"Hey, Adimir what's the name of that spell you used to finish off big red?" Tauna asked him.

"It's called hellfire. A simple spell, but it costs a lot to use. Why do you ask?" Adimir answered.

"Well, I was thinking we should use it as our trademark name since it was what we used to kill the ogre with. So let's name ourselves the hellfire squad!" Tauna declared with a smug expression at how exceptional her naming sense was.

"While I don't disagree with that way of choosing our name, why not just be called the order of hellfire or something instead?" Adimir said.

"Well, hellfire squad sounds cooler! Besides the order of hellfire sounds like we're some shady demon organization." She replied.

"Shady!? It doesn't sound shady at all! You were the one that suggested using hellfire in our name in the first place." He exclaimed.

"How about this the hellhounds? It sounds cool and isn't as shady. Does that sound good?" Mira intervened before they could get into an argument about what would count as sounding shady.

"Well, it does sound cool… I'm alright with that name. Although I'm afraid Adimir being the cute tiny child he is would be more of a hell pup than anything." Tauna said after mulling it over.

"Hellhounds sounds like a good name to me, but I'd be just as much of a hound as the rest of you! Unlike what some fools think." Adimir added glaring at Tauna who just smiled gleefully in return.

"It's decided then from here on out we will be known as the hellhounds, but we have one more problem to solve before anything else though." The ranger said solemnly.

What?' The other two said in unison.

"With the exception of Adimir's equipment, the rest of ours is destroyed or too damaged to continue using safely so we should head to a weapon shop in the market to buy some new equipment. With the money, we have now we should even be able to buy something better than our previous things even if only slightly." Mira said while taking out her short sword and dagger to showcase what she meant.

Adimir examined the weapons and couldn't help but agree. The two blades had numerous chips and cracks running through them and probably wouldn't last more than a couple of swipes and stabs before being completely useless. Tauna's mace was most likely in a similar condition, and her shield was destroyed. But that all just attested to how difficult of an opponent the ogre was, and what a miracle it was that they not only survived but slew it.

"Well, what are we lounging around here for then? Let's get going to the market! I already feel naked without my shield." Tauna yelled out while abruptly standing up shoving the chair she was sitting on the back.

"Take it easy we can head out now. You have too much energy bottled up." Mira sighed out from how energetic her teammate could be at times. Even Adimir who had the body and energy of a child couldn't help but nod in agreement.

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A while later after they had exited the adventurer's guild the trio arrived in the market and were scoping out a weapons shop to buy some new goods at. "Anyone spot anything yet?" Adimir asked while looking around. There were dozens of people in the market area and with them all being 2-3 feet taller than Adimir it could be a bit difficult at times to spot any of the shop's signs. Thankfully though he wasn't alone.

"I see one to our left. It's called Eldred's weapon craft." Tauna replied while pointing in the general direction of it.

"Let's go to that one then. We can't afford to be picky after all." Mira said.

After navigating their way through the crowd Adimir and the others soon arrived inside the weapons shop. On either side of the walls there weapon racks with an assortment of weapons, like axes, spears, swords, hammers, polearms, and more available to buy. In the center of all this back sitting behind a desk was a grey-bearded stocky dwarf who was 5'3" tall tapping his fingers impatiently in wait of paying customers.

Upon spotting the two girls with broken and deformed weapons a smile lit up his face. "Hello, dear customers! Welcome to Eldred's weapon crafts! My name is Eldred, and I'm the owner of this here shop. We buy scrap metal like those broken weapons of yours for cheap, and also sell good quality weapons at fair prices. First-time customers will even get a 15% discount on their first purchases!" The dwarf said pitching in practiced salesman talk.

"That's a great deal he's offering. How much will you buy our weapons for?" Mira said while walking up to the counter and placing her weapons on it. Tauna also followed suit placing a warped and fractured iron mace on it.

Eldred took a moment to examine it before announcing a price. "I'll pay you 40 copper coins for the short sword and dagger, and 20 for the mace." He offered.

Both Mira and Tauna accepted it without arguing and then began to search the store for anything that suited them. Adimir wandered the store gazing at the various weapons in wonder. The majority of the weapons were either iron or steel, but some looked like they were made from dwarven and elvish blacksmiths as well.

Soon enough a box discarded in the corner of the store that had mana seeping from it soon caught his attention. When he went over to look at it however, he saw that it was just filled with miscellaneous items that had enchantments on them. Oddly enough however the price for these enchanted items was all 20 copper coins each. Even a weak enchanted item would sell at a single silver coin, so for an entire box of enchanted items to cost 20 copper coins each was quite shocking to him as a mage.

"Hey, Mr. Eldrid why are all these enchanted items priced at 20 copper? Shouldn't they be more expensive?" He asked the store owner. Said owner walked over to see what Adimir was talking about, but when he spotted the box of enchanted items his face twisted in displeasure.

