Joseph and Catherine walked on without care about the intervention.

"They brought some good gifts for us."

"Well... That guy was a loser. I don't know what did he think would happen."

Catherine laughed.

"He wasn't that bad, but it seems like he never fought a mage before."

"Now that you say that, it seems like mages are rare here."

"To be fair you humans are not that good with magic usually. But other races have innate ability to use it."

"You mean the magical core?"

"Yes. You humans have to make outter source, like mana from an other creature, or as druids do, absorb it from air and make it usable for yourself."

"That reminds me, when I was in the swamp, I couldn't absorb more mana, than my limit, because it would've hurt."

"If you do that you will explode from the pressure inside your core. But if you keep your mana just a little bit above than your core can hold, your core will develop and you can hold onto more mana after a while. But if you do it with a place without rich mana source, you will have problems."

"I see. Also I have a problem. Because of the cage I was held in I got some... Unwanted effect, can we do something about it?"

She leaned closer to him and her eyes lit up with a blue light.

"Yes, yes. You got a weaker affection. Given that how much time you spent there, it is a rather small problem. If we got to a place where we can develop our core, I can fix it for you."

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"Really? Just like that?"

She laughed.

"Just like that? It's gonna hurt like hell. But it will be like before."

He gulped.

"Do you know any places like that?"

She thought for a moment.

"I know one or two places, but they are far away. I think you'll have to wait for it."

"Alright."

They walked forward towards the main city of the region. The landscape changed from the grasslands to a land filled with trees, but they weren't dense enough that they would make a forest. Animals were everywhere they looked. Squirrels on the trees, rabbits and foxes on the ground. Different birds in the sky and the whole place was full of life.

"This place is really nice. I would've loved it as a cat."

Joseph laughed, but Catherine didn't care about it.

"I mean cat's usually like these kind of places. Lot's of bird to prey on, lots of places to hide."

"You just have to be aware of the wolves."

"I don't think there are wolves here."

They continued on peacefully. The place was so warm and peaceful that they camped at a clearing for the night. They made some magical barriers, so that if anything comes for them at night they will notice it, but the night was uneventful. They pressed on in the morning. It took a few more day for them to get out of the place and they found themselves at the base of a mountain.

"How was it? We should go around, because there are monsters on the mountain, right?"

Joseph didn't really wanted to fight them given the ones he couldn't even hurt, he feared that there might be like those around here as well.

"Pff... Nonsense. Why would we bother? They are usually just overgrown animals. We don't have to worry about them."

Catherine started to walk on the road leading to the side of the mountain.

"If you say so? I guess."

He followed her upwards. There werent anything except for rocks and grass on the side of the mountain. The top of it was one big rock without cover on it.

"This is kind of strange. A small mountain like this should have some life forms on it."

Catherine didn't listen to him. She was on guard.

"What is it? Is there some problem?"

Joseph used his senses, but found nothing. He watched as the woman walked toward a rock, that was just as big as her and was lying on one side of the road. She grabbed, or at least she tried to. Her hand went through it.

"An illusion. It seems like there is an entrance to somewhere inside the mountain. It seems like this place is habited by someone or something."

"Do you want to find it out, or should we press on? Maybe turn back?"

"I think it already knows that we are here. Let's go in and say hy."

She walked into the stone and graduatly disappeared.

"Seems like I have no choice."

Joseph followed her inside.