Past the Forax mountain range

With slightly regained confidence, Tom along with Lizzy and Anne continued their travels towards the Forax mountain range, as they did general security gradually started falling as the group neared the lawless wilderness near the edge of the Kingdoms sphere of influence. By the time the Forax mountain range swallowed the entirety of the horizon ahead, the group reached the furthest permanent outpost of the Laurance Kingdom, a military outpost turned walled city with the simplistic name of outpost 12, although the adventurers called it 'the last rest stop of civilisation'. Having camped in the open wilderness and along roads with other travellers, Tom was almost sentimental over the thought of sleeping in a bed by the time he could see the wall of the town.

"Yeah, no kiddo. We're sleeping outside again."

But, sadly Lizzy had other ideas for the accommodations. Feeling an overwhelming amount of resentment from her dear student, Lizzy was forced to explain her reasoning.

"Look, I know what you're thinking, but this town is bad news. Aside from the barracks that are off-limits to civilians the security in that town is bad, really bad. What's more, the inn's lice infected shitholes which cost just as much as a mid-class one in the capital and you might wake up to find all your luggage got 'lost' overnight."

"On second thought, I really like sleeping outside, miss Lizzy, let's do that again."

"You do? That's just too bad because I have some old contacts that'll let us sleep in one of the guard towers."

With her usual fox-like smile returning to her face, Lizzy made it pretty clear that she wasn't going to let Tom take back his words unless he surrendered unconditionally, so he did.

"Okay okay, I was wrong. Thank god for being able to sleep inside."

"It's good that you understand, I love honest kids like you~ Now let's make haste, we need to reach the tower before sundown."

By the time the sun set beneath the horizon, Tom could clearly see his own breath. Although it had been a pretty warm late-summer day, that only seemed to count for something in the lowlands. As Tom, Lizzy and Anne climbed the Forax mountain range the weather seemed to deteriorate along with the surrounding plant life. From proud and old trees, the scarce half-dead brushes and eventually nothing but scarce patches of grass, the summit of the mountain valley they were crossing was a cold, barren and inhospitable land. At the top of the Forax mountain range was the furthest outposts of the Laurence Kingdom, a roughly interconnected patchwork of towers and supply cache were maintained by the military who were stationed as border guards and outlook for potentially dangerous monsters who might try and cross the mountains.

"This is us, let's get settled in before the remaining light disappears."

The tower Lizzy had been allowed to stay in looked like it was more or less starting to fall apart due to a lack of maintenance, most likely due to the fact that it had been built in a defence that offered poor sightlines and thus proved little to no use for the military. With a half patched roof which was made out of all shapes and colours of tiling, a slight left learning list and a half-rotten wooden front door not even locked properly, Tom didn't have high hopes for the 5-metre tall observation tower in regards to its ability to provide shelter, but once he saw the inside of the tower his opinion vastly improved.

"The beds should be lice free but if not I'll freeze them real quick, otherwise we just need to get the oven working and this place should make for the most comfortable resting place on the entire journey, speaking from past experience."

Setting her backpack down next to a sturdy looking table, Lizzy cracked her neck before stretching in a relaxing, almost cat-like manner. As Lizzy said, the inside of the tower was surprisingly cosy once she got the oven going using some of the dried kindling stored beneath the two bunk beds which took up most of the floor plan, leaving only a sturdy looking wooden ladder that provided access to the observation deck of the tower as the only other furniture. Lighting a cigarette after she was done disinfecting all the beds using ice magic to freeze any bugs inside them, Lizzy started explaining what they were actually doing so far away from the mage academy.

"Right, almost there. Tomorrow we descend the mountain and start hunting for monsters, we'll do that for a week before returning to this tower for a 3-day rest, then repeat that pattern two more times for a total of 30 days here."

Turning to Tom, Lizzy made him freeze up just from the pressure she was emitting alone as she continued talking.

"The objective of this little excursion is to get the kiddo here some real combat experience. To that end, you'll be in the front with me while Anne supports us as a rearguard, understood?"

"Y-yes ma'am."

"The ma'am is unnecessary kiddo, but whatever. The monster's we'll encounter in the area we're prowling will be weak and well within your ability to defeat kiddo, but remember to pay attention and stay alert. Do that, and this little tour of ours will be a breeze~"

-

As the name implied, monsters were monstrosities of nature that were diametrically opposed to intelligent life. Although there existed too many monsters to count, a single unifying feature of them was a [core] which could be found where their heart would normally be, monsters were extremely varied creatures that ranged all the way from half metre tall, green-skinned humanoid goblins all the way to titanic, armoured insects and flying, fire-breathing catastrophe.

"Calm down kiddo, if you tense up like that all day you won't actually be able to move when it's time to fight."

Having descended the mountain, Lizzy walked in a relaxed manner next to Anne as she breathed in the fresh morning air like she was going on a picnic.

