A few weeks passed, and we arrived at a farming village. It was peaceful being surrounded by flatland instead of forests in all directions. There were livestock farms in the distance and a small lake to the south.

By this time, I was more comfortable with the group and was slowly becoming one of them. Vera was a charismatic and capable leader, but she had more than a few suicidal tendencies. Jefford was stoic but caring, and he always seemed to listen when anybody had something to say. Cyrus had mood swings, but he would only come from stoic seriousness to comedic idiot and nothing in between when it happened, nothing too crazy. Sandra was normally a mediator whenever members of the guild would fight, but when she got angry, no one could stop her. It's best to stay on her good side.

We entered the town and went straight to the guildhall. There, we found out that the town was being harassed by bandits nightly. The town guard was too understaffed to deal with them and no adventurers willing to take the job came through recently.

As soon as Vera heard 'bandits', she said, "We'll take it."

"That sounds about right," said Sandra, sipping a mug of tea.

I asked, "Why does she sound so excited about bandits?"

"Are you kidding me?" said Vera, "Bandits mean loot." She put her arm around me. "And we get to see what you're really made of."

"Flesh and bone," I said with a giggle.

"We'll see." She was handed a piece of paper by the guy behind the bar counter, and she looked at it, wide-eyed, and laid it out on the counter. "Here we go."

Aside from a few stamps of approval, the paper said that the bandits numbered somewhere between fifteen and forty. Because they only came out at night it was impossible to tell exactly how many there were. In accepting this mission, we were also contracted to stay in town until it was completed. After all, none of the attacks happened beyond the outskirts of town.

We set up our base in an unused shack at the lake and waited until nightfall. Once the sun fell, I had to wake up Jefford who fell asleep by the stairs leading to the exit. The others left the task to me as they all headed out and I happened to be the last to get to the stairs. He was resting against the wall next to the stairs when he fell asleep. I woke him fairly easily, but due to his helmet, I couldn't tell if he woke up until he made a sound as if he was gasping for air.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine, just started breathing through my gills on accident." He stood away from the wall and wobbled a bit.

"Oh yeah, you're a merman, right?"

"Yes," He said, jovially waltzing up the nearby steps.

"It's just that I never saw your face or even your skin for that matter. You're always in that suit of armor." I followed him up and outside.

"I suppose I am. If you're lucky, you'll never see it." His tone never shifted.

We met up with everyone else outside and Jefford packed up the door. Leaving it behind was a bad idea when dealing with bandits. Sandra and Vera were arguing about how to deal with the bandits whenever they'd show up. The only thing they could agree on was using bait to lure them in and storming their base after capturing a few to lead us. Vera wanted to use herself as bait and Sandra was insistent against the idea, also proposing that we sneak in instead of going in all gung-ho. We ended up going with Sandra's idea.

As we walked towards town and barely out of sight of the shack, both Vera and Sandra suddenly disappeared. They were both in the front and now they were gone. Upon closer inspection, the ground where they were had also disappeared and Jefford's halberd was sticking into the hole. He lifted it and Vera was on the other end nonchalantly holding onto the pole.

"Thanks," she said, standing on solid ground again.

The sound of a passing breeze guided my eyes upward to see Sandra hovering above us with her skeletal wings spread and a shadow of emerald across them as she slowly descended between me and Cyrus. "It doesn't look like we're surrounded, but they are nearby."

The closest things to us were a small grouping of bushes and trees sparsely dotted around. The fact that they could make a functional trap hole in a day and stay completely out of sight in such an open environment was alarming.

Everyone already had their weapons drawn. Despite not having much practice, I took to aiming my bow and darting my eyes around to see if I could catch sight of anyone.

"I think we're looking in the wrong place." Cyrus looked down into the hole. "Hey, Vera, did that report say anything about how the bandits attacked people?"

"Suspiciously enough, no." The small woman dipped her toe back into the hole and retreated when she didn't find solid ground.

Cyrus took a stone out of his pocket and dropped it into the hole. After a moment of silence, a splash could be heard far below.

"I think either a river runs under the town or we're dealing with some really advanced bandits."He placed his hand into the hole and tapped the side. "Yep, it's real."

