Before my eyes I could see a battlefield, covered with corpses of monsters and people. Every face blurred, I couldn’t make out any features of those here, except two. Two girls with long black hair, one had ruby eyes and the other piercing blue eyes. I watched this battlefield as a spectator, I could not move, only ever watching those two girls. They both wielded poorly maintained swords as they used them to injure the dog-like monsters. Once they injured a monster, they would move on and a large, bulky man then killed the monster.
As I watched, the red eyed girl stumbled, giving the monster she faced an opening. She desperately raised her arms to defend against it, and the monster bit down on her arm. She pushed it away before it could clamp down, using her sword to injure it.
The blue eyed girl seemed to talk to her, concerned on her face. The red eyed girl replied and turned away from her, facing yet another monster. Unbeknownst to her, the bulky man approached her, before shouting at her. I could clearly hear what he said as his voice loudly rang above the clashing of bodies and screams in this place.
“Stop fucking around Number 13, get back in there.”
Number…Number? Why did this word resound within me, giving rise to hatred. 32. That number appeared in my mind, 32. Why did this hold such importance to me…wasn’t I Number 32? I continue to watch as the bulky man kicks the red eyed girls back, sending her tumbling into the beast that had been approaching her. She failed to react in time, causing the beast to wound her shoulder. A second beast approached her as her sword dropped from her hands, tumbling away.
She looked around and found her sword, but failed to see the second beast as it clawed her leg, causing her to fall, landing next to her sword. She scrumbles, picks up the sword in a hurry and stands up again. Parrying an attack from the first beast, she swung her sword beautifully and decapitated one of its legs. At the same time the second beast pounces, biting into her shoulder hard and starts shaking its head, attempting to rip the girl's shoulder off.
The blue-eyed girl saw this and moved quickly, using her sword to decapitate the beast's head off, which remained clamped on her shoulder. I could tell though, the red-eyed girl would die here. She had been covered in deep wounds this entire time, and now her shoulder and chest had been punctured. The blue-eyed girl moved to the red-eyed girl, tears in her eyes, calling out to her. I heard a simple whimper, which I shouldn’t have been able to hear over the sound of this battlefield.
“Alice…”
The bulky man moved to the pair and without a word kicked the blue-eyed girl away. He raised his sword and plunged it deeply into her chest, and as her body shook one last time, I knew she had died. Her head turned towards me, eyes vacant and tear stained. I felt emotions erupt within me as those eyes, as the name from before resounded throughout my head. Alice…
***
Slowly opening my eyes that were wet with eyes, I stared at the ceiling of my room. That dream, it was a memory I had long forgotten. A part of the reason why I wanted to get stronger, to overcome that hellish nightmare I had lived in. I remember my thoughts at that time, the only thoughts were of overwhelming sadness as seeing her die. I had watched it happen, yet I wasn’t strong enough to stop it happening. Looking at the girl who had talons for feet, black wings that wrapped around herself as she slept peacefully, I finally remembered who I named her after and why. It was a promise, a promise to become strong enough to be able to fight to save the lives of those I called friends.
As the faces of Bloom and Amelia join Alice’s in my mind, I allow myself a moment to grief. I hadn’t been strong enough this time either, I needed to keep moving forward though. I can’t lay here, sinking into depression. I had to simply become stronger so those close to me don’t die. I felt a nudge to my side and a whimper, and turning I saw Coffee.
Reaching out a hand, I stroked his head as he snuggled up to me, as if to reassure me. I don’t know why I had dreamed this memory, or why it had been from the perspective of someone watching, but I now remembered it from my own point of view as well as from the other perspective.
“I’m okay now, Coffee. Thank you.” Coffee nudges my face lightly before licking my cheek. Smiling, I slowly move out of the bed, wipe the tears away and put on a black dress that I’ve had for some time. I don’t remember where I had gotten it from, but I liked wearing it while at home. Moving downstairs, I entered the kitchen, intending to cook to clear my mind.
