Jun followed Sara and Cecilia off campus in the darkness of early morning, sticking close to her roommates as she kept one hand on the new dagger strapped to her belt and the other holding onto her bag. Shiori's black fur let her fade easily into any shadow, and though she knew her Master was easily keeping pace at their feet, it was easy to miss that she was there with them. She kept several mana tendrils poised and ready to throw into her [Arcane Snare] and [Barrier] spells. Forest's Edge was normally a lively city even late into the night as adventurers, students, soldiers, craftspeople, and merchants celebrated or commiserated.

  The Academic Quarter around the Academy was especially lively, filled with bars, taverns, restaurants, clubs, and dance halls, but most everything closed by the Void hour signaling the end of the day and the start of the next. An hour after that, and the only people that moved were stragglers returning to campus, guards, and criminals. The streets at least were well lit by mana lights, though the lighting rarely extended far into the alleyways between buildings. What had seemed like a charming fantasy district of winding alleyways and hidden gems of shops took on a more ominous tone in the dark while most of the city slept.

  Crossing over into the Expedition Quarter required a quick trip through the City Square where Jun was surprised to find that even early in the morning it was heavily trafficked. A few restaurants and taverns never closed, and even some seedier places marked only by a glowing red lantern outside the door could be seen down the side streets and poorly lit alleyways. Men and a rare few women in work clothes moved through the area with most going towards the Crafting Quarter, though a few headed to the Noble Quarter to the North.

  As Jun and her friends crossed into the Expedition Quarter, that was when things changed again. Unlike the other Quarters, the Expedition Quarter never truly slept as adventurers and soldiers caroused through the night and day, spending coin like it was their last day on Merinthia. For some of them, it would be. More of the red lanterns could be seen throughout the district, with more than a few on the well lit main roads, and they passed dozens of beautiful women and even a few handsome men carrying lanterns with them, their clothes cut to clearly advertise their services. Jun couldn't help but blush at the blatant behavior that she'd never noticed on her previous trips through the area.

  Several times drunken men and women propositioned the students to join them though they moved on when the group ignored them and kept moving forward. Jun was nervous every time someone approached them like this but her friends had stressed that it was important that Jun keep moving with purpose and confidence, especially if she didn't feel confident, and if it came down to a fight, to fight hard.

  After several minutes of chasing off would be suitors, Sara led them down several less heavily trafficked side streets to a series of warehouses with teams of workers moving crates about, loading and unloading horse drawn carts. Several armed and armored men stood in front of a warehouse with a sign that said "Arnold Arms & Armor," with an insignia of three interlocked As over crossed swords. As the guards spotted Sara and Cecilia they nodded respectfully and them through to a busy warehouse filled with rows of wooden crates.

  Arnold turned out to be a mountain of a man that looked like he could break the Sergeant in half. After a quick round of introductions, Arnold called an assistant over to handle the sale while he oversaw the work. Arnold's assistant was a tall and reedy man with sandy brown hair and glasses. He looked young, perhaps in his mid to late 20s, though because of mana, stats, and levels, that could mean he was anywhere from his 20s to pushing 100. The man seemed familiar with her friends and introduced himself to Jun as Clyde before bringing the group to a table on the side for Jun to pull out the weapons her party gained. As she set them out, Clyde inspected each one and wrote a few notes down on a pad of paper. After he finished writing down notes, that was when the negotiating began, with Cecilia taking the lead while Jun watched and learned.

  "Right, 2 basic short bows, 3 iron axes of poor quality, 4 iron daggers of moderate quality, 2 iron maces of moderate quality,1 iron short sword of fine quality. I can offer you 2 gold for these," Clyde said, gesturing at the short bows and iron weapons.

  "That's highway robbery Clyde," Cecilia said with a derisive snort. "The axe heads are at least fine quality, they just need new handles and some polishing and they'd be worth at least 30 silver each. The rest of the iron weapons are all in good condition with no chips, cracks, or rust, and every one is clearly mana infused. They're easily worth 3 and a half gold."

  Clyde shook his head. "I won't deny the metalwork is solid, but besides the hafts of the axes, most of the weapon grips need to be rewrapped and are lacking sheathes. 2 gold 35 silver."

  "That work is superficial and fast, you could have the work done and the pieces ready for sale by the afternoon. 3 gold."

  "Finding buyers will take time and these will take up space. 2 and 50."

  "You know the Academy first years just formed their first teams. They'll be looking for starter gear all week and these pieces are ready to go. 2 and 80."

  "Your party's been a reliable supplier. 2 and 70 because of our history," Clyde said, holding his hand out.

