KeroKeron

  After finishing their te afternoon lunch, Emily and most of the expedition members rex on the grass staring into the distahe group have varying expressions while gazing at what most likely amounts to their immi grave. Most of the vassal mages seem nervous, almost certain they will be the ing colteral damage, whereas the nobles hold an air of fidend anticipation, clearly excited about the potential resources that await them.

  Emily herself has a mixture of excitement and intense curiosity pstered across her face, looking forward to fightis and disc the secrets of the mysterious forest. Gng to her side, she sees Ivor staring out into the distah a look of grim determination and acceptance.

  “What’s wrong, big guy? I didn’t think you’d be so worried. Haven’t you been into The Gde a few times before?”

  “I have,” he signs his agreement, shifting unfortably and refusing to make eye tact. “But, the groups I came with were only here to gather some of the more on herbs and kill small beasts. We stayed around the es aainly ried looking for arao The Crystal Waters.”

  “Ah, I see.” Emily nods, falling into silent ption for a few moments.

  I should have realised from Oscar saying that his family didn’t have enough data to design a training room for The Waters’ enviro, that expeditions this deep are unon. I could rewind a Ivor out before we eve off this m...

  “Hey,” Emily says softly, pulling Ivaze to her before signing a question. “You sure you want to e? It’s not too te to go back you know.”

  He immediately shakes his head, fixing Emily with a stare far more passiohan she has ever seen from the shy boy before.

  “I’m nervous because it’s deeper than I’ve gone before, but I want a ce to see The Waters and discover new ingredients!” he signs with certainty.

  Emily smiles at his drive for discovery.

  “As long as you’re sure. Also, I meant what I said st night. We’re both getting through this alive, no matter what. Just make sure you have my back.”

  Not like I really .

  Oscar approaches as they chat, dropping down onto the floor beside them. They both greet him, and he responds cheerfully before his face falls into a serious expression as he looks at Emily.

  “I just wao chee st time, are you sure you’re alright heading the group?” he asks.

  “Yeah. What’s with the sudden ?” she responds with a raised brow.

  “I just wao make sure before we go in. I do have a sce, you know. I feel a little bad making such a young mage stand in front of me.”

  “Sheesh, I ’t be that much youhan you guys. How old even are you?”

  “I’m twenty-five,” he answers with a smile, standing up and patting Emily on the shoulder. “None of the other batants are below twenty.”

  Emily is surprised by his words, looking over to Ivor who’s grinning at her.

  “And here I thought you were the old one.”

  “Told you twenty is young,” he signs back with glee.

  “Right, everyoo formation!” Oscar shouts, moving to staween the group and The Gde.

  Emily raises her fist towards Ivor. He grins and bumps it, nodding fidently, before they both stand up.

  “Well, talk to you ter,” Emily casually says while walking forward to join Oscar.

  She wordlessly settles into pce, looking back over the quick-moving mages behihe fgage carriers in the middle all have rge fabric bags double their size on their backs, all traced with lightly glowing, purple runes.

  Are those spatial bags? They have to be: we’re meant to have tents after all.

  After everyone has reached their position, ives Emily a small nod before shouting: “Move out!”

  They all start moving as orekking out into the open field as the cars start their engines and begin driving back to i. As they reach the border of The Gde, Oscar taps Emily and Dante’s shoulders before raising a hand silently and signalling for a s. Everyone halts their steps, turning their focus to Ivor standing with his eyes shut. Emily and Dante are the only exceptions, both keeping their eyes ahead, Emily’s glowing a pale e.

  Emily’s visual check of the forest floor produces the same result as Ivor’s, both finding nothing. However, her s of the opies looming above reveals half a dozen small birds watg their approach. Gesturing to Oscar to wait for a moment, Emily summons a small iroaking it firmly between her fingers, she pulls her arm back before whipping it forward, sending the bde directly into the chest of one of the birds.

  As the dead bird falls limply to the ground, the others take off in arm, flying further along the periphery of The Gde.

  Whoops, I guess none of them are dangerous.