It has been two weeks since I had learnt Magic Sense. I had learned a lot about mana control. Before, my magic tended to only be focused on using my hands to send out mana. I had stopped using Wind Armour, which meant sending mana from any part of my body. Alexander taught me that the mana veins I had covered every part of my body, meaning I could use mana from anywhere. Most did not utilise this correctly, preferring to do as I’ve been doing, sending it out from my hands.
As I improved my control over the course of a day, I very quickly learnt how to use Magic Sense. It wasn’t a spell that the System recognised. This is because all it comes down to is sending a pulse of mana from yourself to detect objects around you. By controlling it, you can use it to sense everything around you, and be able to tell not only the strength of monsters or people around you, but detect unnatural flows of mana, which indicate traps like untriggered spells or naturally formed traps.
Deciding to make everyone a basic breakfast, I once again wipe the tears from my eyes and set to work. Today Olivia and I would be heading to the Guild so that Olivia could meet with Jasmine, a young girl who would be her new party leader. Olivia wanted me close by and I had agreed, on the condition that she didn’t hide behind me. Olivia had paled at this condition before nervously agreeing.
Xia entered the room just as I finished serving breakfast and sat beside me. She had recently been more like herself and less like a Guardian. She had even bought herself a pair of earrings, and a matching set for me. They were unexpectedly little flowers with a red gem in them, while mine were blue. She had told me she always wanted a pair like this to share with her Blessed while growing up, and seeing as it had been the first thing she’d wanted to buy for herself, I felt happy for her.
Alice came down, rubbing her eyes sleepily before jumping onto my lap and curling up. She’d been up playing with Coffee all night and still looked tired. Olivia finally joined us, looking nervous as she sat down while trying to eat. After breakfast, I left with Olivia and walked towards the Guild.
“Feeling nervous?” Olivia only nodded while tightly gripping my arm. “Don’t worry, like Elise said, we’ll be there for you, but you have to put in effort as well, ok?”
Olivia looked down and meekly nodded. “I-I know. I’ll do my b-best.”
As we entered the Guild, I noticed people looking my way, with some greeting me or by nodding. Smiling to them as we passed, I quickly found Elise. I had become well known among adventurers because of my achievements, and while I didn’t come by the Guild often I was still recognized every time I came here. At first it had been others simply nodding towards me, but recently they had been greeting me with a wave or a hello. I had returned the greetings but never stopped to talk, mainly because I came here to do something so I had little time to speak to others.
Elise had told me I should mingle with other adventurers, and I had been intending to, but for the last two weeks I had been imbuing thousands of seeds with mana in preparation for our new home. Because of Alexander’s teachings on mana control, I had become a lot better and with the seeds as practice, my mana control had become far better. I managed to imbue about 75% of the seeds, and I didn’t waste any of the ones I had collected from Zalus.
Elise leads us down into a private room, stopping before the door. “Jasmine is inside, Olivia. Are you ready?”
Gulping nervously, Olivia looked at the door before nodding. She let go of my arm as Elise opened the door. Walking in, a young, pretty girl sat on a couch with an owl sitting on her shoulder. She had brown, curly hair and deep purple eyes. Dressed lightly in a dress, she saw us enter and quickly got to her feet as her eyes met with Olivia.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Jasmine.” She smiled gently towards Olivia, who took a small step backwards before turning to me. Patting her back, I gave her a small smile and shook my head intending to tell her not to hide. Olivia turned back to Jasmine with her eyes to the floor, trembling a bit.
“O-Olivia.” Speaking softly after a minute, Olivia stopped trembling but continued to avoid eye contact. Jasmine didn’t seem to mind at all as she continued to smile.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Olivia. This is my bonded monster, Wholigan. She feels excited to meet you.”
“Woohoo~”
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The owl hoots softly while tilting its head. Is it confused?
“I have some tea if you’d like to join me.” Jasmine sits down on one couch while gesturing to the one opposite her.
Olivia turned to look at me then Elise before looking at Jasmine. After another minute, she slowly walked to the other couch and sat down nervously, glancing at me once again.
Jasmine started talking to her softly, introducing herself and talking about small topics. Olivia at first had remained silent, but as Jasmine continued to ask her questions about herself, Olivia slowly answered. At first it had been one word answers, but slowly she spoke a little more. I knew it would take time for her to open up more, but seeing her being able to talk to another, even a little, made me happy.
