Chapter 58.

CHAPTER 58.

Amber found herself following the knights, which aside from the initial forceful interaction, it all seemed rather calm. But she still felt like she was in trouble. Liz and Velda followed right after her, and thankfully the knights didn’t seem to care about that particular detail. Instead, they just marched in silence and finally, just as Amber was about to start asking questions, the man that had grabbed her spoke. ⁠

“The city lord asked us to retrieve you in a most urgent manner.”

Amber was taken aback. “What, why?”

“Orders,” the guard replied simply. “Your friends are welcome to join as well.”

With those words the knight made a signal to the surrounding knights which made their formation shift to accommodate the three. Liz and Velda quickly joined her and seemed bewildered.

“Why would the city lord order this?” Liz asked.

“Maybe he was really eager to meet Amber?” Velda joked, but after getting a glare from her sister she looked at the ground. “Sorry.”

Amber shook her head. She had no idea what the city lord could have so urgently wanted, but she was a bit irritated by it. At least, there was no further force used. So, Amber just took the wait and see approach.

The streets were rather empty due to the hour, so it was a quiet walk all the way to the city lord’s residence. Which was reached in a few mere minutes. It was a wonderful mansion with beautiful gardening that Amber could hardly see due to the lack of light, all she could note was the stone path to the entrance in between some grand pillars.

After entering, they were led to a waiting room with several couches and a fireplace, and then, the knights left. They all sat down given the rather strange and calm atmosphere, and Amber took this chance to start conversation.

“Do you all have any guesses as to what he would want?” Amber asked.

And at that, both of the sisters shook their heads. Liz seemed to have thought for a moment before doing so but evidently⁠— no one had a clue to why they were brought here. But before Amber could sigh, a servant entered the room and spoke:

“The city lord is expecting you at the dinner table.”

I was dragged for dinner…? Amber frowned at that, and Liz and Velda seemed confused about the whole thing, and for a moment she thought about refusing, but instead she went along. In the end, she decided to give the city lord the benefit of the doubt.

She was brought over to a different room and took a seat before a grand feast and⁠—

“You didn’t send the guards to drag me just for dinner, did you?” Amber asked the city lord.

The city lord laughed. “You are straight to the point, I see.”

Amber frowned at the man. He seemed to be tall and aged, combed hair and a groomed beard that gave a classy feeling. Though, much to Amber’s annoyance, he seemed to be smiling.

“Do you not want to have dinner with me⁠—”

“I already had dinner,” Amber interrupted. “I assume I didn’t commit a felony given I am here and not in jail, so: why am I here?”

Her voice made the man chuckle and Liz and Velda gave her a surprised look. Maybe she was being rude, but Amber heavily disliked the fact that she was made to feel like she was in trouble when evidently she wasn’t.

“You are here because of something that concerns you, but I also want to have dinner with you,” the city lord explained. “You see, my son spoke highly of you in a recent letter, so I figured a meeting was in order.”

She relaxed hearing that there was something that concerned her, and while she wanted to ask about that, she ended up asking about the other topic first.

“Your son?” Amber raised her brow at that.

“His name is Volkar, he is a knight,” he smiled. “And I’m Astel, the city lord.”

“Huh.”

It wasn’t something that Amber expected, but her momentary surprise quickly wore off as she spoke.

“So what’s this something that concerns me?”

“First, will you please indulge this old man on eating a bit with him?” he asked back.

“No,” she answered in a deadpan manner. “Just get to the point.”

The city lord paused, and for a moment he was stunned. But he quickly recovered with a laugh.

“Very well, I’ll get to the point.” He nodded. “As a high level individual that frequents my city there has been some research made on you, and while your origins are pretty much a mystery, there is something that we are worried about.”

Amber raised her brow, she wasn’t quite following.

“You see, monster movements from the Arthra forest have been irregular since you arrived in our town, and this monster movement seems to be drawing closer towards Laria at great speed,” he said. “Now, the knights are already acting on it, but do you happen to know anything? A merchant mentioned he spotted you leaving the Arthra forest and it seems that everything started after.”

Amber blinked, forgetting her annoyed mood for a moment. She had a hunch but she had to confirm something.

“By monster movement you mean monsters fleeing in a panic?”

