Chapter 65: Talismans and Trials

  Time passed quickly, and an entire month gradually went by. Emilia finally managed to find a working ratio of herbs and blood, allowing her to craft her combat talismans onto the bark of mana-rich trees. This way, she would also be able to participate in battles and develop her combat experience. Her experience with formations progressed slowly, but she could now construct the simpler lines and glyphs.

  The problem arose when she had to use slightly stronger formations. They required placing special "eyes" on the central glyphs, and this significantly stressed the formations. These eyes were most often monster cores, and the cheapest cores cost at least 40 silver coins! Emilia couldn't use cores for her experiments; she would quickly deplete her savings.

  However, she had recently begun considering a rather different solution. In the first week, she had spoken with Seladon and asked him about bone marrow.

  He had explained how difficult it was to use in alchemy, but despite that, there was a demand for it, though mainly from higher-level monsters. For weaker ones, many far cheaper alternatives still existed. He offered her an alchemical powder that could quickly harden bone marrow, and if she could correctly calculate its parameters and synchronize the formations, she would be able to use the mana inside.

  Emilia freely used her rights to read books in the library as an Acolyte of Hecate and managed to find some texts that explained how similar substances from monsters could be used. She even paid a hefty 100 silver coins to purchase two additional books with knowledge on the subject.

  She had started the month with 160 silver, had crafted 40 talismans in thirty days, totaling 960 silver coins. After taxes and other personal expenses, mostly for magical reagents, parchment, paper, and bark for talismans, and so on, 700 silver coins remained.

  This month, one of Titus's close groups found three weaker Earth Treasures, and Emilia managed to purchase two of them for 400 silver coins. She used Titus's services to remain anonymous, and after absorbing them, she managed to raise her mana to 173 units according to Piero's formula.

  Maybe I'll even start catching up to the nobles of this world, Emilia thought, filled with hope.

  She was quite ambitious, but besides nobles, there were countless apprentices of masters who were years older than her and didn't possess 170 mana. Not to mention the foundation Emilia had built up until now.

  Afterward, Emilia paid for Kael's training and contributed 50 silver for household expenses, even managing to convince her mother to reduce her work for the greedy Vitari. "Mother, I'm earning a lot of money now. There's no need for you to work."

  "Emilia, I want to develop my skills. And under no circumstances should you bring this up with your father. You'll hurt his pride. Even if you become the best talisman master in the city, he will still insist on earning the money to feed the family. You know how he is. Maybe one day, we can save money and buy our own plot of land. That way he'll be happy and proud of you."

  Emilia vowed internally to gather the necessary money, but for now, there was no need for it. Instead, she brought the best meat home, excusing it with Boss Titus's generosity. This way, everyone improved their bodies and would be protected from most illnesses.

  Emilia was in the forest again, but this time things were not going as smoothly. Right at the beginning, they were attacked by a strange magical buffalo that they couldn't hold in one place. It attacked them for hours and forced them to penetrate quite deep into the forest. Finally, the buffalo made a few mistakes and was immediately punished by Big Han's heavy halberd strikes, while Emilia used defensive talismans to erect barriers in front of it, preventing it from maneuvering freely. Titus and Lora took advantage and immediately attacked its legs, managing to immobilize it. A short battle followed, during which the group finished off the monster.

  Emilia couldn't even drain all the blood from its heart before a group of harpies attacked them. They circled above, letting out mana-enhanced shrieks, and assaulted them with air magic. Emilia was extremely grateful for her armor, as the magical creature hides were quite tough and dealt excellently with the weaker, zero-level attacks.

  Petra continuously rained arrows down on them, and Emilia also used five fireballs. At one point, however, Boss Titus gave the command to abandon the buffalo carcass and retreat. This turned out to be an excellent decision.

  Attracted by the battle, a large group of arganals, led by a level-two monster, attacked the harpies and cast a thick magical fog over the forest.

  The group lost their bearing and ventured even deeper into the forest, where they had to deal with attacks from different monster groups. Everyone sustained numerous wounds from the monsters' magic, and Big Han was struck directly by the tail of a massive Basilisk.

  The monster weighed nearly a ton, and the impact sent the large man flying a full five meters, where he crashed into a rock. The weapon he had used to block, as well as his armor, absorbed part of the blow, but nevertheless, Han was seriously injured and would have to be carried on a stretcher.

