Chapter 1

In the small village of Millou, a small woman walked with her child at her side. Her feet were bare, but she hardly minded it when walking on the village's dirt roads. Her shirt and long gown were slightly dirty, but they could still be worn for a few more days. Beside her, her son wore a clean shirt and pants, and he also walked barefoot.

In her hands, Lindette carried a basket of plants from the forest on the edge of Millou. She and Ventex spent the afternoon gathering various herbs, roots, and berries. Once the hottest part of the day passed, they returned to the village and sold their collection to the village's general store.

Their hull for the day brought them sixteen commons. With the money, Lindette bought food for the evening and next morning, and she saved two of the coins in her pocket.

While walking home, Ventex carried a small bag of grains, and his mother carried several small vegetables in the basket she had used for gathering plants. Part way home, Lindette reached into her pocket and produced a small berry, which she then gave to Ventex. He took the berry and ate it, but his face didn't show any of the childish delight his mother had hoped to see.

The reincarnation of Venarius had long since decided to keep his opinions and emotions to himself. He quickly learned that he had reawakened in a new era, and he promptly decided to bottle himself into the tiniest package possible. He rarely spoke, and his circle of influence inside Millou didn't exceed his family members.

Many things had changed since the last time Ventex had breathed air. The people of his town spoke a new language, the guards carried swords, and magic had become nonexistent. In his entire time since his reincarnation, Ventex hadn't seen a single magician, mage, or magus.

The world Ventex lived was new and strange, and he decided it would be best to quietly follow Lindette until he discovered what happened to the forces that had previous imprisoned his soul. As far as he knew, the mages of the alliance could be out there searching for him, looking to put his soul back into a locked container.

When Lindette and Ventex returned home, they placed their supplies in the kitchen, and they immediately went back out with a bucket for water. The village had a well in its center, and Lindette needed to get more water before every meal. Ventex was too weak to hold a bucket filled with water, so he walked empty handed.

"Mrs. Lindette!" A villager called out to Lindette, and she and Ventex stopped their walking and faced the approaching man. "I need your help. My daughter has been sick for over a week, and I need medicinal herbs that can't be bought from Mr. Dyon. Please, can you find me three locks of shayron?"

"Mr. Hemel, I sell everything I find to the general store. I can't even remember that last time I found shayron growing in the forest," Lindette said to the man.

"Then, you would know to look wherever you haven't already searched! This is my daughter I'm talking about; I can't wait until a merchant caravan comes around, who might even not have it. Please, I can pay you one rare for three locks, or three standards for each lock you find," Hemel pleaded with Lindette, and he offered a mighty price.

Lindette paused when she heard how much Hemel was willing to pay. A standard equalled ten commons, and a rare equalled one hundred commons. If she could find three locks of shayron in one day, she would earn as much as she typically earned in week. Dyon bought shayron for only one standard per lock, but Hemel's urgent demand made their value skyrocket.

Lindette looked down at Ventex, and she weighed the choice in her mind. Venturing further into the forest came with added danger, but she had worked in the forest for several years. Nobody in Millou had more experience in the deep forest than she did. With an extra hundred commons, Lindette could afford a pair of shoes for Ventex, or a pound of gudura meat.

"Fine, I'll try to find you some shayron, tomorrow," Lindette submitted to her capitalist desired and replied. She would need her husband to work as their guard, but then she and Ventex would be able to explore much deeper into the forest.

"Thank you, Ms. Lindette. You can bring them to my home at any time, and my wife will be there to receive them," Hemel said and bowed once, then walked away and continued what he was doing before he saw Lindette and Ventex.

Lindette put her hand on Ventex's back and said, "Let's go," and they also continued their task.

Ventex had a limited knowledge of the villagers of Millou, but he efficiently memorized everything he did know. Hemel owned a small carpentry shop inside the village, and he made most of his money by selling to the caravans that occasionally passed through Millou. Ventex didn't know anything about Hemel's wife and daughter, but he also didn't have any negative impression of them.

Lindette and Ventex eventually returned home with their bucket of water, and Lindette began cooking while they waited for Randric to return home. In the early morning, Randric left to work the fields, and he came back once the sun began to set. When he opened the door to his home, he called out, "I'm home," not expecting a response. He walked into the kitchen, check on the dinner, and then walked to the sitting room to find his chair.

"Anything interesting happen, today?" Randric asked, still not expecting much of a response. He faced Ventex, and he would generally accept silence to mean 'no'.

Lindette responded to him, "Hemel found me while I went to fetch water, and he offered three standards for each lock of shayron I can give him, or a rare for three. I want you to come with me, though, because I'll have to go pretty deep into the forest to find some."