"Looks like the lake extends under this area." Jefford looked between the hole and the nearby lake. "Come to think of it, doesn't this lake lead to the one near Appelstadt?"

I looked at the lake and back to the hole. "It seems like it should." I looked again. "But I don't remember seeing any bodies of water between here and there. Could this be an underground waterway?" I peered farther over the edge.

"Nothing else has sprung since this trap appeared. This might not be a trap." Jefford seemed certain.

"Then what is it?" asked Vera.

"Either an invitation or bait."

"No, I don't think it's that." Sandra's quarterstaff had been glowing the whole time and now her eyes were glowing green as well. "It looks like this hole will stay open until something past a certain weight falls in. It's magic."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Vera hopped forward only to be caught by Cyrus and pulled back to land. "Spoilsport."

"Yeah, yeah. There could be spikes at the bottom for all we know." He placed his hand on her head and kept it there.

"There's a way to find out. I think." I drew Baroness and tossed it in the hole like a stick. After a few seconds, there was a splash and no other sounds. I summoned it back and it was wet. "Now for how deep it is." Dropping it pointed down this time, it landed slightly faster. When I summoned it back, it didn't have any mud or sand stuck to it.

Vera dodged from under Cyrus' hand and lept into the hole. Almost as if he saw it coming, Jefford jumped in behind her yelling, "We'll meet up with you guys later."

Suddenly, the hole was gone and solid ground took its place.

"Well, that was sudden." Sandra took a cautious step on the replaced ground.

I hopped straight to the middle of where the hole was and both Sandra and Cyrus looked at me as if I was insane. "What? I was just testing. It looked kind of fun."

Sandra sighed and said, "Yep, you're one of us."

"Is that a good thing?" I asked.

"I don't know." She smiled. "But the bandits surrounding us are making their move." She raised her staff. "Look alive, they're invisible. Look for a silhouette." A green bolt of energy lept from her staff toward one of the trees and a person appeared in a dark blue hood with a knife in their hand. They buckled and fell over.

I felt something wiz by my arm and I turned to see the outline of someone retreating toward the water. Taking aim with my bow, I released the arrow and it found its mark. Another person appeared with a sling in their hand and fell over as my arrow stuck in their side.

Another projectile flew past my face and cut my cheek. I turned, drew, and threw Baroness. It landed in a tree with a hard thud. Another hooded person appeared next to it with a crossbow in their hands and they fell onto their butt. A little bit to the right and my blade would have landed in their face.

Sandra zapped two people in that time and attempted to zap one more who fled while Cyrus blocked as much as he could that was flying our way with his shield.

I walked up to the tree that housed my sword and when I got close, the person stricken with fear suddenly jumped up with a knife and buried it in my chest. It burned like a hot iron and I was taken aback. In response, I drew Reaver and struck at them, only managing to knock away their hood revealing the face of a man. Sandra shot another green bolt and it just barely missed him as he scurried across the ground.

"Scarlet, are you okay?" Sandra rushed to my side.

I took a hard look at the blood in my hand. It was hot; hotter than I felt like it should be. "Burn." My palm caught fire. It felt no warmer than my blood. "Burn!" This time, I turned my palm toward the man escaping in the distance. He caught fire and began rolling around, screaming.

Sandra finally got to me and grabbed my arm, pointing it down before placing both of her hands over my wound and casting a spell to seal it and stop the bleeding. The flames on the man died out quickly while the fire on my hand burned until the blood evaporated.

"You can use magic this whole time?" Sandra leaned me against the tree and questioned me while Cyrus rounded up all the fallen bandits.

"I guess? I also have a familiar." I looked at my once bloodied hand. "Meo." A new flame appeared in the shape of a small fox lying across my arm.

"You called, meo?" He began prancing through the air.

"Oh, it's cute. What kind of contract do you have with it?"

"Apparently, he's been in the family for a few generations," I said, unsure of what she meant by 'contract'.

Meo explained, "It's a life-binding contract. We'll be master and familiar until she dies. We also share each other's pain."

"Yeah, what he said." Suddenly, another sharp pain lept from the same spot I was stabbed. Both Meo and I yelped in surprise.

