"I’m outside!" screamed Sarah while jumping high in the air. "I'm outside!" She was so incredibly happy, that she was finally out of this damned swamp

Her whole body still hurt as hell from the fight. Even though she was reenergized through the absorption of the magic power from the poor guy.

But that couldn’t diminish her joy. She had dreamed for so long of this moment that nothing could dampen her mood.

"Could you please not scream around so much?" asked the lanky teen called Dennis with an insecure voice.

She looked back with an annoyed gaze. The two men who were carrying the unconscious one flinched for a moment and stopped moving.

They were both pretty skinny and looked like they hadn’t eaten in a long while. The taller one, called Andrew, had a pretty sharp face with a square chin. His face looked nearly overgrown with light brown hair and a beard. While he had broad shoulders and good looks, his expressionless face ruined all that. He constantly seemed to be either tired or bored, which made it kind of weird talking to him.

The younger one looked like a puppy, with his brown, wavey hair and beardless face. His big brown eyes looked at her in fear.

She involuntarily had to grin. Dennis paled immediately and held his free hand protectively around his throat. Such a cute boy.

Andrew cleared his throat and asked in Dennis’ stead. "Could you please not make so much noise? The animals in this region lost their minds and sometimes attack."

He seemed to add some more, but Sarah just lifted her head. "It’s fine." She told them. "Whenever one of those gets too close, I knock them out a little. No need to be afraid."

Andrew looked at her skeptically, but didn't say anything else.

They walked quite a distance like this. They were very slow because the two had to carry the unconscious one. Sarah had offered to help, but they resolutely refused. Their loss.

After a while, they encountered a river, which made the other two relax a lot. Apparently, it wasn’t very far anymore to their home.

Sarah suppressed her incredible urge to bathe in the water. So she settled for drinking to her heart's content and scrubbing a little of the dirt from her face. It was amazing.

The water was so fresh and clear. After all the disgusting water from the swamp, the river's water tasted almost sweet. She drank until her stomach started to hurt, and she was forced to stop.

With a refreshed feeling, she stood up and turned around to the other two guys and gave them a happy smile. And they didn’t look afraid anymore when she smiled, which was a big plus.

After some more walking, Andrew told her to stop for a while.

"We are close to our settlement, you see," he started explaining. "And honestly, you stink very, very bad. And you look horrifying with all the blood and… other dirt you have caked on your body."

Sarah was initially a little bit offended. But then she compared herself to the three guys and had to accept that maybe he was right.

With a disgruntled face, Sarah nodded. Andrew let out a quiet sigh, stepped towards her, and stretched out his hand. In the middle of it, though, he seemed to have changed his mind and hastily pulled his hand back while gagging a little.

‘It couldn’t be that bad… right?’ Sarah thought to herself and quickly sniffed at her arm. She couldn’t find anything amiss.

"I will send someone with new clothes." He told her while holding his hand in front of his nose. Sarah just nodded again, and Andrey and Dennis basically fled from the scene.

A little sullen, Sarah went into the river right behind a big tree that had fallen into the water and had calmed the raging current a little.

While sitting on the stony riverbed, she let the gently flowing water brush away the dirt on her skin and clothes. The water that flowed away from her was nearly black. But she was so dirty, that it would take a long time to get herself clean like this.

This place was so peaceful. With the clean river flowing through the land and the wind that moved across the trees and meadows. She already knew that she was out of the spatial error, but only now could she fully realize this fact.

"Excuse me?" asked a silent and a little insecure voice from behind.

Sarah was so surprised that she immediately jumped to her feet and turned around. In this process, she somehow managed to step on her coat, ripping it off of her. She wanted to catch it, but the river pulled it away faster than she could react.

The woman looked at her in shock for a moment and started speaking again. "Andrew and Dennis told me that you have horns, but… you even have a tail." She just absentmindedly stated.

Sarah pressed her lips together and nodded in resignation. The woman didn’t look frightened, though.

"Did it..." she started with hesitation. "Did the mutation hurt a lot?"

This question hit right into Sarah’s suppressed emotions and trauma.

With burning eyes, she looked down at the flowing water and nodded slightly. She heard the woman come closer and step into the water.

When Sarah felt the woman’s arms around her, her first instinct was to defend herself. But that only lasted a moment, and she let herself fall into the warm embrace.

"It must have been difficult all alone." She said in a gentle voice while patting her back. "But it’s okay now. You are not alone anymore."

Sarah just nodded and sobbed a little. She felt like the pain and suffering from her time in the swamp were washed away like the dirt from her skin.

The woman held her in her arms for quite some time, and Sarah could let out all the emotions that she had suppressed all this time.

Sarah reluctantly stepped away from her and gave her a crooked smile. "Thanks." She said with a raspy voice and sniffed a little.

The woman nodded understandingly and then looked down at herself with a frown.