“I plan on them going into a dungeon tomorrow. Olivia’s weapon is ready as well, and while I don’t want to push her too quickly, I think it’ll be best for her to go in sooner rather than later.”
“Mm, I don’t want to force her either. I had been worried she would hide today, but she’s trying her best.”
Olivia still looked over to me and I only returned a small smile. She slowly stopped looking at me as much over the course of the conversation with Jasmine.
“Jasmine and her team are very excited to meet you as well. You’re very popular amongst the Bronze and Silver grades, you should spend more time around the Guild.”
“I know. I’m just a bit busy right now.”
“Yes yes, new house, lessons with the Branch Master, learning techniques from Flowing River, taking care of Olivia, learning Gravity and so on. You’re a very busy person. You should look at doing more requests though. You know you’ve only ever done two requests officially? The inn, that ended up with assassins attempting to take your life and the orphanage where you came under attack by a level 100 bear. Both of those were Bronze grade! You skipped Silver and since reaching Gold you’ve only ever done a request we provided. I want you to reach ten requests done before the blizzard in two months. And no complaining, you’re low on money right now so it’ll be good for you. You know Elizabeth has done thirty Gold Grade requests?”
Smiling at her mini rant, I told her I would get on it. In return, Elise said that guiding Jasmine’s party tomorrow would count as one request but after that I had to come to the Guild more often and take requests myself.
“So what are your plans for the rest of the day?”
“I was actually thinking of inviting Jasmine to our house for dinner if everything went well here. I planned to provide some stat increasing food, I’ve recently started making food that gives 300 in all Stats instead of just one Stat. It’s the least I can do since she is helping.”
“An excellent idea. Jasmine is a rather big fan of yours, you have no idea how nervous she was today. Do you have plans to give them that egg that gives more experience and the soup that gives a temporary boost to Stats?”
“I don’t have the ingredients for either. They’re a pain in the arse to make as well so the amount I make will be limited. If only I had another me.” Sighing, Elise and I continued to talk, mainly about the house I had commissioned.
I already had obtained a letter of recommendation from both Roland and Alexander, which nearly caused the Royal Guard who took my application to fall off his chair. Smiling at the memory of him running off to his manager, who had been equally as shocked, I had rather enjoyed that moment. I had visited Grandma and she had been excited to see me again, dragging me around to various different ovens and stoves. I had ordered three ovens and two stoves and they had already been picked up by the Winter’s Retreat courthouse.
“I had a dream last night.”
“Oh?”
“About Alice. I remembered her death.”
Elise frowned before realisation appeared on her face. “That Alice? Oh, Alisha, are you alright?”
“Mm, I am. I don’t know why I remembered that moment in particular.”
“Well, you did say the Moon Goddess said your memories would slowly recover. Let me know if you remember anything else, okay?”
“Thanks, Elise.”
“It’s what I do. Are you planning on heading into a dungeon yourself or do some more hunting?”
“After the blizzard. I want to set everything up first and once that is done I’ll head out somewhere. I’ve still got to go through the loot I claimed in Zalus, open a restaurant and do some more mana control lessons with Alexander.”
“Busy busy. And you’re guiding a group through a dungeon tom-”
“Tomorrow?!” As if finishing her sentence, Olivia spoke loudly out of surprise before glancing at us in a panic.
“Ah, she told her.” Elise and I just smile and glance back at Olivia. It was her decision at the end of the day. Olivia looked panicked and glanced down at her hands nervously before shaking her head.
“Well, it might have been too soon. Onto plan B.”
“I take it you want her to meet them one at a time?”
“Yes, her reason is likely because she doesn’t know the other two. We’ll do this over the next two months. I’ll get her to meet one next week and the other the week after. Have Jasmine come for dinner tonight and invite her to come every third night. Do the same with the other two and have them join you after she meets them. Encourage her to spend time with them and be casual. If she is willing before the blizzard then that’ll be great, but we don’t want to push her. Jasmine has agreed to this plan as well, minus the dinner part. I had told her to just spend time with Olivia where possible.”
