“Alright everybody, this little cart here is what we’ll be traveling on.” Ray says pointing at a rickety looking cart drawn by two mules.

  “They are really pulling out all the stops to assure we're comfortable, huh?”

  “Well…I admit this sucks. But, we need to learn how to deal with less than great situations as well and this is also going to function as a bit of a stress test for this new group dynamic. As for our companions on this trip, the big one's name is Gork and the small one's name is Zark. They don’t seem to speak much Uni but I do think they understand a decent amount.”

  “Great, so the original job got changed at the st minute, they made it more dangerous, they gave us shoddy equipment to work with and our clients barely speak Uni. Without this paperwork I’d think they are doing this on purpose.”

  “Well, sometimes you just get shitty jobs. Now come on, get on. The earlier we get going the earlier we’ll get to Rostock.”

  “It’s going to be fun John. I brought some cards for the trip.”

  “I have no idea how cards are going to save this trip Sherry.”

  “Can you teach me how to py cards, Sher Aka? I’d like to py too!”

  “Sure, I’ll gdly teach you Thoma Ahad, the more the merrier.”

  We then start our journey and despite the bad conditions things work fine. We travel at a decent pace and our first stop for lunch is on schedule. After everyone gets their business done we get a campfire going while Ray goes to get the provisions from the Orcs.

  “What do you mean, no food!?”

  “What’s wrong, ane?”

  “Apparently, despite it saying so clearly in the job request, they didn’t bring any food for us. The only thing they have is water. There is a vilge three days from here where we can restock but until then we can either hunt, eat pig food or starve.”

  “I can probably go hunt for something. I need to practice anyway.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I think I can do it, Uli did teach me some basic hunting techniques and with the Dark Crown I’ll have a clear view of the area.”

  “Will you be alright by yourself, Thoma Ahad? Do you wish for any of us to accompany you?”

  “No, I’ll be fine. You guys stay here in case Forest Orcs attack while I’m away.”

  “Well, if you’re that sure who am I to say no. I trust you oki, stay safe.”

  “Will do!”

  I then start the ritual of Darkness. Orbs start to form around me as the angry faces of yesterday come to mind again making me lose concentration and the orbs slowly disperse. But instead of giving up I follow Sher Aka’s advise. I have value and some people are just bad. I did this on my own before and I can do it again. I have people who believe in me so I must continue. Gaining a second wind I continue my dance full of determination and the orbs reform again.

  Then when I feel the time is right I chant, “Nox, Spirit King of Darkness, hear my plea. Put a crown of darkness on my head so that I may be fit to be in the presence of kings. Dark Crown.” and as I do the crown appears on my head once more.

  “Minor boost strength, minor boost speed, minor boost endurance.” Glowing in different colors for a short time I feel as the boosts together with the dark crown’s enhancements increase my body’s strength to a new high. I then quickly climb a big tree and look around for any animals, detecting a small herd of deer in the distance. Using a technique I have only practiced on ground level so far I jump from tree to tree. I don’t think I would have the confidence to do this without the Dark Crown but right now I feel confident I can do it without hurting myself. It’s not perfect yet, I do sometimes slip or misjudge the distance but I’m able to catch myself whenever it does happen without falling too far. Once I get closer to the deer I try to silently climb down from the tree, stopping each time it looks like a deer might have noticed me.

  Hiding behind a bush I cast the first spell I learned on the closest deer, “In eternal darkness not even sound can survive. Return to the soundless nothingness so that the King may go back to sleep, Deafen.”

  I then shoot one of the ones further away mortally wounding it and run out from my hiding position shooting at the deaf one next who did not notice the first arrow killing its brother while the rest run away. Looking at my prey it looks like I killed an adult male deer and an adolescent female. I then prepare the meat to create what’s called a “Deer Backpack” allowing me to carry the stag on my back and the doe in my hand like a duffle bag. I’m only barely able to carry them both thanks to my enhancements and it takes me a while to get back to the camp because I’m unable to go through the trees or move very fast in this state. But eventually the campfire does come back in sight.

  “It’s me! I’m back!”

  I then haul the carcasses near the fire and sit down.

  “I hope you guys don’t mind if I sit out the meat preparation, this was pretty exhausting.”

  “Yeah no worries oki, we’ll handle it. That’s some insane haul you got us, as long as we prepare it well we should have no problems with food, I’m proud of you!”

  “Haha, thanks but I’m sure you could have done the same.”

  “Well yeah, but it would have taken me a lot more time, you were only gone for like half an hour.”

  —--------------------------

  “Hey Sherry, is it just me or are these two kinda insane? No way they just became E-Ranked right?”

  “Don’t whisper stuff in a nguage not everyone can understand. It’s rude.”

  —----------------------------------------------

  “If I may ask you two, how come you’re only E-Ranked? You seem extremely capable.”

