There were no more incidents between us and where we’d spotted the blood. From there, it was as easy as keeping my lower sets of eyes peeled for anything that resembled a weapon as we followed the trail. Eventually, I found a pretty crude, but well-sharpened sword. I suppose that was the best they could afford.

I handed it to Liare, who in turn handed it to Servas while making our way out of the grass that hid many dangers. Another such danger showed up in our retreat.

A lioness had managed to stay out of my sight, completely hidden behind tall grass, until the very last moment when it jumped at Liare. The adventurer, fortunate enough to have been on high alert all this time, barely managed to raise her shield in time to block the brunt of the attack as she slammed the animal to the side, but still received some of the animal's nails to her arm. I immediately ran up to her and brought my halberd forward, stabbing the animal before it got another chance to pounce.

You have killed a Steppe Lioness: No experience was awarded.

“Let’s get out of here, quick,” I said, after I watched small streams of blood flow down Liare’s arm. She was gritting her teeth and fighting against the pain, and while the wound wasn’t that serious, it wasn’t pleasant to deal with.

Veleth dragged the lioness’s body, covered by Servas, and when we were out of the danger zone, I halted and healed her.

“Thanks,” She said.

“Might be a good idea to get some armor before going here again, even leather would be incredibly useful,” I answered when I finished my work on her arm.

“I know, and that’s sort of why we're here today. Money’s tight, but it looks like, thanks to you, we still managed to get something out of it.”

She looked at the lioness’s corpse that her companion had taken with him. Its fur was bloodied, but the stab had been clean, and not totally ruined its pelt. It would still suffice to either use for raw materials, or sell to make some quick money.

“Hope it will be enough to help you out.”

“Can’t complain. We’ve been very fortunate today. Thank you very much.” Liare took a slight bow of gratitude. “When our fourth party member is back, we’ll try to continue.”

“Word of advice,” I said. “The creatures after the grasslands are tough. They are like bulls and have extremely tough hides, and a nasty charge. If I were you, I’d not fight them with swords. Try using spears instead, of decent quality… if you can afford that, of course. It would be much safer.”

“That’s some very useful information. Thanks!” She said warmly. “We won’t hold you up any longer. Take care.”

She waved, as did her companions before they took the lioness’s corpse and carried it towards the exit. I stared at them until they were out of sight until Cellestra grabbed my attention.

“Are you okay?” She asked softly. It was then I realized just how much of an impact these adventurers had had on me, mentally.

“I…” I started, not knowing what to say next for a few seconds. “I can’t believe it. Do all adventurers start like that?” I knew there were dangers, but they were just playing with their lives.

“I don’t know,” Cellestra replied with her usual soft voice, seemingly sharing in my melancholy. “But I’m happy you could help them. Everyone needs a little bit of luck sometimes.”

“Agreed,” I said, nodding. “But I feel like I’ve maybe had a bit too much of that myself.”

“Don’t think too much of it,” She said. “We should get to training.”

“Yes,” I said, “We should.”

We followed the footsteps back to the portal in search of one of the anteaters. They would, by far, be the best creature for target practice, as I was certain I could constrain them with silk while Cellestra tried out her spells. I doubted the same could be said about the bisons, and, while the lions would work as well, their habitat was simply too dangerous to linger in.

We found one not too far away from the portal, and, after paralyzing it, I used my thread manipulation to wrap it so it couldn’t escape. It was eerie to have a creature so helpless, it would have hurt me otherwise, but it showed no signs of fear, or even awareness of how hopeless its position was when I looked into its eyes.

It was then time to teach Cellestra the most powerful, most destructive spell I had in my arsenal.

It was made more difficult by the fact that I needed to have a target when casting the spell, which meant I needed to cancel it before it killed the anteater or we’d have to find another one. As gruesome as it was, healing it over and over again during practice rounds proved to be the most effective way of teaching.

It took a few hours and a good amount of practice, but eventually, the brunette understood the ability, or at least part of it. She could cast it, and the lightning arc would fire and increase in strength for a while, but at some point, it simply stopped.

Cellestra explained that the longer she channeled the arc, the harder it became to keep a good grasp on the magic that flowed through her. After some time, it would simply slip out of her fingers.

We tried to work around this by me casting the spell longer, and it worked, but we ran into another issue.

Cellestra used the spell, trying to get past her previous record, but as she did so, the beam became intense enough that it killed the anteater, even with my healing during all that.

“That’s… wow…” She didn’t seem to know what to say.

“I’m already impressed with your progress,” I replied. “Even if this is how far we can go for now. You’re amazing, you know that?”

“Thank you,” She said warmly and with a cute smile. “You’re a great teacher.”

“Happy to know that I can help. I suppose we should try that spell again sometime on a stronger enemy. For now, what do you think about my fireball? Seems like it could be useful if we’re fighting anything like those trees again.”

“Sure,” She replied optimistically.

And so we continued with the next spell, resolved to increase her offensive capabilities so we could carve a path through tougher enemies. Cellestra had already done her fair share of work when we fought our final adversary in the trial, and yet there was so much room for growth. As things stood, whenever I learned a spell of greater magnitude, I could teach Cellestra how it worked, and thus make her more powerful as well.

Unfortunately, we had to cut our exercise short, just before completion of the spell, as movement near the portal caught my attention. Five people in armor that rivaled Cellestra’s new set stepped through it, took a glance at us, and slowly advanced, ignoring everything like I had when we were on our way to finish our trial. No doubt they were experienced, but I couldn’t tell exactly how much. Their bracelets were hidden underneath all the metal.

“Think it’s time to head home?” Cellestra asked as I followed the group with my head.

“I think it’s about time. I’m also a bit tired from all that.”

“Want a ride?”

“Sure,” She said, smiling.

“We did great today,” I said as she hopped on my back. “Let’s get something to eat, and then see if we can do any work on our home.”

“Won’t your parents have any tools we could borrow?” Cellestra asked. “You know, for making that sign?”

“Well, when we slept in the warehouse, there were plenty of tools in there. I kind of forgot if they have what we need, but we could just check.”

“Fair.”

We stepped through the portal, happy with all that we’d gotten done today. I had this nasty urge of needing to do something worthwhile or I’d suffer from certain anxiety, knowing that so much was at stake and enemies were on their way to take everything that I had. Fortunately, I had Cellestra there, whose presence alone always helped me to keep my emotions in check. She’d unknowingly done that for as long as I’d known her.

When we left the forest and were about halfway to the farm, I noticed a shadow circling the grass around me from something high above.

When I looked up, I felt my heart drop. Gwyn’s pet, the bat-like creature, was circling the afternoon sky.