Seated on a plush floor cushion with the others as we ate dinner, I did my best to keep a straight face as my brother filled me in on their trip to Hathus.

According to Markion, they’d tracked me using Darius as a makeshift bloodhound, following my scent to the pillar where I’d fallen into the tunnel which ran beneath the desert.

When Darius lost my scent, the team concluded I must have hitched a ride with another group of travelers, and based on the direction I’d been traveling, guessed I was making my way to Hathus.

Unfortunately, their journey to Hathus was nowhere near as smooth as mine had been, as they’d been ambushed by a pride of Leosaur’s near the pillar where I’d disappeared.

During the attack Dorian, Bastian and Conrad had been killed, which meant the group was delayed waiting for them to revive. They’d then suffered through two fights with other travelers and gotten caught in a sandstorm.

Hearing the tale of the other trip, I began feeling grateful for my discovery of the tunnel, because it meant I’d been able to avoid a disastrous journey. My thoughts on our avoidance of the tunnel were proven true, when Darius explained the guild weren’t able to access the Valonia entrance due to our low reputation with the city.

“Now we know why the pride was so aggressive,” Darius commented, eyeing the Leosaur cub who was sprawled out on my lap.

“In my defense, I didn’t know what Leo was, other than that he appeared to be immune to Scorcher venom.”

“I suppose that is why so many Leosaur inhabit the canyons where the fire drakes and Scorchers nest,” Dorian supplied.

I nodded in response to his words but didn’t speak or look at the healer.

Even with the explanation about the bet and their apologies, I still had some mixed emotions about the hunting team. They seemed genuinely apologetic, and were doing their best to act friendly, but I felt like I didn’t fit into the group's dynamic.

The group flowed together, everyone had their job and knew what to do, while I just skimmed around the edges feeling lost, and useless.

After the meal, my brother and the hunting team headed into Hathus to explore the market. Though I didn’t believe the market was their actual destination. It was clear they would be going straight to the town's entertainment district, as I’d overheard Bastian coaxing my brother into joining them to properly celebrate being eighteen, and his newly unlocked access to previously restricted adult interactions.

This left only myself and Darius at the campsite, as the guild leader had declined the invitation to go with the group. I hadn’t been invited, which wasn’t surprising considering where they intended to go, but it would have been nice if they’d at least extended the courtesy of an invitation.

Being left behind only made me feel more isolated and filled me with the desire to find a group of my own. I had always been so focused on my studies, and aside from Markion, never really put much effort into making or maintaining friendships.

As Darius and I sat in the living area of my tent sorting through the items I’d taken from the three girls, I told him about my desire to leave, along with the reasons behind it. I expected him to respond negatively to my request and had been mentally preparing arguments why I needed to leave, but Darius actually seemed relieved.

“I was actually hoping that spending time with the team in the dungeon and hunting fire drakes might spur you to stop hiding away in the lab.”

“I haven’t been hiding,” I retorted, and was forced to look away from him as he raised a brow with a disbelieving expression.

“Okay, so maybe I’ve been a little insular, but I’ve realized that I can’t just stay in my lab. If I’d not come with you on this trip, I wouldn’t have achieved the same level of progress on the Scorcher venom cure, or my transmutation magic. Nor would I have created my luminous orbs with the mushrooms I found in the tunnels,” I told him, gesturing to the glass ball Leo was batting across the floor.

The ball glowed a bright pink, and was filled with a liquid which sloshed about, causing it to roll jerkily as the cub played with it.

“Should he be playing with that?”

“It should be fine, I made the glass with one of my drained Mana crystals and sand. I remembered you said that was how most glass here is made, because of its durability.”

“It is,” Darius agreed, tossing an ornate looking dagger onto the pile of weapons to his left.

“You’ve improved your transmutation magic a lot, though you seem to go about it in an unusual way.”

“What do you mean?”

“You aren’t using incantations. The few transmuters I’ve encountered all use a verbal incantation.”

“Oh, that’s because they are using a transmutation spell, well sort of, it's more of a ritual. I met a transmuter in the market who was selling his dungeon loot and we spoke a bit about transmutation. I told him about Tris, and in exchange, Nadir told me what he knew about transmutation. The transmutation spells are kind of like a pre-set ritual which can be invoked using a drawn transmutation circle; once the component is added, you invoke the activation phrase.” I explained, pulling out a piece of paper from my bag.

“Here, this is a circle Nadir taught me to draw called ‘create water'. It was his repayment for guiding him in gaining a blessing from Trismegistus. Once I add a drop of water to the circle, and invoke it, I can transmute the air around the circle into water.”

“I see,” Darius murmured, looking at the circle with interest.

“Nadir also said I can carve the circles into other materials and depending on the material used it can be activated multiple times. This paper circle is only empowered with enough mana for one use.”

“I take it that the circle is empowered at the time that it is drawn?”

