<~> Chapter 146"Please e again!" The young waitress waved enthusiastically after us as we filed out of the restaurant.

  Silva stepped up o me. "If we're going to be headed out of the city we should probably pick up a hunting ission. That will speed up our exit ary ba."

  I nodded. "Sure, does that mean we o find an adventurer's guild that isn't burned down?"

  Torien shook her head. "No, I heard they're taking issiht at the gates. We just head on over."

  "Should we head out the gate we came in at or is there ahat would make more sense?" I asked.

  Raya pointed off into the distahat one is the closest to the hunting grounds. I've never left the city before but a friend of mine used to talk a lot with this local hunter guy."

  I turo Raya once we started heading that dire. "You've never left this city?"

  She shrugged. "Never had any reason to."

  "Most of the girls at the Ruby Vixen haven't," Sibyl said, joining the versation, "It's not impossible to try your lu another city but all of the girls who have e from another city, or even just e from a different brothel, usually end up staying with us until they retire. Oe runs the pce well and does a good job proteg all of us. Some of the girls pin about the cut she takes but the people who have worked other pces know that cut is worth it. Oe is smart and she uses her gold well. I haven't heard any pints sihe food she began. She hasn't increased the cut or been charging for food or b siher."

  Raya ughed. "You make her out to be a saint but you'd be lying if you said she didn't like the money."

  The bck cat grinned. "No, she's no saint. Like I said though, she's smart. She's saved her money so that she buy loyalty now. The Ruby Vixen isn't the only brothel iy that has been starving and everyone knows it."

  "Did you ever want to travel Sibyl?" I asked.

  "I have traveled actually, I've been to most of the cities here in Torlimal and a few outside of the try back when I was an adventurer."

  "What!" Raya stopped and turo Sibyl in shock. "You old me you were an adventurer!"

  "Yeah... I don't like to talk about it but I don't think any of you would be put off by my choices. A long time ago, I took this boung gig from a feisty snake-folk woman. After a week I vinced her to let me take a few ers myself and two months after that I vinced her to take me on as the brothel's cook. That was before she was renting out food and b to the girls. One day she was talking to me about finances and after I got a sneak peek at her ledgers, I decided on the spot to dump my savings into her business and 'retire' from adventuring. Most of the irls don't know this but I'm actually part owner of the Ruby Vixen."

  Raya's brows furrowed. "Sibyl I didn't know any of that... Why are you only telling me about this now? I would have loved hearing stories about your adventuring days."

  Sibyl's ears went back. "I... didn't want ao know. A lot of people don't like adventurers but even more people don't like whores. If people knew I took a 'step down' the social dder, I felt like they would ridicule me the way my old party did. Since... ging, I feel safer. I feel like I trust others more, especially you Raya."

  Raya didn't reply with words, instead, she grabbed Sibyl's hand as we walked along. The rest of the trip to the gate was a bit quieter but we gave the two knowing gnces as they walked hand in hand. I would bet mohat the two would get together by the end of the day, my nosiness wouldn't be required.

  Eventually, the rge southern gate came into view where parties of adventurers were standing around even at this time of day. There was a bounty board on the wall and it only took a go see that it was basically all jobs looking for meat and wild vegetables.

  "Do we o take one of these or we just go hunting?" I asked.

  Torien shook her head. "Not sure, we should ask somebody."

  I saw a guard casually talking with a group of adventurers, I walked over and waved. "Hey, I wao know if we o take one of those jobs or if we should just bring baything we and figure it out ter."

  The human man turo me and smiled. "Hey, you're that demon hunter from yesterday. I wouldn't expeeone like you to be out hunting for food too. Yeah, that board is mainly just to show the prices the city is buying game at right now in case someone wants to try and find something specifially we require someoister a hunting lise to use the hunting grounds but we're waiving that right now. Just be careful out there, there are a lot of hunting parties and uh..." He gnced up at my horns. "Someone might mistake you for their quarry. We've had a few friendly fire is already."

  "Sure, I'll be careful. Thanks," I said.

  I walked bay party who were looking over the bounty board.

  "Looks like we're allowed to go hunting, the things on the boards are just prices. The guard warned me to be careful of friendly fire though."

  Torien nodded. "It's on enough, we'll have to be careful not to run into anyone."

  "Are there any worries about overhunting?" I asked.

  "No, it's spring so there should be plenty of game for a while. Things would have been a lot worse if we were headed into winter," Torien replied.

  We spent some time registering at the gate, I was worried there would be an issue with Raya ing with us but Torien had me mark her as being escorted by us. A detail that had Raya crag up with ughter. Not too long after we were headed out into the lightly wooded hills south of the city.

  I turoward Man. "We came out here to show Raya some magic, where would be a good pce to stop?"

  She shrugged. "Anywhere is fine really, just nowhere we're likely to be mistaken for a prey animal. Maybe up on one of those hills over there." She said pointing.

  Torien smiled. "I try and trae things nearby of there while you guys work at that."

  I looked at Silva before looking back at Torien. "We shouldn't go anywhere alone, how about you and Silva scout together? Would that be alright?"

  Torien tilted her head. "I don't know, how much scouting have you done Silva? Do you think you could move silently with me?"

