Chapter 156

“And make sure to set out a full tent if it starts raining or gets too cold. Camping under the stars is beautiful, but waking up with a headache or fever is much more dangerous out in the wilds!” Elena fussed, adjusting the straps on Nick’s backpack and patting him to ensure he had everything he needed.“I know, Mom!” he replied, trying his best not to sound like a kid about to go on his first day of school.

“And don't forget to open your present on your birthday! Not a moment earlier or later! We’ll celebrate when you return, but it's important to have something on the special day.” She went on, disregarding his irritation.

Nick nodded, stifling a sigh.

Eventually, she exhausted the things she could nitpick or remind him of and simply enveloped him in a hug. “Oh, my little boy is about to leave.” She sighed.

Nick hugged her back, surprised to realize that he needed it just as much as she did. He was very worried about what would happen in Floria in the coming weeks, but he hoped to at least solve one of the many problems plaguing his hometown.

“Alright, let the boy breathe. He’s not leaving forever yet. He’s coming back in a month.” Eugene finally cut in, saving Nick from being strangled by his mother’s embrace.

He extended his hand. Nick adjusted his backpack, accepted it with a firm shake. “I trust you’ll look after yourself and the girls, son. You're smart, and you possess more strength than many you’ll meet, but remember that there is always someone stronger. There's always an unbeatable monster or an insurmountable obstacle. Sometimes, the wise thing to do is to withdraw and return another day.”

“Thank you, Dad. I’ll be careful,” Nick promised, earning a proud smile from both his parents. “And you too. I know you said you don’t believe there will be any fighting, but a lot of things are happening all at once. So, please, be careful.”

With one last hug for both his parents, Nick finally knelt to say goodbye to Talbot.

“Meow?”

“I'll return in a month. Less, if we are lucky. Look after the house for me, will you?” He whispered, and the cat nodded after giving him a scrutinizing glance. His bright eyes briefly lingered on the dagger at Nick’s side and the owl figurine.

With a wink, Nick stood up and said, “See you soon!”

“Have a nice adventure!” His parents replied from behind him, and he smiled.

Traveling along the road to Alluria in the early part of their journey let them put distance between themselves and Floria, allowing them to converse freely without fearing monster attacks. It was a regularly patrolled route, and even the dumber creatures were expected to know better than to approach it so close to the town.

“So our first stop is this Messenger Temple?” Rhea asked, skipping ahead of them.

Elia gave her a look that was part envy and part boredom. “It is. And there is no need to show off your spatial pouch, you know?”

Rhea looked at herself innocently before picking up the small satchel at her side. “Oh, this little thing? Why, I know Floria is a backward little town, but surely you know these are a must-have for any aspiring adventurer?”

“Any adventurer who has a hundred gold coins to throw at anything they desire,” Elia muttered in annoyance, and Nick coughed to suppress a smile.

“You shouldn’t be laughing; you're the son of a Captain and have to carry a huge backpack,” Rhea teased, looking down at him playfully. “You're technically a noble. A very, very minor one. So insignificant that I genuinely question whether they have even recorded your birth in the capital. Still, you ought to know better than to travel like a bumpkin.”

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Nick rolled his eyes, “Alright, we get it. You have a cool pouch, and we don’t.” Even as he bantered with the girls, he scoured the surroundings with , ensuring that nothing would sneak up on them.

To his knowledge, trolls and alpha thunderhooves were the only threats strong enough to potentially harm them. Yet, the surprises he had faced in the dungeon made him wary of taking chances. Though Rhea was technically the oldest at sixteen, she lacked the experience he possessed, and leaving the scouting to her seemed like a stupid risk.

Elia finally had enough and poked the other girl with her sharp nail, eliciting a yelp. “You also don’t have much to brag about, since we’re going so slow only because of you.”

“Hey, be careful with those! I've put in so much effort to keep my skin blemish-free and wonderfully soft, especially with all the harsh ingredients I handle, so I won't let you ruin it!” Rhea exclaimed, swatting away the unexpected attack, but soon found herself overwhelmed by the relentless poking. Cutting her losses, she darted behind Nick for cover.

Rather than joining in, however, he lifted a hand to make them stop. “We have company,” he said, looking directly up at the sky, where a flock of birds was circling around them.

The girls craned their heads. “Huh, are those eagles?” Rhea asked.

“No, too small.” Elia answered, “Might be sparrowhawks. I think they hunt in flocks around here.”

