Chapter 21

Val looked at the messy haired male who was still kneeling on the ground.

A chilly breeze made her long black messy hair flutter slightly, eyes widened in slight shock yet her face barely twitched.

She quickly pulled up the status window, preparing to issue a chain quest to the player before her.

[ Traces of the Bear cub ]

[ Type : Hidden ]

[ Difficulty : ??? ]

[ Contents : Val wants you to bring her the cub of the bear you ran into yesterday! However, the bear family seems to have moved dens. ]

[ Clear conditions : Bring Val information on the bear cubs' whereabouts. ]

[ Rewards : favorability with Val, ??? ]

[ Failure : lessened favorability ]

[ Time limit : 2 days ]

[ Note : Val can assist you if you ask politely ]

"If that's the case, then would you be so kind as to help me find their whereabouts?"

Val asked the older man politely, Indrid's head raised, and looked at Val with excited black eyes.

"Of course! I would be honored to!"

Indrid excitedly replied, a little too quickly,

He was viewing the quest panel, which was faintly outlined and visible to Val, accepting without a care for the dangers that may lay ahead.

The player quickly got up, dusted his pants a little before running off in the direction of the bear's old den.

Val merely watched him leave in a hurry, before taking out the demon's remnant from her pouch.

Examining the pebble-sized red and black jewel in her hand, she activates her innate skill, [ True sight ].

Her vision greyed, time seemingly slowed as her time perception heightened.

The jewel in her hand glowed an eerie red color as she brought it closer to her face.

In her past life, when Val created an avatar in VANHA, she was inevitably attracted to mana and its inner workings.

This interest in mana got her experimenting more and more, so she was very familiar with its structure.

And right now, Val was witnessing something new to her, although even with her [ True sight ] she couldn't see its entirety, the way the mana moved was very attractive to her.

Because the black mana was 'manipulating' the seemingly dominant red mana swirling within the gemstone.

Deactivating [ True sight ], a slight headache hits her but Val quickly shakes it off. Storing the gem in her pouch, she turned around and walked in the opposite direction of Indrid.

Quickly reaching the demon's encampment, Val finds a large barren spot within the forest.

Sun rays gleamed on the dry dirt, small weeds sprinkled the area.

A small wooden hut sat in the center, the architecture was foreign, to both VANHA and Earth, clearly from the demons' world.

Entering the fairly small hut made of local trees, Val enters a pretty bland living area.

There was a single-person bed on the side, a large circular table covered with a large paper map. An old-fashioned quill and ink sat on the map.

On the map, there was a general outline of the area, with some black markings, scrawled on it.

To the side, there were small characters, forming lines of notes. Val could easily deduce that it was likely the demons' native language.

'So this must be the intelligent demons' living space...'

It seems that fighting off the demon invasion may not be so easy, seeing that they could also strategize. And paired with their strength and numbers, it's easy to say they were going to be a hard opponent to fight off.

Seeing that there wasn't anything else in the hut, she went out the door and left the area.

Val made her way back to the village, entering through the front gates and going back to her room at the inn.

She dumped all 24 of the gems varying in sizes into the backpack, taking up a good chunk of the space there.

Grabbing a cup of dry noodles, she heads downstairs to the inn which had a few groups of people, in contrast to the fairly empty area in the mornings.

Using the water heater, she tore open the plastic cover of the cup and poured the hot water into the plastic cup*.

( *Don't pour hot water in plastic containers, doing so may cause the plastic to release potentially harmful chemicals. I suggest just taking the contents and eating using a non-plastic container. )

Grabbing one of the wooden chopsticks and making her way to an empty table in the corner of the inn, she began to eat her lunch after an exhausting fight.

Though it didn't seem like it on the surface, Val was mentally drained, she hasn't fought anything with mana as of today, only ever using it for minor things.

Multitasking, especially having to create a multitude of mana spikes, navigating them around in the forest, and making sure they hit their target in a vital spot was very taxing on the mind.

Val quickly finished her meal and disposed of the plastic container, as well as putting the used chopsticks in a designated bin to be washed and used by someone else.

She finds herself walking through the streets, contemplating what to do with the extra gems she gained from the demons.

'Should I just sell them..?'

Selling the demons gems might give her some money, but demons haven't appeared in VANHA for at least 1000 years.

No one would be willing to believe her, and faking them wasn't an option either, as the gem was condensed with mana.

Releasing a silent sigh, Val leaves the premises of the village, into a more secluded area in the forest.

Taking a few deep breaths, Val releases her human transformation and reverts back to her animal self.

Compared to her original palm sized self a month ago, Val has grown from what could be considered a kitten into a sleek feline the size of a medium sized dog.

There was even a bulge growing on the side of her right temple, likely a horn that would sprout out after some time.

Val blinks her amber eyes and releases another pulse of mana, getting feedback on all the surrounding beasts nearby.

'Mostly tier 0 beasts...a few tier 1's and...'

A tier 2 beast.

Val licked her lips, it was about time she earned some money too.