“I can do that. I’ll also help her get used to fighting again. I don’t think she’s done any fighting since we were originally teleported.”
“Good idea. It’s good to see she’s at least talking to Jasmine a little bit.”
“Mm.”
After ten more minutes of talking, Olivia and Jasmine stood and walked over, with Olivia coming to my side and held my arm again.
Jasmine looked at me in a daze before quickly snapping out of it.
“I-I’m Jasmine, i-it’s a-awesome to m-meet you!”
“Told you.” I heard Elise’s amused voice as I pursed my lips.
“I’m Alisha, thank you for today.”
“N-no, it’s nothing to be thanked for. W-when Elise told me, I wanted to help, I don’t need thanks for that.”
After having a chat with Jasmine, I invited her for dinner, shocking her but she accepted after glancing at Olivia.
***
Sitting down and practising Gravity, thoughts ran through my mind about my future plans. I had thoughts of heading into the Tomb of Lilith, but part of me didn’t know if it would be a good idea. I’d learnt that the highest level of monsters was level 100. The most that had been explored was to floor 126 and at that level it had become…twisted. Elise refused to elaborate and had told me I should avoid doing so.
My mind had been on why Tessa had suggested it. Is there a reason for her suggestion, or was it suggested as something to do? It would take about three months to travel to the depths that the last team had explored, which would be a lot of time. The theory on the Tomb of Lilith is that it has 150 floors altogether. Figuring I would discuss it with Summer, I stopped practising and headed out towards the Guild with Coffee.
Heading in, I went to the Gold Grade floor and headed towards the request board. I had called Coffee into my mana realm and worn the old hood that Floof had given me. I knew Elise wanted me to mix in with adventurers but at the moment I simply wanted to relax. But that ended up not being the case. People here were strong enough to see through this hood and simply greeted me anyway. Deciding to just remove the hood, I looked over the requests.
“Night watch? Assist the Royal Guard during the night…no. Hunt monsters…no. Oh? Hunt a criminal.”
Grabbing a request, I saw it was to help locate a wanted criminal who had killed a family. Estimated to be level 80, he had stolen an extremely valuable stone from a noble as well. The reward would be one Diamond coin and a ticket to visit a Shrine Master. I didn’t exactly care for the Shrine Master, I could give that to Olivia to help her.
“Want to find him together?” Not bothering to look at Summer who had appeared next to me, I nod.
“Sure. Split the reward?”
“Nah, just tell em to give two tickets and Diamond coins. I don’t need the ticket, planning to give it to my little sister. I just want the Diamond coin.”
“Same here. I’m planning to give mine to Olivia.”
“Makes sense. Shrine Masters would be pretty useless to you considering your identity. Let’s go register.”
Turning the request in, the attendant frowned before shaking his head.
“If it wasn’t you I’d have shooed you away. Alright, some information for you two. He’s a dangerous man experienced in illusion magic. This illusion magic is rather annoying, illusion break techniques don’t work well because his magic is multi-layered. He is able to use his illusion magic on himself, giving himself a new appearance. Here, this is a portrait of his true self. He’s an ex-adventurer that had been expelled due to putting his team into danger for his own greed.”
Memorising the portrait and descriptive information, I handed the portrait back. It also contained information on the stone. A pure white gem-like stone that had weak pulses of mana. It sort of reminded me of the blue gem in my mana realm, which had recently been pulsing with a strange energy recently. The strange energy had no effect on me, but it had slowly become stronger.
“How many others are on this job?” Summer hands the attendant the portrait back while asking.
“Half the damn Gold Grades. Seriously, they’re going on about how this is an easy job and it’ll be done in no time. Even those level 100s are chasing after this guy yet have no idea how to handle illusions. I’d recommend grabbing another request to do while you search for this guy, the Royal Guard needs help as usual and all you’ll be doing is patrolling the streets. It’s three Mithril coins for the night.”
Deciding to do that request as well, the attendant handed both of us two tokens and Summer and I headed out to search and patrol.