  "Deal," Cecilia said, clasping the man's hand and shaking it. "2 and 70 for the bows and iron weapons. As for the steel weapons?" she said, pointing at the second group of 6 weapons.

  "2 steel maces, a longsword, an axe, and 2 short swords, all mana infused steel of moderate quality. I can offer 3 and 50."

  "We both know that longsword alone could go for 1 and 50 as is, and the short swords wouldn't be that far behind. 5 and 30."

  "4. Same issues as the other weapons. Missing sheathes, rewrapping, and these are out of reach of most beginners so they'll take time to sell."

  "Plenty of nobles will be recruiting and equipping new servants and vassals recruited from the commoners at the school. They'll want better gear without wasting too much. These are perfect for them. 4 and 90."

  "4 and 50. I cut you a good deal with the iron weapons and you need to leave me some room to profit."

  "4 and 75."

  "4 and 65." Clyde stared Cecilia down over his clipboard with an eyebrow quirked.

  Cecilia returned his stare without blinking for a moment. "4 and 65 is fair," she finally said after a few long seconds, holding her hand out as they repeated their handshake from earlier.

  With negotiations completed, Clyde jotted down a few more notes and pulled out several coins from the pouch on his belt to place in Cecilia's hand. Jun counted as the man handed her friend 7 gold coins, 3 larger than normal silver coins, and 5 of the silver coins she was familiar with. After handing over the money, Clyde signaled some workers to come over and pack up the weapons before walking off to another task.

  Turning to Jun, Cecilia passed her the coins Clyde paid with a smile. "Your payment, milady," she said with a grin and a mock bow.

  "That was amazing!" Jun said, feeling the weight of the coins in her hands. If Jun had been alone, she would have just taken the first offer Clyde had given, losing out on almost 3 gold in the process. Fingering the larger silver coins, she had a feeling she knew what they were but it never hurt to ask. "What are these larger silver coins?" she said, holding one up.

  Cecilia waved her off. "The larger ones are tensils, they're worth 10 silver each. Put those coins away and let's get out of here," she said

  Jun slid the coins into her Void Bag, mentally making a note that the total party split was 7 gold, 58 silver, and 4 copper. She'd noticed over the past weeks that it was easier to make mental notes now and actually remember them, probably due to her greatly improved stats.

  With the weapons sold, Jun and her roommates started to head back to campus, quickly retracing their route through the Expedition Quarter and the City Square. Somewhere in the Central District as they left behind the steadily increasing traffic, Jun caught sight of a group of men in work clothes some distance behind them. She thought nothing of it at first but soon noticed that with every passing minute they seemed to get slightly closer. Nervousness started to fill her and she sped up a bit, closing the slight distance between herself and her roommates.

  "Stay calm. We're being followed," Sara said quietly. "It might be a coincidence, but just to be safe we'll take a different route back." Sara subtly increased her pace as she turned at the next intersection, following a well lit road that headed North towards the Noble Quarter. As the shops grew nicer, Sara stopped in front of several closed stores for a few seconds as if admiring a displayed ware before moving on. "They're definitely following us. Several men in work clothes. Cudgels, short swords, and daggers," Sara said quietly as she moved away from another shop.

  As they reached another intersection, Jun noticed that the pair of guards standing there seemed to eye the group of women for a few seconds before looking away behind them. Relief started to fill her chest knowing that the guards were nearby. They should be safe, she thought. As they made another turn using the cover of buildings to hide their direction, Sara's next words ruined that. "Those guards are in on it. They're ignoring the men."

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  As soon as they were out of sight of the guards, Sara and Cecilia started to lightly jog. As Jun caught on and jogged to keep up, they increased the pace until they were sprinting as fast as Jun could maintain.

  All of the training Jun had done over the past few weeks came in helpful now as she barely kept up with the punishing pace, leaving her chest aching as she struggled to get enough air into her lungs, but still she kept up. As they ran, Sara changed directions several times until they were headed roughly back towards the Academic Quarter, though by a route Jun had never taken before. A canal marked the border between the Central District and the Academic Quarter, and the group was soon running along it, looking for one of the few bridges across. Just as they spotted a bridge in the distance, Sara stopped in a section of the canal road where the mana light had burned out and dragged her into a dark alleyway, Cecilia following close behind.

  Gasping, Jun sucked in several deep breaths as she rested with her hands on her knees. "Why—" she started to ask a question, but Sara placed a hand over her mouth.

  "They split and cut us off. We're surrounded," Sara said in a quick whisper as Cecilia unsheathed her short sword. "Be ready to fight." Sara pulled her hand away from her lips and pulled a dagger with her right hand and held her left as if she was ready to throw something. Despite the darkness, Jun knew that Sara probably held several throwing knives in that hand.

