Instead of heading to the city of Heris, they decided to take an alternate route to avoid any problems with the priests and priestesses. They hadn't encountered any towns or cities which resulted them to sleep out in the wild. Amethia casted a spell that warm them through the night as they snug in cozily inside their sleeping bag.
"This spell does comes in handy doesn't it~"
Raye said it in a relaxing tone as they roasted fish caught by a nearby stream for dinner.
"You don't have to praise me, it's just basic spells for travelers,"
Amethia swayed around happily as Will stared at his fish feeling down.
"You're useful too Will, don't feel down,"
Raye tried to cheer Will up but he just ignored Raye and ate his fish. Amethia laugh awkwardly, not knowing how to react. Al lit up his cigarette and blow out the smoke in his mouth. The next day, they continued their journey towards north and found themselves in a town. They headed in a guild to have lunch.
"Cheers to Miss Amethia joining the Everlight Party!"
"Cheers!"
"Cheers..."
Will, Raye, Al and Amethia clinked their jug of beer, celebrating the joining of Amethia. The boys shouted cheers while Amethia awkwardly and silently clink her jug too. They ordered Hamburg steak while Loki refused to eat cooked meat and rather raw meat instead.
"Hope you will enjoy yourself in our party Miss Amethia,"
"Just call me Amethia, we are a team now aren't we?"
"I supposed so, well then Amethia, welcome to the Everlight party,"
After their celebration, they did quests from guilds to earn quick cash.
"I don't get it, why do you still do quests even after having many?"
"Amethia, we don't do quests just for cash, it's also considered a training if you think about it, the cash we earn could be useful in some way like how we helped how family,"
"I guess you're right,"
Raye slain a beast while chatting with Amethia. Suddenly, Will called onto her, asking her to help him in a battle.
"Help me exterminate those slime over there,"
"Can't you do it yourself?"
"I got something else to do,"
Will then pointed to a wild forest drake that got broken loose.
"Your choice, that forest drake or the slime,"
"Fine, I'll go with the forest drake,"
Amethia, wanting to prove her worth in the Everlight party, chose the forest drake and ran towards that direction where adventurers are struggling to battle against it.
A forest drake, one of the primitive cousin of the true green dragon. They breathe acids and could spit out acidic fluids that could dissolves strong metal. Despite its big size, its mobility is normal to fast which makes them hard to catch with their added on camouflage which fits the forest.
Amethia ran forwards and casted her staff onto her hand. It was painted gold with the top of the staff shaped like an eye with the middle is an emerald as if the pupil of an eye. The emerald was held by two rods from side to side which allows it to spin. Above the shaped eye was three sharp triangle acting as an eyelash of the shaped eye. Below the shaped eye was a small cross guard with each sides hanged two lozenge shaped sapphires. Amethia pointed her staff at the forest drake and casted a spell at the tip of her staff.
"El Thundros, Blitz!"
Amethia shot the forest drake with a quick thunder spell that made the forest drake stepped back from pursuing to attack the adventurers. She then casted the same spell again on its scale, making an opening.
"El Flamme, swirl!"
Amethia then casted a flame spell that surrounds and traps the forest drake, avoiding it to attack the crowds. the forest drake then removed the flame by breathing acidic gas which the adventurers backed away. it then shot a few acidic fluids at Amethia but she casted a barrier spell by reflex.
"El Thundros, Blitz!"
Amethia dashes to the forest drake and casted a few thunder spells aimed at the forest drake. The forest drake breathed out another acidic gas again but failed to noticed the fire ball casted by Amethia from far away.
"El Flamme!"
The fire ball burned the forest drake, making it unable to battle. The adventurers then ran forwards and used their weapons to strike the dead forest drake, trying to loot it.
"How's that?"
Amethia having a smug on her face wiped off her sweat and looked back at Will, proving her worth in the Everlight party. But all she saw was him getting jumped by few slimes on the ground.
"Help me...."
Amethia quickly casted a lightning spell that moved in a stream from one slime to another. She then rushed towards will and pulled him back up.
"Geez, how did you get attacked by this slimes?"
Will didn't reply but simply stood up and pointed at the forest drake.
"Better go get the forest drake before they loot everything up,"
Amethia realized and uses a thunder spell to shock the adventurers that tried to steal the forest drake.
Back at the guild, Amethia claimed her first reward for the Everlight party. They then continued traveling to the next few towns, doing quests while Will just asked her to help him do so. For the following days, Will had been tasking Amethia with little jobs that he could easily do himself. That pisses Amethia off but she dare not spoke a word. One day, they had arrived at a city far from the city of Heris.
"I say we explore the dungeon again,"
Will mentioned as he looked at the big map on the billboard in the guild.
"Not bad, we can improve ourself if we do so,"
"Geez, the last time we conquered a dungeon wasn't really pleasant if I remembered,"
"We won't conquer it this time, right?"
Raye stared at Will who is just planning to conquer this dungeon too.
"All said, we shouldn't waste too much time and continue our journey,"
"It never occurred to me before but what are your goals to become an adventurer?"
