Levi was pretty sure Liliya didn’t like him very much.

  They had spent the past day traveling through the lands of Luminarche to reach the Grove of Embers. The eastern region of Luminarche was fairly temperate, composed mostly of open prairies, mountainous hills, and dense patches of forests.

  They’d been attacked twice – once by a band of goblins, the other a pack of dire wolves. As per Liliya’s wishes in the library, Levi had sat both battles out and left everything to her. He’d even enjoyed a nice cup of tea while she battled the goblins.

  Okay, admittedly, that one had partly been him messing with her. He couldn’t resist the opportunity. Hey, the trip was boring.

  Liliya was strong. That much was immediately evident. Her every swing of the sword was nothing short of perfection, and he could see the countless hours of training she’d poured into honing her swordsmanship. There were no wasted movements, no openings, no errors or mishaps.

  As was the case with Winthrop, the amount of mana she expended didn’t line up with the power of her attacks. Now that Levi knew what to look for, he could almost see how the System augmented and enhanced her strikes. That wasn’t to say Liliya’s personal swordsmanship skills didn’t matter, but the System definitely aided it to a degree. Her sword glowed faintly with a silver light, and its tip left ghostly silvery-violet trails through the air.

  After the fight, he’d noted with some interest how Liliya had used the [Loot] skill on the goblins. He didn’t have access to this; the only skill he’d managed to use successfully so far was [Status]. Everything else was locked from him due to his restricted account status.

  The skill had automatically stripped the goblins of everything: their weapons, the stolen goods they’d been carrying, even their fucking teeth. Now that had been disgusting; Levi had watched the cheeks of a hundred goblin corpses simultaneously sink into themselves. The loot apparently had been automatically deposited into Liliya’s inventory space.

  He really hoped there was a way to clean it out afterward.

  Levi had tried to analyze the curious spatial magic behind the skill, but he couldn’t figure it out. He would do more research into it later; he knew mages who would’ve killed for a completely inaccessible personal pocket dimension in his previous world.

  He didn’t know what it said about this world that all adventurers by default had a System skill that automatically plundered the corpses of their fallen enemies. He supposed it was efficient, if nothing else.

  At least it hadn’t stripped the goblins of their clothing. Now that would’ve been fucking terrifying.

  Afterward, he had committed a faux pas while asking her questions. That had been an honest mistake; he had no idea a person’s stats were supposed to be private information. He supposed it made sense. Revealing one’s abilities was something he would’ve balked at as well.

  They had encountered some dire wolves after that. One of them had lunged at Levi, then instantly become scared stiff when it caught the lingering scent of Death on him. The poor thing.

  As they continued on their journey, Levi gradually became aware of just how inefficient their route was. They were taking a roundabout course to the Grove of Embers, seemingly avoiding all the areas where he sensed the ambient magic to be denser and stronger. Probably because that was where the more powerful monsters dwelled and the higher-tier dungeons were located.

  Then, nighttime finally arrived. After another heated lecture from Liliya about the importance of preparation and bringing mandated mission supplies, he had volunteered to take the first watch as a token of apology.

  He wasn’t going to be sleeping anytime soon anyway, so might as well.

  Liliya had taken his offer with a curt nod, told him explicitly to not leave their campsite for any reason, then promptly disappeared into her tent.

  Now alone, Levi sat on the grass, munching on a ration bar she’d given him as he peered up at the twinkling stars above.

  The sky was all wrong. Some stars were misplaced, some weren’t supposed to exist, some were where they physically could not be. The constellations that once steadfastly guided him throughout the night were all dead and gone.

  Levi felt an odd sense of loss at that.

  The moon itself was a perfect sphere, just like the previous few nights. It didn’t seem to have any phases in this world, though it could also just be on a delayed cycle. More importantly, however…

  Levi tried his best to ignore the prickling unease he felt whenever he looked at the moon. Surely, it was just his imagination.

  Finishing up his ration bar, he let out a satisfied sigh. He hadn’t brought anything because he’d thought they would hunt and forage for food. That was what he normally did in the wilderness, anyway.

  For several minutes, he just sat there, leaning back on his hands and enjoying the night breeze. Next to him, he could hear the soft sound of Liliya’s breathing through the fabric of her tent. She had told him to wake her up in four hours. Around thirty minutes had passed already.

  Sweet. That left him about three hours to leave their campsite and go explore.

  Levi hopped to his feet, cracked his neck, and stretched his back. Then he turned to the direction they’d come from. Off in the distance, he could see glimpses of tall trees and dense foliage.

  Earlier, they had looped around a forest that positively reeked of ambient magic. He was curious to see what lay within.

