Chapter 146

"Please come again!" The young waitress waved enthusiastically after us as we filed out of the restaurant.

Silva stepped up next to me. "If we're going to be headed out of the city we should probably pick up a hunting commission. That will speed up our exit and entry back in."

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

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

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

Raya pointed off into the distance. "That 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 turned to Raya once we started heading that direction. "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 conversation, "It's not impossible to try your luck in another city but all of the girls who have come from another city, or even just come from a different brothel, usually end up staying with us until they retire. Oceane runs the place well and does a good job protecting all of us. Some of the girls complain about the cut she takes but the people who have worked other places know that cut is worth it. Oceane is smart and she uses her gold well. I haven't heard any complaints since the food shortage began. She hasn't increased the cut or been charging for food or boarding since either."

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

The black cat grinned. "No, she's no saint. Like I said though, she's smart. She's saved her money so that she can buy loyalty now. The Ruby Vixen isn't the only brothel in the city 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 country back when I was an adventurer."

"What!" Raya stopped and turned to Sibyl in shock. "You never told 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 bouncing gig from a feisty snake-folk woman. After a week I convinced her to let me take a few customers myself and two months after that I convinced her to take me on as the brothel's cook. That was before she was renting out food and boarding 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 other girls 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 anyone to 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 ladder, I felt like they would ridicule me the way my old party did. Since... changing, I feel safer. I feel like I can 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 glances as they walked hand in hand. I would bet money that the two would get together by the end of the day, my nosiness wouldn't be required.

Eventually, the large 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 glance to see that it was basically all jobs looking for meat and wild vegetables.

"Do we need to take one of these or can 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 wanted to know if we need to take one of those jobs or if we should just bring back anything we can and figure it out later."

The human man turned to me and smiled. "Hey, you're that demon hunter from yesterday. I wouldn't expect someone 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 specific. Normally we require someone to register a hunting license 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 glanced up at my horns. "Someone might mistake you for their quarry. We've had a few friendly fire incidents already."

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

I walked back to my 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 common 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 coming with us but Torien had me mark her as being escorted by us. A detail that had Raya cracking up with laughter. Not too long after we were headed out into the lightly wooded hills south of the city.

I turned toward Morrigan. "We came out here to show Raya some magic, where would be a good place 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 can try and track some 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 fine to me then. Let's find a good place 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 particularly dense but the woods stretched on for a while. The small forest looked intentionally 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 Bella while Morrigan and Raya work on magic, or I could follow you at a distance. Which would be better?" I asked.

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

"Why don't you take Mimi with you?" I turned to 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 interest than the last time we were outside the city.

Torien smiled, "That sounds like a good idea. What do you say, Mimi? Do you want to come with us and help us carry whatever we manage to 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 can 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 teaching 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?" Bella 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."

Bella sighed. "I suppose."

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

Morrigan 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 similar skill?"

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

"Interesting. 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 can get you seeing or perceiving it."

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

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

Morrigan 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." Morrigan slowed the pattern around them and instead manipulated the nearby magic to crash against them in waves before flowing around them.

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

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

Raya's eyes were closed and scrunched up.

"Do you feel it? What does it feel like to you?" Morrigan 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 reaching out and grabbing hold of the mana, not with your body but with your mind."

The foxy-kitsune nodded scrunched up her face in concentration.

"Relax Raya, no need to force it. It'll feel clumsy but you should be able to reach out and touch it. No need to give yourself a headache, it's more like meditating."

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

At first, I didn't notice the change 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 Morrigan was making with her magic control.

Morrigan'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 concentration. More and more of the mana broke away from Morrigan's current and even began to flow in the opposite direction. The mana moved differently now though, rather than being individual motes, the mana in Raya's control 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 direction 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 flame over Raya's palms which caused all of us watching to jump back, including Morrigan. A wave of heat splashed over all of us as the blue fire dissipated and Raya opened her eyes.

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

Sibyl sat down next to her and rubbed her back. "That's mana sickness, 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?" Bella reached for one and turned it 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 can't move like that... One of my new skills says I'm immune to foxfire, and the new spell I got lets me create it..."

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

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