Blazing Determination

"I just told you…I disinfected your wound and healed the cut…didn't I?" Eris shouted at Taylor in embarrassment.

Her cheeks were red and she refused to acknowledge that she felt aroused while licking his blood.

Taylor's full attention was on Eris' lips and his blood that smudged her full cherry-red lips. He gulped and barely got back to his senses when a thunderous roar echoed through the Everlasting Glacier Forest.

"Say whatever you want but I can see the desire in your eyes!" Taylor declared with an indiscernible smile on his face. His attention averted from Eris and moved to his left hand.

The small wounds healed but that didn't mean Eris' story was entirely true. She might have healed him but her actions were more provocative.

It was as if Eris was waiting for his approval before she would pounce at him to mate day and night.

Taylor found this funny and Eris looked cute, which was why he choose to approach the situation differently.

'She will be even cuter if I continue to tease her like this, right?' He thought, grinning shamelessly as he picked up the corpses of the Frozen-talons Hawks.

He felt a bit weird carrying around dead corpses but that was also a feeling that he had to get used to.

Taylor was pretty sure that the attack of the Shedim group's Lesser Demons was just the start of something bigger. There hadn't been many Demons but that didn't really matter, especially since it felt like they didn't attack to kill Knight Squires but that they had been searching for something.

Otherwise, many more students of the academy would have died. That was something both Eris and Taylor were certain about!

They may continue searching for something in Kial, which meant that more Demon attacks could happen. Getting accustomed to seeing death and destruction was one important aspect to survive a Demon attack, which was something Eris told him after she accepted that he had to go outside the somewhat sheltered city to face reality.

"These corpses should be worth a few Copper thaler…I wonder if I'll have enough for a backpack and two nights in a cheat inn…" Taylor mumbled to himself. He got his body under control after he averted his attention from Eris.

She was truly dangerous, especially since she began to make use of her charms, and his body reacted toward her as it had never before.

"A backpack?" Eris asked, darting at Taylor. She had a bad premonition, which intensified the longer she looked at Taylor's side profile.

"What kind of suicidal plan do you have in mind? Don't think that I allow you do something stupid just because I may accept that it's better for you to get some combat experience…" She declared, pointing at him as if she was scolding a student.

Taylor merely smiled without saying at first. He walked down the plains to return to Kial. There were no walls around the city but that had never been a problem because monsters knew what fate would await them the moment they stepped too close to the city.

Thus, it looked peaceful all around Kial at the first glance, if one were to ignore the large number of Knights, who were patrolling the streets.

"Looks like the Demon attack made things a little bit more complicated. Make sure that you stay well hidden…" Taylor spoke in a serious tone. Eris' body turned semi-transparent in response before she spoke to him in his mind.

"I may not be able to help you a lot in the following days. If, or rather, when the Inquisition appears, I won't be able to take a full physical form, otherwise, even these dogs of the church may find," Eris said equally serious, with underlying frustration.

Taylor didn't think too much about the trouble the Inquisition could cause because he had others things that required his full attention.

Basically, he doubted that he would meet anyone belonging to the Inquisition, knowing that the next few days would be a busy time for him.

After they roamed through the small city for around half an hour, they reached a small shop. It was a Monster shop, where one could purchase and sell all kinds of monster corpses, or parts of monsters.

Usually, the Monster shop purchased all corpses for a rather fair price before they sold the body parts to the artisans and other shops they were affiliated to.

This saved much trouble for adventurers to skin, and dissect the monsters they killed before running around to sell individual parts of their bodies.

Taylor didn't waste much time in the monster shop. The attendant didn't pay much attention to him.

He clicked his tongue when he saw the condition of the two Frozen-talons Hawks and grumble quietly to himself but Taylor could easily hear his words,

"So much wasted materials…"

In the end, Taylor ended up with a total of seven Copper thalers. For ordinary households, this was a lot, but for Awakened this was basically nothing.

As for Taylor, he was more than content with this much money.

He paid one Copper thaler for a linen backpack, bought a well-deserved warm dinner to regain strength with another Copper thaler, and he paid a total of two Copper thalers for one night in a small room inside the cheapest Inn in Kial.

The remaining money was already distributed in his mind, which meant that he ended up dirt-poor once again.

However, Taylor didn't really mind that. He found his current situation quite enjoyable because he was forced to work hard to improve his status and living conditions.

Until now he lived using the expenses he found in his father's bank account. Now that he had been too poor to pay for the tuition fee, Taylor felt deeply embarrassed. This embarrassment turned into blazing motivation that fueled Taylor to the brim.

Despite being extremely motivated, Taylor still required sleep. He was exhausted from all the events that happened in the course of a single day and he had used his newly awakened Ancient Power way too much for a first-timer.

Taylor ended up in the small and ordinary-looking wooden room, which he had lodged for a single night. This was everything he could afford for now but that was actually more than enough because the plans that formed in his mind wouldn't keep him in this small place at the outskirts of Kial.

Awakening his Ancient Power had opened countless paths to Taylor, and he was starting a long journey filled with joy and adventures.

That was something he could clearly feel and it made him happy, genuinely happy!

[Author Note: Please comment how you like/dislike the novel! I accept every type of criticism]