A while later.

  I followed Avid for a while, the two of us carefully moving through the forest, keeping our eyes open and guards up, in case any monsters decided to make themselves present. The forest was silent. Eerily silent. Every step we took was louder than the atmosphere around us.

  The gentle sway of grass, the light crunch of the occasional withered leaves that were on the ground — all of it sounded so loud in this silence.

  Avid suddenly stopped in front of me, causing me to abruptly stop as well, before the assassin in front of me kneeled down and placed his right hand onto the ground. I moved a bit closer, leaning in to see what he was doing. “Find something?” I asked.

  The mercenary remained silent for a bit, before nodding and looking in front of us. “There are slightly faded traces here. It seems like a large horde of monsters had run through here a little while back.”

  “Approximately how long back?” I tilted my head, while Avid rose back up to his feet and looked back at me. “I’d say a few days at most.” He then turned his head back away before continuing to move forward. “It would seem that either the monsters had been running away from something or were attracted by something.”

  “And how do you exactly make that conclusion?”

  Avid moved forward a bit, before flipping around and using his foot to move aside a bit of the grass, showcasing the faded traces. There were some barely visible footprints in the soil — however, each one was different from the last. One that I could make out was shaped like a hoof, another was more like a paw, then there was one that looked like a bird print.

  “Multiple different monsters ran through here as one group. That is unusual behaviour for monsters to have, as they rarely team up with other monsters that aren’t of their own kind, if ever.” Avid turned away, crossing his arms. “Something is definitely fishy.”

  I looked a bit closer at the prints, crouching down and narrowing my eyes to try and activate ‘Enlightened’ — however, unfortunately the skill did not activate. I exhaled lightly. “Maybe the traces are far too faint for the skill to identify anything about them, like what creature they originated from.” I stood back up, stretching out a bit.

  “Do we just keep moving forward?”

  “That would be the wisest idea. Though the tracks are faint, they still are a clue for us to use. We should see where the monsters ran to.” Avid turned around once more and kept moving forward, gesturing to me to follow. “Come on. Let’s keep moving.”

  “Right.” I quickly caught up to the mercenary, following after him once again.

  We kept moving forward, occasionally finding more and more tracks of different monsters - and as we followed them further, the tracks began to become less faded. It was beginning to look like we were getting close to wherever the monsters that had left these tracks had gone to.

  Eventually, the sun set.

  Avid decided to camp out for the night and pick off where we had left off in the morning. We both quickly gathered up some firewood from nearby fallen trees and then some stones, throwing together a makeshift campfire, which Avid then lit by bringing his right hand close to his face, mumbling something, which then caused a small flame to flick upon his fingers, which he used to ignite the campfire.

  “What was that?”

  Avid looked at me a little dumbfounded, taking off his mask and placing it to the side. “Never seen Sorcery before?”

  “Ah… not really. I’m not familiar with magic…”

  “Then lesson one, it is not magic. Sorcery is different in almost every way from magic.” Avid quickly cut me off, his comment rather impudent. I fell silent, before exhaling and gesturing to him to keep speaking. I would need to learn about how ‘magic’ or whatever else works in this world if I wanted to survive.

  Avid leaned back against the tree trunk behind him, before taking in a deep breath and exhaling. “Magic isn’t something just anyone can use. Only those born with enough magical energy in their bodies can use magic, as to use ‘magic’ requires you to manipulate the magical energy within your body. If you don’t have enough magical energy in your body to manipulate safely, you are unable to use magic.”

  I listened carefully to Avid's explanation, grasping a bit more of an understanding of how magic worked. “So, those with enough magical energy in their body to manipulate, use that energy inside their bodies to cast spells?”

  “It’s a bit more complicated than that, but in general – yes.” Avid looked down at the campfire. “Essentially, individuals who can use magic, use the magical energy inside them to craft spells and magic circles, from which further actions can be done. However learning to do all of this is a long and difficult process, which requires you to basically have someone to teach you. You also have to be careful with what spells you cast, since if you run out of magical energy in your body to manipulate, you’ll be left as a sitting duck. Plus, to use magic, you have to rely on chanting, as silent casting is a very difficult craft, that only experienced and old magic casters are capable off,”

  So essentially, if you have enough magical energy in your body, you can use that to cast spells — but in return, the magical energy inside your body decreases. And if you run out, you can’t cast spells anymore - That’s how I understood everything.

  “But isn’t it dangerous to run out of magical energy?”

  “Not necessarily. Magical energy isn’t required for you to live, as it is not the same as soul or life. Magical Energy is separate and can more closely be compared to one's stamina, as the most drawback you’ll experience when you run out, is exhaustion and perhaps slight dizziness.”

  “I see…” This world is most certainly a little more complicated than my world. “But then, how is sorcery different?”

  “Simple. As I said before, magic can only be used by those who have enough magical energy in their bodies to safely use magic. If you don’t have enough, you can’t craft spells, as they require a specific amount of magical energy for you to use them.” Avid then lifted his hands up, mumbling something, which caused two orbs of lightning to form in his hands. “Sorcery doesn’t use the magical energy inside one's body, instead, it uses the magical energy in the area around someone for its craft. This also means that unlike magic, sorcery doesn’t use magic circles and instead focuses on efficiency, simply using the magical energy in the area around to create the intended effect — let’s say, creating a fire in your palm.” Avid squeezed his hands together, making the orbs of lightning disappear with a crackling sound.

