“Sir, I found it.” A hooded man said as looked up to the Nature Guardian’s unresponsive body.
“The alert was correct, there was a Colossal Nature Guardian or is it Goliath, it’s size definitely seems to be the latter but mana readings were the opposite.” The man in a hoodie said as he touched the Colossal Nature Guardian’s leg.
“Sir, look here. There were adventurers here as well.” A hooded woman said, her silver hair barely peeking out from the hood.
The hooded they referred to as sir seems to be their higher up, the hooded woman inspecting the bodies.
She pulled him from the thorn gently before laying him on the floor.
About six others in hoods approached the dead adventurers.
One of them pulled the hood from his head to show a mournful expression.
It was Captain Aslan of the Scout branch.
“Can you identify how long they’ve been dead?” Captain Aslan said as he looked at the body before looking at the pile of flowers beside it.
“What could they have done to incur a Nature’s Guardian’s wrath?”
“Just a few hours, the body has yet to start decomposing.” The hooded woman said as she pressed on his body.
“There isn’t any blood on the floor. I’m assuming the blood was absorbed by the thorn.”
Just before the Captain could take in the information another one of his soldiers spoke up.
“Sir, there’s another body. It’s inside of the tree, I can sense a life force being slowly absorbed.” A hooded scout said as his palm was placed on the tree.
“Inside of the tree? It’s likely he’s already dead and his life force is trapped inside, most likely being sucked by the roots.” Captain Aslan said as he got close to the tree.
“Shall we get them out and give them a proper burial?” The hooded scout asked as he put his hand down.
“No, we’ll bury this man right here. We can’t destroy the tree or flowers. Everything was created by Nature’s Colossal, let us leave it that way.” Captain Aslan said as he walked to body on the floor.
3 days had passed since Kayden and I reached rank D1.
After we returned to the Inn from the guild, we met up with Drole and Pultra but they could tell the toll it had on Kayden as remained quiet the entire afternoon.
So it was decided that we best take a week long break, during that time, Pultra took everyone with her to shop for some new clothes.
This has been one long week, perhaps that’s because days here are longer than on earth, according to Pultra.
Each Day is 34 hours long, 17 Hours in a day and 17 hours at night.
“Do you not have any tops, why are you always shirtless? Is that a village tradition?” Pultra asked in a bemused tone slightly filled with agitation as she looked at Drole.
“Ehh, no, I just get hot easily.” Drole said as a drop of sweat broke from his skin.
“Probably because of the big ass muscles you got.” Kayden said as he poked Droles arm.
“You think so… hm, maybe.” Drole said as he looked at his arms.
“Do you even own any shirts?” Pultra asked as she stopped walking.
“I don’t think-” Before he could finish answering, a dozen knights on horses started trotting hurriedly through the roads.
The knights donned white and gold armor, reflecting the sunlight beautifully, their helmets completely covering their face with only a “T” shape in the center, showing only a portion of their relaxed face.
They were all heading towards the East gate as all of the citizens watched them in a curious look, including me and my party members.
“That’s weird, the Holy Knights don’t move unless the city is in direct danger.” Pultra said before she looked away to the store in front of them.
“Maybe a monster got too close to the city.” I said as we continued to stare down the road.
“Even if that were to happen, the border guards would’ve stopped them before they got to the gate. There isn’t much that warrants the movement of the Holy Guards besides another army.” Pultra explained before she walked into the clothes store in front of them.
“I thought you were a foreigner as well. How do you know so much about the army?” I asked as I followed behind her.
“I do my research, you know , a lot of it.” Pultra said as she looked around.
“Really? I haven’t seen you leave your room at the Inn ever since we got there.” Drole said as he looked at her.
“Well I teleport to places. It’s better than walking.” Pultra said in a lazy tone.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised since you’re the height of a child.” Kayden whispered as he side-eyed her.
“Go choke on something.” Pultra said in a dry tone as they both walked towards the woman’s section of the store.
Leaving me and Drole at the middle area between both the women and men’s section.
Neither of us felt like following them, considering we didn’t need anything from that side but now it’s just us.
Never really had time alone with him like this until now… it’s kinda awkward.
“Your Flame Magic is very advanced, having something like a speed enhancement would be considered A+ in rank especially for having such a boost in speed.” The one to quickly break that silence was Drole.
It seems I was the only one feeling awkward…
“Well I don’t really understand it all that well but I bet if I do, it would be faster. So I doubt that it’s that high in rank. Don’t you have strength enhancements in flame magic though? I haven’t even thought about being able to do something like that.” I replied as we walked over to the men’s section.
“That’s very modest of you. Strength and speed are two different categories, especially with flame magic. With strength enhancement I’m only covering my arms and weapons with Flame mana to release an explosive impact. That in itself is simple.” He stopped at a rack filled with clothes before turning to me. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“However, with speed it bypasses the very laws of physics that are said to govern this world. It adds the flame in the minimalistic world of gravity and time and increases the heat of flames to burn through it. For Flame magic users it is very taxing for the simple fact of it costing a lot of mana to use for even a short amount of time and the concentration is also very exhausting.” Drole explained quickly, in a tone so genuine and fascinated.
Something you wouldn’t expect from someone so brolic.
“Your understanding of it is amazing, better than mine, why don’t you have the spell? I’m sure it would be even faster with someone like you using it.” I let out without even thinking because I was genuinely amazed with him.
“Because it is against my clan to run away from battles and I don’t have enough mana and energy to expend in a fight with a speed enhancement. However your mana is similar to that of an ocean, you’ve used the speed enhancement while even having enough energy to fight an entire. I will tell you my knowledge to help you understand. You may not realize, but you’re an expert with mana. Maybe even more so than Ms. Pultra.” I can’t explain it to you why, but I know he isn’t lying.
His words are as genuine as they come.
“Don’t take this the wrong way but you are intelligent more so than one might peg you for. A lot of bodybuilders I met were just muscle-brains. Only knowing as much as the muscles on their body.” I said before he suddenly let out a deep laugh.
Which bellowed throughout the entire store.
“You know, you’re a great person much like Kayden’s words. Our initial encounter, I thought you were an… how do I say this… ah, an asshole. You were very quiet and seemingly arrogant but it seems my judgement was misguided.” Drole said as he let out a few chuckles.
I couldn’t help but laugh either, it was unexpected.
“It looks like we were both judging each other a little too hard.” I said as I looked at the pants on the rack.
“What are you laughing about?” Pultra’s voice suddenly rung as she approached us with Kayden.
“Nothing much. You’re done already?” I said as I saw that she wasn’t carrying anything.
“Well I got something but there isn’t much goods in here.” Kayden said as he held his pants above Pultra.
“Yeah I don’t want anything from here.” Pultra said as she looked at the other things on the rack.
“Nothing fits her.” Kayden whispered from behind her before he quickly looked away when she turned her head.
“Hmm… We’ll go to another store after this so hurry up and pick.” Pultra said in a slightly aggravated tone.
Drole and I didn’t reply as we just looked at them, certainly Kayden and Pultra were getting along as if they’ve been friends forever.
Knowing it’s only as Kayden as other preferences, I could help but feel good as I saw Kayden feeling better.
Well after me and Drole chose a few pieces of clothing, we took it up to the cashier.
With enough money to hit up more than a few stores after that, we spent the entire day shopping for clothes and equipment.
To my surprise the city is much bigger than it appears.
Just a regular degular day, hopefully the scouts are having better luck than the knight.
mmhmm Indeedo