Adventure

Arjuna looked over the corpse of the leader ranked monster that was sprawled out in front of him. It was a giant snake that lay spread out on the ground with its underbelly faced up, there were two arrows in it. A white feathered on that stuck out of where the snake's left eye was and another arrow, with a dark feather piercing where the snakes heart was. Which was a bit underneath its head.

It was another giant snake much like the one they had first encountered and hunted a few days ago.

He had a breakthrough after fighting the leader ranked monsters and had successfully passed level 50. He got a notification about his agility and intelligence increasing and changing his body, but it wasn't as many as Jason had when he had his breakthrough.

Arjuna looked at his inventory to see the snakeskin and meat safely nestled inside. His twin Perseus had told him many times how expensive the hide, meat, and other body parts of the higher-ranked monsters were.

So after he and Alanis had defeated the giant snake, he made sure to properly skin and place it into his inventory.

Arjuna glanced at Alanis the elf that he had been traveling with, both of them with the goal of completing the Nightfall Archer, master Sninkkaakac who was still waiting for them back at the city of Dawn.

Alanis was kneeling down at the corpse of the giant snake poking it with an arrow making sure it was alive. Though Arjuna thought she was kinda weird she was definitely a skilled archer.

Each arrow she shoots was precisely aimed for vitals, one of the best ways to find a good archer is to look at how they pulled their string, only a professional would pull their back with confidence and in a swift motion while beginners would hesitate and fumble with the arrow nocked on.

For the past few days, the duo had traversed the plains. Killing whatever monsters came close, and hunting for the leader ranked monster. In those few days, Arjuna and Alanis had talked, a bit. Some could say that they got closer as they slept under the same campfire, ate the same food, and fought the same enemies.

But there was an underlying tension between them that only Alanis felt. Arjuna was clueless and treated her as a rival. Many times Alanis would sigh as she looked at the figure of Arjuna standing a distance away being a lookout for monsters.

Arjuna was a curious person, as someone who had only been born a few months ago, some people could see him like a toddler. Yet he was leagues away from that, being mentally and physically mature just around the age of his master who was at the ripe age of 15.

But when he was born, Arjuna had soaked in everything in his surroundings, his biggest influence was of course his master. Both Arjuna and Perseus picked up key traits from Jason.

Persues took more after the money-grubbing greedy and more calculative side of Jason which wasn't seen much and Arjuna took more after the part of Jason that was adventurous, free-spirited, and a bit whimsical.

Arjuna's innocence was just because of his various circumstances though it could be said that Jason too was innocent to some things.

Arjuna was currently taking advantage of his 10% EXP boost and with the 2 leader ranked monster he and Alanis had hunted he was now currently level 45. A huge leap in improvement from when he was a measly level 28.

Alanis had also leveled up, Arjuna didn't know what level she was at before, but she was now level 49, which meant at a roadblock from the information his master had.

Thankfully he knew exactly what they needed to do in order to break past the roadblock thanks to Jason's first-hand experience.

He looked at Alanis one more time, she was walking to him with the already skinned meat of the snake and monster parts. She handed it to him without saying a word. Arjuna saw her delicate white hands covered in blood and snake scales.

Arjuna nodded and said thank you with a sincere smile.

Alanis saw Arjuna's smile and turned around for a moment.

Arjuna shrugged at Alanis not too sure why she was always doing that and carefully placed the monster parts into his inventory. He was thinking of giving it to Perseus when he went back into reality so that he could trade it for a better price while getting some practice in selling and negotiating.

Arjuna pointed his head towards the direction of the city.

"about time we head back right?"

Alanis had managed to recover and nodded

"yes, let us return back"

So the two returned back to the makeshift camp they made and started to quickly pack up.

Arjuna placed most of the stuff in his inventory. While he gave some stuff to Alanis to carry since she was the type of person to get angry when she didn't have to help with. Arjuna had learned that the hard way on day 2.

Arjuna checked his armor and gear, his cloak which hid with large amount of hidden weapons, and various potions gave a soft clink as he brushed his hand against them. He was an archer, but he wasn't reliant on that one skill, in fact in the past few days he had trained in using daggers in close combat, throwing knives as a substitute if he somehow lost his bow, he used a bit of close combat and even a bit of roguish sneaking that he got from the information Boops collected of the green barrack members.

