Abyssal Awakening

Waiting by the bar while tapping her heels, Selen felt nervous as the fight took much longer than she had expected.

"Don't worry too much, she'll be back before you know it." Egil reassured but Selen wasn't convinced.

She could still recall the destructive power of Keira's attack against the mountain. If Alice wasn't careful, she'll suffer.

"You know how she is. She'll probably try some weird sh*t and then injure herself again. I wouldn't be surprised if it's taking her this long to get back because she can't leave the goddamn Void." Selen grumbled.

Grabbing a jug of mead, she swung her head back and drank it all in one go.

"Urg… How does that girl drink so much mead???" Selen questioned as one jug was already a lot for her.

But for Alice, she could drink throughout the night and be relatively okay the next day.

"Don't question an alcoholic how they can drink so much." Alice grinned.

"ARGG!!!" Crying out in surprise, Selen jumped out of her seat as she turned back and saw Alice standing behind her with a smile and a light wave.

"Wahaha~ Behold~ I am back with no injuries." Alice gave Selen a peace sign before calling the waiter over and ordered herself a few jugs of mead.

"What took you so long?" Selen huffed, sitting down in annoyance.

"Realm wouldn't let me back in. If I rushed it, I would be blown to bits the moment I stepped out ya know? I'll have to be careful about when I use my fifth Sigil." Alice shrugged.

Rubbing her hands in excitement, she drank her mead with a happy smile and grabbed some fruit. Some relaxation and mead after a tough fight was the best way to relax.

"I guess I should be happy that you didn't pick up any new injuries." Selen sighed before smiling.

"By the way, did you know that they're bringing a cartographer from the capital with the next caravan that's coming? They need to redraw the map after the mountain got erased."

"Oh for real? Now that I think about it, if the landscape changes, they redraw the map and leave, then it gets changed again, do they have to do two quick updates back to back?" Alice asked curiously as it seemed to be quite a hassle.

The chore of constantly updating the map whenever two strong Hunters fight sounded rather tedious.

"Well it's their job so they can't exactly say no to it." Selen shrugged.

"Do they at least get paid well?" Alice asked curiously. If they have to continuously go and redraw maps, with some places even becoming extremely dangerous, the pay should match the danger.

"Average wage. Sometimes even less." Egil spoke up as he knew someone who was a cartographer.

"Jeez, life is unfair I guess." Alice muttered.

If it was her, she wouldn't want to be a cartographer if her pay was going to be average. At that point, she might as well just do a standard job behind a desk or be a receptionist at the guild.

Though thinking about her own temper and habits, perhaps being a receptionist at the Hunter's Guild wasn't a good choice. She'll probably start her own fights.

"Where's Torgeir? I thought he'd be relaxing since everyone's back now?" Alice asked curiously.

After she got out of the Void, she wandered the outpost a little but couldn't see Torgeir anywhere.

"He's… busy. Even though a lot of people came back, a lot of them also died on the frontlines. The commander on the frontlines also died so it's now up to Torgeir to sort through a lot of the post-battle processes." Egil answered.

After all this time, he managed to build a bit of trust between him and Torgeir. Enough where Torgeir felt comfortable enough to rant about his annoyances at times since both of them have gone through life or death battles together.

A bond forged through battle.

"Sounds like a pain."

"He needs to write up a report of everything that happened too." Egil chuckled.

Catching up on everything that's happened while she was stuck in the Void for a while, Alice asked them what their current plan was.

"I'm going to visit my mother. Since the frontlines are retreating, there's a short break where nothing's really happening." Egil revealed a sombre smile.

"I want to visit her before we're called back to action. It's just a guess but the capital will probably call for a counterattack to reclaim some of our land."

Nodding her head in agreement, Alice wanted to help him but she still wasn't sure how she could resolve the issue of the pandemic caused by the Zenias.

Her control over her powers was still lacking and she hadn't experimented enough to put it into practice on someone as important as Egil's mother.

