"So this is the Dianian's nests?" A short, pudgy, young boy said. He was wearing inconspicuous clothing befitting that of low-rank mage-class adventurers, basically a black robe with a white undershirt, a simple hat, and a belt on his waist that had a ton of bottles strapped to it. In his right hand was a staff much bigger than him, yet he seems to hold it with absolute ease.

This boy was Collin, a skilled divorakk scholar from the nation of Gaela, a country near the vast and fertile hills of the Guwagon, an area that serves as a magical basin for the north-western tip of the Eastern Isles. Unlike Jija, Gaela was a nation that embraced magic-born completely, so they strongly opposed the Jija Kingdom's evil practises, causing them to not have any favourable relations with each other.

He looked at a map he pulled out from his sizable bag and double-checked if he was truly in the right place. He hummed as he confirmed that he was truly in the Jijian outskirts, or well, countryside. There was a really blurred line between countryside and outskirts in the case of Jija Kingdom, as their obsession with technological progress has left the poorer countryside get even poorer and slowly wither away into nothing more than outskirts.

"Mmm, that would mean… Yep, I'm in Jijian territory. Time to put on my disguise." He was alone yet he spoke as if someone was there.

Collin dropped his bag on the grassy ground and started rummaging through it. He pulled out a couple containers containing skin-colored liquids and a few vials containing some sort of viscous liquid. He grabbed a few specific ones that had the labels 'Jija' on them.

He took the container with the skin-colored liquid and opened it up, it smelled of fresh herbs and ground cinnamon. He applied it onto a glowing mark on his cheek. Once he did, it slowly disappeared from sight, like it was never there in the first place.

Next, he took a vial that had a goopy brown liquid and popped off the cork, this one had a strong smell of coffee and fresh cocoa with a strange funkiness to it. He dropped the liquid onto his eyes—which were a mesmerizing shade of greenish-yellows and mint-greens that mingled to create quite the refreshing combination—and hissed at the pain, he massaged his eyes for a while and when he opened them back up, his eyes were completely brown, with no speck of green or yellow left.

He took out a mercurial mirror and examined his looks, he looked completely beastman now. He smiled at the efficacy of his concoctions and stuffed all his belongings back into the bag and equipped it once more.

He started walking towards a human settlement, apparently, the Jija Kingdom invaded the Great Forest of Illusions and took the divorakks living there. He was here to see if there were any who escaped, and to help them get to safety.

While he was a divorakk too, he was from a different subrace of divorakks. This is made clear by the small, pristine, cream-colored goat-like horns protruding from his head covered by silky and soft russet hair.

He didn't make any effort to disguise this, however, as he knew beast-people were accepted by the Jija Kingdom as they were 'human enough'.

He was more nervous about his appearance, really. He couldn't just tell them he was already an adventurer, seeing as he looked like a ten year old human boy and Jijian guilds only hired those twelve and above.

Since he wasn't even a Jijian adventurer either, and was from a very different country. The guild card he had with him would raise a lot of suspicions if he flashed it, seeing as he was from a private guild that was known for its high concentration of magic-borns in their ranks. And also show that he was from Gael, a nation that isn't too friendly with Jija. All these factors could lead to him being found out as a divorakk and enslaved.

Plus he was already a C-Rank adventurer, he would definitely cause a ruckus even if he wasn't found to be a divorakk. A ten-year-old beastman boy from another country would be enough to make local government officials wary, much less one that was also a C-rank adventurer.

C-rank adventurers weren't superhuman by any means, but it's still an amazing title. Especially for a ten-year-old boy. So the people would definitely be astonished if they heard that the small and pudgy Collin was an adventurer that had a good rank.

That said, though, the little boy was prepared for any kind of problem that might arise. He had plans upon plans upon plans, backup plans for backup plans. He was very confident that he could carry out this mission with little to no problems at all.

He walked through the grassy fields of the Jijian countryside and watched as the smaller animals of the forest would come out from the undergrowth and take a peek or two at him. He would pet these animals and continue on his merry way towards the human town he was going to be using as his temporary base of operations.

'I just really hope the Grandmaster reimburses me for the trip fees. I mean, he isn't obligated to… but he was the one that forced me into this job, and the round-trip from Gael's capital to the Jijian outskirts costs a lot…' He thought, as he calculated the large travel expenses that he was forced to pay out of his own pocket.

"Even with walking to terminals and using my magical arrays for minor transport, the total still comes up to… one gold coin." He sighed deeply.

And so, the little boy kept walking, depressed. He knew that one gold coin for travel expenses was ridiculously high, even with the security restrictions that needed to be bypassed if one wanted to enter Jija. At most, every trip would have only been 60 silver coins a year or so ago. Unfortunately, Jija has been very greedy lately.

"They're so obviously preparing for war." The boy hummed in despair. "I really wish this'll all blow over in a hundred or so years. God, humans are such messy beings. You'd think with their short lifespans they'd be smarter. But the wisdom of the older generation dies along them it seems." Collin said in pure melancholy.

Divorakks were immortal beings, when they reach 'maturity' they'll stop aging and subsequently be unable to die from old age, so a hundred or so years was nothing for them. So with that, Collin just hoped that the possible war that he predicted would come in a few years time would go quickly. He wanted to read the famed magitech manuscripts of the Jija Kingdom as soon as he could.

He jumped in glee when he finally saw the silhouette of a human town in the distance.

"Why do you guys look so scared?" Clailip genuinely asked, he couldn't understand why the spirits were looking at him with wary eyes.

"Clailip you just killed a human." Lawod said calmly, though it was clear by the way he was looking at the boy that he was definitely uneasy.

