3 Chapter 3: Adventure Rising

Alice woke up early in the morning before the sun had even begun to rise and looked around by turning her head a bit. She turned on her side as she attempted to become a bit more comfortable.

'As I thought... Morning wood isn't male-exclusive...' She thought to herself. 'Question is, how do I deal with this? The first option is to ignore it like I would a boner, the next is to masturbate, and the third is to just go back to sleep.' She thought.

Alice shuffled a bit more, then fell asleep again. The next thing Alice knew, her covers were being pulled as she was being told to wake up.

"Come on, I've been trying to wake you up for five minutes." Braydon said.

"No~. Let me sleep until the afternoon, you demon!" Alice said as she maneuvered herself to sink a bit more into the sheets.

"I guess I'll go do a quest without you and boost ahead of you." Braydon said.

"I'm up." Alice said as she quickly sat up.

"Alright, let's go." Braydon said. Alice stood up groggily as she stretched a bit. After stretching, her eyes closed slightly as she became slightly dazed from her drowsiness. She looked at Braydon.

"Carry me." She said as she lifted her arms.

"No, you need to wake up a bit more." Braydon said. After a few minutes, Alice stood up and left the inn with Braydon, and headed for the guild.

"Welcome back, we just got some new quests today, so do your best~." The clerk said with her usual posture. Braydon nodded with a slight blush. They went to the quest board and selected a simple subjugation request.

The request is to kill giant red salamanders that live near the lake, they get four copper per salamander. After selecting their quest they went to the lake. The lake is large and surrounded by grass. There are a few visible salamanders scattered around.

"Here." Alice said as she put her hand out facing Braydon, giving him some kind of buff. "Let's split up, we can hunt more efficiently that way." She said as she walked off.

After a couple of hours, they managed to get a collective of twenty kills with thirteen going to Alice and seven to Braydon. "Do you want to stay here a bit longer?" Alice asked. Braydon sighed.

"No, let's go back and take another quest. Plus, you may not get hungry, but I do." Braydon said. Alice nodded

"Alright." She said as they started to head back to the guild.

"Hiya~, were you two successful?" The clerk asked. Braydon nodded.

"A total of twenty... I also found that it is disadvantagous being a melee combatant against weak creatures..." Braydon said as he looked down with disappointment.

"Oh? Why do you say that?" She asked.

"She got more again..." He said with a depressed tone.

"I see, well, hand me your cards and the materials and we'll mark the quest as complete." She said. Alice walked up to the desk and placed twenty scales on it. After doing that, Braydon and Alice both presented their cards and the quest.

"Aaaaaand, done. Eighty copper for you guys. It goes to Braydon, right?" The clerk asked. Alice and Braydon nodded.

"I am irresponsible with money." Alice said.

"Don't let people tell you that." The clerk said.

"They didn't have to. I just pay attention to how much I spend and what it was spent on and came to the conclusion that I am not frugal." Alice said with a bland tone.

"It sounds more like you just don't place much value on money..." The clerk said awkwardly as she handed braydon a pouch of coins.

"That to. I just don't get it, currency is just a fabrication of society, created to replace the barter system because it was too easy to swindle people as the value that others place are various objects is different. The only reason the currency system works better is because society itself places a value that people are practically forced to match subconsciously." Alice said lightly.

"I... I see..." The clerk said with a slightly confused expression.

"Sorry about that, she has a tendency to think a bit too deeply about things that are simple." Braydon said.

"I guess. But it didn't require that much thought to come to that conclusion." Alice chimed in. Braydon sighed.

"That would require a lot more thought for most people, I've told you this." Braydon said.

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that concepts I consider simplistic can actually wind up being a bit more complex than I think." Alice said then paused for a moment. "Well, nevertheless, you said you were hungry, let's go eat." Alice said.

"Yeah." Braydon said lightly as they began to exit the guild. Braydon and Alice went and found a place to eat and got some food. As to not look weird, Alice also got something to eat and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Once finished, they went back to the guild and took another horned rabbit subjugation request. "Hiroto." Alice said drowsily.

"It's Braydon now." Braydon responded.

"Oh yeah." Alice said. "Anyway, I'm tired." Alice said.

"You're always tired." Braydon said.

"Yeah, so I should always sleep." Alice said.

"No, that is not what it means. Plus, we have a job to do, so let's get to it." Braydon said. Alice grumbled slightly, then yawned as she stretched.

"Fine..." She said as she began to focus. 'There doesn't seem to be any kind of search magic in my catalogue, maybe I should try it?" Alice thought as she cycled through the information she was given upon entering this world.

Alice let out a slow breath as she spread mana throughout the field, mapping the location mentally. After a few moments, she focused on identifying mana signatures.

"Ce?" Braydon asked, though Alice only partially noticed. "Alice!?" He asked again more aggressively as Alice's focus broke and all of the mana that was spread dissipated.

"What?" She asked with a foul tone.

"I was just checking to make sure you were alright, it looked like you spaced out." Braydon said as he took a step back.

"I was spreading a thin layer of mana throughout the field." Alice said with an annoyed tone.

"Ah, sorry..." Braydon said as he scratched his head a bit. "I'll go search a bit while you do that, I guess..." He said as he backed away a bit. Once Braydon had walked away, Alice sat down and crossed her legs as she began to focus again, bringing her back to the point she was before.

'Focus on the living things...' She thought as she began to sense the animals around her. She noted that she could sense their general size, though she could not seem to tell what their shape is.

After resting her control where it was for a few moments, she expanded the layer of mana a bit further. After a bit, she could sense around four hundred thirty-nine creatures with the majority being the rough size of the horned rabbits.

'This seems to take quite a lot of mana, which would explain why there aren't any records of this type of magic.' She thought as she eased out of her focus and released her mana layer.

"Hey! Braydon, there's a group of them over there!" Alice yelled as she pointed over to a bush. Braydon looked over at the bush and slowly approached it, kind of uncertain of whether or not there would actually be anything there.

Once he reached the bush, he peered around and noticed seven horned rabbits. With the speed of a hare and the diligence of a turtle, Braydon managed to kill six of them.

After he finished, Braydon collected their horns and went to Alice. "How did you know that?" He asked.

"Mana detection." She said simply.

"Er, what is that?" He asked.

"Well, you basically just send a thin layer of magic across an area and try to detect any living creatures. It's pretty simple." Alice said with a light smile. "It may take a few minutes or longer to get the hang of though, it also takes a pretty good amount of mana, so be careful not to over extend yourself." She added.

"Right... So a lot of practice..." Braydon mumbled. "Well, let's continue." He said as he walked away. For the next few hours, they continued hunting and every now and then, Alice would direct Braydon to a group of horned rabbits.

At the end of the day, they had collected ninety-five. They went to the guild and submitted their quest and resources and received one hundred ninety copper. (one silver ninety copper.)

Of the ninety-five, thirty-two were Braydon's meaning Alice got sixty-three. After gathering their money, they went back to the inn and went to bed.