“Exactly, this means that so long as we have enough circles, we can keep transmuting. Nadir said that it's like the talismans enchanters can create. Though, unlike enchanters, we can transmute without a drawn circle, it just uses more mana and requires a lot of mental focus. The reason transmuters use circles more frequently is because if our focus is broken, so is the transmutation process.”

“Did he teach you any other circles?”

“No,” I grumbled, crossing my arms with a sigh. “He said that knowledge of circles is only available to students of a magical academy and he isn’t able to reveal it.”

“We should have picked some transmutation books when buying things with the settlement money.” Darius sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I didn’t plan on learning transmutation back then, don’t worry about it though. I’ve already got a way to learn more circles.”

“Oh? How’s that?”

“Trismegistus,” I declared, spreading my hands wide. “Nadir gave Tris a necromancy spell scroll he found in the dungeon as an offering. In return, Trismegistus gave him a scroll with the water circle, which he shared with me. So, when I got back to my tent, I offered Tris the potioneer’s guide Markion gave me. In return, he gave me this.” I said, holding up a single piece of paper.

“Create your own or give better offerings.” Darius read, and shook his head with a laugh.

“Yup, so now I know I can create my own transmutation circles, I just need to work out how.”

“You say that like it’s a simple thing, but I can assure you it won’t be.”

“I know, but if I can find things to offer Tris, I can get more guidance.”

Darius nodded, and together we looked over the loot we’d piled up. The girls had a decent amount of weapons, armor, clothing, jewelry, gold, and traveling supplies on them, but I was surprised there wasn’t more. Though, Darius said they’d likely already sold off most of the high value items in Hathus.

“I recommend keeping the jewelry and getting them appraised for enchantments, other than that, I suggest we sell off everything except for the supplies.”

“I’m good with that,” I agreed, and started to pack everything back into the bags. “Should we sell it in Hathus?”

“No, you’ll find more profit selling weapons and such at the oasis near the dungeon. A small settlement is popping up there with everyone coming to the area for the dungeon, so items like these will be sought after because of the distance from larger settlements.”

I nodded, biting my lip as I tried to work out how to tell Darius that I didn’t want to go with them to the dungeon.

“Once we reach the settlement, I’ll introduce you to a few of the teams that Corvus and the newly promoted captains are running through the dungeon. One of the teams recently lost a member, who wasn’t accepted into the guild after his probationary period ended, and of the four groups I think you’ll match theirs the best.” The guild leader said, and I narrowed my eyes, the name he’d spoken causing a flicker of annoyance to shoot through me.

“Corvus, Corvus,” I mumbled, tapping a finger against my bottom lip.

Throwing his head back, Darius started laughing so hard tears pressed at the corners of his eyes.

“You don’t remember him do you?”

“The name sounds kind of familiar, but some of you changed your names. Noctus was called Striker in Avalon.” I defended, still trying to pretend that I didn’t know who he was talking about.

“Corvus is one of the senior guild commanders and is in charge of the hunting teams. He was a lion beast-man in Avalon, and funnily enough is a lion Bakeneko in Kaledon. You once threw a dead rat at him, which you’d found in the guild hall’s cellar and told him he was a bad kitty who couldn’t do his job.”

“He used to leave dead rats outside my workspace whenever I was in Avalon after that.”

“To which you retaliated by coating his armor in an itching powder and telling everyone he had fleas.” Darius chuckled, giving a slight shake of his head.

Once the last of the loot had been packed away, Darius left my tent after assuring me that if I didn’t feel like I fit well with any of the newly formed teams I could leave and travel on my own after the fire drake hunt.

With a sigh, I turned my attention to the pile of items stacked up in my workspace. Various containers, linen bags, vials, and other items were laid out on the benches, overflowing onto the floor. I’d been correct that my bound bags had, as Markion put it, ‘vomited’ out my items before returning to me.

Luckily, my brother had enough room in his bags to store my things. He’d also brought Sting and Scorch along in their jar, which I’d need to reinforce if I reformed the two Scorchers. Leonidas had gotten into the Scorcher’s jar whilst I was pitching my tent, and I’d been mere seconds too slow to prevent him from eating the two lizards. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about Leo’s obsession with eating my Scorchers and wondered how Yuki dealt with issues involving predatory behavior among her tamed creatures.

I either need to create a jar Leo can’t get int, or teach him they aren’t food. I can’t keep reforming them, it’ll cost me a fortune in Mana crystals.

As though summoned by my thoughts, the little reptilian lion came barreling into the room and began curling around my ankles. The glowing pink fluid coated his face and paws, letting me know he’d broken the glass ball, which I’d thought would be almost impossible to break. I’d thrown that thing onto the ground from over my head and all it did was create a small dent in the wood floorboards. Yet, here was proof that even the durable Arcanium glass was no match for a determined Leosaur.