Chapter 15: Back to Forest of Trove

Zhen teleported away while making a cracking sound on purpose to make them think he used some teleporting stone.

Teleportation skills are unique in the town but Kuro has told Zhen that humans have created teleportation stones when he enquired about it during their time in the restaurant.

The stone is embedded with mana and once cracked, it is able to do one-time teleportation. There are also some teleport talisman but are more expensive as they require spirit stone to purchase.

Unlike spirit stone, gold is most commonly used as currency in the continent because there are many humans who can't use mana due to them having zero affinity to any elements.

Spirit stone is created by people who condense their mana into the stone and it's extremely taxing on their body.

If a mage tries to make spirit stone, they are only able to produce around 4-9 each year because if they overdid it, it could harm their cultivation and become a setback.

Those people back in the alchemist guild should be fooled by Zhen's stunt on how we managed to disappear. Sara was still in a daze despite knowing Zhen's teleport ability but it's a good thing for him.

Zhen can continue to hold her hand but he lets go in the end and tells Sara to go make the soup for her mother.

'Feeling her smooth, silky hand is good but my waist has been pinched too many times already.'

Sara nodded and before leaving she mentioned, "Zhen, when I went to the adventure guild on my failure in the mission, I accepted another one about hunting a rank 2 wolf as our first mission."

Zhen replied, "Sure after you finish making the soup, we shall depart while I remain here to cultivate."

'A rank 2 wolf shouldn't be a problem for us as Kuro is capable of killing a rank 3 Likra.'

However, Zhen warned Kuro to not assist them as he wanted to test his prowess a bit.

He needed to grasp a good understanding of his power otherwise if he encountered a powerful being and he can't overpower him with sheer force then he's dead for sure.

Kuro nodded in understanding as he believed it's best for Master to be used to fighting so he can develop a natural instinct.

The natural instinct is like someone moving away from danger despite having his brain unable to process at an instant.

It can only be earned through experience by fighting multiple times to have their body react to avoid any catastrophe from happening in a split second.

While Zhen continues to cultivate his mana to increase the capacity and power, a good 40 something minutes have gone by before Sara knocks on the door.

Since Sara knew about his teleportation skill, they decided to hang a sign "Do not disturb" in the room so they can teleport to the Forest of Trove for the mission.

This is to prevent Sara's parents from worrying about her entering the forest after hearing about how she almost lost her life.

Sara made an excuse about going to the library to study some material so that she would be unavailable for the time being.

'She's really good at making up stories, just like me.' Zhen can't help but praise himself if Sara learned these skills from him.

Once they made sure everything was prepared, Zhen cast teleportation on the place where he first met Kuro.

*Whoosh*

'Only a day has passed and we're back to where we all started. The Forest of Trove sure has a natural atmosphere, unlike the town.'

Zhen admires the environment once again before following behind Sara.

Sara continued to guide Zhen and Kuro as she knew where the wolf's camp should be in.

Obviously, Zhen was not going to miss this opportunity to tease her. It'll be a boring mission if we're all serious and no fun is present.

Zhen ordered Kuro to be alert of all time and send him a transmission when he detected magical beasts approaching us.

Kuro sighs internally on how he stooped this low as he has the role of a bodyguard now.

No, even worse than that as they are treated better than him.

'My Master is a scumbag all the way but there is no such thing as regret.'

Kuro cursed Zhen inwardly while making sure he doesn't get exposed to his unwillingness.

'These dumb alchemists should have created a pill for regret instead of concocting pills that are expensive but no benefit.'

Alchemists usually create pills that are beneficial to humans and rarely would they create pills meant for a magical beast.

Magical beasts are born naturally with a mana core in their body but humans have to work hard in condensing one for themselves.

There are still pills for the magical beast as aristocrat families are capable of taming multiple high-rank beasts and will purchase them to increase their cultivation.

This is the reason why Kuro complains about alchemists as there are only pills made for humans in the town.

After walking for about 10 minutes, Sara told them to be careful as they're near the wolf's camp.

Their mission is to hunt three ranks 2 wolves with the reward being 15 gold and completion in their ID card.

They slowly crept near a bush that covers their surroundings before scanning the area.

Unlike Sara, who could only scan around 3km, Zhen could scan a whopping 65 km. An increase from his initial 50km after cultivating his mana.

With Zhen's Sense, he detected 5 wolves 10km away from their camp. They should be a hunting team because they are chasing down a deer-like beast.

Zhen told Sara about his discovery and she said great, "We can hunt those 5 wolves. The deer-like beast you mentioned is only a high-rank 1 but it can still exhaust them as they will do their best to struggle. We can take advantage of the time that the wolves are tired and snoop in to hunt."

'Wow, my lovely Sara is not that naive like I thought she was. Being a fisherman is my plan but I thought Sara would accuse me of being immoral.'

Zhen praised Sara inwardly for being a decisive person.

'This makes things easier and I have to change my evaluation of Sara's character. She is definitely a qualified female lead that is on par with a male.'

Who said women are a piece of clothes to men, they are even more capable than men.

Men who only think with their bottom are the fool that is meant to be cannon fodder for others to take advantage of.

Sara, Zhen, and Kuro rushed to the scene of hunting while being hidden. About 20 minutes, the deer beast finally fell victim to the savage wolves.

'You may have died but don't worry, you exhausted their energy and I shall get revenge for you.'

Without needing Sara's instruction to act now, Zhen flew down and tested out multiple skills.

Zhen combined wind and fire together and combust them together to deal an aoe (area of effect) damage.

Zhen might have underestimated his prowess as he almost burned the entire wolves to a crisp with the dual elements if Sara didn't use her water magic to calm the fire down.

Sara scolded Zhen harshly for not controlling his power and almost ruined the mission.

They needed the corpse to be intact and not a pile of ashes to complete the mission.

Being scolded harshly by Sara gave Zhen a complicated emotion. His first time being scolded didn't make me mad at all.

To scold someone means that they care about you. It was a good feeling for Zhen.

There are different types of scolds, one of them is the person who really hates you and wants to shoo you off.

But the type Sara uses is one meant to instruct as they care about them to waste their energy.

Laughing like a fool now made Sara mistook him as a masochist before Zhen managed to convince her that he's not and simply love how much she cares for him.

Sara stores all the 5 wolves and deer in her spatial ring which marks the end of this mission.

Zhen didn't teleport them back to the inn immediately as having food outdoors is something Zhen wanted to experience for the first time.

Zhen slowly took out the Likra meats and asked Sara cheekily to cook here.

Using Kuro as an excuse for how he missed her breakfast upset him, she finally agrees.

Sara has a cooking utensil and condiments on her spatial ring.

Activating a spatial space around them to prevent the magical beast from interrupting, Sara starts cooking the meat.

'This can be considered a lovely date right?'

Zhen wondered before smiling at Sara's cooking like a beautiful housewife.