  Signalling all clear, Emily moves forward after aap on the shoulder, flipping her hood onto her head. They step foot into the treeline, and are swallowed by the dense fog and heavy rain, vanishing from the outside world. Steadily they creep forward, maintaining a stant pace as they tinue forward into the unknown.

  After ten minutes of moving, with Emily watg for enemies ahead the whole time, nals for another earth s, this one done by Enzo, who revealed that m that he’d learhe spell to help reduce Emily and Ivor’s loads. When they find nothing nearby, they tinue walking. They repeat this pattern over and over, stopping a couple of times when they spot nearby movement, but not entering a siack.

  At just gone 10 pm, they e upon a small clearing. They halt in the tre. Ivor runs another s, but finds nothing. After Emily firms no sign of heat irees, Oscar pulls out six white iron stakes, ed in dull green runes with a single lightless wind crystal embedded iop of each. He keeps two while dividing the others: two to Emily, and one each to Biand Ricardo.

  They split, going to separate edges of the clearing and stabbing a stake into the ground. Emily pces her hand oake and instantly begins p wind attribute mana in, igniting the runes and crystal in a fsh of colour. After dumping a few hundred mana points into the stake, she stands up and moves to another point, pnting aake and filling it with mana too.

  She stands up and walks over to rejoin the group as Oscar finishes filling the st stake, and a faint green hexagonal magic circle forms around them. Emily notices a few of her groupmates breathing sighs of relief ohe array is set up and a familiar sound-isoting effect takes hold over their surroundings.

  “Good job today everyone. We’ve made goress towards oal. If we keep moving at the pace we did today, we’ll make it to The Crystal Waters’ entrahin the week. Carriers, distribute the tents a's set up camp for today. Emily, you’re on watch till camp is done,” Oscar swiftly instructs, and everybody moves as oo follow.

  Emily moves to sit at the e of the clearing, dropping her activation of Teancer’s Breath and casting both her dete spells at once. With her sed core pulsiheion periodically, she stares out into the forest around them, enjoying the dull hum of rain falling on her hood as she ss for life.

  Ten mier, Oscar walks over to joi the edge of camp.

  “Hey, do you want first, sed, or third watch?”

  “I’m fih first, just bring me some food and I’ll stay here,” Emily says casually, not feeliely tired.

  “Okay, I’ll ask Ivor,” Oscar replies, turning on his heel and trudging back towards the gathered tents.

  Time to rest. Core two, sleep.

  Her sed core falls dormant, and Emily starts deactivating infra-sight every five mio send out a pulse of eartheion. Ivor sos her a small pasty, heated with Dante’s help. He passes her the food before wishing her lud heading to his bed, preparing to take sed watch himself.

  The rest of Emily’s groupmates disappear into their tents to sleep soon after, leaving Emily out alone. A few hours pass with no signs of movement in the eerie forest, then forty minutes before the end of Emily’s watch, she senses faint movement a hundred metres away. Maintainiheion from the sed she spots it, she slowly stands up and walks around the outskirts of the barrier, cheg all other sides for more enemies.

  Once sure nothing else is sneaking up on the camp, Emily returns to her inal position and feels the creatures have approached fifty metres closer. Now she t their footsteps.

  Four small quadrupeds moving slowly towards me. They are ing in a straight liowards the camp.

  Their dire sealing her choice, Emily steps through the barrier and creeps forward into the trees. She moves out to the side of the encroag threat and switches to infra-sight ohin teres of them. Flowing bundles of heat are revealed, and Emily reises their small forms to be ocex, a weak catlike magical beast that uses a thin sheen of water on its fur to slip past attacks.

  Easy.

  Emily steps back, repositioning herself to stand behind the four unsuspeg cats. Dropping infra-sight, she silently weaves together flying lightning. A long, shimmering silver wire forms, ed around her right arm from the elbow to the wrist, where it seamlessly ects with a sharp, bded metal dart.

  Staring straight ahead, her arm whips past in a fsh, throwing the dart into the back of ahe moment the bde ects, a quiet crag light rips along the wire, flickering across the beast’s fur and dropping it to the ground in an untrolble spasm. Emily yanks hard on the wire, tearing the bde aing it sail back behind her.