Not that she wasn't, as the group was still pretty close to the foot of the Forax mountain range, and not that far into the monster-infested wilderness yet. Looking around the surroundings, one wouldn't guess the peaceful forest was part of the deadly wilderness which claimed gords of explorers and adventurers lives from the Laurence Kingdom and other bordering countries each year. But even with all the death and despair brought on by the wilderness, it was still a widely popular destination for adventurers and larger state-sponsored expeditions due to the abundant and rare natural resources the area offered to those brave enough to explore it.

The most prominent of those valuables to be found in the wilderness was monster cores, once extracted and refined a core could be refined into a [catalyst], which was valuable both as a strategic and luxury resource.

"Here we go kiddo. Two smaller ones closing in from the front."

Suddenly breaking the silence as she spoke up with a fox-like smile on her face, Lizzy started spinning her [catalyst] attached to her wrist by a metal chain. Walking up next to Tom as she took her predetermined position in the 3 man formation the group had discussed before.

"Calm down kiddo, slow your breathing and feel the ground beneath you. Feel the area around you, look for areas where you don't want to fight and where you want to force your enemies towards."

Speaking in an oddly calming manner and tempo as she placed a hand on Tom's shoulder, Lizzy calmed Tom down considerably in only a few seconds, allowing him to see the forest ahead of him clearly. As Tom calmed down his breathing, his vision gradually expanded while his senses sharpened before he started paying attention to the smaller details which had been eluding him up until this moment. The sound of a snapping branch there, the sound of leaves rustling there.

It all started coming together, in just a few seconds.

"Good job kiddo, I'll take the one on the left, you kill the other one."

"G-got it."

As a pair of green-skinned halflings with bald heads, long ears and sharp teeth armed with wooden clubs entered the clearing Lizzy stopped spinning her [catalyst] before her pair of characteristic ice claws formed. Cutting Lizzy out of his own vision entirely, Tom spread out his feet as he started moving the mana around inside his body, first softening it up before starting to radiate the unneeded excess of mana from his body. This excess of mana flowing out from the human in front of it immediately got the goblins' attention. Screeching in rage, the goblin frailed its blood-stained club around in the air before it charged the human, club overhead.

(... Wait, is it supposed to be this slow?)

Having been trained (tormented) by Lizzy for a while now, Tom had for some reason expected his first opponent to be at least a tenth of her speed, but compared to Lizzy's speed in combat, this goblin might as well be standing still. Keenly observing the painfully slow overhead swing of the goblin, Tom's [Combat awareness] skill kicked in and formed a red line which showed the patch of the club as it slowly moved towards his right knee, but Tom didn't trust that prediction.

(That's a faint!)

Having spent a great many days getting beat up by something as with Lizzy's level of performance, Tom didn't trust such a simple attack.

(Do I avoid it?... No, I should counter!)

Instead of alerting the goblin to the fact that he had seen through his faint, Tom decided to counter said faintly with an attack of his own instead. Intentionally overcorrecting for the incoming attack, Tom closely watched the red line which formed in the path of the goblin's club and adjusted his own stance in response.

(Come on…)

Feeling like time slowed down for him, Tom patiently waited for the goblin's faint to arrive, but as it didn't, he started getting nervous he had missed something and therefore pulled back. Initially confused by the humans' quick reaction, the goblin quickly became outraged at its cowardly opponent for running away and therefore once more charging towards the puny human, now frothing at the mouth in rage.

All in all, a perfectly reasonable and logical reaction.

(Is it another faint? In that case!)

Seeing the goblins impressive seeing fit of rage as the well planned and calculated faint that it was and planned accordingly. Loading his [catalyst] with mana, the goblin reacted far too late to Tom's spell as he imagined a wide cone-like shape coming out from his hand. As the mana Tom had manipulated struck the goblin its movements slowed down as it collapsed, before it could ever get up again, Tom formulated another spell, this time in a shape of a lance which he compressed before launching the spell at the goblin's head.

"As far as a first kill goes, that was pretty good kiddo~"

Giving Tom a few pats on the shoulder with a happy-but-still-fox-like smile on her face, Lizzy's eyes suddenly sharpened up a fair bit.

"Say, the first spell of yours was pretty interesting. Where did you get that from?"

Applying a subtle amount of pressure Lizzy made clear that she would like her question answered, but still allowed Tom to keep his secret if that is what he wanted.

"... I don't really know to be honest. I wish I could tell you, but it just felt like the natural thing to do."

Looking down at his own clenched fist as he explained, Tom truly just felt that it was the correct thing to do in the situation.

"It just felt like the right thing to do, that's all I can tell you."

Nodding a few times in response to Tom's words, much of Lizzy's pressure disappeared as a genuine smile found its way onto her face.

"You got sharp intuition kiddo~ Thrust that intuition kiddo, it will save your life one day."

Imparting valuable teachings onto her favourite student, Lizzy's usual fox-like smile returned to her face as she suddenly handed him a knife.

"Now, time to claim your first price, happy digging~"

Leaving Tom behind as she went to light a smoke, Lizzy's words took a couple of seconds to sink in for Tom. When he finally got it, Tom glanced down at the goblin which head he had just destroyed, then breathed a deep sigh.

"... Right, the core was somewhere in the chest, wasn't it?"