Kai was half absent, looking at every new tree, every new rock, every blade of grass, searching for something that would remind him of home.
"You've got a funny look on your face," Rin said suddenly.
"I'm thinking."
Rin snorted. "You're stressed."
Kai was about to reply when, about ten meters away from them, the ground suddenly rose up.
A mass broke away suddenly, as if a carpet of earth had decided to come to life, and shot off in a flash, skimming the ground. It zigzagged at an absurd speed, changing angles without logic, and in its wake a cloud of dust shot up, fine and aggressive, whipping their eyes.
Rin jumped so hard she almost stumbled.
"HA!"
She put a hand to her chest, panting. "Never again!"
Kai rubbed his eyes, still blinded by the dust. "What was that?"
Rin squinted as she followed the trail receding into the distance, already almost invisible. "It looks familiar."
Kai turned to her, still on his guard. "What does it look like? Be specific."
"Don't worry," Rin replied. "It's probably a… flying ray. At least it's not aggressive."
Kai stared at her. "A flying ray?"
"It's just... flat, wide, and it glides through the air."
"But did you see it?"
Rin pointed vaguely at the ground. "No, it has camouflage. It blends in with the terrain. And when a threat gets too close, it takes off suddenly and leaves behind a cloud of sand, dust, dirt, whatever. And just like that, it's gone."
Kai looked at the road, then the field, then the disappearing trail. "It looks... impossible to catch."
Rin smiled. Not a kind smile. A defiant smile.
"That's good," she said. "It's my specialty to catch things..."
Rin's smile faded slightly, as if she understood her own words as she said them and regretted them.
Kai sighed. "Rin."
"No, but listen," Rin continued, already turning her head as if looking for an invisible trail. "If it's not aggressive, we're not at risk, so we can at least try."
Kai looked at her, tired. "You almost died of fright."
"That's an emotion. It's not an argument."
Kai pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, but is it worth anything at least?"
Rin turned her head toward him, indignant.
"Everything is worth something."
Kai raised an eyebrow.
"As long as it contains mana," Rin clarified, as if she were lecturing him. "And given its camouflage, I guarantee there will be buyers."
Kai stared at her for two seconds, then sighed. "You want to hunt something you can't even see."
Rin smiled. "I want to hunt something that criticizes me for trying to catch it."
Kai hesitated. He looked at the path, then at the grass, then at the horizon where the city must be somewhere behind the hills.
"If we go too far, we'll get lost," he said.
"We're not babies," Rin replied. "Find us something to spot it."
Kai froze. "Something?"
Rin smiled, satisfied. "A Skill."
Kai closed his eyes for a second, as if negotiating with himself. Then he sighed.
"It better be worth it," he said.
Rin already started walking in the direction it had fled, leaving the path without hesitation.
Kai used Thalior quickly and chose his new Skill.
[Epic] Mastery: Mana Detection. Remaining points: 1.
At that moment, he realized.
The display has really changed! It's like this morning. Is it because I mentioned points yesterday?
Time resumed. And Kai tried it.
He activated a simple, discreet power that made points of density appear in his perception: sources of mana, weak or strong, like heat spots in the air. At first, he only saw small things. Insects. Roots. Imbued stones.
They walked for about ten minutes through the grass and small hills, keeping the sun behind them, trying not to lose sight of the road for too long. Rin would stop occasionally, as if waiting for the ground to speak to her.
Then, near a flat area of land where nothing seemed out of the ordinary, he saw a spot. A large one. A dense, motionless circle about a meter in diameter.
Kai slowed down. "It's there."
Rin narrowed her eyes. "Where?"
Kai pointed to the ground. "There."
Rin approached cautiously and stared at the spot as if she could force reality to reveal itself. "I don't see anything."
"That's the point of it," Kai replied, focused.
He began to materialize a throwing knife. Thin, fairly long, well-balanced. And above all, very sharp. Rin grabbed his wrist before the blade was even complete.
"What are you doing?"