"Sorry, I had to distract you until I removed that broken knife."

"Ow."

"You'll feel better in a bit." She helped me away from the tree and back to where Cyrus and the bandits were. Some of them were bleeding out and the one I set on fire was covered in second-degree burns. Cyrus tied them up and Sandra waved her staff over them as it glowed green. "Soothing winds." a shallow breeze swept through and my pain disappeared completely. At the same time, the wounds inflicted on the captured bandits seemed to reverse at once. The only one that didn't seem to heal was the burnt one. "Feeling better?"

"Much better."

Cyrus tapped the cheek of the one who had my arrow in their side and they jolted awake. "Mind telling us where your hideout is?"

A female voice responded, "Please don't hurt us. We're being forced to do this by an evil mage."

"Hideout?" His unusually deep voice made every word sound like a threat.

"There are passageways all over town to an underground waterway."

"Like the one that opened up here?" said Sandra.

"No, that was a trap hole. We use those to drop what we steal into the base, but they all lead to the same place. I'll take you."

After disarming all of them, we set the rest loose and took the woman up on her offer. She led us to an area near the road that gradually dipped into a rocky tunnel. Visibility quickly diminished more than it already had and we were underground. Sandra raised her staff and it gave off a green glow; casting our shadows against the walls. The cloaked woman had a small hand torch that she lit.

As we traveled deeper into the cave, we came upon a split in the passage. Suddenly, the woman turned around and lunged toward us with a dagger. I thought we took all of their weapons, but I was wrong. Cyrus tried to knock her hand away with his shield and missed. Her dagger landed against his armor and broke. He turned and bashed her with his shield, slamming her into a wall and knocking her out.

"We should keep going," said Cyrus, and we continued forward.

After a few minutes of walking, our light source suddenly disappeared. Before I could react, the ground below my feet was gone and I was falling. I braced for landing and before I knew it, I was covered in red flames from Meo. It didn't change the fact I couldn't see far below me.

My feet hit something and I didn't understand what happened until I realized I was floating and my legs hurt. I landed hard in deep water. I was never good at swimming, but I kicked as hard as I could until I reached what felt like a rocky outcropping and pulled myself onto it.

The flames sprouting from my body acted as a light source and my sense of smell was suddenly picking up the scent of minerals in the water as well as a mixture of other things that I couldn't explain coming from up ahead.

There seemed to be no sign of the others, so I followed the smells. In one direction there was a metallic and fishy smell. I followed it until I could hear the sound of heavy metal footsteps and I saw a small light in the distance. The sound of something wheezing past my head and bouncing off the wall told me they weren't taking chances.

"Jefford?" I said, "Was that Vera that just shot at me?"

"Oops, my bad," said Vera, quickening her pace until she was right in front of me. "How are you on fire?"

"I'll explain later. We captured a few bandits and had one lead us here then there were traps."

"So, what happened to the others?"

"Hopefully the same as the rest of us; long fall into water trap."

"Yeah, except Sandra can't swim."

"Uh oh, I forgot." I turned around and bolted into the darkness. Following another scent, we came upon another cavern full of water that I promptly fell into. That's when I realized that I somehow followed my own scent back. Leaping from the water, I took the other route, and eventually, another distinct scent crossed my nose. I followed it and it led to a natural cave full of bats. We ran around blindly until I saw the glint of a black metal shield too close to stop before hitting it and bouncing onto the ground. Looking up, I saw Cyrus pointing his sword at my throat.

"Scarlet? Why are you on fire?" He was as bewildered as Vera.

"I'll explain later, where's Sandra?"

"Behind me." Sandra popped up from behind his shoulder.

"Oh, that's good. I remembered you couldn't swim."

"Well-" she started.

"My gods, you're fast." I heard Vera panting close behind me. "We left Jefford behind."

We all went back to retrieve Jefford together. On the way Sandra explained how she had a water breathing spell, so swimming was no problem and Vera apologized for making me worry. After meeting back up with our last member, I explained what I knew about how my relationship with Meo worked. Oddly, he didn't chime in like I expected him to. Another weird thing was how we came across no Bandits the whole time. It turned out that Vera was sneaking around, taking all of them out and hiding their bodies near the spot she and Jefford fell into. Knowing that just made the emptiness that much more eerie, but for a different reason.