“Indeed, ever since you left that forest this has been happening,” he confirmed. “And even though it’s been a few hours, we’ve determined this is a threat to the city.”

And that’s when it dawned on Amber what was happening. Or at least, what she thought was happening, and it all had to do with a cute creature she had taken under her care for a few days.

“Oh…”

“Know anything?” He raised his brow looking at her reaction.

Amber didn’t want to explain⁠— especially because she didn’t want Deer to be hunted down, but she most definitely had to do something⁠—

And the door burst open as a servant called.

“Urgent manner: the knights made contact with a monster that refused to fight them⁠. They are currently giving it chase but they request backup due to its level.”

Hearing that, Amber immediately stood up from her seat. “I’ll deal with it.”

“You will?” the city lord asked dubiously. “Could it be that this is your doing?”

Amber immediately denied the accusation and made up some bullshit about how her friends resided in the city and this greatly concerned hero— which seemed to convince the city lord. Not too long after, she set off with Liz and Velda in tow, all of them following after a scout.

Thankfully, neither of the sisters questioned anything during the trip.

* * *

It wasn’t until they entered deep into the forest and the scout left to look for the knights that Liz spoke up.

“So, you did something, what is it?” she asked in an accusatory tone.

Velda chimed in, “You’re hiding something from us.”

A sigh left Amber. “In simple terms I may or may not have adopted a monster⁠—”

“You what?!” Liz freaked out.

And Velda’s eyes went wide as she stood in her spot.

Amber didn’t think it was such a huge deal, but evidently Liz was utterly baffled.

“How did you even adopt a monster⁠— it’s a monster; a savage creature meant to cause harm,” she said in disbelief. “You aren’t even⁠—”

“I just brought her around and helped her level all the way from 10 to 51,” Amber explained. “It’s not a huge deal.”

“And you even know its gender?” she asked massaging her forehead. “Just look at the disaster you’ve caused.”

“Hey, she refused to fight,” Amber protested. “That means she listened to my order to not harm humans.”

Velda was just staring and Liz sighed.

“You’re ridiculous.”

Amber was about to ignore her when she heard battlecries in the distance. Which she rushed towards, leaving the two mages monetarily stranded.

The trees around her blurred, and it took less than a minute for Amber to arrive to a group of knights with swords pointed at a monster. It wasn’t a monster that Amber recognized, it had a bone-like armor covering its body and it almost looked like a majestic skeletal horse⁠— except it was over two meters tall.

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The monster however⁠— immediately rushed towards her and one of the knights panicked.

“Be careful!”

Amber blinked and she was tackled to the ground by the gigantic monster, except there was no desire to kill. Instead, it stared at her before the bones on its face receded. And that’s when Amber saw a familiar face shape⁠— it was Deer, and now she had evolved.

[Oscervi Agil. Lvl. 52]

The knights however, immediately rushed to attack.

“Wait!” Amber called, making them halt. “I’ll take it from here!”

“Are you sure⁠—”

“You idiot, she is over level 100, let’s just go,” a knight interrupted.

“Let us report this to the city lord!”

With that, the three knights left to do their duties. Though she did receive a few stares which made her pretend that she was trying to push Deer back, but after they left she relaxed and her monster licked. Amber quickly found herself covered in spit from the now huge but rather cute armored monster. Which thankfully, seemed holy uninjured except for chips on the bone.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

At that, the monster paused and tilted her head. Almost as if implying that it was obvious, but Amber spoke.

“You weren’t supposed to follow me⁠—” And she received a whine.

But just as she was about to continue the conversation she heard rustling from a nearby bush, marking the arrival of the two sisters. Liz was the first one to lay her eyes on the monster, and her eyes grew wide.

“That’s…?”

“She’s so big!” Velda exclaimed.

Deer glanced at them with wariness in her eyes, evidently the guards had scared her but Amber made sure to explain.

“They are allies, my friends.”

At that, the monster visibly relaxed. And then there were introductions, which were over quickly, Amber half expected to be roasted for naming the monster Deer, but thankfully they had no idea that it was a word, so Velda said it was cute since it sounded like the word “dear”. After that, came seeing Deer’s full form which was…

“So cute!” Velda brightened.