  "Not a problem. I haven't done a lot of hunting but moving quietly should be fine."

  Torien nodded. "That sounds fio me the's find a good pce to set up."

  We walked over to one of the hills and found a nice spot overlooking some of the woods. The trees weren't particurly de the woods stretched on for a while. The small forest looked iionally groomed to support animals without being too hard for people to navigate during hunting season.

  Torien's ear flicked a few times. "So how do you want to do this once I've found something?"

  "What do you think? I could stay here and wait with Bel while Man and Raya work on magic, or I could follow you at a distance. Which would be better?" I asked.

  Torien cupped her . "It might be easier if I just go hunting with Silva and e back to grab you if we're not able to carry it."

  "Why don't you take Mimi with you?" I turo Mimi. She was looking around at all of the trees. She had been in the forest before but this time she was showing more active iha time we were outside the city.

  Torien smiled, "That sounds like a good idea. What do you say, Mimi? Do you want to e with us and help us carry whatever we mao hunt? I know that you're pretty good at moving quietly."

  Mimi shrugged. "Okay. It could be fun."

  "Alright then Mimi, listen to Torien out there. She knows more about going through the woods than we do. She probably teach you a lot about the area."

  "Really?" Mimi perked up and looked at Torien.

  Torien patted Mimi on the shoulder. "Sure, I don't mind teag you about hunting and the woods. We'll have to be quiet though, we don't want to scare away any animals."

  Mimi waved at me before following Torien and Silva on their hunt.

  "Do you think she'll be okay with the two of them?" Bel asked.

  I smiled, "She'll be fine. I think it'll be good for them to get to know each other better, they don't share the bond with her the way the two of us do."

  Bel sighed. "I suppose."

  "Great! So now we learn magic right?" Raya asked with enthusiasm.

  Man chuckled and sat down in the grass cross-legged. "Sure, like I said though, it might be pretty difficult in the beginning. Do you have mana sight or a simir skill?"

  Raya shook her head. "No, I never knew if I had any affinity with magitil I got a karma skill that enhances my fire magic."

  "Iing. Well, if you have an ability like that then I would bet your affinity is pretty high. In that case, I'll use fire mana to see if we get you seeing or perceiving it."

  Man took Raya's hands and started drawing some of the ambient fire magi the air towards them. She wasn't eling it into any spells yet but was swirling it between them.

  "I think I feel something. It feels warm." Raya looked around, trying to look at what she was feeling.

  Man nodded. "That's good, that means you're close to a mana sensing ability, though probably not mana sight. Maybe something more like mana sense like Lilith, or maybe something more physical." Man slowed the pattern around them and instead maniputed the nearby magic to crash against them in waves before flowing around them.

  "I feel something! It's different now, are you trolling it?"

  "I am," Man said with a smile. "Okay, I want you to close your eyes for this part and focus on the feeling." Man pulled Raya's hands open, palm up, and began trating the fire mana above her hands.

  Raya's eyes were closed and sched up.

  "Do you feel it? What does it feel like to you?" Man asked.

  Raya nodded. "It feels like I'm holding my hands up to a warm stove. Warm though, not hot."

  "Good, now I'm going to start spinning the mana slowly, I want you to try reag out and grabbing hold of the mana, not with your body but with your mind."

  The foxy-kitsune nodded sched up her fa tration.

  "Rex Raya, o force it. It'll feel clumsy but you should be able to reach out and touch it. o give yourself a headache, it's more like meditating."

  Raya let out a breath. "Okay, I'll try." This time she looked calmer ahe tension out of her back.

  At first, I didn't notice the ge but some of the mana started to shift. Only small amounts at first but soon a lot of the mana began to fight the current Man was making with her magitrol.

  Man's eyes widened and she grinned. "That's it, Raya, you're doing great. Keep going like that!"

  Raya nodded but didn't break her tration. More and more of the mana broke away from Man's current and even began to flow in the opposite dire. The mana moved differently now though, rather than being individual motes, the mana in Raya's trol began to clump up and flow in waves. The new ribbons of mana slowly took on more and more of the fire mana, now it was rapidly swirling in the opposite dire and even started growing as Raya's own mana began to mix with it.

  "Okay Raya, that's enough, slow down or you'll—"

  Then the fire ignited into a blue fme over Raya's palms which caused all of us watg to jump back, including Man. A wave of heat spshed over all of us as the blue fire dissipated and Raya opened her eyes.

  "Guys! I got a new css! New skills! A new spell!" Raya started to jump up but quickly fell over. "Oh gods, I suddenly feel super sick."

  Sibyl sat dowo her and rubbed her back. "That's mana siess, looks like you went a little too fast and used up all your mana. You're lucky you didn't pass out."

  "Are your hands okay?" Bel reached for one and tur over but there wasn't any kind of mark or even redness where the fire had been.

  Raya nodded her head and then immediately groaned. "Oh man, I 't move like that... One of my new skills says I'm immuo foxfire, and the new spell I got lets me create it..."

  Man peeked down at her face with a grin. "gratutions, you're a mage now!"

  Raya then promptly sat up, turned away from us, and puked all over the grass.

  Saine

  Hello! Poor Raya, magi be a little unpleasant sometimes. Hopefully she struggles through!

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