Arjuna looked at Alanis expectantly she saw his gaze and sighed. She raised a hand and started to chant as green wisps of wind swirled around her in a small vortex.

I ᓵᔑꖎꖎ ⚍!¡𝙹リ ||𝙹⚍ ∴╎リ↸ ᓭ!¡╎∷╎ℸ ̣ ᓭ ʖᒷᓵ𝙹ᒲᒷ ᔑ ᓭℸ ̣ ∷𝙹リ⊣ ʖ∷ᒷᒷ⨅ᒷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣ !¡⚍ᓭ⍑ᒷᓭ ⚍ᓭ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 𝙹⚍∷ ↸ᒷᓭℸ ̣ ╎リᔑℸ ̣ ╎𝙹リ ᓵ𝙹⍊ᒷ∷ 𝙹⚍∷ ⎓ᒷᒷℸ ̣ , !¡∷𝙹ℸ ̣ ᒷᓵℸ ̣ 𝙹⚍∷ ⍑ᔑリ↸ᓭ, ᔑリ↸ ⊣⚍╎↸ᒷ ⚍ᓭ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 𝙹⚍∷ ↸ᒷᓭℸ ̣ ╎リᔑℸ ̣ ╎𝙹リ ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑ ᔑꖎꖎ ᓭ!¡ᒷᒷ↸.

⍑ᔑᓭℸ ̣ ᒷ!

As she finished the green wisps of wind swirled around and extended to Arjuna and her covering both of their feet and upper bodies giving off a soft transparent green glow.

Arjuna smilled and extended his hand to the direction of the city

"After you"

A slight blush covered Alanis's face but she shook it off, there was no way she would get affected by something like that. She returned back a smile and dashed forward towards the city.

Arjuna rolled his shoulders back, it was a habit of his whenever he was about to go do some activity. He usually only did it when he was excited though.

Arjuna dug his feet into the ground and leaped off running. Running after the figure that was already a distance away from him.

A few minutes later 2 streaks of green light could be seen running through the long plains of the City of Dawn, through the golden plains of grain. Sometimes carefully treading through occasional fields of flowers, one of the streaks got really angry when the other streak accidentally stepped on a flower and gave him a brief scolding before turning away to resist the sight of seeing an apologetic Arjuna.

The two streaks traveled far, through little streams that cut through the fast fields and under the convincing of the other streak to occasionally wander up a stray hill enjoying the sights that were revealed to them at the peak.

Sometimes black-feathered arrows would fly out one of the streaks. Taking out any unlucky monster that thought they could get in the way of the traveler's path.

Sometimes they stopped, to take a break, they weren't in a hurry. They had only spent 4 days out of the week time limit that was given to them.

Sometimes the Black-haired traveler would wander off when they took a break chasing after something that caught his eye, only to be dragged back by an annoyed elf. Sometimes Arjuna would chase after literal butterflies and other times he would run away to help a merchant with a broken wheel that he had barely spotted with his eagle eyes skill.

Sometimes Arjuna would come back with literally nothing, other times he could come back with a small gift of gratitude for helping out a random stranger, but each and every time he could be given a light scold by Alanis as he returned with a new small adventure under his belt.

Alanis shook her head as he returned each time, secretly happy when he returned back with a brand new story. Whether it be from helping out a wandering trader from some monsters to almost tumbling down a hill.

The nights spent next to the campfires were full of laughter, and sometimes an injured traveler that Arjuna had helped would join or maybe even a merchant that Boops recorded every move of for Perseus who was diligently working on becoming an able one.

Eventually, the two's small journey had to end as they both stared at the towering walls of the City of Dawn and its golden plains of grain that waved softly under the breeze.

Arjuna turned back to Alanis. His raven black hair shone under the bright sun. His face morphed into a beaming smile. A bit of dirt was on his shoulder after having chased after the child of a merchant that had run off a few hours ago.

Arjuna asked brightly

"wanna do this again sometime?"

Alanis stepped back and thought to herself quietly. This was an adventure. Something she had always longed for. This was a story, just like how her mother had told her.

"make your own story" they kept on saying. Alanis gripped her fists, and then slowly released it. She looked back up at Arjuna who was silently waiting for her response, though part of his attention had been caught with thinking about what was for dinner.

She returned with a beaming smile of her own

"of course"