The seasons shifted, and it was now early summer.
Wal and I were making steady progress eastward. The Central Nations were meant for beginner players at the start of their journeys, so outside of some fixed locations, the monsters here weren’t particularly strong.
To be perfectly honest, monsters weren’t our problem. Instead, we needed to be on the alert for enemy transmigrators—or anyone from the adventurer’s guild, really.
Large towns were dangerous—they could be host to a guild branch, which in turn would have wanted posters, putting adventurers on the lookout.
As a result, we avoided populated areas as much as we could as we continued our trek.
My Pocket Dimension was a lifesaver, and so was all of the stuff I’d squirreled away in it. Thankfully, we hadn’t needed to restock our supplies.
We decided to cross through a mountain pass by traveling through the woods alongside the highway. That way, we could see the road while still avoiding it.
Jump wouldn’t be an option in the thick brush of this forest. I wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of threading through the foliage, but at least it would level the playing field for our enemies as well.
In other words, the threat of encountering guild adventurers while doing this was low.
I was left in awe of the forest’s towering trees. Their massive roots created natural walls as they crept along the ground. These roots were perfect for warding off the wind, so we decided to camp between a pair of them.
With our tent set up, it was time for a good night’s rest.
Because our tent needed space for the hidden rooms inside it, it unfortunately required a wide, open space to deploy. While it looked like a single tent at a glance, the amount of space inside its rooms was really mysterious.
Maybe my tent was like this because the natural laws of this world followed the rules of Golden Dawn. So basically, despite how it looked on the outside, it still required three tents’ worth of space to set up. And we’d never find a clearing that wide in these woods.
Oh well. Camping out the same way we used to every now and then wasn’t a bad idea either.
Under the thick canopy overhead, the daylight faded into darkness much earlier than it had on the plains. Tonight was a new moon, so the gloom had fallen even sooner.
We’d already finished our dinner. To pass the long hours of the night, I sat by the campfire and withdrew materials from my storage to make a bow. It was just in my nature as a crafter.
Wal, who was sitting nearby, was focused on completing his daily mission to fill the light orb with MP.
I had increased the number of light orbs he needed to fill—his maximum MP capacity was growing well. One time, when I had requested that he remove the Royal Diadem for me to appraise him, I had found that his capacity for MP had reached the threshold of B-tier.
Once an NPC mastered B-tier—the highest level they could naturally attain—they would be able to use Jump with the assistance of tier-boosting equipment. The road to mastering it was long, however, so I wanted him to continue with his training.
As an aside, the reason I had specified that he master B-tier was that the average B-tier capacity for MP wasn’t enough to even perform Jump at all. He might be just about able to use it once.
Since Jump only became available for use for those with a magic proficiency of A-tier, the MP requirement wasn’t at all surprising.
He would almost certainly need to supplement his MP with potions if he needed to perform a string of Jumps one after another. But I could handle crafting those.
Need performance-enhancing potions to cheat the system? Leave it to me!
“Kariya, could you give me a new orb?”
As the light orb was now filled, Wal unfastened it from the chain looped around his left wrist and held it out to me.
Taking the proffered orb, I deposited it into my storage as it rested in my cupped hand. Then, uncurling my fingers, I manifested a different, empty light orb onto my palm.
Wal took the new one from me. “Thanks,” he said with a smile.
As he did so, I found my eyes drawn to his fingertips.
A memory came unbidden to my mind. One of fair, delicate fingers that were graceful and ladylike, clasping a small light orb enclosed within a glass case.
Now, the hand that had reached out to me was smudged with dirt and covered in countless tiny nicks and scratches. No trace remained of the silky-soft skin that had once been so well maintained—skin that’d been perfect and expected of a cloistered princess.
A little over five months had passed since we had left Tachyrinn.
The prince had changed in many ways. His palms had become calloused from the coming and going of many blisters. While his complexion still retained a measure of fairness, it was now markedly tanned. Supple muscle rippled beneath. And not only had his fingers changed, but so had his entire physique. He’d even grown taller.
But maybe this was the self-evident proof of his single-minded devotion to training after we’d escaped from Tachyrinn. Though he came from a long line of mages, he still trained his physical combat abilities as well. My running theory about his dedication to it was that even mages needed to be physically strong.
“Um, Kariya?” Wal tilted his head in mild confusion when he noticed my gaze.
Hmm...
He was as cute as ever, but compared to before, his dignified composure was becoming more and more regal by the day.
Wow. It’s amazing what a growth spurt can do to people.