  A fierce battle followed, where Emilia expended all ten of her fireball talismans drawn on tree bark and even had to use her reserves of the expensive paper talismans.

  In the end, however, they managed to drive off the basilisk and return to the city. Everyone had to pay for armor repairs and treatment, and Big Han would have to use the extremely expensive services of an alchemist.

  And this was exactly the problem with hunters like Titus's group. They earned good money until a tragedy like this occurred, forcing them to pay huge sums for healing and new weapons.

  Big Han had saved for half a year for his halberd, and now it was ruined.

  Furthermore, the treatment alone would cost months of savings. Everyone pooled some money and paid for half of the treatment, which would cost a total of 300 silver coins. Additionally, Big Han would need to rest for at least a month and then would have to buy three months of medicine at 20 silver per month.

  The group, however, couldn't afford to wait. Titus used his connections and managed to arrange a meeting with Chief Nikos Vardas. The saying about him was:

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “They call him Chief Nikos Vardas — the man who’s been hunting longer than most of us have lived.”

  He was 180 years old, having gradually risen from the lowest levels without outside help. After becoming famous, he had refused numerous offers from nobles, and only due to the intervention of the military was he finally allowed to be the official representative of the unofficial "Hunters' Guild."

  He and his five sons helped various hunting groups by representing them before the nobles. Furthermore, they strived to support local hunters in every other way.

  Boss Titus had decided to take Emilia with him to give her the opportunity to broaden her horizons and establish future contacts.

  Nikos's house was located at the edge of the city, almost on the border of the dark forest. It was surrounded by a high fence, and from a distance, the outlines of numerous training grounds could be seen.

  At the entrance, they were greeted by one of Nikos's grandsons, who had chosen to handle administrative duties. After a brief conversation and a modest gift from Boss Titus, the two were led to a small pond, where a man as huge as a rock, with deeply tanned skin, was standing. His muscles were larger than Emilia's head, and he had a huge, shaggy mustache on his face.

  Time flew, and Nikos, at that moment, was fishing, his face strangely focused. Emilia suddenly realized that this place was filled with an enormous amount of mana. She instantly activated her skills and nearly cried out in surprise.

  Around them, there were hundreds of herbs releasing mana into the atmosphere... The lake looked small, but its depths were lost far down into the earth. Its mana was strange, somehow heavy and... a strong sense of danger emanated from it! As if the mana itself were alive.

  Boss Titus sat down on a tree stump and began to absorb the rich mana from the surrounding plants. Emilia decided to follow suit and began greedily absorbing the mana.

  The two gradually lost track of time, and the sun steadily moved a few fingers' breadth to the west.

  At one point, something stirred from the depths, and Emilia froze, ready to run at any moment. Something huge and terrifying was approaching. Moments before she decided to shout and warn the others, a strong burst of magical energy shot out from Chief Nikos's body and darted like an arrow toward the massive thing in the depths.

  A strange battle between the two auras followed—the warm and bright aura of Nikos and the dark and heavy aura of the strange creature... The battle, however, was brief. Nikos sent another dozen pulses that attacked the creature from all sides, preventing it from escaping. Then, he powerfully swung his fishing rod and began to pull hard to reel in the magical fish he had caught.

  His muscles tensed for a moment, becoming almost twice their size. Drops of sweat broke out on his forehead, and his mustache began to twitch on his face.

  Emilia felt the tension and felt like a fawn caught between a battle of two predators. She instinctively wanted to run away or hide somewhere and was ready to do exactly that at any moment. But just then, she felt Boss Titus's strong hand on her shoulder.

  "Don't be afraid, Emilia. It's just a demonic fish from the depths. Everything will be fine. Trust in the power of Chief Nikos."

  And indeed, after a few minutes, Nikos managed to win the battle and, with one last swing of his rod, pulled out a massive, strange pale fish and immediately put it into a large netted sack, reinforced with thick ropes, which he had kept folded next to him. The sack immediately inflated, taking in the fish, and Nikos slung it over his shoulder without seeming to notice the weight.

  With two powerful leaps, he disappeared for a moment, and before Emilia had time to recover from her confusion, he returned and sat down on a huge stump a few meters in front of them.

