Chapter 81: The Team Mission, Part One

{Monday}

Rin looked at herself in the mirror, in the bathroom. The difference between her right now, and how she looked a couple of days ago, however, was that this time she was wearing the set of leather armor she'd purchased for herself. She could take Maria's red drake armor, but it felt like cheating. Her teacher had instilled into her that, in dire situations, she should use the advantages that she'd gotten, but until put in those spots, she should try to get by with her own talent and equipment, and she'd bought into that notion.

Covered from her neck down, looking at her raised hands, she took a deep breath, clenching them into fists.

[Let's do this,] she then thought, turning around and walking out into the hall.

Before she exited the Academy, she needed to gather her things. Heading into her room, she quickly looked for a backpack she'd bought yesterday, packed with food and water that Jessie from the cafeteria had been kind enough to give to her.

[Oh, right,] Rin remembered then, jogging over to her regular bag and taking out the necklace her mother had given to her. [What did this do again? I think mom said something about my Essence.]

She considered putting it on, but, again, feeling like it would be cheating, she hesitated. She did, however, throw it into her backpack, just in case.

With that done, there was just one thing she needed to make a decision on.

Pausing, she looked over at Xhez's bag and considered whether she should take her with her or not. The reason was that she had no idea how long this mission would last. All the students had heard so far was that it was "different". Although she didn't know what to expect, she still took into account the possibility that this mission could last longer than the previous ones.

[Hm...] She kept her eyes on it. [Eh, sure. Xhez might appreciate coming with me, if it does take longer than the others.]

Having decided that, she walked up to the bag and woke Xhez up.

---

A while later, she was walking out of the Academy with Xhez's bag tightly tied to her waist, as the sprite had agreed. Her arms felt colder from how nervous she was. However, as she saw her team up ahead, she tried to bury those feelings under a sheet of confidence, walking up to them.

The teachers were gathered in front of them. As Rin got closer, Varyn turned toward her, his arms crossed.

Maria cleared her throat when she saw Rin arrive, as she'd been the last one.

"Okay, we're all here. Now, everyone, listen up," she said. "I'm going to break down today's mission."

Rin made an effort to focus, putting her hands on her hips as she waited for the instructions.

"To the east," she started, "there are a few different cursed areas we've marked out. I assume your Zoology teacher has told you about undead monsters? Well, we're going to teach you a basic purification spell, that cleans up the Essence in an area. That will be your objective."

Quickly, Elisa raised a hand.

"Sorry, my team doesn't have a mage," she stated. "So, how are we supposed to do this?"

"Harriton will be going with yours, for that reason. He will perform the purification spell, but, he will do so at the rate of an amateur spellweaver. So, do not fall under the impression that you're going to have an advantage. He's going to be holding back quite a bit."

"Oh, okay, thank you," Elisa replied.

"As for the rest of you," Maria said, "team 1, Eve, Seth, John, and Lisa. You're all going with Eli. Team 3," she looked at Rin, "you'll be coming with me."

"I dunno, feels a little biased to me, but..." Rin heard John mutter to Carla, to her right.

Sighing, she realized this meant Cara was going to be sitting out.

Indeed, the other teacher had a stoic expression on her face, but Rin swore she saw some disappointment in that look as well.

[... She's probably still beating herself up over what happened to me,] Rin thought. [I've pretty much forgotten about that already, with everything that's been happening.]

She felt sorry for her, but she wasn't about to interrupt Maria right now. Maybe, however, she'd try to ask her to lay off of Cara later. Sure, one could argue that as Rin's teacher, she messed up, but Rin herself felt like the circumstances were so weird she couldn't hold it against her too much.

"Okay, everyone go with your assigned teachers, and we'll head out as soon as everyone is ready."

At that moment, Eve flew over to Rin. As the fairy hovered in front of her, Rin smiled.

"Good luck, Rin. Be careful out there!"

"Yeah, you too," Rin told her. She thought of something and added, "you know, we haven't gotten to talk too much recently. We should hang out more."

