Falyn Elway’s P.O.V

“How much could I get for these?”

Supplying my dimension ring with mana I let the dead corpses of the beasts I had killed on the way to this small town flow out. I had kept around fourteen dead beasts to sell, although the amount I killed was at least three times that.

“What an amazing haul!” The beast merchant said with delight.

Looking at the merchant's shop and observing the miscellaneous items that were dead beast parts, gave me a weird feeling. I didn’t know people like this existed until an hour ago.

Beast merchants were people who would buy beast corpses for a reasonable price, then dissect them and take them apart for all their good for, and sell those parts individually to blacksmiths, mages, auction house owners, etcetera. Apparently, it was ‘good business, as the merchant in front of me said.

I thought it was just weird, mostly for the smell that lingered. It reeks in here.

“I can do one silver for all.” He said with a genuine smile that he had to have honed from years of business.

“Eh. Meet me at one silver and fifty copper.” I said.

The merchant looked at the corpses once more, “Deal.”

After the exchange was over and I got my money I immediately headed out. If I had kept one of the bear's corpses I most likely would have gotten much more, but alas, a corpse that big wouldn’t fit in my spatial ring.

Throwing the money in my spatial ring I looked at the sun. It’s almost noon.

I had decided this morning to take the woman up on the offer. Going over it with a clear and rested mind, I saw no reason to refuse.

After picking up a quick bite to eat from one of the stands, I began making my way to the town's exit.

Arriving at the exit of the town I saw no one there. It’s still around early noon, so maybe I’m just a little early.

Luckily enough, I was indeed a little early and I saw the woman making her way to the exit not even ten minutes later.

Approaching me, she smiled, “I see you've decided to join me.” She was at least a foot taller than me, so she had to somewhat look down when she spoke.

“Yeah. You made some valid points last night. This trip will go a whole lot smoother with the two of us.”

She smirked and stepped past me, her hands on her hips, “Damn right.”

Looking at her now, observing her long, honey-blonde hair and the confidence she walked with, carrying it with her like a noble girl would a purse, she looked reliable. Strong in her own sense.

“I never got your name yesterday, do you mind telling me?” I asked, wanting to get to know my new partner.

“It’s Melian. Yours?”

I decided to keep the same alias I told Foxx and Garrick, “Walker.”

She stuck out her hand for a handshake, “It’s nice to formally meet you, Walker.”

Shaking her hand in return, we walked through the exit gate and began our journey to Ara city.

“So, what are your strengths and weaknesses? Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine. It will make our communication and actions in battle a lot easier.”

She shook her head, “Seems fair.” Taking her wand that was strapped to her side, she waved it around and a bright white light appeared, “I’m a cleric. Skilled in healing and offense.” She let the small orb of light float towards me and explode like a small, harmless firework, “Affinity for just light magic.”

I tilted my head, That…actually sounds useful.

“My healing has its limits, of course. I can heal cuts and broken bones, but something like a deep stab or gash I can only speed up the healing process.”

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“Oh,” I said.

She whipped her head toward me with an offended look, “What do you mean by ‘oh’ short stack? It sounds to me like you’re not very impressed with my abilities.”

“No, that’s not it,” I said, trying to quell her feelings.

It’s true her healing abilities weren’t as great as I was expecting, but then again, I had never seen the extent of any other healer's abilities. So Melina’s could be top-notch for all I know.

“What about your defenses? Any good?”

She crossed her arms at the question, “Yeah, for everyone but myself. I possess many skills that allow me to enhance other people's mana-enhancements and spells, but I've always had trouble doing this to my own abilities, so I never use them. Why should I strengthen other people if I can’t even strengthen myself?”

I felt compelled to let out a sigh. This woman is…

“I see why you travel alone now.”

She laughed, “I can still conjure barriers around myself and all for protection, but being a caster, my mana enhancement alone isn't enough to protect me from lethal blows.” She turned to me, “That's about all I got. Your turn.”