  With a twist, she bends the dart's momentum, sending it shooting through the air into a sed beast. This time, the ootices the ining projectile just before it's struck, managing to let out a pained squeal before passing out from the shock. The other two react quickly, spinning to face Emily with their fangs bared.

  Emily grins back at them, pulling her on bato her hand. The two cats spring at her, and she takes a step back while throwing the dart out to her side, then swiping her arm forward in an arc. Before either cat touch her, the dart sshes past. It catches one in the front legs, cutting them to pieces and disabling it with a shock, and ly slices the other's throat.

  Emily calmly moves between the falles, stabbing the dart through eae’s head to finish them off. She then forces open their mouths and cuts out their tongues before skinning a pat one of their backs and ing the tongues up in the slick fur.

  It’s a shame we don’t have the space to carry whole hides.

  Emily walks bap clutg the most valuable magical material from the ocex in her hand. She settles back down in her previous position, dropping the ed-up tongues on the floor beside her.

  Thirty mier, Emily wakes up Ivor and warns him about her enter.

  “Be careful, there are some small ocex bodies about forty metres out from camp in that dire,” she signs, gesturing towards where she left the corpses. “They may attract other beasts, so be on guard.”

  As he nods in aowledgement, Emily turns and heads towards the tent the others set up for her. Reag the entrao the small, pitched tarp, she pulls open the fp and steps in while casting se on her entire body. Feeling a shiver of cold pass over her, she holds her arm outside the tent and watches a murky flush of water drop from it to the ground.

  This spell was a wonderful idea. Thanks Jules.

  With a warm smile, she sets the bundle of tongues down on the floor outside before letting the fp fall closed, blog out the rain. Sitting down on the soft pad left in the tre of the small space, Emily closes her eyes.

  I don’t trust everyone here enough to sleep pletely, but I will still be able to react if someone approaches while I’m meditating!

  She falls into the rhythm of teancer’s breath and silently gathers mana through the night while p the plexities of space.

  ***

  Six hours ter, Emily’s meditation is broken by a mana signature approag the entrao her tent. The fp is pushed aside as Enzo peeks his head in.

  “Time to break camp,” he informs her before dug back out.

  Emily quickly follows him, grabbing the bundle of tongues from the floor as she goes and heading towards the small gathering of people at the tre of the tightly packed tents.

  Three hours left till core one wakes up. I’ll have to be slightly more on guard for a bit.

  Emily sits dowo Oscar, silently watg the luggage carriers unloading food from their packs and handing it to Dante and the other fire mages for heating. After a few minutes of waiting for her turn to eat, Emily’s curiosity gets the better of her, so she absentmindedly pulls up the system windows of the carriers’ bags.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  [Temporary Bag of Holding]

  [Rank:] D

  [Description:] A bag with a temporary spatial expansion array installed.

  [Effect:] Holds a freely accessible, five-metre cubed pocket dimension.

  _____

  Her brow raises in surprise as she reads the description.

  “How do those bags hold so much? I thought low-grade spatial stes were only a metre or so,” she asks Oscar, pointedly gng towards his neckce as she does.

  “You’re thinking of perma holder-locked ste. There are a few differences, one is that personal dimensional items like my neckce be accessed freely by the holder, summoning items from withio their hands with just a thought. Whereas items like those bags are bound to a specific opening on the object. Anyone access their tents if they have access to the opening. The seajor difference is perma or temporary. Both my neckd each of those bags used one lesser space crystal eaake, but those bags will be out of energy in a month, whereas my neckce will st forever.”

  “I see, and the parts of the entment used for summoning items from the void will use more mana too,” Emily mutters.

  “Exactly!”

  “What are you going to do if the bags run out of mana before the end of the expedition? Isn’t there a ce we’re here for lohan a month?”

  “In that case we have Callum to help refill them until we get back,” Oscar answers calmly, gesturing to the mage iioing oher side of the group. “Or, who knows, maybe by the time that happens you’ll suddenly tell us you’re a space mage as well!”

  hs at his joke while accepting a portion of pe from . sidering her progress in her meditation st night, a small grin forms on Emily’s face.

  Maybe I will.