  Waving his hand in an intricate pattern, he first cast a proximity alert spell around their campsite, then a defensive charm on Liliya’s tent. It wasn’t his best spellwork – he needed a proper magical focus for that – but it was good enough.

  The proximity alert spell would alert him if anyone or anything came within ten meters of the campsite, and the defensive charm on the tent would protect anyone inside long enough for Levi to return. He had picked a few things up after spending three years on the run.

  Then, he wrapped his magic around himself, felt about for the fabrics of space and reality, and teleported.

  He reappeared in front of the forest, tensing up as he adjusted to the change in location. A mage was always at their most vulnerable in the instant right after teleporting. Thankfully, nothing attacked, and he relaxed a moment afterward.

  At the entrance of the forest, the ambient magic in the air was noticeably thicker, an almost tangible scent in the air.

  Without wasting any time, Levi headed straight in. All around him, massive trees stretched up to the sky, the leaves above forming a dense canopy that barely let the moonlight through. Thankfully, Levi’s reinforcement enhanced his eyesight as well; otherwise, he’d be nearly blind.

  As he walked through the forest, he marveled at the towering flora; some of the trunks were wider than an elephant. The roots twisted across the forest floor, covered with moss and dead leaves. Fungi grew on the ground, red and blue and purple species that he had never seen before, and he mentally made a note to consult a botanical tome once he got back so he could differentiate between the edible and poisonous ones.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  That was a mistake he wasn’t looking to repeat anytime soon.

  The deeper into the forest he went, the denser the foliage became. He had to use Sever several times to clear a path, the branches and vines falling to the ground around him as he continued his journey inward. The ambient magic was growing stronger as well.

  A cluster of flowers, each the size of a small melon, ringed the base of a tree. Their petals were a stunning gradient of red, orange, and purple. He stopped in place, taking a brief moment to admire them.

  Naturally, that was the exact moment a giant spider dropped on top of him.

  Levi reacted instantly, slicing his hand upward and unleashing a Sever and Cleave. His magic tore through the spider’s lines of death and it perished, falling to the ground in neatly divided chunks. A barrier shimmered to life around Levi, shielding him from the splatters of bluish blood and gore. The barrier faded away a second later, to reveal him surrounded by spiders on all sides.

  They were all gigantic, the smallest the size of a horse and the largest bigger than a house. Their mandibles clacked together menacingly, their long fangs dripped with venom, and their legs and abdomen vibrated in place, making a persistent buzzing sound.

  A magical buzzing sound, Levi realized after a moment. The sound waves were laced with magic, probably meant to paralyze or stun their prey, or perhaps even hypnotize.

  Fortunately, Levi already had a countermeasure for that. In his past, after being ambushed by sound-based attacks one too many times, it had become a habit for him to constantly have a sliver of magic enveloping his eardrums. The magic automatically filtered out harmful frequencies, decibels, and external magic of any kind. He kept this running at all times, even when he was asleep. Especially when he was asleep. As such, the buzzing had zero effect.

  Incidentally, he also had a constant coating of magic protecting his lungs from poison gas, and a reflective film of magic covering his corneas that acted like mirrored lenses, protecting him from any abilities that required direct eye contact.

  He was paranoid. Sue him.

  “You don’t want to do this,” Levi said, hoping the tone of his voice would carry his intent. “I suggest you back away.”

  The spiders responded by charging at him, the forest ground underneath trembling from their multi-legged stampede.

  Levi vanished in a blur of speed. He reappeared above the first spider, its eight eyes simultaneously flickering upward in alarm. He brought his hand down and a crescent arc of magic sliced downward, severing it in two. He didn’t even bother aiming for the lines of death this time; these spiders weren’t durable enough to require it. He had cut through four more spiders like butter before they realized what was happening.

  The spiders changed tactics quickly, leaping to the trees and shooting thick strands of webs from multiple angles. Levi dodged them with ease, noting that the webs stuck to anything they touched and instantly hardened to be stronger than steel. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed the spiders arranging themselves into a specific formation, the webs becoming more and more difficult to dodge.

  No matter. Levi’s magic coiled inward, layered over itself dozens of times in a single moment, before exploding outward in a barrage of Severs that burst through the air faster than the speed of sound.

  For a split second, everything was still. Then, the spiders, the webs, and the trees around them were all sundered apart, coming undone at the seams. Aged bark let out groans of protest and the rustles of a million leaves filled the air as massive trees toppled to the ground with resounding crashes. Dust and debris went flying up as Levi stood in the middle of it all, looking completely relaxed.

  The few surviving spiders hurriedly scurried away. Levi didn’t bother chasing after them. Instead, he smiled, relishing the satisfying hum of his magic flowing within him.

