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The jungle seemed to become gloomier as Vur and Tafel traveled deeper in. The lightning and ambient noises hadn’t changed, yet an oppressive atmosphere hung over their heads. Tafel furrowed her brow and waved her hand in front of her face, summoning a ball of flames. Although she had trained as a spellblade for the past decade, that didn’t change the fact her roots were those of a black mage. The fire lightened her surroundings but did nothing to remove the sense of unease sneaking up her back. She bit her lip. “Do you feel that?”
“It’s very comfortable,” Vur said and nodded. A purple web of light pulsed continuously underneath his armor, lightning up along the outlines of his rose tattoo, including its roots. He hummed as he traversed through the jungle, the barrier provided by his armor removing all undergrowth in his way. “We’re getting closer.”
Tafel furrowed her brow. She missed the feeling of her sword on her back. At least there was no way she’d suffer too badly with Vur around—unless Vur decided to turn on her. Which he wouldn’t. Right? She pursed her lips as she followed in his footsteps, going deeper and deeper into the jungle. Her head turned constantly as she took in the sights, looking for anything unique to this new land. Because of that, she bumped into Vur’s barrier and yelped when he suddenly stopped. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she held her nose. There was nothing around.
“We’re here,” Vur said and tilted his head. The purple light coming off his body shone even brighter than before, illuminating the ground. A few runes inscribed on nearby trees flashed in time with the purple light. “I think it’s a fairy’s illusion magic.”
“I’ve seen something like this before,” Tafel said as she approached a tree. The rune reminded her of the one Lindyss had her help setup before Vur was awakened in the humans’ capital—not that she knew what they did. But she did know breaking them would ruin whatever spell was in place. A layer of blue scales formed over her hand as she activated her armor, and she punched the tree trunk, rendering the rune incomprehensible. She moved on to the other runes in the vicinity. Once the fourth one was destroyed, the air shimmered as a massive boulder appeared in the center of the formation of runes. On the side of the boulder, there was an archway with a pitch-black path. Tafel urged her fireball inside, lighting up a ramp leading down. She smiled. “Now this is more like an adventure. Can I lead the way?”
Vur nodded, and Tafel exhaled. If Vur had led the way, all sense of excitement would be gone. The path was straightforward, continuing in a line until it plateaued at the bottom of the ramp, leading to an underground clearing covered in sleeping bags. Snores permeated the room.
“Who!?”
Tafel jumped when a voice shouted at her from the side of the room.
“Intruder alert! Wake up!”
The snores were replaced by groans as the sleeping bags on the ground stirred. Vur caught up to Tafel and stood by her side, watching the group of people climb to their feet. His chest had stopped pulsing, maintaining a constant purple glow instead. “The thing’s deeper in.”
“Let’s not pretend like no one’s here, okay?” Tafel asked. “Once we negotiate, we can continue searching. Those are the guidelines of an adventurer.”
“So it was two foolish adventurers,” a voice said from behind the crowd. A man pushed through to the front, wielding a sword made of light-blue metal with one hand. “I don’t know how you managed to break through our barrier, but…” The man’s brow furrowed once he caught a glimpse of Tafel. “What are you?”
“She has horns?”
“The heck? Is she a human?”
“Does that matter? I’d bet she’d sell well.”
Tafel frowned. “I guess there aren’t any demons on this continent, huh?” She glared at the man with the sword. “Are you the leader?”
“Little girl, do you know what this is?” the man asked and flourished his sword.
“It’s a sword,” Vur said, speaking before Tafel could.
The man frowned. “Yes. It’s a sword,” he said. “But do you notice anything special about it?”
Vur glanced at Tafel. She shrugged.
The man’s eye twitched. “It’s made of mithril!”
“…”
“… And so?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow.
The man exhaled as a vein bulged from his forehead. He pointed at a crest on the sword’s hilt. It was an engraving of two crossed hammers. “How about this? Do you recognize it?”
“Nope,” Vur said. “And I’ve read a lot of books.”
