69 Mia Silver

Mia Silver headed for the Steelfield prairie with two other rankers from her guild. She was basically asked to babysit by captain Miranda because she had been tasked with a different mission and couldn’t do it herself.

Mia was a beautiful elf with a ranger class. She had a cute nose and brunette hair that boded well with her mesmerizing light brown eyes. Her heart-shaped lips and her elf-like ears added extra appeal to her charms.

Silver was one of the few permanent residents of Gilhaan to join the Stardust guild some three years back. She was 30 years old, which was young by elf standards.

Mia was in the 9th stage of Rank 1, a step away from her ranking breakthrough. However, she didn’t have a team to lead like Miranda. The elf preferred solo missions more.

Her mission was still in the same direction as Eren’s and Reece’s. So she decided to make Miranda owe her one by accompanying a newbie.

“Miss Mia, what do you think? Should we stop here?”

Reece asked Mia as they drew extremely close to the prairie. The veteran elf nodded before answering.

“Heh! You don’t take up many missions and stay inside the guild looking after its administrative work. So I thought that you didn’t know how to handle these not-so-team-like missions.”

Mia said and smiled and added up.

“I guess I judged a book by its cover. Please forgive me, Reece.”

Mia said this as she stopped her colt. The duo followed her lead and got down from their beasts’ backs.

“Reece’s decision is kind of paranoid. We could have ventured a bit further into the open field. However, being paranoid is not always a bad thing. Especially in Giaahan.”

Mia looked at Eren and narrowed her eyes before speaking further.

“Those big beasts are very protective of their territories and would attack anyone who got into their territory. We need to tread carefully from here. Traverse on foot.

We can leave our colts here and get them after we are done with our mission. For now, follow me.”

Mia said and started walking through the prairie.

The field was an ideal habitat for Iron Trunk Honey Mammoth because of its peculiarity. It featured an enormous stretch of flat grassland with a few sparse trees in between. The blade length of the grassland was just above an average adult’s waist, offering long-distance visibility to rankers while allowing them to hide if and when needed to. That was provided they were not riding on their colts.

Eren and Reece followed Mia’s lead and ventured into the field. They also consciously made efforts to keep their mana signatures to their lowest and try not to attract attention with any of their actions.

While following Mia, Eren observed that Reece was a bit downcast when she heard Mia speak about her lack of involvement in missions these last few months. She wasn’t always like this.

Reece had been doing very well when she had first started as a Meta and came to Gilaahan. She amazed everyone in her team with her talents. Since a mission’s failure, however, she felt jittery whenever she was out on missions.

It is for that reason she has reduced her mission’s involvement over the past few months. Despite her jitters, she decided to guide Eren on his first mission.

Eren could somehow guess what must have happened to Reece. She had not talked to him about the mission that had affected her psychologically. Maybe it was because the previous Eren wasn’t a ranker when this must have happened. Or maybe she didn’t feel comfortable talking about it with anybody.

Eren knew a thing or two about getting jitters. At the time, he had his first kill right after becoming a ranker. It was akin to him offering a sacrifice of blood and bones for his advancement to official rank.

He had dealt with his jitters by keeping himself busy with his life. His workouts were his way to calm his nerves. And they did a good job. However, he also knew that the same remedy wouldn’t work for everybody.

Everyone needed to find their fix, their own solution to fix what was broken inside them.

‘Reecy, I don’t know what problems you faced before. And I don’t want you to tell me about them either. Sometimes speaking up about problems helps. In some cases, sharing them only makes it more complicated.

However, we must not sacrifice our present for the things we did in the past.’

Eren glanced up at the clear, blue sky. He sighed and added up.

‘If you love life, don’t waste time. Time is what life is made of.

I may not be able to help you deal with the mess in your head. But I can make you realize that it’s a mess that will get solved one day.

Only a few things are infinite in this universe. And fortunately, the mess in your head is not one of them.’

Eren said to Reece over the voice communication channel that was available through the use of Identity Rune. He refrained from openly discussing it so that Reece wouldn’t feel uncomfortable talking about it in Mia’s presence.

Reece heard Eren’s words and repeated them in her mind over and over again until they started resonating with her. She couldn’t help flashing a smile of gratitude at him.

‘Thanks, Eren.’ Reece said and decided to tell Eren what had been bothering her anyway. Eren smiled mirthlessly but uttered nothing to oppose her decision. He followed Mia’s lead while listening to what Reece was saying on their voice communication channel.

Reece had been doing team missions with Miranda, Stan, Ralph, Jayce, and the rest ever since she had gotten into Gilaahan for the first time. Reece felt that she was doing well since all her missions were a success.

Reece’s elemental affinity was special. It was a hybrid elemental affinity that was based on fire and space– a spatial fire that allowed for pyroportation.

This was a unique elemental affinity that seldom appeared. As such, there were not a lot of ways to counter someone who used spells related to the same.

Reece had no match for her level, thanks to her affinity. Her dependency on her spell grew with time. And that became the root cause of her mental roadblock after a certain mission turned haywire.