The three companions walked down the dried-up creek bed deeper into the forest, following the trail of blood in silence. The blush still covered Pom’s face as she tightly crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to look at Anthony or Elara as she followed behind them.

“I—I’m really sorry, Pom… I hope you know it was an accident.”

Pom turned her head away as Anthony looked back at her, but she slowly glanced up toward him after he had looked away. The look in her eyes made it clear she was preparing to say something.

After another quarter-mile of silent hiking, Pom finally stepped up beside Anthony and broke the silence.

“Do you want to make it up to me?”

Anthony’s eyelid opened a bit wider at the suggestion, as he swiftly nodded his head.

“Of course!”

Pom nodded in satisfaction at his answer, staring ahead at the trail as she began to speak.

“Then will you talk about how you’re feeling? It hasn't been long at all since you were forced to kill your own stepfather, and you haven’t said a word about it since it happened. We all just went on about our business like nothing happened. Well, something did happen. Something awful...”

Anthony let out a deep sigh as he looked away from the big brown eyes staring up at him from Pom's face, rubbing the back of his head as he responded.

“Well… I don’t know why exactly, but I don’t feel as bad as I probably should about it. Something weird happened to my cultivation method when he confessed to being responsible for my mother's death. It’s like some of the bad emotions I should be feeling got sucked up into the ball of power in my head.”

A look of concern spread across Pom’s face as Anthony revealed the reason behind his seemingly untroubled mood.

“Is that really okay? Humans are supposed to get sad when bad things happen.”, Pom questioned softly.

Anthony waved his hand dismissively at her remark.

“I can still feel sad; it's just… it’s just not unbearable like it used to be. I spent the last ten years of my life doing nothing but being sad all the time. It was so bad that I didn’t want to live anymore. Compared to that, the sadness I feel now is like a pleasant breeze.”

Pom’s brows furrowed as she stared up at Anthony’s face. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Elara beat her to it.

“You’re thinking too much, Pom. Edgar knows what he is doing. If he gave that cultivation method to Anthony, then it’s for the best. Now quit with all the distractions; we are getting close.”

Elara’s grin widened as she reached down and picked up the dagger she had lost earlier. The warg must have eventually shook it out while moving through this area. She casually tossed the blade to Anthony so he wouldn't be unarmed any longer as they continued through the forest.

The trail of blood grew thicker as they walked, evidence that the creature was slowing down more and more as it moved through the area, allowing the blood dripping from it to pool in larger puddles on the ground.

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“Are you sure that poison magic was strong enough to finish it off? If this thing is still alive, we will be walking up on a very angry, injured beast,” Anthony commented as he examined the sleek dagger in his hand.

Elara gave him a thumbs up as she tilted her chin toward the sky, a bright smile spreading across her face.

“You may not know this, but your team leader is a skilled magic user. That poison blade spell I stuck into the flank of the warg could take down a mountain troll.” Elara scratched her head after speaking, a look of uncertainty crossing her face. “I mean, not right away, of course. It would probably take a few… uh… weeks.”

Anthony rolled his eyes as he listened to the unhelpful bragging, but his expression turned serious as they spotted the warg’s body just around the next corner.

The three companions froze in place as they carefully stared at the creature. It lay on its back, its large tongue sticking out of its unmoving mouth, while the whites of its eyes had turned dark green. A thick puddle of blood pooled around the creature's resting spot.

Elara glanced over toward Anthony arrogantly as she pressed her hands against her hips, waiting for him to acknowledge that she was right.

Without saying a word, the young man cautiously stepped forward. The closer he got, the more apparent it became that the creature was truly dead. Letting out a breath as the tension drained from his body, Anthony returned the dagger to Elara and retrieved his sword from the creature's ribs.

Elara clapped her hands together once as she spoke.

“Well done, everyone! It’s not every day that a team of newbies takes down a warg on their own. Even if it was only a juvenile, it’s still an impressive accomplishment! Now we just have to make sure we get paid properly for our service to the town!”

Elara stepped forward with her dagger, chopping hard at the creature’s right ear. The skin was leathery and tough, so it took her a minute to fully remove the extremity.

As Pom casually walked around the clearing waiting for Elara to finish, a sudden gasp escaped her lips, and she quickly covered her mouth with both hands.

Anthony and Elara looked up to see their companion standing wide-eyed as she stared at a cluster of purple mushrooms growing on the side of a nearby tree.

Elara’s eyes narrowed as she glanced from Pom to the odd-looking fungus, her mercenary instincts kicking in as she sensed the presence of something valuable.

“What is it, Pom? Did you find something good?”

The color drained from Pom’s face as she began looking around warily, stepping over toward her companions swiftly as a whisper escaped her lips.

“That’s a magical ingredient—it shouldn’t be here. They are almost always protected by demonic creatures!”

Elara and Anthony exchanged glances before both their eyes shot toward the dead warg in unison.

“You mean… like that one?” Elara said casually as she pointed the tip of her dagger at the dead warg.

Pom pushed her glasses up as she stared down at the body of the warg, blinking rapidly as a look of realization spread over her face.

“Y-yeah, actually. Exactly like that one!”

The fear disappeared from Pom’s voice, replaced by eagerness as she quickly rushed back over toward the purple mushrooms.

Pulling the heavy pack off her back, Pom retrieved a small container and a tool that looked like a small shovel with a sharpened yet rounded tip.

She used the shovel to casually scrape the cluster of mushrooms off the tree, letting them fall broken to the ground, causing looks of uncertainty to spread across her companions’ faces.

Elara jumped to her feet, pointing a red finger at the mushrooms on the floor.

“Hey! What gives? You said those were valuable!”

Pom giggled happily as she began to use the tool in her hand to carefully dig away the bark where the mushrooms had been growing. She placed the pieces of bark one by one in the container she had prepared as she responded to Elara’s concern.

“Yes, but only the roots contain the valuable ingredient; the mushroom heads themselves are worthless. Unless you’re hungry—they’re quite bitter but edible.”

A look of realization spread over Elara and Anthony as they approached the area where Pom was working.

“So what is so good about these things? What can you make with them?”

Pom glanced back up at them with an eager smile on her face, clenching her fingers excitedly as she answered, “Beast charming potions!”