At night, everyone stayed inside Grace’s tent. It was a super-rare grade large camping tent that could accommodate ten people. It’s called Repellent Group Tent. It discharged an aura that repel any monster below special elite grade. When any stronger monster approached, it would send a warning to wake up its occupants.
Jack spent his time training mana manipulation again before he slept. He never slacked off from this routine. He cast Myriad Ensnaring Chains and used his Hundred Synchronous Thoughts talent to assert control on all fifteen chains individually.
The chains moved very slowly under his command. He was trying to get back the feeling of the time when he was on Broidrireg’s back. At that time, his control over the chains to hold him on Broidrireg’s back had been superb. However, it was all done on instinct. When he tried to do it consciously this time, it was like treading through muddy waters.
He sighed after the duration of Myriad Ensnaring Chains ended. He proceeded to cast other spells and tried to control them with mana manipulation.
Grace had been watching him. She asked, “Isn’t using mana manipulation onto skills and spells much harder than a normal attack? Why not train from the basics first?”
“Sometimes you have to run before you can walk,” Jack replied.
Peniel smacked his head upon his comment, she then flew to Grace and said, “He did that basic training in the morning, coupling it with his martial arts training. At night, he tried doing it with spells. He thought that by practicing both, he should be able to boost his understanding of the technique.”
“Does it work?” Grace asked.
Peniel shrugged. Jack didn’t answer.
After a while, Jack said, “There is no right or wrong way. We are all new to this world. In this sense, we are all experimenting here. We have to find our own way.”
Grace thought about his words. She then closed her eyes. After her joining the Everlasting Heavenly Legends, Domon had taught her a basic method of training mana sense. She had been training diligently since then. She didn’t want to get left behind by Jack too much. If she was too weak, following Jack would only make her a burden. Hence her determination in training.
*
After several days of travel, they arrived in an area that was not part of either Sangrod or Themisphere. It was a wooded region called the Dorwin region.
“If you go along this region, you will come up at the Aurebor Dynasty,” Peniel informed.
“Really? Aurebor is that close from here?” Grace asked.
“Close? This Dorwin might be called a region, but its size is almost half of Themisphere or Aurebor’s area,” Peniel replied. “Be careful to not wander around too much. A no-man’s-land region like this is home to extremely powerful monsters. Especially the deeper parts.”
“Don’t worry, our destination is just at this region’s edge. There is no need to go into the deeper territory,” Flame said. “The monsters around this place we are heading to are only around levels 30 and 35, so there is no need to worry.”
<br/>Everyone followed Flame going into the woods. There was no road or pathway to mark the road, but Flame had put the mark on her map so she had no problem navigating. Flame could have just given them the coordinates but the person who they were looking for was slightly a recluse. It took Flame doing several quests for the person before she was willing to even talk to her. Flame figured it would be easier for the others if she brought them there and gave the introductions.
Even when the monsters were low-level, Jack still rushed off whenever he saw new monsters. Grace asked him why the passion about such a low-level monster and Jack explained to them about his monster books. Unfortunately, none of them were of the Warrior branch so they couldn’t join the League of Champions to get the books.
He had currently filled out many pages already, but when he checked the blank pages, they still dominated the book by almost eighty percent. Jack knew then he had only met a small portion of the denizens of this world. Still, with his current filled books, he received small benefits of extra damage and defense against the book’s monster type. While against monsters that were already registered inside the book, those benefits were doubled.
Flame then showed them similar books, but they were titled hunter’s handbooks. These handbooks were similarly divided based on monster types. Flame got these handbooks from the Hunter’s Lodge, the faction where Jack had his Beastmaster trial, of which Flame was a member. These handbooks similarly gave Flame some boosts when fighting against monsters already recorded in the handbooks. Apart from that, it also increased the chance of Flame getting the monster parts that she needed to submit to the Hunter’s Lodge for the faction points.
Almost all of them were from the Archer class. Those who were not yet a member of the Hunter’s Lodge made a mental note that they would apply there the first chance they returned to Thereath.
After a long walk through the woods, they finally arrived at what Flame said was their destination. A hut in the middle of the woods. There were wooden fences around the garden surrounding the house. They saw several small critters leisure around the garden, seemingly out of concern for anything.
“You all stay here, I will approach first,” flame said.
She walked to the fence’s small wooden gate before announcing, “Madam Guila, I have come again. I bring several friends with me. Are we allowed entry?”
Several seconds of silence passed before a woman’s voice was heard from inside. “Only you enter, the others wait outside.”
Flame glanced back at them to make sure they understood the request. She then opened the fence’s gate, passed by the garden, and entered the hut alone. Jet was again chatting with the girls while waiting, with Weird Trap trying futilely to join in. Grace found somewhere to sit and then practiced mana sense. Sturdy Serpent waited silently. Jack swung his swords around practicing mana manipulation into his swings.
An hour passed. The others were starting to wonder if anything happened inside. Weird Trap asked if perhaps they should go in and see if everything was okay. Wondrouslife disagreed. She said since they had been asked to stay outside then they should just stay and wait.
Another hour passed. Weird Trap brought up his suggestion again. This time Wondrouslife didn’t say anything. But before they decided anything, the door to the hut opened. They saw Flame on the door, gesturing for them to enter.
When they entered, they saw the hut was composed of a living quarter on one side with some sort of blacksmith workshop on the other side. There was no partition to separate the two sides. Also, Jack felt as if the room inside was bigger than when it was seen from the outside, but it was probably just his feeling.
A middle-aged elven woman was sitting on a chair by a table. A weird cat was lying beside her feet. Flame was sitting on another chair. There were only two chairs, so the rest stood before them as if employees facing their employers. Jack used Inspect, Guila was just a level 20 elite native.
“This is the lot who you want me to make armor for their pets?” The woman asked.
Flame nodded to her. To the others, she said, “She is Guila. She is the one I mentioned to you. She will be willing to craft armor for your pet as long as you all complete her quest and pay a certain amount of fees. The quest will be to fetch the materials required for your pets’ armor. Most of the material should be available in nearby areas.”
“How much is the fee?” Salty Trade asked.
“Depends on your pet and the grade of armor you wanted to craft,” Flame replied. “The quest for the materials also varied depending on the grade of armor requested. It will be more difficult if you ask for higher-grade armor. For my Windy, which is a special elite pet. I crafter rare-grade armor which cost 50 gold coins. If I go for the uncommon grade, it will only be 20 gold coins.”
‘Great,’ Jack was glad within. He had no problem with coins. The monsters around here were also too weak for him, he would finish the fetching quest in a jiffy. He thought at first there would be some hurdles before he can get armor for Therras. Looks like this time it would be an easy one. He had no problem with an easy task. In fact, he thought it was about time he got easy once in a while.
“Show me your pets,” Guila commanded.
Everyone except Grace summoned their pets. Salty Trade and Wondrouslife both had wolf-type pets, similar to Fierce Flame. Weird Trap had a weird creature that looked like a badger. Sturdy Serpent’s pet was, unsurprisingly, a hound.
After seeing everyone’s pets, Guila said, “Everyone is fine except those two.” She was pointing to Jack and Jet.
“Huh? Why?” Jack asked.
“I can’t craft armor for medium-sized pets,” Guila answered.
‘Shit,’ Jack uttered within. Perhaps he had celebrated too early.
