I headed north and crossed the jungle. There was a little bit of desert north of the jungle before the area turned into something more habitable.


    Finally! No more sand! I had the idea to find a place that has elevated levels of fire-charged leyline energy but I had no clue where to find it. Finding a volcano would probably work but I have no idea where to find one.


    For water it would be simple just go to the ocean, for wind maybe a windy mountaintop? Lightning is going to be tough.


    And about light and dark. I looked up at the night sky. Don''t tell me I have to do something stupid like going to the moon or something. How would I even get there? I will leave light and dark as last because I might not be successful in figuring out how to reach it.


    I found a road and a caravan carrying supplies. I managed to hitch a ride to the closest city, we would pass by 2 villages first though. I shared this particular carriage with a small family, a woman who looked like a mercenary and some kind of scholar.


    This might sound random but does anyone know where I can find a volcano?


    Everyone looked up at me and seemed to try and make sense of my question. “Pardon my rudeness but for what does a teenager like you need to find a volcano for?”


    I have to remember that most humans my age are fairly incompetent, I need to find a good excuse. The mercenary leaned in showing her curiosity. What would be a good excuse?


    I lost my dog. I blew it…


    “A fire hound?” That works.


    “What? Is it a fire hound or not?” Yeah, Raishin loves to run off and chase bitches.


    “Sounds like a very energetic dog.” I apologized to Raishin in my head.


    “Well, they do love to run large distances and are attracted to fire.” The mercenary looked outside. “But there isn''t a volcano anywhere near here, there is a magma pit though. Where did you lose him?”


    Uhm I can’t remember I was distracted.


    The mercenary looked at me sceptically. “You’re not a runaway, are you?” Oh, nono! I would never run away!


    “So where do you live? I will bring you back home and discuss the terms with your parents, I will help you out finding your Raishin.”


    “He must be a runaway, he looks like he’s about 15 or 16 years old, he should be attending a magic school.” The scholar made an unnecessary comment.


    I also forgot that humans my age waste their time learning magic that''s not very applicable to both dangerous lifestyles and boring safe lifestyles. Who needs to learn how to levitate stuff when you''re hardly ever going to use that in both a quiet or adventurous lifestyles?


    “Oh, you have a point! You weren''t lying, were you?” I guess I will have to use my adventurer''s ID so I showed it. “Oh, my C-rank? The same rank as me and a water user nonetheless.”


    “What? Let me see that! Hmm, it’s authentic, you look way younger in this image.” The nosy scholar was inspecting my ID and my body very closely. Well, I have been doing this for a while, do you believe me now?


    “Being an adventurer doesn''t excuse you from skipping out on school!” I don''t need a crappy magic school…


    “Oh really, Lia, do you mind testing this guy out on our next stop? I want to assess his magic skills for myself. I used to be a teacher you see!” And why aren''t you teaching now? Did your nosiness get you kicked out?


    “Pff I won''t fall for your cheap provocation!”


    “I’m curious how a C-rank water user fights so I apologize but I will take up Etienne’s suggestion.” Uhm and what if I don''t use magic?


    “Nonsense! It’s extremely hard to reach C-rank without magic! You need a lot of skill or be a genius like Lia to even get that far!” And here I thought getting C-rank was easy because it didn''t take much for me to get here. But this is a problem, I made a rule to not use magic offensively.


    The nosy scholar adjusted his glasses while inspecting me. “You don’t seem to give off mana, are you sure you’re not a fraud?” I have good mana control.


    “Ha!? At 16 years old? At least think of a more believable lie!” This guy is starting to piss me off.


    We stopped by a village 2 hours later. I had to suffer through the scholars questioning. Testing my magic knowledge and all kinds of stuff. I gave him vague bullshit answers. He got annoyed that I wasn''t cooperating.


    “Right get out Agnis! Show us what you''ve got!” Easy for you to say since you’re not fighting but Lia is.


    “Why do you remember her name and not mine?!” Her name is short and she’s not a pain in the ass like you are.


    “I know some healing spells, after Lia kicks your ass, I’ll heal you up and then I will personally kick your ass!” Isn''t it illegal for teachers to bully kids and kick their asses?


    “I’m not a teacher anymore!” Oh right, you got kicked out, my bad. I held my hand in front of my mouth and let out a mischievous chuckle.


    “Lia have no mercy on him!” The merchants did their merchant stuff and told us they would be leaving in 3 hours. So, I had to deal with this for 3 hours.


    “Good luck mister” One of the small kids of the family that was traveling was cheering me on. Shit now I can’t run. Ugh, fine, can you promise me one thing, Lia?