The atmosphere changed when we turned down a hall towards a set of steps. There were two cloaked figures guarding it. As quickly as we saw them, Vera shot one in the leg and they fell with a yelp. The other tried to flee and Vera missed them with her next shot, so I took aim with my bow and released a shot into their arm which staggered them long enough for the small woman to pounce on them. She plunged a lightning-shaped dagger into their shoulder and electricity ran across their entire body, paralyzing them.

We continued on our way and met three more to similar results at different points before we came upon a large room that looked like a library except the bookcases were filled with weapons and artifacts. Weaving between the bookcases were a few people in commoners' clothes. Each one of them carried an abacus as they hurried between objects.

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Vera darted off to the left and disappeared while Cyrus went right. Sandra stayed in the doorway with both hands on her staff while I walked forward cluelessly.

A loud snap brought my attention to the ceiling where a giant yellow crystalline chandelier was hanging. On it sat a woman with short pigtails clad lightly in yellow leather armor wielding a rod tipped with a large crystal shining gold. The snapping sound rang out again. It came from her as she was slowly clapping her hands, and as she did, the bookcases began moving towards the walls. The people who were shifting between them looked around in confusion.

Once the bookcases were close to the walls, the woman high above spoke up. "Minions. Die for me." She clapped her hands one more time and bits of earth rose from the ground and formed into weapons at the people's feet. Swords, sickles, and daggers were pointed at us.

In a second, three green bolts flew from behind me and two hit a bandit while the other fizzled out before it could reach. One only took a step back and the other one dropped their weapon and fled through an exit to the left.

"Traitor," said the woman above, "I'll deal with them later."

I took aim and shot at the woman and missed by a mile. Meanwhile, Jefford sauntered in front of me and took a stance. One man ran forward with a shortsword and was laying soundly on the ground yards away after a blue flash shone from the space between him and Jefford. The others that followed behind him stopped in their tracks and fled followed by any stragglers that were left behind.

"Ok, what do you maggots want?" The woman seemed irritated.

I spoke up aiming my bow again. "You the leader of these half-wit bandits?"

"They were my pawns, yes. Though, thanks to you it looks like I'll have to find more." Now she sounded bored.

"Well, we're taking you in."

She giggled. "You can't even touch me."

I shot again and she laughed as I missed. I took aim one more time and focused on her smug face. I wanted my arrow to blow up in her face and it did. Once it left my bow, it caught fire, spiraled straight at her, and blew up as it came into contact with her face. She noticed at the last second and flinched, but it didn't help. The impact caused her to fall all the way down with a hearty thump.

Surprised at what I did, I looked closely at my bow. It was still a standard wooden shortbow. Nothing was different about it. The thing that was different was the flames surrounding my body were now surrounding the bow.

Vera and Cyrus emerged from behind the moved bookcases having done nothing but wait for a chance to strike that never came.

I thought the woman was dead for a moment until I approached her and found that she was still breathing, but barely. Half of her face was scorched and one of her pig-tails was singed and undone. Her rod was next to her and it lost its glow. Vera picked it up and handed it to me.

"You did so much better than any of us would have in this situation. Take it."

"Uh, sure." I grasped it and the flames on my arms ran up the rod and into the crystal where the red mingled with the yellow before exploding outward and destroying the whole thing. It went poof and turned to dust.

"Whoah, you overloaded it." Sandra was peeking from over my shoulder. "I need to teach you how to control your magic.

"That wasn't me," I said, bewildered. As soon as the words left my mouth, the flames surrounding me subsided and a sudden pain struck my legs, making my knees buckle.

In the end, it turned out that I hurt my legs landing in the water, and didn't notice until then. Jefford had to carry me back to the base while Cyrus took the unconscious mage to the guildhall. Vera and Sandra stayed behind to loot some of the treasures. I didn't get anything on the basis that I might destroy it by accident.

That mage also had a pretty high bounty on her head that we collected. After finding out who she was and what she was capable of, the fact that I took her out in one shot was surprising. According to past accounts, she could have just collapsed the caves with us inside and left as easily as snapping her fingers.