"Yeah I did? I mean I only did it cause they beat me up and tried to kidnap me." Clailip fully believed he was right, his voice carried confidence and seemed to mock the dead women. "Anyway, this is an amazing turn of events! I heard from Grandma Lisa that spirits can have even better and more detailed humanoid forms by consuming the bones of humans. We can strip their meat off and feed you guys the bones so we can go to human civilizations! I can probably just cover my mark and eyes up with cloth and you guys can carry me around. This way we can find more information about my Mama, Daddy, and siblings!" Clailip said with oozing positivity.

The five spirits looked at Clailip like he'd finally gone insane, maybe they were right, but the truth stands that Clailip definitely thinking like how a small child would. The spirits were definitely not experts regarding how divorakks should act or talk, but they knew something was wrong with Clailip and his train of thought.

"Alon, Galcies, can you extract the bones from these three?" Asked the beaming Clailip.

Alon and Glacies looked torn, on one part they wanted to help Clailip, but on the other hand they knew that this was wrong in a way. Desecration the bodies of the dead and consuming their bones was something they never expected Clailip would ever ask of them. So despite their willingness to help the boy, as his temporary guardians, they'd have to say no. They shook their heads and told Clailip via telepathy that they didn't want to do such a thing.

"... Alon you kept pestering me for something to do. This is your chance to finally do something and you're throwing it away? Seriously? That's lame. Boo, lame." Clailip childishly teased as he tried to use all of his strength to break Issa's arm and hopefully tear it off. Unfortunately his divorakk toddler strength wouldn't let him do anything significant to the dead woman's shoulders. "Come on, please? They're already dead anyway. Plus they really did hurt me, I was bleeding and stuff and I couldn't even breathe! I think I broke a lot of bones too, but that one's a nice lady and healed me, so we're gonna give her a proper and respectful burial." Clailip explained as he pointed at the unmoving body of Mandel, who was bleeding from her ears.

And so it clicked, or well, at least the spirits thought they finally figured out Clailip's suddenly violent behaviour. The women had hurt him severely and obviously he was very upset and wanted them to die, though this would be a very flawed reasoning for mentally sound humans and divorakks, the spirits didn't know any better and thought that everyone was like this. So even if it was against her best wishes, Alon shaped her hand into a knife and started hacking away at the bodies, Clailip watched with curious eyes as the stiff body of Issa was opened up, making blood pool on the hallowed forest's grounds. Her ribs were taken out and her body was discarded for the scavengers to feast on.

"I changed my mind, let's Bury that lady too, she tried to stand up for me. Plus we have like um… twenty something bones already. We don't need any more." Clailip announced and Alon nodded, Glacies was still at a crossroads but he was glad that he didn't have to take apart a human and just give them a respectful burial.

That night, they buried the two women in a beautiful bed of devon flowers, a type of flower that can only be found in the Forest of Illusions, its a pale lavender colour with a mesmerising petal pattern that looked like the stars. They smelled of fresh watermelons and mild citrus, eliminating the rotting smell of the corpses. The devon flowers will completely eat away and grow on the dead bodies in a few days, completely covering them and turning the dead women into a lush patch of flowers that small animals can nibble on.

"May these everflowing waters erode." Clailip chanted as he used his magic to clean the bones, he finally reached level six of his water magic, and could use it as well as the average divorakk child. He was very surprised at his progress, just a few months ago he was struggling with basic spell casting, now he was using and tweaking basic spells with absolute ease. "So cool! The blood's coming off so quickly! Thank gosh for pressure washing." Clailip exclaimed, inspecting the dark red bubble of water, watching the bits of meat, organs, and blood come off easily.

The spirits were still very cautious and wary of Clailip, especially the two senior spirits. Lawod and Simoy couldn't shake off the feeling that Clailip's actions yesterday were too brutal. Something that children aren't supposed to do, no matter how angry or upset. Sure it was euthanasia, but his words along with his general apathy towards the situation made the two spirits start speculating about what exactly could be wrong about Clailip.

"It's time! Gramma Lisa taught me how to do this… Uh like, just stay still I guess." Clailip's playful tone contrasted with his bloody and dirty look, the gap between his childishness and this newly discovered morbid side of him made the spirits nervous.

And with the breaking of three human bones, the three newborn spirits gained their newly true, humanoid appearance. The other two spirits, Simoy and Lawod, adamantly refused the procedure.

Alon was now a tall, slender, and pale brunette woman, her eyes were a vivid gold and her lips were nude and thin. She was beautiful, and her air of sophistication only the most perfect servants would have, was now even more prominent. Her clothing became more intricate, and she reported feeling even more power. The blades she used for fighting materialised and were currently sheathed and strapped onto her waist.

Glacies, the squire, was now almost a full fledged Knight, his appearance strangely older now, and less like Clailip's. He had broad shoulders now, a clean shaven face, long black hair, tan skin, and dark brown eyes. Even around Clailip he now held a solemn and serious expression. He now beheld armour that looked like Iron but was actually made up of ice crystals, on his back a spear was mounted, and the mist that followed him was now thicker and choking.

Aery was now wearing true priestly clothing, it flowed in the wind despite there being no breeze. He had dark skin and a bald head, a chubby and short figure, a kind expression on his face and he had an aura of purity, unlike the often tainted and corrupt clergy, he held himself like a true priest. His axe was replaced by flowing ribbons that were sharp enough to cut through small branches cleanly; these ribbons were part of his outfit, so he never had to carry a weapon around him.

By night time, they had already set out of the forest, and to the nearest human village near them. Simoy and Lawod wanted to protest, but they gave in. They had a feeling that Clailip's 'condition' was due to not enough exposure to humans; he probably hated them with all his heart after what had happened to the village. Going to a human settlement and letting him see that humans had the capacity to be kind too, might help change his views.