Chapter 33

Chapter 33

The expedition’s staging area was more chaotic than Alice had imagined it being – even though everyone knew what they were doing and where they were supposed to be, the sheer number of people involved still surprised her. Alice wandered around, since she had nothing to do, and wondered if there was some sort of task that required her assistance. Most of the people around here were simply helping to load up the covered wagons, with a plethora of Perks on display making the process safer, faster, and more efficient. Alice noted that there was less food than she had been expecting – and that, occasionally, a box of rations next to one of a few select people would simply vanish into thin air. Alice wondered if she was finally getting a glimpse of what a Perk that stored items looked like – she still hadn’t tried used her own {Sample Collection} yet, beyond confirming that it allowed her to store items as intended.

All right, for the expedition, I need to keep an eye out for monster eggs – I still want to test to see if monsters have any sort of ‘mana baptism’ or not, and having some spidercrab eggs might be a way to test for that. Not a conclusive one, but it might still be useful for generating more experiments later. Apart from that, I want to keep an eye on whatever is found near the place I arrived – while most people think that the Society of Starry Eyes summoned me here, there are also a lot of strange points about my arrival, and so it’s best to see if I can find out anything. Third, I want to see if I can get the second tier of the {Monster Slayer} Achievement – according to the Church’s records, the second tier requires 25 kills. I hunted 1-2 Spidercrabs a week while I was in the wilderness, and I was there for about 105 – ish days. That means, realistically, I hunted somewhere between 15 and 30 spidercrabs during my time there – but obviously below 25, because I didn’t get the second tier of the Achievement. I think it should have been 22 or so, but I’ll assume it was as low as 20, potentially. Anyway, I should be pretty close to the next stage, and there are no special requirements for the strength of each monster for the first three tiers of the Achievement. Finally, I should keep an eye out for potential danger – the Sigmusi Colonia’s agents might be skulking about, and with how much fanfare the Expedition is leaving with, I don’t doubt for a second that there’s some danger of them making a move. Come to think of it, the Expedition is taking along a good chunk of the town’s Mages and guards as well – is the town itself vulnerable? Well, Illa probably has some sort of plan for that – it’s not my place to worry about it.

Apart from that, I want to collect more information about the source of mana from my food experiment, and see if I can introduce myself to some of the other mages on the Expedition.

Alice nodded to herself, confirming her personal objectives in the expedition. After that, she started looking around, checking to see if she could spot any other people wearing the mage insignia on any jewelry. Illa had told her that she was to start working on becoming a more ‘public figure’ starting with the expedition, and had given her some more specific instructions for what Illa was looking for. In short, it wasn’t a problem if it was known Alice was learning from Illa, or that she was staying in Illa’s mansion right now – others would probably just assume Illa wanted some levels in [Teacher]. Even if they figured out that Alice was being paid to show her face around town, it actually wasn’t a huge problem – their reputation would be at risk regardless, as long as Alice’s hidden guard (who she had never seen, nor met) didn’t come to light. And, obviously, it also showed that Alice valued whatever Illa was providing her over the potential risk of staying in the south, which still displayed Alice’s confidence in the idea that Illa could protect her.The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

Since Alice hadn’t met the other mages in the town yet, she thought now would be a good time to introduce herself. Since she was expected to start ‘publically appearing,’ making some headway now would only make her job easier in the future?

It didn’t take her too long to find another mage. A man, perhaps in his early thirties, was wearing a copper mage insignia on a bracelet. Alice absently fingered her own silver mage insignia, provided by Illa’s maid last week to replace Alice’s stone insignia, and then stepped forward.

“Hello!” She said, trying her best to suppress her nerves.

The man turned towards her, before his eyes flicked to her wrist and then back to her face.

“Oh? I don’t believe I know you – ah, are you the new mage in town? I had heard there was someone new who came South and got mixed up in some sort of mess involving the Sigmusi hunting order. And something about Erik being confirmed dead? Damn shame. He was a good man. Glad to see that at least you’re unharmed. I’m Milo. Nice to meet you,” said the man, extending his hand towards her. Alice shook his hand, noting that even for an adult on this world, his grip was firm and strong. His body was also decently solidly – built, much more muscular than the average man. “So what brings a little lass like you on the expedition? That IS what you’re here for, right?”

“Ah, I...” Alice frowned. Now that she thought about it, Illa hadn’t actually told her if she had some sort of ‘backstory’ she was supposed to stick to around town. Obviously, saying she was an {Outworlder} was right out – on the slim chance the Society of Starry Eyes didn’t know about her, Alice had no reason to call their attention towards her. Perhaps Alice wasn’t supposed to rush into her first encounter like this? What if she messed up?

No, Alice needed to get used to working on her own a little. She couldn’t run back to Illa every time she had a question, and as long as she didn’t explicitly lie, it wouldn’t be too big of a problem either way. Alice just needed to avoid tripping any lie-detection Perks.