  “Thanks! I guess for an expnation…I used to be E-Rank before. I was halfway to D-Rank when I met up with my first quest with Thoma but because of my horrible judgment I got demoted to F-Rank, so that expins why I look a bit more experienced. As for Thoma, his recent training with the guildmaster and his insane practice have made him a lot more capable in a short time especially now that he can use his first ritual but I’m sure I’ll get back on top when I get my first spells.”

  “For how long have you been training with the guildmaster Thoma Ahad?”

  “Hmm, I’ve been slowly building up my core strength with her exercise pn over the st three months but as for the archery, ritual practice and mana absorption I have only been taught the very basics directly from her for like two weeks and then kept practicing on my own for the st week while we were out on a job.”

  “So you’ve gotten to this point in just about four months. Even taking into account your insane training hours each day it is certainly impressive how far you’ve come in your archery and ritual practice in such a short time. If I hadn’t seen your insane training first hand and if you weren’t trained by the Dancing Ballista herself I would not have believed you could have achieved this in such a short time. Yet even so, you’re certainly talented.”

  “Yeah, I guess I got lucky there. Otherwise my body is pretty bad so if I couldn’t do this I would be useless to Ray soon.”

  “Come on man, no need to humble brag. I just watched you climb a tree like a monkey and kill and carry two deer here. How is your body not insanely strong?”

  “Ah, well…That’s mostly because of the Dark Crown and the minor boosts. Infusing myself with dark mana like that actually enhances my body a lot. It’s the only way I will be able to fight in the future and keep up, it also has the downside that the ritual takes a while to finish so until I’m confident enough to use a bow while dancing I’ll be kinda useless for a long time in combat if I want to use it. As for my actual physical potential Uli called it somewhere between a child and a very dainty woman which is why I needed to switch my fighting style from something simir to Sher Aka’s to Uli’s. It’s probably the only fighting style I can do and have a chance to get above D-Rank with.”

  “Hmm, I have heard that those with the most limited of options tend to become masters of their fields quickly. But to have a potential this low…It must be tough.”

  “Oh come on Sherry, you don’t actually believe that do you?”

  “I don’t see why I would doubt his words. He seems quite sincere and there is not much to gain from telling us about his weakness.”

  “I dunno…I guess I’m just a little suspicious that they are so competent.”

  “Oh~ Are you feeling jealous?”

  “Maybe…But it’s still suspicious even if I’m jealous!”

  “Guys come on, you can cuddle ter, we need to prepare these deer.”

  “I wasn’t about to cuddle her!”

  “Oh~ Why not? Don’t you want to cuddle with your big sister anymore?”

  “Gee…Shut up Sherry. Come on, let's prepare the meat…”

  They then prepare and cook the meat in a way that should st us at least until three to four days from now when we can restock in the vilge. Gork and Zark don’t seem particurly interested in what we’re doing, though they do seem to want to push us to move quickly rather than spend the time preparing the meat properly. We start traveling again in the afternoon about three hours past what we originally pnned. There aren’t many problems though the pigs become quite loud at times, which is worrying since their cries could attract attention. We then go to bed at about nine pm, John stays up a bit longer though since now that we have more people we can take shifts during the night to make sure we aren’t being ambushed. Sher Aka takes the shift after him and Ray takes the one when it’s darkest due to her senses being better than ours while I take the morning shift and use that time to practice. The next day goes by without a problem as well, though apparently the horses of Gork and Zark's wagon seem to have some problems, we didn’t notice anything wrong with them but they just seem to repeat “Horse sick” whenever we ask them why they are stopping. We begin the third day on high alert since this is the area that we got attacked at on our way to the capital.

  Thankfully everything goes well until once again Gork stops the wagon and walks over to us,

  “Horse sick, you eat, we break.”

  “Again? Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sigh Can you cook for us then, oki? Seems like it’ll be a while again.”

  “Sure!”

  I then start cooking while John is on lookout duty. Sher Aka in the meantime is teaching Ray how to py and cheat at cards.

  “Wait, wait, how did you do that one Sker Aka?”

  “I have an identical copy of the deck we’re using, I can just slip in cards whenever I want. It’s not a good tactic for long games but if you just need to win one it works.”

  “How do you know all of this?”

  “Well~Let’s just say living a long time has some perks.”

  “Huh…”

  “Sherry is basically a robber of robbers. She has that look of a completely innocent and naive dy and she uses that to scam the scammers on the street. She could probably gamble herself up from a big copper to a gold in a week if she really wanted to. Only downside is we would never be able to get back to that city after.”

  “Heh, so you’re surprisingly cunning aren’t-Sniff Do you guys smell that?”

  KABOOM

  A bomb explodes suddenly as weird smelling smoke covers the area and the pigs scream loudly. Running out of the cloud I notice Gork and Zark on top of their horses yelling loudly as they ride away, “ROOOOOOOOOOOOOH! ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!” It sounds exactly like the scream of the Forest Orc we fought before and in response multiple Forest Orc screams can be heard from the forest.