25 The First Quest; Part 2

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia

May 8, x774.

Finishing her conversation with Magnolia's mayor later than Alfonzo, Elicia walked down one of Magnolia's main streets toward the town's east gate with Reedus.

"I don't get it, we were there to complete the mayor's quest." Elicia said with a pout. "So, why did we have to wait so long?"

"I'm sure it's because the mayor had many other things to deal with."

"Were those things as important as keeping the town safe?" Elicia asked, continuing to pout.

Reedus could only sigh before smiling. He could only hope that Elicia would somehow remain as pure and innocent as she was now. Although, he doubted that wud be the case. This world was much darker than even he was sure of, so the chances of the innocent girl next to him staying so pure was low.

"I don't know if they were as important." Reedus replied. "All we can do is do our job quickly, so that the people won't have to worry about getting hurt by that pack of worgs."

Although she was not quite happy with that reply, Elicia understood that was the best they could do. So, she continued walking toward the town gate in silence.

Eventually, the duo made their way to the gate. Then, they continued walking down the public road. After walking for another half an hour, they arrived at the forest. The forest was rather large, and the public road traveled through it.

Seeing the specs of light that shined through the trees' canopy onto the road, Elicia felt her annoyance with the mayor's office fading.

"Wow, it's really pretty here." Elicia said in a wonderous tone.

"It is." Reedus said, nodding in agreement. "Perhaps I'll come here another day and paint the scenery."

"Ooh, if you do, can I have the painting?" Elicia asked with an excited smile. "Then, when Fonzie and I get our own house, we'll hang it in the living room."

"You sure have thought far ahead." Reedus said with a smile.

To Reedus' surprise, Elicia shook her head without losing her smile. However, Elicia's next words cleared up his confusion.

"I didn't even have to think about it." Elicia said, her smile growing wider. "Fonzie and I will always be together, so there's nothing to think about."

Smiling in response, Reedus decided to change the subject, over the last three years, he had realized that Elicia could easily lose sight of an objective whenever she got to talking about Alfonzo.

"You can tell me about that later, Elicia." Reedus said in a gentle tone. "But now, we, or rather you, have a job to do."

Hearing that, Elicia immediately snapped back to her senses. Then, her smile slowly disappeared, turning into a determined expression.

"Right, there's work to do." Elicia said with a nod.

A moment later, Elicia, with Reedus following behind her, started walking down the road leading through the forest. After walking for a while, Elicia turned her head back to Reedus.

"Hey, Reedus, have we reached the center of the forest yet?" Elicia asked.

Though he did not know why Elicia was asking this question, he did not hesitate to answer it.

"Not quite, if we walk at this pace for another five minutes, or so, though, we'll be there." Reedus replied.

"I see." Elicia said with a nod. Then, she started walking again.

A little more than five minutes later, Elicia stopped in the middle of the road. Naturally, Reedus stopped as well, curious to see what Elicia would do.

Reedus knew that the quest asked the wizards to kill the worgs. But just as important as killing the worgs, if not more so, was finding them in the first place.

'I wonder what she's gonna do.' Reedus wondered as he stepped away from Elicia who had just closed her eyes. 'I hope she's actually considered this part. Worgs are quite cunning. So, they won't be that easy to find by normal means.'

Meanwhile, with her eyes closed, Elicia was going over her options. In reality, Reedus had no need to worry. Elicia had already considered the difficulty of finding the worgs. And she was currently thinking what methods she could use to do so.

'Okay, I could try spreading my magic power, like those characters in light novels do.' Elicia thought to herself. 'But this forest looks uber big. I probably don't have enough magic power to cover it all. But, if I use my [Thread Magic], the use of magic power would probably be more efficient.'

Nodding her head at that last thought, Elicia opened her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, under Reedus' watchful gaze, she knelt on one knee, placing her hands on the ground.

"[Thread Magic: Detection Strings]." Elicia said, quietly chanting the name of her spell.

An instant later, thin, almost invisible threads began to spread from her palms in all directions. In fact, these threads were so thin, Reedus did not even notice them as they shot past him. After the threads stretched much further than the eye could see in this forest, Elicia closed her eyes once again.

Elicia actually developed this spell a year or so ago. She had lost something in her dorm room. And for the life of her, she could not find it. So, in a panic, she spread her threads all over her room. To her surprise, she was able to send some of her senses into the threads if she tried hard enough. Then, after she grasped the trick behind it, she found her favorite comb in less than three minutes.

Over the year since she developed the spell, she has learned how to add her senses to the threads more efficiently. And she decided that this would be the easiest way to find the worgs.

"There are really a lot of moving things in this forest.' Elicia thought to herself. 'But most of them are too small to be worgs. I read in a book that worgs are halfway between the size of normal wolves and horses. So, they should put a lot more pressure on my threads than anything else in this forest.'

With that thought in mind, Elicia let her mind filter out all the smaller sensations that brushed against her threads. Eventually, while focusing on the larger ones, she found two spots that could possibly be the pack of worgs.

In the northeast, there were two animals walking on her threads. While in the south, there was one.

'I'll check the northeast first, since there are two of them.' Elicia thought as she opened her eyes.

"Reedus, I think I found them." Elicia said with a smile. "I'll head out to check."

A moment later, without waiting for Reedus to reply, Elicia shot threads from the fingertips of her right hand and wrapped them around a nearby tree branch. Then, she pulled herself off the ground and began swinging between the trees toward the response she felt on her detection spell.

"*Sigh* She could at least wait for me." Reedus said with awry smile on his face.