I had to rest for a day to recover and had trouble walking for a while after that. We were paid in full in a few days and we went on our way after buying some supplies.

Over the next few weeks, Sandra took every opportunity to teach me what she could. The first thing she had me do was meditate, clear my mind, and focus for an hour every day until I got used to it. I mostly dozed off, but eventually, I managed to sleep without getting caught. It wasn't fun getting caught, and boy could she lecture.

After that, she had me try to cast the spell that I used on the man I set on fire.

I couldn't do it at first, but eventually, frustration got the better of me and I almost burned down a small forest. Remembering what it felt like the first time I cast it made it hard to control, but I could at least do it on command. For some reason, I couldn't do that arrow trick again even with Meo's help. I'd just scorch the arrow or light it on fire. After that little incident, Sandra taught me how to control the flames into a fireball, but I couldn't throw it far or control it well.

Every time I cast the spell, I had to say the name, but Sandra didn't have that problem often. I eventually asked her about it.

"Once you master a spell, you shouldn't have to say the name every time to cast it, but it does lose some of its potency if you don't." She held out her hand and a green vortex formed in her palm. "But in my case, it's a family trait. I only say the name of a spell to make absolutely sure I cast it." The green vortex diminished and disappeared. "Now that I think of it, you're an oddity as well. Usually, a pyromancer starts with a fireball. Something physical that you can understand by sight, but you started with something spontaneous in nature that only requires line of sight to work. I'd love to teach you more than just the basics, but I only know wind and a little holy magic."

"That's fine." I cast 'fireball' and struggled to keep the flame between my hands instead of rocketing away from me.

Eventually, we entered a trading hub. As soon as we got there, people started making exotic offers for my horns as if I could just take them off and sell them. I refused every one of them. After the initial wave of merchants, we wandered around town as a group. There were people putting up and taking down stalls all over the place. It was like the shape of the town changed drastically every few minutes.

At some point, we entered the center of town where there was a multitude of tents set up. Some were bigger than others, but one stood out to me. There were two people in front of a tent with a sign that read, 'Martial Dancing'. They were fighting for show, but I couldn't help but be drawn in by their minimalistic clothing and acrobatic movements. The man brandished twin scimitars and the woman wore metal gauntlets.

I watched them go as they moved in fluid rhythm to each other. I was engrossed in their bodies as their curves warped around one another in a show of martial prowess.

"That caught your eye, huh?" said Sandra, stopping next to me.

"Yeah," I said in awe.

"I'd hate to have to fight one of them."

"I could take them both." I was too busy drooling to notice that I said it out loud.

Sandra cocked her head to the side and asked, "In a fight, right?"

Realizing I said it out loud, I kept quiet, not wanting to reveal my intentions.

"In a fight, right?" Sandra asked again. This time with more of a suspicious tone.

"Ye- yeah, yeah..." I said, absent-minded.

"Well, if you're that interested, we should head over there and get a closer look."

By the time she finished her sentence, I had already begun walking in that direction.

"Wait, don't just go by yourself." She got everyone else and they joined me in the crowd.

After the demonstration was over, the man spoke to the crowd. "We are accepting new students at the moment. If any of you would like to learn from us, head straight into our tent and speak to one of our instructors."

On cue, I stepped forward and nearly dove straight into the tent. The inside was bigger than it looked from the outside. There were many different types of dummies lined on one side of the wooden floor with people sparring both bare-handed and with wooden weapons all over the place. None of them wore shoes.

I looked for the nearest person dressed like the people I just watched outside the tent. It was a woman whose large chest was accentuated by a red close-fitting half-shirt with no sleeves that looked similar to a leather chest plate. She was much taller than me, so that was the only thing I saw until she looked down to meet my gaze. Her dark eyes met mine and I almost squealed, but soon found my composure.

"Like what you see?" she said, looking me up and down.

I nodded vigorously.

"Was it the man or the woman that made you want to come here?"

"Both."

"Ok." She put her hands on her hips. "Are you here to learn or stare?"

"Both-I mean, since I'm already here, I thought I'd give it a try." I looked around in embarrassment.

