After confirming the death of the magic beast, the hunter’s daughter, Marpel, and Ruby began to dismantle the creature, while the others kept watch for any potential enemies nearby.
In the forests of the northern mountains, there were no rules or restraints.
Whether it was murder and robbery or stabbing your teammates in the back, such things happened all the time.
This was one of the reasons why Anna and her group hadn’t recruited new members for so long.
Another reason was that Redpine City had only recently stabilized.
Adventurers were just starting to trickle in, so there weren’t many talented people to recruit.
As for Estelle…
Anna only managed to get everyone’s approval thanks to Estelle’s cute and beautiful appearance—she really didn’t look like someone who’d do anything bad.
Plus, after testing her abilities a bit, they realized she did have some real skill, which was why they gave her a chance to join.
A proper adventurer team wouldn’t normally be as small as theirs was now, but their current numbers were enough to handle things—as long as they didn’t recklessly enter the territory of powerful predatory magic beasts.
Dismantling this earth dragon took quite a bit of time.
Because of its sheer size, they couldn’t carry much with them.
They carefully picked out the most valuable parts and took those away, storing them in a Storage Magic Scroll they’d rented from the Adventurers’ Guild.
Estelle also managed to get what she wanted.
The material collection task she’d been working on was now more than halfway done, all thanks to Anna and the others’ help.
After putting away the horns she needed, Estelle heard Ruby’s voice.
“Estelle, how old are you this year?”
The girl turned her head, tilting it slightly as she looked up at Ruby.
She replied earnestly, “One.”
“?”
Ruby wondered if she was dizzy from the blood or still not fully recovered from being shocked—how could she have heard “one year old”? Hahaha…
One? What kind of joke was that?!
But Estelle’s eyes were as clear as mirrors, not at all like someone telling a lie.
Ruby shook her head and gave an awkward laugh.
“All right, all right, age is a secret, huh? I get it, I get it. Milly won’t tell us her age either, but she still insists we celebrate her birthday.”
“Birthday…”
Estelle was momentarily stunned.
After a while, Anna came over to the completely dismantled earth dragon beast, waved her magic staff, and spoke a word in an ancient language.
“Loosen, collapse, return to dust.”
After a slight tremor in the ground, the earth slowly parted, and the enormous skeleton sank into the soil, gradually being covered and buried by dirt.
Once she’d finished, Anna said to the others, “Let’s get moving. If we stay here too long, someone might come by. Let’s walk a bit farther and then rest. There’s not much time left today—tomorrow, we’ll enter that underground ruin.”
Dismantling the magic beast had taken quite a while, and it was nearly dusk.
If not for the heavy scent of blood here—which could attract predatory magic beasts or ill-intentioned adventurers—they wouldn’t have wanted to go much farther.
Their goal this time was a ruin—no, to be precise, it was a special plant that grew inside the cave of that ruin, a crucial material for magic potions.
After walking through the forest for a while longer, the group found a decent campsite, and not far away there was a small stream where they could wash up.
Estelle hadn’t changed clothes or washed her body for many days.
She took off what she was wearing, revealing her slender, fair, youthful figure.
She was still very young, but she already possessed a delicate, petite beauty.
Her straight legs were submerged in the water as she walked deeper into the stream, letting the clear water envelop her whole body.
Her dainty, pinkish feet stepped onto the stones at the bottom.
Estelle slowly opened her pale golden eyes.
Once she stood upright, the water just barely reached her collarbone.
She tilted her head back, letting the water flow down her smooth cheeks, and then stood there in a daze.
It wasn’t until the chill startled her awake that she began to seriously wash herself.
…
Redpine City, Inner City, the study of Enya’s house.
“Hoo…”
With a soft exhale, Enya slowly opened her golden-red, slit pupils.
She habitually stared into empty space, dazing for a while before finally getting up from the floor.
By now, two magical vortices had already formed inside her body.
Enya had reached third-tier level in just a single afternoon—a speed that would scare even the most talented individuals to death.
In this world, going from second to third tier in just a month was already a rare feat.
Yet Enya had gone from zero to double third-tier in a single afternoon.
But neither Enya’s soul nor Pandrak’s soul could be compared to those of ordinary youngsters, and with the support of a grand formation, what was so strange about reaching third-tier in an afternoon?
If Enya hadn’t remembered she needed to prepare dinner for her daughter, she would have gone straight ahead and condensed dual cores to reach double fifth-tier.
In the library, Pandrak was baffled by Enya suddenly stopping.
Didn’t humans nowadays understand the meaning of “strike while the iron is hot”?
Enya understood—but her daughter was more important.
Leaving the study and closing the door, she first tapped her lower back, then stretched her body.
From her moist, tender lips escaped a soft moan.
“Mmm~”
Sitting for a whole day really was a bit tiring.
Suddenly, Enya started to laugh for no reason at all.
She clenched her fist, but the dual third-tier magic within her was still too little—like a parched seabed getting a light drizzle, nowhere near enough to count as relief after a long drought.
She let out a long breath and muttered to herself, “What am I even doing? Is this postpartum rehab or something?”
After saying this, Enya leaned against the wall and laughed—a laugh as beautiful as peaches in June swaying on slender branches, a scene too lovely for words!
Pandrak: She’s nuts!
Hard to understand—how could someone laugh so much at making a self-deprecating joke?
After her laughter faded, Enya went to check the kitchen and was surprised to find there were no fresh vegetables left at home.
She hurried upstairs to change into plain clothes suitable for going out, grabbed a bamboo basket, and prepared to buy some groceries.
In a single stride, she reached the Inner City gate and walked out as usual, heading to the vegetable shop she’d visited before.
This was something she should have done earlier that morning.
But Enya had forgotten, and hadn’t realized that all the vegetables at home had been eaten by Rosily.
As soon as she stepped onto the streets of the Outer City, she keenly noticed something unusual.
In front of the wall separating the Inner and Outer City, several large cauldrons had been set up, distributing soup and black bread.
That wasn’t there before.
The streets were still bustling, but most people were sallow and thin, dressed in ragged clothes.
Some sat listlessly, others wandered with empty eyes, eating food that looked completely unappetizing.
Enya narrowed her eyes slightly, noticing that there were far more such people than when she’d first arrived a month ago.
Logically, that shouldn’t be the case.
After all, the Heretic Cult was gone, and the Goddess Church was actively helping these people.
But…
Enya suppressed her urge to get involved.
She was just Rosily’s mother now, and it was Hanna’s duty to care for these refugees.
Carrying her bamboo basket, she walked up to an old lady’s stall.