  Apprehension filled her chest as Jun pulled her dagger with shaking hands. She wished she had a nice shield to hide behind. She hoped she wouldn't have to fight other humans. The guilt from the goblins was bad enough even with their monstruous behavior making it easier. Other humans though... a carefully suppressed memory of her desperate fight beneath a tree in another life, of the thud of a bottle against a man's head and the way he fell to the ground, his neck at a strange angle fluttered through her head, followed by the phantom lick of flames. Shaking the memory away, Jun steeled herself. That was a different world, and a different her. She was trying to change. She was stronger than she was before. She had magic.

  Jun flooded her spellforms with mana, carefully enhancing her spell as she strained her ears to listen for the men who hunted them.

  The scuff of leather boots on cobblestone, heavy breathing, and muttered cursing came to her ears back from the way they came. She couldn't tell how many people there were by sound alone, but she guessed at least five. The sounds of their pursuers grew closer until one of the men that Jun had spotted following them came into view. The man was little more than a shadow in the dim starlight and slowly lightening sky of dawn.

  "What's the hold up Nose?" a man asked in a rough voice from just out of sight.

  "Scent ends here," the man said, looking around in confusion.

  Jun caught her breath as he looked down their alley, but his eyes seemed to flow right over them hidden in the darkness. Her friends were as still as statues until the man turned his head to look into the opposite alley.

  "We were right behind them, they can't have gotten far," the second man said as another shadow stepped into view. "Can't see nothing in the shadows. Get the stones out boys, check the alleys!"

  Three more men stepped into view as they fumbled for something at their waists. One of the men with a shaved head pulled something out and the sound of stones clapping together split the morning air, a few sparks shooting and briefly illuminating the man. The other two men mimicked the man, filling the air with more brief flashes of light. "Got it!" the first man yelled with a flare of light as his pair of stones started glowing with a warm yellow light that seemed to banish the shadows in a circle around him. The light just barely touched the edge of Cecilia's boot as he stared at the alley they hid within. Two more flashes of light cast the men's shadows against the dark storefronts of the street.

  As the first man started to step into the alleyway, Shiori hissed and leapt onto the man's face, her claws out as she raked him across the eyes. As the man let out a panicked scream, Shiori jumped off of his head and into another man's face, her claws tearing across his hands as he struggled to protect his eyes. With Shiori distracting them, Cecilia snaked forward, her short sword extended in a thrust to catch the first man in the throat. The man let out a strangled gurgle as his light stones clattered to the ground, illuminating the three women.

  As the men shouted in the chaos Shiori created, Cecilia charged another man, her sword flickering in the light of the mana stones only for her thrust to be parried by one of the men with a cudgel.

  "Ambush!" the man cried as he dropped back in a fighting stance. Cecilia gave him little time to recover as she followed up with a series of blindingly fast and confusing strikes, but the man managed to parry or dodge each of them.

  Several more men arrived in a rush and Shiori jumped into them, her claws flashing as she fouled their charge and distracted them. Jun stepped just out of the alleyway as she flooded her mana into her [Arcane Snare], conjuring a dozen ropes. The glow of the spells added to the confusing light of the street as they sped for the men's limbs. Between Shiori's distraction and the chaotic lighting, Jun managed to tangle up several of the men's legs, adding to their confusion.

  As the men from the first group turned to support the man Cecilia dueled, Sara' threw her knives at them, sending two of them down screaming as knives slammed into their chests. Down to just two men among the first group, Sara snarled as she charged forward, scooping up a short sword as she ducked the other man's wild swing and slashed with her dagger, opening up a long and bloody wound across his thigh. As the man hobbled back, Sara moved into a left handed stance leading with her scavenged sword. The woman blurred as she sent testing strikes at the man, however despite his injury from being caught off guard, the man was more than able to keep up with Sara, fending off her assault and counter attacking, putting her on the defensive.

  Cecilia's fight was close as Jun could see her roommate bleeding from several slashes along her arms, though her opponent also bled from traded blows.

  Channeling more of her dwindling mana, Jun manifested a snaking coil and whipped the spell at Cecilia's opponent, though he neatly hopped back over it. Wielding it less like the bind it was meant to be and more like a whip, Jun sent the spell chasing after the man's legs, giving Cecilia some breathing room as he danced back. That was when the man spotted her still in the alleyway, standing still with her vision fixed on him. Jun barely had time to blink as his hand shot out at her and a metal dart fell to the ground, bouncing off the transparent barrier Jun had cast in front of her. Suppressing the mana glow to the point it was invisible in the dark had been difficult, but Jun was glad she'd thought to try rather than depend upon the darkness to keep her safe. Judging from how weakened a single dart from the man had left her barrier and the way he pushed Cecilia, he was far beyond her own level, and probably beyond that of her roommates that she knew to be somewhere close to level 200.