"That's fine. I'll tell Klarce that I need tomorrow off," Randric said and settled into his chair. His muscles were all tired from a day of working on a farm, and he paid Ventex a few glances without actually paying attention to what he was doing.

Ventex had a few small stones spread out on the floor, and he casually picked them up a threw them back down every so often. He was practicing a simple form of divination, but his results were meager without using any mana. He wouldn't use magic, out of fear that an alliance authority would be able to track him down, and thus his results were mostly useless.

The next morning, Randric stood outside the house and swung his large sword in wide arcs. He held it with two hands, and its weight almost reached ten pounds. It had a blade length of five feet, a handle length of one and a half feet. When he finished, he mounted the sword on his shoulder, and he waited for Lindette and Ventex to meet him.

Lindette and Ventex wore their normal outfits, and Randric wore clothes similar to Ventex's. Both of them had button shirts, and their pants were held up a leather belt. With Randric in the lead and Ventex behind him, Ventex looked like a miniature version of the former. Lindette subtly hoped she had a daughter, next.

Ventex hurried along to keep up with Randric while thinking, 'What a barbaric weapon.' At first, Ventex had admired the sword, but its inadequacies were too apparent for him to overlook. Not only did it require two hands, making a shield impossible to hold, but it couldn't be thrown. A man with a greatsword would have no chance winning against a magician.

Once inside the forest, Lindette took the lead with Ventex. She knew several paths to walk deeper into the forest, and they avoided most branches and vines that hung in their way. Randric cut down a few plants that he was too tall to dodge, since he was over a foot taller than Lindette. His greatsword had been meticulously sharpened the previous night, and it effortlessly sliced through fibrous plant tissue.

The Millou forest had many plants and went on for more than fifty miles, and Lindette usually restricted her search area to the five miles of forest closest to the village. She heard rumors about strange creatures living in the deeper sections of the forest, so he always maintained a distance of a few miles from where the creatures were rumored to appear. In the last five years, she had never seen a dangerous animal, and she considered herself lucky for it.

Ventex had listened to Lindette's stories of dangerous beasts patrolling the insides of the forest, and his curiosity made him hope that something would happen during their excursion into the deeper sections. Lindette had told him the stories to keep him from running off on his own, but Ventex wanted to compare the creatures to the monsters he knew from his previous life.

After about two hours of walking, they reached about five miles inside the forest, which was where Lindette would usually draw the line. However, because she had Randric with her, she continued forward. From there onward, she walked slowly, held Ventex closer, and carefully observed her surroundings. The danger didn't immediately spike, but a mental gap had been bridged. As long as there was a doubt about the safety of the forest, her instincts were on alert.

An hour later, at seven miles past the entrance of the forest, Lindette crouched down and picked a thick stalk of yellow grass from the ground. "This is it," she muttered, rolling the grass in her hand, and then she held the grass out and said to Ventex, "This is shayron. There might be some nearby, so go with your father and try to find some."

Lindette eyed Randric, and he nodded and followed Ventex. Lindette searched one area, while Ventex searched another area, and Randric stood guard with his giant sword held vertically in front of him.

Ventex's small hands were difficult to use for complex tasks. He quickly grew frustrated when his fingers weren't long enough to completely grasp objects. His arms were short, but his body was also closer to the ground, so those equalled out. Having tiny, chubby fingers was a disadvantage in all tasks. He had a hard time efficiently ripping plants out of the ground, and he sometimes felt frustrated enough to use a simple spell to uproot all the plants around him.

"... Randric… Randric," Lindette gently called out to her husband, and he and Ventex looked to see what was happening.

Randric and Ventex couldn't see it with their eyes, but Ventex could see an approaching figure through another means. Using mana sense, which Ventex had learned to utilize when he stood at the apex of magical power, he saw the mana undulations of a rank 2 magician coming from a large creature about two hundred feet away. A magician of any rank would have an easy time killing a rank 2 magical beast, but Ventex wasn't sure how Randric would fare against it. His interest was peaked.

Randric stealthily moved toward Lindette, and Ventex followed him. Once at her side, Randric whispered, "What is it?" and looked through the trees.

"There's something over there, a bit aways," Lindette replied and pointed to where she had seen the creature. Randric squinted, and he faintly saw the large figure moving between distant trees.

"That? That's just a pup. I'll kill it right now," Randric said, resting his sword on his shoulder, and he started to slowly walk toward the creature. His arms were rearing for a fight, and he was ready to impress his wife and son. Although he never said anything about it, Randric had also noticed the lack of emotions coming from Ventex. He wanted to show his son how much of a man he was.