“I’m a martial mage, possessing wind and dark magic. My offense, mobility and defense are up to par with my rank. I have a few trump card spells if things get grimy as well, but I mostly focus on hand-to-hand while incorporating spells.”

I had decided to tell Melian these elements because I believed our dark and light magic would complement each other in battle.

She didn’t seem to give my abilities much thought. Instead, she just said, “Sounds good.” and then pulled out a rolled paper she had been carrying in her back pocket.

She unrolled the paper and I soon found out that it was a map.

“For the next couple of days, it will just be us and grass plains. Weaker beasts will be found hunting even weaker prey. For food, our best option is to hunt at night, when all the big ones come out, or if we’re lucky, we'll catch some in the daytime or run into a body of water.”

Last night she had mentioned that It only got worse from here, but going by what she said just now, it sounded like a walk in the park.

“What comes after we get out of these plains?” I asked, looking around as we walked on the thin dirt path, surrounded by endless flat green.

“The hard part. It goes by many names, The Hills, The Caverns, Hell, and a bunch of others that I don’t feel like saying. It’s the biggest pain in the ass on this little trip of ours.” Rolling up the map and putting back in her pocket, she continued, “It's a large valley that houses multiple dungeons and beasts and we have to get past it to reach Ara. People even made an entire outpost-like town because so many people get held up there for months on end. We’ll most likely meet fellow adventurers willing to join us at Ara. At that point, we’ll need the help.”

“I understand. So that's the difficult part you were talking about.” I looked over at Melian, curious about how she knew so much, “How do you know all this? It seems you've done this before.”

“Well, last time I went to Ara I took the warp gate, I had the money back then and I did some digging and found out a lot about the place. I’m literally just going off what I’ve heard and assumptions.”

“So what's the reason you didn’t take the warp gate this time? I mean, It would've been a whole lot easier for you.” I asked. Was it the same reason as me? No money?

“Same reason you're probably here, I'm flat broke. Those damn gates cost too much.”

Bingo.

“And besides,” She continued, “I heard going this route is good for adventurers. It helps break them in for battle’ as those goons called it.”

“I see.”

So newbies take this route to test their skills and train for the Lunar Mountains. I smiled at the prospect. For some reason, I was feeling excited about what was to come in Ara.

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Time, as we walked, seemed to fly by and soon enough night had fallen. The regular wolves and other beasts had come out and we were able to dispatch a few to use as dinner for tonight.

Melian decided to set up camp for tonight after finding a decent enough location. Since we were in the plains, there were only a few trees here and there, but she somehow managed to find a cluster of trees and began setting up her tent there, which was composed of branches and leaves she took from the trees.

Leaving a few branches to spar we started a fire and began preparing dinner. As the meat cooked over the fire slowly Melian spoke.

“I’d sleep with one eye open. Starting this fire will no doubt attract more beasts.”

“I was planning on doing so,” I said, poking at the fire with a stick to burst the flames.

When the food was done, we each ate our portion and were about to put out the fire, but a loud echoing sound from the distance interrupted us.

We both whipped our heads back, but due to the darkness of the night, we couldn’t see anything.

Then, we heard the sound once more. It sounded like a call, like the one you would hear from a bird.

“Recognize the sound?” Melian asked her guard up.

“It sounds like a bird,” I responded.

“Agreed.”

We waited for a few more seconds, and finally, we could spot it. Or them.

Four Menacing bird-like creatures swirled around us in an undefined circle. Their wings looked like that of bats, but their bodies looked like something akin to a black fox.

“What the hell are they?” I asked, unsheathing my dagger and already enhancing my body with mana.

“I have no idea,” Melian said, already building light at the tip of her wand.

Observing the beasts more, it was easy to tell who their ‘leader’ was. One was larger than the others and if one looked closely, the other three seemed to follow this one lead.

But as I gathered this new information, the large one let out a loud echoing noise and they all dove down toward us like meteors.

The largest one going for Melian in particular.

Shit.