Mom? Amy repeated. Her eyes shifted between Seraphine and the half-goat.

  Miss Seraphine is twice as tall as her mom...

  A second later, Miss Seraphine let go of her mother and turned to face Amy, her face flushed.

  "Ah... I'm sorry you had to see me in such state..."

  She clasped her hands together.

  "This is my mother, Renee." She said with a small bow.

  Amy gave a small bow as well "I am Amy, Amy Regulus."

  "Ye don't need to act like a stranger!" Renee held a warm smile.

  "Come on, sit on de ground" She patted the ground beside her.

  They reluctantly sat beside her

  "This bearer attacks has risen quite lot, huh?" Renee asked.

  "...Yeah" Amy answered.

  ...

  "I have something to ask." She opened her backpack and pulled the sphere.

  Ms. Renee turned her head to Amy "Ask away."

  Double tapping the sphere, Amy handed the sphere with her obelisk entry open.

  Renee rotated the sphere on her hand, carefully inspecting the script.

  "Ya have pen and paper?" She glanced at Amy.

  "This one's long."

  Digging into her backpack again, Amy pulled a pen and paper and handed them over. Ms. Renee set the paper on her side. Her eyes shifting between the sphere and the paper as she noted the translated script. Half an hour later she let out a satisfied exhale.

  "I have to say this epic's a bit weird." She handed the papers.

  Amy grazed the text with her eyes "I don't know how to read this script either, Ms. Renee."

  "Ah, Lemme read it for ya." She retreated the papers.

  She cleared her throat

  "Away from time, through da ages and through hardships, Two races stood close..."

  "One with horns, hair and pride, one without."

  Way to open an epic, Amy thought.

  She got her orb on her lap and started to record the translation.

  "Living in da same place with harmony..."

  "That 'till the hairless seat ordered exile..."

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Amy squinted her eyes.

  Hairless seat?

  "Yellow City stood tall, an unbroken pride."

  "That 'till da hairless set fire to ground."

  Suddenly a memory hit Amy in the face.

  King! I talked this with... Emily before.

  "Run wherever ya can; da Red Forest, da north or da east."

  "Pride high as horns, we chose da forest."

  "Through da river, da mountain and da valley."

  "Then in da forest, ground opened like gates to hell."

  Renee exhaled.

  "I said it didn't I? This one's long."

  Amy raised her head from her orb.

  "That's it?"

  Renee chuckled "Yeah, da rest is unreadable."

  Amy sighed

  It probably wasn't that important

  She put her orb back into her backpack and rose from the ground.

  "Thanks for helping."

  "Going already?" Renee asked.

  "Yeah, I have a place I must go." Amy turned her back.

  "It was nice meeting with you two."

  The world fell into a silence for a moment.

  "Bye bye." Renee and Seraphine said, with less enthusiasm than their usual demeanor.

  "Bye bye." Amy muttered as she walked on her way.

  She slowly walked through the destroyed city. Former towering mushroom-houses now a mess on the ground, with the pavement crushed by the spore-bearer's weight.

  Where is the exit of the Lower Caverns? She thought along the way.

  After a minute or so the corpse of the beast appeared before her, cleaved cleanly with a resin holding the remains together. She stared at it for a second, then stepped forward and kicked its neck.

  Sigh.

  Focus on the problem. She facepalmed.

  What do I have...

  The fight with the spore-bearer lit up in her brain.

  There should be a slit on the ceiling.

  Her gaze slipped upwards. After a bit of searching her eyes snapped at a long slit.

  That should be it.

  Looking around, she found nothing to reach the said slit. She walked over a semi-standing mushroom. Pulled her sphere out of her backpack and climbed on top of the mushroom.

  Remember... Remember... What sigil was it?

  She bit into her finger, using the blood she drew a circle. In the circle she added four rhomboid shapes stretched from the center to the edge like a compass. With her free hand, she drew mana to her veins.

  The moment the final line closed, Amy's azure-orange mana surged through it like a complete circuit.

  Amy held her breath.

  Suddenly every nearby plant and alike stretched upwards, growing with terrifying speeds to the slit.

  She got thrown from the Lower Caverns towards the slit, landing back to the mushroom's cap. The air got knocked away from her lungs and her hand tremored.

  Cough, Cough.

  I'll never use the Silent Jade style ever again. She thought while gasping for air.

  Only good for plant research. She added.

  She raised her head and looked around, just fire-stones. After a minute of resting, she rose up from the ground.

  Looking around again, now more carefully, she sighed.

  Everywhere looks the same.

  I guess I'll go-

  "Amyyy, helpppp!"

  Her thoughts were interrupted by shouts of a man and guttural roars of pigs behind her.

  Looking back she saw Peter running towards her with some pig-man just behind.

  What did he get himself into again...

  She raised her sphere, only a faint white light shone.

  I don't think this much will be enough.

  With a flick of her finger she raised all the mana from the sphere with her mana reserves added.

  "Duck."

  He complied without arguing. Chopping across the pig rampage with her hand, she sent sharp currents with a terrifying speed. They cleaved through the foremost pigs, injuring the second-most ones.

  "What happened?"

  "Not even a how are you." Peter dryly chuckled.

  Amy inspected him from afar.

  "You don't seem injured."

  Peter sighed.

  "Well, don't keep standing." Peter patted the ground. "I have so much to talk about"

  ********

  "Then I found a tablet!" He added breathlessly.

  "I wanted to... lets say acquire it." He threw his hands in the air in innocence.

  "I sneakily went in and along the way I saw sleeping guard pigs."

  "While trying to avoid the first one I stepped on the second one's tail" He chuckled.

  "You should've seen his face!"

  "And we are now here."

  "Did you get the tablet?" Amy asked

  "Yeah, of course!"

  He pulled a rectangle made out of a mushroom stem with familiar letters from his backpack and handed it to Amy.

  She inspected the text.

  "This is Middle Aarstatic..."

  "Middle... what?"

  "An old script in the Lower Caverns."

  "Well, what's it about?" Peter leaned in.

  "Give me a minute."

  After half a minute, Amy re-read the script

  "And?" Peter asked impatiently

  Amy gulped.

  "About a cure for... mana overexposure."