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  “After you’ve formed what you wish with magical energy, you can fully manipulate how it functions, even after it’s left your hand. For example, I could form a ball of fire in my hand and then throw it, before manipulating the magical energy in the air around the ball to increase its size. However, as a drawback, manipulating magical energy in the air around you is much harder and can be exhausting as hell.”

  I began to develop more of an understanding about the differences between magic and sorcery. Magic was a craft that used an individual's own magical energy in their body to create spells using magic circles — which made the resulting spells more powerful and reliable, while coming at the cost of the user's own magical energy limit.

  While sorcery uses the energy in the area around someone, which causes it to be more efficient, as you don’t have to chant anything and can simply create whatever you want in that moment — let’s say, lightning. However, it’s harder to manipulate the magical energy in the air around you, so it evens out that playing field.

  “I think I understand…?”

  Avid exhaled, crossing his arms. “It’s better to have it explained to you at an institution where they teach you about magical energy and its properties. I only know the basic differences between the two and some advanced sorcery techniques.”

  Then the mercenary looked up at the air. “But even then, I usually rely on my own physical strength and speed to fight. I only use sorcery when I need it.”

  I stared at the man for a bit before exhaling. That was a lot of information that I only half understood — perhaps when I get the chance, I should see if Ordial has any libraries or something where I can find a book that explains everything in more detail and much better.

  A moment of silence took place between me and Avid, before the mercenary looked at me and sat up straight from his slouching position. “We’ll take turns keeping watch. You can safely rest first — I’ll wake you up in about two hours for your turn.”

  I was admittedly skeptical at first when I heard this. Even though I didn’t think Avid would attack me while I slept, a part of me still didn’t trust him fully. There was this gut feeling that I should keep my guard up around this mercenary, just in case he tried to do something. However, at the same time, he has had so many opportunities to take me out at so many different times and has not done so until now, so I suppose I had no reason to be nervous.

  After a moment or two or hesitating, I exhaled and laid down on the grass, giving Avid one last look, before turning away and closing my eyes. “Arvalor will protect me if he tries anything fishy…. Hopefully.”

  It didn’t take long before I drifted off into sleep, light snoring while the campfire crackled gently next to me. Avid watched Faofa for a bit, before exhaling and reaching down into his small pouch on his belt, taking out a rolled up paper and unrolling it, revealing it to be a map of the entire forest.

  “More and more I’m starting to get worried. We’re approaching the southern edge a little too close now. I do not want to invoke the wrath of the Southern Beast — however, the monsters have run this way. If we want to figure out why, we must get closer.” The mercenary commented in his thoughts, exhaling lightly as he rolled the map back up and closed its band.

  Then, he slid it back into his pouch, before leaning against the tree trunk behind him and looking up at the starry night sky. “We’ll need to be more careful as we keep moving. I don’t want either of us to die.”

  With the gentle crackles of the campfire, the night dragged on. Faofa and Avid would switch every two hours, until the sun eventually began to cast its rays over the land again. Once it was high enough to be able to see around, the duo put out the campfire and kept moving forward, following the tracks they’d come across.

  More and more of said tracks also began to appear.

  No longer were they faded — most began to look completely fresh, like the monsters that had left those tracks, had run through the area just mere minutes, maybe hours, before they had come.

  “We’re getting close. Something tells me that our missing monsters are nearby.” Avid commented, carefully treading forward, before throwing his gaze back at me. “Move carefully. We don’t know what we may encounter.” I nodded lightly in response, before looking behind me at my shadow, seeing Arvalor, before gesturing to him to be on guard.

  The two kept moving forward, carefully treading the land in front of them. The dense forest began to slowly open up, trees dispersing bit by bit, eventually there being large gaps between each tree. “This is rather eerie..”

  I commented in my mind, before shedding a sweat.

  Then, the ground suddenly trembled gently. Avid and I stopped our movement, staring down at the ground with slightly nervous and taken back gazes. Avid looked back at me. “You felt that, right?”

  “Yeah… the ground shook.” I looked around confused. It all seemed peaceful for a bit, before the ground trembled again. Avid looked forward, squeezing his eyes before moving forward a bit. “I think I see something..”

  I lifted my head up at Avid, shedding a sweat, before carefully following after the mercenary. The farther we moved, the more the ground shook. It started to slowly feel violent, as if something was purposely making the ground shake. We slowly approached what looked like a cliff edge, which made me slightly nervous about what may lurk at the bottom, however we didn’t stop.

  We moved closer and closer, until the scene inside beyond the cliff edge became fully visible. And once I saw it, my jaw practically hit the floor and my eyes widened like never before. Even Avid looked shocked, before scoffing. “I see… Now it makes sense why all the monsters vanished.”

  The cliff edge was just one side to a massive crater that went down deep. And in that crater, there was an unbelievable amount of monsters, all rushing around in a circle around what looked like a tall, grotesque tree in the center, with something of a crimson red colour pulsating in its core.

  “...Avid… What am I looking at?” I asked the mercenary, shedding a sweat. Avid remained silent.

  Then, after a bit, he exhaled. “Sometimes, when magical energy gets a little too dense in an area, it can result in mutations of natural material around it. Most of the mutations aren’t too dangerous, however some can be devastating.” He began, leaning a bit more forward, careful to not fall down the cliff.

  “One such possible mutation that can occur, is known as a ‘Monster Heart’ — a core that is highly packed with magical energy and causes an almost magnetic pull on monsters within a certain radius, which attracts them towards the monster heart. And when enough monsters gather around a monster heart, it devolves into an event that is known…”

  Avid paused, his eyes shining gently under his mask. “...as an Infestation.”