Chapter 24: The Flaming Necklace

*Sigh*

Yesterday was pretty tough. I now know why they are called knights. Their training was so tough that I had to take a break every 10 minutes. People might think that I am doing something that should not be done, like exercising with adults in a 5-year-old body but, I need to be ready.

If I do it now, I won't regret anything later in my life. Plus, the Proving test will be happening in only 2 years. I will need to complete it so that I can get a bigger head start in my mission.

That is why I have decided to do training with Miria today. If yesterday was all about physical training, today will be more focused on relying on my other senses. It will still be exhausting, but I won't die because Miria will still be there for me.

Yes.

Now, I am just going to wait here in my room and rest for around 1 hour. I don't have anything else to do today aside from doing some stuff with Miria. I can afford to waste a bit of time.

********************

(Switches to Miria's point of view)

Today is going to be the last day I stay here in Vulcan. I am an adventurer so, I can't stay in one spot for a very long time. Plus, I told my party that I will try to be back before this month ends. So, if today is going to be my last day, I should at least try to do something amazing so that I can always remember this day.

Like, taking out some sort of rare or powerful monster. Then, after I do that, I should say goodbye to everyone I know here. Like Renzandt, some of the guys I teamed up with, and Alex.

Hmm?

I didn't really make connections with anyone in this town. Sure, I have my friend Renzandt but, everyone else is just a person I worked with for a short time. If anything, Alex is the one who will make me remember everything that happened here.

I only talked with him occasionally but, he is almost like the brother I never had. We are both training to be better and we even helped each other out before. But, I do not think that I will be able to see him. Firstly, I don't know where he lives. Secondly, I have a time limit before I will leave because it will be dangerous to leave at night time.

In conclusion, I should just try to finish everything as quickly as I can. Like, creating a new record for killing a certain monster or something.

Yup.

Let's go!

I walk out of the guest room of Renzandt's house and go outside. Another good day of killing some monsters.

I admire the view and breathe in some fresh air before running towards the Adventurer's Guild. Hopefully, there would be some sort of request that needed the extermination of a rare monster. If not, I can kill it myself after finding one and sell every part of it except the most valuable one.

While lost in thought, I was able to reach the Adventurer's Guild. I open the doors and come inside.

...

I see there is a large crowd here. I don't like them but, I should just cope with it. Today is special after all. I walk to the request boards and quickly check all of them for a monster extermination quest.

There are none.

Oh well.

I will go hunting for one myself. I walk out of the Adventurer's Guild and go towards the forest.

Phew.

It's nice getting out of that crowd. They are always so stuffy and it is also a bit suffocating for someone like me. Anyway, I will have to be quick with this. I start speeding up until I am running and reach the gates.

"Miss, are you an adventurer?"

"Yes, I am. I have something important to do so you should let me pass."

"Okay."

The knight guarding the gate lets me through and I continue running. I want to fight something strong but, not strong enough that I might die in a fight with it. Maybe around C-rank.

The only monster that would qualify as C-rank would be a Flamewing. That means, a Flamewing will be my target.

********************

You know, tracking an adventurer who has a personality that would always want to go outside and not wait for others is almost impossible. I don't know what I was thinking if I thought that I would be able to find Miria when she would have an almost 100% chance of being outside.

Since I don't know where she might be, I thought that I should try to find my secret base. It is kind of neglected now that I can't see all of the maps and documents I found. However, it could be a good exercise for me.

Just yesterday, thanks to some inspiration from Corvin and his threads, I found a way to be able to navigate and traverse an environment without sight. I can split my shadow into tendrils and turn the tips tangible so that I can feel around.

This works because, for some reason, my senses extend to the tangible parts of the darkness I manipulate. It is kind of like my fingers suddenly got very long.

Anyway, this exercise could let me get used to this way of moving. Plus, there is also the incentive that I might get lost, giving me the incentive to work as hard as I can.

...

Yeah, I do NOT think that I should go along with my own plan. It is definitely too dangerous and I do not want to get lost in the forest.

So, I should just wait near the gates for her to come back.

********************

Soon after I left the gate, I found 1 Flamewing, so I decided to follow it. What I found was something that was bizarre.

There were 6 other Flamewings gathered around a giant tree. The tree has a few nests on them. This might be a breeding place for Flamewings but, this is odd. Flamewings are usually solitary, meaning they don't congregate with others of their species.

I must retreat.

If I am found, I will most definitely get killed by them. I turn to silently walk away.

*Snap!*

"Stupid tree branch!"

Oh.

When I turn around, I see all 7 of the Flamewings in the air, clearly looking at me. I guess this is what they call a kill-or-be-killed situation, huh?

I unsheathe my sword and ready my my Wind magic. Looks like I found the thing that I wanted on my last day here.

A FEW HOURS LATER-

OH MY GOD!

I pull my sword out of the last of the Flamewings. This was unbelievably hard. I nearly died so many times in this fight.

I should bring these to the Guild. Yeah, I can get lots of money from this.

********************

When Miria brought all of the corpses with her, she was promoted to B-Rank and got 20 Gold coins in exchange. She also plucked the head feathers of every Flamewing and put them on a necklace, as a symbol of that day. She also ran into Alexander and made sure to have a training session with him before leaving the town of Vulcan.

- Excerpt taken from Chronicles of Miria, The Wind's Edge

written by famous historian Jadiel Knox, 42