Party

In the outskirts of the enormous Island of Bones, a group of three acolytes were scouting the area with great care. Their outfits was dirty and used, but their gaze revealed a deep experience. Among them, a grey-haired old man with a hunch back and a long staff led the party through the swamp. 

The middle-aged man was called Willem, and although he was a level 2 acolyte, he possessed a vast sea of experience and even knew two darkness elemental spells: Eye of Darkness, allowing him to scout the area up to a hundred meters, regardless of whether it was during the day or the night, and Shadow Arrow, an offensive spell that could pierce rocks. 

In comparison, his two companions paled slightly.

One of them was Ourin, who proved his worth several times already by taking on dozens of murlocs by himself, using his mastery of sword and shield fighting and veteran knight physique enhanced by the magical resources offered by the Mercifura Academy. Although he had yet to learn any spell or reach the level 2 acolyte realm, his physical attributes were already far above that of average knights, and thus, he was accepted in the party.

The other was Baerys, a blond-hair woman with a seducing face, was an ice elemental acolyte. She knew but one spell: Icecicle. It allowed her to condense a spike of ice out of thin air, and throw it at medium speed. Its piercing power was even better than a crossbow shot, but the true value of this spell came from the ice elemental particles slowing down its target. She, too, was a level 2 acolyte, though she was slightly weaker than the veteran Willem.

"The night is falling, let us set up camp here", Willem said in a cold, yet gentle voice. 

His presence here was very reassuring, but Ourin did not lower his guard. Neither did Baerys. It was already the third time in the past month that the group had gone out in the wild, in search of small murloc camp. The frog-like creatures might be monstrous, yet they possessed a semblance of civilization and intellect. They constructed walls and wore weapons, although there were theories about them mimicking human behaviour. 

However, after three exploration expeditions with Baerys and Willem, Ourin knew that this theory of pure mimicking was nonsense. After all, the only humans on the Island of Bones were acolytes, rather than soldiers. How else would they learn to create spears and bows, or even traps? Including acolytes, few individuals could witness the grandeur of a murloc tribe and live to tell the tale.

These exploration missions were nothing interesting, really, but they paid well.

Magus Anderson, in charge of the Eastern ressource sites of the Island of Bones, wanted to control the population of murlocs, which was growing at an exponential rate for the past few decades. At first, there was only a 100-murloc-strong tribe, yet now, there were hundreds of such tribes, as well as large-sized tribes with more than a thousand murloc warriors living there. Although they could live in water, they were gaining increasingly more ground on the island of Bones, using their numbers to defeat predators on the outskirts of the island. 

The problem was not the size or strength of murlocs, as regular knights could deal with such problems. 

The problem was the presence of murloc shamans. Though inferior to acolytes in essence, they were capable of unleashing unpredictable spells and curses which claimed the lives of countless acolytes for the past few decades. The presence of a magus-level murloc shaman, in the largest tribe of murloc, located in the Death Bay, was preventing the Mercifura Academy from acting rashly. Or...did they have another reason?

Anyway, there were a few patrolling missions aimed at controlling the spread of new murloc tribes and estimating the growth of larger tribes, as well as their influence. The mission paid only six magic crystals per expedition, but they only took three days to complete. It allowed Ourin to have a weekly wage of 2 magic crystals. It was not much, but the true value of these expeditions came from the materials he was harvesting. Murloc Blood Essence was quite unknown, but invaluable once you knew it was one of the core ingredients for the Murloc Essence Elixir.

They had yet to encounter a murloc shaman, unfortunately, causing Ourin to start to lose hope of ever refining the potion with the help of a shaman master. However, he knew that if he persevered, he would eventually be able to grow. Kaliweir had already found three drops of murloc essence based on his boasting, even though he was leeching off a stronger party. Although Julia had yet to successfully a single elixir, it was enough to pressure Ourin.

Still, no matter the reason, Ourin would not head into danger because of ego. He was pragmatic, and even if Kaliweir ended up closing the gap between them, it did not matter. Ourin valued his life more than anything. Instead of comparing himself to a grade 3 talent who possessed good fortune, Ourin only compared with himself, striving to overcome his past achievement. It was a valid mindset that allowed him to break past his limits and continue to practice on a daily basis, never once giving up on his dreams to become a magus.

Perhaps he would, one day, be able to return to Earth and expand his lifespan to become a greater being. Such was his moto, such were his goals.