"Mmmm!" In a way that reminded Rin of Xhez, Eve made some excited noises and nodded eagerly. "Hell yeah! Just gotta take out these undead first. See you later!"

"Bye," Rin waved at her as she moved away from her. Then, she was left with only her own teammates.

Looking at them now, Rin felt shocked by how different they all seemed. Varyn was dressed casually, but Alea was wearing a similar type of armor to the one Rin was wearing. As for Sara, however, she had on that same black suit from before, that made her look more like a bounty hunter than an adventurer.

Additionally, she had a scowl on her face, though her eyes weren't looking at anything in particular.

[Uh, is she okay?] Rin wondered, a little concerned before Maria raised a hand at them.

"Let's get moving."

"Right," Rin said, and as she walked forward, the others followed.

With that, they were the first to leave Libera, the eyes of various citizens following them curiously as Rin, yet again, exited the gates into the ruined world that rested just outside of Libera's walls. This time, however, she felt slightly more prepared than before.

Rin could see lush mountains in the distance. She was genuinely excited. After the last week or so of training, and her previous performance against the cheren, Rin felt like she wanted to test herself again.

Of course, there was one element of this trip that she was already experiencing that she felt she could do without. That being the overwhelming sense of awkwardness, as none of them could quite consider each other "friends".

"Ugh," Alea scowled at the grass they were walking through, "The ground feels all mushy." 

"So?" Varyn asked. 

'So, it's uncomfortable," Alea replied quickly. 

"Hm. How tragic. You know, if this were a longer mission, you'd have to sleep on that ground. Wouldn't that be wonderful?" 

"I'm sure you'd know," Alea said. 

Before Varyn could respond to that, Rin stepped in.

"Hey," Rin stopped, looking back at them as she called out. Both of them looked forward at her. "I don't know if you forgot, but we're a team. Even if it's just for today, we're going to be working together. The least we can do is try not to make it worse than it has to be."

At that, both of them remained silent.

"Students?" Maria called out from ahead. "Something wrong?"

"Nah," Rin replied. "We're fine."

"Alright," Maria shrugged and everyone kept moving.

Rin nodded.

As they kept going, Rin saw a large, sprawling lake up ahead, with an equally sizeable white stone bridge cutting a path in the center of it.

As the group drew closer to it a series of sounds came to her ears.

"A horse. No, two horses." Varyn muttered behind Rin, relaying what his heightened senses allowed him to note.

"Good ears," Maria stated up ahead in response, but Rin was more surprised that she'd heard that. Even to Rin, it sounded like Varyn had spoken softly, and she was standing just a step in front of him.

Then, she saw what looked like a small caravan moving towards them.

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"Nobles?" Rin asked, squinting.

"I see two horses pulling a wagon with a few men in heavy armor sitting on it. Others wearing robes," Varyn described it.

"Knights, maybe." Alea declared. "Probably from Cradle."

"Why?" Rin asked. "Wouldn't they be from Libera?"

Alea rolled her eyes as if Rin had asked something that was supposed to be common knowledge.

"The soldiers of Libera wear a more modernized, thinner kind of armor. Full plates, metal helms, all that kind of stuff is what Cradle knights wear. Everyone knows that."

[... Sorry for having questions, I guess.]

As that group got closer to them, Rin started noticing a few heart-shaped symbols on the white wooden walls of the wagon. Then, when she got a good look at the people sitting on the vehicle, she saw that not all of them were dressed in armor, as Varyn had said. One of them was far younger than the rest, a little boy of maybe ten years, that stood up and looked out into the river.

"STOP!" The boy called out and the coachman driving the wagon quickly slowed the vehicle to stillness. "I want to see the water!"

A middle-aged man, also wearing a white robe, scooted closer to the coachman. He had slick grey hair and a pair of sharp blue eyes. Rin could already tell just by the way he placed his hands on the wagon's edge and laughed boisterously that he was one of those people who thought they had life figured out. It was a kind of ease that Rin aspired to have one day.