"Axel!" The woman called over a man who only wore pure white pants made of some type of thick fabric and around his waist was a black belt made of the same material. He was closer to my height than the woman was and his entire left arm was tattooed black.

"You called?"

"We have someone new. She might have questions, so I'll leave her to you."

"Sure thing." The woman walked away and Axel took her place. "So, what do you want to know?"

I thought for a bit and said, "What exactly do you teach here? I've seen maybe four people who are instructors? None of you wear anything like a uniform."

"Oh, that. We try to teach as many different martial arts as possible here so there'd be unlimited diversity in what we can teach. Although some of us are more strict or lax than others, all of the instructors are masters of their respective styles. The one thing we all have in common is that dance is incorporated in some way."

"Dance?" I was sure that my eyes were sparkling.

"It's on the sign. 'Martial Dancing'."

"Oh, yeah."

"So, like what you see?" He gestured across the open room.

I just saw him spread his arms and the subtle curves of his figure captivated me. "Yes."

"In that case, how about we go on a little tour?"

He led the way in showing me all over the place. Multiple classes were being taught by different instructors at the same time and some were in conjuncture. There were people of all shapes and sizes and many were exotic in appearance. There were more than a couple with horns like me and even more with non-human skin colors or features like scales, fur, and feathers.

I didn't follow everything he said, but what I did glean from it was that they had an instruction book on each of their many fighting styles written by a master of that style for people who couldn't stick around to learn from a master.

"Any questions?" We were back at the entrance.

"About those books. I might have gotten swept away by all of this, but I can't stay in one place."

"Oh, well about those books..."

"Yeah?"

"There's a test of sorts."

"Do I have to fight?"

"Yep. That way we can tell what style best suits you and set you up with something that'll complement what you already have going on."

"Okay, that sounds more my speed."

A few minutes later, we were in a corner near the back of the tent obscured by a few paper walls. I had wooden swords in place of mine and sat my metal ones with my bag off to the side with my shoes while Axel picked up a bow staff. There was another man acting as a referee from the side, but I didn't pay much attention to him. As far as I was concerned, he was only there to say 'start'.

We both took a stance. While I only swayed softly to keep poise, he seemed to bounce on his feet until it started.

My first move was to interrupt his flow by striking his staff before his feet could come in full contact with the ground. That just resulted in him twirling it in his hands in the opposite direction and tapping the back of my leg.

I hopped back and decided to follow his rhythm and look for blind spots, at least, I tried. He followed me as I backed away and swept at my feet. Instinctively, I hopped and launched a kick in his direction.

He ducked my foot and grabbed my leg before rotating and slamming me onto the ground over his shoulder. That was one point for him. Two more and the bout was over.

Standing, I stepped toward him and brandished the sword in my right hand while guiding the left up to strike. He blocked the left sword and struck my right arm. In response, I leaned back onto one foot and kicked his staff at an angle he wasn't expecting, allowing my foot to race up to his face and make contact.

I felt surprisingly comfortable on one foot, but that didn't last long as Axel began spinning his staff between his hands as he closed the distance.

Undaunted, I struck a sword at him and as soon as our weapons made contact, the end of his staff turned straight toward my face. Luckily, my sword followed the same motions, and an option I never considered opened before me.

I continued to mimic his motions and fluidly guided his staff to a stopping position away from me before slamming it with both swords and leaning in to head-butt him to full effect.

He staggered backward, dazed. A point for me.

The rest went fast. I continued to mimic his movements and found openings I didn't think existed. It turned out his fighting style was mostly defensive and relied on grappling and throws to be effective. It took me getting thrown after bypassing his staff again to realize that.

After managing to slip into a position he couldn't grab me from, I swiped his feet from under him and when he tried to keep me at a distance with a preemptive strike, I rammed his staff with my horns and rushed at him, placing both of my swords at his throat while he was stuck defending from my charge.

After that, I won with three points.

"You definitely have talent and skill," he said, evaluating my performance, "You also got accustomed to my style quite quickly. To be honest, you could probably master any of the styles we have books on."