"The reason for the pricing is because those are all failed enchanted items," Eldred answered in a voice laced with bitterness.

"Why are they failures?" He asked genuinely curious about what would qualify as a failed enchantment in this world.

"Well take for example this leather bag here. It was supposed to have a small pocket dimension enchantment placed upon it but somewhere along the line the enchanting process was botched by the mage and it started teleporting whatever you put into it god knows where," the dwarf said pointing at a leather sack large enough to fit a basketball sitting below an iron dagger.

Eldred then gestured to the dagger, "or that dagger. It has an enchantment to sap mana. But instead of sapping the mana of the people you hit with it the damned thing saps the mana of the one who holds it! Do you see why they're priced so cheap? Who'd want to use such useless junk." The Shop owner said ruefully. When looking back at the enchanted "junk" instead of looking at it with the disdain the owner held for it Adimir instead started to think about potential uses for such items.

"I'll buy the dagger and the magic bag." He finally said after a moment of contemplation.

Upon hearing this Eldred looked at him with a surprised expression. "Are you sure lad? They probably won't be of much use to you." He asked. Adimir merely took out a single silver coin.

"I'm sure. Can I have change for the silver coin though?" Adimir confirmed.

The dwarf nodded and took the silver coin before going back to his desk and grabbing 60 copper coins for him. Now Adimir had two misunderstood but useful pieces of enchanted gear in his arsenal, and he was already getting excited to try them out. Tauna and Mira also finished their business soon. Tauna bought an iron-plated tower shield as big as the previous one for 78 copper, and a steel mace for 34 copper. Mira, on the other hand, bought a steel short sword for 43 copper, and a steel dagger for 17 copper. Tauna was cradling her new tower shield to her chest with a foolish grin, and Mira was sheathing her new blades.

"Buy anything good?" Mira asked him. Adimir flashed a devilish smile thinking about the things he'd do with these items.

"Yeah, I bought some really good items." He replied happily.

"That's good, but do you have an inn to stay at? If you don't the one Tauna and I are staying at is pretty good if you want to check it out?" She offered. Before he had a chance to reply Tauna butted into the conversation to give her opinion.

"The inns totally awesome. It's called the Drowsy serpent and is ran by this ex-adventurer! And he was a silver rank back in the day! The food there is also great. You'll love it there! "Tauna proclaimed.

Hm. You sound like a door to door salesman with how your speaking of it, but it sounds like it's a good place." Adimir giggled.

"What's a door to door salesman?" Tauna inquired.

"Annoying people who don't know when to stop trying to get you to buy useless junk!" Adimir informed her.

"Wow! That sounds pretty terrible. Wait does that mean you just insulted me just now?" She said frowning when she figured out the meaning of his words.

"Anyways what do you say?" Mira asked steering their conversation back on track.

"I'll stay at the same inn as you guys. I don't have an inn to stay at. Besides, it would be more convenient if we all stayed in the same inn." He answered.

"That's good to hear. Tauna and I will show you the way." She said shooting a smile towards him. Seemingly perfectly happy with forgetting about the salesman thing. After some walking, they came to a stop in front of a three-story-tall building that had lights on in nearly all of its windows signifying just how many customers they had. "The best thing about this place is that it's just a few minutes' walk from anywhere you need to be. Guild, market, restaurant. All the ones you'd be going here are close. So, it's pretty well placed, and a lot of adventurers choose to stay here." Tauna told him with a measure of pride despite the fact that she was only sleeping there.

Adimir followed them inside and they were greeted by a loud masculine voice, "Welcome back you two! Did you have another good day today?" When Adimir traced the voice back to its owner he found that it was a short but muscular man behind a counter serving booze to customers who called out to them. "Yup. We had a good haul today!" Tauna replied cheerfully before anyone else could say anything. The ex-adventurers gaze soon landed on Adimir and his previously jubilant face turned solemn.

"Did Tauna kidnap another kid today Mira?" He asked in a tense voice. Hearing this caused Adimir looked at Tauna with an icy glare. Sensing his icy glare Tauna in a bout of desperation attempted to refute the question.

"I never kidnapped anyone! I was only offering him candy!" She cried out.

"That's what a kidnapper who got caught in the act would claim." Mira quickly shot back with a scowl resting upon her face.

"But but! I'm innocent!" The wolf-kin girl cried out. Seeing her friends panicked and flustered face brought a smile to Mira's face and she patted her back and consoled her.

"There there. We all know you were just offering them candy. We're just messing with you." She said while holding back a laugh.

When Mira began consoling her friend the man behind the counter broke out into an amused grin. Seeing this scene Adimir realized that it was not the Tauna that he should be wary of, but these two people. Despite looking like a kind and normal girl Mira was a true devil when it came to tease, and contrary to his looks resembling an uncaring badass mc of an American action movie the fellow behind the bar counter was also in on the entire thing. He was going to have to pay extra attention to what he did around these two in the future. In his peripheral vision, Adimir noticed that the other customers were all smiling and watching the exchange revealing that this was a common and pleasant occurrence.

