After some time from that dramatic moment, I asked Agnes to keep my ‘performance’ yesterday and what she knew of my magical capabilities a secret. She thankfully accepted my request with complete understanding. On our way over to Myron Dungeon, I told her a few things she needed to know about dealing with monsters, the first being ‘go for the heart if you’re looking to survive,’ a quote for all hunters to remember. Those ‘hearts’ are the magic stones they drop. They may not be worth as much while taking them to the guild damaged, but losing some potential glits is better than your own life if you can’t strike the monster’s vitals like their neck or head.

Speaking of magic stones, Agnes and I were allowed to collect them as we went down the dungeon to turn them in for profit at the end of our exam. We were even given pouches to store them in. Agnes had hers hanging on the holster while my own was kept in my Dark Space, along with both of the complementary lunches that we’d eat later as well as our mana potions.

When we got to the entrance of Myron Dungeon, which was basically a large cave on the side of a mountain, I discussed how we’d go about our formation: Agnes would take rearguard as she watched me from behind how to go about dealing the first couple of monsters with only a weapon in hand—mine being The Conductor, the name I chose for the e-stone-embedded dagger wand that Seal and Lilia gifted me. Rala, Flinto, and Zalena were impressed when I showed it to them, and Agnes was especially in awe at the sight.

With our plan set and Rala reminding us of the rules of the exam while advising to keep our Companions close at all times, we started our crawl down Myron Dungeon. I took point as vanguard while Agnes was close behind. My Companions were still in the pockets of my clothes while Agnes’ Flicker was kicking back on her Chaperone’s head.

As for Rala, Flinto, and Zalena off to the side, as they observed our movements, they would be very minimal with involvement for our battles, watching their own backs at best unless it’s a dire emergency. Even Zalena’s four Companions were fluttering above her keeping watch, confident in their own powers to help out their own Chaperone, but her Wind Fairy only had one thing she kept her eye on, myself. I was sure Zalena instructed her at one point to observe me for any suspicious behavior, so I had to watch myself while pretending to not notice her presence. This was something that I had done quite well thanks to all of my experience playing dumb while fairies were ‘getting it on’ (especially Mom’s and Dad’s Companions in particular) in my presence, thinking no one would see them doing it.

With that and their lack of involvement in mind, Agnes and I would have to keep watch from what’s behind us as well as our front. Thankfully, I and Agnes knew how to cooperate with our Companions and use the search spell for anything that got in our range. I only imagined Agnes knew that much with magic since her dad was the knight general of the kingdom’s guard. With that kind of social power, it wouldn’t be strange that he got her a capable magic instructor to teach her magic alongside Seal for swordsmanship.

I sensed how Agnes’ control was different from mine, though, especially with how much mana was used for her search spell. I advised her a more cost-efficient way to use her search spell as we made our way down while being out of the adults’ and Flinto’s earshot. Just as it was displayed in the magic demonstrations yesterday, Agnes picked up my advice quickly and without question.

As for how the search spell was used, I noticed most people would create a ‘field’ around them that caught whatever stepped in its range, which required continuous consumption of mana in order to keep it up and more so to expand to a wide area. My method of the search spell was taking a chunk of mana and spreading it in a sonar-like effect. This was especially useful in enclosed spaces as it would bounce off the walls, covering even more ground with less mana used, and it would only be done every few seconds to know what changed in our surroundings.

A plus-side for those specialized in Wind Magic like myself, one could do this similarly by sensing changes in the wind, whether it be the direction, speed, pressure, or temperature. Dad told me how a hunter who was especially good in Wind Magic was able to do this. Though he could also use that magic alongside Earth, he wasn’t as good at it as the latter, and so he never got the grasp of how it was done when they tried teaching it to him. It was rough, but I took what I could from him and adapt it with my own understanding. Due to the help of my Wizard and Sage gifts at the time, I learned to do this trick pretty quickly to where I could even predict some weather patterns if I focused enough. When I used that trick alongside my search magic, I found the former used even less, if not no mana at all than the latter. It was especially easy in closed-spaces, which made me perfect to take the point position in a dungeon crawl as I would sense incoming intruders both in the front and the back with the wind trick, but I wanted Agnes to feel like she contributed something, too. So, I kept this little tidbit to myself and sensed my surroundings quietly with the trick while she did the same with her improved search magic as we went down.

It didn’t take us long before we encountered our first monsters in the crawl, lower-imps on the first floor. They were humanoid, child-sized monsters with bat-like features such as large, pointy ears, claws for hands and feet, fangs on a grotesque face, and wings to glide. Slow on the ground, but quick on the offensive once they take to the air and pounce their prey. They’re especially dangerous when there are even just two of them, and this is just the lowest tier of their species, hence the name.

Normally, like bats, they would hang back on whatever footing they can from above or walls, hiding in the darkness before making their ambush, but there were three currently on the ground feasting on their latest catch, a pair of goblins. Like vultures scavenging for sustenance, the three lower-imps were feasting on whatever flesh they could get their claws on. I even caught one of them swallowing a magic stone whole as we all were hiding behind a large rock after catching their presence in our [magic] radars.

“Ugh … how savage,” Agnes muttered while covering her mouth, stopping herself from vomiting.

“This is a good opportunity,” I whispered. “There aren’t any other monsters near here, either. Agnes, you watch my back and just observe as I demonstrate how taking them down without magic is done, all right?”