A second after he said that, there was a light tap on the floor and a woman with bright red hair in similarly colored loose-fitting clothes appeared between us. I looked up to see that there were wooden beams across the top of the tent for support. She likely hopped from there, but her landing was suspiciously quiet for such a long fall.

"A worthy student." The woman snapped her fingers and a sliver of paper appeared in her hand. She gripped it and suddenly it was a book too large to fit between her fingers. "Such a strong body and an untapped aptitude for mimicry. Perfect for the art of ballet." She handed me the book and as soon as it was in my hand, it was reduced to around ten pages. "Take it. I'm glad I saw you before I went on my own journey." She looked at Axel. "Got any problem with that?"

"No ma'am." He said it with such a level of respect that I thought she was his boss.

"Good boy." She hopped upwards from just her tip-toes and ascended as if gravity didn't exist back up to the wooden beams above.

After noticing the look of bewilderment on my face, Axel said, "That was Eve. If anyone here could be called a master it's her. She's known as the 'Flame Dancer'. It's more of a title than anything, but there's no denying how amazing she is. You should hold on to that book, she doesn't just hand those out to anyone. I actually didn't think she made any until now."

I flipped through the pages and asked, "What's up with this book?"

"Oh, they're enchanted. I can't exactly explain the enchantment, but they reveal to you what you're currently capable of pertaining to what's in the book."

"So I can only do ten pages worth of stuff?"

"Those are probably just the basics. Once you have those down, more pages will reveal themselves. Honestly, I doubt you'd need a book of any other style. Knowing her, it probably holds the most important aspects of every style we teach here."

"So, how much is the book?"

"That's up to her, but seeing as she just handed it to you and left, I'm pretty sure it's free."

After an awkward silence, he ushered me back to the entrance and I left the tent. From there, I wandered around town until I noticed someone was following me. It turned out to be Sandra. She was waiting for me outside the tent and began following me after I came out.

Everyone else was easy to find because they only went to trade and sell some of the treasures we got from the bandits to peddlers around the city. There was nowhere to make a base because of how crowded it was, so we left in only a few hours.

We traveled for a few more weeks and while slowly, but surely getting a hang of magic, I was learning how to dance. The movements, steps, and stances were simple at first, but rapidly became much more difficult as more pages appeared.

I practiced on Jefford who was happy to help and seemed very jolly about it. Once, I hit his helmet hard enough that it lifted slightly. I didn't have enough time to notice what I did before waking up in bed with bandages around various limbs and I walked with a limp for the next couple of days. He apologized at every opportunity until I yelled at him to stop, but never told me what happened and just went silent every time I brought it up after that.

Cyrus helped sometimes as well. He'd take off his armor and try to dodge me with his shield as a target. He was much faster than I thought and I often got tired far before he did. I was also able to see his skin clearly. While the color was dark, I could see a scaly pattern despite not being scales. His teeth were also longer and sharper than normal humans.

Vera sparred with me every once in a while. At some point, I cut her on accident and she shrugged it off as the shallow wound closed on its own.

"What is that?" I asked, watching the trickle of blood return to its origin.

"Blood control. It's pretty useful, but I can only do it enough to seal my own wounds."

"If you can do that, why didn't you use it when you got hurt fighting those boars way back when?"

"Oh, I never use it in battle, but we're sparring, so it's fine." She smiled as if there was no problem with it.

"So, you're telling me you actually go out looking to die?" My voice rose sharply. "I thought it was just your thing, but you're the leader and you actually just lead people into fights you hope to die in?"

"Wait, that's not-"

"Not what?"

She just looked at me silently and averted her gaze after a moment.

I scoffed and went back into the base, leaving her awkwardly standing there.

Cyrus was sitting at a table fiddling with a blue gem. He saw the look on my face when I came in and asked, "What's wrong?"

"So, you know Vera's actually suicidal, right? Like, it's not just a thing, she really wants to die." I folded my arms and stared daggers at him.

"Well, uh... I can't really defend her on that, but we told you from the start that she hails from a warrior clan. Glory in an honorable death and all."

"You mean, you're fine with this?"

"Well, it's complicated. If you really want to know what it's all about, you should ask her yourself, but I can tell you that there's no chance she'd go out without a fight."