"And they didn’t exaggerate." She looked up at her while laughing a little. "You really do stink horribly."

Sarah also had to laugh, and the heavy atmosphere fell off them. Only now could Sarah look clearly at the woman.

She was really beautiful. With blonde, wavy hair and a gentle face. And in contrast to the three guys, she didn’t look skinny. She had, in fact, a rather courvacious body.

Sarah noticed a moment too late that she had been staring and quickly looked up into her eyes again. She was luckily very busy inspecting the dirt on her clothes.

"Can’t help it." She said with a sigh and looked at Sarah with resolute eyes. "Let’s get to cleaning."

For a moment, Sarah was strangely excited about washing herself with this beautiful woman. But that didn’t last long.

"Come on! You need to get this dirt away!" The woman shouted at Sarah, who was sitting on top of a tree.

"No way! That brush is a torture instrument!" She shouted back, not intending to come down any time soon.

The woman sighed heavily and rested her face in her hands. "Listen. You look and smell like a monster straight out of a nightmare. If you want everyone to run away screaming at the sight of you, then be my guest."

Sarah felt very uncomfortable, because the woman got so close to the truth about her. Her class was already 'Nightmare', so she saw no need for herself to make it even worse. With a resolute expression, she climbed down the tree and took the brush from her.

"Thanks for coming down. If you need help with your back, then come get me. I will wash myself behind the bushes over there." She told her while pointing to dense greenery some distance away.

With this, she walked away and left Sarah to her own accord. With a sigh, she started peeling the snake skin off her body and cleaning herself.

It was surprisingly hard to get herself clean. The dirt and blood were not only completely caked in, they were literally everywhere. So gross. How had she lived like this for so long?

With a disgusted shudder, she started scrubbing herself even harder until her skin was completely clean again. With some hesitation, she decided to throw away the snake-skin suit. For one, the woman had brought her new, strange-looking clothes to wear. And the snake skins were in tatters by now, not to mention being extremely dirty.

With a sigh, Sarah started dressing herself in the new clothes. It was a simple shirt and trousers that seemed to be made out of an elastic material, woven together in thick cords. It wasn’t very comfortable because it was pretty rough and way too tight. It felt more like it was rather made for a skinny man than for a woman. The only good thing was that her tail wasn’t obstructed by the clothing.

While inspecting herself some more, she noticed something else. Her skin was way too pale. Seems like being caked in dirt and blood makes good sun protection.

"Ready to meet everyone?" asked the woman’s voice from behind her.

Sarah turned around and nodded. When the woman wanted to start walking, Sarah grabbed her arm and held her back for a moment. "What’s your name?"

The woman smiled in an apologetic way and gently removed Sarah’s hand. "My name is Melissa. Yours?"

"Sarah," she answered, while smiling slightly.

Without saying any more words, the two of them made their way uphill and through some woods.

Halfway through the woods, Sarah could hear something. It sounded like different people talking together in loud voices. She gulped and suddenly felt a little nervous.

Until now, nobody had shunned her because of her monstrous looks.

"Something is weird." Melissa told her from her side, looking a little bit worried. "Let’s walk faster."

Sarah tensed up and readied herself for conflict. She couldn’t have her new potential friends die before she had the chance to meet them.

The forest cleared, and they came to a wide and stony clearing. All the plant life that had lived here had been trampled on so often that the whole clearing was barren.

A bit further uphill, she saw a steep cliff with numerous caves in it. And in front of the largest cave was a big crowd of people. They were shouting in excitement and cheering now and then.

Now very curious, Melissa and Sarah ran towards them and joined the big circle of people. The crowd was so focused on what happened in front of them that nobody noticed Sarah's looks.

"Do it again!" shouted one of the guys, standing the closest to a man that was sitting on the ground in front of a smoking pile of wood.

Melissa, next to her, tugged at the shirt of one of the women near them. "What is going on here?" she asked in a curious voice.

"He got an energy specialization. You will not believe what he can do." She answered in an excited voice, without taking her eyes away from the man in the middle of the crowd.

The man smiled widely and held his hands near the pile. The crowd held their breath while watching intently. Sarah was also overcome by the tension and watched in silence.

After a few moments, the air around the man's hand started to shimmer, and the wood started to glow red from the heat. Soon after, it started burning.

"That is so awesome!" shouted Sarah, before the crowd could start with their usual round of cheers.

Drawn to the unfamiliar voice, everyone looked at her. And simultaneously took a step back in shock.

While the crowd looked at her either fearfully or curiously, Sarah only had eyes for the little flame burning in front of her.

She always wondered what she could do with her empty energy specialization slot. She already saw herself burning the disgusting tentacle monster with hot flames and then eating the well-cooked meat.

She only had to find out how to unlock this specialization and how to get the monster out of the water to burn it.

With a mad smile, she grabbed the shocked man by the shoulders and looked him deep in the eyes.

"You and I are gonna be good friends."