On the way to Quear Mountains

-15th day of AC, 15.04.1052-

-About 7:40-

Travis looked back at Violet as the young woman walked from Cecilia. After waiting until she got close, he started going away.

She didn't say a single word, silently trekking with him.

As they kept on going, soon they reached a road. It was one of three main roads that went into Silvana. Travis previously used the one that reached into Icla, going in the eastern-northern-eastern direction from the city. The one that they currently stepped on was connecting it to a much smaller town of Duli, in mostly southern direction, barely a dozen or so kilometers away. While it was in a rather decent state, there were some clear indications that it was far more unkempt, one of which was the cracks in between the cobble giving way to small pieces of grass. Overall, it was rather even but did require some work to achieve the same status as the main one.

Stepping on the road, Violet immediately turned toward Silvana, fully expecting the man to do the same. However, she frowned slightly to herself as Travis turned south and started walking down the road.

Still, she didn't comment on his decision, instead following in his steps. As the warmth of the morning's sun was starting to heat up the air, she took note of how the man traveling with her seemed to be absentmindedly looking in the distance, just barely paying enough attention to not trip.

A few minutes of the travel passed, and still, not a single word was spoken since the end of the talk with Cecilia.

'Isn't he going to start questioning my motives?' Violet wondered, carefully studying Travis's expression while keeping enough distance to not make her staring obvious. 'It's natural for anyone to be lashing out, cursing, seem dissatisfied, to show ANY reaction to the fact that they have an unexpected companion by their side. Then... why does he seem to just ignore that?' a question bounced around in her mind as she could do nothing but ponder. What could be the reason? What could be the man's purpose in not paying her any mind? She did not know.

Meanwhile, Travis was thinking. 'Quear Mountains are connected to Xela Valley in the south. From there, I think there were about 300 kilometers until the edge of Forna, and into Akni. Since the terrain down south will be more hilly than what I've been to so far, it's likely there are some stronger dungeons in there. Once I get to Lodiz, I'll have to ask about that. Some hunting in the field will elevate my level, and then I can set off to a stronger dungeon.'

There were two main zones where a person could level up: the fields and the dungeons. While they seemed similar, there were some significant differences.

The fields, sometimes referred to as 'field dungeons' were mostly wild terrains between cities, towns, and sometimes even more frequented roads. There always was a huge variety of different monster species in there, their main locations (called habitats) usually overlapped greatly, and they often changed their general location. A good example of such a dungeon would be any given forest. There were rats, snakes, other animals, slimes, and more. The monsters tended to live near each other and did not compete much for territory, opting to live rather idly. Those bogeys usually were relatively passive toward humans, as well, and only attacked when one got too close or initiated an attack.

The actual dungeons, called 'housed dungeons' were constructs that housed monsters much stronger than the ones on the surrounding fields (hence the name). The exact process and prerequisites for a dungeon appearing weren't known. It was suspected that once mana in a field dungeon exceeded a certain amount, it created a housed dungeon to restore balance by condensing stronger monsters inside of itself.

The only being who knew the truth was Tanya, the Goddess of Hunts and Dungeons. She was supposed to be responsible for the creation of new dungeons (but such words were old, and there was no real proof that this was the case. Dungeons could've as well had natural causes).

All housed dungeons belonged to a certain type. There were a number of them: underground, overground, watery, dry, etc., and they didn't have to match the nearby environment every time. Their type dictated their outside appearance, how they extended, and what type of bogeys appeared. Some types of monsters only appeared in specific dungeons. For example, an underground-type dungeon was a perfect place for ground-dwelling monsters, such as starnose moles, to appear frequently. Otherwise, crossing paths with one of those was a rarity.

Monsters in housed dungeons were very territorial, as unlike in field dungeons, the space was extremely limited. The competition between monsters was fierce, and this gave birth to bogeys far stronger than the ones in field dungeons. The areas of influence every type of monster had were very finely defined, and very rarely did any of their habitats overlap in any way.

When comparing them, it was obvious that field dungeons had very low levels when compared to normal dungeons. An example of that was the terrains surrounding Icla's dungeon. The forests around hosted monsters that were rarely even level 10. Meanwhile, the housed dungeon itself's levels began at around 15 to 20, and the final floors had a boss monster whose supposed level was around 40.