“It’s not the murder machine I expected you to raise,” Liz said crossing her arms.

Deer’s full form was essentially her pre-evolution form but scaled to be two meters in size. So instead of being small, she big but still cute. It was something that Amber didn’t feel in any particular way about, but found the bone armor to be a seriously cool skill.

“Amber, do you mind if I…” the noble girl looked at Deer, craning her head. “Uh…”

“Do you want to play with her?” Amber asked raising her brow.

And in return, she received an eager nod.

After that, Velda played with the tamed monster that wasn’t dangerous at all. And Amber was left to talk with Liz.

“So, what will you do?” she asked.

Amber scratched her cheek. “I don’t really know.”

At that, the blonde mage let out a sigh. “The monster is clearly intelligent, it can understand our words perfectly, so I’m sure you can figure out a way so that it doesn’t become a target for humans.”

For a moment Amber imagined Deer patrolling the streets of Laria as a city guard⁠— or a monster that was part of the guard of the city. But there was no guarantee people wouldn’t try to kill her, so that wasn’t an option. But as Liz said, she had to figure something out.

“I’ll explain to her the human world and do’s and don’ts so that she can avoid further trouble,” Amber sighed.

“Good, now you just have to figure out how to solve the attachment she has to you,” Liz pointed out. “Otherwise she’ll follow you around.”

“Right…”

Amber looked over at Velda now riding Deer, the two seemed to be having fun at least.

It seemed that she had a busy week ahead of her.

The first thing Amber explained to Deer was that she had to wait patiently for her to return the next day, which the monster obeyed reluctantly, so the first night was a success at least.

* * *

The next day was spent explaining to Deer stuff about the human world, mainly things such as cities and reactions of people towards monsters. Which seemed to make her a bit depressed. But thankfully, Velda had insisted on coming along so playtime cheered up the monster. Then, Amber made sure Deer understood everything she had explained.

The second day Amber made sure to bring Velda along, but she was rather stumped on what to do with Deer. So, she went to the city to think, leaving the two of them alone. And that was when she ran into someone unexpected.

“Amber?”

It was Thieney, and he was surprised to see her.

“I didn’t know you had returned.”

“Ah…” Amber scratched the back of her head. “I’ve been… busy.”

At that, the man chuckled. “Me too, do you want to catch up?”

Amber hesitated, but after a few moments she ended up agreeing. Maybe he could give her some advice⁠— something she was missing. So, she got some street food with him, and sat down.

“Do I want to know your level now?” he asked jokingly.

“Probably not,” Amber grinned. “But I’m the hero of Cytel.”

“I heard of that… and to be honest, I don’t know how to react anymore,” he said eating a skewer. “You are so extraordinary that we belong in different worlds.”

Amber blinked at that, but Thieney didn’t seem particularly bothered. Instead, he continued.

“You save a city, meanwhile I get a girlfriend⁠— then when I have a kid, you’ll become a god,” he said.

“You got a girlfriend?” Amber was surprised.

“Emma.” He nodded. “I want to marry her actually⁠— in a few months.”

“Oh…”

Amber didn’t exactly expect the first human she met in this world to end up with a girlfriend and get married in such a timespan, but she was happy for him.

“Anyway, you said you were busy, what with?”

“Ah…” Amber took a moment. “Well, there is this monster I happened to kind of adopt, leveling them up starting from level 10, and now that it’s over level 50, it doesn’t seem to leave me… alone?”

He blinked. “Wait, you adopted a monster?”

Amber nodded and let her friend digest the statement, and finally, after thinking for some time, he made his question:

“So, the monster is attached to you because you helped them?”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “They are incredibly smart it seems…”

He frowned, thinking. “Well, I mean… I don’t know how monsters work, but I think you should show them you care, right now it kind of seems you want to get rid of them.”

“Right.”

“And while, I’m not saying you should take them along, finding them something to remember you by, might just be the move. Teach them something, give them something, I don’t know. Give them a part of you.”

Amber blinked. “Like… pass down something?”

“I guess so, yeah. Maybe with that closure, they’ll be happy to let you go,” he suggested.

Hearing his words, she nodded, thinking about it.

“Anyway, what else have you done? Tell me everything.”

