Spoiler(corrected)

Walking through the streets of the city, Mark's irritation was evident by how his eyebrows were furrowed. He wanted to enter the dungeon, but he knew for sure that Loki would let the guild know not to let him in.

'I should just train in secret.'

Massaging his chin, he found the idea feasible, but it seemed that the Guide had thoughts opposite to his own.

[I think the host should use the opportunity to rest.]

'You are joking I hope. I remind you that I have less than five years to find all the fragments, and a good portion of them are in areas of the dungeon that no one has explored yet.'

Irritation increased from the words of the Guide who knew how important it was for Mark to save Selene.

[But it will be useless if your efficiency decreases day by day. It is more advisable to rest for one day to give your best the next.]

Hearing the logic in the Guide's words, Mark's irritation diminished. His vision was so blurred by the ultimate goal that he could not see the current problems that were slowly overwhelming him.

'Haaaa, you win this time.'

Raising his hands in surrender, his gaze fell on the bib of the armor that was completely folded, causing him to shake his head.

'Where did I want to go with the armor in this state.'

Although he had been hit a few times, Goliath's damage was heavy and it was more than normal for his armor to be damaged.

Aware of this, he headed toward the blacksmith district. The closer he got the greater were the sounds of hammers slamming something, making the area a succession of hammering noises, and because of the various flues there, from where both the heat and the fumes generated by the furnaces came out, made the area much hotter than the others.

Finding the workshop he was interested in, he smoothly entered and saw the girl he was looking for, arranging some of the goods.

"You look good Tsubaki."

"Oh, Mark... looks like you've been through a lot."

As soon as she greeted him Tsubaki's gaze settled on the deformed armor.

"Give me that, let's see what you've done."

Seeing Tsubaki reach out her hand, Mark handed her the various pieces of armor along with the sword.

With Mark having handed her everything, Tsubaki began carefully inspecting the armor, gently running her fingers over each point, before lifting her face to Mark's and looking at him strangely.

"Can you tell what you fought? All the damage comes from single blows, and there are no level 2 or 3 monsters that can do that much with a single blow, so what's left is a level 4 monster."

"That's right, my Familia organized a raid against Goliath and I was among them." -It was almost unbelievable how fluently he told such a lie.

"Ehh, so you must have made a lot of money."

"Let's say so-and-so." -Said Mark, scratching his cheek.

In reality, he had gained practically nothing, the boss had released no drops, and a broken magic stone loses most if not all of its value.

"I see, as for the repairs you can come tomorrow morning and don't worry about the price. The damage is mainly because the armor is bent so I only need a few hammer blows to put it back. On the other hand, the sword has no problems thanks to the alloy I made it from, I just need to sharpen and wipe it."

"Then I will entrust them to your secure hands."

Waving goodbye to Tsubaki, he walked out of the store, but still feeling the weight of the bag containing the coins on his side, he looked up at the sky in contemplation.

'How do I spend this money?'

Unlike his world, where there were different ways to spend time, here there were not many interesting ones.

'The theater doesn't interest me much, the casino seems like a big no-no, the red light district... I don't even know why I thought of that as a possibility, the food?'

Stopping his monologue there, he didn't find it a bad idea. He could use the opportunity to tour the city and try the various local dishes.

'I wonder if there is still that stall run by that mister.'

He remembered how the first few days he had found a stall where a mister sold meat skewers. The taste was truly unforgettable; he had intended to go there in the past, but between one thing and another he had never had time to go.

'If I remember correctly it was located in a slightly desolate area.'

Using his memories, he began to head toward the place where he had bought them.

---Pov Zoe---.

All my concentration was on the table in front of me. My hands were moving quickly, but even so, I was paying attention to the care of each ingredient and how I placed them in the bottle.

From grinding magic stones to managing the processing of different plants and materials, nothing escaped my sight. When I finished processing the materials, I gently placed them in the flask, which I placed over the fire.

My eyes did not move at all from the flask; to be distracted would mean diminishing the quality of the potion if not ruining it completely.

'Blob.'

"!"

When I saw the first air bubble forming, I hurriedly lifted the flask whose content was purple and plunged it into the cold water beside me.

My forehead began to sweat as I saw that there was no change, but soon afterward the liquid began to clear up, gradually turning blue, signaling that the potion had succeeded.

Wiping my forehead, I handed the potion with satisfaction to the elderly man with a paper in his hand, who had watched me from start to finish as I worked. The man carefully checked the liquid in the flask and after he tasted it, he smiled at me.

"It's an excellent grade E healing potion Miss Zoe, combined with the fact that your written test had no errors, you have deserved this."

Turning around, he took out a card, which he handed to me, where it was written that my title had now risen to alchemist grade E master.

"Thank you very much!" -I bowed full of joy, looking forward to letting others know.

"No need to thank me, it's all thanks to you."

Patting me on the back, the examiner, who was also a responsible in the alchemist guild, left, marking the end of my examination.

Leaving the alchemists' guild, I stretched my body stiffened from having to sit all the time, but even so, I felt happy. I was getting closer and closer to my goal of improving my skills as an alchemist and creating a potion that could restore my memories.

"Hmmm I'd better hurry up and go to Bell, we have to go into the dungeon with the others today."