“It’s the symbol of the dwarves! The dwarves! We’re a group armed by the dwarves!” the man shouted. He lowered his voice as he narrowed his eyes. “But I bet you don’t know what that means either. We’re going to kidnap you and turn you over to the dwarves in exchange for more weapons. Now, do you want to surrender peacefully or should I teach you two a lesson?”
Tafel pointed at the man as her hands glowed red. “Conflagration.” A rose made of flames blossomed in the air in front of the man’s face before exploding outwards, burning the leader and knocking over the nearby men. Tafel snorted as the men screamed, rolling around on the floor and slapping themselves to put out the flames.
“What happened to negotiations?” Vur asked. His barrier had shielded him from the explosion—not that he would’ve needed it anyways.
“What do you mean?” Tafel asked with a smile that reminded Vur of Lindyss’. “This is negotiating.”
“T-that’s not the power of a D-ranked adventurer,” the leader said as he applied an ointment to his burnt flesh. The skin and flesh wriggled, forming a pink surface on the wound. “Are you the guild’s quality checkers?”
“None of your business,” Tafel said and placed her hands on her hips. The men withdrew, pressing themselves against the walls of the room. Their actions left a sour taste in her mouth. This scene was all too familiar to her. Thankfully, there were no women or children this time. “Let’s go, Vur. They’re not going to bother us”—she glared at the leader—“right?”
“R-right,” the leader said and lowered his head, pressing his forehead against the ground.
Vur walked over and picked up the mithril sword, causing the man to tremble. Vur swung the sword a few times before biting the tip. It cracked. “Too soft,” Vur said and dropped the weapon. If it was stronger, he would’ve gifted it to Tafel since she liked equipment so much.
Tafel rolled her eyes at Vur’s actions before proceeding through the clearing, the men creating a path for her. She stopped in front of a purple archway at the end of the room with runes inscribed on its surface. There was no door or passage, only a rock surface beneath it. She glanced at the leader who was watching her from afar. “What is this?”
“It’s a fairy queen’s gate,” the leader said. “If you insert enough mana into it, the passage appears. It can take up to fifty mana potions before it opens.” He scratched his nose. “It’s a common commission for low-ranked adventurers. It’s the best place for slavers like us to find prey. Not only do we reach our quota, but we also get free mana potions.”
“Makes sense,” Vur said with a nod. He approached the archway and tilted his head to inspect the runes. He rubbed his chin, copying Charon’s favorite reading pose, as he read aloud, “Property of Erin. Touch this and I’ll kill you.” Vur scratched his head before poking the archway. Nothing happened. He shrugged at Tafel who was staring at him with a blank face. She sighed.
“You can read fairy runes?” the leader asked, eyes widening.
“He’s noisy, isn’t he?” Vur asked Tafel before frowning at the leader. The leader shut his mouth and sat on the ground. Vur touched the archway again and poured his mana into it, lighting it up. The rocky surface distorted and disappeared, revealing a pool of purple liquid on the other end. In the center of the pool, a green lily pad was floating on the surface.
Vur entered the room and squatted by the edge of the pool. The liquid seemed to recede as he approached, avoiding the glow coming off his body. He tilted his head and took a step forward, but the pool surged backwards and avoided his foot. What exactly did the birthflower want?
“H-hey,” the leader said. “That’s poisonous.” Maybe the horned girl would kill him if he didn’t warn them ahead of time. “Only fairies can drink it.”
Tafel frowned at Vur. “You’re thinking about drinking it, aren’t you?” she asked and sighed. “Do you want some help?”
“I got it,” Vur said as he held his arms out to the side. A breeze rushed through the opening and into the room, circling around pool. The wind spun faster and faster, creating a suction force which lifted the pool off the ground that funneled it towards Vur’s open mouth. Stella’s birthflower had prevented him from being poisoned during the assassination attempts on his life—he didn’t believe it’d fail him now.
The hunters’ leader watched with a pale face as the pool of liquid was consumed by Vur. The only side effect was a slightly bloated stomach. How was his luck so bad? He had chosen to push his luck one more time before the guild sweepers came to investigate, but he ran into these two monsters. What were they? A-ranked? S-ranked?