Agnes nodded without argument, Rala informed me to be careful while Flinto steeled himself for any surprises, and Zalena’s expression turned complex, curious to how I’d do in this situation. Zalena’s Wind Fairy was especially ready to observe me for any surprises, and even though the rest of her fairy crew were tasked to watch their surroundings, they were just as curious to see how I would do.

Are you all ready? I’ll try to be careful but expect some movement, I warned my Companions hiding in my pockets through telepathy.

Breezy answered for everyone. Aside from sleeping overnight, fairies would sometimes control their mana-made wings to disappear in an attempt to preserve their mana supply as well as better to hide from potential threats. This was very handy for a fairy’s survival, especially for this case while we’re in the dungeon infested with monsters and more so to keep them hidden from Zalena's observant eyes.

With the Conductor out and ready to strike, I focused on erasing my presence, controlling my breath and picturing myself light to make minimal sounds. This was something Weiss of all people taught me over some of our training sessions as he was surprisingly just as adept in creating ambushes on foes as he was moving quickly and being an evasive tank. From what he told me, he was actually an able thief before he joined Dad’s former hunter party, getting his experience from living in the streets and former acquaintances of the shady trade giving him tidbits.

At the time, I had mixed feelings using such skills in the hunter field as I practiced, especially since I could just as easily hide my presence with magic. Since I was being watched by Zalena and her Companions though, I had to be careful of how I use my magic and not go to such lengths that are nearly impossible for an eleven-year-old to achieve. However strong her eyes for magic were, she could possibly pick up the slightest activity of it in use under her watch.

I never thought I’d be so grateful to that annoying playboy for teaching me this shady skill as I was then.

I made my move, walking up to the lower-imp pack naturally like I was in a moving crowd of people in a marketplace, blending into my surroundings like air with dagger-wand in hand. The monster pack did not take notice of my approach.

As I got closer, I picked up speed, still keeping light on foot, but the slightest crunch of rock and dirt of the dungeon’s ground could be heard if one’s hearing was sharp enough. With the lower-imp I was closest to having one of their large ears perked up, being the biggest of their group, that could’ve been their leader bearing that sharp-enough hearing to pick up my movement.

But the moment it noticed the noise was too late.

When the biggest lower-imp turned and caught me, my Conductor was moving in course, approaching its frail, thin neck.

I barely felt any obstruction in my weapon’s path as it cut my target’s neck clean before they could even utter a yelp of surprise.

The lower-imp leader’s head went flying, the bandit leader’s own from nights before appeared in its place in a flash, his expression was mixed with fear and confusion.

Within that darkness that night, even if I hadn’t increased my vision to adapt in the dark back then, having that fire being that place’s only source of light, his expression would still come in my mind clear as day as it was when it appeared again in the dungeon.

Something clicked in me. My heart was racing, but I paid it no mind as I was unusually calm. It may have been that ‘zone’ feeling professional athletes use when they were really focused on something, but I’m not sure whether having that kind of thing here was a good or bad thing.

The other two lower-imps while in the middle of eating caught sight of their leader’s head in the air. The next closest target that was to my left turned to me with blank confusion and carrion still in its maw.

With my Conductor still outstretched from my first attack, I quickly rose it up and delivered an overhead attack towards the second lower-imp. Just like my first attack, the second was just as clean as my Conductor cleaved part of the monster’s head, from the top to the side of its chin in a diagonal line. It wasn’t completely chopped off, but the second lower-imp’s head was soft and small, about cantaloupe-sized. My Conductor may have reached three-quarters deep before I followed through, enough to kill the monster instantly while its face split and flopped open, revealing its bloodied innards.

The third lower-imp was in shock of its two packmates dying in an instant. It was about to cry and attack in retaliation, but I quickly took a few steps over, not even registering the goblins’ corpses beneath me, and with my Conductor in both hands low to the ground, I thrust forward and pierced its chest. A clink like a jewel breaking was heard as the Conductor went deep and poked out of the third monster’s back.

I stared into the third lower-imp’s large, beady-black eyes as it cried strained, cracking screeches of pain before it sputtered blood. It was likely a mix of the goblins’ along with its own as it was in the middle of eating, but I didn’t even flinch as some got on my face while I continued to stare up the last of the pack from below.

I pushed the Conductor through further, silencing the monster’s pained screeches. The momentum brought me close to my third and last target, our eyes met at the same level then, but it felt more like I was staring down at something small and insignificant, something that was as much of a hassle to me as it was a threat to everyone and everything around it, something that was better left gone and not be a bother to anyone any longer.

Just like with those bandits a few nights prior, I felt no remorse taking the lives of those hideous monsters as I forcibly pulled my Conductor out and just watched my latest foe in this one-sided battle collapse before me. Even with all of the other monsters I killed before my exam, I didn’t feel nearly as intense then as I was over those times. Up to that point, I only saw monsters as dangerous ‘training partners,’ ‘opportunities for growth,’ and money to put away in my life savings, hardly giving them much thought to what they actually were despite the lore I heard and read of them while living in the new world.

I guess my experience with those bandits gave me enough of a reality check that I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to know about Manara or not, that I wasn’t in a fantasy I had read in books or played in games back on Earth, and that the people outside of my circle weren’t just extras to those stories’ plots that I could choose to ignore like I had with the kids I didn’t want to deal with in school.

The image of the bandit leader’s disembodied head disappeared a while ago, but I didn’t realize how much it was stuck in my mind until I noticed the lower-imps’ corpses started brightening up.