The Twin Horns

Artha, Alice, and Reynolds walked along the dirt path towards an inn. Once they reached there, they saw the twin horns standing outside the stables. After Alice and Reynolds greeted their former teammates, they turned towards Artha.

"Fellas, I want you to meet my daughter, Artha!" Reynolds exclaimed, patting Artha's shoulder.

Bowing slightly, Artha introduced herself. "Hello! My parents told me many great things about the twin horns. Thank you for traveling with us to Xyrus."

"Hahaha. What's this? Such good manners. Are you sure she's your daughter, Reynolds?" A red haired scarred man teased.

Before she could say anything else, Artha could feel someone lift her up.

"Awww. Isn't she just too precious?" Artha struggled to get away from this woman's breasts.

Just as she was about to give up, a powerful pair of hands gently grabbed her from her waist and pulled her away from the female assassin.

"Angela, you're hurting her." A deep voice grunted.

Artha looked at her savior with wide eyes. The giant, who looked like a dog in human form, lowered her to the ground and gently tidied her clothes. Artha looked up at him with twinkling eyes.

Artha looked around before locking onto a woman that looked younger than everyone else. The two of them stared at each other blankly for a few minutes, neither of them blinking. At last, the staring competition came to an end as the woman nodded and looked away.

"Don't worry about Jasmine." A woman with extremely sharp features stated, patting Artha's head and giving her a charming smile. "She might look angry, but she'll get used to you soon."

Artha nodded and augmented herself with mana before hopping into the carriage. As of late, she has become skilled in using mana. If it weren't for her small body, she might be stronger than Reynolds already.

It flabbergasted Reynolds when he trained her. Originally, he wanted to avoid teaching her hand to hand combat himself, but without a tutor anywhere close to Ashber, he ended up having to teach her. Fortunately, Alice was an A-class emitter that could even heal an entire part with a single spell, so a minor scratch wasn't much.

She did, however, scold Reynolds whenever he hurt Artha. While she might not be strong or fast, she's far scarier than any mana beast Reynolds every fought, and as a B-class adventurer, he can fight an AA-class mana beast at most when he's with the twin horns.

After their party finished loading all their necessities, they strapped in a mana beast to each of the two carriages. Artha expected them to use horses to move the carriage, but apparently these mana beasts were better for mountain travel.

***

By night time, Artha could already see the once distant Grand Mountains have doubled in size from her perspective when the party reached the foot of the mountain. Artha was happy to get out of Ashber and was even happier to know she'll be getting a mentor.

She wasn't worried about the mentor deeming her unworthy. She was the strongest person in her world, and she was confident she could become strong without help from a mentor, but a mentor would be helpful.

The twin horns eventually stopped and set up camp. They picked a suitable spot with a lot of boulders that would help block the wind, which reminded Artha that, despite her father's goofiness, he was still a B-class veteran adventurer.

Her father might not be the strongest, most talented, or smartest, but he was somewhat talented. Awakening at the age of eleven is quick for humans, but then again, Artha wouldn't care if some awakened a year or two earlier.

Unlike before, Artha knew a few excellent strategies to increase her growth speed, and she would abuse the hell out of those strategies. One of those strategies involved slowing down your growth.

For example, if you're able to enter a new stage, you shouldn't. While people here would disagree, those have different beliefs and such. Ki practitioners all share the same beliefs. Although Ki centers might not have stages and can't get bigger, there are naturally ways to optimize your ki center.

Slowing down your progress to the next stage before finally breaking through is a far better method. In a way, you're sacrificing progress for potential. Let's say you're a light red augmenter, you should stop your core from progressing and focus on other aspects. When you finally decide to break through, the advantage of this method will be apparent.

After setting up a couple of tents, the Leywin couple started talking with the twin horns about old times. While the twin horns were all talking with the Leywins, Helen stood up and sat down next to Artha.

"I heard your parents say you're some kind of genius. Is it true you already awakened?" Helen asked Artha.

"I already reached the dark red stage." Artha answered with pride.

"I guess you're just like your old man." Helen snorted as they started talking about different topics.

***

Elsewhere on Dicathen, a little girl with grey hair and pointed ears ran through a forest with thick mist covering. Chasing her were four men with various weaponry. The little girl was barely four or five, but she knew she was already in a life threatening situation.

The girl panted for air but didn't stop. She regretted fighting with her parents, and she regretted running away from home. She could hear the men shouting while chasing her, with all of them carrying a weapon.

She kept on running with her head down while the four men chased her. She remembered what her grandpa told her about humans, but she wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, the first humans she met are trying to catch and sell her as a slave.

"Mama, papa, grandpa…" she muttered, tears welling up in her eyes as she ran away. "Eep-"

Hearing that yelp subconsciously tear its way out of her throat made her realize she tripped. She tried to stand up, but ended out crying in pain. Looking at her leg, she saw a vine wrapped around her leg and blood oozing out of her injured leg.

"There she is!" One of the slave traders shouted.

"You're quite the runner, elf." The leader smirked as he walked over.

"No…" The little girl whispered as she paled from fright.