    “Uh, depends on what it is.” She got ready and took a stance with her great sword. Don’t hold back at any cost.


    “Uhh, ok.” I mean it, I haven''t used this on humans yet so don’t die.


    “Huh?”


    “Yes yes, stop blabbering, start!”


    Lia dashed at me. She was surprisingly fast for someone carrying something that heavy. She also put a very strong earth augmentation on the great sword. I sidestepped the swing and I used the momentum of her movements to flip her up in the air. I shifted my stance and started [Water Dragon Dance] and sent 2 dragons at her while keeping one near me.


    “W…what is this? No magic circle activation? No mana? What is this?!!!” The scholar was going crazy.


    Lia blocked the first water dragon but got hit by the second one. It seemed to do quite the damage. She landed on the ground and planted her sword in the ground which caused large rocks and boulders to come out of the ground. Probably to break my line of sight.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    I continued my movements and weaved the 2 dragons between the rocks and boulders and sent them after her with perfect precision.


    Lia was too busy dealing with evading and blocking the water dragons to attack me. The scholar dude started observing and writing. Lia got sent flying into one of the big boulders after getting hit by a water dragon. She smirked and her mana spiked.


    And… she made her sword bigger… She did swing it around like it had no weight but I knew better. She was using her sword like Greg uses his hammer.


    Using gravity magic to make it lighter and heavier at the moment she doesn''t need strength to swing it around. The dragons didn''t have the power anymore to deal with her so I looped the movements to increase the volume of water in the dragons. She jumped back and prepared for a big swing.


    It’s very obvious if someone prepares for a big attack while obviously being out of range. It’s either a stupid sword beam or laser, or that sword is going to grow to the point it’s going to hit me. I jumped up and dodged a slash. As I expected the sword became enormous.


    I landed on the blade of the sword and shifted my stance and used [Waterfall] and rushed over the blade toward her. This surprised Lia, she took the attack and got knocked out. Hmm, I already held back on that [Waterfall] and still knocked her out, I need some tuning.


    “Wh...what was that? This isn''t magic, is it?! What''s it called? Where did you learn it? Who did you learn it from? Can you teach…” I drenched the scholar to make him stop talking.


    Stop talking and check up on Lia, you said you could use some healing skills, right? The scholar tended to Lia and she woke up. While all the effects of her earth magic disappeared, the water that I used still lingered and the scholar noticed this.


    “Ugh, that hurt, You wouldn''t believe my surprise when I found out that you''re not using magic.”


    “Hmm, I think I understand now, going to a magic school would indeed be useless if you can''t use magic.” I didn''t bother to tell him that I can use magic. “So, what was that?” Something I’m testing out and also the reason I need to find my dog Raishin.


    “So, you didn''t lie about your dog?” Sorry I did, I just need to go to a volcano or a magma pit is also fine.


    “Kids these days…”


    “Well, hire me! I’m not letting a kid go alone to a spot that dangerous! Even if you are strong!”


    “Hire me too, no wait I will pay you to show and tell me more about this new power!” The nosy scholar said. He did say it in a creepy tone though. I hope he doesnt want to probe me.


    Guys, it’s ok I can do this alone!


    “Ooh, are we going to visit a fullcano?” The kid seemed to be excited. Really kid? Can you at least try to make it easy for me?


    “Then it’s decided!” Hey don''t decide this for me and we obviously can''t let a kid near a volcano! I pointed at the 5 or 6-year-old kid.


    “Heh, so you agree that we can''t let a kid near a volcano.” The scholar looked at me. Ugh, these selfish adults.


    ”I will go even if you don’t pay me!” I should''ve walked and never hopped on this carriage…


    “Yay! Mom, Dad! We’re going to a fullcano!” Look at what you’ve done… The parents of the kid looked in shock as their kid told them we would visit a volcano and shot a disappointed look at the scholar.


    “Hey! It was his idea!” A teacher shifting the blame on a teenager, tssk tssk, I can see why you got kicked out.


    “I didn''t get kicked out! I left!”


    I went into the village to get a change of pace and Lia followed me. Stop following me!


    “I’m your bodyguard!” How? I’m not paying you!


    “Doesn''t matter I won’t be able to sleep at night knowing I let a teenager go off alone by himself to a magma pit.” I appreciate the sentiment but this chick has only 1 life I have 45, wait what?


    I only have 44, when did I die? I did a self-diagnosis but nothing seemed off, except… [Vica’s Curse]. You gotta be kidding me… I thought I fixed that. I ran a self-diagnosis and it seemed it killed me the moment I touched the casket but hasn''t done anything so far after that.


    Greg’s passive is probably kicking in which is odd because this is not a real curse. Anyway, if it’s not killing me anymore, I might as well ignore it.


