“G, you bite my leg the ime with all yht when I mention the possibility of starting another revenge mission.”

  “Awoo?”

  For someone like me who valued efficy above pretty much everything else, revenge was truly a waste of time… I would have given up on this if I hadn’t already ied too much time in it. It would make me feel like a moron if I did that. Still, I had the feeling that I would feel much worse soon sihis wouldn’t be easy to solve.

  After the dwarves began to advahrough the Elveory, I watched their backs for a while and waited to find signs of the Elves that joiheir sides, but they didn’t show up.

  In the end, the Elves that stayed behind in that town were forced to joiher group that came to iigate them. The same thing was happening to other towns that had some deserters, so the situation was truly being quite annoying.

  ‘I guess the deserters were told to do something else to make sure that the dwarves would trust them. They leaving their nds should already be plenty of proof that they meant business, so perhaps I am wrong about this… their task should be something else then.’

  I had no idea what that something else was… my pn to lure out that asshole failed miserably. e to think of it, this kind of pn had too many factors beyond my trol. It wasn’t reliable at all.

  I stopped to sider my options… I could just advahrough the dwarveory and then explore some byrinths to plete my f skills. Theurhe war is reag aage and then look for that asshole again. It should be easier this time around and I wouldn’t be fog too mu a sihing that was making me waste time.

  ‘... I don’t think that guy will put Cri danger, so she should be fine ohe flict starts. It isn’t certain that it will start, anyway.’

  Cheg the dwarveory should be easy, but cheg their towns and cities would be pretty hard sihey lived mainly underground. I could eheir territory, but it would meaing them have massive ces of surroundihen again, their war maes shouldn’t be that good in a fined space.

  I also was ied in their products, but it was uhat they would sell anything to me. I had the Thief css, but I wasn’t pnning to steal anything. It would be fun though to firm if I could steal something, theurn it without being noticed and then steal it again just to gain more and more experie seemed like a good way to break the system.

  “Well, no point in thinking too much, right, girl?”

  “Awoo!”

  “You are supposed to say that there is a point in thinking a lot, but I am tired of doing that, so let’s move on.”

  We headed to the dwarveory, and I told G to warn me if she sensed any magic traps ic barriers. It was hard to say if she had such senses, but she was quite high spec, so I imagihat she would.

  We began to move to the mountains while using the camoufge amulets, so no one found us. In the distance, I could see some dwarves in some tall hills surveying the area… they sure are being cautious, even though their frontline should be a couple of kilometers in Elveory already.

  When it es to defehey should be quite good, but that ractically meaningless, sihe Elves didn’t want anything with mountains, only with forests. South of their territory, there was the great sea. In the West, there was the beastkin, but they were also quite chill. That left the Northern border that lit with the Aesira Empire and the Mistralin Union… The harpies caused problems now and then, but it wasn’t much sihey didn’t like to fight in fined spaces.

  Mistralin Union was made of pixies and dryads. Pixies be quite the troublemakers, but they aren’t that violent. I tried to recall what I knew about them, but it wasn’t much sihe empire didn’t deal with them often.

  The only fa of the pixies, if it could be called that, was the whispering wind . Their goal was to spread chaos and trickery across the world. The Whispering Wind of pixies revels in mischief and pranks. They seek to disrupt the order of human and other mortal societies, believing that chaos and fusi bao a world tid in its rules. Their ultimate goal is t an era of endless uability where nothing is certain, allowing for creativity and freedom in all life.

  They were certainly a group that I wao stay clear of… while I was thinking about that, roached the base of the closest mountain and soon found traces of the dwarven society. There was a rge cave ahead that didn’t look natural, and the surrounding area had the ground covered in bribsp;

  ‘It seems too close to the border for them to make a town or city here… so it should be a military post.’

  There was a ce that the elf that I am looking for could be hiding here, but I coulder there with G. I probably could escape if I try my hardest, but G might suffer some serious injuries. Leaving her outside alone could be dangerous too.

  “Do you smell elves there?”

  “Awoo…”

  It seemed that she could… I wasn’t pnning to go to such a pce, but I had the feeling that I should. It was the usual feeling that I had to do something while I had the ce. It could be the st time that I would have the ce to do it.

  What I’ve e to realize is that the i from three years ago, even though I don’t think about it all the time, has stayed with me in many ways. For a long time, I thought I could just move on by ign it, by letting time smooth over the sharp edges. But the truth is, the things I’ve faced in the past three years have showhat ign something doesn’t make it disappear, it just hides it, letting it fester and influence my thoughts and decisions in ways I didn’t always notice.

  I think what I truly needed, and maybe still need, is closure. Not to dwell on the past, but to finally face it, uand it, a go. Running away from problems may feel like a solution at the moment, but it doesn’t resolve them, it just postpohe reing. And I’ve realized I don’t want to carry that weight any longer. It’s time to front it…

  If I keep doing that, then everyone will keep looking down on me and sending people to get in my way. I had to make my point clear every siime until anyone foolish enough to e for me gave up pletely out of fear for their lives.

  “All right, girl. I am going to head there for a bit, but you will have to wait for me here. With the camoufge amulet, you will be fine.”

  “Awooo!”

  “I am just going to firm that my target isn’t here. Don’t worry, I won’t pick a fight with all the guys there.”

  “Grrr…”

  “Don’t grrr me… I am the brains of roup and you are the nose, so just rex a bit.”

  I could tell that G didn’t like my pn even a bit. As expected, I should make a vehicle for her to pull and then she would feel like she would have the ce to help me in situations like this, when the e having to run away for my life would be pretty on. I had been increasirength and endurance, so she soon would be able to do that and keep her speed.

  A fe and an alchemy shop… it would be hard to make a wagon big enough for both. I shouldn’t focus on too many thiher, but I wao make a lot of things.

  While I was thinking along those lines, I led G to the back of a rge bush in the area and then put a rge mana core on her camoufge amulet. It was going to st for two hours, so I couldn’t waste time with useless things.

  “If something happens, you should head north. I will meet you there, okay?”

  “Awooo!”

  I scratched the back of her ears and then decided to move on… it was time to test my infiltration skills. I haven’t been training them that much retly, but this was a good ce for it.

  After fog my eyes a bit at the entrance of the cave, I noticed that an area beyond the entrand in front of it retty . Still, the areas surrounding it in a half circle were more dusty.

  I could feel the presence of a magic barrier ahead, its faint energy radiating through the cave like an invisible wall. Knowing that approag it directly might trigger something dangerous, I decided to take a more cautious route.

  I loaded my grappling crossbow, aimed at the jagged ceiling above, and fired. The hook tched securely onto the rocky surface, and with a sharp pull, I hoisted myself up. From there, I relied on the cws embedded in my gloves, carefully digging them into the ceiling as I g to it like a shadow. Slowly ahodically, I made my way forward, staying as high and out of sight as possible, my every move deliberate to avoid alerting anything, or ahat might be guarding the barrier. The rough texture of the ceiling provided just enough grip, and the faint sounds of my progress were muffled by the cavern’s ambient echoes.

  I passed above the barrier and I couldn’t sense any other ahead, but I decided to stick to the ceiling si would give me an advantage… I only had to be cautious and avoid letting small pieces fall on the below.

  WritingMaeGun