Lindette said nothing, and she quietly crouched next to Ventex and watched Randric move closer to the creature. Ventex estimated Randric to have the strength of two standard spearmen, but reach was more important than raw strength when it came to fighting magical beasts. Ventex couldn't even classify the creature as a monster due to its low rank, but he was still interested to see how Randric would approach it.

Randric held the handle of his sword with both hands, and his grip became tighter as he approached the creature. His arm muscles tensed up, ready to explode at any time. He readied himself to begin fighting at any moment, and he reached within thirty feet of the creature before it noticed him.

The creature opened its mouth, and Ventex sensed mana accumulating near its mouth. Wisps of magical energy appeared in the air around the creature's mouth, and it activated a spell when it screeched.

Ventex analyzed the spell formation before it launched, and he determined it to be a communication spell. Once it activated, he intercepted the message and translated it to his own language.

'Bad human. Fight. Leave.'

The creature was scared of Randric, and it used its spell to signal its kin to escape. The spell amplified the volume of the creature's screech, and it could reach all the creatures of the same species within a five mile radius. Ventex momentarily felt bad for the creature, seeing its plight, but he then saw the creature slam a palm toward Randric, which he dodged.

The creature had a large, furry body, similar to a bear. Its head, though, had a much larger jaw and two fangs outside its mouth. A single bite could crush bones, and one slash from its hand could cause limbs to sever.

Randric thrust his sword out and maintained a short distance from the creature. He memorized the locations of the trees behind him, and he picked up his feet high when he walked. His sword weighed less than ten pounds, but he quickly began to sweat from waving it around in front of the creature.

The creature raised its body and tested Randric with several swipes of its hands. The creature had a strong will, and it would either kill Randric or occupy him for a long time. The creature needed to give its kin time to escape, and that meant preventing Randric from advancing or retreating for reinforcements.

A magical beast did not rely on luck. If it could not defeat Randric, it would not try to haphazardly attack. Only a human would attempt to win a fight where all logic pointed to their loss.

Randric slashed with his sword, missed, and barely managed to raise the hilt into the path of the creature's return strike. He flew ten feet backward, clenching his sword in his hands, and quickly jumped to his feet. The sword had taken the brunt of the damage, and he returned it to its raised position without wasting a second.

The creature ran forward and slashed at Randric's left side, and Randric brought his blade to intercept the creature's hand. The creature pulled its left hand, then slashed upward with its left hand. It caught Randric's hands and sword, and the sword was flung out of his hands.

'As expected, a swordsman can't even defeat a rank 2 magical beast,' Ventex shook his head and thought, and he prepared to step in. A rank 4 spell could easily kill the creature, but those spells could also be tracked by a magician with mana sense. In order to avoid being tracked, Ventex needed to stick to rank 1 spells, where the creature's mana undulations would overshadow the undulations from his spell.

Ventex stepped forward, and Lindette instantly grabbed onto him. She scolded him, "No, stay here," and he tried to push her away, but his hands were too weak. Meanwhile, the creature loomed over Randric, and Randric dodged between trees while avoiding the creature's blows.

Ventex stared at Lindette for a few seconds, then turned back to Randric and the creature. Hitting a moving target would be more difficult at a large distance, and he couldn't afford to accidentally hit Randric. Even as a rank 1 spell, Ventex's spell would cause serious damage to whatever it hit. A rank 4 or above spell wouldn't need to be aimed so precisely, but rank 3 or below spell needed to be shot exactly where they were meant to hit.

A rank 13 spell would be needed to clear the signs of a lower rank spell, but rank 13 exceeded Ventex's capabilities. He needed to rebuild his arcane core ever since his reincarnation, and he had only reached rank 9, and that put him about three years away from reaching rank 13. With his current strength, Ventex could only either risk being discovered by the alliance or let Randric fend for himself.

Ventex kinda liked Randric, though, so he chose the former. He raised his right arm, formulated a wispy, green and brown rank 9 spell in his open palm, and lobbed the spell toward where Randric and the creature stood.

Ventex's spell caught the attention of Lindette, who gasped. She had never seen magic from a human, and her mind almost failed to comprehend what she was seeing. Randric and the creature didn't notice the spell until it landed at their feet, and the creature's death came shortly afterward.

Thick roots sprouted from the ground around where Ventex's spell landed, and they quickly covered the creature's body. The roots were stronger than ordinary roots, and the creature's massive strength was insufficient to break them. Dozens of wooden tendrils penetrated the creature's flesh, ripping it apart. Five seconds after Ventex's spell had hit the ground, the creature's corpse dripped with blood, flowing down the roots and making a small puddle at their base.