Figuring I'd give her a chance, I went back out and confronted Vera again. "Okay look, I wanna hear you out. You had to have survived this long for a reason."

She breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thanks. I guess I should start from the beginning. I'm a half-elf, but I'm also part something else. About a hundred or so years ago, there was a group of elves that lived in a small forest in the northern part of Settentrione. A group of exiled humans happened upon it and surprisingly enough, the two groups got along. The only problem was that the humans were cursed with vampirism."

She paused as if in thought and continued. "It's why they were exiled, to begin with, but they were good at hiding it and none of the elves knew about it until the first half-elf between the groups was born. Just the birth of this child set in motion something that neither side ever considered; total devastation. The kid was born with teeth and that tipped off the elven high-priestess who set upon a cure for the curse as soon as she found out about it. She was able to find one after a while, but it didn't work on the kid. Not because they couldn't be cured, but because the curse mixed with the magical ancestry of the elves and became something entirely different. Something that can't be cured.

Anyway, years passed and the kid didn't grow at all. It was an infant for far too long and the entire forest was worried that something was wrong, and yeah, something was wrong. One day, the kid had an accidental sip of blood from the wound of an elven child and grew just a little. They immediately got a taste for it. However, it wasn't the blood, but the magic in it that the kid craved, so they took to nibbling on anything laden with magic that they could and eventually drained almost the entire forest of its essence while growing to nearly the size of a full adult. Realizing what the kid did, the priestess had no choice but to exile them and their parents who would take care of them..."

The look of pain on her face told me that the whole story was more recent than she made it sound. "The kid uh... Well, the father was a human who died as quickly as humans do, but the mother... She wanted to watch her kid become an adult, so she... fed herself... well, her magic anyway... It killed her in the end regardless. And here I am.

I guess I blame myself for her death. I didn't know that I was the cause until the end. After that, I was hollow inside and wandered around for far too long looking for a good way to die. Eventually, I chose to die in battle because where my dad came from, that way was honorable. Eventually, I started getting followed around by a bunch of kids who shared similar circumstances. Some were exiles and others were actual endlings, but I care about them. We only recently became a guild because of that."

"So, you're a hundred-year-old human-elf-vampire hybrid?"

"Yep."

"How long have you been a guild?"

"About five or so years. Give or take."

"So, the only reason you're alive is because of this guild?"

"You could say that. I can't go killing myself if they're counting on me..." Something about what she said sounded dishonest, but I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Eventually, we found ourselves on a road leading to a sign that read: Centrialis: land of freedom. The other side of it read: Miridiona: land of the tame and untamed.

"Now, all we have to do is find the waterline." Jefford was holding a map and checking our location. Centrialis acted as border territory between the four other nations and all we had to do now was head through this border territory to reach Starboard.

As soon as we crossed the border, there was a stark lack of greenery. There was grass, but only small patches of it, and there were few trees in any given direction. There were also fewer animals and the ground shifted more under our feet if we weren't on a path.

We went in a straight line and nearly passed a town. It didn't have a name and no one in the town called it anything. It was surreal, but according to the others, there were many towns like that scattered across the land in every country. We found no guild hall, but still stocked up on supplies before continuing onward.

Eventually, the grass returned, and with it, came mud. We were entering the wetlands that surrounded parts of Starboard. Within a couple of days, we reached a point where the road was starting to disappear. At the next fork, we went right and continued around until we met another town.

It looked like it used to be a port town, but instead of the sea, a boat graveyard stood from a receded water line. The entire town rested on a wood and stone foundation more than five feet off the ground and the town itself was in poor condition. There were no traders and the market was full of the few types of wild game that lived around. We took a short stop to rest before we continued onward.

It was only a few days later that we made it to a proper port town. We'd have a little more ways to go before reaching the bridge that connected the mainland to the Appellation islands.

This town had a guildhall and we were running low on funds, so we stopped in to do a job or two. Sandra and I took a commission for entertaining children down by the docks. I summoned Meo and danced with him while Sandra used her wind to help make it look more dramatic. Vera took a solo job hunting small game in the wetlands near town while Jefford and Cyrus took on jobs for local farmers having trouble clearing space for their fields. We left after the next day and continued on our way.