"So, where's the faerie forest?" Estorea asked.

"Oh, it's to the East, don't worry, young miss. I will lead you there." Aelia cheerfully replied, humming.

Estorea nodded and just followed Aelia to the huge entrance gate which was where adventurers were often gathered at.

Both of them soon arrived, seeing the huge massive stone gate. There was a small wooden building on the side, and a person at the counter checking people's adventurer or merchant badge and allowing them to go out.

Estorea looked around, there were many people all dressed in all sorts of garments. Some fancy, some ragged, some too much.

Out of the corner of her eye, Estorea suddenly spotted a black-haired guy heading for them. Before she could intervene, he swiftly appeared and placed a hand on Aelia's shoulder.

Aelia turned her head slightly and smiled at the sight of the black-haired boy. She turned around and without any hesitation, wrapped her arms around him. "Yosa! I missed you!" She exclaimed, hugging him tightly.

"Mm..." He made a small hum of agreement. Aelia widened her eyes and let go of Yosa. She turned to glance at Estorea to introduce him, her young miss must have been surprised to see a random guy hug her!

"Ah, young miss, this is uh, Yosa! One of my close adventurer friends." She gestured to Yosa who nodded his head at Estorea and bowed slightly.

"It's nice to meet you, Yosa." Estorea beamed.

"...Likewise..." He responded quietly. It seems he was not good at communication and had trouble trying to express his emotions.

Yosa

Adventurer Rank A

[

_________________

Yosa tilted his head, "Where are you guys going?" He queried.

"To Faerie forest. We need to collect some herbs."

"Can I... follow...too?" He muttered quietly.

Aelia looked at her Young Miss, Estorea nodded. It wouldn't hurt for one more person to come along after all.

...

The trio finally reached the counter and showed the receptionist their adventurer badges. They also had to note down their destined location and after all that, they were free to go.

The procedure was tedious but it is expected among this small country that could be overtaken by any big country. It made sense it was being extremely cautious on who can go in and out.

"So... Shall we go?" Estorea questioned, looking at the green lands before her.

Aelia nodded and she grabbed Estorea's wrist and carried her up in a bridal carry. Estorea blinked, it all happened too fast and before she could process, she was up in the air, the wind whipping at her face.

It seems like this was normal as Yosa was following behind without any weird expression on his face.

Is this how young people travel nowadays...? Be the marvel heroes?

Soon, they landed on the ground smoothly. Estorea almost toppled over if Aelia hadn't caught her.

And then, there they were. In front of the forest, Estorea sucked in a breath as she looked at the breathtaking view.

She couldn't help mumbling a "woah."

Faerie Forest

___________

Aelia giggled, "It's beautiful, right?" She could recall it like yesterday when she first came here. And she too, had the exact same reaction like her Young Miss; Amazed and taken aback.

Even now, she still can't help but take a breather every time she comes here. It really was far too beautiful.

Estorea coughed, snapping both of them out of their admiration. She clapped her hands, "Well, we got to get to herb-picking. I need to find quite a variety so..."

Aelia immediately offered to help her without a second thought, and Yosa decided to help as well as he had nothing to do.

Since the Faerie forest was inhabited by fairies, the other monsters did not try to claim and fight the fairies as they were actually quite powerful and highly-trained among the monsters.

Simply, the fairies won't come after your ass if you don't provoke them.

Aelia and Yosa started to look for the required herbs and led Estorea to them if they found some.

It took a long time to gather the herbs as they were far apart from each other.

And when all the herbs had been collected, Estorea was knocked out on the ground, panting as sweat ran down her forehead and her outfit was dirtied. She wiped her forehead, "That was so exhausting..." She muttered.

Looking at the two who had a high amount of stamina and still looking energetic and not one bit tired. Well, that is something you should expect from an A ranked adventurer after all.

Estorea opened the brown bag she got and searched through the contents, checking off the herbs once she confirmed that she got them.

When everything had been ticked, she stood up, holding the bag in one hand as she outstretched her arms to Aelia and got carried up into a bridal style again.

Travelling in the air, Estorea slightly enjoyed the ride as the wind was cooling against her face even though it was rather painful due to the high speed they were flying at.

By the time they got back, Estorea handed in the herbs and the quest and immediately headed off to do another one. She shouldn't be slacking and start working, once she finishes completing 50 E ranked missions, she can finally get a merchant's badge.

In order to become a merchant, you need to complete 30 specific quests. It wasn't hard for Estorea to figure out those 30 quests.

It was all about exploring and collecting. Most people would take the E quests that required fighting monsters as they found it easier to find the needed mobs then scurry around in dense forests trying to find herbs.

Merchants were rare in the kingdoms of Oscilar.

Just for information, the current independent small kingdom that Estorea was living in is called Oscilar.

While the neighbouring kingdom is called Gigara.

Of course, there should be other kingdoms too, but it seems Oscilar does not seem to have any knowledge of them which is quite an annoyance.

Estorea sighed, though she couldn't decline the fact that Oscilar being an independent country is very impressive.

Just then, she thought of the kingdom's people and it's scenery. But then it was dyed in dark colours.

But as she thought more of it, her hand unconsciously gripped tighter on Aelia's shirt as she bit her bottom lip.

'I.. I'm sorry. It's for my survival... Anything...' Her thoughts trailed off to silence.