017 - First Battle - Part 1

It didn’t take long before the darkness covered us completely.

Since Gwen and Roy had been able to use magic all their lives, they knew some pretty useful spells.

They immediately conjured up a small ball of light that hung above their heads.

It was a utility spell called . It had the power of a small lightbulb.

“Anshe, why aren’t you using it?”

I looked at the siblings.

“I don’t know that spell…”

Pfft!

Both of them couldn’t hold their laughter.

Gwen looked away while Roy just laughed in my face.

“Man, how can you not know this? It’s like the first spell we learn…”

I didn’t say anything, rather, at the flick of my index finger, a large ball of blue flames rose above my head, a lot brighter than their little light bulbs, and l looked at them with my lips curved upwards.

“You guys were saying something?”

Their laugh got stuck in their throats.

Roy looked away, his face red and Gwen looked at me with bright eyes.

“That’s so cool!”

Yes, I am showing off in front of children, and no… I don’t have any shame. How could you tell?

After getting ourselves some light, we started walking inwards, deeper into the forest. But not too deep, we still had to keep track of where the entrance was.

It would be bad if we survived the whole three days we were supposed to survive but then couldn’t make our way out.

Thankfully, I could make my way out just by following the targets outside the forest, so I have a general direction I would walk towards when I wanted to leave.

Gwen and Roy too had their own way of keeping track, I could see them marking the trees as we proceeded.

All three of us also had blades with us. Gwen and I had a short sword hung at the side and Roy had a longer sword considering his height.

Since we had to spend three days here, it was better to have a spot where we could rest, so our immediate goal was to find a safe spot for camping.

It didn’t take long, soon we reached a clearing.

Towards the back was a small cave-like opening. It didn’t look too deep, so it was the perfect spot for our camping.

But there was a problem that soon became clear to us.

A sound came from ahead. A deep, slow breath. Then another.

I squinted through the dim light and thick trees and stopped. A huge shape, covered in thick black fur, lay curled in the center of the clearing. Its chest rose and fell steadily, but that wasn’t what made me stop.

Its eyes that it had too many of were closed shut.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed it, even Gwen and Roy stopped in their tracks.

If I didn’t guess wrong, then this was a very common beast found in the Dark forest. A peak rank 0 beast.

The Berserk Bear.

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Rank 0 Beasts were just monsters that have not evolved through absorbing magical energy.

We halted just before entering the clearing ourselves. We hid behind the trees, careful to not make a sound.

Honestly, I couldn’t really hide my disappointment. I had expected to meet a Golem first, I heard they look really cool.

But I guess meeting a monster for the first time is also pretty cool too.

I know I shouldn’t be like this, this is supposed to be a serious examination, where people could lose their lives, but this bear posed literally no threat to me. I could wrestle it barehanded and win.

But I had to keep a low profile for the sake of my family. I won’t do anything to stand out unless absolutely necessary.

So I pretended to be just as shocked as the other two and played along.

We gave each other a look and moved back trying to not make a single sound.

After we were a safe distance away, the two siblings finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Should we find another spot?" Gwen whispered when we stopped.

Although she said this, she looked the most exhausted. We’d been walking for hours, and this was the first real resting spot we’d found. Gwen was the only non-combatant among the three of us. I knew she probably had a few simple offensive spells, but they wouldn’t be that powerful.

"No way. It’s just a Rank 0 beast. We can take it." Roy replied before I could.

Soon, they both looked at me. I wanted the cave too. But we had to be smart about it.

I thought for a bit. I could take the beast on my own, but I wanted to help Gwen get stronger first and to see if her landing the kill gave me any benefits.

The little princess seemed to be going the pacifist’s route for some reason. She hadn’t killed anything yet.

"We’ll surround it," I said, looking at Roy. "We have the numbers advantage, and frankly, I want that cave too."

"And if we can’t beat it even then?" Gwen asked.

"Then we run. Fast. No point in playing heroes."

I’ll kill it when they aren’t looking.

No need for them to know.

Roy wanted to jump in immediately, but one look from me calmed him down.

“If we want to do this, then we need a plan and for the plan, it's better if we know each other’s abilities first. I can’t trust you if I don’t know what you guys can do. I’ll go first.”

I sighed, and started explaining.

“I have an Advanced Rank ability. Fireballs, some flame arrows, and maybe a shield. No idea how that’ll help against something three times our size.” I shrugged for effect. "I also have mastery over and ."

Not a complete lie. Just dressed up the truth a little.

Roy grinned. “I’ll go next! I already mentioned my abilities before, I have . It lets me harden my body like stone. Since it also has a passive boost, I can take a serious beating! I’ll keep the bear busy!”

Gwen hesitated before speaking, her voice quiet. “My ability is… ,” she mumbled. “I can… write words using magic, but only one at a time. And the effects are really weak. I tried writing ‘light’ once, but it was very dim and it barely lasted.” She gripped her sleeves. “I… I’m sorry. That’s all I can do.”

Wait… did I hear that right?

A single-word inscription that applies real-world effects?

She has no idea how broken that is, does she?

Her voice was basically inaudible towards the end. I saw through the corner of my eyes that Roy’s eyes too were downcast.

I thought about it a bit and it hit me.

These kids were abandoned by their own parents for being useless, they thought that they had wasted their money trying to artificially awaken the older sister after being hopeful by seeing the younger brother’s ability.

She was the one abandoned, the younger one just followed behind.

If I ever meet their parents I might just give them a good beating.

Still, I chose my next words carefully.

“I think the ability itself is pretty useful, but your low magic power is limiting its effects. If I had to guess, the light would have lasted much longer and shone brighter if you had used more magic power when writing it. Have you ever tried focusing all your magic into a single word?”

I thought for a bit and continued.

“Your power also has a lot of potential if you work hard on it. I fully believe if you master your power and one day evolve it, it can become something truly magical.”

She looked at me rather than answering, her eyes shook, threatening to moisten and her voice dropped to a whisper.

“You…you really believe that?”

“Of course, I believe you can do it!”

Before I could say anything else, she threw herself at me, sobbing into my chest.

‘She really is a child, between the mocking of her peers and her disappointed parents, she probably never got a chance to actually test the limits of her ability. Poor kid.’

My hands instinctively patted her head as I tried my best to console her.

My eyes moved towards her brother.

Roy’s eyes looked dangerously wet. Before he could even think about lunging at me, I raised my other hand between us like a barrier.

One crying child was plenty. No need for two.