    We walked around and talked to some villagers. It seemed that we looked like a mother and son hanging out together… Hey, Lia, you’re making this awkward, they think you’re my mother…


    “I don’t mind, where’s your real mother actually?” Uhh, somewhere far away…


    “Oh, I’m sorry for your loss… I didn''t know.” Even though I made it accidentally sound like she passed away, it is a fact that she’s far away and possibly dead… I stopped a bit.


    “I’m so sorry!” No, don’t worry I’m fine. We bought some local stuff. I refused to buy poison at first but it was very useful in the fight against the behemoth so I bought a realistic amount for a human. Which I apparently messed up.


    “You must really love milk; you bought 60 liters!”


    Note to self, I need to learn more about human common sense.


    “I know how to make a delicious stew!”


    Oh, hell no mixing my arch nemesis, Poison, and turning it into another, soup, is something I have to absolutely avoid! Uh, I bought this for ehh, my dog Raishin.


    “Didn''t you say that you lied about having a dog?“ Well, yeh uhm the thing is I bought this for something that''s not for consumption, I can''t stand poison.


    “Poison? Oh milk, that’s unfortunate, how about I make you some vegetable soup then?” I started sweating and thinking of how to get out of this situation. Uhm, I got my own food.


    “Really? I didn''t see you bring any baggage when you got on the carriage.” Is being a 9t seriously backfiring on me now? I... I''m allergic to soup.


    “Oh, so what ingredient are you allergic to?” Soup.


    “So, you don''t like soup?” You know what? Since you seem to easily find the things I don’t like, how about I make food, you were probably going to suggest something with potatoes next…


    “Such a picky eater… “ I will turn any potato into ash!


    I wanted to buy fish so I could make food but since we’re far from the sea there was no fish in sight.


    This is hell…


    “What were you looking for?” You know what? Give me a moment I will be back before the 3 hours are up!


    I ran off in the direction of a nearby lake. I wasn''t going to fish but pretend to. I would return with fish from my dimensional pocket and cook it. I relaxed at the lakeside and returned with some fish.


    “Whoa, that’s a lot of fish!” I started preparing it like I always do. “Hey, Agnis, where did you get these fish, they don''t seem to be from around here.” You must be imagining things! I finished and gave everyone some.


    “Just fish? Nothing else?” Hmm? Is anything wrong with that? I only caught fish.


    “Well, normally you would eat other stuff with it right?” Lia commented as I devoured 2 whole fish in 10 minutes.


    Will take too long. The merchants came back and got attracted to the smell of the food. Some quickly cooked some other stuff to add to it and we all ate together. They had strange looking bread and dried meat. They also had a strange powder that turned into soup after adding water. Why are humans so crazy about soup?


    The scholar approaching. “So, tell me what is that strange power you have.” The will of a white-haired chick with 5 arms.


    “Come on tell me!” It’s the lifeblood of the planet.


    “You don''t lose anything by telling me!” I was quite enjoying this; I was telling him the truth but he thinks I’m making fun of him.


    “Ok then don''t tell me what it is, how do you use it? Is it related to those movements you make?” The scholar got up and started flailing. “Like this?” If that worked, you would have found out by now…


    “How about this? Or this?” I enjoyed this guy making a fool out of himself and everyone else did too. “Show me!”


    “Calm down Etienne it’s time to leave.” Yeh, we need to clean up and get ready to leave. We cleaned up and continued the journey. Besides everyone nagging me, nothing special happened. We stopped at the next village to spend the night. The small family managed to gain the hospitality of some farmers. The scholar did so too.


    It was just me, Lia and some merchants left. Lia was being annoying. “Aren’t you going to ask around to gain hospitality from some farmers too?” I don''t like people, I will be fine out here.


    “You should take care of your health, you''re still young so make sure you get enough sleep.” I''ll be fine, oh that tree looks comfy!


    I found a tree that had a wide branch and would provide cover. I climbed up and went to sit and rest on the branch.


    “So agile… hey you can''t possibly sleep well in a tree!” Don’t worry this place is safer than a jungle!


    “What? I don''t understand half of what this kid says…”


    <hr>


    I heard rustling and it wasn''t the tree. It was past midnight and I saw 40 individuals in shady attire approach the small village. Well, they were approaching the caravan we parked just outside the village. Village is actually a big word for this place, it had like 1000 inhabitants at most. I assumed these guys were bandits raiding this village and stealing the merchant supplies as a bonus would be a great deal for them. I yawned and made a few movements and made an ice bow and shot small ice dragons at them. After successfully turning the bandits into ice statues I went back to sleep.