As the sky gradually darkened, Eileen and Atia stopped in front of a large tree.
“We’ve already been walking for an entire day. How come we still can’t even see the shadow of the neighboring city…”
Eileen directly threw her backpack onto the ground and plopped down, leaning against the tree.
Atia looked troubled and explained, “Miss Eileen, the neighboring city of Nils is over a hundred kilometers away from Crisel. We’ve only walked for one day and haven’t even covered half the distance yet. It’s still very far…”
“It’s that far?”
Eileen felt completely numb.
In the game, she had always used teleportation arrays directly. She thought the neighboring city wasn’t that far and that walking for a day would get them there. She never expected they wouldn’t even be halfway.
Right now, she was so exhausted that her legs were trembling. She couldn’t even take half a step…
When she created the character Eileen, she had chosen the mage class. She had put all her initial skill points into Intelligence and Mana, with zero points allocated to Stamina.
After all, according to her understanding, a mage was basically a mobile artillery platform. During battle, aside from using a small amount of movement to dodge fatal attacks, they basically didn’t need much stamina.
Plus, movement in the game was done directly through teleportation arrays, so something like stamina was even more useless.
But now, she finally understood the importance of stamina…
If she had known this would happen, she would have rather kept her Intelligence at the initial nine points and put all her skill points into Stamina instead.
“Um… Miss Eileen, don’t be so pessimistic. At the speed we’re going today, we should arrive in about two more days.”
Atia tried to comfort her.
But the moment she said that, Eileen felt even more despair.
Two more days?
Today they had been extremely lucky. They hadn’t encountered any trouble along the way. This was also thanks to the adventurers from Crisel having already cleaned up most of the magical beasts around the city.
But the further they went, the higher the probability of encountering magical beasts would become. Whether they could maintain today’s speed at that point was a big question mark.
If they ran into monsters or bandits on the way, the time needed would probably increase even more.
But at this point, saying anything was useless.
The arrow had already been loosed from the bow. There was no turning back.
Besides, she really didn’t want to be sold to that kind of place…
“Let’s rest here for tonight and continue tomorrow.”
“Alright. Um… I’ll go start a fire.”
Atia worked very efficiently. In no time, she had lit a fire. She took a small copper pot to the nearby stream, fetched some water, and set it over the fire to boil. Then she threw in bread that was hard enough to be used as bricks and a small piece of preserved meat. She gently stirred it with a soup ladle.
Watching Atia busily working, Eileen couldn’t help but ask, “Atia, did you used to do this kind of work before?”
Atia’s hand paused while stirring the soup. She gave a light laugh and answered, “When I was little and working odd jobs in a merchant caravan, I was often responsible for cooking. But it’s been a long time, so I’m a bit rusty now.”
Eileen raised an eyebrow. “You were already working with a merchant caravan when you were little?”
The Navora Principality wasn’t a large country, and its population was relatively small. But precisely because of that, its citizens’ welfare was much higher than that of neighboring countries.
Generally speaking, in a normal family environment, children wouldn’t participate in social labor before reaching adulthood. At most, they would help with some farm work at home.
Someone like Atia, who had been working with a merchant caravan since she was little, was actually in the minority.
“Yes…”
Atia nodded. The smile on her face was somewhat bitter. “I… don’t have parents. When I was little, I was picked up by people from the merchant caravan. But they didn’t seem to like me. They would hit me whenever they were in a bad mood. And ever since I can remember, I’ve had to rely on my own labor to earn food. So I often did all kinds of odd jobs that no one else wanted to do.
Later, when they thought I was old enough, they planned to sell me to that kind of place. That night, I took advantage of the darkness and escaped. I wandered around until I reached Crisel…”
“And in the end, you almost got sold to that kind of place again by the Light Society in Crisel?”
Eileen teased with a light laugh.
Atia immediately buried her head in embarrassment.
She had thought that after escaping the first time, everything would be fine. But she had almost failed to escape the second time.
If Eileen hadn’t been there back then, she would have probably already…
“I’m sorry, Miss Eileen. I didn’t mean to say so much without realizing it. I wasn’t trying to complain to you. It’s just that I couldn’t help it…”
“It’s fine. It’s boring at night anyway. Chatting helps pass the time.”
Eileen now finally understood why this girl’s affection had skyrocketed from fifty to ninety after just a few sweet words from her.
For someone who had never been loved since childhood, sudden affection could easily make them fall.
This was experience she had summed up from playing galgames for so many years. And relying on this experience, she had already romanced no fewer than several hundred female characters with backgrounds similar to Atia’s.
She was certain that if she became lovers with Atia right now and maxed out her affection, it would only take a few sweet words.
“Um… Miss Eileen, dinner is ready. You eat first.”
Atia carefully placed a damp cloth under the small copper pot and brought it in front of Eileen. “It’s still a bit hot. You can let it cool for a while before drinking.”
The soup in the pot was steaming. It looked dark and didn’t smell particularly good. But the sense of satisfaction and happiness that came from having someone personally bring her hot, cooked food was something Eileen had never experienced before.
In the game, quite a few female characters she had romanced would cook for her personally. But that had always been separated by a screen. She couldn’t feel the warmth within it.
But now…
In that instant, Eileen felt a little moved.
Maybe actually becoming lovers with Atia wouldn’t be such a bad thing. However, this time she didn’t plan to wait until she maxed out the affection like she did in the game and then break up for various reasons.
“Atia, come eat together too.”
“Wait a moment, Miss Eileen. Let me clean up here first. I’ll be right there…”
ROAR!!!
Before she could finish speaking, a beast’s roar instantly tore through the night sky.
In an instant, birds and beasts scattered. The forest, which had already fallen asleep, was instantly awakened.
Atia’s hand trembled. The small pot in her hand was knocked over and spilled onto the ground. She stared in terror toward the distance.
“M-Miss Eileen, this is…”
“It’s probably not something good…”
Eileen’s brows were tightly furrowed. Goosebumps had risen all over her body.
As a mage, she was especially sensitive to the flow of magic power in her surroundings.
The moment the roar sounded, a chaotic surge of magic power swept across the entire area like a hurricane.
Thud! Thud! Thud…
Immediately afterward, heavy footsteps echoed continuously. The ground trembled slightly, as if whatever it was was getting closer and closer… or rather…
It was coming straight for them.
The next second, a dark shadow appeared in front of them.
With the help of the campfire’s light, the dark shadow gradually became clear.
It was a humanoid monster nearly three meters tall.
It had a massive bull’s head on its neck, bull hooves and a bull’s tail, and its entire body was covered in bulging muscles. In its hand, it held a rusty one-handed axe with some dark red stains on it. It was likely the remains of victims who had died miserably under its axe.
Eileen sucked in a cold breath.
An A-rank magical beast — Minotauros!
“M-Miss Eileen, you run! I-I’ll hold it off!”
Although Atia was already trembling all over from fear, she resolutely stood in front of Eileen.
Just like how Eileen’s hands had been shaking that morning, yet she had still held onto her hand.
[You have encountered an A-rank magical beast in the wild. What is your choice?]
[A. Fight: The power gap is too great. Certain defeat.]
[B. Run: 10% chance of success.]
[C. Sacrifice the teammate, mana becomes boundless: Use Atia Knight as a meat shield. Success rate increases to 70%.]