  Pressing more of her mana into another spell, Jun retaliated by conjuring a small barrier behind the man and pulling it towards her. Her barrier spell was small, barely the size of a brick as she condensed the mana down for resilience and speed rather than size, but using her new trick she was able to make it all but invisible, taking the man by surprise as he was struck from behind by a magical speeding transparent brick!

  As the man stumbled forward, more surprised than injured, Cecilia found her second wind and plunged her sword deep into his chest. As the man died, Jun felt a massive surge of mana as her dwindling reserves started filling even faster. Adrenaline coursing through her veins, Jun shoved feelings of guilt aside as she turned to Sara's fight just in time to see Shiori bite into his wrist, sending the man's weapon tumbling to the ground as he shrieked with pain. Sara darted forward, her right shoulder stained with blood as she stabbed her sword into the man's gut and savagely eviscerated him. Clearly pained, Sara struggled to reach into her coat with her right hand as she turned to face the other group of men as they strained against Jun's binds.

  Cecilia dropped back and joined Sara while chewing on something with a grimace. Jun ran over to join them, her hand already reaching into her bag as she tried to think of something she could use to stop her bleeding. As Jun pulled a sock out, Sara shook her head. "Left breast pocket,” she said.

  Dropping her sock back into her bag, Jun reached into Sara’s jacket, doing her best to ignore the smell of her friend mixed with the iron tang of blood. Jun grabbed the sole object in Sara’s pocket, a small but surprisingly heavy flat tab that reminded her of a large multivitamin. Sara opened her mouth and Jun followed the unspoken command, feeding Sara the tablet. A strong herbal scent came out of her mouth as Sara quickly chewed with a grimace.

  Before Jun could ask what the pill was, she felt one of her spells break and whirled around just in time to see Cecilia to intercept a blow aimed at Jun’s head. Another of her spells broke and Sara darted forward again, her right arm seemingly healed as she wielded the short sword with two hands to exchange blows with another man.

  Using the new flood of mana refilling her core, Jun reinforced the spells tying the remaining four men in place when a new idea came to mind. Choosing the one whose bindings had required the least reinforcement, she flooded even more mana into the spell as she fed it a new intent. The conjured ropes started to grow up his body as the man bashed away at the spell with an iron-banded cudgel, snaking up his legs and torso. Following Jun’s intent, her magical snare drank in her mana as it wrapped around the man’s throat and covered his nose and mouth. His eyes started to bulge as he let out a muffled scream of rage and started ripping at the spell, but Jun fed it even more mana, reinforcing the supernatural ropes as the man struggled. His struggles slowly weakened as he was choked of air, and all too soon he passed out into unconsciousness. Jun hurried pulled her mana from the spell and the man fell limp to the ground.

  Flooding the recovered mana into the other three bindings, she sighed with relief as she saw the thug she’d strangled still breathing. Repeating the action, Jun moved through the remaining men, choking them of air until they passed out. When the last of the four fell unconscious, she turned to see Cecilia’s opponent laying on the ground bleeding out while Cecilia herself eyed Jun’s victims, her sword tensed to pounce upon them.

  Sara’s opponent had surrendered, his sword hand missing and Sara pressing her blade to the man’s throat.

  As Jun realized the fight was over, a wave of exhaustion, guilt, and nausea started to come over her. Shaking her head, she forced her thoughts and feelings down and recast her snare spell, binding four unconscious men to the cobblestone of the road.

  "Your friends are dead or at our mercy," Sara growled in an angry voice Jun had never heard before that sent a thrill of danger down her spine totally unlike the normally upbeat and energetic scout. "Why did you follow and try to catch us?"

  The man glared at Sara, his remaining hand trying to staunch the blood flowing from the stump of his right arm. "I ain't a rat," he spat.

  As Sara tensed, Shiori rubbed up against her legs and took a step toward the one handed man, letting out a loud meow as she stared at him. A look of terror suddenly flashed across his face as he started to foam at the mouth and collapsed to the ground. Shiori stared at the man at the moment and turned to nudge her legs again.

  Sara glanced from the unconscious man to Shiori rubbing against her legs. Stooping down, the elf scratched the cat behind her ears while turning to glance from the unconscious man in front of her to the pile of unconscious men with faces and hands covered in cat scratches.

  "Jun, I don't think your cat is normal."

  "Meow?"

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