'Surely, there ought to be a dungeon somewhere near Lodiz, or even Haliz. After I get to level... let's say 40, I'll consider trying a dungeon. By then, my stats should equal about level 100.' he nodded to himself, still lost in thoughts as the two of them kept on going.

'Now the question is what to do about her.' he glanced at the black-haired woman, and their gazes met. Seemingly surprised, Violet averted her gaze, but he was brooding too deeply to register. 'Since Cecilia told her to stay with me, I highly doubt I'll be able to get much time to do things on my own. This may mean concealing any skills that I might gain. Since she only knows about me being a Psion, <Mana Bolt> is out of the question, but maybe I can learn <Psi Bolt>, instead. Then again, I don't have an MID with me, so it'll be weird for me to have that skill. I don't want to drag the attention of their group to myself. I'll just quietly pretend to be a rather normal forbidden class.'

...

'That sounds... weird, to say the least. I reckon I'll need to focus more on the physical side of my stats for a few days since magic is out of the question. Therefore... 5 points into Strength, 10 into Agility, 5 into Endurance, and 5 into Sense. This much should be good enough for the way. I suppose dealing with Violet will be an exercise of what Leaf had told me.'

"*Ahem* Well, you, uh... don't seem like much of a talker, given the situation," he said.

"...because I'm not," Violet replied with a hearable glint of hesitation.

"I see. Pardon my question, but... don't you have a pack with you?"

"...I have a storage ring," she replied quietly.

"A storage ring? What's that?"

Violet gave the man a stare that appeared slightly annoyed, but let out a small sigh after just a short moment. "It's a ring enchanted with spatial magic. It can store a few items, depending on its quality."

"...I see," Travis nodded in response. 'She doesn't want to talk anymore, does she? Seems like even though she listens to Cecilia's orders, she doesn't like being with me here. I guess it's better for me. It means that our cooperation period will be rather short.' "I'm going to speed up if that's alright with you. I'd like to reach Quear Mountains by Friday, Saturday at most."

"...Quear? Do you plan training in there?" for the first time since he heard Violet's voice, Travis could sense a glint of surprise in her tone.

"Yes," 'I'm not going to impede my growth just because I have her stuck with me. I'm already a month behind in the Competition. Every next day will only widen the gap.'

"..." Violet looked away from the man for a short while. "Let us speed up, then." 'Quear... the monster levels in there will probably be around 40 to 50 on average. Normally, I'd be against it, but... I want to see how he fares. His raw physical abilities seem to be roughly on a level to hunt there. Yet... what is his level?' she pondered, feeling up the MID that she held in a pocket of her pants.

To Travis, it seemed that Violet was **** to go with him like it was Cecilia's idea in the first place. However, that wasn't the truth. The Storm Rogue's ex-student was, in fact, the one who insisted on traveling with this man. Although she didn't tell the exact reason to her, Violet's idea was simple: find out more about this man. Was he a fraud? Or was he really an 'Apostle'?

Whatever the truth was, Violet had a very good way of checking it. She was sure of it; within a few days, she'd have her answer.

But she couldn't just check his class whenever. She needed to be as stealthy as she could be about it. This man could not know about her doings. And that was why she had to wait for a perfect opportunity. One of those would definitely be when he was deep in his sleep.

She shook the thought out of her head. For now, she was traveling with Travis as a companion. Her own curiosities would be satisfied in time. Patience was a virtue, after all.

The two of them sped up, first into a slow trot, and after a kilometer or two Travis started going even faster. By the time they passed Duli, they were both jogging side by side, leaving the town behind.

Stealing an occasional glance at Violet, Travis easily noticed that despite sweat appearing on her head rather quickly, she didn't slow down one bit, and her steps were nearly perfectly synchronized with his. If someone were observing from the sidelines, they might only notice one person running.

The pathway was starting to deteriorate slightly as the forest became plains past the small town, its surface becoming slightly bumpier. The sun's heat was being showered all around, and the temperature quickly was rising. Naught a bigger cloud appeared on the horizon, and thus, they kept on running.

-Around 18-

The run was... uneventful, to say the least. The air, while dry, was moving about, cooling both of them down whilst they kept moving. This, however, didn't help them that much.

