Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Arana

I've been walking around this forest for the entire night, the sun rose some time ago and now I'm all covered on dirt, small leaves and... is that a spider on my shoulder?

"Eew, get off"

Flying magic is surprisingly very physically exhausting, and it made me very thirsty as well, now I'm realizing that I should have taken some food and water with me when I left, I knew I was forgetting something important.

Now I'm tired, thirsty and I have no idea where I'm going, and I think that there might be monsters in this forest, am I going to die here? The only positive is that I don't need to worry about pursuers, after wandering around at random for so long there's no way that anyone could be able to find me.

"I found you!"

"Ah!"

Someone just pinched my butt!

"Luna! I can't believe that you left without saying anything to me!" I know this sweet-sounding voice.

Behind me there's a girl with shoulder-length pink hair wearing a white hat and white clothes, she's also carrying a large backpack.

"Eh? Ara? What are you doing here?"

This is Arana, she works as a seamstress and tailor at the capital, she's also the closest thing to a friend I've ever had, I certainly was not expecting to see her here.

"I heard the news that you had some interesting stuff going on, so I decided to go with you, I was getting bored lately anyway"

"You just decided to come after me on a whim? And how did you even know where I was?"

"Oh, I always know where you are," She tells me with a sly smile.

That's kinda terrifying if you think about it, I'll just not think about it.

"I'm here to lend you a hand because knowing you, I bet you left without preparing properly so I'm bringing food, clothes and a tent" She points her finger behind her.

Oh, so that's what that backpack is for.

"Do you have some water too? Can I have some?" I plead.

"Sure here you go" She hands me a wooden canteen.

I didn't know water could taste so good!, after I'm done drinking the whole thing in one go I give it back to her.

"Aaaah you just saved my life"

I don't know what I would have done if she had not shown up out of nowhere.

"But are you sure that you want to come with me? I'm wanted by the kingdom and I'm planning to go really far away, do you plan to just leave the capital?"

"Oh, don't worry, I already left a note explaining where I was"

"A note?"

"Yes, it says 'I'm leaving to go help the queen of darkness take over the world'"

What did she just say?

"Ara... isn't that going to reinforce the misunderstanding about me and also make you into my accomplice?"

"I know right! Just think how much more interesting our lives are about to get!"

I can't believe this! She has always enjoyed messing with me but to think that she's willing to put her own life on the line just to cause me more trouble...

"Why am I even friends with you?"

"Because you don't have a choice, remember?"

That's right, Arana is the only one who talks to me like I'm a normal person so my only choices were to either become her friend or have no friends whatsoever.

Well I guess she did save my life just a moment ago so she's still done more good than harm, and I'll probably be needing her help in the future too...

"In any case, I guess we're now ready for the travel thanks to you"

"Now that you mention it, could you place this backpack on your storage space? It's a bit too heavy for me"

Oh right, I guess that would make things easier for her, I make the backpack disappear in the same way as my books.

"Well then, it's decided! Let's go on an adventure the two of us together!" She says, raising her fist in the air and smiling with a determined expression.

"You say that as if I ever had a choice... Anyway, I just hope that we don't run into any monsters"

"Why? What happens if we run into one?"

Arana looks at me while tilting her head as if I had said something strange, does she not know what a monster is?

"That we'll get killed!" That seems like a good enough reason to want to avoid them.

"Killed? Can't you just take care of it?"

"Me? How? I don't know anything about fighting"

She stares at me squinting her eyes.

"Luna... when was the last time you checked your status?"

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"My status? I'm not sure... I think there was that time back when I was still at the orphanage and they checked all the kids, but there was nothing unusual about mine"

"And you have not checked it since then"

I shake my head, status is something that only matters to people who get into fights, it's not something that interests me.

"So, what level do you think you are?"

My level? Well, everyone gets to level 10 just from growing up, I don't really exercise but I've practiced magic quite a bit so I must have also gained a few extra levels from that.

"20 to 25 I'd say"

"Oh, really? ...wait, did you hear that?"

The sound of rustling leaves can be heard behind us, when I turn around, three black spiders the size of horses jump down from the trees and start moving toward us while clattering their mandibles menacingly.

"There they are! Monsters! Ara, we need to run away!"

"I can't, I got stuck"

Arana's leg seems to be trapped on the space between some rocks, when did that happen? She was standing next to me a moment ago, and why did she even place her leg there?

What do I do now? I can't just run and leave her here by herself but there's no way I can fight those things.

Looking at the spiders closely, there are some distinctive green marks on each of their backs shaped like a pair of eyes, if I'm not mistaken that is a monster known as a 'swamp hunter', they are rather strong, usually above level 60, but if what I've read about them is correct this situation is very strange.

For one, this place is not a swamp, and the 'swamp hunters' are supposed to appear on the other side of the continent, they should not be here at all.

Also, spider-type monsters usually prefer to set traps and ambushes, they don't normally approach their prey on the open like these are doing.

"Luna, just try to cast an attack spell against them"

Well, I suppose I might as well...

"Shadow lance!"

Three thin cones of dark mana appear in front of my open palm, when I lower my hand, they fly toward the spiders at an incredibly fast speed, each lance pierces one of the monster's heads leaving a perfectly circular hole and killing them instantly.

"Huh? Did they really die so easily?" My eyes go wide open as I watch a green ooze pouring from their wounds.

"Good job! They didn't even stand a chance!"

Arana congratulates me as she gets her leg out of the hole without any difficulty.

"Ara...."

She just looks at me with an innocent smile as if she didn't do anything wrong.

Whatever, I'll go back to the spiders.

Two of them have holes right on the center of their heads, but on the third one my aim was apparently a bit off and I hit the left side instead.

"Mmmmm, I need to fix this"

This is a chance to try out one of the fields of magic I've been researching, a set of spells known as 'flesh shaping' that do exactly what the name implies.

Flesh shaping has an extremely bad reputation because of some incompetent mages who have been using it to create all kinds of horrors and monstrosities in the past, thanks to that, its practice was made illegal in almost all countries.

However, I've discovered that some more advanced applications can be used to heal almost any type of physical injury, from closing wounds and fixing broken bones up to even restoring lost limbs, for example, I can easily heal the hole on this spider's head, not that this will bring it back to life, of course.

"Shadow lance!"

Now this spider has its hole right on the center just like its two companions, perfect.

"Luna... What are you doing?" Arana looks at me with an exasperated expression.

"This is my first time ever fighting against monsters! I don't want it to look like I did a sloppy job!"

Anyone would want their work to look as perfect as possible, that's just normal, right?

"But I was not expecting to beat them so easily, how was that even possible?"

As if she had been waiting for me to ask that question, my friend smiles and gets closer to me.

"Would you like to check your status right now? I have an appraisal stone here"

She takes a black stone slab from her pocket, where did she get that from?

"Oh, how did this work again?"

"You just have to send some mana into it, but don't send too much, if it's you, you could end up breaking it, just a small amount is enough."

What does she mean 'if it's me'? Why would she think it would break?.

I grab the stone with both hands and pour my mana into it, after a couple of seconds the information appears written on it on white letters, and I open mouth in shock.

"This... this can't be!"