive slash.

I chuckled. “Relax man. You’d tire yourself out before the fight begins if you’re that tense.”

“Nuh-uh. I was taught by your Dad to always be alert!”

“I’m pretty sure he wasn’t freaking out at every little thing whenever he was here.”

“Oh…” Therick looked at Fiya and Baston who were escorting us today instead of my mom and dad. He was probably thinking that he wished it was my dad here with us instead.

Well, it’s good to have your heroes.

“Not being too tense is all well and good,” Fiya said, looking at me, Angerly, and then Moonwash. “But there’s a skog right there that you guys have not noticed.”

“Oh! It’s kinda cute!” Angerly smiled brightly as she hefted her oversized mace that could crush the monster into paste.

The rest of us also readied ourselves against the skog. It was basically a hairless dog-shaped monster with multiple layers of hide folded over each other that were extremely durable. It was born with level 10 mutations.

Angerly eagerly met the creature, and she was able to stall it well enough because the skog wasn’t built for offense, and it was sent staggering back and forth by Angerly’s strikes. Although I did suspect that the monster was still fine, and wasn’t actually taking as much damage as its movements would suggest.

I and Therick caught up after Angerly, and we slashed out with our swords from both sides, mine being notably larger and biting deeper into our opponent’s layers of skin.

I immediately jumped back, but Therick was a slight step behind, getting hit by a shove of the monster.

No harm done, he was just put off balance a little. He fell back a moment after.

I dumped much of my fire mana into our opponent after that, setting its many sets of defenses alight. Therick jumped back in after I was done, and I stepped in the moment he hopped back. The skog was barking now, snapping its jaws threateningly and revealing the flat teeth within.

The animal fled just in time for Moonwash’s own attack. It was a bright shining fireball, nearly white, and streaked across the air to newly set our opponent alight. The skog howled in pain and fury as the much hotter fire burned at its extremities, gradually cooling down to a more manageable level, but not fast enough. That was what happened with the stronger fires, it did eventually cool down with only regular fuel and no mana to overcharge it, but the flesh stuff of the skog only made it more vulnerable.

The monster continued its retreat, as much as it wanted to bite off our faces. Angerly gave chase right behind it, slamming the creature from the rear with her mace. Therick stayed near the side of the creature to harass it, meanwhile I took the opportunity to stay ahead and stab at the enemy whenever it pulled ahead too far from my group.

Like this, it didn’t take long for the skog to give a final howl of pain and collapse over, dead.