Roughly every 45 minutes, they had to make breaks that lasted about 15 minutes. This meant that, on average, they were covering give or take 7 kilometers each hour. Multiplying it by 8 hours that they spent on moving forward (minus the time that they spent on hunting down something to eat, frying it, and then eating), they had covered nearly 60 kilometers already.

Doing the numbers in his head, Travis grimaced slightly. 'If I were on my own, I'd have probably been at around 80 kilometers by now...' he glanced at the young woman walking beside him. Although she did not voice a single complaint during the day, he easily noticed how her face was red and covered in sweat, some of the drops making their way into her eyes, prompting her to wipe them away.

The shirt she was wearing, which seemed somewhat loose this morning, was now sticking to her stomach and upper chest, with definitive dark spots visible. Her hair was also glistening in the sunset's light, making it seem like an uneven, black surface with a multitude of blinking gemstones. But even so, her eyes still emanated the same lack of expression as they did all the time before.

Though, on the other hand, he probably didn't look much better. While he didn't feel as much sweat on himself as he saw on Violet, his lungs did feel like they were going to set themselves on fire soon. His legs felt like they were made of slime. This wasn't only caused by the run, though. A lot of fatigue was amassing on him, on them both really, because they had passed multiple hills on the way, bigger and smaller. While the Quear Mountain range was still a fair distance away, changes in terrain were visible as soon as 30 kilometers from Silvana. At first, the bumps in terrain were rather negligible, but as they started growing bigger, it started becoming apparent that the road ahead was going to be testing their endurance.

Speaking of endurance, it seemed that Violet's was at least somewhat lower than Travis's. It wasn't easy to gauge it by any means, but as they made breaks and ran in succession, he started noticing just how her breathing pattern was changing. Violet seemed to run out of stamina a bit faster than him, and she made up for that by occasionally performing bursts of sprints to gain some distance (but only a little). Nevertheless, careful observation and a good memory of how Leaf was behaving in similar circumstances gave him a general idea of her stamina.

'She seems to have a little higher Endurance than Leaf. Granted, their bodies are entirely different, so this difference may be smaller than I think, but I think she doesn't have more than 70 points in Endurance. I'll be taking that with a grain of salt, but I'm still pretty sure I do have more of it than she does.'

A sigh escaped his mouth as he felt the straps of his backpack dig into his shoulders. It wasn't easy to just go around carrying his stuff. The more he wore his pack, the heavier it seemed. Even though he could still push through some more, he decided to just call it a day. He was sure Violet would welcome the news.

The forest they were going through seemed far older than the ones Travis passed when he went to Autir. The trees displayed an aged appearance, characterized by their rugged and weathered bark. Their branches were less dense, yet adorned with a higher density of leaves and needles. The roots that sprouted from them were thick and undeniably powerful, some parts of the lifting fragments of the road, making it uneven. Much like Travis had expected, the less traveled route toward mountainous terrains was far less taken care of than the main one toward the capital. It definitely added an element of annoyance to the very notion of walking and running.

During one of the breaks, using an excuse of going to 'take care of his business', Travis quickly made use of the Rulebreaker's Piece's use that was available for today. With a sigh of relief, he welcomed a small snippet of paper.

=Pay attention to your stats!=

Without waiting, he closed the box, hid it in his pack, and walked back to the road whilst opening the message screen and reading through today's entry.

15. Pay attention to your stats!

[Stat distribution can be a headache. How can you know if you’ll need more Strength or Intelligence soon? How can you ensure that low Sense won’t be a problem? Well, here’s the thing: you can’t.

Distributing your stats is a gamble that you are literally **** into. But, honestly, you’re still in a better position than every other being on the planet. You, at least, can choose where your stats go.

But be wary. What you think is good at the moment might be horrible when things go to hell. It’s a good idea to always have at least a few spare points to allocate.]

Comparing it to previous pieces of advice, this was something that he actually felt somewhat grateful for. It did nicely correspond to his current situation, almost as if this very entry was given because of it.

But the man didn't ponder on that. Whether that was true or not didn't matter that much. He was simply thankful that he didn't have to clutter his inventory with more junk.