"How does that sound? Do we have the time for it?" He asked.

"Sure, maybe a ten-minute break?" The coachman told him.

"That works, Dallus?" The man asked the young boy and the kid nodded. "Alright, go ahead. Don't get in the water though. Someone, help him out."

As the adventurers and their teacher drew closer, a few of the people on the wagon jumped off onto the stone bridge that began just a few feet away from where Rin stood. The coachman looked over at them, along with the middle-aged man.

"You folks lost?" He asked. Rin raised a hand in a greeting as Maria walked forward.

"Oh, no," she answered. "We're adventures, on our way to complete a mission."

"Really?" The man beside the coachman smiled. "That's fairly respectable. None of you are injured or anything, right?"

The way he talked let Rin know he wasn't aware he was speaking to a Rank S adventurer.

"Why do you ask?"

"We're healers." The man told her. "Name's Alan. We're traveling healers, specifically. I'm the leader of this little tribe."

"Oh," Rin took on an impressed expression, as she walked up, standing by Maria's side. "Where'd you come from?"

"Well, we just finished a bit of work in Alcalira."

"Really?" Maria perked up a little. "A quaint little village. How are those folks?"

"Eh, not too good these days," he replied.

"Monster trouble?" Maria asked.

"Not quite. At least, not that they're aware of right now. No," he shook his head. "They've been dealing with abductions."

"... What?" Maria clearly hadn't been expecting to hear that. None of the group had been.

"Yeah. Apparently, travelers have been disappearing lately, traveling from one place to another."

"Are you sure no monsters took them out?" Maria asked. "That sounds like a possibility."

"Their scouts haven't been able to track any bodies," he responded. "No blood, no trails. They just sort of... disappear."

"Hm... I see," Maria stated.

[Wow. Sounds weird,] Rin thought.

Allan looked over to where his son was.

"Dallus? You alright? Don't lean too far. Don't want to get yourself wet before we keep going." He told the boy. The kid was on the shore of the lake, looking into the water.

"There's somethin' shiny!" The boy said. "In the water!"

"Yeah, ignore it," Allan replied.

"What is it?" Rin asked, walking up to the edge of the bridge to look down.

"I don't know but the water can be home to some strange things sometimes. My grandma used to say it lures people in," he continued with a lower voice, so as to not alert the kid, "I don't know about that, but I do know the water is no less dangerous than any forests. All kinds of monsters call it home."

"You are not wrong," Maria said, turning toward Rin. "Expect monsters in every corner of the places you travel through. You would be surprised where they can lurk."

"Wow." Another childlike voice spoke from behind Rin. She turned around and found a little girl looking up at Sara. Specifically, she was looking at her sword.

"Uh…" Rin raised a hand, about to ask the girl not to bother her, but the girl said something before she could do that.

"It's pretty." The little girl noted. Sara tilted her head. "Can I touch it?"

"Y-You shouldn't…"

"Sure," Sara said, with a volume barely above a whisper. Rin stopped. Sara got down on her knees and briefly untied her sword from her belt, letting the girl try to hold it. She made a wowed expression before giving off a few giggles.

Sara's face remained expressionless, but Rin was surprised, in a good way.

"Alright," Allan called out. "Everyone get back on the wagon. We've got a long trip, best not to waste too much time."

One by one, the kids and healers who were watching the water got back on the vehicle and the man looked at Rin.

"Do take care now, this path is dangerous. Good luck with your mission!" He said to everyone.

"Thank you!" Maria replied.

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks. Good luck out there." Rin bowed a little as the man nodded.

"Alright, stay safe."

With that, the group got back in their seats and the coach got the horses moving again. Rin's team watched them go.

Rin found Varyn breathing deeply. She got closer to him and said:

"Anything up?"

"No, no, just… soldiers, knights, guards, and I… We don't tend to get along." He gestured at the animalistic ears on his head and Rin nodded.

"I get you." She told him.

"No, I don't think you do. But, come on. Let's keep moving."

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