(10) New Mission

Chapter 10: New Mission

Accepting the mission, the two approached the guild master.

Upon seeing that the mission site was a forest near Magnolia—an ordinary forest without magical beasts—the guild master nodded in agreement for Silver and Mira to undertake the task.

With the guild master's approval, Silver followed Mira to the edge of Magnolia, where they found the client who had posted the mission.

"You two are the mages who accepted my mission, right? It's a simple task: go to the forest to the east and pick three clumps of horse tail grass."

"This grass looks just like a horse's tail, so it's easy to identify. Although it may appear ordinary, horse tail grass possesses a faint magical essence."

"As a result, there are usually some wild beasts guarding it, making it impossible for ordinary people to obtain. That's why I can only entrust this task to skilled mages," the client said as he ushered Mira and Silver into the living room, where he shared the details of the mission with them.

Having received the mission details, the two set off immediately.

Silver first led Mira to a small hill at the edge of the target forest.

Setting up his easel, he began to paint the lush green landscape before him.

This time, Silver's painting speed was significantly slower.

After all, while man-made structures like houses have clear lines and patterns, the natural landscape of a forest is incredibly complex.

However, to activate his pict magic and locate the specific items in such a vast forest, he needed to draw with great detail.

As a result, it wasn't until the sun began to set that Silver finally put down his brush and activated his painting magic.

Meanwhile, Mira was idly daydreaming beside him when she suddenly noticed that a magic circle was appearing in the image Silver had created.

With a rotating ring encircling a central circle, Mira walked closer to Silver and said, "There's an extra ring on the outside of your magic circle. It looks like you've really advanced to a C-class mage."

"Isn't that just stating the obvious? If the magic circle hadn't changed, I wouldn't have been able to confidently tell Elfman that I'm now a C-class mage," Silver replied, finally paying attention to Mira.

He suddenly realized that she seemed a bit different from her usual self; typically, she would be growing impatient waiting for him, but this time she hadn't made a sound, even as the sun set, leading Silver to wonder if perhaps she had actually left.

However, after a brief moment of silence, Mira erupted, "What did you say? How dare you say I'm stating the obvious! Do you want a beating?"

"Ah, no," Silver quickly defended himself, "that was just a figure of speech; please don't take it seriously."

"How can I not take it seriously? Idiot," Mira shot him a glare before continuing, "Just start looking for the horse tail grass. The sooner we find it, the sooner we finish the mission."

"What?" Silver was taken aback. "You don't mean you want to rush into the forest right now? It's already sunset. Why don't we just rest for the night and head in tomorrow? It's only the forest to the east; it's not like the herbs will run away."

"Stop talking nonsense and listen to me. Start locating the horse tail grass immediately," Mira insisted, displaying her impatient nature with unwavering determination.

"Fine," Silver said, recognizing that further argument might lead to trouble.

He nodded in agreement and began zooming in on the image of the forest.

As he rapidly navigated through the scene as if he were a person running within the forest, a distant glimmer suddenly caught his eye.

When he reached the source of that light, Mira realized it was the horse tail grass glowing.

"So beautiful," Mira exclaimed, gazing at the vibrant, cascading strands of grass that resembled delicate willow branches.

"Really?" Silver didn't see what was so special about it.

He marked the location on the image with magic and then resumed his frantic search.

Nearly half an hour later, he spotted another flash of light indicating more horse tail grass. As he zoomed in, he said to Mira, "It seems the horse tail grass is quite rare in this forest. Just finding three clumps is taking so long."

"Now that's stating the obvious," Mira replied, her expression showing that she expected as much. "If it were easy to find, why would we need to hire a mage for the task?"

"Right, right," Silver replied dismissively, continuing to navigate the image while feeling puzzled and asking Mira, "Mira, are you short on money lately?"

"Hmm? Why do you ask?" Mira glanced at Silver, puzzled by his question.

While Silver focused on the image, he spoke up, "Because usually you wouldn't accept this kind of mission. You always take on tasks related to defeating magical beasts or rare, powerful creatures. It's a bit puzzling that you chose a simple herb-gathering task this time."

"Tch, what's so puzzling about it?" Mira replied, suddenly enlightened. "I've heard there's a very rare bird that lives around the horse tail grass. More importantly, this bird only comes out at night and hides during the day. So… can you use your magic to find that bird?"

"Do you know what this bird looks like? At the very least, we need to know some unique details about it; otherwise, it could be very difficult." Hearing this, Silver finally understood why Mira accepted the mission and why she insisted on acting at night. The horse tail grass wasn't the priority; the important part was that bird. Seeing the hopeful look on Mira's face made him curious about the bird as well.

"I don't know." Mira's face fell in disappointment as she responded, "Looks like it's impossible then."

In fact, Mira often took on missions with either Elfman or Lisanna—sometimes even both. The reason was that her primary goal in accepting missions wasn't the mission itself but to ensure that Elfman and Lisanna had enough strength to protect themselves. That was why she tended to seek out tasks involving rare animals or magical beasts.

Both Elfman and Lisanna used similar magic, but the distinction lay in their approach. Elfman focused on the strength of the creatures he tracked—stronger beings were ideal. Lisanna, on the other hand, was more concerned with aesthetics; only beautiful birds and animals caught her attention.

Having known Mira and her siblings for quite some time, Silver understood these dynamics. As soon as he heard Mira's words, he realized that she wanted to capture this bird without making Lisanna stay up late, planning instead to catch it alive and then let Lisanna receive it during the day.