Some birds chirping entered his ears as Travis felt the uneven cobble under his feet. Looking to his side, Violet was leaning on a nearby tree, arms crossed under her chest, gazing at him with an expressionless look. Without a word spoken between them, they resumed their walk, and before the time hit 20, they found themselves a nice, somewhat secluded area of the forest, where they decided to spend the night.

-About 1 hour later-

The two travelers were sitting on opposite sides of a campfire, looking at one another. There was only a silent atmosphere beset upon them, as neither of them wanted to go to sleep first. They were wary of each other... or, at least, that's what it seemed. The real reason was a little different.

Violet was waiting for Travis to fall asleep so that she could silently proceed with her plan. The man, on the other hand, didn't want to sleep with Violet awake.

After some time of the staredown, she looked to the side instead, crossing her hands on her stomach.

"...so... umm... Violet?"

"...?" she looked back at him, but the only change in her expression was a (very) slightly raised eyebrow.

"I don't want to make this sound weird, but... are you alright with sleeping like that?"

"...yes."

"...even though I'm a Psion?"

"Yes," she replied.

"..."

"Mister Travis, do not misunderstand. I'm well aware of what your class can do. But you must also understand that I am sufficiently prepared. Miss Storm Rogue wouldn't tell me to come with you if I didn't have defensive measures against psionic magic."

"...I see," 'If it's a barrier like Cecilia has, using <Suggestion> may be a bad idea.' "But... can you please drop the 'Mister' part? I'm not that old."

She signaled with her head that she agreed to his request.

'And now, I guess we're going to be playing the waiting game.' He thought, ensuring that his position was comfortable enough for his needs. There was no way that he was going to be sleeping soundly with a companion like this.

-About 15 minutes later-

'Why won't you go to sleep?' That was the thought that permeated the minds of them both. For the past some time, neither of them seemed to be getting into a position to go and sleep.

'Unless he's asleep, I can't check his class.' thought Violet. 'But he doesn't seem to want to sleep. It's almost like he suspects that I'll do something...'

...

'No. He's probably just wary because he didn't ask for my company.'

As a breeze swept through the forest, it gently touched the two travelers with its chill. The campfire, once bright orange, was now flickering into a deep red, losing its battle against the wind. The air was thick with the scent of dampness as fog emboldened them slowly.

'...If I leave him for a while, will he go to sleep?' she pondered. 'It's not like he can keep himself awake for too long, right?'

The smell of wet dirt was hanging in the air. Violet wasn't sure about the time, but she was certain it was past 21 at the very least. Rubbing her hands under her cloak slowly, she gazed around for a moment before deciding to get up.

"...I'll scout around," she said, quickly checking that she had her daggers affixed to her hips.

"Scout? We're not that far from Silvana. Monsters around don't seem to be even past level 10," he replied. 'What's she planning?'

"Fog makes things... different. Stronger monsters may appear. I'll make sure we are safe."

"...alright," 'While it's not false that weather may affect monsters, it shouldn't matter in here. The most that could appear here is a level 15 or so. And even if it did appear, low-level monsters tend to ignore or avoid humans. There's something else she has on her mind... I should be cautious.' "Stay safe."

Violet gave the man a nod before taking her steps away from the campfire. Within seconds she was already out of Travis's vision, having disappeared into the depths of the night.

'...peculiar.' she thought, casting <Stealth> and starting to follow a roundabout path back. 'Although my presence is definitely something he's **** to put up with, he doesn't seem to be all that mad about it. Calm and collected, just like Miss Cecilia said. It really feels like he's confident... almost as if I wasn't taken as a potential threat, but rather, a nuisance... I feel slightly offended, but... I feel like that might not be a misjudgment on his part, but rather, on mine.'

However, misjudgment or not, she wasn't going to falter. The sooner she got her answers, the better for them both. She could sate her curiosity, and he would be able to travel on his own from then on.

Violet took her steps quietly to a tree line just to Travis's right. Standing no more than 3 meters from him, she quietly crouched and cast <Camouflage> in place of her <Stealth>. And now... it was a waiting game. So long she had mana, she would watch the man. She was used to this. After all, not only had she done such things before, but during her training under Cecilia, she was prepared to advance into the Assassin class. Besides, she knew that man's sleeping patterns by now. It wouldn't take more than half an hour for him to doze off. She would definitely last. After all, <Camouflage> consumed little mana compared to <Stealth>.

