Three weeks had passed, and in that time I have been accomplishing a lot. My skill with my knife had grown greatly I had leveled up to level 5, finally catching up to my party and being able to join them on more difficult quests. I had obtained a steady income doing quests and selling goods at the shop.

I'd spend every morning at the training area inside of the city, casting different spells and utilizing my knife as well as magic for different complicated abilities. I had obtained two new spells. I also unlocked a skill tree known as saber skills. Every skill I unlock here I can use my knife or another weapon to cast.

I had been going on quests every morning with Zach, and Arin had kept watch over us.I noticed during the night that Arin never returned to his room, which worried me. Zach had told me he'd always done this and doesn't need sleep like normal humans. He's been around a lot lately, which is good because I hate going outside the city alone after the incident a few weeks back.

"Yo, shortie." Zach had arrived at the training area, carrying his legendary blade on his back. "You ready to go?" He smiled.

"Nope." I scoffed. "Use my name or don't address me at all." I spat crossing my arms and looking back at the dummy crushing a catalyst in my hand. "FROSTBOLT!" I shouted completely demolishing the training dummy and leaving a dent in the wall behind.

"Wow your power really has been increasing!" Zach exclaimed. "Guess that's what you get for waking up early every morning for training. You used to sleep in till noon!" He teased me. I ignored him, waiting for my name to be called.

"Okay fine. Anna, are you ready to go?" Zach asked.

"Finally some manners around here." I said, putting away my knife and walking off with him. "Where shall we go today? The plains of terror? The mountains of undeath? The ocean of zombie dragons?!" I laughed making fun of some of the weird named places around here.

"Well if those were actual locations I'd be more curious as to why there was an ocean full of zombie dragons." Zach remarked.

"Maybe they were thirsty!" I smiled and he smiled back, ruffling my hair with his hand.

"You're stupid." He joked.

We met up with Arin who sadly said he couldn't watch over us on our quest today, so Zach and I decided to meet with his guardian for the first time. Zach still had his uncomforts about Arin but I cared for him a lot and always trusted him to protect us. There had been situations these past weeks in which I had to call upon Arin, and every time I hated it more and more.

"Hi! I'm Julie." Zach's guardian was a tall, heavier girl with snow white hair and skin. Her eyes were pink and her skin was translucent. She wore black armor similar to Arin's but did not wear a mask. "I can watch over you on your quest today, but it's not like I care about you or anything." She said to us.

"She's so tsundere!" Zach said practically drooling over this girl. He hugged her and she threatened to punch him causing him to back off awkwardly.

"I'm just waiting to catch her in the shower by accident one day." Zach whispered to me. I laughed to myself.

"If you did that you wouldn't only have her beating you senseless." I smiled. "I'd gladly help beat you to a pulp." I cracked my knuckles and Julie and I gave Zach an angry look.

"You know Zach," Julie began. "I like this girl." She put her arm around me confidently. I smiled and we left the Temple of the Guardians. I saw a few familiar faces as we exited the building.

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"Yo Zach!" Kayden, the demihuman from before had noticed us, and was waving us over to the training area they were at. We headed that way, as Julie and I talked about different quests we could complete today. She was a very nice girl, despite her attitude towards Zach.

"Kayden my man!" Zach exclaimed high fiving him. Tye was there along with Stephanie. They were both sitting down and inspecting green bottles of liquid. "How've you been?" He said.

"We've been busy, even completed a rank 6 quest the other day." He said proudly.

"That's sick!" Zach exclaimed. "Can't wait up for me though can you?"

"Well you've been helping out your girl over there everyday so we've been getting tired of waiting for you." Kayden smiled at me and I returned the favor, however Julie did not.

"She is not his girl!" Julie snapped before I could object. "B-but!" She backtracked. "It's not like I like him or anything!" Zach had explained what a tsundere was to me, and he was completely right. She was a full blown Tsundere.

"Don't worry," I said. "I'm not out here trying to steal Zach from you." Julie just blushed and punched my arm. Julie was very different compared to Arin, so not all of the guardians are the same.

"Actually," Zach said. "Anna and I have been taking on level 7 and 8 quests." everyone's head turned to look at us.

"You've been WHAT?!" Kayden exclaimed, a dumbfounded expression flushed over his face. Even Tye and Stephanie got up from what they were doing to come over to us with stupid looks on their faces.

"There's no way you guys have been doing level 7 and 8 quests by yourselves." Tye snapped, getting in Zach's face a bit.

"Hell yeah we have!" Zach exclaimed looking at me for support.

"It's true." I said.

"The five of us should take on this level 10 quest then!" Kayden said, pulling out a slip of paper from his pocket and showing it to Zach and I. "I've been saving it for our final graduation quest, but it should work just fine with five of us!"

The paper read "WANTED: Atrogus, Lich of the North".

"So we just need to hunt down this guy who has been kidnapping girls from the next city over." Zach said reading the paper. I scowled pulling the paper out of his hands.

"We're doing this one." I said, "I won't let any innocent people be treated like objects." I rolled the paper up and put it in my backpack.

"Miss Anna!" Stephanie piped up. "Wouldn't it be too much for us to handle? It's a graduation quest!" She put her hands behind her back in a shy way whilst looking at me.

"I think you guys could handle it, and I'll be there as a back up." Julie said, taking her spear off her back. "I do have a relic weapon after all, so if anything I could save your asses." She laughed.

"Woah you have a relic weapon?" Kayden said looking impressed. "Those are incredible!" He reached out his hands as if to try and see Julie's weapon.

"No touching!" Julie smacked him on the head with the butt of her black spear.

"Owww!" Kayden said rubbing his head. "Alright, sheesh."

"How are we even going to get to the next town?" Tye said. "We don't have any transportation."

"Actually," Zach replied, looking smug. "Anna here has a caravan we can all ride in." He pointed to me and I acknowledged that I do.

"Where'd you manage to get one of those?" Tye snapped.

"She stole it from some bandits." Zach laughed.

"You went up against bandits and lived?" Stephanie asked, her eyes shining brightly.

"Uhm. Yes." I said, shying away slowly remembering that situation. "I kicked their asses!" I lied through my teeth to brighten up the mood.

"All you guys would need then would be a familiar." Julie mentioned.

"We'd have to hire one." Kayden suggested.

"Actually..." Stephanie muttered softly. "Alec has one I think we could use."

"Your guardian has a familiar?!" Zach said. "Is she a girl?!" He asked excitedly.

"It doesn't matter!" Julie snapped, smacking Zach on the head with the bottom of her spear. "Yes, Alec has a familiar, as well as Arin and I. Most guardians gather one as they adventure."

"What's a familiar?" I asked.

"A familiar is a demi-human who can transform into an animal, and are mostly used for combat or transport purposes." Julie replied.

"Now, I can let you guys borrow mine as long as you promise to keep him safe." Julie said. "I love Grayson with all my heart and if he were to get hurt I wouldn't forgive you!" She looked directly at Zach while saying this.

"Fine! I'll take care of him." Zach said.

"I don't trust you, I guess I'll have to go with you the whole way!" Julie replied, her cheeks puffed out. This was odd to me, as I assumed she had planned on going with us anyway just in case, but perhaps not.

We began to disperse, as we were going to collect some things for the journey.

"We'll meet back in two hours, we should arrive to the next city by nightfall." Kayden told us before we left.