  After a whole day of boredom, it felt good finally letting his magic loose a little.

  Time to see what else awaited him inside the forest.

  Around two and a half hours later, he returned to the campsite. His clothes were utterly spotless, and he didn’t have a single scratch on his person.

  It had been an interesting experience, exploring the forest. He had run into vines that tried to strangle him, a large bear that tried to eat him, clumps of slimes that tried to suffocate him, and several deers with golden antlers. Those, at least, had been harmless. He had waded through a trickling stream barefoot and nearly gotten bitten by a water serpent whose scales were translucent. He had slaughtered even more giant spiders as they returned to avenge their comrades. After a few dozen or so died, they seemed to finally receive the message, and gave him a wide berth after that.

  He had climbed to the top of one of the massive trees, fought off a hawk with talons of steel, and gazed around at the surrounding scenery. Then he had been attacked by several of the hawk’s friends, and quickly returned to the ground. Killing giant spiders was one thing, but hawks were cool. Mostly.

  All in all, it had been a pretty fun trip. He had jogged back to the camp instead of teleporting, not wanting to overstrain his body and risk magical overburn again. His body was slowly adapting, but progress was frustratingly slow. If his magical overburn ever hit in the middle of a fight… He didn’t want to think about what would happen. Thankfully, nothing in this world had pushed him to that point yet. Hopefully, it would stay that way.

  He should still have an hour before Liliya awoke. He’d use that time to run some final physical conditioning exercises before waking her up and…

  Slowly, Levi came to a stop.

  Liliya was standing there next to the oak tree, her arms crossed and her expression smoldering. If she had been irritated before, now she looked downright furious.

  “You,” she snarled.

  “Ah,” Levi said. “Me.” He hesitated. “Sorry, I had to go take a bathroom break?”

  Judging by the glare she shot him, clearly she didn’t believe his excuse.

  “Never before,” she said, her low voice filled with barely restrained fury, “have I witnessed such reckless foolishness. What part of ‘do not leave the camp under any circumstances’ did you not comprehend? What if something had happened? You amaze me, Levi Ironwood. Have you anything to say for yourself?”

  Levi carefully considered his response. “I didn’t think you would wake up before I came back?”

  Liliya narrowed her eyes.

  Levi quickly coughed. “That is to say, I apologize. I shouldn’t have gone off on my own when I’d said I would stand watch. I left you defenseless. I’m sorry.”

  He briefly debated telling her about the precautionary defensive spells he’d cast, but decided against it. He didn’t want to risk the information spreading back to her family, or worse, her to-be-fiance. Besides, she had already made it clear earlier that in this world, skills were meant to be private, only shared with trusted people and comrades. He figured he might as well take her advice on that.

  Besides, as it turned out, that wasn’t even the issue.

  “You left me defenseless?” Liliya repeated, her tone incredulous. “You think this is about me? I can take care of myself, Ironwood, watch or no watch. I was originally supposed to do this solo, remember? The issue here is that you decided to run off to god knows where all by yourself when you’re only level 14. You didn’t even bring a weapon to defend yourself!”

  “Ah. You were worried for me?”

  “You? Hardly,” Liliya said contemptuously. “But the consequences of you dying would be irritating. I’d rather avoid dealing with that if possible.”

  Levi blinked. “That’s hurtful…”

  “Get used to it. Our objectives supersede such inane matters like feelings.”

  “Huh,” Levi said. “You don’t have any friends, do you?”

  Immediately, he knew that had been the wrong thing to say. He’d meant it as nothing more than a mild barb that she could easily parry then return back to him tenfold. But instead, Liliya faltered slightly, a brief, almost raw emotion flickering across her face. Then, her entire expression became terrifyingly cold, and she gazed at him like he was nothing more than subhuman trash.

  “Levi Ironwood,” she said, quietly, not a hint of emotion to her voice. “You are, without doubt, the most contemptible, idiotic, worthless disgrace I have ever had the displeasure of meeting.”

  Levi winced. “Liliya, wait–”

  “You should get some sleep,” she said impassively, walking past and not even bothering to look at him. “We have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow. I’ll stand watch.”

  Ah fuck, he might have messed up there.

  In his defense, he hadn’t exactly expected that to hit a nerve. She was at the top of their year, widely respected, and super popular. How the hell was he supposed to know that she apparently really did have no friends?

  For some reason, Levi could just hear his old mentor laughing his ass off at him.

  Ah, well. Hindsight was 20-20, and all that. He’d give her some time to cool off. Hopefully, things would improve by morning.

  With that, he sat down, leaned back against the oak tree, and went to sleep.

  Thanks for reading!