Kai blinked, surprised by the violence of her grip. "I'm killing it."
Rin stared at him as if he had said something horrible. "No."
"Rin, we're not here to—"
"Alive," Rin cut him off, tightening her grip a little more. "We're capturing it alive."
Kai frowned. "Why?"
Rin inhaled as if the question hurt her personally. "Because it'll be worth more. And mostly because it's the whole challenge."
Kai looked at his wrist, then at her face. "I'm learning that your ego is a renewable resource."
"You should learn not to kill everything that moves."
Kai sighed. He released the knife, and the material dissipated.
"All right," he said, pointing at the ground. "It's right there. Between the little rock and—"
Rin took a step. Half a step too many. The ground exploded. The mass rose suddenly, and the cloud of dust slammed into their faces.
Rin cursed and reflexively whipped her chain into the air. Too slow. Too late. The ray zigzagged and darted along the ground, disappearing back into the grass in seconds. Rin stood frozen, mouth agape, her eyes empty with rage.
Kai watched the movements of the mana through the cloud intently. Rin then turned to Kai, slowly, almost threateningly.
Kai raised his hands. "Don't look at me like that, I didn't move."
Rin blinked. "It must have heard you."
Kai rubbed his forehead. "Okay, one more try. But if it runs away again, I'll kill it on the next one."
Rin opened her mouth.
Kai cut her off immediately. "We're already far away. We're wasting time. I don't want us to get lost or come back empty-handed just because you want to prove something to a flying carpet."
Rin stared at him, ready to fight. Then she gritted her teeth and nodded. "Okay, fine."
Kai resumed tracking the mana. They walked for a few more minutes, more attentive, slower. And this time, Kai raised his hand to indicate he had found it.
She just muttered, frustrated, "I still can't see anything."
Kai looked at the mana spot, thought for a moment, then announced his plan.
"It has a simple reaction at first," he said. "Before zigzagging, it moves away in the exact opposite direction of the threat."
Rin narrowed her eyes. "You mean it goes straight, and only then does it become unpredictable."
"Yes."
Rin thought for a moment, then a slow smile returned. "So... we force it to go straight?"
Kai nodded. "That's the plan."
He materialized something new. Not a weapon. A thin but strong net, like reinforced canvas, and he attached it along Rin's chain, tying it so that it could deploy when she whipped.
Rin watched, intrigued. "You can make that too? That's cool."
Kai didn't answer. He was focused. "You're not aiming at the ray."
"Huh?"
Kai pointed to an empty area slightly in front of the spot. "Here. Your chain cuts across its path. Perpendicularly."
Rin frowned, then understood. Her eyes lit up. "You're going to position yourself behind it?"
"I'll be the threat this time," Kai confirmed. "It'll run straight ahead as usual."
Rin was already testing the tension of the net with her fingertips, smiling. "And the net catches it."
"And you," Kai added, staring at her, "just send a little shock. Not an execution."
Rin raised her hands. "Yes, Dad."
Kai rolled his eyes. "Focus."
They took their positions. Rin on the side, ready, the chain held low. Kai made a wide arc to get behind the mana spot without getting too close. He held his breath. Then he moved forward.
The ray reacted instantly. The ground rose, the cloud of dust shot up, and the mass took off. Straight ahead. Rin immediately threw her chain at the first sign of movement. Exactly where Kai had told her to.
The chain passed like a barrier, and the net unfolded into an invisible curtain in the air. The ray tried to slip underneath. And it got caught in the net. It struggled with crazy speed, trying to flee without success.
Rin gritted her teeth and, without hesitation, released a short burst of energy. A sharp shock. The ray flinched and lost its rhythm.
Kai leaped. He threw himself onto the net just as the animal tried to move again, pressing his weight down on it to prevent it from gaining speed. The ray vibrated beneath him, slapping the ground repeatedly to free itself.
Kai materialized a second, shorter chain and wrapped it around the net, tightening the flat shape. The ray still struggled, but its movements were now futile.