"Ahem back to important matters. This is Adimir. He's our new mage of our team and is currently an iron rank. He just joined today." Mira said to the ex-adventurer.

"I see. Well, Adimir it's good to meet you. Keep an eye on these two, will you? They can get into all kinds of trouble. By the way, my name is Paul." The man who introduced himself said.

"I experienced it firsthand. We were going to go out and clear out a nest of goblins, but instead, we ran into an ogre and barely managed to kill it." Adimir said, his face twisting in displeasure at the memory of that ogre's tyrannical strength.

Upon hearing that they had encountered and managed to kill it despite it being a higher ranked creature than they caused his mouth to drop in shock. He then turned to look at Mira as if silently asking if what he said was true.

"It's true. If it wasn't for Adimir putting his all into one last powerful spell we would have died in that cave." She said solemnly.

"That's unbelievable! But I must ask what spell did you use."? Paul asked unable to hold back his curiosity. Looking around Adimir noticed that the other people here were leaning in trying to hear what type of spell finished off an ogre.

"Hellfire! That's the spell he said he used! So, in honor of that, we've named ourselves the hellhounds!" Tauna declared while striking a hero pose with her fists on her hips with a proud smile.

"Well it certainly sounds impressive," Paul said before glancing at Adimir, "although I think your mage is more of a hell pup than a hellhound." He added. This caused Tauna to burst out laughing as Mira suppressed a laugh. All while Adimir narrowed his eyes and frowned.

"Anyways I'm looking to get a room here." He said in a disgruntled tone.

"Yes yes of course. That'll be 20 copper a week." Paul said with an amused grin. Adimir handed him the 20 coppers to him, and Paul handed him a brass key. "Second-floor third door on the right is where you'll be. The door just across the hallway is your friend's room. Enjoy your stay!" Paul said with a friendly smile.

"Thanks. I'm going to head to bed early. Goodnight." Adimir thanked Paul before addressing his teammates.

"Goodnight Adimir." Mira said.

"Now make sure the monsters under the bed don't give you nightmares!" Tauna replied with an aloof grin.

Adimir shook his head and went up to his room. Upon his arrival, he noticed that the quality of the room was pretty good. It had a bed tucked into the corner, with a nightstand above it. Above the nightstand was a window, and off to the side was a dresser, with a trunk next to it. At the window, however, there was a pigeon minding its own business. Seeing this brought a sly smile to his face. It was just what he needed at the moment.

"Trahere," he whispered. An invisible force of mana wrapped itself around the pigeon and yanked it straight into the room, slamming the window open in the process. Adimir snatched the pigeon out of the air as the energy of the spell ran out and it ended. The poor thing was still confused as to what had happened when Adimir's mana began to seep into its mind, and he began a battle of wills with the bird. The pigeon began a fierce struggle as it felt the alien energy seeping into it forcing him to hold the pigeon down onto the ground. Soon enough however it was too late as his mana overwhelmed, and overriding its mind causing the pigeon to fall limp.

But it was still alive, but it had lost what little of its consciousness, and now its body was but a mindless puppet for Adimir to control. He let it go and used the string of mana linking its body with his to send a command for it to stand up. He then manipulated it to use its right wing to salute them. After watching it complete the orders with only a fraction of a second of lag time turned his smile into a full-blown grin. He retired to his room to train rather than sleep, and he was training in his own original magic that he's been perfecting for over 20 years.

The magic he called carnomancy that he made in secret. It was made to manipulate the proteins and other organic molecules in one's flesh. Due to the complexities of the body, he hasn't made it completely combat-ready as of yet. If it had been combat-ready the fight with the ogre wouldn't have required, the use of the hellfire spell.

That was just a taste of how much potential this magic had at its first and most basic stage. Adimir then began to test the way the limbs moved and bent to get used to this new animal's body movements. For the longest time, he had been using rats and mice for his experiments, but now that he had a new test subject, he wouldn't let this chance slip by him. Soon enough he had gotten used to the way the body moved to be able to move it naturally.

He then began to make it fly laps around the room and then landed it on his dresser, and put it to sleep. He now had a new animal to add to his new collection. Adimir decided he'd use it later to begin luring in more pigeons to test some of his new theories on to further develop this magic until it was combat-ready. The fight with the ogre today forced him to realize just how vulnerable he is in this world. Ogres were indeed formidable, but in the end, they were only middle tier on the monster tier list.

If he wanted to be able to do more than just survive in this world, he needed more power. That's why while the others were more than satisfied with their close victory over the ogre he was dissatisfied. So Adimir began his first all-nighter in a new place reconstructing the pigeon's body while it slumbered.