“Sure…”

* * *

After talking with Thieney for an hour, and making him more impressed than ever, Amber headed back, mulling on her friend’s words.

To give them closure… she thought. A part of me that they can keep? Something…

On the way there, Amber found herself burning her own flesh to level her resistances. It wasn’t something she did normally— because while it was an easy way to exploit the System, it seemed to have diminishing returns. And she normally only ever did it for stacking Cursed Supreme Momentum rather than anything.

And then⁠— she paused.

The reason she did this was to push her limits, and maybe just maybe…

I can pass down to Deer?

Of course, it was ridiculous, but she had to at least try.

So, Amber hurried, to try that. She found Velda playing with the monster, but ignored them both and made her declaration, and surprisingly⁠—

Velda joined in too.

* * *

At first, there was a lot of pain and broken bones, in fact it was so bad that Amber had to enlist Emma’s help to heal the both of them. During which time, Amber bought supplies such as a mattress, a tent for the mattress, and even the famous mana potions, which made the healer be shocked.

But after a few days, things got better, though she still had to keep on bringing Emma and another trusted healer given the fact that attacking each other with the goal of building resistances wasn’t exactly⁠—

“Fulminate!”

Velda screamed and Deer was thrown across the forest as a pile of burning flames, breaking through numerous trees.

⁠— nice.

At that, Deer rushed and with a great burst of speed tackled Velda against the tree, breaking numerous bones of the blonde girl. She grunted and for a moment she teared up before throwing up blood, and then⁠— she began to laugh.

Amber just stared as Velda dropped to the ground, and the person standing next to her. A level 70 healer, who was apparently Emma’s mentor, seemed mortified.

“Amber, I don’t think I can keep doing this⁠— this is insanity.”

And in response, she handed him a gold coin, which made him pause.

“All I’m asking you to do is heal them, also doesn’t it level your skills?”

“It does, but⁠—”

“Then just do it.”

At that, the man hesitated but ultimately went to heal Velda, who was still on the ground and yet had a wide smile. Finally, after her bones snapped into place and she stood up, she turned to Amber beaming.

“My Physical Resistance just hit 2nd Rank!”

Amber blinked before smiling. “Congrats, but maybe we should put a pause to this⁠—”

And in response, Velda hurled a spell at the monster before being tackled again and laughing, and for a moment Amber couldn’t help but do a doubletake.

She had seen their progress for a few days now, and while she was fine with how it had been going in the past. Now she couldn’t help but wonder if she had made a mistake.

Had she awakened two battle maniacs in the world of Vir?

Nah, at most they’ll be just like me, she inwardly dismissed.

Amber smiled, and let them continue, she also made sure to arrange her trip with Cecile the next day.

* * *

Though eventually, the fun came to an end, and the time for farewells came⁠— or was supposed to come, because.

“Amber, I want Deer to stay with me!” Velda requested.

Liz blinked, “What, no⁠—”

“I mean, you can,” Amber agreed, scratching her cheek. “I think Deer is okay with it, too, the problem is convincing your… sister.”

“We can’t take care of a monster, absolutely no way,” Liz said, shaking her head.

“But we can, remember we have ascended to heads of the household and can claim everything that belongs to the Risnar family? We most definitely have the resources to do so,” Velda argued.

At that, Deer whined, as if pleading. The cute gigantic deer, had fortunately or maybe unfortunately, gotten attached to Velda it seemed. Which made Amber glad.

Liz paused, “We did ascend, but⁠—”

“Plus, Deer can come along for when I want to go adventuring! She can protect me, isn’t that right?”

In response Deer nodded furiously, which made Liz plant a hand on her face. She looked at Amber pleadingly, but got a shrug in response, which made her grimace. The decision was entirely on her.

And finally, after a few minutes.

She acquiesced, “Fine.”

“Yay!” Velda jumped, and so did Deer.

Then, Liz turned to Amber.

“But you better come visit.”

“Right… I will.”

And a few hours after, Amber set off with Cecile, the merchant, towards the Great Desert, or more specifically, the Grand City of Torl.

All to meet the Primordial Spirit who knew about her, the Primordial Spirit that had deceived and impersonated those she cared about, and the Primordial Spirit who would help her learn Essence.