“I have some interest in the area we’re going to be studying,” said Alice. “I want to see if I can figure out more of what it’s like and what exactly caused it to form, and that means I need to go on the expedition. Apart from that, hoping to grab a few Achievements and levels, and it’s way safer moving as a group than individually.”

“When I was in school, most nobles treated me... politely. They weren’t subservient or anything – their social status was still above mine, and I could definitely feel that in some places. Still, they didn’t rub my face in it, and they weren’t unkind. Just... distant. I wasn’t a very promising mage, either, so they just didn’t interact with me much.” Milo shrugged. “It wasn’t bad, honestly.”

“Huh.” Alice frowned, thinking over Milo’s words. They were surprisingly logical. The nobles of this world seemed pragmatic, despite what her first impressions had led her to believe. On the other hand, there was a reason Vallis was exiled to be an underling in a mage’s territory, after all. Perhaps she was just an outlier. “Thanks. That’s good to know.”

“Why do you ask? Were you thinking about joining one of the academies or something?” Asked Milo as he set another crate down on one of the wagons, and the crate vanished into thin air as a [Travelling Merchant] extended his hand towards the crate. Alice noted, with some curiosity, that the mana inside of the [Travelling Merchant]’s body lightly stirred and changed color right as he activated the skill, before reverting back to its previous color right as the crate disappeared. She put it into the back of her mind for now – another observation to add to the list. Alice turned her attention back to the conversation.

“Not right now – I want to stay in Cyra for a little longer. I was mostly curious because lady Vallis is a little...”

The man frowned. “She doesn’t seem too bad, although I admit I haven’t interacted with her much. Did you catch her on a bad day or something?”

Alice shrugged. “Who knows. I don’t want to think about it anymore. She isn’t coming on the expedition, is she?”

“No, she isn’t – claimed it would be too dangerous for her, and made a bunch of excuses. After that, she launched into a big speech about how the fact the expedition is happening at all is a sign of how incompetent Illa is, because splitting our defenses like this when the Sigmusi Empire is active is just asking to die. A couple [Orators] started arguing her down in public, and I hear she got really mad about it and started arguing with them until all of them were fined for being a public nuisance.” The man shrugged. “None of my business. Still, she doesn’t seem too bright, all things considered. Even the other mages that want to leave wouldn’t denounce Illa so publicly – she’s a semi-famous war hero, after all. Not a good target to try to incite public outrage against.”

“Huh. Good to know,” said Alice, as she dropped another crate of supplies into one of the wagons. She turned back towards the pile of crates, only to find that it was empty now. She turned back towards Milo. “Does this mean we’re done?”

“I think it does. We should be departing soon.” The man looked thoughtful for a moment. “Do you want to ride in one of the wagons with me? It can be pretty intimidating to talk to the other mages if you don’t know anyone, and you haven’t been too publicly available ever since your baptism. There are plenty of rumors swirling around about you, you know? If you want, I could give you an introduction to the rest of the mages tagging along for the expedition. There are a decent number of us, and plenty of us want to get to know you a little better. Besides, having someone to talk to would be fun.”

“Sure! I’d love to have someone to chat with,” said Alice, doing her best to mime enthusiasm. In truth, she honestly would have preferred to read or conduct research – but both of those would be hard to do in a (presumably) bumpy wagon ride. Having someone to chat with wouldn’t hurt, and introducing herself to the other mages wouldn’t be a bad idea – since Illa was paying her a huge amount of time and some money to do a job, Alice would do that job.

Milo led her to one of the wagons, and the two of them hopped on board. Alice looked out of one of the slits in the side of the wagon, and noted with some curiosity that several of the people who had helped to load the wagons weren’t actually coming with the expedition – instead, they quickly leaving the area. In total, there were seven actual wagons leaving for the expedition – Illa, along with her maid, were boarding one of the wagons. A few other people, some of whom were wearing armor and some of whom were wearing guard uniforms, also got into the wagons. Finally, every wagon had a driver, as well as a guard riding alongside of them in the front of the wagon. As two guards squeezed into the wagon with them, Alice noticed that each wagon had around 6-7 people in it. In total, there were around 40 people on the expedition, give or take a few. It was a bit larger than Alice had been expecting – however, Illa had seemed to take the potential threat of the Society of Starry Eyes very seriously. Furthermore, Illa had hinted at the massive bubble of Broken Mana being close to the town potentially being a problem as well. The wagons each also contained a large amount of supplies, with an extra, unknown amount stashed in a variety of storage-related Perks.

With a jolt, the carriage set into motion. Milo and Alice were silent, and Alice watched out of the back of the covered wagon as Cyra slowly began to fade into the distance and the group set forth into the wilderness.

At last, the expedition had begun.