Nick nodded, watching as the twenty or so birds flew in formation, eyeing them from high above. They probably thought themselves safe.

He remembered how easily the thunderhoofs had dealt with a similar flock and smiled, pleased that he could test out his newest offensive spell. While he suspected it wouldn't match what the Alpha had been capable of, it would provide a useful benchmark.

“Uh Oh.” Rhea muttered, watching as the birds began to fly faster and faster around them, evidently having deemed them easy prey.

“Wasn’t this route supposed to be safe?” Elia groaned as the fire began to spark around her hands. Remembering how powerful her magic was, Nick hurried to stop her.

“Wait, I have something I want to try!”

The foxgirl shot him an amused glance but motioned for him to proceed, which Nick eagerly did.

sprang to life around his right hand effortlessly, and he ignored the gasps of surprise beside him. He hadn’t had much time to practice it yet, and certainly not enough for it to rank up, but he was confident that with some good old-fashioned effort, he could make a strong showing.

He held power for a few more seconds, content to watch as the birds suddenly realized the prey wouldn’t be as easy as they had hoped. They screeched defiantly, so he felt no remorse when he reached the spell matrix’s limit and thrust his hand upward.

Rather than a simple discharge of electricity, what left his hand resembled a bolt of lightning. It crossed the space in an instant and blossomed into light.

Nick watched the scene unfold with his senses, keeping his eyes closed. He heard the groans from the two girls and made a note to apologize, knowing he should have warned them.

Still, what mattered more was the outcome. Given the amount of power he had poured into , the electric charge was much higher than usual. Unfortunately, his lack of mastery over the spell resulted in an uncontrolled explosion that dispersed inefficiently instead of completely engulfing the flock, which had been his aim.

Despite his observations, a good half of the birds had been hit directly and were now falling from the sky. The other half hadn’t escaped unscathed either and were screeching in panic, trying to gain altitude by flapping their wings as hard as possible.

Nick took exception to that and released another . This time, he focused on being quick and controlled, successfully reaching the birds before they flew too far.

The damage done was significantly less than his previous effort, but given how injured the birds already were, it was enough for them to fall out of the sky.

CONGRATULATIONS!

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“That was almost not worth it,” he muttered, taking note of the level. They certainly didn’t threaten him, but what about an ordinary civilian? Had it been a family of farmers on their way to Floria without an adventurer's protection, they would have been torn apart.

Turning to check on his friends, he found himself faced with two gaping faces. “What was that?!” Rhea yelled, pointing a finger at his face.

“That was much stronger than you were last time we trained!” Elia added, less dramatically but just as surprised. “And you couldn’t use lightning before!”

Nick blinked. He surely had shown them… No, he hadn’t, had he? He’d been so busy with everything that had happened in the past month that he didn’t have time to train with them.

The last time they’d done so, he’d been working on with his new wand. While that had been more powerful than the he’d just used, he’d also had a focus to help. Moreover, wind magic was technically his specialty, as far as they knew.

“I grew a lot in the dungeon?” He tried, smiling as he scratched his cheek, and the girls deflated.

“I guess I was worried for nothing, then? If you are that strong, we shouldn’t have problems reaching the temples,” Rhea murmured, still staring at him weirdly.

“I thought that was why we’d decided to go together?” he asked, confused.

Elia smiled, shaking her head. “I certainly thought we’d have better chances than going alone, but I hadn’t known to expect this.”

Shrugging, Nick decided it wasn’t a real problem and walked over to where the sparrow-hawks had fallen. He felt the two girls follow him, and fortunately, they kept any more questions to themselves, though he was sure they would find another time to badger him.

The birds, it turned out, were quite a bit larger than they had appeared. Flying in formation, they had been swift enough that he’d mistaken them for mundane hawks, but now that he was closer, he could see they were at least twice the size, with talons long enough to tear through a man’s throat in an instant.

“These shouldn’t be so close to the road,” he decided. Sometimes, monsters appeared on the path, which was why adventurers were paid handsomely to guard caravans, but they weren’t even two miles from Floria. This wasn’t supposed to happen for a while yet!

“What do you mean?” Rhea asked, taking out a knife and beginning to dress one of the less charred birds. At his curious glance, she shrugged. “It’s basically chicken that’s already cooked. We have to have lunch at some point.”

Nick snorted. “Good idea. As to what I meant… let’s just say that their proximity to town and aggressive behavior suggests we’re in for an interesting adventure. It seems something has stirred up the grassland.”