In a tranquil forest, by a creek, a white magic formation expanded on the ground. Two figures stumbled out.

"Where are we?" The girl asked.

"I don't know." Ray replied.

"Really?" The girl asked in disbelief.

"Hey, I'm only level 7." Ray shrugged. "All I know is that we are at least miles away from where we were."

"Hmm, you see that mountain range." the girl pointed in the distant.

"Yep." Ray nodded.

"We are hundreds of miles away." The girl said with tears in her eyes.

"Nice. Nobody can catch us now." Ray patted himself on the back.

"I need to follow Anthony's convoy! The villagers are still there!" The girl grabbed Ray's collar.

Before Ray knew it, the girl was weeping again.

"Hey, don't worry, they don't move fast. We can catch up. Since we'll be together for a while, why don't we introduce ourselves. I'm Ray." Ray held out a hand.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Hmph." The girl stomped off.

"Are you just going to head off without any loot?" Ray asked.

"Shirley. You get less for your error in teleportation."

This girl... Ray's brow twitched a bit.

"Ok, let's see... 800 gold, 9 greater magic stones, a few pieces of iron tier equipment, an empty grimoire, and a map." Ray listed.

"And the storage ring." Shirley added.

"And the storage ring. The city of Chark is right across the forest, let's buy another storage ring there." Ray pointed on the map.

"Good idea." Shirley nodded.

"How about I only take the magic stones because you can't use them, 300 gold, a cloak and a dagger. You can have everything else. But you have to transfer [shadow walk] to me." Ray took out the grimoire. 

"No way! That's the only skill I've got. I might lose it this way. And how much are the stones worth?"

"Not much... I just used seven as you saw. I'll throw in another three hundred gold. By the way, very few people lose their skills like that." Ray offered again.

"A good grimoire costs three hundred by itself."

"I'll buy the storage ring myself."

"Deal." Shirley grabbed over the grimoire and a warm golden light radiated from her body. Golden archaic characters circled Shirley like a shell and eventually emerged into the book.

"You take the first shift. I need some sleep." Shirley handed over the grimoire.

As Ray touched it, the grimoire crumbled into dust. Information flooded his mind, but it was just for a moment.

"You've learned the skill? How high is your intelligence stat?" Shirley gave Ray the 'you are a monster' stare.

"Keep this between just you and me ok? My mom doesn't even know." Ray said seriously.

"K." Shirley leaned against a maple tree and closed her eyes.