Rin looked at him, her eyes shining.
"We got it," she said.
Kai stood up, sweating, and glanced toward the path. "Now let's get back before you decide to hunt something else."
Rin smiled. "I hear dragons are worth a lot."
Kai stared at her.
Rin raised her hands. "Just kidding."
They returned to the road with the ray packed in the net, held by Kai's materialized chain. Rin carried it far too proudly. Almost skipping behind Kai.
Time passed. The landscape changed slightly, the hills becoming more pronounced, the road more worked on, better maintained. And after more than an hour, at the top of a gentle climb, the view opened up.
Elronde. The city finally appeared. A wide river flowed to the north, seeming to embrace the city. The immense wall formed a semicircle to the south, with regular towers and gates built into recesses.
Around the walls were fields, small houses, and roads. An outer city, already bustling with life. Kai stood still for a second. So did Rin.
"It's..." Rin began.
"Huge," Kai finished.
They were approaching from the southwest. In front of them, several roads converged and then separated again near the entrance. Two large gates formed this entrance.
On the left, a more traditional gate with a short line. A few travelers on foot, a few carriages.
On the right, a much wider gate, almost an infrastructure in itself: a pedestrian line and two lanes for carts. These weren't travelers.
They were caravans. Trailers full of monster carcasses, sometimes humans. Crates, cages, watertight containers. Even those on foot had huge bags, visible weapons, heavy cloaks. Everyone seemed to belong to a world of commerce and danger.
Rin tightened her grip on the net as if she wanted to protect it from a world that was too big. "We're going left."
Kai nodded, relieved to see fewer people. They approached the left gate. A guard stopped them immediately. His gaze slid from their faces to their weapons, then settled on the package in the net.
He pointed with his chin. "For carcasses, it's to the right."
Rin lifted her chin. "It's alive."
The guard blinked. Then he stared at Rin. Then Kai. "Are you new here?"
Kai answered before Rin. "We're from the dungeon. Verdant Cradle."
The guard flinched slightly in surprise. Then his eyes returned to the net.
"You captured that?" he said, incredulous. "Alive?"
Rin held up her trophy, smiling and proud. "Yes."
The guard rubbed his mustache, then sighed. "All right. Listen up."
He pointed to the door on the right. "The left is for civilians. Simple arrivals. The right... that's handled by the guilds."
Rin frowned. "So?"
"So all goods, whatever they may be, and especially carcasses..." He paused, his gaze fixed on the net. "And living things, go through them before entering."
Kai felt his energy collapse at once just looking at the line on the right.
Rin shrugged. "Let's go."
Kai stared at her. "Rin..."
Rin cut him off. "We have to go through it anyway. To register. And to show the Matriarch's heart."
Kai gritted his teeth, then nodded.
"Thank you very much," he said to the guard before walking away.
Rin looked at him strangely, quickly caught up with him, and whispered, "What a gentleman you are."
Kai sighed at having to justify himself for that. "We're likely to be here for a while, so it would be good if you learned to present yourself well."
Rin held out the ray in front of him and smiled. "It will do that for me."
They crossed over, reached the door on the right, and joined the queue. Time became a matter of substance. In front of them, carts moved slowly forward, checked and inspected. People talked with representatives wearing emblems. Scribes took notes. Guards checked. You could feel the cold organization of a machine running for money but also for security.
Kai looked at the ray, wrapped up, motionless.
"I'm starting to wonder if this ray was really worth it," he muttered.
Rin turned her head toward him, outraged. "Shh. You're going to offend her."
Kai stared at her. "Her, huh?"
Rin remained perfectly serious. "Yes, she will give us the good image you want so much."
Kai sighed, half resigned, half amused in spite of himself.
The line moved forward. Slowly. Very slowly. And finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it was their turn. A shadow fell over them as they reached the front of the line, and a calm voice said, "Next."
Rin looked up. The emblem pinned to the man's chest was a fang she recognized instantly.