A moment later, Reedus used his magic power to increase his running speed as he chased Elicia through the forest. Then, three minutes later, he stopped as he saw Elicia standing on a tree branch. When he followed the direction where she was looking, he found the figures of two animals who were about as tall as the average horse. However, they were much too round to be worgs.

"Burrowing boars, huh?" Redus said, immediately recognizing the species of the magical beasts in front of him.

Burrowing boards were boar-type magical beasts who were adept in earth magic. They tended to use it to burrow under trees to find insects and other food sources.

Looking up to Elicia once again, Reedus was surprised to see that she was currently drooling. Then, he listened closely and could hear her mumbling to herself.

"Fonzie could make some really big pork chops if I brought those back, right?" Elicia asked with her eyes sparkling. "If I ask real nice, he might even make some smothered pork chops."

Once again, Reedus sighed. Although he could understand how Elicia felt, now was not the time to be thinking about Alfonzo's cooking.

"Elicia." Reedus said softly, getting the girl's attention. "Did you forget that you're on a quest?"

Elicia immediately opened her eyes wide. Then, she shook her head. After looking at the burrowing boars longingly once more, she muttered.

"Don't worry, I'll come back for you." Elicia said as if she would come to rescue the boars from their suffering.

A moment later, she shot her threads at a tree. Then, she swung off toward the other reading she had picked up during her search.

"*Sigh* Seriously, could you wait for me?" Reedus asked before running off to follow Elicia.

Ten minutes later, Elicia neared the area where she felt the other large animal in the forest. However, the only reason it took her so long to arrive was because she decided to circle around and approach them from the down wind direction. It did not take a genius to know that she would be detected well before she could arrive if the worgs picked up on her scent first.

When Reedus arrived, he saw Elicia once again standing on a tree branch, frowning at what she saw. When he looked over as well, he immediately understood why.

"So, there were actually six of them, huh?" Reedus muttered. "And it looks like there is an alpha among them. I wonder what she will do. She's well within her rights to go back due to inaccurate information."

As Reedus said, there were six worgs, five of which were laying down on the ground while the largest, or the alpha, was strolling around the area.

By the time Reedus had arrived, however, Elicia had already come up with a plan. The thought of turning back had never crossed her mind.

"[Thread Magic: Thread Puppets]." Elicia chanted quietly with her hands pointed at the forest floor.

A moment later, a large amount of thread was ejected from Elicia's hands. Then, they started to weave themselves together silently. About a minute later, Reedus opened his eyes wide at what he saw.

Standing in front of Reedus were a pair of burrowing boars, nearly identical to the ones he had seen before.

A second later, Elicia began controlling the boars to walk forward. At first, their movements were rather clunky. So, Elicia had them circle back toward her. Then, for the next few minutes or so, she continued controlling the two boar puppets until their movements looked quite natural.

"Okay, I think I'm ready." Elicia muttered to herself.

An instant later, the boar puppets were approaching the pack of worgs. Then, when they got close, she had one of them intentionally step on a fallen twig, causing it to snap. Naturally, this drew the attention of all six worgs, causing their ears to perk up and their heads to snap in the direction the sound came from.

A moment later, the boar puppets were in view of the worgs, and Elicia stopped their movement. Then, after the two sides stared each other down for a moment, she made the puppets run away from the worgs.

Immediately after the puppets ran away, the alpha worg raised its head and howled into the sky, causing the other five worgs to shoot off in pursuit.

"So, that's why the quest sheet only mentioned five worgs." Reedus said, hiding in the direction opposite the puppets.

Watching the chase, Reedus noticed that it did not take long for the worgs to catch up and surround the boars. Then, they all charged at the boars from different directions, each taking a bite of the boars. However, it also did not take long for the worgs to realize that something was wrong.

Instead of the taste of meat and blood, they only felt the sensation of biting something similar to hair. Realizing that it was most likely a trap, one of the worgs howled, alerting the alpha that the five of them were in danger.

As soon as the howl was over, the boar puppets disassembled and wrapped the five worgs in threads, muzzling them all I the process.

A few moments later, two more boar puppets appeared, with one lying on the ground with its throat torn out. Then, after a few more moments, the alpha worg arrived on the scene.

Taking a few seconds to survey the scene, the alpha worg cautiously approached. When it was close enough, it finally realized that its pack had been tangled up with something. However, at that point, it was too late.

The boar that had been standing quickly turned toward the alpha and rushed in its direction, trying to skewer it with its tusks.

Not feeling threatened at all, the alpha worg dodged the puppet's charge and swiped at it with its front paw. Unfortunately, that was a bad decision. As soon as the paw swipe landed, the puppet disassembled, wrapping the alpha worg just like the other five.

Once all six worgs were wrapped up securely, Elicia hopped down from the tree she was controlling the puppets from. Then, she slowly approached the bound worgs.

"I'm sorry I have to do this." Elicia said, not sure if the worgs could understand her. "I really don't like killing living creatures. But you hurt the people of Magnolia. So, to keep them safe, I have to do it."

While she spoke, Elicia looked really uncomfortable with what she was about to do. However, after taking a deep breath, her expression firmed up.

"Thread Magic: Thread Scythe]." Elicia chanted in a resolve tone.

A moment later, the threads wrapped around the worgs necks constricted quickly. Then, the worgs were all beheaded.

"Well, I better bring them back to the town." Elicia said in a somber tone. "I don't like killing, but it had to be done. And since it had to be done, there's no sense in leaving good material behind. Their hides should be able to make something nice if I use them right."