Mayline looked around at the gathered races and was so far, not impressed. She could not see souls per se, but she could see spirits and the [Noble] she was assigned was meek willed, and easily pushed around. Then there was the [Squire Paladin] that was shallow with a fragile ego, and a hero complex. Admittedly, he did not mean to be, he wanted to be the best hero he could, but he was very shallow. It was almost admirable how he wished to overcome it by becoming a hero that saved everyone. But he wasn’t there yet.

She looked around and was not impressed at all. Even the instructors, high levels as they were, were not impressive. It was almost sad, as the spirit becomes stronger and more riveting as an individual becomes more powerful. But all she saw was trash for their level. Hmm, maybe that was too much, she had seen several untrained bandits, now that was trash. The bandits spirits were scum, the lowest and the most pathetic. Even this noble had more spirit and backbone than those high leveled bandits.

Still, she doubted that anyone but the older lead races were capable of faking their spirit. It was actually fairly common since skills like [Sense Bloodlust] or [Sense Danger] acted mostly on the spiritual wavelength. Like weaker but specialized versions of [Spirit Vision]. But hers was not a skill and was something innate. She actually had more trouble with her body language leaking her emotional turmoil than her spirit. The matriarch had gone through much lengths to teach her about such things. Mostly she stressed not to simply kill any of the races that annoyed her. That was something the matriarch had gone to even more lengths and several literal beatings to make sure she knew.

Mayline did not understand it really. While she resisted the urge to outright kill her own kind she simply beat them until they had to take 100 cycles to regenerate. It was a simple lesson. And as far as the races went, they didn’t learn until you killed off several generations and possibly a few settlements. She didn’t know how many settlements, but the numbers were at least one hundred quadrillion, if her ancestors had the numbers right. She thought they were quite low since the races seemed to breed like insects.

Of course, she couldn’t really blame them, while the greater spirits weren’t as numerous in general, she had thousands of brothers and sisters of varying ages. Mother could randomly, and at any time, create as many greater spirits as she wanted, or had the mana for. She also could have as many or as few partners as she wanted. After all spirits were more created by intent than actual conception like the races did. Though she had to admit she did find the idea of creating half spirits or spiritkin highly intriguing. She wouldn’t mind creating some ‘the old fashioned way’ as the races would say.

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Mayline and the others traveled to the city at a reasonable pace considering. And a week and a half later they had ‘returned’ to the city. Or in Mayline’s case arrived for the first time. She had to say, she was both impressed and not. The entire time the paladin had been trying to impress her. He was so blatant in was refreshing, affterall she was told that the races were canniving, craven, two faced, and hypocritical. The paladin on the other hand was very upfront with his intentions to use her to further his goals. Which is why she asked him “This place is intriguing, is it a swamp?”

The paladin almost choked on his saliva. Then he chuckled and said “Ah, have you never seen a swamp before? I don’t know how you could confuse the two, but no, this is a town. It is astounding and beautiful is it not? This is the crown jewel of the baron’s territory Hamelburg!” The paladin announced.

Mayline said “Intriguing, it is dry and made of dead wood and stone, but it is alive.”

The paladon replied “Why yes, is this the first time you have seen so many races together?”

Mayline nodded but also shook her head “Yes, but there is a lot more life in the forest. No, it is the amount of insects, and small scavengers that make this place truly alive. There are far more in every corner than I would think, given the description of cities I was told.”

Maline’s paladin companion was again flabbergasted. How was he supposed to keep the baron’s face while answering a question like that? No, worse it was no question, it was a statement. He was not about to touch that one, so he passed it off to her trusty teammate. With that he was finally done with her. He truly didn’t think he could get the sponsorship that he truly craved from this alien woman. He would still try, later, when he recovered, but his hope had [Dead].

Micky who could no longer stop laughing, watched the paladin retreat. It seemed to be the first true and utter loss the paladin had had in his life that he could not come back from. “To put it simply those are vermin and unintentional. Often we go out on missions to exterminate them and improve the city on behalf of the lord, as benevolence for the common man.”

At that Mayline seemed to nod “Ahh, we too have to regularly exterminate vermin. The races seem to breed like no other, no offense.”

Prin and Micky laughed, at the expense of all others listening. Prin said “Ahh, while we wouldn’t call ourselves vermin, I would be careful about where you said that, haha! The races take a special exception to murder usually. At least within the walls. Though I will admit we do a lot of murdering each other outside of it.”

“Is this the hypocrisy that I heard so much about? I even noticed that you say murder, instead of killed, or hunted. Is killing monsters not murder when you do not consume them? I thought that was the difference between murder and hunting. But that does not seem to be the case...” Said Mayline.

Micky paused, but quickly continued walking. He thought about what Mayline had said and had to admit “Well, I guess your right. We are very hypocritic! We consider killing one of the races murder, a reprehensible act, one we still do often, at least some of us. And, it would also likely be murder if you were killed by the way. But killing monsters is not murder no. It is also highly respected. I thought you would understand that much. But if I had to say, it’s based off of if something is intelligent enough, or sapient enough, I guess. ”

Maline replied “Does that mean killing goblins is murder then? Or other demi-monsters?”

Micky scowled and looked Maline in the eyes “Killing goblins is never murder. I don’t care who says. Those little blights deserve to be exterminated to the last, and should never be allowed to walk on the earth again!”

Mayline chuckled, she said “It sounds like there is a story to tell there. Oh, do not frett like that I won’t pry. I can at least tell that it is not one to be told, yet.”

Micky’s mood was ruined but he wasn’t going to blame his ‘Guest’(?), he wasn’t sure what to call her. No matter he was sure things would be figured out shortly.

Micky, Prin, and Mayline continued with the class before they registered her at the adventurer’s guild while they were there. She was also enrolled in the class while they were at it. The class was having an open enrollment for a second round of students. Since so many had been wiped out from the first round, not unexpected actually. Micky had already signed up the four girls for the class as well, no reason not too. The second round would shortly be taking a quicker makeup course to bring them in line with the first round. However, there was much Micky and co. needed to do. Of course, Mayline was a special case and not going to take this makeup course. She would be touring the world with Micky for now until she could create a spirit forest of her own.