There were different types of hiding skills, all with their advantages and drawbacks. The typical <Stealth> that she possessed was a good tool to fool most enemies and could be reliably used while moving. The problem with it was that it consumed a fair bit of mana per second to maintain. At her very best, Violet could stay in a stealth state for no more than a minute. Even though she had mana potions, she'd rather use them sparingly. That was the reason her other skill was used far more often.

In comparison to <Stealth>, <Camouflage> was superior in terms of mana cost, costing her about 5 points of MP every minute. However, there was one issue with it: it got dispelled whenever the used moved too much. Minute movements, such as breathing or slight flinching, or even slow hand activities, didn't break it, but it took practice to figure out the boundaries.

Another type of skill used to conceal one's presence was <Obfuscation>, which was a precedent to <Stealth>. In many ways, it functioned just like its superior version, but instead of hiding one completely, it made them appear more blurry, and therefore more difficult to recognize properly. Many monsters could be easily fooled with just that. While on sapient beings it worked with lesser efficiency, it was more cost-efficient than <Stealth> and was typically associated with Thiefs and the like.

There were, of course, many more types. <Stealth> didn't conceal sounds that the user made, only their presence and smell. <Full Stealth> also dampened all sounds in very short proximity around the caster. <Blur> was a type of combat-ready version of <Obfuscation>, consuming a heap of MP but granting the user or target a chance to dodge an attack while still having the benefits of its predecessor.

And of course, some types weren't yet known to Casali. A certain person had a skill called <Shadow Cloak> which could make them imperceptible even to such absolute beings as gods. Of course, it also came with its share of tradeoffs (but that was a story for another time).

...

...

-45 minutes later-

Violet was leaning on the tree, hidden in the shadow, only her left eye looking at the man, who seemed to be finally succumbing to his tiredness. Even though she couldn't see his entire face, his yawning and relaxed position didn't escape her sight. 'Finally.' she readied her MID. It wasn't long until her questions would be answered. Just 10, 15 perhaps, more minutes.

...

As the man placed his hand against the bark, his eyes were already closed. His left hand, clutching the backpack with the strange box in it, has straightened its fingers, and the pack slid from his leg, landing on the ground. Travis didn't react to its movement in the slightest, having fallen asleep.

She was so close... Violet impatiently counted the seconds that converged into minutes at a snail's pace. Even if she wanted to finish this matter quickly, she knew she had to wait. In the end, the first, initial stage of everyone's sleep was light. A dozen or so minutes was enough for it to deepen, but until that happened, he would wake up to her actions.

-15 minutes later-

'It's time.' she decided. The man has not moved for long enough. His breathing was deep and calm. There was no denying that he was asleep.

Violet carefully made her way to his side, kneeling by him. Bringing out her MID, she silently got hold of his hand. His fingers twitched, if only a little, in response to her action. Freezing in place, Violet waited for a few seconds, and the muscles relaxed. She breathed an unhearable sigh of relief.

Without thinking much, she slid the silver card into the palm of his hand, carefully placing his fingers on it. And then... she pressed them onto it, prompting the device to activate.

...

But... it didn't...?

'???' Violet raised an eyebrow visibly, slowly sliding the card from between his fingers. Rising it to her head level, she tried to activate it herself, but the thing didn't seem to work.

The shiny surface seemed to gleam in the campfire's faint embers, but as she pressed her thumb into it, it didn't react. No mana flow seemed to appear between the woman and her item... initially.

A long second passed as she lowered her hand, and suddenly, the MID in her hand gleamed with a bit of a blue color. Taken slightly aback, Violet flinched initially but calmed herself down. She tapped on its surface, causing it to activate. However, before she managed to focus on whatever appeared, she felt something move.

Before she managed to react, Travis's hand got hold of her left wrist. With a vice-like grasp, he squeezed strongly, ensuring that she couldn't free herself.

A shiver of cold fear washed down her spine as her eyes shot up, quickly meeting with his. While his face wasn't that well visible, Violet easily noticed his fierce gaze that was focused on her. What also came to her attention was a tiny smirk that seemed to extend on the left side of his face.

"Gotcha."

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