Having made up my mind, I walked through the various streets of the city. Sometimes it felt strange to walk in such crowded places; I had lived for a long time in the tranquility of the village, but over time I had grown accustomed to it and found it inspiring how the various people lived their lives.

As I continued walking, I approached the most deserted area of Orario, where the church where I was staying was located. It was located near Deadlus Street, so there were a lot of unkempt buildings and rubble, but once you got used to it, it was not a bad place to live, it was very quiet compared to the city center or at least it has been until now.

'Booom!

The sound of an explosion made me suddenly look up and seeing the direction in which the dark smoke was rising, my heart skipped a beat because that was where the church was built.

I quickly tore off the bracelet that turned into the spear that Al gave me, and when I was about to run in the direction of the explosion, more than ten figures appeared on the ruined buildings. They all wore similar uniforms, black with some orange details and a crest that had an arch over the sun.

'Apollo Familia.'

Hestia and Bell had told me about the events of the night before, how Apollo wanted to absorb both Bell and me into his Familia through a War Game. Of course, Hestia refused, not being forced to accept, but it was too naive of us to believe that they would leave us alone.

"You'd better surrender, Apollo doesn't want their future children harmed."

{It would be a shame for such a pretty face to be scratched}.

Looking at the blue-haired boy scrutinizing me from my feet to the top of my head and what he was thinking, I felt complete disgust at someone else for the first time, but even so, I had to think carefully.

There were more than 10 adventurers many of whom were definitely level 2. Surrendering was not an option, there was a risk of restricting Bell's movements, going to Ryuu could put her identity at risk, the only option was the guild, the problem was that it was distant.

"So have you made up your mind?!"

Seeing that I was not responding, the one in command became irritated and had the archers prepare to shoot arrows and the mages begin preparing spells.

"Sandstorm!"

A cloud of sand rose from the ground, surrounding them and completely blocking their view. Now that they were unable to hit me, I took the opportunity to run as fast as I could toward the guild.

"Look for her immediately!"

I started running down an alleyway to try to lose them, but when I looked up, I saw only several arrows falling straight in my direction.

"Airwave."

I fired a mass of air from my spear, which changed the direction of the arrows, but realized that to continue in that area, there would be no point. Unfortunately, as soon as I came out of the alley, I was greeted by several fireballs heading quickly toward me.

"Wall of earth!"

The wall barely had time to form before it exploded from the spells cast and the shockwave sent me a few meters back.

'cough, cough.'

Coughing from the impact, I started running again, taking advantage of the fact that the smoke was hiding me, but it was of little use as more people with drawn swords appeared in front of me.

"Wind slash."

Several wind blades whizzed at high speed toward the approaching adventurers, creating deep gashes on them, which made them scream in pain and allowed me to outrun them.

I kept running down the alley as fast as I could as I heard their screams, realizing they were still close.

As I continued down the alley, I ended up at a dead end. Turning back was not an option; I could only climb above the building, even if it meant exposing my position.

"THERE SHE IS!"

As soon as I climbed above the roof, I was immediately noticed by someone, which caused the archers to aim at me.

"Airwave."

'AGGH!

Although I had managed to fend off the incoming arrows, an arrow came from an area I had not seen, which ended up creating a cut on my arm.

"What are you waiting for, she's a sorceress, attack her closely!"

With the command from the blue-haired boy, they began to approach me which I had to avoid at all costs. It was true that I had trained with the spear, but close combat was not my forte.

"Sunlight."

A bright light blinded everyone who had approached, but it did not end there.

"Wind slash."

Wind blades were fired with precision, knocking out other adventurers.

'HUM!

Due to the continuous use of magic, I did not notice that an arrow was fired and went into my shoulder, making me wince in pain and preventing me from reacting to the next attack.

"Stop resisting!"

The leader, quickly approached me, tripping me with a punch in the stomach that almost knocked me off the roof and completely took my breath away.

'COUGH!'

'heavy breathing.'

Coughing violently, I finally managed to catch my breath, but my whole body ached. Looking hard at their satisfied faces, I refused to lose. I used the spear as a support to lift myself, both my stomach and the shoulder hit by the arrow made me pale, but even so, I pointed my finger at the one who had just hit me.

"So what, you don't have the balls to attack me alone!"

One of Al's teachings (get your opponent to rage so that he loses rationality) seemed to work, by the way, his face darkened, but I guess I didn't take into account how angry he got.

"Fire the magics." -He said coldly.

Dozens of fireballs were thrown at me and I managed to defend myself with a wall of earth, but as soon as the protection disappeared, the leader reappeared in front of me, hitting the same place as before, sending me flying off the roof.

The pain denied me the concentration needed to cast magic, so I gritted my teeth to endure the fall I was about to take, but strangely enough, even though I hit something hard, it didn't hurt.

'tap, tap.'

I shifted my gaze to the rooftop where Apollo Familia's footsteps could be heard, and the moment they looked down, their gaze became serious, but I still didn't understand the reason.

"Now you little shits, who am I to blame for dropping my skewers?"

Hearing the rough but familiar voice, I looked up meeting icy gray eyes, and only then realized what position I was in.

...I was standing over Mark's arms as I was being held like a princess.

title: They meet again.