I was meditating for the first half of the night and while doing so, I was attempting to absorb the essence again. Since Suta told me that it may be too dense for me to absorb, I tried to see if there was a way to thin it out. Sadly though, whatever I attempted, I couldn’t thin it out. After trying everything I could think of and it didn’t work, I decided to rouse myself out and go to sword practice.

Tonight I chose to practice my spinning strikes. My goal overtime is to get behind someone on the third strike without using speed magic. I found it easier to practice if I was envisioning someone that I was hitting and since I’ve sparred with Vaero a lot, he’s the one that I thought of. With a goal in mind and I was ready to practice, I began practicing my spinning strikes.

I stopped a bit after sunlight broke through and started wiping the beads of sweat off my forehead. Before I went back to the campsite, I thought about my practice and how it didn’t seem like I made any progress and wondered where I needed to improve on. After thinking for a while, I decided to put it behind me for now and go wake everyone up.

To no surprise now, I saw Howari with the horses, petting them. I went to Hoari first to ask her for help waking everyone up and with a hand from her, everyone was awake. We then ate some of our usual provisions consisting of dried meat before we all got on our horses and took to the road for the day.

As usual, I rode at the back by myself while everyone in front was in their groups, talking. To me, I wasn’t bothered by it but rather preferred it since no one would try to pry about my past. What I did instead was actually start practicing controlling my mana with my eyes open, trying to make it a natural habit.

Time flew as I did so while following everyone and before I knew it, Brell slowed down. “Alright everyone, let's mark this as our campsite for later.” He said as he began turning around. “Now let's go back into our original pairs at the start and begin our patrols.” Brell said as he was already walking towards me. With no objections, everyone got into our original pairs and all began taking off in their respective directions with Brell and I being last to leave.

The two of us started off the patrol in silence for a bit before Brell decided to break it “You know, I don’t know why Suta wanted to switch with me for a couple of days.”. “Did he have a reason to or was he getting tired of being around Lin?” Brell said as he turned to me.

“He just apologised about Lin and talked about the Nishilon festival with me.” I answered him.

“Hmm, yeah I understand why he would apologise for her since she’s been all over you up until you won against her in the spar.” Brell voiced out. “I will say though, it was hard to patrol with Lin for those two days. She mainly asked me if I knew your weak points since I patrolled with you a few times.”. “But that was just a bit of it, she kept on wandering off and we almost got into an actual fight yesterday.” He said while letting out a sigh. “I don’t know how Suta always deals with her.” Brell added on. After he spoke, once again the air fell silent. While we rode I thought the same as how Suta puts up with Lin, maybe next time if I can, I should ask him about it.

When we decided to turn around and patrol the opposite side back, Brell asked me “So what did he tell you about the festival?”.

Once he said that, I tried to think of things to say about the festival “Things like what's going on like the auction.”.

Brell looked at me while he placed a hand on his chin, stroking the stubble “I can’t say I’m surprised that you’re interested in that, if you were a freelance adventurer before joining the guild, you’d probably have some good savings.”.

I thought about how much coins I had after he brought that up and realized I didn’t actually know how much Chelsey gave me, I just knew it’s been enough to pay for the things I’ve needed so far. To not raise too much suspicion, I agreed with his thoughts.

After that, I was happy that he didn’t ask any more questions about what Suta and I talked about and we rode in silence once more. When we were nearing the campsite, Brell spoke up once more “It’s sad we didn’t run into anything, after dealing with Lin for a couple of days and seeing you fight, I’ve been craving some combat.”.

I didn’t know how to answer him and gave a simple “I hope we do tomorrow then?”.

“I hope so.” Was the last thing Brell said before we arrived at the campsite. Howari and Krello were back first and were setting up camp. Seeing this, Brell and I give them a hand setting up. Not long after, both Suta and Lin arrive.

“Hey, did you guys run into something?” Brell asked them as they were getting off their horses.

Suta shook his head “No, Lin just got distracted again.”.

“Hey Suta! I swear that was the same bunny I saw before! It might be trying to tell me something.” Lin explained herself.

Suta looked at Lin “Lin, that's almost impossible. You saw that bunny several days ago now, there's no way it’s the same one.

“I swear it was Suta!” Lin shouted out. All Suta did in response was look at her while fixing his glasses. “Fine, I know you guys won’t believe me. I’ll just go to sleep now.” Lin said while unpacking her bedroll. Once she had it free, she walked past Suta and laid it down by the fire we were still starting and climbed in, facing away from everyone.