"We just need to secure alliance with neighboring kingdoms of the Kingdom of Hiden, the hero party is just a way to travel,"
"What?"
Raye then proceed to explain everything to Amethia.
"I never thought the Everlight party had a secret mission to undergo,"
"It's not much of a secret, just that the hero guild doesn't know anything about it,"
"Let's go explore the dungeon,"
--------------------------------
"Alright, you guys may enter the dungeon,"
Raye showed their guild cards to the clerk and she allowed them to enter the dungeon. The first few levels were pretty easy for them.
"Amethia, help me get this mandrakes,"
"Amethia, help me kill that gigantic carnivorous plant,"
"Amethia-"
"That's enough!"
Finally, Amethia snapped and ran towards the next level of the dungeon.
"Will, you really overdid it,"
"Maybe I did,"
Amethia reached into a dungeon room where they met the first mini boss.
For this level, the mini boss was a flesh golem which became stronger by using the dead body of those who challenged it by fusing the dead body with its own body. It can reform even after blasting into pieces and have very high defense and offense stats with its huge lump of meat.
"Urgh, how disgusting,"
Amethia watches in disgust as the flesh golem started groaning and running towards her. The flesh golem bashed onto the gates of the mini boss level. Amethia managed to escape in time. She then ran around the flesh golem casting thunder spell but it has no effect on him for it just channels through the body. The flesh golem smashed down which pushed him up high and smash onto Amethia. Amethia casting a barrier spell wasn't strong enough given the less time to react which it broke and sent her few feet away. She smashed onto the wall of the room and slid down. Amethia spat out blood and held her staff tightly.
"Damn it, El Flamme, swirl!"
Flames then surrounded and trapped the flesh golem but this triggered it which made it attack randomly, destroying anything it sees. Amethia managed to escaped the rampage caused by the golem by flying above. Amethia casted a water spell to soak the flesh golem, slowing it.
"El Hydro!"
The flesh golem was washed with a large amount of water, sending it onto the wall of the room. Amethia finally descend and pointed her staff at the flesh golem and casted multiple types of spells to end the beast.
Flame, wind, water, ice, lightning, earth, all types of spells strike the golem at once, preventing it from moving. It was a vibrant sight for a dire situation. The wall was getting destroyed by Amethia's magic as if it was moving backwards.
Finally, Amethia stopped attacking and fall back onto the ground. She panted loudly and said:
"How you like the taste of that?"
She look at the smoky area which just subsided and saw flesh scattered around. It then started moving, fusing together, creating a gory and disgusting view. Though the flesh was badly damaged, it still able to move and it ran towards Amethia.
"Crap, I'm out of mana,"
As Amethia watches the flesh golem about to bash her, she was grabbed by the waist and flew upwards. The flesh golem bashed the wall again and its flesh scattered all around.
"Flesh golem huh? That's a bit of a tough fight you need to put,"
Amethia looked up and saw Will holding onto her waist but the position is Amethia facing below. She raised her head and started crying.
"A-am I not g-good enough to be part of your party?"
Will looked shocked and puzzled on why Amethia cried.
"Why do you always give me weird tasks as if you don't want me to be in this party?"
"I'm not trying to remove you on our party, just trying to see how strong you are,"
"Huh...?"
"You can say it's a test, but now I know that you're strong enough to be in our party,"
Amethia looked at Will then below. Will pointed his finger at the golem and casted a large magic circle of thunder. It then sent a strike of thunder at the flesh golem as it forms. The golem got shocked by the lightning and was burned. The gates to the next level opened, signing that the flesh golem has been defeated.
Will descend onto the ground and apologizes to Amethia.
"I'm sorry if I got you worried, I don't meant to exclude you from the party, you know, I watch your whole fight from above,"
Amethia was shocked that she couldn't sense Will's mana presence. Will pointed at the badly damaged wall where Amethia sent a barrage of spells at the flesh golem earlier.
"That was fantastic, though it is risky to do so since it used up lots of mana, maybe you should learn silent casting, that might improve your battle,"
Will started saying things about tips on how Amethia could defeat that golem alone. Amethia then stopped Will from continuing by asking him a question.
"Uh hey, if I'm not good enough, do you plan to kick me out of the party...?"
"Huh? No, I plan to train you instead, you got to be strong if you want to survive,"
Upon hearing that, Amethia broke down into tears and grabbed onto Will's sleeves.
"Bastard,"
It was a happy tear, a joyful tear that she was accepted by the Shadow Sage himself.
"Welcome to the Everlight party, Amethia,"
Raye and Al finally entered the room. They looked around and saw how damaged the room is.
"Damn, that should be enough time for Will to make up,"
Al then let out a laugh as he pointed at Will. Raye looked at Will and noticed that his hair was braided. Will presented a long-lasting expression on his face as Amethia leaped in joy. Raye placed his hand on his mouth and utter out a chuckle as if he was trying to hold it in.
"Don't think I didn't notice that Raye Winston,"
The thought inside Will was malicious but he just sigh and stood up.
"Let's get going I supposed,"