  "Sorry to keep you waiting. I've been trying to catch this fish for weeks. Not to brag, but such a huge fish isn't easily found. Ha-ha-ha."

  As he laughed, the enormous mustache pulsed with energy on his face, and magical sparks emanated from his shaggy hairs.

  "You came at the perfect time and brought me luck with my fishing. Tell me now, what do you need?"

  At that moment, the grandson who had brought them hurried over with a handful of documents and began whispering something in the huge man's ear. Gradually, a strange look appeared in Nikos's eyes, and sincere and undisguised amazement spread across his face.

  "I see. So, your name is Emilia, and you’re already involved with herbalism, talismans, and even formations. You haven’t signed one of these almost enslaving contracts with anyone, and the Great System tells me something about Hecate…"

  Here, Nikos paused and looked meaningfully at Emilia. He then continued to question Boss Titus about the last few months of hunting, his group, and the magical monsters. Finally, Titus asked for a temporary replacement for Big Han so the group could continue hunting.

  "Hmm, interesting. The harpies have become active in recent weeks. You are not the only ones attacked in this area. I'll need to send someone to scout out the reason for their unusual activity and map the area. Currently, there are two groups with injured hunters who are temporarily attached to one group or another. But you are still new and weak. Perhaps... Silva, is Varis free?"

  Varis was one of Chief Nikos's grandsons and was currently practicing a new technique. He had taken a break from hunting in the forest until he improved his technique. Nikos explained that a few weeks of rest from training would do him good and might help him skip the roadblock that was preventing him from fully mastering the technique.

  After some time, Varis appeared, large, similar to his grandfather. On his back, two enormous axes, made of ironwood, were visible, their blades crafted from hundreds of monster teeth. A strong sense of blood emanated from the axes, and their aura was incredibly heavy.

  A heavy killing intent hung around the sweat-soaked man, and he looked questioningly.

  "What is it, Grandfather?"

  "This here is little Emilia. She is quite an interesting person and a friend to the hunters. She is currently with Titus's group, and they need someone to fill the role of Big Han."

  "What, Big Han is injured? Impossible." All the hunters knew that Big Han had clashed with Varis numerous times in various hunters' tournaments, and they often competed as children. Varis, however, was not completely devoted to hunting and had decided to continue improving his martial arts and one day lead a group of adventurers to the Lost Archipelago.

  After they talked for a while and drank three cups of tea, during which Emilia was forced to answer numerous questions, Chief Nikos Vardas turned to his grandson.

  "I want you to temporarily take Big Han's place. Also, strange things have begun to happen in the forest lately, and we don't want anything bad to happen to our young friend Emilia."

  Nikos then turned to Titus.

  "I'm sending you to scout the Great Swamp to the east and find out what's causing the various first-level monsters to hide there. Three other groups will go deeper to search for the cause. We need to understand whether something has driven the monsters out of the forest or, conversely, something has attracted them to the swamp. Prepare for a longer expedition; you start in three days. Emilia, you are not one of my hunters and are welcome not to go on this expedition. But if you do decide to join, you will be under the protection of my grandson. Although it doesn't look like it, he is quite capable and will guard you. The swamp is a bit dangerous, but we cleared it two months ago, and there are no third-level monsters in the area. This will be excellent training for all of you, and there are many rare herbs in the swamp. In principle, we have a strict quota and only allow one group per month to enter there to preserve the ecology of the mana-rich swamp."

  After a brief hesitation, Emilia quickly thanked Chief Nikos and replied that she would gladly agree to participate. Then Nikos handed a badge to Emilia, and Titus squeezed Emilia's hand in surprise.

  "This is a hunter's badge. If you accept it, you become an honorary member of the hunters. This badge is recognized not only in this city, but all hunters in the kingdom have similar badges. This will give you the opportunity to participate in the profit distribution after the hunt in our group, and to benefit from discounts with some blacksmiths and alchemists, as well as to buy and sell items at the hunters' market."

  Titus continued to explain about the badges, and Emilia quickly accepted the badge with both hands and thanked Nikos once more for the privilege.

  "Ha-ha-ha. Emilia, I see great potential in you. There's no need to be so formal. If someone tries to cause you trouble in the neighborhood, show them this badge and mention my name. Let's see who in the neighborhood will have the courage to stand up against the hunters. You should know that your Uncle Nikos is a third-level Body Mage."