After the small kerfuffle between the two, everyone continued to set up the campsite around the sleeping Lin with little to no talk. Like routine, everyone then ate their dried meat before laying down and going to sleep themselves.

Once I felt like everyone was asleep, I got up from the campfire and went a bit of a distance off to do my own usual routine of meditation before practicing my swordsmanship. Instead of trying to do things like the previous night, I decided to just meditate as normal and absorb the mana essence around me.

After a certain amount of time, I stopped while it was still dark out and switched to practice with my blade. Tonight I decided to practice my spinning strikes with the same goal in mind. After I envisioned Vaero in front of me, I began my practice.

A bit after the sun was poking through the trees, I decided to stop. Sadly I still felt like I am at the level of speed as I was yesterday but didn’t let it discourage me as I tried to think of ways to make it behind someone faster without speed magic.

When I was done wiping the building sweat off my head and body, I began making my way to the campsite to once again find Howari grooming and petting the horses as they grazed the long grass around the campsite. Once again after trading morning greetings, Howari gave me a hand on waking everyone up. Just like routine, we all packed up at the campsite except for one difference of Lin not helping as much as usual. No one really put any thought into it and we ate our morning provisions before getting on the road once more.

As we were on the road, today in particular, everyone seemed quiet but it didn’t really bother me since I was still riding at the very back so nothing changed in my eyes except for the air being more quiet.

Once more Brell came to a halt while telling us that we will set camp up here later. “And as usual, we will be in the same pairs and patrol the same directions.” Brell said as he rode his horse towards me. With no complaints, everyone took off in their usual directions with Brell and I being the last ones again.

The first thing said while we walked our patrol was from Brell “I hope Suta is okay, it seems like Lin is getting into a worse mood.”. Before I could say anything, he continued “Well then again, with the pace we are making, we should make it to Nishilon in a couple more days.”. “And with that, as long as Lin doesn’t do something erratic, we will get there and her mood will get better.” He added after another short pause.

With how he talked about it, I wondered if Brell had any experience with Lin being in her current state. “Has she acted like this around you before?” I asked.

“No, not personally but Suta’s told me something similar to this before.” Brell answered with. After he answered me, we rode in silence once more as we patrolled the east side of the road.

“Hmm, I wonder where all the monsters and bandits are?” Brell said as we started to switch to the west side to patrol. “I mean like, we ran into several so far on the way out but now it’s been weirdly quiet.” Brell continued with.

I kind of understood what he ment except I wasn’t bothered by it being quiet regarding that. “Have you done this subjugation before?” I asked him, wondering if it actually isn’t normal.

Brell looked towards me “Not this one in particular but I’ve done road subjugations before like I think a year ago I took part in the one that often goes along Last Haven to Trennent.”. He then began stroking his stubble as he continued “There was a lot going on along that road but it would make sense since it’s quite close to the BadLands.”. “Who knows, maybe it was weird that we ran into so much at the start.” Brell said as he turned to look forward while he continued to stroke his stubble. After he said that, the air around us fell silent once more.

We were almost back to the campsite when Brell spoke up once more “Unfortunate, another night gone by with no sightings of monsters or bandits.”.

With the way he spoke, I wondered if he was someone that loved to fight or it was to show me how he handles himself. After giving a bit of thought on it, we arrived at the campsite with us being first this time. “Looks like we’re first tonight, I wonder if the others ran into anything.” Brell said as he began getting off his horse. “Let’s just do our usual and set up camp here, the others will most likely join us shortly.” He said as he began setting up a suitable campfire.

By the time the campfire was set up, Krello and Howari made their way into the campsite. After they gave their report to Brell on how there were no run ins, they joined us in setting the rest of the campsite up.

When we finished setting up camp, both Suta and Lin still hadn't arrived. The first to speak about it was Brell “It seems like those two must have run into something, let’s eat and get to bed, I’m certain they will arrive soon.”.

Following what he said, Krello and Howari ate their provisions with Brell before climbing into bed. Before Brell did himself, he came to me who was sitting against a tree near the fire. “It seems like they're not back yet, keep an eye out for them and wake me up when they do.” he told me before going to his bedroll and climbing into it.

After it seemed like the three were asleep, I watched the fire dance and crackle along the wood while wondering when the two would show up. Several hours passed while I sat by the fire waiting for them to return when I finally heard rustling coming from the west side, where Suta and Lin patrol. Out came from the tree line was a lone frantic looking Suta.