If she wanted to help, the first thing to do was to get information regarding the pandemic.

'There's probably a research base or something in the capital.' Alice thought to herself.

She was already planning on visiting the capital to meet the Abyss Lords of the north if she could. She'll simply make a detour to see if she can find out any clues.

"And you?" Alice turned to Selen.

Leaning back, Selen was silent.

Since Alice's body was now pretty much fixed, there wasn't much of a need for her to keep babysitting her. If anything, it's counterproductive to what she wanted to do. That being to disappear for a bit so the Zenia family forgets about her and then begin to dismantle their branches.

Knowing the things that Alice has been running into, conflict with the Zenias is guaranteed.

"I'll probably follow you for a bit before roaming the north some more. I need to make some preparations for the next step of my journey." Selen smiled.

"It's about time I look for my sixth Sigil since I've been on five for a while now. Originally, it was meant to be sorted after the Inverted World but you know how that ended." She turned to Alice who nodded before freezing up.

Since Cayla had been sealed for a long time, she had forgotten that Selen only had five Sigils.

She hasn't even unlocked her second Resonance yet.

But despite that, she was keeping up with strong opponents using the power of Miralith.

"Anything you got in mind or are you just going to see what's available?"

Unlike her, normal Hunters have a much harder time organising proper Sigils for them.

The process requires them to go to a shaman, see their options and pick one. Or if they're not happy, they need to wait and train themselves for more opportunities.

They can't just pick whatever tickles their fancy in the moment like Alice.

"I've had my eye on something though I never got the chance to pick it. It just never showed up. Though I think this time should be different." Selen shrugged.

After reviewing all the fights she's gone through, Selen understood a large weakness of her's.

She doesn't have a pure offensive skill that can help her end a fight despite being a caster.

All of her skills can be largely focused on supporting rather than being the vanguard. To finish a fight, needed that extra push.

"Do you need help to kill the beast or do you have that sorted?"

"I'll be fine. I've been preparing for this after all. But that's only after we're done with the capital right?" Selen waved her hand dismissively.

Her final preparation will be done in the capital since they'll be meeting the Lord of the Forge hopefully.

If she could get a better weapon while she's there, it'll help her out immensely.

Partying for a little longer, they decided to look for Torgeir in his office.

But rather than seeing him, all they could see were paper towers upon paper towers.

Torgeir was even using his Sigil abilities to stop the paper towers from falling.

"Ah… It's you three. And welcome back Alice, seems like you didn't run into any issues." Torgeir forced a smile as his eyes were hollow.

Seeing this, Alice almost felt guilty about what she's about to ask next.

The key word being almost.

"So… Now that everything's done and I've helped you bring your comrades back, what about the promise?" Alice asked with a smile.

*Sighhhh…

Letting out a long sigh, Torgeir searched around his desk before pulling out two letters.

"First letter is what I promised you previously. Write what you want to write and give it to the person in charge of the Hawks. He'll see the stamp and know to what to do. The second letter is your appointment in the capital. This includes Selen.

"With the testimonies of the Warriors as proof, they know that you saved all of them from an Extalia ambush near Esna. I'm not sure if they'll let you meet the Lord of the Forge just yet but they didn't mention a reward so it's probably still up for debate.

"As for the third item, the book on beasts in the North, that's still being compiled in the capital. When you go to the appointment in the second letter, they'll give you the book. Or at least that's what I'm assuming." Torgeir explained while holding out the letters.

Accepting them with a grin, Alice put it away in her pouch.

"Thank you~"

"You're welcome. If anything, it should be me thanking you. If it wasn't for you… I don't even want to imagine how many warriors we would've lost. Not just at the frontlines but in other places as well." Torgeir nodded with a smile.

Alice was truly a blessing to their outpost. A strange one but a blessing nonetheless.

"Ohou~ is that so? Then don't you think this kind of feat deserves some monetary reward?" Alice grinned while rubbing her fingers together. The gesture for money.

". . ." Torgeir retracted his unspoken thoughts.